#Alecto the ninth theories

[notasilentk]

Currently thinking about maybe what if Harrow and Gideon's true reconciliation in AtN is triggered by Harrow stepping in to defend Kiriona Gaia the First from Alecto's wrath via the tomb longsword, but using necromantic powers to support as she holds aloft Gideon's own longsword and successfully uses it--a symbol of her not only remembering Gideon but having blended souls enough with her to have the sort of skill she lacked as a half lyctor, thus finally using a gift gideon gave her but in such a way as to also emphasis how important gideon is to her as not just a cavalier/soul battery but as a person AND TO DO SO IN A WAY WHERE GIDEON MUST RECONCILE WITH HARROW PUTTING GIDEON OVER ALECTO

(and also maybe harrow thinks about how she can't help but understand how john may have felt at one point, putting his own selfish desires over the earth though of course this is still different from the scope and horror of john's actions it does still emphasis how similar they can be)

(also i've seen the theory that it happens when Harrow grows Gideon a new heart but I also just think that maybe this precedes the 'and her heart grew three times its size' scene as the scene that convinces Gideon to let Harrow try that)

[squaresquid]

I need to actually go to work instead of sit here and write an essay on my theory that Paul will ultimately sweep in from left field, bypass the likely harrow+gideon v. Jod fight entirely, and save the day while possibly becoming the new god of the universe.

Because hey, we’ve got

- Jod, who is all powerful because he killed a tremendous number of people

- Harrow, who is extremely powerful because a tremendous number of people were killed on her behalf

And then Paul, who is result of two* people who loved each other dearly deciding to merge. And if Paul isn’t also extremely powerful, I’ll eat my hat.

I’m just saying it would be thematically satisfying, y’all.

[nonasbirthday]

I'm sure others have already said this better, but as someone who enjoys holding every TLT character up against the Christ Figure template to look at where things line up and where they don't –

Jesus is meant to have put an end to death, conquered it, brought us all into eternal life.

If ATN goes where I suspect it will go, Gideon and Harrow have been set up to reinstate the natural cycle of death, and put an end to The Resurrection.

Just think it's an interesting (possible) inversion of the Christ figure role for these two!

[ninthhousedyke]

A (very non-comprehensive) List of Things Alecto The Ninth Must Answer!

Wtf are the towers in the River, what do they do, and why did not even Pyrrha know what they were?

What is Aim, what is the message, and how does it relate to literally anything?

Can Gideon’s body be healed or is she permanently a corpse?

Does Pash have naturally red hair?

Are the soul-possessing monsters from hell and how are they traveling into Dominicus?

What was Anastasia’s favorite bone?

How has the Ninth been running while Harrow and Gideon have been gone?

Was Anastasia locked in the tomb with Alecto since her bones are guarding the rock? If not then how did her bones get there?

Did Kiriona and Ianthe fuck?

What are Ianthe’s plans?

What are Corona’s plans?

Can John be redeemed and forgiven? Can he and Blood of Eden understand one another?

Will Wake’s ghost make a comeback?

Will any ghosts make a comeback?

What’s the real series of events for the end of the world because John has contradicted when the bombs went off. Is he just not remembering or is he still trying to play the victim?

Will Pash and Gideon ever talk and realize they’re cousins?

GRIDDLEHARK?!?!

Why Sarpedon? Just why?

[2plolo]

Alecto wish list 🙏

• “lyctor? I hardly know ‘er!” - Gideon nav

• jod crying

• hot sauce/the gang

• jod on his knees crying

• Anastasia lore

• John Gauis crying and bleeding on the floor

• John Gauis begging and crying on the ground and bleeding

[over-bi-the-wayside]

Unhinged tlt theories until I get Alecto news: day 3

Somewhere in the deep archives of the Sixth is a copy of the King James Bible. Specifically that one — no one’s quite sure who King James is, but the Bible is one of the greatest novels ever written, depicting metaphors. Every child studies it to learn metaphor — they’re pretty sure that Jesus is a metaphor for the Resurrection, and the apostles are the cavaliers. Maybe Jesus is a necromancer, they aren’t sure.

Of course, when Kiriona showed up, it turned into an academic disaster, every theory they ever had about Jesus is thrown into to flux, a generation of scholars are pissed to have to redo all of their projects, and suddenly maybe Jesus is a metaphor for the intense power held by the Tower Prince. But then what does that make the apostles? The houses? The cohort? They aren’t really sure.

John finds this entire situation hilarious and sends them a file box of Jesus Rock, pamphlets from other sects, and a different Bible. This is the greatest mystery of the millennia

[ask-ciaphas-cain]

Thinking of possible endings for Alecto and John and I'm back to Evangelion again oops

For those who haven't seen the show, spoilers here! The protagonist's dad, Gendo Ikari, successfully puts his wife's soul into a giant mecha construct made of the flesh of God (it's still debated whether or not Yui merges with Eva Unit 01 deliberately to protect Shinji or not, but that's a moot point for my idea). During the End of Evangelion (more spoilers), Gendo Ikari succeeds in merging the souls of humanity into a gestalt (the Human Instrumentality Project) in order to reunite with the soul of his wife. However, his wife Yui rejects him and, in the form of the now apotheosed Eva Unit 01, eats him.

What if in Alecto the Ninth, Alecto also rejects the form John gives her, becomes her "true" Resurrection Beast form and consumes John before returning to Earth and becoming the new life force of the solar system?

[notasilentk]

Do we think Harrow will be forced into using the oath that Alecto swore her in order to stop Alecto's vengeance quest. If Harrow makes Alecto spare John in an effort to save Gideon--will Alecto actually do it? What would the rest of the cast do about that?

I don't think I've seen this said before, but it makes the most sense of anything.

John left Gideon mostly dead and with visible indications of this (the speed holes) on purpose specifically to stop Harrow (and others) from killing him. This is kind of his thing. He's miserable. He wants people to like and to understand him, but he doesn't know how to make people listen to or like him anymore without holding hostages. He's holding all of the nine houses hostage too. But he's realized they can leave if they really do want to because the entire sixth house did just that. And he can't force every member of the nine houses to be directly dependent on him by using his power to somewhat consciously keep them alive (at least not any more than he already does). But he can do that to Gideon. And Gideon is important to Harrow, and Harrow is important to the entire ninth house and to the warden of the sixth and to Pyrrha (because of Nona) and Ianthe. And if Gideon actually dies, he doesn't know what Harrow or anyone connected to her will do and neither does Harrow. The girl already did her own brain surgery because she thought it would stop Gideon from dying. So Gideon is now an insurance policy. Something tells me this will be important very quickly in Alecto.

[whimsicallywiddershins]

So we found out from Palamedes and the Unwanted Guest that lyctorhood is not perfect and leaves a mark on the necromancer. The necromancer devours the cavalier's soul, and unintentionally gains something from it, mostly emotions or new urges or something like that. Like Ianthe getting Babs' hatred/distaste of Gideon.

John devoured Alecto. For a little while, John and Alecto were one, two souls intermingling like two pieces of flesh bleeding together. Then John created her a body and poured her soul back in, unintentionally creating a perfect lyctorhood.

John didn't really know what he was doing. He was running on guesswork and instinct. So I think he and Alecto shared and gained something from eachother.

Alecto is always described as angry. Which makes sense, considering the circumstances. But when John killed and devoured the earth, he was furious. He was raging. He hated.

What if Alecto got most of her anger and hatred and rage from John? Some of it was hers, yes. But hatred? A never ending anger? What if Alecto got what John was feeling when he ate her, made her?

And John. What did he get?

The thing is, we don't know what Alecto's personality was like. She was a planet, not exactly a person with feelings.

But we do know what Resurrection Beasts are like. They are relentless. They hunt and hunt and hunt John. Angry, yes. But mostly unstoppable and stuck in a never ending cycle of hunting John no matter the cost.

John won't forgive the Trillionaires. He doesnt even seem that angry anymore. But he won't stop hunting them, not for anything. Augestine begged him to stop. John doesn't let his lyctors tell him to stop. John doesn't care how many worlds he kills, how many people he displaced. He doesn't care about the cost to the Houses. He is relentless. He hunts and hunts and hunts.

John acts like a Resurrection Beast. And Alecto acts like John.

[ourg0dsal]

I don't know... it's probably been said before. But it's the fact that Gideon was originally supposed to be of the "two hundred dead daughters and sons" that she wasn't supposed to live. She wasn't supposed to live a life intrinsically connected to Harrow's, or ever leave the ninth. She was destined to die and become one with Harrow. All just to live long enough to die and become one with Harrow.

I'm drunk so maybe in the morning this won't make any sense, but if Gideon was always going to die. Was always going to become a catalyst of Harrows power. And there is a reflection of her importance to Harrow in the power she gives Harrow. Had she died as part of the 200 she wouldn't have done anything extraordinary at all. But she lived and loved Harrow and became the catalyst for lyctorhood. A power equal in everyway to her importance to Harrow.

I'm sure someone will get the vibes.

[beguilingcorpse]

weaponry in the locked tomb is so interesting because when you break it down it's like:

guns exist in-universe but are used by the freedom fighter terrorist organization almost exclusively

swords are (were?) commonplace enough that gideon was able to find and train with a decently well-balanced two-hander on the ninth, despite the fact that the ninth has no military force or even interplanetary traffic. gideon's sword is at least 20 years old, probably older

swords are definitely still in use within the empire, at least by cavaliers, but likely within the cohort as a whole. to my memory there are no mentions of cohort members carrying military-issue guns

even though they're trained in a variety of weapons and techniques, cavaliers (are supposed to) carry exclusively rapiers. gideon prefers her two-hander and cam carries twin shortswords, but these seem to be rare and shocking exceptions to the standard.

rapiers are used by cavaliers explicitly for the purpose of lyctorhood. they're light enough that a scrawny necromancer without swordfighting experience can pick it up and rely on their cav's training without needing to build the muscle to wield the sword effectively

because of the secretive nature of the megatheorem, and lyctorhood as a whole, most people just follow the rapier rule because it's tradition. it is what is done. harrow makes this pretty clear at the beginning of gtn

cavaliers can carry a variety of offhand weapons. it seems like the full spectrum of middle age weaponry is possible - but still, no guns. not even secretly, as with cam's dual blades. some cavs choose to carry material for their necromancers as their offhand - ortus carries a bowl of bones for harrow, and i can only assume "the powder" mentioned as harrow's choice for gideon's offhand towards the beginning of gtn is some kind of bone dust

from a doylist perspective, all of this creates a aesthetic that starts very analog and gothic and gradually grows into a more standard sci-fi space opera through the series. by ntn, we've hit most of the established genre weaponry tropes that we've come to expect from older futuristic space media like star wars and alien. blasters and guns are standard fare, and it makes sense to hold off on introducing them until the scope of the story gets broader and more interplanetary

from a watsonian perspective, it's a little more difficult to draw concrete conclusions without the context that atn will inevitably provide. but if i had to hedge a guess, i'd say that, as with most things, It's All John Gaius's Fault. when he resurrected the galaxy i'd assume that he wanted to keep the aesthetics of medieval imperialism, and given his 21st century liberalism probably didn't want guns to be part of the equation. but they were anyways - we know this because wake carries a big one - and instead of standardizing firearms within his military and for his lyctors, he clings to the aesthetics of swordplay. please correct me if i'm remembering it wrong, but to my knowledge every gun shown in the series is either directly linked to boe or implied to be sourced from them. jod dooms his own lyctors and military by refusing to update their weaponry.

all of this poses a lot of questions about atn: who will carry a gun, and why? where did the gun come from? why DON'T the lyctors just use firearms? and most importantly: will they be fighting zombies with swords???

[noodlethefirst]

*puts on tinfoil hat*

Next time we will get it right? Like Jod is thinking as he resurrects humanity, this time we can fix it? Is jod gonna kill everyone and try again???.?

You told me, Sleep, I’ll wake you in the morning.

I asked, What is morning? and you said,

When everyone who fucked with me is dead.

When everyone we loved has gone or fled,

That’s morning. Empty’s the same as clean.

Let’s put this first-draft dream of mine to bed.

In that appointed hour

I’ll turn down your sheets. I’ll kill the light,

Lie down beside you; die; and sleep the night.

This time will be the time we get it right:

Forgiveness not so hard, nor anger long;

Our graves will be less deep, our lies less true.

You held aloft the sword

I still love y

[chilly-weirdo-in-a-tomb]

Harrow, at some point in AtN:

[cicadascribbles]

Wait hang on you guys, you know when Nona dies in Ntn how her body and organs split at the seams and her skin kinda starts to slough away? That’s like strikingly similar to what happens to people with acute radiation poisoning i.e. nuclear weapons. Irradiated soul Alecto causing Harrow’s body to fall apart?

[2plolo]

I feel like in Alecto the ninth necromancy will just get even fucking nastier and horrifying