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Post by Hermes on Jun 8, 2014 10:05:43 GMT -5
Well, of course, the truth is that when TBB was written, VFD had not been invented: the Baudelaires were just a pair of wealthy people who had no special reason to fear death.
But if we want an in-story explanation, how about this: the Baudelaires wanted to shelter their children from the treachery of the world, which means they did not want them involved in VFD. If they had followed VFD tradition, V and K would have been recruited at some point between the ages of 2 and 8: they weren't, and it seems likely that their parents wanted them to join, if at all, freely as adults. So, they decided that if they were killed the children should go to their relatives - meaning fairly close blood relatives who were not members of VFD (e.g. Uncle Elwyn?). But when the time came, their close relatives were unavailable - perhaps they had also been killed, perhaps they were out of the country or something - and so when Olaf came forward with proof of their relationship, Mr Poe had to send the kids to him.
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Post by Dante on Jun 8, 2014 16:03:08 GMT -5
I agree with Hermes both that the will is quite simply a plot device, but also that it's fairly clear the Baudelaire parents did not really want their children to be involved with V.F.D., save perhaps on their own terms. Hence the will being entrusted to Mr. Poe - who, lest we forget, is an experienced financial manager who had presumably been handling the Baudelaires' assets for many years. Mr. Poe's stupidity is also vastly exaggerated as the series goes on; in TBB, he's really just quite oblivious and taken totally off guard by Olaf's villainy. So there is an argument that Mr. Poe, if he is a foolish man, perhaps becomes more foolish as he becomes busier and less able to devote time to the Baudelaire children.
The terms of the will are that the children must be adopted by a relative, and that they are to be raised in the most convenient way possible. Neither of these are remotely unreasonable conditions. If the Baudelaires had been sent to Uncle Monty first, they'd have had a grand time; Aunt Josephine, too, would have come around to them and made a good guardian eventually. The conditions just happen to have been interpreted once, but alas first, as pointing to Count Olaf - a distant relative, but one who lives in what Mr. Poe correctly argues are surroundings convenient to the Baudelaires, that being their home city, close to their friends and financial guardian.
The conclusion I come to is that the only way in which the will is deficient is in Olaf being evil. If Olaf hadn't been evil, or hadn't lived in the city, the will would have been perfect. That Olaf is not specifically ruled out in the will suggests that, at the time it was drafted, the Baudelaire parents simply never imagined, for any number of reasons, that Olaf would present a legitimate guardian to the children. They might even have speculated that he'd reject the position entirely.
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Post by Hermes on Jun 8, 2014 17:45:15 GMT -5
Hence the will being entrusted to Mr. Poe - who, lest we forget, is an experienced financial manager who had presumably been handling the Baudelaires' assets for many years. Mr. Poe's stupidity is also vastly exaggerated as the series goes on; in TBB, he's really just quite oblivious and taken totally off guard by Olaf's villainy. So there is an argument that Mr. Poe, if he is a foolish man, perhaps becomes more foolish as he becomes busier and less able to devote time to the Baudelaire children. One might add that the stupidity of Mr Poe in the later books is symbolic of the stupidity of adults generally (the Baudelaires' frustration with him rather recalls Flan's frustration with her teachers in The Basic Eight), so it's not clear better bankers would have been available.
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Post by Dante on Jun 9, 2014 11:48:55 GMT -5
I will confess that "But they should have anticipated Olaf's evil" is not an argument that anyone is ever likely to truly counter, because the facts are that they didn't anticipate it and yet it was all too easy for Olaf. That we can only really account for with some original contrivance - viz., "Olaf had only just moved back to the city and they died before finding out / changing their will." It is worth noting, however, as regards to careful planning and foreshadowing, that it is widely considered that V.F.D. was only invented with the writing of TAA. Handler's original contract was only for four books and he didn't think that he'd get an extension to thirteen. The invention of V.F.D. complicates and prolongs the series in ways which don't require it to depend exclusively upon the formula of the early books. ...Less generously, ASoUE is not widely considered to be a paragon of careful planning.
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Post by Dante on Jun 10, 2014 3:43:58 GMT -5
No disagreements there. Most of our work over the years has been in tying up the narrative in a way that does it justice.
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