#tlt reaction

[theunusualchameleon]

ATTENTION MUTUALS!!!

Now that exams are over, I have decided to give in to peer pressure and see what all the fuss is about with The Locked Tomb. I have downloaded the audiobook from my local library app and shall be live blogging my opinions and reactions as I work my way through under the tag #tlt reaction.

Preconceived ideas before starting:

Apparently there's some sort of death cult?

This Gideon person may be gnc?

Audiobook is 17 hours long what am I in for?

I think this is like, both sci-fi and fantasy at the same time? Curious how they pull that off.

Stay tuned for actual content.

[elvencantation]

@thursdayplaid thoughts/predictions for harrow the ninth

harrows hallucination is not new. nice to know. (she had that question after the first bit. we just finished chapter two and paused to chat)

whether she’s actually hallucination or seeing the body in a vision (is it internal or external) it doesn’t rly matter cause of what they cause to happen narratively. the result is the same

the body isn’t the first resurrection?

what would be the irony if you kill an entire planet to resurrect someone and that creates a crazy beast and then the person immediately just offs themselves (she means the body, though she did add this was more of a fun theory)

doesn’t like jod. he’s now a villain

he doesn’t have to play nice. he’s the only person in the book who could pretty much do whatever he wanted

the fact that there is consequences to killing a planet- very satisfying. like our world is being killed by ppl we cant touch and even if we can they’ll be replaced

jod needs to get another hobby

very happy the planets are fighting back

he doesn’t deserve eyes that cool!! we need to invent a new color that’s bad just for him

what should happen is- actually killing a planet slowly also creates resurrection beasts except they take longer to show up

he doesn’t even deserve to look upon soup!!! and also broth. no broth for jod. or stew. banned

even tho now it makes sense in hindsight, she’s a little sad the body wasn’t Gideon and just that harrow couldn’t bear to say her name

harrows gonna resurrect the body. or gideon. or both. might be almost worth it to kill more planets just to have more creatures to go after the emperor

jod is like if someone took like a shell ceo and made him god

like to charge reblog to cast that harrow brings about the death of the emperor and does it like three more times

she said i could copy paste this as long as i also told everyone that i am the best

bonus thoughts/theories about gideon the ninth under the cut

we’re right before the pool scene she’s like- oh something about dulcinea is off not saying she’s the bad guy, not that this story really has bad guys and good guys, but the ways she react dont really add up

“also it seems too far fetched that gideon would be like- the kid of the emperor or something” 👀 “her eyes and her hair are just such a unique color and other characters seem to emphasize that and be like ‘i wonder where you’re from’ but i think it might be a bit too cliche for this story if she was the kid of the emperor”

also theorizing about all the ninth kids dying being a necromantic experiment “maybe they accidentally created a biological weapon?” “maybe gideon was the first person who was resurrected, and she like absorbed life energy. and when she was a child she accidentally absorbed the life force from the other children and as she grew older she became in tune with the planet so she didn’t have to absorb from other people anymore” (almost reverse lyctor?) maybe she was a created child, like the person wasnt actually her natural bio mom omg she just said “alternate theory- harrow absorbed all the children oh wait nvm forget that theory it doesn’t make sense”

“my theory is gideon finally ends up escaping at the end of the book and the next book is harrow trying to get her back, maybe not in a traditional sense”

“what’s in the tomb? a disease that killed the kids? the emperor? the first emperor? is it not a tomb at all but a prison??” is gideon the thing that used to be in the tomb? “i think what’s in there is the first and only resurrected creature and that for some reason it’s tied to the ninth house or the emperor or something like that. maybe it’s like the emperors power source or something’

the heads of the ninth house saw their kids were dying and tried to wake up the thing in the tomb that knows the secrets of immortality and resurrection and tell it to bring back the children only they open the tomb and oops it’s a baby (gideon) who isn’t really of use, maybe she has the secret in her but she can’t tell them or maybe they tried to synthesize a cure from the baby but were too late harrow opens the tomb and sees its empty, or sees the lock is broken, and when the parents are like- you’re in trouble harrow does uno reverse and threatens to call the emperor and tell him they released his immortality baby i dont actualy think gideon is the tomb baby, but if she was, it would make sense why they were so obsessed with not letting her leave

is this a plot to kill the emperor?

[lesbianrots]

we all know tamsyn muir loves a pov switch so i’m really hoping in alecto the ninth we get some sort of insight into how the fuck ianthe and gideon kiriona got so close they got to the point of having friendship bracelets and a secret handshake

[vvienne]

knowing what we now do about pal's ideas about the permeability of souls casts this interaction in a fun new light

[taxinealkaloids]

harrianthe + sewing (variations on a theme)

[likemmmcookies]

Friend got to the pool scene

[liesmyth]

Do you have any Coronabeth Worsetwin thoughts about Abigail's reaction to finding out Ianthe become a Lyctor in HtN ("Blast. It should have been Coronabeth. Ianthe never was quite the thing")? I love Abigail but ngl I am also a Corona Worsetwin truther in part because I would find it much more satisfying for one of the series' designated Rational Moral Adults to be categorically wrong about Corona.

OH I love this! I hadn't really thought out it until now, but my first reaction is that it might have been just the general "Ugh, yuck, Ianthe?" vibe that she seems to evoke, since she's very much unpleasant on main. But when thinking about it more in-depth, I think Abigail's perception of WHY Corona would be more suited to Lyctorhood depends on which qualities Abigail thinks a Lyctor should possess that Ianthe lacks.

One thing about Abigail in HtN is that she is as much of an atheist as you can get in TLT, but also she seems to have a sort of romanticised view of John (calling him "the Kindly Emperor", "I've longed my whole life to give him my findings") and I wonder if this extends to her conception of Lyctorhood as a sort of state of idyllic quest for knowledge — "the beauty of necromantic mysteries" as Harrow puts it. She's also the leader of a House known for its diplomacy, influence, and not-so-subtle expansionistic ambitions.

So, is she thinking about Corona's diplomatic skills? Her political knowledge? Or — because at this point she still believes Coronabeth is also a necromancer — is she thinking that Corona was the better necromancer than Ianthe, as it was widely speculated?

Going wildly off into headcanon land, we know Abigail has anti-Cohort sympathies (as per Judith's files) and I wonder if that plays a part. We know that Corona regards the Houses's expansionistic strategy as inefficient, but I don't think it's something Abigail would know. Maybe she just thinks Corona would be able to assert authority over the Cohort better? (One of my pet speculations is that there's some antagonism between the Cohort and the Lyctors, and if that's actually a thing Abigail could be aware of it.)

I think it's a combination of Corona's people skill, her personal experience with both twins, and the fact that Ianthe actively puts off everyone she meets.

(If anyone has any opinions about Abigail here PLS feel free to add, I too love her but she's one of the hardest characters to figure out for me)

Personally, a solid 40% of why I am a Corona Worsetwin truther is because I think it's hot. The rest is her everything in NtN / AYU from the threatening suicide to statecraft scheming, with a smattering of that one Taz interview <3 I'm excited to see her wreck havoc in AtN.

[zephyr-draws]

I love these stupid little lesbians

[babydarkstar]

if u died for me i would perform an unsanitary off the books lobotomy to forget you (bc when i think about being immortal and alone without you i start crying so hard i throw up) and i would also coat your zweihander blade with my intravenous blood every night </3

[strange-lights-in-the-sky]

got a friend to borrow gideon the ninth. another one has now also fallen victim to tlt I wish her luck🫡🫡

[meggettes]

update on my sister reading the locked tomb

she is DEEP into htn, and i asked her to let me know once Harrow makes soup, and she got there

She also has some big theories she’s developing as she goes (which makes me super happy that she’s all in reading these), but they are SPOILERS so below the cut they go.

The one thing I had a helluva time keeping to myself was my CamPal obsession, but she got to them finally

And then she went on with her theories, some of which never occurred to me on my first read and are pretty badass

👀

Cannot wait to catch up with her about it, especially as she’s heading into some showdowns and big revelations

[lady-harrowhark]

your friend who is reading gideon the ninth and referring to the body as a barbie .... i am dying. this is killing me. incredible.

I KNOW i can't wait for her to finish the series and read back over all her posts and that's all i'm saying because even though i know she has my tag blocked, i still don't want to take any chances lmao

also PS if anyone spoils anything on any of her posts via tags or comments or whatever. i'm fucking GET YOU

[mercyisms]

dusts off the “what if mercymorn had a disco elysium skillset” riff (inspo) and and some other sketches

[thevoidissmilingatyou]

So my friends are just starting to read Gideon the ninth( at my insistence. One sends me emails with their commentary and the other has read with me looking over their shoulder 100% of the time)

And they are both convinced that it’s gonna be a like a hunger games tournament?? They came to this conclusion separately??!

I’m just like guys why would you think this they want 8 lyctors it’s a numbers game. They say ‘then why do they have cavaliers then?’

Kahdjskahsia i mean I guess it’s fair on some level, sword people do indicate sword things will happen, and swords do stab people. So clearly the goal is they all fight each other and the last person standing gets to be a lyctor!

My poker face during these conversations is so funny I’m like ‘guys no one is supposed to die’.

I’m trying to be very careful with my language so they’ll be angry at me later :3

They are going to be very happy and very sad when the murders keep happening later :)

[dyke-in-crisis]

I have never physically screamed onto my desk like this over a book before and I fear I will never know true love again