#there’s just something so delicious and painful about reconsidering scenes with the context of Gideon’s fucked up perceptions

[spending-life-pretending]

Idk if it’s been said before, but I think there is something really interesting about the fact that Gideon/Kiriona knows who Nona is. Like, pretty much as soon as she realizes it’s not Harrow in there (“Who is this literal goddamn infant?”) she starts assuming it’s Alecto (“Different question: Do you love her?”) and it’s not that she understands the implications of that, she doesn’t seem to know who/what Alecto really is, but it’s pretty clear that as soon as Gideon realizes Harrow isn’t in her body she also realizes that the Girl in the Tomb is.

Which is interesting for a lot of reasons, but mainly because 1) it’s Gideon. Gideon, Harrow’s cavalier, who has had experience driving Harrow’s body when Harrow was absent. She sacrificed her life for Harrow (“Harrowhark, I gave you my whole life…”) but ultimately believes that Harrow botched her lyctorhood rather than live in debt to Gideon (“…and you didn’t even want it”). So of course Gideon figures it out. Because Gideon died with the expectation that it would be her in Harrow’s brain forever, but Harrow wouldn’t let that happen, and so Gideon assumes there’s only one person Harrow would give up her body for. The person Harrow loves. And that’s (not Gideon) Alecto.

And this drives me CRAZY because 2) Gideon doesn’t seem to care about the revelation that it’s Alecto. She accepts it as a reality Harrow would make possible, and the only place she pushes back on is what that revelation means for Harrow. In the van, when Gideon confirms she knows who Nona is (again, “Do you love her?”), she also reaffirms her devotion to Harrow (“I just need to know—where”).

Which means that despite Kiriona’s apparent loyalty to John, despite the fact that if it’s Alecto in there, it only confirms (to Gideon’s mind) that Harrow will never chose Gideon the way Gideon chose Harrow, she still puts Harrow first. Because one flesh, one end, bitch—she’s Harrowhark’s goddamn cavalier, and even when she might want Harrow in hell she needs to know she’s there.

#the locked tomb #nona the ninth spoilers #Nona the ninth #meta #I guess? #kiriona gaia #griddlehark #ntn #the locked tomb spoilers #Nona the ninth analysis #there’s just something so delicious and painful about reconsidering scenes with the context of Gideon’s fucked up perceptions #of herself and harrow and their relationship #like #my god Nona is a lot to handle but the gideon/kiriona parts of it are HEARTBREAKING if I think about it too long #me