#scholomance meta

[pangaeaseas]

scholomance is fascinating as an example of the chosen one trope because it plays Chosen One in such an interesting way. Like as I was in the middle of reading it I was reccing it to people (because so clearly it was something to rec) with the note "it's a subversion of the Chosen One". Which is kind of true and especially the kind of truth you can figure out after book one and especially into book two. But ultimately I don't think it's a subversion: it takes a good long while to get to the Chosen One-ness and plays in very strangely but we do end up with a Chosen One. El IS a straight-up Chosen One who will save the world. The prophecy was always actually good, it's just that Scholomance thinks through the implications of prophecy in a way many other works don't, and so the prophecy must be claimed to be bad otherwise it won't come true. And of course Chosen Ones don't just come for free in this universe: El's parents had to ask for one! And in the same way our other Chosen One, Orion, was very much asked for and deliberately made. At first I thought of him as another subversion of the Chosen One, but now I'm thinking he is the actual subversion of the prophesied enemy. He was born to be evil (if for ultimately good purposes) but he CHOSE not to be. The Chosen Ones who chose themselves. Maybe not quite a subversion but definitely not the typical way to do it.

[smartbeautifulliar]

Headcanon:El Higgins isn't merely good-looking,but rather gorgeous to the point of absurdity(at least if she's not sick). Yes,even while studying in the Scholomance. Yes,she's worn out by the lack of proper hygiene,having to make strenous effort and generally not being able to take care of herself. However,it all looks "flawless" on her,even if in an "Unkempt Beauty" way.

In the book where El visits the New York Enclave and sees Ophelia Lake for the first time,she mentions how regular Malia users either look flawlessly beautiful or very much grotesque(also,this is a point when Liu stops using Malia and can't keep her big,beautiful hair) - and points out how Ophelia only looks like an averagely good-looking middle-aged woman.

Yes,I know it's a huge deal in the trilogy that El refrains from using Malia. However,she still has a huge affinity for it,and is referred as an "evil witch" time and again due to the nature of her powers. So it would've been cool if El manages to look the "supernaturally stunning sorceress" just by the nature of her powers(and putting her in a gala outfit automatically makes her a femme fatale stereotype).

However,this is only when El is perfectly healthy. If she catches even the weakest cold,babygirl will look like shit,regardless of how she might feel.

Bonus point:Ophelia being a Strict Malia user and looking like a reasonably beautiful woman/El being a Strict Mana user and looking like the expected results from frequent Malia usage contrast.

[pangaeaseas]

i do have to say pragmatic arrangement turning into real romance is a truly excellent trope. what outdoes it? pragmatic arrangement turning into genuine friendship! this is why I love el's relationships with Liu and aadhya and even chloe. they wouldn't have been friends outside the scholomance necessarily, or if not for the string of events that led to them forming their alliance, but they will be friends forever because they started out needing each other for survival and ended up wanting each other.

[pangaeaseas]

social media/internet in the scholomance universe would be insaaaaane. Clickbaity articles like 'Top Ten Tips To Surviving the Scholomance' scammy 'scholomance coaches' advertising services a scholomance parents Facebook group where people are always causing drama because one of their kids killed someone else's

r/scholomance. just...r/scholomance. 'aita for leaving a 13yo to die horribly?' and all the responses are like NTA you just did what you had to. Ppl posting desperately asking for an alliance.

imagine scholomance-confessions.tumblr.com. 'I think El Higgins is a maleficer' someone pre a deadly education. ppl clowning on them in the notes or agreeing. 'I think Orion lake is actually a maw mouth' everyone is laughing. 'i would let a maleficaria fuck me' ok .

[pangaeaseas]

We get the scholomance experience tm through el who is possibly even more jaded than average and certainly more jaded than the average enclaver (see chloe). El is coming off of a particularly bad family history example of the scholomance gone wrong (most people die, not get trapped in a maw mouth) and a particularly bad first two and a half years at scholomance bc she has no allies or friends bc baby dark sorceress. But el is also coming off of, and giving us her perspective based off of...a hundred and fifty years of Bad Scholomance Experience.

A hundred and fifty years for almost everything that could go wrong to go wrong. A hundred and fifty years of 'wisdom ' and survival strategies and cold hard data. A hundred and fifty years of it being coldly clear that the scholomance was a death trap.

But imagine someone from the earlier years of the scholomance. Without the years of knowing only how to maximize your chances survival. Someone whose parents trusted they would come home safe instead of preparing to mourn immediately. Someone who looked at the decaying gym and thought beautiful and I cant wait to get out. Someone who didn't expect to die. Who was slowly disillusioned.

[pangaeaseas]

the scholomance series is a queer bildungsroman actually. the bildungsroman is about a person undertaking a journey of personal development but also about the struggle of an individual to articulate a self amidst wider social structures, and the queer bildungsroman specifically is about struggling to create a self in challenge to wider social structures. at least in the article I had to read for class LMAO, which went hard on the idea that a queer bildungsroman is at least partially a challenge to dominant society--creating a self that rejects social scripts they are told to follow.

we see this with el. the main thrust of her character arc is basically articulating and deciding to live up to her ethical values, right? she starts off with a self-conception as this maleficer in training and basically is deeply cynical and has this idea that she's only holding herself back narrowly from going bad. she understands, and practices due to being strict mana, her mother's ethics, without truly making them her own. and she has a bunch of received ideas about what she wants to do with her life, namely, join an enclave and do something. she is influenced by the predominant scholomance morality system of 'do whatever to survive'. so throughout the books she repeatedly faces challenges to her personal ethics and moves from doubting herself to a deep confidence in her own ethical system. and she faces some really thorny challenges! where holding to her strict morals will potentially have negative consequences! she has to face the world and come out as her own person. she has to challenge her ethics and actually commit to them. she also has to reject her cynicism and discover new things about herself. she isn't who she thought she was, she has the capacity to be much better. and it's specifically queer because for her the process of being a person, of being herself, entails rejecting the enclave system, rejecting the social scripts she is told to follow--and I love how this also plays out with her rejecting heteronormativity.

ALSO the fact that wider society is literally trying to kill you during your formative years as a mechanic of this universe is a crazy premise for a bildungsroman makes it next level.

[pangaeaseas]

For the ask game, El/Liesel from the Scholomance books?

ooooh ok I do ship this! bc its glorious and both of them are amazing characters.

why do I ship it! because it's got a crazy compelling beginning: liesel trying to murder her and then not going through with it. AMAZING. and because they are exactly what they need to be with each other. maybe they aren't each other's forever but they are in each other's lives at the right time. Liesel helps El live and El helps Liesel become a better person and live for more than revenge. Not every ship needs to be endgame (though I fully believe an El/Orion/afie/liesel polycule happens).

The way they affect each other: El makes Liesel think more about broader morality instead of her personal grievances and Liesel is ready to be El's fixer and do the things she needs but doesn't want to do. and Liesel's unwavering support through Golden Enclaves even though she has her own very defined future plans. also love a good intellectual partnership.

unpopular opinion----idk if this is popular enough to have opinions about it but I guess...them having the relationship they do in canon is Enough for me it's still meaningful even if it ends though I like imagining a post-canon polycule as well.

[pangaeaseas]

the maw mouths being named after the new York City public library guard lions is both hysterical and sad....imagine people who were fans of the library as kids spent lots of time there because it was safe with all the mundanes and it inspired their love of reading. and now they will never go there again. the last thing they see will be monsters with the names of guardians, a sick twist. (also appropriate because the scholomance is a library...)

it also implies that the shift to new York enclave control was REALLY all-encompassing since they apparently got to name the maw mouths.