On Tue, 2002-11-26 at 14:20, The Hostile Takeover Party wrote: > >That's what I was thinking of at first. However, Aliera knew what spell > >Adron had in store. And I also feel its safe to assume that 1) Aliera > >asked Mario to free her from prison, and 2) Aliera asked Mario to > >actully kill the Emperor. Given this, it seems to be a mis-step on > >Aliera's part[1][2] that she did not think what would happen if her > >father was using his spell when the Emperor was killed. Perhaps talking > >to her father before her arrest could have prevented the Disaster. > > Three reasons why this couldn't be the case: > > 1) Aliera is impetuous, but not stupid, and throughout the book it's implied > that she understands her father's plan. If she thought Mario might try to > kill the Emperor, wouldn't she have contacted him and told him? Even if the > prisons *are* guarded against psionics, she had time beforehand. Hmm.. I doesn't make since that she would intentionally foul things up like this, but I'm still think she might be the reason why Mario made his second attempt. > > 2) Mario learns of Aliera's arrest from Khaavren *after* he escapes and > kills Dunaan. He's surprised -- I don't think he would have accepted > Aliera's help if he knew it would lead to her arrest (although, maybe he > would, if he was confident he could rescue her). You're right on this. I forgot that Mario found out about Aliera's arrest from Khaavren. > > 3) On pg. 459, he's "set upon by an idea." Instead of going home, as he > planned, he visits the woman who gives him the sorcery needed to kill the > emperor. This implies that killing the Emperor was a sudden decision. When Aliera is helping Mario escape, she mentions that she has a way Mario can repay her for her help. I think this comes down to what you think she means. I could easily mean that she either wanted sex from him, or wanted him to really kill the Emperor. I lean towards the latter as she mentioned how splendid an idea she thought killing the Emperor would be, and IIRC seems almost disappointed when Mario says he isn't intending to strike again. Now, assuming Aliera did ask Mario to make a second attempt, it is quite possible that he was heading home to devise a plan to attack the Emperor, but instead had the idea that lead to the plan while on his way home. To play the devil's advocate though, it's also likely that he wasn't intending to kill the Emperor again, but as soon as he figured out how he could, he decided to do it as a gift for his love, and possibly as a way to bring him notorioty within the Jhereg. Jag