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The Lackless Box Is the Unfoldable House From the Story of Jax

fringe identity · popularity 82 · 1 source thread

The thrice-locked Lackless box may be Jax's folding house, its inner 'lines' being folds only a Listener can sense.

About: The Lackless Box, The Boy Who Stole the Moon

Also involves: Iax, Kvothe, Meluan Lackless, Maer Lerand Alveron, Laurian, The Arcanum, The Fae

The theory§

This theory proposes that the Lackless box is not merely a box but the folding house from Hespe's story of Jax, the faint lines Kvothe feels along its surface being its folds. It argues perception of the box's true nature depends on aptitude: Meluan and Alveron sense nothing, but Kvothe, a Re'lar, can feel the lines and tell there is more inside, just as in the Jax story only the old hermit who listens to objects could perceive what Jax himself, who had no talent for such things, could not. Jax is described as a luckless boy with a drop of faerie blood, a likely root of the Lackless / Lockless / Loeclos name, placing him at the head of the family line to which Kvothe belongs through his mother. The dominant counter-reading holds that the folding house is an allegory for the Fae realm itself, born of the Creation War and the splitting of the worlds, in which case the box may instead be the vessel in which Jax captured part of the moon's name.

Evidence§

  • What if the Lockless box isn’t a box, but the house that can be unfolded from the story of Jax?
    OP's core claim: the box is Jax's folding house. — u/[deleted]
  • Jax couldn’t open it himself as he had no talent for such things. Didn’t even know what it was that he had. Where as the Old Man was able to listen to it and know there was more to it.
    Perception of the box depends on aptitude, paralleling the Jax story. — u/[deleted]
  • Meluan and Alveron have no such aptitude, but Kvothe is a Re’lar (so a See-er and a Speaker) … The former two could not feel the lines in the box … Kvothe was able to tell there was more to it, able to surmise some information, and feel the faint “lines” in the box.
    Only Kvothe's aptitude lets him sense the box's hidden lines. — u/[deleted]
  • What if the lines were the “folds” of house. Thus why when he moves it he can feel something shift inside.
    Identifies the felt lines as the house's folds shifting inside. — u/[deleted]
  • This would also, possibly mean that Jax could be somewhere in the beginning of the Lackless (Leoclos) family line.
    Places Jax at the head of the Lackless family line. — u/[deleted]
  • Jax was described as luckless. … Some said he had a drop of faerie blood in him and that kept his heart from ever knowing joy. He was an unlucky boy.
    Supports luckless/Lackless name root and faerie-blood link. — u/Ok-Study-1153
  • I'm still pretty convinced the folding house was a metaphor for the fae realm, distorted by time.
    CounterCounter: the folding house is an allegory for the Fae realm. — u/Namulith94
  • I always thought that the box was what Jax used to capture part of the moons name. I do think that the Lackless are related to Jax.
    CounterCounter: box is the vessel for the moon's name, not the house. — u/qtip13

Book refs: WMF

Tier reasoning§

distinct Lackless-box theory; self-labelled tinfoil, speculative identity, fringe holds

Contributors§

Source threads§