#lee sur pallor

[lyssq]

If I had a penny for every book about a boy of noble birth who watched his whole family be killed in front of him and narrowly avoided death himself, ran away and hid in an orphanage before someone unaware of his true identity recruits him into the regime that murdered his family (said regime presents the idea of everyone being equal while in reality being deeply flawed) and now has to work alongside people who would likely kill him if they knew who he really was, I’d have two pennies, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice

[katiifaye]

“Together?”

“Together.”

Lee and Annie walking into the Fête of the Fourth Order from Flamefall, chapter 7. I know it's in the evening but I love sun rays so 💁‍♀️🌟

the Fireborne fanart continues....

Annie sur Aela x Lee sur Pallor

It's also on insta

[luminousdryad]

I feel like The Aurelian Cycle's obscurity in comparison to other dragon-related YA books (*cough* a certain romantasy whose sequel just recently came out *cough*) is partly because it's not heavy on the romance at all, the author almost never describes the more romantic scenes in detail, it's more focused on the nature of the relationships and how the charactere reflect on it

I mean, think about the tropes in Fourth Wing. Enemies to lovers where one's parent killed the other's. War college. Dragonrider military. Politics. The regime hiding secrets. All of these are present in The Aurelian Cycle, albeit with much, much better execution.

Fireborne did start slow, but I feel like that benefited the story. We're introduced to the status quo and established the world–this series is heavy on politics and questioning the government, less so on action and death.

The tropes are present, but not how most mainstream YA normally does them. It's not their lives at stake, it's their freedom, their identity, their values. It understands that death does not necessarily raise the stakes; they could lose more than that. Annie and Lee in technicality are enemies turned friends to lovers, but there's layers to their relationship. Even Power, the bully character, has layers. The Guardian school simultaneously gave and stripped them of freedom, instead of being straightfoward good or evil. It's all complicated, but it all works together to serve the theme of trying. "The point is trying."

I'm upset the series has ended, but I look forward to more of Rosaria Munda's work!

[allaboardthexwing]

its just some of my faves from Fireborne, the first book of the Aurelian Cycle

[let-them-sing-of-others]

claire i'm begging for aurelian cycle art

sorry for the late response I was busy fighting demons (procrastination)

[bookwyrminspiration]

the reason lee and annie weren’t talking to each other practically the whole book is because the moment they started working together again they immediately accomplished like half a dozen tasks everyone else has been fighting tooth and nail for for months to years, that’s so funny to me. munda said guys i need a conflict stop solving things you’re both in time out

[bookcide]

GODSFUCKING DAMMIT POWER

Whyyyyyyyyy

Why did he die?!

I don’t care how much of a conceited ass he was sometimes, I still loved him

Perhaps even a little bit more than lee, but can you blame me? He was there for her every step of the way. When lee was busy snogging cressa’s face off, he was there. When lee was busy lying to her, he was there and just he was there.

But ok fine I did forgive lee for being such a big idiot and I love him to death but power did not deserve what happened to him

And I can’t even talk about it with anyone because no one has read this and if I talk about it, it would be a spoiler and I literally can’t cope up with this.

I just know this is going to live in my head rent free for years 😭😭

[baldjesus]

I made a spreadsheet listing all the characters in the Aurelian Cycle Trilogy. I thought others in the fandom might appreciate having access, so here it is!

[griffsursparker]

so like. throughout the series (especially starkly in Fireborne I think) the people around them (both those who know Lee's identity and also those who don't) very much tend to view Lee as superior and Annie as inferior. Lee is the one who 'deserves' to win firstrider, and Annie is the one encouraged to throw the tournament. and obviously none of this is anything new, it's right there in the text, but what i'm really fascinated by is the realization that like... I feel like you'd assume that the way they view themselves would echo these sentiments, but if anything, I think it ends up being the opposite

there are, of course, times when they slip into these ways of thinking about themselves. Annie starts to doubt herself after receiving the note suggesting she's not suitable for firstrider. actually, Annie doubts herself a lot—I don't think that negates this, though, I just think it's why she's still likeable despite this sense of superiority she has, because there's always shades of grey with this series. but anyways, then of course Lee also definitely does sometimes fall into thinking things like how he deserves firstrider because he was born to it. however. they both stamp these thoughts down and don't let them take over!

it's certainly not that Annie never thinks poorly of herself or that Lee is never prideful, but because of their backgrounds, those are the traits they refuse to let themselves be defined by. and I think they succeed at that, maybe more than they always even realize. Annie's self-doubts and Lee's pride end up being very secondary parts of their characters; things that pop up and cause them issues on occasion, but things that ultimately are not what they fundamentally believe about themselves

in Lee's case, it feels very much like a lingering echo of his family's values (reinforced by Julia's rhetoric in Fireborne), not a true reflection of how he feels. ultimately, he's able to admit to himself that he got where he is today largely because he was raised to it. he knows he's good at being a guardian not because of some inherent quality in him but because he has the training (both from before the revolution and his guardian training). i think deep down, Lee feels like he doesn't deserve this. he feels like he's here because he's benefiting from his family's awful legacy more than he is because of any merit of his own. this ties into his Flamefall arc too I think—he has a few reasons for it of course (like feeling betrayed by Atreus), but I do think it's very crucial that because he does not feel he is here because he just naturally deserves it, he is able to question the legitimacy of the metals system

Annie, meanwhile, has a much harder time questioning it, because she is clinging desperately to this idea that earned this. the metals test gave her everything, and so she clings to the idea that it is right and just, because that means she deserves her spot as a guardian. for a while in Flamefall she even starts to slip into looking down on the lower class metals, while Lee is increasingly siding with them instead

I do think Annie's arc maybe gets a little more complicated in this regard. she does, of course, spend much of Furysong feeling like a failure. I'm not sure it's quite the same as thinking she's inherently inferior, because it's very much based on actions she took, not her inherent character, but it is definitely another layer here, and one I'm not going to go into too much because this post is long enough already holy fuck. I also think her arc in Flamefall really involves an interrogation of her pride that leads to some character growth away from this tendency

overall, I just find it really fascinating the way, although of course there is nuance and character growth, they do tend towards seeing themselves in a way that is quite the inverse of how the people around them see them

you can really see where it comes from with their backgrounds, too, even if it does seem counterintuitive at first glance—because Annie was raised in a world where she was told she inferior, and Lee was initially raised in one where he was told he was superior, they've spent the rest of their lives trying to overcome those narratives, and have ended up overcompensating, in a sense

anyways i'm going to stop rambling now, but this series is just sooooo fascinating and incredibly well written and there are so many layers and i love it so much and i'm going to go scream into the void about annie and lee's character arcs now

[aurelianmusings]

(Spoilers from Furysong below)

I was rereading Power's speech yesterday and I have sooo many thoughts about healing and being oneself and how important role models are for that, so I thought I'd share some of the ones about our three tragic dragonborn figures:

For most of the series, Lee struggles to reconcile the trauma of his family’s death with the acceptance of the regime that caused it. He has to hide his identity and grief, because in the new Callipolis that’s tantamount to approving of the old regime. Atreus shows this in Fireborne: he tries to kill him because he can’t see the loyal Firstrider and the dragonborn’s son in the same person; as soon as he finds out that Lee is Leo, the latter cancels the former. Lee sur Pallor is Leo Stormscourge is the Revolution’s Son, yet society only sees him as three separate figures. Even when the Passi leverage his legacy for their own propaganda they do so as if Leo Stormscourge were a closed chapter of his life. Only Annie understands how his identities intersect, because she knows him so well. She was able to recognize that the wrongness that had been done to her family didn’t justify the wrongness that had been done to his, long before he allowed himself to (thinking of that scene in Fireborne during Atreus’ lesson when Annie argues against Palace Day and Lee excuses it). She lets him talk about his family, sees the boy who shared his food in the man who argues for rations to be fairly distributed, and even gives him his father’s knife.

Sty is the Lee of the new generation: same origin story but with a slight deviation that’s enough to change everything. While Lee only had Atreus as a role model, Sty will grow up with two: Griff, quite literally Sty’s Atreus, who rebelled in the name of a better future and caused the death of his family, except Griff was able to see beyond what Sty was to who he was and spared him, and later became family (to contrast with the scene in Flamefall where Lee ironically calls Atreus a father figure, when he was anything but); and Delo, a dragonborn who rejected the imperatives of blood to follow his heart, proving that birth doesn’t determine who we are.

Which is significant because Delo himself struggled with the lack of that kind of example in his life, and his arc culminates once he finds it. At the beginning of Furysong, he is still contending with his family’s worldview: when he drops Griff he talks about “the wrong type of courage”, when he’s moved by his pain he’s “crying for the wrong reasons”, when the Norcians treat him badly, despite recognizing his role in their oppression, he “might have thought to regret” saving their children from the fire. What pushes him to switch sides once and for all is witnessing Power’s loyalty to Annie. Another dragonborn, a relative even, who’s not ashamed to act against his lineage or to declare his love for a peasant, and in front of Ixion of all people, something Delo never had the courage to do.

It’s the kind of solidarity of thought that Delo had been needing all of his life, that had to come from another dragonborn to truly matter, that Lee also craved from Atreus and never got and would have made all the difference if he had. But Sty will have it from the start. He won’t have to reject his past or repress his trauma to be accepted into the new world. I imagine him as becoming a well-adjusted version of Lee, someone who embraces his roots even while helping Norcia heal from the damages caused by his family.

[kristinen8849]

Did I make Penelope Stormscourge live and become a badass lesbian nurse? Yes. Cue teary reunions 🥲 (New ongoing multi-chapter fic)

[katiifaye]

WIP: Fête of the Fourth Order Lee and Annie

Flamefall, ch. 7

[luminousdryad]

a song I associate with Flamefall AnnieLee is Make Up Your Mind by Florence + The Machine cause of the line "while you've been saving your name, I've been breaking mine for you" because she let the public ruin her name while he was writing in the paper that contributed to the slander

and damn did I feel so bad for Annie for the entirety of that book, which isn't to say she didn't make questionable decisions herself but she literally had NO ONE close to her that she felt she could turn to, she counted Crissa out because "she's Lee's friend first" she had to turn to her childhood bully because Power was the only one validating her concerns (and it made for my second fave dynamic in the entire series 😭)

[daisymylove]

Finished furysong today and what a ride.I'm obsessed.Any fireborne girlies here? Come simp with me

I feel hollow inside, I haven't liked something this much since the Poppy War (but fear not, the Fireborne trilogy is no way near as traumatizing)

Honestly can't fathom how people are raving over that painfully bad fourth wing book when these gems exist.And they precede the aforementioned disaster to boot

I have a few problems with fireborne itself, it has some classic flaws of a debut book, but it's still good.And oh my, flamefall and furysong take it to a whole other level.

Great lgbt and poc rep, outstanding character development, intelligent political plot, many discussions about social justice, a truly feminist book of women helping each other, delicious romances, and a truly badass fmc.All that with ✨ dragons✨

screaming internally in asoaif girly

Anyone that haven't read it should give it a go

Begging the hand of god to not be the only person on Tumblr crazed about it

[miradragoncat]

Lee Sur Pallor Song

!WARNING, SPOILERS FOR ALL OF THE AURELIAN CYCLE!

I just realized what song sums up Lee sur Pallor's character from The Aurelian Cycle by Rosaria Munda (It's my favorite book series, be sure to check it out when you can, it's amazing). I was just vibing to Bad Omens as I do, and when Never Know came on it clicked. I'm rereading the series now, so it makes sense why it would click now and not when I first heard the song. Every lyric in Never Know is perfect for him, and some are very good for Antigone sur Aela as well, but I'm going into Lee's character with this song.

The very first words are, "Show me you're better off without me" . With Lee's conflicting sides with his family in New Pythos and, in Flamefall, the Passi. So he has to leave Annie on her own, although he has in the past like in Albans when they fought, and in the future where he risked his life and ended Pallor's so that she could escape and win.

The second line in the first verse is "Choking on every word you said". The silence between him and Annie of knowing too much about the other and their past, and when they just talked at Annie's old house, where she was choking on her words as it played out. And how they fight a lot, and have to keep their distance and silence to stay focused on their goals. Every time one leaves the other right after they swore to do this together, the other is choking on that promise that has been broken.

The repeating phrase throughout the entire song, "we'll see", is the way nobody knows how things will play out. How conflicted Lee is throughout the books, with his aching for his family, having to just see what Julia is like before choosing his side. With the Passi, how the riots will play out and how him and Annie will do. How many chances he has to get back his old life, with Ixion sur Niter coming to reign and hunting down Annie. He didn't know how it would play out when he was locked in the Big House as it was burnt down. The plan nearly failed, with Pallor's life gone. And the court plan almost failed, with Ixion's gained knowledge of her distant summoning.

"Don't breathe another word about me, I'll leave and you can finally rest in peace, we'll see" is the next two lines in Never Know. I think of how he faked his death, how the world thought that the Revolution's Son had died at the hands of his cousin. Also how he has to let go of his family and past so many times over to finally leave them behind. In Albans, killing Julia, facing Ixion. So many times he abandoned his heritage and family, only for it to catch up with him eventually until there was no family at all.

The pre-chorus is hard for me to do one line at a time, so this is the entire thing, "When I go out into the world, I just don't like what I see, You could call it Paradise, But it looks just like Hell to me" Remember this is repeating and I won't be doing this like 2-3 times. I like how it plays to his need to change the world, through becoming a Guarding, joining the Passi, and helping Annie make a new Guardian and governing system. Others like the Golds and Atreus saw a paradise, while him and the lower classes and lower born guardians only saw hell. And they fixed it, so it became more of a Paradise, though a pure paradise for everyone involved is impossible to get.

The chorus is beautiful to me, and speaks to the very core of him. The first and third lines are, "Lying in between the memories choking me, and". These beautiful words line his character of having so many memories of his past, so many desires conflicting with each other. But he isn't his past, and the present and future won't allow him to ever be that again. These desires make him act compromised by speaking with Julia and pretending to agree with Ixion for so long after he took over for that bit.

The line after that and the last line of the chorus goes, "I don't know which way to go, but I'm okay to never know". This goes with his conflictedness again, he doesn't know whether to choose his nostalgia or the world where he can have Annie, and where the world will stop burning the innocent and the weak. For so long he doesn't know which way to go, and this song represents the middle of his character arch where he is changing sides and ideals so much, breaking Annie over and over to save them both.

The second verse starts with, "Speaking in languages we can't read, No need for you to spell it out for me, for me". |t essentially means that he knows exactly the situation of the world, and doesn't need it spelled out for him to understand, even though it can't be spelled out. He knows the class Irons are starving and the Golds are having parties and feasts, he has lived both of those lives. He knows the class Irons are burning in the flamefalls, he sees it on Cor's face and the ashes of so many people. He knows he has to pick a side, because he can't have his old life and his new one. He can't have his family and Annie.

The third and fourth lines' lyrics are, "Swallowed up and I spit you out, Like a drug that just wouldn't stay down, stay down". This line to me speaks of how many times he had to abandon or hurt Annie and how she felt, like he was spitting her back out. Also how even with his desires, he betrays his family and chooses the side that tried to kill him more than once.

The chorus is all that's left of the song after this, so that's all of my analysis of Never Know by Bad Omens as a Lee sur Pallor theme song. If you haven't yet, you should check out the song and the band, along with the book series. I love all three of them so much, and I'm glad I could make this connection. I know it's a giant word vomit above, but I enjoy writing and I hope you can understand my connection to Lee and Never Know. Have a wonderful day, and know that you are loved and valid!

[muskokafox]

Rosaria Munda's website now has a free download of a new cover for Fireborne, the first in her wonderful, epic YA fantasy trilogy. This way, all three covers of the trilogy can match in theme/style. I really love the original cover of Fireborne, but the new one is pretty too, featuring Aurelian-breed dragons, if i'm not mistaken(?) (I'm almost certain the cover of book two, Flamefall, fratures Stormscourge dragons & that might be a Skyfish on the cover of Furysong?) Also, she has a giveaway, where if you print the new cover, snap a pic & post with the tag #FurysongPostorderCampaign you will be eligible for a limited edition signed sampler, inscribed with a quote of your choice....not too sure what a sampler might be in this context, but i want everything related to this trilogy (& Munda's beautiful writing) that i can get my hands on!!