#i love you gideon nav

[ezramire]

I think some often-overlooked context for gideon's sacrifice at the end of GTN is that, if gideon survives, harrow asked her to return to drearburh.

of course, harrow's plan of I'll-hold-the-lyctor-off-you-and-cam-jump-into-the-sea is dogshit, not going to work etc. of course gideon is a perpetual Good Girl, a butch in shining armor--she's a saint. she's jesus christ. I don’t mean at all to undermine her selflessness, but in her panic i can't help but think the threat of the ninth house made the choice much simpler.

let's go back to the beginning of GTN to the amalgam of everybody's worst hometown:

gideon the ninth, chapter 1

gideon's entire life has been a series of escape attempts. in canaan house her relationship to harrow undergoes a metamorphosis, but behind her is eighteen years of trying--relentlessly--to run from a cold dark place that she is beholden to. (whenever beholden comes up in this series at least 8 alarms go off in my head and i drop whatever i'm holding).

gideon the ninth, chapter 4

I think aiglamene understands drearburh is inherently soul-killing in a way that harrow does not. harrow genuinely loves her house (which, to her, is the Tomb). gideon was never allowed to love the ninth house--it rejected her at every opportunity. harrow, however, threw herself into it wholesale. she had nothing else.

skip to the pool scene. harrow receives absolution and a emotionally charged tender forehead kiss (top 10 lesbian baptisms of all time). they are finally on the same side, out from under drearburh's shadow. they can trust each other. then harrow, with her seventeen years of pining, obsession, and isolation, asks gideon something truly fucking awful:

gideon the ninth, chapter 35

in harrow's mind, the locked tomb (specifically) has served as her reprieve. it is The Thing For Which She Suffers It All, and so it must be good. harrow sees herself as the thing that poisoned gideon, because she IS the ninth house, and she hates herself. I genuinely don't think harrow understands the depth of cruelty in this ask at all. in harrow's mind she is saving gideon and protecting The Body.

and as cytherea bears down on them, harrow reminds her:

gideon the ninth, chapter 37

if harrow sacrifices herself, gideon owes her AND gets abandoned. gideon has to go back and protect the tomb, back to a life she could not bear long before she had ever seen the sea and the sky, before kind-hearted house scions and princesses with swords. the chains would be slapped on. gideon would not get out twice. not even in a box.

gideon can die neatly and heroically, like a protagonist in a comic book—she can save harrow, save camilla, get vengeance for lost friends, carry out the last wish of jeanmarry and isaac, who she so badly let down—or she can live and return to drearburh.

gideon the ninth, chapter 37

gideon the ninth, chapter 37 (final line before the epilogue in harrow's POV).

of course she chooses the fence.

[eskildit]

In a better kinder world. Gideon nav would have been at the club.

[babydarkstar]

honestly no wonder harrow forced ianthe to lobotomize her so she could save gideon. listen…LISTEN…if i was a secret-war-crime cult nunlet princess worshipped by my entire planet and the only person that (barely) kept me in check was my childhood nemesis—a butch a year older than me, towering over me in stature and physical prowess, and so hot it made my teeth hurt from how hard my jaw clenched in her presence, who wielded a two-handed seven-foot sword and had irritatingly huge biceps and told very lewd stupid jokes and also learned how to wield an entirely new weapon and be my bodyguard with startling accuracy in three months—only to have us finally learn to trust each other because we got invited to a magic murder mystery and then before the bubble burst i spilled the worst secret about myself that i was born because my parents murdered an entire generation and tried to Kill Her along with them and she just wouldnt die, and i told her this expecting a swift death i believed i deserved, only for her to fucking cradle me in her big butch arms and kiss me on my forehead with her soft butch mouth and just. forgive me for a shameful weight ive carried my entire life and then MAKE AN ACTUAL NECRO/CAV VOW with me despite every evil thing i have done to her……to have her tell me, in the end, bleeding and broken after putting up the most beautiful and glorious fight of her life, that she understands purpose and she understands duty and she knows loyalty more fiercely than ever now, that she knows who she is to me, that there is no her without me….to have her backed into a corner and make the ultimate sacrifice…..for me…..to recite scriptural wedding vows of eternity to me in her last wisps of soul-consciousness…..if i thought there was even a snowflake’s chance in the pyre that i could save her by turning myself into her very own locked tomb, i’d be begging ianthe tridentweirdius to crack my skull open and turn me to mush too, goddamn. i understand you harrowhark girl you don’t have to explain a thing to me. god said you couldn’t undo the lyctor’s bond bc it’d kill you. you told god and his angels that not even a lyctor’s bond could outshine the power of female spite and lesbianism and they didn’t listen. they didn’t believe you. but i heard you loud and clear and i was 17 and hormonal and hopelessly romantic not too long ago unlike those fucking dinosaurs and i’m saying it’s valid it’s what i would have done and really everyone should be thanking you for not being worse and more wretched about it, all things considered

[mechorrhizae]

I had the uncontrollable urge to animate a skeleton breakdancing so here is Harrow animating a skeleton breakdancing

[nil-elk]

Sometimes you just wanna kiss the girl. 💋💀🌹

[civetside]

hello guys it's me miss consistent art style!!! wrestling AU????? sorry i am smashing my 2 current interests together as ya do, gideons trying to be a cool pro wrestler and harrow is her manager

[wolvesbaned]

the switch in tenses was one of the highlights of this book 💛

[theejaguar]

Imagine killing yourself so a girl you think would never love you will be this super powerful quasi-deity and then turns out the girl loves you so much that she decides to make your death pointless

[brungeons-and-bragons]

Me starting GTN after hearing about it from a friend: NEEEEEEED the bone lesbians to kiss

Me finishing NTN: love is all around me and god needs to die.

[harrowedsoup]

I think one of my favorite genre of Gideon fanart is ‘hey remember that everyone thought Gideon was scary in GtN??? Here is why!’

Because like. Gideon is Scary. We might see all that sad gooey center but Gideon has always been a war machine waiting for her time in the sun. It only takes her, what ? Maybe weeks or a couple months to be one of the best cavalier’s at Canaan? She defeated Magnus in three moves in her robes and weapons she’s unfamiliar with! ( Yes I know Magnus isn’t the best cavalier but the man still had more training than she had at that point) Even though she lost her training match with Naberius Tern it’s even stated that in a real fight she would have won.

I love Gideon to pieces and I really want more love to her darker side: Gideon ‘I love only my sword and boobs’ Nav is the exact same Gideon that almost choked Harrow out at age eleven and later murdered Crux.

[eledsart]

Pacific rim au ft. the love of my life, 69 interactions, and the other love of my life (sad version)

[chimchiri]

It's Harrow and that other one

[spookyscaryfox]

gideon the ninth, epilogue / harrow the ninth, act five chapter 44

TAMSYN. TAMSYN!!!

[procrastinationaccount]

Every part of HtN is the best part to reread With Context. But that moment at the very beginning of the book when she almost gets smothered, Gideon's "Good. Good." when she gets her attacker off of her has me curling into a ball on the floor. It just feels weighty to me. She's so fucking worried about her and she's not even trying to to mask it anymore.

[thebonejunky]

two hundred dead children and Jesus walk into a bar

[civetside]

i FINISHED NONA LAST NIGHT witch means i can finally look at the tlt tags on socials and such without fear of spoilers and i did it i survived (not unharmed my heart is broken and ill never recover)