#evret hayle

[impossiblesuitcase]

Levana has two core tenets that drive her entire personal philosophy, both actively damaging and sustaining her: her need to be beautiful and her need to be loved. They are irrevocably intertwined and are ultimately her undoing.

Two people in her life dictate these notions--Channary and Evret. Channary implanted the desire to be loved and the necessity to be beautiful once Levana is disfigured. Without any willing participation from Evret, Levana carries over these insecurities, needing to be loved by him when Channary fails her and needing to keep up her glamour to feel beautiful. If Solstice is the only woman he can see as beautiful, that's what Levana must become. She sabotages her relationship with him after she shows him her true appearance; she refuses to be loved for her true self, and once he sees it, he must be disposed of. Evret lives on in Winter, who reinforces that Levana cannot ever control them as she wears her three uniform scars with pride.

With the death of these two motivators, she feels free of the burden of needing them. But the demand to be beautiful and loved is indefatigable, so she replaces them with an unearthly, ethereal glamour in her quest for vanity, and the contrived love from her citizens to feel wanted. These are both fundamentally artificial and never satisfy her, so she must always strive for more. Her body, face, voice 'improve' countless times over decades, as she is never sure that they are perfect enough. Her armies become fiercer, her inventory larger, and she sets her sights on the largest territory to conquer--Earth--all in the name of supplying her people to buy their love. Levana could have at any point abandoned her course of tyranny and used her circumstances to reform herself and her country's systemic disparity. She chooses every day to reject these opportunities and each action deepens her need to maintain the façade of love and looks. She is to be pitied, but not to be pardoned.

In order for Levana to be defeated as a villain, she must not only die, but must have her philosophy completely overturned. Kai takes the place of Evret and she replays her manipulation in the same way on their wedding day. But when she marries Kai, glamouring as his lover as she did to Evret, he dismantles her beauty, stating that she will never be as beautiful as the glamourless Linh Cinder. This directly mirrors Evret's loyalty to Solstice and it hurts Levana--not because she loves Kai in any way like she loved Evret--but because the message lives on in him. She is always inadequate.

Her glamour and her loyalties fall in one fell swoop. Her people come to her door to kill her, and her true face is blown up in the sky, permanently tainting her image. With her vanity blighted, all that's left is the fundamental nucleus of her problems: her relationship with Channary. It is the chief relationship in her life, even posthumously, and is the very cause of her perverted worldview. Levana never killed Channary and that is her greatest regret.

When Cinder arrives--Channary's near reincarnation in appearance--Levana has her second chance. It is particularly imperative to her to eliminate Selene because Levana was never loved by Channary, while Selene was. Her existence is a mockery of Levana's pain because it clarifies that Channary was capable of love and actively withheld it from Levana. However when Levana burnt Cinder alive, she levelled the playing field. She assigned Cinder a life of enduring the same prejudice and inadequacy that she faced. Therefore in their final battle, Levana likens Cinder to herself and her need to be desired. By killing Selene, she will finally prove that she has killed her need to be loved by Channary.

To do this, she sets up the perfect replica for this prophetic revenge. Cinder's friend will betray her as Channary did Levana, and Cinder will retaliate as Levana herself wished to do. It is particularly powerful that it is not Kai in the room at this final battle. Romantic love is irrelevant now. Instead it is Thorne, whom Cinder loves as family. Their almost sibling-like dynamic is now reflective of Channary and Levana. Levana asserts that this kind of love is false. But Cinder and Thorne demonstrate their loyalty to one another--even when Thorne is manipulated to hurt her, Cinder attacks Levana, not him. He proves his love in his sobs and apologies as his body rebels. Levana's final desire, to prove that love is merely a conquest and a war, is dashed.

In the end, Levana stabs Cinder, but it doesn't matter. Her worldview is shattered, her tenuous beliefs severed. That is where Levana is defeated. The final shot that kills her is simply to finalise the matter. Her tenets die with her and can be replaced with the true forms of beauty and love. Cinder and Winter, disfigured and scarred and unashamed. Kai, who loves Cinder and loves her appearance because she gave him good reason to, and never through manipulation. Cinder, who attains loyalty from the citizens of Luna and Earth alike through her action and compassion.

Love is not conquered, love is not a war; it is earned.

[chemicallyyourss]

Levana: “I can’t let my planet have another horrible Queen like my sister, I need to get rid of Selene! She won’t be fit to rule and she’ll be just like my sister! This is what will be best for Luna!”

Also Levana: Indirectly attempts to kill her niece, orders her husband and step daughter to be killed, takes babies from their parents mere hours after birth because of something they can’t control and leads parents to think it’s an infanticide but really she’s enslaving the children to harvest their blood to make a lab made virus, takes kids at young ages from their homes to tamper with their genetic makeup and make them into human-wolf hybrids and strip them of their humanity and rights, lets the majority of her planet live in poverty and work in extremely unsafe conditions and only give them weekly rations that barely sustain them at all, executes people randomly and publicly for little to no reason at times, does corporal punishment and executions of ENTIRE FAMILIES and groups of people for the little actions of a single person that could range from saying the princess is pretty to trying to flee the country to escape infanticide and slavery and poverty

[lucyshypemaster]

evret hayle is MY roman empire.

[princess-levana-blackburn]

Hello Earthens, I am Princess Levana Blackburn. My tutor tells me that in order to understand the blue planet more I must understand the culture as well. In my opinion there is no better way to understand culture than to converse and consume media. I am looking forward to enjoying my time here.

[joemerl]

I just finished The Lunar Chronicles. While reading Winter I amused myself by imagining her saying lines from the Buffyverse's Drusilla.

"Then the moon started whispering to me. All sorts of dreadful things..."

Winter: I'm naming all the stars. Jacin: You can't see the stars, Princess. That's the ceiling. Also, it's day. Winter: (smiles dreamily) I can see them. (frowns) But I've named them all the same thing, and there's terrible confusion...

(to Levana) Bite your tongue! They used to eat! Cake, and eggs, and honey! Until you came and ripped their throats out.

Winter: Do you love my insides? The parts you can't see? Jacin: Eyeballs to entrails, Princess.

(to Konn Torin, while meeting Kai's delegation on Luna) "This one's got cow eyes, big and black. Moooo."

Winter: My papa used to sing me to sleep at night. "Run and catch the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch." He had the sweetest voice... What will you papa sing when they find your body? Disturbed Child: I'm not supposed to talk to people. Winter: Oh. Well, I'm not a person, see?

(to Jacin) "I see you. You're a man surrounded by fools who cannot see his strength. His vision. His glory. That and burning baby fish swimming all round your head."

"Do you know what I miss? Leeches."

And a bonus Buffybot quote:

(meeting Jacin at the dais after his public lashing) "Jacin! You're covered in sexy wounds."

[winterrhayle]

URGENT QUESTION WHAT SHIP DOES MY TEARS RICOCHET BELONG TO

HAHAHAH THIS QUESTION GENUINLY STRESSED ME OUT BC I WAS SO UNSURE BUT I THINK MAYBE EVRET AND LEVANA???!?!? BUT IN THE WORST WAY POSSIBLE

OK SO

the whole song is about the death of a relationship i know evret and levana barely even qualifies as a relationship as its so one sided but u get me

ok so pretend this whole thing is from evrets pov

'and if im on fire youll be made of ashes, too' ok first thing i noticed here is the reference to fire bc thats a recurring theme in tlc and more specifically in fairest, and that lyric is about how the people on both sides of the relationship are hurting eachother - levana hurting evret by manipulating him, forcing him to marry her, stealing evrets dead wife's face, etc etc,, and on evrets side, he hurts levana by not loving her back (what a king i love him sm)

'even on my worst day, did i deserve, babe, all the hell you gave me? cause i loved you, i swear i loved you, 'til my dying day' a huge huge part of evrets character is that he has a big sense of duty and devotion. so when levana forced him to marry her, regardless of his lack of love for her, he did everything he could to make her happy, because thats what he felt his duty as a husband was to do, and throughout fairest, they keep mentioning the vows 'i vow to love and cherish you for all our days' 3 times i think (?) so relating back to the song, its like hes saying, i loved you and cherished you as promised (or did everything an actual loving husband will do) and yet she gave him hell (the reasons stated in the paragraph above ^^^^^ and more) even though he was kind to her LITERALLY UNTIL HE DIED???!?!??!??!? WHICH SHE PLANNED?!??!??!???!?!?! fairest is so wild omg

'and i can go anywhere i want, anywhere i want, just not home' this ones simple, evret literally cant go home back to his normal life with just his daughter to mourn his wife's death because levaNA FORCED EVRET TO MARRY HER RIGHT AFTER

'and you can aim for my heart, go for blood, but you would still miss me in your bones' theres 2 ways you can take this, the literal way : bc levana got evret assasinated, she literally did aim for his heart and go for blood in a murdery way, but i think the more metaphorical interperatation works better: levana aimed for his heart, as in, she aimed for the one alive person evret cared about the most, aka winter. by killing evret and leaving herself as winter's only family, levana is hurting winter, and this hurts evret (but like hes dead so he doesnt know that but it still works)

this also relates to the last line of the bridge 'and when you cant sleep at night, you hear my stolen lullabies' winter being the stolen daughter, the daughter she took from evret and solstice, aka the 'stolen lullaby' :

and all throughout winter (the book not the person), its like levana is haunted by evret through winter's (the character) existence, as she looks so much like evret and reminds levana of him AND because winter is more beautiful than levana without needing glamour, so when levana sleeps at night, she'll be thinking about her jealousy of winter (when she cant sleep at night shes hearing evret's stolen lullabies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) i'll admit this one was kinda a stretch but it works in my head

the pendent that evret gives levana on her 16th birthday is a metaphor thats talked about multiple times in the book

at what levana thought was the start of their 'relationship'

when she realises evret never loved her and the pendent (the sympathy and gesture) was evret's wife SOLSTICE'S idea (his one true love <333333 i love sol sm)

the pendant thing is summed up here ^^^^

the pendent is also present in evret's death scene, so the line in the song 'you wear the same jewels, that i gave you as you bury me' are literally true

anyway this is easily the most incoherent post ive ever written so sorry about that ~~~~

this has been a levana hate post !!!!!!! and there probably are many more to come

[darkcrowprincess]

Levana's fantasies sound depressing but relatable. The bad thing is that she forced her fantasies to be real and against the will of someone else's wants. I know it's tempting to wish you can make someone you love love you back. But it isn't really real, and it's horrible. Your forcing someone to love you, isn't real love. I honestly don't think Levana really loves Evret. At least not by the end. I think she loves the idea of him. Of someone really loving her. Of having a family and a loving husband. Which growing up Levana lacked.

[deadlynightshadeunderthestars]

Fairest Discussion (some triggering topics will be discussed, and spoilers)

So I have to say, this is one of my favorite books in TLC... And probably one of my favorite prequels.

I still hate Levana.. Which is unusual when I read villain back stories, because usually I feel bad for them, although I don't condone their actions.

I loved how the story showed how horrific Levana was, and how her choices led to her own demise.

With Evret, Levana could have been his friend. Just his friend, instead of manipulating him, abusing him, and going as far as rape him. But Levana doesn't choose that-- she chooses to be manipulative and use her glamour.

Levana could have been a royal who actually empowered her people-- by showing her physical scars and showing that it's not physical appearance that matters but a good character. She could have been a fair queen regent, and a maternal figure for Cinder (Princess Selene) instead of assuming she would be a vapid brat and torching her as a toddler. In fact, she could have guided Selene, and her influence would be far more present than if she was actually queen. She could have been a friend to Winter, too. In other words, Levana could have used all the pain and all she went through to be stronger, and spread TRUE love. Heck, she could have found someone who loved her instead of having to abuse poor Evret.

But Levana doesn't choose it. And I love how the story portrays that with every bad action she chooses her life gets worse. How it doesn't really excuse what she does just because of the parental neglect or her sister's cruelty.

Just some thoughts

[ikosburneraccount]

just a reminder that winter hayle blackburn is blasian. solstice is canonically south asian/indian and evret is black. you know who else is half indian/half black? kamala harris. 

[linh-cindy]

Ooh happy Father’s Day to all your dads!!!! And to Evret Hayle, Garrison Clay, Emperor Rikan, Dr Erland, Linh Garan and uh Cinder’s mysterious dad for bringing her into this series!

[impossiblesuitcase]

Okay this is weird, but if Levana DID have a biological child, do you think they would be evil like her, or would it be like Cinder's case, where she wasn't like Channary?

If the way she treated Winter is any indication, I don't think Levana would do a very good job of raising a child. As with how she treats Evret, she would be manipulative and obsessive even if she loved the child.

Here's the crux of the matter--she truly wanted Evret. As disturbed as her desire was, she did love him. She claims to want a child of her own, but it's evident that it's a fabricated desire. She merely desires a child so she can one-up Solstice. We know that because she glamours herself as Solstice and strokes the pregnant belly, clearly wanting to usurp her as Evret's wife. She believes that having a child is the only way Evret will truly love her because of her delusions that he would love her own child more than Winter ("her child would be better").

This indicates that she doesn't actually want a child. She wants to be loved more and completely by Evret. So if she got that child, and Evret obviously didn't love Winter any less, she may start to resent the child and blame them for not bringing her the love of their father. She could realistically end up neglecting the child.

If Evret is still alive to raise them, they might have some of the compassion of Winter. However the politics of Artemisia would mess them up as they would be in direct contact with it as the heir (Winter had more exclusion as she has no royal blood).

In Cinder's case, she didn't end up like Channary because she was removed from the environment. Even with Channary dead, she would still be messed up if she grew up on Luna because she was mostly neglected. Fairest mentions that little Selene had "hair too frequently uncombed", connoting that other than her Nannies and playdates with Winter, she was without true care and connection.

[eerna]

I haven’t drawn any Fairest content in 3 years, which is a crime on this blog, so here have some effed up royal family shenanigans everyone

[counting-stars-gayly]

I’ll never be over the trope of “villain who originally had good intentions but could never shake their worst qualities or get their priorities straight”.

[princess-levana-blackburn]

If I trip down these stairs, surely Evret will come catch me.

[justmesofi]