When did you figure it out?

[RaeTheRaven]

Shortly before Tress did. I knew Huck was hiding something from the start. But I actually tend not to actively think about these things too much when I first read something as I enjoy being hoodwinked by the story and just enjoying the ride. If its so obvious that I can't do that, then I usually don't enjoy the book. 

But yeah, I figured out he was in the sorceress' employ when he had so much information about her and her island. But didn't really think of him as being Charlie until shortly before the Charlie doppelganger showed up.

[StanLemon]

5 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

when i saw a talking rat, I was very confused. there are no forms of cosmere magic that I know that can make talking animals. I immediately thought of vendell saying that a kandra needs to be at least as big as a rabbit to retain sentience, so that was ruled out. then I was all wtf, how do we get a talking rat in the cosmere? for a while I even suspected it was design, hoid's spren, with a lightweaving

I originally thought Huck was a product of Hemalurgy. A tiny Copper Spike to staple the Cognitive aspect of a human onto a rat

[teknopathetic he/him]

I caught it when Hoid said “you have everything you need” 

But I was dead wrong that the sorceress was the Nightwatcher somehow offworld. 

[RaeTheRaven]

I do feel slightly silly because I remember a distinct point shortly after Tress was made sprouter on the Crow when I thought to my self "Hmm, Huck babbles almost as much as Charlie." But never actually took that step. 

[+Oltux72 he/him]

(First of the Sun)

Spoiler

To be perfectly honest I initially thought that Huck is a relative of the semi-sapient telepathic rodents living on Patji.

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by Oltux72
Spoiler added

[Wrae]

For once I figured out the twist quite early. As soon as Huck didn't give his real name and then blabbered in the same way as Charlie, I had the "crack theory" that they were the same.

Then Hoid mentioned how many quests would be a lot shorter if the people checked if they already had what they were searching for and told Tress she already had what she needed, and I actually began to suspect my theory was the truth. And the hints only piled on from there.

I was nearly thrown off when Huck/Charlie said he was the Sorceress' familiar though.

[Captain Coffee]

I guessed it almost immediately when curses came up, and I remembered Tress thinking about princesses in stories. I was like, "Is Brandon going to have this girl kiss a rat to turn him back into Charlie?". But, as the story went on I started to doubt. By the end, I was assuming he was just a familiar, so I was surprised that I had originally been right.

[leafelf]

I thought it was really weird that Huck knew how to read since he was a rat, I even made a note saying something like "I wonder if he was a human and the sorceress turned him into a rat?", then I completely forgot about it since I was just trying to read the book as fast as possible. There was even another instance where he seemed to know something that a rat wouldn't know or care about, though I can't remember what. I just accepted his explanation about being a familiar. When the twist was revealed it felt like the most obvious thing in the world that I definitely should have gotten.

[teknopathetic he/him]

4 hours ago, Captain Coffee said:

I guessed it almost immediately when curses came up, and I remembered Tress thinking about princesses in stories. I was like, "Is Brandon going to have this girl kiss a rat to turn him back into Charlie?". But, as the story went on I started to doubt. By the end, I was assuming he was just a familiar, so I was surprised that I had originally been right.

When she grabbed Faux-Charlie, I thought: "damn, I guess the rat wasn't Charlie after all. I guess she is going to dump him for being bland!". But I should have known that the final secret is almost always LIZARD PEOPLE

Edited January 6, 2023 by teknopathetic

[StormingTexan he/him]

I grew suspicious of Huck especially when the Midnight monster (or whatever they were called) obeyed him but I will admit I was clueless until we were told it was Charlie. 

[CrypticSpren he/him]

I don't remember exactly where I began to have suspicions, but I wasn't completely convinced until chapter 14:

Quote

“I met a deaf human once,” Huck said. “She was a dancer, and one of the best under the moons—best I’d seen, anyway. I was enjoying the time with her, but it ended up getting interrupted in a rather abrupt way. Which is a shame, but things happen. I also couldn’t afford to talk to her, since—you know, things relating to who and what I am. Didn’t want to reveal myself.”

Remember in Chapter 5, Flik tells Tress

Quote

I thought they had ’im at the fifth kingdom, as that princess was deaf, but the young master went and threw up on her at dinner.”

So the deaf human dancer was the princess, the abrupt interruption was Charlie vomiting on her, and the "things relating to who and what I am" was the fact that Charlie was fighting for Tress.

[The Bookwyrm he/him]

I figured it out really early on...like, I think suspected it in the first scene we saw Huck. I knew a talking rat did not make sense with the Cosmere mechanics that we understood, "familiars" being a thing or not. And as soon as it mentioned Huck going on and on about seemingly irrelevant things, I immediately latched onto that similarity. Everything Huck ever said about a curse, I read it like Huck talking about himself being cursed. And it made sense. 

I actually came up with the explanation for the name "Huck" somewhere in the middle, connecting it to "Chuck", which is a nickname for Charlie. All the clues seemed to fit, and I was right.

[The Sovereign he/him]

Once they addressed Hoid's curse and his inability to directly speak of it, I guessed that Huck was Charlie and in the same predicament. 

[lacrossedeamon]

The conversation in chapter 14 is what tipped me off.

[garlick]

Honestly. The moment there was a talking rat I instant said it was the prince. Everything he did only confirmed it in my head. But the only reason I knew was from reading to many books and seeing to many movies. It just jumped out.

[GeoMantrix]

Another magic that might have produced something like a talking rat could be awakening/ the lifeless squirrel. 

This thread title (not having even opened it) got me thinking Charlie was either huck or hoid (based on something Hoid once said to Shallan about her reminding him of someone dear).  I generally leaned toward Huck, except when Hoid kept telling her she has everything she needs.  I wasn't certain until the exchange between Huck and the Sorceress as Tress starts to turn away with lizard Charlie.  (It's unfortunate that lizard men have become associated with anti-semitism).

[+Wax he/him]

I could pick up that Huck was lying when Tress asked him about his background.

I had a fleeting idea that he might be someone cursed by the sorcoress (I was thinking of the Terry Pratchett book where a talking frog lawyer was a character... I think "The Wee Free Men").

I didn't focus on it though.

[StormDad]

Honestly, I'm normally not very good at picking up on things too early. But this one seemed very obvious right from the start. I suspected he was Charlie from the very first time we met him and learned he was cursed by the sorceress and recognized Tress's face. Also, who else would want to go to the rock, and then every time he talked about his family it seemed obvious, he was Charlie. It seemed so obvious that I was frustrated with Tress for not realizing it. I also thought it was so obvious that Hoid would make some comment later on like, "yes to anyone paying attention, the rat is obviously Charlie". But reading on this forum it looks like perhaps it wasn't as obvious as I thought. 

[trav]

First interaction. It was very similar to Charlie. His rambling gave it away quickly too.

Knew is the wrong word here though. As you can not possibly know it. Heavily suspect is more like it.

[Tea Leaf]

On 1/12/2023 at 1:04 AM, Wax said:

I had a fleeting idea that he might be someone cursed by the sorcoress (I was thinking of the Terry Pratchett book where a talking frog lawyer was a character... I think "The Wee Free Men").

 

Yeah "Wee Free Men" which is definitvely one of my favorites.

[Duxredux he/him]

I usually binge read Brandon books the first read through and then go back for details. Kind of a full Sanderlanche each book as I watch the characters and their choices, because I know if I think too hard about revising my mental Cosmere model I can get totally sidetracked and wreck the pacing of the book as I look stuff up.

The reveal didn't feel too surprising, so subconsciously I think I knew, but I don't remember consciously connecting the dots.

Despite not being surprised at the reveal of Huck = Charlie, I still got the emotional reveal of what Tress's journey had cost Huck. Of everyone who guessed early, did you also make the connection to the deeper level of why Huck/Charlie was acting the way he did?

[+Invocation]

I picked up the book, read to where the rat showed up, and immediately sent off a discord message to one of my friends (in spoiler tags, because she actually has a good sleep schedule) calling it. 
You better believe I threw that back at her when she got to that reveal.

[Honorless he/him]

When Tress began to walk away with "Charlie", contemplating how she's changed and how that has created a distance between them, and then stopped. I got it at the same time as she did

[alder24]

When Huck first appeared I thought he might be a Kandra, because there are no talking animals in Cosmere. But I quickly realized that a rat won't fit 2 metal spikes in his small body. And then I soon started to suspect that Huck is Charlie, the more they talked, the more I knew it was true. And in ch 24, when Huck started to talk about his rat family and home, it just seemed too similar to Charlie's backstory. Since then I was just 100% sure it was Charlie. And to add more, I predicted that the Sorceress will give Tress fake-Charlie instead, and Tress will see through it. Which surprisingly happened. 

But that was because I recently got fooled in another cosmic related series of Brandon. I told myself never again will I trust weird strangers suddenly becoming companions of a main character!

[ScarecrowBoat716 he/him]

On 1/5/2023 at 10:31 AM, AquaRegia said:

That's a GREAT point.  I may also have subconsciously noted that Tress and her co-conspirators specifically chose THAT ship, at THAT time, for important reasons, to execute their complicated plot.  What are the odds that out of all the ships in the Emerald Sea, Charlie would, just by coincidence, happen to be on that very one?

Rusting Fortune.  It's like the opposite of Occam's Razor.

We know that Hoid specifically uses Fortune to end up where he needs to be, even without knowing why he needs to be there. I think Tress and rat Charlie coming back together is actually a function of Hoid's Fortune. The story really is his when you think about it. He needs to end up back in Riina's tower to break his curse. His natural Fortune converging other events together to get him there makes sense in that context. It isn't mere coincidence or fate that Tress ends up on the same ship as Charlie. It's exactly what Hoid needed to happen for him to eventually end up where he needs to be, like always. Like a dense star pulling other objects into its orbit, Hoid's Fortune has a way of shaping the stories of those around him. He sort of says as much in his narration at some point late in the story; I'm paraphrasing but he says something to the effect of "my secret power is ending up in the company of the right people."

Edited July 24, 2023 by ScarecrowBoat716