So with the recent Q&A, I’ve been thinking about our boy Perkinson again. It’s a subject I’d like to take up with S.D. Smith again, preferably at greater length. In particular, I question how the son of King Jupiter’s best friend came to act in a manner so disrespectful to the memory of his father and his father’s friend and king. Moreover, I wonder what caused him to become so hateful towards Emma, to the point that he felt killing her would be a satisfying prelude to his own certain death.

After examining the information we have, a theory has come to my mind. It seems to me that Perk’s resentment may be at the life Emma led as opposed to his own. She, the daughter of the king who failed to foresee his own betrayal, got to live in blissful ignorance. He, on the other hand, was forced to train for years in preparation to serve her family, all the while bearing the burden of his father’s name and fate.

Furthermore, the one who raised Emma may have been the target of some of Perk’s ire. Lord Rake, unlike Perkin One-Eye, survived the afterterrors, as he was away from First Warren with the army. As one of the Lord Captains, perhaps even the most senior, it seems likely that Perkin should have been there as well. In Perk‘s mind, perhaps Lord Rake should have been the one to die, while his father should have lived to be entrusted with King Jupiter’s daughter.

Perhaps if Perkin had lived, his son would not have turned against the cause for which Perkin died. Perhaps if Perkin had lived, Perk would have loved Emma like a sister, instead of coming to hate her. Perhaps if Perkin had lived, Perk woul have been loyal to the memory of Jupiter, instead of pledging himself to Bleston. Perhaps if Perkin had lived, Garten Longtreader would not have found yet another accomplice in his unending treachery.

Of course, one has to wonder how Perk could overlook, or be ignorant of, the role that treachery doubtless played in his father’s death. Garten seems to have had plans for four of the Lord Captains, and evening if he’d been willing to overlook any of them it certainly wouldn’t have been Perkin One-Eye. Unless Perkin was in First Warren in spite of Garten’s machinations, similar to Helmer arriving at Jupiter’s Crossing, then Garten was responsible-if indirectly-for Perkin’s death. And if so, then the woes and causes for bitterness I have speculated on are Garten’s fault, not Rake or Emma’s.