Timewaster's Guide Archive

Ookla, you're absolutely right.  I should have checked my references, before I pretended to know so much.

As I reread the scene, though, I noticed this, which would tend to support Andrew's mental rope theory:

He jerked in midair, swinging down towards the side of the building as if tied to the safe by a tether.

It doesn't seem to me like a magnetic pull would jerk him up short like that, then let him swing down.  Rather, it would pull him back toward the window.  But hey, what do I know of physics?

Thanks, Ookla, that was an interesting tidbit of astronomy that I was not only ignorant of, but had never thought to wonder about before.  I still think that first school of thought is rather Earth-centric, though; with my current level of astronomical knowledge I'd be inclined to vote with the second school of thought.

That reminds me about something that bugged me in Elantris.  (I know, I'm getting off-topic.  Feel free to reprimand me.)  Isn't Kae to the east of Elantris?  And doesn't Raoden in the first chapter see Elantris's shadow looming over Kae as the sun rises?  I would think maybe this was one of those retrograde rotational planets, except I'm pretty sure there are other references in the book to the sun rising in the east, setting in the west.  Thoughts, anyone?

The sun travels across the south part of the sky, so opposite the sun at noon is north. (And yes, if you're in the southern hemisphere the sun moves across the north part of the sky, but it still rises in the East and sets in the West (unless, perhaps, you are on a planet with retrograde rotation).)

What do you mean by "retrograde rotation"?  If the planet spins the opposite way, wouldn't that just make the opposite pole the north one?

Raoden was never really in trouble.

You don't consider it trouble to go from being a very popular prince to a hideous bruised Elantrian locked in a decaying city populated by madmen?  Or to cope with constant and increasing hunger and pain?  Or to convince hordes of crazy people to regain their sanity?  Or to see all the amazing feats you've accomplished unwittingly undone by your wife?  Or to be given useless trash in place of the materials you need to build a civilization?  Or to lose your general to madness when he's following your orders?  Or to have your closest friends not recognize you?  Or to have your people attacked by monstrous beings trained to kill?  Or to know that your kingdom is being undermined by a foreign power, and be unable to do anything about it because you're locked away?

Perhaps what you mean is that Raoden triumphs over each of these problems.  But that doesn't diminish the problems, or make them less real; rather, it makes him more admirable.  In real life, would you say to a cancer survivor that his cancer was never really a problem because as it turns out, he overcame it?  Or to the scientist who discovered a vaccine for smallpox, that smallpox was never really a problem?  Or to an Olympic gold-medal gymnast that her accomplishment is meaningless, because she won?  I don't know about you, but I admire these people, I don't find them or their achievements boring.

Similarly, I don't think that a character, even a main protagonist, needs to fail occasionally to keep my interest.  I like watching Raoden win, watching the creativity and inner strength with which he surmounts each obstacle and recovers from each setback.  After all, he doesn't win all at once - it takes him the whole book, and a whole lot of study and practice, to figure out the AonDor problem - and even then, his first success is only partial.  It also takes him most of the book to coalesce the other Elantrians around his cause - and again, there is the setback with Sarene's Widow's Trial.  Just because he wins in the end doesn't mean there is no struggle (and apparent failure) in between, to get there.

So I'm going to stubbornly hold to my opinion that Raoden is my favorite character, even though I'm aware that this isn't considered a sophisticated opinion in literary circles.  You're not supposed to like the good guy best, the bad guy is supposed to be your favorite.  In order for you to like the good guy, he has to do something bad or stupid.  Well, I don't think that's true in real life, so I don't see why it should be true in a story.

Exactly.  Besides, EUOL wouldn't keep pointing out the importance of the epigraphs if they were lies, would he?

Well, unless he was purposely trying to mislead us...

Ah ! Mais comme aux dernières nouvelles, il nous parlait d'Elantris... je le soupçonne de ne pas être véritablement mort. Enfin ! Espérons que Raoden trouvera quelque chose pour l'occuper.

Je suis d'accord.  Peut-être il s'occupera en organizant les livres dans la bibliothèque sousterraine - et en découvrant les secrets la-dedans.

(Je sais que mon français n'est pas aussi fluent que ton englais.  Je m'excuse.)

Yep, darxbane is dead.  Slain by a time-traveling Mistborn assasin.