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Joe Abercrombie > TBI - Section 4: Nobility - The Ideal Audience

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message 1: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new)

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
This is the fourth 100 pages or so (in my edition).

Please keep all discussion to the events and speculation from the chapter: Nobility to the chapter: The Ideal Audience.

No spoiler tags required.

Please do not discuss events from later chapters/books. Referring back to events from a previous section is fine.


message 2: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new)

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
Brother Longfoot seems batshit crazy.

I'm automatically suspicious of anyone that cheerful. Lol.


message 3: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new)

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
And I thought Brother Longfoot was crazy, but now I've met Superior Goyle and his merry band of Practicals.

And his first order of business seems to be covering up a murder by an eater. Calling it the work of dogs. Quite curious.


message 4: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new)

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
I forgot to mention earlier, (might have even been in the last section, but just to be safe I'll mention it here), apparently all of Logen's friends are all people he bested in duels, presumably on behalf of Bethod.

I guess he earned their respect and/or a sense of obligation maybe?


message 5: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new)

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
Sult calls out Bayaz about the key to the house of the maker. Bayaz promises to open it tomorrow, but asks for Jezal and Glokta as witnesses.

Somehow I suspect this has been his plan all along. For someone who uses his magic reluctantly, it seems odd that he would help Jezal win just for a friendly bet with Logen.

I guess we'll see.

Oh and both Jezal and Glokta are growing on me. Glokta's internal dialogue really is amusing.

Meanwhile Jezal is slowly realizing how shallow his life has been. Still not over his narcissism though.


message 6: by David Sven (new)

David Sven (gorro) | 316 comments Glokta is one of my favourite characters. Even though I feel it in my bones every time he has to climb stairs


message 7: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new)

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
David Sven wrote: "Glokta is one of my favourite characters. Even though I feel it in my bones every time he has to climb stairs"

Yeah, you don't seem to be the only one. He starts out very unlikable and evil, but as with most things they aren't always as black and white as they first appear.


message 8: by Linette (new)

Linette | 135 comments Loved the scene with Longfoot when he took out the purse and started counting gold in the alley full of cutthroats. Can anyone really be that oblivious? LOL.


message 9: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new)

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
Linette wrote: "Loved the scene with Longfoot when he took out the purse and started counting gold in the alley full of cutthroats. Can anyone really be that oblivious? LOL."

I was shaking my head from the moment he decided to take a shortcut. That guy is something else. They must have good drugs.


message 10: by Sky (new)

Sky Corbelli | 288 comments Rob wrote: "I was shaking my head from the moment he decided to take a shortcut. That guy is something else. They must have good drugs."

And no man is more suited to drugs, nor drugs to him, than Brother Longfoot!


message 11: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new)

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
Heh.


message 12: by Jerry (new)

Jerry Gaiser I've just finished a reread of Longfoot's introduction. I'd forgotten what a naive fool he is.


message 13: by Mpauli (last edited Jul 07, 2013 02:06PM) (new)

Mpauli | 241 comments Haha, Brother Longfoot really cracked me up aswell. I instantly liked him a lot. In the conversation between Glokta and the Arch Lector, Sult says something about the navigators talking about god.
So maybe they are some kind of wandering priests. I'm still eager to find out, if there is some sort of organized religion.

Regarding the barbarians I've got a crazy theory. I always had the impression from Logen's chapters that those duels had been duels to the death.
He always says that he survived them and his catch phrase seems to be "Im still alive".
And why would he be called Bloody Nine, if his most prominent fights, the duels for Bethod, hadn't been bloody at all.

As we know that Logen is able to talk to the spirits, could it be that he killed all of his opponents and they remained somehow with him. His fall in the beginning then somehow ended his connection to them (therefore the first chapter title "The End").
And now the spirits are on their own. So maybe the fear in the northern tax collectors wasn't entirely due to facing some infamous known men, but due to facing some infamous known dead men. Crazy...or is it?

But now off to the last part...I'm dying to know what's inside the House of the Maker.


message 14: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new)

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
That's an interesting theory about his friends, but I think we've seen evidence to the contrary. Or maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.

And I agree, with what we know, Logen's nickname is confusing.


message 15: by Mpauli (new)

Mpauli | 241 comments Yeah, spirits having the need to relieve themselves before battle don't seem very ghostly. But I still hope that they might don't know that they are spirits.^^

I can't remember having seen them eat. They have a fire a some point though.
Probably not spirits, but it would be cool, if they were, so for now I keep that option in mind.


message 16: by Jerry (last edited Jul 07, 2013 03:19PM) (new)

Jerry Gaiser Mpauli wrote: "He always says that he survived them and his catch phrase seems to be "Im still alive".
And why would he be called Bloody Nine, if his most prominent fights, the duels for Bethod, hadn't been bloody at all."


What makes you think that the fights for Bethod weren't bloody? Logen is a (view spoiler). All of his fights are bloody.


message 17: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new)

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
@Jerry

We haven't really seen Logen fight much at this point. Just those bandits on the road.


message 18: by Jerry (new)

Jerry Gaiser Yes, you're correct. The Shanka in the opening chapter and the bandits. But there are plenty of indications that Logens way of fighting is crazier than most.


message 19: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (new)

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
Jerry wrote: "Yes, you're correct. The Shanka in the opening chapter and the bandits. But there are plenty of indications that Logens way of fighting is crazier than most."

I disagree. I don't think his nickname makes sense at this point of the book.


message 20: by Jerry (new)

Jerry Gaiser Darnit... I need a slap along side the head.

I need to remember which chapters I'm commenting on. Sorry.


message 21: by Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town (last edited Jul 07, 2013 03:35PM) (new)

Rob (robzak) | 6375 comments Mod
Jerry wrote: "Darnit... I need a slap along side the head.

I need to remember which chapters I'm commenting on. Sorry."


Yeah. I was debating saying that or not, but I didn't want to make it more obvious by pointing it out. You put spoiler tags exactly where I thought they should be. lol.


message 22: by Mpauli (new)

Mpauli | 241 comments I think that it is implied so far that Logen has a violent history. I only had the feeling that the "Bloody Nine" had a special meaning beyond his fingers.
He mentions at some point in how many battles he fought and so on and he specifically stresses fighting 10 duels for Bethod.

In my imagination, due to his nickname and the catch phrase "I'm still alive", these duels were very special, so special that they need to be mentioned. Seeing that a lot of his opponents are alive didn't make much sense to me, cause I always thought they were fighting to the death.
I think, when Logen thinks back to the fights, he mentioned something like, "What would have happened, when I went to the mud that day" (which means dying in northern savage, if I got that correctly.

Therefore I had a theory that he had 9 bloody duels (the Bloody Nine), but something happened at the tenth, which made him stop fighting for Bethod.
And as I liked the idea about the comrades being spirits, it made sense aswell.

9 dead duelists. We actually see 6 barbarians. Then in his second chapter, where he talks to the spirits there are only 3 left. The others are "sleeping". So 3 spirits + 6 ghostly barbarians added up to 9 dead duelists in my weird imagination.^^


message 23: by Juniper (new)

Juniper (juniperx) Good lord, that Brother Longfoot would drive me mad if I had to spend any time with him. Jeez learn how to relax!


message 24: by Juniper (new)

Juniper (juniperx) Anddddd I'm curious about why Bayaz helped Jezal in the Contest. I've yet to read the last chapter in this section, perhaps it'll become clear there.

And why is the Superior covering up the Eater-victim? So many questions.


message 25: by Mpauli (new)

Mpauli | 241 comments Kat wrote: "Good lord, that Brother Longfoot would drive me mad if I had to spend any time with him. Jeez learn how to relax!"

Yeah, he's like the 2.0 version of Tasslehoff from the Dragonlance novels.

And why is the Superior covering up the Eater-victim? So many questions.

Although I'm normally up for a lot of flowery conspiracy theories, I guess it's just to confirm that the new Superior is just what Glokta told us he would be...bad at his job.


message 26: by Juniper (new)

Juniper (juniperx) sorry I'm not familiar with Dragonlance? :)


message 27: by Juniper (new)

Juniper (juniperx) oh perhaps :( I hope there is a conspiracy though!


message 28: by Mpauli (new)

Mpauli | 241 comments Tas is a kender, a kind of halfling/hobbit race with a knack for thieving (they call it borrowing).
He talks a lot, is very nosy and always gets into trouble, cause he is too eager to find out, what's behind the next door without thinking about possible dangers/consequences.


message 29: by Mpauli (last edited Jul 09, 2013 06:34AM) (new)

Mpauli | 241 comments The obvious conspiracy theory would be that he is in league with the Eaters and their masters.

As we know at this point from Ferro that the Eaters belong to the emperor in the south and the new superior was formerly stationed at a prison in the north, there seems to be no real connection.


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