Dead Or Alive??

[Dante]

mynamesjacques said:

And to point your mistake:

Remora and Bass might have survived, if the former hadn't choked to death on a banana and retired

he most certainly couldn't retire after dying, he just choked and decided to retire. So we can assume then that Mr. Remora is alive after Hotel Denouement going up in flames can't we? *adds*

Sorry, I meant he just choked. I'll edit that. What I meant was that Remora could already have decided to retire, as he certainly doesn't seem too interested in teaching anymore judging from the way he's taking a holiday at the Hotel Denouement rather than teaching, in which case there's nothing to stop him from dying in the fire. I'm idly considering a theory, from Remora's allusion to running from the law, that all three of the teachers were in on Mrs. Bass's bank robbery. They were certainly aware of it. Hard not to be, since Bass was so unsubtle about it.

The references are ambiguous enough for me to consider any of them to be alive or dead. Mrs. Bass could already have been arrested on a prior occasion but escaped from custody, in which case the authorities would definitely know who she is and she'd definitely need to disguise herself. Nothing stopping her from dying if that's already happened. Ditto, as I said, Remora might already have retired. I think Nero's the only one who actually said that he was still in a teaching job, but TAA doesn't give an explanation of what he was doing when Prufrock Prep. closed, and indeed it could have closed partly because of his death. In the U.A. he was still vice-principal after Remora had retired and Bass had started spending a lot of time at the bank (casing the joint, most likely - there were some quite interesting references to this in TBB). It's tight for time, since Mrs. Bass indicated that she robbed the bank in order to have enough valuables to bring to the cocktail party, but that leaves her with rather little time anyway so I'm perfectly prepared to overlook it.

Note that I haven't checked any references here or anything so some stuff could be wrong, like I said I'm just idly considering this.

Edit: Or I could just argue that he retconned their fates, but that's much less fun for any of us. I'll try and write this up properly sometime, do a timeline and stuff with refutations of any possible arguments. Ask me again in a month or two. We're all allowed our pet theories, aren't we? And it's something to do with our time.

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

I wish I had time to consider this in depth and look up references. Thanks to summer I soon will. *celebrates*
I suppose Mr. Remora could already have retired. In any case it's interesting to ponder what's going on at Prufrock with all 3 teachers gone. Has it already closed?
One could assume those letters in tua were written at the same time so that would mean that Bass and Remora had already left before tcc(The other letter was about cutting down telephone poles and those were cut down by the time tcc rolled around).
If you go by that then they could easily die in the fire. But Kit didn't mention her job at Prufrock did she? If the timeline I just proposed is correct, then as of tgg/tpp she's already had that job, recruited 2 kids, and been fired.
guh. Even trying to propose something simple ends up getting hopelessly complicated now.

[Dante]

I'm assuming that Kit's already had the job at Prufrock, but I don't see why she'd have mentioned it. It would have been interesting if she did, as I have a few ideas about the orphans she took from there, but I don't see why she would have. Actually, there was once a thread on this very issue, the Prufrock Prep. issue. I'll go find it. Here it is, if you're interested.

And if the theory that Snicket's orphaned niece will be her child and so she will die is correct, then she probably won't have time between TPP and her death to have had the job at Prufrock Prep. Although that would also depend on the amount of time B13 takes, plus that theory might not be correct, which I hope it's not - although this isn't the thread to discuss that, it's just a factor which will clarify the situation.

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

True enough.
So it's pretty much anything goes for all characters besides the sinister Duo, the Denouements, and Strauss.

[sinistercarrots13]

i can't help but hope that some of the more interesting characters will have made it out of the Hotel for the finale, like esme, sir, charles, etc. let's see...

[Grace]

The thing is, though, about Justice Strauss (because someone was arguing that she was alive), there's no way she could have survived a fall from that high up, let alone all the fire and broken glass and other unpleasant stuff.

IMO:
Probably alive:
Frernest
Sinister Duo
Remora
Bass

Probably dead:
Everyone else

[Dante]

I don't think that Justice Strauss fell off the roof; if she had, it wouldn't have been written so inconsequentially and shortly. I think it means she fell over onto the surface of the roof. She'd certainly not have found it easy to escape from the hotel from there, though. In fact, I even said this:

ffwf said:

joker said:

Justice Strauss DID die!!!!!! Read it again! It said the building gave a lurch, sending the judge tumbling to the ground below! Bleive me, it's there.

Actually, it's ambiguous as to whether the ground meant the very ground, i.e. the earth next to the hotel and the pond, or whether it meant the surface of the hotel roof. Given the fact that very little importance is attached to the sentence, and the Baudelaires don't gasp in dismay at what they've done or anything, I'd say it's probably the latter.

Joker misquoted the passage - the word "below" is not present.

[superorange]

Justice Strauss is DEFINETELY dead, as she either fell from the top of the building, or simply burned there.

[mesmirez]

I rather hope Esmé made it out alive, because her character is intriguing (as is her fashion sense!), but not Carmelita (who DOES want Carmelita alive?), though the two are sort of hand-in-hand so it has to be one or the other.

I also hope that Sir and Charles made it out because, again, I like their characters, and there's not really much of a reason to kill them off (not really important enough so far as we know, and if they ARE important then we'll still need them around, so there).

Vice Principal Nero... I hope he *bbbuuurrrnnnsss*. I can't remember anything about the teachers or if they escaped, as it's been a year since I read the book, but I'm pretty indifferent either way.

Justice Strauss... I really can't imagine her dying, I just can't. I reckon she probably fell off the building into the pond.

I don't think the Ominous Duo or the Deneumont Bros. died in the fire, as the OD didn't have blindfolds and the DB knew their way around the hotel.

So, this post was pretty much just a bunch of "I hope"s, but really, without any more evidence, what else am I supposed to do? The way that the deaths were handled so lightly, and the fact that the Baudelaires seemed rather indifferent about all those people possibly dying in a horrible and painful way (I dunno if I'd even sentence Carmelita to dying by fire, it's my worse fear), is rather disturbing.

[jessicajo93]

Sept 16, 2006 19:15:07 GMT -5 mesmirez said:

I rather hope Esmé made it out alive, because her character is intriguing (as is her fashion sense!), but not Carmelita (who DOES want Carmelita alive?)i]

I want Carmelita alive! It would be very difficult for Esme if Carmelita died. I know Esme hates children, but she seemed to love Carmelita like a daughter. Could you imagine what it would be like to lose a daughter? Trust me, I'm speaking from experience, even though my child was unborn.