Saint Of Steel - Tumblr Posts
I hadn't thought about that, but you make such a great point! The books do such a great job of just normalising trauma and mental health problems! Like its very much treated in a way of accepting their responses to trauma, but also reigning them in when they go a lil too far. Like, accepting that doing a whole bunch of drills will make them feel safe and helps them regulate emotions, but also knowing that letting them overwork themselves is damaging.
On another note as well, I think its great how the books also show the negotiations that go into a relationship with a traumatised person. Like for example, Stephen respecting Grace's boundaries in terms of sex, and Piper being chill about not sleeping in the same bed as Galen cause night terrors. I think it demonstrates how trauma changes people, and how you have to adjust your relationships because of that. And even if you find 'the right one', it doesn't solve your problems because a lot of trauma will be with you for life. Love me some t4t (trauma 4 trauma) relationships haha.
Just a lil rant about my newest beloved fantasy author
Something I love so, so much about T Kingfisher's (@tkingfisher) work is how she portrays the mundane as something so beautiful and wonderful. The majority of her protagonists are all quite regular people, with regular lives, regular hobbies, and regular bodies. And how despite that, all her characters are so interesting, so lovable, and so deeply and utterly human.
Its amazing seeing a series where multiple female romantic leads are plus sized, and there is a mix of both body positivity and body neutrality. Because like yeah, they are gorgeous. But also, at the end of the day bodies are just bodies. A bit in Paladin's Faith got me thinking about this, where the male lead asks about the female lead's stretchmarks, and its very much treated as just a normal thing that she has as a woman, not detracting from her beauty, not adding to it. They just are.
And don't get me started about how nearly all of her male romantic leads, who are for the most part, big, strong, sword-wielding paladins, have knowledge of some form of textile craft, and how it doesn't detract from their masculinity at all. And instead it is something that would actually be very useful for a soldier to know.
Tldr if anybody else is obsessed with T Kingfisher's work as much as I am please let me know so that my long suffering reading friend can have a break from it.
This gives a lot of interpretation for Marcus.... like 25% of romans were called Marcus lmao.
Marcus Antonius aka Marc Antony, ally of Caesar who fought against Augustus/Octavian...
Marcus Aurelius, roman emperor and philosopher, considered the last of the 'five good roman emperors'
Marcus Crassus, richest man in Rome in the late republic and patron to Caesar.
God damn romans, they only have like 7 names...
I looked it up and I was right, Istvan is a cognate name of Stephen. Except it's Hungarian, according to my source, which I didn't guess.
@beradan and I went to the Connecticut Renaissance Faire today as unnamed White Rat and Saint of Steel acolytes.
Emily's embroidery is from art by @magpiemalarkey, mine was designed by my partner based on art from various Kingfisher romance covers.