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nobody lures you into the fog anymore

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OH that last part especially makes so much sense and I have a throwaway line in Dark Rise that supports it:

The first time you read it you just think he doesn’t like the idea of dark items being used at all, but no, he doesn’t like the idea of someone ELSE wearing them, someone he didn’t intend it for.

some random thoughts about dark heir.. !!spoilers ahead !!!

I really believe that james is not being controlled at all

And i think the only thing that he's feeling is the "connection" between his magic and will's and he's "bound" (love) for sarcean/will

And he "hated how good it felt" because james/anharion hates being vulnerable and relying in other peoples, i believe they want to prove their value on their own, they need to survive and prove themselves to many times to be natural for them to seek for help

For me, since the first book, they're teasing each other about magic, every time they say "here you are, show me, prove it to me, i'm stronger than you" for me is a very playfull and boyish way to say "do you think you run faster than me? prove it, come play with me". Since the first book, specially for will, they have this joy in testing and showing and exploring their magic and what they can do with them.

And is good for them because they match it each other.

About the Master thing...

I think it was never about james/anharion... will/sarcean is actually the Master of his own Magic and the artefacts that he create with them.

His jealous of them because is HIS creations, craft with HIS magic, the same magic that everyone tells is unnatural. And he really didn't create them for people use as they please.

I believe all this time sarcean create the collar so anharion could never felt in lack of power, he could feel free to fully protect himself and who they want to, but people create another narrative for them, because they want to harm them and because they don't believe they're capable of something good seeing that they're different...

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sometimes my cat will suddenly go very fast. But don't let this fool you. It does not reflect an urgent change in circumstances

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they're only called spotted hyenas when you see them

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What do y’all make of this moment?

I mean, she clearly knows that that was the name of Sarcean’s horse and chooses not to say. Pacat doesn’t tend to put these things in for no reason, but I can’t think of many ways this can still matter now that a) Farah is dead and b) Will’s identity has already been revealed.

I’m thinking either this was just there to make your attention snag for a moment so it falls into place more when you learn the name of Sarcean’s horse

OR

it’s going to turn out that Grace already knew or at least had her suspicions about Will, and that she started to suspect partly because Farah mentioned this conversation to her at the time.

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Hannibal is definitely the kind of guy who can eyeball someone’s measurements with stupid accuracy

whatever, I just need to know exactly how Hannibal got Will's measurements for those tailored shirts. did he stole one of his shirts for reference? did he take Will to his tailor? did he sensually take the measurements himself? I need these answers bryan fullerrrrr

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Chapter nine, Will reflecting upon seeing his room in the Hall.

“She’s the one who should be here.”

Not “she should be here with me.” Because that was never an option and Will knows it.

Which also makes this thought he’s having a whole new kind of tragic. He’s wishing she succeeded at killing him, that she had stayed alive instead. Either because he loves her that much, or because he already has subconscious suspicions about himself.

Another Dark Rise passage that reads differently on rereading the book. Will’s reaction to Justice and Violet assessing him after they’ve seen him sheathe the sword. She told us so much right in chapter six, we just saw what we expected to see.

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Another Dark Rise passage that reads differently on rereading the book. Will’s reaction to Justice and Violet assessing him after they’ve seen him sheathe the sword. She told us so much right in chapter six, we just saw what we expected to see.

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Can we talk about Marcus for a second…

(Kind of self indulgent and probably doesn’t make much sense)

He’s the character that’s constantly brought up, yet we know little to nothing about him. Who he was before getting kidnapped, what his relationship with Cyprian looked like, how he and Justice interacted and so much more.

Sure we have little glimpses of these, such as his journal and little mentions by Cyprian, James and Justice, but we don’t know what he was truly.

I think the cherry on top is truly that we have no idea what he looks like. We have trading cards for a bunch of other characters yet no actual description of Marcus. I don’t remember much of the text describing him.

In every sense, he really is a shadow. Something that always follows you around, but you don’t really know anything about it.

I’m aware that book three will not have any Marcus chapter’s because well, he’s dead, but if there is any information about Marcus you bet I will scream like how I did when I read page 170.

(bonus points if cyprian is like “yk i once saw justice and marcus kiss.”)

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Here’s something you missed on your first read-through of Dark Rise: no one ever tells Will that the Dark King wore a pale crown. This entire scene is written in a way that makes it feel like Will is getting all these impressions from Justice, but he comes up with the image of the crown all by himself.

Even if you do catch it (I definitely did not), you’ll most likely think it’s because he’s a descendant. Pacat is so, so good at planting details like this and it’s one of the things that make his books so rereadable.

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Will and his feelings for Katherine

In this TED talk, I will argue that Will guessed or at least suspected that Katherine was his sister from the moment he met her, and hence there were no romantic feelings from his side.

[Lots of spoilers]

Yes, maybe it's obvious for everyone, but I still find it interesting to inspect how the narrative structure was keeping us intentionally in the dark both because of different POVs and because of the parts of the backstory that we get only way afterward.

The idea that there were any romantic feelings comes from two sources, Katherine's POV and Violet's. But when we look at the story from Will's perspective the meaning of his actions changes.

Let's start from the beginning.

Assumption 1: Some vague suspicions that he had siblings (backstory in Book 2, Elizabeth's POV)

Will was around 6-7 years old when Elizabeth was born. At that age, he would at least remember something, even if his mother never talked about the baby, even if she said that the child died or claimed that it never happened. Some memories, some half-forgotten moments must have stayed with him.

He knew for sure that his mother had a platitude of secrets, that she was afraid of something, and that she acted cautiously.

Assumption 2: Almost sure that he has/had sisters after his mother's death (Book 1, very close to the end, Will's POV )

Will is around 16, his mother is dying, covered in blood, murdered by unknown people. And she is talking nonsense. She is afraid of Will, so she attacks him, and she begs him not to hurt her girls.

Will was never stupid. And he had plenty of time to think about his mother's last words (and actions). And even though he wants to believe that she just didn't understand who he was, and what was going on, he is still our clever Will, and it's not that unbelievable, to at least suspect, that his mother really did have other children (girls), that she had to give up (and maybe that, somehow connected to her death).

He doesn't know if the girls are alive or where they are, but at that point, he must be almost sure that his mother had daughters.

Fact 1: Will knows both how his mother looks (obviously) and how Lady looks (Will's POV, Chapter 1)

Will is probably the only person alive, other than Devon and Sandy, who knows how Lady looks, and seeing her in the mirror he immediately recognizes that she has similarities to his late mother. 

Conclusion 1: When he saw Katherine for the first time he, for sure, noticed that she looked very similar to his mother and to Lady.

Once again, Will is smart, and seeing Katherin for the first time, he understands that she must be his sister.

He tries to find out if she has any other family members, asking her about her cousins.

When she reaches to his neck, he instinctively pulls away. The same way he wanted to pull away from Lady in the mirror. Because in both instances he thinks about his mother.

And at the end of their first meeting, he says that he was wrong, and he won't do whatever he planned.

Fact 2: When Katherine kisses him, Will pulls back

Will never initiate or encourage any intimacy. Probably because he didn't feel that way about her, but also because she is his sister.

She kissed him.

He tried to warn her and protect her because he promised his mom.

And Violet is the one who talks about love and kisses, while Will wants to say “It’s not what you think” because it's not. And it's not what we, readers, think because at that point Will (who's still not stupid) very much suspects that he is either Dark King's descendant or Dark King Reborn.

So my conclusion is that the feelings he has for Katherine are mixed but there is very little indication that he felt anything romantic or passionate toward her.

The whole point of this long post is an attempt to prove that Pacat is playing with our minds via POVs, vague dialogs, and a backstory that is revealed way too late. And if we can't trust the story in these small details, we also can't trust it in much bigger points such as Dark vs Light Sides, the role of the Collar, and the story of The Betrayer.

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I have wondered if she knew. There’s a weird moment with another janissary in the first book, when Will names Valdithar.

Clearly Farah is thinking something she’s not saying. Did she know that was Sarcean’s horse’s name? If so, then certainly Grace knew too. But if multiple janissaries knew about this parallel between Will and Sarcean, that raises a whole host of other questions.

I have no doubt that this will all make perfect sense by the end of book 3 but I’ll be dammed if I know how.

CS Pacat’s writing style has made me inescapably suspicious of every character. I’m legit wondering if Grace somehow already knew Will was the Dark King even though it would mean throwing out basic narrative logic.

Pacat could make it work

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this is honestly such a key part of the Pacat Experience (TM)

I feel like we know more about Sarcean’s hair in the past than we know about Sarcean himself

I lost count of how many times I read lines about that silky dark shining smooth spreading beautiful inky long flowing gorgeous alluring fine elegant mane of his

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Speaking of the Elder Steward, where was she when Will and Violet were imprisoned by the Stewards and sentenced to death? We only get a few glimpses of what’s going on upstairs while they’re in their cells and she’s not in them.

This very much sounds like she wasn’t there at all, like the High Janissary made this decision without her, which, how, why?

She never once mentions it later either, just treats them like nothing ever happened. Does she not know? If so, what the fuck? Or does she know and choose not to acknowledge it? If so, what the fuck? Either there was way more internal conflict and scheming among the Stewards than we were led to believe or the Elder Steward was way more flawed than we were led to believe and I kind of hope it’s both.

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Genuinely I think one of the best things you can do to build characters in your story is give them a kink. You do not have to put that kink in the story. You do not have to tell anyone but yourself. But thinking about their wants and needs and what would bring them comfort or desire, about whether they crave power or crave a situation where they're blessedly free from any power, about which taboo they might kind of want to cross, is really useful for getting inside their head. Also "what situation would make my character stupid horny enough to make a terrible mistake?" is a good plotting device. "It's a plot hole that they made that dumb decision" no they were just whistling like a lustful kettle and forgot to turn their brain on.

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Maybe everyone else had already connected these dots but I'm suddenly losing my shit over the fact that when Devon said this to her, he already knew it was Will. The fuck are we to make of that???

“You’re like me” said Devon. “We’re the same. You’re more like me than you are like them. It’s in your blood.”

“I’m nothing like you. I will never serve the Dark King.” - Violet

“You will” he said. “You’ll betray every person you love to serve him.”

UMMMMM EXCUSE ME why is no one talking about this?!?!?!?!?! IF THIS ISN’T FORESHADOWING I DONT KNOW WHAT IS

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do yall stop in your tracks when you remember this scene exists cuz i do.