#neither oak nor wren makes sense as a ruler what a dumb dumb ending for their arcs

[eerna]

hello! this ask ended up becoming a very long tangent so feel free to ignore it lmao. just had some thoughts on tpt and idk who else to rant to

i feel like i generally enjoyed tpt but also agree w a lot of criticism ive seen about it (was definitely put off by wrens lack of agency and so disappointed that we didnt see her reunite w her parents…that phone call w her mom was the most emotionally evocative scene for me in the first book and lowkey made me cry).

idk if someone already brought this up but a small thing that bothered me was that the thistlewitch’s bargain with oak never came back to bite him or was even mentioned again. specifically the exchange where she asked him to grant her a request upon becoming king, and he agreed since he didnt plan to be king anyway even though she implied she’d seen otherwise in his future. i get that this is foreshadowing ultimately that oak would become a king through marrying wren rather than inheriting, but it surprised me that the ramifications of him thus having to put his money where his mouth is re:thistlewitch never actually come up when he has the whole ‘oh i’d still be a king by marriage’ realization in tpt.

like it seems like it should be plot relevant that oak is now indebted to a hag who is somewhat implied to be conspiring (or at least affiliated) with mother marrow / bogdana, given that he specifically questions why mother marrow sent him off to the thistlewitch to get info, when she already could have told him that wren had melliths heart. idk was that part ever explained? i listened to the audiobook so if it was i might have zoned out or something, but i lowkey kept expecting that piece to be revealed as part of the hag conspirators’ plan

i guess that its just a red herring having finished the book now, but i was still confused that oak never even reflects back on it in his inner monologue at some point, especially when he realizes that he is still on track to becoming a king when he marries wren? like the book just ends with him being like ‘i guess ill be a king :) for you :)’ so i suppose hes either forgotten about the thistlewitch or doesnt care

maybe i read far too much into this one interaction or just missed something. but idk it just seems like a missed opportunity and/or dropped plot line to me and i really feel like that red string corkboard charlie day meme just thinking about it.

thank u for reading if you got through it all :,)

No worries, I enjoy reading ppl's takes in my inbox, be it positive or negative~ SAME the Thistlewitch was the BACKBONE to all my TPT predictions and then she ended up irrelevant. Then when the entire consort VS king/queen topic popped up I was like OH SMART, this could be a good middle ground. But no. Despite all his best attempts at avoiding it, he is still getting a crown, hence the hags can still collect that boon one day. And what if the boon is "Reignite the Court of Teeth's insurgence and march against Elfhame and put your hag bride on the throne". What then.

#eernask #eernanon #eernask talk tfota #the prisoner's throne spoilers #like ok his main reason for not wanting to be king of elfhame is bc his family fell apart bc of the title so you can say he isn't anti bein #king just anti being king of ELFHAME. but also. this isn't really stated as an option in the book. he doesn't CARE about ruling. #neither oak nor wren makes sense as a ruler what a dumb dumb ending for their arcs