Tattoos, Luck and Addictions (spoilers all RotE books)

['thul]

These beings just thought of something...

Paragon had taken away much of Kennit's pain. That much is well-known. That left him somewhat incomplete. Now, connecting that with your note about tattooing being painful... Since Kennit had gone about since childhood with missing feelings, a painful tattoo would be a way to feel something. Burning away said tattoo would then be another round of actually feeling. Do you see where 'thul are pointing?

[londonlassie]

On a side note, was I the only one who thought it was a little strange that Kennit's tattooist of choice - bearing in mind getting a tattoo hurts - had a name so similar to "Igrot"? Methinks Kennit's masochism also has a bit to do with who else is involved - maybe by letting Ivro hurt him, he was trying to make himself feel like somebody else was in control (like when Igrot was hurting him) and thereby absolving himself of all responsibility for the mistake, because he wasn't in charge and that means it wasn't his fault. But maybe I'm talking rubbish again, and I'm definitely not explaining this as well as I intended to in my head

Quickly checking in whilst unpacking (I needed a break from boxes!! ) but I had to at least say that I like this...I like this, a lot!

Yay, it made some kind of sense! Thankyou, Farseer

These beings just thought of something...

Paragon had taken away much of Kennit's pain. That much is well-known. That left him somewhat incomplete. Now, connecting that with your note about tattooing being painful... Since Kennit had gone about since childhood with missing feelings, a painful tattoo would be a way to feel something. Burning away said tattoo would then be another round of actually feeling. Do you see where 'thul are pointing?

Do you mean that Kennit would be willing to put himself through extreme physical pain just to feel something, even if emotions are a bit beyond his comprehension? That's an interesting thought right there, 'thul beings.

Makes me wonder whether some small underlying part of Kennit had realised what a mistake he made, giving away all his emotions, and was trying to force him to actually be human, by making him realise that pain is part of being human. Or something like that...interesting.

I will now probably spend the rest of the evening thinking down this avenue and see where it gets me!

['thul]

indeed. These beings also doubt that he himself knew the full why of it. Sort of like an action that he needs to do without comprehending why.

[londonlassie]

indeed. These beings also doubt that he himself knew the full why of it. Sort of like an action that he needs to do without comprehending why.

You see it a lot in modern times, too - people who are abused as children going on to have abusive relationships as adults, even though that's not what they want - they just don't know how to have it any other way. Alright, so Ivro was nowhere near a relationship for Kennit, but the contempt and aggression Ivro treated him with was probably similar to what he was used to growing up.



On another, vaguely correlating note, maybe Kennit was trying to get back some of the "routine" he was used to from his childhood every time something went wrong for him and he felt like everything had gone out of control. At least that way it was an environment he was accustomed to and knew how to deal with, even if it wasn't one that most people would think of as comforting. The same way that if you take an animal out of a research centre, the animal will choose to stay in its cage where it's cramped and uncomfortable because that's what it knows and that's where it feels its own warped version of safe, even though most - normal - animals would rightly feel more secure out in the open. It's probably not the best example but hopefully it'll put across what I'm thinking.

Also, Igrot was horrible to Kennit, but Kennit mentions that Igrot protected him from others. So it was probably only Igrot he had to worry about as a boy - the way Kennit made it sound, Igrot was probably possessive and most likely nobody else would've been allowed to lay a hand on Kennit. So while Igrot was vile behind closed doors, when the excrement hit the air conditioning, behind Igrot was probably the safest place for Kennit to stand. Igrot was the worst evil, but at least there was only one of him. Once he died, it probably freaked Kennit out just how much there was to worry about as an adult without Igrot to unwittingly shield him - all these problems he didn't know how to deal with, bombarding him all at once, when ever since he was...however old he was when Igrot kidnapped him (seven? eight?)...all he had to worry about was the one big problem.

So maybe in his adult life he hid behind Ivro the same way, even if he doesn't realise it.

[Farseer]

No doubt Igrot used this 'protection' as an added means of control over Kennit (on top of the physical/sexual abuse and also the bond between Kennit and Paragon etc). It kind of puts me in mind of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame where Frollo keeps Quasimodo locked in his tower for his own protection. Like Quasimodo, it was only a matter of time before Kennit would learn the truth.

[londonlassie]

No doubt Igrot used this 'protection' as an added means of control over Kennit (on top of the physical/sexual abuse and also the bond between Kennit and Paragon etc).

Do you mean that it was likely Kennit would have felt that if he told, or crossed Igrot, he'd lose that protection? In Kennit's mind, I suppose losing that would mean being under threat from the rest of the crew or from friends of Igrot's, so that makes sense as to why he'd want to maintain that security for as long as he could.

It kind of puts me in mind of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame where Frollo keeps Quasimodo locked in his tower for his own protection. Like Quasimodo, it was only a matter of time before Kennit would learn the truth.

I've never seen this movie. I might have to dig it out on the interwebs and give it a watch at some point

['thul]

You are not alone in not having seen it, londonlassie... so have no fear...