ok now I can’t stop thinking about the soup scene. it’s SUCH a good scene, I think there’s nothing I love more than a character who is extremely, surprisingly capable, who everyone underestimates (the same reason why the “go loud” scene hits so hard in GtN, because nobody but us and gideon knows how good cam is, and it’s thrilling to see everyone proved wrong). but it’s not just that they underestimate harrow, they straight up dismiss her as like this useless, failed child. and the whole fucking book she doesn’t get a shred of respect, and the entire book we have to see harrow- our proud and sharp and clever harrow- reduced to this trembling bleeding ball of grief, and she has to endure that too. I think she knows that she used to be more. and finally when she’s pushed to her breaking point, lobotomized, hunted, six-days-no-sleep harrow still does what no one else can do, because she’s just that desperate and she’s just that good.
what i really love about That dinner scene in harrow the ninth (no not dios apate minor the other That one) is that it is strongly implied in the text that john like. knew what was in the soup from the very beginning. we get told that he had a single spoonful before immediately putting it down and taking “a discreet sip of water” and obviously on first reading it’s just sort of “oh lmao harrow’s cooking is That Bad” but actually the thing is that everyone else eats it with minimal complaints so like. it can’t actually just be that the soup was objectively THAT bad right. no he 100% knew what was up right away especially considering his utter lack of surprise when harrow then Makes Her Move and all. which then makes it insanely funny to me that instead of. you know. DOING ANYTHING about the fact that all of his friends and disciples were eating human bone marrow which is a thing he personally finds disgusting and possibly even thinks is morally wrong, depending on how you interpret “ten thousand years since i’ve eaten human being and i didn’t really want an encore”. instead of stepping in and doing anything about this and maybe asking harrow “hello what is up with this behavior” he simply decides to sit there and watch everyone else at the table chow down and make polite conversation about the meal while they’re at it. like. he REALLY just chose to let it play all the way out to its conclusion for the drama of it all. just for laughs. if i had to be a cannibal once then so do all of my friends. can’t wait to see what shenanigans harrowhark gets up to next. i literally cannot with this man he is so sinister and manipulative but also just genuinely so FUCKING FUNNY sometimes what an absolute dickhead i’m obsessed with him
i’m SCREAMING can u imagine weeks of hanging around some pious nun who took a vow of silence + never shows her bare face and the first words you ever hear her say, during a murder investigation, are:
Ironically I wish I could partition my memory to temporarily erase all memory of Gideon the Ninth up to and including the title so I could read Harrow the Ninth with no preconceptions and see just how long it took me to catch on
Underrated moment in Harrow the ninth is when everything is well and truly going to shit and Pyhrra takes a moment to say hey man I know you’ve got a lot going on right now but I just thought you should know that I also did fuck your mum
