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dragoncookies · 9 months

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(PT 2) STELLARLUNE ANALYZATION: Chapters 3-5

(foreword) This is a series where I go through each chapter of Stellarlune and dissect it for y’all. I bring up things you might have missed, the importance of what is said and what happens in each chapter, how it might relate to the book as a whole or how it might relate to the series as a whole. This book might seem boring and useless, but when you look at it, it’s really just a book that steps back and reflects on the whole series. It’s like the series is taking a refreshing deep breath and putting everything from the past together, so it can go and deliver a WILDLY wonderful ending. All I can say is that the book gets way sweeter on the second read, and it might be too early to say, but my guess is that it’ll age finer than wine.

(excuse my grammar/spelling mistakes)

Chapters 3-5:

I’ll be honest, these chapters were a little sluggish, but at the same time...it was interesting to read about Gisela and Cassius lore. I’ll say why later in this post, but It was dark and creepy and tense; well written. There’s also a bunch of notable tid-bits in these scenes from Cassius’s memory and just what he has to say. He’s not a useless character or a 2d character, that’s for sure. Lets dive in, shall we?

SUMMARIES:

(because I forget too)

Ch 3 summary: Sophie shows up at Cassius’s house and they banter for a bit after Sophie tells him that Keefe ran away. Sophie originally went there to get Cassius’s pathfinder so she could look for Keefe in the Forbidden cities, but Cassius tells her he’s working on another assignment from the Black Swan that has to do with the trollish treaty and such after what happened at Everglen (in flashback). He also has a memory he recovered that Lady Gisela tried to wipe from his mind, so Sophie agreed to watch it.

Ch 4 summary: Sophie and Cassius watching the memory

Ch 5 summary: Sophie and Cassius banter about the following→ Cassius’s parenting, whether or not Sophie should keep looking for Keefe (she shouldn’t) or if letting Gisela finish the final step of Stellarlune on Keefe is a good idea.

Ch 3:

Sophie REALLY hates Cassius. Like, the Cassius slander is HEAVY throughout this chapter. She just gotta quip at his behavior for every reason.

One thing that is made strikingly clear by Sophie’s conversations with Cassius is how emotionally driven she is, especially when compared to Cassius’s almost purely objective approach to things. They’re almost foils of each other, in this sense.

Also, the dialogue in the first few pages of this chapter is lowkey entertaining, even from Ro.

“’If Keefe had come home with me-’

‘he would’ve run off even faster,’ Ro finished for him. ‘Probably would’ve left a Keefe shaped hole in one of these walls.’” (page 36).

Haha funny for no reason. Anyways.

Ro is REALLY given an actual purpose (as are a shocking majority of the characters) as I continue to reread through stellarlune. As much as I cannot stand how nosy and obnoxious Ro can be, her background has a whole chunk of the dialogue in this chapter. I will have far more to say on Ro’s character when we get to the part where she actually leaves later on so stay tuned for that.

Now, with Lord Cassius here, we have been shown an important revelation on the current state of political affairs in the Lost Cities, and a reminder that the Black Swan is a little bigger than we thought. It makes me curious as to what other things go on behind the scenes in the Black Swan.

Also: Sophie said she really does hate secrets. Why did sophie say she hates secrets when her wanting privacy is literally the whole point of conflict between her and Fitz for the entire previous book and the rest of Stellarlune???? Smh.

The troll treaty negotiations are stalled at the moment!!!! Empress Pernille has closed the borders and doesn’t want the elves messing with them atm, basically. This means there MIGHT be more mutant trolls. Wild. The trolls want to be isolated from everyone…which is kind of what the neverseen wants if we’re being honest…scary.

One question: Why does the black swan want to protect the councilors from being overthrown if there’s so much emphasis on how the councilors are flawed? What is the point?

CH4:

This is where I notice things really start to get interesting in this book.

I love when Shannon describes telepathy. Like all the “swooping and spinning” and “sinking into warmth” and describing the mind like a room makes me imagine Sophie and everyone else as little glowing people in the mind, navigating the endless maze. She describes it so vividly, its so fun to imagine being Sophie when she gets blasted by wind or goes on a rollercoaster-esc loop, or goes somewhere small and quiet, or just somewhere blue. Like that is so cool, who goes ahead describes a mind like that? And every mind in the series is different too. It's just so cool. Anyways. Back to Gisela and Cassius lore.

This chapter really makes you think about Cassius’s and Gisela’s relationship. Its important to understand, since Gisela is like a main villain giving her character depth (like what her relationship with Cassius was exactly like) makes her feel like a REAL person, more like us. Which makes her scarier.

This scene is where Gisela throws away her act of just wanting Keefe to be strong to make her and Cassius look good.

Man, from the first read, it really seems like Shannon is trying to redeem Cassius with this memory. “gosh Shannon, please don’t redeem Cassius…please stop trying to redeem him”, but it’s less “poor Cassius” and more we just get to understand Cassius, because what I get out of this is that Cassius really loved Gisela, and Gisela was just using him to have a strong baby (which is sort of like the entire flaw of matchmaking…hmmm…). Like when Gisela starts explaining all these wack things she’s doing, he’s just completely shocked. Like she really flat out told him that his role was done, and he’d already provided his DNA so she didn’t need him anymore. No wonder Cassius said the memory was personal, I would be HEARTBROKEN. He’s not the best, but maybe there’s a reason he’s so cold…

If you hadn’t before, you REALLY start to see how creepy Gisela is, too. At the end of this chapter, Gisela just drugs him, and as his world slowly fades to black she whispers “don't fight it, it’ll all be over soon enough” (paraphrasing page 57). Damn she's creepy. Just, her carelessly messing with Cassius’s heart for her own gain, and doing painful horrible things to herself, to Cassius and to their relationship...she’s so sick omg. She really built Cassius the whole illusion of a happy marriage. What if Cassius was actually a happy surfer guy before Gisela? Maybe thats why his getaway is on the beach. Who knows? Maybe Gisela ruined an avid beach-boys listener and a regular cowabunger. Its all so messed up, but the theme of the importance of family is strengthened through all of this.

What I start to wonder as I read through this chapter is…why? Why does Gisela want Keefe to be super powerful? WHY does she want to rule the world?

She mentions she wants to harness all the elements because she believes it will make her ultra-powerful, but for WHAT?

Gisela talking about the elements also reminds me how elemental elves are. They really are such nature-y beings. Little hippies. Talking to plants. Never killing animals. Using scrolls. No technology and A LOT of living with nature’s cycles. They see so much power in elements that Gisela is convinced she can be all-powerful if she uses all them. I ought to start seeing the elven world in a more woodsy aesthetic lmao. Alas, Shannon’s world-building never ends.

The most important thing we learn in this chapter is that Keefe needs to go through one last step to really finish his transformation of his abilities. Yay!

Ch5:

Cassius’s mind was really messy after the memory, so he definitely did love her and he’s definitely messed up by that. Even Shannon’s most hateable characters get backstory and understanding, so you don't have to like what they did but it makes the story she’s telling so enriching.

This chapter highlights how stubborn or blindsighted by emotions Sophie can be, but at least she can be persuaded. She neglects that Cassius has an OBJECTIVE approach and thinks he has a COLD HEARTED approach, and struggles to wrap her brain around the concept that Cassius could actually, in fact, be right in his suggestion that Keefe needs to finish the process of his new abilities to function properly. The fact that she sees “cold hearted” and “objective” as synonymous proves that she’s just a very emotionally driven person, which is important to understand, considering the entire series is from her point of view and if we really want to understand the story we have to understand how Sophie might tell the story.

Also, Sophie JUST NOW realizes how she probably should have read through the archetype before she burned it. Nice one girly. I’m sorry I bag on her so much during these first few chapters, it gets better later I promise. AND WHAT WAS THIS SHANNON:

“Lord Cassius couldn’t be right...

...

...could he?” (page 62).

TAKE AWAY HER ENTER BUTTON. Made me chortle a little but like Shannon what.

Not much else to say about this chapter. The last page was a masterpiece, though.

“Let him take care of himself, he’s been doing it his whole life” (page 66).

I’m not all about the endless Keefe sob story we get throughout the series, but the way it's told on page 66 is quite sad and impactful. Like oof, the self-actualization from Cassius and the cold hard truth…ouch Shannon. That hurt. Chefs kiss to the writing but yeowch.

Overall, these few chapters are pretty satisfying because both Cassius and Sophie change a little. Cassius starts off presented as his usual hateable self, but by the end of these chapters you feel a little heavier, a little older and a little colder because of him. He just gets deeper as a character. Sophie changes her mind about finding Keefe and actually listens to Cassius’s reasoning, which is important because it changes the trajectory of this section of the book. It would have been ooc for her to just not care or decide on her own not to find Keefe because she cares about Keefe ALOT (a lil too much sometimes I’ll be honest), but it did take 5 chapters to get to this point. She also could have gone on a mission to look for Keefe, but thank goodness she decided not to, for the sake of the plot and the other characters. Victory!

She really does talk to herself a lot.

Anyways, stay tuned for more!

#KotLC #kotlc keefe #Keefe Sencen #keeper of the lost cities #kotlc stellarlune #stellarlune #kotlc sophie #sophie foster #kotlc gisela #gisela sencen #kotlc cassius #lady gisela #lord cassius #kotlc rant

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strawberry-muffin-crisis · 2 years

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Coming in hot from the kotlc fandom, asking if you would be willing to rant about Sophie (In general or as the main character, you choose) because I saw your other rant and you raised some very good points. Especially the self insert oc. I'm still raging from the fact that she rejected Dex and /then/ kissed him to say "Hey, this is ultra mega delux proof that I don't like you"

Boy howdy you better believe I'm willing!!

Also thank you for the ask, this is the first one I've gotten like this and I'm so excited :D

So first of all, if anyone needs a recap of what I've already said concerning Sophie and her undeserved position of the main character, find it here: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/smoltolmuffin/685796011734712320?source=share

Sophie kissing Dex to prove she didn't actually like him:

Makes me think of that GIF. You know the one.

Yeah, that one.

First of all: WHO DOES THAT? Who even has the courage as a-- *googles this* 13(?)/14(?) year old to kiss somebody you might have a crush on?? Maybe elves are just Built Different™, but based on what we've seen of their emotions/encounters so far, they seem to function similarly to humans, so idk.

But seriously. Which preteen(???) girl actually goes "omg okay close your eyes i wanna try something" and then actually does it? And then actually stays in the same room as the dude she just kissed??? And then is casually like "huh. no that doesn't vibe at all, maybe we shouldn't see each other for a while"?

Idk but if it was me (which it wouldn't be, I'm not that brave), I wouldn't do it in the first place, and if I did for some reason, I'd immediately get the heck outta Dodge, if you catch my drift.

And it really wasn't fair to Dex either! (I could go on an entirely separate rant about how Dex is one of the most underrated, overlooked, underappreciated characters in KOTLC, but I'll spare Ye Olde Mutuals for now.) That poor boy really did have a puppy crush on Sophie. Imagine if your crush was like hmmm im gonna kiss you (experimental). You'd be stoked! And then your crush kisses you(experimental)!! You'd want to explode with happiness!!! And then your crush says "nah fam lol", and where does that leave you?

Sitting in the Friendzone with the rest of the fallen.

Not cool. I'll probably always hate Sophie for that.

Sophie in general as "the Gifted Kid"

The kid needs a break. In my opinion, her role as The Chosen One Who Is Not Like The Other Girls has gone to her head. Sure she's tired of the war, and sure she's sick of being so depended-on, but does that stop her from effectively flipping the middle finger at any (and all) authority and running headlong into more danger without telling people the plan? Heck, does she even HAVE a plan?? Because if she did then either I'm stupid (which is an entirely valid and possible option) or there isn't any plan, other than the extremely vague "defeat the Neverseen", WHICH, in my eyes, has dragged on FAR too long.

Give us the defeat of the Neverseen back in Everblaze. Give us a new threat--something else going on in the world besides "oh no. they're still here. oh no. time to not actually be able to end their terrorism, despite the fact that I am in fact Sophie Foster, the OP Fortnite Kid of literally every YA author's dreams. Or nightmares. Who knows."

Give us some other problem in the world! Give us something that doesn't require one (1) tween girl (how old is she at this point? i lost track??) and the boyband ft. some girls to go save the world yet again because of a COMPLETELY ORIGINAL TROPE, namely "all adults are stupid. ALL of them".

Some people could argue here (you know who you are and I love you :D) that Sophie has adequate reason not to trust the adults in the series, especially the Council, especially the Black Swan, especially-- oh wait. We're not trusting anyone. That's right, my bad. After giving Sophie a break, we're gonna give these tropes a break. Kay? Good. It's about darn time.

If we have to have a global war(?) going on, give me someone with experience (not Sophie!!) and a good place of mental stability (again, not Sophie!!!!) to be in charge of fixing the world's problems. Let an adult do it. Why aren't the adults doing it? SHANNON??? Each time I try to come up with an explanation for why the adults in this series are so incompetent, I get worked into a corner because? what are they doing? We haven't seen enough behind the scenes with the Council to make any speculations on "are they actually the bad guys or is Sophie just going through a particularly strong rebellious phase".

We could talk about Sophie being the leader of Team Valiant. And then right after that, we're gonna talk about how hard we cringed at that awful team name (YOU KNOW YOU DID. WE ALL DID.) I gotta agree with Keefe on this one-- Team Fancypants would've been better. Anything but Team Valiant, oh my GOSH.

It's really not fair that the OP kid gets to be the coolest. Fight me if you wish, but isn't it about time that some of our beloved side characters got some more attention? I'm mainly thinking of Dex here. Why can't Sophie take a backseat for once?

~~~

so i've tired myself out...

if this made enough sense and you'd like me to rant more please leave a comment saying so or drop another ask 💀, if you want me to lock myself in a closet and never do this again...

understandable, have a nice day

#kotlc #kotlc rant #rant #kotlc fandom #kotlc sophie #sophie foster #kotlc keefe #kotlc fitz

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that-multi-fandom-hijabi · 4 months

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i'm starting a petition.

all in favor of letting sophie foster say fuck in book 10 say aye.

#please my girl deserves this #kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #the hijabi rants #kotlc shitpost #kotlc funny #nova talks fandom stuff #sophie foster #kotlc sophie

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twentyfunnybunnies · 23 days

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GUYS KEEFE IS RAPUNZEL.

Think about it:

He lives in a tower, has a manipulative mom, and has awesome blonde hair.

Do you see the difference between these two images???

PROBABLY NOT CAUSE THEY'RE THE SAME PERSON

KEEFE WELCOME TO YOUR DISNEY PRINCESS ERA

#kotlc #keefe sencen #tiny little rant #bunni rants #keeper of the lost cities

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homo-beehive · 2 months

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sometimes i think about keeper of the lost cities (it is my special interest) and go “holy shit how is this a middle grade series”

so here is an incomplete list of things that happen in kotlc that would get a kotlc movie’s rating moved to R (read at your own risk).

kidnapping

torture

horse copulation

graphic violence

graphic birth

unspecified but apparently flavorful cursing

human experimentation

body horror

very detailed depictions of almost-deadly allergic reactions

non-consensual drugging. a lot of it. of CHILDREN

and here is a list of things that i think the US government would hate about kotlc

criticism of government and discussion of how one should handle being in a position of power (you should not enjoy being powerful)

elfin society has a eugenics problem and this is consistently criticized

queer coding isn’t even coding atp marella is GAY gay

and finally, criticisms i have of kotlc.

weird eurocentric beauty standards

tam and linh. great characters. CONSTANTLY fetishized bc they’re asian. sophie calls them k-pop idols, anime characters, etc. from what i can tell, though, they’re vietnamese. LET THEM BE VIETNAMESE WITHOUT COMPARING THEM TO EVERY EAST ASIAN STEREOTYPE

everyone is thin. LITERALLY EVERYONE. why is everyone thin and why does thin equal beautiful. shannon messenger explain your biases challenge

there are SO many poc in the books, but elf culture is shown as a monolith. show the cultural nuances that come from before humans and elves separated. i want to see the human influences in their clothing, hairstyles, accents, vernacular. have elves who have historically lived in china wearing something similar to hanfu. give tam and linh ao dai. give me a nigerian elf with fulani braids. give me culture through style and bodies and voices and music. i want to see it. it’s beautiful and it is NOT shown enough

dex needs more page time.

alden and della are NOT criticized enough. they are complicit. they are part of the problem in the lost cities. they are not all bad, but they are not all good either. CRITICIZE THEM, SHANNON.

#keeper of the lost cities #kotlc #kotlc fandom #fandom rant

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slozhnos · 9 months

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fitz is an amazing character because he starts out as the perfect son, he can do no wrong in his parents eyes. but as his family begins to fall apart, he lashes out at those around him to cope. it isn’t healthy, and he wasn’t taught how to properly cope with grief! the elves lack so much when it comes to grief and that is so overlooked. and even though his family life is messed up at times, not having a clear constant after his father was essentially dead for a while and his older brother whom he looked up to betrayed him and his family, hurting his friends, he still manages to be there for his friends when he can be. it’s hard for him sometimes, but it’s clear he tries. he isn’t perfect, but he is one of the most realistic depictions of a teenager in the whole series because of how he acts. i haven’t met one gifted kid who isn’t messed up in one way or another because of pressure that we put on ourselves!! he genuinely seems like a person who would end up being such an incredible person and friend once they can figure out who they are, what they want in life, and what kind of person the want most to be.

#i copied pasted my rant from discord on fitz because more people need to see this.#he is an incredible character and shannon doesn’t understand him like me and like me and a couple others do #i will die before i allow someone to say that he is a terrible person and friend #kotlc #fitz vacker #keeper of the lost cities

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mee-op · 3 months

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am i just being a baby or are there a LOT of insults hurled towards humans in kotlc.

like none of what the elves say are wrong but damn do they mention humans a lot lol. and no one but keefe and sophie really hint at how similar humans and elves are. i think elves realizing that would be really interesting in the books but its nothing else other than like 1 or 2 passing acknowledgements in book 4.

someone else said this under another person's post but other than their abilities, eye colour, and immortal lifespan, there isn't much of a difference between elves and humans.

also the elves bashing humans do not have any impact to the plot-- which i think is the point. the common elf does not know about humans and their struggles so it makes sense that elves like dex and fitz think humans are fucking stupid lol. i only start having a problem with it when mr forkle- who was the one studying humans btw- doesn't say anything about the topic when i thought one of the black swan's mission was to do something about the humans. that is either bad writing or it's an intentional flaw of his character. i hope it's the latter.

[political rant below lol dont ask why it was late and i was thinking about the state of the world]

Also if we're going to be technical about why humans and what we do are bad, a lot of it is because of things out of our control. Us buying plastic products because they're much more accessible and cheaper, using cars as our main choice of transportation- like why isn't it said that some people just cannot afford the more environmentally friendly option, not even Forkle.

While I 💯 understand that if we all still have to take personal responsibility for the things we do, if some fucking money-hungry-rich-white dude decides to throw gallons of oil + plastic into the ocean because he couldn't care less about anyone other than himself and because it saves money (he is a billionaire), it is not the fault of the common human/person.

ON ANOTHER NOTE, I also think, since the actual age range of kotlc is 9+, that constantly throwing humans under the bus isnt very good for young (probably human) children.

#kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #one thing i absolutely agree with is that us as humans should be way more terrified of driving than we actually are #why tf did this turn into a political rant

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clarity2electricboogaloo · 24 days

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Watch me incoherently rant about the vackers and kinda vent and most definitely get information wrong for who knows how long

Fitz and Alvar (Fitz especially) as characters are just

Amazing and scarily relatable to me.

Starting with Fitz, he’s virtually the oldest sibling once Alvar becomes older and goes away on assignments or whatever a lot, and he’s held to a very high standard, not much different from the rest of his siblings.

But he’s successful in being the best, and now he’s expected to keep that up. And now it’s affecting his siblings’ expectations from parents, and he can tell they resent him for it.

Not to mention he reached the higher status by aiming to be like his older brother and being expected to be like him.

Now for Alvar. Something I hate that my parents make my younger siblings aim for is trying to get my grades or similar because I’ve had all As or 4s or 100s or whatevers since maybe first grade.

I hate it. Because they just aren’t me and shouldn’t be expected to be, but if they’re doing worse my parents will compare them to me. Fucking stupid.

But I feel like the way the Vackers and Alvar and Fitz especially were written is very similar to this situation and the situation of many families with a more gifted kid.

Alvar was a very smart, gifted, top boy type child. He’s even helped with government assignments from a pretty young age. When fitz moved to this age, he was expected to hold up the reputation paved by Alvar. But he did it better.

Alvar resents him. Fitz’s siblings are seen as below him.

The stress builds up and it gets worse and worse until it shows up in the form of anger issues. And people don’t help.

They just reprimand him for having them.

And it only makes it worse.

Fitz is too relatable anldejkellzjsk and I don’t want to feel like a bad person for saying this idk watch me be a fitz defender frfr

I have no idea where the rest was going. Get my man a therapy is all. please and carrots 🙏🏽🙏🏽

Okay bye if I got info wrong tell me or add on 😀

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im56bithc · 27 days

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i completely forgot that keefe gets deadass BRANDED by a ruewen pin in lodestar (it was brant btws)

#how do y’all feel about brant now #keeper of the lost cities #sophie foster #kotlc thoughts #kotlc #kotlc theories #keefe sencen #kotlc rant #sophie’s story is more interesting #mr forkle #sophie foster headcannons

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crymeariveronceagain · 2 years

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So anyways here's my KOTLC hot take of the day

Keefe Sencen running away to be a double agent with the Neverseen was the most genius and well executed plan in the entire series.

He was careful. He thought through it. He was smart. He knew what he was getting into, he knew what he was leaving, he knew what people would say.

He did it anyway.

And he did it well.

His transition into the Neverseen was seamless. His plans went perfectly. He had back up after back up in place.

Maybe he wasn't the best at gathering information and giving it to the main people, but he did a ton more than the Black Swan had to that point in one swift movement.

Keefe Sencen made a smart decision. Not necessarily a safe one, or the one that would be the most fun, but he made a smart decision. It's smart. In fact, it's genius.

Keefe Sencen is not one who was built to wait. To try and make others do things for him. At his core, Keefe is a do-er. Just like Sophie.

The two of them look at the world and want to do something about it.

Every other person in the series wants to wait and see what happens.

But not Keefe.

He can't wait for someone to do the dangerous job for him. He can't stand around, wasting time they don't have, getting approval or thinking it through any more than he already has.

Keefe Sencen does not wait.

He assesses the situation. He is the expendable one, in the Black Swan. He would not be expendable to the Neverseen. He can get into their heads. He can read their emotions. He has been created to help them.

And no one else has.

So Keefe puts himself in danger and asks for one thing in return. To trust him. He asks that his friends believe that it's a costume. That he's still in their side. That he's taking every precaution. That he's being smart about this.

Instead, at the drop of a hat, they label him as a traitor. They label him as a disgrace. Grady, who loved him as much as he could, demeans him to "That Boy". Sophie is angry. Fitz is angry. No one trusts him.

But what else could Keefe have done?

He can't sit still. Can't wait for more people to die.

He sits in the dark of a room and thinks, "No war was ever won by waiting. Wars are won by acting."

And so then he does. He gathers Intel. He acts smart. He earns trust. He becomes a Neverseen member.

He has to do some bad things, but Keefe knows that this is a war. Long before it's labeled so, Keefe knows what the reality of the situation is. And he's not afraid to do something. Not afraid to jump into the fire.

Keefe is a warrior. Born and built that way.

Keefe is a do-er.

And he cannot sit by and let it happen.

So he's brave. And he's smart. And he does something.

And of course, the world hates him for it.

#kotlc #kotlc keefe #keefe sencen #kotlc sophie #kotlc headcanon #kotlc headcanons #kotlc thoughts #kotlc fandom #kotlc rant #ranty rant rant #keefe my beloved #river re-reads kotlc

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