#five kalr

[klinefelterrible]

Can I just add that this all wouldn’t be sufficient for my love without Zeiat/Sphene relationship and the idea of an ex-ship befriending an ancient ship during hard times and the ancient ship befriending this weirdest human-shaped alien creature who seem to be a diplomatic ally or something else AND SPEND TIME PLAYING GAMES while Five Kalr only cares about the tea set is utterly fantastic and I don’t remember reading anything even remotely as entertaining and weird in the vibe

Sphene and everybody expecting Breq to have a plan and then being shocked about her pulling the republic out of her hat despite the fact that Breq has never created a complicated plan in her life..... She shook things up so much on Athoek and has such a mysterious past that it seems like she should be some kind of tactical genius, but her "genius" boils down to having a broad range of experience and a fuck-you attitude. She's old, dude! She's been around forever! She has experience at both ends of the social spectrum and an intimate understanding of how every person serving on a ship thinks feels and behaves and twenty years wandering around outside raadchai space. So for everyone she talks to, she has an alternative perspective, and for every stupid assumption and thought people have, she has the willingness to tell them they're being stupid, and for everyone who's just uninformed she has a piece of advice for them. Her "social genius" is basically having common sense and a basic understanding of empathy. She has no family to answer to, assassinating a body of the god-emperor was the interview that got her a title and a ship, she's adopting people willy-nilly, she throws hands on sight of any anaanders, she's having an emotional breakdown because she has friends for the first time in twenty years but figuring out ship-to-ex-ship relationships is kind of hard while she's tethered to the outside of a spaceship sniping four other spaceships with, I cannot emphasize this enough, the magic gun she spent twenty years hunting down so she could basically give the god-emperor a haircut and die giving her both middle fingers.

[lurking-latinist]

think I will reread Ancillary Justice & series, I think the first time I read it I mainly absorbed worldbuilding and now I need to remember the names of like. characters

[hms-lurking-latinist]

🚀

[klinefelterrible]

So who was male in imperial radch trilogy?

Let’s hear those theories!

[githjanken]

on to ancillary sword and like. kalr 5 re: has hetnys been offered tea/breakfast

"Yes, sir. She said she didn't want anything." A trace of disappointment there—no doubt she felt deprived of an opportunity to show off her dishes.

she is so cute! i love kalr 5 and her precious dishes

[insert DO IT FOR HER meme here, but it's snippets of kalr 5 being kalr 5]

[theygotbitchesinmedia]

Wahhhh... kalr five....

[phagodyke]

ARURGRGRHHHHH

[swallowtailed]

i make this post several times per imperial radch book, apparently, but it continues to be true so i will say it again: truly beautiful control of the emotional arcs, made all the more impactful by their inherent connection to the worldbuilding. this is what speculative fiction is meant for.

[lizzibabedrinkstea]

And furthermore, her tactical use of the tea sets in psychological warfare is par excellence

Kalr five! She just loves good tea sets so much and feels so much pride in them and honestly same. I think we would get along very well <3

[chaotic-neutral-knitter]

I described the imperial radch trilogy to my partner as "people passive aggressively drinking tea at each other in space (affectionate)" and I don't think that's technically wrong but on my re-read I am remembering how much of that is due to Kalr Five, who appears to primarily express admiration and affection via dish selection. I love her so much.

[dryad-lesbians]

lyrics under the cut for ref

1. My heart is a fish

Hiding in the water-grass

In the green, in the green.

2. It all goes around

It all goes around

The planet goes around the sun

It all goes around

My mother said it all goes around

It all goes around

The ship goes around the station

3. A thousand eggs all nice and warm

Crack, crack, crack, a little chick is born.

Peep peep peep peep! Peep peep peep peep!

Nine hundred and ninety nine eggs all nice and warm

Crack, crack, crack, a little chick is born.

Peep peep peep peep! Peep peep peep peep!

4. The person, the person, the person with weapons.

You should be afraid of the person with weapons. You should be afraid.

All around the cry goes out, put on armor made of iron.

The person, the person, the person with weapons.

You should be afraid of the person with weapons. You should be afraid.

5. Betrayer! Long ago we promised

To exchange equally, gift for gift.

Take this curse: What you destroy will destroy you.

6. One, two, my aunt told me

Three, four, the corpse soldier

Five, six, it'll shoot you in the eye

Seven, eight, kill you dead

Nine, ten, break it apart and put it back together.

7. Memory is an event horizon

What's caught in it is gone but it's always there.

or Bo decade's approximation:

Oh, tree! Eat the fish!

This granite folds a peach!

Oh, tree! Oh, tree! Where's my ass?

8. Death will overtake us

In whatever manner already fated

Everyone falls to it

And so long as I'm ready

I don't fear it

No matter what form it takes

9. I was walking, I was walking

When I met my love

I was in the street walking

When I saw my true love

I said, "She is more beautiful than jewels, lovelier than jade or lapis, silver or gold."

10. Jasmine grew

In my love's room

It twined all around her bed

The daughters have fasted and shaved their heads

In a month they will visit the temple again

With roses and camellias

But I will sustain myself

With nothing more than the perfume of jasmine flowers

Until the end of my life

11.Oh, have you gone to the battlefield

Armored and well-armed?

And shall dreadful events

Force you to drop your weapons?

12. Who only ever loved once?

Who ever said "I will never love once"

and kept their word?

[lurking-latinist]

I did pick up Ancillary Sword at the library and am a little ways in (no spoilers please) and really enjoying it. Especially having had this Age of Sail phase recently. The tropes are super recognizable. The gangly 17-year-old officer at risk of motion sickness? The captain’s steward obsessed with fancy dishes and eavesdropping? I know those characters now! I know where they come from!

[itrvahn]

Kalr five is my baby girl.

[clonerightsagenda]

Mercy of Kalr and Kalr Five @ Sphene: maidenless captainless behavior

[spiritunwilling]

Man I'm so happy Kalr Five got her nice dishes

[theygotbitchesinmedia]

Hanging out with kalr five, sphene, breq, and translator zeiat while they painstakingly glue a glass teaset back together