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The Gate Thief: Or, Danny North's Teen Harem

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 1:23 pm
by neo-dragon
There are minor spoilers in the following post:

Anyone read or in the process of reading this one? I just have a few more chapters to go, and I'm finding it to be generally enjoyable, but one thing in particular jumps out at me as being odd, that is, Danny's teen harem (ie. his teen female friends). Is it just me, or is it a bit weird that literally every girl that Danny befriends completely throws herself at him in absolutely non-subtle and very sexual ways, to the point where Laurette (you know, the one whose cleavage is mentioned at least twice every time she's present) practically tries to rape him!?

And there's Xena who upon learning of Danny's powers immediately decides that she must have his babies, because we all know that there's nothing a teen girl wants more than to start having babies in high school.

Pat, at least seems to have actual feelings for Danny, but she too ends up offering to sleep with him at the first possible opportunity.

I'm hoping others have read this and will let me know if I'm crazy for thinking that the portrayal of the girls was a bit off. Or maybe it's meant to be a clue that Danny has latent manmage abilities and is subconsciously making every girl he meets lust for him beyond reason.

Re: The Gate Thief: Or, Danny North's Teen Harem

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 1:58 pm
by elfprince13
Just finished it, and definitely enjoyed it, though the heavy pop culture references early on were a little weird (maybe only because I'm not used to reading things that take place contemporaneously).

Honestly, I think the girl thing was supposed to be a modernized take on the whole "pagan gods get lots of chicks" thing, more than an accurate representation of normal teen romance, and I'm not sure how else he would have modernized that.

Re: The Gate Thief: Or, Danny North's Teen Harem

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:52 pm
by neo-dragon
As was mentioned, Pagan gods are usually depicted as taking women against their will, not the other way around. Anyway, I think maybe having one of the girls throw themselves at Danny would have been sufficient. Having literally all of them do it was excessive.

Re: The Gate Thief: Or, Danny North's Teen Harem

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 8:27 pm
by elfprince13
Laurette's was the one where I was like "okay, really??". Coming from a rural high school, Xena's "put a baby in me" routine didn't seem *that* unusual.

Re: The Gate Thief: Or, Danny North's Teen Harem

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 11:42 pm
by neo-dragon
Seriously, what was with the constant references to Laurette's cleavage? Her rack is her only defining character trait. This is OSC we're talking about. He is known for writing intelligent and complex young characters, but Laurette is nothing but the girl with the cleavage. Veevee even calls her that instead of using her name (which, to be fair, she probably doesn't know).

I really liked the parts of the story that deal with mages, the Families, Westil, and belmages and all of that, but whenever Danny is interacting with his school friends it's like a teenage boy's PG rated wet dream.

It just struck me as weird.

Re: The Gate Thief: Or, Danny North's Teen Harem

Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 2:45 pm
by locke
There are minor spoilers in the following post:

Anyone read or in the process of reading this one? I just have a few more chapters to go, and I'm finding it to be generally enjoyable, but one thing in particular jumps out at me as being odd, that is, Danny's teen harem (ie. his teen female friends). Is it just me, or is it a bit weird that literally every girl that Danny befriends completely throws herself at him in absolutely non-subtle and very sexual ways, to the point where Laurette (you know, the one whose cleavage is mentioned at least twice every time she's present) practically tries to rape him!?

And there's Xena who upon learning of Danny's powers immediately decides that she must have his babies, because we all know that there's nothing a teen girl wants more than to start having babies in high school.

Pat, at least seems to have actual feelings for Danny, but she too ends up offering to sleep with him at the first possible opportunity.

I'm hoping others have read this and will let me know if I'm crazy for thinking that the portrayal of the girls was a bit off. Or maybe it's meant to be a clue that Danny has latent manmage abilities and is subconsciously making every girl he meets lust for him beyond reason.
How far down the rabbit hole do you want to go, most of OSC's portrayal of women falls along lines as offensive or worse as these. (Wyrms comes to mind, where OSC reveals at the end that his heroine is unimportant, she's only important for the male savior she will give birth to. Then he has her decide she's okay with being raped by an alien tentacle monster, that the rape is in fact okay and needed and desirous, because being raped means she gets to give birth to Jesus!)