The Tripods: The Pool of Fire Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pierre

Pierre raises what I think is a valid point. Julius has been in charge of the rebellion for a fairly long period of time and his rule may no longer reflect the will of the people. Julius counters with another valid point: he is asking people to give up some autonomy willingly and for a time to stop the Masters, who will take away their freedom more thoroughly forever. Julius then asks for a vote confirming his authority for the duration of the rebellion. When the body agrees to this, some suggest that Pierre should be expelled. Julius disagrees, saying that Pierre will play a part in the rebellion.

Julius talks about the mission Will and Fritz undertook to the City as one that brought much information, but one which was also a failure since Will's mistakes led to premature discovery. Will does sulk more than he should upon hearing this. Julius, however, may have been better served by offering the praise in public and saving the reprimand for private. Later Julius reunites Will with Fritz, who explains how he was able to escape the City.

Jan, Mario, and Carlos are minor characters who will appear later in the story. There is no textual indication about whether they were at this meeting or not.

Answer: Fritz

Will, as have several others, has been given training in how to pose as a traveling merchant trading portable items born by a beast of burden. Initially they carry items from Germany such as cloth and cuckoo clocks. As their journey progresses, they will buy other items to sell later. In addition, they have spent time learning the languages of the lands into which they travel. They are to find boys a year or two before Capping and convince them to join the rebellion.

Will plays more of a role in this than some might realize at first. Fritz may speak the languages better, but Will is the one who is better able to make friends along the way--making jokes with the boys, sharing small gifts (whistles, etc.) and the like. In fact, his success causes him some discomfort as he cannot quite shake the feeling that he is stealing the boys from their parents. Will has addressed the idea before that a person being Capped does not make him or her being horrible in every way.

Two criticisms could be raised about this part of the story. First, they are shown only recruiting boys. Is there really no possible role for girls or women in this rebellion? Second, the journey of Will and Fritz takes them outside of Europe into the Middle East and/or North Africa. Some readers have criticized the depiction of people in this part of the world worshiping the statues of Tripods as culturally insensitive. Although it would not have addressed this concern directly, it might have been balanced somewhat if John Christopher had included some full scenes from their journey where some of the people they met had a chance to speak, and not be part of a fleeting, voiceless mass.

Answer: Hunted down

The Capped people of the town treat the executions like a festival. Food and drink are sold and people sell tickets for spots on the roofs of buildings. One man is even seen selling wooden models of Tripods. In this area of the world, criminals who have committed serious crimes are held in jails until the fall when Tripods come to hunt them down. In theory, Will tells us, if a criminal makes it out of the area and across the river, he is safe. In actuality, that has never happened.

Will is disgusted by this practice and compares it unfavorably with the practice of hanging such criminals in England. When he tells Fritz he does not wish to witness this, Fritz replied that they must, in case they can learn something that will help the rebellion. Will is able to stomach some of these executions before he is physically sick. Will leaves the area at this point, although Fritz stays to the end. When Will sees Fritz next, he is described as looking even more serious than usual.

Answer: A green man on a green horse

Will and Fritz are reunited with Beanpole at a seaside castle where he and the other scientists have created a room to house a Master based on the samples Will smuggled out of the city. They plan to use the regularity of the Masters against them. One Tripod has been observed following a regular path every nine days. The rebels plan to dig and disguise a hole in the path with which to trap the Tripod. The scientists have been able to build a machine that will prevent the Tripod from communicating by radio with the City. Unfortunately, the device is activated too soon and the Tripod follows a new path.

Since the Tripod now follows a new path, the rebels decide to present an unusual sight to the Tripod on a return trip to bring it back to the original path. The train of thought moves from a rider on a horse to Fritz's suggestion that the horse and rider be green (the color of the Masters) to Will's offer to be the rider. Dyed emerald green, Will and his horse are able to successfully lead the Tripod into the trap. The rebels encase the Master in a protective suit and begin the process of transporting him back to the castle.

Answer: Ulf

Will, Fritz, and Beanpole, had previously travelled on Ulf's barge en route to the games. Fritz had behaved properly (from Ulf's point of view) and Beanpole was now working with the scientists and out of Ulf's control. Will, however, as a guard, comes under Ulf's command. Ulf already has a low opinion of Will because of foolish decisions Will made while travelling on the barge. Ulf seems to forget that Will's foolish decisions came after Ulf's foolish decision (going into town to drink during the voyage).

Will describes himself as "courteously and efficiently" obeying Ulf's orders. Itis possible that there may be some sulkiness or sarcasm in his attitude, since Ulf continues to view him negatively. At one point Beanpole even suggests that Will should adjust his attitude. This is a case where having an additional point of view would be helpful. While Will is acting immaturely in this case, I cannot imagine that no one suggests to Ulf to behave differently.

To be fair, Ulf by this point is suffering health issues that may make him more short tempered than normal. Will observes Ulf frequently spitting into a red and white handkerchief. He does not realize at first that the red in the handkerchief is Ulf's own blood. In fact, it is suggested that Ulf dies not too long after his last appearance in the story.

Answer: Alcohol

Will has noticed that the scientists have been adding various chemicals to Ruki's food to see if any have an effect on him. Ruki (as may be typical of his species) seems to have a sense when his food has been altered, refuses to eat such food. Will, showing surprising empathy for a Master, tells Beanpole that it seems cruel to keep adding things to Ruki's food. Beanpole responds by stating if one is judging things that way, not keeping Ruki's bathwater as warm as he would like is similarly cruel. Will replies that keeping the bathwater hot may be beyond their facility's ability, but adding chemicals to their food is a conscious choice. Once again, Will shows that impulsive he may be, but such harshness as he shows is based upon a flash decision and not cold calculation.

As it turns out, Will plays a role in finding to what substance Ruki is sensitive. The ill Ulf has largely sworn off alcohol, but when an acquaintance comes with some schnapps, Ulf can not resist sitting and drinking with him. When Will passes by with a tray of food for Ruki, Ulf can not resist pouring the dregs of his glass into the food. Will says that he should dispose of this food and get a new tray, but he decides to deliver it, thinking that when Ruki refuses to eat it, Ulf will be in trouble. Will already has a dislike of Ulf and cannot resist.

Instead, Ruki eats the food without complaint. He then passes out for several hours--far longer than a human of his mass would have been incapacitated by the small amount of alcohol left in the glass. It seems that he (and perhaps the other Masters) have no way of detecting alcohol. Perhaps this substance was never developed on their world. The scientists eventually determine that a solid dose of alcohol may leave a Master incapacitated for twelve hours of more. And a plan begins to form.

Answer: Poisoning the water supply

Will and Fritz and several others are able to use scuba gear built by the scientists and technicians to travel upstream through the river into the City. They have brought a few pieces of equipment, and will scavenge other parts and materials found in the City to create stills that they will use to produce alcohol to be dumped into the water supply. Fortunately there are buildings in the city that are largely unused.

The humans face several disadvantages, however. The gravity is artificially increased, the air is poisonous, and the humidity of the atmosphere is very high. They must try to largely stay out of sight of the Masters. While there are communal areas set aside for human slaves in the City, they only provide temporary refuge. Slowly, the supply of alcohol grows.

Answer: The City in the Americas

The Masters have no city in Africa. Will and Fritz lead the expedition to the City in Europe. Though several of the rebels die, they are able to dump enough alcohol into the water supply to incapacitate the Masters. The Masters use a large amount of water each day, both for consumption and for bathing. While the Masters are unconscious, the humans are able to flood the city with our air, killing the Masters. By now, the machine which controls the Caps has been broken and several of the former slaves assist the rebels.

Will was worried that the attack on the City in Asia would fail. He describes communication problems with the rebels he meets from Asia, "slim, yellow-skinned boys, who spoke little and smiled less". One of the criticisms about The Tripods trilogy is how Christopher portrays non-Western cultures. Having these fellow rebels from Asia be more than voiceless bit players could help to answer this concern.

It is the attack on the City in the Americas (presumably somewhere on or near the Isthmus of Panama) that fails. Because it was decided that three attacks should occur simultaneously, the poisoning there occurred during midday while the others were at night (when the Masters were less active). Henry was part of this attack. Though they were able to dump some alcohol into the water supply, the rebels were not able to take control of the City from the Masters. Though two Cities have been destroyed, the Masters are not fully defeated. Their response is too kill the human slaves who are in the City. The rebellion will need to find another way to defeat the final City.

Answer: Hot Air Balloons

Julius has announced that they have been able to recreate primitive aircraft. Will hopes to train to fly an airplane, but Julius tells him that the pilots have already been training for sometime. Will is sulky at the thought of being idle (one of his flaws). Beanpole tells Will that he could use Will's help with another project. Though not enthusiastic, Will agrees to help with this project, which turns out to be hot air balloons.

Will soon becomes highly enthused by the balloons, helped by the fact that he considers them fun. They prove to be necessary, also. When the airplanes attempt to bomb the City, the Masters use some mysterious device which stops the engines of the airplanes, causing them to crash. The rebels will have to fall back to the use of the hot air balloons. This section of the book is also notable for bringing all four main characters--Will, Henry, Beanpole, and Fritz--together again.

Answer: Henry

The scientists have developed grenade-like bombs which can break the dome which covers the last City of the Masters. A group of rebels fly over the City in the hot air balloons to drop the bombs. Unfortunately, the bombs bounce off of the curved dome and explode too far from the dome to damage it. Henry, seeing this, lands his balloon on the dome and holds his bomb against the dome until it explodes. The dome cracks, breaking the dome and killing the Masters inside of the City, but also killing Henry.

The Masters' ship return to Earth and uses a weapon to destroy the wreckage of each City, killing the humans studying the technology inside. The Masters probably feared that humans would try to reverse engineer the technology. When Ruki, the captured Master, senses that the ship has left Earth, he screams out and drops dead. A conference is called in the White Mountains to determine how humans will now govern themselves. Julius is proposed as the new leader of a free world, but Pierre returns and is able to engineer a close election that votes Julius out of office.

Though Julius counsels continued unity, many of the delegates are disgusted by this, and humanity's fragile unity begins to crack. Before his death, Henry had predicted that staying unified would be humanity's greatest challenge. Will, Beanpole, and Fritz decide to honor Henry's memory and sacrifice by trying to work to hold humanity together. So ends The Tripods trilogy, straddling between hope and despair.