Anyone else find Carmela absolutely hilarious in this book?

How in the world did she get to the Crossings?

Is she a wizard? If she isn't, what is going on with that entertainment system and how much could she do?

It's pretty clear to me that she is not a wizard and probably will not become one. After all, she doesn't want to. The entertainment system is Kit's fault - whatever he did changed it a lot more than even he realized, and apparently that included some worldgating options (since, you know, she accessed them).

Yes, I found her hilarious in this book. I love her as a character. She's fantastic.

~Pont

I think what happened is that the TV/DVD player got the gating options from Spot when they exchanged dataaa...as they said.

She simply accessed the main worldgating center, which is the Crossings, and it placed a gate into her closet. I mean, we know other alien races who aren't wizards use the crossings for intergalactic travel, so they must have some way for non-wizards to access it in these places.

It's just Carmela the first non-wizard Human to gain access as far as I know. That curling iron kicked some alien butt, though, didn't it?

Hmmm, I wonder about Carmela, because she seems kind of flip about stuff like the end of the world - just bravado? or did she not understand what might happen? - but on the other hand she was strong enough to resist the Lone One's influence on her mind. Are there other humans that act through other people's wizardry?

I don't think she completely understood the gravity of the situation. Perhaps she only thought this was an evil King who was being a nasty tyrant over the poor 'bug people' as she would probably call them.

I'm inclined to think that Carmela wasn't aware that this was one of the many faces of the LP. And she didn't think/know that it could very well have been the end of the universe. She didn't know about the Pulullus (sp?) and how it was distracting everyone from the real issue at hand.

I was just thinking - maybe the reason Carmela's mind didn't submit to the LP's control was becausebecauseshe didn't understand it. A sort of "there's nothing to fear but fear itself" scenario, because I bet the LP uses wizards' fear of him to gain more control.

You know, that wouldn't be surprising, would it? The Powers sometimes have strange ways of arranging things and even ignorance can be a tool when necessary.

It's the same kind of truth as Carmela was trying to get across to Kit but doesn't understand the same way. She makes fun of the fact that he takes wizardry seriously...maybe a little too seriously. She hasn't been through the same things and doesn't understand the hard parts and obligations. But she's right when she points out the really awesome parts of it, which might be easy to forget in the middle of the day-to-day practice of the Art.

Which is exactly why I was glad she WASN'T actually a wizard. ("For the TV!") She is quick to point out the more fun parts of the Art, but I have trouble believing she could take wizardry seriously enough to actually be a wizard.

But God, I love Carmela. She injects enough comic relief to carry the whole book.

I don't think it's that she couldn't perceive the danger. I think she's such a smart aleck, that it became her nature to be so flip about anything. Plus she's just freaking hysterical. It's not that she can't be serious. She just refuses to be, because if she was, who would be enjoying it?

Actually, what I wanna know is where she got her hands on that bar of Valrhona Caraïbe Grand Cru? And was it the one with hazelnuts? Or the one without? (Funny, I'd have thought Carmela was a milk chocolate person, and more likely to favor Jivara, not Caraïbe. )

Eep, kli, that's scary. Know a bit about chocolate, do you? You'd make quite the intergalactic espionage agent, then, huh? Congrats

Oh, I'd say Carmela is definitely a dark chocolate kind of person.

This could turn out to be interesting. Even if Carmela is too young to become a wizard, it might not mean that she couldn't be active in that area. After all, we saw Dairine's WizMac turn into a major wizarding tool. Could it be possible that the entertainment center could spawn something that would not make her a wizard, but allow her to perform wizarding functions through it?

Love her humor, too Those funny lines, like "Oops", and "The toothpick of Virtue", reall help pull things together.

****EDIT****

Whoops, meant to say too old :-)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Isarian,

Carmela's not too young, she's too old. Nita, Kit and Dairine are all younger than she is. Kit has been telling himself that she's too old for a while - he doesn't want her to be his own personal Dairine . That's why he was so happy when she read from the TV manual, not a wizard's manual.

One suggestion is that you have to be young enough to believe in magic. Of course, Carmela knows enough wizards that she believes in it - maybe she could become a wizard despite being as old as 15.

But she's funnier this way .

O.O Its the chocolate bar! Tis a pity that it's milk though...but it still looks so delicious in that above picture... Yeah, dark chocolate is better anyway, and I suspect Carmela likes it too. XP

I had been suspecting that Carmela would turn out to be a wizard, and when she mentioned the manual (the one for the TV) I thought she'd confirmed my theory, but it turned out that she was just another normal human that's just unsually cool. Like Millman and the Man at the bar than helped Dari in HW. Even if she isn't a wizard, she's still got alot of nerve (when she stands up to It) and will probably be much more involved from this point on.

Well...the man at the bar wasn't really a regular human...he was the Fifth Doctor from Doctor Who, who is hardly a 'mere human' (he isn't even strictly human at all, if I'm not mistaken), but yeah, Carmela is just a really spiffy older sister.

One does get the feeling that she'll be playing a larger and larger part in the action, yes

I'd have to agree with Alida about the whole "Carmela's going to play a larger part" thing. Since she figured out how to get a worldgate in her closet, one would assume that she might get in some travelling, especially if the TV keeps behaving oddly. It should, since it had been trying to evolve in an earlier book. Anyway...I wish I had some of that chocolate right now...

-seabiscuit, a.k.a. hungry

Now what I'm trying to figure out is this...and Peter, maybe you can help me?

According to the Errantry Concordance, Carmela is supposed to be four or five years older than Kit and a Senior in high school at the time of WAW. But how can that be possible? Isn't Kit fourteen by this time? I can't see how she could be much more than three years older than Kit...and do we know how much older than her Helena is? And how was Helena there with her family when Kit told them all about wizardry but is working on her MBA now?

Hmm...

I nitpicked that on the Talk: page for Carmela.

TWD does refer to her as an otherwise excitable fifteen-year-old, when Kit was thirteen. Helena had just left for college in TWD, so she would have still been at home in HW, when Kit told the family he was a wizard.

Meanwhile, Kit himself is just thirteen, and won't be fourteen until AWOM. (I commented on his Talk: page, too.)

Moeen's attempt to fix the timeline is on Kit's Talk: page, but I'm not convinced.

It'd be easier if Kit turned fourteen just before TWD (his birthday's in August), and if Carmela were fifteen either in TWD, or back in HW when Kit told them, in which case she might have had time to turn sixteen by TWD. Either way, Helena works, unless Carmela's five years older than Kit; then she'd be older than her older sister .

I just noticed I said Kit told them in DW! Fixed now.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Peter Murray,

I didn't like Carmela. Way to Mary-Sue for me. Except for the annoyingness. Sure, she was funny... a little... -shrugs-

Carmela is HALIROUS!!!

I like the Oops line too that was wayy funny...

and the toothpick of virtue(forgot what that was pointing too though-.-;

Who would've ever thought that aliens(okay the things we call aliens even we;re really the aliens -.-) like chocolate

I think Carmela wouldn't be tooooooo old to be a wizard... but if she does...boy do i feel sorry for Kit

Dai!