#malacus quai

[thatfoxnamedfinley]

*folds hands on top of table* So...I started reading The First Law Trilogy.

I’m bout 175 pages in and I have many profound thoughts

I want to post cause I read D E A T H L Y slow and it takes me a long time to push through a book, so 175 pages in is quite an accomplishment for me (it’s taken me a week to read this far if that says anything)

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT, IF YOU KNOW THEN YOU KNOW LETS GOOO

1.) To absolutely no one’s surprise my favorite character is Logen “Bloody Nine” Ninefingers. That’s easily the best POV for me so far. My mans is just *waves hand around* COMPLEX. After being introduced to him I just automatically placed him into a box of the archetype I thought he fit into. However, he’s full of surprises, as Bayaz says. You expect him to be one way (especially after you are introduced to his former crew and you see how some of them act/think), and he’s just not. You have to be realistic about these things. But I DO feel like his character is building towards him doing something HORRIBLE at the end of this book. Everyone he encounters is like O ShIt LoGEN is A BaD MAN HEs a RABiDd DOG hE hAs KILLEd MoERE PeopPLE THAN THE PLAGuE and he’s literally a sweet puppy so I’m waiting for shit to hit the fan when we REALLY see what he is capable of.

2.) Other favs are Bethod (I WANT THAT BACKSTORY HE HAS WITH LOGEN SO BAD. WTF HAPPENED BETWEEN THEM THAT BETHOD SHOWED LOGEN MERCY?????), Bayaz (he is an old sassy mage and he cracks me tf up), Quai (soft boi who can’t remember his studies at all), and, oddly, Practical Severard. Sand dan Glokta is a cool character and I do enjoy that POV as well (because I know all these storylines are building to something and Glokta is doing a lot of behind the scenes shit right now politically), but I like Severard. If he dies off screen I’ll be surprised. I like the little bits we’ve gotten about him. I like Dogman too even though we haven’t gotten a lot of him either (I quite enjoyed the little chapter with Logen’s old crew, Dogman seems to be the most loyal).

3.) Least fav right now is Jezal. BUT TO BE FAIR TO HIM I think he’s being written that way on purpose so we root for him later once he undergoes character development. I just got to the part where Ardee tells him off for being a spoiled brat with a silverspoon and she makes him feel so embarrassed (LOL) that he finally decides to dedicate himself to win the Contest.  So we’ll see how his story goes. 

4.) What I find the most fascinating is I’m still not even sure WTF is going on. Like...if you asked me what the plot was so far and where the story is going...I don’t think I could tell you. We’re just following characters around while things are set in motion. The North aka Bethod wants Angland. Logen can communicate with spirits and that’s rare. His crew thinks he’s dead. Glokta is limping around killing people in a dungeon for Arch Lector Sult and torturing assassins. Jezal literally sucks at fencing despite getting roasted every day. 

But the characters are so engaging and despite not knowing where tf the story is headed, I find myself really enjoying it and wanting to continue reading. Joe Abercrombie’s prose is excellent.

[the-one-someone]

A quick sketch because I started listening to "The blade itself" by Joe Abercrombie.

[backtothemud]

On second thought, things would be worse.

Reading the series for the first time (just finished LAOK!) and this is the bulk of what I've learned, I think. That and Bayaz is a slimy, miserable little man.

Give Malacus Quai the gun, I think.

[frogsprince]

every once in a while i think of malacus quai who probably had the most tragic story out of everyone in the original trilogy

[lairn]

I’ve been trying to make up my mind what Malacus Quai’s deal is, and I’ve decided he’s been dead since early book 2 when Glokta found that awful corpse. His face has been stolen by an Eater.

I like to write down some of my guesses to see how they hold up. Time will tell!

[nocontextfirstlawtrilogy]

‘Erm . . .’ said Quai. ‘Aaargh,’ groaned Ninefingers

— The Blade Itself, Joe Abercrombie

[random-jot]

Welcome, Last Argument Of Kings by Joe Abercrombie, to the list of ‘Books I Had To Put Down BecausHOLY FUCK THAT MOMENT WAS INTENSE!’ 

That whole Better Left Buried chapter... I’m speechless.

(Other such books on this list include The Silmarillion/The Children of Húrin by J.R.R Tolkien and The Ables by Jeremy Scott)

[neufdoigts]

haven't read sharp ends yet and have no idea what the short stories r about (except that there's a glokta one!?) so here's my predictions don't correct me (also spoilers up to red country ish)

-saucy vitari/shenkt romance

-cawneil/bayaz breakup scene

-just 3 pages of lambgen being a Good Dad 🥺

-the glokta one will be a flashback and we'll get to see west and my boy sand be bffs because I'm gonna be real the only scene that abercombie has ever made me cry with was that one in the blade itself when west was like "i visited you"

-we catch up with beck but knowing abercombie it's gonna be super depressing and becks like a career criminal now because he killed all his siblings or smth sighs #cyclesofviolence :/

-how temple lost every job he ever had (if I don't learn by the end of red country)

-I REALLY LIKED THE 100 PAGES OF MALACUS QUAY I GOT IN THE BLADE ITSELF AND I FEEL ROBBED THAT I NEVER LEARNED MORE ABOUT HIM

-gorst being happy short story? Please?

-monza bad bitch / good mom short story

-a chronicle of coscas various mistresses

-How Ganmark Fucked His Way Up and Out of the Union Army

-milf!terez

-philosophical ramblings from calvez the swordsmith about the nature of Violence etc (I'm a slut for abercombies philosophical rants)

-more morveer!! I want to hear how morveer poisoned his orphanage but like I want it narrated like Nancy Drew, like a real kid's story

-honestly abercombie could write about any random side/main character and I would love it like he's so good at developing random side characters and making me care about them *looks at glama golden*

[beeblackburn]

The First Law for the fandom ask! 😁

The first character I ever fell in love with: In hindsight, Logen Ninefingers, given how much he eviscerates his character trope so completely even then, but in the immediate, at the time, sense? The moment Sand dan Glokta first complained about the steps, my heart was gripped and it took awhile.

A character that I used to love/like, but now do not: On a personal level, too many to count, everyone’s either such a piece of shit or were written sympathetically enough before Abercrombie knocked the pedestal off them in this series. That being said, Sand dan Glokta. I still really like him, partly thanks to The Trouble with Peace and one hell of a choice scene, but after what he did near the end of Last Argument of Kings, and revising the series, I can’t help, but realize what I liked about him was the potential that he’d grow a heart and stop doing awful things, and him doubling down at the end was disappointing, if not surprising.

A ship that I used to love/like, but now do not: Jezal/Ardee. It was cute when I first read it, and I generally think Jezal had enough strength of character to try to do right by her, if the kingmaking business hadn’t been a thing, but I think it’s super telling that, upon being king, he thought about making her his mistress instead of realizing that wouldn’t have placated Ardee and she’d be bitter about the broken promise. In the end, they never fully knew each other, Jezal never knew the full extent of Ardee’s past, and what attracted them to each other was the dream of something better rather than anything substantial. I pity them, but they absolutely wouldn’t have worked out like Glokta/Ardee ended up doing.

My ultimate favorite character™: Logen “The Bloody-Nine” Ninefingers. But Black Calder and Crown Prince Orso are really close behind and they could easily climb overhead Logen with The Wisdom of Crowds. I’m expecting it with Crown Prince Orso, depending on how his character goes.

Prettiest character: Probably Crown Prince Orso? I know Leo dan Brock, Jappo mon Rogont Murcatto, and Stour Nightfall (though Jappo and Stour’s more my type) are objectively more handsome, but I like a little pudge in my handsome boys and Orso’s got that while having a prettier personality.

My most hated character: Collem West, easily, but I think Malacus Quai could've been better, character-wise.

My OTP: Everyone/Therapy. Seriously, Shy/Temple. Abercrombie can write some really sweet couples for such a self-professed cynic, given Calder/Seff, Bethod/Ursi, and Shenkt/Vitari.

My NOTP: Bayaz/Power. Seriously, Shev/Carcolf. Shev, please stop going after someone you know is toxic. Walk away and close that door forever. You deserve so much better, you gay babe.

Favorite episode: Red Country or The Heroes. 

Red Country has such a somber tone of bittersweet past and longing for redemption that I just ate up and broke my heart against. Lamb, Temple, Cosca, Shivers, Shy and the Felllowship, so many people want to do better from their pasts like in his past books but this time, maybe, just maybe, Abercrombie lets some of them win against their inner demons. It’s such a haunting book, men with the ghosts of their pasts hanging around them and the inevitability of changing times creeping onto them as they trek the Near and Far Country.

The Heroes is basically a typical cookie-cutter war story except it’s Abercrombie writing it. The entire Northern subplot of The First Law distilled into a narratively and thematically tight book, with some tremendously strong supporting characters, some of my favorite POVs (PRINCE CALDER! FINREE DAN BROCK! BREMER DAN GORST!) and carrying some of my favorite scenes of the entire series! It’s such a treat and I’ve loved each and all of my five rereads. This book puts all other war stories to shame for not even coming close.

Saddest death: Count Foscar (Monza relating him to the boy Benna was, laughing in the wheat, breaks me every time). Antaup (how dare you take a chapter to establish how heartbreaking a cock-blocker’s death would be, Abercrombie!), Tul Duru Thunderhead and Scale Ironhand. Oh, those hurt. Those hurt so much. And, despite how much of a shithead he was, Nicomo Cosca’s death hit me surprisingly hard. Sad and pathetic and broken.

Favorite season: Tricky. Because The Great Leveller and The Age of Madness have my favorite books in the entire series and the former’s got The Heroes and Red Country... but it’s also got Best Served Cold, which was I admittedly colder (heh) on. I’ll take the bullet that it’s a me problem and it’s still a fundamentally well-written book. The latter’s got A Little Hatred, which was a far better The Blade Itself in some ways, and, especially The Trouble with Peace, which was a roller-goddamn-coaster of a book with absolutely some of my favorite material by far. I’d say The Great Leveller for now, but I’m holding my breath on The Age of Madness usurping The Great Leveller in the end, given The Wisdom of Crowds sounds like it’s getting into all the revolutionary and freaky stuff I love about the trilogy, a relentless inferno for society and the soul.

Least favorite season: Look, I love every book in the Circle of the World, but The First Law was the result of Abercrombie stretching his legs for the first time, writing-wise, and it shows. Logen’s wife and children never fully breathe as a necessary part of him and his early magic shows growing pains in Abercrombie’s writing, West’s material isn’t as incisive a character deconstruction as it could’ve been (dude should’ve been more insidiously a piece of shit in his mind to subvert his “good commoner” trope), Dogman’s only gets by himself particularly interesting at the leg end of Last Argument of Kings, and Craw does his character better I’d say, Cathil and Ferro were underwritten (though I think Ferro’s got interesting stuff in her POV), and everything to do with Terez. Just. That. Ugh. The writing bones are solid and the main trio, Logen, Glokta, and Jezal, are all wonderful POVs, but I think it’s safe to say The First Law is Abercrombie’s freshmen writing, compared to his more affecting material in The Great Leveller and The Age of Madness.

Character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate: ... Shivers? I do love him in The Heroes, Red Country, and The Age of Madness, but it always drives me a little crazy how much Shivers’ worsening moral decline is linked to Monza fucking Rogont and not him instead, making him out to be an entitled hyper-jealous asshole, and I ended up being disgusted by him. Add in the fact that he knew what he was getting into when he took a violent job and kept going, despite at least two targets, and kept caving into Monza’s higher payments, Shivers was always a piece of shit in his own right. He fell, he wasn’t pushed by Monza. I like enough of Shivers’ Best Served Cold material, but I just like his later material far more, even if I respect his earlier journey.

That being said, if he sacrifices himself for Rikke’s life in The Wisdom of Crowds, I’m going to rescind all this, because that’s the sort of perfect grace note to the anti-Logen and paaaaaaaaaaaaain. So let’s just go with Threetrees because, by god, he’s a relative snooze compared to the other “straight edges” of the series.

My ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: This could define almost anyone in this series, frankly. I guess Logen or Gorst? I really love their material, but they both definitely belong in a landfill.

My ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave: Can it be anyone but Crown Prince Orso? Dude’s the only one in this world who thinks “there’s a moral question” to rulership aloud to another and isn’t homophobic, racist, or sexist (looking at you, Leo). Even Calder’s got murdering Forley and Reachey in his dark deeds and Temple’s spent years helping Cosca, which... shudders.

My ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: Monza/Shivers. It’s got some good material and I really hope they can make peace in The Wisdom of Crowds, but also *waves hands* everything else about them, honestly. God, they really did both suck to each other.

Also, Leo/Stour. It’s so wrong, yet so right. I don’t even know if it’d be hate-fucking if they got together at this point, but these two morrions deserve each other.

My ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship: Jurand/Glaward, Rikke/Orso, and Cas/Vick? They’re pretty cute and could easily give each other some happiness, I feel.

[xoujji]

Bayaz and Malacus Quai as interpreted from The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie