Gen the Manipulator

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

In a moment of weakness *, I pulled out my copy of KoA and was reading the part where Costis and Teleus come storming into the garden as the assassins attack Eugenides.  I read through to the end of chapter 8, where Gen finally allows Petrus the Timid to get on with his stitches.  And something occured to me.

Ok, actually I was driving to work the next day when the (very small and probably energy-saving; you know, the kind that you can hardly even read by) light bulb came on over my head.

• Gen is a master manipulator.  He's usually several steps ahead of everyone and, although he can be extremely impulsive, seldom does anything without a Really Good Reason.  Sometimes the reason is just to annoy, but often it's to keep himself out of trouble.


• Just after he's injured, he says he's going back to the palace to make his "groveling apologies to the queen."  He must have promised her he'd be super-careful and, in his attempt to find some peace and quiet, he didn't have the gardens searched.  Anyway, he sounds as if he's worried that she's going to be angry.  Maybe even Attolia Angry.


• We all know how Gen often reacts, physically, to Irene's presence.  She touches his cheek, he flinches. She cups his chin, he gulps. When Gen is back in the palace and Irene rushes in, he doesn't even look up. But he must have heard her coming. She touches him and he leaps back like a startled deer.


• She feels guilty, per usual.


• He kisses her and she doesn't seem angry, only concerned and upset.

Do you think, just maybe, he exaggerated his surprise at her touch, just to get a little sympathy and divert her anger?  Or is that beyond even the sneakiness of Gen?  After all, he did have a lot on his mind, poor guy.




*I've been trying really, really hard NOT to reread the books.  "Self," I've said to myself, "you have to stop reading them for awhile or you'll have them all memorized and they won't be fun and you'll wear them out and won't want to read them anymore.  So just stop."  But I don't always listen to myself.  Does this happen to you?  Have you ever worn out a book you loved? 

Comments

[silverflight8.livejournal.com]

I agree entirely regarding masks off.