Theories, by the books

[Emma "Emmz" Squalor]

OK, so why did Olaf want to decapitate Violet in THH?

[Dante]

May 20, 2022 19:07:39 GMT -5 Emma "Emmz" Squalor said:

OK, so why did Olaf want to decapitate Violet in THH?

Olaf's purpose at Hospital H had nothing to do with the Baudelaires. At that moment, he had already put a target on their backs and let the police and the public deal with them. Olaf went to Hospital H to find and destroy documents (The Snicket File) that he believed might be evidence against him. Esmé was unsuccessful in finding the document, but Klaus hinted to Esmé that the document was in the children's possession. When Violet was captured, Olaf and his supporters realized that the document was not with her. They deduced that the document was with Klaus. So, instead of Olaf arranging for Violet to be stealthily killed and her body easily mixed with the bodies of unsucceeded patients from the hospital, Olaf provided a complex plan that involved, in effect, announcing that Violet would be murdered in public. . Evidently, the goal was to lure Klaus and Sunny into a trap so he could retrieve and destroy the document. He had no murderous, vengeful hatred. He eventually decided to start an arson attack throughout the hospital to destroy the document. He didn't mind killing the Baudelaires, and he'd like to know they died, but that doesn't mean killing them specifically was his main motivation.

LSTUA shows that Olaf had feelings of Deadly Hatred against Lemony Snicket, and Lemony had to flee abroad to escape this deadly hatred. However, Beatrice Baudelaire did not need to flee. Olaf didn't make Bestrice a target... He would even kill her at the wedding too, but without Lemony's presence, there was no purpose in Bestrice's death.

[Tiran O'Saurus]

Alright. While that was an interesting discussion, it's time for the next book. TRR. This book doesn't have it's own Rare Edition, but it doesn't really need one. The Rare Edition was necessary to start this, but now we can track things from that book into this one. I have two questions about this book. Where is the poisonous plant? and Where is the Wart Faced Man? I believe these questions have the same answer.

The wart faced man

The wart faced man (or "Warty") was the man who let Olaf escape the theater back in TBB. The list of escaping henchpeople includes him at the top. Yet the list of henchpeople in TRR ignores him completely. Is Lemony hiding something from us? Or does he know Warty won't play another role in the lives of the Baudelaires? Por que no los dos? These are the wrong questions. The right question is "Why wouldn't Olaf bring Warty back?" To answer that question, I must ask another one.

The poisonous plant

There is one more TBB quote I need to use.

The two white-faced women were arranging flowers in a vase that from away appeared to be marble, but close up looked more like cardboard.

Now, the White Faced Women are consistently referred to as actors. Why are they doing the work of stagehands? Remember how I concluded that Esme used a stolen credit card to purchase the poisonous plant before Olaf burned the Royal Gardens? Well, I think that after she was acquitted by the High Court, she gave the plant to the White Faced Women. They then gave the plant to Warty. He took it away to somewhere far away, and we'll get to that part when we get to TCC. The rest of the troupe went to Caligari Carnival, learnt that the Baudelaires were going to Monty's, and Olaf killed Gustav, put on a disguise, and dragged Fernald along with him. The rest of the troupe probably stayed with Lulu, or they hid out near Tedia to help Olaf's getaway.

[Dante]

For me, Olaf always used his car to go to Lulu. He drove the car. While it is possible to communicate over a distance via telegraph, I highly doubt that Olaf and his troupe would do that: they seem to have some sort of aversion to telegraphs.



I can't imagine that all the henchmen followed him all the time. To be honest, I believe that Olaf's troupe is indeed a theatrical troupe. So the idea is that Olaf recruits the actors (as henchmen) just like he chooses the cast. He didn't bring one of the actors back, simply because he didn't consider him important to his plans. And he left some out of each plan using the same logic. I think it was only with the addition of Esmé to the group that Olaf's troupe officially became a tight-knit gang.

[Tiran O'Saurus]

Um... I said he went to Caligari. That implies he drove, doesn't it?

[Emma "Emmz" Squalor]

I don't think Warty is a henchperson of Olaf's. I think he's the owner of the theatre(he's described as "important-looking").

[Tiran O'Saurus]

You'd think that, but math is against you. Olaf asks the Baudelaires to cook for "the ten of them," referring to his troupe. Counting every mention of a troupe member in the book gets you:

Fernald
White Face #1
White Face #2
Short Man #1
Short Man #2
Short Man #3
Short Haired Woman
Bald Man w/ Long Nose
Big One w/ Uncertain Gender
Wart Faced Man

This adds to 10.

[Dante]

I just meant there's no need to imagine Olaf's entire troupe (or nearly all of Olaf's troupe) following him everywhere. At least not yet. After all, a group of people is harder to miss than just a man on the run.

[S.]

I think it's also worth noting that Mr. Handler had no idea if this series would get as far as it did.
With all the scrapped ideas and plot holes, I have serious doubt that he was planning to do anything with the Wart-faced man.

[Tiran O'Saurus]

I don't really... care, I guess, about Handler's intentions. I'm trying to figure out ways to tie loose ends together, whilst Handler would surely prefer they remained separate and ambiguous. As for the troupe, they're wanted criminals now. I'm not sure they have many other places to go besides with Olaf.

[Dante]

I never never imagined that the police were really looking for the individual members of the OLAF troupe. After all, Lemonry does not seem to know the name of most of them. I may be mistaken). Lemony seems to have researched about the main events described in Asoue, so that Lemony does not inform the name of much of the troupe, can indicate that the police never knew their name and there was never a prison sent for them. 


If there had been a prison sentence, Lemony might have known this information in the future. Also, when Count Olaf/Omar was presumed dead, it meant much more freedom for all members of the troupe. Even Esmé didn't mind identifying with her first name in TPP (she even gave interviews) so she wasn't afraid of being arrested.


One interesting thing about the members of Olaf's troupe who followed him was that most of them had innate characteristics that made recognition (and probably an arrest warrant) difficult.

The white-faced women had permanent makeup on their faces in order to make facial recognition difficult. Fernald had no hands, so as to make fingerprinting difficult. There was a person who had an appearance that made it difficult to identify the gender. 

Probably the easiest to identify was the bald man with the big nose. I can imagine he probably decided to follow Olaf right after TBB because of that. But as for the others, I think they would do well in hiding.

On the other hand, a man with a wart unfortunately has an easily recognizable facial attribute. If he didn't follow Olaf, I'm afraid the simplest solution is for him to be arrested.

I would also like to highlight something very important in TRR: the clear proof that Lemony published the asoue books a few years after the main events described in asoue. Lemony claims that Violet (or Klaus) had trouble sleeping years (plural) after Uncle Monty's death. Evidently Lemony got this information from the Baudelaires themselves. I believe Lemony read what the Baudelaires left written in the island book. In fact, the Baudelaires' private thoughts and dialogue are recorded in asoue because Lemony read about it in the island book.

[Tiran O'Saurus]

I feel like the troupes easy recognizability hinders them more than it helps. The Averse is never shown to have fingerprinting or facial recognition, but it does have people who saw the troupe fleeing the theater. As for Esme, the Punctillio reported she was kidnapped. You are right that Warty would be the easiest recognized, which is why Olaf probably never brings him again.

[Dante]

I had forgotten that detail about the kidnapping.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on what I said about Lemony publishing asoue years after the main events. I don't think Lemony was chasing the Baudelaires and reporting what he saw as some fans believe. What do you think about the matter?

And of course, since we're talking about TRR, I think one of the things that comes closest to TBBRE is the extra information we have in LSTUA. So, what do you think about the movie Zombies in the Snow, and about the search for the surviving reptiles? What chronology do you suggest to resolve the apparent contradictions in these accounts?

And a detail about what I wrote: by "recognition" I mean the difficulty in knowing what their name is, in order to issue an arrest warrant. I mean, Olaf had his descriptions published, but also his first name (or last name). So he was indeed wanted.

[Tiran O'Saurus]

I usually agree with the multiple editions theory, although it has some holes. Another good idea is that Lemony started researching around the time of TSS, but also wrote the previous books at the same time. This would explain the very long amount of time taken to investigate Hal in THH, if he was also investigating other things. This post does a good job explaining Zombies in the Snow.

[Dante]

I think people need to understand the following concept, which I strongly advocate: Lemony started writing TBB at the time of the events, but published the book years after the events. Until the publication of the books, he still altered details. However, with the exception of TBB with TBBRE, there was only one publication. The letter in TPP should be understood not as something that Lemony wrote during the main events described in asoue, but years later. The theory of multiple publications hinders much more than it helps to understand the beauty of asoue and LSTUA.

And about Zombies in the Snow: to me it is quite evident that the secret message does not refer to the Baudelaires, but to some other ancient event with incredible similarities but significant differences (something similar happens with some TE accounts, told by Count Olaf and Ish) .