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My Favourite Thing about the Argosi

(Spellslinger and the Argosi Trilogy Spoilers, obviously)

Okay, so I had my suspicions since Ways of the Argosi, and this feels stupidly obvious, but like...

The point of a teysan travelling with a maetri is that the teysan finds their path following their maetri's path.

Like, obviously you can draw parallels between Ferius and Kellen and Durral/Enna and Ferius because Rambling Thistle informed a lot of Ferius (I'll get to that in a sec)

That scene in Way of Argosi where Durral found Ferius outside the Jan'Tep Territories and then immediately started teaching her about the Argosi reminded me a lot of Spellslinger 1 and how Kellen kept worrying about the Shadowblack taking over him and Ferius kept giving him tough love about it, all "We all got ugliness inside us, Kellen. Yours is worse? Then fight harder. Figure it out. But don’t you ever pretend you don’t have a choice." And after seeing Durral fight off a curse like Ferius' Mahdek Collar, I get why.

Like, how can you not expect all men to be Durral Brown after he tracks you down from the compulsion to kill you and instead saves you and makes you his daughter? How could your standards in men not be that high after meeting Durral Brown??

Anyways, I digress.

Like, in these first moments, I kept thinking that Ferius wanted to pass on to Kellen what Durral gave to her.

For all the yapping on that Way of Water is about balance, i think it's a little more about enrichment. Yes, give 2 wedding rubies when you steal someone's finest horses, sure. But also, how do pay back the gift of a path to walk? Of a name to wear with pride? Of the chance that your people can be more than the arrogant Mahdek killers y'all were raised to be?

There's debts you pay for leaving some poorer than you left them (materially or spiritually), but I also think there's something like a debt in receiving a gift as priceless as an Argosi path, or at least some of those teachings. They make you exponentially richer in spirit than before you'd met the Argosi, and as that kind of gift is impossible to pay back.

So you pay it forward.

Argosi training probably goes like this:

1) A teysan asks to learn and the maetri does that irritating test to see if you're really ready.

Ferius nagged Durral to teach her the Argosi Ways in Way of Argosi.

Kellen nagged Ferius to do the same in Spellslinger.

2) Once the maetri accepts them, the teysan walks the path of their maetri to learn the Talents and Ways.

Ferius walked the Path of Rambling Thistle with Durral in Way of Argosi and, although she's running from Durral, continues to learn from Rambling Thistle's lessons in Fall of the Argosi and at the end of it finds the Path of Wild Daisies with Enna's explicit help.

Kellen walks the path of Wild Daisies in Shadowblack and finds himself, The Path of Endless Stars, under the stars of the Seven Sands.

3) The teysan, having found their own path, leaves their maetri's path to walk their own.

Fall of the Argosi is Ferius finding the Path of Wild Daisies. How she gets there, however, is her 'relapse.' Ferius still held onto and even revelled in her hatred of the Jan'Tep, and she not only almost killed Enna as a result, but almost sent Durral off the Path of Rambling Thistle (still mad no one else has thought of what his other Path could be, by anyways).

What differs between Kellen and Ferius, though, is that not only did Enna show Ferius her Path but they also gave her the courage to walk it.

In Sebastian's words: "Trying something new – something difficult which could really result in complete disaster – is radius when you have someone who not only believes in you but makes you believe in yourself." (Fall of the Argosi Acknowledgements)

Enna showed more than enough faith in Ferius for her to walk the Path of Wild Daisies on her own, so Ferius leaves immediately after dropping Binta off with Enna and Durral.

Kellen didn't get that. He only learned to carry those in his heart with him after reading Ferius' letter at the end of Soulbinder and only really internalised it by the end of Crownbreaker.

"Maybe it’s what we can’t change combined with what we choose not to. I thought about the things I’d done in my life. I thought about Reichis and how many times he’d kept me from running. I was a coward, but his courage had sometimes been enough to make me stand and fight. I was weak and foolish, but Ferius’s wisdom had sometimes been enough to make me clever. I was a liar by instinct, but Nephenia’s fearless honesty had taught me to be truthful, sometimes even to myself. Maybe that’s how it was with the queen. I was broken inside, but what if I didn’t need to be good? What if I could just … do good? Could I still be a coward and do the brave thing? Could I still be evil and do the right thing? Wouldn’t that be one hell of a spell?"

Kellen, without the self-confidence to walk the Path of Endless Stars alone (rudely ignoring Reichis), Kellen keeps (clumsily) walking the Path of Wild Daisies. That's why Durral and Enna have to come and intervene and help Kellen take the next step in his Argosi training and stop him from send Ferius off the Path of Wild Daisies.

And he does.

4) The teysan learns why one becomes an Argosi and becomes a full-fledged Argosi themselves

Ferius in The Letter (the last chapter of Fate of Argosi)

Kellen on the last page of Crownbreaker:

What Started This Whole Post

Reminding me of Kellen's explanation of the Path of Endless Stars on that final page of the series.

But the thing that gets me, though, is that Kellen would never have found the Path of Endless Stars if Spellslinger was about him meeting anyone other than Ferius Parfax. He is the Path of Endless Stars because he (clumsily) walked the Path of Wild Daisies with Ferius for a while. Had Kellen been found by Rosie, for example, he'd never have become the Path of Endless Stars. He still might have become an argosi, but he'd be walking a different path.

Ferius Parfax is the Path of Wild Daisies because she (crudely) walked the Path of Rambling Thistle with Durral and Enna.

Had Rosie Met Durral or Enna that night she was about to 'assassinate' those kids instead of Penta, she would not have become the Path of Thorns and Roses (or been nicknamed Rosie).

Everytime Kellen thinks of Ferius’ lessons, or Ferius thinks of Enna and Durral's lessons, it reminds me of

And this sentiment gets me every fucking time that I wanted to scream (and sometimes did) whenever I made connections between the two series around this theme.

I cannot thank Sebastian De Castell enough for giving me my own Argosi Path with these books. It's such a privilege to have read these books.

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I don't know how to put this into proper analysis yet but "Still" from the Anastasia musicall soundtrack is so Kellen's dad coded, that it's not funny.

like, "a son becomes a man at his father's knee, if my father asked questions where would we be." This is considering his own mother was shunned for having the shadow black like his own son, but his father had to do what he thought he must and never questioned anything. Also smth, smth, they might've not been able to continue as clan leaders.

Also the first line double reflects on how he thinks Kellen should just listen to him without question.

like 'I'm inncent she crys, but then you see her eyes, and something in them tells you that she absolutely lies." Tell me that's not the scene where the shadowblack appeared of Kellen's face, around his eye, and is often considered a sign of evil doing by the person who gets it.

Or "She says it's all a game, she trembles like a flower, but in her there's a power I see that now." Like that just describes the same scene with the extra context kellen is weak from a fight but also just unlocked his first band.

And the last section is just him going, "stillllll" as in that my might be my son but he's still a monster I must take power from. So it's just cuts to that bit where he's tattooing over the bands to take Kellen's power away.

Please someone must understand this.

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Kellen Argos would slay the hunger games fox face style

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YES, YES, YES

He’s all coloured in yeehaw

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Old art

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Currently reading ASOIAF books and rewatching GoT and HotD too, it made me want to draw characters from ASOIAF… i already draw Aegoniii and Rhaenyra a year ago…

I plan to redraw it since i did it in my old ipad and well… i lost all my art there but it’s good i had them in my insta account so i just screenshot it and i plan to draw it again. I don’t like how Rhaenyra looks so… i guess that’s the struggle of being an artist, the more you look back at your old work the more you want to change stuff. i'll do it, idk when since i'm pretty sick the past few weeks and can’t really enjoy drawing when i'm sick.

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Rhaenyra Targaryen has been repeatedly let down by the men in her life.

Her father practically dug his daughter's grave when he remarried and fathered three sons, then married her off against her will. Her favorite uncle seduced and damaged his niece's reputation when she was practically a child. Rhaenyra's personal sworn shield was obsessed with her since she was a child, and betrayed her after she rejected him. Her first husband didn't care about her, and the father of her three children did nothing for the mother of his children.

As a result, Rhaenyra raised five men who loved their mother more than anything else and respected the women in their lives in general.

Jace and Luke were always respectful to Baela and Rhaena (and didn't have a habit of hitting on every woman in a row like their uncle when he was teenager ), Aegon III and Daenaera seemed to be happy enough together and respectful of each other (and he at least didn't immediately consummate their marriage when his wife started her period, unlike his uncle and namesake), Viserys II loved his wife with all his heart and didn't forget her until his death.

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fade in to me, don't set me free.

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anyway

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WRITING IS SO BACK. PRIEST!KELL IS ON THE WAY LOOOOOOL

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headcanon that kell is classically trained in ballet

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My boys🫰

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when sirius and james accidentally find out about regulus’ crush on james, sirius makes the mistake of assuming him and james are on the same page and tells him he trusts him to do the right thing (ie let regulus down easy) james misinterprets this as sirius trusting him to never do anything that could hurt regulus and starts planning the wedding

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james' mind drifts whenever regulus is straddling his lap. Regulus could be talking about something incredibly important and all James has to do is nod along and hum in all the right places while he thinks about how lovely regulus' perfect ass feels on top of him. But subconsciously, he starts to feel regulus up and trail his hands all over his ass.

"James, I can feel you groping me, you know that right?"

"thank god, now let be fuck that beautiful arse of yours."

and regulus ofc let's him.

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I still have my Spellslingers (by Sebastian De Castell I believe) obsession and I'm showing it

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I've read multiple fantasy books within a year that include a scene where the main character's body gets hijacked and he's then forced to assault a woman. From completely separate authors. What the fuck are yall doing

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My Favourite Thing about the Argosi

(Spellslinger and the Argosi Trilogy Spoilers, obviously)

Okay, so I had my suspicions since Ways of the Argosi, and this feels stupidly obvious, but like...

The point of a teysan travelling with a maetri is that the teysan finds their path following their maetri's path.

Like, obviously you can draw parallels between Ferius and Kellen and Durral/Enna and Ferius because Rambling Thistle informed a lot of Ferius (I'll get to that in a sec)

That scene in Way of Argosi where Durral found Ferius outside the Jan'Tep Territories and his he immediately then start teaching her about the Argosi reminded me a lot of Spellslinger 1 and how Kellen kept worrying about the Shadowblack taking over him and Ferius kept giving him tough love about it, all "We all got ugliness inside us, Kellen. Yours is worse? Then fight harder. Figure it out. But don’t you ever pretend you don’t have a choice." And after seeing Durral fight off a curse like Ferius' Mahdek Collar, I get why.

Like, how can you not expect all men to be Durral Brown after he tracks you down from the compulsion to kill you and instead saves you and makes you his daughter? How could your standards in men not be that high after meeting Durral Brown??

Anyways, I digress.

Like, in these first moments (and I'll be rereading all of Spellslinger after finishing Fall of the Argosi to confirm), I kept thinking that Ferius wanted to pass on to Kellen what Durral gave to her.

For all the yapping on that Way of Water is about balance, i think it's a little more about enrichment. Yes, give 2 wedding rubies when you steal someone's finest horses, sure. But also, how do pay back the gift of a path to walk? Of a name to wear with pride? Of the chance that your people can be more than the arrogant Mahdek killers y'all were raised to be?

There's debts you pay for leaving some poorer than you left them (materially or spiritually), but I also think there's something like a debt in receiving a gift as priceless as an Argosi path, or at least some of those teachings. They make you exponentially richer in spirit than before you'd met the Argosi, and as that kind of gift is impossible to pay back.

So you pay it forward.

Argosi training probably goes like this:

1) A teysan asks to learn and the maetri does that irritating test to see if you're really ready.

Ferius nagged Durral to teach her the Argosi Ways in Way of Argosi.

Kellen nagged Ferius to do the same in Spellslinger.

2) Once the maetri accepts them, the teysan, to learn the Talents and ways, walks the path of their maetri.

Ferius walked the Path of Rambling Thistle with Durral in Way of Argosi and, although she's running from Durral, continues to learn from Rambling Thistle's lessons in Fall of the Argosi and at the end of it finds the Path of Wild Daisies with Enna's explicit help.

Kellen walks the path of Wild Daisies in Shadowblack and finds himself, The Path of Endless Stars, under the stars of the Seven Sands.

3) The teysan, having found their own path, leaves their maetri's path to walk their own.

Fall of the Argosi is Ferius finding the Path of Wild Daisies. How she gets there, however, is her 'relapse.' Ferius still held onto and even revelled in her hatred of the Jan'Tep, and she not almost killed Enna as a result, but almost sent Durral off the Path of Rambling Thistle (still mad no one else has thought of what his other Path could be, by anyways).

What differs between Kellen and Ferius, though, is that not only did Enna show Ferius her Path but also gave her the courage to walk it.

In Sebastian's words: "Trying something new – something difficult which could really result in complete disaster – is radius when you have someone who not only believes in you but makes you believe in yourself." (Fall of the Argosi Acknowledgements)

Enna showed more than enough faith in Ferius for her to walk the Path of Wild Daisies on her own, so Ferius leaves immediately after dropping Binta off with Enna and Durral.

Kellen didn't get that. He only learned to carry those in his heart with him after reading Ferius' letter at the end of Soulbinder and really internalised it by the end of Crownbreaker.

"Maybe it’s what we can’t change combined with what we choose not to. I thought about the things I’d done in my life. I thought about Reichis and how many times he’d kept me from running. I was a coward, but his courage had sometimes been enough to make me stand and fight. I was weak and foolish, but Ferius’s wisdom had sometimes been enough to make me clever. I was a liar by instinct, but Nephenia’s fearless honesty had taught me to be truthful, sometimes even to myself. Maybe that’s how it was with the queen. I was broken inside, but what if I didn’t need to be good? What if I could just … do good? Could I still be a coward and do the brave thing? Could I still be evil and do the right thing? Wouldn’t that be one hell of a spell?"

Kellen, without the self-confidence to walk the Path of Endless Stars alone (rudely ignoring Reichis), Kellen keeps (clumsily) walking the Path of Wild Daisies. That's why Durral and Enna have to come and intervene and help Kellen take the next step in his Argosi training and stop him from send Ferius off the Path of Wild Daisies.

And he does.

4) The teysan learns why one becomes an Argosi and becomes a full-fledged Argosi themselves

Ferius in The Letter (the last chapter of Fate of Argosi)

Kellen on the last page of Crownbreaker:

What Started This Whole Post

Reminding me of Kellen's explanation of the Path of Endless Stars on that final page of the series.

But the thing that gets me, though, is that Kellen would never have found the Path of Endless Stars if Spellslinger was about him meeting anymore other than Ferius Parfax. He is the Path of Endless Stars because he (clumsily) walked the Path of Wild Daisies with Ferius for a while. Had Kellen been found by Rosie, for example, he'd never have become the Path of Endless Stars. He still might have become an argosi, but he'd be walking a different path.

Ferius Parfax is the Path of Wild Daisies because she (crudely) walked the Path of Rambling Thistle with Durral and Enna.

Had Rosie Met Durral or Enna that night she was about to 'assassinate' those kids instead of Penta, she would not have become the Path of Thorns and Roses (or been nicknamed Rosie).

Everytime Kellen thinks of Ferius’ lessons, or Ferius thinks of Enna and Durral's lessons, it reminds me of

And this sentiment gets me every fucking time that I wanted to scream (and sometimes did) whenever I made connections between the two series around this theme.

I cannot thank Sebastian De Castell enough for giving me my own Argosi Path with these books. It's such a privilege to have read these books.