I see three basic scenarios. A: Giraud wanted Ari dead, and made this known to Abban. B: Abban came to the (possibly incorrect) conclusion that Giraud wanted Ari dead - the old "meddlesome priest" scenario. C: Abban decided on his own that Ari's death was in Giraud's interest. The first two can be tweaked depending on the extent to which Giraud was really a mouthpiece for Denys. (We know that he was, in large measure; whether this implies that Denys had any influence over Abban is debatable.)
A is possible, though motive is unclear; the only possibility that occurs to me is that Giraud was concerned about Ari's involvement with Justin (or any Warrick), not trusting her to maintain control of the situation. (We know that he felt that way later, with Ari II, but did he mistrust Ari I to the same extent? I think it's possible.) I don't see B as plausible. It would imply that Giraud was not sufficiently competent in handling a high-grade azi like Abban, and I can't see that. The plausibility of C depends on how much independence we can attribute to Abban, and the example of Grant suggests that the answer is "quite a lot".
A question: how do you interpret the attack on Justin in Novgorod, in book three? Certainly Abban executed it, but was he acting on his own, on post-mortem instructions from Giraud, or on Denys' orders? (It's been a while since I read the book, so I don't recall whether the text resolves this question.)
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baggyeyes
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-09 01:08 am (UTC)I see three basic scenarios. A: Giraud wanted Ari dead, and made this known to Abban. B: Abban came to the (possibly incorrect) conclusion that Giraud wanted Ari dead - the old "meddlesome priest" scenario. C: Abban decided on his own that Ari's death was in Giraud's interest. The first two can be tweaked depending on the extent to which Giraud was really a mouthpiece for Denys. (We know that he was, in large measure; whether this implies that Denys had any influence over Abban is debatable.)
A is possible, though motive is unclear; the only possibility that occurs to me is that Giraud was concerned about Ari's involvement with Justin (or any Warrick), not trusting her to maintain control of the situation. (We know that he felt that way later, with Ari II, but did he mistrust Ari I to the same extent? I think it's possible.) I don't see B as plausible. It would imply that Giraud was not sufficiently competent in handling a high-grade azi like Abban, and I can't see that. The plausibility of C depends on how much independence we can attribute to Abban, and the example of Grant suggests that the answer is "quite a lot".
A question: how do you interpret the attack on Justin in Novgorod, in book three? Certainly Abban executed it, but was he acting on his own, on post-mortem instructions from Giraud, or on Denys' orders? (It's been a while since I read the book, so I don't recall whether the text resolves this question.)