#also love Ianthe she's so fucked up

[cutetanuki-chan]

a couple of sketches since I'm finished the second book

I'm so normal about Harrow, you can't imagine

[wizardemotions]

i'm getting the sense that marauders fans by and large are intensely antisnape and potentially moralistic about it... i think that they should consume non-hp media with more deeply fucked up and also deeply enjoyable characters for some perspective. they might benefit from the locked tomb perhaps. go take a gander at, like, ianthe and then get back to me

[technicolorxsn]

okay I stopped whining and I'm reading harrow the ninth now and sorta getting into it

[absolutedestinyapocalypsse]

i love how as you read more into tlt, the ninth house seems more and more normal. Like if i'm at an immoral evil government competition, and i use human fat as soap and animate skeletons to do menial labor, i'm gonna LOSE if my competition is the third house, represented by ianthe "who HASN'T eaten human flesh and fucked a corpse" tridentarius. My weird skeleton thing seems normal, suddenly. Well-adjusted, even. It's recycling. They're using resources in a sustainable way. Normal and regular and productive for a post-climate change apocalypse universe.

People go on and on about how Muir drops you into gtn hearing from the person who knows the least about whats happening, and does not hand hold the reader through the crazy shit that occurs, and that's all true. It truly is a crazy writing decision to make your first pov character come from the universe's equivalent of amish fundamentalists. But the reader is actually done a huge favor being dropped into the ninth house first, because we already understand that space is cold and what catholic nuns are, and what goths look like, and what lesbians are. Very little time is wasted in the first chunk of gtn ripping hair out of your head wondering what the fuck is going on, because for all of its strangeness, the ninth house is already the most familiar thing we're gonna get.

Because THEN we learn that this whole universe's medieval chivalry system is designed to groom people from CHILDREN to not only be exploited and used as human batteries for necromancers, but to LIKE it. to wax poetic about it. to confuse it for love, to write fucking academic papers about it! Then we learn about planet flipping, an act so horrific and violent it turns the planet's soul into a massive vengeful monster capable of killing GOD. Like what do you MEAN the animals "change"? Is this why noodle has six legs? I would MUCH prefer to wear skeleton makeup and repent forever if the alternative was to witness my family dog grow TWO EXTRA LIMBS because the planet he lived on fucking died. Suddenly, living in the asscrack of a planet where no light gets in seems like a sweet deal when the whole solar system is lit by a sun that MAKES YOU GO CRAZY. The ninth house's WORST sin, killing 200 babies to make Harrow, a waste of resources and an act so terrible it haunts Harrow for the entire span of her life, is like a BLIP compared to the death count Jod's empire. God even hears about it and he's like, no big deal! The cohort probably kills that amount of people in a DAY.

And its ALSO tragic because you realize that all of this trauma and abuse that Gideon goes through is not really because of the ninth house at all. It's really just an individual skill issue that she wasn't treated with compassion. Nobody hated her because she's jesus or a bomb, nobody even KNOWS she's a bomb. It's just Priamhark and Pelleamena being deeply guilty and scared people that motivates her treatment, and absolutely nothing else.

They did something bad, and they know it, and Gideon survived it, and they can't kill her to cover it up, and that's IT. They killed themselves for pride, because they were afraid of the consequences of their actions (both the baby killing and Harrow opening the tomb) coming back to bite them. You can argue this is the catholicism of it all, and I wouldn't say you're wrong, but compared to the cavalier system, where exploitation is in the very lining of the house's institutions, the ninth house is really removed from the space empire's blood factory. This is compared to the fourth house where they have tons of children to be CANNON FODDER to join the cohort at fucking 14, compared to the eight house uncle nephew fuckery, even the fifth house which actually does seems nice to live on but also seems to have the fourth house in some sort of fucked up political bear hug??? (maybe the fourth house has so many kids in order to fight the fifth's battles? which is EXACTLY what jod's whole empire is about; politely stirring your tea and acting nice while you destroy everything) compared to ALL OF THAT, the cruelty that Gideon faces is really more a bug of the ninth's system than a feature.

There's nothing baked into the culture and everyday life of the ninth house that necessitated that cruelty; in fact, for such a pragmatic and resource-scarce place, it's WEIRD that a strong able-bodied young person was treated like a waste of space and resources. It could just have easily not happened, if Harrow's parents had been different people. Maybe they were products of their environment, but so was Harrow, and she values Gideon's life SO MUCH that she'd literally rather carve out parts of her own brain than exploit her. Gideon grows up knowing really NOTHING about cavaliers, so remote from the horrors of the empire that she develops an idea of what the cohort is from porn magazines. And in a lot of ways, that upbringing was desolate and terrible, and in a lot of other ways it literally DID NOT HAVE TO BE.

Gideon's MAIN THING is that she wants to be useful, to be needed, to be loved and it SUCKS that she couldn't even get it in the one place where she was actually an invaluable resource, where the death empire had the weakest reach. Gideon can't even blame her lack of love on the fucked up chivalry system like everyone else can because it JUST WASNT REALLY RELEVENT!?!?! This is like if i rolled up to the trauma competition and everyone else was raised in a nuclear warzone by wolves or something and i grew up in like, the suburbs and was raised by teachers and i somehow STILL WON. truly what the fuck guys.

[badgirlcoven-official]

Y'all suck at tlt posting/nbh

[inkdragon1900]

The way each pov in the locked tomb series is from the view point of an unreliable narrator drives me crazy in the best way.

Gideon is an unreliable narrator because it’s so dependent on her first impression of a person. For instance Ianthe, Coronabeth, Palamedes and Camilla compared to everything we learn later. Even her viewing of Harrowhark feels so jarring compared to Harrow’s view of herself in htn. She also knows very little about necromancy so everything feels less like science and more like something out of her magazines.

Then we have Harrow. Who literally has gaslit herself and trying damn hard to gaslight the audience that the last book never happened. Everything is a lot less black and white compared to GTN but her shades of grey still feel muddy. her depression seeps through every interaction she has that by the time it switches back to Gideon’s pov I literally felt like I had whiplash.

in NTN we have the John chapters and Nona.

Nona for her part seems like she see’s everything in black and white but as we see her mentally mature instead of seeing just shades of grey she see’s everything in vivid color. She loves everyone the good and the bad. She’s an unreliable narrator in the sense that because she loves Cam, Pal, Phyrra and Corona in a black and white fashion in the beginning she does not acknowledge their flaws in their choices. It’s only when she’s emotionally matured that she can see everyone she loves for the three dimensional people they are.

John for his part is so unwilling to forgive that we see that it doesn’t stop at B.O.E or the trillionares it extends to the unwillingness to forgive himself for a situation that I genuinely think no one could have handled. He refuses to look at himself for what he is and what he was in that moment, a scared man with to much power. (Unlike the Lyctors who were quite on quote “playing with the reflection of stars in a puddle and thinking it’s space.” He’s thrown into space and rapid fire has to learn how to tread or die drowning.) He lies because he doesn’t want to appear insane or weak or horrible not realizing that by doing that he’s removing the sympathetic parts of himself. Like Mercy and Augustine said they most likely would have forgiven him if he had just told them he fucked up. His point of view is so similar to Gideons black and white thinking that it works so well contrasted with Nona’s pov.

I can’t freaking wait for Alecto

[lifetooshortlovetoolong]

Okay so I know everyone loves our little trifecta of TLT unreliable narrators because the variances of liar/oblivious/in denial are perfect but I think the Peak Combination of all three is embodied by IANTHE in The Unwanted Guest. Oh, and sprinkle gaslighting into that mix, too.

Girlie had Palamedes forcibly enter her head and immediately just starts to absolutely warp the narrative both knowingly and unknowingly.

Oh, you want control of the body she puppeting? Well, she's gonna create a complex scenario in which a stage play is taking place in her literal mind palace where she's gonna sit here and be kissed and attended to by figments of her subconscious while you have to answer her riddles three about where Bab's body is (well, technically one riddle, but whatever).

And she seems so on-top of this narrative, which is reflected in the choice of framing the entire short as a play, a format in which plot/setting circumstances compel a character's story, not vice versa. Ianthe makes it seem as if everything is as it should be, which what “should be” is her in power/control.

And yet, the entire time this trap of her own design is happening, she has no fucking clue what she's doing. She's making the riddle shit up to throw at Pal because she doesn't know where Bab's body is, she doesn't know why she doesn't know that, and she is also scared that not knowing that means that his soul is ultimately hers now. Not to mention the fact that Pal is metaphorically breathing down her neck to take control. She lies, she's oblivious, and she's completely in denial, all to save her own skin.

And so this perfectly lit (or should I say gaslit) scenario of the play comes crashing down around her as the core realities of Ianthe's psyche and soul are deconstructed by Pal. The attendants are gone, the coffins are empty, and Ianthe is left alone on stage while Pal leaves the auditorium altogether when he's figured her out. Her narrative power, in all its lying, obliviousness, and denial, is literally wrenched from her by him leaving the space she's shaped her truth in. It's an absolutely banger choice.

All this to say, Ianthe is the true neutral of unreliable TLT narration. Yes, she does know she's being unreliable, but she has no clue why and that's as intriguing as it a little unsettling and upsetting.

[loverboy1717]

So like, I would never WANT Magnus to get ate, but I would also love to see Abigail as a lyctor meeting Mercy and Augustine, and the saint of duty (who I won’t name cus bestie is still reading harrow.)

Like I know the power dynamics between gen 1 and gen 2 lyctors are from their literal ages, but I also truly think it’s from their perceived ages. Like Mercy looks late thirties and talks down to Ianthe and Harrow cus they are infants. What would happen if Abigail mother fucking Pent mobbed up ya know? How would Mercy handle that? Also would love to see Abigail and Augustine talk about the fifth. And for her to dunk on Jod and debunk all his bullshit. Plus she’d for sure clock the saint of duty and his best bud cus she’s observant af and pays attention to details nobody expects.

Basically Abigail Pent is my hero. Bye.

[stringcage]

can you explain tlt lore to me because i (as someone who has never touched tlt) am very confused when i see ianthe (??) and harrowhark because isn’t harrowhark with the lobotomy ginger.. and then who is alecto. wtf

so this is the greatest ask i could hope to receive and i cant thank you enough for sending it 🙏 SO YES allow me to explain to you the anatomy of harrowhark's harem

(spoilers obvs, but i will go as light on spoilers as i can because everyone should read these books theyre insane and i love them. but if anyone is interested in a more spoiler heavy explanation lmk in the notes and i will be happy to provide)

for starters the basics of harrow and gideon's relationship: harrow is a necromancer, and gideon is her cavalier, aka like harrow's bodyguard/loyal knight. and they go to this competition with other necromancer/cavalier duos to become a lyctor, but for the sake of this post lyctor lore doesnt really matter dont worry about the lyctor thing right now

basically yes in book 1 (gt9) harrow and gideon (aka lobotomy ginger (which 💀 oh anon, the layers to this. THE LAYERS)) are certifiably insane about each other but are not technically, through physical or verbal confirmation, romantically involved with each other by the end of the book. but the writing on the wall is CLEAR.

gideon is not in book 2 (ht9) for reasons, and now harrow is essentially trapped in space with ianthe tridentarius, another necromancer who was also at the lyctor competition in book 1. ianthe is a weird freak about harrow (arent we all), and harrow thinks ianthe is gross and lame. but in a way she is also, like, at least an iota of a weird freak about ianthe, but she mostly thinks she's gross and lame. theyre kind of like reluctant coworkers bc they do collaborate on certain things (👀 THINGS) and they might share a kiss here or there

oh boy and then there's alecto, stay with me here. without getting too much into dominicus lore, what you have to understand is that for a shit ton of generations, harrow's family has been tasked with keeping this tomb (a locked tomb, even) shut forever, and they don't know what's inside but they know that god put something in there that can never escape. so naturally when harrow was like 9 or 10 years old, she snuck into that tomb and there she finds this chained up, frozen corpse of a smokeshow of a woman, and that's alecto. and little harrow can appreciate the value of a smokeshow of a woman so she lowkey falls in love with her. meaning that throughout all of that prior fucked up little love triangle, harrow is also thirsting over this dead woman she stumbled across years ago

there's enough weird nuances and details with all of these dynamics that i could go on and on for ages but this is a most basic understanding. again cant recommend reading the books enough if you like insane dynamics!!

[skydaemon]

Rating the mommy issues of TLT characters in alphabetical order

contains spoilers technically

Abigail: can't have kids but clearly maternal as fuck. call her mother. 2/10

Aiglamene: she has inverse mommy issues - daughter issues. -10/10

Augustine: full offense but he has freudian vibes. fuck-hate relationship w mercymorn who is has the energy of a neglectful mother. 7/10

Camilla: clearly raised by incredibly competent parents - unclear if she had a mother. Even if she did her real issues are codependency with Palamedes. 0/10

Corona: unconfirmed but a girl like that did NOT experience maternal affection growing up. 5/10

Crux: yknow what. nobody whose mother held them enough is Like That. 10/10

Dulcinea: idk if she had a mother, but i get 'raised by gay dad(s)' vibes from her. possibly the best adjusted character of all 0/10

G1deon: man is obsessed with doing what God wants EXCEPT when it's not to fuck a terrorist. four parts people pleaser one part horny 5/10

Gideon: mum only birthed her to blow her up, died, then used her afterlife to terrorise Gideon’s not-quite-girlfriend; gave her a desperate desire for external validation and attention, especially from evil cougars. 11/10

Harrow: mum committed genocide to conceive her, never smiled at her, attempted to murder-suicide her. 12/10

Ianthe: unclear. daddy issues but no mention of mother afaik - might not even have one. no indication of mommy issues in her romantic life bc she didn’t attempt to fuck mercymorn. HOWEVER she’s such a freak she can’t possibly have had a positive female role model. 3/10

Isaac: born in a vat but had abigail as a maternal figure so 5/10

Jeannemary: same as isaac but she's definitely sapphic so bump that to 6/10

John: literally reformed the Earth in the image of his mum’s old Hollywood hair Barbie. Also, look at him. 100/10

Judith: 9/10 no questions

Magnus: so chill but also he has the vibes of someone into mommydom shit. he's sucked abigail's tits for SURE 3/10

Marta: idk i think she has 'estranged from family' vibes. 4/10

Mercymorn: her mother might have been good but she can't remember her, so 5/10

Naberius: he kissed his mother on the mouth DAILY and you know it. 10/10

Ortus: mostly daddy issues but you saw his mother. 8/10

Palamedes: I haven’t read Doctor Sex but I have his mommy issues on good authority. I hate to say it but camilla is his mommy. 6/10

Pyrrha: unknown. Loves a milf but then who doesn’t. 1/10

Wake: giver of mommy issues. she's the mommy that's the issue. unrateable

[ETA: @everyone making fun of me for saying he sucks tits like it's something special im SORRY i didn't say magnus sits on abigails lap and pretends to breastfeed but i thought it would be GROSS i guess i forgot what this fandom is. ily all be home for dinner]

[cemetegee]

Cemy's Masterpost for TLT Analyses

Analysing things is my love language, so it's clear that I have a whole lot of TLT analyses. I want to collect them in this post, because I have trouble finding them myself. Much fun!

I'm an Ianthe stan

Ianthe and ADHD (my favorite analysis post of mine, I'm serious, it's very me-core)

Corona, Ianthe and the Threat of Killing Oneself

Ianthe is the Underling (she is such a good girl)

Ianthe's the Most Repressed Nun Third I've Ever Seen (Emotionally)

About the Thoughtfulness of Ianthe's Lies

Dying as a Skill Issue (Dying is for suckers, bitch!)

Ianthe apparently knows more than she says

The Unwanted Guest is a Genius Mindfuck (my very first post, click here to meet baby cemetegee)

Ianthe Goes Poetry

Ianthe is not the pure evil, but a very normal person

Ianthe Lore

Could Ianthe see Cytherea's Corpse?

Ianthe Must be Borderline Horny in TUG

Ianthe's Pain "Resistance" is OP

Ianthe's relationship to Corona (not gonna lie, probably neccessary to understand the posts above)

The Tridentarii Power Shift Dynamic

"Corona's Con" | Who's in Charge? (Whooo is in ControOoOl?)

Family Ties (or Third House culture?)

Corona hanged herself in in front of her eyes

The Tridentarii & Lolita

A very smart user said the Tridentarii would maybe only *perform* their Tridentariicest (maybe to disgust everybody from further investigations in their relationship?), and I'm OBSESSED with that take

Ianthe's Relationship to Babs

Ianthe and Babs Were Best Buddies (well at least a bit :(...)

Does Ianthe Regret the Murder of Naberius Tern?

Babs Died for her Plot Armor (that's literally the whole post, you don't have to click on the link)

Coronabeth Tridentarius: An Approach to her Character

Coroniphis & Ianthe (the explanatation for Ianthe's name seems to be more connected to Corona than to her)

What in Hell has she Done to Babs?

Than to Love and be Loved by Ianthe the First, Saint of Awe

Corona is a Very Third Person (Nobody Notices Somehow)

TLT Mechanics

How Could Cytherea Infiltrate Canaan House Without Being Betrayed by a Missing Thanergic Signature

Who/What is Kiriona Gaia? (my poor saddest girl in the whole world :()

How Could Wake Use Cytherea's body? (Necromantic Explanatation)

Why can Cavs and Necros Use Each Other's bodies? | How Could Palamedes Use Babs body? (just some basic theories about necromancy my friendos)

John "Jod" Gaius

Why Didn't Jod Heal Cytherea's Lung Cancer?

Jod is not Obliged to See Gideon as his Dauther, as Hard as it Sounds (Hear me out) (mostly about questioning blood relation as synonym for family in this case, what is also interesting to me in regard to found families)

Strange Pre-Ressurection Behavior Against Mercymorn

John is not the pure evil, but a very normal person

John was Pretty Fucked Up when he Decided to Kill the world (Correction to what I said in the post: he *did* technically kill her. Pulling out the soul of a body is dying by definition)

Hugs for John (I don't agree with his actions (such as for example killing the world) but his live can't be easy since then)

Any Thoughts About the Theological Implications of the character John "Jod" Gaius?

TLT Meta

Determinism in TLT

I Would Like to Talk About the Implications of TLT pls pls 👉👈 (pls ignore how much I sound like a snob in that post lol. I AM NOT, that was just me trying to formulate my wish in English :D)

The characters of TLT aren't the pure evil but very normal people

TLT Lore

Pyrrha is a Genius

Alecto Predictions

Alecto X Anastasia: Eightfold Word Light-Light??

[sad-scarred-sassy]

“And if they do not kill Feyre outright, then they might realize what they stand to gain if gifted with offspring from her, too.”

“My stomach had turned over at the implication. That I might be stolen—and kept—for … breeding. Surely … surely no High Lord would go so far.”

Does it puzzle yall that this is essentially what ended up happening? This was Ianthe arguing with Lucien about not letting Feyre train. I fucking hate Ianthe and I do think this conversation should have included Feyre but I think these points are valid (even if she probably had ulterior motives for making them).

Now fast-forward to ACOSF and the whole pregnancy thing, how Rhys was hiding from her the fact she would most definitely die (while she could have avoided by shifting herself one more time with a risk of only hurting the baby) and in the same book we have the High King conversation that shows how much the Inner Circle weaponize the sisters.

“And do not forget that Nesta herself—and Elain, with whatever powers she has—is here. Feyre is here. All three sisters blessed by fate and gifted with powers to match your own. Feyre alone doubles your strength. Nesta makes you unstoppable. Especially if she were to march into battle wearing the Mask. No enemy could stand against her.”

Rhys seemingly turns the idea down but his actions speak otherwise.

I just find it very eerie how Feyre doesn’t realize what made her stomach turn is her reality. It is also sad that a character that had to always “earn” the love she received coincidentally ended up with the one who only began to treat her with humanity when she became powerful and useful.

[myths-tournaments]

Awful Characters Semi-finals (1/2)

Propaganda under the cut!

IANTHE TRIDENTARIUS

Her number one hobby is ruining every person's that she knows life. Her second hobby is being soooo slutty about it despite looking like a literal wet rat. Her third hobby is having an extremely unhealthy relationship with her twin. Her other hobbies include cannibalism, wearing a maid outfit, being extremely convinced she is the main character, the badboy sexy love interest and the villain. 'Why', you may ask. Well, the answer is, for shits and giggles #justgirlythings i, aswell as literally everybody else in the fandom have gone through the pipeline from hating her to desperately wanting to fuck her. expect for i still fucking hope she dies and doesn't come back for good. (that would literally solve all of everybody's problems) as god intended (EXPECT FOR. one of her hobbies literally is gaslighting god) She is fucking horrible i will love her until i die and even after that

parks and recs jean ralphio voice she's the woooorst!! The moment she learns she has to kill someone to become a Lyctor (aka a more special necromancer), she doesn't hesitate to kill and cannibalize the guy who has been her cavalier since childhood… cavalier who she also totally bullied as kids, she was allowed to choose one guest for her and her twin sister's birthday party each year, and she would always pick whoever she thought her cavalier didn't want to see there! While other characters are shown to regret the process of becoming a Lyctor (which involves someone close to them dying)/were forced into it because of circumstances, Ianthe has absolutely no regrets, she believes she did what she had to do

The author once said of Ianthe: "I don't think she's been nice to anyone, if she has I'll go back and change it." She killed and ate the soul of someone she has known all her life so that she could become a necromantic saint and tormented him plenty before that. General negging, ganging up against him, always inviting people he didn't like to their birthday parties. She doesn't regret killing him. I think she is repulsed by the idea that his digested soul is affecting hers. She helped her crush lobotomise herself so she would be in Ianthe's debt, and later lied and said she didn't see the corpse of a woman her crush killed under her bed (why did she do that? I do not know). She has a bone arm because her original arm was cut off, she hated the replacement so her crush cut THAT off and grew her a new one out of just bones. She had it gilded and only after that did she decide to help her crush deal with the person who had been repeatedly trying to kill her. She wants so badly to be the main character but people keep interrupting her villain monologues.

she has her own content warning tag

She's such a bitch to everyone all the time, she causes nothing but problems, she tries to do a villain speech but fumbles it because her tummy hurt, she is the awfulgirl of all time

AZULA

Azula explicitly considers herself a monster. She says needlessly cruel things to her brother and friends. She kills the show's twelve-year-old protagonist and masterminds the idea of burning down the entire Earth Kingdom to force them to submit to Fire Nation rule. I have absolutely seen people get called abuse apologists for thinking she's a cool character. But she's also a (canonically) mentally ill fourteen-year-old who was raised by her father to see her ability to be weaponized as her only value. Her mother, arguably the only adult in her life who could have had a positive impact, had a strained relationship with her because she was more difficult than her brother, and then disappeared when she was nine. Her uncle, who was her brother's main healthy role model, took absolutely no interest in her. She watched her father belittle her brother for years and eventually throw him away when he failed to meet his expectations, so that was a threat she was always facing. She really had no chance. And she also has moments that suggest she wants some sort of meaningful connection with another person. She lets her brother take credit for killing the Avatar so he can come back from exile, even though it means she'll be bumped back in the order of succession and offers him advice that seems genuine. Her spiral into a mental breakdown starts when her friends betray her. She's just a much more interesting and multifaceted than a lot of the fandom gives her credit for.

[lemon-natalia]

Nona the Ninth Reaction - Chapter 25

Pyrrha really is committed to mentioning that she found Gideon’s mother attractive in every conversation that she has with her, i admire the dedication 

haha what the fuck is this. Kiriona Gaia Her Divine Highness

MUMFUCKER PRIME ngl the bad jokes are mostly the only reason i’m pretty sure this is actually Gideon and not some doppelganger. idk whether its all the trauma she’s built up over the last two books or just having to be in the general proximity of Ianthe and John for an extended period of time, but something is up with this gal

'Judith Deuteros for some reason’ i relate to this on a fundamental level given i genuinely didn’t realise that Judith was here until this moment

as much as it pains me that two of my favourite characters immediately Do Not Vibe with eachother, Gid being a dick to Nona makes sense given Nona is currently occupying the body of the person Gideon cares the most about in the world, who is themselves god-only-knows-where rn. props to Tamsyn Muir for making the bold creative choice to have her protagonists all just fucking loathe each other at some point

okay there is no way in hell that Gideon actually wants to go back to the ninth for nostalgia. unless it's nostalgia for dunking on Crux

‘it was not a very friendly smile [...] there was something a little bit hungry about it’ haha what the fuck. really said let’s dial up the ‘came back wrong’ trope to eleven here. what in the Jason Todd is this

well miss ‘I am the Emperor’s construct’ has come a long way since ‘Go to hell Pops’, this was NOT what i meant when i said i wanted more of Gideon and John interacting this book 😭😭

tamsyn muir really said ‘oh you want Gideon back? i’m going to give you what you want in the most painful way possible’ huh. this is uh somehow worse than her dying actually :)

Gideon actually knowing anything about necromancy is the most disturbing part of all of this. what happened Gid i thought you and me were on a team of this ‘necromancy is confusing as all hell’ thing. can’t believe you’d betray me like this smh

also given we last saw Gid finding out she was born as a ‘bomb’ to open the tomb, and how much she hated everything about the Ninth other than Harrow, i am very concerned about why she suddenly wants to come with to open the Tomb

the saddest girl in the whole world is Gideon??? GIDEON?? the presence of Noodle in this book lulled me into a false sense of security so that i forgot just how much this series loves breaking my heart over and over again 

i know everyone already knows from the broadcast (and possibly before if Pyrrha told them) but i do wonder how Corona, and Pal & Cam etc. reacted to finding out Gideon was God’s daughter. imagine having to deal with the revelation that the deity you are becoming increasingly disillusioned with has a kid that spent much of the time you knew her making terrible sex jokes

[absolutedestinyapocalypsse]

When Harrow is very obviously grieving, (and also when he wants to gaslight her) John tells her to make soup about it, to focus on the little things, to take it day by day. When asked to help with the lobotomy, Ianthe tells Harrow that the worst is over- she's a lyctor now, and she should try and move forward instead of sticking herself permanently in limbo. These are not terrible pieces of advice to give a grieving person; if actually practiced, they might even be helpful. Except for Harrow, they are the absolute worst things you could possibly say.

None of what happened to her should have happened, of course she doesn't want to accept it and progress further into lyctorhood. Everything is terrifying and new to her, of course she won't find peace in "the little things". John is actively trying to fucking KILL HER, of course SOUP isn't going to help! Like obviously the general grief advice isn't gonna work for Harrow because she's in a psychological horror book and is being haunted and is grieving jesus christ herself, but also, does it really work that well ever? Does being told to move on actually ever in any circumstance help the person move on? Or does it just make them feel more broken, more inadequate, more lonely?

Sure, focusing on little things that give you joy and trying not to ruminate on the past are on paper productive ways to cope, but its also the LAST thing a grieving person actually wants to do. Telling someone to simply forget about what they went through and who they lost, to just focus on the boring and isolating minutae of everyday life instead of the world-ending tragedy they've experienced feels impossible. To do it would be like betraying yourself, and the people you lost.

Most of the book is Harrow knowing that certain things would probably make her feel better if she would just try, being told constantly that if she would just do x y or z, things would fall into place and she would be less broken. She doesn't even remember WHY she feels like this, but she does, and it's all-consuming. Lyctorhood is the scale by which her "normality" is measured, and she is failing SPECTACULARLY. She refuses to set aside Gideon's humanity and significance in her life to use her as a battery, and that makes her weak and a failure in the eyes of the other saints.

But by failing to move on, she ends up actually preserving (??? who actually knows man) Gideon's life. For the classic grief advice to not only be unhelpful to her personally also ACTIVELY MALICIOUS/ HARMFUL PLOT WISE is such a great 180 to me. Instead of a "grieving character comes to terms with loved one's death for the Greater Good and moves on because its the Right Thing To Do" narrative, we get a kind of bereavement revenge fantasy. Harrow's complete refusal to move on stops Gideon from actually fully dying. And she does makes soup, not to cope with the constant terror she's living under, but to EXPLODE her tormentor from the inside out. These things probably aren't "good" for Harrow, or for anyone dealing with grief. They do not make life easier for her, and they do not make her a lyctor, but they are honest and they are SO satisfying. Having the power to bring back the person you lost, even at great personal detriment and to explode everyone who hurt you with your mind is i think the perfect power for someone in mourning and i love that htn let Harrow have it. There is no greater good to be served, no larger moral about loss to be told. The objective is not to see Harrow heal from loss, it's to see her by sheer determination and force of will, refuse to fucking lose.

[nestastits]

If you hate Gwyn, give me a legitimate reason why other than her being with Azriel.

I’ve seen people claim she’s evil because she doesn’t wear her invoking stone. Even though there was literally an entire paragraph dedicated to why she feels unworthy of wearing it, but you know reading comprehension is dead for the antis. Plus, Ianthe literally wore one and she’s a rapist, murder, and traitor but Gwyn is more evil than her apparently?

I’ve seen people claim she’s a Lightsinger, something we know very little about and what we do know does not make sense with Gwyn’s history and appearance. Plus Nesta can fight off fae magic, so she would know if she was being lured. And if sjm decided to make Gwyn a Lightsinger, it would only make her better. But she’s not with the information we currently know of Gwyn.

I’ve seen people say she lied about her SA even though we have been told from precious Az and Mor how she was assaulted and by whom. And I can’t even begin to describe how fucked up and horrible you are in the head for even insinuating this.

I’ve seen people say it’s because she’s a child compared to others. But literally all the Archeron sisters are younger than her? Feyre was 19 when she was turned Fae. In acosf Feyre-21/22, Elain-23/24, and Nesta-24/25. Gwyn is 28.

I’ve seen people say she is too happy or excited about things, is that not how yall want Elain to be?

I’ve seen people say she’s a copy of Elain. Which is just pure idiocy. Elain and Gwyn have very different life styles. Elain and Gwyn like very different things. The only thing that makes them similar is their compassion for others.

I’ve seen people say they don’t trust her because Az’s shadows darted out at her breath. Azriel’s shadows were born from his loneliness and seek to protect him. They’ve been shown to love him too. His shadows darted out and danced with Gwyn’s breath, a considerable upgrade and show of affection compared to how they scatter away from other characters. They’ve been seen to hover around both cassian and Rhys, the people az calls his brothers, and Nesta-a friend of Az as seen in hofas. It does not mean anything bad for his shadows to fly around another character, I’d be more worried about them hiding from others.

The largest argument I’ve seen antis say is that they don’t like her because she made a man have a spark in his chest😑. If your ship is endgame, why do you care so much about the man having a spark in his chest for another woman? Unless of course this comes off as a red flag, which you should be hating az for not gwyn. Why do you hate her and make up shit for her to look bad just to bring another character up? If your ship is endgame, you should not be worried about the ONLY ACOTAR CHARACTER that has not done a single questionable thing (emerie too) to be hated for.

The only actual reason I’ve seen people hate her for always has to do with the shipwar, which is dumb as hell. But this also proves Gwyn/Azriel have done something to make you question the safety of your “endgame” ship🤔. Right?