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necessarian) wrote2019-07-15 09:40 am
necessarian) wrote2019-07-15 09:40 am
Entry tags:
a darker shade of magic thoughts
i have only read the first book (in fact, i devoured it on a cross-america flight) so please don't talk to me about the others, or laugh at me for any vaguely speculative elements to this post that i'm getting massively wrong. content warning for canon-typical discussion of abuse, magical slavery, and proxy suicide.
okay look this is deeply unfortunate but i imprinted on holland pretty early on and uh... oh boy. this is why we can't have nice things.
just to recap: he's first introduced flirting with rhy, and i was honest to god like "this doesn't seem suspicious at all!" totally missing the ominous undertones and massively queerbaiting myself. it's. fine. but also? kell seems pretty positive towards him at the star? like yeah holland is weird but holland is also on his conscience in a normal sort of way. anyway then we get the scene at the white court which shows how horrifically holland has been and is being abused by the dane twins... and can i just say holy shit. that was super fucking unsettling. and also had me sitting there like, i wonder how they're going to break his unbreakable seal when he inevitably becomes the zuko of the gang.
reader, he did not get zuko'd.
continuing with the recap, basically holland becomes a massive villain, acting as an agent for the danes, and shows limited remorse for his actions - it did kind of hint to me he might become redeemed? but uhh his "redemption" is that when kell kills him in a wizard fight, it's okay because holland hesitated and let himself die. then after that, kell uses the barely-alive holland to send the vitari stone to the black world, sealing him away and conveniently making it so that kell doesn't have to take that one-way journey himself. i guess the point of this was meant to be that holland lets himself die because he's physically incapable of making his own choices because of his bond, so his final act of autonomy is suicide. and i get that but. i love characters who mask their emotions but also they are still bastards, i love villains, i love redeemed villains, and i wanted to see this one freed and allowed to flourish.
apart from my own dissatisfaction because i imprinted on a villain, i have two main problems with the ending of holland's arc: first, it's repetitive. we get another heroic proxy suicide later on in beloc, another character who's been action-bonded by athos. this one is way more affecting imo because he hasn't been bonded for long and we actually see it happen, whereas with holland it's implied that this has been going on for years. second, and the thing i'm most miffed about, is why do people keep writing storylines about abused characters which end in their death? and a heroic proxy suicide, at that? i guess his ending would have been satisfying if he were a character with autonomy and a real bad guy, but the fact that he was really horribly physically/psychologically/magically abused for so long makes it feel... i don't know. i'm sad about it. i'm sad that he never got to live a full adult life of autonomy, enjoying his own power, getting to be a real, free antari like kell is. i GUESS it's meant to be tragic but i just don't really like the trope of an abused character finding that the only way out is death. i want stories that tell abused characters that there's life after abuse! that there's healing, recovery! after all the whole point of whump is the promise that it'll get better, right?
well anyway, overall i really loved this book and i'm excited to get my hands on the other two, but this one thing soured it for me. and yes i know it's my own fault for always imprinting on the Bad Guy but urghhhhh i just want to write canon divergence fic where holland gets to be happy
(i also want to write a roleswap based on one throwaway line where kell contemplates what it would be like if his and holland's roles were reversed. i have a lot of frankly incredible ideas for this, but i want to read the whole series first so i fully know kell's backstory and i can incorporate that. also i'm holding out faint hope that holland gets back on his feet in black london... lol why am i like this)
okay look this is deeply unfortunate but i imprinted on holland pretty early on and uh... oh boy. this is why we can't have nice things.
just to recap: he's first introduced flirting with rhy, and i was honest to god like "this doesn't seem suspicious at all!" totally missing the ominous undertones and massively queerbaiting myself. it's. fine. but also? kell seems pretty positive towards him at the star? like yeah holland is weird but holland is also on his conscience in a normal sort of way. anyway then we get the scene at the white court which shows how horrifically holland has been and is being abused by the dane twins... and can i just say holy shit. that was super fucking unsettling. and also had me sitting there like, i wonder how they're going to break his unbreakable seal when he inevitably becomes the zuko of the gang.
reader, he did not get zuko'd.
continuing with the recap, basically holland becomes a massive villain, acting as an agent for the danes, and shows limited remorse for his actions - it did kind of hint to me he might become redeemed? but uhh his "redemption" is that when kell kills him in a wizard fight, it's okay because holland hesitated and let himself die. then after that, kell uses the barely-alive holland to send the vitari stone to the black world, sealing him away and conveniently making it so that kell doesn't have to take that one-way journey himself. i guess the point of this was meant to be that holland lets himself die because he's physically incapable of making his own choices because of his bond, so his final act of autonomy is suicide. and i get that but. i love characters who mask their emotions but also they are still bastards, i love villains, i love redeemed villains, and i wanted to see this one freed and allowed to flourish.
apart from my own dissatisfaction because i imprinted on a villain, i have two main problems with the ending of holland's arc: first, it's repetitive. we get another heroic proxy suicide later on in beloc, another character who's been action-bonded by athos. this one is way more affecting imo because he hasn't been bonded for long and we actually see it happen, whereas with holland it's implied that this has been going on for years. second, and the thing i'm most miffed about, is why do people keep writing storylines about abused characters which end in their death? and a heroic proxy suicide, at that? i guess his ending would have been satisfying if he were a character with autonomy and a real bad guy, but the fact that he was really horribly physically/psychologically/magically abused for so long makes it feel... i don't know. i'm sad about it. i'm sad that he never got to live a full adult life of autonomy, enjoying his own power, getting to be a real, free antari like kell is. i GUESS it's meant to be tragic but i just don't really like the trope of an abused character finding that the only way out is death. i want stories that tell abused characters that there's life after abuse! that there's healing, recovery! after all the whole point of whump is the promise that it'll get better, right?
well anyway, overall i really loved this book and i'm excited to get my hands on the other two, but this one thing soured it for me. and yes i know it's my own fault for always imprinting on the Bad Guy but urghhhhh i just want to write canon divergence fic where holland gets to be happy
(i also want to write a roleswap based on one throwaway line where kell contemplates what it would be like if his and holland's roles were reversed. i have a lot of frankly incredible ideas for this, but i want to read the whole series first so i fully know kell's backstory and i can incorporate that. also i'm holding out faint hope that holland gets back on his feet in black london... lol why am i like this)