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So, looking back on Gideon after reading Harrow, I kind of wonder how the Emperor wanted and/or expected things on the First to turn out. Teacher implied that he really wanted eight Lyctors, and his demeanor kind of fits that, but at the same time he basically put up a big sign saying KILL EVERYBODY ELSE. Of course, if you believe the author's Tumblr statements, Ianthe is the only one who would have gone through with it absent Cytherea, so he'd never have gotten more than one and it seems like a recipe to get the worst Lyctor imaginable since I'm not sure if the Emperor has any particular reason to select for vile, backstabbing sociopaths when choosing his right Hands.
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Aug 21, 2020 22:07
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Humerus posted:Harrow chat don't read if you haven't finished the book: After giving this some thought, I think Harrow wasn't willing to give herself any fake memories of the Body because she worships her and making up fake conversations with her would be blasphemy, and remembering the correct ones doesn't fit with her false memories, so she just decided that in her false history that Body was on vacation during that period.
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Aug 30, 2020 06:28
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It's a lie; Silas almost certainly does not have food at home.
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Sep 4, 2020 02:10
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"We have 'food' at home."
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Sep 4, 2020 02:16
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Gideon will be yelling "McDonald's!" even though she doesn't know what McDonald's is.
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Sep 4, 2020 02:30
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I get the feeling the Emperor got a lot of his power by absorbing the death thanergy of ten billion people (note that humanity numbers only in the millions at the time of the books. The perfect lyctor ritual gives him additional power, but I kind of feel like the big-R resurrection is beyond him at this point (which is why most of humanity is still dead). He's clearly very powerful, but he's not actually God. The most impressive thing we've seen him do is survive the death of his physical body, and Harrow and Gideon both seem to have done that trick at this point. My general impression is that the Emperor has basically decided that it's his job to resurrect "proper" Earth humans and culture, and that means going out and destroying/subjugating all the planets that were settled before Earth died and don't trace their culture to the Resurrection.
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Sep 4, 2020 22:05
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mewse posted:Regarding Alecto, I got the impression that the lyctors opened her tomb using Gideon's blood because she's the offspring of the emperor. So Harrow confessing that she opened the tomb, and the emperor telling her she couldn't, was moot because the lyctors had opened it previously by nullifying the blood wards using blood from the offspring of the emperor. Weird plot point of course. Whole book was pretty weird, but brilliant. Note that Harrow mentions a day when she particularly wanted to die and went to open up the Tomb and die there, and Gideon mentions a day when she said some particularly nasty things and Harrow went away with most of Gideon's face under her fingernails.
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Sep 6, 2020 03:55
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I'm pretty sure Camilla is "the woman who took care of her," not the person being taken care of. But yeah, it looks like she's hooked up with Palamedes somehow.
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Sep 7, 2020 16:19
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silvergoose posted:well I sure didn't catch this the first two times through HtN I think it's worth noting that Gideon, rebellious as she is about unrelated matters, is willing to follow even the stupidest commands Harrow gives her as long as they plausibly lead to success as a cavalier/necromancer pair. (I also suspect Harrow would have been satisfied if Gideon had just told people "I'm not supposed to talk to you" and Gideon just took it too far.)
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Sep 8, 2020 00:03
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I think it also works because the memes, in a way, are a deliberate register change. Gideon's manner of speaking marks her out as the "punk" in a world of gothic aristocrats, and so it helps her stand out without making the world seem inconsistent, because most other characters stay in their lane.
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Sep 8, 2020 22:54
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Incidentally, what even is animaphilia, which apparently isn't the same thing as being a spirit-talker?
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Sep 13, 2020 22:41
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Macdeo Lurjtux posted:Anima and Animus are the two parts of the soul, feminine and masculine, respectively. Given that Lictor's are a combination of two people, hetero-normative genders don't really apply anymore. I kind of doubt that the Second House actually wrote their report to say “necromantic specialty: lesbian.”
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Sep 14, 2020 15:12
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powerful pearl energy
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Oct 30, 2020 02:21
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Brain Candy posted:He seems to be personally a softy in some ways I think instead of "soft" I would say the key to the Emperor's personality is that he's "sentimental," in the sense that Chesterton described a sentimentalist as someone who wants to eat his emotional cake and have it, too. He wants to be an absolute ruler who is worshipped as God and also to be a goofy dude who tells dad jokes. He wants his people to be so devoted to him that they'll bleed themselves out making a ward that makes his car trip just a bit smoother, and also to be the one who tells them "oh, don't die for me; your life is too valuable." (Note that he isn't doing a thing about the broader issue that people are throwing their lives away to please him, which he would do if he was actually concerned about it.) He wants to be the sweet, loving father figure to Harrow that he acts like, while also being secretly behind the hell she's being put through on the grounds that it might "fix" her, somehow. His demeanor is 99% goofy dad and I think that part of him is genuine, but it ultimately just makes the 1% that is a sack of demon-rats squeezed into a skin suit worse rather than better.
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Nov 8, 2020 14:36
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Foxfire_ posted:Saving the emperor seems like the right thing to do to me, even if you think he is a horrible evil person. The old lictors at least believe that killing him will extinguish the star and kill everyone in their home system, they just don't care anymore. He also implies right after reforming post-Mercy blowing him up that he has to fix the star. Maybe he's lying, but that's a big gamble. The number of people living in Earth's solar system has been reduced from billions to millions. If there really are large populations centers elsewhere and John is targeting them for destruction, you might be saving more people than you kill.
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Nov 9, 2020 03:34
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Ninth House fashion believes in exposing the bony structure.
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Nov 19, 2020 21:17
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Okay, now I need to see a picture of Gideon carrying Jeannemary up a ladder that Jeannemary didn't want to go up.
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Nov 23, 2020 23:39
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Idaholy Roller posted:Still confused about who the ghost in the hazard suit with the gun was/is. It was Commander Wake Me Up Inside, Gideon's mother, the same person who was running around in Cytherea's corpse, trying to angle up for a much better ride.
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Jan 15, 2021 00:22
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When you get right down to it, those two are terrible for each other.
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Feb 25, 2021 06:12
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Collateral posted:I do wonder what Mercy(?) meant by John's crusade. Is he after whoever wrecked the star? I don't know what's funnier, that Harrowhark simply never mentions what the Nine Houses' extensive armed forced are actually for because she doesn't give a poo poo, or if she just plain doesn't know (because she doesn't give a poo poo).
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Mar 1, 2021 20:01
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I mean, I definitely think that people maybe don't think enough about the fact that Gideon and Harrowhark are terrible for each other and they both really just need to move to separate planets and never interact again, and also maybe never even look at a bone.
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Mar 9, 2021 03:52
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Riot Carol Danvers posted:Both of y'all just have the weirdest of takes, for real. I don't really see how "Gideon and Harrow have an incredibly unhealthy codependent relationship" is in any way odd.
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Mar 9, 2021 19:31
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So, I started a book club, and because all my real-life friends are very, very bored, they agreed to join and even let me pick the book. In a fit of whimsy that I may regret since most of my friends are not nerds, I chose the one about lesbian necromancers in space. Does anybody have some ideas for good discussion topics?
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Apr 9, 2021 18:58
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I just saw the trailer for Scooby-Doo Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog and began listing a number of other possible crossovers in outraged disbelief, ending in "Gideon the Ninth." I was then forced to admit that this would actually be a great movie. Could Gideon Nav out-eat Shaggy Rogers? Could Harrowhark explain necromancy to Velma's satisfaction? Will Fred kiss a monitor lizard? At least Daphne is playing it safe for once and sticking close to her sickly new friend!
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Jun 23, 2021 01:42
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Yeah, but can she eat a sandwich as tall as herself? (she would absolutely try, that's for sure)
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Jun 23, 2021 16:12
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The ebook so also has the bonus material.
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Jul 30, 2021 15:31
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Hm, wonder if the ebook will get updated with this.
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Aug 12, 2021 07:10
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Meanwhile, it looks like the ebook version of Harrow the Ninth has been updated with the bonus content from the paperback edition.
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Nov 9, 2021 16:44
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You know what, let's talk about that! As of the end of Harrow the Ninth, somebody, who is probably the person we are going to call Nona and is also probably wearing Gideon's old body, is living on a Blood of Eden (probably) world with three people:
What on the First are they up to? Also, come to think of it, who is in Gideon's body? It's not meaningfully Gideon since she doens't seem to have Gideon's personality or skills. It might be Alecto, and it might be the Body, who may very well be the same person, although the Body seemed pretty with-it and definitely had some knowledge of what was going on (see: the Body warns Harrowhark to lie to Mercymorn about her age). Being Alecto, who was supposedly "never human", probably fits best with her childlike tendencies, but there's a lot we don't know. Rand Brittain fucked around with this message at 20:25 on Nov 15, 2021 |
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Nov 15, 2021 20:12
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The paperback version of Harrow includes a short story where Judith tells us about her less-than-stellar vacation.
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Nov 17, 2021 15:47
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ragnarokette posted:I'm being harangued by friends to give this series another try. For context, I read Gideon a while ago but have not touched Harrow yet. No, they absolutely do have a codependent and unhealthy relationship and should really date other people, or just generally escape to some kind of space barista AU as soon as possible. It's considered "good representation" because straight people are allowed to wallow in media about unhealthy, codependent relationships and aren't required to feel bad about it, and we gay folks are now demanding equal rights.
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Nov 17, 2021 23:25
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Mercury Hat posted:I mean (Gideon and MAJOR Harrow spoilers) Gideon is fine with being subsumed by Harrow in totality in order to save her life and is pissed when Harrow "ruined" how the cavalier spirit absorption was supposed to go. It's necromantically and literally unhealthy codependence! It's a super fun dynamic to read about, but woo boy girls, please learn to love yourselves. In fairness, Gideon's life was already forfeit when she gave it away; she's pissed because Harrow is squandering that gift by refusing to accept it when the price has already been paid, and has kept it mint in the metaphorical wrapper in hopes of one day being able to get a refund at a store which has since burned down.
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Nov 18, 2021 01:35
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I feel like Gideon's remarks on "Nonagesimitis" in Harrow indicate pretty strongly that she is definitely romantically interested in Harrowhark, but thinks she has no chance, because she is alive and not dead.
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Nov 18, 2021 06:48
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Everyone posted:One thing that strikes me is that while Gideon might be (and probably is) attracted to Harrow, she's not attracted only to Harrow (she even hit Ianthe with a semi-joking marriage proposal). Meanwhile Harrow might well have some feelings for Gideon, but she's also still pretty "ride and/or die" for The Body. I'm not sure if Harrow is actually interested in pursuing a relationship with the Corse of the Locked Tomb. I mean, what would that even look like?
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Nov 20, 2021 01:15
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There's also a summary:quote:Her city is under siege. Interesting that the people she loves includes Palamedes and not Judith.
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Dec 14, 2021 23:31
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Hiro Protagonist posted:I just finished Gideon, and I really liked it. That said, everyone saying Harrow is so different makes me a little concerned, or at least, considering taking a break and reading something else for a bit. If Gideon is a Agatha Christie style Murder Mystery what would Harrow be described as? What's the initial hurdle to go through? It's a psychological thriller where the primary "mystery" is figuring out what the heck is going on with the protagonist. More specifically, it's written in second-person to Harrowhark as she deals with the truth of a Lyctor's duties and reflects on what happened at Canaan House, except that her flashbacks are, as the reader knows, completely wrong about basic facts.
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Jan 8, 2022 21:18
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Muscular woman sadly attempts to eat burger through skull-painted gasmask.
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Jan 26, 2022 18:52
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Apropos of nothing, it looks as though Nona's hair is a different color from Gideon or Harrowhark.
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Jan 27, 2022 20:55
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Whoa, so the other one in the group of three is Pyrrha, and it looks like the other two are Palamedes and Camilla considered as separate entities, rather than either Judith or Coronabeth being involved, which does in fact make a lot more sense.
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Mar 29, 2022 17:45
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I mean, I feel like Gideon would probably be telling jokes regardless. Like, John's memes work as a signal of something terribly wrong because making a "none pizza with left beef" reference is astoundingly inappropriate in the context where he makes it, and so if you understand it you realize that it says something a little terrifying about where God is mentally. Gideon's memes are less weird because humor as a defensive mechanism sounds pretty reasonable in her situation; it's just that they rely on information mysteriously beamed into her brain from the ancient past of 2020.
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May 24, 2022 06:04
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