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Post by lsandthebooks on Sept 10, 2019 19:42:15 GMT -5
I know they're a secret society, but the Baudelaire and Quagmire parents staying in one location for over a decade. They also had their own children. Since VFD is funded by rich members who have huge mansions with many empty bedrooms, why don't they have the rich parents simply adopt some kids?
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Post by Dante on Sept 11, 2019 3:27:25 GMT -5
There's some evidence that the Baudelaire parents may have been semi-lapsed members, or no longer on active duty in quite the same way; they aren't constantly running around the world in disguise on missions, for instance, or even living under false pretences the way Jacques posed as a detective in his friendship with Jerome (U.A. p. 122). I'd imagine it's the same for the Quagmires. Consider also the fact that the Baudelaire and Quagmire children were raised without knowledge of V.F.D. and its methods and codes, either; so they were not being trained, at least not formally. I also think you're expecting a bit much for even very rich couples to take in untold numbers of children and school them in V.F.D.'s practices; that requires something like an actual school, which is indeed very likely where recruited neophytes end up. Doing this in a private home would also incur considerable suspicion, which V.F.D. wishes to avoid.
Additionally, I think you're reading a bit much into the whole "kidnap" business (a word I'm not sure is ever used in the books). V.F.D. gets permission first before it undertakes its recruitment activities (U.A. p. 38; we can reasonably take it they're getting permission for the whole thing rather than just entering people's homes), and at least some of the children so recruited clearly had some awareness of what was happening to them (U.A. p. 130). Rather than "kidnap," think of it as a ritualistic way of taking children to secret agent boarding school.
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Post by Foxy on Sept 11, 2019 12:18:31 GMT -5
I agree with Dante about it being a bit much for rich couples to take in unlimited children. Just because you have a big mansion with lots of rooms doesn't mean you have the time and energy to raise an unlimited amount of children. I remember when I was a teacher, sending all the students home at the end of the day was a relief. Keeping that many children behaving can be at times really challenging. Just because you have a bunch of rooms in your house doesn't make taking care of that many children easy.
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Sept 11, 2019 12:54:46 GMT -5
593/5000 I agree with Dante and Foxy. I just don't think it's fair or right to make such young children decide whether or not to go into a secret organization without them understanding what it means, as well as the moral deviations that will occur. But we are not talking about justice here .. We are talking about the best method ... And adopting mass children is not a good method. (Although in the pre-Great Schism VFD something like what you actually suggested happened. Lemony the Duchess of Winipeg were taken to foster parents when they were very young, according to LSTUA.)
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