KoA questions

[lopezuna-writes.livejournal.com]

(1) Eugenides twice leads his attendants to the dead end with the shortcut on the beam. First time he has to retrace his steps. Second time, he takes the shortcut. Why does he go this way the first time? In his distracted haste to deal with Artodorus the tax-evader, has he forgetten that while this is a shortcut for the Thief of Eddis, it is not a shortcut for the king of Attolia? Second time, it makes more sense that he did it on purpose, at least to me, because he is already revealed as wandering around the palace as he chooses.

(2) Why does Attolia refuse to speak to Eugenides at breakfast after it is revealed that Artodorus is leaving the court? Is she upset at what are clearly his underhand methods for achieving results? Or is it only Costis' perspective that makes it look like she is irritated? It's not clear that Costis is in fact present, because this is one section of the book that is in third person.

(3) I know this has been discussed before, but I didn't see the following point raised. Attolia summons Costis and asks him what the king is doing when he shuts out his other attendants right after Costis has told the king that he did not spread the story about the cousins and the water cache. Coincidence? If it weren't for the timing, I would have said there was no collaboration between Attolia and Eugenides on the plan for Costis. But the timing does make it look like they are working together to see how trustworthy Costis is. And this makes me rethink the part at the very beginning of the book where in a seemingly off-the-cuff remark, she suggests Eugenides take Costis as a sparring partner.

(4) The Fall of the House of Erondites: Am I missing something, or was this rather a seat-of-the-pants affair, in the sense that it was triggered by Sejanus directing the assassins? Clearly there was some setup in that Eugenides made friends with Dite, and was keeping an eye on Erondites and Sejanus. But getting Sejanus to confess to the quinalums, and trapping him with his love for his brother (through Dite's visit to the king)... if he hadn't both revealed himself as double-crossing his father and had a guilty conscience over the assassins, how would that have worked out?

One neat thing I noticed on last reread. Teleus agrees to reduce the guard by half before learning how Eugenides disarmed the assassins. But it is not until he learns this - and agrees that Laecdomon lost the match fair and square - that he addresses him as "My King" rather than "Your Majesty."

Comments

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

Thoughts! I has them!

1) I assume that Gen knows that palace like the back of his hand* (see the beginning of QoA) but that he knows it as the Thief (as you said). So I think both times he ends up there accidentally, but in the second case he decides that he's going to forget his dignity and supposed kingliness and be the Thief again for a minute. INTERESTINGLY, this comes immediately after he sees Eugenides-the-god again. I also think it's interesting that in some ways he seems more secure in his kingliness when he decides to be all thief-y than otherwise.

2) I think she's upset at the fact that he's clearly refusing to rise to her bait.

3) Hmm, I hadn't thought of it that way, and it's hard to tell, in the absence of more information. I'm inclined to say that no, she's trying to fish for information about Gen which she can't ask him about straight out (because she already suspects the answer and knows that it would upset him) and she also knows that Costis will tell her.

4) Yeah, I kind of want to know Gen's contingency plans here. For instance, he tried to get Dite to warn Sejanus to watch his step. If Sejanus had listened and become loyal to Gen, would he have allowed Sejanus to inherit?

Oooh, nice point! Gaah, MWT is so sneaky!

* insert obligatory bad joke here

[lopezuna-writes.livejournal.com]

Thanks!!

(2) This was really helpful. I went back and re-read the passage, and yes, she's asking him questions and he's annoyingly not answering. It's like she wants to get him to admit to playing a role in the baron's confession, and he's refusing. Not lying, perhaps, but not telling the truth either, how very irritating!

[sclerotia.livejournal.com]

1) I was puzzled when I 1st read this, but after he uses the route at the end of the book I rethought incident at the beginning and decided this was one of Eugenides jokes--to make his entourage follow him to a route that only he could use and then make them go around. But since only he knows it is a joke, it goes a triffle flat. I don't have my book with me, but isn't this just after Costis refuses to respond to Gen's jest about manure? And right after doesn't retire to his room alone for the first time? No wonder; on top of everything else, there is not even anyone for him to share a joke with.

[helle-d.livejournal.com]

3) Ooh, intriguing! I never thought before that they might be collaborating on the Plan For Costis, so that open up new possible lines of thought.

4) I think Gen was determined that Erondites would fall, whatever Dite and Sejanus did, due to the power imbalance that such a large barony was creating, since he had as much land "any four other barons stacked together". Sejanus' treachery made it easier for him, but I bet he had plans in place to counter any manoeuvres that the Erondites family made. Probably multiple, insanely complex plans, particularly if he and Attolia had arranged months before, on the wedding night, that the house would fall...

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

4) Agree! Multiple, stupid plans.

[lopezuna-writes.livejournal.com]

4) glad to know I'm not missing something obvious! It's all in line with "there's the true course of political savvy for you, good guesses."

[brandy-painter.livejournal.com]

4) I think Gen was working on this from several angles and Sejanus being involved with assassins merely expedited the process. It was definitely a seat-of-the-pants affair, but that's just how Gen rolls. His plan to get to the Gift was very seat-of-the-pants as was his plan to kidnap Attolia. Like he said then, "I like stupid plans." I kind of think seat-of-the-pants=stupid to most people. To Gen it is just par for the course.

[lopezuna-writes.livejournal.com]

Good guesses and stupid plans!

[bookaddict88.livejournal.com]

1. I agree with elvenjaneite that both times he ends up there accidentally, being distracted by other thoughts. I hadn't thought about it this way before, but I think you guys are totally right that the reason that route is the automatic one for him is because it's the one he used as the Thief.

4. Eugenides is very good at seizing the moment and making it work towards his plans. He was going to take down the House of Erondites. Even if Sejanus had followed his brother's warning, I don't think he'd have been allowed to inherit, though I think he might have gotten something better than prison, like Dite did. So I think Eugenides had quite a few ideas of how to take down Erondites, but he was also keeping an eye out for anything he could use to his advantage. Sejanus gave him that, so he took it.

[lopezuna-writes.livejournal.com]

And I really like the point that the more Thief-y he is, the more kingly he is too. Hadn't noticed that before.

[dannybailey.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I love these questions. I agreee with a lot of the answers that everyone has been proposing, but I have one idea that I didn't see mentioned.

3.) I think that Eugenides and Attolia are definitely collaborating here, but I think their intention is to see what Costis is aware of, not to test his trustworthiness. Attolia asks Costis what Eugenides does when he is alone in his room. Presumably, she already knows what he does, since he is somehow sneaking off to see her (that is the impression that I got from the fact that his ring was replaced). So maybe what Attolia is trying to do is see if Costis, and thereby others in the castle, are aware that the King is sneaking around and visiting the Queen. Luckily, Eugenides is way to sneaky for anyone to have caught on, and Costis thinks that he sits and looks out the window the entire time. Eh? Maybe?

[lopezuna-writes.livejournal.com]

I go back and forth on the collaboration thing. Also, in this case, if Eugenides was the one who spread the story about the cousins and the water cache (and how else did it get out, unless somebody was listening at the curtain when he visited Costis in the very beginning) there is no need to test Costis just at this point, because he knows Costis wasn't responsible for spreading the story. Though if Eugenides did spread the story, why did he become so angry when the courtier friend of Dite asked him about it?

[sclerotia.livejournal.com]

I always blamed Laecdomon for how the story got out. He was posted outside Costis' curtain in chapter one and it is clear from what Eugenides says then, that Laecdomon would feel free to behave badly toward him.

[m-chant.livejournal.com]

I think that's a great point! I can never decide between Gen's sneaking off and what Costis interprets at homesickness. I'm sure he doesn't just sit there everyday pining for home, which is what Costis seems to think. Do you think Costis just caught him that one time, and he happened to be crying? Or maybe he was crying about something else? That one tower kept being mentioned...I couldn't help but think it was significant somehow.

Oo, but this collaborating puts a new layer on things! Because Costis thinks that Attolia DIDN'T know about the sitting before the window, but tricked him into confirming it. But, taking your thoughts, this means Attolia did not, and that Costis is just thinking too wildly. @_@