Sounisian discussion
Jul. 19th, 2009 05:18 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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queensthief(By Sounisians, for Sounisians, about Sounisians!)
So, I was re-reading parts of QoA, and something got me wondering...
So why not? Has he been too busy fighting wars? Has he been chasing the queen of Eddis all that time?
I'd hypothesize that his lack of a son, making Sophos heir, is partly the cause of the rebellions going on in Sounis during KoA.
Any thoughts?
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Sophos' Hair:
Now the cover for Conspiracy of Kings has been released (woop woop!) I've started wondering about Sophos' hair. (I know, I know...) Everyone seems to think he's blonde, including the cover artist. But why? The King of Sounis has hair of 'a dark gold colour' (TT, p. 17 UK p/b), but I can't find anything about Sophos having blonde hair.
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philia_fan suggested that his incredible blushing implied fair skin, which could easily go with fair hair. But it seems a little odd to have blondes in a Mediterranean-ish world. One explanation would be that Sophos and his uncle are descended from the invaders (either the old or the new) who took over and ruled Sounis and Attolia before the books began, and that the invaders were fair.Does anyone know what the source of blonde!Sophos is?
*
Also, I just wanted to say that I know the Magus' name. It's Chronos. Or maybe Kairos.
How do I know?
Well, everyone, in Chapter Seven of QoA, Eddis asks Eugenides to "Steal peace, Eugenides. Steal me some time."
We know Gen obeyed the first part of that instruction. But what makes us think he didn't obey the second, too? After all, Irene/Peace wasn't the only person Gen abducted during The Queen of Attolia.
QED.
:-P
(Not really. But wouldn't it be great if it was?)
Um, and if I have unwittingly stolen this theory from someone else, I am mortified and apologise!
*
Edited to add: Looks like I didn't make myself clear enough. The name theory is a JOKE, guys. I'd love it if I was right, but I don't expect to be. All clear now? Good. :DMind you it would explain why MWT won't tell us what it is...
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Date: 7/19/09 06:57 am (UTC)I can't believe it. But she said steal me some time. So she wanted him to steal some of the Magus? Does that make sense?
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Date: 7/19/09 09:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 7/19/09 11:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 7/19/09 12:16 pm (UTC)Ahhh no wonder...*silence* and I thought my Internet was acting up.
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Date: 7/20/09 10:59 am (UTC)(Congratulations on the italics, btw. It took me forever to figure those out.)
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Date: 7/20/09 11:23 am (UTC)would never discover each other's companymeet each other.(thanks, I actually thought only Paid members could do it. I'm so glad I can look less like an HTML code amateur, I probably sounded like one just now though)
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Date: 7/20/09 10:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7/21/09 12:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 7/21/09 03:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 7/21/09 10:46 am (UTC)Yay for the
Magus' namenew discoveries.no subject
Date: 7/19/09 01:21 pm (UTC)'Like the magus they were both dressed in dark blue tunics that flared at the waist over their trousers. The older one had darker hair and was the better looking.'
The 'older one' is, obviously, Ambiades, so perhaps everyone just assumes that since Sophos has lighter hair than him, it must be blond!
Perhaps there is more evidence somewhere else?
~crazyviolin
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Date: 7/19/09 09:54 pm (UTC)It still puzzles me, though. With all the shades of brown between Amdiades' 'darker' hair and what Sophos' could be, *why* blonde? Until I got to Sounis, I automatically thought of Sophos as brown-haired. Maybe mousy brown.
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Date: 7/19/09 01:26 pm (UTC)Love your reasoning on the Magus's name!
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Date: 7/19/09 03:40 pm (UTC)I don't know why Sounis has never married, though. But now that I think about it, I can't place a quote that says he hasn't. He could be a widower whose wife never had a child, either unable to carry one to term or unable to get pregnant.
But maybe he was saving his marriage card for taking over another country all along. He might have been sniffing after Attolia at first, but then Helen became queen and opened up his options (she also probably seemed like the easier to control).
The Magus hints that Sounis does have an attraction for Helen. So it could even be that he was waiting for the one he liked the most to come around.
In short -- I don't know.
I know this comment is all over the place. Sorry. I'm still waking up. XD
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Date: 7/19/09 06:23 pm (UTC)Also, I got the impression that he hasn't been king all that long--Gen remembers what his father looks like, so at most, he's been on the throne for a few years longer than Eddis. I'd put his age at 40 at the most.
also, LOLOL that bit about the magus's name? priceless. That is Sounisian reasoning at its finest. *applauds*
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Date: 7/19/09 07:11 pm (UTC)<3 ICON!
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Date: 7/19/09 10:04 pm (UTC)Ah, I completely skipped over the part where Gen remembers Sounis' father. I was thinking about the quite impressive list of things Sounis has done while king that Gen recounts when they meet in TT as evidence for him having been around a while. But if he's done all that in just a few years, no wonder he's not married.
(and I finally caved and looked up 'I'm on a boat' on youtube. NOW the icon is funny :))
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Date: 7/19/09 10:08 pm (UTC)(once again, sorry for the double-post. I need to get me a paid account so I can edit comments!)
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Date: 7/19/09 04:29 pm (UTC)Dude, WIN. Magus now has a name.
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Date: 7/19/09 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7/20/09 11:37 am (UTC)“Yes, your Majesty. And we think we know who is helping them.”
The king gave him an amused smile, “Who?”
The queen, who had been silent throughout their conversation, cut in. “The same people who supplied Sounis’ warships and weapons during the war.”
“Ah, the Mede,” the king said. “Why am I not surprised?”
The queen nodded in agreement, “They’re obviously not through with their attempts of getting invited to participate in our battles. Since the Mede have been forced out of Attolia and Eddis they’ve driven Sounis into civil war and have assisted both warring parties secretly.”
looong comment, sorry
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Date: 7/19/09 09:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7/19/09 04:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7/19/09 09:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7/19/09 07:22 pm (UTC)I like the Magus's maybe names, but I don't think it's Chronos, because Chronos was evil and ate his children. The magus would never do that!
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Date: 7/19/09 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7/19/09 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7/20/09 08:12 pm (UTC)I think Sounis is a bachelor who wants to marry Eddis. From the way the magus was going on about his king finally getting married and having a son, Sounis seems to have been never married before.
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Date: 7/19/09 11:24 pm (UTC)~ toastisyummy
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Date: 7/19/09 11:27 pm (UTC)~toastisyummy
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Date: 7/20/09 12:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 7/20/09 12:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 7/20/09 02:38 am (UTC)*points up at Rosie's comment* That's the explanation, folx. Would anyone believe me if I said I forgot that Chronos and Kairos were Greek figures?
No?
Well, Rosie's awesome :D
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Date: 7/21/09 10:47 am (UTC)It's catching.
On names...
Date: 7/20/09 12:32 am (UTC)CrazedEddisian
Re: On names...
Date: 7/21/09 03:37 am (UTC)Erm, I think it goes the other way. "Eugenics" as a noun comes out of the Greek for well-born (the root for birth is -yen or -yenos, and the prefix for good is eu-. Put those together and you get eu-genos, or, quite literally, well-born). I don't have my copy of The Thief on me, but I'm pretty sure that's the explanation for the God's name, and for Gen's. Eugenides is actually a real name; it turns into Eugene in English (but Yevgeny in Russian, which is much prettier!)
Like the idea that the Magus might actually be named for "some" time...
Re: On names...
Date: 7/21/09 03:32 pm (UTC)Re: On names...
Date: 7/21/09 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 7/20/09 03:07 am (UTC)I absolutely adore your hypothesis about a possible name for the Magus. To be honest, when I've read that part before I didn't even make a connection between Irene and peace. Like others have said before, I am not sure if that could actually tell us the Magus' name because Eddis does use the phrasing "some time." In light of thinking of peace as Attolia, I think it makes sense to have time just mean time. By stealing the queen of Attolia, Eugenides was literally buying the Eddisians some time to recover from the war thus far and plan their next strategies. I do really like the idea of the Magus' name being time though.
As for Sounis, I did actually imagine that he has been waiting for Eddis to come around and marry him. Just from how the Magus mentioned the possible marriage between Sounis and Eddis, I always had the idea that he really does like her.
Chronos
Date: 8/3/09 06:48 pm (UTC)(Leslie)In QUEEN, Eddis tells Eugenides, "Steal peace." He literally does - he steals Irene, who is rather bitter about the fact that her name means "peace". She also tells him to steal her more time. If the next book introduces somebody whose name is Chronos, I know who's next in line to be kidnaped!
(Peggy)We'll probably find out the Magus' name is some play on words for "time" :)
Re: Chronos
Date: 8/3/09 09:36 pm (UTC)Wouldn't it be awesome if we were right?