On Thu, 31 Jul 2003, Alexx S Kay wrote: > > Vlad's general curiosity.) Is he going to make an appearance (not that > > there are too few characters in play already)? > > TPotD has a Dramatis Personae that appears to encompass all of Viscount, > not just its first earth-published volume. I apparently am a sucky reader, having totally overlooked the DP. Note that _TPotD_ ends on a dramatic note, hence any claim by Paarfi that his book is arbitrarily divided seems to me improbable. If _TLoCB_ ends mid-sentence I will apologize. > > In _Vingt Ans Apres_, Dumas opposes D'Artagnan and Porthos to Athos and > > Aramis in a question of politics, greatly rounding out the characters in > > the process. I can't see Aerich, who is concerned about ending up in > > conflict with Pel, or Khaavren, whose son is in Zerika's camp, or > > Tazendra, a Lavode, being allied with Kana. I can't really see Pel > > actively working against his friends, or Zerika, for that matter. So > > I don't see how the conflict forshadowed in Aerich's oddly-sent letter > > will unfold. > > In Dumas, Porthos was allied with Aramis through manipulation, not because > he was supporting (or indeed aware of) Aramis' goals. Pel could yet do > something similar with Tazendra. Or, the parallel may simply not hold. Porthos follows D'Artagnan because the latter pledges to arrange a baronage, a baroncy - to arrange to have the former made a baron. (Which in fact he gets as a consequence of some not entirely noble threats.) Anyway, all I was saying was that Khaavren and Pel vs Aerich and Tazendra or some other equal division would be more fun than Pel vs the rest.