Obvious in retrospect.

[freenarnian]

I hope I'm not the only one ready for another round of obsessive, in-depth, delight-and-amuse-Megan-by-finding-what-isn't-(or-is-it?)-there book discussion!

Because I just finished a 2nd reading of A Conspiracy of Kings.

Comments

[hazelwillow]

1) About Sounis swearing to Attolis and not to Attolia:

To me the main point to take from this is that HE'S NOT SWEARING TO BOTH OF THEM OR TO THEIR THRONE AS A WHOLE. And what I took from that is, he's not swearing his country's loyalty to their country. He's swearing his loyalty to Eugenides only, as an individual.

If Sounis had sworn loyalty to BOTH Attolian monarchs (and arguably if he'd sworn only to Attolia, seeing as her role is so bound up in the day to day running of her country), this would have implied that Sounis the country had become subservient to Attolia the country. But I don't think that's how the agreement worked exactly, even if that's the way it plays out in practical terms. Instead, Sounis the king (as an individual, albeit one with certain responsibilities in his person) has become subservient to Eugenides the king (also as an individual, one who already holds some responsibilities and now holds one more). That's it. Nothing more or less than that. The fact that Eugenides is the king of Attolia is almost a secondary matter, and Sounis owes no loyalty to Attolia the country or the queen, beyond what Eugenides will and has asked of him. He owes loyalty only to Eugenides and his heirs. Does that make sense? It's sort of a subtle difference in my mind so it's a bit difficult to get across.

To say it another way, the difference in my mind is: instead of Sounis swearing loyalty to the role of the throne of the country Attolia, they created a new position, higher than the throne of Attolia (call it High King or Annux), and hired the king of Attolia to fill it. Then they had Sounis swear to him individually, in his new role as Annux, someone above all three countries. The fact that Irene continues to be the main day-to-day ruler of Attolia solidifies this view for me. She's in charge of the country. He's in charge of the peninsula. Attolis is already above Attolia, formally speaking, as she's answerable to him as the Queen to his King. Now Eddis and Sounis will be answerable to him in a similar way too.

That's how I saw it. Does that make sense to anyone else?

[freenarnian]

Oh, it does make sense! Truckloads of sense. In fact, you've done a good job of articulating the conclusion I've come to by degrees, via all these great comments. Thanks so much!

[hazelwillow]

Yay! Yeah, I only scanned before posting this, but now I've gone and read the discussion more thoroughly I see this has been articulated really well above. I'm just glad to know I'm not the only one that sees it this way, otherwise I would know it was wrong. :D

Thanks for starting an awesome discussion!! I have been wanting one but have been too lazy to post myself. :P

[louisedennis]

This is pretty much exactly how I understood it.