the entire cast has honestly no obligation to adhere to house standards anymore, considering their status as either lyctors/defectors, and, more importantly, how their necromancers have treated them. camilla's necromancer is dead, and she has been hanging on to his scraps for over a year; gideon's necromancer squirreled her away in her brain and then disappeared without context or warning; and alecto's necromancer locked her away for the benefit of everyone but her. they all have VERY interesting perspectives on what their "duties" are in regards to this, but that's a different post - point is, they could be free, and they would have every right to it. and i think that having nona "be free" in the sense that she does not know she is a cavalier and is allowed to just be a girl with desires who loves freely, and have her personhood and autonomy be so central to the plot, is so so good when contrasted with camilla and gideon's devotion (and even alecto's devotion!). all camilla and gideon want is to be with their necromancers, despite it all, quite literally to death - the peak of cavaliership is to die for your necromancer and let them eat you. they are trying so hard to die, in order to become half of a whole. and all nona wants is to be herself! ("How to say that she wanted to go as Nona—with all her thoughts and feelings being Nona feelings, which might only be about six months old and therefore not very good, but were still her own?") and her freedom kills her anyway. it raises the question of if there is an escape from the constructs of the houses, or if there is a "right way" to have a necro/cav relationship, or if personhood has a place in the grand scheme of things at all, and its turned my brain into scrambled egg!!!
ellievsbear
romaincrisis
titsay
gummygunk
