Alfred and Haplo Moments That Drove Me Insane 6-Part Finale Extravaganza Poll(TM)
Alfred heals Haplo in Fire Sea and knows Haplo will never forgive him.
Haplo is touched and entranced by the beauty of Alfred's dancing.
Haplo lets Alfred go at the end of Fire Sea.
The dog going to Alfred whenever it isn't safe to be with Haplo.
Haplo hugs Alfred and "Thank you for bringing me back to life/giving me life."
The fact that closing Death's Gate involved Haplo and Alfred singing together.
Voting ended onMar 23, 2023
Last round and then we can do other polls again, I PROMISE. The winners of the previous three polls will now be pit against each other. May the most insane bit win!
Before you vote, feel free to refresh yourself on the options under the read more.
The circle between the two was truly forged, truly complete. And Alfred knew, with a feeling of overwhelming sadness, that Haplo would never forgive him.
The feet that could not take ten steps without falling over themselves were suddenly executing intricate steps with extraordinary grace and delicacy. His face was grave and solemn, wholly absorbed in the music. He accompanied himself with a grave and solemn song. Hands wove the runes in the air, his feet replicated the pattern on the floor. Haplo watched until he discovered some wayward part of himself feeling touched and entranced by the beauty.
“You know what’ll happen to you in the Nexus.” Haplo didn’t look at him when he spoke, he kept his gaze on the dog. “You know what my Lord will do to you.”
“Yes,” Alfred answered.
Haplo hesitated a moment, either deciding on his next words or deciding whether or not to say them. When he made his decision, his voice was hard and sharp, cutting through some barrier within himself. “Then, if I were you, I wouldn’t be around when I woke up.” Haplo closed his eyes.
Alfred stared in amazement, then smiled gently. “I understand. Thank you, Haplo.”
“I ask you to put the animal outside, Brother.”
Alfred sighed, shook his head. “He’ll just come right back in. But I don’t think you need worry about him spying on us for his master. He’s lost his master. That’s why he’s here.”
“He wants you to look for his master, for a Patryn?”
“I believe so,” said Alfred meekly.
Samah’s frown darkened. “And this doesn’t seem strange to you? A dog belonging to a Patryn, coming to you, a Sartan, for help?”
“Well, no,” said Alfred, after a moment’s reflection. “Not considering what the dog is. That is, what I think it might be.” He was somewhat flustered.
“Farewell, my friend,” he said. “Thank you for bringing me back to life.
Haplo took Alfred’s hand, then embraced the startled and embarrassed Sartan. “Thank you,” Haplo said, his voice gruff, “for giving me life. Farewell, my friend.”
Alfred was extremely red. He patted Haplo’s back awkwardly, then turned away, wiping his eyes and nose with his coat sleeve.
"Haplo! I need your help!" Alfred quavered.
"Are you mad? Patryn magic and Sartan magic can't work together!"
"How do we know?" Alfred returned desperately. "Just because it's never been done, at least that we're aware of. Who knows but that somewhere, sometime in the past--"
"All right! All right! Shutting Death's Gate. That's it? That's what we've got to do?"
[...]
Alfred sucked in a deep breath, began to sing.
To his astonishment, Haplo joined him. The Patryn's baritone slid in under, lifted, and supported Alfred's high-pitched tenor.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
âś“ Live Streamingâś“ Interactive Chatâś“ Private Showsâś“ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
"Alfred!"
The voice called to him across a vast distance, through time and space. It was faint, yet compelling. Urging him to leave, withdraw, return...
"Alfred!"
A hand on his shoulder, shaking him. Alfred looked down at the hand, saw it was bandaged. He was frightened, tried to get away, but couldn't. The hand gripped him tightly.
"No, please, let me alone!" Alfred whimpered. "I am in my tomb. I'm safe. It's peaceful and quiet. No one can hurt me here. Let me go!"
The hand didn't let him go. It kept fast hold of him and drew him on, its strong grip no longer frightening, but welcome and comforting, supportive and reassuring. It was drawing him back, back into the world of the living.
And then, before he was quite there yet, the hand pulled away. The bandages fell off. He saw that the hand was covered with blood. Pity filled his heart. The hand was outstretched, reaching for him.
"Alfred, I need you."
And if im gonna talk that much about "thank you for bringing me back to life" we ALSO have to talk about Haplo's "thank you for giving me life" because AHH.
Obviously there is the fact that a few pages after this, Xar counters that HE'S the one who gave Haplo his life, and Haplo agrees... So in effect by telling Alfred this, arguably he is putting Alfred on an equal level to Xar in his mind in terms of what he means to him and what he owes him. Given how much Haplo still respects and loves* Xar even up to his last moments, I think that's the strongest way TO read this scene-- Haplo can stand against Xar's wishes with a clear conscience despite his loyalty because he now has things that he loves just as much, and specifically OWES just as much of his loyalty to, that he can't betray one for the other.
Xar saved his life and gave him a new life out of the Labyrinth. Alfred did the same-- literally saving his life many times over, and then also giving him the means to accept the parts of himself that he had disdained as weak, and in doing so giving him a life with love.
And the reason, I think, that Haplo says "giving me life," rather than "bringing me BACK," is that these statements are, ultimately, about love. Alfred had love, lost it, and wanted so badly to have it back but could not allow himself to act on that. Haplo had love but couldn't allow himself to acceot it in its fullness until Alfred.
"Thank you for bringing me back to life"/"Thank you for giving me life," to me, always reads as "Thank you for bringing love and choice and wholeness back into my life when I never thought I would feel it again"/"Thank you for helping me accept and embrace love and wholeness in my life at all."
*Obviously this is complicated since Haplo also acknowledges Xar's abuses, but I'm going to go ahead and call it love.
Two sides of a love triangle go on a quest to rescue the hypotenuse, but he dies, but it turns out his soul is actually inside his dog, so he's fine, actually, the embodiments of evil are subdued by #lovewins, and then they decide maybe things would be better if everyone stopped dimension-hopping around so much. (It is.)
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
âś“ Live Streamingâś“ Interactive Chatâś“ Private Showsâś“ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Thinkin’ about. How when they first head out in the Labyrinth, Haplo convinces Alfred to keep going with “I need you,” and Alfred gets all blubbery about it... and then when they have that argument about Alfred leaving right before the Coren conversation it’s “I thought you said you needed me”/”I lied, I don’t need you” (paraphrasing) and then in Seventh Gate when Haplo’s coaxing Alfred back to consciousness, Alfred sees his hand pulling him up and hears “I need you” again... Alfred really is just out there wanting to be needed by someone, huh?
Oh, ALSO, relatedly, when Alfred is trying to convince Haplo to go back to Marit at the end, he says “I don’t need you. And they do.” Which... phew.
I’m SURE I’ve talked about this before but I don’t think I’ve ever picked out the quote, so here we go, right after Haplo closes the doors to the elemental worlds and Alfred rejoins the scene and tells him not to fight Sang-Drax:
The serpent’s huge tail slashed around, struck the Sartan a blow across his back that doubled him over the white table.
Sang-drax reared up. The serpent’s head hung poised over Alfred. The red eyes focused on Haplo. “The next blow will break his spine. And the one after that will crush his body. Fight, Haplo, or the Sartan dies.”
Alfred managed to lift his head. His nose was broken, his lip split. Blood smeared his face. “Don’t listen, Haplo! If you fight, you are doomed!”
The serpent waited, smug, knowing it had won.
Burning with anger and the strong need to kill this loathsome being, Haplo cast a bitter, frustrated glance at Alfred. “Do you except me to stand here and die?”
“Trust me, Haplo!” Alfred pleaded. “It’s all I’ve ever asked of you! Trust me!”
“Trust a Sartan!” Sang-drax laughed horribly. “Trust your mortal enemy! Trust those who sent you to the Labyrinth, who are responsible for the deaths of how many thousands of your people?”
Mostly I just think it’s funny how quickly Sang-drax goes from threatening Alfred to get Haplo to behave to trying to turn Haplo against Alfred.Â
And also “Trust me, Haplo! It’s all I’ve ever asked of you!” hurts my soul. Because.... yeah.
Alfred was shaking hands with Zifnab solemnly. “I am so pleased to make your acquaintance, sir. Haplo told me about meeting you. On Pryan, wasn’t it?”
[me, stupidly obsessed with the meta narrative of the future compilation of notes into the story of DGC as written by the characters, even though it’s like. One throwaway line: shakes Alfred like a ragdoll] WHEN DID HE TELL YOU THIS SIR???
[goes to Pepe Silvia conspiracy board] TO BE HONEST it seems most likely that such an explanation would have happened during their travels in the Labyrinth in the previous book, which ALSO checks out with the fact that that’s the most likely time for Haplo to have “compiled notes” on the Brotherhood of the Hand, according to the appendices. So. Probably then. Case closed.
(Buuut I did theorize that there may have been more discussion in the Serpent Mage Prison Bedroom(tm) than was detailed in the books, so there’s that, too)
Either way. Did Haplo tell Alfred about the Pryan mensch when they were walking around in the Labyrinth too? Cos he told Marit about them during that one scene by the river. She was probably like “ugh you told us about this already.”
