Taybur Sibigat of Trickster's Queen
May. 19th, 2008 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerThree 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.
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.
