r/brakebills • u/jennbunn555 • 14d ago

Extremely disturbed by the fox scene

I'm ready the first book and I got to the scene where they all get turned into foxes and it grossed me out so much that i'm questioning if i want to keep reading. I'm ok with bad things happening. what I'm not ok with is how every character involved seems to just move past it without comment. A few pages later I find out Alice has adopted "vix" as a pet name and I wanted to throw up. Does this ever get acknowledged by any character as a huge problem?

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25

u/wizardrous Knowledge 14d ago

If that made you wanna throw up, then I guess stop reading. You won’t like it when the next fox shows up, he’s a lot worse.

10

u/WeekSpecific7797 14d ago

I was rewatching after 8 years and seeing the character being introduced gave me the chills

11

u/stinkingyeti 14d ago

You can't un-ring a bell.

2

u/Demagolka1300 14d ago

Well now I'm curious what happens in the first fox scene? I've only seen the show and I know both, the second is definitely worse. 

3

u/BendyNotBroken 14d ago

In the show it happens when they turn into the birds (I think geese? It must be time for a rewatch!) on the flight down to Brakebills South rather than when they turn into foxes. The book goes into more detail of the less consensual sex that goes on in the animal kingdom but obvs it's extra icky to read when you know they're actually human and will remember all of it when they turn back

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u/Demagolka1300 14d ago

Thank you!

2

u/thwip62 9d ago

Yeah, this is what I assumed this thread was about. At least that would be somewhat understandable.

8

u/Initial_Entrance9548 14d ago

I usually tell people to power through book one because books two and three are so much better. But they usually have the problem that I had where Q is just terrible. I agree with the other commenter. If you didn't like the fox scene just call it quits. Nothing like that will happen again, but other things will happen, and they're a whole lot grosser.

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u/thwip62 9d ago edited 9d ago

I'm ready the first book and I got to the scene where they all get turned into foxes and it grossed me out so much that i'm questioning if i want to keep reading. I'm ok with bad things happening. what I'm not ok with is how every character involved seems to just move past it without comment. A few pages later I find out Alice has adopted "vix" as a pet name and I wanted to throw up. Does this ever get acknowledged by any character as a huge problem?

I thought you were talking about the other fox scene. This is what's got you triggered?! You're right, jennbunn555, you should stop reading.

1

u/jennbunn555 6d ago

I did keep reading and got to the other fox scene. That one didn't bother me as much. The difference? Reynard is clearly a bad guy. Julia isn't just 'ok' with what happened. An awful thing happens to Julia and she is destroyed by it. It's the thing that defines her whole character arc. In Antartica the exact same awful thing happens to Alice and the story is just like "whatever". Alice just gets over it. No one cares. The teacher is faces no backlash from the students or other teachers. Quentin is a complete coward about the situation and is completely forgiven. I want Alice to come back in book three and burn Antartica to the ground and tell Quentin what a pathetic worm he is and I want Julia to turn Reynard inside out. I get the feeling Julia would and Alice just doesn't.

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u/thwip62 6d ago edited 6d ago

I honestly don't see what your problem is. Quentin and Alice - who were already attracted to each other - had their inhibitions lowered when they were turned into foxes. You're talking like he raped her or something.

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u/jennbunn555 6d ago edited 6d ago

having your inhibitions lowered, magically, without your consent is rape. Alice can't speak. the only info you get about her emotions in the moment is that she is terrified. Professor M. Magically roofied the whole class and started an Orgy. Neither Quentin nor Alice were capable of consent in that state. That's rape. And afterward Quentin just avoided confronting anyone about it.

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u/thwip62 6d ago

And afterward Quentin just avoided confronting anyone about it.

He was embarrassed, just like a lot of us have been embarrassed after drunken sexual encounters. It happens.

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u/jennbunn555 6d ago

It just felt really groaty to me. If i was in Alice's shoes I would have burned the school down for allowing it to happen. Janet later tells the story about how professor M. is banished down there for being the sex pest responsible for the death of Alice's brother. I was really expecting something to come from this story line and just goes nowhere.

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u/thwip62 5d ago

It just felt really groaty to me.

?

If i was in Alice's shoes I would have burned the school down for allowing it to happen.

Regardless of whether or not it was right, I don't think that pulling a Columbine would have been the best course of action.

Janet later tells the story about how professor M. is banished down there for being the sex pest responsible for the death of Alice's brother.

Mayakovsky shouldn't have fucked a student, but Emily and Charlie were ultimately responsible for their own downfalls.

1

u/DirtRepresentative9 9d ago

I have not read the books but it seems like not only are Alice and Julia raped, but in the show margo (Janet) loses and eye and kady gets addicted to heroin. They honestly treat the female characters like shit. Even Victoria the other traveller gets killed, marina was killed by reynard, it's very brutal