#this year i need to read more new books and rly limit my rereading i feel

[sociallyawkward--fics]

hi xy time for what is becoming my annual checkin! how are u! i feel like since its been abt a year i have to infodump abt all my character development hold on i'll speedrun it. my pronouns r it/its zhey/zhem or (less preferred) they/them. and i have settled on those. it/its is the only one thats ever given me gender euphoria, took 4 years but i got there. ummm realized i have autism (undiagnosed). love the stimming and the being insane abt fictional characters the rest isnt that great. got anxiety meds!!!!! oh my god xy!!!! life is so good now antidepressants r a girls best friend. also. hold on ur never gonna believe this. i have adhd meds now. the crowd goes wild. was like yea doc idk i just think the anxiety meds r not improving my ability to focus what was that u said abt adhd^__^ n she was like hmmmm ok i cant diagnose u but i can give u this adderall u dont need a diagnosis for n if its like glory hallelujah we'll just assume u have it and GLORY HALLELUJAH. ive cleaned my room like more times in the past few months than i have my entire life im WINNING. i cant rly feel if its working but i'll sit down to write or smth n i wont get distracted every 5 seconds n the mental block that keeps me from doing things is gone!!!!! life changing stuff just wish i had it before my grades fuckin woooo splat. um my gpa is 2.2 weighted im like. ok well now that i have adhd meds im working on it -H (i feel like. ok i think tumblr made it so ur asks can be longer but fuck all those liberals n their woke agenda (joke) i am all abt tradition babey i'll be back for a pt 2 rq)

ummm rly into books love books. "thats old news h everyone knows that" but like im being wonderfully unnormal abt them<3 there was this one series the ascendance trilogy n i was fucking OBSESSED w it when i was younger n i learned there was a 4th n 5th book recently so like. the trilogy thing was a fuckin lie. but i obviously had to reread the series so i could read the new books n im still so obsessed w the series its so banger for a middlegrade series. got so unnormal abt it i made a 7hr playlist for the main character bc everyone elses sucked so much ass i just had to. still in the process of rereading but yeah. also theres this OTHER series the raven cycle i read recently n im also obsessed w that these series r all like my ideal books they hit all my favorite tropes. yeah just being rly unnormal abt books thats my current obsession. also. drawing. im so good at it u wouldnt believe. next fuckin van gogh right here. n honestly i dont even care abt going off anon it just bothers me bc my ROUTINE. the TRADITION. its just not the same. but i'll go off it just for u to show u some of my banger art. at a stage where im pretty frustrated at my limitations but that doesnt mean i cant recognize that im fucking awesome ok hold on again -H but yea ok to finish up what have u been up to! tempted to just ask what shows/game/etc uve been into but also i am exerting a little of my brain power to realize some ppls lives dont revolve around those. so just liek what have u been spending a lot of time doing. how is writing going! wait what r ur drawing skills just out of curiosity draw smth for me (if ur comfy ofc n dw i completely understand if it fuckin sucks taht was me just over a year ago) -H (when i was younger i used to think that ppl couldnt be good at writing n drawing they had to choose one. exerted my baby brain power to be like. it takes too long to get good at them u can only do one. then saw a book w the cover art credited to the author n i was like woahhh this is fuckin crazy living my younger selfs pipe dream)

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The way I have had a reminder on my phone to answer these asks for MONTHS but my executive function has been GARBAGE i am so sorry my friend it was not intentional to leave this sitting for so long i am so sorry!!! (also between the two of us this got Long so i am putting a read more so i don't take up a big block of people's dash in my return from the dead lol)

thank you for pronouns update! congrats on meds!! i gotta get me some of those so i can Detroit: Become Functional lol. I am rooting for you with your GPA!!! Also lol, love that we are following tradition of multiple asks still even with the tumblr updates letting asks be way longer now lol, it is just Familiar To Us

I will have to look into the ascendance trilogy!! My sibling is also obsessed with the raven cycle, but i have not read it yet (still debating if i want to or not, have been for YEARS lol, because i keep hearing "author problematic" and then never remember Why because i have Goldfish Memory). I will not post your off-anon ask with the artwork unless you want me to (want you to feel comfy on the blog and sending asks and I know you prefer anon!), but i will say that your art is AWESOME, my friend!! you are SO good and you're only going to keep getting better! I am glad you enjoy it!

Also bestie. This is a neurodivergent space lol, my life also revolves around shows/games/books/etc. they are the only thing that make the monotony of life and job-having under a neurotypical capitalistic society bearable lol. I actually have been getting back into reading ACTUAL BOOKS lately which feels GREAT (because reading Actual Books when i am so tired and Non-Functioning all the time is Hard lol), i am finally going through my seemingly-endless TBR and also have reread some old faves this year. Games-wise, the only thing i ever think about is still the Dragon Age games, Alistair is the love and light of my life lol. Show-wise.... i am in Limbo because of the Exhaustion, tragically, and also just waiting on new seasons (OFMD). Witcher has a new season out, but i have not watched it yet because Energy and also i have no motivation to because the last season they put out was so bad (even if i hear this one is good, i have lost trust lol)

Writing is. Not quite going lol. I have not finished a fanfic in ages, and also have made little to no progress on any of my original work attempts either, tragically. Hopefully things look up for me soon cuz I wanna get stuff DONE again lol, this blog has become so quiet and near obsolete because i cannot FINISH anything and it is TRAGIC.

Also, I have little-to-no drawing skills, but I also unfortunately do not have much energy to apply to drawing you a picture atm :(( maybe someday. Sometimes I can draw something that makes me go "omg i am not Awful, maybe I could actually put thoughts and energy into learning this as a skill" and other times it is like "i will never put pencil to paper (or stylus to screen) ever again" lol. Maybe someday when i am doing Better again i will hopefully have the energy to draw you something!!

#ask #anon #H anon #oh also fun fact i am teaching myself like. how do you say it in a way that makes sense lol. like how to make resin crafts n such

[jondalars]

movies, tv shows, and books of 2021

((* is a rewatch/reread; currently watching; can’t get through))

Survivor (s17, s18, s19, s20 & *, s21, s22, s23, s24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, s34, s35, s36, s37, s38, s39, s40)

Bridgerton (s1)

Klaus (2019)

The Year of Spectacular Men (2017)

After We Collided (2020)

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier *

Flower (2017)

The Queen’s Gambit (s1)

Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

Fjords Vol. 1 by Zachary Schomburg

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!  (s1)

Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer (s1)

Mr. Sunshine (s1)

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

What We Do In the Shadows (s1*, s2)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson *

One More Time (s1)

To All the Boys: Always and Forever (2021)

Party Down (s1, s2)

We the Living by Ayn Rand *

Lost (s1*)

Love Island (s1)

I Care A Lot (2020)

Space Sweepers (2021)

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller *

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo *

How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer *

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo *

Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang

No One is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Troy: Fall of a City (s1*)

Two Weeks Notice (2002) *

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo *

Love Alarm (s1*, s2)

Eating Fire: Selected Poetry 1965-1995 by Margaret Atwood

Force Majeure (2014)

Nathan for You (s1, s2, s3, s4)

The Way of the Househusband (s1 & LA shorts)

Heaven Official’s Blessing (s1 & **)

Unreal (s1)

Why Did You Kill Me? (2021)

Modern Persuasion (2020)

Lords of Dogtown (2005*)

The Circle (s1, s2, s3)

Too Hot to Handle (s1)

Cheer (s1*)

Shadow and Bone (s1)

Strangers from Hell (s1)

Dawson’s Creek (s1)

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo *

Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler

Next in Fashion (s1)

Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood

Saint Maud (2021)

500 Days of Summer (2009) *

Are You the One? (s1, s2)

Tale of the Nine-Tailed (s1)

The Woman in the Window (2021)

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo *

I Told Sunset About You / I Promised You the Moon (s1, s2)

Ragnarok (s2)

Ultimate Beastmaster (s1)

Bo Burnham: Inside (2021)

Word of Honor (s1 & *)

Bo Burnham: what. (2013) *

Dune by Frank Herbert

Because This is My First Life (s1)

Siddartha by Hermann Hesse *

Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (s1 & *)

The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh

I May Destroy You (s1)

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden *

Vampire Academy (2014) *

Guardian (s1)

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden *

This Is Pop (s1)

The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden

Good on Paper (2021)

Broken English (2007)

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (s2)

Santa Clarita Diet (s1, s2, s3)

Silver Skates (2020)

Love O2O (s1)

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis *

The Wife by Meg Wolitzer

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Beast (2017)

Bad Trip (2020)

We’ll Take Manhattan (2012)

Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat

Prince’s Gambit by C.S. Pacat

Kings Rising by C.S. Pacat

American Royals by Katharine McGee

Majesty by Katharine McGee

Advance Bravely (s1)

The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis *

Fear Street Part One: 1994 (2021)

Fear Street Part Two: 1978 (2021)

Fear Street Part Three: 1666 (2021)

Major Grom: Plague Doctor (2021)

Mo Dao Zu Shi by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu *

The Mole (s1)

Blood Red Sky (2021)

Deep (2021)

Tian Guan Ci Fu by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)

Clickbait (s1)

Touch Your Heart (s1)

What If (2013) *

Two Night Stand (2014) *

Detroit (2017)

French Exit (2020)

School of Rock (2003) *

Level 16 (2018)

An Education (2009) *

Catch Me If You Can (2002) *

Ashes of Love (s1)

Kolyma Stories by Varlam Shalamov trans. Donald Rayfield

The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books and the People Who Read Them by Elif Batuman

Squid Game (s1)

Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov

Fire on the Mountain by Terry Bisson

The Circle France (s1)

Frisk by Dennis Cooper

The Circle Brazil (s1)

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy trans. Anthony Briggs

Paradise Hills (2019)

The Guilty (2021)

Fleabag (s1*, s2*)

All Good Things (2010)

Instead of Tipsy Why Not Get Drunk (s1)

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion *

The Sundial by Shirley Jackson *

Nirvana in Fire (s1)

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson *

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton *

10 Things I Hate About You (1999) *

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin *

Insiders (s1)

Persuasion by Jane Austen *

You (s3)

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life by George Saunders

Nox by Anne Carson *

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

The New Guy (2002) *

Knives Out (2019) *

Midnight Mass (s1)

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin

Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim (s1)

21 Jump Street (2012) *

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Love Hard (2021)

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach *

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

You by Caroline Kepnes

Train to Busan (2016) *

Community (s1*, s2*, s3*, s4*)

The Martian by Andy Weir

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert *

City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

Mine (s1)

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood *

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star (2021)

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon *

Jingle All the Way (1996) *

Elf (2003) *

Death’s End by Liu Cixin

The Scum Villain’s Self-saving System (vol 1) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Mo Dao Zu Shi (s1*, s2*)

Single All the Way (2021)

#personal #2021 #this year i need to read more new books and rly limit my rereading i feel #spinning out was... v bad #cherry magic omg even just the full title is hilarious #dang.. hulu only has 34 seasons of survivor #what WILLL i DOOOO #lmao already failing on reading new books #too bad i dont track all the fic i read cause this would be truly outta control #actually signed up for c b s so i can finish survivor ahhh #love alarm s2 - v glad she finally got with the other dude #heart hort real bad when she disappeared from this future thing tho ahhhhhh #guess im gonna have to read tgcf #that special ep sure was... special !!!!! #can u even say i watched outer banks? in many ways.... no but it sure did play all the way thru soo.. also no #uhhh so this shadow and bone show..... why?? #was strangers from hell good? no was that man vvvv hot? yes thank you #oooof dawsons is a big No from me #9tailed was v cute.... also when she throws herself off that building and he comes after her HeLLOOOO #if we're separated by fate...... what should i do v i should give up shouldnt i???? SCREAMMMMM #finally finished the last half of i may destroy you #an eng vers of mdzs that i can actually own??? ahhhhhhhhhh anyways this is still the exr vers #tgcf WOOOOOF the bamboo hatttttt :(((((((((((((((( #french exit... terrible #hmm nirvana in fire no longer in my region on viki?? ep12 #ahhhhh eng vers of mxtx that i can actually own!!!!!!!!! #let see if i can finish svsss by the end of the year... #uhh of course i can #ah didnt quite finish my woh rewatch before the end - on ep 27

[silverbastardgoldenfool]

Realm of the Quarantine Reread End-of-Book Questionnaire: Royal Assassin

Any differences between your first/previous reading experience and this one?

Not as stark a difference as with Assassin’s Apprentice, but definitely still there. Apart from all the obvious stuff, like feeling much more attached to the characters already and picking up more details, I think the biggest change was a complete lack of patience for the teen romance drama lol. There was a decent period where I was feeling quite frustrated with it. Not that I loved it the first time round, but back then I had a very different view of how it fit into the story. I saw it as teaching Fitz a depressing lesson of what it really means to be a royal bastard and a king’s man. Fitz’s literal need (for all he knows he would have been killed if not for his deal with Shrewd) and sense of duty to put his loyalty to his king and country first creates a relationship that is toxic, turbulent and built on lies. And teenage horniness masquerading as love. I saw all that the first time and thought it was just something he had to go through. Now I know it’s something he never really goes through but rather grips onto, romanticises and ultimately goes back to. I know the point of that is meant to be that he finally gets to have something for himself, but why it had to be Molly specifically??? I have very few qualms with Robin’s writing choices overall, but why she chose to write their relationship this way if they really are meant to be is beyond me, especially when so many of her other romances are written so well - it feels like it can’t possibly be unintentional. For most of this book they’re either fighting or fucking and honey! That ain’t love! Hell, Fitz all but sees her as just another demand on his time as the book goes on. But he can’t let her go because she’s the one thing he can point to that makes him feel normal. Not happy, not cherished, not safe. Normal. She’s simply a refuge from his real life. He literally says to Chade “I need her.” I find that so telling, man. It’s not really about her, which is a shame because Molly is great. They’re just really not good for each other.

So yeah. It’s just kind of trying to read all the Fitz/Molly stuff when you know and don’t like what it ultimately culminates in. At the same time… Bee… So I will always be conflicted lol. I just can’t separate the events of Royal Assassin from the furious disappointment I felt when I finished Fool’s Fate. Perhaps I’ll have a new Fool’s Fate experience this time that will make the next re-read a bit easier in regards to Fitz and Molly? But I won’t bet on it lol.

Anyway. It’s not as if I haven’t already said just about everything there possibly is to say about Fitz and Molly yet I also feel like I could go on about it forever. Luckily this is kind of as bad as it gets in terms of how much “screen time” they actually get (apart from Fool’s Assassin maybe? But they don’t bother me too much in that) so yay! I made it! And hopefully it’ll be a good few books before y’all have to endure my ranting about it again :)) Also hopefully this doesn’t give the impression that this read was more bad than good? It was mostly just a particular angsty chunk before they properly get together that was a bit of a slog to get through, but overall I really loved reading this book again and got a lot out of it.

Something you can’t believe you forgot

That Molly punches Fitz in the face hard enough that he bleeds and that Fitz fully intended to punch the Fool for asking if Molly was preggo before seeing he had already been beaten. I pretend I do not see it.

Favourite character introduction moments/scenes

Omfg I was just about to say “huh we didn’t really get any major character intros in this book” bitch Nighteyes???? But in my defence I just. Cannot process the fact that Nighteyes is only really in 3 of 16 books he just feels omnipresent to me BUT his introduction is most definitely iconique and god I love him and he made me cry eight thousand times!

Favourite character arcs

Speaking of Nighteyes: what a glow up. He goes from angry, scared, untrusting little bb to……. Nighteyes. Like. How does one even describe the kind of person Nighteyes becomes. He’s just Nighteyes and I love him with all my fuckin heart!! He is Fitz’s constant… He is wise… He is silly… a comedic genius…… a big, open, unconditional heart. Incomparable. I can’t believe I’ve seen ppl saying they dislike/d Nighteyes……. Honey…… it’s called taste xx

Favourite quote/s

Again no tabs so it’s a bit harder to keep track but there were a few that stuck out enough to copy down. There are a lot of iconic quotes in this book that get shared a lot so I only bothered with ones I didn’t remember.

- “I wince to think of the price willingly paid for loving me.”

- “My soft, clean bed beckoned, like a soft, clean tomorrow.” (mood)

- “I looked and saw they were both made of hungers, like containers made of emptiness.”

Favourite relationships

Kettricken/Verity obviously. I was shocked by how little time they actually have together being in love before Verity leaves??? Because all I remembered was how strong their love is. But the whole journey towards that love is what makes it stand out as an actual compelling story in its own right. This is definitely one of Robin’s greatest skills as a writer; giving the minor characters depth by giving them their own relationships that grow and change and have a life of their own outside of Fitz. It makes the world feel so much more alive.

Also Burrich/Fitz in this book continues to be bittersweet, but with a lot more sweet in there than usual! They fully start out this book as a team. Burrich calling Fitz “FitzChivalry” makes me fuckin emo and idk why even. Burrich does seem to start seeing Fitz a lot more as his own person in this book which changes their dynamic in some rly nice ways. The fact that towards the end of the book Burrich even uses the wit to help Fitz is enough to make me cry tbh - and writing this has made me realise that I’m officially past any uncomplicated good times between Burrich and Fitz y’all mind if I fuckin die real quick!!

Fitz/Verity is soy pure and beautiful. Fitz and the Fool is always, always compelling and complex and tender and perfectly mysterious. But overall you’d have to say Fitz/Nighteyes, hey? They are literally meant to be, in a way so straightforward and undeniable and beautifully simple that I never really know what to say about it. Little brother!!! :’) They literally make me cry all the frickin time lol rip!

Favourite setting

There aren’t that many to choose from in this book! Ima go with the skill river bc hey, Robin’s magic systems are so unique and beautiful and the fact that the skill is written as a kind of a place is really frickin cool and deserves a shoutout.

Favourite chapter

The final chapter (not the epilogue) ummm broke my heart but it is written so beautifully, oh my god, it’s like an out of body experience. I feel like this is kind of when RotE becomes RotE - the first time it really goes to that place that is so fitting yet so unexpected, so beautiful, so tragic, so awful, so visceral. Making use of the genre to really test the limits of humanity; to see how far you can bend a person without breaking them and then refusing to turn away from the consequences. Idk man!! I don’t know how to describe it without sounding like a pretentious dick but it really is that intense and strange and overwhelming for me. There is something in that moment, when Burrich pulls Fitz’s body out of the earth and Fitz/Nighteyes is recoiling from it and deeply terrified… Something about the enormity of the existential questions raised converging with the pinpoint specificity of it all being wrapped up in the story of a character that feels so real and who you care about so deeply… It’s almost written like a horror scene, but that’s not quite the feeling. It’s just the RotE feeling; there are multiple throughout all five series, and it’s what makes these books unlike any other.

Most loved character

Fitz, Nighteyes, the Fool all had my entire heart this book. The Fool is just so sad and pathetic and literally must be protected!! I think I’m kind of obsessed with Burrich? Also I think I almost forgot how much I love Kettricken? She’s a complete badass of course but she’s also got the biggest goddamn heart like…. Who said she was allowed to be such a beautiful person???

But god, everyone. I love them all.

Most hated character

What can I say? Regal is disgostang. Wall Ass a close second.

Raise your hand if you’ve been personally victimised by Robin Hobb (most heartbreaking and/or visceral moments)

Shall I list just a few? :)

- Burrich screaming at Fitz through the bars of his jail cell, horrible things you can’t help but feel are at least a little bit true

- Burrich sobbing over Fitz’s dead body repeating, “You aren’t dead, you aren’t dead.”

- Fitz going to Nighteyes before everything went down on the night of the coronation and just fuckin hugging him really tight

- Fitz trying desperately to leave his broken vessel behind but not quite being able to disown his body

- The Fool being beaten

- The Fool being beaten again

- The Fool sprawled and weeping across Shrewd’s dead body

- The Fool really believing for a moment that Fitz had betrayed him and killed Shrewd

- Fitz tending the Fool’s wounds………. bitch….

- Chade giving Fitz a chance to escape with them and Fitz going to kill Serene and Justin instead

- Idk why this is even that sad but Nighteyes saying the only person he loves is Fitz!

- The entire incident with the forged ones literally tearing apart a three year old girl, which I had completely blocked out until now :)

- The fact that Fitz continues to be reminded and traumatised by this incident for the remainder of the book beCAUSE HE IS A GOOD BOY. A VERY GOOD BOY WITH A VERY GOOD HEART.

- Fitz repelling at Nighteyes to try and force their bond broken

- LITTLE BROTHER

- WOLVES HAVE NO KINGS

- High off his face Fitz calling Patience “mother” no shut the fuck up!!!!

Details, observations, spoilery notes made with the benefit of the full picture

- I’ve been trying for ages to decipher when the Fool started falling for Fitz, and I think I’m officially putting my money on their last interaction in AA. “I wish I had a place that was as much me as that place is you.” I mean. If someone said that to me… I’m not a slut but who knows, ya know? (I know this is more a note for the last book but I thought of it while reading this book. So shh.)

- It’s so clear to see this time how much Fitz’s sense of self and politics are affected by his time in the Mountains. He obviously feels much more inclined to their way of thinking about royalty and sacrifice and equality and returns to Buckkeep with a self-respect he’s never really had before. Weird how being among people who don’t just think of you as The Bastard will do that.

- It’s no wonder Fitz becomes so fixated on Molly; he literally has almost nothing else to occupy him and no companionship when she suddenly shows up

- It’s gross that he spies on her, obviously, but you can’t not take into account the fact that Chade has been teaching him since he was ten that this is justifiable behaviour; a reasonable way to gather information and get what you want. Fitz’s lack of social awareness goes further than him just being a little awkward; he has literally been trained to believe the only thing wrong with stalking would be getting caught.

- I’ve seen a few people talk about the fact that Regal isn’t appropriately punished as if it’s bad writing and like, while it is frustrating, it is supposed to be frustrating - it is not a plot hole. It made sense to me the first time I read it and it was even more obvious this time; Regal has the loyalty of the inland duchies. If he were to be publicly punished those dukes would rally behind him and raise hell, and Regal would no longer need to play the part of the dutiful prince. Even if Regal died a “natural” death - something I can’t see Shrewd or Verity orchestrating anyway - the inland dukes would feel that they no longer have a Farseer on their side and may, again, raise hell. It’s a delicate balance that would be outrageously difficult not to topple if you removed Regal from the equation. There is a lot more to it than I’ll bother writing here but yeah. I don’t really know how people can read this book and think that Regal retaining his life and position is some sort of lazy plot contrivance. It was all set up in the first book dude.

- Fitz and Nighteyes meeting in this book is the perfect metaphor for our need for connection versus the fear of inevitable loss. Fitz’s experience tells him that entering into a bond with an animal can only end in pain, yet he can’t resist it. In real life this is especially true with humans and our animal companions, since they almost always have a shorter lifespan than us; signing up to love them is signing up to lose them. But the same is also true of our relationships with other humans. And like Fitz, we have all had our fair share of loss and pain. We all have our reasons to be afraid of the connection we naturally crave. Sometimes we give in to the fear to the point of holding ourselves back from it entirely. That’s where Fitz is at when he meets Nighteyes. But what’s so beautiful about their arc as a metaphor is that it suggests that these connections, if we submit to them, are what keep our vital spark alive. Even when Nighteyes dies later in the series, the sentiment always remains, essentially, “It’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.” Ya boi is projecting bc it’s hard to be vulnerable and make friends as an adult, but I think the observation stands. Love and connection and vulnerability are key threads that run throughout all of Fitz’s story, but in this book it is best represented through him and Nighteyes.

- “I hoped I would not become too adept at lying to myself.” Honey, you got a big storm comin.

- Very inch resting (gay) that Fitz finds it hard to meet the Fool’s eyes. I know almost everyone does bc his eyes are weird, but I reserve the right to reach and I will absolutely NOT be accepting criticism.

- I find it interesting that Fitz says Kettricken’s wit is not strong just because she doesn’t use it exactly the way he does

- I know it’s not meant to be funny but……. The way Fitz described losing his virginity had me literally laughing out loud

- Fitz was really like “okay i better go break my bond with Nighteyes” just cos he and Molly fucked. Teenagers don’t deserve rights.

- You know what? I really, really appreciate how fucking weird these books are lol. What other author would use their magic system to have their characters accidentally intruding on each other’s awkward sex stuff? Okay, maybe a few, but they would do it to be like, edgy and sexy. Robin Hobb just does it to make you cringe so hard you lose several years off of your life.

- But seriously, even apart from the cringe stuff, these books get so strange and out there and like! That’s what magic is for! 

- Bruh. When Fitz is like “omg poor Verity…. He’ll never have what i have with Molly” I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone encapsulate the self-important delusion of teen romance so perfectly lol. Wow.

- Okay some Fitz/Fool stuff that made me lose my tiny mind. Sorry.

- Fitz literally said about the Fool “he burned too brightly” I WILL DIE.

- Fitz is always like, irritated by the Fool… yet positively delighted by his presence at the same time…… okay bitch

- Inch resting how Fitz has always been uncomfortable with the Fool getting serious. I don’t quite know how to put my thoughts on this into words so like. I’ll just put it there. Make of it what you will.

- “Sit on my clothes chest and take your shirt off…” i stopped fucking breathing noah fence

- “I ran my fingers lightly down the line of his jaw, and around his eye socket. At least no bone seemed damaged. ‘Who did this to you?’ I asked him.” my GOD this is literally textbook gay/romance. It hurts me. It physically hurts me.

- Straight from my notes: “I can’t even focus on reading this bc it’s the first time they are tending each other’s wounds and I am a homosexual!” and “the gays are quaking!! (it’s me I’m the gays)

- Okay wow! I think that’s it! Hello if you made it this far! Hope this was remotely coherent and I’m always keen to hear your thoughts on my thoughts :)

Anyone doing a reread feel free to fill this out! You don’t have to use the tag :)

#rote #realm of the elderlings #royal assassin #royal assassin spoilers #fitzchivalry farseer #realm of the quarantine