Hmm... Could be it's a realization I had reading Sword, and am reflecting back on Justice?
But I don't think Breq is as clear-eyed as she seems even in Justice. I think it's deceptive because she's so methodical and analytical. She goes through this very firm, determined plan in Justice, step by step, assembling pieces of the plan and as you learn what the goal is, you think "I can't wait to see how she puts these pieces together and pulls it off," but... she doesn't have a whole plan. She hasn't figured it all out. She's traumatized and broken and alone and she appears to be making progress the way she is because she's still at least part Ship and that's how she works, but she's going nowhere.
And I think we're supposed to take a lot of Breq's other cultural observations the same way- as a totally disoriented and broken shipmind trying to make sense out of a world that doesn't follow the rules the Radchaii pretend it does. She doesn't believe in the rules the Radch follow because she can't, she's been thrown out of the system. There's a few moments in Sword that suggest that there's a lot of stuff about the relationship between sex and gender and family for the Radchaii that Breq doesn't understand because they weren't in the purview of a shipmind that never had to deal with children.
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But I don't think Breq is as clear-eyed as she seems even in Justice. I think it's deceptive because she's so methodical and analytical. She goes through this very firm, determined plan in Justice, step by step, assembling pieces of the plan and as you learn what the goal is, you think "I can't wait to see how she puts these pieces together and pulls it off," but... she doesn't have a whole plan. She hasn't figured it all out. She's traumatized and broken and alone and she appears to be making progress the way she is because she's still at least part Ship and that's how she works, but she's going nowhere.
And I think we're supposed to take a lot of Breq's other cultural observations the same way- as a totally disoriented and broken shipmind trying to make sense out of a world that doesn't follow the rules the Radchaii pretend it does. She doesn't believe in the rules the Radch follow because she can't, she's been thrown out of the system. There's a few moments in Sword that suggest that there's a lot of stuff about the relationship between sex and gender and family for the Radchaii that Breq doesn't understand because they weren't in the purview of a shipmind that never had to deal with children.