Amongst Our Weapons fandom reaction

[beatrice_otter]

The newest Rivers of London book came out this week, and as soon as I finished it, I was eager to go online and discuss it with people who love Rivers of London. The discord and dreamwidth communities being fairly quiet, I went on tumblr. And was surprised by what I found.

The strongest and most common reaction so far seems to be distress about Nightingale announcing he's going to retire sometime in the future, leaving Peter in charge of the Folly and policing the magical world, while Nightingale turns to teaching magic and traveling the world. There was talk about Aaronovitch trying to shove Peter down fandom's throats, and how Nightingale was the one fandom loves, and how awful things will be when he's gone.

Peter is the protagonist of the series. Peter has always been the protagonist of the series. If you look at any of the books, Nightingale appears a fraction of the amount Peter does ... and it's not a large fraction, either. Peter is the one doing all of the investigating; sometimes he consults with Nightingale. Sometimes Nightingale shows up to save Peter's bacon. But it's always Peter's actions and reactions driving the main plot and any secondary plots. It is always Peter's emotional life that is explored and drives the emotional heart of the book. When you look at who gets the most page time and who is driving the action and emotional arcs, it is never Nightingale. Not only that, I'm pretty sure that Nightingale isn't even the secondary person driving the action and emotional arcs in any of the books! If you look at who is, after Peter, the person in each book whose choices and emotional life dictate the story the most, it's never Nightingale! It's Lesley up through Broken Homes, and then Beverly from there on out. Nightingale is important, a deus ex machina and mentor, but Rivers of London is not and never has been his story. It's Peter's story, and after Peter it's Lesley and Beverly's story, and only then do you get Nightingale.

Complaining about Nightingale retiring is sort of like watching the Star Wars Original Trilogy, and complaining that Lucas killed Obi-Wan Kenobi off to shove Luke down peoples' throats. Regardless of how much you love Obi-Wan, the OT is not about him. It's about Luke and Leia and Han. The thing about the wise mentor character (which is what Nightingale is!) is that once the main character they're mentoring gets above a certain level of ability, the mentor has to step aside to allow the main character to grow and develop. A lot of the time they do that by killing the mentor character to give angst to the main character. (That's why Obi-Wan died, for example.) But that's not what Aaronovitch is doing; Nightingale is retiring and plans to both travel the world and also spend time teaching. Which means both that a) he's available to have novellas and comic books written about his adventures and b) he's going to probably be available to Peter for consultations and the like, so even after he retires (which will probably be a few books in the future, yet) he's still going to be around. If nothing else, Peter's only been an apprentice for about four years by the time of Amongst Our Weapons, and it takes a decade to train someone up to mastery; Nightingale has to be around enough to teach Peter for at least the next six years, even if he retires from active policing. Also, he probably wouldn't want to leave until Peter is at least an Inspector, just because the Folly sometimes needs that weight of seniority on their cases.
And, you know, I love Nightingale too! Nightingale is a great character. He's powerful, he's got an air of mystery about him, he's charming and posh, he's got a tragic backstory, I love him too. But Peter is great, too. Peter is funny and determined and caring and deeply principled and is aware of the evil and injustice in the world and very realistic about it, but never allows that to drag him down or let the ends justify the means.

Comments

[oracne]

I've seen this happen a million times in different fandoms, and I think one big reason is because Peter is not White. Another reason might be the popularity of the Nightingale/Peter slash pairing.

But I honestly think latent, or not so latent, racism is in there as well. Otherwise, I feel like there would be a lot more fic about Beverly.

[beatrice_otter]

Oh, absolutely. It's a very common pattern.

[c_carol_again]

I noticed that too. Fandom is so weird. Where are the people who just want to squee about the babies with me?

[beatrice_otter]

Babies! I loved how they did the birth, at the river, and I am so happy for both Bev and Peter. Also, I'm amused that Father Thames went just as gaga as Mama Thames did. (I wonder if there is some sort of sympathetic magic there? After all, they are both spirits of the same river ...)

As to "why is fandom weird like that" I think there's a reason. I have seen several other cases, in my 20 years of online fandom, where people got upset that a supporting character isn't being treated like a main character. And in most cases, the supporting character is white and the main character is a person of color. When there isn't a racial aspect, people may still love that side character but they don't get offended when canon treats them like a secondary/supporting character.

If you're looking for other people to talk about Rivers of London with, there is a (very quiet) Dreamwidth community: http://the-folly.dreamwidth.org, and also a (somewhat quiet) discord: https://discord.gg/rdEFrKC

[jjhunter]

I'm honestly excited that Nightingale has an actual plan to retire and the confidence that Peter will be more than ready to take over as Falcon 1, so to speak, on the timeline sketched out. Peter keeps casually referencing writing SOPs to cover gaps and build new procedures, and he's taken on training responsibilities for direct reports like Dani (Dany?), but he's still technically at the lowest rank in the official hierarchy as a PC, no?

It's nice to spot little clues like increased respect from authority figures like Seawoll in this book, but having Peter's actual boss making transition plans with Peter taking over is validating the work and the transformative vision Peter's been bringing to his vocation, both within the police and within the broader magical community.

(There could be a dark AU where Nightingale continues to get younger or stabilize at his current and never gets to the point of voluntarily choosing to hand over the reins. It's not the arc he's been traveling in the books to date, but if there was a breach of trust or paranoia to shake his confidence in Peter, that might send Peter off on a quite different path.)

I hope Nightingale stepping back means we might get to see more of Peter cross-training with other potential mentors (Grace!! omg), and more cross-tradition training and exchanges. There's something lovely unfolding in how the history of the Folly keeps getting retold with more nuance and understanding across the series - it starts with Newton direct to White Guys Doing Empire, and that simplistic myth getting punctured and reassembled with a larger and larger tent as other parts of the history, living and documented, come to light means a lot to me.

There's a reason Harold Postmarten is a recurring character, you know? His work addressing the history runs complement to Peter's work understanding the present to build a more inclusive, more community-oriented mediation organization to come.

Anyway, I feel like I could flail happily about so many parts of this, and equally settle in for picking apart bits that are trying hard and mostly landing and may be the rubbing points that fandom is so great for reworking, but I must sleep for now.

I strongly agree that while I enjoy Nightingale, Peter's the driver of the series commensurate with what he brings to the table as a character (and the community he's actively catalyzing around him); he's grown so darn much from where he started. It means a lot to me to hear someone else speak up for him as a great character - he's the reason I keep returning to the series.

[jjhunter]

ONE MORE THING-!

How much do I adore that our pivotal moral dilemma here was resolved by Mamma Grant knowing her son, and calling on him to hold his moral ground of no deliberate killing and find another way where Nightingale was giving up and falling back on potentially tapping - how did Lesley put it? - Caffrey's murder squad.

This is the kind of thing that can actually happen when you don't tragically kill off the protagonist's parents, or double-down on hiding magic / key life events from them. They can provide perspective and counsel and occasionally a well-timed dose of Don't You Dare / Moral Sense. They can be more than obstacles or obligations

I also really loved that Mama Grant and Mama Thames got equal ritual weight in the birthing. It felt right.

Also that Peter remains forever judgemental about other people failing to clean to his mother's professional standards. It's the kind of detail that makes him feel like a real character, the imprints of his close relationships and lived experiences, and how they shape the way he sees the world.

[beatrice_otter]

YES THIS ALL OF THIS, HOLY COW YES. I loved all of that.

[beatrice_otter]

Peter has been promoted during the course of the series--from Police Constable (PC) to Detective Constable (DC) and is now studying to be promoted to Detective Sergeant (DS). So he's not at the bottom of the totem pole, but he's not particularly high up, either. (Sahra's already a DS.) I genuinely do think that Peter being promoted and Nightingale retiring from policing to travel and teach will be good for both of them, and good for the Folly and the demimonde as well. It gives Peter room to grow, it continues the professionalization of the Folly, and it gives Nightingale a chance to do something he actually wants to do rather than a duty he fell into because there was nothing left. And, for the series, it gives us more paths to take. I can totally see novellas with Nightingale off touring the world, or him bringing something back for Peter to see and learn about.