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eskawrites · 9 months

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hi im still thinking about tenlark (when am i not). so was the moment lark and tenar met in the woods in the third movie was the moment lark realized she didn’t want to leave the kingdom anymore?

ooooh okay. i think like, generally speaking, yeah that's fair to say. but i also think that it's less about lark realizing she doesn't want to leave the kingdom and more about her realizing that 1) she can't leave the kingdom now and 2) she absolutely doesn't want to leave tenar

i think lark's thoughts during that entire sequence--from when she and arren and moss and ged are ambushed until she finds tenar in the woods (which is like hours later, after fighting for their lives and fleeing into the woods and making sure arren doesn't die and setting up camp and assuring moss and ged they'll figure it out and then going to scout the area to make sure it's safe)--never really stop racing? and i think once things start to settle down a little bit and she thinks they might be safe for the night at least, she does start thinking about her conversation with arren about leaving. and at this point, she thinks the kingdom betrayed them for whatever reason, and that's why they were ambushed. so getting out seems like a pretty good idea

when she finds tenar her initial reaction is somewhere along the lines of i knew it because she doesn't trust anybody at this point, so tenar showing up must be a sign that she was right and they've been betrayed. but almost immediately she realizes tenar is hurt too, and something bigger is going on. and that's when it switches from 'we should leave the kingdom' to 'i can't leave tenar.'

i think maybe a little later--maybe even that same night, as tenar is telling them what happened--she also decides she has an obligation to stay and do what's right. but the loyalty to tenar comes first

as for her wanting to stay in the kingdom--as in, deciding of her own free will with no obligations or sense of duty that this place is actually her home and she doesn't want to leave--that probably doesn't happen until some point when they're planning to take the kingdom back. and maybe it happens because she's surrounded by beaten down rebels who are all fighting for the same cause, or maybe it happens because she's falling more in love with tenar by the hour, or maybe it happens because she realizes there's a chance they might actually win once and for all, and when that happens maybe she could be happy here and finally, truly believe that she belongs here

#this got long sorry #tenlark #erathia #i think lark has always been loyal to people first #and anything else....never #which is why she's so quick to believe they were betrayed #because despite the events of the first two books there's still part of her that fears she'll never belong here #(tenar proves her wrong eventually)#asks #el-fandom-birb

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maybesimon · 1 year

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tenar vs harrow fight fight fight

#harrow would win but tenar lives in a world with gender so she has already lost #harrow wouldn't do well in earthsea i think #similar themes tho im thinking about it

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milf-rightsactivist · 4 months

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“Enemies to lovers this” “Slow burn that”

“Colleen Hoover this” “Sarah J Mass that”

Everyone wake the FUCK up to the weird-ass relationship between Ged and Tenar from The EarthSea Cycles. They are my best little blorbos with bildungsromans.

He breaks into the sacred catacombs of her weird-ass cult. She traps him in there and keeps on threatening to bury him alive. He is fully dependent on her for food, water, and light and she tricks him and makes fun of him and is SO annoyed that he doesn’t give her any big response. They eventually become friends and escape and they could live together but because Ged is the MOST powerful Mage in EarthSea and also a celibate traveling monk he leaves her. Time passes, Tenar has a family, adopts a badly-scarred daughter (whose father is a dragon?) but when they are both in their mid-50s they FINALLY get together and Ged returns to being a goatherd on his home island. What the hell was that.

#earthsea #blorbo #posting

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falling-violet-petals · 8 months

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I'm so sorry for not shutting up about Earthsea but I think Tenar is probably the best woman character I've ever read in my life she's so important to me.

Just seeing a girl taken from her family and made to be a priestess for a nameless power that is just taking control of her and using her and seeing her having to make the choice to leave and knowing that in making that choice she has to admit to herself that her entire life has been lived in vain. Seeing her go away to become a foreigner and an outcast and then seeing her going from serving this nameless power to becoming a man's wife and a mother who gives him children and a son and seeing her become a widow who takes care of a home that isn't hers but her son's. Just spending every step of her life in the service of others, knowing that as a woman she isn't allowed to have power. And still she is strong, still she questions why things must be this way, still she takes a burned child because she herself needed a second opportunity and because it is the right thing to do, still she faces wizards more powerful than her that hate her for not fearing them. I just can't stress how important she is to me, how much her conversation with Moss where she dares question the dark matters to me, how much her telling Ged that the problem is that the only place where women have power is in their own house behind locked doors matters. Because she's spent her life in darkness locked in multiple prisons never allowed to have her own power, and she sees that, she questions it and gives us the facts as they are. And she never solves it because she can't, but I think it is also because it is not up to her to solve, because we haven't solved it in real life either, and we must find the way ourselves. And the thing about Tenar is that she is every woman, I have a completely different life experience to what Tenar goes through and I still relate to her so deeply because she is just a common woman and I understand what it is to be a woman and to feel that you have no power.

#I love Tenar #I wish I could tell Le Guin just how much her characters mean to me #earthsea

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lizziestudieshistory · 6 months

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I'm 4 chapters into Tehanu and Le Guin has summed up women's rage at how society perceives and defines them so well without ever having Tenar deliver an angry rant to someone. She's an old, tired woman who has lived her life, but holds a quiet, tired anger over how she has been defined and labelled by society. She knows she can't do anything to change it and gets on with her life within society, but it doesn't make it any less unjust or her feelings invalid.

#ursula k le guin #tehanu #tenar #this is how feminism should be done #when does fantasy ever let old women be the main character and celebrate their lives?#books #reading #bookblr #booklr #fantasy books

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taravangianlistenstothebeachboys · 1 month

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Some notes from watching Ghibli's Tales from Earthsea:

I guess they were hoping having Lebannen be a killer runaway would make him more engaging a character than he was in Le Guin's books. Certainly its a more exciting introduction than "was sent to Roke and Ged decided he should tag along." But this is hampered by how Lebannen and all these characters have maybe two character traits between them.

No matter how bad the movie is, if its a Ghibli film its gonna be beautiful. The background artists for this should be given a medal. Hork town especially is incredible:

Although these are clearly Ghibli asthetics more than Earthsea aesthetics. We got all your Ghibli staples: the weird mammals that are almost real animals, the random fighterpilot elements in the costume design, that one weird type of hood, etc.

I do like the action scene of Lebannen dealing with the slavers. Only well-paced part of the film I've seen.

The shadow "visiting" Lebannen while he rests was done very well. The color dimming, the shadow on the water, the rushing wind towards him, its all great. I'm especially a fan of how when Lebannen looks over his shoulder, he sees nothing but a stream of water coming out of a wall. Fits with what's actually happening on in the dryland very well.

The "Ged rescues Lebannen but only takes the chains off the other slaves" is a weird detail to keep in the adaptation, though I guess it's less an obviously dick move when the slaves aren't trapped on a boat with their former captors.

I feel mixed about this version of Cob? Making him the slaver lord isn't a bad choice, though it does kind of positions slavery in Earthsea as "the bad thing that the one bad guy is doing" instead of, y'know, a cornerstone of Hork Town's economy.

They don't make him an especially originally villain either. He's literally introduced with the old "flash of villains castle, lieutenant comes in nervously to report on escape, almost gets killed until he mentions something important" trope. They did kind of flatten him into the stock fantasy big bad.

But Cob from the books didn't really have a lot going on character-wise either, so its less offensive a flattening than some of the other characters. And I do like his character design alot. That eye makeup is some Hot Topic Shit but it works. The thin lips and tall everything is a type of exaggeration I don't see in Ghibli's character design very often.

Christ, Ged's monologue about the balance and true names is really just plopped on the audience's lap like a dead mouse. The bridge from "why does a wizard like farming" to "everything has a true name that wizard's use for its power" is nonexistent. They really couldn't find another place to explain the basics of the magic system? Couldn't seed it with Ged using true names while freeing the slaves? No? Lord.

The ghibli food twitters aren't gonna touch this movie. No love was put into that cheese.

Oh this depiction of the dry lands fucks. Love how the sky is a completely different artstyle than anything else in this movie, really sells this as a weird and alien place.

Hare and two suspicious women clutching each other and going "they're not from around here" are the only time this movie has felt like it knew what it was doing. They're giving them banter and the actors are being allowed to put emotion into their voices. They're actually breaking out facial expressions for these guys.

God all the dialogue is so bad.

WHEN IS THIS SONG GONNA FUCKING END

What the fuck is Lebannen and Tehanu's relationship. None of their emotional beats have any real connection.

The thing haunting Lebannen (are they giving him the gebbeth plotline?) always makes the best scenes. Lebannen struggling to wade through the muck while the shadow casually strolls atop the water's surface creates such great tension and horror.

Tenar keeps talking about being rescued from the tombs and pausing like there's about to be a flashback. Why are they bringing so much attention to that detail if they're not gonna tie it in to anything. Either have it be an aside to make the world feel richer without it being a thing your constantly gesturing at, or don't bring it up at all.

It really was a choice to take the worst Earthsea book as the main thing they're adapting. All the "life without death is no life" rubbish and not even Le Guin's prose to save it. It's not even a theme the rest of the movie seems concerned with.

Why are they taking something called "Earthsea" and making 90% the outskirts of Hork Town. We saw the ocean like twice. This supposedly expansive fantasy world feels twenty feet across.

Having Tehanu follow the gebbeth to the castle is honestly a really cool adaptational choice. I do like the weird conflict they set up between the gebbeth and Cob over who gets to have Lebannen.

Great shot of Cob getting amputated. Thats some Mononoke-level satisfying gore.

See when Ged didn't do shit for most of The Far Shore it was fine, because it was the third book in the series and the reader already knew why he was a big deal. Here we keep hearing how cool and powerful he is but get shown nothing.

2D has grown odd in his old age.

They have not set up dragons as a thing (or connectd them to Tehanu) nearly enough for this ending to work. Having Tehanu transform instead of calling Kalesin works adaptation-wise though.

Final analysis: I liked Hork Town. I like how the dragons trail sparks from their eyes. I like Cob going all gooey. I like Hare. These were the isolated pockets in an otherwise bland experience. The plot was barely held together and I can't imagine someone who hadn't read the books would be able to enjoy this at all.

#mals says #studio ghibli #tales from earthsea #ursula k. le guin #mals reads earthsea

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captainadwen · 7 months

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The tales of earthsea movie is not a bad movie. It's a perfectly okay movie. The backgrounds are beautiful, the soundtrack is so gentle and lovely. And it really pisses me off that most of what's wrong with it are little details that accumulate. Namely, the lack of joyful moments, nuance for most characters, and taking on more themes than it could handle gracefully. And also the dragon reveal. SO Unearned.

This is irrelevant of how good an adaptation it would be because frankly, it's not an adaptation as much as heavily inspired by the books.

Here's what I think would have vastly improved it:

- show the joy in the world. Except for the end credits, no one is seen to actually enjoy iving in Earthsea. Yes, you could say this is due to Arren being depressed and suicidal. But that only covers his scenes. Showing, say, side characters or evil characters doing anything but be trash (outside of Arren pov) would have created nuance and made the world feel more lived in

- for that matter. Why are there so few side characters. Why are they all evil or merchants. Or evil merchants.

- actually foreshadow the dragon thing. I don't say "remove it" (also valid tbh) because the movie could have leaned more into the "people are disparaging of Therru and Tenar due to appearance differences" (this would admittedly require people who aren't villains to have face variations). Whilst Arren, who fits in otherwise, actually is the one to do a crime

- remove the mind control (?) bit with Cob. Have Arren, who was shown kindness/Maybe a bit of joy falter hard back into avoiding his guilt.

Have him falter AGAIN after Therru's therapy talk. I actually did like that he drew the sword when he started caring about his own life again, but it also would have worked to try and save Therru afterwards if removing the dragon.

If keeping the dragon, him briefly faltering and then deciding he will embrace Tehanu anyway would also work.

- Is the Cob melty thing from the books? It just doesn't work here. The entire ending takes what was an, honestly, okay movie and just makes me SO MAD

- tbh I liked that Arren's guilt/conscience was the shadow he was running from. I wish there was a bit more self reconciliation rather than Therru Therapy Magic but the idea itself fits this version of Arren, who is constantly weighed upon by the darkness he knows he has inside him

(Vs Ged who was fleeing from and battling the idea he had it at all)

#tales from earthsea #earthsea

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godzilla-reads · 1 year

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💍 The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin (The Earthsea Cycle Book 2)

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

“Alone, no one wins freedom.”

In the second book of the Earthsea Cycle, Tenar is chosen to be high priestess to the ancient and nameless Powers of the Earth- now she is known only as Arha- the Eaten One. Then the wizard Ged comes to the Tombs searching for the Ring of Erreth-Akbe and power dynamics begin to shift.

I absolutely adored the first book of this series and I am still adoring the second book. This one felt a bit slower, but all good things come in time. The story is suspenseful and feels so raw as we delve into the meaning of freedom, how to claim it, and what we do when we have it. It also has a lot of themes in power and who holds it.

Arha/Tenar is such a strong main character who is blindly faithful, but when fear starts to creep into her heart, who can she trust? I loved the amount of change she went through from the very beginning to the very end, and I found that the story was more powerful in the fact that Tenar is a girl. The first book had very few female characters, so seeing the second book focus almost exclusively on Tenar was amazing.

I can’t wait to read the next book: The Farthest Shore.

#godzilla reads #the tombs of atuan #ursula k. le guin #book review #earthsea cycle #Earthsea #fantasy books #reading #booklr #bookworm #bookish #book blog #booklover #bibliophile #book blurb

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johaerys-writes · 6 months

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I ADORE your writing! Do you have any book recs? 💗

THANK YOU!!! I do have some book recs, and I'm going to separate them in two categories: a) all time faves (aka books that rewired my brain), and b) my fave books I read this year.

All Time Faves

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: if you follow me for my patrochilles writing, then you already know I love this book 😅 It literally altered my brain chemistry when I read it and I have never been the same.

RotE: short for The Realm of the Elderlings series by Robin Hobb, it's like 16 books long and I recommend each one. Fitz is my pathetic little meow meow and the Fool is one of my favourite characters of all time. Read at your own peril LOL

Earthsea and Lavinia by Ursula K Le Guin: I'm on a quest to read everything Le Guin has written because her writing is just *chef's kiss*. I adore her prose and the way climaxes and conflict are handled, and I love the worldbuilding. Her Earthsea stories are just so wonderful and poignant, I particularly love the Tombs of Atuan and Tehanu. The latter is permanently on my reread roster, I read it once a year towards the end of the year when I start feeling blue because it's just so comforting. And I have to include my favourite quote:

"You are beautiful," Tenar said in a different tone. "Listen to me, Therru. Come here. You have scars, ugly scars, because an ugly, evil thing was done to you. People see the scars. But they see you, too, and you aren't the scars. You aren't ugly. You aren't evil. You are Therru, and beautiful. You are Therru who can work, and walk, and run, and dance, beautifully, in a red dress."

Please read it you won't regret it 😭🙏🙏

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: another long time favourite and one I reread at least once a year. It’s just one of the best books ever written (sorry I don't make the rules). I'm not sure if that is where my love of childhood friends to toxic, copedepent lovers and of unhinged, violent men in fiction came from but it sure contributed to it LMAO. I don’t consider it a romance book but I do adore the way it handles love and romance, among other things. It's just so bleak and cynical but also highly comedic in places and I could talk about it forever. TL;DR please read it haha.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong: I didn’t like this book very much when I first started it but it had become a favourite by the time I finished it. I've reread it several times (I think just this year I've read it twice), it's just so heartbreaking and beautiful.

Fave books I read this year:

Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat: technically I finished the trilogy end of last year but I still think about it a lot. It's very well written and imo the perfect balance of angst, plot, intrigue and horniness.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik: I read it earlier this year and I literally can't stop thinking about it lol. It’s SO well written and very immersive and even though the plot itself isn't like... comforting, it felt like a great comfort to read it. Ever since I finished it, every time I start a new book I'm like "gah I wish I could read it for the first time again" haha. I'm going to be rereading it for Christmas I think!

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells: another series I enjoyed a lot this year! I listened to the audiobooks and the VA is just so good, he's Murderbot in my mind lol. I should probably reread the last few books because my attention span was awful while I was listening to them, but overall they're very entertaining but also touch upon important issues in a really interesting way.

She Who Became The Sun by Shelly Parker-Chan: I really enjoyed this book, the plot, characters and worldbuilding was very interesting and I absolutely love the way that gender queerness and "otherness" was explored. I am eagerly awaiting the next book 👀

Villains series by V.E. Schwab: a highly entertaining read, I was pleasantly surpised by how much I enjoyed this. I love me a close friends to sworn enemies story, especially when they are obsessed with each other in as homosexual a way as these two LMAO. The supporting characters were also very well written which isn't easy to find in stories with such a busy cast. Once again, eagerly awaiting the next book!

#johaerys answers #book recs #i've been in a reading rut lately but really want to change that lol

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shripscapi · 9 months

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Hello :) I really like your earthsea art, can I ask what inspired the fashion style of the characters? The clothes of earthsea aren’t generally described in detail, but I LOVE the way these look, they fit the feeling of the world perfectly.

hi!! tysm!! My Earthsea stuff so far has been mostly vibes based unfortunately, so i have no specific references to point you to… For Ged, I thought I it was important that his clothing be comfortable, practical, and humble but not ragged. he’s a powerful wizard, but he’s not showy, so his robes are colorful, but not opulent. I also considered what would look cool flowing in the wind while sailing on lookfar…

for Tenar, I started with the (obvious) base of the black robes. I figured they should be very basic because they’re mentioned making their own clothes. HOWEVER, Tenar is priestess of the Nameless One and thus higher status than her peers, so I wanted her to have more than just a plain robe. There are some small elements on the trim of her robe, and she has a decorative shawl which takes extra labor to make. even so, her belt is still only a rope. They are not living luxuriously.

I hope that makes sense!! I also was just influenced by what is fun for me to draw, and that happens to be loose and layered clothing ! :)

#asks

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eskawrites · 3 months

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i sat down to write and, well, i, um. tenlark.

It takes Moss a while to speak with them again.

There are the initial conversations, of course. The way she sobbed out apologies as Tenar took her into her arms and hugged her fiercely. The confessions that came from a bed in the ward as healers and mages took turns examining her, making sure both her body and her mind would remain free of infection.

But then there was silence. Her entire being muted as she trudged through the castle halls with them, going through the motions, the now-routine agenda that followed a war. Check in with the staff at the ward. Rebuild the cobbled streets and castle walls that were torn down in the attack. Organize aid to the outer villages, open halls to house and feed the citizens whose livelihoods became collateral damage. Meetings and orders and days upon days spent lending a helping hand.

Except people shied away from Moss’s help. Most wouldn’t even approach her unless she was standing beside the rest of them. So she stood silently in the background, head bowed, helping Lark and Tenar and Arren and Ged so they could help the others. And at the end of each day, she slinks off alone, shoulders hunched as she drifts off into the shadows of the castle.

But the last time Lark left her alone for too long, she’d been taken from them. So she follows Moss, pesters her with her near-constant presence and her weak attempts at lightening the mood. It doesn’t matter. Moss knows why she lingers, and so she lets her stay. They still don’t speak, but they spend the long hours of the night lying on blankets they’ve piled in front of the hearth. Lark listens to Moss’s breathing and watches the glow of the fire dance across the ceiling, pretending like she’s looking up at a canopy of leaves and a starry sky, as if everything was that simple again.

Ged is stressed.

It’s not unusual for him. He deals with nerves by burying himself in the library, foregoing sleep and food and drink in favor of research. So when the mages start to whisper of him staying at his desk for days on end, no one is particularly surprised.

What’s surprising is the anger.

“I’m not angry,” he says when Lark gives him a questioning look after he slams a tome onto the table they’ve been sitting at.

“Call it what you want, Ged, but that,” she gestures to his face—the furrow in his brow, the shadows beneath his eyes, the clench of his jaw that looks so out of place on him, “is not the look of a kid who is at peace.”

“I’m not a kid,” he snaps.

“Right. And definitely not angry, either.”

“You don’t get to patronize me, Lark. After everything else, don’t sit there and act like I have no right to be—and definitely don’t act like I’m some dumb kid who doesn’t—just don’t, okay?”

Lark bites her cheek, hard. Ged isn’t looking at her. He crosses his arms over his chest and turns away, giving her a moment to swallow the heated retort that springs to mind first. She breathes instead.

Ged isn’t angry. He gets it from Arren, she knows, but even Arren has his moods.

Maybe Ged is simply overdue.

“You’re not a kid anymore,” she says. She aims for gentle, but exhaustion seeps into her tone instead. It’s better than something mean, at least. “And you’ve never been a dumb kid. We both know that.”

“No, I’m not. But all of you act like—like I’m just here to do everything, to handle everything. Like I can just help save the day and move on like none of it happened!”

She frowns. “No one expects that, Ged.”

“Don’t you? Because you—and after everything, you all just keep—I saw you die, Lark, do you realize that? I watched you get thrown from that tower, and I thought you were dead.”

“That was years ago—”

“And this time—Tenar, she just—you weren’t there when she was fighting Vecna. None of you were, I had to protect her, and she just kept putting herself in danger, willingly—”

“Ged—”

“She was trying to destroy herself!” He spins around, finally facing her. “Do you even know what that felt like? She would have killed herself to stop him, and I had to sit there and let her while also trying to keep her alive! And I didn’t know if you and Arren had found Moss, and I didn’t know if we could get her back even if you found her, and I didn’t know if we would win or what would happen if I did let Tenar die and—and—”

He cuts off in a sob as Lark pulls him close. She hugs him tight, keeping him upright as he trembles against her.

“I’m tired, Lark,” Arren whispers late one night, sitting out on the balcony of his room and staring up at the sky.

Me too, she doesn’t say. She sighs and scoots closer, offering her shoulder for him to slump against. He does, like she knew he would. She lifts her hand and runs her fingers through his hair.

“We’re getting through it,” she says. “It’s hard, and it hurts, but we’ll make it.”

“Since when did you become the optimist?” His voice shakes, and she wraps her arms fully around him, squeezing him gently and letting him know it’s okay to let go, with her.

But she doesn’t answer his question. She’s not, really. It’s just that…someone has to be.

“Lark.”

Lark sits up a little taller at the sound of Tenar’s voice. Even in the dark, even calling so gently, all the edge softened by the shadows cast by the lanterns lighting the armory, it compels her to attention. But when she turns, Tenar’s expression is just as soft, bidding her to relax again.

“Your Highness,” Lark says anyway. Tenar’s smile turns wry.

“Don’t do that,” she says as she crosses the room. She comes up behind Lark, placing her hands on her shoulders and peering over her head at the arrows scattered across the table. “You give our fletcher a run for his money.”

Lark snorts. “Hardly. My shoddy, self-taught work is only passable at the best of times.”

Tenar reaches around her and picks one of the arrows up. She twists it between her fingers, inspecting the fletching. It’s uniform enough—Lark can admit that much; she’s never made an arrow that won’t fly true—but it’s far from pretty work.

“I’d say it’s impressive, given that you haven’t slept in a day and a half.”

“Have you hired someone to tail me, Princess?”

Tenar lifts her free hand to Lark’s hair and gives it a gentle tug. Lark huffs, not sure if it’s a sigh or a laugh.

“Sorry,” she says anyway. Tenar hums and shifts her hand to run her fingers gently through Lark’s hair.

“To answer your question, no. It would be a waste of gold—I pay too much attention to you myself.”

It makes her cheeks flush. Years of falling for Tenar, and weeks, now, of being caught by her, and she still doesn’t know what to do with this affection.

Tenar sets the arrow back down and brings her other hand to her hair. Lark closes her eyes and tilts her head back into the touch. The sigh is involuntary, and she would be embarrassed if Tenar’s soft laugh didn’t follow it.

“I have a favor to ask of you,” Tenar whispers.

“Of course.”

“No,” she says gently. “Not of course. Only if it pleases you.”

“Whatever you want of me, I will do it.”

“Oh, I know.”

She feels lips against her hairline, and then Tenar is moving. Lark opens her eyes to see her walking around her chair and hopping up onto the table. She reaches out, and Lark gives her her hand without hesitation.

“You do whatever any of us ask, without hesitation.” Tenar cradles Lark’s hand in hers, running her fingers over her palm. Lark shivers. “You took on the entire kingdom without question, and you hadn’t even realized that’s what I was asking.”

“I gave you an earful when you woke.”

“You did, but it was mostly for show.” Tenar’s smile turns mischievous for just a second before she softens again. “When’s the last time you let yourself rest, Lark?”

Lark feels bare under her gaze. She swallows. “You already know, apparently. A day and a half? Perhaps a little longer?”

Tenar shakes her head. “No. I mean, when is the last time you let one of us carry you?”

She drops her gaze. “I’m dealing with it, the same as everyone else.”

“You don’t have to handle it all.” She rubs her thumb across Lark’s palm, firm and soothing. “You’ve carried so much responsibility this entire time, and we needed it. But you can let it go now.”

“And give it to you?” Lark asks. “You’ve dealt with just as much. Don’t scold me for being stubborn and then do the same thing yourself.”

“Then let me carry it with you,” Tenar says softly. “And carry mine with me. We’re in this together, Lark. We always have been.”

Lark sighs. She slumps forward in her chair. Tenar runs her hand over her hair again.

“Is this the favor?” she asks. Tenar’s nails scratch gently at her scalp.

“No. Not tonight, at least. Tonight, I have a more short-term goal.”

“Oh?” She sits up again to look at her.

“Spend the night with me.”

Lark gives a soft, short laugh. “How is that a favor?”

“Make no mistake, I’m asking for my own benefit here, perhaps even more so than yours. I…I’ve missed you these past few weeks, Lark.” She lets go of Lark’s hand long enough to tuck a piece of hair behind her ears, shy and uncertain in a way Lark forgets still exists, sometimes. “You know, the night before we lost Moss, I…I had been looking for you.”

“Why?” Lark breathes.

“Because…” She smiles down at their hands, the tips of her ears turning pink. “Because of this.”

It shatters her. It steals her breath away. It makes her want to cry, stupidly. Lark leans forward to take Tenar’s hands in her own.

“Tenar…”

“I fear, sometimes, that we can still lose everything. And I fear it more when I’m lying awake and wishing you were there with me.” She looks up again. “So please, Lark, come to bed. Let me feel safer with you there. And let me—” She brings their hands to her lips, kissing Lark’s knuckles, “let me make you feel safe, too.”

Her eyes sting, and she knows Tenar sees it. She swallows hard and says, “I don’t want to burden you.”

“What if I want your burden?”

Lark has no clue what she’s supposed to say to that, so she doesn’t. Tenar doesn’t make her. She just slides off the table, tugging Lark’s hands to pull her up and along.

Lark doesn’t acknowledge the walk through the castle. She doesn’t pay much attention to anything but Tenar as she leads them to her room, and then to her bed, and then under the covers and into her arms. It’s only there, wrapped in the warmth of her embrace, that Lark realizes how cold she was. She shivers, and Tenar holds her tightly, fiercely.

“I worry,” Lark whispers into the dark, even as she brings her arms up to wrap around Tenar. “I worry that it will never be over. That we’ll never truly have peace.”

“I do, too,” Tenar breathes.

“How do you hold on, then? Why do we keep trying when—when—”

“Hey,” she breathes, bringing her hand up to cup Lark’s cheek, cutting her off.

Lark looks at her, feeling loss and fear and despair echo in the meager space between them. But then Tenar leans forward, and it melts away, all of it, at the first brush of their lips. The tightness in her chest loosens, and she lets it spread through her. Lets herself unravel, for a moment, in Tenar’s arms.

“This,” Tenar says when they part. She presses her forehead to Lark’s. “Because of this.”

Lark closes her eyes. She can’t keep the tears back this time—especially not when Tenar brushes them away, kisses her cheeks and her brow and the tip of her nose. But what she can do is hold on. What she can do is nod, even as she cries. What she can do—what she hasn’t been able to do since the night she found Tenar dying on that balcony—is believe, finally, that they’ll be okay.

#tenlark #erathia #i was GONNA write lethal company au #and then i wrote 2k words of post erathia 4 softness #featuring lore that i'm really not sure exists outside me and sweepy's dms lmao #i think my problem is i'm trying to write this intense space survival but in my heart of hearts i just want softness #so shit like this keeps happening #have some tenlark i guess!#i've lost control of my life!

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arwainian · 3 months

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Reading This Week 2024 #6-8

sits here. i have been behind on this.... once again... i think i just have to accept that i do these when i do these.

Finished Week 6 (Feb 4-10):

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (skimmed/read the spark notes for class discussion, won't be reading more)

Undoing Gender by Judith Butler (read Chapter 6 "Longing for Recognition", currently won't be reading more)

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin, narrated by Rob Inglis (started the same week, audio book was lots of fun)

i love Tenar...... i think it's really cool that the way the Earthsea books are working is that even tho Ged is a reocurring character, we get a new child perspective for each one

Orange, Vol. 4 by Ichigo Takano, translated by Amber Tamosaitis (started same week)

truly TRULY the love triangle/rivals in this are so primed to be read polyamorously it had driven me crazy. just form a triad, you all like each other

about 10 other smaller things (articles, short stories, excerpts) that i shall not be naming individually bc this post is already too long

Finished Week 7 (Feb 11-17):

Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie (started in Week 6)

this book flips is like reading a multigenerational family drama with each section involving the slowly growing tension of knowing what horrific historical event/conditions they are about to live through

Venus by Susan-Lori Parks (started same week)

The Way of the House Husband by Kousuke Oono, translated by Amanda Haley (started same week)

“Experiential Gender” in Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano

“Black (W)holes and The Geometry of Black Female Sexuality” by Evelynn Hammonds

"Unsexed: A Zero Concept for Gender Studies" by Kath Weston

"Of Catamites and Kings: Reflections on Butch, Gender, and Boundaries" by Gayle Rubin (these four i read for a class that i lead the discussion four so while they fall under the category of articles i'm not mentioning right now, i felt they should be included for that reason)

a shit ton of student papers

6 smaller things (articles and abandoned books that i'm skipping for same reason as above)

Finished Week 8 (Feb 18-24):

Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam (started same week)

very in-depth descriptions of bowel movements in this

Orange, Vol. 5 by Ichigo Takano, translated by Amber Tamosaitis (started same week)

so cute! once again i am advocating for them to just form a poly triad

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan (started ages and ages ago...)

you've already seen my frantic reblog spam about this. i'm glad i finally finished reading this. the quarter 3 of it was kind a low point but i think it really captured me again by the end (however, i think the like... FINAL two pages are really scream "remember! that this is technically inspired by some real history!" in a way i found unneccesary and kinda too me out of the satisfaction of the end). i think the ending worked for me because Ma was really underused (i know it would have made the book kinda bloated but i would have loved a chapter or two of her perspective holding down the fort and dealing with internal politics while Zhu was away doing war things....), so her role in the finale was what really solidified it for me. this book drove me crazy in a great way, i think so many people should read She Who Became the Sun and then this sequel

Witch Hat Atelier, Vol. 11 by Kamome Shirahama, translated by Stephen Kohler (started same week)

the panelling in this manga is simply so fucking good. read this. its so cute

Orange, Vol. 6: Future by Ichigo Takano, translated by Amber Tamosaitis (started same week)

i don't think this volume was necessary lol... i did not need to know how Suwa and Naho got together in the future where Kakeru died, it was better as implications

Ongoing Reads:

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree (read another chapter)

i am so sorry to my girlfriend who has to deal with me complaining about this book i am reading to her after every chapter... i am glad she is enjoying it regardless

The Farther Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin, narrated by Rob Inglis (about halfway through)

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (basically read the preface material so far)

#cal reading log #arwainian princessoid decrees

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bobbyinthegarden · 1 year

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February Reading Wrap-Up

Doing my own little review of all of my February reads in the style of one of @isfjmel-phleg‘s posts (in no particular order)

Alec by William di Canzio

I did a whole review for this one, so I don’t feel the need to add much in terms of commentary.

The Gilda Stories by Jewelle Gomez

I’ve actually got a whole review in-coming for this one, which I’m in the process of writing, as I read this book as part of my 2023 Reading Challenge for the Vampires category. I gravitated towards this book because I am a big fan of genre bending, and this has that in spades: it’s historical fiction, it’s queer romance, it’s eco-feminist fiction, it’s sci-fi, it’s everything. No regrets, I had fun, more thoughts in-coming.

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. LeGuin

This is the second book in the Earthsea series. I absolutely adored A Wizard of Earthsea when I read it in January, and bought the second book immediately after finishing the first and it didn’t disappoint. I’m not going to write a whole review for this book, so I’ll just lay my thoughts down here. I love Tenar so much, she’s such a great character to spend 250 pages with, the story is mature and timeless, the world building is great and the prose is beautiful, plus it was great to see Ged again, and see what’s he’s up to. No notes, highly recommend to everybody. I’ve still got four other books in the series to read and I can’t wait.

Return to the Secret Garden by Holly Webb

I understand that I’m not the target audience for this book (the audience in question being like 7-13 year old girls), but man, this book was a slog to get through. I mentioned above when I was talking about The Tombs of Atuan that Tenar is such a great character to spend 250 pages with, and I cannot say the same about Emmie (the protagonist of this story). I have a whole review in the works for this one, but the long and short of it is that this book is basically just less interesting rehash of the original book, and I did not enjoy it.

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

The whiplash of reading Return to the Secret Garden and then immediately following it up with All Creatures Great and Small was quite astounding, in the best way possible. James Herriot (the pename of Alf Wright) is an incredibly compelling writer and relays his experiences of veterinary practice in Yorkshire in the 1930s with wit and charm. I feel like I learnt a lot from this book, as he is able to balance storytelling with technical language about complex medical procedures very well, but the book is also really funny at times, I was genuinely laughing out loud at the parts with Ticki Woo. I’ll probably read the other books in the series too, once I can get around to them.

Ghost World by Daniel Clowes

This isn’t a book as such, but a serialised comic book which has since been released together as a graphic novel. I was very into the Terry Zwigoff film adaptation when I was a teenager, and I did read the comics before, but many years ago. They’re extremely edgy. I’m quite difficult to shock, but there was some jokes that really made my mouth drop at times. Others have drawn similarities to The Catcher in the Rye and I completely see why, teen angst and alienation are major themes in both works. It’s pretty depressing and (like I said) edgy, so definitely not for everybody, but I do think it’s good.

The Secret Garden on 81st Street by Ivy Noelle Weir and Amber Pedilla

Got a whole review coming for this one too. I definitely liked this one more than Return to the Secret Garden. The art style isn’t really my aesthetic, but it’s cute. There are things to like here, though I have very mixed feelings about Colin’s portrayal, and the book really feels like a PSA about mental health sometimes. Like I say, I’m going to write a whole review soon, and I’ll explore my thoughts in more detail then.

I also bought some self-published comic books from some other tumblr users this month, which I thoroughly enjoyed, they were:

Tender is the Night by @thequeenofbithynia

Really wonderful 1920s inspired short comic about butches in love. Was a nice palate cleanser after reading Alec (I highkey actually enjoyed it more than Alec though) with absolutely gorgeous art and illustrations, Andreas’ art style is beautiful and 100% my aesthetic. Here’s a link to where you can buy it is you’re interested.

Signals by @wuntrum

Really cool semi-relgious horror story about a girl who becomes obsessed with and begins to worship a radio tower after she becomes convinced that she can feel the word of god through electrical currents. Really cool, plus the art is also amazing. It kind of reminded me a bit of Serial Experiments Lain (which is an anime from the 90s that I really like). And here’s a link to where you can buy that one too.

#Bobby speaks #books #bookblr

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falling-violet-petals · 9 months

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I finished reading The other wind (the 6th and last book of the Earthsea cycle) just yesterday and I'm still trying to collect my thoughts on it. It's just genuinely life-changing. It's so incredibly human, no other piece of art before had made me feel so at peace with myself before. From the first to the last book Earthsea is just an oath to life and death, to selfhood.

"I think," Tehanu said in her soft, strange voice, "that when I die, I can breathe back the breath that made me live. I can give back to the world all that I didn't do. All that I might have been and couldn't be. All the choices I didn't make. All the things I lost and spent and wasted. I can give them back to the world. To the lives that haven't been lived yet. That will be my gift back to the world that gave me the life I did live, the love I loved, the breath I breathed."

This quote towards the end of the novel just made me bawl my eyes out but in the best of ways, not of sadness, and I couldn't stop crying for the rest of the book, and for the next hour after I finished it.

And the end, oh my god, the end. I won't spoil it but without Le Guin even knowing it every important moment of all the previous books just leads to it, Ged's shadow, Tenar's name, Arren's acceptance of the possibility of death and Ged's glass of water spent on the dry land, Tenar's love for a burned child and Tehanu's link to Kalessin. It is so fitting and Le Guin treats its themes with such dignity and respect. This series has done what no other thing could before, it has made me respect death but not with fear. Maybe I should learn more about taoism, maybe it was just how UKLG wrote it exactly the way I needed to read it, but that idea of balance and returning to the earth after we die has changed something in me.

And on a bit of a different topic (although really it is just the same thing) it has also changed my view on fantasy as a whole, which is surprising as someone who's been reading fantasy since I was 10. Although I feel like the seeds of change where there beforehand and these books watered them and made them turn into plants. I've always found something unsettling in the use of violence and war and the concepts of good and evil in most fantasy stories, I've always hated fantasy games whose sole purpose was mindlessly killing enemies, I've always had trouble believing the end of Harry Potter, where all evil is finished when the evil person (who was evil from birth because of magic) was killed. UKLG has shown me the alternative to all these stories. Evil in Earthsea is internal, not an external being that personalizes it, and it is a possibility in all humans. Ged and Cob could have both been evil, but Ged isn't because he has chosen not to. Ged does wrong, and he fixes it not by wining a violent battle against evil but by choosing to accept his own shadow and his own eventual death. Tenar chooses to be Tenar and not Arha. The dragons of Earthsea have no ability to choose good or evil, and that is what makes them free, and what makes them animals, but humans do have choice. They must find themselves and make peace with their life and with their death. The main characters are constantly re-considering their own selves and choosing themselves along with the change that is happening in their world, and the end to it all is not a return to the status quo but an undoing of what has been made wrong, an end to immortality, a reconciliation with the human fact that we have no choice over death. No win of a battle can restore the balance, no evil is inherent and no killing can stop evil.

Percy Jackson has been my favorite series for a long time now. It is not perfect in the slightest and a big part of my liking for it is the nostalgia that I have for having read them when I was 12 years old. But there has always been something in it that I have admired over many other books. The gods do wrong that they fail to acknowledge, and that is their downfall. Luke is a complex villain, and like Tenar he is under control of a greater evil, not fully to blame but also being under the consequences of his own choices to remain there. And when Percy saves the day he doesn't question the reign of the gods the way I would have liked it, but he rejects immortality and godhood, because he knows himself beyond the power of the gods and chooses to live, and instead he forces them to accept to fix what they have done wrong. Even with its faults and holes that meant something to me as a kid, and it has stayed my favorite since then because of it, but it didn't fully fill the longing in me for a story that would really tell what I wanted to be told. I think Earthsea, written way before I was even born, is that story for me, I think UKLG knew what I needed to know long before I did.

I guess this is my way of saying that Earthsea is my favorite now, and I think it will be for a long time.

#book review #idk if reviews are going to become a recurrent thing but I'll tag it just in case #earthsea #ursula k. le guin #earthsea cycle #the other wind #also brief analysis of Percy Jackson #literary criticism

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