one thing that I can’t let go of re: the locked tomb series is the statement I think it makes about identity and permanence and love. Like, I guess we all finished gideon the ninth being in love with gideon’s pov and with harrow as the person she is in relation to gideon. Then we landed in harrow the ninth and we were robbed of both, and I’m sure we all felt like we lost something, and we thought the end goal would be to get to the point where we would go back to having the thing that we lost: gideon’s vibrant voice and harrow’s whole psyche. and then we landed in nona the ninth and…
I don’t know for ya’ll, but that’s when something in me shifted. phyrra was in the body of her most beloved adept and got to live with her longing for him and for wake redefining her identity; we didn’t care for her in the previous books, but we got to care for her now, and she was worth it. camilla’s body was both hers and palamedes’ and the coronation of their arc wasn’t to go back to how they were when we first learned to love them; it was to let go of both their individualities to become a whole new person, and we readers - just as nona - got to experience the pang at understanding that we were to let go of our concept of camilla and palamedes as individuals, while having to accept that that was the truest form they both could possibly achieve, that they felt no loss whatsoever, that what we perceived as loss was in fact their triumph. gideon - our beloved gideon - came back and she wore another name and we got to love her again, but names matter in this universe, and we had to deal with the pang of knowing that we could love her all the same, but she was - in fact - not the same at all, and when she antagonised our new main characters we found out in surprise that we resented her for it, that our loyalties had partially shifted. and then…
and then there was nona. nona in the body of harrow, who got to be loved as a person separated from harrow because bodies are transient and the soul is what matters. nona who was born to disappear in mere months, something the people around her knew well and which didn’t prevent any of them from getting to know her as a fully fleshed individual and to learn to love her all the same. nona whom we readers too understood at one point that was a character built to fade away. we could have decided not to invest in her, then. we could have decided to be annoyed at not finding harrow in her, at not finding gideon in her. but we didn’t. well, I didn’t. I understood she was born to die, and I chose to love her all the same. because isn’t it how it is? isn’t this how love is? we are mortal things who fall for mortal things knowing full well they won’t last. but we choose to love all the same. the impermanence of things isn’t a flaw ruining what should have been perfect; it is the very essence of things. we got to love nona even though she wouldn’t last. we got to love nona because she wouldn’t last. that’s all fine, in the end, because we got to love someone, and you can’t take loved away.
Your name is GIDEON. It is a PROTOTYPICALLY COLD day in DREARBURH. Your interests include LARGE SWORDS, DIRTY MAGAZINES, and TRYING TO ESCAPE THE NINTH HOUSE. You have just finished GETTING YOUR ASS BEAT by THE REVEREND DAUGHTER, who you DEFINITELY HATE. Now you’re back in your cell.
moments from various tlt fics that haunt me UPDATED WITH LINKS:
harrow & gideon witness their doubles having sex and get so horny about it they have a huge fight & have to physically run away from each other so they don’t also, have sex
john cries about alecto’s tits (the tits he fucking gave her!! weirdo!!!)
gideon doms one time and harrow’s incredibly into it but then at the end gideon pulls out a book about it like yeah ianthe gave me this. what a creep
the fic where cam is into supernatural because she relates to cas & gideon admits she read skeletor/he man fic for a month before finally getting together with harrow
heartwarming! nona becomes a bunch of dogs and tricks gideon into loving her
mercy/augustine fuck right after hiding the suitcase nuke. Top sexy activities
cam & pal keep switching who’s in control of the body mid sex and it’s driving pyrrha nuts (somehow heartbreaking)
theres something so special about ianthe tridentarius being a genre-destroying caricature of an edgy YA badboy sexy flopvillain and i mean it. no emotional stakes just this 6 foot tall gumby looking creature in a open shirt doing fuck all but leaning on doorways sauntering around and smirking at y/n. babygirl
nona the ninth mostly being a more grounded and nuanced exploration of the realities of living under a (space) imperial government elevates this to the next level. cause wyd if you’re trying to overthrow the evil empire whose tyranny has wiped out billions and forcibly displaced countless more and vriska is there
