hello! so there is a word of god post on race (doesn’t mention John but mentions that Gideon is “mixed Maori”), BUT I frankly don’t think word of god statements are worth any weight without actual in-text support (see: the “dumbledore is gay” situation). SO!
Specific evidence that John Gaius is Maori, as revealed in Nona the Ninth:
John uses a te reo Māoriphrase (“kia kaha, kia māia”) (John 5:20) when he is saying goodbye to the corpses in the cryo lab before the power is shut off. Though it is possible he said this as a non-Maori kiwi, but in combination with the previous two points of evidence I think this all very strongly points to him being Maori
TLT is not a series that hands you anything on a silver platter but to ME this is all pretty solid proof
Why is this relevant to The Locked Tomb?
In Nona the Ninth, we learn that before he completed apotheosis and ate the solar system, John was basically trying to save the earth from capitalism-caused climate change. Climate justice and the rights of indigenous people over their own land are deeply tied together, in the same way that climate catastrophe and capitalism/ imperialism/ colonialism are linked. disclaimer that this is NOT my area of study and others have definitely said it better; this is just the basic gist as I understand it, but on quick search I found some sources here and here if you want to do some reading.
TLT is not a series that hands you anything on a silver platter, but i don’t think it is a stretch to see John as an indigenous man trying to save the earth and getting ignored and shut down at every turn by primarily western colonial powers (PanEuro, the USA) who declare him a terrorist and then as a reader thematically connecting that to the experience of indigenous climate activists IRL
there are absolutely TLT meta posts that have discussed this before me; tumblr search is nonfunctional and I have been looking for an hour and a half and cannot find anything specific even though i KNOW i reblogged multiple posts about this in the first few weeks following NTN’s release. sad & I am sorry
I think that by the time the books take place, John is 10k years removed from the cultural context he grew up in, with the Nine Houses having become a genocidal colonial power in their own right (with more parallels to be made between John’s forever war for the resources of literal life energy and like, oil wars), but I also think that John Gaius is a fictional character who can represent and symbolize multiple different things in service of telling a story. (not to mention the potential thematic parallels being made to how oppressed people sometimes are pressed into replicating the power dynamics of their oppressors and continuing the cycle–now that is a tumblr post i KNOW i read last year and definitely cannot find right now, once again sad & I am sorry)
How Radical Was John Gaius, Really is a forum thread that was locked by the moderators after 234534645674564 pages of heated debate
“…Nona was having her bath, and Pyrrha was watching out for her, because back then there was still the danger that she’d have a funny turn and drown in six inches of water…”
OH MY GAWWWD THE PARALLEL TO GIDEON THE FIRST TRYING TO KILL HARROW IN THE BATH??? and now it’s the same bodies but the person in Gideon’s body is there to PROTECT the person in Harrow’s body??? to keep her SAFE and ALIVE???
the other day i was thinking about how the first time i read htn, i was waiting the whole book for a twist about john. specifically, a twist in personality i was waiting for him to ‘drop the act’, so to speak, and reveal himself as a cruel, intelligent manipulator instead of the most pathetic piece of man i’ve ever read. but then the twist happened, and it completely blew my mind bc even after the twist, he still is just like that. he exploded the heart of one of the few people who maybe ever really loved him, but he’s still just like that. and that hurt even more. the aspects of his nature that briefly endeared me to him suddenly became repulsive and honestly insulting. mercymorn is right, how dare you sit on the couch and discreetly eat peanuts. how dare you tell the child begging you for absolution to get a hobby. he can’t even do fascism right. he literally just exists to eat hot chip and lie and that’s so INSULTING. it’s INSULTING. JOHN GAIUS’S EXISTENCE IS SUCH A SLAP IN THE FACE.
I’m going crazy thinking about Pyrrha and Gideon and the permeability of souls. Bc what first tipped Palamedes off was a habit that he, the intrusive soul, picked up from Ianthe, the host. The osmosis doesn’t just go one way. While Pyrrha’s soul bled into Gideon, he was seeping into her, too.
Gideon wasn’t an attack dog in John’s recollection. He was steadfast and devoted, but he was an engineer moonlighting as a grill dad. Reminding John to put airholes in his bovine forcefield, then firing up the barbie to make sure everyone got fed. It was Pyrrha who carried a gun and wanted to hit back hard and fast. Pyrrha who advocated for a show of force.
How much of the Saint of Duty’s bloody minded perseverence did Gideon get from Pyrrha, and how much was originally his? Would the Pyrrha of ten thousand years ago have stood at a stove on the eve of an apocalypse flipping pikelets for the kiddie, or is that something she picked up from Gideon?
some points. some things. some ideas. none of which are connected, i’m sure.
“anastasia” means “resurrection” or “one who will be reborn.”
she is the only one of the original lyctors explicitly stated to have sired her house’s line of succession.
this is vitally important (important enough to have been actively preserved against all odds for 10000 years), but nobody seem to quite understand why, including the reverend family.
alecto says “you are the blood of anastasia,” as if this is relevant to her. she then kisses harrow and draws blood.
it’s only after getting verbal confirmation and (presumably) tasting her blood that she pledges her sword to harrow.
she says “i am sorry about samael,” as if that would mean something to harrow, as if she expects harrow to have the same grief over anastasia’s cavalier that anastasia did.
the ninth house is “the house of the sewn tongue,” which is a ritual for the keeping of secrets. it also sounds oddly flesh magic-ey for the ninth, which means they probably didn’t originate the practice.
this would imply that it’s relevant to their history somehow.
the ninth’s skull is jawless, which we know from the ianthe situation is the way to undo the effects of the sewn tongue.
when people talk portentously of the ninth, they talk about its “secrets” and its “mysteries,” always in the plural.
which implies that there are more secrets than just the tomb. i doubt they added the plural after the creche flu, can you imagine? the ninth has other, very old secrets.
harrow loved alecto from sight.
alecto recognized her immediately.
like i said, this is a series of random, unconnected facts. there are no conclusions whatsoever to be drawn from this.
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