#it's shannon's fault for making fintan

[bookwyrminspiration]

have i ever shown you this anon i got? its been months and i still cant tell if theyre joking

So sorry to all the world's religions for the slow, painful decline of their figurehead. unfortunately, the kotlc fandom cannot be stopped

[bookwyrminspiration]

canon fintan is absolutely a rat man and personally i am sad that that has gotten lost in fanon (along with everything else about him that i like lmao)

fintan is a miserable little pile of problems of a man and he does not have the ass (or anything else) to make up for it.

!!! yes! he is so. unhinged. but also calculated. he is dangerous because he is smart and a danger to himself because he doesn't know when to stop, when to play it safe. he likes to brag and he likes to win and he likes to do it in a way that leaves everyone gasping, leaves them scrambling because he's got the upper hand and everything is working as he wants

he is like this catastrophic force of unpredictability contained within a person. you have a general sense of what he wants and what he believes but you have no clue what he's willing to do to get it or what he'll sacrifice but you know it's going to be more than you would ever give.

the thing is he also cares. he may be the most passionate person in the series. what his cause began as is something any of us would probably support, but it's his devotion and utter willingness to give every piece of himself that makes him so frightening. because how can you stop a man whose entirely willing to lose everything.

and he does! he loses nearly everything! and then he becomes scary in a different way because he learns, because he is a miserable little pile of problems of a man and yet. he still believes. he knows he made mistakes, that his hubris brought about his downfall in the end, and yet it is met with this calculated indifference.

he's like "ah yes...that was foolish of me," but in this wistful unsettling way where you just know that he's not upset with himself, just amused. amused at where he went wrong. and that now he knows better and has become more dangerous and cunning and focused and your primary defense against this new person he's become is that he's locked up.

he is suave and elegant, but he is also so so unhinged and devoted to a fault. he is simply fascinating okay I love the kinda of characters that are so fueled by passion they're so interesting to watch and dissect

anyway fanon is fun but it is definitely not the version of Fintan Shannon has written. the version shannon has written would have a woefully insufficient ass to make up for all the problems he has.

[bookwyrminspiration]

Thoughts on Queen Hylda?

I have many thoughts! All the time, nonsie!

the main time we see and interact with Queen Hylda is during the peace summit in Lumenaria during Lodestar, most notably when she reaches out independently to Sophie prior to discuss strategy.

The demands she wants to make are for the ogres to turn over all their weapons and stop any and all training of any kind, even defensive. Essentially, neutralize themselves so they can no longer present a threat to the goblins. She also thinks she should be given the ogre who killed Brielle (my beloved), and votes to allow Fintan into the Peace Summit. These actions are what I’ll mainly be drawing from because she’s directly on page.

Goblins and ogres historically don’t get along well, but it seems a bit far to demand they give up all weapons and training seeing as they are a warrior species of sorts. Training to fight and defend is a core part of who the ogres are and how they’re characterized throughout the series. Every ogre we’ve met for more than a few sentences has been a trained fighter. it’s crucial to their species in the story. So for Queen Hylda to demand that be taken away is very extreme and affects more that just peace. Yes, the ogre’s wouldn’t be able to fight back against anyone, but their entire culture and way of life would be distrupted. And Hylda doesn’t care. She hates the ogres and holds so much against them she has no problem demaning they destroy their history and culture. I don’t think this was intentional on Shannon’s part, but that is generally what would happen if the ogre’s were to put down their weapons.Hylda sees the ogres as less than human (i’m applying the phrase to mean less than an intelligent species and not deserving of the basic respects)

Second, she agrees to let Fintan into the meeting. At this point I don’t think she had anything personal against Fintan, blaming the ogres and not the Neverseen organizing the ogres for the death of Brielle. There’s a whole other debate over who’s “at fault,” but I see Fintan as partially responsible, so it stands out to me that Hylda doesn’t. It appears she’s so blinded by her hatred for the ogre’s it’s impacted her ability to think critically about situations involving them, assuming them at fault for everything. This trickles down into her people and we can see this mindset in Sandor as well (although working with Bo has helped that).

Moving away from that, I can understand her wanting the ogre who killed Brielle and feeling betrayed (showed through Sandor) when it’s learned that ogre was killed by the king instead of handled by her people. That was a loss of one of her warriors. She wanted that retribution. Which I also find interesting. She’s invested in her soldiers, has a strong enough bond with some of them that they will have direct communication (again, with Sandor). Hylda is incredibly devoted to her people, to the point she’s become blinded to the customs and respect other species deserve. it’s interesting from a character perspective, but dangerous for a leader.

TL;DR: Queen Hylda’s main purpose in the story is to work against the ogres, so it’s become her defining characteristic. She doesn’t exist outside her hatred. The devotion she has for her people is so focused on protecting them from ogres she’s unable to respect them.