Wow manderelee and frosted_feather this is such a prodigious discussion! Thank you for your fantastic insights on Attolia's wrath about the possibly reducing the guard.
I think the totality of her anger comes from a number of places.
There's this one heartbreaking part in KOA where MWT describes how the "embattled queen" takes great comfort, as if it is her only comfort, in how loyal her guard and soldiers are, not to her, but TO THEIR PAY, even though as a result her treasury is nearly empty. It makes me so sad for Irene because it describes how she knows she has nobody to protect her in the world unless she pays them. Although money can't buy love/friendship, it can buy something that vaguely resembles it. She clings to inauthentic loyalty because she's never experienced authentic loyalty... except in Relius and Teleus but I don't think anyone really knows how deep their feelings are for each other until Eugenides helps them all realize it.
Attolia is very aware of how vulnerable she has been and her gradual loss of her old control of things is happening in a good way through Eugenides but she fears that the loss of control is happening in a bad way, and that's why she reacts so strongly to anything that threatens her precarious sense of control over her surroundings.
If I remember correctly, before Eugenides came along and started chiseling away at the walls around her heart and getting "her entire palace up in arms and her entire court in chaos" just as Helen said he would (QOA p. 343), none of her court or staff or attendants had ever even seen Attolia angry. "Phresine had never seen the queen lose her temper..." (QOA p. 198) There's even a part where her youngest attendant Chloe, naive to the nature of transcendent relationships, despairs, "Why does she stay with him when he makes her SO angry???"
She spends a lot of KOA hysterically, violently angry at Eugenides, for all to see, a HUGE contrast to how she presented herself publicly in QOA.
Irene is angry because she is so afraid and Eugenides brings up her fears one after another to be faced and danced with until they are nothing but dust. And one of the ways he brings up her fear of losing control is by reducing the guard-- because he sees that their loyalty is not really to her, but to their pay, and he knows that she deserves better. And he makes sure to KEEP the love and loyalty that IS real and authentic in her life, by pardoning Teleus and Relius. And she is so angry because this loss of the facade of loyalty and protection are what she is most afraid of even if it means clearing a space so authentic loyalty and protection can replace them...
In this slow, arduous, painfully conflicting process, MWT paints so magnificently the real learning curve that precedes trust for an individual who's lived a lifetime never having known it. There's so much angst in how Irene is wrought with guilt over having hurt Eugenides, physically cut off his hand and destroyed his constitution and yet she's so overpowered by her own fear that she physically hurts him again by striking him that first time he undermines her power in public, showing that in addition to being triggered by the thought of losing half the guard, she is triggered by the thought of losing half her sovereign power.
Also, it's not the main reason for it, but like frosted_feather said, "she made the guard what it is." Maybe it's not a masterpiece, but with all the strategic promotions and demotions, she does take pride in how she molded the guard into the only well-oiled machine she has amidst the other disasters that surround her.
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Attolia's Anger at Gen's Request to Reduce the Guard
Date: 5/6/17 04:11 pm (UTC)I think the totality of her anger comes from a number of places.
There's this one heartbreaking part in KOA where MWT describes how the "embattled queen" takes great comfort, as if it is her only comfort, in how loyal her guard and soldiers are, not to her, but TO THEIR PAY, even though as a result her treasury is nearly empty. It makes me so sad for Irene because it describes how she knows she has nobody to protect her in the world unless she pays them. Although money can't buy love/friendship, it can buy something that vaguely resembles it. She clings to inauthentic loyalty because she's never experienced authentic loyalty... except in Relius and Teleus but I don't think anyone really knows how deep their feelings are for each other until Eugenides helps them all realize it.
Attolia is very aware of how vulnerable she has been and her gradual loss of her old control of things is happening in a good way through Eugenides but she fears that the loss of control is happening in a bad way, and that's why she reacts so strongly to anything that threatens her precarious sense of control over her surroundings.
If I remember correctly, before Eugenides came along and started chiseling away at the walls around her heart and getting "her entire palace up in arms and her entire court in chaos" just as Helen said he would (QOA p. 343), none of her court or staff or attendants had ever even seen Attolia angry. "Phresine had never seen the queen lose her temper..." (QOA p. 198) There's even a part where her youngest attendant Chloe, naive to the nature of transcendent relationships, despairs, "Why does she stay with him when he makes her SO angry???"
She spends a lot of KOA hysterically, violently angry at Eugenides, for all to see, a HUGE contrast to how she presented herself publicly in QOA.
Irene is angry because she is so afraid and Eugenides brings up her fears one after another to be faced and danced with until they are nothing but dust. And one of the ways he brings up her fear of losing control is by reducing the guard-- because he sees that their loyalty is not really to her, but to their pay, and he knows that she deserves better. And he makes sure to KEEP the love and loyalty that IS real and authentic in her life, by pardoning Teleus and Relius. And she is so angry because this loss of the facade of loyalty and protection are what she is most afraid of even if it means clearing a space so authentic loyalty and protection can replace them...
In this slow, arduous, painfully conflicting process, MWT paints so magnificently the real learning curve that precedes trust for an individual who's lived a lifetime never having known it. There's so much angst in how Irene is wrought with guilt over having hurt Eugenides, physically cut off his hand and destroyed his constitution and yet she's so overpowered by her own fear that she physically hurts him again by striking him that first time he undermines her power in public, showing that in addition to being triggered by the thought of losing half the guard, she is triggered by the thought of losing half her sovereign power.
Also, it's not the main reason for it, but like frosted_feather said, "she made the guard what it is." Maybe it's not a masterpiece, but with all the strategic promotions and demotions, she does take pride in how she molded the guard into the only well-oiled machine she has amidst the other disasters that surround her.