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Post by R. on Aug 24, 2020 11:07:05 GMT -5
The Penultimate Peril, page 214 (UK edition)
’”Yes!” Esmé cried. “There’s always important work to do before a cocktail party, particularly if you want it to be the innest in the world! We need to put slipcovers on the couches, and hide our associates beneath them! We need to put vases of flowers on the piano and electric eels in the fountain! We need to hang streamers and volunteers from the ceiling! We need to play music, so people can dance, and block the exits, so they can’t leave! And most of all, we have to cook in food and prepare in cocktails!”’
It certainly seems like a strange monologue, even for Esmé. Any thoughts on what she could have been planning and why she needed electric eels?
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Post by Dante on Aug 24, 2020 11:21:23 GMT -5
I think the general presumption has been that she intended the cocktail party to result in a general massacre of any volunteers attending; and hence the surfeit of deadly dangers. Some have proposed she intended to serve Medusoid Mycelium; but the freaks' dialogue on pp. 336-337 has been used to plausibly propose that Esmé would have the volunteers literally eat crow (as seen in the Netflix adaptation).
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Post by R. on Aug 24, 2020 11:22:24 GMT -5
I thought that as well, but what’s with the electric eels?
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Post by Christmas Chief on Aug 24, 2020 11:58:23 GMT -5
Electric eels might have been an "in" fountain accessory, or they might have contributed to the extermination / injury of the volunteers. The structure of the passage juxtaposes each typical party item with a dangerous one, i.e., vases of flowers / electric eels; hanging streamers / hanging volunteers; playing music / blocking the exits. Maybe Esme planned for the volunteers' demise and the celebration of the volunteers' demise to happen concurrently.
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Aug 24, 2020 14:36:03 GMT -5
The Penultimate Peril, page 214 (UK edition) ’”Yes!” Esmé cried. “There’s always important work to do before a cocktail party, particularly if you want it to be the innest in the world! We need to put slipcovers on the couches, and hide our associates beneath them! We need to put vases of flowers on the piano and electric eels in the fountain! We need to hang streamers and volunteers from the ceiling! We need to play music, so people can dance, and block the exits, so they can’t leave! And most of all, we have to cook in food and prepare in cocktails!”’ It certainly seems like a strange monologue, even for Esmé. Any thoughts on what she could have been planning and why she needed electric eels? Canonically, fountains in the ASOUE universe can be used as secret passages. This can be seen in TBBRE. According to Lemomy, a fountain could hide a fire survivor. Thus, if Esmé was planning a large-scale biological attack on Hotel D, it is possible that she wanted to prevent all exits from the building after the attack. This included secret passages. So when a volunteer tried to escape by the fountain, he could get an electric shock.(Using an animal, which is one of the things that members of both sides of the Schism like to use whenever possible).
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Post by R. on Nov 29, 2020 2:35:21 GMT -5
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Post by R. on Jan 31, 2021 23:54:19 GMT -5
Maybe Esme planned for the volunteers' demise and the celebration of the volunteers' demise to happen concurrently. Oh yes! It would have been wonderful: we would have rounded up every single volunteer in the hotel whether they chose to go or not, and we would have killed every last one of them! Then we would dance and drink and discuss our plans long into the night, and as the sun was beginning to rise we would burn that wretched hotel to the ground! If only...
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