#tricksters queen

[indigo-casson]

something that i've been thinking about lately is the parallels between star wars: andor/rogue one and tamora pierce's trickster's queen duology. primarily because the star wars brainrot is real and the tamora pierce obsession is forever, but also because they are kind of both tonal and thematic departures from their main 'verses in some similar ways?

in both the star wars verse and the tortall verse, the majority of the media has focused on one individual (or a small group of individuals) who make a profound difference in the world. Whether that's alanna singlehandedly finding the dominion jewel/becoming king's champion/making way for female knights, or luke skywalker blowing up the death star, or daine and numair going to the divine realms during the immortals war, or anakin skywalker becoming a sith and dooming the republic, most of the original material has seen battle and political change as something that is affected by either an actual chosen one or simply a single very plucky and well-placed individual.

trickster's queen and andor, however, really look at rebellion as something that has to be done by a diverse group of flawed people who work together despite their differences. mon mothma knows that her role is raising money. ulasim, chenaol, and the other members of the raka conspiracy each take their individual roles in the rebellion, and recognize that even though they might not want to work with aly or the luarin nobility, they need their skills and influence to make it happen.

both stories also show rebellion as extremely costly and something that requires making tough calls. nobody has their hands clean by the end of a civil war. notably, trickster's queen explicitly narrowly avoids having the protagonists kill a group of 5 year olds. luthen is ready to kill cassian when he becomes a liability, and cassian does kill lots of people, including some allies whose only "crime" is being susceptible to giving up rebellion secrets.

in rogue one, we don't like davits draven because he orders jyn's father killed, and that just feels wrong. jyn is our heroine and it upsets her, so emotionally it's distressing. but of course, draven and cassian and jyn are all working towards the same goal. draven did what he had to--galen erso is a liability as long as he's alive. dove and sarai's little brother elsren has to die because he's a direct heir to the throne, ahead of his sisters. it doesn't matter that he's five and totally innocent. as long as he lives, a luarin has a greater claim to the throne than a raka, and as long as that's true, the rebellion can't succeed.

in the star wars original trilogy, people for sure die! i'm not trying to say that they don't, but it's definitely not something that's shown affecting our protagonists on a deep, emotional level. they're all side characters, or else they come back as force ghosts. the prequels are uh. fucking tragic, but at the end of it, almost all of our heroes make it out. even the casualties of the war are droids vs clones, which is to say, totally interchangeable cannon fodder on both sides!

the number of character deaths in the tortall 'verse is fewer, probably because it's primarily created for middle grades, but even when people do die, they're either demonstrably bad people or minor enough characters that the emotional resonance isn't the same.

by contrast, at the end of trickster's queen, almost the majority of the main conspirators die in battle, not to mention those who don't even make it to the final conflict. at the end of rogue one, all of our heroes are dead, and people aren't exactly making it out of andor s1 in good shape either. more than half of the aldhani team dies on that mission.

I could go on further, but I think my main takeaway is that once you've invested a lot of time and attention and fandom into a 'verse, you have a lot more leeway to tell different kinds of stories. tamora pierce could not have written trickster's choice until after the values and world of tortall were so clearly established, and if she had, it wouldn't have had the impact that it did. similarly, part of what makes rogue one/andor so striking is the fact that it is such a departure from the preexisting values and story format of star wars.

for every chosen one we see in media, there are hundreds of people working behind the scenes to make their big, death star destroying moment possible. the only way to improve society is through collective action, and part of that is that everyone's hands are going to get dirty. i think lots of people want to imagine that they could be like luke skywalker and swoop in 2 weeks before the battle of yavin and become a hero, but the fact of the matter is that that's not how the world works! war requires us to do things that would ordinarily go against our values, but in the context of a drawn out, bloody, thankless battle, maybe we decide the ends justify the means.

[randomthingsthatilike1]

honestly I think the wrong parent was sent to pick up Aly in the ending of Trickster's Choice

the entire book we see through Kyprioths visions to Aly that Alanna, above all, cares for Aly, that she really does see Aly for who she is and worries terribly for her lost, hidden daughter, angry and upset and scared. She's constantly scrying for her with the mirror Thom gave her--her daughter is missing and her husband lied to her about it.

After months and months of worrying and praying, Alanna finally knows where her daughter is. She loves George, she does, but he lied to her about her only daughter's well being. And after the 8 years of her training constantly lying to everyone Alanna is sick of it, sick of doing it and avoids it at almost all cost--but for this? For the love she has for her daughter?

She’s been worried sick, scrying every free hour, distracted and blaming herself for her daughter’s disappearance. She's not needed in Frasrland, not really, not with this stalemate at the border. The killing devices are all gone and nothing is happening there. They don't need her--but Aly does.

She’s been married to George for 20 years and she’s known him for 30--she’s picked up a few tricks on how to go around unseen, how to slip away seamlessly but first there are a few things she has to do.

Her husband with his nondescript features can roam freely.  She cannot. She’s far too distinctive nowadays, but to quote her daughter that is what razors and dyes are for. Her long hair is her pride and joy. After years of cutting it boyishly short, as well as being a good enough fighter she can have long hair--it’s her one vanity.

She loves her hair. She’d topple kingdoms for her daughter.

A short and stocky man with copper red hair isn't the ideal spy, but shes here to find her daughter--its the story she goes with. She’s looking for her daughter, a Tortallan, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Copper Isles.She speaks enough Carthaki to get by and well it’s not like she can’t defend herself, even with just a knife and hand to hand.

The only dead giveaway about her are her purple eyes, but she's a mage, with a powerful Gift specializing in manipulating the human body--if there's a magical way to create an illusion or temporarily change your eye color she would know it. If not, I'm sure George has found a way and she's already used it before.

This barely scratches the surface of what she’d do for Aly. She's a mage, with a powerful Gift specializing in manipulating the human body--if there's a magical way to create an illusion or temporarily change your eye color she would know it. If not, I'm sure George has found a way. She glamors her eyes to look the same as her daughter and her husband. She lightly dyes her hair, making it a more blondish red like Aly's.

She finds a young squire stationed at the border and surreptitiously steals some of his clothes and other supplies around camp, her personal weaponry far too flashy and distinctive.

Aly isn’t the only one who was trained by the King of Thieves.

You can’t tell me she’s never done anything like this with George, not wanting to be stared at by people who recognize the famous Lioness, either getting him out of some scrapes or just relaxing and having fun.

Kyprioth is sweating bullets. There's only so much he can hide, although he has far more power in the Copper Isles than Tortall so he can't stop her but he’ll do his best to hide her from the Goddess but uhhhhhhhh there’s only So Much he can do. 

Alanna is Determined--she will find her daughter and is she maybe less subtle than George was? Sure. But all the same, she’s brought to the Balitang’s home in Rajmuat and makes her way to Lombyn.

It’s the same scene, of Alanna approaching Winnamine , introducing herself as Alan Cooper and asking to buy Aly-- Winnamine realizing “Alan” isn’t really here to buy Aly.

It takes Aly just a little longer to recognize Alanna--and she comes to a halt and is filled with shock because this is the Lioness, her mother who is persona non grata to the Copper Isles due to killing one of their princesses decades ago (and wow that might actually get Ochabu to tolerate her mother) and would probably be either killed or ransomed as a hostage p much on sight, the King’s Champion, one of the most distinctive and famous women in the continent--is here.

She’s here, her hair short and lighter and her purple eyes--they���re very similar to Aly’s now. Alanna letting out a sob at the sight of her daughter--her hair also shorter, eyebrow scar, broken nose, but alive and safe and still with that spark in her eye.

Just. The PARALLELS of both having the explicit approval of their god to deceive and lie and how they both deceived so many people to achieve their goals. Aly seeing her mother engage in spycraft and trickery to try to find her is probably a better apology than Alanna could ever find the words for

Later after Alanna had her Own standoff with Kyprioth she tells Aly she didn’t want this life for her, not because she was a noble or a Trebond but because she’s Alanna’s daughter and she knows how hard it is to keep a secret and deceive the people she cared about, and how much it hurt when it all came out. That’s something George never had to deal with--George has never really had to deceive his loved ones. They’ve always known he’s Crooked and an inkling of what he’s been up to--but Alanna has. She did it for 8 long years and she was good at it too, but the amount of pain it brought her after meant she never wanted that for her daughter.

Alanna earned her shield through treachery, the constant fear of being found out dogging her footsteps and once she got it she made sure no other girl would have to.

For Aly just to be reminded how similar she really is to her mother and begrudgingly putting that together--for Kyprioth to tell Aly that yes George gave her the skills he needed that made Aly his ideal Spymaster and what she’s done so far in keeping the Balitangs safe is why he wants her to stay, but it was Alanna’s actions that really sold him on recruiting Aly in the first place.

(I have other feelings about Kyprioth and Alanna here because d a m n “they say he loves a good trick”--as a girl for 8 years Alanna fooled the Tortallan monarchy and nobility. That’s what his Promised Queen will have to do. And he is George’s patron--it would make sense that both of them loved aspects of Alanna.)

(also while she’s there it’d be hilarious for Sarai to spar against Alanna and have her ass handed to her--it’d be a great nod back to when Aly was observing Sarai and thinking about her own training bc it sure would make Ulasim wonder wait can Aly use a sword????)

(also if anyone wants to write this go for it)

[whimsicallywiddershins]

Something I really like about the Trickster series is that Aly could have been the "white person sweeping in and saving poor brown characters from imperialism" but she wasn't. It was a very thin line that Tamora Pierce somehow didn't cross. Aly is definitely the white person coming into a poc rebellion, but she isn't leading it, and she didn't cause it or encourage it to happen. The rebel's plans had been in place for a long time. Aly just nudged some things, and helped it succeed. She obeys the will of the rebels' leaders, and isn't the "driving force" behind the rebellion.

There are even moments where Aly does toe that line, starts to criticize the rebels, and go off on her own. But each time, she is brought back down and remembers that this is not her country, and in the end, it's their choice, their rebellion. She lends a helping hand, but they could have done it without her.

[elvencantation]

is it bad i really don’t care about the aly and nawat drama? i’m just. no. give me cool spy stuff and plot. this is boring

[shorthaltsjester]

man. you know what i fucking think about all the time? vex and vax and the deities that they become champions to. how even those gods reflect the entanglement that is their life, how vax steps in front of a goddess on his stalwart hope in the world and demands she choose him and how vex is so tentative, barely speaks up because she’s fighting against every instinct she’s learned that tells her not to hope that she could be worthy enough, certainly not to a god.

and the gods that choose them, the gods they choose? they’re both reflections of one another to each other. vax, whose championship arose out of his commitment to never leave his sister’s side? his god is the matron of ravens, a sad woman who dons a mask. a mortal who fought tooth and nail to arrive at the power she has. vex, whose championship arrives after her brother’s hope in the future and her future specifically has rubbed off on her and encouraged her own growth to believing? she is greeted with pelor, who stands strong and painfully bright, but she’s granted the gift to see through it to warm eyes and a bright smile. who affirms the hope that lives in her.

and man, it’s even more extraordinary to me that the comparison between the given twin’s god and their sibling gets made by that sibling in scenes where they directly speak to the gods their twin has chosen. during vax’s resurrection ritual, vex bargains with the raven queen because she knows she’s someone who bargains like vex herself does, and she’s someone that values vax, maybe not quite as much as she does, but enough. and during vex’s trial, as the dawn father searches for his hope among the love for vex among vox machina, vax’s affirmation is that vex is his hope, so she should certainly be sufficient to be pelor’s.

and god the black death walker’s ward and the white dragon armour? vax’s wings and vex’s blessing? vax as a shroud of darkness visiting this plane, embracing the literally glowing shape of his sister on her wedding day? the poetry of vex and vax and pelor and the matron of ravens is enormous and so much of it is fucking. improv.

[tabithatwo]

I used to be a firm antler queen is a rotating position believer and I often thought it was the girl slated to be the next sacrifice being honored before her turn but every day I get more and more convinced that the antler queen isn’t any of them. Vanity fairs article about Jackie potentially being the antler queen started it rattling around in my brain (I don’t necessarily think it’s her or a figure of her, that theory just kicked off the concept of a Not Them antler queen). Now if you read the death and near death dreams as “it” manifesting as imitations of them, we see the wilderness guiding them where it wants them, taking sacrifices as it pleases without their input or a system to speak of. Eventually we know they do come up with their own system for the sacrifices, like they learn it’s rules enough to meet its requirements with intention or bargain with it or something along those lines. These Paul moments Ben has with the flickering, those can’t be nothing. I’m sorry but while it’s possible they’re really deep diving THAT hard into his delusions or fantasies, I find it really unlikely with the weird specifics embedded in them. Odd language, flickering tape screen, the transformation of the cabin, the way they seem to be pushing him somewhere. And he DOES keep getting framed with antlers. As has Lottie, the most obviously, and Jackie in her death dream. The framing of Lottie might not be framing her As Antler Queen, but as very intertwined with the wilderness. Ben seems to be an object of its interest too now, if we take the Paul scenes to be something more than his mind wandering. Jackie was framed with them as she took the hot chocolate (and her physical body was later integral to their survival which feels relevant to me too). With the antler queen BEING Lottie’s therapist in 2x07, I’m really starting to think it’s potentially projection of the wilderness. Like…they’re offering their sacrifice to some more literal physical projection of it somehow. Whether it’s viewed as mass hallucination or only one of them can see it and the rest play along or it’s a turn into the explicitly supernatural. I just really think these death dreams are a tangible supernatural realm, with Travis saying they could communicate with “it” when they’re near death. So maybe it comes out in other ways out there. I’m not saying I like this or hope for it or think it’s likely, because I’m not sure how I feel about it and so much is dependent on where the show goes, but it’s a possibility that went from nowhere on my radar to buzzing around my brain at warp speed, especially after 2x07. ANYWAY this is what the inside of my brain looks like at midnight after a really terrible day lol cheers to yellowjackets huperfixation taking the edge off I guess!

[fluffyquill]

If you’re a goblin, you know.

Description below the cut!

More of the Goblet Mini-Series! The Pack of Pixies learn about Goblets Tiny Hob Grabalba explains, and How Hob Found Out How to break the news?

[Description: A rough sketch of Fable, red headed leader of the Trickster Court, fiddles on a fairy-branded smart phone. He looks confused.

Fable: Huh.

Grabalba (offscreen): What is it?

F: Delloso de la Rue just made a post on FeyBooke.

G: So?

F: It’s just a photo of a drinking chalice.

Grabalba leaps onto him, kneeing him in the throat and pushing his head aside as she snatches his phone from him.

F: Ow! OW!!

G: GIMME GIMME GIMME!! SHUT THE FUCK UP - LET ME SEE!! OMG ARE YOU SERIOUS??

There’s a little preview of a carved chalice, with a bunch of indistinguishable comments underneath. Presumably, non-goblin-affiliated fey are confused and complimenting the new drink ware, and the Goblin Court is FLIPPING THE FUCK OUT.

End description]

[dcminions]

BRITTANY SNOW in JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE (2006)

[where-our-stories-start]

[noeggets]

watched the amazing digital circus

my thoughts, love it love the characters love the concept love the characters all of them they are so moods love the design loved it wanna see more of it don't let this show flop yall please dont ruin it for me

[harmonytre]

Might as well get these out of the way all at once! These all depict my old beansona design. And no, requests aren't open (and if they do, it'll be in the discord ;) )

[plainselfraisingflour]

I think that this was my original idea but it may not have been. If I owe you credit, let me know.

Alanna (SIR Alanna. I recently read a fanfic that called her 'Lady Alanna' and I didn't like the fact that the fanfic didn't end happily. I discounted it and something Totally Fake because they called her 'Lady Alanna' and that made me feel better) is at war against whoever and she finds out that Aly is missing, suspected to be in the Copper Isles.

She hears about the explosion of the harbour (I know I'm getting my timeline mixed up but that's okay, it's an unwritten fanfic) and Just Knows that Aly caused it.

I feel like this is where Aly is at her most Alanna-ish. She knows where the bad thing is, and she goes and kills it. Alanna trademarked.

Alanna disguises herself with her Gift (yes she is a Healer but its magic soooo yep) and travels to Rajmuat where she finds Aly.

Gets into a fight with Kyprioth. Gets the Goddess (what is her name?!) on Kyprioth's side => less bloodshed because Mithros can't fight them both.

The end. Much love everywhere abd the Lioness in the Kyprish Isles which she loves because it's so warm.

[randomthingsthatilike1]

ideas that I hurt myself with:

in tricksters queen, kyprioth's plan that he might have had in his back pocket, like everything is going to hell in a handbasket, there is v little hope left for the rebellion, they can't figure a way out?

would probably let Aly die.

because if Aly dies, George and Alanna "One Woman Army" the Lioness would absolutely get involved and a cascade of people would then also get involved and anyone else Jon could order to heel, but Alanna and George and Daine and Numair and Alan and Raol (that's his squire and his friend--of course he's going) and Neal (thats his knight mistress, of course he would follow) and Kel? Wouldn't really work.

Kyprioth's hail Mary plan has always been Aly.

Just. He's a god--using a mortal doesn't always mean they have to be alive for their plans to work.

[wondereads]

Weekly Reading Update (04/08/24)

Reviews and thoughts under the cut!

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut (8/10)

I don’t know if I’d say this book was enjoyable; it’s non-linear and doesn’t really build up to much. However, it is an incredibly strong piece of commentary on the horrors of war as well as many other social issues. While I didn’t enjoy it as a story, I thought it was an amazing dissertation and did something very interesting with the sci-fi elements.

The Lost Heir by Tui T. Sutherland (9/10)

This is a really strong book, one that kind of politics-heavy for a children's series and is narrated by an interesting but distinctly flawed character. This one is from Tsunami's perspective who, if I remember correctly, was my favorite of the dragonets, often tied with Glory. The worldbuilding in this series continues to be pretty amazing, and the pacing is good as well. I do wish it was clarified how old these dragons would be as humans because it sounds really weird when you're trying to marry off your six-year-old to your advisor, but the dragonets tend to act more like teens than young children.

Trickster’s Queen by Tamora Pierce (9/10)

This was a strong conclusion to this duology; the way things are wrapped up on the political side do it quite well considering the real-world reflections. I liked this book for a reason I like a lot of Pierce books, which is that she doesn't shy away from the day-to-day struggles of larger conflicts. It's not all huge battles and coups, it's slowly chipping away at a regime's stability through small signs of resistance, dissemination of information, and driving wedges in the ruling class. The characters are really strong, establishing a huge cast very well, especially on the romance side with Aly and Nawat. Dove is an amazing character, and as a reader, despite her age, I could see her being an accomplished queen.

House of Crimson Hearts by Ruby Roe (18+) (CR, 13%)

I was not anticipating a sex scene within the first two chapters of this book, but I'm not complaining. I really like that this sapphic romantasy is being unabashedly sexual, something queer books can struggle to get out there. Plotwise I'm not quite sure what the long-term goal is, but I find Octavia and her backstory very interesting.

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang (CR, 11%)

So far I'm kind of neutral on this book. The worldbuilding draws me in, as does some of the complex relationships being built up. On the other hand, it feels like there's a bit of info-dumping going on. Instead of weaving information into the narration, there are lumps of explanation that are inserted practically every other paragraph, which is sort of slowing things down for me right now.

Mystery Editing Stuff

I'm mostly just putting this here for my own tracking purposes, but I'm really excited to start talking about this book once it become generally available.

[elvencantation]

god i love the darkings!!!

[myuzucompendium]

"........."

"Heh."