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nicstylus · 1 day ago

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I'm rereading Skulduggery Pleasant for the nth time. Here are my newish revelations.

Sceptre of the Ancients Edition!

First (You are here!) || Next (SoonTM)

List of artwork links at the bottom.

!! Spoilers for all of Phase 1 and 2 !!

Starting off strong with Gordons advice to Skulduggery ending up being HEAVY foreshadowing for Stephanie instead. "To my good friend and guide Skulduggery Pleasant, I leave the following advice: Your path is your own, and I have no wish to sway you*, but sometimes the greatest enemy we can face is ourselves**, and the greatest battle is against the darkness within***. There is a storm coming, and sometimes the key to safe harbor is hidden from us, and sometimes it is right before our eyes****." * Proven later by Echo Gordon not trying very hard to talk her out of participating in the world of Magic. ** Heavy implication on Darquesse there. *** This is also dripping with Darquesse foreshadowing, but could also be referring to Lord Vile. Hey, we all have a little of both in us don't we? **** In this case he was obviously talking about the brooch, but it could also be referencing to fact that Stephanie was surrounded by her family here. Skulduggery was there, but he is the embodiment of all her future trauma and the danger she'll find herself in. She was safe among family, safe in a mortal life. "Safe Harbor" was indeed, right before her eyes, and she walked away from it.

The twins and Steph's heights confuse me. The twins are 3 years old, and described as short. Stephanie is described as tall and strong. So. Are they the same height in this book? I refuse to believe 12yo Steph is taller than the 15yo twins. Esp since I picture Beryl as really tall and scrawny, even if Fergus isnt haha

Crepuscular is mentioned as early as book 1. I wonder if Derek actually had a plan for him at this point or if it was just 'eh we'll burn that bridge when we get to it' type of deal. The Shalgoth also appear in this book, and they don't even get a name until phase 2 lol

It could also be interpreted that Darquesse shows up as early as book one. When Vindick Leather rams his car into the Bentley, Valkyrie notes a voice in her head. Obviously this could just be attributed to literally her own voice and instincts, but Darquesse does this a lot in later books:

How the fuck did China and Tanith know where and when to show up at Gordons estate when Serpine finally got the Sceptre. Ghastly wasn't with them. China would have known where the estate was, but why did Tanith come? I can't see China announcing to her library, or anyone really, that she was mounting a rescue out of the kindness of her heart. Tanith and China weren't yet feuding, so maybe Tanith came to her for help? How did Tanith know they were in danger?

The man with the bowtie never gets a name. Hilarious.

Neither does the Administrator, actually. He dies in this book, so it isn't really needed I suppose.

It's funny to me that the Sceptre is Relevant until the very last book. Every time I forget about it when reading through the series, Derek brings it back. It goes through like five different iterations of itself, even eventually being replaced by its alternate dimension self, but its easily the most important 'object' in the SP series. Derek just can't get rid of it.

There are a lot of one-offs in this book, and you can tell that Derek wasn't sure how he wanted his world yet. - He describes strange looking people in the library (which, okay, we definitely see some strange looking people for the rest of the series) - Vindicks fire-proof discipline. We never see anything like that again, even from elementals (Vindick is listed as an adept on the wiki at least) - Skulduggery describes a man who can read minds and a woman who can 'change her shape, become anyone' in chapter 5. Reading minds seems to be a high level sensitive skill but not hugely rare. Shape shifting on the other hand never gets mentioned again and gets replaced by facade sigils. - Family crypts. We see that Ghastly's family has a ton of stuff in the Vault, and then it's never really mentioned again until much much later. - Family crests are also something that only sort of show up a few times. The only two that we know about are Ghastly's (shield and bear) and China's (scorpion and 3 circles), plus whoever has the leopard and crossed swords. Skulduggery does say 'the Scorpion stings the fox' when speaking about China's treachery. This leads me to believe that Skulduggery's crest has something to do with a fox, but it could also just be Skulduggery thinking highly of himself haha - Tanith is introduced by killing a troll. I don't think trolls ever show up again. What was his name? We'll never know. - She also says she has an older brother. Is he ever mentioned again? - Jasper, the 8yo hard of hearing neighbor boy is just. Never mentioned again. Steph waves at him and then he disappears into the ether of Derek's brain. - There's a guy with a porcelain mask in the library in chapter 14. I could be forgetting but I don't think porcelain is ever mentioned anywhere else in the series except when describing China's features. Or maybe some furniture or something. - The Sceptre sings. The Sceptre also breaks at the end of this book, so maybe it broke the singing feature for good, but I don't think it sings at all in later books, in any iteration of the Sceptre. - The 'worst of the worst' criminals are held in the Sanctuary. This is reconned later with Hammer Lane Gaol and Coldheart

Actually, a lot of concepts are set up in this book, which makes sense, it being the first book and all. It's cool to look back and see how long some strings took to tie off though - The Shalgoth didn't even get a name until late phase 2. We even see our good friend 'fleshy mass' two or three times! Rip dogface. - Echo stones get brought back almost immediately through Echo Gordon. Oisin even shows up again in late phase 2 :D - Anthem Mire is mentioned in SotA but doesn't become relevant until book 3 - Stephanie notes that her reflection gives her the creeps. Surely that won't lead to anything nefarious in the future! - The whole 'Last of the Ancients bloodline' plotline gets set up in this book. That will follow Valkyrie for like. All of the books. Crazy. - The Irish Sanctuary having ridiculous amounts of staff that betray them. Shout out to the unnamed Administrator for dying a horrible death without also being a sellout. Disappointed in you Tome. - The White Cleaver, also, hangs around for the entirety of Phase 1.*

Serpine turns the entrance to the caves (what I always imagined to be a stone floor) to dust. We revisit the caves in later books and I'm pretty sure they still have and use the brooch/key- How did they even fix that lo

I forgot that the Canary Car was literally turned to dusk. I seem to remember Skulduggery claiming that one of his cars "set itself on fire." Maybe it was the Purple Menace.

I also completely forgot that Serpine is a zealot here. He just never struck me as religious. I also don't care about him so I never gave it much through I guess

Rereading this book made me realize that we don't see a lot of Hollow Men after the necromancer trilogy. They get replaced by wretchlings in the Darquesse trilogy and then... forgotten about in phase 2 completely. They're also described as 'minions of Serpine' in this book, though thats retconned later on, sort of.

I thought Tomes first name was Sagittarius this whole time. How did I never realize it was Sagacious?

Have I explained how much I love China? Because I really love China. Like a lot. Just so you know. (a lot, guys)

God they could have been such great friends. I love their rivalry because it's hilarious but we were robbed of China/Tanith sisterhood. Can you imagine China and Ghastly working so closely together to get Tanith back from the remnant? I know it doesn't fit China's selfish narrative, and her being protective of Val makes more sense because she watched her grow up, but ahhh

Valkyrie starts to be able to understands Skulduggery's mannerisms and slight movements on like, day 2 or 3 of being around him.

Much much later, I think it's Abyssinia that asks her what its like to spend so much time with someone and not ever be able to know what he's thinking? Abyssinia, honey, were you even trying? This girl is 12.

Once Stephanie chooses a name, Skulduggery spends the rest of the book flip flopping between calling her Valkyrie and Stephanie. I never noticed this before, but it's interesting. When speaking about her to other people, he'll call her Valkyrie. When he's speaking directly to her, or yelling at her because she's in danger, he calls her Stephanie. I'm sure my English teachers would want me to dig deeper into the meanings behind that.

Meritorious is the first death they we whitness from a first hand perspective, which I never realized before. He's also one of five POVs in this book: Stephanie, Serpine, Tanith, Meritorious and the Administrator for a few paragraphs. I think this is the only book in the series with two different POVs in one chapter- here when Meritorious dies, and when Tanith turns to fight the White Cleaver by herself.

We don't see Tanith get angry very often, but she's PISSED when she tells Skulduggery about Tome's betrayal:

Damn girl xD

However, Skulduggery's response to Tanith's anger will heavily shape who Valkyrie becomes.

I think Stephanie internalizes these lines way more than anyone realizes until it's way too late. She will carry this for the rest of the series. Exhibit 1:

Ah, this is probably why Tanith doesn't like China very much xD

The Cleavers were set up to be this super huge and powerful force, and then starting in this book their numbers are so decimated that they don't recover from it for the rest of the series. They just keep getting more and more cannon-foddery and smaller in number xD

* This is actually not my revelation but something that was pointed out to me by @afandomroom, the parallels between Tanith and the White/Black Cleaver. Tanith was supposed to die in this book. Derek instead gives her horrific near death experiences in every book leading up to her possession, but that's besides the point. At the end of this book, Tanith fights the White Cleaver (whom she sent to die, and thus is part of the reason he is created in the first place) and loses horribly. Then, allllll the way at the end of the series she again fights him- this time as the Black Cleaver- where she just barely wins. Full circle, just like the gaping hole in Tanith's back

✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏ ✏

Here's my SotA-specific artworks:

Cover Redesign

Fergus Stealing Silverware (Steph design by @neims-skeleton-obsession) Human Fireball

Don't say I didn't warn you

Meeting China Sorrows Version 1 - Version 2 - Extra

Reflection Sigil You Look Lost (ft @staticart)

Warriors gotta stick together Serpine Torturing Skulduggery

That'll Teach Him to Underestimate Stupid People

Bliss' betrayal

"Skulduggery! She's not being Professional!" Version 1 - Version 2 - Clueless

Never Could Fight Worth A Damn Tanith design Bonus collab with @staticart

Jesus did you read all that? Look at you go :]

#skulduggery pleasant #valkyrie cain #stephanie edgley #sceptre of the ancients #china sorrows #tanith low #ghastly bespoke #art #nic stylus #nefarian serpine

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jichanxo · 1 year ago

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re:titles> and i'm surprised how people name their projects after they are done! for me, it's easier to centre a story around one or several words, and harder to fit a whole-ass completed story into a really short description. how does it work for you then? (and good luck with senseific's title, i know you can do it)

this got long. uh.

that makes sense in a way, having it picked out early is just picking out your point of focus so that whatever you write matches what you��re trying to convey (at least that’s how I’m understanding you?) I suppose the inverse, deciding late, is more like going with the flow and seeing what surfaces as the most important theme/imagery/whatever… though I can definitely understand it being difficult to pick out what’s the most important part when you’ve written a lot. I guess in the end it’s about decisiveness? or at the very least picking something that Does The Job. Not all of them can be winners after all.

in cases where the fic title is the same as phrasing within the text (3:21am, Passing Grade, Memorisation Game), it feels more natural to see what words come naturally through writing as opposed to deciding beforehand. It’s certainly a bit literal but it captures what I think are the defining features of those fics.

“3:21am” is from the setting, which is incidental really, but it sets the scene well enough.

“Passing Grade” refers to the Kitakata sensei au (so school themed) and is also a direct quote from Yagami’s flirting in that fic.

“Memorisation Game” is a reference to the emotional core of that fic – Yagami missing Kuwana, rationalising his attempt to call his number as a game so not to feel so pathetic about it.

For reference, my document titles for these fics are: “yagami late 3am.docx” (referring to the pov and the setting), “kuwagami sensei eating.docx” (referring to the au and the main thing I use to get them to interact for that fic), and “kuwagami card fic.docx” (the initial idea being about yagami keeping kuwana’s business card). It’s a little funny how blunt they are, but it makes it easy to understand at a glance what everything is.

I guess the commonality here is that you can see what my starting idea is from the document titles, but by looking at the title of the posted fics, you can see where my writing ended up in terms of emotions or themes. “card fic” is the idea I started with, the instrument to get the ball rolling, but by the end of the writing, the final, most clear idea within that fic was memorisation game. I had some idea it was going to end in that direction, but I didn’t have those exact words until I wrote them out.

It’s probably a similar process for my other titles, and not just the literal ones, now that I think about it.

“kuwagami deep wound.docx” refers to the imagery I was trying to use in that fic which became → Wound Pried Open, which is… similar, but the “pried open” part I think calls attention to the idea of Kuwana doing it, of it being on purpose, not just the wound itself but the process of agitating it intentionally, which is… more important than just a reference to the wound on its own. I started that fic thinking “man the kuwagami stuff I make is so clean, I should write something more grimy” and ended it with… well… wounds as a vehicle to explore this idea of painful intimacy.

So I suppose what I’m saying is that deciding later leaves room for me to find the core of the story naturally after starting from my initial idea.

#jitxt #thank god i've written enough kuwagami for me to use as all these examples!#i'm probably overexplaining here but. you don't seem to mind my overly verbose answers so why not #sometimes i forget about my overly literal document titles it's a little funny seeing them compared to their finishing titles #i think the more time that passes the more i tend to think of these fics by their ao3 titles #memorisation game especially is like. i can't imagine referring to that as anything else. what do you mean i titled the document “card fic”#that does make me curious though. when abouts you would have settled on “the ever changing” as a fic title #if you considered any other names etc #of course the meaning itself is clear but the timing is what intrigues me #well i suppose that's a question for an ask. excuse me (walks to your askbox)

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