#tfota meta
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Theory: Eldred is not Cardan's father
Listen. I don’t know if anyone has said this before, but I’ve been mulling this over for a while now, so I’m going to throw it to the void before The Stolen Heir comes out, for posterity.
Buckle up, folks and Folk. I’m monologuing.
(PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE TSH SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS/REBLOGS/TAGS AS I HAVE NOT READ IT, AND WILL NOT BE ABLE TO READ IT UNTIL 8th JAN 2023!)
A big caveat of this theory is that I have basically no solid evidence for this apart from a few faint dots vaguely connected through a strange fog. But I am nothing if not someone who will scrounge around in the dirt for answers. So let’s get some filth under our fingernails.
(I promise it will maybe make sense. Eventually)
I. EPISTOLARY SEMANTICS
Much of this theory centres around the note Jude steals for Dain from Hollow Hall in The Cruel Prince. It reads:
“I know the provenance of the blusher mushroom that you ask after, but what you do with it must not be tied to me. After this, I consider my debt paid. Let my name be stricken from your lips.” (TCP, p.115)
There are so many layers to this note, but I’ll start on the surface level before digging deeper.
When Jude gives the note to Dain, he reads it, then says, “So he’s blackmailing Queen Orlagh” (TCP, p.123). During a first read, one would think Dain is implying that Balekin is blackmailing Orlagh, since Jude stole the note from Balekin’s study, and that Orlagh is the one who wrote the letter to the eldest Greenbriar child.
And no one questions it, because Jude even makes this supposition herself.
But my question is this: Why would Balekin be blackmailing Orlagh? We learn in The Wicked King that they are very much allies, and as far as I’m aware, blackmailing isn’t something you typically do to your allies.
My other question is: Why do we assume that Orlagh is the one that wrote the letter? Because Dain said so? We know him to be unreliable at best, manipulator at worst.
During a second read, one might realise that Dain is in fact being tricky here. He knows exactly who and what this note is referring to. But he’s deliberately trying to lead the Court of Shadows to the wrong conclusion, because the right one would reveal his guilt, as shown in the latter part of The Cruel Prince when Jude figures out Dain poisoned Liriope with blusher mushroom.
The way Dain is able to lead us off track without lying is through implication alone. This is why he’s not specific about who is blackmailing Orlagh. He just says someone is (a likely statement, considering Orlagh’s title) and that someone might be a man (plausible enough).
Thus, the sentence “He’s blackmailing Orlagh” can still be a perceived truth, and we are only ascribing it to the note because it is the closest context.
But we find out later that Dain’s statement has nothing to do with the note, since the note is about Liriope’s poisoning.
After having read TCP [redacted] times, one might begin to think: Is Orlagh even the sender of this correspondence? And if not, who is? And what does the note mean if we’re giving it a different context/sender?
For this, we have to peruse the parts of the sentences written in the note.
A. “Provenance”
For me, this phrase has always seemed a bit strange when referring to blusher mushrooms.
The word “provenance”, as most people recognise it, is used to describe the place from which a particular thing or subset of things comes from (i.e. the provenance of “Champagne” is Champagne, France, and the provenance of “Iranian rugs” is Iran, etc.).
So when we put it in the context of blusher mushrooms, as the note does, it seems to be saying there is a particular place where one can find blusher mushrooms, and the recipient is trying to acquire them for one reason or another.
But Jude, when first dabbling in mithridatism, describes picking blusher mushroom in the palace gardens (p.148-150, TCP). So if Balekin was planning on acquiring the poison, he needn’t look farther than the palace itself.
Which says, to me, that acquiring blusher mushroom for his own purposes wasn’t the subject of Balekin’s original inquiry, since it is common enough for a seventeen-year-old girl to find on her walk to school.
Additionally, the sender says “the provenance of the blusher mushroom”, when “the provenance of blusher mushroom” would be more grammatically correct if the sender was indeed informing Balekin about where he could get the poison.
Implying that they are referring to a single specific blusher mushroom. Perhaps, the very one which poisoned Liriope.
Which means, “provenance”, as it is used in the note, could be referring to the less common definition: “record of ownership”.
My guess is, Balekin asked the sender of the note if they knew who killed Liriope with blusher mushroom. The sender, wanting to remain cryptic in case the message was intercepted, phrased their confirmation so only the person who knew the full context of the message would be able to understand it.
Leading me to believe the sender may be saying, “I know who owned/used the blusher mushroom that you’re asking about”.
B. “It”
Here’s another tricky thing about English grammar: sometimes the subject that “it” refers to can be a group of things.
We might assume right off the bat that “What you do with it” means “What you do with the blusher mushroom”. But, given the previous specification, our sender might actually just mean “What you do with this information must not be tied back to me.”
Essentially, “Don’t tell anyone I told you this but I know who Liriope’s murderer is.”
C. “Let my name be stricken from your lips.”
To me, this last sentence of the note wreaks of faerie bargain.
The sender mentioned they had a debt to pay Balekin, and after divulging who poisoned Liriope, they would consider that debt paid.
But why not just leave the message at that? They already basically said, “Don’t tell anyone I told you this”, so this sentence seems redundant if not included for an ulterior purpose.
It could be a dramatic sign off. More likely, though, it’s a final clause of some bargain made previous to this message. Such as, “You owe me. Tell me who poisoned Liriope and I’ll never speak your name again.”
Either way, it sounds like the sender does not want to be tied to Balekin in any way (understandable tbh).
***This line is important for later, so remember this.***
~~~
So, after these specifications have been made, the note reads:
“I know who owned/used the blusher mushroom to poison Liriope, but what you do with this information must not be traced back to me. After this, I consider my debt paid. As per our bargain, you’re not to speak of me again.”
II. THE SENDER OF THE LETTER
There are many people who could’ve sent this letter. So let’s narrow it down.
Since the letter is in Balekin’s study, we could surmise that it is something Balekin has written and plans on sending. But Jude describes it as being written in “an elegant, feminine hand” (TCP, p.115).
Which doesn’t necessarily rule Balekin out as the sender, but I’m thinking it is much more likely he is the recipient, and that the sender is a woman.
The sender also knows who killed Liriope, so they probably know why Liriope was poisoned, as well. Meaning, they would have had to have ties to her—whether in proximity or in intimacy.
Oriana mentions in TCP that she and Liriope were close friends. She also tells Jude that she knew about Liriope and Dain’s affair.
However, in this same conversation, Jude asks Oriana if she knew Dain was the one who poisoned Liriope, and this is her response:
“Oriana shakes her head. ‘Not for a long time. It could have been another of Eldred’s lovers. Or Balekin—there were rumours he was the one responsible. I even wondered if it could have been Eldred, if he had poisoned her for dallying with his son. But then Madoc discovered Dain had obtained the blusher mushroom. He insisted I never let Oak be anywhere near the prince.’ ”(TCP, pp. 294-295)
Since faeries cannot lie, the truth must be that Oriana is not the one that knew who poisoned Liriope.
And since the letter is left unsigned, Dain attributes its origins to the Queen of the Undersea.
Here’s why I don’t think Orlagh sent this message:
Orlagh is seen in cahoots with Balekin plenty throughout the series. Yet, the sender of this message implies they want nothing to do with the eldest prince, and furthermore explicitly tells Balekin to never speak their name again. If Orlagh were the sender of this note, we would not have much of the scenes which take place in the Undersea during Jude’s kidnapping in The Wicked King.
Orlagh is the Queen of the Undersea. Why would she know or care about the details of a murder of one of the High King of Elfhame’s lovers?
Orlagh also has no ties to Liriope, or Dain for that matter, so why would Balekin go to Orlagh for information regarding Liriope’s murder?
But do you know who does have ties to Liriope, who might also have reason not to want Balekin to speak their name ever again?
Lady Asha.
So how exactly does Lady Asha have ties to Liriope?
It is common knowledge that they were both lovers of the High King. Asha could’ve known of Liriope’s affair with Dain because of their proximity at court. She was also known for being a lover of gossip and secrets. It’s not too surprising that she might know of Liriope’s secret.
But how does Lady Asha know that Dain specifically poisoned Liriope? And why might she want to sever her ties with Balekin?
Let me back track for a moment.
III. EMERALDS FOR HEIRS?
In the prologue of The Queen of Nothing, Lady Asha receives a heavy necklace of emeralds for her “contribution to the Greenbriar line”.
In The Cruel Prince, when Jude is dressing in Liriope’s clothes for the party at Locke’s estate, Locke offers her his mother’s jewels, specifically a heavy necklace made of emeralds (TCP, p. 168).
At first, when I noticed this connection, I thought emeralds must be Eldred’s standard gift given to any mother who births a Greenbriar heir.
But if you recall, Locke wasn’t born to Eldred, and Liriope would have had to receive the necklace while she was still alive, meaning Oak had not yet been born.
It is significant that both of these women have necklaces of emeralds, for the meaning of emeralds—amongst loyalty, love, and strength—is truth.
“A revealer of truths, emerald reputedly could cut through all illusions and spells, including the truth or falsity of a lover’s oath.” (International Gem Society)
Indeed, it’s curious that the only other person known to possess a string of emeralds similar to the one Lady Asha receives in QON, is Liriope.
Liriope, who, to common knowledge, never had a royal child with the High King. Liriope, who, through the events of TCP, we know to have been having an affair with Dain while still in the High King’s favour.
Liriope, who, like Lady Asha, met an unfortunate fate.
If emeralds represent the falsity of a lover’s oath, and Liriope possessed such a necklace before her passing, it could be that the emeralds Asha received were less a gift as much as they were a warning.
One that Asha was either too arrogant or too oblivious to figure out when she first received them, but that she might've pieces together after Liriope's death.
IV. PUNISHMENT BY PROXY
In the prologue of Queen of Nothing, the narrator informs us that Cardan’s punishment for “killing” a mortal man was that his mother was locked in the Tower of Forgetting.
It’s unsurprising that a mother should shoulder the blame for the crimes of her royal son, but this seems like a steep price to pay for the death of someone only tangentially related to the High King’s concerns.
It wasn’t even a lover of Eldred’s own who was killed. It was the lover of his lover/seneschal.
Incarcerating Asha because her son allegedly killed the lover of the High King’s lover feels like an overreaction. Why not simply cast Asha from the court? Or send her to the mortal lands?
Unless…
The High King suspected (or knew) that Lady Asha had committed some other serious offense against him, but had no sufficient evidence to lock her away. Or perhaps he did not want to risk the humiliation that would ensue if everyone at court found out that Lady Asha had been dallying with his son at the same time as she was his own lover.
And, to give her what he thought she deserved without inciting speculation from the court, used the excuse of Cardan killing the mortal to finally serve justice.
Furthermore, we know Cardan and his mother were not close. We know Asha did not raise Cardan as normal mothers do. Why is sending Cardan’s mother to prison a punishment to him?
Other than a small blot on his reputation (upon which, there are many, much larger blots), Asha’s punishment by proxy largely shouldn’t effect Cardan.
It seems as if Cardan’s true punishment was being virtually disowned by his father, and banished from living in the Palace of Elfhame.
Meaning, Asha’s punishment wasn’t really Cardan’s, but her own.
V. THE DEBT
In the letter Jude stole from Balekin’s desk, a “debt”, which has been paid through the information provided, is mentioned. If Asha sent this letter, what debt could she possibly owe Balekin?
Well, for starters, he did raise her son when no one else would.
Though, it’s unclear to me when in the timeline Asha wrote the letter and when she was imprisoned, if this is the aforementioned debt, Asha would’ve had to have written the letter after she’d been sent to the Tower of Forgetting. Because her being sent to the Tower was the catalyst for Balekin raising Cardan.
This debt also begs the question: Why would Balekin offer to raise Cardan?
Surely having Lady Asha, an incarcerated ex-lover of the High King, in his debt isn’t so valuable as the immense responsibility of raising a child he has no obligation to.
Which points to a motive that indicates perhaps Balekin does have an obligation to this child.
When Madoc kills Eva and Justin in the prologue of TCP, he takes Jude and Taryn in, claiming it as his “duty” after he rendered them parentless. We know the fae value their honour, and so even someone as opprobrius as Balekin might be subject to upholding duty in the face of a faerie child’s mother being sent to prison.
But as we know, he did not cause Lady Asha’s detainment (Dain did). So where is this sudden sense of duty coming from? None of the other Greenbriar siblings seemed to have the same moral inclination.
Balekin taking Cardan in could be purely out of selfish motives. Such as, being able to shape Cardan to his will, which he might then use in a potential coup.
But it could be that, through everything, Balekin has an inkling of an idea that Cardan might not be his brother, but his son.
There is another debt which is possible in relation to the letter if it was sent prior to Lady Asha’s imprisonment. But for this, we must consider why Lady Asha would want her name to be stricken from Balekin’s lips in the first place.
The most obvious answer to this which I could think of is that Lady Asha knows she has committed treason by sleeping with Balekin, the High King’s son, and claiming their child as one of the High King’s own, staking her place at court as higher than is deserved, while also playing the High King for a fool.
So the debt could simply be that Lady Asha, seeing what happened to Liriope and knowing what happens to lovers of the High King after being found adulterous, wanted Balekin to never be able to speak of their affair ever again.
Balekin, not being of the sort to do things for other people without a price, might have said that he’d agree to this if she offered him information that he wanted. After she gave it to him, their bargain would be complete, and Balekin would henceforth never be able to speak Lady Asha’s name.
Regardless of which debt is the truth, indeed, I do believe we do not hear Balekin utter Asha’s name once throughout the course of the series. Despite the fact that it is almost certain they knew each other before.
VI. PRIOR ENTANGLEMENT
How do we know that Asha and Balekin knew each other well enough to be sending letters like this back and forth to each other, if we are not yet certain that they had an affair?
In the prologue of TCP, Madoc states that he didn’t believe it when Balekin told him his wife and child were not dead, but living in the mortal world. This indicates that Balekin had knowledge of how Eva faked her death.
Now, we could owe this to the presence of spies at court. It’s likely that Balekin has his own hoard of spies, as do most of the prominent figures in Eflhame.
Or we could consider that perhaps Lady Asha, who is the other person confirmed to have known that Eva faked her death (TWK, p.129), was Balekin’s informant on this matter.
After receiving this information, he was then able to pass it on to Madoc in order to gain his trust (with the ulterior motive that Madoc might trust him enough to help him with his coup).
But then, we must also consider why Lady Asha would tell the eldest prince of her friend’s plan in the first place.
One thought I had was that perhaps Balekin, having a slew of mortal servants under his roof, was the person who offered Eva the unidentifiable mortals left in Madoc’s house as “proof” of their death.
He’d have to have motive to do this, however. Which indicates he either had some sort of attachment to Asha, who was trying to help her friend escape Faerie, or Balekin valued the knowledge of their plan enough to help them carry it out.
Another less complicated motive for Lady Asha telling Balekin of Eva’s escape would be that Asha and Balekin had a history of being in cahoots with one another, which would point to a connection deeper than a passing acquaintanceship due to proximity at court.
VII. AN UNCANNY LIKENESS
It is a truth in The Folk of the Air series that children look very much like their biological parents.
Oak, biological son of Dain, looks an awful lot like Dain:
Oak is described as having deer legs, little horns on his head, and brown hair with streaks of gold.
Dain, in turn, is described as having deer legs, little horns, and golden curls.
This striking resemblance is what initially got me thinking on Cardan’s parentage. And it is further backed by the many other child-parent resemblances in the series:
Vivi is described as having inherited her father’s golden cat eyes and fur-tipped ears.
Locke has obviously inherited his mother’s “sunrise hair”.
And it could be argued that Oak inherited Liriope’s “starlit eyes”, as his are an amber-gold colour that might resemble an old star.
Lady Asha even states that Jude resembles both Eva and Justin greatly (TCP, p.129).
And in kind, Jude thinks that Lady Asha and Cardan look very alike, though she does not admit to this out loud.
These likenesses do not necessarily indicate anything other than a pattern, which could be total coincidence. But it does mean that we could reasonably conclude that faeries, as with humans, often take on characteristics of their parents.
Balekin is described as having black hair, pale skin, and silver eyes.
Cardan’s description in the series is quite similar:
He is said to have black curls, pale skin, and metallic-rimmed black irises.
When we compare that to Eldred’s description—golden hair and bronze owl-like eyes—it doesn’t seem like Cardan inherited many traits from the High King at all.
Now, this could be because Lady Asha’s characteristics were more dominant in Cardan’s inherited genes.
She is described as being pale, with raven hair, and black eyes. She also clearly passed her tail on to her son.
But the similarities between Cardan and Balekin go beyond the obvious. When Jude is hiding under a chair in Balekin’s study, she notices the following:
“In two strides, Balekin is in front of his brother. They look so alike standing close. Same inky hair, matching sneers, devouring eyes.” (TCP, p.119)
Indeed, this resemblance is echoed across the series. In The Wicked King, when Jude goes to visit Balekin in the Tower of Forgetting, she states:
“As I ascend, I glance back at Balekin’s face, severe in the green torchlight. He resembles Cardan too much for my comfort.” (TWK, p. 26)
And again, in the Undersea, when Balekin comes to interrogate her, Jude thinks:
“They have the same black hair. The same cheekbones.” (TWK, p. 240)
There is also the matter of Cardan’s name, which bears resemblance to Balekin’s physicality.
Balekin is described as having thorns on his forearms. Cardan is a name which is derived from Cardon, which means thistle. Thistles are a prickly flower that grow from stems of thorns.
We know Holly Black is very intentional with her descriptions and words. My question is, why would she go out of her way to draw these physical comparisons, to echo the sentiment that the two are strikingly similar, if Cardan and Balekin were merely brothers?
She could have said that Cardan, being raised in Balekin's household for much of his formative years, was moulded to adopt his brother's mannerisms and propensity for cruelty. She could have said the way that they talk, walk, carry themselves, etc. were extremely reminiscent of one another, and we as readers would've gotten the point: that Jude thinks Cardan and Balekin are alike in many ways.
But this isn't what Holly Black does. Which leads me to believe there is something else to the constant parallels she chooses to include.
VIII. IN CONCLUSION
I’m aware this entire post reads like a conspiracy theory. So to those of you who stuck it out this far, congratulations and welcome to the circus.
I’ll be the first to admit that it is a big reach to say that this is fact rather than the speculation that it is. There are a lot of holes, which I can only hope might be filled in the coming duology.
That being said, this theory brings many questions to light.
How would Balekin know of Eva’s escape without having a more intimate relationship with her friend than previously thought?
Why would Lady Asha want her name stricken from Balekin’s lips so desperately as to make a bargain with him?
How could Lady Asha possibly be indebted to Balekin?
Why would Liriope and Asha be the only two characters with heavy necklaces of emeralds on their person if it didn’t mean they shared a similar history with the High King?
Why would Holly Black continuously compare Balekin and Cardan, indirectly pointing out that neither look much like their father or other siblings, but look undeniably like each other, if not to draw a deeper connection between the two?
And finally, and perhaps most importantly, if Lady Asha’s dalliance with Eldred was so brief—as is confirmed by Oriana in chapter 12 of QON— how did she come to be pregnant by him? We know faerie menstrual cycles don’t happen as often as mortals’.
Is this as simple as good luck, or does it speak to an affair no one knew was happening?
–Em 🖤🗡
more theories & analysis
#this is. complete speculation ngl gvskdjsk#i have a whole conspiracy theory red string board for this one though#tfota#jurdan#cardan greenbriar#jude duarte#balekin greenbriar#lady asha#the folk of the air#jurdannet#the cruel prince#the wicked king#the queen of nothing#queen of nothing#holly black#judecardan#how the king of elfhame learned to hate stories#tfota meta#tfota analysis#my analysis
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"Enough," Locke says sharply to Cardan. He's got his hands on my shoulders and is pulling me roughly to my feet. "I'm taking her home."
"Are you, now?" Cardan asks him, eyebrows raised. "Interesting timing. You like the savor of a little humiliation, just not too much?"
"I hate it when you get like this," Locke says under his breath.
"How can you stand them?" I ask...
"There is a pleasure in being with them," he says. "Taking what we wish, indulging in every terrible thought. There's safety in being awful."
Locke's whole reasoning for being friends with Cardan is the safety and joy he feels in being able to be his worst self without repercussions. Yet, in the faerie fruit scene, we actually see Cardan directly calling him out. On first read, before we actually understand the hidden machinations of what's going on in this scene, it seems like Locke is saying he hates when Cardan behaves awfully.
But that's not what he's saying. What Locke hates is being called out. Which insinuates that Cardan has called him out before this, more than once. So my question is, does this have to do with why Locke is the way he is with Cardan? Why he always seeks to best him, embarrass him?
I have a full essay-length analysis of the faerie fruit scene compared to the Queen of Mirth scene, but one of the things that really stands out is how deranged the Queen of Mirth scene actually is when you consider Locke's motivations. He's the one who set the entire event up... to see how Cardan would react. He was also using The Ghost to spy for him (to pick up more information about people to learn their vulnerabilities and how to exploit them). The extent of Locke's cruelty is well known to us by the end of the trilogy, so it's not a stretch to think his reasons for helping Jude in the faerie fruit scene were for selfish reasons only (to exploit her vulnerability in this moment and gain her trust). What I find so intriguing, though, is that exchange between the two of them. It's so subtle, but it's there.
Edit to add this: Cardan shoved Valerian off Jude, wasn't pleased when Nicasia slapped her, AND called Locke out to his face in this scene. So I fully believe "I hate when you get like this" is when he challenges them in any way. They like him powerless. They like him when they allow THEM to be their worst selves.
#the folk of the air#the cruel prince#cardan greenbriar#prince cardan#locke is a POS and the worst sort#the sort that hides behind flattery so you think he isnt “as bad as” valerian when he really is#it just takes a different form#the man literally told taryn she lost her story when she told him she was pregnant#he SUCKS#tfota#tfota meta
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Still thinking about how the fae manipulate language to bend the truth and how Holly Black does the same thing to the reader in TCP when she conceals Jude's plan to make Cardan high king.
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Omg I didn't think you would respond so quickly. Thank you! As a follow up, Jude was taken by the Undersea, right? Locke knew this would take place since the Ghost (who he was controlling) was involved in the kidnapping. I assume Locke and Nicasia (along with her mother) worked together to make this happen. This was way before Jude threatened him. So do you think Locke helped plan Jude's kidnapping as a way to get a reaction out of both Cardan and Taryn? Could it also be because Jude wasn't down for Locke's games which we see at the end of TCP when Locke tried to give a flimsy apology and make amends (I assume he wanted to continue his "story" with Jude)
P.S. This is my last question. I just love reading meta lol. I'm always trying to understand them better.
P.P.S. I think you're very good and skilled at analyzing characters' relationships. It's why I'm here lol. Also, I love your artwork <3
You timed it well for my morning tumblr scroll! And aaawwww thanks, glad you enjoy it~ Drawing and being opinionated are def two of my fav things to do, always happy to talk more about stuff I like!
Ok for this topic I am not the right person to ask because I subconsciously ignore it ever happened. Here's the thing about the Ghost. He's one of the shakiest parts of the series to me because there isn't much foreshadowing or a clear setup for any of his twists, so it feels like HB just throws him into the mix whenever she needs to stir something up out of the blue. And boy does his QoN reveal stir something up out of the blue, because suddenly Locke is no longer just a shit-stirrer antagonist (like Asha, Valerian, and Taryn) but an actual scheming power-grabbing one (like Madoc, Orlagh, and Balekin). Sorry HB, but if Locke REALLY helped plan the kidnapping, why the hell was he playing horror movies with Jude the night before??? What was he gonna do, axe her down in the middle of the woods hoping she wouldn't die or be too badly hurt when his plans hinged on her being alive and capable of visiting the Tower of Forgetting the next day???? And yeah, what does he get out of conspiring with the Undersea??? It's not like he can brag about his role in this situation, but in every other one of his schemes he NEEDS people to know what he did and how cool and important he is. It makes way more sense to me that he was bummed Jude rejected him and didn't allow him to bully her or Cardan anymore, so he decided to maim/kill her on impulse as his stag night activity, and he gave Taryn the earrings as a message to Jude to stay out of his marriage (and to brag). And so Locke's QoN betrayal seems to be written into the book because the Ghost needed a reason that would redeem him for the crazy stuff he did in TWK.
So yeah sorry that this answer is none of the "why" and all of the "why not".
#eernask#eernanon#eernask talk tfota#this twist makes so little sense to me that i keep forgetting it happened. i read these books so many times. and still when i read this ask#i was like ''what... he did what... no way...'' and had to go look it up in the book nfjsfnkadk#in my mind he just gave madoc the ghost's name and then did nothing else#that's why even though i cheerfully discuss meta you should always take my opinions wiht a grain of salt. i can and will ignore canon
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Holly Black Geographies: okay so Tithe takes place in New Jersey, but Kaye moves to NY to open up her cafe post Modern Faerie Tales trilogy. Valiant takes place in New York city when Val runs away from home. Roiben in general is feared by many but is seemingly able to travel freely between states, we can assume the Court of Termites spans across most of the mid-atalantic and it is supposed to be very large as it used to be two courts. The Folk of the Air series takes place in Maine so it is very likely that that covers the new england area. Elfhame is a collection of islands off of the coast of maine. I haven’t read The Darkest Part of the Forest yet, but it takes place in Pennsylvania and it seems that the poconos and allegheny plateau are the more heavily forested areas (?). Therefore, the Court of Moths is in Point Pleasant, Virginia (Mothman sightings). Therefore, the Court of Teeth which is far north of Elfhame is in Québec/New Brunswick. Allô allô Suren, reine des fées francophones!
#holly black#specifically west virginia…like listen to country roads take me home or something#tfota#the folk of the air#queen of nothing#modern faerie tales#mft#kaye fierch#rath roiben rye#the darkest part of the forest#i am suuch a meta/lore guy over useless things …#queen suren#the cruel prince
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WIP Ask Game
tagged by @doorsclosingslowly
Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descript or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it!
Pretty much everything in here is Six of Crows fanfic with the exception of one TFOTA fic (The Nine Terrifying Moons) which is on a hiatus of undetermined length (sorryyyy)
So we’ve got: kanej music box, kanej smut for meta, dying tomorrow part deux, the trouble with wanting more, samples 2, karaoke night, lock the door, roadtrip hot tub, inej self-defense, cursed hands, zowa of sherwood, 70s newsroom au
Tagging: @feelinglikecleopatra, @rainstormdragon, @wylanvanfeck, @cameliawrites, @oneofthewednesdays, and anyone else who wants to!
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When your mutuals post huge metas on fandoms you know nothing about:
Yes, I completely agree. Everything you said is gospel. I have no idea what you're talking about, but this is so true.
#and then they post fanart and I'm like...#hmmmm maybe i should know what this is....#mutuals#fanart#fandom#meta#tfota#tmi#acotar
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notarealaccount-1234 replied:
ALSO when he stabs her finger so it bleeds cause he know the salt in the blood would help her
Okay, here’s what I can say about this. I’m not through my reread, but.
1. The pin Cardan uses to stab her fingers is, in fact, Jude’s herself. Nicasia stole it from her earlier in the book, taunting her if she was trying to look pretty like they did. This means that Cardan obtained it, somehow; either Nicasia tossed it and he snagged it, or he simply stole it from her. Either way, he held onto it with the knowledge that it 100% belonged to Jude.
2. Cardan knows there’s salt in blood, which takes Jude a minute to process. (To be fair, she’s coming out of her glamoured mind-state.) It’s weird to me that this would be his first idea, but maybe I’m just the idiot in this situation. This is only relevant to my next point.
3. When Jude tries to help that other human girl escape from Balekin’s estate, she lies to a guard saying they are going to Lord Cardan, at his request. The guard replies that Cardan “better return both servants this time”. Even Jude wonder what the hell that means.
As the reader, and as Jude will later find out, we know that Cardan doesn’t kill people. He’s not into murdering people. Hurting them is fine, but I see it pointless he would bother with servants glamoured out of their minds. So, what is this idea of him not returning servants? Especially considering he literally lives with Balekin?
This is to say, I have this weird idea that maybe Cardan returns some humans to the mortal world, which is why some servants go missing and that he instinctively used the salt-in-blood trick on Jude.
To be honest, this is a huge conclusion to jump to based on the information at hand. I don’t see why Cardan would even do this. It’s definitely a reach. I don’t know why else both of these things would be mentioned, though? Maybe it will get addressed in Queen of Nothing, or it was used in a scene that was eventually cut but some of the mentions went through.
Or maybe it’s nothing. Probably that. But it’s fun to speculate!
#the cruel prince#the wicked king#jude duarte#cardan greenbriar#holly black#tcp meta#replies#notarealaccount-1234#tfota
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I’m gonna get a little meta-ish here, and say that one of the reasons why I really love how Holly black portrays faeries, is because I think they have the perfect balance bewteen their “otherness” (in the way of being, not the body) and still feeling like real people, yes, they do function on a separate level of
Maybe I’m not explaining myself well, it’s just that too often I’ve seen books dealing with the Fair Folk, where the fae are either too alien and far-out in the morality sense that I have a hard time caring about them, and between creatures that are basicaly magical humans where the text often reminds us how “terrible” and “cunning” they are, and then proceed to act exactly like human characters do (or they behave likeTolkien’s elves at best) the only differece is that they’re magical, have pointy ears and maybe some of them have wings.
Another thing that I really like is that while as far as I remember there has never been an in-universe acknowlodgement of it, I always get the strong implicaction that faeries are “like that” not because of their abbilities, or their immortality or any of the physical things that separate them from mortals, but simply because that’s how they’ve been brought-up to be like having been born and grown-up among the fae, an to survive among them regardless of what you are, you need to be cunning, to be smart, to be courteous, to learn deceit, you basically learn cruelty as if it was second nature, Jude and Taryn are a perfect example of that.
But we also have the other situation, with Kaye, who didn’t knew she was a fae because she was heavily glamoured, and even if she has been adjusting swifly to having her powers and all, she still very much behaves like a mortal would, most of the time anyway. Because she was raised by her human mother, and it’snot like she was some beacon of virtue not even before she met Roiben, she was simply mortal, and she continues to be like that afterwards.
Of course the fae being the “prideful” (*cough* arrogant *cough*) race they are would never admit that this is the case, and that it’s rather because they are obviously the superior ones and have a inherent right to treat mortals as they wish, but as we can see, most of the Folk who has dealt closely with mortals (or are/have been in a relationship with one of them) in somehwat equal grounds, are shown to have learn this lesson one way or another, maybe to appreciate humans and their world more too.
And that is something I seldom seen not just in fictional depiction of the Fair Folk but also for most fictional races.
#the folk of the air#Tfota#holly black#modern faerie tales#meta post#I guess?#I don't know what got me thinking this
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Readers of my fics: love this! Plz update!!
Me: nah, I think I'll go start 2 more wips instead:))
Readers: 😐
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TCP and ‘pride and prejudice’
I think I got some Pride and Prejudice vibe from a certain square in The Cruel Prince. I am strictly talking about the character dynamics and not necessarily about the characters’ personalities.
Jude=Lizzie, Cardan = Darcy, Locke = Wickam, Taryn = Lydia
I am definitely not saying that Lizzie killed people and wanted power, that Darcy was a drunk or that Lydia was as conscious of her decisions as Taryn, so bare with me.
Jude, like Elizabeth, stands out; not just because she is human, but because of her spirit and of wanting to make it in the world she lives in on her own terms. Cardan’s arrogance and his behavior towards her affects Jude and she would never consider him as a romantic partner, while, at the same time, Cardan’s behavior is caused to an extent because of his pride and of his feelings for her despite his reservations. This is also a case of each of the two characters being prejudiced about the other’s life and having formed an opinion of it that is not based to their real experiences. Not to mention that their verbal spars are a thing to behold.
Locke would be definitely Wickam. He is Cardan’s back-stabbing ‘friend’, a thrill-sicker, eager for drama and not caring about the lives he plays with. He approaches both sisters and he ends up with the one who is willing to settle while hurting the other’s pride. Moreover, if we see Nicasia as a mix of Caroline and Georgiana, he also got involved with a person that Cardan cared about and this is something that Nicasia regretted.
He also secretly courts Taryn, who wants to find love, get married and settle down and find her place in the world to the point that she has no regard of her sister’s feelings or of how her actions speak for her character. That said, Taryn is definitely not a naive little girl. She doesn’t believe in storybook-romances and she is aware of who Locke is and of his inability to love in the way that she needs on an emotional level; which is exactly what makes her a compelling character whose story I’m eager to learn more about.
#the cruel prince#tcp#jude duarte#cardan#the folk of the air#tfota#holly black#the cruel prince meta#tcp meta
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in chapter 3 of tcp, there was a scene of cardan attacking then tearing a boy’s wings because he didn’t bow, do you think there are more meanings behind this action? it’s my 2nd time rereading tfota trilogy and this scene still baffles me
(i'm gonna copy/paste a lot from this post because i did answer this, but it was part of a reblog, and tbh it deserves its own post cos it's a damn good question.)
i don't think Cardan had a reason behind his actions in that scene so much as i think Holly had a big reason for including it.
i would argue that, from a character creation standpoint, the ripping of the faerie's wings provides the most important context for Cardan's character in TCP. foremost, it is our very first impression of him. he is truly cruel in that scene. he is at his worst.
one thing they taught us in Creative Writing school: always introduce your characters in a way that shows them doing something that is fundamental to their character.
the book is called The Cruel Prince, ergo we can only assume Holly wanted Cardan to be perceived as cruel. so the first thing we see him doing? something vicious and irredeemable, for no apparent reason (other than to be a dick). it makes us trust Jude's hatred for him; it makes us hate Cardan, too.
if we take that scene out, however, Cardan seems all bark and no bite. sure, he actively insults Jude. and he may even participate in his friends' more malicious bullying. but he's shit with a sword and clearly takes a more subdued role in the bullying scenes (see: watching out for the nixies to make sure they weren't getting too close, telling Valerian to stop when he was suffocating Jude, pricking Jude's finger to sober her up).
so what does Jude really have to be afraid of without that first scene?
certainly not Cardan specifically, but rather, his cohort as a whole. and tbh that's not much more specific than just saying "everything in Faerie is terrifying", which she does indeed point out multiple times. but she needed to be afraid of him, and therefore, she needed a believable reason for that fear.
there's a difference between being actively cruel and passively cruel, and the ripping of the faerie's wings transforms Cardan from the latter to the former simply and effectively.
so yes. he is mean and cruel and cowardly. i suppose it's fine for people to have qualms with him for everything he did/did not do in TCP.
but i happen to think growth is very sexy so i will not be holding any of that against him 😌✨
–Em 🖤🗡
In Defence of Cardan Greenbriar
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#thanks for the ask!! 🖤#tfota#jurdan#holly black#cardan greenbriar#jude duarte#the cruel prince#the folk of the air#the wicked king#the queen of nothing#queen of nothing#jurdannet#tfota analysis#tfota meta#asked and answered#nonnie#my analysis
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I never understood why Cardan called Jude a liar when she fell from the rafters. What do you think he meant?
in chapter 13 of QON, Roach is shot by a dart laced with Deathsweet. Cardan says his pocket is full of ragwort and that they should fly back to Elfhame at once.
but Jude refuses. she says that her sisters are waiting for her at the edge of the camp and if she does not go to them and tell them what happened, they will be caught. Cardan gives her his cloak, which is supposedly also a shield, and tells her not to stop until she gets to her sisters.
Cardan leaves with Roach in his arms, and then we get this lovely little tidbit from Jude:
"I said I was going straight to Vivi, but I lied. I head for the cave." (QON, chapter 13)
she uses the Roach's poisoning as a distraction to try and save the Ghost from captivity. this results in her running into Madoc, duelling him, getting stabbed, and barely making it back to Elfhame alive. then subsequently being mistaken for an assassin, who she said would be at the palace but wasn't, and being shot down.
when Jude falls from the rafters, Cardan is furious with her. not only because she lied to him, but because that lie resulted in a whole bunch of confusion, and not one, but two near-fatal events for her. he's basically saying, "you're a mess and if you had just done what i asked, what you said you would do, we wouldn't be in this predicament".
–Em 🖤🗡
more theories and analysis
#thanks for the ask!! 💜#tfota#jurdan#holly black#jude duarte#cardan greenbriar#queen of nothing#qon#tfota analysis#tfota meta#jurdannet#asked and answered#kestrinsupremacy
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Hey queen hope all is well
Now on to a very serious question
When Jude and Cardan…. well… ya know…AHEMED 🥴🫣😳… in QON
was Jude on top or when she says that she fumbles into the right position, does she mean that they like legit switched positions so that he was on top
I’m just never entirely sure I change my mind ever time I read it
hiya babes! Jude is on top. i'll take you through the succession of events from QON, chapter 21. welcome to Em's Sex Ed Breakdown.
(this ask will be talking about sex explicitly. if you don't want to read about sex, keep scrolling)
1. Jude lies down on the floor, naked and mocking Cardan.
2. Cardan cages her body with his on the floor, tells her to mock him all she likes.
3. they kiss, and he's physically on top of her.
4. then he moves off of her and lies beside her, asking her what she wants.
5. she straddles him. when she says she fumbles into what she thinks is the right position, she means over his dick. (i could imagine that Elfhame does not have very good sex ed. their sex ed is watching older people have sex at revels until they're old enough to have sex themselves. so it makes sense that Jude is like "i thiiiiiinnnk this is how it's done?")
6. and we have further proof of Jude being on top when she says she is in control. one of the only positions really where a vagina-haver is in control during penetrative sex is when they're on top. and the reason she's "kind of in control kind of out of control" is because, well, the sensation of sex, especially when you're unused to it, can feel a lot like losing control.
hope this cleared some things up for you!
–Em 🖤🗡
more theories and analysis
#tfota#jurdan#jude duarte#cardan greenbriar#the folk of the air#the cruel prince#the wicked king#tfota meta#the queen of nothing#tfota analysis#holly black#my analysis#citrus jurdan
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Madoc rlly had all the audacity in Faerie land to look shocked when Jude called him out on his bullshit in twk.
Like my brother in christ…. YOU traumatized them first (the sisters). Their parents were literally murdered in front of them and then they leave every single thing they ever learned about the world behind and get thrown head first into a world that plays by completely different rules, and everyone around them has a head start on them. I even doubt he gave them any time to grieve or make sense of their trauma. He couldn’t have thought claiming them as his “real” daughters was gonna make a difference. The people whose world they share literally hate everything there is about them. Their culture, their clothes, their skin, hair color/eye color; and they make it a point to throw this in mortals faces every second they’re in Faerie. The sisters felt they had to earn their place in the world because just existing wasn’t good enough in other folks eyes. Your home should NEVER feel like that. And then madoc brings home a beautiful bride and a new son but the catch is she try’s very hard to act like nobody but oak exists and calls one of the sisters a devil child. Like yea no wonder one’s lying about everything in her life to please the one thing she’s found that makes her happy. No wonder another’s letting the folk walk all over her just so she could have the hope of being able to survive among them and then snapping when that chance turned out even worse than she thought. And it’s no damn wonder the last one is hatching political plots and murdering people left and right. Jude was on the money with that “I am what you made me” line. Their environment and home life shaped them to be what they are. The folk act even worse than the sisters towards mortals but it’s never criticized, but no, mortals can’t do what they do. The sisters are very much what they started out as, traumatized children who have never been able relax for one second. They’re in survival mode 24/7. Jude’s narrative is biased but her intention behind every move is to survive, the folk are horrible because they just up and decided to be.
i feel like i don't even need to say anything else. this is a full and complete thought. i am passing you the mic.
oh no wait, i do have one thing to say: it's about the inherent and insurmountable anger at those who raise us. it's about the inescapable futility of raising children in a world that hates them. it's about the deep chasm of despair between parent and progeny. and then, horrifically, it's about the unburnable bridge between child and guardian.
–Em 🖤🗡
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#i love their dynamic i hate their dynamic i love-#this one's for the girlies who are angry at the whole world#thanks for the ask!! 💜#your essays#tfota#jurdan#holly black#jude duarte#madoc#the cruel prince#the wicked king#the queen of nothing#the folk of the air#tfota meta#tfota analysis#my analysis#asked and answered#nonnie
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Lmao I can't stop thinking about how Jude- the most terrifying thing in Elfhame, was afraid of CARDAN. A scrawny little dude with a drinking problem and next to no muscle mass
sure, on the surface level, Jude is a big mean scary sword lady with enough anger to burn all your crops down during rainy season with one withering look. and Cardan is just 🧍🏻 in comparison. but i think it's important to note that there are a couple not so obvious reasons for this.
first, i think Jude is afraid of Cardan in the same way that she is afraid of all fae, as a monolith:
they possess magic that can make her do things against her will. which is scary when you have very little means of defending yourself against it. and then, when Cardan becomes the High King of Elfhame, he has a tremendous amount of power/magic at his disposal. which is terrifying to Jude, who thinks she is probably number one on Cardan's kill-list when the bargain between them ends.
they are intimidatingly beautiful–have you ever talked to someone who is just. aggressively attractive? and it's not even that you are sexually attracted to them. they're just so pretty you lose the capacity to form sentences. but we're not talking "imagine the most beautiful human" kind of beautiful here. the Folk are beyond that. they're bordering on the Uncanny Valley sort of etherealness that kickstarts the fight or flight response.
a lot of them openly hate mortals to the point of malicious antagonism, or even enslavement. which, for obvious reasons, paints a big ol' target on Jude's forehead.
second, i think Jude is afraid of Cardan because of what he represents. Cardan is the embodiment of emotion and desire for Jude. not only is his tail the physical manifestation of his own emotions, but Cardan himself is the physical manifestation of Jude's emotions.
Jude has always had to hide behind anger to survive in Faerie. she thinks she hates Cardan, and is able to hide behind that façade with a fair amount of success. until he's near. until they are forced to work together. then she discovers, to her dismay, that a big part of that hatred might stem from the fact that—much like ensorcellment can make her do something she doesn't want to do—Cardan makes her feel something she can't help but feel: desire for him.
Jude, who has so much ambition she could conquer kingdoms with it. Jude, who poisons herself a little every day so she can have that much more control over her own fate. Jude, who craves power and control. succumbing to something so unimportant as her desires. and later, of course, her love for Cardan.
so Cardan, with his very presence, challenges Jude.
emotions, unless they are angry ones, make her feel out of control. they make her feel weak. and as a fellow emotionally stunted individual, i can say with complete certainty that unfamiliar emotions, even good ones, can feel uncomfortable. they can feel like a threat.
Cardan also represents everything Jude wants but (thinks she) can't have.
she wants power–Cardan has power inherently.
she wants him–but she knows Cardan hates mortals, so she thinks she cannot have him.
she wants to be feared by the Folk—Cardan is feared by the Folk.
so a lot of her fear of Cardan might actually be a fear of her own failure or impotence in regards to accomplishing her endeavours. she projects this fear onto Cardan, and whether consciously or not, she feels as if he is the source of that fear instead of her own mind.
Jude wants all of these things that Cardan inherently has—and yet, if she can't control the way he makes her feel, he might be the very thing that keeps her from getting what she wants. i can imagine, for her, that is a frightening thought, indeed.
–Em 🖤🗡
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#damn we got psychological with this one 🙈#tfota#jurdan#tfota analysis#tfota meta#jude duarte#cardan greenbriar#the folk of the air#the cruel prince#the wicked king#the queen of nothing#holly black#jurdannet#asked and answered#nonnie#my analysis
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