Urth Net
Digest urth.v022.n042
↰ answers m.driussi
· by quotation
3 quoted lines
Right, there is no proof that Sev1 failed. But I think there is a sense of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"--and since Sev2 has been opitimized, then it stands to reason that Sev1 was flawed.
Then again: the influences on Sev2 come from both camps, New Sun and Entropy Gang. So the tampering/tempting isn't one-sided. Leading us back to the belief that Sev1 didn't fail; that his success at the Test is what triggered the Entropy Gang to start messing with his past; and to counter this the New Sun people began giving little assists in his past. All of which escalation produced a new, improved Severian.
=mantis=
I get the exact opposite feeling. After all, they could have gone back and rearranged time/history for any failed autarch. I think Sev1 succeeded. Then, since he is the one who will be the New Sun, they went back and "optimized" things.
One could appeal to the old time travel adage about how major points of history can't be changed, but minor things can. (Or perhaps can and can't might be replaced by should and shouldn't.)
Kieran Mullen