Why Tedros Of Camelot Is Not A Mary Sue

What are your thoughts about morgrifs? I think its very concerning considering the fact that half of the student body turns into animals and plants because- they failed their classes? they arent good/evil enough? The three fails- and your gone? you failed your classes and now your stuck either as a servant for the other school, or be a food or be a sidekick- THIS ARE LITERAL CHILDREN?!?!!? AND THEYRE STUCK LIKE THAT TILL THEY DIE??? WHAT?????

the mogrif system is beyond unethical and so unnecessary. it’s actually horrifying and gave me the creeps when i read the books. it’s too harsh of a punishment, like not everyone is going to get the hang of things and need practice so turning them into a plant or an animal FOREVER is so cruel and just shows that it’s a bad school. the good/evil enough thing is awful and i’m glad they addressed that in the circus of talents. no one is completely good or evil (not even agatha and sophie, i won’t accept they’re 100% good/evil). so why should they be punished for that?

i get the point was to make the books scary and give the fairytale world a dark edge but i’d accept it more if it was a punishment for something huge, not failing a regular lesson. and yeah, tracking is just terrible, the best of the best are leaders, the fortunate are sidekicks, and the unlucky ones get turned into plants or animals. LIKE YOU HAVE A REALLY HIGH CHANCE OF BEING A PLANT OR ANIMAL IT IS SCARY.

i can’t believe millicent was a deer, mona is a jellyfish, and brone is a tree like- it’s so weird the students we read about are now animals and plants?? it just feels like a terrible fate and it’s even sadder when you’re a reader who has no idea what is going on and have to adjust quickly even though everyone is incredibly biased against you :/

first year vs fourth year

aka im back in sge mode heyyyyy 😭 just doodling some (mostly soon to be featured) characters from my prequel / young callis+arthur series (i know its kind of old BUT. i AM working on the next installment which is probably going end up 3x as long 💀 stay tuned for wip posting. and callis posting 🥰)

ummm random ideas / explanations under the cut:

gareth and gaheris are arthur's cousins (gaheris is 15 (1 year older than arthur), gareth is 12) and both in his class. they generally dislike arthur for various reasons but mostly because they think he's cursed + stole the crown from his brother

callis is gareth's best friend. he is Not hers. he might also be in love with her but that is a tale for another time. you'll see

george (or grog) and alek are callis's roommates (alek is barely 16, george is turning 12). they both got into evil technically by nepotism. you'll see

it will be Ages before i can properly explain why lesso's name is completely different in this series so ill just say it here. its quite silly actually but its been this way for Years and Years so "leonora" is actually a portmanteau name of her first nickname (nora) and a second nickname (leo). the road to nickname 2 will be a long one paved with the power of friendship and not dying in the trial by tale etc etc. you'll see

emma is a surprise tool we will use later or something. she's not relevant after first year or so but im doing my own spin on her not being asked to the snow ball but somehow not being failed. what i'll say now is that callis and gareth are involved. you'll see

uhhh and if you're reading this have a snippet

The Iron Trio

Sure hope nothing bad happens to them *clown music intensifies*

first gen as depicted by me

I Don’t Really... Like Agatha? Sorry. This will be explained, I promise. I do like her, just in a different way.

This is going to be super controversial, I know it. 

Surprisingly, this started in Book 1. 

My first thought when I was introduced to Agatha was: I would not be friends with her. 

Like, okay, you’re goth and edgy and ugly and different. That’s cool. But, 

Let Sophie Go. 

Clearly, Sophie wants to become a princess and have a fairytale. That’s all she’s ever dreamed of, it’s in the first chapter. And Agatha wants a normal life in Gavaldon, which is understandable. 

So, she tries to “save” Sophie from being taken by the School Master. But the way I see it, Agatha is clinging on to Sophie because she’s the only friend that she’ll ever have, and if she leaves, Agatha will have nothing. Agatha even SAYS that Sophie is the only one who makes her feel accepted. 

This turns out to be a theme for the rest of the plot: Agatha wants her old life back with her friend. She even achieves that at the end, kind of. I don’t have a problem with that, you know? However, it’s not like Sophie was the darling of Gavaldon and her popularity transfers to Agatha in their friendship. Radley points out that Sophie is hanging out with a witch, so Agatha still has the same reputation. 

So, Agatha just plans on living the rest of her life as an outcast? Sophie makes her FEEL normal. She’s not actually normal in Gavaldon terms. In fact, she’d probably be scapegoated for a famine or wildfire or kidnapping the children, and then sentenced to death by The Elders. 

When she gets to SGE, she wants to return home… for WHAT? Sure, the students at School for Good tease you (and this time, you don’t have Sophie to back you up), and the teachers don’t have much faith in you.  I know what it feels like to be alone and doubted by everyone. Still though, this is a magical school, and Agatha can learn magic. Literally who would turn that down? Granted, Ever Girl classes are about beauty and grace, two things Agatha would fail in, but she is so smart.  If she focused on magic and spells and put her mind to it, she could easily become powerful. Just talk to Dovey, talk to August Sader, ask them about improving your skills beyond posture or smiling (also this could’ve been an amazing opportunity for Agatha to have scenes with her so-called mentors, but no, she speaks two words to them, they wink at her knowingly and when they die, we’re supposed to cry? Bullshit.) 

 Agatha has shown that she’s badass already. Why not become more powerful and prove the Ever Girls wrong? Instead, she wants Sophie to kiss Tedros so they can resume their friendship in Gavaldon. 

By the way, neither girl LIKES their school. That’s why Sophie was convinced to go to the School Master. She was like, damn, if we can’t switch schools and I can’t go to the Snow Ball, what’s the point? Fine, I’ll settle for Agatha. 

I don’t know, I think Agatha was selfish in holding back Sophie. Just let her flirt with Tedros, what’s so hard about that? Oh, you feel inadequate because you’ve lost Sophie’s attention? Grow a backbone (yes, I know that’s the point of the book). 

 Anyways, if you only saw through Sophie in the beginning, you would have known that the faster Sophie chases after her fairytale, the faster she’ll fail and put it to rest (after a world-ending tantrum, but it would’ve cut the page count in half. So I don’t need to read this much boy drama). 

The Glow Up

Everyone raves about this damn scene. Agatha becomes confident, yay! Inspiring to young girls everywhere. That’s established. Let’s move on. 

SGE is about subverting expectations, appearances vs reality, friends vs love. We know that. Except Agatha is just… 

When Agatha became “pretty”, and then realized her inner beauty shines past her looks, I thought she would KNOCK BITCHES DOWN. I was rooting for her. I thought she’d finally put Sophie in her place. 

This was destroyed when Agatha became like the Ever Girls she hated for the first part of the book. She develops a crush on Tedros, which was the defining feature of the Ever Girls: liking boys. Nothing wrong with that, it was just out of place. I understand that Tedros might have caught feelings after Agatha saves his life, that’s a trope we’re familiar with and it makes sense. 

What doesn’t, is that Agatha reciprocates? She’s been grossed out by boys the whole book, what makes Tedros different? Literally what switch flipped in her brain. That she’s worthy of love? Girl, if you’re “confident” now and suddenly dating a boy that you never genuinely got to know… Also, was Tagatha even considered a relationship? They don’t hang out until TLEA. I feel like Agatha was just excited to have a guy like her for once. They call each other “true love” based on what? We BEEN KNEW Tedros is dumb (okay, you picked her in all the challenges, that’s not real proof), and Agatha, do you even know his last name? 

^ if anyone’s watched the Witcher, Yennefer is very similar to Agatha and she gains her physical beauty after she’s finished with her training as a mage. Also, Yennefer is dating a hot guy with authority WHILE she’s still ugly. Love that for her. (This situation is different because Yennefer is morally grey, maybe evil, but I like this arc better than Agatha’s).

Lesbian Agatha? Simp Agatha?  What’s going on??

This started when I noticed on Goodreads that some people genuinely thought Agatha was lesbian. (Me being me, this went over my head).  

Like, okay I get it, Agatha MIGHT be a simp for Sophie. I do kinda get it. 

Throughout the book, Agatha repeatedly is there for Sophie even when Sophie treats her like shit (I don’t have to explain each example, right? We been knew.)

What stands out to me most was when 1. she literally turned into a cockroach and stayed up all night for weeks to help Sophie study 2. cheated and guided her in the Trial By Tale  (risking her life several times in the process). 

That wasn’t because she had a Good heart (though it contributed). It was because Agatha wanted to protect Sophie. 

The only reason I didn’t include all the times Agatha helped Sophie make Tedros fall in love with her was because she thought that Sophie’s kiss would send them back home, so that was theoretically for her own benefit (although we know that Sophie was just using Agatha). 

Also, I distinctly remember Sophie having a Regina George moment with Agatha where she was like “why are you so obsessed with me?!”. Because Agatha was being all “😔👉🏻👈🏻 we’re friends” and Sophie was like GET YOUR OWN LIFE YOU’RE RUINING MINE!!! 

Nitpicky Shit

This is irrelevant, when you come for me don’t mention this part because I’m not all that pressed. 

Agatha comes off as Not Like Other Girls. She says that everyone at School for Good are stupid/shallow RIGHT OFF THE BAT. Obviously Beatrix didn’t make a good impression, but come on. 

She hates that all the girls are obsessed with boys and looks. Just because you’re not interested doesn’t mean others can’t be. It came up several times and I was so irritated. Not to mention that Sophie was basically a carbon copy of Beatrix except that she’s nice to her. 

This is extremely SJW of me but I had to say it. Sophie is a typical bratty blonde. Agatha is said to be hideous, then finds out she was beautiful all along. I felt like this would’ve been better if Agatha had Real unconventional features. 

She’s tall, skinny and pale with big eyes. That is a textbook runway model and fits Eurocentric beauty standards. It’s not like making Agatha fat, short, and dark-skinned with acne is going to enhance the book, although it would be so, so nice.  

Might be editing this later on! I don’t know!

Disclaimer: Agatha’s still a good character, I still like reading about her. 

Thank you for sharing!! This has been consuming my brain ever since i saw you post it. So many possibilities with this concept.

The parallels with their parents are so interesting too! Because it really does seem like sophie and tedros are repeating their parents mistakes.

Like- sophie trapping tedros in the relationship. Threatening to go back to evil if tedros leaves her, possibly even babytrapping just like vanessa did?

Or maybe tedros wanting to pull a guinevere on sophie and elope with agatha

When you decide to write the fic or not, thank you for sharing your ideas! Looking forward to your future works!

- also would be ok if its ok to make my own take of the concept too? Just to be sure :'DD!

Hii! Your what if scenario fic idea of "tedros and sophie getting married and being miserable" is so interesting! And I'm just wondering if you have more to share about it because I'm invested lmao (no pressure tho!)

Yes!!!

I always thought about what would have happened if Tedros fell to Sophie's manipulation in book 3. The whole "you need a strong queen, one who can handle it" shit, so yeah, we'll go from that.

I didn't decide yet if I am going to write it (probably will), but if it happens, I wanted to explore the parallels between Agatha, Sophie and Tedros, Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot, Stephan, Honora and Vanessa.

Sophie's and Tedros's marriage would be *hell* for both of them. Tedros would remind remind her of Stephan, because he is still in love with Agatha (although didn't marry her because he's STUPID)

Sophie would remind him of both his parents. Emotionally distant, irritable, irresponsible, triggering about the worst parts of his father.

At the same time, he can't help but be reminded of his mother... Because, I'm pretty sure Sophie would be unfaithful...

I hope any I said made any sense, sorry if It was hard to understand, english is not my first language.

Oh, and Camelot's political scenario would be in (even more) in shambles.

I'm glad to see other people interested in the idea!!! Thanks for asking!!

About your au. I’d like to think Good has a bit of an easier time accepting that Agatha is Good because they heard about this Reader who journeyed from beyond the woods to their school for Sophie (who already has a reputation that she accidentally built while insisting she’s Good and pursuing Tedros)

Possibly yeah! without Agatha, Sophie's not convincing anyone she's in the wrong school, and since Readers come in twos it seems logical she'd be the Other One,,, then again idk if the Evers at this point would be convinced to be more generous towards her regardless, I don't see them looking at a strange, filthy girl purporting to be friends with the other strange girl as anything other than a 'ooh yes please take her away from us, thank you kindly' thing lmao. Perhaps there can be a side plot where Hester and Tedros are both like OH OH ME ME ME I'LL HELP YOU GO BACK TO GAVALDON IF YOU PROMISE TO NEVER COME BACK bc they've both had unfiltered Sophie all this time hsjddj

"sge character syndrome meaning their personality is barely existent" is the bEST THING IVE EVER IN YEARS OMFG HELP AHSHFBASFHAHAHAHAH

Random rotsg thoughts (no spoilers)

In the main series Rafal is always so wannabe edgy and mysterious and in rotsge he's just a mildly angsty teen and I love the difference

Also I love all the new teachers? There aren't many but i can definitely imagine some cool fanart of them

Also the students but they suffer from the sge character syndrome meaning their personality is barely existent 💀💀

But also the illustrations and cover slap so hard, even though I kinda miss the style of the older books

I'm also vibing with the different rules in the School, like it's interesting to see that it changed so much

But i guess it's got a sliver of lgbt representation so yay?

What if the switch in the bridge was successful?

Scars and Stars ❄️🔥✨

Burn by @pumpkinpaperweight