I wonder if the Winged Lion ate Marcille's hair (desires) in part to keep her dependent on him & more easily controlled.
I had already noticed that he has a tendency to frame her power in ways that keep her reliant on him. It's a some classic manipulation bullshit - he appears helpful, but he is constantly pushing her towards isolation.
See, for example: offering at first to give her a full view of the dungeon to help her find Laios and the others, knowing its painful for her -
And then offering using monsters to search instead, which keeps her less aware of what's actually happening
(This post by @mmikmmik has some GREAT insights into this particular moment as well, and is a large part of what has me thinking about the ways the Winged Lion manipulates Marcille in general.)
Or there's also the way that he pushes HER to be the one to attack the Canaries, making her more explicitly their enemy and more directly responsible for their injuries...
Even though moments later he's perfectly happy to deal with Mithrun himself, without Marcille's guidance (he even hides the act from her).
All of these things keep her isolated, all of these things keep him in control.
But if the Winged Lion wants as much control over Marcille as possible, and wants her only to act through him and his powers, you know what else he probably wants to suppress? Her magic.
And what helps her keep in touch with her magic?
Her hair.
Think about it. Thistle was such a thorn in the Lion's side in part because he was able to seal the Lion in those books and act independently. The last thing the Winged Lion wants is another mage getting out from under his thumb.
Plus, we already know the Lion can be tactical with how he consumes desires. We know because we just saw him eat Thistle’s desire to resist, only a few chapters before turning his charms on Marcille.
So, if he wants to make use of Marcille, wants to keep her under his control, and doesn’t want to show his hand - he can use a similar technique.
Something as small as eating her desire to take care of her hair wouldn’t be noticed right away, but it would keep her disconnected from herself. It would be another small step in undermining her ability to act - to keep her friends safe, to achieve her goals, to fix things - without him. To make her feel like the only way out was to obey.
friend sent me an Instagram reel yesterday with 1000s of likes that was basically like "pride and prejudice is timeless actually because it's about an autism4autism romance 🥰" and then the creator proceeded to cite moments in the book and film where Lizzie and Darcy are "socially awkward" and....listen. I'm far from an Austen scholar, but I have taught Austen novels as an educator and this kind of psycho-pop analysis that views characters as individuals with autonomy over their actions, rather than tools in a story written at a particular time to say something about that time, pisses me off more than I can say without sounding like an asshole. I'm sorry but Darcy isn't rude and awkward and even cruel to Lizzie because he has autism, he says and does those things because he's a wealthy upper class land owning man raised to see a middle class woman from a large family with no male heirs like Elizabeth as inherently beneath him which he expresses to her multiple times because it is socially acceptable for him to do so in a society where someone like him is privileged above almost all others. He is "socially awkward" around her because of misogyny and classism (PREJUDICE) and she is "socially awkward" around him because a woman of her standing at that time simply wouldn't have had much to do with the gentry but to actually push back against the shit that Darcy says would be social suicide for her whole family so she protests the only way she can which is refusing his advances (PRIDE). not to be the "context collapse is the death of media literacy" guy. But this is the problem with the kind of head empty, let people enjoy things, if I can't relate to it what's the point type crowd. Youse think you're being so quirky justifying incoherent and anachronistic interpretations with your rampant individualism, ensuring that other people never confront anything that challenges them in these stories like patriarchal misogyny and classism. Pride and Prejudice becomes an "autism4autism romance", completely undermining the historical context of its status as one of the great social satires about the class and gender politics that Austen so expertly observed around her. This attitude is why we have nonsensical historical dramas that actively hate history like fucking edgy bdsm "Wuthering Heights", Bridgerton, The Buccaneers, and even a 2025 Frankenstein movie where the monster is just misunderstood and does no wrong uwu etc. because individual relatability and catharsis is king over anything actually saying anything about anything now. Everything is relatable and nothing is meaningful.
Yeah Mr. Darcy’s proposal was a complete turd and a half but you gotta understand.
You got your life together. A good career, stable income, retirement plan, all that shit together. And you meet this girl. And she’s everything. Clever, outspoken, funny, calls you on your bullshit. Grade A cutie, right? And she doesn’t go out of her way to spend time with you but she’s nice, and sometimes you catch her looking your way in a way that makes you think you might have a shot.
But her family. Holy shit.
First off, it’s p much ALL women, and mostly UNMARRIED women, which at this time means of something happens to her dad then you’re financially responsible for like. Four grown ass adults, potentially forever
Because mom in law is DEFINITELY gonna need someone to take care of her when dad in law kicks it, and they have like. NO money. So already you’re accepting that if all goes well, you’re gonna be one random old bag’s retirement home. That’s expensive and exhausting, yeah? Imagine asking someone on a first date knowing that if they say yes and things go good her high-strung chihuahua mother is gonna move in with you. IMAGINE.
And girly’s other sisters. Well, one is a sweetheart, yeah, and she’s getting engaged so she probably won’t be an issue, but that still leaves two more, and those ones are INSUFFERABLE. Never went to school, dumb as rocks, spend cash like it’s toilet paper
And while one of ‘em’s young still and might grow out of it the OTHER one is actively torpedo’ing her entire family’s reputation by wandering off with random dudes and chasing ass. She’s never gonna work, she can’t build connections, she’s a fucking sinkhole, and she’s being led on by the same goddamn con man ass leeching tit who’s been bleeding you dry while telling anyone who’ll listen that your family is full of ratty thieving bastards.
And if he dumps her after a week- WHICH YOU KNOW HIS BITCH ASS IS GONNA- you’ve got a SECOND UNMARRIABLE GROWN ASS ADULT TO PROVIDE FOR. And you KNOW she’s gonna be a tantrum-throwing little shit about it, and it’s not like you can lock her in the basement or something, you’re gonna have to bring her fucking. Everywhere. And give her an allowance and shit while she contributes zero, because again, she NEVER GOT EDUCATED AND HAS NO MARKETABLE SKILLS. She’s not even good to TALK to. FUCK
And you’re looking at this girl’s father like “please for the love of fuck get your spawn under control, marry them off, get them working on their résumé, learning to sew or be nursemaids or manage staff or SOMETHING, yall got no money and one foot in the grave” and that old man just laughs like “haha yeah, what can you do. lol”
So you’re looking to the mom and finally it’s making sense how she got that twitch in her eye and as MUCH as she is you’re starting to realize she’s the SMART one, desperately throwing her armloads of girls at random men like they’re a bunch of fucking lifeboats bobbing around a sinking ship, like yes Jesus Christ sweetly that life boat IS old and ugly and kind of boring but for FUCKS SAKE PICK ONE
And you look back at this girl who is ALSO REFUSING THE LIFE BOATS BY THE WAY and god damn it she’s still the most radiant thing you’ve ever seen so fine, fuck it, Christ alive, you’ll do it. You’ll shoot your shot. She’s everything you’ve ever wanted in anybody abut it’s not even just about that anymore, it’s about being her best fucking shot at a future, and even if she doesn’t like you all that much she’s still gonna say yes and that might break your heart a bit knowing it’s about the money but who knows, maybe it will at least be civil, or companionable, and even if she doesn’t LOVE you at least you’ll know she’s well and cared for
And so you’ll do it. You’ll take on the neurotic stress mess mother in law, the absent father, the broke ass wingnut no brain no money no future airhead sisters, the bad mannered relatives and the embarrassing behaviour and the impending future of sharing your entire shit with a clown parade of freeloaders, you’ll risk it all and accept the absolute certainty of financial ruin and emotional exhaustion for the rest of your whole ass life and you’ll make your own family deal with it too, you’ll do it, you’ll fucking DO IT, you stupid lovesick motherfucker
And so you go to this chick like “look. Your whole family’s a shitshow. You’ve got fucking nothing and you’re gonna die on the street. But for some reason- and I don’t get it either- I’ve fallen in love with you, and I wish I didn’t, but I did, so I’m telling you that whether you like me or not, I’ll give you everything. I’ll give you everything even if it’s the dumbest shit I ever done. Fuck my stupid Baka ass, I’ll marry you.”
And she looks at you- having heard or considered absolutely none of your months-long internal debate and monologue- and goes “The fuck did you just say about my family, you son of a bitch?”
And the shock of that is enough to jolt you back into a reality where you are able to actually hear and process what just came out of your damn mouth
And yeah
My piece for @querermezines no home zine! I wanted to make a Marie Kim centric piece revolving around the phrase 'walking on eggshells' in regards to what shes been through.
Leftover sales open tomorrow!
Hii! Your what if scenario fic idea of "tedros and sophie getting married and being miserable" is so interesting! And I'm just wondering if you have more to share about it because I'm invested lmao (no pressure tho!)
Yes!!!
I always thought about what would have happened if Tedros fell to Sophie's manipulation in book 3. The whole "you need a strong queen, one who can handle it" shit, so yeah, we'll go from that.
I didn't decide yet if I am going to write it (probably will), but if it happens, I wanted to explore the parallels between Agatha, Sophie and Tedros, Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot, Stephan, Honora and Vanessa.
Sophie's and Tedros's marriage would be *hell* for both of them. Tedros would remind remind her of Stephan, because he is still in love with Agatha (although didn't marry her because he's STUPID)
Sophie would remind him of both his parents. Emotionally distant, irritable, irresponsible, triggering about the worst parts of his father.
At the same time, he can't help but be reminded of his mother... Because, I'm pretty sure Sophie would be unfaithful...
I hope any I said made any sense, sorry if It was hard to understand, english is not my first language.
Oh, and Camelot's political scenario would be in (even more) in shambles.
I'm glad to see other people interested in the idea!!! Thanks for asking!!
hm. alright. this is inspired by my horror at the idea of them adapting AWWP as it currently is into film, bc if they do that it will be a train wreck.
(note that despite some recent hints towards them wanting to do a second film and maybe making preparations for it, I think it’s unlikely anything will be set in stone until they know how the first film performs. to put it bluntly; how can you make no.2 if no.1 bombs? apparently it’s quite common to start drafting a second season/film without actually knowing if you’ll get one, shadow and bone did it)
this is kind of messy and maybe a bit bad but like, this has been lurking in my drafts for months now and I keep telling people about it and then not finishing it so. also I’m not being paid for this am I, I’m literally writing this on tumblr on a friday afternoon on my laptop w frog stickers on. I’m listening to florence and the machine. what do you want from me man. I’m just gonna say stuff.
I think it might make sense if the schools aren’t necessarily split into Boy/Girl, they’re split into Evelyn Sader’s regime/not Evelyn Sader’s regime. Sader calls them Boy/Girl bc she kicked all the boys out but like, a few girls escaped and managed to get across the bay, most notably Hester and Anadil.
Tedros went and stole the Storian to keep it out of Evelyn Sader’s hands when she arrived to take over, bc he knows a little about her, mostly that She’s Bad shjsjs. (Given the Sader family are quite famous I feel the Endless Woods native students would be aware of her, especially bc of the scandal when she was fired the first time) So Tedros takes on the School Master role bc at the end of the day, the SM protects the Storian which is what he’s tryna do. Only bc he does it in such a dramatic way, bc… he is dramatic… Sader has the perfect opportunity to spin it against him
Beatrix is spying for Tedros on the inside of Girl whilst fervently pretending to be loyal to Evelyn Sader, (cmon, she has sense and I feel like she could both appreciate the idea of the supposed feminism / empowerment and also accept that Sader has completely yeeted off the end and gone into the “crazy misandrist TERF” side of things)
maybe Dot is also in Girl, upset that Hester and Anadil basically ditched her when they fled to the other side of the bay (it was an accident but she doesn’t know that. they keep trying to sneak in to get her but it’s not working. so there’s the coven conflict provided without the weight thing)
Tedros still harbours resentment over being ditched by Sophie and Agatha, but it’s more like, insecurity over being abandoned by people he thought loved him (again) lmao which is exacerbated by Evelyn Sader’s Very Fun Hedge Garden Where Guinevere Is Drowning Him In The Font.
He’s just like *through gritted teeth* “haha it’s fine guys don’t worry we have *eye twitches* bigger problems don’t worry about it”. I don’t think him completely losing it over being left behind and attacking Gavaldon trying to off Sophie is exactly gonna make anyone like him any more is it. So he can suppress it instead and pretend like he doesn’t care, which is equally unhealthy!! yay!! oh my god tedros go to therapy
“it’s a surprise tool that will hinder us later!”
INSTEAD he can lose it over the fact Dean Sader swoops in and gets hold of Agatha and Sophie before he can. He was trying to get into Gavaldon bc he wanted them to help get rid of Evelyn, since he’s fairly sure them going home has thrown everything off balance. Dean Sader intercepted them before he could (even tho the barrier was literally broken by Agatha wishing for HIM) and he’s fuckin raging about it
But Evelyn turns to Agatha and is like “yeah he lost it over you leaving him behind isn’t he toxic smh” , like making them believe the book situation even though it’s not strictly the case.
because everyone in Boy are teenagers and idiots, they decide that the Trial is the best way to get Agatha and Sophie back and wrest control from Sader (it’s…. not…. but they’re dumb and let Tedros make the decisions so it’s on them really)
but then they make the mistake of waking up the male teachers and they’re like “where the hell is the storian” and tedros is like “what idk it was right there” but it’s too late and he gets chucked in the dungeons bc like, meddling with the storian is The thing you’re not meant to do. even tho he legit does not know where it is
(Yara/Tristan as a sort of double agent tried to both keep it out of Evelyn Sader’s hands but also restrict it from writing the end, but ultimately it didn’t work and sader found it :/)
not sure the teachers should condone aric beating the shit out of tedros but maybe they’re all too scared to tell him no idk.
so most of AWWP can now continue as it does in the book, with Agatha believing Tedros has gone off the deep end over it all and Sophie thus being convinced they’re better off leaving him. yeah you know for someone who doesn’t like reading misunderstanding I sure do LOVE writing it HHH
I think I might have to slice the school master’s tower scene bc it gives tedros too much time to explain what’s actually happening; instead, he makes an ill-judged attempt to get into Girl (bc he’s tedros) gets caught and only just escapes, giving Sader another thing to stack against him.
that adds so much drama to those creepy dreams bc Agatha has seen nothing of him except glimpses across the bay and when he tried to get in, during which he blew up half the ex-Purity stairwell with a very badly cast stun spell
The only thing that is making S&A uncertain is that Hester and Anadil are on Tedros’s side, and part of what finally convinces them that Evelyn Sader is the bad guy here is when Hester takes Aric’s knife for Agatha in the Trial
(like they don’t TRUST Sader but they also fully believed what she said about Tedros and now they’re like “…oh no we got it wrong didn’t we” when they clock that Hester was on their side all along)
(yeah Aric is there I guess bc Tedros n Co let him in in the hope that he could help them take down Dean Sader and they’ve slowly been realising that he’s Actually Crazy, Oh God How Do We Get Rid Of Him)
Yara/Tristan nobly tries to be the one to catch and incapacitate Aric in the Trial but :( doesn’t work out too well. then again this is my rewrite so maybe they don’t have to die after all!
Aric can get his ass kicked by Tedros bc he deserves it. I know we need him for TLEA but that doesn’t mean he can’t get stomped first
Not sure how to go about the Filip thing, I mean. it’s probably less she HAS to be a boy and more that it’s the best disguise they can get hold of I guess? I think I’d like it to be a bit more like Sophie goes in intending to spy on them and find the Storian but by about a week in she’s like “…oh shit… we got this wrong… Sader was lying all along…” but she’s stuck there, so now she’s trying to work from inside both schools to sort this out (without clueing Tedros in to who she is bc despite the fact he’s not as mad as they thought he’s still sulking about it) and it’s… not working but she’s trying. can get some more of sophie’s witchy cunning though?
And with Filip, Tedros is like “wow this is so great I finally found a genuine friend who’s not hanging on over my wealth/looks or abandoning me over losing the Storia– FUCKING SOPHIE??” bc then maybe we could get a fun parallel between hort and tedros there. they could form like a weird pseudo trio maybe, and in the end hort is mad bc like, he was trying to form attachments that Weren’t Sophie and got kneecapped, F for Hort, and Tedros is mad bc a) he still doesn’t trust Sophie, why would he, last time he saw her she tried to trick him into killing agatha and then tried to kill HIM and b) she was having him on. again.
tho I am not opposed to the tedros bi implications remaining in there, obvs.
I would probably meddle with the trial a bit so that Tedros is trying to find Agatha for like, Not Killing Reasons and Agatha is trying to avoid him for the same reasons she does in the books and it’s a big mess. he does not realise that evelyn sader convinced them he was going to try and kill them bc like, no one told him wtf, and he’s like ?!?!?! when they absolutely leg it. lmao drama
I guess just generally remove some of the weirder plot points and dialogue, but I think if you just skew it more towards the schools being evelyn sader / not evelyn sader and mess with Tedros’s motivations you can make it less… bad. Like if it’s more about the manipulative nature of Evelyn Sader and lots of misunderstanding and less leaning into the bizzarre gender stuff it could be saved
oh and make it clearer that sophie is like, FULLY manipulated into being w Rafal like make it clear that is BAD. I’d prefer it to be less motivated by jealously for Tagatha and more by like personal insecurity and want for power and agency
The End of Ends and the King of Kings: The Case for The Last Ever After As The Superior SGE Ending
I mean. I don't think this is an unpopular opinion, but I did want to have a chat about the two 'endings' of the franchise, bc I find it fascinating. I haven't done one of these bad boys in a while... this is basically a big batshit ramble but it does touch on some interesting things so I'll post it anyway. This is mostly about Sophie.
Putting aside the immortal evergreen can of worms marked 'AGATHA SOPHIE TWINS' for a moment (or forever, bc I'm sick of talking about it and my opinion on it is TL;DR: bad stupid twist esp bc it meant nowt in later books, BUT Agaphie always had zero appeal for me so I have the questionable advantage of apathy on the entire thing), the ending of TLEA was... objectively better.
I, hag wot I am, remember the release of the The Last Ever After and a little bit of the fan spaces as they were at that time. I remember it patchily, but to vaguely set the scene: it is 2015 and you are VERY sure this is the last book in the series, since the tagline is The End Of Ends and it's being billed as such. The two major ships are Tophie and Tagatha, feat. Agaphie (but like, only really on fanfic.net, not the website as much to my memory?). Hophie is like... not taken that seriously. Most other ships barely exist. The fanbase is majority young teenagers, and mostly when you're young you take stuff at face value, and therefore most fans only considered the ships they were very explicitly presented with... unless you're a bit cleverer or a bit more in tune with the world/yourself than the average 12 year old, and remember that gay people exist. So, with this being the Last Book, the main question was: who's getting Tedros? (#feminism #trophyhusband #sexylamptrope #reversebechdelFAILED).
Like, a lot of people hoped it was Agatha, and were fairly sure it would be, but if Sophie didn't become Queen of Camelot, what would she do? Could they live in a weird polycule? (No. it's 2015 and this is a major publishing house). Would Agatha and Sophie become Deans? Twin School Masters like the School Master and the Good Brother? (as we then knew them, bc they only got names in TLEA. Do not say anything to me about Fall of SGE. I know.) Would Sophie become Rafal's Queen to match Agatha, permanently? (Everyone should have known this was not feasible the second rafal's face started falling off in book 1 bc soman has done many things but he never dropped the ball on making it clear rafal was a creep. in the main series idk about the prequels I didn't read em.)
Because it was a middle grade book and middle grade books cannot upset their readership too much (plus this was when one direction was big and teenage girls were hacking airport security and crap, no one was taking chances), it has a fairly conventional ending. Agaphie is put down like an elderly dog via a Sader Ex Machina, which was a bit harsh really. Arguably Soman could have just ignored it and left Agaphie shippers the sandbox of arguing with Tagatha shippers and fanfic, but no. Fly high. What else... Tedros finally stops dithering, pulls a fast one on Sophie, and reclaims agency and self-determination for Token Boy Characters everywhere. He goes back to his happy existence of clinging to Agatha's leg and getting dragged along behind her as she walks. Agatha is a little bit worried about being Queen but she has gained Self Worth and Agency this book so she'll be fine right! And fuck, at least she has something nice that isn't going to get blown to smithereens. (quests for glory (2017) is taken out the back and you hear a gunshot but pumpkinpaperweight says it's unrelated). Tedros has found his mother again and it was a reasonably miserable struggle to square himself with it, that was actually done pretty well. Merlin... Was There and he was funny comic relief for the kiddies. Hort got hashtag rejected, teaching men everywhere that there Is Only One Tedros, And Copycats Don't Get Shit. *paper is passed to the front* oh sorry haha it's about not chasing an impossible toxic beauty standard, because it won't make you happy in the long run, or solve your problems. my bad guys. Everyone has a nice crisp completed character arc, and they're actually good ones too. Lesso is dead and so are a few other people, but no one too major, bc again, middle grade. (I note here that although people were sad Lady Lesso had died, in general the atmosphere around Lesso in 2015 was not the same as it is now and therefore it wasn't like, that big a deal at the time, it was just like "damn :(" more than anything). Callis suffers the fate of important OP mothers to protagonists everywhere, and also dies. At least she can beat Rafal to the afterlife and be there with a hammer when he wakes up.
But Sophie? Right up until the last few pages, it looked like she was going to go to Camelot. It really did. And Tedros was so right to think that was gonna be weird, bc it would be so weird. Sophie being somewhere where she has to be inferior to Agatha all her life?! Don't make me laugh. She needed her own individual ending... and Soman actually wrote her a really good one!!! It was a positive riff on the concept introduced in book 1, of Nevermore, Paradise Alone, in that Sophie could be happy without the conventional Ever romance she destroyed herself repeatedly in the pursuit of, but not be utterly alone, bc she still had Agatha and her friends, and now some students. She adopts the Deanship of the School for Evil, which works incredibly well considering she was reforming Evil with her Lunchtime Lectures even in book 1, and it gives her influence, power and purpose, without her having to ursurp Agatha and impose herself upon a man who has not loved her since halfway through book 1 and will not be made to pretend to. (#tedrosagencyarc #tedrosgirlbossera). Also, I think it was a very good move to make her and Agatha have a day's ride of physical distance between them, to crack that weird codependence they have going on, and force them to develop separate lives where Agatha is not constantly worrying about how to defer to Sophie, or what Sophie will think. (Say what you will about Tagatha but Agatha used up all her deferential spirit on Sophie and has never spared any on Tedros. She will exercise her Woman's Right To Tell Tedros To Shut The Fuck Up. *tedros voice* mine lady wife is passing incensed with me, prithee good lord that I may perish, etc etc etc. he does argue but you can see him getting worse and worse at it throughout the books as he slowly realises a) it's useless b) she's like nearly always right).
So, that's all good right! It's a good ending! Everyone has a completed character arc and a happy ending, even if it's not conventional. All three books closed off. Nice! It--
SON OF A BITCH.
I'll only talk about OTK for brevity's sake. (I have never been brief in my life).
SGE has, for a while, had a Thing about needing to be smarter than readers. Not pinning this as a personal flaw on Soman's part, I actually think it's really just a product of the media environment that we're in right now. Creators get really really weird about fans guessing endings or plot twists. There is a preoccupation with being shocking and subversive. I don't think this is inherently really bad, since who DOESN'T want to impress their audience? But as it is these days it's a bit... extreme. Think Marvel not giving their actors entire scripts so they can't spoil things, or Sherlock and Westworld trying to outsmart their fanbases, or... Game of Thrones. Lol. All this to say, these books read like Soman desperately wanted to blindside readers with the Camelot Years, and especially the ending of One True King, but kind of couldn't, because it was a middle grade fairytale book and he can't kill off Tedros because the book says 8+ on the back, and it's not the done thing in mainstream middle grade. This meant that he had to resort to random bizarre plot points in order to make the path to the ending surprising, since the ending was pretty much predestined. That meant King Teapea, and the crystal ball, and the many, many deaths, and the Putsi bank, and the wizard wishes. And bc everyone was so stressed from the journey there, the ending seems nice and relieving, like an oasis. We got a wedding we expected to get two whole books ago! Yay!
...except we didn't, bc Tedros's freak magic grandpa DIED and stole the spotlight before the ceremony and then the book ends!
(as an actual ending scene it's fine and well written, I just have beef with merlin, and think the ending as a whole is. questionable. the ending ending is a perfectly servicable scene)
If you look too hard at the OTK ending as a whole, bits start falling off. Questions that have just not been answered are left. And it's not like TLEA, where it didn't really matter what Hester or Beatrix were gonna do, because we had no expectation of anything they should be doing. Here, the Coven started QFG looking for a School Master, as a key plot point in the new trilogy. It was sort of maybe implied it would be Nicola? At least I felt it was. But by the end, there is no School Master, the plot point is dropped, the Coven's quest is incomplete, and Nicola, despite QFG heavily insinuating she'd be important, is irrelevant. Sophie is now not Dean (it's... Manley?? Ok boring. and we don't even know who Good's is, it's probably Anemone) and is riding off into the sunset with Hort, whose wolf bit... died? Idk. Tedros is apparently a-ok with his dad sending him to be executed, and being executed in general. He's literally seen the abyss but he's chill w it. (Again; middle grade. Soman did a big scary concept, then couldn't make it scary, bc it was too scary for the kids. Fair is fair. Fanfic can fill the gap I guess.) Agatha's there, getting sidelined at her own wedding in a fairly OOC wedding dress, #storyofherlife. The Coven are doing the Sherrif's job or something, it's weird. Nicola has a kpop boyfriend. It's all weird.
(Tedros and Agatha get a much more balanced ending in TLEA, too; while both endings have a bend towards Sophie and are from her POV- which is fine if you think Sophie is the main character, which Soman seemingly does- Agatha gets almost no narrative attention at the prep for her own damn wedding, and considering Tedros got his head hacked off not too long ago, everyone seems a damn sight more concerned about other things. They're much more present in the ending of the School Years compared to the Camelot Years, ironically, considering they practically are Camelot. Figure that out.)
If you remember the promotional material for Quests for Glory (oh! I know, eons ago), they did trailers for various characters who were implied to be important, in rising order of importance. (These were really good btw. We were losing our minds. It was so fun). Tedros was billed as most important, which was the biggest fucking lie in the world, because he is STILL a supporting character in the CAMELOT YEARS, which should have been called the Sophie Years. But Nicola, Kiko, Bogden, Willam, Beatrix, Reena, and Kei were all on there, and hardly any of them ended up being important in the slightest. Bodgen and Willam were there for nothing but foreshadowing; even Willam being the brother of Tristan/Yara had no bearing. Kei was just there to obsess over Rhian and then die. Reena, Kiko, and Beatrix and Nicola were shunted into the Knights of Eleven alongside the other sidelined female characters who didn't have a job (Guinevere, Dean Brunhilde, The Coven, Maid Marian, Queen Jacinda). There is a whole scarf's worth of loose threads in the end of OTK, where these characters are introduced for one minor purpose, or are hangovers from previous books, and are either hastily killed off, or just simply purposeless.
I understand that Soman was just... obliged to do a lot of stuff in the OTK ending, (imagine if the wedding hadn't happened at all, that would have been my final straw) but really it's less the fanservice and bizarre choices, and more that entire loose threads are left dangling, and Sophie's ending, that piss me off so bad.
and that tedros wore a white and gold suit to his wedding in magic medieval fantasy world. for all the movie's faults at least they had confidence that tedros could slay...
Ppl argue that Sophie's ending is a 'learning to love yourself before you can love anyone else' kinda thing (in which case soman needs to stop taking plot pointers from rupaul), and her learning to settle for a man who isn't a perfect image of Tedrosesque Princeliness, which is a fair enough interpretation, but it is just... nowhere near as interesting as the TLEA ending? Her endgame being Hort is so... naff. Hort should have had a chance to develop as a person beyond his obsession with Sophie. The end of TLEA WAS his chance! But it doesn't happen, and he falls into the spike-pit trope of like, slightly stalkerish guy gets framed as funny and harmless and therefore gets the girl. It's not even consistent; he improves a bit, then he gets trolleyed and suggests offing Agatha, and then Sophie calls him a sad soft boy and for some reason we're meant to like, believe that, even though he's been acting a bit of a dick for no real reason. Also, I didn't even think many people cared about Hophie like that?! I didn't think Soman cared about Hophie like that! And I do not understand why Sophie couldn't have had Hort and the Deanship? Couldn't they have gone back to school and had one of those funny unethical Teachers Dating relationships, at the very least? The Deanship was her perfect ending! To take that away and replace it with Hort just seems so... idk, flat. I was so dismayed when Sophie started dismissing the role and talking down about it / letting Rhian convince her it was a lower purpose in QFG and ACOT; should have seen it coming that she'd ditch it. It's disappointing that the Deanship and the (albeit dysfunctional) love of Agatha, the Coven, Tedros, etc weren't seen as enough for her; they should have been. Love, purpose, food made no sense to me; she already had the first two! It makes so much more narrative sense for Sophie to be alone, but alone and happy, because it bucks the trends of villain's ultimate loneliness being a punishment! That was the whole thing! She was offered companionship in Camelot, and love from Hort, and she said no to both, because she chose solitude herself, and rewarded herself with it. It makes the originally less-than-ideal Paradise Alone into something she can like, because that's what Sophie does; when classic Evil isn't fit for her purpose she changes it to make it work for her! That's why she has to be Dean! She is New Evil! She is the advent of Evil relevance and progression! And that's why it's ok that she's also doing dumb shit like building statues of herself and making kids do menial tasks for her; it's funny, and it's making a point of her triumph. She's not punished; she's rewarded, with power and purpose and friends that love her. Why wasn't that enough?!
(Not to mention that Manley undid everything, so her brief stint as Dean was literally completely erased. Ugh.)
This is a mad ramble, but the point is; the OTK ending is so messy, and I genuinely am a little bit surprised that Soman's editors let it get through with so many holes in it? Just on a narrative level; no School Master, no Deans, no relevance for Nicola, no follow-through on most quests. I know that Soman clearly thought he couldn't rehash the ending of TLEA in OTK, which to some degree I agree with, but the ways he chose to differ were not ways I liked, and he didn't even tie up the things he'd set up in earlier books. If we do ever get that 'adult' third trilogy Soman keeps going on about, (which I sincerely doubt we will, and also hope we won't), perhaps we'll have a final 'official' ending, again... but I sincerely doubt it'll be anywhere near as good as the original ending, and the one I still like to consider the 'One True' ending. ha ha. alright go away I'm done
a few in-canon tagatha fic recs that aren't soman's oneshot but could be mistaken for it
how to open camelot doors by peculiarblue
I love a bit of post-OTK tagatha (this is like. a few days after as well so really immediate) and ooh this made me so crazy ahdjsjs. also OP saw the movie before reading the books which gives it a really interesting perspective (not at all bad just interesting!), lovely use of reoccurring imagery as well
the possibility of happiness by @zenstrike
fuckigfjfdb I already said this had my jaw on the floor but it really really really did. if anything is going to be mistaken for soman's oneshot it'll be this. I wouldn't even be surprised lmao I'd just be like "lol yeah it's good innit". it's definitely the fic with the best handle on the book's tone and characterisation that I've ever read. Another post-OTK Tagatha but also w Sophie and Hort (and Beatrix a bit!)
how dare you love me like you've never known fear? by @nose-coffee
def recommended this before but I feel it's underrated compared to the (also excellent) was I most complete and maybe we should all reread this instead of breathing down lou's neck about wimc <3 love this one sm. they r silly and I luv them
My most important Phaidei headcanon is that Mydei is proud of his physique but only really from a warrior's standpoint--his form is an indication that he eats healthy, maintains his physical fitness, and cares for hygeine, but Mydei doesn't really register himself as especially attractive and isn't very aware of people in Okhema perceiving him as a sex symbol. (First, he grew up around the Kremnoan Detachment, and they looked at their prince Respectfully™. Second, Kremnoans just have different standards for dress; it wasn't remotely a sexual thing for men to walk around with their chests exposed in Kremnos.)
Phainon, on the other hand, is very aware of the effect Mydei has on the Okheman population and is working overtime to make sure Mydei doesn't figure out the real reason people are staring. Because if Mydei notices people aren't eying his muscles from envy of his battle prowess, he's going to get embarrassed, and then Mydei'll cover himself up, and that would be a crime against humanity.
(Phainon is doing a public service here, okay? He is simply safeguarding the prince's ability to practice Kremnos's sacred cultural traditions, obviously!)
ok i love twiyor reveals but can we talk about BRIAR SIBLING REVEAL??
i honestly do not know what yor's reaction would be, but i imagine that she took up such a violent and demanding job so yuri could live as peacefully as possible. so, when she finds out he's gone down an equally violent path, maybe she would blame herself for not keeping him safe.
Spy x family is very very good because there's a bit where a far right terrorist group says that they want to start a war and a main character responds by saying to them "have any of you ever killed anyone before? Have you ever been killed before? Have you ever had a limb torn off by an artillery shell? Have you ever heard the sound of bones shattering? Have you ever smelled the reek of rotting flesh? Have you ever found the crushed bodies of your parents and siblings in a pile of rubble that used to be your home? Have you ever discovered a blown-off piece of your lover stuck to a wall? Have you ever been so hungry that you tried to eat tree bark? Or stewed a pot of human flesh? Have you ever convinced yourself that your enemy was subhuman so you could...slaughter them like animals? Have you ever been so haunted by shame and regret afterwards that you cried until you vomited? Have you ever had friends who did the same, and then took their own lives? Did you learn nothing about war at your university?!"
and that's the same volume where they adopt a dog that can see into the future
holy MOLY THIS GOT SO FREAKING LONG BRO im lowkey delirious but im gonna put the rest of the caption under a read more because it'll probably get extremely long as well
this started when i reblogged that one post and put the idea of twilight getting jealous of franky's other friends in the tags. then it got in my head and i was like, twilight is a friendless loser lowkey it would make a funny comic. so when i started this comic i intended it to be short like usual, and mostly silly in tone (you can kind of tell even by the way i draw the panels, if it's something goofy i'll hand draw the panels so they look a little messy, but if it's more serious i use a tool to make the lines neat and straight. the panels are mixed throughout this monstrosity which drives me a little crazy but i digress (digressing seems to be all im doing)). however the more i drew it the more i thought, Damn. it's not that he doesn't have friends, it's that he's actively like self-sabotaging because he thinks it'll go against his life mission of being a spy, which took #1 precedence after all of his friends and family died. but obviously he's never honest with franky about their friendship (even though IRONICALLY franky is the person he's most honest with otherwise), but he's been slowly opening up to yor, so i had to draw a whole sequence where yor and him had a conversation. and then obviously yor is a GORGEOUS QUEEN ALWAYS so i had to up the quality of those panels, but by the end you can tell i was so done because they're pretty rushed drawings. the ending in general is a little rough imo but i'll need to reread this comic in one go to get a feel for the flow, which i def wont be doing anytime soon because IM SICK OF LOOKING AT IT. this is the most amount of time i spent drawing a single comic and it revealed to me why i NEVER DO IT!! every time i went to add another drawing it warranted looking through every other page in succession. I have seen all 23 pages of this mf like 20 times each. IM DONE. MY NECK NEEDS REST! AND I SACRIFICED SLEEP FOR THIS TOO! GAHHHHHHH
