Let's Try To Answer Every Unanswered Question

[RockSunner]

I'll try another tack on the Olaf/Kit relationship. I don't see a completely unwanted kiss here because she responds, touching his ankle and quoting a poem about love. So, how could Kit love someone as idiotic as Olaf appears to be in the early chapters?

My answer is that it was an act, probably to torment the Baudelaires for his own amusement but also to keep them off-balance so he would stay in control. He knew they couldn't take him to a car dealer or provide him coffee. He' has used impossible demands to control them before (such as the demand for roast beef in TBB and the hot breakfast from Sunny in TSS).

Why did he threaten to harpoon Kit? More acting. He was confident the person approaching them wasn't Kit, anyway. He underestimated Friday and tried to control her the same way as the Baudelaires, but it backfired.

He chose a lousy idea for a disguise (the best he could manage with the poor materials on hand) before he knew the real Kit was up on the raft. Once he knew, there was little he could do and he was soon locked in the birdcage. Olaf did make one true statement, that Kit was his girlfriend (ironically, no-one will believe this on first reading). He didn't trust Ishmael and didn't want to be separated from her.

At the end, he shows courage, tenderness, and a knowledge of poetry. I think this is closer to his true character. I don't buy that Lemony distorted his earlier portrayal, at least not much. If he did, why not keep Olaf ridiculous all the way to the end?

[jpgr007]

Is it possible that Olaf's first fire was an accident? Afterwhich noone trusted him any longer and he consequently made many bad choices.

[Skeleton Key]

Here's a point that someone has probably brought up, but I haven't seen yet:

Some of the best evidence supporting that Olaf is the father (I'm not saying that it is, I'm just saying that this is the best evidence.) is that there's only one baby. Triplets run in the Denouement family, (Although maybe skipping a few generations. That was probably mentioned and I'm forgetting it.) wouldn't it be more probable for Kit to have triplets?

[RockSunner]

If Olaf is the baby's father, the timing of the Kit/Olaf connection needs to be considered. Here's one thought. At the beginning of TEE, the Baudelaires spend time with Esme and Jerome and we don't see much of Olaf. What if he went back to Prufrock, perhaps looking for the Quagmire sapphires? Close to that time, some think, Kit went to work there as a teacher (with the intention of picking up some new V.F.D. recruits). There's an opportunity, and Esme is conveniently out of the way.

It would need to be before TVV, when Olaf killed Jacques and Kit was so distraught she took to her bed for a long while. (Now we have a new reason why she was so distraught, if the man she loved killed her brother -- shades of Romeo and Juliet).

[Jacques the Environmentalist]

Hm. It is as Fernald said, there are good sides and bad sides to everyone.
No I don't think Olaf is good. He obviously is responsible for many crimes of the most horrible sort and has terrible hygiene besides.
I agree with the "if Lemony wanted to soil Olaf's name with false evidence why include his somewhat redemption in the end?"
And Beatrice 2 being Olaf's child? NO. Kit said she would not forgive Olaf for his failings. She'd never have had his child. I agree with dirkamoeba's theory.

And where is Esme more heavily accused of the fire in the text than Olaf? I pretty much interpreted olaf adding "And arson" to the list of crimes Mr. Poe spelled out in tww as a guilty plea for the crime.

[joshspazjosh]

Updated the 1st post addressing the Quags.

[RockSunner]

mynamesjacques said:

And where is Esme more heavily accused of the fire in the text than Olaf? I pretty much interpreted olaf adding "And arson" to the list of crimes Mr. Poe spelled out in tww as a guilty plea for the crime.

Just because he's guilty of some arson doesn't make him guilty of all arsons in the series, right? He specifically denies the Baudelaire fire in TE (it may be a lie, but I doubt it).

THH p. 33
"And I would hop like nobody has ever hopped before if I could go back to that terrible Thursday, and stop Beatrice from attending that afternoon tea where she met Esme Squalor for the first time."

THH p. 90
"Was it really necessary to steal that sugar bowl from Esme Squalor?"

To me, these two quotes show regret about actions that had terrible consequences. One possible explanation is that Esme killed Beatrice.

[queequegcaptain]

Althoug I agree that not every question should be answered, I do want most answered. (If all were answered, it wouldn't be a mystery anymore). I would like the smal, random connections he makes once or twice to be explained in full depth from their full story.

Also, I don'tthink Esme killed beatrice, although I think she tried. I believe that part of the reason to join Count Olaf and to be his girlfriend was to "get back" at the Bauds.
Another thought:
If Esme and Beatrice were mortal enemies, as they assuredly were, then why would the Bauds be placed in her care???

[RockSunner]

You could ask the same about their initial placement with Count Olaf. Poe is an idiot.

[Sugary Snicket]

My little slice of the pie:

Olaf having been accused: Not likely. Olaf probably did commit those said crimes. the Baudelaire mansion fire? Evidence does indeed seem to point towards Esme. Olaf may have helped, or he may not have. It is VERY likely that he was responsible for other acts of arson, though.

The Sugar Bowl: Hmm... who knows? Personally, I'd like this to remain a mystery. I would ironically think that either sugar or peppermints are in said sugar bowl, or maybe it's a corrispondance to another VFDer. Again, we can't really know.

The timeline: We've already proved that there are NO female finnish pirates (Hah! And how many of you thought that the baudelaires would meet them?) in the series, and that they were only a red herring and mentioned in passing. So, we've just ruled out something about the timeline - either earlier or later than the age of pirates (the traditional notion of pirates, anyway.), probably later due to the type of technology available. When I think ASOUE, I think Violet's inventions, and then I think Jules Verne - esque contraptions or Rube Gold devices. Movies, I think of as black and white. My personal theory - ASOUE takes place somewhere in the early 1900's, during the Industrial Revolution, maybe after that time. Child labor was certainly acceptable then, and there were cities, scientists, ships, cars, etc.

The ? beast: Definately the IDV, from its appearance in TE. How could it have survived at sea if it didn't swim? It was rather large, too, if I recall... large enough that it could probably be picked up by deep-sea radar. And that's why Olaf was scared off at first - wouldn't you be scared if a big snake thing came up to your sub? The ? being the ship of the FFP? Rediculous - I just explained that the FFP were not around at that time.

Either parent is alive: Beatrice may be. Call me an optimist. But evidence in TBL seems to point to her survival. That is, some of the letters seem to imply that she is alive and searching for Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, and that she possibly has tried to contact Lemony. Just my theory.

As for the rest, especially people: Most of the charicters we met, I assume, are dead or doing something else. This was posed in TPP. (Excepting the charicters not at the Hotel Denouement.) Anyone care to elaborate on this?

I'm still gloating about how the FFP WEREN'T in TE and those who so violently opposed my theory were wrong. ;D

*meant the above as a joke, of course*

[RockSunner]

The FFP could be a large ultra-sinister organization that has outgrown the meaning of its initials (just as the V.F.D. did). As such, it might be behind the "?" beast.

The theory that the IDV is the "?" is complete nonsense. The Great Unknown swallowed up the Quagmires and the others. It's far too big to be the snake that Friday could conceal around her waist, under her robe.

[Dante]

violetbaudelaire13 said:

The timeline: We've already proved that there are NO female finnish pirates (Hah! And how many of you thought that the baudelaires would meet them?) in the series, and that they were only a red herring and mentioned in passing. So, we've just ruled out something about the timeline - either earlier or later than the age of pirates (the traditional notion of pirates, anyway.), probably later due to the type of technology available.

I think you're going too far. Widdershins specifically mentioned in TGG that the Queequeg was attacked by pirates, and the implication is that this was recent (and even then, the submarine was built partly by Kit Snicket, so it can't be more than around thirty years old). Lemony was going to meet a former member of the F.F.P. in the BBRE, and this was before he'd written Book the Thirteenth, so even if the organisation's disbanded, it can't have done so very long before aSoUE and would still be relevant. And it's not as if there are no more pirates forever; even today some still operate like the pirates of old times, just with less stylish clothing. The end of The End completely allows the possibility of the F.F.P. appearing while the Baudelaires are at sea, quite possibly to end up at Briny Beach for a third time, as the BBRE hinted; we can retrospectively interpret as another hint to what happens after Chapter Fourteen, just like half of TBL. Although I disagree with the interpretation of the Question Mark as being tied to the F.F.P., although RockSunner's argument isn't impossible. (But nearly everything's fanfic now, so we can make up our own minds.)

[duchessofdoom]

Okay, here's a question I've answered. I don't remeber exactly where the evidence is (I've been solving ASOUE mysteries for 3 years), but it's an answer.
Q: What is in the sugarbowl
A: Proof that Olaf started fires instead of Lemony Snicket. L.S. was charged for commiting the arson Olaf commited. (I think I read the Slippery Slope, and the UA and the BL ans the EE to figure this out, but I might be forgetting somethings. I found this out 2 years ago, so I forget the details!)

[thistledown]

I think that Olaf did not commit all of the crimes Lemony seems to point at him.

Olaf is surprisingly alike to Lemony.

They've both been blamed for crimes that they did not commit. And they've both had women they loved stolen from them.

And to the Kit+Olaf rumor in TAA, that makes sense to me! I know I'm a huge My Chemical Romance freak, but consider this line: Juliet loves the beat and the lust it commands/ Drop the dagger and lather the blood on your hands/Romeo

It sounds a whole ton like Kit and Olaf to me.

But couldn't Bertrand have burned down his own house (and I know someone has already said this, but I don't know who, but credit to them, anyways.). In Dante's Inferno, when Dante and Virgil are walking through the Schismatics (a group who was punished by being torn apart, just as they tore apart others lives), they meet Bertrand de Born. So, if this fits accordingly with the punishment in Hell, then it sounds to me as though, Dante (being Lemony) is telling us that Bertrand tore apart his children's, Lemony's, and Beatrice's lives, and so was torn apart (burned) in the process.

I may have gone too far...but..there are uncanny resemblances.

[sunnyrox]

Hey Can someone Clear this up How many Beatriceses are there? So there is Beatrice Baudelair, then there is the baby, but is there another one? Becuase Lemony writes about Beatrice like a lover and that would be just plain wrong if it were his neice. Sorry I haven't read alot of the books in a while. But I thought that Lemony, Kit, and that other guy from TVV were siblings right? So there must be a 3rd Beatrice right? Anybody know anything about that?