I've just had this really weird thought about the five signs, Elf is supposed to find. I was basically wondering why there was exactly five signs and how Cassy could've come across them.
It occured to me that there was five powers in the Beforetime and that each of them could've been the original possessors of the one of the signs. It makes sense because the Sentinel/B.O.T. was meant to be joint project between all the powers but we also know that the powers didn't trust each other.
So in order to safeguard against treachery, it would make sense for them to split the signs up evenly between them. That way no one power could access the B.O.T. and sabotage it without the help of the others. Therefore by each power having a sign/key each, it would ensure that no one could access the B.O.T.
I know this doesn't really change any theories whatsoever but it was something of note that I noticed that each of the signs Elf must find could've originally come from one of the powers.
It's because awakening the INES machines is so dangereous that I think Elspeth has to go to the three machines that are capable of reconnecting them. TSK said that there werre only three machines in the world able to do this, and if they were reconnected, the insane INES machines could destroy the world.
So I think part of Elspeth's quest is to make sure this never happens, by destroying each connector machine - One in Uropa, one in Gadfia and one in the Chinon Empire.
GB: Excellent theory! I had completely overlooked there being 5 powers and five signs!
It is quite possible that you're onto something there. Look at defence systems today. No one person can activate or disable them. It Takes a combined effort of two or more people using keys, cards and or passwords to do it.
Thanks DO! Wow, my ramblings make sense to someone other than my strange, twisted brain!
I had this thought when I re-read the TSK (for like the 5th time) and it got to the bit when Kasanda was talking to Elf via the laptop and she mentioned something about the laptop being hard to get or that she had to sacrifice/suffer a lot to get it. And it sounded very strange for her to say that.
Also it raised the question where did the laptop come from? She couldn't have made it (I'm guessing here but it seems far-fetched she could've created one) so she must've gotten it from Gadfia as the Gadfians when they kidnapped her would've stripped her of all her belongings when they caught her. It got me wondering why she had to be with the Gadfians to get it.
Then I realised if the five powers each possessed a sign, Kasanda must've known or forseen she needed to get to Gadfia in order to retrieve one of the signs and hide it for the Seeker. Hence she allowed herself to be kidnapped so the Gadfians would take her to where she could find the final sign: the memory seed.
And it kinda makes sense because we know that Cassy had important connections to most of the five powers: Uropa through Jacob, Tipoda through Hannah and Chinaka through her Tiban Lover (what was his name again? Argh! Slipped my mind!). She could've gotten the three signs from them.
Again this is just me speculating a lot but it kinda makes sense in a strange way.
Good ideas, but was the laptop itself, a sign? I'd assume the message on the laptop was one of the signs.
When reading the book, I had a differnet thought on why Cassy said the laptop was hard to get. If she left the signs after the Great White, it would've been difficult to get hold of working technology. When a nuclear bomb is detonated, it can send out an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) that can fry any unshielded computer chips in the vicinity. Most computers would've been rendered useless. She must've gone to great lengths to find a working laptop, and find a source of power that would last long enough for her to program the message.
I think the memory seed is the Sign but the laptop was needed to fully prepare the seed.
Oh right, EMP *slaps head*, kinda sad I did year 12 physics and forgot about that right? :)
Cassy's exact words was the laptop 'which I paid long and dear for'. To me that sounds like she suffered through something to get it not just had difficulties in finding it. So, in my convoluted mind that ties in with the Gadfian idea.
Of course, I'm well aware this theory is as thin as well... something really thin but what better way to procrastinate than to come up with crazy OC theory and have a really weak excuse to re-read TSK?
Lol, it's still a good theory.
I think we need to expand on what she may have gone through to get a working laptop in the years after the Great White. It is entirely possible, that she was taken by the slavers to enable her to get hold of something that she needed to leave signs for the seeker.
Mystic Ward
16 years ago
Mystic Ward
Twentyfamilies Gypsy
Could be she stole her fathers laptop and left it in the cave in Sador before the greatwhite. It's not far from New Rome to Sador present day OC and so it should have been easier to get there before the greatwhite. She seems to have seen everything that would be needed by the Seeker centuries in the future, so why now make provision for it while she had the chance. It would have caused huge problems for her father and for herself to have a government laptop with a password waiting to be activated on it go missing. And I have to presume that the password was waiting for activation because thats basically what happened with Elf and Maruman.
That's a good point.
The part in the book where Cassy is walking through the building and meets the scientist working on cryogenics could lead up to her retrieving the laptop (though that could happen a bit later in Cassy time line)
I like the idea of the 5 signs being from the 5 powers. I wonder, has Cassy brought all 5 signs within Elspeth's easy reach, or will she need to travel much further (further even than the LoTRQ) to retrieve them?
Actually, i'm still confused about what keys/signs she has found so far, but I guess that is ICs intention... Theories? I think the message in the Obernewtyn doors, the uber-USB and/or maybe the stone key itself. And what's the significance of the statue under Tor? She didn't find anything there - was it just important so that she would know that Cassy forsaw her quest, or was it a sign somehow too?
Mystic Ward
16 years ago
Mystic Ward
Twentyfamilies Gypsy
I always thought there has to be something more to that statue. They still have the head of it in the caves and they didn't ever have a really close inspection of it so a clue might be there.
Well, according to Elf a.ka. she-who-is-never-wrong-in-her-assumptions *note the heavy sarcasm :)* the statue in Newrome/City under Tor was simply a way for Cassy to send Hannah the key mentioned in the first line of the door clue thingy...
Elf believed that the statue concealed the key and that it was simply a diversion to escape Govamen notice.
Yeah i don't think the statue is a sign, i do wonder what the quote meant though (cant remeber it at this time and no books to go find it in)
i do agree that theres definatley a sign in gadfia. i have all this written down at home i wish i could get it. i've got this huge list of everything to do with Cassy and all the places she's been and could have left a sign. Do you think she would have entrusted other people to leave the signs places? because i dont think she actually went that many places in the before time, and after the great white i dont think she would have been ABLE to get to alot of places. if there ARE signs in the regions of the other powers how did she leave them there and how on earth will elspeth find them?
16 years ago
Mon Mar 24 2008, 02:11pm
I finished it thank god.
a few things near gave me a heat attack.
I laughed I cried & I screamed quite loudly in the middle of the night & awoke quite a few people in the house.
Rushton is an [censored] when his minds being controlled by an evil pretty boy.
Domik OH MY GOOOOOOD.
i CRIED
& poor Gilbert he's cute in a sad way. &&& Where the hell was Swallow?
& the sword? & the computer & the key & & dude More questions to be held untill the next book ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
It was good eh?
|:|
EDIT 1: I have sooo many questions.
1)SWALLOW where IS he?
2)The Sword? (Possible candidates for the sword could be Dragon, Swallow I dunno....gosh!)
3)Salamander I'm beliving is Jakoby's sister. why else would there be need for so many layers, plus the finery in Ariel's compound.
4)Rushton could be Kasandra blood some-how. I hope to hell he is. Coz on her perillous journey wouldn't it be nice if Rushton were there at least?
5) GAVVIN??????????????????????????????????????????
the dogs following him!? walking through blacklands Perhaps HE'S KASANDRA BLOOD!!!
6) The earth temple gaurdian? was called Kasandra.....ooooh?
8)Ariel? Lud I hate him so very much.
9)Dragon's missing? where would she go? Why? & how did she disapear? does anyone have the small itch that Ariel was involved?
10)so they're all going on ships to TLOTRQ hopefully with daffyd drafon elf rushton & lots lots more... & THEN we'll see matthew again?
YE GODS.
now I have even more to stew over. 8-|
EDIT2: yunno what would've been really cute?!
Yunno the 'hunt' it would've been adorable if Elf got a few stones in her bowl & had to run away from Rushton & Gilbert & oh heck other random people too.
I mean... she was in the bathing pool with the other ladies whom were to be prey too. I had my hopes up....but gaahhh nothing happened cept she eavesdropped on Bruna & Dardelan I was like EL-S-PETHHH you naughty naughty girl :->
I think (for everyone's sanity) that it's time this thread was closed :P pretty much all the main theories have been pulled out and put in their own theories.
So, if you want to talk about anything in TSK, please check around the Theories boards threads for a mention of the theory you want to discuss; if there isn't one, feel free to start one on that topic :)
[act]closes thread[/act]
Mental fun, thanks for everyone's contributions but it's time to refine all these brilliant theories on their own, so they don't get lost.