It's nitpicking time! List your favorite safehold nits

First off,I love safehold. Love the well-rendered world, intricate setting, awesome characters, and even the occasional mind-numbing details. And because I love it so much, I love figuring out some of the little inconsistencies that crop up from time to time.

So: what are your favorite nits?

Also, since nit-fixing is just as fun as nit-picking, what are some fixes for the minor nits and plot holes you've found?

My nit: Merlin wants to keep his visions secret. So what is the first thing he does? He tells Falkyn, Cayleb, and...a random assassin who is probably still conscious while Sejin Merlin explains that he's got magical all-seeing eyes everywhere.

The fix: The assassin probably doesn't live for very long after Wave Thunder interrogates him. After all, the penalty for treason is death. And probably the only people the assassin talked to would be Wave Thunder and Wave Thunder's interrogators, who can be trusted with the secret. However, that one live assassin could have blurted out everything Merlin said to the rest of Cayleb's bodyguards, the townspeople of Rothar, random gaolers, etc.

It would have been awesome is Merlin used some tech to technologically deafen the assassin while he was talking with Falkin and Cayleb. Or, if he was feeling particularly merciless, popped the assassin's eardrums.

What's your favorite nit?

Tararoys wrote:
What's your favorite nit?

I just reread AMF and stumbled again over the faulty reasoning (given the inner circle's knowledge about the NoG's orders to go to Desnair) for actually doing an all-out attack on the NoG in the Markovian Sea. Given the events in Iythria in HFAF only a few months later, the plan falls into the category of "strategic mistake" in my book. I have to grant, though, that the way it worked out provided for a good ending of AMF and a nice start to HFAF.
As to fixing that nit: RFC has taken care of that, already. All the NoG and Desnairian bottoms are destroyed...

Well, what sort-of bugs me is the way Sharleyan was kept out of the loop in book three. Cayleb really wanted to tell her the truth, so why not at least introduce her to the "seijin has visions" version? It would: enable Cayleb to be more open when talking matters of state with her; enable her to participate in discussions concerning the news brought by SNARCs; enable Cayleb and Sharley to make right decisions of state based on SNARC intel; prepare her for the truth.

It was, in fact, pretty lucky for the Inner Circle that she was attacked and Merlin saved her, thus revealing the truth to her - otherwise the Brotherhood might still be discussing whether to let her in by the time Cayleb left for Siddarmark.

As to a fix: I guess Cayleb didn't want to lie to her, even by omission of fine details? He might've also believed that she deserves to know the full tale. Anyway, it's still weird for me that Merlin - the author of "visions" cover story, after all - didn't suggest this solution.

As I recall Cayleb and Merlin wanted to tell her. They were out voted by the brothers. I always pictured this as the Brothers testing Cayleb's commitment to his deal with the Brothers of St. Zherneau.

Kakai wrote:Well, what sort-of bugs me is the way Sharleyan was kept out of the loop in book three. Cayleb really wanted to tell her the truth, so why not at least introduce her to the "seijin has visions" version? It would: enable Cayleb to be more open when talking matters of state with her; enable her to participate in discussions concerning the news brought by SNARCs; enable Cayleb and Sharley to make right decisions of state based on SNARC intel; prepare her for the truth.

It was, in fact, pretty lucky for the Inner Circle that she was attacked and Merlin saved her, thus revealing the truth to her - otherwise the Brotherhood might still be discussing whether to let her in by the time Cayleb left for Siddarmark.

As to a fix: I guess Cayleb didn't want to lie to her, even by omission of fine details? He might've also believed that she deserves to know the full tale. Anyway, it's still weird for me that Merlin - the author of "visions" cover story, after all - didn't suggest this solution.

PeterZ wrote:I always pictured this as the Brothers testing Cayleb's commitment to his deal with the Brothers of St. Zherneau.

Well, that makes sense. Thanks! Although I guess I'd still like to have some indication of it in the book itself... Well, that's just me.

Nit: I vaugly remember Merlin grousing about how there were no women in the inner circle who knew the truth. I think this was in By Heresies Distressed. Then, in a far later book, one of the inner circle is an abbess of St. Evelyn's, a sister order to the brethren of St Zereneau. So, due the Bretheren authorize her offscreen, or was she authorized all along?

Nit Fix: what if she was authorized all along, and nobody told Merlin because their sister organization hadn't yet decided to reveal it's existence to Merlin.

Tararoys wrote:

So: what are your favorite nits?

A Mighty Fortress. pg. 56.

And according to Sairaih, her mother was morning sick for at least ten months. Or was it an entire year? Two years?

Wait a moment...ten months is an entire year.

~Tonto

Another nit: Cayleb as reigning Emperor of Charis, which is in something of a transformative process, is now parked in Siddar City for months basically doing ... nothing that important, carouses with Stohnar and by rights (and barring nanites) gets fatter every day. I mean, that'd be like Rooseveldt being parked in London between 1943 to 1945 because - well, I can't image an valid reason....
Fixing that nit should be easy: Pack him on Royal Charis and put him back to his appropriate place. Which would be, probably, in Tellesberg, keeping reign on the Imperial Parliament and then reuniting with Sharleyan. She, by the way, might have something to say about being a single parent for an extended period of time.
And setting up an exercise schedule might be worth some consideration...

anwi wrote:Another nit: Cayleb as reigning Emperor of Charis, which is in something of a transformative process, is now parked in Siddar City for months basically doing ... nothing that important, carouses with Stohnar and by rights (and barring nanites) gets fatter every day. I mean, that'd be like Rooseveldt being parked in London between 1943 to 1945 because - well, I can't image an valid reason....
Fixing that nit should be easy: Pack him on Royal Charis and put him back to his appropriate place. Which would be, probably, in Tellesberg, keeping reign on the Imperial Parliament and then reuniting with Sharleyan. She, by the way, might have something to say about being a single parent for an extended period of time.
And setting up an exercise schedule might be worth some consideration...

Just a bit of a nit=pick on your nitpicking, but there are a few differences between Cayleb's and Roosevelt's situations.
The biggest one is radio (the lack thereof) would keep Cayleb from coordinating with his republic allies (would be different if Stohnar and his council could be brought into the inner circle).
Cayleb's access to radio (and the Snarcs) with the inner circle though helps him to avoid the main problems of having the king out of country for extended periods (along with Sharleyan being co-ruler).

Well, almost without exception, prevailing winds and major weather systems are moving in the wrong directions. And somehow Gorath gets bitterly cold in the winter, despite being 1/3 closer to the equator than Tellesburg, on a body of water that ought to resemble warm soup rather strongly.

Oh, yes! Clearly Safehold's moon is in a retrograde orbit, since a waxing crescent is shown rising just before the sun.

Tararoys wrote:First off,I love safehold. Love the well-rendered world, intricate setting, awesome characters, and even the occasional mind-numbing details. And because I love it so much, I love figuring out some of the little inconsistencies that crop up from time to time.

So: what are your favorite nits?

Also, since nit-fixing is just as fun as nit-picking, what are some fixes for the minor nits and plot holes you've found?

My nit: Merlin wants to keep his visions secret. So what is the first thing he does? He tells Falkyn, Cayleb, and...a random assassin who is probably still conscious while Sejin Merlin explains that he's got magical all-seeing eyes everywhere.

The fix: The assassin probably doesn't live for very long after Wave Thunder interrogates him. After all, the penalty for treason is death. And probably the only people the assassin talked to would be Wave Thunder and Wave Thunder's interrogators, who can be trusted with the secret. However, that one live assassin could have blurted out everything Merlin said to the rest of Cayleb's bodyguards, the townspeople of Rothar, random gaolers, etc.

It would have been awesome is Merlin used some tech to technologically deafen the assassin while he was talking with Falkin and Cayleb. Or, if he was feeling particularly merciless, popped the assassin's eardrums.

What's your favorite nit?