#this book already killed me with three spoiler excerpts | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

fangirleaconmigo · 3 years

Text

The Witcher: 5 Biggest Differences Between Geralt in the books, and Geralt in the Netflix Show

So. I've written an analysis of book!Geralt vs TWN!Geralt, detailing their major similarities and differences as I see them.

I wrote it for myself, to help me develop the two different versions of Geralt for my crossover book/show fic Posada Remix (See pinned post), and because I'm a big nerd who loves Geralt of Rivia perhaps more than is normal.

A few fellow nerds have shown interest in my ravings. So here it is below.

It is very long at 5500 words-ish (I am actually a little embarrassed about how extra I am), but nevertheless, if that is your thing, read on!

Disclaimers:

I compare the two Geralts' behavior during the same time frames, during the same events, to ‘control’ for natural behavioral evolution. (ie. character development)

Because of that, you will only get book spoilers for the bits that have *already* been adapted in S1. So they may differ, but they won't spoil the future show seasons.

I use book excerpts and quotes whenever possible, so you don’t have to take my word for it. You can read the excerpts and come to your own conclusions.

This is not to make ANY judgment call on ‘which Geralt is better’. It is simply analysis.

This is personal, subjective, fallible, and shifts every time I reread the books.

As I write this, S2 hasn't come out. If people want updates after I watch it, send me an ask!

SIMILARITIES

Ok, counter intuitively I’m going to start with their similarities. When I write the two versions of Geralt, they have to *feel* like the same character, as much as they must *feel* distinct.

Here are a quick few:

Both Geralts:

Have endured a massive amount of early childhood trauma.

Were abandoned by their mothers and fathers. They know who their mother is but not their father.

Were made into witchers via traumatic, abusive means.

Had most of the only other children they had ever known, be killed by the only adults they had ever known.

Are witchers, with all of the powers that entails (enhanced senses, combat, signs, etc).

Are witchers, with all of the stigma and prejudice that entails.

Are heroes. They have always wanted to be a knight and they always try to do the right thing.

Have similar appearances, with white hair and non-human appearing eyes.

I’m going to be controversial here, but...are both handsome, if perhaps in different ways. (I know people say book!Geralt is supposed to be hideous. But the only time Geralt is said to be unattractive is when he is talking about himself. When he is described as having a “hideous smile”, it has to do with being menacing, not aesthetically displeasing. In fact, when Yennefer meets him, she immediately refers to his good looks. “Don’t pull that look. It doesn’t suit either your good looks or your complexion.” And every woman Geralt meets in the books wants to sleep with him (except for his mother figure and daughter figure.) I have more evidence, but this post will get too long. I picture book!Geralt as skinnier and more sinewy and rugged than Cavill, who is obviously the exact specimen of a pretty, square jawed body builder type that Hollywood favors. But they are both handsome in their own ways.)

They are both nerds.

They geek out about monsters.

They are pleased with their own questionable jokes.

Neither are especially intimidated by noble and royal types.

There is more, but those are few of the biggies. So I keep those facts as starting points. You have to hold similarities to highlight differences.

DIFFERENCES

For this bit, I started with the most visible and immediate differences, which meant basic personality.

Difference #1. Geralt’s general level of friendliness to new people, starkly differs in the two versions. Here are a few examples of the two Geralt’s responding to the same people in the same moments, so you can see.

Example One: Both Geralts meet Borch/three Jackdaws before the dragon hunt. In both the show and the books, Borch, Tea, and Vea defend Roach and Geralt’s belongings from would be thiefs, and then invite him to eat. Here is how the different Geralts respond.

TWN!Geralt

He grunts/hmmms when he sees Borch, Tea, and Vea for the first time.

He makes a positive comment about Tea killing a man, but frames it negatively in relation to Jaskier as a way to say he is an inferior travel companion.

He doesn’t speak directly to Borch, Tea, or Vea, introduce himself, or shake their hands.

When Borch compliments Geralt profusely, and asks whether Geralt is interested in what he has to say, Geralt says,

“Don’t trouble yourself on my account. I just want food.”

Book!Geralt

When Geralt meets them in the books, it's a very different vibe. First, he compliments Tea and introduces himself.

“An excellent stroke from a Zerrikanian sabre. I bow before the skill and beauty of the free warriors. I am Geralt of Rivia.”

Then he thanks them profusely.

“Thanks to them, it appears, I still have my horse and belongings. I thank you, warriors. My thanks to you too, sir.”

When Borch suggests they eat together, Geralt says

“Borch...I wouldn’t want anything left unclear between us. I’m a witcher...There are those,” Geralt says, “who prefer the company of lepers to that of a witcher.”

When Geralt realizes Borch is fine with him being a witcher, he takes off his glove to shake Borch’s hand and says

“I accept, glad to have made your acquaintance.”

This witcher is complimentary, expresses his gratitude, and is downright gallant. He tries to head off any possible rejection or abuse by disclosing his mutant status right up front.

Example Two. Geralt meets Jaskier/Dandelion. In the books, he meets Dandelion at a “fete in Gulet”. In the show, they meet at a tavern in Posada. The two meetings went very very differently.

TWN!Geralt

When Jaskier wants to come along:

Jaskier: Need a hand? I’ve got two. One for, uh, each of the devil’s horns. (Editors note: !!!???)

Geralt: “Go away.

......

Jaskier: Ooo, I could be your barker! Spreading the tales of Geralt of Rivia, the-the butcher of Blaviken! (Editor's note: The big dummy really shouts this like it's the biggest compliment. Like it's a superhero name.)

Geralt: Come here. (Jaskier wanders forward looking eager. What he thinks is going to happen is anyone’s guess. Geralt sucker punches him.)

Book!Geralt

Dandelion characterizes their first meeting like this:

“And you almost jumped out of your pants with joy to have a companion. Before then, you only had your horse for company...Remember?”

And Geralt answers

“I remember.”

Geralt agrees with it. He doesn’t contest the fact that he was lonely and desperate for companionship

Difference #2. Geralt’s level of verbal affection for his friends. They are so different in this regard, they barely feel like the same person.

Example One. Since Dandelion is Geralt’s best friend, let’s compare how the two Geralt’s refer to him.

TWN!Geralt

It is something of a theme that TWN!Geralt will not use the term ‘friend’ to describe Jaskier. Others point out how odd it is.

Jaskier: It is one night, bodyguarding your very best friend in the whole wide world, how hard could it be?

Geralt: I’m not your friend.

Jaskier: Oh, oh really? Oh, you usually just let strangers rub chamomile onto your lovely bottom? (the line that launched a thousand fics)

In episode 5: Bottle Appetites, the djinn story, this theme comes up a few times.

Jaskier: I fear I shall die a broken hearted man. Or a hungry one, at the very least, unless somebody fancies sharing a fish with an old friend?

Geralt: (Silently keeps working)

Jaskier: “Oh are we not using friend? Yeah, sure, let’s just give it another decade.”

Then, twice Yennefer says the word friend in that same episode, trying to get Geralt to characterize his relationships with Jaskier.

Geralt: We need your help.

Yen: We?

(They look at Jaskier.)

Yen: Just a friend I hope.

She’s implying they could be more than a friend, and Geralt looks at her incredulously, as though she has sprouted horns. It plays a bit like a “no homo” moment on Geralt's part. But the next one is more of the previous theme. Geralt simply being unwilling or unable to say the word friend.

Geralt: I said some things to him. He’s a--

Yen: A friend?

Geralt: I’d like it to not be the last thing he remembers.

In that bit, Geralt pauses and seems to be struggling. Yennefer finishes his sentence, because it seems clear that the appropriate word is friend. He seems unable to say the words to agree with her, but expresses regret for his argument with Jaskier.

Now, to me, the subtext is that he cares about Jaskier. In the banquet episode, lets him bathe him, dress him, and take his drink. He intervenes with the noble for Jaskier. In the djinn episode, he pulls out all the stops to save his life, and by then, his refusal to say the word friend, genuinely seems to be just struggle in expressing himself.

But you can interpret those different ways as well. Did Geralt just feel indebted to Jaskier in the banquet episode? He calls him an idiot to Calanthe. Is he just putting up with him? Jaskier is pretty annoying sometimes. (I love him but I recognize this)

In my incredibly unscientific poll of my irls who watched it, none of them characterized them as best friends. They all thought Jaskier adored him, and he either tolerated or didn't like Jaskier. And I think that is mostly related to this point.

Book!Geralt

Here is how book!Geralt talks about Jaskier. (Dandelion) The first time we meet Dandelion in the books, Geralt is in Nenneke’s library and she comes to tell him Dandelion has arrived. Here is how Geralt reacts.

“...It’s Dandelion this time, your fellow. That idler, parasite, and good for nothing, that priest of art, the bright-shining star of the ballad and love poem. As usual, he’s radiant with fame, puffed up like a pig’s bladder, and stinking of beer. Do you want to see him?

“Of course. He’s my friend after all.”

Nenneke, peeved, shrugged her shoulders. “I can’t understand that friendship. He’s your absolute opposite.

“Opposites attract.”

“Obviously. There, he’s coming.” She indicated with her head. “Your famous poet.”

“He really is a famous poet, Nenneke.”

Then, to parallel the djinn episode I just discussed, here is how Book!Geralt refers to Dandelion in that story in the books. When meets Yennefer to ask for her help, he refers to Dandelion several times as his friend.

“All because my friend needs help, which only you can give him.”

“Yennefer, I don’t want to be persistent but time is pressing. My friend--”

Then in the tent with Chireadan he says,

“...this only concerns Dandelion. He suffered at my side, in my presence. I didn’t manage to save him and I couldn’t help him. I’d sit on a scorpion with my bare backside if I knew it would help him.” (my emphasis)

So, Geralt calls him a friend. Brags about his poetry. Nenneke calls Dandelion "your" famous poet. Declares how much he cares about him to Chireadan.

Example Two. I’ll toss in another example of Geralt being affectionate to someone he considers pretty quickly to be a friend. In both the books and the show, when Geralt wakes up in the cell in the djinn episode, and when Chireadan apologizes for his role in allowing Yennefer to take advantage of him, this is how the two Geralt respond to the same moment.

TWN!Geralt

Chireadan: I admit I could have better prepared you for her.

Geralt: You’re under her spell aren’t you?

Book!Geralt

Chireadan apologizes. He says:

“Forgive me.”

Geralt replies:

“I forgive you...My dear elf...You wouldn’t have managed to break Yennefer’s spell...”

I simply cannot imagine TWN!Geralt calling another man "my dear." And the show quickly moves the focus to the romantic relationship.

Subjective interpretations and character building related to 1) and 2), both variations on Geralt’s willingness or desire to make friends.

So, I'm going to pause and talk about these two personality differences. We don't know why the show made these changes to the characters, though I'll speculate a little at the end of the post.

But for now, this exercise was for me to speculate on a fictional, "in world" reasons for them to be so different, so that I could write them. So, my armchair psychoanalysis for their fictional character dev went like this (you may disagree that's totally fine and good. This bit is all personal.):

Book!Geralt wears his vulnerability on his sleeve. He immediately tells Borch he is a witcher, making sure that Borch is still willing to associate with him. He is heading off the experience of being rejected yet again. (it is actually heartbreaking)

Book!Geralt goes beyond politeness. He is downright gallant in praising Tea and Vea, and in forgiving Chireadan (my dear elf). It reminds us of the little boy that wanted to be a knight.

With Book!Geralt, we see a man constantly trying to connect with a world that rejects him over and over again. He navigates these rejections with a bit of self consciousness and caution. His hurt is evident. But he always jumps at the chance to make a friend.

With TWN!Geralt, we see a man who has shut himself down to protect himself from the world’s cruelties. He rejects people preemptively.

TWN!Geralt may also be afraid of rejection, and that’s why he rejects people up front. He may be just as lonely. (I think he is) But he suppresses and hides his vulnerability.

TWN!Geralt grunts at Tea and Vea and keeps his face expressionless. We see again, the man who shuts people out.

They are both traumatized, there’s no question, given their background and status as witchers. But their defense mechanisms are very different.

Difference #3. How Geralt responds to the prospect of his own death. This may seem like a small thing, but these differences really jumped out at me as interesting and extreme. Here are the two versions of Geralt responding to the same threats to his life.

Example One: When Geralt is about to face the striga (in Betrayer Moon in the show, and in The Voice of Reason in the books) someone asks him what will happen if he fails. Here’s how each version of Geralt responds.

TWN Geralt.

Man: “And if you can’t kill it?”

Geralt: “Then I die,”

Book!Geralt.

“I intend to do whatever is in my power...but if it goes badly, I will defend my life.”

Example Two: In the djinn episode (and in the short story) Geralt wakes up in a jail cell with Chireadan after Yennefer has used his body to punish the men in town. Chireadan tells Geralt he will be executed for his crimes. The two Geralts react totally differently.

TWN!Geralt:

Chireadan: “The sentence will be passed by the very council members you attacked. It is sure to be death.”

Geralt: “I suppose that’s one way of getting some rest.”

Book!Geralt:

“The elf made a brief gesture across his neck. Despite the gesture, the darkness left little doubt as to Chireadan’s meaning....

“Great,” said Geralt finally, and cursed vilely. “Not only will I hang, but I’ll do so with the knowledge that I am the cause of your death, Chireadan. And Dandelion’s too, no doubt. No, don’t interrupt. I know it’s Yennefer’s prank, but I’m the guilty one. It’s my foolishness.”

Subjective interpretations and character building:

Ok, again. Thinking 'in universe' ways to interpret these.

There are several times in the witcher books where book!Geralt is ready, willing, or even wanting to die. However, they all take place in extremely dire emotional situations having to do with people he loves. These moments are not in the course of a regular contract. In normal circumstances, as you see above, book!Geralt really wants to live! He doesn’t want to get killed by a random monster! He curses vilely!

TWN!Geralt seems to not care about his life.

The fact that TWN!Geralt reacts so casually multiple times about the possibility of losing his life for no reason beyond a simple job, is heartbreaking. As someone with depression and PTSD, both the flat affect and the constant, chronic desire to die feels like it could fit. So my headcanon for him in my inter-dimensional fic is that he is severely depressed. But obviously, you could take that as 'that's just his humor.' Or 'he's really badass and risk seeking' or simply 'low self worth'. We'll all interpret that differently depending on our own personal experiences. And honestly, I'll contextualize that differently in different fics, depending on the story I'm telling.

Side Note: Also, in this passage, we see book!Geralt doing what he always does. He blames himself for everything bad that happens to himself and others. It’s a quality of his that is frustrating and also many times heartbreaking as well. He does that more prominently than his TWN!Version. When TWN!Geralt is upset in Rare Species, he blames Jaskier for the direction of his life. (though I don’t think he meant it. I think it was said in a moment of emotion) Book!Geralt just constantly blames himself for literally everything. This isn’t an extreme difference as much as a stronger tendency. So, that goes in the fic too.

Difference #4. How Geralt feels about fertility, both his and Yen’s. This is starkly different in the book vs the show, and I think, given the themes of The Witcher, makes a big difference to the story.

In the books, theme of fertility is a central theme throughout, and Geralt's desire to have a child is central as well. Sapko says this in an interview on Sugarpulp:

Interviewer: Could the witcher’s obsession about the child, the wish to make her like him helping her develop her magic power, be reflecting the witcher’s wish to become a father, (my emphasis) as we know they are sterile due to the poisons and potions they have to drink?

Sapkowski: Of course it was the one and only reason to introduce the character of Ciri into the storyline. ..(again, my emphasis)

So, while I have seen some TWN viewers said that Yennefer and her desire to be a mother came out of nowhere, was gendered in a cliched way, and/or didn't seem to fit with her character, I think part of that is because of the changes the show made to Geralt. it does not come out of nowhere in the books. It is a central theme, and she and Geralt experience it in parallel. She has lost her fertility due to a lifelong proximity to magic (not in a surgery of choice, like in the show) and he lost it through the trials. They are both struggling with it. That also makes the theme less gendered than it comes across in the show

So, with that background in mind, here are the contrasts in the text.

Example One. The different Geralts speaking about their own fertility.

TWN!Geralt

Geralt speaking to Yen during the dragon hunt.

“I didn’t choose to become a witcher. Listen. The people who made us, they made us sterile for a lot of reasons. One of the kinder ones is because this lifestyle isn’t suited to a child.”

He uses the word 'kind' to describe at least one of the reasons they sterilized him.

Book!Geralt

Book!Geralt speaks to Calanthe in Sword of Destiny about his fertility. She suggests he have his own child if he wants to raise a witcher, but then guesses that he cannot. He responds:

“As usual,” he said smiling sadly, “you are correct in your deductions Calanthe. You guessed right. What you are suggesting is impossible for me.”

“Forgive me,” she said, her smile vanishing from her face. “Oh, well, it’s a human thing.”

“It isn’t human.”

“Ah...So, no witcher can--”

“No, none The Trial of the Grasses, Calanthe, is dreadful. And what is done to boys during the time of the Changes is even worse. And irreversible.”

“Don’t start feeling sorry for yourself,” she muttered. “Because it ill behooves you....”

Time and time again in the books, Geralt grows sad or his voice grows soft when expresses regret about his loss of fertility.

Example two. How the two Geralts respond to Yennefer’s desire to become a mom.

TWN!Geralt

This was his response to Yennefer, when she says she wants her choice back, and wants to become a mother.

“And seriously? You? A mother?”

When asks him directly whether she would make a bad one, he says:

“Definitely.”

He calls her wish to be a mother, selfish and ego driven.

Book!Geralt

Book!Geralt gets it, because he feels the same. He wants to help Yen. In fact, he wants so much to help Yennefer conceive, that he tries to give Nenneke jewels to give Yennefer to pay for treatment. (He and Yen are broken up, so he tries to get Nenneke to be the go between)

Nenneke thinks he is just trying to suck up to Yen with gifts, and she refuses. Geralt responds:

“You misunderstand. I’m not thinking of appeasing or bribing her. But I do owe her something, and the treatment she wants to undergo is apparently very costly. I just want to help her, that’s all.”

Nenneke insists that Yennefer cannot be helped. Geralt practically begs. He says that not all sorceresses are infertile, and alludes to his mother. When that doesn’t move Nenneke, he tries another tack.

“Sorcerers...have raised the dead. I know of proven cases. And it seems to me that raising the dead is harder than reversing the atrophy of any organ.”

Ultimately, Nenneke won’t take his gifts, mostly because he’s poor by comparison to Yennefer.

“A costly treatment? Help? Geralt, these jewels of yours are, to her, knicknacks not worth spitting on. Do you know how much Yennefer can earn for getting rid of an unwanted pregnancy for a great lady?"

(Editors note: fuckin ouch)

This is all before the dragon hunt even takes place, so it contrasts directly with TWN!Geralt during the same period of time.

Difference #5. How Geralt feels about his child of surprise.

Example One. Geralt claiming the law of surprise.

TWN!Geralt.

After casually claiming the law of surprise, more to get out of an awkward social interaction than anything else, then realizing he is getting a child of surprise.

“Fuck.”

Book!Geralt

Book!Geralt knows (or hopes) she is pregnant, and purposefully and explicitly invokes the law of surprise because he wants a child. This is key. Here is how he explains it.

“And I,” said Duny, “ask again. What do you ask for?”

“Duny,” said Geralt seriously, “...In order to become a witcher, you have to be born in the shadow of destiny, and very few are born like that. That’s why there are so few of us. We are growing old, dying, without anyone to pass our knowledge, our gifts, on to. We lack successors And this world is fully of evil, which waits for the day none of us are left.”

“Geralt,” whispered Calanthe.

“Yes, you’re not wrong queen. Duny! You will give me that which you already have but do not know. I’ll return to Cintra in six years to see if destiny has been kind to me.”

“Pavetta,” Duny opened his eyes wide. “Surely you’re not--”

“Pavetta!” exclaimed Calanthe. “Are you...are you...”

The princess lowered her eyes and blushed.

Example Two. Both Geralts decide ultimately not to claim Ciri. Here is their reasoning.

TWN!Geralt

Again, speaking to Yennefer during the dragon hunt.

“I’ve thought about this, often. And I’d rather use my child surprise as bruxa bait, than subject it to this life.”

I find this to be a pretty dramatic line. He would rather let a monster tear apart a defenseless, mushy headed, innocent baby (no one made him claim the law of surprise, babes), rather than to raise it.

ADDITIONALLY. TWN!Geralt doesn’t just decline to take Ciri, he actively tries to sever his connection with her. He doesn’t say this but rewatching the djinn episode, it is heavily implied. Come with me on this. In the djinn episode:

When he claims he needs a djinn to cure insomnia, Jaskier says that if he’s sleepless, it’s because he is anxious about the child of surprise issue.

“I don’t mean to play priest’s ear or anything, but has it occurred to you that maybe we’re merely rubbing salve on a tumor? Not exactly addressing the root cause of the problem? Hm? I mean, maybe, just- just maybe, this whole sleeplessness-ness has got something to do with what the druid Mousesack said to you in Cintra? You know the Law of Surprise? Destiny? Being unable to escape the child that belongs to you, et cetera, et cetera?”

So the show brings up Geralt’s fear of claiming his child of surprise in this context.

Then, when he’s in the bathtub with Yen, she points out that looking for a djinn to help with insomnia makes zero sense. And it doesn’t! Djinn are powerful and dangerous and always find ways to twist your wishes! Geralt is a witcher and he knows that. It’s like using a bomb to kill a fly. If he needed a magical cure he would have just hired a mage. (In the books, Geralt and Jaskier were fishing together because they were hungry, and Jaskier pulled it out first)

So then Yen says:

“…And to pretend you’re after a djinn to cure insomnia?”

She’s like, you are full of shit, babe. That’s not why you wanted that djinn. And Geralt doesn’t deny it. He just tells her it’s none of her business.

So I’m thinking he wanted the djinn to undo his claim to the law of surprise. You don’t have to come along with me on that one, but it’s what I’ve inferred and I used that in my fic.

TWN!Geralt DOES go to Cintra in Episode 7 to make sure Ciri is safe when Nilfgaardian troops are gathering (that is when he finds out she’s a girl). So he does believe he has an obligation to her. Between the djinn episode and this, I’m thinking he takes destiny a little more seriously by then than he did before. But when Mousesack asks whether he has come for his child surprise he says.

“The opposite. I want you to tell me he’s safe and healthy so I can keep on riding.”

The implication, though, is that he would stay and defend her if she needed it.

Book!Geralt

Book!Geralt DOES go to claim the child in his sixth year, but he leaves without Ciri. (he still thinks the grandchild is a boy)

When he arrives, Calanthe throws in his face her knowledge of how many children die in the trials. She gets him to reveal that they aren’t even necessary if the child is already gifted. She also gets him to reveal he wasn’t a child of surprise but abandoned by his mother. And then gets him to acknowledge his infertility.

He crumbles, and changes his mind about taking the child.

“The risks are too great,” he said quickly. “As you said, at most, four out of ten survive...I wouldn’t want the child to tell you one day...as I’m telling you...”

He refers to his lack of fertility again. Again, this expresses his sorrow that the trials took his fertility, and he expresses that he would never do this to another person.

Then he says something that makes me think that invoking the law of surprise had little to do with witchers and more to do with him wanting to be a father.

“...I quit. I renounce it. I renounce my right to the boy. I don’t want to look destiny in the eye, because I don’t believe in it. Because I know that in order to unite two people, destiny is insufficient. Something more is necessary than destiny...”

He doesn't just want someone who is forced to be his child because of destiny. Destiny is not the love of a father and child. And he knows it isn't enough to fulfill what he wants. He wants familial love.

Interpretations and character development.

So yeah!! This is so different!

When I first read Geralt purposely claiming the law of surprise in the books, I was horrified. He’s supposed to be a good guy! Don’t the trials harm and kill most of the children? Why would he do that to someone else?

And when he changes his mind in Cintra, for that exact reason, it made me realize, he hadn’t really thought that bit through.

To me, that reflects the fact that we don’t always think critically about our parents and childhood trauma. Especially in a setting without therapists or the internet. You just take it for granted, or suppress it.

My inference is, book!Geralt just wants to be a father.

So, while TWN!Geralt got a child of surprise by accident, and is outwardly hostile to the idea of fatherhood, (and hostile to Yen about her desire for motherhood) book!Geralt is conflicted. He very much wants to be a father, but he thinks he doesn’t not have enough to offer, except perhaps a dangerous life. So he backs out.

WHY are they so different?

SO what does it mean for these characters? I needed an ‘in universe’ reason they are so different for my fic. Here are the reasons I came up with.

TWN!Geralt was abandoned by his mom at a much older age. The scene shows him playing as a young boy. He looks to be 6 or 7 when she flat out abandons him by the side of the road. He runs after her screaming for her! (D: as a mother of a son, that hit me hard) So basically, in my fic, I crank the abandonment related trauma up to a thousand per cent.

I build the character by assuming that TWN!Geralt feels anguish at the prospect that he could turn out like his mother. That he could abandon or disappoint a child.

His insulting comments to Yennefer now feel like a projection of mother issues. She is a sorceress and he thinks she'll just abandon her child the way he was abandoned. In reality, he cannot know what she is prepared to sacrifice to make a life with a child. But he just dismisses the idea entirely, and judges her harshly.

It also would explain why he made the wish and kept it from Yen. In my view, she is completely right to feel violated. Even if the wish wasn't why she loved him, she had the right to know about any magic acting upon her and influencing her. Now it seems like he was, again, avoiding being abandoned. If she is tied to him, she can't really leave him. Until Borch opened his mouth ofc. (In the books, Yen heard the wish and was deeply, deeply touched that Geralt would do that for her. It was a point of bonding for them. So, very different. But. He did still walk out on her without a word. He's a bit of a fuckboi)

(Also, I know Yen has also treated him poorly, but this isn't a post about Yen. It's a post about Geralt, so pls no one feel the need to point out her flaws. I am aware of them.)

Also, perhaps TWN!Geralt is in distress about his child of surprise already, feeling like he has abandoned Ciri every day he doesn’t go to her. After all, he does check on her later on. Maybe he feels guilty the whole time that he wasn't protecting her.

So every day, he could possibly feel like he is doing to her that was done to him. (In his mind. It’s obviously not the same objectively.)

So I just slap on this constant low level of distress and stratospheric level of abandonment complex to his character.

Book!Geralt has a bit of a different situation. He tells Calanthe he doesn’t remember his mother, suggesting she abandoned him much earlier, perhaps as a baby. (he could be suppressing the memory, but I’m going with the baby option for my fic)

AND YET in the books, we get constant reminders about how much it hurts book!Geralt that he was abandoned by his mother. In his first run-in with Renfri’s men, one of them taunts him about witchers not even knowing their mothers. He reacts so obviously in his expression that they laugh, knowing they’ve hit a nerve. (*sobs)

So I just pump that up even more for my TWN!Geralt.

Also, S1 of The Witcher completely cut out Nenneke. She is such a dear and important friend to Geralt, and many characterize her as a mother figure. She says a few times ‘I’m not your mother’, but she heals him, advises him, defends him, and plays a mentor type role to him. She also knew him when he was a child. Not many people knew Geralt as a child.

So, losing that friendship, grounding influence, and female mentor figure would have made TWN!Geralt even more lost and out to sea. It would have exacerbated his mother issues.

Now, they’ve actually worked backwards and cast Nenneke for S2. The absolutely fabulous and talented Adjoa Andoh has been cast, and is in a few images. SO, that sort of wrecks this little theory I’ve worked out. But it’s too late to change it now, as I've already written my next update. Besides, they may not retroactively make them as close as they are. Given what they did to Geralt’s other friendship, it’s likely not. So I’ll just keep writing.

THE SORT OF DIFFERENCES

Lastly, there are a few additional things that are not textually different, but aren’t really demonstrated to the same degree in the show.

Geralt’s vulnerability. There are a few things Geralt does in the books to try to make friends, and you laugh, but it also just breaks your heart. Like in The Last Wish, when Geralt goes to Blaviken, he tries to impress the alderman’s wife by throwing a fork at a rat in the dark. He is showing off his enhanced vision, trying to make his witcher powers seem cool and fun and worthy of showing off. It freaked her out and the alderman begged him never to do it again.

Geralt’s intellectual and philosophical side. I've made a post. And another one.

Geralt’s economic challenges. What it’s like working as a freelancer in dangerous manual labor.

Geralt’s humor. There are a few moments in the show. (You’re a dick, with balls. These views. Old and crusty?) But eeeee I think there could be more.

THESE DIFFERENCES ARE A MOVING TARGET

These differences probably have a time limit on them. Season 2 already looks to be quite different.

Lauren (the showrunner) says that she took people’s critique seriously about erasing so many of Geralt’s relationships and friendships, and only allowing him to show affection in the context of a romance. She says S2 will focus on found family and will let Geralt have human connections. There are images of him with Ciri, and him with Nenneke in the trailer. They show him reuniting with Jaskier.

Henry has said that he wants Geralt to show affection for other men. I saw a few pieces of thoughtful critique post-S1 about how American-ized hyper macho no-homo vibe of the Netflix changes to Geralt. When you take away his stress with fertility (often something considered feminine) and you take away how he shows affection to men, that critique had compelling evidence to support it. But Henry said that he wants to show that men can care about each other in S2. There are images of him hugging the other wolf witchers in the trailer for S2.

Henry also says he is working hard to make sure Geralt’s vocabulary reflects a well traveled, cultured, 70 year old man. (he said all of this in the Witcher con interview. He said too many hmms and fucks become tropey, comedic, or sells short Sapko’s writing)

So, a lot of this analysis I did regarding their differences may not be so relevant after December 17. BUT, it is what it is. That’s the way the ball bounces sometimes. It’s the nature of fic for a current show. And, they can't change him that much, or he wouldn't seem like the same character at all.

Having watch a lot of my favorite novels be adapted for movie or tv (LOTR, The Expanse) I have lots of ideas or opinions on why these kinds of changes happen, but that would be a whole different post.

Ok, this is over 5k words. So, I’ll stop.

But these are some of the similarities, the differences, and the ‘not textually different but not emphasized’ bits of TWN!Geralt vs Book!Geralt.

I love them both, or I wouldn't obsess to this degree.

If you’ve made it this far WOW YOU’RE AS MUCH OF A NERD AS I AM. YOU GET A GIANT NERD PRIZE. MY NERDY ADMIRATION. XD Feel free to comment or send an ask about your thoughts. As you can see, I am always up for talking about Geralt of Rivia. Or really, any aspect of the characters or relationships in The Witcher universe.

And if you read Posada Remix, I’ll update in the next day or so, then I’ll see you in the comments. (I swear I will catch up on them. I feel so guilty when I don’t update for awhile that I hide)

A few tags of people who said they wanted to read it. @panur @lottelorelei @lovelysailboat @littleyumeshiro

#the witcher #geralt of rivia #meta #character analysis #posada remix #thinking about geralt of rivia yet again #twn vs books

636 notes · View notes

fortunatelyfresco · 3 years

Text

A Holistic Integration of Type 1 Narcolepsy into the Reading of Moist von Lipwig

Literary Interpretation, Disability, and Finding Yourself Between the Lines

As it goes, "I wrote this for me, but you can read it if you want." It might be a fun ride for anyone who is very interested in Moist von Lipwig, or narcolepsy, or both, and/or anyone who enjoys collecting small details from within a body of work and arranging them into threads that are supportable by the text, without being actually suggested by it.

Personally, I find it very interesting to read the meta behind different headcanons, and see how creators can unintentionally write a character who fits certain criteria. There are only so many traits, after all, and some of them tend to travel in groups! Humans are pattern seekers, etc etc.

The first step of reading Moist von Lipwig as narcoleptic is wanting to read Moist von Lipwig as narcoleptic. Being narcoleptic myself and relating heavily to Moist, this step was very easy. I invite you to take my hand and come along, at least briefly, if you were interested enough to click the readmore.

Once you have taken that step, things start falling into place. At least they do if you're intimately familiar with narcolepsy, or if you first learn about it in detail through, for instance, a Tumblr post with an agenda :)

I'll break this down symptom by symptom, citing only the ones I both have personal experience with and see textual support for.

I'll be using OverDrive's search function to catalogue "evidence" in (the American editions of) Going Postal, Making Money, and Raising Steam, so I might miss passages that don't use certain keywords.

Please take any statements along the lines of "being narcoleptic means X" with a huge grain of salt. Sometimes it's just more succinct. Narcolepsy can manifest in many different ways, and is still being actively studied. Don't base your entire understanding of it on a fandom essay I wrote to cope with the crushing pressures of capitalism. I have not even fully read the scientific studies linked here as sources.

Here we go! Spoilers abound.

I. Excessive Daytime Sleepiness (EDS) and sleep attacks.

Being narcoleptic means (salt now, please) that your brain does not get adequate rest while you sleep, no matter how much you sleep. This is because of a disturbance in the order and length of REM and NREM sleep phases. This leads to constant exhaustion. Some sources describe narcoleptic EDS as "comparable to [the sleepiness] experienced by a healthy individual who has been sleep-deprived continuously for 48–72 hours."

(Source.)

Sleep attacks can come on gradually or suddenly. In my case, I become irritable and easily overwhelmed, and nothing matters except finding a place to lie down. A more severe attack, under the right circumstances, can put me to sleep while I'm actively trying to stay awake and engaged.

Moist refers to 6:45 am as "still nighttime." He is "allergic to the concept of two seven o'clocks in one day" and is "not good at early mornings," and the narration even cites this as "one of the advantages of a life of crime; you didn't have to get up until other people had got the streets aired."

In Going Postal, he repeatedly falls asleep at his desk. I can only find two instances, but the first one describes it as having happened "again," so it happens at least three times over the course of one week. Both of the times I found were after Mr. Pump cleared his apartment, giving him access to a bed, and I can't find any reference to the fire destroying it—just that his office is "missing the whole of one wall." His presumably wooden desk is still intact, even, just "charred."

There's also no build-up either time. No direct narration of the time right before he falls asleep, just retroactive accounting for it.

Which is primarily a function of stories not showing us every boring second, and secondarily one of the smaller ways we're shown Moist being overwhelmed and racing to keep up with himself, but tertiarily it's a great set dressing if you've already decided he's narcoleptic. Sometimes sleep is just a thing that happens, without any deliberate transition. Sometimes you sit down to catch your breath or get some paperwork done, and wake up several hours later.

I've found only one example in GP of Moist waking up in his actual bed at the post office: the morning after being possessed by all the undelivered letters. Presumably either they put him there, or Mr. Pump did.

There are two points in Making Money where Moist, in an effort to be a comforting and/or guiding hand, advises people to get some sleep. First Owlswick Jenkins, and then one of the clerks (Robert) who is worried about Mr. Bent.

I take the optimistic view that this is Moist genuinely caring about these people, not just trying to get them to do what he wants. He has always done some combination of those things (GP opens with him having befriended his jailers, after all), but there's definitely a thread of him learning to treat both himself and those around him more like real people. (See also.)

Looking at this thread through narcolepsy-colored lenses, you get Moist perhaps drawing from his own experiences in an effort to be helpful. In Owlswick or Robert's position, what is something he would want to hear from the man currently in charge of his fate, or at least his job? "Get some sleep."

If we accept this as a pattern, it culminates in Raising Steam, when Moist starts to worry about "Dick Simnel and his band of overworked engineers," fixating particularly on their lack of sleep.

What sleep they got was in sleeping bags, curled up on carriage seats, eating but not eating well, just driven by their watches and their desire to keep the train going.

[...]

"People are going to die if we push them any further," he said to Dick. "You lot would rather work than sleep!"

[...]

The young man swayed in front of him and Moist's tone became gentle. "And I see now that part of my job is to tell you that you need some rest. You've run out of steam, Dick. Look, we're well on the way to Uberwald now, and while it's daylight and we're out of the mountains it's going to be the least risky time to run with minimum crew. We're all going to need our wits about us when we get near the pass. Surely you can take some rest?"

Simnel blinked as if he'd not seen Moist the first time, and said, "Yes, you're right."

And Moist could hear the slurring in the young man's speech, caught him before he fell and dragged him into a sleeping compartment, put him to bed, and noted that the engineer didn't so much fall asleep as somehow flow into it.

Moist then recruits Vimes to help him talk the rest of the engineers into getting some rest. The two of them briefly commiserate about people not realizing how important it is.

"I have to teach that to young coppers. Treasure a night's rest, I always say. Take a nap whenever you can."

"Very good."

II. Insomnia.

This is a lesser-known but very common symptom of narcolepsy. Or a comorbidity, depending on how you look at it. It seems counterintuitive if narcolepsy has been presented to you as "sleeping all the time," but it makes sense once you know it's really a matter of disruption in the brain's ability to regulate sleep cycles.

The case for this symptom is flimsier, and I fully admit I'm just reading my own experience into it. But here are two excerpts from Going Postal that I find quite suitable for my sleepy agenda:

1. "A man of affairs such as he had to learn to sleep in all kinds of situations, often while mobs were looking for him a wall's thickness away."

I latched hard onto this detail the first time I read GP.

At my worst, I could not get more than a couple hours of sleep in my bed. I kept taking naps in the bath because it was one of the few places I could sleep. It seemed to fulfill some of the criteria (isolation, temperature control, etc) that my brain demanded in exchange for playing nice.

We're told over and over again, throughout Moist's books, that he functions best under pressure.

(Brief aside: This is often cited as a reason to interpret Moist as having ADHD, which I'm also fully on board with. Not coincidentally, narcolepsy and ADHD share a few symptoms, have a notable comorbidity rate, and are treated with some of the same medications. Source.)

So again, if you're already inclined to read Moist as narcoleptic, the following is an easy jump:

"Moist thinks he's good at sleeping in strange places under strange circumstances. This is because A) his basis for comparison is a disordered attempt to sleep in normal places under normal circumstances, B) something about danger satisfies his brain into running more smoothly, and C) he's a resourceful person who is 'not given to introspection,' and so is less likely to wonder why his body demands sleep at strange times and more likely to focus on finding a place for that sleep to happen, and chalk this up later as a skill."

And returning briefly to EDS: Why would someone like Moist waste time finding a safe place to sleep while people are actively trying to kill him? At the beginning of GP, he leaves Vetinari's office and immediately goes on the run. In multiple books, when he feels threatened, his brain instinctively launches into complex escape plans. We see him successfully blend into an Ankh-Morpork crowd at least once after becoming a public figure.

So why bother? After all, a safe place to sleep is also a safe place to change clothes, or at least remove whatever distinguishing features he's given himself. Why wouldn't he just become someone else and leave town immediately?

The obvious answer is that sometimes things just happen, and an author doesn't need to know or explain every single detail of a character's past.

I would suggest, though, that one of those things might be Moist reaching a point where sleep is just not optional. A point where he not only doesn't, but can't, care about anything else. Where he is too tired to think straight, too tired to talk his way out of trouble, too tired to even contemplate the long journey from one town to the next.

2. "Moist knew he ought to get some sleep, but he had to be there, too, alive and sparkling."

Sometimes (especially in combination with underlying mental health issues) narcoleptic sleep deprivation can bypass everything I've described so far, and lead straight into a manic state. You won't necessarily find that on Google, but it's been my experience.

That's obviously not what the text is implying. "Alive and sparkling" is just a very relatable description. And we do often see Moist getting away from himself, speaking without thinking, making absurd promises that he justifies immediately afterwards as Just Part Of Being Him, always raising the stakes.

And here are a couple of excerpts from Raising Steam that could be interpreted as Moist being a light sleeper, AKA struggling to get deep sleep:

1. "And slowly Moist shut down, although a part of him was always listening to the rhythm of the rails, listening in his sleep, like a sailor listening to the sounds of the sea."

2. "All Moist's life he'd managed to find a way of sleeping in just about every circumstance and, besides, the guard's van was somehow the hub of the train; and although he didn't know how he did it, he always managed to sleep with half of one ear open."

Moist is exactly the kind of opportunist to see that as a useful tool, isn't he?

III. Hypnagogic and Hypnopompic Hallucinations.

These are hallucinations that come on as you're falling asleep or waking up. They can also happen during REM intrusions while you're awake. My most memorable ones include piano notes, someone calling my name, being trapped in the waves of a large body of water, and a huge truck going over a guard rail and tumbling down a hill. These are often, but not always, accompanied by sleep paralysis (and sleep paralysis is often, but not always, accompanied by hallucinations).

In GP, Moist casually cites his own hallucinations as proof that what is happening at the post office is not one.

"They're all alive! And angry! They talk! It was not a hallucination! I've had hallucinations and they don't hurt!"

Obviously that's not true for everyone, but it's true for Moist, and he has enough experience that he immediately recognizes the difference.

At one point while awake, Moist "[snaps] out of a dream of chandeliers" to realize someone has approached him to talk, while he was busy having visions of what the post office used to look like/could look like again.

Now, that's cheating, because we're probably supposed to assume it's a side effect of being possessed, but... I'm putting it here anyway.

There is also perhaps a case to be made for the tendency of Moist's internal monologue to lapse into extremely specific and prolonged hypotheticals. The lines between hallucinations, waking dreams, and "regular" daydreams have always been very blurry to me. I'm especially curious about the example at the end of Going Postal, which goes like this:

"Look, I know what I'm like," he said. "I'm not the person everyone thinks I am. I just wanted to prove to myself I'm not like Gilt. More than a hammer, you understand? But I'm still a fraud by trade. I thought you knew that. I can fake sincerity so well that even I can't tell. I mess with people's heads—"

"You're fooling no one but yourself," said Miss Dearheart, and reached for his hand.

Moist shook her off, and ran out of the building, out of the city, and back to his old life, or lives, always moving on, selling glass as diamond, but somehow it just didn't seem to work anymore, the flair wasn't there, the fun had dropped out of it, even the cards didn't seem to work for him, the money ran out, and one winter in some inn that was no more than a slum he turned his face to the wall—

And an angel appeared.

"What just happened?" said Miss Dearheart.

Perhaps you do get two...

"Only a passing thought," said Moist.

In-universe... what is Adora reacting to? What did just happen? The fact that these incidents are not isolated to Going Postal is a point against it being some sort of literal timeline divergence caused by The Spirit Of The Post.

So maybe Moist visibly zoned out. Maybe he had some kind of minor but noticeable cataplexy attack (more on those later) as part of a REM intrusion, brought on by the intense emotions he's currently struggling with.

IV. Vivid Dreams.

Again, at least some of this is probably supposed to be part of the possession, but I've been professionally projecting myself onto the surreal dreams of magically afflicted characters for years. Do try this at home.

1. "Moist dreamed of bottled wizards, all shouting his name. In the best tradition of awaking from a nightmare, the voices gradually became one voice, which turned out to be the voice of Mr. Pump, who was shaking him."

2. Moist is uneasy about the Smoking Gnu's plan, and then he has an extremely detailed dream about the Grand Trunk burning down.

This culminates in "Moist awoke, the Grand Trunk burning in his head," followed by a paragraph of him thinking things through and starting to form his own alternative plan, followed immediately by "Moist awoke. He was at his desk, and someone had put a pillow under his head."

So he fell asleep at his desk, woke up from a vivid nightmare, was awake just long enough for a coherent train of thought, and then passed back out. Which once again is not "proof" of anything, but fits the predetermined interpretation like a glove.

V. Cataplexy.

Cataplexy is a sudden loss of muscle control, usually triggered by strong emotions. This is thought to be a facet of REM intrusion—waking instances of the atonia that is meant to stop us from acting out our dreams.

The most well-known manifestation is laughter making your knees buckle, but it's not always that severe. My own attacks range from facial twitching, usually when I'm angry or otherwise extremely upset, to all-over weakness/immobilization and near-collapse when I laugh. My knees have fully buckled once or twice.

This is the biggest stretch. This is the one that is absolutely only there if you've already decided to read entire novels between the lines. It's also not even necessary for the broader headcanon; plenty of people have narcolepsy without cataplexy (or such mild cataplexy that it's never noticeable, or very delayed onset, etc).

However. I am doing this for fun. So I want him to have it. It's also become a major part of how I imagine Moist engaging with emotion, and I'd like to make a case for that.

There are a few scattered references to Moist's legs shaking, or being unsteady, or outright giving way, but there's usually an external physical reason, and/or enough psychological shock to justify it without a medical condition.

The most compelling example I've found so far comes from Moist and Adora's conversation about people expecting Moist to deliver letters to the gods.

"I never promised to—"

"You promised to when you sold them the stamps!"

Moist almost fell off his chair. She'd wielded the sentence like a fist.

"And it'll give them hope," she added, rather more quietly.

"False hope," said Moist, struggling upright.

"Almost fell off his chair" at first sounds like casual hyperbole, but then "struggling upright" implies it was a bit more literal. It's also an accurate description of me recovering from my more severe attacks, supporting myself on a wall or my spouse, or pushing myself up if I've fallen over in bed.

That happens to me multiple times per day, by the way. It doesn't bother me, and I didn't realize there was anything unusual about it for a long time. I barely think about it, except to fondly note that my spouse is good at making me laugh.

Which is to say, even severe cataplexy is not always noticeable or debilitating. Sometimes it absolutely is! It can be downright dangerous, depending on where you are, what you're doing, and whether you have any other conditions it might exacerbate. I don't want to undermine that.

I am just hell-bent on justifying the idea that this fictional character could have repeated attacks throughout the canonical narrative that are so routine they don't merit an explanation, or even a description. Especially for someone who is used to hiding his few distinguishing features behind false ones that are much more memorable. (See also.)

(That link goes to my own fanfic. Sorry.)

On the milder side, between Going Postal and Making Money, there are three instances of Moist's mouth "dropping open" when he's shocked, upset, confused, or some combination of the three. This is the kind of thing that shows up a lot in fiction, but rarely happens so literally in real life.

(There's technically a fourth instance, but I'm not counting it because it seems to be a deliberate choice on his part to convey surprise.)

And then there's laughter. Or rather, there isn't. I could be missing something, but I've searched all three books for instances of laughter and various synonyms (not counting spoken "Ha!"s), and what I've come up with is:

Moist laughs once in Going Postal, when he receives the assignment for the race to Genua.

Two packages were handed over. Moist undid his, and burst out laughing.

There's also an instance earlier in the book where Moist nearly "burst[s] out laughing."

I find the specifics here interesting, and, for our purposes, fortuitous. Cataplexy is complicated and presents differently for everyone. In my case, when laughter triggers an attack, one of the effects (which is sometimes also a cause) is that I laugh very hard, with little or no control. "Burst out laughing" is quite apt.

Let's move on to Making Money, and start with a quick tangent:

Mr. Bent explains that he has no sense of humor due to a medical condition, and that he isn't upset about this and doesn't understand why people feel sorry for him.

Moist immediately starts in with "Have you tried—" before getting cut off by the frustrated Bent.

Out-of-universe, "Have you tried" is such a well-known refrain to anyone with an incurable condition, I'm not at all surprised to find it in a book written by someone who had at least begun the process that would lead to a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's. And Pratchett has certainly never shied away from portraying ignorance in his protagonists.

In-universe, it feels a little odd. Moist's tongue runs away from him all the time, but usually in the form of making ridiculous claims or impossible promises. Moist's entire stock-in-trade is People Skills, and it feels strange for him to make this kind of mistake immediately after being told Mr. Bent is not looking for solutions.

But if one were reading with, for instance, the idea in mind that Moist himself has an incurable condition related to laughter and is enthusiastic about, but still relatively new to, the practice of drawing on his own experiences to help people... it is easy to imagine the gears in his head turning the wrong way, superimposing those experiences over the tail end of Mr. Bent's explanation. Disabled people are not immune to these well-meaning pitfalls.

There is another Mr. Bent moment that I want to discuss, but we'll circle back around to it later.

I found two instances of Moist himself laughing in MM.

1. "He said it with a laugh, to lighten the mood a little."

This is deliberate laughter, employed as a social tactic. A polite chuckle, probably. Not the sort of thing that generally triggers cataplexy.

2. "Moist started to laugh, and stopped at the sight of her grave expression."

The first and only involuntary laugh in MM. It doesn't always trigger attacks...

Which brings us to Raising Steam. Compared to the first two books, Moist laughs a lot here. I count nine instances. Two of them are "burst out laughing"s, a couple include him as part of a group, some of it comes off as deliberate, and some of it doesn't.

I've always seen a lot of... rage in Raising Steam. Combing through it for laughter, I realized Moist's emotions in general are much closer to the surface here, and he's much less concerned about letting people see them. He laughs with friends and acquaintances, he cries in front of strangers, he shouts at Harry King, he has that entire conversation with Dick that boils down to "I'm very worried about you," etc.

Opinions vary wildly and sharply on Raising Steam. I have my own hangups with it, as I do with most books in the series. (Every time I make a new Discworld post, Tumblr passive-aggressively suggests the tag "my kingdom for a discworld character who is normal about women and other species.")

But I like this particular change in Moist, and I choose to see it as character development. He's trading in the professional detachment of a conman for the ability to grow into himself as a person and make meaningful connections.

So, what does that have to do with cataplexy? A lot.

I don't want to get too maudlin, so I'll just say I have plenty of personal experience with emotional repression masking cataplexy symptoms. And so, I believe, does the version of Moist we've put together over the course of this post.

Which brings us back to Making Money, and Mr. Bent. He says something about Moist that I find very interesting: "I do not trust those who laugh too easily."

Unless I've missed something, at that point in the book, Moist has never actually laughed in front of him. And Mr. Bent is a man who pays very close attention to details.

So, what is the in-universe explanation for this? I'd like to propose that Moist is very skilled at seeming to laugh, without actually laughing. He smiles, he's friendly, and he makes other people laugh, which is another thing Bent dislikes about him. He gives the impression of being someone who laughs a lot. (He certainly left that impression on me; I was very surprised by the lack of examples in the first two books.)

Even staying strictly within the bounds of canon, it's easy to imagine why this might have become part of Moist's camouflage in his previous life. He wasn't looking to get attached to anyone, and he didn't want anyone getting inside his head. Engaging with people genuinely enough to laugh at their jokes would run counter to both of those things, but some of his personas still needed to come off as friendly and sociable.

Still working within the canon, it makes sense to assume he's similarly distanced himself from emotion in general. He sits in a cell for several weeks without truly believing he's going to die. He's bewildered when Mr. Pump points out that his schemes have hurt innocent people. He has no idea what to do with his feelings for Adora. Etc.

Interpreting Moist as having cataplexy adds an extra element of danger. Moist thrives on danger, but there's a difference between the thrill of a con and the threat of sudden, uncontrollable displays of vulnerability. And so it becomes even easier to see him stifling his own emotional capacity.*

We meet Moist at a moment of great upheaval. He is forcibly removed from his cocoon of false identities, and pushed out into the world as himself. And we are shown and told throughout Going Postal that he does not know how to be himself. (See also.)

He is repeatedly stymied by his own emotions. He gets tongue-tied and confused around Adora, he snaps at Mr. Pump, he lashes out at Mr. Groat, he gets lost in school flashbacks when he meets Miss Maccalariat. This thread continues in Making Money, where the sudden reappearance of Cribbins immediately rattles him into making an uncharacteristic mistake.

I called him Cribbins! Just then! I called him Cribbins! Did he tell me his name? Did he notice? He must have noticed!

Later in the same book, Moist misses a crucial opportunity to run damage control on the bank's public image... because he's excited to see Adora.

The Moist of GP and MM is not used to feeling things so deeply. It throws him off his game. I'm not at all suggesting cataplexy is the only (or even primary) reason for that, but I do think there's room for it on both sides of the cause and effect equation.

With or without the cataplexy, I find Moist's relative emotional openness in Raising Steam... really nice. (It's a work in progress. He's still getting a handle on anger.)

Cataplexy just adds another dimension. A physical manifestation of emotional vulnerability, which would have been especially untenable for a teenager on the run. Just one more facet of the real, human, fallible Moist von Lipwig who spent years buried beneath Albert Spangler and all the rest.

Another piece of himself that Moist is growing to understand and accept, as he learns to more comfortably be himself.

The Moist of Going Postal runs into a burning building to save lives without fully understanding why he wants to, and justifies it on the fly as an essential part of the role he's trying to play.

The Moist of Raising Steam mindlessly throws himself under a train to save two children, and then blows up at Harry King about the lack of safety regulations. Freshly traumatized by the murder of several railway workers and his own violent, vengeful response to it, he still offers, in the face of Harry's own grief, to be the one to inform their families. On a long and dangerous journey with plenty of moving parts to think about, he worries about Dick Simnel and the other engineers, and pushes them to take better care of themselves.

He also meets a bunch of kids who nearly derailed a train as part of a childish scheme. His admonishment is startlingly vivid.

"Can you imagine a railway accident? The screaming of the rails and the people inside and the explosion that scythes the countryside around when the boiler bursts? And you, little girl, and your little friends, would have done all that. Killed a trainload of people."

[...]

"I'll square this with the engine driver, but if I was you I'd get my pencil and turn any clever ideas you have like this into a book or two. Those penny dreadfuls are all the rage in the railway bookshops."

Maybe what he is also saying, between the lines, is:

I left home at 14 and began a life of smoke and mirrors. I was empty inside, and I thought everyone else was, too. It was all fun and games, and then a man made of clay told me I was killing people. Nip it in the bud, child. Write books.

------------

*There are studies suggesting that in addition to deliberately employed "tricks," people with cataplexy may experience physiological reactions in the brain meant to inhibit laughter. (Source 1, Source 2.)

Most of the information here is way over my head, but that second link also says "one region of the brain called the zona incerta (meaning 'zone of uncertainty') was only activated during laughter in people with narcolepsy, not in controls. Research on the zona incerta in animals suggests that it also helps to control fear-associated behavior."

The linked article about that (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03581-6) is also over my head, but I would certainly describe Moist von Lipwig as having unusual fear responses.**

**Narcolepsy is a fun roller-coaster ride of constant scientific discoveries about exactly which parts of your brain are paying too much attention, not paying enough attention, or trying to eat each other.

#moist von lipwig #narcolepsy #discworld #disabled headcanons #oh my god this got so out of hand #earned itself a title AND a subtitle #mr. cybulskis i'm sorry i fell asleep in your class every day it was at the exact wrong time and temperature and lighting

163 notes · View notes

bamf-jaskier · 4 years

Text

Who the Fuck is Philippa Eilhart?

I don’t know if you’ve been following Witcher news lately but Philippa has just been cast!

Of course, many show-only fans might not be familiar with her character and game-only fans might not know how different her story is in the books, so I’m here to give a relatively brief overview of her plot line in the books. Warning: lots of book spoilers ahead as well as the standard graphic violence that is the norm in the books.

With that, Hi! I’m Aaliyah and this is Part 6 of my WTF Series - a crash course in subject from The Witcher books.

The first time we meet Philippa in Blood of Elves, she is an advisor to the King of Redania. Dandelion is brought before The Redanian Secret Service because they wish to know Geralt’s whereabouts.

Excerpt:

Dandilion glanced at the fourth person present at the meeting, who until then had remained silent. Philippa Eilhart must have only recently arrived in Oxenfurt, or was perhaps intending to leave at once, since she wore neither a dress nor her favourite black agate jewellery nor any sharp make-up.

She was wearing a man’s short jacket, leggings and high boots – a “field” outfit as the poet called it. The enchantress’s dark hair, usually loose and worn in a picturesque mess, was brushed smooth and tied back at the nape of her neck.

“Let’s not waste time,” she said, raising her even eyebrows. “Dandilion’s right. We can spare ourselves the rhetoric and slick eloquence which leads nowhere when the matter at hand is so simple and trivial.”

Here are some of Dandelion’s thoughts on Philippa:

Dandilion divided women – including magicians – into very likeable, likeable, unlikeable and very unlikeable. The very likeable reacted to the proposition of being bedded with joyful acquiescence, the likeable with a happy smile. The unlikeable reacted unpredictably. The very unlikeable were counted by the troubadour to be those to whom the very thought of presenting such a proposition made his back go strangely cold and his knees shake.

Philippa Eilhart, although very attractive, was decidedly very unlikeable. Apart from that, Philippa Eilhart was an important figure in the Council of Wizards, and King Vizimir’s trusted court magician.

She was a very talented enchantress. Word had it that she was one of the few to have mastered the art of polymorphy. She looked thirty. In truth she was probably no less than three hundred years old.”

Then, Dandelion leaves to go back to Geralt and Philippa follows him in the form of an owl:

A big grey owl glided down to the sill without a sound. Shani cried out quietly. Geralt reached for his sword.

“Don’t be silly, Philippa,” said Dandilion.

The owl disappeared and Philippa Eilhart appeared in its place, squatting awkwardly. The magician immediately jumped into the room, smoothing down her hair and clothes.

“Good evening,” she said coldly. “Introduce me, Dandilion.”

“Geralt of Rivia. Shani of Medicine. And that owl which so craftily flew in my tracks is no owl. This is Philippa Eilhart from the Council of Wizards, at present in King Vizimir’s service and pride of the Tretogor court. It’s a shame we’ve only got one chair in here.”

Geralt is trying to hunt down a wizard, Rience, who is trying to get Ciri. When Geralt is about to kill Rience, Philippa lets Rience portal away and Geralt, Shani and Dandelion are quite upset:

“Philippa!” shouted Dandilion, still holding the weeping Shani. “Have you gone mad?”

“No,” said the witcher with some effort. “She’s quite sane. And knows perfectly well what she’s doing. She knew all along what she was doing. She took advantage of us. Betrayed us. Deceived—”

“Calm down,” repeated Philippa Eilhart. “You won’t understand and you don’t have to understand. I did what I had to do. And don’t call me a traitor. Because I did this precisely so as not to betray a cause which is greater than you can imagine.

A great and important cause, so important that minor matters have to be sacrificed for it without second thoughts, if faced with such a choice. Geralt, damn it, we’re nattering and you’re standing in a pool of blood. Calm down and let Shani and me take care of you.”

Of course, this is all a part of Philippa’s larger plan to hold a coup and gain political power. Vilgefortz hired Rience and if Geralt had found that out then Vilgefortz would be revealed as a traitor to the Brotherhood and Philippa couldn’t have that happening before her coup.

The next time we see Philippa is in Time of Contempt at the banquet on Thanedd Island. She talks to many of the guests, here is a short conversation between her and Geralt:

“There’s no caviar.’ (Geralt)

‘One moment.’ (Philippa)

She looked around quickly, waved a hand and mumbled a spell. The silver dish in the shape of a leaping fish immediately filled with the roe of the endangered shovelnose sturgeon. The Witcher smiled.

‘Can one eat one’s fill of an illusion?’

‘No. But snobbish tastes can be pleasantly titillated by it. Have a try.’

‘Hmm… Indeed… I’d say it’s tastier than the real thing…’

‘And it’s not at all fattening,’ said the enchantress proudly, squeezing lemon juice over a heaped teaspoon of caviar. ‘May I have another goblet of white wine?’

‘At your service. Philippa?’

‘Yes.’

‘I’m told etiquette precludes the use of spells here. Wouldn’t it be safer, then, to conjure up the illusion of the taste of caviar alone, without the caviar? Just the sensation? You’d surely be able to…’

‘Of course I would,’ said Philippa Eilhart, looking at him through her crystal goblet. ‘The construction of such a spell is easy as pie. But were you only to have the sensation of taste, you’d lose the pleasure the activity offers. The process, the accompanying ritual movements, the gestures, the conversation and eye contact which accompanies the process… I’ll entertain you with a witty comparison. Would you like that?’

‘Please do. I’m looking forward to it.’

‘I’d also be capable of conjuring the sensation of an orgasm.”

She is quite ruthless and cutting and while Geralt remains upset about Rience, Philippa, in true sorceress fashion, has already moved on. As well, she is explicitly queer in the books which I talk about here

Later, Geralt gets up in the night to go to the bathroom and stumbles upon Philippa attempting a coup. Triss temporarily blinds Geralt and Philippa and Tissaia exchange tense words. Philippa sends Geralt away with Dijkstra, offering him mercy despite him finding out about her coup.

However, Geralt gets away from Dijkstra and goes back to Thanedd where a full-battle is going on.

Turns out, Tissaia and Philippa’s fight cumulated in Tissaia releasing Vilgefortz and lowering the barrier as seen in this passage:

“They’re still fighting,’ said Carduin, grinding his teeth. ‘It’s hot down there, one spell after another…’

‘Spells? In Garstang? But there’s an anti-magic aura there!’

‘It was Tissaia’s doing. She suddenly decided whose side she was on. She took down the blockade, removed the aura and neutralised the dimeritium. Then everyone went for each other! Vilgefortz and Terranova on one side, Philippa and Sabrina on the other… The columns cracked and the vaulting collapsed… And then Francesca opened the entrance to the cellars, and those elven devils suddenly leapt out… We told them that we were neutral, but Vilgefortz only laughed.”

Geralt then runs in Keira Metz who was thrown out a window and she explains that after Vilgefortz was released the Scoia’tael (Elven and Non-human fighters who are allied with Nilfgaard sort of) attacked:

“Sorry. How did the Scoia’tael get here?”

“They were hidden in the cellars. Thanedd is as hollow as a nutshell and there’s a huge cavern under it; you could sail a ship in if you knew how. Someone must have told them the way—Ouuuch! Be careful! Stop jolting me!’

‘Sorry. So the Squirrels came here by sea? When?’

‘God knows when. It might have been yesterday, or a week ago. We were preparing to strike at Vilgefortz, and Vilgefortz at us. Vilgefortz, Francesca, Terranova and Fercart… They conned us good and proper. Philippa thought they were planning a slow seizure of power in the Chapter, and to put pressure on the kings… But they were planning to finish us off during the Conclave… Geralt, it’s too painful… It’s my leg… Put me down for a second. Ouuuch!”

Later, there is a flashback to Philippa and Tissaia’s fight:

‘Enough!’ Philippa slammed her fist down on the table. ‘I shall satisfy your curiosity, Carduin. You ask who is preparing a war? Nilfgaard. They intend to attack and destroy us. But Emhyr var Emreis remembers Sodden Hill and has decided to protect himself by removing the mages from the game first. With this in mind, he made contact with Vilgefortz of Roggeveen. He bought him with promises of power and honour.

Yes, Tissaia. Vilgefortz, hero of Sodden, sold us out to become the governor and ruler of all the conquered territories of the north. Vilgefortz, helped by Terranova and Fercart, shall rule the provinces which will be established in place of the conquered kingdoms. It is he who will wield the Nilfgaardian scourge over the people who inhabit those lands and will begin toiling as the Empire’s slaves.

And Francesca Findabair, Enid an Gleanna, will become queen of the land of the free elves. It will, of course, be a Nilfgaardian protectorate, but it will suffice for the elves so long as Emperor Emhyr will give them a free hand to murder humans. The elves desire nothing so much as to murder Dh’oine.”

Tissaia states, “That is a serious accusation. Which means the proof will also have to be as weighty. But before you throw your proof onto the scale, Philippa Eilhart, be aware of my stance. Proof may be fabricated. Actions and their motives may be misinterpreted.

But nothing can change existing facts. You have broken the unity and solidarity of the Brotherhood, Philippa Eilhart. You have handcuffed members of the Chapter like criminals. So do not dare to offer me a position in the new Chapter which your gang of traitors–who have sold out to the kings, rather than to Nilfgaaard–intend to create.

We are separated by death and blood. The death of Hen Gedymdeith. And the blood of Lydia van Bredevoort. You spilled that blood with contempt. You were my best pupil, Philippa Eilhart. I was always proud of you. But now I have nothing but contempt for you.”

I won’t go into detail for the sake of brevity, but Philippa ends up escaping Thanedd unharmed after her failed coup and we don’t see her again until Baptism of Fire when she is forming The Lodge.

Here is an excerpt of her pitch speech about The Lodge to the other mages:

Philippa Eilhart stood up, her dress rustling.

‘Distinguished sisters,’ she said. ‘Our situation is grave. Magic is under threat. The tragic events on Thanedd, to which my thoughts return with regret and reluctance, proved that the effects of hundreds of years of apparently peaceful cooperation could be laid waste in an instant, as self-interest and inflated ambitions came to the fore.

We now have discord, disorder, mutual hostility and mistrust. Events are beginning to get out of control. In order to regain control, in order to prevent a cataclysm happening, the helm of this storm-tossed ship must be grasped by strong hands.

Mistress Laux-Antille, Mistress Merigold, Mistress Metz and I have discussed the matter and we are in agreement. It is not enough to re-establish the Chapter and the Council, which were destroyed on Thanedd. In any case, there is no one left to rebuild the two institutions, no guarantee that should they be rebuilt they would not be infected with the disease that destroyed the previous ones.

An utterly new, secret organisation should be founded which will exclusively serve matters of magic. Which will do everything to prevent a cataclysm. For if magic were to perish, our world would perish with it.

Just as happened many centuries ago, the world without magic and the progress it brings with it will be plunged into chaos and darkness; will drown in blood and barbarity. We invite the ladies present here to take part in our initiative: to actively participate in the work proposed by this secret assembly. We took the decision to summon you here in order to hear your opinions on this matter. With this, I have finished.’

Then, later on in Baptism of Fire at the first official meeting of the Lodge Philippa discusses how she wants to make Ciri Queen of the North.

“Who, then, is to be this Queen of the North?’

‘A girl from a royal family,’ Philippa calmly replied, ‘in whose veins flows royal blood, the blood of several great dynasties. Very young and capable of producing offspring. A girl with exceptional magical and prophetic abilities, a carrier of the Elder Blood as the prophecies have heralded. A girl who will play her role with great aplomb without direction, prompt, sycophants or grey eminences, because that is what her destiny demands.

A girl, whose true abilities are and will be known only to us: Cirilla, daughter of Princess Pavetta of Cintra, the granddaughter of the Queen Calanthe called the Lioness of Cintra. The Elder Blood, the Icy Flame of the North, the Destroyer and Restorer, whose coming was prophesied centuries ago. Ciri of Cintra, the Queen of the North. And her blood, from which will be born the Queen of the World.”

After this, Yennefer, who was brought to the Lodge agains her will (although she is a member) escapes with Fringilla’s help in order to find Ciri and Philippa is furious.

The next time we see Philippa is in The Tower of the Swallows and it is when Yennefer is hunting down Vilgefortz and contacts Philippa for help:

Philippa stared at her from under lowered eyelids. “If you believe,” she said finally, “that you've won peace, time, or security with this declaration, then you've miscalculated. Make no mistake about it, Yennefer.

When you fled from Montecalvo, you made your decision. You chose to stand on a different side of the barricade. If you are not with the Lodge, you are against the Lodge. Now you're trying to forestall us from finding Ciri, and the motives that guide you are opposed to ours.

You act against us. You do not want to allow us to use Ciri for our political purposes. You shouldknow that we will also do everything in our power to make sure that you cannot use the girl for your sentimental purposes.”

“So, it’s war?”

“Competition.” Philippa smiled toxically. “Competition only, Yennefer.”

“Decent and honorable?”

“You must be joking.”

“Obviously. Though on at least one specific issue, I would like to have an honest and genuine conversation. And, incidentally, it involves a favor to me.”

“Speak.”

“Over the next few days, maybe even tomorrow, events will occur whose consequences I cannot foresee. It may happen that our competition and rivalry suddenly has no meaning. For the simple reason that one of the competitors will not be there anymore.”

Philippa Eilhart narrowed her blue-shaded eyes. “I understand.”

“Ensure that I posthumously gain back my reputation and good name. I will no longer be held for a traitor or an accomplice of Vilgefortz. I ask this of the Lodge. I ask this of you, personally.”

Philippa was silent for a moment.“I deny your request,” she said finally. “I'm sorry, but your exoneration is not in the interest of the Lodge. If you die, you die a traitor. You'll be a traitor and criminal to Ciri, because then it will be easier to manipulate the girl.”

“Before you do something that could be fatal,” Triss said suddenly, “leave something behind for us…”

“A will?” Yennefer said.

“Something that allows us to… continue. To find Ciri. Because we are primarily concerned for her health! For her life! Yennefer, Dijkstra has found some traces of… some traces of certain activities have been found. If Vilgefortz does have Ciri, then the girl faces a horrible death.”

“Be quiet, Triss,” Philippa Eilhart hissed sharply. “We are not trading or bargaining.”

“I will leave you the information,” Yennefer said slowly. “I'll leave you the information on what I've found and what I plan. I’ll leave a trail you can follow to her. But not in vain. If you will not facilitate my exoneration in the eyes of the world, then to hell with you and with the world. But at least grant me exoneration in the eyes of the witcher.”

“No,” Philippa denied the request almost instantly. “That is also not in the interest of the Lodge. You will also remain a traitor and a mercenary sorceress to your witcher. It is not in the interest of the Lodge for him to furiously attempt to avenge you. If he despises you, he will not attempt to take revenge. By the way, he's probably already dead or will die any day now.”

“The information,” Yennefer said dully, “for his life. Save him, Philippa.”

“No, Yennefer.”

“Because it's not in the interest of the Lodge.” A purple fire kindled in the sorceress’ eyes. “Did you hear that Triss? There, you have your Lodge. You see their true colors, their true interests. And what do you think of them? You were a mentor to the girl, almost – as you put it – a big sister. And Geralt…”

“Do not attack Triss’ relationships, Yennefer.” Philippa retaliated with her own fire in her eyes. “We will find and rescue the girl without your help. And if you succeed, that's fine, a thousand thanks, because you will have saved us the trouble. You tear the girl out of the hands of Vilgefortz and we will be happy. And Geralt? Who cares about Geralt?”

“Did you hear that, Triss?”

“Forgive me,” said Triss Merigold dully. “Forgive me, Yennefer.”

“Oh, no, Triss. Never.”

I know this is a long scene, but it’s so important and isn’t one I felt right in slicing up. This establishes Triss’ true betrayal of Yennefer. Just prior to this, it is practically stated that Triss and Philippa slept together and despite Triss’ love for Yennefer her loyalty to Philippa is stronger in this moment which makes this hurt so much more. Philippa is also so cruel to Yennefer in this scene, denying both Geralt and Ciri the truth of her motivations as to better manipulate them. It really showcases how her lust for power overrides her empathy.

The final time we see Philippa is in Lady of the Lake when Ciri is brought before the Lodge. Here, Philippa describes what their plans are for Ciri:

“You are coming with me,” Lady Owl (Philippa) said, breaking the heavy silence, “and Sile to Kovir, to Pont Vanis, the summer capital of the kingdom. As you are no longer Cirilla of Cintra, during the course of the audience you will be presented as an adept of magic, being protected by us.

At that audience you will meet a very wise king, Esterad Thyssen. You will meet his wife, the Queen Zuleyka, a person of singular nobility and goodness. You will also meet their son and heir, Prince Tancred.”

Ciri was beginning to understand and rolled her eyes. Lady Owl did not miss that detail.

“Yes,” she confirmed. “First of all you must impress prince Tancred. Because you are going to become his lover and give him a child.”

“If you were still Cirilla of Cintra,” Philippa continued after a long pause, “still the daughter of Pavetta and granddaughter of Calanthe, you would become Prince Tancred’s legal wife. You’d be the princess and later the queen of Poviss and Kovir. Unfortunately, and I tell you with genuine regret, fate has deprived you of everything. Including your future. You will only be his mistress. His favourite.”

Then Later:

“Your’s and Tancred’s child,” Philippa watched here with dark eyes, “will ensure the future and status of this Lodge. Take note that it will be a great thing. You will be a part of it, because right after the birth you will sit with us at this table. We will teach you. You are one of us, even if you do not want to admit it yet.”

“On the island of Thanedd,” Ciri overcame the tightness in her throat, “you said I was a mindless tool, even a monster, Lady Owl, and now you say that I am one of you.”

Then, the Lodge asks Ciri what her last name will be, Philippa and others offering theirs but Ciri declines in favor of choosing Yennefer’s:

“Thank you, Lady Philippa,” Ciri said after a few moments, squeezing the head of the sphinxes in her hands. “I also feel honoured with the proposal to take the surname de Tancarville. However, it seems to me that my new last name is the only thing that I can choose for myself, I thank the two mistresses. But I want to be called Cirilla of Vengerberg, daughter of Yennefer.”

Ciri requests to go and see Geralt and The Lodge votes on this and Philippa is the deciding vote. At first, she is hesitant but then Ciri shows her a vision and Philippa says this:

“This Lodge,” Philippa said at last in a firm voice, “is to decide the fate of the world. So, this Lodge must reflect the world. Here, equilibrium and wisdom does not always mean cold and selfish, calculation and vileness, and sentimentality is not always naive. On one hand, iron discipline and on the other responsibility, resistance to violence, gentleness and trust. Cool reason… And heart.”

“I,” she said into the silence that reigned after her introduction, “cast the last vote. I will take into account one more thing. An element that without balancing anything, balances everything.”

“Following her gaze, everyone looked at the wall, to a mosaic of many multicolour tiles depicting the snake Uroboros, biting it’s own tail.

“That thing,” she continued, staring with her dark eyes at Ciri, “is destiny in which I, Philippa Eilhart have only begun to believe in recently, which I have only recently begun to understand. Destiny is not the way to providence or comfortable fatalism. Destiny is hope. I am full of hope that it will become what we want to happen, so I give my vote to Ciri - Child of Destiny, Child of Hope”

In the pillared hall of Montecalvo the was silence for a long time. From outside of the window came the hunting cry from a sea eagle.

“Lady Yennefer,” Ciri whispered. “It means…”

“Come, my daughter,” Yennefer whispered back. “Geralt is waiting for is and it is a long road ahead.”

This is the last time we see Philippa, but based on what we hear at other parts of Lady of Lake, we know she does not have a happy ending. After this, the Witch Hunt begin, a period of time when the Clergy hunted and murdered sorceresses and destroyed their pictures and images. The Witcher Hunts themselves could be an entirely separate post there is so much there.

Many sorceresses, Philippa included as later considered Martyrs but she was killed viciously by the clergy as described in this passage from Lady of the Lake:

…As well as many of the other faithful, St. Philippa was also besmirched with betraying the Kingdom, inducing riots and plotting a coup. Willemer, a heretic and sectarian, unlawfully appointed himself the title of archpriest, and ordered St. Philippa to be thrown into a dark dungeon, and to plague her with cold and hunger, until she confessed to her sins of which she was accused and repented.

Also various instruments of torture were used to try and break her spirit. But St. Philippa with disdain, spit in his face and accused him of sodomy.

The heretic had her disrobed and whipped her with barbed wire and placed sharp splinters under her nails. While unceasingly preaching about his faith and denouncing the Goddess. But St. Philippa laughed at him and recommended to him to heal his sick mind.”

“Willemer then gave the order to have her taken to the rack and stretched, while tearing her body with sharp hooks and burning her with candles. Although thus tormented, St. Philippa showed no weakness in body and indeed her resistance and endurance seemed almost superhuman.

The executioner’s arms went limp and with fear they retreated from her. Then the filthy heretic, Willemer, began to threaten them and told them to continue the torment. They burned St. Philippa with red-hot irons, pulled her limbs out of their joints and pulled at her breasts with blacksmith tongs. And although she passed away from this torment, she confessed nothing.

The shameless heretic Willemer, we read in the books of our holy fathers, later suffered for this punishment and it was that lice and worms began to eat him alive, his entrails rotted away and he died miserably.

His carcass carried with it a foul stench and nobody wanted to bury him, and so he was dropped in a swamp.

For the suffering and death of St. Philippa the eternal memory of a martyr’s crown rightfully belongs. Let us give the Great Mother Goddess praise for her lessons and teachings. Amen.

The Life of St. Philippa, Martyr of Mons Calvus

The Book of Martyrs Compiled in the Breviary of Tretogor, For the

Contemplation of the Holy Fathers and Mothers.”

Needless to say, Philippa’s hunger for power and The Lodge end in ruin. There are very few happy endings in The Witcher and this is just another example.

So that’s my overview on Philippa! I had to cut some scenes and moments in the hope of keeping it short, but I hope it was still an enjoyable read. If you want another character/topic WTF post leave something in my inbox and I will get to it when I can.

#I tried to keep it as short as possible while still doing justice to the character and this is still so fucking long #Philippa is so goddamn ruthless #I love how people say that Yennefer's character int he show is like Philippa's because like...damn #Yennefer in the show is empathic and kind and sometimes too trusting and it just hurts #I am interested to see how they bring in Philippa considering how she wasn't in S1 #perhaps she was a student of Tissaia's from before Yennefer's time that she didn't want to talk about #or perhaps she was a student and Tissaia just didn't want to say anything #either way she's a very important character to the plot of the books #Philippa eilhart #the witcher #meta #The Witcher books #the tower of the swallow #lady of the lake #time of contempt #baptism of fire #blood of elves #the lodge #myposts #wtf series

158 notes · View notes

wetalkinboutbooks · 5 years

Text

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Summary: Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.

But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems. (Taken from Goodreads)

Our Ratings:

→ Geena: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

→ Kae: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Overall: This is one of the first suggestions we got and HOO BOY IT WAS A GOOD ONE. The perfect mix of action, comedy, murder, and beating up racists.... exactly what we need in a book.

~Spoiler-full discussion below~

The Good:

→ Jane

Geena: I don’t think I’ve read a book where the protagonist just has so much raw power like… at the risk of sounding like I’m from 2012.. But like… my mind was totally blown. We meet Jane during a training exercise at Miss Preston’s zombie slaughtering school where we learn about all the nasty details that lead to the school’s creation. SO ESSENTIALLY, following the civil war (which ended prematurely bc u kno…. zombies) slavery is “abolished” and instead the whites decided it’d be better to set up schools to train black and native people to kill zombies for them 🙄 AND that’s where we meet Jane, in the middle of a training exercise. We also learn that she’s the daughter of one of the more wealthy white women in the area which was very scandalous given the u kno.. R a c i s m… and that even her mother’s status couldn’t keep her from being sent to the school. Jane also recounts moments from her childhood such as almost being killed when she was born… and she does it so nonchalantly that I fucking died dude.

Kae: Nobody: …..

Jane: Yeah my momma tried to drown me. She doesn’t think I remember but I do… ANYWAY.

Geena: LMAOOOOOOO YEA I FUCKING LOST IT LIKE DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN LIKE SHE IS SO RAW… BUT YEA, also Justina Ireland does this cool thing where she has excerpts from the letters Jane sends her mother which outline events that are VERY different from what actually happens in the chapter, and fuck I loved that sm. Jane is I think one of the girls that can read at the school and she’s got a liking for the science behind the biology of zombies but she gets in trouble cONSTANTLY because she’s too cool for Miss Preston’s school… ok jk no she gets into trouble because she always manages to piss off that one racist ass bitch, Miss Anderson. In the first few chapters we learn that Jane is smart, strong, and a total babe even though she doesn’t think so :(.

I loved how Jane was written to be slightly hot-headed but not like bullheaded, like she would get angry real quick but she’d know when to act on her urges to beat the shit out of people. And I guess this stems from her childhood like…. SHE MURDERS HER DAD IN COLD BLOOD BC HE TRIED TO CHOKE THE LIFE OUTTA HER and also to preserve her mom’s secret which was that she was a white-passing black woman. And bc her dad was a racist white man Jane knew that wouldn’t bode well for anyone…. She did all this when she was like eight so like…. WILD (It’s what he deserved tho) but yea ever since then Jane’s been playing the game like a pro. She’s a pro zombie slayer that doesn’t take shit from ANYONE even when it lands her in trouble, and she cares a lot for the people around her even though she might pretend that she’s only out to get back to her mom. AND I LOVE HER for everything she does, but FUCK SHE WENT THROUGH SO MUCH SHIT IN THIS BOOK THAT IT HURT TO READ. ALSO WE FIND OUT THAT SHE’S BI…. WE STAN A BISEXUAL BADASS

→ Katherine

Kae: Geena summed up, Jane very well! Jane is smart (and could read so her teachers were pissed), strong, and just an all around badass. I really love her. She deserves the world.

Well, moving on to Katherine. Katherine is another student at Miss. Prestons school and she and Jane don’t get along well. Kate, as Jane calls her, which Katherine HATES, because she likes to be called by her full name. She is white passing with very light skin and blue eyes. She has blonde, loose curly hair and is described as absolutely gorgeous. Jane is a little jealous of her and hates admitting it. But she’s like “She’s gorgeous, it is what it is… But she’s from Virgina so ugh.” Katherine is right up to par with Jane’s zombie slaying skills and is the top of her class. Katherine is dainty, bougie, and a total rule follower. She’s into fashion and trying to find a good job protecting white folks from zombies when she graduates Miss. Prestons. She thinks of Jane as a little unruly and wild. But she tries her damndest to be respectful to Jane, even if they can’t stand each other.

So, moving forward a bit. Kate is kind of nosey so she’s always catching Jane doing some shit she isn’t supposed to be doing… like having books smuggled to her by a boy named Red Jack. She also overhears Jane and Jack discussing how his sister went missing and he needs help to find her. So, she self invites and tags along later that night. In the mean time, Jane and Kate have a lecture they need to attend to. When they get there, they realize that there is going to be a demonstration of proof that a “Shambler Cure” actually works. Shamblers are zombies. So this professor has a cage of three zombies and has some poor, black man risk himself and get bit. He has supposedly already been injected with the cure. Jane was like “this shit fake… He boutta die.” And Jane tries to interrupt, but she is quickly hushed. The antidote or cure or whatever DOESN’T work and the dude turns into a zombie. Jane shoots him down, then the other zombies get loose and now everyone is in a panic. Jane and Katherine take them down and save the day. A few weeks later, that are invited to the mayors house to “protect” it. (They really were only asked just so they could show up and be seen…) Someone turns into a Shambler, Jane takes them down, then that’s settled. So now they’ve saved the day TWICE.

Red Jack has somehow SNUCK IN to the damn mayors house, so him and Jane do some snooping. They get caught. Then by default, Katherine gets in trouble. Well, Katherine gets in trouble because she is too pretty and none of the white women want her around because they think their husbands or whoever will start to be like👀 and the women get jealous. Katherine was out of a job before it even started because she’s just too damn gorgeous. So Kate, Jane, and Red Jack get sent off to the WILD WILD WEST BAYBEEE. But it actually sucks. Let’s talk about Red Jack before we get into that though.

Geena: NGL KATE’S THE TYPE OF GIRL I WOULD’VE ABSOLUTELY HATED TOO IF I WAS JANE BUT!!!!! I love how we get to see the friendship develop between the two as they both learn about each other’s past and that maybe they CAN be friends. Also, Kate is ace and wants to travel the world which I RESPECT… but oh yea I was gonna say Jane and Kate are the true enemies to best friends trope. ALSO HER BACKSTORY IS SAD BRUH LIKE everyone looking down on her bc she’s from virginia smh……… okay but seriously the fact that Kate was constantly trying so hard to compensate for the fact that she came from a brothel that she became Miss Perfect (OR AT LEAST that’s what we learn from Jane’s perspective and as @zemenipearls pointed out Jane isn’t a reliable narrator so Kate’s backstory is kinda shady at this point but that’s what we think it is)

→ Red Jack

Kae: Let’s talk about Red Jack! Jackson Keats, aka Red Jack is Jane's ex boyfriend. He got the name “Red Jack” because he’s a redbone. He’s described with light brown skin and blue eyes. He also has a gold tooth and short curly hair with hints of auburn. He’s smart and can scheme his ass off and is known for taking big risks. He also smuggles Jane books when she ask and send letters out to her mother for her. It’s also noted that he cannot read. He deals in dirty business, mostly scamming people out of money. But the kid has to make a living! I like him. Jack has a little sister named Lilly who is white passing. So he sent her with a nice white family who would let her blend in with them so she could avoid being sent off to a school like Miss. Prestons. Jack and Jane, despite them being exes, are decent friends I think. Jane hates to admit it, but she still likes Jack (even though he gets on her nerves).

At a certain point, Jack’s little sister, along with the family she is staying with, completely disappear. Their house in still in tact, but they aren’t there. He’s worried because his sister would’ve sent word if she knew they were leaving. But he hadn’t heard a thing from her, and went to Jane. So Jane, Jack, and Kate end up at the Spencers’ house to look for clues. They can’t find anything, but they DO overhear Miss. Anderson and two other men say that they needed to clean the house out and remove all of their belongings.

Later, when we get to the mayor’s dinner party that was previously mentioned, Jack and Jane run into each other and go snooping around the governor's office. There, Miss. Anderson is waiting for them and they are CAUGHT. She drags them to the Mayor’s basement where he is ready to send them off to a town called, Summerland, that is way out west. It’s a town where he is trying to uphold white supremecy and slavery.There, he will make sure that anyone who is black, is treated as if they are still slaves. A man named Mr. Redfern, a Native man, escorts them out West. They are given dulled down weapons to protect the town from Shamblers, and well, this is just no good. When Jack and the crew arrive in Summerland, he punches the shit out of Redfern and tries to make a run for it. He is then tackled, jailed, and that’s the last we see of him… for a while.

Geena: holy shit Kae litcherally outlined everything about Red Jack PERFECTLY. He’s how you would say a rascal… a cute rascal (Jane would agree).

Kae: Lmao Jane’s got taste. I gotta give her that. BAD BOYZ are my thing lowkey

Geena: oKAY but SEE RED JACK IS A BAD BOI WITH A GOOD HEART. I mean yeh he and Jane had a “messy breakup” but they were still friends and he smuggled out letters for her mom and brought her books, and she helped him around with his ~business~ however shady it was. But I also liked how he was an idiot, I mean in the sense that UNLIKE JANE who knows how to control her anger and use it in the future, Jack just pops off like how Kae mentioned him decking Mr. Redfern. Jane thought about it but also thought ahead and realized she wouldn’t get far doing that. Red Jack tho… Boy thought he could outrun like 3 grown men 😭 AND WHEN THE READER AND JANE WERE LED TO BELIEVE THAT HE’D DIED?? BRO??? I WAS LIKE…. HOW U GONNA MAKE THIS CHARACTER A CHARMING LIL SHIT AND THEN KILL HIM ALMOST RIGHT AWAY…. BUT then when he came back I WAS THROWN.

Time to project BUT I love characters like Red Jack you know they’re shady and like to play everything off as a joke but when they get serious… they get serious. And I wonder what role he’s going to play in the second book, because all he cares about in his life is his family aka Lily right… Would he accompany Kate and Jane to save her momma when it would mean leaving Lily with people he probably can’t fully trust? Also, how did Jane and Red Jack even meet? I think it’d be cool to see where he came from, and what happened to the rest of his family and that’s another reason why I can’t wait till book 2!

The Bad:

→ Miss. Preston and Miss Anderson

Geena: Man, we don’t even meet Miss Preston that long in the book like she has a few scenes here and there but god she is the fucking worst! Who runs a school and houses young black women and gives them a refined education with training with specialized weapons.. Only to ship them to a town where slavery is making a comeback?? And pretending like you care about them?? Disgusting… We all assume that Miss Preston is innocent and is busy running her school until the dinner that Kae has mentioned above where we find out that she’s in cahoots with the Mayor and has been supplying him girls from her school for as long as he has needed them… how “white allies” be sometimes… I really hope… from the bottom of my heart that she was devoured by a shambler bc it’s the only fate that she deserves you know… And then we have the hoe ass Miss Anderson who didn’t even try to hide her contempt of Jane and doted on Katherine → This we realize later into the book is solely because of how white-passing Katherine was and because Miss Anderson is a big ol’ racist who uses slurs like it’s nobody's business.

Now, I realize that Ireland was trying to outline the different types of racists you come across in life. There’s those that pretend to be your friend and support you up front but behind your back they won’t hesitate to fuck you over (aka Miss Preston), like Miss Preston does help out Jane initially when she’s unfairly tested by Miss Anderson, but Preston also is the one to support sending Jane to Summerland so like….. and also we have your standard brand of racist aka Miss Anderson that doesn’t even try to hide how antiblack and dehumanizing she is because she straight up doesn’t care and knows that Jane or anybody else can do shit about it.

→ Mr. Redfern

Kae: Okay, so now we’ve got Mr. Redfern. Mr. Redfern is a tall, handsome, Native American man who is always scowling at Jane. He doesn’t like her and she isn’t sure why… That is, until our girl asks him. He thinks she is wasting her talents when she sneaks out and kills shamblers in the night.

Geena: OKAY WAIT WAIT WAIT THIS BRINGS UP THE QUESTION.. HOW LONG HAS HE BEEN SPYING ON HER

Kae: OHHHH SHIT YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WHAT THE FUCK. YOOO. HE HAD TO HAVE BEEN WATCHING HER FOR MONTHS.

Geena: I FEEL LIKE…. THERE’S SOMETHING WE’RE MISSING BUT IDK WHAT

Kae: THIS IS WHAT I GET FOR BEING A SPEED READER. I BE MISSIN’ SHIT. Whew. Okay, so as you can see, we’ve just come to a sudden realization! Mr. Redfern is a sneaky son of a gun.

But uhh, he mentions that he was taken from his tribe and sent off to one of the “Indian Shambler Schools” where he was given a new identity, etc. This is also basically what happened to Native Children back in those days, in order to erase their heritage and their entire selves. This was how they forced people to assimilate. They were sent to Indian Industrial Schools.

Mr. Redfern is in cahoots with the Mayor (by force) and is the one to basically help kidnap Jackson, Jane, and Katherine. He stuffs them on a train for a week and at the end of their trip, they are out west. We don’t see him again after this. But later, we find out that he made Jackson a deal and sent him to a town not too far from Summerland to do “business”. Thus, when Jack returns to Summerland to steal ammunition for said town, he runs into Jane and Katherine and tells them Red Jack helped him out.

ALTHOUGHHHH, REDFERN HELPED JACKSON, I DON’T LIKE HIM. HE WAS UNNECESSARILY MEAN TO JANE AND KIDNAPPED THE CREW AND THAT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

Geena: Yess Mr. Redfern, the man we thought would be an ally but turned out to be the opposite. Once again this mimics history I suppose because there were instances of indigenous people aiding the whites when it came to slavery and I suppose Ireland was trying to write that but she also makes it writes that while he is helping them he doesn’t seem too proud of it. But the matter of the fact is, he’s still helping enforce the white man’s rules. Though I do hope with the turn of the second book Mr. Redfern leaves that shit behind and decides to fully switch sides, aka let the whites to their own dirty work and help the people with a real cause.

ALSO, I keep talking about the second book but I really hope we meet more indigenous characters that aren’t Mr. Redfern you know, but those that aren’t under the thumb of a white person :( ALTHOUGH, I love how Ireland has the excerpt at the end where it mentions the residential schools in-depth and she encourages readers to research more of it which leads me to believe that we’ll be hearing more of them coming the next book as well.

Kae: Just one more small part. I was like, completely convinced that those looks Redfern were shooting at Jane was because he thought she was cute. That is until Jane was like “alright, he CLEARLY doesn’t like me” and I was like oh… I totally misread those signals and I’m an idiot. BUT WHATEVER IT’s FINE. I do, however, think he will turn around. I don’t think he’s like, inherently bad. He’s just forced to do bad shit. Everyone is trying to survive in this world and I’m NOT giving him an excuse, but like, I get it. Ya feel me?

Geena: oKAY BUT KAE I TOO THOUGHT HE WAS INTO HER SO THAT MAKES US BOTH BOOBOO THE FOOL. AND YEA, it comes down to survival in a world where you’re not even considered human BUT that doesn’t excuse any actions.

Kae: .jpg “we irritating” meme

Geena: Is it even our review if we don’t have at least one (1) meme reference

The Ugly:

→ Every single white person (minus Mr. Gideon)

Geena: So I really enjoyed this book but Justina Ireland didn’t pull any punches when it came down to the true and dark details of the time period she was writing. She captures the essence of white folks, even during an apocalypse they find the time to push their white supremacy and tread on the backs of the black and indigenous people. I was grinding my teeth for a majority of the book, the way people would talk down to all the black characters and simply refer to them as though they weren’t human.

Mayor Carr, the Sheriff, and the Priest are the faces of white supremacy that think it’s in their destiny to put down bipoc and use them as slaves (though they won’t call it that) and fuck dude… Mayor Carr is like Miss Preston, pretends to be an ally and is using the people he pretends to support as fodder for his white supremacist wasteland. Even Jane mentions that he’s no better than other white men but people pretend he’s the best politician they have.

The Sheriff doesn’t even disguise his racism, he’s your typical ‘slavery wasn’t that bad’ assfuck and the way he treats Katherine bc he has an ugly crush on her thinking she’s white is disgusting bc you know if he knew that she’s simply white-passing he’d probably murder her in cold blood… and when he finds out, the exact thing Jane was afraid would happen to her mother almost happens to Katherine (she almost dies at the hand of the Sheriff’s fugly ass)....and fuck Katherine handled it so well even though she was very much uncomfortable the whole time. And the way Jane murdered him?? With no remorse… I fucking loved that, IDK if Justina Ireland was trying to go for a Jane is unhinged vibe (bc that’s how Katherine reacted to it) but I was like fuck yea girl shoot him a few times more for good measure.

The Priest is the biggest shit of them all like I cannot even begin to…… Every time I think of his wrinkly ass my blood pressure rises three levels because holy fuck. He preaches that he’s a holy man and that he’s only carrying out the orders of God and so on, and it’s DIGOSTENG the way he uses the bible as a weapon to put down the black and indigenous folk around Summerland. He blames them for how they look and says it’s their duty to “serve their white superiors” as redemption so that they may get a place in heaven 🙄🙄🙄🙄 This reminds me of what Kae had mentioned before about the story of Nate Turner who knew how to read so the plantation owners would make him read a fucked-up version of the bible to the others and like….. White people really took a faith founded by a brown man and turned it into a weapon for their white supremacy it’s disgusting. But what was really sad was that there are still people to this day like the Priest that have pretty hefty roles in churches and so on… spewing their racist rhetoric and god I can’t even fucking deal, every time he and Jane interacted I just wanted her to snap his neck in half and call it a day…. Like what was his old ass gonna do? Fart?

Kae: Sweet! So Geena pretty much covered everything. The Sheriff is a whole ass bitch and he has a bunch of lackeys doing his dirty work while he parades around Summerland and berates anyone who is of colour. Basically, he has black people shipped out to the West so they can sacrifice themselves to defend Summerlands inhabitants with faulty weaponry and experiments. When Jane brings up that she needs better weapons so she can do her job, she’s slapped for it and told to deal with it. The black people and everyone else who is considered of low status, are treated horribly. They’re all shoved in a hot attic with thin, dirty blankets to sleep on the floor. They are locked in their rooms at night and forbidden to leave until it is time for them to work again. They all also barely have enough to eat, so essentially, they are starving. Jane and her new companions are overworked, underfed, and are only able to bathe once a week. It’s truly barbaric. The Sheriff wants to make sure they know they are “below” white people and were only created to serve them. It’s disgusting and I wanted to kill the man myself. It was infuriating reading how horrible they were treated and all of the slurs they were called. Slurs I forgot even existed.

The Sheriff catches Jane one night after she had snuck out, and beats her in front of the whole town. He ties her to a pole, strips her shirt off, and whips her. I actually had to skip that part because I couldn’t bare to read it. It was too much and I just couldn’t do it. I’ve seen enough of it. Jane, even though she is inches away from death, is saved by Katherine speaking out against it. Since the Sheriff has a crush on her, he stops, and allows Jane to join her in the safe part of Summerland to be her servant. I usually don’t like reading books about my people being so poorly treated, but Jane shot his ass point blank when she had the opportunity and I reveled in that. I love to see us fight back!

As for the Priest, he is the Sheriff’s father so he helps influence the bullshit that goes on in town. It is also heavily implied that underestimating the Priest is not the best decision. He apparently beat someone to death so that’s fuckin wild, considering how much of an old racist fuck he is. ANYWAY, he gives sermons every night on how “the Negro” was meant to serve and how they are to “stay in their place” and I cringed through the whole thing. It was horrible. Almost no one in the town likes the Sheriff or the Priest. The whore’s, the “slaves”, and Mr. Gideon (the Mayor's son), were all forced to be in Summerland and they hate it and the two bastards in charge. This drives them to conduct a plan to kill them both so they can escape. The plan was to have Katherine pretend to be white, have the Sherif fall in love with her, then Jane takes him out of the picture. But things didn’t go as planned so it took a few extra steps of danger BUT they made it and scarcely avoided a big zombie horde, and made it out.

Geena: OH YEA MR. GIDEON….. He’s supposed to be this scientist guy with a limp which we find out he does on purpose, and he KNOWS that Katherine is white-passing but he doesn’t say shit bc unlike the rest of the white men there he isn’t racist and he’s trying to figure out a way out of the town… Also, this man-made an electricity grid run off of zombies and that was so fucking funny to me for no reason other than it reminded me of a scene from a sitcom when Jane walked in on the contraption. ALSO, JANE MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE A THING FOR MR. GIDEON AND IT MAY OR MAY NOT BE RECIPROCATED? LIKE It’s funny reading Jane’s attraction to him like “he’s nerdy lookin… but in a cute way” but am I here for it?? Undecided...

Conclusion

Kae: So in conclusion, this book was really good. I enjoyed reading this AU of a zombfied civil war. It was interesting to see how things played out. I thought the world-building was pretty cool and I like how the South was called “The lost states” because they’d been lost to zombies. They also LOST THE WAR LMAOOO BITCHASSES. Anywaaaaay, I think Jane is such a strong, beautifully written character. She’s hotheaded, but she isn’t impulsive. She’s brave and she knows when to strike. She is smart, cunning, and a joy to be around. If she were real, I’d absolutely be her friend. She’s my kind of person. She keeps it real and I like that. Katherine is kind of complex and I can’t wait to find out more about her. She hides behind this proper, boujie demeanor, but I think a lot of it is a facade. I like how though Katherine is white-passing, she NEVER forgets or dismisses that she is black. She knows who she is and she hated pretending to be white. As for Jackson! He's impulsive, suave motherfucker and I hope we see more of him too! I think he’s going to have a bigger role to play in the next book and I’m ready to see what it’ll be. I can’t wait to find out what is in store for these characters because they are all beautifully written and their friendships are puuuure baybeeee.

Geena: GIRL YOU SUMMED UP ALL THE CHARACTERS REALLY WELL!!! You got everything that I loved about Jane, she’d be my idol irl… and Katherine is a really complex character and I’m excited to see how her story unfolds in the next book. SPEAKING OF WHICH…. THE COVER FOR THAT DROPPED AND O MY GOD…….. KATE AND JANE LOOK LIKE ABSOLUTE BABES and I cAN’T WAIT TO SEE THEM FUCK SHIT UP!

#Dread Nation #Justina Ireland #book review #booklr #dread nation review #wetalkinboutbooks #bookish #bookblr #book blogger #book blogging #books #reading

16 notes · View notes

fandomoverflow · 5 years

Text

My Thoughts On Dark Age (SPOILERS)

My pre-ordered copy of Dark Age arrived in the mail on Friday afternoon, four days before the official release day. The only thing stopping me from reading it right then and there was the fact that I was about to leave for a four-hour shift bagging groceries. But as soon as I got home I got pumped up on sugar, took a shower, got in my pajamas, and sat down to read. One all-nighter, a two-hour power nap, another shift at work, and then finally a good night sleep later, I am empty inside from all the screaming and crying I did over the course of this monstrosity of a book.

Pierce Brown has done it. He actually did it. We were all expecting that the ending of Dark Age would put the heart-rending ending of Golden Son to shame. And not only did he manage to top that level of shock, betrayal, and beloved character death, he did it all before the book was even half-way over. Pierce said that Dark Age is the most complex, violent, and intimate book he’s ever written, and all I have to say to that is “understatement of the bloodydamn century.”

There are so many things to talk about but for the sake of avoiding spoilers for people who don’t have early pre-ordered copies, I’ll put my spoiler thoughts under the cut. The one non-spoiler thing I’ll say is this: After Iron Gold was only divided into three sections, Dark Age takes us back to the saga standard four.

Part I was pretty much one long battle, and I have to say that this is one of the most visceral, in the trenches action sequence in the entire saga to date. Part I was told exclusively from the POVs of Darrow and Lysander as they prepare for war. And the chaos and reality of war is a very big shock to Lysander’s system. For everyone hoping he’d his ass handed to him, it is immensely cathartic to have Lysander’s battle group get demolished by Darrow’s Howlers like they’re an afterthought. And to add insult to injury, Lysander ends up pinned under a discarded starShell while a second one lands with its burning thrusters right next to his face.

The battle aside, the tension between the Core and the Rim Golds when Lysander arrived was a delight. And the contrast between Atalantia and Ajax’s initial reactions to learning that Lysander is alive and how they behave later really adds both a lot of dimension to the politics of Gold as well as to Lysander’s own backstory, while at the same time fleshing out the new characters and really selling the history they have with Lysander.

The moment that impacted me the most was the realization that a prediction I’d made after the excerpt had come true. In the prologue, Darrow told his team that if they couldn’t rescue Orion their orders were to kill her instead to protect the Republic. In the chapter after that, he mentions that he suspected that Colloawy helped Orion cheat her psych evaluation. And while she and Darrow had similarly low opinions of the bureaucracy of the senate, Orion was noticeably more cynical. And when Darrow started preparing the Storm Gods (the weather machines used to terraform Mercury for those who are reading this not caring about spoilers) he asked Rhonna about his insurance policy.

So, even before Orion went beyond Darrow’s orders and took the Storm Gods to full strength, I knew that Darrow was going to have to order the death of someone close to him in order to protect others. It just never occurred to me that it would still be Orion. I really wish we had gotten to hear more about her backstory or get a mention of her love life in Iron Gold, because I remember Pierce saying somewhere that Orion would be married in the sequel trilogy. Her interactions with Darrow in the beginning of Dark Age were really sweet, but knowing in hindsight that her days were numbered, I wish we’d gotten more time with her in the past.

Mustang’s prologue is not only the second time since Red Rising that we’ve had an intro that immediately jumps back in time to show us how we got to that point, but it also is the first time where Pierce has written the prologue in such a way that it omits the details that the audience will be aware of when we get to this scene again. (And the two months detail is an intentional lie because adding up the time and Virginia’s comments puts this at just over a week past Darrow’s section of the prologue). The first time around, this scene looks like the middle of a catastrophe, that Darrow and his armies have been pinned down and Mustang is desperately sending whatever aid she can to help. But after reading through the heart pounding action of the Ash Rain in Part I, we realize that this speech is declaring victory.

Mustang’s POV is a godsend not only for how beautifully Pierce writes her, but also that we get to see how she interacts with all of the other characters when Darrow’s not there. She and Daxo are adorable in the way they joke and tease each other like siblings. (And I had to laugh at the running joke about the design his office being a metaphor for his virility) Her political maneuvering against Dancer were full of cathartic backhanded burns. Seeing her pull a Katniss to sway the Silver senators was glorious, and the way she knows Sevro’s in the room before he even announces his presence and immediately tells him to stop wanking in the shadows and come talk to her.

It was a delight to watch her be ten steps ahead of everyone else – how she allowed Victra and Sefi’s scheming to happen because their objectives were pieces of her own master plan to unite the Republic and get everyone back on track towards defeating Atalantia. Seeing her turn the tables and play mind games with the Duke of Hands was a sight to behold.

But one of my favorite parts of her early chapters was where Dancer finally took his head out of his ass, came down off his high horse, and stopped treating her and Darrow like shit. In the process, we learned a great deal about Dancer’s backstory and how he joined the Sons of Ares that just adds so many layers to his character.

I did think it was a bit tragic that we only learned that Dancer was Gay and Daxo was Bi right before they got killed off, but that doesn’t take away from the joy of knowing that two characters I’ve loved throughout the series are canonically queer. I’m glad that if Dancer had to die, he at got to redeem himself in the eyes of the fans before he bit the dust.

And to the aforementioned killing off, we get to Golden Son levels of shock, betrayal, and heartbreak less than halfway through the book. Mustang was always ten steps ahead of everyone else and just when it finally seemed like she would get everything she wanted, when she and Dancer and Sevro put their heads together and figured out that Senator Publius cu Caraval was the Syndicate’s spy, it all fell apart. Publis poisoned Dancer and pointed the already riled up Vox Populi mobs at Mustang accusing her of murdering the voice of the Vox, and the coup began. Daxo was killed when the Syndicate Queen showed up personally to lead the mob. And when we finally see her, she’s wearing fleshmasks and contacts to look like a Red, but Mustang immediately recognizes the face of the long-thought-dead Lilath au Faran.

But while Lilath may have been working with Atalantia, she isn’t the top of the Syndicate food chain. Mustang is smarter than just about every character in the Red Rising setting, but from what we’ve seen Atalantia isn’t that smart. There is only one person smart enough to so thoroughly derail Mustang’s plans. One person smart enough to know how she thinks and what she’s doing. And that is the only person in the setting who can rival her intelligence: her brother.

There were multiple moments in the first half of Dark Age that hit me in the stomach and left my reeling emotionally. But a ten-year-old clone of the Jackal walking into the Vox Populi’s show trial for Mustang alongside Lilath and the surviving Boneriders was the first moment in Dark Age that made me put the book down and start loudly screaming curses at the air.

Though his introduction was chilling, his scenes afterwards actually had me much more contemplative. When Mustang is forced to have dinner with the Boneriders, Adrius II starts making puzzles like Adrius I used to do with Mustang when they were kids, and he gives them to Lilath to solve. Lilath can’t solve them but of course Mustang can, and without Nero’s constant presence in their lives it actually felt like both Mustang and Adrius were having actual, genuine fun during this exchange.

And Mustang following this up by revealing that she still has all the old ones that original Adrius made as kids was both really sweet and also the first crack between the Jackal and his boneriders. Because Lilath and the Boneriders put the Jackal on such a pedestal that they only ever told Adrius II about the parts of his original self they admired and ignored little details they didn’t consider important, Adrius II is going through some Clone Angst. He feels secure in who he is, but he doesn’t know if he wants to be what the original Adrius was. And Mustang reveals that she kept all the puzzles demonstrated that Lilath and the Boneriders would never love any version of Adrius the way he wanted to be loved.

I trust that Pierce didn’t introduce Adrius II just for the sake of having The Jackal back. It would be too cliché, and extremely predictable to go that route. What would make a compelling story, and one that fits in with Pierce’s worldview and the themes of the Red Rising series, is if Adrius II spends the next book wrestling with whether he wants to follow in the footsteps of the original in a classic nature vs. nurture conflict would be so fascinating and I really can’t wait to see how that gets pulled off (it helps me cope with the fact that Brainwashed Evil Sevro is something that the Boneriders have threatened).

But I really love how Mustang could clearly see that potential in Adrius II, and the only reason she didn’t talk it out more and help him through that internal conflict is because it would take more time than she had, and she had bigger fish to fry. I really hope her means of escape didn’t sour Adrius II towards the path of redemption. And I really hope that Adrius doesn’t get the chance to follow through on his threat to wipe Sevro’s mind.

As far as the other characters go, Ephriam had some of the best character development in the entirety of Dark Age. Watching him gradually become invested in the future of Sefi’s AllTribe was very beautiful and heartwarming. He’d spent all of the last decade stuck in the anger stage of grief over Trigg’s death but over the course of Dark Age and helping Sefi it really felt like he was starting to reach the acceptance stage and get closure. His interactions with Ozgard even felt a little shippy, even if I knew he wasn’t ready for another relationship. But watching Ephriam find a new purpose in life and a place in the post-Rising world was a sight to behold. And then the machination of Atlas au Raa had to bring it all crashing down.

The Ascomani King showing up and claiming to be Ragnar’s father was a cruel twist of Society planning – they know the Obsidians worship Ragnar, and they know that Sefi has the power to unite all the tribes. So, they let her create her AllTribe and then had her replaced as leader with their own puppet.

It was a cruel twist that out of all the POV characters, Ephriam would be the one to die. If he had gone with backup he would have been able to stop the coup, but I understand why he went alone. Going alone meant that he didn’t drag Volga into the mess he was trying to protect her from, and he didn’t want to force her into the role of Queen. It was really sweet when she called him her father, and I really like how she chose to go with the Obsidians at the end not out of duty, but to finish what her father helped start. I look forward to seeing how she deals with infiltrating the Obsidians and taking her rightful place on Aunt Sefi’s throne.

Okay, I pretty much think at this point it’s a given that by the time this series is over Lyria and her nephew and Volga will have been adopted into the August/Reaper-Telemanus-Barca clan. I mean, Volga is Ragnar’s daughter why wouldn’t they make her part of the family. But honestly, following Victra and Lyria and Volga as they fight to survive in the Martian wilderness with the Pandora destroyed and the Red Hand on their heels was one of my favorite parts of the book. Their bickering was funny, but things quickly took a turn for the heartwarming when Victra ended up going into labor and Lyria was the one who helped her through it.

The conversation between Victra and Lyria while Victra is giving birth about their different experiences and their different perspectives was one of the most emotional conversations in the book, and it really warmed my heart when a few chapters later Lyria referred to Victra and Volga as her friends.

But then the Red Hand just had to attack. If you are triggered or easily upset by scenes where harm is done to an infant, or where you see the aftermath of harm done to an infant, you are going to be upset for almost all of Lyria’s chapters for the remainder of Dark Age following the birth. The crimes of Harmony and her Red Hand goons are numerous. They have killed and mutilated countless Reds for the sole crime of being Gamma. But somehow it took the sight of the newborn Barca baby nailed to a tree for me to viscerally demand their demise. I was screaming and raw when I read that scene, desperately praying that it was a different baby and that little Ulysses was okay. But no. She may not have done the deed, but she condoned and encouraged that kind of thing by her men, and we can now add infanticide to the list of Harmony’s crimes.

Which is why I am so, so glad that not only did Lyria manage to single-handedly orchestrate the final destruction of the Red Hand, but that she and Victra were the ones who did Harmony in. Harmony being thrown into a nest of adult Pitvipers was one of the most cathartic moments in the series since the fight against Aja in Morning Star, and I could not be happier that she’s finally gone.

I haven’t really talked about Darrow and Lysander since the beginning because while their story is important to what’s happening overall everything is happening in such a condensed time frame, and with Darrow and Lsyander’s chapters being focused on Atalantia’s siege of Mercury, we only really drop in for the important parts:

It was frustrating to see Lysander’s commitment to the hierarchy hardened by his experiences on Mercury, and it was heartbreaking to see Lysander lead the charge that overwhelmed Darrow’s defenses and allowed Atalantia’s armies into the Free Legions’ last stronghold. Watching the lowColors of Mercury reject the Republic was devastating both to me and Darrow, and it was heartdreaking to watch what was left of the Republic forces slowly dwindling as Lysander’s offensive went on.

But it was all the more cathartic when Casssius showed up to evacuate the survivors before they could be completely wiped out. I knew that Cassius’ death was faked, but there are still a few questions about how he got away from the Rim. That being said, I’m thrilled that after a decade in exile, Cassius has officially joined the Republic to help his friends.

Dark Age is truly the darkest hour for our heroes in a way that tops even Golden Son. Mercury has been retaken by Atalantia. Earth has fallen to the Rim-Core alliance. Luna has gone the way of the Death Eater-run Ministry of Magic in Harrpy Potter – with the Jackal Clone and his Bone Riders pulling the strings of a Vox Populi puppet government. Only Mars remains free. Despite causing chaos on Venus off-page Apollonius has seemingly joined forces with Lysander against Darrow. Sefi is dead and her dream of a united Obsidian nation has been coopted by a Society puppet masquerading as her and Ragnar’s father. Sevro is still in the clutches of Adrius II, who has threatened to use the same technology that Octavia used to modify Lysander’s memories to completely erase Sevro’s mind.

I trust Pierce Brown to pull of a finale that resolves all of this and gives us a satisfying ending. There are still unknown variables that we can’t predict. We don’t see the Rim at all during the events of the novel and the negotiations between them and the Core happen off page. We only see Apollonius in two short scenes. And to top it off we know that Pierce Brown has a history of writing unreliable narrators who hide their plans from the audience. While we’ve seen it with Darrow and Mustang, he hasn’t done it with Lyria or Ephriam, and we haven’t seen any such deceptive narration from Lysander yet.

So, time will tell not only how Pierce resolves all of this. But in the meantime, #PrayForSevro. It’s going to be a long two years while we wait for the final book.

#red rising saga #iron gold trilogy #dark age spoilers #dark age review #my thoughts

7 notes · View notes

ink-splotch · 7 years

Note

Have you ever written about all the little moments that Ron realized he was falling in love with Hermione? Love your writing!

Probably the closest I’ve come to that is this excerpt from my “Ron as the Chosen One” fic (which I love quite a lot– Ron’s not any more or less loyal, tetchy, insecure, or brilliant as the Boy Who Lived and the youngest boy of the seven Weasley orphans than he was as Harry Potter’s sidekick. And he is a delight to write.).

This is Ron’s version of that bit in the seventh book, the bit in the Great Hall, and then the Stone in the forest, the walking out to die, and what came after– with Dumbledore and the train station. But for Ron it’s not Dumbledore and the train station, and it, among other things, ends up being about Hermione.

Er, warnings for spoilers about who I decided to kill v. not kill to match it up with a different protagonist’s emotional journey.

Ron did not see Bill go down. He wasn’t sure who did, or how it happened, or when– while Harry was racing up the stairs to find the diadem? While Ron was hissing open the passage to the Chamber? While he was kissing Hermione in an ankle-deep puddle of slimy water and dropped basilisk fangs?

Ron didn’t see Bill go down, he just stepped into the Great Hall and found him there, laid out and peaceful.

It had always been easy to pick his family out of a crowd– the hair, the sort of volume that Fred and George and Ginny had always carried with them, Charlie’s big friendly smile. It was easy to pick his family out of this crowd– the hair, the hands grasping hands grasping shoulders grasping elbows, the way George cried quiet and hard and familiarly.

Ron thought dully, At least this time we’ll have something to bury.

He stepped forward, past rushing young soldiers and past the tired teachers who watched their students go by, breathless, desperate. His family– and there was Fleur, laid out beside Bill, their hands almost touching. Her hair was long and mussed from the fight, the fall. Her face was pale. Ron tried to take another step forward.

Closer, and he could see them better. Closer, and he could ask how, and when, and why. Closer, and he could forget how to stand up at all.

A hand on his elbow stopped him in tracks. It was easy. He wasn’t sure he was touching the ground, except everything also felt so heavy, pulling his wrists down and down. He turned and Hermione was standing there.

Fred was gone, and now Bill was dead, and Fleur, and Hermione was standing there. Her hair was untamed, as it had been every day except for a ball once upon a time. She had put her wand away.

She had put her wand away and she was crying, and he always forgot how brave that looked on her. Hermione was crying, nose snotty and cheeks shiny, and she was going to save the world, this girl. She already had, and she was going to keep on doing it– waving petitions in peoples’ faces, and pulling things out of her magic bag like Mary Poppins, and never giving up, not even when things were impossible, not even on him.

When she reached out, Ron folded in, burying his face in her hair and crying until he stopped. Then he pulled back and scrubbed at dirty cheeks. He still had his wand fisted in his other hand. “We have work to do,” he said. “C'mon, let’s–” He scrubbed at his eyes with his fist again. “Let’s find Harry.”

Voldemort had already given his ultimatum– the Boy Who Lived, for all of you. Pansy had been all for it, and then Ron had let Hogwarts defend him.

Ron remembered Ginny’s dark robes and bright hair, lying on the Chamber floor, discarded like so much refuse. Tom Riddle had been young, translucent, and he had smirked over that barely breathing body, knowing exactly who would come for her.

Bill had cleaned all the picture frames hanging around the Burrow. He had hung up new ones, from the years spent bouncing from house to house, but he had kept up all their old ones. Their parents had danced above the mantle, Molly in gingham, and Arthur in a tux that didn’t fix him. They had held hands, beamed, and waved in the polaroid tacked up in the kitchen beside Bill’s postcards. Ron had heard their last words, echoing in his skull, dredged up by nightmares. He couldn’t even remember seeing the way they looked, fallen, the shape of their cooling bodies on the nursery room floor.

Which room had been the nursery, even? Which– Bill would know, but Bill was dead. Bill was another body strewn between Ron and the end of this. Charlie would know, or Percy, maybe, but Ron wasn’t going to have a chance to ask them.

George had stopped crying, mostly, talking quietly to Ginny. Charlie was laying wards down and down around the Hall with McGonagall. Harry and Hermione were with Neville, leaning over the Marauder’s Map rolled out over a bench at the Hufflepuff table, making battle plans. Ron went out through a side door and headed toward the Forest.

The trees were tall. The wind was cold. There were things that lived out here, spiders and nightmares, but he knew where he was going. If he was frightened, it didn’t matter.

Ron turned the Stone three times in his hand. Harry had the Cloak, and Hermione had won rights to the Elder Wand, disarming Draco in a skirmish– but Dumbledore had left Ron the Stone. He turned it three times and his ghosts stepped into view.

“Ron,” Molly Weasley said, squeezing insubstantial hands together, and Ron looked at her standing there. She was plump and short, with flushed cheeks and a wand shoved through her bunned-up hair. He had seen her in a dozen pictures, beaming and scolding and napping, and he wasn’t sure if this felt worse because it was just another picture, or because it wasn’t.

“Hi, Mum,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

“What for?” Molly said hotly, like she was Percy in a temper, and Ron almost smiled. “You haven’t got anything to be sorry for, sweetheart.”

Her hair– Arthur’s, Bill’s, Fred’s– it should have been red, but it was a listless silver. He could see the trees through them, the drooping pine needles and whispering leaves. Ginny could always tell Fred and George apart, but Ron never could– except that now Fred looked so young. George had been growing and growing, outliving him, and he would go on outgrowing him forever.

“He’s alright,” said Fred. “Isn’t he?” And Ron nodded, because he was bad at lying aloud.

“Take care of Art,” said Bill. The earring Fleur had talked him into getting glittered in his earlobe, the brightest thing in eyesight. “You will take care of him, won’t you?”

“You named him after me?” said Arthur. “Oh goodness. Dear,” he said, patting at Molly’s hand. “We have a grandchild.”

“We’ll take care of him,” said Ron. “He’s got so much family,” he said and his voice broke. “They’ll be there.”

“Chin up,” said Fred, a little wetly. “You’ve got work to do, little brother.”

“We love you,” said Bill. “It’s going to be alright.”

But Ron knew how to care more about what he needed to do than what he wanted. He dropped the Stone, round and grey and anonymous, to the Forest floor and he moved on.

When he reached the clearing, Ron did raise his wand. There was no old friend of his mother’s to tell him about the Horcruxes, about the way Dumbledore had been raising and raising him to die. But Ron had walked out into the Forest to die for his friends, his family, and that was enough for the magic. He raised his wand because if he could take out a few of them before he went, all the better.

Ron shot out an Avada Kedavra with all he had in him, but Voldemort’s hit first, and the Boy Who Lived fell down dead.

When Ron opened his eyes, the clearing was empty. The trees, which had been towering and grasping and dark, were peaceful. The Death Eaters were gone, Hagrid, flushed and sobbing, was gone. Starlight dripped down through the leaves. The shadows of the Forest circled round and round him, calm, all-encompassing. There was something twisted and bloody, tucked in the curve of some old roots across the leaf-strewn ground.

A Killing Curse must kill something, said a voice. But there were two lives in you. That is a piece of Tom Riddle’s soul.

Wind ran through the branches and it wasn’t cold. “This is a weird dream,” said Ron. “Am I dead?”

Not yet.

He blinked and he was standing in Ginny’s shed. It was all spare parts and clutter. The door of the Ford Anglia was unlatched, hanging open.

You do not have to stay, said the voice, and Ron thought about that. He thought about what he wanted.

He closed his eyes and the white queen stood over Harry, crumpled on the cold chessboard, eleven years old.

Ron opened his eyes and it was summer behind the Burrow. Ginny was balancing a box of tools on the edge of the Ford’s open hood, looking inside. He was fifteen, a Triwizard champion. She was thirteen, bare years away from the cold sludgy water of the Chamber floor. She startled at the noise of his step behind her and the tool box fell, shining wrenches going bouncing and banging all over the dirty floor.

He squeezed his eyes shut again. The sound reverberated through his skull, clashing and clinging, metal on metal on wood. His heart beat in his ears.

Ron wanted to lie down and sleep forever. He was done losing brothers. He was done watching Hermione cry. He didn’t want to see that ever again. Hermione looked so brave, even when she cried, especially when she cried, and he wanted to run away to some place where no one had to be brave.

What did he want? Ginny was fierce and terrible, but she was so scared when there was no one looking, and so Ron didn’t look. Harry had hung, bloated, in the cold water under the Lake, and it had been a game, just a game, Ron knew how to play games. George had cried out, Ron had reached out, when Fred fell softly backward through that archway into whispering veils. Ron had reached out, and now he could catch him, catch up to a fate he’d been chasing for years.

You do not have to stay.

But Hermione was going to save the world. Harry was going to tug at his already messy hair on late nights, studying to be an Auror like his mother, like his uncle, and he was going to help people. George was going to torment a whole new generation of Hogwarts teachers with the trinkets and tricks he’d sell to the schoolchildren. Charlie would burn pot roasts for dinners, years and years of them, and Percy, muttering, would fix them all as best he could.

Hermione was going to save the world, and Ron wanted to be there to see it.

They were going to lose things they had wanted to keep. He never wanted to see Hermione cry again, but he would, because he wanted to hear her correct his spelling, and to see her roll her eyes and to call giant old tomes “some light bedtime reading.”

He wanted to hear about all of the hazings Lily would gleefully concoct for Harry when he joined the Aurors. He wanted to teach Bill’s kid how to play wizard’s chess, and to see Charlie go back to school, and to argue with Ginny about comics. He wanted to know what Hermione looked like in the morning, sleep-mussed and soft, smiling.

Ron opened his eyes.

–excerpt from the last son by dirgewithoutmusic

#so this is really long and i apologize #but i really did want to put all of it down #i almost included the bit about draco that comes right after this #but i resisted #undiscoveredshades

257 notes · View notes

the-desolated-quill · 7 years

Text

Cold Blood - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

Did I mention how much I don’t like Chris Chibnall as a writer and how I really, really didn’t want him to write a Silurian story? I’m sure I did.

‘But Quill,’ I can hear you saying in my head, ‘it’s not that bad. The only reason you’re being so negative about it is because you’re comparing it to the original. Why not judge it on its own merits?’ Well first of all, it’s impossible not to compare this to the original because Chibnall is trying so desperately to emulate it (and failing miserably), and second, even by its own merits, it’s still shit.

The reason why the original Silurian/human debate worked so well was because there was no clear right or wrong answer. Both sides had a point and neither side was presented as being 100% good or evil. It was complex, nuanced and thus interesting. The debate in Cold Blood however is so cack handed and so extreme that it’s impossible to be invested in this at all.

Let’s start with the Silurian side of the debate. You have Restac, a character who’s even more boring and one note than her twin sister Alaya (i didn’t even think that was possible). Her solution to every problem is to kill all the humans. A mysterious drill from the surface is detected. Kill the humans. The perimeter has been breached. Kill the humans. You lose your car keys. Kill the humans. She never considers the possibility that this is all one giant misunderstanding. Nor is there ever an explanation for why she hates humans so much. She’s just a dull cardboard cutout foaming at the mouth.

Then there’s Eldane, played by Stephen Moore. The leader of the Silurians and who is so insanely nice to the point where it almost starts to become comical. Even when Rory, Ambrose and Tony show up carrying Alaya’s corpse, and Ambrose threatens to kill all the Silurians with the drill, Eldane still tries to help the Doctor and everyone escape at the end even by going so far as to gas his own people. What the fuck?! You could probably sit there quoting excerpts from Mein Kampf whilst jetting heroin into your eyes and defacing a library book in front of him and he’d still insist that peace could be brokered between our species.

Finally there’s the Silurian scientist Malohkeh, played by Richard Hope, who is by far the most confusing character. In this episode they go out of their way to present him as this cuddly, reasonable person who abhors violence and confrontation, but in the previous episode he was the one torturing Mo and Amy and threatening to dissect them. Talk about inconsistent.

The humans are just as bad. Tony, Ambrose’s dad played by Robert Pugh, was poisoned in the previous episode and is slowly dying, so he secretly offers to let Alaya go in exchange for a cure. Now this could be interesting. Deceit, backstabbing, survival at all costs etc. Except it’s never brought up again and even at the end he’s still treated as one of the good guys. What?! It gets even weirder when he chastises Ambrose for killing Alaya as though he’s the moral authority when a few scenes earlier he was prepared to sell out his own grandson in exchange for his own miserable life, the conniving bastard.

Ambrose too, played by Nia Roberts, is just plain daft. She’s desperate to save her son and dad (and husband Mo, although she keeps forgetting to mention him. Bad writing or a sign of marital problems? I’ll let you decide... but the answer is bad writing), and threatens to torture Alaya for information. Three problems with this. One, it’s already been established that Alaya isn’t going to talk, so torture is pointless. Two, she already knows the Doctor has gone underground to negotiate an exchange of hostages, so if she just sits patiently and doesn’t interfere, everything will be fine. And three, there’s no buildup to this whatsoever. She’s not suitably desperate enough to resort to such drastic action. All that’s happened is that Alaya has taunted her a bit and now all of a sudden she’s a cold blooded murderer. This isn’t subtle character shading. This is just picking random scenarios out of a hat.

And then there’s the Doctor, who is quite possibly the biggest idiot of the bunch. He insists that a peace can be brokered and that despite all their atrocities and crimes and violent actions, humans are still nice, kind, lovely people that the Silurians can totes be bezzy mates with. Where the Doctor is getting this idea from I don’t know considering this is the fourth time he’s tried to get the humans and the Silurians to play nice and it never works out. But my biggest problem is that he makes it all sound so simple. He claims there’s no reason why the Silurians and the humans couldn’t work together, but as I’ve already mentioned at the beginning of this review, it’s not as simple as that. We have trouble sharing the planet with members of our own species. How are we going to cope with another? And Nasreen sensibly points out that we can barely sustain our population due to limited resources. We can’t just shove another population of people on top. But no. The Doctor says it’s possible, therefore it must be so. I’m sick of New Who constantly squashing any chance for a complex moral debate in favour of overly simplistic answers. I would much rather watch Nasreen and Eldane debate about their futures rather than watch boring chase scenes and the Doctor pissing about like a tit in a trance.

Also how are Amy and Nasreen qualified to negotiate on behalf of the human race? I know Moffat and Chibnall are trying to sell the idea of the everyman hero, but again, it’s not as simple as that. How are they going to explain this to the people on the surface? Are the Silurians just going to march into the UN and go ‘Hi guys! Sorry to disturb you. We’re the Silurians. Basically these two humans that you don’t know and have no authority whatsoever have said we can share the planet with you guys. Hope that’s okay. Bye.’

Also Amy makes the idiotic suggestion that the Silurians can populate the Sahara, the Nevada Plains and the Australian Outback because they’re ‘uninhabited.’

Blimey, I’d hate to be the one that has to tell the Tuareg or the indigenous Australians that they’re going to have to share their lands with a bunch of lizard people.

Anyway the negotiations break down, everyone scarpers, the Doctor tells Tony that he’s not in fact dying but actually mutating (Huh?), and so has to stay underground to be decontaminated while Nasreen elects to stay with him (it’s a shame. I’d love to have seen her as a companion. She got on so well with the Doctor and Meera Syal is always fun to watch). Then Eldane poisons his own people (da fuck?!), the Doctor blows up the drill and then makes the insanely stupid suggestion that Mo, Ambrose and Elliot spread the word that in a thousand years time the planet is to be shared.

youtube

That is quite possibly the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. There are two possible scenarios to this. Either everyone dismisses them as a bunch of weirdos or UNIT and Torchwood get wind of it and venture underground for a bit of pest extermination. (Also doesn’t the Earth get scorched by solar flares a thousand years in the future in The Beast Below?)

And then just when you think things couldn’t possibly get any worse, that bloody crack shows up again. It has the same effect as the one in Flesh And Stone did, effectively trampling all over the narrative. But then things take an unexpected turn when Rory kicks the bucket. Both Matt Smith and Karen Gillan are to be commended here because they both act their socks off in this scene, but it’s hard to be emotionally invested because Rory’s not dead. And I’m not just saying that with the benefit of hindsight. Even at the time I didn’t think Rory was actually dead because we saw him and Amy’s future selves waving at the beginning of The Hungry Earth. So I suspected that Moffat’s hand was hovering over the reset button. It was just a question of when he was going to press it. So yeah, it did dampen the emotional impact ever so slightly.

Now usually I like to inject some humour into my reviews, usually in the form of cynicism, bad puns, and occasionally through the use of smutty innuendo because I’m really, really childish. Believe it or not, I don’t sit there thinking of naughty things to say. Sometimes the best ones are just handed to me on a silver platter, and this is one such occasion. I see it as my reward for putting up with an hour and a half of crap, so if you don’t mind I’d like to take this opportunity to just savour the moment.

Ready? Here we go.

The Doctor sticks his hand up Moffat’s crack and pulls out a shard of the TARDIS.

Oh thank you God! You’re too kind to me!

Cold Blood is terrible in every way. Chris Chibnall tries so hard to replicate the success of the original Doctor Who And The Silurians, but forgets what made the original so good to begin with. If you’re interested in the Silurians and/or want to get into the classic series, I urge you to watch the original Silurian story. It’s dark and morally complex with well written, nuanced characters and the ending has a shocking and tragic impact because you actually grow to care for both sides. If you’re prepared to look past the bad 70s special effects and cheap looking rubber latex monster designs, it’s a treat. The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood on the other hand is an absolute failure that pales in comparison to the original. The characters are one dimensional, the moral debate is reduced to two sets of extremes with none of the complexity or nuance the story requires, and I didn’t give a single shit about anyone or anything. The Silurians deserve so much better than this.

#cold blood #chris chibnall #doctor who #eleventh doctor #matt smith #amy pond #karen gillan #rory williams #arthur darvill #silurians #steven moffat #bbc #review #spoilers

19 notes · View notes

polishandpaperbacks · 5 years

Photo

Hey everyone! Today on the blog I have an excerpt post from one of my favorite author’s next books, Chosen. Chosen is the second book in the series, and it takes place in the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Presumably there are spoilers from the first book below this line, so don’t read on if you haven’t read Slayer. Instead, go out and buy Slayer and devour it immediately!

Nina continues to learn how to use her slayer powers against enemies old and new in this second novel in the New York Times bestselling series from Kiersten White, set in the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now that Nina has turned the Watcher’s Castle into a utopia for hurt and lonely demons, she’s still waiting for the utopia part to kick in. With her sister Artemis gone and only a few people remaining at the castle—including her still-distant mother—Nina has her hands full. Plus, though she gained back her Slayer powers from Leo, they’re not feeling quite right after being held by the seriously evil succubus Eve, a.k.a. fake Watcher’s Council member and Leo’s mom. And while Nina is dealing with the darkness inside, there’s also a new threat on the outside, portended by an odd triangle symbol that seems to be popping up everywhere, in connection with Sean’s demon drug ring as well as someone a bit closer to home. Because one near-apocalypse just isn’t enough, right? The darkness always finds you. And once again, it’s coming for the Slayer.

And onto the Excerpt!

Chapter 1 1

THE DEMON APPEARS OUT OF nowhere. Claws and fangs fill my sight, and every instinct screams kill. My blood sings with it, my fists clench, my vision narrows. The vulnerable points on the demon’s body practically flash like neon signs. “Foul!” Rhys shouts. “No teleportation, Tsip! You know that.” Even while playing, Rhys can’t help but be a Watcher, shouting out both advice and corrections. He’s not wearing his glasses, which makes his face look vague and undefined. Cillian passes him, mussing Rhys’s carefully parted hair into wild curls and laughing at Rhys’s frustration. I take a deep breath, trying to clear my head of the impulse to kill this demon I invited into our home and swore to protect. “It’s just soccer,” I whisper. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t even like soccer.” “Football, bloody American,” Cillian sings, neatly stealing the ball from me. His shorts are far shorter than the January afternoon should permit, but he seems impervious to cold. Unlike those of us who are translucently pale at this point in winter, his skin is rich and lovely. He passes to Tsip. Tsip is a vaguely opalescent pink, shimmering in the sunlight. She paints her claws fun colors when we do manicure nights, and I try desperately not to miss Artemis. I stay rooted to the ground where I’m standing. Tsip caught me off guard, but that shouldn’t matter. I like her. And the fact that I went from trying to score a goal to plotting a dozen ways to kill my opponent in a single heartbeat is frankly terrifying. I can’t get my heart under control, can’t shake the adrenaline screaming through my veins. “Gotta take over for the Littles. I’m out.” I wave and jog from the field. No one pays me much attention. Jade is lying on the ground in front of the goal, the worst goalkeeper ever. Rhys and Cillian are bodychecking each other in increasingly flirty ways. Tsip keeps shimmering and then resolidifying as she remembers the no-teleportation rule. They’re all happy to keep going without me, unaware of my internal freak-out. I’ve deliberately kept them unaware. Things here are going so well. I’m in charge. I can’t be the problem. So none of them know how I can’t sleep at night, how my anger is hair-trigger fast, how when I do manage to sleep, my dreams are … Well. Bad. They don’t need to know and I don’t let them. Except for Doug, his bright yellow skin almost nineties Day-Glo levels in the thin winter sun. Annoying emotion-sniffing demon. He watches me from our goal, his nostrils flared. I can’t lie to him the way I can to everyone else. I shake my head preemptively. I don’t want to talk about it. Not with him. Not with anyone. There’s only one person I want to talk to about it, but Leo Silvera’s not exactly available. I do a quick sweep of the perimeter of the castle. Leo loved me. Check the woods. Leo betrayed me. Check the locks on the outbuildings. Leo saved me. Pause and just listen and look, feeling for anything pushing against my instincts. I let Leo die. I keep walking. Leo loved me, betrayed us, saved us, and then died, and I can’t be sad without being mad or mad without feeling guilty or guilty without feeling exhausted. Past the meadow, the tiny purple demons are taking turns pushing each other on the tree swing. That, or they’re trying to push each other off. It’s hard to tell with them. With nothing else needing my attention outside, I end up at the front stairs to the castle. “Hey, Jessi.” I wave halfheartedly to our resident vengeance demon. She’s leading the Littles through an elaborate game of hopscotch. George Smythe, bundled up and barely able to see under a floppy knit hat, is shouting each letter as he lands on it. “G!” “What?” Jessi snaps at me. “E!” “I can take over for you.” I find the Littles soothing. They might be three incredibly hyper children constantly needing snacks, entertainment, and education, but at least none of them ever randomly triggers a kill reflex in me. “A!” “No,” Jessi says, her voice as sweet as summer fruit. “G-E-what-comes-next …” “O!” George course corrects, wobbling on one short leg before jumping to the required O. “Good! Oh, you’re so clever. Priya, how are your letters coming?” Priya, a tiny moppet with shiny black hair, is crouched over her own chalk work, which looks more like Klingon than any alphabet I’m familiar with. “Very good, darling! You’re really working hard. Hold the chalk with one hand, like we talked about. Thea, love, fingers out of noses, please—that’s a dear.” And to think, we once considered these children the entire future of the Watchers. I watch as Thea spins until she falls flat on her bottom. Actually, the future of the Watchers is pretty accurately captured here. I pat Jessi on the arm. “So, you can take the afternoon off.” Everything sweet in Jessi’s voice turns to ice. “I said no. I don’t trust you with these three precious wonders. We have an entire day’s curriculum to get through, and we haven’t even done story time yet or finished our art projects. Are you going to do any of that with them?” “I—I could?” “You were going to turn on a cartoon and read while their fertile minds were filled with weeds.” Jessi doesn’t have her powers anymore, but I’m pretty certain if she did, I would have been vengeance-demoned right into something oozing and seeping. She’s already turned away from me and back to her three charges. Her whole face is full of gentle warmth and absolute love. “R!” George declares, hopping emphatically down on it. Jessi claps like he’s cured the common cold. Thoroughly dismissed, I skulk up the stairs and into the castle. Jessi could at least pretend to be nice. She’s got a lot of enemies out there—vengeance is a nasty cycle—and without her powers she’s vulnerable. We took her in despite her obvious hatred for everyone over the age of ten. There was some debate, given her history, but my mom argued in her favor. It’s a little easier to forgive a vengeance demon who made it her immortal life’s work to avenge children than a vengeance demon who specialized in, say, fantasy league sports rivalries. But Jessi’s dismissal leaves me with nothing to do. I used to have my medical center and my studies, all my little Watcher duties. Even with so few of us, the castle ran as near to Watcher traditions as we could manage. Which in retrospect was absurd, since we didn’t have a Slayer and weren’t actually doing anything Watchers should. But now everything has changed. We lost Watchers—Wanda Wyndam-Pryce, sulking off into the sunset, good riddance. Bradford Smythe, murdered. Eve Silvera, secretly a succubus demon and murderer, smushed thanks to my actions. Artemis, off to find herself with her awful girlfriend, the thought of whom makes my jaw ache as I grind my teeth. And Leo, who didn’t warn us what his mother was (and what he was) but fought her to give us enough time to stop her from opening a new hellmouth. And now we have a Slayer, again some more, thanks to Leo somehow returning the powers his mother stole from me. I don’t know how he did it, and it hurts too much to think about, like everything else. I spend so much of my days trying not to think, and it’s harder than it should be. I used to believe that all Slayers did was act without thinking. I was wrong, but I wish it were true. There’s so little acting and so much thinking these days. It’s good. It’s all good. It’s good, I remind myself, over and over like a chant. Sanctuary, what we decided to turn our castle into, is just starting out, but it’s exactly what we dreamed it could be. We’ve taken in demons who had nowhere else to go. We’re keeping them safe, and ourselves safe, and we’ll keep looking for those who could benefit from the generations of knowledge and abilities we have. We’re protecting, not attacking or destroying. Between our new demonic additions and existing Watchers, everyone has tasks and times to do them. It’s more work than anyone anticipated, keeping everyone taken care of and fed, making sure the castle runs like it should. But so far everyone is happy. Everyone is safe. I sink down against the wall, feeling the cold of the stone radiating outward. The unpellis demon, all four gentle eyes soft and brown and hopeful, snuggles up to my side like a dog. It’s more animal than human in nature, nonverbal, and still recovering from its frequent de-skinning treatment in Sean’s demon-drug manufacturing scheme. I saved Pelly from that cellar. I didn’t save everyone, though. I wrap my arms around Pelly and close my eyes. Everything is exactly what we dreamed it could be. Except I feel Leo’s loss everywhere, and I miss my twin, Artemis, with a constant, physical ache. And, worst of all, with enough time after Tsip surprised me to calm down and remind my body there’s no danger … I still feel like killing something.

_______________________________________________

And now for even better news...Chosen is on sale on January 7th!!! So go to wherever you buy your most anticipated reads and make sure Chosen is on your list. I will have a review of this one up **hopefully** within the next week or so.

0 notes

galadrieljones · 7 years

Text

Morrigan and Warden Matthew Cousland: excerpts

Snippets on the doomed love story of Morrigan and Matthew Cousland.

For @cristofalina who asked if I’d written anything about my Morrigan and Warden romance. These are all excerpts from my Solavellan work The Dead Season. Spoiler free, for all intents and purposes. <3

i. From Chapter 29: Soft, Softer, Softest

Morrigan watched from the altar, bait, it seemed. As she always had been. A tool, a pawn. When she was a child, she had liked to escape, take the shapes of crows and watch lovers kissing from the tops of high trees. She had been a romantic girl, and she liked lilies and those great big shells that you could hold at your ear to hear the sounds of the sea. Her favorite color had always been purple, like a heart, but darker, the color her fingers got when she'd go blackberry picking in the early morning sun. There was only one person she had ever told any of this, and he was dead now. But that is a story for another day.

ii. From Chapter 36: Hey, Morrigan. Spin me a tale.

“Mother?” said Kieran.

They were sitting in the back of a covered wagon, on their way to the Emprise du Lion. Morrigan was knitting by the light of an oil lamp. Kieran leaned against her, holding a red ball of yarn.

“Yes, Kieran.”

“Tell me a story,” he said.

Morrigan was knitting a pair of red gloves, for Solas. “What kind of story?” she said.

“One of your Well stories, please. One I have not heard before.”

It was chilly in the wagon. Morrigan reached across Kieran and pulled a wool blanket over them both. “Once upon a time,” she said, “there was an empress in search of a champion.”

"Is this about father?”

“No,” said Morrigan. “Tis a Well story, as requested. Your father was not the only champion in the world."

Kieran smiled. “You are right, mother. Of course. Please go on.”

iii. From Chapter 37: Entropy (edited for length and spoilers)

“Once, he feigned support for a wild merchant who was asking too much of the refugees in Lothering,” said Morrigan. “He pissed off a sister, and then, once she was gone, he killed that merchant for his hubris. He was a brash man in his prime. It could be unsettling, though I saw the soft of his heart. There were moments, of course. And he saw mine as well. His parents had both died in a single act of traitorous violence and he was pitched full force into the life of of an orphan, complete with both reluctant heroics and ample, daily risk. In the end, he was twenty-three years old and searching, desperately, for meaning. I suppose that, for a little while, I provided that for him.”

Sene and Morrigan were out in the courtyard, making their way through the clusters of people and the merchant carts. It was a colorful evening, with lanterns hanging from steel wires overhead. Sene had decided to take a break, with Morrigan, and somehow, they had gotten on the subject of Kieran’s father, Matthew Cousland—prodigal son of Highever, Hero of Ferelden, and the Gray Warden who, just ten years back, had sacrificed his life to saved the world.

“How old were you?” said Sene. She stopped at one of the merchant carts to put her hand on a large pumpkin.

“I was twenty-two,” said Morrigan. “My life, up until that point, had been a complicated task of balancing my mother’s treacherous demands with my desires to…experience the world without her.”

"The world is a different place than I thought it would be,” said Sene, thinking. “You say he was brash, your Matthew?”

A group of children rushed by. One of them was holding a small bell and rang it repeatedly, reminding Sene of Crestwood. The other was holding a red balloon and let it go into the air.

“He was a rich boy with a bandit’s heart,” said Morrigan. “He did not care for small talk. He was disarming, to say the least, a little like your Solas. Who he chose to comfort and who he chose to threaten could seem unpredictable to most. He’d cut down a priest to save a whore. Alistair, of course, found this distasteful. Matthew threatened his faithful Chantry charm. I, however, found it intriguing. One might think a veritable witch of the wilds has lived a life full of tales worth telling, but in reality, Sene, I was just like you: twenty-two years old, a book smart backwater girl with very little knowledge of the world outside my own narrow existence. I mean no offense, of course, Inquisitor, only that I understand what it is to be drawn to a man whose darkness makes you reexamine your own.”

“Darkness?” said Sene. She stopped to look at Morrigan. Morrigan wore high-heeled boots that day, which put the two of them almost eye-to-eye. “What do you mean?”

iv. From Chapter 38: Assassins

Suddenly, then, Mythal stood up and put the hair behind Morrigan’s ear. Like in a trance. Morrigan stumbled backward. “You are not him,” she said, more to herself than anything. “He is gone.”

“You still pine for him,” said Mythal. “Your Matthew?"

Morrigan stiffened up after this, like a tough, beautiful column. She became defensive. “And I suppose you're so different," she said. “At least the man I pine for is dead. I send my love into the void with no hope for its return. It is an act of coping. But the man you pine for is not dead. He just doesn’t want you. He wants someone else. This is not a game, Mythal.”

v. From Chapter 39: There Goes the Redhead

Solas turned his head, eyes narrowed. He was a big man there beside her. Bigger than Matthew had been in both stature and demeanor, but the two of them were such similar specimens with the heroics and the pride, that the more time she spent with Solas, the more she began to realize exactly what it was to deal with men of such considerable stoicism.

You mother them.

vi. From Chapter 42: When We Get Back to Skyhold, Pt. 2

Morrigan had only ever loved once, and it had not been for a very long time. She had been young, barely two years older than Sene when she became pregnant with Kieran and lost his father to what she now knew as the bullshit scourge of duty and sacrifice. How she hated it, and this was not the life she wanted. Matthew had been no god, but he was like Solas in that he had been similarly charming and territorial with Morrigan during their relationship, and as a clueless virgin to whom men had previously been a game of cat and mouse, she’d put up a marvelous front. She dealt with him and for a time even had him convinced that she was far more experienced and worldly than she actually was. She put him in his place. She had seen Sene “deal” with Solas in similar ways, and though they were her own, they were familiar. Sene was brash and honest where Morrigan had been measured and boastful, but it was all just a means of tricking arrogant men into showing their vulnerabilities.

vii. From Chapter 44: Dream Symbols

Sene looked up at the pretty insides of that willow tree. There were doves somewhere, mourning in time with the winter. “What was it like?” she said to Morrigan. “When you found out [you were pregnant]?”

“I did not find out until I was on my hands and knees, throwing up into a mass of blackberry bramble somewhere in the Exalted Planes,” said Morrigan. “Months along. Matthew was already gone.”

Sene swallowed hard. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“That is the past,” said Morrigan. “This is the present. Do not apologize for what has already come and gone.”

Morrigan and Kieran are central characters in The Dead Season.

#morrigan and matthew #morrigan and kieran #morrigan #kieran #matthew cousland #morrigan x warden #the dead season #excerpts #snippets #ask and you shall receive #<3 #sene lavellan #solas

14 notes · View notes

jenniferasberryus · 5 years

Text

Unboxing Return to Dark Tower and Its Massive Mechanical Tower

When a reboot of the hit 1981 board game Dark Tower (no relation to the books or movie) was announced in 2018, the big question was how developer Restoration Games would handle the iconic electronic tower that sat at the center of its game board. Well, that big question has a big answer.

Ahead of Return to Dark Tower’s Kickstarter launch on January 14, designer Rob Daviau (who joined us previously for a look at Betrayal Legacy and has partnered with Gloomhaven creator Isaac Childres for this) came by to give us a look inside this spiritual successor’s box. That includes its massive, one-foot tall plastic tower with Bluetooth, spinning chambers, lights, and ominous sound effects galore.

Watch the video above to see me and Daviau show it off, and read on to hear my thoughts after playing Return to Dark Tower myself:

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=early-look-at-photos-and-components-of-return-to-dark-tower&captions=true"]

Starting with the basics, Return to Dark Tower is a cooperative board game for 1-4 players. You and your allies have to fight monsters, grab loot, and complete quests to eventually lure out and defeat a powerful adversary hiding in the looming tower at the center of the map.

And, boy, does that tower loom. This thing is truly enormous, almost entirely blocking the opposite half of the map opposite from your view – actually a net positive, as it encouraged me and my allies to talk more and prevented anyone player from effectively quarterbacking the whole experience.

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=The%20tower%20is%20a%20showpiece%20meant%20to%20wow%20and%20intimidate%20as%20it%20continuously%20threatens%20the%20success%20of%20your%20mission."]

This big hunk of plastic is, of course, important to actually playing the game, but it’s also just a presence in itself. A showpiece meant to wow and intimidate as it continuously threatens the success of your mission. Also, it’s got Bluetooth, so that’s neat.

You’ll move your hero minis around Return to Dark Tower’s lovely circular board while managing item cards, plastic skulls, and other physical pieces, but many other aspects of the game are handled by a mobile app. Quest tracking, turn counters, and combat to name a few, but the digital and physical sides are balanced in a way that never makes the other feel superfluous.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/08/06/return-to-dark-tower-teaser-trailer"]

And, perhaps most important of all, the tower itself feels as important as it should. Daviau told me they wanted to make sure players couldn’t just leave it in the box, and the suite of showy actions it can perform is full of both flavor and substance. Its built-in Bluetooth connects to your phone, essentially acting as a gamemaster for your adventure when paired.

A player ends their turn by dropping a tiny plastic skull into the top of the tower. A sensor detects the skull, signals to the app that a turn is over, and triggers all sorts of dastardly events depending on the combination of quests, monsters, and main villain you are using for that session. The inner chambers of the tower shift and turn, sigils appear and light up to impose penalties on whoever they are facing, and occasionally you’ll need to open trap doors on its foreboding exterior.

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=It's%20terrifying%20when%20you%20drop%20a%20skull%20in%20the%20tower%20and%20it%20doesn't%20roll%20out%20again%2C%20instead%20gathering%20in%20some%20unknown%20nook%20inside%20waiting%20to%20rush%20out%20unexpectedly%20later."]

That last bit is often the scariest. When a skull is dropped into the tower it will usually roll out of one of its many openings at random. The player it rolls toward then has to place that skull on one of the buildings in their section of the map, which makes gathering the benefits of that building more expensive. That’s rough on its own, but it’s even more terrifying when a skull doesn’t appear at all, instead gathering in some unknown nook or behind a door yet to be opened within the tower itself.

As the game goes on and more openings are unlocked, it not only makes getting skulls or sigils more likely, it also increases the odds that you’ll stumble upon a latent cache of doom waiting to roll out. At one point during our playthrough, the tower instructed us to open a door and four skulls clattered onto a single player’s kingdom, throwing all their plans into chaos. It’s delightfully devilish and makes interacting with this evil monolith wonderfully tense.

Return to Dark Tower is split into six “months,” each of which begins by giving you two quests: one that will help you complete your overall quest of luring out and defeating your adversary more easily when finished, and another that will instead empower your enemies if you don’t complete it.

Since you only have that month to complete them (each month is generally between seven and nine turns long), the puzzle here is in figuring out how best to divide tasks and time between each player – and to determine what will likely have to fall under the umbrella of “acceptable losses.” This makes each month a little mini-game inside of your final quest, full of tough choices and tiny victories of their own.

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Killing%20an%20enemy%20is%20generally%20as%20easy%20as%20using%20the%20combat%20action%20on%20them%2C%20but%20be%20ready%20to%20take%20massive%20losses%20alongside%20your%20victory%20if%20you%20aren%E2%80%99t%20properly%20prepared."] Many of those choices involve the monsters that inevitably fill the map, and specifically whether you’re going to fight them or spend your time elsewhere while quietly praying they don’t find you cowering in the corner… which they will. See, killing an enemy is as easy as using the combat action on them (apart from some special big bads), but be ready to take massive losses alongside your victory if you aren’t properly prepared.

Combat is handled entirely through Return to Dark Tower’s app, which we were using a prototype version of. Instead of rolling dice or pitting combat power against one another, you instead draw a set number of digital cards from that monster’s deck while using “advantages” you gather through items and character abilities to make those cards less awful.

For example, many enemy cards cause you to lose a resource called warriors, and you could use an advantage on one that makes you lose four warrior tokens to reduce it to two, and then another to make it zero. Go even further and you’ll actually start getting resources back as a reward, but don’t have enough to sacrifice and you’ll gather debuffs called corruptions that will lose you the game once you reach three.

If you don’t have many advantages to spend you’ll still be able to win the fight, just not mitigate the damage you take as a result, and having only a few advantages forces you to pick which poisons you most want to neutralize. Some advantages are only effective against certain enemy types too, like beasts or the undead, encouraging players to specialize and prepare the right tool for the right job.

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Its%20combat%20system%20is%20unique%20and%20strategically%20interesting%2C%20if%20one%20that%20felt%20just%20a%20little%20bit%20odd%20thematically."]

It’s a unique and strategically interesting system, if one that felt just a little bit odd thematically in practice. Most enemies – whether it’s a wolf or an ogre – can be killed in a single combat, and it seems odd that you amass warrior not to improve your combat power but instead to have them be taken away to avoid real damage. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a system I enjoyed using and planning around, but one that’s likely in need of a finished app with actual card graphics and more clear flavor to really click for me.

That said, it’s one of the few parts of Return to Dark Tower that didn’t so far. The slight variations between each character are significant enough to give each player a distinct role without making everyone learn a whole new ruleset, the items and treasures offer significant effects that my group was constantly getting excited about, and the prospect of replayability as you (and the app) swap between sets of quests, adversaries, and more is highly appealing for a box as big as this.

Return to Dark Tower is launching a Kickstarter on Tuesday, January 14 at 9am ET. It’s by no means a cheap or small game, and there’s still lots of questions left unanswered after my one (nearly victorious) prototype playthrough, but the unique spectacle and interesting puzzle it offered already left me wanting to have another go right away.

If you’re looking for more great board games, you can watch our spoiler-free unboxing of Betrayal Legacy with Daviau, or check out our list of the best cooperative board games. We’ve also rounded up some of the best fantasy board games around, and if you’re new to the hobby, here’s our picks for the best board games for beginners. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Tom Marks is IGN's Deputy Reviews Editor and resident pie maker. You can follow him on Twitter. from IGN Video Games https://www.ign.com/articles/return-to-dark-tower-first-impressions-and-unboxing-its-massive-mechanical-tower via IFTTT from The Fax Fox https://thefaxfox.blogspot.com/2020/01/unboxing-return-to-dark-tower-and-its.html

0 notes

lovelyparanormalbooks · 7 years

Text

Book Blitz: Grand Finale: Terror by Eamonn Hickson (Giveaway)

On Tour with Prism Book Tours

Book Tour Grand Finale for

Terror

By Eamonn Hickson

We hope you enjoyed the tour! If you missed any of the stops

you can see snippets, as well as the link to each full post, below:

Launch - Author Interview

What is your motivation behind Terror? Why did you want to write it?

I want to be a devil’s advocate in one of most topical issues of our time: terror attacks. While I’m not condoning the characters’ beliefs or actions, I want to see what’s on the other side of a terror attack: why do ‘they’ do it? What motivates ‘them’? One man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. Most of us see those who do unspeakable acts as terrorists, but to someone they might be heroes. Terror was also inspired by a visit to Belfast in Northern Ireland, where I (as a southerner) got to see both the Catholic and Protestant sides without fear.

Mello & June, It's a Book Thang! - Great Writing Is Dead

Some of my favourite pieces of writing were constructed by the likes of John Milton, Homer and Edgar Allan Poe. Words are magnificent; they can transport our thoughts back to a time long gone, to a world we know almost nothing about, to a world where our modern selves would never fit in. Or would we?

Teatime and Books - Author Interview

Can you tell us about your current work-in-progress?

I’m currently working on the sequel to Terror. While there is a sense of finality for a number of story arcs in Terror, some characters just need more time. Ideas are a dime a dozen, but I think a writer must trust his or her characters when they demand more airtime. The sequel is based in Boston again, for the most part, and will include characters who were affected by the events in the original. Some characters from Terror will still be front and center in the sequel, and we’ll get to see their longer-term reaction to their choices in the original… it’s hard to write about a sequel without throwing in some spoilers!

The Bookworm Chronicles - Excerpt

She reaches for words to say but they’re trapped behind a double-glazed window, visible but untouchable— Robert clasps her wrists. Ally doesn’t resist, and he throws her to the carpeted floor. She lands on all fours and a murder of tingles rush to her hands like demented crows stabbing a finch to death, while the mattress cover unclips from the edge of the bed and becomes a snapping Venus flytrap. Robert throws the piece of paper in front of her face and leaves the bedroom.

It's All About the Romance - I’ve lost control of my character. My bad!

You know how it works: you spend days, weeks or even months deciding on their appearance, memories, experiences, dreams, motivations, fears, desires, hopes… and they give you the middle finger halfway through your novel. If this hasn’t happened to you, can you tell me how you managed to keep a tight rein on your characters.

Wishful Endings - Good V. Evil

Quite some time ago, I visited Northern Ireland and, more specifically, Belfast. Being from the southern part of the Republic of Ireland, I had only heard bits and pieces about ‘The Troubles’ of the 1970s and ‘80s. So, I visited Belfast as an outsider, devoid of any strong views on what’s happened there. I went on a ‘black taxi tour’ through areas which were at the center of the conflict in the past and something dawned on me; the Catholic driver spoke of the events of his youth, how soldiers targeted his family and friends, how one put their life in danger by going down the wrong street, and how every action had a reaction.

Leels Loves Books - Review

"I enjoyed this book. With the title like TERROR, I was expecting more fear and horror – like a horror story – but the suspense and the mysteriousness of it all definitely made for a good read. If you can follow along with the different characters, the different stories, not always having the backstory right away when you want it – you will enjoy this book. It is definitely one that I think I will read again!"

Andi's Book Reviews - Excerpt

Nestor leaves the kitchen via the back door, walks around the house and stops in the driveway. His house sits on the corner across the street like an obedient dog. The new paint, the rattling window chimes, the nylon washing line, the new AC unit, the repaired woodwork, the balloon tied to the balustrade, the flank of flowers—they’re all imposters, along with Sarah and the Grinch.

Deal Sharing Aunt - Author Interview

Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?

The plan was to write standalone books. However, that’s changed with my latest release. I feel there’s another story to tell involving some of the characters in this novel and if I were to move onto something different, it’d be a storyline that I wouldn’t be able to seamlessly grasp onto again. So, in short, I’m trying to create connected stories. More on this in a later question.

Colorimetry - Killing Your Darlings

Breaking up is hard to do—and so is killing your favourite characters. I suppose it’s a compliment (from you to you) when there’s a character who is more than just a collection of letters and words and thoughts and actions. A non-existent persona, one conjured up and moulded in a joint collaboration between your brain and fingers, begins to relay messages back, asking you to spare them.

And don't forget to enter the giveaway below, if you haven't already...

Terror by Eamonn Hickson Adult Thriller

Paperback & ebook, 336 pages

April 29th 2017 Have you ever felt that society consciously tries to undermine you? In a society where everyone strives for growth, where everyone tries to build towards the heavens, there are some who wish to bring it plummeting down. Terror is a thriller in which three people from different walks of life find a common enemy in the contemporary world. Yet, unlike most, they decide to do something about it. Following his best friend’s death, military man Milton Haynes is forced to see a psychiatrist while he challenges his dishonourable discharge. Ally Winston, one year after being viciously assaulted, struggles to slot into the life her father has laid out for her, while Nestor Frings returns to Boston to find his parents have sold their home due to financial issues. The three initially voice their pains through non-violent means, however, they soon find their efforts futile. In a world where outsiders are considered dangerous and are not to be trusted, it will be the insiders who do the damage. Follow Milton, Ally and Nestor as they come to, what they perceive to be, the inevitable conclusion: they must commit a terror attack.

Praise for the Book

“Eamonn Hickson brings the fascinating, dingy, and complex streets of Boston alive in his new novel TERROR, a probing novel of survival in the modern world. TERROR is a masterful portrait of the hard decisions and harder lives that must be lived during a dark time in American history – the present.” — Self-Publishing Review Reviews of the Author's Other Work “…a suspense thriller with a fascinating version of heaven versus hell that lingers after closing the pages.” “Eamonn Hickson writes a vivid story of a war between angels and demons, and Heaven and Hell. The story captivates the audience as you witness deception, lies, and Heavenly Hosts that are working for the enemy.” “Find yourself enmeshed in a roller coaster ride to a mind-numbing conclusion that will remain with you many a day to come.”

Goodreads│Amazon│Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Eamonn Hickson is an Irish author of three novels. He currently works as a radio journalist in Tralee, Co Kerry.

Goodreads│Facebook│Twitter

Tour Giveaway

1 winner will receive a print copy of TERROR

Open internationally

Ends December 20th

a Rafflecopter giveaway

#ParanormalBooks

0 notes