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Kvothe Secretly Worked Sympathy Against the Skindancer in the Frame

fringe mechanism · popularity 123 · 1 source thread

Kvothe's apparently failed sympathetic binding against the skindancer may be deliberate misdirection masking a real success.

About: Kvothe, Skin Dancer, Sympathy

Also involves: Waystone Inn, The Fae

The theory§

In the frame story Kvothe confronts a skin-dancer wearing a mercenary's body, flings a bottle of elderberry liquor that shatters against its head, dips a finger in the spilled spirit, mutters a binding, stares intently, and nothing visibly happens, after which the creature is put down with an iron rod. This theory proposes that the apparent failure is deliberate misdirection, and that Kvothe in fact worked sympathy successfully or to some hidden purpose. The reasoning notes Kvothe is repeatedly shown as a consummate performer who makes easy things look hard and hard things look easy, and that the Fae react differently to iron than to steel, so the iron bar may not be the whole story. Alternative readings within the same frame suggest Kvothe meant to use the inn's lamp flames as an energy source (only to find he had forgotten to light them), that the elderberry was too weak in alcohol to ignite as he expected, or that his binding was meant not to burn the creature but to prevent the skin-dancer from fleeing the body, which it pointedly fails to do. The question of why the skin-dancer never abandoned its host is later raised in the text itself, lending weight to the idea that Kvothe's working had a real, unseen effect.

Evidence§

  • Kvothe in fact succeeds in using sympathy to defeat the skindancer in NotW. His apparent failure to perform a sympathetic binding may, on closer examination, simply be careful misdirection.
    OP's core thesis: the apparent sympathy failure is deliberate misdirection. — u/redthimble
  • He muttered something under his breath, his forehead furrowed in concentration. He stared intently at the bloody man standing on the other side of the bar. Nothing happened.
    The scene OP must reinterpret: the binding visibly produces nothing. — u/redthimble
  • the skindancer has been wounded by a sword and a kitchen knife already in the scene, and hasn’t reacted at all to those weapons … The iron rod was used after Kvothe’s “attempt” at sympathy, whereas the knife and the sword were used before.
    Iron only worked after Kvothe's binding, suggesting the binding made it vulnerable. — u/redthimble
  • Is it possible that Kvothe used some sort of sympathetic binding that made the skindancer vulnerable to a physical attack with iron?
    Core mechanism: binding rendered the creature vulnerable rather than burning it. — u/redthimble
  • Perhaps Kvothe was using the elderberry in a binding that could make the skindancer vulnerable. We can only speculate. If this is correct, however, we also have our answer to the second obstacle. It is possible that the sympathetic binding even if successful would not have produced a visual effect.
    Resolves the no-visible-effect objection: a real binding need not look like anything. — u/redthimble
  • The way his brow furrowed and he stared intently made me think of the time he played at the Aeolian (pardon my spelling) making the easy song look hard. Misdirection?
    Comment links the performance to Kvothe's known habit of faking difficulty. — u/RubyTavi
  • Could it be that he intended to use the lamps' flame as a source?
    Alternative: the working was real but lacked an energy source (unlit lamps). — u/PA55w0rdSkept1c
  • they later wonder if it was really a skindancer because they're known to just leave a body and possess another one once they are defeated. So maybe whatever Kvothe did didn't have a visible effect but stopped the creature from leaving the body?
    Refines purpose: binding stopped the skindancer fleeing its host body. — u/Lawlcopt0r
  • if he put enough heat into it that it should have burned but didn't (evidenced potentially by the torches outside being out) then it wasn't as strong an alcohol as he calculated it should have been.
    Alternative: the working succeeded but weak elderberry alcohol failed to ignite. — u/ifatree
  • Counterpoint: inability to open chest appears genuine.
    CounterCounter: elsewhere Kvothe's lost power seems real, not performed. — u/RubyTavi
  • What would weaken it is that bast seems to think he failed to get reshi back to full power, unless he to is acting
    CounterCounter: Bast appears to genuinely believe Kvothe is diminished. — u/TheLastSock

Book refs: NOTW

Tier reasoning§

reinterprets an ambiguous scene against its plain reading; fringe correct

Contributors§

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