Men are allowed to have whatever they can take even if it's through force and to hell with what anyone else wants? Women are beautiful evil ice queens who will literally lead you on and cause you nothing but pain? And men are allowed to do what they will with said women?
Well ... no, not really. This story isn't about all women, or all men. It isn't even about a
typical woman or man, which might make these questions relevant.
The story is about
one man - really, an over-muscled, under-brained proto-man - with an over- (but poorly-) developed sense of personal 'honour' who
thinks he can have whatever he can take (but is, I note, proven wrong). Lucky for him his friends came along. Perhaps his narrow escape will cause him to rethink his actions, since it's obvious that he doesn't think there's anything wrong with what he's doing.
And
one woman - a spoiled brat (demi?)goddess, actually - who, yes, led that man on to try to cause him nothing but pain - death, in fact. And Conan wasn't the first that she did this to. But she did get something of a comeuppance for it: the fright that Conan caused her (which is less than he wanted to cause her, of course), not to mention the loss of her brothers (though one can argue self defence, there). Lucky for her that her father stepped in to save her. Perhaps her narrow escape will cause her to rethink her actions, since it's obvious that she doesn't think there's anything wrong with what she's doing.
Do I think
either of them is justified? I hope my words make it obvious that no, I don't.
Did I enjoy the story anyway? Rather surprisingly, I rather did. It's not the sort of thing of which I want a steady diet; unlike others, I'm not going to go searching out more Conan stories on the strength of this one. But the writing was bold and descriptive, and really,
both of these fairly unlikable characters were nearly killed for their own failings. I get the same sort of grim pleasure from that as I do from reading some of the accounts of Darwin award winners, or the Least Competent Criminals in
News of the Weird.
But I don't get the sense that the author was putting either of these characters up as models of behaviour.