5.3 KiB
[RT][HF] Twig, Arc 16: Head Over Heels
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Author: u/AmeteurOpinions Finally, everyone was working together.*
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URL: https://twigserial.wordpress.com/2016/12/27/head-over-heels-16-1/
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Score: 14
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Created: 2016-12-27T14:38:16
Post:
Comments:
u/Drexer [+7] (2 hours later)
So, because the discussion of the importance of the latest revelation has come up various times I want to bring attention to one post by wildbow:
It undermines the legitimacy of a line of leadership extending back since before Wollstone. The Crown has people who are loyal and who recognize or believe in the blood-given right to rule. There’s the idea that these people were the cream of the crop to begin with, in breeding and wealth, in esteem and in talent, and then they were made better by cutting edge science. There’s a system in place, and you can trust that even if you fear the nobles, there’s a reason they’re there and it makes sense. People accept this.
The emphasis here is on ‘glorified’, on the fact that it was a farce and it was a lie that was sold to the people. You start talking about the fact that the nobles were actually homeless children and orphans, and now people start wondering. On the ground level, people start asking ‘what right do you have to rule over me?’ and the answer no longer has anything to do with legitimacy or right or breeding or establishment, because none of those things exist anymore. The only establishment that people see now is a lot of question marks and shadiness. What else are they lying about? How deep does this farce extend?
The answer to the question ‘what right do you have to rule over me’ becomes and remains ‘we’re already in charge and we’ll destroy you if you don’t relent to our rule’. The former part (being in charge) doesn’t sit easy and is subject to change, and the threat of destruction isn’t something you can hold over people’s heads in perpetuity. You need to show you’re willing to deliver to remind people, or it loses its cachet.
In easier to explain terms, you’re moving away from a balance of fear and respect to solely fear. A lot of the unknown (again, not getting the full story of what’s happening behind the scenes) and a lot of perceived monsters in charge, both in terms of how they came about and what they are. A culture of respect invites people to rise up. A culture of fear stifles.
That’s at the ground level.
Higher up, you get more people who have passing or intermittent dealings with the Crown. These are people who are wrapped up in the romance and the idea of legitimacy, and the ideas of blood and breeding. They’re the nobles hands, and their eagerness to be a part of things and to maintain a facade of their own plays nicely with the nobles’ image… until you reveal the truth. Do they keep obeying orders and instructions? Sure. Do they keep jumping through hoops to play along, weave their way into the fantasy and romance of these hyper-beautiful, awe-inspiring leaders, and go out of their way to make life easier in hopes of accolades and attention? Not so much. Not with nearly the same sentiments. So the likes of the Gages (Candida/Emily’s parents) shift stances, keep their heads down, do what they’re supposed to do, and the nobles have less of a grasp. And there are thousands upon thousands who are like the Gages. Some of whom might provide vital information or handle currency or otherwise. It’s a lot of incremental losses that have a way of snowballing.
There’s more, to do with doctors, and the sentiments of the Academy people who rise to certain positions, and balance of power, but that’s a whole other thing.
There’s even more, to do with the nobles. Who don’t all even know what they are, and the effect on them.
You’re saying the Emperor has no clothes and that the emperor and the entire court knew. Taking the gleam out of the crown itself, changing the image into a tarnished, twisted thing, not an established part of the Crown’s respected background and culture. The nobles as described were organic, then augmented. There’s nothing organic about the picture this paints.
I think the reader perspective is particularly complicated in Twig as the viewpoint is made a lot from the people on the outside of the society, both on the top and on the bottom of the social scale, and this ends up making us forget the rest of it and how this small thing(for us which live in a society which has a social background of democratic leanings) can have a huge impact in this fictional world.
u/CouteauBleu [+3] We are the Empire. (3 hours later)
Yeah. I like the moments in Twig where Sy notices that he sees more violence in a week than most people in a lifetime.
u/Sparkwitch [+2] (16 hours later)
I'd been hoping that because we'd never gotten a Jamie/Jessie interlude after all this time, there was going to be some giant revelation there of long term plans and dark histories. A character who remembers everything might very well have all sorts of secrets.
Instead: Snuggles. C'est la vie.