#ronan lynch meta

[miseria-fortes-viros]

do u ever think about how niall lynch was a devilishly handsome son of a bitch who was impossible not to like, naturally commanded the attention of everyone in the room, told stories as easily as breathing, ruled over his own particular corner of the world, didn’t even seem real until you knew him, died facedown on a gravel driveway, and then do you ever think about gansey.

[ronanlynchdefender]

The political stances of The Raven Cycle characters are so fascinating to me. You got Blue over here who is very much a progressive activist in the making. She recognizes things like misogyny and is not afraid to call those things out even when it concerns her closest friends. Because of that, I definitely see her as the type of activist who would be in the front lines at protests whether that be at the Capitol, college campuses, at the border, or as is the case in the dreamer trilogy, tied to a tree. She is the type of person who demands change in our current system and would demand it loudly and through acts of protest or civil disobedience.

Then you have Adam who displays no strong desire to change the system and whose only desire is to rise up in that system. He wants to climb the social ladder and assimilate to those of higher social status which is partially why he envies Gansey so much in the beginning because Gansey was born into it. Adam still tries to do this in the dreamer trilogy by essentially pretending to be a Gansey-like figure while at Harvard despite hating it. Eventually, Adam gives up on trying to belong within this higher social class and "climbing the ladder" but then strangely enough becomes a fed, which means just integrating into another form of hierarchy and power structure. And I feel like a more interesting arc would've been rejecting being a part of these societal systems altogether.

Which I suppose now leads us to Ronan who is a literal anarchist. He actually rejects all societal systems and rules and it permeates every aspect of his life. But actually, I shouldn't say all because there is one societal institution which he does enjoy partaking in: religion. With the exception of his catholicism, he does not engage in any other societal institution: education, law, politics. He hates it, in fact, It is antithetical to his being which is what makes his characterization so perfect because of course a gay farmer god would hate oppressive rules and structures (except for religion). That's not even mentioning that he is a canonical ecoterrorist that cost the US government a billion dollars. But what is really interesting about his character (and where his and Blue's political stances differ) is that because he rejects these systems he has no interest or stake in changing them. He'd sooner tear down the system than try to reform it.

And then there’s Gansey who doesn't seem to engage in politics and would rather spend his days reading his little Welsh books and going on his fun adventures. Of course, he is able to do this largely because he has the privilege to not worry about politics or social class. It seems that Blue's influence changes this as they are both chaining themselves to trees in protest during the dreamer trilogy. Other than that, I don't really have a lot to say about Gansey and his politics. But I find it very interesting that Maggie has created this close-knit group of characters with such varying relationships to how they view politics and social structures. I tried to draw out a 2-axis grid to show their differences, but I don't know if it really works because I feel like Gansey kinda screws it up but nevertheless I like how they each represent different ends of a spectrum sort of.

[juvinadelgreko]

the lynch brothers & dog metaphors: why declan and ronan can’t stand each other

jordan looked at declan and said, “you remind me of a dog.”

kavinsky looked at ronan and called him gansey’s dog.

let me just. let me just—

here’s the thing. ronan and declan are both “leashed,” in a sense. but there’s a big difference in how, and it’s a defining point of their characters:

ronan, being very powerful and very traumatized, craves stability and guidance. his father, yanked away from him when he was very young, was supposed to be the person who helped him navigate his dreaming and the implications of it. what happened when that disappeared? ronan needed an anchor. enter gansey. enter adam. except, ronan chose them. he chose to follow these people he loves. he could’ve walked away at any time, as he had a chance to with kavinsky. he hated aglionby and teachers and dropped out as soon as he was allowed. that’s the kicker for ronan: he loves his anchor because he chooses it for himself and it keeps him safe.

declan, a non-magical person functioning as damage control in a magical family, is chained to an image of dullness, harmlessness. he didn’t choose this. he was forced into it by the consequences of his family’s actions. he’s unhappy because he didn’t choose this anchor himself, circumstance chose it for him. he wants to break free.

it’s why ronan and declan butt heads so much. declan hates that ronan accepts authority, but only on his own terms, not from declan. i think he’d be less pissed if ronan just said “fuck everyone no gods no masters” rather than “i’ll follow someone, just not you.” ronan knows this, knows declan hates that he can’t win ronan’s respect, and the fact that declan continues to beg for it, all while insisting ronan muzzle himself, makes ronan respect him even less.

so yeah, declan and ronan butt heads because they’re both dogs, except one of them is allowed outside and the other isn’t.

[cabeswaterdrowned]

Yes Ronan’s flirting technique would be dubious with anyone else but have to say he really does quite well with tailoring the flirting / wooing game for Adam specifically. Very correct call about taking him to the Barns so Adam can swoon over it and see Ronan in that space embodying the things about it he admires, and then he assigns him research and calls him smart because he saw how that worked on Adam when Gansey did that and also has freshly witnessed Adam’s teacher kink when it comes to his dad’s murderer. All I’m saying is he was taking notes on things that weren’t Latin.

[nibblette]

Does anyone have a reblog of the post with the PowerPoint about all the textual pre-BLLB evidence of Pynch’s mutual attraction? I can’t find it on this hellsite. It’s got all the bits like Ronan wanting to pick Adam’s scabs(?!?) and Adam going on about Ronan’s “black painted poetry” swearing.

[nyacromancey]

REREADING THE DREAM THIEVES AND???? margaret. this is unfair.

[seaemberthesecond]

Okay I'm going to try to articulate what made Greywaren fall so flat for me with the disclaimer that a) I'm sure many people, much more articulate than me have already explained this better than I ever could, and b) this is purely my reading of the text.

It - hmm. Ok.

A really long time ago, back before TRK came out, middle school me was trawling through mstief's Tumblr blog looking for Declan crumbs (I'm an OG you could say) and I came across this really interesting thing she said in response to some ask I've since forgotten. It was something about how Declan's function as a character in TRC was that of a stage-hand. Think of the series as a play, and between scenes when the lights go off, furniture gets rearranged and sets get moved and props get added and when the lights come back on the stage is transformed. Declan, she said, was one of the characters doing this furniture rearranging. He's moving things around in the dark, and while it might not be acknowledged in the play itself, the evidence is in front of us.

Declan's interiority is not a subject for TRC and is only hinted at through the acts of furniture-shifting. But how many of us pay attention to that when it's easier to focus on what the characters themselves are saying on-stage?

All this to say, we spend all of TRC believing that Declan is a bad brother and a bad person because Ronan keeps telling us he's a bad person and a bad brother, even though when you look at the material evidence it suggests the exact opposite. (Wanting your brother to not flunk out of school is not actually the crime Ronan makes it out to be) (especially when Declan's s proven right immediately in CDTH lmao)

What I'm trying to get at is this: Readers come into tdt primed to believe things from Ronan's pov, and why shouldn't we? Ronan was one of the main characters we spent four books following and growing an attachment to, while Declan was just the horrible older brother. So when Ronan spent four books saying how his brother was a liar and his dad was great actually, this is the information we go into tdt with, this is what we start out believing. But of course at the same time, lingering in our minds is Declan's disavowal of Niall's merits as a father. And the conflict between these two disparate views of the Lynch family is the central tension of The Dreamer Trilogy. Or at least it's supposed to be. The promised resolution, the reconciliation of these two worldviews and thus of the two brothers is what compels readers to actually pick up the books.

The books are marketed as being about the Lynch brothers. The first line of the series is "This is a story about the Lynch Brothers." What makes The Dreamer Trilogy interesting to readers is that for the first time we get to see Declan and Matthew, we get to see what they're thinking and feeling - about Ronan, about their parents, about the Barns, about everything.

We spend two books seeing the Lynch family through Declan's eyes, we see him grapple with his complicated relationship with his parents and his brothers' and his grief, we see him struggle and snap under the weight placed on him by by his parents' negligence and the immense responsibilities he's shouldering alone. And the implicit understanding here is that we're building towards an understanding between the brothers. For a series that is so powerfully about the joys of being known and the pain of being misunderstood, this is not a misbegotten expectation. Because if one thing is made clear by the first two books of tdt, it's that for all that Declan doesn't understand Ronan, Ronan doesn't understand Declan either.

To end the series on the emotional beat of Declan going 'Actually, my family was great and my childhood was amazing and I just gaslit myself for grief reasons' feels bizarre because we're...right back where we started? We're back to the zero point. Three books and a combined 1200 page count to reach the conclusion that... 'Ronan was right all along, Dad is great, and I'm just a liar, even to myself'??? Is like??? Why even bother writing these books then?? Why even bother reading them, if we're ending right back where we started?

An ending to this trilogy that doesn't have Ronan at least acknowledge that his parents were flawed people, that his childhood was radically different from that of his brother's, and that Declan has only ever been trying his best with his very limited resources feels hollow and lacklustre.

We end the series with Declan coming to terms with Ronan's powers and accepting that he can't keep him locked in a box just to keep him safe and Ronan being no closer to understanding Declan than he has ever been.

Everybody told me. Everybody told me that Greywaren would torpedo everything the last two books built. But like a naive fool, I thought how bad could it be? Welp, I fucked around and found out, I guess.

[one-squash-one-end]

I wrote a giant Raven Cycle analysis

Hi! Over the last year or so I've been working on a sort of essay about various themes in the raven cycle series, and I finally finished it a few weeks ago.

It is titled: "Why I love The Raven Cycle - An excessive analysis of the themes of friendship, queerness and growing up".

And since tumblr loves its meta (and bc I love peer validation) I've decided to start uploading it bit by bit here, making this the masterpost (if I can figure out the logistics of the linking lmao, bear with me)

(beware of spoilers up to greywaren starting at like 3b!)

Introduction

What even is the Raven Cycle?

Trust me, the characters are queer as fuck and I can prove it a) Blue Sargent b) Gansey c) Adam Parrish d) Ronan Lynch e) Noah f) Henry Cheng g) Honorary mentions

The Gangsey is a polycule

Analyzing the reoccurring themes a) Friendship b) Being a teen/growing up c) (Found) Family d) Magic (as a metaphor) e) Further themes I appreciate

Drawing a conclusion

Click here to start with the introductory parts!

1. Introduction

So here’s the thing: I love fiction almost as much as I love my friends. There’s something deeply comforting about the escapism, even if the book actually makes me want to scream and throw it on the floor (only one book has been thrown so far, I promise!).  Fiction is a healthy thing to occupy my thoughts with: headcanons! Quotes being on loop in my brain! Just fandoms!

And for me, if I am hooked on a book (series), it does not even need a good plot where a lot of things happen. In fact, I would say that my enjoyment of a book is made up of 30% plot and about 70% characters and vibes. If the characters are bland, if they do not make me feel much emotion, it likely won’t be more than 4 stars (additional info: I am way too nice rating books!). I really, really need to love the characters, to be able to relate to some aspects of them, or it just won’t become an obsession.

Since I have already started explaining that a bit, let’s look at this question: What is important to make a book special to me? 1. I need to cry reading it. 2. I have to think about it often, even weeks to months after having read it. 3. Obviously, I need to love the characters. 4. I need to be in the fandom! This can be hard with some books, but the internet is a whimsical space allowing you to find at least a small number of people who are obsessed with a work of fiction to a similar extent as you are.

Now, why am I elaborating on this so much? It’s because The Raven Cycle did all that for me. It is my favorite comfort book series at the moment, for all those aspects mentioned, but of course I cannot just leave it at that. No, I wrote a whole-ass analysis on headcanons and some of its themes. You’re welcome.

2. What even is The Raven Cycle?

The Raven Cycle is all I adore and live for (next to my friends). So, naturally, it’s a book series, specifically a four book young adult contemporary fantasy series by American author Maggie Stiefvater. The books in question are: The Raven Boys (2012), The Dream Thieves (2013), Blue Lily, Lily Blue (2014) and The Raven King (2016), and yes I will admit that the publishing dates are a bit of a red flag. There is also the very relevant follow-up series called The Dreamer Trilogy (Call Down The Hawk, Mister Impossible, Greywaren), but it’s a lot less easy to get into that here as I do not know these entire books by heart, so I’ll stick to the original tetralogy here.

To stick to red flags, the books are set in the fictional Henrietta, a rural town in non-fictional Virginia, US, in the 2010s. However, that doesn’t really say *that* much about the plot, so let me summarize that really quick, because I can do better than the official synopsis! (Or let’s pretend I can.)

Blue Sargent comes from a family of psychics, yet she does not have any powers of her own. Even worse, she is a bit of an amplifier for the others, meaning she is always somehow but never directly involved in the business. As if that isn’t enough for an identity crisis, every psychic she has ever met has told her that her kiss would kill her true love. Yikes.

But because she is that amplifier, she comes to a church watch on St. Mark’s Eve, where psychics see the spirits of those to die within the following year. It’s important business, but to her it’s really just staring into the dark. Until she does actually see a spirit: That of Gansey. Of course this is not a coincidence. No, to add to this teen’s mount of problems, there are only two reasons why a non-seer would see someone’s spirit: They are their true love, or they killed them. Or, in Blue’s case, maybe both.

The aforementioned Gansey is Henrietta’s Golden Boy, the son of politicians (read: he’s fucking loaded). He does not run with the Republicans though, he runs with dead Welsh kings, meaning he has been searching for the probably dead, presumably sleeping Welsh king Glendower (*1350; †1416; yikes) for the past like seven years. Why the fuck would he do that? Well, legend says that he will grant a wish to whoever wakes him, and our favorite PTSD-ridden guy really wants that favor.

Aiding him are fellow Aglionby students Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch and Noah Czerny, plus Henry Cheng, though only a lot later in the series, but I really did not want to leave out that menace (affectionately) here. The paths of Blue and the boys cross because of Gansey’s search for Glendower, plus the fact that Blue works at a popular pizza place, but that’s a lot less whimsical. And, well, there’s the implication that Gansey might also be her true love, but perhaps she just kills him because of his bad fashion sense, it would be justified. Anyway, in true Famous Five fashion (Ronan is the dog; I won’t elaborate, the girls that get it, get it) they are of course not the only ones searching for the king, so it’s not completely a wholesome friend bonding activity all the way through.

Be prepared for: friendship and growing up, lots of treasure hunting, family mysteries, magical forests, illegal and slightly distasteful activities (our favorite of course), but most of all, heavily queer-coded (or even canonically queer) characters. Be Gay, Do Crime.

[thesehandsfic]

Loved the meta. Spare Daddy kink fic rec? 🤲🏻

there are literally only five (5) in the whole entire tag. so that is the full extent of what can be rec'ed. i know for a fact that i personally am working on another longfic w/ daddy kink, and i think the "anonymous" author of two of these fics could possibly be bullied into doing so. i implore my fellow perverts to clock the fuck in

twist by me (thesehands)

Everything Niall had left behind was grand in scale: his house, his stories, his cows, and Ronan. The biggest thing Ronan had ever dreamed up was a monster. The second biggest thing Ronan had ever dreamed up was a man.

tenebroso by me (thesehands)

it's 1967. adam parrish walks the straight and narrow. ronan lynch lurks in the shadows. on a thursday, everything changes.

waiting room by anonymous

Ronan and Adam pick up Jordan’s wedding veil. Adam has an idea, Ronan has a revelation, and things get sexually perverse after about three days.

aluminum cowboy by anonymous

A Supernatural S1 AU that begins after the events of Mister Impossible.

patrimony by whatimages

It was on a dark stretch of road ten minutes later that Ronan said, “They wanted to kill me. Dad and Mor. They were going to.” Ronan finds out about Mor and Niall's plan; Adam knows something about inherited violence.

[miseria-fortes-viros]

he lets me hit bc i follow him around like a guard dog and i say stupid shit just to see him smile and i drive way over the speed limit bc he wants to so bad but he never will and i stay up with him when he can’t sleep and we share a carton of orange juice and he looks like a prince in the middle of a dollar general at three in the morning and he leans back on the headrest and the dashboard lights turn his throat green and the bite of possibility is so urgently present i can feel the teeth sinking into my throat and i wonder if mine looks green to him too if he’s even looking and the car is so quiet until he says when i’m gone dream me the world something new for every night and it rips my heart out of my chest because i want him to stay or i want to go with him i just want to be by his side and there are a thousand things i want to say but i don’t say anything i just want him to come back please come back i promise i’ll be better i. where was i going with this

[lizpaige]

18 and 23 for the meta asks? 💕

thank youuuuu 💕💕💕 these were super fun to think about!

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

I can think of two.

1. Sirius Black Doesn’t Care was not going to have a jegulus subplot but it was peak jegulus time and I was reading a lot of those fics so I added it in.

2. TORCH all caps was meant to have another chapter where Ronan visits Declan and Jordan and the kitten was supposed to fall in looooove with Declan, like purring and falling asleep in his lap. Then Ronan went over to take her home and she turned into a fireball again like “no thanks, middle lynch, im good right here” and thats how jordeclan got a cat. 🐱

23. What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?

Hmm it’s actually a songfic based on Saw You in a Dream by The Japanese House. I have thought of ways to write a fic for this for multiple ships including but not limited to johnlock (bbc sherlock) back in 2017, reddie (It) in 2019/2020, wolfstar (harry potter) in 2021/2022 and now pynch in 2022/2023.

It is such a good YEARNING song, seeing a lover, friend in a dream and waking up to realize they aren’t there. I recommend giving it a listen and that band. here’s some of the lyrics and a link to the song:

[juvinadelgreko]

continuing on dreamers being a metaphor for chronic illnesses & disabilities: it’s horrifically fitting that both hennessy and ronan were the ones to find their dreamer parents’ bodies. it’s gruesome, and an excellent metaphor for the generational trauma created by heritable chronic conditions, especially those that weren’t/aren’t properly diagnosed and treated, be it due to stigma, lack of understanding, lack of access, etc.

(i say this as a late-diagnosed and late-treated person with an undiagnosed and untreated father.)

bryde suggests that ronan reach his arm out to hennessy to help her, that he open his own world up in order to learn more about his powers. yes, it will be scary and painful at times (as was matthew learning about his own origin) but ultimately, there’s power in solidarity, in community, and in understanding yourself.

[cabeswaterdrowned]

Declan is described as looking like a combination of Ronan and a polished tailored guy like Gansey or Greenmantle, which in theory makes him like the pinnacle of the type of guys Adam is attracted too. Just don’t tell that to Adam Declan Ronan or Gansey it won’t go over well.

[nibblette]

Did anyone else think Gansey was going avoid dying by going back into Glendower’s time the first time they read the Raven Cycle?

that’s what I thought the point of finding the 500yr Camaro tire was all about. I was sort of disappointed the series didn’t end that way on my first read. Also disappointed that ye olde car tire was a story dead end.

I also thought in some way that Gansey was Glendower in the past and Gwenllian was somehow his and Blue’s daughter.

[noyoucannotpushthevoid]

One More Time Cause the Campaign that Most of these Quotes come from Ended Last Week Lol

"If I'm fighting for this cunt-tree" - Ronan "Like a [Raven boy], nothing but dirt beneath me" - Blue "Let [Gansey] go fucking wild" - Henry "As much as I hate to say this, but we just have to say fuck it we ball" - Ronan planning stuff "You're buff though, you got it" - Henry encouraging Ronan "That would've been meta information. Cringe" - Gansey "Mom said it's my turn with the giant magical serpent" - the brothers Lynch as children "Magic mumbo jumbo" - Henry "Here's the thing [Blue], they have hearts of gold. They have human determination" - Gansey trying desperately to convince Blue to go to a Gansey family function… "If [Henry] had a playlist the only song on it would be Caramelldansen" "[Noah doesn’t] get that luxury" - Ronan about being alive "Hey, guysssss, do you think the [bug demon] is strong?" - Henry "...Why did you specify it was made of meat?" - Henry his first time having dinner at 300 Fox Way “Oh, my beard" - Ronan "Do not the [Noah]" - Blue at Ronan "I'm a real boy!" - [Noah] in Pinocchio voice "We're going to be separating the boys from the men here, if you will" - All of them facing the literal apocalypse "I'm so proud of her for being alive" - Ronan about Matthew "Such a girlboss moment" - about Jordan "Oh fuck buddy" - Gansey, said like a true midwestern dad "Cause we just had [Ronan] go super saiyan. He just went hame hame ha" "Suck it dictator" - Blue "'I hate compensating for idiots' [Adam] 'Then you're going to hate the US government' [Blue]"