riffing on umiri

i'm reading "the song of the cid." i won't tell you the whole story, but this is what is relevant:

the cid loses the king's favor and is exiled, he must leave the king's grounds. this is in spain during the reconquista, so the neighbouring territories are hostile or contested. the king has made it known that nobody is to help the cid, else they will be killed and/or have their property confiscated. the cid is a famed warrior and some can smell opportunity in his coming adventures, so despite the king's threats they leave with him for moor territory. adventures follow and the cid amasses enough booty to part with some to send the king in hopes of regaining his friendship. the cid gradually regains his rights, to the point that the king permits for his men to leave his side and join the cid if they so desire at no risk to their life or property. this is good, but it changes the relationship the cid has with his men. now they're risking less, they're not soldiers of fortune but parasites looking to profit from an already successful campaign, so the cid instates a policy that all men serving under him are to be identified so that they can't leave without his consent, otherwise they will be hanged. what is important here is that the cid must artificially weaken the position of his men once they're no longer at risk to continue to assure their loyalty.

the parallel here is to umiri's bridge burning, leaving every other band. the problem is that the relationship is inverted, umiri has weakened her own position, trying to pass for an enticing slave to an unwilling master. it's not useful to unlock a door for someone that walks past it.

this isn't new ground, but i dislike it that there's so much discussion here of the characters' states of mind and not so much the practical reasons why their actions attain their ends or not, or why they are permitted certain courses of action to begin with.