Dumb thing to complain about but it makes me sad when Vi is taller than Caitlyn in Arcane fanart π let my queen be 6 feet tall and have Vi lovingly stare up at her.
sometimes i think about the progression of Tortall heroines' power levels and am super amused
Alanna: I have an incredibly powerful Gift of magic, a magic sword granted to me by the Old Ones, and the blessing of the Goddess herself
Daine: oh yeah? Well I have Wild Magic that allows me to sense and communicate with mortal and Immortal animals, heal them, and transform into any animal I choose. I am also a Demigod myself, the daughter of Weiryn, God of the Hunt, was once granted additional powers by the Graveyard Hag, and am under the protection of the Badger God.
Keladry: ...i have autism
I think a lot about the different things Tamora Pierceβs various series have to say about the education system and how it treats kids. I think it shows a really interesting collection of ideas that I think reflect a lot about the time they were written and Tamoraβs own evolving ideas.
Like, obviously we start with Alanna and SOTL, which is all about pure access. The question here is very simple: should girls get access to the education system? And the answer is equally simple: yes, obviously. This is a book about proving that these girls who have been denied access to the system can, in fact, succeed if given a chance. That girls are just as capable of doing well as boys are, and that they deserve the same opportunities as boys do. We are shown that with enough determination and support from the people close to her, Alanna can push through and beat these people at their own game.
Then we have circle of magic, where we are instead asking ourselves: what about kids who arenβt able to succeed inside that system? Not every kid is Alanna. Some kids are never going to be able to brute force their way through the system as she did. Not because theyβre not as smart as her or as determined, but because theyβre different. The system is never going to work for them, so the only way forward is to remove them from the system. And in doing that, these kids find success no one in the system ever dreamed possible for them.
Then we get to Kel and protector of the small, and we finally get to ask what in my mind are the real questions. Rather that a pure question of whether she has access to the system, Kel is also questioning the value of the system itself. How it treats the people inside it and those supporting it, like Lalasa. She is looking at the system and instead of accepting it at face value, she asks why it works the way it does, and if it hurts so many people and privileges bad behavior, is this the right way? And if itβs not, what does a better way look like, and what does it take to change it?
Idk, i just think our evolving understanding and ever changing relationship with progressive movements of the past is such a cool part about our society, and I love that you can see that here
Protector of the Small is one the Best Series Ever Written, and Everyone Should Read It
Books Read in 2026: 13
Books Started in 2025: 4
Most Recently Read: Protector of the Small (quartet) by Tamora Pierce
Genres: Fantasy, YA
CW: This review talks in broad, non-explicit terms about sexual violence, as it's an issue/theme tackled by the series.
I don't recall what, exactly, sparked me to reread the Protector of the Small quartet, other than maybe a lack of Neal in my life. (Please, if you are reading this, send me your favorite Neal fics.) I do remember telling a friend I wanted to reread them, only to realize that I'm pretty sure PotS is the only Tamora Pierce series of which I own none of the books. The next day, she texted me, "don't go out and buy any books. Your birthday present will be in next week." (In case you're wondering, my birthday is in September.) Because she knows me. And knew what I was about to do. Only, I couldn't wait a week. So I checked the entire quartet out of the library was halfway through Squire before she was able to give me the new books. And I couldn't bear to open the new set and start in the middle of Squire. It would be like neglecting First Test and Page. So I determined I would finish the library books first. And then I could read the whole series again.
Kel is one of my top two Tortall heroines (Beka is my other). I relate to her a lot, though I only dream of having her level of determination and follow-through. (Also, Kel x No One is my favorite Tortall ship.) And while I think Beka may barely edge Kel out as my number one protagonist, I think Kel's books edge out Beka's for my favorite series. I could probably write 1001 essays on these books (and when I finish my next read through, I'll probably write another), but today, I'm going to tell you why it's my favorite Tortall series. And, no, I'm not sorry for how long or who detailed this is. (But I do apologize for any factual mistakes I make in reference to these books, even though I recently finished them, the events may have run together a bit.)
Here there be Spoilers
Let's start with this quote from the description of the First Test audiobook:
"More timely than ever, The Protector of the Small series is Anti-Bullying 101 while also touching on issues of bravery, friendship, and dealing humanely with refugees against a backdrop of action-packed fantasy adventure."
Anti-Bullying 101
By the time I read PotS for the first time, I was already an adult. And what impressed me about it was how accessible Pierce made very heavy, important topics. First Test begins when its protagonist, Keladry of Mindelan is ten years old, and it centers primarily on bullying and society's response to it. Kel is bullied incessantly by Joren of Stone Mountain and his cronies. She gets into regular fights with them, not only to challenge their bullying of herself, but to challenge their bullying of others. There's a great scene toward the end of the book where Kel's best friend, Neal, challenges her on going out to pick fights with Joren, specifically why she's going alone. And she tells him (as well as the other boys who are listening) that she hasn't asked for help because she didn't think the others thought it was a problem. She thought she had a different perspective because she was a girl.
There's a lot of unpack here. First, the other boys have done nothing to stop the bullying because they've been raised in a society that has taught them it is acceptable. Before Kel starts her page training, her older brother, Anders, warns her that the teachers are not looking for excuses. They don't want to hear that students got into a fight because one was abusing the other. Older pages haze the younger ones, and that's just the way things are. It's the way things have always been. And the best way to get through it is to keep your head down. What's more, Kel is bullied by adults. Lord Wyldon has, at nearly every turn, treated Kel unfairly and turned his back when the boys have bullied her. In one scene, Joren even states that he believes he's doing what Lord Wyldon wants by trying to stop Kel from becoming a knight.
(And yes, I say nearly every turn on purpose. Aside from letting her continue past her probation, if Wyldon does one good thing in First Test, it's allowing Neal to be Kel's sponsor.)
But then there's Kel's perspective, which is partially different because she grew up in the Yamani Islands. Therefore, she (probably) wasn't taught to ignore bullying the way the boys were. But she's also correct that she has a different perspective as a girl, which brings us nicely to Page, where Pierce does the thing that makes these books brilliant: she builds on the foundation she's laid with First Test by framing sexual assault and rape as forms of bullying.Β
Yes, First Test does mention gendered violence. Obviously, Kel is bullied because she's a girl. And she talks about Yamani girls being taught to defends themselves against would-be rapists. But Page is where we get to the meat of it, when Kel takes on her maid, Lalasa, who she slowly comes to realize has been abused physically, emotionally, and sexually. And that some of that came at the hands of her family. Pierce does not pull her punches here. She wants you to be horrified by what men have done to Lalasa. And she wants you to know that it is no different from Joren making younger pages mop up spills with their shirts or pick the same books up off the floor over and over again. I don't think I had ever read a book that frames violence against women in this way. I don't know if I have since.
And that's what makes these books hit home over and over again. We often think of topics like sexual assault, rape, and abuse as "heady" themes that our kids aren't ready for. We need to protect them from these problems. Or maybe they're considered too big and complex to understand. But by stating they are forms of bullying, Pierce proves all of that wrong. They are not too heady or complex for children. And they are topics we should be discussing with them.Β
PotS not only offers a template for calling out this crap for what it is, but for creating the type of community that rejects it. What's more, she directly shows us that little bullies grow up to be big bullies, which brings us to Squire, when two squires fail to become knights. I remember thinking it a little funny that everyone was like, "we've never had so many people fail!" in reference to two just people, but this time around, I was able to put this into better perspective: there are only six squires undergoing their ordeal. Two is literally one third of the group. What's more, one of them dies in the process, also a first.Β
But Pierce doesn't stop there. She reminds us this problem is systemic. And in one of the best scenes in the series, Lord Wyldon resigns from his teaching position because he knows that the failure of these squires is not theirs alone. It also lies in the adults who allowed their childish bullying to persist and grow into the adult form of bullying. Just as she uses the second installment to reframe sexual assault and rape as forms of bullying, she uses her third volume to draw a direct line between the two. Not only are these forms of bullying, she tells us, but these bullies bully people because they learned to do so as children.Β
And that brings us to Lady Knight.
Sigh.
I have problems with Lady Knight, okay? The end of Squire introduces these "killing machines" made of metal-coated giant bones, and... they're robots, okay? They're robots. They're robots powered the by souls of little children, and robots showing up three-quarters of the way through my sword and sorcery series is a genre crossover I just can't get on board with!!!
Okay, rant over. Let's proceed with what I like about Lady Knight.
Like Page and Squire, Lady Knight builds on the foundation the previous books have already laid. It continues to deal with matters of sexual violence, but also expands the general theme of abuse of power as a form of bullying. Yes, the other books deal with this some, but Keladry essentially gets the position of running a refugee camp because she's trusted not to abuse her power. And scene after scene after scene shows how people bully those they have power over--whether those people be poor, children, criminals, etc, all the way up to Blayce the Gallan, who I personally think is Tamora Pierce's most chilling villain. And the fact that he is her most chilling villain is the reason I tolerate the necromancy robots. Because he's the guy creating them. And he purposely uses the souls of children, preferably of the age of 12, who he dolls up and pampers before he kills them.... the rest is left to your imagination.Β
More Timely Than Ever
And that's the point. Everything from a child trashing someone else's dorm room to the horrors wreaked by Blayce, "The Nothing Man," is bullying. Sexual assault? Bullying. Denying criminals medical care? Bullying. Corporal Punishment? Bullying.Β I am particularly drawn to the fact that Pierce frames Wyldon's treatment of Kel in the early books as bullying. Because I live in a state where bullying is literally defined as student-on-student behavior--teachers, by definition, do not bully. By definition, bullying only happens between peers. And only between children. But along comes Pierce and says no. Actually, bullying happens where there is a power differential (or a challenge to one.) When people abuse power to make themselves feel bigger. Granted, this is a common theme in Pierce's books--that if you are someone high in the social hierarchy, it's your responsibility to care for people who are lower in the hierarchy than you. We get a lot of this with Sandry in the Circle series. But never does she make it more explicit than in Protector of the Small. Well, of course not, just look at the title.
And I think, on some level, this is why I love reading it. And this is why I needed to read it again. Now. Why couldn't wait a week to get my own copies of the books. And this is the reason I may just read them again before the year is out. Because as I said in a previous review, I read to process, and we're living in a world full of bullies. People who abuse power. People who are mean because they feel like it. Because they can get away with it. Because they feel the need to make themselves bigger. And Kel? Kel is an inspiration. She's the Steve Rogers of Tortall. Every time she gets knocked down, she stands back up. I can do this all day. She is a blueprint not only for how to take back our world against bullies but why. Because for every person Kel defends, every battle she fights, every time she stands back up, she gains another ally.
I started this review by saying I related to Kel, but I think it's more than that. I think Kel is the character I aspire to be. As perhaps, should we all. Any time, but especially now.
just rewatched Jupiter Ascending and sorry not sorry that movie holds up actually. "technically speaking I'm an alien. and from the perspective of immigration, an illegal one" "luckily for you a woman owns this car /slaps a pad from the glove compartment on a bleeding wound/", harvesting eggs vs harvesting people for live-forever juice as a metaphor for capitalist exploitation, "the human beings on your planet are merely a resource waiting to be converted into capital." the aesthetic, the fashion, the CGI, the "I love dogs, I've always loved dogs." sean bean is there. literally this movie could not go harder.
I recently read all three comics and fell in love with it
Who is your favorite character and dragon?
Im not very good with names, so please can you add images to the answer (if it isn't hard for you)
Thank you so much for repost btw:3
I think out of all the non-dragon characters, I probably like Aedhan the best with Hesekial a close second! I'm afraid I don't have any good images of Aedhan currently, but they're the yellow dragon shifter on the cover of Tea Dragon Festival! The idea of a guardian spirit being asleep for a hundred (?) years before they wake up to a place that doesn't know them is just fundamentally so intriguing to me! I like Hesekiel (our wise grey rat-man-thing) because of his wisdom and his devotion towards the art of tea dragons but also to his partner <3 I really wish we get more stories about Hesekiel and his partner Erik when they were younger and still adventuring!
(I actually don't have any images of the cast currently... I mean I recently stumbled upon some tools and hope to get some better pngs after I graduate)
My personal favorite dragon is the Earl Grey dragon because I love Earl Grey tea, I love the design of this dragon and I think a grumpy little grandpa quite suits me in personality! The Hibiscus tea dragon is my second favorite out of the sheer plush and warmth its design exudes. My third favorite dragon is the Jasmine dragon, since it's so cute and mischievous in the comics!
If I was a better artist, I would attempt to design my own sona for the universe and my personal tea dragon, which of course must be a Ceylon since its my favorite tea :D
In the meantime, have this cute png of Chamomile !
puttering around the house is an underrated form a self-care. make some tea or coffee. put on a podcast. sort the mail. tidy some pillows and fold some blankets. start the laundry. thaw some soup. just casually wander around aimlessly doing little things to make your space and life a little nicer. who cares if you get distracted or only do a little. you aren't being productive. you're puttering.
Self-sacrificing bitch @petitebear - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
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