#the wicked kind

[messofalpansexual]

"Cardan stands over me. His jacket is thrown on a nearby chair, the velvet soaked through with some dark substance. His white sleeves are pulled up, and he's washing my hands with a wet cloth. Getting the blood off of them"- The Queen of Nothing (Ch. 17)

Can I talk about this scene for a moment, because it really shows how much Cardan loves Jude. Here is a man who had been raised as a spoiled, neglected, cruel prince, caring for a mortal girl. He is helping her when she is in pain, and he is by her side even though he is High King of the Fae, and she is an (though technically not anymore) exiled mortal. He could have easily called for a servant to clean her, he could have given her her own room, he could have left her side, left her to die on the table. But no, here he is, lowering him self to her side, abandoning all the egotistical ways of thinking he was taught, and doing such a simple action, however unfitting of a king, because he doesn't trust anyone else with her to do it right.

[musicalgifs]

*reference to this video, not my actual opinion

[cardudescrown]

Cardan, who pretends to be a menace

And

Jude, who is the actual menace

[ashleyslorens]

MCKENZIE KURTZ as Glinda WICKED

[thebirdandhersong]

Contrary to popular assumption, being evil doesn't necessarily make a person hot. Choosing to do the right thing even when it's the harder option and you're so tempted to do the wrong (and easy) thing, on the other hand.....

[plodimsocks]

Picture this:

A Justice League meeting on Halloween, and they all unanimously decide (individually) to turn up as Batman.

As does… Batman, whom no one expected to show up today, least of all in costume. Except you can’t tell it’s Batman because he’s wearing a dollar store version of his own suit at his new sidekick’s behest, and has gone out of his way to smile at people and call everyone Batman in tern.

Bonus points if it’s before the Justice League knows each other’s identities, so they just think it’s some guy in a cheap suit.

What kind of absolute tomfoolery could the Justice League get up to? Lots, I’d reckon.

[gelphiegifs]

"Elphie, you mustn't think that way anymore..."

[ice-feast]

This episode has revealed that, yup, Jace is part of the Conspiracy of the season - but I don't think he's the mastermind behind it all. What would Jace gain from all this? His entire character is being chill. Why would he suddenly want responsibility? He intentionally teaches the subject with the least information to teach!

I don't think he's the mastermind.

I think it's Arianwen Abernant.

Ragh didn't just see Jace talking to Kalina. Arianwen was there too.

Everyone, including the Intrepid Heroes, is taking it for granted that Arianwen is still being chased around the Forest of the Nightmare King by a van with hands. But does the Forest of the Nightmare King still even exist? The forest of Sylvaire does, but Cassandra is no longer the Nightmare King. Her forest has become that soft twilit woods Kristen has visited a few times (and now contains a manticore). Even if Arianwen was meant to remain trapped in there (chased by a van with hands), Arianwen's punishment was hardly Cassandra's first priority. Getting new followers and not dying again was very much Cassandra's preoccupation. Arianwen could have escaped.

It's been a while since I watched Sophomore Year, but weren't the Abernants sent to Solace partially to separate Arianwen from her research into the Nameless Goddess? She could have learnt then that the Nameless Goddess had a forgotten wife. Anything the Bad Kids discovered could also have been discovered by Arianwen, an adult woman who didn't have the distractions of school and being a teenager taking her from her research.

What's more, wasn't Arianwen's motivation for helping the Nightmare King having him use his power for vengeance on Falinel? Falinel stripped the Abernants of their position and imprisoned Aelwyn. Arianwen cannot conceive of any of her actions being wrong. ("I was very warm and loving," she tells Adaine, the child she neglected and abandoned, without any trace of doubt. She also killed that guy to get into the Nightmare Forest, so we know she'll kill to achieve her goals, but tbh I find that less revealing than her reaction to Adaine's recounting of the abuse she's suffered.)

And now it's worse! She has no position of power, she has no magic, both her daughters turned on her, and one of those daughters punched Arianwen's husband to death. Isn't that unfair? Isn't that an injustice? Doesn't that make you angry?

If you fail to use one forgotten god in your revenge plot, you can always try again...

[kitty-gray]

No, you don't understand. "Love means you see someone, that's all" is such an important quote. For both, Dru and Ty.

Like, throughout TDA Dru felt invisible. Too young to fight but old enough to feel left aside. She's resolved to put herself in danger on her own if that means she can help in any way that matters. Even in TWP she hides her panic attacks, and probably so many other ways her trauma affected her.

And Ty, he dreams of being a detective and solving mysteries. He's always been the one trying to understand the world, but the only people who ever tried to understand him were his family.

They both see. They both are comfortable and used to it. But to be seen? I bet it's gonna be pretty epic.

[koko2unite]

[warblingandwriting]

No one does revenge like The Count of Monte Cristo. It's all physical violence and murder these days, what ever happened to completely psychologically destroying your former tormentors and ruining their lives?

[messofalpansexual]

Folk of the Air Theory

So you know in that scene when Jude is pretending to be Taryn in the Queen of Nothing, and she walks in a room and notices a pillow smeared with gold? Well, lets think real hard right now about what fae, possibly and probably friends with Locke, wears gold on his cheeks 24/7? Hmm, I don't know, could it be her husband Cardan, a fae who checks off all those boxes? But wait, if it really was Cardan, the High King of Elfhame, attend a party of Locke's, even if they were close friends would he deign to travel out of the palace just for some lowly party? What he wasn't there for the party or its host, but instead for the host's wife? A woman who looked almost exactly like his wife, and for a moment, in a drunken haze he could just pretend.... wait....

[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.

[cookinguptales]

also, the triumvirate is now complete

[sniperct]

Is it just me or are the John Wick films in the same universe as Goncharov?

[booklover-s]

"But every night, Jude haunted him. The coils of her hair. The calluses on her fingers. An absent bite of her lip. It was too much, the way he thought about her. He knew it was too much, but he couldn’t stop. It disgusted him that he couldn’t stop."

–How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories, Holly Black

I hope my soulmate is as tormented by my image as Cardan is by Jude