Latest Posts by thatfantasynerd10 - Page 5

“Hello, Sam,” she breathed onto the river breeze.

“I miss you,” she said. “Every day, I miss you. And I wonder what you would have made of all this. Made of me. I think—I think you would have been a wonderful king. I think they would have liked you more than me, actually.” Her throat tightened. “I never told you—how I felt. But I loved you, and I think a part of me might always love you. Maybe you were my mate, and I never knew it. Maybe I’ll spend the rest of my life wondering about that. Maybe I’ll see you again in the Afterworld, and then I’ll know for sure. But until then … until then I’ll miss you, and I’ll wish you were here.”

if this isn't the most painful eulogy and confession I've ever read.

“Kaltain,” her uncle rumbled, a demand and a threat and a promise.

The silent young woman—the one who never spoke, who never looked at anything, who had such marks on her. Elide had seen her only a few times. Had seen how little she responded. Or fought back.

And then Elide was walking up the stairs.

Up and up, making sure her chains clanked as loudly as possible. Her uncle fell silent.

CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW BRAVE ELIDE WAS EVEN WHEN SHE WAS POWERLESS SHE STILL USED HER WITS TO STAND UP FOR PEOPLE I LOVE HER OMG.

“Whatever you had to do to survive, whatever you did from spite or rage or selfishness … I don’t give a damn. You’re here—and you’re perfect. You always were, and you always will be.”

I love Aedion and Aelin's relationship so much *chef's kiss*

“Apologies, Lady—” “I’m twenty-two,” she said flatly. “And I think we city guards see a great deal more than you palace princesses.”

But Nesryn turned back and leaned a hand on the table. “I saw her face last night, Brullo, and it’s as pretty as before. Don’t you have a wife to ogle, anyway?” Aelin snorted. “I think I rather like you, Nesryn Faliq.”

“How good’s your accuracy, Faliq?” “I don’t miss,” Nesryn said.

Nesryn said, “Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Stay the course, but also plot another one. Adapt.”

"Dorian would fix the world, make it better. But if he’s gone, then I will find another way to attain that future. And another one after that, if I have to. I will keep getting back up, no matter how many times those butchers shove me down.”~ Nesryn Faliq

Nesryn Faliq appreciation post>>>>>

Every muscle in Chaol’s body locked up as he discovered Aelin now standing at Nesryn’s side. Of course. Of course she’d tracked them here.

Frankly, she didn’t deserve a word out of him, but when she’d hunted him down an hour ago, interrupting a meeting that was so secret that they’d disclosed the location to the rebel leaders only an hour before.

Chaol made it a block before Aelin silently dropped down beside him. He didn’t flinch. “I should have known better.” “You really should have.”

“Again,” Chaol said, “why are you here?” She’d just … snuck up on them. With far too much ease.

Please this is hilarious lmao

WHEN INEJ THE WRAITH GHAFA SAYS SHE LIKES IT WHEN MEN BEG THEN WHATTTT THEN FUCKING WHATTTTTTT

I die, that's what.

When Jessie and Amita started talking about diversity in the industry, and how being Asian and trying to fit in makes you feel like you belong nowhere. And how these characters show young girls that they DO BELONG AND THAT THEY CAN BE BAD BITCHES TOO. I cried. We love it.

Thish ish kinda cute-

"But I seem to be a victim of my own wishes where you are concerned."

Leigh Bardugo - Ruin and Rising

Okay so I know how Darklina stans say Taylor wrote 'my tears ricochet' for them, but 'hoax' gives me Darklina vibes too~

"My twisted knife,my sleepless night" and "Your faithless love's the only hoax I believe in" and "You knew it still hurts underneath my scars" and "My win-less fight, this has frozen my ground" and "You knew you won, so what's the point of keeping score?"

The Darkling- *diabolical plan for world domination* *tortures Genya* *burns down Alina's only home* *kills all her friends* *tries to make her his puppet* *tries to kill Mal* *your power is mine* *kills Ana Kuya*

Alina-😐🙄😤😭🖕

The Darkling- why, oh why do you not love meeee!?!?

“Get up,” Chaol whispered. "Celaena,” he breathed, his voice laced with pain—and hope. This was all she had left—his outstretched hand, and the promise of hope, of something better waiting on the other side of that line.

Back when I shipped Chaolena</3

“My name is Celaena Sardothien,” she whispered. “But it makes no difference if my name’s Celaena or Lillian or Bitch, because I’d still beat you, no matter what you call me.”

Aelin being the sass queen she is fills my heart with joy

“I name you Elentiya.” She kissed the assassin’s brow. “I give you this name to use with honor, to use when other names grow too heavy. I name you Elentiya, ‘Spirit That Could Not Be Broken.’ "

I miss Nehemia :'(

“We all bear scars, Dorian. Mine just happen to be more visible than most."

~Aelin Galathynius,Tog

“Is he with her?” Otho asked.

“The Lady Lillian belongs to herself, and no one else.”

“So she’s not with him?”

“No.”

Otho shrugged. “That’s strange.”

“Why?” Chaol had the sudden urge to strangle him.

“Because it looks like he’s in love with her,” he said, and walked away.

~Throne of Glass, Sjm

The parallels between when Daphne Bridgerton said "Leander swam Abydos to Sestos every single night in complete darkness just to see his love." And then "Leander also lost his way and drowned. So the story goes."

And when Henry said "Dear Thisbe, I wish there weren't a wall. Love, Pyramus." And then “Alex, Thisbe and Pyramus both die at the end.”

I think about these a lot...

*bangs head against a wall dramatically*

Odysseus, son of Laertes, the great traveler, prince of wiles and tricks and a thousand ways. He showed me his scars, and in return he let me pretend that I had none.

~Circe, Madeline Miller

Okay but when Nina Zenik said "She wouldn’t wish love on anyone. It was the guest you welcomed and then couldn’t be rid of." and when Eros said "Thanatos and I. We are not so different. Except Death is sometimes kinder.” and when Jace Herondale said " To love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed." and when Jason Grace said "Love was the most savage monster of all." and when Taylor Swift said "And I scream for whatever it's worth, 'I love you' ain't that the worst thing you ever heard?" and how the Song of Songs says “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death.”

Once, there was a young prince who was born in a castle. His mother was a princess scholar, and his father was the most handsome, feared knight in all the land. As a boy, people would bring him everything he could ever dream of wanting. The most beautiful silk clothes, ripe fruit from the orangery.

At times, he was so happy, he felt he would never grow tired of being a prince. He came from a long, long line of princes, but never before had there been a prince quite like him: born with his heart on the outside of his body. When he was small, his family would smile and laugh and say he would grow out of it one day. But as he grew, it stayed where it was, red and visible and alive. He didn’t mind it very much, but every day, the family’s fear grew that the people of the kingdom would soon notice and turn their backs on the prince.

His grandmother, the queen, lived in a high tower, where she spoke only of the other princes, past and present, who were born whole.

Then, the prince’s father, the knight, was struck down in battle. The lance tore open his armor and his body and left him bleeding in the dust. And so, when the queen sent new clothes, armor for the prince to parcel his heart away safe, the prince’s mother did not stop her. For she was afraid, now: afraid of her son’s heart torn open too.

So the prince wore it, and for many years, he believed it was right.

Until he met the most devastatingly gorgeous peasant boy from a nearby village who said absolutely ghastly things to him that made him feel alive for the first time in years and who turned out to be the most mad sort of sorcerer, one who could conjure up things like gold and vodka shots and apricot tarts out of absolutely nothing, and the prince’s whole life went up in a puff of dazzling purple smoke, and the kingdom said, “I can’t believe we’re all so surprised.”

"It’s weird because I always know things about people, gut feelings that usually lead me in more or less the right direction. I do think I got a gut feeling with you, I just didn’t have what I needed in my head to understand it. But I kind of kept chasing it anyway, like I was just going blindly in a certain direction and hoping for the best. I guess that makes you the North Star?"

If not this sort of vulnerable beautiful confession, what's the point🙄?

I just can't- how Henry knew he loved Alex all along and couldn't put it into words and so- they used other important figures' letters- like Hamilton and Eliza-*sobs profusely*

"You engross my thoughts too intirely to allow me to think of any thing else—you not only employ my mind all day; but you intrude upon my sleep. I meet you in every dream—and when I wake I cannot close my eyes again for ruminating on your sweetness."

~Red, white and Royal Blue

Romance is dead except for whatever that nerdy dirty-mouthed perfectionist aspiring American politician and blonde haplessly romantic Hufflepuff British poet prince had going on.....

"Anyway, I found this part of a letter Hamilton wrote to Laurens, and it made me think of you. And me, I guess:

"The truth is I am an unlucky honest man, that speak my sentiments to all and with emphasis. I say this to you because you know it and will not charge me with vanity. I hate Congress—I hate the army—I hate the world—I hate myself. The whole is a mass of fools and knaves; I could almost except you …"

Thinking about history makes me wonder how I’ll fit into it one day, I guess. And you too. I kinda wish people still wrote like that.

History, huh? Bet we could make some.

Affectionately yours, slowly going insane,

Alex, First Son of Founding Father Sacrilege."

Hey you guys, this isn't like my usual posts,bear with me:)

I kinda want to talk about redemption arcs and bad boys/characters. More specifically- what makes us like dark romantic interests, and what makes us hate certain other dark, mean, manipulative characters? I promise this isn't cringy (for the most part)

Pretty much every fandom has conflicting opinions on it's bad boy characters- be it Edward Cullen, The Darkling, Rhysand, Cardan Greenbriar, Rowan or Jace Herondale- people either say "this ship's so toxic I love it" or "yikes y'all stop simping over abusers" or "respect their trauma". The line between a dark character that makes everyone's heart melt, and just dark character is usually a redemption arc. The problem here? Most of them don't have one. The actions we think of as 'redemption arcs' are 90% of the time them being warm and cuddly and possessive towards the protagonist. This is tricky because when we read a book from the protagonist's perspective, we feel everything they feel. So if the bad boy is rude and cold to them, we feel the same bitterness that they do. And when the character shows them the slightest bit of affection after all that mean-ness, we go "oh well I knew they were gonna be love interests so this is amazing awwww". For example "your hair is clean" Is creepy and NOT a cute compliment. But when Tamlin said it, we thought of it as romantic because We Knew that Feyre would at some point be with him. Most of us ignored him being abusive towards Feyre till Rhys came around and went "he locked you up" and THEN WE REALISED omg Tamlin you manipulative freak😤 and then we were the "I can't see" meme when Rhysand repeatedly abused Feyre under the mountain, with the bright side being "the tattoos are for me to make sure no one touched you!! I never touched you below your waist!!"

See the pattern?!!?! We see what we want to through the protagonist's eyes (and usually this is a CONTRAST between a DEVILISH guy and a bad guy); and ignore the horrible actions of the bad boy love interests as long as they flirt with the mc.

Similarly with the Darkling, most of us ship Darklina and wanted Alina to become bad and for them to be on the same side. As long as he was good to Alina, we were fine with him killing everyone else. That's cute. But then he hurt Genya and killed Ana Kuya and ALINA WAS HEARTBROKEN. and then some of us went😐. Because as long as the protagonist is okay, we're okay with anything the bad boy does.

Another interesting thing is how when an author wants us to like one love interest, they immediately start making the other one do shitty stuff,, so remember the Darklina after-ball scene??? Remember how before that we were told that Mal wasn't writing to Alina??? And so our minds went "Damn girl dump him!! The Darkling is way hotter anyways🙄" but then but then... In the end, when it was obvious that Mal was gonna be the UlTiMaTe lover, all of a sudden the Darkling kills everyone Alina ever loved???

Kaz Brekker, however, is an amazingly written bad boy- because he's got the tragic past, the cold hearted murderer, the sly thief, the guy who seems too have no connections- but he actually cares about Inej, Jesper and the other crows. He's not an abuser, not manipulative, not possessive-

"Our hopes rest with you, Mister Brekker. If you fail, all the world will suffer for it." "Oh, it's worse than that, Van Eck. If I fail, I don't get paid." But also- "She belongs to know one". That's the perfect contrast that we all love.

Cardan however, is a different character.. Because he quite literally is the 'cruel' prince that turns out to be an emo kid with a crush. My point is redemption arcs don't usually work with COMPETELY bad characters who turn COMPLETELY perfect. There has to be some back story, some good parts that are revealed later for us to sympathise with them. Like how we learnt how Cardan was basically hated by his entire family, and then he turned cruel because that's the only way that he felt anything like a prince at all, and how Nicasia betrayed him and how he saved mortal servants from Balekin. It's easy to sympathise with characters who're struggling with their morality, who've been through shit. That's a good redemption arc. Again, it depends on how forgiving the reader is, but certain abusive and manipulative actions of characters cannot be overlooked.

Sooo, let's not be those annoying&stubborn fans. Accept the problems that these books( and many many others) have- be it lack of representation or presenting abuse an an okay thing. It's okay to like these books and comfort characters. These are after all, fantasies. But let's not let these problems become 'normal' in our minds, coz that's when we start extending the same mentality towards society and REAL issues.

“To you, I offer honey wine and the hospitality of my table. But to traitors and oath breakers, I offer my queen’s hospitality instead. The hospitality of knives."

I CAN'T---- THE POWER JUDE HOLDS.

You can't beat Jurdan when it comes to the enemies to lovers trope, that's UNMATCHED ROMANCE RIGHT THERE. You can SEE the characters struggling with their feelings and IT'S BEAUTIFUL AND HEARTBREAKING ALL AT ONCE.

"my great villain, my darling god!?!?!?" "you're my dearest punishment!?!?!???" "if you're the sickness, I suppose you can't also be the cure?!!!!!" "I hate you so much that sometimes I can't think of anything else</3" "I want to tell you so many lies!!?" AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON "kiss me until I'm sick of it"----- Adyfgopkvdtdvjudy

He looks up at me with his night-colored eyes, beautiful and terrible all at once. “For a moment,” he says, “I wondered if it wasn’t you shooting bolts at me.”

I make a face at him. “And what made you decide it wasn’t?”

He grins up at me. “They missed.” 

~Holly Black, The Wicked King

“Everyone finds different lessons in stories, I suppose, but here’s one: Having a heart is terrible, but you need one anyway. It doesn’t matter if the boy with the heart of stone was the villain. It doesn’t matter if he got what he deserved. No one’s heart has to remain stone.”

~Holly Black, Hthkoelths

“He thinks he'll be remembered as the villain in the story. But I forgot to tell him that the villain is usually the person who locks up the maiden and throws away the key. He was the one who let me out.” 

~Feyre Archeron

“To the people who look at the stars and wish, Rhys." “To the stars who listen— and the dreams that are answered.” 

~A Court of Mist and Fury, SJM