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whetstonefires · 4 years

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Another thing about Maia’s self-perception is how he is explicitly said to have his father’s exact eyes and general facial structure, and yet everyone including him and Varinechibel agrees that he looks like his mother.

I mean, I expect he agrees it in large part because Varenechibel very memorably said it. But mostly it’s that everyone, including him, sees his color first.

Maia has also internalized that he’s very ugly, due to that one meeting with his father and Setheris’ abuse, yet we never see him pass that judgment on anyone else with goblin blood, although having been raised to value elvish beauty standards he doesn’t care for the characteristic goblin features (that he himself has not got) like the underslung jaw, and that’s how we know he got his father’s ‘delicate’ bones--multiple persons over the years have taken it upon themselves to inform him that he’s lucky.

Which is wild tbh. He hadn’t even had occasion to talk to more than like a dozen people in his entire life before becoming emperor, and enough people had still 1) let him know how lucky he was to look like his father and 2) opined that he looked like his mother for both judgments to stand as established consensus.

Who was even saying this shit, besides Setheris? The cook at Edonomee? Her daughter Maia used to cadge pulp novels off of? Random couriers there to bring letters to Setheris? Not Osmerrem Dacharan, for sure. Haru the outside serving-man talked to him once, about the dangers of the swamp. He certainly wasn’t dispensing judgments about his lineage.

A great thing about how the cultures in the novel are set up is that while the elves construct the goblins as their opposite, alien and strange, they are 1) closely enough related culturally to speak sister languages according to the travel guide and share customs about things like women’s status within marriage and most of the same gods if not the same ritual practices and 2) actually heavily intermingled, racially.

(How they developed into such distinct populations at all while neighbors with an evident common heritage is left unaddressed, which I am inclined to forgive because it would not occur to our narrator to wonder.)

Even before Maia challenged the national identity narrative by coming to the throne, anti-goblin sentiment and the impulse toward ‘purity’ was the construction of an intimate enemy. Maia mentions intermarriage is becoming more and more common near the border, but even in Cetho we see that a good third of the low-ranking servants in the actual palace have goblin blood.

And that’s the phrase for it--goblin blood. I suspect people less politically correct than Maia are inclined to call some or all of these people ‘goblins,’ as they do him, but technically that’s a national distinction--goblins are people from the country of Barizhan.

There’s a kid on Gormened’s staff who’s a much paler grey than Maia, and he’s a goblin, legally speaking. If any part of the Barizheise public feels differently, it never comes up. (And given Maia’s maternal grandfather thinks he could have gotten Maia in as the next Great Avar even though it’s not a position inherited strictly within a lineage like the imperial throne, “half-elvish though thou art,” it’s almost certainly not as intense a feeling as we see in the Ethuveraz.) The rose gardener who was sent with Chenelo lives in the palace permanently but is from Barizhan, so he’s a goblin.

People in various shades of grey who are not from Barizhan, however, are goblin-descended citizens of the Ethuveraz. Not technically goblins. Are they technically elves? Well, Maia doesn’t tell us they aren’t. But he never says they are, either.

Which implies, I think, the depth and complexity of the national conversation being resolutely not-had for at least a few generations, and probably much longer.

(Remember Merrem Orthemo at the dinner party with her long teeth, you have no stauncher subjects and our house and the house of our mother’s line have lived for centuries in the badlands; there were always people there even before gold was discovered and the elves came. The Ezho gold rush was two generations ago.

Ethnic and national identity within the arms of empire are always complex things, but I think Merrem Orthemo has fairly well-defined ideas about her own. I wish we knew just what they were.)

There do seem to be plenty of non-elite elves who come only in white, like Csevet, and Min Narchanezhen with her ferret face, but there are plenty who don’t, while it seems that the upper echelons of elvish society have worked very very hard at endogamy. This makes the persistent rumors that Maia is an inbred cretin particularly ludicrous, considering he’s almost certainly the least inbred aristocrat in the empire.

(Very likely mixed heritage is growing common in cities but has not spread so much to the countryside away from the border, since urban populations tend to be more mobile. And in fact a major source of opposition to the bridge is that it would allow agricultural workers more freedom of movement, and thus potential bargaining power against the great landlords.)

Maia’s accession means the question of who counts, and how much, is suddenly a part of the national conversation that is placed squarely in front of everyone’s eyes, particularly those of people in power who never had to care before.

And this is why, even if Maia had not been such a resolutely decent person, just getting him crowned meant that even executed, Shulivar won.

#the goblin emperor #worldbuilding #racism #internalized racism #maia drazhar #constructed identities #I really like this book okay #long post

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proto-language · 5 years

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good news everyone i’m now In The Zone so i’m going to write more bullshit about the greatcoats!!!!!!!! i have no self-restraint. sorry.

relationships we deserved to hear more about:

kest and brasti the most obvious one, but GOD i wanted more of the two of them. we often see them arguing in the background, until falcio inevitably tells them to shut up or tunes them out because of his Important Thoughts tm (more important than my love for supporting characters? i think the fuck not falcio). their bickering is largely friendly, but there are also quite a few occasions where kest is genuinely pissed at brasti, and/or vice versa - i think the main problem in their relationship isn’t their largely opposing personalities (kest being serious and studious where brasti is playful and not particularly book-smart, although he’s putting on some of his dumbness) but their conflicting priorities. while brasti is deeply loyal to his friends, he also cares a hell of a lot about the people he doesn’t know, and the good of all others is what he puts first. kest, on the other hand, does care about the general population, but is loyal to falcio above all else, and that seems to be where most of their conflict comes from. i just really want to see more than extracts of their arguments and moments of friendship shared with falcio - i want to know how the two of them work, how they show they care and what they talk about besides falcio and whatever potential death they’re facing this time! also brasti’s backstory. please. i need it. i’d sacrifice my sister for it.

mateo and quentis okay in tyrant’s throne there’s this section: “’Lately, Mateo and Quentis Maren [have been watching over Aline]. They work well together.’ I found it odd that Mateo, about as heretical a man as I’d ever met, and Quentis Maren, a former Inquistor, had become such close friends, but really, it was none of my business.” @ SEBASTIEN DE CASTELL WHERE’S MY NOVEL ABOUT MATEO AND QUENTIS BEING BEST FRIENDS AND DEALING WITH ALL THE SHIT THAT FALCIO GETS THEM INTO tbh i... kinda ship them? i have no valid basis for this apart from that I Think It Would Be Good, but platonic or romantic i think their relationship would be a really interesting one to read about. the mentioned conflict between quentis’ faith and background as an inquisitor and mateo’s lack thereof would naturally lead to conflict, or at least some difficult conversations.

quillata and falcio falcio says that they were once close friends, and!!! i’m so curious about that! i’d also really like to know how she got along with kest and brasti, given that they seemed largely inseperable from falcio!

darriana and valiana and ethalia compared to some of the others i’ve mentioned, darri and valiana do get quite a bit of development, but still not enough (in my humble opinion). darri and ethalia have a relationship, of sorts, which mostly involves darri talking shit about ethalia and ethalia talking shit back but subtly. ethalia and valiana kind of do, but again i’d like to see more. i love the way that darriana takes valiana under her wing when she’s still so unsure of her place in all this (and constantly gets on falcio’s case about his parenting skills), and it would’ve been great to hear some of their one-on-one conversations! i’d also like to see where darri and ethalia’s relationship goes once they begin to make peace with one another. i’d also like to fight sebatien de castell for constantly having darri deride ethalia for being a “whore”, even though it brings ethalia no shame. his whole thing with women in this series is just a bit...... eh.

antrim and like... everyone (but particularly mateo, quentis, and talia) i have so many questions about antrim!! tbh i have a lot of questions about all the greatcoats who spent a lot of time together in aramor while the main trio were fucking around in avares and the like. antrim seems like a really likeable character, and i wish he’d gotten more screen time, so to speak.

brasti and gwyn so at the end of tyrant’s throne brasti decides to join the rangieri? which i think would probably involve him being taught quite a lot by gwyn. they seem to spend a lot of time together before the war with avares as well, scouting and following people and tracks. i think brasti would probably intimidate gwyn a bit at first, because on the surface he’s all loud laughter and dirty jokes and messing around. once they got to know each other better, however, i do think they’d get along well, and brasti might take on a role somewhere between brotherly and parental for gwyn.

valiana, aline, kest, and brasti just the four of them in various configurations!!!!

#actually the more i think about it. the more i'm determined that darri should've been gay. hm.#hm.#i should shut up lmao #the greatcoats #long post

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wickedlyqueer · 7 years

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It's so good to my little gay heart that you can apply Glinda question Elphie leaving her to the book as well, there has always been a missing puzzle piece in their relationship, especially with those fights in the end and everything being extra painful hahahahha good memories nvm

I’ve actually screamed talked about this before with @lily-onher-grave! We’re pretty much on the same page that had Elphaba given Glinda even a fraction of a choice after confronting the Wizard, she would’ve gone with her.

Glinda is heartbroken. The way Elphaba left her is very much described as a rejection:

Elphaba hadn’t cried, of course. Her head had turned away quickly as she stepped down, not to hide her tears but to soften the fact of their absence. But the sting, to Glinda, was real.

So reading it as a rejection it makes sense that Glinda wouldn’t immediately go after Elphaba. Also, Glinda isn’t the one out of the two who would throw herself headfirst in a situation. She’s more careful and calculative, and left on her own, would rather be in circles and situations she’s familiar with.

This also explains when she meets Fiyero in EC, she has slipped back into her society behavior. But! Underneath it, she’s still that clever girl who was the first of her village to go to Shiz.

Glinda Upland reads him in a second. He barely has to say anything and she knows he has found Elphaba. And she’s so fucking pissed about it. Because (and this is where the screaming began) ever since in the Emerald City, Glinda has probably been looking for Elphaba. Without any luck.

Here’s some evidence for that claim for funsies:

Glinda is very desperate to try and have the old Charmed Circle back together and wants to invite them all (Crope, Fiyero, Nessa, even Avaric), either as to try to recreate her happy period in Shiz or in the hopes Elphaba would show up.

Before Fiyero can leave she asks him about Elphaba (probably because she suspects the affair she had deduced so easily might actually be with Elphaba)

Crope says he might’ve seen Elphaba once and Glinda and Fiyero are both immediately on to him and Glinda even goes a step further saying: “You never told me that Crope.” Clearly suggesting she is hawking at any information she can find about Elphaba.

When Fiyero misspeaks about the oils, Glinda’s suspicion is confirmed

Before Fiyero leaves, she again tries to meet up with him, even specifies without Crope, because: “The past seems both more mysterious and understandable with you right here before me.”

And then she says that heartbreaking “If you should see her, tell her I miss her still.” A last desperate attempt. All her cards on the table: she knows Fiyero has met Elphaba and they’re having an affair. But she hopes that if Fiyero would slip anything of Glinda’s presence to Elphaba, she would have the upperhand again. Because she would.

All this happens in three fucking pages! Dear lord.

Then we basically don’t see Glinda again until after Nessa’s death. Over 20 years have passed and this is also part of the ‘missing puzzle piece’ you mention. We don’t get to see Glinda’s journey. She was abandoned like Nessa, and she points this out when they re-unite again.

Gelphie is as much as what is being said as what is left unsaid. It’s reading between the lines. We actually see that Glinda and Elphaba get the best out of each other during the Shiz-era. Glinda smoothens Elphaba’s rougher edges, and Elphaba is the first person to encourage Glinda to dig deeper and be who she is instead of who society wants her to be.

The more heartbreaking it is that circumstance rips them away from each other. Leaving them both rather bitter and resentful. Understandably so, but even after all this time, they cannot stop loving each other.

When Elphaba sees Glinda, it’s described that her heart is churring. Then a few pages later we get the gayest description ever how if she remembers her youth “she could scarcely dredge up an ounce” of their meeting with the Wizard, and rather choses to remember her and Elphaba sharing a bed “how brave that had made her feel, and how vulnerable too”. jESUS WOMAN HOW GAY CAN YOU GET??

If only one of the two had moved. If only one of them had gone after the other. If only they weren’t so hellbent in believing the other couldn’t possibly feel the same way. If Elphaba had been an ounce more selfish and not wanting Glinda to be safe, but with her. If Glinda had been a bit braver to step outside her familiar comfort zone and go after what she wanted.

We could’ve had it all and it keeps me up at night tbh…

#fem's asks #wicked meta #long post #elsannafondue #gelphie #idk why this got so long #but it did #¯\_(ツ)_/¯#mostly tagging gretchenmaurice #bc a lot of my theories have developed by bouncing ideas with other creators #also her resistance fic is excellent if you want abandoned Glinda pov

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