The Lachrymose Wedding (hey, wouldn't that make a great opera?)

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

I'm going to try doing a cut-in post so I don't hog the page. Thanks to Checkers for sending me the link for the directions. Let's see how badly I can botch them up.



How I doubt that it happened:

Eugenides and Irene, married, alone together at last.

Gen and Irene: "Alone at last!"
Gen: "The Guard should be reduced by half."
Irene: (flings jar of ink at his head)
Gen: (ducks)
Irene: (looks at Gen)
Gen: (looks at Irene)
Irene and Gen: "Waaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

More likely (to me, at least):

Irene and Gen are lying asleep. It is the dog watch of the night, a bad time for those haunted by nightmares.

Gen: (having a nightmare). "Please don't hurt me anymore. Please." (Cries in breathless, racking sobs that go on and on).
Irene: (Wakes up. Hears Gen's sobs. Recognizes them. Realizes what he's dreaming about. Wracked with guilt). "Wake up! It's all right. You're safe." (Remembers that, safe or not, he's lacking an arm because of her. Cries.)

Now, it may seem odd for me to think that she'd be able to speak of a scene like that to Relius in amusement and say (amusingly), "We were very lachrymose." However, since both the king and queen have very strange senses of humor, I would imagine further that at some point they both started to think it was rather funny that they're lying there on their wedding night sobbing their eyes out.

Okay, let's see if this works.

Leslie, delighted that LJ is working again

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Hmm, I had imagined that at least some of these were happy tears, as in "Wow, no one has ever loved me in my life before, and now I'm married to this man who loves me,and it's so nice, waah!" and "I've been dreaming about her for years and years, and all my dreams have come true, and its's all so beautiful, waaah!" That would be funnier to remember afterwards. But I can't help thinking there was at least a moment of Irene crying over the lost hand -- if only to fit in with my theory about what Gen said to Dite in the garden!
-Philia

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

Maybe it was both. Lying there, crying; then realizing how funny it is to be lying there crying; then both being so happy finally to have each other that they both start crying again. Now that *would* be cause to be able to report it with amusement.

Leslie

[(Anonymous)]

I totally agree :)

~Feir Dearig

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe it was both. Lying there, crying; then realizing how funny it is to be lying there crying; then both being so happy finally to have each other that they both start crying again. Now that *would* be cause to be able to report it with amusement.
I agree with you. I think their emotions and reasons for crying changed during the night. There was so much pain and tragedy between Gen and Irene and they don't really know how to deal with it. They cried because they were afraid, because they were together, and because they loved each other.

[ceecee44.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I forgot to login

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Lovely LJ cut.

Perhaps some tears of relief, too. They were finally together after so much pressure and antipathy from barons, attendants, fathers, pretty much everyone. Maybe the inkpot being thrown triggered something; anger then tears, remorse,...wedding night stuff.

We asked Megan this once and she said something like you already know why they cried. She's in love with someone whose hand she cut off. He's in love with someone whose throne he usurped. There's this sentence in the prologue:

"Today she had yielded the sovereignty of her country to Eugenides, who had given up everything he had ever hoped for, to be her king."

What in the heck is wrong with LJ today??

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

I don't know what's wrong, but it's been driving me nuts all day (I'm on Central European Time, so while all y'all Stateside were sleeping peacefully, I was frantically trying to get LJ to load, and nearly weeping with frustration (which, to keep this on topic, is presumably not why either Gen or Irene was crying).

Leslie

(I don't know if this isn't posting because I'm doing something wrong, or because LJ is all weird)

[jade-sabre-301.livejournal.com]

so while all y'all Stateside were sleeping peacefully, I was frantically trying to get LJ to load, and nearly weeping with frustration

...I was doing the same thing. But that's because it was a Friday night/Saturday morning, and I'm a college student, so I love me some weird hours. ^_^

[rowana.livejournal.com]

LJ deleted my comment the first time I posted it. :( Clearly, it hates us all.

Interesting idea, Leslie. I think that precisely because the scene is so incredibly poignant to imagine, only Megan could do it justice (I know we said we weren't going to mention a director's cut anymore, but...). I think you and Checkers have the basic outline right though, I love the idea of Gen waking up from a bad dream, as he does later on in the book.

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

Another thought: Attolia's wrong. He didn't give up everything he had ever hoped for to be her king, because one of the main things he had hoped for was *her*.

Leslie

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know. I don't entirely like the nightmare idea. I like to think the nightmares in the book were triggered by the assassination attempt, and that Irene hadn't coped with them before, though I'm sure she wasn't exactly surprised. It's that "moment of gripped immobility" that makes me think this is not something they do every night -- like maybe she's been expecting this, but it hasn't happened before. I think they would have enough to cry about without nightmares -- the happy thing, as I said, but just the high emotion of the whole situation. And they both spend practically every waking moment hiding their emotions -- imagine what a flood is waiting to be released (like the waters of the Hamiathes reservoir) when they are alone and free to express their feelings.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Very well said. And Eugenides doesn't cry with nightmares, he screams his head off. :)

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

The screaming nightmare and "gripped immobility" moment comes after he's basically admitted he was dreaming she was making him blind, deaf, and mute, as she had once threatened to do and wanted him to hear that she had threatened to do.

I was thinking that the scene I described was more along the lines of a remembering-what-happened nightmare (which is why I borrowed the exact words Attolia used when she was telling Eugendes she listened outside his cell while he cried).

So the "gripped immobility" could be because she realizes that she's got to deal not with pain and regret from something that happened in the past, but that Gen, if only subconsciously, still fears what she might do to him. We're shown in QoA that she knows then that she does scare him (the scenes where she touches his face and in varying degrees he flinches), but she might have thought that a couple of months of marriage and closeness had cured that - and now realizes it hadn't. That could explain the immobility.

She wouldn't be able to do much about the remembering-nightmare because it really did happen, and no kind of apology could undo it. The fear-of-something-that-might-happen nightmare can be dealt with to an extent by reassurances (and is... beautifully... sigh................. )

Leslie

Errata (doesn't that sound like another kingdom?)

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

errr - that should be the words used in the book when Attolia told Eugenides she had heard him cry, not her actual words. And, now that I look at my original post - lacking a hand because of her, not an arm.

Leslie

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

I agree with checkers - well said! I like the Hamiathes reservoir analogy. I thought Gen's nightmare was triggered by the fight he had with Attolia though, over Teleus' release, taking him back (probably subconsciously) to a time when he was not sure if she loved him or not.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, I meant that, really, not so much the actual assassination attempt as the aftermath -- though I'm sure being seriously wounded, feverish, etc. played a part.
-Philia

[jyms.livejournal.com]

as for the wedding night, i was thinking more of what they were feeling. they went through so much, did so many (nasty) things to each other, and then they're in the same room, thinking 'wait a moment, i'm married to you, and i love you?' they probably had a lot of conflicting emotions, so...*inkpot flies*, *start crying*, and well...

i really like Attolia's sense of humour.

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

Oh, Iike her sense of humor, too. "Strange" wasn't intended as an insult. Coming from me, that, and "warped," and "twisted," are all high praise. :) I nearly fall over laughing every time I read the bit where she offers him her wine and says, "Take mine."

Leslie

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, although that's partly Eugenides's sense of humor -- since she knows he's the only one who's going to find it funny. My favorite moment like this was in QoA, though, the "You have any mistresses and I'll cut your other hand off" line. Every time I read that, doesn't matter if it's the 10th rereading, my jaw drops, and I can FEEL the appalled silence in the room until Eugenides laughs.
(By the way, that was me before, the "Hamiathes Reservoir" post -- I could swear I left my name,but it doesn't seem to be there.)
I still vote for no nightmare on the wedding night -- but the beauty of the thing, as we keep reminding ourselves, is that it can be whatever works in your own imagination.
-Philia

[rain-ing.livejournal.com]

OH YES. lj was being disgusting yesterday night (for me). probably the equivalent of my internet crashing, since its the first site i access every day. after discovering i could access every other internet site, i realised it was probably lj malfunctioning and not my entire internet crashing:(

and i agree with some comments above, that he doesnt cry during nightmares. all he has ever done when having a nightmare is scream, but i agree with your point about her crying after that. it makes some sense. and the nightmare bit sans the crying.

and im just guessing that the inkpot incident probably has to do with eugenides insulting teleus, and attolia being all helpless when it comes to him when they are alone (it was mentioned once when she was climbing up stairs in QoA), coupled with all her conflicting emotions, cannot do anything other than to throw ink pots at him. great stuff :D

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

As I reread - again - the books, I can't help noticing something that fits in with Rain's final paragraph.

Attolia is stone-faced, and cold, and always in control (just look at how she deals with the Medean ambassador). She executes people, but I get the impression that she does that sort of coldly and methodically, not in a temper. In QofA, after Eugenides returns to Eddis and is talking to his queen, he says, "You're not upsetting me. It's good to see you storming around. She [Attolia] doesn't storm... When she's angry, she sits, and when she's sad, she sits. If she was ever happy, she'd just sit, I think."

Except that all it takes is for Eugenides to show up and all her self control goes flying out the window. She slams doors (something she hasn't done since she was an unimportant princess), she slaps him, she's ready personally to knife him, she yells and storms out of rooms - you can probably think of a few more examples yourself.

I'd say he was doing a pretty good job of getting past her guard, and I don't mean the Queen's Guard!

And, apropos of not much, I just finished The Thief, and loved how all it takes is for Gen to smile at the barmaid or at the owner of the inn and they're giving him extra food and spoiling him rotten...

[mycenaeth.livejournal.com]

Not to be dirty minded or anything, but I think some of that frustration is physical too. Attolia's finally found a man she loves, who loves her back. On her wedding night she, like most brides, probably wants everything to be perfect. After all the tension leading up to the marriage/wedding, that should be the one time they can just be themselves, in the privacy of their chambers. It's no longer about politics or appearances in front of the court, it's about her and Eugenides making a life together as husband and wife. And in the midst of all those emotions, the one moment they should be happiest, she has to look at his missing hand, that *she* cut off, and he's not perfect because she made him imperfect. He can't touch her with that hand ever again and in my mind, the situation is something where he holds her, for maybe the first time he can really embrace her and kiss her, and she realizes she wants him to be the one to hold her and embrace her and touch her, but he only has one hand to do that with.

Could you imagine them trying to cuddle, and she keeps getting poked by a metal hook where his hand used to be? That would ruin the mood I would think! Maybe their conversation goes something like this: (Cheesy non-creative dialogue included)

*Eugenides has his arms around her and she gets poked by his hook. She gasps and looks at that cold piece of steel where his hand should be and apologizes, with tears in her eyes*
Eugenides: "It's okay, it doesn't hurt anymore. Look, see? I took the hook off so it can't poke you again. Now let me show you how much you mean to me."
Attolia: "No, it's *not* okay! I CUT YOUR HAND OFF! I can never forgive myself for that."
Eugenides: "No really, I'm okay with it now" *lying* "You can cut the other one off too! Really!" *typically irritating and tactless thing for Gen to say when he's trying to make light of something that secretely bothers him*
Attolia: *Sees that he's lying, throws inkpot*
*both stare at each other and Attolia's crying and then Eugenides starts crying watching her cry and they fall into each other's arms and sniffle for a bit*

Then they realize they have each other and that's what really matters. That somehow in their whole crazy political world, with people trying alternately to kill them and hang them upside down on the palace walls, they managed to find true love. And that thought takes them past all the hurt and pain. They have a FUTURE. Maybe for the first time ever, they feel everything will be alright because they will get through it together. And that is a happy thought. That's a thought worth losing a hand for. It's only a hand, right?

Just a blown-out-of-proportion fantasy about what I think their wedding night *could have* been like.

Though I don't think Gen would have had his hook on for the wedding ceremony... So I don't really know if that's feasible. Though I suppose getting poked with a fake wooden hand is just as disturbing. I don't have the book with me though, so I can't look up if it says anything to hint as to what he was wearing either way.

*hums and wanders off again*

~ Mycenaeth

[(Anonymous)]

OR, while Attolia is wanting everything to be perfect and alone-at-last-y with them, Eugenides chooses this moment to bring up reducing the guard. That would be a pretty good reason to throw an inkpot. And typical of our hero, I think. But yes, I also had envisioned some sadness about him never being able to touch her with his right hand.
-Philia

[estarria.livejournal.com]

You know, I just read that quote from QoA about the queen sitting when she was angry or sad, and you (aged_crone) make a good point about Eugenides causing the queen to lose her temper often. :) I was thinking also about that part in KoA where the queen is sitting..."He knew that the stillness was as close as she could come to peace, and he offered it to her." (something like that, I can't find the exact quote...) Anyway, it's kind of neat that at first, her reactions bothered him, but now he understands that aspect of her personality.

Maybe Eugenides wasn't wearing the hook or the hand on their wedding night. It might be a pain to have an inflexible dead weight attached to one's wrist like that.

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

..."He knew that the stillness was as close as she could come to peace, and he offered it to her." (something like that, I can't find the exact quote...) Anyway, it's kind of neat that at first, her reactions bothered him, but now he understands that aspect of her personality.

Very good observation!

[(Anonymous)]

I always like the bit where he says something like, "If she were ever happy, I think she'd just sit." Then, on the last page, when he calls her "My Queen," she...just sits.
-Philia

[estarria.livejournal.com]

How funny! :) I never thought about that.