"Jude will have a major political problem by the end of Prisoner's Throne"
Hello class, today we will very briefly discuss every political problem present by the end of The Stolen Heir, along with every political problem that has been foreshadowed throughout the Stolen Heir, as a fun means to try and guess how much trouble our favorite characters are in.
Let's dive right in.....to the Undersea!
Everything we know about the turmoil happening beneath the water comes from two discomfiting warnings from Jack of the Lakes and Loana, Oak's mermaid girlfriend. In short: the Undersea is fucked.
"There is a war coming in the waves. The Queen of the Undersea has grown weak, and her child is weaker. When there comes blood in the water, the land would be well served to stay away. Cirien-Croin is coming."
The main thing to note here is that Jack speaks in very definite terms -- when there comes blood, there is a war coming. He tells us both Orlagh and Nicasia are weak, and Nicasia is somehow even weaker. Also he warns us about a sea monster, Cirien-Croin. From mythology, we know this sea monster was large enough to feed on seven whales and that it can disguise itself as small silver fish when fishermen come into contact with it. Once aboard the boat, it becomes a monster again and feeds. Cool, cool, cool.
"You sent for me and I came, Prince Oak. And lucky that I did, for the Undersea has challengers on all sides as Queen Orlagh weakens, each of them looking for an edge. Soon I may be your only friend beneath the waves."
From this alone, we can wonder at how Cirien-Croin is connected to this. If the Undersea "has challengers on all sides", is the sea monster under someones control? Is it being sent by someone? Is it advocating for itself? Will we be exposed to these challengers in the next book? (Most likely).
"The treaty with the land still stands," Oak reminds her.
"For now, beautiful one."
..."It is said that Nicasia intends to have a contest and marry the winning challenger."
"Ah," Oak says carefully. "Fun?"
"Or perhaps she will call on the treaty...and once she has all contestants in one place, let the land destroy them"
"Alas," says Oak. "The land is trying to remedy it's own problems"
The interesting points here are, once again, that damn treaty between the land and sea and how precarious it is. To my understanding, if Orlagh and Nicasia get dethroned, the treaty may not stand anymore. Or it could be something that requires Elfhame's warriors to go to war, the way the Undersea warriors fought for the land in the Battle of the Serpent.
Loana is saying here that Nicasia wants to bring together potential candidates for marriage under the auspices of a contest, but then have the land wipe all of them out when they're all present to vie for her hand? That's....insane. And I'm not sure how she would get Jude and Cardan to agree to that.
The underwater problems seem to be the most plausible unfolding plot that can happen "in the background" of the main plots (which are going to revolve around Wren, Oak, Madoc, Jude/Cardan, trolls & falcons, Bogdana etc) to then be left as a major problem at the end of the book that Jude will have to deal with.
Everything else seems to be something that will be resolved throughout The Prisoner's Throne....What are the "everything elses"?
Most of the main threats to Elfhame at the end of The Stolen Heir go back to ... Suren. Lol. My girl really did so many things to undermine Jude that there is no way that's not going to be the main event. A short list of things that I believe will be *resolved* throughout Prisoner's Throne:
First, there are the consequences of Wren "unmaking" the falcon curse on the soldiers who betrayed the High King and Queen in the Battle of the Serpent. These soldiers, whom Madoc was trying to re-establish loyalty with, were swearing fealty to Suren by the end of TSH. It's unclear if their alliances are still with Madoc by the end. All we get is the soldiers saying "My queen, my queen". Either way...
Madoc is on his way to Elfhame to alert Jude as to what happened. There is the matter of his exile to contend with..but if he still has loyal soldiers in Suren's court, he can still make a play against Jude.
Suren having possession of Greenbriar blood, Mab's bones, and her own heart has the ability to "style herself as both Oak Queen and Yew Queen" with a power of unmaking, directly opposite to Mab's power of making. The threat here is that Suren's magic could "unmake" everything that Mab's made....so the islands... etc. That's kind of....a big problem (but I don't think it'll go this far because I think, based on context clues, Suren's journey will involve choosing love over power, in the same way Jude had to...but we'll see).
Wren "unmaking" the curse on the troll forest, awakening the Troll Kings, and allying the trolls with her Queenship. May or may not be a problem, but it's another group of fae against Elfhame.
Bogdana... technically, because of the bs between Bogdana and Mab, Suren is the heir to the throne of Elfhame, not Oak. Bogdana says this:
"Lady Nore is not the only one who can seize power. There is myself as well. Myself, to whom you owe your life far more than you owe it to her. Forsake the others. Come with me, and we can take everything for ourselves."
She wants power. Not sure if she'll get it, because she did sacrifice Mellith in order to get that power and Suren expressed not wanting to make "the same mistake's Mellith made" (aka, trusting Bogdana).
The Thistlewitch made a vague deal with Oak in exchange for him learning about Mellith's heart; it's very similar to Jude's unnamed deal that later forced her to murder Balekin. The Thistlewitch literally said "When you become King, you will give me the very first thing I request." We don't know what it is...but we do know 1) Oak will be king in some way 2) He's required to deliver on this bargain. No big deal.
Slightly unrelated, but also slightly related, and I thought was interesting.... in HTKOELTHS, Aslog is described as having ground bones down into a fine powder. She did this to get back at Queen Gliten. In TSH, the Thistlewitch warns:
"Mabs bones can be ground to a powder, and that powder used to do great and mighty spells"
Aslog is turned into stone at the end of HTKOELTHS, as per the troll's curse involved with sunlight, but I'm wondering if Suren unmaking the troll's curse on that forest has also undone the sunlight-related curse, and consequently, brought Aslog back "to life". Now she'll have a vendetta against Cardan... OR, this concept of grinding bones down, and Mab's bones being ground down ....just seems ... curious.
Potential Curious Foreshadowing
Jude and Cardan having heirs is discussed a few times. It's Oak's wish that "they live for a thousand years" and pass off the throne to one of a dozen heirs, but that Jude is intentionally not having children to make it clear to everyone that Oak is the heir. Just the fact that it was brought up is curious enough to make me side-eye a tiny bit...in the way of "Jude wants this, but its not necessarily what she'll get".
"Strangely, tendrils, like roots, grow from the case, one with a bud on it, as though flowering."
The theory that this is a clue that Jude is pregnant is a pretty good one, considering it would present yet another problem as to who is the rightful heir of Elfhame. At that point we'd have: Oak, Suren, and Jude & Cardan's child. And we know some people want Oak on the throne either because they think he "would be easier to manipulate or because they'd do anything not to be ruled by a mortal".
So, essentially, another problem could, in fact, just be another heir in the mix for the throne, thus giving more fae the desire to get a mortal off the throne. Iām not against this theory, I just donāt want to get my hopes up (lol). Itās entirely plausible, but it depends on how Holly wants Oakās story to go..
Anyways, thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. I'm curious to hear theories or thoughts...or even things that I missed.
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