Introduction and Questions!

[intangible-muse.livejournal.com]

Hello! I've been a fan of the series for a while and have been lurking around Sounis for some period of time now. After re-reading the series, I have some questions I was itching to ask, so I decided to finally post!

The questions I have are regarding KOA and I have three of them.
1. Gen's kiss to Relius when he brings Attolia to the infirmary always puzzled me. The dialogue and description of Gen saying, "Jealous?" then giving a kiss on the cheek to Relius without smiling was confusing to me. I don't know if he's subtly mentioning the crush Relius might have on Attolia, but the fact that MWT carefully mentioned that he wasn't smiling doesn't make sense. Thoughts?

2. I've always thought that the myths (or stories) that are told within the books (the ones told by Eddis and Phresine) add to the theme or reveal something we don't already know, but they don't seems to (the one in KOA especially). Am I overthinking it or maybe missing something? :)

3. This one has been bugging me incessantly for a while: why is Baron Susa so interested in whether Gen is homesick?

Comments

[intangible-muse.livejournal.com]

I've always seen it as Relius having a crush on Irene, but what you both are saying makes a lot of sense too. Relius does mention that he is constantly surprised with Gen and is glad that Irene shares her genuine (ha, no pun intended) smiles with Gen. I guess it could be seen as Relius "falling in love" with Gen, so to say.

I also just realized that with the smiling comment, he seems to ship Gen with Irene :P

[(Anonymous)]

Really? I think I need a reread! (An excuse)

I interpreted it as he was glad that he was privileged enough to see the smile that the king saw.

[intangible-muse.livejournal.com]

Haha, you never need an excuse to reread!

Here's the quote in question: "The smile she so often hid in her voice came to her face then. It was a smile Relius had been privileged to see before. He knew he shared that privilege with few others. It pleased him deeply to know that one of those others was the king."
I always read it as he is realizing that Attolia loves Gen and vice versa. At the beginning of KOA, he thought that it was a marriage Attolia had been forced into and talked to her about limiting Gen's power, but during his talk with Attolia here, we see that he has realized Gen became king because he wanted to marry Attolia (instead of wanting power). In that sense, it seemed to me that he was saying here that he is glad that Attolia has found someone she loves.
But then, with MWT's writing, there are many layers and many ways to interpret it, so you never know! :)