#victoire desgraves

[changeofpace]

"The Undergrad Cohort"

I finished Babel in about 2 weeks and it's left a gaping hole in my heart I need to patch with fanart.

Uncleaned scanned sketch below.

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#babel #babel rf kuang #babel an arcane history #babel or the necessity of violence #ramiz rafi mirza #robin swift #victoire desgraves #letty price #reetarts #fanart

[izze-art]

The Fallen Angel of Babel 📜✒️🪽

LOVE BABEL BY RF KUANG!! I drew Robin Swift as the fallen angel painting!!

#babel an arcane history #babel rf kuang #rf kuang #babel #robin swift #babel or the necessity of violence #ramy mirza #griffin lovell #victoire desgraves #letitia price #rebecca f kuang

[sharlsainz]

i will forever cry over how robin lost ramy and griffin after both of them saved him. only for him not to be able to continue life. because the grief was greater than he could bear. the pain was too much for him to think of the life after the strike. after all he did in the spirit of his late brother and dearest friend.

i will forever cry over robin letting victoire go. i simply couldn't find the words to describe the bond that they had. it was meant to be. victoire was the voice of reason between the two and robin just couldn't get through all of it, not without griffin and ramy. she made up her mind and so did he and it was hurtful to witness this two souls make peace with their choices. im going insane over this.

#babel an arcane history #babel rf kuang #babel #robin swift #ramiz rafi mirza #victoire desgraves #griffin harley

[charlilil]

I finished Babel last week and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. So, here’s an animatic about Griffin. MAJOR SPOILERS HERE!!

#babel #babel or the necessity of violence #babel an arcane history #babel spoilers #babel an arcane history spoilers #babel or the necessity of violence spoilers #griffin lovell #my art #robin swift #victoire desgraves

[starfallkaz]

Babel Spoilers!!!

Been thinking a lot about Letty Price and her inability to comprehend how the act of Robin, Victoire and Ramy standing up and joining a resistance against Babel was so integral to their identities and experiences as POC and scholars in Britain.

How could they hate and do this to a nation that gave them so much? That gave them literature and translation, education and funding and the ability to expand their minds. How could they turn their backs on that?

She could not conceive that they had been given these opportunities, but at every turn they were disrespected and mistreated for who they were. Given rewards and treats and opportunities with the consolation that yes “you are lesser than” but don’t worry we can beat the ethnic out of you. And to hang that over you, it is only natural to form a twisted sense of self-worth contingent on the whily and abusive whims of their oppressor. The constant need to prove that they were worthy of acknowledgment, of this position. The anger and twisted gratuity for the opportunity, but injustice in being used for their minds and their abilities by an empire refusing to acknowledge them as humans, let alone equals. Stolen bodies and stolen lands.

And Letty, her only framework of suffering was the coddling of a girl in an upperclass white family and the restrictions of conservative social constructs. That while hindering and discouraging, were not a question of life and death or of humanity, but of simple opportunity and intelligence. And looking through these eyes, how could she comprehend such a thing?

#I’m still furious #god I hate that white girl #actually rot #letty price #Babel #babel spoilers #babel an arcane history #babel rf kuang #rf kuang #Rebecca Kuang #letty price can DIE #an arcane history #robin x ramy #victoire desgraves #ramy mirza #ouch #overthinking #babel or the necessity of violence

[kindlespark]

[babel] spent way too long inking ice-skates for this. i miss them

#babel #babel or the necessity of violence #babel an arcane history #robin swift #ramiz rafi mirza #victoire desgraves #my art

[bluebutter-art]

“...That they were all four of them drowning in the unfamiliar, and they saw in each other a raft, and clinging to one another was the only way to stay afloat.”

― R.F. Kuang, Babel: An Arcane History

#Babel #r. f. kuang #my art #Babel fanart #Robin Swift #Ramiz Rafi Mirza #Ramy #Victoire Desgraves #Letitia Price #Letty #one of those books that will stay with you forever #i havent been able to stop thinking about it for days #book rec #outfit and hair are probably not period accurate #sorry not sorry lol

[teartra]

Many layers of Birdie

#robin swift #ramiz rafi mirza #victoire desgraves #letitia price #babel #babel an arcane history #babel or the necessity of violence #rf kuang

[mariibu-art]

#babel rf kuang #robin swift #art #fanart #ramiz rafi mirza #ramy mirza #victoire desgraves #letty price #babel an arcane history #babel rf kuang fanart #babel fanart #babel or the necessity of violence

[kimbapisnotsushi]

one detail in babel i noticed and loved was during that scene where professor lovell is teaching his first class to robin and co. and he asks robin to give him the word for “great storm” (táifēng) and THEN when victoire says it (taifeng) - when robin speaks we see the tones in the word because that’s HIS language, he’s the one who breathes it and lives it and dreams in it and he’s got it all down pat, but when victoire says it we don’t get tones at all because she’s saying it like any other person speaking it as english would like hello???? i FELT that oh my god

#RF KUANG IS A GENIUS #idk if there are any other instances in when it happens #but holy shit #babel #babel an arcane history #rf kuang #robin swift #victoire desgraves #sou says stuff

[archiveofrasa]

i see a lot of criticism about the friendships between the babel characters and how we were told a lot of things about their positive dynamic, yet shown barely any of it (but are instead mostly presented with the negative aspects). i don’t know if other people clocked this but i feel like it was intentional

rf kuang was commenting on friendships made through trauma-bonding: they were doomed from the start

tldr; the characterisation is (one of) the subtly(ies) people were looking for in the colonial theme. they criticise the latter but i love the fact colonialism is more of an upfront theme because lord knows i am tired of it being subtle so people can ignore it

robin says from the very beginning after they formed their little friend group:

“why had they been so quick, so carelessly eager to trust one another? why had they refused to see the myriad of ways they could hurt each other? why had they not paused to interrogate their differences in birth, in raising, that meant they were not and could never be on the same side?”

the next small paragraph goes into a raft metaphor about how they saw themselves in each other and that’s why they stuck together. they shared one thing they could not ignore – their otherness. their friendship was purely built on the fact they were discriminated against and that they had to spent the next 4 years with each other. their first pleasant conversation is them discussing how they were treated at oxford. of course, the characters didn’t see this because they had never really befriended people their age before. this feeling of belonging felt like love to them (considering their upbringings, ramy’s i will discuss in a bit)

it makes perfect sense why robin would repeatedly imply that they loved and cared about each other. in his eyes, they did. what was it they had if not love? robin, who has ignored so many problems in the past before babel as he knew it would cause him issues, wouldn’t address their friendship dynamic or how strong the arguments and animosity were. he, an abused child, would rather have this than nothing at all

in actuality (demonstrated, i think, through the photograph they took at the end of chapter 9), they were together because of academia’s and discrimination’s forced proximity. robin feels specific emotions about them that feel strong to him because he’s never experienced it before, but that doesn’t mean they are strong enough to keep them together, which is why when they see the photo, they feel weird about it because why isn’t it portraying their dynamic ‘correctly’?

it’s true that perhaps to get robin’s perspective across, it would’ve been good to see the positive aspects more but i think that would’ve made it harder for us to see how weak their friendship was. people wanted more positive to show that they loved each other, which isn’t the point rf kuang is trying to make

rf kuang chooses to show the negative aspects more because they show where their friendship will end up. when letty did what she did, i didn’t see it as a plot twist, i saw it as an inevitability. this was going to happen. honestly, i feel this with most of the ‘plot twists’ of babel except the end of book iii (i really didn’t see that coming). it was easy for letty to do what she does in book iv because their friendship had such unstable foundations. when they no longer benefitted her, she turned her back on them

the only dynamic i feel was actually strong was robin and ramy. i’m not just saying this because i think they’re queer lol. they were close not just because they were both men of colour and had similar upbringings – they actually liked each other. they admired each other and adored each other’s personalities, they bounced off each other and knew what the other meant when they spoke. when they argued, it was over something that actually considered each other’s beliefs and goals and desires, not over their differences.

(unlike letty and ramy, letty and victoire and maybe even robin and victoire, though i think they lean more to ramy/robin than they do to letty/anyone lol. ramy and victoire have a dynamic that i personally feel like robin didn’t really see because ramy understood victoire in a way robin couldn’t. you kind of see it when robin is the one who letty complains about ramy/victoire to, but that’s it i think?)

speaking of ramy, linking it back to their perspectives of love, it makes a lot of sense why he caused the most disruption in the friend group. he’s the only one with an actual family that he stays in touch with. he knows what love feels like. so of course he’s the one that is strongly anti-empire, compared to robin and victoire who have been emotionally manipulated in their childhood by said empire, the one who argues with letty the most. he still feels what robin and victoire feel, of course, but to a lesser extent

honestly i don’t know how to end this analysis, i just think rf kuang is a genius lmao but i may add more onto this as i continue to reread the book we shall see

#the way my most recent posts are abt babel i'm so sorry #i have hyperfocused on this book so hard #and bc my friends are still reading it i can't spoil it for them #i know sappho might read this and if he does...🔫 #babel r f kuang #babel an arcane history #babel or the necessity of violence #robin swift #ramiz rafi mirza #letitia price #victoire desgraves

[dinoari]

Thinking of Ramy's family. Their sweet boy. Their smart boy. The one who would have done anything for his family. He never forgot them.

He wanted to bring his friends and boyfriend to meet them. He told Robin all about Calcutta. Wanted to give him mangos and spend time in the warm sun. A place of peace away from Oxford.

Ramy's mom would have cooked for Robin. Robin, who lost his mother so long ago, would feel so at home. Finally. A family he could call his.

And Ramy's sisters. Their squeals seeing him as he walked through the door. They would have loved Victoire. Shown her the clothes, the language. Take her in as a sister. And Victoire would embrace it. Finally have the friendship she always wanted.

What did his family think when they stopped receiving letters from Ramy? Surely not that he had forgotten to write. First, his father said the post must be delayed. Then, his letter must have gotten lost but he'd write again soon. His mom would have tried to convince herself that Ramy was just having too much fun in England to write. Still, each passing day without word from him would be agony.

And then one day, a letter would arrive. Handwriting they had never seen to Mr. and Mrs. Mirza. They would not get past the first sentence without letting out a scream. The one only a mother could let out when she lost her child. His sisters would run into the room, one would pick up the letter and see, through blurring vision, "It is with deep sadness..."

They would never get over that moment.

Then, years, decades later, a beautiful woman named Victoire would show up looking lost but at home all at the same time. She would sit at their table with a cup of tea. Mr. Mirza long passed. Mrs. Mirza would be frail but still insist on feeding her. And Victoire would tell her how much she loved their boy. And it would still hurt, but it would feel good to pour all this love out. To remember him and Robin and everything they had done. And all they never got to do.

#im sobbing #babel rf kuang #babel or the necessity of violence #babel an arcane history #ramy mirza #robin swift #victoire desgraves #letty does not exist here #pain

[cikebabbler]

wondering if rf kuang intentionally wrote four main characters for both tpw and babel because the number four is associated with death in chinese and she likes hurting me

#losing my mind #the poppy war trilogy #fang runin #chen kitay #yin nezha #sring venka #babel an arcane history #robin swift #ramiz rafi mirza #victoire desgraves #letitia price #rf kuang

[brainrot-time]

I'm once again thinking about how alone Victoire must have felt living with Letty, outside the bubble of best friendship that Robin and Ramy shared, conveniently paired with the other girl in their cohort.

Robin and Ramy got each other and Letty was always unwilling and unable to get Victoires experience. It breaks my heart that Letty could rely on Victoire for emotional support but not the other way around. No doubt she delved into all her childhood issues and the loss of her brother and Victoire did nothing but listen and be understanding while knowing she'd never be able to count on Letty for the same.

#like lettys reaction to her creole match pair must have felt reminiscent of being beaten for just speaking the language #now victoires all grown up and finally among people who should be able to understand her but her best friend #is exactly the same type of person as the rich french family who locked her in a cabinet #babel an arcane history #babel rf kuang #victoire desgraves

[kindlespark]

[babel] finally had some free time to finish a victoire + anthony sketch

#babel #babel or the necessity of violence #victoire desgraves #anthony ribben #my art

[readlikeido]

babel: an arcane history - r. f. kuang

#post: photoset #post: mine #books #bookblr #books and reading #booklr #books aesthetic #reading #babel or the necessity of violence #babel an arcane history #babel rf kuang #book #books and literature #rf kuang #babel #robin swift #ramy mirza #victoire desgraves #letty price #babel photoset #character aesthetic #dark academia #dark acadamia aesthetic #dark academism #dark academia books #book aesthetics #book aesthetic #usercossette