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Post by lsandthebooks on Sept 16, 2019 19:45:00 GMT -5
He's supposedly hiding his face because he's on the run...but if he wants to hide, why would he publish a book series for everyone to read? He brought a lot of attention to himself and his name.
And there's almost no significance of him to hiding his face anyway. The readers don't know who most of the members in VFD are. We barely know what Lemony's own siblings look like, and his parents have never been shown.
The only character who would bother hiding his face, would have to be Bertrand. Who else would do that? Who else is supposed to be dead? And who else would be so obsessed with the Baudelaire kids and Beatrice?
I know that in the ATWQ, Theodora mentions that a Bertrand was her apprentice before Lemony was. But she never calls him Bertrand Baudelaire.
What if the real Lemony Snicket died a long time ago, and Bertrand took over his name? It's not like Bertrand can use his own name after all...the villains would do anything to kill him, and that would directly endanger his kids too.
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Post by Dante on Sept 17, 2019 2:56:05 GMT -5
The original explanation seems entirely sufficient to the purpose. The reason Lemony Snicket hides his face is almost certainly because he is a fugitive from justice, a wanted criminal on the run; if nobody can recognise him, nobody can call the police to capture him. The mystery is for the benefit of neither the readers nor the Baudelaire children, it's simple world-building. When you consider his pressing motives for publishing his books, the fact that they endanger himself is clearly a secondary consideration. Out-of-universe, it's also a device to disguise the fact that he is the same person as Daniel Handler.
Bertrand has no motive to conceal his identity in the fashion you suggest. Lemony is pursued just as ferociously by the villains as a surviving Bertrand Baudelaire would be, so the disguise would be of no use; and in fact it seems clear in this respect that Bertrand would be safer publicly revealing that he had survived and using that position to publicly accuse his enemies. Additionally, it is plainly obvious from Lemony's elaborate backstory that his history is entirely irreconcilable with Bertrand's. So in fact the imposture would serve no purpose whatsoever and would be actively self-defeating.
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Sept 17, 2019 9:34:57 GMT -5
Dante, but I understand why she thinks so. Like I said, Isandthebooks (I advise you to make a fun avatar with this nick, and don't post your personal photo because that's a bad idea and I'd go back if I hadn't gone that far) is following the same path I followed alone a few years ago while reading and rereading ASOUE alone. She connected some information about Lemony: "Lemony Snicket is not who you think you are." (13 secrets); Lemony's promise to someone unknown; Lemony's knowledge of children's childhood; Lemony has a seemingly inexplicable emotional attachment to those children. Lemony remembers what the Baudelaire Mansion table looked like. These isolated statements made me wonder if Lemony wasn't Bertrand at times. This along with his hiding his face can make someone believe that. But the reasons you cited made me forget that. And they made me come up with alternative hypotheses that would explain each of these statements.
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Post by Foxy on Sept 17, 2019 13:21:35 GMT -5
I just don't think there's any evidence to support this theory. Bertrand would have no reason to pose as Lemony, because if he did that, he would be posing as a wanted man. If Bertrand did survive the fire and were attempting to lay low, he would probably pose as someone who is not a wanted criminal.
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