#bartimeus

[isaarne]

That’s kinda badass 

Isabelle Arne

[loadsofcats]

On logic class, we defined “concept” as (among other things) “a thought about the essence of the thing we are thinking about”. Anyway, I think that maybe, just maybe, spirits in the Bartimaeus books could be considered concepts. Their bodily form is a concept of what they look like; not truly an object, but rather a thought. I don’t know if this is comprehensible enough for anyone else to get my point- any of the humans at least

[lejay-the-impossible]

Once again, not a BartNat shipper, but I still enjoy every part of it

I love that they look like neither one of them wants to be there

Nat with long hair

Nat in a dress

Bartimaeus emerges from the bottle

Perfection✨

'Awkward wedding photo of two dorks, London. Photographer unknown.' (Kitty denies it, but that was her)

Well, ahem, I drew this about two years ago but I still like it lol :"D

I used a reference photo from pinterest (under the cut)

[silverfeatheredserpent]

I hope the translator will help me tell this incredible love story of the Bartimaeus Trilogy❤

This summer, I accidentally found out that the artist of one of my favorite Trilogy @oneeyedmagi artworks lives with me in the same country. It took me a long time to decide to write to her, and that's what happened.

We started chatting - there were a lot of conversations, jokes and ideas to do something interesting for the fendom of the Bartimaeus Trilogy. She was very supportive of me in cosplay, and I even decided to register on Tumblr to show it.

The drawings and drawings by other authors, as well as your kind words, inspired me so much that I invited her to come to me and do Nathaniel's cosplay.

And it happened.

Jesus, I still don't believe that someone traveled 800 miles for cosplay. We took incredibly cool photos and videos. 800 MILES!!!

Damn, just look at this!

@jonathanstroud - look HOW Much We Love the Bartimaeus Trilogy❤❤❤

[winter2468]

Bartimaeus of Uruk you would have loved starting drama on twitter

[lejay-the-impossible]

The Amulet of Samarkand climax story beats

Drew a bunch in one day. Stroud's climaxes are always epic, but weirdly enough are mostly never the coolest part of his books, because the things that get me excited the most are character dynamics and witty dialogues with 30 layers of subtext and a million forshadowings.

@jonathan.stroud

[scaraletandbrowned]

I find it funny how everyone in the fandom without fail consistently makes Amulet of Samarkand Nathaniel smaller than Bartimaeus when he’s in Ptolemy’s form even thought it’s explicitly stated by Bart that he’s the exact same height as 14 year old Ptolemy.

It’s even funnier with how much Nat’s described as scrawny and small by Bartimaeus with this added information, considering they’re literally the same size in the moment 😭😭

^^ Amulet of Samarkand

And in Golem’s Eye it says that Nathaniel’s a head taller, meaning that he’s like a head taller than Ptolemy/Bartimaeus at 14. It’s okay though, Bartimaeus has a tall enough personality to pretend lmfao

[dykemcqueen]

not the person who sent the ask that received these tags but... i too am a lover of egotistical asshole self sabotaging suicidal codependent protags. tell more about bartimaeus?

THE BARTIMAEUS TRILOGY by jonathan stroud is the greatest fantasy series for children ever written. it takes place in an alternate history london where magicians make up the ruling class. as was once true in real life, england is a massive colonial power with a baseless aristocracy that brutally oppresses the working class. the "commoners" believe that magicians have inherent power, but secretly all magicians are just educated in the art of summoning and controlling spirits (hatefully referred to by humans as "demons"). all western magicians of this period punish and abuse spirits into doing what they want, no exception, as has been the case in many places and in many time periods over the years. the spirits are just invisible, giving the magicians the illusion of power.

the series is about 3 people: nathaniel, a traumatized adolescent boy who rapidly starts sacrificing his morals for power and prestige in the cutthroat world of the magic elite; bartimaeus, an ancient all-powerful djinni that nathaniel relies on to do his dirty work; and kitty jones, a commoner whose friend is brutalized by a magician who is never brought to justice. it's actually also about a fourth person who died thousands of years ago, but that's a surprise tool that will help us later.

the story is about how these 3 lives intersectin a decade of political turmoil, as the commoners' oppression becomes untenable and foreign governments sick of the british empire's power seek to exploit its growing weaknesses. it's about how the power-hungry oligarchy cannibalizes itself, and how external political, cultural, and social forces shape the characters and their relationships.

it's about trauma and power and justice. it's about oppression and freedom and classism and colonialism and the many purposeful lies inherent in the system you believe you can't change (*cough* capitalism *cough*). it's about how connection to another person can change you. it's about recognizing who the real enemy is.

it's also, if you would believe it, riotously, insanely funny, mostly because bartimaeus—who narrates about 50% of it—is a sarcastic, irreverent drama queen who can never shut the hell up. he's been alive for 5000 years and he's made it this far by being avoidant and self-serving and bitchy and lucky. he thinks he's hot shit and he kind of is, but he's mostly just driven by a need to survive. he and nathaniel are friends but also not really. nathaniel is both scared of him and scared to lose him, and the series ultimately centers on their relationship, the wariness and abuse and dependence, and the way it changes as nathaniel changes. nathaniel also does go through severe depression, for that anon who was asking about lockwood.

the bartimaeus trilogy is tightly, deftly written, and one of the only kids' series that i think 100% holds up without caveats. there's a great balance of action, emotion, humor, character development, and plot, and the worldbuilding is insane—it's very smart and never overexplains anything. i can't recommend it enough. every character is written with such care and realism by a writer who Knows How to Write. it's so, so good. every fantasy fan should read it imo.

[viscericorde]

serpent of silver plumes

only just now drawing real fanart for something i have read and loved for 15 years but better late than never

[narinick]

I’ll post my Stroudverse fanart here…starting with the one and only Bartimaeus of Uruk!

[atlantic-riona]

"I rather think he knew anyway" lives rent-free in my head

[isaarne]

One of my favortie book : Bartimeus trilogy

Isabelle Arne

[bblueraven-and-fandoms14]

Re-reading Bartimeus Triology and actually dying inside. Guys I'm on chapter 5 of AoS and I'm going to kill everybody in the room and then myself because Nathaniel did not DESERVE THIS. OUGH. OH. UNDERWOOD WHEN I CATCH YOU!!!!!

[cool-frog-hours]

Tiefling Warlock - Bartimaeus 🔮⚡️

Taking inspiration from (plagiarizing) jonathan stroud’s fantastic book series’s sarcastic-footnote-loving protagonist of the same name <3

[silverfeatheredserpent]

By the way! I didn't show another amazing artifact that we created for cosplay - Staff of Gladstone.

We discussed the options for a long time, considered the covers of different editions of the Trilogy, but most of all we liked the embodiment of the visual from @pompomoo So our Staff of Gladstone was made according to her wonderful art.

The staff was cut from real wood in the workshop. It was very painstaking and jewelry work. Just look at how amazing the interlacing of roots from a piece of board turned out!

[winter2468]

In Ptolemy's Gate when Bartimaeus can barely shapeshift because of how overused his essence is: