Theory: Dame Okra Carmine!
We all know and love her! Or at least we find her irritating but amusing. Up to you. But is she actually the real villain of Shadow Scale?
Please note: much of my “evidence” for this theory comes from the Amy Unbounded comic series. Although there are a few differences between the canon of the comics and the books, they mostly have to do with the way Rachel Hartman “translated” the words from Goreddi to English (as she puts it). Most of the events, culture, and particular characters, such as Lavonda, Dame Okra, the Fough-Boi, and even random characters who just sort of show up in the books (Lalo, Amy/Edgar, etc.) are the same. If this bothers you, don’t bother reading. Also, if you’re going to be offended by me challenging the morals of the kind and benevolent Dame Okra Carmine, then please just go somewhere else. This isn’t for you.
What do we know about Dame Okra Carmine? Honestly, not much. She’s very old. She’s Ninysh. She’s an ityasaari. She’s the Ninysh ambassador to Goredd. She can tell the future with her stomach, to an extent. Until meeting Seraphina, she believed she was alone in the world (although I’m not sure that’s true, but more on that later). She is irritable and doesn’t like people (again, I’ll revisit that).
Overall, that’s not that much. If we take into account the Amy Unbounded comics, however, particularly Belondweg Blossoming, we learn a little bit more, and it seems to contradict some of the things we learn about her in Seraphina and Shadow Scale. (Note: the comics never establish her ityasaari heritage, but they do establish her prognostication skills based on her stomach, which is enough for me.)
First, the idea that she has spent her whole life believing that she is alone in the world. To put it plainly, that’s bullshit. In the comics, there are two instances that indicate that she knew about other part-dragons. In one comic, she mentions her son, Pate, who is presumably a quarter-dragon.
Amy Unbounded: Belondweg Blossoming, #5, “Of Love & Danger,” 2000, Rachel Hartman
Of course, it’s possible that Pate is adopted. After all, Seraphina doesn’t, to our knowledge, see him in her garden of grotesques. Although perhaps she only sees half-dragons, not quarter-dragons, which we know are possible thanks to Tess of the Road.
But even so, there is more reason to believe that Dame Okra was lying when she told Seraphina that she had always believed that she was alone: she knew Brasidas (”Newt” in the garden of grotesques).
Amy Unbounded: Belondweg Blossoming, #6, “In Her Eyes,” 2001, Rachel Hartman
Again, there are possible explanations for this. An obvious one is that this is a different Brasidas, but that’s boring. When do we ever see repeated names in these books? (Don’t you dare point to Nedward/Nedouard, I swear to God.)
Another explanation is that she didn’t know that Brasidas was an ityasaari. But as we know, Porphyry isn’t conservative when it comes to ityasaari; in fact, it worships them. Dame Okra has probably been there before, given that she’s an ambassador and that she knows Brasidas. If she had been, then she would likely know about the existence of ityasaari; someone might have commented on her mind-fire, or she would have simply been exposed to these people through the culture that worships them. Regardless, even if Brasidas hadn’t known about her heritage, she likely would have known about his, or about the existence of other ityasaari. So her claim to Seraphina that she had always thought she was alone could not have been realistically true.
One of the other major inconsistencies between Dame Okra in the comics and the books is her desire for kinship and company. In the books, she is notoriously hostile toward Seraphina and people in general. But in Amy Unbounded, her personality is actually more similar to when she is low-key possessed by Jannoula in Shadow Scale. In her first encounter with the protagonist, Amy, she gives her a book that she was originally going to give to Prince Kiggs, and she is often shown to be a generous and giving person, sticking her neck out for people, even when she doesn’t know them. She even spends her spare time in the kitchen of a wealthy clothing merchant, conversing with other women (and occasionally Saar Lalo).
Amy Unbounded: Belondweg Blossoming, #5, “Of Love & Danger,” 2000, Rachel Hartman
So what was Dame Okra Carmine really after that whole time?
My theory: she wanted to bring the ityasaari together. She wanted to build a place for them in Goredd. Notice that she was one of the first ityasaari to get all chummy with Jannoula--the first one that we saw, I believe. (Although we do know that Jannoula was already connected to Ingar--no others, I believe, but she had tried and failed with many of the Porphyrians.) In fact, this is the first time that her personality ever seems to match that of her comic-counterpart, who exists chronologically prior to the books. I suspect that Jannoula invading her mind was nothing new; I think that her change in personality could actually be attributed to the progress they were making on bringing the ityasaari together at her house in Ninys, rather than to Jannoula’s influence.
This could even explain why she was so opposed to Seraphina looking in on her or having telepathic connections to her. Jannoula didn’t fully understand how Seraphina’s mind worked; she only knew that it was powerful. If she and Dame Okra were worried that Seraphina might figure out what was going on in terms of their connection, then of course they would have responded by having Dame Okra attack Seraphina and alienate her, while still using her mental abilities to find the other ityasaari. Seraphina was connected to Ingar, but she hadn’t looked on him in visions in five years, and she was also separated from him by a great physical distance. Thus, her experience with Dame Okra would be different from anything Jannoula had dealt with before.
Dame Okra Carmine played into a personality that she knew Seraphina would easily fall for and dismiss. From there, she used her proximity to Seraphina to manipulate her into finding the other ityasaari for her. At some point, perhaps even before Seraphina began, she connected with Jannoula, and the two of them began working together! Or maybe, Jannoula was the one in control all along...
And that’s the theory! I’d love to hear any responses that y’all might have to this!
Gonna go out on a limb here and tag @rachelhartmanbooks 🤞 no pressure, but I’d love to hear anything you might have to say about all this!
