Eugenides

(art by shebsart)

[pomea]

i'm rereading the thief right now and i feel like this passage,

"I will give the stone to Sounis of course. He will be king. I will be the King's Thief," [said the magus].

This pricked my professional pride. I was going to do the stealing, and he was going to take the credit. His name would be carved in stone on a stele outside the basilica, and mine would be written in the dust.

is exactly the reason that we're never told the magus's name. love the irony

[freenarnian]

Eugenides stole the magus’s name from every written account of the events of the Queen’s Thief series. 

[shaelit]

this is the true experience of being a MWT fan, that constant tension of

OH!!

it’s probably a coincidence

but what if it isn’t????

maybe it is

but it could be true

[incorrectqueensthiefquotes]

Princess Irene visiting the court of Eddis in winter with her father

Helen: Hey Irene! You wanna be in a snowball fight with us?

Irene: I’ve never actually been in a snowball fight.

Helen: Really?

Irene: I don’t even know the rules.

Irene: Is there like a point system, or is it to the death?

[shaelit]

The first “appearance” of Dite is SOMETHING, but also, Gen Gen Gen my son. He’s a little boy pulling pigtails.

[shaelit]

MoW bringing the BDE (Big Dad Energy).

Also loving Teleus making heart eyes at his new hero.

[shaelit]

“I was thinking of Nahuseresh. Did you know you can’t strangle a man with one hand? It’s probably why I only have one. It narrows one’s options. I may make a poor king, but the gods know I’d be no king at all if I had two.”

“Your Majesty…”

The king rubbed his hand over his face. “And I was just thinking of you, and here you are, you poor silly bastard, trying to tell me to get down off this wall.”

1) First, the chest punch of Gen wouldn’t be king if he had two hands. Not just because of the path it put him on with Attolia, but nothing could have convinced him to stop being Thief. The gods narrowed his options.

2) Hellooooo TaT foreshadowing. This. This right here is where he figured out what to do with Costis. And I’ll prove it in a minute.

[shaelit]

Told you.

[shaelit]

Because I am asking.

[shaelit]

…a harsh voice Costis had never heard…

I wonder if the king is unconsciously mimicking his father here. I don’t know how I feel about that.

[shaelit]

[Moira and Eugenides, up in the heavens or wherever, watching as Gen makes a fool of himself on the crenellations.]

Moira: You really should talk to him.

Eugenides: You can’t reward bad behavior. That’s bad godding. Reinforcement.

Moira: He’s doing a drunk handstand.

Eugenides: He’s deliberately showing off. I thought that Costis was going to be a balancing influencer, but nOOOoooo

Moira: He’s falling

Eugenides: OH SHID GOTTA GO

And this is why Costis can’t see Eugenides. It would lessen some of the glory if he could see the god, wineglass in hand, glaring at Gen because the king made him drop his croissant.

[shaelit]

But also, can we please get emotional over the fact that the god pushes Gen so that he falls into Costis’s arms?

Yet again, Gen cannot be harmed because his god is protecting him and so is Costis.

[chimaerakitten]

you are so stunningly correct but all I can see is

[shaelit]

I see no inaccuracies here.

[shaelit]

She freaking told us.

She freaking TOLD US and we were still surprised by the well.

MEGANNNNNN

[shaelit]

What the workers see: So they put this murderer in with us, right? And he’s HUGE. Shoulders like an elephant, face only a mother could love. And we’re all like 👀and he just sits on his bunk like 😎and then when the food comes, he just goes and gets his bowl first, even though he’s new. Balls of steel.

What Sophos says: Yeah, my dad’s, like, constantly disappointed in me so I’m used to ignoring side-eyes.

[shaelit]

This. This is Gen’s version of honor.

[shaelit]

Ion Prime, please

[shaelit]

There are fewer painful scenes in ACOK, but man, when they bite, they really dig in.

Gen summons Sophos for another discussion. It’s stilted and awkward and impersonal. Finally at the very end, he breaks and asks if Sophos likes the wardrobe. He won’t even look at Sophos when he asks. Sophos mentions the pockets are weird. That’s as far as it goes.

As soon as Sophos leaves, Gen smashes his wine cup in a fit of temper.

[shaelit]

“You trust her?”

“I’m not swearing any oaths to her,” said Eddis.

Sounis laughed. “I should hope not.”

Eddis changed the subject then, asking, “Do you sleep? You look tired.”

ohhhh heck u, megan

[arramdraper]

“They will not cross me, but they won’t love me either. I am not Eddis. People do not hand me their hearts.

Sounis wondered. He would have given Eugenides his heart on a toothpick, if asked.”

[whocalledhimannux]

One of my favorite things about Queen of Attolia is the way Irene starts falling in love with Eugenides… way before she even consciously acknowledges that he is a romantic candidate, let alone before she acknowledges that she is in fact in love with him.

Like, girl… the rumors about Eugenides sleeping with Eddis don’t piss you off because it strengthens the Eddisian court. You don’t secretly wish that someone would sneak into your bedroom at night because you feel guilty about hurting them and want to apologize.

I think it’s one of those… really tragic things about Irene, that not only does she not recognize these as romantic feelings, but that she can’t. Even when Eugenides proposes to her, her mind doesn’t go “oh, that’s what’s been happening.” She has such a mental block that she can’t conceive of herself as a soft, romantic, loving, lovable person. She scorns the very idea of marrying Eugenides, and when he confesses that he loves her, she reacts with anger and hostility even though we the readers can see that she has feelings for him, too.

And it keeps going! If this were a romantic comedy, things would have been hunky dory from the minute she recognizes her feelings, at that moment when she thinks Eugenides is poisoned and realizes she “could” have loved him. But no! Eugenides makes a lighthearted joke about their married life and she snaps at him. Throughout the negotiations, she refuses to believe that their feelings are actually genuine, to the point where two people loving each other and wanting to get married is more complicated than drawing up a peace treaty between two warring nations!

Gah. It’s so tragic and it’s what makes this ship ultimately so satisfying.

[shaelit]

Hey. Hey remember in TT when Gen snuck the magus and Sophos across the rope bridge and Eugenides gave him a scar as a mark of approval?

Kamet went back for Costis and

I stretched my neck and turned my head, listening for any sign of life, and impale myself on a splinter of broken wood.

“Monsters of hell,” I whispered sharply, pulling away from the splinter that was sticking into my skin perilously close to my eye.

Remember how one of the gods in this story is missing an eye?

[shaelit]

I thought it was because Immakuk is nicer than Eugenides that Kamet got to keep the eye. @audreycritter thought it was a practical consideration of Kamet’s depth perception.

“But he did a good job! He should get my mark of approval!”

“He’s already only half a year away from running into walls. Can’t you just go half measure for once? We DO want him to get to Attolia in one piece.”