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the-sanctuary · 1 month ago

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I'm rereading Skulduggery Pleasant for the nth time. Here are my newish revelations.

The Faceless Ones Edition!

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List of artwork links at the bottom.

!! Spoilers for all of Phase 1 and 2 !!

Forgot that the bell was the Sea Hag's whole thing. She gives Val the bell in... Badlam? Whatever, some P2 book, but I forgot that was her whole shtick. Also I don't think Val every uses it after she gets it??? I have not read Phase 3. Nod along and agree xD

God Fletcher is so annoying. I never really warm up to him tbh, the annoyance just slowwwwwwly fades. I (an aromantic idiot that insists on logic) don't understand why book characters warm up to and date each other so fast. I know like a year passes between Valkyrie meeting Fletcher and them dating (maybe two years, idr if they start dating in dd or mc) but like. Do people really move that fast? Esp when you find them so annoying to begin with???? He's so cocky and pretty bad with consent in this book, and then. 11 months of agonizing searching for a skull later you're like yeah maybe I do like him? What?

Not Kenspeckle foreshadowing Valkyries head being taken off with how he'd be able to sew it back on obviously It's probably a good thing he's dead by KotW, can you imagine the absolute ass-beating he'd unleash on Skulduggery if he found out Valkyrie got her head ripped off in another dimension, regardless of if she was in God-Mode at the time?

Resolute Thread? Never seen again (maybe one other time, I don't remember it at all though). Sure, it's said that its very rare but, one time use rip

The Purple Menace looks like this btw, in case you never looked it up. For some reason (because I'm stupid) I was imagining a really low sports car, like a mustang or something xD

Until this reread, I thought Val lost her first jacket in book 2. She actually loses it in this one, (it gets eaten by one of the sanctuary's exit tunnel) Then Kenspeckle gives her one of his, then Ghastly unstatuefies and starts making her a new jacket- all in the span of like two chapters. Granted she doesn't get the new jacket until the second half of the book but still amusing. Still salty the white covers spine art is so wrong but what can you do right

"You die in pain. Screaming." "Fighting a creature of darkness." Did Ghastly's mom see the REFLECTION? Stephanie dies getting beaten to death BY Darquesse. Horribly and painfully. Screaming for Fletcher, who is literally ten feet away.

Damn Erskine starting shit as early as book 3 (technically earlier bc he poisons Saracen ikik), I forgot about that

Do we think the 'woman in grey' thats with him is Mist? Some random woman Derek didn't wanna name? Zafira from America? Hmmm

okay obviously I'm an idiot bc I'm sitting here like if Paddy is Batu this whole time why the hell would he call Skulduggery to tell him Gallow is walking around his land? But then I realized that he ALSO needed to know where the portal was going to open. Batu knew Skulduggery would show up with Fletcher (So now he also knows what he looks like) and inadvertently show the spot to him. This might even be pointed out later in the book, but I'm writing this as I read so. Durrr*

Oh sweetheart :[

So we can agree that the Reflection definitely internalized this speech by the Great Echo Gordon, yes? Okay cool

Remember when I mentioned that Serpine turned the floor/entrance to the caves to dust? Yeah they just used the key to open the floor. Who is this nameless stonemason sorcerer who came and fixed it? I simply must know.

Do we think Derek got the idea for Cadaverous as he as writing Anthem Mire? That's the first time we see 'Master of my house/domain' in the form of 'It will do whatever I say'

Bliss explaining that if they lose Thurid only two years after Meritorious that the rest of the world would try to step in 'for Ireland's own good' Hmmm what interesting foreshadowing. It would be a real shame if anything were to happen to Mr. Bliss, since he understands politics and actually thinks with his brain.

I wonder if Derek realized he named two different characters Alan in the same book? Alan and Cathy the classmates broke up at the beginning of the book, and Alan the farmer attempts to protect Valkyrie from Crux much later.

Chapter 30 from Beryl's perspective makes me laugh every time I read it, I love Tanith. She also asks Stephanie about Val in front of the entire family, then leaves without an explanation. I genuinely can't remember if the twins ask Val about it later when they find out her name is Valkyrie. Maybe they forgot.

Battle of Anamore Farm

Okay so during the Fletcher/Guild exchange, Skulduggery says that Valkyrie is probably the safest of them all at the moment, with her being locked up in the Sanctuary and all. Then when everything goes wrong and gets a hundred times MORE unsafe, the first thing he does while everyone else drives straight to Anamore Farm is detour to the Sanctuary to pick her up and take her directly into the warzone with him. What a great, responsible role model.

Batu Paddy definitely intentionally charged out at them, shotgun in hand with the hope of killing them 'accidently' before hell breaks loose. Failure to do so just meant switching to his backup plan of 'whoops my bad! don't wanna give up my land haha'

It just finished raining. Krav and Gallow are drawing the portal circle/sigils on the ground with... Chalk?? On wet grass???? Have mages never heard of spray paint lmao

Murder Rose and Razzia would either get along really well, or have one hell of a time trying to kill each other.

Ghastly: Pulls Valkyrie away from the danger zone after she gets a grenade thrown at her. Also Ghastly: Immediately pulls a shard of glass out of her back (DO NOT PULL OUT SHARP THINGS THAT HAVE STABBED YOU) and sends her running across the property to his burning and flipped over van.

I completely forgot the Diablerie had an army of Hollow Men with them here.

"Why are you their last hope? Do you have a power no one else has?" Eh give it a few more years.

There's something parallel about the White Cleaver saving Tanith from dying a terrible death at the hands of Murder Rose, after almost making her die a terrible death at his own hands. I'm not poetic enough to point that out though.

*Yeah Batu literally tells Val that them bringing Fletcher showed him where the portal was and somehow I just never remembered that part?? xD

This isn't a new revelation but I want to point how how smart burying the Scepter was. I feel like most villains just hold on to things but hiding an object in a hole in the ground in the woods? I know Remus found it bc he watched Batu, but realistically it should have stayed hidden until the Sanctuary could launch a search for it or something. Plot armour is a hell of a drug

Mentioning again how good Derek is at writing young inexperienced fighters. Tanith is right: Use your elbows, not your knuckles. ESP don't punch your knuckles into the skull. Big strong head bone will win over your tiny finger bones any day, even in you're punching correctly. Palm strikes are better. Elbows and knees are best.

Minor continuality error where Valkyrie finds Fletcher sitting against a tree and she looks down at him while they talk. Then at the end of the conversation she 'gets to her feet.' *shakes fist at Derek*

Fletcher is realistic though. Regular people like to think theyre brave and would be super defiant if in scenarios like this, but really, if you're face to face with three insane serial killer zealots and then you open a portal to three gods that are 'impossibly made form? You're not sticking around. You're gonna wanna be GONE, same as Renn xD

Interesting that the last Faceless One was chasing Skulduggery but stopped and turned to Val. Is it because a flesh and blood target is more interesting than the living skeleton? Did it see Darquesse? Did it see the owner of the Sceptre? Or, more likely, did it see it's own blood within her? * China says it didn't kill her bc of the ancient blood so I think we know the real answer.

Gallow has some quick af thinking. Figuring out the tattoo was a beacon? Pulling off a belt and wrapping it tight enough around your upper arm to cut off circulation, all while running?

Also, how the hell did he use a Cleaver scythe to cut off his arm. I always imagined that the scythe was just. A normal scythe blade, sharp on the bottom, facing the ground when you stand it up. (I draw mine as foldable because that makes much more sense for sheathing and such) Either he picked up a blade that was severed from the snath, or the Cleaver scythes are sharp on all sides (which also explains how they're able to fight so fluidly with them, because scythes are seriously horrible fight with) Tangent: Here are the three official artworks of cleavers. Ignoring how stupid they look for a moment: The scythe blades are pretty ambiguous

Here's the thing though

There's no way Gallow is cutting off his arm with an intact scythe (in one smooth motion no less) by laying his arm on the ground and pressing the blade against it with... The rest of his body? He's still connected to his arm its not like he can stand up either. The scythe would have to be sharp on the outside too, which makes for a pretty shitty and flimsy blade, unless the BOTTOM is the thicker edge, in which case... ???? Magic I guess smh No wonder the Rippers use sickles, those make so much more sense xD

Reread the series and take a shot every time the Sceptre gets dropped. Seriously, no one thought 'hmm maybe I should put a Wii remote strap on the most powerful weapon in the universe?'

Take another shot every time the Sceptre gets broken or 'mangled beyond use' Derek just can't let it go lol

I wonder if Skulduggery was already thinking about the possible necessity of sacrificing himself when they start bringing Batu's Faceless One back towards the portal. I know he was actually dragging in in the end, but the thought might still have been there as we know he's pretty consistently multiple steps ahead of everyone else. He and Wreath are fighting this thing together while China and Fletcher hold the portal open, and even though Skulduggery has shown his distain for Wreath he physically throws him out of the fight before Batu/The Faceless One can kill him. The ideal outcome if Skulduggery were to sacrifice himself would be Ghastly and Tanith (and maybe China I guess) taking over Valkyrie's mentorship; but I wonder if a little part of him knew that Wreath would also step in, especially since Skulduggery's skull becomes the new Isthmus Anchor.

Tanith has been out of commission pretty much this entire battle, she's gonna be pretty pissed about that when she wakes up. (Near Death Experience in this book: Curtesy of Murder Rose and Batu)

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Here's my TFO-specific artworks:

Cover Redesign

Fletcher Renn Design + Finbar

Billy-Ray had taken her smile (WIP)

Welcome back Ghastly

It's a guy thing

Solomon Wreath Design

Punching Wreath

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