Tlea - Tumblr Posts

Consider this: Rafal outranks every boy in the Woods, even Tedros, in attractiveness. (Though, this is a subjective quality.)

The proof?

Sophie is the oft-touted most beautiful girl in the Woods, and she rarely doubts her own beauty.

Rarely does anything ever make her doubt her own beauty. She is the epitome of ego. So, when a boy causes her to doubt herself in this particular metric? That is significant. She feels self-conscious once around Rafal. Though, it could be because of her generally disheveled state and her fever, but still. There was even a line in TLEA where she wondered whether she was the uglier of the pair of them. A thought that she never had about Tedros. No other boy in the Woods has ever managed this. This, as in, to make the Witch of the Woods Beyond doubt herself.

During TLEA:

Rafal: I just need to put down a few things.

Sophie: You mean like take down notes?

Rafal: No, insurrections.

Sophie: Oh. Well, carry on.

During TLEA in the School Master's tower:

Sophie: Rafal?

Rafal: [appears perched on the window ledge] Yes?

Sophie: [points at the plate of food before her] Is this made of bone?

Rafal: [shrugs casually and tips backward out the window]

Sophie: [calling after him, leaning out the window as he takes off] That's not an answer!

Rafal would say that.

Also letter openers. This applies to letter openers too. Almost anything can be an instrument of murder if you stab hard enough.

““Anyone who thinks the pen is mightier than the sword has not been stabbed with both.””

— -Lemony Snicket, When Did You See Her Last?

If The Last Ever After Underwent a Major Tone Shift:

"Don't mind me," Rafal prodded, smiling. "Who needs a villain when you three have each other?"

This scene will probably always live rent free in my mind. It exemplifies their dynamic. Their banter and narrative parallels were my favorite.

I still mourn Fall's "retcon." [sigh]

@discjude Thank you! This is a good one!

he lived, served cunt. died. got resurrected, served cunt again. died even harder.

Is the Brig of Betrayers called the Brig because Rhian just had to name it something pirate-ish?

This tweet reminds me of Sophie and Rafal. (Though technically, it's untrue because Agatha understood Sophie, but from Sophie's pov, this is pretty accurate.)

On the occasion of the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year, I thought it would be an appropriate time to post some of my old Raphie aesthetics that I'd stored away. I think nearly all of them predate Rise, so yeah, I'm contradicting canon. What about it?

Also, as usual, none of the photos are mine, and I drew inspiration from other edits I've seen. The only things I can claim are the editing done to some of the images and the dialogue in the first image.

With the rings in TLEA, I feel like Sophie and Rafal could be interpreted as fiancées since they were something adjacent to engaged.

I was researching medieval weaponry, for a school project, not for writing purposes actually, and stumbled upon these images of various polearms (source), and it occurred to me that they matched Rafal's aesthetic, especially in TLEA, so enjoy, I guess?

People are so wishy-washy these days. No one wants to take oaths and blood pacts anymore.

Actually, it may not be completely controversial. I agree, mostly because prequel Rafal is just more sane and less "romantic," and I would be willing to bet his mystique is partly a result of pov differences, and more specifically, psychic distance (the literary device).

When we finally get Rafal's pov in the prequels, he automatically loses part of his mystique because we're no longer able to view him from the outside in.

We understand precisely what goes through his head, his every machination—which, when we know his intentions, he comes across as less sinister and omnipotent. He's simply being resourceful and doing what he can under certain constraints in the prequels. He has limits.

Similarly, in TLEA, when Sophie gets closer to him, he also becomes less "other" and more humanized, having been brought down from cloak-and-dagger, shadowy, recluse figure to close-to-an-adolescent-boy-level in characterization—as if his TLEA and prequel selves make him out to be just some overly morbid, moody, broody guy, actually less omniscient-seeming as he appears to be from the girls' earlier perspectives in the other books because he never was. We just didn't originally know that about him.

We could also say "familiarity (or psychic proximity) breeds contempt" because I would go as far to say, the reason why we mock him now, aside from his creepy demeanor, is because he's become more human as we've gotten to know him better through the more recently published books. We're arguably too close for him to remain an enigma (in the exact, same way) anymore.

And since Ever Never After is told from Alma's limited, third person pov (correct me if I'm wrong) it could also be why he's retained his original mystique in your fic thus far!

Unpopular, possibly controversial opinion: "Rafal" in the main series is slightly more alluring to me than Rafal in the prequels. Sure, you could call him creepy, but he had a certain power and mystique about him that was distinct from the original's.

Sadly, I don't feel the same about Rafal in TLEA. He's a lot more brooding and moody compared to his scenes in the other books.

Allow me to remind you how weird and unhinged this man is:

"Ah, but there's only one way in this world to prove who you are." The Storian stopped its busy writing, sensing a pivotal moment. Slowly the School Master turned. For the first time, his blue eyes had a glint of danger. "What's the one thing Evil can never have . . . and the one thing Good can never do without?"

Absolute fucking creeper. You can imagine the sound he makes as he slowly turns around, like a creaking door. Gives me chills. I love him.

Also, he's rather funny:

The Storian plunged to the page: "Stupid girls! They were trapped for eternity!" "I suspected as much," said the School Master.

These two could've been a comedy duo. Too bad the Storian sucks.

Maybe it's also the way I'm writing him in Ever Never After. Kinda makes me wish I didn't have plans for him to revert to his original appearance permanently. I mean, it's a real fix-it fic.

I just...

MMMMMMMMmmmmysterious.

Good point about age/maturity! (Though personally, I still see prequel Rafal's illustrations as looking younger than a man, sort of.)

When I read prequel Rafal and TLEA "Rafal" as the same person (before the Fall twist) I would rationalize his more poetic side as being an aspect that emerged because he was either in love or playing at being in love, more something situational rather than an inherent personality trait, as he never felt overt, romantic love in the prequels, meaning, he never had reason to express that side of himself. Yet, thinking about TLEA "Rafal" as Rhian does make that trait more congruent.

I also chalked up TLEA "Rafal"'s composure as being part of his situation rather than his actual self as Rhian, but being Rhian explains it too. The way I saw it was that prequel Rafal is tossed around like a punching bag and has a marked lack of control a lot of the time, as if he has chronic Protagonist Suffering Syndrome. Yet, TLEA "Rafal" has the upper hand practically the whole time, which distinguishes him as less high-strung than prequel Rafal because, in his perspective, he knows he'll win, nearly without a doubt.

I'd never consciously thought of that, but it's mainly true for me too! I mock prequel Rafal more than I ever have TLEA "Rafal."

I wonder how much of TLEA "Rafal" is filtered through Sophie's perspective or the tonal difference in the prequels and main series, and how much of him is simply just Rhian/divergent character development. Though, I'm skeptical as to whether the Fall identity twist had existed as a concept since TLEA's publication date (especially since Rise Rafal overall seems to be cut from the same cloth as TLEA "Rafal." Where else could prequel Rafal's characterization have been drawn from anyway?).

Good for Alma! Tearing down facades left and right.

Unpopular, possibly controversial opinion: "Rafal" in the main series is slightly more alluring to me than Rafal in the prequels. Sure, you could call him creepy, but he had a certain power and mystique about him that was distinct from the original's.

Sadly, I don't feel the same about Rafal in TLEA. He's a lot more brooding and moody compared to his scenes in the other books.

Allow me to remind you how weird and unhinged this man is:

"Ah, but there's only one way in this world to prove who you are." The Storian stopped its busy writing, sensing a pivotal moment. Slowly the School Master turned. For the first time, his blue eyes had a glint of danger. "What's the one thing Evil can never have . . . and the one thing Good can never do without?"

Absolute fucking creeper. You can imagine the sound he makes as he slowly turns around, like a creaking door. Gives me chills. I love him.

Also, he's rather funny:

The Storian plunged to the page: "Stupid girls! They were trapped for eternity!" "I suspected as much," said the School Master.

These two could've been a comedy duo. Too bad the Storian sucks.

Maybe it's also the way I'm writing him in Ever Never After. Kinda makes me wish I didn't have plans for him to revert to his original appearance permanently. I mean, it's a real fix-it fic.

I just...

MMMMMMMMmmmmysterious.

Ooh, I understand what you meant now! And I agree that the Rafal on Fall's cover looks younger, possibly compared to Rise's cover. When you said "man," I had pictured a more visibly adult man since, even if Rafal were 18-19 or in his twenties physically, I would still consider him marginally a teenager, or more precisely, an adolescent (brain-development-wise despite the immortality/actual, old age), yet an adult by modern, legal standards—just, an adult on the younger side of things.

I could see adult "Rafal" in the main series looking more like an adult, like in the illustration above (before aging), but actually, due to book one, I imagined him as a stooped, withered, old man, by that point in canon. Then again, I may not be the best judge, especially considering that he's wearing a mask.

Thanks, haha!

Yes! Exactly! And, I know for a fact, from EverNeverTV, that Soman never even had a name for Rafal until he wrote TLEA, so I'd highly doubt he'd have Rafal's backstory planned at all. And that's also why I see Rise Rafal and TLEA "Rafal" as approximately the same Rafal because, to me, Fall seemed to have course-corrected, in both twins' characterizations, just to make the final twist work.

Unpopular, possibly controversial opinion: "Rafal" in the main series is slightly more alluring to me than Rafal in the prequels. Sure, you could call him creepy, but he had a certain power and mystique about him that was distinct from the original's.

Sadly, I don't feel the same about Rafal in TLEA. He's a lot more brooding and moody compared to his scenes in the other books.

Allow me to remind you how weird and unhinged this man is:

"Ah, but there's only one way in this world to prove who you are." The Storian stopped its busy writing, sensing a pivotal moment. Slowly the School Master turned. For the first time, his blue eyes had a glint of danger. "What's the one thing Evil can never have . . . and the one thing Good can never do without?"

Absolute fucking creeper. You can imagine the sound he makes as he slowly turns around, like a creaking door. Gives me chills. I love him.

Also, he's rather funny:

The Storian plunged to the page: "Stupid girls! They were trapped for eternity!" "I suspected as much," said the School Master.

These two could've been a comedy duo. Too bad the Storian sucks.

Maybe it's also the way I'm writing him in Ever Never After. Kinda makes me wish I didn't have plans for him to revert to his original appearance permanently. I mean, it's a real fix-it fic.

I just...

MMMMMMMMmmmmysterious.