#looooooove a book that explicitly on page says several times 'the answer does not matter'. that fucks

[coulson-is-an-avenger]

One of my favorite things about Incarceron as a duology is how candidly it refuses to answer so many of its own questions. It's cool worldbuilding on its own, and past that, I love that the narrative point isn't knowing the ultimate truth, it's the interpretation, and the choices that causes.

Was Finn really the Prince Giles? Did Jared actually meet kind Sapphique in the woods? Did Rix truly harness and perfect the Art Magicke? How deep did Incarceron go into Keiro's biology? Was the Prison ever actually in the charm?

It is as The Warden says: If you are my daughter, you will not ask me.

further rambling beneath here:

On Finn being Giles - all of Sapphique is Finn and Claudia trying to prove that truth, a truth that neither of them are fully convinced of. There's clear explanations given both for and against Finn being Giles, but at the end of the fight, when Protocol falls and the kingdom is in ashes, the only thing that matters is Finn's conviction of his crown, and Claudia's support. It doesn't matter if the real Giles was killed, and the tattoo on Finn's arm is recycled biomatter from Incarceron. The Giles that stands to claim the title is all he can possibly be.

On Jared and Sapphique's meeting, and possibly my favorite scene in the whole duology - is impossible to have occurred, and yet impossible to have not occurred. What Jared saw could not have been real, but he would not have survived had it not been. The reality is not the point. Even in Jared's own description: "For him it had happened. That was what mattered."

Rix is a fascinating puzzle to me, especially his involvement with The Winged Man at the end. His magic to the Prison is half ruse, half real, fully unclear as he claims to bring Sapphique to life, and Jared does the same. Was it ever actually his influence, or just sheer lucky timing? What was the point of his presence in the final scene if not? Was he truly possessed in his earlier performances? What IS his Art Magicke? What is his deal? It matters not: the show succeeds, Sapphique returns, Rix no longer needs an apprentice. We are the audience, and the Dark Enchanter never reveals his tricks, even to us.

For Keiro, the Prison taunts him with knowledge he refuses to learn, over and over. How much of him is his Father, how little is flesh? For Keiro, the ignorance is the point. The unknowing is the choice.

And finally the Prison's location is probably my favorite unanswered secret. The door is Opened, and thus the location doesn't really matter, but furthermore, what the books have been telling us all along is true: both Inside and Out are prisons. The doorway doesn't matter, as the whole world is one now. It's such a shellshocking secret in the first book that it's instinctively recoiling to see it challenged in book 2, but like the characters, we have no way of knowing. Is that faith or folly? The question of trust and the holders of information are always shifting, especially with The Warden, who first revealed the secret.

All of that to say, it is, as Sapphique very plainly puts it: "The word truth is like a crystal, like the Key. It seems transparent but it has many facets. Different lights, red and gold and blue flicker in its depths. Yet it unlocks the door."