Foreshadowing?

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

There is a passage near the end of Queen of Attolia where Eddis and Attolia are having their heart to heart chat, and it comes to light Attolia is named "Irene", meaning Peace, and Eddis is "Helen", the beautiful woman the Trojan War was fought over.  They laugh at how inappropriately named they are.

Given the comments in KoA, about how Gen could be torn between conflicting loyalties to Eddis and Attolia, and Costis between Gen and Irene, do you think the passage from QoA is actually foreshadowing a war over Eddis, with peace through Attolia?

Comments

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

That could very likely happen. Attolia and Sounis have been fighting over the mountain pass through Eddis for a long time and both have wanted control of the country because of its location. Now the stakes are higher and both have additional reasons for wanting Eddis. Eugenides will want to protect his former country and his cousin, and he knows the volcano will eventually destroy Eddis. All his countrymen will need a new place to live. Sounis (funny--we don't know his name yet) wants to marry Helen and will be very afraid of the alliance between Eddis and Attolia. If Sophos returns, there may be pressure on Sounis if there is an alliance between Sophos and Helen.

I'll bet Gen will be torn between his loyalty to his old country and his new one. Irene has shown she'd do about anything for Attolia, and she and Gen may be at odds over the course of the country, with poor Costis caught in the middle.

What do you all think Costis would do if he were forced to choose between obeying the king or the queen? What if he discovered one of Eugenides's "stupid plans" and thought it might harm Attolia? Would he rat Gen out?

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

I think it will be an issue eventually, but not right now. I thought that line was more an ironic reference to Helen's lack of traditional beauty in comparison with Irene's ironic lack of peacefulness.

[fabricalchemist.livejournal.com]

Wait, Gen has a theme song?

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I hope Sounis doesn't kidnap Helen... o_o'

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

Before I read what everyone else has said, I would like to point out that it goes

"It means 'peace.' What could be more inappropriate than that?"

"That I be named Helen?" Eddis suggested.

The hard lines in the queen's face eased. Eddis was a far cry from the beauty whose face had launched a thousand ships.

I always thought that meant "if I were named Helen" which implied that Eddis's name was not Helen. And then in KoA it was. And that confused me. (Plus, it totally screwed over my mental fanfic's OC, who was also named Helen, and I had to find a new name for her, which hasn't happened yet. *grumbles*)

I just thought I'd point that out and wonder if anyone else caught the same thing.