#underland chronicles

[lemondrop07]

y'know hunger games was great but it's kinda a shame suzanne's other series gregor the overlander didn't get popular because now i have nobody to squeal about ripred with. like. HE HAS A TRAGIC BACKSTORY!!! AND HE ACTS LIKE HE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THE HERO BUT DEEP DOWN HE DOES!!! WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?!?!?!

[chaoswithinthemind]

IVE FOUND MY PEOPLE!!!

I first learned of the Underland Chronicles when I was in the third grade. My teacher read the first book to the class and I was hooked. Gregor, Boots, Luxa, Ares, Ripred - I was taken by a swarm of fantasy that nobody seemed to care about but me.

I finally started to reread them, and I felt a little lonely at not knowing anyone who knows this beloved series. That was when one of my moots suggested I look for the tag... and oh my god this is amazing. SOMEONE PLEASE TALK TO ME ABOUT MY FAVORITE CHILDHOOD SERIES!!!

[i-think-in-metaphors]

I just think they deserve boba

[returntoregalia]

Here's a fun thought exercise for you guys

When the series is finally adapted for either television or the big screen. Let's say there's an alternative universe where it isn't the magnum opus version all the fans could agree upon.

What character behaviors or moments from the series could you see Hollywood butchering? And how would they do it compared to how it's written in the novels?

Example: The root beer/Corkscrew moment with the spinners Or Pandora being eaten by the mites.

This is SUCH a good question oh my god. I will have to start asking my guests this on the podcast! I have A LOT of thoughts about this because I watched the Percy Jackson TV show in January and I’m in the middle of the live action Avatar: the Last Airbender series, and. Well. Let’s just say I have found both of these adaptations severely lacking.

I think the thing they’d be most likely to mess up in an adaptation of The Underland Chronicles would be Gregor and Luxa’s relationship. They would make Luxa too nice at first, and she and Gregor would become friends too easily. What’s great about them in the books is that they have to EARN each other’s respect and admiration over time, and that’s why they’re such strong friends later in the series. A bad filmmaker would absolutely drop the ball on that if they had no sense of subtlety re: genuine character growth.

I want to hear y’all’s thoughts! What would the movie/TV adaptation of The Underland Chronicles fuck up??

[unorthodoxiguana]

I might be going insane, but at least it's over a great series

[oneunexpected]

I’ve always in wondered what it must look like when the fliers try to traverse areas that they can’t fly in, like the tunnels in the Dead Land or the halls of the palace, and. Um.

I hope it looks like this.

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

[oncillaphoenix]

curse of being an underland chronicles fan: you will be sitting there minding your own business and suddenly your head will be full of "turn and turn and turn again/you see the what but not the when"

[rin-solo]

Something to think about

Hamnet:

Led an unprovoked (technically we don't know if that is true, but let's assume) attack against the rats in the garden

Used an unfair, war crime-coded tactic to win

Killed many innocents with it

= Narratively presented in a good light, has the background of his war crime told and explained (actually going too far because it comes across as though Solovet's abuse and involvement are supposed to excuse it, which it does not. Hamnet was an adult who is responsible for his actions; your tragic backstory is tragic but it does not excuse your war crimes).

Also, not to mention, judged Gregor, a child, for an inborn talent he has, conveying that it makes him a bad person. Either way, he is supposed to be sympathetic and everyone buys it.

Sandwich:

Led an unprovoked (technically we don't know if that is true, but let's assume) attack against the diggers

Used an unfair, war crime-coded tactic to win

Killed many innocents with it

= Narratively presented in a bad light, has nothing about the background or circumstances of his war crime explained (we get like, what, one line from Vikus?), and yet that one line immediately makes him without a doubt or question a horrible, evil person and even an unreliable prophet (because your moral alignment absolutely is connected to the validity of your prophetic abilities, yes).

Also, not to mention, he is not responsible for the tragedies he's seen, and very likely only tried to help the Regalians and Gregor deal with them by trying to write his visions down and giving Gregor his sword. Either way, he's supposed to be unsympathetic and everyone buys it.

[overandunderland]

Yo Ho Ho Overlanders!

For any of us looking for the Series Audiobooks, I'm currently uploading them. So hit me with the reblog if you need the link

Boop.

[slices-of-random-obsession]

Ripred's such a smarmy bastard it's impossible to not like him

[ultionemdeorum]

Some early rataganda for Ripred,

motivated by the rat bracket from @ultimate-rat-bracket

[quohotos]

I tried to draw Ares. He's the best boi. Fly you high

(ignore those spindly legs, I don't know how perspective works)

[i-think-in-metaphors]

I really wanna draw gregor bringing ripred boba.

[returntoregalia]

Ripred's always so proud when Gregor gets salty with others. Like. "Hell yeah, that's my boy." Bro gets so joyous and warm fuzzy when the 12 year old bitches back at Lapblood and Solavet or Luxa. He laughs and backs him up. I just love that detail with Red so much and it's so funny that he's this middle aged war vet with an elementary schooler. Like teaching a sixth Grader to say 'fuck the police' in your old hard years. It's just "AWWWWWWW that's so precious. Lookit my lil' baby."

YES I love when Ripred admires Gregor's attitude! Those are the best scenes. Like when Gregor talks back to Luxa and Henry in Book 1 and Ripred is like "Tell them, boy! Tell them your country fought a war so they didn't have to answer to kings and queens." Great times

[unorthodoxiguana]

I might have seen this said before, on a different post, but I couldn't find it, so I'm just gonna say a few words on this, partially because of that and partially because it's been ages since I've last read the series, despite it being ingrained into my head.

Almost all of the characters in TUC have moments where they are genuine assholes. Gregor has a few points where he says some genuinely disrespectful shit. Luxa, as well as most of the other humans (including Gregor, although arguably to a lesser extent), are deeply prejudiced against the gnawers. Ripred, is, well, Ripred (look, I love him, we all do, but he's a dick).

Even Vikus, arguably one of the nicest characters in the series, admires Sandwich (I think, been a while), a man who literally used poison to commit genocide in the name of stealing land that didn't belong to him.

The only characters I can think of in TUC that don't have flaws are the ones who also have the least lines: Aurora, Dulcet, Miravet. Oh, and all of those characters? Probably also prejudiced against gnawers, just never explicitly stated (to my knowledge), probably due to their obscene lack of lines. Of course there are characters like Lizzie and Hazard, who are literal fucking children so as nice as they are, I think it's safe to say they can't really be counted up here. (Should probably also mention that Gregor and Luxa are also children, just ones that were forced to grow up faster, sadly).

Then again, all of these characters have redeeming qualities. Gregor can be disrespectful at times, but that's mainly because of the stress placed upon him by the various bullshit situations he has to go through, and he usually apologizes after. Luxa and all the humans are deeply prejudiced (actually, I should probably add the fliers might be in that category too), but they are basically raised from birth to hate and kill gnawers, and vice versa. plus, it's shown that despite what is practically being brainwashed from birth, they can grow and change to overcome their own bigotry and accept gnawers as genuine people, as well as friends.

And yes, Ripred, the glorious bastard himself, is a dick. But he's also a war veteran who's lost his family, and most of the respect from his people, meaning he mainly works with humans, who tend to treat him with suspicion, if not outright hostility (until they get to know him). And he makes up for it by letting his guard down at times to be a father to the traumatized pups that dragged him into their pack.

Point is, flawed characters are one of the things that make TUC so great. They're not few and hid away either, they're everywhere, with visible flaws. If you want to make a good character, TUC is a great series to use as an example. Everything casts a shadow, just like every character has a flaw. If they don't, you probably just can't see them from your angle. And if they don't? Like, at all? Give them some, just make sure the shadow they cast matches up with the object itself.