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For the longest time, I thought the Medes were modeled after the Egyptians (like how Sounis, Eddis, and Attolia are modeled off of Greece), because they're just so goddamn arrogant and Egyptians at the height of their power had a similar "holier-than-thou", sneer-down-their-noses-at-you, all-foreigners-are-lesser-beings kinda attitude. I'm now wondering if they aren't closer to Persians though? Just because of how often Greece and Persia were at each other's throats. Plus, forked and oiled beards sounds more Mesopotamian than anything, and that's closer to the general area of Persia than it is to the Nile River.

#things you think about when you're going into a history major #mede empire #eddis #attolia #sounis #i say these things with the greatest love and respect for the ancient egyptian culture #egyptian culture was my first love

What kills me every time in Conspiracy is when Basrus calls Sophos "lion". He does it right off the bat, too, even knowing Sophos's soft reputation - hell, he complained to his right hand that the job was described as being "no more trouble than snatching up a little lamb", and I believe he's absolutely serious in that nickname he gives to Sophos.

What kills me is that everyone, everyone, underestimates Sophos - his father, his uncle, his tutors, the barons. Even the magus, while he treats him with respect, can't help but underestimate the lamb of Sounis. Hell, Sophos himself calls himself Bunny whilst working as a slave, even if he didn't mean to.

What kills me is that no one believes Sophos will ever be good at anything - no one, except a wily slave trader, a drunk old soldier who shouts "a natural" unhelpfully during Sophos's sword training, an apparent common gutter-snipe of a thief, a plain-looking woman with a broken nose, and the occasional mountain goat.

These are, one and all, people used to being underestimated. And they can see the raw, untended latent talent hiding deep within this boy. He is unbelievably sheltered, and his natural inclinations are towards debate, not war. Add to that the fact that he has only ever been considered a place-holder, and it is little wonder that he has not been trained properly to meet that potential. You would think that people who live with him, who see him often enough and are supposed to be in charge of his education would be able to see that. But no, it takes a civil war, being sold into slavery, and a pair of guns to show everyone else just what it is that this boy can do.

And it kills me every. Single. Goddamn. Time.

#a conspiracy of kings #basrus #terve #gen #eddis #helen #procivitus #sophos #zecush #zec #eugenides

The smile she so often hid in her voice came to her face then. It was a smile Relius had been privileged to see before. He knew he shared that privilege with few others. It pleased him deeply to know that one of those others was the king.

The King of Attolia (Megan Whalen Turner)

#relius #attolia #irene #the king of attolia #queen's thief

What kind of man referred to himself as "safely dead"?

The King of Attolia (Megan Whalen Turner)

#one who knows exactly how dangerous he is #the king of attolia #gen #eugenides #relius

I got a friend of mine to read The Thief.

Their response upon my asking how they like it so far was (among other things) "and Ambiades is a little douche who's going to get them all killed."

The amount I had to bite my tongue

#the thief #ambiades

Pick a Queen: Eddis or Attolia?

#queen's thief #eddis #attolia

"He will wonder what you see to admire," said Heiro. "That's easy," said the King of Attolia. "Tell him I like your earrings."

The King of Attolia (Megan Whalen Turner)

#the king of attolia #gen #eugenides #heiro #gen don't flirt with other girls when your wife is in the room #it's rude

One of the things I love about the way Gen is written is that he never came to terms with the fact that he lost his hand. He's never really gotten over it, and he's still insecure about it years later. Even after he becomes king, it's clear that he's not really okay with his hook even as he tries to make the best of it and put on a brave face. But it doesn't stop him from being the Gen we all grew to know and love and doing what he does (namely performing the most impossibly miraculous feats). And I don't know, it just feels like a very organic way to handle a character that gets disabled halfway through the series.

#eugenides #gen #the king of attolia #plus this is only like the second series i know of w/ a disabled main character #and there always needs to be more representation

goddammit-gen-blog

I always thought it was ironic that Irene, the brutal warrior queen, be named Irene, which means “peace”, whereas the plain-looking, beloved mountain queen be named Helen, who’s face launched a thousand ships and killed thousands more men. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t the queen of the mountains, a land of unity and unquestionable loyalty, be named after peace? Shouldn’t the beautiful and cruel woman of the lowlands whose barons are constantly at one another’s throats and constantly hoping to wed her in order to become king be called Helen?

And yet Sounis sought the plain-looking Helen with single-minded determination. Why? Her smile. Her magnetism. Helen’s face may not have launched a thousand ships, but her smile resulted in the deaths of hundreds of men, and her refusal of a man resulted in war. Sound familiar?

Irene is the stone-cold queen constructed of iron. She cannot trust anyone in her court. Until, of course, she marries the Annux, who literally brings peace to the three countries. Irene was very clear that her king would be her choice. She chose an Annux, even though she never dreamed that this is what he would become. The ice queen brought peace not only to her unruly country, but to the other two as well, a peace as unshakable as Gen’s belief in his gods.

So in truth, both women were perfectly named.

ibmiller

I like this analysis except for one thing: Irene is not cruel. Yes, her punishments are draconian, yes, she executes all rebellion and treachery immediately and painfully - but she never enjoys the pain she causes, nor does she act hastily.

She is ruthless, as Gen knows, because to be otherwise would be to invite either assassination or forced marriage.

goddammit-gen-blog

I used the word cruel because that's how everyone else perceives her. She's constructed this carefully crafted image of herself as someone as incapable of feeling remorse or pity as the gods. So that was the only reason I used that word. But you are absolutely right, she's ruthless and cunning and brilliant, but she is not always proud of what she has to do.

What i love most about her is that despite the fact that she hates the torture she has to inflict on certain people, she has the integrity to stick around and witness it herself. She doesn't just hand the task off to some anonymous executioner, she stays and watches, despite the fact that it makes her sick and makes her lose sleep.

#the queen of attolia

I always thought it was ironic that Irene, the brutal warrior queen, be named Irene, which means "peace", whereas the plain-looking, beloved mountain queen be named Helen, who's face launched a thousand ships and killed thousands more men. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't the queen of the mountains, a land of unity and unquestionable loyalty, be named after peace? Shouldn't the beautiful and cruel woman of the lowlands whose barons are constantly at one another's throats and constantly hoping to wed her in order to become king be called Helen?

And yet Sounis sought the plain-looking Helen with single-minded determination. Why? Her smile. Her magnetism. Helen's face may not have launched a thousand ships, but her smile resulted in the deaths of hundreds of men, and her refusal of a man resulted in war. Sound familiar?

Irene is the stone-cold queen constructed of iron. She cannot trust anyone in her court. Until, of course, she marries the Annux, who literally brings peace to the three countries. Irene was very clear that her king would be her choice. She chose an Annux, even though she never dreamed that this is what he would become. The ice queen brought peace not only to her unruly country, but to the other two as well, a peace as unshakable as Gen's belief in his gods.

So in truth, both women were perfectly named.

#the queen of attolia #spoilers #a conspiracy of kings #eddis #attolia #irene #helen

"Aaah," said the magus, catching on, "I'm working for Eddis?" "Oh, gods, no. You're working for Attolia."

The Queen of Attolia (Megan Whalen Turner)

#gen #eugenides #magus #the queen of attolia

"You said I should do something." Eugenides smiled in the dark, twisting the knife of his revenge a little deeper into the magus. "I did?" "As you were leaving, after your extremely edifying visit in the spring. You said, 'You could still do something.' Your exact words." "I meant talk your queen into surrendering, /not destroy our navy in its own harbor/!"

The Queen of Attolia (Megan Whalen Turner)

#gen #magus #eugenides #the queen of attolia

The queen of Attolia was only ever "she". The name Attolia rarely passed his lips, as if Eugenides couldn't bear the taste of the word in his mouth.

#the queen of attolia #irene #helen #gen #eugenides

Eddis sighed. "Will you sit down and stop shouting?" she asked. "I'll stop shouting. I won't sit down. I might need to throw more inkpots."

Gen and Helen, The Queen of Attolia (Megan Whalen Turner)

#gen #eugenides #eddis #helen #the queen of attolia

I'm sad that Ambiades died. I'm sad that he never got to meet Gen's family with Sophos and the Magus at the end of The Thief. I'm sad that he never got to see Gen's wedding to Irene, that he never got to see Sophos transform into the image of his uncle, that he never got to see Sophos's marriage to Helen and the repercussions of such a union.

I'm sad that pathetic, arrogant, pisswipe of a bully never got to see how extraordinary the boys he traveled with for so long turned out to be. I am not sad that Pol was the one to deal with him in traditional Eddisian fashion just within the borders of Eddis.

#the thief #ambiades #gen #sophos #pol #queen of attolia #king of attolia #conspiracy of kings

I looked in vain for a familiar face. I wanted to tell someone I knew that I was free, but I didn't know very many people who would be out in the street in the middle of the day.

The Thief (Megan Whalen Turner)

Hmm, now why would you be looking for someone you recognize, Gen? Worried Helen's making herself sick over your long absence?

#the thief #gen

The gate was made out of blocks of stone bigger across than I am tall. Something else supposedly built by the old gods, it was topped by a solid stone lintel with two carved lions that were supposed to roar if an enemy of the king passed beneath them. [...] They remained silent as we passed under.

The Thief (Megan Whalen Turner)

GODDAMMIT LIONS, YOU HAD ONE JOB

#the thief #gen #sounis

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