#lyric merrywood

[sweetreveriee]

merrywood three(some) headcanons

with help from: @lxvebelle and @highladyofterrasen7

people who wanted to be tagged: @his-littlefox, @crenna, @feerique

the three(some) in question: @fatedprinceofhearts @vampirel00rd @lyricmerrywood

aight headcanon time chat

(warning: it’s pretty sexual)

-

jacks is the bottom

lyric and chaos take turns fucking him

chaos is ultimate top

they were each others first kiss

they explored each others bodies before

at first it was only chaos and jacks then lyric joined in

matching pjs

and matching lingerie

they all wear booty shorts around each other (shirtless too)

they exercise together iykyk

they also really like hot tubs

biting and praise kinks for all three

sadism and masochism

sneak away from parties

ok that’s it cs I’m tired bye bye everyone

[theunwedbride]

@legendarydante @cindetella

Lyric chaos and jacks

[lyricmerrywood]

sexiest merrywood and also the sexiest in the merrywood three

The Merrywood Three.

@fatedprinceofhearts @vampirel00rd the handsomest guys on earth (excluding me ofc) and my partners in crime

Vile creatures.

@theunwedbride rat 🖕/friendly joke

Associations

@evaismine he bit jacks.

@crownprinceofthemagnificentnorth the new crown prince of this time?

@theauroravalor I don’t even know what we are anymore

others idk. nice to meet you

[moobell55]

Jacks and Castor are literally so Folklore coded.

Like the song Seven, “Please picture me in the trees,” is them reflecting on their childhood spent together just being boys playing the woods.

I can also see it being used as a time where the Merrywood three were together and happy, their own little family.

Also the Facts that Jacks referred to them as his brothers 😭😭😭

[fatedprinceofhearts]

@vampirel00rd @lyricmerrywood what are you doing!!!

[riverxnymph]

@xoxo-vee some of these are blurry, I apologise ♡

Lyric looking cute in this one!

Bonus:

Bonus bonus:

[riddles-n-games]

You know, thinking about the Merrywood Three, I found a perfect song for them: All For Love by Bryan Adams, Sting, and Rod Stewart.

Additionally, as a sidenote, I bet that there was a legend in the North that told about the adventures of dashing heroes similar to that of the three musketeers. Of course, the story curse twisted many details and so each time it was told, the tale would be a different one than the one before. For the boys, this would be a favorite tale to enact with Castor taking the lead, Jacks following after him because trouble and mischievous chaos always take place while Lyric would be the one who reels in the other two. Jacks fondly remembers it as one of his favorite leftover childhood memories.

[moobell55]

Wolfric would not get off Honora 😭

Like not one but TWO different sets of twins???

I just know that oldest Valor kid was tired of constantly being told they were getting a new sibling constantly

Also poor Aurora who had 6 older brothers then went on to have 3 guy best friends

I know preteen, Castor, Jacks and Lyric were driving that poor girl up the wall constantly

And she also had the horrible stress of knowing that she’d be marrying Vengeance Slaughterwood who even as a teenager was known for his horrible cruelty

Sometimes I just think about how Wolfric and Honora married because Wolfric ended the battles in the North and made peace with the seven clan leaders (by literally telling them they couldn't defeat him lol) without shedding blood.

Like, Honora literally refused his proposal unless he could end the wars without spilling another drop of blood aND IF HE WANTED TO HE WOULD--

BUT, he also told them that if they declared sworn loyalty to him and proclaimed him as King, he'd make the seven clan leaders his great lords and ladies, and would ensure the peace between houses by betrothing his magical children to the heirs of each house.

And when Wolfric told Honora about his promise, she had a horrible feeling about it and we all know how that went so...

[chryzuree]

castor and chrysi have the same ap literature course (aurora’s also in that class because i guess sooooo), so jacks skips his class during that period to hang out with them. on a day that chrysi’s home sick from school, jacks takes her spot and pretends to be her “so she can get her participation points today”. the teacher’s like ………….well thank god this class doesn’t work like that, because your contributions “in her stead” would be tanking her grade.

[sweetingseva]

Jacks, The Boy Who Swore to Never Love ❤️‍🩹🍎✨

Happy Belated Birthday, Jacks! 🥳

I wanted to post this on his actual b-day, but time got the best of me and I wanted to perfect this post with everything I wanted to say about him. Sorry that I took this long, but at least most people have most likely have read ACFTL.

This will have spoilers from Legendary, Finale, Once Upon A Broken Heart, The Ballad of Never After, and A Curse For True Love.

🩸🍎✨~~~🩸🍎✨~~~🩸🍎✨~~~🩸🍎✨

I actually cheated when I first read him. I started reading Legendary but then I stopped and I had forgotten about the Prince of Hearts mentioned in the first few chapters. When Once Upon A Broken Heart came out, I met Jacks again and I instantly fell in love with his character. He was funny, ridiculous, and beyond reckless. The line that sold his character to me?

Jacks had stopped the wedding by turning everyone to stone.

But before I continued with his story in OUABH, I jumped back into Legendary where Jacks was much the same careless boy who wanted royal power because it was the closest to having his full Fate powers. But other than Jacks being stuck inside a deck of cards, we didn’t know much about his story other than he was a dangerous Fate with the one of the most deadly stories out there.

The Prince of Hearts’s kiss was deadly to all. He only had one weakness—his true love—who could survive his kiss of death. As he sought her, he left a trail of corpses.

One could imagine the kind of life Jacks led before he met Tella. Was he a flirt? Did he kiss just any girl? Did he even care about them? Was he still searching for true love? Did he still believe in it?

I had assumed that Jacks was broken to the point that he simply didn’t care anymore. He kissed so many potential lovers, but in the end, none of them made it. We learn in A Curse For True Love that the girls must have truly loved Jacks, which is why all of them fell into the same fate as his first fox.

Until Tella changed the course of his beliefs in Legendary.

His heart started beating. Tella survived Jacks’s kiss despite him delaying her death.

How did this happen? To Jacks, it didn’t matter. Hope washed over him and led him to pursue Tella (even if it was 2 months after the fact). It was clear that Jacks believed in the story and was something he had faith in again. But Tella was in love with someone else, which is the sole reason why she survived Jacks’s deadly kiss.

In ACFTL, Aurora Valor had said that only a person who would never love him can kiss him and live.

That was the true version of his story. Not that his true love could kiss him, but someone who was destined not to be with him. I felt so much for Jacks when I read this. Aurora had cursed him twice, leaving him heartbroken beyond belief. His heart was something that could be owned, not something to be earned.

Before I move on with his reservation for love, I want to dive in deeper in Jacks’s relationships, especially his friendship with Castor Valor (Chaos).

Chaos 🩸🧛🏻

There were three of them—Lyric Merrywood, Castor Valor, and Jacks of the Hollow—that made up the Merrywood Three. Jacks’s old friends who he cared about a lot. In a way, they were like brothers. In The Ballad of Never After, Evangeline opened a curious book and read about the Merrywood Three and a specific Archer who resembled Jacks.

And being human looked good on him—or maybe it was just that he looked happy. In the picture, Jacks was tossing an ordinary red apple and laughing in a way that lit up his entire face. He never looked this happy now, and she couldn’t help but wonder what had changed… His resemblance to the picture was uncanny, and yet the feeling she got from looking at him now was entirely different. It was as if a sculptor had taken a dagger to who he had once been and curved out all the softness.

Jacks was once foolish with hope and love. As a possible Merrywood, he might have been raised with the same generous morals. He believed in doing the right thing, that everything would be all right. It was this selfless faith that pushed Jacks to save his friend, Castor, who had been stabbed in the back. Trying to be the savior, Jacks took a half-dead Castor to Honora Valor who could heal him with her healing magic. But it was too late. Other means had tranformed Castor to a bloodthirsty monster.

Jacks blamed himself for what had happened to him.

Castor was the only friend Jacks had left. Lyric Merrywood and the rest of his family had been killed. The Merrywood Manor was destroyed, and the village was left abandoned. After the Valors were locked up in the Valory behind the Valory Arch, Jacks had became a Fate so that Castor wasn’t alone. This showed that he was a good person.

One of the reasons Jacks had allowed himself to be turned into a Fate was so that Castor wouldn’t be alone. Then he’d started the rumor that Castor was Chaos and that Chaos was a Fate, so that the world wouldn’t figure out he was the last remaining Valor.

This act is one of the most beautiful things about Jacks’s character, and one we shouldn’t ignore. Even though Jacks is known for being callous, cocky, and selfish, his gentle side is the most important facet of his character. It is what drives many of his decision. But behind this decision, Castor had caused so much death and pain. Tragedy after tragedy that no one can take back. This reality must have affected Jacks.

It isn’t weak of Jacks to display these kind of vulnerabilities. I think Stephanie did a great job showing Jacks’s vulnerable side in TBONA and especially in ACFTL. It’s what I always wanted to see from him.

Tella 💙🗡

I remember the first time I saw Jacks pour his heart out and it was in his plead to Tella to love him in Finale.

“You were supposed to be my true love. You were supposed to want me, not him. You were supposed to be as obsessed with me as I am with you… When I told Legend I’d kill you if he didn’t give me the power I needed, I didn’t mean it—I wouldn’t have done it. A part of me even hoped he’d say no, so that you would walk away from him and choose me. I’m selfish, and I want you, but I would never harm you.”

The way he spoke here was such a surprise. Until then, I always thought Jacks was a pest, wedging in between Tella and Legend, but perhaps it wasn’t just about this. It was about Jacks’s need for love, to crave it so much that it didn’t matter that his immortality was at risk. Jacks did everything to win Tella, even to the point that he would rather put a love spell over Tella for her to stay with him if not at all.

Finally, after years and years, Jacks finally found the answer to his curse. A girl had kissed him and made his heart beat. What a sick joke that Aurora pulled on him since this fierce hope eventually caused him pain when the girl stabbed him and chose someone else. His walls stacked up all around his heart and his love again.

No doubt that this was the greatest heartbreak Jacks had ever felt.

But this is just one of the many.

Jacks had lost his first fox girl, his family, his friends, and the soft nature of his heart. Dozens of girls had fallen for him and died, one survived his kiss and made his heart beat but left him heartbroken, and then Evangeline, the girl he truly ever loved, died.

Evangeline 🦊💘

Evangeline Fox is the closest person to who he once was when he was just Jacks of the Hollow. Since the beginning, Evangeline felt gulity when she put her trust into a Fate and turned all of the wedding guests into stone. But it was her belief in love who brought her to Jacks, the Prince of Hearts. Because she believed he knew about heartbreak and unrequited love, Evangeline thought he would be understanding to her plight.

Which she isn’t entirely wrong.

Jacks knew heartbreak, loss, and unrequited love.

But he knew to cover his pain behind this flirtatious and wild personality well.

After Evangeline returned, Jacks was cold as ice. He had lost the only legitimate chance of love. Who wouldn’t be dejected after a rejection? He said it himself, that heartbreak “turns you into a masochist, making you long for the thing that just eviscerated you until there’s nothing left of you to be destroyed.”

It seems like hope is not all lost since Jacks is in search of the stones once more to get back to this “love.” To have another shot with Tella.

Once again, Jacks’s past self shines through with this hope for true love that seemed awfully familiar. But it was the idea of love, not love itself, that Jacks was chasing here.

It was the chance that everything could be good again. That he didn’t need to be alone.

Evangeline was the kind of soul who helped open his heart. In the crypt, Evangeline wasn’t afraid to ask him questions about his story and his heartbreak. Both of them had a common ground, which made it easier for them to talk about their failed chances of love. I truly believed that it was this scene that helped Jacks drop his guard and forget Tella for just a little bit.

For the first time in a while, he had thought of someone’s needs before his. He wrapped Evangeline with her cloak. I’d never forget that gesture. The firsts of the firsts. And it didn’t stop here.

In TBONA, Jacks continued to show that same care toward Evangeline. He protected her against bloodthirsty vampires, her mean stepsister, bratty gossipers, and even curses. Without any catches. He did them without asking anything in return. Without knowing, Jacks had warmed up to Evangeline. They teased each other, got under each other’s skin, and compromised like equal individuals.

It got to the point that their attraction to each other was so clear that LaLa thought Jacks was going to kiss Evangeline in the middle of her engagement party. What was sweet to me, that even though Jacks passed himself as dismissive villain to Evangeline, he truly cared about her and searched for a way to remove the curse bestowed on Evangeline.

He’d told her not to look for a cure to the Archer’s curse. He’d repeatedly said it was pointless. But it seemed as if he was doing just that… Evangeline couldn’t let herself think that Jacks’s search for a cure meant he cared for her. She knew this was true, yet it was getting a little harder to fully believe it. Because she was starting to care for him.

Like Jacks knew more than anyone that the Archer’s curse was unbreakable and yet he still tried to find a way…for Evangeline. My heart can’t take it. I’m seriously swooning all over again. Jacks cares about Evangeline. It’s so tender and soft and selfless that it captures the true aspect of Jacks’s character.

When Jacks and Evangeline are in the Hollow, their relationship develops into something more. Something beautiful and hopeful and a page out of a fairytale. We come to know in ACFTL that their time there was Jacks’s happiest day. EVER. I am distraught. Jacks opens up a little more about what happened at the Merrywood Manor.

Guilt clinged to him as he recalled trying to save Castor, as he tried to be a hero that night. Saving Evangeline was not him being a hero. Which is such a sad thought for him to have and yet it made total sense why he would feel this way. Because he couldn’t be a savior that day, he probably believes that anything he does isn’t enough. He could never save anyone again.

It opened up that raw part of him that we only ever see when he’s with Evangeline. She tries to understand his past and make him realize that he had done kind things for her, like holding her as she cried, carrying her as she bled, and bandaging her wounds when she was lashed via mirror curse. Jacks had been there for her.

The Hollow was the last place he was after he became Fate, which meant it was a place that he couldn’t find himself to return to because of all of the memories. Yet it was the place Jacks allowed himself to live in the moment with Evangeline. Being with Evangeline helped him drop his guard and do things that made my brows jump.

He cuddled with her, had breakfast and lunch with her, and lived a peaceful moment in the middle of all the cursed chaos.

In the morning, you can forget it. You can go back to pretending you don’t like me, and I can pretend that I don’t care. But for tonight, let me pretend you’re mine… If it’s easier, you can pretend, too. You can pretend that I’m still Jacks of the Hollow and that you want to be mine.

Evangeline thought he was being delirous but Jacks quickly set the record straight and denied that he was. It was probably the most genuine request he ever had.

Without a doubt he was in love. So in love. Nothing else was important. You can actually feel the happiness and hopefulness from the page. As much as this was Evangeline's happiness, this was also Jacks's.

Then there comes the moment Evangeline lets him go, tells him what he's feeling isn't real, and that it would all be over.

This was crushing.

Jacks's eyes were red. A flicker of pain passed over his features. He wanted to kiss Evangeline. He knew what he was feeling and yet the girl he has come to love has told him that whatever she was feeling for him was because of a rock.

One-sided love. Like the Hollow once Evangeline took the mirth stone, Jacks turned cold and brushed off Evangeline. He was harsh. He was hurt. When he got back to Chaos's Underground Lair, he turned his room upside down and ate so many apples.

With Evangeline's rejection, Jacks firmly believes that the love meant for him is with Tella. Even if he didn't love her. Even if Tella didn't want him.

The whole confrontation between Evangeline and Jacks revealed to us what Jacks wanted exactly. To go back to Tella, his "true love." Because she was the only who survived his kiss. This was the girl the curse promised him. It was her or no one.

Evangeline thought otherwise. But it didn't matter. Jacks cared so much about her that he rather they never met. Because if they keep going down the path, Jacks will not be able to hold himself back and kissing Evangeline.

His love would destroy her. His kiss would kill her. Jacks would do anything to prevent her from becoming another fox.

Despite what he tells her, Evangeline has become the most important person to him. Nothing has been so clearer than when Jacks's final words to Evangeline before she passed away.

“Evangeline—” His voice was hoarse. “Come back to me.…”

Side note, this was my favorite quote. I think this has to be my most favorite one in all of the books. I remembered gasping when I read it. My jaw literally dropped. It was the most truthful thing that Jacks has ever said.

Come back. To him.

Like, WOWWW!

Unable to accept Evangeline's passing, he took the stones and made a decision. The stones can only grant one wish. He was planning to use it to go back to Tella. But he took them and went back in time to save Evangeline.

“There is nothing of equal value to me.”

HE REWROTE HISTORY. HE CHOSE ANOTHER ENDING FOR THEM.

IS THERE ANY LOVE MORE TRUER THAN THEIRS? We’re finally at that part where we know, without a doubt, that Jacks loves Evangeline. If the “You’re not her” scene left any doubts, then they were long gone at this point. They could be endgame, this could be it, we could finally see a happy evajacks.

Until Apollo Acadian came in possessing a magic given to him by Aurora and tore Evangeline and Jacks apart by taking Evangeline’s memories of the past year.

Now we all know what happened behind the scenes here, so I’ll skip right ahead to the subject on hand. Guilt.

Jacks’s Guilt 💔

This is where Jacks’s heart has been, in a cold and unforgiving place surrounded by thick, tall walls made of steel. Since the beginning, all that Jacks has ever known was tragedy and remorse. When he learned that Evangeline had forgotten her memories, he believed it was because of his fault. Queen Honora had warned him against him going back in time and stopping Castor from killing Evangeline.

“That is not a small mistake to fix. If you do this, Time will take something equally valuable from you.”

Jacks thought that Time woul take it on him. Never Evangeline. He was to blame for Evangeline’s lost memories.

Guilt. It is the reason for the next steps he took in ACFTL. He still thinks that he isn’t a great fit for Evangeline because of his cursed kiss and the possibility that he could kill her if he wasn’t careful. Evangeline is safe with Apollo, happy even, where she should have been if it wasn’t for him. Apollo and Evangeline would have the fairytale love that Evangeline always wanted. Once he knew she could fend for herself, then he would leave forever and throw his heart into the fire of the Phoenix Tree, where he’d never have to feel this much for anyone or anything ever again. This way Evangeline could be safe from him.

If only it was that easy.

Jacks can’t seem to leave Evangeline alone. She’s always in his sight. He loves her, and when Evangeline sees him again, it hurts him to know that she’s not looking at him like before. That she had forgotten everything about him. Despite what Jacks had planned, he wants her to remember him and know him. He has hurt everyone, even her, so it shouldn’t make sense that he deserves a happy ending.

I think this is the most heartbreaking and most truthful thing about Jacks’s character. Because he couldn’t be a hero when Vengeance Slaughterwood killed the Merrywoods, he thinks he deserves so much worse. He deserves nothing.

He’d been brokenhearted. Not in the same sense that most people thought of, as if one person had broken his heart. Jacks’s heart had been broken over and over again unti it was no longer capable of hope and care and love.

Chapter 41 gives us the true reason for why Jacks is the way he is and more. Basically, everything I have listed above communicated between Evangeline and Jacks’s dialogue.

“You died, Evangeline. I held you in my arms as it happened.”

“Jacks … I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never died.”

“Yes, you did. The night you opened the Valory. The first time you did it, I didn’t go with you.” I couldn’t say goodbye. “It was only you and Chaos. As soon as his helm was off, he killed you. I tried to stop him—I tried to save you—but I couldn’t. When I got there, he had already bitten you—and he’d already taken too much blood. You died as soon as you were in my arms. The only thing I could do was use the stones to turn back time. I was warned it would cost me. I didn’t imagine it would take from you.” I’m sorry.

“You don’t need to be sorry, Jacks.”

“It’s my fault.”

Reading this whole exchange broke my heart. I could feel his guilt and suddenly realize that he’s been hiding his guilt behind this confident and careless act. Here, we could see this was another awful thing he did to Evangeline. Before Evangeline went with Chaos, Jacks had hurt her by telling her that he wanted to go back to Tella and that she wasn’t the one he wanted. When Evangeline opened the Valory for the second time, Jacks was yelling at her to leave, being rude to her so that she’d live. He’d been cruel. And that was how it ended between them before she really forgot everything.

I love Evangeline Fox so much. It has been really rare to find a character like her whose strength was her kindness and hope for greater and impossible things. Though this was a story centered around her search for true love, this was Jacks’s culmination of his pain and guilt.

Above everything else, Evangeline chose him for who he was and is. He was the villain, he was her monster, but he was also her true love and hers. This beautiful faith that Evangeline had in Jacks was what ultimately broke his curse. Jacks said “I love you” openly to Evangeline and you can see it as the truth. Sometimes something so simple is so poignant. There’s nothing to say but the truth of it all, and that was how I interpreted Jacks’s confession to her.

When Jacks confronted Apollo about Evangeline’s memories, it was met with fisted hands and brutal curses. I’m so glad we got to see Jacks pour out all his anger on him and let go for once. It was so cool to see. And I think he needed it.

Jacks chose Evangeline. His heart was with her. It didn’t matter to him where they went, as long as it was with her.

Conclusion

Pain is what made Jacks. I used to think he was being dramatic when he said it to Evangeline in OUABH. How could I? Haha. I even believed he was heartbroken because of Tella. But his pain wasn’t just about her, it was about everything that happened in his past. Lyric. Castor. The First Fox Girl. The girls he kissed and killed. Evangeline’s death and lost memories. His failure of being a hero.

In the Caraval trilogy, Jacks was aloof, troubling, and selfish. He wanted power. Then his heart started beating soon after it was clear Tella survived his kiss. He wanted love, no matter if it wasn’t real. Unlike the other Fates, Jacks wanted something simple and beautiful as someone choosing him because they loved him.

Even when he found that love, Jacks had selflessly chosen Evangeline’s safety over his desires because he cared about her. At heart, he had always been a caring and hopeful person. In the end, Jacks found happiness and Evangeline found her great love.

Nothing can stop them now.

[theunwedbride]

@fatedprinceofhearts @vampirel00rd I have some news.

[lyricmerrywood]

deal?

your name is weird @lyricmerrywood

[lyricmerrywood]

@fatedprinceofhearts JACKS, I found your old bow that you favoured oh so much

[ouabhs]

acftl review (finally)

I give it a 3 ⭐️ (as much as it pains me) even then it’s only this high bc I love evajacks so much

so I was finally able to gather my thoughts into one post and while there were many things I enjoyed a few others didn’t sit right..

1. the whole story curse thing.. it makes sense that the story curse would twist things which is why some things were left unexplained but it doesn’t feel like it was done deliberately?? it just felt like stephanie genuinely didn’t know how to tie some things together.. like sure not every single thing needs an explanation but she emphasised certain things wayyy too much in the first two books for them to be completely ignored for example evajacks talking to each other in their minds. Even the broken heart scar wasn’t addressed again after like halfway through acftl

2. too much apollo.. sorry this is not even just me being biased or whatever like I do agree his pov helped explain the plot from a different perspective but he got wayyy more of a backstory and a conclusion to his character than jacks for a someone that wasn’t as present in the last 2 books.. and this was supposed to be jacks’ series kinda (ik it was evangelines too) but I feel like jacks got sidelined hard and that’s disappointing. It also didn’t help that whenever there was an intense scene between evajacks the pov would switch to apollo.. to be fair I think having 3 povs was just hard to execute in general

3. the kiss scene.. usually it would not be a big deal but it’s a big part of jacks character that he can’t kiss girls without killing them idk I thought him finally getting to kiss evangeline would be a lot more… grand? they barely got a page or any detail and then the next chapter was “once upon a time there was kissing and more kissing 🥰🥰” which was even more underwhelming. Even apollo and evangelines kiss scenes were longer and more detailed and they got multiple

4. the overall vibe of the 3rd book felt very different to the first two I couldn’t put my finger on it at first but I feel like it had something to do with the writing.. at some parts it felt familiar (like all the descriptions and the fairytale aspects) but others it just felt different?

5. during too many scenes it just felt like stephanie was rewriting tbona.. like I haven’t really seen anyone say this yet but a good chunk of the book was quotes from tbona which I feel took up a lot of unnecessary space and could’ve been used to develop other plots or characters? Literally someone that hasn’t read tbona could get a gist of what happened cause it’s all summarised in there 😭

6. the plot in general.. contrary to popular belief I don’t think this was that romance focused (as people claim as to why things weren’t explained) because I think stephanie incorporated more plot in here but it was just different to what we saw in the last books because previous characters (luc, marisol, tiberius, kristof) weren’t as present in this book and new characters plots and explanations were just thrown in.. not much felt connected

7. jacks’ backstory.. (going back to my second point) how he became a fate was really glossed over I feel and was only briefly mentioned but I just wanted more.. I do like the fact that he said he did it for chaos and I wish their friendship was delved into more because he literally turned to immortality because his friend would be alone. What about his parents? His friendship with Lyric? The merrywood three in general? His life when he was trapped in the card?

8. the first fox.. again wayy too significant to be missed out especially since jacks doesn’t really remember whether or not he had a thing for her and chaos said evangeline was similar to her.. how was there no link?

I definitely have more to add but for now my main takeaway is that while tbona was very hard to top I feel like acftl could’ve been so much more especially since it was set up so well.. I think so many people are disappointed because it doesn’t hold up as well for the last book in a series but I’m just glad evajacks got their happy ending 🫠

[hollowinmyheart]

Jacks was a Merrywood & LaLa's brother Theory

I have tried to gather more information on the family tree of the characters LaLa and Jacks.

Was LaLa a merrywood?

Yes LaLa was a merrywood and sister of lyric merrywood. In OUABH (page 75) LaLa was first mentioned in the daily rumor pages and there kristof wrote "LaLa’s family is shrouded in mystery, which is often code for being common" so LaLa's family details were shrouded. But in Aurora Valor's diary in TBONA (page 227) aurora mentioned she was in love with LaLa's brother and LaLa thinks she isn't good for her brother. According to jacks Aurora was in love with Lyric merrywood which means LaLa also is a merrywood.

Is Jacks LaLa's brother too?

My suspicion is built on Jacks being another merrywood because of Aurora's diary. In the hollow Aurora+Jacks was written which indicates Aurora could've written that and she was in love with Jacks. In her diary she didn't write the name of her love she just wrote her truest love & her love was LaLa's brother. What if Aurora ment LaLa's another brother not lyric? What if Aurora pretended to be in love with lyric just to stay near jacks? & from Aurora's diary the word "truest love" and jacks being cursed for one true love indicates aurora cursed him with his kiss. Jacks doesn't use any Surname like LaLa.But at Lala's engagement party he had one conversation with robin :

" Lord Jacks,” Robin repeated, still smiling but looking vaguely perplexed. “Which House are you from?”

“I’m from a very old House.” Jacks took a sip from his goblet. “Everyone in my family died a long time ago.” (TBONA page 156)

After which Lala was horrified and we know that Slaughterwood's actually destroyed house merrywood. How can everyone from jacks house die? Ig house merrywood is the old house and everyone died. Also when evangeline was reading the merrywood house book then chaos appeared and may be he was the one who took the book with him & didn't let evangeline read it. House merrywood has many stories untold yet. I think jacks was a merrywood too. And he may be tried to live a simple life and choose to be an archer which maybe the merrywood lord didn't like and jacks was living in the hollow. I'm sure Aurora won't call lyric her truest love and she definitely was in one sided love with jacks. jacks was sad seeing destroyed merrywood manor in TBONA.

[daiisysaige]

Theories I have for A Curse for True Love with little to no explanations:

Evangeline is a descendent of the reverie key

Poison is Lyric Merrywood

Jacks will somehow ask Tella and Legend for help

Jacks was able to kiss Tella because she died and came back to life. I think that’s how he’ll be able to kiss Evangeline as well.

Jacks uses the apples to suppress his urge to kiss

I was gonna reread ouabh and tbona at the beginning of October and if I come up with anything else I’ll reblog this and add it.