SPOILER. There, 'nuff warning ;p

a friend brought it up:

Loki and/or Puck said they were working for someone else when they kidnapped Daniel, so who was their boss?

SPOILER




Look behind the story... and connect all the lines. It is Morpheus who was their boss. I will just stop there, and then you could figure the rest out. Its rather thrilling once you figure it out.

I've always there were two possible interpretations: first is that the Kindly Ones themselves hired Loki and Puck to create the situation where they'd have an excuse to go after Morpheus. There are several pieces of evidence for this, including what is to me the key of the whole thing, where when Lyta Hall is about to walk away from them, because she doesn't know that Morpheus killed is son and thinks she won't be able to set the Kindly Ones on him because they only go after those who have killed their own family. But before she can get away one of the Kindly Ones tells her about Orpheus, to make sure she'll be able to use them. That seems to me like an awfully active step in the process, rather than just fufilling their function.

The second main theory is the one dread mentioned, theat Morpheus himself is the employer, but that theory doesn't sit right with me, partially because Morpheus actually tries to take out Lyta Hall but is prevented by Thessaly, whom he certainly seems surprised to see. If he was the employer, he wouldn't have bothered making the effort to go after Lyta, and would not have been surprised to see Thessaly there as her guardian.

Think of it this w ay, he tried to take out Lyta Hall, maybe becuase of two reasons:

One, he decided to set back his plan, and thought it went out of control.

or

Two, he wanted to see Thessaly one more time.
Edit: It didn't seem he made much effort to take out Lyta Hall, after a few words with Thessaly, he simply left.

SPOILER warning (for as long as the discussion goes I guess ^^; )

gee, so it was part of Morpheus' plan =/

...actually, I too was at a choice between the Kindly Ones and Morpheus. At first glance, it just didn't feel right to attribute it to the latter (hence I've always pointed at the Kindly Ones), though with the way he's been going on about how premeditated the whole show is, it's inevitable to think it was his doing after all...

Now I'm left to thinking why he had Daniel kidnapped - was it to keep him safe from the Kindly Ones, and to have the Corinthian bring him back just at the exact time he'd be needed? Or was it also aimed to test the new Corinthian's loyalty, and at the same time to check if Loki and Puck were doing their jobs right w/o any trace of excess mischief?

SPOILER



As you remember, Loki owed Morpheus a boon at the end of IV, because of his switch Susano-O-No Mikoto. He used this to his advantage to creat his master plan. He knew Loki would betreay him, and therefore he burned Daniel's mortality. Loki and Puck took pictures of the corpse and brought the pictures to Lyta. Once she has seen it, she had thought the paranoia of Morpheus of taking Daniel came true. So she sought vengeance. Now her vengeance powered and fueled the Kindly Ones, as no one wanted to avenge Orpheus' death (its understandable because its been his desire for so long.) The Kindly Ones knew this was their chance to use her vengeance as a fuel to fulfill their duties. WIth Daniel's mortality burned away, the Kindly Ones in the right position to destroy him, and everyone delusioned by his plan, this was his chance to suicide.

ALL SPOILER!!!


hey, it's been a while since i posted here...

i have to say that to me the story only makes sense if Morpheus sets in chain the events. In essence that he kills himself.

thematically, it simply doesn't hold together any other way.

It's already been said about Morpheus and Susano-no-mikoto, so I'll leave that...

To me, the most compelling evidence of this theme link occurs in the lost places II (the chinese mandarin story in the wake)

(my copy is out at the moment, so please forgive any innacuracies, but hopefully i'll get the gist)

here, and only here in the entire work, do the two dreams appear in the same story.

and look at the shadowing when dream is speaking. usually black on a white background for Daniel and vice versa for Morpheus.

But in this story, we see the reverse being true for each of them. read those panels as a conversation between the two dreams...

the soft places are where time is mutable, and Morpheus even says something about this being where he goes to have conversations... damn, wish i had it here.

So it's clear that Dream knows there is a change a-comin, and look at the major players.

Morpheus didn't have to kill Orpheus, he could have had others do it for him.

Puck is released by the play Morpheus had shakespeare write.

Loki owes Dream. The line about Loki realising how 'the arch manipulator has been manipulated himself', by the story, and therefore by the personification of story, Morpheus.

Lyta Hall was the Fury. Morpheus knew that. It was her function, and oh boy does Morpheus love someone in their function.

anyway, ramble over...

Not to mention that when the Corinthian asks who was their employer. Puck replies first with:

"I could answer endlessly..."

and when Death says

"You've been making these preparations for a long time..."