#i may make this a series of sorts

[bayofwolves]

Rereading Hunted

I'm doing my first reread of Spirit Animals in years, in preparation for starting my rewrite and the final fourth arc, and to my delight I'm discovering a lot of things that went over my head as a younger reader. I finished Hunted today, and wanted to talk about some of the more interesting things I noticed -- character details, plot holes and creepy implications. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book so much, but I've found it tickled my brain just the right way.

So, here are some highlights from my reread -- stuff even I didn't pick up on before.

Please mind the tags as there is a brief mention of rape near the bottom of this post.

Conor looks to be strawberry-blonde on this cover, not golden-blonde as he's described in text. I feel like it suits him.

The war has actually been going on for a while, probably since well before Wild Born. Finn was fighting Conquerors when his brothers were massacred, and it's unlikely that event was recent enough to have taken place during Wild Born. There is also a moment in the first book when General Teng speculates that the Conquerors who are laying siege to Jano Rion entered the city over a period of years in order to avoid suspicion. It would be interesting if the authors tied this in more efficiently, and our protagonists had been living in an active war when they summoned the Four Fallen. This opens up a plot hole, though: the Conquerors operate under Shane, and because Shane is 13 when he mobilizes his people for war in The Book of Shane, the events of the main series must have started quite soon after this. Abeke mentions he's only a little older than she is in Wild Born; since Shane is already 13, he couldn't have been waging war for a few years before this.

The only background I could find for Kunaya's name is that it is of Zimbabwe origin and means "rain". Notice the connection? Abeke is a Rain Dancer.

Rollan mentions that his father is dead, in a way that suggests he knew him. This seems to have been retconned in Fire and Ice, as his father plays no part in Aidana's retelling of their past as a family. Indeed, he is never brought up again after this instance in Hunted.

The Earl of Trunswick was burning bodies. Our protagonists notice something off about the bonfire burning outside Trunswick, with Abeke and Meilin specifically noting its unpleasant smell. And most tellingly, when Conor and Rollan are captured, the Earl tells his soldiers to "burn the body with the rest" if Conor does not put Briggan into passive state. Who exactly the Earl was burning is not entirely clear, but a possible clue comes from a later chapter where he threatens Finn after the breakout from the Howling House. "Don't worry, Finn Cooley! We'll burn that troubled bond out of you yet!" he says. I'm inclined to believe the Earl was burning the bodies of spirit animals with the bonding sickness -- in a twisted attempt to cure their human companions, or merely to torture them further. It's possible he was burning human corpses too; Isilla the Greencloak is mentioned to have been killed, and I get the sense he wouldn't have treated her body with respect. In any case, this is a crazy thing to heavily imply and then never fully explain.

Tahlia is noticeably older than the other three kids. She even takes offense to being referred to as a child by Zerif. (In my rewrite, with the other three being around 13, I think I would place her at 18.)

Tahlia's entire existence doesn't make much sense -- she's supposed to be bonded to the Stetriolan legend of the water-holding frog, but this legend isn't even mentioned in the third arc when our protagonists go scouting for these same legends' bond tokens. Instead, it is replaced by Zhong's water dragon. Additionally, why would Stetriol even need a hero to inspire them? They already have Shane. They're the birthplace of the Conquerors -- what more inspiration do they need? It would make more sense if Tahlia was Zhongese and bonded to a water dragon, like Song's Seaspray. After all, if any nation needed someone to sway them to the Conquerors' side, it would be the fallen Zhong.

Ana, the Amayan girl with the Gila monster, was chosen to be a part of the False Four for her "exceeding connections". This makes me wonder if she was intended to be related or otherwise close to the Prime Minister of Amaya. It's never revealed what Zerif meant by this and Ana presumably dies in Fire and Ice.

The False Four in general are a really interesting (and promising) concept and I wish more was done with them. I wanted to see them rallying the four nations to the Conquerors' side and creating more of a threat to the Greencloaks! I wanted to see each of them directly paralleling the True Four! Instead, they all ended up incarcerated, insane or dead by the fourth book. Ah well. That's what my rewrite is for.

The absence of Lady MacDonnell is noted, but never explained. Interestingly, Rollan notices this in the same breath as he does Lord MacDonnell's children being so rigidly obedient. Considering Lord MacDonnell's character, I'm willing to bet he had his wife executed or otherwise removed for some transgression she made. After all, one of the Three Undeniable Truths is "death".

Lord MacDonnell is a really terrible guy. Despite aiding our protagonists in this book and The Evertree, he is a nasty person who keeps his own people in a permanent state of fear. This book is full of despicable characters, for sure.

What were Devin and Karmo intending to do with Abeke? And why her? Because of her connection to the Conquerors, I'm guessing. But it's never really explained. They tell her they're taking her back to Nilo, but there's no way they would just kindly take her home and let her go. Maybe the Conquerors planned to give her the Bile and then use her in some scheme. I wish this book wasn't so vague (but I also don't because it gives me more freedom as a writer).

Devin calls Abeke "vermin" in the final battle. Interestingly, Karmo doesn't seem to approve of this comment. In fact, Karmo is a lot more sympathetic than I remembered.

This is the only first arc book that Shane doesn't appear in, and for no apparent reason. I think it would have been a good choice to include him and plan to in my rewrite.

Finn has PTSD. Poor guy. I kind of like that he didn't return to Greenhaven at the end and instead stayed in Glengavin -- after all, it was the Greencloaks and their talk of destiny that led to Finn's brothers being killed, Donn retreating and Finn being so deeply scarred.

The Earl seems to threaten Conor's mother with rape in the foreboding letter he sends. I've seen several people discuss this. He tells Conor his family will starve if he doesn't hand over the Iron Boar, "and the fate of your mother will be far crueller". It's a chilling implication, and certainly a choice to include in a children's book.

Overall, Hunted is dark. For that reason, it's become one of my favourite books in the series. Beautiful cover, great writing, cool new guy introduced, failure for our protagonists and an epic cliffhanger. This one is a gem.

This is part of an ongoing series.

Wild Born | Hunted | Blood Ties | Fire and Ice | Against the Tide | Rise and Fall | The Evertree

Immortal Guardians | Broken Ground | The Return | The Burning Tide

Heart of the Land | The Wildcat's Claw | Stormspeaker | The Dragon's Eye

Tales of the Great Beasts | The Book of Shane | Tales of the Fallen Beasts

[annasvinyl]

Day 30 in the loony bin. Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone. Saccharine wank. Don't worry. I haven't gone the full mental. It's still a terrible poem, and Four Weddings is still a fucking awful film. What was it you said, Costello? "The world is a vile place, and neither Richard Curtis or W. H. Auden will ever change that." I hope to see you soon. And I hope you and Iris are okay. I let you down, and I'm sorry. And right now, I can't reach you, and it's fucking terrifying.

Rain Dogs (2023-)

[bogslob]

Why is finding blue food so hard.

It literally took me two weeks to find snacks.

[hemulenish-hijinks]

Tanoshii Mumin Ikka, episode 61: “Moomin's the Fortune Teller”

[ace-succo]

Small stick figures doodle to celebrate my dear friend jonathan harkers job journey (it cannot possibly go that bad)

[whump-kitty]

"What's your name?" Darius asks offhandedly while reading the newspaper, as Allison is setting the table.

"My... my name? Well, you usually call me Allison." Allison stops moving as they ponder the question, clearly surprised.

"I know I do, pet, but is that your real name? Do you even remember what it was?" Darius seems pretty amused, peering at them expectantly above their newspaper.

"I..." Allison trails off, looking somewhat panicked now. "Am... am I supposed to? I-I mean even if I try, I just... can't..." they laugh nervously as they finish setting the table.

"No... I suppose you're not, your old name is unimportant by now anyways, as it's not like you need to listen to it anymore" Darius seems even more amused, smirking, and he pats the top of their head, leaving Allison to their thoughts and the panicked realization that they don't seem to remember anything from their life before meeting him.

[bizarre-bullshit]

desire to make ask blog for or show off OC vs the fear people are gonna think I'm fetishmining

[chronomally]

I'm rewatching The Birdcage and there's something about the like incisive satire of queer comedies from the '90s that are so thoroughly unconcerned with the feelings of cishet audiences

[slimynematode]

every time i see a nail or screw on the floor im like shittt i should pick that up and then i get sad that i don't IVE MISSED SO MANY😭😭😭😭

[storybook-souls]

before i get to the book asks: i was tagged by @gideonthefirst for 9 no-skip albums! this was hard for me. partly bc when i'm listening to an album i don't actually skip songs and partly bc even albums i really like there's usually at least one i'm just kinda meh on. but these 9 i really think i stand by all the songs. sorry patd is on there but i had to follow my heart

for other people to do it ummmm @oberon-miranda-titania? @ratgirlianthe? @hoot-h00t? any of you feel like doing 9 albums?

albums are: Some Nights by fun., A Badly Broken Code by Dessa, Gone Now by Bleachers, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out by Panic! at the Disco, Boreas by The Oh Hellos, HARDLOVE by NEEDTOBREATHE, Pure Heroine by Lorde, Sigh No More by Mumford & Songs, and Transcendental Youth by the Mountain Goats

[nostalgia-tblr]

did i mention here the SHOCK REALISATION that sylki fic is often about Loki emotionally supporting Sylvie and lokius fic is often about Mobius supporting Loki, so if you combine those it seems fandom has an overall heirarchy of How Fucked Up Everyone Is and it goes:

Mobius >> Loki >> Sylvie

There are a few conclusions we could draw from this, mine is that I feel so very sorry for the hypothetical character that fandom would consider fucked up enough to need to be emotionally supported by Sylvie D: THAT POOR BLORBO D: D:

[astriiformes]

Now that I'm finally working my way through the books I've mentioned to a couple friends that I think it would be fun to do a Locked Tomb cosplay, and they have in turn immediately looked at me and gone "Ah, yeah, you would make a great Palamedes"

And like they're not wrong, I am a generic nerdy-looking guy with glasses already equipped and definitively built more like a necromancer than a cavalier (alas), and they're also not wrong in assuming he's one of the characters I like enough to consider, because of course I do

But

As much as my dysphoria often dictates my cosplay choices, I also have what I am pretty sure is an unhealthy dose of plain old dysmorphia over being so small and scrawny and generally frail-looking, and also am really on a roll with my emotions about characters who are So Incredibly Mentally Ill lately, so there's a part of me that's actually like. Listen. What if..... Harrow.

Much to consider.

[trainingdummyrabbit]

see the thing that i like so much about ruina so far is that it doesnt feel like its telling you to do something. like, specifically, it presents characters in situations, and reveals how they handle it. and afterwards... its just over. theyve simply done what they had to. theres never really any "ah, they were Flawed because they did This, so instead of doing That you should take This lesson from it." characters just... Are, and Do. theres no heavy urge to chamge the way you think, for lack of a better description. rather, it places down concepts and leaves it there, giving space for Thought rather than Explanation.

even with cut ins of angela and roland doing their own commentary-- it's never really presented as a You Should Take This Concept From This, but rather as... them Also figuring it out. because Everyone in the cast is just... odd, messy, flawed-- human. you can take away the same thing they do, or not. because everyone just does what they think is right, and deal with the consequences of it. it doesnt matter. things just move on. theres something refreshing about it.

[ofyorkshire]

...oh my stars

i don't know if it was intentional, but repetitively referring to bj as "ziggy stardust" in the red riding novels completely foreshadowed bj's death.

[pandoa]

unforgivable that I forgot this lol I got curious about two titles from your wip reblog: "blossom in the heart" and "chase me if you can" (also "ctrl z" but maybe it's a Idia request so, no need to explain if I'm right)

lowkey I'm doing my best Sherlock power here to figure it out which one is that last request I did lol

bye bye ♡

lol it's perfectly fine! all is well, no worries, cherry~

as for "blossom in the heart", it will actually be my first fic that will feature RSA/Neige LeBlanche! with a mix of fluff and angst, this fic will be focusing on a love triangle between niege, vil, and the reader. the "blossom" part of the title will refer to the hanahaki AU setting i want to write this in. pomefiore and VDC angst will always strike my heart in some way, so writing this will be very exciting for me~ not telling who in this fic will be affected by the hanahaki disease though; that will be a surprise for when i write this~

"chase me if you can" stemmed from my love for rook hunt hehe. the main idea of it all is that mysterious (but amusing) pranks have been played on the Pomefiore dorm, so vil asks rook to chase down this prankster to end the jokes once and for all. rook has a nagging feeling that it is actually the reader who is playing these pranks, but the huntsman lacks real evidence to prove that it's the reader. rook is captivated by the chase with his hunter instincts being turned on lol and tries to catch the reader in the act (think like a teasing rivalry of mystery for this one lmao)

"ctrl + z" does indeed focus on idia~ but it's not anyone's request—just an idea i have~

[nodominion]

Another version of me would post an insane comparison of Dune (2021) and Interview with the Vampire (2022), because as a fan of both book series, and having been hype for both forms of media to launch, it’s clear that one leader (Denis Villeneuve) cares about the source material, and another (Rolin Jones) doesn’t.