#still reeling after rott

[kareenvorbarra]

now that it’s been a few days and i’ve talked to some people and read some posts, i’m gonna try to organize my thoughts re: “the arrival” and “news from the palace” in particular 

major spoilers for both stories, and some criticism below: 

the hypothetical laela story was really the only specific thing i was hoping for from this book, so it was a big letdown for me when i realized i wasn’t going to learn anything about her that i didn’t already know. the silver lining is that i don’t have anything getting in the way of my own headcanons about laela’s future (which are becoming increasingly detailed as i work on my fanfic about her), but i’m still sad that we didn’t get to see her and kamet talk about what happened. their relationship is one of my favorite in the series, and it’s not a major focus of fandom production or discussion, so i was hoping that a little more canon content about their dynamic would make more people interested in it. i guess the only thing to do re: laela is to throw up my hands and say “my city now” and continue to make things up and enjoy myself. 

my issues with “news from the palace” are a little more complicated (and also relate to “the arrival” as well, because they do seem to be happening in the same place, though i guess that’s not a given). on the one hand, i love that costis and kamet are still living together, and that they didn’t just become the next generation’s teleus and relius. costis as captain of the guard felt like a stretch to me, especially after RoTT. as compelling as the loyalty theme in this series can be, i loved that costis got to return to kamet, and that his whole being wasn’t subsumed into his sense of duty to the king and queen. 

i thought kamet becoming the next secretary of the archives was more likely than costis becoming captain of the guard, but it didn’t appeal to me that much for similar reasons - kamet has spent most of his life doing a stressful job and working for important people, and i wanted him to have a real chance to think about the kind of life he might want for himself. i love the idea of him having a peaceful life and a family - things he was robbed of as a child, and that we know he once dreamed about having with marin. (we don’t know that he and marin wanted to get married and have kids, but he wanted to run away with her - given their circumstances, that implies that he planned to stay with her for the forseeable future. why run away with your lover if not to build a life with them, the kind of life you literally cannot have when you are both owned by someone else?) i also love that he is clearly still close with pheris, that pheris visits often enough to know the kids’s names, that the kids know some of pheris’s sign language.  

on the other hand, i’m still reeling over the choice to give costis two biological children with different mothers, and to just drop that in there with absolutely no explanation. we don’t know if timris and philo’s mothers live in the house, if they’re involved in their children’s lives at all, if they’re even alive. we don’t know if costis is married, or a widower, or if he and kamet made an arrangement with a nice lesbian couple so they could all have kids. this tells us nothing except that costis had sex with two different women at least once. 

i love costis/kamet as a ship, and i don’t think this story precludes them being a couple at all. i don’t necessarily mind them not becoming canon (though i would have loved it if they had). i’m also a bisexual kamet truther, i love kamet/marin and it drives me crazy when people downplay their relationship or write it off as shallow or childish. my mental image of costis and kamet’s future didn’t involve either of them getting married to women, but i’m also not completely horrified by the idea. 

the issue i have with “news from the palace” is not really that costis might be married to a woman (though i did feel like it came out of nowhere). it’s that we don’t know whether he is married or not. literally all we know is that he has two sons, who are half-brothers (meaning they share a parent) and that one of them looks a lot like thalia’s son, which basically confirms that costis is their biological father. 

if mwt didn’t want to say outright that costis is married, but she wanted him to have kids, what was the point of doing it this way? why rule out the possibility that his children are adopted? why use such deliberate language to make it clear that these are costis’s biological children and that they have different mothers, while not giving a single detail about their mothers? it creates this massive void where the female characters should be - they must exist, because someone had to give birth to timris and philo, but their existance isn’t acknowledged in any meaningful way. we don’t know if they’re alive or dead, present or absent. why was she so determined to make it clear that these women exist, while giving us absolutely no information about them? 

in the same vein, “the arrival” introduces three women who are living in the same household as kamet, and at least two of them are new characters (possibly all three, though one could easily be thalia). i assumed we were going to get some information about them, particularly the woman who is notably suspicious of laela. what was the point of showing us those characters and creating a few interesting details about them without providing any follow-up? for that matter, why do we only get names for new male characters in this household? it’s thalia’s husband and three boys, plus three unnamed women, plus two complete non-entities who might overlap with the unnamed women. any of the kids in “news from the palace” could have been girls!

we also know basically nothing about how kamet fits into this family, except that he lives there. are he and costis a couple? does he consider costis’s children his children? does he have a wife and/or children of his own? 

i’d almost rather have no details about costis and kamet’s future than a handful of details so full of gaps that i can’t engage with them unless i sift through dozens of possibilities, none of which i would have come up with if left to my own devices. 

#got that off my chest!!!! okay! #it's a lot longer than i meant it to be and probably not very coherent #i truly loved a lot of the stories but they were mostly the ones about characters i'm less obsessively invested in #irene and relius and gen and helen #also melheret! who i am weirdly fond of #my one consolation is that there's no canon debunking my post-TaT vision for laela and the dancing girls #none of my fanfic plans have changed even a little bit #moira's pen spoilers #queen's thief

[wordsofmyown]

Attolis Eugenidies || The Queen’s Thief series, Megan Whalen Turner

#still reeling after rott #the queen's thief #eugenidies #megan whalen turner #my things

[josiecarioca]

On “Post War” chapter 66 and healing

So it will take a while for me to really be able to sit down and properly answer all the comments left in “Post War”, but one comment stood out to me ebcause it made me think about some unspoken aspects of chapter 66. (so this will include spoilers for that chapter)

Basically in chapter 66, Severus, Leo, Shafiq and the trio have to deal with a terrorist attack by dark wizards on a muggle crowd and a full-werewolf Fenrir Grayback ambush outside the city gates, to get Evelyn to safety (as the Rotts are planning to kidnap her and to use as leverage to get the location of Salazar’s grimmoire and serpentine dagger out of Severus)

In the end, they all find themselves safe and sound in the beach house, where Hermione helps Severus tend to Evelyn, while Harry and Ron try their best to navigate the awkwardness of the situation, while offering Severus some support. 

@hayalee8 left me a comment that said “ e. Evelyn, hqving been so oblivious of the parallel world right under her nose, with a history and a story she had nothinf to do with; and Harry/Ron/Hermione and their complete unfamiliarity of a "human" Snape, a Snape who loves, who fears, who has an actual regular life, who has a "girlfriend" which sounds so very much out of place. “

And that got me thinking, because a few chapters ago I probably wouldn’t have written this because I´d feel it would be *too* awkward and too far fetched that Severus and the trio would come together like this with so much still unresolved. But as I kept writing, I realized it had to be done, in the context of this story.

The fact of the matter they are all *good* people. Mind you Severus is FAR from nice, and the trio all have their moments, and they really don’t see eye to eye, and even after the trio knows the truth about Severus loyalty, there’s still discomfort and resentment. But all four of them are good people. In the sense that all of them have a sound moral compass, and a sound understanding of what’s right and how much it can cost to do what’s right.

So, even though the trio still has their issues with him (Harry in particular) when they look at Severus here all they see is a man who needs help, a man who loves somebody and the person he loves is hurt and confused, and helping her may be overwhelming for him. So they help him. Whatever issues they have, this is the most important: he needs help, and they´re in a position to give it to him.

And Severus is still reeling from everything that happened during the war, Harry’s presence is still an emotional sore spot for him and is not like he´s more fond of the trio now than he was before. In fact, their presence damn near triggers him. But he recognises they´re there to help, so he accepts it as much as it makes him emotionally raw, he opens up to receiving their help, and he lets them in. And in the process, he also helps them come to terms with the fact that Voldemort’s demise is not the end of it all. There´s a whole lot more ahead.

And they come together not only because they know they can help each other in some measure,  but also because there are innocent people at risk (Fenrir’s victms, the victms of the terrorist attacks, God only knows who else the Rotts will target next) and something has to be done, since the Ministry has its hands tied by international agreements and laws. 

Nobody is looking to make friends and live happily ever after, they know “happily ever after” doesn´t just happen (if it even exists). All they want is to do what’s right, and possibly heal in the process. And healing can be a messy, painful and uncomfortable process. In fact, it usually is. 

#Post War #Rambling #snape #snapedom #severus snape #evelyn black #severus x evelyn #Harry Potter #Hermione Granger #ronald weasley

[throwaninkpot]

RotT reactions part 2!

costis, what are you doing here, shouldn't you be in roa? shouldn't you be with kamet? costis, where's kamet? what happened to him? tell me!

"who really owns anything?" eugenides, you utter meme.

if tattoos a custom in eddis, does. .....does helen have tattoos? oh my word, please tell me helen has tattoos, she would look so cool.

so, so, so, horrible invasion, giant army, logistics of war. it's very terrible and interesting, but where kamet? where my boy? is he okay? costis just LEFT him behind, bc he had to get word back to attolia, I don't blame him, I love him. but is kamet okay????????????????????

rip to all the cottage fic people probably wrote about the two having a chill time in roa. (idk, I haven't checked.) megan said we can't have nice things.

"find yourselves another king" uhhhhhhh, gen?

gen said no more king, now only Thief and Hot Consort To The Sexy Queen.

awww, sophos gave him a book of poetry for his birthday. I love sophos.

"attolia says she leaves with you" *spends several long minutes clutching at my chest repeatedly as I am Overwhelmed*

you know the quote in koa about a careful dance of shafow and unsubstance but under it all, a real marriage of two people? that's literally this. the queen is surely calculated her possible responses to gen, amd this is either a Pointed Message to gen or to the barons, and I'm still not sure what gen is up to actually, but also. she loves him, guys. they're in love. "she leaves with you". they're in love.

"I asked her to leave with me on our wedding night" of course he did.

"except me, I can do anything I want" :'D

they're too soft. I cannot.

go, costis! save your boy!

..........is this where I formally apologize for rolling my eyes back in 2016 when people shipped teleus/relius? I genuinely did not see this coming.

megan said okay, we've been on our best behavior, it's been 25 years, she will sprinkle in a little canon queerness. and then upended a flour sack of it on us.

"he had to bend to keep his lips on hers until she reached the ground" they're too cute, this is illegal.

oh, now THAT'S some soap opera level nonsense. how awkward was it for gen and helen knowing his father was a spurned lover of her mother

sometimes soldiers. I am eating this stuff up.

they get no apology. h*ck the pents. maybe they should have chosen an ambassador that didn't force himself upon women.

"where sounis's father positively beamed with approval at his son, eddis's minister of war glowered. the high king, slumped in his seat, catching his father's glare, slumped even further." it be like that.

ten to one. oof, oof, oof.

okay, the solution is, one of gen's sisters should beat up cleon and therespides.

gen. you were the one paying him. I don't know why I'm ever surprised by the tangled schemes you wrap yourself up in.

every scene that the four monarchs are together, just having a good time and loving each other and sounding so much like the young people they are, every time, it makes me happy.

the fandom tried to figure out at what age boys left the dorms in Eddis, didn't we? I think we settled on 12 or 13. gen killed someone before he was 13. hachi machi.

he called him "my brother sounis". awww.

"without cheating" is that what we're calling godly visits now

eugenides will give me a heart attack, I swear.

they call it return of the thief bc this is the most like himself gen has acted since the crenellations in KoA.

(fitting that this is the book with a neuroduvergent pov, bc I have never happy stimmed more in my life than during the chase scene.)

when he starts windmilling, now I am afraid. oh please, megan, don't let him be hurt.

thank the gods.

helen wearing an eddisian uniform. heck yeah! gnc helen rights continue!

"it was the last lighthearted moment for a long time" :(

they're leaving the city, and I'm suddenly remember the comment from back in book of pheris 1 about an attack by a tomb. am afraid.

it's loving the magus o' clock. he treats pheris so well.

irenides baby......2!!!!

"I don't understand" you and me both, sophos.

"I think they have to show their worst selves sometimes in order to be sure that even at their worst they are loved" I need a minute.

I love tactics and logistics, but I wish I could picture this my head. the map doesn't actually help me figure out where the forces are in perspective.

megan really wasn't exaggerating when she said eugenides's first reaction to seeing an elephant is "I want to steal one."

"he muscled up his other arm and said he would destroy the Medes single-handed" these books are giving me a stroke. megan, that pun was beautiful.

"I have found Kamet!" I'm going to be sick. he had better be okay. he was supposed to be free of nahuseresh.

nasty man had better be lying. my kamet had better be okay.

oh, costis. okay, okay, alright.

why is cleon's death so sombering. I think it's bc I just reread "Thief!", and met him as a teenager in that. I think it's bc it says he's one of three cousins that died that day, and gen already lost so many cousins during the war in QoA. I loved the country of eddis when I was first reading these books and forever after that, bc it's so full. there's a very communal child-rearing system and gen has these packs of cousins, even if most of them spent their childhood bullying him, I loved the idea of having so much family around you. he's running out of family.

oh. I went back to reading from writing that, and. stenides. oh.

I said I wanted gen's siblings, but not like this.

well, here's some cairns. presumably the tombs pheris's foreshadowed earlier. here we go, something bad is going to happen.

Something Bad Happened.

oh, no, Hilarion. D:

*tiffany haddish voice* NOMENUS??? HOW COULD YOU DO THIS. I PUT YOU ON MY BINGO.

the man at the cairn. the god on the battlefield that megan referenced? but eugenides called him a dead man. so not a god. so, did he recognize him as someone he knew to be dead?

"my cousins know not to trust my tears" once again, gen's hail mary is the fact he's a little snipe.

he says he needs a heavier rain, and the gods deliver.

f in chat for nomenus. he was a snake, but still.

"and by my oath to my god, now and for my life, Thief of Eddis." YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, Philo. :(

rip to Legarus and his Awesome Beauty.

they want to kill gen in The Thief? eddis's council wanted to kill him? I'm reeling from all the backstory this book is revealing.

not quite how I had the apotheosis pictured, and yet. *sufjan steven's ascension plays in the background*

"I say it three times, Fordad. It will be so. It will be so. It will be so." holy heck.

someone get in here and analyze that for biblical symbolism.

HE CALLED DOWN LIGHTNING. HOLY

narration only calls him eugenides in that scene with the lightning. significant.

"feeling the tremor in it, he opened his arms to catch the king as he fell." he has fallen and been caught by his god and fallen and been caught by his dad.

I think we'll call the interregnum an interlude into the underworld, if not a journey into.

oh, gods, relius.

for a former spymaster, he sure trusted too easily.

he could have had his farm in the gede valley, but he stayed to help irene and gen. oh, relius, relius.

sejanus has a saving grace afterall.

dite and sejanus protecting each other, and pretending to hate each other so that sejanus at least can be on good terms with their father, that all clicks into place when you know about their older brother who they probably loved just as much.

crying crying crying over Sejanus and Pheris.

the minster of war. D:

at least nahuseresh is dead.

gen lay down to sleep by his father's corpse.

the patrimony divided in three. a triangle.

sophos/helen baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love that gen, knowing his cousin and also being a little sneak who notices everything, figured out helen was pregnant before sophos even did.

f for sejanus. he wasn't as bad as he seemed, and not nearly as bad as he almost was.

oh, xenophon died, too. he of the wooden cannons and receiver of the infamous "I love stupid plans" line.

why is everyone dead. :(

"they're at the pickets, both of them" oh, thank you, jesus. TWO PEOPLE WHO AREN'T DEAD. MY BOYS.

she dreams of Eddis empty. there's no words for the relief I feel.

twinssss!!

and yet they don't tell us the name!!!!! what was the MoW's name??? what is their son's name??? megan!!!!!!

gen holding his daughter for the first time and offering to pitch her off a roof. I don't even have words.

hector. hector. hector hector hector.

rooftop dance!!!!!!!!!!!

HE'S OKAY. RELIUS IS OKAY.

(you couldn't give us one costis and kamet dance? no, it's fine.)

peace. peace. peace.

crying.

#queen's thief #return of the thief #rott spoilers #rott #qt spoilers #this has been a post