beatrice_otter | (Reply)

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.