#cormaci

[overandunderland]

Why I love Mrs.Cormaci.

This series is breaking my heart all over again.

[aldoodles]

Mrs. Cormaci supremacy

[prophecyofgray]

ok everyone settle a debate between myself and @paranoid-dyslexic:

(featuring art from @aldoodles go like/reblog it from them!) (i hope u dont mind that i used ur mrs cormaci art for my agenda)

[please-help-this-little-lesbian]

I feel the strong need to write a oneshot where Mrs. Cormaci and Ripred meet

[tangents-within-tangents]

Love is Mrs. Cormaci giving Gregor a new pair of shoes in almost every book

[abhorrenttester]

I decided to re-read Gregor the Overlander for it's 20 year anniversary (ended up getting halfway through the third book before I decided to stop for the day, it's that good!) And while I was reading, I realized one of the main reasons why the series has stuck with me. It's the extra kindness the characters show.

There's a post on here talking about Lord of the Rings and Gibli films, and how they are all about showing kindness for no other reason than the kindness, and I feel The Underland Chronicles fit that perfectly. Mrs. Cormaci going out of her way to help Gregor and his family, Ripred staying up to comfort Lizzie, Vikus gathering all the money in the meuseum to help Gregor. This series is built off the backs of the small kindness people give to each other.

[originalwinnercheesecake]

So what do people actually think the background characters in the Underland chronicles look like

Just wondering. From all the (amazing) Fan art I have seen of Gregor , Lizzie, and Boots the fandom seems to have a pretty cohesive Idea on what they look like. Luxa also seems to have a pretty standard image in the fandom (Though wasn't she on the cover of the first design of MOS) with the only differentiation being how far along she is in puberty. Reminder if she was in the overland she would be in the sixth grade.

Other characters though Like really what do people think they look like. In my head Mrs. Cormaci is a plump/rounder women and I thought for years I had read that in the books until I saw fanart of her being drawn as more slim. Then I reread part of TPOB and was like Oh it never says what shape she is, I guess I just thought she was bigger because she is always cooking so much rich sounding food for charities. Then I remember seeing some one post once that what if she was Hazard's maternal grandmother. His maternal grandparents live in NYC, and Mrs.Cormaci is mentioned to have had a daughter.

Well that is bitter sweet because on one had that means that Mrs. Cormaci's daughter has been missing for years and in fact died without her mother ever knowing what happened to her (she also would not have known when her father died). Gotta then wonder if Mrs.Cormaci giving Lizzie her daughters old cloths is more than just her trying to help the Campbells while also declutter her house. But that also means Hazard has at least one Grandma who is really grand, if this relation was ever realized then maybe Hazard could come up to the overland for visits and stay with Mrs. Cormaci. Also she would probably have pictures of her daughter that she could show Hazard so he could remember what his mom looked like. Anyway I really liked this theory and wanted it to be cannon, but then i realized that since Hazard's overland features are his black hair and green eyes his overland relations probably have them to, and was like oh wow I never pictured Mrs.Cormaci having green eyes.

Another character I think about is Vikus. In my head the males in the underland Henry, Mareth, York all have short close cropped hair because they fight so much. Or in Howard's a short stack of wavy/curly locks cut just short enough to stay out of his eyes when wet. I do love the fan art I have seen of Henry with long hair though. But When It comes to Vikus , I guess since he seeks peace and is better relations, I usually imagine him with long grey hair and a long beard. to me he winds up looking kinda like men in biblical stories. Solovet however is muscled with a near shaved head. She is on the small side and slouches a bit when trying to appear as a gracious hostess and that plus her wrinkles make her seem non dangerous. When she is in planing/battle mode though she stands perfectly straight and those seemingly kindly wrinkles disappear, and she just looks completely terrifying.

Dulcet and Nerissa are other cases. Dulcet is described as being shy and very pretty. But as someone who works in childcare I can say with certainty that her hair is most likely a mess, her simple cloths likely have stains and crayon markings all over them. This girl is a beautiful mess. Then we have Neressa whom everyone knows is a mess. Since she is constantly described as wide eyed, tired, frail, to thin, and wearing her long hair a loose pony tail. But I don't often see it acknowledged that she canonically wears multiple layers of cloths at once or that her cloths never match.

I said most of the men in the underland would have short hair, could Hamnet have grown his hair out longer in the jungle, to try and make himself look different from how he did as a solider. Likewise I also imagine his lizard skin cloths being frayed and raggedy at the edges, much different from whatever military uniforms regalians wear. Anything to help hims see something different when he looks into the water. Can we talk about how when Gregor first meets Howard he describes him as tall and really strong, Then during his time with the plague Howard looses like 20 pounds and has scars wear ever he had bumps. Howard likely could not even fit into his old cloths after getting better.

What do Gregor's parents look like. We know they are both thin and tired. His dad's hair has gone completely white. Grace's cannot be to far behind with how hard she works and being in a state of constant worry for her family. Do fans still Agree with the theory that Grace is white and the Dad is black?

Also one more thing. Why does everyone think any of the underlanders that haven't completely greyed over have silver-blond hair. Like I know Luxa has that shade. Luxa would also probably be blonde if she has been born i t he overland. But it only specified that a silver tint was part of what distinguished the underlanders. Personally I always thought they could have any hair color (examples I imagine Howard being brunette and Mareth having black hair) but that it would always be paler than an overland counter part.

Like I know and respect that the characters descriptions are vague on purpose, and that the fun is that we can imagine them looking in so many different ways. But like really how do people imagine their favorites look. What little we get implies that the characters do not fall into the young adult novels trope of making them all look super hot. They are scared, beat up, anxious, and some are wearing cloths that do not fit them, some are missing body parts. To me that makes them infinetly more fun to imagine than most YA novel characters

So seriously if you have any strong clear/headcannons as to what you think certain human characters look like, please share them int he comments.

[applesandpavenders]

Gregor thinks ‘it shouldn’t matter for him, he was eleven’ about Christmas. Just. *sobs* This poor kid thinks he’s too old for Christmas to be magical for him anymore. That he has to worry about money and bills and health because he’s already eleven years old. He’s a baby.

[bighfantasy]

What is ripred if not lizzies poor little meow meow

[s0n-0f-the-sun]

If Cormaci visited the underland we all know Red would be the first to greet her. Yeet the bat out of the way and slide into those DMs groomed like a show horse and suave as a prince, offering his paw and swearing to protect her during her stay. 

She sends him food. She is his angel. 

She’d be civil and take it well enough but damn that is a large rat. 

She’s scolding Gregor for telling her the rat was mean and grumpy when he’s OBVIOUSLY the kindest and most chivalrous man in the world.

[overandunderland]

Mrs.Cormaci isn't homophobic in the slightest, but she'd use 10 different words before saying the word gay.

"So, who's ya creative friend?"

"how's your buddy, y'know the *does a half assed effort of performing the YMCA*

[prophecyofgray]

i literally look deranged any time i listen to return to regalia while at work. i start pacing like a madman and responding to the podcast Out Loud at, like, a normal speaking volume. pov u see a student worker in the college dining hall shoving ice cream cones into a jar and laughing maniacally at the idea of mrs cormaci and ripred both being sensual lovers who find each other after being alone in the world for so long

[underland-posting]

Long ass rant about why I think people don’t like The Underland Chronicles

I saw a conversation on Reddit about why TUC wasn’t nearly as popular as Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and all other fantasy novels about kids fighting against great evils and somebody presented a really good point.

TUC is incredibly realistic. They are realistic in the sense of the effects of all of those awful experiences aren’t cured by the power of friendship. When the adventure ends, that doesn’t and didn’t mean it’s all okay. A lot of Suzanne Collins’s stories are extremely realistic when portraying kids in these horrible situations— The Hunger Games is her most notable example. But we’re not here to talk about her other works— Gregor is who we’re here to analyze.

I read through the entire series a couple of times these past few weeks (I swear I’m normal) and the more I look at it, the more I really realize just how much being in this war messed up Gregor. He was 11 when he first went down, and 12 going on 13 when he left. He fought a war and killed sentient beings, witnessed murder, witnessed a literal genocide, and had all the scars to prove it. He was a little boy.

To get to the point, I feel like the reason this story is so much less popular than it should be is because it never gave that happily ever after everyone was used to. His story ends in uncertainty. He is scarred, hurt, has extreme PTSD, and he’s supposed to just… go back to normal after all of this? Even in Virginia, far away from New York, how could he go about his regular life again? Mrs. Cormaci even equated him to her late husband, who was a war veteran— whether it was Vietnam or WWII I can’t tell.

There was no clear ending. Gregor lived a lifetime and a half at only 11 years old. There was no joy, no celebration, just a scar-covered child in his tiny apartment bedroom with his baby sisters who will never quite know what he went through. And I feel like that’s an uncomfortable reality to present readers with since a lot of people are conditioned to believe that there’s going to be a happy ending after we get through the chaotic scary part. But that’s not how it works. It just doesn’t.

That trauma has completely changed Gregor— he is a different person with a different life and different perspective on the world. He is not the same and he can’t go back to what he was before. And a lot of people who haven’t experienced that or just don’t know how it works find that unsatisfying or disquieting. The idea that trauma isn’t just something that can be cured with a couple days of R&R after a rough patch doesn’t compute. That’s something he has to live with forever, and it’s also something that it seems a lot of people don’t like.

I could go on and on but I’ve been rolling around these thoughts in my head like a little freak for days. Of course, all of this is just an opinion (one fueled by poor sleep and a shitty med schedule) and none of this is to be taken as fact. These are based off my experience and things I’ve seen others say that just makes sense to me.

Addendum: I almost went into how much I relate to Gregor as a character just in general. How much of an impact it has that his story feels like it’s over as soon as he has to live a normal life again, how he already knows it’s impossible for him to be normal, how he’s already withdrawing from his family because no one else gets it and there’s nowhere else he can be or go: it makes me so evil I swear I’m okay I’m so normal

[oneunexpected]

Omg let me know when y’all’re done with it, I’d love to give it a read!! I wrote one for TUC Week a few years ago with a really similar premise, basically a thought he makes them vague enough on purpose that he can never Be wrong if people work hard enough to interpret them

What is your most controversial TUC opinion?

I’ll go first: Ripred is NOT a father figure (except maybe to Lizzie) and treating him as one reduces his character down to little more than a cardboard cutout.

[please-help-this-little-lesbian]

Okay people I finished book 3. First up Luxa is back thank fuck. Ngl I was a little mad at her at first but I get why she was being bitchy. Thank god she’s home.

But mainly: Damn this was sad. Hamnet dying doing the one thing he hated?? Frill?? Luxa comforting Hazard because she too knows what it’s like to be an orphan, and saying he could be her brother?? Gregor turning TWELVE and already having gone through so much??? LEAVE THE CHILDREN ALONE SUZANNE!!

That story of Hamnet and the flood??? Jesus Christ. And I am not surprised at ALL about Solovet and Neveeve. Fuck that bitch this page is now a Solovet hate account. Poor Vikus.

And I MUST know how Mrs. Cormaci responded to the truth

[ares-protector]

ripred x ares was my 2nd grade yaoi and I was fucking obsessed with shipping them

One of the best parts of finding out that the tuc fandom exists on Tumblr, is that I have been introduced to so many ships I would have never thought of.

Ares x Ripred

Ares x Gregor

Ares x Aurora

Dulcet x Howard

HAMNET X MARETH

Ripred x Mrs. Cormaci??? (Unsure if people ship these two, but I think people do?)

(If there are more, please inform me)

And every time I learn of a new one my reaction is always 😮->😍 because I love all of them! Which is exactly what happened with Ripred x Ares. They all make me smile which is great. Of course, I have my favorites but I still love all the ships.