cow-friends

[cow-friends]

[cow-friends]

Dealer: j got this new strain 💯 it’s called, “thanergy link to your daughters longsword” 😳🔥 gonna be blitzed off your titz

Me: whatever man I don’t feel shit

5 minutes later: dude I swear I saw some bitch in a hazmat suit at the bottom of that glass coffin

My girl Harrow, pacing: the eggs you gave me all died and you lied to me

[cow-friends]

One really subtle, fun thing about the locked tomb is how they talk about “generalist” necromancy.

Judith says in Cohort Intelligence Files that Abigail’s necromancy is “generalist,” though we later find out her real skill lies with spirits. No matter how true it is, this is one of a few things in CIF that paint Abigail as a less-than-stellar necromancer (another one is the idea that her political power is what sets her apart from the others).

So “generalist” necromancy is seen as less advanced than a specialization, like Harrow’s in bone or Ianthe’s in flesh.

You don’t see a ton of that in fantasy media. In A:TLA, normal benders like Katara, Toph and Zuko are far less powerful than Aang, because he can bend all four elements. In Aurora (my favorite ever webcomic that you should all read), Erin has more prestige than any other living mage because he can do every type of magic. The Owl House shows wild witches like Eda, who do multiple kinds of magic, to be outlaws and outcasts. I could go on.

The reason fantasy authors do this is because they want to present magic as a skill/ability, whether it’s inherent or learned. It’s like sports or an instrument: the more you practice, the more things you can do, and the more things you can do, the better you’re considered.

And that’s the big difference between these examples and the Locked Tomb: instead of a skill to learn, TLT presents necromancy as an academic field.

In academia, specialization (like a college major, or being a specific kind of doctor) is common and expected. You’re encouraged to dive deep into one area of expertise, rather than being a jack-of-all-trades. That’s what necromancy is.

“Yes, Pent is a ridiculously powerful political force and talks to ghosts on a regular basis, but she’s a generalist. Not like Ianthe, who’s good at flesh magic!”

It’s really subtle, but it adds to the tonal blend of sci-fi and fantasy that helps make TLT so cool.

[cow-friends]

They both think they are the guard dog.

[cow-friends]

that being said I'm not actually always opposed to conflict free fluff I am just opposed to the characters having their claws filed down for it. you can stick them in a coffee shop au it should just still feel like you sat the two worst most insane people on earth in a starbucks

#yes i want to read this please

[cow-friends]

when our backs are to the wall and our towers are falling all around us and we are watching ourselves burn, we rarely become heroes.

. . .

messing around with some ideas for locked tomb movie posters… i gave up on trying to capture the whole scifi-fantasy-horror-romance-mystery-comedy-thriller vibe and settled for…. this lol

not coming to a theater near you…

[cow-friends]

this girl can fit so many girls in her.

[cow-friends]

Gideon book one/Gideon book three

[cow-friends]

Connected through our sins

[cow-friends]

im back!!!

Id really like to take this account more seriously but i have no idea how tumblr works lmao

[cow-friends]

think my favourite part of Harrow the Ninth is that there's a bit where she gets hit in the face so hard she loses a bunch of teeth, then uses the fragments of her own shattered teeth to explode a man's eyeballs - and it never gets mentioned by anyone discussing the book because in a few pages there's a soup scene that is Very Much Worse.

[cow-friends]

I wanna say john must have been gay to lock a beautiful monster girl up for 10 thousand years but I know for a fact he was bisexual that whole time so all I can say is john gaius you fucked up you blew it you fumbled the bag and I would treat your girlfriend right

[cow-friends]

a watched pot never boils so i'm just alternating between looking at and away from this pot so i can edge it

[cow-friends]

this is how you lose the time war 💙⏳❤

#tihylttw

[cow-friends]

I love love love the moment in Gideon the Ninth where the Third challenges the Sixth in a clearly unfair move, and Gideon, half-on-instinct, still faking a vow of silence, simply unsheathes her sword, at which Harrow doesn't miss a beat and says her "The Ninth House will represent the Sixth House" line, while Gideon just smiles.

In Gideon's head this is "I am not standing for this shit anymore. For the love of God, Harrow, please understand what I'm doing and back me up here. Oh thank fuck you've got it. I'm so happy I could kiss you."

In Harrow's head this appears to be "For fuck's sakes, Nav, what do you think you're doing. Ok, think. Can't give anything away. Have to project unity, but fuck you, Griddle, for making me do this."

But for everyone else this is the legendary, mysterious, terrifying, bone magicians of the Ninth House, with no warning, stepping between the Sixth and the Third. The skull-faced cavalier who hasn't said a single word simply drawing her sword. The shockingly powerful and inscrutable necromancer matter-of-factly declaring an alliance that no-one, even the supposed allies, knew about. The sinister smirk on the cavalier's face. And the line from Harrowhark: "Death first to vultures and scavengers."

I love it so much and I love additionally the moment that this sets up in the climax, which is essentially the same emotional beat, the key changes being 1) both Harrow and Gideon have become open and vocal with each other; 2) both Harrow and Gideon are working together consciously as well as instinctively; 3) their opponents don't back down so they follow through. "Nav, show them what the Ninth House does." "We do bones, motherfucker."

[cow-friends]

Please undo what I’ve done, Lord. I will never ask anything of you, ever again, if you just give me back the life of Gideon Nav.

—

The Descent of Gideon Nav, inspired by the statue El descendimiento by Virginio Arias ✨ Prints are available here! ✨

[cow-friends]

i want to stain someone so throughly that if you put their soul in water it’d leech my color out into its surroundings. i want to mark someone deep enough that they can only see the world cast in my light