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Post by Poe's Coats Host Toast on Nov 8, 2015 20:30:28 GMT -5
Second Most Uninteresting isn't the best thing for a character to be either, if you're gonna create a whole spin off around him. Although we finally might find out the untold story behind his cough!
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Post by soufflé on Nov 8, 2015 22:30:50 GMT -5
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Post by Charlie on Nov 8, 2015 22:35:07 GMT -5
I still have no idea what the difference between Charles and Phil is tbh.
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Post by Dante on Nov 9, 2015 3:35:39 GMT -5
I still have no idea what the difference between Charles and Phil is tbh. To me, Charles is a lot more like Jerome and Hector, to the extent of being virtually the same character. But within the confines of the same book, I agree that Phil and Charles occupy similar roles. Basically, Phil is a working-class labourer with an excessively optimistic outlook and a high incidence of suffering leg injuries. Charles is Sir's business and romantic partner with a more philanthropic but ineffectual perspective.
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Post by Charlie on Nov 9, 2015 3:48:01 GMT -5
Ah thank you Dante, will never confuse them again hopefully
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Post by gliquey on Nov 9, 2015 11:14:06 GMT -5
To me, Charles is a lot more like Jerome and Hector, to the extent of being virtually the same character. But within the confines of the same book, I agree that Phil and Charles occupy similar roles. I agree that Charles, Jerome and Hector are all very similar - men who function as guardians of the Baudelaires (or a quasi-guardian in Charles' case), and are generally unhelpful despite good intentions - but I see Hector as more different to the other two. Hector had a plan, he seemed intelligent and if it wasn't for bad luck, he would have escaped with the Baudelaires and Quagmires. He wasn't perfect by any standard but there was hope for him, whereas there was no chance that Charles would ever succeed in helping the Baudelaires, and I didn't have much faith in Jerome.
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Post by B. on Nov 9, 2015 13:31:19 GMT -5
is phil the one who turns up in grim grotto or am i trippin'
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Nov 9, 2015 16:36:51 GMT -5
both
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Post by J-Bird on Nov 9, 2015 21:30:57 GMT -5
To Bee's idea, can you imagine how awesome is and how much closure would be given if Snicket wrapped up all of the loose ends and side stories? A book that answers many questions and makes even more? If only…
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Post by meinhard1 on Dec 2, 2015 19:41:20 GMT -5
A tough call. Lemony Snicket (as a narrator and as a character) defines ASoUE and ATWQ. Jacques we know too little about. It would be great to learn more. But my answer is Kit, Kit, Kit. Both series have shown her to be an interesting person, with an interesting life. Also Handler enjoys female narrators, and it shows in his writing. To me, Charles is a lot more like Jerome and Hector, to the extent of being virtually the same character. But within the confines of the same book, I agree that Phil and Charles occupy similar roles. I agree that Charles, Jerome and Hector are all very similar - men who function as guardians of the Baudelaires (or a quasi-guardian in Charles' case), and are generally unhelpful despite good intentions - but I see Hector as more different to the other two. Hector had a plan, he seemed intelligent and if it wasn't for bad luck, he would have escaped with the Baudelaires and Quagmires. He wasn't perfect by any standard but there was hope for him, whereas there was no chance that Charles would ever succeed in helping the Baudelaires, and I didn't have much faith in Jerome. I'll echo. They all felt like similar characters with similar roles but Hector is developed more. He's not just just passive, he's proactively passive. I mean with his plan to live forever in the air and constricting that air craft in secret.
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Post by Dante on Dec 3, 2015 3:46:36 GMT -5
I took the liberty of combining your posts, meinhard1, since they were made consecutively. On the subject of Charles, Jerome, and Hector, while I feel that they're very similar characters, I'll concede that they also feel like evolutions of the same character type, with Handler doing a steadily better job distinguishing each new iteration - although some of this is achieved by magnifying their weakness each time; Charles can't stand up to Sir, Jerome explicitly refuses to ever argue, and Hector is so skittish he can't even talk in front of his authority figures. I'd say that TPP, which brought back Charles and Jerome, did a bit more to bring out their subtleties, but it also developed out Jerome's characteristic unwillingness to argue, too. They definitely all have the same role, though: They're there to take the edge off unsympathetic guardians; Charles to Sir, Jerome to Esmé, Hector to the entire village.
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Post by gliquey on Dec 3, 2015 11:30:52 GMT -5
They're there to take the edge off unsympathetic guardians; Charles to Sir, Jerome to Esmé, Hector to the entire village. Yes. I've always found the pattern of guardians interesting: [Judging in broad terms] TBB - Bad (Olaf) TRR - Good (Monty) TWW - Good (Josephine) TMM - Bad (Sir) TAA - Bad (Nero) TEE - Good and Bad (Jerome and Esme; this outlier is acknowledged well with the "mixed bag" description) TVV - Good (Hector) I would have thought that the guardians should have slowly worsened, to fit in with the idea used every book that this is the Baudelaires' worst experience yet. Ignoring Olaf, it would seem to make sense up to TAA: we go from Monty, the best guardian, to Josephine, flawed but with good intentions, to Sir and Nero, two clear villains. But then we go to a weird sort of mixture of the two, and then back to someone with good intentions (and I would argue more competent than Josephine). Arguably you could count TVV as "Good and Bad", if the rest of the village count as guardians too, but it's really quite an odd sequence in my opinion.
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suda21
Catastrophic Captain
Posts: 62
Likes: 37
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Post by suda21 on Dec 3, 2015 12:09:56 GMT -5
I would honestly would love a story about Jacques. Because out of the Snicket siblings he had the shortest of the times to get to know him though the course of both All the Wrong Questions and ASOUE. It would be interesting as well to have a different narrator then Lemony because it would change the perspective of Lemony's character because we can would witness the actions of Lemony without having the rational thinking to his actions.
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Post by Dante on Dec 3, 2015 15:21:31 GMT -5
That would certainly help to make Lemony more mysterious; before ATWQ, it seemed as if we knew everything that was worth knowing about his life, and while his actions after the end of ATWQ are a mystery, we've been alongside him as he makes decisions on a far deeper level than ever before. With that said, I suspect we're never likely to get a story not narrated by Lemony Snicket; it seems counterintuitive, somehow.
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Post by Poe's Coats Host Toast on Dec 3, 2015 15:33:41 GMT -5
It does, but then again, I wouldn't be that surprised if DH wrote as one of Lemony's siblings. It allows for a lot of cross-referencing, and can be based on a similar tone, since a certain way of speaking can be attributed to it being 'in the family.'
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