#c4e18

Thaisha has repeatedly prodded at Occtis to think again about his observations and statements about his family. Why does he think it’s normal to travel with hanging cages for public humiliation of their subjects? Why is it acceptable to abandon a child who is not useful to the leaders’ goals? Why is a specific family needed to escort the dead to a specific afterlife?

And the reason it’s necessary is that Occtis’s perspective is rooted in an idea that superiors are to be obeyed. The reason Occtis interpreted Thaisha’s rebuke as anger that he wasn’t obeying her is because Occtis expected that to anger her. He expects that people he respects would react that way, regardless of whether their actual relationship to him involves some aristocratic or social status where they are above him. That tracks so well with the flashback we saw of Primus acting dismissively to Occtis’s overly-prepared request to study at the Penteveral. Occtis would never have gone without his father’s approval. He’s not a rebel, and he has not yet realized that he conflates obedience with respect.

As for Thaisha, this arc has involved her coming to terms with the fact that the Old Path is not a universal remedy to any of the issues the world faces. Her choice to beckon Occtis off the path saved the world despite that it was counter to her deepest beliefs. Occtis made that choice himself, but it wouldn’t have occurred to him if not for her interference. The Royce family has a fairy-based afterlife promised to them—and it has nothing to do with the Shapers. The Drowned Men willingly sold their souls because it protects them from the machinations of people like the Tachonis family, and the Old Path does not. The Druids of her circle have not found a method to improve any of the Barrowdells, and Thaisha has finally said aloud to them that she doesn’t think the past will save them. That’s so hard to stomach after dedicating decades of work and belief to the Circle of Ancients’ teachings.

So of course Thaisha reacts in fear and impatience to Occtis’s ongoing preference for obedient reverence. That wouldn’t have saved him, and it could doom them all down the road. It’s no longer a matter of simply mentoring a young, sheltered man who happens to be on the same job. He is becoming a force of his own and will be responsible for the impact of his choices. Occtis needs to begin thinking critically of his own beliefs. He’s intelligent! He’s a wizard! He can do this, and he repeatedly doesn’t. Like when he was walking the path through the wood to an unwitting Armageddon, it doesn’t occur to him that he could until Thaisha prompts him. He needs to get to the point where no one needs to prompt him anymore.

We know that it works because Alogar was the Barrowguard who realized the Drowned Men were onto something, and whatever he did at Tannessar helped to interfere with the Tachonis’s plans. Alogar questioned and criticized rather than obey blindly. He helped prevent disaster.

julien: i was fine

vaelus: i was fine too