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Post by M David Steel on May 4, 2016 18:34:31 GMT -5
So I want to ask now what do you think made Hangfire become who he was and do the things he did?
For about thirteen years, he had raised his daughter but one day came home (as Hangfire) and said she would never see her father again
So why did Armstrong become like that? Did the statue play a part? possibly having power on people if they became enchanted by it? or the pressure of reality in that it's easier to do the wrong thing than the right as its rewarding in the short term anyway
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Post by Dante on May 5, 2016 5:05:20 GMT -5
Some of Armstrong's possible thinking is discussed in this thread, but if we're talking about what changed Armstrong Feint, I think it was a lifetime of disillusionment, combined with opportunity. Think about where Armstrong Feint came from. He lived in Killdeer Fields, a small town being eradicated by frequent and worsening floods, almost certainly as a result of the draining of the sea around Stain'd-by-the-Sea. It's suggested that the town's namesake birds, the killdeer, left the area because they could no longer survive there, but died in turn trying to feed from the flowers of the Clusterous Forest. Armstrong Feint was a naturalist, a man who loved nature and cared for animals. Having to live alongside such wanton destruction of the environment and witness the death of animals he cared about would have been heartbreaking for him; it would be only too natural for him to feel growing resentment and loathing for Ink Inc., Stain'd-by-the-Sea, and the way the world was going more generally. Now, for opportunity: A major plot device in ?3, mentioned again in ?4, is a copy of the book Caviar: Salty Jewel of the Tasty Sea. Snicket never reads the whole book and we never find out what was in it that was so important. However, given that the Bombinating Beast eggs are characterised as caviar-like, I think we can be pretty sure that the book held a reference or clue to the history of the Bombinating Beast as a real animal - and that Armstrong Feint, with his naturalist background and, quite likely, some personal knowledge of Stain'd-by-the-Sea, started to see how he could create and control a real-life Bombinating Beast to do whatever he wanted. We'll probably never know just where some of Armstrong Feint's information came from, but being in possession of it, I think his plan for the Bombinating Beast simply came together, and he couldn't help but pursue it. We know that he made a legitimate attempt to purchase the Bombinating Beast statue from the Mallahans by telephone; I think there's a chance that he might have initially been considering raising the creatures on the quiet in the now mostly-deserted Killdeer Fields. But interpreting the lack of a response to his telegram (due to the Stain'd-by-the-Sea telegram office closing), he decided to take more drastic measures instead. When you're thinking of raising a giant monster to destroy your enemies, then wearing a mask and giving yourself a spooky pseudonym isn't really that dramatic a step in comparison...
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Post by lorelai on May 6, 2016 4:26:37 GMT -5
Agreed, his love of nature and anger at seeing what he loved destroyed for something as shallow as money drove him, with help from Stain'd-by-the-Sea's only destroyed library book. It must have been rather satisfying for Armstrong to see that the town's grand plans had backfired so spectacularly, though not enough to spark' the idea of abandoning the plan or the inhumane Society.
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