Gen's Health
Mar. 29th, 2015 10:33 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
moonumb9.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
queensthiefHello! I am new to the queen's thief series, I just finished CoK last week. I noticed how you guys answered each others questions and I decided to ask my question here. Did anyone notice how everyone keeps talking about Eugenides's health? I don't know if its just something I didn't understand, but in King of Attolia Ornon says to the queen that Gen's health is not as it used to be before. Then again in Conspiracy of Kings Gen keeps saying that the two physicians keep fussing over him. I don't understand why they would be doing that if there isn't something happening to Gen. Anyone knows?
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Date: 3/29/15 08:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 3/30/15 06:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 3/29/15 08:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 3/30/15 01:40 am (UTC)Then again, he may really be ill, but that doesn't mean he won't recover. Of course, he is mortal, and maybe the gods will abandon him entirely, but I don't know. I think he has to at least produce an heir and/or mentor a new Thief, but perhaps he won't get the chance. I hope not. I doubt it. But anything is possible in this story.
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Date: 3/30/15 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 3/30/15 06:08 pm (UTC)Then again, Gen is tricksy. I recall Eddis pondering the fact that one only had to be really concerned about Gen when he WASN'T complaining. And Costis witnesses how Gen makes a big noise about his injuries after the assassins-in-the-garden incident, in an effort to downplay whole affair by rendering himself ridiculous and pulling a kind of perverse reverse-psychology over the collective heads of his entire court.
In other words, caring for Gen is a full-time job. I'd even go so far as to call it one of the main themes running throughout the series. :)
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Date: 3/30/15 06:59 pm (UTC)Lol. Thank you for that. I was looking for words to describe exactly what happened.
Date: 5/5/17 05:10 pm (UTC)I love this:
***"an effort to downplay whole affair by rendering himself ridiculous and pulling a kind of perverse reverse-psychology over the collective heads of his entire court."*****
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Date: 3/30/15 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 3/29/15 08:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 3/30/15 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 3/30/15 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 4/3/15 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 3/30/15 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 5/2/15 05:09 am (UTC)Wow. that is brilliant. What an incredible insight...
Date: 5/5/17 05:11 pm (UTC)Re: Wow. that is brilliant. What an incredible insight...
Date: 5/5/17 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 3/30/15 11:44 pm (UTC)Ornon - "His constitution/health has not been as strong since -"
Attolia - "Since I cut off his hand."
Ornon - "Since you cut off his hand.
Neither of them would mince matters.
And anyway, I've always kind of worried about Gen's reign and the length of it. When he's drunk, balancing on the parapets, and lecturing Costis (a GREAT scene, by the way), Gen starts quoting a few poets. In one of them, the gods are telling some king that, for him alone, the winds of whoever rules won't shift (I clearly do not have the book in front of me to quote). Obviously, Gen isn't immortal and isn't going to rule forever, but when I read this, I was worried that it might mean his rule is going to be shorter than I would LIKE for it to be.
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Date: 3/31/15 03:02 am (UTC)I'm pretty sure Gen's illness is mostly his nightmares and effects of the amputation.
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Date: 3/31/15 06:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 3/31/15 06:39 am (UTC)I didn't notice that quote. Hopefully the series won't end with Gen's death.
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Date: 3/31/15 03:42 pm (UTC)#isindenial
#Genwontdie
#Notyet
#Hestillneedstostealalltheelephants
#HesStillababy
#Notreallybut
#omgtragicend
#hesgonnafall
#ItsSinkingin
#OhNo
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Date: 3/31/15 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 3/31/15 11:06 pm (UTC)GUYS REMEMBER THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL GEN WILL EVER BE "SAFELY DEAD!"
When all else fails, I like to remember that.
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Date: 4/1/15 02:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 4/2/15 03:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 4/2/15 03:25 pm (UTC)#SayNoToAllegientEndings
#NotThatKindOfBookMegan
#TakeTheDogInstead
#StepAwayFromTheEdge
#PullYouselfTogether
#PoorConstitutionsAintNoThing
#WhatWouldCostisDoWithoutYou
#LighteningBoltsAreOverrated
#ThisIsGettingSoRandom
#ThisIsNowAThing
Glad I got that out of my system. :)
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Date: 4/2/15 03:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 4/1/15 12:09 am (UTC)I don't want to think about the possibility of Eugenides dying. It's not ok.
Also somewhat worried...
Date: 4/1/15 12:28 am (UTC)Second - yeah, I have my worries about Gen also. I hadn't thought of it being possibly a ploy to confuse the Mede - and I wouldn't put it past Gen to try such a thing - but on the whole, if Ornon and Attolia are worrying about it... Let's just say I really hope we get an explanation, and a good one, soon.
I think it is pretty plausible that Gen's not very well off health-wise. In each of the first three books he's gotten fairly badly hurt and been sick for a while. It makes sense that that would have an effect on him.
If anything happens to him it will be by falling, though. But I think he said that his grandfather died falling down a flight of stairs when he was old and couldn't walk well, so it could be a fall caused by other ill health...
I get worried sometimes because MWT likes (and references) Rosemary Sutcliff. Talk about books that kill off beloved characters... But here's hoping all is well!
Re: Also somewhat worried...
Date: 4/1/15 02:04 pm (UTC)Re: Also somewhat worried...
Date: 4/2/15 06:17 pm (UTC)Re: Also somewhat worried...
Date: 4/2/15 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 4/3/15 01:47 am (UTC)There was an old post about this some time ago, and I think it ended on a more optimistic note (wasn't there some comment by someone who said that Gen's going to die really old with 97 grandchildren or something?), but reading through the comments here...
I'm just going to assume that the long wait for the next book has gotten all of us a little on the edge. Here's to hoping that Gen doesn't die either. Better not pull a Sanderson here (another brilliant author way too fond of killing main characters).
I'm actually more willing to see a vague ending where it's not clear whether Gen dies or not, because at least I can appease my more wishful side by imagining that he is still alive.
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Date: 4/5/15 04:15 am (UTC)I am inclined to agree with the people who think that Gen's health is a real thing (in that he's not faking an illness). I really don't see him hiding it from Attolia, unless this is a trick that both of them are playing on everyone else. In that case, I would expect Sophos and Eddis to be in on it too. At this point, if it ends up being a facade, I think I'd just be annoyed rather than impressed. I get that Gen needs to be his brilliant self, but at least let your intimate friends, who have sacrificed pretty much everything for you, know what's up.
The only thing that confuses me (and this could be used as an argument for the "fake sickness" idea) is that excluding the time when he's sitting in his chair and being seen by physicians....he's actually healthy. He can fight. We know he practices, and we know he can hold his own. So he's in good physical shape and is getting exercise. He's getting food. It's been a long time since his hand was chopped off. It's even been awhile since the assassination attempt. I would think that between the exercise, the food, fresh air, his not uncomfortable living situation (he has access to the best of everything), his devoted wife, and the physicians, he'd be healthy. I get the idea of a weak immune system, but exercise, food, and fresh air really do go a long way...by the time ACoK rolls around, surely he's healthy....
I feel really bad for saying this...but if he's not faking his illness and he's actually sick, I'm not sure I could stand to be his wife xD I'd be so pissed if the person I married was ill and then continually went out to over-imbibe alcohol, waltz across the palace roof, and just in general went out to put himself in unnecessarily dangerous situations. How does Attolia put up with this? As far as husband material goes...I'm definitely a Sophos fan...(but of course I adore gen)
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Date: 4/5/15 04:54 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 4/6/15 01:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 5/19/15 04:41 am (UTC)My theory is that Gen takes a bit longer to recover than most young men because his health has been broken again and again. I think the point in mentioning the two physicians fussing over him is to show that those who know him personally inevitably end up worshiping him, regardless of his treatment of them. As evidenced by his attendants in ACoK.
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Date: 5/19/15 06:06 am (UTC)