That is not the impression of the oath that I got. Given how it compelled him to spam the divinations the entire time she was gone and how he was actively trying to resist what the oath wanted, it seems more like it does basically puppeteer his body or at least literally compel action. Not just punish if he doesn’t take the action.
1 Like
Listen, listen, he’s clearly having a mid life crisis, yes? Man is 60-70ish. He has the hots for a beautiful, fascinating woman. That doesn’t mean she likes him back! He has grey hairs and old man grouch.
Yes, she once had a passing thought that he was cute (as one does with old people, children and animals), but most of the time she stares at him to figure out what he’s thinking. (Please don’t click if you value your eyes) I definitely get more “daddy issues” than “yes daddy 
” off of him.
She did tell Titus she’d pretended he was her father when she was younger and she was lying supposedly but like…she did hero worship him as a child and want to grow up to be like him.
I’m just saying, it would be like Miles trying seriously to hit on her. Except she has a smaller age difference with Miles than with Lacer 
No! Absolutely no! Maybe when she’s 60 herself and he’s 100 or 110. It will matter less then. In her 20s? NOPE.
4 Likes
Stop it I’m dying 
1 Like
No, he’s considerably younger than that. Mid-30s or 40s, maybe early 50s. One of the students early on commented that Lacer ‘can’t be fifty yet’ (though one of the others rebutted that he could be older, since practicing magic keeps you young, apparently). Even if her assessment is incorrect, he’s not 60+.
Given he fought in the Haze war shouldn’t he be around the same age as Lisa at least
The Haze War was more than 40 years ago. He was in his 20s when he fought in that. Yes, he’s old. His students don’t know what they’re talking about.
3 Likes
I stand corrected, you’re right. He’ s older than Liza, who directly says she’s 60. I had forgotten that.
Though the Haze War was just the one, not multiple.
3 Likes
My bad, my memory is failing me. I thought it was plural because it was fought on multiple fronts.
1 Like
I also think his oaths do not absolve him from the evil he has done. His “gentle” actions like carrying her in his arms came off gross to me tbh.
@Stef and @Hannah: for the sake of my innocent eyes that will have to read about it, I hope this ship never sails. I promise to support any other option you like even if it is Oliver. But, please, no more “baddeus”.
1 Like
As you can see from my comments I am VERY anti the Siobhan/Thaddeus pairing (and very pro Oliver because he’s the only person who actually knows her and supports her even if he screwed up, he’s the only person who’s always thought she had potential from the first and admired her for who she is and not who he thinks she is). If anything I’m mocking him for being sweet on a young girl and trying to make up reasons why she has to be his own age or older.
I cannot in good conscience ship a 20 year old getting with a guy who is old enough to have grandchildren her age.
The oaths are totally separate. I think he’s an ass for the things he’s voluntarily done - I’ve been annoyed at him since he was so callous about Newton. Yes, dude, I get that you’re jaded and you’ve seen some serious bad shit, but c’mon. He was your apprentice’s friend. Find a shred of empathy.
But I’m not willing to condemn him for the things he was not willing to do. When you are forced (not coerced, not ordered, forced by magic) I cannot blame you for what you do.
I can’t blame Siobhan for being furiously angry about it, but I can’t blame him for doing it.
There’s so much else I can dislike him for. Not that I wholeheartedly hate him or anything, I do think he has good points and can be redeemed, and I enjoy his point of view, admittedly because I love seeing Sebastien/Siobhan from an outsider’s viewpoint. I look forward to Oliver chapters less despite liking him more because he’s usually off doing his own thing and working on changing the world and I’m just yearning for my Siobhan fix. Thaddeus revolves more around our girl and buys into her mystique more. His chapters are usually rife with irony.
5 Likes
But that’s just it. He was fighting back against the compulsion right up until he began to cast the mind-altering spell. He specifically set aside his resistance, citing the need for perfection. So that was done willingly, likely because not being perfect would be more dangerous (but if so, more dangerous for him, or for Siobhan?), and he wouldn’t have been able to stop. He would have been forced to do it if he tried not to, but he still did it.
2 Likes
I promise it will probably not happen again, and you really can chase me with a pitchfork if necessary. It was messed up in a hilarious way. (I’m actually with @Hannah when it comes to Oliver.)
That said, to be entirely serious, Azalea has stated multiple times that while she’s not against romance, she’s not driven to write it unless it furthers the plot. I’m not convinced that any ships will be sailing, but you’d have to ask her to be sure.
2 Likes
No ships sailing? Well there goes my hope for seeing how magical naval combat works in this world…
3 Likes
If you have to have a lobotomy either way, do you want a focused surgeon or one who’s shaking and distracted as he’s cutting into your brain?
4 Likes
Listen, I can come up with hundreds of reasons why a romance with Oliver might further the plot and how it could happen without disrupting her plans for world domination er, I mean becoming the very best.
I am confident. I have wood. I am building this ship and making my ancestors proud (or aghast that this is how I use my sea faring blood? Who knows?)
3 Likes
I will provide supplies and refreshments!
I love how a non Oliver chapter has partially devolved into this. 
3 Likes
I blame Lya. She mentioned his name.
2 Likes
That’s not quite a fair comparison, as the memory spell isn’t quite as permanent a disfigurement as a lobotomy would be. With a lobotomy, I’d take the shaky and distracted surgeon every day, as with the focused surgeon, I’d be guaranteed to have a lobotomy; whereas with the distracted and shaky one, there are other possible outcomes, even if the chances are vanishingly small.
We don’t really know enough about why Thaddeus wants perfection to determine which scenario is more favorable… but I’m leaning towards that I would want him to be distracted, in the hopes that he might make a mistake and leave the job unfinished.
If her and his resistance together had broken his will that would have been the worst possible outcome for both of them.
It is the same reason he keeps telling Sebastian off for casting difficult spells while already exhausted. It makes him more likely to lose control of the spell and him doing so would kill them both at best.
It could leave her unconscious next to an Archmage level nightmare aberrant.
2 Likes
Absolutely not. If someone is messing around in my head I want them to be perfect. I don’t want to end up gibbering and banging my head on the wall with imperfect memories like Newton’s grandmother who knew there was something wrong but couldn’t overcome it.
I do want to go insane because some memories are connected to others that don’t make sense so that when I try to remember the recipe for chicken soup I end up seeing dead bodies connected to it.
Worse than that - he said he was capable of changing her personality while he was in there. He could have removed her curiosity, or her drive to learn. Losing memories is bad enough but having my personality altered as well by a careless hand? No, no, and no.
Or what if he ended up taking more memories than he originally intended because he was careless and distracted? She could have lost so much that was tangentially connected to Aberrants like the fight at Knave Knoll, forgetting Newton ever existed, her fight with the Red Guard - her bargain with the Red Guard - and even conversations at school that touched on Aberrants.
4 Likes