#la passe miroir spoiler

[justarandomllamacorn]

I was reading a book when at the end, when everything is resolved (or rather on the way to be okay) one of my favourite characters was overpowered by the villain. The villain transformed into him and the only one who realized that is the little mute girl who doesn't know sign language and isn't even in physical form because her power allows to "walk" away from her body when she sleeps.

And I was so shocked I tried to leave a comment below the chapter, as you do. But guess what? It's a physical book. There is no comment section at the end of the chapter!!!

#what happened #christelle dabos #if you hear me #why😭 Renard 😭😭 #la passe miroir spoiler #la passe miroir #for a second i really looked at the bottom to leave a comment #and then I bugged #this is what happens when you read online so often and become used to correspondence with the authors #it used to happen before too like with Sherlock Holmes and sir Arthur Conan Doyle #people would send him letters #i can't believe i searched the comment section 🤦‍♀️ #reading #physical books #online reading #ao3 #webtoon #and so much more #so here i am sharing my shookism with the void

[dekirufran]

SPOILER MIRROR VISITOR BOOK 2

#spoiler #la passe miroir #the mirror visitor #la passe miroir fanart #thorn x ophelie #ophethorn #fanart #christelle dabos

[child-of-hurin]

Hello!

Would you mind if I asked you to confirm some things, since you've read the Mirror Visitor Quartet in its original French? I've been thinking about the 'maternal/paternal God' themes and was wondering if in the original French, The Other is gendered as male, as he is in the English translation? And also, whether on that scene on the wall where Ophelia is talking to Agatha, whether they refer to their mother in the equivalent French term of 'mommy', or is it something else?

Thank you in advance!

The Other IS referred to as male -- I think it's pretty!! Significant! That both the Other and God, as personas/facets of Eulalie, are referred to in the male... There's something fascinating to me about the way this book is discussing (the failure and absence of) motherhood, though I never quite manage to articulate it... It's very compelling! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic if you have any! But there is something about the repetition of this theme in: Berenilde's motherhood issues, Roseline who's infertile, Ophelie who's also infertile, Eulalie who's... infertile... The whole state of Anima which is run by the driest mother figures you can imagine, Artemis included...

Paralleled with the characters who seem to be dealing with their own mother issues, from the perspective of children: Thorn, Octavio, Elizabeth, Farouk --- and ofc Ophelie herself...

Back to the Other, isn't it kind of interesting that the one child who manages to escape him is gender-fluid Janus? I wonder if that's gonna jump out to me in some way when I reread book 4, I can't wait!

#i was gonna post this privately but maybe if i post it other people will feel invited to share their thoughts #la passe miroir #lpm spoilers #the mirror visitor #i love the sheer amount of failed mothers in this book... it feels like a treat to me specifically #I also love the sheer amount of women who simply can't or won't be mothers even when the situation calls for it #still can't tell if these books are actually good or just sososososo juicy... which amounts to the same in my book tbqh #suchira

[pristina-nomine]

Ophélie et Eulalie

#I still have like half a dozen of these in my drafts - that I made back in january as coping after tome 4 aha #anyway I’ll bite. I don’t think this specific plot point was developed enough #or at least I was super curious about it and wanted more of it *shrugs* #la passe miroir #moodboards #ophelie la passe miroir #eulalie la passe miroir #lmp spoilers #l'attraversaspecchi #the mirror visitor #lpm edits #la tempête des échos #la mémoire de babel

[amoralmorel]

Ok in hindsight I should have known i was aro when i got SO MAD that Ophélie and Thorn like,,,,,actually had romance. I got so pissed abt something so clearly telegraphed bc i was rooting so hard for platonic marriage ophethorn.

#she slapped him that one time and i was like whew crisis averted they will Never Have Feelings for eachother again #Lmao dumb bitch (14 y/o me) #im normal now god bless #i rlly do like them together but good god damn was i MAD #la passe miroir #la passe miroir spoilers #the mirror visitor #The mirror visitor spoilers #(idk just in case)

[blocksnbeetles]

thorn at the end of book 2:

#a10 rambles #the mirror visitor #la passe miroir #la passe miroir spoilers #the mirror visitor spoilers

[clem-l-orange]

my long essay about why Babel is such an interesting ark and deserves to be explored more

(Prefacing this by saying I read the books in French, so if I make any mistakes I apologize, French is also my first language so I may make some mistakes)

SPOILERS FOR BOOKS 3 & 4 AHEAD!!!!

We are introduced to the Ark of Babel in book 3 of La Passe Miroir when Ophelia escapes Anima to find Thorn, and chooses to go to Babel after following some clues to his location.

Babel is a “cosmopolitan ark”, where many different cultures mix due to the high rate of immigration. However, there is a divide in between the “Sons of Pollux” (Babelians descended from Pollux, who have Babelian powers) and the “Godchildren of Helen” (I apologize for the poor translation please correct me), who are either powerless and native to Babel, or not native to Babel at all. From the first chapters in Babel, we can see that these two social groups are segregated with dress codes, and there is even a time when Ambrose, the son of Lazarus, a wealthy and influential Powerless man, gets insults hurled at him for his background. In book 4, “A Storm of Echoes”, recent immigrants as well as political opposers are rounded up and sent to their deaths/deported from the Ark, . There is also a clear segregation within the city of Babel between Powerless people and others, with a majoritarily Powerless neighborhood being referred to as “The Powerless Quarters” (I may have translated wrong). This neighborhood is considered the “slum” of Babel, and is clearly described as a poorly maintained, badly policed and dangerous place to live.

Another dystopian aspect of Babel that we learn in the first few chapters is the extreme censorship of words relating to violence, war, crime… etc. The “Index” suppresses the use of these words, going as far as punishing those who say the words, even in non-violent contexts. This goes as far as branding murders and clearly voluntary deaths as “accidents”. The suppression of the words in the Index leads to misinformation in journals, and even book burning in what is supposed to be the oldest library on the arch, the Memorial. There are many parallels to be drawn from instances in history where books were burnt to stop the spread of information, but I love how this book spins it to make this censorship “in advocacy for peace”. Books about war are cleansed from libraries, collections of ancient artifacts as well. The “Master Censurer” at the memorial even goes as far as burning any book that Professor Wolf, the Memorial’s resident expert on “Prehistoric Wars” goes near. Babel is a dystopia under a blanket of pacifism.

We later learn about the “Observatory of Deviations”, which concept resembles a mental asylum/psych ward/home for the troubled??? All we learn about this place from the third book is that it is very secretive and treats it’s patients like property, which is even more enforced in the fourth book, when we see firsthand what happens in the Observatory, and when we learn that certain patients get branded with tattoos against their will. Blaise, a friend Ophelia made on Babel, describes the place to her, and makes a point that if you go there, you are the property of the workers, you cannot leave, and no information about your progress is ever disclosed to you. They are more interested in your “deviation” than your “personal preferences”. After reading about Ophelia’s own experiences at the Observatory, it became clear that the place was meant to be an allegory for some abusive psychiatric asylum, that the “deviants” were meant to represent neurodivergent and physically disabled people. Later in book 4, it is revealed that Lazarus is the master of this operation. When I heard this, my brain did a double take and I circled back to the part where Lazarus was described as a “father figure” to Blaise. The fact that Lazarus used his patients and their trust for his own personal gain (in this case for “scientific discovery”) I feel really reflects into real life in other situations.

Unemployment and the replacement of people by AI is also addressed in books 3 and 4, as automatons take up most of the manual labor on Babel, leaving Powerless people no jobs to support them. When visiting the Powerless Quarters with Octavio in book 3, Ophelia runs in to the Fearless and Almost Blameless, who proceeds to shame Octavio and tell him that, by walking around in his Forerunners uniform, he is humiliating those around him who have no future. Since almost all of the jobs that do not require powers are taken by automatons or people with power and influence, it seems like the poorer Powerless people have no future. In book 4, when Lady Septima announces that those with no familial or contractual tie to Babel are to be deported to their old Arks, there is an uprising that leads to violence, where the Unemployed people of Babel demand Octavio hire them in the place of his automaton. This truly mirrors our world today, as many jobs are in danger of being taken by AI or automation.

There are also other issues on Babel that mirror real world issues, with topics such as homophobia being brought up as side plots. I could literally write a whole other essay about the parallels and differences between Ophelia and Thorn vs. Blaise and Wolf, but that’s for another day.

Feel free to correct me if I got a translation wrong or if you agree/disagree with one of my points.

also a side note: Native Babelians are clearly supposed to look South Asian, right? Because sometimes I see fanart where some of the Babelian characters are considerably pale and it kind of weirds me out but this may be a misconception.

#la passe miroir #the memory of babel #the mirror visitor #ophelia #the storm of echoes #fandom #ophelie #la memoire de babel #la tempête des échos

[mischeviouswoodspirit]

Ok, I just read Storm of Echos (last book in the Mirror Visitor series by Christielle Dabos) and I thought it was pretty good? I thought the world building was a bit intense (saying a lot coming from me), I definitely had to reread a few passages out of confusion, but dealing with alternate dimensions/prophecy narratives is really tricky. All things considered I think it was handled pretty well (especially for a debut series). I can understand why so many people didn’t like the open ending, but I actually really appreciate it. With long fantasy series endings I’m usually left with a feeling of “so that’s it?” not exactly ideal, but hard to avoid. A more open ending, at least to me, lends itself to the characters continuing on after the series is over. Not that the author will write it herself, but for Ophelia to just be done? Our absolute natural disaster of a woman?? No, she’s going to be followed by adventure for the rest of her life, and I think that’s how she’d want it. She doesn’t end the series tired, she ends it ready to move on to the next journey.

I can also understand why people were so upset with Thorn not being safe and sound by the end, but honestly Ophelia diving into the mirror feels so hopeful to me? Maybe that’s the confidence that she’s finally feeling in her own capabilities, but that final paragraph let me know that Thorn is getting out of the Wrong Side one way or another. I know there won’t be another book, but the fact that Ophelia retained her mirror powers reads to me like she was meant to find him. The ‘how’ of that situation will just have to come from our imaginations.

Long story short, The Storm of Echos solidifies this series as top 5 favorites for me!

#the mirror visitor #la passe miroir #the storm of echoes #the storm of echos spoilers #I genuinely really liked it

[child-of-hurin]

thorn: please please please fall into codependency with me I’m begging you

ophelia: idk I’m more of a mutually-validating obsession kind of gal?

#and then he's like. okay (keeps trying anyway) #book 4 thorn what a blessing #lpm spoilers #the mirror visitor #la passe miroir #la tempête des échos #thinkin about this book again now that it came out in english... i'm kinda curious to read the translation tbh ngl #shitposting extraordinaire

[pristina-nomine]

I can't will a Ghibli Passe-miroir adaptation into existence, but I can make a playlist and put at the end the Ghibli tearjerker ending song it so clearly deserves, and it has to be Carrying You from Castle in the Sky:

(lyrics from here x)

#la passe miroir #la tempête des échos #lpm spoilers #messaggi in bottiglia

[echo-bleu]

After reading almost exclusively fanfic for years, I forgot that Real Books(tm) have to be edgy and kill off characters or make them somehow disappear at the end 😭

(it was a pretty good book but that was by far my favorite character and it is Not Allowed)(especially when it’s a super neurodivergent traumatized character that’s way underutilized in the first place)(okay he’s not fully dead but it was the end of the book series and there isn’t going to be more)

#echo reads things #echo's rambling #la passe-miroir #la passe-miroir spoilers #not sure if there's anyone checking the tags but just in case

[abibeur]

Hunter 🤝 Ambroise Being a clone of a very close relation disguised as a family member of the big bad guy, and planned to be used as a sacrifice to acquire some kind of infinite power or idk

#toh #toh spoilers #the owl house #the owl house spoilers #the owl house season two spoilers #the owl house s2b spoilers #hunter #la passe miroir #la passe miroir spoilers #the mirror visitor #the mirror visitor spoilers #ambroise #la passe miroir ambroise #the mirror visitor ambroise #the owl house hunter

[ifeelsotiredbuticantsleep]

This post will contain spoilers for the end of The storm of echoes, the 4th book in the mirror visitor series. So please, don't read if you haven't finished it!

I know that book 4 will soon be released in English, so many readers will be able to discover the ending that French readers had 2 years to process (and I think that the book has already been published in Italian and a few other languages).

And many people will probably be disappointed. So I'd like to give Christelle Dabos' point of view, for those who haven't heard it, and then my point of view. 

First, I'd like to remind to some people that Christelle Dabos is allowed to do what she wants with her books and characters, and insulting her on social medias like some French people did is a shitty thing to do. It won't give you another ending 🙃

Then, in a few interviews in French, she explained her choice for this ending, and she knew it wouldn't be popular. So I'd like to remind you that she's someone who got into writing thanks to fanfiction (that could make another great analysis of her works!). She knows what it's like to use someone else's charcters to create your own stories. She knows what it feels like to wait for years to get the last book of a series, and reach the last chapter to read what the author decided would happen to your favorite characters, and how readers will take canon and throw it aside to write their own ending. She knows what it's like to interact with other readers and spend hours discussing theories. She made friends through fanfiction. Some of the people who beta-read the mirror visitor books are people she met while writing fanfic (and the people who encouraged her to submit her first book to Gallimard's competition are people she met thanks to fanfic). The artist that made most of the drawings on her website is a person she met thanks to fanfiction. The Mirror visitor books kinda exist because of fanfiction. She knows what it's like to be involved in a book, to do more than just read it and leave it on your shelf after that. 

And she said that she choose this ending as a gift for us, readers. She knew that no matter the ending, some people would be disappointed. With this end, she's giving us an empty box as a gift, like Farouk used to do. We can do what we want with that. Maybe you'll decide that they find each other right away. Maybe you'll decide that it takes them months or years to find each other, and they'll have to deal with trauma. Maybe by some twist, they'll be able to have children. Or maybe they won't. Maybe they'll decide that they don't want kids and babysitting Victoire is enough for them. Maybe they'll visit all the Arches, maybe they'll settle in Anima and open a bookshop. 

She said that she won't write another mirror visitor book, she won't come back to this universe (She's working on other books now). But she wants the readers to keep it alive, in our own way. She interacts a lot with readers (there are a lot of meetings with her on discord for example, she gives interviews to booktubers...), she answers our questions, but she said that what happens to all these characters after the last chapter is for us to decide. 

And personally, it took me some time to accept that. I was devastated and mad after I finished the fourth book. But now, I love it. Because the gift worked. I couldn't leave this universe, and I had to imagine what would happen to them. And I wrote thousands of words to do that. In my version, they're happy together and Thorn makes hot chocolate for Ophélie. For some people, they have a child together, for others they solve new mysteries. Each fanfic set after the fourth book is a new ending and you can choose which ones you accept as your own canon. 

So obviously, you're allowed to dislike the end. I hated it at first as well. But my advice is to go read a few fanfictions. Look at all the art people made. And maybe, after some time, re-read the books. Now that I took some time to process it, I'm not even sure if this is an open ending. They're both mirror visitors. Ophélie went through a mirror to look for Thorn. And that little sentence "somewhat more than that, even" (or whatever the exact translation used in English is), it doesn't feel like an open ending to me, at least not anymore. 

#la passe miroir #the mirror visitor #the mirror visitor spoilers #spoilers #the storm of echoes #the storm of echoes spoilers #olik posts #christelle dabos

[beezwaxcandle]

Spoilers for Storm of Echoes!

OK - I've finally finished Book 4 of the Mirror Visitor and have to say something...  

Ophelia and Thorn - It has taken a LOT to finally see Ophelia and Thorn together - over 1500 pages and 4 years.  Yet description of their new intimate relationship is lacking for most of the book.  I'm not talking about graphic sex scenes or anything, but sex has been the central 'thorn' in their relationship before they even laid eyes on each other ('Ophelia meet the only man you will ever be intimate with - sorry he looks like a polar bear').  Thorn has also never concealed his desire for Ophelia...beginning when Mime shows up at the Treasury and he puts his hand on her neck?  Maybe?

Yet for their two brief encounters in two-thirds of Book 4, we get almost no context.  

1 - The new couple are sitting on the edge of a fountain in an atrium and he "engulfs" her.  They're at least gonna move to their room, right?  Because these introverts are in a non-private area with a teenager and a ton of robots in the house. Not OK.  Sadly, we also get no description of their goodbye the next morning.

2 - 100+ pages later, they are reunited in the "directors apartments" and he devours her.  Is there is a bed or something? Or layers of dust because no one lives there? I have no idea because there are no visual cues for this important scene. 

And just as vital...what about some pillow talk?  Ophelia is only human.  How can she resist asking the burning question we all want to know - when precisely did Thorn fall in love with her???  Does she tell him she read his dice? Does Thorn EVER sleep? Even the usually endless descriptions of Thorn's eyes are few and far between!  Hopefully there is a bit of a different gleam in them after finally consummating their marriage...but we'll never know. Their scenes on the airship and in the olive grove towards the end are some of their most powerful moments, but their initial brief happiness deserved some space to breathe, especially considering, you know, the end.

#the mirror visitor #le passe miroir #christelle dabos #spoilers #the storm of echoes #la tempête des échos

[flo-nelja]

I got into La Passe-miroir/The Mirror Visitor series bc of your blog. I loved the first 3 books but the last book left me cold. Maybe I need to re-read it to process everything. How did you feel about the ending to the series?

I know lots of people felt like this. I have seen so many people be disappointed about volume 4 that I thought I would be too, and I wasn't. It wasn't perfect, but to me, none of the book in the series is.

For me, I loved all the reveals about "God" and "the Other", not sure about the English names, it was the payoff I expected that has been foreshadowed for a long time, and I was all "OMG it explains everything and I guessed nothing" which is a feeling I adore. Even some things that didn't need explanations, like why Ophélie has black hair.

Also, this kind of... quite hopeful tragedy is catnip to me as romantic pairings go.

There are things I didn't love! Characters who got the short end of the stick, like Archibald or Janus. I was expecting more of this arc in general. Victoire too.

But it depends on what everyone expected of it, of course! Did you enjoy none of it, or is it just bad as an ending to you?

#la passe miroir #la passe miroir spoilers

[sadisopodhours]

I’m still a little bit confused by what Second meant by

Mais ce puits n'était pas plus vrai qu'un lapin d'Odin

But this well was no more real than a rabbit of Odin

Because she also gave Thorn the drawing of the rabbit leaping from a well.

I think the rabbit of Odin in this case is obviously Victoria and neither the well nor Victoria are “real” because they’re in The Reverse, but it leaves me wondering why Victoria was represented as a rabbit and why the drawing was colored blood red.

#la passe miroir #the mirror visitor #la tempête des échos #the storm of echoes #spoilers #is Victoria represented by a rabbit because of her paleness? did second just want to keep using the red pencil? #why is Victoria the only character in a drawing to be represented by an animal #maybe I’m on the totally wrong track and it’s just another of seconds nonsense phrases #talking #lpm