#TLT Analysis

[milliebobbyflay]

paired with their often intimate and violent subject matter, i find the incidental way tamsyn muir frames women and their bodies throughout the locked tomb series to be refreshing bordering on radical

consider harrowhark; in the first book we see her as gideon sees her. she's a hideous ghoul with a flat ass and no tits, she's a delicate sopping wet beauty with a sharp face and angel bow lips, she's a triumphant and awe inspiring master necromancer screaming and fighting drenched in her own blood. the shape and condition of her body is allowed to take on meaning contextually based entirely on the situation and how gideon feels about their relationship in any given moment

she then spends the second book hobbling around with a sword twice her size, ripping apart her body to use as a weapon and passing out in her own vomit, struggling to eat and sleep – she and puts herself through absolute hell and never once thinks anything of it, and we're made to mourn this not as the desecration of a beautiful woman but as a manifestation of a human being's despair and self loathing, and we see this specifically contrasted against the care gideon tries to take when inhabiting her body during the last act

it's jarring, in nona, when we're suddenly made aware that her body could be perceived or valued as a commodity, when pyrrha is assumed to be nona's pimp. it feels strange and horrifying when we learn alecto's form was modeled for a doll, learn that she was given a woman's body as a display of ownership, an alternative to being consumed, and as we're processing this we watch gideon, paul, and ianthe, immediately setting aside their conflict in a desperate scramble to preserve harrow's body for no reason other than because it is harrow's and they love her

feminist fiction often focuses on women's relationship to a body which is valued more than the person within it – and that is a worthy experience to explore – but as a transsexual butch(ish) dyke, i have never really had the privilege of seeing my body as a precious commodity, never felt like it couldn't or shouldn't be a sight of violence and disgust, and as a result the locked tomb books have made me feel seen in a way that few other works of fiction have?

we as an audience are not made aware of how attractive any character would be outside of the context of our lesbian POV characters' perspectives, their relationship to patriarchal beauty standards is an utterly irrelevant detail we're never told and only occasionally glimpse through implication. the women in the locked tomb books are simply free to exist, to have experiences and feelings, to love and hate and grieve and suffer and die like anybody else, and to have those experiences reflected in their physical vessels

it's a perspective that's so fundamental and obvious that to praise muir for it for it feels almost patronizing, but i also think it's a huge part of what's made the series so resonant for so many queer women and i feel that that's worthy of highlighting and celebrating

#the locked tomb #tlt meta #the locked tomb meta #harrowhark nonagesimus #gideon nav #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #tlt analysis

[field-s-of-flowers]

One really subtle, fun thing about the locked tomb is how they talk about “generalist” necromancy.

Judith says in Cohort Intelligence Files that Abigail’s necromancy is “generalist,” though we later find out her real skill lies with spirits. No matter how true it is, this is one of a few things in CIF that paint Abigail as a less-than-stellar necromancer (another one is the idea that her political power is what sets her apart from the others).

So “generalist” necromancy is seen as less advanced than a specialization, like Harrow’s in bone or Ianthe’s in flesh.

You don’t see a ton of that in fantasy media. In A:TLA, normal benders like Katara, Toph and Zuko are far less powerful than Aang, because he can bend all four elements. In Aurora (my favorite ever webcomic that you should all read), Erin has more prestige than any other living mage because he can do every type of magic. The Owl House shows wild witches like Eda, who do multiple kinds of magic, to be outlaws and outcasts. I could go on.

The reason fantasy authors do this is because they want to present magic as a skill/ability, whether it’s inherent or learned. It’s like sports or an instrument: the more you practice, the more things you can do, and the more things you can do, the better you’re considered.

And that’s the big difference between these examples and the Locked Tomb: instead of a skill to learn, TLT presents necromancy as an academic field.

In academia, specialization (like a college major, or being a specific kind of doctor) is common and expected. You’re encouraged to dive deep into one area of expertise, rather than being a jack-of-all-trades. That’s what necromancy is.

“Yes, Pent is a ridiculously powerful political force and talks to ghosts on a regular basis, but she’s a generalist. Not like Ianthe, who’s good at flesh magic!”

It’s really subtle, but it adds to the tonal blend of sci-fi and fantasy that helps make TLT so cool.

#soph’s posts #the locked tomb #Tlt #tlt analysis #tlt meta #Just had an idea and had to share! #Also. Read Aurora. Please it’s so good

[llovelyclouds]

live for her / die for her

(Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, Nona the Ninth)

#god. i am so normal about this. #i did a reread and took notes this time so im gonna be posting things i found from that !! this is just a little parallel #but i have WAY more i have a 24 page google doc. because i have autism #the locked tomb #tlt #tlt series #tlt meta #tlt analysis #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #gtn #htn #ntn #griddlehark #gideon nav #harrowhark nonagesimus #palamedes sextus #harrow #harrowhark #junos silly little locked tomb thoughts

[rozzie-the-ninth]

Why am I only now finding out that a TRIDENTARIUS is a sea snail and THIS is what it looks like???

Etymologically, Tridentarius dentatus means "toothy trident" but trident on itself means three teeth so the snail is named basically "toothy three-tooth"

"It’s not unusual to find them as pairs"

Oh really. I never would have guessed.

Feeling really stupid rn, all this time I thought Ianthe and Corona were named for a trident 🔱 , not a conch.

#tlt #the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #ianthe tridentarius #coronabeth tridentarius #the tridentarii #name meanings #tlt meta #tlt analysis #sea snail #tridentarius dentatus #my post

[nav-ix]

ianthe is very careful not to compromise her advantages and most of all she's careful not to compromise her Self. she loooves to play with her food but to actually choke it down means it might become a part of her. btw this is why she flirted w harrow the whole way thru but steered clear when it came to actually giving harrow any meaningful vulnerability or comfort

#ianthe naberius #tlt #ianthe tridentarius #the locked tomb #tlt analysis #the unwanted guest

[transbutchbluess]

hi locked tomb fandom !!

i made an analysis document that compile important informations about the series, comments on every single chapter of every book, theories, biblical and classical parallels, name meanings (not limited to those in the prononciation guides, and linked to character theories), and other things. i spent a very long time on it and it’s still in progress, but i think it’s long enough to be shared now, since it’s over 100 pages.

please tell me if you have ideas of things to add, any theory you’d like to share, anything you think might be relevant. and please share this, writing it really helped me understanding and connecting things better, so i think it could be useful for others

#the locked tomb #tlt #tlt meta #tlt analysis #the locked tomb analysis #tlt series #tlt spoilers #nona tlt #tlt thoughts #alecto tlt #christianity in tlt #tlt names #tlt theories #the locked tomb theories #gideon the ninth #gtn spoilers #harrow the ninth #htn spoilers #nona the ninth #ntn #ntn spoilers #ntn theories #alecto the ninth #atn speculation #atn theories

[eggpngg]

The way the fourth house, the house of cannon fodder (sorry isaac but you totally are) teen soldiers who are always the first on the ground, was founded by ulysses and titania, john's lab rat corpses of young people who were one of the first to get reanimated

#tlt #the locked tomb #tlt analysis #ntn spoilers #nona the ninth #mine #tlt observations

[alphabetsoupforamidnightsnack]

We all know Gideon Nav /Kiriona Gaia, the daughter of God; with her sacrifice, her impalement, and second coming; is supposed to be representing Jesus.

But today I present to you;

"And Harrowhark rose to the occasion like an evening star."

from Gideon the Ninth (right before the "The Ninth House will represent the Sixth House" line)

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, the betraying hand and gesture of the God, the fallen angel; as Lucifer.

On a further note;

200 Watchers, angels who fall from grace, following their prince; the 200 souls of The Reverend Daughter.

Edit: a lot of people are pointing out how myriads is a unit in itself, and that is true; but not all versions of this quote uses the same unit. 200 is consistent with the different versions, myriad is not. So I am more inclined to think that the term here is not used in a unit sense.

#gideon the ninth #the locked tomb #gideon nav #tlt #gtn #htn #ntn #atn #kiriona gaia #kiriona the first #harrowhark nonagesimus #harrowhark the first #harrow the first #harrow the ninth #tlt analysis #the locked tomb analysis #nona the ninth #harrow is lucifer #gideon is jesus #satan harrow #jesus kiriona

[perpetual-ash]

one end is one empire: monogamy in the nine houses

in Harrow The Ninth we are told the origins of lyctorhood lie in research conducted by john's disciples in the hopes of establishing how best to serve alongside their lord without needing him to confer immortality—those who became the first adepts and first cavaliers, then the first lyctors. we know that ultimately the design of lyctorhood was, in reality, a way for john to ensure his loved ones would be something he could touch, for them to become his hands and his fingers. the disciples' collective legacy lived on in two ways: the fruits of the lyctoral process, his saints, and the institution of the cavalier-necromancer bond throughout the nine houses.

as we see specifically highlighted in A Sermon on Cavaliers and Necromancers, this bond is a cultural fixture of house society and is emphasised not only as “one flesh, one end” but also as the essential equation of “the one binds to the other”; the sanctity of this bond lies in the framing of the two as being complementary halves, necromancer and cavalier forming one, and this sanctity being threatened by the disruption of the essential equation of one necromancer and one cavalier. a single cavalier paired with multiple adepts is placed under the logistical burden of supplying thanergy to, and protecting, multiple individuals whilst an abundance of cavaliers would leave the necromancer ill-equipped to perform necromantic feats that require intimate understanding of another's thanergy. the complementary difference of each is also their undoing as individuals: the necromancer's art is impossible without a swordswoman, and they are rejected by thalergy planets, while a lone cavalier without the care or craft of an adept is vulnerable “amid the bullet-filled barbarism of other planets”.

the bond is characterised as a joining of complementary halves, a union of the two incomplete to form a whole one. its nature is defind by each using “one flesh, one end” as a maxim for their passion for each other; the other is their ideal and their completeness. it is said to be the underpinning of house society—without the acknowledgement of the cavalier and necromancer's duties to each other, the sanctity of one binding to the other being upheld, and the continued reproduction of the bond the houses will fail in their mission to uphold the values of the god who became man and man who became god.

“Those who hold the sword must hold it for the necromancer. Those who were born with thanergetic nervous systems ply their art only by the grace of the sword. The necromancer is weak, and the sword is strong. The sword is weak, and the necromancer is strong. Our pleasure at the bond unbroken between necromancer and cavalier is a Nine Houses acknowledgement of the equality granted to us by God.” — Tamsyn Muir, A Sermon on Cavaliers and Necromancers

lyctorhood: the marriage of flesh and spirit

though it is made clear throughout the series that literal marriage of the two is considered to be taboo, grotesque and even traitorous to the ideals of the necrolord prime—in harrow the ninth, it is explicitly said that there are many strictures against a necromancer marrying their own cavalier—the bond between the necromancer and cavalier itself is an overt parallel to the christian concept of marriage: it is the joining of two incomplete, complementary halves to become one flesh in the name of god. house society is divided into adepts and non-adepts: those who bear necromantic characteristics that make them resemble the emperor, and those who do not, but can join with those that do and become as one flesh—one in his image, and one who can join with those that resemble him.

despite their supposed nature as complementary halves, incomplete as individuals, it is also made clear that the taboo against marriage and romantic entanglement is one born out of the necessity of keeping the bond a meeting of complementary forces united in the name of god rather than a codependent loss of self. the erasure of the difference between them violates the sanctity of their bond, diminishes each before society and god: the two are united as one flesh, but must remain unfused and defined as halves. the joining of necromancer and cavalier is one that necessitates their continued division.

She didn’t have to tell me in so many words what we both knew, that the relationship between cavalier and necromancer could so easily curdle into codependency . . . a loss of self on both sides. An obsessive fusion of halves, not two complementary forces. —Tamsyn Muir, As Yet Unsent

the reality of this, of course, is that the loss of self on both sides is an unequal one: the adept resembles john where her swordswoman doesn't, is the one to serve as her house's heir as opposed to the heir's bodyguard and representative in duels. the eighth—illustrated as the most devout and orthodox of the houses—is the one that best illustrates this imbalance through their use of soul siphoning, a temporary displacement of the cavaliers soul for the deriving of power through the ensuing void. the difference between necromancer and cavalier is their strength, and to forget it is to become diminished, their complementary forces lost to obsessive fusion.

the cavalier's role in the lyctoral model is to be consumed, to become the furnace of their necromancer's lyctorhood. the body of a cavalier is a means to an end, the swordhand that is discarded once a necromancer can take up the weapon in their own, and their soul is a source of perpetual thanergy and a securement of legacy, immortality. a cavalier is trained to follow a half-step behind and wait upon their adept, to die for them if needs must, and is conditioned to accept that their duty is a sacrificial one. the cavalier facilitates the art and legacy of the adept; the adept is born into the art, and the cavalier is born into service in the name of that art.

the necromancer's role in the lyctoral model is to consume, to ply the art with the aid of their cavalier and to burn the cavalier to fuel the formation of their legacy, a literal immortality of self. their necromantic characteristics are seen to make them more like the emperor, as per A Sermon on Necromancers and Cavaliers, and drives expectant parents to concern themselves with ensuring that their children are born on a thanergetic planet or in proximity to thanergetic grave dirt. each house is ruled by a necromantic scion. the equality of cavalier and necromancer may be spoken of at length, but the supremacy of the necromancer in society is clear; the adept knows the art, is closer to god, due to being born with a gift only found on thanergetic worlds, the emperor's dominion. it is the necromancer who becomes the lyctor, and the cavalier who serves as their furnace.

you cannot separate the concept of lyctorhood from john and alecto, nor the concept of necromancer and cavalier—both concepts originated with john and alecto. in fact, lyctorhood was conceived as an emulation of their bond: “You let us think we’d cracked it [...] You had already done it yourself. But you had done it perfectly!!” “Then, when the disciples come to you and say the word Lyctor, she does not understand that they want the thing you did to her—she watches as you watch … watch them misunderstand the process.”

when john created alecto—his cavalier, the first cavalier—he ate soil, wrenched a rib from his own body, and conjured a labyrinthe to house her in: partook in her flesh and imprisoned her in a body composed of a comminglement of hers and his, hid him in her and her in him. a marriage of flesh and spirit. similarly, the petty lysis we are familiar with requires the literal consumption of the cavalier's flesh and the integration of their soul with the necromancer.

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” — Genesis 2:18

those who hold the sword must hold it for the necromancer, just as the necromancer can only ply the art by the grace of the sword; a lyctor, a necromancer, can hold the sword for themselves, and ply the art by their own grace. a grace in the image of god.

john's saints invented the process that allowed them to go on to wield the sword and bring themselves closer to his image, but that process required the lives of their cavaliers. john ensured that it did. the echoes of this manipulation are what went on to form the basis for the necromancer-cavalier bond that permeates house society, and shaped the empire; just as he coerced his loved ones into becoming his fists and gestures, john instituted a societal binary composed of people in his image (necromancers) and a people who can live and die to serve them (cavaliers).

“But from the very beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.  ‘That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife and the two become one flesh.’ And so they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.” — Mark 10:6-Mark 10:9

the monogamous implication of one end

as we have explored, the bond of necromancer and cavalier is one modelled on that of the lyctors, itself modelled on that of john and alecto, and serves the twofold purpose of compensating for the physical infirmity of the necromancer and facilitating lyctorhood—the cavalier's duties are that of bodily service and sacrifice. it is a joining of complementary halves, inadequate in their individuality, the necromancer who resembles john and the cavalier who serves them and dies for them; it is defined by an essential equation, the one binding to the other—one flesh, one end, one empire.

in this way, it is a union that parallels the christian marriage in a number of respects: it is founded on the belief in an oppositional delineation of peoples into two immutable categories, benefits one of these to the detriment of the other in accordance with the will of god—specifically the category said to resemble him most closely, ensures that the beneficiary's legacy may continue through their union and the bodily labour of the other, and the arrangement is thought to be foundational to and uphold the godliness of the society. to sour the sanctity of marriage, of cavaliership, is to betray the ideals of god; the pursuit of true equality contradicts his design and is limited by societal strictures. their union is to each other, but they must not be codependent, must remain aligned with their roles, and must serve their emperor faithfully—to forget their difference and their roles is to diminish themselves.

“Monogamy is formed, then, not as a relationship between just two people, but rather as a complex system of obligations and social and moral impositions - mainly governed by christian morality, in which the family is legitimized only by sacred marriage and by the values of capitalism, of propagating wealth from family generation to family generation and the maintenance of private properties – which has, as its scope, the guarantee of monopoly and concentration of wealth and power of the nobles to the detriment of division of inheritance with “bastard” children. In this way, it is clear that, even before capitalism, monogamy is necessary for the management and maintenance of this system, serving as a support for the reproduction of power mechanisms in the social body - especially in the beginning and expansion of the capitalist formation - mainly through the family. Capitalism invests itself in the life, affections and sexualities of the population in order to use them as State apparatuses for the maintenance of relations of production and power through compulsory monogamy.” — @zapatism, Capitalism and monogamy

the exploitative nature of christian monogamous marriage, its role in ensuring the supremacy of the man, how it ensures the propagation of his legacy, marriage's contribution to the maintenance of other social institutions such as the nuclear family, and the institution's legacy of socially coercive mononormativity are all literalised by lyctorhood throughout the series. the necromancer is male and cavalier female, both in the societal sense and in the biblical sense, and this dynamic is made clearest by how lyctorhood is perfectly emblematic of patriarchal monogamy, a social arrangement that benefits the necromancer and wholly subsumes the cavalier.

“It is based on the supremacy of the man, the express purpose being to produce children of undisputed paternity; such paternity is demanded because these children are later to come into their father’s property as his natural heirs. It is distinguished from pairing marriage by the much greater strength of the marriage tie, which can no longer be dissolved at either partner’s wish. As a rule, it is now only the man who can dissolve it, and put away his wife [...] The Greeks themselves put the matter quite frankly: the sole exclusive aims of monogamous marriage were to make the man supreme in the family, and to propagate, as the future heirs to his wealth, children indisputably his own. Otherwise, marriage was a burden, a duty which had to be performed, whether one liked it or not, to gods, state, and one’s ancestors.” — Frederick Engels, Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State

gideon, camilla, and naberius all demonstrate how the cavalier is pushed to sacrifice and conditioned to accept the supremacy of their necromancer while their respective necromancers showcase how the necromancer is bred and coerced into accepting the expendability of their cavalier. gideon justifies her own suicide, camilla pleads with pyrrha to lie to palamedes about how their incomplete lysis is steadily killing her, and naberius is murdered by his own necromancer; ianthe justifies the murder of her own cavalier from birth as an acceptable payment made with the life of a man born to die for her ambitions, palamedes is forced to pursue a 'truer' form of lyctorhood in the hopes of preserving camilla, and harrowhark's refusal to accept gideon's life results in her own incomplete lysis that is reponded to via corrective violence performed by g1deon at the behest of john.

the violence we see play out throughout the series overtly demonstrates the way societally enforced monogamy can foster and justify abusive dynamics, extreme levels of codependence, and corrective violence in response to abnormality. simultaneously, we see how the conditions necessary for normalising the necromancer-cavalier within society are, at their core, eerily familar systems of oppression and the construction of false homogenities such as monogamy itself;¹ the continued reproduction on the bond, like so many false homogenities, is reliant on societally instituted exploitation, coercion, and corrective violence that will hit close to home for a queer audience.

the union of necromancer and cavalier is descended from lyctorhood and is akin to marriage in a mononormative society, while lyctorhood itself represents the very height of how christian marriage functions to reify male supremacy and it and the ideals that reinforce it (delineation of the population into two supposedly indelibly distinct, complementary, oppositional groups that are coerced into the formation of supposedly equal unions that favour one that is a beneficiary of widespread societal privilege) aid in the maintenace of patriarchy and the reproduction of normative arrangements that contribute to the continued existence of the systems individuals live under. cavaliership maintains necromancer supremacy just as christian ideas of monogamy and marriage maintain male supremacy. john gaius' post-resurrection reconstruction of christianity does not stop at imagery and terminology: he has recreated a distinctly christian take on patriarchy and monogamy, based on thanergetic nervous systems instead of sex.

Malachi 2:10

those born on the houses think themselves to be fundamentally different to those born outside them; within house society necromancers reign supreme, and cavaliers' status is married to that of their necromancer's. the prejudice we see directed toward zombies and wizards is onscreen and blatant, horrific at times, but justified by the nine houses being known for their imperialism and brutal tactics. the discrimination toward those who lay outside the houses is much less overt, but nonetheless felt. we know from the beginning of Gideon the Ninth that the empire has enemies yet they are not characterised, humanised, or acknowledged in much capacity—and this remains consistent throughout the series until Nona the Ninth.

it is here we see, in detail, the treatment of non-house citizens: frequent planetary resettlement, bombarding, brutal violence that churns out waves of traumatised refugees, and a complete lack of acknowledgement of their plights. they are beneath notice. we do not see them until we, the readers, are placed on the ground of one such occupied planet and privy to ianthe's boredom as she rattles off a laundry list of horrific implications regarding how any individual or group who violates these conditions renders the entire agreement null and void, and the population will consequently represent a legal entity that has damaged property, acted unlawfully, committed or been accessory to murder, and performed a coup.

the people born outside the empire are subject to continual mass punishment for being born on thalergy planets, for being the descendants of those who turned their back on earth, for resisting resettlement and occupation, for the crime of their existence. they are cattle, to be herded and exterminated with little fanfare. they are fundamentally different to those born on thanergetic planets; the necromancy-cavalier binary is what separates house citizens from animals.

"One flesh" is the underpinning of our whole Empire. We are born necromancers, or we are not; yet we are one. The non-necromancer will still have necromantic children. The necromancer will have parents who lacked the aptitude. The possibility is within us. We live under the thanergenic light of Dominicus, are born, grow, and die in his thanergetic Houses; the Resurrection made us so. We are fundamentally different to those born on thalergy planets outside the Empire. Our anxiety drives the expectant parent to arrange to give birth back home, or concern themselves with the baby's proximity to grave dirt sourced from home. Our necromantic characteristics make us more like the Emperor. As he was once man, and became God, and was God and became man, so were we dead and became alive; so were we alive and became dead. — Tamsyn Muir, A Sermon on Cavaliers and Necromancers

john is a queer indigenous man who has created a neochristofascist empire, locked in a state of perpetual warfare and expansion, that is geared toward the mobilisation of violence against a population in diaspora, in the name of vengeance for an indelible sin committed by their ancestors. those within this empire differentiate themselves from the barbaric people their society subjects to constant displacing violence via a belief in their closeness to god, a closeness based on their position in a social arrangement that closely adheres to christian patriarchy and mononormativity. he has implemented the kind of violence wielded against indigenous people the world over throughout history in the name of punishment; john has taken up the tools of christian hegemony to oppress the descendants of the trillionaires.

the root of the problem with the nine houses is that it is an empire with concentrated theocratic power fueled by exploitation, and that theocratic power is explicitly modelled on christianity and the patriarchy that implies. cavaliership is one such example of where that leads. john's aims may have been supposedly noble, but the material results of his actions are the recreation of the same systems of oppression that have been used against those like him for all of history, and the ones we chafe under even now. nobody with truly noble aims and a firm stance against oppression would take up the exact oppressive systems he was subject to and turn them against another; is vengeance a truly noble cause when it hinges on the same oppressions that led to the conditions of the inciting incident?

similarly, we see the ways these false homogenities are indeed false: the enactor of corrective violence—g1deon—is himself an incomplete lyctor and was romantically entangled with both wake and pyrrha; john could be similarly said to be a subversion of this monogamy, but i would argue his case is instead an illustration of male/necromancer supremacy—his affairs with his saints come after he uses his power over alecto, gained through their ur-necromancer/cavalier bond, to 'put away his wife' in the name of maintaining the approval of his lyctors. i can't really elaborate on this anymore beyond recommending @familyabolisher's analysis of how the multiplicity of cavalierhood as a subject position casts the spectre of potential incest where Kiriona and Alecto are concerned as it is very much in the same vein as this

#the locked tomb #meta #analysis #tlt meta #tlt analysis #nona the ninth spoilers #lyctorhood #cavaliership

[cavaliernav]

the thesis for the locked tomb series is that to love and to have been loved is to change and to have been changed, fundamentally, forever, and nothing can take that from you. that love is transformative. that love survives within those that have loved and have been loved. that love perseveres. that love matters. that life is too short and love is too long. that love is an indelible weight that you carry with you forever, for better or worse. that love transcends your body and your soul. that love and freedom doesn't coexist. that love is a terrifying mutual ownership, and by having a part of someone in you, and a part of you in them, you are forever tied. that to devote yourself to another person may lead to your destruction, but you do it anyway because life without love is only a shell of itself. that devotion is violent, and we are all its casualties in the end. that love is a force of nature, and it is the one thing humanity has always known, and will always know, how to do. that even when it doesn't change anything, you just cant help but love anyway — and that changes everything. that love is horrifying and it can consume you but nothing is more important than love.

#this was supposed to be specifically about nona the ninth #but i think it applies to the entire series #tlt #the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #gtn #htn #ntn #tlt meta #mine #tlt analysis #1k

[milliebobbyflay]

i'm still emotional about the stupid bit from GtN where harrow leaves gideon some bread in drawer for when she wakes up after the avulsion lab, because like. harrow gets overwhelmed by tea and biscuits, the idea of eating for pleasure is entirely alien to her, but she understands it's something gideon might appreciate so she makes her best effort, she's really trying to understand her

we see it from gideon's perspective as another baffling harrow moment, but from harrow's perspective, what a touching gesture? when harrow asks gideon what she has to do to earn her trust and gideon asks to get some sleep, she clearly takes to heart that she'd not been conscious of gideon's needs

when gideon is recovering, harrow, believing her house is at stake, can't afford to waste time waiting for her, but nonetheless before leaving takes the time to make an attempt to make gideon feel cared for, even though she doesn't really know how. just like the sword in HtN, harrow has no idea how to properly take care of gideon or express her love but she tries in her own little autistic bone gremlin way and i think it's really sweet

#tlt #the locked tomb #harrowhark nonagesimus #gideon the ninth #gideon nav #griddlehark #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #tlt analysis

[xenart]

No because I can’t stop thinking about the themes of childhood in the locked tomb, I’m not sure if its like, a byproduct of other themes, or if it’s all building to something- the mere existence of Nona seems to imply the latter- but it cant escape notice that a huge portion of the characters in the Locked Tomb universe seem to have been denied childhood.

The Lyctors quite literally never were children, they were reborn with no memory of their prior lives. Their sociopath behavior is not just a byproduct of their age but the fact that they literally do not remember ever being  nurtured or cared for. I don’t think its a coincidence that the Cythera and Loveday were the last to ascend, and Anastasia and Samael *didn’t* ascend, and they were 4 of the 6 saints to remember their childhoods (no clue on what Cyrus and Valency thought of it afaik)

 The Nine Houses in of themselves do not seem designed to provide a nurturing childhood. Children start preparing for their life of war early, doubly so if they are born with necromantic ability. We do see some examples of nurturing, but we see even more of children thrown into war before puberty, and children being born to become batteries. The one house we know for a fact was dedicated to protecting children till they turned 18 is the ninth house, and the plot of the series arguably begins with the decision to betray that dedication.

Harrow is described as being insanely unchildlike from birth, being able to sit silently in pews for hours.

I feel like if there is a thesis statement on the series relationship to childhood in the books so far, it comes from the scene where Ortus apologies for not looking out for Harrow:

“She was the Reverend Daughter. She was beyond pity, beyond the tenderness of a member of her congregation rendering her down into a neglected child. The problem was that she had never been a child; she and Gideon had become women before their time, and watched each other’s childhood crumble away like so much dust.”

It’s been said before that a large part of the series seems to reflect love as pity, caring for someone when they’re in a wretched shameful state, when help is truly needed and people answer the call and do it with kindness. Childhood is when this type of love is most given, when we are our most vulnerable and our care is given most unconditionally.

And the fact that Nona’s story is so important to the series that it was worth expanding the trilogy to a quartet for her- it speaks to me that it was very important for her to experience that kind of nurturing love on a personal level, as a human. A lot has changed since John locked Alecto away, but the biggest difference- the one John doesn’t even know about -is that his Revenant Beast now has an inner child.

#the locked tomb #nona the ninth #harrow the ninth #tlt analysis

[llovelyclouds]

gideon the ninth, chapter 4

harrow the ninth, prologue

#this one is just silly but also #the way harrow still has these gideon-isms... she is living on in her memory even when she doesnt realize..... #the locked tomb #tlt #tlt meta #tlt analysis #junos silly little locked tomb thoughts #gtn #htn #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #gideon nav #harrowhark nonagesimus #ianthe tridentarius #griddlehark #harrianthe

[skewered-smiles]

Girl really got what she asked for 🫥

#be careful what you wish for IG #she then proceeds to fall down the stairs so hard for Gideon Lmao #tlt #tlt analysis #tlt series #tlt spoilers #tlt trilogy #tlt memes #the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #gideon nav #harrowhark nonagesimus

[locked-tomb-shenanigans]

Does anyone else think about how the nicknames Pyrrha gave Nona and the way she acted around her in general probably had something to do with the fact that there was a good chance Nona was Gideon, at least at first?

Pyrrha ended up loving Nona as her child regardless of who she ended up being, of course.

But the books aren’t exactly shy about the fact that Pyrrha wanted Gideon (which is a concept that in itself would probably make Gideon explode if she let herself realize it). I think the first thing we ever hear her ask Wake, way back in Harrow, is why she brought the baby when she came to the Ninth.

Pyrrha thought Gideon was dead for eighteen years, and she was still thinking about her. She was still grieving her.

The last coherent soul she’d met inhabiting Harrow’s body was Gideon. What does it matter if she’s technically John’s kid? She’s still Pyrrha’s. And Pyrrha came out of that situation okay, but Gideon didn’t.

But the body is okay. And the body might have amnesia, and the girl in it might not know what she’s doing, but someone is alive in there, and there’s a good chance that it’s still the baby she grieved for eighteen years.

And so Pyrrha cooks her breakfast. She braids her hair. She goes to work for her. She kisses her forehead when they say goodbye. She shoots marbles off the roof just because the girl asks her to.

She gets to do all these things that she thought she never would, because the baby died eighteen years ago.

And she sees the girl’s body, and she’s her mom’s spitting image, and Pyrrha wants her, wants to take care of her, so much. Even now that she’s dead. Even now that she’s undead. Even when she’s acting weird, when she’s all grief and anger and takes her frustration out on everyone.

Pyrrha still calls her kiddo. She still tries to look out for her.

Gideon is Pyrrha’s kid in the same way that Nona is, but Gideon doesn’t know what to do with that, because she doesn’t know what it’s like to be a child that is wanted.

Thinking really intensely about what would have been if Nona had been Gideon, if she’d gotten to realize that she has friends and a parent who love her without any need for sacrifice, or any need to prove herself. Who love her just because she is.

And idk. I’m hoping she still gets to realize that. I’m hoping Pyrrha gets to call her stupid nicknames, too.

#random feelings at midnight when I need to get up tomorrow at five am #kill me #pyrrha dve #gideon nav #kiriona gaia #nona tlt #alecto the first #the locked tomb #tlt #nona the ninth #nona the ninth spoilers #ntn spoilers #ntn #tlt analysis #tlt meta

[nonas-third-tantrum]

I’m trying to figure out when exactly Pyrrha realized that Nona was Alecto. I had been thinking that it was after Kiriona woke up, because at that point Pyrrha would have understood that Nona’s eyes came from Alecto, not Gideon, but I think it may have actually been a bit earlier…

After the fight between Ianthe and Cam, when Pyrrha and Nona go off to find the corpse, Nona tells Pyrrha that she’s dying, and Pyrrha says, “‘Course you are…the soul longs for the body, Nona. Even a fucked up soul…even a soul that’s been changed forever. It takes a lot to acclimate a soul to a body it wasn’t born in, if that original body’s around for it to miss.”

Now, she could still be talking about Gideon. BUT something about the way she phrases this, with the “fucked up soul that’s been changed forever” …feel free to disagree but to me that sounds a heck of a lot like Alecto. I think it’s possible that Pyrrha has even worked out Alecto’s true nature, so when she refers to the ‘original body’ she could be talking about the planet earth itself.

Pyrrha goes on to say, “Kiddie, when you were yelling…” but she trails off and doesn’t get to finish her sentence. We know that Nona “screamed like the captain had screamed.” We also know that when the captain screams, Nona hears her speaking in varun’s voice, and it’s interesting that Pyrrha describes it as yelling, not screaming, which to mean indicates that Nona may have said something. Something that alerts Pyrrha to the fact that Nona is not who they’ve all been thinking she is.

Yes - Pyrrha does say within the next couple of pages that Gideon’s body “might be you, kiddie.” But I don’t think that necessarily means she doesn’t at least suspect that Nona is someone else. I know the rest of that scene heavily implies that Pyrrha still thinks Nona is Gideon…but I’m suspicious. I think what she wants to believe and what she knows to be true might not match up.

This post is getting away from me but I just have to add that after the roof incident, both Nona and Pyrrha know who she is, and Nona is desperate to keep herself in the dark. Pyrrha starts to call Nona “A…” but Nona stops her and begs her not to make her remember. And then Nona slips into her Alecto self, and mocks Pyrrha for playing house with her (hello, more doll references), and that must absolutely break Pyrrha’s heart, but she lets it go.

So when Pyrrha finally says her “what’s like except a love that hasn’t been invited indoors?” speech, she’s reckoning with her feelings towards both Nona and Alecto, has probably been wrestling with those feelings for a while, and it’s just. So devastating. Pyrrha loved Nona. Nona loved and was loved by Palamedes, Camilla, and Pyrrha.

But Alecto? Nona is terrified that when she realizes who she is, she won’t love anything. We know that John loved Alecto, and I think we can infer that Anastasia did too, and Alecto loved them back. But then Pyrrha tells us that she and Gideon liked Alecto, and for some reason that feels even more significant to me—maybe because there are all kinds of twisted love in these books and to like someone, while less intense, is more…mundane. There aren’t a lot of instances in these books where people just like each other, plain and simple. And I think that the love everyone has for Nona is a lot less complicated than the other types of love we’re shown. Truly a like that’s been invited indoors.

#does this make any sense #I just really need to know more about everyone’s relationship with alecto #don’t even get me started on ‘love is a revenant’ #pyrrha dve please tell me what’s going on with you in this book #what does she know?? #pyrrha dve #nona the ninth #nona the ninth spoilers #ntn spoilers #alecto the ninth #the locked tomb #tlt #tlt analysis #tlt meta