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happywastedyears:

thunderon:

so um. ya kno how muir likes to do her thing with heavy handed foreshadowing? the multiple times muir writes about harrow theoretically killing ianthe in a substantially similar way to mercy’s attempt at killing john…

He did not turn a hair at wedded, or, as lanthe would, say back exactly what you had in a high-pitched voice, for which you would one day jerk her white and beating heart from her colourless ribcage and eat it dripping before her.ALT
Perhaps there was a dark universe in which you reached for her; in another you exploded her heart in her chest.ALT
You could press your hand to lanthe's chest, if you wanted--which you didn't, naturally. and the blood-warm sternum beneath would gradually unfold for you. But it would take effort, and close contact, and you would need to know the sternumALT

….. three times… and then harrow’s intimate description of ianthe’s ribcage/clavicle in the bone arm scene… i think i have a bold speculation about what might happen in the next two books…

omg this is galaxy brained… I also think it adds to it that in the first quote it’s phrased as a descriptor in the future tense. like it could’ve been “for which you wanted to” but no it’s “for which you would one day” and obviously the surface level reading of that is that it’s just harrows thought or fantasy - but when you combine it with the other quotes like that I think it totally totally has a second meaning

br0 not to go crazy on the analysis here but u KNOW i love a parallel. i already have been thinking about how mercy/augustine are kind of a parallel for some version of harrow/gideon’s dynamic (trapped in a mutual hatred so all-encompassing and so lonely that they have nothing and no one except each other). and harrow is a parallel to mercy in other ways too (extremely clever? shrill and tedious? ball of wretched grief, anyone?)

anyways this is an extremely interesting detail and i think the mercymorn/god dynamic is gonna be mirrored by harrowhark and ianthe, respectively.

ianthe is interested in liminal spaces, the place past the river, etc. seems like in a lot of ways she and god are interested in the same thing. more notably, though, god has a loved one he refused to kill, choosing instead to leech power from the people who had sworn devotion to him. ianthe also has a loved one she refused to kill, and cannibalized her sworn cavalier instead.

both of them play their cards close to the chest, both of them epitomize a hierarchy based on cannibalizing the thanergy of those who swear devotion to you, but neither of them could bring themselves to kill the person who was most their equal.

i’m curious to see whether this parallel holds up, especially with some of the more notable differences (coronabeth’s whole role in this/whether she parallels alecto, harrow’s lobotomy, what grudge harrow might have with ianthe). i kind of already felt like ianthe was gonna end up the antagonist of this whole ordeal, and now that i’m seeing all this heart-eating business, i think that we’re gonna see mercy and god’s dynamic played out on a new stage with harrow and ianthe