[Dragaera] Dzur spoilers - 17 thoughts

[Davdi Silverrock]

On 8/12/06, Maximilian Wilson <wilson.max at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 8/12/06, Davdi Silverrock <davdisil at gmail.com> wrote:
> > A one, a two, a...
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> >
> > Do assassins have some sort of "killdar"?
>
>
> "Just because they really are out to get you doesn't mean you aren't
> paranoid. If they've been after you long enough, paranoia can become a
> reflex."
>
> "...I got no sense that he knew how to handle himself, or was looking
> around for danger, or that, well, he was anything except an elderly
> merchant. Naturally, I assumed he was there to kill me."
>
> The only sense I get here is that Vlad is mocking his own paranoia,
> not that he *really* had any sense that Mario was dangerous.

And yet, Vlad comments on getting a sense of danger from Mario's hands.
And despite the protest of  him getting "no sense that he knew how to
handle himself", there is yet the assumption of him being an assassin.

Thinking abour reflexes makes me think of Issola again.

> > 16) Courtesy

>
> > Was Vlad just slightly more courteous to people than he would have
> > been normally?  I'll have to try and look for that on my re-read,
> > although I note that there's a point when he has a chance to mouth off
> > to Aliera, and stops himself.
>
> You mean aside from the overt occasions where he's about to say
> something rude and Teldra stops him?

Was it overt, though?  From what I recall and notice, there's just
points where he starts to go one way, then changes his mind.  Since he
never says *why* he changes his mind, it is ambiguous whether it is
because of LT.

And even then, I am wondering if he changes his mind because LT is
having an unconcious influence on him, or because touching her hilt
comforts and calms him, thus causing him to be less snappy, or because
that sense of comfort reminds him of his conversations with Teldra
when she still lived, and he conciously strives to modify his own
behaviour in order to honor and emulate her (that is, doing what she
might have advised him to do were she there with him in real life).
Or perhaps some combination of all of the above.

>
> > 17)  Vlad Norathar and Cawti
> >
> > Note that Cawti did notify Noish-pa about VN, but consider the
> > implication:  Vlad said that he visited Noish-pa during his travels.
> > That could mean his own grandfather didn't tell him about his son
> > (unless the timing wasn't quite right, in that the visit was before
> > the birth, which I suppose might be possible).  Hm.
>
> But he saw Noish-pa "a couple of years ago." Has Vlad really only been
> gone for three years?  My sense of it is that it was longer.

Vlad's sense of time can be rather weak and vague.  There are more
than a couple of instances in the various books of this.

>
> > I wonder, will Cawti/Vlad hold off taking VN to see Noish-pa, given
> > the prophecy about VN?
>
> Remind me again? Is this from VoA?
>

No, no.  Noish-pa's own foretelling about himself, from the end of /Phoenix/.

"I read the symbols, and they said I would live to hold a
great-grandchild in my arms. Do you think the sands were wrong?"

With the potential implication that someone as old as he is might well
die shortly after that.