so sad that people got sick of "doomed by the narrative" and decided it was cringe, because fate and free will in fiction has been a major interest of mine for like eight years, but alas so it goes. anything that gets popular is destined to become reviled in short order. it's like some sort of unstoppable, uncompassionate, avaricious cycle of rising and falling and rising again. like whatever happens, no matter the intentions, it will always result in the same tragic ending. you could almost say it was d
Bit telling that for years and years evangelical religious extremists have been allowed on university campuses with their bullhorns and horrific imagery where they harass students into physical altercations and when students complain to the university’s administration they just shrug their shoulders citing freedom of speech but when those same tuition-paying students start protesting against war and genocide they call SWAT
Ok so Elara princess and Cori her appointed knight :D
Cori was chosen specifically by Elara. Elara had heard that a new girl had been brought into the ranks and when she went to go see who she was immediately impressed at Coriane's proficiency with a blade. To Elara, it looked as if Cori was dancing when she fought. (It also didn't hurt that Cori was handsome)
Initially Cori would be very professional with Elara. Very “this is my job and nothing more” yk? but as time goes on Cori starts going down the path of “i’m her protector because i LOVE her not just because it’s my duty”
That being said
Cori oblivious as hell😭
Lots of Elara flirting openly and Cori just thinking “how could she ever like me😞”
Def lots of moments of “can u come help me dress:)” and Cori mentally flipping out cause she wants her sb🤭
First time Elara saw Cori out of her armor she froze in place and just stared at her. Cori had to say her name multiple times before Elara snapped out of it (Cori still just like “wow she must have a lot on her mind to be so distracted :O”)
Cori also likes to try to maintain the “cool girl” act.
She’s so ~mysterious~ and ~hard to crack~ and then it takes Elara mentioning her training once to her and Cori is telling her about every single stance she knows and what led her to begin her training in intense detail.
(Also i’m a big fan of Cal being corny as hell and I like to think that he gets his cornball-ness from his mother, so Cori is also a major cornball)
The first time Elara kissed Cori was after Cori escorted her to her room after an event (not really very specific soz😭) Elara reached up and kissed Cori on the cheek as a goodnight🥹
For Cori it was pretty similar- she kissed Elara’s forehead after she had gotten her to bed.
So i’m obsessed with title/name usage to indicate closeness/severity. So like Cori ALWAYS refers to Elara as “Princess” or “Your Grace” BUT in their more intimate moments or if Cori is trying to get Elara to understand the severity of a situation she switches to her name.
One of Elara’s major pulls to Cori was that Cori saw her and cared for her beyond her position. Like i said previously, Cori’s duty to her went from simply being because she was assigned to protecting her to Cori being there because she cared for Elara personally.
At times if Elara had a nightmare she would ask Cori to just sit and hold her hand while she went back to sleep (this eventually turned into Cori getting into bed with her and then that turned into Cori just sleeping in Elara’s bed any chance she could)
Whenever it came time for Elara to begin thinking of marriage, Cori would watch all those bachelor's come and make a go at her hand and fantasize about being one of the prince's who was trying to whoo her (Prince!CoriSJFSDGKSG)
maven and elara are intrinsically tied together. any insult to her is an insult to him and vice versa. they are barely two separate people he IS an extension of her will and that’s proven when she dies and he continues to live on in her image. in this essay i will-
Really hate the team bullshit for hotd😞 a perfectly good story about a house tearing itself apart from the inside with it's centerpiece being two women who were both doomed from the start as a result of their fathers and the marketing team (and fandom) can only manage to treat it like rooting for ur favorite sports team:(((
(so sorry for how long this took lol, the end of the semester has been kicking my ass😅 )
BUT YES!! I DO!!!
Elara desperately wanted to be close to Cori upon meeting her. She immediately felt a sort of kinship to her on the basis of them being viewed as inherently untrustworthy due to their abilities. Her attempting to "joke" with her ability as well as her talking shit about the royal family she's supposedly trying to marry into to Cori was her (failed) attempts at befriending her.
I think Elara was generally more repressed than Cori was in terms of their lesbianism! I think Cori was able to recognize her attraction to women she just wasn't able to recognize her LACK of attraction to men whereas Elara wasn't able to recognize her attraction to women AT ALLLL
Cori had admiration for Elara on the basis of Elara being able to (seemingly) speak her mind freely
Tbh the whole thing with Cori's diary being recovered never made sense to me so I like to think that what happened was Elara kept the diary herself and would obsessively read over it because she wanted to know everything she could about Cori (and about what Cori thought of HER) and it was later found in Elara's belongings
Cori haunted Elara! Elara saw her out of the corner of her eye constantly and was constantly reminded of her in every way (was especially bad whenever Maven had sm characteristics of the child Cori dreamed of having (have a hc that that's why Elara smushed out those characteristics as well lol))
Whenever Cori accused Elara of tampering with her pregnancies, Elara was genuinely really hurt by it. For the one person who Elara thought would have some sympathy for the distrust inherit to her ability to accuse her of something THAT heinous wounded Elara deeply and is the catalyst for WHY she ended up fulfilling that position
Soz if this is really short😭 I've got more based on an Knight/princess au I have lol but I didn't know if that'd be something ur interested in😶
it really sucks that RQ is the worst book in the series and is also the first book in the series. I genuinely dont blame anyone for dropping it after because i think i would too if i read for the first time now😭