#ranger reads

[sweetheartsoldier]

“Some people read with their feet,” is a quote that’s been relevant since the day I heard it (and before that, to be so honest), and something else that’s rattling around in my brain is some post (I’ve got no hope of finding the original as I can’t even recall what website I saw it on) saying something along the lines of “it tracks that the Pevensies are British and that the moment they found themselves in an unfamiliar place they declared themselves its royal family.”

If you want to talk about colonialism, talk about colonialism, but it does frustrate me to see a point missed so thoroughly. I hate to see it missed and I love this particular aspect of the series, so I’m going to take a moment to talk about it.

The Pevensies did not declare themselves royalty. Becoming kings and queens was not their idea. This was an expectation that the people of Narnia had for them, and when the kids were informed of this expectation, they found it daunting, to say the least.

This theme recurs almost beat-for-beat with Caspian, who is very openly unsure of himself and his ability to rule Narnia. It evolves with Eustace, who begins his arc unable to even consider the possibility of himself doing something important for Narnia or vice versa. It returns with Jill, who gets angry at being saddled with a mission that feels altogether too big for her.

The premise that keeps coming up throughout the series is this concept of worthiness and capability. The takeaway is not that some people are made superior or that people can make themselves superior. The takeaway is that you will feel inferior. In fact, if you feel superior, you are probably delusional: a danger to yourself and others. You will feel inferior, but that is neither a sentence to accomplish only little in life, nor an excuse for only accomplishing little in life. You will be afraid and insecure and uncertain and embarrassed, but you can and must do great things nonetheless. We are, all of us, made for greatness.

[dawnstarranger]

So I finally pulled The Briar King by Greg Keyes off my shelf this past month and I finished it a few days ago. I think it was published in 2002? I’m clearly late to the party lol

I liked it enough to finish it, maybe even enough to read the next book, but I can’t say it was my personal favorite.

Without giving too many spoilers:

I liked the combat scenes and a lot of the world building. It reads like high fantasy but it wasn’t overwhelmingly wordy or anything like that. I enjoyed the fact that all of the different characters were doing different things in different places and that we learn about the world piece by piece.

The biggest negative for me was the way the female characters are written. It’s one of those books (for me, anyway) where there’s not overt sexism necessarily, but there’s a decent amount of old fashioned gender stereotypes. Admittedly pretty par for the course in 2002. This honestly wouldn’t have been as big an issue for me if not for having picked up one of Keyes YA works a year ago and putting it down because the SA content was extremely off putting.

All in all, I’m willing to give the next book a shot. Anyone who reads a lot of historical-ish fantasy would probably enjoy it.

[shamrockthenerd]

“Blood Red Rangers…” I mutter to myself while tossing and turning in my sleep

Based on the fic “Blood Red Rangers” written by @mokkkki on AO3 :)

[celestelikestoread]

Random little Halt headcanon I had for you guys.

So we all know how in Ruins of Gorlan Will's first impression of Halt is that is is 'old, scary and might kill me' right?

Another well known fact is that if you do the math for this series (which I 100% recommend you don't and instead spend all of your time ignoring both the timeline and character's ages) that Halt can't be older than 35.

Well this got me thinking how on earth does he have salt and pepper hair while being 35? And while yes I do know of people who start greying in their early 20's because of genes and stuff but like that is to boring for my hyperactive brain.

What you may or may not know is that vitamin B12 affects hair greying and pigmentation (at least I think this is in no way a total fact) so what if Halt was just really deficient in vitamin B12?

I don't know how they would've figured this out in medieval times and with their limited knowledge of medicine and stuff but just roll with me here.

Being deficient in B12 also can lead to mood swings and chronic tiredness so i like to think that during his childhood in Dun Kilty Halt was just always grumpy and tired but then he met Pritchard and Crowley and they were like 'you do realise this is because of a vitamin deficiency right?'

Obviously they helped him get sorted out or whatever and I for the first time in his live he felt what it was like to not be extremely tired ALL THE TIME and it was the most comical thing ever! Like his whole face probably lit up and he was like "I feel alive!?"

I love the idea that this was a really popular campfire story for several years and also the story the renegade rangers told Gilan and Will when they first became apprentices mainly to explain that no, halt is not old just vitamin deficient.

It was a whole thing when Will became an apprentice because Gilan kept telling him that all of Halt's grey hairs were because Gilan stressed him out so much during his apprenticeship (Something he would've been VERY proud of were it true) but Crowley stepped in and told him the truth.

[feroluce]

Love how Hoyo is just as much on Boothill's dick as the rest of us. The Wardance crowd really is just the fandom fjkdlsajlksl

[turrondeluxe]

IDW MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS/ TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: HUMAN DESIGNS OF THE BROTHERS

[mudanonaito]

"What's this? It doesn't look like you're stronger than me. Then it won't do! You disappoint me!"

[meiinoe]

trying to make my way into a new fandom by posting full rendered fanart

[viveela]

The Princess has been kidnapped!

Drew this for a fic I've been tryna make for ages, it's finally seeing the light

[yo-yo-yoshiko]

Fun little wind downs. More like before!

[kindlythevoid]

I have read Fellowship of the Ring more times than I have cared to keep count and every time I read Boromir’s, well, possession for lack of a better word, I have read it in fear, in discomfort, in horror, indifferently.

This was, I think, the first time I read it in pity. I looked at all the plans Boromir was making, how he would save his beloved city, how obstinate he was in his belief that the men of Minas Tirith would not be corrupted when wielding the Ring against Sauron —and I felt sad. He’s waving his hands and hollering and part of him is desperate just for the Ring, of course he is, he’s been traveling beside it with no hope for months, but he’s also desperate for hope. He’s desperate for a chance to save his people, save his brother, save his city.

Moreover, every time he calls out the Elves or the Wizards, you have to remember that he doesn’t know them. All he knows is that he traveled almost a full year to get their advice and they send him on, in his eyes, a hopeless venture. The one hope they give him is Aragorn, who promises to return and help save Minas Tirith with him, but even that all changes once Gandalf dies. They come to Lothlorien and of course it’s a welcome break, but they cannot, or maybe in Boromir’s eyes will not, help his people. And once they leave, Aragorn assumes his role as leader of the Fellowship in Gandalf’s stead more permanently and suddenly even that one, brief, uncertain hope of his is gone. Aragorn will follow Frodo. And it’s almost certain that Frodo will not go to Minas Tirith.

So is it any wonder, really, that tired, desperate, hopeless Boromir, out of his realm, out of his depth, already hanging by a thread when he joins the Fellowship and having been gnawed on by the Ring for months upon months afterwards, finally snaps once it’s clear that he will have to return home empty-handed and almost certain that somewhere far away Sauron is capturing the Ring and killing the companions that he had bonded with? Of course part of the Ring is making him lust for power, but it’s also his only “reliable” (in his mind) source of hope left to save his city.

And so I read Boromir’s (intelligent and thought out, mind you) raving and I don’t feel scared for Frodo, not after reading it so many times and knowing what ultimately happens, but sorrow for Boromir.

[sweetheartsoldier]

Anyway, it’s not about the character being redeemable or irredeemable, it’s about whether the character takes the opportunities for redemption or passes them by.

[fave-fix]

hey guys do we realize that the main difference betwen how kai and midori developed is that kai was given the chance to learn what normal life and love and family was like by working with chidouins while midori was kept under asunaros thumb all his life. do we realize that just a few changes could have kai acting just as cruel and merciless as midori. do we realize that midori is a victim of asunaro too, and though that doesn't excuse his actions it does make them more tragic. do we realize this or are we all being serious when we say midori is the only character who isn't worth redemption.

[jade-of-mourning]

companion - for the ranger gathering 2024!

something about halt & crowley's friendship has profoundly ingrained itself in me in a way i'm not sure i could describe. like they were always meant to know one another in every universe, regardless of the manner of their relationship; it's a certain kind of inexplicable gravity they revolve within, or maybe just the potential of what never was — anemoia. ever since its release, tournament at gorlan has remained sort of my comfort flanagan work i suppose.

while i've technically been in the fandom for five years at this point and have a library of brotherband fanart, i have somehow not made RA fanart… so although i would have liked to spend more time on this like i'd pictured, i realized that i had not even started approximately three hours ago and cranked it out. one day i'll come back and make a better RA fanart that's more representative of how i feel about it, but until then, here's the one piece that i resolved to finish for this year's gathering.

[mkartinip]

And D, you're in the eye of the storm.

[cranberrykissel]

of Flanagan's chronical chronology mess-ups and all age inconsistencies it involves, I find Crowley and Halt's first meeting story the most hilarious

Crowley describing Halt as a intimidating dark man? Who's probably at least few years younger than Crowley.

And in this exact scene-

Halt: I hit your men with an arrow 😉😜 Morgarath: ... where Halt: at the inn 😁 Morgarath: I asked about the body part

And at the time he chooses to call himself Halt Halt deliberately, as a joke.

He's eighteen (18), guys.

They are all talking to a runaway emo-aligned teenage short king prince and go "oh he's SO intimidating" while he drinks his coffee black and sweetened.