#anyways then his parents then Hest

[aroaceleovaldez]

doodle page from a couple months ago of Nico having way too many immortal friends

also yes i did just use Nyx’s Hades design. it’s a good design.

[redscullyrevival]

Dragon Keeper: Rain Wilds Chronicles Rundown

@sonnetscrewdriver

Plot/Narrative/Setting

Oh my god there are so many characters - MY TIME TO SHINE.

I love gigantic casts, I live for them

So this was exciting

Gonna be honest and admit I’m relieved to have returned to a third person narrative. I’m of the personal opinion that Hobb writes better as an outside narrator although I wouldn’t say she structures better.

Overall Dragon Keeper was a good set-up story and it moved a lot faster than other Elderling books! 

Reading Liveship Traders you knew that the separate story threads would eventually meet and that was grade A thrilling - but it was also nice to have a large cast congeal within this first book. I’m boring and love interpersonal stuff (shout out to Golden Fool!) so all the slight overlap of scenes being reiterated from different character’s perspectives has been a blast for me. 

I’m really digging the idea that this is an atypical Quest of sorts; it’s a group of misfits setting out into the unknown, yeah, but even more specifically it’s a group of socially and mentally battered souls leaving the constructs that made them how they are behind.

The BIG THEME in Fitz and the Fool stories is change and Liveship Traders’ BIG THEME was a subset of that, specifically about personal inner change manifesting in outward change and vice versa.

I mean, look at how the physicality of the characters in Liveship Traders directs and alters their inner change. 

Liveship is a series about the connection between physical and emotional/cognitive change and I have no doubt that will continue in the Rain Wild Chronicles. We can already see it everywhere; most obviously with the malformed dragons and their heavily touched keepers and more subtly with the trek up river, changing what is and isn’t known about the narrative’s physical space. 

Anyways

I am actively fighting envisioning a fantasy version of The African Queen with Dragons though. I don’t know why my brain does what it does. 

Alise

Oh boy!

What a flake!

LOL

I love her, I love most everyone we know this by now, but what I really enjoy about Alise is her up and down nature.

She’s emotionally flighty, which is a hard gamble; sometimes reading her experiences is like getting whiplash but that’s what makes it, her, great in my opinion.

Alise is very smart and very perceptive and she wars with herself over her desires, her fears, and then being pragmatic. 

Her situation isn’t as complex as Sedric’s but it’s pretty close and I hope the two can bond in an alliance against Hest. 

Thymara

Whats with this sassy lost child?!

Thymara is a bit dull in all honesty, she’s very serious, but her attitude and guardedness is understandable. 

I feel for her.

She doesn’t seem to be very in-tune with her own thoughts or understanding of herself; she very much views her life as filtered through how others see her. 

Hopefully she can loosen up a bit and actually fully grasp the freedom laid before her, embrace the wild.   

Captain Leftrin 

Such a grand old soul.

I adore how he thinks of his ship and how deeply perceptive he is. 

Because his chapter bits are mostly narration he comes off as seeming like a stoic quiet type of person - a kind of gruff Studio Ghibli persona lol.

He’s gotten himself into a pretty pickle though. Can’t wait to see how that turns out! 

I’m in love with Tarman by the way; being the oldest liveship around and having those creepy painted on eyes and vibrating communication - oh ho ho I love it! 

I LOVE IT. 

*gurgle*

Sedric

Sedric is great.

Its kind of hard to explain but he walks the line between being selfish and then pitiful. 

Like, his motivations are clear and true for him, but he also is selfaware enough to be honest with himself at times. He knows Hest is manipulative and can be cruel; but he can’t live in the open; he wants to prove himself and make his fortune; but he genuinely doesn’t want to hurt or have harm come to Alise.

Dude’s got a lot going on! 

I’m desperate for Sedric and Alise to be open with each other, but I don’t know how soon that’d be possible...

Tats

A nice kid.

A good kid.

A nice good middle of the road kid.

Yeah, I need some more time with Tats I think but he’s pretty swell.

Sylve

Sylve has surprised me in only good ways.

She is the youngest but also possibly one of the smartest keepers.

I love the inversion of her and her dragon Mercor’s relationship; in a lot of ways he seems like her keeper.

Godbless Mercor by the way, I’m irrationally pleased Maulkin survived. 

Rapskal

RAP-A-TATSKAL IS MY BOY!

Haha

God I hope he doesn’t do something stupid.

He probably will, but lets hope it isn’t deadly ya know?

A ray of sunshine with the best dragon who has the best dragon name. 

Heeby is like an excited puppy! I want her to fly. 

Greft

What a big creepy jerk.

He isn’t wrong about saying fuck the establishment, but he is still a manipulative turd. 

Sintara

Reading Sintara is a bit of a challenge because like with Tintaglia her self understanding is eye roll inducing, which I know is the point; dragons are suppose to be a challenge to humanity on a social and biological level, dragons view humans like how humans view other animals. I get that.

BUT DAMN sometimes I want Sintara to shut up lol

I don’t know how dragons are suppose to change, will they become more like humans? Will they go in the opposite direction? Interesting!

Highlighted Passages

Or is it that you look at her and see that those rules were wrong, and wonder how many other babies could have grown up to be Rain Wilders?

Should a child ever have to thank a parent for being alive, thank her father that he hadn’t allowed her to be exposed?

As homes and businesses were rebuilt, as trade took on a new shape despite war and piracy, everyone else had tried desperately to make things go back as they were before. Everyone except Alise. Having glimpsed a possible future for herself, she had struggled wildly to escape from the suffocating destiny that sought to reclaim her.

The gem of her satisfaction was when Hest appeared, nattily attired, but hollow eyed and pale.

Thymara kept her mouth shut, horrified not by his wild dreams but how closely they paralleled her own yearnings.

“Don’t trust them. Don’t think of them as especially noble or of a higher morality than humans. They aren’t. They’re just like us, except they are larger and stronger, with potent memories of always having their own way. So, be careful. And whatever you learn of them, whether you find Kelsingra or not, you must record and bring back to us. Because sooner or later, humanity is going to have to coexist with a substantial population of dragons. We have forgotten all we ever knew about dealing with dragons. But they have forgotten nothing about humans.”

She wasn’t sorry, not at all, and yet she could not keep herself from apologizing. When had it become so ingrained in her to apologize whenever she wanted something for herself?

She didn’t like how he assumed he had the right to talk to her in such a tone, to keep her standing here when she wanted to leave.