#tog rachel light

[justallihere]

I’m a slowburn girlie like you’re a slowburn girlie. Any book recs?! Just getting back into reading again 🤓 Actually obsessed with sitq and need something so I’m not focusing on when the next update will come 💀

Okay here are some of my favorites from the last couple years:

I always recommend Throne of Glass. A lot of people say to start with ACOTAR if you’re going to read Sarah J. Maas but I think TOG is her most consistent in terms of plot and characterization. And it’s completed

The Coven and The Cursed by Harper L. Woods. The villain love interest stays a villain the entire time and he’s SO HOT. It’s a completed duology but it’s set up for more books with other couples in the same world (editing this to say I read these as indies last year but they’ve been picked up by a publisher since. I don’t think you can get physical copies right now but they do seem to still be on KU)

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer is cute and fun! Slow burn and pretty light-hearted, but it is only the first book of a series and the next comes out later this year

If you like contemporary romance (slight paranormal themes) then The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston broke my heart and put it back together several times. One of my favorite books of all time. But it does deal pretty heavily with themes of parental loss and grief if that’s not your jam

One Dark Window/Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig. Very little spice but it’s a fascinating world and magic system and I loved it way more than I expected to!

Similar vibes to the above, For the Wolf and For the Throne by Hannah Whitten. Cottagecore but make it bloody (I also recommend The Foxglove King by her, but it’s only the first in an incomplete trilogy)

The Serpent and the Wings of Night and The Ashes and the Star-cursed King by Carissa Broadbent. Enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers. There’s sexy blood drinking. If you want more than that I can’t help you

I know a couple of these are pretty standard recs but hopefully there is something in here for you!! Happy reading 🥰

[coffeeandkhun]

Tower of God, Icarus, and chasing the light that could consume you

Okay so lately I've been over-thinking someone who's been bugging me since we were reminded of his existence in webtoon S3 c. 134 - Icarus. Why Icarus? From all the Greek myths? And don't get me from. I love Greek myths.

But as you probably remember, Icarus was, according to the myth, a youth who defied his father's orders and flew too close to sun. Sun melted away the wax of the wings his father had made him. He fell and drowned in to the sea. It's a well-known story and we've all heard about it. "One should not fly too near the sun". Yes, we get it - arrogance is bad for you. Listen to your parents. Humans can't fly, so don't try to play the god with some fake wings.

But it's also good to keep in mind, why Icarus needed the wings in the first place. He and his father were imprisoned in a labyrinth (or in a tower, in some versions) without any other way to their freedom than trying to imitate the birds. And, according to the original myth, avoiding the sun wasn't the only warning Icarus was given. Because Icarus was also told it's dangerous to fly too low. That is to say, the story of Icarus is not only about the dangers of hubris. It's about finding the golden mean between (self-)destructive ambition and total lack of it while chasing our goals and dreams.

And this is a prominent theme in TOG, too.

We know that before opening the door to the tower, Bam used to spend his days by trying to reach the light he could see coming from the ceiling of his cave. Then, when he met Rachel, she become the "light" he wanted to reach and keep near him. Bam's obsession ultimately led him to climb the tower, and like Icarus flying towards the sun, he was self-destructively obsessed about his target. This can be seen during the Headon's test and many other situations during S1. The light you find so beloved could also burn you - and the others around you. In S2, his obsession reaches it's ultimatum and he risks not only himself, but also many of his companions while chasing Rachel - before gradually finding other reasons to climb the tower, as well.

Khun A. A., on the other hand, used to find it difficult to see his life as worth the struggle. For him, it was Bam who become "the light", and gave a meaning to his life. His attraction to Bam is both beautiful and frightening, because it's clear he would go anywhere for him - even to lock himself inside a Suspendium for eternity. And one could say that him having the yeon flame/fire fish is one more manifestation of the themes of Icarus again, and a very literal one.

And for Rachel, of course, the consuming "lights" are the stars and the sky - or whatever awaits at the top of the tower.

You know what or who else are (sometimes self-destructively) attracted to chasing light, by the way? Moths are. Nowadays, we can see moths fluttering around the light bulbs, but in the old times, they gathered around the candles and naked fare - and as a consequence to their attraction to the light, were often burned to death. This is why moths are sometimes associated with the myth of Icarus, and there is even a moth species named after him.

There is also this beautiful poem by Muhammed Iqbal, The candle and the moth:

O Candle! Why does the moth love you? Why is this restless soul devoted to you?

Your charm keeps it restless like mercury Did you teach it the etiquette of Love?

It circumambulates the site of your manifestation Is it inspired with the fire of your lightning?

Do the woes of death give it the peace of life? Does your flame possess the quality of eternal life?

If you do not brighten this sorrowful world This burning heart's tree of Longing may not green up

Falling before you is the prayer of this little heart The taste for impassioned Love knows this little heart

It has some zeal of the Primeval Beauty's Lover You are a small ñër , it is a small Kalam

The moth and the taste for the Sight of the Light! This small insect and the Longing for the Light!

Moths are often seen at night, and are thus though to be mostly noctrunal animals, even though they can also fly during daytime. In folklore, moths are often associated with death. They have been regarded as spirits of deceased, messengers from afterlife, bringers of destruction - or even as angels.

One of the murals on Headon's floor depicts a moth-like bug:

(Picture from the TOG Wiki)

It's also quite clear at this point, that Bam's final form is going to be a butterfly - or, what I consider more likely - a moth. Now isn't this fitting for someone whose name means "night", who's literally died once and came back to life, and who's often told to be the one who will bring destruction to the tower?

Then would this mean Bam is Icarus? Well, it could be, but then maybe it's too straightforward to assume so. (Though I'd like to add that I don't think 'Icarus' in TOG will be the one who's going to be burned by their "light" in the end. It could also be that 'Icarus' in TOG is the one who is going to overcome the fatal flaw of Icarus - by finding the golden mean.)

This is all just speculation right now because we know next to nothing about Icarus in TOG. But as someone, who is easily fixated over things, and who has used most of their life on searching the medium between obsession, dullness and the golden mean, I find some horrific beauty in the fact that it's the same light that makes the life meaningful, that could also consume you.

[bad-tog-edits]

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

[turts-art-dump]

Day 12 of Inktober- Shatter "You stole my dream of being a hero to this story, Baam! So I'm going to do everything in my power to ruin yours!"

[p0l-anka]

My hand slipped

[meliohy]

That post by @lanmosstuff made me want to doodle some screenshots from the Death Note opening with Rachel

[jeanbo-kirschtein-blog]

The Dallar Show arc in a nutshell

(This took longer than I care to admit)

[lokislytherin]

tick, tick... BAM

rachel: i was afraid that you'd be afraid if i told you that i was afraid of intimacy

rachel: if you don't have a problem with my problem, maybe the problem's simply co-dependency

bam: it's been ages rachel. i have a lot of problems but you aren't a priority anymore

[iarrelm]

ToG Ship Week Day 7 - Dreams

Rachel has always dreamed about seeing the stars. Except, until recently, she never dreamed of anyone being right there next to her as she looked at them.

[khun-agueroagnes]

Tower of God || S2, Ep.244

[khunismydrug]

Yes we all know that Khun would throw hands with Rachel.

My question is would Baam throw hands with Maria?

[wingless-siren]

I made a Tower of God animatic! Be warned there very minor spoilers to Episode 12 of the anime!

[bartok-not-bartalk]

Theory on That Bitch Rachel (and how she stole Baam's name)

SEVERE MANHWA SPOILERS BEYOND THE DOTTED LINE

---------

So when Rachel meets Baam she tells him his birthday, which becomes his name: "the 25th Night". This is obviously not his real, given name (if he has one) but he goes by it for Season 1 and much of late Season 2 and 3. It's the name NOT associated with FUG, so to Baam it's more "his" name than Jue Viole Grace.

In Season 2, FUG has Baam going by a new name: Jue Viole Grace. This is designed hint at his parentage (Arlene Grace, his mother and "Viole" being acknowledged by SIU as referencing his father, V). The renaming itself is necessary both because the Regular "Baam" is registered dead and to erase where he came from (in the short term) and also likely to hint to The Powers that Be where he REALLY came from. (Out of universe, the audience believes Baam is dead as well.......)

But there's a large likelihood that neither Baam nor Jue Viole Grace is Baam's real name. In Season 3, Rachel reveals that she knew Arlene, claiming she and not Baam should be the one to fulfill Arlene's wish by climbing the tower. So when she met Baam, calling him by his birthday (and not a name derived from either of his parents, or even a name given to him by Arlene or V (where he could carry on one or both of those surnames) was in Rachel's favor. Baam would remain an insignificant, unconnected Regular in the tower and she, who had seen more of the outside and had known Arlene would have a significant advantage over him and most other regulars (for her specific goals).

All of this assumes that A. Rachel knew Baam was Arlene's child and B. there was a chance Baam could be chosen as an Irregular and enter the tower. Since she was an Irregular herself and (probably) knew about the tower from Arlene, it's safe to say there's a chance she knew (A) and based on that considered (B).

Is Jue Viole Grace Baam's real name? Since he was born in the tower and removed (post mortem) It's entirely possible that FUG knew Baam's true identity (and name). However, in the Manwha, the moniker is presented more as a name the Elders came up with knowing Baam's identity but not his original name itself.

So in conclusion, the only characters who might know Baam's true given name are the Ten Family Heads, (and most likely) Jahad and Rachel; and neither of them are fucking talking. This poor kid has two names (both given to him by an organization/person that has directly or indirectly used him for its own purposes and tried to kill him.

(this is for rachel you big fat raptor-assed bitch why you lie to the mother-fuckin cinnamon roll....

-ghostwrote by khun agero agnis in his lighthouse at 4am

@angrysheeproject

[bad-tog-edits]

Baam, don't look at her, you have Khun!!!

[turts-art-dump]

Day 11 of Inktober- Run "WHO THA FUCK CALLED RACHEL A BITCH?!"

[p0l-anka]

Khun referring to Rachel: Sometimes you meet someone and you know from the first moment that you want to spend your whole life without them.