#the green bone saga spoilers

[teartra]

Out of many heartbreaking lines, this one is the one that freakin got me

[hidiustd]

green bone saga is a pure emotional damage

[ramblingsofalunatic]

fonda lee i'll never forgive you

[aytmadashis]

A little throwback to when I was having meltdowns over some of the little moments between the first-gen and second-gen Kaul kids on twitter 🧍‍♀️

[malachiasz]

This is, like, a direct quote.

[mvsicinthedvrk]

look at the time it's hilo & lan // @rcvcrics

The sight of the other's face doesn't surprise Hilo; it's not the first time he's seen someone who looks like his brother's ghost around the city. Every time, regardless of the time or place, it's never him. Lan's dead-- as he's had to unfortunately reiterate to Shae multiple times-- and whether the lookalikes are some odd manifestation of his suppressed grief or just an unlucky coincidence, it doesn't change the fact that there's no way his true brother could appear walking, talking, and breathing again. Granted, it is the first time he's seen a Lan lookalike at this world's version of the Twice Lucky, but this one doesn't seem to recognize Hilo any more than any of the others did. He can still spend a moment to be friendly, if only to lean into the oddity of it all. "Your first time?" Hilo leans over and glances at the stack of menus on the nearby counter before giving his unrequested recommendation, if one could even call it that: "There's only a rare weak spot here or there in the offerings. Whatever you pick should serve you fine."

[luckydicekirby]

erin hasn’t read jade legacy yet and i have 700 pages worth of Opinions about it and you can’t put stuff under a cut in tweets so i am finally returning to “posting on tumblr”

this book did not fully work for me! and i am really chewing on why. I enjoyed reading it, and it made me cry several times, but it felt structurally disconnected and didn’t really come together for me like, Thematically. the ending was just kind of eh. points for ending on bero and the twice lucky, because i’m a simple woman i love a good bookend, but it feels really weird that the end was basically like “well, we won bc our family likes each other and the mountain all hates each other” guys your family is a nightmare!!!!!!!! 

on some level I think I had expectations the book ultimately wasn’t interested in fulfilling so I’m not a super fair judge--my called shot for this book was that niko was going to kill hilo for murdering his mom, or that at least that was going to be a major point of contention between them. at a certain point it became obvious this was not the direction we were going in, which is fine, but eyni’s murder was SUCH a great momentous “oh shit” moment in jade war and I feel like we never fully followed up on it--it makes perfect sense that hilo would see it as necessary and like it was the right thing to do, because he’s a freak and he sucks (affectionate), but we barely get to see niko react to it as an adult. like I really thought we were going to get a moment in jade legacy that was like, hey hilo, turns out you cannot just kill your nephew’s mom and kidnap him as a toddler without consequences, but I guess......you can? i feel like we missed out on sooo much meaty crunchy stuff in this vein.

also this should have been at least two or three books. I was excited about the time skips, because I wanted to see the kids as adults, but a lot of specific moments had to get skimmed over to fit everything in, and the kids kind of got the shaft as far as characterization--we get the most interesting character stuff with niko, and he barely has any POV! I liked what we got of Ru (and his death made me cry like a baby), but jaya was cool but completely flat. my mind palace ideal structure is like. one book still centered on the adults while the kids are growing up, and then one book centered on the adult kids where we actually get to dig deep into their character stuff/their relationships with each other. 

anyway, stray thoughts:

making anden and lott narrative foils but then not having them get together honestly kind of a power move. i kind of respect it. my read is that lott is gay but decided he would never be able to be out and be the horn, and stuck to that. which WOULD sure make him feel real weird about anden!

shae/ayt mada real and no one can convince me otherwise. they both tried to kill each other they both saved each other’s lives that is romance baybee

i did really enjoy the continuing bero throughline/his ultimate insignificance, and inability to even MAKE himself significant by confessing to lan’s murder to niko. that scene was so good. 

it feels like all the interesting thematic stuff in this book was coming together in the wake of Ru’s death, and then it all had to get dropped bc we were once again at like, “uh oh mountain’s gonna take over”. like no go back i want to talk more about senseless death and about how vital it is to die for a cause as a green bone but ultimately lan’s death was also a senseless accident and hilo HAS ALWAYS KNOWN THAT AND ALWAYS LIED ABOUT IT AND THAT’S THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE WAR!!! CAN WE TALK ABOUT THAT!!

2 black 2 green made me lose it. 

anyway i AM staring at my hands like is it just that i’m a slut for tragedy and wanted a worse ending to this book where like five major characters died....am EYE the problem for wanting this family to be irrevocably broken...am i too successionpilled.....

[cikebabbler]

I only had like half a book with lan but I miss him all the same :(

[organizationhimself]

why bero isn't important

i have to talk about this

spoilers for the entire green bone saga you have been warned

so i fucking hate bero. he's a selfish, conniving, misogynistic shithead who has never seen a single person outside of himself as a real human deserving of respect and care, and while i wouldn't say he exactly escapes the consequences of his actions he absolutely does not get caught at the worst of his bullshit.

but i love, love love, the fucking narrative genius of bero. he is nothing. he spends the entire series trying to make something out of the nothing in his soul, but it was always a useless act because he lacks even the basic fundamentals of a self. bero has no ambitions. bero has no family. bero has no name. bero has no loyalties, not even to himself. he feels entitled to power and influence and women and love and attention, sure, but he makes no real effort to achieve these things on his own behalf; he expects them to fall into his lap after enough pawing at the lever in the skinner box of whatever he's currently obsessed with. he chases jade like a dog chasing a car because it will give him that elusive, poorly defined notion of "power," but he has absolutely no aims for what he'll do when he actually gets that power other than to continue his somnolent hedonism. there are no people or ideals or even physical objects or places he's looking to protect with jade. there is nothing specific he's trying to win with jade. the only thing he can be said to desperately want is the same thing he can never, ever have: significance.

and it's because of who bero is as a person. he lives in a culture defined by loyalty. the entire series loyalties are bought and sold and won and lost and twisted and defied and broken and restored and surrendered at last and never, never surrendered, not even once. but bero lacks any capability for loyalty, and the opportunities fall at him like fucking rain; he is shunted to and fro between opposing factions of endlessly complex loyalties where every single fragmented side lives and dies by their ideals or their connections or their beliefs. every interaction he has with the kauls is absolutely wild because they always assume he is like them. lan looks at him and sees someone who needs another chance to find his place. hilo repays him for his assistance with the understanding that bero may act on gratitude or expectation of reward later. even niko first meets him for an exchange (in which bero is not the only target of the investigation or the only person with this information), and even if any of them openly or privately accuse him of not having any real allegiances, they have absolutely no concept of the black hole of empty desire that lurks behind that crooked face.

and it is because of this that bero lacks all significance. he isn't loyal to mudt, who has an ambition to avenge a fallen loyalty; instead, mudt dies the horrific death of lan's killer and experiences all the significance that will ever have. he isn't loyal to the cause of the clanless resistance; instead, hilo gets a warning that ultimately saves his life and the actually dedicated ygutanian insurrectionist is questioned (torturously) and credited (anonymously). hell, he doesn't even pursue the clan war after ru by pointing the finger at the kobens (which was a big surprise to me), and his testimony is just an add-on to the story from the person who had a real connection to ru. at no point does bero ever sit down and say "these people are my people" or even "this is the thing i want to do with my life." at no point does he earn a specific consequence as reward or retribution for an action that can be attributed to him alone.

and bero IS all the things he claims he is! he is the poisoned dart aimed at the kaul family that takes out lan and ru (ultimately accidents both), that saves hilo and woon, that bolsters and undercuts no peak's fight with the mountain at equal and opposite turns. but he never commits. so when he finally faces down niko, the person who has the right to hate him the most in the world, he can't even have the satisfaction of niko's hatred or the glory of a vengeful death at the hands of people in whose lives he was ever even once, truly, significant.

he doesn't have strange luck. his problem isn't that his fate shifts up and down. it's that he doesn't believe in anything, not even himself, so he never ends up doing anything that matters to anyone else.

bero is never the focus of anyone's strong emotion in his entire unimportant, purposeless life and i think that's beautiful.

[signal-pinktape]

I just finished the green bone saga and although it wasn’t my favorite series I have never felt this kinda heartbreak from a book before. I seriously feel like I lost one of my own family members.

I dont know how I’m going to get over this.

[teartra]

(Major spoilers) Kaul Maik Wen is probably the strongest and the most tragic character in The Green Bone saga.

Born from the Maik family who had bad reputation.

Is stone eyed and thought she could never do important think because she’s a jadeless woman. (Also blamed herself because her son was like her)

Still went on a secret mission while having a career as an interior designer.

Survived three murder attempts.

Had been paralyzed on one side for several years while having her husband blaming her for her action. (And also cheat on her)

Her eldest son left her to the enemy side

Lost both her brothers, youngest son, and later her husband

Yet she’s still the kindest and most forgiving and understanding character throughout the entire series (only second to Anden)

[cronchy-dumbass]

just realized we followed ru his whole life, from his birth to his death...

[shouldprobablybereading]

Hilo really just took that child, sir that’s called kidnapping

[swanunderbridge]

SOMEONE PLS PLS PLS PLS PLS WRITE AN EPILOGUE OF THE AFTERLIFE W LAN AND HILO PLS IM BEGGING

[aytmadashis]

(delusional) I just think it's very interesting that Lott Jin is in the Kaul family photo. looking over in Anden's general direction. possibly with an undecipherable look in his blurry pixelated eyes.

[hms-tardimpala]

Jade Legacy liveblog pt 8 (last one):

"Hilo was surprised the relationship between Jeruya and Anden had lasted so long" you and me both, bro

What goes around comes around Santos, you fuck. At least Niko wasn't traumatized for nothing.

Go, Shae, destroy that fucking sale!

Oh my god, the mountain clan is disavowing its own pillar! Time's up, Ayt Madashi.

Fuck, the satisfaction of two and a half decades of plotting and criminal enterprising unfolding before the reader is something else. NONE OF THIS WAS IN VAIN. FONDA LEE IS A GODDESS.

AYT MADASHI STEPPED DOWN AS PILLAR!!

But...there are two hours left in the book...

Ayt Mada unkillable, what's new?

FUCK

What a fucking badass scene. Hilo is dying just too soon, he will have known only war!

Come on, Anden, be a doctor!

I can't contain my emotions. I'm painting stuff on the terrace with the audiobook in my ears and I'm crying in the sun.

I can't even liveblog this, it's too good and too precious.

Oh, shit this has been an experience.