#the goblin emperor

[bogkeep]

loneliest boy in the world asks you to watch the sunrise with him

[csevet and maia are from the goblin emperor]

[wiltking]

something so.......... about maia (who absolutely does NOT want to marry) earnestly asking his most trusted advisor if this candidate is the one he would personally like for maia to have as his wife and being hit with a blush like the most beautiful rose in response

[grendel-menz]

wonder tales and cloud bridges

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

I still haven't gotten around to reading the Goblin Emperor but I'm obsessed with how fans talk about it on here they're like NOTHING happens but POLITICS for FOUR HUNDRED PAGES the protagonist is TRAPPED in MACHINES OF POWER and can do NOTHING TO ESCAPE he has NO FREE WILL he also has SOCIAL ANXIETY this is the BEST BOOK I'VE EVER READ

[hapalopus]

The Goblin Emperor has the funniest answer to "why am I the only one in my family who wasn't assassinated" and the answer is that the assassin forgot you existed. Thought they could overtake the government by killing the entire royal family but oops they genuinely just forgot that the emperor had a 4th son.

[bobellafofella]

He said lamely, "She is very beautiful." "And she has the sense not to frighten you," Dach'osmin Ceredin said, and Maia took a step back, wanting to protest her deduction, but unable to deny its truth. "We should take lessons from her, we see."

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison is one of my favorite books of all time, and within it, one of my favorite scenes is Maia and Csethiro's first real interaction at Nurevis' party! so i drew it. their slow romance is so delicious.

[aethersea]

A neat thing about The Goblin Emperor is that while it's a classic trope of the lost heir plunged into a morass of courtly intrigue where he has no idea whom he can trust, the very first thing it does is emphasize how much he has to choose to trust anyway. Maia has to trust the head of his household to appoint his body servants, and he has to trust those servants. He has to trust the adremaza to appoint his nohecharei, and he has to trust his nohecharei. Any one of these people could kill him. Any one of them could carry gossip to his enemies, or make him look bad in public and thus weaken him in the eyes of the court. But if he so much as implies a discomfort with these choices, he'll offend powerful people without cause – and anyway, how could he possibly pick better? He has no idea what he's doing. He's forced to rely on people. He's forced to trust. The only person he actually personally chooses is Csevet, and what he chooses to do is essentially hand Csevet the keys to the empire. He got so fucking lucky there, that could have gone so incredibly badly.

But it didn't. Because, as the book emphasizes, trust is the right choice. Even when it does go badly, even when he is betrayed, that doesn't mean the trust was wrong. Because when one person betrays him, every single other person around him shows how truly loyal they are, not only by rushing to his aid, but by caring so deeply and obviously about him.

That's why this book feels so odd for its genre: there's a bunch of complex courtly intrigue going on, but Maia never plays the game. He never schemes, he's never playing 5D chess with his enemies. He has to navigate the factions of the court and try to win them to his side, but he does so by being kind and forthright. He's completely blindsided by the coup attempts, and frankly so are we, because he's just been focusing on other stuff! And he survives them, not through his own cunning, but through the love of those he placed his trust in.

[exercise-of-trust]

more areas of overlap that i don't have room to edit in: unfashionably religious, significant scars, terrifying grandfather, hates killing people, fractious barons, etc etc etc

[mostlyghostie]

New commission!

I had started this in good time, then impulsively peeled off my screen protector because it got too dirty, not realising that I’m now so used to drawing with one on that I was incapable of continuing without ordering another, so I just got finished in time to retain my coveted Etsy perfect shipping record. Stressful!

Which of these have you read?

[asmywhimseytakesme]

I’ve been re reading The Goblin Emperor and having feelings about it.

[ace-artemis-fanartist]

Sad gay and grieving elf man feeding the stray cats every night.

aka Thara Celehar from The Witness for the Dead.

[grendel-menz]

it's licherally my calling...

[apollinaresart]

I read The Goblin Emperor last week and it lives in my head rent free now I guess

Csevet is a morning person. Maia… is not

[calaathmaza]

would you fuck your clone

ID: digital portraits of several characters from The Goblin Emperor, with captions from the “would you fuck your clone” poll meme. In order: Beshelar with a stern expression and the caption “I don’t want to fuck my clone because that would be gay sex and I’m not gay.” scribbled next to him with an arrow pointed at him are the words, “is gay.” Csoru smirking deviously with the caption, “I’m not gay, but I would actually totally fuck my clone.” scribbled next to her with an arrow pointed at her are the words, “also gay.” Vedero looking down at a book with the caption, “I’m gay, but I still don’t want to fuck my clone, that’s gross and weird.” Maia wringing his hands with a worried expression, captioned, “I would not have sex with my clone because what if my clone is evil.” Celehar looking tired and miserable with the caption, “I don’t want to fuck my clone because my self-loathing is THAT strong.” Csevet holding some papers looking self-satisfied and the caption, “I’d fuck my clone because who would know better how to fuck ME than ME?” Cala staring straight ahead with a blank expression and an unsettlingly wide smile captioned, “I’d totally do all sorts of weird things to my clone I’d be too embarrassed to ask someone else to do.” Csethiro with a fencing saber resting on one shoulder, captioned, “It’s basically the same as masturbating, right? So no big deal.” Telimezh, looking outraged and making an “x” with his arms, captioned, “It’s not the same as masturbating; it’d be like having sex with your twin. Wrong and bad!” Iäna smiling angelically, captioned, “Not only would I have sex with my clone, I’d probably make a bunch of clones and just get it on with all of them at once because that’s how pro-clone fucking I am.” Lord Berenar holding a glass of wine and smiling, captioned, “To be honest, fucking my clone has always been my fantasy.” end ID

BONUS:

ID: a sketch of Kiru rubbing her chin in deep thought, captioned, “would that count…?” end ID

[hapalopus]

[freckles-and-books]

I’m glad that I trusted I would like this book and bought the fancy editions of it and its companions, because I’m quite obsessed so far.