#legendborn community

[you-are-my-king-now-cariad]

Context: I wrote a ‘quote analysis’ for my English class. It’s basically a challenge where you pick a sentence or quote and write as much about as you can in a given amount of time.

I chose “You have always been the Scion of Arthur, and neither of us can afford to forget it.”

And oh boy I had thoughts.

1. This feels VERY interesting. It feels like it’s going back to Sel Who Doesn’t Care About Anyone, but at the same time… Bree says it’s ‘almost an accusation.’ She nearly starts crying. I think it’s much closer to ‘You are the Scion, and I am your Kingsmage, and anything else is forbidden on every level.’ Yes, at this point they’re barely flirting. But Sel is infuriatingly careful, and this is also probably a self-reminder.

2. Saying that neither of them can forget it seems particularly poignant seeing that Sel knows what happens when Arthur’s Scion does abandon their post. I don’t think Nick is a bad person, to be clear. (I don’t like him either, but still.) No matter what you think of him, though, he walked away from his responsibilities. We don’t know if-had he been Called while he was still AWOL-he would have fought. I doubt it. And that is dangerous.

2a(?). It’s bad that Bree’s absent… But not only do the other Legendborn know that she’s still fighting, she is at the very least trying. She doesn’t get it right all the time. Hell, she probably doesn’t get it right half the time. But she is giving her all to being the best king possible-a title she doesn’t want, one given to her by violence and prejudice. And I think everyone can see that. Even when she breaks down, it’s not ‘I want to quit’ or ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ Maybe it’s ‘I wish I wasn’t the one doing this,’ or ‘I’m not strong enough,’ but she’s almost always more worried about just letting her friends down, about someone getting hurt! That is a true king. You’re allowed to have bad days, you’re allowed to be selfish. But you cannot quit when (I’m not gonna count them rn) people and potentially literally the entire world is depending on you.

I’m doing these analyses every class apparently so I might have more if this was even comprehensible, see y’all later!

[incorrect-legendborn-quotes]

Sel: The next person that offers me charity or pity will be mentioned, by name, in my suicide note.

[massiveladycat]

does anyone else have that one book character thats so loved by the community but you absolutely HATE THEM?? you dont even have to have a reason you just DO.

[merlinreviews]

Just finished reading BloodMarked SIGHHH, 6 MORE MONTHS UNITIL MARCH AND WE GET OATHBOUND!!!

[feyres-divorce-lawyer]

giggling kicking my feet🤭🤭

[painterfromthevoid]

⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️

I need you to forgive me

For my crime of being

I don’t know when the fog will lift

And I’m scared if it does

That I’ll be more vulnerable than before

I never want to go back to before

When June bugs lived in my hair

As worms live in rotting brains

I’ve been living with bed bugs

That eat me away

When someone finds me through all this fog

There won’t be any of me left to love

I feel like a hermit

With a broken shell

Don’t throw me away just yet

I still got a sentence to complete

A will to carry out

And love to keep hidden in depths

Between my eyes and throat

⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️⛓️

[purplemoonabove]

Love Triangles ≠ Tug-Of-War

“Oh great. Another love triangle.”

“Here it comes: the love triangle.”

“Ooohhh, I see a love triangle going on~!”

That’s the idea that is the new norm right now in storytelling: the love triangle, a situation involving a tense-making drama between three people, most commonly a girl that falls in love with two guys separately, and both guys love her back.

(Thanks Twilight.)

But the thing is, there’s actually a catch on calling it a love triangle. I was so caught up on the tri-romance that I didn’t realize it myself until seeing a source, whether a comment or something, had me thinking.

Thinking enough to head back to elementary school, where we learned our shapes.

You know how a triangle works. I don’t need to bring out a diagram. You got your Point A, Point B and Point C. Connect the dots and bingo! You got your triangle:

But here’s the thing: the triangle points… aren’t the same as the points in a love triangle.

Here’s the thing:

- Point A connects to Point B,

- Point B connects to Point C;

- and, Point C connects to Point A.

Simple, right?

But here’s the question: Why isn’t the points ALL connected in a love triangle?

The answer: It can’t, because it’s not a triangle.

It never was.

Shocking, I know.

Now, before anyone mentions on defending the “love triangle being legit”, remember what I said before: a triangle makes up three points, and they all have to connect to make the shape. That doesn’t work the same way as the love triangles I’ve been noticing from certain stories. Twilight, especially for being the root of it all.

Bella likes Edward. Bella likes Jacob.

Edward likes Bella. Jacob likes Bella.

One girl likes both guys. Both guys like the same girl.

Bella is Point A.

Edward is Point B.

Jacob is Point C.

Point A likes Points B and C. Point B likes A, and so does Point C.

It’s not a triangle because Point B and C – Edward and Jacob – are not connected.

Neither one has feelings for the other – other than the feeling to rip at each other’s throats. (Being a vampire and werewolf, respectively, it’s no surprise.)

Because if they were, then the real triangle would be:

Jacob likes Bella.

Bella likes Edward.

But Edward likes Jacob…

I’m humored by that. Just imagine how the plot would go if it somehow went like that. There would be new teams: Team Bella and Edward, or Team Jacob and Bella, or Team Edward and Jacob.

The direction it would have gone if were done…

BUT!

It wasn’t so it’s not a triangle – it’s tug-of-war. Love war. Both men fighting/trying/convincing/doing everything they can in a situation to get the girl they both like to accept one of them.

There’s a rope with two ends and a centered mark. Who gets the mark is the direction of a pair the author was going for.

Bella was the center mark. And Edward and Jacob were at the ends.

Same goes for:

- The Hunger Games; Katniss at the middle, with Gale and Peeta at the ends.

- The Mortal Instruments; Clary in the middle, with Jace and Simon at the ends; and,

- Legendborn (Read it if you haven’t! So damn good!); Bree in the middle, with Nick and Sel at the ends.

The effort the guys pull is the direction of which of the guys is with the girl in the storyline.

It was never a triangle. For the guys such as mentioned above, it was tug-of-war.

And for the girl in the center—heck, it would have been an angle without a base! The A without the middle line. Just standing like an open ladder, the bottom ends for two people to stand on and fight who will be first to the top as they climb—and by her acceptance.

This can also work vise-versa – the girls doing tug-of-war, the guy as the singular point of an angle. The rope or angle can even break if the main love interest decides neither one! Or whoever the author would be using.

The point is, the next time you read a book and see a romance where Point A falls for Points B and C, and the feelings are returned, remember: it’s not a love triangle. It’s a return to your childhood, during recess or P.E., where the rope is held at both ends, the center mark is the target, and whoever team you are on is the support for one of the pullers.

Not a love triangle. Just a new game of Tug-Of-War.

Thanks for reading my WriTED Talk 😊

[lifblogs]

The whump in Bloodmarked is so good! And totally unexpected, honestly. Legendborn technically had some whump, but it was very fleeting and impermanent. Yet in Bloodmarked there’s an entire captivity arc! I loved it!

[nyovette]

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

Synopsis: After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so-called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.

Rating: ★★★★★

When reading the first handful of chapters of this book, I was struggling to settle into the story. While I'm still new to reading, I have already developed a preference for the fantasy genre and, further to that, a preference for fantasy books with fictional worlds. I enjoy learning about the laws, cultures, magic, etc. Reading about fantastical creatures fighting kids who know what an iPhone is.. well it takes some time to immerse myself in it.

Plus, at the beginning, Bree attends a high school 'party' of sorts where we're introduced to college kids carrying red solo cups with faces that look like they were sculpted by the gods. I felt like I'd been thrust into my Wattpad fanfic days, so I can't say I was optimistic about whether I'd enjoy the book or not.

That being said, I am so glad that I continued reading. Deonn has crafted an excellent and intricate magic system, and a well thought out hierarchy within the central secret society explored in the book.

I love it when authors make use of tales and stories already told and expand upon or reimagine them. The use of Medieval structures, and the Order being built around King Arthur and the Roundtable's reimagined history? The threat of Camlann? The beasts from Welsh folklore? It ticks every box for me there.

And on top of all that, there's the mystery of Bree's mother's death and her involvement with another branch of magic that she kept hidden, despite it usually being passed down families through each generation.

The climax of the story was fantastic, I was unable to put the book down! Not only were the stakes incredibly high, but the twist of Bree's lineage was an incredible reveal that I never saw coming.

Deonn not only provides an amazing story with Legendborn. Throughout, Bree has to deal with racism, racial profiling, and microaggressions. The pain of feeling that she doesn't belong because of her race. The college that she has come to and the Order that she has entered is built upon the oppression of Black people, and it isn't something they try to hide. It's heart-wrenching to read.

Overall, I found Legendborn to be a remarkable story. I look forward to continuing Bree's journey in the next book :)

[torteen]

undefined

Legendborn meets Dynasty in Terry J. Benton-Walker's contemporary fantasy debut, Blood Debts—an "extravaganza from start to finish" (Chloe Gong) with powerful magical families, intergenerational curses, and deadly drama in New Orleans. 

Thirty years ago, New Orleans saw the greatest magical massacre in its history. In the days that followed, a throne was stolen from a queen.

On the anniversary of these brutal events, Clement and Cristina Trudeau—the sixteen-year-old twin heirs to the powerful, magical, dethroned family—are mourning their father and caring for their sick mother. Until, by chance, they discover their mother isn’t sick—she’s cursed. Cursed by someone on the very magic council their family used to rule. Someone who will come for them next.

Cristina, once a talented and dedicated practitioner of Generational magic, has given up magic for good. An ancient spell is what killed their father and she was the one who cast it. For Clement, magic is his lifeline. A distraction from his anger and pain. Even better than the random guys he hooks up with.

Cristina and Clement used to be each other’s most trusted confidant and friend, now they barely speak. But if they have any hope of discovering who is coming after their family, they’ll have to find a way to trust each other and their family's magic, all while solving the decades-old murder that sparked the still-rising tensions between the city’s magical and non-magical communities. And if they don't succeed, New Orleans may see another massacre. Or worse.

[you-are-my-king-now-cariad]

I love being in this community and seeing posts circulate. Like we’re all* vaguely progressive and that kind of thing, so we generally repost similar PSAs.

For example, I saw one post about AO3 being down 5 times in a row. From Paige, Rain, Knobbly, FicNoire, and then myself.

Love y’all. It’s not even annoying yet.

[incorrect-legendborn-quotes]

Bree: Your friends are counting on you. Sel: Well that's their fault. I have carefully crafted a persona that screams "You're on your own!"

[massiveladycat]

characters i would run away from: 1. miguel o'hara

he choke slammed a teenager and he's absolutely terrifying (attractive points -5 every time he yells at a child) 2. selwyn kane

he honestly probably wouldnt even do a double take at me but i'd still run anyways (hes intimidating) 3. luke castellan

he likes to manipulate little girls and told a 16 year old girl that he loves her and NOT in the platonic way (he's 23)

[merlinreviews]

Hi, hi all!! Does anyone have any recommendations for books or novels like LegendBorn and Bloodmarked, but with characters that are adults specifically 20 and up. I don’t mind reading books with young characters, but I really would prefer to read more books with characters around my own age. Please someone help me out here!

[medium-bloodcrafter-scion]

Legendborn Ships 🚢

If the idea of Bree choosing Nick instead of Sel upsets you, this story is no longer about Bree.

If the idea of Bree choosing Sel instead of Nick upsets you, this story is no longer about Bree.

If the idea of Bree choosing one and not both upsets you, this story is no longer about Bree.

If the idea of Bree choosing none of the above and opting to focus on herself for a bit upsets you, this story is no longer about Bree.

If you're expending energy trying to 'prove' your ship is the right one and participating in shipping wars... this story is no longer about Bree.

I love romance. I love the way Tracy Deonn has woven love stories into the narrative. I'm not going to say the romances aren't important because they are, and given Tracy's thoughts around Bonnie's treatment in the Vampire Diaries I think Bree even having a choice is deliberate. Tracy has reiterated in several places that Bree will choose whatever is best for Bree, and given the sensitivity and thoughtfulness with which Tracy has handled the whole story (seriously, this is what puts this series a cut above the rest for me), I don't think the decision Bree makes romantically will be taken lightly or that TD will choose a thoughtless solution, because she's the kind of writer who respects the characters she has created.

But at the end of the day, this is a story about a Black girl navigating grief after losing her mother, dealing with institutional racism and systemic injustice, and being at the very heart of a centuries-old battle she never asked to participate in.

I am #TeamBree, whatever that looks like, and my wish as a reader is that Bree would find peace, hold the power that is rightfully owed to her to wield as she wishes, and have a community of people that love and support her, including Nick and Sel.

It's normal and acceptable to feel disappointment if your ship doesn't sail, but if you find yourself rating the book lower for those reasons specifically, you have lost the plot. Who Bree chooses to be in a romantic relationship with is literally not the main point of the story.