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

[philia-fan.livejournal.com]

I thought "granched" was the typot.

Re: OKAY SO HERE IS MY MOMENT

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

OH YES SO IT WAS

*facepalm* This is what happens when I comment before breakfast.

Re: OKAY SO HERE IS MY MOMENT

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

Yay I found it! http://community.livejournal.com/sounis/129928.html

[styromgalleries.livejournal.com]

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

Re: OKAY SO HERE IS MY MOMENT

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[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.

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...

[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.

[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.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

Exactly--nobody thought Attolia could rule until she poisoned her husband, and even after that, until she had that baron shot. And nobody thought Sophos could rule until he shot the baron (and the Mede) himself. I think that Sophos, in terms of personality and background, is quite different from Attolia, which kind of makes the similarities in their rise to power even more interesting.

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.

[agh-4.livejournal.com]

!!! And nobody thought Gen could rule until he destroyed the Eronditeses!

Also, I like the phrase "indirectly shot"!

[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...

[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.

Re: OKAY SO HERE IS MY MOMENT

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

Yes, this, totally... especially because when Attolia remembered breaking the amphora it was (though she didn't realize) because of Gen's broken spirit, i.e. lost childhood? That's the impression I got, at least.

[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...

[creative-lefty2.livejournal.com]

I caught the the thing about the lions and rabbits, but not the foxes. That was amazing.

[tiegirl.livejournal.com]

Oh, whoa. Good one.

Re: OKAY SO HERE IS MY MOMENT

[tiegirl.livejournal.com]

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