#tridentariuscest

[twincest-ship-of-the-day]

The Twincest Ship of the Day is:

Coronabeth Tridentarius & Ianthe Tridentarius from The Locked Tomb Series!

[melindascarradio]

I'm unhealthily obsessed with the Tridentarius Sisters... so I modded my keyboard to be Third House themed

[saltcherry]

doing my reread of Gideon the Ninth and while I definitely think the reading of Corona and Ianthe as incestuously romantic/sexual is very supported I think there is also something to be said about the incredibly cruel way Ianthe often treats Corona and how Naberius functions as Corona’s protector (who she then turns around and attacks as she identifies herself strongly with Ianthe as her abuser!). [cut for space, please click through]

The very first scene (iirc) of them involves Gideon overhear Ianthe insult Corona, Naberius insult Ianthe in return, and then Corona defend Ianthe. That’s the dynamic. Naberius is trying to save Corona from herself and from Ianthe, but is ultimately bound to obey Ianthe primarily because of their social (gender-adjacent) roles! He is sort of their big brother but because of his subservient status he cannot really protect Corona from Ianthe. In fact Corona’s protection from Ianthe, insofar as it exists, is mostly conferred by her false status as a necromancer! But without that false status, there would be a clearer social taboo on the sexual aspect of their relationship that would be harder to hide under the shield of familial relations. So they can engage in this semi-secret incest because they are pretending to be social equals. When Ianthe kills Naberius, she removes Corona’s protector, reveals Corona as her social inferior, and also then moves (in the course of the rest of the very complicated plot) to save/preserve Corona as her sister, her romantic/sexual partner, and as her “other half” [cavalier] in a way that also preserves her supremacy/control over the relationship.

All of the sexual subtext and the inferred degree of the reciprocity and romance of their relationship is important but Ianthe is in-text cruel to Corona! She calls her a “bimbo” in front of other people, which in American English is both insulting AND sexual, and also calls her “dumb” and “stupid” (including to others when Corona is not even there). When they are reunited she is VERY quick to insult Corona’s appearance. For all her desire to save Corona she is not interested in being kind to her, or having an equal relationship or in any way disrupting Corona’s subservient status to her as cavalier except that Corona will live.

tl;dr I think the text suggests to us that Ianthe is abusing Corona. and I am very curious about what that means for Corona’s understanding of romantic relationships (Judith was probably right to reject her, good call Judith), Corona’s description by Muir as “worse” than Ianthe (in what way??), and Corona’s understanding of the mission against the Empire. And of course how that will be used in the story of the final book.

[tridentariuscest]

i love the way that the tridentarius twins parallel gideon and harrow in the “two girls growing up with only each other and in weird positions of power” way. i think especially in nona we got some insight into a lot of the ways that ianthe and corona would… hurt each other. the threats of suicide, of abandonment, of choosing someone else. imo, it makes gideon and harrows situation growing up so much. clearer.

the tridentarius sisters were allowed to say what gideon and harrow never were. they were allowed to love and despise and need each other in some incredibly open and blatant ways. to the point where their main threat to one another seems to have always been “i’m going to leave you alone.”

and the thing is! these exact things are true for gideon and harrow as well, they just were never under any circumstances allowed to say it. they fought, they hurt each other, but what was gideons very first threat to harrow in the very first book? she was going to join the cohort. she was going to leave harrow alone. and harrow to gideon? she wouldn’t provide any support from the ninth, she was going to leave gideon alone.

it’s the same tableau. we get to see with the twins what we didn’t get to (and probably won’t ever get to) see with harrow and gideon. we get to see what would have happened if they were allowed to grow up admitting how desperately they needed each other in a world where they didn’t have anyone else.

ooooh, this is a fascinating take! the same kind of codependent need, but none of the ability to admit it even to themselves?

you might be able to take it a step farther - the twins can each believe (inaccurately) that the other could give up on them, while gideon and harrow both wrongly believe that they themselves could be the one to leave?

still feeling that last bit out. but thank you! very neat.

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

This is how @canastigone and I have decided to delineate our backup supply of Folger's for when we run out of decent coffee and tea.

[tridentariuscest]

literally how great would a "you're my present this year" reference in AtN be. fingers crossed.

INCREDIBLE

[tridentariuscest]

[“I’m going to shoot myself and you’re going to watch,” said Crown, with deep satisfaction. “Like when we were teens, but this time I’m going to really tie the rope … really drink the poison…” “You didn’t then and you wouldn’t now—Corona. Coronabeth!”]

[tridentariuscest]

[For a moment you thought Ianthe had fallen asleep. Then she said, idly: “Coronabeth and I spent three nights apart in all our lives, and the second time she cried so hard that she threw up … I hope she’s sleeping easy now. When she doesn’t, she gets bags under her eyelids you could carry water in.”]