#inkspell

[not-quite-graceful]

Hey, um… with the whole “Bluejay!Jason” concept… has anybody ever considered it as an Inkheart reference instead of just a play off his name?

Follow me here, and sorry in advance, this turned into a ramble.

In the second book of the Inkheart trilogy, Inkspell, one of the main protagonists adopts a Robin Hood-esque approach to defeating the tyrant king, and adopts the name of ‘The Bluejay’ from famous folk legends and songs written by a beloved poet and often sung by travelling minstrels. He’s -Inkspell spoilers ahead, though this book is unironically older than I am- known for toppling said tyrant’s throne through the binding of a magic book (a recurring theme throughout the series, if you’ve never read it, which you should). He’s a champion among the Motley Folk, who were that world’s equivalent to a travelling circus and also regularly aid him in his quest to topple the Adderhead (the tyrant king mentioned above), and sought to help the poor and downtrodden. The Bluejay is aided and abetted by his family and friends, which include a shapeshifting wife, a daughter with the ability to make anything she reads come true, a fire-dancer who can speak to the flames, and a knife-throwing 'circus' prince with a black bear companion. (They're not called the Motley Folk for no reason, people!)

Now, consider for a moment: Little Jason Todd, in the local library, absolutely devouring the Inkheart series. It's everything a little kid could dream of in a fantasy book! And there's three of these fat books, what more could you possibly want? And he has an excuse to sit in a warm, safe building for a few hours.

Now imagine, Inkspell becomes his comfort book. Of course it does- every kid had one, and I can't imagine an orphan who grew up alone on the streets of Gotham picking anything other than a story about a strange man helping the opressed and downtrodden in a land he grows to call his own with the help of his family- and The Bluejay is an excellent father to his daughter, too, of course Jason pictured himself as part of that family, as whisked away into that world.

And of course, the rest of the series is wonderful too -Inkheart is where it all began, after all, and Inkdeath is the final triumph over evil!-, but Inkspell is a story about becoming. About learning to be more than you were born as- after all, if Mo the simple bookbinder could become the hero The Bluejay, what could Jason the street orphan become?

Maybe, instead of discovering this book in a library, he found it in the trash. And maybe he wondered, as he read it, why anyone would ever want to throw away the tale of Mo the Blujay, of Meggie the Silvertongue, of Resa the brave swift, of Dustfinger the loyal Fire-Dancer? (And maybe the last one took a while to get there, but he did get there! Eventually! And maybe Jason can understand why it took Dustfinger so long to truly come to trust someone again, because trust is a terribly dangerous thing to give to someone, because you can never really know what they'll do with it.) Maybe he read it through without knowing anything about Capricorn or The Shadow or why they feared the man named Basta, because they hadn't thrown away the first book, only the second. Maybe he wept for the death of Dustfinger, at the very end, because he didn't know that Death wouldn't keep him, because they hadn't thrown away the third book.

Maybe Inkspell found its place among his most treasured possessions. Maybe, when he met Batman and Bruce Wayne in one night and his life changed forever, Inkspell came with him, with its familiar story and characters and world and sorrows.

Maybe one of the first things Bruce did, upon seeing Jason reading that same battered old paperback, was to order Inkheart and Inkdeath and leave them in his room. Maybe that was when Jason started to realize that he wasn't going to leave forever.

(Maybe Jason and Dick would play Motley Folk together, because Dick was in the circus and could most certainly throw knives, even if it gave Bruce a heart attack every time he saw it.)

And maybe, after he could no longer have Robin, he remembered that old paperback book, that old story and that old world, and he thought of a new name for himself.

Bluejay, he thought, as he picked up the book that had been his constant companion for so many years. I'll be The Bluejay.

(I don't really know what this is. I saw some Bluejay!Jason art the other day and just started thinking of the Inkheart trilogy and the fact that Jason would absolutely have read it and probably loved it. And then it spiralled.)

[maandarinee]

the Inkheart books ask the important questions: what if you could talk to your favorite blorbo? What if your blorbo thought you suck? What if your blorbo would like to see you dead?

[swugflower]

The difference between Inkheart and Inkdeath are literally insane.

The bad guy in Inkheart is like… a local mafia boss and his handful of cronies. Oh no, he put us in the animal stables and people talk about that he enjoys killing but we don’t ever see it and the worst thing he does is giving Mo a cut on the face and putting people in cages I guess.

The bad guys in Inkdeath, however, are the ruler of the land but also Death herself and we desperately fight against destiny. Every other chapter there’s a fight and people get brutally killed. We are about to scatter Mos fucking kneecaps. Mind torture while experiencing actual torture in the underwater dungeon. Everything is out to kill you but with everything going on death is kinda the least of our worries??

Like boi… that’s full a 180,,,,

[thedoji]

Sketched fellas cause I’m rereading the trilogy AGAIN

Captioned who’s who in this

[heloss423]

Paul was the perfect choice to play dustfinger but in these photos he's exactly how i imagine Capricorn

[silver-words-and-inky-secrets]

Ahh, I almost forgot, but I'd run another Inkworld Appreciation Week this year if anyone would be interested?

[poetic-child-of-night]

You felt like home

In the desolate corridors of solitude, I find myself yearning for the embrace of home. It is a longing that permeates every fiber of my being, an ache that reverberates through the caverns of my soul. For home, I have discovered, is not a place, but a person—a singular soul who embodies the essence of sanctuary.

But now, in the absence of that cherished connection, I am left adrift, yearning for the warmth of their touch and the gentle melody of their laughter. The vast expanse of solitude engulfs me, its icy tendrils tugging at my heartstrings, whispering reminders of what I have lost.

Each passing day seems to carve deeper grooves of homesickness within me. The familiar routines, once shared, now echo in the hollow chambers of my memory. The quiet moments we cherished, the shared dreams we nurtured—they linger like fading embers, casting a soft glow amidst the shadows of my longing.

In the solitary hours, I seek solace in the fragments of our shared experiences—the whispered conversations, the shared meals, the tender embraces. They serve as fragile lifelines, tethering me to a sense of belonging that now feels distant, yet remains etched within the core of my being.

Oh, how I yearn to return to that sacred space of shared dreams, where the symphony of our intertwined souls resonated with perfect harmony. The world, once vibrant and alive, now appears muted and incomplete without the presence of that one person who embodied the very essence of home.

nocturne

taglist : @shyampyari @ma-douce-souffrance @flageblcili @boyfriend-shaped @bakwaaas @soracities @a-really-hot-caterpillar @thoughtkick @hottestdelulugf @saltedlays @noelle-coded @nokhushionlygam @emikadreams @anatomicalheartbreakemoji @a-momentofsonder @bluebed @chaanv @kabhi-kabhi @bakingrecipe @swiggy @vienna-coded @nirmohi-premika @thevebleneffect @the-pappu-that-cant-dance @flageblcili @budugu @aurora-antebellum @poeticallybitter @pratikdherange @chaioticstuff @3-mushrooms-in-a-kurta @chrisevanstrash @opheliadae @bookish-alone

if you wanna be added or removed lmk

[teresafolchart]

if they had tiktok in the inkworld i would fully expect them to post things like this

[peppermintfreak]

Listen. Let me cook. Basta could have Middle Eastern ancestry due to prominent numbers of muslim settlers in southern territory of Italy from the 8th to 13th century. Inkworld is more or less our world but stuck in some weird timeframe of the late Middle Ages/ entering early Renaissance mix up (possibly inspired by the illustrations in the silver book, which is a fairytale) which is when Arabs began making their presence known in Sicily and later elsewhere. Basta's parents could have assimilated or otherwise.

Fair hair and eyes are seemingly the standard in Inkworld (e.g: cosimo, the Piper, Brianna, Capricorn etcBattista's remark about their heroes, and Mo being such a big name despite his outlandishly 'dark as moleskin' hair) Being multiracial or at least different ethnicity is uncommon but not unheard of in Inkworld. Basta's the only one from Inkworld, along with the Prince, to have been tan/or dark-skinned and dark-haired enough to warrant a mention (even though that single tibit of a sentence confirming that was more of an emphasis on Basta's state in the cage). Huge shout-out to that one line in Inkheart where Basta gets so close to Meggie's face she sees her own reflection in his eyes that incited all of this.

[littlebodyinkheart]

Gwin.......................

[a-block-head]

You know who’s great? Cornelia Funke

1) she used to be a social worker that helped kids from deprived backgrounds

2) she wrote several fictional series about children confronting and overcoming adversity in several ways

3) She worked with the UN during their “United Nations Decade on Biodiversity” 

4) she doesn’t use her fame and influence to platform ideologies and people that attack marginalized groups 

Seriously, why don’t people talk more about her? 

[maandarinee]

screaming, rereading Inkspell and Orpheus is "20, 25, idk" according to Farid?????

I first read that book when I was a kid, so my mental image has always been "ah yes, An Adult", but that's full Brat age???

no wonder he's like That aghsjdkd

[ijustkindalikebooks]

“Stories never really end...even if the books like to pretend they do. Stories always go on. They don't end on the last page, any more than they begin on the first page.” ― Cornelia Funke, Inkspell.

[thedoji]

Prince and his bear :)

[heloss423]

the blue jay and the fire dancer 🔥

[laurikarauchscat]

Family

The characters I cared about most in the Inkheart Trilogy

Brianna was treated unfairly by all characters except her parents, and I really wand to fight people on her behalf.

I don't actually care about Farid anymore - he's just here to honor my 14 year old self.

Jehan Jr was cute, and I hope Dustfinger manages to become the father he deserves

Roxane - forest witch in Training

Dustfinger is one of my OG blorbo's. Gwin, of course, is where he belongs.

Nettle - elder forest witch