originally posted by Neil
I have never thought in terms of Dakar being an alcoholic before…I always felt he liked to drink.
I even had the theory that drinking/general sordid habits was a way to hide things from Koriani?
But - and I need to read more in "Ships" etc to see for sure…- I do not think he can actually help himself at this point in the narrative (he is Jaelot with the bards).
originally posted by Trys
quote:More to suppress his own inborn gift of prophecy, I think.I even had the theory that drinking/general sordid habits was a way to hide things from Koriani?
originally posted by Annette
I thought he preferred being drunk so he could forget anything he prophesied, so would not have to accept any responsibility for his gift.
Although Dakar's thoughts back in CotM was he binged on beer to evade discipline.
Dakar would generally have nothing to hide from the Koriani, since he usually did nothing useful back in the first two books. Pairing him up with Arithon eventually fixed that. But then he had to stay sober more to actually be effective at guarding Arithon, once he finally took to the role.
originally posted by Clansman
Dakar can never remember his prophecies when they occur. The alcohol is to prevent or suppress the gift, not to forget the prophecy, which he can never remember. Sethvir in Althain, of course, is witness to all of his prophesying, so there is always a record of the prophecy, and as we saw in IT, the Koriathain sometimes scry out a prophecy at an inopportune moment.
As Trys said, Dakar tried to avoid his gift using booze and I believe even hurting himself on one occasion to stop a prophecy from coming.
originally posted by Jeff
If I remember right, he can remember some of his prophecies; and can deliberately use his gift for short-term planning.
However, when he utters a prophecy that he can't remember afterward, that is a prophecy that WILL come to pass.
Correct me if I'm wrong…
originally posted by Trys
Jeff, you are correct. He has "lesser" and "true" prophecies and he is trying to suppress the "true" prophecies.
originally posted by Annette
But Dakar has no conscious control over the prophecies he gives that cannot be changed. He has no memory of them, cannot stop them, so it would seem unlikely it is those ones he is trying to avoid.
The ones he can act on, and which are not certain, would seem a more likely crisis of conscience. If he is drunk he will forget them, unconscious he will not have them, so will not have to decide what to do about them. And will not have to worry about doing the wrong thing.
Like almost letting Arithon be murdered in Vastmark, Dakar had known about that for a fair while.
He dropped Alithiel at the start of the series to avoid giving a prophecy about the half brothers, that would have been one he would have remembered. Dakar did not want to know about any trouble between the half-brothers.
He did not want to take responsibility for his gift, did not want to learn to control it. So he stayed drunk most of the time.
originally posted by Auna
He also gets very ill whenever he has a foretelling, another reason to try and keep them from happening.