Foreshadowing in Tress

[ShrubSeph]

I recently finished Tress and I was explaining to a friend the bit where Huck forgets he is a rat, and I realized it's actually excellent foreshadowing. 

Here's the quotes for reference

Quote

“I need someone to slip in,” Tress said.
“Maybe we could ask one of the Dougs?” Huck said.
“Someone,” Tress said, “who is small, quick, and who won’t be
noticed listening.”
“Dang,” Huck said. “Don’t know if the Dougs will be sneaky
enough. Have you heard the way they tromp around on the deck? I was
trying to sleep last night, and I’d swear they have lead in their shoes.
It . . .” He trailed off, noticing her glaring at him. “Oooooohhhhh. Rat.
Right, right. Got it.”

and 

Quote

“We need someone small,” Salay said, “to sneak into the Sorceress’s
tower through her raven window.”
“Tricky,” Huck said, “since I don’t think any human could fit
through . . . Oh. Rat. Right.” He wrung his paws together.

On a first read through they are funny moments, but looking back it's seems obvious that he forgets he is a rat and can do rat things because he wasn't always a rat and hasn't been a rat for that long. 

I found a few other moments and I'm currently rereading every scene in awe of Brandon's writing. It feels like whenever I get accustomed to something like the absurd worldbuilding I find something like this and remember why I read these books.

Edited March 27, 2023 by Kings_way

[alder24]

Good one, I didn't notice that. But there are a lot of them. The way he talks a lot about "boring" stuff, him talking about his rat family sounded very similar to Charlie's family, him explaining how Hoid's curse works in a way that it was obvious he was cursed as well ("I can talk about my friend's curse, but not mine"). Those little hints were there, hidden openly on pages, so when you suspect that Charlie is Huck, they are very visible, but if not, and you realized that when Tress did, it all makes so much sense.

And one little thing. Could you edit the title of this topic? It's visible from the main page and it might spoil the surprise for others. Juse delete Charlie's name from the title.

[ShrubSeph]

Good point, sorry about that

[Lunu’anaki]

Great catch! This is really cleverly written.

[AtticusTheSorcerer]

Chapter 61 - The Man

Spoiler

A few minutes in, Hoid says about Riina "In addition something else bothered her. Something that might be obvious to you. If not it will be revealed in a moment."

 

 

Whaaaaat is he referring to?

Edited December 20, 2023 by AtticusTheSorcerer
Potential Spoiler

[Treamayne]

4 hours ago, AtticusTheSorcerer said:

Chapter 61 - The Man

  Hide contents

A few minutes in, Hoid says about Riina "In addition something else bothered her. Something that might be obvious to you. If not it will be revealed in a moment."

Whaaaaat is he referring to?

I always took that to mean:

• If Tress go this far, then Hoid might too. . .

But, reviewing the scene, It seems that it could also mean the growing Connection between Tress and Charlie. Possible, but less likely, she may have been bothered by distractions preventing her from watching Hoid's progress.

[alder24]

6 hours ago, AtticusTheSorcerer said:

Chapter 61 - The Man

  Hide contents

A few minutes in, Hoid says about Riina "In addition something else bothered her. Something that might be obvious to you. If not it will be revealed in a moment."

Whaaaaat is he referring to?

I honestly have no idea. The bigger quote:

Quote

My best guess is that she wanted to plant someone on the Crow’s Song to deal with me more permanently. I suspect she was beginning to worry about our bet. And the fact that someone so close to me had been able to get into her fortress, even as a captive.
The Sorceress showed none of these emotions. Instead she tossed aside her amiable air. Her eyes grew hard as stones. Her lips drew to a line. She didn’t like that Tress had seen through this ruse. In addition, something else bothered her. Something that might be obvious to you. If not, it will be revealed in a moment.
Tress was oblivious as she cradled Charlie the rat. He’d indeed tried to tell her, several times. When he couldn’t say his name was Charlie, he’d tried “Chuck.” But the curse had only let “Huck” come out.

So Hoid suspects Riina tried to get rid of him because she was worried. She didn't like that Tress saw through her ruse. And in addition to this, something else bothered her, "obvious to readers'', but oblivious to Tress (at least Tress was oblivious to Riina's feelings). 

I don't think it's about Hoid, because he just described her plan, said he suspected that she was beginning to worry about their bet, so that's not any "addition." She wasn't worried of being defeated, but she didn't know about Tress' ship being that close to her tower - she wasn't paying attention:

Quote

“Remarkable,” the Sorceress said. “I didn’t give you the intelligence of a rat, but it seems you’ve adopted it willingly. I can’t be defeated by—”
A red light appeared on her desk. Several other lights appeared on the wall. Then several more. The Sorceress spun, surprised, commanding the soul of her building to show her what had tripped her alarms. A large screen appeared in the air beside one wall, depicting a ship crashing through the seething midnight spores.
As I said, she hadn’t been paying enough attention. If she had, she would have seen this coming.
Because the Crow’s Song had arrived.

Is that what Hoid meant? Was she bothered because she thought she could have used Tress but she was smarter than Riina thought? Was she bothered because now she was thinking that she had missed something else too while making her judgments? That she wasn't paying enough attention?

That might have been obvious to us, readers, that the ship is out there, following Tress, because her crew was so loyal to her. But Riina might have missed that, just like she missed how able Tress was in recognising Charlie.

That's the only thing I can think of.

[AtticusTheSorcerer]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that this was not very obvious to.