Yeah, KoA leans a little too heavily (for me) on other people realizing that Gen is amazing. I would have been happier with them realizing he's competent and leaving it at that. It gets kind of weird going, 'OMG, I love character X!' if the narrative seems to be doing the exact same thing, you know? I start feeling railroaded.
As I was rereading KoA (because, having read the series once I immediately decided to read all the books again because they play differently the second time around (yes, even if you know most of the spoilers going in)) I paid very close attention to the attendants, and there turns out to be one scene in which Gen explicitly removes Ion and another person from a room, after which both Lamion and Hilarion participate in a conversation among the remaining attendants; Ion is therefore a separate person rather than a nickname for one of them. :)
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Yeah, KoA leans a little too heavily (for me) on other people realizing that Gen is amazing. I would have been happier with them realizing he's competent and leaving it at that. It gets kind of weird going, 'OMG, I love character X!' if the narrative seems to be doing the exact same thing, you know? I start feeling railroaded.
As I was rereading KoA (because, having read the series once I immediately decided to read all the books again because they play differently the second time around (yes, even if you know most of the spoilers going in)) I paid very close attention to the attendants, and there turns out to be one scene in which Gen explicitly removes Ion and another person from a room, after which both Lamion and Hilarion participate in a conversation among the remaining attendants; Ion is therefore a separate person rather than a nickname for one of them. :)