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I am so scared about how Orion is going to show up at this enclave war. He went to New York. Ophelia got her claws in him for reals. This is gonna be one final round of angst and trauma for him and El I suspect. But it'll work out, it's gotta (it's just that type of book, right? People live and recover. They may have scars, and not *everyone* survives of course, but the fields turn green in the end and everyone most significant to the mc should make it at this point, right?)

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Huh turns out that was indeed the twist! What's-her-name, prophecy lady, can indeed see multiple possibilities and chose the one that would actually protect El! Huh. Rough. Well glad that's kind of figured out now, and El can at least have a relationship with her family again.

Y'ALL EL HAS FOUND OUT ABOUT THE SECRET OF ENCLAVE BUILDING

THEY MAKE A MAWMOUTH

Now she's about to try to save Beijing enclave now that she's saved Lou

She's in the room where the "long life" spell has shattered

I think to myself, I bet that means she killed that mawmouth

She starts thinking, oh, this must be how the maleficer has been attacking enclaves. They must have figured out how enclaves are built and are attacking the weak point, this plate.

But.

IT'S THE DEATH OF THE MAWMOUTHS THAT DID IT

I SWEAR

EL IS TAKING DOWN THE ENCLAVES BY KILLING MAWMOUTHS

THE TIMING AND AMOUNTS MAKE SENSE

And the magic of it makes sense too: the mawmouths pay the manna debt forever after by their eternal suffering or something, yeah? But once they die... The enclave goes into forfeiture.

El was foretold to destroy the enclaves of the world, bringing death and destruction.

Now she CAN and it'll be GOOD and FINE and AWESOME!!

She kills mawmouths.

The enclaves are destabilized.

She makes Golden Stone enclaves instead to replace the ones made from malia.

IT'S PERFECT

Also, considering the way this tends to go, she'll probably come to the same conclusion about the real cause of the enclaves falling in the next few paragraphs. But I had to pause my audiobook and share this immediately :OOO :DD

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Ooooooo heeheehee she figured it out. Yayy

Dubai has been warned

She'll meet her Dad's side of the family soon

This should be goood

Y'ALL EL HAS FOUND OUT ABOUT THE SECRET OF ENCLAVE BUILDING

THEY MAKE A MAWMOUTH

Now she's about to try to save Beijing enclave now that she's saved Lou

She's in the room where the "long life" spell has shattered

I think to myself, I bet that means she killed that mawmouth

She starts thinking, oh, this must be how the maleficer has been attacking enclaves. They must have figured out how enclaves are built and are attacking the weak point, this plate.

But.

IT'S THE DEATH OF THE MAWMOUTHS THAT DID IT

I SWEAR

EL IS TAKING DOWN THE ENCLAVES BY KILLING MAWMOUTHS

THE TIMING AND AMOUNTS MAKE SENSE

And the magic of it makes sense too: the mawmouths pay the manna debt forever after by their eternal suffering or something, yeah? But once they die... The enclave goes into forfeiture.

El was foretold to destroy the enclaves of the world, bringing death and destruction.

Now she CAN and it'll be GOOD and FINE and AWESOME!!

She kills mawmouths.

The enclaves are destabilized.

She makes Golden Stone enclaves instead to replace the ones made from malia.

IT'S PERFECT

Also, considering the way this tends to go, she'll probably come to the same conclusion about the real cause of the enclaves falling in the next few paragraphs. But I had to pause my audiobook and share this immediately :OOO :DD

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Welp. There's a maw-mouth attacking the place where her grandmother lives. She's gonna kill it now obvi.

A week's worth of mana says this is the Dubai mawmouth 👀👀👄👄

Y'ALL EL HAS FOUND OUT ABOUT THE SECRET OF ENCLAVE BUILDING

THEY MAKE A MAWMOUTH

Now she's about to try to save Beijing enclave now that she's saved Lou

She's in the room where the "long life" spell has shattered

I think to myself, I bet that means she killed that mawmouth

She starts thinking, oh, this must be how the maleficer has been attacking enclaves. They must have figured out how enclaves are built and are attacking the weak point, this plate.

But.

IT'S THE DEATH OF THE MAWMOUTHS THAT DID IT

I SWEAR

EL IS TAKING DOWN THE ENCLAVES BY KILLING MAWMOUTHS

THE TIMING AND AMOUNTS MAKE SENSE

And the magic of it makes sense too: the mawmouths pay the manna debt forever after by their eternal suffering or something, yeah? But once they die... The enclave goes into forfeiture.

El was foretold to destroy the enclaves of the world, bringing death and destruction.

Now she CAN and it'll be GOOD and FINE and AWESOME!!

She kills mawmouths.

The enclaves are destabilized.

She makes Golden Stone enclaves instead to replace the ones made from malia.

IT'S PERFECT

Also, considering the way this tends to go, she'll probably come to the same conclusion about the real cause of the enclaves falling in the next few paragraphs. But I had to pause my audiobook and share this immediately :OOO :DD

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Yo so

Dubai was foretold to be the next one attacked.

El just went and did the Golden Enclaves thing there.

They finished the spell

Still no attack

My goodness that grandmother really does just see El doing her thing as a threat, huh?

Welp El's going to confront her rn so we'll see

Maybe she'll have turned out to be secretly hoping for this "good ending" all along?? Not likely though let's be real.

So looking forward to whatever the next plot point is here!!

Y'ALL EL HAS FOUND OUT ABOUT THE SECRET OF ENCLAVE BUILDING

THEY MAKE A MAWMOUTH

Now she's about to try to save Beijing enclave now that she's saved Lou

She's in the room where the "long life" spell has shattered

I think to myself, I bet that means she killed that mawmouth

She starts thinking, oh, this must be how the maleficer has been attacking enclaves. They must have figured out how enclaves are built and are attacking the weak point, this plate.

But.

IT'S THE DEATH OF THE MAWMOUTHS THAT DID IT

I SWEAR

EL IS TAKING DOWN THE ENCLAVES BY KILLING MAWMOUTHS

THE TIMING AND AMOUNTS MAKE SENSE

And the magic of it makes sense too: the mawmouths pay the manna debt forever after by their eternal suffering or something, yeah? But once they die... The enclave goes into forfeiture.

El was foretold to destroy the enclaves of the world, bringing death and destruction.

Now she CAN and it'll be GOOD and FINE and AWESOME!!

She kills mawmouths.

The enclaves are destabilized.

She makes Golden Stone enclaves instead to replace the ones made from malia.

IT'S PERFECT

Also, considering the way this tends to go, she'll probably come to the same conclusion about the real cause of the enclaves falling in the next few paragraphs. But I had to pause my audiobook and share this immediately :OOO :DD

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Y'ALL EL HAS FOUND OUT ABOUT THE SECRET OF ENCLAVE BUILDING

THEY MAKE A MAWMOUTH

Now she's about to try to save Beijing enclave now that she's saved Lou

She's in the room where the "long life" spell has shattered

I think to myself, I bet that means she killed that mawmouth

She starts thinking, oh, this must be how the maleficer has been attacking enclaves. They must have figured out how enclaves are built and are attacking the weak point, this plate.

But.

IT'S THE DEATH OF THE MAWMOUTHS THAT DID IT

I SWEAR

EL IS TAKING DOWN THE ENCLAVES BY KILLING MAWMOUTHS

THE TIMING AND AMOUNTS MAKE SENSE

And the magic of it makes sense too: the mawmouths pay the manna debt forever after by their eternal suffering or something, yeah? But once they die... The enclave goes into forfeiture.

El was foretold to destroy the enclaves of the world, bringing death and destruction.

Now she CAN and it'll be GOOD and FINE and AWESOME!!

She kills mawmouths.

The enclaves are destabilized.

She makes Golden Stone enclaves instead to replace the ones made from malia.

IT'S PERFECT

Also, considering the way this tends to go, she'll probably come to the same conclusion about the real cause of the enclaves falling in the next few paragraphs. But I had to pause my audiobook and share this immediately :OOO :DD

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"I knew he was afraid of my conquering army, but I didn't think he would be stupid enough to leave you behind." "Oh, no, you quite misunderstand. Your army's already dead."

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HOLY CRAP El just killed a maw-mouth with a BRAND-NEW KILLING SPELL that SHE INVENTED IN AN INSTANT ACCIDENTALLY which uses like NO MANNA WHAT.

And the price she asked from the London enclave... Beautiful. So her. I look forward to seeing this Yancy character again lol.

Listen I just LOVE seeing El befuddle the oligarchs of these places, it's FABULOUS XD

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I finished the second book of the scholomance and the third one finally came in! Now I get to see how we get STUPID /affectionate /not srs Orion back from the void, and also what kind of chaos ensues from bringing EVERYBODY home!

Also, of freaking COURSE those mawmouths showed up again at the end to screw things up. Guess I know why Galadriel's mom warned her? Glad it wasn't anything more stupid and avoidable.

I also really liked the twist of the kids and the scholomance both believing in the purpose of protecting every child more than the adults who actually set the system up. The scholomance making them work on helping the underclassmen. The scholomance being willing to even be destroyed to help more kids survive in the end. The kids starting to really work together once shown hope of a different way to do things. Etc

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@eishtmo bahahahahaha I see now I see!!

SPOILERS BEWARE PEOPLE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE LAST GRADUATE YET

She very very grudgingly realized everybody was a person she might at any moment have or discover a reason to care about. Then decided she was gonna protect the whole school. And now the obstacle course makes itself too hard for anyone but her. So SHE put everyone else under her protection without them knowing it, and the school said "Bet!" and now everyone has to practice with her hahahahahahahaha

She just blew up at that guy and now her team knows she intends to save everybody. We'll see how that goes over. She's compared herself to an Enclaver, where the others need her so much that they'll take whatever she'll give them at whatever cost and be grateful. Which. She's right. And yet- the point is that she takes everybody's help to HELP EVERYBODY, not to ensure her own survival!! Which is therefore also the exact opposite. But, well. This should be very ~interesting~ *manic grin*

Oh wait we don't know why El was warned to stay away from Orion... Uh-oh I hope THAT doesn't come back to bite her and/or everyone in the butt 👀 (it definitely will 😭)

Okay so, I finished the first scholomance book. Mom gives spooky warning about staying away from Orion, oooo! I'm also 25% into the Last Graduate and- word of Galadriel's power is kinda spreading and- I think it would be really funny if as graduation approaches more and more people try to join her alliance, and she wouldn't really turn most people away, and in the end her alliance is just "the whole school". I think that would be funny.

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Okay so, I finished the first scholomance book. Mom gives spooky warning about staying away from Orion, oooo! I'm also 25% into the Last Graduate and- word of Galadriel's power is kinda spreading and- I think it would be really funny if as graduation approaches more and more people try to join her alliance, and she wouldn't really turn most people away, and in the end her alliance is just "the whole school". I think that would be funny.

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Oookay. I've made it just into the ninth chapter in A Deadly Education. Spoilers ahead!

Now, what was that prophecy exactly again?... Laying waste to enclaves or something like that? At this point, I think that may come true in a rather different way! (And honestly I look forward to seeing it)

So, El has slain the maw-mouth now. She's absolutely an incredible person, working so hard to not hurt anyone and never touch malificing at all, being so loyal with those who worked with her, and then fighting this horrifying thing against ALL her self-interest.

Just now, Aadhya figured it out and confronted her about it, and El blurted out that she actually doesn't want to join any enclave at all.

All the ways the enclavers are privileged at the expense of their unaffiliated peers have been slowly built up over the course of this book so far, as well as El's resentment of them. Now, she gets to have an existential crisis about it, yay!

I see now how thematic this book is about social inequality and exploitative systems where the luxury of some is built off the misery and danger and hurt and death of others. And not in a dystopian way either! It's real people, all seeking safety and security and comfort, and falling into these self-sustaining patterns that perpetuate an enormous divide.

Anyway, I suspect El is not going to truly destroy the people, but upend and overturn and tear down all their comfortable systems with their built-in "acceptable loss" of the outsiders and the less powerful.

That's my prediction as I'm in the middle of reading her reflections on why she just can't stand the enclaves anymore, despite fighting enormously with her mother to try and join one when she was younger.

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I've read the first 3 and a half chapters of A Deadly Education, and my fears have not been realized. Galadriel and Orion are both decent and pragmatic enough I'm not annoyed by their relationship, yay! (No it's not a relationship yet but come on tropes are tropes, I could see the signs just from the blurb.) (Yeah Orion's idealistic, but he has his own motivations and thoughts, instead of getting randomly obsessed with El he just sees her as first another hapless student and then a potential threat.)

Don't come for me, certain YA romantasy relationship patterns just really don't do it for me personally.

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Podcast: Describing a naval battle from the Napoleonic Wars

Me: Well that doesn't make any sense. Where are the dragons

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I have been convinced to start reading the scholomance series through description of how good its social commentary is. I considered it before and didn't get into it bc the description implied it focused on a very YA vibes impending angsty romance that just sounded too annoying to this aromantic. I hope it's not too annoying.

Low-filter thoughts and reactions coming soon stay tuned

Sorry to all the Temeraire people, I lost momentum then lost my access to boundless and that series is on indefinite pause while I use other ebook platforms

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William Laurence truly has one of the funniest character arcs of all time. He does a complete 360 over the course of the series. Totally turned around yet somehow exactly where he started. He completely changed his worldview while being absolutely steadfast about it. He undergoes impressive character development while his character does not change at all. He is so damn stubborn about his preconceived notions of honor that he is willing to abandon his preconceived notions of dragons, gender, and race. He transcends the regency society he lives in not by breaking the confines of rigid values but by expanding those confines to include everyone.

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Must admit that one thing that changed the way I see fandom discourse is realizing that a lot of fandom is just… playing with dolls. We're playing with dolls. Shipping? Playing with dolls. AUs? Dolls. Darkfic? Dolls.

Lotta people very agitated about the other kids playing with dolls wrong.