[ROTT SPOILERS] Volume 2, Chapter 3
I have finished Return of the Thief, and really need to process this section from V2Ch3. I was commenting on the main book discussion thread and realized my question was rapidly becoming too unwieldy for a simple discussion and decided to post as a separate thread. I have tried this multiple times and haven't been able to get a single cut to work despite multiple approaches and versions, so I've done an lj-cut for each paragraph individually.
[Spoilers under the cut]So the converstion between Sophos and Helen regarding whether Gen knew of Sounis's proposal and threat to give Hamiathe's stone to Gen if Helen proposed. Which proposal are they talking about? It sounds like it would have to be the proposal sent before The Thief that precipitated the events of the entire series, but then why on earth would Sounis choose Gen at this point?
[More spoilers!]Between comments about how Gen was always considered too close to the throne and that Helen's mother may have preferred the MoW, the implication seems to be that Gen is illegitimate and therefore actually possibly part of the lines of succession (although a case could be made for Helen and still work). If that's the case, it seems like that would be quite a political slap in the face coming from Sounis to dredge up this sticky family drama and basically declare that either Helen isn't good enough to be a queen without marriage to him (being herself illegitimate perhaps), or that even a half-son of the Eddisian royal household would be preferable to Helen herself if she said no. That's believably in-character for Sounis to me, but seems more complicated and subtle a plan than he'd come up with on his own. The Magus is shown to be willing to do a lot for his country, but his ultimate goal genuinely seems to be unification of Eddis/Sounis for greater stability in the face of the Mede, so it seems like a really risky move for him to include the threat of giving the stone to Gen as part of the proposal he urged Sounis to make. Is the goal just to destabilize the throne of Eddis by offering it to Gen so that the country descends into chaos and/or civil war, or something similar to weaken the country enough that Sounis can step in and just take over the country? I can understand settling on a young, impetuous, and untrained member of the royal family in the hopes the instability will provide Sounis an opening, especially if their legitimacy is at least questionable if not openly acknowledged, but if Gen is publicly known to be a more distant cousin and well under adulthood, I feel like there would be any number of cousins who might be an easier choice for Sounis - legally closer in the line of succession, willing to accept a partnership or take the throne under Sounis, possibly already be part of Sounis's network, or be more easily manipulated.
[Last one]And just one other thought -Helen says Gen didn't know about this beforehand, and it seems likely from TT, but what if he did? Is it possible part of his motivation to get Hamiathe's gift was because he didn't want to be king?