31
General Earwa / Re: Speculation about Kellhus' concubines and their children
« on: June 08, 2018, 10:51:35 pm »I heavily dispute all of those claims. The Judging Eye, while uncommon, is not unheard of. Mimara's prophet status lives only in her head (note that no one else calls her a prophet in-universe), and at this point I'm much more of a mind to consider her crazy as opposed to special. Silver halos are completely unconfirmed, they are not specifically referred as such in the books, are seen only in a very strange vision with the Judging Eye active, are not compared in-universe to the golden ones Kellhus has, and, lastly, might easily just be a quirk of light of perception. Like a distortion indicating that what Mimara sees is actually a vision of some kind, and not her actual reflection.
It's not unheard of (though it's sort of an obscure thing), sure, but while I stand by what I said, I didn't mean she was the only one who was a prophet or saw herself with silver halos. For all we know, the other women with the JE might have been the same.
Okay, this might come down to a matter of interpretation/opinion, as I said before. What I said in my last post is only my opinion. I might, of course, be completely wrong. I can see where you're coming from with your arguments against the points I made.
But I think we can't completely discard the silver halos as being only in Mimara's head/a trick of the light/whatever. There was also that tapestry that she finds in TUC that mirrors what she saw in the vision with the silver halos (almost?) perfectly. I know that may be flimsy evidence (Mimara could just be subconsciously remembering the tapestry, etc.). Yet I think it still shows that the silver halos weren't an isolated incident, and don't think the tapestry came into play for no reason. Sure, no one except Mimara ever saw the silver halos, but I don't think the ones in the vision or in the tapestry were there just as a random detail. Also, I didn't mean Kellhus' halos were compared to Mimara's in-universe. I wasn't too clear on that, but I was mostly basing that part on an out-of-universe opinion (that has yet to be proven right or wrong in the series).
If I remember correctly, Achamian also thinks of Mimara as a prophet a few times, so it's not just her referring to herself as such. Now, this probably doesn't mean much to your argument (he could be as mentally unstable as you claim Mimara might be), but there's that.
Also, in the series, it is said that a prophet speaks with the God's voice, and delivers the word of the God to Men. Mimara (and every single woman who had the JE) sees with the God's Eyes. I'm not claiming this is true - I'm saying that's what the JE is regarded as, in-universe. (Whether actually true or not in universe, it's not something that applies only to Mimara.) Kellhus pretended to speak with the God's voice and bring the word of God to Men, since the very beginning, as we all know. Following from the general assumption of what the JE is (again, not only restricted to Mimara), is it that much of a stretch to assume that someone with it could be considered a prophet? When speaking of what they see with the JE, they would indeed be bringing the word of the God to Men.
Also, what I meant by stating that evidence first should be presented that she is, in fact, different is best illustrated by an example. There is nothing ruling out the possibility of Mimara being an alien hybrid inserted in the narrative because Ridley Scott paid Bakker big bucks to do so, which incidentally explains all of her special abilities (Ridley Scott gets his money's worth, and also, alien science!). Now, this is, obviously, a ridiculous claim, but it is supported by the lack of evidence to the contrary, instead of any evidence of it actually being so. This is why I always come very opposed to the idea of such unsupported claims. They aren't based on anything objective, anything that can be reviewed by others, they only have an idea or a gut feeling behind them. There is no productive discussion to be had in such circumstances.
I don't think anything of what I said regarding Mimara was that outrageous. I think your example was a bit too much considering that everything that I said was either something already acknowledged out-of- or in-universe (if only by Mimara herself in the latter case), but fine. The last thing I wanted to do was to put an end to a potentially interesting discussion with my claims, so if it came across like that, I apologize.
Now, this is indisputable. But it's an out-of-universe thing instead of an in-universe one. It's something important to us readers, but it shouldn't - and hopefully doesn't - have any bearing on the plot or setting of the series.
I never tried to imply this had any bearing in-universe. It's the way Mimara is special to us, like you said, and separate from what might be going on in-universe. I was just trying to address the out-of-universe as well as the in-universe angle there.