Mini Alecto rant because I think she’s one of the most compelling characters ever written and we don’t even know her that well yet.
We are first introduced to her as the Body in Harrow the ninth (I mean we knew about her before but I’m talking interactively) and she’s basically Harrow’s rock. She has this calm air about her that provides comfort to Harrow. She courts Harrow, has dinners with her where they talk about anything, and prays with her. She’s Harrow’s partner in crime when she agrees with her that Gideon Zero needs to die. She protects Harrow; instructing her to lie. She has no qualms about Harrow’s desperation for her and looks at Harrow with pity when she regrets it. She takes it as her personal duty to save Harrow’s body at the end of htn, performing cpr, because she truly does care about Harrow and that’s what I’m getting at here; she cares about Harrow a lot. She’s also calm, cool, and collected.
Yet all the remaining Lyctors (save for Pyrrha and Gideon) seem to hate her. A lot of them apparently didn’t like her. They call her a monster. Which is a sharp contrast from what we’ve seen so far, in terms of the Body’s likability. Not to mention that Harrow notices that the Body doesn’t seem too fond of John either when she catches her staring at him (god I love that scene where John drops his bag? on her lap and Alecto just keeps staring at him unmoved, I yearn for their story), so like, what happened between all of them? I know Alecto hates necromancy and Lyctorhood but why call her a monster? What did she do?
Then later, this piece of Alecto’s soul, the Body, enters Harrow to become Nona (why Alecto did that is yet to be revealed) and Nona is a stark contrast to it. She’s this bubbly, sunshine person who’s ditsy in an adorable way and who loves everyone and everything. So yeah, Alecto can also be bubbly. That’s until Nona starts remembering who she is. Who’s that you may ask? Oh yeah, the fucking soul of the Earth! I mean, what? Talk about an insane lore drop. She feels for planets when they are shit talked (New Rho, Drearburh) cause they are her family. Isn’t that crazy? She’s a planet. She’s THE planet. The life giving planet. She’s life itself. She’s God.
That’s when the coke starts hitting because she is the soul of the Earth and she was dying and she picked John to save her and that was how he repaid her? By putting her in a body she deems hideous (because she’s not really fond of human beings actually) after wounding her original body? Killing her siblings? Nona’s in the process of remembering all this and loses her sparkle. Nona the six month old. Alecto the 4.5 billion+ year old. Nona grows colder, both physically and mentally, as she remembers herself. She’s fucking disgusted by the state of things. She’s angry. She lets Pyrrha know this. She gets embarrassed. She cries. She’s the soul of the Earth and she’s six months old and she’s hurting and she’s aware she’s killing Harrow and she blames herself for everything; she just wants to die. She finally wants to let go. Look at what trying to hold on did to the universe, right? The bubbly, calm, caring soul of the Earth is also, disgusted, cold, righteously furious, depressed, and is currently a six month old baby having a panic attack while completely falling apart. She also laughs at butt jokes. Atp, your skin starts itching with the need to know more and more about her.
Then she wakes up after ten thousand years, still angry. Angry because John. Angry because she remembers everything she was, everything she could have been, what she is now. Angry as she sees Pyrrha and talks to her. Angry still, as her eyes land on Harrow. She remembers Harrow and something about her irritates, calms, and even pleases her. This being because she realizes Harrow (after biting her lips off) is a descendant of the one person who seems to bring her any sort of peace, a person she, the soul of the Earth, vowed her entire being to: Anastasia. Why is that? She makes the same vow to Harrow because of this fact. She’s unamused by Harrow’s self deprecation but pleased by Harrow’s strength. She forces Harrow to accept her vows despite subtly agreeing that Harrow is too lowly to receive them. Then there is the whole reunion with John where she nonchalantly swords him through the heart with Harrow draped above her other hand. What I’m trying to say is: Alecto is fucking cold, detached, bossy, and swaggy. Which is, yet again, an insane contrast to her other two personalities.
Not to mention she screams blood and flesh and the sound comes from every part of her body. All this while you sit with the fact that the Earth is a conscious being that is fully aware of herself, her skin, and her body; with the ability to grant godlike gifts to fucking randoms, who are also her. Plus she speaks in old english. That’s sick.
Tldr: The whiplash from seeing the caring and comforting Body and Nona also be the same cold, detached, angry Alecto is what captivates me. They all seem so completely different from the other but they are all her. I guess she’s responsible for creating 11 billion unique souls too so this isn’t hard for her but that idea alone is equally insane. The fact that she’s the soul of the Earth is insane. People don’t freak out enough about her character. She’s enthralling. I need the next book so bad it physically hurts.
