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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Sept 13, 2019 23:07:11 GMT -5
He was not silent ... He hinted that the Baudelaires were wrong in thinking that he was guilty of the fire. As you said, nothing indicates that it was Olaf who caused that particular fire. Moreover, nothing indicates that Olaf has a sense of revenge. But Olaf talks about Beatrice by saying that Beatrice said to him, "You will fail," but then when he turned seven ...
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Post by Dante on Sept 14, 2019 12:15:33 GMT -5
It's not like Olaf does the opposite, either; as you say, he rarely mentions them at all, but if he were innocent in the matter of the Baudelaire fire he could easily have dropped some line along the lines of, "I only wish I could have burnt your house down myself." His silence on the parents is necessary, authorially, to preserve some mystery. In-universe, why does he keep quiet on the subject? That's difficult to say without knowing the truth ourselves, but it's possible he's holding something back in the hopes of using it at a more dramatic moment. (In the Netflix series, by contrast, he does make a few quips about the parents.)
I also wouldn't say that he ever hints that the Baudelaires were wrong to suspect him; merely that their reasoning is insubstantial. To him, they are too naive to have the right to imagine anything about his life.
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Post by Foxy on Sept 17, 2019 12:38:05 GMT -5
I know there is a lot of speculation about this, but I just don't think he did it. I think you are right, lsandthebooks. He would have bragged. I especially think he would have at least admitted to it on his death-bed. But instead he plants that seed of question in the Baudelaires' minds. He was more than willing to admit to arson in I think TWW, so why wouldn't he admit flat-out to burning down the house?
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