#are people still into greywaren stuff :

[deklo]

more greywaren stuff!! :)

pls don’t repost

[crimeronan]

as an Irish person reading trc/tdt what do you think of Maggies characterisation of the Lynch family??

oh i LOVE this question. anon so kindly giving me permission to infodump....

the short answer is: i love it?? i love it. i have varying quibbles about how niall's "redemption arc" is done and stuff like that, but purely on the irish side of things, i love it

further necessary context: i'm irish-american a few generations removed from ireland (who happens to have a hyperfixation on irish myth), my closest familial connections in the country are some distant cousins that my great-aunt traced recently. direct relations to her, but given that she is like 96, much less direct to me. so my perspective is very different from that of an irish person raised n living in ireland, & most of what i love most about the lynch family is directly related to diaspora and intergenerational trauma stuff

i said i was gonna infodump and then couldn't decide where to start. waow. okay so i've talked before about most of the worldbuilding in the dreamer trilogy being based in irish myth - ronan being from the otherworld (eldritch god, fairy, same thing), fintan mac bochra and the hawk of achill, not giving your true name/address to people at the fairy market, etc. these stories are woven through the whole fabric of the series

then the concept of irish storytelling itself is Also woven through the whole series, on both a meta and in-canon level

traditional irish storytellers will take a myth and make it their own, you can trace the origins of different tales back dozens or hundreds of years. the goal isn't to tell the story the way it's been told in generations past, but instead to tell it how You'd tell it. so there are these books repurposing irish myth in this unique way, but also these characters who are all so in love with storytelling in their own ways

you can see it in how niall and aurora tell their stories, how niall's always have a focus on action and tragedy and grisly death while aurora's are more focused on the love and the feelings and the soft fade-out of a tragic hero

you can see it in how declan has inherited niall's propensity for storytelling (the twitter confirmation of his middle name being "tadhg" still makes me Big Eyes Emoji) and also inherited niall's propensity for reckless idiocy, Geis Of Bullshit indeed.

then there's the way that declan and ronan both find themselves playing out different parts of niall's worst traits, how intergenerational trauma seems inescapable, how every damn person in the family is So Mentally Ill. this isn't necessarily the case for every irish-american family but it sure is for kitkat's. hoo boy we love giving chronic pain, psychosis, and inescapable depression to our offspring

that greywaren quote about "diaspora always idealizes the homeland" has stuck with me for a while because there's this kind of muted longing in the books' depiction of ireland itself, but also in the books' depiction of the barns, a place that niall and mór Made ronan's homeland. and more than that i see it in declan's views on his parents themselves, how he's able to reconcile with mór Because she's so distant and unfathomable and never personally fucked him up, so it's easier to forgive and forget everything she's done... how niall is dead and gone and can no longer change his behavior or grow or learn or fuck declan up any worse, so it's easier to accept his love as uncomplicated and good. child idealizing his distant homeland because that's what he's Supposed to have

truly don't know if that was the authorial intention but. it's the only way declan's arc makes any sense to me. that one line does a shitload of heavy lifting

and on a less theme-heavy note i love little details like. the brothers being so in touch with irish culture as second-gen immigrant kids, love that they play the uilleann pipes and attend the fleadh, love that ronan can do an irish accent on command, love that declan keeps photos of ireland in his bedroom but they still don't quite reflect his True Self like his attic does, love that mór is a gaelgeoir (irish speaker), there are other details i'm forgetting now

this post is ungodly long so i'll leave it here. these r my thoughts. it's good shit o/

[therubyreader]

My Review of The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

See a full list of my book reviews here

*Disclaimer: there will be spoilers later on in the review*

Review Word Count, non-spoiler: 752 Review Word Count Total: 1,436

I have done it again folks, I’m writing the review of this book right after I finished it. Can I get a round of applause? Now I was kind of on the fence about writing this review, I honestly wasn’t sure how many people cared (myself included) but my friend who recommended me the series, [insert name here, don’t want them to get doxxed or anything], encouraged me to write this after reading my review of the first book (click here to read it if you’re interested). They did also say, and this is an exact quote, “I forget that you’re like a good writer dude,” so there is that. 

The Dream Thieves takes us back right, kind of, to where we left off in The Raven Boys after the boys plus Blue managed to wake up the ley line and Ronan has let the gang (real quick, do they have an official name because if not I'm going to keep finding new and creative ways to say “group”) know that he’s able to take stuff out of his dreams. Now that his secret is out Ronan starts to learn more about his powers, along with the consequences of using them, while hunters are looking for the Greywaren, believing it is an artifact that makes dreams a reality as opposed to a person. The squad are also experiencing the effects of waking the ley line, Adam is learning what his sacrifice means while they try to recover Cabeswater, the magic place in the middle of the woods, that has mysteriously disappeared.

While, in comparison to the first book, we don’t spend the entire first half waiting for something to happen, there were parts where I kind of sped through them since they weren’t directly linked to the plot until much later. I honestly should’ve learned my lesson and paid attention to everything because I know from the first book every detail was going to come back later, but I am known to have a horrible track record of not learning from my past mistakes, so I didn’t. But it wasn’t that big of a deal with this book because everything had already been established so most of what was going on was able to hold my attention while actively advancing the plot. 

I think that the biggest change from this book to the first one is that we see more into the mental state of the posse than we did in the first one. There are a lot of things going on in their lives along with the search for Glendower that is impacting their mental health, and it’s expected that a couple of breakdowns are bound to happen, especially when it comes to teenagers. We see this the most with Adam and Ronan, Adam because he has gone through a lot in a short amount of time, leaving an abusive home, the discovery of Cabeswater, and his financial issues on top of what his sacrifice really means. Ronan, on the other hand, same soup from the first book just reheated (we actually get a look into his mind). I think this was a wonderful addition to the book, usually the mental health and struggles of characters in books is overlooked or just not expanded on properly. These kids have to deal with this magical mystery on top of being kids with real problems and they are obviously going to take a toll on their mental health.  

I think my biggest complaint with this series is how drawn out everything is, and I get it, Gansey has been looking for Glendower for seven years, this is going to take a bit of time, but I just think everything could move slightly faster. And this is totally my own problem, and it’s the author’s writing style to add details and draw out story lines (which is very good writing by the way) but I, as you may have noticed, have the attention span and need of instant gratification of an iPad kid. I think since the plot is advancing and getting really juicy now leading into the third book (which I already have by the way, so if people (my friend) are still interested I’ll get that review up as soon as I finish it) I’m going to complain less about the pacing. Overall, a solid continuation of the series, again not my favorite book ever of all time but I’m enjoying the series as a whole and I’m going to finish it.  

Spoilers Below!!

One quick thing I’m going to say before I start talking about the plot points is that I read the scene where Ronan admits he’s gay to Kavinsky (who I’m pretty sure is gay too and has a crush on Ronan) on the first day of pride month, so happy pride everyone!  

There’s honestly a lot of the plot I want to mention so I’m going to rapid fire some of the smaller plot points right now before I get into the meat. First, the kiss between Blue and Noah was actually very cute and sad, shout out to Noah for being a good friend about it and letting Blue have a kiss that won’t kill anyone and shout out to Blue for managing to pull every single guy in that crew except for gay icon Ronan. The almost kiss between Blue and Gansey was cute and sad also but for different reasons mainly because she’s going to kill Gansey. Calla, Persephone, and Maura beloved. Matthew beloved. Literally everything in the Barns is so strange that I won’t even attempt to get into it in this post, but just know I’m thinking about it. The whole Kavinsky thing too, how many dreamers are there? Why him? How does dream land work? Did he really commit suicide? Was he in love with Ronan? What was up with that “with me or against me” nonsense? Also, what happened to the dragon and dream horror after their epic showdown?  

Ok, cool, now that that’s out of the way let’s talk about Adam. I know this is bad, I have to give props for the way that his mental health struggle is written. I mean the internal battle between the violence he inherited from his dad and his need to be better only being exacerbated by his sacrifice to the ley line was such a beautiful arc in like a twisted way. It felt really real and raw and I enjoyed reading his chapters and seeing his growth as a character from a scared boy to the magician was probably my favorite part of the book.  

Alongside that Ronan’s arc was also very similar with him learning his father was also a dreamer and his mother was a dream he brought to life which kind of reminds me of that old Reddit post about Ogtha the roach if anyone knows what I’m talking about. I also want to know if Declan is also a dreamer, because there is only one Graywaren and its Ronan, and maybe also Matthew as since they’re the products of a dreamer and a dream. That whole thing is bonkers and I’m excited to see how this plot point evolves over the course of the next two books.  

Lastly, I didn’t get the point of the Gray Man. I know he’s supposed to be strange and mysterious but he was too strange and mysterious to the point where I didn’t understand why he was needed in the book at all besides to be in love with Maura and talk about her feet too often, which like I get is supposed to be some sort of metaphor for them being opposites or whatever, but like dude, get some hobbies. Maybe this is because I speed read through his chapters because I didn’t like him so I didn’t get it or they’re going to expand on his character in future books but he was easily the worst part of the book. I hope for less of him in the future and if they give Maura a love acute angle (because its technically not a triangle if you think about it) with the Gray Man and Blue’s dad I will riot, on God.  

Anyways, if my friend commands it, I will be back for a book three review in the coming days, I will admit I did read the first chapter already because I have no self-control. Unfortunately, the fourth book is currently unavailable so I have it on hold which is going to make me slow my roll at least a little. Until the third book!  

[jcvdraws]

“Easy to stand back from the end of a tragedy and say how it could have been done differently”

I’ve seen several people (whether they’re happy about it or not) referring to a “redemption arc” for Niall Lynch in Greywaren. At the very least I feel that this is mislabeling his storyline because it implies he went through some kind of process to become a better person on page, which is not what happened. What happened is we got new information about a character that has never been alive on-page in the first place. This dude didn’t get a “redemption arc”, he’s still dead and everything we saw involving him happened a long time ago in the context of the story. Even the stuff we knew of him before happened a long time ago.

I understand people probably mostly mean this in a tongue-in-cheek way—maybe it’s more that people feel he’s meant to be “redeemed” to us as readers and and I’m being a little picky about language. But I still don’t think this is the lens through which it is most useful to view this story. Thing is, we really never got to see the old, living Niall Lynch in real time before now. What we got in Greywaren is his backstory, and Mor’s; the whole (or at least a more whole) Lynch family story that we never had, from their perspective. I’d argue it’s not about “Niall good, actually” or “Niall bad, always has been” it’s about “life is complicated” and “everyone has a story” and, most importantly, finally looking at all the things that hurt to look at in order to open yourself up to living life differently than you have before. This is, of course, just my personal reading, but we’re gonna talk about it like it’s the only one for a sec. Further elaboration starring Declan Lynch under the cut:

Declan’s line “Easy to stand back from the end of a tragedy and say how it could have been done differently” sums it up best, I think. In the end it’s not about “surprise, Niall Lynch was a good dad, actually!” At all. It’s about the nuance of family trauma, of life in general, of how complicated people and their stories are, how individuals each work differently with the tools they’ve got. And in the end it’s Declan making peace with the complexity that got him where he is so he can move forward.

Because, the thing is, Declan was good at feeling the hurt from his past and the resentment for it, but he wasn’t good at feeling the pain and grief of loss. And that’s what he needed to do to move from the terrified person he was to someone ready to live and love and change his life for the better. He was good at seeing the bad in everything and everyone—that was the anxiety. It was him trying to protect himself from further loss, further pain, by keeping him in protective mode. He was so good at seeing the bad, or potential for it, that it stopped him from seeing any of the good, and not just the good of the past, the good of the present and most of all the potential good of the future. Or, even more than that, how the future could be different than what had come before. He was hardwired for sussing out threats in order to survive rather than actually living his life. His over-protectiveness for his family was his over-protectiveness of himself. It was his way of protecting himself from further emotional pain, while at the same time bracing for the potential of pain around every corner. It wasn’t just him--every other character had their own ways of protecting themselves that eventually looped right back around on them and stopped being protective and started being hurtful too.

How I read this book, each character had to heal by going headfirst into what they most feared and had most avoided. And for Declan it was his childhood memories and the love he still had for his father, his mother, his brothers, how his family used to be, because facing the grief over losing his family, his happy childhood, was more painful than feeling resentment toward them. At a certain point, it was more painful for him than believing it all had been terrible, always. And the thing is, it grew and bred resentment for his brothers too, because he was so focused on preventing himself from feeling further loss by potentially losing them that he wasn’t able to experience the love and care and openness with them that he and they clearly wanted. It’s not about whether or not his resentment, or anger, or frustration toward his family was ever justified in any way. It’s about what he was denying himself by denying the feelings within him that weren’t resentment and anger, because acknowledging those feelings would have meant acknowledging the full scale of his pain, and he wasn’t ready for that, until he was.

In the end it was all about Declan finally, finally cracking himself open and finally being vulnerable again! And that’s crazy, that’s beautiful, that’s everything!! To understand that life is complex and that opening up to the pain of loss can, paradoxically, make living life feel a lot less like an endless wheel of suffering is life-changing. Honestly I’m not interested in whether Niall Lynch was a “good” parent. I do appreciate learning more about him through Declan’s trek through his and Mor’s memories. I do appreciate that his story from his perspective is different than what we would get from Ronan’s or Declan’s perspectives. Because that’s life! And maybe it’s because I was never super invested in seeing him as a terrible dude (or a good one) that I don’t feel the need to interrogate his morality in the face of what the rest of the story has to offer. I’m much more interested in Declan finding the courage to experience his full range of emotions again, and to allow himself AND others to be vulnerable, both emotionally and physically, because that’s a scary, painful thing to do, but it’s brave and—ultimately—worth it on the other side.

[marnz]

6, 20, 15 for book asks!

hello hello!!!

6. what books have you read in the last month? already answered 6! but wow I am absolutely counting down the days until Greywaren...I should reread Mister Impossible. The ending is still ???? to me.

20. what are things you look for in a book? I already answered this but also I forgot to say I appreciate it when basic facts are accurate, as we all know since I nitpicked the legal stuff in The Raven Cycle at length. It really takes me out of the work when I run across a fact I know is untrue, and personally I love learning stuff while I read!

15. recommend and review a book. So my favorite read this year is Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor. Wow. How can I convey the depths of my appreciation for this book! Paul is a young gay man studying cinema at college in the early '90s, and he also has the power to shape shift his body, which he uses to explore gender and identity while traveling around the country and falling in and out of love. This book is so fucking queer and written for gay people as opposed to being a book that is gay and written to appeal to a wide audience. It is one of the queerest books I've ever read and it made me feel so seen! Paul feels one of my best friends from my first round of undergrad. He's an absolute young mess and music hipster. I love him so much, words fail me. Please read this book!!!!!!

thank you 😊💜

[madtangledblues]

tag 9 people you’d like to get to know better!! tysm @declanscunt for tagging me <3

3 ships: honestly ive been kind of having a big bluesey moment recently since ive been doing my trc reread. jordeclan is always and forever OBVS but has been exacerbated in the wake of greywaren release. ig i’ve been also having a wesper moment bc of all the s&b s2 stuff so that’s where im at rn

first ever ship: percabeth 🤭🤭🤭

last song: love, try not to let go by julia jacklin. i love love LOVE julia jacklin and this song is just so me.

last movie: i was having a christmas romcom moment while packing for my trip so i did a double feature of something from tiffany’s and last christmas. which side note is an absolutely wild movie??????? still thinking about it i can’t believe that was an actual theatrical release

currently reading: i packed everything i know about love and gideon the ninth as my travel reads and i just started gideon. so far it is absolutely slaying i love it !!

currently watching: honestly nothing???? give me good show recs i feel like i never watch tv

currently consuming: the last piece of chocolate from my advent calendar :))

currently craving: a nice, good rice dish. i dont even care what so much but i want to eat rice

i tag @kazbiter @thegreatwhore @rock-n-rollin-bitch @tearbiscuits and anyone else who wants to do this !! <3

[prevalent-masters]

ao3 wrapped [writers edition]: 8, 14, 30

Okay I wanted people ask me stuff and then I realized I only published two things on AO3 this year it just felt like more because one of them was so involved and took me forever to write. Embarrassing🙈. But that being said:

8. Pairing you wrote the most for this year: still Nicky/Joe from the old guard since my longer fic was about them

14. Shortest work: and on the seventh day he rested. Still 13,000 words so not that short.

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year?: how deeply I fell back in love with the Raven Cycle! It’s been years since I was really into those books and I never had any fic ideas even when I was into it but Greywaren came out and I had to write something. That fic came pouring out in a fever dream in the few days after I finished the book.

Thanks for asking!

[iammistressofmyfate]

Rating: Explicit

Relationships: Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish, Richard Gansey III/Blue Sargent, Jordan/Declan Lynch, Carmen Farooq-Lane/Hennessy, Matthew Lynch/OC

Tags:  Kid Fic, Magic, Parent-Child Relationship, Parenthood, Established Relationship, Adulthood, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Found Family, Family Love, Grief/Mourning, Adam Parrish Loves Ronan Lynch, Ronan Lynch Loves Adam Parrish, Greywaren Spoilers, Running Away, Piercings, Tattoos, Mentions of Death, Vomiting, Minor Injuries, Coming of Age, Anal Sex, Mentions of Depression

Summary: The sample size was small, but literally everyone Ronan knew, besides Hennessy and Carmen Farooq-Lane, were having babies. He didn’t necessarily consider himself the baby having type. Most people would look at him and think that he would be the one to drop said baby. He would be the first to say that his lifestyle was not necessarily accommodating to a baby. But nonetheless…Ronan Lynch wanted a baby 

OR 

The one in which Lindenmere manifests a baby and catapults Ronan and Adam into Parenthood

Excerpt:

18 Years Old

“Show me,” Ronan said, arms crossed over his chest, observing Aoife. 

They were in Aoife’s dreamspace. It was a beautiful garden, full of all kinds of flowers and fountains and statues and columns. It was something of her own creation, less imposing than Ronan’s forests, but with roots that still sunk deep into the earth and petals and leaves that reached toward the sun. 

It was a bright, fanciful place, just like Aoife. 

Over the course of the last five years, Ronan had slowly but surely been exposing Aoife to more information about who they were and where they had come from. It was a lot of information and he figured giving it to her in doses over the course of years was better than a crash course at eighteen, followed by the inevitable identity crisis. 

It hadn’t been easy, but she’d had the support of a large, loving family to help her. 

Aoife was far more self-assured than he had been at eighteen. She still had her moments as she continued to grow into herself, but she was made of hardier stuff. 

Now, she stood to Ronan’s left, a car parked between them.

[Chapter Fourteen]

[The Beginning]

[off-in-the-moors]

Joseph Kavinsky analysis, part 1

aka how did I get here and why is he the reason

Warnings: spoilers for the whole Raven Cycle, mentions of: drug-use, abuse, death, murder, homophobic slurs, xenophobia

Part 1 // Part 2

After finishing The Raven Cycle and analyzing every chapter, character and the overarching plot with my friend, we were left feeling empty. It's been few months, I kept looking-up more TRC related things, other people's opinions, look through fandom content and even read some post from the author's, now deleted, tumblr account, trying to find answers to why I'm feeling like this. Why the books seem to decline for me in quality as I kept reading? Why I can't see Ronan in the same light as the rest of the fandom? Why I couldn't like the author? And the answer was looking me in the eyes the whole time.

"Depending on where you began the story, it was about Joseph Kavinsky."

I loved his character from the moment we met him in The Dream Thieves and still think about him to this day. But why? In a way, Kavinsky is too familiar to me, from his attitude, through appearance to his voice. It’s like I knew him, and this isn’t surprising. I met/saw Kavinskys on the streets, I know Kavinskys, and I was a Kavinsky once in my life. Although I'm the opposed to him, I still sympathies with him and understand how it feels to be in dark places in your life. And I'm not the only one, many people adore him and don't deny his actions to be terrible. But on the other side, the majority of fans hates him and titles him "the worst/most evil antagonist of the series". But why? What about K makes him so polarizing? The simple answer is: the way he was presented and the function he played in the plot. Even then, K's whole arc in TDT was handled horribly and damaged the way readers will view, not only people like K but also themselves. This and also future posts, I’ll be analyzing everything relied to K, including his treatment after book's release by the author and what some deleted scenes and unused ending can shine on.

This is part 1 of a series of posts to come.

This part is about the narrative and characters views of Kavinsky.

Narrative and characters

Narrative is a powerful tool of telling a story, well crafted and coupled with character's internal-voice makes the reader view the story under different light. In a PoV of one character, one thing might bring-up different emotions and ideas, than the others. Exploring relationships and events differ, because everybody experience it differently. But problem begins when the narrative forces a reader to a opinion, without backing it up with reasons or giving a opposing one. In case of Joseph Kavinsky, before we properly meet him, we are told by the characters to hate him and the narrative backs them up in reasons to hate him. All the reasons given to us at that time, boil down to "I heard a rumor."

Gansey hates him, because "There was nothing about Kavinsky that wasn’t despicable" and "he thinks life is a music video". He doesn't want Ronan to associated with him, which is connected with him covering and getting Ronan's ass for the mess he made, having him project his anger and frustration he has with Ronan on to K, who part-takes in the same activities and probably with Ronan, is understandable. But I didn't expect much from a guy who: payed the school officials so they won't kick Ronan out; insulted Adam and throw Adam’s abuse at his face, just to instant of apologizing to him, make a pity party for himself (also having Adam apologies to Gansey for his rightful outburst isn't okay), is fine with having a romantic relationship with Blue while she's still with Adam, hurting him even further but makes it all about himself, etc. Him hating K, just because of his lifestyle, made sense. But were the line was crossed, was when he started to decide on other people's worth. Lines like "we matter" (on which I'll extend later in the post) or "Ronan is fixable and has a soul [Kavinsky doesn't]", were used not only to show what Gansey himself thinks of K (he isn't a human being to him), but also demonize K and make the reader not consider him an equal to the Gangsey (a teenage).

Blue hates him, because he's yet another Raven Boy. Her hatred comes mostly from her distance for them, rich boys with privilege to which Gansey gang is an exception (although two out of four are exactly the kind she hates, and she told Noah directly she wouldn't be friends with him if he was alive) (There can be made a whole post about Blue's hypocrites regarding Raven Boys, but this isn't it). She also talks about how she doesn't feel comfortable around K and "if she couldn’t forgive Kavinsky for always managing to make her feel so insignificant", which makes sense. But while describing him, she calls him "a import from somewhere else", not only lessening him as a person but also making a xenophobic comment, noting his long nose as one of the factors (you could say, she meant him being from New Jersey, but you don't "import" stuff from inside a country, you only "import" from abroad and K is Bulgarian, doesn't matter if he's an immigrant or just has Bulgarian roots). Later, while discussing what to do with K draining the ley lines, Greyman offers to talk to him, to which Blue asks him "can you make him feel worthless while you do?”. Yes, she asked a hit-man, who killed not only Niall Lynch but also multiple people (including three on pages, which was described in the case of the ones breaking into Montmouth) for money. (Yes, fans say it's fine he murdered Niall, because he was a dick and horrible father, but what we forget is that it wasn't a fast death. It was slow and brutal, having him bludgeoned to send a message to Declan. No "he was a weapon in Greenmatle's hand" can excuse it.). Plus, he beat-up and threatened Declan with a gun if he doesn't give him the Greywaren. "Making him feel worthless" can only mean the worst. Kavinsky was a asshole, but he didn't deserved that. Also Blue gives the idea to give Kavisnky to the Greyman instant of Ronan, which was shot down, but not because it's horrible, inhuman and they can't decide on someone else's life, but because they think Greenmantle's people will come back also for Ronan. They were ok, with K being basically a scapegoat so Ronan will live.

Adam just "hates that prick" and "looked at the table with a studied disinterest" when K approached their table at Nino's, those are his only interaction in anything Kavinsky related (In a part regarding the "original" ending, we'll see it wasn't always the case.).

Noah barely exists in the series after The Raven Boys and never comes in contact with K or gives any opinion on him, outside of "ducked his head down into his shoulders, but couldn't take his eyes off the newcomer".

Ronan's relation with K could be its own post all together and there already are some good post about it, but for this one, I'll only mention few things. He gives us a very "I hate him but I'm into this lifestyle" attitude. He races against K but doesn't want to have anything to do with him or he's "dogs". (Yes, Dream Packs canon name is "Kavinsky's pack of dogs" as Ronan calls them. Ironically, Ronan gets angry then Declan and K called him "Gansey's dog" but is fine when Gansey calls him "his dog".) He never thanked or acknowledged K saved his life from the Night Horror. He accepted K's help in dreaming-up the new Pig but afterwords ditches him without even a slit gratefulness (his motivation being remembering Gansey's words), and mocks that K thought there could be anything between them (friendship or relationship, it dependents how you interpret it), turning this into just using K to get what he wanted. And yes, what K did while Ronan slept (tracing Ronan's back tattoo with his finger) was unacceptable, if it really happened and wasn't just phantom-touch while falling asleep (if it was real, it can be interpreted as K acting out of his internalized homophobia, letting himself a moment of “curiosity”, but it still wouldn't make it fine).

Ronan and K insult one-another multiple times through-out the story but the difference is quite showing. K's insults are mostly homophobic, calling Ronan a "fag" or implying Ronan and Gansey are together. This is a typical teenage insults, but are also showing of K's internalized homophobia if viewed through "Don’t say Dick Gansey, man. Do not say it. He is never going to be with you. And don’t me tell you don’t swing that way, man. I’m in your head." and "It's a bomb. Just like you." scenes.

But Ronan, excepting the typical insults like "ball-sack", goes after who K is. "Bulgarian mobster Jersey trash piece of shit" or "Russian" (to the latter, K responded "Hey now, let's not make this ugly") are personal, referring not only to from where K's from, implying he's a mobster like his father and just calling him "a waste". Unfortunately, K's whole character is already one big stereotype of Slavs as viewed not only by Americans. But insulting someone for being "Bulgarian", something they had no control over, is xenophobic. (And for "Russian", as a Slav myself, let me tell you. Calling a non-Russian Slav "Russian" is a quick way to get on their bad side.) And if you're like "Ronan isn't xenophobic, because he's Irish" or "Maggie isn't xenophobic, because Ronan...", you have no idea how things work in Europe. This is the same argument as "He can't be racist, because he's black". TRC fandom is always ready to bring-up all K's sins and even enlarge them, but when in comes to Ronan, all his sins are either forgotten or excused.

One more thing I want to touch on is one of K's parties. After Monmouth got broken into by people looking for Greywaren (which Greyman broke into first), Gansey thinks it must be Kavinsky's doing, because of the fake ID left in front of the door. Him and Ronan go to K's party, he tells them, it's a substance party and asks where are theirs. As an answer, Ronan hits him in the face and throws through a car, just to show him his blooded knuckles with "This is your substance.". The rest is Gansey and Ronan not believing K, that he didn't trash their place, and a "different Gansey" throwing a Molotov cocktail at K's car. After that, they leave. But one thing isn't sitting right with me. The "This is your substance" is a beloved, may I say iconic, scene that is glorified by fans and cited as this "Ronan is so cool and K soo deserved it" thing.

Here's the thing. K is in full right. It's his party, on his rules. Gansey and Ronan just came from nowhere, probably for the first time, so the rule is stated for them. And Ronan's response? Physically assault K. Even if he's angry about the apartment, still he shouldn't just assault him. And Gansey does nothing. And one more thing: K never hits Ronan back. Not in next chapters, not at the end. Never.

Before the chapter ends, we get probably my most hated line from this book:

"Closing his eyes, Gansey leaned his head back on his seat, chin tilted up, throat green in the dash lights. There was still an unsafe sort of smile about his mouth — what a torment the possibility in that smile was — and he said, “There was never a time when that could’ve been you and me. You know the difference between us and Kavinsky? We matter."

We matter. And he doesn't. I could talk about this line and how damaging it is to people who see themselves in Kavinsky, but instant I'll say, why I hate it.

I have anxiety mixed with being introverted and back-in-the-day I felt isolated from my classmates, desperate for friends but only had toxic ones who dropped me so the popular girls would talk with them, just to be friends with me again after some time, bullied to the point of breaking multiple times, and hating myself for not fitting in, unable to connected with my peers in anyway. The line "we matter" echos my worst fear and thoughts from that time. "Everyone matter, you don't". I was too young to even have those thoughts, but they were always there. In the back of my head, like a recurring nightmare.

Just the idea, someone can say with confidence that someone, anyone, doesn't matter, makes me sick. No one has the inside to what's going on in someones life, to what thought are plaguing their head. Everyone's life matter and to say something like this in a book targeted to 12-18 year olds, who are at there most vulnerable stage, is not only irresponsible but enraging. Gansey is saying this about a guy his age, who is drug-addicted and self-destructive, because he doesn't like him and wants Ronan to stay away from. No one calls him out on it. Not Ronan, not the narrative. Nothing.

Until the kidnapping of Matthew and the paradox/question "did the tattoo tracing scene happened?", Kavinsky did nothing to earn hatred from the reader. He was living his life, being a stupid, reckless teenage boy with a power to get everything he wanted. Ask yourself a question: "If you had the power to pulled anything* from your dreams, wouldn't you go crazy with it? Maybe in a very selfish way?"

*  Throughout TRC and CDtH, we see no limit to what a dreamer can pull-out. From a pen or working car, living creatures (animals, copies of real people or purely made-up) to abstract things, like a word with power to animate the dead or an apocalypses.

Yes, K's dreaming drained the ley lines, causing Cabeswater to disappear. But did K knew about it? He knew that he needed to wait for it to recharge before dreaming more things and he did just that. The over-draining was cause by preparations for this Fourth of July party (dreaming many copies of his Mitsubishi) but same did Ronan’s dreaming (but Cabeswater acts as weird gatekeeper, so Ronan seems to be forgiven). But did he knew about Cabeswater? Or furthermore, Glendower? We can't confirm or deny it, but considering K isn't from Henrietta and probably is there only for school, he's there for about 2 years. Would he be interested in some random forest or some Welsh King, which just idea of him being in America is so far fetched to believe in?

No. All he was interested it, was parting and wasting himself away.

We don't get any other or opposing opinions on Kavinsky, only the ones given by Gangsey. They are the outsiders looking in, not having any inside, just rumors and their shallow observations/interactions. But we don't even get any "inside", not from other Raven Boys or even the Dream Pack (who are barely characters). After K's death, the only thing we get is Gangsey's not caring or being glad K's gone. Aglionby is silent and Henrietta, doesn't even acknowledge Fourth of July's Party even happened (but to be honest, the town feels like a theater stage than a living place). The only mentions about K that gives some idea someone noticed anything, was his name alongside Whelk’s and Dittley's in the newspaper at the end of BLLB (but this plot point is never mentioned again).

[parrishh]

i'm like, 90% sure all of the anons in my inbox right now are actually the same person so, if that's you, i'm just going to answer all of your mister impossible questions in this post since there are a lot of them and this is going to be really very extremely long

"Wait what why is Jordan awake?"/"Is the sweetmetal of declans picture helping jordan stay awake?"

i don't know why she's awake but i don't think it's the painting, because at the end of the book she's outside declan's apartment, not her own. i guess it's possible that she succeeded in making the painting a sweetmetal powerful enough to sustain her even there, but i feel like there's probably a different explanation. i've seen theories that she's inadvertently made herself into a sweetmetal by finally seeing herself as her own person rather than just a copy of hennessy, which is interesting

"And the things about the ley line Idgi? Hennessy wants to stop the power but for what"

i think hennessy thinks shutting down the ley line is the best (or even only) way to get rid of the lace. she hates herself for the lace to the extent that she doesn't even want to live anymore, so of course that's her primary motivation. she feels hopeless so long as the lace has power. she's desperate

"Why did he think adam was in on declans plan? I think the "oh" was more like oh you want to come with bryde of course...."

the "oh" is in response to ronan saying "i'm calling now. i need to see you", before there's even any mention of bryde. adam says "you're here? oh", not "you're here? why are you here?" the fact that he didn't ask why ronan was in town, the fact that he said an "oh" of realization instead, implied that he already knew why ronan was in town. and he could have only known by speaking to declan. i think it was a reasonable conclusion on ronan's part

"Ronan are you being serious????? Why should Adam/Declan drop everything and come fight with you - they didnt even know where you are, they don't know the plan. Then you accuse them of that Moderators plan without questioning them. And I mean, yes, Ronan is easily manipulated and he thinks everyone is against them and Bryde is the only one who cares but come on!!!!!!! Seriously, doesn't he get that he might be in the wrong????"

i mean, i think you hit the nail on the head when you said "he thinks everyone is against them." for a long time, he's been struggling with feeling alone, like he's a burden, like the people he loves don't really understand him. he's never had a healthy relationship with another dreamer, so it makes sense that he feels so isolated from literally everyone he cares about. and now he just found out two of the most important people in his life went behind his back to conspire against him (even if he doesn't have confirmation about adam, declan does admit to it over the phone) which is just...salt on a wound he's had since he was a kid. i'm not saying he's in the right, but i do understand why his immediate reaction was what it was. when you've been hurt like that, it takes some time before you can like, calm down and reconsider your own role in the situation

"Ronan basically dreamt Bryde in his worst dream right? Why does he still trust him"

i mean, i don't know how much we can believe what bryde says, but when he reveals himself as being ronan's dream he basically says that everything that he (bryde) wants, ronan already subconsciously wanted before he even dreamt him. that bryde wants it because ronan wanted it. to admit that bryde is in the wrong, ronan would have to admit he, himself, is in the wrong, too, and that's not easy. especially because a lot of his motivation is saving matthew and not wanting to live with the weight of matthew's life on his conscious anymore. especially because he's felt alone for so long, and now he just found out the first dreamer to truly make him feel less alone is his own creation. he's hurting. a lot. he will admit to being wrong in the third book, i think, but like i mentioned above, that kind of growth takes some time

"I think Ronan actually doubts Brydes plan too bc he thinks stuff like people built the dam, there are living things here, it cost a fortune..... and i personally never see a purpose in what they're doing bc bryde never tells them and ronan obviously doesn't know or he thinks he doesnt. I think he doesnt and he just trudts bryde blindly for now and his insecurities aka bryde take over and rule over ronan. Thoughts?"

i mean, i think ronan sees the purpose. here are his thoughts, directly quoted from chapter 17 when bryde is talking about restoring the ley lines:

"A world where Matthew could just live. A world where Ronan could just dream. A world where every dream was clear and crisp and easy to navigate, so there were never accidents or nightmares. He wanted it."

he wants, as i mentioned above, for matthew's life to not be reliant on his own (which i understand. that's a really heavy knowledge to live with.) he also just wants to be able to exist wherever he wants and with whomever he wants (thinking, for example, about how he wasn't able to get an apartment in boston in cdth), without constantly worrying that the nightwash is going to kill him. poor guy just wants a normal life

"Also did we ever actually see bryde get something out of a dream? Most work did Ronan"

this is interesting. now that you mention it, i don't think we do. supposedly he dreams the orbs, but i can't recall ever seeing that happen? i could be wrong, though

"And why is the nightwash mostly ronans problem? I mean hennessy and rhionna (?) had it very little and who knows if the other dreamers have it"

i think ronan is a much, much more powerful dreamer than any of the others. there's something...More about him. something special about being the greywaren. i don't know what it is, specifically, but i anticipate that's something we'll find out in the final book, and i expect it'll explain why the nightwash affects him more than it does the others

"Who the hell dreamt the mods"

i don't know! i think the most popular theory right now is that it was nathan farooq-lane. i'm not sure how that works, though, since they killed nathan and bryde took the sweetmetal off of lock pretty early in the book (unless nathan isn't actually dead, somehow) (or bryde is nathan, which is another popular theory). another theory is that it was ronan. like, he was feeling so alone and misunderstood that he accidentally dreamt his own persecutors? or it's possible that they were all just dreamt by random dreamers and that's why they felt strongly enough about the "cause" to become moderators, but that's kind of boring

"And why are R B and H so dangerous? Bc of what they're doing?"

yeah, and, i mean, according to liliana's visions, they have the power to end the world

"Can I point out that Idk what everyone is talking about, I dont get pynch possible breakup vibes at all from this book"/"Am I trippin or did I read another book? Because some fellas say there's no pynch"

i think when people say there's no pynch, they just mean that there's very minimal pynch interaction, specifically. because, yeah, even though they're both constantly thinking about each other, it is true that we only get one moment of them actually interacting (the phone call), and it's obviously not a positive interaction

i don't think anyone actually thinks they'll break up. at least, i haven't seen anyone say that and i've been feverishly reading everything under the mister impossible tag, so

"What struck me as really odd was that Adam bought this stupid 14$ waffle which he would have never done a few months back and I dont think he would do it now? 14$ is a lot of money esp for a waffle so why spend it on something as useless as this? And why do the others need Adams money? Are they all on scholarships? Was it just bc he had cash and the others didnt? And why is he treating them like his followers and they treat him as their guardian or whatever like he clearly needs to be honest with them"

okay, first off, i will say, as someone who grew up poor and, like adam, absolutely busted my ass in high school to get a good scholarship so i could go to college, the relief of actually getting that scholarship is...powerful. my financial anxiety definitely didn't disappear once that happened, but there was, at least in my experience, this feeling of "i made it, it's going to be okay now" that made it a little easier to spend money. i don't think it's that unrealistic that he, now having the security of a harvard education, would spend fourteen dollars on something he doesn't need every once in a while. it would be completely out of character for henrietta adam, yes, but it's a bit different now. plus, it wouldn't suit his faux Harvard Adam persona to refuse the waffle because of how much it costs

i think his friends are all a lot more well-off than he is. it was just that they didn't have any cash on them and the waffle truck didn't take card (also realistic, i never have cash on me so i always have to ask someone to spot me when a place turns out to be cash-only)

i think (a) they all look up to him because he has this really calm, cool and collected persona. more importantly, we can assume that they were all struggling with something when he met each of them, since they were all crying. now in swoops this guy who saw them upset and came to comfort and befriend them. of course they see him as something like a hero. and (b) i think he likes that. in high school, he was the one being rescued, not the one rescuing. i think he enjoys being the kind of person he used to wish he could be (ie. gansey. he's being gansey)

"I thought it a bit funny in a weird way that Declan talked about marrying Jordan…I can't imagine he was being too serious about it?"

no, i mean, i don't think he was literally proposing, not yet. he's just really happy for the first time in a long time (maybe ever) and, after a lifetime of pain and trauma and more responsibility than he ever signed up for, i don't blame him for wanting that feeling to last forever, even if he's not really thinking clearly

"Also I think it's amazing they make each other so happy but the ending makes me a bit sad or surprised bc shouldn't Matthew be his nr1 priority now?"

we only have jordan's perspective at the end, so when she thinks that it was clear declan had come out of his apartment looking for her, i don't think that necessarily means he wasn't also looking for matthew. i don't think it's fair to say that, in that moment, he should prioritize either matthew or jordan. he loves two dreams, so he can and should be concerned for both of them equally. i don't think one love is inherently more important than the other just because it's lasted longer or because it's family

[whoslaurapalmer]

finished rereading the raven cycle and you know how last year i said i could be pickier about the raven king but didn’t want to? this year i did want to! 

-i mean, i love the raven cycle. interesting magic, very comfy, would sell my soul for the gangsey.  -but most of this post is gonna be me complaining about the raven king  -the tl;dr of it all is ‘the pacing of the raven king is too fast and too slow at the same time. it’s not that i think it was terrible, but i don’t think it was written as successfully as the previous books. i think, because the pacing of the book is so uneven, that the balance between events, and perhaps the balance between the magic and the characters own inherent internal coming of age power, is off. oh btw i am considering reading call down the hawk but Have Concerns’ 

-noticed the ‘blue is calling gansey from the phone/sewing/cat room and gansey is calling blue from the bathroom-kitchen-laundry’ parallel which i thought was very, very cute. that has my whole heart  -also noticed a lot more of gansey’s whole person just constantly thinking about (or not-thinking about) his death  -BUT THEN THE PROLOGUE TO THE RAVEN KING SMACKED ME IN THE FACE AGAIN HOW COULD I FORGET THAT GANSEY LIKE. LITERALLY KNOWS HE’S GONNA DIE AND THE RAVEN KING IS HIM TRYING MAKE SURE EVERYONE WILL BE OKAY AFTER HE’S DEAD -I CANNOT HANDLE RICHARD CAMPBELL GANSEY THE THIRD MY GOD THIS BOY 

-canNOT overstate how much i really do love gwenllian.  -i love her so much. i love her so much  -same with malory. still love him. 

-okay i guess i appreciated artemus a little more -i think my thing is like. do i have a problem with blue being part tree? no not necessarily. but the pacing in the raven king is so uneven that i think what i dislike is how the reveal happened  -no i don’t know what i’d do differently!!  -every time i disagree with a writing choice in a book i try and think ‘now lulu, as someone with a Literal Degree In Putting Words Together, what would you do differently?’ which is a REALLY good writing exercise but mostly just ends up with me going ‘uhhhh. idk. probably have to backtrack a couple plot points and restart from there. no i will not elaborate.’

-last time i thought the raven king moved too fast and this time i agree but also thought it moved too slow?? -i devoured the first three books every time and then both times i read the raven king i kept putting it down because i thought the pacing was so off, so i was simultaneously interested and not interested in what was going on -too fast re: there were A LOT of characters going on, laumonier and piper and henry and neeve and plot points were just piling up and more like slamming together than converging (piper being laumonier’s daughter and henry’s mother being seondeok especially feel less like pieces falling into place than, oh look! ~a thing!!~), ALSO GOD NOAH NEEDED TO SHOW UP MORE (just like. a smidge more noah. would’ve put a lot together), and the speed of finding glendower/driving back/gansey dying/the epilogue -too slow re: somehow so many things are happening but nothing is happening in some parts, some parts dragged, people are just moving around with no real direct sense of working towards the end, blue and gansey were at lunch while adam and ronan were in cabeswater that one time?????????????  (-not that they can’t get lunch. but they had time to get lunch???????)  -oh i think the four of them maybe felt the most disjointed as a group in this book, which is again not necessarily terrible, but a thing  -and these things are just so disappointing because i thought the pacing of the first three books was so GOOD!! things take their time to happen but HAPPEN and i love that so much!!!!  -i do feel bad criticizing the raven king bc i know maggiestief was going through health problems at the time and it took longer than she wanted to finish. but i am still criticizing it because it’s still a very unsatisfying ending 

-reading this time i felt EVEN MORE FIRMLY that gansey should’ve been glendower, and even went so far as to consider, is the text saying he’s glendower, it’s just not explicitly stated?? because of all the parallels??? of gansey being old and young at the same time, gansey + his own magicians, the parallel between glendower shoving that guy in a tree and gansey wanting to do the same to ronan over the pig, the timelessness of the things gansey loves, the Power of command in his voice, a resurrection in the first place  -and i was going to just say, yeah, it’s there, until i got to noah’s chapter again. -i think noah deserved at least one chapter per book (and maybe more during the raven king) and that would’ve made an already tight plot even tighter, especially in the raven king.  (-i was also thinking that if gansey was glendower then something else would’ve happened when they found him, no i still do not know what) 

-big respect though to maggiestief saying glendower had to either be dead or evil and by that page number there wasn’t enough room for him to be evil -and big respect to the fact that, of course it���s not about teens finding a hero, it’s about teens becoming heroes (these thoughts also pulled from her twitter reread), finding glendower (alive) would never have been narratively good or satisfying  (-especially because it makes sense that glendower was dead all along -- if gwenllian was put to sleep wrong, who’s to say that glendower wasn’t, too?) -BUT, IT ALSO MAKES SENSE IF IT’S GANSEY  -but then you have like. the whole time it wasn’t even glendower. it was noah  -which is why i wanted more noah!!! to better lead to that!!!!!!! cause i feel like that kinda comes out of nowhere!!!!!  -the balance of the magical and the real is just off in the reveal i think  -man i don’t know. this is a lot of words. 

-i also appreciated adam’s character arc better this time, which was really nice. -but i still feel no great attachment to ronan and adam’s relationship  

-you know what. i want more mr. gray and maura -idk if i agree with him leaving henrietta. much like the previous paragraphs and my whole gripe with the raven king, it’s not terrible but i don’t think it’s done well, as well as it could’ve been, as well as the previous books  -also! more adam and persephone would’ve been good 

-i was rereading maggiestief’s tweets where she reread the books and i forget which thread this was in but she picked out one of the ‘character x says something that makes character y reevaluate every single interaction previously’ lines and she was like ‘that’s all these books are’ and i was like ‘YEAH MAGGIE. I FEEL LIKE I SEE THIS LINE EVERY SINGLE SECOND.’ and not necessarily in a good way  -sometimes you can reuse a line and it is a parallel or a connection. sometimes you are just reusing a line over and over. 

-she also mentions writing arguments from a point of, both characters are right, or think they’re right, or as right as they can be or something to that effect  -which i really like, and i absolutely 100% see in her writing  -and so i don’t know if this is just a me thing, because i have this obsessive need to backtrack through even the tiniest disagreements after the fact to calmly figure out where i’m coming from and acknowledge where the other person’s coming from, so while i like that every character comes from a place of ‘i’m right’ i feel like it leads to a lot of arguments left unresolved  -but i think that’s just me feeling like everybody should always talk everything out as much as possible so  -and like resolution doesn’t have to be a big dialogue acknowledgement  -but i still didn’t feel like it left a lot of room for these characters to really work towards change -they do change! but i wanted to see it more 

-oh hey so. did gansey successfully sell of monmouth? did ronan get a diploma anyway? 

-me: ‘thing’ is ultimately a vague, unspecific word and should be used sparingly in a narration, much like ‘interesting’  maggiestief: /flinging out ‘thing’ all the time me: you know what, though???? sure, good for her 

-i like henry. but he’s written terribly, the poor guy comes OUT OF NOWHERE too and should’ve shown up earlier more than his two times in blue lily lily blue, and adam and ronan’s super casual racism towards him is like..................................................................mostly unchallenged and really unnecessary  -if a racist comment is going to remain unchecked and unchallenged by the narrative and the characters, what does it accomplish? -especially because it never ever shows up again or showed up before -and gansey just kind of scoffs it aside and blue doesn’t even really truly call it out which is like, the amount of other things gansey will call out???? the amount of stuff blue will call out??????? AND THEY JUST LET THAT GO?????? -so, again! it’s not necessary!! it does nothing!!! it just adds unchallenged racism that has no place!!!!!!!!!!!!

-also reading this time i felt like maggiestief went out of her way to just not say what race blue was  -that shouldn’t be a thing you just repeatedly dance around and never confirm for your main character 

-so my library still does not have the ebook for call down the hawk but i am vaguely considering buying it to read it but also....................i don’t know -i did read the first eight chapters because they were online and i’m like. Intrigued but also?????? Concerned. idk. idk

-looking at it from a distance i have the same concern with it that i do with king of scars.  -do i think dreamer trilogy is necessary in the way that it explores things that are set up in the raven cycle and have big potential consequences? yes. the hunt for the ‘greywaren’, kavinsky proving that there are other dreamers, trying to make sure a dreamed thing can still exist if something happens to the dreamer, the possibilities and limits of dreamers, ronan trying to dream another cabeswater, ronan’s fear about what’s real and what isn’t/what he dreamed and what he didn’t dream, and maggiestief clearly loving writing ronan and wanting to write more of him -do i think those things are executed well in the dreamer trilogy? from what i’ve read about it, maybe not????  -especially re: ronan and adam’s character arcs????? -which i feel like, stupid and bitchy being picky about. -change and recovery do not happen in straight lines. but i think this kind of cycles back to the way she writes arguments with like, is it too unresolved to the point that no change, either positive or negative, is happening?  -ugggg also makes me worry that i just wasn’t Reading it enough or thinking about it enough  -my additional concern is that maggiestief should’ve maybe had firmer rules for what can and can’t be taken out of a dream  (-yes i suppose that limiting the very nature of a dream goes against the power of ‘the dream’ so it makes sense for it to be limitless BUT i feel like especially the dreaming of people is gonna paint you into a corner if you’re not careful)  -but i am also BIG worried re: the character arcs.  -also where ronan’s character arc is after the raven king, do i think he would do the reveal in mr. impossible?? i...........do not know  -well i didn’t think so AND THEN I READ OPAL which i kind of enjoyed, with reservations, which is mostly back to ‘is no change happening’  (-i love that opal is like, ‘ronan’s inner child’ or whatever it was and i liked her more this time around but last year when i read the raven cycle i was like ‘but what’s the point of taking opal out cause they just kind of shuffle her around?’ now, what was the point of taking opal out if they’re gonna put her back??? and actually almost COMPLETELY IGNORE HER in the short story????? there was so much potential there for her and ronan and it didn’t happen...........) -nightwash kinda just happened too, huh.  (-in general ronan bringing his nightmares back with him is like. God Perfect) -but this all really takes me back to maybe there should’ve been limits on dreaming -also after reading the first eight chapters, i’m like -i 100% respect maggiestief for not wanting to rewrite the raven cycle and not wanting to just write about henrietta, i absolutely do -but it feels so strange to read about ronan and adam and not read about gansey and blue as well?  -which isn’t TERRIBLE, but.  -but when i see like, single lines from or little sections i’m like ‘oh that looks like a good time’ because i do like the way maggiestief writes because a great deal of it is so rhythmically poetic and beautiful, but so is a great deal of the raven king while still being disappointing.  -i feel like i’m just gonna feel about it like how i feel about the raven king honestly -and well king of scars.......

-ANYWAY -might read it. might not. still going back and forth on this a lot. i was leaning towards, i’m gonna do it, but now i’m leaning more towards, i don’t want to, i want to keep the image of these characters where i like them, and right now i am aggressively combing through fanfic because i care a great deal about post-raven king trauma discussion and that’s mostly what i want at the current time

[toast-the-unknowing]

I absolutely adore your fic “word on the street”. It was the first fic that I read by you and I go back to reread it every so often. I was wondering if you had any headcanons about pynch’s domestic life after that fic? (Also I hope you are doing well during these times 😊)

Word on the Street is an interesting one because I can’t decide whether the headcanons should embrace superhero tropes, or if they should invert/refute superhero tropes, or if they should just ignore them entirely, since Adam’s attitude is ultimately “I’m dating Ronan, not Greywaren.” But in any case:

Adam keeps ending up in weird/dangerous situations and keeps picking up new skills that could be useful to get out of or survive said situations

He definitely rescues Ronan at least once using said skills

The Gazette gets just enough facts/photo coverage of that happening that they run a story about Adam being Greywaren’s sidekick

Adam is pissed

Ronan thinks it’s hilarious

Blue thinks it’s hilarious

Blue is also just really glad because people used to say Mirror was Greywaren’s sidekick and wtf, she’s been doing this superhero thing LONGER than Ronan and BETTER than Ronan, SHE took HIM under HER wing, if anyone is the sidekick it’s GREYWAREN

Gansey is just kind of glad that the “Adam isn’t Greywaren’s sidekick” sniping has eclipsed the “Mirror isn’t Greywaren’s sidekick” sniping, because he’s still trying to lay some groundwork for asking Mirror out and that argument is a total and complete mood killer anytime it comes up

Adam gives Ronan a lot of shit about his “secret lair” just being his crappy apartment. Ronan points out that it would be wasteful to rent a whole second location for his alter ego. Adam counters that the apartment could at least be less crappy, “what if the Justice League has to stop by?” “Eh those guys are all jerks.”

Adam concedes, fine, but he’s at least going to fix up the cupboards, and also if Batman ever stops by he’s going to leave Ronan for him

Ronan has a long-running “joke” that Declan is going to turn into a supervillain someday. Adam points out that for all they know Declan could already be a supervillain. Ronan laughs at the time and then can’t sleep that night.

There is at LEAST one occasion where Henry Cheng sends Ronan out on a job demanding he return with photos of Greywaren

I love Henry and he is canonically a very smart and observant person but I have decided that he is never allowed to notice all of the weirdness going on under his nose just because I love that J. Jonah Jameson “guy who’s not in on the secret” thing

Opal is definitely a superpowered child criminal that runs around town stealing and/or breaking stuff, and ruins a bunch of Greywaren’s operations for like, six months before he finally catches up with her

actually he doesn’t catch up with her at all

it is definitely Adam who pulls that off

Adam gives her the key to Ronan’s “secret lair” aka the apartment with the loud pipes and complete lack of insulation

“What if she wrecks my place?” “She can’t wreck it worse than you have”

Opal proceeds to come and go to the apartment as she pleases

Heroes and morally gray/chaotic neutral types start coming to Adam for advice on their plans, possibly because of his by now well-documented expertise at surviving bad situations, possibly because Opal is acting as a bizarre tiny little hypewoman for him

Meanwhile more and more people in that community are discovering just how different Ronan!Greywaren is from Niall!Greywaren and a bunch of them don’t want to associate with him anymore

Adam is a better superhero than Ronan

“Whatever, like I care, I’m not going to be jealous of my own sidekick”

Ronan is absolutely jealous and that sidekick comment means he spends the night in his apartment instead of at Adam’s

That is a night that Opal is hanging around

The next morning a dangerous fugitive is delivered to the police in handcuffs and Ronan shows up at work with a friendship bracelet and some weird bruises that he shrugs off as being from “paintball”

“Just so we’re clear,” Opal says, “you’re the sidekick”

[off-in-the-moors]

TRC rewrite: Main characters

Why? Because The Raven Cycle is a mess. From the setting, through characters and to the plot, everything is a mess on a foundations of good ideas. It feels like Margaret took three to four different drafts, stitched them together and switched around events, e.g. things that should be in book 1 are in book 3, etc.

So, here is my attempted to rewrite the Gangsey.

Blue

curly, damaged, black hair kept short; brown eyes and light brown skin

short and stocky, with a big eyes; untamed, arched eyebrows; and round nose

1/4 black, 3/4 white (Maura is 1/2 black, and Artemus is welsh)

her father, Artemus, was a history professor, focusing on British Isle (especially Wales)

when she was 14, her father's ghost appeared on Saint Mark's Eve, he suddenly died few months, leaving Blue devastated

was very close with her dad, didn't forgive her mother for not trying to save Artemus

straightens and clips down her hair to make it resemble hers dad's

owns a pink switch blade, which was once red, she stole from her father's stuff, uses it mostly to cut plants

knows a lot about plants, helps cultivated and collect them for the family business

interested in and actively looks for paranormal (magic, cryptids, you name it), interest seeded by her parents

went to public school, but after middle school was pulled out for homeschooling

works two part-time jobs, as a waitress at Nino's and a dog-walker, to have her own money

a psychic but her power makes it impossible to work as one

makes and remakes her own clothes, isn't good at it but she loves it

loves knitting sweaters for her friends and family

wears colorful, often clashing outfits with a lots of accessories

loves color blue, always has something blue in her outfit, even if only as an accent color

vegetarian

knows Adam from middle school, keeps warm relations with him (introduced her to his friends)

spends her Sundays with her family (e.g. hitch-hiking with her mother, helping with Calla, making sweater and clothes with Persephone, painting nails with Orla)

know few phrases in Estonian, thanks to Persephone

opinioned, independent and bold

environmentalist

Gansey

tousled, always preciously styled, brown hair; dark brown eyes, light skin

average but quite square built (looks stiff), straight nose, shadows and bags under eyes, often has pieces of mint leaves stuck it teeth

the shortest guy of the Gangsey

born with a silver spoon in his mouth

at ten, almost died from wasp stinks but survived thanks to "Glendower", obsessed with finding him ever since

insomniac, his grands and health suffers from it

was in the rowing team, until he slept through training and hit team-mate with a oar

has the power to commend people, but it's weak

loves mint-flavor things, borders on obsession

owns five different types of mint plants (Ronan named them)

makes mistakes in his research and normal day to day actions from lack of sleep, needs help of others

his mom buys him clothes

doesn't understand the value of money, mostly throws it around and leads people with no need to return it

needs glasses but often losses them (even worse with contacts), in the beginning of the story he's on his seventh pair

doesn't have friends outside the "Gangsey"

awkward about feelings and crushes, can't deal with them

has slit ADHD, needs to do something with his hands

perfectionist, fixes mistakes of others, brushes problems off

good at social interactions but horrible at maintaining relationships

after his grands suffered too much and his search for Glendower effected his school life, his parents cut him off from finances as a punishment

with Adam's help, found a job as a cashier at a grocery store, actually loves it

needs time to remember people's names

Ronan

curly, dark brown (almost black) hair, always shaven; blue eyes, pale skin (burns easily)

tall (tallest of the Gangsey) and quite muscular, angular face, narrow eyes, multiple scars on arms and few on face (oddly proud of them)

he's a copy of his own father, Niall Lynch (looks like a younger version of him)

shaved his head and got tattoos, after he discovered he's a copy, to resemble Niall as little as possible

dresses in what his father would never wear

has only one real tattoo, a Celtic cross on the back of his neck base, the rest of his back is dreamt up

the dream tattoo always changes, reflecting Ronan's mental/emotional state, but always has motifs of wings/feathers and branches twisting into Celtic knots

tried to stop dreaming up stuff multiple times, but it caused him headache and nausea, eventually ending in physical harm, went the dream "gets out"

confused about who or what he is

self-destructive, has no regards for his own safety

has a very strain relationship with Declan, envies his "realness"

vegan, loves animals and hates people who harm them

loves speed and racing, oddly proud of his speeding-tickets

believes for a long time, only Kavinsky understands him, but their "friendship" is complicated

doesn't allow anyone to touch Chainsaw (dream creatures are very personal to a dreamer)

tries to figure out what HE likes, and find his OWN path (even if it means craving it out)

touched starved

loves nature, can spend hours outside just sitting and thinking

acts and speaks before thinking, got himself in trouble for that many times (gets physical quiet often)

helps in the family "dream trade" business, doesn't want any of his creations near him, Chainsaw is the only exception

feels drawn to Cabeswaters, but he preferably would just burn it

knows Irish, speaks it when frustrated

before Niall's death, trained tennis and played on bagpipes (uilleann pipes), but stopped after his father's murder hates boxing

Adam

short, self-cut, light red-ish brown hair; grey eyes, tan skin with a lot of moles and freckles

skinny, deep-set eyes and a downturned lips

has only a backpack of his own stuff and a bike

deals with Gansey's antics only for a chance to escape his father and his living situation

lives with Gansey, Ronan and Noah in Monmouth

prioritises his education over his friendship with "Gangsey"

very frugal, keeps a "change jar"

mostly wears his wash-out Coca-Cola t-shirt, he bought with his first pay

the most sceptical about magic, still very cautious of it

hates loud sounds and physical contact

hates taking money from people and having money spend on him, but he knows he needs it

has three part-time jobs, including his favourite at the garage

loves cars, dreams about buying his own one day

afraid of heights and flying, childhood trauma

opportunist

highly values his independence

never refuses food

sacrificed his "hands and eyes" to Cabeswater, not only to wake the Ley Lines but also to escape his former life for good, seeing it as the only way (partly tricked by the forest)

deaf on the left ear but hears Cabeswater whispering to him through it

actively "fights" with Cabeswater for control (his way or the high way)

owns a old Nokia phone, only bought it to stay in contact with Gansey knows how to sew and dress a wound

Noah

messy, pale blond hair; light blue eyes, pale skin with a dark spot on the left side of his face

faded and lean; small, lively eye; bright, wide smile

kept him pretty much the same, but also add

sarcastic with a dry (and sometimes dark) sense of humor

"I'm the oldest one, so you should listen to me sometimes."

his Aglionby uniform always looks crinkled and dirty

doesn't remember most of his "living life"

gets his memories back from seeing/visiting people/places he knew

his emotional state effects his corporal form, e.g. strong negative emoticons make him less visible

music helps him stay visible

still loves Blink-182 (Ronan pirated him all their albums, including those he missed)

misses skateboarding, swimming, spending time with his old friends and family, and filling the weather

doesn't remember his death, only the pain

likes to wander around Henrietta

likes anything glitter, reminds him of his sisters

gave Adam permission to take his old Mustang, "If you can bring it to live, Parrish."

his disappearance is still a talked subject in Aglionby

sometimes mumbles or swears something no one understand, took Gangsey time to figured out it was polish

+ Bonus

Chainsaw

Ronan's first dream creature (or at the time Ronan believes so)

quite small for a raven

senses Ronan's emotions, always tries to comfort him by burying into his neck or "grooming" him

can speak single works but they sound very corrupted, e.g. "kerah" is a corrupted version of "cara" (irish for "friend")

at the beginning called Ronan Greywaren, but with time it change to "creātor" (creator), "somniator" (dreamer) and finally "cara" (friend), reflecting Ronan's own view of himself

likes to collect and bring Ronan small things, e.g. pen caps, leaves or pieces of newspapers

gets close only to people Ronan likes and/or trusts

If you have any questions or opinions to share, please send me an ask.

Thank you, for your attention :)