Why am I so eager to make Gen's early years a tragedy?

[reader-marie.livejournal.com]

Nonetheless...

(Apologies in advance if I am blatantly repeating stuff you've all figured out years ago.  I've looked about and not seen much, but that doesn't mean it's not there.)

Ok, so I've been thinking rather excessively about Gen's family lately, particularly his mother.  I think it would be amazing to get to know her a bit; I get the impression that a lot of Gen's characteristics might be hers (aside from skill with swords, etc., although who knows?) and that she would have the same...fierce but fascinating personality.  Not that I think Gen is excessively fierce, but he can be scary.

Enough babbling.  As a result of my aforementioned thoughts about Gen's mother, I've been thinking about her death, which was reportedly from a fall out of a window in the palace when Gen was young.  He says (to Sophos, I think) in The Thief that she had been dancing on the roof of the palace and slipped coming back in.

Fast forward to KoA, where Gen tells Attolia that he learned to dance square dances from his mother.  He says, "We danced them on the rooftops of the Megaron.  According to legend, the Thief and any partner the Thief chooses will be safe."  (p100 in the hardcover KoA).

Obviously, since his mother wasn't the official Thief, the safety rule didn't apply.  However, I'd always wondered why she'd been dancing on the roof anyway.  I mean, all right, if Attolia can dance in the kitchen gardens, Gen's mother can dance on the palace roof.  But it seems logical to me, knowing what we know now, that she would have been dancing with someone.  Like her son?

I feel like we might have heard more about Gen's mother's death if he had happened to be around, but it may be worth a thought.  I'll probably wake up tomorrow and think about this in a completely different way, though, so who knows?

Go ahead.  Tell me I'm reading things into the text that aren't there, and that I should stop trying to make Gen a tragic hero.  (Hero he is, tragic...hardly.  Anyone who can make me laugh that hard can't be tragic.)

Comments

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

IIRC, I think Gen and his dad fought right after his mother's death, then I got the impression there were a series of fights until the "last one" when he tore up his enrollment papers. I assumed they argued this out over a series of years but I certainly could be wrong about that.

Hey! I just realized. There's no mention in the books of Gen's *becoming* the Thief. Is there some sort of swearing-in ceremony, do ya think? Or is it all done in a secret/stealthy way, like other Thief things?

[pigrescuer.livejournal.com]

Lol! I would imagine it was a private thing between the Thief and his Queen. Also, presumably, he became the Thief as soon as his grandfather died, because of the whole thief till you die thing.

[viviolo.livejournal.com]

Wasn't there a small addendum somewhere in QoA that you officially become the Thief after you've stolen something for your ruler? For symbolism, rather than value.

I don't know, maybe my brain is just making things up. :3

[annikah.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can't recall exactly either, even though I just read QoA recently, but I wasn't paying attention to this thread of inquiry. I wouldn't be surprised if it was over a long while that they fought about it. I just wonder when his grandfather started training him, and if this was done in earnest after Gen's mother died? Which would definitely provoke hostility between Gen and his father.

Re, ceremony: hmm... I wonder? One would think it would be 'official,' if it's a life-long title and not necessarily an active role.

[tearoha.livejournal.com]

I had the impression Gen became the official Queen's Thief (as opposed to 'Court Nuisance And Sneak-Thief') by virtue of stealing Hamiathes' gift. Isn't that what cemented both his status and the Queen's? (Especially in the case of Sounis' challenges to her sovereignty)

*tries to think of canon evidence for this*
*fails*

Or I could be accidentally making things up again...