#and that he lied about the lyctoral process

[spectrum-color]

***Locked Tomb spoilers***

There’s something so creepy about Alecto. At first it seems like a funny gag, “hahaha Jod put half the soul of the Earth into a living Barbie.” Then you realize that he’s the one who threw a fit destroyed the earth, and he consumed as much of it as he could to give himself incredible powers, then he stuffed the rest into a replica of a doll. He also brought back his friends, all smart, accomplished people, only he wiped their minds and gave them new identities, making them serve him as god and savior of humanity and forcing half of them to needlessly kill the other half, and when Alecto started to cause problems (in ways I suspect may have had to do with her telling Anastasia the truth) he locked her away. When you read that, you realize that the whole empire is a game he plays and the lyctors are his favorite toys, and suddenly the choice to model Alecto off a doll was very deliberate.

[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.

[sincerely-a-walking-corpse]

Jon Gaius, The Kindly Prince of Death, is a fucking lair.

I will use this as evidence to convince you, that he cannot actually, Resurect.

(now keep in mind that i cannot use the entirety of all the out books because I'm only part way through Nona.)

Firstly, he's an egotistical ass who let a bunch of his closest friends murder eachother without so much as saying 'hey maybe don't?'. Second, he lied about him getting fucked by Resurrection Beast madness. Third, he lied about Anastasia 'mucking up the whole process', and then sent her to the ninth house to go rot far away from where the other lyctors could see her.

And fourth, he never does anything about the plights of others, like he just puts the weight of stopping The Saint of Duty purely on Harrow's shoulders because of a promise? Like dude, someone's life is on the line. Jod probably could've just, gotten rid of RB's without any Lyctors sacrificing themselves, and he just... doesn't.

Okok, so conclusion: Yknow how he says he will never resurrect again because the cost is too great? What if its not, because as far as we know, there is no cost to resurrection. So I propose, that is was either through the initial thanergy cascade that he was able to resurrect, or it was only with his second half being awoken that we was capable if it.

(Keep in mind I'm only half way through day three of Nona, so if any of this is disproven, feel free to mock me in whatever way you want)

[starberry-cupcake]

Alrighty, here we are again

previously, in harrowcita the ninth:

this happened

currently, after ch. 2 (once again, I wanted to read more but realized these notes were too long):

first off, I need to point out something very important

reading the first part of gideon, this was how the dynamic of her and harrow felt like, from gideon's pv in the first chapter or two

this is what it actually was like, now that I have harrow's pv

so, now that we've cleared that up, let me tell you about the emperor

I don't know about this guy

something's not adding up for me

I feel like he's either lying, telling half-truths that benefit him or he doesn't know what he's doing

and none of those options are very god-tier

he's also constantly going like "harrow, I'm gonna let you choose" and five minutes later he's "oh, actually, you never had a choice to begin with, I'm so sorry about that"

I don't think you're sorry if you've done it like 3 times since we've met you

maybe say what you actually mean, unless you're full of lies

he takes harrow on a walk through the clown death star ship he's got going on

and takes her to his coffin hangar

shows her coffins of the people he made to send to the ninth

the new ninth people

aiglamene is gonna have to work overtime

(I can't believe I've never forgotten her name)

and then there's coffins for all the little friends we made in canaan house

:) ♥

except there are a bunch missing people

let me just note the info we got

the second says "no human remains inside"

last we saw them, martita was KO and judith was bleeding to death

nobody from the third as well, and we already have suspicions about wtf is happening with these parsley and cilantro twins

from the sixth, one is empty because CAMILLA ISN'T DEAD GODDAMMIT

the other one has little pieces of palmolive in it

me picking up the pieces of palmolive from the decor of canaan house

there is one coffin for not!dulcinea

the emperor guy says he's taking her with the other lyctors

as long as he flushes afterwards, it's fine

we are, by the way, trying very hard to not mention gideon ever, apparently

just wanna point out real quick that THERE'S A LOT OF PEOPLE UNACCOUNTED FOR and this guy is GOD so he's doing a terrible job

or he's not saying all he knows

or both

all this time, ice cube barbie is tagging along

ice cube barbie is harrow's babadook, which I stan tbh

since she's here to stay, let me show you another pic of that doll because it's my favorite from the haunted beauty collection

so, the emperor starts telling harrow what they're fighting against (or escaping from) and where they came from

this man explains what he wants and leaves out what he wants

at one point, when harrow asks something like "how will you explain all the dead people?" he goes like

he asks harrow about death and the process of it and she says, at one point:

"In cases of apopneumatic shock, where death is sudden and violent, the energy burst can be sufficient to countermand osmotic pressure and leave the soul temporarily isolated. Whence we gain the ghost, and the revenant."

this is important for the later conversation about revenant beasts, which are the things that the emperor is having trouble with

but I highlighted it because I am adding it to my notes of "reasons why gideon could be not dead forever"

I am holding on to all the hope I can get

because if sudden violent death can leave the soul temporarily isolated and not do the due process of transitioning to the river or whatnot

and gideon isn't within harrow or whatever

maybe

maybe she's somewhere else

I don't know, let me have this, don't tell me anything, just

LET ME HAVE THIS

so yeah, basically the story is that the emperor is running away from nine revenant beasts, which were created during the resurrection, when a planet was blasted off

nine beasts like nine houses

there's three left now

I don't know about all of this, you guys

I don't have enough context and I don't trust this guy here

how do I know where we stand in all this?

what if he's not the good guy and what he did was some planetary bullshit to begin with?

what if the other side is the good guys?

what if he's killed by one of our heroes? like harrow or gideon or camilla?

because he's actually a false god jerk?

what if I kill him????

and then we have two last important things

first, barbie ice cube speaks now

love that for her

then, very crucial

the non-gideon mentioning seems to be a Thing

I don't know if I'm understanding correctly but

the emperor mentions ortus

ortus, the one we knew, our old pal from the ninth

and I got the feeling, idk if I got it, that he just assumed ortus was the cavalier she had with her

because 1) he didn't go down there and 2) no body was recovered

and then harrow also mentions ortus, but she says he "died thinking it was the only gift he was capable of giving" and that she "wasted it" and idk if she did that because she's blocking sad memories, she's confused because she's Not Doing Great Mentally Right Now, she doesn't wanna tell the emperor what actually happened, or all three

there's stuff about ortus I don't know, but that sounds to me more like what gideon said than what ortus "Got Blown To Bits With Mom In Ship" did

and then the emperor says his name again with suspicion and I'm like

I think this clown doesn't know

I think he doesn't know about gideon

I think he doesn't know about gideon or who gideon actually is

which we don't know yet either but it's probably important

because she's hercules, as previously established

I think maybe gideon is an outlier

an important planetary outlier

I have hopes

also, another day without camilla

god (not this one) I hope I can make shorter recaps but there's so much happening, I'm so sorry

[liesmyth]

Blood cancer, necromancy and physical ailments

This started as a reflection on the evergreen “but could John have healed Cytherea’s cancer?” and then it went off… somewhere else, namely necromancers being physically frail and what it means for the worldbuilding and thematically. Bear with me etc.

what do we know about the nature of Cytherea’s cancer?

Very little! We know it runs in the necromantic line of the Seventh, but we don’t actually know how house heirship is passed, so we don’t know if it only affects one / a few family lines or most of the House. Cytherea-as-Dulcie says that her family “wanted her to keep the genes going,” implying that the illness was rare outside her immediate family, but Dulcinea doesn’t seem to have been under the same pressure, from what little we know.

Another guess is that the Seventh hereditary cancer is tied to necromancy in some way, as it seems to only manifest in descendants who also exhibit necromantic attitude. If that’s the case, then it’s likely it is a strain of leukemia that manifested post-resurrection and didn’t exist before (like necromantic ability) and like necromancy, it can’t be studied properly – because the understanding of the illness barely evolved from Cytherea’s time to Dulcie.

[FOUR more bullet points under the cut]

why I don’t think John lied about not being able to heal Cytherea

A variety of reasons. The obvious one is that it would be pointless not to heal her, if he could. The Lyctors dismiss the theory that cancer makes a necromancer stronger (“Seventh House woo-woo,” cit. Augustine) and so does Palamedes, who studied it for years. I'm going to assume they're right. Then there are no benefits to John in keeping Cytherea ill, except watching her suffer, and this is deeply at odds with John’s entire shtick in which they’re all a happy family and he makes a point to personally serve everyone at dinner because he’s just some guy. John likes to think of himself as the good guy, even when he's being actively terrible, and there’s no way to spin ‘let someone live with cancer for millennia’ in a way that makes you look good to yourself.

Additionally: if he had lied, then it would have been with the knowledge that it would backfire horribly if it ever came out he had, and completely shatter for good the happy family act. Conversely, the Lyctors have had ten thousand years to consider their long list of grievances against John, and they all studied Cytherea's cancer to figure out how to help her when she joined them (per HtN) but don’t even seem to consider the possibility that John refused to help when he could have. Mercy, the ultimate anatomy savant, is so pissed off at John that she’s ready to kill him — I think if she had even vague suspicions it would have come out in that confrontation. The only reason it didn't, IMO, is because she knew how the illness worked better than we readers do and had reasons to confirm John's claims herself.

if John wasn’t able to heal Cytherea. Why? he’s God, etc

This is where I take a step back and look at the broader picture. Necromancers are frail. They are physically slight, have low endurance, and are physically weak. Judith is a decorated officer but she runs a 10 minutes km (a fast-paced walk) and Ianthe can barely hold up her arms to do her hair (probably an exaggeration by Corona, but not by much). These are also people who could kill someone at a distance with only moderate effort, but can’t turn that power inward to give their own bodies a boost. The same goes for the various reproductive issues we hear of in the series – Harrow’s parents, of course, but also Abigail and Magnus being unable to conceive even with all the resources of the Fifth.

It seems that necromancy can be turned against others – manipulating their bodies – with a lot more ease than it can be used to fix necromancers’ bodies, which have some level of ‘flawed by design’, probably related to the way their bodies process thanergy. There's no juicing up Judith’s lungs to make her run faster, and necromancy doesn’t make Abigail and Magnus's genes compatible for reproduction. IF the Seventh House cancer is tied to necromancy in some way, it seems plausible that it can’t be “suppressed” from the organism of a necromancer, because it’s just another facet of their abilities.

(That said, it all hinges on that big IF! My theory that it would make very little sense for John not to heal Cytherea if it was within his abilities IMO holds whether the cancer is tied to her power or not, but if it’s the second one then I can’t begin to guess why.)

the #THEME of it all

Look. I just think that “some things can't be fixed by necromancy if they are rooted in it” is pretty plausible as a worldbuilding detail (setting the limits of a magical system) and also it really resonates as a doylistic writing choice. Magic has a price, and so on. I just think it’s neat!

(And, again, I think it makes more sense as a framing for the characters’ actions, from how John likes to play the good guy to how Cytherea probably has some amount of control over the tumors in her body, post Lyctorhood, just as Lyctors have detailed control over every other cells in their organisms. There’s something about the way she decided to go on for millenia, “mostly cancer and a little bit woman” as a funeral monument to her lost humanity. I’m not eloquent enough to put it into words but I’m gonna link to these tags by @thewinterstale on this OP by @theriverbeyond. Big thoughts, big brains etc.)

IF cancer doesn’t make someone stronger, why do people think it does?

We know “thanergy boost at the moment of death” is a real thing. It is a leap that slowly dying for years = more power during your lifetime, but it’s not an unreasonable conclusion. What is odd is that we have multiple informed accounts that it doesn’t (Augustine, Palamedes) but the idea keeps being perpetuated.

(Ianthe seems to believe that it does, but fwiw this is not Ianthe’s area of study and I find it plausible that she’s just repeating something she has been told which, again, makes sense superficially)

Anyway. Cytherea knower @thewinterstale​ has suggested that maybe Cytherea herself is the reason why the Seventh House, to the present day, believes that cancer = power. She was incredibly talented despite the illness, so much that the Emperor summoned her specifically as the last disciple in his super-exclusive circle. And that was the last the Seventh House saw of her.

If the memory of Cytherea that lives on was that of an incredibly powerful necromancer, the miracle at Rhodes, cancer-ridden and so powerful… that’s enough fuel for a dangerous myth. Maybe, through the millennia, all the Seventh House hoped to achieve was to produce another Cytherea – suffering and all

[the-lyctor-prince]

thinking about Lyctorhood and how Ianthe 100% cheated the system and what kind of ramifications there must be. Because she ate the soul of someone she couldn’t have given less of a shit about and was still able to become more powerful than she was.

The series seems to imply that necromancers have sort of “fated” cavaliers and vice versa - every other Lyctor was forced to consume the person they loved the most. She is arguably a weaker Lyctor because of it, but still greatly beyond what a normal necromancer is capable of. It’s why I think she lost the fight to Palamedes in Nona even though Palamedes did not attempt to become a Lyctor - she is controlling the body of her D grade cav replacement, and he is controlling the body of his fated cavalier.

What Ianthe has done has turned what it means to achieve Lyctorhood on its head. It implies that any necromancer can complete this process by using any random with a sword, meaning that John intentionally lied to/beguiled his original crew into killing their loved ones. Keep in mind that Mercymorn, Augustine, and John likely have no idea that Babs wasn’t Ianthe’s “true” cavalier, but we as readers and those around for the events of Canaan house do. Iirc they also believe Corona is dead, I recall John having a coffin for her at the beginning of HtN.

It’s either that or the other shoe is going to fall for Ianthe in a major way. My current theory is that somehow, accidentally, she’s going to cause Corona’s death - the debt for the indelible sin must be paid one way or another.

[harrowharks-iliac-crest]

It's becoming very clear now that Harrow's memories were altered between the Epilogue of Gideon the Ninth, and the (chronologically) first part of Harrow the Ninth.

In the epilogue, Harrow was physically healthy, full of grief, remembering Gideon, but not feeling her soul inside of her.

In Harrow the Ninth, she is physically very ill, barely even able to stand without throwing up. She's full of grief - manifesting in unplaceable emotions that she doesn't understand - she doesn't remember Gideon, she can't feel the soul of her cavalier inside of her.

I have a few theories on who could have altered Harrow's memories, and why.

In order of least likely to most likely;

Harrow herself did this, somehow. I don't see this as particularly likely, because it isn't part of Harrow's skillset.

She could have asked Ianthe to do this - Ianthe is more of a flesh magician than Harrow, and could possibly have done this; I still don't think she's that powerful.

The Emperor could have done this. He's very fucking powerful, and I feel like we've only had a very vague glimpse of what he's capable of. I don't know if he would, though.

One of the other surviving Lyctors could have done it - Ortus, or Augustine; I don't think this is terribly likely since they would have had to sneak into the Emperor's ship, unnoticed.

Mercymorn is still my primary suspect. She definitely has the powers to do it. She could have some motive, which we don't know about yet.

As for why,

Grief. This is the most likely, I think, if the change came from Harrow or someone (Ianthe probably - maybe the Emperor) acting on Harrow's request. Harrow was in so much pain in the Epilogue, and she couldn't feel Gideon's presence. She thought it would be better to forget about Gideon entirely, rather than live with the grief of having consumed someone she loved so much - “How dare you ask me to live with it?”

Gideon Nav was special, somehow, and knowing about her is dangerous. Her being different from conventional cavaliers might explain why her soul didn't pass into Harrow without problems. It's not too unlikely, given Gideon's mysterious origins and immunity to poison. This theory means Harrow's memories were likely changed for her protection, by someone else, without Harrow being supposed to know about it. But Harrow found out somehow, and conspired with Ianthe to give her the letters. Or perhaps the situation was explained to Harrow beforehand, and Harrow decided to write herself letters because she knew the process wouldn't be perfect, and at some point the whole memory construct would collapse.

Hmm.

Actually, upon thinking about it some more, Ianthe is moving up higher on the list of suspects. There was clearly some kind of conspiracy between her and Harrow pre-memory alteration. The memories aren't perfect - surely someone like Mercymorn would make sure it was perfect.

There's also the hallucination-notes.

The eggs you gave to me all died and you lied to me, so I did the implantation myself - you self-serving zombie - and you still sent him after me and I would have had him if I hadn't been compromised and he took pity on me!

I still can barely begin to think what this could mean. It could be a message from the person who altered her memory. "the eggs" - could be seeds of memory to "implant" in her brain. if that's true, "self serving zombie" supports the theory that it was a grief-request - probably Ianthe, armless, "compromised", who would hate it if someone she was meant to defeat, "took pity on" her.

That's all I got for now.

Clearly, the plot is leading up to this battle with the resurrection beasts, but all I've been given regarding those is crumbs, so I'm definitely concerning myself with the (smaller, less dangerous, but more intriguing) mystery of Harrow's memories instead.

... I'm definitely rereading both Gideon and Harrow before I start on the next book.

[bracketsoffear]

Anti-John Gaius Propaganda: I know he can't qualify in that poll anymore but John is really more of a Web avatar to me. Everything he does is about control. He set off a nuclear apocalypse because he couldn't do anything about the planet dying, and killing literally everyone was the only way he could regain control of the situation. He lied to his closest friends and let them kill their cavaliers to get more emotional leverage over them. When he loses control, he completely breaks down, as we see in Nona the Ninth after the Lyctors betray him. Also, the process of Lyctorhood, binding two souls to each other, seems pretty Web-coded to me as well.

.

[iviarellereads]

Harrow the Ninth, Chapter 10

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For detail on The Locked Tomb coverage and the index, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Slashed Fifth House icon) In which Harrow finds that her insanity followed her to this alternate Canaan House reboot.

"Then Nonius spake full wroth; thunder'd his voice as the black sea roars on the tomb-gate of Algol, "Blazing his eyes with the fell light thrown from the Emperor's corpse-fires; answer he gave, and he told them--" "Stop," said Harrowhark, from behind.

She and Nigenad are in the library at Canaan House with Magnus and Abigail, the Fifth pair. Ortus was reciting from his poetry, to Magnus's delight. Harrow's embarrassed that he would recite it aloud to anyone, having heard so much of it herself because, she knows, Ortus hopes that one day she will be so moved that she will release him from his duty as cav prime and let him be a Ninth House bone skald.(1) They make mention of a dirty magazine, of sorts, that Magnus found in the gents' washroom, and Harrow wants to flee.

Before she can, Abigail intercedes and asks if Harrow is interested in study about the Lyctors. Harrow says she will not reveal if her House has any information about them, but Abigail says no, silly, the library is positively stuffed with information.(2) She even punctuates it with "phwoar"(3) which nearly pushes Harrow past her limits of tolerance for vulgarity. Only, she can recognize that an offer is being made, and decides to take it.

Abigail shows Harrow a particularly interesting passage she found on a page of flimsy: a recipe.

After that cut into cubes, fry in the butter or oil, turn it occasionally until it is crispy. Cut up the pickle so there are no big chunks and mix it into the pan before taking off the heat. M told us yesterday that Nigella "eats like a child," so I

Harrow thinks it's useless, but Abigail thinks she can call the writer's ghost with it, and uses "phwoar" again. She reckons it's by a Lyctor, and discusses at some length the process and problems with potentially calling a Lyctor back from the River, if they're even dead to be called. Ortus says he admires her dedication, and Magnus tells Ortus to stop flirting with his (Magnus's) wife, though he quickly clarifies that it was a joke, he knows it wasn't intended.

Abigail gives Harrow another piece of paper, asking Harrow to examine it with her skills. To the side, Magnus is asking Ortus about the epic poem, and how long it takes for Matthias Nonius to defeat the foe. Harrow answers with snark. Magnus looks at her, his eyes "of a colour suddenly hard to define", and he asks "Is this really how it happens?" Harrow is confused.

Abigail, by way of distraction from the strange question, asks if it's traditional for Harrow's spiritual energy to be so diverse. She can sense at least 150 signatures contributing to Harrow, that many souls manipulated to leave a mark on her… Harrow nearly kills her on the spot, but runs instead, knowing that Abigail is far more than she seems. Nigenad follows, and she commands him that they avoid the Fifth at all costs now. He agrees.

Harrow slips into an alcove and looks at the paper Abigail gave her, which reads (though, all in caps, which I'm not replicating here because I don't feel like yelling)

The eggs you gave me all died and you lied to me so I did the implantation myself you self-serving zombie and you still sent him after me and I would have had him if I hadn't been compromised and he took pity on me! He took pity on me! He saw me and he took pity on me And for that I'll make you both suffer until you no longer understand the meaning of that goddamned word(4)

Harrow asks Nigenad what the paper says, and he says it reads "If you come to my room, I will make you the potato dish you liked". He asks how they should interpret potato. Harrow suggests "your closest vegetable relative", and Nigenad says he's always admired a quick wit. He often only thinks of a perfect response to things hours later, laying in bed, and besides which he hates conflict of all kinds. Harrow says he should be ashamed to admit that last, and says she needs a cavalier with backbone. Nigenad says she always did, and he's glad he never became that cavalier. Hours later, laying in bed, Harrow wonders what the hell he meant by that.

=====

(1) Skald - a composer of Norse skaldic poetry. In this case, a composer of bone poetry for the bone house. (2) Another massive change from the original run of this story. (3) "phwoar" is a sound-expression used to indicate sexual attraction to someone. Or in this case, something. Abigail Pent has it bad for these books. I can relate. (4) There is so much to unpack here and nothing I can say without spoilers except to suggest that if you're reading for the first time, bookmark this to come back to later, you'll probably know when.

[catarinastone]

I think it's pretty clear that the inciting incident was a super difficult situation to navigate and everything sort of falls appart in a spectacularly bad way.

The reason why John is a villain though, is because of what happens after that. His lyctors keep dying to the resurrection beats, but they can't actually kill him. He lied to people about the lycterhood process and forced them to kill someone close to them without need and he rules his empire with an iron fist keeping people in horrible conditions.

And for what? To stay in power and to get revenge on a few hundred mfs (their descendants after 10000 years, actually) who screwed over the rest of mankind. Like, there's no redemability. He is very clearly the villain of the story

I think what bothers me most about how John is talked about in the fandom is the implication that a different (implied: better) person would've done things differently and somehow more right than he did.

When the text goes to lengths to explore how suddenly coming into an incredible amount of power in a fatally constrained situation cannot lead to a good outcome.

If you're putting John in dialogue with the concept of the "magical girl", which Muir has said he is (a little tongue in cheek, but)--these are young, often profoundly unready people, who often get taken advantage of by the people who give them their powers. And like, yes, John is not a teenager, but I think that's part of the point, is that at no point is a person really prepared to become as powerful as he did--even before he merged with Alecto. Even when he was fully in control of his powers, even when they were given with honest intent and trust, even when he used them with the best of intentions and tried to do the right thing, there was no way for him to be prepared, especially given the situation he was in.

And it's funny to talk about how bad John must be in bed, but also, this isn't a scenario where John is some self-deluding Elon Musk-like villain or loser. He is genuinely trying to do the right thing, in terms of rescuing the Earth's population, rescuing the Earth Herself, and doing it ethically (see: M--'s insistence that they perfect the cryo containers until they could transport pregnant women).

I really do think this is something people are blocking out, because it is one of the uncomfortable parts of Muir's message with the series. But ESPECIALLY because the people "critiquing" him as an embodiment of patriarchy and empire are failing to see that part of Muir's critique is of human vulnerability to power: That is, that power corrupts.

And this even has echoes with Gideon & Harrow's story! Harrow begins the series in a deeply unequal dynamic with Gideon! And she does horrible things, not just because she is traumatized, but because she is traumatized and has the power to act her desires out on Gideon. She might have the motive (trauma), but that's not enough without the means (power).

And, yeah, I do have a semi-salty angle on this because people are frequently loath to think critically not just about axes of oppression but individual relationships of power when it applies to them and to people they like. ESPECIALLY when there is a very vocal segment of the fandom that is enthusiastically pro-harassment. It's very convenient to villainize John and actively dis-identify with him, because otherwise, you'd have to face the question of whether you'd do any better in his place. But the thing is, the mission of revenge he embarks on is a lot closer to many peoples' hearts than they'd like to consider.

That's the whole point.

[myths-tournaments]

Awful Characters Round 2 Part 1 (2/8)

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

THE SKULL

he is an evil ghost who used to be an assistant to a mad scientist gravedigger. accomplice to murder and torture and general evil scheming. now he lives in a jar and is besties with a teenage girl. and by besties i mean he encourages her to kill people and constantly cheers when her friends almost die. overall a silly little decapitated head <3

It is literally a skull in a jar. (More context if you don’t know the books/show: it’s a ghost source that’s been trapped in a silver container so it can’t escape. And it’s exceptionally powerful which means it can actually communicate with mc.) It frequently encourages the mc to commit various morally reprehensible acts such as homicide (she never does). When it was alive, it was a teenage boy who was apprenticed to an evil scientist.

[iviarellereads]

Harrow the Ninth, Chapter 51

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For detail on The Locked Tomb coverage and the index, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

(Eighth House skull) In which Mercy executes the plan.

When Gideon was young, she hoped her mother was still watching over her, that she could make contact with her skeleton, then learned that her skeleton wasn't even in the work rotation yet. She told Harrow not to pick on her, because what if her mum or dad was Important out there somewhere. Harrow said there's no evidence, and regardless, nobody was coming to rescue Gideon anyway. Then Gideon started spending time near her mother's memorial niche and telling her about her life, what she learned from Aiglamene that day, or how many sit-ups she could do.

It was worse when I was a kid. I remember the time you caught me telling her, I love you, and I can't even remember what you said, but I remember that I had you on your back--I put you straight on the fucking ground. I was always so much bigger and so much stronger. I got on top of you and choked you till your eyes bugged out. I told you that my mother had probably loved me more than yours loved you. You clawed my face so bad that my blood ran down your hands; my face was under your fucking fingernails. When I let you go you couldn't even stand, you just crawled away and threw up. Were you ten, Harrow? Was I eleven?(1) Was that the day you decided you wanted to die?

The old aunts used to say, suffer and learn. Gideon asks Harrow, in her absence, how much more they can take before they become omniscient.(2)

Mercy, in the present, points out that John's child has Alecto's eyes. The other Lyctors flinch at the name. Mercy says those are A.L.'s eyes, in John's genetic code. August points out that the skill he perfected, that John asked him to perfect, was following power back to its source, and John's power never added up for him.

John says he told the truth about his Annabel, and they killed her for it. August says she could never lie, and she was around long enough for them to have learned the truth even if he hadn't told them. He calls her a monster, says she was a monster the moment she was resurrected, and then John went and made her worse.(3) Mercy says they knew the beasts were coming for Alecto(4) but they never did learn how John killed her.

John says Annabel Lee was never the dying kind, and it's less that he killed her and more that he switched her off.(5)

Mercy says yes, the whole affair, and setting her aside a tomb and putting Anastasia to guard it, all that made sense. John himself is what doesn't make sense. August says he knows that Dominicus isn't the source of John's power, that the system draws from him but he draws nothing in exchange.(6) Essentially, they know Alecto is what fuels him. She was his cavalier.

Gideon isn't fully paying attention, but that last bit rings a bell. She knows the eye colour change is what happens when two souls merge, but there's no way for a cavalier to end up with their necro's eyes, unless the cav fails to die.

Mercy says John has lied to them. There is a perfect lyctorhood, one which preserves the cavalier, and he let them think there wasn't. None of them had to die. She names all the dead cavs of the first Lyctors, says John watched his friends kill their cavs in cold blood when he knew there was another way.(7) She could have forgiven him any other lie, the way the planet died, the extinction of humanity, but not this.(8) August asks if Anastasia almost had it right. John confirms it, but Anastasia panicked partway through, and then she and Samael were both in danger. He ended the process by killing Samael to save Anastasia.(9)

At this, John asks what he must do for absolution. August says he should stop the outward expansion, stop looking for whatever he's been seeking since the beginning.(10) John says if the man Augustine was before the Resurrection heard him say that, he'd kill August. August thanks him for confirming it, and is otherwise silent.

Mercy says she'll forgive John, if he'll do one thing: if he can look her in the eye and say he loved Cristabel and wanted no harm to come to her. He does so. She says to tell her he's sorry he lied. He says he has regretted it for ten thousand years.

So Mercy says she forgives him, and then slips her hands into his body, and then the Emperor comes apart, becoming first an explosion, and then mist, then powder, then nothing.

Leaving me an orphan again, though your brain didn't let me linger on that one.

=====

(1) Gideon's blood on Harrow's hands, when Harrow was ten and Gideon eleven. Does that ring a bell? The first book told us that was the day Harrow opened the Tomb. She wasn't just a powerhouse. Alone, she could never. But with Gideon's blood, John's daughter's blood, she could undo the blood ward and gain entry. (2) Just twist the knife a little further, Muir. I'll be fine. (3) A monster in a human suit… what was Alecto? (4) Why would the RBs be coming for her in particular? They come for all the Lyctors, don't they? Why would their coming for God's companion be any different? How would they be able to tell? (5) This is not remarked upon, but implies she can be switched back ON… what was Harrow up to in the Locked Tomb that day? (6) I know I keep saying the same thing in this one, but how could they know all this? August's ability to trace power back to its sources? How would that work, from these galactic distances? (7) Admittedly, not an insignificant crime of betrayal. I mean, maybe insignificant in comparison to killing ten billion, if the Edenites have the right of it which he doesn't deny… but this is also pretty cold. (8) It feels deeply inappropriate, but also perfectly appropriate: I can't help but think how this mirrors a line from Community which also became a quite popular meme, which was when Gillian Jacobs as Britta said "I can excuse racism but I draw the line at animal cruelty." and Yvette Nicole Brown as Shirley said "You can excuse racism?" Mercy here is Britta, and I am Shirley. (9) I wonder if this left Anastasia in a similar state to Harrow post-lobotomy. If she was incompletely transformed, with only limited access to any enhanced abilities. And I wonder if this is the whole truth, or another lie. Did he do it to save her, or did he do it to cover up that there was a kinder way? (10) This raises a most interesting question: what IS John looking for? What has his expansion been for? Is it just his extermination campaign against the BoE, whoever and whatever they are? Is he seeking something more?

[syl-stormblessed]

So I have been having some. ahem. thoughts and feelings about Anastasia and Samael since Nona came out, and I’ve been thinking a lot about why John killed Samael. I think that after obsessing over this I may??have connected some major dots. please correct me if i’m wrong on anything, but I am currently convinced I’ve figured something out. also please forgive me if it’s incomprehensible. but this is the locked tomb nothing can make too much sense

Nona spoilers ahead

short TLDR, in case you don’t want to read the whole thing: Anastasia & Samael would have merged their souls together and become a being like Paul. John killed Samael because he thought of the synthesis like Nona did at first, believing that they would both die, rather than create a new life made up of 2 souls, and he would rather lose one of them than both.

After finishing Nona the Ninth, I’ve been thinking a lot about Anastasia. Specifically, the fact that Anastasia never achieved Lyctorhood. From Harrow the Ninth, we know that Anastasia did extensive research on Lyctorhood, and the only person allowed to watch her attempt was John. And John kills Samael, resulting in Anastasia never becoming a Lyctor. However, Nona the Ninth revealed that John and Alecto’s Perfect Lyctorhood only worked because Alecto was Earth’s Resurrection Beast, and John couldn’t completely exchange their souls. Alecto held too much power, so even after John had consumed a massive amount of her soul, there was enough left of Alecto that she could still live. This implies that Perfect Lyctorhood, at least as we perceived it before Nona, isn’t possible with two normal people who have two normal souls. Alecto was simply made up of billions of souls. This means that what Anastasia and Samael almost did couldn’t have been Perfect Lyctorhood. Meaning that John didn’t kill Samael to cover up the fact that he lied about Perfect Lyctorhood. Because he didn’t lie about that, specifically. So the question remains: Why, exactly, did John kill Samael?

In Harrow the Ninth, John says, “She panicked midway through. She hadn’t got his soul inside her all the way—if she had, Samael dying would have killed her too…They were both in danger.” This is immediately questioned by Augustine, and for good reason: It’s total bullshit. We already know that panic and other intense emotions don't cause a failure of the Lyctoral process. At the end of Gideon the Ninth, Harrow flat out rejects the Lyctoral process after Gideon falls on the fence. During that scene, Harrow gave us the iconic “I cannot conceive of a universe without you in it,” because she was already so consumed by her grief. She actively tried not to become a Lyctor, yet she still did. She even begged John for Gideon’s life back. And we know that Harrow did do the process correctly. When she tells John she misapprehended the process, John says “I don’t believe you did, Harrowhark.” We know that it was actually her homebrew lobotomy that messed with her consuming Gideon’s soul, not her own feelings of distress and panic. We also have Augustine’s story. While talking about Anastasia in Act V, he says “It didn’t make sense that I became a Lyctor under scrambling pressure and did it right, and that Anastasia screwed up in laboratory conditions.” Just from knowing about Harrow & Gideon and Augustine & Alfred, we know that John was full of shit when he said that Anastasia’s panic was why he had to kill Samael. Intense emotions and “scrambling pressure” aren’t enough to fail the Lyctoral process. So we know that John didn’t kill him because of Anastasia’s panic, like he said.

So why did he kill Samael, then? That’s where Paul comes in. During that same conversation in Act V of Harrow, John says “[Anastasia] learned the trick was to do the Eightfold slower—more methodically...” And now that Nona has been released, we have an example of the Eightfold being executed slower and more methodically—the creation of Paul. Let’s go back to Gideon for a second. When Gideon fell on the fence, it was a spur-of-the-moment decision brought on by necessity. They both would have died if she hadn’t sacrificed herself and forced Harrow to consume her soul. It was not a premeditated decision, they had never considered actually going through the process. There was no viable option other than the Eightfold. It happened in a split second, and Harrow consumed Gideon quickly, resulting in regular Lyctorhood. Now back to Nona. When Camilla and Palamedes merge their souls together, they are both entirely confident in their decision. Palamedes offers Camilla a chance to say no, and instead she says “My whole life, yes. Yes, forever, yes.” Their decision is in a much more controlled environment, and both of them are entirely sure of what they are doing. And then they actually begin the process, which is much slower and more methodical. Every action seems to have a purpose, whereas Harrow & Gideon scrambled and panicked. Nona observes that “Nothing particularly interesting happened, until Camilla burst into flames.” For Nona to have noted that nothing of interest happened, it’s safe to assume that at least five to ten seconds passed before Camilla combusted, meaning it was a much slower process than that of Harrow & Gideon. Even without Nona’s observation, the process was much slower and well thought out. And the result of the slower process? A fusion, or synthesis, between Camilla & Palamedes—what I’m going to call “True Lyctorhood.” And if Anastasia realized the secret to Lyctorhood was to do the Eightfold slowly, she would have had the same results with Samael as Camilla & Palamedes. Their souls should have combined, and they should have achieved True Lyctorhood. This is where John’s words start to have a little tiny sliver of truth. When he says that Anastasia & Samael would have both died, he wasn’t entirely lying, but it wasn’t the whole truth, either. Nona struggles with seeing Paul as both Cam & Pal because she thinks of them as dead. She’ll never see either of them again, but she has a harder time realizing that they both still live on in Paul. I think that John was able to see that Anastasia & Samael would have merged their souls had they continued, and he could only view it as the death of them both, rather than a new life made up of two souls. So he chose the option that looked most favorable to him, and he killed only one of them, rather than lose them both.

Now, you may be asking, how do we know that Camilla & Palamedes did the same thing as Anastasia & Samael? That’s where Cassiopeia comes in (and some speculation). Again, in Act V of Harrow, Augustine says “I knew [Anastasia] was working closely with Cassiopeia.” Cassiopeia was helping Anastasia research Lyctorhood, so she would have had access to all Anastasia’s notes and research. And the Sixth House are scholars, Cassy would never get rid of information as big as an alternate form of Lyctorhood. Cassiopeia would have stored her information somewhere, and if she didn’t make it accessible to the house as a whole, she could have put it in the instructions she left. Either way, her and Anastasia’s research would not have been lost, and it would have had a clear tie with the Sixth House. And as Warden and Cavalier Primary of the Sixth, Camilla & Palamedes would have had some sort of access to this research, and would have known that such a thing was possible.

So where does that leave Anastasia & Samael? It means that they, had John not intervened, would have achieved True Lyctorhood and completely merged their souls. We know that John was full of shit, Anastasia’s panic couldn’t have been his reason. We have already seen successful executions of the Eightfold while both people are under extreme stress—or even actively trying not to become a Lyctor. We know the process executed by Camilla & Palamedes was similar to, if not exactly the same as, the process that Anastasia attempted. And we know that they would have had some kind of access to the research done by her and Cassiopeia. So. John saw that Anastasia and Samael would have merged and achieved True Lyctorhood, and he killed Samael because he would rather lose one of them than both of them, even though, had they continued, neither of them would have actually died.

Anyways. I have so many thoughts about Anastasia and Samael. why is this relevant to the locked tomb going forward? if I’m being totally honest, I have no idea. it’s important to me though. if you even care.

[racefortheironthrone]

I think you’re absolutely right, and John more or less admits it at the end of Harrow the Ninth, when he comes back from the dead:

“God said, “It was a lovely bit of work on Mercymorn’s part. She must have been training for thousands of years, to bring that off. But I didn’t get to where I am by being able to die, you know?”

The Lyctor said, “The Resurrection Beasts-”

“Can’t kill me.”

“You acted afraid-”

“Acted is operative. But this is not an FAQ.”

John’s been lying about the Resurrection Beasts from the beginning, because here’s his first and oldest Saint who clearly believed that the RBs were a threat. The RBs were always coming after John and John alone, because he was the one who killed them and transformed and imprisoned their (sister? fellow planet? not sure how the RBs exactly relate to Alecto and one another). He lied about the “indelible sin” in order to keep the Lyctors feeling guilty (because that’s a good lever to motivate them to do what he wants) and keep them close to him rather than going off on their own in the Dominican System or elsewhere. He’s been lying about the Heralds - I doubt they affect him in the slightest - and the RB’s madness effects in order to get his Lyctors to kill the RBs for him. And on and on. 

Now, the interesting question is: why does John not want to get his hands dirty? Why does he insist on “rip[ping] the very fingers from my hands...throw[ing] them into the jaws of the monsters who hunt me”? (Note: “me,” not “us.”) After all, we know the RBs can’t hurt him and John’s certainly powerful enough to go toe-to-toe against an RB, so I don’t think he’s withdrawing out of caution or cowardice. It could be that he’s using the RBs as a way to bump off his Lyctors, but he’s strong enough to do that on his own, so I don’t think that’s it.  I see two possible explanations. One is that John doesn’t want to fight the RBs, because the main method the Lyctors have gravitated towards of going into the River to fight the spirit of the RB while their cavs animate their bodies against the Heralds might give the game away vis-a-vis Alecto being John’s cavalier. The second is that John isn’t afraid of the RBs, but rather the process of dragging them into the depths of the River is dangerous to him because of the stoma, as their connection to Hell might not kill him but seems like it could definitely imprison him. (Maybe this has something to do with the Tower and the emergence of the devils, but I’ve got no idea what.)

I’m sorry but you all aren’t listening, lyctorhood itself is not the “indelible sin” and you can pry this theory from my cold dead hands, honestly, maybe not even then. TazMuir herself could not dissuade me until she explicitly tells me otherwise. My proof for this you ask? Pyrrha’s conversation with Varun in NtN chapter 9.

But let’s backtrack for a second. John has stated that the resurrection beasts are after him and the lyctors for committing the indelible sin of lyctorhood, and as such the lyctors can never return to the Dominican System for fear of drawing the RBs back to the Nine Houses. I’ve never believed this was true given the fact that John is always the greatest common denominator when it comes to the presence of an RB and there’s no mention of an RB going after a lone lyctor. Sure, lyctors have been killed fighting resurrection beasts but there’s a huge difference between being caught in the crossfire and starting a firefight. For me, Nona the Ninth only reinforced that what we’ve been told is the “indelible sin” is either John misunderstanding the RBs (doubtful) or lying for his own purposes (more likely).

In chapter 9 of NtN, Nona recounts the story of her disastrous beach trip and towards the end of this recitation Nona says that Pyrrha;

“…crossed to the taped-up window, bottle and glass in hand. To Nona’s awe, she twitched the blackout curtains aside—stood bathed in the hyper-blue light from the sky as Nona held her breath—and she said to the window, “Here’s to Camilla Hect, yet another of devotion’s casualties,” and knocked back the glass. Then she said to the light, quite gently, “No, I don’t blame you, man … He was always looking for things to throw himself on.”

Pyrrha stands in front of Nona, bathed in the light of Varun the Eater, and proceeds to have a conversation with it. We only get one side but based on the context of the last line, “No, I don’t blame you, man … He was always looking for things to throw himself on.” Varun seemingly apologizes to Pyrrha for killing G1deon. It’s proven later on in the book that Varun can speak to Nona, and while it could be argued that since G1deon is dead and his soul is gone the “indelible sin” has been undone this still begs the question; why would the punisher apologize to the sinner?

If Varun and the other RBs are hunting the lyctors to dole out justice for their sins why would they apologize for doing the very thing they sought to do unless that wasn’t their true intent. The “indelible sin” is not the consumption of another soul, it is the consumption of a specific soul. It is John taking Alecto into himself, not being able to house all of her and instead making an exchange. Housing a piece of her in him, and a piece of him in her. Splintering the soul of a great and terrible force into manageable parts. Which explains Varun’s ominous presence hanging over the planet in the first place.

If RBs are hunting Lyctors there are no lyctors on this planet. Palamedes has not consumed Camilla’s soul, G1deon is gone, Harrow is in the River, Gideon is thumbtacked to her dead body, the only soul of any significance to Varun is Nona. Later on in chapter 13 Varun, by way of Judith, says to Nona;

“…what they did to you and what they wrung from you and what shape they made you fill—we see you still—we seek you still—we murdered—we who murder—you inadvertent tool—you misused green thing—come back to us—take vengeance for us—we saw you—we see you—I see you.”

And in chapter 27,

“….what did he do to you, to make you this way.”

What did HE do to you!!! what did HE do to YOU!! To give John credit he doesn’t deserve he may not realize it himself but the RBs have been looking for Alecto this whole time. They don’t want the lyctors, they want what John stole, they want the piece of Alecto inside of him. Want to make her whole again, their misused green thing. She’s almost there. She has her piece back from harrow’s body, united with the piece of her hidden in the locked tomb. She only has 1 piece left to collect. And god knows what will happen when the green and breathing thing is whole once again.

[myths-tournaments]

Awful Characters Round 4 (1/4)

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

ANAKIN SKYWALKER

-war criminal -murdered a bunch of toddlers like five seconds after turning to the dark side -exploded his daughters home planet that one time -murdered an entire village bc some of them killed his mom (and not just the men, but the women and the children, too) -choked out his pregnant wife and sent her into early labor -murdered a bunch of jedi -had a really dumb braid at one point -tried to kill obi-wan (his mentor, brother, friend, guardian, and basically the most important person in his life) -failed to kill obi-wan and got his shit fucked up so badly that he became basically a walking iron lung, if iron lungs were an ill-timed sneeze away from killing you -went back for MORE a decade after obi-wan beat his ass just to be a dick. like he dragged the poor fucker's face through fire just to be an asshole -annoying

[mayasaura]

what if john didn't actually wipe the pre-ressurection memories of his friends, and he just made them inaccessible, and through lyctor shenanigans, pyrha was somehow able to find gi1deons?

this is brought on by me seeing a post a while back about how childhood amnesia is kind of like ur brain updating and then the childhood memory files not updating with it, so the brain computer can't use them.

but the pre-ressurection memories are adult memories, so a human brain, a.k.a g1deon's, would have to be damaged in a particular way to be unable to access the entirety of his life.

fast forward to his ascension. pyrrha, as his cav, is going to have her muscle memories superimposed over his, and so she is effectively going 'where remembrance lives in the brain'. the superhealing granted by lyctorhood mingles with the incoming pyrrha™️ juice and either that's what disrupts some of whatever work john did, and the botched process gives pyrrha access to gi1deon's pre-res memories, or the botched process specifically that does it. either way, pyrrha now knows Some Things. Some Things she'll sit on for a while, but Things none the less.

this brings me to cassy. she was working on the grand lysis with anastasia originally, something pal and cam perfected centuries later. consequently, paul tells us two very important things:

1) when you combine two souls, the resultant souls have both the memories, but may find it hard to sort through and distinguish memories of the same event

2) it is possible to reach grand lysis after a standard lysis.

could it be, then, that cassy was privately trying to achieve grand lysis too? if she was, it's obvious she didn't succeed/fully follow through, as the og lyctor gang don't mention any change in her behaviour. but i like to think that she tried, and just like gi1deon unintentionally undid some of John's work. but what Cass-and-Nigella (Nancy?) saw and remembered caused them to panic and 'look back', which could have permanently stopped Cass from trying to undergo grand lysis again (there's not enough evidence for that, it's just the only reason i can think of why she wouldn't dive deeper; truth over solace in lies and all that)

whatever happened, it's some extra sauce on for the cass betrayal <3

So true, you make some great points about Pyrrha and GtF. If John wiped them by suppressing that memory in her brain, well, once she was a soul without her own brain..... all bets are off.

I'm not sure how you're drawing the conclusion for the second point, about grand lysis being possible after completing standard lysis. If Paul is the result of Cassiopeia and Anastasia's joint research, or at least if Cassie and Anastasia were driving toward the same goal, I'm not sure it follows that Cassie thought she could still achieve grand lysis with Nigella. Sixth is for truth over solace in lies, right? Could be the truth Cassie was seeking wasn't that she could still be reborn with Nigella, but rather the much harder truth of finding out for sure that Nigella's death was unnecessary.

I think you're right, tho. It is very suggestive that Cassiopeia and Anastasia's research was in composite and melange souls. And that is some delicious sauce to stir into the theories about Cassiopeia's betrayal.