The Storian - Tumblr Posts - Page 2
Equality and the School Master Brothers
Remember how the Storian insists on the brothers being equal in all things? On a literal level? That’s so contrived. That’s how you treat small children, not respected, public figures you expect mature behavior from!
And if that element were removed—well actually, maybe it couldn’t be, as removing it would reduce the intensity of the Equal Treatment/Chances fairy-tale element, of the satisfying (to whom? Us? The Pen?) repetition and symmetry, reduce the mystique itself around the ways of their world. Yet still, that form of balance is wrong.
I mean, it’s like how they each were expected to each have their own Reader to return with, in order to leave Gavaldon, be permitted through the barrier. The artificially enforced equality in all endeavors kills the need to think, two and two, one and one, etc., and then, there’s: what if this balance issue were addressed in a non-literal, utterly equal sense? You can’t make two humans with separate identities 100% equal.
Why couldn’t the trade-off have simply been something like: have any means or inequalities you want along the way, to achieve a more figurative, abstract, big-picture form of equality after events have come to pass naturally? It'd still be equality in a sense. Like, the same number of Good endings and Evil endings to tales, for instance? That, instead of micromanaging things on such a small scale.
Besides, the brothers aren't the only control freaks. The Pen is just as much a control freak and Rule follower as Rise Rhian and Fall Rafal are, despite having set the Rules by itself. (But, does it only follow its own established Rules when it's convenient?)
The Pen has such a low threshold for minute things being off, for misalignment. (Probably because it's the details that make a story worth telling.) Like: oh, that brother cheated? Let’s wait—for the other one to cheat, too, before we let anything else change. No preventative measures. Nothing, nil.
Things are stagnant until both brothers comply with or rather, fall into, the equality trap. A trap which probably makes them less equal in some contradictory fashion!
Dealing with that high level of scrutiny, all to live under the tyranny of Pen? It must be suffocating. And they had different needs. So, they didn’t need the same treatment all the time. They could’ve benefited from inequality as long as they were both served according to who they were.
How flagrantly wrong everything in the duology went plot-wise is at the very least evidence for how not every quality can be saved by or reduced to numbers and systemized for the world's convenience. And, as a storyteller, the Storian probably should've known this, to let faces be faces, instead of more statistics piling up. Though, I'm sure its reasons for withholding "character" names were more to generate further drama and suspense or to implant ideas in people's heads, not weak writing.
RIDE AT DAWN, my faithful soldiers(?). You may have a chance at saving me yet! And, surely, you'd kill for me, right? And pledge yourselves to my campaign to rule the Woods?
Then again... I kind of don't want to back down—the Pen is shiny and an offer of immortality? How tantalizing. Might as well let it stab me, just this once.
And whatever the outcome... I'll pay you in something better than "your weight in gold." Far better. That's a promise. Oh? Ahem, I almost forgot: something more ethical too. Definitely more ethical. There's nothing to fear.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think, jointly, prequel Rafal and main series "Rafal" are the only character who ever manages to rival the sheer volume of outfits Sophie has. Tedros and Agatha don't even come close.
Thus, I wanted to ask:
did any of you on here read the school for good and evil books either as a kid or recently and do you want to talk about them