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firelxdykatara · 4 years

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ppl love to forget that katara: 1. has her own taste, 2. developed around aang, he needed her for his development and vice versa, 3. ZUTARA IS SHIP BETWEEN AN OPPRESOR X OPPRESSED!!! Ignoring all of the development they had with their respective partners and the trauma Zuko caused Katara!!

In the infamous words of one Luke Skywalker: amazing. every word of what you just said was wrong.

It’s actually kind of ironic that you bring up Katara’s taste, since, throughout the show, we have examples of the guys she likes, to greater or lesser extents in canon--Jet (explicit romantic feelings on her part, word of god that jet was her first kiss--a kiss that would have been consensual, incidentally, something you should keep in mind for later) and Haru (she denies the crush, but that could just as easily have been because of the abomination he’d been growing on his lip rather than denying those feelings ever existed), both of whom have much more in common (in terms of both emotional and physical maturity, and physical appearance) with Zuko than either of them has with Aang.

Zuko’s book 3 hairstyle is almost exactly reminiscent of Jet’s, even, if not quite as floofy.

(This is probably in part because of Jet’s function as a foil of Zuko within the narrative, particularly given their book 2 encounters, which I think just further solidifies my point that, were it not for extenuating circumstances [like the fact that Zuko was introduced as an enemy and they had significant obstacles to hurdle before they could be friends], Zuko would have been exactly Katara’s type. Had they met under different circumstances, she could have been the girl he went on a date with in Ba Sing Se. Just something to think about.)

So, yes, we’ve established that Katara has her own taste. Her tastes seem to be boys with great hair who are taller than her, the same age or older, and of a similar maturity level.

Aang falls short (heh, short) on all counts. So it isn’t Katara’s taste in boys that led her to be interested in him. Hm!

Next, you claim that Katara ‘developed around Aang’--that she was necessary for his development, and that he was necessary for hers.

Let’s take a moment to examine that, shall we?

I will absolutely grant you that Katara was necessary for Aang’s development--only to a point, of course, but we’ll get to that later--but was he really necessary for Katara‘s growth? I suppose I could grant you this on a generous technicality--he did, after all, provide her with the means to finally leave the South Pole and find a waterbending master to teach her (although she wound up largely self-taught anyway). But that had nothing to do with his relationship to Katara and everything to do with the structure of the plot--Katara and Sokka find Aang (and he never would have gotten out of that iceberg without Katara’s own righteous anger, so even that leads back to her own power), and then they go on a quest to find teachers for the Chosen One and save the world.

The story could not have begun without first finding Aang and then providing means for the other main characters to travel with him (or, in Zuko’s case, chase him), but this has nothing at all to do with Aang’s relationship to Katara. Aang was not a mover in Katara’s developmental arc--if anything, he acted as an obstacle more often than not, his actions ranging from innocent but obnoxious (playing and flirting with girls rather than helping with chores like picking up vital supplies, leaving Katara to do all of the quite literal heavy lifting and keeping her stuck in the role of caretaker that she’d been thrust into following the death of her mother), to deliberate and harmful (hiding the map to Katara and Sokka’s father, a truly selfish action, regardless of his lack of malicious intent, and one for which he never actually apologized), to somewhere in between (”she didn’t really mean that” he says to the man refusing to train Katara because she’s a girl, when yes, she very much did mean that, and Aang was no help in finally getting the old codger to eat his words--Katara had to shove them down his throat her own damn self).

While Katara’s overall arc wasn’t exactly big and dynamic (like Zuko’s redemption arc), or in-your-face (like Sokka getting force-fed Respect Women Juice and his eventual growth into a tactician and leader), it was very much present and woven into her character--and Aang had almost no part in it. He provided her with the means to get to the North Pole, but left Katara alone to fight the patriarchy herself. He messed around while Katara took it on herself to do the chores and keep the Gaang alive, but he did almost nothing to decrease that burden so she could grow out of the caretaker role. (Contrary to popular shipper claims, Aang didn’t actually teach Katara to have fun. She already knew how to have fun. But she couldn’t indulge, because she had a responsibility to her family and her tribe, and later to her brother and Aang and Toph, and Aang goofing off and trying to get her to do the same only added to her burdens rather than subtracting from them.) He provided Katara with the necessary motive to learn to heal herself, but he certainly didn’t seem to learn from the experience of accidentally burning her, preferring instead to claim he was never going to firebend again, despite already knowing, at that point, that he was going to need to master fire along with the other elements to become a fully realized Avatar and defeat the Firelord.

He didn’t help Katara keep them alive during The Desert. (In fact, he ran off, leaving her to desperately try to keep Sokka and Toph from succumbing to the heat while worrying for his safety.) In The Painted Lady, Katara makes the decision to stall the Gaang and do what she can to help the Fire Nation villagers on her own--Aang agrees to help her when he finds out, but he wasn’t actually instrumental in her making that choice. The Puppetmaster was, again, Katara finding a master of her own, and having to deal with the fallout from that. And in The Southern Raiders, Aang was--perhaps unknowingly, if I’m being generous, because he is a child and could not reasonably be expected to fully understand the implications of what he was asking her to do or why it was impossible--actively impeding Katara’s development! She desperately needed closure, something he could not understand and actively belittled and dismissed. The only reason he relented in the end (but not without a condescending ‘I forgive you! Does that give you any ideas???’ parting shot lmao) was because Katara was planning to take Appa anyway, and letting her go (and hoping she’d just magically wind up doing things his way) was easier than trying to fight her on it.

While Aang’s existence was necessary for Katara to start down her own path, she needed neither his guidance nor his approval to follow it--and absolutely nothing would change about Katara’s arc if you removed their romantic relationship entirely.

Possibly because the only changes needed to do so would be to remove the two times Aang kissed Katara without her consent (which, hopefully, no one would actually miss), and the epilogue kiss (which was awkward and unnecessary to begin with, since ending the entire show on a romantic kiss as the final shot kind of missed the point of the story to begin with, but that’s another discussion). None of these kisses (which are the only moments in which Katara’s feelings for Aang are so much as addressed; do note that addressing them, or hinting that they needed to be, is not the same as saying she exhibited any sign of reciprocating them) altered anything about Katara’s behavior, her personal arc, or (and perhaps most critically) her relationship with Aang.

It’s that last point that is really damning, as far as ‘Katara obviously had feelings for Aang, she kissed him in the finale!’ goes. Because she didn’t ‘obviously’ have feelings for him. And the fact that he kissed her before the invasion and then she forgot about it (she literally had no idea what he was talking about during the play’s intermission until he reminded her that he’d kissed her) is pretty clear evidence that she didn’t actually have feelings for him. Not the kind he had for her.

I’ve been a teenage girl. I know what it’s like to be surprise!kissed by your crush. And I absolutely for a full fact know that I had not completely forgotten about that kiss three months later and had, in fact, spent most of my waking hours thinking about it and remembering it and trying to talk to him about it. Now, granted, I was not in the middle of a war, but even if I had been, I doubt I would have needed reminding about the fact that the boy I’ve supposedly been developing feelings for had kissed me and showed clearly that he had those feelings for me too.

At the very least, if Katara was harboring feelings that she was worried about approaching until after the war, her relationship dynamic with Aang should have shifted. But it didn’t. She acted the exact same way with him after the Day of Black Sun as she did before it--that is, as a mother figure and a caretaker, responsible for his wellbeing. (And it’s clear she never took him down off the pedestal she needed him to occupy, either--let it not be said that the unhealthy aspects of their relationship only went one way.)

And book 3 is, incidentally, where Katara went from being vital to Aang’s development to being detrimental to it--or, rather, Aang’s refusal to let go of his attachment to her (despite ostensibly having done as much at the end of book 2) was. Because despite having been told by, perhaps, the greatest authority left in the world on Air Nomad culture (even more than Aang, who had left his temple with a child’s understanding of his culture that was never able to mature because he got stuck in the ice berg while his people were wiped out) that he had to let go of his possessive attachment to this girl who never even expressed the possibility that she might harbor romantic feelings for him to begin with, after Azula killed him and Katara brought him back, he went right back into the mindset of Katara is mine, it’s just a matter of time.

And the narrative validated him for it.

Notice how, during Ember Island Players, Aang says the following (emphasis mine):

“We kissed at the invasion, and I thought we were gonna be together. But we’re not.”

First of all, if you go back and watch the scene, it’s clear it wasn’t a mutual kiss. Aang sprang a surprise kiss on Katara, which left her shocked and unhappy after he flew off. (The decision to have her looking away and frowning was a deliberate one on the part of Bryke, who wanted Katara’s feelings kept ambiguous. Heaven forbid you allow the animators to make it clear that this fourteen-year-old girl who was just kissed without her consent by someone she’d never once demonstrated romantic feelings toward might actually have some. Heaven forbid she have a little agency in her own romantic narrative. But whatever.)

Second, he says he thought they were gonna be together.

He thought.

He never once even asked Katara what she thought--or even how she felt. He just assumes. He assumes that if he kisses her, she’ll kiss him back and they’ll get together. He assumes that she must have feelings for him, even though her body language is closed off and she told him with her words that she did not want to talk or think about this right now, and kisses her regardless of those signals, upsetting her and leading her to storm off.

And the narrative rewards him, because despite the fact that they don’t have a single significant scene together after that second disastrous kiss, Katara just decides off-screen that she Does Love Him Really and walks onto the balcony to make out with him.

The upshot of all this being that, while Katara was indeed instrumental to a lot of Aang’s early growth and development, Aang was not necessary for her own arc, and their romantic relationship (such as it was) actively hampered Aang’s development in book 3, while removing it would change absolutely nothing for Katara (except saving her from some painfully embarrassing memories).

As far as your third point, I’m simply not going to get baited into explaining how reducing Zutara to an ‘oppressor/oppressed’ relationship is not only insulting to interracial couples irl (not to mention any other couple with a potentially unbalanced dynamic of societal power, since there are many more axis of oppression than just racial), but demeaning to Zuko and Katara, their personal arcs as well as their relationship development together.

However, I will point out that Zuko was not responsible for any of Katara’s trauma. She did not find violence and fighting in bending battles to be traumatic--in fact, she reveled in it. She enjoyed fighting against Zuko at multiple points (especially noticeable in their battle at the end of book 1), because she wanted to fight--she always had--and once she had the ability, she was ready to throw down with anyone who gave her the slightest reason. (Including, by the way, her own potential waterbending master.) Aang’s death at the end of book 2 was Azula’s doing, and while I think that contributed to Katara’s extreme reaction to Zuko joining the gaang, it was not something for which she actively blamed him, and it wasn’t something she believed would be repeated--she let him go off alone on a journey to find the original firebending masters with Aang well before she chose to forgive him. So she already trusted Zuko’s intentions and that Aang would be safe with him.

Finally, because this has gotten long enough already, I hope you now understand that Zuko and Katara getting together would not require ignoring any of their development with their canonical romantic partners. We’ve already established that Katara’s arc wouldn’t change in the slightest if all of Aang’s romantic advances were removed, and I haven’t even gotten into how Mai meant nothing in the grand scheme of Zuko’s development because I’m pretty sure that’s just self-evident. I mean, the video compilation put together by Nick showcasing Zuko’s journey throughout the series doesn’t include a single scene with Mai, though it does include several with Katara, and even Jin makes an appearance--because Katara, and even Jin, played key roles in Zuko’s personal journey, while his relationship with Mai happened entirely off-screen and her only real function was to showcase just how unhealthy trying to force himself back into the role of the Crown Prince was for him.

What development, exactly, is there between them to even ignore?

At any rate, I’ve gone on long enough--I hope you enjoy the fact that you activated my wordvomit trap card right when i was about to go to bed, anon, because I just spent two hours writing this instead. In case you’re interested in the TL;DR: at the end of the day, there was no meaningful, mutual development in Kataang’s romantic relationship, and those romantic feelings that did exist were largely one-sided and ultimately detrimental to Aang’s development in the final third of his overall arc. Meanwhile, Mai meant nothing to Zuko’s journey--rather like Aang’s romantic overtures, she could be removed from the show completely and nothing about his story would change--while Zuko and Katara were both vital to each other’s overall storylines, arcs and development. This, coupled with the fact that Zuko never actually traumatized Katara and, in fact, helped her achieve closure from the biggest source of her own trauma, means that Zuko and Katara have better and more believable build up that could potentially lead to a romantic relationship than either of them have with their canon romantic partners.

So no, anon, I didn’t forget anything--I think you may have, though. Perhaps a rewatch is in order? Make sure not to close your eyes for the back half of book 3 this time.

#atla #zutara #zuko #katara #aang salt #kataang salt #maiko salt #salt for ts #just trying to cover my bases #asked #Anonymous

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daisylincs · 3 years

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It's time to see what I can do! To test the limits and break through// no right no wrong no rules for meee// I'm freeeeeeeeee (and i was glad lincoln died)

*silence*

*utter, shocked silence*

Well, Birdie, I only have one thing to say to you --

Why Lincoln Campbell Shouldn't Have Died: A Small Essay By Lily [Redacted]

#1. It’s Lazy. There was all this fuss about how “heart-breaking” Lincoln’s death was, and how it was the most shocking choice, and I’m just like... really? Was it? Because frustrating as it is to me, it’s true that Lincoln didn’t have any significant relationships on the show aside from his with Daisy, and he also didn’t have the time/the writers didn’t invest the time to make him a character the audience could become really close to.

And I don’t see how that’s a shocking choice at all? That’s just taking the easy way out of things. If they had really wanted to make a heart-breaking death, it would have been so much worse to choose literally anyone of the OG team.

Or, heaven forbid, not to make anyone die at all!! (Yes, I hate the Fallen Agent arc. Yes, that’s a conversation for another day.) But think about it: it would have been way more original, way more shocking, to have Lincoln not die, or find a super original/Fitzsimmons-esque way to get past the vision. It could’ve been way more shocking and ultimately satisfying if the whole team had worked together to avoid someone dying, and succeeded in avoiding that. It would have made excellent bonding.

And it wouldn’t have been lazy, because Lincoln staying alive would force him and Daisy to have some tough conversations, i.e. Hive and SHIELD and what’s next. It would also have meant an equal amount of tricky conversations with the rest of the team - especially surrounding the whole Hive debacle and methods used during it (*coughs in murder vests*). It would’ve actually been much harder than just having Lincoln die... and isn’t that what good storytelling is supposed to do? Make the harder choice for an ultimately far more satisfying resolution?

Because choosing Lincoln to die makes it feel like that was his only purpose on the show, and I can’t help but rage against that. I know that’s how a lot of people actually do see Lincoln, and it just makes me so furious, because that’s actually such a disservice to his character?? He was so much more than just Daisy’s doomed boyfriend, and he could have been even more. Which brings me to my next point -

#2. Wasted Opportunities. I’ll always believe that one of the biggest missed opportunities on the show was that we never got to see Lincoln properly bond with anyone on the team - it was like the writers started, but then decided he was going to die, and then went all, oh, RIP that. Which, honestly, is stupid - because they created this amazing character that had so much potential, and then decided to drop it just like that.

And I mean, dammit!! Aside from Daisy, Lincoln had prime opportunities to bond with at least five other characters on the team - May, Coulson, Jemma, Fitz, and Mack, and that’s not even starting on the other Secret Warriors.

He had a little bit of bonding with May when Lash/Andrew was still a thing - but then, whoops-a-daisy, unequivocally dropped. And like... Lincoln and May could’ve been such a good friendship?? Imagine May initially terrifying the living daylights out of Lincoln, but slowly seeing that he’s not actually that different to Daisy, and he makes her happy? And maybe inviting him to t’ai chi with her, to help control her powers? And him in turn helping give her some closure over Katya Belyakov/telling her that she really did make the only choice? They could’ve developed a mother/son bond just as beautiful as Daisy’s, if AoS had only tried.

Then there’s Coulson. Daisy’s (basically) dad. We got to see a little bit of this, especially in the 3x14-15 era, but I would have loved to see even more of Coulson not-so-subtly threatening Lincoln, but grudgingly coming to accept him as a good agent (and, though he’d never admit it, kinda liking the guy.) Ugh, it could have been so funny and GOOD!!

Fitz and Jemma, to do them in a package deal, could also have been a GREAT BroTP with Lincoln if they had only actually developed it. I would have loved to see a) FitzSimmons initially distrusting Lincoln and being like “if you hurt Daisy...” and then eventually growing to bond with him over science and, well, adoring Daisy, b) a Lincoln-and-Simmons-specific friendship starting after Maveth, for example, Jemma can’t really be around her friends because they keep pitying her and trying to help and she doesn’t want that, so here’s someone new who’s nice and can also distract her with a common interest, and finally c) Lincoln and Fitz bonding over, oh, Daisy, and being ridiculously in love. Just. C’mon. It could’ve been WONDERFUL - and, just think about it, the picture of a Fitzsimmons-and-Lincoln triple alliance out-science-ing Daisy. FAB.

And Mack!! Someone who’s basically Daisy’s older brother, and, I do believe, another one for the Don’t-Hurt-Daisy pile. But Mack’s also very just, and an excellent judge of character, plus he was literally listening in on their first kiss, lmfao. So I think he’d be that “ugh AGAIN you two stop *eye roll*” big brother, but secretly be very happy for them. (I would’ve LOVED to see it, ahhhh.)

Then, of course, the Secret Warriors!! If anyone would listen, I could R A G E for days about how we only had one episode with the Secret Warriors, and that only barely before it all blew apart. But what snippets we had in that one episode!! Lincoln comforting Joey when he gets stressed before a mission. That’s canon. Now imagine Lincoln learning Spanish for both him and Elena (and so the three of them can fuck with Daisy.) And him encouraging them to follow Spanish traditions, because he picked up a lot of “traditions are important” culture from Afterlife. And, of course, them all going to Pride together to support Joey...

My point is just, there is so much MORE AoS could have done with Lincoln’s character, but especially his bonds with the other main cast. Instead of highlighting his relationship with Daisy, I would’ve preferred a lot more focus on his bonds with the rest of the gang. Because, most simply put, he’s a nice guy and loves Daisy - but that’s not all he is, and also, that love for Daisy would mean he WOULD go out of his way to bond with her family. (Point made.)

#3. It Conflicts With The S5 Time Paradox. During the Fallen Agent arc, all we’re hearing about is how time is fixed, and a death is inevitable. And then in season 5, we have the same thing with the time loop... except, they manage to break it then. We’re literally told, “there are many different futures.” And, cool. But, uh... that’s exactly what you guys didn’t say in season 3!!

Because someone saw a death, a death had to happen. My question is just: if the loop could have been broken in s5, why couldn’t the death have been avoided in s3?? It wouldn’t even have been that hard to make it still fit with the vision - Daisy can quake the controls to destroy them, then Lincoln pulls her out of the quinjet, but she leaves the jacket behind. Hive dies, but no-one else - and the best part is, that even still fulfils the original vision, because someone did die. Hive. Click boom.

And if I can figure that out, then, come on, surely AoS could have done so much better!! It just... really frustrates me, hrrrg.

#4. It Becomes A Plot Point To Hurt Daisy. We all like to joke about how much AoS hurts Daisy, but... this is extreme?? Like?? She only just went through probably the biggest trauma of her life, being freaking possessed, and now you want to make her lose someone she loves too? Cruel.

The only real reason the Fallen Agent arc ever existed was, let’s be real, to force Daisy into that spiral of hurt and depression. And, like... she already had more than enough trauma just from Hive. Nobody would have blamed her for running away then - in fact, how very Daisy it would have been, leaving before she could hurt anyone else she loved.

And then, of course, we could have had Lincoln and the team working together to find her and bring her back, and, heyo, bonding!! It could also have been such a good point for Staticquake’s relationship, what with Lincoln helping Daisy recover after depression/withdrawal, because who better suited, and Daisy slowly forgiving herself and them becoming that much more of a deeply caring, solid ship.

So in short - though, 🙈🙈🙈, I suppose I should really say in long, because it would seem I am incapable of doing anything in a short fashion - I don't think anyone should be "glad" about Lincoln's death. If anything, we should all be FURIOUS, and super frustrated, because if he had only lived, there could have been so many excellent storylines, both bonding-wise and regarding THE ACTUAL PLOT (his powers could have been SO HELPFUL, just, argh). Lincoln Campbell should not have died, and I will stand by that till the day I die.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

#ask #you can say a lot of things to me but DON'T say you're glad Lincoln died #cause that's a really downright ARSEHOLE thing to do #and you will get lectured for it #at length #as shown here #and probably not talked to for a while #again as shown here #😤#**lily rants #staticquake #defending staticquake #queue'll figure it out together

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ajbrooks-writes · 4 years

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Blood Ties: For The King WIP Intro

Hello! Some of you may have seen details of this around the writeblrverse if you hang out in my corner at all, but I have changed my NaNo wip again and am now working on the second book in the Blood Ties Trilogy - For The King. Oh yes, that’s right, courtesy of my friend, my trilogy is now named! And ridiculously aptly.

This is my third NaNoWriMo project (trust me, that’s a lot more frustrating to me) after For The Crown is back in development to stamp out plot holes like whack-a-mole and Skillset is back in research mode.

You’re probably wondering what the hell For The King is about, so let’s dive in.

Stats:

Perspective: First Person Limited, multiple (Ryvaeryn and Elthian)

Stage: First draft

Genre: High fantasy/adventure

Word count so far: 15k

Expected work count: 150k

Expected finish date: end of January 2020

First Installment link: For The Crown WIP Intro

Timeline: For The King begins about two months after For The Crown ended.

Here we go:

When newly crowned King Elthian is kidnapped the day of his wedding, his fiance, Ryvaeryn, embarks on a cross country adventure to save him. We follow Ryvaeryn, accompanied by Joal, Orrian and Kalen as they traverse the mainland to save the King. We also follow the trials of imprisoned Elthian and his unlikely allies as our enemy, led by Tris, attempts to break his spirit. And he comes damn close.

Ryvaeryn meets Lowe, her old partner and Skye, her old friend on their journey, facing obstacles and trials set by Tris and his allies. We discover the true identities of Elthian’s three inmates, and learn what Tris and the Snow Cats have planned for Mantha. And why.

For The King is significantly darker than For The Crown. Ryvaeryn and Elthian face their trials alone and we test their characters and independence. An argument before they were torn apart leaves them both reeling in guilt, and it’s up to their friends, allies and own sheer will to reunite that pushes them forward.

Hope you enjoyed that ^.^

Who are these people, you ask? Good question.

Ryvaeryn, MC: 27, tiger shapeshifter, Queen-in-waiting. Ryvaeryn discovered a lot about herself in For The Crown. She is still the temperamental, no-bullshit Ryn, prone to be commanding even though she isn’t in charge yet. Since the attacks and since losing her right eye she has been tamed a bit. She is an unofficial mentor to Pab, the ten year old orphan ward to the crown she befriended in FTC. Ryn has some trouble with her temper, which slowly becomes more prominent. She bonds with Orrian, and part of her arc is forgiving Joal for his past actions. Ryn wants justice, needs acknowledgement, and her focus quickly becomes her King. He needs her. She won’t fail him again.

Elthian, MC: 30, lion shapeshifter, new King. Elthian usurped his father in FTC (we all saw it coming…), but his manner of succession has left his people divided, and they don’t approve of his bride. Elthian struggles with his internal battle of what the people want versus what he wants, which is a decline from his progress in FTC. Elthian wants peace, needs approval, and his focus becomes survival and escape. Ryn needs him. He won’t fail her again.

This is a lot of information, so I’ve put the rest of the character intros below the cut. Below that is the tag list.

Joal, Secondary: 31, wolf shapeshifter, scholar. Joal is struggling with the fallout of FTC. He messed up, Ryn still doesn’t trust him, and Elthian doesn’t have time to help. We discover a lot more about Joal’s family in For The King, which you will be surprised by, and which is part of the reason for his gloominess early in the novel. Joal wants his family back, he needs someone to love him, and he’ll make up for his mistakes on the way to save his closest friend. Again.

Orrian: Secondary: 36, lion shapeshifter, philanthropist and Elthian’s older brother. Orrian took a hard hit in For The Crown and now lives with chronic pain in his left shoulder. He will find pain management when I choose to give it to him. His goal when his father was in charge was to protect Elthian. Now their father is gone and Elthian is king and has Ryn, Orrian is still support, but searching for another meaning. Orrian wants stability, needs meaning, and will be the least injured in this book. I felt kinda bad for him.

Kalen, Secondary: 33, bear shapeshifter (though I’m toying with the idea of making him human), lord and Ryn’s close friend. Kalen is the ultimate best friend. He reveals his past trauma to Elthian in FTC, which he uses to fuel his desire to help people. Kalen takes a few hits in For The King, but he’s still a teddy bear. He also is reunited with Skye during this book. She is… different. But they are still super close. Kalen wants peace, needs acceptance, and to bring his friends home safe. A bit worse for wear.

Jena, Tertiary: 25, human, prisoner and not someone you want to upset. After messing up in FTC, Jena is a prisoner of Tris, like Elthian, but tries her best not to interact with the others. Jena makes some progress, but whether that sticks is up to her. She wants success, needs love, and receives… something.

Vall, Second/Tertiary: 48, shapeshifter, alchemist. Vall has been in prison for a long time. She is the most active interacting with Elthian, the other prisoners and Tris. She’s been getting snippets of news from their captors over the years so she knows a bit about Elthian already. Vall wants freedom, but she also wants help for her husband, Arclum, who is also in prison, and ailling. She works hard to escape (unsuccessfully) with Elthian, and they haven’t broken her spirit.

Lowe: 29, human, warrior/baker. Some of you may remember Lowe. She was Ryvaeryn’s long term partner at the start of FTC, and encouraged Ryn to go to Mantha with the choking line “Don’t come back… Not for me.” Ryn agonised over Lowe and sent her letters before her romance with Elthian intensified. Lowe comes in to help rescue Ryn and friends during their adventure. She and Ryn get closure, and we learn that Lowe has been building a resistance. What for? You’ll have to wait to find out.

Skye, Tertiary: 23, crane shapeshifter, hermit warrior. In FTC, Skye tried making friends as a coping mechanism for past trauma, and it backfired. Since then she’s discovered new ways to vent and face her fears, and it’s rendered her lethal. She’s still the sweet Skye we love, but with a hard exterior, and a healthy centre.

This is high fantasy. There are a lot of characters. These include Pab, Yail, Astra, Arclum, and the bad guys. Tris (top bad guy) and co. will get introductions when I’ve fleshed them out properly.

And so...

In For The King we finally meet the enemy that’s been terrorising our cast for a year, and causing riots and mayhem in Mantha. We receive threats, and we learn what this whole thing is really about.

Buckle your seat belts, kids. This one pulls no punches. It’s gonna be wild.

*breathes* if you made it this far, you’re a trooper. Nice work x

*bows*

Tag list for Blood Ties

@whisperswritings @stand-inthe-rain @fantasy-shadows @halrose @romanticatheart-posts @hopefulmoonobject @angelolytle @albarnesauthor @fantasy-penman @ofinscriptions @jynecca @venomouspen

Tag list for For The Crown (in case you would like to be added to the Blood Ties tag list)

@dcdarrells @thewriteblrarchives @trigwrites @jessicacaseyauthor @mfackenthal @mushwrites @b-works-074 @gardeningourmet @apocalyvse @jcckwrites @writingisdivinetorture @purpleshadows1989 @thatwritergirlsblog @betwixtofficial @pen-in-hand @whynotwriting @bookish-actor @sunlight-and-starskies @jcckwrites @half-explored @watermelons-writings @purpleshadows1989 @waterfallofinkandpage @crazycoffeemermaid @summerflowers

(if you would like to be added or removed from the Blood Ties tag list, please let me know. Also if I’ve missed anyone I’m really sorry, could you let me know please thank youx)

#blood ties #blood ties trilogy #for the king #wip intro #blood ties for the king #my writing #my wips

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reyloisblessed · 6 years

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The Real Reason Rey Came For Luke and the Importance of the Mirror Cave

(Disclaimer: I haven’t seen TLJ in its entirety, so I might have a few things misinterpreted or missing.)

In a specific scene Rey admits to Luke that she came to him more so because something inside her has awakened and she’s afraid. She needs help, because she realizes that something has drawn her to this place. This is part Rey’s personal character journey, but there is another even more complex thing happening with her journey to Ahch-To.

I’d like to argue the possibility that the reason behind Rey coming to Luke is actually because she’s attempting to retrieve Luke for Ben, not the Resistance, though this is obviously not her character’s intent nor is it in the context. This is purely subtext and ties into the whole importance of the Mirror Cave later. It’s an act of Fate -- the Force -- intervening and using Rey as a trigger to bring Luke and Ben together after all these years, even if only with Luke projecting his visage to Ben. It’s the very act of them meeting and their exchange that is so important.

Our two halves must find balance, but for that to happen the past must be set to rest. Let’s backtrack.

THE FORCE AWAKENS & REY’S REJECTION TO THE CALL OF DESTINY:

In TFA, we see Ben’s first sign of conflict on Jakku -- where Rey happens to be located -- when he allows Finn (at the time FN-2187) go despite him disobeying his direct order. This is crucial, because it is Finn who rescues Poe, admitting that he needs a pilot to escape, and crash-landing on Jakku. This puts Finn into Rey’s direct path and it is she that plays an integral role in setting things into motion. She is pivotal to this trilogy despite her recently revealed origins.

THE FORCE INTERVENES --

While attempting to escape from the TIE fighters on Jakku, Finn points out the Millineum Falcon. (Fate *cough* the Force *cough* is giving us a big neon sign, here.)

Rey flies the Millineum Falcon off of Jakku to get Finn to a Resistance base. (That ship would have never left Jakku at that exact moment without Rey’s and Finn’s intervention.)

Because of her, Han Solo tracks the ship and takes it back.

Ben Solo is told that a girl aided FN-2187 and the droid in their escape and he reacts strangely.

Han decides to aid them in getting the droid to the Resistance, but he does not wish to see Leia. (He wants to avoid what the Force is requiring of him. This is crucial!)

The Skywalker lightsaber calls to Rey, but she initially rejects the call of Fate.

Ben inserts himself into the battle on Takodana and goes straight for Rey. She on the other hand desires to go back to Jakku (her past where she waits for parents who didn’t give a damn about her). Ben abducts her, dragging her right back into FATE with him.

The growing friendship between Finn and Rey cements their loyalty to one another. and this drives Finn to lie and say he can shut down Precinct 47, which again helps get Han to Starkiller Base.

Rey calls out Ben on his fear in the interrogation scene, but he also calls out her abandonment issues and comments on her fondness of Han. (Extremely important factors for TLJ.)

Han meets his son to convince him to come back, but Ben refuses and kills him. (The most important element here is that Han FORGIVES Ben immediately after and hopes his son will forgive him. Han finds peace!)

Rey witnesses this act. (very, very important)

Rey and Ben duel. This is arguably where their Force Bond is fully activated.

Rey says she is no one and that is true from a certain point of view (as a GA member), but from a narrative view point she is KEY. Only she could get Han Solo to a position where he would confront his son. Only she could stir the compassion in Ben’s heart even as he remains a loyal puppet to Snoke’s whims. She witnesses Ben killing Han and she doesn’t understand. She comes from nothing and sees someone who had a father who gave his life for him. As I’ve stated in previous meta and conversations, Rey coming to understand Ben through Han is central to Ben’s redemption.

These two characters are mirrors and equal protagonists in the narrative. They are individuals with unique flaws and backstories, but they are also connected intimately through FATE.

THE LAST JEDI & LUKE’S REVELATION:

Luke has exiled himself, drowning in his guilt, but this is not where Luke must remain. The most important takeaway from TLJ for Luke’s arc is that he cannot help Ben. This is not Luke’s burden to bear. It never was. Yoda’s ghost even hints as much when he sets the tree on fire and tells Luke that the books aren’t for him. That they must not lose Rey. Most will assume this line means that Rey is to battle Ben and kill him off as a standard Jedi, but this is a misdirection. If Rey is lost -- killed, or sides with Ben as he is now -- Ben remains lost, as well. No balance can be achieved!

Luke in his final act has come to understand this very thing. That is why he tells Leia that he has come to face Ben. That he cannot help him, but also suggests to Leia that Ben can still be saved even after she admits she’s lost hope in her son. Luke is going to face the past, what he did to Ben, the betrayal and the aftermath that is Kylo Ren. Through this act, Luke finds peace and ascends into the Force.

This is so very important, because Ben’s past belonged to more than just himself. It’s one of the key reasons why he’s never been able to escape the darkness in him. Luke ran, Han ran, and Leia dealt with it the best way she knew how. But notice that Luke and Han came back to confront him, to apologize for their shortcomings. Through this they found peace, which is crucial in Ben eventually finding peace, too.

And who was it that triggered these events? REY. Ben’s opposite. His mirror and his equal. She goes to the island and her very presence sets things into motion.

She has dreamed of the island since she could remember and here’s why. Ben Solo is fated as her other half, disparate pieces of opposite origins. Yin and Yang. He is out of balance and only though confronting the past, which he so desperately wants to kill, can he find balance again. Rey must find balance as well. Ben helps her in finding it through their interactions via the Force Bond.

THE MIRROR CAVE:

Others have already pointed out that Rey actually sees Ben’s silhouette in the cave before seeing herself and this meta will obviously agree with them. Rey’s most innate desire has been belonging and family. She has lied to herself for many years and willingly remained on Jakku instead of leaving and seeking out belonging (finding her other half, that extra ass Skywalker-Solo peacock with the pretty hair). The Force had to intervene.

What Rey sees in the mirror cave is herself, but why is this? Well, I argue that it’s because only she that can bring Ben into balance. What makes their journey so difficult is they are both already so off kilter. Notice how Ben’s interactions with Rey give her purpose, direction, resolve.

The mirror cave is also an allegory for self-reflection and delving deep into the subconscious. The most telling factor is the following scene after this with Ben and Rey touching hands and sharing a vision. The fact that Rey says she feels so alone and Ben says (off screen, BTW, kind of like a nod to the silhouette) that she’s not alone is huge. And it’s true, if you take what I’ve listed above from TFA, Ben was never truly alone. Rey’s influence to aid in him achieving balance has always been there and vice versa. Ben’s choice not to kill Finn inevitably took Rey out of her hell and has brought her to walk her true path.

BEN & REY PART WAYS:

In the end, Rey knows what she has to do, but she still feels hollow because Ben goes down a path she refuses to walk. His choice is primarily out of a skewed idea of his purpose. (He is the one most out-of-balance.) This is exactly why Luke’s confrontation with him later is imperative. Ben’s past haunts him and it's only after confronting both his father and his uncle that he can begin finding closure. (Because of Carrie Fisher’s passing, we can’t know how the mother and son dynamic will be handled, unfortunately.)

And just to address the elephant in the room: Ben killed Snoke, his tormentor and abuser. All these things in such a short amount of time. Let the boy breathe.

Rey has done her part for her opposite. She has set into motion the embers for his rebirth as a whole person, integrating his shadow and his conscious self. She just doesn’t understand this entirely, I feel. From a general standpoint, she has failed, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. She has succeeded in more ways than one could possibly imagine.

Lastly, Ben delivers a crucial line after he kills Snoke and they combat the praetorian guards.

“You’ve no place in the story. You come from nothing. You’re nothing, but not to me.”

The irony of this line is punctuated by the fact that Rey is the deciding factor in this story. It is she that came from nothing and is the KEY to everything. To Ben she is his other half. To the story as a whole she is an unknown, but a character who will be revered before the narrative is over. She’s an essential element in triggering the events of Snoke’s downfall and she will bring balance to her opposite, but Ben must face his demons on his own now as Rey faced the mirror cave.

#my metas #reylo #tlj spoilers #force bond #intertwined destinies #luke skywalker meta #ben solo meta

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openemptysummer · 7 years

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Hi i like Leverage and i like analyzing narratives. i'm really interested in hearing your thoughts regarding 'Parker as the Chosen One of Leverage' if you have the time to expand on that

I wasn’t sleeping tonight anyway so here we go-

This got super long and waaaay out of control so meta under the cut. 1.5k of sleep deprived leverage meta below. sorry not sorry

I’ll start here, with why the rest of the team isn’t and then move to Parker-

Eliot Spencer is the character who externally changes the least over the course of the show. He starts off a tiny shouty man who is there to protect these people and ends up a tiny shouty man who is there to protect his family (also the subbiest sub to ever sub). Which is not to say he lacks characterization- in five seasons, he gets closure on the things he’s left behind- Amie, Damien Moreau, his Dad after the Low Low Price Job (which is v important because it talks about an everyday kind of evil thats pervasive and petty)- and opens himself up to these random people who he took a job with once. He’s got inside jokes and taught Parker how to fight, and we all know damn good and well that when he said ‘til my dying day he meant it.

Eliot changes the least because out of the team he knows himself the best. He’s come to terms with who he is as a person before Victor Dubenich ever contacts him. He’s got blood on his hands and the worst thing he ever did he did for Damien Moreau but he is resigned to who he is and what he’s done. He doesn’t expect anything more from his life but now that he’s got this family he won’t ever let go. Eliot doesn’t so much change over the course of the show as he does loosen up. He’s there on the field but the Narrative is never really about him. Not even when maybe it should be. (I.e. the Underground Job)

Hardison starts out as the guy who is perpetually the smartest guy in the room and shows it. I’d kinda forgotten how blatant and uncomfortable his hitting on Parker in the first few episodes was and how grateful I am that they tuned that wayyy down. He gets easier with himself and his skin, more self confident, more willing to put himself out there. He learns how to grift, then pickpocket, and then he approaches Nate about running his own team. And Nate tells him he isn’t ruthless enough- Nate who in the first episode told Hardison about how he dies in Plan M. Hardison is soft in ways that no other team member is and it’s presented as a strength. Hardison is the one who is unashamedly kind and you see it more and more through his interactions with the team and their clients. Particularly with Parker. He’s the one who teaches her about human interaction- who explains the things she misses and holds her up when she falters.

Hardison is the Token Good Teammate. He’s too nice to have the Narrative on his side.

Sophie is a mentor. The teacher and protecter to the crew and her issues are all about identity in a way that dovetails nicely with both Nate and Parker. She doesn’t know who she is, but she knows what she’s not- that’s a great long list that starts with honest. Sophie is the character who is served least by the show I think because beginning to end she’s all tied up in Nate. She grows as a person, gives up her secrets slowly, like she’s not certain about the choices she’s making. Sophie who terrifies Chaos, Sophie who can call in a favors that will bring a helicopter down on an active crime scene that is literally crawling with feds, Sophie who never explains how she managed to hold on to her title if she truly ran off on some Duke.

Sophie is ruthless and Sophie is dangerous and Leverage very rarely lets her be either. Mentors don’t get arcs the way main characters do.

Nate is straightforward in his way. Because Nate is our Dumbledore here. He plays chess with people, and is burning with his grief. He has a Cause and it is Right and Justified and True in his mind. He goes from drunk to sober, honest man to thief, hating himself and the world to content and these are all part of his arc and all important to who he is because for a while the Narrative is on his side.

He can’t lose until he can and that’s when he decides what his final score will and how he’ll pass on his legacy. And when he makes that decision every bit of effort they’ve put into developing Parker pays off.

Parker for the entire run of the series is the character who figures out who she is and what she wants to be. She’s described in the first episode over and over again as crazy and she is poorly socialized and wild and unthinking about her or others personal safety but even from the first episode she’s adapting. Ten minutes in and she’s already learnt something and assimilated it to herself. (haircuts parker, count the haircuts.) And suddenly Parker has this crew that thinks she can be better and different than what she is. Nobody has ever said that to her before- not even Archie. (Incidentally at the end of the Stork Job when Hardison tells Parker I like how you turned out it is the one of the finest expressions of love on tv, fight me)

So first season thats the Call and the Rejection- Parker is offered a chance to change and be something different with limited degrees of success. Sophie tries to teach her to grift and she stabs a guy, Nate sends her to jury duty and she tries to help but she’s not certain why she should be helping. Parker operates on pretty limited morality to start because she’s never been given a reason to do otherwise. Money->Personal Safety->Everybody Else.

Season Two is about Parker learning. She’s given further roles in the team- she grifts successfully- in small parts first, as an reporter, an heir, then playing a pregnant woman to avoid getting caught. Parker learns how to read other peoples expectations and use them. But you, the viewer are still not certain she gets it. The Zanzibar Marketplace Job is when we figure out that Parker has figured out how to care, when she’s fluttering about Maggie. The Maltese Falcon Job and we’re still not sure about her motives for do-gooding but we understand how she feels about her team when she hold Tara off of a building and considers dropping her. So Money=Team->Everybody Else

In S3 we get the Inside Job and Parker Gets It. (This is what we do she says)

Same episode- I think Nate looked around that warehouse and thought how can I use this. I think Nate looked at Parker’s plans and thought not how I would have done it. I think Nate was still thinking about the warehouse and those plans when he willingly steps back and says It’s your show. Go for it. Nate does not give up control to people who can’t do his job. Nate goes in after her but the plan and the execution that was all Parker.

The rest of the season is this and Hardison dancing around something good. She’s come to terms with her past and lets it go. She manages two grifts (the Underground Job and the Morning After Job without stabbing anyone and she is learning. So Money=Team->Good Guys->Bad Guys

S4 Parker has already transformed. She just needs to figure out what to do with it. She sorts out her feelings for Hardison, overcomes the last of her insecurities about people leaving and by the time they hit Portland she ready to run a crew. And she does on the side all season.

The Gimma A K Street Job is about leading a team she’s not confident in. The Real Fake Car Job she plays a role that would have been Sophies if Nate weren’t testing them. In The Broken Wing Job, Parker says people who have to help and she’s being sincere- compare with s1e1 when she talks about money. In both the Rundown Job and The White Rabbit- she runs the con. She sacrifices for both of the jobs. Particularly the Rundown Job when Parker choses the needs of the many over the few and this job requires that too, the willingness to set yourself on fire to save a single soul.

(Hardison doesn’t ever forgive himself for the impulse of damn the many, not just because Spock would be disappointed. Eliot. I think, understands it perfectly- Parker looked at him first, than Hardison.)

Then finally the Long Goodbye and here is where Parker fully inhabits the role. She is the character who has traveled the furtherest from where she began and the only one who can do it. So this is simultaneously Passing the Torch and our hero, the Chosen One coming into her destiny as somebody who will provide Leverage- if you want to apply Jungian Archetypes to media that’s not built for it (which i always do)

And she’s the only character ruthless enough to see this through. Nate hands her the job like it’s a gift but it’s really not. The Narrative is on her side.

It had to be her. Somebody else might have gotten it wrong.

#leverage #meta #mine #ot3: we change together #people need to write more fusion fic for leverage #things we need to talk about when we talk about

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teamwynn · 7 years

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The Night Voice Retrospective, Pt. 12

Well, here we are. The final scene. The last precious few moments of the saga. And they are, naturally, utterly wasted. Please, join me in reviewing this thrilling conclusion, and marvel at how dead I am inside.

Welcome Home, Wherever That Is (I guess we’re just done now)

Okay, so now that Team Wynn is fucking decimated with one exiled, one dead, and one suicidal, let’s see if Team Magiere can swing a happier ending. Let’s return to where the prologue left off.

The unbelievably good news is that Team Magiere is still all together. And I mean that “unbelievably” literally, because Chap is now about 50 years old, which is 350 in dog years. I’ll chalk that up to being majay-hi or Fay or whatever, but Jesus. Chill, man. Anyway, they’ve returned home where Leesil--in this book’s shining moment of having someone actually be in-character--apparently just keeps adopting, like, hordes of children. This horde includes Wayfarer, but Magiere’s already made it clear that she was going to adopt Wayfarer, anyway, so no surprise here. It also includes, at this point, at least 6 unidentified boys. And we receive confirmation from what was hinted at in the prologue that Wayfarer and Osha, at some point between the main ending and the epilogue, got married--

Okay, you know what. You know the fuck what. Fucking.

I need a moment.

…

Okay.

So, if the series tried to pull this kind of thing in Between Their Worlds, I probably could have bought it. Without the knowledge of The Dark and the Dark through The Night Voice, I could have bought that Wayfarer and Osha were able to work their way through the bullshit that Osha pulled on her. If it had skipped from BTW to this epilogue, I could have reasonably believed that Osha apologized and made up for abandoning Wayfarer at the end of BTW and that she would forgive him.

But! That’s significantly harder to swallow knowing what we know from the rest of Series 3, which is:

Osha’s motivation for abandoning Wayfarer was entirely centered on his effort to get Wynn to make out with him again and no other reason

Osha deadnamed Wayfarer multiple times in FaLS

Even after Osha appeared to learn his lesson about why deadnaming Wayfarer was wrong later in FaLS, he continued to do it in TNV

Wayfarer pretty explicitly indicated in TNV that she no longer had a crush on Osha, and not only that, but that she didn’t want to be friends or even speak to him anymore

Their last on-page interaction before the epilogue is Osha freaking out over Wynn being blinded while Wayfarer is right there and basically going, “I mean, I’m risking my life in the middle of the battle too, but yeah, no, keep throwing a fit about this like Wynn’s the only person in mortal danger here. Asshole.”

So how did we get from that to married? And could it possibly get worse?

Why do I even pretend to ask. Of course it could. This scene is like 3 pages long, but it somehow packs even more bullshit into fewer words than the previous scene.

So, not only are Wayfarer and Osha inexplicably married, but when Magiere asks about how Osha is doing, Wayfarer indicates in no uncertain terms that he’s still hung up about Wynn--30 years later and after seemingly not ever speaking to her in that entire time--and that he might be dying from that weird elven sexual-imprinting thing because of it. That’s alarming news! How is Magiere going to react to that?

Why, naturally by laughing it off and making oblique references to Osha’s current profession, which is something that is entirely unexplained, though it’s doubtful an explanation would clarify the nonsense that is Osha the Reindeer Farmer or whatever the fuck he’s doing with his life. Again, Magiere’s reference to his current occupation is pretty fucking vague beyond that it involves those magical deer that Osha hated. Oh, that wacky Osha! Always playing with deer and literally dying of heartbreak! What a scamp!

There’s not really much more detail beyond that for either Wayfarer or Osha’s endings that I haven’t already covered, except for these uncomfortable observations about how they fit into Team Magiere’s family structure:

Wayfarer, who had a massive crush on Leesil in Rebel Fay, is now calling him “Father.” NO THANKS.

If Wayfarer is Magiere and Leesil’s daughter and Osha is her husband, that makes Osha Magiere and Leesil’s son-in-law. What. The fuck. How is that an actual thing that happened in canon???

Okay, now that we’re all sufficiently grossed out, let’s go more over the core team’s ending. Of course, returning to Miiska is something that has been a long time coming for Team Magiere. They haven’t been home since Child of a Dead God, when Magiere and Leesil had their wedding surrounded by loved ones and held the reception at the Sea Lion Tavern, the Ground Zero of all this vampire nonsense. So their ultimate return home should be at least as celebratory and communal as that, right?

Obviously this scene is set some time after they arrive back home, so it makes sense that they wouldn’t necessarily still be partying about that, but there’s still something suspiciously… I don’t know, absent about their homecoming. Like… all the people. And the town. And the tavern.

Did… did they even go back to Miiska? The town and the tavern were both mentioned by name at least once (maybe exactly once), but there’s not really any sense of the characters actually being there. And none of the townspeople (those minor characters from Dhampir, etc. that I mentioned a few posts back) are present at all, even though a number of them should still be perfectly alive to share in this happy (?) ending. What we get instead is Magiere and Leesil existing in this textureless void with their family of nameless, faceless young boys and Wayfarer on the side predicting the doom of Osha as well as Chap (both of whom are off-page this whole time, mind. Oh, did I forget to mention that Chap doesn’t even appear in the epilogue, despite somehow unbelievably surviving the entire saga? Because he doesn’t.) But Magiere gives about as much of a fuck about any of that as she did about Wynn dying, which is to say, not at all.

So, what is… even happening here?

Well, aside from Wayfarer helpfully reminding everyone that Death Comes For All, Magiere is just kind of blandly resigning herself to the reality that that includes Leesil, and that someday it’s just going to be her and Chane, eternally avoiding each other. (And Pawl, too, but obviously I’ll give Magiere a pass on not bringing him up because she never even found out that Pawl existed.) There’s also some weird musings on Magiere’s part about the fact that Chane probably has a soul, which has never been in question before so I don’t know why she’s so amazed by this probability. Like, vampires having or not having souls have never been a part of the lore in the series, and even if it was it doesn’t pertain to anything now. And for some reason she essentially lies to Leesil about not killing Chane--it’s neither clear why Leesil is gunning so hard for Chane to be dead at this point, nor why Magiere was unwilling to admit that she didn’t kill him again. She just kind of avoids Leesil’s questions about the matter and goes on blandly commentating for a few paragraphs about Osha and Leesil’s army of children. But I guess Magiere is happy with her existence in this vague void, waiting for the clock to run down on all her loved ones, comforted only by her smugness from seeing Chane cry. And… um…

No, seriously, what is happening here?

Did the epilogue already waste up all its emotional weight on contriving Team Wynn into the most melodramatically tragic situation possible that it’s just completely burnt out here? This whole scene just feels like a shadow-puppet of Magiere strolling across a completely blank background going, “I have family, death happens, sad but also happy, END.”

You know what, Magiere? You know what? I’m glad END. This book couldn’t fucking END too soon. Over 400-pages of complete fucking gibberish to cap off my favorite series of all time, because it wasn’t enough for the Noble Dead Saga to END poorly, but it had to make a goddamn show of it. I am genuinely amazed at how little this book delivered on actually ENDing anything. The number of plot holes and loose ends and retrograding character arcs is truly impressive, and on top of all that, this book had the audacity to not be audacious with all of that. This wild departure from the rest of the saga couldn’t have included alien invasions or dinosaur clones or any shit like that, no--this book managed to be an utterly convoluted counter-narrative to all the books that came before it while also maintaining a complete cardboard blandness. Truly astonishing that a book so contrived could also be so utterly ankle-deep shallow. This book fucking tangled itself in knots with teleportation trees and dog armies and battles in the center of il’Sanke’s mind and whatever the fuck either the wraith or the necromancer were doing in this book at all, and at the end of all of that, Magiere’s happy ending is just being kind of quietly pleased that her husband isn’t dead yet.

I am beyond myself in amazement. And I am so, so fucking tired.

Well, that’s it for every plot point in TNV that sent me into a frothing rage. Tomorrow I’ll be writing up a conclusion to all of this, because god damn I need some proper closure somewhere.

#The Night Voice spoilers #TNV Retrospective

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