Broken Tree

[Jared]

Maedre...

Perhaps a reference to Kvothe freeing the CTH?

[Jessica]

He did say it was prophetic.

[Jared]

Who did, PR?

The idea just came upon me while reading another thread. I don't recall seeing it elsewhere, though I'm certain I'm not the first. Where's Thistlepong when you need her...

[Billy]

I always thought of "broken tree" as a family lineage. Like when you make a diagram of your "family tree". Well I always associated that with Kvothe's family dying, and perhaps the prophetic part is that he dies too, because that would essentially be the end of his family tree.

Kvothe talks about the Ruh being one family, maybe Kvothe breaks from the family like the false family he killed in book 2. It might be possible to think of him as a breaking the family tree that way too.

[Soap!]

I think it's refered to thr king Kvothe kills. He kills him, so he breaks his family... or something like that. I saw it in one of Thislepong's posts and I thougth it suits.

[Jessica]

RE: Who did?

When Kvothe is talking about all his names, I think, how he bought and paid for them, he mentions Maedre and says something about how it can mean flame and references his hair and so on, and when he gets to the broken tree part, I'm almost certain he says in hindsight it could be called prophetic.

[Jared]

Ah, awesome, Jessica. Thanks. I'll go over that again.

[Brandon]

He breaks the tree the cthaeh is bound to and frees him. That was my thought when I heard it

[Amber, Master Sympathist]

I know it's widely speculated that the Lackless box is actually what binds the Ctheah to the tree.
I have liked that line of thinking quite a bit the more I reread the series.

And yah, where is Thistlepong? Haven't read any posts in ages seems like. I'd love to see her metaphor breakdown she's great at those.

More than likely, I would guess that all the names apply to more than one event. Kinda like Kvothe the Bloodless has mulitple different meanings and stories tied to it.

[thistlepong, Master Namer]

Summer. Toddler. Excuses. People keep saying my name, though.

Besides, y'all cover most of the broken tree stuff I remember:

The potential for freeing the Cthaeh
The potential severing of the Calanthis line (huh, Severen...)
The possibility of him being the last Lackless

All of these rest on other theories. And I haven't seen any close reading of tree symbolism or anything.

This is neat:

Billy wrote: "Kvothe talks about the Ruh being one family, maybe Kvothe breaks from the family like the false family he killed in book 2. It might be possible to think of him as a breaking the family tree that way too."

But there's really no Ruh/Tree imagery going on in the story.

and here's the passage -

“The Flame” is obvious if you’ve ever seen me. I have red hair, bright. If I had been born a couple hundred years ago I would probably have been burned as a demon. I keep it short but it’s unruly. When left to its own devices, it sticks up and makes me look as if I have been set afire.

“The Thunder” I attribute to a strong baritone and a great deal of stage training at an early age.

I’ve never thought of “The Broken Tree” as very significant. Although in retrospect I suppose it could be considered at least partially prophetic.

[Amber, Master Sympathist]

People keep saying my name, though.



Well, you are a bit unforgettable, pretty much have the most detailed and convincing posts on the boards. LOL.

[Manda]

Thistlepong, Thistlepong, Thistlepong! Remember this, guys. Works just like Beetlejuice...

[Bill]

"I’ve never thought of “The Broken Tree” as very significant. Although in retrospect I suppose it could be considered at least partially prophetic."

I've always had an issue with this line. Why *wouldn't* he consider it very significant if it *was* in fact somewhat prophetic?

I mean, flame for red hair is significant by comparison? Thunder for his voice is significant?

But, killing or freeing the Cthaeh or ending a royal line isn't?

It doesn't make much sense, other than as a bit of misdirection from PR.

[Amber, Master Sympathist]

Manda wrote: "Thistlepong, Thistlepong, Thistlepong! Remember this, guys. Works just like Beetlejuice..."

LOL!! Good information to have.... *squinty eyes*

[Amber, Master Sympathist]

@Bill - I think possibly because the other two are a bit more literal. Red Hair and Powerful Voices are described with these adjectives all the time. "His hair was red as flame" "His voice thundered when he sang"

Broken Tree would be a bit more metaphorical. I can't say from personal experience but it would just seem weird to say after kill the final member of a familial line "I broke his tree"


Though I do agree that Ctheah part is probably off as that seems pretty direct now. Makes me think Broken Tree lends more creedence to Thistlepong's King Theory. (Maybe even Alveron's, no heir their right?)

[Bill]

Amber wrote: "@Bill - I think possibly because the other two are a bit more literal. Red Hair and Powerful Voices are described with these adjectives all the time. "His hair was red as flame" "His voice thunde..."

Let's put it this way...His first two nicknames are obvious to anyone who has seen or heard him. The third, the one that is "at least partially prophetic" i.e. predicts the future, he claims he never thought was very significant.

One more time, the one nickname he has that predicts the future, wasn't significant, according to him.

This absolutely does not compute. This is clearly PR doing a bit of misdirection. There are a couple of ways of reading this. Perhaps Kvothe is dissembling in his explanation of his first two nicknames. Very possible. Maybe they do actually refer to events that are very significant but he is feigning ignorance for some reason.

But the third...To claim a nickname that *tells the future* is insignificant is completely disingenuous. This is deliberate misdirection.

[Amber, Master Sympathist]

Could be for certain.

On the other hand however, significance of something is rather subjective. Kvothe has always been a bit arrogant in my opinion, so it wouldn't surprise me if he felt that overall, Thunder and Flame related to him more than a nickname that centered around one event, if that makes sense. Thunder and Flame have more than one meaning in relation to Kvothe, broken tree, in my opinion, is probably a singular incident which, also in my opinion, does lower its overall significance in regards to his full character build.

[Jessica]

"I never thought..." is past tense. It seems to indicate that while he did not give it much importance, looking back now he says he can see where it might have meant more than he believed at that time.