#madoc you are nothing

[starrynightsxo]

madoc annoyed that night because he didn't think of the idea to "consume small doses of poison to build tolerance so poisoning one's enemy would leave no room for failure" first

[bellarkeex]

TCP:

QON:

looking like a knight to those that matter <3

[lunarzs]

I don't think Oak exactly understands that he's Dain and Liriope's child, and was raised by Oriana, Heather and Vivi, and not Cardan and Jude's lovechild. Boy, you do not go spying and manipulating and murdering in one breath and being 110% a simp for your monstrous love interest that terrifies you the next, you've got the wrong people.

[darlingod]

Jude in QoN: “Of course it was a trick” That’s what you said.

Cardan:

[righteousenjoymentofthunder]

i forgot how unhinged and plot heavy tcp is. like literally jude is sleep deprived and STRUGGLING and waiting for a moment to just sit down and process everything. its really fun and kind of fast-paced but most importantly ITS FUN TO READ. go read tcp if you havent already and like/want to get into reading ya. (gonna add the disclaimer that this book is like, REALLY background with the main romance of the series. the romance isn't even a subplot. the romance present in the book is, well....)

this video is cool to watch, at the very least. helps you sift through the action of the book if you're struggling with that.

[viivdle]

madoc: how tf did you know which one i'd pick???

jude: i didn't, poisoned them both

madoc:

[bubblesandpages]

Say what you will but “Fae general’s human wife fakes her and his heir’s death to marry a mortal man, and have twins only for the fae general to find out years later and is honor bound to  kill both her and her husband (in front of the kids), and ooops, looks like he’s got three kids now! Yeah their mum betrayed him and all, but still they’re her kids, and he’s subsequently honor bound to raise them, and now we get to see the mess one of the younger kids makes in an effort to become part of the country she was spirited away to, murder and blackmail updates at ten” is infinitely more gripping than “tiktok’s 5th most hyped read, enemies-to-lovers, Yass Queen extravaganza of the decade” will ever be.

[skullywullypully]

You know if Madoc hadn't killed the girls' parents, then the dude probably would've had the throne.

[sweetvillainjude]

My roman empire is when Jude pretended to be Taryn in order to testify and how she fooled even her foster father and mother that she was her twin, but Cardan knew from the MOMENT he saw her that it was Jude. He had no doubts, no illusions, not for one second. He just immediately knew it was her.

Jude, you can’t really think I don’t know it’s you. I knew you from the moment you walked into the brugh.

[eerna]

Omg I didn't think you would respond so quickly. Thank you! As a follow up, Jude was taken by the Undersea, right? Locke knew this would take place since the Ghost (who he was controlling) was involved in the kidnapping. I assume Locke and Nicasia (along with her mother) worked together to make this happen. This was way before Jude threatened him. So do you think Locke helped plan Jude's kidnapping as a way to get a reaction out of both Cardan and Taryn? Could it also be because Jude wasn't down for Locke's games which we see at the end of TCP when Locke tried to give a flimsy apology and make amends (I assume he wanted to continue his "story" with Jude)

P.S. This is my last question. I just love reading meta lol. I'm always trying to understand them better.

P.P.S. I think you're very good and skilled at analyzing characters' relationships. It's why I'm here lol. Also, I love your artwork <3

You timed it well for my morning tumblr scroll! And aaawwww thanks, glad you enjoy it~ Drawing and being opinionated are def two of my fav things to do, always happy to talk more about stuff I like!

Ok for this topic I am not the right person to ask because I subconsciously ignore it ever happened. Here's the thing about the Ghost. He's one of the shakiest parts of the series to me because there isn't much foreshadowing or a clear setup for any of his twists, so it feels like HB just throws him into the mix whenever she needs to stir something up out of the blue. And boy does his QoN reveal stir something up out of the blue, because suddenly Locke is no longer just a shit-stirrer antagonist (like Asha, Valerian, and Taryn) but an actual scheming power-grabbing one (like Madoc, Orlagh, and Balekin). Sorry HB, but if Locke REALLY helped plan the kidnapping, why the hell was he playing horror movies with Jude the night before??? What was he gonna do, axe her down in the middle of the woods hoping she wouldn't die or be too badly hurt when his plans hinged on her being alive and capable of visiting the Tower of Forgetting the next day???? And yeah, what does he get out of conspiring with the Undersea??? It's not like he can brag about his role in this situation, but in every other one of his schemes he NEEDS people to know what he did and how cool and important he is. It makes way more sense to me that he was bummed Jude rejected him and didn't allow him to bully her or Cardan anymore, so he decided to maim/kill her on impulse as his stag night activity, and he gave Taryn the earrings as a message to Jude to stay out of his marriage (and to brag). And so Locke's QoN betrayal seems to be written into the book because the Ghost needed a reason that would redeem him for the crazy stuff he did in TWK.

So yeah sorry that this answer is none of the "why" and all of the "why not".

[ackerbabezzz]

Somebody said Taryn was the Sansa to Jude’s Arya and now I wanna throw up

[slumbering-shadows]

onLY THE C R O W N CAN PARDON YOU

jude

JUDE

"I'm starting to think he messed up with that wording"

J U D E

[blessedchaosgod]

no but i will never get over Jude being a fucking spy and not figuring out that Cardan might just genuinely have feelings for her? Like i know he confessed and everything in the first book but in the second book when Cardan makes the worst deals with Orlagh to get Jude back she's like "Why would he do that? He must have a wicked plan or something. Why didn't he leave me to die at the bottom of the ocean? Is he mad?" I was like NO BITCH HE CARES ABOUT YOU TAEK A HINT

[neil-gaiman]

Hey Neil! I am currently writing a paper for one of my cultural studies seminar about The Sandman comics at uni. I’m focusing on the story of Calliope, specifically the changes made from the comic to the Netflix adaptation, and the reasons and meaning behind them. I have a few question regarding some changes and figured I would just try to get an answer from you personally. I would really appreciate it:) Thanks!

1. Why did you change Madoc into not knowing what the ‘gift exchange’ with Fry entailed? Did he really not know he was ‘getting’ Calliope?

2. Going further, he actually tries to woo her in ways that he sees fit in the beginning (gifts), only after getting pressured by his manager he ends up assaulting her (off screen). In the comic he immediately knows what to do and assaults her, which is graphically shown to the reader. What made you change this?

3. Madoc considers himself a “feminist writer” in both comic and the Netflix show, but the Netflix episode expands on this aspect of his character (at least 50% of the crew on the set has to be women and people of colour). Can you shed some light on why this was done?

4. In the comic Morpheus seemingly comes unprovoked once he is freed from his imprisonment, while in the show she actively realises he is free and calls for him. There is a very impactful change in the dialogue happening in the scene:

In the comic it’s:

Calliope: “They…they told me that you had been imprisoned. Just like me.”

Morpheus: “They spoke the truth. I was imprisoned. But, as you can see, I am free now.”

while in the show it goes as follows:

Calliope: “They told me you had been imprisoned just like me.”

Morpheus: “Not like you - my suffering was nothing compared to yours.”

What inspired this change?

5. At the end of the story, Calliope is freed and appears with Morpheus. There’s a very specific detail to this scene in the Netflix adaptation that caught my attention. Morpheus lets Calliope walk outside of Madoc’s house before him, and the episode ends with the camera on Calliope walking outside, while the comic has Morpheus disappearing before her eyes after saying goodbye. The last panel of the story is Madoc. Why is this different in the Netflix adaptation?

6. In the Netflix adaptation Calliope is always wearing a nude-coloured night gown, instead of being mostly naked like in the comic. Is there a specific reason for this, other than perhaps restriction from Netflix’s side?

The answer to all of the questions is, because it's television being made in 2020 and not a comic being made in 1989. Does that help?

[inlovewithquotes]

“Madoc says you will duel for love,” I say.

“Whose?” He asks, frowning.

There is no banquet too abundant for a starving man. I shake my head.

“It’s you I love,” he says. “I spent much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as thought I didn’t have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.”

-The Queen Of Nothing

[aaal-iz-well]

okay, so i had some ideas for jurdan fics, but nothing concrete, and i thought your response would help me solidify stuff, so here we are:

Cardan and Jude are in a secret relationship where Cardan sneaks into Jude’s house under Madoc’s nose and vice versa, and all the fun is in the sneaking!

They have a rivals with benefits relationship. and at the start Jude asks Cardan to swear that he wont hurt her, and cardan is offended that she would think that he’d be so low and says that if anyone is in peril of being harmed, it’s him, and isn’t that a shame because he can’t get a swear that can be depended upon from Jude.

So in this one, after cardan really outdoes himself in troubling her, he is frustrated that jude doesn’t PAY ANY MIND TO HIM AT ALL. and when he's wallowing in his pity, it will occur to him, that he's seen the way jude looks at him, and that has to be something, but he figures that the reason she isnt interested is because she's mortal, and so cardan has to do stuff that (apparently) appeals to them. So he’ll read bodice rippers to learn the steps to seduce mortals, and he’ll try to be like all alpha male and find occasions to pin her to the wall and all that stuff but jude just thinks something wrong with him, but god, does he look.... (writing this down, i realised it sounds kinda serious, maybe, idk, but in my head it all looks so funny)

Cardan is a magician in the mortal world (he just uses glamour), people come to see him because his sleight of hand is just impeccable and also because my man is GORGEOUS, and like just to stare at him, and Jude attends one of his shows, and maybe inadvertently wearing one of the spells against it, or something, and wasnt caught by security, and something after that.

anyways, what'd you guys think of them. feel free to add suggestions and specific scenes in different scenarios that pop into your mind!