I did it! All 5 books! I now know everything! Except not, because I got super confused by some of the plot twists. Please help! Oh, and feel free to join in the convo even if you just watched the movies, that should give you enough basic background to follow along the arguments and maybe fresh eyes will see something I missed.
Late in the book, Kalki includes an acknowledgement of “yeah, I’m totally messing with the characters to make the ending work”. Or as he puts it “humans can change”. But we all know the truth, he wrote this MASSIVE thing, in pieces, for a newspaper, paid by the word, and by the time you get to the end of it sometimes as a writer you just have to force things to fit.
By the end I was left with 2 big character shifts I couldn’t follow, and 3 big mysteries that I think Kalki left open on purpose.
Poonguzhali: She is introduced as a wild creature of the sea, hates people, lives in her head. She has detailed complex fantasies about Prince Ponniyin Selvan who she met one time. Her adventures take her to Ponniyin Selvan and they end up traveling together alone which increases her fantasies. The Prince, who at first barely notices her, comes to appreciate her bravery and skill. They bond over a shared desire for adventures and traveling the seas. In his delirium, the Prince even calls out her name over and over again. And then, POOF! Book 5, the Prince suddenly decides he is in love with sweet spunky princess Vanathi, and Poonguzhali declares she was only into the prince because she wanted the status she felt her aunt had been denied and now she was wise enough to set aside that desire and instead marry her sweet cousin who had long loved her.
My theory is three things happened. First, Kalki planned this whole character journey for her where the trials turned her softer and wiser and she came to realize that the reality of love was her best friend and cousin, not this Prince fantasy. Second, somewhere in book 2, the characters got away from him and the Prince and Poonguzhali became too close for that original character journey to make sense, it was no longer a fantasy. And three, in book 5 he realized he had to make this work somehow and just rushed in a scene showing Poonguzhali confessing her love for her cousin as he wastes away in love sickness. I think the original plan could have been really cool, but as it is, it’s just a weird sudden shift!
Periya Pazhuvettaraiyar: This is the character that has SUCH a sudden turn of face Kalki had to call it out. Originally introduced as kind of past his time, clinging to old ways, and easily lead by his smarter young wife, suddenly in the last book he becomes fiercely strong and brave and suddenly switches to total hatred for his wife. Plus also noble and ready to give up all his plotting and blah blah blah. I think Kalki always planned for him to end in Noble Suicide as he realizes what he has done. But he kind of lost track of the character in the middle books. Or rather, like Poonguzhali, I think the character took control. He is introduced as a bit of an over confident bully, forcing everyone into his conspiracy, taking offense easily, jumping to conclusions, and so on. And when he has his change of heart, by golly he does the same thing! Is quick to blame Nandhini for everything bad in his life and refuses to forgive her or see her side of things, rushes in ready to fight without thinking of the consequences, just generally a mess of things. And yet he gets the Noble Ending because that is what Kalki always planned out for him.
Now, the On Purpose things that aren’t clear which I think are REALLY interesting:
Who, if anyone, did Nandhini Love?
At the end of things, when Nandhini has achieved her mission and has no more need to lie, she first declares to Adithya that she has always loved him, and then to her husband that she will marry him in every other life. And she tells Ravidasan that she will never forget what Veera Pandiyan did for her. After she is dead, Kundavai calls out the way she always protected Vandhiyadevan and says he was the only one she really loved.
I think this is on purpose. I think until the end, Kalki wanted us guessing who Nandhini really was and what her motivations where. I also think he was showing how survivors of terrible situations learn to adapt themselves to be whoever the person with them wants/needs them to be. When Nandhini is with Adithya, she loves him. When she is with her husband, she loves him. It’s equally true both times. And when she is with Vandhiyadevan, she can be strangely honest and open, while at the same time plotting to use him for her own ends. The moment I find most revealing is when she sobbingly begs Manimekalai to leave the room declaring she loves her truly as a sister and wants her to be protected from Adithya’s death, followed by her very next scene where she declares to her husband that in order to prevent dishonor to his name, she arranged for Manimekalai to be blamed for Adithya’s death. Direct contradictions, are they both true? Because if the second is true, why did she try to get Manimekalai to leave? But if the first is true, why did she left Manimekalai in the room at all knowing she was about to kill Adithya?
Was Veera Pandiyan her Lover or her Father?
The Pandiya conspirators refer to her as their “Queen” and the consort of Veera Pandiyan. Adithya in his original story of finding her with Veera Pandiyan is clear that they were lovers. The alternative parents are Sundara Chola, Adithya’s father, which would make their love incest. Or perhaps a random boatman, which would make none of this incest. When she reveals the name of her father to Adithya at the end, he laughs bitterly and is stunned. And she says that once he knows, he will understand why it is too late for her to change her life. As I read that, it’s not just that he is learning her father is the enemy of their kingdom and the man he killed, he is realizing that her father was her lover as well. That Nandhini, not knowing her heritage, ended up under the protection of and loving a man who she later learned was her own father. Adithya killed her father, and she committed incest with him, they are both damned. But what if she is still lying? In that case, she may be protecting Adithya, convincing him that they do not share a father so his love for her is not incest, and doing it by confessing the worst possible sin she can, one he will believe she could not be faking. And the true irony would be if Nandhini believes the king is her father, lies to Adithya that her father is Veera Pandiyan to keep him away, and in reality it was a random boatman, unrelated to the whole royal conspiracy and they all could have been happy.
Who Killed Adithya Karikalan?
The room is dark, there are people moving around, Nandhini is threatening him, he is threatening to kill himself, there is a knife and a sword, it’s all super confused. In the end, the lights come on and Adithya is stabbed with a knife of the style used by the Pandiyans. At one point in book 5, it seems clear that it was Periya Pazhuvettaraiyar who killed him. He took a knife from a Pandiyan and was carrying it, then threw it just before the lights went out. But by the time he confesses, his story isn’t as clear and it is possible that he is lying, trying to clear Vandiyathan’s name because he knows he is innocent. Meanwhile, Manimakelai is stubborn start to finish that she killed Adithya. She was in the room, and she used a knife. Before the lights went out, Adithya was threatening to kill himself and Nandhini was threatening him. Did Manimakelai kill him and ironically no one believes her? Did Adithya kill himself and Periya Pazhuvetaraiyar is lying to protect his honor? Did Nandhini kill him but somehow is in denial even to herself that she did so? One of the oddest parts of this is that the King remains firm in his refusal to investigate the death in anyway, he does not want to know. Which makes me think the reader is supposed to understand, in his wisdom, he knows investigation would reveal something terrible.
Okay, for those of you who have read the books, what do you think? And for those of you who haven’t read the books, ask me any questions you have and then se if you can figure out the answers with clear fresh eyes!
