Sometimes tumblr recommends me post about how actually Cytherea went on a serial killing spree as an act of mercy and defiance against a cruel god and she was actually doing the morally correct thing and she cannot be blamed, et cetera… boring tbh
Every time that happens I’m like, she’s an unrepentant mass murderer actually. I’m sorry we have read two completely different versions of these books but the one I read is way sexier. She’s grieving and heartbroken and righteous in her anger but also she’s an evil murdering bitch just so we’re clear. She HAS AGENCY and she chose to FUCK SHIT UP. This is very hot of her.
The other thing I think is completely fascinating about her character is how even in the middle of her unhinged mass murder revenge plot, she’s STILL so caught up in John’s orbit that the thought that the other people around her wouldn’t make the same decision doesn’t even cross her mind. Like she spends a bunch of time around these people watching them and their relationships and doesn’t even consider the possibility that they wouldn’t all kill their loved ones to ascend.
Like there’s that bit in Nona where We Suffer says she eliminated a bunch of potential lyctors, but she very much did not. Like, she did a bunch of murders but she failed to kill Ianthe, quite possibly the only one of the 15 other people there who would have willingly gone though the process. Hell, her involvement at Canaan House actually directly resulted in there being MORE lyctors than there would have been otherwise, because Harrowhark almost certainly would not have done it if not for Gideon sacrificing herself to save her from Cyth. But she watched all of her friends kill their loved ones for John so she can’t even imagine that Isaac was never going to kill Jeannemary or Palamedes was never going to kill Camilla, and so on. She probably could have convinced half of these people to JOIN her given the actions they all take later on, but even knee deep in her revenge plot she’s still so devoted to John that she just cannot imagine that these other people, who have never met him, wouldn’t be similarly devoted.
Absolutely incredible characterization, I love her so much.