|
|
Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Feb 7, 2022 19:11:17 GMT -5
In TEE Olaf already had the Baudelaires under the tutelage of an undercover partner. Olaf already had the Quagmires under his control. Olaf had already assumed a false identity.
His undercover partner was already responsible for the Quagmire heritage and now she was also responsible for the Baudelaires' heritage.
Olaf only had to wait 4 years for Violet's inheritance to come into his hands... Technically he had a certain victory without having to do anything but wait. Why the hell did he do anything other than keep as far away from the Baudelaires as possible? He just needed to trust that Esmé wouldn't betray him.
It seems that all the difficulty Olaf faced in TEE was caused by himself.
Has anyone ever noticed anything that justified his behavior?
|
|
|
|
Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Feb 7, 2022 20:09:58 GMT -5
I even thought about Olaf's rush to get the inheritance, but I have the impression that after TBB that rush no longer existed, not even unconsciously. I mean, he already threatened to kill one of the kids and said he'd have a hard time choosing which one to kill. This is a bit bizarre, but evidently the simplest answer would be "kill Sunny or Klaus, never kill Violet". And in TSS, Olaf did the unthinkable for someone in a hurry to earn the inheritance: he decided to kill Klaus and Violet and leave Sunny alive.
About him being wanted: the worst idea is to bring the Quagmires and himself close to the Baudelaires!
As for having a hard time trusting people, I don't think Olaf has a hard time trusting people. In fact, Olaf trusts people even when he has no reason to trust them. For example, he trusted Josephine. He would even allow her to get away alive, trusting her word alone. Olaf trusts Fernald (who is part of a family that never knew which side of the schism to support, according to Olaf himself). Olaf trusted Fiona. In TSS he even trusted the Baudelaires. He trusted the hypnotist, Dr. Orwell.
|
|
|
|
Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Feb 7, 2022 22:38:14 GMT -5
I have to disagree with the statement that Olaf is a comic villain. He may have been portrayed that way in the adaptations, but in the books Olaf is not a comic villain. His plans seem designed with specific goals in mind.
In TEE the secret tunnel and the elavodor receive a great emphasis, both by the narrator and the villains. Something tells me that Olaf acted so seemingly pointlessly simply because the reader (and the Baudelaires) miss important secrets for which Olaf felt his master plan was worth risking.
|
|
|
|
Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Feb 8, 2022 7:34:32 GMT -5
That laugh is one of my least favorite things about the whole asoue... But still, Olaf is just being annoying, and that hasn't lessened his threat level. I'm still starting to think about it... But I don't think it's a grand plan, but simply something that Olaf thought the grand plan would be worth risking. I'm still drafting the theory, but some interesting things come to mind. First the SB. Esmé's interest has always been SB first. She may have agreed to participate in the plan hoping that she would somehow get SB. The presence of the Quagmires in the tunnel could be indicative of this. I've already written my reasons for believing that Ducan and Isadora know a lot more about VFD than they appear to know, as do Hector and Quigley. They may have been placed next to the Baudelaires for them to witness their friends suffering and that would be good blackmail for them to reveal important information. TAA indicates that the Quagmires were disguised as puppies and boarded some plane. This seems to indicate that they were taken quite far away, and then intentionally brought to town in TEE. Their presence seems to be important. The placement of the net seems to indicate that throwing the Baudelaires through the elevator tunnel was part of the plan from the beginning. Later, the plan to get the Quagmires out of the building hiding in a Red Herring wall indicates that there was advance planning involving the Quagmires, independently of the Baudelaires. So I think the main story of TEE, a non-contact story, wasn't about how to get the Baudelaires fortune. Esmé didn't need to have thrown the Baudelaires into the elevator, and she seems to have done so for some reason. And it wasn't a thoughtless decision, she planned it in advance.
|
|
|
|
Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Feb 9, 2022 14:42:18 GMT -5
Annotations are a really interesting factor. If Olaf knew about the notes, he certainly didn't believe the children had written what he wanted to know there. After all, it's very easy to stop writing an important secret in a notebook, or even write false information if you suspect the notebook will be searched. Or even destroy something in a notebook.
|
|
