#i have another thing prepared for you

[chemicalpink]

Jungkook's Updated Chart [2023]

Alright, alright, by now you’ve heard it, I’ve heard it, we’ve all heard it and it has caused a joyous moment for the bts astrologers. 

We’ve got in our hands Jungkook’s birth time (and while I really am not anticipating having to come back to the whole balance of opinions and general consensus of is it AM or PM) I am here to offer my two cents as a way to come back on here after a few too messy months. 

Let us start with the (probably) most pressing matter: the rising sign. While the general consensus before his live was a Libra Rising, we now find ourselves between a Capricorn or a Leo rising, I believe it is important to look at the Moon both of them carry. While Capricorn carries a Virgo Moon, Leo carries a Leo Moon, which was already the Moon sign that had been adapted to him before any type of confirmation. 

And while by general consensus Jungkook had been consensed as a day chart (which technically whether AM or PM he’s still a day inclined sect)  I’m inclined to give a PM chart a chance. Hear me out. 

Going by astrological knowledge, Jungkook’s chart continues to be a shady one even after we’ve been given his birth time in a general context. Say, a pretty easy way to tell if someone is an AM or PM chart, is by looking at the way that either the Sun or Moon resonates the most with the way one person is HOWEVER we love to complicate things in here so we’ll take the high road of looking at the malefic planets and their interactions within the chart according to the Hellenistic technique of sects. Say, either Mars or Saturn will play a major part of one’s life accordingly, and same applies to the benefits Jupiter and Venus. 

So let’s draw it out. 

Scorpio Mars in 4th or in 10th

Aries Saturn in 9th or in 3rd

Libra Venus in 3rd or in 9th

Aquarius Jupiter. In 7th or in 1st

A malefic Mars would be looking at someone that is filled with rage and aggression, while a Malefic Saturn is usually seen in people with Mercury-ruled Suns, such as Jungkook’s Virgo. Furthermore, Saturn never gives a malefic status when in houses 2,5,9,12. Now, I know we would love for the empowerment that a Scorpio Mars Jungkook would mean, however if you’ve been here for a while/ have read a bit on Scorpio Mars in general vs Scorpio Mars on Jungkook, you know already that it has been quite a wild ride between the empowered overly sexy go big or go home Scorpio Mars image and Jungkook’s very obvious downplay of said traits and leaning more towards a gentle, awkwardly flirty position; an Aries Saturn in his 3rd House would 100% explain the juxtaposition of it as Saturn would downplay his Scorpio Mars. 

Also just as a personal note, I find it funny (see: funny as an expression, it curious at most) that a usual way to contradict a malefic Saturn in your chart is to have/care for 3 dogs (ahem Bam, Song and Paeng) then again, just a personal side note. 

Either way, if Jungkook were to have a malefic Saturn, it would make him a PM chart/ night sect. 

So onto the benefics, a Libra Venus benefic is usually seen with either a Capricorn or an Aquarius Rising however, if Jungkook were to have an Aquarius Jupiter benefic, it would solidify the tendency towards his expansion as an artist, along with the way that it would be a great placement for his success. 

Messy, I told you. If we were to look at it in a simpler way, just by the semantics of “Which placements seem more impactful on Jungkook?” it would look like this:

An Aries Saturn is a sign of a generation’s leader, a little too competitive person that other peers find it hard to keep up with. 

A Scorpio Mars is someone that does things their own way not giving a second thought to disappoint, yet very reality-driven when it comes to other people. 

A Libra Venus benefits, amongst others, look a lot like obtaining luxuries in life and economic progress. 

An Aquarius Jupiter benefits include rising academically and leading a very intellectually-driven life while receiving support from their superiors. 

Without much thought into it, choosing one every two affirmations (say: 1 vs 2 and 3 vs 4) if you were to say hey, I think Jungkook’s Aries Saturn and Libra Venus sound a lot like what we’ve been able to see of him. We would be guessing a PM chart/ Night sect. 

If you were to say Nah, I think his Scorpio Mars and Aquarius Jupiter are pretty evident. We would be guessing an AM chart/Light sect. 

Now, NOW I KNOWWWW I’ve seen the discourse. 

Oh Jungkook being a Leo rising and Leo Moon makes so much sense. But does it? 

Sure, Leo risings are absolutely magnetic, mesmerising even; they are very aware of the image they want to project. There’s a lot of an “on-stage” vibe 24/7 with them (I’m looking at your karaoke at home, JK) They make rash decisions and are pretty well known for their lifelong temper tantrums as well as their idealism that tends to keep them out of trouble. It would 100% fit the marketing fairy image of his as Leo risings are great promoters. However (and not really counting the interactions a Leo rising would have with a Virgo Sun in the chart) Leo risings tend to live on a separate reality, almost fictional, and are driven by drama, pretty much blind to facts around them. I’ll give it to the allegations though, Leo risings are kids at heart, always fun loving and with wonder-filled eyes. 

Leo Moon (yay double whammies) this is where it gets interesting. A normally reserved but not uncomfortable with the spotlight when needed to be, sounds a lot like Jungkook. There’s this thing with Leo Moons where they feel a need to control people around them, even if not really out there. It is a very creative placement that gives people a need to entertain, if only a bit lazy about it. Sulking is a big thing for them because they need a lot of love and care from the people surrounding them.  

And if Jungkook truly is like that (because then again, we are only analysing a mere fraction of a true multifaceted human being while staying in our fan lane) we love to see it! However, it seems to me like it is more- of a description of Jungkook of BTS and his image when truly on stage. 

 Now, up for consideration:

Virgo Moons, the masters of pouting and nagging to get their way, as an underlying way to ask for care and attention from those around them. Prone to stress and pressure, most Virgo Moons are quick to rank themselves  as “underachievers” in mostly academic terms , if only because they usually find other non academic/non traditional subjects to overachieve on. Very jealous of their own space in which they must develop themselves. Often shy when around new people and pretty chaotic with people they’re comfortable with. Self-critical but with a lot of bodily control that could make them excel in art forms that require spatial cognition such as dancing and tend to have plenty of “little hobbies” or stuff they try out and excel at. 

Capricorn Rising (I know I know, sounds so out of it bc how could we even consider an Earth Sun and Earth Rising well-) perfectionists at their finest. A phrase that is always on the tip of their tongues “I will work harder” If you’re looking for someone that just naturally looks competent at whatever they do, it’s them. Often had to take on more responsibility than others at a younger age. Hard-working and driven personality thats makes it look easy to obtain their success levels. Epitomes of success stories in their own fields. Capricorn Risings are often quite mature and grown up when young due to having to grow up quickly and then loosen up and live a rather unique and free spirited way. 

Personal note on that one, Capricorn Risings are often referred to as “karma tokens” if you were to cross them for whatever reason, be sure that it’ll get back to you. 

Also, Capricorn Rising with Virgo Suns are often times delicate in terms of their skin and digestive system (which would make sense with Jungkook’s no gluten rule as of lately and his usual assortment of specialised personal care along with the aversion of dying his hair because of a delicate scalp) 

A Cap rising would also make so much sense in terms of his relationships with the other members. 

Capricorn Rising Virgo Suns have the best understanding with other Virgos and Capricorns (Namjoon and Taehyung) 

There’s a lot of tenderness and admiration for Pisceans (Yoongi)

Plenty of childish disagreements and bickering with Sagittarius while Sag would 100% help them come out of their shell and learn to loosen up and embrace a more childish way of living towards happiness (Seokjin)

Prone to be pretty close with Libras and Aquarians (Jimin and Hoseok) 

One way or another, the general consensus will come our way and as a BTS astrologer we shall respect the voice of the people, however I hope you enjoyed this food for thought, at the end of the day, and I shall keep repeating it, until we know for sure first hand if it is AM or PM, the only person that can and should resonate with it regardless of the exact time is the person to who the chart belongs to, which in this case is Jungkook. 

Nevertheless, I am a 15:23 advocate. If only because when looking at his chart’s universal time, being born at 3:23PM would make him a light sect with a 6:23 AM hour (which again, I find funny numerology-wise cause 2x3=6 and that’s the whole universal time of birth for him) 

[macdenlover]

we don’t acknowledge enough how dee used to be a pageant winner when she was a kid and how much damage it did to her. she worked her ass off and got recognition for being pretty and talented at a young age and it was the only source of self esteem she could garner in a family that constantly berated and talked down to her. she sought after that external approval because it was the only way she could prove everyone around her wrong. her dream of being a performer didn’t come from a self-aggrandizing delusion— she genuinely showed a lot of potential when she was younger. but she went through an unflattering puberty and her spinal condition got worse and that natural talent she had as a kid plateaued way too early. the “former gifted kid” dilemma. she slowly lost the thing that promised her that she was good, but she was so desperate to keep holding onto it that she tried anyway. again and again and again no matter how much people made fun of her because it was always about proving them wrong. but after a while she couldn’t jump anymore without anticipating the way it feels when she hits the ground face first. self-sabotage became her way out, choosing to rather live in the fantasy of her own unrealized potential and blaming those around her for her lack of success, than having tried and crashed again. she’d rather buy lottery tickets over and over and never scratch off the numbers than to see that she lost. that self-sabotaging behavior bled into other aspects of her life too, from friendships to relationships to therapy. her own short lived success is what made her grow into embodying the cycle of failure.

[ratatatastic]

Vanha Kauppahalli date: en full, a 2 minute 50 second masterpiece...

Primetime Panthers | 11.6.24 (x)

[shaunthesheesh]

The audacity of them to start the movie while Creep by Radiohead plays in the background and Rocket is singing along!

[goldensunset]

you know how in school they’d always make you (still make you) like choose random topics to give class presentations on while everyone politely clapped even though they didn’t really care about your powerpoint on fungi or whatever bc they’re too worried about getting their own over with. tumblr is like if every single person in the room was paying full attention and was absolutely stoked about it and gave you wild applause and wolf whistles at the end. you can just get on stage and talk about coelacanths and you become a celebrity for a few minutes. like on tumblr it’s on your own terms so it’s like oh snap education is actually supposed to be fun

[piper-mcqueen-ask-blog]

Literally any headcanons about Piper and her siblings? I'm always a sucker for Cabin 10 dynamic headcanons

from the top : Valentina, Lacy, Mitchel, Piper, and Drew <3

[danwhobrowses]

Slightly mini Callowmoore thing from 103 but I liked how Fearne used 'Professor Emperor' with Grog in reference to the shard and her previous attempt at passing as a professor - which Ashton backed her up for. And the instant Grog tries to move her Ashton steps in with 'we have an appointment', and further protests as she's pushed.

[thecrimsonjaguar]

i think when it comes to the F+C finale it's important to see where the writers were coming from. And it's easy to do that, the lesson/moral they gave simon is fairly clear: Simon needs to appreciate his life because Betty sacrificed so much to get him here. alright, cool, that's good on paper.

I do Also think that the execution was poor.

up until this point, the crown has represented/could be viewed as many things. Alzheimer's, substance abuse, and anything else people have called it. In this series, a newer interpretation has arose: Suicide. And I'm certain the writers were aware of this. Depression and suicidal ideation are such strong themes in this series that they can't NOT be purposeful.

So their attempt at teaching Simon to appreciate Betty's sacrifice can ALSO be read as: Simon, the suicidal, on the verge of a relapse-man, gets put into a body of a child, (and that is very powerful imagery that does not help, actually) and is told nearly expressly that he fucked up in his relationship with the love of his life. He is told he should have sacrificed more for betty. And he says to himself: "Maybe i wouldn't have even found the crown". Basically it's simon pinning the blame on himself for his 1000 year curse on his mistakes with Betty. Which of course can be read as Simon's self loathing but the show does nothing to refute his statement, which i also have issue with. Simon putting on the crown was stated to be a Mistake. it was an accident. No matter what, the crown cursing him Was Not His Fault. Ever. It's not Betty's fault, it's not Simon's, it. was. a. Mistake.

regardless on if they should or should not have introduced these new flaws into simon's character, having simon learn his mistakes like This feels. icky. to me.

[ladyalicentshightower]

I think people overestimate how feminist team black is. If someone brings up how Baela should be the heir to Driftmark, it's always "she would've been Queen if not for the Greens!", ignoring that 1, she would be Queen consort, not a Queen in her own right, and 2 she has a legitimate claim in her own right to Driftmark. Team Black's goal is to crown Rhaenyra, but Rhaenyra becoming Queen isn't a win for feminism because it does nothing to dismantle the rest of the patriarchal system that exists in Westeros. From what we've gotten so far, it reads that Rhaenyra wants to be the exception and not the rule. Rhaenyra has made a lot of bad political decisions, which means she can't acknowledge Baela's claim because it would weaken her own claim (blatantly admitting her eldest sons are illegitimate would not end well for her to say the least). So she betrothes Jace and Luke to Baela and Rhaena to kind of atone for that, like as a consolation prize Baela will be Queen and Rhaena will be lady of Driftmark, neither of them would hold either title in their own right. It's good matches because the kids like each other and will treat each other well, but it's not a feminist win or a feministic liberation. It's usurpation, usurpation that takes place because Rhaenyra has to do damage control after having illegitimate children and after a serious of bad political decisions (both hers and her fathers, Viserys is the arbiter of this entire mess). To me, Rhaenyra is very reminiscent of Mary Queen of Scots, I can see a lot of elements drawn from Mary's history in Rhaenyra's story and character, down to their sons eventually taking the crown they failed to claim/keep.

[13eyond13]

I think the moment Light's crush on L first smacked him in the manga (like when it finally rooted and started blooming in his guts) was when L was like "you're my first ever friend" whilst smirking into his teacup. And not because Light fully believed he was being sincere about being friends, but because he KNEW L was slyly teasing him and speaking to him on more than one level at once. Nothing more unexpected funny flattering and intriguing than that for him right then

[carcarrot]

vacation starts tomorrow

[feliciadraws]

I might not be playing it, but since @mikanashii and I are both screaming about FFXIV right now, I had a go at designing my own would-be Warrior of Light character! And here she is! Her name is Lila Dawnefyre, and although she often gets mistaken for a spellcaster because of her glasses, she is actually a paladin! A native to Ul'Dah, while she's technically a squire, she still trains under the Sultansworn, in between being an adventurer of course. She's kind, sweet and breezy in nature, but on the battlefield she is an absolute lioness and never hesitates to protect her allies, and she can and will kick your butt if she needs to.

Oh and I also ship her with Haurchefant. Because of course I do.

[fruityfroggy]

ASGKJKUYFG TYSM @anonymocha FOR GIVING ME A DIRECTION TO GO WITH MY RAMBLINGS<3

Anyways…oh Verdigris, I’ve come up with so many extra bits and pieces to her lore in the past month or so and I didn’t really get to talk about her in the first place, so I’m glad that someone’s interested (this is gonna be so long, I can feel it)

First things first, we’ll get the big thing out of the way: her arcane skill. Kind of a big part of her story is how she is a “plant whisperer”, which means that she’s able to hear the voices of plants and therefore communicate with them. This made her form a prominent sense of empathy for plants, as they are unheard by everyone except her.

(Now, a lot of the things I’ll mention about Verdigris will make a lot more sense)

So a fun little fact is that plants have a “way of speaking” that sounds more poetic than your normal speech, since they’re just describing things based off of what they know from nature. And because of her arcane skill, Verdigris does talk like them a little (which just comes off as being poetic/dramatic). Another thing that comes with this “way of speaking” are “Titles of the Plants”, which is the thing that you remind the plants of, that they therefore refer to you by (Vertin is “The Wandering Wind”, Sonetto is “The Shade in Daylight”, etc).

Why am I mentioning this? Well but of course it’s for yuri reasons! Because this is the perfect way for Verdigris to subtly and sapphic-ly pine for a certain arcanist by the title: Ray of Sun (and who this refers to is not disclosed). She mentions this “Ray of Sun” quite frequently in her diary, which I’d imagine could be one of those pages of text you can find between stages, as well as in her intimacy voiceline (which I haven’t written, but we can imagine, okay).

Anywho…when it comes to interacting with other arcanists, Verdigris is very much the most likeable out of my three ocs here (she’s just a cinnamon roll, not toxic or hard to communicate with). So she gets along with basically everyone in the suitcase. Chaotic or calm, she’s patient enough to talk to them. Tho she’s the closest with Lilya I’d say, since they’re bonding over a shared language/heritage and shut up, it’s adorable. Especially since Verdigris didn’t have anyone to speak Russian to for a long time (she lived in Spain, that’s why) and Russian was her mother’s language (she never got to meet her, so it holds special significance to her (things are getting angsty haha)). This problem was the whole reason she created her own critters actually. But hey, now she has someone and the vibes are good again.

As for their dynamic, it’s obvious that they have a “balancing each other out” situation, and I like to call it “Lilya and her designated driver” as a joke. But truthfully, Verdigris is surprisingly down with most of her shenanigans and no one understands why. Lilya kinda just wants to show Verdigris all the “fun stuff” she usually does, and she just goes along with it while some of the other arcanists watch them in horror (they’re just having a good time tho). When Verdigris is busy, Lilya would go visit her workshop to see what she’s doing like: "What you making, Verdie?:]" (she finds it interesting).

Considering what she does, I feel like Verdigris would probably be crossing paths with Medpoc kinda often as well (hehe). Verdigris just isn’t super affected by Medpoc’s hostility, and still treats them very well after getting yelled at. Once they warm up to her tho, she kinda becomes their emotional support (aka the person they rant to while she hands them a cookie or smth), and they’d pass out together while working across from each other, since neither of them remember to sleep (or do anything else).

I also think that she could help Shamane repair and/or upgrade his mechanical arm (since that’s kinda her specialty), and in turn gain a new father figure. Shamane would definitely like her Dendrogues and greet them when he sees them hopping around as well.

Some honourable mentions are the other calm healers (Dikke and Tooth Fairy). Dikke would grow fond of Verdigris for how fair and thoughtful is, but she'd tell her to not be so tolerant of everything. As for her and Tooth Fairy’s situation, they actually have pretty similar vibes, so they’d probably do some somewhat questionable things together that aren’t so questionable if they’re doing it, like baking together (there’s definitely no tooth fairies in the muffins they’re making, don’t question the taste of plums) and going out into the forest to look for teeth.

Oh right! Verdigris also has a small interaction with Pristine after implanting the new heart she made for her, since Pristine’s original heart (crystal) is the thing that makes her body possessable to Arcana (there’s some context from this post that is needed to understand what I’m talking about). This is a big plot point in Pristine’s story, so guess who’s growing attached to Verdigris. Yeah, she kinda just follows her around whenever she sees her from there on out, maybe even tugs on her sleeve saying “Where art thou headed to? Let me go with thee!” (Welcome to motherhood, Verdigris!)

[seaofreverie]

Starting a challenge tomorrow where I listen to one TMBG album a day chronologically until my epic journey starts

[bereft-of-frogs]

It has been *erases chalk number* 0 days since I faced peer pressure to watch the clone wars (2008)

[o-uncle-newt]

I read Possession by AS Byatt after people told me "if you liked Gaudy Night you'll like this" and WELL.

Warning- spoilers for both books abound below!

So it sounded great- as a lapsed academic (though not in the field of literature by any means) there's a part of me that loves reading about academia because it's full of such obsessive people, and this book seemed to be exactly that and so I was excited.

Then I read it, and on the one hand, my first thought was "all these people are dull as heck, the only sane modern-day one is Val, and at the end of the day the historical stuff is just two people having an affair, who cares." My second thought was "there's just enough stuff here that makes me think that maybe the author knows that all of this is stupid, like the fact that Val is obviously one of the few sane ones here." But the ending made me doubt even that. Essentially, and I say this even as that lapsed academic, the author could not convince me to care about the important things at stake here, and as a result couldn't get me to care about the people who only seemed to care about those things.

I didn't care about Ash and LaMotte- they came across as two people high on their own supply who had a tawdry affair. (And each of them is the less interesting person, as a person, than their official partner!) As a result of not caring about them, I couldn't POSSIBLY care about Roland, Maud, and the rest of their crew, because their only functions were to be possessed by, and weirdly possessive of, these two entirely unworthy individuals, whose in-universe historical and literary significance Byatt couldn't convince me of, and to use that possession as a mirror for their own very lame romance. Beyond that they're utterly uninteresting, and there isn't even meant to BE much beyond that so it's not that surprising.

Anyway, I didn't like this book much, but it still made me think a lot. And there's a way in which a certain kind of person might say "well if it made you think then that's surely a sign of some positive quality" and... maybe? I don't know. I didn't hate all of it, and some parts were interesting, and I do have a whole separate list of things about the book that bug me including a breakdown of some of the book's (perceived by me) themes that I particularly disliked lol. Perhaps I'll post it another time. So I guess you can say it spurred me to thought, but loads of things that I don't like do that, and the only positive thing that that draws from me is that they're not downright dull.

The thing is, after finishing the book I was immediately struck by that "if you like Gaudy Night..." element, because it has a situation that felt weirdly similar (if for totally different reasons)- a young scholar stealing a letter from a library/archive. The circumstances are different- in Gaudy Night, the scholar does it to hide its existence so as not to contradict his thesis, and in Possession, the scholar does it so as to explore the document further, though still secretly- but there are still some interesting parallels vis a vis class. Possession goes into the class thing more than Gaudy Night does, but neither book goes much into it- the scholar is lower-class and someone who has scraped their way to their position, and is encumbered by a female partner of lower social and academic standing, and in the end they are juxtaposed against scholars who come from an elevated class and who have more money and opportunity. In Gaudy Night, Arthur Robinson is judged by the likes of Lord Peter Wimsey and a college full of women who don't have to do anything but think, teach, write, and grade papers; in Possession, Roland has to convince a bunch of academics of standing and resources to take a chance on him (and while this is more about money than class, he's the main one who's like "maybe it's good if Lady Bailey gets her wheelchair"). Byatt elides over this at the end by having him magically become in demand and on his way to achieving his academic goals, but I think in both books, the class element really could have taken on more significance in the text.

(I'd add as well that Byatt pits the upper-class and moneyed Maud, who of course is doing things for "the right reasons," vs the evil American businessman who clearly... doesn't care about Ash enough? Despite how much he clearly and obviously cares about Ash? The book was way more interesting when he seemed like a valid rival to the British team, who only thought that they deserved the letters more because of their obsession, rather than how it turned out at the end where the American dude is an actual cartoon villain. What made him genuinely less worthy besides having money without class, and of course having the bad taste to be American? What makes one scholar's possession more justified? Sayers was never this unsubtle.)

So that made me think more about Possession vs Gaudy Night, and the thing is, there are actual living people in Gaudy Night! Say what you will about the unworldliness of the academics at Shrewsbury, but you get a very keen view of their personalities by the end, even as they are (by necessity given the rules of their world) subsumed by academia, or subsume themselves in it. And the people who do fall in love are REALLY in love, and you understand why...

And somehow a book from 1935 feels far more interrogative of the possession (or lack thereof) found in love and romance, and just about the place of women in academia and relationships overall, than one from the late 80s. In Gaudy Night, Harriet accepts Peter once she has determined that despite their power differential (brought on by class, money, history, and to a degree gender) he will not threaten her personhood, because he has proven himself to her. In Possession, Maud accepts Roland because she has the power (money, class, position, even height) and so Roland actually cannot threaten her- and yet still that final scene is about her being taken by him, basically to prove some kind of a point. In contrast, in Busman's Honeymoon, the euphemistic sex scenes are about Peter trying to please Harriet.

When I say it's to prove a point, I'm paraphrasing Byatt, incidentally- who said: "And in the case of Maud I had made it very inhibiting. She was a woman inhibited both by beauty (which actually isn't very good for very beautiful women because they feel it isn't really them people love) and she was also inhibited by Feminism, because she had all sorts of theories that perhaps she would be a more noble kind of woman if she was a lesbian. And so she was a bit stuck. And Roland was timid because I am naturally good at timid men. It's the kind of men I happen to like. He's a timid thinking man, so of course it took him the whole book." I mean... yikes, but also that explains a lot. Maud can only bring herself to be with a man who is weak/effeminate (?) enough to justify whatever weird psyche Byatt has imagined up for her, but still she needs to get over her inhibitions and under him because... reasons. I don't know.

(Height is also interesting here as a point of contrast- Byatt makes Maud taller than Roland to make a point about how on the one hand she retains the power but on the other hand there is now even more of her that has to surrender. Peter and Harriet are the same medium height and wear the same size gown.)

I think the thing that most stuns me is how regressive Possession feels when it comes to gender politics on relationships than Gaudy Night does. I'd need a whole other post to talk about this, but the theme of Possession seems to me to be "relationships that produce things (whether art or children) are worth more than ones that don't." Roland is better with Maud than with Val because Val is a second rate scholar who drags him down (while supporting him financially) and Ash is better with LaMotte than with Ellen because LaMotte didn't only inspire his writing (Ellen's contributions are described only in the negative "didn't impede"), she gave him the child that Ellen refused to. Incidentally, in both cases it's the man pursuing a relationship that will give HIM something... But, to paraphrase Peter in Busman's Honeymoon, one wouldn't want to regard relationships in that agricultural light. Gaudy Night is about how two people can produce great things without each other but choose to be with each other for their own, and each other's, happiness. They aren't each less apart, and as I noted in a prior post, they don't need to solve cases together or conjoin their work in order for their relationship to be worth something. It is worth it for them to be together because it encourages some kind of inner balance within them and between them, as people. They enjoy collaborating but that is by no means the basis of their love (and, incidentally, I think that a lot of, if not most, detective series romances fail this basic test of "would they have fallen in love if they were accountants who met on a dating app." Peter and Harriet definitely would have- would, say, Albert Campion and Amanda Fitton have? I do NOT think so).

And here's the thing- another reason why Byatt's quote above is so off-putting is that it makes it clear that not only in the text but on a meta level, the purpose of the relationships is to prove a Point. I found Roland and Maud to have zero chemistry, and honestly I was expecting them to get together 3/4 of the way through and split up at the end when it turned out they had nothing in common- it seemed like that kind of book. I was kind of stunned when they only got together at the end in an "it's meant to be" way because nothing about it seemed meant to be. They were stuck together by that one thing and they each apparently needed the relationship for some kind of self-actualization or historical rhyming or other. (Whatever I say about Ash and LaMotte... at least they seemed to like each other!)

Peter and Harriet... they get together because they love each other. Do they change over the course of Gaudy Night, and over the course of the other books they share together? Of course they do. But if it makes sense, I'll put it this way- Harriet doesn't accept Peter's proposal as proof that she got over her hangups, Harriet gets over her hangups so that she can accept Peter's proposal. Her hangups only matter because they were keeping her from this particular kind of happiness- she was a fully actualized person even with them. She is a person who does things for human reasons so that she can build a mutually happy life with the person she loves, not a little plot mannequin being moved around in order to tell the author's desired Message. People can say what they want about Gaudy Night and its flaws, but despite the intricacies of its construction, nobody can call the characters' actions and motivations anything but brutally human.

Whether within their universes or on a meta level, the books have SUCH different things to say about the value and nature of love, the place of and purpose of sex, the place of art and intellectual accomplishment in relationships, all of the above in the context of femininity… and I can't help but feel that each time, Gaudy Night wins the contest. It's possible I'm missing something major about Possession, and maybe sometime I'll post the rest of my notes about the things I disliked and people can tell me what I'm wrong about- but if nothing else it made me appreciate Gaudy Night even more, so for that I'm grateful.