I would have loved it if Mark had shown up and sliced through things. I was very happy at the start by how *fast* it seemed the plot as going. We got Tej as Arqua in, uh, the fourth chapter? Fifth? Which when it happened, I was all "ooh, yay, we are moving quickly! No dragging heels here!" And then we got to Barrayar and I'd thought it was going to be a mostly-on-Komarr-book that just went to Barrayar at the *end*. So yay moving fast, meaning we get a lot packed into a little space.
So if Mark had shown up (imagine if it had been *Mark* as the Vorkosigan at home, not Miles, and Mark passing along a direct order from Gregor *snickers a lot*), and cut through the red tape. We could have a Tej POV scene where she's all relieved that there is someone here with her cultural context to explain things, and Mark cutting through everything, and they could also commiserate about Jacksonian stuff, and Mark could be that friends-who-explains-wierdness that Alys was to Cordelia. That would have been awesome. Putting Mark in the expert-about-Barrayar territory, much to his wtfery, and also giving Tej an ally and translator who can talk Jacksonian to the Jacksonian and Barrayaran to the Barayarans.
And then we could have shoved Ivan and Tej into their two year vacation 3/4 of the way into the book, then come home and more stuff could have happened. And somewhere in this, Tej could have, uh, maybe gone to a Residence party and met one of the Vor conservatives, who take one look at her and go "you're Vorpatril's haut wife?" and then proceed in that vein. And then we deal with it. Which would have been awesome. Oh, and she could have met Laisa during this, and we would have seen Laisa!
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So if Mark had shown up (imagine if it had been *Mark* as the Vorkosigan at home, not Miles, and Mark passing along a direct order from Gregor *snickers a lot*), and cut through the red tape. We could have a Tej POV scene where she's all relieved that there is someone here with her cultural context to explain things, and Mark cutting through everything, and they could also commiserate about Jacksonian stuff, and Mark could be that friends-who-explains-wierdness that Alys was to Cordelia. That would have been awesome. Putting Mark in the expert-about-Barrayar territory, much to his wtfery, and also giving Tej an ally and translator who can talk Jacksonian to the Jacksonian and Barrayaran to the Barayarans.
And then we could have shoved Ivan and Tej into their two year vacation 3/4 of the way into the book, then come home and more stuff could have happened. And somewhere in this, Tej could have, uh, maybe gone to a Residence party and met one of the Vor conservatives, who take one look at her and go "you're Vorpatril's haut wife?" and then proceed in that vein. And then we deal with it. Which would have been awesome. Oh, and she could have met Laisa during this, and we would have seen Laisa!