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Hey! So I read a post abt how Simon’s wings represent his love for Baz in CO and WS. Do you also read into the wings this way (taking Awtwb into account of course)? In fact, Is there any deeper symbolic significance to his wings or did Simon just create them in the heat of the battle?
Also remember how in WS Penny and baz (penny particularly) wonder WHY Simon gave himself wings and a tail? And whether they are magic or not? I don’t think that question is ever completely answered. What is your take on that?
I realise I m asking a lot in just one question but I feel this is connected: Why do you think Rr chose to make Simon immune to magic? And did it happen solely cuz of smith richard’s spell?
hey anon! thank you for this incredibly fascinating and complex ask. I will do my best to answer you, but I have a feeling this may be long and very rambly. I have many thoughts and they’re not all linear, as I’m a bit jumbled myself with real life at the moment, but I didn’t want to leave your very thought-provoking ask unanswered.
I think the post you are referring to is this marvellous, detailed meta by @adamarks. It’s worth reading. So many good points.
I do feel there is a symbolism to Simon’s wings. HIs love for Baz may be one way to think of them. Other metas have approached the wings differently (which I address in the last paragraph of this post.)
Simon initially created them as a means of escape—a literal definition of “flight.” He first used wings when he and Penny had to get away from the Humdrum at the end of seventh year. But as others have pointed out (and I am so sorry I can't remember who!) the teleporting to Lancashire happens when Simon sees Baz and Agatha holding hands in the Wavering Wood. It's been mentioned that perhaps the depth of his emotion in that moment resulted in him teleporting himself away from them, to a previously familiar place, encountering a corporeal version of the Humdrum, and creating a new dead spot. He created that initial set of wings to fly away from the Humdrum with Penny, but they were wings of convenience, misshapen and ephemeral, falling to bits when Penny cast "nonsense."
The wings he manifests in the woods by Pitch manor also encompass the escape definition of “flight” as well as the more literal one, and come after another confusing and upsetting encounter with the Humdrum. And a night spent kissing Baz. Choosing to be boyfriends. Choosing each other. And another extremely intimate magical connection, when Simon fills Baz with his magic after the Humdrum drained him. And then after that, once Baz realises that they’re in a newly created dead spot, once he’s seen the Humdrum has Simon’s face, Baz tells Simon to go. He's drained the magic from Pitch Manor. The humdrum is somewhere, looking like Simon. Baz’s parents are headed their way.
This is just the kind of disaster that could set in motion irrevocable moves from the Old Families—understandably seeing this as a hostile attack on their magic by the Mage through his acolyte, in their very homes. The implications, looking at it that way, are grave. They're both in a panic and Baz's instinct is to have Simon get away because he's somehow tied to this disaster and it may be the only way Baz can protect him in that moment. So Simon goes. He manifests wings again this time but they are far more solid and corporeal. They are dragon wings. Perhaps in remembrance of the time he and Baz first shared magic fighting off the dragon at Watford--the first intimate connection they ever had. He's distraught at being sent away in this manner--and he's basically incoherent from stress and exhaustion when he arrives at Penny's. His wings resist any magic Penny's mom throws at them. They resist Penny’s magic as well. If you look at the wings as a metaphor for his love for Baz they are what he’s taken with him as he’s left Baz behind, the visual representation of that love.
Simon’s love, as we see in AWTWB, isn’t necessarily soft or gentle--it’s fiery and tumultuous, rough and raw, all-encompassing (much like his magic)—he’s never felt this depth of emotion for anyone previously, and it’s there even in the early days of their relationship (and following the idea that his obsession with Baz was actually an attraction, he has felt intense emotion for Baz for a long time). Simon’s never had a passionate love like this before. This isn't what he had with Agatha. He’s got no idea what to do with it all—like his magic, it’s boundless. Huge, fiery, all-encompassing. Like a dragon, perhaps. And a dragon is what precipitated that shift in their relationship, that first intimacy. It’s compelling imagery.
Simon has the wings when he goes to Watford at the end of Carry On to find the Mage. He's also wearing a grey suit that he somehow manifested as well. Likely the image of the grey suit Baz had him wear to dinner at his home. We’ve seen how Baz armors himself with clothing when he goes into stressful situations— to go to the vampire bar in Carry On, at the Katherine where he meets Lamb, all the varied suits he wears in AWTWB. This is an instance of Simon arming himself with Baz's suit. The wings, if you think of them as his love for Baz, remain in place. He adds that extra layer of armor, Baz’s way, Baz’s clothes, his favor so to speak—if you put it in the guise of a knight wearing his love’s token. ( ( @adamarks has a fantastic scarf meta about this idea!)
I think Simon’s decision to remove his wings at the same time as he breaks up with Baz in AWTWB is very relevant to this idea and love symbolism. He’s cutting himself off from magic, from his relationship with Baz—from the love of his life. And then, after the devastating confrontation/breakup with Baz, after a night of thinking about what Baz said, he can't actually do it. It feels wrong to even have them touched by Niamh.
And later, his wings figure so prominently in his thoughts on getting back to Baz:
“What if I needed my wings?” —he’s needed them before, to save Baz in the desert. This rambling of mine kind of addresses your first question. I do think they are symbolic. Of love. Of a connection with Baz. Of Simon’s fight or flight duality. Of all those things.
That ties in to your second question on why dragon’s wings and if they are magic or not. I think the choice of dragon parts is up for debate. Is it a call back to that moment of intimacy with Baz, where Simon assumes he was thinking about the dragon, as he says in ch 72 of Carry On? Or does it relate to the theory that the Mage used dragon blood for his Greatest Mage rituals (ch 79 Carry On) and somehow that imbued Simon with some vestige of dragon? Does he have enough in him that Maggie senses it, as she appears to in WS? I don't have an answer to that and any and all of those options are reasonable.
I do think the wings are magic. They hold magic in them still. They were created by magic and they are intermittently resistant to magic and spells (Like with Penny’s mom and how Baz and Penny usually have to cast concealment spells rather than spells that actually spell the wings away). (It took over a year for Penny to come up with the bell spell to make Simon’s wings disappear.) (And Baz can’t really make it work.) My take is that they are magic, hold magic in them. I think your last question, on the immunity to magic, ties into this, in a multifactorial way.
A few points to consider. Simon has always had an aversion to having spells cast on him. He dislikes it when Premal does it, he prefers that Baz not spell him clean the second time he arrives at the Pitch estate. He actually flinches the first time Baz does it. He grows to hate it in Wayward Son, flinching and verbally rejecting spells at times. Smith’s spell doesn’t give people magic. It pulls the intrinsic magic they have to the surface and makes it all accessible to them at once. What intrinsic magic does Simon have? In Wayward Son, Blue tells Simon he gave it all back and more--so he gave the magic he took from the magical firmament to the humdrum and he gave his own magic as well, his intrinsic mage magic inherited from his parents. So what magic does Simon have left, for Smith to tap into? The wings. The magic in them. When Smith casts the spell Simon feels a sensation like a bubble rising, pushing up against his skin, then popping. Is it the dragon magic pulling out of the wings and enveloping all of Simon? Giving him a dragon’s resistance to magic? Which in a way is exactly what he wants--a separation from magic, a way to be free of people casting spells on him? Possibly. Could it be a void in him, having given all the magic he had, a nothingness left over from the Humdrum, that absorbs magic and/or repels it? Hard to say but I personally lean more to the dragon wing theory.
Simon has felt out of control for much of his life, not being able to manage his magic when he had it, not necessarily having agency over himself when he was under the Mage’s tutelage, not having autonomy and agency when he lost his magic and felt he didn’t fit in either the Normal world or the World of Mages. Being impervious to magic gives him a boundary with magic, with mages. He doesn’t need to tell them not to spell him anymore, they can’t. (Not that Penny listens, she still tries to cast on him just to see if he remains immune, even toward the end of the book!)
There are a few moments where magickal immunity is distinctly mentioned in AWTWB--the Ent-like rowan tree bartender at the bar Penny and Shepard went to, the Watford goats who seem to be able to choose when and if they respond to magic, Simon’s immunity to it at the White Chapel confrontation with Smith, an instance where being immune to it actually saved his life.
It’s possible Smith’s spell pulled magic from the wings and gave Simon an imperviousness to any magic cast on him, something that ties into and relates to his aversion at having magic cast on him.
I don’t think the spell will necessarily function on Simon the way it did with the other mages Smith cast it on—it pulled all their magic to the fore at once and then they burned through it themselves by casting spells (and the bastard knew it!) With Simon it may linger, as he’s not necessarily using it up. It’s hard to say if the magic is repelled vs. absorbed and neutralized (which is reminiscent of how Ebb was able to counter some spells.) I don’t know if there is a finite amount of magic that can be repelled after the spell, if it will weaken and slowly dissipate.
But the recurrent theme of immunity to magic in this book and having agency and choice regarding spells cast on one is a fascinating point to ponder and if it perhaps may be something Simon eventually may be able to control himself—the choice to accept magic cast on him or not. Magic surrounds him. He doesn’t have to wield magic himself to be part of that world, if he chooses to be part of it—perhaps it’s enough to have it in him, like the goats, or be of magickal heritage and still be able to use a magickal sword, as he and Jamie can, or appreciate and be curious about the magickal world, as Shepard is.
(I will mention here that there are also theories that Simon’s wings symbolize disability, in the way they are something he must constantly think about, accommodate, plan for, work around, hide, be overly self-conscious of, that visually identify him as being different in both the world of mages and the Normal world. In much the same way Baz’s vampirism has been discussed in other meta on here as a metaphor for his queerness and also as a metaphor for chronic illness/disease, which are valid and interesting hypotheses. As we are talking about Simon’s wings in your ask, I will say I can see the validity of the disability metaphor and I find it worthwhile to think about and discuss.)
I had a follow up ask referencing this post, wondering what jk my thoughts are on if Simon will keep his wings. I’m going to just add my thoughts onto this post because I do feel they are related.
Will Simon keep his wings? I’d like him to, but it’s not necessarily an easy thing to keep them, is it? It narrows his options as far as life and work and the world he lives in, now that they can’t be magicked away. It separates him from the Normal world. He could function in the World of Mages, much like other magickal beings but it’s not exactly what he had envisioned for himself.
But perhaps now that he’s back with Baz and has found a way to control them more himself (and has the option of wing-friendly clothing, thanks to Shepard) he may have different thoughts about them and what world he chooses to inhabit. He has confirmation that he is a mage by blood, even if he isn’t able to cast magic anymore. He isn’t, and never was, a Normal. And he knows that now.
More people know about the wings now—Niamh, Daphne, Jamie, Lady Ruth, Philippa, all the mages in the White Chapel—and most of the people who truly matter to Simon (Baz in particular, but also now Lady Ruth) love his wings. Accept them wholeheartedly and appreciate them. This is a new experience for him, a new realisation.
There is no question Baz loves Simon’s wings and tail, because they’re part of Simon.
And Simon is most definitely into Baz’s fangs and is fascinated by his vampirism. They love each other completely, every part of each other—the parts they find monstrous and off-putting in themselves are appealing and attractive to the other. One more way in which they match.
In the end it is solely Simon’s decision. And Baz makes it very clear that he respects that. That ultimately whatever Simon decides is what matters, and that Simon has his unwavering support, whatever decision he makes on them. And I can respect that as well.
He has all the time in the world to make that decision. When and if he chooses to. There’s no rush.
So whenever I read CO/snowbaz fanfiction, Simon would be portrayed as this super obedient type towards the Mage, incapable of any criticism. I think I'd think this too if I only read CO and had my own interpretation of the book, but if you listen to the audio book you hear Simon mocking the way the Mage speaks and it's hilarious.
That's how he talks to me. "It's not your path, Simon. Your destiny lies elsewhere." -Carry On, Chapter 2
The audio book sounds mocking even when he quotes this line:
"Let hardship sharpen your blade, Simon"- also Carry On, Chapter 2
And let's not forget that Simon had thought to take him off his List of Good Things plenty of times.
Although Simon doesn't like he to think, he does. He's a smart kid. He's aware that He is the blade, the Mage's sword.
Hello! Here's another sequential based on the Simon Snow trilogy books by @rainbowrowell. This one is a scene from Wayward Son in Chapter 21 when Simon and Baz are messing around with foam swords at a renaissance fair during their trip to America.
Thanks to the patient Snowbaz fans who leave very kind comments on my previous Simon Snow fanart, hope you enjoy this one!
“You can’t just give up on this. On me. Don’t you know what we have? It’s the sort of thing people dream about. They make potions to steal it.”
- Any Way the Wind Blows by @rainbowrowell
Please don’t be mad at me, y’all. I just found the entire blocking of this scene so powerfully gut-wrenching, I had to get it out of my system before I moved onto anything happy. From the wand held between them to the fallen wings to Baz’s desperation and Simon’s resistance, every sentence felt designed to run us through, and I totally dug it.
Since I read AWTWB I have not been able to stop thinking about this scene. If I were more eloquent with my feelings (and ideas) I could organize my thoughts to tell you what that moment meant to me, but instead I decided to process it how I know: I made a little animation in tribute to the moment when Swithin stops crying when Baz sings to him Martha My Dear. I uploaded the video with the complete song to youtube.
yall ever think abt how simon and baz are child soldiers and killers and monsters with bloody, violent pasts – who thought they wouldn’t live to see age 20. but now they are 20 and they fall asleep every night wrapped up with their lover on sheets with BIG GREEN APPLES??????????!!!!!
