#cycle-re-cycle

[stringcage]

Pynch is forever S tier because Ronan is like the first time I ever saw him I knew I had to have him, because subconsciously I knew he was the presence I dreamt of all those years ago in my loneliest of times, and I begged God for even the slightest sliver of a chance. And Adam is like the first time I saw him he outperformed me at groceries and that was when I knew I had to sell my soul to become an academic weapon. Also it wasn't him.

[h0ndayota]

Ronan goes to one (1) day of school and spends it looking longingly at Adam

[w1ckedgal]

Look at them 😭😭 entitled little assholes. Blue was so right. I would hate them too.

[juice-enjoyer]

normal about this guy. murtagh ily

[arriettyspin]

I don't know why Chad Charming being adopted is considered to be implausible by some. Cinderella, an orphan, choosing to adopt her firstborn to save him from a childhood like her own is the most in-character thing ever.

[ceruleanblueshells]

physically im here but mentally im in declan's kitchen looking into his vacant eyes as he drinks coffee just because matthew said the kitchen smells like coffee in the morning

[boar-sjn]

after death ; life again.

what a lovely bouquet! what's the occasion?

[contrarianwitt]

the only way i can wrap my head around gansey/blue being awol during the dreamer trilogy is that they were going through their own crazy magical roadtrip adventure involving the ley lines and the trees

because how could gansey abandon his brothers and blue not talk to her raven boys without a really good reason?

[feyres-divorce-lawyer]

bro the first time i read this, i swear i was gonna throw up

[artisanscribbles]

Valec and Bree

Something I really like in the Legenborn Cycle is how Valec is subtlety positioned as the Merlin to Bree's Arthur.

Tracey is never explicit about it, but there's a kind of shift that happens with Bree when she meets Valec.

Bree is extremely reticent to having a Kingsmage (as the Order sees it). As much as she likes and trusts Sel, She's not comfortable with him taking that role with her otherwise she wouldn't push back at him as much as she does. And, frankly, while Sel is a damn good protector he has a lot of trouble letting Bree grow in Bloodmarked which is the source of many of their fights. He doesn't want to let her make mistakes like she has to. And he's not wrong! Bree's mistakes have big consequences attached to them! She's in an unbelievable amount of danger! And Sel wants to keep her safe from it, because he loves her, because that's how and what he's been trained to do and because I think he feels he's failed so badly with Nick and he's trying to keep the one thing he knows how to do together while his whole world is falling apart.

And as much as Bree doesn't want a Kingsmage, she's perfectly happy to let Sel keeps the title because she recognizes that it's a fundamental pillar of his identity, and she's not willing to let the Order take it from him.

But Bree puts up quite a few boundaries with Sel and draws lines on his behaviour that keep putting them at odds, because Sel needs desperately to hold to his training and Bree rightly refuses to let him treat her like he was treating Nick In Legendborn. She refuses to let him put her in a cage in the name of safety because it isn't right and it doesn't work! Their conflict is really interesting because at its core both parties are right. Bree needs to be careful and listen sometimes to stay safe. But Sel can't keep her from doing what she needs to do because it makes him feel more secure.

Similarly, Bree doesn't want Lark either for different, understandable reasons. He's being forced on her, she doesn't know him, doesn't trust him, doesn't trust the Order and isn't willing to bind her life to someone just on a whim. She isn't willing to make that deal. If it wasn't Lark, she'd reject any other contender for the same reason. She won't be pressured into this because "it's always been done that way." She's seen too much of Nick and Sel's relationship to know how toxic this can turn.

(side note: I love Lark as a character, but by the funeral I knew they were never going to click the way Bree needs to for this bonding to work)

But Valec! Bree and Valec click immediately! Even with the general shadiness he's introduced with Bree and Valec are immediately on the same page. Even with the whole mess at the bar, Valec doesn't take much persuading to help her. And he does help! He forces Sel to confront his own insecurities, he helps Bree understand what magic she inherits, hell he even reveals the great secret of her Line. And then he tries to help hide her away from her enemies. Even in Oathbound hes down to help and even he gets angry, it doesn't have the acidity Sel does. He's mad and worried, because he understands exactly the degree of problem she's gotten into. He swings being a uncle, older cousin and mentor, like the guide Bree really needs.

And this is so interesting to me because it's so much like the classical Merlin the older Arthurian romances, and from some of the older modern works like The Sword in the Stone, or the Mists of Avalon. Merlin as a mentor to a young King, helping him to figure out how to rule, hiding him to keep him safe, acting as a counsellor when he asks for advice etc.

And just get that vibe from Valec and Bree whenever they have a scene together. By the end of Oathbound their relationship is a very warm one that feels in some ways healthier than all of Bree's other new relationships to date (IE we don't count Alice or her Dad).

Like I said, it's subtle, but it's very heartening to see

[thegoatsongs]

Arthur Holmwood, because he loves Lucy -> Summons Jack Seward, later Quincey Morris, to help

Jack Seward, because he loves Lucy -> Summons Van Helsing from another country, to help

Van Helsing, because he loves Lucy -> Summons Mina Harker with: "how you love her... By that love, I implore you, help me."

[adamsrcnan]

nothing (and i really mean nothing) quite makes me feel alive with love and whimsy and magic the way the raven cycle does

[akkivee]

i’m ignoring the text above samatoki and pretending there is just disgusted outrage on his face seeing sasara’s eyes are open LOL

[bluesey-182]

the three strongest possibilities (to me) as to why glendower is already dead are:

1.) the wish was used up to save gansey's life the first time and maybe that wish was tied to glendower's life force

2.) glendower was buried in the wrong tomb (the one they found gwenllian in seemed like it was meant for him)

3.) gansey is glendower. his first death woke him up and glendower was resurrected with gansey basically serving as his vessel. or, back to the life force thought, maybe it's less of a vessel situation and more of an energy transference

and honestly i don't know which one makes me want to chew apart the furniture more

[kickedin17]

Okay hear me out (other people have basically already said this but hold on this is my post)

We're getting very clear messages that indicate something might be... wrong with Clancy. During the US leg via the FPE letters we heard a lot about how Clancy was inspiring the masses, and now it kind of seems to be the opposite. Torch explicitly saying we destroyed them so we didn't become them.

Plus Tyler now wearing black shirts, with imagery that seems to relate to Blurryface songs. The occasions last tour where his "Clancy" shirt was black text instead of red. The Blurryface account tweeting again this tour. The bishops taking over the Judge that one time, trying to hijack a moment that celebrates the clique (irl banditos). Paladin Strait, which apparently is not supposed to sound like an ending, which concludes with Clancy being named explicitly by Nico, and which shows a version of Tyler in the mv literally sitting above it all & seemingly mirroring people's movements from other shots.

I see your "Clancy becomes a bishop" theories (I love bishop!clancy to be clear I think it's awesome) but I think that might be too esoteric to end up being the explicit canon (I could also be wrong and it will be, but functionally the rest of the point here is the same). The thing is, Clancy is pretty simply intended to be a version of Tyler that extracts and represents certain traits, just like Blurryface. We know Blurryface to be insecurity. Clancy has never been said explicitly afaik but I think it's clear he represents Tyler's drive to create things that inspire people (despite crushing obstacles like mental illness - Dema and the bishops, and especially with the help and inspiration of others - Torchbearers and the banditos (us)). Which we know can be incredible, but can also become self-destructive. We were introduced to Clancy at first cryptically through his personal writings, and only explicitly after a long time (and after being told he'd "died" by the characters that represent Tyler's mental health struggles, which, depressed creatives iykyk) because I think owning your creativity and ability to inspire others is a much more arduous journey than being controlled by your insecurity. But Clancy was never intended to be a different type of character despite all that. He is a version of Tyler.

And just like Blurryface he gets his own namesake album. A lot of people have pointed out how the Clancy and Blurryface tracklists can actually be read to mirror each other. As the lore progressed Blurryface became Nico (and the other 8 bishops) battling against Clancy, but they're all abstractions from Tyler's mind. Both literally, in the sense that he is literally the one coming up with the story, but we're also reminded of this on both Bandito and Overcompensate with the "created this world" bridge. I believe this is also what we're seeing represented in those shots in the Paladin Strait mv. There's also the fact that the Clancy era is extremely extremely red - this in lore represents Clancy's process of reclamation as well as his (violent) uprising, but in tøp's wider context it is kinda just The Blurryface Color along with black.

Blurryface turns 10 immediately after the Clancy tour ends. We know the Clancy tour to be the reflection of "someone's life flashing before their eyes" and that this album was supposedly meant to wrap up the Dema storyline. I do not think this means Clancy dies. Because he is Tyler, and he cannot die, because for that to happen I think Tyler would have to never write or make anything again. And we also know this to be a cycle. I think what's happening is what's always been kind of obvious, and inevitable. I think Clancy is going to become Blurryface. I think he's already been Blurryface this entire time. They're the same person at different parts of the cycle, and I think we're going back to the start of it.

[harlothane]

Theon + Survival Horror (2/?)