#hal matelon

[lilabyrne]

love hal matelon and i love this. fuckin real. he went north and realized that his king and government and church were fucking stupid. he unlearned all the propaganda about northern witches and demons and got to be normal about the people there. he’s still like okay my government sucks, but there’s something worth salvaging if i can help bring a better government like what i saw in the north. it’s not super deep ofc the shattered realms is a book series for teens but i appreciate him and his changes in mindset over time. from burying his head in the sand abt how bad his king was, to wanting to abandon his home country for the north, to deciding he actually wants to make his homeland better, that it’s people don’t deserve to be abandoned for another despot. more frenchmen need to be like hal matelon

[fagdykefriendship]

wait guys the shattered realms is totally literally just a ya game of thrones like

destin karn - tyrion

jenna bandelow - daenerys

evan strangward - probably the greyjoy girl idk

lila byrne - arya

alyssa ana’raisa - robb

jarat - joffrey

hal matelon - unsure oopsie.

marin karn - tywin

breon d’tarvos - bram

ash sul’han - john

but yeah it’s like. the north is the north and the “good” side (to some extent) in both books. seven kingdoms in both books. arden is like the lannisters. they’re both the kingdom in the north with wolves as a symbol and weird magic and shit. idk. very similar but the shattered realms is less sex and gore

[bbauthor2]

So I was playing Akinator at my NYE party

And everyone was trying to see if they could get Akinator to not guess their person. So I thought, “I got a great one! I’m going to win!” And so when answering the questions I was so sure the whole way through that the game wouldn’t get it right because it’s such a small series. And then...

It actually got Arsinoe right! I’m shook.

So of course then I’m trying to figure out what other obscure characters it knows.

It guessed Raisa, Han Alister from the Seven Realms. It didn’t guess any of the Shattered Realms series.

And then I played for this character.

And it got her right! I can’t believe it!

[pirate-and-soldier]

Boyfriend’s Day, you know what that means

To Ash, Hal, Breon, Destin, Han, Dancer, Evan, Amon, Shadow, Finn (except not really cuz you did try to kill Julianna, but it wasn’t really you I guess) and Celestine’s current favorite Tarek, I appreciate every single one of you, and so do your significant others. You are all great boyfriends, and deserve the world.

Thank you for making our lives both easier and more hectic.

Sincerely, Jenna, Lyss, Sasha, Evan, Raisa, Cat, Destin, Annamaya, Aspen, Julianna, and me. Celestine doesn’t appreciate you enough, Tarek. So I will.

HAPPY BOYFRIEND’S DAY

(I reached the limit when I was tagging lmao why do people have so many different names in these books)

[pearlgrayrose]

I've finished a Shattered Realms one-shot taking place after Deathcaster called "Seeking a Blessing".  At the request of @awkward-nerd-duo, it's about Lyss taking Hal to introduce him to Raisa.  Sorry it's late - what with school, I didn't get around to writing it until today.  Hope you like it!

P.S. I'm seriously considering writing a Shattered Realms fic about Destin getting sick.  I have some really good ideas for it.  So...maybe sometime soon?

[btafest]

LENS CRAFTERS

Take a look at how these four masters of PoV approach developing multiple perspectives that keep you wanting more.

B SESSIONS: 12:15-1:00 + 2:15-3:00 in the Lecture Hall (CPL Basement)

Moderated by Erin Bay.

King’s Cage by Victoria Aveyard In this breathless third installment to Victoria Aveyard’s bestselling Red Queen series, allegiances are tested on every side. And when the Lightning Girl’s spark is gone, who will light the way for the rebellion? Mare Barrow is a prisoner, powerless without her lightning, tormented by her lethal mistakes. She lives at the mercy of a boy she once loved, a boy made of lies and betrayal. Now a king, Maven Calore continues weaving his dead mother’s web in an attempt to maintain control over his country—and his prisoner. As Mare bears the weight of Silent Stone in the palace, her once-ragtag band of newbloods and Reds continue organizing, training, and expanding. They prepare for war, no longer able to linger in the shadows. And Cal, the exiled prince with his own claim on Mare’s heart, will stop at nothing to bring her back. When blood turns on blood, and ability on ability, there may be no one left to put out the fire—leaving Norta as Mare knows it to burn all the way down. Shadowcaster by Cinda Williams Chima Alyssa ana’Raisa, the reluctant princess heir to the Gray Wolf throne of the Fells, feels more comfortable striking with a sword than maneuvering at court. After a brush with death, Lyss goes on the offensive, meaning to end the war that has raged her whole life. If her gamble doesn’t pay off, she could lose her queendom before she even ascends to the throne. Across enemy lines in Arden, young rising star Captain Halston Matelon is being sent on ever more dangerous assignments. Between the terrifying rumors of witches and wolfish warriors to the north and his cruel king at home, Hal is caught in an impossible game of life and death. Lyss and Hal’s intricately linked fates become inseparable when they fall under the shadow of a new enemy—a force that threatens to extinguish the last rays of hope in the Shattered Realms. The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell Stop the Magician. Steal the book. Save the future. In modern day New York, magic is all but extinct. The remaining few who have an affinity for magic-the Mageus-live in the shadows, hiding who they are. Any Mageus who enters Manhattan becomes trapped by the Brink, a dark energy barrier that confines them to the island. Crossing it means losing their power-and often their lives. Esta is a talented thief, and she’s been raised to steal magical artifacts from the sinister Order that created the Brink. With her innate ability to manipulate time, Esta can pilfer from the past, collecting these artifacts before the Order even realizes she’s there. And all of Esta’s training has been for one final job: traveling back to 1902 to steal an ancient book containing the secrets of the Order-and the Brink-before the Magician can destroy it and doom the Mageus to a hopeless future. But Old New York is a dangerous world ruled by ruthless gangs and secret societies, a world where the very air crackles with magic. Nothing is as it seems, including the Magician himself. And for Esta to save her future, she may have to betray everyone in the past. Timekeeper by Tara Sim In an alternate Victorian world controlled by clock towers, a damaged clock can fracture time—and a destroyed one can stop it completely. It’s a truth that seventeen-year-old clock mechanic Danny Hart knows all too well; his father has been trapped in a Stopped town east of London for three years. Though Danny is a prodigy who can repair not only clockwork, but the very fabric of time, his fixation with staging a rescue is quickly becoming a concern to his superiors. And so they assign him to Enfield, a town where the tower seems to be forever plagued with problems. Danny’s new apprentice both annoys and intrigues him, and though the boy is eager to work, he maintains a secretive distance. Danny soon discovers why: he is the tower’s clock spirit, a mythical being that oversees Enfield’s time. Though the boys are drawn together by their loneliness, Danny knows falling in love with a clock spirit is forbidden, and means risking everything he’s fought to achieve. But when a series of bombings at nearby towers threaten to Stop more cities, Danny must race to prevent Enfield from becoming the next target or he’ll not only lose his father, but the boy he loves, forever.

[katybudgetbooks]

YA Books We’re Anticipating in April 2017

Alex, Approximately by Jenn Bennett (4/4):  Seventeen-year-old Bailey moves to California to live with her father and, perhaps, finally meet an online friend and fellow film buff, but soon finds herself attracted to an annoying co-worker.

The End of Our Story by Meg Haston (4/4): Every love story has a breaking point... From the author of Paperweight comes the star-crossed romance of two high school friends in a tale rife with deeply buried secrets and shocking revelations. BEFORE: Bridge and Wil have been entangled in each other's lives for years. Under the white-hot Florida sun, they went from kids daring each other to swim past the breakers to teenagers stealing kisses between classes. But when Bridge betrayed Wil during their junior year, she shattered his heart and their relationship along with it. AFTER: When Wil's family suffers a violent loss, and Bridge rushes back to Wil's side. As they struggle to heal old wounds and start falling for each other all over again, Bridge and Wil discover just how much has changed in the past year. Though they once knew each other's every secret, they aren't the same people they used to be. Bridge can't imagine life without Wil, but sometimes love isn't enough. Can they find their way back to each other, or will this be the end of their story?

Shadowcaster by Cinda Williams Chima (4/4): From New York Times bestselling author Cinda Williams Chima, this is a thrilling story of the unfathomable costs of war, the allure of dark magic, and two principled and conflicted characters drawn together despite everything they stand to lose.Alyssa ana'Raisa, the reluctant princess heir to the Gray Wolf throne of the Fells, feels more comfortable striking with a sword than maneuvering at court. After a brush with death, Lyss goes on the offensive, meaning to end the war that has raged her whole life. If her gamble doesn't pay off, she could lose her queendom before she even ascends to the throne. Across enemy lines in Arden, young rising star Captain Halston Matelon is being sent on ever more dangerous assignments. Between the terrifying rumors of witches and wolfish warriors to the north and his cruel king at home, Hal is caught in an impossible game of life and death.Lyss and Hal's intricately linked fates become inseparable when they fall under the shadow of a new enemy--a force that threatens to extinguish the last rays of hope in the Shattered Realms.

Alex & Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz (4/11): 1777. Albany, New York. As battle cries of the American Revolution echo in the distance, servants flutter about preparing for one of New York society's biggest events: the Schuylers' grand ball. Descended from two of the oldest and most distinguished bloodlines in New York, the Schuylers are proud to be one of their fledgling country's founding families, and even prouder still of their three daughters--Angelica, with her razor-sharp wit; Peggy, with her dazzling looks; and Eliza, whose beauty and charm rival those of both her sisters, though she'd rather be aiding the colonists' cause than dressing up for some silly ball. Still, Eliza can barely contain her excitement when she hears of the arrival of one Alexander Hamilton, a mysterious, rakish young colonel and General George Washington's right-hand man. Though Alex has arrived as the bearer of bad news for the Schuylers, he can't believe his luck--as an orphan, and a bastard one at that--to be in such esteemed company. And when Alex and Eliza meet that fateful night, so begins an epic love story that would forever change the course of American history. In the pages of Alex and Eliza, #1 New York Times bestselling author Melissa de la Cruz brings to life the romance of young Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler.

The Freemason’s Daughter by Shelley Sackier (4/11): Saying good-bye to Scotland is the hardest thing that Jenna MacDuff has had to do--until she met Lord Pembroke. Jenna's small clan has risked their lives traveling the countryside as masons, secretly drumming up support and arms at every stop for the exiled King James Stuart so that he may retake the British throne. But their next job brings them into enemy territory: England.Jenna's father repeatedly warns her to trust no one, but when the Duke of Keswick hires the clan to build a garrison on his estate, it seems she cannot hide her capable mind from the duke's inquisitive son, Lord Alex Pembroke--nor mask her growing attraction to him.But there's a covert plan behind the building of the garrison--a secret that cannot be revealed. Will Jenna hide her family's mutinous plot and assist her clan's cause, or protect the life of the young noble she's falling for?In Shelley Sackier's lush, vivid historical debut, someone will pay a deadly price no matter what Jenna chooses.

Given to the Sea by Mindy McGinnis (4/11):  Kings and Queens rise and fall, loyalties collide, and romance blooms in a world where the sea is rising--and cannot be escaped. Khosa is Given to the Sea, a girl born to be fed to the water, her flesh preventing a wave like the one that destroyed the Kingdom of Stille in days of old. But before she's allowed to dance, an uncontrollable twitching of the limbs that will carry her to the shore in a frenzy--she must produce an heir. Yet the thought of human touch sends shudders down her spine that not even the sound of the tide can match. Vincent is third in line to inherit his throne, royalty in a kingdom where the old linger and the young inherit only boredom. When Khosa arrives without an heir he knows his father will ensure she fulfills her duty, at whatever cost. Torn between protecting the throne he will someday fill, and the girl whose fate is tied to its very existence, Vincent's loyalty is at odds with his heart. Dara and Donil are the last of the Indiri, a native race whose dwindling magic grows weaker as the island country fades. Animals cease to bear young, creatures of the sea take to the land, and the Pietra--fierce fighters who destroyed the Indiri a generation before--are now marching from their stony shores for the twin's adopted homeland, Stille. Witt leads the Pietra, their army the only family he has ever known. The stone shores harbor a secret, a growing threat that will envelop the entire land--and he will conquer every speck of soil to ensure the survival of his people. The tides are turning in Stille, where royals scheme, Pietrans march, and the rising sea calls for its Given.

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli (4/11): From the award-winning author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda comes a funny, authentic novel about sisterhood, love, and identity.Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love. No matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can't stomach the idea of rejection. So she's careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.Then a cute new girl enters Cassie's orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly's cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly's totally not dying of loneliness--except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie's new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. If Molly can win him over, she'll get her first kiss and she'll get her twin back. There's only one problem: Molly's coworker, Reid. He's a chubby Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there's absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?

Bang by Barry Lyga (4/18):  A chunk of old memory, adrift in a pool of blood. Sebastian Cody did something horrible, something no one--not even Sebastian himself--can forgive. At the age of four, he accidentally shot and killed his infant sister with his father's gun. Now, ten years later, Sebastian has lived with the guilt and horror for his entire life. With his best friend away for the summer, Sebastian has only a new friend--Aneesa--to distract him from his darkest thoughts. But even this relationship cannot blunt the pain of his past. Because Sebastian knows exactly how to rectify his childhood crime and sanctify his past. It took a gun to get him into this. Now he needs a gun to get out. Unflinching and honest, Bang is the story of one boy and one moment in time that cannot be reclaimed, as true and as relevant as tomorrow's headlines. Readers of This is Where It Ends, The Hate List, and Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock will appreciate this extraordinary novel.

Grendel’s Guide to Love and War by AE Kaplan (4/18):  Tom Grendel lives a quiet life--writing in his notebooks, mowing lawns for his elderly neighbors, and pining for Willow, a girl next door who rejects the -manic-pixie-dream- label. But when Willow's brother, Rex (the bro-iest bro ever to don a jockstrap), starts throwing wild parties, the idyllic senior citizens' community where they live is transformed into a war zone. Tom is rightfully pissed--his dad is an Iraq vet, and the noise from the parties triggers his PTSD--so he comes up with a plan to end the parties for good. But of course, it's not that simple. One retaliation leads to another, and things quickly escalate out of control, driving Tom and Willow apart, even as the parties continue unabated. Add to that an angsty existential crisis born of selectively reading his sister's Philosophy 101 coursework, a botched break-in at an artisanal pig farm, and ten years of unresolved baggage stemming from his mother's death . . . and the question isn't so much whether Tom Grendel will win the day and get the girl, but whether he'll survive intact.

Legion by Julie Kagawa (4/25): From the limitless imagination of Julie Kagawa comes the next thrilling novel in The Talon Saga.The legions will be unleashed, and no human, rogue dragon or former dragonslayer can stand against the coming horde. Dragon hatchling Ember Hill was never prepared to find love at all--dragons do not suffer human emotions--let alone with a human, and a former dragonslayer at that. With ex-soldier of St. George Garret dying at her feet after sacrificing his freedom and his life to expose the deepest of betrayals, Ember knows only that nothing she was taught by dragon organization Talon is true. About humans, about rogue dragons, about herself and what she's capable of doing and feeling.In the face of great loss, Ember vows to stand with rogue dragon Riley against St. George and her own twin brother, Dante--the heir apparent to all of Talon, and the boy who will soon unleash the greatest threat and terror dragonkind has ever known. Talon is poised to conquer the world, and the abominations they have created will soon take to the skies, darkening the world with the promise of blood and death to those who will not yield.

[mobilepubliclibraryteens]

Alyssa ana'Raisa is the reluctant princess heir to the Gray Wolf throne of Fells, a queendom embroiled in a seemingly endless war. Hardened by too many losses, Lyss is more comfortable striking with a sword than maneuvering at court. After a brush with death, she goes on the offensive, meaning to end the war that has raged her whole life. If her gamble doesn't pay off, she could lose her queendom before she even ascends to the throne. Across enemy lines in Arden, young rising star Captain Halston Matelon has been fighting for his king since he was a lýtling. Lately, though, he finds himself sent on ever more dangerous assignments. Between the terrifying rumors of witches and wolfish warriors to the north and his cruel king at home, Hal is caught in an impossible game of life and death. 

[publishedtoday]

Sequel Announcement!

Did you like Flamecaster by Cinda Williams Chima?

A burning vengeance. Adrian sul’Han, known as Ash, is a trained healer with a powerful gift of magic—and a thirst for revenge. The son of the queen of the Fells, Ash is forced into hiding after a series of murders throws the queendom into chaos. Now Ash is closer than he’s ever been to killing the man responsible, the cruel king of Arden. As a healer, can Ash use his powers not to save a life but to take it? A blood-based curse. Abandoned at birth, Jenna Bandelow was told the mysterious magemark on the back of her neck would make her a target. But when the King’s Guard launches a relentless search for a girl with a mark like hers, Jenna assumes that it has more to do with her role as a saboteur than any birth-based curse. Though Jenna doesn’t know why she’s being hunted, she knows that she can’t get caught. Destiny’s fiery hand. Eventually, Ash’s and Jenna’s paths will collide in Arden. Thrown together by chance and joined by their hatred of the king, they will come to rescue each other in ways they cannot yet imagine. Set in the world of the acclaimed Seven Realms series a generation later, this is a thrilling story of dark magic, chilling threats, and two unforgettable characters walking a knife-sharp line between life and death.

Shadowcaster, the sequel is being released tomorrow!

Alyssa ana'Raisa is the reluctant princess heir to the Gray Wolf throne of Fells, a queendom embroiled in a seemingly endless war. Hardened by too many losses, Lyss is more comfortable striking with a sword than maneuvering at court. After a brush with death, she goes on the offensive, meaning to end the war that has raged her whole life. If her gamble doesn't pay off, she could lose her queendom before she even ascends to the throne. Across enemy lines in Arden, young rising star Captain Halston Matelon has been fighting for his king since he was a lýtling. Lately, though, he finds himself sent on ever more dangerous assignments. Between the terrifying rumors of witches and wolfish warriors to the north and his cruel king at home, Hal is caught in an impossible game of life and death. 

[lilabyrne]

another political alliance/friendship that i love in the shattered realms is hal and destin. hal is a guy who wears who he is on his sleeve and it’s pretty easy for destin to figure him out, to realize that he’s been, for lack of a better word, deradicalized to arden’s propaganda and is now pro-north to an extent, while also wanting to protect his family and defeat the empress bc that’s just the kind of guy he is. meanwhile hal is like umm this guys fucking crazy and i have zero clue what’s going on in his brain but i want to say thanks for saving my mom and sister so i can’t let him die yet.

destin’s always 10 steps ahead and it’s honestly funny that hal thinks he has to be the one to come up with a plan to save destin. especially since destin knows he’s coming. even before destin was forced to march north, he was gonna leave the capital before hal and his army arrived. oh halston matelon you are not a schemer and that is okay

it’s funny bc hal never thinks for one second hmm maybe destin karn just wants what’s best for the world and that’s why hes against the empress taking over. well i mean he’s not wrong for thinking destin’s reasons are not exactly heroic but still. they aren’t self serving either. destin is against the empress because he doesn’t want her to throw his only friend/boyfriend/partner in crime/reason for living into a lava pit. hal knows nothing about this but he still automatically knows destin’s not in this for the greater good

[pirate-and-soldier]

EVERY TIME I THINK THAT THERE ISN’T A BIRTHDAY THAT I HEADCANONED SOON I ALWAYS SEEM TO FIND OUT THAT ONE WAS LITERALLY THE DAY BEFORE

ANYWAYS IM SORRY THIS IS KINDA LATE BUT UH

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HALSTON MATELON

YOU STILL REMAIN ONE OF THE BIGGEST MOODS I’VE EVER COME ACROSS AND I LOVE YOU

Ps the birthday I had for him was October 4th

[lilabyrne]

[ID: a tiktok of me, a brown skinned person with dark hair and a green eye filter on. I am lip-synching to an audio that says “I know it’s easy to get confused in this crazy world, but um, you read that wrong. I am not bi whatsoever. I am straight”. Text in the video reads “Hal Matelon when you ask him why he said he was drawn to lyss because she was more like a man than other women he’d known”. End ID]

[pirate-and-soldier]

This is one of the biggest moods in Deathcaster and it’s so beautiful.

[fagdykefriendship]

the whole shattered realms tag on tiktok is just me bc i��m an icon and no one is doing it like me and it also means i’m the authority on those books. forcing my headcanons onto any of my friends who read the books

[lilabyrne]

Hey everyone shattered realms infodump post/basics about it to convince ppl to read it!!

Summary/Intro to characters:

The Shattered Realms is a four book fantasy series covering different converging conflicts within the world of the Seven Realms. There are eight main characters who give narration in various chapters across the four books.

When the Shattered Realms starts, two of the nations within the Seven Realms have been at war for 25 years. One of these nations is the Queendom of the Fells, while the other is the Kingdom of Arden. The war started when Queen Raisa of the Fells rejected a marriage proposal from King Gerard of Arden.

Two of the main characters are the children of Queen Raisa and her consort, the High Wizard Han Alister.

Adrian sul’Han, aka Ash, is a wizard healer who’s been secretly training at the wizard school that’s located on neutral ground near Arden. He spends his summers as an assassin in Arden.

Alyssa ana’Raisa, aka Lyss, is the next in line to the Fellsian throne, and serves as an officer in the Fellsian army. She’s skilled at fighting and military strategy, but she has a short temper and feels awkward in political settings.

While wizards are accepted in the Fells, they are persecuted in Arden. The king of Arden has continued fighting his war against the Fells by branding it as a sort of crusade against the wizards in the Fells. In Arden, wizards are called mages, and they are forced to use their powers in service of the Ardenine army. Ardenine mages are controlled using collars, which are manufactured by people native to the Fells.

In order to acquire more collars, Arden’s king trades with a smuggler named Lila Barrowhill, who is one of the main characters. She is a mysterious girl, one of very few women and very few Southern Islanders to work directly with the king of Arden. She was raised by her mothers family of coastal smugglers. The identity of her father, however, is one of her most closely guarded secrets.

In Arden, there are only two mages who go uncollared. General Marin Karn, one of the King’s oldest and closest allies, and his son Lieutenant Destin Karn. Destin is another main character in the series. He is the spymaster for the king of Arden, but has his own secret agenda beyond spying for Arden. It is a well known fact that the Karns do not get along with each other.

In Arden, noblemen called thanes hold most of the land and power. The son of the thane Arschel Matelon is another one of the main characters. His name is Halston Matelon. He is a captain in the Ardenine army, well known for being a commander who values his soldiers’ lives and for rising up the ranks through his own talents. Hal is stationed by General Karn in the city of Delphi, presumably to slow Hal’s rise through the military ranks.

Delphi is a mining town controlled by Arden that was once independent. There is a strong underground rebel group there, who do a lot of destruction of Ardenine property. One member of this rebel group is a girl named Jenna Bandelow, who has certain abilities that help her in her work. She’s immune to fire, and can sometimes sense peoples thoughts, pasts, or futures when she touches them. She was born with a mysterious magical mark on her neck, but she doesn’t know what it means.

In Fellsmarch, there is a busker who shares a similar mark to Jenna. His name is Breon d’Tarvos, and he plays a foreign instrument called a jafasa. When he touches someone, or an object they loved, he is able to play a song from their heart that will enchant them. He also does not know what his mark means.

Across the ocean, in the coastal nation known as Carthis, an empress named Celestine Nazari rules. She is hunting for anyone with a mark like Jenna’s or Breon’s, for unknown reasons. Celestine rules all of Carthis except for one port city called Tarvos.

Most people in the Fells and Arden do not know much about Empress Celestine. The most infamous Carthian in the Seven Realms is a pirate named Evan Strangward. Strangward has magic that gives him control over the wind and seas. He’s known as the scourge of the wetlands, taking out Fellsian and Ardenine ships alike. But Evan has his own agenda beyond piracy that is not known outside of his inner circle…

The Shattered Realms are a high fantasy series, that explores themes of trust against all odds and the consequences of war. There’s political intrigue, battles, romance, and dragons. There are also canonically queer characters, and characters who are people of color. These books have been my favorites for a very long time! People who like Six of Crows or Cinda Willams China’s original series The Seven Realms will definitely enjoy this series.

Content warnings for this series include depictions of child abuse, drug usage, a brief (and not very descriptive) sex scene, and typical fantasy setting violence (for example sword fighting, poisoning, stabbing, etc).

[lilabyrne]

perpetually thinking about destin karn and his relationship to other characters umm

he starts out with no one but himself- his mother is unable to protect him because his father is cruel, he’s thirteen and on the run, already firmly believing he can’t trust anyone. raised by a horrible father, in the midst of a decades long war, in a kingdom that is hostile to mages and discriminates against foreigners like his mother.

he runs away and he tries to build a life for himself, tries to be ruthless. (ruthlessness is the only strength he knows of). he slowly over the course of months lets down his guard to another person on the run, allows himself to be close to evan strangward (but he never stops taking precautions. he knows all of evans secrets before evan knows any of his.)

and then his hiding place is wrecked by the one person he trusted, indirectly but still. evan argued with kadar, destin sided with evan, and thus kadar had a grudge against destin and sold him out to the general. destin gets dragged back home.

when he’s home he’s thrust back into the military and life in the court, his mother near dying and unable to run again, evan across the sea. he escapes service in the traditional military by joining the clandestine division, has his hands on all the information he can, not to protect the king but to protect himself.

(he hears about evan from across the sea, someone he loved for his kind heart and ability to see the good in destin has become a ruthless killer, scourge of the high seas. destin says he’s proud, but it’s still evans voice that acts as his conscience years later. evan is goodness)

he meets with a lot of the main cast characters: ash, jenna, lila. he narrates parts of book one, but he doesn’t even trust the reader. he hides the truth from them as well as everyone else. even though destin is there from the first book his backstory only comes with book three.

(every other character has their story told in the same book that they start having chapters in.)

even in his dark place, alone in a cruel kingdom fighting a war he doesn’t believe in with nothing to protect, fighting only so his father doesn’t murder his mother, he still lets some glimmer of hope ignite when he finds jenna, because she is the same as evan. she is an excuse, a reason to contact evan: she’s also a potential threat to him. destin needs to protect evan and he wants to see him again, he reaches out.

(evan responds immediately, no questions asked. hes the same deep down as he was years ago)

destin and evan hatch a plot. it goes south, but jenna still remains out of the hands of the empress. they’re separated again by their enemies in high places. destin karn is alone.

within the court, women have it the worst. queen marina is freed from the influence of her husband after book one. she and destin understand each other. they help each other out. he knows what she did to her husband (he wishes he could do the same to his father)

he meets with hal matelon in book three. again, like with evan, he holds all the cards and secrets. he uses hal in his plan to help evan.

he collaborates with lila and hal. there’s no real friendship, but there is respect, and acknowledgement that they’re on the same side, something that destin karn has barely had in his life.

his mother dies. the first person he trusted, the one he always trusted, even without knowing all her secrets: destin is never shown to mourn. he takes her death as the opportunity that it is. there’s no longer anything anchoring him to the kingdom of arden.

he takes his mothers dagger to his fathers heart, and manages to be promoted rather than arrested for it. he destroys his fathers legacy as a loyal soldier and the general dies a traitor.

hal matelon takes the capital and searches for destin karn. despite everything, he cares. destin is long gone, dragged along by the teenage king of arden. if he’d been in the city, hal’s ascension to the throne would’ve been smoother. destin is an expert at usurping ones father after all.

in the north, destin is kind. he extends a hand to julianna. he nearly shows his hand to lila. he figures out the plot within fellsmarch, saves the northern queen, gains the trust of northerners.

he meets with queen alyssa and reveals to her the truth. (at least, he exposes his bond to evan.) he trusts lyss to do what’s right.

he kills the teenage king of arden with his own two hands to keep blood from lyss’. he marches alongside hal matelon. he helps in the effort against the empress, his last great enemy. (she’s not his enemy, but evan’s.)

he hears the news from the dragons and leaps into action. the scene with the dragons is so representative of destin’s character growth. he lets them into his inner sanctum. he lets them see his thoughts.

he does it because it’s life or death; he does it because he’s grown to trust the people around him. removed from an environment cruelty, destin karn is no longer ruthless. he’s just like the rest of his friends, fighting to protect what he loves.

jenna recognizes this, as do ash and sasha. they know what it’s like. they go with destin. for the first time, he’s not on a solo mission. he’s got backup.

he arrives in carthis and he makes his presence known. destin doesn’t hide anything, he no longer keeps the distance between himself and evan. he trusts his friends around him enough to show vulnerability.

his last great enemy is dead. evan strangward is alive. and, somehow, destin karn, who was told he was unlovable and a monster, is celebrating in a cottage by the sea with his friends. ready to embark on a new journey across the sea. oh my god i’m gonna lose it.