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whocalledhimannux · 23 days
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Hey hey! I know I have not been super active on this blog lately, but just wanted to plug Fandom Trumps Hate 2024. I’m participating for the first time this year, so if you’d like to bid on a new fic from me, the auction opens at 8 AM EST tomorrow, March 5.
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whocalledhimannux · 2 months
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happy death day to mello 🥲🤲
I did this in 2022 for Mello's birthday but i forgot to post it here and only shared it on twitter
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whocalledhimannux · 5 months
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we could’ve had it all… (entire series designed in this style)
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whocalledhimannux · 6 months
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time for another quiz...
Which Queen's Thief ship are you?
these books feature so many complicated, strong, romantic ships--which one best fits your vibe?
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whocalledhimannux · 7 months
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thick as thieves was insane. mwt really said here is one man whose highest calling is duty and honour and another man who can only afford to care about himself. now watch them fall so deeply in love that they would each sacrifice their most dearly held selves for the other
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whocalledhimannux · 7 months
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fully agree with all of this. and it also makes me kind of look askance at the previous books if I'm trying to think realistically--which I don't always do, I'm fully capable of going full-on death of the author if I want.
but like... I don't think I've mentioned this on tumblr before, but when I first read Return of the Thief I was quite disappointed with the ambiguity in Kamet and Costis's relationship. I saw other people online point out subtext I hadn't seen that felt convincing, so I let myself be persuaded. but my first impression, which I think is somewhat supported by Moira's Pen, was this: Kamet and Costis were not intended to be in a romantic relationship in Thick as Thieves, but MWT saw that that was the popular interpretation post-release, so she wrote them in an ambiguous way to avoid disappointing fans (and possibly threw in or at least ramped up Relius/Teleus as a sort of consolation prize). and then I think she was reluctant to give up the postcanon future she had already imagined for Costis that was hinted at in Moira's Pen.
and in a way, I guess I understand how that would be a lose-lose situation? I wouldn't say a writer is obligated to alter the story they want to tell because they're aware of a popular interpretation that contradicts it. I think the fact that a lot of RotT/MP is as vague as it is is meant to at least give fans that wiggle room to interpret things as they want, which is something she's encouraged people to do--there definitely are ways the relationship could have been explicitly denied that she didn't go for.
but. yeah. in a way I do think the path MWT took was perhaps the most disappointing, because it's just enough to throw into sharp relief how much better it could have been. like someone giving you a gift, snatching it back, and handing you something demonstrably worse.
i think i wrote something about this when moira's pen first came out, and there are parts of it that i really love (not least of which, the forbidden short stories from editions i would never have tracked down otherwise!), but mwt's choice to walk back whatever was going on with her queer characters in return of the thief is still so disappointing to me because before return of the thief, the only undeniable queer rep in those books was negative subtext. no one likes legarus, whose gay lover betrays him and sells out his entire squad; no one likes artadorus, either. prior to the last book, the only point of view character in the whole series who seems aware that gay people even exist is kamet, and he thinks about this solely in the context of the threat of rape and coercion.
god forbid eddis do anything but fall in love with and marry a man. god forbid we get through a book of missing scenes without learning, in passing, and to absolutely no narrative purpose, that teleus used to sleep with women. god forbid costis not grow up to have 2.5 kids and a dog. it's either an incredibly stupid, thoughtless choice, or it's straight up bad faith, and it's kind of tiring to find myself still trying hard to like it
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whocalledhimannux · 9 months
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UNRELIABLE NARRATORS; SIDE C
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*NOTE; propaganda is out of order due to poll length!
Eugenides Propaganda:
the entire plot hinges on a detail he lets the reader (and every other character) assume is true. I don't want to spoil it because it's a really fun reveal but he is lying from the first second he appears on the page and you can't trust him to tell the full truth about ANYTHING related to himself and his goals. he mostly does it to keep his advantage and not have other characters be suspicious of him but it's just so fun when you realise he's been lying the whole time
Harrowhark Propaganda:
She gave herself a lobotomy and gives completely incorrect flashbacks to the previous book. Things that straight up did not happen. Gaslight gatekeep girlboss.
She’s schizophrenic (confirmed by the author) and also lives in a world with necromancy and ghostly revenants. She’s not just an unreliable narrator for readers, she’s an unreliable narrator of her own internal experience. She knows this and has to work with people around her to compensate for it. Descent into spoilerville below. Seriously Do Not Read if you want to read these books. There’s also the little matter about how she is *not actually the narrator* of a huge chunk of the story that we are initially led to believe is being told from her perspective.
(Spoilers) Holy shit she is THE most unreliable narrator. This gremlin gave herself a lobotomy so that she could forget about Gideon Nav, the most important person in her life (for magic soul-preserving reasons) so half of the second book in the series is spent gaslighting the reader about a book they just read. She comes up with an entire alternate version of the events of the first book in the series to carefully exclude any mentions of Gideon, and any time someone says ‘Gideon’ in front of her she LITERALLY has a stroke and/or an intercranial hemorrhage as her brain overwrites the word with someone else’s name. God occasionally intentionally triggers her memory revision to get out of difficult conversations. She also hallucinates ALL the time (unrelated to the lobotomy). She shows up at her frenemy’s room in the middle of the night (think little kid stumbling to their parents’ room and saying “I frew up”) to ask her to come check underneath her bed for the corpse that’s been wandering the space station. When frenemy checks underneath the bed, frenemy claims not to see anything, and Harrow is such an unbelievably unreliable narrator that it’s an open question in the fandom as to whether frenemy genuinely didn’t see the corpse or if frenemy was just yanking Harrow’s chain. Harrow is also haunted by a literal ghost that fucks up her already fucked up alternate history. Girlie will pick up a piece of paper and read from it the most violent and haunting piece of prose ever composed, when in reality all that’s written on the paper is the elementary school Superman S*. I am NOT joking that is a real goddamn scene. Harrow was created to win this poll. TLDR; she has brain damage and memory loss, she hallucinates, and is also haunted. * https://twitter.com/vestenet/status/1301012651145859072
Girl is so unreliable, she unreliably tells me events I was there for!!! She's retelling the previous book and I'm like "girlie, this is absolutely not how it happened". Also, she gave herself a DIY lobotomy, it has to impact your memory center I guess
She literally had a lobotomy, how can she be reliable
More Propaganda under cut!
Harrowhark is simply the unreliable narrator of all time. Can’t remember shit because of a lifetime of trauma? Check. Maybe lying to yourself and those around you a bit? Most definitely. Being gaslit by the survivors you depend on to orient you to reality? For sure. How about a little bit of canon schizophrenia? She’s got it all. Ghosts? Or something? Spirits that are attached in some way to your body and are not perceivable by others? Sure, sure! But how about spirits that are attached in some way to your body and are gonna use you to hijack others’ bodies and maybe kill God, too? Absolutely. Wee bit of DIY brain surgery? If it would make you an unreliable narrator, friends, then Harrowhark Nonagesimus has been there, been subjected to that!
Okay I don't know that much about this series since I haven't convinced myself to read all of the first book, but this is my blorbo in law so I'd feel bad not spreading propaganda (all of what I'm saying is something I've read, as to prevent myself from straight up submitting misinformation). So all of Harrow's unreliable narration takes place in the second book, Harrow the Ninth. Basically, without her even seemingto acknowledge it, Harrow's brain is very fucked up during this book, to the point where even she's not sure how reliable her narrative is. There's many questions left unclear as a result of her fucked up little brain, like what's real, what's fake, whether we can trust her judgement, whether even she can trust her own judgement, whether her original cavalier is dead or not (Harrow is convinced she is), etc. Let me tell you, I adore unreliable narrators who aren't even that sure if they're reliable. I have yet to eat that trope up here in this circumstance, but this poll might not run again by the time I do, so for now, here's my messed up blorbo in law.
OKAY SO REMEMBER MY GIDEON SUBMISSION? HARROW DOESN’T! SPOILERS AHEAD BECAUSE SHE LOBOTOMIZED HERSELF TO FORGET GIDEON BECAUSE THAT’S A HEALTHY WAY TO GRIEVE AND THEN IN THE ONLY PARTS OF HER BOOK THAT SHE NARRATES (THE REVISED CANAAN HOUSE PARTS) IT’S LITERALLY A ROOM FULL OF GHOSTS HER BRAIN SUMMONED TO DEAL WITH THE FACT THAT SHE CUT HER BRAIN IN HALF TO FORGET GIDEON. she also is a) haunted and b) psychotic, experiencing hallucinations her entire life of both the ghosts haunting her and less supernatural hallucinations- bells tolling, bones rattling, her parents (some of the only dead people NOT haunting her), etc! in the revised history of canaan house that her brainghosts invent, she brings along someone who knows about her psychosis to help reality check her when she tells him go! her caregiver as a child and support when she got older, crux, is a horrible man- but at one point, when someone other than harrow is in harrow’s body and tells him “i am not harrowhark, i am sorry,” his response is simply “aye, you’ve said that before too. who are you then, if not my lady harrowhark?” showing his familiarity with her psychosis and his love for the child he wouldn’t dare see as a daughter. but enough about that lets talk about her unreliable narration! she lies about her feelings of course but she also simply hides the truth from everyone, all the time, compulsively. also literally the entire section of her book that she narrates is a lie she’s telling US about a lie she’s telling HERSELF and no one understands even a little bit of the truth until like the last act of the book. queen.
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whocalledhimannux · 9 months
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Man, this is the kind of nerdy shit I live for. What an interesting breakdown!
But yeah, I also tend to assume it’s inconsistent in-universe sort of on purpose just the way that irl people are inconsistent with names? Especially as someone who has read a lot of classical history in English—it strikes me as similar to how people usually say Rome, Greek, Carthage, but sometimes for a little extra flair will use Roma, Grecian, or Carthago. Or like, the -a suffix is very clearly prevalent in the language of the Little Peninsula, so occasionally people tack it on because that’s a grammatical construction that’s natural to them, even if it doesn’t really need to go on a foreign name.
Similarly, in RotT we see different characters refer to the Little Peninsula, Hephestia’s Peninsula, and the Hephestian Peninsula.
every variation of "Mede" i could find in my QT ebooks
My attempt to be less confused about the inconsistent demonyms and adjectives used for the empire and its inhabitants.
(tl;dr I was reading a fanfic set during QoA and found myself confused by the author using the term "Medean," because I couldn't remember it being in the books. So I searched my ebooks and found that the word only appears in QoA and ACoK. The words "Medea" and "Medean" never appear in Thick as Thieves, the book I had been referencing the most for my own fanfic. I made a list of all the terms used to describe the Medes to see if I could find any patterns or if this just seemed like a retcon).
The Thief
The magus uses Medes as a plural demonym: "The Medes have been trying for a hundred years to expand their empire to span the middle sea."
He also uses Mede as a noun as if it were the name of a country, in the same context as he uses the names of the countries of the Little Peninsula. He could be using this term as way to talk about the whole empire, or to refer to a particular region or country that gives the empire its name: "There will be no Sounis, no Attolia, no Eddis, only Mede."
Gen also uses Medes as a plural demonym a couple of times, both in a conversation with the magus and in his narration.
The Queen of Attolia
Irene's POV
The narration refers to the place Nahuseresh is from as the Mede Empire: "Beside her the ambassador from the Mede Empire shifted his weight and caught her attention."
The narration uses Mede as a singular demonym: "'Long enough,' suggested the Mede, 'to insure her Thief a relatively easy death?'"
Medea is also used as the name of the place Nahuseresh is from. It's unclear whether this is meant to refer to the whole empire, or a specific part of it: "Attolia didn’t particularly care for the new ambassador from Medea."
We also find Mede used as an adjective in reference to Nahuseresh: "Not at all, Nahuseresh," Attolia assured her Mede ambassador. "Not at all."
At other points, Medean is used as an adjective, both to describe aspects of the culture ("Medean style of dressing his beard") and to describe Nahuseresh: "She was on the verge of summoning her officers for a council of war when the Medean ambassador was announced."
Irene's narration only ever uses Medes for the plural demonym: "She would go to the Medes and worry later how to extricate herself from their assistance and how to explain to Nahuseresh that there hadn’t been room for him to accompany her."
There are a few uses of Mede as a demonym in Irene's POV where it's a little unclear whether it's meant to be singular or plural, but they're all ambiguous enough that I'm not going to use them as examples.
Gen and Helen's POV
Helen uses Medes as a plural demonym in chapter four: "'Attolia has no business treating with the Medes,'" she said, her voice raised."
At other points, Helen uses Mede as a plural demonym instead: "If she takes help from the Mede, if they land on this coast, they will eat us alive: Attolia, Sounis, and Eddis." Helen and Gen both continue to use this word as a plural throughout chapter seven.
In chapter eight, Gen appears to switch from Medes to plural Mede in the same paragraph: "I don’t have any desire to be overrun by the Medes...and we can’t have a civil war in Sounis for the Mede to step in and resolve, can we?" It's a little more ambiguous whether Mede is supposed to be singular or plural here, but I don't think it makes much sense for him to be talking about Nahuseresh or any other individual Mede in this context.
Helen also switches between Mede and Medean as adjectives: "the Medean ambassador" and "the Mede emperor."
The Magus
The magus first uses Mede as a singular demonym. Here he seems to be talking about Irene's relationship with one specific Mede (Nahuseresh), based on the pronouns: "By then she will be deeply enmeshed with the Mede, trying to hold some power in her own country. Neither of them will have time to squabble over Eddis. If you secure Eddis quickly, you will be strong enough to outface the Mede when he tries to expand beyond Attolia."
Then he uses Medes as a plural demonym: "'There’s little chance the Medes would lose their grip on Attolia within your lifetime, Your Majesty,' the magus said stiffly."
But later in the same scene, the narration appears to use Mede as the plural: "[The magus] hoped to use the knowledge he acquired in the exercise to aid him in a more successful defense against the Mede."
Nahuseresh
In one of the handful of Nahuseresh POV scenes, the narration uses Mede as a singular demonym: "'It will be close to the chasm of the pass,' the Mede had muttered, running his index finger across the carefully inked lines."
When Nahuseresh talks later in the same scene, he uses Mede as a plural demonym: "Her titular heir is not fond of the Mede, but he would not hold the throne long."
Basically, the narration and dialogue throughout The Queen of Attolia use "Mede" and "Medean" as adjectives seemingly interchangeably, with no pattern that I could discern. "Mede" is always the singular demonym, but many characters use "Mede" and "Medes" interchangeably for the plural demonym.
The King of Attolia
Things get a lot simpler after QoA; searching "Medea" and "Medean" brings back no results in my ebook of The King of Attolia, though the empire and its people are mentioned frequently:
Gen and Costis study the language of the Medes, which is always called Mede: "Costis. The word for death in Mede, I can’t remember it." I couldn't find examples in any of the books of the Mede language being referred to as "Medean."
Mede is the only version of the word used as an adjective in this book: "The king had chosen a Mede style of dress with a long, open coat over his shirt and tunic."
There is also no use of "Medes" as a plural demonym in KoA. The people of the empire are only ever referred to as the Mede: "She had driven the Mede off once, embarrassing their ambassador."
A Conspiracy of Kings
ACoK has one use of Medean as an adjective, the final appearance of this word in the series: "The Attolian furniture was pushed into the corners, and several replacement pieces of Medean design, small enough to have been shipped with the ambassador, had been put in their place." In every other instance, Mede is used ("the Mede ambassador," "the Mede emperor," "the Mede court").
Mede is the only singular demonym, but we return to switching between Mede and Medes for the plural: "I would not stand by and let them be lost to the Mede or to Melenze" vs. "He cannot stand the idea that Melenze wants Haptia back and thinks that the Medes are a better ally." However, Medes is used more often.
Overall, ACoK is less consistent than KoA but has less variation than QoA.
Thick as Thieves
Most of my Queen's Thief fanfics are set during Thick as Thieves and/or include Kamet as a major character, so this is the book I've revisited the most when double-checking canon details. For the purposes of my own fics, I decided to prioritize the terms used in TaT where they differ from other books. Luckily, TaT is pretty consistent (though not completely consistent):
The name of the primary language spoken in the empire is Mede: "He spoke Mede, but with a heavy accent, so he hadn’t been trained as a child."
The singular demonym is Mede: "I didn’t think he could carry off an impersonation of a Mede for very long."
The plural demonym is usually Medes: "The Medes fear little in quite the way they fear their own slaves."
However, there are a few uses of Mede as the plural demonym: "I was taken from my home as a child by raiders and then sold to the Mede."
The adjective form is Mede: "He was the one who pestered me to tell them a Mede story in Attolian."
Like KoA, "Medea" and "Medean" are entirely absent. There are also no uses of "Mede" as the name of a country or region; the place where the Medes live is only ever referred to as the Mede empire.
The Return of the Thief is pretty much the same as Thick as Thieves: "Medes" is the most common plural demonym, but "Mede" is occasionally plural. There's no sign of "Medea" or "Medean."
For simplicity's sake, I think I'm going to stick to plural "Medes" instead of "Mede" and adjective "Mede" instead of "Medean" in my own fics, but based on the books themselves none of these terms are really incorrect. I'm still not sure what I want to do with "Medea" as a place name - I don't think it makes a ton of sense to use it interchangeably with "Mede Empire," but we don't really have another name for the central region of the empire around the capital? I haven't made up my mind yet but I'm thinking about it.
What, ultimately, is the point of this post? I'm honestly not sure, but I did enjoy writing it, even though the subject matter isn't particularly exciting. I do feel more confident about the vocab choices I've made for my stories, which is nice.
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whocalledhimannux · 10 months
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Wei Wuxian and Eugenides - trickster archetypes who lose important body parts, improvise/adapt/overcome, are scared of dogs, marry tall intimidating ice queens
I don’t know what the venn diagram on this post is but—
Kamet e dai Annux and Jin Guangyao as scheming best frenemies send tweet
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whocalledhimannux · 10 months
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I don’t know what the venn diagram on this post is but—
Kamet e dai Annux and Jin Guangyao as scheming best frenemies send tweet
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whocalledhimannux · 11 months
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I voted yes because I didn’t really like ACoK by itself, but I REALLY like it as a precursor to Thick as Thieves, and I appreciated it more on rereads when I knew how its themes would be explored in later books. (…So maybe lukewarm would have been a better answer but?? w/e.) If I were ranking the books it would still probably be at the bottom but my “least favorite Queen’s Thief book” is still ranked very high among all the books I’ve ever read in my life.
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whocalledhimannux · 1 year
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your zutara fics are pure pure pure gold :3
Aw, thank you!
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whocalledhimannux · 1 year
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My Top YasuBou moments
Okay so there are the obvious flirty moments that get ~no homo'd~ in canon, and the Those Two Guys moments where they're just riffing on each other, but a lot of my favorite moments between them are the ones that hint at something more serious, the trust and admiration between them, so without further ado--
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right from the beginning!! this Very Serious moment, and everything hinges on the premise that he cares for Yasuhara. not saying it's romantic right from the start, but that's some quick bonding...
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(he's begging)
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"it was really, really difficult" but he did it, he left a whole-ass job behind because Bou-san relies on him
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listen I also love the panels before and after this--Bou-san making light of his injuries at first to avoid alarming people, and then both of them turning it into a joke to lighten the mood. but I also love that quiet, serious moment in between.
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AND THIS ONE. it's practically Yasuhara's m.o. at this point, the light-hearted insistance on getting his own way, and I love 1) Bou-san's aggravation because he totally recognizes it and he's aggravated at being a target and concerned for Yasuhara's safety, 2) the very Married storming off "do whatever you want!" and 3) again that shift to seriousness. Bou-san is trying to protect him by keeping him from going down to the sea cave, and he's just like nope, nope, I'm protecting you this time.
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posted this the other day--Dad 1 getting annoyed at the kids' bickering, Dad 2 soothing him because that's just what they're like, dear, let them blow off steam
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I love this totally in-sync joint interrogation. Yasuhara gets the ball rolling by drawing Naru in, then Bou-san takes over.
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"you're a perfect flirter. always works on me."
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bonus: still waiting on a non-flirtatious reason for that flower changing hands...
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whocalledhimannux · 1 year
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I appreciate the fact that Mai is like "yeah Bou-san is the dad and Ayako is the mom and Yasuhara is one of the kids along with me and John" and then like three pages later Ayako is bickering in the back while Bou-san scolds them and Yasuhara is beside him going "tsk, you know what they're like, dear..."
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whocalledhimannux · 1 year
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whocalledhimannux · 1 year
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costis: will you do something for me?
gen, thinking about how he plans to set costis up with his cute accountant friend: yes
costis: awesome so tomorrow morning i need to you beat the shit out of me in front of my boss and all my coworkers and friends
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whocalledhimannux · 1 year
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QT appreciation week day 5- TaT
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