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#ronan lynch could save the world
dykenav · 1 year
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personally one of my biggest disappointments with greywaren was the lack of discussion about like. The World. like MI had SO much of this energy of like revolution and We Have To Change The World To Survive It and all of that was just like. totally skirted. not to mention the unanswered questions and plotholes like does the world know dreams and dreamers exist now? wtf happened to Ronan and Hennessy being wanted by the FBI? all jokes aside with that it’s kind of disappointing how we just get like one sentence in the epilogue that tells us that they’re traveling the world helping people make sweetmetals where the ley line needs it like I love that for them but how did they come to that conclusion. if the takeaway is supposed to be that the revolution needed to happen in the way they saw themselves and their relationships first then that’s dope but there was nothing to really tie that together with everything we set up in MI
#does this make sense.#greywaren spoilers#greywaren analysis#I know people are saying they think if maggie had written her original idea of it being a smaller scope no apocalypse story it would have#been better but. the thing is#I LOVED the widescale scope that was set up in Mister Impossible#and I would have been okay with that being cleverly subverted for a message about family and self IF the connection was clearly made#which I feel like it wasn’t.#and I feel like the moderators and apocalypse shit could have had a lot more meaning narratively#but I feel like the nathan twist was kind of like ???#what am I supposed to do with that#I feel like that COULD HAVE slapped harder if we knew more about carmen’s family bc then it could have been like#the foil between how her family created a dreamer who wants to destroy the world vs ronans family creating a dreamer who wants to save it#is that the correct usage of foil idk#but yeah nathan was just such an inconsequential character like if ronan had been forced to see him and compare#his own destructive tendencies to nathan’s that would have been interesting.#or if there was at least a little more emphasis placed on nathan and carmen’s relationship so the reader could compare it to the lynchs#like i feel like she Tried to do that a bit but it wasn’t strong enough#anyway saying all this AS someone who is for the most part a greywaren understander. I respect the decisions she made but I wanted more#greywaren#tdt#the dreamer trilogy#mister impossible
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finished greywaren.
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thetypedwriter · 1 year
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Greywaren Book Review
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Greywaren Book Review by Maggie Stiefvater
This book is a fantastic disappointment. 
Of course, the book is good. Of course the writing is absolutely phenomenal. It’s Maggie Stiefvater. Even when I’ve questioned her plot or character development, I have never once questioned her writing. 
She is a wizard with words. Her writing floats off the page and lives rent-free in my head for months. The way she concocts her stories fills me with delight and awe. 
That was never in question. 
The biggest question I had going into Greywaren was: will I get what I want?
The answer is no. 
I think it’s mostly safe to say that a majority of readers saw the Dreamer trilogy as Ronan’s own triage of books. It was pitched that way to us as an audience and the way the books were presented was that it would be about the Brothers Lynch. 
This is a lie. 
Perhaps, Call Down the Hawk could be described as such, the first book in the trilogy, but every book since has fallen further and further away from the original premise. 
The second installment, Mister Impossible, was almost entirely about Declan. And now the final book, Greywaren, I would argue, is about Hennessy and Carmen Farooq-Lane. 
Now. I like Hennessy. I like Farooq-Lane. They’re great characters. 
However, they are not the Brothers Lynch. 
I don’t understand why authors do this. They promise things and entice readers with certain characters, plot points, and relationships, and then don’t deliver. 
I’m sure Maggie has her reasons for writing the trilogy this way, and I’m not pretending to know what they are or that I understand the intricacies of her writing process or the publishing world, but I am just so frustrated that she wrote the trilogy this way. 
Ronan, the so-called main character, is hardly in Greywaren at all, and half of the time when he does have his own chapters, he is either asleep, dreaming, or not taking part in reality. The amount of exasperation I have that Maggie made this choice is overwhelming to me as a reader. 
In the original The Raven Cycle books, Ronan and Adam were my favorites. They were many people’s favorites, including, it seems, Maggie herself. Which is why she set out on a quest to tell Ronan’s own story.
 Except what started as Ronan’s narrative quickly devolved into a tale featuring so many other characters that Ronan’s part became so diluted that it is barely there at all. 
Once again, I love Maggie’s characters. Jordan, Hennessy, Farooq-Lane, etc, they’re all wonderful. If Maggie had them as side characters in the Dreamer trilogy and then set out to write a spin-off series featuring them, I would not be mad. I would be super excited and pumped to read such a cool installment. 
But that’s not what I wanted, what I anticipated, or what I got. 
Instead, the final book about Ronan Lynch and his brothers is really about unrelated side characters who somehow took center stage despite everyone wanting the opposite. 
Irksome doesn’t even scratch the surface of it. 
Greywaren itself is…fine. As I said above, Maggie’s writing is undeniably beautiful. I will say, though, the plot gets convoluted and hard to follow and the ending feels rushed and shallow. 
This book essentially picks up after Mister Impossible, in which Ronan is asleep, along with many other dreamers or dreamt people who need sweetmetals. 
Declan is trying to save everyone, Matthew goes through a rebellious stage, Hennessy is creating, and Farooq-Lane is trying to stop her brother, Nathan, from starting the apocalypse. 
Honestly, when I think about it, this book simultaneously has so much going on and nothing going on at the same time. The overarching plot could be described as: Nathan is bringing on the apocalypse and people try to stop him as well as reawaken their sleeping friends. That’s it. That’s the plot. 
However, it takes 300+ pages to get to the end, which then rushes through really essential reunions and revelations, because there are so many characters we have to switch POV’s between. 
Additionally, there’s a lot of abstract things happening that don’t really contribute to the plot, even if they're interesting to read about. 
Overall, this means you could read 100 pages and have a very minimal amount of progress because everyone is taking one small step instead of having one character (Ronan) taking many. 
Jordan is hardly in this book, and Matthew, whom I anticipated seeing a lot of, is very cruelly shafted by having a sparse amount of chapters and a character arc that feels vague and incomplete.
 After running away towards the beginning of the book, no real headway comes from it and then in the end, bam! Matthew returns to the Barns like nothing happened. 
We don’t see the conversation between Matthew and Declan, we don’t see the reunion between Matthew and Ronan, and we certainly don’t get a scene with all three brothers, which, if you remember, is what this whole trilogy was supposed to be about. 
In the same vein, Adam and Ronan, the couple everyone was most excited to see and read about, had a few paltry scenes in this whole trilogy combined. There are more scenes with Farooq-Lane and Liliana than there are with arguably, the main couple. 
The injustice of this vexes me beyond words. 
Even in this book, at the very end, the reunion between Adam and Ronan that we waded through 300 pages to see, is brief and from someone else’s POV. 
What on earth? Really? This is the reunion we waited years for and we didn’t even get to experience it though Ronan’s own eyes. 
As I write this, I realize that I feel cheated and shafted. 
At this same time, I don’t know how fair it is to feel that way. It’s not my book or my characters, so who am I to demand anything of Maggie? I understand this. 
On the other hand, this was a book pitched to us and advertised as a series about the Brother’s Lynch. I would very much argue that by book three especially, this is completely unfounded and untrue. 
Did I still like the book? Yes, of course I did. However, I just wanted more. I wanted what was promised at the beginning. I wanted less abstract and confusing chapters and more chapters with essential characters actually talking, meeting, and growing. 
I wanted resolution, development, and conclusions. 
Instead, I got a muddled, albeit gorgeously written story, where all the characters felt full with potential, but never truly reached a point of promise. 
Like I said at the beginning, this book was both fantastic and a disappointment in so many ways, a fantastic disappointment that will always leave me wanting more. 
Recommendation: Read it. However, you’re not going to get the development or scenes that you want. Beware of this. Use fanfiction to fill in the gap that this trilogy wasn’t able to deliver on. 
Score: 6/10
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allforthe-gay · 2 years
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Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Thanks....
oh my gods thank you so much for asking i could go on and on about these characters tbh ✨
Laurent of Vere (Captive Prince trilogy): okay i admit he's an asshole but like in the best way. he's so outspoken and not afraid to say what he thinks to the point of cruelty and good at swordfighting and dude i wanna be like that. also he is very fucking smart. his mind is like a maze that not many people would be able to figure out. or something. his words are like weapons. and he's stoic but at some specific times you see him being expressive (sometimes against his will) like when he blushes at something Damen says or actually smiles or laughs and it just warms my fucking heart i love him so much tbh
Nico di Angelo (PJO): he helped me get over my homophobia when i was a kid. this dude has literally gone through so much with his sister dying and dealing with the feelings he had for Percy and the hate he felt he was supposed to have for him and the internalized homophobia and wondering what other people would think about him being gay and also he's powerful as fuck he has a sword made from Stygian Iron he absolutely SLAYED in the last battle against Kronos he's gay he can teleport and he has trauma and survivor's guilt and he wears his fucking avian jacket everywhere and never brushes his hair and survived fucking TARTARUS on his own dude no he's fucking amazing and deserves all the love in the world
Adam Parrish (the Raven Cycle): he is the smartest person alive probably. he survived his stupid abusive fucking father and works really hard in school and in life because he believes you have to do that to get somewhere in life and he wants to fucking get somewhere. he cares so much about his friends and is not disaster bisexual representation no that boy is organized as fuck. we should all feel lucky that he exists we as a community as a fucking planet do not deserve him <3 also he sacrificed himself to a sentient forest to save everyone i think so that was pretty badass ngl
Ronan Lynch: this dude can literally bring shit out of his dreams. he swears a lot and cares so deeply about his friends it's so fucking beautiful. he dreamed the sentient forest his bf Adam sacrificed himself to. he looks dangerous as fuck and can be when he wants to but also he's just a huge softie. he's gay and he used to fist fight his older brother and he can dream things that don't make logical sense into existence. he is just,,,,, this amazing fucking character and right now it's hard to put it all into words but bottomline: i'm happy he exists
Andrew Minyard (All for the Game): he has been through so. much. this man keeps knives in the fucking leather band thingies on his arms which he wears to cover the scars he has from all the self harm that he inflicted because he was fucking r*ped when he was seven (for the first time, anyway) by his older foster brother (fuck Drake Spear, the bastard). he cares so much about some people but doesn't show it in very obvious ways, mostly. i mean he killed his mom because she was abusing his twin brother and if that isn't love then love doesn't exist. i'm so happy he survived all that shit. he survived and has found a family in the Foxes and a boyfriend in Neil Josten who he loves very much and hdjdjfjskxkdkd
Neil Josten: was on the run for like eight years with his mom from his crazy ass father who wanted to murder them. even after his mother died after bleeding out from a wound his father inflicted and he burned her body along with their car and buried her bones he lasted a full day without puking his guts out, and then he kept going. so many would've just given up at that point, understandably i think. but he didn't. and then he became a Fox and was playing Exy and failed his attempts to not get attached to his teammates he grew to care about them all so much especially Andrew who he is in love with and whose boundaries he respects like he has literally actively put himself in harm's way so many times just so nothing will happen to his family and Andrew. he cares so much i love him.
Blitzø (Helluva Boss): literally just a guy. well i mean an imp one of the denizens of Hell who decided to open up his own assassin company thingy where you'd pay him and he'd go to the human world with the help of the grimoire his sorta fuckbuddy ish crush Stolas lends him and with his employees to kill the person you want them to kill. so yeah that's pretty badass. yknow, in a weird, twisted way. he's also foul-mouthed as fuck which is always fun to see :) but what made me kinda connect to his character is the dude's estimate for his own self worth is basically non-existent he pushes away anyone who cares about him and puts up the facade of an annoying asshole (which he kinda is naturally) to not deal with his feelings sometimes. i relate
Wylan Van Eck (Six of Crows): his dad is a fucking asshole who wanted him killed because he can't read. who the fuck does that literally wtf. but he escaped and joined the Crows [Kaz, Inej, Jesper (who is his boyfriend), Nina, and Matthias (dead)] who are all just kids who are fighting to survive in this horrible ass world. also they want money to buy stuff which, same. but Wylan has so many strengths like he can create bombs he's a flautist he's good at the sciency stuff and music and is smart as fuck and he's such a pure person like. i love him so much <3
Will Byers (Stranger Things): this guy cares so much about his friends and family and will do anything to help make sure they're okay. he's in love with his best friend and he thinks he's a mistake which he is NOT. he is a fucking GIFT to mankind we should all feel lucky he exists because we do not fucking deserve him. it broke my heart to see him being pushed aside and forgotten but in season five he better get all he deserves and more. literally i love him so much and i love when he's a little rude and rolls his eyes and that one time he asked Jonathan “is that why you don't have any friends ?” with the most innocent fucking face ever like he is the best. i love him. #will byers supremacy
Angel Dust (Hazbin hotel): okay i watched this at like 3am today and can i just say: AMAZING. like his character is just so publicly flamboyant and i love that for him. i mean i guess it's literal Hell and no one gives a shit but he's there and he's a sex worker and dude does not give a fuck about what other people think. he cares about specific people and his best friend is Cherri Bomb and they did the music video thing together where we find out he was (still is, i guess) sexually abused by this bitch Valentino who we should all hate. fuck him seriously why are people so horrible. he cries and resorts to the sex and drugs as a way to numb the pain. fuck. he even died from a drug overdose. i hope when we get the hazbin hotel series he's like okay and stuff because i love him so much for and it hurts that that shit happened to him.
so yeah this is my list not necessarily in this order😅 thanks again for asking i appreciate it <3
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northisnotup · 2 years
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I’m late!!
But I am still gonna play! Thank you @kelliealtogether for tagging me in the ‘five favourite fics that I've written (for writer appreciation day)’ 
This was the kindest thing you could have tagged me in, because as much as I love my fics when I post them, I tend to have a distorted view of them later on, thinking that my writing must have been so much worse, that I’m sure I fucked up the pacing, etc. But having now gone back and re-read a lot of these, I like them just as much - so much that choosing just 5 is gonna be hard! 
1. Pan Cookies
Oldest first - and also because it’s the only Dragon Age fic I have and tbh I adore it. Short and sweet, Dorian and Sera deserve to bond over shitty parents - the end!
Dragon Age Inquisition, Gen.
This is the story of how Sera and Dorian became crazy, drunken, selfie-olympics bffs. Enjoy. 
2. Kisseltoe
This was a holiday exchange fic that I still think is really stinkin’ cute. Did it have to be this long, or complicated? No! But I thrive on turning simple plots into drawn out character studies.
Overwatch, Cole Cassidy/Hanzo Shimada
Trapped under the mistletoe, Cole has now kissed every person at this party but the one person he actually wants to.
3. Rita’s Blessing
First rule of thieving: Know what your mark wants.
The Penumbra Podcast, Juno Steel/Peter Nureyev
First rule of thieving: Do your own research.
First rule of thieving: Know what you, yourself, want.
What Peter Nureyev wants is to wake up next to Juno Steel every day for the rest of his life. He wants to travel the galaxy at his side, day after day, until death at last parts them. He wants so deeply and with such fervor it weighs on his heart like nothing else, save the ring, which stays always in one of his many pockets, feeling like a star attempting to collapse in on itself.
And that is the problem.
FOR INSTANCE. This was supposed to be a short and sweet exchange fic for a friend. It wasn’t supposed to take as long as it did (the better part of a year) but it did! And tbh - I love it a lot. I’m glad it took that long. I’m glad I met them. I’m glad I wrote this. I genuinely think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever written. 
4. We often confuse what we wish for, with what is
“You just have to hope that betraying one another is not in their self-interests?” Juno misquotes back to him, dry.
The Penumbra Podcast, Juno Steel/Peter Nureyev
“This is not the first partner, team, group or crew I have allied with,” Nureyev finally says, clipped and crisp. Weary and wary and just him in place of where Ransom would already be soliciting Buddy’s forgiveness. “And I’m sure you are all familiar with the...self serving nature of those in our line of work.”
He nods. “Quite. And once the job is complete, it’s not uncommon to look into the face of an ally and see an enemy instead."
Second FOR INSTANCE. This was a fic I never intended to write. As many of my fics start, this came from the want of using one particular line and having to figure out WHERE that line fit. Juno saying ‘oh you’re gonna want to think so carefully about what you say next,’ was living in my brain rent free and I had to find a home for it and so came forth this Murderbot-Leverage-esque story of Peter Nureyev, master thief. 
...crap now I have to choose between Captive Prince and The Raven Cycle. Wait. No I don’t. Fuck it. I’m going rogue!
5. Attend Me
This is just fun, silly, modern day fluff. I like the world I made behind it, but mostly I just wanted to see how they fit together.
Captive Prince, Damen/Laurent
Housebound following an accident, Damen prepares an important dinner.
6. Here with You
The Raven Cycle/The Dreamer Trilogy, Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish
When Adam received the invitation to Declan Lynch's wedding, he'd known that seeing Ronan again was going to be difficult.
This is one of those fics that has a huge, sprawling backstory that I have no willpower or time to fully write. However, I think this small snippit gives just enough of a look into what was and what could be and I really like it for that.
Alright! That’s enough self indulgence from me, so I’m gonna pass this off to @sanerontheinside @themarchrabbit @parakeatswrites @audikatia @rabbitdarling @the-prince-of-tides and @blue-mood-blue happy ficcing!!
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ok final cdth thoughts:
ronan: again it is so funny that stief truly seems to have seen people being like "um ronan's endgame in the raven cycle fucking sucked?" and like used those complaints as a prompt. that said if i had been expecting better i think i would have been disappointed that the clearly set up conflict in the beginning (can ronan be a real boy in the real world, does he even want to) sort of vanishes into the plot by halfway through the book. if i squint i can see what stief might want me to see which is that ronan chases after bryde because of his feelings of failure and his desire to distract himself but also to see himself as something than a loser trapped by his own mind. but i just think it would have been a better book if that thread had been threaded a little more strongly. we don't have to hammer it home but a couple moments tying into it - things like, maybe sometime after ronan rescues hennessey he thinks something about how maybe he can't live in cambridge but at least he saved the life of this other dreamer when no one could have - really could have gone a long way to making this feel like a plotty but still character-driven story, instead of something that started out as a character piece and then just devolves into Stuff Happening by the end, at least for our ostensible primary protagonist.
declan & matthew: awesome content no notes. sincerely i enjoyed all of their chapters and the developments therein. again it's so funny that in the raven cycle it really seems the text is not aware of the inherent creepiness of the lynch family's dream situation (the lynch family dreams situation?) and now she's like, i guess i should address the obvious existential crisis of it all. but i found it both entertaining and emotionally compelling up to the point where i forcibly reminded myself that there is such a high chance of something about this turning out stupid. but for now honestly i love declan lynch wandering around hating his dad and loving his brothers even the shithead one and being the most eldest daughter coded of all time and being pathologically repressed and gradually losing his own ability to not be an alive human person. and i love matthew being angry and having real feelings about not being a real person and wanting to stop pretending. and the reveal that niall maybe dreamed aurora based on a real woman is so like extra damning i'm pro that too.
jordan & hennessey: a cool idea with execution that was... fine. it's a neat concept to have two characters on opposite side of the dreamer/dreamt relationship to explore the, again, inherent fucked up reality-warping psychological nightmare of that. but their chapters were kinda boring for me except when jordan was interacting with declan, the hero and star of this book (we stan).. stief almost got there (there = saying something interesting) with hennessey (i refuse to figure out which way her name is spelled) as like, the doomed daugher of a destructive dead dreamer who was so broken by her mother's suicide that she started slowly killing herself of loneliness. but only almost! stief sometimes reminds me of how i say that the force awakens is a movie built for gifsets. like it's not enough to have a cool idea and sort of gesture towards it and then let people reading or watching do all the actual work of making something compelling of it. i love to fill in blanks and draw connections but the thing that makes it compelling has to be to SOME degree successfully executed in the text (it does not have to be major or take up a lot of space or even be explicit!) for you to have, like, done your job (wrote a book right).
adam parrish: continues to deserve to be written by literally anyone else on earth. i want his dumb college friends to sent to mars. but i did like how lived-in the pynch of it all felt, and also that they're HUGE DWEEBS who have a two-person catchphrase in latin. extremely cute if i compartmentalize Good Pynch Content Cumulatively from the rage stroke the raven king gave me.
bryde: i don't know what to say about this one because this is the plot thread that most obviously feels like it's in the danger zone re: being Incredibly Stupid. i will say i have no idea how the text wants me to feel about bryde and i can't tell if that's a reaction i would have coming in cold or if it's specifically that bryde seems to be doing a particular thing (offering ronan the path of the dreamer, not the person, which is tempting, and has benefits, but Goes Too Far) but knowing stief's history with the simple architecture of set-up/payoff i automatically distrust any reactions of mine that seem to point to where the story might be going because of how amazingly the story did not go any of those places the last time around.
farooq-lane/parsifal/moderators/zeds/visionaries: the less said the better. apparently after the last one came out she said on twitter that her first pitch for these books had them take place more years in the future and didn't include the apocalypse plot and seemed to kind of imply a lot of reshaping happened at the behest of her publisher. the failings of TRC are so evil and egregious i'm not willing to say that maybe she could be good if the demands of the publishing let her be, because like, there is still something wrong with a brain that came up with some of the stuff she came up with, even if it wasn't her first choice. but like i guess maybe i can say that perhaps she was forced to include a plotline that doesn't matter because obviously the endgame of these books is not going to be "the apocalypse" and absolutely if you took this shit out it would be like a 150% improvement instantly. it is INSAAAANE how boring these are. insane! bafflingly, hideously, heinously boring. someone at the company should have looked on goodreads where the boringness of the villain chapters is a frequent complaint and they receive very few compliments and realized that truly No One Asked For This let's keep the focus on things anyone might conceivably care about. especially since this book is so goddamn long
it's SO long like oh my god. it seems like the next two are shorter so that's something. also idk how i feel about the hard cliffhanger ending. i feel like one of the things TRC had going for it was that other than BLLB kinda each book was like actually its own book. (but BLLB still was sort of my favorite at the time? idk) i also feel like if i had jumped into the next one without rereading i would have been TOTALLY lost but i guess that's not inherently a flaw. how long it is, that's a problem tho.
it's still stupid that the reason ronan is so awesome at dreaming stuff is because a magical forest loves him for no reason at all. like that was stupid in TRC but it's still stupid and it annoys me. in general one reason i don't read a ton of fantasy is because the idea of magic by itself is not inherently cool or appealing to me (if there's going to be magic Just Because in something i would prefer the something to be, like, creepy and weird or whatever) and i feel like if it's gonna be interesting it has to be somehow connected to some kind of grounded emotional human thing. and one thing that makes me insane about these dumb books is that a power literally based in dreaming feels like it should be sooooooo easy to build that bridge & connect those dots! and there are aspects where this works like the night terrors as a manifestation of self-loathing or whatever. but somehow it just... never quite gels for me. ronan dreaming experiments back in BLLB was about the best it got, and i enjoyed it, but, again - the second we're back in his POV, i'm like, well this is stupid again. a fucking magic forest! who gives a shit!
overall it's 8000000 better than the raven king. i feel like i can't think about the other TRC books separate from how angry TRK made me to assess it compared to those. i feel like maybe it worked better as a book (the plotting in TRC was... i mean it was real bad. this one the plot was dumb and overly convoluted and it had a ton of shit i didn't care about but it was, like, there, and more or less kept moving along, so, points for that i guess) but it didn't have the atmosphere or charm that TRC built over time. but also when i read TRC for the first time i didn't already hate her so much for writing the worst book in my life so maybe i'd have been more into this one if i'd encountered it without a giant grudge already built. anyway. on to part two!
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dawnstruck · 2 years
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Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Thanks....
I'm probably super late to answer, but this is such an interesting question. The following list is in no particular order; I'll also mostly disregard what I think of the franchises in general, any shipping stuff, and whether or not I think the character was done justice in canon. With many series, I kept reading/watching beyond what I truly enjoyed, because I adored the characters. A good story is important, but I won't truly get invested unless there is a person or dynamic I wholeheartedly love. Also, this got way longer and more poetic than I intended.
Levi Ackermann (Attack on Titan): Love him. Love him to bits. Love that he is technically an overpowered character, but so fallible. Always falling short in a lot of way, often unable to save those he loves. Still trying to do what's right, trying to make the world a better place. He is so full of hurt, and love. I love how everything about him is a contradiction; he is tiny but Humanity's Strongest, a literal son of a whore and the commander's right hand man, a thug with a potty mouth and a cleaning fetish. Levi cares and he cares so deeply. He is such an iconic character
2. Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist, particuarly 2003): Another tiny boi. Full of genius and heart and grief and rage. Edward is intriguing because he learned a really hard lesson when he was just a child. The story literally opens with him making the biggest mistake of his life, and then follows him trying to make amends. I love how is a spunky teen, and a major in a corrupt military, and a big brother, and a prodigy. A loud protagonist like him could easily have been a caricature, but instead he has a lot of facets and depths, and seeing him grow was a delight.
3. Ronan Lynch (The Raven Cycle & The Dream Trilogy): Ronan. Ronan, Ronan, Ronan who is capable of the most fanciful dreams and the most garish nightmares. Whose greatest gift is the worst burden anyone can possibly imagine. He is so tough and so vulnerable. Ronan is bruised knuckles and black boots and sprawling tattoos; he is Sunday mess and hand cream and raven chicks hand-reared in his palm. Ronan grows an entire forest out of a dead language, he would die for his family and friends, and kill for them, too. He prays and dreams and does not talk about his feelings. Ronan is barbed wire: he hurts and he protects, and sometimes he gets all tangled up in himself, only few people dare get close enough to try and unravel him again.
4. Dean Winchester (Supernatural): Hurt boi #4 because they are my favorite flavor. I love that he had to grow up way too quickly. From the beginning of the series, he was such an interesting juxtaposition, hyper-masculine but also geeky, a maternal figure to his brother and a failure in his own eyes, chosen by God and hunted by Hell. He went through so much and still always tried to put other people first. Self-destructive to a fault, insanely quotable, stupidly handsome, and beautifully 3-dimensional.
5. Tanaka Ryounosuke (Haikyuu!!): The joker, the idiot, the loudmouth, the perv even. The backbone of Karasuno that never breaks. Tanaka has such beautiful contrasts in him. He could be such a one-note character (if haikuu had any one-note characters), but instead he is what the team desperately needs. Where everyone else has their moments of weakness and despair, Tanaka is so reliable on the court, which makes the one match where he hits a wall feel so daunting. I love that he messes around a lot but, ultimately, he is always there, from the very beginning. I love his posturing and how he is ultimately just a boy from a small town. I love that he gets the girl. I also love that Saeko is his sister, but she didn't quite make it onto this list.
6. Fa Mulan (Disney, animated original, ofc): Mulan was my crush and my rolemodel and my pre-teen bisexual awakening. She embodied genderfluidity in a way that was way ahead of its time. Mulan is soft and feminine and caring, she is tomboyish and klutzy and wicked-smart, she is strong and manly and suited for war. Mulan's decision to join the army was not born out of a need to run away or prove her worth or to kill the Huns. She did it out of love, to protect her father, her family, her country. She knowingly put herself in grave danger, either by dying on the battlefield or by being found out. To me, the moment she is pulls herself up the pole to get the arrow is one of the most iconic in film history; that shit shaped me. She also managed to bag Shang, and boy, was he the other half of my sexual awakening.
7. the Unicorn/Lady Amalthea (The Last Unicorn): The whimsical fairy tale setting allows for such interesting story setting. The idea that she is the last of her kind, that she didn't even know because she was living in her eternal forest, that she left the sanctity of her home to look for the others, with no idea what she would find... I love that she, too, is ultimately a terrible and ancient thing, much like the harpy. I love her arrogance and ignorance, her wisdom and naivety. I love that she is turned into a human and hates it, and hates it more when she falls for Prince Lear. I love that she has to be brave and fight to save the other unicorns, that she succeeds but is forever changed. She is the last unicorn, and the first that learns to love. It's such a bittersweet ending, such a painful parting, and cherishes it nevertheless.
8. Brienne of Tarth (A Song of Ice and Fire): A tall woman. An ugly woman. A woman who is ugly and stays ugly, who grows strong because and in spite of it. The world has been so terrible to Brienne, many times over, but still she chooses to be kind. She devotes herself to Renly because he danced with her once, to Caitlyn because she showed her kindness, to Jaime even because he finally looked and truly saw her. I love how, especially in the books, we get to see a lot of Brienne through Jaime's eyes, how she grows more beautiful and precious the more he gets to know her. Brienne does not have to change for a man to love her; a man is changed because he loves her. Brienne is valor and strength and hard work through and through. She is a knight and she is a woman and neither has been a easily won.
9. Minerva McGonagall (Harry Potter): Do I even need to say anything? McGonagall, especially as portrayed by Dame Maggie Smith, is an icon. She is a badass. She cares for her students, even if she doesn't openly show it. She is easily the best teacher at Hogwarts, for quite a number of reasons. She is loyal and good and true. She does not pull her punches. She's witty and visceral and the kind of grounded mature character that HP needed, without turning into a caricature like some of the others. Many of the most memorably moments from HP canon, imo, involve McGonagall. From her welcoming the first-years over her feud with Umbridge to her stepping up against Snape and finally desperately calling Harry's name when she believes him dead. I was never a true Potterhead, but God, do I adore her.
10. Stiles Stilinski (Teen Wolf): The sidekick that was the protagonist to most. Dylan O'Brien brought so much to the table here. Stiles is the everyman amidst a sea of monsters, and yet he is the true force to be reckoned with. Stiles was the heart of the show and the brain. He was the snark and the ace up their sleeves. I love my quiet, tormented boys, but I also love my loud-mouthed idiots who are actually crucial for the group to succeed. I stopped watching TW a long time ago, but I still often think about Stiles.
Some honorable mentions:
Sokka (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
Keith (Voltron: Legendary Defender)
Sailor Mars/Rei (Sailor Moon)
Madame Adelaide (Aristocats)
Elle Woods (Legally Blonde the Musical)
Thor (MCU)
Spock (Star Trek)
Newt Scamander (Fantastic Beasts)
Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (How to Train Your Dragon)
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caseyrussell · 1 year
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FULL NAME: Casey Kennedy Russell
AGE: 20
BIRTHDATE: [tbd while Ella looks for a date in april that will give this man his astrological placements... bear with me x]
GENDER: Cis man
OCCUPATION: College student, prospective internship at HAH
POSITIVE TRAITS: dauntless, outgoing, protective, adaptable, passionate, direct, resilient, compassionate, loving, caring, fun loving
NEGATIVE TRAITS:  impulsive, impatient, brooding, reckless, secretive, cynical, hotheaded, adaptable, defensive, stubborn
ASTROLOGICAL PLACEMENTS: Aries sun, Scorpio moon, Pisces rising, Taurus mercury, Pisces mars, Aries venus (yes, that one earth placement is clinging on for dear life) 
INSPIRATION: [John Bender (The Breakfast Club), Ronan Lynch (The Raven Cycle), Sirius Black (Harry Potter), James Cook (Skins), Jess Mariano (Gilmore Girls), Han Solo (Star Wars), Daniel Desario (Freaks and Geeks), Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights), Marianne Sheridan (Normal People)]
Biography (tw child abuse/child neglect)
It feels like a life borrowed from someone else a lot of the time. Like watching yourself from the outside in as the movie plays before you. Life led as if it's a chair whose occupant had recently left - the uncertainty of when they might come back and take it away at any moment. Or at least, that's how it would feel when Casey grew old enough to understand his feelings beyond the confusion, sadness and loneliness that would tug in his gut no matter how busy their house was. With a name borrowed from two men greater than he, perhaps it was set in stone from day one that he'd settle nicely between his two brothers. Slap bang in the middle (although there's never a complaint, Ronnie and Noah have always been two of the better things going on in his life).
It wasn't as if Mila Russell ever gave the impression she wanted kids. In fact, from the way Ronnie often felt like more of a parent than his mother - Casey would argue that they were all just something that kind of happened to her rather than the kind of wish mothers made in Disney movies. Or whatever the Cabbage Patch dolls origin story tried to sell. Mr. Russell didn't give much of an impression at all; out the door when Casey's just about old enough to nag Ronnie for answers and imagine what their male 'role model' may be up to.
And it's fantastical. In the way children's imaginations often are, the ideas are farfetched. Ideas of him travelling and collecting stories, contributing to world peace... saving people from burning buildings and cats from up trees. To a little boy who had a mischievious grin and was otherwise told he had too much energy, the fantastical tales of what his 'dad' may be up to got Casey through his earliest school days. Your dad's an accountant? Well, my dad sang with John Lennon'. He never says it's in his dreams. Mr. Russell is a hero to everyone in his imagination. Everyone except for Casey who had longed for a parental figure at parents' nights without ever really knowing. For the kind of stability that he saw his friends have at school and that his mother's latest fling wasn't providing.
He'd picked up a bass that a fling had left behind at some point and that was the new story. Mr. Russell - had to leave at the drop of the hat as the Stones requested him as their understudy bassist. It didn't matter then that Casey didn't even know the name of the instrument in his hands. It was about vision.
It would have been easier if Mr. Russell had remained a dream. Casey could have handled the arguments with his mother's boyfriends or the tension in their house if he'd still had a hope that somewhere out there, an adult in his family was good. But, as he'd come to accept, that just wasn't life. Not black and white. Because Mr. Russell comes back and he makes sure all of them know he's returned, too. It's not even the bruises or the gashes that happen subsequently that hurt most - it's the thought that they'd been abandoned because a man loved liquor more than he loved them. And it leaves a confused ache in Casey's bones that he's not sure has ever fully shifted (only lifted slightly by Elaine and then Zahra). But it's more than that too. Because where the hurt glazes over, and the tear stains dry on pillows, it leaves something deeper in his chest. Anger. As intense as he's ever felt it.
Which might just be Casey in a nutshell. Intensity in every emotion that rips through him and takes control. He's the loud guffaw at the back of the car on a long journey when the silence is a bit too loud, the excessive tap to a back and riproaring cheer at a friend's success, and the need to replace nights spent crying into a pillow with sources of entertainment by any means necessary. It's all or nothing.
Of course, over time, the intense feeling of anger died to a duller feeling of resentment and cynicism that carried him forward through high school. Faded into the biting remark that would chip away at one of his mother's new flings or the need to stand up to Mr. Russell on behalf of either of his brothers. It would have been easier to ignore them entirely. Perhaps take solace in the fact that in a few years, Ronnie would be eighteen and could save them all from it. But Casey has never been known to take the easy way out of anything. Driven solely by his heart and not guided by his head. If no adult would stand up against his demons and fight for him - he'd do it himself; craft stories out of the bruises that sounded fantastical and make himself a hero. Still would. Even if, somewhere in the midst of hearing criticisms and remarks, he wasn't so sure he was worth fighting for. (He still isn't).
High school was mainly just another way to act out. Stupid rules and stupid social hierarchies. Somewhere... however... the want to escape from the bubble that was Cherry rose up in between wanting to actually be someone Elaine would want to be with and crafting himself into what his richer friends seemed to be granted naturally. The kind of person that his friend's father, Harvard Hargrove II seemed to be - poised, put together... being able to command effortless respect (aside from the capitalism). Of course, in Casey's eyes, this also meant needing to be twice as good as his best friend - Harvey.
It fails in many ways. He fails in many more and it takes the next two years after high school just to scramble together the pieces in an attempt to put them back together again while hoping behind a scowl that no-one would notice. He thinks he's just about holding together now - somehow. There's less nights spent chugging away at a bottle and asking people to dare him to do something careless. There's a lot less hoping he leaves the world rather than just the town borders... although he'd still take leaving town in an amazing blaze of glory any day and leaving his mark. But for now, he'll handle it. He somehow always manages to anyway.
HEADCANONS
Massive Led Zeppelin fan. He has three tattoos behind his left ear of the symbols from their fourth album and hopes to be able to get the full four eventually!
Adores animals. Is the guy at a party who purposely seeks out ur dog just to scratch them behind the ears. Would happily petsit for anyone in the gang and probably has, like, a crap ton of polaroid pictures of himself with Rex Russell. 
Very much a follower of the ‘here for a good time, not a long time’ mantra. 
Loves ABBA an ungodly amount but hides all of their records in inconspicuous sleeves. If you see two copies of 'London Calling' in his house? One copy is ABBA gold.
Rides a secondhand motorcycle that backfires far too often and really should probably be scrapped but he’s ~nostalgic~ and loves it anyway. 
Used to play soccer in high school but was asked ‘politely’ to leave the team after being constantly red carded for trying to start fights with the other team. He still kicks around a soccer ball every now and then and will happily talk your ear off about his (not so lowkey) crush on Diego Maradona. 'Did you see him at the 1982 World Cup? No? Want to watch the highlights I recorded on VHS?".
He has a map of the world taped to his wall covered by... another map of the world taped on the wall! The old one is ripped at every corner from where he has almost torn it down in a fit of rage, and yet it stays. It serves as a reminder that there’s more to life than just Cherry where everything seems impossible.
Loves a microwave meal. For the longest time, they were the only thing he really knew how to make so he’s learnt how to spruce them up a little. Nowadays, his cooking abilities don't extend much beyond this rip.
Adoooores Albert Camus and existentialist philosophy. Yes, he does want to understand the meaning of life because really,,,, what the fuck.
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rodansey · 1 year
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Hi there!!! Hope you’re having a good day, since you asked for asks: any particular headcanons or wishes you have for post canon (Lynch bros, jordan, carmen and Hennessy, adam any of them!)
Hello!! Thank you for this mesasge - this has been a good day so far! What a great question, too! Going into Greywaren, my primary mantra was that the Lynch brothers had all better survive and have a chance to be happy again, and I did get that! (Thank you, MStief and the universe.)
I crave three more books about either the four years between the ending and the epilogue, or about the way they continue to pick up the pieces in the epilogue. I'll lean into a couple of the things that I would have wanted to see addressed (that may honestly also become fodder for future fic projects). Since there will be spoilers beyond this point, and it might get long, I'll put it under a cut.
Last note is that, in spite of my efforts not to, I still devoured the book, and I'm currently rereading it because I'm sure I missed details the first time around.
Top priority with me and the Lynch brothers is that they have a LOT of trauma to work out together. It may not be completely fixed in four years, maybe not ever. The point is that they try and they keep trying.
I would love to know who spread the word to the Fairy Market and Niall's buyers that he had "a Greywaren"? For about 4 books, I believed it was Niall himself, but with his character reveal in GW, I'm not sure he would have done that, even to save his own skin. I'm more inclined to believe that Mor's fear of Ronan and her connections to Boudicca ended up causing the danger. It's incredibly likely that Niall was murdered because he wouldn't give up the Greywaren, and Declan just didn't have any idea what was really going on until almost the end of the dreamer trilogy.
I really want there to be more development in the relationship between Hennessy and Carmen. Carmen's feelings about her at the beginning of GW were very very unfavorable, and I imagine it would have remained toxic af for quite a time after that first kiss. I think every single minute of those four years before the Jordeclan epilogue was fought and bled for to help Hennessy and Carmen get to a stable place. But oh when they do, the absolute I would cut a bitch for you vibe from them would be off the charts, and I love that for them.
I've seen a handful of posts now that have said that Declan technically could have/should have died to end the terrible cycle that had been started with Niall and the dream selling/dream things/loving dreams to end. I think that's what Stief was getting at when he literally changed his will and had to "die" to even have a chance at being safe from Boudicca. I don't think she wanted to kill any of the Lynch brothers off, and I'm personally glad she didn't. At the same time, he also made some incredibly questionable decisions, he struggled through the whole thing. I would like him to have to stay "dead"/hidden OR do the work of dismantling the things that brought danger to his family.
To that end, I knew this wouldn't be a dreamer trilogy thing, but was still compelling: at the end of TRK, Seondeok and the Gray Man had talked about also dismantling the shadiest legacies of the world Niall Lynch was navigating with his dreams. It was a deep desire of mine that, instead of getting into it for the sake of thriving in it, Declan would get into it to help them, all the while giving the Gray Man the feral cat treatment. Would have been hilarious for him to continue to go through someone else to speak to him, even when they were in the same room.
I loved the idea of Ronan still traveling across the ley line. I wish we could see it where he was traveling with Sarchengsey, fixing ley lines while they fixed the more human impact on the environment, the way they did when they parted ways at the end of TRK. I wish Adam had done something a little more...idk...true to himself? after Harvard than a government job. I see the appeal, and I certainly see how they might have recruited him instead of the other way around. My best headcanon for him is that he becomes one of those investigators going into cold case files and trying to solve tragedies using paranormal tactics. A splash of Persephone, a dash of Will Graham (Adam saying "this is my design" is a thought that will now live rent free in my head). Ultimately, I imagined Adam in more of a lawyer type situation, representing underprivileged or domestic abuse children's cases, having both personal investment and having been influenced by the court experience with Robert Parrish.
I want Jordan and Hennessy to paint together, to make art and sweetmetals and be powerful badasses together. Jordan always deserved to be her own person, but so did Hennessy.
Oh, and I want Bryde to come back into their lives. More importantly, I want him and Matthew to spend more time together!
I knew this would get long - I'm going to cut myself off here! Thank you again!
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squash1 · 3 years
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remember how ronan dreamt adam hand cream to help his cracked and calloced hands and he tried desperately to dream something to protect gansey from a fatal bee sting. he dreamt a watch that shows the time wherever ronan is for adam to take with him to harvard and he dreamt a miniature sun to take care of gansey’s mint plants while he’s away. all of this to say i love ronan lynch with my whole being and, respectfully, anyone who speaks badly of him has to fight me 💞
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genderfcker · 2 years
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im just imagining the next book of the dreamer trilogy has a scene where gansey, blue, and henry all show up and gansey turns to ronan and asks why he didn't ask him to join in on the wild goose chase
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behindtheatlantic · 3 years
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what are your favorite pynch fics?
Thank you for this! An excuse to revisit my favourite fics - yay!!
In no particular order, these are my absolute favourite pynch fics:
My Backwards Walk by beersforqueers
Ronan is a Grammy award-winning rock star with a shady reputation, Adam is a mechanic with a maybe-girlfriend. When Blue drags him to the Second Sleeper concert, he gets wrapped up in a scandal with himself and Ronan at the center.
And We Keep On Wanting by nekare
He last saw Ronan for Spring Break a week ago, and more than quenching the thirst it’d just made the longing worse. They’d spent most of the break dicking around in Lindenmere, creating tiny planets in bubbles for Opal to chase and fucking in shadowy clearings. Adam can almost taste Ronan and the magic both like honey lingering in his mouth.
Or, Adam’s sophomore year at Harvard: a study in longing.
there's talk going 'round this town by shinealightonme @toast-the-unknowing
Ronan married Adam Parrish in the summer of 2015, but it didn't mean anything. They're actors. It wasn't real.
Fall Back by @flightspath
Adam, at the library, scanning books with a pen behind his ear. Adam, trudging across the quad in the snow. A recurring dream, all throughout fall semester, a bright spot in Ronan’s days.
They meet, they fuck, they don't talk about it until much later.
thinking of you (sweet surrender) by @sunset-moons
Falling hard for a camboy was trouble enough, but things only get more complicated when Ronan realizes his idealized fantasy is someone he knows for real.
Ink Stains and Flower Petals by OfficialStarsandGutters
“There’s a language to flowers, right?”
“Uh. Yeah.”
“How do I say fuck off in them?”
“Excuse me?” Adam tilts the right side of his head towards Ronan, wondering if he just misheard.
“Fuck off. But with flowers.”
“Oh. That is what you said.”
“Yes.”
With A Head Full of Blocks and a Heart Full of - by JayJEx
“I’m not a nerd. I’m just - well educated,” says Adam. “I have a master’s degree in electrical engineering. I went to Harvard. I’m a very accomplished, perfectly normal, non-nerd, non-gamer person.”
“You play Minecraft for a living,” says Blue.
-or-
The Minecraft YouTuber AU.
take a piece of me away by hargrave/@catboyadamparrish
A music festival can be many things. To Ronan Lynch, it’s a place he can unwind, be surrounded by people with no expectation to socialize, and enjoy good music. To Adam Parrish, an obligation to his would-be girlfriend, a sensory nightmare, and a harrowing reminder that he’s not like other people his age.
Will a spontaneous meeting between the two change the course of their lives? Or is it an experience forever slotted to a single weekend of revelation and hedonism?
Man of Masks by @etoilegarden
“Okay,” Adam repeated. “So come to me, instead.” 
“What the fuck?” 
“Next time you feel - jesus - next time you need what you need. Come to me instead.” 
Everything was so wrong all Ronan could feel was an impossible bubble of laughter. “Fuck,” he said. “For someone who’s meant to be so goddamn smart, you’re such an idiot. Do the other researchers know their head scientist is an idiot? It’s sex, Adam.”
Both fics in the series: adam and ronan navigate life by sleeptodream
“I mean it, you know,” he says, and Adam meets his gaze. “Whatever weird shit you’re secretly all about, I’m not gonna judge.”
“Why, because you know you don’t have a leg to stand on?”
(Adam and Ronan cover some new sexual ground, but first: repression.)
Beyond the Edge of Our Hope by @seekthemist (will I ever shut about this fic? No.)
The Pacific Rim has been closed for more than three months, in the most impressive feat of the Jaegers and the Pan Pacific Defence Corps, when Ronan Lynch comes back alone from a surprise attack to the Greywaren. The world has been saved from the apocalypse but greed towards formidable weapons is quick to return. The Shatterdome will have to brace for the impact and find a way to counter the threat even before fully understanding it.
A story of shattered people, scarred families and found families. A story about what you stand for, when destruction comes from the shadows. Beyond saving the world, this is a story about finding your place in it.
Xenia by @cheeeryos
“Oh, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, you guys and your goddamn traditions—”
“Nah, you’ll like this one. It’s incredibly asinine.”
“I feel like I should be offended by that.” Ronan considered. “Continue.”
“Before you graduate, you’re supposed to streak the Lawn.”
Or, a weekend visiting Gansey leads to a night with a stranger Ronan never expected.
a piece of a dream by @creativefiend19
Every morning, Ronan Lynch comes into Cabeswater Cafe after his punishing run, looking breathless and flushed and intimidatingly gorgeous.
Adam can't stand him.
Adam can't stop thinking about him.
Too bad Adam can't have him.
or
The Pynch coffee shop AU I've always wanted to write, featuring a thirsty, pining Adam.
And, this is Rodansey not pynch, but I read Love in the Time of Socialism by @oldkingyounggod the other day and I loved it so much, so I wanted to shoutout this beautiful fic too!
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fangirlfreckles · 3 years
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I finished Mister Impossible and...oof. All of my super spoiler-y, long-ass reactions/thoughts/opinions/theories/questions are under the cut!
Initial Reactions & Thoughts
Let's start with the biggest reveal: RONAN DREAMT BRYDE. THE FUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKKKK. I am Boo Boo the Fool because I did not see that coming.
Also: reading the Bryde stuff was such a chore for me and there was so. much. of. it. I kept thinking, could he just bite it already? When will Hennessy shoot this motherfucker? And I don't know how to reconcile those feelings now knowing that he's an extension of Ronan :(
Second biggest reveal: all of the Moderators are dreams!! My theory is the government agencies have dreamers at their disposal and made them dream up the Moderators, so that if one of them is killed, they can easily be replaced. It's an ethical and moral dilemma that underscores the series - are dreamt people real? - but I doubt the government gives a shit since they think they're saving the world.
Maggie really chose violence by giving us one single Pynch interaction and making it painful af
Ronan's dream phone lock screen picture of him and Adam - so soft!! Someone draw it please
Adam eating the celebrity chef's gourmet waffle in like three bites with no reaction whatsoever, lol. Boy is deranged and I laughed for like five minutes
Adam's theory that dreamers have always existed and monsters and dragons were never myths, they were dreams, and we've never seen them because they've been sleeping for centuries, and that fixing the ley lines will wake them all up FUCKED ME UP. I can't stop thinking about it.
The Adam and Declan interactions were *chef's kiss*. Two bitchy assholes uniting because they both (grudgingly) love emo himbo Ronan Lynch - we love to see it!!
Jordeclan was delicioussssssss. Declan blushing over Jordan's postcard? What a cutie!! The two of them recreating their first date at the museum with the roles reversed, and Jordan whispering in his ear? SEXY. Jordan trying to make her portrait of Declan into her own personal sweetmetal? Precious!! Declan casually saying "when we're married" to her? I hope our girl fucked him on every surface of that art studio, because I would have
No coherent thoughts about Matthew, just pain
Ronan's interactions with the dreamer kids and his hug with Hennessy - fuck me up!! I've always loved his capacity for tenderness
Also: a seemingly single mother raising FIVE dreamer children??? Tell me more, tell me more
Unpopular opinion: Carliana didn't do anything for me in CDTH and I'm sorry to say I feel the same after MI. For me the issue is that one person has already experienced the entire relationship and the other person hasn't. It's a weird power imbalance born from time travel fuckery, and I'm not feeling it. Not hating on the ship at all, it's just not for me.
The Nathan backstory is fascinating to me and it feels intentional that Carmen constantly mentions him in her POV chapters. I already saw someone mention that maybe he dreamed a copy of himself and that's who Carmen killed at the beginning of CDTH, and the real Nathan is behind the scenes orchestrating a lot of what's going on.
I think Jordan is still awake at the end either because Hennessy is the one controlling the ley lines and the rules don't apply to her, or because Jordan is actually a sweetmetal and not a dream. The mechanics of sweetmetals are still confusing to me so don't ask me to explain this theory!!!
Maggie really expanded the world in the last few pages with all of the dreamed things falling asleep. I would love to see in book #3 the news coverage of what happened, how it gets explained and then covered up, and a reveal of how many dreamers there really are (or that there just are a powerful few).
Why I'm not worried about Pynch
Maggie already confirmed on Twitter that Pynch will not break up and she's not interested in writing about that kind of relationship drama anyway. If she goes against her word and/or kills off either Ronan or Adam, she loses her credibility as an author and her career will not recover. I'm not being grandiose; the Raven Cycle fandom essentially pays her bills by buying her books, and that allows her to continue writing the weird ass books she wants to write. She knows this, she ain't stupid, and I ain't worried.
(Side note: Maggie does use classic relationship drama tropes for Pynch, whether she'll admit it or not. In MI alone there's lack of communication, miscommunication, and the good ol' superhero "I'm cutting off the one I love for their own good/to save them from the bad guys". It's the context around those tropes - both characters have complicated magic and trauma, the government wants to kill one of them, the apocalypse is imminent - that make it fulfilling for Maggie to write and interesting for us to read).
Maggie likes to make her characters suffer and we often forget this between each book (myself included - I blame fluffy fanfic). Pynch angst is a given, as it is for any endgame ship.
MI made it very clear that Ronan and Adam still have a lot of growing up to do, and so it's probably healthy for them to be separated right now. Ronan literally manifested his insecurities and fears around his dreaming, family, and relationship with Adam into a cult leader and then became an eco-terrorist, and Adam is an actual con artist, creating fake friendships and swindling Harvard students out of their money with bogus tarot readings. Ronan is damaged, and Adam is fucking insane. They should be on a break!
Some characters are created to die. Take Bryde, for example. He will not survive the series because he is the Mentor and Villain in Ronan's hero journey. He also represents Ronan's inner demons, and Ronan must kill/defeat/destroy them by the end or else the journey was pointless. Ronan Lynch and Adam Parrish, however, were not created to die. They've earned the right to live long lives after all the shit they've been through. (I'm not explaining this as well as it could be explained - English majors, where you at?)
Lingering Questions
Where the fuck were Mór o Córra and the New Fenian? You're telling me there's an ageless Niall running around and the Lynch brothers, ripe with daddy issues, don't think about him once during the whole book? Sus.
When is the pale-eyed woman (presumably their Aunt) from the Opal short story going to make an appearance? I'm guessing she's connected to Mór and the New Fenian, but I could also see her coming into play with Boudicca.
How does Bryde communicate with the other dreamers, and what exactly did he communicate?
Ronan created the rumors about Bryde at the Fairy Market, according to Bryde. How though? Rumors as dreamt things that people just wake up and *know* is some serious mind fuckery
How did the Moderators get a hold of Fletcher but not Adam? I imagine it wasn't for lack of trying on the Moderators' part, so where'd he disappear to?
Does shutting down the ley lines affect Gansey since he's basically made of Cabeswater and Blue because she's an amplifier? I don't expect Maggie to address it in book #3 since Gansey was barely mentioned in MI, but I'm still curious.
I know Maggie's vague about time, but it seemed to me that the book spans Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's, and now we're into January because Adam is back in the dorm. Where then did Adam spend his winter break? Did he stay at Harvard (which wasn't allowed when I was in college)? Did he go back to Henrietta and stay at Fox Way? Or go the Barns alone? Maggie also won't address this in book #3 but it makes me sad to think about and I want an answer, or at least a long ass fanfic about it :(
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catboynecromancy · 3 years
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Here is the first of the kissing prompts @flitwickslittlebrotha sent me 💕😌
Pynch; a breathy demand: “Kiss me” - and what the other person does to respond.
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6:54 PM. Wednesday evening. Adam is just getting home, if it can really be called that, to his small apartment above St. Agnes after a long day of classes and extracurriculars. He’s tired, wants to shower and get a headstart on his History of the Americas essay. But the instant Adam pushes the door open, he notices something is off.
All the lights are on, a grease-splotched bag from the nearby burger joint sits on his tiny, second-hand desk, the soft sound of trickling water from a showerhead severely lacking pressure is overlaid with an electronic beat. It sort of reminds Adam of the youtube videos Gansey has started listening to in his failing attempts to lull himself asleep, albeit with a much darker, deeper, sexier rhythm.
A small smile tugs at the corners of Adam’s lips as he steps in, pulling the strap of his messenger back over his head and dropping it next to still full boxes of toys and other knick-knacks from his childhood. He’s been meaning to donate it to a local thrift shop, but every time Ronan visits, Adam gets so lost in everything which encompasses his boyfriend — the addictive taste, scent, feel, and comfort of him — that he forgets anything else in the world exists.
The shower cuts off, leaving Adam with very little time left. He runs a hand through choppy hair, only serving to mess it up more, and breathes into his hand to check if his breath still smells like lunch. Adam is only just dropping his arm when Ronan steps out, the exposed, pale skin of his broad shoulders, chest, and stomach glistening with droplets of water that have yet to be wiped off. Typical Lynch, too lazy and in a rush to properly dry himself. His gaze follows a trail of dark hair down to where one of Adam’s old, threadbare towels wraps around slim hips.
Adam swallows a lump forming in his throat and forces his blue eyes away, feigning disinterest even as his stomach twists with want. “Shower at the Barns broken?”
“Nope,” Ronan returns, stepping closer until Adam could easily reach out to pull their bodies together.
He could pry but decides he doesn’t care enough to bother. “You ever try actually drying yourself off for once in your damn life, Lynch?” Adam asks instead, tone condescending in an attempt to hide his perpetually growing desire.
“Nope.”
“Maybe you should.”
Ronan laughs but it’s not the type he gives around other people. It’s the one he saves for Adam, equal parts warm as it is sharp. “Do it for me?”
“I’m not your caretaker.” Adam rolls his eyes, reaching out to press his hands to a damp chest, holding Ronan back. The few inches he has on Adam makes it easy for him to lean over until his lips are pressed to Adam’s good ear.
“Okay,” Ronan gives with a hint of amusement still tinting his voice. “Do something else for me, then?”
The words are hot on his skin, setting every single one of Adam’s nerves on fire. “Maybe, depends on what it is and if you ask nice enough.”
Adam can feel the curve of Ronan’s smirk against his ear as he breathes out the words, fevered, dangerously low and raspy, “Kiss me.”
His knees buckle, nearly dropping but Ronan quickly catches Adam by his elbow and holds him up from falling. Adam’s thoughts are a storm of conflicting notions — a part of him considers saying no, deny Ronan for his bad behavior, tease him for being so damn predictable, or make him try a little harder to get a kiss out of him. More than anything, however, Adam wants to give in because it’s something so inherently ingrained in him after being denied any sort of physical attention for so long.
“Ronan…” Adam tilts his head, mouth brushing against the soft, lightly freckled skin along his boyfriend’s sharp cheekbone.
He does the same, their lips edging closer, closer, until all either of them would have to do is shift just a little more to finally meet. “Hm?”
“Say it again.”
Ronan sucks in a hitching breath through his nose and lets it out with a rush of air, “Kiss me.”
It’s all Adam needs to give in. He grabs the back of Ronan’s still wet neck with one hand, long fingers digging in, the other curling around hips to hold him steady. Adam bridges the distance to smash his slightly parted lips against Ronan’s, capturing his mouth in a hungry, desperate kiss. It’s returned with intense sincerity, all teeth, and tongue, and a need for more than either of them truly have to offer. He kisses Ronan again, again, again, between gasps of pain and faint moans signifying a mutual building need, pulling away only when his mouth starts to ache and the lack of air in his lungs overtakes the craving to never stop.
“That what you wanted?” Adam pants, their mouths remaining practically flush because neither of them really want to break away.
Ronan is trembling, although whether it’s from nerves or excitement is unknown. Adam knows, even if he asked, he’d probably find a way to avoid answering. Lynch may be earnest to a fault, and a horrible liar, but he’s an expert at saying nothing at all when he knows words will give him away. “Fuck, Parrish,” he answers like there’s no oxygen left in his lungs, “Kiss me like that again.”
It’s Adam’s turn to be amused. He laughs as he sinks into Ronan once more, laughs as they stumble their way towards the twin-sized mattress on a shoddy frame pushed into a corner, laughs when Ronan lays down beneath him with the towel miraculously gone, and laughs when he repeats words that sound like magic the more they’re said, “Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me.”
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parrishh · 3 years
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about to write the world's longest post (a review? maybe?) because i don't know anyone else who has read mister impossible yet and if i do not write my thoughts down SOMEWHERE i will either combust or eat my own foot, probably (spoilers, obviously)
genuinely brokenhearted (and cried a lot) over ronan in this book. part of what i loved so much about cdth was the sense that ronan had at least made some progress in regards to his mental health, self-love, etc. and now we're seeing him in such a dark place again that it hurts to read. it was sad enough believing, for almost the entire book, that he was blindly idolizing bryde for this reason (declan's "ronan is a follower" speech in the cafe with carmen actually killed me), and i thought maggie was just going for the whole "unhappy people are more susceptible to cults" thing. but to find out that he MADE bryde? that he felt so alone and so hopeless that he dreamt THAT? this read like some sort of super-villain origin story. i know ronan believes he's doing the right thing, saving dreamers and dreams and all that, but at the core of it all he's really doing it because bryde told him to, and bryde only exists because ronan subconsciously hates his life so much he'll do whatever it takes to make himself a new one. that just makes me incredibly sad
uhhhhhhhh bad day for pynch stans. we didn't technically get the dreaded break up, but it feels like we did anyway. even the sweet moments (e.g. ronan's memory of adam's gloves) are immediately followed up by something sad (e.g. the memory not being enough to keep ronan from sticking with bryde) (also, fletcher tells the moderators that they're broken up, so does that mean adam told all his college friends he's single?) there are several moments in which ronan makes it very clear that he will (and does) prioritize what he's doing with bryde over his relationship with adam (hanging up on him at the end? what the fuck) and like, i'm definitely not saying his boyfriend should be the #1 most important thing in his life because that's not healthy, either, but the dude is clearly very unhappy & insecure in the relationship. i still think (hope?) that they'll get a happy ending because ronan definitely cares about adam deeply (not wanting bryde to say the word tamquam, keeping adam out of his dreamspace so he doesn't lose harvard, etc.) but things are looking pretty grim right now :/
adam loves ronan so much it makes me crazy. he could easily say "fuck this" after ronan doesn't speak to him for weeks, especially knowing that ronan's capable of reaching out because he still talks to declan and especially after being blocked from ronan's dreamspace, too. i would be pissed if i heard from my bf for the first time in weeks and found out he only called because he needed a place where he & the guy he ditched me for could crash. but adam still spends the free time i'm sure he doesn't actually have keeping tabs on ronan and reaching out to declan and pretty much doing everything in his power to help. and oh my god even after ronan hangs up on him we still see him scrying to try to get to him and i need to move on now before i scream (but first, declan lynch = #1 pynch stan??? the number of times he mentions adam when thinking about the things he wants ronan to keep safe, help me)
speaking of adam, i had to put the book down and take a lap after his first appearance. i cannot believe this boy is charging harvard kids for fake tarot readings and making hella cash off of it. KING. genuinely some fantastic adam content in this. i love that he talks to the gray man. i love that we are reminded that he's literally brilliant. but also, he makes me sad, too. when declan mentions how ronan is the ONE person who adam opens up to and how all of his harvard groupies are just "ducklings"........honey, i love you, please, please, please make some real friends
hennessy's pov also breaks my heart. it's maybe even worse to read than ronan's because she's fully aware of how unhappy she is and the bluntness of it slaps you across the face. the memory of her mom's painting was genuinely chilling (the lace pattern on the floor - was that how the Lace started? am i understanding that correctly?) and the fact that it was so dreadful she accidentally made a sweetmetal....poor hennessy :( also, the things she said to jordan, right after she made half a dozen real ass people crash their cars and didn't even bat an eye about it....yikes. i'm glad she teamed up with carmen and liliana, though. i love my team of wlw girlies (also really interesting that carmen/liliana believe the Lace is something out of hennessy's control while ronan/bryde believe it's something she can get rid of if she just tries hard enough. what the fuck is the Lace, it's driving me nuts)
CARLIANA KISS CARLIANA KISS CARLIANA KISS
jordan's pov!!!!!!! delicious, finally some good fucking food!!!!!!! i'm happy that she's starting to see herself as her own person, independent of hennessy, and the whole forgery/original work metaphor was really cool (her first original work being a portrait of declan 🥺🥺🥺) i loooooove her relationship with matthew and how she speaks to him and that they're able to connect with each other because they're both dreams. i love that she's able to make him feel more human
JORDECLAN KISS JORDECLAN KISS JORDECLAN KISS (but i'm even more hung up on declan just casually talking about MARRIAGE, oh my GOD)
declan my beloved....my sweet......absolutely obsessed with him saying "screw politics, i'm leaning into my crime side" and OBSESSED with him being happy for once. i know the other shoe did drop and now things are all messed up again but it was so nice to see him so content, at least for a little while. he needed a break (also was laughing my ass off at all of ronan's dream creatures just climbing onto his bed in the morning and his screaming and how matthew was so used to it he BRUSHED HIS TEETH before going to help. iconic)
matthew's pov was also really upsetting but 🥺him deciding he's tired of just being treated like a pet and that he deserves to have a future so he goes to sign himself up to finish high school 🥺
quick note but the whole sweetmetal thing is really interesting as a concept. loooooved the way maggie incorporated the gardner museum heist into the story
THE ENDING???? WHY THE FUCK IS JORDAN AWAKE. WHY THE FUCK IS RONAN STILL ASLEEP. WAS ADAM STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF SCRYING WHEN THE LEY LINE DISAPPEARED, AND, IF SO, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR HIM. WHY ARE LITERALLY ALL THE MODERATORS DREAMS. WHAT IS HAPPENING
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The Lynch family, I think, can only be understood if you understand Niall Lynch.
Niall, the father, is known to us only by the footprint he leaves. To name his characteristics: He is a dreamer. He is charming. He is a liar and a storyteller. He is involved in the criminal underworld. He is careless, of his own safety and his family's safety. But above all, I think he had a compelling need to be admired.
We know he sees Declan as the more expendable son. He relies on him - possibly because Declan has the organizational ability to keep Niall's business affairs afloat - but he doesn't like him. I have a headcanon that this isn't just because Declan isn't a dreamer. I'm willing to bet that Declan has a personality a lot like his birth mother. There is a reason Niall and the Mór o Corra are no longer together: I suspect she didn't admire him. And neither does Declan.
But Ronan does. Until his death, Niall was Ronan's hero, his world. And Niall fostered that.
Unpopular opinion here: Ronan was spoiled. Niall's favorite, he received the lion's share of the attention when Niall was home. It's not too hard to imagine Ronan getting the first choice, the biggest present, of whatever Niall was giving any particular time. Because Niall would have given gifts, to the people he loved the most, as a way to encourage their admiration. Ronan, believing Niall could do no wrong, would have accepted this as normal. And Aurora, being designed to love and admire Niall, would not have challenged it.
Does this mean I think Ronan is a bad person? Absolutely not. There is plenty of evidence that he is a very good person in the making. But at this point, he has a relentlessly self-centered point of view, and an utter inability to see past his own pain to the pain of other people, particularly his brother. I suspect his dismissal of Declan's feelings, wishes, even personhood, is a trait he learned from his father. Even in childhood, Declan represented The One Who Wouldn't Let Ronan Do What He Wanted.
What to say about Declan? In TRC, he seems controlling, though the reason for that gradually becomes evident. In CDTH, he is so, so crabby. Classic case of caregiver burnout. (I recognize it, I've been there.) It's extremely disheartening to give up so much for others, and have nobody willing to give a thing for you. But he's such a micromanager. It's understandable. He's (quite literally) been putting out fires since he was a little boy. But it's certainly off-putting to his brothers, especially Ronan who is so set on getting his own way. In MI, it's nice to see Declan relax that a bit. It's also nice to see him with Jordan, who gives as much to the relationship as he does.
Aurora Lynch was made to love, but I also think she was made to admire Niall. Unlike Niall, she left almost no footprint. Did she have the ability to self actualize? Would she have wanted to? Would having her own wants or needs even occur to her? We know she loved all of her sons. Mathew's words notwithstanding, I don't think she loved one more than another, though I'm sure she and Mathew were the most compatible. But I doubt she ever questioned anything, especially anything Niall did or said. I'm not sure she even had any real skills beyond the domestic skills necessary to run a home. Could she even drive? On an isolated farm, with Niall away, this could be a real problem. No wonder Declan was so focused on Mathew getting a driver's license.
I saved Mathew for last, because in many ways, he's the most interesting. Unlike Aurora, he wasn't created with a particular motive in mind.. (A 3 year old child's dream about having a brother who wasn't a Big Old Meanie hardly counts.) Unlike Ronan and Declan, I don't think he had much of a relationship with Niall. He wasn't as close to him as Ronan, and didn't spend as much time with him as Declan. Consequently, he is probably the only brother who can think about Niall rationally. And Mathew has far more emotional intelligence than either of his brothers.
He's smarter than he looks at first glance. Sure, his taste in shoes, and food, and music, may be less than subtle and discerning. But he gets people. He's able to call out Declan's infantilization of him, while still maintaining a relationship with him, in MI. He's not a black and white thinker like Ronan, which is why he can explain Declan's motivation regarding their father to Ronan in TRK. He's overcoming his existential crisis - with a bit of help from Jordan- with surprising aplomb. Watching Mathew become self-actualized is, for me, the most satisfying part of the series.
And if you read this far, thanks.
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