[SPOILER WARNING] Just read Volume 8.

[Contra Glove]

Hey everyone, I just read volume 8.

In an earlier thread,, I made the point that Jennifer is no different from her father, so any sympathy for her is misplaced.

Volume 8 confirms this.

She deliberately breaks up Luna's relationship with Dr. Collins by booting him out of the house, making him as helpless as Mrs. Kajiwara was against Benjiro. She ignores Luna's other life in favor of her missions. By imposing so much on her, Luna finally cracked and joined Knightfall to get away from her awful mother...just as Jennifer joined The Agency to get away from her awful father.

Now some of you will say that The Agency gave Jennifer an ultimatum -- make Luna do her missions right or Luna will be worm food. However, keep in mind that not only did Jennifer choose to join a secret government black-ops agency, she also chose to work on Project Luna. It appeared that the possibility of her "perfect agent" going rogue didn't even cross her mind. With Jennifer's intelligence and athletic ability, she would have been able to do just fine in the private sector, so the Agency job wasn't even necessary. By choosing the path of black ops, this situation is her fault to begin with. It wasn't Luna that chose to join the agency. Volume 9 even implies that Luna and Jennifer will fight. Such a fight would be a huge smack in the face to Jennifer, since for all her toughness and smarts, Jennifer never had the guts to directly confront her father.

The shadow of Benjiro looms large over these two.

While Jennifer is interesting as a character, she certainly doesn't deserve the adulation she receives around these parts.

[Ravenhull]

I must say, I actually sympathise slightly with Jennifer regarding what happend between her and Dr. Collins. For all she has been defrosting, she is still an intensely private woman, and to find that he had been getting in her personal files would be an intense violation of trust for her. I am saddened by what happened there, and I am hoping that she can learn to open herself again, but I can understand what happened.

As for her staying with The Agency, I think she honestly thinks that despite their questionable methods, that they were doing what was best. Recent events have chipped heavily at that, but given that she has dedicated her life to this, it's hard to break away.

As for the attempt to recruit her, it's perhaps best that events happened as they did. I can imagine if she had accepted the offer from another only to find who was behind them. I'm sorry, but after reading all of AAJ2, I can only see him as little better than The Agency itself. He took advantage of a young man's dreams and used them in order to assasinate a head of state, no matter how hostile the Count was. And then he was surprised that his star pupil would not see things his way. I can sympathise with the actions of his people, but not with him. To be honest, part of me sees a future where she replaces him and possibily making them a better agency.

In the end, that last image of Jennifer was very painful to look at. She has not become her mother, for I don't think her mother had ever had her world systematically destroyed like what is happening to her. I can only hope she survives, in body in soul.

[Contra Glove]

As for the attempt to recruit her, it's perhaps best that events happened as they did. I can imagine if she had accepted the offer from another only to find who was behind them. I'm sorry, but after reading all of AAJ2, I can only see him as little better than The Agency itself. He took advantage of a young man's dreams and used them in order to assasinate a head of state, no matter how hostile the Count was. And then he was surprised that his star pupil would not see things his way. I can sympathise with the actions of his people, but not with him. To be honest, part of me sees a future where she replaces him and possibily making them a better agency.

I can actually understand Jennifer not joining Knightfall straight away; not only because of her past with Master Control, but also because she doesn't know that Luna planned to join. Given what Jennifer knew at the moment, if she did join Knightfall she couldn't guarantee Luna's safety, since Luna was away on a mission.

That being said, I do agree that Master Control isn't some paragon of virtue, and that digging around in someone's personal info generally isn't a good idea. However, I see Jennifer's pain as her chickens coming home to roost.

Think about it. To get ahead in the Agency, she created Luna and subjected her to sixteen years of continuous abuse, never letting her even have a chance at a normal life -- indeed, she was created to be the Agency's slave. When Luna finally got a taste of normalcy, Jennifer indirectly snatches it away -- Luna could've easily resolved the disputes with her friends if she could tell them about her Agency work, but that wasn't an option (it gets so bad that Liz Westbrook has more moral authority than Luna in the students' eyes.)

Furthermore, Jennifer escaped from her domineering father only to hook herself up to an even more domineering employer. She even moves to a base owned by her employer, mirroring her home situation. This makes sense; Jennifer was raised to obey and follow orders, so she is very comfortable with being told what to do and having her life micromanaged. In this respect, she has become like her mother.

Her abusiveness and her hypocrisy have now blown up in her face. Hopefully, she realizes that she now has to change her ways. That brief flash of moral courage that she showed when she ran away to Kim's apartment in AAJ -- she has to reclaim it if she is to redeem herself.

I'll have to read Book 9 before deciding whether to forgive her or not.