Eugenides - Tumblr Posts
Costis’s narration starts calling him Eugenides instead of just “the king” right after he says “Could you act like a king for once” lmaoooo
Costis at the end of King of Attolia: pick your battles. Pick fewer. Put some back. Wait you can’t fight every single guard- PICK FEWER YOU IDIOT
I wanna say that every part of King of Attolia is my favorite part but possibly my favorite part is when Attolia goes “Relius. You are my oldest and most trusted advisor, who helped me keep my throne and committed your life to me. But you made a mistake, so I’m going to have to kill you.” And Relius goes “My queen, you are incredibly correct, that is 100% the right thing to do” and Gen is standing there like “wtf is wrong with you people, I thought I was the one with poor coping mechanisms”
Actually this is the first time I realized Gen has no problem fighting every single member of the guard cause that’s just. How they do things in Eddis. Boy was probably like “ah, FINALLY, some reminded of home!”
Honey are you okay you've barely touched your mocking other people
They'd mock each other so much. Kaz wears three piece suits and Gen pays for sophos to have embroidery on embroidery, but Kaz would never slouch and gen would never let anyone see him sit properly. They're both absolute romantics, but Kaz calls his crush/bff an investment and Gen tells his #1 hater that he loves her. Kaz can't handle touching anyone, and Gen kissed his wife in front of a crowd. Kaz ripped out a man's eye and Gen made a vow to never take a sword unless his life was in danger.
They would absolutely have a grudging respect for each other and openly mock each other. Gen thinks Kaz is uptight and focuses too much on money, Kaz thinks Gen believes too firmly in his gods and has gotten weak.
Neither one can imagine living with the other's disability. Neither ever mocks the other's trauma. They both know what it's like to have had to grow up too soon. They have both lost family close to them. They both have disabilities due to their work. They are both utterly devoted to the people they love. They both plan intensely and then wing it.
Gen and inej would get along swimmingly. Kaz would go to inej's room to talk to her and wait for her, and then she'd come through the window with gen, having gone to watch the sunset from the roof or something, and Kaz would be peeved and impatient for gen to go away and gen would laugh at him about it. Inej and gen both have a firm belief in their gods and are physically talented, flips and climbing and all. Both gen and inej left home and get extremely homesick.
Kaz and Gen would either hate or love eachother, no inbetween
Aris: how’s your morning going?
Costis: well, Attolis just asked me what my favorite color is and then told me I was wrong, as usual.
"I'm a little vain" "I had no idea" is another banger from the guy who brought you "for the assassination or the heir" and "not noticeably, your majesty"
The Mede ambassador to Kamet: “You’ve come from an audience with the king, but before that, from the prisons. Not how an honored guest is usually received. Perhaps because you are less an honored guest and more… stolen property.”
Not true! This is actually the traditional Attolian greeting extended to every truly important visitor, from the king of Sounis to the queen’s spymaster to the magus to the current king himself! Hope this helps
I am feeling things specifically about Kamet telling the naughty kitchen boy so much about Laela that Gen could be sure she would lie to save him.
Like.
That’s not “The kid liked my translations.”
They talked. Tight-lipped, haughty Kamet who was sure no one in Attolia cared about him at all told this naughty sandal polisher so much about his life and gave him money so he could make it home even thought slaves don’t do favors. He told him about his life and then the boy stuck with him so clearly that Kamet tells COSTIS about him! multiple times!
They were friends.
“What a piece of work he was. I don’t know why I like him as much as I do.”
-Kamet, being everyone who has ever met Eugenides
The nice thing about a character as clever as Gen is he can be ascribed multiple motivations at once and it can be true. Like, with Kamet’s rescue, it’s spite, it’s kindness, and it’s politically motivated. All three are true.
With his befriending Kamet as a kitchen boy, maybe multiple things are all true at once. Maybe he saw a good source of information about the Medes and pumped Kamet for intel much in the same way Kamet was supposed to pump the Attolian servants. Maybe he really did want to know about the Mede gods and afterlife, to hedge his own bets. Maybe he was as interested in Kamet’s knowledge and scholarly ways as he had been with the Magus, as Pheris would be with Kamet later on. And maybe Gen saw how lonely Kamet was, isolated as he saw by his unusual status, and decided to plow right over that gulf.
Chapter 4:
I think it's funny that Costis so readily volunteers to fight off the approaching swordsmen, leaving Kamet to scramble. "My alarm was perfectly reasonable, as the horsemen appeared to be waving at us, and I was certain that what they were waving was swords." Kamet's precision does nothing to hide his anxiety (which I think is well-warranted).
I have to wonder, when would Costis have realized the true depth of Kamet's fear about the skirmish? Or, more generally, that every bit of Kamet's worldview is informed by his life as a slave?
"I didn't come all the way to this godsforsaken cesspit so that I could go home and tell my king I failed him." / loyaltyyyyyy. I love Costis. flashback to KoA: "He knew he would march into hell for this fathomless king."
I know everyone has already talked about the absurdity of the lion's den, but: Costis. what are you doing.
Also, I love the surgery song. that is all.
"...how did you come to Ianna-Ir?" / "I punched the king in the face." / I knew that he would say that, but I still smiled like a loon. I love KoA so much.
Also: "He was more kind to me than I deserved and he forgave me." / love.
"Well, the Namreen aren't dropping roof tiles on my head or trying to stab me in the back." / lol.
the cooks really spent months risking their lives by putting sand in his food just to say "we miss you come visit us already you asshole"
This:
always makes me think
So I started reading the Queen's Thief series and uh
is it still an incorrect quotes if it's by the author? anyway this post has been living rent free in my head for three years and it's high time i exorcised it with a sketchy lil comic.
The thing about Queen's Thief is that the reveals that come with Gen's trickster type, don't just reveal that he is smarter or more skilled than the people around him (or the readers) thought, but also that he is more good than they originally thought. Gen's goodness is a part of the twist.
This is probably most prominent in King of Attolia where his surprising mercy is a huge part of the plot (and his genuine love and friendship). But it happens over and over again.
In The Thief we are led to believe that he is motivated primarily by self-interest and we are surprised by the depths of his loyalty, the generous affection that comes out for the Magus, and by the fact that he is actually primarily motivated by duty and love for his queen/favorite cousin/reigning bestie.
In Queen of Attolia the twist is that his actions which looked like generalized mischief and political power plays actually all spring from love, and that love arose initially from empathy with a girl's loneliness.
Or when he becomes king, and then it's revealed that yes he got what he wanted but actually this is an act of self sacrifice (for the sake of Irene and Hellen and Eddis).
And on and on.
The pettiness and the pride and the mischief for its own sake are all still there, but they coexist with this deep undercurrent of loyalty and duty and love and mercy and kindness. And when push comes to shove that undercurrent will always win out and its that which makes the twists so triumphant and satisfying.