Name of the Wind speculation
Sep. 16th, 2015 04:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackI'm fascinated by how much of Name of the Wind is carefully built to be consistent in large and small details, allowing the sort of detailed analysis Jo and lots of commentors made on Tor.
The summary posts there are quite good, as are some of the wikis, but does anyone know if there's anywhere the best speculation is helpfully organised by topic (like the wheel of time wiki used to)? Wherever I've looked has always included some interesting-but-later-discarded stuff, and not included everything.
Frame Story
A couple of things I was thinking about. One is what happened to Kvothe in the frame story. Most people accept that he has done something to become Kote, if it's not certain exactly what (changing his Name, hiding his true self by splitting his mind, etc). But what I hadn't realised is that maybe that wasn't so much something had already happened, as something that was ongoing. Like, Kvothe is deliberately becoming Kote, because he thinks its necessary, but he's also scared of it, or scared it's likely to be irreversible.
That would explain why sometimes he seems to be pretending, and sometimes he can do magic (in book one), but sometimes he can't (with the skin dancer): because the change is becoming fixed.
That might be what happens when he tries to open his box: it's keyed to him and he thinks it likely he's no longer himself, but gets the confirmation when he tries to open it (perhaps it contains his name or something else that might let him return).
And Bast wants Kvothe to become his old self, which is why he set up the soldiers to attack him, in the hopes that he'd defend himself, and why he was so shocked when they beat him up. And maybe Kvothe did start to defend himself, and then suddenly remembered he needed to let go of being Kvothe and did so -- but that was scary because he knew he _would_ then be beaten up and wouldn't be able to back out of it...
Lackless Box
Seriously, 3000 years? How can they KNOW that? Is that based on the age of Yllish knotwork? Or is fictional wood that lasts 3000 years significantly different to wood that lasts 2000 or 4000? Do they have any other 3000 year old wood to compare it to?
I also note, our best guess for creation war was more like 6000 years ago, even though we'd assumed the box here is likely to be relevant to that story (containing the moon's name is an obvious guess, because that's the only box mentioned, but it doesn't quite fit). So either one of the dates is wrong. Or the box spent some time in faerie. Or the box is 3000 years old, but contains a smaller, older box.
Collected speculation
Things that I think are pretty much confirmed:
99% Netalia Lackless ran off with Arliden and became Kvothe's mother
99% Kvothe kills a king
99% Kvothe did something to cause widespread civil war and directly or indirectly scrael etc loose
99% Kvothe did something to become Kote
99% Jax is Iax
The resolution of the story depends on, and reveals about:
99% doors of stone
99% lackless box
99% creation war
99% faerie
99% chandrian
99% denna and her patron
99% something auri gives kvothe
99% the real or metaphorical rings mentioned in the rhyme about kvothe
99% ctheah
Things I think are likely to play an important part in what goes wrong or what fixes it, because they feel like loose ends, but don't have any specific justification for:
90% Denna
75% Bast
75% Auri
50% Knacks (as mentioned in the first few chapters and then not really again)
50% Feud with Ambrose
50% Hemme as chancellor
Breaking the world:
75% Kvothe does something supernatural to open doors to faerie or let the moon out or re-merge the realms, that unleashes fae creatures on the world, not just from mundane civil disorder
50% Kvothe survives
50% Kvothe fixes what's wrong
Theories I really don't like, but sound plausible:
50% Denna is some sort of supernatural spirit, not just a woman like Kvothe
Creation War:
90% Tehlu's origin is more like that described by Skarpi than by Trappis
90% Encanis is based partly or mostly on Lanre
65% Encanis is based entirely on Lanre/Haliax
50% We get more of Lanre's story and it's more sympathetic than Kvothe thinks at the moment (but I've no idea if it's mostly sympathetic or only slightly)
75% The Chandrian are trying to end the world because its the only way they can escape their existence.
I may come back and update this with other bits as I remember them.
ETA: 90% Seven words to make someone love you will be relevant in some way (though I don't know if it's a specific magical thing or a metaphor or somewhere between)
The summary posts there are quite good, as are some of the wikis, but does anyone know if there's anywhere the best speculation is helpfully organised by topic (like the wheel of time wiki used to)? Wherever I've looked has always included some interesting-but-later-discarded stuff, and not included everything.
Frame Story
A couple of things I was thinking about. One is what happened to Kvothe in the frame story. Most people accept that he has done something to become Kote, if it's not certain exactly what (changing his Name, hiding his true self by splitting his mind, etc). But what I hadn't realised is that maybe that wasn't so much something had already happened, as something that was ongoing. Like, Kvothe is deliberately becoming Kote, because he thinks its necessary, but he's also scared of it, or scared it's likely to be irreversible.
That would explain why sometimes he seems to be pretending, and sometimes he can do magic (in book one), but sometimes he can't (with the skin dancer): because the change is becoming fixed.
That might be what happens when he tries to open his box: it's keyed to him and he thinks it likely he's no longer himself, but gets the confirmation when he tries to open it (perhaps it contains his name or something else that might let him return).
And Bast wants Kvothe to become his old self, which is why he set up the soldiers to attack him, in the hopes that he'd defend himself, and why he was so shocked when they beat him up. And maybe Kvothe did start to defend himself, and then suddenly remembered he needed to let go of being Kvothe and did so -- but that was scary because he knew he _would_ then be beaten up and wouldn't be able to back out of it...
Lackless Box
Seriously, 3000 years? How can they KNOW that? Is that based on the age of Yllish knotwork? Or is fictional wood that lasts 3000 years significantly different to wood that lasts 2000 or 4000? Do they have any other 3000 year old wood to compare it to?
I also note, our best guess for creation war was more like 6000 years ago, even though we'd assumed the box here is likely to be relevant to that story (containing the moon's name is an obvious guess, because that's the only box mentioned, but it doesn't quite fit). So either one of the dates is wrong. Or the box spent some time in faerie. Or the box is 3000 years old, but contains a smaller, older box.
Collected speculation
Things that I think are pretty much confirmed:
99% Netalia Lackless ran off with Arliden and became Kvothe's mother
99% Kvothe kills a king
99% Kvothe did something to cause widespread civil war and directly or indirectly scrael etc loose
99% Kvothe did something to become Kote
99% Jax is Iax
The resolution of the story depends on, and reveals about:
99% doors of stone
99% lackless box
99% creation war
99% faerie
99% chandrian
99% denna and her patron
99% something auri gives kvothe
99% the real or metaphorical rings mentioned in the rhyme about kvothe
99% ctheah
Things I think are likely to play an important part in what goes wrong or what fixes it, because they feel like loose ends, but don't have any specific justification for:
90% Denna
75% Bast
75% Auri
50% Knacks (as mentioned in the first few chapters and then not really again)
50% Feud with Ambrose
50% Hemme as chancellor
Breaking the world:
75% Kvothe does something supernatural to open doors to faerie or let the moon out or re-merge the realms, that unleashes fae creatures on the world, not just from mundane civil disorder
50% Kvothe survives
50% Kvothe fixes what's wrong
Theories I really don't like, but sound plausible:
50% Denna is some sort of supernatural spirit, not just a woman like Kvothe
Creation War:
90% Tehlu's origin is more like that described by Skarpi than by Trappis
90% Encanis is based partly or mostly on Lanre
65% Encanis is based entirely on Lanre/Haliax
50% We get more of Lanre's story and it's more sympathetic than Kvothe thinks at the moment (but I've no idea if it's mostly sympathetic or only slightly)
75% The Chandrian are trying to end the world because its the only way they can escape their existence.
I may come back and update this with other bits as I remember them.
ETA: 90% Seven words to make someone love you will be relevant in some way (though I don't know if it's a specific magical thing or a metaphor or somewhere between)