#( blah blah insert headcanon about how he’d need it anyway to

[zealctry]

casual reminder that Hidan’s build is athletic.

he’s not bodybuilder buff like, let’s say, Kisame or Kakuzu, but he has enough muscle on him to break a few bones if he sets his mind to it. physically, he’s anything but weak.

[propshophannah]

Manon Pregnancy HC/Theory; Elide Lochan: Heart of Darkness?

[For everyone who kept asking for this, I’m sorry it took me so long!] Let me say this: I will be the first one to tell you that I absolutely HATE pregnancy plot lines. So as much as the art kid/visual culture nerd in me wants this to happen, I also DO NOT want it to happen. And I can honestly see the ending of the series playing out 1,000 different ways. This is just one way that my art-nerd heart loves. Do I think it will happen this way? Eh. It’s significantly more complicated than Manorian/Rowaelin/Elorcan/anyone “Mutli-Heir Theory of Lock”-ing their way to seal the gate. But who knows!

This post also includes: 

A “Bonus Manorian HC” so scroll to that (you’ll see it in huge font) if that’s what you’re here for. (It’s angsty so GET READY!)

A “Elide Lochan Heart of Darkness” is more a HC that I haven’t fully explored. But it would deal with Petrah, Manon, Iskra (yuck), and Elide teaming up to play a significant role is how this all goes down. So skip to that header if you clicked for that.

The MMC Manon Pregnant Theory is this: 

Manon Crochan/Blackbeak will be the symbolic Mother, she will actually get pregnant, she will be the first witch to have a witchling on the Wastes (the “savior/blessed” child) in 500 years, and her birthing blood (“life” blood) will be the last ingredient to return life to the land. Her blood will effectually “water” or “feed” the land.

The Who/What/Where/Why of this theory:

The Three-Faced Goddess (TFG) is the one who cursed Brannon’s heir. She was the only one who spoke. The Eye of Elena is her symbol.

The big, outer circle is the crone (represented by the Yellowlegs), the top inner circle is the Mother (represented by the Blackbeaks), and the bottom circle is the Maiden (represented by the Bluebloods). In the middle of where the Mother and Maiden symbols meet is the “heart of the Darkness within her.”

Bluebloods: Maiden

Blackbeaks: Mother

Yellowlegs: Crone

We could argue that Maas already gave us a dead symbolic representation of the Three-faced Goddess—aka the Maiden, Mother, Crone (MMC).

Maiden: Nehemia (Not in the virginal sense but the unmarried/died before her time sense)

Mother: Marion (Elide’s mom)

Crone: Elena or Rhiannon (Elena died and old lady with kids. Rhiannon died as one of the Ancients and spilled her blood to set the curse—do you see where this is going?)

So why not give us a living representation of the MMC? It’s certainly a juicy option for an author not to consider. So in that line of thinking, here are some options:

Maiden: Elide (currently only unmarried virgin)

Mother: Manon (cuz she’s a Blackbeak who are represented by the Mother)

Crone: Elena or Maeve? Or someone we haven’t met/someone I’m forgetting? (I get that Elena isn’t technically alive, but she is alive enough as a spirit to count.)

Anyway, moving on!

Why Manon? Well she is a Blackbeak, the symbolic Mothers. Then she and Dorian are totally mates(see this post for evidence)/drawn together as if fate demands it. His magic reacts to protect her without him having to think about it. Their sex scene was very much a “love making” scene. And Manon’s NUMBER ONE thing about Dorian is that he has no fear. And we already know from QoS, that humans who have no fear taste better to witches!

SIDE THEORY ALERT! I’d wager that the witches have such a high miscarriage rate not because witchlings are rare, but because they’re getting pregnant by men who they’re not in love with/who do not love them. Asterin lost her baby at the very end of her pregnancy. I’d argue that maybe the TFG/Fate killed her witchling because TFG/Fate needed Asterin to look out for Manon and get her on the right path to finding Dorian and understanding what love is. None of that would have happened had Asterin had that baby and then left to live with the hunter.

If the blood of fearless humans changes and tastes better, why would other fluids not be affected? Why would the body of a witch in love (with a human who loved her fearlessly) not be more apt to want to carry that man’s child to term?

The curse on the Wastes:

“Blood to blood and soul to soul, together this was done, and together it can be undone. Be the bridge, be the light. When iron melts, when flowers spring from fields of blood–let the land be witness, and return home.”

Now, each line of this will work on MULTIPLE levels. It already does (For digressions on the curse see this post, and this post). BUT let us mold it to fit a Manon pregnancy.

“Blood to blood and soul to soul, together this was done, and together it can be undone.” Canarram? Duh. But sex? Yes! Manon’s parents “made” her to liberate the Wastes, and what if Manon and Dorian need to “make” a child of their own to liberate the Wastes? (Not to mention that I think their magic could/will work together in the final battle.) Even if it’s not a baby they’re making, just good sex—still fit this line. LOL.

“Be the bridge, be the light.” The theory falters physically here. Symbolically we could argue that Manon is actually becoming a bridge, or IS already the bridge. But frankly every time I read this I think, “She’s gonna Yield in a ball of light (to either help seal the keys or forge the new Lock) and the sacrifice she was promised to make will her iron,” cuuuz next line….

“When iron melts, when flowers spring from fields of blood–let the land be witness, and return home.” Bummer. Manon (all witches??) is probably gonna lose their iron? And if that happens, her baby is technically NOT a witchling anymore—so what’s the point in a Manon being pregnant? There isn’t one. Theory cancelled. But let’s say it still counts, or that Crochans maybe don’t have iron = still a witch! Also, I don’t have to remind you that when Kaltain used her shadowfire Manon thought it felt like her iron was melting do I? Or that maybe kinda Kaltain Yielded?

The flowers springing from fields of blood is a dead give away to me of the Kings Bloom flower of Terrassen blooming for Aelin aka Brannon’s heir (place your bets on that cuz it’s happening! The Curse on Brannon’s heir and the Wastes are TIED TOGETHER. Cuz Rhiannon and Brannon has something going on/a plan). BUT if we want to interpret this for Manon prego plotline, then we could argue that the blood will be Manon’s birthing blood and the flowers will be the land coming back to life when she has the baby and once the rest of the witches know it’s safe to have witchlings there and that the land is fertile for them once again—they will return home.

THEREFORE,

All that coupled with the fact that Rhiannon had to die and spill her blood to cast the curse, makes it even more symbolic and JUICY for Manon to have to bleed her blood, her literal life giving blood, and do so while she is bringing life into the world. I mean I can’t write that any better. To me, it’s an author’s/artist’s wet dream. It hits on so many levels. And that’s why I can’t stop thinking about it. Of course, it’s been done, right. Maas wouldn’t be the first author/artist to use that kind of symbolism. But I don’t think it’s been done enough times that it’s tropy.

Now, IF Manon gets pregnant, I don’t think we will see her running about at 8 months pregnant. I think what will happen, is that by the time the book ends, Manon will only be a few months pregnant. Maybe not even showing…

But let’s think about how knowing his mate/the love of his life is pregnant (with all likely ingrained human pregnant woman stereotypes), will affect dear Dorian. (INSERT EVIL GRIN).

Dorian’s biggest issue is that he could not do anything while a woman he cared about (Sorscha) died. He was powerless. Then he was thrown into a collar. The traumas are tied together and inseparable. As we see him in EoS, Dorian’s thing is he doesn’t want to get attached to breakable women, and because Manon is the one who saved him, and the one he is just so damn attracted/drawn to—he tries to stay the hell away from her. But he can’t. But that’s okay, because she is a witch and is therefore less breakable than human women.

But the thing about human men is, they think pregnancy makes people weak. It’s a horrible, disgusting stereotype that pregnant women are somehow weakened and frailer than the rest of us. (It honestly makes my skin crawl when I think about it.) And to SOME degree, there are mobility issues toward the end of the pregnancy, right? It gets hard to walk around, it’s uncomfortable blah blah blah.

But all that is baggage Dorian would be unable to NOT bring into the equation when it came to knowing he got Manon pregnant. And while I think Maas would only make a pregnant Manon an even bigger badass, Dorian is going to be supportive of her kicking Valg ass, BUT he is also going to be internally freaking out sometimes. And my angst loving heart wants that so fucking badly!

BONUS ANGST: Dorian was the only reason his father could fight the Valg inside him. And we see in EoS, Dorian thinking he is somehow weaker for not being able to fight the Valg when he is in the collar. WELL….

BONUS MANORIAN HEADCANON:

SO LET’S JUST SAY Manon is finally captured by Erawan’s Bloodhounds. Dorian goes with the 13 to mount an all out assault on Morath (of course Petrah helps). But something goes wrong, and Dorian—who said he’d never beg for anything else in his entire life and ALSO never wear a collar again—gets down on his gods-damned knees and BEGS Erawan and the Matron not to hurt Manon. He, a king with raw magic, prostrates himself on the ground and begs them not to hurt her because he chose her. And if he had more time, or another way, he knows he’d choose his people. Choose to be their king. To see them through the ending of the empire and this war. But this, saving her, his queen, in the hopes that she can save them all, is the only thing he can offer his people, or her. So he does.

(Simultaneously Manon has her big CD moment of “this is what romantic love looks like/this is what it feels like when someone who is not duty bound to me loves me and determines that I am worthy enough to be saved.”)

They throw Manon to the ground, bring out a collar, and AS DORIAN FUCKING HAVILLIARD TELLS MANON THROUGH THEIR WEIRD MIND MELD THING THAT HE LOVES HER (FOR THE FIRST TIME), HE SEES HOW HER HAND SUBTLY GRAZES HER STOMACH AND HE PUTS ALL THE CLUES TOGETHER—THE ONES HE’S BEEN GATHERING FOR WEEKS AND WEEKS, AND HE REALIZES SHE’S PREGNANT.

They snap that collar on him. Everything goes black. But the Valg prince cannot take control.

It tries and tries, but Dorian finds the fight he did not know he had, the fight that his father had when he’d pushed the Valg in him to the side so that he could help Dorian, his son. And Dorian finally understands what it means to be king. To have to choose the lesser of two evils even though both mean lives will be lost, he understands what being king means, and he wants to do it. He wants to be king. To be better than his father. To tell his father’s story about a King who tried to help them all by putting his faith in his son so that he might save them all.

And Dorian realizes that his father—not the Valg inside him—made him spend all that time with Aedion even though the general hated him. Dorian realizes that it was not an accident that his father—not the Valg inside him—brought him to Oakwald that day and made him stay outside the wagon where he would no doubt meet Manon, with her Valg king’s eyes. That she might save him because there was a chance that the Matron’s heir was really Rhiannon’s and he had known that. Had taken that chance—

And so Dorian Havilliard has the strength to kill the Valg inside the collar. Unbeknownst to them all. The scene plays out. Dorian obeys as if is under control, MANON (and Abraxos if he’s there) is the only one who can see that it’s Dorian and not a Valg. They trick them all. And at the right moment, Dorian and the Thirteen and Petrah with her coven (and maybe some witch-mirrors!) blast those bitches to shit. The Matron dies, so does her coven. Probably Iskra. They really clean house. The rest of the ariel legions have to submit to Manon, and let’s be honest—she was always considerate of them (see HoF and QoS for evidence) so they WANT to follow her.

Dorian and Manon both get the final pieces of their character development puzzles put back in place. And yeah. I maybe gave Dorian’s dad more credit than he deserves, BUT you have to wonder why he did some of the strange things he did…

Moving on.

Elide Lochan Heart of Darkness

Again, this is more a HC that I haven’t fully explored. But it could maybe deal with Petrah, Manon, Iskra (yuck), and Elide teaming up to play a significant role is how this all goes down.

The Three-Faced Goddess symbol (the Eye of Elena): The big circle is the crone (represented by the Yellowlegs), the top inner circle is the Mother (represented by the Blackbeaks), and the bottom circle is the Maiden (represented by the Bluebloods). In the middle of where the Mother and Maiden symbols meet is the “heart of the Darkness within her.”

MMC wise: Petrah, Manon, Iskra would be the Maiden, Mother, Crone and Elide would be the “Heart of Darkness” within her.

But also when I read that, three things occur to me:

Do Crochans consider themselves to be the whole TFG symbol combined? Do they consider themselves to be the middle part? Maybe….?

The Heart of Darkness is obviously part of the ebony wave that comes when an “Ironteeth” witch Yields.

Maybe Elide is the Heart of Darkness because she can be all three? We see her look young, old, and middle aged. What if she is the MMC all wrapped up into one person?

We know Elide has some amount of witchblood in her, AND she is guided by a goddess who makes “death by Hellas” look like the pleasant option. What if Elide is somehow all three, or is somehow the Heart of Darkness? (If Elide is Crochan, maybe that’s the Crochan part of the symbol? Assuming they use the symbol. Rhiannon had a star crown on and so does the Blueblood matron (who probably stole it after the war).)

But also the whole Elide oracle thing and the fact that Terrasen’s great court had an oracle (Thanks to @yavannamire for reminding me of this). And let’s be honest, Elide is already kind of using oracle powers isn’t she? She can judge a crowd and determine who will give up the information she wants. She also dressed like a fortune teller for a good chunk of EoS and I believe Lorcan called her the “oracle incarnate” or the “fortuneteller incarnate” or something like that.

Now let’s back up. We know nothing of the Crochan’s (that we know of). So what if Elide is the kind of Ironteeth witch known for having oracular sight? A blueblood?

It would fit right? Bluebloods claim to have the sight. They are the “Maidens” and Elide is currently the only actual maiden we have. And then there is this:

As @yavannamire discussed in this post, “if she’s blueblood, we cannot forget what Manon thought about them: “Manon sometimes thought the Bluebloods were the deadliest of them all.”(HoF, ch. 12). And as we all know, The Lady of Wise Things is unforgiving, since the death granted by Anneith is vicious, as they say.”

So Elide could be a Blueblood. She could also still be the MMC wrapped up in one person. AKA the Heart of Darkness at the center of the symbol for the TFG. We see her dressed as Elide, a young Maiden, see her dressed as a married woman/We could argue that (so some degree) that’s her as the Mother, and I’m pretty sure at one point Lorcan sees her acting like an old lady, aka the Crone. We ALSO, see Elide running around in witch leathers and a fortune teller costume. I mean, come on. We know she’s already a witch, why not an oracle too? And if you go there, then why can’t we also argue her to be the MMC?

AND that’s all I got. Sorry the last thought it so jumbled and unfinished!