#lle meta

[izartn]

One of the most interest things as of Long Live Evil is that Rae is now in the book, has become a character.

For us the readers she always was one of course, but entering the conceit of the narrative, that characters aren't concious they're characters, Rae herself is real. Or was.

It's one of the problems she has from the start with her "other people aren't real" but by the end of LLE she's accepted the world of Eyam as also real, decided to stay and deal with the consequences of her actions with the people she cares about in Eyam.

Paradoxically this marks her acceptance that she's now another character in her favourite book even if Rae doesn't put it in those terms.

Given how the start of Long Live Evil opens with her and Alice discussing the impossibility of the apocalyptic love of the Emperor in real life, and the impossible highs and lows of the fantasy in a story I wonder what this means for Rae herself as a person in the future books.

We've already started with LLE showing us the characters of Time of Iron as people Rae has her own relationship with, now I wonder if Rae will embrace actively what she was starting to do acting as stereotypical evil lady, create her own story/legend. What the Cobra has been doing all along; he did arrive at least like 6 years before Rae so he had time to perfect that balance in making himself a character in a play.

And how will that come into conflict with the fact of the very real human heart she has.

We saw that kind of division a bit already but I bet whatever happens in book 2 will pull even more harshly on this, especially because now Key will be acting as Emperor actively, not as a minor secondary (as far as Rae was willing to acknowledge we all knew he was there to stay) and with Rae as his queen.

Really that last scene was very, "and now we truly start the show!" in vibes. Long live evil indeed.

[izartn]

LONG LIVE EVIL SPOILERS!

One of the things I most loved after finishing reading this book, was the sheer agency Rae wields.

The way Brennan treats her female charas in general in LLE is sooo good (and I will do a post about Lia and Emer too promise, their deal is also super fun) but I'm talking Rea as protagonist.

She's allowed to be messy, to not have a perfect knowledge of this book series she loves bc her favourite bits are on the sequels, to make imperfect choices and be wrong and be right, to fuck it all spectacularly because how else would have she saved her own life?*

I love how it's her involvement what causes the ripples that change completely the original path of the story for good and bad. Which is to be expected from this kind of story, but something about the unapologetic nature of Rae

She's flippant at the start of LLE and still can't help but try earnestly to help her vipers and Lia while saying to herself than any failure she makes doesn't matter bc these people aren't real and failing miserably at the end.

She could have doomed the city by choosing to disappear with the flower to her old life and her sister Alice and instead stays for Lia and this disaster of a kingdom she helped involuntary drop into chaos. I love her. She happens to the story, and isn't just letting the story happen to her.

*she made a mess as she didn't know Key was her Emperor and not King Octavian, but really how could she have saved her own life if not by convincing Octavian he needed her and her prophecy/schemes to stay in power? That initial part was necessary. Now what happened after, yeah could have changed. But I'm still betting on disaster.

[izartn]

Btw the confirmation on the flashback to Eric's past that Marius watched with the Oracle, that the maid that adopted him had a husband that came to Eyam from Berlin, which is wild in worldbuilding implications.

How many times has the transmigrator route been tried and how many books/stories/versions of time of Iron are out there?

Wait. Is the lady that offers the journey the goddess from the mythos who left Eyam only leaving behind the oracle and abandoned the god who became the First Duke after killing their son? Is she trying to nudge things for Key (as that son reborn) to fulfill the prophecy with the influence of these people from Earth (our reality)?

I wonder, are Rae and Eric from different alternative earths (ergo different books), or the same earth whose reality of Time of Iron og book became modified with each addition of a transmigrator? Like. Is Alice now remembering reading a book where lady Rahela is the main love interest? (aka the story we're getting with her sister as the lady rahela?)

Are Eric and Rae from the same time period but dimensional travel to the book made it so Rae arrived 6 years after Eric bc fated shaneaningans (this would imply same earth whose Time of Iron book canon modify themselves and change the timeline on the fly) or is that difference bc they're from alternative earths?

I don't think the technicality matters much until or if we get to Alice again.

But I'm seriously thinking on the goddess as the meddler, bc it makes so much sense. I think that's gonna be important for the future books bc despite the deceptive lack of magic in this one except by the end with Key and like, Marius being a throwback demigod. But the oracle is very much there with access to memories or visions of the world Eric came from soooo. Something tells me that's because the goddess is meddling.

Now is this for good or evil or grey of our protags???? No idea XD

But it sure will be interesting.

[izartn]

LONG LIVE EVIL SPOILERS

So originally, we infer Key as the Emperor was in love with Lia. I can see how, because Key was truly just wishing for someone to be kind and good, loving, to him so he could be real again (for putting in into this book "to be love is to be real" philosophy) but the irony here is that I think we're given reason to think Lia is a lesbian. Or at least completely uninterested in exploring any desire for men given how she describes their looks (in contrast to Marius who I think we can all agree is in love with the Cobra/Eric and very repressed or likely demi).

Now given what Key did for his adoptive father, I'm not saying he wouldn't lay waste to enemies, look for a way to resurrect Lia etc if she was like, his bestie (aka an equally strong platonic love) instead of his lover but I think we can all agree the og book and Rea herself said this was romantic attachment.

With that as baseline and from what we get of Lia's true personality and interests in LLE is that:

1. She is ambitious and talented and wants to do good for the people of Eyam.

2. For that she needs to be queen and she's willing to do whatever the king wants of her (as long as it fits her "good and pure" image) in order to have that power.

3. Despite the above, she's repulsed by men's attraction to her. Confirmation that she slept with Emer (so we know she likes women) and forgave her for the betrayal (and in the og saved Emer life even after she betrayed her to Rahela) implying attachment and attraction. Right now I'm assuming she's lesbian, aka exclusively attracted to other woman. We don't have her PoV so it can't be certain like with Emer but all the signs point to that.

So I think that what happened on the og was that Lia saw that Key responded to her kindness, and she used that accordingly and treated him well because as her guard she needed his loyalty; that he seemed ready to kill when she was stuck having to be perfectly sweet and defenseless would been a plus. And I bet she told him of her plans to do good for the poor and unnobled, and backed that with actions. Only that worked a little too well, and with the extended timeline they had more time to know each other.

(extended timeline bc it seems like Key went down voluntarily the dread ravine like a year or two after our canon. I have to reread all that part bc the confusion with Octavian is not helping >< Rae does say in the ending she fucked Key over bc he was older and more secure on himself on the og and he wasnt sent down as a corpse after dying for her and being betrayed)

So I think Lia saw where the wind was blowing once Key came back with the crown, fulfilling the profecy and completely willing to marry and adore her. And she said yes to being his Empress, but she wasn't ever in love with him which makes the Emperor reaction to losing her all that more painful. Poor Lia whose body becames literally what she hates most, an object for the Emperor to fixate in his grief and obsession regardless of her true feelings or ambitions.

Right now I'm thinking that both Lia and Key avoided a hellish future when Rae was sent to lady Rahela's body and derailed destiny, even if as of LLE ending it seems grim.