#tgwcfiasohom spoilers

[twigstarpikachutroll22]

OKAY!!!!!!!!! HAS ANYCREATURE HERE READ THE GIRL WHO CIRCUMNAVIGATED FAIRYLAND IN A SHIP OF HER OWN MAKING BY CATHERINE M. VALENTE BECAUSE THIS SONG IS LITERALLY THE MARQUESS NEAR THE END!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THEY MENTION TRUE NAMES AND STOPPED CLOCKS AND EVERYTHING!!!! AND FAIRYLAND TOO!!!

AND THE WAY THEY KEEP TALKING ABOUT CLOCKS IMPLIES THAT THE PERSON THE SONG IS BEING SUNG TO INTENDS TO USE THEM AGAINST THE PERSON SINGING!! JUST LIKE SEPTEMBER TRIED TO BEAT THE MARQUESS BY STARTING UP HER STOPPED CLOCK AGAIN TO SEND HER HOME!!

THE MARQUESS LITERALLY TELLS SEPTEMBER “I AM NOT THE VILLAIN. I AM NO DARK LORD. I AM THE PRINCESS IN THIS TALE. I AM THE MAIDEN WITH HER KINGDOM STOLEN AWAY.” SO IT’S LITERALLY RIGHT IN THE TITLE AND CHORUS!!! ALSO REFERENCED BY THE EARLY LINE “WHO’S THE WICKED QUEEN AND WHO’S THE PRINCESS HERE”!!

THE SONG ALSO LITERALLY HAS THE LINE “IT’LL BREAK YOUR HEART HOW VERY MUCH ALIKE WE ARE” WHICH THE MARQUESS LITERALLY SAYS JUST ABOUT WORD FOR WORD!!!!!!!!!!

“EVERYBODY’S GOT A STORY” AND “EVERY WITCH WAS SOMEONE’S PRINCESS IN SOME OTHER ONCE UPON A TIME” ALSO REFERENCES HER WHOLE TRAGIC BACKSTORY AND HOW SHE WAS QUEEN MALLOW ONCE AND EVERYTHING!!!

“I MAY HAVE LOST THIS BATTLE BUT I WILL NOT BE ERASED” REFERENCES HOW SHE MAGICALLY PUTS HERSELF TO SLEEP IN ORDER TO KEEP HERSELF FROM BEING SENT BACK HOME OUT OF FAIRYLAND WHEN SEPTEMBER SETS HER CLOCK GOING AGAIN!!! WHICH IS ALSO REFERENCED BY “I WISH YOU YOUR WILDEST DREAMS AS I ESCAPE TO MINE”!!! ESCAPING TO HER DREAMS!! I.E. SLEEP!!

DUDE THIS ENTIRE SONG FITS SO INCREDIBLY PERFECTLY THAT I LITERALLY CAN’T BELIEVE THIS ISN’T ACTUALLY A FAN SONG WRITTEN SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS ASDFGHJKLQWERTYUIOPZXCVBNM MNBVCXZPOIUYTREWQLKJHGFDSA I DON’T KNOW IF ANYCREATURE HERE HAS READ THE FAIRYLAND SERIES BUT I NEEDED TO SCREAM ALL THIS OUT INTO THE VOID AND HOPE SOMECREATURE HEARS AND UNDERSTANDS BECAUSE HOLY FRICK HOLY FRICK HOLY FRICK HOLY FRICK HOLY FRICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[coldhands-and-clockwork]

Narrative think-piece, feel free to skip

So I recently reread a YA novel I'm quite fond of despite its ludicrously long title: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. (Henceforth abbreviated to TGWCFIASOHOM) It's a lovely, whimsical novel about a bored midwestern child adventuring in Fairyland while her father fights in what's probably WW II and her mother builds plane engines for the same. I highly recommend anyone who likes fairy nonsense, coming of age stories, or children who are too clever for their own good. Getting to the point, the novel kind of subverts a trope that's common in epic fiction: Redeem Thy Father's Sword. Put plainly, a child (usually son) taking up his evil or disgraced father's weapon and using it to right the wrongs he wrought with it. Two examples that jump to mind are Eragon's first sword, Zar'roc, from Christopher Paolini's The Inheritance Cycle, and Luke's Lightsaber from the original Star Wars trilogy. The "sword" in TGWCFIASOHOM is never explicitly named, though is called "Death's Sword", "Queen Mallow's Sword/Needle", and most importantly and appropriately, "Thy Mother's Sword". We'll get back to this in a minute. When our protagonist, a girl named September, comes to Pandemonium, the capital of Fairyland, she finds that everything in the city, from the street to the buildings, is stitched and sewed. This is the work of Good Queen Mallow, the former ruling monarch of Fairyland, which she accomplished by dint of her sword/needle. Minor spoiler, the current monarch (despot) charges September with retrieving the Queen Mallow's sword. Engraved on the sword's box is this- "Will hilt to hand yet be restored? Take me up, thy mother's sword". When September draws it, what does she find herself holding? A wrench. Her mother builds planes, her sword is her tool. Queen Mallow's mother was a seamstress, hence her needle. My mother, a surgeon, would surely beget me a scalpel. So what is a sword in this context? Put plainly, the instrument of a person's will. Morzan furthered his tyranny with Zar'roc, Darth Vader with his nifty glow stick. Thy Mother's Sword is super interesting to me, because it modernizes the idea of a parental weapon, and brings the epic trope to a place where it can be applied to the mundane (also without making the parent a villain). It's curious to think... what's my sword? How interesting that all this time we've been carrying our own Excalibur without even knowing it.