#and Ronan are doing ley line shit together without her and she thinks she’s being excluded because of misogyny. That is organic more of tha

[cabeswaterdrowned]

Ik some fanon goes for the idea of Blue being fairly attune to queerness because of living in 300 fox way but imo while her upbringing does mean she’s aware and accepting of things like romantic love not being limited by gender or to one person more than say a lot of her classmates, she’s not actually versed on like. Labels and specifics, her perspective on LGBT is imperfect in the way a lot of her feminism is, and she also doesn’t think much about it in the context of like. High school and people in her age group, maybe as an extension of her viewing 300 fox way as this counter culture bubble separate from the rest of Henrietta. And with her pov on the boys specifically I think the funniest realest option is that because she’s never had meaningful human interaction with teen boys before this specific deranged group, although she obviously knows they are weird people who interact weirdly (that’s why she likes them) there is a lot of deranged homoerotic shit they do that she just assumes is how all teen boy friendships generally are. Also her clocking Adam in their break up scene goes even harder and is more fun to me if it was a 100% unintentional clocking so I prefer that read

[off-in-the-moors]

Joseph Kavinsky analysis, part 1

aka how did I get here and why is he the reason

Warnings: spoilers for the whole Raven Cycle, mentions of: drug-use, abuse, death, murder, homophobic slurs, xenophobia

Part 1 // Part 2

After finishing The Raven Cycle and analyzing every chapter, character and the overarching plot with my friend, we were left feeling empty. It's been few months, I kept looking-up more TRC related things, other people's opinions, look through fandom content and even read some post from the author's, now deleted, tumblr account, trying to find answers to why I'm feeling like this. Why the books seem to decline for me in quality as I kept reading? Why I can't see Ronan in the same light as the rest of the fandom? Why I couldn't like the author? And the answer was looking me in the eyes the whole time.

"Depending on where you began the story, it was about Joseph Kavinsky."

I loved his character from the moment we met him in The Dream Thieves and still think about him to this day. But why? In a way, Kavinsky is too familiar to me, from his attitude, through appearance to his voice. It’s like I knew him, and this isn’t surprising. I met/saw Kavinskys on the streets, I know Kavinskys, and I was a Kavinsky once in my life. Although I'm the opposed to him, I still sympathies with him and understand how it feels to be in dark places in your life. And I'm not the only one, many people adore him and don't deny his actions to be terrible. But on the other side, the majority of fans hates him and titles him "the worst/most evil antagonist of the series". But why? What about K makes him so polarizing? The simple answer is: the way he was presented and the function he played in the plot. Even then, K's whole arc in TDT was handled horribly and damaged the way readers will view, not only people like K but also themselves. This and also future posts, I’ll be analyzing everything relied to K, including his treatment after book's release by the author and what some deleted scenes and unused ending can shine on.

This is part 1 of a series of posts to come.

This part is about the narrative and characters views of Kavinsky.

Narrative and characters

Narrative is a powerful tool of telling a story, well crafted and coupled with character's internal-voice makes the reader view the story under different light. In a PoV of one character, one thing might bring-up different emotions and ideas, than the others. Exploring relationships and events differ, because everybody experience it differently. But problem begins when the narrative forces a reader to a opinion, without backing it up with reasons or giving a opposing one. In case of Joseph Kavinsky, before we properly meet him, we are told by the characters to hate him and the narrative backs them up in reasons to hate him. All the reasons given to us at that time, boil down to "I heard a rumor."

Gansey hates him, because "There was nothing about Kavinsky that wasn’t despicable" and "he thinks life is a music video". He doesn't want Ronan to associated with him, which is connected with him covering and getting Ronan's ass for the mess he made, having him project his anger and frustration he has with Ronan on to K, who part-takes in the same activities and probably with Ronan, is understandable. But I didn't expect much from a guy who: payed the school officials so they won't kick Ronan out; insulted Adam and throw Adam’s abuse at his face, just to instant of apologizing to him, make a pity party for himself (also having Adam apologies to Gansey for his rightful outburst isn't okay), is fine with having a romantic relationship with Blue while she's still with Adam, hurting him even further but makes it all about himself, etc. Him hating K, just because of his lifestyle, made sense. But were the line was crossed, was when he started to decide on other people's worth. Lines like "we matter" (on which I'll extend later in the post) or "Ronan is fixable and has a soul [Kavinsky doesn't]", were used not only to show what Gansey himself thinks of K (he isn't a human being to him), but also demonize K and make the reader not consider him an equal to the Gangsey (a teenage).

Blue hates him, because he's yet another Raven Boy. Her hatred comes mostly from her distance for them, rich boys with privilege to which Gansey gang is an exception (although two out of four are exactly the kind she hates, and she told Noah directly she wouldn't be friends with him if he was alive) (There can be made a whole post about Blue's hypocrites regarding Raven Boys, but this isn't it). She also talks about how she doesn't feel comfortable around K and "if she couldn’t forgive Kavinsky for always managing to make her feel so insignificant", which makes sense. But while describing him, she calls him "a import from somewhere else", not only lessening him as a person but also making a xenophobic comment, noting his long nose as one of the factors (you could say, she meant him being from New Jersey, but you don't "import" stuff from inside a country, you only "import" from abroad and K is Bulgarian, doesn't matter if he's an immigrant or just has Bulgarian roots). Later, while discussing what to do with K draining the ley lines, Greyman offers to talk to him, to which Blue asks him "can you make him feel worthless while you do?”. Yes, she asked a hit-man, who killed not only Niall Lynch but also multiple people (including three on pages, which was described in the case of the ones breaking into Montmouth) for money. (Yes, fans say it's fine he murdered Niall, because he was a dick and horrible father, but what we forget is that it wasn't a fast death. It was slow and brutal, having him bludgeoned to send a message to Declan. No "he was a weapon in Greenmatle's hand" can excuse it.). Plus, he beat-up and threatened Declan with a gun if he doesn't give him the Greywaren. "Making him feel worthless" can only mean the worst. Kavinsky was a asshole, but he didn't deserved that. Also Blue gives the idea to give Kavisnky to the Greyman instant of Ronan, which was shot down, but not because it's horrible, inhuman and they can't decide on someone else's life, but because they think Greenmantle's people will come back also for Ronan. They were ok, with K being basically a scapegoat so Ronan will live.

Adam just "hates that prick" and "looked at the table with a studied disinterest" when K approached their table at Nino's, those are his only interaction in anything Kavinsky related (In a part regarding the "original" ending, we'll see it wasn't always the case.).

Noah barely exists in the series after The Raven Boys and never comes in contact with K or gives any opinion on him, outside of "ducked his head down into his shoulders, but couldn't take his eyes off the newcomer".

Ronan's relation with K could be its own post all together and there already are some good post about it, but for this one, I'll only mention few things. He gives us a very "I hate him but I'm into this lifestyle" attitude. He races against K but doesn't want to have anything to do with him or he's "dogs". (Yes, Dream Packs canon name is "Kavinsky's pack of dogs" as Ronan calls them. Ironically, Ronan gets angry then Declan and K called him "Gansey's dog" but is fine when Gansey calls him "his dog".) He never thanked or acknowledged K saved his life from the Night Horror. He accepted K's help in dreaming-up the new Pig but afterwords ditches him without even a slit gratefulness (his motivation being remembering Gansey's words), and mocks that K thought there could be anything between them (friendship or relationship, it dependents how you interpret it), turning this into just using K to get what he wanted. And yes, what K did while Ronan slept (tracing Ronan's back tattoo with his finger) was unacceptable, if it really happened and wasn't just phantom-touch while falling asleep (if it was real, it can be interpreted as K acting out of his internalized homophobia, letting himself a moment of “curiosity”, but it still wouldn't make it fine).

Ronan and K insult one-another multiple times through-out the story but the difference is quite showing. K's insults are mostly homophobic, calling Ronan a "fag" or implying Ronan and Gansey are together. This is a typical teenage insults, but are also showing of K's internalized homophobia if viewed through "Don’t say Dick Gansey, man. Do not say it. He is never going to be with you. And don’t me tell you don’t swing that way, man. I’m in your head." and "It's a bomb. Just like you." scenes.

But Ronan, excepting the typical insults like "ball-sack", goes after who K is. "Bulgarian mobster Jersey trash piece of shit" or "Russian" (to the latter, K responded "Hey now, let's not make this ugly") are personal, referring not only to from where K's from, implying he's a mobster like his father and just calling him "a waste". Unfortunately, K's whole character is already one big stereotype of Slavs as viewed not only by Americans. But insulting someone for being "Bulgarian", something they had no control over, is xenophobic. (And for "Russian", as a Slav myself, let me tell you. Calling a non-Russian Slav "Russian" is a quick way to get on their bad side.) And if you're like "Ronan isn't xenophobic, because he's Irish" or "Maggie isn't xenophobic, because Ronan...", you have no idea how things work in Europe. This is the same argument as "He can't be racist, because he's black". TRC fandom is always ready to bring-up all K's sins and even enlarge them, but when in comes to Ronan, all his sins are either forgotten or excused.

One more thing I want to touch on is one of K's parties. After Monmouth got broken into by people looking for Greywaren (which Greyman broke into first), Gansey thinks it must be Kavinsky's doing, because of the fake ID left in front of the door. Him and Ronan go to K's party, he tells them, it's a substance party and asks where are theirs. As an answer, Ronan hits him in the face and throws through a car, just to show him his blooded knuckles with "This is your substance.". The rest is Gansey and Ronan not believing K, that he didn't trash their place, and a "different Gansey" throwing a Molotov cocktail at K's car. After that, they leave. But one thing isn't sitting right with me. The "This is your substance" is a beloved, may I say iconic, scene that is glorified by fans and cited as this "Ronan is so cool and K soo deserved it" thing.

Here's the thing. K is in full right. It's his party, on his rules. Gansey and Ronan just came from nowhere, probably for the first time, so the rule is stated for them. And Ronan's response? Physically assault K. Even if he's angry about the apartment, still he shouldn't just assault him. And Gansey does nothing. And one more thing: K never hits Ronan back. Not in next chapters, not at the end. Never.

Before the chapter ends, we get probably my most hated line from this book:

"Closing his eyes, Gansey leaned his head back on his seat, chin tilted up, throat green in the dash lights. There was still an unsafe sort of smile about his mouth — what a torment the possibility in that smile was — and he said, “There was never a time when that could’ve been you and me. You know the difference between us and Kavinsky? We matter."

We matter. And he doesn't. I could talk about this line and how damaging it is to people who see themselves in Kavinsky, but instant I'll say, why I hate it.

I have anxiety mixed with being introverted and back-in-the-day I felt isolated from my classmates, desperate for friends but only had toxic ones who dropped me so the popular girls would talk with them, just to be friends with me again after some time, bullied to the point of breaking multiple times, and hating myself for not fitting in, unable to connected with my peers in anyway. The line "we matter" echos my worst fear and thoughts from that time. "Everyone matter, you don't". I was too young to even have those thoughts, but they were always there. In the back of my head, like a recurring nightmare.

Just the idea, someone can say with confidence that someone, anyone, doesn't matter, makes me sick. No one has the inside to what's going on in someones life, to what thought are plaguing their head. Everyone's life matter and to say something like this in a book targeted to 12-18 year olds, who are at there most vulnerable stage, is not only irresponsible but enraging. Gansey is saying this about a guy his age, who is drug-addicted and self-destructive, because he doesn't like him and wants Ronan to stay away from. No one calls him out on it. Not Ronan, not the narrative. Nothing.

Until the kidnapping of Matthew and the paradox/question "did the tattoo tracing scene happened?", Kavinsky did nothing to earn hatred from the reader. He was living his life, being a stupid, reckless teenage boy with a power to get everything he wanted. Ask yourself a question: "If you had the power to pulled anything* from your dreams, wouldn't you go crazy with it? Maybe in a very selfish way?"

*  Throughout TRC and CDtH, we see no limit to what a dreamer can pull-out. From a pen or working car, living creatures (animals, copies of real people or purely made-up) to abstract things, like a word with power to animate the dead or an apocalypses.

Yes, K's dreaming drained the ley lines, causing Cabeswater to disappear. But did K knew about it? He knew that he needed to wait for it to recharge before dreaming more things and he did just that. The over-draining was cause by preparations for this Fourth of July party (dreaming many copies of his Mitsubishi) but same did Ronan’s dreaming (but Cabeswater acts as weird gatekeeper, so Ronan seems to be forgiven). But did he knew about Cabeswater? Or furthermore, Glendower? We can't confirm or deny it, but considering K isn't from Henrietta and probably is there only for school, he's there for about 2 years. Would he be interested in some random forest or some Welsh King, which just idea of him being in America is so far fetched to believe in?

No. All he was interested it, was parting and wasting himself away.

We don't get any other or opposing opinions on Kavinsky, only the ones given by Gangsey. They are the outsiders looking in, not having any inside, just rumors and their shallow observations/interactions. But we don't even get any "inside", not from other Raven Boys or even the Dream Pack (who are barely characters). After K's death, the only thing we get is Gangsey's not caring or being glad K's gone. Aglionby is silent and Henrietta, doesn't even acknowledge Fourth of July's Party even happened (but to be honest, the town feels like a theater stage than a living place). The only mentions about K that gives some idea someone noticed anything, was his name alongside Whelk’s and Dittley's in the newspaper at the end of BLLB (but this plot point is never mentioned again).

[crimeronan]

gansey and blue’s internal-focused narratives

@clawsnbeak  i actually am having some more concrete gansey and blue thoughts (i pulled out my laptop so i could write them out haha), i’m making the separate post so that i don’t spam my followers’ dashes with The Longest Post In The World again ((added after drafting:  this ended up the longest post in the world, actually.  oops))

i think a lot of the difference in how we interpret the text is based on what we prioritize in narrative construction?  which is like... super pretentious phrasing but what i mean is

if we’re prioritizing by characters who Make Decisions That Cause External Plot Developments then adam is the most active player -- his whole character is based around making his own path, developing third choices out of impossible situations, sacrificing for the greater good, summoning lightning, wielding magic, repairing the ley line with his own hands

and then ronan -- dream to reality, every self-destructive choice he makes leading to spiraling consequences (especially in the dream thieves), constant self sacrifice, the physicality of his emotions, the way he tries to solve and free the dreamscape

and some of the most fun plot shit in the series is the devious and calculating and ruthless nonsense adam and ronan get up to together (greenmantle, anyone?) and the way they each understand how the other takes an active stand and makes firm decisions to try for different circumstances

and with that in mind actually you’ve made me understand a fandom phenomenon that was previously a mystery to me, which is when people are genuinely only interested in adam and ronan and have no interest in gansey or blue or their arc or what their stories mean or what they mean to adam and ronan or what the four of them mean to each other

anyway

i was trying to figure out how to express the feelings i have about gansey and blue and their stories and the way the narrative moves around them, because they’ve always always always felt to me like just as big a part of the overall story as adam and ronan

and the thing is, i do think each of the four of them plays an equal role in the shape of the story and the narrative’s weight

but the way gansey and blue’s stories are executed is kind of the inverse of adam and ronan’s?

your note about how adam and ronan make things happen while gansey and blue have things happen to them is what helped me piece this into a coherent thought thank u

there’s something inside the concept that adam and ronan change the world while the world changes gansey and blue that’s actually just like.  so fascinating and dynamic and compelling to me

that adam and ronan take their internal struggles and focus them outward into narrative action, while gansey and blue experience external struggles that focus their character development & that the character development lets them overcome the things they do

blue, learning about mirror magic, learning about who she is, realizing she’s capable of something more, realizing she can cross the mirrored lake, that she can save her mother -- it’s a quieter sort of climax, lacks the theatrics of an uprooted forest or a night horror fighting a dragon, but it’s about her realizing her own strength and realizing that she is her own person and worth more than her value to others and that she can create her own something more

gansey, plagued by yearning and wonder and existentialism and terror and crippling depression, devoting his life to this search and obsessing about the journey because he doesn’t believe he has anything to offer or anything he wants from life; gansey, who wants to find meaning but doesn’t know how so he wraps it all in a fantastical quest; gansey, who loves his family so much and struggles to communicate with them and doesn’t know they love him back and who would do anything for them but always seems to hurt everyone around him

i’m stuck on gansey now and inevitably going to start crying partway through typing the next paragraph or two but the raven king is my favorite of the quartet, not just for how high the stakes and consequences get for all of them, but for how slowly and painfully gansey crumbles

how his knowledge of his impending death opens this yawning grief inside him because he doesn’t want to die, and he’s afraid, and he doesn’t want his family to have to go on without him, and everything feels pointless, and nothing has meant anything, and he has to reconcile that the search was filling the purposeless gap inside him, and how it turns out the search has been devoid of purpose the whole time

it’s a quieter and much more internal disintegration than adam in shambles from psychic attack or ronan torn to pieces by night horrors

because that part of the story all happens inside him, it’s about how gansey grapples with what the world has given him

the same is true of blue’s struggles with identity and reconciling her hypocrisy and her values and realizing how much capacity for love she has and realizing how afraid she is of loss, it’s an internal story, it’s about who she starts out as and who she becomes

those stories mean so Much to me.  i cannot express it properly in words but promise i’m getting really weepy in front of my computer while i’m trying.  the first time i read them and every time i’ve reread them after, i’ve felt gansey and blue’s yearning and longing and sadness and fear and pain in my gut like being punched over and over and over

but the thing is like -- if that’s not what you read the story for, that’s not what you read the story for, you know??  like i’m the opposite, i literally could not give less of a shit what’s happening outside the characters’ heads except for how it affects them and how it influences their decisions

i can’t convince you analytically to feel something you don’t when the story’s crafted in a way that’s uninteresting to you, i’m not trying to like ~*~convert~*~ you to All The Feels, different people connect with different parts of stories and different methods of storytelling because we’re all different and process and experience differently and that’s important and beautiful

the main point of this post was i wanted to put into words why gansey and blue’s pieces of the story matter so much to me, and why i can’t divorce their importance from adam and ronan’s importance in terms of the plot itself or the characters’ relationships to each other

it’s possible gansey and blue could cease to exist entirely, & the series would still have all the things you love about it, it’s just that the same is not Remotely true for me

we all derive different meaning from our reading experiences and that’s cool and it’s been cool to hear about yours!