hopefullyconfused, on 21 April 2015 - 07:07 PM, said:
Several books into the series, I have yet to comprehend what Crokus has done to become an assassin. Yes, he changed his name, but I don't see that he's done anything beyond that. I kept thinking perhaps we are supposed to view the change as kind of naïve and childish, consistent with his character in the first book. But then Erikson seems to repeatedly validate this by referring to him in third person narrative passages as an assassin.
He had Apsalar train him, and also killed people for pay, alongside her. It's also his point of view, so wether he can be considered an assassin by other people or not, if that's what he chooses to see himself as, then that's what the narration will be claiming he is. He spends the first couple of pages of his narration in HoC mulling over all of that in detail.
hopefullyconfused, on 21 April 2015 - 07:07 PM, said:
It makes the whole thing seem kind of childish, unless I am missing something. Like a five year old who wakes up one day and tells everyone he's a ninja or a pirate. Or it seems like a regurgitation of fantasy-lit, RPG character tropes just for the sake of itself. We're labeling this character an assassin because... hey, because assassins are cool and Final Fantasy.
I think it's supposed to feel a buit like that. As you already mention yourself, it fits as a continuation of his somewhat naive character. He chooses to want to become an assassin so he can remain at Apsalar's side, because he's young and in love with her, and feels like she's slipping away from him, in part due to her experience as an assassin and killer, even though those experiences are inherited from Cotillion. It's naive, but it the one thing he can think of doing.
hopefullyconfused, on 21 April 2015 - 07:07 PM, said:
When Crokus is introduced as a thief, we can take that seriously because he actually acts as a thief. When he changes his name and is suddenly an "assassin," it's hard to see what he's done to merit the title other than the name change. I don't think he's part of any assassin's guild, he doesn't seem to have done any work as an assassin, and he generally does not conduct himself in any consistent manner. The only thing he does do is follow Apsalar around. I am just starting Toll the Hounds, but it feels like if there were some explanation for this, I'd have already come across it.
Crokus in GotM acts as the romantic idea of a thief he has in his mind. That's little different from what he does when he changes careers. I think it's also pretty evident in HoC that it does not really stick. Yet, as already mentioned, it's not like he has never done anything in that line of work. HoC starts after he's been doing this for a bit at Apsalar's side. He even has this conversation with Cotillion in Chapter Six:
Quote
[…] 'Am I your patron now?' he asked.
He wanted to answer no. He wanted to back away, to flee the question and all his answer would signify. He wanted to unleash vitriol at the suggestion. 'I believe you might be at that, Cotillion.'
'I am... pleased, Crokus.'
..which pretty clearly shows how Cutter is NOT all-assassin-and-yeah-now-I'm-so-cool, but that he is still torn between his old self as Crokus and the image of himself he is trying to build as Cutter. In general, I suggest a reread of Chapter Six of HoC on that issue. The fact that he does not follow a consistent line of behaviour and tries desperately to cling to Apsalar is a testament to how young he is and how he still needs to find the way he wants to walk in life.
You state all the important points this character makes and.. yeah, I wonder, as with your other thread, what it is you are looking for? Cutter is barely out of being a teenager, he left his home, lost his family and is in love with a girl who turned out to be something completely different from what he probably imagined. Do you really expect someone in that position to act consistently? Cutter needs to find himself first, whether he calls himself Cutter or Crokus.