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I've just finished the book and wanted to discuss the book. XD I didn't like how it ended, I felt he dragged on about nothing for far too long when he could have been explaining all the secrets. D:

Also, I think that there will be more books, considering the final picture with the question mark in the water. Also, he has to explain all the unexplained questions, he just can't leave us like this. gonk

Here are questions he left unanswered according to wikipedia:
* How did Fernald (the Hook-Handed Man) lose his hands?
* Who leads V.F.D., if anyone?
* What was the cause of the schism?
* Who was the woman who took the Denouements when they were children?
* What is the important object inside the sugar bowl?
* Why did Captain Widdershins leave the Baudelaires?
* Who died and who escaped in the fire at Hotel Denouement?
* What is the question mark shaped object in the water?
* What happened to The Man With a Beard but No Hair and the Woman With Hair but No Beard?
* Who really started the fire at the Baudelaire mansion?
o (in The End, it was implied that Count Olaf did not)
* Are the Quagmire Triplets, Captain Widdershins, Fiona, and Fernald still alive?
* What happens to the Baudelaires when they leave the island?

[WARNING! Spoilers may lie ahead in my post as well!]

Just finished reading it myself. I'm a bit torn...but in a way, LS is right. We won't get to read all the stories...and that in any literature for that matter, the world the characters live in will continue on long after the last chapter ends. I'm glad we got some answers, happy we didn't get them all (cause what would the fun of that be? Us noble volunteers, must have something to research after all! 3nodding ), but found myself still wanting some. I am hoping for some more supplimental material, as there was the small hint of a prolouge. I'd also love to read Beatrice's 200 page book!

So first I will try to address your questions...
- As to Ferdinand...didn't TGG mention something about a shark attack? Or am I just recalling wrong?
- I'd take a guess at R, whoever she is.
- The cause of the schism? It's hard to say really...sugar bowl? Differences in philosophies?
- I don't recall this part of TPP very well...would Kit have been old enough?
- Now this, I REALLY wanted to know...especially since we nearly a whole bloody book, looking for it. >_< Ah well, perhaps our mysterious taxi driver (LS?) will take that secret with him...
-I need to scan TGG again...
-The question mark shape in the water is the sub of that shape from TGG....now who's in that exactly is another mystery. Obviously it's worse than Olaf since it scared his sub away...perhaps it contained The Man With a Beard but No Hair and the Woman With Hair but No Beard??
-Also would have liked to know more about...perhaps they perished in the Hotel Denouement.
- Yeah...not sure on that one myself.
- I almost thought they were dead at one point given the dialouge early on with Kit and the Baudelaires on page 170...but now I think I'll appropriately put their fate at '?' 3nodding
- They continue on their way I suppose. I'd like to think they rejoined the VFD, but now that they have with them, they must be finding themselves in a very simillar situation as their parents...which may lead to their own chapters in A Series of Unfortunate (or perhaps Fortunate) Events.

Now on to my own thoughts:

First off, I was greatly amused by the allusions hidden in the islanders names. Friday and Robinson from Robinson Crusoe, Ishmael from Moby d**k. Alonso, Miranda, Ariel, and Caliban (as well as Prospero) from Shakerspeare's The Tempest. And Calypso from The Odyssey. ^_^ Anyone else catch more references?

The island itself, really interested me as well. I got this sense of a combination of the Garden of Eden (with the apples and snake, especially given the cover of the new boxset) and the Lotus-Eaters from the Odyssey (with the coconut cordial). So yeah...made me think.

Speaking of names, I was curious is Olivia Caliban was the same Olivia from TCC. But that would mean that she's not dead/eaten by lions, huh? sweatdrop I think the most shocking moment for me was the story of the ring that we had glimpsed in TBL. Really set the story straight once and for all....part of me accepts it, though now I want to reread TBL as I'm still unclear now on who

It was also a bit eerie to nearly relive the trial at the Hotel Denoument with the island's argy-bargy as LS would put it. Made my heart sink, it did. Though it made me wonder if we had some VFD in attendance with the Winnepeg remark. wink I'm also curious about the seeming past between Olaf and Ishmael (what class did LS share with Olaf? It wasn't chem was it?) as well as [spoiler?]Olaf and Kit That threw me for a loop! xp

I was happy to learn of some of the books in Kit's Vaporetto of Favorite Detritus was (as it supported my theory of how she got to the island on it) though seeing the name of very familliar book from made me want to point and say "Read that! Read that now Baudelaires!!"

And for the non-French speakers in the guild here's my translations:

"Traison des clercs" -Treachery of the Scholars (clerks more literally)

The Poem from the end of The End:

O Death, old captain, it is time! Let us lift the anchor!
We are weary of this country, O Death! Let us get on our way!
If the sky and the sea are as black as ink,
our hearts, which you know, are filled with beams. *

Translator's note: Rayons translates literally to beams or rays, normally in the context of beams of light or hope. Perhaps it could also refer to ship beams? Interestingly, in the spirit of the opening of The End, a "rayon d'oignons" translates to a row of onions. 3nodding

The World is Quiet Here,

RS

(I belive its sage to say that everyones posts will contain spoilers.)

I really liked the Ending to the Series, because, like any good ending, its not over. As he said, the chaarecters live on even if the book is over. We never know what happens, because Lemony says himself that hes not sure what happens to them.
count Olaf is a very interesting charecter. The line between good and evil is blurred at about book 6, and it gts better.
The ony thing that I didn't get was where the series ended. I thouht it would be over in the city, near thier house, possibly Olafs house, not on some island. But, all in all, great series.

Call me Ish was one of the greatest lines in the good.
Alot of the things Olaf said were interesting quotes.

Oh wow. I dont really know what to say.. I wish there was so much more detail, but I guess it's all hidden somewhere among the pages. I really cant belive this is the last thing Daniel/Lemony will write, I was kinda looking forward to much more from this book, but it was still well written.

I guess this is a nice way to end it if so, but there are so many unanswerd questions that I really wish could be answerd, however, it might also be more intresting if we could answer the questions oursleves using our own minds and creativity.

For all we know, Daniel might not even have the answers himself, adding to the wonderful imagination and mystery of A Series of Unfortunate Events?

I still really enjoyed all the books, pacticuraly since this last one was very different from the rest. I have a feeling this may not be the last time we something of ASOUE, it could be, but I think something might turn up? =)

Im not that researched into the books, so Im not gunna try to answer those questions xd , but at the moment I really wanna know what happend with 'The Unknown' question mark fact, and where everyone is.
I think we could assume the Baudelaires and the adopted daughter will have a happy life? Whatever happend to them, wherever they went or turned up. It saddens me that so many have gone missing, or, well might as well died somehow.
I really do wonder what and who The Unknown Question Mark really is, and I have so many questions about so many things that will probably never get answerd =P , but they might as well be hidden in the pages of the book, waiting for me to have some realization of something or other.. sweatdrop

I was thinking that too. Since whoever was (is) in it scared off Olaf, MWNHBB and WWNBBH makes a degree of sense. There was also that comment of pg 165 of The End about the schism and the question mark shape...

Question: Was it ever said what vessel Fiona and the Hook Handed Man escaped on?

So many questions... Do they even have answers that are known to the world?...

The World is Quiet Here.

@ Mara: You know that IS a good guess for what's in it! surprised I hope you find that quote! I'll try to take a look later myself.

As for Beatrice, yeah it got confusing...was it just me or did it seem like there were two Beatrices when the Baudelaire parents were at the island? (though perhaps I didn't catch that it was Mr Baudelaire writing and he was referring to his wife.) Argh...too many B names to be clear sometimes. My guess is according to the story of the ring, is that the Beatrice Lemony loved eventually became the Baudelaire's mother (Beatrice 1). Beatrice 2 I'm now guessing is perhaps Kit's daughter but that possible 3rd Beatrice is throwing me off. I'm thinking that the research is for the 1st Beatrice given that all the dedications reference her death...perhaps LS just wanted to keep an eye on them, and that by researching and following them he could relay things back to more VFD (by messages and the books themselves) and try to guide the orphans away from the bad side of the schism...which may explain why most guardians were VFD and might explain his and Kit's actions in TPP (if we assume he's the taxi driver).

If some of the research is for BB 2, perhaps she had remembered that there was someone that the family had known called Lemony (if Sunny can remember her first swim at 5 months, then perhaps the Snickets also have a good early memory) perhaps was of an age that she could do her own investigation and found where Lemony was and what he had done for Violet, Klaus and Sunny. (He is her uncle after all, and the Baudelaire's liked to refer to Kit as "Kit Snicket", so maybe she just researched her mother a bit and found she had a brother that may still be alive). Though it makes me wonder why he never seemed to contact BB 2, if it seems by the end of The End he knows his niece's name. I still have this image of him getting a letter from BB 2 and freaking out that it might be BB 1's ghost or something. Didn't it say in TBL that she had set up shop so to speak in the same place BB 1 had?

Anyways, there's some of my thoughts. Hope it helps a little! ^^ d

-RS

PS And while I'm thinking about unfinished business, was anything about the Snicket File concluded?? whee

The phrase "in the dark," as I'm sure you may know, can refer not only to one's shadowy surroundings, but also to the shadowy secrets of which one might be unaware. Every day, the sun goes down over all these secrets, and so everyone is in the dark in one way or another. If you are sunbathing in a park, for instance, but you do not know that a locked cabinet is buried fifty feet beneath your blanket, then you are in the dark even though you are not actually in the dark, whereas if you are on a midnight hike, knowing full well that several ballerinas are following close behind you, then you are not in the dark even if you are in fact in the dark. Of course, it is quite possible to be in the dark in the dark,as well as to be not in the dark not in the dark, but there are so many secrets in the world that it is likely that you are always in the dark about one thing or another, whether you are in the dark in the dark, or in the dark not in the dark, although the sun can go down so quickly that you may be in the dark about being in the dark in the dark, only to look around and find yourself no longer in the dark about being in the dark in the dark, but in the dark in the dark nonetheless, not only because of the dark, but because of the ballerinas in the dark, who are not in the dark about the dark, but also not in the dark about the locked cabinet, and you may be in the dark about the ballerinas digging up the locked cabinet in the dark, even though you are no longer in the dark about being in the dark, and so you are in fact in the dark about being in the dark, even though you are not in the dark about being in the dark, and so you may fall into the hole that the ballerinas have dug, which is dark, in the dark, and in the park.

With all due respect,
Sherman Fourmage

"The World Is Quiet Here"