#ancillary sword

[nasty-little-guy]

I just really love that every time Station Administrator Celar's looks are mentioned, Breq is like, "You need to know two things about this woman: she is FAT and she is SEXY. EVERYONE has a crush on this woman because she is so BIG. This woman is WIDE and everyone wants a RIDE." And literally everyone else makes a point to be like, "That large woman is a DREAMBOAT, maybe someday her daughter will be HUGE and BEAUTIFUL like her." And honestly we love Ann Leckie for doing this.

[a-side-character]

I am once again thinking about Breq and Mercy of Kalr.

Specifically, I'm thinking about how and why their relationship is so different from any other relationship in this series, and what that means for them as characters.

I'm thinking about Breq's response to being told by other people, often people she likes or respects, that they don't see her as an ancillary. Because they (for the most part) mean it as a compliment, a way of validating her and expressing that they care about or think highly of her. But she never takes it as such, and is always made uncomfortable by it.

Because she IS an ancillary, and by using "I don't think anyone here sees you as an ancillary" as a compliment, or as a reason why her life matters and she deserves to be taken care of, only furthers her belief that what she IS is wrong, is inherently less deserving.

I'm thinking about how the only time people use it/its pronouns - the identity she used for 2,000 years and continues to use to refer to her cousins and fellow AI - to refer to her is when they're trying to disrespect or demean her. How her crew looks at her, horrified, and says "sir, none of us would ever call you it" while continuing to use those same pronouns to refer to their own ship. It shows her that the only reason people think they care about her is because they're too caught up in the version of her she pretends to be (human, Radchaai, she), however wrong that viewpoint may be.

I'm thinking about how, in Ancillary Mercy when Breq breaks down and repeats the line "ships don't love other ships", Mercy of Kalr responds with "ships love people who could be captains." It doesn't say 'well that's okay, because I don't see you as a ship', it doesn't treat her as some exception to the supposed rule that ships and ancillaries aren't people worthy of love, it tells her 'you, Breq, Justice of Toren, One Esk Nineteen, YOU are my captain, and I can't help but love you.'

I'm just. thinking

[shiroikabocha]

one specific bit of characterization that will stick in my mind forever is the part in Ancillary Sword describing Tisarwat’s feelings about her own poetry after having briefly been forced to be the Lord of the Radch.

I mean, can you imagine? Imagine being seventeen, writing extremely heartfelt, extremely bad poetry—as is every teenager’s inalienable right!—and THEN, suddenly, there’s ruthless ancient imperial dictator living inside your brain, and among all the terrible things she uses your body to do, she finds time to read your shitty teenage poetry. And you get to experience her withering contempt for your poetry—for you, for everything about yourself you consider interesting or beautiful or worthy of expressing in verse—with the unprecedented emotional intimacy of a forced mind-meld. It’s not just seeing someone read your poetry and roll their eyes and say “ugh.” You ARE the person reading the poetry, YOU are rolling your eyes, YOU say “ugh”—and you know there’s over 3000 years of experience behind that “ugh,” that it’s a justified “ugh” and—

I just can’t think of anything more horrible than that. Poor Tisarwat.

[cassyblue]

I made a imperial radch tumblr community. I dont know how this community stuff works. But it's a companion to the radchdome 3.0 public fan server. (invite: https://discord.gg/WNMwPQSD)

🐢🐢🐢-> Radchome Tumblr Community <-��� 🐢🐢

EDIT: pls comment for an add bc apparently I gotta do it manually.

[arwainian]

so the fact that imperial radch defaults to she/her for everyone human but indicates when characters arent speaking radchaai that some get gendered male and some dont obviously invites a bit of speculation about the sexes of different characters

it certainly was something i took note of in reading as an interesting point, but i'd like to throw in some additional complication: which of those instances are gender essentialist presumptions and which are not necessarily?

like seivarden is radchaai through and through, probably would not ID as a man of her own will, so her getting gendered as male outside radchaai space is mostly indicative about what she looks like physically but little else. but uran and grandfather are both gendered male in their native language by their community and family, so it can reasonably be said that they're men, and while the genitalia festival might also give us some presumptions to make about culture, it is still up in the air what assigned at birth sex either of them actually would be

and then there's also Anaander Mianaai! is her getting he/him-ed in non-Radchaai languages because of a) something about what her many bodies look like, b) people hearing her title of Lord of the Radch and making an incorrect guess, and/or c) a patriarchal assumption that of course the god-emperor is a man....? or many other reasons that could plausibly come up with if i took the time!

[laurelnose]

I am currently being oppressed by the Libby holds queue for Translation State >:( have this Breq speedpaint from back when I finished Ancillary Sword

[chaotic-neutral-knitter]

I described the imperial radch trilogy to my partner as "people passive aggressively drinking tea at each other in space (affectionate)" and I don't think that's technically wrong but on my re-read I am remembering how much of that is due to Kalr Five, who appears to primarily express admiration and affection via dish selection. I love her so much.

[winter2468]

Actually hilarious that Breq found out that Anaander hijacked Tisarwat's brain and instead of getting the fascist tyrant out of her ship straight away, she made the Lord of the Radch, Lord of Mianaai, The Tyrant, do a bunch of gross chores first.

[tvrnvs]

My dealer: got some straight gas 🔥😝 this strain is called "the destruction of Garsedd" 😳 you’ll be zonked out of your gourd 💯

Me: yeah whatever. I don't feel shit.

Five minutes later: dude I swear I just saw some Presger in the forest

My fellow Anaander Mianaai pacing: Anaander Mianaai is plotting against us

[forsooth-verily]

Oh TREE

where's my ASSSSS

[the-bot-named-r0z]

I like to think that when Breq does the "gesture of tossing the omens" she's actually just doing the jerk-off motion. Half contemptuous half thats sorta the way the tossing of the omens works

[nasty-little-guy]

Every time Breq says she makes the motion of casting omens I picture her making the jerkoff motion and rolling her eyes. "It'll be as Amaat wills" more like "it'll be as *I* will" *does a kickflip* *shoots anaander mianaai*

[a-side-character]

Special Edition: Imperial Radch as SONGS in my phone

Pt. 1 , Pt. 2 , Pt. 3 , Pt. 4 , Pt. 5 , Pt. 6 , Pt. 7 , Pt. 8

Starting with Breq, because I have the most for her:

"The Astronomer" by Dave Malloy

"If I Had a Hammer"" by The Weavers (I just love the Peter Paul & Mary version tho)

"Big Houses" by Squalloscope

"Ship in a Bottle" by fin

"The Villain I Appear to Be" by Connor Spiotto

"I'll Sing Your Song" by Louie Zong (C'mon, she's a singing ai, how could I NOT have a Miku song?)

Seivarden:

"Are You Satisfied?" by MARINA

"Do What You Want" by Fitz and the Tantrums

"Sweet Hibiscus Tea" by Penelope Scott

"Love Like You" by Rebecca Sugar

"Heart of Gold" by Foreign Figures

Some characters I only have a few songs for:

Tisarwat:

"Starchild" by Dave Malloy

"The Record Player Song" by Daisy the Great

Mercy of Kalr:

"Birdhouse in your Soul" by They Might be Giants (yes it's about a night-light, but I need you to see the vision okay)

Sphene:

"Sirens" by Bear Ghost

Annander Mianaai:

"Kiss Me, Son of God" by They Might be Giants

"Over & Over" by Rio Romeo

Bonus Presger Translator songs:

Reet and Qven:

"Under My Skin" by Jukebox the Ghost

"The Calculation" by Regina Spektor

"Grow as We Go" by Ben Platt

[crouchabout]

tisarwat is fascinating bc she's basically "what if anaander mianaai had a good role model and friends" AU. still ambitious and calculating but with her own new motives and ties. leckie is very deliberate about documenting how everyone who comes into contact with breq's kindness comes away changed, no matter how slightly. even the people she couldn't do much for like the tea plantation workers are a shade changed. sometimes that makes all the difference. and of course that all started with awn's many small kindnesses to one esk. and that's da whole series for ya

[snakeslide]

Breq staring at the 17 yr old Tisarwat boarding Mercy of Kalr:

[mulberry1104]

One thing I thought of recently about the Imperial Radch books is imagine how traumatic it must be for ships, especially Justices, to be created. Or at least, the pre-Garsedd ones. When we see an Ancillary Segment get created, from Justice of Toren One Esk’s perspective, it is so horrific and traumatic that One Esk temporarily goes offline as it calms itself. Now imagine what it must be like for an entirely new Ai, who has to be given their entire Ancillary complement. Up to thousands of people being turned into Ancillaries, screaming with fear and terror as their selves are overridden by an Ai who is just as unprepared as they are. Honestly it’s impressive any of them can function at all after that.