murasaki-sama - Tumblr blog

[murasaki-sama]

I need everyone to have read Victoria Goddard's Lays of the Hearthfire so I can talk about it at length. Ouch. But in, like, a good way.

[murasaki-sama]

Artorin Damara, Emperor of Astandalas, 100th and last.

[murasaki-sama]

““Your highness, you bemuse me. Do you seriously think that no one will work simply because their basic needs are accounted for?” “Do you seriously think that people will continue to work when they don’t have to?” “You do.” Prince Rufus choked. Several other princes snickered or giggled.”

— The Hands of the Emperor, by Victoria Goddard

[murasaki-sama]

Good lord, The Hands of the Emperor needs to come with a warning label for people who have a praise kink. This book is, in print, something like 940 pages long, and the entire last third of it consists of the previously self-effacing, underappreciated protagonist giving righteous monologues and receiving accolades.

Chapter 51: Two years have passed. Here’s a committee meeting.

Chapters 59-76: Here are twelve hours between coffee and after-dinner drinks, during which time Kip’s entire adult life is reviewed, dissected, and praised by everyone he has ever met, and numerous people who are meeting him for the first time gradually realize that he is a stealth badass who runs their entire world.

[murasaki-sama]

Spoilers for Hands of the Emperor

I have to say as an Aro/Ace person it means so much to read a book where someone professes love to someone they’ve never touched and might never touch, but not have it be presented as secondary or less meaningful in any way. That an entirely platonic and possibly non romantic relationship is still dramatic and story worthy.

🤌

[murasaki-sama]

His Radiancy Artorin Damara, playing the Alinorel harp at Navikiani (x)

[murasaki-sama]

He could not. He was not Aurelius, whose magic stirred the sky. He was not Elonoa'a, who could hear the winds whisper of far islands. He was not Fitzroy fucking Angursell, who had written the best poem of an age. He was Cliopher Mdang, and he was not good enough.

At the Feet of the Sun, by Victoria Goddard

[murasaki-sama]

reading things about cliopher from not-cliopher's POV is so funny because it's like. I knew the man was constantly short-selling himself but I don't think I understood just how unreliable narrator he was when it came to his own accomplishments

kip "oh haha I'm so boring I could never belong in legends or the lays" mdang. kip "responsible for world peace" mdang. kip "sailed through an ocean of storms to get home by re-discovering hidden meaning in ancestral teachings" mdang. kip "fixed the fucking postal service" mdang.

LIKE. KIP. CMON

[murasaki-sama]

There is a slow burn

and then there is whatever the hell is going on in The Hands of the Emperor, which is more like two extremely long fuses soaking next to each other in some flammable liquid for thirty years without ever looking around for a match

[murasaki-sama]

I don't want to talk about how important The Lays of the Hearth Fire are to me because that is too precious and huge to put into words. But if you are also reading these books and if they are also important to you I want you to know that I am holding your shoulders and touching foreheads with you

[murasaki-sama]

Thinking about how different the plot of Wheel of Time would be of Mat never got the shadar Logoth dagger again.

Like so much of his character arc and plot line hinges on the effects of the dagger and the aftermath of curing it. Specifically his heightened paranoia and missing memories. I’m so insane about it.

[murasaki-sama]

I was saying to Emet earlier that one of the big things I was worried about with this fucking Kristi Noem thing was that she was trying to present this as "a rural thing"

Like "oh you city people just don't understand, this is just how it is in rural places"

And I really didn't want to see this just accepted by the news media, most of whom have never lived anywhere rural, as just "how we are"

Like, no, absolutely not, we don't just fucking shoot dogs bc they aren't good at being hunting dogs. Everybody I've ever personally known who hunts with dogs knows that a dog that is a bad hunting dog may be a great family pet. It's clear that people like that must exist - she's a person, after all - but it's not just How Things Are.

There are enough bad stereotypes about Rural People. We don't need more.

However, I have been relieved to see that a bunch of places covering this have had people on who grew up in rural places & who were pushing back on this hard, saying exactly that: no, this isn't normal.

Ugh.

[murasaki-sama]

[murasaki-sama]

tumblr is great because no matter how many followers i get it doesn't stop me from being really fucking annoying. other places i will perhaps think before i post. Not here. not here

[murasaki-sama]

[murasaki-sama]

Quiet Quitting is when you're not doing anything wrong but the vibes are off

[murasaki-sama]