allyson e.

i love anime and books 26 pittsburgh

[internetgiraffekid1673]

Recently re-read the Lunar Chronicles and it's really funny how all of the boys immediately lose their damn mind when they're separated from their girlfriend and she's in danger.

Wolf is obviously the poster child for this, but he and Thorne actually lowkey switch attitudes when they get to Luna. Wolf is reunited with his mom and has had some time to mellow, while Thorne gets the Stressy Aggressy Depressy treatment because they lost Cress on the way in. Jacin is known for ALMOST always keeping a level head and a deadpan demeanor, but when he and Cinder are in the terrain cruiser to save Winter from letumosis, he drives that thing with no fear of death, gods, or pissed off cyborgs.

You'd think Kai would be better about it since Cinder can very much handle herself and he assumes she's a genuine criminal for about half the series, but NOPE! SIKE! Even when he's almost convinced himself she's a crazy fugitive who manipulated him the whole time, he still keeps her foot on his desk, thinks about her all the time even when Torin REALLY doesn't want him to, and can't bring himself to be upset that they haven't captured her (just that she can't explain herself to him). He even successfully guesses her plan---overthrow Levana and put Selene back on the throne---but it's only part deductive reasoning. The other part is that he is actually losing his marbles and that hope is his last tie to sanity.

I have to imagine they had a conversation about this at some point. Like

Wolf: No, Scarlet, really, ask everyone else, I sorta lost it when you got captured.

Thorne: He really did. He was moping around staring at canned tomatoes like they held the secrets of the universe

Iko: Awww, cut it out, he had a good reason to be so upset! We were all worried about Scarlet. Besides, I seem to recall you weren't exactly a ray of sunshine when you thought Cress got captured

Cinder: Seriously all of you. I mean I get it, but you should have seen Jacin when he found out Winter got poisoned. I thought I was gonna die just from being in the blast radius. I'm just glad Kai can keep a level head under pressure because I certainly can't.

Kai who deeply admires Cinder for her resilience, resourcefulness, and determination, watched her survive like 10 highly personal murder attempts and lead a whole-ass revolution while keeping herself and the crew together, and who was actively having a mental breakdown for all of Cress and most of Winter: . . .

Kai: Right. I am the pinnacle of emotional stability. I am sure Torin would love to tell you all about how emotionally stable I am.

[cinderswirecutters]

So, Kai calls Cinder his moon, right? 🌝

[writingdose]

[ariiadnes]

i love characters that are so tired and carry so much hurt in them but stay good despite everything

[whoreiaki-kakyoin]

I loooooooove when a fictional man is sooooo loverboy 🩷 even if he keeps it under wraps 🩷 even if he denies it or doesn’t know he is yet 🩷

[crystalcoveofchaos]

It’ll never not be funny how each member of the Rampion Crew described each other as good looking one way or another. “Stars you lunars have good genes” is especially funny because when you remember Thorne and Kai are the only earthen members.

[sarabankesley]

no YA book series will ever compare to the lunar chronicles. it’s just the perfect balance of science fiction, dystopian, fantasy, and romance.

[darcycarstairs]

still gagged that people want a man that would do anything for the woman he loves but still get angry at jacin clay

[linh-cindr]

fuck i miss cinder so much

[cyborgcourt]

Me every second

[crystalcoveofchaos]

Falling in love with the girl who’s “crazy” and will do everything and anything to protect her

Finnick Odair 🤝 Jacin Clay

[cinderswirecutters]

I feel like, as a fandom, we don’t talk enough about Cinder and Adri’s relationship, especially this scene.

(I skipped a few sentences to show this part)

There’s a long rant coming up, so here’s your warning 🥲

When Cinder returns to the Phoenix Apartments to get the wedding invitations, what should have been a simple task becomes one of the most emotionally devastating moments in the entire series. The way she finally confronts Adri, asking if she was ever truly wanted, if she could have belonged, is so raw and vulnerable. And for just a second, Adri gives her this flicker of something close to humanity. She admits maybe things could have been different.

But then she ends with: “If only she had been normal.”

That line is absolutely gut-wrenching.

Yes, Cinder was manipulating the truth out of her, but what she got in return was cruel honesty. A confirmation that no matter how hard she tried, Adri never saw her as worthy of love. Cinder didn’t need Adri to be perfect. She just wanted to know if maybe, somewhere deep down, she had been loved -- that it wasn’t all in her head. But instead, she learns the truth: her value to Adri was always conditional. Conditional on being normal, on not being a cyborg, on being something she was never allowed to be.

And here’s the worst part -- no matter how much Cinder grows, no matter how far she gets from that apartment, from that life, she will never be fully free of Adri or the abuse she endured. Adri needed Cinder’s income and labour, but resented her existence, a contradiction that made their relationship not just painful, but deeply toxic. That’s not to say she won’t heal, she will. She is. She has a new family now, people who love her for exactly who she is. But those emotional scars? They don’t just vanish. They will become part of her. That part of her story will always exist. She will still flinch when Adri drags her name through the media. She will still carry that ache, not because she wants to, but because she had to survive it.

And what’s tragic is that their relationship is still a kind of bond. Not love in the conventional sense, but something strange and twisted and lingering. Because even though Cinder isn’t Adri’s biological daughter, she was still raised as one, in name, in obligation, in pain. Abuse entangles people like that. Trauma keeps you tethered, even after you’ve escaped. And so no matter how far she runs, no matter how fully she heals, Cinder will die her daughter, not by choice, not by love, but because that’s the shape of the scar Adri left behind.

In a way, Cinder always filled a role Adri never could. She became the caregiver to Peony. She took on a quiet, almost motherly responsibility (or at least what I would assume happened). Meanwhile, Adri, for all her bitterness, is like a child herself. Stuck in grief, in prejudice, in resentment. Her pain doesn’t justify her actions, but it helps explain them. She lost her husband. Then she lost her youngest daughter. And instead of processing that grief, she turned it into blame. And Cinder, the “cyborg,” became the scapegoat.

It’s easier to hate a symbol than confront your own loss. It’s easier to say, “If only she had been normal.”

But the truth is, Cinder was never the problem. She was just the only one strong enough to survive it.

Linh Cinder 🤝 Mommy issues

[gloomshroomofdoom]

Iko

[cinderswirecutters]

Basically Linh Cinder the entire series:

[sarabankesley]

no YA book series will ever compare to the lunar chronicles. it’s just the perfect balance of science fiction, dystopian, fantasy, and romance.

[lestikmock]

tbh i'm surprised that the lunar chronicles aren't like insanely popular on tumblr they were literally made by a fanfic writer and are honestly really well written and overall great, if you haven't read them read them

[vivilanlu]

Most of the mischaracterization Riza suffers from wouldn’t be nearly as popular if people actually understood why she follows Roy and it isn’t just love and loyalty.

One of the main reasons she stays by his side is because she sees herself as the guardian of flame alchemy. She’s trying to make sure of two things: 1. no one ever gets their hands on it again. and 2. the only person who can use it never misuses it again. That’s why she follows him. She has to. She’s watching the weapon she helped create.

And she has to keep him alive not only because he’s the one with the political power (meaning he’s her only real way to make sure the trials happen), but because he has to live long enough to atone for what he did with flame alchemy. The power SHE gave him.

From Riza’s point of view, every crime Mustang commits is hers too. Every time flame alchemy is used to kill that blood is on her hands too. Every person he killed is someone she killed by proxy.

She’s not just guarding him. She’s sharing his guilt. It’s like she’s trying to atone for her own sins, but he has to atone too so she can atone through him.

I think this Hannibal quote fits them really well: “You and I have begun to blur. Every crime of yours feels like one I’m guilty of.” Like yeah she obviously loves him. But reducing their relationship to just that completely flattens what’s actually going on.

[therealkaidertrash21]

Linh Cinder is to me what batman is to men. I'm Linh Cinder.