Winny: I like some of your ideas, but I think you're presuming far too much about the Penitent King, and which King Kvothe kills. We don't know about the forms of governance in most of the nations. It seems a bit too trite for all these Kings we're hearing about to be characters we've already met. My guess is that the Penitent King is the leader of the Commonwealth.

 

Same as Taure- alot of detail in alot of your theories. I don't necessarily agree with all of it but it doesn't seem too stretchy. However I feel like you are leaving out Denna. You don't really mention her in anything and I think we can all agree that she will be something bigger than she is now, the girl the guy can't get.

 

On probably my 100th reread and I keep going over the meeting with Puppet. I know there is some deeper meaning to this.conversation. Im just not sure what it is.

Is it that Kvothe needs to go chase the wind and learn to relax. He does this later and that's when he really starts making progress with naming.

Is it the bit about the different stories of how the Amyr were disbanded?

Is it the whole Kvothe looks but doesn't really see thing? Puppet makes it clear that to him Kvothe isn't a real E'lir, much less a Re'lar, because he doesn't really see.

Or is it the bit about the four plate door?

Or is it all of the above?

Or am I just reading way too much into it?

 

I don't think you are, but I don't think we'll understand until the next book. Regardless, Puppet strikes me as important. Same thing with all the puppets he makes. I don't have access to a copy right now, but were his puppets versions of people, or were they just miscellaneous puppets? And how good of a sympathetic link would wood be to flesh?

 

Bit of a necropost here, but I was just rereading the book and realized that there's a passage that seems to answer this question rather nicely. From Aaron the smith's 'prentice, talking about joining the army:

Since nobles and royals are Vintish currency, this seems to confirm that a) the Penitent King is the king of Vint, and b) Newarre is in Vintas.

There were a number of other clues for the second bit, but that's the best one I've found so far. And there's a certain economy of storytelling by making the Penitent King Vintish - we've already heard more about their monarchy than any other nation.

 

Except for the carving of Kvothe that Puppet made in a few minutes, we don't know. The one's he played with that so distracted Kvothe were a Tehlin Priest and a young woman. Regardless, without something of the person such as blood or hair or nail clippings, the puppets would make poor links.

 

Been re-reading Name of the Wind and I noticed a line that seemed important/interesting. It mentions that the Chronicler was travelling to meet Skarpi the storyteller and he mentions as much to Kvothe when they have their first conversation at the inn. Anyone else think this is important and relevant to the third story?

 

I've been wondering about this Skarpi character. We only see him in one scene, when he's telling that story about the Amyr before being arrested by the city guards. From what I understand, he and Kvothe were friendly at one point in his life, but no longer. I don't think there is anything more in the books about him.

It sure as hell could be relevent to the third story. But from what little there was mentioned in the books, there is no way to even take a guess. There is no other information provided about him. He seemed a bit loony iirc. Could be that Skarpi, while working with the Chronicler, had dug up some new lead about the Amyr, or the Chandrian.

See? It always comes back to the Amyr and the Chandrian.

 

Warning: I didn't thoroughly comb this thread, so if I'm restating anything, please skip those parts or this post as a whole.

Giving possible credence to the whole, maybe the next protagonist will be an alternate version of Kote/Kvothe theory:

If, in changing his name, Kvothe fundamentally altered who he was, wouldn't he also alter or hamper his own memory? Maybe the next series has something to do with Kvothe, not Kote telling his life story or at least altering parts of it. As, if he recovers the name Kvothe that may be in his chest, his memory returns and he goes "Zoinks, this is how it really happened fellas, Kote is a dummy." Then he proceeds to accomplish all the things he left hanging by becoming Kote.

Also, in just a, this is an interesting observation, sense, it seems that the things Kvothe lost when he became Kote are highlighted in his retelling. He can't perform sympathy so "I had an A'lar of Ramston Steel" is repeated again and again. Kote seems unable to or poor at playing music, as a result we are given frequent tales of him playing music beautifully. Would it not be possible that the little piece of Kvothe still present in Kote is expanding upon the good parts of Kote's memory to make Kote remember what he used to have and how much he gave up? Maybe both Bast and Kvothe want Kvothe to return.

Also I think it would be funny if, given the fact that Kvothe's sexual prowess is thrown in our faces, Kote is shown to be lame in the sack.

Anyway, that's my two bits. Thoughts?

 

I think you're going overboard with giving Kvothe multiple personality disorder. Its very likely that there is some narrator bias in Kote's retelling, but I highly doubt Kvothe and Kote are such separate personalities that Kvothe is banging around somewhere in Kote's head. That just seems a bit too gimmicky. Its more likely that Kvothe deliberately changed his name, possibly even knowing the consequences, to hide/escape whatever massive screw up he made, and that choice along with said screw up are making him doubt himself and his abilities. Hence Bast luring Chronicler (and the soldiers) to the Waystone to basically force Kvothe to be Kvothe. It certainly seems to be working.

I see no reason why Kvothe changing his name would somehow alter his memory. He still knows how to do things, he just can't for whatever reason. Doubt, Rustiness, Loss of Sympathy, whatever.

 

Random thought: could you construct a computer using sympathy/sygaldry?

Would be awesome.

Also, thinking about sympathy/sygaldry: why can't a sympathist use the kinectic energy of an arrow coming towards them to stop/destroy that very arrow. A good connection should be easy to come by: just be holding an arrow. And a kinectic energy to heat is a fairly basic binding. So why can't you drain an arrow's kinetic energy (thereby stopping the arrow) and turn it into something else (e.g. heat energy, destroying the arrow)?

Seems to me that the springs in the Bloodless are unnecessary, if you're clever about it.

 

I suppose you could make a few sygaldry enhanced arrows, transferring incoming arrow energy into heat and have a heat-eater within the system somewhere. I don't know how exactly it would work (obviously, it's made up system). There might be a few too many chains of sygaldry (shot arrow to sygaldry arrow to heat eater instead of arrow to spring). But the changing of energy may not be very efficient. I mean, Kvothe is stopping motion with equal and opposite motion. The draining of kinetic energy into heat may take too long or not be strong enough of an energy dump (again, I don't if transitioning energy types requires time or focus or etc) to affect the incoming arrow. Again all speculation.

 

The weird thing about this series's magic system is that I'm more interested in imagining how it could improve industrial and post-industrial technology. Often specific stuff, like thinking about how you could use sygaldry to improve modern HVAC or cool a computer.

Also, maybe you'd have a nice cure for cancer in there: 1) Use internal imaging to determine the size of a malignant tumor (so that you can apply the right amount of energy into it). 2) Extract a small, minimally invasive sample of cancerous cells. 3) Create sympathetic links between the sample, the tumor, and some nasty, anticellular substance. NotW mentioned a "catalytic" sympathetic link that might do the trick.

Rothfuss did attempt to explain why Kvothe needed the springs:

"I hoped if I bound an incoming arrowhead to a stationary piece of iron, it would absorb the arrow's momentum and make it harmless. ...At best it only absorbs a third of the arrow's momentum."

I bet you could convert its kinetic energy to heat, but would run into the same problem: only being able to extract a fraction of its energy. This seems to be a common problem with sympathy, making it difficult to do things if you don't have an extra, high energy source to draw on.

 

It's possible everyone else here already knows this, but I just figured it out yesterday and thought it was interesting - "Eolian" is actually a real word:

e·o·li·an /e'ole?n/
Adjective: Relating to or arising from the action of the wind.

 

Never thought about that. It's also interesting to note that the god of the Wind in the Odyssey is Aeolus, whose name kind of sounds like "Eolian".

In regards to Master Ash, I think there's one bit of evidence that's been overlooked and points to Caudicus. Not sure if it's been mentioned before, and by no means am I implying it's definitive, but isn't Caudicus collecting stories about the nobility? I don't have a copy with me, but I seem to remember Denna saying somewhere that Master Ash was very, very interested in stories and rumors about the nobility and royal family. Coincidence?

 

Most wind symbols I know of are either the three horizontal vaguely squiggly lines, or a kind-of spiral. Why do you ask?

 

edit: picture removed

 

I was the same way, when I was a little kid, my friends always thought wind was stupid, fire was always the 'coolest'. I proved them wrong by coming up with imaginative ways I could destroy them all.

But yeah, symbol for wind I always went with a spiral or a kind of tornado shape. Also purple=wind.