#And indirectly (because of the context) shitting on other beloved characters

[wtfwhy]

Just saw an annoying take about a character I like 10 dead 15 traumatized

[herrikhan]

hey hi i need to do a giant meta on cha boy

first some clarification/context:

“Forever” is the land of “the Immortals” in the book and it’s basically like. heaven. where all the cool people who did awesome things go. saints, great scientists, righteous rules, etc., all those types of people end up in Forever as Immortals.

The Universe exists as like. an entity. in and of itself. it’s basically god in this whole knockoff christianity thing. it creates things and occasionally speaks to them, but the vast majority of the time it’s just the ocean all the fish live in so to speak; it will set people on paths and vaguely influence the tide of humanity to keep things ~in balance~ but it NEVER directly interferes if it can help it. however, it did directly interfere in herrikhan’s case, because he tried to declare himself the one true god and The Universe was like “yeah no you need to stop”

OKAY SO................. herrikhan was a star originally, like a literal star in the sky, but he really wanted to just go chill on earth i guess, and since he was one of The Universe’s most favorite and beloved... creations? beings? (which is a direct rip-off of the whole satan and god thing i know I KNOW bear with me it will get less blatantly christian as we go on) The Universe was like “sure thing lil dude, just bring another star with you for the buddy system, text us when you get there okay” and thus herrikhan and his pal sofya both went to earth. don’t ask me when this was because it was a VERY long time ago, like, pre-christianity a long time ago

if i may be so bold....... CHRISTIANITY was the one who ripped off HERRIKHAN........ and this is probably the only place i’m ever going to say that because i’m just here to have fun not to be That Atheist

herrikhan and sofya both had magic powers obviously and they both sought to build those powers but !!! and this is very important !!! herrikhan sought power through action while sofya sought power through knowledge. herrikhan became a conqueror and tyrant who used his magic to suppress people; sofya became an advisor and wise woman who used her magic to see all sides and outcomes of a situation and offer the best solution for all parties.

sofya in the book is kind of like an oracle: she can see all of time, and thus she can offer guidance or warnings, but she can’t see it clearly enough to change the future drastically. she knows what the basic outcome will be but not how that outcome will happen, and because of this, she can make mistakes/misjudgements. (this was the case with holly and herrikhan but i’ll talk about that later.)

herrikhan............. took over the world............. or at least a lot of it............ and he was a really shitty king but nobody could stop him because he’s the most powerful warlock in the universe at that point and nobody could even come close to rivaling him............ except for........... you guessed it............ sofya herself

so at that point sofya goes to The Universe like “hey so my best bro is a piece of shit now and i know he’s going to do something that absolutely warrants him being straight up destroyed from existence soon, but he’s still my best bro, and i can’t let any harm come to him, so maybe just imprison him forever in a really sucky place and only let him out when he’s proven that he can use his powers for good?” and The Universe was like “yeah okay” and then of course herrikhan tried to declare himself The Only Real God In The Whole Universe and The Universe was like bitch you fuckin thought

after that he gets stripped of many (not all) of his powers (it’s so much harder for The Universe to un-make something than it is to make something) and sent to odyl, which is basically hades/hell, it’s an underground prison that’s really hot because it’s close to the earth’s core and it’s just absolutely fucking miserable. it’s unclear in the book whether or not herrikhan was the first being to be sent to odyl, or just one of many, or if he was the only one? it says that he made himself the king and he has a gross little underling named beyschlag, but idk if that means that he like. killed everyone else or there was just nobody around to stop him or if there were others they just didn’t care. i personally like to think that he killed everyone else because it fits v nicely into my whole thing about him being Necessary Evil but i’m getting ahead of myself

pre-odyl herrikhan was very much like... a beautiful wizard. he could do amazing things. he was evil yeah but as much as he was feared and hated he was also loved and worshiped because he could show people wondrous things, he could perform god-like feats, he really was the personification of like, divinity as something that is simultaneously too beautiful and terrible for humans to comprehend. he wasn’t a gross boy yet. he ends up becoming a gross boy because that’s basically what odyl reduced him to and he just embraced it wholeheartedly

he can technically leave odyl and use magic outside of it, but it takes a tremendous amount of energy, and he must return each night to sleep in odyl

dark clouds and foul air signal his approach so he can’t take anyone by surprise anymore

he has a metal band literally screwed into his skull by The Universe so that he always has that band around his head and it’s basically his magical handcuffs; it dampens his powers and signals to everyone that he is a prisoner

he will be released if he can possess a heart of pure compassion, ie, if he learns to be good or is able to earn the love of someone who is good

now, The Immortals knew about herrikhan before he did all this and as he was doing it; some of them are able to see/go into the mortal world, and many of them had even met him at one point or another. so it’s like, Real Big Fuckin News when herrikhan gets sent to odyl. and his presence sticks around with The Immortals even after he’s in prison because

he can still visit them!!!!!! he can send curses their way, or send them dreams, or plagues, or whatever else he can possibly dream up to indirectly influence them. because of this he becomes a boogeyman figure among Immortals, and a lot of the magical creatures/fair folk/Immortals who didn’t start out as earthly beings tell their kids scary stories about him.

because of this he becomes known as the prince of nightmares and/or the prince of dreams

side note: at this point sofya has gone to Forever and lives there just chillin with all the other Immortals and she kind of becomes like... an athena-type figure, who protects mortals by giving them wisdom and guiding them onto the right path, as penance for not stopping herrikhan. she eventually becomes the advisor to the king of Forever, st. nicholas, aka santa claus, and later on, he and his wife make sofya the godmother of their daughter holly

now holly is very much. hm. like. a persephone type character. but also not? her whole deal is that she’s basically like, unconditional love personified. she was an immaculate birth given to nick and his wife by The Universe because some little kid was like “but santa what do YOU want for christmas” and nick was like fuck man i really want a kid but those pipes don’t work up here in Forever!!! and because of that there’s a whole big theme of holly being like, So Pure, So Loving, So Good

which is, of course, why herrikhan heard about holly’s birth and the first thing he did was devise a scheme to use her heart as his way out of odyl

he removes HIS OWN HEART and puts it in holly’s chest in order to freeze HER heart and keep it baby-pure forever, and by doing so he curses her to always be frozen (ie her default body temperature is super cold and she will overheat and die at normal human temperatures) and his logic is that the curse’s consequences will make her so sad and lonely and fed up that eventually she’ll just come to him like HERE TAKE MY STUPID HEART I DON’T WANT IT ANYMORE

he didn’t expect using his own heart to cause any side effects. well it fucking did because he later fell in love with her like a god damn idiot

this is the point where both holly and herrikhan’s fates are both sealed in complementary roles-- holly will be his ticket out of odyl, because they will fall in love, but at the same time, she won’t be with him if he’s still evil, so he has to at least try to be a good person for her to confess that she loves him and get him out

a bunch of stuff happens, holly grows up, she realizes that she’s the only person who was ever born into Immortality and resolves to do something about it by the time she’s an adult, and so on her 21st (i think in the book it’s 18 but that’s........... no) birthday she sneaks away to the mortal world and that’s where herrikhan goes after her to try and steal her heart

before holly leaves sofya says something cryptic to her about like. she’ll lose her heart there or something idk but sofya clearly interprets it as “herrikhan will find you and kill you” when in reality what ends up happening is “holly fulfills an age-old prophecy by getting a boyfriend”

ANYWAY

now’s the part where i can scream about herrikhan being Necessary Evil lmao

there’s a string going throughout the book where he sends holly dreams of odyl and like an enchanted telescope that lets her look into the mortal world and stuff and imo it’s meant to be like, ~oh he’s tempting her the way satan tempts people~............ but there’s also a scene where he just shows up in Forever and wreaks havoc for 10 seconds before disappearing (just to prove he can i guess??? idk) and it’s almost an exact description of the whole “the ground opened up and hades rose up and everyone was screaming and he stole persephone away” myth aspect so you can bet your sweet ass i’m keeping that and using it as evidence that They Should Have Gotten Together

like.... he’s evil. he doesn’t have a reason for being evil other than he just can. it’s not like he doesn’t know better, because he does. he just likes being evil and powerful and above everyone else. he never feels remorse for the things that he did, even after he meets holly. he doesn’t get saved or redeemed by holly loving him; he gets a new role among the powers that be, and that role just happens to be a true neutral one instead of a neutral evil one. it’s very much a reflection of the idea that hades didn’t just take persephone because he wanted her, but that there was a very specific plan by the gods for them to be together, and that both of them kind of Knew they were Meant For Each Other.

he regains his full powers, he loses the band around his forehead and it becomes his wedding ring instead, he isn’t really allowed in Forever but he makes his own home in the mortal world and probably remakes odyl to be a home as well. he goes from being the boogeyman to being a sort of instinctive fear-- he no longer haunts people’s dreams; he compels a woman to stay out of a dark alley, he compels a child not to play near a fast-moving stream. he becomes Necessary Evil in the sense that he’s still technically Evil but his deeds ultimately serve Good.

holly, in turn, earns her place as an Immortal by getting him out of odyl and changing his role. she becomes his wife and his keeper and it’s an equal dynamic between them, it’s a relationship built on mutual respect. they both know that the only reason he got out of odyl is because she said “i may love you but i will only be with you you if you do good” and he went and did good, and if at any point he stops doing good, she’ll leave him and The Universe will un-make him.

anyway this is so fucking long and i’m all in my feelings about a kids’ book discount bible story so i’m gonna stop here before i just start going in circles lmao