#tfota asks

[clockworkbee]

Jude waking Cardan up in twk after the undersea or Cardan waking Jude up in QoN

Jude waking Cardan up <3

Jude thinking Cardan shouldn't relax like that esp. when she's told him she's there to murder him and Cardan just thinking ‘yeah well, if you really were here for that purpose, i wouldn't have woken up’ I just love love love that, and the fact that it's just them, alone, having a real and honest conversation (in bed)? Cardan as much as saying ‘I like how your mind works’ and “Perhaps I am foolish, but I am not a fool. You like something about me,” and then him nervously taking his most fantasized chance at commanding jude to crawl to him, like??? And then Cardan ordering food for Jude because he cares? I love that part most of all because we got to see Cardan show his concern for her in that scene. He could see her condition the moment she was released from the Undersea and ofc. he believed Madoc about Jude having to rest afterwards, but him ordering stuff for her because his strong girl seemed so weak, like wow...

I mean, I know that's like half a chapter I've mentioned above but I'm crazy about the detail we got here, to this day, and I love their scene in qon but ugh the circumstances, the shortage of time, the quick words of hurt, complain and concern leading to yet another misunderstanding (I eat it up, I wouldn't change anything there tbh) but I love twk scene of Jude waking him up more because we got more, yk?

for tfota ask game

[roseadleyn]

i can't stop thinking about how in the end of the queen of nothing, jude says that neither her nor cardan know how to be happy. they don't know how to live without lying and scheming and fighting and plotting: with each other and with other people

so now imagine jude and cardan after the dust has settled. they wouldn't know what 2 do with each other. like just imagine them now getting to know each other. it's like they've never met because ofc they still bicker and everything, but they are married and they just fought and almost died for each other. and yet jude can't say what's cardan's favorite color and cardan doesn't know her favorite snacks

with the court of shadows as matchmakers it starts turning into a whole ass romcom. one night jude wakes up and cardan is just pacing the room nervously and she immediately panics and thinks something is wrong but no. cardan is taking her to one of the places he used to hide in as a little kid and he's. stressed, to say the least

it's one of the rare times jude gets to see elfhame without some pressing responsibility on her mind. she worries about the state of the palace in the hours they're gone and cardan tries ( as well as he can ) to reassure her that the court of shadows is there and she can let the court go for like,, 2 hours. and then jude is a little quiet and she's just staring around her like yeah this land that she has given her life and body for is so beautiful. she knows about cardan's mother, so she tells him about her own.

anyway i'll go more into depth later but like. it's a very rocky journey. jude sleeps fitfully and has nightmares; cardan tries to avoid sleep by getting drunk. jude's from the human lands and tells cardan to sober up. they both kinda just hold each other during a really bad night. cardan finds out balekin made jude kiss him and is so ashamed and shocked and horrified he can barely look her in the eyes except mutter apologies

cardan also persuades jude to drink btw. she's a very clingy drunk ( not weepy, she's not emotional or anything but she refuses to let go of him )

[grendel-menz]

Do you think both jude and cardan wants kids or does cardan have to beg jude for children? Since Oak is confirmed to not being needed as heir.

Hm I'm not sure! I wouldn't have thought Jude would want a kid since the court is so dangerous and she's high enough strung as it is.

It could be possible that Jude and Cardan are scheming and they aren't having a baby and are going to nominate leander or something, or that they're just planning a different kind of succession that doesn't need a blood heir or any heir. Cardan and Jude did allow people to have a voice in their crowns, so maybe it's something else. I genuinely don't know what to expect.

Howeverrrr I like babies so I drew their baby if they were to have one:

[chappellrroan]

I have soft spot for pathetic hopelessly in love men who try so hard to pretend they're so unbothered

[starrynightsxo]

✨️TAG GAME TIME✨️

a song you associate with a book character or ship (name the character/ship please and thank you)

reminds me of cardan. no I will not elaborate you either get it or you dont.

npt: @ant-thebooknerd @agirlwiththoughtsandnegativity @bookish-phile @cookieswithforksandknifes @cromulentreader @fantasyfangirling4ever @graaaaaayy @highladyofterrasen7 @his-littlefox @jesyverse @kazbrekkerbitespeopleandsodoi @motherfeyre-archeron @mrswarnerxo @starlightbooklove @sweetvillainjude @thenightmareinyourcloset @thejudeduarte @veswe @viivdle @booklover2389 @annamatix

[highking-cardan]

you and locke have good enemies to lovers potential. forbidden love, maybe?

I do not like any of the words that you just said.

[the-way-astray]

okay wait if you don’t mind me asking why don’t you like incorrect quotes?

anon, i swear this was not meant to be this long

my reasons are 100% subjective. over the years, i've dabbled in several different fandoms. and i find that the same incorrect quote format is used to describe relationships between characters in different series that i find to not be alike at all. for example, i've seen multiple of the same incorrect quote formats used for both percabeth and sokeefe, when i don't find the relationships to be that similar to one another at all. it's just that people see one dimension of sophie and annabeth (let's say smart) and one dimension of percy and keefe (let's say funny) and then the entire incorrect quote becomes about that. i find sokeefe and percabeth to be two entirely different relationships with few things in common (which i've talked about), but the incorrect quotes flatten them to those qualities only and i don't like that.

the sokeefe-percabeth thing is just an example, by the way, one i picked because i feel most people i'm talking to would understand it, but i've also seen the same incorrect quote formats used to describe relationships like jurdan or kanej . . . and if you've read tfota or soc you know how drastically dissimilar jurdan or kanej are to either sokeefe or percabeth (and each other). and i find that these indirect comparisons drawn between relationships like this flattens certain characters quite a bit. this is how we get stuff like "sokeefe is basically kotlc percabeth" and stuff like that.

then, once a character has been given a "role" (i use the term loosely) they have to occupy all the aspects that come with that "role". so then they're only allowed to be that "role" in the incorrect quote, even if the quote requires them to say/do things they would never say/do, because they've been slated into that role based on that one aspect. take this quote for example:

keefe has been slated into the role of "one that has a crush on sophie" for the purposes of this particular quote. but keefe doesn't ramble like this. he doesn't like his dad and would never discuss a crush on sophie with him (but this one i'm not that mad about since you could as easily change cassius to ro or something). he doesn't use exaggerated metaphors to describe things and he doesn't speak in purple prose. he does a pretty good job hiding his crush and would never inadvertently reveal it like this. do you see what i mean? because of the fact that the format requires him to be "one with a crush on sophie", he now has to fulfill all the other aspects the format requires, even though they don't apply to him. and it no longer feels like keefe. it flattens him down to this one aspect.

i feel like this flattening aspect of incorrect quotes does have a (very small, sort of indirect) effect on the way characters are perceived in fanon. and i don't like it? it's very weird to me. so i prefer to stay away from it. (best examples i can think of are cardan and kaz, who are both morally gray, but lots of incorrect quotes portray them as hopelessly in love with their love interests or malewives, and while that's true, them being slated into that role for the purpose of the incorrect quote often makes them out to be the kind that would doodle hearts around names in notebooks or blush or be in that sort of cutesy-teenager-with-a-crush kind of romance. and . . . uh . . . yeah, they love jude and inej, but that's like. not at all what either relationship is like. it's just not.)

also some incorrect quotes are so desperate to slate characters into certain "roles", as i call them, that they forsake crucial aspects of the character in the process, or actively make them do/say things that go against something that is a core aspect of that character. and i don't like the way the quote is willing to misinterpret something so crucial to the character for the sake of the incorrect quote exemplifying something much less important like "the funny one" or "the one with a crush on ___".

incorrect quotes also have a tendency to portray what a character actually wants to do, rather than how they would realistically behave, given the circumstances. take this quote (and ignore the weird anti-sophitz-ness for the moment, i'm trying to make a point):

in canon, it's kind of a point that sophie "isn't aware" of her crush on keefe, so to speak. she knows she has a crush on fitz. she may subconsciously want to kiss keefe, but remember, she thinks she likes fitz. so this incorrect quote just frustrates me because that's not what sophie would do!!!!!!! she would kiss fitz. actually, she would get all nervous and blushy and try to worm her way out of it. and if this is a post-stellarlune quote, and she knows she likes keefe, she wouldn't address fitz directly like that??? she would trying so hard not to look at fitz because omg omg omg i have to kiss my new boyfriend in front of my old boyfriend who appears to still not be over me. like the quote requires you to change fundamental aspects of sophie's personality/behavior to buy it. my analysis brain can't handle that. my problem is that i can't enjoy the quote for the quote, because my brain is always instead picking apart how un-character the incorrect quote feels.

having said all of that, i fully understand that anyone who likes incorrect quotes or engages with them frequently knows all this. i don't think you all are stupid. obviously keefe would never say something like that first example i showed in canon. that's understood! the point is to make fun of his crush on sophie. i get it. it's all in good fun. i just prefer not to engage with incorrect quotes because the flattening aspect makes me personally want to scream that the character would never do or say that, because at this point the character doesn't even feel like the character, so what even is the point of the quote anymore??? and then i get stuck in a loop.

and like i said in my original tags, i would never want to completely get rid of incorrect quotes. they're easy to make, fun, easily digestable, and in general sort of a safe way to get started in fandoms. they're the safety net of fandoms, and i think they really are crucial for smaller/more obscure fandoms where nobody wants to do hardcore analysis stuff but people still want to talk about their favorite media. so i think, for the purposes they fulfill, they're alright.

[thejudeduarte]

I believe Cardan was described to have some muscles, even though he's not bulky. Jude tells us he broke the crown with his bare hands like it was a toy and she was like fascinated by it cuz...its hot

Yeah, probably very lean muscle. I didn't actually read the book to type that post as I couldn't be bothered so I did it all from memory so I apologise for some errors lol 💀💀 here are the actual pages from the book if they help at all;

I apologise for any mistakes or miscommunication. This is how he is described on the tfota wiki as well which is probably a bit more accurate than what I can supply you with. And also I agree, I think Cardan is just.... hot in general. I mean I suppose he still had lots of training even if he wasn't very good at it so he's bound to have some muscle on him.;

Thanks for the ask again!! <3

[naughtnixnothing]

me @ jude:

[maingh0st]

idk if holly has ever addressed the folk's origins but i have spent an unnecessary amount of time thinking about it and have decided they're immigrants

[viivdle]

how everyone hopes the next book is gonna go:

[clockworkbee]

hellooooooo random question but if cardan was a season what season would he be?

Hey! that's... an interesting question 😅

My first thought was Spring. And the more I've thought about it, the more I'm like, definitely Spring but also kinda Monsoon? I mostly see greens and other vivid colors (that's how his blacks look even cooler) 😅 let me know what you think?

thanks for this ask!

—bee 💗

[grendel-menz]

You x Grima Mog 🫶

erm... <3

[adddddiiii]

Cardan Greenbriar Headcanons #2

Likes when you read him stories from the mortal world

Is insecure of his scars (screw you Balekin) but he'll eventually get comfortable with them around you

Enjoys watching you sleep

If you're cooking or talking to someone and your back is turned to him, he'll sneak up behind you, wrap his tail around your legs and pull you close

Gets a lil jealous when you pet your cat (how dare he not get the same treatment??)

LOVES taking selfies once he discovered them

Has a 27-step skincare routine

When he's outside, he wears really bright colours because he thinks it looks cool (he still looks good)

When he's indoors, he wears matching pjs with you

Will judge people very loudly when he's at a mall or smth

Likes boba or just tea in general

(Part 1)

[cromulentreader]

Hi! I'm a bit confused with Cardan. He doesn't like violence, but we've seen him engage in violence and he says that he likes how terrifying Jude is bc she's violent. So is this a conflict of character?

Tysm for the ask, I’ll take any excuse to write about Cardan! 

The TLDR is no. Assuming that Cardan doesn’t enjoy violence, I think it would make for a relatable complex character.

Point 1: Does Cardan not like violence?

We see Cardan partake in violence on multiple occasions over the series. He modelled himself after Balekin after all. And when you look at his group of friends you can see he ended up with people who had the traits that pleased Balekin: Nicasia for power, Valerian for brutality and Locke for manipulation. 

Cardan does express distaste for fighting with weapons and for unnecessary bloodshed. And it’s clear he enjoys it less than say, Valerian, Madoc - or his wife. While I don’t think Cardan delights in it, there might be a part of him that allows him to see it as justified in certain cases. Cases where verbal spars wouldn’t suffice. E.g. choking Locke for a while, which was very justified.

Point 2: Liking Jude because she’s terrifying 

The first time Cardan admits to finding Jude terrifying she’s threatening him with a crossbow. Later, he mentions she’s usually terrifying and describes a knifepoint kiss as romantic. It’s safe to assume part of his fear is due to her combative nature. And one of the ways that Jude fights for what she wants is violence, but it’s not the only one. The girl pulled a coup in 72 hours, and although violence was part of it, it wasn’t the biggest part of it.

In this universe, faeries are very long-lived but, for the most part, seem to drift in too much time and little drive. Jude’s intensity is fascinating and terrifying to Cardan, especially since he was poking her throughout the first book. As their relationship progressed he started fearing for her. Not because she’s less terrifying but because he starts seeing that Jude will go past the point of self-preservation for what she wants.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, would it be inconsistent for Cardan to not like violence while liking Jude for being violent? Not really. 

You can find someone attractive for doing something you wouldn’t necessarily want to do yourself. (I was going to give personal examples, but perhaps I shouldn’t 💀) This is especially true when neither Cardan nor Jude were taught that violence is bad on its own merit. It would make sense for Cardan to admire Jude more for being a good fighter, even if he had reservations about fighting physically himself.

That being said, my view is that Cardan is more complex than the poster child for no violence and Jude is much more than a violent girl.

[highking-cardan]

congrats to you and @ansanity2!! 🤭💕💕

Why?