Except that without her husband's support she probably wouldn't make a move against house Gaius. Instead, she would probably be maneuvering so that House Aquitanne would be in a higher position due to supporting the crown.

Hell, maybe after the whole affair with the murderers was dealt with she and her husband would claim some land of the deposed lords elevating themselves above the other lords.

 

Did you read the series ? Or you really believe that Invidia only motivation was to see her "husband" on the throne ? She wanted revenge against Septimus for marrying a Farm girl instead of her, Aquitaine ambition was just a tool for her.

 

Did you read the books, because it is a pretty big plot point that no one knew that Septimus had a child or married anyone. So no, her motivation wasn't revenge because Septimus married some farm girl, it was instead because both she and Aquitaine wanted the crown for their family, her because it was denied to her when Septimus died before marrying her and Aquitaine because he lost faith in Gaius.

With Aquitaine not working against Gaius, she would gain the motivation of revenge, but I can't see her acting on it especially considering that it would involve the murder of her husband's best friend's child and place her against him while he was working for the crown. Instead she would probably be jockeying for something more tenable that they would both want; better positions amongst the lords.

 

Not really. Invidia wanted Septimus dead because he rejected her. Sextus was trying to arrange a marriage between the two and Septimus told them both to fuck off. This infuriated Invidia and began the plot to assassinate Septimus.

Then the death of Septimus happened, with no response from the crown, and Lord Aquataine lost all faith in Sextus, which in turn led to him going along with Invidia's plans.

On a side note, I can't remember one way or the other if anyone knew Septimus had married. I want to say that it was known to at least a few outside Garrison, but I'm not sure. It is quite clear that no one knew Septimus had a child however.

Invidia doesn't give two shits about her husband's friends or anyone related to them. It's quite clear throughout the books that Invidia is interested in one thing, and one thing only: personal advancement. She desperately wants to be the top dog in all of Alera, regardless of the damage it causes to anyone or anything else, even if that means she's the only one left.

Invidia wouldn't have hesitated for a second to kill Octavian, had she known he existed. Not doing so would go against every single facet of her character.

You're projecting your own morals on someone who demonstrably has none. She's a complete psychopath with no regard for anyone who can't/won't aid her towards her goal.

 

The argument that Isana is too ignorant of Aleran politics to know that Tavi would be met with open arms might slightly alleviate her original cruelty against Tavi, but just highlights her later one - joining forces with the Aquitaines. She straight-up believes that unless she personally does something to keep Tavi under her influence, Tavi is doomed. Once again, I make the comparison to the devouring mother archetype.

She goes ahead with this even if this means allying herself to a group which her farmgirl ignorance would mean she knows fuck-all about them except that they aren't Sextus, who she sees as the devil incarnate for not being all-powerful enough to stop bad things happening to good people. Even though one half of the Aquitaines has done more damage to the realm than any other, and was in fact responsible for hubby dearest's death.

Sorry, but you don't get to play the ignorance card once to excuse her not taking her in-danger child to his extremely powerful grandson, and then again when she, in her haste to keep her apron-strings attached to Tavi, accidentally aligns herself with his greatest enemies.

 

Oh I fully agree with you on the alliance with the Aquataines. That was a completely retarded move, and probably one of the worst possible things she could possibly have done.

But that's not what we're discussing.

 

We're discussing Isana. And it's all one big long chain of her taking the option that gives her the most control over Tavi's life, no matter how much damage it does to him.

And you can't argue that she can be excused not going to Sextus because she doesn't know shit about Aleran politics and therefore decided to stay the hell away, because she damn well threw herself into them the moment it would give her more of a hold over Tavi. At the end of the day, her main motivations in her actions seem to be twofold: keeping control of Tavi, and fucking over Sextus. And she just assumes that Tavi's safety will follow, because of course she's the only one that can keep him safe, and therefore her being in utter control of him is the only way to keep him safe.

Even if it means crippling him in a way that is completely and utterly unknown. It's not like breaking his legs or making him blind, because that's happened before (and watercrafters could fix it). It's crippling him in a way that makes him, well, inhuman. Alerans have furies, full stop. Who doesn't? Icemen. Marat. Barbarians. Enemies.

 

No one ever mentioned that she chose to stay out of politics, all I said is that when she made the decision to stunt Tavi's growth, she had no significant knowledge of Aleran politics. Thus, she had no idea who she could trust to keep her child safe. Ergo, she decides to trust no one. It's a logical chain of thought based on the information she had available at the time.

Since I tend to skip over the Isana and Amara/Bernard sections of the books whenever I re-read, I'm not gonna argue the point of why she signed up with Invidia. All I'll say on the subject is that from what I remember, she allied with the Aquitaines in exchange for protection from Canim assassins in Academ's. Her decision had nothing to do with Tavi, beyond extending him the same protection. And once she was working for Invidia, she had basically no contact or influence over Tavi in the slightest. At all. Hell, once she started working for Aquitaine (during Academ's), she never even saw Tavi again until Captain's, some 4-5 years later. It's ludicrous to claim she entered into politics to exert more influence on Tavi when it did the exact opposite.

As for your final point, while he may not be Aleran, at least he's alive. It's not much good being normal if you're dead. There was at least a half-decent chance that had he grown up normal, or under Gaius' care, Tavi would have been killed long before he reached his sixth birthday.

I shall reiterate the point because you just don't seem to get it: Her actions were deplorable, and no one's defending them. However, that doesn't mean it was not a reasonable decision based on the information that she had.

Here's what she knew:
1) Septimus is dead
2) Powerful Aleran furycrafters were involved in the skirmish
3) Sextus failed to adequately protect his own son
4) Sextus wanted Septimus to marry someone else

That's all the information she had available on the situation. It shouldn't come as a surprise that a desperate mother would choose the "If I hide him and no one ever knows he exists, he will be safe" idea. From the above information, it seems like the only way the child would survive.

 

Hmm, didn't she use the water furies to stunt his growth so that he would look younger than he was and therefore impossible to be septimus child?

The fact that he didn't grow his furies is a side effect of her trying to stop his physical growth. So for the same reasons that she can't be praised for good things that happened because of this, she also can't be blamed for the bad things.

Don't get me wrong, she should fucking stop trying to control his life, that is the thing that she should be blamed for.

 

I am pretty sure it was said that she kept doing it even AFTER she realised what it was doing to his fury development. Had she stopped the instant she realised what was happening or otherwise tried to reverse the damage she had caused she might be forgiven for this, she did not. That means that for some time she knowingly and willingly sabotaged his development. Basically, she did cripple Tavi with full knowledge of her actions.

EDIT: Found it:

She speaks the truth here in all but one aspect. She is FAR more to blame than Fade is. One of the disappointments I had with CA was that she got away with her crime. I think it would have been fitting had Tavi not forgiven her and infact repaid her in kind once his talents finally did emerge despite Isana's attempts to destroy them.

 

When you put something in emphasis, please, don't try to hide the part that go againt your arguments.

She did not know what she was doing at first, it's only later that she realized the effects of her actions. While she should have stopped once she realized what she was doing, she continued because she thought that if he had not crafting, no one will think that he is Gaius heir and he will survive. It's a logical explication in her mind. Yes, she is rationalizing her actions, but it's logical in her mind.

And where do you see that she want to control his life ? She didn't tell him who his father was, but she never stopped him from going to the Academy or to do what he wanted (a part for his crafting).

Ok, she didn't want him to tell everyone about his father, but that's normal because she do not want to see him die. But in the end, she didn't stop him for revealing his secret... So, how can you say that she wanted to control Tavi ?

Edit:

It's not in Tavi caracter to not forgive a member of his family. Hell, he was able to forgive Crassus's Mother, Fidelias, etc. He didn't like what Isana did, but he, at least, understood why she did it.

 

Obviously I did not since it was right there in the quote.

You know what? I don't care. She may not have realised it at first, but when she did SHE DOUBLED HER EFFORTS!. There are no excuses. Ignorance does not absolve her. She realised what she was doing, and she STILL kept at it. She knew that she was crippling Tavi, perhaps forever and she still did it, fullstop.

 

Actually. That quote raises another interesting point. She stunted Tavi's growth so often that the furies themselves got used to it. Could it be that the furies in Tavi's bath water started doing it on their own even after Isana stopped bathing him? If so then she's commited an even greater sin than I'd imagined before.

She would have effectively crippled him for his entire life if he hadn't moved out of the Calderon Valley simply because he'd have been stunting himself every time he bathed.

 

That's how I've been reading it - the furies got so used to it all it took was a sort of mental nod of approval from the kitchen or wherever whenever Tavi had his bath, and they went to work. Poor bugger.

 

I believe that is correct. I also think that is actually why Tavi's talents only emerged after he left the place. Even after he got too old for Isana to bathe him herself, the water furies still kept following her commands to cripple Tavi even without her actually being in the room.

This is touched upon at the end of book 3 when we first learn from Sextus that Tavi's father Septimus first started manifesting his abilities at the age of 5, and then we cut to a discussion between Tavi and Kitai where it is repeatedly mentioned that it has been five years now since Tavi left the valley and at the end of the book, his talents first emerge. Basically his abilities remained frozen at the state of a newborn infant so long as he remained in the valley, and only started developing after he left. And just like his father it took 5 years for them to first emerge. Though at that point Tavi was already an adult. Had he never left, Isana would have kept him in that state, crippled and stunted for all his life. Thankfully she had no control of the water furies outside the valley.

However I don't think this in anyway absolves her of the blame or the guilt, and like Aekiel sais perhaps makes it even worse. Ultimately the water furies were simply blindly following her orders in this matter. The responsibility is hers. And it is made very clear that the "automation" of Tavi's stunting only happened after Isana had realised what was happening.

Like I said earlier, she could and should have stopped. She could and should have tried to reverse the damage. She could and should have told the water furies to stop. She. Did. Not. She did it and kept doing it at that point with full knowledge of what she was doing. There are no excuses for her.