“Death first to vultures and scavengers”

Harrowhark Nonagesimus you were made in a lab for me

more post-gideon the ninth reading sketches............

Her eyes closed. Lying in the tomb that had claimed her heart, faraway in a land she had never travelled, Harrowhark Nonagesimus fell asleep, or dropped dead, or both.

the locked tomb x “emergence” by sleep token

this is my audition to join the locked tomb fandom on tumblr…please deliberate and let me know if i’m invited to the collective alectopause brainrot

Gideon Nav somehow has a 20 perception and a 6 insight and idk how she did that but God she notices everything and interprets it entirely wrong every time

One of my favourite pieces from my time obsessing over The Locked Tomb (still going, but not so much time lately to draw them). It was very fun to play around with the blues, lines and textures!

The pool scene in Gideon the Ninth goes like this:

Harrow: *explains the elaborate 4D chess game she's been playing to earn Gideon's trust and regard* and everything has gone horrifically wrong. You're my only friend; I'm at your mercy.

Gideon: *does not know how to play even 1D chess* *was under the impression they were playing a totally different game.* *possibly whiffle ball, or a game called "Harrow hates Gideon forever"* Holy shit.

anyways the genius thing about the way john gaius has set up his empire - and the genius thing about the way TM has structured the books - is that there are multiple ways to view him. gideon the ninth starts by painting him as this unknowable and inscrutable god figure - the King Undying, the Kindly Prince of Death! - and through most of that book he is more of an emblem than anything. a symbol of dominicus, the patriarch of the nine houses, the divine being of whom the eighth house has a massive fucking portrait for some reason, and ultimately the key to what sets this version of the solar system apart from our own.

harrow the ninth strips him down. he’s not just a god anymore. he’s a cool god. he makes shitty jokes. he eats peanuts. he fucks his friends on the dining room table. he tells our main character that he sees her as a daughter figure. he shows emotion; he makes mistakes; there are things that he cannot do. if gideon the ninth introduces him as the wizard of oz’s huge and intimidating head, then harrow the ninth is john pulling back his own curtain to show the man behind it. see! he’s kind of pathetic! he’s Just Like You!

and both of these images of john ultimately serve the same purpose, because they both play to his favor. whether you fear him or you woobify him, you have fallen into the trap he has set for you. because nona shows us an even truer john, a john who doomed the world and fucked it all up, a john convinced he was in the right even as his friends killed themselves in front of him. if harrow pulls back the curtain, nona peels off his face.

it does make me wonder whether there is a secret, smaller, fourth john gaius that will be explored in alecto the ninth. alecto is the only being in the universe who really and truly knows him. she knows what he’s done and why he did it. she chose him for a reason. beneath the god and beneath the god pretending to be a man and beneath the man pretending to be a god - is there truly just a man? is there anything left?

tl;dr version: john gaius is like an onion. john gaius has layers too

Thinking over The Locked Tomb books and I love how clear it is that Thanergy, the magical death fuel for necromancy, is an inherently unsustainable energy. It’s meant to be this transitory little spark, a quick byproduct of the transition to death. Analogous to the way an actual fire burns out.

But it’s being artificially extended and induced in the entire solar system by one guy whose massive distaste for change is keeping everything held together and alive even when it totally shouldn’t be.

Just really appreciate how “necromancy as a rejection of change” is apparent in even the basic foundations of how the magic works.

So, in Gideon the Ninth, a cavalier comes to Canaan House. Our cavalier is largely uninterested in necromancy, on account of being a huge jock with too many muscles who would rather be playing with swords or talking about playing with swords, and frequently mocks the weirdos who get worked up about things that aren't swords.

Our cavalier has a rocky relationship with their necromancer, who, it must be said, is kind of a terrible person. But by the end of the book, they've achieved true unity, just as Jod intended.

It's surprising to me that up to my most recent read, I hadn't realized how much Babs is clearly meant as a foil for Gideon, down to the sense of humor. Gideon loves Magnus's puns, but "anyone goes missing, we assume they're having a nap in the incinerator" is the kind of thing you can actually imagine Gideon saying.

So their differences become really interesting. His reflexive insistence on being called Prince Tern whenever his ego is threatened throws Gideon's indentured servant status into sharp relief. His shock and anger when rules are broken contrasts with her experience of rules as threats she has to manage. And while they both instinctively dislike most people, she rapidly makes a surprising number of friends. He looks down on everyone too much for that. (She distrusts. He disdains.)

And, of course, in the end, she chooses her fate, while he gets lyctored in the back.

The contrast between them definitely works with the themes of the book, but I think I missed it because it speaks even more to the the larger series: how cozy are you with power and privilege? How do you decide to navigate your bonds with others in a world that turns human relationships to horrible ends? For what cause are you willing to work with the systemic violence that animates everything around you?

Gideon makes her choices with open eyes. Babs turns away into a warm cocoon that turns out to be a bag over his head.