Unbeatable

[agh-4.livejournal.com]

The YA fantasy showdown, aka THE ABSOLUTE BUZZ OF THE MOMENT HERE AT SOUNIS has gotten me thinking about Gen, and how he's, in effect, made of win.

Many people have said (as Eddis did in ACoK), "Gen is Gen." He always wins. I wholeheartedly agree with this statement, but it makes me think. Eugenides doesn't lose, and maybe it's just in his making. (Of course, winning isn't always what he wants to do. He doesn't want to be Annux, but it's sort of in the package, and he has the wits and guts so he that can be.)

He always wins, eventually, but I'm pretty sure that mwt has mentioned many times that she had to let him get caught in QoA. She had to let him fall, otherwise the stories would be nothing more than watching Gen steal, steal, and steal. What he lost in QoA led to even larger gains (if you could call them all that), but none of that would have happened if he hadn't been caught. Losing (sort of) was something that was actually for the better, as the ????? goddess helped him realize.

So is he really unbeatable? Does he really always win? Will he ever lose on purpose because it needs to be done (possibly with higher stakes than faking out Melheret in ACoK)? Will the wins just continue to box him in, increasing the already large dependence on personal connections to people he does love and trust (Attolia, Eddis, Sophos, the Magus, mow, maybe Costis?). Gen already seems susceptible to pressures, especially that the gods put on him. Would it just continue like this?

This is already a kind of muddled post, and I hope it's understandable, but here's another crop of questions:

The gods. They're on his side, we know (unless he offends them...), and the god Eugenides will save him from falls until it's his time. But how far does this protection go? I don't think the gods would save him from other deaths, unless perhaps they REALLY REALLY needed him to stay alive (I can't think of a concrete reason why). I don't think they'd ever go to lots of trouble to save his life, because he's the one that's risking it, and if he's really being the kind of person who comes close to dying all the time, they might not see the point in keeping him around as their chosen one (sorry, but is there a word for what he is? Dude with a thin veil?).

So how far would the gods go to save him? Can he die as easily as any other human, super ninja skillz aside? And what about the mystery illness?

Sorry about the depressing/possibly denial-inducing topic... :)