Theories and speculation
I've been thinking a lot about Finn and Giles, and I wanted to share my theories and speculations here. After careful consideration, I don't think Finn is mashed potatoes, I think he really is Giles. First of all, the timeframe-how could Giles have died so quickly and then been reassembled into something that's made up of 99% Giles, anyway, and then still had enough time to live in the Prison for so long? Especially since he woke up in the cells Claudia wound up in when she entered Incarceron through the Portal.
Not only that, but why would he have such vivid memories of Giles' life when other Prison-born characters-like Keiro-don't have any memories other than their own?
But the biggest reason for this comes from a very convincing Q&A off Catherine's website:
Q: In the book incarceron, Keiro could not leave the prison with the key because he is part of incarceron. I don't know where I read this but some where in the first book it said that incarceron uses the bodies of the deceased and creates new prisoners/people. If this is the case, that means Finn must have came from the outside world since he is able to leave with the key. In the second book though when Claudia asked the warden if Finn really is prince Giles, he doesn't give her a real answer. But he would have to be prince Giles to have been able to leave the prison with the key included. This leaves me thinking that Finn is prince Giles since he also remembers being the prince and has that symbol on his wrist which only prince Giles had.
A: OK I give in..... no wait. Keiro can't leave because he had metallic parts. Finn doesn't. So maybe he isn't Giles......? Can I get away with that?
AHH, BUT that's not actually what it says in the book, BECAUSE in Sapphique Keiro says that the reason Incarceron needs the Glove of Sapphique to Escape in its new body is because the Keys-which Incarceron already had, and could have used if it was possible-won't let anything that has been made by Incarceron out. If metal was the only stipulation, Incarceron could have used only organic parts on its special body and then been able to use the Key. Because, after all, if Finn had been Prison-born, he managed to escape with the Key, which would have meant he was made of only organic materials-why would the Prison have been able to do that for Finn and not for itself? Clearly, the Key won't work on anything made by the Prison, which means that Finn was not made by the Prison.
The reason Claudia was able to Escape with the Key is because she was born naturally, even though her parents were Prisoners. Finn, though, would have had to have been a Prison-born person who was assembled and spat out fully matured, because he's only been around for 2-3 years. Therefore, the Key shouldn't have worked on him-unless he was always Giles, and he entered the Prison with his memories erased by some kind of drug, just like Claudia and Jared originally theorized.
I think Catherine kind of came to this conclusion herself, because when she answered a later question, she said,
Q: You can't tell me no or leave me hanging. Because I know, Finn HAS to be Giles. Just admit it!! Please?
A: I think maybe he is but I never actually made up my mind. The only person who really knows is the Warden. and he would just smile acidly and say "My dear, that is my business, and not yours...."
She might have gone into it thinking, "I'm not sure which way I want this to go, so I'll leave it ambiguous," but, without realizing it, she trapped herself into only one possible outcome: Finn is Giles.
And as for Finn's seizures... I know Finn thought that if he got his memories as Giles back, they'd go away, and the fact that they didn't made him doubt whether he was really Giles; I hate to break this to him, but the real world doesn't work that way. Obviously, whatever drug they gave him to erase his memories had the side effect of giving him epilepsy. It's like if you had a head injury that caused both memory loss and epilepsy-even if you manage to recover all or part of your memories, that's not going to make the epilepsy go away. They may have been caused by the same thing, but they're not mutually exclusive. Sorry, Finn. Look at it this way-some of Earth's greatest rulers had epilepsy. Just ask Caesar and Alexander the Great.
Anyway, I thought I would open it up for discussion and see what others thought about this. Also, I posted a lot of semi-coherent ramblings about feelings and ships and general reactions publicly on my Dreamwidth, so if anyone wants to help me flail and fangirl, please do so :3
Not only that, but why would he have such vivid memories of Giles' life when other Prison-born characters-like Keiro-don't have any memories other than their own?
But the biggest reason for this comes from a very convincing Q&A off Catherine's website:
Q: In the book incarceron, Keiro could not leave the prison with the key because he is part of incarceron. I don't know where I read this but some where in the first book it said that incarceron uses the bodies of the deceased and creates new prisoners/people. If this is the case, that means Finn must have came from the outside world since he is able to leave with the key. In the second book though when Claudia asked the warden if Finn really is prince Giles, he doesn't give her a real answer. But he would have to be prince Giles to have been able to leave the prison with the key included. This leaves me thinking that Finn is prince Giles since he also remembers being the prince and has that symbol on his wrist which only prince Giles had.
A: OK I give in..... no wait. Keiro can't leave because he had metallic parts. Finn doesn't. So maybe he isn't Giles......? Can I get away with that?
AHH, BUT that's not actually what it says in the book, BECAUSE in Sapphique Keiro says that the reason Incarceron needs the Glove of Sapphique to Escape in its new body is because the Keys-which Incarceron already had, and could have used if it was possible-won't let anything that has been made by Incarceron out. If metal was the only stipulation, Incarceron could have used only organic parts on its special body and then been able to use the Key. Because, after all, if Finn had been Prison-born, he managed to escape with the Key, which would have meant he was made of only organic materials-why would the Prison have been able to do that for Finn and not for itself? Clearly, the Key won't work on anything made by the Prison, which means that Finn was not made by the Prison.
The reason Claudia was able to Escape with the Key is because she was born naturally, even though her parents were Prisoners. Finn, though, would have had to have been a Prison-born person who was assembled and spat out fully matured, because he's only been around for 2-3 years. Therefore, the Key shouldn't have worked on him-unless he was always Giles, and he entered the Prison with his memories erased by some kind of drug, just like Claudia and Jared originally theorized.
I think Catherine kind of came to this conclusion herself, because when she answered a later question, she said,
Q: You can't tell me no or leave me hanging. Because I know, Finn HAS to be Giles. Just admit it!! Please?
A: I think maybe he is but I never actually made up my mind. The only person who really knows is the Warden. and he would just smile acidly and say "My dear, that is my business, and not yours...."
She might have gone into it thinking, "I'm not sure which way I want this to go, so I'll leave it ambiguous," but, without realizing it, she trapped herself into only one possible outcome: Finn is Giles.
And as for Finn's seizures... I know Finn thought that if he got his memories as Giles back, they'd go away, and the fact that they didn't made him doubt whether he was really Giles; I hate to break this to him, but the real world doesn't work that way. Obviously, whatever drug they gave him to erase his memories had the side effect of giving him epilepsy. It's like if you had a head injury that caused both memory loss and epilepsy-even if you manage to recover all or part of your memories, that's not going to make the epilepsy go away. They may have been caused by the same thing, but they're not mutually exclusive. Sorry, Finn. Look at it this way-some of Earth's greatest rulers had epilepsy. Just ask Caesar and Alexander the Great.
Anyway, I thought I would open it up for discussion and see what others thought about this. Also, I posted a lot of semi-coherent ramblings about feelings and ships and general reactions publicly on my Dreamwidth, so if anyone wants to help me flail and fangirl, please do so :3