#jonas maccabees

[a-blade-disguised-as-a-girl]

Good morning to finishing school students who become streetlords, streetlords who fall from grace, self-destructive ring fighters, aspiring journalists with compassion fatigue, drug heiresses with a penchant for arson, mentally ill poachers, murderous romance novel fans, explosion enthusiasts, nightclub owners who need a vacation, thrill-seeking prima ballerinas, overprotective prima ballerinas, whiteboots forcibly adopted by gangs, human lie detectors, vultures who find the truth, and girls who commit crimes in a hideout with thirteen cats <3

[pearlgrayrose]

I have no real reason for thinking that Jonas was younger.  Looking back on it, I guess it makes more sense this way, but...I always thought he was, like, Levi’s age.  Maybe Harvey’s age.  Definitely not almost thirty.  For goodness’ sake, he’s closer to Harrison’s age than he is to Levi’s!

Again, I have no real reason for being so surprised by this, I just...???  I guess I just find it funny that Levi is basically Jonas’s nemesis, and Levi is like twelve years younger than Jonas.  That’s almost Mansi’s entire lifespan.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Levi and Jonas has definitely done a lot of fucked up things, but like...no wonder why Jonas hates him so much.  This kid has spent a fair amount of time as the streetlord of the Irons while Jonas is still Eight-Fingers’s second with MUCH more experience than Levi.  And Jonas is the one content to stay the second, because he supports and is loyal to Reymond, while Levi has spent the whole time wanting more and trying to become famous in the city and whining that Jonas’s name was mentioned in the New Reynes guidebook and not Levi’s.  Like, yeah, the part where Levi was reading that book and complaining about it was hilarious, but also no shit Jonas was in the book and he wasn’t.  When the book was published, he was probably, like.  Twelve.

[a-blade-disguised-as-a-girl]

Imagine you’re Jonas Maccabees. You get an invitation to two meetings at a nightclub with all the other streetlords in the city, the only stipulations being that you can’t bring weapons or guests. You’re curious, so you go.

Your nemesis is there, showing excessive PDA with the nightclub owner. A new streetlord named Séance is there, and you already know her identity. The Dove Lord is there at the second meeting, and so is the leader of the Orphan Guild and his salesman, because apparently they get to break the rules. (For the first meeting, the Doves’ second had been there instead and the Orphan Guild leader’s girlfriend was there, and you suspect she killed your sister and is impersonating the Dove Lord, so this adds up. The second meeting is more important though.)

Séance suggests a stock market for the gangs and starts threatening the most important, dangerous people in the room to take her seriously. She pulls it off, so she has your respect. Everyone likes the idea except for Ivory—who, again, you think is actually Rebecca and murdered your sister. If this theory is correct, then Bryce is her boyfriend, and yet he goes against what Ivory says (not a smart move in any instance) and pledges to join the stock market.

Ivory is furious, and Harvey starts grinning like an idiot, confirming your theories bc if she was just the leader of the Doves, why would he care? Ivory stands up and walks away, and then Séance (in a real power move) just up and leaves, thanking everyone for their time. The audacity. Your nemesis follows, which, good riddance, he’s a mess.

Leaving you—Jonas Maccabees, Scavenger, the Scar Lord—alone with Bryce Balfour and Harvey Gabbiano, who are filled with simmering resentment and wildly inappropriate happiness, respectively. Two people who are almost certainly colleagues with the woman who murdered your sister. Two people who are absolute disasters and also just fucking ridiculous, and you are now stuck in a meeting room in a nightclub with them because everyone else at this Important Gang Meeting just bailed.

Pour one out for Jonas y’all

[a-blade-disguised-as-a-girl]

I did an alignment chart for all of the Shadow Game’s disasters (i.e., basically every character)

[a-blade-disguised-as-a-girl]

I just finished Queen of Volts and I'm dying it was lovely but one thing is still bugging me and you're the only Shadow Game blog I found. There was the whole thing about Lola saw in the files Jonas' fake name and having a secret blood talent...was that something you figured out what it meant? Or just a twist for twists sake?

First of all, aslkdjflskdjfsldkfjs I knowww Queen of Volts was amazing!!!

Okay so it was to explain the Rebecca thing.  Because she’s a Janus, she can switch between the faces of three different people.  Rebecca killed Jonas’s real blood sister, and then killed the actual Ivory, then took both of their faces so she could make both of the corpses look like Jonas’s sister and no one would know that Ivory had died.  Then Rebecca could take her place in the Doves.  I’m not sure exactly why Jonas gave himself a new last name, Maccabees, but it was probably just to make a new identity for himself in the Scarhands.