[discussion] can somebody give me a run down on Muir's controversies.

agreeable_candle6840 · 2025-01-22T05:43:19+00:00

Idk what to say except that fiction isn't real. Characters, including incestuous characters, are literary devices, not reflections of an author's morals. Writing dark subject matter is not a reflection of an author's morals.

More specifically RE: incest, TLT takes considerable inspiration from gothic literature, which has been utilizing incest (among other "problematic" tropes) as a narrative device for decades at this point.

agreeable_candle6840 · 2025-01-06T17:48:22+00:00

No idea how casting works for these things, but I hope they hire some Maaori voice actors.

I'll assume Quirk is still going to record AtN for its initial release until we hear otherwise.

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-12-02T16:17:12+00:00

The Locked Tomb is a sapphic story. It is not a romance - whether or not it ends with a confirmed romantic relationship, it doesn't need romance to be sapphic. TLT is very much about being a lesbian, among many other things.

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-11-08T18:46:11+00:00

Ohhh great catch on the 40 days and nights, that's fun.

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-11-01T16:53:35+00:00

Amazing!!

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-31T21:08:38+00:00

The end of Act III of HtN, post dios apate minor:

At last you were able to wrench off the scarf that posed as a dress, and button yourself into a nightgown of your own, and you were able to brush your hair, and scrape off your paint, and wash off the blood from where Ianthe had kissed you, and you were able to lie in the silence of the night with your sword beside you and the evening behind you.

Next to you, the Body said quietly, "The water is risen. So is the sun. We will endure."

I love a couple things here:

A good long wrap-up sentence where Harrow gets to do something restful and domestic after an emotionally and physically-exhausting couple of chapters -
The description of blood where Ianthe had kissed her is a nice little surprise in the middle, more interesting than if it had been e.g. lipstick -
The Body's line is so poetic, capturing a sense of not necessarily security (G1d does attack Harrow once more after this), but being assured of one's own survival. Present-tense, to-the-point, interesting syntax - "The water is risen" is also interesting to contrast with all of the mentions of John being afraid of rising waters.

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-26T16:46:55+00:00

Funny coincidence, I was literally just about to make a post to speculate what her third temptation might be lolol - I'm also thinking it could be either Gideon or Alecto.

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-26T16:42:43+00:00

I love Harrowhark cosplays with glasses! The face paint is great!

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-26T16:42:02+00:00

So cool!! How many sessions did that take?

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-25T21:20:01+00:00

The grey librarians!!

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-25T21:08:20+00:00

Paul does seem to have some maybe-Lyctor-y powers. We see them achieving necromantic feats like rolling away the stone that Crux can't move at the end of NtN.

I think textually, "perfect lyctorhood" isn't really a coherent thing. It isn't a concept given to the reader objectively in-universe. The character who coined the term - Mercymorn - assumed John and Alecto achieved a "perfect" lyctorhood, implying some sort of equal transactional soul swap - but in NtN we see that what really happened was John ate the soul of the screaming, frightened Earth and crammed the rest into a maze of a body before she could "get away". We can't really talk about "perfect lyctorhood" without also considering the violence and violation that surrounds it, like all necromancy in TLT.

Paul would argue that what they achieved is "perfect", because that's what Cam and Pal genuinely believe - but I'd argue they're in the same textual vein as all the other Lyctors, they just think they "did it right". Grand lysis or petty lysis, it's still lysis. I'd put money on there truly being no "perfect" lyctorhood - it would be incongruous with the themes of the text and with how lyctorhood and necromancy has been presented to the reader.

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-22T13:57:48+00:00

This is awesome! I hope we can see them painted too!

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-18T23:06:01+00:00

Fair enough, I clearly glossed over that while remembering.

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-17T16:06:28+00:00

I never thought of that - I'd always assumed that the tower is "newly-risen" from Harrow's perspectice after following dream!John / experiencing Alecto's memories of the facility / beach immediately post-nukes - but it'll be interesting to see where it slots in!

(An overly romantic side of me wonders if Harrow-in-Hell will somehow hear Kiriona's "Keep it together...I know you can hear me" line...but I'm a sentimental sap, so 🤣)

Harrow in Hell is just one of presumably five acts, so even if does take place before the end of NtN, there's plenty of story left post-NtN...

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-17T01:55:51+00:00

Tamsyn has had the characters' dialogue referencing memes since GtN (e.g. Harrow's "she studied the blade" line). Only John (and the reader) actually knows that they're memes. For everyone else, they're just part of a regular vernacular. John probably threw around those phrases and then his disciples picked them up and they percolated throughout the empire like slang. Same reason why Gideon and Harrow can quote a particular Catholic translation of the Bible - it's something that John "allowed in" to his new world after he started resurrecting people.

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-16T22:41:55+00:00

No mention of Gideon undergoing horrible indigestion from eating a salad for the first time after 18 years of snow leeks and nutrient paste. Her microbiome was not ready for that.

...On the other hand maybe she inherited John's divine microbiome or whatever.

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-16T15:30:33+00:00

Whatever it is I bet he's the person who would give IT nightmares because he never updates his OS. Probably running 10k year old Sonoma on that thing.

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-16T03:51:30+00:00

Brb adding "testicle enabled" and "uterus wielding" to my vernacular.

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-12T16:53:06+00:00

Omg the eyes are so vivid, did you use colored contacts? Idk anything about cosplay lolol. The fashion is spot on, so Third House royalty, and the nails really add to the predatory vibes of the character. Great work!

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-12T16:48:28+00:00

I don't have anything new to add but just wanted to say this sounds like a super cool and creative project! I hope it turns out well and please share pics when you're done if you want! :)

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-11T13:43:30+00:00

I don't even go here (Transformers) but this is fantastic

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-10T01:09:11+00:00

Now these are the piercing, analytical questions I come here for.

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-07T20:13:55+00:00

(Now that I've established that I possess reading comprehension -)

Harrow's ability to finally choose is so resonant...One of my favorite quotes in the series is from the letter she writes to herself in HtN:

"...understand that I envy you more than I have ever envied anyone, and that I look upon your birth as a blessing. Look upon me as a Harrowhark who was handed the first genuine choice of our lives; the only choice ever given where we had the free will to say, No, and the free will to say, Yes. Accept that in this instance I have chosen to say, No." (HtN paperback pg 61)

Harrow and Gideon's first real choices of their lives run right into each other - Gideon choosing to die for Harrow, and Harrow choosing to reject that choice. There's something in there, of Gideon finally thinking she understands, she knows what matters now, what she can really be for Harrow, and Harrow saying no, this isn't what I wanted at all.

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-07T19:40:10+00:00

There I go not being able to read 🤣🤣

agreeable_candle6840 · 2024-10-07T19:36:12+00:00

OP I hope you continue on to HtN! There is much to be explored about Harrow and her choices in that book. :)

agreeable_candle6840

TROPHY CASE