#tess of the road

[gay-disabled-characters-showdown]

LGBTQ+ Disabled Characters Showdown Round 1, Wave 4, Poll 1

A character being totally canon LGBTQ+ and disabled was not required to be in this competition. Please check qualifications and propaganda before asking why a character is included.

Check out the other polls in this wave and prior here.

Neil Josten-All for the Game

Qualifications:

I mean he def has PTSD even though it's never like fully fleshed out in the series and also he is demisexual

Mod Note: he also has various scarring.

Propaganda:

Neil goes through so much it's amazing he is still functioning as a person. He bottles up all of his trauma but he still has nightmares and triggers that bring back the trauma he felt from his abusive mafia father and his abusive mother. However, once he lands at PSU to play D1 Exy, he finds a home with all of his other broken teammates and coach. This includes Andrew Minyard, another possible contender for this bracket. While he still has trauma to deal with, he becomes a much more well adjusted and happy person with his teammates. :)

Spira-Tess of the Road

Qualifications:

They're canonically intersex and nonbinary, and they have a genetic disorder that means they have to rely on medication to survive; they also use a cane.

Propaganda:

They are so so miserable and the narrative won't make them forgive all those that have wronged them, but that doesn't mean they won't find some joy; this is a character who feels deeply out of place and unloved and spited by the universe, but there's a wonderful man who falls in love with them, and they with him, very sweetly, regardless of all their preconceptions. (And he's disabled, too!) Also, this is barely a paraphrase, and it's one of my favorite things about them: "They feared no awkwardness. They were born awkward."

[zzukohere]

why arent more people talking about the tess of the road duology?? WHERES THE FANART AND THE FICS??

[slightlyrebelliouswriter23]

[rotzaprachim]

It’s much more of a ya novel than a children’s movie but if you enjoyed Nimona may I HEARTILY reccomend “Tess of the road” by Rachel Hartman. It’s a medieval fantasy with some serious bite and heft that takes a deep, deep dive into rape culture and misogyny and cycles of violence, there’s a canonically gender-fluid main character, and the writing is beautiful and unique and both profoundly enraged and deeply hopeful and kind!

[obscurecharactershowdown]

Group D Round 1

[image ID: the first image is the book cover of Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman. it depicts the silhouette of a dragon made up of a dark, mountainous town. a figure stands below the dragon, facing it. the second image is of Heart, a Thai man with short black hair, wearing a blue shirt. end ID]

Tess

Tess is a wonderful, nuanced depiction of a girl who has been betrayed by a man and by the religious patriarchy she lives under, and is judged by everyone for it, including herself. But she’s a deeply hopeful and curious person, and the story she walks on is one that allows her good nature to blossom and unfurl even when her society would rather condemn her. Other things to know about her: she’s a science nerd in a medieval context; she named her child after a storybook pirate; on her sister’s wedding night, she broke the nose of her sister’s brother-in-law; she tries to fight colonialism; she’s a friend of funky little dragons; she has a male alter ego with a rude name; her half-sister is a saint.

Heart

Look, I just got a give a shout out to my special son! He's the first ever deaf love interest in a Thai drama AND he's gay. I love him so much okay and I just want people to see him please

[displayheartcode]

what is a scene from a book that messed with the chemicals of your brain and why is it the "body is born innocent" conversation from tess of the road by rachel hartman

[powerpolyculeshowdown]

Canon Polycule Showdown

(vote for your favorite! check the description if you don't know them)

Seraphina fanart by @ace-artemis-fanartist

[ID: 1. Fanart of Seraphina, Princess Glisselda and Lucien from the Seraphina book series. 2. Cover of In The Serpent's Wake, the second book in the Tess of the Road series. /end ID]

Meet the contestants!

Glisselda/Seraphina/Lucien

Status: Canon

Description: Lucien/Glisselda are in a loveless engagement, Lucien/Seraphina are in a romantic entanglement that they don't act on because of the engagement, and Glisselda confesses that she's in love with Seraphina in Shadow Scale, the second book. A companion novel set in the same universe then later implies that they are in a V relationship with Seraphina in the middle.

Tess/Jacomo/Margarethe

Status: Implied

Description: Canon polycules exist within the series, Tess has feelings for both Marga and Jacomo, though a romantic relationship between the three is not made explicit.

[dizzyfallingover]

Thinking about Tess of the Road and the suffix -utl in the quigutl language. A suffix that turns the meaning of something to that word/its opposite at the same time. It's mentioned that Quig is seen as a derogatory term meaning "dirty", meaning that Quigutl means dirty/clean. It's such a cool detail to add and let the readers figure out for themselves. Also I think very related to their way of life because 1. They smell godawful to other beings, but they themselves have a very keen sense of smell and just a different concept of what smells bad or is dirty. And 2. They are considered lesser beings or vermin by most humans and dragons, but according to their mythology they evolved the way they did to care for the world serpents, meaning they are holy caretakers while the dragons are more distant from the divine.

I just love the details of the language in that book, I really need to read the second one.

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

vote YES if you have finished the entire book.

vote NO if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

[starbuckscommitmentissues]

Made a discord for fans of Seraphina/Tess of the Road duologies!

[pachycephalopod]

"Tess of the Road" lives rent-free in my brain. Much lower-stakes in a lot of ways than the first duology it's the sequel to, but feels more meaningful? All the books have extremely leisurely pacing for most of their length, which honestly I love. It's great. Sometimes it's frustrating because a plot-important thread has been brought up, often several times, that the protagonist just kinda ignores until the action ramps up, but generally the slow pace and focus on character is 10/10. But gosh I can't stop thinking about the quigutl morpheme "-utl" which is attached to a word to make it mean both itself and it's opposite at the same time, and I keep finding contexts where such a particle would be so useful

[neuronerdo]

Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman

5/5

I read this book during the hardest month of my life so far. I had made a terrible mistake that almost cost me my closest friendships; I was relying entirely and totally on the compassion of others to stay afloat emotionally. It felt like everything I touched blackened and burned away. I was just wrong, in every sense of the word, in every situation.

This is the context in which I read Tess of the Road, the overarching theme of which is that you are not inherently bad.

I was twenty years old and needed that message desperately. If Tess, running from a life she had destroyed through decisions forced upon her by circumstance, could find herself braver and stronger on the other side, maybe I could too. It was the most classic example of realizing yourself through fiction. Tess has made horrible mistakes every step of the way-- but she keeps going.

Rachel Hartman uses the physical journey of Tess to both create and explain the internal journey she travels. Each road influences the other. Her physical flight from home is sparked by her internal fear of mental and emotional entrapment; her trust in her body and mind is developed by the manual labor required during her travels.

Most importantly, Hartman emphasizes understanding oneself as an essential step in forgiving oneself. You have to do whatever it takes to understand your mistakes-- not just the specific actions you took, but the circumstances surrounding them. Only when you look at your most egregious faults in the context of the fabric of life can you see them as what they are: terrible, yes, but temporary, or necessary, or forced upon you against your better judgment.

So what do you do?

You get up and run. You are not inherently bad, or worthless; you do not make the world worse by being in it. Go somewhere new, break down the barriers holding you in your pattern of mistakes. Run away from home. To quote Clementine von Radics, "You've got to bite the hand that starves you."

You become yourself.

[dead-by-tbr]

July 7th, 2023- #CurrentlyReading

#allthebooksjul23

Bestie Book Club decided we needed more dragons in our lives. I am currently reading Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman

[calameowri]

Imagine stealing a gender neutral pronoun from a fantasy species. Cant be me

[rotzaprachim]

the book i DID read that i was astonished did not get more press for being the best ya novel i’ve read in years (quote me on that) and an astoundingly rich evocation of a fantasy baroque-era europe as well as exploration of gender and rape culture and patriarchy. well it’s tess of the road my fucking beloved

[brianvalez]

Tess really thought it be safe getting close lol.