#lyric merrywood | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sweetingseva · 5 months

Text

Jacks, The Boy Who Swore to Never Love ❤️‍🩹🍎✨

Happy Belated Birthday, Jacks! 🥳

I wanted to post this on his actual b-day, but time got the best of me and I wanted to perfect this post with everything I wanted to say about him. Sorry that I took this long, but at least most people have most likely have read ACFTL.

This will have spoilers from Legendary, Finale, Once Upon A Broken Heart, The Ballad of Never After, and A Curse For True Love.

🩸🍎✨~~~🩸🍎✨~~~🩸🍎✨~~~🩸🍎✨

I actually cheated when I first read him. I started reading Legendary but then I stopped and I had forgotten about the Prince of Hearts mentioned in the first few chapters. When Once Upon A Broken Heart came out, I met Jacks again and I instantly fell in love with his character. He was funny, ridiculous, and beyond reckless. The line that sold his character to me?

Jacks had stopped the wedding by turning everyone to stone.

But before I continued with his story in OUABH, I jumped back into Legendary where Jacks was much the same careless boy who wanted royal power because it was the closest to having his full Fate powers. But other than Jacks being stuck inside a deck of cards, we didn’t know much about his story other than he was a dangerous Fate with the one of the most deadly stories out there.

The Prince of Hearts’s kiss was deadly to all. He only had one weakness—his true love—who could survive his kiss of death. As he sought her, he left a trail of corpses.

One could imagine the kind of life Jacks led before he met Tella. Was he a flirt? Did he kiss just any girl? Did he even care about them? Was he still searching for true love? Did he still believe in it?

I had assumed that Jacks was broken to the point that he simply didn’t care anymore. He kissed so many potential lovers, but in the end, none of them made it. We learn in A Curse For True Love that the girls must have truly loved Jacks, which is why all of them fell into the same fate as his first fox.

Until Tella changed the course of his beliefs in Legendary.

His heart started beating. Tella survived Jacks’s kiss despite him delaying her death.

How did this happen? To Jacks, it didn’t matter. Hope washed over him and led him to pursue Tella (even if it was 2 months after the fact). It was clear that Jacks believed in the story and was something he had faith in again. But Tella was in love with someone else, which is the sole reason why she survived Jacks’s deadly kiss.

In ACFTL, Aurora Valor had said that only a person who would never love him can kiss him and live.

That was the true version of his story. Not that his true love could kiss him, but someone who was destined not to be with him. I felt so much for Jacks when I read this. Aurora had cursed him twice, leaving him heartbroken beyond belief. His heart was something that could be owned, not something to be earned.

Before I move on with his reservation for love, I want to dive in deeper in Jacks’s relationships, especially his friendship with Castor Valor (Chaos).

Chaos 🩸🧛🏻

There were three of them—Lyric Merrywood, Castor Valor, and Jacks of the Hollow—that made up the Merrywood Three. Jacks’s old friends who he cared about a lot. In a way, they were like brothers. In The Ballad of Never After, Evangeline opened a curious book and read about the Merrywood Three and a specific Archer who resembled Jacks.

And being human looked good on him—or maybe it was just that he looked happy. In the picture, Jacks was tossing an ordinary red apple and laughing in a way that lit up his entire face. He never looked this happy now, and she couldn’t help but wonder what had changed… His resemblance to the picture was uncanny, and yet the feeling she got from looking at him now was entirely different. It was as if a sculptor had taken a dagger to who he had once been and curved out all the softness.

Jacks was once foolish with hope and love. As a possible Merrywood, he might have been raised with the same generous morals. He believed in doing the right thing, that everything would be all right. It was this selfless faith that pushed Jacks to save his friend, Castor, who had been stabbed in the back. Trying to be the savior, Jacks took a half-dead Castor to Honora Valor who could heal him with her healing magic. But it was too late. Other means had tranformed Castor to a bloodthirsty monster.

Jacks blamed himself for what had happened to him.

Castor was the only friend Jacks had left. Lyric Merrywood and the rest of his family had been killed. The Merrywood Manor was destroyed, and the village was left abandoned. After the Valors were locked up in the Valory behind the Valory Arch, Jacks had became a Fate so that Castor wasn’t alone. This showed that he was a good person.

One of the reasons Jacks had allowed himself to be turned into a Fate was so that Castor wouldn’t be alone. Then he’d started the rumor that Castor was Chaos and that Chaos was a Fate, so that the world wouldn’t figure out he was the last remaining Valor.

This act is one of the most beautiful things about Jacks’s character, and one we shouldn’t ignore. Even though Jacks is known for being callous, cocky, and selfish, his gentle side is the most important facet of his character. It is what drives many of his decision. But behind this decision, Castor had caused so much death and pain. Tragedy after tragedy that no one can take back. This reality must have affected Jacks.

It isn’t weak of Jacks to display these kind of vulnerabilities. I think Stephanie did a great job showing Jacks’s vulnerable side in TBONA and especially in ACFTL. It’s what I always wanted to see from him.

Tella 💙🗡

I remember the first time I saw Jacks pour his heart out and it was in his plead to Tella to love him in Finale.

“You were supposed to be my true love. You were supposed to want me, not him. You were supposed to be as obsessed with me as I am with you… When I told Legend I’d kill you if he didn’t give me the power I needed, I didn’t mean it—I wouldn’t have done it. A part of me even hoped he’d say no, so that you would walk away from him and choose me. I’m selfish, and I want you, but I would never harm you.”

The way he spoke here was such a surprise. Until then, I always thought Jacks was a pest, wedging in between Tella and Legend, but perhaps it wasn’t just about this. It was about Jacks’s need for love, to crave it so much that it didn’t matter that his immortality was at risk. Jacks did everything to win Tella, even to the point that he would rather put a love spell over Tella for her to stay with him if not at all.

Finally, after years and years, Jacks finally found the answer to his curse. A girl had kissed him and made his heart beat. What a sick joke that Aurora pulled on him since this fierce hope eventually caused him pain when the girl stabbed him and chose someone else. His walls stacked up all around his heart and his love again.

No doubt that this was the greatest heartbreak Jacks had ever felt.

But this is just one of the many.

Jacks had lost his first fox girl, his family, his friends, and the soft nature of his heart. Dozens of girls had fallen for him and died, one survived his kiss and made his heart beat but left him heartbroken, and then Evangeline, the girl he truly ever loved, died.

Evangeline 🦊💘

Evangeline Fox is the closest person to who he once was when he was just Jacks of the Hollow. Since the beginning, Evangeline felt gulity when she put her trust into a Fate and turned all of the wedding guests into stone. But it was her belief in love who brought her to Jacks, the Prince of Hearts. Because she believed he knew about heartbreak and unrequited love, Evangeline thought he would be understanding to her plight.

Which she isn’t entirely wrong.

Jacks knew heartbreak, loss, and unrequited love.

But he knew to cover his pain behind this flirtatious and wild personality well.

After Evangeline returned, Jacks was cold as ice. He had lost the only legitimate chance of love. Who wouldn’t be dejected after a rejection? He said it himself, that heartbreak “turns you into a masochist, making you long for the thing that just eviscerated you until there’s nothing left of you to be destroyed.”

It seems like hope is not all lost since Jacks is in search of the stones once more to get back to this “love.” To have another shot with Tella.

Once again, Jacks’s past self shines through with this hope for true love that seemed awfully familiar. But it was the idea of love, not love itself, that Jacks was chasing here.

It was the chance that everything could be good again. That he didn’t need to be alone.

Evangeline was the kind of soul who helped open his heart. In the crypt, Evangeline wasn’t afraid to ask him questions about his story and his heartbreak. Both of them had a common ground, which made it easier for them to talk about their failed chances of love. I truly believed that it was this scene that helped Jacks drop his guard and forget Tella for just a little bit.

For the first time in a while, he had thought of someone’s needs before his. He wrapped Evangeline with her cloak. I’d never forget that gesture. The firsts of the firsts. And it didn’t stop here.

In TBONA, Jacks continued to show that same care toward Evangeline. He protected her against bloodthirsty vampires, her mean stepsister, bratty gossipers, and even curses. Without any catches. He did them without asking anything in return. Without knowing, Jacks had warmed up to Evangeline. They teased each other, got under each other’s skin, and compromised like equal individuals.

It got to the point that their attraction to each other was so clear that LaLa thought Jacks was going to kiss Evangeline in the middle of her engagement party. What was sweet to me, that even though Jacks passed himself as dismissive villain to Evangeline, he truly cared about her and searched for a way to remove the curse bestowed on Evangeline.

He’d told her not to look for a cure to the Archer’s curse. He’d repeatedly said it was pointless. But it seemed as if he was doing just that… Evangeline couldn’t let herself think that Jacks’s search for a cure meant he cared for her. She knew this was true, yet it was getting a little harder to fully believe it. Because she was starting to care for him.

Like Jacks knew more than anyone that the Archer’s curse was unbreakable and yet he still tried to find a way…for Evangeline. My heart can’t take it. I’m seriously swooning all over again. Jacks cares about Evangeline. It’s so tender and soft and selfless that it captures the true aspect of Jacks’s character.

When Jacks and Evangeline are in the Hollow, their relationship develops into something more. Something beautiful and hopeful and a page out of a fairytale. We come to know in ACFTL that their time there was Jacks’s happiest day. EVER. I am distraught. Jacks opens up a little more about what happened at the Merrywood Manor.

Guilt clinged to him as he recalled trying to save Castor, as he tried to be a hero that night. Saving Evangeline was not him being a hero. Which is such a sad thought for him to have and yet it made total sense why he would feel this way. Because he couldn’t be a savior that day, he probably believes that anything he does isn’t enough. He could never save anyone again.

It opened up that raw part of him that we only ever see when he’s with Evangeline. She tries to understand his past and make him realize that he had done kind things for her, like holding her as she cried, carrying her as she bled, and bandaging her wounds when she was lashed via mirror curse. Jacks had been there for her.

The Hollow was the last place he was after he became Fate, which meant it was a place that he couldn’t find himself to return to because of all of the memories. Yet it was the place Jacks allowed himself to live in the moment with Evangeline. Being with Evangeline helped him drop his guard and do things that made my brows jump.

He cuddled with her, had breakfast and lunch with her, and lived a peaceful moment in the middle of all the cursed chaos.

In the morning, you can forget it. You can go back to pretending you don’t like me, and I can pretend that I don’t care. But for tonight, let me pretend you’re mine… If it’s easier, you can pretend, too. You can pretend that I’m still Jacks of the Hollow and that you want to be mine.

Evangeline thought he was being delirous but Jacks quickly set the record straight and denied that he was. It was probably the most genuine request he ever had.

Without a doubt he was in love. So in love. Nothing else was important. You can actually feel the happiness and hopefulness from the page. As much as this was Evangeline's happiness, this was also Jacks's.

Then there comes the moment Evangeline lets him go, tells him what he's feeling isn't real, and that it would all be over.

This was crushing.

Jacks's eyes were red. A flicker of pain passed over his features. He wanted to kiss Evangeline. He knew what he was feeling and yet the girl he has come to love has told him that whatever she was feeling for him was because of a rock.

One-sided love. Like the Hollow once Evangeline took the mirth stone, Jacks turned cold and brushed off Evangeline. He was harsh. He was hurt. When he got back to Chaos's Underground Lair, he turned his room upside down and ate so many apples.

With Evangeline's rejection, Jacks firmly believes that the love meant for him is with Tella. Even if he didn't love her. Even if Tella didn't want him.

The whole confrontation between Evangeline and Jacks revealed to us what Jacks wanted exactly. To go back to Tella, his "true love." Because she was the only who survived his kiss. This was the girl the curse promised him. It was her or no one.

Evangeline thought otherwise. But it didn't matter. Jacks cared so much about her that he rather they never met. Because if they keep going down the path, Jacks will not be able to hold himself back and kissing Evangeline.

His love would destroy her. His kiss would kill her. Jacks would do anything to prevent her from becoming another fox.

Despite what he tells her, Evangeline has become the most important person to him. Nothing has been so clearer than when Jacks's final words to Evangeline before she passed away.

“Evangeline—” His voice was hoarse. “Come back to me.…”

Side note, this was my favorite quote. I think this has to be my most favorite one in all of the books. I remembered gasping when I read it. My jaw literally dropped. It was the most truthful thing that Jacks has ever said.

Come back. To him.

Like, WOWWW!

Unable to accept Evangeline's passing, he took the stones and made a decision. The stones can only grant one wish. He was planning to use it to go back to Tella. But he took them and went back in time to save Evangeline.

“There is nothing of equal value to me.”

HE REWROTE HISTORY. HE CHOSE ANOTHER ENDING FOR THEM.

IS THERE ANY LOVE MORE TRUER THAN THEIRS? We’re finally at that part where we know, without a doubt, that Jacks loves Evangeline. If the “You’re not her” scene left any doubts, then they were long gone at this point. They could be endgame, this could be it, we could finally see a happy evajacks.

Until Apollo Acadian came in possessing a magic given to him by Aurora and tore Evangeline and Jacks apart by taking Evangeline’s memories of the past year.

Now we all know what happened behind the scenes here, so I’ll skip right ahead to the subject on hand. Guilt.

Jacks’s Guilt 💔

This is where Jacks’s heart has been, in a cold and unforgiving place surrounded by thick, tall walls made of steel. Since the beginning, all that Jacks has ever known was tragedy and remorse. When he learned that Evangeline had forgotten her memories, he believed it was because of his fault. Queen Honora had warned him against him going back in time and stopping Castor from killing Evangeline.

“That is not a small mistake to fix. If you do this, Time will take something equally valuable from you.”

Jacks thought that Time woul take it on him. Never Evangeline. He was to blame for Evangeline’s lost memories.

Guilt. It is the reason for the next steps he took in ACFTL. He still thinks that he isn’t a great fit for Evangeline because of his cursed kiss and the possibility that he could kill her if he wasn’t careful. Evangeline is safe with Apollo, happy even, where she should have been if it wasn’t for him. Apollo and Evangeline would have the fairytale love that Evangeline always wanted. Once he knew she could fend for herself, then he would leave forever and throw his heart into the fire of the Phoenix Tree, where he’d never have to feel this much for anyone or anything ever again. This way Evangeline could be safe from him.

If only it was that easy.

Jacks can’t seem to leave Evangeline alone. She’s always in his sight. He loves her, and when Evangeline sees him again, it hurts him to know that she’s not looking at him like before. That she had forgotten everything about him. Despite what Jacks had planned, he wants her to remember him and know him. He has hurt everyone, even her, so it shouldn’t make sense that he deserves a happy ending.

I think this is the most heartbreaking and most truthful thing about Jacks’s character. Because he couldn’t be a hero when Vengeance Slaughterwood killed the Merrywoods, he thinks he deserves so much worse. He deserves nothing.

He’d been brokenhearted. Not in the same sense that most people thought of, as if one person had broken his heart. Jacks’s heart had been broken over and over again unti it was no longer capable of hope and care and love.

Chapter 41 gives us the true reason for why Jacks is the way he is and more. Basically, everything I have listed above communicated between Evangeline and Jacks’s dialogue.

“You died, Evangeline. I held you in my arms as it happened.”

“Jacks … I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never died.”

“Yes, you did. The night you opened the Valory. The first time you did it, I didn’t go with you.” I couldn’t say goodbye. “It was only you and Chaos. As soon as his helm was off, he killed you. I tried to stop him—I tried to save you—but I couldn’t. When I got there, he had already bitten you—and he’d already taken too much blood. You died as soon as you were in my arms. The only thing I could do was use the stones to turn back time. I was warned it would cost me. I didn’t imagine it would take from you.” I’m sorry.

“You don’t need to be sorry, Jacks.”

“It’s my fault.”

Reading this whole exchange broke my heart. I could feel his guilt and suddenly realize that he’s been hiding his guilt behind this confident and careless act. Here, we could see this was another awful thing he did to Evangeline. Before Evangeline went with Chaos, Jacks had hurt her by telling her that he wanted to go back to Tella and that she wasn’t the one he wanted. When Evangeline opened the Valory for the second time, Jacks was yelling at her to leave, being rude to her so that she’d live. He’d been cruel. And that was how it ended between them before she really forgot everything.

I love Evangeline Fox so much. It has been really rare to find a character like her whose strength was her kindness and hope for greater and impossible things. Though this was a story centered around her search for true love, this was Jacks’s culmination of his pain and guilt.

Above everything else, Evangeline chose him for who he was and is. He was the villain, he was her monster, but he was also her true love and hers. This beautiful faith that Evangeline had in Jacks was what ultimately broke his curse. Jacks said “I love you” openly to Evangeline and you can see it as the truth. Sometimes something so simple is so poignant. There’s nothing to say but the truth of it all, and that was how I interpreted Jacks’s confession to her.

When Jacks confronted Apollo about Evangeline’s memories, it was met with fisted hands and brutal curses. I’m so glad we got to see Jacks pour out all his anger on him and let go for once. It was so cool to see. And I think he needed it.

Jacks chose Evangeline. His heart was with her. It didn’t matter to him where they went, as long as it was with her.

Conclusion

Pain is what made Jacks. I used to think he was being dramatic when he said it to Evangeline in OUABH. How could I? Haha. I even believed he was heartbroken because of Tella. But his pain wasn’t just about her, it was about everything that happened in his past. Lyric. Castor. The First Fox Girl. The girls he kissed and killed. Evangeline’s death and lost memories. His failure of being a hero.

In the Caraval trilogy, Jacks was aloof, troubling, and selfish. He wanted power. Then his heart started beating soon after it was clear Tella survived his kiss. He wanted love, no matter if it wasn’t real. Unlike the other Fates, Jacks wanted something simple and beautiful as someone choosing him because they loved him.

Even when he found that love, Jacks had selflessly chosen Evangeline’s safety over his desires because he cared about her. At heart, he had always been a caring and hopeful person. In the end, Jacks found happiness and Evangeline found her great love.

Nothing can stop them now.

121 notes · View notes

ouabhs · 6 months

Text

acftl review (finally)

I give it a 3 ⭐️ (as much as it pains me) even then it’s only this high bc I love evajacks so much

so I was finally able to gather my thoughts into one post and while there were many things I enjoyed a few others didn’t sit right..

1. the whole story curse thing.. it makes sense that the story curse would twist things which is why some things were left unexplained but it doesn’t feel like it was done deliberately?? it just felt like stephanie genuinely didn’t know how to tie some things together.. like sure not every single thing needs an explanation but she emphasised certain things wayyy too much in the first two books for them to be completely ignored for example evajacks talking to each other in their minds. Even the broken heart scar wasn’t addressed again after like halfway through acftl

2. too much apollo.. sorry this is not even just me being biased or whatever like I do agree his pov helped explain the plot from a different perspective but he got wayyy more of a backstory and a conclusion to his character than jacks for a someone that wasn’t as present in the last 2 books.. and this was supposed to be jacks’ series kinda (ik it was evangelines too) but I feel like jacks got sidelined hard and that’s disappointing. It also didn’t help that whenever there was an intense scene between evajacks the pov would switch to apollo.. to be fair I think having 3 povs was just hard to execute in general

3. the kiss scene.. usually it would not be a big deal but it’s a big part of jacks character that he can’t kiss girls without killing them idk I thought him finally getting to kiss evangeline would be a lot more… grand? they barely got a page or any detail and then the next chapter was “once upon a time there was kissing and more kissing 🥰🥰” which was even more underwhelming. Even apollo and evangelines kiss scenes were longer and more detailed and they got multiple

4. the overall vibe of the 3rd book felt very different to the first two I couldn’t put my finger on it at first but I feel like it had something to do with the writing.. at some parts it felt familiar (like all the descriptions and the fairytale aspects) but others it just felt different?

5. during too many scenes it just felt like stephanie was rewriting tbona.. like I haven’t really seen anyone say this yet but a good chunk of the book was quotes from tbona which I feel took up a lot of unnecessary space and could’ve been used to develop other plots or characters? Literally someone that hasn’t read tbona could get a gist of what happened cause it’s all summarised in there 😭

6. the plot in general.. contrary to popular belief I don’t think this was that romance focused (as people claim as to why things weren’t explained) because I think stephanie incorporated more plot in here but it was just different to what we saw in the last books because previous characters (luc, marisol, tiberius, kristof) weren’t as present in this book and new characters plots and explanations were just thrown in.. not much felt connected

7. jacks’ backstory.. (going back to my second point) how he became a fate was really glossed over I feel and was only briefly mentioned but I just wanted more.. I do like the fact that he said he did it for chaos and I wish their friendship was delved into more because he literally turned to immortality because his friend would be alone. What about his parents? His friendship with Lyric? The merrywood three in general? His life when he was trapped in the card?

8. the first fox.. again wayy too significant to be missed out especially since jacks doesn’t really remember whether or not he had a thing for her and chaos said evangeline was similar to her.. how was there no link?

I definitely have more to add but for now my main takeaway is that while tbona was very hard to top I feel like acftl could’ve been so much more especially since it was set up so well.. I think so many people are disappointed because it doesn’t hold up as well for the last book in a series but I’m just glad evajacks got their happy ending 🫠

#acftl #evajacks #ouabh #acftl theories #evangeline fox #caraval #jacks x evangeline #tbona spoilers #the ballad of never after #jacks prince of hearts #a curse for true love #acftl spoilers #stephanie garber

61 notes · View notes

hollowinmyheart · 7 months

Text

Jacks was a Merrywood & LaLa's brother Theory

I have tried to gather more information on the family tree of the characters LaLa and Jacks.

Was LaLa a merrywood?

Yes LaLa was a merrywood and sister of lyric merrywood. In OUABH (page 75) LaLa was first mentioned in the daily rumor pages and there kristof wrote "LaLa’s family is shrouded in mystery, which is often code for being common" so LaLa's family details were shrouded. But in Aurora Valor's diary in TBONA (page 227) aurora mentioned she was in love with LaLa's brother and LaLa thinks she isn't good for her brother. According to jacks Aurora was in love with Lyric merrywood which means LaLa also is a merrywood.

Is Jacks LaLa's brother too?

My suspicion is built on Jacks being another merrywood because of Aurora's diary. In the hollow Aurora+Jacks was written which indicates Aurora could've written that and she was in love with Jacks. In her diary she didn't write the name of her love she just wrote her truest love & her love was LaLa's brother. What if Aurora ment LaLa's another brother not lyric? What if Aurora pretended to be in love with lyric just to stay near jacks? & from Aurora's diary the word "truest love" and jacks being cursed for one true love indicates aurora cursed him with his kiss. Jacks doesn't use any Surname like LaLa.But at Lala's engagement party he had one conversation with robin :

" Lord Jacks,” Robin repeated, still smiling but looking vaguely perplexed. “Which House are you from?”

“I’m from a very old House.” Jacks took a sip from his goblet. “Everyone in my family died a long time ago.” (TBONA page 156)

After which Lala was horrified and we know that Slaughterwood's actually destroyed house merrywood. How can everyone from jacks house die? Ig house merrywood is the old house and everyone died. Also when evangeline was reading the merrywood house book then chaos appeared and may be he was the one who took the book with him & didn't let evangeline read it. House merrywood has many stories untold yet. I think jacks was a merrywood too. And he may be tried to live a simple life and choose to be an archer which maybe the merrywood lord didn't like and jacks was living in the hollow. I'm sure Aurora won't call lyric her truest love and she definitely was in one sided love with jacks. jacks was sad seeing destroyed merrywood manor in TBONA.

#evajacks #evangeline fox #jacks prince of hearts #jacks x evangeline #a curse for true love #ouabh #the ballad of never after #ouabh 3 #ouabh theories #stephanie garber #acftl spoilers #acftl theories #acftl #tbona theories #little fox #jacks the prince of hearts

82 notes · View notes

daiisysaige · 8 months

Text

Theories I have for A Curse for True Love with little to no explanations:

Evangeline is a descendent of the reverie key

Poison is Lyric Merrywood

Jacks will somehow ask Tella and Legend for help

Jacks was able to kiss Tella because she died and came back to life. I think that’s how he’ll be able to kiss Evangeline as well.

Jacks uses the apples to suppress his urge to kiss

I was gonna reread ouabh and tbona at the beginning of October and if I come up with anything else I’ll reblog this and add it.

#ouabh #tbona #once upon a broken heart #a curse for true love #Evangeline fox #jacks prince of hearts #prince of hearts #evajacks #the ballad of never after #the ballad of the archer and the fox #caraval #donatella dragna #scarlett dragna #acftl theories #acftl

59 notes · View notes

heyo-428 · 4 months

Text

So I am genuinely insane I was listening to Christmas Kids by Roar and it reminded me of Jacks and Castors friendship.

LISTEN HEAR ME OUT

Read below the cut

i don’t know the real meaning to this song just so y’all know like i just listen to shit i like so 💀💀

“You’ll change your name and change your mind and leave this fucked up place behind but I’ll know”

THATS LITERALLY JACKS LEAVING (AND GOING BY THE PRINCE OF HEARTS NOW AS A FATE.) AFTER ALL THE SHIT GOES DOWN AND CASTORS LIKE ALONE (okay…. we don’t really know how alone he was… BUT HE PROBABLY WAS PRETTY ALONE)

basically up until around 1:16 in the song and starting at “i’m leaving phil” it’s castors POV then it’s Jacks.

“i’m leaving and you wont know where to find me

i’m drinking ing myself to death inside this prison cell”

oh so jacks is leaving AND GRTS TRAPPED IN A CARD PRISON (idk how much time was between these things but that doesn’t matter)

i’m normal about them and lyric. normal about the merrywood three.

I’m making a full playlist for the merrywood three bc i’m hyperfixating

#ouabh #tbona #acftl #stephanie garber #caraval #evajacks #jacks prince of hearts #castor valor #IM CRYING #i’m not okay #like this is sad #no one in this fandom seems to care about them and appreciate them #SO I WILL #there are probably people who do i’m just like stupid prob

23 notes · View notes

untamedwind01 · 2 months

Text

What if Luc might somewhat resemble Lyric Merrywood, both appearance and personality wise. Which is why Jacks might despise him more than just pure jealousy because of the uncanny resemblance. And reminding him of the things he no longer had. (Happiness kekekeke)

#luc needs to come back tho #jacks prince of hearts #evajacks #evangeline fox #luc Navarro #Ouabh #tbona #Acftl

9 notes · View notes

littlefoxwithadagger · 6 months

Text

My mom is nearing the end of tbona and she’s desperately trying to figure out who the Merrywood Three are and so far she’s convinced Chaos is Lyric and I’m laughing in the corner

#z.txt #ouabh #acftl #tbona #evajacks

13 notes · View notes

myalonyalala · 7 months

Text

NEW THEORY!

Jacks was Lyric Merrywood, Aurora was the Fox, and Apollo was Vengeance S.wood. Vengeance or someone from his fam cursed Lyric to kill Aurora by the archer's curse(?)

OR maybe, Jacks always Jacks and Lyric always Lyric. But it can be like this: The Merrywood had 3 children. Lyric, Jacks, and LaLa. But bcs Aurora who was supposed to marry Vengeance turned out she loves Lyric, then the Slaughterwood kills all the Merrywood (plus Castor). But Jacks, LaLa, and Aurora ran away. The Valor who have magical power, give Aurora skills to turn herself into a fox so that the Slaughterwood will never find her. Blablabla, Aurora and Jacks fall in love. Vengeance can not accept his ex-fiance not chasing him (again), so him and his fam cursed Jacks and Aurora with the archer's curse.

So, yeah, idk why im forcing Aurora to be his first fox. Maybe it's just bcs i don't think Stephanie will add a new character. Like, the background of his first fox haven't been told AT ALL. So I guess maybe she is someone from the showed character(?)

#ouabh #tbona #acftl theories #a curse for true love #jacks of the hollow #jacks prince of hearts #evangeline fox #aurora valor

10 notes · View notes

formulalina15 · 6 months

Text

⚠️⚠️ACFTL SPOILERS ‼️‼️⚠️⚠️

lyric merrywood is my roman empire because like poor guy 😭 he didn’t even do anything wrong but then got led on by some girl who was never into him and then killed

i feel so bad for him and he was barely ever even mentioned

#justice for lyric merrywood #aurora’s a bi-#aurora valor hate club #this is why i want a prequel #the merrywood three could’ve been so powerful #i now claim myself as the biggest lyric stan #ouabh #tbona #acftl #jacks the prince of hearts #lyric merrywood #castor valor #the merrywood three

10 notes · View notes

a-bit-of-a-mindflip · 2 years

Text

Favorite moments of The Devil’s Carnival after first ever watch:

Low key obsessed with the color scheme?? Dark red?? Gold?? I want it all

Alexa Vega’s costume

How the plot actually made sense after listening to all the songs and being confused

The game Merrywood played with herself, I didn’t like that song when I listened to it originally but now I love the whole scene

RAISE MY HELL MY CANE MY STAKES MY SNAKES

All the wordplay and lyrical structure in Grace For Sale

Apparently Tamara sings In all my Dreams I Drown and I just didn’t recognize her but that song is wayyyyyy too good to be stashed in the credits

*Probably reading too much into this, but all three of the people who died at the beginning of the movie were literally just victims of abuse or most likely their own mental illness? John and Merrywood (is that her name idk idk) could have really benefitted from getting help! And damn it sure as hell wasn’t Tamara’s fault that her bf was a dick. Do I think TZ intended to comment on the fact that in society people are often victim-blamed instead of being offered help? Of course not. Am I going to see it that way anyway? Yes.*

#repo #repo! the genetic opera #cult movies #devils carnival

43 notes · View notes

hyaenagallery · 7 years

Photo

Lead Belly part 6 Lead Belly failed to stir the enthusiasm of Harlem audiences. Instead, he attained success playing at concerts and benefits for an audience of leftist folk music aficionados. He developed his own style of singing and explaining his repertoire in the context of Southern black culture, having learned from his participation in Lomax's college lectures. He was especially successful with his repertoire of children's game songs (as a younger man in Louisiana he had sung regularly at children's birthday parties in the black community). He was written about as a heroic figure by the black novelist Richard Wright, then a member of the Communist Party, in the columns of the Daily Worker, of which Wright was the Harlem editor. The two men became personal friends, though some say Lead Belly himself was apolitical and if anything was a supporter of Wendell Willkie, the centrist Republican candidate for President, for whom he wrote a campaign song. However, he also wrote the song "Bourgeois Blues," which has radical or left-wing lyrics. In 1939, Lead Belly was back in jail for assault after stabbing a man in a fight in Manhattan. Alan Lomax, then 24, took him under his wing and helped raise money for his legal expenses, dropping out of graduate school to do so. After his release (in 1940–41), Lead Belly appeared as a regular on Alan Lomax and Nicholas Ray's groundbreaking CBS radio show Back Where I Come From, broadcast nationwide. He also appeared in nightclubs with Josh White, becoming a fixture in New York City's surging folk music scene and befriending the likes of Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Woody Guthrie, and a young Pete Seeger, all fellow performers on Back Where I Come From. During the first half of the decade, he recorded for RCA, the Library of Congress, and Moe Asch (future founder of Folkways Records) and in 1944 went to California, where he recorded strong sessions for Capitol Records. He lodged with a studio guitar player on Merrywood Drive in Laurel Canyon. #destroytheday

#destroytheday

0 notes

sweetingseva · 9 months

Text

Jacks of the Hollow + New Curse 🏹🍎

Hello, everyone!

I finally got this out! Originally, this was supposed to be my first post after TBONA released last year, but I got distracted. Anyway, I digress 😊

Now that we know Jacks’s story a bit more, I’m going to flesh some things out, as some questions were left unanswered. My first post on Jacks briefly touched upon the days when his heart was still beating. Before it had stopped. Now that some time has passed, I had the chance to mull over the timeline once more.

What made Jacks’s heart stop beating? How did Jacks become a Fate? I believe I have some possible answers to those.

So, without further ado, let’s go back in time!

Spoiler Warning for Once Upon A Broken Heart, The Ballad of Never After, Finale, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Please proceed with caution if you have not read it yet.

A long, long time ago, Jacks was just a peasant boy living with three of his closest friends—Castor Valor (Chaos), Lyric Merrywood, and Aurora Valor. I would include LaLa here, but her name was not among those carved on a door inside of the Inn at the Hollow.

For years, he had grown up with them until one day Jacks became the Archer, a title that was later carved on the door over all the four names. Yes, that same Archer from the Ballad of Archer and the Fox, Evangeline’s favorite story.

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself here, so let’s go back to before he became the Archer in the ballad.

Jacks was a part of the Merrywood Three that included himself, Castor Valor, and Lyric Merrywood. Evangeline had discovered this information in a mysterious book that Chaos had given her. Inside the book, she saw a photograph of three young men, and one of them looked exactly like Jacks who had an apple in his hand.

On their way to Slaughterwood Castle, Jacks and Evangeline passed an area touched by tragedy that was once Merrywood Manor. How did this tragedy start?

It all traced back to Vengeance and Aurora’s love story, but calling it like that might be a little too much. Vengeance was part of the Slaughterwood House, which was infamous for brutality.

Aurora was betrothed to this man, however she was in love with a certain Merrywood (some evidence points to Jacks rather than Lyric).

At this point in the story, Jacks is already the Archer. Still human. The little fox Jacks had been hired to kill has been annoying him, one who always got away from him. But he found happiness when he came across a peasant girl who lived in the forest. His feelings for her grew, but when he found out that she was the same fox he was ordered to kill, Jacks went to put a stop to the hunt.

However, his employers had other ideas to force him to continue. Somehow, a curse—the Archer curse—was put on Jacks to hunt the girl he now loved. Jacks was a terrific hunter, his weapon was his talent, and yet they meant nothing when it concerned the peasant girl. The Fox girl believed in Jacks, loved him and swore that he could get past this. For a moment, it seemed like he did. Jacks never harmed her. But then suddenly, when he kissed her, she died.

How did this happen?

Here’s where the lines of human Jacks and Fate Jacks merge ✨

I believe Jacks had somehow met the Fallen Star, Gavriel, or made a deal with him to break his Archer curse. In an exchange for this deal, Jacks became a Fate. However, becoming a Fate came with another curse. (I will come back to this!)

Jacks became the Prince of Hearts, with a kiss so deadly, only his true love could survive it. When he kissed the Fox girl, he was already a Fate. Therefore, the exchange was all for naught.

I’m not sure what’s the timeline between this happening and what’s happening with the Valors and the Slaughterwoods. I have a feeling these significant moments are happening at the same time since it seemed Castor recognized the First Fox in Evangeline.

“I can see why Jacks likes you. You’re a bit like her, you know?”

Back to his story with the Merrywood tragedy. Jacks wanted to be the hero. He tried to save Castor after finding him surrounded in the destruction of the Merrywood Manor. After bringing his dead body to his mother, Honor Valor, Castor had become a monster—a bloodthirsty vampire. Everything has gone horribly wrong to Jacks, Castor, LaLa, the Valors, everyone. Even the Magnificent North.

Jacks had lost everything—his love and his friends. He left the Hollow as soon as he became a Fate and went to the Meridian Empire, where the Fates made a home with their magic. Back then, it used to be called Alcara instead of Valenda.

Now I went into a little more detail in my first post, so I’d only summarize a bit here. Because of what happened to the Magnificent North, there’s a possible chance that memories could become distorted. This would make sense if I’m counting on the Evangeline being reincarnated theory being true. Now as the Prince of Hearts, Jacks’s curse has driven him to kiss any girl who might be his one true love.

This would be how he would spend the rest of his years until the curse is broken. And it would be a long time until that happens.

Flash forward to where we are now in The Ballad of Never After.

Despite his strong belief in the myth of his curse—that his one true love is the one who survives his deadly kiss—Jacks goes against going back in time to meet Tella again and chooses to go back to save Evangeline, who he loves now.

I remember an extremely good theory here, that I think works so well in this. It doesn’t matter if Evangeline isn’t his one true love, Jacks loves her in ways words cannot describe.

Everything that Jacks has suffered through has led him to this moment with Evangeline. Now that he is actively choosing her over everything he believed, Jacks will stop at nothing to save her. Not just from Apollo, but from the choices she might make in her condition. (I may not have shed a few tears writing this paragraph. Evajacks has that effect, you know? 😭)

Considering everything that Stephanie has shared, especially as of writing this (08.04.23), I have reached a new conclusion to what could happen to Jacks in A Curse For True Love.

Jacks Offers His Soul 🌳💖

Okay, for a long time, I had felt that Jacks might be the one to die this time. Jacks is still a Fate. I know he fought Legend to get his powers back, but his powers and his lack of love is what is keeping him from becoming human. Unlike other Fates, he wasn’t threatened when he was tempted to love Tella. And seeing how much he wanted to Tella to be his one true love makes me believe that he might want to become human.

Why? Maybe he wants to age alongside his beloved and live out their years in love. If this is true, then this could mean that Jacks will have no problem sacrificing his existence as a Fate.

In an Instagram post, Stephanie has leaked a certain location we might see in the final book. The tree on the cover is a significant symbol that could be the Tree of Souls [as seen here]. Several theories have spread, from the tree being the original apple tree, a memory tree, a phoenix tree to it being a new tree we haven’t seen before.

If this is the Tree of Souls, then what could this serve to the plot? Why is it important that Stephanie can’t say much about it other than emphahzing its significance?

Here’s where this post comes in.

She mentioned Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 2.

Being curious about it, I looked it up and the findings are startling. Buffy, the main protagonist, falls in love with a man named Angel. After a passionate moment, Angel lost his soul. Their love story has been related to Romeo and Juliet. Being together would mean the end of them both.

They are just another sad tale waiting to happen. Reminds you of anyone? Evangeline and Jacks are just like this. Jacks even said in the end of TBONA that they couldn’t be together or he’d kill her. They are each other’s destruction.

Quote from BTVS that fits evajacks:

You’re not friends. You’ll never be friends. You’ll be in love ’til it kills you both. You’ll fight, and you’ll shag, and you’ll hate each other ’til it makes you quiver, but you’ll never be friends.

In BTVS, Buffy is forced to kill her love for humanity’s sake. This breaks her, knowing he’ll suffer for what she did to him.

“This is where you break free.” - Jacks to Evangeline

If you're more curious about this story, here's a very good post that goes into detail about that!

Since we're on the topic, there was this scene where Angel turned human and he was free to do anything. And the first he did was kiss Buffy.

Doesn't this sound like what would happen in ACFTL? Once Jacks turns human, he'll kiss Evangeline!!! 🤩😍🤞

Jacks's Rebirth 💖

This is a longshot theory, but what if Jacks sacrifices everything just for Evangeline to regain her memories? In doing so, Jacks will lose strength and eventually die.

Fates had always been careless and inhumane. It’s easy to assume that their souls are lost since they become a much shiner and dangerous version of their human selves.

But even as I’m writing this theory, I kind of don’t prefer it. Death shouldn’t be a way to redeem villains or any other types of characters. They should go through this metamorphic process naturally.

With the help of the Tree of Souls, Evangeline could find a way to bring Jacks’s soul back and he’ll come back to life as a human.

The evajacks kiss we always wanted will finally be possible! 🤩

Yet it is clear that someone's soul is going to be saved. Also, Stephanie seems to tease a broken, doomed love story, but if a certain person who has the arc has said that it was one of her favorite reads so far, then I'm positive that this will be a story that pay off in the end 💕

We still have an evajacks wedding to get to! 😉

What The Title Means 💖👀

A Curse For True Love is our first clue to what we could expect in this story. Ever since the title was revealed, a few things came to the front of my mind.

One being about Jacks. Basically, Jacks had given up the Archer curse and possibly became a Fate to be with the Fox girl. This was the curse he got for true love.

It seemed the potential second title for the final book was The Curse Long Forgotten. Which curse was forgotten? It might be referring to Evangeline since Apollo took all of her significant memories. If so, then we'll know for sure that Apollo cursed her to forget, meaning the memories are still with her.

But if the curse forgotten is talking about Jacks, then it might be referring to when he became a Fate, back to when his heart stopped beating. Perhaps, when the Archer curse was broken, the pull Jacks had for the Fox girl was lost and that would explain why she died.

She wasn't his true love, but that didn't mean that he didn't love her. This first fox was special to him. That much is clear after Chaos' words to Evangeline about her that I mentioned here.

Conclusion ✨

Jacks became a Fate to break the Archer's curse to be with the Fox girl. However, because she wasn't his true love, his kiss killed her.

His failure to become a hero has led him to an endless path that would cause him to get his heart broken again and again. Tella gave him hope, but she would not choose him. Even though this affected Jacks, Jacks was not in love with Tella. Even if he thought he was.

Evangeline brings Jacks to his past to start his future. In an effort to save her, Jacks might offer her his soul or get his soul back and become human. The Buffy comment has to be more than just Evangeline and Jacks being star crossed lovers.

Evangeline has never stabbed Jacks, but maybe she will. It'll probably work in Apollo's favor, but we'll see what happens.

Even though Stephanie uses the word "doomed," Evangeline and Jacks will return to the Hollow, get married, and maybe live out the rest of their story there. Isn't that sweet? 🥺💕💕💕

#ouabh #once upon a broken heart #ouabh spoilers #tbona #the ballad of never after #tbona spoilers #acftl #a curse for true love #acftl theories #evangeline fox #jacks #prince of hearts #jacks x evangeline #evajacks #stephanie garber #rebirth #true love

138 notes · View notes