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one-squash-one-end · 2 months

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I wrote a giant Raven Cycle analysis

Hi! Over the last year or so I've been working on a sort of essay about various themes in the raven cycle series, and I finally finished it a few weeks ago.

It is titled: "Why I love The Raven Cycle - An excessive analysis of the themes of friendship, queerness and growing up".

And since tumblr loves its meta (and bc I love peer validation) I've decided to start uploading it bit by bit here, making this the masterpost (if I can figure out the logistics of the linking lmao, bear with me)

(beware of spoilers up to greywaren starting at like 3b!)

Introduction

What even is the Raven Cycle?

Trust me, the characters are queer as fuck and I can prove it a) Blue Sargent b) Gansey c) Adam Parrish d) Ronan Lynch e) Noah f) Henry Cheng g) Honorary mentions

The Gangsey is a polycule

Analyzing the reoccurring themes a) Friendship b) Being a teen/growing up c) (Found) Family d) Magic (as a metaphor) e) Further themes I appreciate

Drawing a conclusion

Click here to start with the introductory parts!

1. Introduction

So here’s the thing: I love fiction almost as much as I love my friends. There’s something deeply comforting about the escapism, even if the book actually makes me want to scream and throw it on the floor (only one book has been thrown so far, I promise!). Fiction is a healthy thing to occupy my thoughts with: headcanons! Quotes being on loop in my brain! Just fandoms!

And for me, if I am hooked on a book (series), it does not even need a good plot where a lot of things happen. In fact, I would say that my enjoyment of a book is made up of 30% plot and about 70% characters and vibes. If the characters are bland, if they do not make me feel much emotion, it likely won’t be more than 4 stars (additional info: I am way too nice rating books!). I really, really need to love the characters, to be able to relate to some aspects of them, or it just won’t become an obsession.

Since I have already started explaining that a bit, let’s look at this question: What is important to make a book special to me? 1. I need to cry reading it. 2. I have to think about it often, even weeks to months after having read it. 3. Obviously, I need to love the characters. 4. I need to be in the fandom! This can be hard with some books, but the internet is a whimsical space allowing you to find at least a small number of people who are obsessed with a work of fiction to a similar extent as you are.

Now, why am I elaborating on this so much? It’s because The Raven Cycle did all that for me. It is my favorite comfort book series at the moment, for all those aspects mentioned, but of course I cannot just leave it at that. No, I wrote a whole-ass analysis on headcanons and some of its themes. You’re welcome.

2. What even is The Raven Cycle?

The Raven Cycle is all I adore and live for (next to my friends). So, naturally, it’s a book series, specifically a four book young adult contemporary fantasy series by American author Maggie Stiefvater. The books in question are: The Raven Boys (2012), The Dream Thieves (2013), Blue Lily, Lily Blue (2014) and The Raven King (2016), and yes I will admit that the publishing dates are a bit of a red flag. There is also the very relevant follow-up series called The Dreamer Trilogy (Call Down The Hawk, Mister Impossible, Greywaren), but it’s a lot less easy to get into that here as I do not know these entire books by heart, so I’ll stick to the original tetralogy here.

To stick to red flags, the books are set in the fictional Henrietta, a rural town in non-fictional Virginia, US, in the 2010s. However, that doesn’t really say *that* much about the plot, so let me summarize that really quick, because I can do better than the official synopsis! (Or let’s pretend I can.)

Blue Sargent comes from a family of psychics, yet she does not have any powers of her own. Even worse, she is a bit of an amplifier for the others, meaning she is always somehow but never directly involved in the business. As if that isn’t enough for an identity crisis, every psychic she has ever met has told her that her kiss would kill her true love. Yikes.

But because she is that amplifier, she comes to a church watch on St. Mark’s Eve, where psychics see the spirits of those to die within the following year. It’s important business, but to her it’s really just staring into the dark. Until she does actually see a spirit: That of Gansey. Of course this is not a coincidence. No, to add to this teen’s mount of problems, there are only two reasons why a non-seer would see someone’s spirit: They are their true love, or they killed them. Or, in Blue’s case, maybe both.

The aforementioned Gansey is Henrietta’s Golden Boy, the son of politicians (read: he’s fucking loaded). He does not run with the Republicans though, he runs with dead Welsh kings, meaning he has been searching for the probably dead, presumably sleeping Welsh king Glendower (*1350; †1416; yikes) for the past like seven years. Why the fuck would he do that? Well, legend says that he will grant a wish to whoever wakes him, and our favorite PTSD-ridden guy really wants that favor.

Aiding him are fellow Aglionby students Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch and Noah Czerny, plus Henry Cheng, though only a lot later in the series, but I really did not want to leave out that menace (affectionately) here. The paths of Blue and the boys cross because of Gansey’s search for Glendower, plus the fact that Blue works at a popular pizza place, but that’s a lot less whimsical. And, well, there’s the implication that Gansey might also be her true love, but perhaps she just kills him because of his bad fashion sense, it would be justified. Anyway, in true Famous Five fashion (Ronan is the dog; I won’t elaborate, the girls that get it, get it) they are of course not the only ones searching for the king, so it’s not completely a wholesome friend bonding activity all the way through.

Be prepared for: friendship and growing up, lots of treasure hunting, family mysteries, magical forests, illegal and slightly distasteful activities (our favorite of course), but most of all, heavily queer-coded (or even canonically queer) characters. Be Gay, Do Crime.

#y'all better like this it took a while #trc #the raven cycle #gansey #blue sargent #ronan lynch #adam parrish #noah czerny #henry cheng #the raven king #the raven boys #blue lily lily blue #the dream thieves #let's hope i don't forget about this after the first part #please talk to me about your thoughts

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nhasablogg · 4 months

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How to move an immovable object

Fandom: The Raven Cycle

Characters: Adam, Gansey, Ronan

Summary: Adam worries he's not ticklish enough to be fun to tickle. Gansey and Ronan notice, like they always do.

A/N: Hey @happyandticklish guess what!! @tickles-tea commissioned this fic for you as a Christmas gift!! I took the liberty of using the prompt you sent me as a continuation of your own commission for this, and I really hope you like it!! Thank you @tickles-tea for the commission!

Read part one here.

Words: 2.1k

Adam kind of wished this conversation didn’t have to take place while he was somewhat trapped between them, Ronan’s elbow somewhere in his ribs while Gansey nearly wacked him in the face as he was talking. He sounded animated, although Adam had seen the signs of concern and should’ve known he would bring it up eventually. Had thought he could play it cool and they would let it go. How wrong he’d been.

Gansey’s animation was emphasized by Ronan’s silence, which made Adam more nervous than he could explain. He could feel his gaze on him and refused to meet it, opting instead to stare in front of him, watching the snowflakes fall outside the window as if this was any normal conversation. Gansey stopped talking when he noticed him drifting, not knowing just how much Adam was hanging onto every word he said despite pretending to be doing otherwise.

“Do you understand what I mean?” he asked, sounding uncertain in a way that was unlike him.

Adam looked at him. It was easier than looking at Ronan. “Sure.”

“Am I right, then? That you’re avoiding it on purpose?”

Adam looked away again, face burning. “Uhm. Maybe.”

Gansey seemed to wait a beat for him to elaborate, before saying, “Well, I guess the next question is, why? If you wanted to join in the first place?”

In order to understand, Adam was forced to remember. Adam was very good at remembering. Gansey and Ronan tangled up in situations that made him jealous, which wasn’t something he was used to. He was used to the bitterness of not having what other people had. Of never being able to reach out his fingertips to touch what other people had been cradling ungratefully their whole life. But this had been different. This had been silly and playful and embarrassing to admit that he’d wanted, for the first time not out of his reach at all, but on the contrary, just about to land in his own lap.

But Adam Parrish wasn’t good at asking for what he wanted. Adam Parrish wasn’t good at accepting the things he wanted without having to fight for them.

The whole tickling thing had been given to him after he’d spent weeks running away from it, and once it had been his - squeezes to his knees and pokes to his ribs, with the occasional proper tickle fights which left him giggling beneath his friends - he now didn’t know what to do with it. And so he did what he usually did: he started overthinking it.

It had started because he’d been watching Ronan tickle Gansey again, this time aware he would probably be roped into it and not fleeing until it would be part of the game; a game of cat and mouse which would end with him beneath merciless fingers. But Gansey had been screaming with laughter as Ronan discovered a spot on his lower stomach which they baptized as his Worst Spot, and Adam had never heard himself laugh like that. Had never seen Ronan beam down at him in the way he was grinning at Gansey. “This is the best day of my life,” he’d said, and Adam had never heard those words aimed at him. Had he been jealous? Not necessarily. Maybe a little. Maybe he was suddenly wondering if he was even fun to tickle, with his silent giggling and the way he curled up. No grandness once they got past his initial walls of trying to avoid it. Only stillness. He wasn’t even really that ticklish on most spots. It had been strangely devastating to realize.

He was looking at Gansey now, remembering another week of avoiding them again, this time for different reasons that were still somehow related. He wondered briefly why he couldn’t be normal about this. Why this had to turn into a thing each time it was approached.

“It’s really fucking stupid,” he said, choking up in a way he couldn’t stand. “Like, really stupid. Like you should probably just drop it, stupid.”

“Adam.” Gansey’s hand was on his arm, which was resting on Adam’s stomach, and so his fingertips were brushing over skin which should be ticklish but was merely sensitive. He didn’t even worry that Gansey would accidentally tickle him. “How many times do we have to say this? You can talk to us. We won’t judge. I’m sure it’s not stupid.”

Suddenly Adam couldn’t stand the way he was looking at him, and so he turned his head to the other side, coming face to face with Ronan. Ronan, who showed emotions through his eyes more than anything, and yet Adam couldn’t read him now. The embarrassment was different when facing Ronan. He felt like he could see into his very soul. Adam didn’t even want to begin to think of what he would find in there.

“Parrish.” His voice was low, as if he’d spoken before deciding to do so. On his other side, Adam could feel Gansey shifting, trying to twist his body so that he could look at them.

Adam exhaled. “Yes?”

“What is it that’s bothering you?”

“I feel-” Inadequate. “-not ticklish enough?”

Neither of them laughed. Neither of them questioned him. Ronan simply tilted his head, curiosity flickering across his face as he said, “Elaborate.”

And so Adam did.

“I’m worried I’m not ticklish enough and that I’m not fun to tickle because of that.” They’d long established that his initial reactions to being touched didn’t fully have to do with his sensitivity, but they’d not spoken more about it. Adam hadn’t wanted to. Now each question of “is this okay?” had more to do with touching him than with if it was tickling him. They’d taken it as a challenge when realizing not every touch was ticklish. Adam should’ve known they liked a challenge, and maybe that would’ve been enough had he not started lamenting over the fact that they rarely succeeded like he wished they would.

“It’s stupid, isn’t it?” he said when he was done, recounting the times Ronan had come out of a tickle fight panting for breath, or Gansey having fled into another room because he’d not been able to take it any longer. Adam had never done that. Adam was an immovable object.

“It’s not stupid,” Gansey said gently. “I just wish you’d come to us sooner. Have you been overthinking each tickle fight?”

“Not until somewhat recently.” That was partly a lie. Adam had been overthinking most tickle fights for entirely different reasons, but they didn’t need to know what. Not yet.

“It’s okay to not be super ticklish, you know,” Gansey continued. “We can still make you giggle. You still have fun during them, right?”

Adam was blushing now, unsure of what to do with himself. “Uhm. Sure.”

Ronan let out a laugh. “You don’t sound very convincing.”

“No, no, I do have fun, I just-” He shrugged, laughing too, feeling ridiculous. “Are you supposed to admit to that?”

“Why do things if you’re not enjoying them.” Gansey’s grin suddenly dropped. “Maybe it’s on us to make you enjoy them more, though. Change techniques. Maybe we just haven’t found your spots yet.”

“Maybe.”

Ronan hummed. “Only one way to find out.”

Perhaps he’d always known a conversation like this would end in an experiment, because what else could they do? Only he’d not expected to feel nervous about it, watching Ronan reach out while holding his breath. He kept his arms pressed to his sides, suddenly feeling exposed between them on the bed, but wasn’t that the point? To feel vulnerable and ticklish and helpless while trapped between them? Adam didn’t feel ticklish, although he didn’t necessarily feel not ticklish either. A strange middle ground. Wasn’t that just his life?

Ronan reached out and Adam held his breath and Gansey was probably watching intently on his other side, only Adam couldn’t stop watching Ronan’s approaching hand and so he couldn’t tell for certain. Anyone else would probably start curling up, or move their hands without meaning to in order to block the attack, giggling before being touched, but Adam simply remained still, watching.

“I know your ribs are ticklish,” Ronan said, stopping just above them. He said it matter-of-factly, although he could sense a teasing tone among each word, reminding Adam that this was supposed to be fun. “Tell me just how ticklish on a scale of one to ten.”

“Uhm. Maybe a six?”

“I’m sure I can turn it into a ten.”

With those words Ronan made contact, and while it did tickle - a twitch of the body, his breath coming out in a surprised laugh - Adam could remain as he was for ten seconds before he felt the need to push Ronan off, only of course Ronan didn’t let that deter him. That was partly the way their tickle fights went. Adam slowly fell into somewhat of a panic because he couldn’t stop it, not necessarily because it tickled too much. If that even made sense.

“See, if I do this,” Ronan sang, digging his fingers into his upper ribs. “I’m sure you’ll beg for mercy in no time.”

Adam snorted through his laughter, grabbing onto Ronan’s wrist without really thinking of it. “I don’t think I will.”

“Maybe you need to be gentler,” Gansey said, demonstrating his words by wiggling his fingers in the air and making Adam feel all the more flustered. “Maybe he’s the type to break under soft tickles.”

The casual way they spoke of this made Adam blush, much to their delight. Ronan did as Gansey said and trailed his fingertips lightly over his ribs, though Adam couldn’t feel it as much and so he slipped his hand beneath his shirt to try again, after Adam gave his consent.

Adam felt, for the first time since their tickle fights started, as if he needed to escape the tickling right that second, which translated into his arms flailing, his words becoming incoherent through his panicked laughter - laughter! - in a way that much resembled the sounds Gansey and Ronan would make.

“W-wait!”

“There we go.” Gansey seemed much too triumphant for someone who wasn’t doing the tickling himself, but he would eat that thought up soon as he decided to join in, spidering his nails lightly over Adam’s kneecap which seemed much more effective than simply squeezing at it.

Adam realized, in the midst of it all, that he wasn’t used to gentle touches and so hadn’t known how much they would tickle him. Maybe they realized it, too, but no one said anything about it. It didn’t seem necessary. Besides, they were a little busy now, turning Adam into a giggly mess. Gansey was zeroing in on a spot which had never elicited much of a reaction before, but he seemed determined now, curling his fingers over Adam’s neck over and over, the spot just beneath his ear which always made other people recoil. He wasn’t entirely sure at which point the sensation became ticklish, only that suddenly he felt he couldn’t stand it. Was suddenly giggling because of it.

“Stop!” he cried, raising his shoulder and finding it didn’t help. One hand occupied by Ronan’s hand which was holding onto it, the other desperately trying to shove Ronan’s other hand away from his bare ribs. Leaving his neck to fend for itself and his shoulder not doing much despite trying so desperately. Adam, never having had a weakness for neck tickles, was suddenly lost in a sea of giggles, feeling his whole body recoil at the gentleness, at the sensation which he couldn’t stand, and he suddenly understood them, his two ticklish friends. Understood why they fled and always came back.

“No offense, Parrish, but you seem really ticklish for someone who thinks they’re not.” Ronan was grinning at him, evading Adam’s panicked hand easily.

“This is fun, right?” Gansey had moved his other hand to the other side of Adam’s neck, leaving him trapped, all of them tangled limbs, all of them laughing.

To say he was flustered by it all - the tickling, the realizations, the patience and delight and gentleness Gansey and Ronan displayed toward him - would be an understatement. Adam was suddenly certain he would die here and be okay with it. The bed creaked as he struggled, although he’d not yet tried to get up. Maybe he would get there eventually. Or maybe not. He was okay either way. He trusted them either way.

“Are your armpits ticklish?” Ronan asked, finally - finally - letting his ribs be and trying to worm his hands under his arms instead.

“No!”

“No? I’m sure I can prove otherwise.”

Adam didn’t doubt it.

#tickling #ticklish!adam #trc fic #trc #the raven cycle #rodansey #n writes #how to move an immovable object

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randomfandombullshit · 2 months

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One of my favourite things to imagine is just Blue and Ronan screaming their hearts out to classic emo in the front seat of the camaro or the BMW, with Adam and Gansey demoted to the backseat kinda just sitting there in confusion like

Blue: WHAT IF I CANT FORGET YOOUUU OHHH-

Ronan: BURN YOUR NAME INTO MY THROAT I-

Adam, quietly to Gansey: are they saying words?

Gansey: I have no clue, I've pulled up Google translate auto-detect language to english

#shitpost #trc #the raven cycle #blue sargent #ronan lynch #richard gansey #gansey #adam parrish #the gangsey #gangsey #the raven boys #Blue and ronan being buds #your honour i love them

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crimeronan · 2 years

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declan referring to adam as "the person ronan cared about most in the world" is a sentiment that's theoretically sweet and might even be true on a good day but i think it's mainly just the BEST use of dramatic irony in any piece of media ever it is SO FUCKING FUNNY SCREAM . declan out here pacing and clawing at the yellow wallpaper or whatever like "why didn't he call you, his loving boyfriend who he loves so much, something must be REALLY WRONG" adam sitting kubrick stare white knuckle grip in the taco bell drive thru or whatever like "yeahhh haha unfoooooortunately he just accused me of killing him to death and then told me to fuck off and die like the evil sack of backstabbing shit i am. i think.... you might wanna............ try gansey,,"

#still havent actually read it beyond dash snippets yet so if this isnt what happened well. it is now #because i like it. adam like declan i dont know how to tell you ronan literally left me for an older man and girl kavinsky #trc #cdth #greywaren #greywaren spoilers #do i have enough tags to safely tuck this in #pynch #mi spoilers

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squash1 · 7 months

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something about ronan and adam going into dreamspace for gansey despite having to endure their worst fears in physical form. something about ronan saying trying to dream something, even though it’s dangerous, is better than doing nothing at all. something about adam scrying because he didn’t want ronan to be alone. something about adam just waiting for ronan to finish dreaming while a dreamspace version of his father screams at him. something about ronan making something full of love and light and hope in the face of death and horror and destruction.

#YES IM STILL READING #the raven king reread #ronan lynch #adam parrish #blue sargent #richard campbell gansey iii #the gangsey #noah czerny #henry cheng #trc #the raven cycle #pynch #the raven boys #adam and ronan #blue lily lily blue #mine #gangsey

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plutoslvr · 3 months

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so i'm rereading trc with my friend and we're currently on bllb and i just read chapter 30 and in it blue's asking malory what gansey used to be like before he moved to henrietta and the gansey that malory describes to blue is so different from the gansey she currently knows and i just cant stop thinking about it.

first off, malory describes gansey as "small" as in not just his height but as in gansey was young and it makes sense because at the time gansey was 15 but it just kind of does something to my heart when i think about young, small gansey trying to figure out why he's still alive.

malory then goes on to say, "He was still trying to prove that he hadn't just hallucinated. He was still quite obsessed with the event [his death] itself." gansey first died when he was 10 and to be obsessing over your death for FIVE years trying to convince others but mostly yourself that you didn't make it up that you actually died and not some part of a childs imagination it must've fucked with him so bad???

then malory tells blue exactly how obsessed gansey was with his death and was to the extent that he was always drawing bees and hornets and "Got screaming nightmares over it- he had to get his own place since I couldn't sleep with it [...] Sometimes these fits would happen in the day, too. We'd just be toddling through some riding path in Leicestershire and next thing I knew he'd be on the ground clawing his face like a mental patient." the gansey that blue currently knows doesnt act like that but this was only two years prior its fucking INSANE and it's here blue starts to think about the facade gansey had learned to throw up since he was a kid.

AND IT GETS WORSE SOMEHOW?? earlier in bllb in chapter 3, gansey talks about how he felt like running and how it had been a long time since he had felt that way. at the time it didn't make sense like wdym by that gansey but then back in chapter 30 malory tells blue how gansey just disappeared one day. left most of his bags and left without a word to anyone not even his family who then called malory to ask for gasneys whereabouts. "He picked himself up and moved on so easily, so quickly. He had done it so many times before England, Jane, and it was old hat to him."

it makes blue rethink every conversation she had with gansey previously, similarly to when adam heard gansey's voice of fear in the cave in chapter one where gansey had the panic attack because its around this book where the gangsey start to figure, as blue puts it, "It was more like the Gansey she'd seen was a partial truth."

it's so very easy to pass off ganseys insecurities and his feelings about how he should comfort other people but they shouldn't do the same for him because he's had it the easiest (his words not mine) because he himself skips over it so fast. like he'll mention something and then act like he's never thought or said it, like its something normal which really isnt and then it slowly makes sense that gansey throughout the series, starts to lose that mask (there's multiple masks but thats a conversation for another time) and the readers and the gangsey get to see what the real gansey is like instead of the bulletproof, untouchable gansey they're used to seeing.

the idea of gansey running is insane in a good way because its nothing like the gansey we know, plus paired with the fact about how young gansey has me clawing at the walls because he's just this kid desperate to prove he wasn't hallucinating, trying to find some purpose to his life before he finds it in henrietta. a kid who was still terrified of his death who relived it, screaming every night who still had panic attacks anywhere and everywhere and would end up clawing at himself because there's hornets everywhere. a kid who doesn't stay in one place too long who learns to put on an easy smile to convince everyone okay and gets so good at it that it works and people think that hes normal and okay when he's anything but.

idk pre canon gansey is something that i need to inject into my bloodstream and analyse in a lab.

#thinking about the different masks gansey has is so crazy like gansey on fire the gansey his family sees the gansey aglionby sees #SORRY LONG POST #FUCKKKK GO TO THERAPY GANSEY #chapter 30 bllb has changed my life in insane ways #i dont think i can ever be the same #richard gansey #trc #the raven cycle #bllb #adam parrish #blue sargent #idk malorys last name sorry

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