It's a great day when you get to go buy 50 new books for your library

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Including a beautiful, shiny KoA. And, in honor of fabricalchemist, Kingdom Hearts graphic novels.

caroline_k and I had similar thoughts about Megan's answer re: Gen's tendency to poke/provoke.


"Yeah, Gen does have a tendency to provoke eveyone, thats what makes him so entertaining, lol.But it seems to me he knows just where to draw the line too, or mostly he does. I'm thinking about that scene in KOA where Gen tells Teleus and co. to invoke Hephestia in front of Attolia so she would spare him. To me, he just went a little too far there- I mean, he knows she loves him, but to remind her of such a painful memory was a little...tactless maybe? I just think that wasn't the way in which he should have reminded her about it. The 'slap' scene was chilling, but I kinda thought Gen deserved it (and the make-up scene was beautiful; really fleshed out their relationship)

Gen knows the polite attention will unsettle Relius.

Speaking of Relius, I was personally touched to see his almost religious devotion to Attolia in this book. From reading Qoa I was under the impression that no one was really that loyal to her, and they served her out of fear. To quote KOA:
" If I were imprisoned for fifty years (...) I would crawl, if that was all I could do, to her feet to serve her."

Thats some pretty powerful loyality!(he actually seemed sort of .....dare I say it... in LOVE with her, almost!) So I'm wondering then, why Atotlia needs a neutral party to unite her country, when she is capable of commanding such loyality herself? Or wait, maybe Relius is like her 'godfather' in the sense that he taught her everything she knows. I guess I personally think Attolia could unite Attolia , but given the history and mentality of the people, this isn't realistic. (Eddis is the woman power! sort of queen, lol)

Sorry to go off on so many tangents, everyone; I hope this hasn't been discussed already."


Megan's answer gave me a lot more insight into why Gen does the things he does. I knew this about him (he especially pokes people in Thief), but never thought about it while reading KoA.


I don't think Gen went too far by giving Telius the "magic words". He only had a few minutes to decide what to do and was trying to save several people. I think he really blamed himself for his injury since he hadn't had the gardens secured. I didn't think Gen deserved the slap, especially in front of other people. OTOH, I thought he did deserve the slap in QoA when he called Irene a puppet queen.

I wondered whether Relius might be in love with Attolia, too. What do you all think? And how else has Gen provoked people in KoA?

Comments

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Effortless lj cuts! I rock!

And if anyone cares what books I bought, I'll put them on my weblog.

[anon8.livejournal.com]

so...my 2 cents:
Totally agree with Caroline that the slap scene was chilling, but it did show that he wasn't afraid to stand up to her and tell her she directly that she was wrong. Telling an angry woman she's wrong...hrm...not the greatest idea but he kinda deserved it cuz of his last commment: it really put her over the edge. I didn't think the slap in QoA was deserved because he was telling her the truth and she knew it, and her slap was more because she was peeved and because she wanted to show off for the Mede.

Like Checkers, I think he did the right thing to relay the invocation to Teleus because the queen was MAD and only something that powerful/shocking could get her to reconsider. Teleus may have deserved some sort of punishment for not protecting the king, but I think Gen saw beyond that: that Teleus was the one who could lead the Royal Guard, that the other soldiers respected and listened to him. Plus Aris and his squad definately didn't deserve to die: they really thought they were doing their job with the hounds.

Relius might love the queen, but I would describe it more as utter devotion than love, cuz it's not really 'romantic love' in that sense. He helped make her what she is, but she did the same for him, rewarding him with power and money for his services, so he sorta owes her too. I think it's really the people who are close to her (Teleus, Relius, attendants) who love her because they know her; the rest of the country's kinda afraid of her, and her more powerful barons really don't like how she has centralized the power away from their fealties.

[empmai.livejournal.com]

Was the slap your talking about after the battle? I thought the reason she slapped him was because he was about to tell her he loved her again, and she didn't want him to say it in front of the Mede. ANd because she was peeved off :)

[fabricalchemist.livejournal.com]

HOLY CRAP DUDE!!! *_* What library did you say you worked at, again??

[empmai.livejournal.com]

Hi I'm sorry I don't know how to go back and edit to add more to my post.

In reply to Caroline
________
"So I'm wondering then, why Atotlia needs a neutral party to unite her country, when she is capable of commanding such loyality herself?"
________

I got the impression that she needed a "King" because while she could command the barons and held their respect, they didn't quite get the 'never going to marry message' and so as long as she didn't have a husband there was always the chance (in their mind) one of them could eventually marry her and become the King. Also she needed a strong King: if her husband was weak the nobles could still hold the hope of
a) controling the king and therefore controling the crown
b) kill the king and then your back to the possibility that Attolia might marry you and therefore you become king.
The neutral part because if she picked one baron over another to be king then the unchosen Baron would be upset and likely throw a hissy fit. Sort of like what happened back on the elementary school playground when you could only choose one partner and you had to pick between your two Best Friends.

[sprite6.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Relius, I was personally touched to see his almost religious devotion to Attolia in this book. From reading Qoa I was under the impression that no one was really that loyal to her, and they served her out of fear.

That surprised me too. But after thinking about it, I realized that in QoA we saw Attolia largely through her own eyes, and she didn't believe herself lovable. She says something to that effect to Eddis, and even asks Gen, "Who am I that you should love me?" And she was the last to know how Dite felt about her, which is remarkable from a woman whose entire life has revolved around watching the members of a court.

So I don't think she really understood that Relius and Teleus were loyal out of love for her. When she muses in QoA that she's content to have her life in Teleus's hand, it seems cool because she's thinking that he hasn't been captain long enough to be corrupted. But she really trusts him; she just can't conceive of that trust in any other way because she's learned to trust no one. It's Gen who makes her see that she's worthy of love, and she is loved, and that she loves in return.

[empmai.livejournal.com]

Where are the magic words from in QoA?

[(Anonymous)]

oooh. I LOVE it when you all answer your own questions!

~Megan