Gustav

[Luigi]

Could Gustav Sebald be Monty's deceased assistant? Discuss.

[SnicketFires]

I, personally think that he is the late Montgomery's assistant, and was his assistant to teach him the Sebald code, as we can safely assume that Monty never learned it.

Edit: There was a thread that discussed it, I'm pretty sure it was called Dissonant Toad - Gravelly Voice or something like that, but I've failed to find it.

[Luigi]

I think it said that Monty never learned Sebald code.

[Efogoto]

Since it's looking like Monty had something to do with VFD what with the whole reptile thing, there is the possibility that the genius filmmaker of Vampires in the Nursing Home may have been working with Monty - but the nature of the assistance, and the fact that Olaf disguised as Stephano was an acceptable substitute for Gustav, makes me believe that the two are not the same.

[Luigi]

I don't think L had planned anything for VFD in the first 4 books. So it oculd change.

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

I think so because Lemony was waiting for Sebald near the Swarthy Swamp, well maybe when he was on the way to the swamp he was drowned by Olaf, as Olaf said he did to assistant Gustav.

[Caterina]

Yes, does it say anything in LSUA about how Sebald dies, and how long he had been dead for???

[Caterina]

In this case Monty seems almost as inept as Poe to grasp VFD.

[AgentM]

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To me it seems highly likely that Gustav, Uncle Monty's assistant, was the Gustav Sebald, although there are some descrepancies.

First, I scanned the board that swans so kindly provided the link for. One thing surprised me, in that no one mentioned it. The Dissonant Toad can "imitate human speech in a gravelly voice" (TRR pg. 35). Other known creatures, such as birds, imitate exact phrases that they have heard. How do we know the Dissonant Toad doesn't do the same? The voice "muttering, apparently to itself, on how inconvenient it was to drown someone, because it got all wet and it hated that" (LSUA pg. 153) could be the Dissonant Toad imitating what Olaf said as he drowned Gustav. Perhaps the Dissonant Toad can even imitate things it heard a long time ago, which means that the drowning could have taken place long before the "cow" heard it.

The fact that Uncle Monty was expected to understand Sebald Code (the message in Zombies in the Snow) shows that he has a connection with VFD. The most obvious link would be if Gustav was really Gustav Sebald. However, the good side of VFD supposedly ends up with the reptiles, so perhaps Uncle Monty is already closely affiliated with VFD. However, what I want to know is how the message was in the movie, when Stephano had only killed Monty's assistant a few days before?

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[Luigi]

I still insist htere was no VFD in book 4, so any connection to VFD in the first four books will be awkward and filled with horrible holes and flaws.

[Pester, Rumormonger]

I don't think that Gustav the Assistant is Gustav Sebald.

Why would a movie director be in any way assisting someone in caring for reptiles? Why would he bother putting a coded message for Monty when he must have assumed he'd go on seeing him every day for while, and could just tell him face to face? This is assuming that all of the messages come directly from Gustav Sebald. The assistant "is not one of us". This may refer to either Gustav or Stephano. Why would Gustav Sebald warn Monty about himself? Gustav Sebald is certainly "one of us". He's entrusted to send messages (From who? To who?) by encoding it into his script. One word in the wrong position and the message could become terribly dangerous. One bell rung too soon and hours of encoding would be lost.

What is interesting is that Monty should have suspected the new assistant to be "one of us". Does this mean that Gustav the Assistant and whoever they might have sent to replace him were volunteers? Did Olaf approach Monty claiming to belong to the good side of the VFD when he came to work for him?

Knowing that Monty was affiliated with the VFD adds another dimension to everything he says. Were they really going to Peru? Were they really going to Peru to capture new snakes? Were the Baudelaires going to become snake-trainers?

If Olaf approached Monty by saying that he was a new volunteer or some such thing, then when Monty became suspicious of Stephano he probably got suspicious of him being on the wrong side of the schism, or from the police, not being a Herpetilogical Society spy. Most likely, he trumped that up so as not to alarm the orphans.

[AgentM]

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The message in the movie specifically warns about "Your new assistant". Gustav, Monty's assistant, surprised him by "resigning". Also, Gustav was Monty's "top assistant" so they must have been working together for a while. So the warning was about Olaf, not Gustav. Interesting ideas, though, about Monty's real motives if he's really a VFD member.

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[AgentM]

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I hadn't thought of the fact that the reptiles were still in the Reptile Room, but it could still work. Olaf had to go to Monty's house to leave the note. If he came straight from drowning Gustav, then he would still be muttering about it. The exact quote, which I had in my first post here, leaves room for that possibility.

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[StellaFantasia]

Even though it seems like Gustav Sebald and Gustav the assistant couldn't possibly be the same person, it's also weird that Daniel Handler used the name "Gustav" twice. Maybe he was just purposely trying to give fans more to talk about on the internet.

[Caterina]

I think that he is clever enough not to use the same name twice, so I think that it is the same person, Monty had some connection with VFD, but never seemed to quite "get it". So I believe that Gustav was this connection.