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Fall Countdown Day 8: Rafal
Rafal, my favorite of all prequel characters! This is the day I've been waiting for! He's so handsome. Also, it was a good call to choose the same model for both brothers. I guess the coldness or the warmth of the make up can change how a person looks. Interesting.
Rafal has the same dark book, and his lighting is just as dark as Rhian's, so maybe that decision was more to maintain the cohesiveness of all the pictures in the countdown than to characterize individual characters. Also, I love the hints of green lighting! It's so TLEA-ish. Perfect.
There's also a bordering of entwined thorns and black leaves. (Feels like a callback to the dying Blue Forest in TLEA.) Fitting as well. And, his suit looks darker than Rhian's. Almost black in fact.
Also, throughout all these countdown days, I've been wondering if the stained-glass banner in the background or the geometric tapestry, usually seen behind the characters, represents a kingdom, or if it has any other significance. Is it a symbol?
I love that he has a dagger. I wonder if that'll be his murder weapon? It holds implications of killing someone both physically and figuratively close to him. (I might have predicted it in my fic, "Simony." Though, daggers are a common weapon, to be fair.) For a moment, I thought it was the Storian in his hand. Also, the handle looks gold. Could that imply any Midas involvement here? Could the dagger be used to draw blood for a magical ritual? The Storian drew blood when the brothers made their vows.
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Background (I didn't cite specific sources. Most of these excerpts came from a Google search.):
"A dagger is a short killing weapon designed to stab only. It is double edged, tapered to a sharp point, with a straight edge and usually a blood line groove to facilitate removal."
"However, in the last hundred years or so, in most contexts, a dagger has certain definable characteristics, including a short blade with a sharply tapered point, a central spine or fuller, and usually two cutting edges sharpened the full length of the blade, or nearly so."
"A dagger is a fighting knife with a very sharp point and usually two sharp edges, typically designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon. Daggers have been used throughout human history for close combat confrontations, and many cultures have used adorned daggers in ritual and ceremonial contexts."
"Most, such as spears, were intended to strike the enemy from a distance, but men also carried daggers for use in close combat. With blunt edges and sharp tips, daggers were exclusively stabbing weapons, often used to kill an enemy incapacitated by spears or arrows or, at times, in more stealthy acts of assassination."
"The dagger is a one-handed weapon that may also be wielded in the main hand and off hand. Daggers are known for their fast and aggressive attacks."
"The distinctive shape and historic usage of the dagger have made it iconic and symbolic. A dagger in the modern sense is a weapon designed for close-proximity combat or self-defense; due to its use in historic weapon assemblages, it has associations with assassination and murders. Double-edged knives, however, play different sorts of roles in different social contexts."
"Despite how fast the dagger is, it does less than average damage when used against enemies, due to its size."
"Despite its lower damage output, daggers are great weapons to use in one-on-one fights since you can get in multiple good hits in no time at all!"
When Lightning Falls
This will be my last hurrah before the fall. So, happy reading! If it can be called that.
Summary:
A travesty and a tragedy, told in two parts. A flashback from Rhian and Rafal’s past as it ties to their present. From how they began and where they started to where they are now. From School grounds to the Great War in Neverland, suspicion and chaos abound. By the Storian’s reasoning and the Storian’s reasoning alone, where they began brought them to where their luck ran dry.
Context:
This, in a way, serves as both a prequel and a prediction fic. It’s sort of a two-shot, two-scene fic. Part 1 takes place when the brothers are around seven years old. And, the first part is largely based on my theory about the brothers’ origins. That theory is essentially about how the brothers could have been an exceptional case, born from magic, like Agatha and Sophie were, to be the souls that they are. And, not only that, they may have been created, not born, with a certain intent, so they could be used by a certain villainous pen.
Warning:
This fic is probably a bit less sympathetic toward Rafal by its conclusion than my usual writing is.
Important Note:
I have not yet read Fall. Please do not post spoilers in the comments, or send me any through PMs. I am trying to avoid all spoilers until I have the time to read Fall.
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Rhian ran toward Rafal when he landed with a soft thud. His brother had been teaching himself how to fly lately.
Lightning cracked overhead, lighting up the sky and the manor, almost as if it were day.
“Fala, I’m scared.” Rhian pressed against his brother hard, and Rafal didn’t shove him away. Rhian continued hyperventilating, one breath after another, like the treads of soldiers, constant and quickening.
Rafal held Rhian in his arms like a vise, and squeezed him with a comforting pressure. Rhian’s shallow, rapid breaths receded, and his shoulders stopped shaking.
Rhian lifted his head from where his chin had been resting on Rafal’s shoulders. “Why do you think the Storian won’t let us leave?”
Rafal let go, and brushed his sopping, white hair out of eyes. He remained silent.
Rhian continued on. “School Master says It will let us explore the Woods when we come of age. How old do you think we’ll be by then? Not as old as School Master, right?”
“Not as old as School Master. Maybe, as old as the students.” The growing brothers almost reached the School Master’s waist, but Rafal didn’t think it meant much. The School Master was stooping more by the day. Hunched more and more drastically, like he was withering.
“And not as wrinkly, either” said Rhian.
“No, not as wrinkly either. He’s probably due to die a couple years down the line.”
“How do you come up with these things?”
“Everyone dies. You know that,” Rafal averred.
“I know, but I don’t talk about dying all the time,” insisted Rhian.
Rafal frowned.
“So, why do you think we have to stay?” Rhian asked again.
Rafal glanced around as if he were afraid someone would look over his shoulder, but all the faculty and students were inside the warm glow of the manor. He peered into the nearby windows on his tiptoes, gripping the ledge. Just to be safe, he told himself. Then, he ducked down lower.
Rhian observed him, and furrowed his brow at his brother’s classic paranoia. “No one’s out here, Fala.” Nonetheless, Rhian followed him, and sat on the wet grass, leaning against the wall beside Rafal.
“I’m just making sure,” Rafal explained. “I haven’t got all the facts yet. But, the last time I was with School Master for a lesson, he looked nauseous. He said that we were growing like weeds, and might replace him one day. His voice croaked, his bones creaked, and his hands shook. But he continued on with that lesson, and it gave me an idea.”
“What about? I was with the Dean for Etiquette that day. He says ‘Etiquette is what separates Good from boorish Never thugs,’” Rhian recited.
Rafal’s expression soured and he rolled his eyes. “Ok, at some point, we have to have a talk about not believing everything you hear.” He got back on track. “He told me that once, all Ever kingdoms were more closed off than they are now. The common people were called serfs, and they were bound to the land of their kings.”
“Are we serfs, Fala?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t figured it out yet. Maybe, one day, we’ll solve it. Find out what It wants. Leave the School grounds.”
“But, the Pen is Good, right? Doesn’t It want us to be safe? Can’t we trust It? Shouldn’t we stay?”
Rafal didn’t respond, grimly clutching the soaked knees of his pants.
A clap of thunder resounded, followed by lightning riving the sky apart.
Rhian raised his voice over the roaring storm, to reassure his brother. “Then, we won’t be a bother or a burden anymore! Maybe, It’ll give us an important task someday. We won’t be worthless anymore! Maybe, we’ll be useful.”
“Maybe,” Rafal said pensively, too wary to agree, narrowing his eyes in thought.
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Rhian awoke in the night with a jolt and stood. He had repeatedly fallen in and out of a dreamless, jarring, electric sleep. But, unlike his sleep, this place was far from colorless. No, the entire alien island of Neverland brimmed with power and electricity. It was enough to electrocute a full-grown Stymph.
The greens were electrifying. Vivid, electric greens. Deep emeralds. Wintry radium greens. Salty, metallic, phosphoric greens. Vibrant patina. Phantasmagorical greens permeated every vine and leaf. It was like a Man-made world. The first he’d ever known. The humid, acidic atmosphere clung, stinging eyes, and biting at exposed skin. His hair drooped lifelessly, and he moped at its sorry state, trying to arrange his curls so he’d look marginally presentable. The oppressive moisture did no good. His every attempt fell limp, and he gave up.
Although unseen insects hummed incessantly, Rhian knew he must have been the only human presence for miles. He was alone, for now. Yet, he didn’t feel alone. The jungle thrummed with life.
The sky on the other hand was bleak, overcast, a deep, iron grey. Its distortions reminded Rhian of a warped mirror, like he was under a dome, to be examined by some cosmic forces above. Only, he couldn’t see without. Others could only look within. And, oddly, he couldn’t see his own reflection in the broken sky.
His and Rafal’s bond had fractured like the shattered sky above them, and Rafal had taken off in the night, in a fit. They were divided as the broken firmaments above were, lightning criss-crossing, momentarily scarring the sky. Rhian wished he had been able to string together words in some way to force Rafal to understand. They’d uncovered cracks and flaws, but there was something, maybe, several things Rafal wasn’t telling him. And, it was infuriating not to be trusted. Afterall, the Storian was to blame. It alone with its tales had bred a competitive spirit within them. Lost in his thoughts, Rhian decided to keep walking, find civilization, if there was any in this hellscape.
Instead, he trod upon a war zone.
Rhian shook his head. He couldn’t tell which side was which. It was complete and pure chaos. Worse than any chess-like, storybook-sanctioned maneuvers. Was anything fair? Whose turn was it? There were no turns he soon realized. Real war wasn’t founded on turn-based gameplay. Then, what qualified as an Attack or a Defense? Anything and everything, he expected.
A long shadow glided toward Rhian, as if it were clawing and reaching for him, and he looked up. His shadow touched Rafal’s.
Rafal approached, all decked in black, eyes cold, face hardened like a mask, chiseled and sharp. He now stood a few yard lengths away from Rhian on the crest of a low outcropping of cracked, old stone. Lightning flashed behind him, as if it were at his command. A cruel, psychological trick of sorcery.
Rhian shuddered, intimidated.
Rafal looked like a living ice sculpture in the dying light of the moon. Neverland’s forest was drenched in a frosty blue.
Clenching his fists, Rafal stuffed down his traitorous thoughts. Yet, in the heat of the battle, months of pent-up stress and frustration and rage and guilt and Storian knows what were boiling over, irradiated emotion he couldn’t contain. Fear and unfounded suspicion. Mistrust and deceit all swirling in a cauldron. Those Seers! He'd kill those Seers, every last one! Look what they'd caused. They'd made a madman out of him. But, what if he were fated to do so? They would laugh at him in their dying breaths.
It was the Pen's fault, a voice said. It was the Pen's fault then! Mistrust of himself, of Rhian, that was unfounded, and irrational, and ridiculous. It mortified him. Thinking this way.
He was shaking now, and for the first time, he felt cold. And completely numb. And then, he felt nothing at all. His senses deadened, like he'd been drugged, sedated, his body leaden, like he was no longer in control of his own mind. A passive observer. The Evil, his inclination, the stirrings were taking over. Consuming him. His own soul betraying him. No, he shook his head. It was the Pan. It was Neverland. It was the air. Nothing more. A shadow. Facing his brother would be light enough to clear the shadows away. Clear the fog of war away.
Rhian was sure something was going on within Rafal, but he couldn’t tell what. His self-destruction?
Rafal told himself, this was his only choice, his only option now, the only solution. He was the School Master, who alive, could maintain the Schools, who wouldn't create one mess after another. He was the Pen’s only option. The Storian would favor him. It had to. He’d preserve order, nevermind Balance or love. He’d use the Rules because the Rules had never betrayed him. Rhian had betrayed the Rules. Following them was the only viable end. Ending his brother and his reign was the only viable end. When he tried to love his brother, he was only betrayed, by the only love he had ever relied on, by the person who was his match.
He needed someone who could love while in pain, shared pain, to fuel the darkness pumping in his heart, someone who’d been denied their victories, their End by all the world. He’d give someone else an Ending. Another True Love. Someone who’d been repressed, never free, like himself, always living in Good’s shadow. Someone else due credit like him. Who deserved to be acknowledged, appreciated for who they truly were. Someone who wouldn’t hide, who could be their true self with him and he with them. Someone who could never be good enough, no matter how hard they tried. Never pure. Never Good enough. Evil’s love. For sides, not Balance. None of the grey, the doubting, the blood ties, the torn loyalties, the competitive priorities. Someone on his side. For once, someone who’d support him. See eye to eye with him. Offer him a perspective his brother couldn’t.
If he couldn’t find another equal, he didn’t even need love. He would much rather prefer to be feared, obeyed. At least those were constants, reliable. Yes, that was his decision. His plan. Find a replacement. Find a True Love of his own. Succeed where Rhian failed. Overtake Good, prove Evil could love. That Evil could replace Good, have everything Evers had. Lead by example. Overtake his brother in what he couldn't do.
Rhian shuffled anxiously. Rafal had a faraway look in his eyes, and Rhian wouldn’t hesitate to call the psychotic gleam in his eyes crazed. “Rafal?”
Rafal jerked to attention, straightening rigidly. It was as if he’d moved to consciousness. “Rhian,” he said inscrutably. “I know how to free us from the Storian’s grasp, Rhian!” Rafal shouted across the battlefield, his voice echoing. He steepled his hands. “We have to break the Balance. Again. But this time, on purpose. The Pen can’t condemn us as failures if we prove we have the free will to choose to break the Balance and our connection to it. We can be human.”
Rhian’s head swam. Here Rafal was, spewing nonsense and contradictions. This Rafal didn’t sound like the brother he knew. The one who worried about his well being and preserving the Balance. His eyes looked wrong. Like he was fully unfettered, and had no loyalties. To nothing and no one. Like he had floated away, and couldn’t breathe the thin air of the stratosphere. Neverland had taken a toll on him, and Rhian had been suspecting a tropical fever or some other cause of madness for days. But he had been too afraid to broach the subject. He should have.
“I can free you, Rhian! The only way we can be free is by trusting Death. Death is the one constant other than the damned Pen!”
The Ever-Never Army roared in the background, and Rhian was forced to shout. “There must be a more sensible path, Rafal! Rafal?”
Rhian’s brother had materialized in front of him, closer, and looked at him wide-eyed, hands twisting around, almost beckoning, with stiff movements. Like a puppet on a string.
“I'll rule the Woods, so the Pen doesn’t have to. No one will meddle with the tales. Only I will be the tales’ one Master.” Rafal shot a burst of black magic at Rhian.
Rhian managed to deflect Rafal’s magic at the last second with his gold fingerglow, an intense flare so light it was almost white.
Back and forth. Thrust and parry. Attack. Defend.
Black. White.
Black. White.
Black. White.
Their magic lit up the skies in the first and last fireworks display Neverland would ever witness. Any direct onlookers would have been blinded. When their glows made contact, all the figures in the forest were drenched in silver, like the pallor of the moon magnified. Oddly, the battlefield, the site of a war, became beautiful for an instant. The horror, gore, and radiance coexisted as one.
A shaft of lightning emanated from Rafal’s positioned fingers, piercing Rhian square in the chest as it crackled, and Rhian went deaf, crumpling to the ground, his chest turning concave as he leaned into himself.
Now, Rhian was splayed on the ground, streaked with his own blood, soaking into the soil. Rhian twitched a last time, and fell still.
Rafal grinned demonically, a visceral euphoria flooding his senses. They were no longer enthralled! This was it. His Ending and Its End.
He conjured a glossy, black crown, dark as pitch, with spikes that could lance through flesh, and crowned himself ruler of all the Woods. The metal sat cold at his brow. He shivered in anticipation, but got no response. The war raged on. What he didn’t realize was that the crown immediately rusted as he slid it on.
He felt his fingertips burn then, and watched as his hand shriveled. His long fingers distorted into misshapen claws.
Then, pain wracked his entire body as it contorted to match. His eternal punishment, if anything lasted forever.
He wasn’t free from the Pen. He was only bound to it more. So be it. Someday, he’d unchain himself. He felt nothing now. Had nothing to lose. Had infinite time. Nothing in his way. No one to hurt.
With the last vestiges of his magic, he conjured a silver mask, melded with the shadows, transformed, and fled Neverland at last.
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Note:
Songs I was inspired by:
“Different songs” - Set It Off
What changed? What changed?
It's more than just our age
“Who’s In Control” - Set It Off
So tell me who's in control
Is it you? I don't know
This song is hypnotic and very much fits Rafal’s canonical interactions with the villainous Pen.
“Killer in the Mirror” - Set it off
As seen in the imagery about the Neverland sky.
“The Good, the Bad and the Dirty” - Panic! At The Disco
If you wanna start a fight
You better throw the first punch
Make it a good one
And if ya wanna make it through the night
You better say my name like
The good, the bad, and the dirty
[...] I know what it's like to have to trade
The ones that you love for the ones you hate
Don't think I've ever used a day of my education
There's only two ways that these things can go
Good or bad and how was I to know
That all your friends won't hold any grudges
I got the final judgment
“In The Dark of the Night” - Jonathan Young
Alternate titles I considered: “When Lightning Breaks” and “When Lightning Rives Us Apart.” Neither of these had as striking a link as the actual title has to Fall.
Also, I find childhood to murder and its aftermath to be a fun contrast.
Although I wrote Neverland in hues of green, it’s actually a bioluminescent blue island as I found out yesterday from more Fall promotional content. I find it interesting that Neverland is blue, actually. I wonder if a section of that landscape was lifted or squared off, and if the roots of all the trees were re-interred near the Schools to form the Blue Forest we know in the present. Or, could seeds from Neverland have been planted to grow the Blue Forest from the ground up?
Yes, I used the lightning motif. Love it. I used the duology trailers and cover reveals as inspiration. That division, that split, the fractures in the sky, in the Schools, in the systems, in the existing structures, in the relationships. It implies a lot I think, assuming the execution in this fic turned out all right. Just, the Ending is like tracing over broken glass, I’d say. It can never be repaired.
Again: I haven’t read Fall yet. I will post a notice when I have finished it. Please do not comment any spoilers, or send me any through PMs.
Also, I will write happier fics in the future. This was just a prediction fic, and I’m well aware I could be completely wrong on several accounts.
Rafal leaving and Vulcan arriving are the two destabilizing conditions of Rise. (Also, I may be mistaken, but don't these two events happen in close proximity to each other? Months might have narratively gone by, but I think the pages must have been close? Not sure.) I know this is obvious, but I feel like this particular quote applies well:
“All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.” ― Leo Tolstoy
And the prequel duology is both. Just food for thought. Many stories, literary or not, are both, and it's interesting to see where and when such divisions intersect.
Rafal is the King of the Golden Mountain
"The King of the Golden Mountain" is such a Never fairy tale, and a canonical one at that (not in SGE, I mean classic, fairy-tale canon). Since the protagonist becomes royalty, he's probably an Ever, even if he uses violent means to reach his end. So, maybe Good is only Good relatively speaking in this tale. At first, the king does try for the peaceful solution, and some Good fairy tales do end in gruesome punishment for the villains. However, a mass of people standing in the way of you getting your throne back aren't all exactly villains, which is why I'm insinuating that the seemingly Ever king is probably a Never king at heart.
The protagonist reminds me of Rafal immensely, in terms of his reactions and everything. The tale is brutal, and it's basically a revenge-fantasy story, which seems odd considering how most of the Brothers Grimm stories, or the better-known ones, at least, have fairly "happy" endings. This one just reeks of bloodlust and victory and smug satisfaction. Like, seriously, it's insane. And, you'd think that by the title, it'd be more Midas-like, but no, I'd say it's Rafal-like. Really.
The poor, suffering king is just deservedly unhinged at this point, like how Rafal should have gotten his proper, very plausible villain arc. I'm still bitter over the Fall identity-swap plot twist! Rafal deserved real vengeance! Especially after he slaved away for Rhian, to fix mess after mess, problem after problem. By the Storian, can't he just get a break! I suppose that, at best, he could be in Purgatory. He was never truly Good enough for Heaven because I don't think a sudden turn realistically can make up for a lifetime of Evil deeds.
Also, this is a tale where practically everyone's beheaded, so just a little advance notice.
Anyway, here's an excerpt from the ending section:
When he was near his palace, he heard sounds of joy, and fiddles, and flutes, and the people told him that his wife was celebrating her wedding with another. Then he fell into a rage, and said, "False woman, she betrayed and deserted me whilst I was asleep!" So he put on his cloak, and unseen by all went into the palace. When he entered the dining-hall a great table was spread with delicious food, and the guests were eating and drinking, and laughing, and jesting. She sat on a royal seat in the midst of them in splendid apparel, with a crown on her head. He placed himself behind her, and no one saw him. When she put a piece of meat on a plate for herself, he took it away and ate it, and when she poured out a glass of wine for herself, he took it away and drank it. She was always helping herself to something, and yet she never got anything, for plate and glass disappeared immediately. Then dismayed and ashamed, she arose and went to her chamber and wept, but he followed her there. She said, "Has the devil power over me, or did my deliverer never come?" Then he struck her in the face, and said, "Did thy deliverer never come? It is he who has thee in his power, thou traitor. Have I deserved this from thee?" Then he made himself visible, went into the hall, and cried, "The wedding is at an end, the true King has returned." The kings, princes, and councillors who were assembled there, ridiculed and mocked him, but he did not trouble to answer them, and said, "Will you go away, or not?" On this they tried to seize him and pressed upon him, but he drew his sword and said, "All heads off but mine," and all the heads rolled on the ground, and he alone was master, and once more King of the Golden Mountain.
The ending is just so vicariously satisfying! I'm hoping someone will see what I mean because it can't just be me who sees the likeness. This protagonist has his petty, chaotic fun, and is mischievous, like Fala's presence at the Circus. And, he suffered at the hands of various men, for his princess, later his wife, a supposed True Love (the cheater!), just like Rafal sacrificed and went through so much physical pain for Rhian, his True Love and the equivalent of the wife in this story. And, Rafal was almost imprisoned with a life-sentence, and was overthrown by Vulcan just like this king was replaced by another, a false hero. After all that he did for Rhian! The injustice! Besides, it feels like a very Rafal thing to cleverly fleece people out of their belongings, even if it seems somewhat accidental in nature in this particular tale. (This happened earlier in the tale, before this scene. And, the wife didn't completely deserve death, I'll admit. The king himself also erred at times, so they're both at fault.)
Side note from while I was writing this: this has got to be the best, most fitting typo I have ever made: "overthrone" instead of "overthrown," and yet, it still applies to tyranny and thrones! Haha!
If you want to read the entire tale, here's one source from which the excerpt came:
And the Wikipedia page for further analysis/a shorthand summary:
If anyone is interested in reading about another fairy tale parallel to the prequels, here's a link to an old "Faithful John" post of mine.
Man's Fallibility & Immortality
I found a practically perfect song, by my interpretation, to add to my Rise to Fall playlist. (I haven't cleaned up/updated the playlist fully, so I'm not posting the whole thing yet, but I think this particular song warrants its own post.)
First, listen to the song: Nothing's New - Rio Romeo
Then, what follows below is something of a tragedy-analysis, abstract, meta-thing/omniscient prose narration experiment. I don't know what it is—an outpouring of thoughts. It may strike a similar chord as my narration at the end of Simony and its epilogue.
(Simony was a prediction fic I wrote before the publication of Fall. An extremely erroneous one though. I still think it could work, but oh, how wrong I was.
The direction Soman took the plot in, just, it was unpredictable, even if I did enjoy the book. I still like Rise better than Fall though, of the duology. If Rise had just ended at the point of: Vulcan is dead, Rafal tortures his students, and the brothers gradually learn to trust each other again, that would've been nice and comforting, honestly. But no, substitutes, substitutes, substitutes! On both sides. Drives me insane. Ack! But, I have four, short fics planned that have alternate endings to Rise and to Fall, to make up for it. Well, one of them is so far a little longer, three chapters long.)
If anyone wants me to analyze the actual lyrics more closely, I'm willing to do that too!
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The tales.
They are all the same.
Good winning, Evil winning.
What difference does it make after centuries, really?
Everything probably feels numb and empty after a certain point.
Like nothing matters anymore.
Undiluted apathy after that certain point.
When? I've lost track.
When losses and victories all ring hollow, and all sound the same.
The End.
That's all It wrote.
The sum of lives distilled down to ink and illustrations.
Nothing beyond that. No life, no spark.
What more is there? When nothing will ever satisfy the restless souls, not even an Ending all to themselves.
Just pages that will yellow with time even if the stories themselves are timeless because nothing changes.
Nothing ever changes.
There's no evolution.
Every tale is the same.
It becomes nothing after nothing, not victory after victory, when you're ageless like we are.
And how, if that's how it is?
Why bother?
Why bother at all?
It's a cycle that continues, with or without the brothers.
Ceaseless.
So, why should it matter?
It's the same with or without them.
Their position was always ceremonial.
After a while, anyone becomes tiring. Anyone.
And one person just isn't enough, when you have no one else.
No one else to shield you.
It gets old. The love just... fades, and wears out.
Perhaps, human love can only span for so long, and that's why humans are mortal.
Made mortal, and no one should traverse beyond that.
It always leads to hubris, and then, a fall.
An unnatural fear of death trained into them, when limits were never set, when power was never checked, when they expected to have all the time in the world.
Nothing is built to last. At least, not by the Storian.
It does whatever it pleases.
You can't extend a life past its time.
It will always end in ruin. Isn't that the lesson the storybooks teach?
A cautionary tale.
Again and again, the cycle continues.
Every failed holy-grail of immortality, every spilled cup drawn from the fountain of youth, every cursed head of lettuce, every white snake, every chalice of sleeping draught that led to execution after execution, every baptism that succumbed to primordial wickedness, every impoverished fisherman's hovel?
Why not a tale about two brothers?
One where two are felled.
To caution against mortal greed that even immortality can't peel away.
To caution against always wanting more until you're left with nothing.
Nothing at all.
Just like how you can't truly resurrect anyone as who they once were, you can't revive the soul that a person once was.
And you can't play at being God because it defies the rules of nature.
And all that we know about transience and permanence and how ephemeral everything else is.
Everything but Man, who vies to leave a legacy wherever he goes, at any price, even at the cost of his soul, not life.
⸻
Now, I do wonder if I made anyone emotional? I certainly tried this time around, to be a provocateur like Soman is. Tell me what you think, if you want.
These quotations from The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy reminded me of Rhian, mostly from Rise:
“But however much he thought, he found no answer. And when it occurred to him, as it often did, that it was all happening because he had not lived right, he at once recalled all the correctness of his life and drove this strange thought away” (47).
“The dreadful, terrible act of his dying, he saw, was reduced by all those around him to the level of an accidental unpleasantness, partly an indecency [...] in the name of that very ‘decency’ he had served all his life; he saw that no one would feel sorry for him, because no one even wanted to understand his situation. [...] This lie around and within him poisoned most of all the last days of Ivan Ilyich’s life” (37-38).
There's this emotional suffering to it, or if I skew my interpretation, a restlessness, or failure to find love. Rhian's treated like his love life is something barely pitiable, his troubles minimized. He's not awarded any understanding, even by Rafal, his own brother!
No one bothered to sympathize with him because they didn't see his problems as worthwhile. Everyone saw his losses as shallow, generally, I'd say, like: his crush didn't work out, so what? He fell for a major red flag, so what? Even Rafal. Rafal failed at his job as a sympathizer. He lacked empathy, so we have to fault him for that.
Also, I'm pretty sure Rafal would be the type of child to pop Rhian's balloons intentionally when they were younger to spook him.
It's a well-known fact by this point that Rafal is often the more mature of the brothers, but actually, something interesting I took note of is how this characterization can also be observed symbolically.
Vulcan calls Rhian "duckling." Rhian also wears a swan feather doublet when he attempts to stand up to Vulcan, yet fails, flounders in his role, and doesn't live up to the image of "swan."
And what sort of creature emerges from Rafal's chest as Fala? What at first appears to be a dark, furry duckling, but actually, it matures, and it turns out Rafal's soul has borne a swan.
Then again, Rafal is also somewhat emotionally immature, so it evens out.
I've figured it out! It may be obvious, but as a general rule, I would say:
Ever humor is self-deprecating when it's not posh, pleasant, or complimentary toward others.
Never humor is never self-deprecating but self-aggrandizing and often based in sheer arrogance and grandstanding when it's not absurdly dark.
Rafal would almost never say aloud anything that would make himself look bad, or put himself down. So, take your cues from him, in terms of self-promotion! Take after him to bolster your own self-esteem.
Supposedly, you may have heard being humble is overrated in a world where it's impossible to get noticed. However, being kind is not overrated.
Of course, there are exceptions to the characterization rule, Agatha, for instance: dark/fatalistic humor, Ever. Although, we may have seen Agatha mock her own incompetence as a queen at times, potentially in QFG? Thus, she's probably capable of both sorts of humor.
The Stymphs' Symbolism and the Storian's Interference
All right, here's our equivalence:
The Stymphs = Fate
Ok, so, with the girls in book one:
Agatha and Sophie are carried off by a Stymph, and they are thrown into their respective schools. No choice. No say in the matter. They've lost their agency, completely.
They are mastered by a Stymph, by fate. Conquered.
Then, the shift happens. They become the masters of their own fate, in riding the Stymph, in steering on top of the Stymph, into the School Master's Tower.
By TLEA, again, their relationship to the Stymphs changes. They're a little beholden to them and fate, in becoming who they are. Fate and the particular Stymph's original actions, its involvement in their kidnapping, I mean, shaped them both, ultimately. The girls are also beholden to the Stymphs for helping them, by not obeying "Rafal" when they help the archer students and Merlin during the second Great War.
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Then, for the prequels:
Who is master of the Stymphs? Rafal, of course.
Yet, Rhian is the "author of own misfortune," or fate.
Rafal is the original master of the Stymphs. In a way, Rafal was destined to become Fate, to become the Balance, had he managed to live long enough to be the One.
Because, he was about to be named the One True School Master, and through the Schools, he would have been master of the Woods' fate, been able to willfully control (or indirectly influence, through the curriculum, the students' educations, and how prepared they would have been, should their fairy tales begin) the fate of all the Woods, all its possible futurities, in theory, to an extent.
But, really, it's the Pen that is Fate, not Rafal himself, when it really comes down to the truth.
However, Rhian disrupted "fate," or the Storian's plans, by being the cause of his brother's death.
And, when he was left with the Stymphs he "inherited," he probably couldn't quite automatically rein them in. I think he had to tame them, or find a literal spell to mollify them with, to get them under his control. Probably symbolically because he was never meant to be Fate or the One in the first place.
And so, of course, Fate's attendants (the Stymphs) wouldn't have followed him willingly, at least, not right away because the ending simply wasn't meant to be, but just so happened to happen nonetheless. (I know the Stymphs' behavior actually must originate from the fact that Stymphs supposedly only like Evers, but I'm looking at this from an angle that's outside of the narrative, and I don't need to rely on the in-universe reasoning at the moment.)
Was there a line after the climax of Fall about this at all? About the Stymphs being disobedient toward Rhian or outright loud and unmanageable, or am I misremembering?
Anyway, Rhian became master of Fate, of the Woods, in becoming the sole School Master. But that only happened when there was no one else left to assume the role. He was the only option, sort of a second-choice. Or, possibly even third, when we consider Pan as the hypothetical third candidate to be the One. Rhian was the default, sadly enough, the lone, surviving one. He wasn't even meant to be School Master, the rightful One, yet he had to be chosen. The Storian was compelled to because there was no one else.
Thus, the "ownership" of the Stymphs and of Fate was transferred over to Rhian.
And remember, once, Rhian was Fate's personal punching bag. He suffered a lot, for his naivete, and from some external causes, like Hook and Vulcan, sort of, even if he was wrongly influenced by the end of it all. And yes, while many events were partly his fault, they also may not have been. The plot could have been the result of very poor happenstance and intersections of the times the brothers lived in, as, we can observe all the turbulence in Rise, during that one particular school year.
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Oh! And I wonder if the Stymphs forevermore missed Rafal, their original master? Did they show any signs of missing him? I'm not sure.
But, I am sure that they knew Rhian replaced Rafal because they can read souls, tell them apart, they way they seemed to instinctually read Agatha's, Sophie's, and Aladdin's souls, to know which Schools they belonged to.
I don't think there's any direct evidence of the Stymphs' mourning though. Did they ever screech, or cry out, as if in pain, like deprived animals? I suppose I could imagine that plausibly happening, with how they were left behind...
AU Idea
So, there's a particular moment in book one, in which Sophie hears a voice, from "somewhere deeper than soul." And, this may be a reach, but I have a theory.
First, look at this:
This is the voice that convinces her not to go along with Rhian's corrupt soul. It says the very same line that both prequel Rafal and later, Lady Lesso have said. It could very well be Sophie's own subconscious, but what if it wasn't? What if it came from outside of her? It could be ghost Rafal's presence, who appears shortly thereafter. The true Rafal. And although this line probably appears in the series four times, at least, the real Rafal is the first person to say it, chronology-wise. So, why couldn't it be him?
Anyway, now, for this AU, we're taking Rafal's "ghost" presence into consideration, not necessarily any variations of his character depicted in canon.
The concept in the screenshot above, about a warlock sincerely believing he's a paladin, a devout holy knight, recalls Sophie's initial denial of her Evil soul fairly well, so in this AU, Sophie could be a high priestess/sorceress (perhaps, like a Morgan le Fay/Lady Morgana figure?), who mistakes herself for Good, as usual.
Meanwhile, everyone else would quite transparently see that that the "benevolent deity" she serves clearly isn't that Good (and neither is she). Thus, again, it's obvious to everyone but her, which makes for staggering comedic potential. Like:
Someone else: Unleash the witch! [said with a similar, booming intonation as "UNLEASH THE HOUNDS!"]
Sophie: Not a witch, darling.
Someone else: Fine, priestess.
Sophie: Indubitably so.
For further context, this Rafal was a vengeful spirit, wrongly slain and never properly laid to rest, elevated to the status of eldritch god by having a patron. So, he tries to coax Sophie's Evil out, little by little, but can't seem to move her to consciousness. And, she's absolutely, infuriatingly irremediable. That false, incurable belief of her Goodness is well-entrenched in the bedrock of her being by this point of her life. So, he continues to work tirelessly to no avail, while she is doing irreparable damage to her psyche, denying her true Evil's emergence, suppressing it, along with his influence. Though, everyone else should be rightly grateful toward the fact that Sophie hasn't awoken the full extent of her deity-derived powers.
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"Who's your deity?" Agatha asked skeptically.
"Rafal of House Mistral, Sorcerer King, Master of the Dark Arts, and Magus of Deception," Sophie stated primly.
"Sophie... are your sure that you're a holy high priestess? That name—it sounds... Evil."
"What tripe!" Sophie rebuffed. "You're just splitting hairs that this point, Aggie, darling. An eldritch god is an eldritch god."
"Whatever you say." Agatha held up her hands in surrender. "I'm not getting between you and that thing of yours."
This "thing" you speak of would not hesitate at murdering you by unpleasant means, a deep, spectral voice seethed from Sophie's lungs.
"Why that's beyond the pale, Rafal! I will not be your vessel for an act like that," Sophie's voice returned to overtake the deity.
You're boring.
"And you're terribly uncivilized," she argued. "Find another follower if I won't do!"
But the other mortals don't understand.
"Then stay dormant when Agatha's around, or speak from the sky or the mists for all I care, not my airways, mind you. And don't let your winds ruin my hair. I expect to look presentable from all angles."
You expect me to use my sorcery for that?
"I won't do my libations for you otherwise. You'll wither before I next restore you."
Fine.
Agatha shook her head. "You need an exorcism."
I am sharing the funniest dnd character idea I’ve ever had bc I know I’ll never get to play them and I refuse to keep a joke to myself
Sources of Conflict, Secondary Characters, and Agency in SGE
The supporting cast of the prequels is awful as far as them as human beings with the barest shreds of common decency goes. I'm tempted to say they have no restraint. They are madmen—take the Pan for instance—unlike the Coven, Agatha (not that she's a side character), and even book one Beatrix, who all have some ethical standards and rationality to them. Really.
The brothers are the only "Good" characters, possibly along with Kyma, Midas, and Rufius, albeit, about two of these three don't have the most major impacts on the plot. (And classing either of the brothers as moral is a stretch by itself.)
Literally everyone is against them, if we're operating with protagonist-centered morality. The brothers have a solid relationship, and external factors tear them apart. It's a man vs. society/world conflict with them.
And, nearly all the supporting characters, the jerks in particular, enter the narrative by themselves. They are out for their own personal gain. Aladdin fits this description, to a point; he's on a fine line. And, Vulcan, Marialena, and the Pan definitely fit without question. They are invaders. I'd add pre-reformation Hook to the list, but to be fair, Rafal "recruits" him by kidnapping/human-trafficking.
In contrast, the main series cast of secondary characters are mostly decent people, which makes for a completely different atmosphere, however hostile the Schools may be with Evil Rhian at their head. These side characters were simply trying to live their lives, have a normal school year. Then, Sophie and Agatha arrive, and their appearance creates a major disruption.
Things don't go on as they normally would because they are meant to overhaul the status quo while Rhian and Rafal were meant to uphold it, which is an interesting juxtaposition by itself. The creation twins and the destruction twins. Both forces/freaks of nature, the pairs. Inevitably leading to upheaval and uproar. They're forces of order and chaos, plain as day.
Nearly all the supporting characters in the main series are ambivalent and are dragged into the plot/tale by the sheer force of Sophie's drama. She's the prime mover, with the magnetism of a black hole. She's the will of Man, the engine for conflict. The supporting cast is just trying to stay alive and exist alongside our all-consuming protagonists. They're not truly out to get anyone until they're offered the chance to leap at, until they're given any kind of motivation to take offense. They revolve around Sophie and Agatha and the tale, while the prequel side characters revolve around themselves and their own desires.
The main series' supporting characters aren't active agents in their own stories—unlike Marialena, Vulcan, and Aladdin, all with indisputably ulterior motives—they're along for the ride: the Coven, Tedros, even poor Agatha... The story revolves around Sophie and her decisions/actions. The conflict stems from them, her and Agatha.
Meanwhile, in the prequels, the conflict arguably stems from a wide array, a multitude of sources, and the brothers themselves are only one factor or source of conflict among all the rest. Rhian and Rafal are along for the ride in everyone else's games (the Storian's included). And the brothers are both active and reactive.
Their decisions matter, sure, but the determining factors are often out of their hands. For two immortal School Masters who would/should probably have control over a lot of the Woods/the future of civilization under usual circumstances, they sure don't have much agency on an in-narrative, plot level.
Look at Rhian, even on a lesser, personal level: his soul seems to override his self, sort of, and he ends Fall as if he's been possessed by his own inherent Evil. That's the most obvious example I can point to.
Basically, my point is that, unlike Sophie, unlike even Sophie and Agatha as a duo (and they are mere, seemingly powerless Readers), Rhian and Rafal do not orchestrate the events of their own plot nearly as much. You'd think the brothers, as aware of their genre and the workings of their world as they are, would have the advantage, but no.
They aren't the "authors of their own misfortune," at least not entirely. It doesn't matter how much claim free will seems to have. (It doesn't have much, considering we have a non-negotiable prophecy in play at all.) It doesn't matter how much the narrative claims they have free will (it doesn't really claim that to begin with). They're both far more beholden to the yoke of fate than Sophie and Agatha could ever be.
The dynamics in these pairs of twins are similar, on a small scale, but how they interact with their plots is different. Therefore, Man/free will/choice wins in the main series, and Pen/Fate wins in the prequels.
Ok, so, there's kind of a premise that humans want to impose reason onto a world that resists our minds and opposes reason. The world is absurd, essentially.
The Storian (regrettably from Rafal's viewpoint) takes care of everything out of Rafal's power.
Rafal probably thinks that the Woods turn to the Pen for the impossible. (Miracles like resurrection can only really happen within the bounds of a fairy tale, probably, and not under the conditions of ordinary, day-to-day living.)
The other side of the coin is that they, Man, can take care of the possible. I think that Rafal recognizes that, as a human, he must rely on the Pen, but he resents the fact that he's dependent on it. That he can't exist apart from it.
The only thing he needs from the Storian is immortality/his status. Otherwise, would he really care? I think not. He serves it in order to serve himself.
He'd rather not deal with it, but he requires it to cover the impossible, which he tragically cannot manufacture on his own.
Also, there's a more unsympathetic, abhorrent view of God here, which fits Rafal's view of the Pen.
And, when Rafal is finally even further disillusioned by the Pen, the moment that he finds out that he's Good, that could be a moment where he sees the sheer absurdity of life and existence and the Woods run by the Pen.
Even if he can't (rationally) comprehend or make meaning out of the Storian, he still must obey it. And the more hideous the outlook concerning the future fate of the Woods appears, under the tyranny of Pen, the more the Storian is seen to have interfered—every time we see it withhold or reveal information, strategically, when it writes.
Rafal doesn't understand why it does what it does or its own motives, and we can only speculate. But, he does see that it wreaks havoc, and, in doing so, it becomes more and more abhorrent to him, despite his contradictory reliance and subservience in relation to it. He has to sacrifice principles for pragmatism/his own gain.
As much as he hates it, he tries, part of the time, late in Fall, to not display that hatred of his. Because, as much as he hates to admit it, he needs it and will never not need it.
So, he has to kind of parley with it, figuratively, I mean. He has a truce of sorts with it, for functional, Utilitarian purposes, and that's all.
And the final, several lines about God's inhumanness and incoherence (unresponsiveness to reason, in a way) relate to Rafal's conceptualization of what the Storian stands for. Its will, not Man's will.
The Storian's "greatness" stems from how it can wield its power without a logical explanation, unlike every other human character, who must have clearly defined reasons/motives for their every action. The Storian is allowed to be unknowable. It has that strange privilege. It can, if it so chooses, remain "motiveless" in humans' eyes. Often to the narrative's advantage.
(Which, this clearly frustrates Rafal, and that could potentially send him over the edge into embracing the absurd above all else like this philosopher's view reflects. To me, the question here is: when control and rationality are out of Rafal's hands and no longer options, when he's downtrodden and bested by all the world, who/what is he most likely to become?)
In canon, he went in one direction, yielding to the Pen. But, what if he went in the other direction? (which I originally saw as more likely, given his Rise characterization (...not Fall) and "Rafal"'s TLEA characterization. I was wrong, of course.) What if he became an actual disbeliever, an "atheist" of his world, or worse of all, partially nihilistic/apathetic, inured to everything and all life, apart from his worldly desires, like dominance over the Woods, etc.?
This passage from a philosophy book I’m reading for a class happened to remind me of Rafal’s attitude toward the Storian. Thoughts?
(I could elaborate when I have time, if anyone wants me to.)
Rafal is the most character ever. He dies twice. He uses seduction, but is never truly seduced. He claims to be rational and pragmatic, but lives for drama. He watches torture like television. His canonical favorite food is hilariously dainty cucumber and herb butter sandwiches. He's literally a sorcerer, but was foiled by a sentient pen. He's supposedly good, but exhibits considerable bloodlust. He seems to enjoy the revelry at a nightclub, but never lets loose because he's so repressed, despite literally being evil for more than 50% of the time. He probably commits his world's approximation of war crimes, but looks down on mere piracy. He acts as if he could care less for fashion, but is a fashion icon all the same. He received a prophecy as a warning to essentially take safety precautions for himself, like any other fantasy protagonist in the history of ever, but took it to mean that he was the problem. He believed himself the greatest threat because he was an arrogant control freak, and didn't think anyone else could get in his way, despite the fact that he was the one person to fix things and restore order most of the time. He thinks he's above living an ordinary life. He actually wants to be the burdened chosen one because he has a thirst for power. He thinks of himself as in control when he's actually fate's plaything. He's incredibly genre-savvy, but doesn't know himself well enough to use his genre-savviness to his advantage.
CONSIDER: Shadows and Light
The Symbolism Surrounding Rhian, Rafal, and the Pan
Fun fact: Under certain conditions, a flame will not cast a shadow.
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As we saw in Rise, Rhian could turn into a golden glow, turn into light, his non-human form, just as Rafal could turn into a shadow.
And those facts bring me to how the Pan subplot and the brothers' main plot might parallel each other more than we may think.
That Hook had to kill the Pan’s shadow was probably no accident. It likely couldn't have been a coincidence—it has to be a casual quality of the magic system in SGE and Peter Pan lore in general, no doubt.
So, we have: killing the shadow (the Pan's or symbolically, Rafal himself).
Rhian killed the shadow to his light.
And besides, an excess of light eradicates all shadows, and fire, specifically, can cast very distorted shadows because it's always in motion, and therefore, it's restless. This could mean fire as a light source could affect the shadow's "power," its appearance, just as Rhian, like a fairy-tale Nemesis (perhaps?), might have weakened Rafal as Rhian became stronger, and that Rhian had been a force that changed or warped Rafal as a person, while also becoming colder himself. Meanwhile, Rafal's hair curled slightly and he gained more color and warmth to his complexion towards the climax of their tale.
I wonder if, in getting his magic back from Hook when it was released, Rhian had been further corrupted or overpowered enough, to overpower Rafal (while, all the while, the Storian had been stripping Rafal of the magic he held) because it didn’t dissipate by itself, with the loss of his immortality(?). Hook could have been acting like a temporary storage unit for that magic, until it returned, meaning the Storian may not have been able to rescind it from Rhian directly.
(And did Kyma release Rhian's magic when it was transferred to her? Or did it just disappear/dissolve without returning to its owner?)
Then, we can ask ourselves: what was the only move that could kill Pan? Somehow, magically killing his shadow. His life source. The apparent source of his immortality.
And, Rhian killing the source of his former immortality (his brother, and as a result, their bond along with Rafal's death)? Well, that’s killing a shadow, too.
Thus, the two plots line up exactly.
Rafal was once Rhian's shadow, in a sense, the person who stayed by him, who saved him again and again. Thus, Rhian destroyed himself, to an extent, by killing that shadow. He not only killed his life source, the love that kept him alive, by severing the twins' bond, but lost a part of his identity when he killed Rafal. Thus, he ages. Like the Pan as he died, Rhian was no longer a perpetual youth, no longer a young "lost boy."
And sometimes, Rhian's shadow strayed too far and left him (Rafal deserting the School at the start), just as Pan’s shadow isn’t always right by the Pan himself. The Pan's shadow had a life and will of its own, seemingly, like Rafal did.
Rafal getting his own life, by venturing out, beyond the School, was one step away from having his identity always tied to Rhian. Maybe, just maybe, Rafal wasn't inseparable, inconceivable without Rhian (the light source), his other half. But, Rafal always did revolve around Rhian (when Rafal had his few, less selfish moments). Because, he simply can’t be brought up or thought of alone, at least not in the tales, in their world. One brother's presence always summons the other's to mind, when you talk about them. That’s how locked together, how insoluble their combined identity was, or plural roles were. The shadow was tethered to his object. They can’t be torn apart, not even in memory, which makes the nature of the tales themselves all the more reductive, dehumanizing, even.
Rafal Has Baba Yaga Morality
I can't quite contain or explain my evil ways Or explain why I'm not sane All I can say is this is your warning
This one is less of a theory and more of an observation. It's also partway a "defense" of Rafal, but not really.
Note: The "you" referenced doesn't refer to anyone in particular. It's just the pov of a would-be victim, or the collective, generalized "you" that would form an audience.
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Rafal has very "Baba Yaga," "The Scorpion and the Frog," "Dead Dove: Do Not Eat," "It's exactly what it says on the tin" morality, but that's not to say he's at all predictable. He's predictably unpredictable. He is the poisonous frog or bird, draped in naturally bright colors, that is very obviously toxic.
And no one believes him or his outward "labels" when they wrongly give him the uncalled for benefit of the doubt (probably because he's intentionally attractive)! And it usually works out in his favor! Which is a strength in a way. It's only the rare Good he does on occasion that leads people to believe otherwise, or think too highly of him, when really, he's flawed and human, humanly grey.
From there, we know he has the capacity to be both lethal and kind, like the figure of Baba Yaga in the tales:
"Baba Yaga is an ambiguous figure in many folktales and legends. While sometimes she is depicted as a cannibalistic, child devouring witch, other times she is a benevolent sorceress who assists the hero or bestows knowledge."
His morality is variable. He can be both Good and Evil when the situation calls for it. He is adaptable, flexible, and not 100% consistent like Baba Yaga is, not any one thing or role.
I've never read the source material, but this quote I've seen exemplifies him well:
“He is a weapon, a killer. Do not forget it. You can use a spear as a walking stick, but that will not change its nature.” ― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles
As for the tale of "The Scorpion and the Frog," referenced in TLEA, he often doesn't lead people on. They do that all on their own with their assumptions and he reaps the benefits. Oftentimes, it's others' own faults for screwing themselves over. They know cognitively that he's Evil, but the fact doesn't actually register in their brains.
And that is a feat in itself, in their world, in the world he lives in. It is absolutely commendable in a perverse way, so I must applaud him at this point.
Despite not bothering to present himself, despite not caring about presentation (on a conscious level, if that's the lie he tells himself?), and despite presenting himself as the worst, at his personal worst, his poorer nature, he still surprises people with his humanity.
But, what they should never be surprised by is his Evil. You do not forget what a spear is capable of just because it's used as a walking stick for however long. You do not suddenly trust a ravenous, wild animal because it appears domesticated.
He steps forward as his worst self, his craftiest, least trustworthy self, that is artful and guileful and who will outwit you, who will outfox you, and you still trust him, while not managing to feel insane for doing so. Somehow, you're compelled to trust him, if only because he's so magnetic and attractive of a force, like a certain type of true Evil sometimes is, that charisma. He attracts people and doesn't repel them. Again, it's not always consciously his fault—it's just a quality to his very being.
And, if you still lie to yourself and think he's not using you after that, after glaring, flashing, blaring warning signs, you have only yourself to blame.
"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
Yet, in this particular case, even the first time, you haven't been fooled. You were never fooled. You just thought otherwise, awarded Rafal the benefit of the doubt, and played the fool.
You've only chosen to believe what you wanted to see and have led yourself astray. Because, he never fooled you. He was not the active agent in that last sentence. Read that line again, I ask you. He never fooled you.
You built your own illusions of him, in your mind, by your perceptions. You've painted Rafal differently than how he truly appears in his true form. You've laid your own bait, set your own trap, made your own bed, dug your own grave. It's often not entirely his "fault." (Unless, he's in conscious manipulation mode.)
That is why you are the author of your own misfortune, and he is not. He is "blameless," in that one regard. He is not whom you've made him into. Thus, never trust him is the moral here. And that is what everyone should know, if they ever want to beat Rafal at his own game.
Except Rhian. Rhian should have been the one person to trust Rafal, unlike all the rest. But the opposite happened. All the rest trusted him, and Rhian did not. (The irony!)
"And so it is written." You got exactly what you told him you wanted (if we go by "exact phrasing" logic, like with a rogue genie) or, alternatively, you got what he told you you'd get. He just outmaneuvered you.
The fascinating thing is: he never lies about what he is and whom he truly believes himself to be: Evil. It's his true nature (discounting his arc in Fall for a moment).
People can only blame themselves when they expect him to miraculously rise above and set his best foot forward. It just isn't what he does. And that's just like how the scorpion acts with the frog. The frog naively believed the scorpion would betray its own nature. But the scorpion is a scorpion. What else can you expect? Each of Rafal's victims had been too soft and idealistic about him.
He is an honest villain, a constructive villain, not a destructive one, as I once sort of coined the term, in an earlier post.
Once, in the Doom Room, Rafal even told Midas outright that he could offer Midas nothing, truthfully, aside from trying to get Midas home to Gavaldon. Probably, because in that moment, honesty would have served him better than a lie could have.
That is one thing I find strange and that I somewhat "admire," if you can say that about a clear-cut villain. For all he does, he is (almost always) straightforward and open with his plots. (Unless he withholds information, but that is not lying. Instead, such behavior falls under strategic lies of omission, a completely separate matter.)
It must be another trick up his sleeve, a weapon in mental arsenal. He is often open, clear, and honest about his intentions, say, with James and simply letting him die after he's served his purpose, at least. James wasn't kept the dark.
The point still stands. Rafal doesn't represent himself as something that he's not. Sure, he is a trickster, but he doesn't deny it, or lie about it.
He never leads people to believe he is someone he is not, or when he does, how much of it can you blame on him when everyone already knows he's the very public figure of the literal Evil School Master?
He owns his identity, (or what he sees himself as)—which is as close to the truth as he can realistically get because it's all he knows. He's not an omniscient being.
He does the "best" that he can, and he's usually not wrong about souls, others' souls, that is. Not his own. Apparently. But, few literary characters are capable of complete and total self-awareness, and Rafal is no exception to that. If he were 100% self-aware, the story wouldn't work. That said, I think he was more self-aware than Rhian, initially.
To reference the trickster archetype in relation to him again: he can really swing either way. Everything is up to his whims, impulses, or calculated designs, at any given moment, even if he appears to play "fair," meaning, usually, that he plays with interpretations, loopholes and the like, while staying within certain constraints.
He's not discreet like Evil Rhian had been for a stint. He had been proud of his Evil, to an extent. So, perhaps, that grants him a little leeway or likability. At the start, he simply isn't ashamed of himself, for working situations and people to his advantage (until his conscience catches up to him a little). His Evil is the high-flying banner he and his Nevers unite under; it's their common purpose/drive, to live and to strive for.
But, it always bears repeating: His reputation always precedes him as the Evil School Master.
So, again, you can't blame him for anything Evil he's done, can't pin it on being unexpected because it's always expected. You let your guard down. You can only justifiably be surprised when he does Good, and let that temper and moderate your expectations. (And the inverse of all this is probably why we sometimes might have expected too much, not too little, as is the case with Rafal, from poor Rhian.)
If Evil is what all have come to expect, like what James Hook expects from Rafal: a cold, soulless person, driven by deep villainous purpose, and Rafal doesn't directly tell anyone otherwise about his nature, no one can argue Rafal didn't play "fair," by those technical standards.
They knew exactly whom they were dealing with, and (unconsciously?) chose not to believe the man himself, the one who should know himself best.
By the Rules of Good or Evil, you expect him to be unpredictable, and you can call him out on being unpredictable because he's known for it. Known to commit atrocities, even when you seem to have trust between the both of you. That's why you can never tell.
I don't think Rafal actively encourages or cultivates trust in other people (unless it's a case of his deliberate manipulation). Part of the facade others perceive could just be his "trustworthy" aura.
And, people still expect better from him, implicitly! But how wrong they are. If nothing else, the misplaced trust probably stems from the aura he exudes as I can't think of another reason at the moment.
Because, like always, they put their trust in him—he didn't force them to hand it over—so, they have exactly themselves to blame, when they underestimate him, or think they can beat him.
That's why, in the end, I feel like the phrase: “It takes one to know one” applies really well to Rafal because he continually saves Rhian from being taken advantage of by men a lot like himself, considering how he constantly takes advantage of and uses others.
Now, I'll just leave you with this parting thought: as a villain, Rafal weaponizes the naivete and stupidity that is already there, already present in his victims. So, when Rhian sheds his naivete, he can no longer be used by his brother.
TLDR: Rafal is everyone else's "Vulcan" in a world full of trusting "Rhians."
Psychological "analysis" of Rafal, imposing a few different concepts onto him. It's not a full-length analysis this time, but I remembered that I did this as a minor assignment for a psych. class a long time ago, so I decided to post it, even if it's now a little outdated and predicated on some assumptions I once held. Some bits had to be forced to fit the structure of the assignment, so don't expect it to be 100% accurate. (And, I did this before the publication of Fall.) Thoughts?
REQUEST GRANTED.
And thank you—I will take this as a compliment of the highest caliber! Here's your caveat: I will continue posting until: I run out of ideas (I have heaps of drafts. Don't worry for the time being.), get bored of Rafal (manifestly unlikely), or move on from the fandom, so my best guess is that I’ll at least be around for several more years! And you may see less frequent posting when I have exams/deadlines.
Psychological "analysis" of Rafal, imposing a few different concepts onto him. It's not a full-length analysis this time, but I remembered that I did this as a minor assignment for a psych. class a long time ago, so I decided to post it, even if it's now a little outdated and predicated on some assumptions I once held. Some bits had to be forced to fit the structure of the assignment, so don't expect it to be 100% accurate. (And, I did this before the publication of Fall.) Thoughts?
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 just realized how horribly ironic it was when that Rafal was at his most Good in Rise, when he wasn't consciously trying to be Good or live up to an image, and that, in Fall, when he actually started trying to be the "Good" brother, he became worse!
And Rhian, initially, tried so hard for almost the whole time, correcting himself as he went, and went on a downward spiral instead.
(Incorrect) moral of the story: Stop trying to be a good person.
Though really, the "Good should be effortless and natural" narrative is false since Good is probably made up of more conscious decisions than Evil could be. And, at least in fiction, the dichotomy tends to be: Evil is instinctual and Good is humanity nobly rising above, rising to the occasion. Which, fine, that could mean Good is a few degrees more performative than Evil is. Doesn't matter though (in their world) as long as the actions and immediate consequences are Good.
Of course the brothers gain in pride as the prequel storyline progress. That we know. The tension and stakes build to new heights. But you know what else also reaches new heights? The School Masters’ tower itself, an office Rafal had built likely for the express purpose of shutting out irksome interruptions from the inferiors down below, the very symbol of his pride, of his literally elevating himself above all the rest.