[Hiro]

Thanks for joining this rocky boat, MSJ 

I think I mentioned it earlier: I believe the heads are representations of Saubon's and Proyas's (ciphrang?) aspects.
It makes sense:
They're his favorite servants... his Exalt-Generals. Proyas is even his favourite and most loyal slave.
Also, the use of the head came right after Saubon's death, and there's something in his death that just didn't feel right.
Add to that the description we get from the bad stuff Saubon did during the Unification Wars.
I think he had to die at Dagliash in order to be awakened on Malowebi's body.

Yeah, but what about good old Kosoter?

[H]

Yeah, but what about good old Kosoter?

My guess is that he "bounced" again:

He shudders with silent laughter. "Sometimes souls get mixed up. Sometimes the dead bounce! Sometimes old men awaken behind the eyes of babes! Sometimes wolves..."
"What are you saying?"
"Don't cross him," he rasps with something like conspiratorial glee. "He-he! Oh, no, girl. Never cross him!"

Maybe the line of old men awakening behind the eyes of babes is foreshadowing, perhaps the crab-handed boy dies and Kosoter awkens?

[MSJ]

Thanks for joining this rocky boat, MSJ 

I think I mentioned it earlier: I believe the heads are representations of Saubon's and Proyas's (ciphrang?) aspects.
It makes sense:
They're his favorite servants... his Exalt-Generals. Proyas is even his favourite and most loyal slave.
Also, the use of the head came right after Saubon's death, and there's something in his death that just didn't feel right.
Add to that the description we get from the bad stuff Saubon did during the Unification Wars.
I think he had to die at Dagliash in order to be awakened on Malowebi's body.

Yeah, but what about good old Kosoter?

Im all about rocky boats, I live for the high seas of theories. I get where you're going with Proyas and Saubon. As, time is not a boundary in TSA as we've came to find out. I am leaning towards Hiro and Kosoter. If only because Bakker said we are not done with him. And if we're not, I would love love love to see ol' Sarl with his head still attached to his beard. Bringing Kellhus's special little Ciphrang back to him. Sarl amongst the Scalded asking where the Aspect-Emperor might be? However it plays out, I hope we see how far gone Sarl is by now.

[MSJ]

Yeah, but what about good old Kosoter?

My guess is that he "bounced" again:

He shudders with silent laughter. "Sometimes souls get mixed up. Sometimes the dead bounce! Sometimes old men awaken behind the eyes of babes! Sometimes wolves..."
"What are you saying?"
"Don't cross him," he rasps with something like conspiratorial glee. "He-he! Oh, no, girl. Never cross him!"

Maybe the line of old men awakening behind the eyes of babes is foreshadowing, perhaps the crab-handed boy dies and Kosoter awkens?

Ooh, maybe he bounced to Sarl? I've not the time to look it up, but when Akka and Mimara leave the Qirri for him, there seemed to be a change in him. See, the high seas.

[themerchant]

nah kosoter is hanging from Kellhu's belt. the demon head took his form when off screen kellhus created him. and he took it's. That's why one of the heads was shouting fungal warnings to malowbi.

[MSJ]

Starting my TDTCB reread, and couldn't help but post the quote Bakker starts off the book with, in light of the revelations post-TGO.

I shall never tire of underlining a concise little fact which these superstitious people are loath to admit—namely, that a thought comes when “it” wants, not when “I” want . . . —FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL

With his talk with Proyas about the God being a "it", and our talks about what exactly the "Thought" is. Has he been trolling us since the beginning? I think so.

[Wilshire]

Define trolling? That no one really 'got it' (whatever it is) doesn't mean he's trolling.

Also, you can't substitute God for "it" in that - I'm fairly certain that goes against everything Nietzsche was about.

[MSJ]

I didn't mean in a malicious way. Just that I found it incredible that that's the quote he starts off the series with in light of what we now know post-TGO.

[H]

I don't think the series is really about everything being the gods, of God's will.  In fact, something of the opposite, seeing as to how the 100 need to war against the world, in a manner of speaking.

The God of Gods is an "it" because, like Kellhus says, it is beyond any human analogy, or human quality.

[MSJ]

Here is what I am saying and why I found it incredible.

1. We know that Kellhus claims that the God comes to him and tells him things. And, told Proyas that he doesn't trust the Voice because it's insane.

2. He calls the God "it".

3. That quote refers to a thought as "it".

4. We have debated on this very board, since the release of TGO, that who the Voice really is is the culmination of The Thousandfold Thought. Ergo, "it", what Kellhus thinks is God is really the "thought".

[Wilshire]

Ah thanks for the explination, that makes a lot more sense now.

If the Thought is its own entity of some kind, then its becomes pretty  indistinguishable from The God. I don't subsribe to this line of thinking, but if you do, then I suppose that makes sense .

[Monkhound]

Thoughts as opposed to Emotions, is possibly what defines the series. Emotions are clearly gender-defined; Thought isn't.

[Wilshire]

Emotions are gender defined? Give some examples, I'm not following.

[MSJ]

I'd say that Bakker knew that from the beginning he knew where this series was going. That quote wasn't incidental to what we learn in TGO. Let me ask you, what would be more philosophical than a "thought" becoming the mover/God of a world?

Just thinking on things, I am very close to switching my thoughts on what will happen. Kellhus is blinded to the fact that the God is really the "thought". He thinks it the God who has been speaking to him this entire time... I'd venture that who we see as Kellhus looking at himself in that last vision might actually be Moe or Koringhus and Kellhus will be blind to the fact that he isn't the prime mover he thinks he is. I see a curveball coming out of nowhere to smack him upside the head. Kellhus thinks that he has mastered everything on Earwa, but I'm slowly thinking that he will have been used by someone.

[Monkhound]

Emotions are gender defined? Give some examples, I'm not following.

There are emotions that are culturally tied to either men or women, giving it a gender. For example, love and jealousy are traditionally considered female, while arrogance/machoism (no clue as to how to write that) are considered male.