WOW. This Is One Of Your Best Ones Yet! I Love The Textures. Rhian Deserves The World As His Catwalk!

WOW. This is one of your best ones yet! I love the textures. Rhian deserves the world as his catwalk! He'll literally and figuratively burn it all down!

Could you please draw Rhian in a robe like the one in this J. C. Leyendecker painting? (Of course, you can interpret it however you want!) To me, it just feels very much like him.

back in my semi-realistic style because keeping a consistent art style is my worst enemy i fear...

no wonder rhian is one of the most sought after bachelors in the woods because WHAT. someone sign him up for modeling please

hope this satisfies!

What do you think of this picture? And have you seen it? I personally love it. 🥰

I think it's lovely! Not everything is exactly how I would imagine it, but it's still very book-accurate, in my opinion, and I love the details in the line work and the Storian with its blood/ink/magic!

Also, yes, I've seen this art on Instagram. It's by _sky_high_art_.

@harmonyverendez If you're interested, I made this to help me visualize the heights I had in mind:

And, if I'm remembering this correctly, Tedros would have more muscle mass proportional to his body than Rafal would have because I think Tedros was described as "lithe" and "muscular" and that Rafal was described as more lean and "sinewy."

Also, I'm unsure as to whether Agatha is taller or shorter than Tedros. Does anyone know the canon answer to that?

Do you think Rhian and Rafal are identical or fraternal? I've been having this question forever. Some think they are fraternal ( because of the covers ) but they are not accurate, and some identical because of how they are described in the books.

Me personally I feel like they are identical, but that's just my opinion, others may feel differently.

I've seen some even do identical and fraternal fanart, which is amazing by the way.

But I want know your opinion and what/how you feel about the twin description.

I feel like we didn't really get their looks described properly, only hair color, eyes and that's about it.

Also how tall do you think they are?.

I already think they are a certain height, but others may disagree.

They are described as ' Tall ' but have no specific height.

Thank you for your time.

My stance is that I see them as fraternal in coloring but identical in facial structure, features, and overall physique and stature.

With the fanart, most of it that I've seen has been fraternal, especially with their complexions and hair. I suspect that a decent portion of the identical art might've existed before the publication of Rise, given that the ghost's human appearance (before he became a ghost swan) looked like Rafal's, so the prevailing assumption at the time could've been that the twins were identical, until the prequels' covers and descriptions overturned that.

And once, we only had the singular illustration of them together in book one, prior to the prequels, to go off of. Though, given the identity twist in Fall, I would say the representation of the twins in that sculpture in Evil's mural could've been unreliable. Who knows if "Rafal" (Rhian) "revised" history and modeled both sculptures after Rafal's face (albeit with his own blue eyes) instead of himself, so the two would match. Maybe, he liked symmetry in design. Besides, he probably wanted the image of his own likeness to fade from the Woods' collective consciousness.

Also, I observed something new! There are sea-green flames, which are quite similar imagery to Rhian's blue dragon flame.

I'm not really going into massive depth about eye color, but I do have some thoughts. Although Rafal's eyes were green in Fall, which I feel like must be the exception, not the rule as a descriptor for him, I usually picture him with light, sky or ice blue eyes, and there is a chance that his green eyes were just an error or a minor plot hole. (Additionally, there have been different variations of blue hues in the series by this point, like "ice," "sky," and the deeper "sapphire," so honestly, I'm willing to overlook the potential green error, and just attribute these changes in which particular blue his eyes are to the lighting of the environment, Rafal's mood, or even the mood of the narration itself and which pov the description is from.)

If both brothers had blue eyes, even distinct shades of blue for each, one deeper and warmer, originally, and the other colder and lighter, I wouldn't have minded, and the books could've retained an iota more consistency, even with the identity twist, given that both the living School Master and the ghost had blue eyes in the main series, which directly contradicted Fall.

I'm not sure if I have an exact height in mind for them. I could say 6' 1" though. With "Rafal" in the main series, I pictured him as at least a head or more taller than Sophie, who is short. I think Soman confirmed her height as 5" 3' given that he once said she was "Madonna short" on TikTok, so we could conclude approximately 5" 3' with a quick search. However, we don't know if this is with or without heels, so she could be taller with them on.

Also, Soman confirmed Tedros was 5’ 9.5" or 5’ 10", so I feel like Rhian and Rafal definitely have to be taller than that. Was there ever a moment in TLEA where Rafal was described as taller than Tedros?

How tall do you think they are? Does anyone else have a different view on all of this?

Alec Benjamin Songs That Fit the School Master Brothers

Note: Some songs are about couples. Obviously, interpret the lyrics platonically. Links to the songs are embedded in the titles.

⸻

"Let Me Down Slowly"

Rhian to Rafal when Rafal deserted the Schools.

"The Book of You & I"

Fairly self-explanatory. Rhian would be the speaker the majority of the time.

"If We Have Each Other"

The last stanzas fit the most closely:

The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad If we got each other, and that's all we have I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand You should know I'll be there for you When the world's not perfect, when the world's not kind If we have each other, then we'll both be fine I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand You should know I'll be there for you

"Hipocrite"

Fala about the Evers at the Circus of Talents.

"Match in the Rain"

Their relationship decay and fire imagery. "Intuition" could be a stand-in for "paranoia," on Rafal's, or really, both brothers' ends.

"Devil Doesn't Bargain"

If Rafal lectured Rhian about his failed romances.

"Oh My God"

The moment when Rhian sobs at the end of Rise, after Hook has poached the brothers' students.

"Demons"

Rhian as the speaker, to Rafal. Rafal kept him Good. Rhian took Rafal for granted. (Well, admittedly, both took the other for granted.) Though, they did balance each other, even if they hadn't known the truth of their souls.

"Mind Is A Prison"

Rhian and his soul's possession of him, the all-consuming rot taking over. How he sometimes once overthought what the Good thing to do was, during the early days of his ruling with Vulcan as Rafal's substitute. Also, in Fall, this would be Rhian in the Doom Room, hanging on the wall alone to be found by the Pirate Captain and Hephaestus, abandoned by Rafal.

"Alamo"

Midas about the brothers, specifically about leaving Rafal after Rafal's betrayal.

"Outrunning Karma"

Vulcan and Hook to an extent, but mainly Rafal. Waiting to die in a sense, trying to prevent the inevitable, gone to fight in the war regardless. Also, this could reference Rafal racing through the night after the storybooks to Gavaldon.

"The Knife in my Back"

The fratricide scene.

@wheretheoceanglows Thank you for the recommendation!

"One Wrong Turn"

Ignore the specifics of the song's storyline. This one elaborates on the nature of predestination and preventability, which could be applied to the Storian and virtually everything. And, the lyrics remind me of the proverb: "For want of a nail":

"For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the message was lost. For want of a message the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail."

"Gotta Be a Reason"

Rhian post-Fall as the general, probably feeling futile because his next chance at a supposed True Love is a girl.

Page 16

This is actually page 17 of the fic, not the document itself. (16 was a page I might cut a lot from or rework, so that's the reason why I didn't want to include it.) Again, this screenshot happens to be another messy and unwritten page in outline form, but it is interesting that your number landed close to this scene since this is scene 1 of 3 involving this tapestry, detailing a flashback I invented, set before QFG.

Update and Another Ask Game

I've finally been moving all of my disjointed, separate scene notes for TOTSMOV41 into one document, into mostly chronological order. Draft 0 is at something less than 226 pages and counting now... I don't know what I expected. (Though, a lot of material has to be cut/consolidated/formatted, and part of the document is just notes for myself/thoughts.) So, I think the actual fic should be shorter. I'll have to remember to compare the lengths of Draft 0 and the final draft.

If you give me a word or phrase, I might be able to give you a screenshot of a page (or the closest adjacent page as long as it doesn't contain a spoiler) containing that word or phrase. Or, you could send me a page number instead.