#Sure his relationship with his dad was complex in a different way from ronan

[swiftiebookwormlogastellus]

"I liked Declan in The Dreamer Trilogy because he finally got his redemption arc"

Redemption from WHAT

[roganhighlander]

IN CHARACTER

Name: Rogan Highlander

Faceclaim: Gabriel Macht

Gender & Pronouns: Male. He/Him

Age: Forty Five

Occupation: Owner of Highlander & Sons Auto Shop

Neighborhood: Summit Lake

BIOGRAPHY

TRIGGERS: military, depression, crime, abandonment, single parenting.

The beginning of Rogan’s life was practically perfect, a happy boy with a cheeky smile plastered across his lips. Often called on in school for being bright, well-mannered and smart; he was off to a great start the moment he walked into the world with a family whom loved him and adored the ground he walked on. Rogan excelled in all aspects of school, girls never really bothering him as he hadn’t really grown into his looks. He was just seen as the comedian, someone people wanted to be best friends with but never wanted too date.  

But it wasn’t until he was old enough, the mere age of 15 that his family revealed to him the life they actually led. Rogan Highlander was brought up in the life of crime, a family of mobsters and drug dealer. But as a young teen he never really thought too much into it, not wanting to be forced to see his family any differently than he already did; perfect.

His father, Grady was a gangster, living a double life as Ronan imagined. Wanting him to learn so that one day he could take over the family business of the Auto Shop, Highlander & Sons eventually. Rogan had always wanted that, a quiet life working under his dad until it was time for him to take over the business.

Underneath that he had a desire to play music, often tucked away in his room strumming his guitar and writing music. Rogan knew his father would never agree with his love for music, so instead of pursing his real dream Ronan placed it on the back burner never wanting to disappoint his family. All he wanted was to be the perfect son and be happy.

As Rogan hit his older teen years many things in his life changed, the young boy who had been naïve to what his family were involved with changed. His first love went by the name of Lettie, a small blonde who threw him through a hurricane of emotions, like all first loves it ended in heart break for him and after that it changed his perception and women, not wanting to settle down or be tied to anyone.

After that Rogan became part of the very thing he’d once tried to ignore, joining his father and taking part in things he’d never expected he’d allow himself to be. After his father had got Rogan to really immerse himself in the life style, his son began to fall in to the lifestyle without much regard to his previous dreams. A need for thrill only grew as his age did, and something inside the boy changed him into his father. The two would have been mistaken for each other if looked at closely enough.

Rogan was a very complex minded character in compared to most of those he associated himself with, many faces to his personality but loyal to a fault. With a gift behind for a life of crime, something he’d harnessed as timed progressed, he began to garner the attention of females and as he grew into his own looks he seemed to fall more and more into the life of a gang member.

By the time he hit eighteen he did something that surprised his entire family and enlisted in the army. It had been something he’d thought about for a while; Rogan felt stagnant and wanted to experience life outside of his usual place.. The way he wanted to do that was by serving his country after everything he’d done to disobey the law. He wanted to get on the straight and narrow much to his father’s disappointment but still proud of his son for spreading his wings.

One year in the army, that was all Rogan got.

His dream was cut short when a simple night run ended in an explosion and an honorable discharge and after being free of his old life he had to quickly return home. He’d thought he’d finally found his place. But he had not. Depression was something that crept in time to time, feeling trapped and alone. Away from all his brothers that he’d met while he was over there. It was stuck in his room back at his parents’ house that he found his music again, and would later meet a woman that changed his life forever. Falling for someone who you believed walked on water, would die or kill for. That was exactly what Rogan found when he fell for the dark haired female.

It wasn’t long before he was down on one knee proposing and falling back into his family’s life of being in the gang. Wanting to provide for everything she wanted and needed, but of course at the time Rogan didn’t see that she was playing him; getting what she could out of him and making him do all the work for the relationship. When the pregnancy came around he was ecstatic and she was not, although he didn’t see it. Everything was through rose tinted glasses when it came to her.

And thus a beautiful baby girl by the name of Rosie was born.

Instantly Rogan knew what real love was when he saw his baby girl, something inside of him changed and he vowed he’d do anything in his life to keep her safe but the biggest heart break of all was waking up to an emptied house and realizing she’d left him with their daughter.

Twenty One years old and now Being a single father meant he had responsibilities he’d never known before like providing meals, making sure she had everything needed. Rogan finally saw his parent’s in a different light--- everything cost money and that’s how they’d provided for him.

That was all it took for him to finally fall in with the lifestyle, a full mobster who did this for his family, his daughter. Rosie had needs and he would make sure she’d never want for nothing. He had never wanted to get as deep as he did, but as time went on and he grew older; it was what he knew and needed to keep the lifestyle he’d created for him and his daughter.

MODERN DAY

Now aged forty five years old, with a twenty four year old daughter and his position within the gang as a Consigliere. Rogan lives for the job with the kind of power he’d always wanted, a need for power he’d never really understood until he’d gained the title. Rogan isn’t short on money and his like for the finer tastes of luxury were evident in his suits, constant need to look perfect and the car’s he drove. The auto shop was just the disguise he used to hide the business he did in it’s back rooms.

Rogan Highlander was a man to be friend but never somebody you should double cross. A smooth talker with the perfect answer for any question you had but a violent streak that had been nurtured over time. Women were something he used like a rag doll since his ex had left him, never settling down; many flings with women, married or not.

Three (3) Positive Traits:  Respectful, Comradeships & Attentive.

Three (3) Negative Traits: Sly, Explosive & Detached.

[sunnyupsidedown]

Thoughts On: The Raven Cycle

(Or more appropriately named, Me screaming about my feelings into the void known as the Internet.)

Note: I never actually finished writing this out and editing it so it would be readable. It’s been in my drafts for years and I’m spring cleaning. Here’s me uncensored and with no direction.

Let’s get this out of the way. So if you haven’t read The Raven Cycle Series by Maggie Stiefvater, this is the part where I tell you to put aside all your misgivings and just read it. That is, if you’re like me and the summary didn’t do it for you. If you’re like me and thought that it’s going to be four books about Blue and her harem of boys crying about the fact that she can’t kiss any of them. Let me tell you, you’re wrong. You’re so far from right, you’re in a different galaxy. The summary does the books zero justice. I tried to summarize it better to my roommate and I couldn’t. These books are books you just have to read.

That aside, the rest is below the cut because it’s basically me ranting about anything and everything from the series because I have a lot of feelings.

Spoilers Below

Individual Books - Romance - Characters - Miscellaneous 

The Raven Boys

This book here was basically me asking myself why I didn't read the series sooner. Like the prologue was eh, but the moment Blue implied that she was an amp, I was in. I love shit like that. And then there was chapter two with Gansey being Gansey and then finding out Adam and Ronan do dumb shit together. Yeah. Well. I was doomed. Yes yes the usual, plot was a little slow paced. I kept wondering "man, when are Gansey and Blue gonna meet?" Or "when are they gonna go King hunting?" When they finally did stuff it was great! But I think it was great because the characters are so well established. But I'll rant on that later.

Anyway, actually yeah, getting to know the characters in this book was wow. God damn it's not a fucking competition on who has the worst backstory. My heart cannot take it. I really want to read a prequel about how they all came together. I need details. Everything is so vague (like mentioned in offhand lines) (i.e. Ronan hating Adam at first or how Adam helped Gansey's car (which is pretty solid but give me more conversation)).

Speaking of vague...NOAH! God. Let me be smug for a bit. I figured out the mystery as soon as Barry mentioned being in his mid-20s.

Hints:

"I've been dead for 7 years."

Noah having a first name when everyone calls each other by their last. 

Barry's friend only having a last name.

Boom yeah. Anyway. Noah, my boy. The true mvp, but that rant will come later. "Don't throw this away.” Gosh. End me.

Again speaking of vague. I love and hate Ms. Maggie's style. I love how pretty it is.

Favorite character in this book kept switching between Gansey, Blue, and Adam. Me while reading was basically, Who’s Ronan?

The Dream Thieves

I love that Ronan’s POV was included in this. I stereotype book characters all the time. It’s natural since it helps establish a certain character without having to spell out every single detail. So yeah. I stereotyped Ronan as a punk (true) that was crude (true), rough (half true), and didn’t care about anything (not true). Getting to know Ronan more in this book killed me.

Kavinski was meh. He was a cool kid. Idk why ppl love him so much? Like he was def a cool character. Maybe I read the books too fast to really appreciate him.

Bragging again, I figured out Ronan’s mom was a dream thing from the prologue (though it wasn’t that hard? idk. Matthew was a surprise).

Adam was winning the favorite character battle but now Ronan’s a strong contestant.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue

RONAN HAS WON. HE IS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER. Why? The EpiPens! That sealed it. Nothing will be able to trump that. I seriously had to stop reading at that part. It was too much.

I really don’t know what happened in this book. That’s one of the things about the writing (or maybe it was just me reading things too fast) but it was kinda hard to keep track of time. Things that I though happened weeks apart happened on the same day, or things that I thought happened on the same day actually happened weeks away. So it was kinda hard to keep track of events.

TRC & Romance

Before we get to the last book, I just want to put this rant that I started about two chapters into the 4th book because I just love this series so much and I was wondering why.

So typically I’m like “Fuck Romance! Get out of my books and tv shows!” (well, unless I’m specifically looking for it…) but the romance (or relationships in general) in the raven cycle is SO. GOOD.

And here I was wondering why and why and why and I figured it out.

The thing about Romance in YA novels (I say YA because I mainly read YA), is that it feel like it’s a prize for the Main Character to achieve at the end of the book. Like, you battled a bunch of crazy zombies alongside this hot babe you met maybe a week ago, now make out and live happily ever after! Like the Love Interest is only there for the MC to end up dating in the end. Sure they can be important to the plot too but there’s always a focus on “These two will be together in the end. Period.” And I hate it. I guess it’s because I love slow burns and I find it so unrealistic because Love typically doesn’t happen like that.

Like typically, a guy or girl will not walk up to someone and say “You’re hot go out with me.” Well, not unless they want maybe a drink dumped on them. I don’t like how when the MC meets their LI, they stop knowing how to communicate with other human beings. Like haven’t they ever had a normal conversation with another human? Don’t they have friends.

And that’s where I figured it out. Gansey & Blue and Ronan & Adam, they were FRIENDS first.

Well, Adam did ask Blue out kinda…. I’ll get to that later.

But they became friends! It wasn’t all about mantic pixie dream girls/boys. Or the most popular girl/boy in school. Or some rival from an enemy territory. It was a just a bunch of kids looking for a king together.

(Adam and Blue something about including her with the boys, how when the began to know each other it doesn’t work out. and that’s normal. But they still end up friends because they do like each other. And it’s not all suddenly, we’re dating so we now have no other friends/I can no longer think rationally [cough Graceling cough]) Gansey eyeing their hand holding less because “Omg im in love with this chick” and more like “who is this girl invading our group.”

The way the small love triangle between Blue, Adam, and Gansey was so well handled. Like the friendship between Gansey and Adam didn’t suffer (too much…) because they weren’t gonna let something like that ruin it because it was strong.

And then Gansey’s all like “I gotta think of something clever to tell Blue later” and it’s so fucking dumb and sweet and that’s kinda what I do to my friends and they don’t really like like each other but it slowly grows with the night calls and the driving to nowhere and they still fight with each other and it’s all so normal and real that it hurts and I actually look forward to their interactions, not necessarily romantically, but just hanging out. Like I could read chapters of all of them just playing cards or something, doing mundane shit.

Ronan and Adam. Idk because I haven’t gotten that far but apparently in the beginning god sai- in the beginning Ronan hated Adam because Ronan loved Gansey and not really in the romantic way but in the we are friends and I will now DIE FOR YOU, type of love and he was fucking jealous. But now they’re cool and they go do random shit together (like framing a crazy dude). And it’s not all, I like you and now you will magically start liking me back. There was build up to this, like Ronan going back for Adam from his dad, and Ronan paying for Adam’s rent secretly, like Adam actually saying thank you.

Even Blue and Ronan. Like how he doesn’t even think about saving her from falling down a hole. How he cries on here shoulder because he can do it and not be judged. Because they are friends. Even if they do not interact often.

And then there’s Maura and the Gray Man. idk where this one is going.

tl;dr: The complex relationships and romance between the characters in the Raven Cycle are hella good.

The Raven King

Oh my god. I am dead. My soul has been carved from my body. Gansey. My boy. Fucking Noah. God damn.

Let me just say that Adam’s analogy(? metaphor?) of the summer storm and the kiss was so fucking good. I will remember that forever. Like that is probs my favorite passage from the book.

Ronan is so sweet and pure and needs lots of love.

Writing in General

Weird how it skips around. Like there’s a little view in the scene and then suddenly it jumps to a vague conclusion. I like knowing what happens between. I like the clean up shit. But then again if it happened the pacing of the book would have been very weird.

Characters

Gansey: it’s like watching someone slowly learn negative emotions. He started out all innocent and full of ideals and happiness, he just wanted to find his King, and then he learns fear and anger and worry and death. Real life. He’s definitely very grounding. How he steps back occasionally and thinks “God this is so fucked up. This is not okay. I want everybody to be safe.”

Ronan: God. Ronan. This boy. I like how you don’t really think of him as I guess nice. But he’s probably the most human of all. Like his outward appearance is some tough boy who’ll fuck you up, but he’s actually really soft? His words are crude but his actions are caring.

Adam: 😫

Blue: I love her. She’s so fierce and strong and human. How she just rolls with it. Kinda.

[priisakilljoy]

@little-catholic-jester

"I liked Declan in The Dreamer Trilogy because he finally got his redemption arc"

Redemption from WHAT