my whole life, all anyone's ever wanted was to possess me
YOU ARE THE REASON
Mike Driver
Not today Justin

tannertan36
Peter Solarz
we're not kids anymore.
Today's Document
noise dept.
ojovivo
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if i look back, i am lost
Claire Keane
Keni
Sweet Seals For You, Always
One Nice Bug Per Day
Game of Thrones Daily
Acquired Stardust
AnasAbdin
Aqua Utopia|海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
Monterey Bay Aquarium
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@fixated-dark-king
my whole life, all anyone's ever wanted was to possess me
I made a little captive prince dustjacket for myself hehe ✨️
I was a little frustrated that I couldn't get the polish captive prince special editions 😔 (And the new US covers weren’t out yet, but I will definetly get those now!!)
So I went: 'Fine. I'll do it myself."
I don't know what got into me, but I started to add more and more to this and it ended up taking me 60 hrs 💀
Still not satisfied with everything (especially the font and frame) but it's ok, maybe I'll come back to that a little later ✨️
!Not everything is super accurate since it has been some time since I read the books and I (again 😭) didn't have them with me, while working on this!
James holding the gate open in chapter 47 of dark heir. A commission.
Dark king and his lieutenant
...Bonus angst justicus 🥺:
The look on Pacat's face while sitting there all chill in Poland while dropping on us once again that the enemies to lovers element in the Dark Rise trilogy is going to be:
More intense
More disturbing
Even worse than it was in Captive Prince
Oh, we are so in the right hands with Pacat! Book 3 is going to end us.
Source: this Studio GJ interview
Full quote:
"I really like these tense relationships between characters… "And I remember when I was building the relationship between Damen & Laurent and I wanted an enemies to lovers story, and I thought: ‘What’s the worst thing that you could do to someone that would really make them your enemy for life?’ And at that time I thought: ‘Well, what if you killed their brother and then that act left them in hell?’ And that was what I came up with for Captive Prince. "And then I was coming up with the enemies to lovers backstory in Dark Rise and I was like: ‘Oh, I have to come up with something WAY worse than that.’ So I would say, yeah, the connection between the characters is like even worse, even more disturbing, even more intense than the one between Damen & Laurent in Captive Prince."
(And this is so similar to what Pacat said in Sydney last month too! Squee!)
The bright star holds, even as the darkness rises.
more
Justice had been the greatest fighter in the Hall, and his attacker had torn the room apart, shredding tapestries, splintering furniture, even shattering stone in an attempt to get at him. From the sheer extent of the destruction, Justice had lasted against his attacker for some time. His eyes were sightless, fixed on some distant nightmare. His hand was still on his sword. Justice had always seemed to know what was right. A lodestar. Someone who would guide you throught the night.
Sooo, I had the amazing experience of attending a panel C.S. Pacat was part of during the Sydney Writers’ Festival on 25th May 2024. The panel was called “Creating a Monster” (with two other YA authors).
And finally a week later (because adult-ing is hard), I had time to actually go through my notes and write up some of the fascccccinating things Pacat had to say about: monsterous heroes, and villains, and enemies-to-lovers deliciousness, and queer identity!
I didn’t want to forget some of the interesting things said in this panel and thought others might be interested in hearing about them too? Please indulge the splurge. :)
(Please note that all bold headers are just my thematic summary of each section for people to jump to, not the actual question asked.)
How do I bribe capri fandom to read Dark rise/Dark heir?
Like y'all are missing out! Dark heir in particular had me on chokehold! You can not be a C.S pacat fan and not read Dark rise/Dark heir !
I'm wondering whether it is the YA label that discourages some CaPri readers from picking it up? Even though Pacat said he hasn't held back anything (that's for sure lmao. Shout out to horns & invisible hands & magic penetration).
It is mostly just the theme of identity that made it feel suited to YA for Pacat, right? And even though character ages also fit for YA, Pacat still found a workaround for complex, dark backstories (etc ;)) by creating adult versions of the characters in an older timeline so that things didn't have to be sacrificed. Like it really is all there to some degree if people give it a chance. <3
After my reread of Dark Heir and looking at people’s recent theories on what will happen in book 3 I’m more sure than ever in my hope that the collar is fucking with James’s mind to some capacity. Anharion turning out to be a sub who willingly gave himself over to Sarcean without any magical compulsion would be cute, sure, but it removes any and all narrative tension from the collar and by extension the dynamic between James and Will. It renders both Will’s horror at James being collared at the end of book 2 and James’s attempted suicide to avoid the collar unnecessary. I don’t think anything would be gained in the story and would in fact actively harm it if that’s the route Pacat decides to take.
This also ties into a similar topic I’ve seen get thrown around, which is the idea that Sarcean was a secret good guy and that the Light were the bad guys all along. I don’t know why anyone would want this to be canon. The whole point of the series is that the world and the people who inhabit it are shrouded in shades of grey. If Sarcean turns out to be an unequivocal good guy fighting against the Evil Light Monsters than that’s just the political dynamic of the first book in a different font, and I think most of us agree that the best part of that dynamic was the realistic subversion, not a complete 180 that keeps the dynamic but the colors are switched around.
Anyway uhhhhhh TLDR: hope book 3 is fucked up in a way that makes me giggle in fear
Heck yes! I love us a dark Dark King, please and thank you. That would make for such an interesting read for the reasons you mentioned and more.
And I actually think/hope that's what we're getting, coz Pacat kind of talked about this theme just last week on a panel called 'Creating A Monster' (25/5/2024).
It was fascinating coz Pacat talked about how the phenomenon/technique of 'Protagonist-Centred Morality' is so strong in the Dark Rise books that it sometimes obscures our perception, as readers, of how bad the Dark King's acts actually were. Will's as well (Pacat namedropped 'the Dark King' but also used 'protagonist' too).
I can only paraphrase, of course, but Pacat basically said that the Dark King's bad acts are an important part of the moral centre of the story that Pacat is trying to tell.
So after hearing that, I have high hopes that we will indeed be exploring some dark stuff by the culmination of the trilogy, and it won't be some easy black and white switcheroo. I love all the complexity Pacat has weaved into the story. It is so good!
I'm most looking forward to Will finally being able to explore his true self now though -- with all the good bits and not as good bits -- and just f stuff up for Sinclair et. al. >D
camping modern AU. if anyone wants to write the fic you get my whole heart 💜
“Sarcean? What do they say about him?”
“If I am to be queen shouldnt I know my subjects as they are?”
THE LADY MAKES HER APPEARANCE!
I am obsessed with the old world I NEED MOREEE LORE
I will draw visander one day too hehe
instead of finishing reading the book i spent the day drawing the sarcean and anharion hair touching in the garden scene which made me feel completely normal obviously
Also, I've finished reading Dark Heir... 😳
angst. so much angst.
I have no fucking self control... I love this bitch so much.