#gideon called him sex pal as a joke but she had actually been right

[liesmyth]

I actually was sooo surprised by Palamedes missing Harrow!! Sometimes it feels like Muir retconned the fact that it’s GIDEON who made friends, because she is almost never missed and in Nona it’s obvious that they were waiting for Harrow to wake up.

Like Kiriona makes Sex Pal joke and the characters don’t act relieved or sad, and overall act like they don’t care for her even when it’s so evident that Gideon cares and is happy to see Palamedes in Nona, but Pal misses Harrows frown? For real? What’s up with that?

It feels very like “she is not a necromancer so Pal doesn’t care as much and Cam is not really in the place to care about anyone because of the horrors”, but that’s not who Palamedes is. Can definitely liked Gideon a lot. I feel like Muir herself sort of maybe actually contributes to that thing that “Harrow is overrated” anon is talking about.

Harrow is great, don’t get me wrong and I loved how Muir wrote her mental illness, but also Harrow never faces consequences of her being a major bitch if you know what I mean. Harrow acts horrible to most people that she meets, excluding like John who is literally a God. And yet she is treated like the most precious beloved by the other characters. Which is fine but also maybe a lot? Like she is also gods favorite??? And the Earth thinks that she’s special? What else? Should The Universe appear and kiss Harrows ass also?

It’s just not that balanced, I think. Like some of these people were supposed to show preference to Gideon over Harrow on the account of the fact that it was actually Gideon who made friends with them while Harrow was burning herself out and being horrible to everyone.

(ok this is in reference to this other anon from 2 days ago before I was consumed by sanremo blogging)

LOVE ME A JUICY CONTROVERSIAL TAKE. Ok, so.

Ooooh, the "I miss Harrow terribly" line! I thought it felt very #meta. You're right that Palamedes was Gideon's friend before he was Harrow, and they really barely interacted, but in HtN he was absolutely overjoyed to see her. He spent months trapped in the River bubble and she was the one who gave him the opportunity to communicate with Camilla and return to the world. I think that retroactively made him fonder of Harrow than he might have been otherwise. Also, I think that taking care of Harrow's body for six months and seeing Nona behave so differently and carefree played a part, too. Like, I don't think that line was completely random, but I think it was there also to be a wink to the readers.

Team Pal not missing Gideon! You're RIGHT on this one. I think Kiriona's appearance really threw them off; Camilla had just fought a duel nearly to the death to get a chance to steal Gideon's body and then! surprise! Gideon's body is walking and talking and calling herself a Prince of the First House, and she's enormously bitter and nowhere as easygoing as they remembered. I think their reaction is understandable; they'd built up Gideon as this friendly, selfless paragon of virtue in their minds, and she wakes up as they're about to draw blood from her dead body and acts thoroughly pissed off. tbh, that's the same reaction many readers had to Gideon's reappearance in NtN, so I get it! It makes sense! It does make me want to hug her though.

On Harrow not facing consequences: I think she does, though? Like, she is miserable for her entire life. She hates herself, she blames herself for her parents’ deaths, she has actively been sucidal. She does make Gideon’s life hell, but frankly even with all of her issues and absolutely abusive upbringing, I think Gideon was less fundamentally unhappy than Harrow was. Yeah, she doesn’t face “narrative” consquences, but I think the fact that she lobotomises herself to preserve Gideon’s soul shows that she knows she owes Gideon a lot.

Also! I’m very curious how Harrow being Alecto’s favourite is going to turn out in AtN. Because John was also Alecto’s favourite, and her love ultimately corrupted him. I’m not sure if being loved by a wrathful deity is necessarily a good thing. And John IMO was genuinely very fond of Harrow, but a lot of that was because she offered him the unconditional admiration and worship that he craves (and didn’t stop him from manipulating her though arguably that’s how John shows affection) (Also. I have a theory that John wouldn’t have liked no-lobotomy Harrow nearly as much).

Not to throw gasoline on the debate fire, but actually some of what you said re: the narrrative idealising Harrow is how I felt about many of the characters in Nona! Cam+Pal and to a lesser extent Pyrrha, who were framed through a very loving POV and were shown to be well-intentioned and loving and as Good as TLT characters get, which is why I’m dearly hoping for that pedestral to shatter in AtN :3

Anyway. IDK if I have a point to this except I really appreciated this ask and it made me Think! thank you :D