Addi

[addisong]

One of the biggest differences between Riko and Kevin (in my opinion) is their approach to Exy. 

I genuinely don’t believe Riko cared the least bit about Exy beyond what it could do for him (i.e. get the attention of his father/brother and provide external validation to subdue his inferiority complex). I don’t think it was anything he appreciated or derived pleasure from the way Kevin clearly does. If Riko hadn’t been raised in an environment where his entire life and his only avenue for success really was based around Exy, he would not have thought twice about his uncle’s passion project sport. 

On the other hand, Kevin genuinely loves Exy. His passion for it is more an inherent thing which goes beyond receiving a pat on the back (though he does love attention and being told he did a good job, I don’t think it’s a necessity for him or else he would quit). Yes, he is obsessed with playing a perfect game, but I think that’s more for his own sake than anyone else. Kevin would still be on court in the middle of the night practicing even if no one was there to track his progress and applaud. Even if there was no one offering to sign him for a professional team. 

Riko was talented from years and years of training, but at the end of the day, talent can only get you so far without the passion to back it up. Kevin has both, which is why ultimately he always performed better on court and was the best out of the two of them.

[iveneverbeenanaturalt]

I saw a post i really loved about the circle members, and one thing that really stood out to me was something i’ve always liked in the books.

Jocelyn isn’t rude, but she’s also not that kind of mother character who feels like everyone’s mum and the warmest, gentlest person in the room. she loves clary more than anything and would do absolutely anything for her. clary even says she knows what unconditional love feels like because of her mother. you can see little bits of that warmth with simon too, but what i really like is that jocelyn isn’t written like motherhood is her entire personality. she loves her daughter deeply, but she isn’t automatically nurturing with everyone around her just because she’s a mother. it’s pretty much the same with maryse. there’s a clary quote in cog that’s always stood out to me, and it pretty much says exactly what i’m trying to say in this post.

“She disappeared back into the shadows without even a word of farewell. Clary stared after her, feeling as if she’d just been drenched with ice water. Alec and Isabelle seemed genuinely fond of their mother, and she was sure Maryse wasn’t a bad person, really, but she wasn’t exactly warm.”

her children clearly love her, and it’s obvious she loves them and would do anything for them, but again, she’s their mother. not everyone else’s. and i really love that about both of them.

a lot of ya mothers usually fall into one of two extremes. either they’re terrible mums who barely care, or they’re the perfect maternal figure whose whole purpose in the story is giving advice, being endlessly gentle, and basically adopting every emotionally damaged teenager around them. in tmi, that role honestly ends up fitting luke way more. jocelyn and maryse are pragmatic. they’re not cruel, but they’re also not written as the softest, sweetest women in the world just because they have children. and i love that.

[desperatecheesecubes]

It’s actually so funny to me that all those years while the Lightwoods were raising Jace, Robert would have heard stories about Valentine and thought ‘Damn, Michael really changed over the years. Almost like he’s a completely different person.’

[tiredandoptimistic]

This moment is a fascinating example of CC's bloodline writing conflicting with her chosen family writing. Jem is primarily invested in Jace because he reminds him of Will, and he regularly makes confident statements about Jace on the grounds of him being a Herondale. This is frustrating to Maryse and Jace, because it completely ignores the people who raised him (as well as his personal experiences) and instead credits his entire personality to the genetic influence of people he never met. In this case, Jem is trying to reassure Maryse, but in doing so he completely invalidates her role as his mother. This is fucked up, and I think a very interesting study of how Jem is so focused on looking for traces of Will everywhere he goes that he can't really recognize anybody else as an independent person with opinions and influence anymore. Herondales are all ghosts of Will to him, not complex individuals in their own right. There's something similar in The Last Stand of the New York Institute, when Magnus tries to address Stephen based on his relationship with Will, and learns very conclusively that being Will's descendant doesn't actually mean he shares Will's values. It's a classic case of immortality leading people to make judgements based on the past rather than the present.

That said, I don't know how much CC is intentionally writing this as a flaw in Jem's character, because her writing 100% supports it. Jace is incredibly similar to every other Herondale man, even though he has no personal connection to any of them (except for Kit, but he didn't meet him until adulthood). There is a pattern in TSC that families will have personality traits passed along genetically, which does happen to some degree, but I don't think that a fear of ducks is something coded into most people's DNA. It makes this weird contradiction where Jace has to learn that his genetics don't define him and he can choose who he is (Jace Lightwood, son of Robert and Maryse and brother of Alec, Isabelle, and Max) but at the same time he still has The Herondale Personality and eventually starts identifying with that bloodline.

Anyways, the Jace Lightwood agenda never rests.

[carelessflower]

tsc nepotism baby suggestion go

[angelicpowerblog]

[addisong]

Do you ever think about how easy it would be to commit a hit and run? 

[addisong]

history has it's eyes on you

[maritteknewtheenemy]

SOTR the reaping could be brilliant if in like two years SC released a book with very little/no initial marketing called 'Sunset on the Reaping' that is about Haymitch Abernathy, an indigenous kid from the seam, getting reaped by the random cruelty of the Hunger Games system who then has to say goodbye to his family and his very normal non fairy princess girlfriend to take part in the 50th hunger games. A Haymitch Abernathy who watches the twelve year old child of a past victor die but he can't quite remember the victor's name, just that he was from District 3. This Haymitch forges a relationship with Maysilee Donner from his district that is contentious but real and he never calls her 'sis' the way someone who has never had a sister thinks people treat their sisters. He's determined to get home to his kid brother and overworked mom and very normal girlfriend- but he's still absolutely gutted when Maysilee is killed. She haunts him forever and so does her twin sister back in the district. His stunt with the forcefield is enough to get his mom and his kid brother and his very normal girlfriend killed. He never sees them again. We get to see his first year as mentor when he meets a man named Chaff from the district right next to and yet so far from his who makes him laugh and hands him a bottle full of liquid that burns all the way down and numbs his throat and his head and the whole damn world for the next twenty five years. It never once references SOTR, it's characters or anything that happened in it, but it is so clearly the true, gritty, hopeless depiction of Haymitch's games. There's no rebel subplot. No hint of rebellion. Just 47 dead kids and the victor who won by his wits and his weapons but lost everything anyway and now has to live with that. It starts with a boy and ends with a bitter, jaded young man.

THAT would make SOTR a literary masterpiece. THAT would make the theme of propaganda in SOTR brilliant instead of the flattest execution of anything I've ever seen from SC. If 'Sunset on the Reaping' was quietly released SOTR becomes the biggest cautionary tale about propaganda and trusting the wrong sources and bandwagoning and the pretty, satisfying lies that true propaganda is trussed up in. Knowing SOTR was supposed to be ABOUT propaganda but not realizing it WAS the propaganda until this other hypothetical book came out would be the most brilliant cautionary tale. 'Sunset on the Reaping' tanking in sales and not being promoted would be poetic. It being more unpopular or panned because it didn't have any fanservice or callbacks to the original trilogy would be cinematic. I'd eat that shit up. I'd hope it was NEVER adapted into a film. I'd never shut up about it ever.

I know it would never happen. I know SC would never do it and she'd never write a book designed not to make money. But if I was SC that's what I would do.

[addisong]

Really love the poetic irony of Riko and Kevin being called the Sons of Exy but Kevin is the only real son of exy to exist 

[bluecookieeggspizza-blog]

part 6

[addisong]

Im getting an itch to talk about the circle 

[addisong]

Just saw Hamilton on Broadway. Absolutely insane. No words.

[addisong]

it’s my birthday 🎉

[the-witch-forever-lives]

kevin day encountering alysa liu and her story.

[starlightshadowsworld]

No because even Riko got beaten in the Nest. Even Riko, King of the Court, the Masters nephew had to answer to him like any other Raven when it came down to it.

Yes he got let off so much easier than anyone else and yes he had so much power and privilege within the Nest and over them.

But it still didn’t spare him so I don’t know why people think Kevin got let off the hook. He was in a higher position than most people but if even Riko didn’t get spared why would he?!

He might stand as his equal in public but at the end of the day he was still Riko’s property. And you think he got treated better than his master?

[pansexual-lilychen]

i think it’s time we as a fandom finally acknowledge that the shadowhunter covers have historically always been a little ugly

[parched-chaos]

God's angel