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Post by Charlie on Aug 31, 2012 7:31:40 GMT -5
Some would say obviously burning, but maybe not so. If there was a fire why would they not use the passage, as many have noted. My theory is that the arsonist (whoever that may be) brought in Medusoid Mycelium, or the poisonous plant from the royal garden, released it. Took the antidote, then set fire to the mansion to destroy any evidence of the plant/fungus with fire. They wouldn't use the passage for fear of infecting everyone in 667.
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Post by Old Swinburne on Aug 31, 2012 8:49:24 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure that the Baudelaire parents would have took some sort of defense against a possible Mycelium attack; if they grew a horseradish-apple tree on The Island, I would think it highly unlikely that they didn't have a supply of wasabi or some other antidote in their own house.
What may be possible is that they were killed in a different way- Olaf might have used poison darts as a way of revenge, or perhaps he even deliberately got Esme to buy the penthouse to prevent them from going through the passage.
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Post by Anka on Aug 31, 2012 9:36:26 GMT -5
I think they did die because of the fire. Maybe they couldn't get to the passage because the way to it was already burning, the fire could have been set very close to it, maybe whoever did it came through the passage and so they couldn't use it. I also think that they were prepared for a poison attack and had some horseradish or wasabi in their house.
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Post by Dante on Aug 31, 2012 9:55:52 GMT -5
The U.A. implies that Esmé married Jerome to seize control of the passageway leading from 667 Dark Avenue to the Baudelaire mansion - whether for arson, or to prevent any escape from arson, who knows. The murderer's use of Medusoid Mycelium is unlikely, since it seems to have been thought lost until TGG; Esmé states in Chapter Twelve that she thought it was all destroyed.
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Post by B. on Aug 31, 2012 9:59:30 GMT -5
The use of the Medusoid Mycelium in the fire isn't very probable. Most often in house fires people don't die by being burned to death- they die from breathing in the smoke, that comes with the fire.
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Post by Skelly Craig on Aug 31, 2012 13:25:54 GMT -5
(...) the fire could have been set very close to it, maybe whoever did it (...) I thought it has been already definitely established in The Dismal Dinner that it was Count Olaf who has set the fire. Another hint can also be found in the Bad Beginning RE Notes: p.6 One of the things Violet, Klaus, and Sunny really liked about their parents was that they didn’t send their children away when they had company over, but allowed them to join the adults at the dinner table…
The Baudelaire table was not used exclusively for dinner. Its surface was handy for unrolling maps, completing jigsaw puzzles, and tracing the faces of people from photographs. One thing I remember from my time at the table was that it was always necessary to use a coaster underneath one’s beverage so as to not leave an unsightly ring on the wood."
[...]
pp.12-13 Here and there, the children could see traces of the home they had loved: fragments of their grand piano, an elegant bottle in which Mr. Baudelaire had kept brandy, the scorched cushion of the windowseat where their mother liked to sit and read.
Curiously enough, Mr. Baudelaire’s brandy bottle was found on the remains of the dining table, with no coasters nearby. This would indicate that either the coasters were burned beyond recognition, or the Baudelaires had received a visitor who had no manners whatsoever. |
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Post by Hermes on Aug 31, 2012 13:26:55 GMT -5
I think that 667 was a former VFD headquarters - possibly even the one which Olaf infiltrates in TUA - so, once it had been sold to Jerome, the passage was no longer useful (and even less so once Esme was in control, of course).
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Post by Charlie on Sept 1, 2012 4:17:34 GMT -5
I was merely stating that fire would be a wonderful way for a villain to completely destroy medusoid mycelium spores/ traces of the poisonous plant. Also, in the case of the medusoid mycelium, it would give the Baudelaire parents incentive not to risk killing everybody at 667 Dark Avenue as some spores might escape through the tunnel with them. Also Dismal Dinner is not recognised as officially canon, and although it is greatly hinted throughout the series that Olaf set the fire, there is no conclusive evidence that it was indeed him. Also in regards to Horseradish supply, it may be so that they were not prepared. Widdershins had a striking absence of Wasabi or horseradish in the Queequeg, which indicates that he either was unaware that the MM was still around (like most people), or did not know about the Horseradish cure for it. The Baudelaires could have believed, like Widdershins, Esme, and Olaf, that the MM was gone for good and been unprepared for it.
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Post by Dante on Sept 1, 2012 4:48:21 GMT -5
I don't see why The Dismal Dinner wouldn't be canon, as it was almost certainly written by Snicket. It also doesn't especially indicate that Olaf set the fire, either.
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Post by Christmas Chief on Sept 1, 2012 10:25:49 GMT -5
I don't think the arsonist would have much reason to use Medusoid Mycelium in the first place. If the intention of the fire was to kill the parents, and possibly destroy any valuables within the home, arson is just as effective as poison. The assertion that the poison would discourage escape needs something more of a basis, I think. For one thing, it assumes the Baudelaire parents would rather die than release the spores back into the world, which is a fair enough judge of character. But it also assumes the parents wouldn't find horseradish (or any culinary equivalent) either in the passageway or at 667, and that they chose not to reenter the world to fight against a deadly fungus they were sure until then hadn't existed. There is also the point that no one knew of the Mycelium's existence until TGG, and even if Olaf somehow obtained a sample, it doesn't explain why he would waste it on a single murder when supposedly the fungus was a strong weapon with which he could destroy V.F.D once and for all.
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Post by Skelly Craig on Sept 1, 2012 12:29:48 GMT -5
It also doesn't especially indicate that Olaf set the fire, either. No, but the secret message does reveal how the "terrible" stranger spying on the Baudelaires in their mansion shortly before it burned down was indeed Olaf ["Olaf was there"]. I don't see why The Dismal Dinner wouldn't be canon, as it was almost certainly written by Snicket. Exactly. It says it was written by Snicket himself, and if it was, why would he write information directly related to what happens in ASoUE that isn't 'true' just because it's not part of the books? If he didn't want TDD to have any information that has influence on ASoUE's storyline he could've easily invented some totally unrelated "new information" that has no influence on the main storyline whatsoever. And the Author's Notes (and I think a couple more slight hints throughtout the series) are just further proof that this is what Snicket intended to be 'true'. |
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Post by Anka on Sept 1, 2012 17:36:36 GMT -5
Olaf setting the fire is the easiest solution, but it's never made really clear, so the readers who don't like it can think of something else.
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Post by ballplayingpirate on Nov 11, 2013 16:45:13 GMT -5
In the movie, I think you could see the Baudelaire mansion from Olaf's tower. He had a gigantic magnifying glass in the shape of an eye and he could have burnt the Baudelaire mansion through the refraction of light.
I'm not sure if that is the same in the books though.
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Post by The Duchess on Nov 11, 2013 18:30:44 GMT -5
It's not.
in TE, klaus says that Olaf made him an orphan, but not because of a magnifying glass.
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Post by bandit on Nov 11, 2013 19:41:04 GMT -5
Yeah, that magnifying glass thing in the movie seemed to be stuck in at the end as some sort of half-baked solution to the mystery, since ASoUE doesn't have any solid wrap-up to its plot. In the books the arsonist is never revealed, although the most obvious culprit would be Count Olaf.
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