#bartimaeus reread

[csmelody]

Bart identifying one of his underlings in 19th century Prague right at the beginning of GE as a 'small and rather mournful frog' is tragically hilarious. How the turn tables.

[evening-emerald]

Arthur Underwood, to Nathaniel:

"Ambition is all very well, my lad, but you must cloak it. If it is too obvious, you will find yourself brought down in flames before you reach your twenties." 😭😭😭

[csmelody]

Something about Bartimaeus being smart enough to goad the utukku in the Tower (AoS again, ch. 22) into fighting each other, but also stupid enough not to predict that this would lead the one who's been suspicious to put together who Bart is because he is using the same tactic that wiped out so many utukku before is so ridiculously him. All that wit and intelligence and then he makes the dumbest mistake. I cannot with him.

[csmelody]

Going through my (many, many) notes for The Ring of Solomon, one of my fave easter eggs has to be when Bart watches afrit Zahzeel changing into a column of smoke with a lot of flair and drama, and thinks to himself he'll copy this one day—and then he does! It's exactly how we first meet him in Amulet of Samarkand.

[csmelody]

Someone tell me why I forgot just how thoroughly unhinged Khaba and Ammet are. I knew they were fruity (and unbalanced) at best but somehow 10 years wiped from my memory how in your face it is that they really, really *enjoy* each other's company (we all agree that they're fucking, right? It's not like Stroud shoved in the lines 'I like you hungry' and 'I like a little pain' and expected us not to jump to conclusions. Not to mention all the 'dear's thrown about.)

I was probably too focused on Bartimaeus, Asmira and Faquarl sharing 0.5 brain cells.

[csmelody]

I just finished my reread of The Ring of Solomon and I can't with Bartimaeus collecting another human but pretending he doesn't care, when at the end he keeps asking Asmira questions about what she'll be doing. And when she calls him out on him absolutely enjoying bragging about his exploits, etc., and then inviting him to visit her in Sheba? Stop it. Has anyone written a fic about Bartimaeus actually doing that and finding Asmira again? Because the fandom deserves this level of wholesomeness once in a blue moon.

My one complaint is that we got too little Faquarl antagonising him, even though I understand why, narratively, he was left out from that point onwards.

Anyway, I'll miss this energetic Bart when I get to Golem's Eye again.

[csmelody]

How have I ever let this little nugget slip my mind?

Faquarl to Bartimaeus in RoS, ch. 19: "You'll be the death of me, Bartimaeus, you really will!"

Jonathan Stroud, you evil, evil man.

[csmelody]

Do we think half of Bartimaeus's shock at Nathaniel's order to retrieve the Amulet was him remembering Asmira asking about the Ring all those centuries earlier? Or was it him thinking that Faquarl might perhaps maybe be right and he always gets into sticky situations because he's soft-headed for a human with a steely eye and he'd rather put that soft head through multiple walls before admitting to anything of the sort?

It's hilarious to me how he essentially reacts the same both times.

(Also no one tell him Asmira thought he was an afrit or a marid.)