lothloriien

[lothloriien]

sources? a little birdie, et al (2024)

[lothloriien]

sinegard four doodles! based off of tdr 🤍

[lothloriien]

Soulmates :(

I'm currenly reading The Dragon Republic and my God I'm so obsessed

[lothloriien]

Isn't it funny? How none of them ever stood a chance? Isn't it hilarious? How none of it could've been prevented? Isn't it comical? How it was all so much bigger than themselves? Isn't it just hysterical? How it was always gonna end like this?

[lothloriien]

still waiting for rf kuang to release the fourth poppy war book where it’s revealed that rin just had a really long bad dream and everyone is happy and im happy too

[lothloriien]

I lied, put your clothes back on

I'm going to explain to you why Altan, Qara and Chaghan are the characters that were telling us in advance about the end of the trilogy and the trifecta formed by Nezha, Rin and Kitay but we didn't pay enough attention to them

Altan, Chaghan and Qara are the" failed" trifecta

Altan's sacrifice breaks the cycle, paving the way for Rin, Kitay, and Nezha to become the next generation of the trifecta

Each reflects the mistakes of the past: Rin as Altan and Riga, Kitay as Qara and Jiang, and Nezha as Chaghan and Daji, all trapped in the same vicious cycle

In the end, Rin understands that, like Altan, her destiny is to sacrifice herself to break the cycle. Her death, along with Kitay's, leaves Nezha alive and ruling, mirroring Chaghan's fate

In the dynamic of Rin, Kitay and Nezha, it is clear that they represent an echo of Altan, Chaghan and Qara's failed attempt. Rin takes Altan's place as the center of destruction and strength, Kitay represents strategic and emotional stability as Qara did, while Nezha, being the only one left in the end, is a distorted version of Chaghan, the survivor who carries the weight of the world

Rin understands, at the end of the trilogy, the meaning of Altan's sacrifice: not only was it necessary to break the cycle to create something new, but his sacrifice was also an act of love towards her, giving her the opportunity to build a future that he never had. Rin's sacrifice reflects that understanding, breaking the cycle of hatred and revenge that Riga perpetuated in his generation

(I hope you understand, English is not my native language)

I should be drawing I Know...

[lothloriien]

Fang Runin's strategy planning in one sentence

[lothloriien]

there is something so pure about rinkitay that just wretches you to your soul; the constant choice to forgive, to turn a blind eye, to sacrifice, because in a world that was unkind to rin, kitay knew that was enough; rin needed one person — at least one person — to be kind.

whereas rinezha was all about the tragedy of how love was there but it wasn’t enough, not when duty holds them both back; rinkitay was all about how sometimes, with the right people, with the soul that yearns for your own, love is enough.

yet in the end, all were doomed by the narrative in their own ways.

[lothloriien]

Do the Yin family men reproduce by mitosis because why the fuck are they all described as carbon copies of each other

[lothloriien]

this singlehandedly broke me love simply wasn't enough they loved each other so much but it wasn't enough

[lothloriien]

“He can’t be real, she thought. A boy made out of flesh and bone could not be so painfully lovely, so free of any blemish or flaw.” | “She’s the only divine thing he’s ever believed in. The only creature in this vast, cruel land who could kill him. And sometimes, in his loveliest dreams, he imagined she does.”

[lothloriien]

little speerly

Fang Runin from The Poppy War trilogy!

[lothloriien]

absolutely genius of rf kuang to elaborate on virtually nothing about speer's culture. the only things said about speer are "speerlies are mindless savages" and "speerlies are most definitely not mindless savages". there are no deep dives, no explanations of their way of life, nothing beyond the glimpses that disproves nikan's belief that they are nothing but a violent group. we saw that they had leaders that cared about their people and children. we saw that they are people who found joy in life. but that's really not much.

this emphasizes the horror of genocide. millenia of culture and history, individual lives filled with love, pain, and passion, just completely wiped away. there were only two surviving speerlies. one of them was too young when he was taken away, and probably doesn't remember much. the things he did remember was also probably buried under years of abuse and drugs people were plying him with. the other one didn't even know she was from speer until the last few months of her life, and there was really no one around to teach her about their culture. and if there was, life as she knows it was falling apart. learning about her dead people's culture probably didn't even cross her mind.

without saying any of these things and by intentionally leaving readers in the dark about what speer was truly like, rf kuang said so much about the horrors of genocide. by not saying anything, she said everything. she did the "show me, don't tell me" tip for writers and it was brilliant.

we will never learn most of speer's culture and history and that was the point.

[lothloriien]

another big parallel between rin and kitay is that they both thought they were so above sacrificing their principles for love. rin hated mai’rinnen tearza for killing herself and surrendering because she loved the red emperor. kitay desperately tried to be morally right even in the toughest circumstances and judged those who weren’t. but in the end they both betrayed their principles for each other. kitay couldn’t do the morally right thing and deprive rin of her power because he loved her too much. for someone who was so proud of his moral high ground, he was so loyal to her that he was ready to let her destroy the world. and even though she swore she would never be so weak to surrender and let her people be conquered, the mere thought of hurting kitay to reach her goal stopped her. it was her love for him that made her surrender. and they both kind of became the things they hated the most.

[lothloriien]

[lothloriien]

chaghan in the burning god was so fucking funny. just rolls up out of nowhere like "hey rin. yeah im alive and i united all the hundred clans of the north for the first time in a century. it's no big deal. anyway remember that boy we were always fighting over? so i got high and talked to some ghosts and it turns out that he was actually your cousin. just thought i should let you know. also im not helping you win the war. okay byebye"

[lothloriien]

this is my understanding of the trilogy so far