#(not just because of gaius but)

[blondie-drawings]

Good lord this tomb is full of shitposts 😳😳 pt 1/pt 2

[vaguely-concerned]

sometimes I think of all the on-the-surface warm, well-meaning but deeply ineffectual advice and attention john gives harrow through harrow the ninth (make some soup and get some sleep! get a hobby! don't be so hard on yourself! self care harrow! as long as I need take no actual responsibility in this relationship whatsoever I would have loved to be your dad!) set up against the stark truth that with his other hand he has been staging her attempted horrific murder again and again and again like a living nightmare on the logic that it will 'put her down or fix her'. and then I find that I wish there is a hell. a special hell where twitch streamers turned necromantic death emperors go

[1driedpersimmon]

Time to go home Saffron 😌

[two-crows-in-a-trenchcoat]

the fact merlin openly said I'm a sorcerer in front of uther!??! like directly to him

and lived!??!!?!

a testament to Arthur being in love with him from the start ig

[sojourner-between-worlds]

I can't get over Gaius.

*spoilers below this point*

Like.

He has so. Much. Faith. that he doesn't even go straight home. He stops in the market. And not just at one place. He buys produce. Then he buys wine. Then he buys toys for his boys. Then he goes home.

And when he gets home, he still doesn't go directly to his child. He first goes to snuff out the candles on the alters to the Roman gods.

He didn't have to see to know. He simply believed.

[theriverbeyond]

John changing his homies' names and keeping those names secret is sooooo funny to me... remember how Mercymorn considered the (post-res) Lyctors' names to be sacred and secret and was really upset that John was just throwing her name around and he basically called her a silly billy and told her to get over it. All while he had erased the whole gang's original names via purging the ability to hear, know, or understand them

[figonas]

I’m sorry but you all aren’t listening, lyctorhood itself is not the “indelible sin” and you can pry this theory from my cold dead hands, honestly, maybe not even then. TazMuir herself could not dissuade me until she explicitly tells me otherwise. My proof for this you ask? Pyrrha’s conversation with Varun in NtN chapter 9.

But let’s backtrack for a second. John has stated that the resurrection beasts are after him and the lyctors for committing the indelible sin of lyctorhood, and as such the lyctors can never return to the Dominican System for fear of drawing the RBs back to the Nine Houses. I’ve never believed this was true given the fact that John is always the greatest common denominator when it comes to the presence of an RB and there’s no mention of an RB going after a lone lyctor. Sure, lyctors have been killed fighting resurrection beasts but there’s a huge difference between being caught in the crossfire and starting a firefight. For me, Nona the Ninth only reinforced that what we’ve been told is the “indelible sin” is either John misunderstanding the RBs (doubtful) or lying for his own purposes (more likely).

In chapter 9 of NtN, Nona recounts the story of her disastrous beach trip and towards the end of this recitation Nona says that Pyrrha;

“…crossed to the taped-up window, bottle and glass in hand. To Nona’s awe, she twitched the blackout curtains aside—stood bathed in the hyper-blue light from the sky as Nona held her breath—and she said to the window, “Here’s to Camilla Hect, yet another of devotion’s casualties,” and knocked back the glass. Then she said to the light, quite gently, “No, I don’t blame you, man … He was always looking for things to throw himself on.”

Pyrrha stands in front of Nona, bathed in the light of Varun the Eater, and proceeds to have a conversation with it. We only get one side but based on the context of the last line, “No, I don’t blame you, man … He was always looking for things to throw himself on.” Varun seemingly apologizes to Pyrrha for killing G1deon. It’s proven later on in the book that Varun can speak to Nona, and while it could be argued that since G1deon is dead and his soul is gone the “indelible sin” has been undone this still begs the question; why would the punisher apologize to the sinner?

If Varun and the other RBs are hunting the lyctors to dole out justice for their sins why would they apologize for doing the very thing they sought to do unless that wasn’t their true intent. The “indelible sin” is not the consumption of another soul, it is the consumption of a specific soul. It is John taking Alecto into himself, not being able to house all of her and instead making an exchange. Housing a piece of her in him, and a piece of him in her. Splintering the soul of a great and terrible force into manageable parts. Which explains Varun’s ominous presence hanging over the planet in the first place.

If RBs are hunting Lyctors there are no lyctors on this planet. Palamedes has not consumed Camilla’s soul, G1deon is gone, Harrow is in the River, Gideon is thumbtacked to her dead body, the only soul of any significance to Varun is Nona. Later on in chapter 13 Varun, by way of Judith, says to Nona;

“…what they did to you and what they wrung from you and what shape they made you fill—we see you still—we seek you still—we murdered—we who murder—you inadvertent tool—you misused green thing—come back to us—take vengeance for us—we saw you—we see you—I see you.”

And in chapter 27,

“….what did he do to you, to make you this way.”

What did HE do to you!!! what did HE do to YOU!! To give John credit he doesn’t deserve he may not realize it himself but the RBs have been looking for Alecto this whole time. They don’t want the lyctors, they want what John stole, they want the piece of Alecto inside of him. Want to make her whole again, their misused green thing. She’s almost there. She has her piece back from harrow’s body, united with the piece of her hidden in the locked tomb. She only has 1 piece left to collect. And god knows what will happen when the green and breathing thing is whole once again.

[g1deonthefirst]

i just think the fandom wastes a lot of breath litigating the morality of wake's plan to kill the baby she impregnated herself with and what that says about her as a mother. when we should be spending more time talking about how john manufactured a situation in which wake felt like her only way to stop 10,000 years of brutal imperialism, 10,000 years of children dying or being turned into soldiers or both, was to impregnate herself and kill the baby. and we should be talking about what that says about him as a father, since he's purposefully positioned himself as god-the-father.

[direquail]

One of the many things I find funny and irritating is the slant of a lot of interpretations of Alecto's name (that it's about feminine rage)--on this here wlw internet in the year of our lord 2024, it's easily made to figure as rage against God, or rage against patriarchy, or religious oppression, and therefore an allusion to the idea that she's going to get her vengeance on John for betraying and oppressing her somehow, but like

John is the one who named her Alecto. He's the one who named her that. So, naming her "Alecto" is alluding to the embodiment of John's rage--their rage, since they are joined inseparably (John even explicitly says that when he first perceives her: "You wouldn't stop screaming. You were so scared. You were so goddamn mad").

He says of Alecto to Harrow, "In a very real way, you are [Alecto's] children". At a very surface level, Alecto is (depending on the text or tradition), one of the Furies--famously, in several surviving Greek tragedies, who punish Orestes for the crime of killing his mother. In fact, in Aeschylus' Oresteia, they declare that they are specifically bound to avenge matricide.

So the name "Alecto" alludes to the nature of John's mission and how he sees it.

It also implies that his divine rage, the rage that gives him power, the power that makes him divine, that he either represents or wants to represent, is feminine rage. He was chosen by Earth (which, Furies are sometimes the daughters of Gaia); he is her champion, however he's managed to fuck that up. Once the truth of that comes out, it becomes clear that all of his power comes from her.

And that's why you get statements from Tamsyn Muir like:

“[T]he God of the Locked Tomb IS a man; he IS the Father and the Teacher; it’s an inherently masc role played by someone who has an uneasy relationship himself to playing a Biblical patriarch. John falls back on hierarchies and roles because they’re familiar even when he’s struggling not to. Even he identifies himself as the God who became man and the man who became God. But the divine in the Locked Tomb is essentially feminine on multiple axes – I think Nona will illuminate that a little bit more."

So yes, he plays the role of Emperor and God and Teacher, with all of the things that implies. And I don't think it should be discounted. But he also is (and partly sees himself as) the chosen champion of a goddess, or what is for all intents & purposes for a human like him a goddess. He is her avenger, and while she sleeps, her avatar.

And I don't think we're meant to read him purely as a parasite who's taking advantage of her to gain power for himself, either. Or an oppressive, Kronos-like figure. Especially if you consider Palamedes' theory of the Grand Lysis, even if he was purely motivated by desire for power before (which I really doubt), there are parts of each in the other, now. What was clear and separate before is uncertain and interpenetrated. Is his rage his own, or hers? Is his mission of revenge his, or hers? If he wants power, is that his own selfishness, or her desire to survive?

And does it matter?

[1071png]

~🌄👑~

[sforzesco]

ANTONY cry 'havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war

earlier in my script (which is not Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar), Antony refers to Dolabella as one of his ‘dogs of war’ when talking to Cassius (which IS a reference to Shakespeare’s JC), and it comes back around after Cicero writes to Cassius and informs him of Trebonius’ fate

While these things were taking place at Rome, Cassius and Brutus were collecting troops and money, and Trebonius, governor of the province of Asia, was fortifying his towns for them. [...] Trebonius, who was captured in bed, told his captors to lead the way to Dolabella, saying that he was willing to follow them. One of the centurions answered him facetiously, "Go where you please, but you must leave your head behind here, for we are ordered to bring your head, not yourself." With these words the centurion immediately cut off his head, and early in the morning Dolabella ordered it to be displayed on the praetor's chair where Trebonius was accustomed to transact public business. Since Trebonius had participated in the murder of Caesar by detaining Antony in conversation at the door of the Senate-house while the others killed him, the soldiers and camp-followers fell upon the rest of his body with fury and treated it with every kind of indignity. They rolled his head from one to another in sport along the city pavements like a ball till it was completely crushed. This was the first of the murderers who received the meed of his crime, and thus vengeance overtook him.

App. Civil Wars III. 26

For Dolabella is in Syria, and, as you have foreseen in your prophetic soul and have foretold, Cassius will crush him while they are on their way. For Dolabella has had the gates of Antioch shut in his face and got a good beating in trying to storm it. Not trusting in any other city, he has betaken himself to Laodicea, on the sea-coast of Syria. There I hope he will speedily pay the penalty of his crime: for he has no place of refuge, nor will he much longer be able there to stand out against an army as large as that of Cassius. I even hope that Dolabella has by this time been overpowered and crushed.

Cic. Fam. 12.14

Place then before your eyes, O conscript fathers, that spectacle, miserable indeed, and tearful, but still indispensable to rouse your minds properly: the nocturnal attack upon the most beautiful city in Asia; the irruption of armed men into Trebonius’s house, when that unhappy man saw the swords of the robbers before he heard what was the matter; the entrance of Dolabella, raging,—his ill-omened voice, and infamous countenance,—the chains, the scourges, the rack, the armourer who was both torturer and executioner; all which they say that the unhappy Trebonius endured with great fortitude. A great praise, and in my opinion indeed the greatest of all, for it is the part of a wise man to resolve beforehand that whatever can happen to a brave man is to be endured with patience if it should happen.

Cicero, Philippic 11

Philippi and Perusia, Ronald Syme

ko-fi⭐ bsky ⭐ pixiv ⭐ pillowfort ⭐ cohost ⭐ cara.app

[mayasaura]

It's a bit funny too how carefully John avoids thinking or talking about G— in his flashbacks. When he can't avoid it entirely, he obfuscates with a joke.

What are you afraid of seeing, if you looked directly at him, John?

[fatedroses]

A radiant light that pierced through the eternal winter, though blind to the influence he held. A pendulum, who's bright kindness was inevitably made to swing into a legacy of darkness. A son. A brother. A father. A man, however extraordinary. And the beginning of Garlemald's doom.

[arttsuka]

Fishies

[elfieafterdark]

I'm just sitting here, thinking about how John lied to all of his friends. This was after letting some of them be shot and or remotely murdering others.

Then dragging their sorry asses back with erased memories. And not only that but also dragging some new people in, friends. His friends.

He was like, okay I know you guys want to be immortal too, so just hang out with me. I know how to make you immortal but I'm not going to tell you.

But his friends wanted to be immortal without needing to always be on his ass. So they started looking into it, he knew the entire time. He knew the way to achieve perfect lyctordom all along.

He knew they were doing it wrong, and he just fucking let them. He let eight out of his 16 total friends eat the other eight.

Because of... The reasons why? Because he was stupid enough to achieve perfect lyctordom with a goddamn Resurrection Beast? He convinced his friends to eat his other friends so that they didn't exist anymore.

Why?!

Is it because he's an insufferable dick head? Well yes, that's always the truth with John, I'd Fuck Barbie if She Was Real, Gaius. Life, is truly your creation John.

I just can't get over how thoroughly he screwed over 50% of his only friends. Actually he screwed over 100% of his only friends, but only 50% of them ceased to fucking exist.

But why? Why?! Why the fuck would you do that? I wonder, I was mostly writing this to meme, but I can't help but wonder. Is there an actual, pragmatic reason why he purposely misled them on the path to immortality?

Is it because, achieving perfect lyctordom would elevate them to the same level as him? Would they be a legitimate threat to him if they had done it correctly?? I wonder.

Last thought on this, I have a sneaking suspicion... Just a little hunch, a little cheeky notion lurking in the back of my head... I don't think Anastasia messed up, she was trying to achieve a more perfect lyctordom... One where the Cavalier survives. She would only allow John to witness her process.

And he claims that she messed it up, I don't think she did chat. I think he sabotaged her, I think he killed Samael not because Anastasia fucked it up, but because Anastasia was getting it right.

He destroyed Samael, and bound Anastasia to a dead hole in the ground because she knew the truth. Shit if her tongue was actually sewn shut as is implied by the fact that the Ninth skull doesn't have a jaw...

I WONDER WHY SHE WAS PREVENTED FROM SPEAKING?!?! HRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Hmmmmmmmmmm...

[cemetegee]

That's maybe a really late realisation but: Alecto complains about her middle part (between her face, her arms and her legs). Alecto is made like a Hollywood Barbie. Does she actually have, you now, private parts?