[ROTT SPOILERS] Volume 2, Chapter 3

[whataliethatwas]

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

Comments

[mander_lee]

I don't know if my other comment went through (can't see it right now), but I just wanted to thank you, whataliethatwas, for bringing this discussion to its own thread. There were a lot of wonderful insights from the comments! I don't have the brain-power to think too much of this issue, haha.

[puppeteergirl]

Something that has always bothered me was how/why the stone preserved Gen's life. I'm not one to fan the flames of the rumor (as I hate to believe that Gen's mother would betray her husband, but who knows...I don't know her. At all.) But here's the thing

[empmai2]

I wonder if Sounis had made Gen king, if he would have married Brenne (the flaky daughter in CoK) to Gen. She's very kind. And beautiful. Or if he would have been married to one of Sophos sisters? (and subsequently killed off)

[empmai2]

Previously I just thought they called him bastard because his parents weren't married (since the thief isn't allowed to own any property, which means the thief's spouse can't either maybe)

[more_ruthless]

Gen makes it very clear in "The Thief," in the scene where Sophus seems surprised Gen knows who his father is, that Gen and all his brothers and sisters have the same father, and they are all legitimate.

[more_ruthless]

And yes, that's exactly where I am up to in my re-read of the series.

[puppeteergirl]

So there's a going theory that it is a mystery which will not be resolved and is up for speculation.

The way I look at it is this: it is unknown whether or not the rumors are true. People make mistakes and we seriously don't know enough about Gen's mom to know if she would do such a thing. We do know she has a reputation for being rather vengeful, and will "take the things people were most proud of". On the other hand, I only see her taking revenge out if she was actually attacked, and the MoW seems like the unendingly-loyal type of man, so it's much more difficult to imagine him cheating on his wife. So there are pretty good arguments on both sides.

Some fans think that Gen simply chooses to accept the MoW as his father, but enjoys joking with Eddis about the rumors since its up for debate. Which is also why he acts so awkward when Sophos questions Gen if he will marry Eddis at the end of TT. And why Eddis's "practically incestuous" comment in QoA is even more funny with context.

[more_ruthless]

We have an entire book of Gen generating rumors for the good of Attolia as the plotline (KoA). There is every reason to believe his mother and grandfather were adept at doing the same to advance agendas for Eddis. I, for one, am of the opinion that his stating he was not illegitmate and all his brothers and sisters had the same fathers in TT is fact. I am also of the opinion that Gen stating he became Thief (vs soldier) to avoid killing as fact. I haven't quite parsed out Grandfather Thief and the assassin-ish implications of the Thief role in RotT, so I'm going to wait to comment on that until done re-reading all books.