#maybe ill risk going back onto the subreddit and see if anyone there has discussions about gladia ready to go already

[walmartscience]

was talking to a friend about gross moments in the robot series as a warning of what to expect, and i was talking about how uncomfortable gladia makes me, but kinda had the internal conflict of “do i actually have a reason not to like her or is she just a kinda weird and horny woman and so i’m uncomfy for no real reason and am being unfair”. so i decided to reread chunks of RoD just to get reintroduced to any parts i might have forgotten (i’m always rereading these books but i also have a bad memory so rechecking was important) and uh. yeah gladia still makes me Extremely Uncomfortable what was asimov DOING 

maybe one of these days i’ll write a proper dissertation or character analysis on all the RoD characters and post it somewhere, because i do really think this book is where a lot of characterization is cemented and that it’s the first one in the series where every character has depth, even the background ones. like as icky as she makes me feel, gladia is a REALLY well rounded and understandable character. i just also really wish asimov knew how to write women in a way that didn’t immediately make me question character ethics. no scratch that i just wish asimov knew how to write women period 💀 

#asimov really decided that female empowerment in writing is the same as being straight up predatory #like...what did he WANT us to gleam from her character #cause all i can guess is she was supposed to be a powerful female lead of sorts #but all i ever feel is icked out #because she describes her relationship with jander in a way thats so...trapping? #and so grossly codependant but also somehow super onesided and uneven in power #how asimov can gross me out confuse and shock me all in one character? i gotta give small props #but also gotta give a girl what the actual fuck #idk a lot of it is definitely product of the time and with the context of the story and author himself #but man oh man #gotta write an actual like. essay on all this one of these days instead of vague posting online about my thoughts on these books #maybe ill risk going back onto the subreddit and see if anyone there has discussions about gladia ready to go already #idk. im just thinking out loud now #isaac asimov #asimov #the robot series