#tlt rant

[tanis-zed]

Sudden brain blast over morning coffee:

John Gaius, necrolord whatever, cringiest man alive, refuses to let the earth die. And not just in the literal sense of locking the earth’s soul in a barbie on ice, in subtler ways too.

The most obvious is the memes, John constantly references memes that are dated even to us, but are in universe from a culture that died ten thousand years ago!

Slightly more subtle is the years. Why does everyone in the Houses measure in earth years? It’s been ten THOUSAND years since anyone lived on the earth! But John keeps them as a unit of measurement.

Even more subtle is the language. In sci-fi and fantasy we’re all used to the idea of the translation for the reader, people don’t speak english in lord of the rings, or dune, but the dialogue is in english for us, the readers. Not in The Locked Tomb. In this series, they ARE speaking english. Modern, bog standard english, to the point where two people born thousands of years apart speak similar enough dialects that one can pose as the other (dulcie/cytheria).

Now, this could possibly fall under that standard sci-fi trope, EXCEPT!!!! In Nona The Ninth, we see the non-house humans! And they speak dozens of languages, like you’d expect after TEN THOUSAND YEARS of linguistic drift!

John is trying SO HARD to keep the earth alive that he’s forced a language to stagnate for, say it with me now, Ten Thousand Years, to the point where even completely new things with no equivalent in our world don’t even have new words, just repurposed old ones (flimsy, sonic).

John Gaius, the first necromancer, could resurrect the planet itself, and millions of people, but he couldn’t resurrect the culture. So, John, cryogenics researcher, tried to put the culture on ice, to keep it as close to the one he remembers as possible. And he still failed.

[nona-gay-simus]

Some days I truly feel like TLT has ruined... books for me. Like, I don't even like ACOTAR but I can think of at least four series that are basically ACOTAR with dragons, ACOTAR with gods, ACOTAR with vampires, ACOTAR with witches, and that's just off the top of my head.

But there's truly nothing out there that captures all or even some of the elements that enthralled me about TLT. The characters, the character dynamics, the magic system, the voice, the mix of science fiction and fantasy, the prose that knows exactly when to be funny and when to be serious, the queernorm world-building and variety of lesbian genders... It does not exist. Even if I find something with similar themes it will be bland fantasy voice and (most likely) boring straight ship of fem4fem.

It's even ruined audiobooks narrators because no one can compare to moira quirk and her sexy accent and wonderfully animated narration that makes the characters come to life.

And it makes me really sad to think i might never discover another series I love as much as this one. Not even close.

[kdramacrybaby]

The Mystic Nine (2016)

I just realized I never actually did my “end of season” review of The Mystic Nine after finishing it, so here we go.

(This ended up longer than I expected, so find the rest under the cut)

All in all, I did think it was better than The Lost Tomb (2015), although perhaps a bit slower - and it did have a lot more episodes to fill, so maybe that was why.

I have probably mentioned this before, but from what I’ve seen of Chinese dramas (not that many yet, so feel free to correct me), a huge part of the drama is a lot of talking and explaining what is happening. At least for me, I feel like they talked a lot more about something that had happened, instead of showing us how it happened - and as someone who struggles to keep focus on a thing I’m watching, this gets... sort of boring after a while. And with so many names and titles and faces to keep track of all the time, I do admit to not paying attention to the screen at least a couple of times every episode. So I probably missed a lot of important details to the story, but yeah... 

There were a couple of episodes every once in a while that I really really liked - everything about the Xinyue hotel episodes were amazing, and Xinyue herself was by far my absolute favorite character. What sets these episodes apart from the others, is that things actually happen here - there is action, drama and emotions all over the place. I didn’t find that even when they were in the tombs - they sit and talk so much. (The actors are amazing, by the way, I would never blame them for the writing and pacing).

It is based on a novel, and I do think I would like it a lot more in written form tbh.

I just want to stress that I don’t think it is a bad drama per se, it is just everything that I personally struggle to keep my attention on. Still, the highlights of this drama makes it, so I land on a ★★★☆☆ for this one too.

I’ll probably take a little break before I take on the next season of The Lost Tomb, but I am still determined to get through them all.

[dyke-in-crisis]

“why don’t you read the translated german version of the book?”

LOOK AT HOW THEY BUTCHERED MY GIRL

the font?? the change from gtn to “I am gideon”? the removing bones in a book series about NECROMANCERS?? never fails to piss me off

[elfieafterdark]

Goddess save me, the way Gideon is just distraught after killing Crux: "It didn't feel good. Why didn't it feel good?" hurts me so bad.

Gideon is hurting so badly, she's the saddest girl in the whole entire world after all.

And why shouldn't she be? She's a revenant, she's got two holes in her still because John didn't bother closing them cuz he's an asshole. She got everything, EVERYTHING she wanted... And it sucks hard.

All she really wanted was to be useful to Harrow, and, from her perspective, Harrow rejected her. She's so lonely, and seemingly cast aside. No wonder she's just phoning it in, "I'm the heir blah blah."

Yet, as always, as soon as Harrow is in danger or involved; she springs back to life. Fully. As fully as you can with as a corpse with speed holes anyway.

That "Get in line you big slut!" Is her snapping to some semblance of sense I think. A sort of figurative return to the Nav we all know and love.

And it always comes back to her, Harrowhark.

[crestofshame]

Tamsyn Muir said What if there were two characters who swear that they hate each other but they are the only constant parts of each other’s horrible lives? What if they actually loved each other in an undefinable way? What if one sacrificed themself for the other because it was easier knowing she would never have to watch the girl she loves die, and the one left behind was so overcome with grief that it was easier to risk forgetting who she loved to preserve the soul of that person? What if in the one left behind couldn’t remember who her dead love was in the physical world, but she had dreams upon dreams where her soul slipped into the spirit world and sought for the other end of the red thread through universe after universe? And in each universe she loved her? And their souls were too intertwined to forget the other when the body was removed from the equation?

[helpallthenamesaretaken]

the most relatable part of the tlt musical is that when percy tries to say or imply anything positive there is a bunch of background vocals immediately pushing it down

like in the day i got expelled hes like "they never listen to me" like hey maybe im not the problem maybe the problem is the people around me treating me badly and then suddenly the background vocals are all like "dude???you got expelled????"

and in good kid when hes like "all i need is one chance to prove im good enough for someone" like i believe in my goodness i just need to prove it to people and suddenly the background vocals are reminding him "SIX SCHOOLS IN SIX YEARS!! SIX SCHOOLS IN SIX YEARS!!"

[nonas-third-tantrum]

gideon apologizes for being inactive

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new icons for gideon and harrow by @basemondo!!!

[eyluvu]

this is a twelve year old btw

[thebonejunky]

GIDEON THINKS THAT HARROW ONLY LOVES THE BODY AND IS INCAPABLE OF LOVING HER AS WELL. BUT HARROW DID NOT FALL APART AT THE ABSENCE OF THE BODY. SHE STRAYED FAR FROM IT, SHE DID NOT FALTER WHEN THE GHOST DISAPPEARED. BUT SHE HAD TO BRING GIDEON TO CANAAN HOUSE WITH HER. SHE DESTROYED HERSELF COMPLETELY WHEN GIDEON WAS GONE. SHE WILLINGLY CARRIED GIDEONS WEIGHT ON HER BACK CONSTANTLY WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING WHY. GIDEON STOP BEING AN IDIOT AND JUST SEE WHATS IN FRONT OF YOU I AM GOING TO GO INSANE

[going-loud]

what is the cost of resurrection?

okay so. im going to preface this with a caveat that this question is likely answered already in the existing tlt books, but if it is, i do not know where! and also i'm going to be discussing this per my interpretations of the books, and that might not be totally accurate. if anyone as input on any part of this post please chime in! so i'm asking/discussing it here because... what is the answer...

throughout the series, John regularly says that he cannot (or will not) perform Resurrection again, because the cost is too high. but the only repercussions we know of are revenants, and Revenant Beasts in the case of planets. however, it's my understanding that revenants are the result of violent and quick death, not Resurrection. we also know that John likely did not Resurrect the planets or the people he murdered during the apocalypse immediately; the flashbacks in NtN seem to be taking place after the apocalypse, but before John Resurrected any of the OG Lyctors or just the population in general. (side note: did John Resurrect the planets? or did he simply flip them to thanergy planets by killing them? is that the same thing?)

so that leaves me with the question, what exactly happens when John performs Resurrection? does it have something to do with the creation of the River, and the place souls go after death? it is mentioned multiple times in HtN and NtN (i think, im not referencing text rn) that there was a discrepancy between the original number of souls versus the ones that John Resurrected. he also has some Resurrected corpses on retainer, apparently, as he used those to refill the population of the Ninth House in HtN. i don't know if this discrepancy is only related to the number of Revenant Beasts (when Harrow notes the math isn't mathing) and how Alecto was the reason for that discrepancy, or if there are references to the number of human souls that were brought back in the original Ressurection (again, i'm not referencing text and it's been awhile since i've read the series so if there isn't anything about this then you can ignore this lol).

anyways, that's all to say that i don't actually know what happens after Resurrection. John refuses to actually Resurrect Gideon, even though he is capable, or anyone else for that matter. is he just lying about the cost, the way he lied about Lyctorhood? or are there implications of what that cost is somewhere in the text that i missed? or maybe it will be explained in AtN? if any of you know or have theories, please share because i need to know if i missed something important lol

TL;DR: is the cost of Resurrection ever actually stated in the TLT series? do we know what it is, and did i miss something? or is it still a mystery?

[bisexualgenderclown]

genuinely obsessed with how harrowhark has exactly two (2) big viable ships and literally both of them follow the dynamic of

“gf who cannot credibly claim to have smiled for longer than 15 non-consecutive seconds in her entire life” x “gf who hasn’t lost her smug grin even once even when everything absolutely and objectively sucks ass for her all the time”

like harrow clearly has a type

[winterburn]

I just finished Nona the ninth from the locked tomb series and I finished harrow not long before that. To be perfectly honest, I hate John giaus, from the flashback chapters it’s clear the man’s a bloody sociopath, he’s also one of those irritating sociopaths who can’t accept when they’ve messed up and blames everyone else. He’s so stupid as well pre-resurrection. Dude, don’t threaten nuclear devastation to get your way, then you murder your last living friend once the sh!t hits the fan, triggering the nuclear devastation. Then he kills the entire solar system during a big ol’ tantrum. Piss off. Alecto gave him his powers so that he would help her, save her from humanities screw ups and then he makes the biggest screw up possible and murders the entire planet with nukes and necromancy. ALSO HOW THE F#CK DID YOU THINK CREATING AN ACTUAL CULT FULL OF GUN TOTING LOONEYS WAS GONNA GO!!!

I hate him more for what he did to his Lyctors too. He murdered Mercymorn in a moment and then he let Augustine into the stoma, he drove Cytherea mad, then she killed all the people in Canaan house (I am so mad that lady Abigail Pent died, she seemed lovely and I wish she was still alive, the fourth kids just didn’t deserve their fate and Magnus was lovely, he was the best of them all and he got murdered so violently. Also Dulcinea seemed lovely, which made her death more upsetting.) why the hell did he let them murder their best friends and siblings, knowing that there was a perfect form of Lyctorship? Why keep it from them? They surely wouldn’t be stronger than him, it would be an exchange of human souls, which probably wouldn’t have the same impact as John having the soul of an overpopulated planet in him.

Also screw the colonist, imperialist bastard whose going round murdering planets willy nilly. What’s the end goal for him?

He’s so awful. I hate him. Keep your damn hands off Gideon.

[derpinathebrave]

I think the other reason i struggle with Harrow the Ninth is because everyone fucking sucks in this book. Mercymorn sucks. Augustine sucks. Ianthe takes like 200 pages to stop sucking. Ortus sucks with bonus violence lol. God sucks. And like I get it, after 10000 years I'd probably be a cranky shitty sucky bitch too. It just becomes a bit of a struggle to read. I need a lot of breaks from all the sucking going on lol

[elfieafterdark]

When Ortus recites Nonian Book 16, and Harrow makes a joke about "Bone Frenzy"...

OKAY BUT THAT WAS OBVIOUSLY A BIT OF GIDEON LEAKING THROUGH RIGHT?

Leaking into the memory!!??