Deleted Scenes from Keeper of the Lost Cities Books

This post is mildly spoilerish, so it's best not to read it unless you've read all the books.

My last post had deleted lines which were short passages posted on Instagram by Shannon Messenger.  This post is about deleted scenes, which are in PDF files on the official Keeper of the Lost Cities website.

Keeper of the Lost Cities Extras

Scroll down the page to find links to the deleted scenes.  

A Tumblr user has transcribed the deleted scenes here:

KotLC Deleted Scenes

The transcriptions are useful to those who rely on text-to-speech.  I verified that the Tumblr content matches what is on the official site.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I verify all online Keeper content attributed to Shannon Messenger since so much incorrect information is online.

Two of the deleted scenes contain passages that are quite interesting.

Original prologue to Keeper of the Lost Cities #1

Shannon wrote this about the original prologue:

"I decided it didn't work for readers to have more knowledge about Sophie's past than Sophie did.  It made her character feel a bit annoying, since it took her so long to catch up to everyone else.  So I cut this and made the series third-person limited (meaning I only include a scene if Sophie is in it)."

From the original prologue:

"You couldn't get anything else?" Alden asked, still studying the hologram. 

"I tried," Quinlin assured him. "But Prentice's mind was particularly strong. I had to shatter his sanity in order to extract the one piece I recovered." 

Alden nodded gravely.  "Such a waste."  He held the hologram closer to his face, his eyes narrowing. "I'm no expert on these, but this one looks strange, doesn't it?" 

"It's been altered somehow," Quinlin agreed.  "The system couldn't even process it."  Frustration dripped off every word. 

Alden took a turn at pacing. "I assume there was no match…"

Quinlin laughed darkly.  "I ran it five times." 

Alden ran it a sixth to be sure. "Well… at least we know it's a girl." 

Even though this content did not appear in the book, I'm going to accept it as canon.  One of the major plot holes in this series is how nobody knows who Sophie's parents are even though they have her DNA.  That has never made sense.  This deleted prologue indicates that Sophie's DNA was altered in some fashion and that they couldn't match it to anything.  If I accept this as canon, then that plot hole is resolved, so far as I'm concerned.

"Who knows?  Maybe it will be good for her," he said, mostly to himself, before glancing at Quinlin. "I'll let you know when I find her." 

"Don't you mean if you find her?" Quinlin couldn't help asking. 

Alden shook his head.  "Oh, I will find her.  I just don't know what we'll do with her once I do."  He gave a half bow and stepped into the beam of light from his wand. 

Some fans think that Alden is evil.  In discussions about this deleted prologue, they say that his comment about not knowing what to do with Sophie sounds ominous.  I don't think that's it.  Alden just doesn't know what they will do with the mystery elf raised by humans, once they find her.

On the way to Alluveterre in #4 Neverseen

Mr. Forkle glanced at the eckodons circling in the river, looking very conspicuous and sea-monster-y and sure-to-be-spotted-by-someone-if-they-didn't-hurry, before he heaved a sigh of his own and pointed to her purple backpack.  "Is Ella in there?"

Sophie nodded. 

She peeled back the slimy membrane and unzipped the bag, showing him the bright blue, Hawaiian shirt-wearing elephant. 

Mr. Forkle reached for Ella almost tenderly.  "Her head had more stuffing when I bought her." 

He smiled when Sophie sucked in a breath.

"Looks like your mother held true to her promise. That's one of the reasons I chose your parents. They were good, loyal people.  The best humans I'd met, in fact—but I digress.  I bought Ella at the hospital gift store after I'd triggered your telepathy.  I knew it was far too early for you to carry such responsibility, so I wanted you to have something to bring back the security I'd taken away. But I thought you would respond better if the gift came from your family.  So I gave it to your mother and made her promise to claim it as her own."

He sounded so sincere—it took Sophie a second to remember there was a darker side to his little anecdote.  "Why did you trigger my telepathy when I was five?" 

"That is a story for another time. For the moment"—he held out Ella—"this is who I am.  The person who bought you your favorite blue elephant, because he wanted to make sure you'd be able to sleep."

I wish this scene had stayed in the book.  It's really touching, especially considering what is most likely true about Mr. Forkle.