#belgariad

[glasses-rex]

More Belgariad character art, this time of some of the queens! I absolutely adore them, and wanted to hash out how I imagine them on paper. The clothes are only semi-historical— I took inspiration from English women’s fashion of about 1066-1200 according to John Peacock’s “Costume: 1066 to 1990s” (and remembered how much I love all the various medieval head coverings) but also exercised a fair amount of creative license since they are characters from a fantasy world.

[incorrect-belgariad]

Vella: Feeling normal about that old man.

Vella:

Vella: No longer normal. I need to fuck him.

[best-nun-tournament]

Round 1, Match 23

Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire) vs Torak (The Belgariad)

Propaganda under break

Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion Lannister

Cersei HATES Tyrion. Hes not a big fan of her either on account of her absolutely hating him. Cersei (and her twin Jaime, who is actually a good brother to Tyrion) were born a few years earlier than Tyrion, and blames him for "killing their mother," because she died in childbirth. Everyone in their family (except Jaime) hates Tyrion because he has dwarfism, but Cersei hates him more than anyone else and has wanted him dead since childhood. (spoilers beyond this point for the books and show both) When Cersei's son is killed, her immediate instinct is to blame Tyrion and throw him in jail. She does everything in her power to have him killed.

------

The incest for starters. The fact that Cersei doesn’t see Tyrion as human. All the backstabbing. And that they made their own family problems everyone else’s tragic backstory and present out of their own lust for power

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here's a quote from one of tyrion's chapters: "When your sister cries, you were supposed to comfort her... but this was Cersei."

Torak

They stole an orb from their eldest brother and caused a centuries long war between his people and the people of his brothers. (They are all gods).

He's also just kind of a dick

[troistetesdechien]

Source

[kogiopsis]

@esseastri has been reading the Belgariad to me (we are early in Queen of Sorcery, just reached the Wood of the Dryads, so no spoilers please) and I have some thoughts.

The last one is just... Garion for most of the book so far.

[tellusd20]

Belgariad - Faldor's Farm by Dominic Chan

[pickapea]

i wonder how familiar david eddings was with gay subcultures when he sat down to write the belgariad. like when he decided to give the big hairy man who quite frequently turns into a literal bear a sassy rat twink for a life companion

[mellowmagpie]

the beglariad inspired dungeon synth album is straight bangers

[bluebirddiary]

I was robbed! The glitter did not show in the photograph!

A continuation of the Mystery World Map I made while listening to Conan the Barbarian. It's giving Isle of Riva vibes from the Belgariad.

[littlesparklight]

Since I was adding a little more to my always-a-girl!Garion femslash AU of The Belgariad earlier this month, I was once again confronted by how I look at the text differently now from when I was younger.

(I mean, aside from noticing all the Really Unfortunate Racism baked in, but that one I realized ages ago.)

When I was younger, I never once thought much about how Garion is presented as overreacting about his powers, Polgara's relationship to him, and all that. Like, the text, while at times sympathetic, is firmly on the side of "Garion needs to grow up this isn't that big of a deal".

And like, all I've been able to think about while skimming through sections of the first four books is that... I just don't agree. Garion deserves so much better than he's given, my god.

That boy is 14 to 16 during the length of the first five books, and - just. Hello???

Polgara first upends his existence back in the first book, when Captain Brendig catches up to them. She gives him no heads up before hand, no check in after - and he finds out (via eavesdropping, yes, naughty naughty, but still, they never directly tell him and what this means for his relationship to them!) who they are a little later. And all he basically gets told is "this isn't a big deal, your aunt and I are who we are and that's not any different from before, now is it?"

Except it is! Neither Belgarath or Polgara bother - before it comes to even the first of several heads - to straighten things out! And what's worse, considering I only got more fond of Garion and Polgara's relationship in my skimming is that... Polagara and Garion never really have a talk to clear anything up and out. He is made to apologize several times (and he should), but she never does, they never talk more than briefly and not about THEM, really.

Meanwhile, Belgarath and Garion have several emotionally important relationships - and I do like them. But the lack, then, of something similar, between Garion and the woman who definitely is his adoptive mother, stands out.

He kills Chamdar in a really unsettling way, and we do not get any conversation between them where she actually shows any sympathy or support. The there's the whole slave rescue in Nyissa, and Garion blowing up.

And I can't even say I don't understand, exactly, where he's coming from. Given the previous instances - is it strange that a fifteen year old, yanked about as he's been and not getting any good explanations at any point (especially for things relating to himself and his relationship to her), calls Polgara aloof and cruel and inhuman? In her relationship to him, past leaving Faldor's Farm, what we're seeing in moments of crises for Garion, when he'd both needs and deserves some actual adult and familial support, he does not get it! And worse, he gets no understanding, either by other characters or the text itself, basically

It's so deeply frustrating (and yes, I am going to partially redress that lol).

[wolfiso]

I saw someone recently describe a book series I enjoyed as a teen (The Belgariad) as "aggressively heterosexual."

and on the one hand, Yes.

Absolutely.

But on the other hand, these were published in the early 1980s, and what I loved best about them on first read through was how much they absolutely dripped with familiar fantasy tropes. You saw the large strokes of plot telegraphed from extremely early, so the details could be the delightful surprise without making me as a reader feel like I failed to understand what was happening. It was unashamedly built on so many familiar tropes, and doesn't back down from its own foreshadowing. I can't think of a single "Waht a Tweeest!" moment that wasn't repeatedly foreshadowed.

But back to the aggressively hetero thing

There weren't any characters with much room for a queer reading from where I was at thirteen, but the hetero romances were pleasingly varied.

Farmboy and princess tsundere? Check!

Middle-aged co-parenting and mutual pining? Check!

Doomed courtly love? Check!

The zealot and the harlot? Spicy check!

Old Man Widower still quietly pining for his late wife? Check!

Bonus: probably ace horseman who only needs the chaste comfort of the herd and his vengeance? Check!

I know my neighborhood of the internet champions new authors and underrepresented perspectives, and so do I, but this old series is such a comfort read for me. If you get the chance, give it a try.

[mask131]

As I said in a previous post, one of the main strengths and virtues of the Belgaria, and what made it such a success at the time, was how it subverted the typical "Tolkien archetypes "that had become prevalent thanks to the LotR copycats. (I spoke about this in my Tolkienesque Renaissance posts).

It showed how you could reuse the "Tolkienesque formula" and the tropes popularize by Lord of the Rings... while still switching, twisting, reinventing what had already turned into cliches and stereotypes. Yes, now the Belgariad series seems like a cliche because we are used to modern fantasy... But you have to put this back in the context of the 80s. The time of the early D&Ds. In fact, comparing The Belgariad and the early stages of D&D is quite revealing - you should try, if you have time.

But just to highlight the way the Belgariad subverts the "Tolkien mold" some highlights (WARNING, spoilers):

The Orb of Aldur VS The One Ring. Both magical items sought after by the God of Evil, and key to his destruction - but the Orb has to be preserved and used against the God of Evil, not destroyed. Both are sentient items of ungodly power that can easily corrupt their owner into becoming world-destroying tyrants... But whereas the Rings willingly corrupts out of evil, the Orb of Aldur is actually just trying its best to please its owner and grant its wishes, simply lacking a sense of scale and not realizing the consequences of its divine powers. (Oh, an army is following you and you want to escape? LET'S SPLIT THE CONTINENT IN HALF, an endless chasm should stop them)

Belgarath vs Gandalf. Both nearly immortal magic-users, who have wandered the earth for a very long time, are some of the strongest magic forces around and appear as elderly, grumpy bearded men who act as a mentor figure to the hero and guide to the protagonist-party. But Belgarath, unlike Gandalf, is a human being, and his human nature is shown in full force. He is far from being perfect - he is notably lustful and a drunkard. He had once a family, and still has a daughter. Becoming immortal and wandering the earth for millenia, seeing empires rise and fall, and the bad guys committing atrocities, and idiots being idiots, left him bitter, cynical and filled with anger and disdain at many things in the world. And his fight against the bad guys is something personal, vengeful and filled with rage.

Polgara vs... no one. As I said in my previous posts, about the Tolkienesque Renaissance and the "woman-wizard", Polgara was one of the first attempts in fantasy literature at the time to subvert this sexist cliche that had installed itself in the post-Tolkien fantasy, and that Pratchett denounced several times (in his article "Why Gandalf never married" or his novel "Equal Rites"). Because Polgara was one of the rare powerful female magic users of the 80s to be A) just as powerful and a full equal to the male magic user ; and B) a good person on the side of the heroes. And it was quite a BIG step to have a literal "female Gandalf" back in the 80s.

Zedar vs Saruman. Zedar is just like Saruman a wizard (sorry "sorcerer" because another Tolkien subversion, in this world "wizard" is an insult) who betrayed his order to follow the local Evil God. But unlike Saruman he is not a great mastermind trying to cross everybody: he is almost a ghost of a character who keeps fleeing in front of the heroes, and when we finally see him, we discover not an arrogant bully, but a broken and sad man who deeply regrets siding with the Evil Overlord, because as it turns out, becoming the minion of an evil deity is like being in a VERY abusive relationship.

The Disciples of Aldur vs The Istari. The sorcerers of the Belgariad are also five magic-users part of an order who all appear as old bearded men... One heroic one, one betraying one, one weirdo an two coming as a package deal. But here, the idea of the Istari is played around: the reason they have their power is because they are human beings who became the personal disciples of the god of magic, and the reason they all look like old bearded men is precisely because Aldur, their god and master, looks like this, and his divine influence ended up "shaping" his disciples in his likeness.

All of the points above are why I personally enjoyed reading The Belgariad. You can literaly take it as a fun take on the Lord of the Rings-copycats. Not high literature, not great literature, unfortunately carries with it some of the problems of 80s American fantasy with it... But you know, for a Tolkien fan, it can always be a fun read as a "spot the differences and similarities, and see through the narrative what the author tried to say or highlight about Tolkinesque cliches".

[And then came the Malloreon which... *sigh*

In all honesty, the only virtue of the Malloreon as a sequel is that it extends and adds to the worldbuilding, and works at fighting the unfortunate trope of "Good White guys from the West vs Evil swarthy Easterns" that the Belgariad inherited from Tolkien and DID NOT THINK OF SUBVERTING. The Malloreon does explore this "evil East", the variety and complexity of its population, shows that not all of them were behind the Evil overlord, that they existed before and after said Evil Overlord came - in fact said God of Evil literaly destroyed a lot of thriving cultures in his attempt at complete continental domination ; and we get to see the various religious, cultural and phlosophical currents making a vast tapestry ot countries.

And that's more exploring of the "evil East" than Tolkien himself ever did, so kudos for that! But unfortunately it has to arrive in what is obviously a very bad sequel series that is badly written half of the time, has the characters reduced to caricatures, has such an obvious plot contrivence and deus ex machinas because the Eddings didn't know how they could logically lead their story where they wanted to, and where the Eddings old-fashioned sexism rears up its head alongside the first hints of the vaguely pedophile-like vibes I got from later Eddings books...]

[incorrect-belgariad]

Aldur: The good always die young...

Beldin: Phew, good thing that I am so incredibly awful.

[best-nun-tournament]

Round 1, Match 22

Andrew and Ashley Graves (The Coffin of Andy and Leyley) vs Belzedar (The Belgariad)

Propaganda under break

Andrew and Ashley Graves

Both ate their parents after breaking into their new home. Also there's some demon summoning they did, literally selling their victim's souls to the demon they made a deal with. Notable quote from Ashley: "We offer you that guy's soul!"

Ashley - overall a horrible person, implied undiagnosed sociopath who threatened her brother's girlfriend, emotionally manipulates and actively provokes her brother, recently began murdering people she doesn't like, cannibalizes people she murders.

Andrew - enables his sister's worse habits (when he thinks it doesn't involve him), uses plausible deniability by blaming his sister for his actions (despite the fact that he had the freedom to ignore her ideas in many cases), also a cannibal.

Belzedar

They turned traitor against their adopted brothers in a war of gods and magic.

It's suspected in universe that before their betrayal was know, they convinced one of their brothers to commit suicide.

[ajaneofmanytalents]

Characters I wish I could introduce to each other:

Pheris Erondites and Eugenides, from Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series

Mags, from Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series

Diana Hyde, from Theodora Goss' Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series

Silk and Velvet, from David and Leigh Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean pentologies

the goddess Aphrael, from David and Leigh Eddings' Elenium and Tamuli trilogies

Call it the Convention of the Sneaky Bastards (affectionate) :)

[deadchovsky]

not nearly enough discussion online about how homoerotic zakath and garion were in demon lord of karanda, and that's a shame honestly.