#this is a taryn defender household btw

[beware-of-the-light]

Taryn is Madoc's daughter

I think she's meant to be his narrative mirror.

They both killed their spouses after they turned out to be something that they didn't anticipated. Both do so by blade. They are left to deal with a child that their spouse left behind.

Madoc doesn't go to trial for his crime. But we don't forgive him, not really.

Taryn is meant to be trialed. We forgive her, sort of, Locke was horrible anyways.

She is clever, Madoc trusted her for his coup of the throne. Just like him, she hides her intentions until she strikes. Jude didn't believe that any of them would do such a thing, yet they both do so anyways.

Thinking about how when Madoc killed the girls' mother, he dripped his cap in his blood until it was coated red and hardened. About how when Taryn killed her husband, she ran to her sister for help and in the way found forgiveness.

Thinking about how they are the same, but Taryn chose life and Madoc chose death.

[beware-of-the-light]

I love Jude Durate SO much, because she was allowed to be angry and let it all out, and wasn't punished by the narrative for it. And it was common knowledge that she didn't want to be like that, but that was what she had to be to survive. And when when she finally found an opportunity to Not Be Angry anymore she just grasped it with all her might. I love her so much, because sometimes it is like that, when you got bullied as a kid and you grew up in a weird home, all the red just builds up, and I love Holly Black for letting her express it. Because needing to prove yourself for the right to be mediocre really starts chewing you from the inside out. This is a Taryn defender household btw, Jude said that she would be So Much Worse, Taryn said I Will Fight For My Right To Be Average and she fought for it with all of her might, even went above and beyond by marrying gentry. But she came to the same conclusion, that just because you grew up with a fucked up perception of what love is (her father killed her mom, I think we tend to forget it) it Doesn't Have To Be This Way.

Durate twins, I love, love, love you.