#maybe reread the first chapter so the second one makes sense?? idk

[danktempsey]

uhhh i wrote part two to this so i can write a final slow burn chapter of Tank and Ed soo here’s part two of Introspection 3 years later??

[gibbearish]

ok i finished the first chapter and am gonna take a break now but im v excited to keep reading im really liking the way the author looks at things so far

[caliburn-the-sword]

more scarlet thoughts and reactions

reading chapter 14 it inexplicably occured to me that a japanese man is the emperor of the ENTIRE asian continent. fuck my lack of media literacy. yep i finally see why everyone is upset about asia being monolithic and homogenised in this series now. this makes me SO uncomfortable even knowing the context that each continent came together during peacetimes. yikes reeks of colonialism and imperialism

i'm at least a lot less mad at kai in chapter 14. practicality rather than outright disdain for cyborgs and lunars. usually i would be upset at love lost, but he's doing what he must to save his people and i can respect that as much as i'm like OH NO POOR CINDER. glad he's got his head on straight now and not being a close minded dick

please for the love of god don't tell me that the thorne and scarlet thing is one of those mate pair things but like scifi version. between him losing control at the fight and the foreshadowing in the article that scarlet read it seems highly likely. please don't do this to me i'm begging on my hands and knees don't make me go through this again. the only time it was tolerable was aurora rising

i also went back and reread thorne's intro because i was drop dead exhausted when i read it the first time around and i think that accounts for a lot of my annoyance and also not reading between the lines properly. doesn't outright hit on her or shows any REAL interest other than making a game out of it. he doesn't ACTUALLY want her and isn't a groomer. idk what's happened to me because i used to LOVE flirty characters when i was younger but now it seems no matter what i see them and just instantly dislike for whatever reason. while i don't outright h a t e thorne anymore he still kind of bothers me. whatever

safe to say i absolutely love scarlet to death right now. i feel like she didn't get as much of a save the cat moment as cinder did in her first chapter. i mean she DID in a literal sense when she gets up on the bar counter and defends cinder, but that's just being a Good Person and being a good person isn't exactly a personality trait, compared to cinder getting to be snarky in her first chapter. i think THAT is what was off to me when i read her first few chapters. but now that scarlet's personality has been able to shine i love her just as much as cinder. she's awesome and i love her

i ADORE the way marissa meyer writes women. cinder, peony, iko and ESPECIALLY scarlet are all such girls girls. i love them to death. i could go SO in depth about despite her being a bit white feminist (intersectionality problem which she fixes right up in renegades which i loved) marissa was SO good for this ESPECIALLY considering this is 2012. like some could easily write off cinder or scarlet as not like other girls but NO you are doing them a DISSERVICE and not understanding the INTRICACIES. i could write an entire essay about how much miss marissa meyer slayed when it came to representing women but this is neither the time nor the place. maybe next time.

"alpha male" STOP. immediately jail. first of all that was a myth debunked FOREVER ago. second of all, cringe. it's giving omegaverse. makes me want to put my head through a wall

omg he's a former gang member. this is literally giving wattpad mafia werewolf x reader but it's funny so i'm letting it slide

okay the interaction between iko and thorne was actually surprisingly touching. small tiny part of my stone cold heart has warmed towards him. perhaps he'll grow on me. also glad to have iko back i missed her dearly <3 the book didn't feel the same without her

oh no. scarlet has i can fix him disease. ik that she's meant to be little red riding hood but at this moment she seems more like belle teaching the beast but instead of reading it's what zucchinis are fksdhfsdkh

"Not much older than she was" STOP. okay. this is an Important Character. ding ding ding alarm bells are going off in my head for nondescript dimples guy (sidenote: yep he's from the gang)

not ANOTHER set of characters skipping quarantine lmao this is so accurate considering how covid went. since they're gonna jump the train i bet he's gonna have to hold her or something (sidenote: I WAS RIGHT MWAHAHAHAHA)

wow i don't remember any mention of michelle benoit from maybe-rapunzel. that now explains why granny's been kidnapped

of course wolf has pointy fang teeth. i can definitely see some simps going wild over that (let's just see how long it takes for me to become a simp and if so you have my full permission to make fun of me)

(after getting shot) "When you greeted me with a gun on your doorstep," he said, "it's nice to know you meant it." EVERYONE PACK UP AND GO HOME THAT WAS PEAK ROMANCE RIGHT THERE. same energy as emma pulling a knife on hook first time she met him. i'm severely delulu

(sarcastic voice) wow! scarlet is at the very least quarter lunar! didn't see that one coming at all,,,,,

it's actually hilarious how everyone is related lmao this is just like ouat. we've been hearing about tanner from book 1 and surprise surprise!! he's scarlet's gramp. not only is cinder the lost lunar princess but the evil queen is her aunt and also princess winter is her cousin. who's gonna be related next

[vermillioncrown]

just read ch. 7 of tpac! the whole time i was like "timmy, no." and then i was like "korvin no!" i mean, looking from the outside, stalker tim drake would definitely freak out korvin, but reading the chapter in tim's pov, it makes him sound so reasonable. and i could say the same thing about korvin when i read his pov in ch. 6 and how there's a reasonable thought process there. im not blaming korvin, but looks like he just escalated the situation, and im worried what tim and korvin end up doing.

love the moment tim concluded that korvin must be his replacement, and he seemed to have just went "ok. alright. makes sense. i'll be professional." it's genuine, but it also sounds like he's compartmentalizing there for a bit.

also, for the rest of the chapter, i was just going, "oh my god, just talk. someone tell stuff to someone! maybe, idk, ask?" while also cackling. the tendency of not telling people who care about you about stuff you probably should is very much a bat thing, i'll say.

gotta say tho, if i only had this chapter on tim's pov to base on, it wouldve looked to me that korvin fits in perfectly with the bats' in terms of a lack of communication skills. or is this just a mind game he's instigating? the usual paranoia? what was going on his head when he went for the flight reaction at the sight of tim as robin? and then pulling that usb stunt.

like. what kinda vibes has korvin been getting from tim for him to get to this point?

i shall answer morning (?) you and then later you (second ask)

=

yep thank u for seeing that if you take each pov as is, both tim and korvin may be squirrely in different ways but they both come from a rational starting point (which is what makes their particular type irrationality a slippery slope and super fun to write)

(and something to be mindful of irl, i'm def prone to anxious spirals but have the energy of a dried-out slug so i just ride the spiral to the end until it's so irrational that i go "lol okay there's a higher chance of a meteor striking my apartment dead on, calm down bitch" to myself. korvin has a lot of energy)

and tim wrt potentially being replaced "i guess so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ hahaha" he is definitely compartmentalizing and rationalizing

(i don't want to get into uwu tim sadboi territory bc i feel that's a slippery slope to take, but bro's not okay. it takes a type of childhood, parenting, and enabling to make tim drake.

but i hope readers can catch hints of that in his pov)

no one's fucking talking lmao who does that??? (real adults with emotional and social competency)

(people who aren't terrified of being vulnerable 🙃)

but like, think about it. if you're constantly trained to have a secret identity and always around people that do the same...you get used to not talking. very bat, like you pointed out. + so much more going on; someone left a very insightful comment on the chapter that had me kicking my feet in the air 🥰🥰

and yes, the final bit you've pointed out--to tim, this is like standard fare bat mindgame shit. or what the fuck is going on with this kid??? who reacts like that, to that extreme???

this will resolve next chapter, so hang on until then 😏 please do continue to speculate because 1) it's fun and 2) i really don't write things by accident (my writing's already bloated--i do a lot of excising and editing to keep to the point)

rereading tpac ch. 7 with a clearer mind than i was in the morning earlier.

i gotta say, one of the best things i love about your writing the most is how wonderfully flawed you write the characters. tim drake is a character i adore and it's a compliment when i say i wanna punch him in the throat with the way you characterized him. it's so fascinating to see korvin from the direct pov of someone korvin doesn't know well yet, like with dick's pov and with barbara, back to how he was before they bonded, and especially with someone young like tim and also tim being tim.

which! ofc they would clash terribly for the first time! ofc tim "no sense of personal boundaries" drake would simply absolutely rub korvin "hates being perceived" kwan the wrong way in the most vehement way possible.

anyway, ya. tim deserves that a little bit in the end, and im excited to see where the tim-korvin dynamic is gonna go from here.

first off, i just wanna say i'm super flattered and appreciative of you (and other readers) actually giving this much attention to the fic. i joke it's not homework but like, you're having fun, i'm having fun, there's a bit of substance going on 🤭 a little puzzle, a little treat

and then another thank you 😭😭😭 because that's the goal with my characters. i want them to be believable and coherent in their own perspectives, which means traits and behaviors that are strengths can be recontextualized as flaws (and vice versa). not really into strict "this is always positive" "this is always negative".

(a big running theme in all my fics + something you can't avoid with SI fics is "a whole person is defined by both the internal and external". you have your core, but you must also be perceived)

i'll take the way you want to punch tim (lovingly) in the throat as a compliment! i want that! he deserves a bit of bullying! i just get sad when ppl get actually mad-mad at him because...bro's just trying his best but playing the wrong game with the wrong pieces lmao

his view of korvin also goes back to your previous asks about how'd they interact, and the answer is "depends on the context of how they meet and their relative social place to one another". tim's much older than korvin in whfagt and those are extenuating circumstances, so that's a very different interaction vs...this lol.

HAHA yes, you got it in one on how tim rubs korvin wrong. you'll get the other side next chapter.

(another theme with SIs is "get perceived, idiot", so korvin's getting dragged kicking and screaming into that. eventually. might take a whole sequel.)

you're excited to see, and i'm excited to show! in my other fics, the SI has the luxury of fucking off and stepping away from powder keg social interactions (kinda), but not korvin. so it's finally reasonable for me to write the most batshit (pun intended) insane character dynamics i can imagine

(if i wasn't so tied into my metacognition, there would have been plenty of places in my other fics i could have gone off the rails like readers wanted/expected. but that's not how i work.)

[honey-tongued-devil]

HONEY I FUCKING LOVE YOU

THAT WHOLE CHAPTER WAS SO GOOD. I HAD A HUNCH THAT WHAT YOU SAID I’D LIKE ABOUT IT WAS GOING TO INCLUDE RAIN AND PHANTOM AND I WAS RIGHT…. i was right….. nyeheehehehhee 😈gonna get a bit devious… a bit 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂 …… up in here. 😈 i. LOVE. the dynamic between reader, phantom, & rain. LIKE.. LIKE HELLO?????????? Idk man i just love it!! i also really love phantom and rains relationship, and how rain acts as sort of a guide dog. It fits really well. moving onto “ YOU CAN FUCK THE GHOULS?” im sorry that is so ME. me. i loved that whole shebang it was adorable, and so fucking comedic . Kevin is so sassy but I *know* he’s hiding something under that facade….. 😡😡 hes a bit suspicious!!! so is cassy… 😡😡😡 might just be my issues seeping in though??? either way if there’s more of them in the next chapters, i am VERY VERY excited! The ghouls bantering and bickering is so precious to me:(((( like yesss dew im sorry i took your slut away but maybe you can have me instead! trust! yess go back to scarfing down rice me too king…hes so fine. like your design of dew and your over all portrayal is SO. fine. hes so pretty. like i am so sorry but i cant come up with a more coherent literary analysis of this chapter because im fucking REELING😭 THAT WHOLE THING WAS TOO FUNNY AND I GOT MOST OF THE REFERENCES FROM LIKE INCORRECT QUOTES ETCETERA YOU PUT INTO THE DIALOGUE. IM SO FUCKING HAPPY YOU HAVE NO IDEA IM SO HAPPY THIS STORY WAS UPDATED. also i was legit looking at your designs for phantom and rain a while ago i don’t know how i didn’t see the update😞 nonetheless better late than never! (never wouldnt happen i check your account every 1-2 business days) also can i just commend you for your designs on phantom and rain ???????? they’re so fucking pretty like i might shed tears. truly i might. i get like a bunch of serotonin looking at thejr designs, especially rains eyes and phantoms spots. theyre so beautiful. that threesome healed my soul man i cant i llove them sm

tl;dr : ARFARNFJDJJDJFKCJJXKMDNRHRGGHHHHGERREEEGRRRRRRRGJFJJFJDISIEIJRNFNNCNFNFKSOWOOSKSKKSIODOFPFPOFFJGRRRRRRARFARFARF

wonderful writing as always honey, you never disappoint <3

- @n4zareth 🧡

I thought I had replied to you, but here we are. With this reply, I take the opportunity to spoil you that the new chapter will be out by tomorrow morning (in a maximum of 12 hours, to be clear), and that in two days at most a one-shot inspired by the movie will be out, but no spoilers, so in case you get bored, I hope to fill your days a bit.

That said: it made me laugh that you had predicted it because that chapter was written months ago, and on one hand, every time I write a silly chapter, I say "okay, today we're going light," but on the other hand, it all makes sense. Simply put, in the previous chapters, Dew talked about Rain's imprinting, how Rain had become attached to him, became very protective towards him, and gradually managed to make him completely settle in. What Rain is now doing is imprinting with Phantom (and if you reread the first chapters, it also makes sense). Before the quintessence incident, Rain was the one Phantom bonded with, and when after the incident Rain bonded with the reader, Phantom was consequently excluded, obviously not intentionally. Similarly, the second attempt at imprinting is happening with a human, so instead of behaving like a demon or a cat or whatever, it's more human-like behavior.

After watching the movie, I know that Kevin is really a dork, so I'm glad I included that silly scene, same for the ghouls insulting each other.

As for the designs, I'm still trying to find the style that works best, but I'm working on it because I really adore the ghouls, I can't not draw them.

Hope to see you soon <3 -honey

[toburnup]

I was rereading iylo and I found it so interesting that after Steve moves out of Hawkins it almost feels like I’m reading a different story with different characters. Not in a bad way!! Idk how to explain it, but it’s like you can see how much they both have grown and changed, they’re not the same people they were when the story started and it just makes so much sense. And you can’t actually pinpoint the part in the story where that change happens bc it happens gradually, with time. Sorry, I know this makes no sense, but I’m just overwhelmed with how real this story feels so I felt the need to tell you dkdjdj

no it totally makes sense! i'm not great at like. planning out character arcs and shit, but i'd say the hawkins chapters are their first arc, and the move to the city is the second one. and the third arc will be post-[redacted].

the chapter where it covers the first year after eddie moves away is one of those defining 'moments' for steve. the closure of his relationship with tommy is a sign that he's changed and is on the path of accepting a new "version" of himself (maybe it's who he really is).

and at that same point in time, eddie is finally making choices for himself. maybe they're not all good choices, but they're choices!

[atticoratticus]

Hello it's been a while, time for a rant about Tokyo Revengers because I binged the entire thing in the span of like 2 days a couple weeks ago and I'm literally obsessed (slight manga spoilers below)

So after I got caught up to jjk I just decided to pick up TR for the sake of reading something. I tried the anime a bit before that because a lot of my online friends loved it, but the anime just didn't do it for me. I especially wasn't fond of Takemichi because of how much secondhand embarrassment I got from him.

For me the manga was so much easier to work through, even though in the first half there were still a lot of moments where I was bordering on throwing my phone across the room (not an issue with the story itself, just me being dramatic).

I feel like for me personally TR was a relatively slow starting series in the sense that it took a while to fully hook me on the story, which was kinda frustrating at times. The writing is kinda inconsistent at times and a lot of the plot points get sort of jumbled, especially towards the end, but in a weird way it works??? Idk man.

It's very much a story where you read for the characters first and plot second (at least in my experience, idk if anyone else feels the same there), which personally is something that works very well with my taste in manga. Some of the characters are pretty flat and only really have one or two defining traits, but all of the major characters are well developed and fleshed out.

I am a raging Mitsuya and Draken simp. I'm not gonna sugar coat it shhfbbdbs

Like I am SO down bad for both of them it's actually insane, they're just... omg. And it's weird because I went into the series fully expecting for Mikey to be my favorite, when after finishing he's not even in my top 5 characters.

Takemichi is a character I'm relatively conflicted on. He has a hell of a lot of development throughout the series which I loved to see, but it always felt like there was something lacking in a way? But then again, that does work pretty well because he's meant to be an underdog character who no one really expects much of at first

I will say that Taiju is hands down my least favorite character. Just for personal reasons I can't bring myself to like him, though I do appreciate how his character wasn't watered down to make it more digestible. Honestly I think part of the reason why I like Mitsuya so much is how he dealt with Taiju during the Christmas battle, I absolutely cried reading that.

SPEAKING OF CRYING. oh my god, I have not cried this much while reading any series in actual YEARS. the ending had me bawling like an absolute baby, it just hit so hard. Even rereading the ending still has the same impact on me, it's actually insane. The rereadability factor is through the roof.

The last 70~ chapters were both extremely necessary and unnecessary at the same time. Going back and getting a happy ending for everyone was such an overwhelming moment for me, but I feel like it definitely could have been cut down a fair amount just to keep things from dragging on. It would have been cool to see an ending that still had some level of loss, because while everyone surviving and being happy was super nice to see, it didnt really fit with the themes of the rest of the series. But hey, we also got to see Mitsuya with long hair so thats why it was so necessary (/hj. Maybe. Idk he's just overwhelmingly attractive to me)

I promise I don't only have criticisms I promise, bear with me-

The twists were genuinely so well done most of the time, like I was clutching my pillow with an iron grip for most of the series. I think the only ones that didn't really land well for me was that Mucho (the 5th division captain) was a traitor, and that's mainly because we never knew who he was prior. It sorta felt like it came out of no where? But then again we got to see way more of Sanzu so it's all good akfjjdjs

Pretty much every character was made well enough where you genuinely cared about what happened to them, and for a good amount of the antagonists you could at least understand why they acted the way the did (even if that takes a fair bit of mental gymnastics, but yk). Whenever a chatacter died, even if they weren't immensely important to the plot, you felt their death in your soul because of how heartwrenching those scenes were as well as how others characters reacted to it. If you say you didn't cry at least once during the series, I simply don't believe you.

I have a lot more thoughts on the series because I barely covered most of it, and the characters too I feel like I can talk a lot more about, but I don't feel like writing a whole other character analysis essay like I did for jjk, so I'll leave it here for now.

Overall the story was a huge surprise for me, because I didn't expect something to immediately rocket to becoming one of my top two series in general. Jjk has better writing in my opinion, but I enjoyed reading TR way more. I already have reread the series once, and I'm on the verge of reading it again for a third time already sjdjfn

I love this series flaws and all, because it doesn't need to be perfectly written to have such a great impact

[rollercoasterwords]

hey lovely, i just got around to reading the chapter rn and let me just say i am in so much awe. the way that you portrayed what dorcas and marlene are dealing with rn and love tangled into all of that made me absolutely crazy. it’s so so so soooo interesting and honestly so real and raw.

i’m going particularly crazy about the situation dorcas is in bc essentially by trying to keep marlene safe she’s pushing her away and in multiple ways too. there’s the fact that she just isn’t telling her all that’s going on with voldemort, which obviously we saw doesn’t feel good on marlene’s end and just breeds more mistrust, but there’s also the fact that she sort of took matters into her own hand and did that deal with dumbledore about keeping marlene out of danger, which listen i get but it doesn’t end well for either dorcas OR marlene and they both just end up more hurt and honestly knowing how this all ends is just very fucking heartbreaking bc we as readers know that it doesn’t matter in the end. there were multiple lines that literally had me like absolutely stunned just bc of how well they portrayed the situation and the emotion and just in general the toll that it’s having on both of them.

“She thinks it is killing the part of her that knew how to love, maybe. Her kisses all feel like wounds these days.” this mf line. i had to put my phone down for a bit i swear. fuck i love love looooove characters with depth and dorcas in this fic>>> she loves marlene so much that she’s doing all these things to protect her that are chipping away little parts of her that know how to give that love.

“You’re acting fucking insane,” she hisses, because she knows it will hurt Marlene—and that’s love, isn’t it? Dorcas wants to crack open her ribcage and crawl inside, she wants to chew the meat of her heart like a bloody steak, tender and soft and melting off the bone. Isn’t that love.” this is another fucking one. u deserve jail for this one. no no. it plays with my emotions and it makes me FEEL things. ur not understanding the brainrot i’m having rn. i finished and chapter and immediately reread bc that’s how much i loved it. idk but genuinely i think this has been my favorite chapter so far. i usually get so frustrated seeing situations like these, esp bc of the whole miscommunication aspect of it bc like we know the whole picture so it’s easier for us to understand where the characters and coming from and why they do certain things, so it’s frustrating that the characters in the story can’t but like no u just did it in a whole other way.

all the metaphors that u used to express love in this chapter. all the fighting and like anger and emotions and LOVE.

i’m obsessed with ur portrayal of it.

another quote:

“It is impossible to imagine what she feels for Dorcas could ever be anything but destructive; loving her is like trying to keep warm with a forest fire, like trying to quench thirst by swallowing an ocean.” no bc this quote. i FUCKING LOOOOVE the way you described love here especially considering marlene’s circumstances and didkwkdkd fuck i j wanna ramble and ramble but it’s lowkey super late here and i need sleep and idek if this made ANY sense and i SO MUCH MORE to say but first i’m horrible at articulating my thoughts i hate it and second like i said i need sleep so like sry sry if this was a waste of time ajd made no sense but yk. yeah just know i love ur brain and ur writing and u. just in lcoe ekth this fic. 10000/10 goshhh u are amazing. i’ll shut up now. maybe in the morning i’ll try to coherently word my thoughts but who knows.

ahhhh jumping up and down and clapping my hands thank u for taking the time to send such a long message!! i'm so glad you liked the chapter it was definitely more of an intense one lol

and YES the situation with dorcas exactly like it is just. i talked about why exactly she's not being honest with marlene in this post but yeah essentially it's just one of those situations where everything is coming from a place of love and a desire to protect marlene and keep her safe but that's not what marlene wants but dorcas doesn't care because she'd rather love marlene wrong than risk losing her and i just!!!!!! look i know i wrote it but i wrote it bc that dynamic specifically makes me go insane so i'm right there with u lol

ahhh the kisses feel like wounds YES i'm so glad u liked that line the whole question of like how far do we go for love what horrible things are we willing to do for love what pieces of ourselves are we willing to carve up for love....yes yes yes

and the love paragraph ahh that's another one of my favorites i am literally thrilled to hear that it gave u brainrot i am planting mold spores in ur brain and watching them grow >:) and yes the frustration of knowing why characters can't communicate and seeing those walls between them and wishing they could see them too...again i know i wrote it but it gets me every time!!! like they don't want to hurt each other they each just want to leave a mark on the other that no one can take away and they're living in an environment where the only marks left on anyone that can't be erased are from violence and just....yeah. yeah <3

and love as destruction!!! love as a forest fire!!! love as an ocean!!! i am simply obsessed with portrayals of love that contradict the idea that love is a happy ending or something that fixes everything like i love examining love as something dark and violent and dangerous THANK U for rambling to me abt the ch i loved the rambling!!! please feel free to ramble in my inbox anytime i know i'm responding to this a little late so i hope u got some good sleep lol <3

[artino-c]

Hiii I have a question about The Young and Ancient Light and your headcanons about something specific-- but if you don't want to answer, just ignore it please & sorry ^^

So in Chapter 8, Kamet and Costis have this exchange:

“After the assassination attempt,” said Costis. “When the King was recovering.” He glanced up at Kamet. “My master had nothing to do with that,” said Kamet—answering Costis’ unspoken question. “He was still banished to the family estate. We only learned about the plan after it failed.”

But so, in KoA one of the assassins dies in the Attolian dungeon after naming Nahuseresh and Sounis, and though it isn't stated outright, I always assumed this man was interrogated under torture. We get more confirmation and some motive for Sounis in CoK, but Sophos only talks about the Mede ambassador and doesn't name Nahuseresh.

So is your headcanon that Nahuseresh wasn't actually involved in it, or that Kamet maybe just didn't know? Or did you want the reader to wonder and this doubt is part of the fun? I'm asking because I personally think Nahuseresh's involvement in this plot seems kind of crazy, and I have just taken to a headcanon where the assassin in question either didn't actually imply Nahuseresh by name, or that one of the interrogators prompted him with a name and he just agreed to it... Mostly because I can't imagine the brother to the heir of the Mede empire to be the kind of person who personally introduces himself to assassins... Especially assassins he's recommending for another person's use, idk. But then again maybe it WAS a blunder? I don't know, and I was wondering if you have thoughts!

HAH, well the short answer is that I was basing that theory off of the timeline we have in TAT and my much more recent reread of Conspiracy of Kings, and I forgot to check if Nahuseresh was named specifically in KoA! 😂😂

My response to this got super long so it’s under a cut:

My logic was similar to what you are saying here, though—it didn’t really make sense to me for Nahuseresh to be directly involved in the assassination attempt, particularly in the immediate aftermath of his spectacularly failed invasion, and I didn’t think the logistics worked if he was in exile on the family estate and not even in Ianna-Ir to pull strings! (In my fic specifically I was imagining this as the first sign of the emperor/Naheelid just fully going over his head because they no longer think he’s reliable…) And given that one of the threads throughout KOA is that torture (arguably??) doesn’t work and is bad, I really like your theory that perhaps the assassin who names Nahuseresh isn’t the most reliable source, because we’ve already established from Costis’ POV that people who are being tortured will say whatever they think you want to hear.

But that said, I don’t don’t see other strong evidence that readers are meant to doubt Nahuseresh as the originator of the plot, especially since back in book 3 we had far less worldbuilding about Medea and Mede politics. (Rereading the scene after Gen finds out it’s clear he believes it was Nahuseresh specifically and that is part of what upsets him!) I still don’t really think the logistics make sense, but I guess I can see N funding a half-baked, overreaching assassination plan that fails due to bad intel and underestimating the intended target (all of that screams Nahuseresh, lol)! Maybe this was his first (failed) bid to restore his reputation and get invited back to court? And it’s very, very funny if he followed up his first huge blunder in Attolia with a second, equally embarrassing failed attempt to kill the king.

In terms of Nahuseresh’s willingness to directly, recognizably involve himself in this kind of thing, Kamet talks about having to meet with “criminals” as part of his job executing Nahuseresh’s various sketchy plans in Ianna-Ir, and he is feeling out Erondites’ household in QOA (presumably to figure out how willing Erondites would be to screw over Irene/ally with the Medes), so if Nahuseresh is comfortable sending his personal secretary on that type of errand, maybe he doesn’t cover his tracks very well when he hires assassins, either?? (The part of this that still doesn’t work for me, though, is that while the assassins are hired with Mede and Sounisian gold, we have no reason to think they travelled all the way from Medea…if they were hired by Sejanus (or someone working for him), surely they only know second or third hand who else was behind the plot, no matter how unsubtle Nahuseresh was!)

All of that leaves the question of whether Kamet would have known about this. For purposes of my fic, I’m going with no, he had no idea, even though this is the kind of thing Nahuseresh would have told him about in the past, perhaps for the same (unknown???) reason he doesn’t tell Kamet about Hemsha. In the wake of their narrow escape from Attolia, I do think there was maybe some kind of breakdown in their relationship, from Nahuseresh’s perspective, too, even before the scene that starts the book.

For purposes of more general canon interpretation, tbh I still think Kamet might plausibly not have known and/or not been involved (assassination attempts don’t really seem like his kind of thing, plus he’s isolated and presumably out of the political gossip loop when he’s at Nahuseresh’s estate, so would have less ability to know if Nahuseresh is lying or hiding something). But it would also be very funny if he were involved/aware and just quietly never mentioned it to Relius or Gen, in the same way that he quietly elides other things in TAT.

[inkedtae]

Color Themes in RAC (2)

In the second chapter, Taeddy wears a green coat, I immediately assumed that it was to represent jealousy, referring to how it’s the first time he ever acts jealous (but apparently the color associated with jealousy is purple ?? I always thought it was green idk why 😭). However when rereading it for the nth time a detail caught my attention, you described it as a “floral green coat” so then I thought of clovers, so maybe luck ? I 100% feel like I’m reaching atp but it would kind of make sense for it to be luck, since they didn’t know they would meet that day. He wears this coat with a button up, which is, unsurprisingly, black (CORRUPTION CORRUPTIOK).

When Mrs. Geraldson is first introduced (Art Gallery) she wears a gold dress. Gold usually represents wealth, lavishness, attention, expensiveness, which are all traits that I think we can safely attribute to this character. She’s older, she’s experienced, she is dressed somewhat flashy.

Angel is none of those things.

At that point, she has seen some of the women Taeddy used to be involved with, she’s seen how different they are from her.

This is why, when Angel wears a black dress (in Geraldson Residence), I thought that it was because she is trying to mirror the other women Taeddy has been with (or simply Taeddy) by trying to appear more mature (hence the black) as it is made clear that Angel’s lack of experience makes her feels insecure, however upon rereading the third chapter, I realized I was wrong.

“...That act spurred on the nickname. You only wear black now. Lesson learned and has yet to be lived down...” (Research and Development). Marina makes of fun Angel for wearing all white and starts calling her Bo-Beep from then on. In result of that altercation, Angel actively tries to distance herself from anything Bo-Beep-like, so white. So Angel does not wear black because she’s trying to change herself to become more like Taeddy’s past flings but because she’s being made fun of by her superior. (In retrospect, it was obvious I’m just dumb like that. I had this idea that Marina and Angel were trying to become more like the other for a short while. But Angel is not going to change herself for a man !!! Love that for her).

“As you draw nearer to him, however, you notice how well your outfits complement each other. Now you begin to wonder if anyone else at the party will notice it too.” IDRK WHAT TO MAKE OF THIS BUT IT FEELS SIGNIFICANT.

“Marina hurries between desks, five inch heels click-clacking her urgency. They’re red. She has red lips too. She never wears red. Her hair is in huge curls, down and flowing over her tight white dress. Pearls sit pretty on her collarbone.” (Research and Development). Her dress white and tight, but doesn’t feel nearly similar to Angel’s dress in Art Gallery, even though hers was somewhat body fitting as well. Why ? My guess is that it’s because she’s got red on. Red symbolizes passion and sexuality. Marina is trying to appear more innocent when in reality she’s not, and it seems to bleed through in her shoes and lipstick. She doesn’t look inexperienced, or even innocent. She’s hot. She’s also got on a pearl necklace... Angel was gifted one by Taeddy chapter 1. What we can conclude from this is that Marina is trying to mirror Angel but still ends up still looking so... Marina-like. Flirty, seductive, not innocent or angelic (not saying all of those things are bad, I’m simply showing how she’s not like Angel and the person Taeddy seems to be into just happens to be Angel).

In the same way Angel ‘cannot’ pull off black, Marina cannot pull off white (in Taeddy’s perspective).

The fact that Marina criticizes the way Angel dresses under the guise of a joke is telling to me (Research and Development). Granted, she might simply be picking at Angel for no reason but I can’t help but think that it might have some deeper meaning to it. White represents innocence, so she’s indirectly rejecting Angel’s innocence. I haven’t really figured out why yet. Angel’s inexperience is one of the many things Taeddy seems to love like about her so this is obvious some form of jealousy on Marina’s part but is there more ? I guess we’ll only know as the story unfolds further.

Another example of Marina borderline copying Angel is in D-D-D-Dim Sum. She wears the pearl necklace again ! It seems, at least to me, that she wears it everytime she knows she’s going to see Taeddy... MMMMH. She’s also got a black skirt and tube top on. She stopped with the white, apparently, is she switching back to what the original Marina would wear or is she mirroring Taeddy this time, as we know that his color is black. Idek 🤷🏾‍♀️.

Your theories about Taehyung's coat are very interesting. I had no idea the colours associated with jealousy are purple. I would love to affirm your suspicions about the coat and colours your first paragraph, but unfortunately, I was just replicating this Taehyung look. I didn't mean for it to be analysed in this way, though I do appreciate it.

However, the rest of your analysis is spot on. You totally picked up on everything I was trying to convey with Mrs (Anna) Geraldson. The way she dresses was meant to reflect her wealth and high standing in high society. This is pretty much the first time Angel is allowed into this world of dinner parties and polo matches. You'll find in chapter ten that she does not come from a very lavish world so the stark differences in class are also highlighted in her juxtaposition with Mrs Geraldson.

Your observations on Angel's attempts on wearing black here are also correct! She was more so trying to emulate a more mature persona, one she has witnessed from Taehyung. Insecure in her inexperience, she was trying to dress as if she had a clue when she really doesn't. Of course, Taehyung finds it all endearing. She also wears darker colours in a professional setting since she was mocked on her first day for wearing all white by one of Taehyung's ex-fuck-buddies, Marina.

However, I don't think she is really trying to change herself to be like his exes. I'm sure a part of her is actually comforted by the fact that she is nothing like them. She just doesn't want to get picked on in a professional setting and lose the respect of her co-workers because her boss has a horrible and child-ish vendetta against her. (Also, you are not at all dumb! Please don't be discouraging; you've been pretty spot on so far!!)

So you mention is line, “As you draw nearer to him, however, you notice how well your outfits complement each other. Now you begin to wonder if anyone else at the party will notice it too" and think it might be significant. It is but I won't say how. It's much more fun when y'all guess lmao

The rest of your analysis about Marina is on the right track. She is trying to be like Angel when she dresses in white and makes this whole show about doing so. In fact, she completely replicates Angel's look at the event in the Art Gallery, where she was first seen as Taehyung's date. The next time we see Marina at an event is at the Geraldsons' for dinner when Angel wears black. So the next time Marina knows she will be seeing Taehyung, she once again replicates Angel's outfit. Marina thinks being Angel, dressing like her, will get Taehyung back. So far, it has not.

There are a few depictions of jealousy in this fic. Marina's is outwardly, erratic and irrational. Angel's is a silent brew, constantly swallowing her pride and pushing through her feelings. Mrs Geraldson's is passive. She seems to want to push pass it out of maturity but cannot help herself from being petty every now and again. I think this distinction is important for where the rest of your observations are headed in this ask.

[violetsinviolence]

ao3 year in review

original format by @athina-blaine

Top Fandom: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (16 works)

Date of first fic posted: 17 Sept, 2020 (let’s get married, 3,898 words) - happy anniversary me!

Top multi-chapter fic: ‘til i’m with you then, i’m with you there (69,086 words) my most recent finished fic, the one with the most words, and the one i’ve put the most effort into! it grew so much over the 11 weeks i posted it and i’ve already got more ideas in the works- i love this little universe i’ve created and all the people that have helped me cultivate it into something beautiful! ironic how my top two works in word count are both royalty related- i think i have a calling.

Top one-shot: nothing’s perfect, i’m hoping i’ll do (1, 379 words) this one got super popular out of nowhere- like i know everyone loves a good teacher au for tma but holy COW did this one go off the charts with its popularity- it’s almost my most kudos’d fic, just under 160 rn! absolutely incredible tbh, i didn’t even think it was that good when i posted it but HELL i’m proud of it now and i’m glad so many others like it too :)

Fic you’re most proud of: you’ll leave me lonely at best (4, 358 words) god this one is so good to me? idk what it is about the angst in this one but god fucking damn i’ll go back and read it whenever i need just a good solid cry like- damn what did i drink that day to make my angst charts off the shit? fuck!

Fic you wish got more attention: the water’s sweet but blood is thicker (3,305 words) i love love LOVE taako and lup’s relationship and i wanted to capture just like a little… a little bit of their sibling love — and maybe i projected hardcore with me and my sister, ya know — and i was super proud of that! i thought it was super sweet and i wish it’d gotten more love

Fic that Challenged You the Most: h2o, what a feeling! (8,351 words - unfinished) this one- idk what it is with this one, i posted the first chapter and then realized that i had no clue where i wanted to go from there. just getting the second chapter out was a beast on its own but fear not i’ve got a general plot line i want enact! i just need the motivation to start writing it again lmao

Favorite Quote/Passage:

“How could Juno not believe it? When Peter said it so easily like it was the easiest thing in the world to love Juno Steel.”

- when he calls me pretty, i feel like somebody (2,154 words)

“For now, though, he begins to walk, returning to his own world. Where the woman wearing his mother's face rules the land. Back to the birdcage. But, at the very least, Juno gets to keep this all to himself.”

- ‘til i’m with you then, i’m with you there, chapter one: you’ll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream (69,086 words)

“There are two things different, though: The Heliz is gone and in its place sits a neatly folded piece of paper. Duke trembles as he unfolds it.

Rosie,

Thanks for the ride. Sorry, I had to take off so quickly, but I'm expected elsewhere. I'm not sorry about having to take the Heliz from you, but I expect you enjoy a challenge. Come find me if you want it that badly, will ya?

Dahlia

The handwriting is sloppy and rushed, but the words fill Duke's senses with excitement. If he hurries, he could probably stop Dahlia from leaving the hotel, hell he could probably track him down from going off-planet need be. But where's the fun in that? There's a game in store for the two of them, and Duke for one loves games. He laughs, loud and open and so very happy as he holds the note to his chest, thinking of the lovely sharpshooter who's stolen the gem from right under his nose-- twice now!

Duke thinks he's stolen something else too, but he's more than happy to let Dahlia keep that.”

- so start me up and watch me go (5,848 words)

Total Words Posted: 285,405!

this year has been super duper big for me in terms of self discovery! i started ao3 honestly just so i could bookmark stories i liked and stuff, i never thought i’d ever start writing for real- and here i am now! honestly the person i have to thank most is @lmaowhateven sammy darling you’ve been my #1 fan through this entire process and you’ve been nothing but supportive and sweet- if nobody else got me i know he got me 🥺🥰

some other people i’d like to thank: @the-official-account @seratlantisite @scarlettrust @anonomouslyabanana @argentumauream

i go back and reread y’all’s comments all the time because they mean so much to me, literally my favorite people of all time i’m giving you all of my money currently rn actually! 💖

thank you all for making this year wonderful and i hope next year will be just as great! thank you!

[gas-station-trackphone]

Fic Recs/Mandatory Reading for Reddie fans

Here is an incomplete list of some of my favorite Reddie fics on ao3, because i cannot get over the sheer talent of this fandom’s wonderful writers! A lot of these are the Greatest Hits that you’ll find on almost every fic list, but that’s why I consider them mandatory reading. like if you haven’t read some of these, what are you doing?

the years go by like days by��georgiestauffenberg, rated M

the 27 years in between, but better because richie and eddie stay together. every time i think of this fic, i think of that lady gaga meme where she’s like “brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, etc” and maybe it’s bc this is one of the first reddie fics i ever read, but this one is always gonna be my favorite

broken record by spunknbite, rated E

the mother of all time loop fics. every reddie veteran gets chills at the phrase “the house on Neibolt was still standing”

literally everything by stitchy

like seriously just clear a few days bc you’re not gonna want to stop reading this author once you start. no other author has made me literally fucking cackle in one paragraph and sob in the next like this one, pls do yourself a favor and devour all their works like i did 

the night we met (take me back) by camerasparring, rated E

ch2 fix-it where eddie shows up at richie’s door alive and with no memory. great slow burn with a wonderfully conflicted richie, 10/10

let’s hear it for my baby! series by cloudings, rated E

OOOOOOOHHH boy! a modern teen!reddie grindr AU that’s both steamy AND sweet?? more like a fucking blessing amen hallelujah

a heart that laughter has made sweet by marjaani, rated E

another lovely teen!reddie fic that’s got it all! sweet, stupid boys, humor, a teeny bit of angst, and some 5-alarm fire smut with some top eddie, as a treat

keep talking. i’ll keep walking toward the sound of your voice. by theappleppielifestyle, rated T

angst with a happy ending is my favorite, and this one is just fantastic. so sweet, so sad! and stan is featured as eddie’s afterlife buddy and idk about y’all but i cannot get enough of stanley uris in my reddie fics. read this, then read all this author’s reddie fics, they’re all amazing

collateral by loosecannon, sheepknitssweater, rated E

a post-ch2 fic that i guess could be classified as fix-it, BUT with some very interesting twists. they beat the clown, everyone lives, but no one really gets the tropey happy ending. the WIP sequel is also incredible and i live for the updates.

the greater fool  series by mischiefmanager, mostly rated T with some E

this is a series i’ll reread a lot bc it’s so fucking good. follows young reddie into early adulthood, mostly a bunch of cute shit where they figure out themselves and their relationship. also contains the single best teen reddie fic in existence, he came in through the window, but reading the whole series is a must

brokeback derry and everything else by Amuly, rated E

27 years in between, richie and eddie reconnect in their 20s and meet back up in derry twice a year to remember and love each other before going back to their lives and forgetting. so much pain. there’s a lot of sweet stuff in there, but you can see shit’s gonna get complicated from miles away and the anticipation almost gave me stomach ulcers (in a good way). ultimate angst with a happy ending.

let me name the stars for you by playedwright, rated M

speaking of angst with a happy ending...Martian AU!!!!! this one fucked me up in the best way, i literally called my roommate at 2am to vent to her about my emotions after reading it. i go back and reread chapter 8 just to be overwhelmed by it, and it makes me cry every time. plus, there are awesome sequels/companion pieces in the series! read this, i beg you!

walk through fire for you by hyruling, rated T

unwind after all that angst with some cute, drunk, confused eddie being very upset when he finds out richie is engaged. richie only teases him a little before pointing out the matching ring on eddie’s finger. 

in the heat of the summer (you're so different from the rest) by kaboomslang, rated E

post-ch2 slow burn with tags that really say it all, including but not limited to: eddie moves to california and richie is a mess, Eddie Kaspbrak’s Hot Girl Summer, and cute middle aged man dates

pivotal moments by danfanciesphil, polypocket, rated E

high school reddie has a sort of fwb thing goin on, but emotions get in the way. featuring wonderful bevchie friendship, hella miscommunication, cute double dates, high eddie, and a happy ending

like a bullet in the back by jerry_duty, rated M

adult idiots in love! a personal favorite trope of mine! slow burn with a fair helping of angst but a really great ending. richie stays with eddie in new york while he’s there on business, and it takes these losers SO LONG to figure it out but the way they dance around it is very cute

no sense of living without aim [WIP] by liesmyth, rated E

richie and eddie meet on grindr in the 27 years between and hey, whadda ya know, they fall in love! i really love this fic but i’m pretty sure it’s been abandoned. i’ve had it open on my phone browser for like 3 months with no update but i still check it regularly bc i’m pathetic and this fic is just so good i’m DYING to know what happens next so read at ur own risk

a strange sense of familiarity [WIP] by Katranga, rated E

another “they meet and fall in love without remembering” fic, and even though it’s not complete yet, it gets regular updates. oh, also, i’m obsessed with it. they’re long distance fuck buddies who can’t admit they’re in love, and then they get hit with the childhood memories! and everyone lives! what’s not to love!  also PLEASE read kisses take like mint and every other reddie work by this author, they are all fantastic

adult friends by sudowoodo, rated T

AU where adult reddie meet at a first aid seminar for work (immediately fall in love), become friends, become best friends, and finally get to be happy. has some super repressed eddie and intensely pining richie, which is always fun, and genuinely made me laugh out loud. also please check out this author’s other reddie fics, there’s some super sweet kid reddie in there that really warms the heart

the mind's a funny fruit by joldiego, rated T

eddie wakes up barely alive in derry, has 0 memory, calls himself richie, and moves in with some lesbians. an absolute must read that ought to be on every reddie fic rec compilation. i read this a long time ago and just thinking about it makes me want to read it again.

now what i'm gonna say may sound indelicate [WIP] by IfItHollers, rated E

it took me entirely too long to find this fic since i joined the fandom, and it’s truly a fucking masterpiece. it’s almost at 200k now and still unfinished, and the slow burn is excruciating, but this is a legendary fic for a reason. eddie spends the first chunk of this fic in the hospital recovering from the massive chest wound, and then he and richie move the recovery to ben’s cabin in the woods. the author’s notes for each chapter are a story in themselves

signs of a new lifetime by swordfishtrombones, rated T

one of the sweetest, most romantic reddie fics i’ve ever read. a fresh take on a classic concept: post-ch2, they’re in love, they haven’t said/done anything about it yet, BUT!!! it’s not angsty! they are all cute and giggly like “you say it first!” “no, you say it first!” and it makes me fucking MELT

broadcasting tower by swordfishtrombones, rated E

back-to-back recs from the same author! bc i love these fics so much! sort of similar to the last one in that they both know what’s up and just haven’t said it, but this one’s got the angst! i didn’t know when i read it that it was the same author as the other fic, and i thought how funny, i found another reddie author that perfectly captures this pair in such a wonderfully romantic way! i also just noticed there’s a follow up to this so now i have to go read that immediately

eurydice; the original comeback kid by Vulcanodon, rated M

for the love of god please read this and the other work in this series. it’s a ch-2 fix-it with some intense action sequences and major pining, and it has haunted me since i first read it

love on the telephone by tempestbreak, rated E

okay this one is really just 30k of pure smut but it’s also so sweet and features a mini sexual awakening for eddie and some insecure richie with an emphasis on how much they love and trust each other. also it doesn’t hurt that the smut is fire, like does anyone else want that twink obliterated, or is it just me?

the boy who loves you by candlejill, rated E

eddie lives, richie confesses, things are chill and then they’re not. richie’s career flourishes, which is always nice to read and is what ultimately catalyzes eddie’s gay awakening and realization of his love for richie. it’s got some sad angsty parts and a very sweet ending, and it up there as one of my favorite reddie fics of all time

richie and eddie break up [WIP] by skeilig, rated M

a refreshing and realistic take on life ch-2 for the losers, because being in love at thirteen doesn’t mean you can fall into a perfect relationship at 40. i’ll admit, i’m hoping this will ultimately be a “richie and eddie get back together” fic, but it’s still a very good read (and often very funny in the second chapter) at the moment in the midst of their break up

september 1989 and everything else by pineapplecrushface, rated T

cute kid reddie figuring it out and making me smile. the follow up to this and the after derry series by this author are also personal favorites

go west by ssstrychnine, rated T

road trip fic! an absolute work of art slow burn with teen reddie in the 90s. it’s so beautifully written i just wish i could go back and read it for the first time again

the edification of eddie kaspbrak by tozier, rated M

character study with some incredible fucking prose, my lord it gorgeous. explores how eddie learns about love as he grows up, and it’s super fucking sad sometimes bc the poor boy doesn’t know how to have the things he wants and i just want to give him a hug, but it’s really a spectacular fic

circular motion by sinchronicity, rated M

soulmate!AU that follows book canon and even though it’s been a long time since i’ve read it and the details are fuzzy, i remember absolutely loving it and thinking it was incredible

tell me you know by RichiesToesHurt, rated E

college losers with some severely pining and jealous richie with a lovely ending 

predicament bondage [WIP] by dgalerab, rated E

i resisted reading this fic for so long, recently broke and binged all of it, and now i’m like frothing at the mouth for updates. richie’s a closeted actor/comedian who meets eddie, a professional Dom, when he needs help researching a role. they become friends, they develop crushes, richie realizes he’s a sub, and it’s just so much fun to read

there’s a lot more fics to rec so i might add on to this in the future, but in the meantime my biggest tip for for reading fanfiction that took me embarrassingly long to figure out: focus on the authors! if you read something you like, check out the rest of the work by that author bc odds are you’ll like that too. i mentioned it in a few specific works above, but check out the authors catalogues for these fics. if i included every work by these authors that i loved, this list would be miles long

feel free to add on any great stuff i missed, there’s sure to be tons of it!

[captainseaweedbrains]

The Hunger Games: Ch. 5

I am finally getting around to writing up thoughts. Life am I right? So I’m not only behind, but starting a bit later on my chapter thoughts. 

Here are my rambling thoughts and emotions on chapter 5: 

"Good news, though. This is the last one. Ready?" I get a grip on the edges of the table I'm seated on and nod. The final swathe of my leg hair is uprooted in a painful jerk.// Girl, I feel you. We’ve all been there. #Noshaveforever

This has included scrubbing down my body with a gritty loam that has removed not only dirt but at least three layers of skin// It’s called exfoliating, Katniss, and I promise, it is good for your skin. If they can do one thing for you, it is this. 

Okay. Like Katniss, I have a soft spot for her prep team. I can’t help it. They feel like they mean well and I’m a sucker for it. Even if they are prepping her for death.  💀

He gives his orange corkscrew locks a shake and applies a fresh coat of purple lipstick to his mouth.// I wonder if SC thought of the most gaudiest looks and just rolled with it. Probably. But some of these outfit choices just seem so out there that I have such a hard time picturing it. Am I alone on this? My fashion sense is that of a bygone era. So maybe that’s why. What is high fashion? Not me. That’s what.

Octavia, a plump woman whose entire body has been dyed a pale shade of pea green // Why would you want to look like a Sim? Why is that in style here? 

"Excellent! You almost look like a human being now!" says Flavius, and they all laugh.

I force my lips up into a smile to show how grateful I am. "Thank you," I say sweetly. "We don't have much cause to look nice in District Twelve."

This wins them over completely. // Katniss!! I love you. Never change. I do love how other worldly each party sees the other. Maybe it’s a comment on colonialism in that sense shut up Terri Your English degree is showing BUT how Katniss views them as strange birds rightly so because one legit probably looks like a Sim and them viewing her as NOT HUMAN even though she definitely looks the more normal in the room and I stand by that Where was I going with this? It just feels a bit Two Worlds colliding. Okay. Moving on. 

Just how filthy was Katniss? Like she definitely bathed before coming. Twice in one day. So what is their standard here? I don’t want it because it’s probably too much effort. #lazy

It's hard to hate my prep team. They're such total idiots.// My thoughts exactly. 

I cannot stress how much I love how blunt SC makes Katniss’ thoughts. It feels so human to me and I don’t always see that in writing. It’s nice. 

Am I alone on wondering if Cinna has that eyeliner tattooed on? I don’t know why that’s always my first thought with the second being “ouch.” 

I do love how Katniss is always thrown when her pre-perceptions of the Capitol are challenged by *the few* people like Cinna. 

I saw someone point out how Katniss remembers a lot of details like the stylists and past years winners and their strategies and I’m wondering if it’s more like how I know stuff on like the Kardashians that I don’t really want to know or care about knowing. Just facts living in her head rent free. But she remembers a lot of details on the Games.

He presses a button on the side of the table. The top splits and from below rises a second tabletop that holds our lunch.// The future 1950s ads promised and Disney Channel’s Smart House made those in my generation fear. That or a super fancy automat. 

Unpopular opinion, but I absolutely hate when Katniss goes on about the food and how to make dishes. I think it’s so boring to read. Even one sentence about what everyone is eating dulls me. 

What must it be like, I wonder, to live in a world where food appears at the press of a button?//Okay, I know we kind of already have this luxury to an extent, but I too want to press a button and my food is magically there, in my home, already made. #queenlazy

My heart saddens when Katniss wonders what people do in their free time. She is a CHILD. *cries*

Okay. So I know Katniss has boasted about concealing her thoughts, but is she REALLY good at it? She gets called out a lot by practical strangers. I will cling to my headcanon that she is truly an open book and just believes she’s sneaky like that and Peeta pretends she’s succeeding at later in life. Is this canon? Maybe? Don’t @ me

SC’s commentary of sexualizing young teens and kiddos is amazing and yes, please keep coming at us like this, Suzanne. 

Also those poor, naked children. Not only were they going to their deaths, but they literally were paraded around on national television buck naked. 

I'll be naked for sure, I think...Naked and covered in black dust, I think.//An example of why I just love her narration. I crack up every time at the clear doom in her “voice”

He sees my expression and grins.//A true madman because I can only assume her face is that of horror.

I am still mad at the scaly-looking outfits the movie gave us and how they made her hair look

It crosses my mind that Cinna's calm and normal demeanor masks a complete madman.//He is a madman. We accept it and move on from here

*Peeta enters* *Cue my glee* 

*He is my favorite and that favoritism will show*

*Listen I am here for the messages on war and our consumer culture SC is providing*

*But I will not hide why I’m really here rereading these books*

*WEEPS* SHE IS RELIEVED TO SEE PEETA 

"What do you think?" I whisper to Peeta. "About the fire?"

"I'll rip off your cape if you'll rip off mine," he says through gritted teeth.//Don’t touch me. The teamwork they already share. 

Haha I just imagine Peeta has that big smile on his face all “Haha I want to die right now”

THEY’RE LAUGHING. Precious beans. 

I guess we're both so nervous about the Games and more pressingly, petrified of being turned into human torches, we're not acting sensibly.// That or you both are talking to your crushes and are feeling giddy about it. Don’t deny it Katniss. We see you

Lmao Katniss’ enthusiasm for D1 cracks me up

Cinna over here just lighting people on fire and relieved it worked properly. This man, I swear

She calls him dazzling. Be still my heart. 

Also I still don’t understand the true purpose of Cinna presenting them as united. Maybe I’ll get a refresher later on. Is it just to make them stand out more because they’re united? I don’t understand this angle at all. So #SameKatnissSame

Lmao or maybe Peeta’s the one who is all “Idk, but *sings* I wanna hold your hand...” 

Or not. But you bet Peeta is pumped. He’s not naked on national television and he’s holding his crush’s hand. Peak day for Peeta Bram Mellark, with all things given.

I do hope they are waving correctly. 

I'm glad now I have Peeta to clutch for balance, he is so steady, solid as a rock.//I’m FINE. Totally FINE that this will be how she views him for the rest of the series. FINE.

Narrator: She was not fine. 

How absolutely sad that she mentions how the Capitolites took the effort to look in the program for their names. How they waste CHILDREN’S LIVES. 

But I shall focus on her gaining confidence and Katniss Everdeen legit getting caught up in the moment where she is blowing kisses at them. The power of a great outfit, amirite? 

Someone throws me a red rose. I catch it, give it a delicate sniff, and blow a kiss back in the general direction of the giver. A hundred hands reach up to catch my kiss, as if it were a real and tangible thing.//Oh my god. So Extra

Everyone wants my kisses.//Peeta wants those kisses 

"No, don't let go of me," he says. The firelight flickers off his blue eyes. "Please.// I am crying as I think about their interaction in the same square in Mockingjay, when she tries to take the nightlock pill and he stops her. “I’ll never let go, Jack”  

SC can describe Snow however she wants, I will forever see Donald Sutherland and only that. Even when Snow is a teenager I picture Donald. The power of Donald Sutherland.

I love that she doesn’t realize she’s still holding his hand. If Portia had enough time to spray them down, she’s been holding on for awhile. Katniss, explanation?  👀 👀 👀 👀 👀

"I'm sure they didn't notice anything but you. You should wear flames more often," he says. "They suit you." And then he gives me a smile that seems so genuinely sweet with just the right touch of shyness that unexpected warmth rushes through me. // AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

SHE FEELS WARMTH RUSH THROUGH HER

THE SHY FLIRTING

PEETA, YOU SHY SLY BEAN OF A FOX

The more likable he is, the more deadly he is.//Yeah, for catching a dangerous thing called FEELINGS. 

Katniss, how does *kissing* him help matters here? You clearly caught wind he was flirting and your first thought was *le kiss* ???????

These two, I swear

And Katniss is just so smol having to stand on her *tiptoes* to kiss his cheek. #teamsmol

Onward to the next chapter! 

[whoslaurapalmer]

finished rereading the raven cycle and you know how last year i said i could be pickier about the raven king but didn’t want to? this year i did want to! 

-i mean, i love the raven cycle. interesting magic, very comfy, would sell my soul for the gangsey.  -but most of this post is gonna be me complaining about the raven king  -the tl;dr of it all is ‘the pacing of the raven king is too fast and too slow at the same time. it’s not that i think it was terrible, but i don’t think it was written as successfully as the previous books. i think, because the pacing of the book is so uneven, that the balance between events, and perhaps the balance between the magic and the characters own inherent internal coming of age power, is off. oh btw i am considering reading call down the hawk but Have Concerns’ 

-noticed the ‘blue is calling gansey from the phone/sewing/cat room and gansey is calling blue from the bathroom-kitchen-laundry’ parallel which i thought was very, very cute. that has my whole heart  -also noticed a lot more of gansey’s whole person just constantly thinking about (or not-thinking about) his death  -BUT THEN THE PROLOGUE TO THE RAVEN KING SMACKED ME IN THE FACE AGAIN HOW COULD I FORGET THAT GANSEY LIKE. LITERALLY KNOWS HE’S GONNA DIE AND THE RAVEN KING IS HIM TRYING MAKE SURE EVERYONE WILL BE OKAY AFTER HE’S DEAD -I CANNOT HANDLE RICHARD CAMPBELL GANSEY THE THIRD MY GOD THIS BOY 

-canNOT overstate how much i really do love gwenllian.  -i love her so much. i love her so much  -same with malory. still love him. 

-okay i guess i appreciated artemus a little more -i think my thing is like. do i have a problem with blue being part tree? no not necessarily. but the pacing in the raven king is so uneven that i think what i dislike is how the reveal happened  -no i don’t know what i’d do differently!!  -every time i disagree with a writing choice in a book i try and think ‘now lulu, as someone with a Literal Degree In Putting Words Together, what would you do differently?’ which is a REALLY good writing exercise but mostly just ends up with me going ‘uhhhh. idk. probably have to backtrack a couple plot points and restart from there. no i will not elaborate.’

-last time i thought the raven king moved too fast and this time i agree but also thought it moved too slow?? -i devoured the first three books every time and then both times i read the raven king i kept putting it down because i thought the pacing was so off, so i was simultaneously interested and not interested in what was going on -too fast re: there were A LOT of characters going on, laumonier and piper and henry and neeve and plot points were just piling up and more like slamming together than converging (piper being laumonier’s daughter and henry’s mother being seondeok especially feel less like pieces falling into place than, oh look! ~a thing!!~), ALSO GOD NOAH NEEDED TO SHOW UP MORE (just like. a smidge more noah. would’ve put a lot together), and the speed of finding glendower/driving back/gansey dying/the epilogue -too slow re: somehow so many things are happening but nothing is happening in some parts, some parts dragged, people are just moving around with no real direct sense of working towards the end, blue and gansey were at lunch while adam and ronan were in cabeswater that one time?????????????  (-not that they can’t get lunch. but they had time to get lunch???????)  -oh i think the four of them maybe felt the most disjointed as a group in this book, which is again not necessarily terrible, but a thing  -and these things are just so disappointing because i thought the pacing of the first three books was so GOOD!! things take their time to happen but HAPPEN and i love that so much!!!!  -i do feel bad criticizing the raven king bc i know maggiestief was going through health problems at the time and it took longer than she wanted to finish. but i am still criticizing it because it’s still a very unsatisfying ending 

-reading this time i felt EVEN MORE FIRMLY that gansey should’ve been glendower, and even went so far as to consider, is the text saying he’s glendower, it’s just not explicitly stated?? because of all the parallels??? of gansey being old and young at the same time, gansey + his own magicians, the parallel between glendower shoving that guy in a tree and gansey wanting to do the same to ronan over the pig, the timelessness of the things gansey loves, the Power of command in his voice, a resurrection in the first place  -and i was going to just say, yeah, it’s there, until i got to noah’s chapter again. -i think noah deserved at least one chapter per book (and maybe more during the raven king) and that would’ve made an already tight plot even tighter, especially in the raven king.  (-i was also thinking that if gansey was glendower then something else would’ve happened when they found him, no i still do not know what) 

-big respect though to maggiestief saying glendower had to either be dead or evil and by that page number there wasn’t enough room for him to be evil -and big respect to the fact that, of course it’s not about teens finding a hero, it’s about teens becoming heroes (these thoughts also pulled from her twitter reread), finding glendower (alive) would never have been narratively good or satisfying  (-especially because it makes sense that glendower was dead all along -- if gwenllian was put to sleep wrong, who’s to say that glendower wasn’t, too?) -BUT, IT ALSO MAKES SENSE IF IT’S GANSEY  -but then you have like. the whole time it wasn’t even glendower. it was noah  -which is why i wanted more noah!!! to better lead to that!!!!!!! cause i feel like that kinda comes out of nowhere!!!!!  -the balance of the magical and the real is just off in the reveal i think  -man i don’t know. this is a lot of words. 

-i also appreciated adam’s character arc better this time, which was really nice. -but i still feel no great attachment to ronan and adam’s relationship  

-you know what. i want more mr. gray and maura -idk if i agree with him leaving henrietta. much like the previous paragraphs and my whole gripe with the raven king, it’s not terrible but i don’t think it’s done well, as well as it could’ve been, as well as the previous books  -also! more adam and persephone would’ve been good 

-i was rereading maggiestief’s tweets where she reread the books and i forget which thread this was in but she picked out one of the ‘character x says something that makes character y reevaluate every single interaction previously’ lines and she was like ‘that’s all these books are’ and i was like ‘YEAH MAGGIE. I FEEL LIKE I SEE THIS LINE EVERY SINGLE SECOND.’ and not necessarily in a good way  -sometimes you can reuse a line and it is a parallel or a connection. sometimes you are just reusing a line over and over. 

-she also mentions writing arguments from a point of, both characters are right, or think they’re right, or as right as they can be or something to that effect  -which i really like, and i absolutely 100% see in her writing  -and so i don’t know if this is just a me thing, because i have this obsessive need to backtrack through even the tiniest disagreements after the fact to calmly figure out where i’m coming from and acknowledge where the other person’s coming from, so while i like that every character comes from a place of ‘i’m right’ i feel like it leads to a lot of arguments left unresolved  -but i think that’s just me feeling like everybody should always talk everything out as much as possible so  -and like resolution doesn’t have to be a big dialogue acknowledgement  -but i still didn’t feel like it left a lot of room for these characters to really work towards change -they do change! but i wanted to see it more 

-oh hey so. did gansey successfully sell of monmouth? did ronan get a diploma anyway? 

-me: ‘thing’ is ultimately a vague, unspecific word and should be used sparingly in a narration, much like ‘interesting’  maggiestief: /flinging out ‘thing’ all the time me: you know what, though???? sure, good for her 

-i like henry. but he’s written terribly, the poor guy comes OUT OF NOWHERE too and should’ve shown up earlier more than his two times in blue lily lily blue, and adam and ronan’s super casual racism towards him is like..................................................................mostly unchallenged and really unnecessary  -if a racist comment is going to remain unchecked and unchallenged by the narrative and the characters, what does it accomplish? -especially because it never ever shows up again or showed up before -and gansey just kind of scoffs it aside and blue doesn’t even really truly call it out which is like, the amount of other things gansey will call out???? the amount of stuff blue will call out??????? AND THEY JUST LET THAT GO?????? -so, again! it’s not necessary!! it does nothing!!! it just adds unchallenged racism that has no place!!!!!!!!!!!!

-also reading this time i felt like maggiestief went out of her way to just not say what race blue was  -that shouldn’t be a thing you just repeatedly dance around and never confirm for your main character 

-so my library still does not have the ebook for call down the hawk but i am vaguely considering buying it to read it but also....................i don’t know -i did read the first eight chapters because they were online and i’m like. Intrigued but also?????? Concerned. idk. idk

-looking at it from a distance i have the same concern with it that i do with king of scars.  -do i think dreamer trilogy is necessary in the way that it explores things that are set up in the raven cycle and have big potential consequences? yes. the hunt for the ‘greywaren’, kavinsky proving that there are other dreamers, trying to make sure a dreamed thing can still exist if something happens to the dreamer, the possibilities and limits of dreamers, ronan trying to dream another cabeswater, ronan’s fear about what’s real and what isn’t/what he dreamed and what he didn’t dream, and maggiestief clearly loving writing ronan and wanting to write more of him -do i think those things are executed well in the dreamer trilogy? from what i’ve read about it, maybe not????  -especially re: ronan and adam’s character arcs????? -which i feel like, stupid and bitchy being picky about. -change and recovery do not happen in straight lines. but i think this kind of cycles back to the way she writes arguments with like, is it too unresolved to the point that no change, either positive or negative, is happening?  -ugggg also makes me worry that i just wasn’t Reading it enough or thinking about it enough  -my additional concern is that maggiestief should’ve maybe had firmer rules for what can and can’t be taken out of a dream  (-yes i suppose that limiting the very nature of a dream goes against the power of ‘the dream’ so it makes sense for it to be limitless BUT i feel like especially the dreaming of people is gonna paint you into a corner if you’re not careful)  -but i am also BIG worried re: the character arcs.  -also where ronan’s character arc is after the raven king, do i think he would do the reveal in mr. impossible?? i...........do not know  -well i didn’t think so AND THEN I READ OPAL which i kind of enjoyed, with reservations, which is mostly back to ‘is no change happening’  (-i love that opal is like, ‘ronan’s inner child’ or whatever it was and i liked her more this time around but last year when i read the raven cycle i was like ‘but what’s the point of taking opal out cause they just kind of shuffle her around?’ now, what was the point of taking opal out if they’re gonna put her back??? and actually almost COMPLETELY IGNORE HER in the short story????? there was so much potential there for her and ronan and it didn’t happen...........) -nightwash kinda just happened too, huh.  (-in general ronan bringing his nightmares back with him is like. God Perfect) -but this all really takes me back to maybe there should’ve been limits on dreaming -also after reading the first eight chapters, i’m like -i 100% respect maggiestief for not wanting to rewrite the raven cycle and not wanting to just write about henrietta, i absolutely do -but it feels so strange to read about ronan and adam and not read about gansey and blue as well?  -which isn’t TERRIBLE, but.  -but when i see like, single lines from or little sections i’m like ‘oh that looks like a good time’ because i do like the way maggiestief writes because a great deal of it is so rhythmically poetic and beautiful, but so is a great deal of the raven king while still being disappointing.  -i feel like i’m just gonna feel about it like how i feel about the raven king honestly -and well king of scars.......

-ANYWAY -might read it. might not. still going back and forth on this a lot. i was leaning towards, i’m gonna do it, but now i’m leaning more towards, i don’t want to, i want to keep the image of these characters where i like them, and right now i am aggressively combing through fanfic because i care a great deal about post-raven king trauma discussion and that’s mostly what i want at the current time

[feral-creep]

I'm going to need 2,5,9,11, and 12 for save scum please and thank you.

YAY THANKS!

2. which scene was written first

i have no idea lmao i have the *worst* memory. (is that ironic? hm) maybe the chat logs?  i do remember writing chapter “a friend” before i finished chapter 4

5. hardest to write?

all of the scenes where readerchan is UNABLE TO MAKE EYE CONTACT i had to be so cognizant of whomst is wherest in space and time while reiterating not TOO much that she cannot see shit.

like half the time i can't describe any facial expressions b/c she has no way of seeing people's fucking faces. i got so annoyed with it that i wrote in spcial contacts. i wonder how obvious that is b/c i decided to make looking at the world in the eyes a Theme

also the conversation with shig where they chat across from each other and then he flips out about not wanting to change her name, that shit was completely all over the place for like two weeks. it still kind of is

writing tomura and readerchan interacting semi-peacefully is really hard for me actually. i find it so much easier when they’re plotting against each other or have some level of distance

9. alternate versions?

YES actually i scrapped three whole chapters where readerchan willingly drinks quirk suppressant on her first night and shig is all weird and standoffish. idk it just wasn’t working for the dynamic i wanted

there was a plotline i dropped entirely where she gets a job at the bar that they eventually meet at and it was way too convoluted and annoying so i scrapped it entirely.

the first version of the kidnapping scene was super different—i had shiggy threatening her overtly and it just wasn't working. it didn't make sense for him to show his hand that early

the amount of times i have written out scenes where MC thinks about peeing after sex because i'm in Realistic Body Functions Mode and then deleted them because It Doesn't Matter No One Cares It's Fucking Fanfiction is.... over 9000 lmao. i was not joking when i said this is an AU where UTIs do not exist

11. what do you like best about this fic?

i love it when i’m able to write “recursively,” i.e. bringing up a plot thread in chapter 4 that i don't draw a ton of attention to and then using it 10 chapters later to fuck shit up. i am a heavy, heavy outliner and my work suffers if i don’t outline shit. foreshadowing rules esp if the audience doesn’t know it’s foreshadowing

i am really proud of 'a friend' still, the way mc lies to rinko so she doesn't have to have the uncomfortable conversation that "yeah i can erase memories but only in a way that is not in any way helpful to me or you.  you asked me that before, and i tried to help, and it was actually mad traumatic and the second worst thing to happen to me, ever"

i tried to write ‘a friend’ in a way that would have a specific rhythm when spoken and i think i succeeded?

i also love when i get to write in tomura's POV. that scene where he's watching the security cam footage i ended up writing in like 30 minutes and it turned out better than shit i spent HOURS and HOURS on

12. what do you like least about this fic?

occasionally i tend to overexplain shit that genuinely does not. need. explaining. like should i mention kurogiri replacing that table shiggy destroyed in chapter... 15? i don't remember!! i still don't know if i like the idea of tomura wanting to give her a new name or not; it feels convoluted to me still

sometimes i think there isn't enough tomura b/c that's what the audience is Here For

i also think in a certain light, when i reread older chapters, it probably seems like i ship MC and rinko way more than i ship tomura and MC lmfao

the save scumming sessions probably could be written better tbh. i should prob write one from tomura's perspective since lethe can't actually perceive anything about the save scum target until she looks up.

it’s also v unfortunate that the fic doesn’t *seem* like it’s going anywhere until there’s a big payoff in chapter 10. i wrote it that way intentionally, so tomura was circling and circling and circling until BAM but i imagine that a lot of readers are like “wtf is this” before they get to chapter 10

[silverbastardgoldenfool]

Realm of the Quarantine Reread End-of-Book Questionnaire: Royal Assassin

Any differences between your first/previous reading experience and this one?

Not as stark a difference as with Assassin’s Apprentice, but definitely still there. Apart from all the obvious stuff, like feeling much more attached to the characters already and picking up more details, I think the biggest change was a complete lack of patience for the teen romance drama lol. There was a decent period where I was feeling quite frustrated with it. Not that I loved it the first time round, but back then I had a very different view of how it fit into the story. I saw it as teaching Fitz a depressing lesson of what it really means to be a royal bastard and a king’s man. Fitz’s literal need (for all he knows he would have been killed if not for his deal with Shrewd) and sense of duty to put his loyalty to his king and country first creates a relationship that is toxic, turbulent and built on lies. And teenage horniness masquerading as love. I saw all that the first time and thought it was just something he had to go through. Now I know it’s something he never really goes through but rather grips onto, romanticises and ultimately goes back to. I know the point of that is meant to be that he finally gets to have something for himself, but why it had to be Molly specifically??? I have very few qualms with Robin’s writing choices overall, but why she chose to write their relationship this way if they really are meant to be is beyond me, especially when so many of her other romances are written so well - it feels like it can’t possibly be unintentional. For most of this book they’re either fighting or fucking and honey! That ain’t love! Hell, Fitz all but sees her as just another demand on his time as the book goes on. But he can’t let her go because she’s the one thing he can point to that makes him feel normal. Not happy, not cherished, not safe. Normal. She’s simply a refuge from his real life. He literally says to Chade “I need her.” I find that so telling, man. It’s not really about her, which is a shame because Molly is great. They’re just really not good for each other.

So yeah. It’s just kind of trying to read all the Fitz/Molly stuff when you know and don’t like what it ultimately culminates in. At the same time… Bee… So I will always be conflicted lol. I just can’t separate the events of Royal Assassin from the furious disappointment I felt when I finished Fool’s Fate. Perhaps I’ll have a new Fool’s Fate experience this time that will make the next re-read a bit easier in regards to Fitz and Molly? But I won’t bet on it lol.

Anyway. It’s not as if I haven’t already said just about everything there possibly is to say about Fitz and Molly yet I also feel like I could go on about it forever. Luckily this is kind of as bad as it gets in terms of how much “screen time” they actually get (apart from Fool’s Assassin maybe? But they don’t bother me too much in that) so yay! I made it! And hopefully it’ll be a good few books before y’all have to endure my ranting about it again :)) Also hopefully this doesn’t give the impression that this read was more bad than good? It was mostly just a particular angsty chunk before they properly get together that was a bit of a slog to get through, but overall I really loved reading this book again and got a lot out of it.

Something you can’t believe you forgot

That Molly punches Fitz in the face hard enough that he bleeds and that Fitz fully intended to punch the Fool for asking if Molly was preggo before seeing he had already been beaten. I pretend I do not see it.

Favourite character introduction moments/scenes

Omfg I was just about to say “huh we didn’t really get any major character intros in this book” bitch Nighteyes???? But in my defence I just. Cannot process the fact that Nighteyes is only really in 3 of 16 books he just feels omnipresent to me BUT his introduction is most definitely iconique and god I love him and he made me cry eight thousand times!

Favourite character arcs

Speaking of Nighteyes: what a glow up. He goes from angry, scared, untrusting little bb to……. Nighteyes. Like. How does one even describe the kind of person Nighteyes becomes. He’s just Nighteyes and I love him with all my fuckin heart!! He is Fitz’s constant… He is wise… He is silly… a comedic genius…… a big, open, unconditional heart. Incomparable. I can’t believe I’ve seen ppl saying they dislike/d Nighteyes……. Honey…… it’s called taste xx

Favourite quote/s

Again no tabs so it’s a bit harder to keep track but there were a few that stuck out enough to copy down. There are a lot of iconic quotes in this book that get shared a lot so I only bothered with ones I didn’t remember.

- “I wince to think of the price willingly paid for loving me.”

- “My soft, clean bed beckoned, like a soft, clean tomorrow.” (mood)

- “I looked and saw they were both made of hungers, like containers made of emptiness.”

Favourite relationships

Kettricken/Verity obviously. I was shocked by how little time they actually have together being in love before Verity leaves??? Because all I remembered was how strong their love is. But the whole journey towards that love is what makes it stand out as an actual compelling story in its own right. This is definitely one of Robin’s greatest skills as a writer; giving the minor characters depth by giving them their own relationships that grow and change and have a life of their own outside of Fitz. It makes the world feel so much more alive.

Also Burrich/Fitz in this book continues to be bittersweet, but with a lot more sweet in there than usual! They fully start out this book as a team. Burrich calling Fitz “FitzChivalry” makes me fuckin emo and idk why even. Burrich does seem to start seeing Fitz a lot more as his own person in this book which changes their dynamic in some rly nice ways. The fact that towards the end of the book Burrich even uses the wit to help Fitz is enough to make me cry tbh - and writing this has made me realise that I’m officially past any uncomplicated good times between Burrich and Fitz y’all mind if I fuckin die real quick!!

Fitz/Verity is soy pure and beautiful. Fitz and the Fool is always, always compelling and complex and tender and perfectly mysterious. But overall you’d have to say Fitz/Nighteyes, hey? They are literally meant to be, in a way so straightforward and undeniable and beautifully simple that I never really know what to say about it. Little brother!!! :’) They literally make me cry all the frickin time lol rip!

Favourite setting

There aren’t that many to choose from in this book! Ima go with the skill river bc hey, Robin’s magic systems are so unique and beautiful and the fact that the skill is written as a kind of a place is really frickin cool and deserves a shoutout.

Favourite chapter

The final chapter (not the epilogue) ummm broke my heart but it is written so beautifully, oh my god, it’s like an out of body experience. I feel like this is kind of when RotE becomes RotE - the first time it really goes to that place that is so fitting yet so unexpected, so beautiful, so tragic, so awful, so visceral. Making use of the genre to really test the limits of humanity; to see how far you can bend a person without breaking them and then refusing to turn away from the consequences. Idk man!! I don’t know how to describe it without sounding like a pretentious dick but it really is that intense and strange and overwhelming for me. There is something in that moment, when Burrich pulls Fitz’s body out of the earth and Fitz/Nighteyes is recoiling from it and deeply terrified… Something about the enormity of the existential questions raised converging with the pinpoint specificity of it all being wrapped up in the story of a character that feels so real and who you care about so deeply… It’s almost written like a horror scene, but that’s not quite the feeling. It’s just the RotE feeling; there are multiple throughout all five series, and it’s what makes these books unlike any other.

Most loved character

Fitz, Nighteyes, the Fool all had my entire heart this book. The Fool is just so sad and pathetic and literally must be protected!! I think I’m kind of obsessed with Burrich? Also I think I almost forgot how much I love Kettricken? She’s a complete badass of course but she’s also got the biggest goddamn heart like…. Who said she was allowed to be such a beautiful person???

But god, everyone. I love them all.

Most hated character

What can I say? Regal is disgostang. Wall Ass a close second.

Raise your hand if you’ve been personally victimised by Robin Hobb (most heartbreaking and/or visceral moments)

Shall I list just a few? :)

- Burrich screaming at Fitz through the bars of his jail cell, horrible things you can’t help but feel are at least a little bit true

- Burrich sobbing over Fitz’s dead body repeating, “You aren’t dead, you aren’t dead.”

- Fitz going to Nighteyes before everything went down on the night of the coronation and just fuckin hugging him really tight

- Fitz trying desperately to leave his broken vessel behind but not quite being able to disown his body

- The Fool being beaten

- The Fool being beaten again

- The Fool sprawled and weeping across Shrewd’s dead body

- The Fool really believing for a moment that Fitz had betrayed him and killed Shrewd

- Fitz tending the Fool’s wounds………. bitch….

- Chade giving Fitz a chance to escape with them and Fitz going to kill Serene and Justin instead

- Idk why this is even that sad but Nighteyes saying the only person he loves is Fitz!

- The entire incident with the forged ones literally tearing apart a three year old girl, which I had completely blocked out until now :)

- The fact that Fitz continues to be reminded and traumatised by this incident for the remainder of the book beCAUSE HE IS A GOOD BOY. A VERY GOOD BOY WITH A VERY GOOD HEART.

- Fitz repelling at Nighteyes to try and force their bond broken

- LITTLE BROTHER

- WOLVES HAVE NO KINGS

- High off his face Fitz calling Patience “mother” no shut the fuck up!!!!

Details, observations, spoilery notes made with the benefit of the full picture

- I’ve been trying for ages to decipher when the Fool started falling for Fitz, and I think I’m officially putting my money on their last interaction in AA. “I wish I had a place that was as much me as that place is you.” I mean. If someone said that to me… I’m not a slut but who knows, ya know? (I know this is more a note for the last book but I thought of it while reading this book. So shh.)

- It’s so clear to see this time how much Fitz’s sense of self and politics are affected by his time in the Mountains. He obviously feels much more inclined to their way of thinking about royalty and sacrifice and equality and returns to Buckkeep with a self-respect he’s never really had before. Weird how being among people who don’t just think of you as The Bastard will do that.

- It’s no wonder Fitz becomes so fixated on Molly; he literally has almost nothing else to occupy him and no companionship when she suddenly shows up

- It’s gross that he spies on her, obviously, but you can’t not take into account the fact that Chade has been teaching him since he was ten that this is justifiable behaviour; a reasonable way to gather information and get what you want. Fitz’s lack of social awareness goes further than him just being a little awkward; he has literally been trained to believe the only thing wrong with stalking would be getting caught.

- I’ve seen a few people talk about the fact that Regal isn’t appropriately punished as if it’s bad writing and like, while it is frustrating, it is supposed to be frustrating - it is not a plot hole. It made sense to me the first time I read it and it was even more obvious this time; Regal has the loyalty of the inland duchies. If he were to be publicly punished those dukes would rally behind him and raise hell, and Regal would no longer need to play the part of the dutiful prince. Even if Regal died a “natural” death - something I can’t see Shrewd or Verity orchestrating anyway - the inland dukes would feel that they no longer have a Farseer on their side and may, again, raise hell. It’s a delicate balance that would be outrageously difficult not to topple if you removed Regal from the equation. There is a lot more to it than I’ll bother writing here but yeah. I don’t really know how people can read this book and think that Regal retaining his life and position is some sort of lazy plot contrivance. It was all set up in the first book dude.

- Fitz and Nighteyes meeting in this book is the perfect metaphor for our need for connection versus the fear of inevitable loss. Fitz’s experience tells him that entering into a bond with an animal can only end in pain, yet he can’t resist it. In real life this is especially true with humans and our animal companions, since they almost always have a shorter lifespan than us; signing up to love them is signing up to lose them. But the same is also true of our relationships with other humans. And like Fitz, we have all had our fair share of loss and pain. We all have our reasons to be afraid of the connection we naturally crave. Sometimes we give in to the fear to the point of holding ourselves back from it entirely. That’s where Fitz is at when he meets Nighteyes. But what’s so beautiful about their arc as a metaphor is that it suggests that these connections, if we submit to them, are what keep our vital spark alive. Even when Nighteyes dies later in the series, the sentiment always remains, essentially, “It’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.” Ya boi is projecting bc it’s hard to be vulnerable and make friends as an adult, but I think the observation stands. Love and connection and vulnerability are key threads that run throughout all of Fitz’s story, but in this book it is best represented through him and Nighteyes.

- “I hoped I would not become too adept at lying to myself.” Honey, you got a big storm comin.

- Very inch resting (gay) that Fitz finds it hard to meet the Fool’s eyes. I know almost everyone does bc his eyes are weird, but I reserve the right to reach and I will absolutely NOT be accepting criticism.

- I find it interesting that Fitz says Kettricken’s wit is not strong just because she doesn’t use it exactly the way he does

- I know it’s not meant to be funny but……. The way Fitz described losing his virginity had me literally laughing out loud

- Fitz was really like “okay i better go break my bond with Nighteyes” just cos he and Molly fucked. Teenagers don’t deserve rights.

- You know what? I really, really appreciate how fucking weird these books are lol. What other author would use their magic system to have their characters accidentally intruding on each other’s awkward sex stuff? Okay, maybe a few, but they would do it to be like, edgy and sexy. Robin Hobb just does it to make you cringe so hard you lose several years off of your life.

- But seriously, even apart from the cringe stuff, these books get so strange and out there and like! That’s what magic is for! 

- Bruh. When Fitz is like “omg poor Verity…. He’ll never have what i have with Molly” I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone encapsulate the self-important delusion of teen romance so perfectly lol. Wow.

- Okay some Fitz/Fool stuff that made me lose my tiny mind. Sorry.

- Fitz literally said about the Fool “he burned too brightly” I WILL DIE.

- Fitz is always like, irritated by the Fool… yet positively delighted by his presence at the same time…… okay bitch

- Inch resting how Fitz has always been uncomfortable with the Fool getting serious. I don’t quite know how to put my thoughts on this into words so like. I’ll just put it there. Make of it what you will.

- “Sit on my clothes chest and take your shirt off…” i stopped fucking breathing noah fence

- “I ran my fingers lightly down the line of his jaw, and around his eye socket. At least no bone seemed damaged. ‘Who did this to you?’ I asked him.” my GOD this is literally textbook gay/romance. It hurts me. It physically hurts me.

- Straight from my notes: “I can’t even focus on reading this bc it’s the first time they are tending each other’s wounds and I am a homosexual!” and “the gays are quaking!! (it’s me I’m the gays)

- Okay wow! I think that’s it! Hello if you made it this far! Hope this was remotely coherent and I’m always keen to hear your thoughts on my thoughts :)

Anyone doing a reread feel free to fill this out! You don’t have to use the tag :)