#septimus heap meta

[chaos-has-theories]

In lieu of anything more creative today, here's an

Incomplete List of Fairy Tale Motifs

in the Septimus Heap books

Snow White: Red as a Princess' tunic, black as a Princess' hair, white as Jenna's fandom interpretation is not. Seven sons/seven dwarves; a Hunter; and a Sorceress as a stepmother. ("Mirror, mirror on the wall, make me 8.2 percent thinner")

Snow White, parte the seconde: The whole motif gets repeated during Physik, when Esmeralda (who specifically looks just like Jenna) has to hide in a cottage somewhere to escape the man the evil Queen is sending after her. Plus Etheldredda gets introduced using a magyk mirror for evil.

Sleeping Beauty: Syrah Syarah, though it feels like the Dragon Boat also gets some of those characteristics. And it's been forever since I've read Darke, but the whole Quarantine and Safety Curtain has something of the bramble hedge and sleeping spell, no?

Red Riding Hood: Red cloak? check. Forest full of wolve(rine)s? check. Family members to visit there? check. Combination thereof? …uh…

Cinderella: "'But what about Aunt Mitza?' 'What about her? I've caught tons of fish. I'm going to cook it - as usual. She's going to eat it - as usual.'" And yes, that makes Ferdie the Fairy Godmother, even if the dress she sews is very much not for Tod.

Rapunzel: Or is it more Maid Maleen? On the one hand, Lucy gets locked in a tower for wanting to marry the wrong boy and spends some time working as a kitchen maid. On the other hand she does have very long braids, and she reunites with Simon out in the Badlands. To my delight that isn't where her association with towers ends: there's always her chimney-building enterprise.

It's been a hot second since I read most of the Sep Heap books, so I'm bound to have missed a few - add them on if you can think of anything?

What I've noticed writing this out is that there is a distinct lack of princes. Simon does sort of take the role of prince to Lucy's Rapunzel, but she very much just runs off on her own and fights her way back to him. And it very specifically does not have women competing with each other in the typical fairy tale sense - Marcia has no motivation to usurp Jenna, since she doesn't need a husband or a throne to have power. Etheldredda wants Esmeralda dead not because she's jealous of her looks, but because she won't need or want an heir if she'll stay on the throne forever.

*points at the Septimus Heap books* I just think they're neat.

[dumbass-duo-showdown]

ROUND 1!

To start, round 1 will take place during 2 days. Both starting at 5pm CET with the first 8 groups on each side, then with the other 8 at 8pm CET. With a break in between group 1 (apple) and group 2 (bapelsin).

We start with most votes, then by fandom. The rest is random

Round 1 - apple, 8/4-2023, day 1

God (bible) vs Reigen Arakata (mob psycho 100), finished

John Silver (treasure planet) vs Donquixote Rosinate (one piece)finished

Garmadon (Lego Ninjago) vs All Might (my hero academia), finished,

Bandit Heeler (bluey) vs Heinz Doofeshmirtz (Phineas and Ferb), finished,

Maes Hughes (full metal alchemist) vs Uncle Iroh (avatar, the last airbender), finished

Bob Blecher (bob’s burgers) vs Professor Utonium (PowerPuff girls), finished

Yosuke Koiwai (Azumanga Daioh) vs Iruka Umino (Naruto), finished

Asura (asura’s wrath) vs Darkwing Duck (ducktales cinematic universe I mean darkwing duck), finished, finished

Hakoda (avatar the last airbender) vs Kaname Date (ai: Somnium files), finished

Sojiro Sakura (persona) vs Ice King (adventure time), finished

Richard Waterson (the amazing world of gumball) vs Dr Venomous (ok ko let’s be heros), finished

Splinter (teenage mountain ninja turtles) vs Kazuki Kurusu & Rei Suwa (buddy daddies), finished

Jotaro Kujo vs Bruno Bucciarati (JoJo’s bizarre adventure), finished

Greil vs Eliwood (fire emblem)

Peony vs Kukui (Pokémon), finished

Seteth (fire emblem) vs Phoenix Wright (ace attorney), finished

Day 2 9/4

Largo the black lion (tales in the abyss) vs David Evans (Inazuma 11), finished

Loid Forger (SpyxFamily) vs Ferid (Suikoden V), finished

Kotestu Kaburagi (tiger and bunny) vs Tim Lockwood (cloudy with a chance of meatballs), finished

Naoki Gotoh (bocchi the rock) vs Oscar Proud (the proud family), finished

Shouta Aizawa (my hero academia) vs Bill Green (big city greens), finished

Dracula (hotel Transylvania) vs Donald Duck (ducktales), finished

Ken Shirashi (project Sekai) vs Sailor Uranus (sailor moon), finished

Skipper (penguins of Madagascar) vs Norisuke Higashikata the 4th (JoJo’s bizarre adventure), finished

red leg Zeff (one piece) vs Sully (monsters inc), finished

Kouhei Inuzuka (sweetness and lighting) vs Geto Suguru (jujutsu Kaisen), finished

Alibert (wakfu) vs Oboro (Suikoden V), finished

Meta Knight (Kirby) vs Senshi (delicious in dungeon), finished

Jades Curtiss (tales of the abyss) vs Gru (despicable me), finished

Pankraz Gotha(dragon quest 5) vs Zenkichi Hasegawa (persona), finished

Keiji Shinoji (your turn to die) vs Kanan jarrus (Star Wars: rebels), finished

Chilchuck (delicious in dungeon) vs Mr Ping (kung fu panda), finished

Bapelsin day 1, 11-4

Eddie Diaz & Evan Buckley vs Bobby Nash (911), finished

Benjamin Sisko (Star Trek deep space 9) vs Dad Egbert (homestuck), finished

Subject Delta (bioshock) vs Damien Bloodmarch (dream daddy), finished

Goldlewis Dickinson (guilty gear) vs Atticus Finch (to kill a mockingbird), finished

Paul Blofis (Percy Jackson) vs Kazuhira Miller (metal gear solid), finished

Gomez Addams (the Addams family) vs Din Djarin (the mandalorian), finished

Hans Hubermann (the book thief) vs Lee Everett (telltales the walking dead), finished

Kiryu Kazuma (yakuza) vs Waymond Wang (everything everywhere all at once), finished

PART 2

Jean Valjean (les misérables) vs Joel Miller (the last of us), finished

Calvin’s dad (Calvin and Hobbes) vs Augustus Aquato (psychonauts), finished

Pyrrha Dve (the locked tomb) vs Dustan Thron (stardust), finished

Neon J (no straight roads) vs Common Wubbox (my singing monsters), finished

Patton Sanders (sander sides) vs Doc Louis (punch out), finished

Alther Mella (septimus heap) vs Riki (xenoblade), finished

Digby Wolf (fables/a wolf among us) vs Bob Cratchit (a Christmas carol) , finished

Petey (dogman) vs Mo Folchart (inkheart), finished

Day 2, 13-4

Alfred (Batman) vs Gandalf (lord of the rings), finished

Asgore Dreemurr (undertale) vs Micheal Bluth (arrested development), finished

Dave Seville (Alvin and the chipmunks) vs Martin Penderwick (the Penderwicks), finished

Anthony Herzen (professor Layton) vs Chimney Han (911), finished

Glamrock Freddy (five nights at Freddy’s) vs Mr Carrisford (a little princess), finished

Poseidon (Percy Jackson) vs bail Organa (Star Wars), finished

Neir Gestalt (Neir) vs Kim Dokja (Omniscient readers viewpoint), finished

Hal Wilkerson (Malcom in the middle) vs Ness’ dad (earthbound), finished

PART 2

Tony Stark (MCU) vs Lee Scoresby (his dark materials), finished

Dream (sandman) vs Kat (all quiet on the western front), finished

Thrushpelt (warrior cats) vs Teacher (the girl from the other side) , finished

Barret Wallace (final fantasy) vs Lazlo Cravensworth (what we do in the shadows), finished

Domingo Montoya (the princess bride) vs Charlie Swan (twilight), finished

Geralt of Rivia (the Witcher) vs Terry Jeffords (Brooklyn 99), finished

Dan Espinoza (Lucifer) vs Rupert Giles (Buffy), finished

Pollination Tech 9 smith (the sims 2) vs Marko (saga), finished

Okay basic questions time before I get a bunch of anon asks

“Two of these are women.”

Father figures also count

“Some of these doesn’t have their own kids”

See point 1

“Why is there only a few characters from the same franchise going against each other but sometimes they aren’t”

Because I only recognized fire emblem, Pokémon, and JJBA at first.

“Aus doesn’t count”

As a previous undertale fan. I could care less. And I am not replacing Tim with BAMSE.

“Replace x with Bamse”

Sorry but. Findus and Skalman have already won. 3 times are a bit too much for us sweds.

“911 is copaganda”

You see Brooklyn 911 (picked by wheel) and you go against fireback mountain. Shame on you anon.

“Dad council these aren’t all random”

Yeah but Neon J vs Wubbox = chaos

Code of conduct

EXTRA BATTLE

[myfandomrambles]

Marcia Overstrand Character Analysis

Facts:

Born as a powerful wizard but with no guaranteed access to the best education, but trained hard to get it.

Apprenticed by Alther Mella after Silas Heap quit. Becoming the Castle's ExtraOrdinary Wizard(highest rank) at a relatively young age having not technically being given the ceremony.

Witnessed the death Alther Mella & the Queen

Had to create a plan to protect the infant princess Jenna directly after the death of the people she closest to. Is forced to trust the Heaps who she does not get along with. Spends much of Jenna’s life continuing to protect her indirect for the first decade and hands-on in adolescents.

Spent a decade trying to protect the Castle while her Castle was torn away by the Custodians and DomDaniel. Often serving as not only the leader of the Wizards but acts as the leader of the political running of the Castle as well.

Saved Boy 412/Septimus from freezing to death with no reason to at that point. Offered Septimus an apprenticeship before knowing he’s a 7th son or 7th son

Spent a lot of time trying to protect her home even when separated

Has eccentric style choices, something people built into a mystique around he

A strict but fair leader of her people

imprisoned in the pit, chased, hunted and suffered multiple assassination attempts including ones that have extreme explicit mental effects

After giving Septimus the title ends up helping with Ancient Ways portals learning about and protecting them.

Maries late in life to Milo Banda (Jenna’s biological father)

Analysis:

Marcia Overstrand is a strong character who excels at leadership and perseverance. Living through a lot of disarray in the Castle she often had to take on the role of protecting the order and balance of the Castle, and not even just her domain of the Wizard Tower. Jenna becomes the only member of the royal caste in the Castle, and at the start, she is only 10 to 11 years old. Jenna's adoptive parents have no care for running the Castle, and her biological father is not in the line of female succession and he chooses to not be involved for most of the time. Leaving Marcia as the only person in a good position to actually protect and plan for the Castle. This lasts until Jenna is truly the Crown Princess and more fully when she is made Queen at the end of the original series and in the TodHunter series. Marcia is then able to leave the Castle to Jenna and later the Wizard Tower to Septimus. During the time she is doing both jobs, she has many disagreements with Jenna's parents, the Manuscriptorium and later the alchemist/physicians based on her way of running things and ego.

Marcia being in this role of power and duty create a pretty high level of isolation form most people. As being the highest wizard in being the ExtraOrdinary Wizard is a highly respected position. Marcia becomes pretty used to others listening to her and many showing deferences. While being used to this treatment and expecting everything from her enchanted household objects to the normal Castle residents to recognize her authority. Though she explicitly did not understand how well she could do “scary”, and how much that played into the way others view her. Adding to a disconnection she has with the wider population.  She did genuinely deserve a lot of this respect for protecting the Castle and being extremely skilled at her craft and leadership, even if there are some unintentional aspects.

However, this disconnection does have downsides. In the earlier stories, it really seems the only person she had to be close was the host of her Mentor and father figure who died before her eyes. She struggles to connect with people from being so separated by circumstance. The only people who don't treat her with respect (not including Darke enemies) were some of the chief scribes, Silas Heap, and the Alchemist Marcellus Pye. The other members in the historically high prestige positions within the Castle tend to not want to pay deference or obey to a person they are hypothetically equal to in power. Silas and Marcia squabble pretty regularly due to Silas had been the extraordinary apprentice before Marcia and being the father of Jenna and Septimus but Marcia being closer to his son then he is and her being more capable of protecting his only daughter.

Most of the time Marcia acts in a very business-like manner, trying to be as practical, efficient and effective in times of peace and crisis. She, however, is strongly driven by emotion, being willing to use more Darke Magyk when protecting those she loves. Her Magyk even being more powerful during times of stress. Pride, love, compassion, loyalty and duty drive her more than anything practical even if her way of handling things is procedural and makes other emotion-driven characters deeply angry at her.

Marcia is also susceptible to ego trips and any threats towards the people she cares for. Shutting down her emotional expression through her personality and many years of isolation mean her shows of emotion can feel disconnected as it might be done through trying to find ways to fix things without involving those she is trying to help or might show through other actions like remembering things people enjoy or need.

Marcia’s strong sense of loyalty and protectives pushes her to more than once go against the traditions of the Wizard Tower and Castle she usually respected. She never really had time for pomp and circumstance but was steadfast in the traditions when it came to Magyk as a respected ideal in and of itself and by dedication to such practice and respect and fondness of the Wizard Tower she did tend to follow tradition. However, Marcia more than once does buck tradition in order to protect Septimus and the wider Castel. An example is she tries to help Septimus escape the Queste, and ends up invoking some spells with a touch of Darke in order to fight during extreme circumstances challenging her loved ones, something she had the traditional light Wizards fear, though not the extent of the Ordinary Wizards as being ExtraOrdinary demands some understanding of Darke, as the builder of the Wizard Tower Ho-Tep Ra and ancient forms of Magyk invoke all kinds of Magyk. Her pride can cause issues not always allowing others to help and being self-aggrandizing. Her clip way of speaking and not taking others feelings into account can make her ability to form friendships really poor. A constant drive to improve and control the situation can cause issues as well blinding her to things around her and different points through the story, learning to trust others skill being a huge step for her.

Over time she does learn to let down her walls of pride and stubbornness and shows pretty amazing shows of forgiveness, wider compassion and humility. Starting with helping with the Young Army reentry plans letting some of them work in the Wizard Tower. Later she learns to work with an Alchemist's who she has a deep mistrust of and blames for almost losing Septimus and Jenna, hurting other innocent people in the process. A pretty strong example of forgiveness can be seen in the group forgiving Simon. Marcia even seeks the help from Simon Heap who had attempted to kill her while under DomDaniel’s Darke influence. She forgives his missteps and seeks his knowledge where she lacks it.

Marcia’s most important background relationship in the story is Alther Mella the previous extraordinary wizard. He clearly is like a father to her and a clearly important mentor before and after death. They do fight about best practice but she has clear emotion and respect for his opinions. This parental relationship she has is a huge factor in her fights with Silas, way more than disagreements in best practice or resentment of the other's station. They both want to essentially be Alther’s favourite child. Alther however even recognizes this saying he cares for them both. Being a grandfather/uncle to the Heap kids, and a secondary mentor and teacher for Septimus. Alther plays a key role emotionally and practically throughout the story even though he has died. Marcia’s relationship with Septimus is one of the centrepieces of the original 7 books, and important background in the subsequent sequel series. She cares so much for Septimus and is the first person to see his intelligence and value. Marcia saves him from dying of frostbite literally breathing life back into him. She quickly considers him hers to protect along with princess Jenna and Nicko. There is no practical reason to take care of him, he has no known value or skill here. In reality, he is a liability, in the beginning, he’s in a state of shock made worse by his C-PTSD and training. But she can see his innate connection to Magyk, this belief being strengthened seeing him with charms and the dragon ring. Septimus inner strength and compassion being visible to her as it only starts to come through. Giving him an offer to be her apprentice before he believes he is good enough or even a powerful wizard. His status as the 7th son of a 7th son only being the icing on the cake and not a way of manipulating his skills.

This is pretty significant for both of them, Marcia, as I said before, was very powerful and independent, Septimus has no outward signs of being special and it’s only an intuition he has high levels of power. This goes against Marcia’s tendency to believe her own specialness, like calling herself a dragon keeper, and was a member of the royal court before this. He ends up being everything she thought he could be and his gifts from birth. Their relationship is also extremely special in her being his mother in most ways. The first decade of his life he had not parents or people supporting him. Once accepted into the Heaps and Castle he spends way more time with Marcia than either of his newly discovered blood parents. He is quickly close to his brother Nicko and adopted sister Jenna but not his parents. Marcia knows more about him, seeing his power, remembering his stories about ready packs, learns his favourite foods and gives him his education. She, of course, makes mistakes but is much quicker to learn to trust him letting him fix the sicknesse not thinking it’s a childish lark like Sarah does. Sarah and Silas both complain about him not spending time with them but does almost nothing to really change that while Marcia is more curious and correct during these times, and is genuinely hurt and confused learning he lied about Marcellus pie. She is more likely to give into Septimus’s wants more than anyone else. Including allowing a Dragon to live in her yard for a long time, letting Physik and Alchemie to be practised when she hates them because he needs, and being amicable with Marcellus through disagreements and some other things that go against her general pattern of behaviour. She even once refers to him as her son during a battle by accident. They are genuinely close being major sources of character improvement and source of compassion for each other.

Jenna Heap is technically her stepchild by the TodHunter series, however, Jenna considers Sarah and Silas her parents, not ever really coming to think of her birth father Milo Banda as a “dad”. Though Marcia would likely be more of a parent then him having been involved in her entire adolescence, major moments in her life, and having been protecting her since birth. Marcia and Jenna fight each other many times and spend time living together during times when they are on the run. When things go wrong they often need each other in order to defeat whatever the problem is, including having to periodically save or find the other.  Marica being a mother figure for Septimus also Marcia a part of more casual things in life. She is also the only one besides Alther and Aunt Zelda who has any knowledge of what Jenna has to be to be Queen. Aunt Zelda’s knowledge is also limited to the Dragon Boat where Marcia even gives her the Crown and is crucial to running the Castle when Jenna is still too young. They do but heads time to time both being incredibly stubborn and prideful. Marcia sees her as a child and a future queen meaning there is some dissonance in how they ought to interact. They do learn to trust and respect one another as Jenna grows older. As they become more equal in power, and when Marcia is no longer in positions of power after Septimus becomes The ExtraOrdinary.

Marcia is fantastically perseverant, one of her most impressive attributes. She survives the dual murder of her father figure and the respected queen. Loses her friends and her way of life crashes around her. She is able to protect and hide Jenna for a decade and try and sustain goodness during the occupation. Torture in The Pit, a soul-sucking Darkenesse, is followed by a Thing a shadow creature who causes depression and fear playing on her natural fears. She goes through many times of having to fight tooth and nail to protect her home, title, and loved ones almost losing all of them multiple times.

Marcia really falls under the “just because you're paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you.’ her distrusting nature, control, pride and brash movements are often necessary when her home is truly constantly under siege from within and out. Other displays of strength can be seen in always fighting back even after events that could be seen as a defeat like when the Darke overtakes the Castle. Marcia and Septimus also show a very strong ability to use Darke Magyk without being consumed by it, something that shows a deeply strong state of soul and morality. Marcia also takes on roles of understanding and protecting the portal network continuing to act as protector of what she loves even after giving the ExtraOrdinary title to Septimus.

Marcia is a deeply interesting character in her unique fashion of purple python shoes and striking cloak, mind-blowing self-confidence and a hidden layer of being a softy. She has flaws in her hubris and control. But even stronger skills in her talent, education and determination. A female lead written likes this is extremely rare. A female character who is allowed to be hard and soft, have amazing triumphs but make real mistakes, whose femininity is never derided nor masculine traits praised as such. Marcia doesn’t even have a romantic subplot as a part of her arch for 7 stories not being something she never even considers over her “career”. That is also something important, she does end up not having a traditional family as a goal and is not criticized for it, is seen as a perfectly understandable choice just because and as part of Marcia genuinely not having time for that. However, she is actually given a found family storyline before romance as well, her relationships with Alther, Septimus, Jenna, Beetle and the other Heaps being powerful and important. She doesn't need romance or biological children to open up and have a family. Her family comes in the form of a bunch of kids she protects and cares for. Along with her ghost mentor and all the people who help protect her home.

I truly love Marcia. For being an interesting character in and of herself, but also for being a departure from many stereotypes and a character who feels very real. An undeniable icon in everything she does. Marcia is a flawed, skilled, gifted, loyal, compassionate hardworking, ever developing, and quite an aspirational character. She should really be on lists for best-found family, best powerful females and best magic women in any listicle.

ND Headcanon:

Anxiety:

Catastrophizing 

Exists often at a 7 level stress easily reaching a 10

Experience of being constantly on edge

Irritability

Masking stress

Obsessive actions

Often read as even colder than she intends to worsen by her trying to manage her stress

Panic/Anxiety Attack. Seen after learning Septimus hid Marcellus from her.

Perfectionism

Rumination

Stress over any loss of control (real and perceived)

Trust issues

Requested by: gamerkitty6274 on AO3

[Also posted on AO3 under cronaisawriter]

[annieisyourfavourite]

[image description: a pencil drawing of Cerys and Milo Banda from the Septimus Heap series. they are a desi couple, embracing and smiling at the camera. Cerys is a dark skinned woman with long black hair tied into an up do. She is wearing a circlet, earrings, a thick bracelet, and a regal dress with a cape. Her hand is on Milo's chest.

Milo is a medium brown skinned man with a black beard and fluffy, shoulder length black hair with gray streaks. He is wearing a tunic with puffy sleeves, a high neck, and jewels along the lining. end of description.]

once again, in a quest to have a design for every Septimus Heap character, I have redesigned Milo and Cerys 💕

[wendronwitch]

(Not a writing prompt or request or anything) Thoughts on a darke marcia and/or septimus au

short answer: YES

long answer: let’s do this one by one:

darke septimus au - i vaguely remember having this discussion with @vithcy​ i think about how it’s really sad that sep & marwick had to deal with the young army stuff thru their childhood, and how amazing it is that they both turned out such good and caring people despite their bullshit childhoods. i think it was vithcy who brought this up (vi, if it wasn’t you  i had this convo with, im sorry! i love u) but we were discussing that bit in queste when septimus and jenna need to push that guy off the bridge in order to go on, and jenna’s like ‘holy shit i just killed somebody’ and septimus is less impacted by this, and he’s like ‘jen don’t feel bad, it was either him or us’ - so like, septimus in canon is a darling baby boy but it’s safe to say that he already is pretty desensitized to death/violence in some contexts, thanks to his childhood. what i’m trying to say and failing to say is that i can easily picture a darke septimus au where he wasn’t rescued by marcia, silas, aunt zelda, etc. if septimus had ended up going rogue and/or if septimus’s first real magykal tutor had been someone less like marcia and more like domdaniel, i think things would’ve turned out very differently. 

darke marcia au - this made me, strangely enough think about @artemiswolf-septimusheapfan ‘s magical ladybug crossover fic with marcia, which i think did a phenomenal job of showing how, when it comes to saving the people important to her/the people she loves, there is NOTHING marcia wouldn’t do. given this, i can kinda see an au in which maybe marcia started out wanting to do the right thing, but she sees too many people she cares about dying or going thru hell, and there’s no way she can watch this passively. if the only way to do the right thing was to break a few rules, marcia would do that. the question is, what is the right thing??? marcia as a character has a lot of integrity, and a lot of loyalty (?) by which i mean - she would definitely do anything for the people she loves but she also has morals and actively tries to be a good person. to conclude: i think that the need to be a good & kind person is something that is central to marcia’s character in a very big way. however, if she were in a situation where her loved ones were in danger, i see her as perhaps making bad choices to get them back. also: if we’re talking about darke in a more fluid way, in the context of like. doing evil deeds for the greater good, like some kind of magykal robin hood….. marcia would do THAT, too. steal from the rich and give to those who need it. darke vigilante badass marcia overstrand, doing the right thing in the wrong way since literally forever 

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

What are other books/series that you'd recommend that are in the same vein as Animorphs?

Honestly, your ask inspired me to get off my butt and finally compile a list of the books that I reference with my character names in Eleutherophobia, because in a lot of ways that’s my list of recommendations right there: I deliberately chose children’s and/or sci-fi stories that deal really well with death, war, dark humor, class divides, and/or social trauma for most of my character names.  I also tend to use allusions that either comment on Animorphs or on the source work in the way that the names come up.

That said, here are The Ten Greatest Animorphs-Adjacent Works of Literature According to Sol’s Totally Arbitrary Standards: 

1. A Ring of Endless Light, Madeline L’Engle

This is a really good teen story that, in painfully accurate detail, captures exactly what it’s like to be too young to really understand death while forced to confront it anyway.  I read it at about the same age as the protagonist, not that long after having suffered the first major loss in my own life (a friend, also 14, killed by cancer).  It accomplished exactly what a really good novel should by putting words to the experiences that I couldn’t describe properly either then or now.  This isn’t a light read—its main plot is about terminal illness, and the story is bookended by two different unexpected deaths—but it is a powerful one. 

2. The One and Only Ivan, K.A. Applegate 

This prose novel (think an epic poem, sort of like The Iliad, only better) obviously has everything in it that makes K.A. Applegate one of the greatest children’s authors alive: heartbreaking tragedy, disturbing commentary on the human condition, unforgettably individuated narration, pop culture references, and poop jokes.  Although I’m mostly joking when I refer to Marco in my tags as “the one and only” (since this book is narrated by a gorilla), Ivan does remind me of Marco with his sometimes-toxic determination to see the best of every possible situation when grief and anger allow him no other outlet for his feelings and the terrifying lengths to which he will go in order to protect his found family.

3. My Teacher Flunked the Planet, Bruce Coville

Although the entire My Teacher is an Alien series is really well-written and powerful, this book is definitely my favorite because in many ways it’s sort of an anti-Animorphs.  Whereas Animorphs (at least in my opinion) is a story about the battle for personal freedom and privacy, with huge emphasis on one’s inner identity remaining the same even as one’s physical shape changes, My Teacher Flunked the Planet is about how maybe the answer to all our problems doesn’t come from violent struggle for personal freedoms, but from peaceful acceptance of common ground among all humans.  There’s a lot of intuitive appeal in reading about the protagonists of a war epic all shouting “Free or dead!” before going off to battle (#13) but this series actually deconstructs that message as blind and excessive, especially when options like “all you need is love” or “no man is an island” are still on the table.

4. Moon Called, Patricia Briggs

I think this book is the only piece of adult fiction on this whole list, and that’s no accident: the Mercy Thompson series is all about the process of adulthood and how that happens to interact with the presence of the supernatural in one’s life.  The last time I tried to make a list of my favorite fictional characters of all time, it ended up being about 75% Mercy Thompson series, 24% Animorphs, and the other 1% was Eugenides Attolis (who I’ll get back to in my rec for The Theif).  These books are about a VW mechanic, her security-administrator next door neighbor, her surgeon roommate, her retail-working best friend and his defense-lawyer boyfriend, and their cybersecurity frenemy.  The fact that half those characters are supernatural creatures only serves to inconvenience Mercy as she contemplates how she’s going to pay next month’s rent when a demon destroyed her trailer, whether to get married for the first time at age 38 when doing so would make her co-alpha of a werewolf pack, what to do about the vampires that keep asking for her mechanic services without paying, and how to be a good neighbor to the area ghosts that only she can see.  

5. The Thief, Megan Whalen Turner

This book (and its sequel A Conspiracy of Kings) are the ones that I return to every time I struggle with first-person writing and no Animorphs are at hand.  Turner does maybe the best of any author I’ve seen of having character-driven plots and plot-driven characters.  This book is the story of five individuals (with five slightly different agendas) traveling through an alternate version of ancient Greece and Turkey with a deceptively simple goal: they all want to work together to steal a magical stone from the gods.  However, the narrator especially is more complicated than he seems, which everyone else fails to realize at their own detriment. 

6. Homecoming, Cynthia Voight

Critics have compared this book to a modern, realistic reimagining of The Boxcar Children, which always made a lot of sense to me.  It’s the story of four children who must find their own way from relative to relative in an effort to find a permanent home, struggling every single day with the question of what they will eat and how they will find a safe place to sleep that night.  The main character herself is one of those unforgettable heroines that is easy to love even as she makes mistake after mistake as a 13-year-old who is forced to navigate the world of adult decisions, shouldering the burden of finding a home for her family because even though she doesn’t know what she’s doing, it’s not like she can ask an adult for help.  Too bad the Animorphs didn’t have Dicey Tillerman on the team, because this girl shepherds her family through an Odysseus-worthy journey on stubbornness alone.

7. High Wizardry, Diane Duane

The Young Wizards series has a lot of good books in it, but this one will forever be my favorite because it shows that weird, awkward, science- and sci-fi-loving girls can save the world just by being themselves.  Dairine Callahan was the first geek girl who ever taught me it’s not only okay to be a geek girl, but that there’s power in empiricism when properly applied.  In contrast to a lot of scientifically “smart” characters from sci-fi (who often use long words or good grades as a shorthand for conveying their expertise), Dairine applies the scientific method, programming theory, and a love of Star Wars to her problem-solving skills in a way that easily conveys that she—and Diane Duane, for that matter—love science for what it is: an adventurous way of taking apart the universe to find out how it works.  This is sci-fi at its best. 

8. Dr. Franklin’s Island, Gwyneth Jones

If you love Animorphs’ body horror, personal tragedy, and portrayal of teens struggling to cope with unimaginable circumstances, then this the book for you!  I’m only being about 80% facetious, because this story has all that and a huge dose of teen angst besides.  It’s a loose retelling of H.G. Wells’s classic The Island of Doctor Moreau, but really goes beyond that story by showing how the identity struggles of adolescence interact with the identity struggles of being kidnapped by a mad scientist and forcibly transformed into a different animal.  It’s a survival story with a huge dose of nightmare fuel (seriously: this book is not for the faint of heart, the weak of stomach, or anyone who skips the descriptions of skin melting and bones realigning in Animorphs) but it’s also one about how three kids with a ton of personal differences and no particular reason to like each other become fast friends over the process of surviving hell by relying on each other.  

9. Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Louis Sachar

Louis Sachar is the only author I’ve ever seen who can match K.A. Applegate for nihilistic humor and absurdist horror layered on top of an awesome story that’s actually fun for kids to read.  Where he beats K.A. Applegate out is in terms of his ability to generate dream-like surrealism in these short stories, each one of which starts out hilariously bizarre and gradually devolves into becoming nightmare-inducingly bizarre.  Generally, each one ends with an unsettling abruptness that never quite relieves the tension evoked by the horror of the previous pages, leaving the reader wondering what the hell just happened, and whether one just wet one’s pants from laughing too hard or from sheer existential terror.  The fact that so much of this effect is achieved through meta-humor and wordplay is, in my opinion, just a testament to Sachar’s huge skill as a writer. 

10. Magyk, Angie Sage

As I mentioned, the Septimus Heap series is probably the second most powerful portrayal of the effect of war on children that I’ve ever encountered; the fact that the books are so funny on top of their subtle horror is a huge bonus as well.  There are a lot of excellent moments throughout the series where the one protagonist’s history as a child soldier (throughout this novel he’s simply known as “Boy 412″) will interact with his stepsister’s (and co-protagonist’s) comparatively privileged upbringing.  Probably my favorite is the moment when the two main characters end up working together to kill a man in self-defense, and the girl raised as a princess makes the horrified comment that she never thought she’d actually have to kill someone, to which her stepbrother calmly responds that that’s a privilege he never had; the ensuing conversation strongly implies that his psyche has been permanently damaged by the fact that he was raised to kill pretty much from infancy, but all in a way that is both child-friendly and respectful of real trauma.  

[noxgold]

Here are some of the mods: Berrenta, Meta Four, and Septimus Heap.

Okay, I am very confused. Why are you sending me these?

[cjcroen1393]

A few examples are Adannor, Arha, Berrenta, Deadbeatloser 22, Discar, Dr Psyche, eyebones, Fighteer, Japanese Teeth, Meta Four, Septimus Heap, and WarJay77. You don't have to ask them all. Just pick one and send the message.

Wait...is this about TV Tropes? I thought it was about Tumblr.

...Anon, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m just asking to be safe and I’d like an honest answer if you do: Have we interacted before? And also, have you asked me to intervene with TV Tropes before?

[dontblink90]

C'era una volta...

C'era una volta, nel La terra delle storie, La città infetta. Abitata da Nina, Aelin, Fire, Bitterblue, Alexa, Septimus Heap, Re Artù, Robin Hood, Gulliver, Alice, Dante, Diabolic e River Song. Un giorno I tre moschettieri incontrarono Il piccolo principe che tornava da Il mondo di Orfeo, dopo aver visitato Notre Dame ed attraversato Un ponte per Terabithia. L'isola del tesoro distava da I serial killer. Il miraggio de Il mago di Oz era stato Toccato da un angelo. La bambina della sesta luna si materializzò sul Il signore degli anelli dove vivevano I personaggi più malvagi della storia: le famiglie più malvage della storia, le regine e le principesse più malvage della storia, le donne più malvage della storia e e i personaggi più malvagi della chiesa. La storia infinita durò grazie al La profezia vaticana: Il secondo messia. La chiave Gaudí e La chiave dell'alchimista appartenevano a I sette demoni di venezia e a Devil's kiss, grazie al manuale Come diventare ricchi con YouTube, ma erano solo Storie di giovani fantasmi e Storie di giovani maghi. Alla fine i tredici amici andarono su Stardust (un Graceling), Il collezionista di bambini che diede loro Il codice Vaticanus. La meta era La citta sospesa conosciuta come La mappa dei desideri. Lì conobbero La regina del nilo e Due insolite gemelle con Capelli viola. Arrivarono a Il giardino segreto, chiamato "Il giglio e la spada" trovando Il faraone nero. Fecero Il giro del mondo in ottanta giorni: passando tra Il libro della jungla che scagliò La freccia nera, poi ritornarono nel la terra delle storie attesi da Lief il fortunato che, grazie al l'albero della vita, vissero per sempre felici e contenti leggendo le cronache di Narnia.

[wendronwitch]

a lot of people have expressed annoyance at syrah’s arc in canon, and i feel like i might just be repeating things that @septimusheapheadcanons , @theheaps & other people have said but like. i wanna talk about that anyway 

syrah’s really interesting and important i feel because of how significant her character is in syren, right from her entry. you have these 3 kids (yeah, they’re all very smart kids with official designations and whatnot but they’re still kids) stuck on an island, and septimus’s dragon is dying and he doesn’t know what to do, and then he sees this girl and we’ve witnessed enough sep POV to be able to assess that this is likely his first crush ever?? and she’s 19 but she’s also over 500 years old, and she knows a very particular type of magyk/alchemy that has been lost to time & that nobody else knows, and she saves spit fyre and shows septimus things he’s never seen before and like, 

she’s so cool? and not to sound like a commerce student on here (lmao any commerce kids reading this bless y’all) but like..... she’s such a valuable human resource??? 

syrah likely knows things that marcia does not know. you know how there’s some point in some book (i think it’s darke????) where marcia and marcellus team up to keep the balance between light + darke magyk or whatevr it was called??? well?? syrah could probably have done that shit herself. 

then there’s also the fact that when angie describes syrah, she mentions that she has “brown arms” or something, which she probably meant like tanned white girl or whatever but a lot of us decided to interpret as CANONICALLY BROWN GIRL SYRAH. idk it’s just really lovely (dont wanna add a link b’cause then this post will Not Show In Search but it’s on my blog under my #syrah syara tag, u wont have to look long)

septimus heap as a series is like. valued & cherished for its strong female characters, so given this, it’s like, angie really did our girl dirty. syrah’s so wise and well-informed, and she’s also incredibly mentally strong to have survived the syren that long and to have been coherent enough to give septimus that diary imo. she has so much trauma and whatnot but she is still so kind, and as a character she was so intriguing + focused on in syren, which was really nice and interesting to see.

and then??? in darke & in fyre?? nothing? not much??? she becomes as sidelined as someone like hildegarde pigeon

which. i mean. hildegarde doesn’t actually do anything you know? she’s very much a secondary character all through and that’s FINE. syrah was actually significant before angie went “yeah we don’t need her anymore” and demoted her, which is........ ouch. 

syrah had so much potential to do things in both darke and fyre. she had a skillset unlike anyone else’s, and she was a genuinely good person. this entire ‘mental instability’ thing feels weird and infantilizing, and as someone who is mentally ill (not formally diagnosed but i am so depressed you can smell it on me, and i definitely need a therapist, more on that later) it also feels..... idk. weirdly wrong.

oh, so septimus can have a character development arc that fleshes out his trauma and his recovery and hints at his ptsd in a respectful way, but syrah’s just confined to hospital rooms and everyone treating her weirdly? make it make sense, please 

[wendronwitch]

hey: if you like my work , consider me a friend or just hang out on my blog for fun, PLS READ THIS.

i know a lot of the time in fandoms and stuff, specifically, bigger fandoms, we build on each other’s ideas / tropes and things are established and there’s a lot of ‘i saw a post on tumblr and was inspired to write a fic about it’ 

but septimus heap is Not a big fandom. this is a fact. we’re a smaller fandom and i feel like the culture here is different given that. if you ever see something i write and want to write something based off it or inspired by it, you can ask me, and i WILL respond, because that’s how this fandom is. it’s not big enough that you can’t reach me even if you try. 

writing your own versions of aus inspired by the meta and stuff i sometimes post is flattering of course but please stop and consider that even though none of these characters are ‘mine’ as such, my interpretations and my ideas regarding them ARE MINE and it makes me feel icky and gross inside when people don’t respect that. 

like, for example, you can write your own version of marcia and silas being friends. if you like the idea of them being friends and want to write it, you should, and i’m here for it. but seeing my very specific headcanons and ideas used in “your” au make me feel very uncomfortable. maybe don’t do that without asking me first. and asking me first means being ready to accept it when i say no. 

i have a lot of benjamin heap related ideas but i’m so scared people are going to overrun them and it’s making me anxious and stressed out, and i Don’t like that. fandom is meant to be fun, after all.

similarly, tagging one of your friends in one of my posts and being like “can’t wait for you to write this fic!” feels very disrespectful to me as a content creator. i know that i don’t know the context of statements like this - we all read the same series, it’s obvious a lot of us will share the same headcanons and interpretations - but think about how this looks to me. 

you’re literally taking something i wrote and telling me on my own post that you can’t wait to see somebody else write my idea. it feels really horrible, you guys. please don’t do this.

some of you might think i’m being unreasonable - if that’s the case, you know where the unfollow/block button is. i’m just looking out for myself, and i can’t keep pretending things are okay when they’re not, especially not if i end up spoiling something for myself that’s brought me joy for over a decade. 

i promise this is not an attack or call out post for any one person in particular or anybody. i realised that these things make me feel uncomfortable but i’ve never spoken about any of these things making me feel like this so how were y’all to know? that’s part of why i’m making this post.