In this episode we have a guest podcast member, Grace, who is the sister of the Duchess. We cover off on the “Scooby gang’s” adventures at the Golden Pony. This is the caper to destroy the mommet that is being used to conduct malfeasance against Kvothe. Mola assists in getting Kvothe and Devi back on speaking terms.
Predictions:
- Devi states that someone tried to give her 55 talents for Kvothe’s blood. In this episode she reveals that she and Ambrose have a past together. This led me to predict that the person who approached Devi was some third party outsider, perhaps connected to Master Ash. However, it seems obvious to me as of this writing that Ambrose would have simply used a surrogate to approach Devi.
- Denna’s apparent “gold digging” ways is actually a part of her job as a spy. It’s not just that she’s looking to get money off of them, or that she’s setting them up for some grift. It’s intelligence gathering.
Also, at the end of the podcast we interview Grace for a little while about what she’s reading now. She and Liz get into a discussion of YA and steampunk literature.
Next week we’ll cover chapters 34-43.
Note: We had some technical issues with using a third mic. This meant that Liz and Grace had to share one microphone. We’ve since figured out what caused this issue. So, this won’t happen again. But, it resulted in a less than perfect audio experience. We apologize for the inconvenience.
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Was good to get to this episode because I felt there was loads to think on in the chapters covered!
I think the Duke is right in his view of Ambrose and what he does. I actually think this whole subplot seemed to make less sense reading it a second time for these sorts of reasons. So, the vicious Malfeasance starts *before* he goes to Auri and learns about The Clinks, so it’s true that Ambrose could have doused for the thief.
However, Kvothe didn’t actually take anything, did he? Just caused a ruckus and a mess, so I guess the point here is that Ambrose is just being evil. What I find weird, though, is how he goes about it. Kvothe has his Alar to protect him but if he didn’t, he should be dead 10x over? So all I can think is that there’s a way using the blood to know that someone is still alive and that Ambrose sees this guy lives and keeps at him.
But then this leaves us with more questions. Kvothe implies Ambrose is stepping up his campaign because he thinks the guy must have left the area but really what is it he’s trying to achieve? If it’s just to torture the guy why not hire some thugs again with a douser? This way he has no idea of the outcome. He should get bored. Apart from anything else, what he’s doing is still illegal so he should be more wary. Especially if it seems like the guy is surviving because that should leave him concerned it’s another Sympathist which puts Ambrose in a trickier position.
Fundamentally I felt like this was a means to an end for developing Kvothe’s character and those around him. It’s okay but it feels like it lacks an essential motive, a bit like GoT TV series plotting right now where it lacks that bit behind the scenes where the cogs are turning?
DENNA then… I still don’t really hate her like you guys. Two teenagers being dicks? This is normal, right? Love stuff is weird. Kvothe is crazy about her so naturally he isn’t honest with her because when you fall for someone you get hyper aware of not revealing anything because you’d rather them not know something they might appreciate than them know something that might put them off!
There definitely seems to be more to Denna than we know. I’m inclined to think she’s being controlled directly by Master Ash in some way. I think also she genuinely feels for Kvothe but because of how he treats her she feels it’s unrequited. She is negative and has a load of bad character traits, but I don’t think that makes her bad until we know how she grew up.
Or rather I guess we separate the fact that she acts terribly (like making the lute case thing all about her) from the fact we know there is probably a good reason for it. Just like when your toddler is a BEAST because they’re hungry and you’re really frustrated with how badly they’re behaving but you know as well that they can’t help it.
And going back to Master Ash, I reckon he has her blood or a mommet or whatever. I think she is always mindful of the fact her life really isn’t her own, that she can suddenly get told this is what she must do and then it’s that or else.
Or maybe she’s just a massively evil machieavellian bad guy, like The Duke was considering. I don’t discount that entirely.
FINALLY… You mentioned the book of Neverwhere. I only ever saw the BBC TV original version of this. I mean it was originally written as a TV show although he made a book of it. My recollection of the TV series is that the first episode is not the best but it improves after that. Still it helps that you’re used to Doctor Who so you understand how differently we do TV. :-/
Here’s what Wikipedia says of the Novel, though: “Neil Gaiman wrote a novelisation of the television series that was first released in 1996, during the television show’s transmission. This was accompanied by a spoken word release on CD and cassette. The text was later re-written for the US market (Gaiman’s publisher insisting that many of the references of London were too obscure for US tastes) and a third version is now available which combines elements of both earlier versions of the novel.”
So there you go, you may have the US version so there’s another one out there assuming you have a good enough grasp for London for it to make any difference?
Thanks for this comment. I’m with you on the Ambrose stuff. His motivations seem thin at best. The only thing that I can think is that Ambrose believes that it was Kvothe who broke into his room, but he can’t douse for him and can’t prove anything. So, he’s just torturing him…for funsies.
As for Denna, I don’t know how to think. I’m coming back around on my view of her. I agree that a lot of this behavior that we’re seeing between these two is just dumb teenage stuff. And Patrick Rothfuss does a good job of showing that teenage “puppy love.” But, it’s still annoying. The fact that we know that this is all tied heavily into the plot, yet we have very little information is frustrating.
Didn’t know about the Neverwhere series. I spoke to the Duchess about this. Turns out that she was aware of this. But, stated that it wasn’t very good.