A POST ABOUT LIGHTBULB MOMENTS

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

brought to you by that one quiz drashizu linked to.

A post for people to talk about their ACoK lightbulb moments, I guess. Um. Because I have a lightbulb moment to share, and loquaciousquark pointed out it would be cool if the post was for everyone to share, so, share away? You may also share lightbulb moments from the other books, but there will totes be spoilers in the comments.

LET'S BRIGHTEN UP THE ROOM EVERYBODY.

Comments

OKAY SO HERE IS MY MOMENT

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

Sorry about the excessive capslock, except NOT REALLY BECAUSE OH MY GOODNESS

So here I am, taking this quiz, kicking its butt, and then it asks me, "What does Sophos break to signal his father's men?" and I'm like "that frickin' amphora he was--"

YOU

GUYS

YOU

GUYS

Sophos breaks an amphora.

He breaks an amphora as a signal to his father's men i.e. as part of his grander scheme to leave behind the life of a slave/wimp/figurehead prince/generally uninterested individual and to enter in the world of kingship/grown-up politics/having to do things like shoot Hanaktos. But he does it purposefully--but at the same time he's forced to stoop to below-the-belt tactics to get it done. But that last sentence is like, thinking through the implications, which is not what this post is about.

THIS COMMENT IS ABOUT THE LIGHTBULB THAT WENT OFF

WHEN I REALIZED SOPHOS BROKE AN AMPHORA.

KIND OF LIKE EVERYONE'S FAVORITE WINTER-CHILL QUEEN.

speaking of metaphors I wasn't expecting to see ever again, ever...

ANYWAY I WAS FLAILING LIKE A MADWOMAN WHEN I FIGURED THIS OUT, so I thought I would share.

Re: OKAY SO HERE IS MY MOMENT

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

WHAT. IS ASTOUNDED.

Re: OKAY SO HERE IS MY MOMENT

[rosaleeluann.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow.
*blinks*

Re: OKAY SO HERE IS MY MOMENT

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

I LOVE IT!

You've already heard mine. Attolia's use of the word ridiculous. And the word granch(ed) seems to be a more publicly expressed punishment. Gen uses that on his attendants in KoA. Speaking of which, it's written "ganched" in my copy of ACoK. TYPOT!

She tends to use "flayed" on more minor things - sand on food, Gen saying stuff about the snakes and weasels in her court. Thought they're not minor things to her. lol

Re: OKAY SO HERE IS MY MOMENT

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

Ha! I didn't even think of that. Good catch!

Re: OKAY SO HERE IS MY MOMENT

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

WHAT. Okay I was reading your post like "What is she talking about? I don't get it, when did Attolia ever---" and then OH SNAP I got it. I think I flailed, too. What could this mean?! They are SYMBOLICALLY LINKED. Oh, goodness. Thank you for pointing this out! I never even realized...

Re: OKAY SO HERE IS MY MOMENT

[agh-4.livejournal.com]

Whoa, that is a 1 million watt lightbulb!

Really, really cool! And this is right when his father gives him THE RING (By the way, what happened to the ring? Did those bandits take it? Because I don't think it's mentioned again)--- so it's when he becomes King (ish), like GROWING UP/ LOSING CHILDHOOD, like with Attolia's amphora breaking thing. Yah. Good job.

Re: OKAY SO HERE IS MY MOMENT

[tiegirl.livejournal.com]

OMG THAT IS FLAIL-WORTHY!! GOOD CATCH!! GET IT? CATCH? HUH, HUH?

Re: OKAY SO HERE IS MY MOMENT

[reader-marie.livejournal.com]

This is great!!! Thanks for pointing it out; I would never have thought of this before, but it's amazing!

As mentioned by others, I'm beginning to see Attolia and Sophos as more alike, or at least as being shaped by similar circumstances. Sohpos' circumstances are much like Attolia's were, and it's interesting to see when he seems to be channeling her and when he works out his own solutions.

Speaking of amphoras (amphorae?) in general, I recently noticed that the reason Attolia sends Chloe home at the end of QoA is because she breaks an amphora of perfume. Maybe obvious, but not something I'd noticed until quite recently. More linked symbolism, though not nearly as awesome as yours.

Re: OKAY SO HERE IS MY MOMENT

[(Anonymous)]

I was wondering for a while why this amphora thing is flail worthy.

Then it clicked.

Then I'm trying like mad not to squee out coz I'm in the office.

Awesome catch, jade!

[styromgalleries.livejournal.com]

I'll worry about a lightbulb moment later. Right now: YOUR LOCATION!!! LOLOLOLOLOL

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Here's something I really loved learning about--why Sophos was the heir, rather than his father. The king of Sounis, along with Sophos's father the king's half-brother, were behind the Eumen conspiracy that Ambiades's grandfather was involved in. The king and Sophos's father KILLED THEIR OTHER BROTHERS somehow, then had all the other conspirators executed. (Gosh, that just made me think of the Stardust movie.) And Sophos's father was illegitimate, but wanted the throne for his son. Fascinating.

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

I liked going more in depth on that one, too. It always struck me as something that was missing from TT somehow---a minor thing, but we don't ever learn what the Eumen conspiracy *is*, and I thought it would be significant to Ambiades's character. I love the tie-in in ACoK.

[lizzyazula.livejournal.com]

I wonder why Sounis and Sophos' father were so close to one another as opposed to their other brothers. And do you think Sophos' father would really murder his brothers? I mean, I know he seems very tough and scary-like, but all he's proven to us is that he's actually an old softy on the inside.

Random note: OMG I LOVE THAT MOVIE. But I don't love the book in your icon. I don't know why, but that series just rubbed me the wrong way, which is sad, because a lot of people like those books.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

-MWT really likes to mutilate her characters before she lets them become king.

-The similarities between Sophos's rise to power and Attolia's. The parallels are really interesting. Especially considering that Attolia sanctioned Sophos's method of becoming king (by giving him the gun).

[jennifer19l.livejournal.com]

"-MWT really likes to mutilate her characters before she lets them become king."

I hadn't really thought about this before, but you could even include Eddis in here with her broken nose. Attolia is the only one unscarred. Maybe because she is scarred on the inside while the others grew up with relatively happy childhoods. Oh, I know Gen's cousins were mean to him etc., but he had his mom and grandfather. They all had someone, except Attolia.

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

That's true, Attolia (indirectly) shot her baron with a crossbow and Sophos shot his baron with the gun she gave him. Also, the year she spent beforehand in her suitor's household, the one she poisoned? Sophos spent 6+ months in Hanaktos's fields. And, although Sophos is still the most ingenuous of the four of them IMO, he does put on a mask in front of the council of barons when he says he had never let them see what he looked like when he smiled---his uncle.

[agh-4.livejournal.com]

My lightbulb moments:
Realizing it was Eddis before Sophos even got to Attolia.

Realizing (about a week after reading the arc, anyway, an embarassingly long time) that Costis wasn't just not there because mwt was avoiding superfluous character references, but that HE'S SOMEWHERE, DOING SOMETHING, FOR SOME REASON THAT WE'LL PROBABLY FIND OUT. Yeah, but we know that already! :)

The sybolism at the end, in the library. On the pillars, there are lions, rabbits, and foxes.
And I'm thinking: Lion = king Sophos, Rabbit = bunny Sophos, Fox = Eddis (You look a little vulpine yourself!)

So, not very lightbulby, but...

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

WHAT. I never even considered what the lions, rabbits, and foxes might mean! Wow, I am so dense. All those lion/rabbit references throughout the book, and then I didn't even clue in when I read that part. Wow.

And Costis. I missed him so much! But at the same time, I really, really want to know where he is and what he's doing. Because I don't think MWT would just randomly forget about him. He's got to be somewhere, especially after what Gen was saying to him near the end of KoA. I just have no idea what it could be. Costis doesn't seem sneaky enough to get up to anything Gen-like. I hope he comes back in some capacity, because he may be my favourite character...

[meltintall3.livejournal.com]

p. 255
"I couldn't slouch without putting obvious dents in the lines of my coat..."

So, I'm thinking it's like that one king in McKinley's Door in the Hedge who liked to put his hands in his pockets and wreck the lines of the trousers and that the cloth is fragile etc.

Second time through... dents = guns.

Whoa.

[tiegirl.livejournal.com]

Oh, whoa. Good one.

[reader-marie.livejournal.com]

I LOVE these lightbulb moments--they're making me rethink a lot of cool moments.

The lightbulb I have going off right now is a very small, insignificant one, but here it is (if someone's mentioned this before, I'm sorry):

Sophos wears an earring. (Specifically, on the Day of Engagement and Oaths near the end.)

Not a big deal, hardly worthy of a lightbulb moment, but it's been completely missing from my mental picture of Attolian fashion until now. I'm wondering why Gen, with his obsession for earrings, hasn't been mentioned wearing one before.

New possibilities for earrings...

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

Oh whoa, and speaking of which, I hadn't realized until then that this was our obligatory earring reference, since there has been at least one earring mention in every book so far. What could it mean??? Or is it just for fun? :)

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

I had a lightbulb moment when Eddis said that the veil for Eugenides is always thin (see icon) and that he walks through the world gingerly, because his visions of the gods aren't dreams. I was so confused the first time I read that because it's making him sound like he's some kind of schizophrenic Chosen One and that doesn't sound right at all, and then I realized HE IS. In QoA, he saw the exact same scene of the mountain exploding that Eddis has seen, only he wasn't dreaming it, it was a VISION and he literally smelled his eyebrows singeing and felt the heat and... Have you ever read any other books where the main character spends the entire climax scene hallucinating and speaking to the gods?? I haven't. And then go back and see all the times the gods have spoken to him directly... "Stop whining" and "Go to bed" being funny harmless examples, but also when Eugenides sat by Gen's bedside in TT and got him over his guilt of killing a man... Or when they invade his life in little everyday ways, like making the horses' hooves silent and making the coin toss come up lilies every time, and... It's just... Wow, I had never realized. This kid is really, really, really being picked on by the gods. No wonder he's stressing out.

[queens-thief.livejournal.com]

i am with you. And I am still reeling from the implications.
Until this line I didn't consciously think about what it means that the Gods are so personal to Gen. We have heard it over and over from other characters that the Gods are not just taken out during religious festivals and worshiped routinely for Gen; they are real, more real than everyday reality for him. And I was hit hard again becasue its Eddis saying this. Eddis, who dreams of the Gods and yet even for her the Gods would be remembered as a dream if she didn't take measures to record her experiences. Meanwhile Gen doesn't need to remember or record that they exist. And its interesting to me that his relationship with the Gods is rather...unconventional. As you mentioned, unlike the heros of the poets his God tells him, "Go to bed".

[(Anonymous)]

My (rather obvious) lightbulb moment was when Gen was sparring with Melheret and he was losing really badly... and then it turned out that he wasn't losing at all, he was just trying to draw Melheret out for the others to observe.

I shoulda seen it coming... but there ya go.
~toastisyummy

[teenareena.livejournal.com]

Besides what you guys had alredy mentioned, mine would have to be the scene in the theatre. Sophos has just said "not on the first vote" and I tensed, waiting for some army to barge in but he just went on to describe that annoying pockets again. And then we knew what're in those pockets.

Also love the inscription on both guns,so poetic.

[thelasteddis.livejournal.com]

A sort of dim lightbulb moment - when I realized Sophos was talking to Helen during part one. It was when he wished that the listener had been there while he was talking to Eugenides and Attolia; before that, I had thought it was the group of them, Gen, Irene, and Helen. But then he started saying rude stuff about Gen and I thought, Irene wouldn't let him say that with both his hands still on. :-)

[liereicarine.livejournal.com]

A bit late, but hope you see this.

Both Sophos and Gen have requested overshirts from others. The scene where Sophos takes Timo's overshirt (pg 83)... Timo asks why Sophos wants him to lend his shirt out and Sophos says, "Because if you don't, I'm going to hit you really hard and take it anyway." When I read that I thought Gen should have said that to Sophos in TT instead of explaining further. Sophos asked "Why?" twice too, and the first time Gen replied in Gen-fashion, "I want you to give it to me." (Pg 236).

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

ah-hahahaha, good catch!