Still doesn't jive with the latter info in SmF:
The issue is not HOW the Archive mantle is passed (in the what she gets and from whom sense), its the description Ivy gives in the passage you just put. She describes it as if giving birth to her specifically caused the mantle to flow and once that was done her mother essentially ceased to be. Now we find out later than not only is an Archive mantle meant to be passed to a woman who is fully grown, but also has already had a daughter of her own. The Grandmother would have led a full life, not dying in childbirth in order to conceive a new vessel for the Archive, and so on. The outlier here is Ivy's story, her grandmother died in an accident and her mother was much too young (and still pregnant) and didn't want the responsibility of a task she ought not to have had for another 15-20 years. So she killed herself and passed the power on to her newborn (or her death resulted in the pregnancy).
Either way we have two conflicting 'ways' and timelines of how an Archive is made. One has Ivy tell us it happens at childbirth, and then Luccio tells us you inherent in when you're a relatively grown woman with a family all your own. I get what you are saying about the gig part but its not really how the scene reads when she talks about everything flowing into her from her mother. Her birth is the reason it occurred, so she got the gig in every sense...responsibility AND construct. Hence, ret-con.
Precisely; That is one, and the most common, way to read her statement. I was offering a differing interpretation that I believe would solve all the conflicts. All it would take is the interpretation that nobody actually said the Archive construct always passed at birth, and that Ivy was telling Harry that She was Born with that Fate/Destiny/Job/Gig, and her mother was equally bound to said Fate at Birth. A prince was still Born to be a King (ie the circumstances of his birth are the only requirements for that gig) even if he is not usually invested with the Full power at birth.
It's a little condescending of an explanation of a hereditary [insert synonym for "mantle" here, because it's not one of those specifically], but not actually a Lie.
There's no fae word games. In Death Masks and in Small Favor, the explanations for how the Archive works are described in ways that are directly in conflict with one another and are mutually exclusive.
Ivy in Death Masks: Says she got it when she was born, and this is how the Archive has always worked.
Luccio in Small Favor: Ivy got the archive at her mother's death, which is how the Archive always worked.
Per the quote I posted, that's not what she said. It is, I admit, the most common and arguably the most logical interpretation, however.
Ivy in Death Masks: All Archives got it at birth.
Luccio: Ivy is extremely unusual and dangerous because to our knowledge she's the only Archive that got it at birth.
Per the quote I posted, that's not explicitly/literally what she said. It is, I admit, the most common and arguably the most logical interpretation, however. It all hinges on whether she was interpreting the question of her "gig" as Archive being the Fate/Duty of it, or the actual
Ivy in Death Masks: Is comforted by the knowledge that her mother lives on in her head through her memories.
Luccio: Ivy knows that her mother killed herself to spite her.
"Comforted" is a pretty big stretch. That implies positive emotions, or really any emotions at all, which were not evident in that scene. The closest she gets is referring to her mother as "Free of It". Otherwise she jsut tells Harry that she has no need to be Sorry for her mother dying because she knows