#and i like the maeve that has Elena as a love interest more

[supemaeve]

Also, after spending hours and hours making a maevelena and a maeveannie gifset back to back I think I confirmed my feelings towards both ships. Feelings I had already mentioned before.

While I love any AU or "what if" of Maeve and Annie, I like canon as it is. I like Elena as Maeve's "perfect" match and I like Annie as a close friend/mentee.

[homielander]

the most interesting character detail about maeve through which i have extrapolated at least half my understanding of her is that she prefers to be called maeve. i frequently see "maggie" pop up in meta and fic as her chosen name, but quite literally nobody calls her that, including (and most significantly) elena. elena is maeve's tether to her humanity and her refuge away from vought, yet even elena only ever refers to her as maeve. (and in season 2, we learn that maeve started dating elena before she joined the seven -- before queen maeve's popularity would have become so inescapable that she would feel compelled to introduce herself by that name.) it's especially notable that in her final scene, maeve refers to starlight as annie for only the second time, but she is still called maeve by both annie and elena.

here's what we know about maeve's life as maggie: she had a rocky relationship with her father whom she doesn't seem to speak to anymore, she's from a "cousin-fucker hick town" as described by homelander -- i can't imagine this place being terribly lgbt-friendly, and she generally lacks connection with anyone she would have known before becoming queen maeve. she doesn't have fond memories of this time of her life, and perhaps that extends to all associations with it, including the name maggie.

i tend to think that becoming queen maeve was, in many ways, self-actualizing for her. the act that garners her national attention and earns her a ticket to vought is a heroic one -- she breaks every single bone in her right arm to save a school bus from falling off a bridge. and i know madelyn says she is responsible for the mythos of queen maeve, but this character was still aspirational, and likely someone maeve wanted to live up to. in any case, this new identity gave her a purpose and tools to achieve it: she wanted to help people! by her own admission, maeve enters vought bright-eyed and hopeful, not far off from annie. (maeve is also one of the only supes in the seven not to know about compound v -- she doesn't strike me as religious but believing she's among the very few born with powers would have strengthened her internal drive to be a hero.)

it's for the same reason that i think maeve actually... liked having powers? of course she says otherwise in her last season, but season 3 maeve is cynical and weary from about two decades of dealing with vought and homelander's abuse. they've used her first as the token woman and then the token gay person of the seven. after growing largely passive to the brutality of the job, the flight 37 incident forces her to confront all of the violence she's witnessed and tolerated. she's given pieces of herself away and she loathes the husk of herself that's left. i don't find it surprising that she would want to relinquish every single connection to vought, including her powers.

assuring herself that she will be better off without her powers comes with an added benefit: she gets to distinguish herself from homelander, who would be lost without his powers. and i think she is eager to make this distinction in her mind because there are some uncomfortable similarities between their initiations into vought. the mantle of homelander allows him to exert agency for the first time in his life, just as the mantle of queen maeve endows her with purpose for the first time in hers. (crucially, none of his current circle call him john, either.) they both enjoy being the most powerful superheroes in the world, the unending public adoration, and (in my interpretation) each other. they're also both overwhelmingly lonely and they know it -- homelander teases her multiple times about how she has no friends with a bit more bite in every passing season, while maeve is keenly aware of his isolation and exploits his yearning for love pretty effectively.

maeve steadily grows disillusioned with her position at vought because she still has a moral code, suppressed though it may be. even so, she nearly relents to homelander's vision: that they will be lonely at the top but lonely together. she's pulled out of her miserable state of inaction by annie and elena. annie reminds her of what a hero should be (what she was, once); elena offers her a way out of vought, serving as maeve's light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak.

she escapes that tower as maeve, not maggie. she rejects homelander's god complex which engenders his cruelty towards regular people and 'lesser' supes -- no one will call her queen maeve ever again, at least -- but it is still important to her to be a hero, and for better or for worse, she found that as maeve. i feel like she'd struggle to exist without her powers (possibly the self-awareness hasn't settled in yet) for all the reasons mentioned above. i like to think that eventually, she'll circle around to helping people and resisting vought however possible -- albeit on a smaller, more covert scale so she can continue living a peaceful life with elena.

[checkoutmybookshelf]

Now THAT IS How You Wrap a Series

Wrapping up a series is hard in generally, but when you have as large and well-developed an ensemble cast as SJM does in the Throne of Glass series, it's even harder. That said, I think SJM stuck the landing. It's not perfect, but overall I had a blast with this series and this book. Let's talk Kingdom of Ash.

I'm putting a SPOILER WARNING here, but this is the seventh book in a seven-book series, so if you weren't expecting spoilers...I don't know what to tell you.

Ok, so wrapping a series is SUPER hard, but in general, I thought this did well. Because this book is also HELLA chonky, we're going to go ahead and go simple with this, and divide the review into two categories: Stuff I Liked and Stuff I Didn't Like.

STUFF I LIKED

Aelin's Everything

Aelin has never been anything less than a murder Barbie and trauma on wheels, and all of that is cranked to 11 in this book. We get everything Maeve and Cairn do to her, her lovely little ritual and communication with Fenrys, we get "take it off take it off take it off," and we get that rescue. AND THEN we get Aelin holding herself together with her goddamn fingernails to be ok enough to lead.

We also get her willing to let it all go and never see Terrasen again to close that portal--and save Dorian in the process. And she STILL gets screwed over by the gods because of Elena's mistake. It's honestly such a kick in the teeth but she rolls with that blow.

She also manages to keep her people together in the face of overwhelming odds and more or less certain death and defeat. She is deeply impressive as a person and leader, and frankly? Girl needs a BREAK. And cuddles with Fleetfoot.

Aelin was never less than a compelling character throughout the series, and that we get to see her succeed and take her throne and do what she's spent seven damn books coming to terms with is so damn satisfying. I'm also a proponent of torturing your darlings to make sure that the victory hits, and SJM nailed it with Aelin.

Aelin Stabbing Maeve in the Goddamn Face

This one is exactly what it says on the tin. After everything Maeve did to Aelin personally, Aelin's loved ones, and the bullshit feuding with Aelin's mother, and finally the whole *hiding being a Valg queen* thing, Meave absolutely deserves it when Aelin ends her. I also gave a crooked smile of approval at Aelin's "let's pretend my last words to you were suitably epic" final quip. Ungenerous readers might call that a cop out, but I choose to read it as Aelin understanding how stories and histories warp on retellings. Not to mention that it's a GREAT fit for her general swagger and cheekiness.

Maeve didn't deserve to go out on a badass last line. Maeve deserved to go out unceremoniously and brutally.

Manon's Arc

Ok, the witches in general went from "why do we caaaaaaaaaaaare?" to "Oh my god these are my baby witches and they must be allowed to badass witch their way throughout the world." And that goes TRIPLE for Manon, heir to the Blackbeaks and last Crochan Queen. Like...our girl was raised to be brutal and have no feelings. And then she is put in position after position where she has to use emotional intelligence and empathy and compassion instead of brutality to get anything done.

It starts with Abraxos, and then extends to Asterin, the Thirteen (rest in peace, Queens), Dorian, Aelin, and all of witchkind. Manon arguably goes through a ringer as rough as Aelin's, and she comes out standing tall, if very, very bruised. Finding her personal balance between how she was raised and her softer heart was a RIDE, and honestly watching her learn that her grandmother was a grade A sociopath and abusive jackass was so compelling and so interesting.

Leaving her bereft of her thirteen but with Dorian and all of witchdom is...a hard thing. She won. She won the war, broke the curse, reunited her people, and will create alliances and a better world. But she had to lose so much to get there, and her ending is deeply bittersweet. I wouldn't call the win pyrrhic (just barely), but it came at a high cost.

Abraxos

Abraxos watching the battlefield for his mate who would never come back actually made me cry. Get this brave, wonderful wyvern all the wildflowers he wants. He should never, EVER have to go into battle again. Give our best flying boi a break!

But seriously, Abraxos might be my favorite creature in the entire series. He is the perfect partner for Manon, he love wildflowers, and he is brave and honorable. We LOVE Abraxos.

Lysandra

Lysandra might actually be my favorite character in Throne of Glass, full stop. Girl went through a very different kind of hell from Aelin and Manon, but she still manages to be kind, compassionate, protective as hell of Evangeline, and a total badass--especially once she really leans into the shifting power.

The sheer power, intelligence, and willingness to put everything on the line and on the field for Aelin and the dream of Terrasen are admirable, but its the little moments of joy, of smarts, and of brightness mixed in with that that make me really and truly love Lysandra. She deserves her happy ending with Aedion, and frankly a whole hell of a lot more.

Pacing and Tone

This was a CHONKY book, and a heavy one. But it never once felt slow (even if Aelin getting to Orynth took approximately 14 business years) because the pace served to ramp the tension and the sense of hopelessness in Terrasen. Like...you FELT every setback, every defeat, the slow creep toward a seemingly certain doom. It is painful in the best possible way, and the tone is strengthened and reinforced by the pacing in a super effective way.

It also makes the final victory that much sweeter and more emotional, and so when we take those quiet moments to acknowledge that this victory was deeply painful, they hit perfectly. It's painful, but it's a much needed release from the slow turning of the tension screw for the entire second half of the book.

Rowan Being Low-Key Tortured Because Aelin is Hell on Wheels

Poor Rowan just has one hell of a time this book. He has to kidnap his wife from a Valg queen and her pet sadist, knowing that the very gods are going to ask for her life to defeat Erawan. He rescues her and has to watch her panic when they can't get the mask and gauntlets off. He has a moment where he is worried he cannot get through to her, and the last thing he's going to do is get physical after what she's been through. He's there when she wakes up with nightmares. He's there when she forges the lock. He's there when she stabs Maeve. He stands beside her the whole time.

We love our territorial fae bastard.

STUFF I DIDN'T LIKE

Gavriel's...weird semisuicidal waltz out into the enemy

This got its own post on my blog but...MY DUDE. You did a whole-ass monologue about holding the gate together. Aedion is correct that you could have stayed inside the gate and helped them hold it. This was such a weird, unmotivated decision that the book itself (from Aedion's POV) was questioning the logic of it, and the book was RIGHT. I hate hate HATE when the book itself questions a character decision, because it means even the author didn't think it made sense, but we rolled with it anyway.

This was really dumb, y'all. The father-son bonding and relationship rebuild was worth letting Gavriel live. If I'm being honest, this was a fridging. The whole point was making Aedion sad, and frankly, Aedion was ALREADY THERE. It wasn't one more thing, it wasn't the straw that broke the camel's back. It was just...this is war, I guess SOMEONE has to die. This character choice does not make sense on a writing level and I wish it had been revised in developmental edits.

Aedion and Lysandra's Third-Act Breakup

Aedion Ashryver pissed me the HELL off, and Lysandra was correct in reading him for filth. I get that the kind of war and siege they're experiencing would be hard on a relationship, but Aelin would have lit a literal fire under Aedion's ass for throwing Lysandra into the snow wearing nothing more than a blanket.

These two had been adorable for like three books at this point, and they did not need a third-act breakup. Especially not one that was entirely centered on Aedion's man pain and trauma around Aelin. He was misplacing his fury and grief with Aelin onto Lysandra--which makes sense in context. However, he went CRUEL with it in a way that, for me, went from understandable to unforgiveable. It was immensely frustrating, and I would have been fine with missing this romance trope.

Dorian Havilliard was Criminally Underutilized

As a character, specifically. As a plot device Dorian was great, but character-wise he was kind of all over that map and every time something interesting about him came up (his relationships with people who were not Chaol or Aelin, his relationship with his magic, his method of kinging), it was perfunctorily nodded at and then we moved on. We absolutely did not get the same level of depth with him and his personality as we did with other characters, and I was so interested in Dorian.

I have been told that there was originally a plan to write a Manon/Dorian series, but that has not manifested. As things stand at the end of Kingdom of Ash, Dorian was...just kinda there in a way other characters weren't. He was plot convenient before he was a character, and that was disappointing.

And no points for Dorian shape-shifting into a female witch and immediately thinking "I should find a tent and see if I'm actually that good at fingerbanging or if every woman I ever fingerbanged lied to me." That is one of those things we're if you think about it for five seconds it gets weird and ethically dubious, and I just cannot even right now.

What Do You MEAN Aelin Didn't Take Out Erawan???

Whatever the Hell the Bait and Switch with the King of Adarlan Was

Soooooo... I'm an Emglish major. I understand that wording is key in prophecies and interpretation can skew meaning. But the whole "Nameless is my price" thing? Oh that irked me. That was actually too dumb for words and could not POSSIBLY have been the intention of the original text. Plus, that kind of nonsense technicality level bullshit loopholery drives me CRAZY. It made sense that Aelin and Dorian should have been able to split the load when the original spell was meant to take a single life. That made sense as a way out and a decent, "ain't life just a bitch sometimes" caveat that felt simple and effective. It would also have given Dorian something meaningful to do.

But no. The forging is like six layers of bait and switches that feel unnecessarily convoluted and fucky, and for the King of Adarlan to show up and go "Erawan wiped my name from existence, so I can show up and die for this so Aelin can live" felt...bad. It wasn't clever, it wasn't well integrated narratively, and I was actually mad about the subversion of something that felt more interesting. Dorian helped Celaena so much in the first two books, and letting him help her save Terrasen AND herself would have given him a platonic version of the rescue Rowan performed earlier in thw book. Instead, we undermine that for the guy who destroyed Terrasen and killed Aelin's family to...have a redemption arc? Sorta???

I am no more here for a King of Adarlan redemption arc than I was for the Dain Aetos redemption arc.

So...in The Return if the Jedi, Luke doesn't get to take out the death star, and he isn't even the one who kills Palpatine, and that's fine because Luke's arc is about being a jedi and redeeming Vader--nission accomplished. The fact that Aelin--Murder Barbie extraordinaire and arguably the protagonist with the closest personal connection to Erawan except maybe Dorian--isnt even THERE when Erawan is exorcised from reality was as unsatisfying for me as her stabbing Maeve was satisfying.

I did not enjoy Tower of Dawn all that much. I wasn't terribly invested in Chaol and Yrene. For her to just...do her thing and have it not even faze her as much as the times she healed Chaol was so deeply unsatisfying. I love that Yrene can heal people of their valg demons. That is amazing and honestly feels restorative. Bit for Erawan to have been dispatched so relatively easily and with little more than a "Pathetic" felt abrupt and just weirdly deflated the stakes for me.

Overall

So overall, I enjoyed this book and I was mostly happy with how it wrapped the series. It's not flawless, but for a debut series, it gets major kudos for ending generally well and for getting me that invested in my favorite characters.

[venus-haze]

What are you most looking forward to for season 4 of The Boys!!

Okay, so I apologize in advance for the person I’m gonna become when season 4 airs lol. Of course I’m so excited for JDM’s role! Especially since it seems like he and Butcher already know each other, so I wanna know more of their background! Plus he looks really good so🤭 (Hoping for a Soldier Boy cameo, too)

Obviously there’s Homelander’s secret alliance with Neuman that’s a thing now, plus the apparent trial for lasering the guy who threw the water bottle at Ryan? It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. I haven’t been a fan of the direction Homelander’s characterization has gone in since season 1, which is a shame because there’s so much potential! But it’s gotten too heavy-handed, in my opinion.

Also the implications of Butcher’s Temp V use, Annie joining The Boys, Maeve and Elena in hiding, and the totally new makeup of The Seven with Starlight, Queen Maeve, and Noir (technically) out.

It seems like some of the Gen V crew will be playing a role in season 4 too which I have mixed feelings on? I love Gen V and the alternate perspective of The Boys universe it gave us! I kinda would have prefered Gen V stay its own thing because I really don’t want The Boys to end up being a convoluted clusterfuck like the MCU.

I’m definitely excited🖤 I only got into the show a few months after season 3 dropped, so I’ve never been around for a season while it was actually airing!

🦇 Battie

[dean-winchester-is-a-warrior]

Well...That Happened...

Reactions and Thoughts For Episode 8 Under the Cut:

Hey, so my initial feeling about the episode honestly is that I'm really disappointed. Hated how the final fight went down. I feel like they handled the whole SB thing badly from the beginning. I feel like they (MM, Starlight and the show itself) put him on the same level of horrific as HL, and I'm sorry, but that just isn't true. (Although I do understand MM's motivations.)

Now SB is a racist, chauvinistic, rage-filled asshole. But HL is all that and a MILLION times worse!! Soldier Boy at least seems human, he's shown restraint a few times. (at least since he's been back from Russia) He has at least paid a debt for his crimes with 40 years of torture. Homelander has done NONE of that!!

Literally, SB may have been manageable, maybe his experiences in Russia changed him a bit. Who knows, but I feel like there was at least some wiggle room with him, somewhere to go. HL has proven time and again that he is incapable of being stopped. He's done every sadistic, horrific thing under the sun, but somehow SB was the one that absolutely had to be taken out?

They could have really used him against HL and from the beginning Starlight and MM acted like HL was just a secondary problem to SB! When it was 100% the other way around.

And what?!!! Butcher and Homelander worked together for a minute against Soldier Boy?

(x)

I get they were trying to protect Ryan, but I felt like that was kind of out of nowhere too. I didn't feel like HL's sudden, unswerving love for his son was earned. Obviously it's gonna be an easily overturned love too, as soon as Ryan does something HL feels is a "betrayal" he'll try to take him out too.

Anyway, I'm glad SB isn't dead, but I just feel like his character was kind of wasted. I LOVE his character and not just cause I want him to fuck me five ways from Sunday, but because I just think there's SO much more they could do with him.

In my mind the only way to redeem things is if in the end SB and Ryan team up, with the Boys of course and take out HL for good.

Things I really enjoyed about the episode:

Frenchie finally standing up for himself, being awkwardly badass and Kimiko cheering him on. 😍😍

Maeve kicking ass and freeing herself from the van.

Maeve not losing sight of the mission and kicking HL's ass.

Maeve faking her death and getting to go live a powers-free life with Elena.

Ashley helping her get away with it.

Noir's death scene literally made me cry. Obviously he's done some truly awful things too, but I really liked his character, and to watch his little woodland friends comfort him as he died just ripped my heart out. But that whole scene between HL and BN was incredibly well-done.

The scene between Butcher and SB talking about SB's father, and how it shows there's more than one kind of abuse. Jensen's INCREDIBLE acting in that scene.

Hughie making the right decision, not taking the V, and HELPING Starlight instead of trying to save her.

MM's scene with Janine. That was absolutely beautiful and a PERFECT example of what real strength and masculinity looks like. It was truly wonderful, when Janine puts her hand over his to help stop the ticks, and says, "You're my hero, Daddy." Ugh!!! ALL the tears! 😭😭😭

This line from Hughie when he's talking about his Dad, "He wasn't weak. I just...I didn't know what strength was." Truth. Hughie speaking absolute truth!

Starlight officially joining the boys, although I've disagreed with her and found her incredibly frustrating for most of the season. 😄😄

I've loved this season, overall, and even though I didn't like what went down in the end (If we need more proof that they went after the wrong fucking Supe, we can look to HL's actions in the final scene and the beginning of Ryan's corruption!) I'm still VERY excited for next season. I'm worried about Butcher, of course. I feel like the only way to save him might be to give him real V. Which will be an interesting dilemma for him! And we've got Neuman as the candidate for VP, yikes!!

So, bring on S4.

[deliciouskeys]

001 for Maevelander :)

* when I started shipping it if I did:

Episode 3 of season 1! They had so many good interactions. I was really intrigued by what kind of person Maeve was to be able to not only date HL, and also somehow manage to extricate herself out of a relationship with him, still be alive, and still have him clearly pining to get back together.

“See that’s what I like about you. You always tell me the truth”. And then in episode 4… the harrowing plane scene. The Boys writers say it sets up a contrast between HL and Maeve’s moralities, of course, but I thought it was also a fascinating example of someone staying silent about a serious crime because it’s their ex-partner who did it. Her evolving and increasing disgust and self-judgement as events spiral out afterwards was very interesting to watch.

* my thoughts:

I do think with each season their interactions got less satisfying 😕 But I adored morallygray!Maeve walking with the devil side by side in season 1 ❤️❤️❤️

* What makes me happy about them:

I thought Maeve was a badass female character, and I really like to think/read about how she first discovered and tapped into HL’s mental subbiness.

* What makes me sad about them:

Well, the fact that they were never really on the same page at all about the relationship is pretty sad. The scene in S3 where she tells HL that she hated him from the start makes her yet another person gaslighting him (don’t think the writers intended this scene to be tragic but it was)

* things done in fanfic that annoys me:

I have to say none of the Maevlander fics I’ve come across have annoyed me. Hypothetically, I’d be annoyed by a fic where HL was cruel and abusive to Maeve and she was meek and long-suffering.

* things I look for in fanfic:

Maeve being dominant in bed, but also Maeve being afraid of HL. The fics that pull off both of those aspects really rev me up. Also, it’s not a requirement but I’ve been delighted by the percentage of fics for this pairing that involve a pegging element— not a necessity by any means, but makes me feral.

* Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: 

Maeve can be with Elena if that makes her happy (maybe this is my own problem but I wish Elena were written as a more interesting character. I didn’t quite feel the chemistry.) I loved Maeve with Butcher, even though it came out of left field— but it would have been an interesting endgame, imo. For HL… he probably needs to end up with someone who genuinely loves him. Which might be impossible if he doesn’t get depowered. He’s going to have to be single dad parenting Ryan :/

* My happily ever after for them:

Homelander harvests her eggs and makes super babies via surrogate…. Juuuuust kiddingggg. I would have loved if Maeve never broke up with him but stayed on as the jaded, cool kid vaping in the bathroom while HL tries to reason with her and please her with romantic gestures, and never dumps her even though she’s undermining his clean cut earnest image and costing him points.

* who is the big spoon/little spoon:

I love HL being possessive of her, hovering around her, coming up behind her, trying to get into her space (Clarification: don’t condone irl, just compelling dynamic). He’s the big dumb eager spoon that her little spoon has to stave off periodically.

* what is their favorite non-sexual activity:

Apparently he liked weekend getaways to Europe with her. I think HL is into the glitz and PR of the relationship. But Maeve didn’t really enjoy any of that. I’d love to have had a glimpse into what HL references as understanding what it’s like for one another, being lonely at the top of the fame pyramid. Did they have quiet nights in where they watched movies and ate ice cream straight out of the pint container? We’ll probably never know from canon.

[longsightmyth]

random Truthteller question: how old is Helan's daughter? and whats her relationship like with both her parents?

I think I said somewhere that Evalin Ashryver Galathynius (as opposed to Evalin Galathynius) is 6, but I do not have my notes with me unfortunately.

Relationships with parents who had you with the expectation of something (even parents who love you) is going to be complicated no matter what, but as conceived I'm not going to go too much into that in Truthteller. Helan specifically had Evalin as a fuck you to the king of adarlan and as a way to continue the legacy of the queens of terrasen and obviously Helan's parents specifically, as evidenced by the whole name thing. Helan did not have to pass on Ashryver to her child: that was her father's family name. It's Helan's choice specifically to change the ENTIRE royal family name to Ashryver Galathynius, which I am using to try to show how involved Rhoe was as a parent as opposed to, say, the king of adarlan. Even his non-bio kids have his name and use it (or would if they weren't in hiding) because they loved both their parents and were loved by them.

Which is going to be fun to explore in relation to Elena and Maeve's relationships to their parents, both the one they have in common and the one they don't. I did not do all of that by coincidence!

(Okay a couple of things are coincidental but the compare/contrast parenting is not)(I just didn't mean to FOCUS so much on it)

Anyway I grew up in a family of loving bioparents and loving stepparents, and I get tired of one or the other always being Bad. Some are bad. Some are good. Many are in between. I think showing the range is important.

And Gavriel and Helan are bros and platonic. Gavriel first agreed to help Helan have a kid because wow he'd never been propositioned like that, this is interesting! And then like. He had a tiny daughter and was like 'well. She's even more interesting! Look at her! She has tiny fingernails! I didn't know babies came with hats!' (Sorry for the west wing reference, I slipped). Anyway Gavriel is here because he and Helan are friends now and he has a daughter and that whole Situation is FASCINATING to him as a relatively young fae. Humans are pretty interesting to him in general (they keep changing wtf) but his daughter is Obviously The Most Interesting.

(He loves her very much and is her primary caregiver while Helan is off plotting rebellion)

[msommers]

1, 12, 17 for maeve and jorina! (and the first two for elena maybe? if you think they're applicable?)

thank you alana!! 💖 // vanilla sunday meme

1) IS YOUR MUSE A ROMANTIC? DO THEY DREAM OF LOVE AND MARRIAGE?

MAEVE — those are practically staples of maeve's character tbh, she is The romantic. she’s an absolute sucker and she’d hate to admit it to anyone (except maybe ilya) but her having those kinds of dreams about a future filled with an actual true love were one of the things that kept her going through the time stuck with carden. even outside of that situation though, maeve's drifting thoughts and a good portion of her dreams are romance based because she's just Like That. at its worst when she's yearning and her imagination conjures up any and every romantic image to make her suffer

JORINA — i don't think jorina would ever consider herself a romantic, but she certainly has some traits that pop up after the relationship with aleksi began. she'd never had the time or interest in romance before then but being with him awakened so very much in her, including sappy romantic gestures. she absolutely had some dreams motivated by being starved for affection and touch and love and all that before hooking up with aleksi, but don't tell anyone that. it's not at the front of her mind because there are more pressing issues on the daily, but she's had a few thoughts about marriage here and there when feeling particularly mushy (i actually think i remember there being arranged marriages all over city elf culture?? so that’s another layer to it that she’d probably be thinking on)

ELENA — i think that once she gets into a relationship, then elena would have quite a few traits of a romantic. beforehand those types of things aren’t really on her mind that much, outside of an occasional brief wondering about what the future could hold when she gets caught up observing a happy and in love couple going about their day. she needs a real Connection with somebody to truly imagine any personal super romancey thoughts, but she’s not immune to noticing how soft and sweet some things are.

12) IS YOUR MUSE EASILY FLUSTERED? DO THEY BLUSH, SWEAR, ETC.?

MAEVE — she isn't easily flustered in General, but i think with certain people there are ways they could go about flustering her through surprise or really laying on the flirtation and compliments thick. if she gets caught slipping like that she'll usually blush and have to spend a few moments gathering herself before returning the flirtation in kind, she doesn't stay flustered for very long. 

JORINA — i think a lot of jorina's being flustered is a direct result of aleksi's actions, whether he planned them or not. she'll blush at anyone being a little to Open about their naughty activities, but it's watching aleksi or being flirted with by him that really sends her into jorina.exe has stopped processing mode because her affections and attention are devoted to him. it's honestly Embarrassing how many times she's had her mouth drop open, walked into a doorframe, completely zoned out of a conversation she's having, etc etc just because she's watching him stretch or something off in the distance. at least she can usually blame weather or exhaustive efforts for her flushed cheeks while they're out scouting

ELENA — she’s not gonna trip over her own toes or anything but i could see elena as the type to get a little blush in her cheeks if she’s being flirted with by somebody that she’s into.

17) DOES YOUR MUSE LEAVE HICKIES? DO THEY ASK FOR THEM?

MAEVE — okay so this is a whole trick question because the answer is a Big Time Yes to both of these, she’s a hoe for ‘love bites’ and doesn’t hide it. but her partners! are always witchers!! and their mutant asses heal so damn quickly that she can’t truly leave any on them!!! sure does love receiving them in the moment and then getting to spot them later in reflections as little reminders of the fun that was had,,,sure would love to return the favor someday smh (that won’t stop her from trying tho. often and eagerly) ((f in the chat for those witchers in any verses where they Don’t heal quickly))

JORINA — i don’t think she’d leave them that often, but if she did?? she’d probably put ‘em in places that could be covered by clothes because they ain’t nobody’s business except hers and aleksi’s. would die before Asking for any herself, but she’s isn’t opposed and rather likes knowing they’re there beneath her scarf/shirt at times.

[melis-ash]

It`s maybe unpopular opinion, but I don`t like how The Boys writers write Queen Maeve. Maeve is interesting character and I love her, but it`s much more because amazing actress work, than because writers efforts. I dont know, writers dont interested in her enough or they dont know what do with her or they plan something for her later, but at that point I feel really disappointed by the way they use her potential, especially comparing some other characters. They gave The Deep (pathetic rapist and abuser) whole arc in s1 and then more story in s2, but Queen Maeve spent whole s1 passively suffering, and how much as I love her, I can`t consider her s1 storiline as arc, she even didn`t make something for moving plot in s1. They gave her love interest, but her and Elena relationship never had enough screen time, and works only as Maeve motivation and excuse for satire. Sorry, but it`s difficult for me to empytize love story that such poorly written. I can see why Hughie and Anny is thing, but there are no any explaining why Maeve and Elena love each other. Any other couple in show has more moments which give viewers explaining of their relationship - Homelander and Madelyn, Homelander and Stormfront, Frenchie and Kymiko, Butcher and Bekka. But when it`s about Maeve and Elena, they just force us to face the fact, that these two women are pair, and nothing else. I see their conflicts and why their relationship doesn`t work, but I can`t see why it can work in better circumastances.

[supemaeve]

We're here today to remember the victims of trans-oceanic flight 37. One hundred and twenty-three brave souls lost in an instant, in a senseless act of violence.

[walkwithheroes84]

The Boys: Season 2 Thoughts

I had to wait eight weeks (though I’ve been checking out the tags and reposting gif sets), but I was finally able to sit down and binge season two of The Boys. I have to be honest: I’m not sure I loved - or even liked - the directions they went with certain characters/stories. However, it was a solid season and it felt like the closing on an arc in a comic. It felt complete enough that we could end there - at least for a year or so - and still have plenty to come back to in 2022/2023.

Spoilers for Season Two Follow!

The Seven:

-I have to start with Stormfront. I have never read the comics, but I have read the Wikipedia, so I went in knowing that - despite the changes - Stormfront is a Nazi in the comics. And, she was a Nazi in the show. She (smartly) changed with the times - building social media followers, playing on the weakness of others, using an ‘us vs. them’ story for almost everything. She was savvy. I’m 100% sure she was using Homelander and that her plan was to use Ryan and all her lab!Supes to form a new Nazi party. When Maeve (a bi woman), Kimiko (a WOC), and Annie (a woman whose assault she mocked) ganged up to beat the shit out of her? Poetic Justice. Only made better by the fact that it was Ryan, her “White Savior” who basically destroyed her. (I don’t want to say kill, because I think she could be alive.) The only thing that would have made it better is if someone in that group was Jewish. (Side note: The fact that Aya Cash is Jewish, but played such a convincing Nazi - that speaks to her talent.)

-We can’t talk about Stormfront without bringing in Homelander. We know he craves love above all else. He wants to be worshipped. He feels he deserves it. In many ways he is a spoiled child. Stormfront played him like a fiddle, in my opinion. Do I think he cared for Ryan? Uh, only because Ryan is his son and appears to have his powers - Ryan is someone he could have molded to be a Homelander 2.0. But, I don’t think Homelander is capable of real - selfless - love. I just don’t. 

- I can be totally honest. . . as much as I love Antony Starr and Aya Cash - there was just way too much Homelander and Stormfront this season. I understand why their stories took up so much screen time, but I didn’t care for their characters and I actually am starting to find Homelander a little one note. He wants to be loved and will do anything to be loved. He also feels that he can do anything he wants. Again, he’s a child. I feel they will need to do something fresh with him in season three or give him less screen time to keep him from getting stale.  

-Let me briefly touch on  the Church of the Collective. I suppose, in the end, it was a season-long set up to explain how the Boys got the Nazi information on Stormfront. Though, woman is keeping her memorable and photos in her room...so, it didn’t really seem like she was trying super hard to hide her past. I thought they might be being set up to be some kind of major player in season three - they do have dirt on Supes and they work with Vought International  and the government - but,  Alastair Adana is dead and the Deep is there. . .so, unless the plan is for the Deep to take over the church...? 

-Speaking of The Deep, in my overview/review of last season, I mentioned that the show could either try to redeem him or have him go fully dark. And, the show surprised me by having him go in-between. Like, he still knows he’s a screwup and he still wants back in The Seven. He’ll do anything to get back in. However, I don’t seem him redeemed in any major way nor do I think he’s intelligent enough to be considered a dark character. Guy is just a mess. I have to be honest - I do wonder if the writers know what to do with the character. 

-A-Train may have only helped Annie and Hughie for selfish reasons, but he still helped. . . so, okay. I’ll give it a bit of a pass. As he said: Hugh saved him in season 1 and he gave them information in season 2 - they are even and it goes back to square one. They aren’t enemies, but they aren’t friends. I liked A-Train more during this season, but he really wasn’t given too much to do. 

- Maeve got more screen time! Her relationship with Elena was explored! She, as a person, was explored!  I understand that she isn’t going to suddenly become a true hero. She’s become too jaded for that. However, she will still try and do the right thing and I love that about her. 

-I really grew to love Annie this season. That is all. I still am not a huge shipper of Annie/Hugh, but they are very sweet together. 

- Lamplighter should not have been killed off so soon. I would have liked to his his guilt and his character explored more. 

-This truly was the season of The Seven with Homelander, Stormfront, Maeve, and Annie being moved to the front of the storylines. I liked it, but I REALLY missed....

The Boys:

-I’m sorry, but  Marvin T. "Mother's" Milk (MM) is a wonderful human being. He still needs more screen time and a bit more development, but I love that they used him a bit more this season. When he went home to his daughter? Please let him be with his family until the end of 3.01/middle of 3.02. Just let the man watch his shows and make his dollhouses and be happy. 

- Hugh came into his own this season, and that was wonderful. I am interested to see where his working for his working for Victoria Neuman will go. Especially as he is trying to take down Vought in a legal way, but his new boss is secretly exploding heads.

-Kimiko! My heart ached for her so much this season. She found her brother and found that he had become so brainwashed and full of hate and than she lost him. She pushed Frenchie away and became an assassin for the mob. Her truest friend, Frenchie, pulled away from her. But, in the end she helped take down Stormfront and she and Frenchie literally danced off together. Kimiko didn’t get that much screen time after 2.03, but what she did get -  Karen Fukuhara used. 

-Frenchie also got some great development this season. I’m still going to call him Frenchie, even if his name is  Serge. It was great that he realized that a part of the reason he focused in on protecting Kimiko was because he has failed to protect others. When he told her he would leave her alone? Aw, no - just back off a bit. And he did, and she taught him her language! 

-Frenchie x Kimiko are my couple on this show and they need to dive into that “It’s not sexual and it’s not quite romantic, but it’s way more than friendship/family” thing they have going on. 

-Let’s talk Butcher. He’s selfish. He is. He was willing to give up Ryan to get Becca back. But, he’s not heartless. He couldn’t separate his wife from her son. And, while I think he might have killed Ryan if Homelander hadn’t shown up - he gave Ryan to people who will try and keep him safe and shape him into a good person. Do I think he’ll go dark because of Becca’s death? Probably. If they follow the comics (which they aren’t anymore, but they may want to follow overall character stories), he’ll have to go dark.  I’m sad they killed Becca - she could have just gone with Ryan. But, it will be interesting to see if Butcher takes up the offer to work secretly for the government. 

Season Three Predictions/Hopes:

- I think the show will fast forward a bit. We’ll see The Seven as heroes in public, but all facing their own issues in private. We may see other Supe teams. 

- I think The Boys will be separated for a bit: Hughie working for Neuman, MM with his family, Frenchie and Kimiko off on their own, Butcher doing his own thing. And something will happen that will cause them all to come back together. 

[abigailnussbaum]

The Boys 5x06, “The Bloody Doors Off”

I’m generally quite positive about this episode, but before I get to that, this really needs to be said: the trope of “doors open at the asylum, murder and mayhem ensue” is really poisonous to the mentally ill, and should have been discarded a long time ago. It’s particularly common in superhero stories, which are, after all, very fond of the setting of a superhero asylum. Off the top of my head, both The Gifted and Batwoman have employed it in the last two years. Which means that even as it’s patting itself on the back for skewering the tropes of superhero stories, The Boys is indulging in a particularly vile one. And while we’re on the subject of things this episode should have been above: that joke about transgender strippers. It’s not as bad as it could have been, because the gag isn’t “she’s got a penis!” (and MM’s response is immediately “I don’t care for strippers regardless of their genitalia”). But it’s still fetishizing the trans body - which, I suppose, is hardly surprising given the show’s generally judgmental attitude towards kink.

That being said, this is probably the best episode of the season, largely because it plays to the show’s strengths: tight thematic and plot coherence (finally justifying the decision to move the show to a weekly format after weeks of shapeless installments), strong characterization, and a willingness to complicate seemingly black and white situations that belies the show’s reputation as an outrage machine. So yes, this is an episode that features Homelander crushing a man’s skull while in the throes of passion (apparently we need to have at least one of those per season), not to mention a man with a giant, prehensile penis. But it’s also an episode that deepens our understanding of Frenchie, introduces us to a new character who is almost instantly compelling (while also complicating that reaction significantly), and forces us to reexamine our feelings towards Maeve without telling us anything new about her.

The common theme running through the episode is the things you’ll do for the people you love, how you live with the consequences of those choices, and what they make of you. We finally get to meet Lamplighter, the boogeyman whose murder of Mallory’s grandchildren broke the Boys apart years ago and has hung over Frenchie in particular. And we find out why that is - Frenchie was supposed to be keeping an eye on Lamplighter, whom Mallory had just recruited to her investigation of Homelander, and left his post to tend to a friend who was ODing.

Shawn Ashmore is inspired casting for Lamplighter. He’s got the sort of look that can just as easily convey sympathetic concern as selfish entitlement, and slide between the two with ease. Which makes Lamplighter both less hatable than we might have expected, given what we know of him, but also hard to trust. (To be fair, I’m reading a lot of Johnny Jaqobis into the performance, and that was Aaron, not Shawn; but honestly, those two are surprisingly similar for how solid both of their careers have turned out.) But the episode really belongs to Frenchie, who not only takes on Lamplighter’s admission that he didn’t know Mallory’s grandchildren were in the room he set on fire, but finds enough common ground with the man to confess his own part in that night’s disaster. When Lamplighter asks “did [your friend] live?”, it’s a moment of human connection that we don’t often see between the Boys and their quarry (and leads to Frenchie’s heartbreaking revelation that Jay lived, only to die of another overdose shortly after). The episode ends with Frenchie begging for Lamplighter’s life from Mallory (and also trying to make peace with Kimiko, who is otherwise sorely underused).

At the same time, the episode doesn’t encourage us to feel uncomplicated sympathy towards Lamplighter. As MM points out “I meant to murder an innocent woman, not her grandchildren” is hardly a defense. And even more disturbing is Lamplighter’s repeated refrain to Frenchie, “why didn’t you stop me?” Whereas Frenchie doesn’t want to be let off the hook even though he had a good reason for abandoning his assignment, Lamplighter is looking for someone else to blame for his own actions, even to the perverse extreme of blaming an opponent for not fighting back. And, as we see in the present, he’s still killing innocents, burning experiment subjects who don’t pan out or refuse to play along, while claiming that he’s being forced.

Which ties into Maeve, who for the first time is called to account for her part in the plane crash last season. Maeve sees the video of the crash as indicting Homelander, which is also how we’ve been trained to think about it. But when Elena watches it, she sees a woman she’s been taught to think of as heroic abandoning others to save her own life, begging fruitlessly for mercy but finally just saving her own skin. Like Lamplighter - and more importantly, like Annie earlier in this season, when she was about to kill Hughie at Homelander’s command - Maeve might reasonably say that she didn’t have a choice. But she still did those things, and hid them. Her final line to Elena - “why are you looking at me that way?” - sums up the episode’s core message.

It’s a message that is also echoed in the Annie-Billy-Hughie storyline, though it’s a bit more wobbly in that context. The idea of having Annie and Billy bond over their shared love of Hughie is a solid storytelling beat, but I’m not quite sure what to make of Annie’s “he’s too good for either of us”. Annie kills the driver to save Hughie, and the show doesn’t let her off the hook for that (her long look at the baby seat in the car once she gets in). But it’s still a choice she made in order to save someone. Hughie killed Translucent for no reason at all - or really, because he wanted to feel strong and powerful after weeks of stewing in grief and rage over Robin’s death (and Annie, though she knows the Boys were responsible for Translucent’s death, still doesn’t know that Hughie is the one who pushed the button). I’m not sure he’s too good for anyone. 

(Meanwhile, the fact that Annie was on the verge of killing Hughie to save her own life just a few episode ago seems to have been memory-holed, even though it would have been a really obvious thing for Billy to throw in her face during their fight early in the episode.)

The other big thing that happens in this episode is that we find out Stormfront’s background, and between what she says to Homelander and what Lamplighter reveals to the Boys, it seems clear that her plan is to create a superpowered neo-Nazi army and use it to take over the world. It’s good to finally have some answers (and I admit that this is a more interesting turn of plot than the one I anticipated last week, a false flag terrorist attack). But I also feel that the show is in danger of outthinking itself. Having Vought be a company with roots in Nazi Germany was a clever touch earlier this season, but making Stormfront a German Nazi herself - and making the entire genesis of superheroes a Nazi project - undercuts a lot of what the show has been saying about American racism and how much its superheroes are rooted in it. Suddenly we’re back to that familiar trope, invasion by an army of foreign and foreign-inspired Nazis. It’s not unlike the way that Winter Soldier whiffed its central revelation, choosing to focus on a fifth column of hidden traitors instead of admitting the more terrifying truth, that after seventy years there’s really no way to disentangle “good” SHIELD from “evil” Hydra, because the former has been hopelessly corrupted by the latter.

When I wrote about last week’s episode, I praised it for skewering rainbow capitalism in its depiction of Vought’s plans to “sell” Maeve’s queerness and her relationship with Elena. Since then, several people have pointed out that The Boys was speeding well ahead of the actual industry it’s lampooning - in a blockbuster market dominated by superhero movies, there are currently no queer superhero characters (though there are several on TV). Which means that the show’s satire can end up missing its mark - instead of pointing out how capitalism squeezes everything good into an easily-digested, marketable form, one can easily read this subplot as saying that a gay superhero would be bad, full stop. 

I think a similar dynamic is at play when it comes to Stormfront’s secret plot. An army of superpowered neo-Nazis is scary, but is it really scarier than the President of the United States not only refusing to condemn white supremacists on stage at a national debate, but addressing them directly in terms that can only be taken as an instruction to riot if he loses the election? Is it scarier than videos of police that repeatedly show their sympathy towards white supremacist, to the point of standing by when one of them fires into a crowd of people? It doesn’t take superpowers for fascism to take hold - it didn’t in Nazi Germany, and it doesn’t today. By pretending otherwise, The Boys is neutering its social commentary exactly where it should be most trenchant.

[cyclone-rachel]

notes on The Boys season 2 episode 4 

such disrespect

I do love these two, Frenchie and Kimiko

Frenchie no, I hope you and Kimiko get to communicate somehow about this

I’m sure she’s done jack shit too

Return of Homelander’s gross mommy kink

Then again it also never left

That... is incredibly sad. And I would also like to learn more about Mallory?

Depends on who the president is

you sure she’s alive?

That’s a trap, Butcher do not go there

You were the media whore before she was, my dude

What exactly are they suggesting

They can’t, that’s what they were trying to say

Did Homelander always know it was Doppelganger?

He really is dumb

Does he really cry that much?

Good on Maeve

DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH HER

Starlight has done nothing wrong, you dickface

yes very good

what is he doing to her

big yikes

heeeey

gosh, so does he just eat when nobody can see him

can’t wait for it to come up again

she is cute

Annie doesn’t

This is very risky, kids

Asking the right questions

road trip time?

Be honest with her, Hughie, she went through so much for you

not wrong

is it road trip time?

heeeeeey Shockwave

lol, of course they have a streaming service

fuck you, Homelander

It is all about you, isn’t it

this is pure

it is a road trip to North Carolina, and he is kind of their chaperone

what is the point of this commercial thing

oh boy here we go

when are we going to see Lamplighter?

awww, I like this. It’s gonna go wrong at some point.

did a superhero kill him

oh shit

that’s interesting

oh noooooo

that’s intense, Becca

Ryan could fall with style

That is a good choice

Are the Almond Joys drugged too, like the Fresca?

mood, Annie

I want to give you a hug

is Ryan in that car

You’re sure not a good role model

I’m so glad that Becca can see through his shit

is that something she wants?

Love you, Maeve

I know who that is, she’s the Afterbuzz lady

Oh my god

Sure, Jan

is this based on a real statistic in one of the universes

most of them are also assholes

ugh he’s gonna say something shitty and gross, isn’t he

fuck my secondhand embarrassment

Homelander no

NO. FUCK YOU

only she gets to out herself, you piece of shit

I knew this was going to happen, because I spoiled myself on it, but still FUCK

poor Maeve, she looks so uncomfortable

can I give her a hug too

noooooooo

You better not be lying

Kick his star-spangled ass

Don’t tell me he thinks him outing her is a good thing

Dipshit!

stay away from women!

let Elena live, thank you

hell yeah it is

One less woman you creepily fantasize about

Murder her, Kimiko

oh my god her face is so heartbreaking

KAREN. MA’AM. ACTING

I love you both

she is full of rage and it’s very relatable

oh dear

Despite Starlight being there

MM is a good man and I hope he lives

Is that how you got your nickname?

We’ll have to find out too

oh nooooo

ah, that’s not Lamplighter, I see (I thought it was him in the trailer)

oh shit

Probably older

that’s sad

you deserve that, you bitch

I hope someone screenshot all those memes

okay but teenagers on the internet would make those too

I would also accept Arby’s gift cards

fucking yikes

that’s an understatement

Ryan is still Homelander’s son

Go, Becca!

She’s a way better actress now

yeah see, there it is

fuuuuck

oh shit, that’s not good, especially if it goes the way I think it will

she’s right too

oh fuck, that’s what this is about

god. why.

yeah that’s a cult thing

no, not that again

oh my god

nooooooo

also in general it is extremely on-brand for this show to have an episode premiering on 9/11, when that is an important date in the comics

and I JUST REALIZED Jack played Marvel in the first Hunger Games movie, and his district partner was named Glimmer. And now he's working with the actress who voiced Glimmer in new She-Ra

so that’s fun

[captainimfangirling]

The Boys Season 2 Episode 6

Warning: Major spoilers

Stormfront: I f*cking knew it! Someone else predicted that the creator of Vought was a Nazi and I added that her gandmother is not only her daughter but Vought was her husband! I was wrong that Stormfront was a natural born supe and they took her DNA to make Compund V but she was the first experiment.

Homelander: For sure we know Homelander’s trigger is people lying to him but this dude is easily manipulated. Stormfront is doing exactly what Stillwell did to Homelander. Notice how Homelander fell for Stormfront as soon as she told him the truth? He thinks she loves him because she told him the truth. Nobody tells him the truth because of how scared they are of him. Someone else said this but that Homelander respects people who are not scared of him. That’s why he hasn’t killed Butcher. I love how Homelander acts like an impatient child. He couldn’t wait 20 minutes. Children don’t have that kind of patience.

Billy Butcher: Did you see the way Butcher reacted when Hughie got hurt?! He even respected Starlight for killing that guy because it helped them save Hughie! Him deciding to leave the others shows that Hughie is his fav but at the same time I think he knew they could take care of themselves.

Starlight: Poor thing. She doesn’t want to be like Butcher. I love the scene of her and Butcher bonding over the childish things Hughie does like using L'Oréal Kids shampoo. lol

Kimiko: Her hugging Starlight was so freaking cute! I love how Mother’s Milk and Frenchie calmed Kimiko down. Both care about her. I also loved Butcher bonding with Kimiko watching Homelander and Stromfront’s interview. Both are looking at people who took away someone they loved. I forgot the patient’s name but I have a feeling she’s gonna help that person.

Hughie: True we aren’t good enough for Hughie. Except for Robin. I personally think he still loves Robin very much but because of the trauma, he’s become codependent on Starlight. That’s why their relationship went so fast. Not saying he doesn’t love her (I ship them) but he and Starlight need to work out their own personal issues before they can have a healthy relationship.

Lamplighter: I shouldn’t feel bad but I do. You can tell he didn’t mean to kill Mallory’s grandchildren. He mistook them for Mallory.

Frenchie: My poor broken Frenchie. He wanted Mallory dead. That’s why he didn’t stop Lamplighter but it backfired on him and poor innocent children died. Edit: Sorry I misunderstood. He didn’t want Mallory dead. I didn’t see the part where his friend had a drug overdose. I thought he wanted Mallory dead because she basically used him but she used all of them. She admitted that to Butcher.

A-Train and The Deep: The Deep trying to recruit A-Train into the Church of the Collective. To be honest I don’t have interest in this part of the story line.

Mother’s Milk: He’s like the daddy of the group! Laughed my ass off at his reaction when he realized a big d*ck was wrapped around his neck!

Queen Maeve & Elena: Elena has every right to be upset with Queen Maeve but at the same time Maeve didn’t have a choice. I think Elena is more upset about the fact that she’s gonna use the plane video footage as blackmail instead of just reporting it to CNN.

[sobbinscenes]

At last! I’ve finished Heir Of Fire

This one took me forever to read.

And it’s not because it’s longer— while yes, I did usually finish the other books in like a week and they were shorter, this one I just got so unmotivated to read because it felt like it was going nowhere in the beginning.

And I mean, it was, but since Celaena had to do things less action based— and so did the rest of the gang— it felt like not too much was going on :,)

BUT! I just read 300 pages yesterday and the last 40 this morning and it’s done and over with, so now time for my thoughts n feels.

Overall it was a good book, like I said it was definitely less action-based which was different than the last few books. And it wasn’t bad or anything— the pacing was good, I’m just impatient lol.

I was really happy they developed more of the fae part of the world, magic is one of my absolute favourite things to read about and it was cool seeing how to overcome it and all.

Rowan originally really reminded me of Chaol (because of how he was introduced lol), which kinda made me think he’d end up with Celaena for some reason. They didn’t, kinda disappointed but ah well.

Otherwise he’s a really cool character and it was interesting seeing the layers to his emotions over his lifetime. The rest of the bunch at Mistward were also great, they’re all so wholesome must protect.

Not gonna lie, the whole mate thing and the fact that Celaena was 19 and Rowan hundreds of years old kinda put me off— maybe it’s a good thing they didn’t end up together lol.

Oh, and again with the creepiness! SJM is always great at creeping me out with the creatures and the way she writes them; now I get to add skinwalkers and the valg princes onto my list of nightmares, what fun :D

Manon’s pov was really cool to read about. Again, was nice learning about more magical beings amd the witches really interest me— especially after what the crochan witch had said near the end— but it was a bit meh to read at times because it didn’t actively relate to the plot that was going on then and there.

I found Manon’s arc catching. I liked how you see her so mercilessly hunting crochan witches to eventually be offered one and not hesitate, but question. Question if she should really be doing this, if she was wrong because of the ways she was raised and if she did in fact have a heart.

Sorscha! My girl, I love you. I was so sad when she died because I was hoping that if in the far future she became queen, she’d prove herself wrong and develop in that sense. But unfortunately I was wrong :,) I actually really liked her as a character though, it was refreshing after all the strong-headed women like Celaena and Manon. Rip 🙏

Dorian. My boy, my poor poor boy. Imagine seeing your lover get their head chopped off right then and there. Ouch. I’m honestly surprised he didn’t burn the place to the grown (or rather freeze) but he’s not Celaena so makes sense lol.

Oh and Dorian didn’t say ily back to Chaol AHAHAHA. Still though, best bros.

As for Chaol, w ow. He did a lot more behind the scenes in this, and it was interesting because, while he did ‘betray’ everyone, he simultaneously stayed loyal by staying true to his beliefs. So don’t beat yourself up, cap. I’m really surprised he brought Fleetfoot with him though. I know there’s some emotional baggage and stuff with that dog, but it’s a d o g. Not very inconspicuous.

Yo what if once they leave Adarlan the dog turns out to be a of fae descent and the dog is her other skin— haha jk... unless

I like that we’re finally going back to Arobynn Hamel, I’ve been waiting to meet him since book 1.

The flashbacks were fun to read, makes the king even more of a jerk :))

Aedion made me laugh quite a few times. I’m surprised anyone can hold on against their enemy for so long. Makes me wish he really does end up escaping and finding Celaena. Family reunion guys come on :(

Also why did I get the slightest feeling that Ren and Aedion had a thing going on LOL. Maybe it’s just me. Honestly, Aedion is way too much of a simp for Celaena to bother with those types of things.

What I’m Anticipating in Queen of Shadows:

What is Rowan gonna do? He himself said, “Or am I just going to be left to sit on ass for months”

Will Chaol give up the Eye of Elena once he sees Celaena again?

How does the King not know that his Champion has been Aelin? They look so similar???

Will Celaena be accepted with “open” arms in Adarlan or do they know who she is?

More news on Kaltain and what’s-his-face. Are they trying to escape? Have they succumbed to the dark magic?

Will the witches (or more Manon and the Thirteen) turn on the King once they realize why the men taste so bad and what he’s doing? Orrrr will they go all murder-mode and relish in the monsters at their disposal

Manon going against her grandmother! Please!

Celaena practicing her water-type magic. I know she barely has an affinity for it, but that could be a useful skill to have

Aedion and Celaena reunion

Chaol getting over Celaena (I mean this in a kind way lol, as much as I shipped Chaol x Celaena, it’s clear it’s not happening anymore so I hope for him to move on and be at peace with that)

Luca, Emrys and Malakai not dying (I know this doesn’t count but hey they’re too precious to be involved in this)

More on Maeve. (She clearly still wants the Wyrdkeys, will she fight the King herself? Has she been secretly preparing to go against him?)

Is Dorian going to succumb to the darkness? (Please no, this boy needs to be King, I trust no other)

Hhh that was reallly long. Now I guess I’ll start Queen of Shadows then! Convenient since I have it with me already :))

[misshopemikaelson]

thanks for tagging me @sarahsjeffery 💙💙

rules: pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions. don’t cheat. tag some people

Legacies

Sex Education

The Bold Type

The Vampire Diaries

Supergirl

who is your favorite character in 2?

I love Maeve and Eric. Can’t choose.

who is your least favorite character in 1?

Landon. He annoys the crap out of me. and Clarke... no no!

what is your favorite episode of 4?

uhm... Probably the maskarade ball or the one that tells Katherine story while she is in the tomb talking to Elena.

what is your favorite season of 5?

Season 2.

who is your favorite couple in 3?

Dammit!!! They have amazing ships!! uhmmm i’m between Adena and Kat and Richard and Sutton.<3

who is your favorite couple in 2?

Gotta say i really wanted Maeve and Otis to happen.

what is your favorite episode of 1?

Season 1 i love 1x12 “There’s a Mummy on Main Street” (the roadtrip scene omg) and  season 2 it’s 2x05 “Screw Endgame”

what is your favorite episode of 5?

I looooooove the musical episode on season 2!! 

what is your favorite season of 2?

Season 2.

how long have you watched 1?

Damn i can’t remember but it was somewhere between episodes 3 and 4 from season one. Then I watched the final season of TO to understand a few things. 

how did you become interested in 3?

My best friend told me i would love it and it was really my kind of tv show and honestly she was soooo right. I am in love with it. Still finishing up season 3 tho. I started on the quarentine. lol

who is your favorite actor in 4?

That’s unfair! But I gotta say Nina and Candice!

which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5?

Legacies. It reminds me sooo much of stuff I used to write (i wrote some sort of TVD fanfic with a friend of mine a few years ago even before TO was going to air. and the story is reeeeeeeeeally close to legacies. We even made up a school. the difference is the couples and the kids. like Klaus had a boy, elena had a girl and Katherine too) and it’s just like watching what i wrote back then, brings me a lot of feelings and i just love it.

which show have you seen more episodes of, 1 or 3?

Legacies. I basicallu binge watch it everyday. I am currently on 2x12 for the 10th time. 

if you could be anyone from 4, who would you be?

Katherine! she is my fave ever sence she was mentioned.

would a crossover between 3 and 4 work?

Not unless you wanna put some vamps and werewolves working on a woman’s magazine in new york. lol

pair two characters in 1. who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple?

Is Hosie an option for this question? no? but hosie anyway! If not Hosie... well... nah still hosie. 

overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5?

Weeeeeeell... they are very different but since im more into the bold type now than supergirl... im gonna say the bold type. supergirl is kinda boring now.

which has better theme music, 2 or 4?

Honestly i used to LOVE tvd soundtrack. and since none of them have a theme music... i’m gonna go with soundtrack. lol so TVD.

tagging (if you guys want to): @hosies-world @legaciesladies @hopemikealsen @hosieposies @lizziesbear and whoever else want to do it. <3