Bluesqueak wrote:That said, while ‘lost Alpha’ is a good shorthand explanation of why Honor is so very exceptional, it does create a major plot hole for the Star Kingdom series. Which is, that anyone researching treecats finds out that the first bonded human was a Stephanie Harrington
Yeah, Sphinx at this point was a howling wilderness in the middle of nowhere, but academics and con-men are still making the voyage. Those treecats are valuable enough to trek out to said howling wilderness.
But despite this, the Harrington Alpha line is ‘lost’.
"Lost" does not necessarily mean that they didn't know about it. It may simply mean it was lost to them, because the LRPB could not control the genetic drift and add their biological distinctivenesses to their own. The Harringtons aren't trying to hide; they're just trying not to be in the spotlight of the early Kingdom. At this point, if she wanted to, Stephanie would be a celebrity. So if the MAlign wanted to, they could still trace what happened to the descendants of their Alpha lines -- they clearly had done that by 1922.
In terms of the detective story, I’m in agreement that Richard and Marjorie are going to die at some point in the series. Stephanie discovering her parents fled Meyerdahl because they belonged to a harmless society for better acceptance of genies - which turns out to be not-so-harmless- could be the link between the two series.
That's an interesting plot, yes.
I don't think they fled anything, though. If they had done that, it's likely they'd have told her by now. She was 17 by the end of the last book, so old enough to understand and they'd have needed to explain that there was something in their past. In particular, if this is informing their general stance on not being in the public eye, they need to explain it to her to continue so.
And this hasn't happened, nor does it look like they're going out of their way to remain unknowns. We're told that "lost lines" often happen because the contact with Mesa skips a generation, so the Richard and Marjorie may be that generation. They may have been part of a society on Meyerdahl that for all they really knew was harmless. Though I should point out that Meyerdahl is a heavy-gravity world, so the majority of its population is made of genies in the first place. You wouldn't need a society for this... it kind of sounds like government policy.
Another note: we shouldn't assume it was Richard Harrington's parents that were the Mesan line just because of the surname. It might have been Marjorie's and whatever her maiden surname was. The MAlign can't be that stupid that they'd lose track of some progeny because some married woman decided to adopt her husband's name. Don't forget Honor is now Alexander-Harrington and that's not confusing them! It's not like she put on a pair of glasses and became Clark Kent.
And yes, Tennessee Bolego might reappear.
(Thanks for correcting his first name)
According to ToH, he reappeared to champion for the Ninth Amendment. But that may have been the highlight of his rehabilitation, something that the Bolgeo family would tell. Earlier exploits between his attempt to kidnap treecats and the passage of the Amendment may not have been significant enough. Or dismissed out of hand, like the one time he helped Stephanie Harrington fight off a centuries-long conspiracy!