#antonetta alleyne

[daisymylove]

I love how Kel is so clever and yet absolutely obtuse when it comes to emotional intelligence.

the girl has kept a grass ring on a heart-shaped locket she wears every fucking day , for 9 years, but ofc she's in love with Conor and probably forgot it was there in the first place, seems logical

I so want Lin to hear about this and smack him on the temple saying it's an ancient technique for healing daftness on males.

[purplebass]

2023 books - sword catcher by cassandra clare

But his loyalty was to House Aurelian, not the Charter Families. He would place his words between them and Conor, just as Kel placed his body between Conor and danger.

[kaitcreates]

The Ragpicker King snippet I found in the back of the Sword Catcher paperback(1/2):

[cassandraclare]

is antonetta going to have a bigger role in the future books?

Antonetta's role definitely expands. First books are so much about an introduction to characters — one of the fun things about writing series is developing those characters over the space of multiple books,

[rinadragomir]

It's me trying to convince y'all to get invested in the Sword Catcher, read it all cause I tried!

1) I need someone to talk about it + see your theories/memes/edits, I NEED MY FRIENDS IN THIS FANDOM okay?!

2) listen, we have to wait about 2 years before The Wicked Powers, let's try to distract ourselves with something exciting!!

Reviews from George Martin (my beloved, listen, this man knows a good fantasy book when he sees one, trust him), Holly Black and Leigh Bardugo

Synopsis (read the full detailed version here):

In the vibrant city-state of Castellane, a young orphan named Kel is stolen from his old life to enter a new one of luxury and peril. He’s to become Prince Conor Aurelian’s body-double, shielding the Prince from all dangers. As his ‘Sword Catcher,’ he and Conor become close as brothers – yet Kel lives for one purpose: to die for Conor.

Lin Caster is an Ashkar physician, part of a community ostracised for its rare magical abilities. But events pull her and Kel together and into the web of the mysterious Ragpicker King who rules Castellane’s criminal underworld.

Together, they’ll discover an extraordinary conspiracy. But can forbidden love bring down a kingdom? And will their discoveries plunge their nation into war and the world into chaos?

Here, a boy lives to protect his Prince with his life. A girl is destined to return lost magic to the world. A Prince must choose between his heart and his duty. And thrumming beneath it all, the heartbeat of a city unlike any other. Welcome to Castellane.

Known characters: (from top to bottom, from left to right, please appreciate the wonderful arts below)

Kellian Saren - our protagonist~ was kidnapped from his family when he was 5 and brought to the palace in order to be the Sword Catcher, the body double for the Crown Prince(🏳️‍🌈?). Used to have a crush on Antonetta, now too busy spending time with Prince Conor (🏳️‍🌈?). Big spoon energy

YOU'LL SAY: Rina... bestie he looks exactly like the second guy a bit lower, why so many Will Herondale cosplayers🤨 YES YES, THAT'S THE POINT, THEY HAVE TO LOOK ALIKE, IT'S LIKE Keira Knightley and Natalie Portman in Star Wars

Lin Caster - female protagonist, doctor, is skilled in healing magic (Catarina & Clary's daughter🤨?). There is a prophecy surrounding her, that says a very powerful goddess would return one day and it would be one of the girls from her community, ~possibly her~

Antonetta Alleyne - Heir to the wealthy silk charter, her mother dotes on her, dressing her in lace and grooming her to marry Prince Conor (the next guy). Her, Kel and Conor used to have this gang😎 when they were kids, but then her mother decided to turn her into a Kendall Jenner and now she's 💅🏻not like other girls💅🏻 and makes this ew sound everytime our protagonist walks by (secretly feels something else towards him....I guess?...)

Conor Aurelian - our Prince🤴🏻definition of: So you're a tough guy, Like it really rough guy, Just can't get enough guy, Chest always so puffed guy. What else? Oh, everyone tries to kill him and he hides behind his boyfriend's back. Little spoon energy

Joss Falconet - some lazy whore, idk. He has been friends with Conor and Kel since they were all small children. He loves parties, a good time, and ridiculous exploits, but there may be rather more to him…Matthew Fairchild core?👀✨ maybe....

The Ragpicker King - he's so 😋😩🤤he lives his dark emo girl aesthetic life. Doesn’t have a name or real identity. He lives in a big black mansion in the middle of Castellane and runs the crime scene. My future husband btw

Merren Asper - part-time student, full-time poisoner, and hopeless romantic. Merren has a dreamy, cheerful personality, despite being a poisoner. Well good for him, god bless🌿 he seems like a mixture of Kit Herondale and Wylan Van Eck

I'm going to update this post in case Cassie shares some new information!

The first book comes out on October 10 THIS YEAR so~ you can pre-order🌟✨for example, I can't so I'll just wait till someone sends it to me once it's out.

I REALLY hope I managed to get you slightly invested. It seems like a really nice fantasy series and I'd like to support Cassie's new work. She gave us our beloved TSC world and I have a strong faith in her. I know it's hard to dive into a new series but let's give it a chance!

@chibi-tsukiko @hahahax30 @roseofthomas @queenhelenblackthorn @not--a--pipedream @tea-and-a-clandestine-agenda @spacehero-23 @tys-kitty @carelessflower @dustandducks @one-fond-mortal @magnus-the-maqnificent @delightfullyterrible @learningshelfcontrol @thewolfnephilim @literallytypogod @gayforcarstairsgirls @clockworkbee @elettralightwood @captainswanandclintasha @radisv @lord-jethro @luciehercndale @bytheangell

[incorrectswordcatcherquotes]

Antonetta: Don’t worry, Charlon grows on you.

Kel: Really?

Antonetta: No, it just gets worse.

[makingalarkofthemisery]

Me, starting Sword Catcher: okay, the blurb on the back mentions Kel and Lin so they’ll probably be love interests

Kel: *Starts to hook up with Silla*

Me: oh ok, that’s probably his first love interest who he’ll move on from

[Antonetta interrupts them]

Me: oh shit

Kel: omg I loved her when we were kids but she only ever liked my bro ☹️☹️

Me: ok??

Kel: *comments on how beautiful Merren is*

Me: wait-

Kel: *proceeds to mention Antonetta every chance he gets*

Kel: *shows up to Merren’s house to threaten him*

Me: oooooo ok drama

[they almost kiss]

Me: ok HOLD ON

Kel: 🏃‍♀️💨

Me: Turn around????

Kel: *kisses Lin and describes it as “surprisingly pleasant”*

Me: you’re joking

[Kel and Merren kiss traumatically]

Me: wAIT

[Conor and Lin kiss]

Me: no fucking way

[Conor and Silla hook up]

Me: SIR??

[Kel is jealous]

Me: YOU HAVE 5 PROSPECTS????

Kel: *almost kisses Antonetta*

Me: HOLY-

[the fucking grass ring]

Me: HOLY SHIT SHE KEPT IT

[Antonneta denies having anything in her locket]

Me:

[thestarkster1465]

Just finished Sword Catcher and I am LIVING for the Jem and Will dynamic that Kel and Conor have like asdfghjkll I see what you did there CC

Kel, like Jem is precious and deserves all the world and I will protect him with my life i-

Lin is an absolute queen and I am cheering her on like nothing else

I like Conor and Kel's dynamic but oh god he's a fucking ass to everyone else. Will was trying to be cruel on purpose because of his curse, but Conor is just a fucking jerk. I love how Lin deals with him but he has a looong way to go. Hopefully he pulls a Darcy and gets his head out of his ass.

I also like Falconet? I guess? For now, at least. Antonetta is pretty cool too ngl but all the other Charter folks are... worthy of being stabbed, let's say. Especially Charlon.

So many unanswered questions and we're going to have to wait a whole year to get any answers

I'm going to die of curiosity

[i-am-trying-my-best-okay]

I feel like Conor hasn't fully trusted Kel in a long time, he just desperately wants to. He's been keeping Kel out of the loop for a long time it seems; not telling him about the debt and how he planned to fix it, not telling him that he's been in long secret confidence with Antonetta, or at least it seems so given how Antonetta acted when she thought Kel was Conor, and so on.

We know Conor has been told by Fausten that Kel would betray him one day, another thing Conor never told Kel. And we also know that Conor never told Kel what the fortune teller had told him, so who knows what she had told him; perhaps the same as Fausten, that Kel and him would have a falling out.

I think Conor doesn't want to believe Kel would and him will fall out, but it would be a hard thing not to have at the back of ones mind. As a result, he probably started withholding from Kel for a while now, and this just causes them to drift apart.

[faithfromanewperspective]

fuck shiny things and paper rings I want someone to propose to me with woven grass and I’ll keep it in a locket forever

[gracecarstairss]

analyzing Kel Saren x Antonetta Alleyne (my favorite Sword Catcher ship)

I think the overwhelming consensus is that Conor x Lin are peoples' favorite Sword Catcher ship, and I do like them, but Kel x Antonetta was definitely my favorite by far because they have such an interesting dynamic.

When I was reading the book, I initially disliked both Kel and Antonetta because I thought they were dry and boring up until about 25-30% into the book. Then, I realized that it might actually have been intentional because what we are seeing up until that point is both Kel and Antonetta's alternate personas, and later in the book we start to learn more about who they both really are. Spoilers below!

First, let's talk about Kel's alternate persona - Kel Anjuman. He is lost in this character of the prince's cousin, and at the beginning of the book seems like he has forgotten who he really is. He is just going through the motions - pretending to be Conor in some instances, trying to be invisible most of the time, and tolerating Conor's annoying friends. Being Conor's body double is definitely all that he was thinking about/cared about, and it seemed like he didn't have any interests, ambitions, or motivations at the beginning of the story. However, this is purposeful because Kel is literally property of House Aurelian and he has been trained for the sole purpose of being Conor's human shield, so he really CAN'T want anything, because he is expected to possibly die at any moment. He is just waiting for death, which causes him to be so reckless later in the book.

As Sword Catcher goes on, it becomes clear that there is a distinct difference between Kel Anjuman and Kel Saren, when I previously thought there was not much difference. As soon as Kel meets the Ragpicker crew (Merren, Ji-An, Andreyen) and realizes they know who he really is and give him what he needs - a motviation, a drive - the Kel Anjuman facade is gradually dropped as the book goes on, and Kel starts to struggle with integrating himself back into that persona around the nobles. His relationship with Conor starts to be strained by the end of the book too because I think Conor is sort of fooled by Kel's false persona - he has forgotten who Kel actually is, which is not surprising with Conor being so selfish and self-absorbed. I think Lin also helps Kel pull out of this rut because he is able to be himself around her and she understands him well. Lin's POV really shows the reality of the double life Kel has to live, with her constantly arguing with Conor about how wrong it is that Kel is essentially a human shield and is treated as utterly disposable in the eyes of House Aurelian.

The Ragpicker crew and Lin knowing Kel's identity is almost freeing for him, and so because he does not have to keep up the Anjuman persona all the time, he doesn't want to go back to that persona. He doesn't want to pretend anymore and that's where we see that struggle for him to fold back into that box at the Palace parties in the last 50% of the book.

Now, let's discuss Antonetta's alternate persona. We typically see her through Kel's eyes, and he makes a clear distinction from her personality before and after aged 15. Before age 15, she is a childhood friend, she loves doing everything the boys do (like sword fighting, for instance) and they boys treat her like one of them because they are kids, they don't really see the difference. After age 15, Antonetta has her debut (at 15?? eww, at least make it age 18). Thereafter, she is strictly micromanaged by her mother and now adopts a highly feminine look and a giggly, stereotypically dumb blonde-esque personality. The boys all start thinking of her completely differently, in more of a sexual way, and we see that Kel was floored and confused about the sudden shift in her personality and the shift in the way that everyone saw her. He states that everyone forgot that she was clever, extremely opinionated, and liked fighting. The boys (Conor, Joss, and Charlon) only saw her as a sexual object after her debut. The difference in how Kel acts versus the other boys can be attributed to the difference in their status - Kel grew up in an orphanage up until age 10 and is only pretending to be noble and does not consider himself one, and therefore does not see the customs of the nobles (such as a debut) as relevant, while the others have grown up with this ingrained in their minds and are used to these practices and have grown up to expect them. I think Kel also didn't have much experience seeing the power imbalance between men & women in this society, so it was very new to him.

This is when Kel and Antonetta, at age 15, have a falling-out because she and her mother both tell him that he cannot pursue Antonetta because he is a minor noble. This is after Kel "proposes" to her with a grass ring, and I think this proposal was very innocent and sweet, so it was devastating for Kel to be rejected so cruelly because of his lack of status/power, which especially hits home because he really is a commoner. Antonetta specifically tells him that she grew up, and he needs to grow up too. I think this is when Kel starts developing this alternate persona. In a way, Antonetta catalyzed this shift in his mind of how he should conduct himself as a noble and how little power he had in making choices for himself, which I think is a big part of him trying to tamp down every want/interest/ambition that he had.

Antonetta continues to develop this persona, to the extreme frustration of Kel (even though he does the exact same thing). In his POV, we constantly see him being aggravated by her fake smile that makes her seem clueless/dumb. There is one scene where the five of them (Conor, Kel, Joss, Charlon, and Antonetta) are hanging out, and Kel is standing on the balcony being moody because he doesn't want to interact with the other boys. Antonetta is hanging with the boys and has adopted her clueless persona, then goes to talk to Kel and acts completely different. Then, Conor, Joss, and Charlon call Antonetta over again and Antonetta immediately dons the persona. When she comes back to talk to Kel again, it's gone again. She goes back and forth between Kel and the boys multiple times and literally changes the way she interacts every single time. This was the scene that made me start to like her character because it clearly depicted her switching the way she acts based off the person she is speaking to. Throughout the book, we see her showcase her cleverness by diffusing and/or manipulating situations to go the way she wants them to using this tactic. Kel notices this more and more as time goes on, and shows that she is still the same person she had always been, but she was just forced into this persona to survive on the Hill (and to please her strict mother).

Near the end of the book, Conor gets engaged and so Antonetta's mother stops strongly regulating her whereabouts and her outfits choices. This is freeing for her because now she is able to sneak around and practice sword fighting (something she was not previously able to do) and wear clothes that she wants to wear. Her mother forced her to wear hyper-feminine colors (pink, yellow, etc.) to make her look more childlike (eww) to be appealing to Conor, I guess? Now, she is able to dress in a more mature fashion, which does not match with her "clueless" persona (because this persona is a lot about her pretending to be naive, inexperienced, young, etc.) Antonetta having more freedom appears to make it harder for her to continue to use her "clueless/dumb" persona with her newfound ability to choose her own clothes and pursue her preferred hobbies. Therefore, she and Kel are in the same position at the end of the book. Both Kel and Antonetta are really struggling to continue to don their alternate personas, and they can see that in each other, especially since they always drop their guards around one another.

In one of their final scenes together, Antonetta tells Kel that she was only interested in marrying Conor so that she could keep her Charter because her husband will inherit the Charter, and Conor couldn't. Then, she tells Kel that he seems to not want anything. I think this is so interesting because she noticed the way that he tamped down everything that he wanted to the point that it seems like he wants nothing. Obviously she doesn't know that he can't have anything because he is expected to die at any moment, but I think this line from Antonetta shows us that Kel really was losing himself and had very little motivation to do anything of his own volition. I think Antonetta maybe knows more about Kel than she is leading on or at least suspects that he is not who he says he is because she is observing him and trying to gage what his motivations are.

When Kel found the ring in Antonetta's locket, I almost passed out, I was so excited. This is an obvious indicator that Antonetta still has feelings for Kel and remembers the way they used to be in their childhood, when Kel always thought he was the only one. Maybe, to her it is a symbol of someone who loved her for who she truly was, with no false persona and with no interest in power from her family's Charter.

Their dynamic is so interesting and I know with more development it could be so insanely good in book 2! At the end of Sword Catcher, it seems like they seem to be getting closer and very aware that they are both hiding things, and with Antonetta's mother wanting her to marry Gremont, I know shit is going to hit the fan. They definitely are the most interesting couple to me because of how similar but different they are in their defense mechanisms and how they are surviving the challenges in their lives. They both understand each other very well and they WILL be together at the end of book 2, I know it!!

[belle-keys]

I gave Sword Catcher 4 stars, but it's a 5 star fantasy novel in spirit.

If I can ignore all of the Shadowhunter tropes that were blatantly recycled in this book then it'd likely be more like 4.5 stars. I have a few criticisms here and there, but the city of Castellane is so richly immersive and cut-throat that I felt like I left the real world and slipped into the pages. That's a massive feat for me. I rarely ever feel this enraptured by high fantasy.

I had an issue or two with the superficial treatment of major elements in the story. I needed more of the city's crime underworld, more from Antonetta's character, more of the toxic friendship between Kel and Conor. I felt like we only scratched the surface of these aspects of the story when they were among the most intriguing. In some ways, this book felt like a prologue – I kept wondering when we were gonna properly get into it in the first half. Nonetheless, those are my only complaints.

I loved everything else.

The aspects of Jewish history and mythology? Perfect. Lin and Conor? Crack cocaine. The Ragpicker King as my new future baby daddy? You know it. The sheer scale of the world and its many diverse nations and cultures? Immaculate. The world was expansive and you can tell Cassie really put thought and energy into it. I can't wait for the sequel and I'm hoping we get at least 3 books in the series and not a mere duology like Cassie originally intended. I adored Sword Catcher and I can overlook the, uh, light borrowing from The Last Hours.

Feel free to send me asks about the book if you wanna discuss!

[rhiannons-bird]

okay so I‘M FINALLY READING SWORD CATCHER AND I HAVE THOUGHTS

I‘m only about halfway through but I need to rant

- it‘s incredible how well cassie manages to lend a unique voice to each of her characters every single time. she just doesn’t miss does she?

- lin caster is the awesomest girl. i just love her because she reminds me of other cc girls in the way that she is kind of a very typical heroine on the surface but you can actually feel her emotions and she’s very believable & flawed & human and you just can’t help rooting for her + i love her friendship with mariam

- everyone is bisexual & it’s completely normalised i love it here

- lin & conor??? apparently they are the flagship which I know because I took a peek at the tag after they had two scenes together because the ENERGY OMG

- ahh yes, conor 😌 another pretty man with issues who’s in a lot of trouble and likes to cover it up with sarcasm, pompous behaviour, fancy clothes & vanity- you just can’t help but love it

- but also he‘s the biggest prick and i want him to have some sense beat into him by everyone around him

- like he qualifies for a huge growth arc but it could also go downhill and turn into sth ugly

- anyone had a weird sense of déjà vu about him and lin after that one little excerpt about adessa and suleman? like, she’s an ashkar with probably immense magical potential let’s be real i see where this is going and he‘s a prince (future king) with marivent blood 🤔🤔🤔

- conor‘s frat boy posse make my blood boil- especially with the way they talked about antonetta in that one scene 🤢🤮

- falconet is the nicest one by far but he‘s sus as hell i know he’s up to sth 🤨 but i rly wanna like him 😭

- the ragpicker king is just a cool dude who dresses emo and has people murdered on the regular i guess i love him. he’s hot. - kaz energy but also very different at the same time. can‘t wait to see more of him. and there’s def more to him.

- also no, andreyen, i don‘t understand either what people mean about ji-an having an off putting manner i‘m pretty convinced she‘s never done anything wrong in her entire life 💗except for the murder what murder

- kel can only be described as a calmly unhinged cinnamon roll. he reminds me a little of james (especially with his „mask“) but if you orphaned him & janked up the loyalty & sluttiness by a hundred

- like fr he is so confused just running around threatening and/or kissing people wtf 😭✋🏼 he just has chemistry with everyone he interacts with lol

- kel & conor remind me of matthew & james but if there was a big power imbalance and a everything is a little more fucked up 🙃

- generally the way power & power dynamics are portrayed and handled is very interesting i like it

- antonetta has my entire heart ❤️

- I need more of her but as an individual not just through kel‘s pov, so far i’m not very big on whatever is being hinted at with her and kel

- I adore merren just like everyone else, he‘s kind of giving a weird mix of christopher/matthew/wylan and I‘m here for it. plus: autism coded character yeass

- also nice to see some jewish rep. (i did not know cassie was jewish before lol) the ashkar are really interesting (& as far as their treatment by the rest of the world goes at times infuriating😤) to read about and add a lot of depth to the world building.

- i love how we see the complexities of their culture portrayed through lin who on the one hand is deeply ingrained in it and holds/has received a lot of love & care for/from her own people while also having been wronged & ostracised by them and how both can be true simultaneously

- as someone who‘s very familiar with multiple romance languages the languages in this book are incredibly entertaining to me

- SO MANY SECRETS & political intrigue hehehe rubbing my little hands together can’t wait for all this to escalate (because it most certainly will) 😈

bottom line

I’m really glad i finally started reading this.

it took me a while to get into it & I’m still holding out on a final judgement since it seems very slow but i’m a patient reader and i appreciate a good setup.

also I want a creepy black crocodile pool in my house now.

[kaitcreates]

Over analyzing the Sword Catcher official art because I can.

First up Kel. He has his sword catcher medallion on and his clothes look blue then green like he’s described wearing in the book because the Queen wanted him to wear her home country’s colours and it doesn’t look like what we see Conor wearing in his portrait so Kel might’ve picked this outfit himself. The coat also ruffed up’s little, one of the sleeves even has a tear in it, he doesn’t start getting into any serious fights in the book until he sides with the Ragpicker King, around the same time he starts finally exploring his own identity if only slightly so this’s probably around that time frame. He has the scar on his eyebrow that Conor is described as having which I can feel has some sort of importance to their characters. The background is some waves, clearly referencing his love of the ocean and sailing, along with swords indicating his sword catcher title. His foreground is one of the less interesting with just a pile coins for his wealth as the prince’s fake cousin, a pile of scroll for how much reading he does, and a pile of something back that I’m not quite sure what it is. It looks like it might be some black powder but he hasn’t done anything with black powder yet in the story. Maybe it’s a metaphor for life as he knows it getting blown up as the story goes along, who knows. It’s also worth noting that he doesn’t have any flowers in his portrait, this might be nothing but it’s almost like a theme with most of the other portraits so it’s worth noting.

More characters under the cut because this got long:

After that we have Conor. His clothes and jewelry aren’t anything to write home about, it looks properly royal with plenty of jewels showing of his wealth. Though I do take not that the eyebrow that has a scar though it is covered in his portrait. His background depicts the Castelane lion on top of the city state’s national colour of red obviously a nod to him being the prince of the City-State. The hour glasses seem to represent his limited time as pressure begins to build on him, and I’m not quite sure what the falling rings represent, maybe they’re supposed to be coins and represent something about his debt. Again the piles of money, books, and scrolls represents his wealth and being well read. We can see what one do the scrolls says but it’s not very clear and seem to be written in one of the world’s fictional languages, if anyone can translate it please send it to me but it might not be anything special. The banner/flag in the corner is certainly important but I can’t remember anywhere that it would belong to at the moment so again if you can think of anything that would be a huge help. It’s also once again worth noting he’s one of the few character to not have flowers in his portrait.

Lin’s is arguably the most obvious. She has her mystery-stone brooch, her ashkar ring, is wearing the ashkar’s mandatry colours of blue and grey, and her medical satchel. The background has a glyph behind her with runes in it since she’s trying to bring magic back, the golden whisps also look magical, and the herbs and plants are for healing. There are diagrams of human anatomy behind her and the flowers have vials of what I presume is medicine strewn in them. This is also the first showing of flowers in a characters portrait, I thought it was representing her medical herbs and flowers. In the flower bed you can also see a split open pomegranate which could symbolize her growing doesn’t into darkness and crime as she tries to find a cure to Mariam similar to Persephone and the underworld.

Antonetta’s is relatively simple. Her outfit is what her mom forces her to wear throughout most of the book and she’s wearing her heart locket. Her background is also pretty simple with no special patterns or symbols to speak of, just some lace patterning at the edge of the circle similar to her outfits. It’s really the foreground that interests me. The perfume bottle is slightly odd as we never get any focus on her using perfume or smelling nice, but it does fit the perfect noble woman image so it’s not out of place. The sword being mostly hidden except the hilt is a nod to the secret sword lessons she takes, which she’s hiding from nearly everyone. The rose is obvious symbolism for looking beautiful and pretty but having thorns if you try to grab it. Around this I started thinking that maybe the flowers represented characters who were trying to get more then their current position in life was giving them. The most confusing thing about her portrait though is the bloodied handkerchief and golden locket around it. Bloodied handkerchieves are pretty much solely used in fiction for someone with a deathly illness but as far as I know Antonetta isn’t sick in anyway and defiant not of the fatal kind. Maybe it’s a nod to her friendship with Mariam.

For The Ragpicker King I would like to bring your anterior to his right hand. As you can hopefully see it looks like some slights scars are peaking out from his sleeve. What does this mean? I don’t know. I have no memory of this being described in the book, and was just something interesting I noticed. In the background you can see something that almost looks like a jail cell, likely referring to him being a criminal. There are also many playing cards flying around behind him for some reason, I’m not really sure since it’s never made note of him being especially in to card games or to use card metaphors in his plans. The piles of envelopes are likely his letters to and from the King and the books represent him once again being well read and his enjoyment of research. The evolvement of flowers once again confuses me because from what we see he seems perfectly content in his current life. Maybe it’s about how he escaped a life he was unhappy in.

Ji-an doensy have much going on, neither do most of the characters moving forward. The most interesting thing I could find about her appearance is that she’s wearing makeup. She has the two black swans, which I’m pretty sure I’m not remembering the full importance of, from her line about the swan pulling her carriage. She has a variety of swords in the back ground, one of which is she is holding. This could both represent her status as a killer but also as sort of like ghosts of the family she killed. Her flowers continue to feed into my “escape from current life/escaped from past life” theory and there isn’t much else to say.

Merren has nothing super interesting about his appearance in this portrait. It suits his personality and that’s about all I could say. The background is an obvious nod to his poisoner status with the wisps of smoke(possibly from hot tea?) leading up to a skull. I’m not entirely sure what the quills are supposed to represent, maybe it’s supposed to be because he’s a student so quills are like pencils in their world. Mostly his foreground also just seems to be about him being smart if a little messy when it comes to parts of his life outside of poisons and antidotes. The most specific thing I can find is the spilt concoction which is likely poisons. Once again the flowers are confusing, I had a theory that the flowers represented someone studiously seeking out knowledge, except Ji-an and Antonetta don’t follow this pattern. Merren also doesn’t fit into the “run/ran away from a life they didn’t like” theory unless there’s a part of his backstory that we don’t know about that fits into it. If anything he was pushed out of a life he liked. The flowers aren’t a super big part of the portrait and more of just an accessory anyways so fine, maybe it’s not meant to connect to the other flower portraits.

Joss’s portrait has two elements worth taking note of. First, the abundance of arrows and bows. This is mostly likely a nod to indoor archery, but I do hope we get more archery in his character and fighting style down the line. Second, he has some flowers in the foreground. Which just adds to the confusion because, as far as we know, he’s pretty happy with his current life and he almost definitely hasn’t ran away from an old life.

And the flowers continue to be confusing. Vienne is special in the fact that the flowers are pretty much the only other element of her portrait outside of herself. They do kind of make it look like she’s buried in flowers, especially with her helmet resting on the bed, and does work with the fact that she died at the end since giving flowers is a common way to pay respects to the dead, at least in western culture. In my admittedly short research session, the flowers seem to be Marigolds. These flowers are commonly used in day of the dead and symbolized grief and mourning in the victorian era, continuing the idea that these flowers are being used to represent her death. In renaissance times(the time period Cassie says she took the most inspiration from for those world) Marigolds were gifted to woman that men wanted seduce. What this means for Vienne I have no idea but it felt worth mentioning.

Now at this point you might be thinking “Couldn’t the flowers not actually mean anything and instead it’s the lack of flowers that represents something?” And I was think that too until Jerrod and his lack of flowers came along! Why are the only characters without flowers Kel, Conor, and Jerrod?! In other news Jerrod has basically nothing to take note of. His fingers look much paler then the rest of his hand from the chalk and the daggers facing towards his head could either represent that he’s being threatened or that he’s threatening. That’s really it. The rope and keys seem to be vaguely related to being able to get into places, but at the current moment they don’t seem to really be that personally connected to him.

So over all I have three main questions after this:

What in the world do the presence or lack of presence of flowers mean?

Were the details that don’t make sense to us right now cut after the art was made or are they hinting at future developments?

Why didn’t Mariam get a portrait?

[shipperoffanonships]

I can almost hear Kel's disbelief on this line.

[rinadragomir]

15 Reasons to read Sword Catcher

1 - DRAMA, no one stopped Cassie so she had an opportunity to show off. Royal intrigues, criminal secrets, whispers of forbidden magic which is about to return

2 - bisexuals💙💜lgbtqia took over this book and refuse to leave, good for them

3 - perfect multilevel world-building, CC spent lots of time exploring historical materials, complicated fantasy series and it shows. Makes your brain work, which is always a plus

4 - Will/Jem vibes between Kel/Conor🥺

5 - enemies to lovers to enemies to— they're driving me INSANE

6 - POC characters, two of the main characters have brown skin, the queen has black skin, lots of characters whose appearance is probably inspired by people from the Middle East. Asian killer girl, my beloved🫶✨

7 - Political games, if you loved Game of Thrones/ House of the Dragon/ ARCANE, you'd love this one too!

8 - A high delusional society coexisting with a much poorer majority. Provocative grotesque parties/ fancy balls VS Brutally beautiful criminal city/ local dance holidays with magical roots

9 - The main girl is apparently Cordelia/Catarina's lovechild. She came here to show her dangerous dance skills and heal you🤗. Everyone is scared of her and she's scared of her weird dreams about sex & apocalypse🤔

10 - Main character being a sweet silly cinnamon roll...but like "randomly criminal whore" edition. He's either too smart or too silly & horny, no in the middle. Always kind🌻savage little marshmallow that needs to be held and protected

11 - Glittery outfits, Bridgerton X Euphoria? Marie Antoinette X Great Gatsby?

12 - Magic, necromancy 🔮🪦 Magic was common centuries ago until it became too powerful and destructive, which is yay for me, but for some reason, no-no for everyone else. The last battle between enemies/lovers and boom👁️👁️the land was destroyed, magic is gone. Which is what legends say. BUT IS IT GONE THOUGH🤨

13 - "I know we've just tried to kill each other/threatened to kill, I know this is our third meeting, but what about a kiss?👉👈" AND IT'S ABOUT AT LEAST TWO COUPLES

14 - You know that character, who's like mysterious✨ minor/third main character✨he lives in an emo mansion and feeds all stray kittens🫶and everyone who bothered him was killed brutally or disappeared under mysterious circumstances for some reason...oh these silly little coincidences☺️

15 - because I ask you🥺