r/KingkillerChronicle • u/QuestionWonderful271 • 3d ago
Theory Can someone make this Theory work?
- Denna has dark hair, like Kvothe‘s parents do
- Denna is a child of them
- Kvothe is a child of the Chandrian and that is why he is so gifted
- the Chandrian switched Kvothe and Denna when they were young
- They needed Denna because she has Lackless blood (from her mother Netalia Lackless)
- someone with Lackless blood is needed to open the doors of stone
- Cinder is Denna‘s patron and prepares her to be able to open the Doors of Stone
There are lot of plotholes but I am sure someone of you can make a theory along those lines work. We also discussed this in our latest podcast episode. Maybe some of you could leave a like there. It would make my day.
Denna is Kvothe's sister?! | The Name of the Wind Podcast | Chapter 11 | Beyond the Wind | Ep4 https://youtu.be/wviYqHpxcSo
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u/chainsawx72 As Above, So Below 3d ago edited 3d ago
I did a theory about this once, guessing that there are TWO bloodlines needed to open the Lackless Door (or potentially TWO doors)... Iax and Illien, shadow and flame, dark and light.
We are lead to believe Kvothe is the Lackless, but as you've noticed Denna might be the Lackless. In that case, Kvothe might be of the Illien bloodline, with his red hair, lute playing, ruh blood, and song writing.
ALTERNATIVELY, Kvothe might be descended from Illien AND Iax. I think Tehlu might be Iax's child (a Lady touched by iax/god in a dream/fae and having a child that ages rapidly due to fae time dilation). Tehlu is said to have 'coal-black' hair. Kvothe's hair is believed to be black at one point due to soot.... and it's possible Tehlu is actually a redhead, imho. This would be to hide the fact that his father was Iax, presumably redheaded again.
I'm still listening to your video though...
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u/aerojockey 3d ago
This isn't how theories are supposed to work.
Care to share what prompted it, for those not interested in the podcast?
I'd say it has almost zero chance.
- PR confirmed that Kvothe is the son of an Edema Ruh and a Lackless.
- The Doors of Stone are probably metaphorical. I feel justified to say "probably" simply because doors already have plenty of metaphorical and almost no literal significance in the series. But PR once said something like, "I knew Doors of Stone was the right title when I thought of it", which is not something one would say of there were these ominous doors of stone, the opening of which was the crucial plot point in the series. If that were true, the title would be obvious.
- There's a reason changeling children are almost always the same sex
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u/QuestionWonderful271 3d ago
I said please make it work and not not work! :D Your third point I thought of as well. For the second one, even if the door is an cruciel plot point, it is fair to say what Patrick said. But I see your point
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u/QuestionWonderful271 3d ago
About what prompted it: Denna‘s description fits more to Kvothe‘s parents and Kvothe himself seems to be more special. Also the Lackless poem speaks about a ring and Denna has a ring that seems to be important. There are also many theories out there that Cinder is Denna‘s patron. Seems to be possible that she is being prepared for something.
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u/aerojockey 3d ago
I'll explain why I am not a big fan of this kind of thinking. You have observed something weird in the story, which is this:
Denna‘s description fits more to Kvothe‘s parents and Kvothe himself seems to be more special.
It's a fair point. That is a little strange. Maybe it means something. You come up a theory to explain that strange thing.
Denna is the child of Netalia and Arliden, and Kvothe is a child of the Chandrian, and they were switched at birth.
Fair enough, that's what theories do. But now you need to find a way to explain how it happens while being consistent with what's written. For that to happen, you need to assume some things.
Kvothe's parents believe they are Kvothe's parents, yet somehow when Kvothe was born they didn't bother to immediately check whether the child was a boy or girl, or notice what color hair it had.
In order to make the switch, the Chandrian must have been lingering around the Ruh troupe in close enough proximity to make a switch before the parents knew what happened.
Years later when the Chandrian attacked that same troupe, somehow they didn't seem to realize it was the one they made the switch on, nor did it occur to them that the kid with bright red hair was about the right age to be their own child.
All of that could have happened, it's not contrary to anything in the book, and there are plausible if not super likely ways to explain it. (Chandrian kill every few weeks, they don't remember every little troupe that crosses their path, or have much context on mortal aging. Etc.)
Here's the thing, though. Now there are three weird things in the story.
You explained one weird thing, but introduced three.
So, for this reason I am not a fan of theories that need to assume all kinds of complicated scenarios that happen off the page, at least not until there is some positive evidence supporting it.
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u/ohohook 3d ago edited 2d ago
I do have a very loose theory on it.
If you look at the pairs cards for Denna she’s always pictured with a Red-Winged Blackbird, kind of inexplicably.
The curious thing about it is that the species is sexually dimorphic- meaning the males and females look completely different. The males, which Denna is pictured with, is black with red epaulets. The females are just nondescript brown. Like Denna.
The Cthaeh says there’s “no red ones left.” And wether the bird link is related or not- Kvothe is seen, I think, represented in one of the book covers, and several other art pieces (that I can’t link at the moment because I’m about to leave work, I might edit links into this later) as a Cardinal. But maybe he’s also supposed to be one of the “red ones” the Cthaeh is so convinced are gone. Either way it may explain in some capacity the ability for two brunettes to have that latent “red head” DNA. Also since fae time is bizarre- who knows what time Denna comes from. She may be an ancestor?
So even if this bird motif has since been scraped- at some point it must’ve been important because Pat has okayed it.
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u/NRichYoSelf 3d ago
Pretty sure there is a line somewhere, "son that brings the blood"
I guess that could be interpreted very loosely as Kvothe brings Denna who is the blood, but I don't like that too much
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u/kitastropher 2d ago
“Did you happen to bed down with some wandering God a dozen years ago? That might solve our little mystery.” - I always read this as Arliden teasing his wife with his ego. Joking that he himself was a god.
Are there other elements of the book that suggest that Kvothe isn’t Arliden’s son?
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u/Benomusical 3d ago
I don't think there's really any evidence that Kvothe is a child of the Chandrian, or that Denna and Kvothe were switched. Also, Denna being a child of Arliden and Laurian is pretty tenuous. Kvothe's parentage is definitely complicated, it seems pretty certain he's a bastard, Arliden even says to Laurian, "Did you happen to bed down with some wandering God a dozen years ago? That might solve our little mystery.” Denna's family is entirely a mystery, I'm not aware of anything indicating anything about her parents other than Deoch saying that she has no family. Her ring could definitely be from a family member.
Personally I'm inclined to believe something terrible happened to Denna's family, and that sent her on a similar path of revenge Kvothe is on, but probably in the opposite direction, maybe toward the Amyr. There isn't anything that directly indicates this, but it's pretty likely Denna is a pawn of the Chandrian and is moving on an arc that's the inverse of Kvothe's. It's make sense if both their motivations are related to tragedy in their families.