the world was quiet there

Overanalysis of ASOUE that makes Daniel Handler himself say "get a life." An ASOUE meta side-blog with conspiracy theories and headcanons too, because why not. Asks are always welcome.

[kitsnicket]

ok I’m lazy and don’t want to comb through the books to try and figure this out so: why did Beatrice kill Olaf’s parents? and did that happen before or after the sugar bowl was stolen? sorry i just can’t remember 😔 thank you

Well I’m glad you didn’t take the time to look through the books bc you wouldn’t have found an answer!

Here’s a @snicketsleuth theory on why Olaf’s parents were assassinated

And here’s a timeline of events also from snicketsleuth. Though I don’t think this timeline includes when the sugar bowl was stolen

Snicketsleuth is a good resource in general for book questions. Also @lemonysnidget . Neither are particularly active anymore but they’ve got lots of posts to search through!

[lemonysnidget]

I am active when summoned and I’m building up to a rewatch and reread....

[lemonysnidget]

Completely pointless head canons (18/?)

Despite everyone being Jewish, the movie Gremlins exists in the ASOUE universe, and Count Olaf claims he voiced the main villain Stripe. 

[lemonysnidget]

Completely pointless head canons (17/?)

No one in the Baudelaire family has stayed up until midnight on New Years. The same would be true for the Snickets, but it wasn’t ever intentional. 

[lemonysnidget]

I suppose it’s about time to do a reread of the series and dust this old blog off and write some more meta

Might even “live blog”. Who knows. 

[lemonysnidget]

i was reading your latest post rn, and you said olivia might be jacques first cousin; how? why? i’ve never heard of this theory, could you elaborate? thank uu

It’s a theory that’s based in information from the family tree featured in the Unauthorized Autobiography. 

It’s how we know that Lemony’s mother was E Snicket, and his grandfather was Chas Snicket. It’s also how we know that Jacques and Kit are twins, since that split is short hand in pedigrees for twins. 

The tree also shows that the Snickets have two sets of first cousins, so the generation of the Snickets that Lemony is a part of has nine first cousins. It seems like it’s been a habit of having three children in the family for a while, and each generation carries out the alphabet until Lemony’s generation, where Kit is possibly the only one to reproduce, and she lets the Baudelaires name her daughter according to their family’s tradition of naming children after someone who died. 

Side note: Interestingly, that’s a tradition Kit claims is present in her family, but we do not see any repeat letters (since family is usually the source of the repeat names)! This suggests that the tradition of honoring the dead is actually present in Jacob’s family! In Jacob and E’s family, Jacob took the Snicket name, and they continued both family’s traditions of giving children consecutive alphabet letters (J-K-L) and naming family to honor people who have died. Of course, A, B, C, etc on the family tree could have all been alive when the youngest generation of Snickets were being named, requiring them to look outside of the family for names, but I kinda think it’s interesting if the younger Snicket’s had the two naming traditions combined in their family from Jacob and E. 

Back to the first cousins. Who are they? It’s possible we never met those six cousins, but given how everyone seems to be related in VFD, it’s not too hard to start to wonder if maybe we have met the Snicket cousins. After all, we know of a set of siblings with G & I initials - Gregor and Ike. Also, we know Olivia and Miranda Caliban, who could fit into the O & M on the family tree. It’s entirely possible that Gregor and Ike have a middle sibling with the initial H who we never met, same for Olivia and Miranda. 

Extrapolating for a moment based on patterns: Chas Snicket’s three children D, E, and F Snicket could have been two sons and a daughter, with E being the daughter who married Jacob, and became the mother of two sons and a daughter in the middle. (Handler loves patterns and families of three children, with the middle child being a different gender than the oldest an youngest, doesn’t he?) If I had to guess. D and F are the fathers of the Snicket cousins, explaining why Gregor and Ike are Anwhistles and Miranda and Olivia are Calibans. They took their mother’s surname as the family name. That could actually imply that Chas is a girl, and that Chas isn’t short for Charles, as a lot of people (including myself) have theorized. It’s certainly possible. 

Based on this pattern, I would guess that H is a sister to Gregor and Ike, and that N is a brother to Olivia and Miranda, most likely named for a Shakespeare character (Nathaniel, Ned, Nestor, Nicholas/Nick, Nym). 

Another interesting pattern emerges when we consider these candidates for Snicket cousins. We “meet”/become aware of the youngest sibling first (Lemony, Ike, Olivia), then the oldest (Jacques, Gregor, Miranda), and finally we meet Kit... and maybe eventually, we’ll meet H and N. 

Daniel Handler loves patterns, so I’m inclined to believe that maybe that’s what’s happening here... of course, it could all be random guessing. Olivia’s reference to the Snickets in TCC doesn’t make it sound like she’s close, but given how vaguely the Baudelaires understand their family tree, it’s not impossible to imagine that the Calibans and Snickets aren’t close, even if the Anwhistles and Snickets are close enough that Kit and Gregor have a collegial relationship. 

Now, I can hear you going “but wait, Snig, if Miranda is M, why isn’t Friday there?” I actually have an answer for you! The family tree isn’t complete. In fact, we know this beyond a shadow of a doubt. We see in the legend at the bottom that there’s a V. Where is V on the tree? Nowhere to be found. The tree isn’t complete! Family members aren’t shown! Plus if Miranda gave birth to Friday on the island, Lemony might not have known about her existence, but that’s something that’s less interesting than wondering how many other members of the Snicket extended family are out there. Perhaps A and B had children of their own, and that’s where the rest of the letters can be found. 

It’s interesting to consider, and I’d like to shout out @snicketsleuth and his/her/their meta on the family tree. 

[lemonysnidget]

I wish Lemony's kind editor was included in the Netflix show as an unnamed VFD member, because I think it would be funny to see a shadowy person going back to the theater in TBB, cutting a seat cushion, and finding Lemony's manuscript there with other evidence. I think this also would have advanced the plot better, because it still implies VFD is creepy and is secretly following the Baudelaires, but also maintains the overall theme that the Baudelaires are alone, no one is going to help them.

It definitely would have been an interesting addition, since the Kind Editor is such a mystery in the series, and I always loved the letters that Lemony Snicket would send to them, and trying to guess what would happen in the next book based off of that was always a treat.

But I think that there would have been some drawbacks as well. It would have taken away from the action, for example. People would have thought that the sugar bowl was being taken by the Editor (or they wouldn’t have been able to include that cliff hanging tease in season 2... which honestly, I’d be in favor of, but the show-runners might not have liked that). 

Most importantly, it also would have taken us out of the “universe” of the show, and actually, I think that it would have the opposite effect of what you’re talking about. Let me explain my thinking. 

The Kind Editor implies that there’s a larger world out there - enough to support whole industries of people unconnected to VFD who would read the stories about the Baudelaires and be entertained by them as fiction. Aka, there is a world full of people that exist in universe who could have helped the Baudelaires. It is something that very subtlety in the novel implicates the reader as someone who could have helped these poor children, but we were ignorant and completely oblivious to what larger networks and schemes have been going on around us (which very nicely ties into some of the darker themes and implications of the book). For them to feature it in the TV show, the effect would be far less subtle. Given the aesthetic they tried to create - that the show exists in a universe where everything is controlled secretly by VFD - the Kind Editor’s presence would contradict that. 

The Kind Editor doesn’t seem to be connected to VFD and is publishing the books as if they are fiction (see, there’s a lot of metatextual stuff going on here... the ASOUE is kinda an ARG). The Kind Editor would ruin the illusion that the Baudelaires are alone and can’t escape VFD. 

That’s my take at least. 

[lemonysnidget]

Barry Sonnenfeld didn't understand any of the Snicket siblings except Lemony. Patrick Warburton is great as Lemony, and I loved Nathan Fillion as Jacques, but the book Snickets are shells of their former selves(at least I see them like that). I mean Jacques cried when arrested for Olaf's (fake)murder, which made him look more suspicious than he was. Netflix Jacques could break himself out of prison, he's actually competent compared to the book. What do you think? Suave cool Jacques I find weird.

I was about to type, “well, it’s hard to screw up Lemony” but then I remembered that the movie existed, and that’s not exactly a great Lemony, so now I have to at least give Barry Sonnenfeld credit for that. But honestly, I think that’s mostly on Patrick Warburton. He’s just so great as Lemony. His delivery is perfect. I now want him to narrate my life. 

As for the rest of the two Snickets... yeah, they’re not consistent with canon. “Sporty” Kit is Barry’s fantasy and has no resemblance to book Kit, and frankly is really effing insulting. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Handler had little involvement in the series starting around the time that Kit was getting introduced. I’ve talked a lot about what I think of show Kit before, so I’ll focus the rest of my discussion on Jacques.

Show Jacques has little resemblance to book Jacques, but he does add some interesting flavor to the show, and his subplot is entertaining. It’s not the worst choice for making a TV show, and it makes his death have more emotion, something that is fuel for good drama. I liked Olivia and Jacques’ dynamic on the show. Definitely a nice adaptive choice. 

That being said, Show Jacques isn’t Jacques Snicket in the books. Jacques Snicket is someone who looks and appears enough like Olaf that even the Baudelaires think he’s Olaf for a moment. That implies quite a lot about him. He’s also a bit of a loner, so him teaming up with Olivia (who might even be his first cousin!) is kinda not in character based on what little we know. Jacques also isn’t some kind of charming, super capable agent. That just isn’t consistent with what little we know of him. Jacques is the most elusive and mysterious of the Snicket siblings. He is in only a couple of chapters in one book, and gets mentioned elsewhere. 

The difference between adapting Jacques and adapting Kit is that Jacques had very little material to start with, he wasn’t discussed in really sexist/creepy tones, he wasn’t overhauled to the point that his only resemblance to the book character was his name, etc. Jacques’ age wasn’t changed because Barry wanted to cast an actor he thought was attractive. Fleshing out Jacques was a good decision. What Barry did to Kit was strip everything away from her that made her interesting and just made a character he’d want to sleep with because he found the actress attractive. That’s gross. I won’t ever get over it. 

[lemonysnidget]

Hi, I just found your blog recently and I really like your theories. I was just wondering, are you going to write any theories about the night at the opera or the marvelous marriage? I know you mentioned you were going to at one point, so I just wanted to know if you still are. I hope med school's going well for you.

Hello! I’m so glad you found the blog and are enjoying the theories.

I do have both theories in my drafts, so I have my notes for them. So, I think I will likely be posting them at some point in the near future. It’s just going to be a matter of getting back into the groove of writing meta for ASOUE. It’s been a while, so I feel like I need to reread the series... maybe rewatch the show (or certain episodes). 

I am graduating from medical school in a matter of days, so I guess you could say it has gone extremely well. Thank you! 

[lemonysnidget]

It makes sense that Violet would be snickets daughter.I mean Olaf gave her the most important role in the play

I don’t think that the two things have any connection. Olaf gave Violet an important role in the play because he wanted to marry her to acquire the fortune. Since she was the eldest Baudelaire and the the eldest daughter (gay marriage doesn’t seem to be a thing in the universe at the time), Olaf casts her as his bride in the play. Whether or not Violet is Lemony’s daughter seems to be irrelevant to her role in the play. 

Whether Olaf believes Violet could be Lemony’s daughter is another matter. And then whether Violet is Lemony’s daughter is separate from that. 

It seems pretty safe to say that Violet was cast because she was the eldest Baudelaire and therefore marrying her was the best way to get access to the Baudelaire fortune. 

[lemonysnidget]

Is lemony the father of all the baudelires

No. Definitely not. 

The only Baudelaire who could theoretically be Lemony’s child is Violet, and that’s just theoretically. 

Lemony’s relationship with Beatrice was over by the time Klaus was conceived, and he likely hadn’t seen Beatrice in over a decade by the time Sunny was conceived. 

There isn’t any evidence to support the idea that Beatrice had an affair after getting married, so I would assume that there isn’t ambiguity over the father of the younger Baudelaires, and only a possible question mark over Violet’s father. 

[lemonysnidget]

what's the link to your main blog? :)

Huffleporg.tumblr.com

Thanks for asking! :)

[lemonysnidget]

To the folks that just followed me

This is primarily a blog for discussing A Series of Unfortunate Events. It’s a side blog of my main blog, Huffleporg. If you’re interested in discussion of medical school, you’ll find more stuff there. Here you’ll encounter mostly nerdy ramblings. 

[lemonysnidget]

ode-to-oof

Could you elaborate on the difficulties one faces when going into academia pls ? I'm having troubles deciding whether to take humanities or medicine rn, tho I know that’s a decision one needs to do for himself I’m merely curious about what brought a literature loving person to choose against it .+There is no thing such as going to med school here in Germany which makes the process of deciding what to do with your life a bit faster .

I certainly can, @ode-to-oof. I don't know what academics are like in Germany, though I do understand that you choose your life path a lot sooner in Europe. (Which honestly, has pros and cons).

In the USA, academia is pretty hard to have success in. You can get lucky and wind up doing your PhD at a great place, wind up on track to become a professor, get tenure, publish a lot and get a lot of respect. But, that's not always the case. Depending on your area of study, you might not have endless options for where you can work. Jobs don't open up frequently in some fields. You can quite often wind up in adjunct professor hell, never getting tenure. It's also a very, very long journey. Longer than geting a MD degree. (5 ish years for PhD, then post-doc work... and no timeline for getting to professorship or tenure).

At my home institution, I saw lots of extremely qualified academics get denied tenure. I saw brilliant minds getting crushed by the business side of higher education. Depending on the politics of the college or university you're employed at, your work can be extremely under funded. I saw a department where there were two professors - one tenured, one adjunct - and the tenured one retired. Suddenly the adjunct professor was teaching all the courses that couldn't be taught by teaching assistants, and he was told that the college wasn't going to hire a post-doc or anyone to help out, because money... Well... he had no time to do research and publishing, which is critical to rising up the ranks in academia. It was very sad when he left, but I understood completely. The institution he'd worked for for over a decade was screwing him over.

At big institutions, it's not always better. Funding and grants are hard to come by, even with a big name institution sponsoring your project.

Academia is a very competitive and often times frustrating line of work. Unless there is something that you are so passionate about that you are willing to put up with all the struggles that come from working in the field, you won't be happy. It's not something you should go into without that passion. Like medicine. Like a lot of things. But for academia, there are added considerations - low pay, limited options for work...

Studying the humanities doesn't always mean going into academia. And there is academia for medicine too! Science has a lot of academic work behind it. It's not unique to the humanities.

Good luck in deciding!

[lemonysnidget]

what made you decide on medical school and how are you liking it? you're very good at analysis and seem to be very good at literature, so did you ever consider studying the arts? :)

While I haven’t enjoyed all parts of medical school (no one goes to medical school to be a med student, you go to be a doctor), I have just started my fourth year, so I’m about ten months away from achieving my goal of becoming a doctor. I’m pretty excited about that.

As for what brought me here... well, that was a long journey. Science and public health have always interested me, but so have the humanities. I studied the humanities and social sciences primarily in college, and I decided that I wanted to study public health in my last semester... so I had to take classes as a post-bac student after graduation to apply to an MPH program... but taking biology and learning about medicine, I decided I wanted to be a MD/MPH. So that’s what I’ve been working on for a while now. 

I have considered going into literature. In high school, I was pretty sure I’d wind up becoming a college professor. And then in college I learned about how unpleasant it could be to work in academia, and I just didn’t want to do that. It’s a life that you really have to want in order to feel happy and content. I love literature. I love languages. I love analysis. But I want to spend the next several decades of my life still loving all that! I don’t think I would if I had decided to go the PhD route. 

Just because you love something, that doesn’t mean it’s the best career path for you. And even if you choose something that doesn’t seem related, you can wind up bringing a lot of your hobbies and passions into that field. For example, I’m very involved in the medical humanities community. I read and write quite a lot. I create art that has been published in my school’s magazines - I’ve made the cover for our research magazine two years in a row! I definitely still do a lot with the humanities and creative arts. I just have it set up so it’s something I do entirely for me. And that might not be the best for everyone, but I am glad that I’ve gone down this path. 

Thanks for asking! :)

[lemonysnidget]

Hey, I love your blog! I’m reading theories rn and yours are so good!

Thank you so much! :) 

Hopefully I’ll be posting more again soon. 

[soymimikyu]

Food in Netflix’s Series of Unfortunate Events: Season 2

I just finished season two and continued my cataloguing of all the food I found noteworthy in the show. I share them below for your enjoyment and, possibly, future reference.

As usual, I tried provide the necessary context in which a meal appeared and any additional notes or thoughts I have on recreating the meal. Additionally, like last time, dishes I have made will be marked with an X.

These notes are a bit more whimsical than the last set. I wanted to have fun while cataloguing…and I did.

These notes are brought to you by the delightful music of [SOUND HOLIC] and [SWING HOLIC]. Why? That is just what I am listening to while I filter, write, and format all my chicken scratchings.

Food in The Austere Academy

Banana

Eaten by Mr. Remora

Macaroni and Cheese  [X]

Part of Mr. Remora’s anecdotal language lesson. It was not decorative, tube shaped, or butterfly. I already went off on how troubling this was to me.

Low Calorie Mayonnaise

Metric Lesson with Ms. Bass

Beef and Bean Burrito with a Ribbon on It

Larry’s meal stolen by Carmelita Spats

Macaroni and Cheese with Wieners

Meal the children have with Quagmires in the cafeteria.

I wrote something else down but it is not a word as far as I can tell…B-U-I-L-E…

Rotten Fruit

Plentiful in the cafeteria and all unappetizing.

Really only mention able to draw significance to the following point.

Fresh Fruit

Offering by the Quagmires to the children as a token of friendship before pep rally.

Cannelloni

 What Larry’s pan was filled with prior to using it to fight Olaf

Frozen Duck and Rabbit

What was in the freezer Larry was stuck inside.

Vegetable Soup [X]

Mr. Remora’s Quiz

Pomegranate

Ms. Bass’s Quiz

Macaroni and Cheese [X]

Children have lunch with the Quagmires.

Cake [X]

Sniffed (really snorted) by Carmelita in the night

Looks like a standard white cake with whipped topping. If the cake is light enough, I would highly advocate for a custard cream. Simply fold in whipped cream with a custard. Makes it nice and airy.

Baked Hamster

Olaf discusses this while making the children run laps

Olaf suggests tenderizing them on the little spiny wheel they use.

Cruel. Hamsters are not for baking.

Rice Pudding [X]

Mr. Remora’s quiz for the children

Candy

Nero’s constant desire and punishment for being late for his recitals

Food in The Ersatz Elevator

Prune Ice Cream

Anxious versus Nervous description provided by Lemony

Juice and Fruit? Probably pretty decent.

Aqueous Martini

Offered to the Children by Jerome. Supposedly very in.

Klaus does not know how to hold a martini glass properly or is too confused to hold it properly.

Omelette [X]

Jerome found a kitchen and received one. Secret omelettes are the best kind of omelettes.

Rutabaga

The in-est vegetable according to Esme during her tour.

I don’t think I have ever used or cooked one of these. I believe there is a pudding that can be made out of them.

Pickled Fish and Vodka Martini

Food offered at Herring Houdini by Olaf’s troupe.

Food at Cafe Salmonella

Salmon Flavored Water

I was not able to find a way to make salmon flavored water (not that I really want to), but that search led me to find smoked salmon flavored vodka – troubling but fascinating.

Salmon on Crackers

Probably delicious. Smoked salmon on crackers with a soft, herbed cheese is fantastic.

Creamy Salmon Soup with a Salmon Eye

Yes – anything can be creamed, but should it? I suppose one could make this appetizing in a bisque sort of way? Use a starch to thicken it (over cooked rice is one way) and puree the whole thing. I will give it a plausible. Nix the eye-ball…those are rather chewy and have a generally unpleasant mouth feel in my opinion. Not saying never eat fish eyes, I just don’t think it would fit the dish when considering both the texture of the soup and how it should be plated (white bowl on a white plate with a sprig of green for contrast).

Salmon Sabayon

Sabayon, for those unfamiliar (I was not familiar until I looked this up 30 seconds ago), is an Italian custard sauce made with wine. While I applaud the writer who came up with this dish – it sounds rather unpleasant. I don’t think this one is saveable – maybe some sort of savory fishy aspic to give pureed salmon the correct consistency? I don’t really want to think too hard about this one.

Salmon Bread with Salmon Butter distilled from Salmon Head

This is a dish I can back. A strong sourdough with bits of smoked salmon sounds awesome (like a bacon sourdough). The number of salmon needed to create something like head cheese bothers me – seems like a waste, if it is even possible. To my understanding, head cheese is the result of boiling the meat and collagen from the head of an animal. There is not a lot on the head of a salmon. Perhaps make use of other parts of Salmon offal?

Burned Alive Salmon

Cruel.

Gravlax

This is a Nordic dish (I looked this one up too – I’m food cultured, but not that cultured). Salmon cured with salt, sugar, and dill sounds amazing!

Salmon Tail Salad with Salmon Skin Croutons

I can see this with a bit of imagination. Salmon skin cooked properly to a crisp is rather tasty and croutons are not too much of an extension from that. Using fish tail can also liven up any salad by being an exciting and unique center piece offsetting the greens and other vegetables (I have no idea – but I have a picture in my mind…)

Herring Sandwich

Eaten by Henchperson of Indeterminate Gender at Herring Houdini

Herring between two pieces of bread. Seems fine.

Hot pickled fish

Last meal eaten by Esme, Gunther, and possibly Jerome at Herring Houdini.

Parsley Soda

In-est thing since aqueous martinis.

I don’t like parsley and think it has a funny taste. I doubt carbondation would help.

Pack of Gum

Selling point for the poster of Olaf at auction

Food in The Vile Village

Sarsaparilla Soda

Served to Mr. Poe by Olaf in disguise.

I assume this is correct because it is later mentioned that this was once served at the firehouse bar, but the actual bottle handled to Poe is not visible.

Huevos Rancheros

Hector feeds the Children breakfast.

Tea

Olivia Caliban ( :( ) is able to read tea leaves.

Wtf sugar bowl?

I have heard of this sugar bowl for quite a while (even before watching the show). I did not get it at this point in the show (not that I really get it now…), but wrote that down and felt it worth sharing.

Bowl of Ice Cubes

Analogy made by Detective Dupin

Loaf of bread with water and a side of dust

Prison meal for the Children. Used to escape because the bread is that tough.

Terrible Bread Pudding

Meal made by the Children’s parents for Klaus’s last birthday.

Short of burning it, bread pudding is tricky to mess up. Too much custard – you have sweet goop. Too little custard – you have something akin to french toast. Perhaps it was savory, which opens the way to far more errors.

Some liquors,  can bring a delightful fruity flavor to your bread puddings and custards.

Carrot

Distraction donkey.

Cranberry Juice

Hector’s lost supply when Esme punctures the bag.

Food in The Hostile Hospital

Day old Pastries [X]

In Last Chance General Store

Look like danishes but are supposedly scones. I was rather angry they were called scones, because I saw no scones. I am rather particular about scones.

Vitriolic Tea

On the back of Last Chance General Store as a large sign.

Cheezie Weezie Worms

Stolen by Olaf in Last Chance

Look like Cheetos but with a cuter name

Coffee [X]

Esme had 3 cups in the hospital

Chicken Soup

Hal brings the Children a family recipe

Comfort food

Smores [X]

The parents of the Children would make them when camping under the night sky

Tea [X]

In the video with Jacques Snicket

Fish and Chips

A craving of Olaf when disguised as a doctor

Vinegar

Drank when no one is looking by one of the white faced women

Alphabet pasta

Klaus uses it to work out anagrams

Disinfectant

More food for one of the white faced women.

Food in The Carnivorous Carnival

VFD Party Food

Champagne

Fruit Pie or Tartlets [X]

Behind Lary while he is prepping food. I just like pies.

Deviled Eggs

Transport note.

Root Beer Float

How Lemony finds out that Olaf Knows.

Merlot

Trunk wine consumed by Olaf and Troupe

Ear Of Corn [X]

Audition task for the Children to join the Carnival

Popcorn

Held by Ambidextrous Kevin

Meatball [X]

Used in an analogy by Lemony

Tagliatelle Grande

A large flat pasta whip originally held by Esme, then Olaf, and finally used by Violet to repair the roller coaster.

Asparagus

Preference of Henchperson of Indeterminate Gender at the carnival when asked if they can eat corn.

Tom Kha Gai

Soup made by kevin

Thai sour, spicy soup made with coconut milk. Looks tasty.

Breakfast Wine Spritzer

Suggestion of Madame Lulu to distract Olaf.

Candy Apple

Arbitrary carnival food

Hot Dog

Found by Henchperson of Indeterminate Gender and possibly led to nausea

Cotton Candy

In carriage and wrapping up our carnival food.

[beatricebidelaire]

admittedly i’m reaching quite a bit here, but if you subscribe to the G+H+I of the family tree are the anwhistles and the M+N+O are the calibans theory, and if you also subscribe to the kit was partially indirectly responsible for gregor’s death theory, and if you focused on the netflix version of olivia’s story instead of the books, and how jacques recruiting her ultimately led to her death, then perhaps there’s something about. the snicket twins each individually partly / indirectly responsible for the death of one of their cousins 

[lemonysnidget]

One look at the family tree for the series over all, and I think that cousins killing cousins is a common trait in the VFD families. Big family tradition. 

Thank goodness they don’t do Thanksgiving. Can you imagine? No one would eat anything that anyone else brought because they were convinced it was poisoned.