okay, you can dweeblog.

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Who kills Lia?

This round-up almost feels pointless in light of the preview drop, but I'd already put a lot of work in by then.

Note: I've only got the Fairy Loot version to hand so my citations might be off a bit compared to the normal version, I'll include chapter number as well as my page numbers.

In Rae's (but not Eric's) version of Time of Iron book 3, Lia is stabbed in the back (possibly literally) by a noble or set of nobles she trusted.

We know that Lia is cunning and yet so desperate for friendship that she's willing to forgive and fall in with Rahela after only like 3 weeks of Rahela being nice to her, which means anyone's fair game.

It could very well be that we haven't met the possible culprit(s) yet, but hopefully SRB is being nicer to us than that. So let's look at the current options! I've grouped them for ease of discussion:

1. 20+ ladies in waiting

Rae states on page 115, chapter 10 that "The odds are against us [becoming Octavian's Queen]. One king, more than twenty ladies." It's unclear who exactly contributes to her total here: Are Lia and Vasilisa, who are not official ladies-in-waiting, counted? Does Rahela count, considering that she gets offed at some point in book 1?

We know only a handful of them by name: Lia Felice, Rahela Domitia, Hortensia Nemeth, and Horatia Nemeth.

We get descriptions of a few more, mostly by what they're wearing: dresses of "poppy red, daffodil yellow, and lilac...lilac," (page 113, chapter 10). A few pages later, just before Rae shoots, a brunette in possibly-pastel violet reminds her of an ex-friend (page 118, chapter 10). During the ghoul attack, Rae notes that a few women have magic gauntlets and one has "a knife she'd produced from her undergarments" (page 123, chapter 11). Finally, one more lady in "mint-green organdie" crosses Key by shoving Rae out of the way (page 130, chapter 11).

Of these indeterminate number, only 14 (a dozen who compete in the Queen's Trials, plus Rae, who declines to compete, and Hortensia, who has by then been ousted) make it out of the ghoul attack. We know mint-green doesn't, because Key feeds her to a ghoul to keep it distracted while he fights another few. We don't know about anyone else.

Notably, one of our unnamed ladies-in-waiting is Prime Minister Pio's niece--Marius notices him looking around for her while he's trying to keep Octavian out of danger (page 135, chapter 12). We don't know whether she survived the initial, let alone the ending, ghoul attack.

2. Guys With Jobs

Rae describes the men who stand around at "the king's period of receiving petitioners" (page 42, chapter 4): They're "gold-braided blue-uniformed wallpaper" (page 45, chapter 4). It's unclear what actual role they have at this "ceremonial occasion" (page 46, chapter 4) marked by Octavian wearing his deathmask. General Nemeth and Prime Minister Pio do stand on either side of the throne trying to influence him, and Marius briefly stands in the petitioner's circle; everyone else might just be the peanut gallery. Rae's narration deems them "court officials" (page 44, chapter 4) and "ministerial" (page 47, chapter 4), but that's all we get from her.

Marius is our insight into the structure of Eyam's administrative body, and he's not a good one. Per page 201, chapter 18, "the king's ministers spent a great deal of time flattering Octavian." He says "a hundred assemblies" have made him familiar with Pio and Nemeth's petty bickering, but doesn't elaborate much on what these assemblies might be--or, to this post's point, who is at them.

In other scenes, he complains that Eric makes him "vote for frivolity at the ministers' assemblies" (page 106, chapter 9). He notes that Eric "departed the assembly" where the unnamed, ruined "young lord" was found to be smuggling boats full of slaves into the city and that later "the Cobra's bill monitoring imports passed" (all from page 240, chapter 21). Given bills, votes, and passing, and also given that Nemeth "had once started a brawl over legislation on jewelry" (page 202, chapter 18) at one, presumably Pio had to force his revenge law about men's jewelry through these ministers' assemblies.

Unfortunately, it's unclear whether ministers' assemblies are the same as the "royal assemblies" (page 109, chapter 9), at which flattery of Octavian presumably happens, and in which Marius so opposes Eric thinking. He notes previous "disaster" with "the royal treasury" and "the countess's fur coat" (page 109, chapter 9). Perhaps these royal assemblies are the same as "the king's period of receiving petitioners," with Eric joining the wallpaper, perhaps not. Marius also complains that Eric missed his first ever "council meeting" because he and Rae were holed up practicing their dance, and who knows what those might be.

The only ministers we know by that actual title (instead of just their presence at assemblies, like Nemeth, Marius, and Eric) are Prime Minister Pio and Lord Zoltan, who dies in the city during the ghoul attack. (It's unclear how or why he was there-he can't have been visiting the Golden Brothel coincidentally at the time and had the good luck to run into the Cobra and Marius, because he knows nobles are being hunted specifically. A topic for another post: What's going on with him?)

But there is another type of job: Marius complains "the king's companions spent a great deal of time discussing warfare and women" (page 201, chapter 18). Lord Adel, who is part of the king's hunting party before the ball (page 202, chapter 18), is one of these.

Laughing Lord Lucius was another. Always mourned, never forgotten, as Key might say, and possibly now hanging out with the First Duke given Emer's glimpse of "a young man with fox-fire hair, his snow-pale face strangely familiar" (page 415, chapter 35).

3. The Cobra's Book Club

We only know two of them, regrettably: Lady Zenobia, no last name given, and Fabianus Nemeth, who are apparently buds with each other. Here's hoping we get more of them in book 2! Eric's left a personality vacuum, and Rae can fill it.

4. Tagar Nobles

Of course, Tagar is a major player and has its own nobility. I've been assuming that the noble(s) who betray Lia have to be from Eyam, because the Emperor is able to make them kneel and kiss her corpse feet (page 151, chapter 13). But maybe he gets control of Tagar--I've heard a rumor that all the worlds are his empire. So we've got:

Princess Vasilisa the Wise and her brother, King Ivor. Presumably their monarch parent is dead, or they'd be on the throne themselves, unless they abdicated. The one who married in may or may not be alive-and-just-not-a-monarch.

The unnamed "gorgeous" count who "cares only for battle and brothels" who Vasilia could have married and who may or may not be Rae's "count who would be important later" (all from page 132, chapter 11).

Finally, it's unclear whether dearly departed Karine and/or Ziyi are common guards or noble knights. Karine's described as wearing plain clothes in the one scene she lives to, but that's obviously practical. In contrast to her clothes, Rae states they would have stood at either side of Vasilisa's throne if she had ever ascended, which may or may not be equivalent to Eyam's commander general and Prime Minister. It's a real tossup!

5. Miscellaneous

First we've got a couple Nemeth adjacents: Tycho (page 198, chapter 17), the baby brother, and Lady Lavinia, General Nemeth's maiden aunt, chaperone of the Horrors (page 206-207, chapter 18). It's unknown whether she's a Nemeth or if she's the General's maternal aunt.

Then we've got deceased Lord Zoltan adjacents: His unnamed son (page 205, chapter 18), presumably neither a minister nor in the military, else Marius would already know him. And his unnamed daughter (page 211, chapter 18) presumably not a lady-in-waiting, else considering marriage for her to anyone but the king would be treasonous.

Obviously Marius has adjacents including Caracalla and his unnamed mother, Lady Valerius née Valerius. Possibly there are other Valerius branches out there, for all Marius's vowing he would be the last heir--he certainly hasn't cut off the branch Caracalla's poised to start yet, which is the only one we actually know about. We do already know that the Valerius family inheritance doesn't work the way the rest of Eyam's does.

Lady Zenobia has a couple of adjacents as well: Marius calls her "intimate friends with both the Domitian and Aurellian matriachs" (page 203, chapter 18). Not only does this introduce a heretofore unknown family, the Aurellians, but it introduces implications for the Domitians:

Lady Katalin Felice (page 251, chapter 21), formerly Domitia, née unknown, Rahela's mother who seduction-via-friendhip'd state secrets from 17-year-old Marius, is presently exiled from court. Ergo, Lady Zenobia can't be such intimate friends with her that Marius knows about it by letter only. Clearly there's another elder Domitia lady in play still at the court!

Amelia, who Marius notes has "a name from the upper echelons of nobility" (page 399, chapter 33), and who is already able to ride a warhorse (page 403, chapter 33) probably is secretly a noble.

The unnamed countess, who may or may not still own a fur coat, deserves a mention.

Finally, the Time Of Iron excerpt introducing chapter 15 namedrops a character we haven't met yet: Lady Ninell, who talks to the Emperor about his other tragic backstory (page 170).

And I believe that's everyone we have for now! Place your bets!

Personally, I think the mysterious Lady Ninell has the advantage of already having appeared in a future book, but it would be extremely fun if it was originally Lady Katalin and Lia was literally dying to trust her step-family.

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[Rae voice] Eat the rich. For once.

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What was Tarvek's plan during the ball in England? Initially he's being nice to Gil and Observing TM who's going to dance with Agatha, then he gets distracted by a muse, but then he literally never dances with her. What's up?

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"The Gang Attempts To Teach Murderbot Literally Anything About The Universe"

ART was staring at me mutually. That's not the word I meant—it was the one that it shouldn't have been able to do because it was already its own captain. Anyway, ART was staring at me like it wanted to stage a hostile take over, depose all my c-level executives, and replace them with its own.

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All Systems Red, first page of chapter 4

Mensah gave everybody watch shifts, including me. This was new, but not unwelcome, as it meant I had blocks of time where I wasn’t supposed to be paying attention and didn’t have to fake it. Mensah, Pin-Lee, and Overse were all taking turns as pilot and copilot, so I didn’t have to worry so much about the autopilot trying to kill us, and I could go on standby and watch my stored supply of serials

Network Effect, middle of chapter 10

Arada finally ordered the others to take a rest period, though it took her a while to really understand that ART and I would still be active and there was no reason for the humans to take shifts. (I finally had to tell her that I had a list of things I needed to get done and it would go much faster if they would all stay in one place and shut up for a while and sleeping was the most efficient use of that time.)

Murderbot, I don't think she was confused about the concept that you don't sleep. I think she read the diary entry you sent Mensah, knows you like breaks, and thinks you are entitled to them.

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I've been sporadic about catching up on the comic itself and page reactions but uh

that's sure an expression from mr. 'we could have kept him safe' back there right after gil says he trusts him.

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I've been thinking a lot about Murderbot romancing/befriending other constructs/bots, and I think the core of it is:

A friend is something that wants to help you, if it can.

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What are Gil and Tarvek discussing, with huge eyes, and little anime sparkles as a backdrop, and why is it so intentionally distinct from Agatha's background, which is colored to minimize the anime sparkles as well as emphasize the lightning rod?

I don't like this.

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Why did Barry get along with Franz so well when he and Bill seemed to avoid all the other Mechanicsville monsters?

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Why do we know nothing about Tarvek's mom

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Okay so this is nothing, and I know this is nothing. But!

The thing is, Tarvek is a fop. It just doesn't mean anything else about him.

So in the AU where he's the one Zola bonds with in Paris, neither of them aware that or how the other is involved with the Storm King conspiracy...

Tarvek would have right with her in this conversation, possibly even making Zola underestimate him.

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Who was watching Gil?

The Voice Of The Castle gives us some pretty hard dates.

When the story starts, the Other attacked Castle Heterodyne 20 years ago.

Immediately after the attack, Bill and Barry leave Mechanicsburg on a 3 year mission to root out revenants wherever they crop up, presumed by all to be an attempt to recover Bill's missing wife. Eventually, they disappear without a trace.

Europa eventually realizes the Other's attacks have stopped. Sparks attempt to fill the power vacuum. Europa returns to chaos.

Two years after the Boys disappeared, Klaus returns and puts Europa under his iron fist.

That gives us 5 years since the Other first attacked.

...

Klaus Barry Heterodyne was born 2 years, 3 months after Klaus Wulfenbach disappeared. He was just about 15 months old when he died.

Klaus is out of the Europa-ean picture for 8 and a half years.

...

Zeetha tells Gil that Chump left when she was 1 month old.

...

By age 8, Gil has loved Tarvek long enough to break though out of loneliness when he loses him.

We know almost nothing of the intervening 8 years. Gil has no memory of being cared for by his father, no memory of coming back to Europa from Skifander. The first we ever know of him is being the lowest rug of the social ladder on Castle Wulfenbach. Von Pinn is the closest thing to a mother he has ever known.

But Gil was somewhere between 5 and 7 years old before he ever made it to a Castle Wulfenbach dirigible.

What gives? Who, I reiterate, was taking care of Gil? And where?

[grandpuppyalpaca]

Huh, I always thought that Klaus made it back shortly after the Boys actually vanish. Wouldn't he have needed to, for Barry to be too wary of him to go back to Mechanicsburg?

Okay, according to the first novel:

Klaus vanished before the wedding, off to nurse a broken heart it was said. He reappeared four years later, when Europa was deep in chaos and ruin, with the Heterodynes, as well as most of the other Great Sparks, gone.

And it says that he fixed up his lands and said he'd absorb anyone who came after them right after that, so I think that sounds a little more reasonable? Depends on how quickly he got to Mechanicsburg, which is when he would've picked up "Von Pinn".

🤷‍♀️

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It sounds way more reasonable!

But gosh this is frustrating. Sounds like we have conflicting timelines:

"The following years saw the destruction of forty-three major houses. Slaver wasps and their revenants were everywhere. People thought they were seeing the End Days.

And anywhere there was a mention of wasps, you would hear about the Heterodyne Boys. They were always in the thick of things. Always fighting the Other. Always searching for the Lady Lucrezia. For close to three years..." (Voice of the Castle, page 109)

I fully admit that I have no idea where I got that "2 years of chaos post-Other war" date. I guess I could have made it up? I was reading without the ability to take notes.

Still, even if Klaus showed up immediately after the 3 years, that already makes it 6.5-ish years since he first left, and there needs to be SOME amount of time for the Sparks to run loose so he can contain them.

[farragoofnotes]

Who was watching Gil?

The Voice Of The Castle gives us some pretty hard dates.

When the story starts, the Other attacked Castle Heterodyne 20 years ago.

Immediately after the attack, Bill and Barry leave Mechanicsburg on a 3 year mission to root out revenants wherever they crop up, presumed by all to be an attempt to recover Bill's missing wife. Eventually, they disappear without a trace.

Europa eventually realizes the Other's attacks have stopped. Sparks attempt to fill the power vacuum. Europa returns to chaos.

Two years after the Boys disappeared, Klaus returns and puts Europa under his iron fist.

That gives us 5 years since the Other first attacked.

...

Klaus Barry Heterodyne was born 2 years, 3 months after Klaus Wulfenbach disappeared. He was just about 15 months old when he died.

Klaus is out of the Europa-ean picture for 8 and a half years.

...

Zeetha tells Gil that Chump left when she was 1 month old.

...

By age 8, Gil has loved Tarvek long enough to break though out of loneliness when he loses him.

We know almost nothing of the intervening 8 years. Gil has no memory of being cared for by his father, no memory of coming back to Europa from Skifander. The first we ever know of him is being the lowest rung of the social ladder on Castle Wulfenbach. Von Pinn is the closest thing to a mother he has ever known.

But Gil was somewhere between 5 and 7 years old before he ever made it to a Castle Wulfenbach dirigible.

What gives? Who, I reiterate, was taking care of Gil? And where?

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The Calming Pie guy has genuinely found a scientific breakthrough, one that has terrifying implications. If it snaps a spark out of fugue, does that mean it also stops them from thinking hard enough to do their invention a la Barry's locket?

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So who's gonna make the Girl Genius + Monster Mash amv/animatic?

when you get to my door, tell them Boris sent you

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god, not to be like, extremely obvious, but someone has definitely already made the next panel version of this where agatha is appreciatively giving her little clank a kiss upon its round body-head while it steals her lil cleavage holly tarvek and gil accidentally make out for her viewing pleasure, yes? so like. link me please?

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ni Domitia?

(Sorry if everyone has already made these points. Tumblr’s search is fucky, if I’d seen it already, I’d have reblogged it.)

I think Emer is a Valerius bastard.

I’m not going to bore us all with evidence of her being unusually good with weapons when she’s barely touched them before. I’m not even going to compare her casual comfort with threats and violence to the Valerius line’s famous ancestral rage. She’s going to be the Iron Maid, it’s foreshadowing, we get it.

I’ve got lots of weak Doylist evidence I could bring up: Hers is most frequently the POV chosen to talk about Valerius bastards. She’s got a similar personality to Marius and has even taken his romantic role.* The wounds she gets from the manticore never get followed up on-almost like they healed on their own.**

But I understand. That can all be handwaved away. So here’s the strong Watsonian.

It Is Known that Valeriuses have super senses. I thought I remembered a couple lines about Marius having magically good night vision and, separately, a line about Emer being good at seeing in the dark, but I fully admit that I haven’t been able to find anything relevant while searching for proof.

But here's what Marius has to say about the Valerius hearing when he first comes across Rae with the Cobra:

Popenjoy leaned to whisper in the woman’s ear, his hair ornaments brushing her cheek. They glanced at Marius and tittered, obviously making a nasty joke. Not that Marius cared. A Valerius had superior senses. Marius could hear what they were saying, if he chose. He did not so choose. pgs 100-101

Compare Emer dealing with whispers during the Queen's Trial:

The Last Hope pulled [the Cobra] back into his chair. The Cobra was a tall man, but against berserker strength men were toys. He said something in the Cobra’s ear. Emer’s ears were keen from years of eavesdropping. It sounded like a name. If ‘Eric’ was a name. pg 314

Personally speaking, when I’m straining to hear something, I am absolutely awful at comprehending words (or names) I am not both familiar with and expecting. Emer got this one perfectly despite not knowing the name ‘Eric’ already. ‘Keen ears from eavesdropping' my foot

But it's not just Marius, and I don't have to just compare to my own experience. We get a few side-by-side comparisons of Emer to Key’s supernatural senses as well. These two are blatant:

“I want Key,” Lady Rahela whispered. Too soft for anyone but Marius to hear. The parlour doors burst open. Lady Rahela’s maid and guard entered as if responding to the summons they could not possibly have heard. pg 110

and

Threat radiated from Key like the waves of heat from a fire. The guard and Ziyi fell silent. Having ended all conversation, Key focused, intent on the night beyond the silvered glass. “You can’t possibly see anything,” Ziyi said, puzzled. Emer put a restraining hand on the rough leather cords tying Key’s vambraces in place. No matter what trouble nobles got into, they were safer than servants. A servant could be sent to the Room of Dread and Anticipation for any transgression. He must not venture onto the balcony. Even though both Emer and Key could see one thing clearly. Something had gone terribly wrong out there. pg 224

But pretty early on, there’s even:

Emer heard a soft patter off to one side, on the roof of the spiral staircase wrapping around the tower. It must be raining hard. A storm was coming. pg 61

Doylist disclaimer that this one was certainly mostly to set up how cool Key is for knowing that assassins are coming. And absence of evidence might not be evidence of absence-maybe the weather isn’t worth mentioning just as she’s going to sleep. But Rae doesn’t mention hearing anything. So maybe she didn’t hear that “soft” patter at all.

Last but not least, we get it straight from the horse’s mouth:

Blasts of heat sent Key’s wild black hair winding as though they were underwater. The glow of distant blood-hued fires bathed his face in infernal light. “After my father died, I had nothing, and my story meant nothing. Now I have you and the Cobra, and Emer, who sees and hears the same way I do.” pg 293

In conclusion, something’s going on with our future Iron Maid aside from simply the fact that she’s hopefully going to be an axe murderer. I think she's going to be a magical axe murderer, with a family curse-slash-blessing to back it up.

One last thing.

Emer’s mind howled like the ghouls in the abyss. pg 32

I realize SRB was doing a ton of stuff with figurative language in this particular chapter. (Like, even more than she’s constantly doing stuff with figurative language.) I just think that if I’m right and Emer's descended from the thing that's been howling in the abyss for generations, then this one is extremely fun, and I should get to point it out.

*As compared to the version of narrative the Cobra's familiar with. "When the white knight's heart strays to lost queens" etc. She's the white knight now.

**Yes, I admit that if this is supposed to be a clue then it should have been followed up on. Someone should have gone ‘oh hey wait I thought you were hurt?’ and there should have been something to handwave it away. 'It's only a flesh wound' or whatever.

However. Since her first fight scene was written as her picking up a SWORD and then later in the book she remembered the scene as if she’d had an AXE in her hand...I am suggesting that maybe there was insufficient editor and/or continuity reader attention given to Emer.

And also that perhaps there should have been a dramatic moment or at the very least Rae/narrative acknowledgement of the Iron axe-murdering Maid picking up an axe for the first time, so such a mistake could not have happened in the first place.