#Melisande Shahrizai

[zareleonis]

"Kushiel's Dart II," acrylic & colored pencil, 10.75x15", 2016 by Tran Nguyen

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

melisande shahrizai if you read this I’m free on thursday night and would like to hang out. please respond to this and then hang out with me on thursday night when I’m free

[vifetoile]

Melisande Shahrizai, Phedre no Delauney, and the angel Kushiel

An illustration for Kushiel's Dart. It's super sketchy but I really like it. I might develop it more.

[nanshe-of-nina]

Kushiel's Legacy GIF sets || Melisande Shahrizai

To describe Melisande Shahrizai is, as the poets say, to paint a nightingale’s song; it is a thing which cannot be done. She was three-and-twenty years of age at that time, though time never seemed to touch her, either way it flowed. If I say her skin was like alabaster, her hair a black so true it gleamed blue where the light touched it and her eyes a sapphire that gemstones might envy, I speak only the truth; but she was a D’Angeline, and this only hints at the beginning of beauty. “Melisande,” Delaunay said, pride and amusement in his voice. “This is Phèdre.” As I am D’Angeline and Night Court-born, you may be sure, I am not easily awed by beauty; but I am what I am, and there are other things that awe me. The Shahrizai are an ancient house of courtiers, and many, knowing little of the nomenclature of Terre d’Ange, suppose they are of Shemhazai’s lineage. It is not so. The namesakes among the descendants of Elua’s Companions are intertwined in such a way that only a D’Angeline scholar can comprehend them. I, who had studied such things, had no need of history to tell me House Shahrizai’s lineage. When I glanced up politely to meet the blue eyes of Melisande Shahrizai, her look went through me like a spear, my knees turned to water, and I knew that she was a scion of Kushiel.

[hussyknee]

There's something about Kushiel's Mercy that doesn't feel like an Imriel book. It feels like he's regressed somehow. The mass brainwashing spell in the first hundred pages smack dab in Terre D'Ange feels jarring. The magic in the other books is much more arcane and exotic, both plausible and implausible because it doesn't happen in Terre D'Ange, where it's all about court intrigue.

And I still don't care about Sidonie. Like I'm glad Imriel's finally happy but I don't feel this grand love of theirs. It feels like telling instead of showing. She's almost a cardboard cutout of a Strong Female Character for the sake of plot, which is strange because all the other women are so three dimensional.

Otoh, Melisande shines like a jewel in this one scene. I hated her throughout (SHE GOT ANAFIEL AND ALCOUIN KILLED DIEEEEE) up until she said in her letters that she had loved Imriel beyond reason and counted all his tiny fingers and toes and wouldn't let anyone feed him but her. It was the first human glimpse of what had until then been a completely awful, cruel, cold-blooded woman. And now in this book—her grief and helplessness at what had happened to Imriel, finally realising all the pain she had caused and the weight of her crimes, accepting that her son owes her nothing and he deserves to hate her— it's really sad and touching. This is the scene that finally makes her a remarkable character for me because, while evil does nothing for me, repentance is something I live for.

And I mean repentance instead of redemption, because some characters can't be redeemed in a narrative without diluting the tragedy of their victims. Redemption demands the shifting of focus from the pain of the victims to the guilt of the perpetrator. It's that choice that holds up a mirror to the real world— who we find worthy of forgiveness, why we want them redeemed and why we make the choice to let the reality of the victims become background for the villain's interiority. It's the difference between villain apologia and villain appreciation. At this point, Melisande's repentance enhances her character as a villain while not losing focus of its cost. I really hope the rest of the book doesn't muck it up.

[poorshadowspaintedqueens]

Ten First Lines

In honour of having reached a Tumblr milestone of 5000 likes (or so I hear), I’m swiping this from @doctornerdington.

Rules: share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. If you have written less than ten, don’t be shy and share anyway.

1. The news from Harrenhal arrived the day after they came to Dragonstone. (The heart is an organ of fire)

2. Alicent Hightower did not believe in ghosts. (The very witching time of night)

3. Harwin found his father slumped over his desk in the Tower of the Hand. (This Palpable Device)

4. Rhaenyra would always remember her fourth name-day. (Dragon’s Heart Wrapt in Woman’s Hide)

5. My Dear Alana--I write to inform you of my safe arrival in Lithuania. (Denn die Tödten reiten schnell)

6. Five minutes after Anafiel Delaunay crossed the threshold of Valerian House, Melisande Shahrizai knew. (Poisons Fair and Foul)

7. Within the great red walls, the dead outnumber the living. (The (several) lives of Balerion the Cat)

8. You could say I killed my first man at the age of nine. (The earth that’s nature’s mother is her tomb)

9. Genna knew where she would find her brother after the feast. (The Lioness Still Has Claws)

10. They said her mother was the most beautiful woman in the known world, a vision with silver-gilt hair and eyes blue as the Summer Sea. (Erring Star)

[floatsonabigballoon28]

Turns out it was Cassiel's protection from bare embarrassment as my friend slumbered next to me that night.

--

The way I cried out untouched when Melisande cut her skin a thousand times.

My Kindle cutting out just when Melisande comes to ask Kushiel's Chosen if she's free on the Longest Night

Homophobic really

[nightmarefuele]

muse directory.

repression is a huge theme on this blog. smut happens (usually in body horror font), but don't expect it.

current primaries:

Qimir | The Stranger ; manny jacinto ; might feature a knight verse in addition to some canon Sofia Falcone ; cristin milioti ; i'm so in love with this crazy bitch

Dune, Star Wars, general gritty sci-fi;

na-Baron Feyd-Rautha ; austin butler ; draws 98% from the '24 film. Verosha Aniseya ; amandla stenberg Ren (of 'the' Ren) ; adam driver ; a heavily divergent/'oc-ified', post(usually)-snoke, visceral horror, gritty lean from star wars' kylo ren. Shin Hati ; ivanna sakhno ; ahsoka. Kylo Ren ; adam driver ; as close to kylo 'canon' as i'm capable of writing, but solely draws from tfa characterization. Mae-ho Aniseya ; amandla stenberg Paul-Muad'Dib Atreides ; timothee chalamet ; leans on the book(+ messiah) from time to time. Lady Margot Fenring ; léa seydoux. Officer KD6-3.7 ; ryan gosling ; blade runner 2049 . Ezra ; pedro pascal ; prospect (2018). Cee ; sophie thatcher ; prospect (2018).

Interview with the Vampire;

Armand ; assad zaman Santiago ; ben daniels

HotD;

Melisande Shahrizai ; oc-ified character lifted from the kushiel's series; testing ; some amalgamized version of saffron vadher with myriem boukadida's vogue covers Aegon II Targaryen ; tom glynn-carney Alicent Hightower ; olivia cooke Aemond Targaryen ; ewan mitchell Rhaena Targaryen ; phoebe campbell Mysaria ; sonoya mizuno Helaena Targaryen ; hunter schafer (slightly different interpretation), phia sabban Oscar Tully ; archie barnes

villains, antiheroes;

John Constantine ; keanu reeves Loki Laufeyson ; tom hiddleston ; fuck u i don't consider post-tdw canon. ciao Jonathan Crane ; cillian murphy ; selective muse, likely won't be writing him within gotham just for the sake of gotham. want to explore him thru different subjects and lenses.

bleak, flexible, modern;

Lisa Nova ; rosa salazar ; brand new cherry flavor.Code ; manny jacinto ; brand new cherry flavor. Elliot Alderson ; rami malek ; mr. robot. Phillip Price ; michael cristofer ; mr. robot. Leon ; joey bada$$ ; mr. robot. Lisbeth Salander ; rooney mara ; the girl with the dragon tattoo (2011) . Berry Rydell ; young josh hartnett ; freelance private security officer from william gibson's virtual light trilogy, based in retrofuturist nocal and socal. just a guy doing his own thing and getting caught up, routinely, somehow, in the national (but very top-secret) dickfight over some expensive glasses. + virtual reality, or whatever. Control (John Rodriguez) ; bob morley ; based on authority by jeff vandermeer, and annihilation, book and film, exploring hypnosis/mind control and consequent distrust, or outright paranoia. operates at the branch-end of a highly bureaucratic and mysterious organization. eventually ends up at Southern Reach, "...a secret agency that manages expeditions into a place known as Area X, an uninhabited and abandoned coastal area of an unnamed country which nature is gradually reclaiming." 'nature', in this context, being a cute/tame word. refers to his guns as 'gramps', 'grandpa', 'grandpap', etc. 6" tall, impassive. Tangerine ; aaron taylor-johnson ; bullet train . Kid ; dev patel ; monkey man. Benny Cross ; austin butler ; the bikeriders ; characters like these are cute. i basically get to make them ocs.

apocalypse;

Joel Miller ; pedro pascal Imperator Furiosa ; anya taylor-joy. (alyla browne.) Dr. Dementus ; chris hemsworth. Max Rockatansky ; tom hardy

aus are fun. hit me with em or forever hold your peace.

ocs, always subject to adapt and update on a thread-to-thread basis;

Oeznik Ambroicz ; cillian murphy ; loosely based on a character from an original script. flexible iterations. director of an institute/facility (sometimes agency, depending on setting and historical values) that focuses on exploring the residual elements that paranormal trauma leaves behind. these elements can be purely psychological, physical, combined, or, sometimes, paranormal themselves. in other iterations, to draw further on lovecraftian or cthulhu mythos elements, oeznik may lean more private investigator, or 'freelance', for his own mysterious and often unexplained purposes. focused and preoccupied when fixed securely inside his element; wary and suspicious when not. Nadya ; sara serraiocco, sara montpetit ; lab experiment turned a) runaway, b) interdimensional spy/assassin, c) something something time shenanigans. or simple modern ones. who the fuck knows. Dorian Yu ; christian yu ; tba. loosely based on christian yu's musical creations. relies either on psychological themes (wherein dorian is bipolar), for stories more grounded in realism, or the supernatural. heavily flexible, works into most (if not all) modern environments. can be taken a vaguely sci-fi or heavily cyberpunk route. (he's fun. smiley ball of energy and sunshine, or depressive and vaguely antagonistic shut-in.) prone to delusions, dissociation, and in severe instances, amnesia. Fifine ; anya taylor-joy ; random modern verse shenanigans. (the) Insomnium ; tbd. ; developed and hatched by a cult of space witches moreso than born. derived from an organically inorganic (or just inexplicable) substance. for tumblr purposes, blends the idea of dune's 'voice'. cult functions similarly on some levels to the b.g., but is entirely an unknown. stems from the same gritty, visceral horror environment and themes as the ren. (especially picky about where i throw this one.) space cultists tba.

[frogges-enlightenment]

Melisande Shahrizai de la Courcel could crush me into a fine powder and gently sprinkle me atop the foam of a soy latte and that would be neat

[lightsaroundyourvanity]

the thing about melisande shahrizai is that at the end of the day she does kind of win and that wins my heart

[zareleonis]

Details of "Kushiel's Dart II," acrylic & colored pencil, 10.75x15", 2016 by Tran Nguyen

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

[vifetoile]

in related news, I kind of want to draw Phedre no Delaunay and Melisande Shahrizai as a duelist and the Rose Bride, except... I'm not sure who would be which.

[nanshe-of-nina]

Kushiel’s Legacy GIF sets || Suriah

“I do my best.” Jareth smiled gently. “You remember Suriah? She is my Second now.” …  At the far end of the hall, a table was set on a dais for Prince Baudoin and a select few. Suriah was there; the Prince was feeding her tidbits by hand. Melisande Shahrizai looked amused. “She was the Winter Queen.” “It gave her a lot of status.” Jareth's voice changed, turning pragmatic, adept to adept. “People still tell the story every Midwinter, I'd have been a fool to choose anyone else.”  He had never been a fool. “No,” I said, agreeing. “You made the right choice.” Even from a distance, I could see that her pallid beauty had already peaked, and there was no evidence in her of the unexpected steel that lay beneath the delicate veneer of the few rare adepts who survived the loss of youth's tender bloom. I did not think Suriah would live to make Dowayne, and I felt sorry for her. “She was always kind to me.”

[malkaleh]

Aloe vera, palm tree!

palm tree ⇢ do you have a fictional villain you shouldn’t like but love regardless? Listen Melisande Shahrizai has committed like at least eleven different kinds of treason before breakfast, caused genuinely horrible shit to happen to the protagonist and her loved ones. But also she’s a competent as hell hot woman (see I don’t actually think she would have been a bad ruler). Also I am so so here for the villain who genuinely loves three (3) people (in this case it’s her son (and her grandchildren), the main character and the main characters mentor figure) and really really genuinely does not want anything to happen to those people and is Extremely Angry when it does. (She absolutely did not intend the horrible things to happen to the protagonist).

Aloe vera is answered <3.

[firstsentence]

"For all that she desires it—there was no doubt, in the end, that Melisande Shahrizai had conspired with the Skaldi warlord Waldemar Selig to overthrow the throne of Terre d'Ange—I couldn't bear to watch." 🍵