I was going to make a full blog post about this but... this has been living in the drafts too long, so; the dancing in tge is not just dancing, right. it is also the court-appropriate analogue for sexuality/intimacy, yes? common read on dancing in literature, generally. right. this is a fairly easy leap to make in tge, not least because of the 'must learn to dance' scene;
He was burningly aware of the glances of the young women as they
swept by in their partners’ arms, unable to keep himself from imagining what it would be like to dance with one of them, to touch them as the young men of the court did.
Must learn to dance, he said wryly to himself.
and the fact that the 'why do you not dance' conversation is had with exactly two people: min vechin, who he almost-but-doesn't has an affair with, and csethiro, who he has to marry and then consummate that marriage with.
where min vechin fucks it up with maia is by making it too obvious that she pities him for being inexperienced and ignorant (“It sounds to us as if you had no pleasures at all.”), and maia hates being pitied, the second she says it he immediately freaks out and starts feeling disconnected from his body and feeling as if The Emperor is someone else ('...they almost didn’t look like his hands at all.'). that's definitely a large part of the reason he turned her down; he won't be physically intimate with her because the emotional intimacy is just not there and the power imbalance is too massive. min vechin has social and emotional power over him and he has class, political + patriarchal power over her; his ignorance and isolation makes him vulnerable and his massively elevated status makes her vulnerable. not a feasible partnership. all conveyed through those two or three sentences.
so when we get
'...none of the pity that Min Vechin had shown was visible on her [Csethiro's] face, only a kind of disinterested curiosity. “We could teach you, if you wanted.”'
csethiro undercuts the social and emotional power issue, by approaching him nonjudgmentally and patiently, because the biggest problem maia has with csethiro is that... well, he's scared of her, but more specifically he's afraid of her disdain, which he very overtly does not get. when she does teach him, maia is again massively conscious of his body, but this time he's a lil bit too in it ('Her other hand was on his shoulder, and he was as aware of it as of a burning brand.') rather than totally disconnected. maia in return tries to scale down some of the patriarchal+political power imbalance between them by addressing her informally and telling her to use his given name rather than his cognomen. some of that split is irremovable (csethiro will legally belong to him once they're married and had absolutely zero say in that engagement), but at least she's a noblewoman attached to a powerful house and already engaged to him, unlike min vechin, so it's not as immense a power gap. thus we can probably glean that when they are legally required to be physically intimate (on that, has anyone thought that they could just ask arbelan what the protocol is meant to be? anyone? no? all right) it's less likely to be disastrous. hooray!
even if we don't look at it solely through maia 'who has met three women ever' drazhar's eyes, winternight is also the night where 'everyone' is allowed to dance, including couriers, servants, etc, who are usually excluded from the courtly stuff. it does seem as if it might be when the power imbalances and social expectations kinda all shift a bit (sort of like twelfth night, I guess); cala implies people behave very badly at winternight, and also it seems to be when people will look the other way when it comes to sexual 'transgressions' like massive social status gaps, or people being marnis in semi-plain sight (see count nethenel bringing along his courier beau reshema, and the fact that it's the only time we see the probably-marnis csevet dance, albeit with arbelan. what did they talk about btw. dying to know.). like berenar says it's an 'unseemly spectacle' but doesn't seem that surprised. and alllll of this is conveyed by the fact that everyone is allowed to go and dance.
obviously this is not the only way to read it, you can also read it as social + political jostling and shows of favour, but I know this reading is #legitimate because the person we see dance the most is the god damn great avar lmfao ('...his grandfather had been escorting one elvish lady after another onto the floor...'), whose immense virility is apparently still finding ways to manifest even in his eighties. I know this reading can be stretched to imply that arbelan had a do with the great avar because they danced at that first ball by the way. but I'm letting it happen bc it's kinda funny in an insane way.
(also when maia also asks beshelar+cala (slightly naively) if they couldn't dance if they wanted, it's really a conversation about how their own prospects for intimacy and relationships are wildly narrowed by the path they've chosen, and how they now occupy a weird social space between court and not-court. not that maia apparently entirely realises this is the conversation that's being had. but this is exacerbated by beshelar acting like a maiden aunt about it and cala calling it 'the grossest impropriety' if they were to dance)
[ID: illustration of Csethiro from The Goblin Emperor. She is an elven woman wearing a long, flowing green dress and holding a sword by its blade behind her back in gloved hands, as if ready to duel. Csethiro faces away from us, and the only colors are the bright green of her dress and jewelry; the white of her skin, hair, and gloves; and the grey of the sword against a black background. End ID]
"can you take care of this" i already did. an hour ago. i'm the fastest secretary in the west. i am the swiftest gazelle sprinting on the field of schedules and phone calls and emails. secretariat? the triple crown record holder? that was me too. seabiscuit get fucked. turning you to glue. i redid your dumbass filing system while i was at it. fuck with me
hiii thank u for the excellent blog! hope you enjoyed my spam notifs! it'll happen again when things come out of my queue in a month or something
thank you, loved the notifs! i particularly enjoyed your tag on my "hot pink bitch" post. looking forward to the queue, and hopefully i'll have posted literally new anything at all by then <3
ID: a sketch of a scene from The Grief of Stones featuring azhanharad and celehar outside at night, azhanharad glaring with his head slightly tilted and celehar speaking through gritted teeth, looking peeved. it is colored in bluish-grey with vague dark shapes in the background and pale moonlight. azhanharad is tall and broad of face and shoulders with dark skin and long dark hair in many braids, wearing a trenchcoat and a battered breastplate. celehar is shorter with white skin and hair, with a messy braid and a dark coat. end ID
gods forbid the man be concerned about you, huh thara.
me: hmm i kinda want to draw azhanharad again i should quickly reread his first scene to make sure im remembering what's actually mentioned about his appearance righ—
Ive been reading Grief of Stones to my girlfriend out loud and she stopped what she was doing to bust out this banger. babys first thara fanart courtesy of @smoky-arcade
ID: two illustrations of characters from the goblin emperor. 1) cala, a pale, lanky elf with circular glasses, holds maia and csethiro's baby out at arm’s length, tilting them side to side. his expression is delighted, and the baby wiggles in equal delight. maia is a tall, thin, dark-skinned goblin-elf wearing a jeweled circlet and white robes. he stands behind cala watching in alarm saying, “ah, cala–”. csethiro, a short, pale elf of average build wearing gray finery and a circlet, watches on from the other side of cala, grimacing slightly. 2) beshelar, a muscular elf with pale skin and an undercut, wearing padded livery, cradles the baby. his expression is calm and he is focused on the child, who is nestled comfortably against his chest. maia and csethiro look on in amazement, deep lines under their eyes. maia says, “Lady of Stars,” and csethiro says, “the baby’s sleeping.” end ID
modern au Iana and Celehar at a Chappell Roan concert, bonus points if Tomasaran sees them there (i know she's a lesbian deep in my soul)
celehar family guy death pose
hi im obsessed with the chappell concert but i have to put a pin in it for later because all i could think about every day this week was celehar family guy death pose
ID: a digital illustration of thara celehar from the cemeteries of amalo series. he is a pale elf with short curly white hair wearing a dark gray-blue coat. he lays face down, sprawled in a painful position, limbs askew at awkward angles. he is situated in an ornate hallway. end ID
ID: digital portraits of several characters from The Goblin Emperor, with captions from the “would you fuck your clone” poll meme. In order: Beshelar with a stern expression and the caption “I don’t want to fuck my clone because that would be gay sex and I’m not gay.” scribbled next to him with an arrow pointed at him are the words, “is gay.” Csoru smirking deviously with the caption, “I’m not gay, but I would actually totally fuck my clone.” scribbled next to her with an arrow pointed at her are the words, “also gay.” Vedero looking down at a book with the caption, “I’m gay, but I still don’t want to fuck my clone, that’s gross and weird.” Maia wringing his hands with a worried expression, captioned, “I would not have sex with my clone because what if my clone is evil.” Celehar looking tired and miserable with the caption, “I don’t want to fuck my clone because my self-loathing is THAT strong.” Csevet holding some papers looking self-satisfied and the caption, “I’d fuck my clone because who would know better how to fuck ME than ME?” Cala staring straight ahead with a blank expression and an unsettlingly wide smile captioned, “I’d totally do all sorts of weird things to my clone I’d be too embarrassed to ask someone else to do.” Csethiro with a fencing saber resting on one shoulder, captioned, “It’s basically the same as masturbating, right? So no big deal.” Telimezh, looking outraged and making an “x” with his arms, captioned, “It’s not the same as masturbating; it’d be like having sex with your twin. Wrong and bad!” Iäna smiling angelically, captioned, “Not only would I have sex with my clone, I’d probably make a bunch of clones and just get it on with all of them at once because that’s how pro-clone fucking I am.” Lord Berenar holding a glass of wine and smiling, captioned, “To be honest, fucking my clone has always been my fantasy.” end ID
BONUS:
ID: a sketch of Kiru rubbing her chin in deep thought, captioned, “would that count…?” end ID
ID: an illustration of Maia and Beshelar replicating The Meeting on the Turret Stairs by Frederic William Burton. Maia is a tall, thin, goblin-elven man with slate skin and a long braid of black curls. There are strings of pearls in his hair and he wears long white robes. Beshelar is a pale, muscular elven man with an undercut topknot of thin, white hair. He wears a blue padded jerkin, a baldric, and a sword. Both stand in a narrow, dimly lit turret stairway. Maia stands with his back to the viewer but with his head turned to the side, ascending the stairs. Beshelar clutches maia’s arm to his chest as they pass one another, pressing his face to it tenderly, his head turned toward maia even as he descends the stairs. end ID
[id: three digital pencil sketches of maia drazhar from the goblin emperor. in the first image, maia, a young man with grey skin, dark grey hair, and white robes, is hunched over at a computer, fingers intertwined as he leans on his elbows. he’s grimacing as he looks at a big chunky computer from like the early 2000s. there’s a speech bubble coming out of the computer with an elf in it, eshevis tethimar, with wavy white hair and a coy, catlike grin. he’s saying “hiiii serenity ♡″. the label in the bottom right corner says “Every day Maia gets emails”
[cont: the second image is a shoulders-up drawing of maia again, looking off to the side, mouth slightly open. he looks concerned. the third image is an exaggerated drawing of maia with huge eyes like the autism creature and tears in his eyes]
Even If The Emperor Could Swear He Would Not. @deretbeshelar - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
