ortus is just like "you know they won't name you cavalier primary unless i'm dead" and nova is just all "well that's unfortunate. FOR YOU."
Ohhhhh yes okay this makes sense now. I think I missed that bit of context God. That does Hurt So Good. Also holy shit can we TALK about what might be my favorite line in all of HtN: Spoiler "But you were always too quick to mourn your own ignorance. You never could have guessed that he had seen me." after the WHOLE BOOK has been in 2nd person and then you realize it wasn't just an artistic choice that the whole fucking novel has actually still been from Gideon's pov??? my brain EXPLODED
IT DOES. And like there's just. So many ways one can even go with the concept? I'm personally focusing on like...The guilt angle definitely but also like...Harrow not understanding that Gideon isn't condescending her. But also Gideon needing to realize that she has been basically insulting Harrow's pride fucking constantly and that maybe Harrow can just. Be let go. To do stuff. Like go apeshit on the Eighth. As much as Harrow Nova hates her Gideon, I don't think she'd put up with the Eighth talking shit about her. Like yeah her adept is a fucking stupid bitch but SHE IS THE REVEREND DAUGHTER OF THE NINTH HOUSE AND YOU WILL NOT MOUTH THE FUCK OFF ABOUT THE GOTH HOUSE OF GOTHS. Spoiler I guessed that from the start of the book, funnily. Like I sat there after those first two chapters and was like. This is Gideon. Isn't it. ...but then I told myself that that was too easy an answer. It couldn't possibly be Gideon. Muir would not make this so fucking obvious. And thus I proceeded to come up with other theories instead. All while keeping in mind that it simply made sense that it was Gideon. But just never allowing myself to go IT'S HER because like. IT SEEMED TOO EASY??? Also this makes going through the book again more fun because you notice things like Gideon's increasing impatience with Harrow's inability to remember the word pommel.
Spoiler The second person narration has a certain fond exasperation that kept pinging me to the possibility, after the end of things, but the question of why she'd been retconned like that lingered overhead in a distracting way. And then by the time we had a good portion of the answer, I was very distracted with the question of The Body.
Spoiler The Body also made me go ARE YOU GIDEON????? Every weird thing that came up was like IS IT GIDEON?
Spoiler LMAO I also thought the body was Gideon See I hadn't the slightest idea that the second person narration was supposed to be A Thing I knew that Muir from her Homestuck fanfic fame, and I was just like 'oh I bet she's really comfortable/good with second person narration but maybe her agent talked her out of it for the first book cause it's kinda weird/risky but with the success of GtN she just went whole hog on this one' Which is like, so much extrapolation, compared to 'she was doing it for Plot Reasons' XD Also there's something wonderful about how much you appreciate Gideon's name coming up on every page after she's re-introduced, after half the book not mentioning her AT ALL and kinda driving you insane with it Also, after she takes control of Harrow's body, I fucking LOVED Gideon's narration. Both from the constant sex jokes, and also her like, fondness for Harrow mixing with her anger at Harrow for choosing to mess up her memories?? That also was a Hurts So Good moment and I hope they really dig into it in Alecto.
Spoiler I like that she almost throttled Ianthe to hell and back. So much of the book is just people being repeatedly shitty to Harrow, sometimes just to be shitty. And like while I can get why Harrow has a thing for Ianthe, Ianthe's just toxic as fuck to her. So seeing Gideon just go "No. Fuck literally all of you. I've got issues with you for being like this to her," was great. And the confrontation with Ianthe in particular is nice because like... Gideon mentions the thing about the pool. And how when Harrow brought up her stupid dead girlfriend she knew then that Harrow had never once looked at her like that. And this just rips my heart in two because Harrow has done nothing but grieve in the most dramatic fashion possible over Gideon. And she loves her so, so much. But Gideon's like lol harrow fucking hates me fucking rip me god i'm dumb.
Spoiler YEEESSSSS the confrontation with Ianthe was so fucking good My trash homestuck expat self is just like 'Ianthe is the Vriska of this story' and I truly LOVE her as a character. Like she's awful but she just makes the story SO much more interesting, especially the very end where she saves John from the black hole instead of Augustine. God, the whole part where Gideon is like yeah not only does Harrow hate me she is INCAPABLE of loving me or anyone just fucking.... breaks my heart. NO BBY SHE LOVES YOU SHE JUST DOESNT KNOW HOW TO SHOW IT
Spoiler Muir is on record stating that she's a Draco in Leather Pants. Ianthe is. Which I just find to be. The best fact. Up there with Gideon's shades being inspired by Dave Strider. i love how gideon is like "you know. she hates me. REALLY MUCH. that's kind of like attention i want. FUCK THAT MEANS SO MUCH MORE TO ME THAN OTHER PEOPLE LIKING ME." and i'm just like gideon darling dear you would make a great troll. but also. she does love you. you're both just kind of dumb and she's also a repressed nun.
DRACO IN LEATHER PANTS LMAO Honestly I absolutely LOVE how much the homestuck-training comes through in Muir's writing, and I love how much she embraces it (I feel like we've got a trend of authors embracing their fanfic roots and it's lovely). The fluidity of the second person narration, the creative insults, the depth of the hatred/affection between Gideon and Harrow, it's just so damn good. Like, with any other author I might be worried that they would try to gloss over the tension and conflict and contempt in Gideon and Harrow's relationship, and try to just get us to a happy romantic ending, but I just know that Muir will dig into it, and I know that she will make it good because this is basically just a more human version of kismessitude which I already know she is FANTASTIC at writing. I'm so excited for Alecto!!! (also speaking of 'she would make a great troll', I have sometimes wondered if any of these characters started out as fantrolls, both because of the space empire setting, and because a lot of them have 6-lettered names LOL (Gideon, Harrow, Ianthe, Corona, Judith, Magnus, etc)
Someone on tumblr was talking about a nuclear apocalypse theory (pre-all this canon) and it was cool, but moreover, now I can't stop thinking about a Fallout AU Something about the Ninth just screams Brotherhood of Steel to me? The cultiness, the obsession with keeping their knowledge and weapons locked away from everyone else (also the knightly titles for everyone but that could apply to the whole TLT universe ig) (also I can't stop thinking about Gideon wearing power armor) But also the tomb in this case could absolutely refer to a vault. Lord knows there's some culty vault dwellers But also... courier Gideon??? This also may be because I've been listening to this playlist and I've got cowboy GtN vibes on the brain The Sixth is absolutely the Followers of the Apocalypse though... idek if anyone here does fallout lmao feel free to ignore this
STOMPS IN HERE TO SAY that especially when you remember not only that Muir is a Homestuck, but that Muir is urbanAnchorite of The Serendipity Gospels, a lot of how the relationships work REALLY slides the fuck into place. anyway hi i have read the books and I'm gonna read them again once they percolate and I get through a little more of the fanfic
Yes!!!! I ADORED Muir's work as urbanAnchorite, that shit was literally some of the best fic i've ever read for anything. And it's so wild seeing all the connections between her old work and now- not in like a 'cringy fanfic' way, but in like a 'i can see the development of your style as an author and it's awesome' way. Lmk if you want any fic recs, it's basically become my bedtime ritual the past couple weeks and i have many
I will happily take recs, though no promises that I will actually read them, my tastes are finnicky and [scrolls ao3 ten hours unskippable]
Ok disclaimer that I basically only read griddlehark bc they own my life now. Also all of these are finished unless indicated Basically anything by zoicite, they have written like 20 different TLT fics at varying ratings and lengths and they're literally all so good The Furnace of You by Cypseloides (M, 64k, post-HtN, also has excellent Camilla content) Dead Reckoning by SecretEvening (E, 130k, post-HtN, literally I had to stop reading it bc it was so good I thought it would make Alecto the Ninth disappoint me. that's how good) The Necromantic Grad School AU by pipistrelle (about 5 works, varying lengths, mostly T rated, focuses on griddlehark but there's also some good cam&pal content in there too) ...and a partridge in a pear tree by strangehunger (T, 20k, AU where everyone works in a mall and it's christmas, sounds cheesy but is literally one of the best-written fics i've come across) Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by pipistrelle (M, 39k but currently unfinished, like a sci-fi Moby Dick AU, fucking amazing) Erythema Solare by constant_vellichor (T, 2k, adorable sick fic where Gideon gets sunburnt) Regarding the Events in the Final Days Before the Fall of Canaan House, As Recorded By One of the Emperor's Own Fists and Gestures by cristabeloct (NR but there's no smut, 33k, basically like the latter half of GtN but from Harrow's pov)
aw thanks babe. i am indeed very smart and good at writing. personally i'm obsessed with the lyctors, so here's an interactive fiction game about mercy and augustine baking a cake (nearly made me cry), and The Shovel (my favorite novella about how mercy decided to Do That) ooh, and on an unrelated note, palamedes-focused wwii necromancy au!
Hey so the series might not be a trilogy anymore. There's a third title in between Harrow and Alecto called Nona the Ninth as revealed by previews of the paperback edition of Harrow. Also if you go to the Amazon listing of said paperback and search for "glossary" you'll get access to the glossary found in the paperback copy that's coming out.
