xcruelprincessx

[xcruelprincessx]

i forget that it was balekin that told madoc that his wife was still alive. gives a whole new light to everything that he later does to jude. making her kiss him. sending her to kill cardan. he was the catalyst to every horrible thing she experienced in faerie because without his intervention, she would have never ended up there in the first place. and then he took advantage of her when he thought she had no control of herself and then sent her to kill his brother, whom he suspected she had feelings for. i've never been against jude killing him but now i support it even more

[xcruelprincessx]

Do we know how tall Cardan is canonically? And I don't mean the fandom assumption that he might be 5'11 because he looked a head taller than Jude in that one art of them together.

[xcruelprincessx]

Canon Cardan would hate fanon Cardan

[xcruelprincessx]

Someone needs to write a smut scene with the "crawl to me" line 🫢

[xcruelprincessx]

I saw a video of a booktoker saying TCP is the worst book she's ever seen because of the lack of "interesting action" and because it's slow. Which got me a little mad because it's my favorite book obviously, but I guess people have different opinions...but then I saw other videos saying her favorite book is icebreaker and she often skips full paragraphs, reads only dialogue without the descriptions or back stories because she "doesn't care" and she would not read a book if there isn't smut. And that's a pretty popular person in the book community! Why are we making these people famous? For me that's not someone that likes to read. I don't care if she has read 50 books this month if she skipped 70% of the content-

[xcruelprincessx]

We all know Locke only played with Jude and never really loved her, but did Jude love Locke? She seemed pretty into him at the beginning

Did Jude love Locke?

I really don't think so

At first, it might seem like she did. She definitely seemed pretty into him at the start of The Cruel Prince. He was charming, flirty, and treated her like someone special in a world that often made her feel small and insignificant. He gave her attention when most of Faerie ignored her, and let’s be real, that would be appealing to anyone, especially someone like Jude, who’s always fighting to prove herself.

But looking at it closely, it’s more likely that what Jude felt wasn’t really love. It was more about the attention and validation Locke gave her. He represented something she was craving: acceptance in Faerie, being seen as more than just a mortal. And Locke, at least at first, made her feel desired and important, which is probably why she got so wrapped up in him. When he asked her if she could love him, she said that she could, the same way she was able to love the murderer of her parents. Which means she didn't really understand what it meant to love someone romantically and thought that she might fall in love with him in the future if they continue like that. And I'm pretty sure he used his lovetalker powers on her, which made her think she was falling for him.

The thing is, once Jude saw Locke for what he really was - the manipulative, self-serving jerk he turned out to be - her feelings for him quickly shifted. If it was love, his betrayal would have hurt a lot more and lasted longer, but Jude bounced back fast. She didn’t waste time mourning that connection. It was more like she got over a crush than dealing with heartbreak. What really hurt her, wasn't Locke's betrayal - she couldn't care less about him. It was Taryn's. From Taryn she expected love and loyalty, not from Locke. She didn't expect her twin sister of all people to throw away their relationship for some asshole.

When you compare it to her relationship with Cardan, it’s obvious that what she had with Locke was way more surface-level. With Cardan, there’s real depth, anger, attraction, and understanding. With Locke, it was more about what he represented to her in that moment than anything genuine. Which explains why she so quickly got over Locke when he betrayed her for her sister and never cried over him, while with Cardan she couldn't hate him and never took off the ring even after she thought he had exiled her and married her only to trick her.

So no, Jude didn’t really love Locke. She might have thought she did at first, but it was more about wanting to be accepted and feeling seen. Locke just took advantage of that to mess with the twins, hurt Cardan all over again and create another story of his.

[xcruelprincessx]

Cardan is absolutely terrifying. And that's absolutely hot as fuck

[xcruelprincessx]

Sometimes I wonder what happened with the palace school? They were all students until it was suddenly forgotten and never mentioned again?

[xcruelprincessx]

I couldn't agree more!!! I mean it's called The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King for a reason!

Hear me out what if I said that Cardan is a wolf in sheep's clothing and Jude is a sheep in wolf's clothing?

Cardan has been explicitly stated to 'play the fool to mask his own cleverness.' When Jude came to find him and warn him about Balekin's plot in TWK he fought against her, and she was terrified she wouldn't be able to hold him back. He only stopped when he realised who it was.

Again, in TWK, he didn't reveal that he was shot or anything about the tunnels to conceal Jude's secret tunnels. He can wield literal earth magic, took out half of Madoc's army and even healed people. He's connected to the land. Don't tell me that's not overpowered.

And yet, people still view him as a drunk, feckless king, who relies on those around him to rule for him, despite being as cunning as anyone. People let their guards down around him.

Jude, however, is a lot more powerless on the books than people like to think. I won't lie; she is strong. She healed herself with the land, she murdered a prince, and she can certainly slaughter anyone who gets in her way.

That's not to say she's not scared, though. She's missing the tip of her finger from where a faerie bit it off. She has countless scars from the fae, including the one on her hand from where Dain ordered her to drive a knife through her hand and ones from where Locke hunted her down.

There's been so many instances in her life where she could not fight back, despite leaving no scars. In TCP, it was stated that she was once carried crying into a faerie circle, and left to dance until she dropped. She's been victimised and targeted time and time again. All because what? She's human.

So Jude never let her guard down. In Oak's duology, he says that she never let's the fae feel truly safe around her. How could she? One slip and she's dead. She's the definition of do it scared. Scheming whilst others sleep. Putting on her scariest face so that they will leave her alone.

Anyways thanks for coming to my Ted talk, this is pretty obvious anyways.

[xcruelprincessx]

Cardan's friendship with The Roach should be more popular...like...come on...that's Cardan's very first actual friend!

[xcruelprincessx]

Wren deserves more attention. Her backstory is fucking horrifying!

[xcruelprincessx]

Someone really needs to write a jealous Jude fic... please?

[xcruelprincessx]

Well he does have some, but it's not overly bulky. I like to imagine him naturally well toned without being too big

I hate when people draw Cardan showing his back being flawless af. WHERE ARE THE SCARS?!??? WHY IS EVERYONE FORGETTING ABOUT THEM?!?

[xcruelprincessx]

“Kiss me again,” “Kiss me until I am sick of it.”

Gosh I miss them already…

[xcruelprincessx]

she is me and i'm her

[xcruelprincessx]

Do you have any headcanons for the Greenbriar princesses?

Honestly I haven't thought much about them, since they died pretty early on, but here are some I could think about:

Rhyia occasionally invited Cardan to join her on hunts, offering brief moments of genuine companionship.

Elowyn treated Cardan like a decorative pet, dressing him in elaborate outfits for court events without acknowledging his discomfort.

Elowyn maintained a garden of poisonous plants, claiming their beauty lay in their danger.

Rhyia wore simple clothing, eschewing the opulence favored by her siblings.

Elowyn wanted to be Queen but not at the cost of blood.

Rhyia liked mortals more than faeries.

Caelia saw the crown as a burden, not a prize.

Elowyn never raised her voice, but her silence terrified even her brothers.

Caelia spent hours weaving flower crowns for herself and her sisters

Rhyia was fascinated by mortal fairy tales and kept a collection.

[xcruelprincessx]

This is me (an average fantasy reader) literally every time someone mentions faeries