#the scholomance

[chekovpavelandreievich]

the thing about el higgins is that terry pratchett would have loved her.

I’ve never encountered a character or a series that I could call a spiritual successor to tiffany aching but el is perhaps the closest possible thing. the way that tiffany’s righteous anger is her magic, born from a sense of deeply rooted love and identity with her home and blossoms into a tempered, powerful ability to see what is in front of her. the way el rages against the systems of oppression she can see and how she follows that rage to the very core and from that core she dismantle those systems. how in both doing the right thing is a choice, always a choice, and one that requires choosing again and again and again. “this far and no further.” “you’re already dead but stay anyway.”

#Tiffany and el both have such strong narrative presence that it’s so easy to forget that they are not reliable narrators #they think they are and that’s how the stories function so incredibly well #because we must go through the journey of also being unreliable and learn along with the characters #no shade but this is a narrative choice that I much prefer to the parable-esque poppy wars or babel #the scholomance #el higgins #tiffany aching #naomi novik #terry pratchett #a post by me

[elizabysmal]

I’m about a third of the way though the third book in the scholomance series and I’ve been rotating these two at 350 degrees in my brain for two weeks

#el higgins #orion lake #the scholomance #hARTcore #wanna draw more but I gotta finish the got dam thing like!!! get me my fucking boy back!!!!!!!!! #scholomance

[reverie-quotes]

I imagine it’s always easier to do something monstrous if you can convince yourself you aren’t going to, up to the last minute, until you do.

— Naomi Novik, The Golden Enclaves

#the golden enclaves #naomi novik #the scholomance #quotes #literary quotes #fantasy #writing #books #spilled ink #thoughts #lit #pretty quotes #quote of the day #reverie #reverie quotes #quote #book quote #book quotes #inspiring quote #inspiring quotes #beautiful quote #beautiful quotes

[dawn-the-rithmatist]

A Deadly Education really said “stop asking who needs to pay the price of a broken system and start asking who’s going to help fix the broken system”

#like. it’s not even a metaphor. that’s literally what happens in the first book #hi guys I’m rereading the scholomance and it’s still fjucking brilliant #the scholomance #a deadly education

[tanoraqui]

I didn’t mini-liveblog The Golden Enclaves like the others, so here are my key thoughts:

what ORPHEUS & EURYDICE BULLSHIT—

Gwen Higgins MVP

at some point in her youth, Liesel watched the s6 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, specifically the scene where Xander talks Dark Willow down from destroying the world with a heartfelt monologue about friendship and a symbolic yellow crayon, and thought, “Yeah, that could be me!”, and I love that for her. Get this woman a yellow crayon.

I can’t find it now but I saw a poll asking what your top ugly sobbing moment for these books was, so let the record note that mine was, “He would have taken you up the mountain and holding you in his arms, leapt.”

I was totally comfortable with El in ratty, unwashed clothes in the Scholomance itself, but now that she’s out, I DO keep involuntarily imagining her dressed as her honored inspiration Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way.

Orion gets to stay at the school that he and he alone loved his time at, and protect all the magical children of the world…there are going to be students, starting with the freshmen class they already saved, whose only experience of the Scholomance includes the fierce guardianship of Orion and El… 🥹 😭 ❤️ I hope he gets some lame but appropriate and punny title like “Custodian.”

#the scholomance

[viridializard]

I'm reading Scholomance and their friendship is v important to me

#no spoilers please I'm only halfway through the last graduate #galadriel higgins #guo yi liu #aadhya scholomance #the scholomance #scholomance fanart

[hatepotion]

so i read a deadly education

#a deadly education #the scholomance #scholomance #el higgins #orion lake #my art

[krakenattack]

Mild spoiler for The Last Graduate ahead, but:

Having just reread the whole series, I love how at odds El and the Scholomance are. Like, El's pessimism is a great way of making your narrator unreliable, since El is sometimes right and sometimes wrong always expecting the worst response from everyone around her(a thought worthy of another entire post), but it becomes very funny once she realizes that part of the problem at school is that she can't do small spells? Like, she spends the whole first book being like 'this school is the devil tempting me to evil, it wants me to become a maleficier, I can't even ask for a simple cleaning spell without getting horrible spells for summoning mortal flames and enslaving an army of people, I hate it', and meanwhile the Scholomance is flipping frantically through its catalogue of spells gathered over thousands of years, desperately trying to find a spell in a language El knows that she can also cast with her affinity for working incredibly large and powerful spells. El's over here driving a bulldozer and saying, 'I would like to build a Jenga tower' and the Scholomance is looking at her with the weary despair of a preschool teacher knowing they're going to be suffering through a temper tantrum soon but unable to stop it.

El, a furious teenager who doesn't know as much as she thinks she does: I don't wanna summon a mortal flame! I want my room clean!

The Scholomance, a giant building that cleans its own hallways, floors, dishes and various and assorted other workings with mortal flame: Why is this child testing me

Also hilarious in retrospect is El's blithe statement in the first book about how no one would ever give her that much mana to do these high volume spells bc mana isn't free or easy to acquire and so the school is clearly telling her to turn maleficier and kill her fellow students all while Orion is humming to himself as he kills mals and dumps oodles and oodles of mana into the New York power sharers.

El "I'd rather die than ask for help" Higgins: I won't do these spells bc no one will give me mana

The Scholomance, as loudly as a building who may or may not be partially sentient and who can't speak human languages: Wow, those sure are some HIGH MANA VOLUME spells you got there! If only there was SOMEONE around who would be able to provide you with a NIGH LIMITLESS FLOW OF MANA so that you'd be able to cast them!

Orion: :)

El: *hisses like a feral cat*

Orion: :(

The Scholomance: oh my freaking god

Hilarious. Top tier humor.

#the scholomance #a deadly education #the last graduate #naomi novik #I also truly believe that the scholance was trying to prep El for her future by giving her those spells #she ends up being able to use her knowledge of several of those spells to useful and non-malicious effects in the last two books #but it's funny to imagine a very tired scholomance trying to find enough complex and high mana-cost spells #to placate the bewildering moral whims of this angry wizard child

[bleepabloopa]

two lonely kiddos

#the scholomance #fanart #a deadly education #the golden enclaves #el higgins #orion lake #ok I’m slowly coming up upon the end of scholo fanart drafts I’ve started #so don’t expect too much more :0

[izzenithal]

this is their whole dynamic and i love them for it

#the scholomance #naomi novik #orion lake #books #the last graduate #a deadly education #my art #fanart #I’m only on book 2 #so no spoilers please!!! #el higgins #galadriel higgins

[chimaerakitten]

Reading the Scholomance trilogy for the first time fresh off a Temeraire reread really feels like Naomi Novik grabbing you by the shoulders and saying, “I hope you were taking notes during those nine books about the horrors of imperialism because I've got a new angle and we're taking it from the top.”

#temeraire #the scholomance #Temeraire is a very slow build into the Imperialism Bad thread #takes multiple books to get there #scholomance starts with WHATS UP I'M EL AND I'M IN A NIGHTMARE SCHOOL WHERE EVERYONE WANTS TO JOIN THE IMPERIAL CORE

[lexalovesbooks]

I love chosen one characters and I love characters that are overpowered as all shit. I love characters with one-of-a-kind powers and I love characters who seem like they’re Just Some Guy until they do something that should be impossible and you’re struck with the realization that. oh. I don’t think this character is human. I love characters so strong they’re basically untouchable and I love characters who are slowly crumpling under the weight of being the only person who can keep the world safe but can never show it and I love characters who spend years hiding who they truly are until circumstances force them to reveal themselves and now they can never go back to who they were before. I love characters who don’t even know exactly how much they’re capable of and aren’t sure they want to find out. How powerful can you become before you stop being a person?

#character tropes #huehjuehshsd i can’t stop thinking about these types of tropes lately i just loved overpowered characters. so much!!! #people complain about the chosen one trope but that’s my SHIT!!!!! #people who don’t like that trope need to consider the inherent tragedy of being a normal person living your life when suddenly. it’s #revealed you were never normal you never had any choice This is what you have to do and you can never go back like HELLO?? #the scholomance #cuz i’m thinkni about el #chosen ones

[jadempress]

Imagine you're in school, fall in love, and get pregnant. He comes from wealth, so you think you and your baby are going to live a nice cushy life with your new man. Then he gets mauled by a bear. He's eaten right in front of you. You grieve for him. You go to his family, hoping they'll take you in, but they're awful and they want to harm your baby. So you end up raising her alone. It's tough being a single mother, but you do your best to love and protect her. She grows up and goes to school. The school is known for its bear attacks, but what can you do? It's a good school, and you can only protect her so much. Eventually your baby has to fend for herself. You can't help but worry though. The cell service is terrible but you manage to reach her and warn her to stay away from bears. She seems happy though, and even tells you she's made friends. Finally she graduates, and you're so happy she's safe. She brings her boyfriend home to meet you. It's the bear that ate your boyfriend.

Anyway, that's what happened to Gwen Higgins of the schomance series.

#the scholomance #naomi novik #a deadly education #the last graduate #the golden enclaves #galadriel higgins #el higgins #orion lake #elrion

[fullmetalfisting]

ok I'm rereading the Scholomance trilogy by Naomi Novik and I'm at the part in the second book where Orion says, "Even my mom and dad, they always thought something was wrong with me....they always thought I was weird."

And I'm like. Can you imagine being a woman who gave herself a pseudo-abortion to create a child who was a ghastly, already-dead, always-hungry monster and then incubating him in your womb and raising him like a Normal Boy™ and then being like, "It's really weird that this nuclear weapon I made and impregnated myself with shows no interest in anything other than being a nuclear weapon. I should make him feel guilty about his lack of interest in this XBox I bought him."

#naomi novik #the scholomance #a deadly education #orion lake #the last graduate #golden enclaves #galadriel higgins #tw abortion

[dawn-the-rithmatist]

Obsessed with authors like Naomi Novik whose books always seem to say “no, fuck that, there is another way than cruelty, and we do have a choice to be decent, and not choosing it isn’t a burden but a cop out.”

Authors like Neil Gaiman whose books seem to say “we are all simply human, and that is so valuable. This world is worth more because we are in it, when we choose to notice and care”

Authors like Brandon Sanderson whose books say “We are all a little broken, and there is strength in not turning away from us, and there is pain in healing but there is also strength and hope.”

Seriously, these folks do more for my faith and hope in this life than any religion ever has. I don’t have the words to describe it yet but just. Warm cup of apple cider held close to the chest on cold autumn night?? That’s the best I got

#recommendations #does this count as a recommendation?? everyone should read their things if they get the chance. must recommend. there now it’s a red #dawn speaks #the sandman #where death goes from person to person and the episode is a celebration of life as much as it’s life’s end #good omens #where people literally look at Heaven and Hell and say ‘we’re good thanks. we like Human better than Good and Evil’ #the scholomance #where people see ‘for the greater good’ and say in response ‘do better’ #the stormlight archive #which is some kind of ode to pain and healing and the way that process holds something difficult but so so beautiful #I have read fanfiction that has perfectly captured the human condition #and watched children’s shows that spit in the face of all the ways we have chosen to hate each other #it just. it hits different okay. #anyways thanks to people who make things #because you reach people <3

[tanoraqui]

I’ve started reading the Scholomance books—okay, I’m 2/3 of the way through the first one—and my favorites parts so far are

How utterly completely fucking bizarre El and Orion’s relationship and every single interaction in it looks to every single outsider

Aadhya’s “fuck it, we ball” attitude toward El

#the scholomance #scholomance