#nathaniel bartimaeus trilogy

[bblueraven-and-fandoms14]

Re-reading Bartimeus Triology and actually dying inside. Guys I'm on chapter 5 of AoS and I'm going to kill everybody in the room and then myself because Nathaniel did not DESERVE THIS. OUGH. OH. UNDERWOOD WHEN I CATCH YOU!!!!!

[nadiajustbe]

It might be a little weird, but I spent WEEKS on it, so I can. Credits: @pompomoo

[jutenium]

"You're our hero", that's what Mr. Devereaux said

Oh, little naive Natty boy... Haha and little naive Mr. Devereaux too. They have this common foolish...ness. Devereaux is a bad role model for kids. Especially for this one.

[nadiajustbe]

I'm sorry to come to you with a post from 2018, but there is not enough content on BartNat, and I have too many ideas, and recently this little comic of yours came to my mind, so I was interested in analyzing the situation more.

Because the situation becomes even more interesting when we think about Bartimaeus' reaction.

Because he has something of his own.

You see, even this concept of private property is alien to spirits.

They don't have their own form and body, they only take the form of what already exists on earth. Their name was given to them by magicians; elsewhere, there is no such thing as a name. And even if we are talking about the Other Place, there they are one collective mass, everything is whole and united, there is no concept of individuality, there is no word "I".

They have, perhaps, a true form, but this is such a strange and vague concept that has no place in any of the worlds that it is impossible to say for sure. Hell, even the world they so often find themselves in is not theirs.

So for Bartimaeus, on earth for sure, it is more like a methodology, a memorized text and the use of logic and interpretation than his own experience.

Аnd then he is simply given a thing in his hands and told, "This is yours."

It's really his.

This stupidly beautiful thing belongs to him and no one else, making him feel as if "Bartimaeus" is written on the gold with invisible ink.

He never thought he could really have anything. And yet, the golden jewelry is in his hands, and Nathaniel is standing in front of him, clearly not fully understanding what he has just done.

“This is for you,” said Nathaniel. He held out an object, thrusting it at Bartimaeus.

It was a necklace. It was gold, very ornate, with a blue-green stone set in the middle. It was, Bartimaeus had to admit, very pretty. 

“What do you want me to do with it?” he asked. Nathaniel frowned. 

“It’s yours,” he said. “A gift. I saw it and thought of you, and- nevermind. You’re right; it’s stupid. Not really much point if you have to leave it here when you leave. I’ll just-”

“Too late. You can’t take it back now.” And Bartimaeus yanked it out of his hands. He cradled it like a baby bird, running his fingers over the delicate pieces. “Huh,” he said. “I’ve never owned anything before.”

“Do you like it?” Nathaniel looked nervous.

“I do. Very stylish.” There was a pause as he struggled with the next words. “Thank you.”

Nathaniel beamed. “I told you I have good taste, sometimes.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far.”

[lejay-the-impossible]

The memory of Ptolemy

[winter-wise]

Nathaniel aged 12:

[silverfeatheredserpent]

I hope the translator will help me tell this incredible love story of the Bartimaeus Trilogy❤

This summer, I accidentally found out that the artist of one of my favorite Trilogy @oneeyedmagi artworks lives with me in the same country. It took me a long time to decide to write to her, and that's what happened.

We started chatting - there were a lot of conversations, jokes and ideas to do something interesting for the fendom of the Bartimaeus Trilogy. She was very supportive of me in cosplay, and I even decided to register on Tumblr to show it.

The drawings and drawings by other authors, as well as your kind words, inspired me so much that I invited her to come to me and do Nathaniel's cosplay.

And it happened.

Jesus, I still don't believe that someone traveled 800 miles for cosplay. We took incredibly cool photos and videos. 800 MILES!!!

Damn, just look at this!

@jonathanstroud - look HOW Much We Love the Bartimaeus Trilogy❤❤❤

[alienscribed]

is there still a bartimaeus fandom? i hope there is ✨

(johnny-boy is obviously bartimaeus' spin of making up a silly nickname for john mandrake 😉)

[gwinverarrouz]

Just finished rereading the first Bartimaeus book and yeah, yeah, I can see why I loved these books so much as a child :>

I feel like these illustrations aren't 100% faithful to the source material but maybe they're how Bart wished things happened, you know??

[scaraletandbrowned]

I find it funny how everyone in the fandom without fail consistently makes Amulet of Samarkand Nathaniel smaller than Bartimaeus when he’s in Ptolemy’s form even thought it’s explicitly stated by Bart that he’s the exact same height as 14 year old Ptolemy.

It’s even funnier with how much Nat’s described as scrawny and small by Bartimaeus with this added information, considering they’re literally the same size in the moment 😭😭

^^ Amulet of Samarkand

And in Golem’s Eye it says that Nathaniel’s a head taller, meaning that he’s like a head taller than Ptolemy/Bartimaeus at 14. It’s okay though, Bartimaeus has a tall enough personality to pretend lmfao

[nathaniel-underwood-is-an-intj]

Looong rant about chapter 16 Ptolemy's Gate and how being passive can add to the cycle of ab*se.

oof so I just read when Nat goes to see Ms Lutyens and I can't help but be absolutely furious at her??

I know that's maybe a little bit unfair given she's frightened of him as a magician and is obviously angry when she finds out the department he's responsible for, but honestly it kinda brings up the problem with inadvertent bystanders to child ab*se in my mind.

And I'm definitely not blaming her solely for who Nat becomes but it makes me think of all those people in huge child ab*se cases who give interviews to press about all the things they noticed that were wrong but they just...never do anything?

She stood up for him against Lovelace, and when Nat thanked her- "I wanted to say that I know you were trying to save me, and-"

''Yes, and I'm sorry I didn't" Like girl be for real did you really think that alone would undo the years of indoctrination and abuse he's already suffered and prevent years worth of the same in the years to come? And she won't take responsibility - "My job is with children, not the adults they become" and again while it seems harsh to blame her for who Nat becomes, it's so much easier to pass the blame to people who are more directly responsible rather than acknowledging you also play a part.

I think it hurts so much more because it's her specifically- Nat goes to her in sheer desperation, it almost seems like a goodbye- he wants to thank her, tries to set her up in a job that will pay well and struggles to communicate he's trying to help. At this point he thinks Bartimaeus has been summoned by another magician and his birth name will be revealed. He's sure he's about to die and if not he'll be stood on trial and lose everything.

He goes to her because she represents the peaceful moments from his childhood when he got away from his master. He's scared and feeling lost and really it's call for help; but he doesn't ask for anything he just wants to make her feel proud of him- he's looking for that validation that he's been chasing since childhood.

And that shows he still does have that little bit of childhood innocence in him; he thinks she will be proud, thinks she'll see him as the same little boy in the garden gazing up at his teacher in adoration. He can't quite grasp why she's separated the man stood before her from that little boy. Because in that moment the child inside Nathaniel is seeking comfort AND THAT'S WHY it makes me so angry. She's completely given up on him when he's at his lowest ebb, because she doesn't want to be associated with the magician he's become. As if it isn't a massive step in the right direction that he saught her out in the first place- what other magican would bother? I wonder if that's why she reacted so strongly to seeing him again? Before that moment she could go about her life wondering if /pretending her attempt to protect him was enough, and now she realises it wasn't, of course it wasn't, and the image she had of Nathaniel's childhood innocence is completely ruined in her mind.

Or was her contempt for him even grater than Nat realised? She was naturally disgusted by the rhetoric he'd started to repeat from a young age, and gently tried to correct him although she was clearly angry- was she just resigned to the fact that there is little else she could do to change his future? I always thought- couldn't she have looked for him? The Underwood house fire was in the papers and they mentioned the apprentice was being searched for. Did she ever worry about him? Surely something must have been in the papers since- an announcement of new ministers, ANYTHING! Look at how much research Kitty did to find out about Bartimaeus and Ptolemy. I just don't think Rosanna Lutyens cared enough, realistically Nathaniel wasn't hard to find- but he was no longer her responsibility so she could turn a blind eye.

And sadly it's not just her- I know everyone loves Martha Underwood including Nat; but I think her submissiveness to her husband has a negative effect on Nathaniel as well. In AOS when Nat is locked in his room for ages after setting the mites loose, and is forbidden to have any contact with anyone and she won't talk with him. I know she's been told by Mr. Underwood she can't, but it still boils my blood. She's an adult and going along with ignoring Nathaniel because her husband told her to...I can't even begin to imagine the psychological damage that would do to a 10 year old child. (It could be argued she's frightened of the consequences if her husband finds out she's disobeyed him which is fair, he could always be watching through magic- but this is Arthur Underwood we're talking about. He's lazy, oblivious and weak I doubt he'd expend all that energy each day to check up on her.)

And It's even more painful that Nathaniel is often described as fiercely loyal to her and I think to Ms Lutyens as well- he doesn't expect to be treated well by Arthur Underwood but he loved Mrs Underwood and Ms Lutyens so much he started to view them through a rose-coloured lense. He never feels betrayed by either of them, even though they absolutely let him down, because the pedestal he's put them on is too high AND THAT ABSOLUTELY DESTROYS ME.

Would things with Nathaniel have been any different if Mrs Underwood hadn't died? I don't really think so. Do you think she'd see Nathaniel's temper at 14 years old and be reminded of Arthur Underwood? He was awful, absolutely awful to Nat and to her; but he was under so much stress in an underfunded departement, where pressure was being put on him by superiors to accomplish far more than they knew him to be capable of, and he took it out on the easiest target. Nathaniel ends up in exactly the same place and he starts to take it out on the only person around him- Bartimaeus. Would he snap at Mrs Underwood all the time if she were still there? Because he's learnt that behaviour from his father figure, and subconsciously learnt from his mother figure that she'll put up with it. He learnt from the woman he loved so deeply, that if you don't resist, people will walk all over you. So you have to maintain control even if it ends up hurting people you care about because no one will step in to stop the suffering no matter how much you love them, no matter how much you want them too.

It's easy to blame Arthur Underwood and Simon Lovelace and the magicians that actively hurt Nathaniel but I just feel like it's a bit disingenuous not to acknowledge the role of those doing passive harm. It's really mean to say it but even Bartimaeus plays a role- he knows Nat is clinging on to him because he can't 'bring himself to break this last connection' (to his childhood) but instead of bringing it up properly he 'taunts' Nathaniel- a boy who has been taunted for his weakness by his master for years. And even in AOS when Nathaniel tells Bartimaeus he was beaten for the mites incident Bart just kinda shrugs it off. Like I get it, why should Bartimaeus do anything, he's suffered way worse due to the system so he doesn't owe Nat anything right? But from Nat's point of view this is the first and only time he's mentioned to anyone what has happened to him and nothing changes. It's like another lesson learnt: telling someone about it doesn't help. Another nail in the coffin.

And I like all these characters, I feel bad for them. They're all victims of the system, I think the chapter with Ms Lutyens is just the straw that broke the camel's back for me. All of those little opportunities that are insignificant to the narrative over all; the commoners have it worse, Nathaniel is in a privileged position in society, exerting control over others. He's very morally grey, crossing over into objectively bad person territory but I love him with my whole heart and all of those insignificant moments would have been massive to him whether he was conscious of it or not.

And it goes all the way back to the beginning with Nat's parents giving him up to the magicians at 5 years old. I can't get the image of that little boy sat crying all alone in the government building. And he's not going somewhere safer, or somewhere he'll be happier and more loved. Giving your child over to a total stranger, oh he'll be totally fine won't he? He'll grow up to be a magician and far richer than you'll ever be, he'll be happy and comfortable and be grateful he got to grow up in luxury. There's no way a stranger you've never met, who the majority of society is terrified of would ever hurt a vulnerable little kid right? And if they do? Well you aren't responsible anymore, how could you know? What could you possibly do against the magician taking care of him?

Every little thing is another grain of sand tipping the scale. Did anyone else have to analyse An Inspector Calls in school? It feels like that to me- those BIG moments and all the little moments in between that add onto the pile.

And it goes on to cause problems in wider society too- ab*se is so normalised to the magicians, they casually ask Underwood if he hits Nathaniel like it's nothing. Because to them it is nothing, they've all grown up in the same circumstances and are repeating what they've learnt as children. I can't help but feel a little sorry for them all, especially when they aren't looked at through the black and white lense of 'argh these people are the evil arseholes look at how they treat everyone around them, screw these guys.' When we see those little glimpses of humanity like Simon's anxiety with the amulet; looking to his master and father figure Schyler for reassurance, and what's sad is that Nat is "reminded...of his own master's cold impatience" It's clear Simon looks up to his master, wants to make him proud and loves him. But it seems like Schyler has just trained Simon up so he can get power through him later on. I love the little hints of similarities between Simon and Nathaniel; the anxious mannerisms like fiddling with his hair that Nathaniel starts to develop, the way their master's talk to them. Even though they're actively working against each other in AOS and Simon is placed firmly in the baddies category and Nat in the goodies category at this point in the series; these things always hinted to me they had similar childhoods, how was Simon treated? When he had the imp beat Nat into unconsciousness, was it because he'd had the same punishment used against him? Did he know the magicians in the room would do nothing to stop him because no one stopped it from happening to him? Did he ever have a teacher stand up for him only for it to change nothing in the end because all the negative influences were so much stronger? Is the reason he loves Schyler like a dad because he's almost developed Stockholm syndrome? It looks like love because he's never known anything else.

And Arthur Underwood- who doesn't think his upbringing, and being taken away from his family ever did him any harm- doesn't realise the harm done is that he doesn't even know another way of raising Nathaniel, because he was never shown another way. His childhood may also have been filled with people who hurt him and the people that didn't do enough to intervene.

There are so many psychology studies that show children copy everything they see the adults in their life doing. Nathaniel copies the magicians behaviour towards spirits and on a subconscious level I think he copies all the submissive people in his life. How many times does he end up upset and frustrated with the fact he seems to be going nowhere and how many times does he just hope things will be different rather than taking postive action.

I dislike the actions the magicians end up taking but I also find them fascinating to analyse. I tend to prefer villains in media because they're usually slightly more complex individuals and I love to think about how they ended up that way. They can all be seen as victims of their circumstances in a way, despite all the power and privilege they have had terrible and traumatic childhoods, and if the commoners had no valuable worldy possessions at least they had a sense of togetherness; of love and understanding and selflessness. I wonder if the magicians hated them at least partly because of that. Because out in the sea of faces of the commoners talking about nothing important, doing nothing great and noble- could be the parents that abandoned them. And when your life is on the line daily because of working with spirits, and your colleagues want to stab you in the back, sometimes not being responsible for anything important looks good. But you can't leave your life as a magician, it would be too difficult; you have nowhere to go, no real friends, no one who really loves you. So it's better to stay and be a submissive bystander in your own life because it's so much easier.

Doing nothing is doing something- being passive can be just as harmful.

[bblueraven-and-fandoms14]

I'm on PG for my re-read of the Bartimaeus trilogy and I'm going to end it all!!!! I'm ending it all ARAGAHHAHSJSJD IM ENDING IT ALL. AND THE WORLD ALONG WITH ME. I GOT TO THE MS. LUTYENS SCENE. AND I CRIED. AGAIN. This is the third time I read that scene I KNOW what's coming but I can't I can't I can't I can't. I could talk for HOURS about that scene I could talk for HOURS. There is so so SO much about Nathaniel's character in that singular scene. Stroud put so much in there. I could write an entire essay on Nathaniel Underwood with that single scene alone. It makes me so fucking SAD. FUCK. FUCK. IM SO SAD FOR HIM 😭😞😞😞😞😞 IM SO SAD FOR HIM. HE WAS JUST A KID 💔💔💔💔💔 HE'S STILL JUST A *KID* IM WLKWJWJD. I always, always physically cry with this scene it always gets me always always ALWAYS. This scene makes me fall apart and cry more then the death scene like I really can't. I'm. God. God. I'm so distraught.

[nadiajustbe]

Bartimeus thinks that looking at the grave shouldn't be so hard. After all, it is Nathaniel's grave. The man who imprisoned him, the man who appropriated him, the man who reduced him to a puddle of slime. A man whose death he should have been truly happy about.

And, in any case, it's just a stone, isn't it? A lump of dirt with no soul and no voice. They are all the same: a man, a woman, a moth, a stone pedestal... Only humans give these stones abbreviated meanings, only humans see something special in them, only humans care about each of their bricks. Only they believe that they have the power to bring the inanimate to life.

Bartimaeus was not a human being.

And yet he cannot force himself to remain silent. He throws a few jokes at the grave, comments on its "neglected" appearance, its invariably terrible fashion sense, recalls a few old adventures and the important role he played in them.

"You know, if it weren't me, you would have died... earlier."

He calls the pile of stones an idiot, a jerk, a short-sighted fool...

He even asks himself the question "why?" but does not dare to ask it out loud. Because he won't get an answer anyway, will he?

He looks at the white, chalk-scribbled inscription: "Hero of London''. And he smiles - this is an absolute lie. Everything on this stupid piece of stone and porcelain is a lie, from the name of the deceased to the numerous inscriptions about his heroism.

In reality, he was just a small, insecure, stupid, treacherous boy. And he died accordingly.

None of this makes sense. Absolutely all this action makes no sense. In the end, Nathaniel was just a typical master.

And he will never know that Bartimaeus was here. No one will.

Not even if thousands of Empires fall to the ground and this cemetery will be reduced to rubble.

Because only humans can be sentimental enough to visit graves.

[fiasvsesvit]

I just noticed that every Jonathan Stroud's main character has a matching initial with him

- lucy Joan carlyle

- John mandrake

- scarlett Josephine mccain

that's so wholesome

[rosie-tyler]

[lejay-the-impossible]

𝑵𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒆𝒍...

𝑺𝒂𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒐 𝒕𝒐 𝑲𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒆.

A perfect ending that manages to break me every time. I recently finished my Bartimaeus reread and that day I decided to go somewhere nice and quiet. I went to a park near the sea, found myself a perfect tree to climb on, brought my backpack with disgusting bitter tea and some cookies to make it more bearable and proceeded with reading. I think I was on that tree for about three hours. When the ending finally hit I cried a little bit and felt a small emptiness but also a grand satisfaction.

Now it's time to reread Ring of Solomon to finish off the sequence and leave Bartimaeus on a nice humorous note.