Possible reasons why Thomas attacked Mr. Etri

[KurtinStGeorge]

Can you come up with an alternative scenario?  Do you think that one of the named options or something very similar occurred, but somehow Mab, Ebenezer or even Justine is part of the equation, perhaps as a third party pushing Thomas or offering him protection if he took the offer.

[ClintACK]

I voted "no freak'n clue".

There just isn't enough information in the book to have any idea what happened.

[TheCuriousFan]

He seemed to have something of a plan in mind during chapter one so I'm going with Thomas making a deal off-screen.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

He was a dupe, given a disguised bomb by a Swartalf or wizard as he was about to see Etri about Asylum for him and Justine and the baby

[vultur]

He seemed to have something of a plan in mind during chapter one so I'm going with Thomas making a deal off-screen.

Yeah, I think so.

Mab seems the most likely option, but I'm not sure why Mab would want Etri (or Austri) killed. If he was Nemfected, maybe, but wouldn't she send Harry to do that?

Mab might have a larger plan in mind though. Like maybe the real goal was to get Thomas captured, and then Mab arranges to loan Harry to Lara, so Harry looks like he's been subverted by the White Court, dividing him from the Council so he has to rely on Mab more.

[Mira]

Yeah, I think so.

Mab seems the most likely option, but I'm not sure why Mab would want Etri (or Austri) killed. If he was Nemfected, maybe, but wouldn't she send Harry to do that?

Mab might have a larger plan in mind though. Like maybe the real goal was to get Thomas captured, and then Mab arranges to loan Harry to Lara, so Harry looks like he's been subverted by the White Court, dividing him from the Council so he has to rely on Mab more.

Yeah, I think Mab may have out smarted herself though this time.

[Snark Knight]

He seemed to have something of a plan in mind during chapter one so I'm going with Thomas making a deal off-screen.

Justine is in danger, but she's only six weeks in. Making a deal to assassinate a (moderately friendly) king, and putting his niece in danger by being in the target's building at the time, seems kind of drastic for buying protection from a slow-moving danger. I don't doubt he'd do it for Justine if it was the only way to save her, but I think he'd try harder to exhaust other alternatives for protecting her first.

I'm thinking either he went to a meet trying to negotiate with someone/something for protection in exchange for a less radical favour and got jumped and mind-whammied, there was some sort of inside job to frame him, or he's nem-fected.

[Mira]

  I sincerely hope he isn't Nem infected, that seems to be the go to reason for everything these days.
No, I think he is worried out of his mind over Justine and desperate, so he would make a deal.  However unless she is lying it seems odd that he wouldn't talk to Lara about it.  Simply because before she might have some ideas on how to help, she'd remember when Thomas' own mother was pregnant.
However I think this was set up some time ago, beginning with a pregnancy that shouldn't have happened if Thomas was telling the truth to Harry about himself and that they were using protection to boot.  Tin hat time, we know that Mab can mess with a mind so things are forgotten.  What if she messed with Justine's mind so she'd either forget to take her birth control or misuse it..  Don't know if she can increase sperm count though, but I wouldn't put it past her.. Just odd, the timing of the pregnancy, Mab showing up with Lara pulling Harry in to pay favors owed to the White Court and then Thomas ends up in deep, deep,do do.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

The White Court have an exceedingly low reproduction rate, and with the twins dead, and Inari going house Raith numbers have decreased over the last decade.

The baby is therefore precious to them, especially if the female Whamp reproduction rate is lower than the Whamp. Lara and her sisters may be broody, look at how she treats Thomas, as much a surrogate son as a brother.

Thomas is likely aware of this and doesn’t want his family sucked whole into the White Court, where Justine would be considered expendable for the baby. He might therefore sought asylum/Guest Right from Etri, but this was hijacked, by either forces within or without the Swartalves.

[Bad Alias]

I voted "Thomas was extorted through threats made by a third party against Justine into attacking Etri," but I think the third party is a cut out used by Justine. Thomas figured it out too late and was trying to warn Harry.

[vultur]

Whoever is responsible (Justine, Mab, Nemesis, Thomas himself) - why?

That is, why would anyone particularly want to kill Etri (or Austri)?

The svartalves seem to kind of keep to themselves mostly, so they're not much of a threat, and they don't seem central to holding the Accords together or a primary combative force, so it's not clear why they'd be particularly high on the bad guys' list.

[Mira]

Whoever is responsible (Justine, Mab, Nemesis, Thomas himself) - why?

That is, why would anyone particularly want to kill Etri (or Austri)?

The svartalves seem to kind of keep to themselves mostly, so they're not much of a threat, and they don't seem central to holding the Accords together or a primary combative force, so it's not clear why they'd be particularly high on the bad guys' list.

That is the real weakness in my opinion of Peace Talks, Harry didn't even manage an outline of a working theory.  Those are the ties that bind the story together, hopefully we will get motive in Battle Ground.

[apgrey]

  The only group we know with a grudge against Etri is the Fomor.  They will be angry about what happened to their noble in Bombshells.

APG

[Mira]

  The only group we know with a grudge against Etri is the Fomor.  They will be angry about what happened to their noble in Bombshells.

APG

Yeah, I need to go back and reread Bombshells..  However if the Fomor is the only group that we know of that has a grudge Etri, that suggests that Thomas was acting for them.  The question then becomes why, if it true?  Reason against, everyone that Thomas has worked with or helped from Harry to Butters are against the Fomor for a number of reasons.  So just what could the Fomor offer him to make him do such a thing?  Do they have some cure for Justine?  Or is there another group out there no one has heard of?  Or does it all go back to Mab again who is orchestrating a huge diversion that backfired or seemingly backfired for her greater chess game?

[vultur]

Yeah, maybe the Fomor, but I was thinking they'd blame their loss in "Bombshells" more on the BFS (and maybe Winter since Molly is Winter Lady now) than on the svartalves.