#tcp

[murasaki-cha]

Jude and Cardan on a flower field. Cardan laying his head on Jude's lap. Jude makes a flower crown for him and puts it on his head. Cardan tilts the flower crown succeeding in making Jude laugh. The flowers bloom brighter all around them. That’s it, that's the post. Just happy and soft Jurdan.

[madockisser]

Locke and Cardan parallels/ their relationship w Jude and eachother short assumptions!

someone sent me an ask abt Locke and i wanted to post this first so i could get my thoughts straight!

1st of all, cardan and locke both stole jewelry from Jude. Locke, who stole the earrings that Jude was going to give Taryn on her wedding day. And cardan, who stole Jude’s ring that madoc had given her.

Now think, the motivations behind the theft. Firstly, Locke stole from Jude only after ANONYMOUSLY attacking her.

Cardan on the other hand did it to her face, mockingly as he pressed her hand to his lips.

I love that this totally says that Locke and cardan are opposites, not just their motivations, but their mannerisms and behaviors.

Jude from the start thought that Locke was kind and charming, and that cardan was cruel and awful. But things totally switch around as the books progress. It becomes reversed, where Locke is cruel and awful, and cardan is charming and kind.

and notice how i emphasized “anonymously” because (and i may be reaching) locke hid his true intentions the entire series. Him being a major op who got Jude kidnapped was actually pretty wild.

Now the entire series, Jude thinks cardan is this totally mysterious and cruel, ready to lash out sorta faerie, and that’s only half true. But Jude was always pretty blind about him, when he was kind to her, she assumed it was a trick.

but cardan was himself with her for the most part, especially as the series progress. locke on the other hand was- i guess you could say “wearing a mask,” like when he stole from her.

The second parallel would be the dresses.

In the cruel prince, Locke carelessly gives Jude a rotted dress, and she thinks that its a very kind gesture, since the dress was his mothers.

Perhaps she thinks that because faeries are so rarely kind and give things away, but Locke acted very dismissive, saying that the dresses were rotted.

now me personally, i think that he really just wanted Jude to play along so he could further fabricate this tale that Jude was very fond of him. I dont think he saw it as a kind gesture, just an opportunity to further torment cardan, who Locke knew wanted Jude at this point. Locke knew since the tournament.

Anyway, cardan on the other hand, and i almost feel like this was a response to jude wearing locke’s mother’s dresses, had a beautiful royal gown made for jude, with gemstones and personal details (Jude’s balcony)

Now i LOVE this, for several reasons besides the obvious.

Cardan took lockes idea of giving jude a dress and made it not just his own, royal and princely and perfect, but he made it JUDES own.

Whereas Locke just gave jude his mothers dress. It’s to be noted that lockes mother died horribly, after becoming a lover to both the high king and the high kings son.

Which honestly feels intentional, but i could be reaching.

Locke is aware that his mother died because he presumed that she had the high kings baby, and that he didn’t want it born. Or someone didn’t want it born. we don’t know the details of lockes knowledge, BUT we know that Locke has access to the ghost, and I’m not sure that the ghost was physically able to tell Locke WHO was responsible, but Locke seemed to just blame the royal family (the high king who got her preg, then cardan who was convenient to torture instead of the high king)

It’s like he is torturing cardan by taking the tale of his mothers death and twisting it onto Jude. Making himself the high king in the story, and Jude the victim/lockes mother- and mayybbbe trying to make cardan out as the villain, like cardan is the one that offed lockes mom in the story, even though Locke was actively hurting Jude? (idk abt this one guys but I’m just trying to think from his perspective here!)

to him, he’s totally tormenting cardan by doing so (for his little story!) of course, cardan knows the truth of lockes mothers death, so he was probably just irritated that Locke had her in his house w him in the first place lol

anyway I’d have to go back to my books to know the exact details (so i might be totally wrong here) but I’m too comfy rn lol

BUT what I’m trying to say is that Locke and cardan seemed to be activley competing for Jude (this is lowkey super cute lol even if it’s fucking evil of locke) Locke, who was competing to charm Jude to torture her and cardan, and cardan who was just trying to win jude over.

anyway idk, this was a hot fucking mess so my bad, but if you managed to understand the weird shit i just spewed, great! feel absolutely free to add on or correct me! 🫶🫶🫶

[roseadleyn]

something that really bothers me is how much jude is done dirty by the fandom.

like let me lay out jude for yall. jude is a ruthless warrior, a girl who saw her parents murdered in front of her when she was only seven years old. she's not angry and bitter, she's very calculating and doesn't just want to survive, she wants a place for herself. in some kind of way, jude can be called a courtier — she's not as subtle as one and not like cardan or lady asha, but she's cunning and will do anything for power. she is morally grey, and she's actually very intelligent too. ten out of ten, this is how fmcs are written.

but the fandom has never done jude any justice. like they say she just kills her way through every problem — she doesn't. she's extremely intelligent and was raised on strategy. jude ran cardan's court for a full year while juggling spycraft duties and missed on no marks. she does kill out of panic ( valerian, balekin ), but a) she was being attacked and b) even with valerian, she made a plan to hide it and get away with it and she did. jude is smart, not all willy-nilly murdering people.

and secondly,, jude is really remarkable? like this 19 year old human girl, takes the crown, makes a puppet king, rules his court from the shadows and runs her own network of spies, maintains every foreign relation and juggles her own dysfunctional political family, deals with the weird loverboy king crushing on her, fights in a war, saves her lover, and she pulls it all off? and this is just off of the top of my head,. but for some reason this fandom has delegated her to love interest. every jude post is about her and cardan. the jude duarte tag is just cardan and jude, jude and cardan, jurdan, heres how jude dealt with her feelings for cardan!! and then why i think jude should have exiled taryn from elfhame!!

its honestly.. this issue is with the whole tfota fandom, turning a brilliant political fantasy with romance subplot into a mainly romance genre,,, but jude is my main one. female leads in ya are never valued properly or done any due credit - either by the author or the fandom or both. the fact that such a strong, well written character is always being portrayed as lover and sister, queen only in the context of loving king... it's very tiring. i want to see more of jude. how her trauma affects her, habits she might have picked up in elfhame, her hobbies, etc. its just, okay im gonna stop rambling now

BUT WAIT. ANOTHER THING,, i will now need every artist to draw jude the way shes written,. by which i mean give her muscles. she foughtl off a group of men with an axe and uses swords, daggers, crossbows and has been training since she was seven. draw her with muscles, her scars, her missing finger

[ivycrestfell]

to me, Cardan sent Jude the coronation dress in response to him seeing Jude wearing Locke’s mothers dress.

dude said, “why have those rotten, old dresses w him, when you could have a gemstone covered dress that is personal to you and also made by the royal tailor, with ME.”

Cardan is such a thoughtful sweetheart to outdo the guy that is chronically stealing his women! <3

[lianne-blop]

Little sketch I did of Jude & Cardan >:)

[filmnoirsbian]

Fighting for my life trying to find a phone or tablet with a headphone jack. Fighting for my life trying to find a laptop with a cd rom. Fighting for my life trying to get more than one usb port or, god forbid, an hdmi. Fighting for my life trying to find any electronics that haven't been streamlined into flimsy chastity belts with the structural integrity of a sopping sheet of paper which require me to buy 3 extra devices (each with their own separate charging requirements) all because some silicon valley jackass somewhere decided holes were a bad thing.

[chappellrroan]

[roslynn777]

cardan and jude ♔

idk if i like this but whatever

this will also be available to buy on my inprnt so stay tuned 🫶🏻

(based on dolce&gabbana 2006 fall/winter collection cover by Steven Meisel)

characters by Holly Black

[deceitfulapple-eatingscoundrel]

elithienart.

[variousfandomthoughts]

Jude: And thus, by slowly taking larger and larger amounts of these small doses, our bodies will become used to the poisons, eventually making us immune to even lethal amounts.

Cardan: I thought we were just doing drugs together.

[baaozher]

hi tumblr!!! some jurdan to start the weekend before finals :,)

[murasaki-cha]

*slides Holly Black 3$ discreetly* make the Greenbriar-Duarte family tree more complicated in the next book please

[grendel-menz]

i wish i was a little fairy... tcp self insert so i can marry grima mog

[rue8ell]

Locke saying this and getting killed by taryn is so funny lmao taryn said you're the problem and solved it by murdering him

[mxngieemanhaa]

THIS is how jude looks as the queen of mirth?!?

....locke fumbled

[clockworkbee]

There aren't any two people matching each other's freak the way that Jude and Cardan do.