#francis crawford

[thecrenellations]

I love this image of them facing each other, and there’s just … so much that’s true and untrue in his statement.

Marthe is correct: Francis ran off with her girlfriend and the Dame de Doubtance was more than okay with it.

Now, however, he’s been stopped from returning to Russia/Güzel BY MARTHE, so he sure doesn’t have her anymore! Neither sibling does.

Güzel had him - he was the jewel in her jewel box. He chose to go with her in order to ensure the PiF crew’s safety. He didn’t know if he would survive when he made that promise, and he didn’t want to survive. He only started sleeping with her after being faced with the fact that she was harming someone else in his place. He didn’t love her, he’s in love with someone else, and she sent him Gabriel’s dead body in a sarcophagus.

It’s not like Marthe knows the details of that. It’s been nearly four years. He still stole her girlfriend, right after the turning point in their relationship as siblings, right after she helped him heal with shared poetry.

They’re no jewel and jewel box, but you know whose relationship is also messed up? Marthe and Jerott’s. <3

As Marthe points out soon, she has Jerott! She completed the dysfunctional swap, and they’re still married … so does she arguably have more than Francis has?

Speaking of marriage, Francis is currently married to the person he’s in love with who loves him back and is perfect for him and — yeah okay this whole book is about how much of a mess that is. But still.

AND TRULY. From Marthe’s perspective, her little brother has always had all she does not, for the arbitrary reasons of legitimacy (lol) and gender. She has known this her entire life. And the reader learns that her life will end in place of his, the catalyst to his happiness and meaningful future. This exchange is about Güzel, but even discounting her, as complicated and traumatic as his own life has been, Francis’s statement is laughable.

“the palms of his hands, yielding and empty” … Is there nothing in the cup for me? 😭

He says this mere seconds after kissing her husband and making him bluescreen. Francis….

And as always, I may be wrong and I’m sure there’s even more …

#on the cheeks and Philippa did it it too but … also by the end of the night Jerott’s going to ask if he can return to fight with him again #beating even Marthe’s prediction of the next morning #oh NO the next morning! yikes! #anyway #I love these two #crawford siblings forever #marthe #francis crawford #lymond #checkmate #lymond chronicles spoilers #something i #now I’m just thinking of them continuing to poke at each other about guzel and jerott WHILE MARTHE IS PRETENDING TO BE A GHOST #and also being possessed #but the marriage/mistress sniping coming from that chair is all her #but also she wants the best for him! in a way! her methods and advice are awful sometimes! But she does! #sometimes they’re even more brilliant than awful #and then when camille is cursing him he warns her against harming marthe … I love that too #they really could have had it all #(a less antagonistic relationship)

[cesaray]

#currently reading #the lymond chronicles #francis crawford #kate somerville #dorothy dunnett #the disorderly knights

[unhelpfulfemme]

So I mentioned on another post that this Lymond reread I was paying explicit attention to who Francis touches and how often because of Jerott's Checkmate claim that he's surprised by Francis's hug because he usually never touches people.

I am now at the end of DK and that's just not true.

A somewhat tangential thing I'd like to mention is how generally more open to people Francis is at the beginning of the series - especially QP and DK when everything is more or less right in his personal life - compared to the later books. He's often friendly or teasing or flirty and perhaps even gets into people's personal space more than many of the other characters. And I mean earnestly friendly, like openly happy to see people or plainly talking about what he thinks or feels with them, not in a sarcastic, guarded, half-ironic way.

SPOILERS UNDER CUT

The people he casually touches, like puts his hand on their arm or takes their hand or puts his hands on their shoulder(s) are Sybilla, Richard, Tom Erskine, Will Scott, Christian Stewart, Phelim O'Liamroe, Thompson the pirate and most importantly Jerott himself, REPEATEDLY, during his time on Malta. In fact, there's a scene where he takes Jerott to show him something by looping his arm through Jerott's own for absolutely no reason except that he feels like it. (I also very distinctly remember that he touches Philippa casually several times in PiF but I'm not at that part yet)

Similarly to this, my mostly PiF-based statements about Lymond not flirting with Jerott don't hold true for this part of the series: he actually flirts with Jerott as much if not more than he does with Will Scott in the early parts of DK, I'd just forgotten about it because PiF overwrote that part of my brain.

It appears that at some point he gets the message that Jerott isn't engaging in Lymond's favourite game of "you mouth off at me and then I give you a tongue lashing and then I give you the fuck of a lifetime and in this way convince you to agree with me and become sweeter and more obedient" but that he genuinely disapproves of Lymond and is genuinely religious, so he stops with the flirty statements.

However, then this happens:

Which is where I think Jerott gets the idea from - he expects a farewell hug from Lymond alongside the warm words but doesn't get it.

But he DOES get something much rarer, though I'm not sure he realizes!

A blush. Which is really fucking something, because Francis almost never blushes.

This is an unrelated thing I've been paying attention to for several reasons (I have an eye on drawing the characters and also I wanted to better sort out my Kuzum/Khaireddin parentage thoughts), and Francis a) doesn't have skin that's prone to a lot of flushing or blushing or reddening (actually he tans easily while Gabriel, for example, burns under the same conditions, and also rarely flushes under exertion, unlike, again, Gabriel who does so easily) b) he literally only flushes once again before he falls for Philippa: it's in a post-coital scene with Güzel and his face is actually red from laughter (at his own joke lol) and not emotion. And then he blushes with surprising frequency and all of it is Philippa-related: he blushes when Philippa lowkey hurts his ego with her banter or points out his womanizing, he blushes when he finds her in his bedroom to give him a piece of her mind after the party he throws in Paris, he blushes when John Dee reads his mind and implies that he now knows that he wants Philippa, he blushes at the end of Checkmate when Sybilla gives him a once-over while he's standing in front of her half-naked after clearly having spent two days fucking Philippa.

So I think he's into Jerott quite a lot, actually? He's just backed off because Jerott is such a cunt to him. So probably he stops touching him because he feels disgustingly lecherous about it, as he does with Philippa later. And when does he start touching him again, to Jerott's marked surprise? Once he falls for Philippa and presumably doesn't care for Jerott that way anymore.

Actually, except for Philippa, this is actually the most evidence we get of Lymond being into someone, I think. Like we get WAY less for Oonagh, for example.

I've always headcanoned him as probably having had a crush on Jerott as a teen, just based on how he reminisces about him, but I think he actually likes him a lot as an adult too? And it's really been clicking into place for me during this DK reread where perhaps earlier I found DK!Jerott too obnoxious to notice hah.

#lymond chronicles #francis crawford #jerott blyth

[semicolonsandsimiles]

I felt compelled to make a more complete and accurate version of this Venn diagram, so. Here it is.

#if you saw this earlier no you didn't #(i made the background white so now it should be easier to read when you embiggen) #with help from thecrenellations and sophosthewisebunny #also honorable mention to “can't keep apologizing” #lion hunters #the winter prince #medraut #queens thief #eugenides #the lymond chronicles #lymond #francis crawford

[anirbols]

a quick franics crawford of lymond sketch.... or should i say voevoda bolshoia? im reading the ringed castle right now so that's the lymond im envisioning.

#francis crawford of lymond #lymond #francis crawford #the lymond chronicles #dorothy dunnett #trc #fanart #game of kings #the ringed castle

[evenaturtleduck]

Realized while reading The Game of Kings how many of my favorite fictional guys, ever since I was a kid, are fancy and dramatic blondes who have carefully convinced everyone they're untrustworthy, either by reason of being airheaded or wicked or both, but turn out to actually be clever and heroic and at least a little fucked up. Like yes, please cause problems on purpose sir ❤️

#francis crawford #lord peter wimsey #sir percy blakeney #howell jenkins #laurent of vere #just off the top of my head #favorite books #currently reading #howl pendragon

[bellaroles]

I guess I went overboard with the disco vibe but this scene mood is very unhinged as it is and I have so much fun laughing while doing the coloring so.

Leave it be I did lol.😂

#francis crawford #lymond #the lymond chronicles #the game of kings

[lymondchronicles]

Cossack on duty (portrayal of 16th–17th century), painting by Józef Brandt

#The Ringed Castle #dorothy dunnett #francis crawford #lymond chronicles #cossack

[allthefoolmine]

Dunnett and Word Choice

And for Crawford of Lymond, now parting the flat waters of the Nor’ Loch like an oriflamme in the wake of the boat.” (the Game of Kings, p.2)

Hey, fellow Dunnett fans of tumblr, did you also not know the meaning of the word “oriflamme”, and skip over this sentence? When I read this for the first time I took absolutely no notice of it. I’ve just started to reread the Lymond chronicles and guessed “oriflamme” meant something like “spearhead.” On a whim, I looked it up—

oriflamme (noun): a banner, symbol, or ideal inspiring devotion or courage (via Merriam-Webster)

!

#dorothy dunnett #the lymond chronicles #lymond chronicles #lymond #francis crawford #things that astonish and delight me #the fool’s award for foreshadowing in one word #a fool rereads the Lymond Chronicles

[thecrenellations]

Silence, broken by three golden notes of a lute: her own, she remembered, left on the bottom step. She said, "If you play, please go on. Music's my joy and my obsession."

Christian Stewart and her mysterious prisoner; Christian Stewart and her friend.

A moment from The Game of Kings and a childhood memory, drawn for @semicolonsandsimiles for Candy Hearts Exchange!

#the game of kings #christian stewart #francis crawford #lymond chronicles #lymond #something i #my art now #lymond art

[cesaray]

#<knowing that they were about to have a particularly disagreeable afternoon> #currently reading #the disorderly knights #the lymond chronicles #dorothy dunnett #francis crawford #richard crawford

[unhelpfulfemme]

The more I rotate Richard and Francis Crawford in my head the more I appreciate that their personalities actually have the same exact blueprint of "die-hard loyalty and a sensitive romantic soul wrapped in a thick layer of emotional withdrawal, avoidant tendencies, and propensity towards burying oneself in work", it's just that one comes in the "firm and rock-steady!" flavour and the other in the "flighty and dynamic!" flavour.

Their relationship styles are both best described with the word "uncommunicative", and yet they are uncommunicative in fascinatingly opposite ways.

And it's especially funny that they're both in love with vivacious strong-willed women who come to the conclusion that the only way to get their husbands to communicate or express genuine emotion is to dramatically provoke them into some kind of outburst. To which the men reply by first attempting to escape, and then eventually by being drawn into the argument. (And obviously the argument is about him being too high-handed and not involving her in his thought process and making all his decisions unilaterally.)

#lymond chronicles #francis crawford #richard crawford #what a shitty family i love them

[semicolonsandsimiles]

Five drabbles expanding on canon conversations between Lymond and Chancellor.

#the lymond chronicles #francis crawford #diccon chancellor #my fic #lymond

[cringeworms]

I haven't posted any Hannibal + textpost memes lately, let's fix that

#hannibal #nbc hannibal #will graham #hannibal lecter #francis dolarhyde #jack crawford #jimmy price #brian zeller #hannibal memes #hannibal textpost #hannigram #hannigram memes #hannibal nbc #hannibal series #hannibal tv

[mushbuzz-do-not-repost]

The Roaring Twenties

They are real sharks.

Art reference: The Great Gatsby

#hannibal #hannibal nbc #hannibal fanart #hannigram #hannibal lecter #will graham #alana bloom #jack crawford #francis dolarhyde #illustration #art

[bellaroles]

I want to post them again without the tree.

Francis and Philippa.

Art by me.

#lymond #dorothy dunnett #francis crawford #philippa somerville #book fan art #the lymond chronicles