#september torquill

[chorusfm]

Stars Announce ‘Set Yourself on Fire’ Tour

Stars will celebrate the 20th anniversary of Set Yourself on Fire with a tour and new vinyl release. Today, in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of their breakthrough album Set Yourself On Fire (SYOF, 2004 via Arts & Crafts), Montreal's Stars announce they will embark on a select North American tour this fall and release a special 20th Anniversary Vinyl Reissue on Arts & Crafts arriving in July, which will feature digital bonus tracks such as "Rollerskate" and "Petit Mort" not widely available on other releases. The album has been lovingly reimagined on 140g opaque red vinyl, housed in a special die cut jacket with printed inner sleeve, 12x24" pinup poster, and a temporary tattoo featuring the iconic flame design. New liner notes written by album producer Tom McFall also accompany the re-issue. It is available for pre-order HERE. SIGNED version available via Stars Patreon HERE. Stars' Set Yourself On Fire 20th Anniversary live dates begin September 18 in Asbury Park, New Jersey, ahead of a two-night stand at Brooklyn, NY’s Music Hall of Williamsburg. The tour will then work its way to three Canadian dates in Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto; after a two-week break, the dates will resume south of the border in California and traverse throughout the west, including a stop in Vancouver. All dates are listed below. An Artist Patreon-exclusive Ticket Presale is confirmed for Wednesday March 6 @ 10 am local time, and a General Onsale of this Friday March 8 @ 10 am local time. Artists of effortlessly accessible complication, on Set Yourself On Fire, Stars took our worst fears - both personal and global - and slayed the anxieties with their perfect pop music. Widely lauded as amongst their most ambitious, accomplished, and affecting works of their storied existence, Stars’ Set Yourself On Fire (20th Anniversary Edition) carries the torch of the magical songs that have set so many hearts alight.  Set Yourself On Fire drew international praise from the likes of Pitchfork, The Guardian, NME, Rolling Stone, Q, Entertainment Weekly, and Spin, amongst many others. The album, also regaled across Canadian music press, was nominated for Alternative Album of The Year at the JUNO Awards in 2005, and certified Platinum in 2006. SYOF has seen continued praise and recognition at its 10th and 15th year anniversary marks - a true testament to the album’s staying power. Add to that, a longstanding reverence for the way Torquil's father, Douglas Campbell's voice ushers in the timeless, anthemic words “when there's nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire” a now iconic phrase in the band’s discography, at the LP opening of “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead” - a telltale and powerful beginning for Stars on that album, as well as decades and decades later. The continued love and fervor for this record and their extensive discography alongside the many career accomplishments; from continuous releases to international tours and festivals, to theatrical stages, all attest to the power of Stars.  Rewinding to 20 years ago, a press release from Arts & Crafts reveals a glimpse into the texture of the musical landscape of that time. The heartbeat and heartache the band experienced in crafting this seminal LP is palpable not only in the songs, but all the words that told the story then. “By all accounts, the process of creating Set Yourself On Fire, Stars’ third full-length album – for Arts & Crafts, home to their dear friends and sometime collaborators and bandmates Broken Social Scene – played like scenes from The Shining. During one of the coldest winters on record, the soft revolutionaries set up shop in a cabin offered to them by an odd man they’d met in a local pub, a chap named Alan Nicholls. Turned out he used to play in a classic Montreal garage band in the sixties and currently writes tunes for Robert Altman. Over the mixing board in his country home studio, there was a photo of Alan giving John Lennon a hug. While the snow fell outside, Stars nestled in their cocoon,… https://chorus.fm/news/stars-announce-set-yourself-on-fire-tour/

[meret118]

The Valkyrie — Kate Heartfield (Harper Voyager) Brynhild is a Valkyrie: shieldmaiden of the Allfather, chooser of the slain. But now she too has fallen, flightless in her exile. Gudrun is a princess of Burgundy, a daughter of the Rhine, a prize for an invading king—a king whose brother Attila has other plans, and a dragon to call upon. And in the songs to be sung, there is another hero: Sigurd, a warrior with a sword sharper than the new moon. As the legends tell, these names are destined to be lovers, fated as enemies. But here on Midgard, legends can be lies… For not all heroes are heroic, nor all monsters monstrous. And a shieldmaiden may yet find that love is the greatest weapon of all.

Sleep No More (October Daye #17) — Seanan McGuire (DAW). October is very happy with her life as the second daughter of her pureblood parents, Amandine and Simon Torquill. Born to be the changeling handmaid to her beloved sister August, she spends her days working in her family’s tower, serving as August’s companion, and waiting for the day when her sister sets up a household of her own. Everything is right in October’s Faerie. Everything is perfect. Everything is a lie. October has been pulled from her own reality and thrown into a twisted reinterpretation of Faerie where nothing is as it should be and everything has been distorted to support Titania’s ideals. Bound by the Summer Queen’s magic and thrust into a world turned upside down, October has no way of knowing who she can trust, where she can turn, or even who she really is. As strangers who claim to know her begin to appear and the edges of Titania’s paradise begin to unravel, Toby will have to decide whether she can risk everything she knows based on only their stories of another world. But first she’ll have to survive this one, as Titania demonstrates why she needed to be banished in the first place—and this time, much more than Toby’s own life is at stake.

My Brother’s Keeper — Tim Powers (Baen) When young Emily Brontë helps a wounded man she finds at the foot of an ancient pagan shrine in the remote Yorkshire moors, her life becomes contentiously entwined with his. He is Alcuin Curzon, embittered member of a sect working to eradicate the resurgent plague of lycanthropy in Europe and northern England. But Emily’s father, curate of the Haworth village church, is responsible for having unwittingly brought a demonic werewolf god to Yorkshire forty years ago—and it is taking possession of Emily’s beloved but foolish and dissolute brother. Curzon must regard Emily’s family as a dire threat. In spite of being at deadly odds, Emily and Curzon find themselves thrown together in fighting werewolves, confronting pagan gods, even saving each other from the lures of moorland demons. And in a final battle that sweeps from the haunted village of Haworth to a monstrous shrine far out on the moors, the two of them must be reluctant allies against an ancient power that seems likely to take their souls as well as their lives.

Many more at the link.

[tanoraqui]

between Sylvester “if I never talk about my problems ever, they will logically cease to exist; this can’t possibly backfire” and Simon “sometimes I panic and sell my soul to the nearest Firstborn”, it’s actually a goddamn miracle that September was the first Torquill sibling to die

[seawitchkaraoke]

(spoilers for the Torquill family tree, I don’t remember where all this got revealed but yeah)

I still think Simon’s magic is weird, like yes my fetch theory was, well, farfetched but mulled apple cider and candle smoke?? Really?

The Luidaeg tells us that your magic can tell you who your firstbron is (Etienne and Chelsea’s firstborn is Amorika who smells like a burning field as opposed to Elton who smells like that same field at dawn when it’s all wet which is reflected by the smoke in their magic). The Daoine Sidhe firstborn smells like roses and snow (cold). And Simon’s magic is candle smoke (warm) and mulled cider (also warm).

The only other (formerly) Daoine Sidhe who have anything even remotely hot in their magic are August (campfire smoke, obviously inherited from Simon), Raysel (hot wax, likely passed down from Blind Michael who smells like candle wax) and Maida Sollis (fresh cooled steel, canonically coming from her human heritage since steel isn’t a very fae thing). So for all of them, it’s obvious where it comes from but for Simon?

Sure Simon’s mother was human, so he definitely got something from her, but Sylvester is his identical twin and smells completely different (daffodils and dogwood flower). September’s magic smelled like narcissus flowers and sultanas, so Septimius probably had some kind of daffodil in his magic and.... what?

It’s of course possible that Septimius also did have either cider or smoke or smth similar in his magic and got it from his human father. And that Simon then inherited that and got the other warm thing from his mother and Sylvester just happened to get different things. Possible. But still..... it just feels strange for that much warmth to even be possible in the magic of Eira’s great-grandson, y’know.

I also think it’s weird that Simon’s corrupted magic smells like rotten oranges and not rotten apples. And that just coincidentally the only thing we know about Dawn’s magic is that is smelled like oranges.

Also still find Simon’s love for transformation spells very strange when transformation is water magic, which is not a Titania thing.

Don’t really know where I’m going with this (I mean my fetch theory still exists but that was more of a crack theory than anything - would still laugh very hard if it turned out to be right), but I am saying that there is something weird here. Something is up. I don’t know what. But something.

[theyhaveacavetroll]

Further thoughts on Simon Torquill and by extension Sylvester and September:

Wow that’s a lot of S names.

Why doesn’t Simon’s magic smell at all like his siblings’ even without the rot from Evening? Sylvester’s smells like daffodils and dogwood. September smelled like a slightly different type of daffodil and sultanas. Simon smells like... smoke and mulled cider? I mean ok, maybe the mulled cider is in some way related to the sultanas but you know who else smells like smoke? Etienne and Chelsea. I’d usually read that as odd coincidence but... come on now.

I’d kind of forgotten that Sylvester gets a taste of just how strong Evening’s compulsions are back in The Winter Long and I’m not saying that he’s not right to be angry at Simon but like - maybe he could just for a second recognize that there was no way Luna and Rayseline weren’t going to get hurt even if Simon had tried to defy Evening?

Simon Torquill is a super sweet tea kind of guy as evidenced by the way he doctors his tea in Toby’s house and I find that hilarious for some reason

[viviantraversing]

WHEN: Wednesday, 2 September, 1979; afternoon WHERE: DADA Corridor, Hogwarts  WHO: Vivian Travers (as Marceaux Travers) & Clementine Robards ( @clementinerobards​ )

Every inch of Vivian vibrated with nerves and elation as she strode through Hogwarts for the first time as her brother, as though electricity itself coursed through her veins instead of blood. She kept her face plain, unbothered by anyone or anything for that matter—and why should she regard anyone when she towered above them in Marceaux’s body? She adored the power this form commanded, how students scurried away when she marched down hallways, fearful even to meet her eye. Did Marceaux, too, savor every moment? 

Her master plan did not solely revolve around intimidation, though. No, Vivian planned to pour every fiber of her being into finishing what Marceaux started and getting him into the academy. Granted, Torquil provided easy access to the DMLE, but Vivian desired to earn this by none other than her own abilities. This propelled her to the DADA corridor for practice. Albeit a talented witch in her own right, Vivian faced a disadvantage of being two academic years behind other Pre-Auror students in their third year.   

[moonaft]

The Killing Frost - Review

I usually wait for my library to have a copy before reading the latest book. Not this time.

Honestly, this is more of a live blog than a review.

Spoilers up to The Killing Frost and June 2020 for the Patreon stories.

Before I begin, I want to mention that I have physical copies of only some of the books. These are Rosemary and Rue, One Salt Sea, The Winter Long, The Brightest Fell. As of yesterday, I count the Kindle copy of The Killing Frost in that number and will pick up a physical copy eventually. Everything else I borrow from the library, which are usually always available. This series is something I keep re-reading because there’s something new every time I read.

“It doesn’t matter what I wear to the wedding, we both know it’s going to be completely covered in blood before we reach ‘I do’“ and we’re off to a wonderful start. I’m so glad Toby has become genre-savvy. She can now anticipate and plan for being covered in blood. That’s character development.

“My name is October Daye because my mother should never have been allowed to name her own children.” No, your name is October Daye because Eira wanted children named thematically after their parents and the Torquills went for all the months of the year. You can blame September for that one. Or I suppose August is older than January, so blame Simon.

Interesting that she’s accepted that one day she’ll burn out the rest of her humanity.

“Now I live in a house that I own free and clear, thank to Sylvester” Does he still pay property taxes on it, or is that Toby? Does Sylvester have an accountant, and if so, are they fae or human?

Toby, you could definitely get married at the courthouse and then do a fae wedding. They won’t recognize the mortal one but you can still say you’re married. Do Tybalt have any form of human id? I guess they could magic something up and confuse the attendant.

Hi Karen! Something I forgot for my “Open Question” post - why does Stacy have two Seer daughters when Seers have been nearly extinct for centuries?

How’s that for a plot hook? Your seer niece lets you know what you’re doing and with whom. Easy.

After everything Toby’s been through, she has a right to be paranoid when someone knocks at the door after Karen’s done warning her.

Could still be a trap. Negative points for not confirming with Tybalt first.

His date idea is very romantic, I will give him that.

Does Tybalt even have a last name? I don’t remember if he does.

It’s always fun to recognize people before the narrator mentions them by name. Hi Patrick and Dianda! This isn’t suspicious at all.

Does Dianda use the same wheelchair whenever she’s on land? If so, where do they store it? Or do they haul it with them? Is there a storage unit filled with Undersea fae stuff?

Patrick, this isn’t weird at all. You’re digging for something. Given that the summary says Toby needs to invite her legal father to her wedding, I assume you’re trying to make sure he’s there.

I’m not convinced Simon’s trying to wake up Evening. He doesn’t like her, and if losing his way home made him forget August even exists, I’m not sure he’d return to Evening given a chance.

And there’s the actual kicker - by not inviting Simon, Toby allows his boss to claim offense. Evening claiming offense on his behalf is a very very bad thing, and that’s why it’s important he’s there. I am certain Patrick’s parents weren’t at his wedding, but they probably washed their hands of him when they heard who he was marrying. And their liege probably didn’t care about a landless Baron in another Kingdom, so there was no consequence.

The Luidaeg did tell Toby she has to find Simon - along with two other tasks. What happened to those?

Looks like Patrick does have the broad strokes of the plots of The Winter Long and The Brightest Fell - given how much Toby doesn’t tell people, I wasn’t sure. She didn’t tell him about Poppy prior to the Ducky of Ships, after all.

Patrick and Dianda do want him back - looks like I might right that he goes to Saltmist when this all clears up. And they really want him to divorce Amandine, which, yeah. That marriage is not a good one. I firmly believe that if they do divorce, both Toby and August would declare for Simon.

“Bring him home” from Les Mis starts playing. It’s interesting that Dianda is the one telling Toby this.

“You and Tybalt have been banking on my ignorance throughout this whole process, and now your reward is that you have to go with me to look for Simon Torquill, and Tybalt can’t come” I love how she rolls with it. This would have been unheard of in The Winter Long. 

“And yes, I actually wanted him to be there when I did that, if it was even remotely possible.” Aww. It’s a shame her relationship with Sylvester is deteriorating at the same time her relationship with Simon is growing, but it is growing.

I assume Spike, being fae, is also functionally immortal and won’t die of old age.

“I hardly wind up ambushed and alone at all these days.” True, thanks to your ever growing cast of rotating characters.

I love Toby’s continued roasting of Evening and Amandine.

If Evening’s been in the Mists for a thousand years and also popped for Tam Lin in Scotland 500 years ago, how is she getting back and forth between the two? Though she convince Torin to take Saltmist when she was asleep, so maybe she’s just been dreamwalking.

Hi Marcia! What weird things are you going to do this book that no one’s going to pick up on?

Dean and Quentin are cute together.

Wait, this means Toby needs to invite Amandine to her wedding. Fuck.

It’s the Summer Roads key again.

Right, Ceres could do it too. And Toby’s actually thinking of the consequences of her actions.

Quentin will be a force of reckoning on the High King’s throne.

Hi Etienne! You could totally go visit Toby whenever you want.

Randomly appearing magic door - technically, the knowe could bring them directly to the Moon Garden if it wanted to. It wants to bring them to this door, and let them know something’s going on.

Blood for the blood door? Toby has a right to Shadowed Hills, and the knowe knows and likes her. Maybe this is a way of helping with her eventual claim?

“Cool. Good to know. We’re all going to be eaten by weird magic flowers.” “Let’s face it, this isn’t much of a surprise.”

It’s Raysel’s bed/coffin. Given that they’re looking for Evening, I don’t like the parallels to Raysel’s Firstborn. 

Neither Evening nor Simon have an interest in Raysel, but Sylvester doesn’t know that.

I love October’s speech to Sylvester about Rayseline.

It would likely be good for Raysel to spend a year with Toby at her house. She can meet Toby’s teens and live without her parents for a while. Might be awkward when Dean shows up but that’s a conversation they need to have.

Interesting that Raysel’s magic changes - did she get more of her father’s scent?

Summer Roads key is weird, and definitely more plot related than it appears. Given that it’s currently a MacGuffin to get to Evening, that’s pretty powerful.

What is this weird black bubble.

Shit, May got impaled.

So this is where Simon stored Luna and Raysel for 14 years. I personally wouldn’t anchor a formless void holding a Blodynbryd off the Rose Road where she has power, but it ‘worked out’ I suppose.

Toby’s headache is concerning me. I wonder if she’s doing the impossible without knowing it, and that’s what’s causing the magical backlash.

How did Luna and Raysel escape the bubble? There’s been no indication that someone found them, so perhaps they found Simon’s door.

Toby’s talking to Maeve as roses. How is she doing this? Why is Maeve (or part of Maeve?) part of the Rose Road? Didn’t the Luidaeg and Toby turn onto Annis’s Roads at some point during The Winter Long? Did they transition from the Summer Roads part of the Rose Roads into the Winter Roads? Is that even a thing? Why does the Summer Key allow them access to it?

Reviewing TWL again, the Luidaeg used the Key to open Annis’s forgotten road to take a shortcut to Shadowed Hills. Then Luna used the Key to open a Rose Road to Evening. The Key, which “belonged to [Luna’s] grandmother”. Unspecified grandmother. Maybe it’s not a Summer Roads Key afterall.

Roses are the thing that connects all three Branches - Maeve has them, Eira has them, Amandine has them.

Unrelated to the current plot, I think Raysel would be great with flowers. It’s implied that when a mixed blood uses a hope chest to pick one bloodline, they keep something from the missing bloodline. Tybalt’s niece Cailin (Daoine Sidhe/Cait Sidhe -> Cait Sidhe) is extraordinarily good with illusions and can’t shapeshift. August is relatively good with illusions (enough to bind Quentin) and kept her red hair and yellow eyes.

And Maeve (or a representative?) listens to Toby. Wow.

Quentin has strong and unflattering opinions about Evening’s forest scene. I love how the characters feel focusing on the small details. They’ve accepted the impossible and have moved beyond it.

Interesting that there’s no scent of roses before finding Evening’s clearing. Another open question: why does Evening also get apples in addition to roses and snow? What causes the shift between roses+snow and roses+apples? 

And why doesn’t anyone but the Luidaeg recognize that apples are also Evening’s? 

“I wish I’d met Simon and Sylvester’s parents... it doesn’t make sense.” “Most Daoine Sidhe I’ve known have something floral about their magic. Simon doesn’t” Does his mulled cider not count? Fruit isn’t floral? I want to know Septimius’s magic scents as well, because I’m pretty sure Simon got the apple cider from him, via his own mother aka Evening’s daughter Fómhar. The October Daye wiki is failing me on some of these names.

Please let her know that the twins were once changelings this book. Please.

May, I’m sorry you have a literal hole in your body, but I live for magical theory.I need moar.

Hello, Sleeping Beauty. Also, Simon is rather good at archery and I don’t know why that doesn’t come up more often. 

Simon is not looking well. He’s also doing some bizarre leaps of conversation -

October: We came here to look for you.

Simon: Where’s Oleander? 

No one brought up Oleander? I get that the spell is doing weird things to his mind, maybe it’s skipping. 

"who seemed to have stolen most of his memory of who he’d been”

Jossed on him not seeking out Evening, but kinda confirmed on the reason why: he doesn’t give a reason why he’s working with Evening. The spell’s not working as well as it did on August - he is definitely getting confused, if only briefly. 

Is that why he didn’t show up during Night and Silence or The Unkindest Tide? He was stuck in the clearing? What has he been eating? Is he still wearing the same clothes he was in for The Winter Long and The Brightest Fell? 

October: Hey, you can wait here for a hundred years, we just need you to take a trip to see the Luidaeg. It’ll be super quick.

Toby, I love you. 

AND HE REMEMBERS PATRICK. Enough to stand down, at least. But he think’s Patrick’s dead? Oh no no no. Did he think that for most of the last century? This keeps getting sadder. 

At least he’s not hurting May and Quentin. 

I don’t think he sent the Doppelganger in Rosemary and Rue, pretty sure that was Devin. 

He doesn’t remember the events of TBF, interesting. 

Fucking hell, that was too easy. I should have seen it would be too easy. And he thinks Amandine modified Toby’s memory?

I guess May doesn’t need to worry about infection. 

Helpful pixies! Glad to see more of them. Toby better deliver that dinner soon. 

“Also to be fair, the terrible disaster was usually either my fault or happening to me” True words, Toby. 

Hi Walther and Cassie! 

HI Luidaeg!

If her debts are currently balanced, then she did work off the other two from The Unkindest Tide. 

Yeah, pretty sure Simon hasn’t broken the Law yet. 

Emotionally mature Toby strikes again. She’s been so this entire book. The amount of difficult conversations so far is pretty large. 

This focus on Stacy not wanting her kids to date is interesting, unless it’s a red herring. And she grew up with Toby in Shadowed Hills. Not Firstborn, I won’t guess one of the Three - Marianne? But she was fully grown back during the earthquake. Did her fae grandparents have a human partner like Simon and Sylvester’s parents, and her fae parent was also a changeling? They moved away after their child died because they couldn’t deal with the grief? A hope chest moving her blood? How old was October when she met Stacy?

Hi Arden!

Recap time with the Luidaeg. 

A solution with Dianda and Patrick? If he goes and lives in Saltmist, he’s far from people who want to harm him. 

If Simon’s so good at using other people’s blood, then potentially he could use Amandine/August/Toby’s blood to be a poor man’s Dóchas Sidhe. For healing, maybe?

‘Her husband could only hear the ones who belonged to him” - huh, interesting tidbit about Oberon. 

Torquill lore! Finally revealed to Toby!

Off to Goldengreen. Return of the water trauma for Toby, boo. 

Oh my god she’s an otter. So cute! Yes, everyone should be an otter. Bite her, Toby. Do it. 

Marcia! Does Marcia not know that Simon exists as a separate person from Sylvester? Acacia at least understood that Simon wasn’t Sylvester, even if she didn’t get the concept of twins. I’m not surprised she survived Simon’s spells - Evening seemed to completely ignore her in TWL. And Firstborns tend to get mind whammed if they think about her for too long. More evidence for the Titania theory (or Maeve, if she’s in multiple pieces).

That many spells can’t be good. 

I am not surprised that Toby asked how to give Simon her way home. This family has a tendency to pass around debts. 

Also, now would be a good time to call Tybalt. Might be faster than driving to Half Moon Bay. I guess the plan is to steal a Selkie skin and swim to Saltmist since Goldengreen was a bust? But yeah, he’s probably not up to date with TUK if he’s been stuck in the clearing for a year. 

“evil hot potato” good phrase. This stinks a little of self-sabotage.

Diva did need to be shifted, interesting. 

Simon wouldn’t have gotten away with it, there’s nothing natural about a boy eating 6+ bowls of soup, especially if he kept doing it past when he’s physical ill. Poor Quentin.

Interesting that Simon’s not trying to cause harm. His superpowered spells are doing a terrific amount of damage, but nothing that can’t technically be reversed if they have the power to do so. Even Quentin was harmed only because he couldn’t stop eating, and that wasn’t Simon’s intention. 

Dean admittedly is not have a good day. Neither is Quentin. 

Simon under the Luidaeg’s curse is surprisingly self-reflective. I wasn’t expecting that.

Fuck off, Evening.

I didn’t think we’d get the reason behind why the Luidaeg couldn’t lie in this book, that’s nice.

Go Toby, tear this bitch down.

It is interesting that of the three daughters of Titania we’ve met, each one follows a different school of magic. Guess it shows that schools of magic don’t always follow blood.

Evening has been dreamwalking. Stronger when she’s sleeping? Can’t keep her asleep, can’t keep her awake. Can they turn her into a stone?

Confirmation: Titania was banished, and I assume only Oberon could do that.

“Lady, let alone” Maybe in the first blood changing dream, with her father who I think was actually Oberon? I don’t remember.

Tybalt and Walther also aren’t having good days.

I don’t get what Toby’s figured out.

“Rolling emergency that is your ongoing existence” Love it.

Dean’s day is getting better.

There goes the hot potato. I appreciate that Simon’s first action is to get the Luidaeg to reverse it and I’m sure Tybalt isn’t far behind.

Simon’s spending a good portion of the book confused.

Toby just coughed up a pigeon. I can’t determine if that’s weirder than the Luidaeg pulling it out of her chest.

“None of my enemies are remotely that powerful” I’m pretty sure there won’t be a book where Toby travels back in time, but just imagine what a book that would be. And Simon’s mulled cider is back, nice. And confused again.

Seriously? SERIOUSLY? Thornton?? OBERON???

Is his name a play on ‘root and thorn’?

Did he make himself human so Janet could fall in love with him as human? He’s expecting her.

Her name was suppose to be Almandine? And she doesn’t count as home to Toby, no wonder.

She got Oberon lost in Annwn and then pulled him out again. What the fuck.

Confused man remains confused. “He looked like a man who’d just lost everything” Something tells me that isn’t because he’s meeting his father-in-law/a physical god. Did Evening tell him something about Oberon’s return that hasn’t been revealed yet?

Lots of people get to come home today. This is great.

Time to get status reports. Toby is calm in crisis, as long as no one’s actively trying to kill her.

Let the Luidaeg and her father catch up. Wow. I didn’t expect they’d find Oberon with more books left to go.

Toby owes Walther far more than just one pizza - get that boy home and let him sleep.

Way too tired to consider how the car got there. Is it only one day since the Cat in the Rafters? Is this book taking place over the course of a single day? How long were they on the Rose Roads? Everyone needs sleep and food.

I do appreciate Simon taking responsibility for his actions and while apologizing doesn’t fix anything, it is the right thing to do. Toby hasn’t had a chance to tell him about her meeting with Patrick and Dianda, has she? He assumes he’ll be elfshot.

Not that his opinion matters on the Toby/Tybalt relationship, but I like how he’s being supportive.

Get married in the courthouse Toby, The fae won’t recognize it but it takes pressure off the wedding in Toronto so when that goes south, you are still married. Take May, Jazz, Quentin, Raj and whoever else you can grab at short notice.

Good on Toby for checking in on Tybalt and having a difficult conversation.

Back to Goldengreen. Do let Marcia hit Simon, let her do that. Once again, no one remembers that Marcia’s survived things a thin blooded changeling shouldn’t. And Simon doesn’t want to face Patrick and Dianda. It’s been over a hundred years since he last saw them. I wonder how much of the time he thought they were dead?

Changing people into trees can at least be reversed. There’s going to be trauma, but it’s better that everyone in Goldengreen was a tree or toadstool then dead.

“We have access to Oberon now, we can ask him for more Laws if you think we need them.” Oh god. I love this entire chapter, the dialogue is great and too numerous to quote.

And Simon, Patrick, and Dianda aren’t saying anything. Thank you for taking charge of this scene, Toby, otherwise nothing’s going to get done.

“Not that we’re going to get a honeymoon, since someone is inevitably going to try to  murder or abduct us” If you say it and plan for it, it might not happen.

Toby’s little interjection to Dean, the pro-mammal conversation, this chapter is pure good.

Can Simon say Eira’s name now? It choked in his throat during TWL.

Are they really getting into the Janet thing now?

Side-stepped that conversation. Simon definitely wasn’t expecting his best friend and wife to convince to divorce his wife, and then have his step-daughter and her fiance agree as well.

OT3! OT3! Oh man, I didn’t expect this and I love it so much! OT3! Do it! Also, Dean’s day just got weirder.

OT3!

“hey, kiddo we want to open our marriage and include the man who just turned you into a tree” so many difficult conversations to have.

Oh my fucking god, this is everything I could have wanted and didn’t know to ask for.

Wedding time? IS IT WEDDING TIME? “My mother’s divorce proceedings” THAT WORKS TOO.

Glad Toby is still carrying her knife even to this. She’s going to be wearing it to her own wedding.

I still can’t believe Simon’s the one calling for the divorce but good for him. Prior to this, I assumed it would be Amandine insisting on it. I assume the news got to Sylvester and Luna and I would love to know what Sylvester thinks of this.

Hadn’t realized Evening got Quentin fostered to Shadowed Hills because she wanted to marry him and become High Queen.

Fuck off, Amandine. Poor August. Raj gets one line in this book :(

And now it’s confirmed public knowledge that Amandine’s Firstborn.

Called Toby declaring for Simon, and I love how fierce she’s picturing her human father during this.

Also, I firmly believe if August hadn’t disappeared and Amandine still married Jonathan Daye (and Patrick and Dianda hadn’t convinced Simon to divorce her), Simon would have been a part of that. And if Amandine hadn’t told him and just brought October home one day, he would have helped Toby still see her own father.

Patrick and Dianda have gotten him to sleep and eat, good. He wasn’t looking well a couple chapters (a week?) ago.

He’s still trying to protect August to make choosing Amandine easier. I still think she’s choosing him.

CALLED IT.

Hi Oberon! Nobody recognizes you, that’s interesting. And you can calm everyone in the crowd. So you have some power.

“You have no descendant line to stand for you” Is that why Eria’s focused on breeding pure blood Daoine Sidhe? She gets power from everyone who declares for her? My current theory is that she wants to be the true Queen of Faerie, get rid of the Three and rule by herself.

Surprise wedding! Five minutes after Simon got divorced! I love this OT3 so damn much.

Dean, Peter and Toby all agree, August doesn’t say no. Toby has two new step-parents and two step-brothers? I honestly can’t think of Dianda as Toby’s step-mother. She’s Toby’s punchy friend and also the women who married Toby’s step-father/ fae legal father.

Peter’s the one who probably going to spend the most time with Simon, given that he’s still an enemy in Goldengreen. Is August moving down to the Undersea? She can’t stay in the tower anymore. Maybe she can crash at Toby’s or Shadowed Hills or Tamed Lightning if she doesn’t want to stay underwater. Has she seen January since she got home? Or maybe stay at Muir Woods.

I would love to see the dynamics of this new family. And the conversations of the OT3 in the past week.

I’m glad to see Simon and August out of Amandine’s grasp. She was abusive.

Wait, Toby doesn’t need to invite Amandine to her wedding because they’re not legally related anymore. Excellent.

Really wondering how the news is taken at Shadowed Hills.

What a great book. What wonderful surprises. I couldn’t have asked for more. No one died. Lots of trauma from super powered compulsion and shapeshifting to deal with but honestly, things are better for a lot of people.

To me, it feels like Simon’s story has mostly closed. He can rest and be happy with his spouses in Saltmist, and pop up whenever Toby needs info about Evening’s plan or blood magic, like Walther does for alchemist solutions. Staying mostly out of the line of fire. Good for him. I was so concerned he would die as a result of resolving his story.

Review of Shine in Pearl to follow.

[captainpikeachu]

interesting things i noted + other info confirmed from reading the screenplay of crimes of grindelwald:

6 months has passed when the movie opens at Grindelwald’s escape, meaning that the escape from MACUSA takes place in May or June of 1927 since the first film mainly took place in middle of December 1926

It’s 3 months later after the escape that we see Newt at the ministry in London where he meets up with Leta and Theseus, this would mean that most of the movie takes place after September 1, 1927 since during the movie, we do visit Hogwarts while students are attending classes

Theseus and Leta have asked Newt to come over for dinner many times

The teacher that Newt got about a month detention from saying “there are no strange creatures, only blinkered people” was named Prendergast

“Theseus, who is very like Newt, but more outgoing, easier in manner. Theseus winks at Leta before turning to Newt” - this is how the screenplay introduces Theseus, by basically saying he’s the more outgoing version of Newt

And when Theseus tells Newt to try to keep an open mind and be a little less like him because it couldn’t hurt, it’s noted that Theseus says that but “not without affection”

Scamander siblings are doing some silent communication during that ministry interrogation scene

Torquil Travers is the name of the wizard who is the Head of Magical Law Enforcement, and likely Theseus’ boss.

Rudolph Spielman, a German wizard who survived the attempted transfer of Grindelwald from MACUSA custody, was among the people attending Newt’s hearing

Grimmson is the name of the beast hunter who was given the task of hunting down Credence after Newt walks out on the hearing

Carrow is the last name of the Grindelwald supporter who murdered the baby in the nursery

The auror that the ministry sent to watch Newt is called Stebbins

Dumbledore is described as a “dandyesque forty-five-year-old wizard” - there is a slight age discrepancy as him being 45 in August/September 1927 would make him born in 1882, when calculations originally puts his birth at summer of 1881 since Dumbledore started school in September 1892, same year as Elphias Doge who was born at least before the end of August 1881 - unless this meeting with Newt takes place before Dumbledore’s birthday in 1927, which means he’s turning 46 soon after this meeting, as that would then have his birth year in 1881

Dumbledore states that “an Obscurus grows in the absence of love as a dark twin, an only friend. If Credence has a real brother or sister out there who can take its place, he might yet be saved” - implying that a sibling of Credence can save him from needing an Obscurus, possible foreshadow that Dumbledore himself might be able to save Credence since the end of the movie reveal with Credence being a Dumbledore?

At the circus area where Tina walks in, it is described to have various kinds of street performers - half-troll, underbeings without powers but of magical ancestry, half-elves, and half-goblins

Skender is the name of the circus arcanus owner

The cage that Credence smashes open are full of Firedrakes

“Appare vestigium” is the tracking spell that Newt uses to materialize and illuminate traces of recent magical activity in the square in Paris

“Avenseguim” is the spell that Newt used to turn the feather from Yusuf Kama’s hat into compass pointing the way to him

Grimmson, the one who took the job of hunting Credence for the ministry, is actually working with Grindelwald and killed Irma to draw Credence further into the position that Grindelwald wanted him to be at and to keep Crendence safe at Grindelwald’s command

Jacob calls Tina “intense” and Newt calls Tina “beautiful”

This screenplay confirms that it is indeed a young Minerva McGonagall who is at Hogwarts with Dumbledore when the aurors enter the school, which of course leads to the huge discrepancy with her age/birth year, as one of JKR’s Pottermore articles stated that at the end of McGonagall’s school years at Hogwarts, Dumbledore was her Transfiguration teacher and helped her become an animagus

McClaggan is the student who tells Travers that Dumbledore “is the best teacher we’ve got”

The book of predictions that everyone talks about is called “The Predictions of Tycho Dodonus” and parts of the predictions are as follows: “a son cruelly banished, despair of the daughter return...”

The cuffs Travers puts on Dumbledore are called Admonitors

Travers also stated that Dumbledore will no longer teach Defense Against the Dark Arts - this is supposedly the explanation for why Dumbledore becomes Transfiguration teacher, as his refusal to fight Grindelwald is seen as him picking a side with Grindelwald, but end of the movie sees Theseus removing the cuffs so question is do they still not allow him to teach DADA?

Leta’s flashback takes place 17 years ago where she was 13 years old, indicating that it took place in her third year at school from 1910-1911, this also makes Leta’s age in present day being 30-years-old

The spell Leta uses against one of the Gryffindor girls insulting her is “Oscausi” which seals a person’s mouth shut as though they never had one

The screenplay indicates that Leta was the one who mentions that a raven is her family’s emblem but I’m pretty sure the movie’s version was actually Newt who states that

The flashback of the Boggart lesson is stated to be 14 years previously, which would indicate that her and Newt were both 16-years-old

The cemetery that everyone is called to is “Père Lachaise”

Screenplay states Nicolas Flamel is 600-years-old

The book that Flamel is seen flipping through are photographs of various people, likely friends he’s known throughout the years, all captioned with a name, and the subjects are all missing, even Dumbledore’s portrait is blank

The young woman that Flamel finds still in his book is named Eulalie Hicks, a young American professor at Ilvermorny

Newt carries around polyjuice potion it seems and uses them frequently enough, as his tiny bottle only has a few drops left

Newt transforms into Theseus by using one of Theseus’ hairs left on Newt’s coat and adds it into the polyjuice potion

By Newt’s own admission, Theseus is “a hugger”

Newt says to Tina when Theseus spots them in the ministry that in his letters to Tina, he might have mentioned that he and Theseus “have quite a complicated relationship”

Tina: “Does he want to kill you?”; Newt: “Frequently.”

The old woman in the records room is named Melusine

Theseus and Leta are suppose to get married on June 6, likely in 1928 as it’s already past June 1927, and Newt is suppose to be best man

Leta uses “Circumrota” to turn the record tower around to reveal Newt and Tina

The cats are called Matagots, spirit familiars

Yusuf’s flashback of his mother Laurena’s abduction happened in 1896 when he was 12-years-old, which makes Yusuf about 43-years-old during this movie in 1927, and thus makes him about 13 years older than Leta

Corvus Lestrange Jr., Leta’s brother, was born in 1901

The woman who is on the boat with baby Credence is noted in the screenplay as Credence’s Aunt, not Mother

Theseus tells his aurors to use minimum force on the crowd and that “we mustn’t be what he says we are!”

The spell Grindelwald uses to conjure the protective circle of black fire is “Protego diabolica”

Half a dozen of Theseus’ aurors run through the flames to join Grindelwald to save themselves

“Then, for the first time in his life, he puts his arms around his brother. They hug.” ---- *side-eyes* somehow I doubt this is the first time he’s ever hugged his brother, unless they literally never hugged when he was a child, which seems rather impossible, taking this as an exaggeration, for dramatic purposes

Grindelwald tells Credence that “we will go down in history together, as we remake this world” - Credence clearly didn’t go down in history given nobody knows of an Aurelius Dumbledore in the future, so I can only guess that either Grindelwald is lying to Credence or Dumbledore eventually swore everyone else who knows the truth to secrecy

[essilt]

Fic: Mnemosyne's gift (WIP)

Autors: @katerina150 , @essilt Theseus Scamander / Leta Lestrange, Canon Het Relationship, Het, Alternate Universe, Epistolary, Drama, Romance, Family Feels Notes: BC THEY ARE OUR BBS AND JFC WE JUST CAN’T! Notes2: We’re sorry for mistakes, english isn’t our native language. Sum: Fantastic Letters and what are they hiding.

[terramythos]

Now that I am finally through the 12 book odyssey that was catching up/rereading the October Daye series here's a post of my general thoughts. (ADVANCED spoilers. Like I don’t hold anything back, lol). 

A. Just for fun, my favorite books tended to be the ones where shit (especially Lore Shit) went down in a Really Big Way. My top 5 for that...  

1. The Winter Long (#8). I don’t think you can beat this one in sheer fuckery. Two MAJOR twists that basically change everything up to this point in the series, and they’re both dropped pretty casually. One, Simon Torquill is maybe not as evil as previously thought? and is also Toby’s step-dad? Whoops? And number two-- fucking EVENING, the fucking throwaway character killed in book one-- isn’t even dead AND she’s a fucking Firstborn and also a total piece of shit. God. It was a ride re-reading book one because there are so many hints (my favorite line: “no one knew her true face” YEAH OCTOBER, YOU SURE AREN’T WRONG). I pointed it out but even the Shakespeare quotes of books 1 and 8 foreshadow this shit. That in particular was 999-level fuckery. 

2. The Brightest Fell (#11). I was not expecting this book to gut punch me so hard. Like, everything goes to shit, obviously, and the consequences of that stretch well into the next book. But then to give Simon a genuine redemption arc, to invest in that so emotionally, and somehow find a way to end it in a WORSE way than him just dying? That stuck with me. I was so fucking upset I just couldn’t do anything of value for like a day. So that’s how you know it’s good I guess! :D 

3. An Artificial Night (#3). God what do you even say about this one. It’s where shit really starts getting real for the whole series. It’s creepy and more fantastical than the first few books and you learn more about The Firstborn and what they’re capable of. There’s a lot that’s just viscerally traumatic too. Literal children being twisted into horrific monsters. And if I’m right, I think the whole series is going to loop back to this one in a big way. There are so many... mentions and (dare I say) hints dropping even now about Blind Michael.  

4. One Salt Sea (#5). I mean, a lot of stuff happens in this one that ultimately ties into book 12, but a really major character gets killed off, Rayseline is taken out of commission, the Undersea gets introduced, and you learn what the hell is up with the Selkies. I really truly believe the epilogue chapter of this one is some of the best writing in the series, it’s so well put together and has such great beats. Idk like it was a tossup between this one and Ashes of Honor (#7), but while the latter had some of my favorite bits I think this one had a lot more. 

5. Night and Silence (#12). Maybe it’s cause it’s the most recent one and the most fresh in my mind, but DAMN. Kinda like The Winter Long this one had two big twists, and while they weren’t as major they really defined the book. The whole Janet thing I really and truly did not see coming and has some BIG implications for everything we know. Amandine’s a changeling! What the fuck! Gillian being very decisively rewritten into the series (and turned into a Selkie) was ALSO not something I saw coming in any way, shape, or form. This one really fired me up wondering where things are going next. 

B. I mentioned it but GOD the Simon thing made me so viscerally upset! I don’t think I’ve run into a series that approached a redemption arc that way. You take a character who’s pretty much evil, then start making it way more gray. Was he a bad guy? Yeah... but he had a reasonable motive. Is he still a bad guy? Yeah kinda, but he seems to genuinely want to change, and actually assists the heroes without ulterior motive. OK, so then he comes  back a few books later as the deuteragonist and gets a whole lot of character development, and he starts to improve. You even get a concrete indicator that the horrible shit that corrupted him is going away. And then, when he ultimately reaches his goals? He’s forced to give it all away, to turn back into the monster he’d been, in order to do the right thing. Fucking unreal. I’m fully aware this is to make the whole “finding Oberon” stakes more personal but it hurt, man! 

C. My vampire crack theory is pretty much dead, so rest in peace, that.

D. OK so what is with the month names? Seriously. You can explain it away a little bit with the whole “fae like to honor people but don’t like to reuse names” shit but there’s absolutely no way it’s that simple. They’re all female characters who are related, however slightly, to the Torquills. I made that observation pre-book 8, but dismissed it because Toby wasn’t technically related to them. ONLY AS OF BOOK 8 SHE IS, SO CHECKMATE. THERE’S SOMETHING HAPPENING, DAMN IT. Anyway I like making lists, so... 

1. January -- January O’Leary, She’s September’s daughter, and she gets killed off in book 2. This might be enough for me to dismiss the month name thing except the epilogue of 11 brings her Back to Fucking Life, so honestly all bets are off imo, she was absolutely brought back for a reason. 

2. February -- no one.. yet. 

3. March -- no one.. yet. 

4. April -- April O’Leary, January’s adopted daughter. She’s a cyber-Dryad and we see her perspective briefly when January gets resurrected. I’m not sure what else to say about her in relation to this? 

5. May -- May Daye, October’s blood clone (basically). I mean, her whole existence is pretty weird. You could make the argument her name is just a coincidence (she was once a night haunt named Mai), but there’s absolutely no way I’m buying that. 

6. June -- no one.. yet. 

7. July -- Gillian Marks-Daye. October’s daughter. I mean. I was going to say “no one”, but she just got decisively re-written into the series. “Gillian” is the feminine form of “Julius”. I’m pretty sure she’s supposed to be the dark-horse contender for this slot. No way that’s a coincidence. 

8. August -- August...Torquill? She’s Simon’s biological daughter and Toby’s half-sister, so.... She was ALSO introduced pretty late, unlike most of these entries, so I am still convinced this is A Thing. 

9. September -- September Torquill. She’s Simon and Sylvester’s sister. Also like, decisively dead I think. She hasn’t shown up in the main series (only mentioned), but I think she shows up more in the short stories? I don’t know enough about her to say much. 

10. October -- October “Toby” Daye. Like. That’s the name of the series. She’s the main protagonist, dawg. She’s Simon’s step-daughter. What more do you want from me. 

11. November -- no one.. yet. 

12. December -- no one.. yet. 

E. So where is the series going? Obviously next book is about The Luidaeg finally calling in the Selkies’ blood debt or whatever, which we knew was coming for a long time. But #12 just made that way more personal with the whole Gillian thing. I have no idea what’s going to happen with that. Beyond that? There are some loose ends here and there, but the big thing is Oberon coming back. That’s pretty much a given. If I’m right, I think the consequences of Book 3 are going to start showing soon, but idk if it will be in relation to that or not. I’m sure she can come up with way more to put into the series (maybe a book around Toby and Tybalt getting married? SOMETHING THAT EXPLAINS THE MONTH NAMES???), but that’s all that’s really evident to me. 

F. So, the characters. They’re probably my favorite bit of the series. The Luidaeg and Tybalt are undoubtedly my faves, but I’ve really enjoyed seeing how Toby, Quentin, and May have grown over the course of the series. I know I mentioned this previously, but I really like how the series’ initial allies end up... not being allies, so much-- whether by getting killed off or severely disappointing Toby. Sylvester, Evening, Luna, Lily, and Connor all pretty much disappear or greatly alter their role in the story. 

Yet the main cast, the “found family” the series focuses on? Pretty much none of them started out even liking each other that much. Quentin is a snotty noble kid, Tybalt is straight up an antagonist who HATES Toby, The Luidaeg is just plain terrifying, and May is some bizarre doppleganger that (seems to) randomly show up. Yet over time they’ve forged into such a strong and really likeable crew. Idk, it really gives me the feeling that it’s not just FOUND family, but EARNED family, and I really like that. 

G. While we’re discussing characters, I want to talk about The Luidaeg in particular. 

I think she’s probably one of my favorite characters of all time. That’s a high bar but she is just so damn INTERESTING. Morally gray for sure, but not in a traditional way. 

Like, she clearly has her own agenda. She’s probably the oldest character in the series, and she’s fucking terrifying. People use her name to warn their kids at night. We see samples of her powers and the things she knows, and she’s basically a walking eldritch horror. A great deal of the series is her calling in and collecting debts from the main characters so she can use them for one purpose or another. She’s the fucking sea witch. Right? 

Except... the series humanizes her so much. She is clearly kind and compassionate and does her best to hide it. While she initially intimidates the main characters, Toby gradually realizes she’s lonely and seems to enjoy their company. Every single bit of her backstory you get adds more context to her behavior. She’s protective of children because hers were slaughtered like animals. She speaks in riddles because there are so many things she’s forbidden to say. She asks for terrible prices because she HAS to help anyone who will ask her to, and there are certain things she doesn’t want to do (and often, it’s because said things would harm others). This is also why she’s so standoffish and avoidant of others-- because they take advantage of her. Despite all the horrible shit that’s happened to her, she still does her best to be kind and do the right thing. And her ultimate goal, I feel, must be a good one. That’s the only thing that makes sense to me. 

There’s more. A lot of what she does is clearly calculated to achieve a particular result. She mostly shows kindness to certain members of the main cast (Toby and Quentin in particular) and very few others. It’s always interesting to see how she interacts with other characters, because it closely mirrors her initial behavior. Yet even then you see little things, like how she took in Poppy as an apprentice. One of the few times you get her perspective, it’s when she realizes Amandine is abusing and literally killing child!October, and you see how horrified she is, enough that she steps in and puts a stop to it. Does she have a use for Toby down the line? Yeah, obviously, but it doesn’t mean she didn’t do the right thing for the right reasons. I suppose it’s possible she’s just manipulating everyone, but the stories like that and her blood memories make me feel otherwise. Also, the amount of human profanity she uses is pretty funny, since so few characters use it. 

Honestly this may seem like an odd comparison but she reminds me of Akane from Zero Escape. She’s playing the long con, and a lot of what she does seems strange and mysterious until you get more context. And she clearly has some ultimate goal she’s working toward (probably something to do with finding Oberon), but we won’t really know what that means until it happens. It’s probably going to be an emotional rollercoaster. 

There’s more to her than that, but I find it hard to articulate. I just really like her! Pretty much every scene she shows up in is interesting, because she has intriguing lore, dialogue, or insights. She’s almost certainly a big focus in the next book and I don’t know if that means I’ll love her or hate her at the end, lol. 

H. Much shorter note, but Toby/Tybalt? How DARE you make me care about a M/F ship THIS MUCH. They’re just so good. The ultimate slow burn Enemies to Grudging Allies to Friends to Lovers. It’s such a ride and a treat to read. Their early interactions are fucking hilarious on a reread. And I find myself caring so much about what happens to them. 

I. I think this is my last point, but I REALLY appreciated the LGBT rep in the series. There’s obvious stuff like “all the fae are bi unless stated otherwise”, but there’s a really good amount of overt rep. May’s a lesbian, Madden’s gay, Quentin’s bi, and no one bats an eye. It’s AWESOME. Also, making Walther (a certified badass and cool character) a trans man was just wonderful. The fact that he goes on right after the reveal to do one of the biggest Lore things (curing motherfucking elf-shot) is the best. I really like Walther and we need more characters like him. 

I’m probably missing SOMETHING, but idk. These were my main thoughts on the series as a whole. I’m interested to see where things go. 

[masked-disciple]

Y’all know how in Through This House Toby watches a red-headed girl and Amandine open Goldengreen? I figured out who it probably was!

It’s September Torquill! We know that Goldengreen was established when the Mists were, which was approximately 200-300 years ago, and September died because of bombfire in a war (iirc, WWI, but honestly literally any war would be late enough for it), so she was definitely alive to open up Goldengreen!

It was probably her~

[professorsparklepants]

Additional YOI faerie au fact: canonly in the October Daye series, Faerie tends to avoid reusing names whenever possible (which is why you have so many characters named after months, like January O’Leary and Toby herself--they’re all named after September Torquil)

There’s no universe where Yuri Plisetsky isn’t Yuuri Katsuki’s angry adopted step-son, which means that a. his real name is definitely Yurio, and b. that there’s a 200% chance that he was actually named after Yuuri “Not my real dad” Katsuki

[aion-rsa]

Strike: Lethal White Episode 3 Review – an Overstuffed Case and a Personal Breakthrough

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This Strike: Lethal White episode 3 review contains spoilers.

Robin’s out of one trap (BYE-EE, Matthew!) but has she jumped straight into another? That cab driver wasn’t played by just anybody – behind the wheel was Annette Badland, a British TV face as recognisable as they come. Names like Badland’s aren’t cast to deliver wry one-liners and then disappear, which suggests that Robin’s being driven away by someone of significance in this story, a latecomer with skin in the game. 

It’s a complex game, with a growing cast of characters. The investigation into the Chiswells drew yet more players out of the woodwork in the form of Torquil and Fizzy (honestly, none of the names in Strike would be out of place in the sorting hat at Hogwarts), new players with their own agendas following the death of Jasper. Between Izzy and Raff and Kimvara and dead Freddie and the new arrivals, it’s becoming a headache to keep track of who everybody is, who they might want murdered, and why.

The Chiswells are not a happy family, and not only because their patriarch was suffocated to death just a fortnight ago. Between dead Freddie using beloved ponies for target practice (so the bones Robin discovered belonged to a horse?), Raff being cut out of the will and Jasper barking at everyone like a bad-tempered Doberman when he was alive, it’s a toxic mix. Not that the Knights, with cruel Jimmy, terrified Billy and a history of abuse from their father, are a more peaceable bunch. There’s dysfunction aplenty in this series’ supporting characters.

That Chiswell family gathering might have been set in the modern day, but it paid homage to a long history of Poirot and Marple mysteries. A monstrous family of back-stabbing aristos simmering with resentment over inheritance snubs and casting aspersions on deceased papa’s much younger second wife? It’s the very stuff of the cosy detective genre. Had a snooty butler walked in carrying a tray of bonbons, they wouldn’t have felt out of place.

Read more

TV

Strike: Lethal White Episode 1 Review – the Wedding Fallout and a Westminster Scandal

By Louisa Mellor

TV

Strike: Lethal White Episode 2 Review – I Love You’s and Historical Clues

By Louisa Mellor

The vibe was very different back in London, where Robin unveiled her second undercover persona of the series. Farewell to Venetia the snooty toff, hiya to Becca the friendly Goth. Robin’s sketch show characters are always good value, and Becca was fun. She was also efficient, sneaking around Flick’s flat under cover of party and finding the incriminating evidence that puts Flick and Jimmy Knight inside Jasper Chiswell’s house before his murder. So, is Flick the ‘Polish’ cleaner with the spare key, and is Jimmy having an affair with Kimvara, and did they plot the great orange juice swap together? Next week’s finale will reveal all.

As they’ve gone on, the Strike books have grown progressively longer, with larger casts of characters. Lethal White is the longest book by far, and this four-parter is the longest series. Thank heavens the BBC allowed the extra episode, because it’s packed to the gills as it is. Strike and Robin are no longer investigating just one murder, but two. There’s backstory upon backstory to keep straight, with dead characters like Rhiannon Winn and Freddie Chiswell as important as the living. Any less time to tell it and this story would have been incomprehensible instead of the Generation Game conveyor belt it is. (Key, horse, blackmail, Polish cleaner, orange juice, blanc de blanc, cuddly toy!)

With so much to cover, episode three struggled to balance the flurry of developments and new case theories with Cormoran and Robin’s more important personal business. In terms of romantic attachments, it’s all change: ta-ra Matthew, see-ya Lorelei, our two leads are newly single. The imminent danger of the case will doubtless eclipse any running-into-each-others’-arms moments those two are due, but it’s a big step forward.

It was an episode of wronged women telling their men where to stick it. Lorelei took Cormoran to task for taking her for granted, while Robin finally stumbled – literally – on a reason to walk out the door in the form of Sarah’s carefully planted diamond earring. Holliday Grainger did terrific work in that confrontation scene. She showed Robin’s strength and vulnerability in tandem, making the audience root for her every move and proving why hers is a TV character we’ve come to love. More than Strike’s, this has been Robin’s series. In the investigation and in her personal life, she’s been centre stage. Sidekick no longer. 

Strike: Lethal White concludes on Sunday the 13th of September at 9pm on BBC One. The previous episodes are available on BBC iPlayer.

The post Strike: Lethal White Episode 3 Review – an Overstuffed Case and a Personal Breakthrough appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[tanoraqui]

The entire extent of things we know or can logic out about September Torquill:

Sylvester and Simon's older sister

Typical red hair/yellow eyes coloring

Unless there's an ADDITIONAL secret sibling somewhere, she was married to a Tylweth Tyg named Malcolm, who had land in Wales. Their daughter is January.

She was the sort of person who would flirt - though, honestly, more like be true friends - with a Prince of Cats despite being married

Her brothers loved her very much, and I'd be willing to bet that they haven't gotten along as well since her death

Amandine loved her enough to name two daughters after her

Alive in 1605, before the Great Fire of London; was never seen returning to London; was almost certainly dead by 1840 San Francisco because otherwise she would have been mentioned

MY GUESS is that her death is what prompted Sylvester and Simon to move to America. (Are their parents still alive??)

That's it. That's all we know.

Was her death an assassination? A random accident? Who knows! Not us.

Is it even plot-relevant?? It must be, for us to be told so little. But we know so much about the current state of Simon/Eira/August/Amandine and how that came to be without any apparent remaining loose threads. So how does September weave in?? Something more to prophecies?

Goddamnit, Seanan.

Feel free to add to this post (so help me I will animate this entire tag myself if I have to; it won't be the first time.)

[serenitysally]

Tarbert Castle, Kyntire, Scotland

Tarbert Castle is located on the southern shore of East Loch Tarbert, at Tarbert, Argyll, Scotland, at the north end of Kintyre. Tarbert Castle was a strategic royal stronghold during the Middle Ages and one of three castles at Tarbert. The castle overlooks the harbour and although pre 14th century in construction, the tower dates back to 1494 and the visit of James IV to the Western Highlands. Wikipedia

Name: Sir Archibald Gillispie Campbell, 2nd. Earl of Argyll

Born: 6 May 1459 in Tarbert Castle, Argyll, Scotland

AKA: Sir Knight Archibald “Gillispie” of Argyll, Lord High Chancellor Scotland

Sir Archibald Gillispe Campbell – 2nd Earl of Argyll; ;Lord High Chancellor of Scotland

Married: 22 June 1479 in Renfrewshire, Scotland to Lady Elizabeth Stewart, of Lennox, and Countess of Argyll.

Died: 9 September 1513 at the Battle of Flodden Field, Branxton, Northumberlandshire, England

Buried: September 1513 in Scotland

Archibald was the eldest son of Colin Campbell, 1st Earl of Argyll and Isabel Stewart, daughter of John Stewart, 2nd Lord Lorne. He was made Master of the Royal Household of James IV of Scotland on 24 March 1495. After a crisis of law and order in the west of Scotland, Argyll was made governor of Tarbert Castle and Baillie of Knapdale, and this was followed by an appointment as Royal Lieutenant in the former Lordship of the Isles on 22 April 1500. Argyll eventually rose to the position of Lord High Chancellor of Scotland. His “clan” was rivalled only by Clan Gordon. The Earls of Argyll were hereditary Sheriffs of Lorne and Argyll. However, a draft record of the 1504 Parliament of Scotland records a move to request Argyll to hold his Sherriff Court at Perth, where the King and his council could more easily oversee proceedings, if the Earl was found at fault. The historian Norman Macdougall suggests this clause may have been provoked by Argyll’s kinship with Torquil MacLeod and MacLean of Duart. These western chiefs supported the suppressed Lordship of the Isles. The Earl of Argyll was killed at the Battle of Flodden on 9 September 1513, with the king and many others. He is buried at Kilmun Parish Church.

Archibald Gillespie Campbell, 2nd Earl of Argyll (died 9 September 1513) was a Scottish nobleman and politician who was killed at the Battle of Flodden. Biography: Archibald was the eldest son of Colin Campbell, 1st Earl of Argyll and Isabel Stewart, daughter of John Stewart, 2nd Lord Lorne. He was made Master of the Royal Household of James IV of Scotland on 24 March 1495. After a crisis of law and order in the west of Scotland, Argyll was made governor of Tarbert Castle and Baillie of Knapdale, and this was followed by an appointment as Royal Lieutenant in the former Lordship of the Isles on 22 April 1500. Argyll eventually rose to the position of Lord High Chancellor of Scotland. His “clan” was rivalled only by Clan Gordon. The Earls of Argyll were hereditary Sheriffs of Lorne and Argyll. However, a draft record of the 1504 Parliament of Scotland records a move to request Argyll to hold his Sherriff Court at Perth, where the King and his council could more easily oversee proceedings, if the Earl was found at fault. The historian Norman Macdougall suggests this clause may have been provoked by Argyll’s kinship with Torquil MacLeod and MacLean of Duart. These western chiefs supported the suppressed Lordship of the Isles. The Earl of Argyll was killed at the Battle of Flodden on 9 September 1513, with the king and many others. He is buried at Kilmun Parish Church.

Family: By his wife Elizabeth, a daughter of John Stewart, 1st Earl of Lennox, Argyll had issue: Colin Campbell Archibald Campbell of Skipness (d 1537 escaping from Edinburgh Castle), second husband of Janet Douglas, Lady Glamis Sir John Campbell of Calder (d.1546) ancestor of the Earls Cawdor Donald Campbell the Abbot of Coupar Angus Margaret Campbell, who married John Erskine, 5th Lord Erskine Isabel Campbell, married Gilbert Kennedy, 2nd Earl of Cassilis Janet Campbell, married John Stewart, 2nd Earl of Atholl Jean Campbell, married Sir John Lamont of that ilk, son Duncan Lamont Catherine Campbell, married Lachlan ‘Cattanach’ Maclean, 11th Chief of Duart, secondly to Archibald Campbell of Auchinbreck Marion Campbell, married Sir Robert Menzies of that ilk Elen Campbell, married Sir Gavin Kennedy of Blairquhan Mary Campbell

References: Year book of the American Clan Gregor Society. 1978. “Archibald Campbell, 2nd Earl of Argyll. He was the son of Colin Campbell, second Lord Campbell and 1st Earl of Argyll, … In addition to five daughters, the 2nd Earl of Argyll had four sons: 1. Colin Campbell — who became 3rd Earl of …” Macdougall, Norman, James IV, Tuckwell (1997), 107, citing Register of the Great Seal, vol. 2, no. 2240. Macdougall, Norman, James IV, Tuckwell (1997), 178, citing Register of the Privy Seal, vol. 1, nos. 413, 513, 520. MacDougall, Norman, James IV, Tuckwell (1997), 184-5, citing Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, vol. 2, (1814), 241.

James Balfour Paul, Scots Peerage, vol i, pp 335-337 Peerage of Scotland Preceded by Colin Campbell Earl of Argyll 1493–1513 Succeeded by Colin Campbell Categories: Lord Chancellors of Scotland Earls of Argyll Deaths at the Battle of Flodden15th-century births 1513 deaths Court of James IV of Scotland

Scottish landowners

My Maternal 13th. Great Scottish Grandfather, Sir Archibald Gillispie Campbell, 2nd. Earl of Argyll Tarbert Castle, Kyntire, Scotland Tarbert Castle is located on the southern shore of East Loch Tarbert, at…

[zephsomething]

I saw a post once that said something like that of the three Torquill kids it’s some sort of outlandish that September died first and honestly ? Not that I’m reading the brightest fell? They were so right