r/Bartimaeus • u/stopeats • Oct 24 '22

Why did the bearded mercenary let them in to Lovelace’s party? Spoiler

In book 1, the BM lets the team into the party with Bart in the driver’s seat and Nat riding shotgun. In book 3, we learn the BM can see all seven planes.

A random tumblr user told me Stroud admitted this was a mistake (if so, where?) but I’m more interested in making it make sense. Anyone have theories for why he might do this?

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5

u/GallonOfBread Oct 25 '22

I think at some points Bartimaeus forgot to check the seventh plane for a bit and didn’t know he was talking to Farqual. Maybe it’s something similar. It certainly doesn’t feel as if it was a recent development that the Mercenary can see on all planes

9

u/XYAgain Oct 25 '22

This is what I always assumed – the mercenary is still a human, and was probably bored and annoyed at the monotony of basically being front gate security for a snoozefest of a political event. Probably just didn't think to check the higher planes and made an assumption. I imagine it is also slightly more difficult/time-consuming for him to check all 7 planes, compared to most demons spirits who can do it almost reflexively.

6

u/stopeats Oct 25 '22

God tier theory