Taybur Sibigat of Trickster's Queen

[osprey_archer]

Three hours in the dishroom today. I feel like a boiled carrot.

But they gave us flourless chocolate cake, so I’ve made peace with my new vegetal state.

***

So I’ve been thinking, when I ought to have been reading Mein Kampf (my history teacher loves primary sources), about Taybur from Trickster’s Queen. He’s by far the best thing in the Trickster books, so it’s kind of upsetting for me to realize that his motivations make no sense.



Consider: He’s totally devoted to protecting the king, five-year-old Dunevon of the Rittevon line. And yet, when he discovers the head spy of a plot to overthrow Dunevon and his regents, Imajane and Rubinyan, he…lets her go.

It’s an open question whether or not he knows exactly what Aly is spying about, but looking at her employers would give him a good enough guess to know that it does, in fact, threaten Dunevon. Any rebellion is going to have to extinguish the Rittevons in order to be secure; that’s just the way the Copper Islands work.

(On of my—many—irritations with the Trickster Duology is that it totally weasels out of making Aly actually deal with executing a five-year-old. Finally, a situation for which she wasn’t prepared! And an acknowledgement of the extreme ugly that rebellions tend to have! But no, not so much.)

So either Taybur, despite all appearances, doesn’t give a flip about Dunevon, or he’s not nearly as bright as he looks.

The second impression is reinforced by the fact that letting Aly go is pretty much suicidal. Someone will find out eventually, even if Taybur is far and away the smartest guy in the Copper Isles, and letting go a spy definitely counts as high treason.

So there are a few options here.

First: Taybur thinks he won’t be caught. Either he’s stupid (which is rather contrary to everything in canon) or he’s wildly in denial. The Rittevons do seem to drive court members mad, so this is a viable option.

Second: Taybur, even if he isn’t actively suicidal, doesn’t care too much if he happens to die. I suspect that living in the court of the Copper Isles is kind of like having your soul extracted piece by piece with burning hot pliers, so this is entirely possible.

However, given the way the Rittevons tend to kill people, going out for high treason seems awfully foolish.

Third: Taybur thinks he can weasel his way out getting in trouble for high treason. I’m sure he’s got blackmail on every member of the court, including Imajane and Rubinyan, but that’s not going to help much if he’s stabbed in the middle of the night, now is it?

Even if he’s Imajane and Rubinyan’s corporate love bunny, I’m sure their political sense will override their libidos long enough for them to execute him for high treason. And surely Taybur knows that too.

Basically, the verdict here is that Taybur—sharp as a tack though he is—doesn’t have his head screwed on right. He thinks that the rebels won’t kill Dunevon (which is actually even stupider given how little he knows about these rebels) and he either thinks that he won’t be caught letting Aly go, thinks he won’t be killed if he’s caught, or doesn’t care if he’s killed if he’s caught.

Well, that's nice and angst-filled.

Comments

[team-fen.livejournal.com]

The second impression is reinforced by the fact that letting Aly go is pretty much suicidal. Someone will find out eventually

Will someone find out? Not if Aly doesn't tell. I seem to remember that the Rittevon spymaster was supposed to be pretty inept. It was one five-minute meeting, right? Easy for Taybur to deny if anyone who might have seen them does remember the meeting, recognize Aly for Dove's spymaster, and think to question him.

I suspect that living in the court of the Copper Isles is kind of like having your soul extracted piece by piece with burning hot pliers, so this is entirely possible. Heh!

he either thinks that he won’t be caught letting Aly go, thinks he won’t be killed if he’s caught, or doesn’t care if he’s killed if he’s caught.

I dunno, you could make up all sorts of motivations. Maybe he fell in love with Aly at first glance-- Heh! (lame). Maybe he's secretly 1/4 or 1/8 Raka, or had a Raka lover, or just got disillusioned with the colonial situation in general, and wants the Rittevons overthrown. Maybe he's guarding Dunevon and acting as a protector/teacher, hoping to raise him right and fix the Copper Isles through the current system, the slow and honourable route. Maybe he's hoping that the rebels will kill the Rittevons, but then he can rally the other noble houses behind Dunevon and set up a new regime with himself as regent... I could probably keep going with the improbable and unlikely, but you get the picture.

I only read Trickster's once, when it came out a couple years ago, and I don't remember the details too well. I just remember Taybur standing out because he was unique and an enigma-- a capable warrior and leader, his loyalties were questionable, he was smart (!!) and thought for himself, he was more aware of what was going on than most, he seemed to be a player and a good liar, but possibly honourable, possibly with his own agenda. I couldn't tell until the end which side he was on or what he would do. --Imo

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

He meets Aly at least twice that I can think of (I need to reread those books again). The danger is not so much the spy master (you remember right--very inept) but Aly herself, because it would really be safest for her to have him killed.

I think a connection to the raka is unlikely, just because Taybur's got such a sensitive post. Imajane and Rubinyan would want someone with impeccable credentials so that when they had Dunevon killed, it would CLEARLY be an accident, because they got someone so wonderful to protect him.

But I rather like the idea that Taybur's a starry-eyed idealist, trying to raise Dunevon to be a good king. And then he decides that Aly's rebellion is a better bet, perhaps? Although that still leaves the problem where Aly & co. would almost certainly have to kill Dunevon to consolidate their regime...

I'm not sure I can get behind Taybur scheming to be Dunevon's regent--he did seem to be honestly fond of the boy--but maybe that was all a mask, too. :p But I think I prefer his character if he has at least that bit of genuineness.

I'm going to start writing fanfics. The Many Faces of Taybur. Suicidal!Taybur. Scheming!Taybur. Aly'sLoveSlave!Taybur. (No, I may not write that one.)

Because yes, Taybur is so very much the best thing in Trickster's. Capable! Brilliant! More than an equal to Aly! (I wasn't too fond of Aly. So. Perfect. Grr. I should write a review of the Trickster books.)

[girl-called-sun.livejournal.com]

First things first...

I wasn't too fond of Aly. So. Perfect. Grr.

I agree entirely. Also about the side-stepping of the child murder question.

Taybur is an enigma, and your thread here has really got me thinking about him and his motivations (followed the link from the_swoop). He really doesn't make the most sense, does he? The answer that makes the most sense to me is the starry eyed idealist route. In my head, he is completely devoted to Dunevon, perhaps so much so that he can be blinded to the intentions of the regents, and to Aly's rebels. It would interesting if he had a traumatic back story; was happily married and had family, lost them to some Rittevon nastiness/disease/God's machinations, and as protector to Dunevon he is trying to gain atonement. This could be in the paternal role he never fulfilled, and/or by shaping the young king as a good ruler, so no-one has to go through what he (Taybur) did. I quite believe he is stupid, and though he could well be scheming and clever , I'd rather there was some honestly and idealism at the root of his convictions.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I agree. Crack theories aside, there has to be at least a little idealism in Taybur. Otherwise he would have turned Aly in and basked in the rewards the Rittevons would have showered on him.

I'm not sure I see Taybur as having a tragic past. He just doesn't seem really haunted by anything in the books. Actually, he's awfully calm for someone living in a nest of snakes. (Which does lend credence to the denial!Taybur theory.) So his idealism is probably not so personally motivated--although he probably did at least know someone who suffered from Rittevon rule.

I bet Taybur was the eldest in his family, though. He probably looked out for all the younger kids and was generally an awesome big brother, and now he's sort of recreating that for poor little Dunevon.

I wonder where Taybur comes from? Everyone else is scared witless of the Rittevons, despite their spymaster's incompetence, and Taybur is all don't worry, be happy. He's also quite unprejudiced and very balanced--not really Copper Island traits--so maybe he's something foreign?

It might be easier to find a foreigner than a Copper Islander with no reason to want to kill Dunevon, too.

So hmm. Perhaps a Carthaki? The Copper Islands and Carthak are allied, IIRC. That could be interesting...

[team-fen.livejournal.com]

It's possible to be world-weary, politically aware and cynical, but still have a rock-solid moral code at the same time. Anyone know the character Lucius Vorennus on HBO's Rome? He was an intelligent, dour warrior stoic, his idealism ruined by harsh life experiences, but still the most honourable and loyal man on the show. (I really love the warrior stoics.) He guarded Caesarion, Caesar and Cleopatra's son in a jaded, decadent and dangerous Alexandria. His loyalty wasn't to Cleopatra and her court, but to Antony, Caesar's son and the Roman way of life.

Taybur as imported mercenary? That could be fun. He could be Tyran. I always thought of Tyra as a city-state; a port city that would probably need mercenaries to guard itself from pirates and doesn't have the kind of fief system that supports the Tortallan nobility. Maybe they export soldiers-for-hire!

There's still the problem that if Taybur does have selective loyalties (to Dunevon, possibly to the Copper Isles), why did he leave Aly alone? I don't like him as stupid, but maybe he just didn't see one lone slave (though she was clever) as a threat worth tracking down and killing-- she was young, a slave, female-- how was he to know that she was master-minding the Raka rebellion?

So who's writing this Taybur fic? :) --Imo

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think Tyra's supposed to be based on Venice, so city-state is right on.

I thought Taybur knew that she was masterminding something? Although perhaps he thought it was something more innocuous than a coup--although, the Copper Islands being what they are, what else would you mastermind?

As for Taybur fic: here's a drabble.

There is hardly any Taybur left. He is: Dunevon’s guard. Dunevon’s father, older brother, and conscience. Everything else was dangerous, so now it’s gone.

The Copper Isles have eaten most of the real Taybur Sibigat. Now, he can be anyone but himself.

He’s a fool to Topabaw. An efficient, silent, loyal hireling to Imajane and Rubinyan. A nobody to the court. A clever spy among spies to Aly, who likes to think she sees the real Taybur.

He lets her believe it. He likes sharing the secret, even if false. To have even an imaginary Taybur is worth the danger.

[girl-called-sun.livejournal.com]

If he is a foreigner, that could explain the cool head, and the "don't worry" mentality...these evil kings haven't haunted his childhood.

What if he is a spy from another country, placed there to try and protect Dunevon and help influence policy (say Kaddar placed him there so Dunevon can eventually be persuaded to let Carthak annexe the Copper Isles? He's all big brother and kindly because he's a good guy, deep down. The loyalty is to Carthak, but in reality, to Dunevon. The others aren't really his concern).

Also, he's a big guy - he could be easy going becuase he knows pretty much no-one can take him on.

[team-fen.livejournal.com]

I like your Carthaki spy idea very much. I think it's a good way to explain his motivations. Are you going to write Taybur!fic?

I'd like to write something for him that uses the Tyran mercenary angle. I have some plot bunnies, and I really believe the only way to explain the certain detachment he has is to make him a foreigner. I need to at least skim the books again first however, before I write something that is embarassingly far from canon. --Imo

[team-fen.livejournal.com]

Nice drabble! I like the 3rd paragraph particularly, and the idea that he really is an enigma, because he changes depending on who he's with. It's a clever way of getting around the difficulties of his characterization.

I don't believe this falls under Suicidal!Taybur, Scheming!Taybur or LoveSlave!Taybur (ahem!), so I think you still have some drabbling to do. :) I would call this one Sneaky!Taybur, or maybe NeedsTherapy!Taybur. --Imo