kingcaw - Tumblr blog

[kingcaw]

Jurassic Park except they provide proper enrichment for the animals and they therefor don’t feel the need to hunt slow, small humans.

[kingcaw]

happy halloween! here is a ghost duet

[kingcaw]

Harrow is relatable because I too have been told, “Cook something, read a book, get some rest, SELF-CARE,” and quickly found a way to make them say, “But not like that.”

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[video description: a minute and a half sketchy animatic of a scene from Harrow The Ninth  book where Mercymorn hates everyone because they mockingly interpret her scribble of the Beast in not-beastly shapes. ]  I got procreate and I thought: what if I draw mercymorn like fifty times. and then i did.

[kingcaw]

anyone else remember pre-htn meta musing over why in the fresh hell gideon straight up quotes ruth 1:16-17, a vow customarily used in christian wedding ceremonies, as her last words to harrow

and us concluding there's NO WAY that's the in-universe implication bc, idk, it's a theory too on the nose or lesbionic to entertain?

and then htn came out, in which harrow not only repeats the same verse, but prefaces it with psalm 137:5, commonly recited in jewish weddings

tazmuir like no, no...that's the in-universe implication

[kingcaw]

here i go

[kingcaw]

Spoiler alert

"In what way can I earn your trust?".

"Thank you, my midnight hagette".

[kingcaw]

One for the Emperor, first of us all;  One for his Lyctors, who answered the call; One for his Saints, who were chosen of old; One for his Hands, and the swords that they hold.

Two is for discipline, heedless of trial; Three for the gleam of a jewel or a smile; Four for fidelity, facing ahead; Five for tradition and debts to the dead; Six for the truth over solace in lies; Seven for beauty that blossoms and dies; Eight for salvation no matter the cost; Nine for the Tomb, and for all that was lost.

- Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Art by Gregory Manchess

[kingcaw]

I think one of my favourite understated moments from Gideon the Ninth is the scene before the dinner party, when Gideon and Harrow are getting ready, and Harrow is being all shifty and nervous, constantly fiddling with her hair and changing her outfit and redoing her makeup like three times, and Gideon assumes it's just because shes feeling tetchy about having to wait so long to go back to the hatch and that shes upset because Necromancy and she hates living people, but we as the reader can see that Harrow is just nervous because shes a 17 year old nerd who's never been to a real party in her life and doesnt fucking know how to socialize like a real person. Like Gideon just assumes shes being all dark and mysterious, but in a perfect move of dramatic irony, we the readers see through her posturing bullshit and whirling capes that she's just feeling social anxiety and doesnt know where her hands are supposed to be in order to pass as a Normal Social Person and Not A Human Mess. Its beautiful. So relatable.

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[kingcaw]

Ugh😭

[kingcaw]

gideon tearing up right after she learns harrow is and has been in love with another girl for like 7 years....sure, it’s the salt water’s fault, babe

[kingcaw]

i'd love to hear you rant more about how you hate these terrible men. specifically j*hn he deserves to be dragged

BIG HARROW THE NINTH SPOILERS: Here’s the thing about John: I’ve seen people complain about him because he’s not depicted as very overly sinister, or scary, or powerful in a cool way, and that doesn’t gel with what people think is realistic for an all-powerful immortal necromancer king, but i think that disconnect is exactly what makes his character so frightening, on a certain level. In contrast to any of the usual mythology about power or divine rights to rulership that would ascribe some kind of superiority to him just by virtue of being a powerful leader, John is so clearly just a man- just a normal, human person who came into unspeakable power and has not handled it well. That’s what’s so maddening- and scary about him! He’s relatable, nonthreatening, even charmingly goofy at times; he genuinely cares about the people he’s close to- and he leads an imperial war machine that turns planets into dead worlds. He knows he’s a normal man with limitations, on some level, but he encourages a religious culture that paints icons of him! He’s said himself basically that there was no real need to put people on Pluto or w/e to guard that tomb but he did anyway for the religious flavor of such a thing; the entire cold, abusive cycle Harrow and Gideon grew up in is the outcropping of one man’s need to give everything self-aggrandizing trimmings. And the worst part of it is: he’s failing. His empire is withering, his closest friends have crumbled into bitter mutual loathing circa centuries ago, hell, the way he interacts with Harrow makes it clear he can’t even get it together enough to understand or ease the suffering of a single lonely human member of his empire. Fuck John! This guy profoundly sucks. I actually really like him as a character in the story and am excited to see what shit he’s up to in book 3 but he is absolutely terrible and I wish being shot out of an airlock meant anything to him anymore.

[kingcaw]

Except we do know why “Hair Dude” is the name of a king and his dynasty!

There is an ancient and famous dynastic name that has historically been considered to have a potential etymology meaning “hairy.”

What name, you ask? What name could possibly fit a dynasty of tragic characters that are remembered in poetry and monument and song and that changed the world in their time?

The name is CAESAR.

j r r tolkien named the elves in the Silmarillion the same way t s eliot named the cats in Cats (2019) and i can prove this to you with textual evidence

[kingcaw]

Gideon/Harrowhark/Ianthe

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Mae dump

[kingcaw]

Harrow the Ninth aka Eternal Coffee Shop Of The Spotless Mind