Look At My Boy Reclaiming His Identity!!! - Tumblr Posts
Someone: what are you thinking about?
My brain: in Crooked Kingdom, Wylan tells Jesper that his father "places a high value on learning", to which Jesper replies with "higher than money?" that prompts Wylan to tell him that "knowledge isn't a sign of divine favour. Prosperity is." This obviously has religious undertones by referencing the belief that financial prosperity is a sign of the existence and aid of Ghezen, the god of industry and commerce worshipped by Kerch citizens, but it's also representative of certain facets of Wylan's character. J*n never valued his son's mind (the "knowledge" component of this analogy) because he thought that the "prosperity" of the Van Eck empire was impossible with a "defective" child, hence why he would refer to Wylan fulfilling the role as a mercher's son as an "impossible task" due to him not being able to read despite his other strengths in science, maths and music. He believed that Wylan not being able to read makes him "some fool who would make the Van Eck name a laughingstock", which would ultimately hinder the prosperity of the empire. This is why J*n "finally had to accept that Ghezen saw fit to curse me with a moron for a child": no matter how smart Wylan is and how much "knowledge" he has, his disability prevents the "prosperity" of the empire and, thus, there was no sign of divine favour. However, this ironic when you consider how Wylan becomes the reason for the empire's prosperity at Crooked Kingdom's conclusion. In this case, "knowledge" refers to his ability to read in the way his father perceived it: that it defined his intelligence and worth. His lack of knowledge (according to his father) may not have been a sign of divine favour - at least, not in the way J*n thought - but the prosperity of the empire under Wylan, his "defective" child, can be read as such. The fact that this line takes on a whole new meaning by the end of the duology is so representative of Wylan reclaiming his identity as he finally accepts all of himself - including the parts he'd learnt to hate and tried to outrun.
Me: ...beautiful weather we're having today, isn't it?