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So this plot bunny/AU idea hit me (sledgehammer hard) in the middle of the work day while I was up to my eyeballs in a set of trading terms (clearly, I'm one of those people whose attention is permanently all over the map - I had this discussion with my roommate recently about how there is no way I can stop myself from checking a new email the moment it comes in, because if I know it's there, sitting unopened in my mailbox, that thought distracts me far more than Alt-Tabbing over to Outlook to take a quick glance at it, whereas she can let her emails sit and stew and apparently be none the worse for it - anyway, there I go, getting sidetracked again)
So it goes like this.
So we all know that Escobar was Ezar's excuse to get rid of Serg. And we all know that Serg's evil, so therefore Escobar was necessary, because if Serg ever lived to inherit, Barrayar would have paid the price. Right?
Wait, back up a bit. See, we never actually see what Serg's like. We hear about it from people who've heard about it from other people. The only time we see Serg in person (I might be wrong, no eidetic memory chip), is one scene through Cordelia's eyes in Aral's room, where Aral basically goads Serg into charging off into battle. Sure, he's not on his most prince-ly behavior then, but neither is Aral on his best behavior either. Some harsh words are exchanged, then the next thing we know, Serg has left, and the next we know, he's dead. We don't even have the perspective of a narrator who's dealt with Serg personally.
Enough to convict in a court of law? Definitely not.
So the idea goes like this.
What if everything we know about Serg is a carefully constructed lie by Ezar? We know that Serg fell into bad company (aka Ges Vorruyter). But then again, so did Aral. And what if it wasn't a question of Serg falling into Ges' company so much as Ges being a deliberate plant by Ezar to ruin Serg's reputation? A few bad boy habits aren't enough to warrant a death sentence, but they make it so much easier to believe in any subsequent character assassination. He's got a bit of a sadistic streak - yeah, ok, he's got to be a monster. (And this is taking Aral at his word already. Again, we see dear Ges in action, but we don't actually see the Prince in action, so we don't actually know for sure what Serg's like. And I'm not sure that Aral himself knows, or whether he's inferring, or whether he heard it from someone else. Hearsay is such a terrible thing).
So the second biggest conspiracy in three worlds goes like this: Ezar, already paranoid to a fault (and it's been remarked before that he remembers how he came to power and he doesn't let anyone get behind him, and we actually know what Ezar's like - nevermind Escobar, what about all the house-cleaning he did after that?), sees his son as the biggest threat to him. A behind-the-scenes political war is waged, one that even Aral, stuck on Kyril Island, doesn't know about. Serg and his allies lose; Serg gets sent to Escobar. (And in the fic idea I have - knows full well that he's being sent to his death, and escapes, together with Rulf Vorhalas). Everyone believes he's dead. Ezar, who doesn't regard Gregor as being a threat, on account of Gregor being five years old, does a much more subtle version of Mad Emperor Yuri and removes Grishnov and a whole bunch of other people who were in Serg's camp, under the excuse that it's for Barrayar's good. Events continue as we know them, and no one ever knows.
And the biggest conspiracy in three worlds goes like this: So maybe Ezar's paranoia has a source in a little bird who whispered all kinds of poisoned lies about his son into his ear. And Ezar doesn't stand to win if Serg dies. Who does? Not Aral, who doesn't want the job. Not Gregor, who'll inherit one day, and probably doesn't need all that childhood trauma.
No, the one who stands to benefit is Kareen.
Poor, traumatised Kareen - except that we don't know anything about Kareen, and the characters who see her are pretty much just guessing that she's that way (i.e. lifeless) because she had to live with Serg. The conspiracy theory says that she's a master manipulator on Ezar's scale.
If you can't be Empress of Barrayar, being the Emperor's mother isn't bad either, or if you can't stand the Regent, then maybe having a nice puppet Emperor lined up, like Vordarian, is the alternative. Except that Vordarian backfired spectacularly, Kareen loses Gregor (or so she thought), and realises just what she sacrificed in her bid for power (Serg), and tries to kill Vordarian when Cordelia turns up - and the rest we know.
The best thing to come out of this fic is Rulf. The problem, of course, is that when Aral finds out the truth, he'll be absolutely shattered, and I don't think even Cordelia would be able to put him together again. Or maybe not, if Serg gives him a sharp reality check.
(And all of this started from the single thought of - then why wasn't Escobar a criminal order?)
(And if alot of this sounds like what I keep doing with Shinra, why yes.)
So it goes like this.
So we all know that Escobar was Ezar's excuse to get rid of Serg. And we all know that Serg's evil, so therefore Escobar was necessary, because if Serg ever lived to inherit, Barrayar would have paid the price. Right?
Wait, back up a bit. See, we never actually see what Serg's like. We hear about it from people who've heard about it from other people. The only time we see Serg in person (I might be wrong, no eidetic memory chip), is one scene through Cordelia's eyes in Aral's room, where Aral basically goads Serg into charging off into battle. Sure, he's not on his most prince-ly behavior then, but neither is Aral on his best behavior either. Some harsh words are exchanged, then the next thing we know, Serg has left, and the next we know, he's dead. We don't even have the perspective of a narrator who's dealt with Serg personally.
Enough to convict in a court of law? Definitely not.
So the idea goes like this.
What if everything we know about Serg is a carefully constructed lie by Ezar? We know that Serg fell into bad company (aka Ges Vorruyter). But then again, so did Aral. And what if it wasn't a question of Serg falling into Ges' company so much as Ges being a deliberate plant by Ezar to ruin Serg's reputation? A few bad boy habits aren't enough to warrant a death sentence, but they make it so much easier to believe in any subsequent character assassination. He's got a bit of a sadistic streak - yeah, ok, he's got to be a monster. (And this is taking Aral at his word already. Again, we see dear Ges in action, but we don't actually see the Prince in action, so we don't actually know for sure what Serg's like. And I'm not sure that Aral himself knows, or whether he's inferring, or whether he heard it from someone else. Hearsay is such a terrible thing).
So the second biggest conspiracy in three worlds goes like this: Ezar, already paranoid to a fault (and it's been remarked before that he remembers how he came to power and he doesn't let anyone get behind him, and we actually know what Ezar's like - nevermind Escobar, what about all the house-cleaning he did after that?), sees his son as the biggest threat to him. A behind-the-scenes political war is waged, one that even Aral, stuck on Kyril Island, doesn't know about. Serg and his allies lose; Serg gets sent to Escobar. (And in the fic idea I have - knows full well that he's being sent to his death, and escapes, together with Rulf Vorhalas). Everyone believes he's dead. Ezar, who doesn't regard Gregor as being a threat, on account of Gregor being five years old, does a much more subtle version of Mad Emperor Yuri and removes Grishnov and a whole bunch of other people who were in Serg's camp, under the excuse that it's for Barrayar's good. Events continue as we know them, and no one ever knows.
And the biggest conspiracy in three worlds goes like this: So maybe Ezar's paranoia has a source in a little bird who whispered all kinds of poisoned lies about his son into his ear. And Ezar doesn't stand to win if Serg dies. Who does? Not Aral, who doesn't want the job. Not Gregor, who'll inherit one day, and probably doesn't need all that childhood trauma.
No, the one who stands to benefit is Kareen.
Poor, traumatised Kareen - except that we don't know anything about Kareen, and the characters who see her are pretty much just guessing that she's that way (i.e. lifeless) because she had to live with Serg. The conspiracy theory says that she's a master manipulator on Ezar's scale.
If you can't be Empress of Barrayar, being the Emperor's mother isn't bad either, or if you can't stand the Regent, then maybe having a nice puppet Emperor lined up, like Vordarian, is the alternative. Except that Vordarian backfired spectacularly, Kareen loses Gregor (or so she thought), and realises just what she sacrificed in her bid for power (Serg), and tries to kill Vordarian when Cordelia turns up - and the rest we know.
The best thing to come out of this fic is Rulf. The problem, of course, is that when Aral finds out the truth, he'll be absolutely shattered, and I don't think even Cordelia would be able to put him together again. Or maybe not, if Serg gives him a sharp reality check.
(And all of this started from the single thought of - then why wasn't Escobar a criminal order?)
(And if alot of this sounds like what I keep doing with Shinra, why yes.)
