#tlsab

[vryfmi]

[id: an ink drawing of Ettie, Albert and Scarlett (The Legendary Scarlett and Browne) laying on the ground, Ettie is eating bilberries out of a bowler hat while Albert and Scarlett peacefully watch her./end id]

bilberries?

[edmeom]

The Legendary Scarlett and Browne SPOILERS

Let's gooooo!!!!!!

Shhh.. They're communicating..

[galriando]

I'm EXCITED

[vryfmi]

personally, i loved the whole series*

[*] the asterisk is there because i only really appreciated it after finishing book 3 and getting that wink-wink nudge-nudge worldbuilding moment closer to the end. that was the moment books went for me from "yeah, it's a nice series" to "i need to write extensive analysis on every single thing about tosab".

before that i just enjoyed the books for Stroud's writing style, the way he writes his characters, their interactions. i agree that the story is a lot simpler and less grand-scale adventure compared to any of his other book series. though tosab series reminded me more of his standalone books because they are very narrow focused, enclosed stories about a few characters, where fantasy elements are means to explore one or two main themes. (i.e. why is there a dragon in "the buried fire"? are there any other dragons in the world? wrong questions. was micheal preconceived for corruption or was it dragon's cult influence and them prying at his alienation? what value does family hold? who will come to you even at your worse?)

but to sum it up. if you didn't enjoy first two books and expect a final book to wrap it all up, make every story line suddenly work—it won't. tlsab answers some of the questions but it isn't as clear or revealing as one might hope. i'd say it could've benefited from being split into two books to refine its two story arcs and give more space to breath and explore other things.

i will put the worldbuilding spoilers under the cut so feel free to read it or not.

to put it shortly, i find worldbuilding brilliant because it's very concealed. we as a modern reader know the world before "Cataclysm" and know what could've caused wastelands, mutated animals, mutated people. we know why sea level had risen, why temperatures are higher, why there are deserts in england, why are there burning regions across the sea. we know why london lagoon is crater-shaped. but not the characters who were born into this devastation. (slight spoiler ahead) there's a cool moment in the finale where characters describe a tank but never name it as one. because they don't know what a tank is. (that's not the wink-wink moment but i still find it cool)

personally, i loved this approach to worldbuilding, the ever looming "so what had happened?" question at the back of your mind, when the answer is this simple, this obvious to you but not to the characters.

Genuine question for readers of Scarlett and Browne…

I’m debating whether to pick up the last book or not, and I’m wondering, did anyone who was feeling iffy about the series have their mind changed by the last book?

Because I was excited for the series but it feels much younger than either Lockwood and Co or Bartimaeus and it never really got to the world building or thematic depth of those series in the first two books imo

Anyway, I want to trust that Stroud will pull everything together in the end, but i was genuinely bored by book 2, so I cant decide…

Pls let me know your thoughts if you have them

[edmeom]

[edmeom]

they're looking judgingly at their wanted poster

[edmeom]

[edmeom]

Tosab art dump!

@vryfmi's designs on wanted posters in attempt to bully him into drawing my version of albert's hair

[edmeom]

Scarlett and Browne art!

im not beating same face syndrome allegations

[vryfmi]

really really like the function of Scarlett's cuss-box and it's gradual role reveal in the story.

at first it really seems to be Stroud's way of turning the whole "children's books can have characters dying in the most gruesome ways possible, but no one is allowed to cuss" into an exaggerated joke. but it gains depth at the reveal of Scarlett's habit of gambling, of her not keeping the money she steals, at the fact that she favours cuss-box's weight on her to its absence. Scarlett has to physically remind herself to do better, to have something to weight her down, to remind her of a burden she must carry.

She’d dropped them by the river gate, along with her rucksack and her cuss-box and her prayer mat, and was temporarily set free. She felt almost weightless, existing solely in the present, and while that present lasted, she knew only a fierce joy. (TOSaB, ch. 14)

"weightless, existing solely in the present" it's a punishment that Scarlett forces onto herself. she could forgive herself, could move on, but feels as if she didn't deserve it, not when it lingers in her peripheral vision still.

Scarlett's cuss-box also seems to have something to do with karma or the way Scarlett perceives it. when she does something wrong, she loses that money, but it means that someone else, someone who's done something good, someone more deserving of that money than she is, should get it. (slave girl in Lechlade, people that took them in for a night before reaching the lagoon).

and that's why i love the fact that Scarlett loses her cuss-box once she gets washed up on Free Isles. because it has two meanings: she upheld her end of the deal, she got Albert to the Great Ruins, she did something good for others, it should unset the weight on her. and it also means, that she shouldn't feel guilt for saving Albert back on the raft and freeing his powers. Scarlett in the moment thinks that she caused everyone's death—Albert's, Ettie's, Joe's—but that's not what happened, her actions saved everyone, she shouldn't be weighted down by that guilt. that's why her cuss-box was lost, that's why she's free on the Free Isles

[vryfmi]

[id: a rough sketch of Albert and Scarlett (The Legendary Scarlett and Browne). Albert is sitting on the grass, cup in hand, looking at Scarlett laying next to him, she's covering her eyes with arm, her hat laying at her side. there's a bycicle laying on the ground./end id]

a sketch that will stay as such because i like the vibes of it as is loosely inspired by one scene in TLSaB

[vryfmi]

TOSaB, first chapter:

That morning, with the dawn hanging wet and pale over the marshes, Scarlett McCain woke up beside four dead men. Four! She hadn’t realized it had been so many. No wonder she felt stiff.

TLSaB, last chapter:

That morning, with the dawn showing faintly beyond the iron spires, Scarlett McCain woke up and discovered she was not alone. All about her lay the wounded and recovering – slaves and sentries, family and strangers, enemies and friends.

[id: a stick figure violently crying, their arms shaking./end id]