I just thought of the most absolutely insane and ridiculous theory about Hunter. I don’t know if I even want to post it. It’s really like next level crazy
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Do it 
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Bring Hood here, he’d enjoy it 
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Here are the originals. Actually, I forgot; I did know! It has a brand name and ‘New York’ 
I can’t wait until I can draw well enough to make my own overlays 
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It’s thyme we move on then…as he is mint to be with Aurora 
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One for every book? Let’s dig in and start investigating the whole series based on a biscuit tin… because why not
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Plus, delicious biscuits! 
I like to think Hunter is an amazing cook.
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Just more reasons for me to believe he’s the grandma. Heart wants what it wants 
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Let’s be sage about this and say bay to him…
Omg, I should stop, I can feel the tip of Blade’s sword tickling me.
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OK so…first of all don’t judge me. take this with many grains of salt because I may very well just be sleep deprived and fragile so don’t make fun of me 
But many of the themes in the fairy tales for book 5 revolve around deceit, and in some cases deceitful appearances. so ummm…what if ok WHAT IF Hunter is also disguising himself? Maybe he’s a shapeshifter or a fairy godmother lol or has some other kind of appearance magic. So he’s a noble disguising himself as a regular joe. But the crazy crazy part is…what if he’s actually Alys lol. Would explain his comments about political marriages and being seen as a “traitor” potentially. The painting of Astra would be his sister. But also…Why is Vera even betrothed in the beginning? A lot of times we see that in royal type stories the betrothal is there to show how much the character hates their arranged marriage, but while Vera doesn’t “love” him, she’s fine with the marriage taking place if that’s what’s good for the kingdom. So we do learn she’s ready to sacrifice for the kingdom, but we see that in a lot of other ways too.
It would also give Jasper an extra in…to the castle, imo. Especially since in the chapters with the Forgotten Lion, Jasper insists that Alys is already in Caddelinn. He says that if Vera calls him, it will draw attention to them (which is true and I’ve never called him in that chapter so idk what happens if you do) but he’s also…very certain of Alys’ whereabouts. At the very least Blade regularly brings up that Vera has “a boyfriend” and it could be just to make her angry or it could be a hint about how close he is lol. or both. We know Blade is the A n g e r y i s t. lol
I’m not clear on how long Hunter has been working with Jasper or if he was living a kind of dual life before lol. It’s possible that he’d found Jasper out on a ride one day and was connected with him before ~running away~ I mean it’s possible that he had tried to leave Eraywyn before, but when Nylora was looking for a suitor for Vera, he (perhaps under Jasper’s guidance) went back to being Alys. I think we don’t know the circumstances or timeframe of their engagement, but it could also explain why Hunter may have additional insights into Vera. Like I said with the drugging the soup thing, I think he knew she would need to escape to see the truth for herself. And no one thinks Alys is particularly intelligent either (no matter how nice he is) which benefits him as a prince in general and certainly as a strategist. He seems to use much of that same strategy in his own work for Jasper. And as we know…Jasper has chosen his men carefully. Again, he cares about them but as workers they’re not useful if they don’t have a lot to offer.
This is really garbled because it’s…uh, well. I mean, it’s possible he could be a different noble too and disguising it. But I’m almost certain there’s some element of disguising his appearance so he’s not recognized as a noble, which would explain why Vera has no idea who he is. Even though Vera says she knows all the royals in the Royaumes, she doesn’t necessarily know every political event or undertaking. It makes more sense I think for him to be the real Alys than being an Eraywynian rando pretending to be Alys when he meets up with the Valenledge family. His demeanor and the things he says definitely embody royal characteristics. You’ll see that he regularly refers to Vera as “Highness” which besides being a sign of general respect could reflect his upbringing in the Court. I guess either way I would expect Alys to pop back up again otherwise there’s not much point in his character. Jasper does say Alys is probably working “in the castle” which could both be meant to dissuade Vera from calling him (both to draw attention to them in that moment but also if Hunter IS Alys it would alert the Queen something is up with Alys) and could also reflect on his previous visits to the castle to gather intel / whatever. He may have had access to areas even Blade didn’t as Vera’s personal guard since he needed to follow her around all day.
However, this could also be completely bananas lol. I’m still gonna go with Hunter a) being some kind of Noble or Royal and b) disguising his appearance in some way. And now I’m gonna go hide in a hole 
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It’s just a shave 
so smooth
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Easy for you to say when you already know everything that happens 
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I love this so much! I’m not making any dedicated comments but your train of thought is… nice 
I swear, sometimes they manage to surprise me. I don’t feel I’m making this up as much as I’ve got them all seated trying to find out what really happened. It’s hard when they all talk at once and I can’t trust anything Jasper says 
You would not believe how long it took me to get this reference 
I’m more shocked by this thread very day 
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I love this. I support this. I WANT this to be true.
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Or I wonder if his appearance now is his real appearance and if he IS Alys that his Alys look is the disguise 
or maybe he’s really Astra looool
Idk obviously there are a lot of details missing considering book 5 is…years down the line. But there’s got to be some kind of magic involved in his story. And he very well COULD still be the red riding hood figure in his own book hehe
Either way it’s so cute that of all the things to take with him when leaving Eraywyn he took his grandmas (or maybe his fairy god mothers?) biscuit tin with him haha
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Woooowee I forgot about that. Definitely not claiming I’m on the money but now I think if I’m not barking up the right tree then I’m at least in the right forest lol. Gosh I have so many things to pay attention to now
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You made me wanna spend my last precious replay just to see how Alys was like in the beginning
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