Steal Me Peace

| A Queen's Thief Appreciation Blog |

[november-branches]

"You must believe me," he insisted.

"Must I, Relius?"

[diannealmond]

I actually forgot I made these for a final project, oops. The Queen of Attolia and the Queen of Eddis, from the most excellent novels by Megan Whalen Turner

[the-blogman]

And here’s update #2, just in time for the new year! Above you’ll see the Aracthus in its full glory, as well as the cities of Sounis, Eddis, Attolia, and Ephrata. One more update and we should be good to go. As always, if you feel something doesn’t add up, feel free to drop me a line!

[november-branches]

"If it’s impossible to steal them with two hands, it’s no more impossible to steal them with one."

I love that each time I reread the Queen’s Thief series, I get an “aha!” moment about something that’d previously eluded me. (Rereading The Thief for the first time was such a treat. Gen, you sly bastard…) Anyhow, that holds true for this particular scene, which I didn’t realize the full meaning of until recently. It’s fair, I think, to speculate that we now know the name of the magus?

[the-blogman]

And here is update #1! Above, you can see the Irkes Forest, the Hephaestial Mountains, and the river Aracthus. Feel free to correct me if you believe anything is incorrect, at any point. This map is as much mine as it is yours.

[november-branches]

She arched her eyebrows at him, reminding him that she felt an obligation to be opulent, if she couldn’t be beautiful.

(oh, Eddis. Eugenides is right; we’d love you even in a burlap sack.)

[petrichorandpie]

FAVOURITE QUOTES ↘ The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

"Did you want to write a letter to your sweetheart?” he asked. "What makes you think my sweetheart can read? Shut up and get me a piece of paper."

[booksrgood4u]

What else would Eugenides possibly do with Mistletoe besides steal a kiss?!

Merry Christmas, Tumblr-ers!

~books

[november-branches]

And have a Sounis!Sophos, also known as so-tired-of-your-shit-Gen Sophos. I’ve always found it amusing that Sophos only starts getting called Zecush after he’s been disfigured from his cute self into an I-look-like-my-violent-uncle-when-I-smile man-killer. So it goes.

[november-branches]

an average day with the King of Attolia

[tanoraqui]

all five main QT characters, Peter Burke, Bilbo

First off, Peter Burke is one of the Hufflepuffiest Hufflepuffs to ever Hullfe a puff.

Sophos is a Gryffindor - the instinct is to put him in Ravenclaw, but it’s about what he values, and that boy has mad white-knight dreams. He’d be like Hermione.

Irene is Slytherin. She is her own fucking queen.

Helen is Hufflepuff, fair and seeing through the lies everyone else tells (often to themselves.)

Costis…I’m inclined towards Hufflepuff, but only a Gryffindor could be so suicidally stupid as to pouch the king in the face. So I think I’ll go with Gryffindor.

My instinct is to do the same with Gen, because, well, Gen - but by the gods the boy is determined to prove himself, is positively imbued with cunning, and doesn’t really like most people (and isn’t afraid to let them know it) but is fiercely loyal to those he does. He may not actually have been ambitious in the common sense of the word, but the annex, the king of kings is without doubt a Slytherin.

Bilbo is a Gryffindor who thought he was a Hufflepuff until a wizard marked his door with “Burglar for hire” and thirteen dwarves stumbled in and cleaned out his pantry. Even then he didn’t figure it out until nearly 11 o’clock the following morning. Hobbits as a whole are very Hufflepuffy, but every now and then one (usually of that odd, Tookish breed) will take it in his or her head to go adventuring.

[rattyjol]

dude, Gen is absolutely ambitious. the whole first book is because of him being ambitious. I mean, and helping Helen, but the wanting to be famous thing, that wasn’t just an act. like, he doesn’t have ambitions towards power, particularly, but he wants to be known.

(excuse me while I go have feelings about the fact that until Gen found the Gift, the position was almost entirely ceremonial and pretty much pointless, and probably for generations back the Thieves have been devoting their lives to finding it, and it was probably his grandpa’s dream, and his mother’s, and he finally did it. we don’t talk about this enough.)

[tanoraqui]

shutupshutupshutup (nah, the Thieves were totally also used as spies. But yeah, the Gift was an ongoing search.) and yeah, I was totally forgetting about ambition for status and renown, which dear lords has he gotten now *shrieks a lot about how Gen and Irene are Slytherins together and perfect and wonderful and shiiiiiiiippp*

[rattyjol]

maybe unofficially, but Gen mentioned how in the argument with his dad about him becoming a soldier, his dad wanted him to let the position disappear because it was mostly ceremonial. (which tbh may have been because at that point Gen’s grandfather was too old to do much, and his mother was dead, so not much was happening.) like, I think it was less ‘you are a useful spy here is your mission’ and more a Gen-style ‘Eddis has a problem and I will go fix it’ kind of thing.

good gods they would rule that common room

she would be several years older, maybe a prefect, and she’d have total control and then here’s this uppity little first year who’s making himself a total nuisance and just. yes. haven’t we talked about this au before? I feel like we have.

[tanoraqui]

I forget where in the books this is coming from, but I’m 99.9% sure it’s canon that the Eddisian minister of war walked into Gen’s library (where he was probably sulking) and put in front of him Sounis’s letter claiming he had the Gift or would get it soon. Then he walked out, not a word said, and Gen left a couple days later. [Irene (6th year Prefect) would accuse Helen (5th year Prefect) of somehow hacking the Sorting Hat just to get her cousin into Slytherin to spy on/subvert Irene; Helen would be like, “you know how ridiculous that sounds, right?” but not deny it (though of course she really didn’t, Gen (3rd year, previously homeschooled) is just a Slytherin through and through.] [Sophos is a Gryffindor 1st year who develops hero worship of Gen within 30 seconds of them meeting.]

[rattyjol]

yes, he mentioned it at the end of The Thief. I don’t think it was exactly a common occurrence, though. (you have it a bit wrong though, not that it matters, but what happened was the minister came into his room, explained in detail what was going on politically, put some money on the desk, and left. but tbh I’m pretty sure Gen already knew at least some of what was going on and was planning to leave, and the minister just wanted to make sure he had all the info and money that at least was legally obtained. because he was going to go anyway, so at least make sure he’s prepared.)

yep yep yep. Costis is a second year Gryffindor who punches Gen in the face and gets detention and then somehow ends up totally loyal to Gen and even he isn’t quite sure how that happened.

also, there are like two dozen of Gen and Helen’s cousins scattered around the school. they’re like the Weasleys, except in all the houses and they get along less. but all of them are totally loyal to Helen, even the older ones.

the magus is a professor who gives Gen detention like eighty times in his first term, and spends so much time with him in detention that he actually becomes quite fond of him. he’s sort of taken Sophos under his wing, and that’s how Gen and Sophos first meet.

[shaelit]

"You were… jealous of Dite?" The king, master of the fates of men, before their eyes was reduced to a man, very young himself, and in love. Picking again at the coverlet, he answered, with his eyes cast down, “Wildly.”

The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner, page 240.

[b-reads-books]

When I first read The Thief I was probably eleven or twelve and I read The Queen of Attolia soon after. I remember distinctly being irritated that Eugenides preferred his full name/title to the nickname Gen, which he went by in the first book. Mainly this irritated me…

[attolia97]

Pronunciation is hard in these books. When I was really young I used to say At-oh-lay- uh before I saw a video of MGT saying it differently.

I SAY U- jen-I- Dees and Gen like Jen. And I’m not changing that even though I can see how it could be Gene as in Eugene.

I say DITE like ‘die tea’ because that makes sense to me. :)

I’m still unsure of how to say Eddis. I just go phonetically with this one.

[b-reads-books]

I think I remember reading that Eddisians say Eddis one way and Attolians say it another—one with a long “e” and one with a short “e”. (Maybe it’s in the Thief?) So however you pronounce it is correct somewhere!

[attolia97]

That is a very good point! :) There was something about the old ways and how it was spelled Eeddis then Eddis. It is really interesting to see how all the people who read these great books have different ways of saying things.

[obscurefanart]

This is Attolia and her future son (THEY WILL HAVE ONE) from once again Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief series. I think we all know that Gen and Attolia’s child will be asking this question someday…

[rosesdrawings]

[b-reads-books]

When I first read The Thief I was probably eleven or twelve and I read The Queen of Attolia soon after. I remember distinctly being irritated that Eugenides preferred his full name/title to the nickname Gen, which he went by in the first book. Mainly this irritated me because I could not pronounce Eugenides. So in my head I butchered it horribly: ee-u-GEN-eeds. I actually pronounced the “E.” I have since dropped the “E” and now know the thief as u-GEN-eeds, which is still wrong (u-GEN-uh-dees, per MWT).

[stealmepeace]

Yes! Pronunciation in these books kills me. I struggled with Eugenides's name for a long time before getting it right. To be honest most of the time he is still Gen when I talk about him. Also, Dite anyone? (rhymes with bite?) I'm pretty sure I'm still saying that one wrong. 

[lexiconia]

Changing Character POV Mid-Scene - The Queen of Attolia

It’s something everyone tells you not to do. It’s bad, it’s confusing, and it’s all but a hard and fast law of writing that you shouldn’t change POVs mid-scene. 

I thought the same, until I read the following scene from The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner (MWT). It’s a bit long, but bear with me:

“Eugenides.” He turned. The queen stood at the end of the passageway, flanked by two more soldiers and a third man. “What do you mean, I’m not allowed on the roof?” said Eugenides, outraged. The queen walked toward him. The third man, Eugenides saw, was one of Galen’s assistants. He glanced from the assistant back to his queen. “You have someone watching my door,” he accused her. She looked uncomfortable. Eugenides turned to the guard beside him and cursed. He turned back to the queen, still cursing. The soldiers on either side of her looked shocked. “You think I’m going to throw myself off the roof?” he asked. She did. The people in his family tended to die in falls. His mother, even his grandfather. When the palsy in his hands had grown so severe that he could no longer feed himself, he’d been unable to climb to the roof, and he’d tumbled over the railing at the top of one of the back staircases. It hadn’t been a hard fall, but enough to kill an old man. “You started a war without mentioning it,” Eugenides snarled. “You have my rooms watched, and I’m not allowed on the roof. What do I find out next?” He pushed past her and the soldiers. He walked backward away from her. “Tell me you’ve enrolled me as an apprentice bookkeeper. You bought a lovely house for me in the suburbs. You have a marriage arranged with a nice girl who doesn’t mind cripples!” he shouted. He had reached the corner and disappeared from sight still shouting. He was making enough noise to wake every sleeper in that wing of the palace, and he didn’t care. “I can’t wait to hear!” He spaced his last words out and finally was finished. There was no sound, not even that of his receding footsteps. The queen sighed and dismissed the soldiers who’d accompanied her. “Shall I go back to watching his door, Your Majesty?” Galen’s assistant asked. “Yes,” she answered heavily. “Watch him as carefully as you can.” Returning to her room, she sighed again. The accusation about the arranged marriage had been a home shot. It was a good thing Eugenides hadn’t realized it yet.

Did you notice? It starts off from Eugenides’ POV, and we walk out with the Queen. But it happens so smoothly and naturally that if you’re not paying attention, you might even miss it. 

She starts the transition at this sentence: "She did. The people in his family tended to die in falls. His mother, even his grandfather."

Note that the following paragraph could be from either Eugenides’ or the Queen’s POV. It’s not until we hit the following sentence that we’re now in the Queen’s POV: "He had reached the corner and disappeared from sight still shouting."

Blink and you’ll miss it. The “disappeared from sight” is easily overlooked, but it can only be the Queen’s perception. Even the next few sentences could still possibly be from Eugenides’ POV. It’s not until we get to the end of the argument that it’s strongly established we’re now in the Queen’s POV: "There was no sound, not even that of his receding footsteps. The queen sighed and dismissed the soldiers who’d accompanied her."

But of course, there’s no point to breaking the rules if you have no purpose for it. Here, we start with Eugenides facing off with the Queen. We see things from his eyes - his perceived unfairness of the situation, opposed to the Queen. Then MWT draws the POVs together, where Eugenides questions her motive and hits it on the head. There’s a shared awareness that those in his line (Thieves) tend to die from falls - and that she’s determined to prevent it from happening to Eugenides. 

Finally, MWT tears them apart again when we go into the Queen’s POV. Eugenides, still yelling at the Queen, disappears from sight. They part on angry words, and the Queen leaves. She sighs, and we know she’s disturbed by their altercation. She cares… and we know she’s hurting too.

It’s a beautiful dance of POVs, coming together before splitting again to show the underlying relationship between the two characters.

Food for thought, next time you decide to play with POVs.