2022-08-29 22:42:44 ¶ ● ⬀ ⬈

i-hardlyknowher:

> I might be wrong about this, but I think magnus, abigail, and augustine are the only tlt characters frequently mentioned to smile and/or laugh in the books (maybe except jod), and I think that’s a really interesting parallel. considering magnus is a representative of the 5th, and augustine is its founder.

> in many ways the house representatives at canaan are kind of adjacent to their founding lyctor (the ones we’ve seen so far) and it’s so so interesting to see.

> but what interests me most so far is how magnus and abigail are brighter, more alive versions of what augustine pretends to be (or maybe used to be), whereas silas and colum are the exact opposite in comparison to mercymorn. so far they seem to be almost hollow representatives of the rather one-sided values mercymorn founded her house on, but because she and what she stands for have changed, so has she.

> on the opposide side of the spectrum, the current 5th house representatives are animated, genuinely kind and polite people. magnus is frequently genuinely cheerful, even when no one else seems to be. but augustine, who has been broken by so many years of lyctorhood, can only pretend to be similar.

> whereas mercymorn had to become more present to oppose her house’s traits, augustine had to fade until he’s not much more than a reflection of what he could’ve been.

this is so so interesting to think about what the eighth represents. that they’re supposedly the most religious house, the most devoted to god. it’s heartbreaking to imagine mercymorn as that, as someone utterly devoted to god over and over until she realized slowly that it was empty and that he had taken everything from her. and it is in keeping with the themes of the series- devotion and hatred are sisters and maybe it wasn’t hard for mercy to be full of both