Why Kaloo?

[Amanuensis he/him]

I'm not sure if this has been addressed before, but I've just finished rereading Part 2 of Elantris and I'm a bit apprehensive about Kaloo.

 

It seems to me if Raoden just came out as himself rather than disguising himself as the aforementioned Dula, Roial would have never had to die. I just am failing to understand the Crown Prince's reasoning. Would he just have rather seen the Duke take the throne than become King himself? That seems very atypical of his character to me. At this point in time I'm convinced Brandon allowed this little slip up to inspire a sense of loss / for the scene alone, and that saddens me.

 

I am curious to hear other Sharder's opinions / feelings on the matter.

Edited August 18, 2015 by Alvom

[Seana she/her]

The way I see it, Raoden didn't really want to be king. He thought that Elantris wouldn't be restored ever, and he thought that becoming king of Arelon would be abandoning Elantris to shrivel back into what it was before he came. He also wanted to see how Sarene would react to him being able to get out of Elantris (and because of what happened when she left Elantris he was a bit embarassed to fully show himself as Raoden, the guy she was supposedly married to).

There's an infodump on my thoughts. Hopefully you can understand it!

[king of nowhere]

It's been a while since i last read elantris, but if i remember, he was afraid to show himself as an elantrian. Yes, we know the others would have accepted him. He didn't. Yes, it was a mistake. Well, not even raoden is perfect.

[Amanuensis he/him]

@Seana: Though it doesn't state his reasoning, I suppose it's possible that he thought he was abandoning his fellow Elantrians by declaring himself, however, I'm pretty certain that he could have handled both at once; to have used his power as King to eliminate the stigma related to the city and even enlisted the help of others to solve the mystery of how to restore them to full power. As for wanting to see what Sarene's reaction would be, that seems uncharacteristically immature for his character.

 

@king of nowhere: He created an illusion that made him look like he did prior to being taken by the Shaod. He could have easily made his presence known without ever declaring himself an Elantrian. He could have easily made an excuse, perhaps even gone with Saren's original assumption that Iadon had locked him up somewhere, and he was only able to get free after his death. It wouldn't be the first time he lied to accomplish his mission.

 

On that note, I agree. Raoden isn't perfect, though it does seem sometimes that Mr. Sanderson designed him to be. My point is that he chose to return to Kae and intervene with the current political going ons either way, and that he should have understood that just being him would have accomplished so much more much quickly.

[Blaze1616 he/him]

Something I think you're neglecting is the fact that, were Raoden to have taken his own form and tried to pass as himself, everyone he introduced himself to would likely not trust him. After all, being taken by the Shaod is viewed as death in their culture. To suddenly reappear, with a shaky excuse like "King Iadon locked me up" is extremely suspicious, particularly in a political climate such as that. 

 

Look at it this way, from the perspective of Sarene's group, there's a group of religious zealots trying to take over the country through their religion. If their crown prince were to return, looking like he did prior to the Shaod, they'd likely be suspicious that Hrathen was attempting to fool them. If they wouldn't be suspicious, I think it would do a huge disservice to their characters, who have all been made out to be quite intelligent.

 

I just don't see a feasible way that Raoden appearing as his old self would not have caused more trouble than it was worth.

[Oudeis he/him]

I think it also ties into the fact that he doesn't tell any Elantrian he's Raoden. He's got a crisis of identity. In moments, everything he ever knew was taken from him. To be taken by the Shaod is equivalent to dying. And then, he died. And was thrust into the afterlife.

 

I don't think he's ready to be Raoden yet. I think he might have come up with reasons, ways to explain it, but deep down, he just didn't want people to know he was Raoden. He eventually reveals himself because he has to, but he simply didn't want to.

 

Raoden died. Now, he is Spirit.

[Amanuensis he/him]

@Blaze1616: When Raoden was eventually forced to reveal himself, not a single person doubted it was him. Only Hrathen mentioned in his chapter following his return that Sarene must have found an imposter and was using him to gain an upper hand, and everyone else was "fooled." I'm certain that if Raoden had came out to his group of conspirators with the whole truth, providing personal details from their experiences together that only he would know, they would have had no doubts. As for the general populace, with all of the recent turbulence they accepted Raoden's return immediately, and even after Dilaf destroyed his illusion they still supported his reign, albeit not without the princess' speech first. Technically, him telling the citizens of Kae that he was locked up by Iadon was not even false, either, for he was the one who sent his son into the city upon discovering the change. The fact is, after pretending to be a Dula refugee and suddenly revealing his true identity after an unnecessary tragedy ocurred / to save the day, not a single one of his friends / colleagues were suspicious. There would have been no harm, or at least significantly less, if he just came to them first and told them the truth.

 

@Oudeis: Not once did he ever consider himself lesser than he was during his time in Elantris. Though he thought himself weaker then most prior to him understanding what the AonDor was doing to him, he never abandoned his eternal optimism. His only stated excuse for not telling the Elantrians his identity was so that they would not choose to follow him simply because he was the Crown Prince, but because in their hearts they knew he would lead them to salvation. I don't really buy the whole identity crisis thing, because in every internal monologue relating to his subterfuge, he explicitly states this.

[Blaze1616 he/him]

@Blaze1616: When Raoden was eventually forced to reveal himself, not a single person doubted it was him. Only Hrathen mentioned in his chapter following his return that Sarene must have found an imposter and was using him to gain an upper hand, and everyone else was "fooled." I'm certain that if Raoden had came out to his group of conspirators with the whole truth, providing personal details from their experiences together that only he would know, they would have had no doubts. As for the general populace, with all of the recent turbulence they accepted Raoden's return immediately, and even after Dilaf destroyed his illusion they still supported his reign, albeit not without the princess' speech first. Technically, him telling the citizens of Kae that he was locked up by Iadon was not even false, either, for he was the one who sent his son into the city upon discovering the change. The fact is, after pretending to be a Dula refugee and suddenly revealing his true identity after an unnecessary tragedy ocurred / to save the day, not a single one of his friends / colleagues were suspicious. There would have been no harm, or at least significantly less, if he just came to them first and told them the truth.

 

I'm still going to disagree with you. Now, it's been over a year since I last visited Sel, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but when Raoden tried to save the day, was his form not the Elantrian form? I thought it was. I do not think your suggestion of him appearing as he was prior to the Shaod would have worked. Perhaps him returning as Elantrian Raoden, and claiming to be the prince, would have worked better, but let's not forget that the group only realized it was him after Roial identifies him. I just don't see a scenario where Raoden revealing himself early would have worked without making the group seem incredibly stupid and inept at political maneuverings, a trait that they're all supposedly savvy in.

[Amanuensis he/him]

@Blaze1616: No, it was not his Elantrian form. He had prepared an ordinary Raoden illusion and wore it underneath the Kaloo one in case of an emergency. Essentially what occurred was, after Lord Roial being stabbed, he leapt on top of a table, dismissed his Kaloo illusion to reveal that he was actually Raoden, then scared Telrii's guards off by proclaiming himself the Crown Prince and ran to his mortally wounded friend in order to try and heal him using the appropriate aon. Though Lord Roial did recognize qualities in Kaloo that would make him an asset to the team, he never identified him as Raoden prior to his aforementioned reveal.

[Blaze1616 he/him]

@Blaze1616: No, it was not his Elantrian form. He had prepared an ordinary Raoden illusion and wore it underneath the Kaloo one in case of an emergency. Essentially what occurred was, after Lord Roial being stabbed, he leapt on top of a table, dismissed his Kaloo illusion to reveal that he was actually Raoden, then scared Telrii's guards off by proclaiming himself the Crown Prince and ran to his mortally wounded friend in order to try and heal him using the appropriate aon. Though Lord Roial did recognize qualities in Kaloo that would make him an asset to the team, he never identified him as Raoden prior to his aforementioned reveal.

 

Ah, thank you for the clarification, I really need to reread Elantris. Anyways, Raoden using the Aons still speaks to him being Elantrian. Given the Reod was only 10 years past, everyone in the room should have understood (except for maybe Sarene) what him drawing an aon in the air meant. It still spoke to him being an Elantrian, which is nigh impossible to fake (the aon drawing part, not the sickly skin part). 

 

I think we'll have to agree to disagree at this point 

[Oudeis he/him]

@Oudeis: Not once did he ever consider himself lesser than he was during his time in Elantris.

 

I'm not going to concede to this rather blanket statement, but it's irrelevant. I didn't say he thought he was 'less', but he was definitely different. There's no way not to be affected by what happened. Banishment. Functional death. Damnation. Eternal torment. We don't need to have the words "identity crisis" flat-out told to us to recognize what happened. No one would get through a crucible like this unchanged. Spirit may have had some things in common with Raoden, but that doesn't mean he didn't suffer a shift of identity. I still maintain that one of the reasons he didn't feel comfortable revealing himself as Raoden is because part of him still believed Raoden was dead.

 

As for what you mentioned above, you have the benefit of hindsight. You, looking back and seeing that outcome A happened, is not proof that the person making choices should have assumed Outcome A was going to happen.