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In sotto voce:

"Nooooo, Gideon, don't say that she doesn't like you. She made you a sexy barista."

"Multiple AUs with you, Gideon."

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Rotate them in my mind like in microwave

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I don’t know why I’ve never zeroed in on this line before, but right after Gideon’s gotten Jeannemary out of the facility and is trying to figure out where to go?

“She had to get her to safety. She wanted her longsword and she wanted Harrow.”

I cannot get over how even in the middle of complete panic, when she needs safety her mind goes to her sword and to Harrow in the same breath.

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kill your darling, it's just that easy!

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Every time I remember that Pyrrha has never seen Palamedes’s face I suddenly want to jump into a trash compactor.

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Lil Harrow painting

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I haven't yet seen a post about jod’s eclipse eyes. so I’m making one. bc I would love to hear any other interpretations or meta thoughts

(big spoilers after the photo for The Locked Tomb/Nona the Ninth)

jod’s eyes = black eye with a ring of bright white around the iris. total solar eclipse = black sky with a ring of white light around the moon’s silhouette

exhibit A: the eye in this photoshop job is a photo of the recent eclipse

[Detailed ID: A cropped photo of Taika Waititi, showing just one eye. The eyeball has been replaced with a photo of a solar eclipse. It looks just like the book’s description of John’s Gaius’s eyes: black sclera, black iris and pupil, and a white ring around the iris, i.e. the visible corona of the sun around the silhouetted moon. Some highlights added to make it look like a more realistic eyeball. End ID]

since realizing this visual parallel I have been certain this is why the eyes are like that. seeing as how they are actually the eyes of alecto’s soul

and like. our eclipses being a really unique phenomenon bc of the distances and sizes of the earth moon and sun. and it’s her view onto the other two celestial bodies most connected to her, the sun she orbits and the moon who orbits her

I have many unformed analyses of the thematic implications of this, and maybe I’ll come back with a proper reading, but overall I think it’s a really fucking cool answer to “what would the eyes of a planet be?”

much to think about

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my absolute favourite FAVOURITE thing about john/alecto is that they are both each other’s fucked up little science project that got Very out of hand.

they are both simultaneously victor and the creature to each other at all times. they love each other they ARE each other, they are divorced and married at the same time. they (literally) can’t live without each other and each will be the other’s end. they still love each other despite this.

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one problem with a theatrical adaption of tlt is htn, where the reveal that Gideon lives on works because of the change of second person to first.

the only way i can think of it working is that the actor playing gideon works backstage, like the lights system (but is hidden from the audience aside from subtle hints)

the biggest hint is when when wake breaches pal's river bubble she 'breaks' the lighting system and the stage goes dark. harrow is ushered into the wings by pal so she doesn't see anything, but the lights flick back on just before the curtains drop for a scene change, and pal looks directly up at the light box in surprise and smiles. if the audience is quick to turn around they can see a flash of a black robe.

Oh boy my friend, have you come to the right place!!

So, fun fact about ninja. Bear with me, I am going somewhere with this. The image of a ninja covered head to toe in black, with a hood and mask, comes from Kabuki theatre. It was originally a stagehand uniform. Like stagehands in modern theatre, stagehands in Kabuki would wear all black to signify that they were not really there, and whatever effect they were causing (carrying a prop, creating a breeze, ect.) was to be taken as happening on its own. Basic stagehand stuff, a lot of productions in many styles around the world do it, especially if they don't have fancy rigging systems.

Someone (I don't remember who now, or in what play) had the idea to dress the ninja in a production up as a stagehand. In the convention of the theatre, this made them invisible. The audience was already so used to ignoring stagehands, they didn't know any more than the characters that the ninja was present, despite the actor being clearly visible on stage. Which meant when the ninja struck, it was as if out of nowhere. I can only imagine the uproar in the theatre the first time it happened. It worked so well as to become commonplace, and the rest is history. The popular image of a ninja is still a kabuki stagehand.

So, back to the stage play of Harrow the Ninth. I think you've hit almost exactly on how to incorporate the Gideon twist into a theatrical production. But not as a lighting tech. Gideon is a stage hand. Maybe there would be more than one stagehand, maybe she would be the only one, but she would operate in full view of the audience, literally setting the scenes. I think it works best if she's the only one, but if the production needs more, she should subtly stand out in some way. As the play went on, we would notice that this one stage hand... increasingly interacts with Harrow, though Harrow never acknowledges it. At first it might look like she's playing Harrow's necromancy, because that would be the main special effect she would need to help with. When Harrow is unconscious at the end of a scene, it's always the same stagehand carrying her out. But we all know she's not really there. Until Palamedes acknowledges her. Turns to look right at her, and speaks to her. I can see the scene clearly. He would look at her, stunned, until Gideon finally took off her mask. The line "Kill us twice, shame on God," would be addressed to Gideon, and then he would turn back to Harrow, kiss her on the forehead, and tell her to go. Gideon, always out of Harrow's line of sight, would guide Harrow away while Harrow looked back at Palamedes.

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one thing im insane abt wrt tlt is how fucking well executed it is on a technical level. the beautiful act structure, the plotting, the character arcs and development, the implementation of theme and motif. every beat is thought through and necessary. just like. goddamn. gtn especially but the series in general is a masterclass on how to write and execute a novel. god damn.

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I'm currently in chapter 27 of gideon the ninth (as per @lady-harrowhark 's recommendations) and these are my personal character appreciations at the moment, which will probably change in time, but still:

judith: a fool who thought she could mess with camilla the sixth

marta díaz (that's how I pronounce it in my head, I'm a Spanish speaker, give me a break): a bigger fool who got rightfully ended by camilla the sixth

regina george twin: I have had enough of her

chad the third: fuck this guy in particular, he's the absolute worst

silent yandere simulator twin: kinda maybe stan her a little bit ngl

baby isaac: rip 1, guy got brochetted

baby jannemary: rip 2, sad for this one in particular

abigail: rip 3, she seemed nice

magnus: rip 4, he was a baking cavalier and since this wasn't high school musical, he couldn't win against the status quo

palamedes: turbonerd, feels like a guy I would have shared a philosophy class with in uni

camilla: the icon, the legend, the moment, the wind beneath my wings, she's everything that's right

dulcinea: my personal enemy, I have never trusted her, I will never trust her, she could be killed in front of my eyes and I will still think she has an agenda

protesilaus: his entire personality was the live reaction meme, currently he's live reacting from an unknown location

mayonnaise uncle: the most disagreeable man in the know universe but not as bad as chad, because this guy at least knows some things

duracell bunny nephew: he's there sometimes

harrow: I have to admit, I have criticized her in the past, but I have learned to understand and share her state of paranoia, distrust and anger towards those around her who can't keep up

gideon: she's dense but she's got the spirit

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there were never such devoted sisters ✨

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I find the concept of nona so funny… like imagine if you knew harrow, this violent psychotic nun who has the personality of a particularly wet cat, someone who willingly gave themselves a DIY lobotomy, and now her body is smiling and giggling and telling you she loves you soooooooo much

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Doing an experiment with my friend where im making him read tlt in the opposite order and he just dropped the most sentence ever "oh, palamedes and dulcinea are parallels with john and alecto! Got it" and promptly returned to ignore me on discord. what do i do with that

Why are you making him read TLT in the opposite order. Did he volunteer for it. Are you trying to prove something. Are you monitoring him for reactions compared to your other friend who read it in the normal order. The word choice of “experiment” is sort of of ominous here ngl

Also I need to know everything about his reactions oh my god. please say more

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griddleharlectostasia brainrot hours

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she only looks at gideon like this

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Anyway I have put a lot of thought into this and the way I would fix Gideon is by slowly giving her tasks and praising her for each one but gradually the tasks become like "speak to someone you like" and "do something you enjoy for its own sake" and after a while of speaking to people who she's friends with we would move on to "do you think your friends would be happy to see you treated this way" and introduce the concept that people enjoy her personality not just what she can do and THEN we can introduce the concept that she might want to do things just because she wants them and she can decide for herself how she wants to spend her time. and then I will kill everyone who was mean to her.