u/MetalDevils

Note: Haven't finished the story yet.

Question: Why did Lamora antagonize the mercenary mage when he was kidnapped by the grey king?

I really loved the book up until the story shifted when Lamora met the Grey King, and the shift wouldn't dampen my enjoyment if I could make sense of why Lamora deliberately antagonized the bondsmage.

After completing business for the con, he's magically overpowered and loses consciousness. He's aware that he's not in control and something's off. Then he comes to, and the Grey King is there with the bondsmage.

Lamora listened to and watched men tortured in a gruesome way because their story of having no memory of the previous night wasn't believable. He knows people have been murdered and there's a lot of unrest.

The book also takes time to show a flashback where Chains emphasized how impossibly stupid it would be to piss off or murder a bondsmage, because they're a nest of hornets that will erase every person you've ever cared about in addition to killing you.

One of the defining lessons of his life occurred when Chains explained that his arrogance and overestimation of his cleverness had killed more than just two unintentional victims. He had to wear the the death mark around his neck, pay an extravagant amount for every lost life, and swear loyalty at a very early age. When Chains explains how dangerous the Capa is, he takes the warning seriously.

He's learned to be cautious and show respect to the Capa. Chains taught him that he may never know what qualities will be an advantage or disadvantage, that he will be forced to navigate problems that could be entirely ill suited for his skills.

I can understand that being kidnapped would be irritating, and that having a total loss of control would be scary, but we know that current day Lamora is capable of enduring stress, and uncertainty while still playing a particular role. He had the shit beat out of him and then convincingly played the role of a midnighter. Pain, powerlessness, and unpredictability are all things he's had to juggle.

He knew to placate and please the Capa (I think he would have done that even without the daughter's warning); but then decided to be as confrontational as possible with the Grey King's bondsmage? He knows the grey king is directly responsible for the Capa's unhinged behavior and paranoia, and he's just learned the grey king has a bondsmage....why was he so impulsive and thoughtless?

I understand that he lost people because of the grey king, but trying to become an ally or a willing accomplice would have been better. At the very least, the bondsmage wouldn't actively hate him.

When he told the bondsmage and the bird to fuck off, I thought it was because he knew something, had leverage, or some kind of anti-magic countermeasure that would allow him to get away. But he was just being reckless.

The grey king was always going to fuck him over, but the bondsmage is a mercenary. If he had listened to the plan, he could have attempted to hire the bondsmage to protect him for 10 hours (cover the meeting and his safe return). He could have also asked for or hired a bondsmage of his own. There were over two days until the meeting, which seems like enough time? If the mages are all located far away, then maybe not.

And if the mages can mindjack people (he forces the woman in the tower to extend an invitation to the grey king AND to be happy about knowing him), why wouldn't the grey king mindjack the Capa?

The grey king knows Lamora is breaking the silent peace, so he's not actually obedient and loyal to the Capa, wouldn't recruiting him in earnest be more worthwhile?

I don't necessarily mind the con getting swept up and derailed by larger plans, It feels as though Lamora stopped thinking as soon as he met the grey king.

I don't believe he'd be so arrogant and careless about his own safety or the safety of his fellow bastards. They'd already won and made a lot of money from the con, and the bastards know how important it is to stick to their own lane (repeated comments about how small the gang is etc).

Derailing the con was okay, losing everyone except Lamora and Tannen really sucked and made everything leading up to that point feel like a bit of a time waste. I enjoyed the characters and the planning, then almost all the characters I enjoyed were removed in addition to the planning...but Lamora keeps going after people that have more power, resources, and allies. I dunno, Lamora as a character feels inconsistent for the sake of plot at certain times.

The ability to open the trunk shop is a really nice addition. Now if only we had the ability to filter out or exclude things we do *not* want to see.

I expanded the shop, thinking more food and furniture options would populate. But it's just cat tower stuff, which I don't use.

The 'wish list' feature has also been unhelpful. I add items from the current paid packages because I'm not sure if they can be found in the dressing room later. Even if I could find them, I wouldn't remember all the options and there's no way to add facilities or cooking skins if they aren't for sale (real world currency) unless they populate in the Trunk Shop.

So now I get spammed with the heart icon, just so the game can tell me the items I 'want' are available for purchase....which I already knew. I don't want to spend actual money.

I thought the wish list was going to serve as a future notification system. So when (and if) items reappear in the Stamp Rally or Trunk Shop, the heart icon would pop up.

The 'dismiss for 7 day's option has never worked for me. I click it every time for both the wish list and the calendar, only for both to show up again later.

The ability to select specific cats to play with has been a nice change, and I wanted to share a bit of information related to that feature.

For anyone that would prefer to save the treats, instead of immediately having them eaten - only turn the 'play' option on for (a) cat(s) that have all their hearts maxed out.

Because those cats cannot eat, the treats you earn for playing with them get stored along with all the other food.

Note: you can check if a cat has the 'play' option active by looking at the ball of yarn icon within the focused cat window. A grey icon means the cat will not show up for play. If the icon is pink, the cat can be played with.