#ianthe is an evil lesbian

[gideonnah]

Happy pride month to (basically) everyone in the locked tomb series.

God loves gays.

God is gay.

[grey-ves]

Palamedes is a he/him lesbian but I like to think that Palamedes and I have the same gender but as a transmasc twink there is a very different and less fun connotation to calling myself a he/him lesbian. And that makes me sad.

[youarentreadingthis]

point is. there should be more evil fucked up lesbian sex

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

The thing about Ianthe is that she knows she's a freak but she thinks she's a sexy, vampire-coded, monsterfucker bait freak where all her evil acts and cannibalism and games are hot villainous stuff, when in reality she's a scrunkly daddy issues stuck out of genre freak whose villain monologue got her arm ripped off, whose love interest is in an extremely fucked-up three-way relationship already in which Ianthe is the simplest option, and whose attempts at making this into a deadly court intrigue are crumbling against the reality that the Empire isn't a royal court but a shambling, millennia old gangrenous lump of trauma and cosmic/religious horror.

She so desperately wants to be arranging marriages and poisoning her enemies' tea and bringing entire planets to heel with her powerful magic in an impeccably cut suit, but instead the undead soul of the Earth is reawakened to love monstrously and a haunted bone nun and butch lesbian Jesus struggle to hate-love each other enough to exist. Dogs!

[the-green-divine]

let's talk about cytherea and harrows apotheosis such as it is.

At the end of GtN, harrow achieves lyctorhood and, despite being the youngest lyctor there, and at least partly an unwilling one, is able to execute cytherea without much effort.

There's the obvious reasoning that says palamades, camilla, and ianthe (a baby lyctor herself) soften cythera up for harrow. Loosening that necromantic jar of evil pickles.

But they don't beat her. Arguably pal comes closest, as harrow notes she can tell he's pushed cythereas condition further. Not enough for either camilla or ianthe to succeed however, and i think that comes down to what harrow and gideon are.

Harrow is a product of the 200. She likely intuitively understands lyctorhood in ways ianthe cant simply bc she hasnt lived it. Harrow has been burning those baby souls her entire life after all.

Gideon is lesbian space Jesus with at least partly the soul of the actual fucking planet she dies on. It's not clear she can die permanently, or that harrow would absorb her minus the lobotomy in HtN. Shes got power and knows the sword. Harrow's got power and knows the body. Together, they are able to end cythereas immortality in a way we dont see anyone but jod accomplish. They join in a way that isnt a one sided parasitic siphoning or a fusion through death of the selves (PAUL). They're both.

[dr-dendritic-trees]

Locked Tomb Friends!!! Do you need something to take your mind off the Alectopause?

You have got to try Machineries of Empire! It is a finished trilogy (with bonus short stories), so no cliffhangers and it has everything a bereft Locked Tomb fan could want:

Horrible characters you will root for.

Fewer horrible lesbians, but an added supply of horrible bisexuals, horrible asexuals and horrible trans people for you to get attached to even though they are so terrible

Evil Math based Space Opera magic

Ianthe if Ianthe had 20 years of practice

Named factions with symbolism and personality alignments for you to be weird about.

For bonus weirdness each faction assigns sub-signifiers to its members

Everyone is in everyone else's body all the time

Immortality that is bad

Codependent murder-suicide twins

Amnesiac character who everyone is fighting over!

Characters who will say "is anyone going to destroy their own principles to right a great societal wrong, and become the next wrong to be rebelled against" and not wait for an answer

That specific point in the book where you shout "why am I sad about That Guy I cannot believe Yoon Ha Lee is doing this too me"

I am your gun

The chance to get overly invested in the fate of a potted plant

[skaiplana]

Read Harrow the Ninth. Went insaner. Read As Yet Unsent. Shitpost and thoughts:

- God's name is John. He makes dad jokes.

- I am glad this is a universe where God can be: a) killed b) fucked. We have empirical evidence

- on that note, let's do dios apate minor three but make it a foursome with me baby. Let me get that ancient pussy and/or dick

- rip Mercymorn that woman served cunt was a cunt and talked!! In an amazing! Way!! Do you think she would fix my scoliosis?

- rip Augustine he was a cunt too. Trying to send god to hell is iconic. Of course Ianthe would kill him.

- Mercy and Augustine... they hated each other. They worked together to kill god. They had a suicide pact. They wanted to be burried next to each other. They died only a few minutes apart.

- Ianthe that gay little pathetic snake.

- CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN THE 'GALL ON GALL' JOKE I DONT GET IT

- GIDEON (2) IS BACK!!! NOW WITH MORE FUCKED UP PARENTAL ISSUES!!!

- is Gideon (2) biologically Mercy's or Wake's kid? I thought she was Wake's because everything Mercy made died but I've seen some people say otherwise

- so like. Wake is evil virgin Mary. Gideon (2) is space lesbian Jesus.

- Gideon (1) is OUT, Pyrra is IN! What that entails I do not know but she seems cooler than him

- how do you get in affair with a commander of your enemy. How do you not use a condom or like kill your sperm. Why were you afraid it's your kid Gideon (Pyrra?).

- when John asked if Harrow and Ianthe are using protection what did he mean. Is he implying that there is a possibility of pregnancy? Is he concerned about infections and stds? They could just cure those? Is he saying that there are like dental dams somewhere on mithraeum

- Harrow. What can I say? She did a diy lobotomy. She's haunted. Every woman wants her. She's in love with a dead body. She made a soup out of her own bone and tried to murder someone with it. I want to hug her

- yk I'm starting to think that the Emperor Undying is a wretched liar a dick and a colonizer. Just a hunch.

- now I don't believe anything he's ever said and I'm thinking that Harrow probably did open the tomb

- Camilla is alive and well!!! Sex Pal is almost alive an fairly well!! Can we get him out of the bones

- Coronabeth is realizing how fucked up the nine houses are! Deuteros is not!

- Abigail!!! Magnus!!! I'm glad I got to see more of them. Abigail is actually so cool I want them to adopt me

- the actual Dulcinea! She's so cool too

- the alive Protesilaus being a poet udhdhehhehe and Ortus having internal beef with him

- Ortus is an interesting person now! Also the way everyone likes his poetry except for Harrow is peak comedy

- they actually summoned Nonius. Then he killed ghost Wake. Then they made a dnd party and went to to fight the Resurrection Beast and they WON I guess. These series is a comedy

- I actually understood everything most of the time except for some obscure words (please explain gall on gall tho)

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 4, Wave 2, Poll 1

A character being totally canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included.

Check out the other polls in this wave and round here.

Xiao Xingchen-The Untamed / Mo Dao Zu Shi

Qualifications:

He's blind (long story there but basically his partner was blinded and they did some magic so gave up his eyes for him). He's technically not canonically queer in the show (unsure if he is in the books) but like intensely close relationship with his partner Song Lan and then unintentionally inspiring an insanely homoerotic

Propaganda:

He's blind but he has a sword that point him towards evil things (ghost puppets). unfortunately for him, this can, and does, get exploited by others so he kills people he believes are just ghost puppets that aren't. anyways his story is quite tragic (along with everyone else around him. no one has a good time of it, not even the villain). He's also incredibly kind. like he saves some stranger off the side of the road and never asks him who he is or why he was there but still takes care of him and then when the guy just doesn't leave, they live in domestic bliss for like 3 years (this does not end well).

Ianthe Tridentarius-The Locked Tomb

Qualifications:

she's a lesbian and one of her arms has been cut off twice. As in, it was cut off once, a replacement one was stuck, but she didn't like it so it didn't work properly and she tried to cut it off. as a favour, someone else cut off that arm and grew her a new one which is just bones. it doesn't have the same strength of her old arm because it doesn't have any meat on it

amputee lesbian

canon WLW/lesbian (in love with Harrowhark) and loses her hand at the end of book one. In book two, she gets a fancy bone-prosthetic.

Propaganda:

she's had her right arm cut off twice. after the first time she was given a replacement, which she hated and didn't work right. she tried to cut it off, failed, so her crush grew her a new one out of her own bones in the closest thing we've had to a sex scene so far in the series. she had the bones gilded. she's such a lesbian for this woman, absolutely obsessed. "ohhh do up the back of my sexy evening dress for me ;)", and her crush just does it from a distance with bone arms because she's also a weird lesbian. Ianthe's competition for her crush's affections are two corpses and she's losing to both of them

she’s evil lesbian with a golden bone arm

If you like morally corrupt girlbosses, she's your gal! Ianthe is very powerful, ambitious and determined- unfortuantely she's also a bit unhinged and happy to side with god, who in this universe is a war criminal. Ianthe gets her power and influence at the cost of others, but her popularity in the fandom proves we love awful women and will defend them until the end of days even if they're objectively terrible people.

Anything Else?:

Ianthe is such a shit and I love her for that. a quote from the author: "I don't think Ianthe is nice to anyone, if she is I'll go back and fix it" (Submitter 1)

[nepenthean-sleep]

for the character thing, harrow!!!

favorite thing about them she is so committed to the evil bit and i love that. she is trying so fucking hard to be the villainous shadowy evil overlord and she IS to gideon!! and to everyone else she's this frankly weird very smart sleep deprived asshole teenager. it's very funny

least favorite thing about them don't think i have one, everything about her makes sense for her character and her role in the story.

favorite line god she has SO many good lines this is really hard. i'm gonna have to go with this one from the prologue of htn:

"O corse of the Locked Tomb,” you extemporised wildly. “Beloved dead, hear your handmaiden. I loved you with my whole rotten, contemptible heart—I loved you to the exclusion of aught else—let me live long enough to die at your feet.”

brOTP harrow and palamedes. god i just love every scene they're together.

OTP griddlehark. duh. i do sometimes enjoy some harrow/alecto tho i will not lie

nOTP i have seen so much weird shit in this fandom so i'm going to say the extremely cursed harrow/john. or really harrow/any man. i mean whatever ship who you want i guess but why does this always happen to lesbian characters

random headcanon she's always wearing trousers under those skirts. it gets cold in drearburh. layers, man.

unpopular opinion mmmmmmmm i like to headcanon harrow as a femme sometimes (still a butch harrow enjoyer) but only as a masc/androgynous femme. i'm really not a fan of people making harrow really feminine in modern aus, like she's so clearly uncomfortable with what ianthe makes her wear to the dinner in htn. idk. that's my opinion!

song i associate with them i have literal entire playlists for this book series so. i'm going to pick one song for harrow in gtn:

fight for me by aliceband. the lyrics are kind of self-explanatory but basically it's very much about homoerotic torture imo.

and one song for harrow in htn:

believe me now by electric light orchestra. idk the level of grief this song is able to portray is just... so intense to me. reminds me of the line "harrow so rarely got to say goodbye." goddamn.

favorite picture of them there is so much incredible fucking art for this series but my favorite for harrow is this art by @killjo-q and this one by @marrowjaw. FUCKING STUNNING. HOLY SHIT.

thanks for the ask this was fun!

[byzantine-enthusiast]

Hi folks! I finally made myself some time – during my day-to-day job, will not lie to you – to write down a silly little idea I had while reading HtN:

My self-indulgent Judaeo-Christian mysticism, XIX Century, lesbian-revolutionaries AU Griddlehark fanfic that I needed to keep my job.

Rating: Mature

Relationships (main): Gideon Nav/Harrowhark Nonagesimus – although this will dip its toes in other places. This author is an Ianthe stan (in many ways thanks to another dweller of this den of cryptids).

Summary:

“In the year of our Lord 1847 – if one condescended to accept the practicality of the Gregorian calendar – Gideon Nav and Harrowhark Nonagesimus kneeled in contemplation”. At the outset of the maturity of the XIX Century, while the dormant spirit of revolution is beginning to stir in Europe and half the world trembles under the weight of imperialism, eight exorcists are summoned by the Pope to clean the Vatican. While people fight against the tide of history in the name of their self-determination, and while the Abrahamic denominations try to mend century’s old riffs in their struggle against an evil larger than their faith, Gideon Nav and Harrowhark Nonagesimus can only think in their freedom. Freedom from God, freedom from the dusty walls of the convent that locks them, freedom from each other.

I haven’t written anything with so much care for research as this since I was like… 20? Perhaps??? A couple of differences are that now I’m both a lawyer and a historian, so I guess my writing has gotten worse.

HOWEVER – I’m really excited about this! It is really the three things I can be confident about knowing:

Judeo-Christian mystic polemics;

The history of revolutions of the XIX and XX centuries;

International law (?).

[liesmyth]

I changed my icon... still yassified Ianthe but now it’s Evil Lesbian Edition

[lavenderfluorite14]

🩸🦇💖People I Want to Know Better💖🦇🩸

Thank you for the tag @ancuninfiles! I also ship Me and Your Mom.

1. Favorite Ships (in no particular order)

Wyllstarion (Baldur's Gate 3) The monster hunter falls in love with the monster? The monster teaches a cursed hero how to deal with his new body? A dash of enemies to lovers? A princely young man showers a lost and lonely man with the love he needs (deserves) while that same savvy, clever man helps the princely young man break his evil contract? YEAH.

Bloodweave (Baldur's Gate 3) None of us are completely immune to toxic old man yaoi.

Shadowzel (Baldur's Gate 3) LET'S GO LESBIANS

Ianthe x Harrow (The Locked Tomb Series) I'm toxic, yeah yeah

Reylo (Star Wars Sequel Trilogy) These two will always have a chokehold on my heart. They could never make me hate you Sequel Trilogy, although they have CERTAINLY tried. I will die bitter about TRoS, lol.

Jarden (Jude x Cardan, The Folk of the Air) Booktok is right sometimes.

Sansa x Brienne (A Song of Ice and Fire) A lady and her knight???? HELLO???????

Sarah x Jareth (Labyrinth) This ship has EVERYTHING I love.

Jasmine x Mozenrath (Aladdin: the Animated Series) This may be a deep cut, but I love enemies to lovers who never truly stop being enemies.

2. First Ship

Zelink (Zelda x Link, The Legend of Zelda). My first ship ever, I will always love them. Also easily my most wholesome ship, lol.

3. Last Song

Guess (feat. Billie Eilish) - Charli XCX.

4. Last Movie

Abigail! I was not expecting to live this movie as much as I did, we love a vampire horror comedy.

5. Currently Reading

Good Omens, Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman. I finally started this classic and then allegations emerged.

I haven't started these yet, but I also have these checked out in Libby: Loud by Drew Afualo

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

6. Currently Watching

I am SO bad at watching TV for no discernible reason. But I need to finish Season 3 of Fruits Basket, I'm a religious House of the Dragon watcher (RIP Game of Thrones), and I'm still reeling from the season finale of Succession.

7. Currently Craving

Mango Loco Monster Energy drink, my beloved

no pressure tags:

@rosieofcorona, @bee-chann, @roguishcat

[princesskuragina]

Elena's morally grey women thunderdome

I'm doing this and you can't stop me

(note: the polls say "evil women". that's because it sounds better. no i don't think all these women are evil. but evil is an honorific <3)

ROUND ONE

Hélène Kuragina (War and Peace) vs. Rebecca de Winter (Rebecca)

Ianthe Tridentarius (The Locked Tomb) vs. Astrid Becke (Critical Role)

Cersei Lannister (ASOIAF/Game of Thrones) vs. Allison Hargreaves (The Umbrella Academy)

Jordan Baker (The Great Gatsby) vs. Cathy Earnshaw (Wuthering Heights)

Maria Reynolds (Hamilton) vs. Anne Lister (Gentleman Jack)

Vriska Serket (Homestuck) vs. Lucrezia Borgia (The Borgias)

Marisa Coulter (His Dark Materials) vs. Goneril (King Lear)

What is this list??

There is not a strict criteria for inclusion so much as a homeostatic property cluster. That being said, here are some of the properties:

I personally was deeply obsessed with her at some point (most important)

Famously beautiful/known for being hot

Femme fatale

Or just a whore

Daddy issues

Horrifically wealthy

Mind control powers

One (1) codependent obsessive relationship (and no other friends)

Represses her emotions like an olympic sport

Perfectionism/performativity/need to maintain The Image

Internalized misogyny

Lesbianism

Evil

But not in the way people think she is. Because I understand her perfectly and no one else does

Vote or I'll be sad thanks everyone

[raisinchallah]

locked tomb fans who claim ianthe is a vriska have forgotten the sacred texts and destroyed the tablets of historical record like what controversy has ianthe caused NONE like shes a lesbian who kills and is a little bit evil but thats not special people did that before vriska and will do that long after vriska the fundamental elements that distinguish vriska is a character whos entire arc is absolutely fucking laser focused on creating as much fandom controversy as possible and eats up all the oxygen in the room like the characters on a textual level just kept to whats in the story have shared dna and whatever but to be a "vriska" as a metaphysical concept you need to both commit terrible crimes people struggle to defend and make people genuinely upset and then also have a sad pathetic backstory that also makes a contingent of the fandom go but um she has trauma and also just be a distinct and memorable personality that drives people to start long internet fights like if a character has never had their name edited into a thread locked after 10000 posts dril tweet meme they dont even belong in the same sentence as vriska

[vote-mean-lesbians]

mean lesbians: a comprehensive list

Below are the ladies we have selected, both from submissions from you lovely people, and our own brains. The way this tournament will work is that 32 of these bitches will go against each other in the first round until there is one final mean lesbian standing. Then, we run the other 32 lesbians against each other until there is only one of that group, and then the winner of the first round and the winner of the second go head to head to determine who is the biggest, meaniest, lesbianest one in all the land

But! In order to do this we still need your help. We have almost enough mean lesbians (enough for the first 32) but are 1 short of having 32 for the second round. Please continue to submit more if your favorite mean lesbian is not already included below. Refer to our pinned post for mean lesbian qualifying criteria

We have enough for 32 in each group, thanks everyone for your suggestions!

Now, onto the lesbians:

1. Haruka Tenoh - Sailor Moon

2. Michiru Kaiou - Sailor Moon

3. Machi Komacine - Hunter x Hunter

4. Juri Arisugawa - Revolutionary Girl Utena

5. Shiori Takatsuki - Revolutionary Girl Utena

6. Anthy Himemiya - Revolutionary Girl Utena

7. Cheryl Blossom - Riverdale

8. Regina Mills - Once Upon a Time

9. Tenko Chabashira - Danganronpa 3

10. Himiko Yumeno - Danganronpa 3

11. Hiyoko Saionji - Danganronpa 2

12. Celestia Ludenberg - Danganronpa 1

13. Reyna Ramierz-Arellano - Heroes of Olympus

14. Thalia Grace - Percy Jackson and the Olympians

15. Olivier Armstrong - Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood 

16. Willow Rosenberg...evil - Buffy the Vampire Slayer

17. Jolyne Cujoh - Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 6

18. Abigail Jones - The Great Pretender

19. Shinobu Kocho - Demon Slayer

20. Misa Amane - Death Note

21. Rem - Death Note

22. Mai Valentine - Yu-Gi-Oh!

23. Kou Seiya - Sailor Moon

24. Kou Taiki - Sailor Moon

25. Kou Yaten - Sailor Moon

26. Sailor Lead Crow - Sailor Moon

27. Homura Akemi - Madoka Magica

28. Kyoko Sakura - Madoka Magica

29. Ishizu Ishtar - Yu-Gi-Oh!

30. Kyoko Kirigri - Danganronpa 1

31. Rose Lalonde - Homestuck

32. Kanaya Maryam - Homestuck

33. Vriska Serket - Homestuck

34. Foo Fighters/F.F. - Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 6

35. Ermes Costello - Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Part 6

36. Blue - Blue’s Clues

37. Trixie Troublebee - Lazytown

38. Yoru/War Devil - Chainsaw Man

39. Quanxi - Chainsaw Man

40. Taylor Swift - Real Life

41. Miorine Rembran - The Witch from Mercury

42. Harrowhark Nonagesimus - The Locked Tomb

43. Gideon Nav - The Locked Tomb

44. Ianthe Tridentarius - The Locked Tomb

45. Amity Blight - The Owl House

46. Princess Bean - Disenchantment

47. Talia Winters - Babylon 5

48. Susan Ivanova - Babylon 5

49. Poison Ivy - DC Universe

50. Susie - Deltarune

51. Melanie King - The Magnus Archives

52. Daisy Tonner - The Magnus Archives

53. Kira Nerys - Star Trek

54. Santana Lopez - Glee

55. Catra - She-Ra and the Princess’ of Power

56. Azula - Avatar the Last Airbender

57. Clarisse La Rue - Percy Jackson

58. Raven - Teen Titans

59. Haley - Stardew Valley

60. Roxy - Five Night's At Freddy's Security Breach

61. Jessie "Prepare for Trouble and Make it Double!" - Pokemon

62. Regina Georgie - Mean Girls

63. Heather Chandler - Heathers

64. Villanelle - Killing Eve

[beroebluejeans]

I’m reading In the Dream House (it’s sooooo good!!!!) and the chapter on queer villainy had me thinking so much about The Locked Tomb (because yes, I’m always thinking at least a little bit about it). Carmen Maria Machado writes about how she knows, politically, she “should” be opposed to all Disney’s queer-coded villains but like, they’re great??? She has a lot of really smart things to say and basically ends the chapter with, recognizing the full humanity of queer people means having queer characters of all kinds, including villains.

And I love that The Locked Tomb is full of complex fully-realized queer characters, and also, on a purely self-indulgent level I am so glad we get campy villains. I am obsessed with Cytherea “Evil Cougar” Loveday and look, yes, Ianthe. I love that they occupy a book where they get to be evil and predatory and lesbians without it implying something sinister about lesbians as a group.

This post also brought to you by the fact that I saw Hadestown recently, and according to his bio the actor who played Hades “originated several villainous roles for Disney Cruise Line, such as Scar, Jafar, and Captain Hook,” so now I’m gonna go listen to “Be Prepared”