#we got an entire duology about them

[the-way-astray]

hate it when people want a short story collection or a spin-off of a certain series and then want it to be all about the main couple of the original.

(ranting in the tags)

[ot3]

Have you ever played the AA: Investigations spin-offs? If so, did you like them? I know they're kind of rough around the edges, but AAI2 is definitely my second favorite game in the entire franchise, so I'm curious to hear your opinion.

yes, i've played them both! i think they're definitely REALLY solid overall and add a ton to the series. aai2 is absolutely a huge step up for the duology but i do think people are a little bit too hard on aai1. i feel it exists in the sort of same niche as dgs1 where it maybe needed and editing pass it didn't get but is redeemed by its sequel's ability to stick the landing.

my biggest problem with aai doesn't have anything to do with any of the rough pacing or any specific case, however. i just don't fully buy yamazaki's edgeworth. there's nothing i see as egregious enough that i just won't accept it like i do with phoenix's characterization in aa6, but i feel like there's a certain degree of flanderization that happened in to his character. i feel like he gets a little bit watered down in his behaviors and actions - particularly in aai1's flashback case, where i think he's acting entirely too reasonable and helpful compared to the kind of person we knew him to be in aa1. i also think overall his dialogue was made a bit too stuffy and formal, whereas in the trilogy a strong part of what appealed to him about me was that he seemed like he should be that kind of guy but was mostly just kind of a pompous jackass, and as soon as he got pissed off most of that refinement completely drops off

it's hard to say how much of the difference in edgeworth's characterization was motivated by writing him as the protagonist rather than the antagonist or deuteragonist, and how much was a difference in approach to localization, and how much was actually yamazki's Vision. but given the state of aa5 and 6 i'm not inclined to give the man much benefit of the doubt.

with that said, though, i do think what aai2 actually did with edgeworth's arc was fantastic. 'why would edgeworth keep being a prosecutor' is a question that deserved an answer and i really appreciate they took the time to give us that answer in a satisfying way. inherited turnabout might be the strongest middle case in the franchise. it is genuinely difficult for me to wrap my mind around how you go from making aai2 to making dual destinies.

but the single most important thing the aai games had to give us was this screenshot

[jess-the-vampire]

I love how Philip and Biscuit's dynamic amounts to something along the lines of...

Philip: I live a life of solitude, and my misery and self-loathing know no bounds.

Biscuit: Hi Philip! Biscuit get flower for Philip! Philip happy now?

Phillip: ... Yes, Philip happy now.

biscuit's development is super funny in retrospect, because i created him as a response to this staff we're shown in philip's journal:

and at the time, my assumption was that this was his own palisman, and the fandom and wittebane community wondered if he had one at some point and uh....ate it, which is where the palisman eating idea evolved from (This is given no answer in the show itself).

other creators have some other ideas, like the lovely @captainmera have interpreted it as evelyn's palisman, but the show itself kinda never gave us an answer which i still find kinda strange to this day.

i mean, why show us a palisman at all in this book if we never get to know who it belongs to and why philip was studying it? And it was post-cut too (Since this appeared in KKKOHD and we were told they were informed back in ER), so it can't be entirely waved off as a cut concept either.

I get the impression now the crew didn't think we would care and just thought of adding a random palisman to the journal (Especially given it seems unlikely philip ever had a palisman at this point) , but i prefer it to be more relevant then that if they were going to show us it.

but at the time, since that was where my head was at, i made biscuit as a result, expecting to eventually update him design and name wise, only for that to never happen since the spider staff never got answers.

so i basically made an original character out of what i thought would be an established character?

and because i prefer giving the palisman a lot more personality, and because spiders are typically seen as scary, i figured making the spider actually very cute would be a perfect way of going about it.

Which i guess worked because people tend to love biscuit, i have had people happily draw him, some try and make plushies of him, he's gotten nods even in the wittebane collab, and i think that's cute.

i think deer, horses, ect also do fit philip's character, especially aesthetically, but i do think spiders also quite fit his personality with the weaving of the web, the trickery, and consumption and draining of smaller creatures.

also the duology of Philip in this au being reclused and miserable paried with a creature whose ungodly supportive and a ball of sunshine makes for funny and interesting comics around them. It also allows for philip to have a character that helps him develop in this au and progress as a person, especially in periods where caleb and hunter aren't there. The palisman eater, growing a bond with his palisman.

sorry for the tangent, it's always just funny how we ended up in this position regarding them in the au, cause boy is it quite the evolution

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

"[...] she doesn’t have an attitude of ‘leaving her until last’ because she’s seen what that’s done to Kaz. She knows that Kaz will never have the satisfaction he’s searching for - I could write essays, he’s in many ways an addict - and so instead of finding the individuals who hurt her and taking them down one by one until only Heleen remains, as Kaz has done by murdering the boy who acted as the roper and by the implied murder of Saskia and Margit as well as many others, [...]"

Could you talk about this? Not just how Kaz is an addict, but him and revenge in general

Hi, thanks so much for your question!

I'm a little embarrassed to have to say that I (more recently than you asked, and if I'd put thought into it at the time/was more sober at the time I would've posted it as a response to your ask instead of it's own thing) I did make a post about this... whilst I was drunk and thinking about Six of Crows... erm...

So you can read that here

But also, possibly more coherently:

So I personally think that addiction is an important theme in the duology and there are 3 major presentations of it: Jesper’s gambling addiction, Nina’s jurda parem addiction, and Kaz’s addiction to revenge. I’m not going to focus too much on Nina and Jesper right now but I do just want to say that I think it’s really important to note how Inej responds to seeing addiction in the others. In the post you referenced here I was talking about how I think Inej would have a different attitude towards killing Heleen than Kaz did to Rollins because she’s seen what his obsession with Rollins did to him and how it's had a negative impact on him in many ways.

However, focusing on Kaz and addiction as a whole I think it's really important to acknowledge that Kaz openly admits to the reader that nothing he can do to Rollins is ever going to be enough for him. When he talks about Jesper's addiction he says (and I've not got my book on me so sorry if I've misremembered the exact quote, I'm paraphrasing from memory) "Someone like Jesper wins two hands and starts calling it a streak. Eventually he loses, and it only leaves him hungry for more" and it's always struck me how precisely this description can be applied to Kaz's own life: he chips away small pieces of Rollins' empire, such as having his steerers acting outside of Pekka's clubs to lead them away from the Dime Lions' businesses and to the Dregs' ones instead, and describes it as enough to keep him going, and then he steps up and 'wins' in Six of Crows when he succeeds at the Ice Court Heist job whilst Rollins fails, this triumph arguably is in part what leads to his downfall in failing to predict Rollins' alliance with Van Eck; he is subsequently tricked and victimised by him all over again, a situation that he describes as being "worse this time" because he is now "old enough to know better", and this experience leaves him desperate and furious to act against him again. He experiences a kind of high when he is able to gain any kind of victory against Rollins, but when that includes such small victories as chipping away at his business the low that comes upon losing is only made all the worse.

I think what's particularly interesting about this presentation, however, is that a) no-one except Inej seems to identify it this way and b) we as the reader aren't encouraged to want Kaz to stop seeking vengeance in the way we're encouraged to want Nina to overcome parem and Jesper to stop gambling. One of my favourite underrated quotes from really early on in Crooked Kingdom (I think it's ch2 but I might be wrong) is when Kaz explains the plan for the Smeet job, which revolves entirely around making Jesper gamble at the card tables for an entire night, and Nina sarcastically suggests that for 'phase two' of this plan maybe she should "masquerade as a jurda parem dealer" because "what could possibly go wrong?", and of course we have the GORGEOUS, beautifully written, famous lines from Inej to Jesper at the Geldrenner hotel later in the book when she tells him that "there's a wound in you" and that the games feel like medicine "but it's poison, Jes" (again paraphrasing from memory for the quotes, sorry). Addiction is very much in the foreground for Jepser throughout the duology and for Nina during Crooked Kingdom, but we never really get a discussion of it for Kaz except in the Bathroom Scene when Inej challenges him about what he would do next if he managed his revenge, and he ultimately had no answer for her (so he resorted to being as dramatic as possible and we love him for it).

But revenge is ultimately what kept Kaz alive. That he admits himself as well, saying that he would have laid down on the Reaper's Barge and died because nothing was waiting for him back on land until he came to the realisation that there was one thing he could strive for if he survived: vengeance. So not only is this arguably why he could give Inej no answer, because it is the only thing he has existed for since he was nine years old, but it also kind of creates this never ending cycle between him and revenge of the concept being both so destructive and so constructive (??that doesn't feel like the right word but I can't think of a better one??) simultaneously - it actually makes me think of a quote from one of Inej's chapters when they're on the roof at the Ice Court. She describes a mural she can see below with two animals, I think wolves but I can't remember off the top of my head I'm sorry, chasing each other and she describes them as being cursed to keep moving in the same circle "for as long as the Ice Court stood". I could talk for days, and probably will do in the future, about how much I freaking love that line as a metaphor for Kaz and Inej's relationship and how the breaking of that cycle comes with the symbolic fall of the Ice Court, but I also think that we can apply it to Kaz indivdually in his relationship with vengeance.

Anyway I hope that this was interesting and that it made some semblance of sense, and I am so sorry that I took an eternity to respond to your ask but thank you so much for sending it this was such an interesting topic to write about!! I love getting asks, please don't let my lateness in replying to them put you off sending one I will get through them all I promise, these things just tend to take a while for me to think about how to answer them first and then I like to write them in one sitting so that all my ideas are fresh so I have to find a good time to sit down and focus on them. But that aside thank you very much for the ask and I hope that this answer was an interesting read 😊

This has been another episode of DK Finally Gets It Together And Answers Her Asks Because It's About Damn Time (Working Title), thanks for joining me & you can check the tag for more <3

[coeluvr]

Frequently Asked Questions

Hello! There have been a lot of repeated asks and I wanted to answer them once and for all so I don't clog the dashboard with the same thing over and over. :)

What is the purpose of MC being a child in the beginning?

I wanted MC to be at their most vulnerable place possible so MC is a child in the beginning. In Chapter 2 there is a timeskip to when they are 15 and then in Chapter 3 they are 20.

Does MC have to become the Royal Consort?

Yes.

How many books will there be?

I'm planning on this being a duology!

Will we be able to choose X, Y, and Z?

Regarding the MC, you will be able to choose the following:

Appearance except for their eyes which are red by default. *

Pronouns

Gender identity

Type of compliments they prefer

Type of clothing they wear

Tattoos / Scars

Coping mechanisms **

Personality and Public Image

The things that are set are:

MC's age

MC's eye color *

Due to the events of the story, your MC will want revenge at the beginning of the story no matter what. ***

* Why are MC's eyes red by default?

Each of the royal families has a signature eye color, MC's family's eye color is red. Eye color is extremely important in this story.

** What kind of coping mechanisms are there?

Here is a list of the current unhealthy coping mechanisms:

Alcohol abuse or excessive drinking.

Excessive oversleeping.

Chronic insomnia or complete lack of sleep.

Overextending oneself through excessive work.

Engaging in unnecessary risk-taking.

Engaging in a high number of sexual activities excessively.

Neglecting self-care entirely.

Engaging in excessive or impulsive spending.

Here is a list of hobbies that are considered a coping mechanism if your MC does not have an unhealthy coping mechanism:

Dancing

Singing

Playing instruments

Cooking / Baking

Hunting

Forging weapons

Gardening

Painting

Writing

Reading

How many can I choose?

You can choose:

2 hobbies = 2 healthy coping mechanisms, mostly treated as hobbies

1 hobby + 1 unhealthy coping mechanism

1 hobby + 2 unhealthy coping mechanisms

Is this mandatory?

Your MC must have a hobby but they do not have to have an unhealthy coping mechanism.

Which unhealthy coping mechanism is the worst for each RO's route?

I'm not a fan of spoilers and I think it will be much more interesting to see for yourself later on.

Can MC have a pet?

Yes, MC gets a pet in Chapter 4.

Does MC have any powers or can they become a mage?

No.

*** Why is MC set on revenge in the beginning of the story?

MC lost their entire life at the hands of Luceris and then got forced into the role of the Royal Consort. It wouldn't make sense, to me (the author), if young MC didn't want any sort of retribution.

Can MC decide not to pursue revenge once they are older?

Yes.

Just to make sure, there is a path of revenge in this IF, right?

Please read the intro post and what I wrote above.

Quick answer: Yes.

So MC can kill Luceris as revenge?

Yes. This is the only possible death I will confirm so please do not ask me about the other characters.

Can MC do X, Y, and Z as a form of revenge?

Why don't you play and find out?

At least tell us if MC can romance Helios for revenge.

Yes, that will be possible.

If MC does that, can they also genuinely romance someone else?

No. The ROs are all on friendly-ish terms with each other and would not have that type of relationship with MC if they were playing around with Helios.

Remember, the routes WILL lock at some point, until then everyone is free game.

MC will be able to have flings / one-night stands in any route though.

Will any of the ROs support a vengeful MC?

Your first mistake was assuming they will know about MC's plans. MC can't go around telling everyone about what they want to do.

If they find out then some ROs will support them (I will not be saying which) but it also depends on the level of MC's revenge as majority of the ROs have a good moral sense.

...Will they at least still love MC even if they don't agree with MC?

Unfortunately for them, that is very likely. ;)

Moving on... who can we have a fling with?

The following list will be updated as characters are introduced:

Lord Eadred / Lady Eadith

The others have not been introduced yet!

Is romance mandatory?

No.

Can MC sleep with the ROs without having actual feelings for them?

It is possible to sleep with Soarine or Vincent without having any romantic feelings for them. This type of relationship is not available for the other ROs.

Does MC have to engage in [insert immoral things]?

No.

Isn't MC being the Consort of a grown man weird?

Yes, it is. People in the story do not think it is normal or acceptable.

It is supposed to make you feel uncomfortable.

For some reason a Luceris x MC romance sounds good...

Absolutely not. If you send me an ask with this type of content you will be blocked.

Is Luceris and MC's relationship considered abusive?

Yes.

Is Alistair really dead?

Yes he is. It is up to you if you want to believe me or not.

Can I call Hunter [insert gendered term]?

Sure but I will not answer asks in which they aren't referred as they/them. I don't want people to think they are a specific gender in my head.

Is Hunter really an RO?

Yes.

Then why is Hunter's route so angsty?

Wait and see!

Will MC have to confess to Hunter 24/7 to get them to like them back?

No, just show you care for them.

Does every route have angst?

Yes. Even the ones that are "easy." :)

Will there be cheating in the game?

No, none of the ROs will cheat on MC.

I do want to say that being involved with other people before MC and the RO get into a relationship is not considered cheating since they don't owe MC anything.

The same goes for MC, they can be involved with whoever they want until the relationship becomes official.

When do the routes lock?

Very late into the game, currently the plan is 2-3 chapters before the end of book 1 but each route will lock at different times.

When the routes lock, will MC and RO be in a relationship?

That depends on the RO. The only thing I can say is that feelings will be somewhat mutual.

Is NSFW allowed?

Yes.

When's the next update coming?

When it's ready!

Wait... Did I miss an update?

Please check the game's itch.io page and take a look at the posts. I will always post something to let everyone know about updates or other extra content.

You should add the game to your collection to receive notifications of posts.

Due to an update I had to restart the game for it to work properly, is there any way to avoid this?

This is a WIP so there will likely be instances where you will have to restart the game entirely for it to work properly and that is just the way it is. I would suggest for you to keep a save from earlier chapters as they are less likely to be modified.

When does MC become an adult in the main story?

As I mentioned before, MC is 20 in Chapter 3.

Can you add [customizable thing]?

You can suggest it but I can't promise anything.

Can we draw the characters and imagine them differently?

Yes, you can draw them.

Yes, you can imagine differently as long as it does not whitewash any characters. I don't want to see fair white pale skin Luceris/Helios/Fadiya/Hunter.

Yes, I've seen it before and hated it.

Can we write fanfiction?

Yes! I won't interact with it to protect myself so please don't send it to me.

Can we create other types of fanworks?

Yes!

You don't answer my questions.

Sorry! For a better understanding of what I answer and what I do not answer see my ask guidelines.

How would the ROs react to X, Y, and Z?

I'm guessing you didn't read my ask guidelines.

All the asks are very appreciated, but I'm afraid you will be disappointed if you send me these because I won't answer.

[Any theory]

I love reading them so keep them coming but I will no longer post them!

If you wish for others to see it and discuss it with you, I suggest joining the Official Discord Server.

This whole thing is problematic to me.

Great, this is supposed to have problematic elements and none of the characters are saints.

Why can't we choose [insert thing + complaining]?

Please write fanfiction or something else and do not come to me to complain.

Are Luceris and Lancelot just friends?

Stick around and find out.

Luceris or Lancelot romance route when?

They were adults when MC was a child. I would rather die than write that.

Luceris is a loser pedo!

He is a loser but not the latter. He doesn't find any children attractive. Hope that clears things up! :)

Well then... you're the pedo!

Please look up what that word means and stop throwing it around.

I don't like this.

Don't read it. :)

Can I give you [insert gift]?

It makes me extremely uncomfortable so I would prefer it if people didn't gift me things. If you wish to support me please do it through Ko-Fi, Patreon, or Itch.io donations.

[Any rude comment]

I don't care.

[Any praise or jokes]

I might not reply but I read all of them! Thank you for being here. 💗

That's all I can think of right now. This will be updated as I remember more.

Don't hesitate to send me asks that weren't answered here!

[restinslices]

My Problem With The Crows

Imma be fr, and some of y’all gonna think I’m tripping but Six of Crows should’ve never been merged with Shadow and Bone.

I love the crows. My favorite character in the entire show is Jesper and I genuinely think the Six of Crows duology is better than the Shadow and Bone trilogy. Everything about it was better to me. When I finished the S&B trilogy, I was happy. When I finished the SOC duology, I was sad because it was over. I was gonna miss my little pookie bears. That’s why it irritates me how their story is sped up in the show.

I get it. The show is called Shadow and Bone, so the story is mainly gonna focus on Alina. My thing is, why bring the crows if you couldn’t put a bunch of focus on them? Their story feels so rushed sometimes and I was honestly thrown off at some points. I feel like it doesn’t entirely work because the books take place years after Alina destroys the fold, so the things they do may not connect with her story. Season 1 they didn’t do much besides Nina and Matthias. They want Alina, they fail, they assist in a fight, that’s it. In season 2 Matthias stays in jail the entire time because they couldn’t do the actual plot of SOC because it’d be extremely rushed. Or maybe they didn’t do it so it didn’t take away attention from the S&B plot. To be honest, when I found out they were merging S&S and R&R, I wasn’t a huge fan. I was gonna say that if they spread it out, the ice court job could’ve been season 2 and Crooked Kingdom could’ve been season 3, but how much time passed in the books? In SOC Matthias has been in prison for at least a year I believe. That’s another problem, the timing has to match Alina’s story. They can’t do too much.

Also I didn’t like that Jesper and Wylan got together. I don’t mean this because I don’t think they’re cute. I love those two, but they get together towards the end of Crooked Kingdom. Them getting together so soon felt rushed and unnecessary. I guess they have the excuse of “oh, well they met before. They slept together” but lust and love are two completely different things. They had time to build up to this in the books. They’re cute in the show, but it don’t feel the same. The flirting, the teasing, the tension, the jealousy, I just feel like it would hit more if they weren’t together yet.

Also Pekka? In Crooked Kingdom, that man was a menace. How is he gonna be a menace if he’s locked up like Akon? He was a free man doing wild shit. He and Fuck Ass Van Eck turned Ketterdamn against the crows. Now I’m sure they’ll find a work around, but why do any of that when we could’ve just did the actual story? And honestly, I was shocked Kaz actually told Inej about his brother. Since we’re on that though, him defeating Pekka was so satisfying because we hated Pekka since SOC. We don’t know why Kaz can’t stand him in the first season, I’m pretty sure we find out in SOC but I could be wrong. I still think his downfall shouldn’t have been immediate.

It’s late and I got shit to do tomorrow so imma leave it here but I genuinely think they should’ve gotten their own show so they had proper pacing and time to shine. They shine even now but their own show would’ve ate.

[ofliterarynature]

JUNE 2024 WRAP UP

[loved liked ok nope dnf bookclub*]

The Language of Thorns • Transitions: A Mother's Journey* • Sipsworth • The Watchmaker of Filigree Street • Sunbringer • Someone You Can Build a Nest In • The Curse of Chalion • The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi • Heartstopper Vol 5 • Knit One, Kill Two • A Letter to the Luminous Deep

Slim numbers this month! But we had a few days off of work, and a couple of these were long -

The Language of Thorns (4 stars) - I don't really enjoy Bardugo's work anymore, but this survived my very first TBR poll by my interference because I love fairy tales and retellings! I think Bardugo had some cool stories, made some cool twists, the illustrations were nice to look at - I think she definitly has the structure of fairy tales down, but I don't think she quite has the language. I don't love her writing style, but it really doesn’t fit here all of the time. I'm still trying to decide if I want to keep it, but I think I'm leaning towards not. I don’t own it, but I also plan to read the Hinterland collection by Melissa Albert.

Transitions (3 stars) a graphic novel based on the real-life experiences of a mother coming to terms with her child’s transition. I could maybe see this being a helpful book for someone whose parent is also struggling, but it was a bit too short and occasionally abstract for me to really understand the mother’s behavior - we definitely struggled to find anything to talk about at the bookclub meeting.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (3.5 stars) - I wanted to like this more. I definitely liked parts of it, most of it even! I just really hated the entire Grace subplot and it dragged the rest of the book down for me. Also, major deja vu at the ending? I don't know why, I can't remember reading this before. Will probably read the sequel and more of the author’s work, but I'd love to read KJ Charles’ version of this.

Sipsworth (4 stars) - it was fine? But I was also bored enough on occasion that this really should only be 3 stars, and I only finished it because it was short. Overly sentimental.

Sunbringer (5 stars) - fun! Really wish I could have picked this up right after book 1, it gets right into things and I’d forgotten a bit more than I liked. I didn’t realize that this series was set up to be more than just a duology, so news on book 3 soon I hope!!!

Someone You Can Build a Nest In (4.5 stars) - also very fun, would recommend to fans of fairy tales if you don’t mind some gore and body horror.

The Curse of Chalion (4 stars) - did I love this to the bottom of my heart? No. Did it hold my attention and keep me entirely engaged! Yes! So overall I’d call it a great read, and I really need to get the next book(s) on my reading schedule.

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (5 stars) - WHAT a delight!!! Sailing ships, a reluctant hero, non-romantic relationships at the forefront, what’s not to love? I wish some of Amina’s friends had gotten a bit more development, but I also dearly love her and her terrible cringe-fail husband. While we wait for the next book I should go back and actually finish the author’s earlier series.

Heartstopper Vol 5 (5 stars) - also fun, and if I had more time I would have absolutely launched myself into a full Oseman read/reread (I wish her later novels had been released in the US when they first came out, but I’m glad we have them now!)

DNF

Knit One, Kill Two (4%) - the problem with cozy mysteries, especially with the slightly older ones, is that they tend to give strong vibes of having been written by women of a certain social class with certain views, and the writing just does not age well. Within 4% we got a conversation about dieting and calories and a tasteless comment about a homeless individual, and I was out.

A Letter to the Luminous Deep (31%) - this one’s been getting a lot of buzz, which, honestly, means it could have gone either way for me. It did not go, alas. The story was dragging, the back and fourth between timelines was frustrating, and the letters were not really convincing - if the siblings had set out to solve their siblings disappearance, maybe it would have had more pull, but it really felt like a lot of spilling your guts to a stranger and not much else. Too bad, because I do enjoy an unusual story structure if it works.

[aleksanderscult]

When I think of Zoyalai, I think, my god they could have been epic. If Zoya had stayed in line with what her character was in the original trilogy to actually be an anti-heroine by taking the female lead of the duology instead of LB's plot armor to make her perfect, I would surely would have loved a romance with her and Nikolai. I always saw great potential. And if only Nikolai had also remained this great, striking character of the trilogy instead of becoming this naive and borderline incompetent king of the duology, adoring Zoya to the point of giving her his fucking crown ? Seriously, why is this ?! They could have been great together ! Oh and also if LB hadn't spent the entire duology spitting on the Darkling by blaming him for all of Ravka's problems and shoving Malina's great happiness down our throats again. Frankly, a true Nikolai duology set a few years after the events of the trilogy is always appealing. But that's not what we got. What we got was a duology about Zoya being some kind of cheap copy of Daenerys Targaryen. (Rather ironic knowing that LB doesn't like Daenerys. That + the fact that LB doesn't like Mr Rochester from Jane Eyre makes her even more unbearable in my eyes as authors. Madam, you don't understand anything about Daenerys from ASOIAF, and you didn't understand anything about Mr Rochester from Jane Eyre. But at this stage, nothing surprises me about her anymore). In any case, if I had to name a couple that is everything Zoyalai should / could have been it's basically Manorian AKA Manon & Dorian from the Throne of Glass book series (my second favorite couple from this book series by the way) from Sarah J Mass. If one day you read this series you will surely understand what I mean. All this to say that at this stage of disgust for the duology I will probably sell it. Hoping to be able to erase without problems my old notes full of anger, in pencil, on certain pages dating back quite some time now... 😅

Not gonna lie, at first I liked the idea of this ship. But it lasted less than a month when I heard of their duology counterparts and what they have done and said.

For me, Nikolai and Zoya are full of words and words but no action. They threaten, whine and curse but, in the end, they do nothing. And the narrative solves it for them.

I never heard of Bardugo not liking Daenerys. I only know that she loved Sansa's character. So send me the link where she said that if you can.

I have no problem with Leigh as a person. But I have a problem with her as an author because she just isn't good at it. Writing isn't only the talent of writing beautiful, poetic lines but also to keep a coherent story and characters that develop throughout the story.

(and if you create a persecuted group of people do not throw them to the bin afterwards. Just a friendly advice for any aspiring authors out there)

And good for you if you decide to sell these books. With the money you'll gain you can buy something more... worthy to have.

[murasaki-cha]

So I just finished reading The Prisoners Throne Excerpt

*sharp inhale* *screams into the void*

AND I HAVE THOUGHTS PEOPLE!!!

First of all WHAT DID CARDAN DO!?!?!?!??! SERIOUSLY WHAT HAPPENED THAT WAS SO BAD THAT OAK THINKS THAT CARDAN WOULD ACTIVELY TRY TO KILL HIM!?!?! They were cool the last time we saw the so WTF!?!

Seriously this part got me so curious I won't be able to stop thinking about it for the next 3 months! Oak has so much hot family drama to spill!!

But moving on from that.

I love how we're finally exploring Oak's charming ability and how he starts doubting it himself if he really did subconsciously use them with Wren

And we got so many moments of Oak recalling his training with the court of shadows. He considers them all his friends and recalls those memories so fondly it was so sweet (he sounded more comfortable with them than when he recalled anything about Jude let alone Cardan apparently). That whole convo with the Ghost was especially adorable:

The Ghost/Garrett: How are your skills with the blade?

Oak: I'm eleven???

Also can we please talk about jealous Oak please! Like my boy, out of all the times and occasions! He's so desperate it's hilarious

Still in the OakWren train, this boy is so down bad it's pathetic. The way he waits for her even if it's just to command or scorn him, simply because he wishes to see her. Regretting every single thing he hid from and feeling like shit because he can't even apologise since she doesn't come see him. BRUTALLY ANNIHILATING that mechanical snake since it could have been going to poison Wren. Pleading to postpone his rescue just so he could talk to her.

Favorite part was when he recalled Wren's betrayed face after she found out the truth and going "Damn yeah I really do deserve to be in here locked up, still need to escape tho, but I deserve this."

Oh Greenbriar men, you and your love for evil women who you accidentally betrayed and kept you imprisoned. Alexa play Loverboy.

Loved that this entire paragraph (besides Cardan's vendetta against Oak WHICH IS KILLING ME) was just Oak going

Oak: Angry vengeful Jude? Yikes. Angry vengeful Wren? Yikes. Angry vengeful Jude and Wren against each other? We're doomed

And finally we at least now know where the ring from the cover came from!

Holly Black did say that an important element in the cover is how the ring is frozen in the brances, unmoving. I wonder if it's some kind of symbolism about Oak's inability to leave Weren, how he is trapped by her not only physically by the briddle, but emotionally too? That would be so cool

Tho this first chapter sneek peak gave me more questions than answers, I really enjoyed getting a feel of what the book would be like from Oak's pov (regretting, simping, scheeming and a whole lot of Keeping Up with the Greenbriar/Duartes). God I can't wait 3 more months I need this book in my hands now!!!

[axe8472]

I have thoughts in my brain about six of crows and they may or may not make sense. So. The thing is when people talk about how the crows couldn't possibly be 16-18 because they're overly mature and competent and have life experience etc etc. i get that BUT is that not the whole point? I mean the books really hammer it home that notions of childhood in their world are entirely different from ours, like to the point where i would even say it's a main theme and kinda the driving force behind all the events in the duology.

Kids are taken away from their parent at like 11 to train as soldiers. Kaz was all alone in Ketterdam at 9 years old and there doesn't seem to have been any functioning system of care for kids like him, nor mandatory schooling. In Fjerda, it seems like the closest thing to foster care is being taken on by the Druskelle. Inej started training as an acrobat pretty much as soon as she could walk and was playing starring roles in performances by the time she was 14 (and probably a fair bit younger). I don't remember Jesper's backstory perfectly but I think he was put to work in the jurda fields (a hazardous agricultural job) as a small child, then worked with guns in some way, then got sent to school in a different country when he was like 15. This isn't exclusive to the crows - it's mentioned a lot that there are many kids in situations similar to Kaz and Inej in the Barrel. Even Joost, despite seemingly being quite sheltered, is working full time night shifts as a guard when he's not even old enough to grow facial hair.

It seems that there's just much more of a vocational focus for kids/teenagers in the grishaverse. This makes a lot of sense because many elements of culture across the grishaverse countries come from the ~1800s when the attitude towards kids was that they weren't all that different from small, inexperienced adults, especially in working-class and rural settings where you just had to get on with things. Kerch especially took inspiration from victorian England, where kids as young as 9 could legally work up to 60 hours a week in dangerous conditions. So yeah that's kind of the whole point imo. It's especially interesting because I read the soc duology as a (potentially semi-unintentional?) criticism of capitalism. This is highlighted by the fact that Wylan, the only one of the crows from a rich background, is also the only one who had a childhood and got an education even vaguely comparable to what we would consider normal. So clearly the whole childhood innocence vs being put to work at like 4 thing is closely tied to class. (obviously Wylan did not have A Good Childhood but it seems from the books that the standard for merchers' kids is to give them a really good and varied education with 1-to-1 tutoring etc, which is very different from what all the other characters seem to have had as kids.)

And okay yeah they're unrealistically skillful and competent and just generally smart, but that would be the case even if they were adults. Like you kinda have to just take liberties with your characters of they'll never manage to do anything, especially in a world that's so hostile toward them. And it's actually kinda hard to even say how unrealistic their capabilities are because their experiences are so different from the experiences of real-life modern teenagers. Like kids are crazy adaptable and good at learning things, especially when they've had no other choice, and the crows actually mostly have quite a lot of experience and had time to develop their respective skills because they haven't spent 8+ hours a day in school for most of their lives. The same goes for the degree of adult-ness in their general behaviour - they're really quick thinkers and less likely to panic in a crisis than any teenager I've ever met. Again I'd say that's the whole point. The charaters are acting older than they have any right to because the experiences they've had have forced them to develop the capacity to do so.

Idk maybe i just read it differently to some people but yeah i think that cross-cultrually throughout the grishaverse children just have very very different experiences to kids in real life. It makes sense that they would then grow up to be very different from real-life teenagers, and obviously the crows are an extreme example of that but there is like. clear historical inspiration behind a lot of the crows' backstories and the general cultural backdrop of the duology. And the whole thing with the books is yeah they're doing all of this stuff and they're capable of these amazing things but actually they are literally children and they are doing all of it mostly for the sake of survival and taking back the things that they deserve from the world. And everything they've done for years and the people that they've become has all been for the sake of survival. And they're kids.

[jadedbirch]

LISTEN UP, QUEERS! I have finished the Radiant King Duology by Shelley Parker-Chan! I actually recced the first book in this series before. This is a spoiler free review of the sequel, but it can also stand as a review for the entire duology.

Going into a sequel after the first book sets a high bar can be so nerve-wrecking! Will it be as good? Will it give me all the things I was hoping for? Will it rip out my heart and feed it to the author's dog? Will it give me Completion and Nirvana?

The answer to all these questions in the case of this sequel is a resounding YES!

Now, I've read some other reviews on Goodreads and they were like "It's too dark!" and "These people are horrible!" And all I've got to say to those reviewers is "Yes, and???" If you've read "She Who Became the Sun", you should realize by the end of that novel that this is a world where horrible things happen, where decent people are put in situations where they choose to do awful things, sometimes to innocent people, and that the best we can hope for our "heroes" is that they get what they want in the end, no matter the cost.

If you're looking for uncomplicated characters with cut and dry motivations who only do The Right Thing™, you should look elsewhere. If, however, you're like me, and you like your queer disasters human and messy, then by all means - READ ON.

The stakes are high and the emotions are exquisite here. After all, it's a game of chess where the winner takes the throne. The pace is brutal and the action never stops. At one point there's an absolutely INSANE naval battle that doesn't even take place at sea, and there are lady pirates involved. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Parker-Chan keeps you guessing until the final pages (even though you know from the beginning how it's going to end because of History™) and delivers an ending so sublime and so transcendent, that I ALMOST don't want to write that reincarnation AU fanfic I've been thinking about since the first novel. Almost.

Yes, there's violence - the author has freely listed all their triggering content here - but the novel doesn't revel in it the way Game of Thrones did. Yes, horrible things happen. Yes, your heart will be broken. Probably more than once if you're like me and love these absolute disaster characters. But trust in the skill of this genius author to make it all worth it in the end.

This duology is an instant classic and a must read for anyone who likes queer literature. Especially queer literature that doesn't hold their queers to ridiculously high moral standards but lets them be deeply human and deeply fucked up. They love, they hate, they struggle, they suffer, they win, they lose, but we all triumph for it in the end 🙏💕🙌

[djkibrit]

During Which Months Did Persona 1 And 2 Duology Take Place?

It’s well known among fans of the series that the later entries take place during an entire school year, however the same can’t be said about the earlier games. The only confirmed information about the time frame that P1 and P2 occur is the year, but dialogue present in these entries and the characters’ birthdays allow us to stipulate a more precise date of when they took place.

Before starting, it’s important to be aware of how the school year in Japan is divided (I’m not Japanese and all the information I got is from the internet. So if you are more familiar with the system, feel free to correct me or to just talk more about it): The academic year in Japan starts from April and ends in March, having summer vacation in August (normally going from July 20 to August 31) and winter vacation in the end of December to the beginning of January (normally going from December 26 to around January 6).

-Obs: All of the dates that I have just mentioned are related to 2023/2024. I wasn’t able to find anything about it in 1996 or 1999. So take them with a grain of salt.

Persona 1:

List of the main cast birthdays + their ages:

April 09, 1979 - Yukino -  17

June 04, 1979 - Maki - 17

July 11, 1979 - Mark - 17

August 18, 1979 - Reiji - 17

September 21, 1979 - Eriko - 17

October 02, 1979 - Nanjo - 17

December 24, 1979 (it's a complete nonsense) - Protagonist IN THE MANGA - 17

January 01, 1980 - Brown - 16

March 03, 1980 - Ayase - 16

Analyzing the age of the characters, it can be assumed that the game takes place at the end of 1996 since Nanjo is already 17 when it occurs. However, the birthday date of the protagonist in manga, generates some inconsistencies: if taking this date into consideration, the game would take place between December 24, 1996 and December 26, 1996 - since, after that, the winter vacation starts. It could be hypothetically possible for the game to only last two days, however, considering that there are two routes and that most people believe that P1 happened during a whole week, I’m ignoring this date. With this, we can conclude that:

Persona 1 Probable Time Period: Between October 02, 1996 and December 26, 1996

Persona 2 Duology:

List of the main cast birthdays + their ages:

April 09, 1979 - Yukino - 20

February 14, 1982 - Jun - 17 

May 04, 1982 - Lisa - 17 

June 13, 1967 - Baofu - 32

July 04, 1976 - Maya - 23

July 27, 1981 - Tatsuya - 18 

September 21, 1979 - Eriko (P2:EP) - 20

October 02, 1979 - Nanjo (P2:EP) - 20

November 15, 1982 - Eikichi - 16 

November 30, 1974 - Ulala - 24

December 30, 1973 - Katsuya - 25

-Obs: If you want to know why I only used July 27, 1981 as Tatsuya’s birthday while ignoring August 21, 1981 (present in the SMT Wiki) as a possible date, there’s this post explaining it.

Let’s begin with Innocent Sin. Besides the age of cast, there’s another variable that needs to be taken into account: when the Grand Cross happened. In real life, this event occurred on August 18 1999 and, while, in Eternal Punishment, many NPCs mentioned that the Grand Cross had passed during the summer, we can’t be sure if it happened during this specific date due to one small thing: rumors becoming true. It could be very plausible that the Grand Cross in IS took place in a different time because it was influenced by rumors, while, in EP, the actual Grand Cross occurred as normal. That being said, I’m using August 18 1999 as the day that this event happened (only because I can’t even think of another date) since I don’t believe that the creators would change it.

Well, we found out the period of when the game ended so finding when it began should not be that difficult, right?... Oh, is August 18 during the summer vacation in Japan? And are there characters attending class both during the beginning as well the end of the game? Well… things just got a little bit more complicated. 

In front of this adversity, I have two prepositions. The first one depends on the assumption that the summer vacation in Japan used to happen during a different time frame in 1999 than the one we have now. With that, we can guess that the game starts around July 27, 1981 since Tatsuya would already be 18. On the other hand, the second one regards the vacation period of 1999 as the same one as the one of now. In this hypothesis, we can guess that the game began some time before July 20 as well that the Kasugayama School Festival happened on the last day of class. Personally, I’m putting the latter just because the former’s time frame is also included in it. With this, we can conclude that:

P2:IS Probable Time Period: Between July 12, 1999 and August 18, 1999

Finally, we can get into Eternal Punishment! After the many contradictions present in Innocent Sin’s time frame (Nyarly would be proud), discovering when EP takes place is going to be way easier and this is only possible due to the main cast’s birthdays along with their dialogue. 

First of all, it’s been confirmed by the creator that EP occurred some months after the Grand Cross, more specifically, during the autumn 1999. With that, we can take a closer look into one dialogue said by Nanjo in Parabellum a bit before going into Mt. Iwato: “Ms. Amamo, he is still a minor. I do not feel it wise to bring him to this kind of establishment… NO, I’m not being tense!”. For those unaware, the drinking age in Japan is 20 years old. Based on that, Nanjo becoming tense could be interpreted as him being nervous since he’s just recently turned 20. With that, it’s possible to presume that the game takes place after Nanjo’s birthday.

Another series of dialogue to take into consideration are of Ulala’s. During the entirety of the game, she is always stressing out that she’s turning 25 soon which indicates that her birthday has still not passed. With this, we can conclude that:

P2:EP Probable Time Period: Between October 02, 1999 and November 30, 1999

And now, we can say that this analysis is finished! Remember that this is only a personal theory of mine, done only because I couldn’t find any posts exploring the subject. Feel free to discuss your own opinions on the matter and to correct any errors I’ve made.

[eerna]

I think the big problem witht the fan service in TPT was that it was to throw in your face.Fan service is good when you fell natural but simultaneously you could tell that is fan service.I rolled my eyes at taryn divine punishment it felt like she gave the fans what they wanted since qon(the whole taryn didnt got a punishment was always funny to me they were acting like having locke as a husband wasnt one)

I understand why HB tried to please as much people she could with it since from what i saw even people who enjoyed her other faerie books weren't big fans of TSH.I agree with J and C don't make good mcs anymore thei arcs endet and most of their problems were solved in a good note.

TPT tried to be a lot of things at once:

1.Fan service

2.the conclusion of the story

3.a bridge for her undersea book

4.Romantasy( marketed like this)

And fails at being a good structured story.(for a book marketed like a romantasy the romance was so little and rushed at the end)

From what i saw a lot of people started hating wren after TPT wich i understand in a measure since she was so little and most of her scene were not in a favorable light.(shes still my fav Tsh character and i love her but her arc was practically non-existent)

I enjoyed oak a lot maybe bc im a sucker for his type of character but i think it could have been done more with his character.

I don't know how a undersea book in jurdan pov will be but i dont think it would be a good one since what they will narate especially in the undersea!

Yeah, you laid it out very well. I am NOT above fanservice. I friggin love the stuff. Case in point: the way I was SO INSANELY HYPED for TPT because they promoted it with Madoc household content which are words to my heart. But the issue is when the fanservice overshadows everything else. Case in point: Wren becoming a side character in her own duology so that Oak's main storyline can happen with Jude. I legit can't blame anyone who hates her after TPT because oh my god her writing was SO BAD in that second book. You can't just have your character do the vilest cruelest thing in the world to her love interest and then remove her from page and later say that she was just manipulated and blackmailed into being mean and is ready for love now. Imagine if the everapple scene happened and then Balekin convinced Cardan to give him an oath of allegiance that kept Cardan on Madoc's side for the rest of the plot except for romance scenes and then in the end he and Jude still got together. BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED TO WREN. Well not exactly because she had a POV book first BUT YOU GET WHAT I MEAN.

Even the Oak-Jude storyline was not all it could have been. HB tried to give them a similar dynamic that Madoc and Jude had, where Oak isn't sure if Jude truly loves him and if she would sacrifice him if she suspected he worked against her. But there is no real tension because we KNOW Jude would never do that because like. That's the entire point of TFotA. I think that Oak slowly growing to resent his family was a fantastic concept, but the book barely gave it any screentime before it was solved. It's like HB didn't want to do anything too uncomfortable because this time around she would have to make Jude and Cardan his problematic parental figures, and that goes against every single rule of fanservice. So we get the worst of both worlds: Oak is a messed up kid doing very self destructive things that Jude is responsible for, but we can't explore them or treat them as very bad because that would make Jude look bad, and who wants to read a book about their fave girlboss accidentally ruining her baby brother's life? (Me I do oh my god I was looking forward to it so much I am still heartbroken)

There's still hope that the Undersea book won't be Jurdan POV, and I am manifesting it so much, because you're so right I have 0 confidence that I would like it.

(Marrying Locke was all the punishment Taryn needed fr. Rest in pepperoni loser)

[gardenofbookworms]

april's monthly: from bee and rose

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

▪︎ adventure/fantasy novel ▪︎

everyone wants something—money, revenge, freedom, love, risk, recognition—tangible or otherwise. but how far are you willing to go for it? how many rules are you willing to break, how many things are you willing to risk, how many people are you willing to lose? is it all worth it, in exchange for what you long for most?

kaz brekker certainly has the will. a cold-blooded thief to the end, he’s known as dirtyhands on the streets of ketterdam, the dirty and crowded kerch capital. there’s absolutely no job he won’t take—anything for the right price. money and greed are his gods, and the revenge they’ll get him, brick by brick, is what he craves above all else. he’s willing to do anything to get what he wants, even break into the world’s most impenetrable safe in its most impenetrable fortress in its harshest, iciest, strictest country—and steal the world’s most valuable man.

it's an impossible job; but then again, kaz makes everything impossible, possible. but of course there’s a hitch; this time, he has to rely on other people to get what he wants. desperate people, people willing to risk their lives for the grand prize—four million kruge each. to kaz, that’s everything he needs to burn his enemies’ world down. to his crew, it's a ticket out of the city—to freedom.

enter inej, the best spider ketterdam has to offer, desperate to pay off her contract and leave the city. nina, a grisha struggling to survive an ocean away from home. jesper, a risk-addicted gambler trying to keep it all together. wylan, a runaway with a gift for chemistry. and matthias, an escaped convict desperate to return home to his beloved fjerda and see to it that nina is dead. there's only a very small chance the crew makes it out alive with their prize. most likely, they’re all going to die—and worse, without being paid.

▪︎

from bee

this book has been on my list for a very, very long time. when i finally got off my ass and read it last year, rose was so excited because they had read it a while before me already. like they’re about to say, there are a zillion good quotes for reference material, and we even use them a lot ourselves.

but about the book itself? soc got me into the “group of rivals band together with a common goal” trope. the way bardugo goes about it is just perfect—it seems that everyone is involved with something unfathomable. and as much as they want to stick to their morals to get past it, the road is tricky (and of course they can't walk it alone). and a note about the character’s pasts: they don't feel made-up, as outlandish as they seem when you boil them down. they're complex and thought through and diverse and give the characters something solid to run towards or away from. all in all, an amazing start to an amazing series.

from rose

by the time i made it to, say, halfway through the book, i was absolutely in love with the story—the characters, the plot, the witty humor, everything. and as much as i love the author, none of her other books have quite lived up to the amazingness of this duology. bardugo writes with suspense that will make it literally impossible to put the book down, even if you’re rereading. the wit and humor of the characters is insane; their banter is so much fun to read, and, if you’re like me and love throwing little references into conversation, there is so. much. material. to go off of. and a little side note to bee—jesper is a gay goat lover and there is nothing you can say to change my mind.

i first heard about this book in a very dark little corner of the internet, when a few mutuals read it (together?) and posted about it. it was at least a few months before i actually got around to finding a copy and reading it, but i have never been more grateful for that dark little corner than i was then (okay, so that’s not entirely true, but still).

▪︎

bonus: spotify playlist!

[grishaverse-chaos]

Zoya for the ask game <3 (I'd love to hear your opinions on my favorite character)

omg tysm for the ask! (and to anon who also suggested zoya, sorry it took me so long to get round to it 😭)

why I like them: honestly she's just so fucking iconic, but I love how she's amazing and badass while not being one-dimensional! like she has flaws and she has trauma and insecurities and none of that takes away from her positive traits!!

why I don't: idk I feel like she has some ideas that I would disagree with - I haven't re-read the books in a while but I always got the vibe that she's pretty pro-military and particularly in favour of the second army. and like I get it! fun light-hearted fantasy books are not obligated to deconstruct entire social systems! but if I met her irl I think we'd argue about it lmao

favourite episode/scene: I love the scene in s2 where she agrees to ally with alina! I think it's really sweet and shows her character development

favourite season/movie: in terms of the books, I think she's best in the kos duology - as fun and iconic as she is in the s&b trilogy I think the backstory and development she gets in the later books really enhances her character

favourite line: oh this is so niche but “none of this had been fated; none of it foretold. there had been no prophecies of a demon king or a dragon queen, a one-eyed tailor, heartrender twins. they were just the people who had shown up and managed to survive. but maybe that was the trick of it: to survive, to dare to stay alive, to forge your own hope when all hope had run out. for the survivors then, zoya whispered to herself as the people before her knelt and chanted her name. and for the lost.”

I love the theme of fate/destiny vs free will in the grishaverse and this is honestly one of my all-time favourite quotes - I'm actually considering having part of it as my yearbook quote!

favourite outfit: ooooh I love her outfit for the shu han heist in s2 (although obviously, honourable mention to the blue ribbon™ just for being iconic)

otp: see my answer is different for fanon and canon. in canon I adore zoyalina, in fanfic I love zoyalai!

brotp: zoya and genya are literally the BEST friendship duo ever (although I also low-key ship them romantically). zoya and nina are not necessarily a good friendship but I love analysing their dynamic so they get an honourable mention anyway. oh and her cousin lada, the girl liliyana adopts - we barely see them interact but I think they would have had such a cute dynamic!!

headcanon: she's a cat person. this is actually true and accurate bc I say so. she 100% owns cats post-canon

unpopular opinion: she shouldn't have become queen at the end of row. as iconic as it is, I can't help but think that it would backfire politically, it'd have negative consequences for her relationship with nikolai, and it kind of sets back both characters' development. this feels too harsh but idk 😭😭 might write a longer post about it at some point

a wish: for her and nikolai to fix the issues in their relationship. bc yes, I think in canon they have Issues™ but this is a fixable problem! she just needs to stop putting him up on a pedestal!!

an oh-god-please-don't-ever-happen: imagine if she actually did become darkling 2.0 lmao. it'd never happen bc I think leigh bardugo would never do that, but it would be absolutely awful

5 words to best describe them: complex, iconic, motivated, forceful, lonely

my nickname for them: idk sometimes I call her z/zee in my head (and project this fact onto other characters who I think would do the same)

give me a character and I will answer...

[fatalwhims]

i am going to ramble about Heart of the Sun Warrior into the void in hopes that someone will actually browse the tags and join me because i need to gush about this book through incoherent rambles

Wow how do I put into words how this book (and duology) made me feel?? Tan had me guessing throughout the entire book about who would be endgame. Just when you think the scale tips one way, she follows it up with a tender scene with the other boy (?? ok technically man, but we’ll affectionally say boy because they are my boys). It swung back and forth so much that tbh I got frustrated at one point and legitimately thought that Xingyin wouldn’t end up with either. 

With Wenzhi’s last scene in DOTMG I had a feeling that he would be endgame. So I’m surprised that even with that feeling, I was so unsure throughout the entire book. With Xingyin + Wenzhi’s conversation before the final battle and the finality of the word “Friends” and Xingyin’s monologue: “a part of me mourning the end of something precious, that never truly had a chance to begin”, I thought that was it. I convinced myself that the “I love you” when he died was just her speaking in the moment. Yes it was a truth, but not the truth. And with Wenzhi dead I didn’t think there was any chance that she would end up with him in the end.

Unless he was reborn as a mortal. Which brings me to the ending... oh the ending. It was such a beautiful resolution. What a way to bring Wenzhi and Xingyin back together, but also involve Liwei. With his death, I thought the only way Wenzhi + Xingyin would end up together was if he was reborn as a mortal and she found him. But to have Liwei send him down so that he could regenerate his immortal self, to do this out of love for Xingyin to see her be happy...we love to see growth! And not just growth of Liwei, but also Xingyin in her decision to wait for the elixir of immorality. It’s the classic tale of an immortal falling in love with a mortal and having to watch them die and then find them again in each new life. Tbh it’s a tragic curse, but there was so much joy in Xingyin’s thoughts as she describes all the moments that they would share together, that it filled me with hope instead (that and the fact that it shouldn’t be centuries hopefully). And the resolution really comes full circle with Chang’e and Houyi’s circumstances. 

My thing with love triangles is that I feel like the author can sometimes force their resolution by just writing out the one who isn't chosen by giving them less screen time. For a while I felt like that's what Tan had done. Liwei just didn't have as many opportunities as Wenzhi here to prove himself or do something for Xingyin. Wenzhi had the pivotal role of getting the scroll from his father and then casting the enchantment, which was the key part that tethered them together and allowed for the sacrifice. Liwei was imprisoned for part of the novel. Etc. Etc. But as I thought more about Wenzhi's death and how he gave his life for her and thus his crown, I realized that Liwei could have given up his crown too. Ok yeah, it's easier for Wenzhi to do that when he knows it's a choice of life or death. Maybe if Liwei was tasked with the same decision to save her, he would give up that duty as well (tbh he probably would). BUT in the aftermath, when he still wouldn’t make the choice and help her heal... when he still believed that she would be able to live there, despite how much he could sense her hurting, that was when I knew that Liwei just couldn't choose her over everything. And he admits it when they meet for the final time. I guess all this to say that, I’m glad that Liwei did have his chances and his choices and that he wasn't just written off as shitty guy.