#And Sophos!!!

[exercise-of-trust]

not pictured: the annux of the little peninsula making such a spectacle of himself offscreen that no one is paying any attention to his cousin who is eddis and his bestie who is sounis saying all kinds of undiplomatic things about him in the corner

[vegetable-soup-wizard]

Since I can’t help myself-

The Queens Thief books as John Mulaney quotes:

The thief

The Queen of Attolia

The King of Attolia

A Conspiracy of Kings

Thick as Thieves

Return of the Thief

[saessenach]

a path, but not a plan

Sophos and Irene in A Conspiracy of Kings, a gift illustration I made for @alecjmarsh as part of the @hamiathesgiftexchange

[thecrenellations]

Oh, you married the older sister (?) of the friend/crush you connected with on a dangerous adventure as a teenager? She has some gender stuff going on and was pretty much the only person who could get through to him when he was extremely ill after one of the most traumatic experiences of his life? On a scale of Jerott Blyth to Sounis Sophos, how well did it go?

[lilaccatholic]

I am once again thinking about the reluctant ruler whose arc justly and correctly includes assuming the throne and taking responsibility for the people set before them

[mothsartart]

finally drawing again, so here’s this weird piece

[tealfoxarts]

*grandma voice* Prince Farron? Oh yes, such a handsome young man. And so kind! That headstrong brother of his could learn a thing or two from his example. He's got a bright future ahead of him—just you watch and see.

Still versions under the cut:

[shrimpchipsss]

gold light shining

[daisywords]

I just. probably the reason I love Sophos Queensthief so much is because he and I are both the kind of people who were made to stay at home and learn things and love people with your whole heart and that's it. but then he has to go be brave and take on responsibilities and be a little undignified about it and so so scared and then choose to do the harder thing anyway even when there's an easier option. And then even when he gets help and people supporting him, it's not like the problems are taken away! He still has to be the adult! He still has to be in charge! He still has to make the hard choices! and if Sophos can be king of Sounis then maybe I can. idk. work a 9-5 or something

[hemipenal-system]

Trick or treat!

*hands you one Tongue-Related Brainfuckery*

[atropinenightshade]

Sophos for the roast prompt?

*cracks knuckles*

(Disclaimer: Some swearing/nasty language.)

Sophos you are a whiny little asshole I swear you are the little sucker that has an annoying ass laugh. I cannot stand you, you have the personality of a kindergarten bully. Your head is so full of air you have nothing else to talk about than what Timmy did or what Sally said. I'm sure you're such a loser that you think shoplifting is cool. You are flunking your school tests, I bet. You are so pathetic and you can't listen to Mommy. No wonder why she's sick of you. Your dad probably stopped watching over you from heaven after a few years during your childhood.

Even your uncle probably thinks you're a brat and that's why he's terrified of babysitting you. Even if I was paid to take care of you, I wouldn't. Your crying and screaming would make my ears bleed.

[super-bold]

[artino-c]

Thinking again about the way MWT depicts slave naming conventions in CoK and TaT by giving us contradictory, neither-is-quite-accurate hot takes from the two different narrators:

Conspiracy of Kings:

"So, man-killer," he asked. "Do you have a name?" I thought before I answered. Wisdom is not a name for a slave. Stone, Mark, Faithful, Strong are slave names. I had a nurse once who named her son Shovel. She was a foreigner, from somewhere far north, and she told me that she liked the way it sounded.

Thick as Thieves:

"Not Immakuk," he said. "Godekker." Godekker--it's a decorative cord that fastens a scroll closed. No one, no matter how lowborn, would name a child after something so trivial. His master must have given him the name using the first word that popped into his head. I wondered that Godekker didn't change it now that he was a free man.

I love the way these two passages undermine and reinforce each other, both as a matter of worldbuilding (both Sophos' and Kamet's accounts are rooted in historical, real world practice) and as a way to underscore the limitations of both narrators' understanding of other people's experiences. In remembering his enslaved nurse, Sophos doesn't really acknowledge the dehumanization inherent in his first statement (some names are inappropriate/forbidden to slaves), or check any of his assumptions about how those rules ("wisdom is not a name for a slave") might have interacted with his nurse's apparent choice of name for her child. On the flip side, Kamet is so invested in pitying/patronizing Godekker the escaped field slave that it doesn't even occur to him that perhaps Godekker also knew his mother or could have been named by her.

It's also a great way to introduce Godekker, who functions in the story as an antagonist but is also textually correct about a lot of things (Kamet acknowledges this even as he isn't happy about it), and who constantly resists Kamet's attempts to impose his own terms on all their interactions. Anyone who reads the books back to back and remembers that first passage would know to immediately question Kamet's first assumptions about Godekker!

[lilaccatholic]

To be fair to the Magus in The Thief, a perilous road trip with three teenagers who can't stop fighting would drive me to threaten violence, too

[deadmomjokes]

Took a hot minute (switching brain meds no fun can we get an oof in the chat), but I'm BACK with the memes, this time for A Conspiracy of Kings!

Unfortunately, this is the book where my child started asking us to read sections aloud (we avoided the murdery parts), and Hakakatoes and Akrekeysmashnesh can go kick rocks

But anyway. Let me take you through a bit of my process when I started this book.

"Oh boy, my favorite side character from the first book is back! I wonder what he'll get up to!"

Trauma is what. Should have known.

Baby boy needs some therapy and a course on self esteem my gosh.

He's too cinnamon roll for this awful political hellscape he got dumped into. But when it comes down to it...

Bunny Boy came in clutch and it was glorious.

(Me too, Gen.)

As if he didn't feel guilty enough already. Give! My! Child! A! Break!

And a couple extras of two of my favorite moments between the kings.

Anyhoo, overall not my favorite book in the series so far (which pains me to say because Sophos is My Darling Child Whom I Love Very Much), but still an excellent read!

[vioqueenofmushrooms]

Sophos in a conspiracy of kings is truly just like. WWGD (What would Gen do)?

He is always going "I thought about what Eugenides would do here" or "I did this thing as Eugenides would". His acting skills consist of emulate Gen

Tbf I too think what would Gen do sometimes