rambling thoughts on SSNS (Glass Alliance 3 by Joanna Hathaway)
(SPOILERS)
(it’s gonna get long)
okay, I read the prologue and already started crying.
I really want Cyar to survive.
“Jali Furswana says that if he dares flatten even one of her cities, she’ll kill him in his sleep with a manicured nail to the neck.“ we’re all rooting for you, Jali.
… Shadowborn? Oh, Athan.
Athan is just Done™
ARMY-NAVY-AIRFORCE! That makes for a cool scene
Kalt is officially the vainest brother.
Oh hey, they won.
Ali’s letter hurts.
"Kaziah’s aggressively watering her beloved herbs” I feel like this is the core of who she is, honestly.
BARK
SHE’S HERE
Arrin, stop being an ass and give Bark a hug.
But on the plus side, he and Athan are finally getting along!
“I’m convinced that if I can learn to paint, if I can just pat every horse I pass and learn to love them, then Ali will come back to me.” … I have nothing to say to that
Just for the record: Leannya is bi, and is therefore my favourite Dakar.
Ali in this book is really like “fuck the rich”
“A dazzling sparkler of a woman” … damn
Oh my god, these soldiers are disgusting.
“Everyone here knows what happens to local girls when left alone with the Butcher of Thurn” I want him dead
"This is what he does. He takes brave people, and he breaks them" I WANT HIM DEAD
Wow, he’s apparently a terrible father, too.
Cyar and Minah are engaged?????!!!!
Garrick and Violet are married????!!!!
Well, at least Athan's love life still sucks
god, I want to give Ali a hug.
Kalt is officially the coolest brother.
"My father...he's fading" excellent
ALI
AND
LEANNYA
!!!!!!!!!!
oh shit
oh shit
wait, this is all happening too quickly
WAIT
This is probably the most visceral, horrifying death in the entire series, and I think what hurts the most about it is just how preventable it was.
god, I'm going to miss his jokes.
“I hate crowds” same
oh god, this hurts
I love Kaziah so much
it feels like Athan has been trying to keep everything and bay and now it’s just … exploded
Athan’s grounded. oops.
Dakar is a terrible father and a military dictator responsible for countless deaths, but at least he likes dogs?
wait, no
this hurts too much
OH MY GOD
RAHELLE
wait, Merlant’s also involved???!
Their plan is from a place of privilege, but it's also well-intentioned, and it makes sense, and it's sure as hell more than what anyone else from Landore is doing.
damn, Leannya is clever
she's also just...so tired of everyone, lmao.
good god
Ali is the governess of Arrin’s son?
Mati is literally a mini-Arrin and everyone sees it and that is both absolutely hilarious and horrifically tragic
lmao, even Athan hates Windom
I'm kinda confused with Arrin and Windom's dynamic though
I adore all the Leannya content we’re getting so far
ALI AND VIOLET! ALI AND VIOLET! ALI AND VIOLET!
it’s so heartbreakingly sad that they love each other, and they always will, but they’re just so fundamentally divided in who they are and how they see the world that things just … can’t go back to the way they were before.
but they love each other! they’re still sisters!
okay, is everyone married?
Leannya just dragged Athan's ass lmao
Violet is the No. 1 Ali x Athan shipper.
Ali and Athan break my heart.
but also, props to Ali for all this deception, lol
oh fuck
Kalt
wait, no
GARRICK???!
Oh, Garrick
Arrin refusing to see Garrick but making sure his comrades are with him till the very end was … Something.
Poor Folco :(
I like how Athan and Katalin are … comfortable, if slightly distant, friends. It works, for both their parts.
Leannya is doing what we all wish we could do by trash-talking the fuck out of her father
Leannya, I LOVE YOU
I really love Ali, Kaziah and Damir sitting in their apartment and plotting away.
damn, Ali, you’re fucking brilliant
(terrifying, though)
yeah, I can see how this is gonna go down
okay, this entire conversation with Athan and Kalt was intense.
“His Wicked Majesty”
so much shit is going down, and he's actually still concerned about his stupid love life.
oops, Ali x Athan drama
OH SHIT
SHIT
SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT
WAIT, SLOW DOWN
IT WASN’T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN LIKE THIS
WHAT’S GOING ON????!
(This is just not a good day for people who's names begin with K)
… Havis???
Oh damn, I did not expect to see Seath right now.
Seath “builds and breaks, shatters and restores” I love this
“I want to know how a princess—my niece—escaped a royal trial, crossed the sea, survived for eleven months living right alongside her enemy, and now arrived with this” Ali's had a wild life
I love how the conflict so far has just been … this complete disaster of things, everything happening at once and yet nothing moving forward, barely holding itself together with new treaties and scattered positions and haphazard lines. but now, with this one decision, the war that has been looming overhead for so long is finally going to be unleashed.
at least Kalt’s in the sea
“I’ve given you everything. I’ve done everything you’ve ever asked, since I was too young to know better, and now you’ve stolen my brother. This is your own goddamn fault. You made him fight even when in a corner! And you’d better pray I don’t live long enough to see you do the same to him.” Arrin's SNAPPED
oh. my. god.
this entire conversation is making me tear up
the parallels between Ali/Athan and Arrin/Rahelle, though
honestly, this entire conversation about choices is … interesting. and very approproate.
“I want to force them to see us as we are—even if only for a moment.” and "We have the chance to alter history. To make sure they’re broken at the knees for good. We may go down burning, but we’ll take them down burning right along with us, and maybe that’s worth it.” Ali and Athan are so different, and yet they’re exactly the same.
They’ve come so far.
“Make an airplane” HOW DARE YOU
Ali is in a frozen world, surrounded by despair and death and decay … and yet a little child hands her a warm cup of tea.
can you believe I actually found Havis annoying in DotW?
no, honestly, it’s absurd to think about that now. I guess it was because he was that typical annoying, far-older suitor who Ali hated, and though I obviously found him interesting, I didn’t like him.
but all of that seems so far away now. he’s seen a lot, he knows the world, and he does care. he’s entwined with Ali’s family.
also, he's clever and crafty and fun.
“It wasn’t really peace they offered us. It was violence of another kind”
and the fact that Arrin knows how fucked up this is, but he's been fighting for so long, that he's resigned himself to it. he's tired. he's trying to survive.
but Athan, who despite everything he’s seen and everything he’s done, still hopes, is able to convince him to refuse. to take a stand.
and Arrin agrees. because they’re brothers. and because it’s what’s right.
“Arrin takes Father’s chair at the head of the table.”
OH
MY
god
THIS IS SO GOOD
THIS IS GLORIOUS
(just imagine the look on Dakar’s face)
I love this so much. All these people, so very different, who have come from so many different walks of life, but they’re all united in resistance. they’re all united under the name Nahir.
“I’ve learned not to care what anyone thinks of me” good
I would kill for Elan
wait, never mind, Ali already did
“I will kill all the monsters for you. I promise.”
OH MY GOD
IT’S CYAR!
I MISSED HIM!!!!!
Athan and Cyar both wanting each other to get the fuck out of this war and start living again.
but both of them refusing, because that wouldn’t be living, it would be surrendering
all they can do now is fight
Arrin and Leannya are both like “our brother is an idiot with zero self-preservation instincts, and we need to protect him”
aww, Arrin's crying
“And then—then he goddamn hugs me.”
OH
MY
GOD
WHAT THE FUCK???????
I can’t handle this.
I’m taking a break.
Just saying, Sapphie Erelis would be so happy right now. Because this is her legacy. Her children standing together and trying to do what’s right. Her children loving each other, wildly and unconditionally. (also her children overthrowing their father and placing him under arrest) (I think the last one would almost make her happier, honestly)
god, Ali has come so far, and I’m so sad for her, but I’m also in awe.
she’s amazing.
Seath is fascinating, and there’s something about him that’s so similar to Sinora. I don’t know what it is - maybe it’s the way they speak. their expansiveness. the sheerness of the lives they’ve lived and precision in how they continue to endure. There's something so radiant about them.
I LOVE YOU, ALI
Athan and Cyar are 20-years old and are considered old veterans.
“I’m a bastard of a captain” oh, Athan.
Also, what has Leannya been doing till now? Is she in Savient?
but also, how the heck have they managed to hold on so far? like, there’s no way their forces are any match for the combined ones of Landore, Elsandra, Resya, and the other royal nations.
still, there’s something so powerful about them going up against an entire empire to keep their fire burning.
Kif is Athan’s surrogate dad, confirmed.
naturally, Bark works as an adorable buffer between two ex-enemy Aces.
I really love all this resistance fighting. all the little things and the bigger things that they do, that all make a difference.
did I mention I would die for Elan?
“The Safire have outfoxed everyone” whoops. (so that's how they're somehow managing to win.)
Ali raging against the battle unleashing before them, and then trying to get a little lost girl to safety … that’s who she is in a nutshell.
Ex-rivals to reluctant allies to frenemies who save each other’s asses in battle.
“Prince Charming”, huh?
I ship it
Ali and Arrin do have a strange history between them, but any interaction they have is also just very funny
Ali is so damn sharp, and I love it. She gets people. She gets what her uncle was going to do, and she refused to play into it. She adapts, she survives, and she hopes, and there’s something so empowering about that.
“I know I’m just tired” LMAO (same tho)
“Am I not allowed one impossible hope in all of this?” you are, Ali. You are.
“If her soldiers dared turn back, gave up even an inch of ground, she ordered her officers to shoot them.” what … the … fuck.
yk, the way Dakar was just … brushed aside, without even a word, was so abrupt in the best way possible. I’m honestly curious to know what he thinks about all of this, though.
OH MY GOD, HE’S ALIVE
YES
YES
FUCK, YES
I missed you, Kalt!
…oh no
damnit, Arrin. Just to give my take on it though - I think this was Evertal's idea, and that Arrin knows, deep down, that he is absolutely wrong and Athan is absolutely right. I think those bullshit justifications he came up with, which he might have even convinced himself were true - this is what they need, perhaps things would be different with them - are his way of rationalizing it to himself. But he's unable to see the sheer extent of how wrong he is - how horribly, disastrously, pathetically wrong. He cares and understands on a personal level, but it's like Athan said, he's been groomed to see the world in through sheer objectivity. that's learned behaviour, it explains his thought process and is really sad, but you have no idea how much i want to fucking slap him right now.
oh shit
if they do anything to Elan, I’m gonna fucking murder them
Evertal, leave Elan alone
… oh
Arrin and Elan recognizing each other from Beraya is … something.
wait, what the hell?
those fucking idiots, lmao
“You don’t deserve to be a father” SNAP
I'd love to read a whole other novel just on Seath, and the long complicated heartbreaking tale of his life.
I'm so glad Fenn is alive. I'm so glad Ali is okay.
Arrin was doomed right from the beginning. In this life, there is no way he could have survived.
“The first wave of grief isn’t for me. It’s for Leannya.” oh my god
“But in death, couldn’t he at least be buried beside our mother? Couldn’t we all be together, somewhere, eventually?“ YOU STOP RIGHT THERE
“Maybe he really didn’t want any of this. But it doesn’t matter. He still went—we all did—and now here he is, destroyed by his own artillery. It’s both just and stupid.” that just about sums it up.
but I love how Arrin believed in Athan, till the end and beyond. He knew that he was right. Which is why i think that, had he lived, he would have listened to him. It might have been probably been a longer and messier path, but i genuinely think - or rather, I hope - that at the end of the day, he would have listened to his brother and done the right thing, because I don't think Athan would have let him do anything less. And I think Athan believed that as well - or at least wished for it - because even though Arrin was dead and gone, Athan made the right decision with his name.
I also really like how the narrative doesn’t really … define Arrin. It just gives us his story, his choices, and it lets us decide for ourselves, as history will probably decide for itself, what kind of a person he could have been, and what kind of a person he was.
at least he’s with his mother and sister now.
and I definitely want to know what their father feels about this whole thing.
… holy shit
Fenn
She's such a "give no fucks, take no orders, smash the prisons and the borders" kind of person. She is spectacular.
okay, I’m crying
THEY’RE SISTERS
“We all deserved better”
you did
god, you did
you all deserved so much more
Evertal is just. so entertained by the Dakars brothers' disastrous love lives lmao
WE’RE HERE
WE’RE AT THE PROLOGUE
Oh my god
okay, this is intense
this is INTENSE
Ali and Athan FINALLY come clean to each other, clear up their misunderstandings, and it’s … soothing, in a sense.
“Beautiful in a world of steel.” wait, I remember this. god, Athan, you’re such a romantic.
I love how … the war is raging, and Ali and Athan are there, but they’re together, under a golden sky, and they’re going to be okay.
they’re going to be okay.
... everything seems to have gone to hell again
I love Ali’s letter to Reni.
goddamn
LEANNYA
I can’t believe she actually killed him, lmao
what a legend
ATHAN GETS HIS PLANE BACK
wait
wait, no
god, I expected Cyar to die within the first few chapters, but it’s so much worse that he almost made it to the end
almost
DAMNIT, IT WASN’T SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE THIS
of course he went down defending his best friend
but god, I so desperately wanted him to live.
(edit: HE’S ALIVE! HE’S FUCKING ALIVE AND I’M SO FUCKING HAPPY AND DKJSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKS, AT LEAST ONE OF THEM GOT TO HAVE SOMETHING EVEN REMOTELY RESEMBLING A HAPPY ENDING)
Reni, you have absolutely no right to talk about pretentious royals. You’re one of them.
oh, no
Violet’s gone, too. at least she’s with her father again, and Garrick
holy shit
I knew it
I knew it
I KNEW IT WAS LEANNYA. Look at her - she's organizing councils, giving speeches, making sure all those who are lost are returned to their homes. she's amazing, and it is so damn embarrassing that a literal teenage girl is more competent than all these idiots combined.
“I think of her before the League, repeating her brother’s words, making them new. She is him. But she is also not, because she made a different choice.“ I love her
I bet people are gonna have historical debates about the Dakars someday.
and i love how this situation seems to be shaping up? because Landore might have won now, but Savient is gonna be the nation that eventually gets it right in the long run. maybe not the immediate future, where the story will be rewritten, but a century from now, in the eyes of history, i think they're going to be viewed very differently. because the values on which Savient was founded upon were always important. they grew dangerous with Dakar, but the potential is there. it's always been there. and im sure, someday, it's going to thrive.
“I want us to have mattered.” you have, Ali. I promise you, you have
what the FUCK
this is so wacked and so fucking amazing, holy shit
I guess Athan has two surrogate father-figures, now.
Athan is like “look, if I’m gonna die, can I at least have some food?”
The Isendare siblings make me sad
(Not really relevant, but i wish Ali had taken her mother and uncle's surname in this book? It would have been symbolic but would have also been a genuinely believable and logical decision based on the way she's grown over the series)
“If we’re truly looking for those guilty by association, then are you not the greatest culprit here?“ DRAG HIS ASS, ALI
I’ve waited for this for so long
honestly, I really cannot stand pro-monarchists. and I find Reni...sad, but also deeply irritating. It's a mixture of his absolute privilege, his self-righteousness, the way he pats gimself on the back for doing the literal bare minimum (honestly, barely even that), and the way he occupies a weird centrist middle-ground position in the conflict that allows him to be complicit in it while also staying removed from it while also benefiting from it.
I'm glad he's found his own path though the circle of reformers, and that he's doing what Sinora had dreamed of.
“It wasn’t good enough." / "But it was good.” SHUT UP
sorry, I refuse to believe that Athan will die.
I’m just … I'm so happy for Ali
I’m so happy that she gets to live on her own terms, that she's in the South, with the people she’s come to love. I'm so happy that she looks at flowers growing from the ruined earth, and sees herself in them.
I’m so happy that she gets to live.
I’M SO HAPPY THAT ATHAN IS OKAY
I love how this series has a prologue that shows a world that’s broken, and an epilogue that shows a world that’s finally beginning to heal.
Okay, I’m gonna go cry myself to sleep now. See y'all in therapy.
I am so fucking grateful that I read this story.
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