#dain x liriope

[madockisser]

I just read your reasoning, and I totally understand. Madoc used to be my fav character at the start of the book, since he was a good dad and wanted the best for his children.

And Dain was introduced to the story. Became my fav character and we all know what happened at the coronation :')

dain greenbriar analysis! not that u asked but i did one of madoc so i’ll do one of dain since he’s super complex

i really liked dain too! he was totally mysterious, which was later revealed that he was more so manipulative and cunning. balekin says that dain is “surprisingly unsentimental” which is shocking coming from balekin of all ppl. since balekin believes it to be true, then imagine like a 10x worse version of balekin. we know dain is very smart, he is charming and manipulative, which are all qualities that balekin do not quite posses. (as seen in the lament of lutie loo)

dain truly did not play around when it came to things in the way of his coming into power. which shouldn’t come as a surprise since we know that dain was slowly poisoning eldred to make him weak and make him resign from being king. then obv what he did to the woman he sent love poems to (liriope) whom he poisoned alongside the fetus in her womb. all that just to assure his succession to the throne.

not to mention how he played poor 5ish yr old cardan. dude was beefing w a toddler! which again, he uses his elder brother charm to do, and his manipulative hand to persuade eldred to kick cardan out and cast asha out. (which makes me wonder if he had a personal grudge or something against asha ((maybe something she knew that he didn’t want eldred to know)) or if he was simply just killing 2 birds w one stone)

it’s fascinating to me that he killed liri despite caring for her sm. why do i think he cared for liri at all? because he was at a great risk to dally and play around with one of his fathers lovers/consorts. for someone who is so notoriously careful, he must’ve really grown to care for her, the same way nicasia came to care for locke!! ( i ADORE the parallels in lockes and his mothers relationships!)

but maybe dain caught on to her gancanagh/ love/charm speaking powers and was displeased enough to not really gaf when he administered poison to her and oakey.

while dain is a giant asshole, he really fascinated me. his actions at first were charming and humble, and from jude’s perspective, almost kind, and even someone she could look up to. but after jude fell out of favor with him, he was cold, cruel and calculating.

he even managed to skillfully manipulate his own spies into liking him, seeing as the ghost still served dain after his death by betraying jude (which wasn’t his fault). the roach and the bomb didn’t know of dains poisoning of liri, and even jude wasn’t allowed in on some of the spy work she was doing for dain.

and ofc when jude delivers the paper that says, “i know the provenance of blusher mushroom” dain, who is put on the spot, skillfully manipulates his spies yet again by claiming that “he”(could be any faerie that goes by “he” btw) was blackmailing orlagh.

furthermore, he says about balekin.

“he and i never got along. and yet i had hoped ….” purposefully not finishing his sentence so as to not reveal to his spies how truly unfeeling he was about his elder brother,balekin.

i wonder a lot of his plans for jude, i saw a theory that he was going to arrange jude in a marriage, and i have a few small ones of my own, but it’s super intriguing that he chose jude, the daughter of the very influential grand general (the man to stole half of the high kings army in twk lol) to use as a spy. makes me wonder what his plans were for madoc and for jude if madoc ever found out. because surely, as careful as he is, he would’ve had one.

ANYWAY sorry i kinda went on a tangent there but he’s such a cool character and while i def do not agree w his actions, i almost wish he stayed alive longer to be a more significant villain, but i am SO glad we got cute oakey pokey as a cute less evil replacement! and also more insights of what oak thinks of him in tpt and tsh!

holly black, despite dain and several other characters have short amounts of page time, managed to make dain such a great subtle villain! which is why i love her work so much. she slides in and incorporates little damning facts and details that could mean nothing, but could also have great significance!

lastly, i rly like doing character analyses so feel free to add on or send me characters or questions thru the ask thingy!!

[angrylittletrashpanda]

Jude & the Ghost’s friendship vs. blind loyalty (a.k.a. redemption arc rant part 2)

Okay, looks like I am not done with this subject yet. As I previously mentioned, it is kind of surprising Jude didn’t have anything against spedning so much time with a guy who almost murdered her little brother. Why didn’t she decide to keep tab on him from the very begining?  I mean after Jude found out the Ghost was the one who had poisoned Liriope (willing to kill her unborn child as well) she never thought twice about it? I also wonder where the Ghost’s blind obedience, blind obedience came from? Was this fairy just dumb enough to give his true name to his every ‘employer’? 

In addition, Jude apparently loved Oak very much, cared about him. In TWK there was a scene in which she protested when Madoc suggested using the kid as a bait... So why did she trust him, like him and spend time one-to-one with  this guy? Well, I’d understand Judes attitude if the Ghost was her  lifelong friend,  but the day she discovered the truth about Liriope’s death they knew each other just for a few weeks. Was she, idk, physically attracted to her fellow spy and desperate to score him? (Sounds like a crack fic tbh). Or just reckless? Hello, even Jude’s twin sister betrayed her, and the girl just trusted some random guy she barely knew? For no particular reason? Because he was just following orders? 

Moreover, she never suspected the Ghost was the one who might have betrayed her. Why? Was Jude convinced he always obeys orders? I think it could be a good (crack)fic: Jude keeps an eye on the Ghost, since she does not trust him at all, after what he did. And, surprise surprise, he finally betrays her, as canonically. No crack-fic romances this time.