A Man Takes Off His Kippah To Reveal Another, Smaller Kippah

“When everyone knows you’re a monster...” (Six of Crows Series Spoilers)

I need to just express my appreciation for the Six of Crows duology and it’s ending. Not only does the hero’s story begin and end with plague, one of which controls him and the other controlled by him, not just that. His motif, his insistence that he’s a monster. The story told by the two books starts and ends with Kaz employing the same tactic to win: when everyone knows you’re a monster, you don’t have to do every monstrous thing. He’s done some horrific stuff over the course of the books, and we, the readers, start to get comfortable with him, to understand his backstory, even excuse his behavior. It isn’t until the end of the second book that we are confronted with the idea that Kaz may be beyond saving, and not until later do we find out that yes, he is human, yes, he is worth saving. AND, his story begins and ends with an innocent little boy on the brink of death for a crime he didn’t commit, and the choice Kaz makes to spare him, so the cycle of hardening children ends with him. Anyway, the parallels in just his story are amazing, so they needed a rant. I’m sure more will follow.

It makes me happy when they listen

til chopsticks (the piano tune) was written by a teenage girl

yes 2020 has sucked like a ravenous kirby but in november we finally get to vote that hateful orange turd out of office so eyes on the prize ya’lls

Nona the Ninth is one of my favorite books of all time. Not just because it's Locked Tomb, but it is the purest form of one of the big messages the series is trying to divulge.

The price of love is grief. We will never be free of it as long as we love anything at all. Our family, friends, our pets, even beloved media. Anything that connects that deeply to us that we love it will leave a gaping hole when it's gone.

But no one rejects loving to avoid grief. Every one of the characters holds on desperately to something they love, to levels that seem unhealthy to us. They want the perks without the cost.

John is holding on to a world and people that died 10k years ago.

The lyctors cling desperately to their cavaliers memories, to the point of being willing to end the 9 houses to honor them.

Cam held on to Pal, Pal held on to Dulcie. Harrow held on to Gideon so hard she disappeared her from her memory to avoid the grief she would pay for the privelege of caring for her.

But Nona loves indiscriminately. She loves the polluted sky, she loves the sad people, she loves the stray dogs and her friends and her teachers and Varun. She loves Pyrrhas lying ass, she loves Camilla and Palemedes, she loves crown and even cares about Judith. Nona isn't afraid of grief, because to her all that love balances it out. Nona is the only one in the end willing to pay the price for that 6 months of unconditional love. She knows from the beginning of the book that her own days are numbered, but she doesn't shy from it and avoid loving.

She loves all that much harder.

"If you could see your whole life, start to finish, would you change anything?" The movie Arrival (2016) approaches this same theme. If you knew what you'd lose, would you go back to avoid it? Would you keep away from the people and things you knew you'd lose? Would you shy away from experiencing love just because it hurts?

"Love and Freedom don't coexist, warden."

Morgana absolutely wasn’t and she never let him forget

thinking about how arthur was a virgin for 4 seasons

Once and a while I see a piece of tlt fanart where harrow is really wrapped around gideon and I love that a lot. I drew myself a little bit of it as a treat today:

and then got carried away

I was way too ambitious with these poses for drawing with pen and some shitty whiteout tape

rip guildford you would've loved therapy

my lady jane (2024-)

My roommate has been translating Gideon the Ninth into Biblical Hebrew (and including notes that people like me, who do not speak Biblical Hebrew, can also enjoy)! And if you happen to be a scholar of semitic linguistics, I can put you in touch 😊