Let the Speculation Begin

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

This is a little late, but...


Happy Birthday, Sounis!



sounis is 6 years old with 740 members!  Let us speculate in a celebratory way. 

What's going to happen to Gen, Irene, Sophos, Helen, et al?  Is Gen really ill?  Are there royal offspring in the making?  Will Attolia ever catch "Sandy"?  Will the Medes win the day?  Is someone actually going to offend the gods, eventually?  Where would Gen keep a war elephant, anyway?  No detail is too small for comment, crack-filled or in earnest. 

*huggles all of sounis*

Comments

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

What? No, just a simple "Rock falls and everyone dies?" XD Sorry, couldn't resist.

I think "sandy" will be revealed at some point, I can't imagine her being mention this many times isn't somehow important to the plot. I am also theorizing that Gen is playing up the sick angle to catch the Medes spies off guard, but that's just me.

I'm also curious as to what Cotis is currently up to since we didn't see him in CoK.

[willow-41z.livejournal.com]

... can I have a war elephant??

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I don't know -- I mean, it sounds good in theory, but I heard Marc Aronson speak recently and he said do NOT depend on war elephants; they get scared over the littlest things and run away. You would hate to risk your entire battle on a stupid elephant. If, however, what you are looking for is the whole intimidation factor, war elephants are probably the way to go.

Also, you have to buy them elephant armor like this (http://asianmil.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8354be54369e20134868dfe74970c-800wi) which, I imagine, is pretty expensive.

Also again, the same week I heard a mention of war elephants, I watched the old BBC Strong Poison, and Lord Peter actually said, "where there's life, there's hope." I sort of squealed.

[booksrgood4u.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmm...I think that Gen really needs to get back in to the thiefy aspect of his former life. I know that he's king and all, but I think his "Thief" persona had become so much a part of him that he kind of lost without it. Of course, there is the tiny problem with how Irene would react to his sneaking around, but I think it would be good for him.

On a totally different note:
Where would Gen keep a War Elephant? I don't know, but this is how it would happen:

Gen (very innocently): Irene,dear, would you mind coming down to the courtyard for a moment, there's something I'd like to show you.

Irene: I don't trust you when you talk like that.

Gen: Just for a moment...Pleeaassee?

Irene: Well, I see your not going to leave me alone until I do.

Gen: Not a Chance.

*Walks down to the courtyard*

Irene:....Did you...No. You didn't...You couldn't have.

Gen: Yes. Yes I did.

Irene: What are we going to do with it?

Gen: How should I know?

Irene: *covers eyes* Well, What do you want ME to do with it?

Gen: I could bring it back....*smirk*

Irene: Don't you dare!

Gen: So, so, so, you DO want to keep it, eh?

Irene: Don't you dare go back there, I mean.

Gen: Of Course. *wink*

Irene: It is STILL not to late for you to end up chained to a wall.

Gen: Soooooo...Can we keep it?

Irene: *trying very hard not to laugh* I suppose...*sigh* my palace is turning into a circus.

[1221bookworm.livejournal.com]

You forgot the last part,

Gen: Your palace is not a circus, My Queen. My Cousin, who is Eddis, has a circus for a court. I think you have a zoo. You have a wonderful display of snakes and weasels, and now you have an elephant to add to your collection.

Irene: And what part do you play in all of this?

Gen: In Eddis, I play a dancing bear, which is quite appropriate for a circus ...

Irene: And in my court, you play the monkey.

Gen: I prefer to think I am a chameleon. I give your barons exactly what they want to see, and yet I never loose who I really am.

Irene: And what is that?

Gen: The Theif of Eddis, humbly serving you, My Queen.

Irene: *turns around and walks away from Gen and all his craziness*


(This was really cute, booksrgood4u!)

[booksrgood4u.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I really want to see a baby Gen or Irene soon.....

[1221bookworm.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday to Everyone!! :-)

There's definetly got to be children soon, otherwise the barons are going to start to get fractitious (and they have to stick together to beat the Medes)
AND I want to see them start to have a family, because it will be interesting to see how they start to raise their kids ... (I hope the books don't end when their just babies...) Gen will try to teach them all sorts of thiefy stuff, and Irene will try to put her foot down, and Gen and the kids will just get sneakier, and so on, and so on, and so on

And I don't think Gen is really sick, we would hear all about it if he really was (my this hurts, my that hurts). I think it is just his physicians trying to prove how well they take care of him. Though I like the idea that he's just acting that way to put the Medes off their guard ... perhaps make it look like he's kinda defeated because his health isn't what it used to be ...

Gen would take his war elephant to Eddis, and hide it there. Actually, he would ask his cousin who is Eddis to hide it, he would bring it to the border, and then let her figure out how to get it up the mountain.
Actually, he would want 2 elephants, so he could breed his own army of them. (Just make sure he doesn't learn about mating from the King of Siam in "The King and I" - Gen needs a male and female, not two males)

Thanks for the fun Checkers!

[brandy-painter.livejournal.com]

Yay for this truly marvelous group of people who share my crazy obsession!

My brain is well and truly mush from the festivities of the past few days and I am unable to form coherent thoughts regarding speculation. I do really hope to see little Attolian royals before everything is said and done.

[magicsandwiches.livejournal.com]

Just your post made me laugh laugh laugh.

Sandy.... Hahahahahaha.

[agh-4.livejournal.com]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I'm so glad you guys exist.

I also think that we'll eventually get to meet Sandy, although I seriously hope that Attolia doesn't catch her and do her worst. Maybe she'll experience a Costis-like enlightenment and be sent off with him to spy on the Medes (or whatever)...? The next book could very well be a thrilling tale of espionage and elephants, I'm sure. :S

I am interested to see how the whole moving-all-the-Eddisians thing works. It would be cool to get an Eddisian character's perspective on that. Also, I hope Nomenus and Sophos's slave friends come back.

YAY SOUNIS!

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

Also yesterday was the five year aniversary of the unveiling of the Costis letters conspiracy!

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

MAYBE Costis has been sent to get the war elephants.

[tiegirl.livejournal.com]

...Nahusersquish

[hazelwillow.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha excellent!

[ninedaysaqueen.livejournal.com]

Now, we know why Gen needs elephants!

XD

[hazelwillow.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Happy birthday Sounis!

Speculation? But of course!

I have to counter the popular desire on this thread, and say I want Gen and Irene to have kids, but only in the future, after the books are finished. Not now. If they suddenly became parents I think I would find it harder to relate to them.

Hypocritically, I kindof DO want Helen and Sophos to become parents. Because Sophos as a dad would just be the CUTEST THING EVER.

I believe Gen really is sick, because holding three countries together has got to wear down on you. But I don't think (i.e. I HOPE VERY STRONGLY) that his sickness isn't fatal, because I don't think he'd ever die of anything except a fall. And is sickness a fall? No, sickness is not a fall. I tell myself this often.

[agh-4.livejournal.com]

Oh, YES! Little baby bunny-foxlets. Yes.

[kelllie.livejournal.com]

Ooooohhhhh, ditto, ditto, ditto! Finally, someone who shares my speculative hopes!

Yes, kids... but far in the future. I agree that it would make it harder to relate to Gen and Irene if they were parents. Plus, I shudder to think what mwt could do to Gen if he had a beloved child, given the nastiness of his enemies and mwt's penchant for hurting her characters...

And YES -- on the other hand, I'd love to see Helen and Sophos as parents. Because Gen would be the COOLEST UNCLE EVER, teaching his niece or nephew all sorts of stealthy, thiefly skills...

And I also agree that Gen is truly sick. He is not complaining about himself (only about the physicians), which is very worrisome. I smell a plot device being planted for the next book. I, too, don't think it will be fatal, but it will be serious enough to keep us turning pages...

[theorangethief.livejournal.com]

I agree, I feel that baaaaaad things will happen in Gen and
Irene have kids soon but Sophos and Helen would make really cute parents.

You can't do anything bad to Sophos(therefore his kids) because as I believe Lady Jane said once "Betraying Sophos is like kicking puppies AND taking the last cookie" (or something to that affect) So I hope that mwt thinks that too!
Also as someone else said, Gen would make the most AWESOME uncle ever!

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Whew, I was worried I was the only one who does not want to see little Gen/Irene children any time soon. It would somehow change my way of thinking about Gen completely, though I'm not sure why.

Not sure about Gen being really sick or not. At first, I thought no, but he'll have to suffer in some way in the next book, right? He's been run through with a sword, then the chop-chop, then sliced in the gut, and thankfully, only at odds with his best friend in the last book. I suppose he and Attolia could have a horrible falling out and clash of wills, but I'd hate to see that happen. All couples have their bad times, but we all enjoy their romance so much.

[chubbyleng.livejournal.com]

YAH! I definitely agree. Most series that I've followed where the main characters had babies, all of a sudden they weren't too active in the plot anymore, 'cuz they were round taking care of babies. I want more Gen action, and Irene action!!!! I also don't think they're emotionally mature even in the last book yet for children. There are still so many things they need to work out in their relationship as husband and wife, without having the trouble of thinking about being parents as well.

I want to see something really big from Helen though.

No, sickness is not a fall. I tell myself this often.

Lol, well, he could always pull an Elizabeth Swann, and faint over a cliff because he's so sick, and therefore fall and crack his head.

Yeah, not a laughing matter.... but as soon as I comforted myself with thinking that a sickness is not a fall, this scene dashed all my hopes.

[hazelwillow.livejournal.com]

As for Costis....

Gen: Costis, I need you to steal me an elephant.

Costis: Oh my noble lord, you are insane.

Gen: I may be, but you still have an elephant to steal. Actually, let's make it a bunch of elephants. Yes. So hop to it, eh? I have a lot of things to do. Toodloo!

Costis: (despairingly) Why does he *always* ask the impossible?

Gen: (from around the corner) Don't mutter about impossibilities! I've already stolen a magus, a queen, and three countries!

Costis: Countries...don't make noise!

Gen: (smugly) Of course they do! They contain millions of people.

Costis: It's not a fair comparison at all! Countries are conceptual entities! That's not the same as LARGE MAMMALS, capable of BREAKING THINGS SIMPLY BY STEPPING ON THEM.

Gen: That's why I need you to steal one! Also because I think they're dashing. Don't you think elephants are dashing?

Costis: (into his hands) How am I supposed to do this?

Gen: Have you tried prayer?

[booksrgood4u.livejournal.com]

This was hilarious!
I love the part where Costis says "Countries don't make any noise!"

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

I actually wonder, mostly seriously, if it might be the Medes who offend the gods. Not an aspect I had considered before, but very interesting.

*pictures Costis on an elephant*

Well, it just so happens that....

[creative-lefty2.livejournal.com]

Remember that school assignment I asked you guys for help on a couple of weeks ago? Well, it included making up the next book in a series and writing a brief summary of it. Here's my guess of what the next book will be about!

Costis was once the King’s favored guard. At the end of the third book in Megan Whalen Turner’s the Queen’s Thief series Costis had given his loyalty to Eugenedies, the King of Attolia and the disreputable former Thief of Eddis.
Months of private lessons in sword play, foreign language, politics, and lock picking should have led to something greater than disgrace and exile. Costis is unsure of what he has done to deserve this. Eugenedies’ excuses are vague and the rumors are rampant. No longer welcome in the three countries Eugenedies rules over, Costis finds his way to Medea, a greedy empire that desperately wants to take over Attolia, Sounis, and Eddis.
Embittered and confused but desperate to regain his honor, his king, and his home, Costis sets out to find a way to gather information about the Medes. It’s a dangerous job: more than one Attolian spy has been caught and tortured by the Medes.
Unexpectedly, Costis gets a job in the home of an important army captain. While scrubbing the floor and polishing the silver, Costis gathers information about troops, the Emperor’s health, the hierarchy within the Mede court, and anything else he thinks sounds useful. And then there is the old woman, Moira, who takes a specially interest in Costis, and who may be more than she seems, who directs Costis towards the most oppressed citizens of the Mede Empire.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Middle Sea, things are not going as well as they could. The Continent persists in ignoring Attolia’s warning about the impending attack from the Medes. A volcano may erupt and wipe out the country of Eddis at any time. Eugenedies is trying to hide his declining health. And Costis is missing.
But of course, Eugenedies always has a plan….Surely….Hopefully…


Or, here's my version of what would be on the front flap of the book (because I think it sounds better):
The Continent persists in ignoring Eugenedies’, the King of Attolia, warning about the impending attack from the Mede Empire. A volcano may erupt and wipe out the neighboring country of Eddis. Eugenedies is trying to hide his declining health. And Costis is missing.
Costis was once the king’s favored guard. His pet. His confidante. His student. But now Costis has been inexplicably exiled, and the only place he can go is to the ruthless Mede Empire. Costis wants to believe that the whole affair is yet another of Eugenedies’ brilliantly subtle plans. But Costis has also seen his king destroy men with a single word. Embittered and confused but desperate to regain his honor, his king, and his home, Costis sets out to gather information about the Medes. In the process, he begins to see that his people are not the only ones struggling against the empire.


So yes, I think the book will follow Costis because his story was kind of abandoned before it even ended. And maybe it will include stealing an elephant! And no babies, yet. We have to remember that these are YA books, and therefore we have to be able to identify with the characters. Maybe babies in the last one?

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

No speculation here, since I know that if I do guess I'll be completely wrong.

However, I would dearly love to see Checkers wearing both the Mod Hat and the Reprobate Wrangler Boots at the same time.

(This for some reason reminds me of one of my college roommates, who had a red dress that she called the Red Dress of Grievances.) (Also a necklace she called the Pearls of Wisdom).

[emerald-happy.livejournal.com]

Oh oh she could wear the Mod Hat and the Wrangler Boots and the fake red beard all together!