@discjude Ohh, So That's Where That Point Came From, The Book Itself! Also, Theres A Few Things Here

@discjude Ohh, so that's where that point came from, the book itself! Also, there’s a few things here I don’t remember, and when I started to draft this response, I didn't have my books with me, so I don't exactly have that good of an answer to everything right now. What was his talk with Sophie about?

Arpeth sounds far better! Don't know why the common name ended up being Jaric. "Warpath" evokes "path to war," which certainly describes Japeth's becoming the Snake well, so I've no notes and you get a standing ovation for the pun, even if it was unintentional.

Do you mean "happy," as in reunited with Aric's soul, by death? Or being freed of the burden of the throne? And could the Storian have fated Japeth to die because it was the easiest way out for him? Versus, a potentially lesser chance at a happy life?

Again, I don't remember the specifics of the F+B dialogue. What did Tedros-as-Aric say?

Against my better judgment, I think it'd be nice if the Storian had pitied him, but it feels unlikely.

Now, I wonder if the Pen specifically likes the blood of Mistrals because it impales the OG prequel Rafal twice, and has acquired a "taste" for it?

Random point: I think the irony of Agatha becoming Camelot's queen and Sophie not getting what she wanted was a great ending. The TSY ending fit practically all the characters (or at least Sophie) much better than did TCY ones. Sophie getting a supposed True Love in Hort went against all the earlier messaging, even if they could probably also qualify as Evil's love. (Honestly, I don't like Hort, but Aladdin is still the worse of the two, and sometimes, Hort has sympathetic moments.)

I think I've seen the flanderization, yeah. It seems to happen to a lot of love interests in general, even Tedros, who isn't actually an absolute idiot.

Which plot point? The reason why I hate Aladdin is because he caused the first quarrel between Rhian and Rafal (his removal from the plot = no conflict—at the same time, I want conflict, so it's a double-bind, having him or not), and his narration/thought process/actions just struck me as annoying. Also, yes! I was expecting some kind of ending for him, where he becomes the Sultan, probably an awful one, just because of the set-up about Pasha Dunes and Reena his granddaughter, but I wonder if this Aladdin is only an Aladdin with the same name as the main series one, like James Hook versus TLEA undead Hook?

Ooh, a Sader brother could've been interesting!

Yes! Thank you for the validation of "Evil can love"! (I intentionally decided to use Sophie and Agatha, platonically, because I think they're the example that would've been met with the least resistance since Sophie and Rafal could've had potentially insincere love, depending on interpretation, and Hester and Anadil were not exactly canon for a while.)

Yes, I thought it was either close to being canon or I've heard it often enough, that Aric was grappling with That Internalized Trait. (And even Tedros did, in resisting his attraction to Filip, so I think you're right. It must be common in their world.)

I think I can guess what the Rhian II theory is. Would you mind if I asked about it?

That's funny because the inverse happened to me with you! I saw Japeth as the Snake Guy from TCY, who's just another Evil sorcerer and Rafal's "copycat," but they're both nuanced characters in their own right. So, I can't complain. I was just delusional because I believed in Sophie and Agatha's povs thinking Japeth was Rafal when he was first introduced, and got a bit miffed that he wasn't. But I can't fairly or reasonably blame him for the imaginary "sin" of: Not Being Rafal. That'd be insane, haha. Also, I still love the QFG near-hanging scene inexplicably. That was one of Japeth's best moments, I thought, even if it later turned out to be staged for Rhian's good PR.

Oh. Good point. I do see it as sweet, from his side, if not Aric's. Happy Pride Month to you!

Oof, poor Japeth, if that's the case around the things to be "cured," in either sense. But, it's interesting nonetheless—the next time I read TCY, I'll have to look out for that belief in Rhian II. It could possibly explain his distancing himself from Kei, aside from the betrayal and Sophie's involvement.

I am really curious to see your take on Aric and Japeth's relationship. I mean, the beloved author and creator of the series have addressed this issue with 'in their own sick wicked way they had loved' so yeah it's cannon cool. But I feel like the further implications of this? We saw evil 'unable to love'/ 'only ever have true love'. From what I remember Japeth mentioned Aric more than once, how they would write letters to each other how Aric 'begged' for Japeth to come to him but Japeth never did so and then bro spent the last of his life trying to bring Aric back to life. There are so many implications, the dynamics, the context, everything, but I love how you theorise and explore all sorts of ideas so I can't help but wonder how you view all of this :D.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and have a great day/afternoon/evening/night!

Sorry to disappoint, but I should probably start off with the fact that I don't ship Japeth and Aric. While I like Japeth, partly in thanks to @discjude winning me over, and further recognizing the tragedy surrounding him, his relationship to Aric never canonically does him any favors. And, with Aric, I think I'm apathetic enough towards him that I don't actively hate him; I just don't care about him. In truth, if not for Aladdin's pitiful existence actively hammering on my nerves, Aric would probably be my least favorite character.

The first thing I want to address is that Evil being "unable to love" or "only Evers have True Love" is actually false, despite the many times the series puts forth this claim. Yes, we are explicitly told this "fact" in book 1, but the book's point was to subvert/deconstruct the myth.

First, by the end, with her self-sacrifice, Sophie proved Evil's capacity to love, meaning: Evil being unable to love is just a commonly-held belief in the Woods, not the absolute, be-all, end-all truth.

(And the belief could've been perpetuated by "Rafal's"/Rafal's way of running his institution that literally shapes the Wood's perceptions and the future. Alongside this claim about love, consider the existence of the Doom Room, created to punish a singular mutinous class of first-years, based on a now-revised philosophy about Nevers' learning from harsh treatment and (probably) disproportionate retribution that an excessively stubborn dead man already too entrenched in his old ways never had the chance to change because he died—and this is all aside from the fact proven by the display at the very first Circus of Talents, that Rafal's students did indeed learn better when he finally listened to them and mentored them as an equal in their position (as Fala). In addition, the statement: "Nevers learn from deprivation" similarly reveals how the Woods really do generalize about Nevers—until Sophie, the "exception" and iconoclast, comes along.)

Second, Sophie's non-romantic True Love at some point was said to be Agatha, and I think this established fact is consistently maintained throughout the series, even if other elements overshadow it, so not only Evers can have True Love.

My take on Japeth and Aric is that Japeth's love for Aric, however twisted or sincere it was, drove him to become the Snake, follow along with Rhian's Camelot ambitions and initial staging-terrorism-and-hostage-scenarios plot, and commit all his other, duplicitous, villainous acts throughout TCY, later by his own will, which is a motive I find fascinating (and contradictory about the nature of the Woods' Good and Evil souls, whenever Japeth is set next to the rather grey Rhian).

So, while Japeth's devotion to Aric could be viewed as romantic, it's just not appealing to me, personally, due to the relationship's ambiguous one-sidedness in particular. And, I think I once may've read something about Japeth as a Never fighting for True Love (or his perception of "True Love") and Rhian as an Ever fighting for power (the Nevers' ideal fairy-tale ending) being ironic or inverted in some way. That's also some world-building fodder to consider, or even just another point that could overturn the Rules as we know them, yet again. I'm not surprised by that subversion honestly. Japeth is very much like his parents. Nearly every SGE villain Soman has ever written has been motivated by the pursuit of love, or by the overwhelming force of their own (often obsessive) infatuations (with the exception of somewhat flatter, less-developed, secondary villains, like Aric, Vulcan, Marialena, and Peter Pan).

Also, thanks for the compliment!

If I were to address Rafal after part II of TOTSMOV41, I'd say: "Ok... that’s too much bathtub in one day for you, sir. Time to get out—"

Then again, there's something odd I'm trying to puzzle out: did he do that one Particular Spoilery Thing deliberately or not? Even I haven't decided yet and I can't quite decide, so I might leave it ambiguous. Basically, he comes across more sympathetically if The Thing is not deliberate, and he comes across as clever if The Thing is deliberate. This is a bit of a conundrum. And at the same time, The Thing is not from his pov at that time of the story, so it probably doesn't matter, knowing or not knowing. Ergo, whichever way the truth goes (and I suppose it could be both), Sophie and Agatha (in their povs) can think whatever they'd like, if either awards him the benefit of the doubt.

Do you think the School is exempt from having to pay taxes?

Yes, I do think the School is exempt from taxes, and there is no canonical evidence I can remember which suggests it is subject to taxes.

Given that funding was never an issue (or flat-out irrelevant to the plot) to Rhian with his renovations, as he never seemed to have any trouble getting the work done that he wanted, that could mean the School isn't subject to taxes, or that taxes were a minor enough non-issue amid everything else that went wrong that they wouldn't have warranted a mention in the narration.

Also, the School is a private institution, which could mean the Kingdom Council has less power to intervene with its ongoings, at least towards the beginning?

Aside from that, throughout the main series and the prequels, the School is capable of magically terraforming all on its own, usually on the basis of who is its master(s). Indeed, it's as if the setting were a character in its own right.

⸻

If you had wanted to hear from the brothers themselves:

Rafal: Why care about the answer? I’m the only authority that matters. [expression and inflection darkening] If the Kingdom Council has a quarrel with that fact, by all means, I’m willing to negotiate.

Rhian: Rafal! Must you always embarrass me in front of polite company?!

⸻

Yes, they are breaking the fourth wall.

I personally wouldn’t put Rafal above tax evasion, assuming he’d find a smart way to do it and never get caught. After all, he initially only wants “the best” for his School and Nevers, and for his alumni to emerge as the victors of the tales, from the eternal war of his Woods. If taxes wouldn't bode well for future Evil victories, well, he'd simply have to do away with them, wouldn't he?

And, he wouldn’t want needless fuss over his breaking the law, not that he cares about staying within the rule of law as a fugitive in Monrovia's eyes, so he'd probably stay within the bounds of the law rationally, within reason, unless he were certain he could get around them.

That, I’d figure, would be Rafal’s attitude towards the Woods' law and order in general, when the laws aren’t his own. If you want to hear about his unfortunately sour attitude toward my readers, you can read this similar ask dialogue post, in which he addresses all of you directly, once again, breaking the fourth wall.

What is your favorite thing about SGE series and why?

I have multiple favorite things, so you can expect me to elaborate for a while.

One of my favorite things from the series is Soman’s novel concept of "psyche travel," and for christening it with an actual name.

I’ve only seen this concept in a few other, more science-fiction or speculative type of stories, like the Divergent series, The Giver quartet, "The Veldt," a fascinating short story by Ray Bradbury (which TOTSMOV41 is very much inspired by) and the Artemis Fowl series, which involves time manipulation that wasn't strictly time travel (which is far more commonly seen in fiction). And I love Soman's more fantastical spin on psyche travel! To me, the concept was previously called "mental landscapes" or simply "simulations" of reality. "Psyche travel" as a term is just far broader and more versatile, and I feel like you could do more with it, experimentally.

In fact, I would've loved it if Soman could've left more room in his tight plots to explore human consciousness and "the cauldron of the unconscious" more in TCY, so I will be doing exactly that with the themes in my longfic TOTSMOV41. If anyone wants to know more about TOTSMOV41, I'll redirect you to this table of contents/introductory post.

My fic's entire premise reflects how much I loved that one scene in ACOT. It was absolutely brilliant, especially with the edited views of what reality once was, how subjective memory could be. Plus, in that moment, ACOT managed to combine a few of my major interests: psychology and how generally error-prone the human mind and memory are, surreal imagery in literature, and delving further into SGE’s soft, irrational/nebulous, thematically-relevant magic system. (The way I see it, problems are more often unintentionally created than intentionally solved with magic, and we understand little of it, what goes on magically, really, and can't logically extrapolate what the characters could possibly do said magic. So, the magic is framed as unstable and flexible, even while it does reflect the state of the world and the important relationships in the tales. Thus, that's how I might classify the SGE system. You're welcome to disagree on which type of magic system it is though!)

The following points are probably more obvious:

First, Soman’s prose and images overall are enthralling, and his use of VERBS, especially, rivals few authors that write for a younger demographic, at least in my opinion. It’s often just so well done. It's the little things, like using "scalded" or "pinked" instead of "blushed" that I love. Soman's use of language is so inventive at times, and I love trying to imitate it. Verbs can make or break a piece of writing in my mind.

Also, I love the extravagance and length and readability of this particular book one sentence that I think is underrated for the sheer exasperation embedded in it:

“After chastising her for slipping in the Ever ranks, explaining every assignment thrice, and berating her to cover her mouth when she coughed, Pollux finally left in a circus of hops and falls.”

It’s fabulously sweeping and exhaustive.

In addition, the third person omniscient pov is less common nowadays, I think. So much of middle grade and YA is in first person these days, so it may be a trend, for its immediacy. Though, I tend to prefer third person, even if my preference also generally depends on how well the work was executed.

I love SGE for its basis in fairy tales since I loved reading the classic Grimms' fairy tales before I discovered SGE—they were probably my favorites for a while (and still sort of are, alongside SGE). And they inhabited my storytelling before I ever discovered more subversive things existed. Thus, it's the overall darkness and the dramatics I find compelling about Soman's work.

The cleverness in the writing, when it’s well-executed, is phenomenal. And this applies to two aspects: first, Rafal, obviously, and second, the plot structure itself.

When I say Rafal, I mean specifically during the moments in which he shows off his conniving craftiness, his prowess at outfoxing others. And I love any instances of scenes in which he tricks or outwits people and systems.

Someday, I’ll have to remember to discuss the Fala-shoe-fairy-kiss scene from Fall, one of my favorites ever, in a future post. Those particular thoughts must be somewhere in my scads of drafts... I’ll have to look for them. For now, I will give you any thoughts I have now:

I'm referring to the scene in which Fala lures a fairy with a golden kiss and traps it in his shoe without a single word of verbal explanation, and he expects everyone to intuitively follow his genius thought process, the solution to their dilemma. Then, everyone, except Aladdin, manages to catch on, when they watch his demonstration.

Here's an (exaggerated?) approximation of how I'd imagine his internal monologue could've gone:

Watch and learn, youths. I’m better than you. In innumerable ways, and this is one. But fear not! I will lead you to success. No one else is capable of doing it. Yes, I will take on this burden myself. Give me all the credit. But don’t even bask in my cleverness, even if it deserves your attention. My actions speak for themselves. Just get the task done. Now. We don’t have all day to dilly-dally like inane cowards.

I will redirect you to this post, if you would like to read more about how I happen to interpret Rafal's "trickery," or rather, absence of trickery, perhaps.

And for my second spiel on the series' cleverness, elaborating on its predictable unpredictability, on a structural level, even if I only saw it in hindsight:

I love any kind of legerdemain or sleights of hand, or twisting of plots, except the devastating Fall one, I suppose. And there is something very characteristic of SGE I've observed: there are often, very, exceedingly late third act turning-points. These points are likely hallmarks of the series, to the extent that I've come to expect them by now, especially after Rise, and sometimes, I'm probably actively on the lookout for them when I read other books. Besides, Soman likes to lull readers into a false sense of security, that much we can probably confirm.

Furthermore, these turning-points seem to take two forms and you can literally only expect one of two things to happen.

It's either: 1) the characters reach a point of what should be a settled peaceable resolution, that is then rapidly negated, or 2) the characters reach a darkest-night-of-the-soul moment, the prospect of temptation in the story, often for an individual, and wishes are granted (often in subversive, unfulfilling ways to almost everyone's dismay).

Examples:

1) In Rise and TLEA: you think you are safe, that you're out of the dark Woods (which often represent the darkness of the soul or the human psyche as a symbol) but you're not. There is no built-in "warmth" to the narration, as Soman puts it in one of his interviews. This all is literally the narrative's "liar's tell" or "slip" in the third act, a revisiting of conflict, the reopening of the tale. You know there is more disaster to come. The ride is not over yet, however much you may think or desire it to be so.

In AWWP, characters say and believe the wrong things, are misled, and narrowly miss a possible "happy" ending because Sophie felt alienated enough to choose Rafal, who chose her.

In TLEA, we think everything is resolved, but all of a sudden, we get one more little impact, a jolt, that not all is well or completely restored, the moment Aric kills Lady Lesso.

In Rise, when Rafal is revived and reclaims the Schools from Vulcan, setting everything back into their original, proper forms, back to order, we think we've averted all crises, and have reverted back to the status quo. But, that resolution, again, is only momentary. Supposedly, Rhian's Evil, his rot, was awakened, and the moment Rafal considers leaving again and does, to seek out a new replacement student, is when the plot begins to race downhill again. When Rafal leaves, he leaves a gap for Rhian's poor judgement to bleed through, and Rhian hires Hook, effectively setting off the second wave of awful plot events in Fall. Rhian sort of resurrected old conflicts, and breathed new life into them.

2) Before the Great War in TLEA and the climax, we get tonal signposting that nearly "all is lost," that we're approaching, marching towards our imminent demise. There's an ever-present fog of "Abandon all hope, ye who enter" because if there's anything Rafal's good at, it's cultivating an air of stifling oppression. Hence, we have the narrow aversion of the darkest moment:

Agatha (unlike prequel Rafal with Evil Rhian) doesn't use the wrong emotional appeal. She gets through to Sophie, she and Tedros aren't executed, and Sophie destroys the ring, killing Rafal. Despite everything that said otherwise, that said Good would lose.

Lastly, a few other bits I appreciate are the roles the Seers play in the series, the meta aspects of the Storian (or Lionsmane) and the tales in general, and the names of a lot of the proper nouns such as the kingdoms—I don't know why I love some of them. The alliteration is oftentimes fun, and the names feel right and plausible.

I love all of these! And I love the thought of a nocturnal Rafal and diurnal Rhian. (Never the twain shall meet, in their insect forms?) It fits their original personalities so well!

Have a Rhian art dump-

How much do I have to pay you to draw Rafal as this image

HELLO I AM BACK

you pay me by finally making me do this trend after like two months of thinking about it

also my process is so wonky here LMAO just ignore all the layer switches and stuff

(modern rhian coming soon)