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Having just gotten out of the theater from watching the Odyssey (which, as an English major and lover of adaptations, I thought was amazing!), I can say with 1000% confidence that Zendaya was the perfect casting choice for Athena for two reasons:
First, and most importantly, *gestures aggressively to her whole performance* She was incredible! She's an amazing actor and she was cast because she's an amazing actor!
But also second, Zendaya was perfect for the role because of the way the film portrayed Telemachus.
Telemachus is a character tied at the hip with Athena even from the original text. He desires wisdom and cleverness, and Athena teaches it to him and guides him in his journey.
In the film though, Telemachus never gets to meet Athena face to face. He desires to find her, to find wisdom, so greatly that he greets every helpful stranger as if he were her, remarking on their eyes as if it's some sort of code phrase that will reveal her. While Penelope yearns for Odysseus, Telemachus yearns first and foremost for the goddess of wisdom. And that yearning is played out so well and so genuinely.
Zendaya is the perfect Athena for the wholly meta reason that in every moment that Telemachus desires to find her, we are not only seeing the acted infatuation of a boy with a goddess, but the very true adoration of a man for his wife.
So Ludwig Gorranson is definitely paying homage to "Just a Man" throughout Nolan's Odyssey, right? I'm not insane??? Odysseus' theme didn't need to be those three specific descending notes, but it was?????
Thoughts on Kingsley Tealeaf and his relationships with the rest of the Nein in Darktow:
The fact that the Plank King's plot to take over Nicodranas is only foiled because Beau took the time to teach Kingsley how to read, and he apparently enjoyed reading enough that he would just steal any book he could get his hands on. That is just...so endearing to me--
When Beau says, "We don't even know this guy--he's not Molly anymore. He's a total stranger," and Kingsley argues, "That's so not true." There's just...so much to unpack with these little moments in the beginning--with the fact that the Nein have misgivings over joining Kingsley, the realization that aside from them Kingsley is truly alone and has no one else--
I'd just love something like the 2 part Mighty Nein Reunion or some kind of EXU of the Nein adventuring with King in Darktow. More time and space to really explore Kingsley relationships with each of the Mighty Nein and really develop them more. Because it feels like we're just scratching the surface, and there's so many interesting and complicated interrelationships between King and each of the Nein that I'd love to explore (which sadly we don't really have room in the live show constraints for ; ; though I would absolutely love to see Tal bring King to more of those too)
Yasha saying, "You know I have a complicated relationship with my friend Molly--sorry...Kingsley..." The way King doesn't say anything; how he gives that dejected, knowing look. It very much feels implied that this has happened before, and it's something Kingsley is very understanding of. Which breaks my heart--
Just--what it says that Yasha feels they should help Kingsley no matter what; being so ready to believe him, to be there for him--
Kingsley jumping at the chance to offer Caleb some kind of favor in exchange for his help--adding that a favor owed by the Plank King would be much better, and Caleb just cuts him off with, "You're laying it on a little thick, Pirate Man." Hey...hey Kingsley...what kind of favor or grand gesture did you have in mind for your Magician specifically. How were you planning to show your gratitude. Just curious--
Also, just...Caleb telling Beau they should help King regardless because, "Family is family." Caleb being the one to throw in his explicit support for King first. Thank you Circus Man and Magic Man for once again making my heart weak--
Caleb saying they can rebuild the Throne Room, make it whatever King wants!! Veth later saying that this castle is pretty neat, and maybe they should stay!! Just...give me the Mighty Nein all making themselves at home in the Throne Roost, making it feel comfortable and inviting, a place they can all stay. Rebuilding it together. Kingsley not feeling quite so alone anymore--
Kingsley's, "Oh trust me, she'd want it this way," as he runs over to spend his whole turn healing Jester without a second thought ; ; It's just so sweet, and such a testament to how much his family truly means to him. Of course he wouldn't leave Jester--he'd never. The Plank King's mocking little sing-song, "Save your friend," the fact that King says he's happy to do so...the Mighty Nein are just so dear to him ; ; I think it's very fitting actually that Kingsley would use his last turn to heal Jester and stand guard over her rather than attacking the Plank King. I think that really says so much more about the integrity of his character--
The member of the Plank King's inner sanctum that got away is a worshipper of the Chained Oblivion. Given that Kingsley literally still has nightmares of black chains shattering and primal screams...I am going to need some kind of followup to that immediately help--
Just, more of Kingsley dealing with his trauma of drifting memories and the terrible nightmares in general. King being more open with the Nein about just how haunted and Empty he feels some nights (and...how lonely he really feels)--
Kingsley temporarily getting a job at the Lavish Chateau was so cute, I hope he just moonlights there from time to time. I know he must enjoy the pretty costumes. And him calling Marion nan and Jester and Fjord mom and dad was sweet--
The fact that Daniel rolled exceptionally poorly is so funny because it makes it feel like Kingsley (who is only 7 years old and just skating by by the edge of his teeth) is somehow more competent a pirate than the Plank King, which is hilarious actually--
Really want to spend more time sitting with Kingsley's relationships with the Nein in general (his immediate crush on Caleb will always be so important to me, especially given how those feelings were returned in the end of the campaign, and I want more than anything to dive into those feelings between them--and his very dear and complicated bond with Yasha, Jester and him being especially close as well, Beau even teaching King to read, etc--) Because, oh...it just hurts that he's so clearly alone, that he has no one to hold him or really comfort him in the aftermath of his execution ; ; Because it's not lost on me that, if this was anyone else in the Nein...they would have had someone there for them. That definitely hurts. I want to see him let himself ask the Nein for help and support more. I want to see them taking care of King and showing him more little moments of warmth and affection. I want King to know comfort and compassion too in the wake of nearly dying again--to protect loved ones that would never know. Because god...it's so noticeable that no one is there to reach out and wrap their arms around them the way anyone else in the Mighty Nein would have someone there to take care of them--
"I tend to take being killed very personally." Just...Kingsley putting on a brave face, being the kind of person who will name his ship something irreverent and cheeky like The Last Laugh, but...he did say in The Mighty Nein Reunited that he doesn't like to take risks. He took the Swashbuckler subclass of all things, which allows him to both engage in flashy swordplay and deftly dance out of range, avoiding opportunity attacks. Get in, land some hits, get out and keep a safe distance. He plays far more defensive than Molly or Lucien's big gambles and dire risks. I think it's safe to say being killed again and again has left its mark, that it's a very real fear he still has. I'd love to see them explore that more, especially since he's come so very close to death's door again--
Would also love to explore Kingsley's initial motivations for distancing himself from the Nein in the first place, because it all just makes my heart weak. I think so much of it is, as Taliesin said, "Maybe those chains will find some quiet in piracy." Tealeaf running away from the past again, terrified of being caught up and dragged down by it--scared of all these conflicting, divergent memories and feelings for a family from another life. I think so much of it is fear, not being ready to confront his trauma. And it has this tragic effect of some of the Nein believing he's a stranger, that he doesn't care as much as he claims, that he would perhaps use them as a means to an end for a crown and throne...
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I do love that Kingsley not only calls Marion, "Nan," but Jester and Fjord are also "Mom and Dad," and Beau and Yasha are his "aunties"--
I also think this makes it very funny that the only two members of the Nein we see in Darktow who don't get these endearments are Veth (who I just don't recall him ever calling her by one...?) and Caleb, who he called Magic Man and was always very forward about flirting with--
This creates an amazing party dynamic in which Kingsley looks at the rest of the Nein and goes, yes, these are the folks that literally adopted me, they're weird and absurd and I love them like kin. But then for Caleb Widogast specifically it's just, ah yes, and this is the very hot, sexy older professor who first tried to raise me from the dead and I keep dropping hints that I want to fuck (Caleb entirely encourages this--)
After the disaster that was the Stranger Things finale, I really gave up a lot of hope on implied queer characters and storylines going anywhere or being treated seriously, but oh my goodness I think Jax's story healed something of that for me??? His experiences as a deeply closeted trans individual are so real, and his fears are so relatable. And it was all set up so well and so naturally. All the hint that he was trans were there, and I didn't want to get my hopes up that that was his story, but then it happened, and this is just the best pride month gift ever đ
And I love how much hope the story leaves us with. Jax, in whatever state abstraction is for him, has a safe place where he is being gently taken care of, and Leroy is alive and stable, and there's space for hope about the day she gets to be herself and understand that she's loved just as she is <3
Happy pride, my fellow queer TADC fans! We got a good story about us :)
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Sparkbird songs that remind me of each of the humans in the Amazing Digital Circus :)
Pomni - Free, Freer, Free
"I hope i hope i hope i hope / I stop i stop i stop i stop i stop"
"I deal with the trouble for another night / I heal from a struggle with a juggled knife / I deal with the trouble for another night / I'll deal with the double in another life"
"Game. am i / Game? / Aim: take your / Aim / To stake your claim / To claim your steak / You make an effort to care / But the ethics aren't there"
Jax - SPACE!!! (I'm So Negative)
"Shut down communications relays / Lock off all corridors to the core / Dry heaving on the sonic shower floor"
"I hate so many things / I hate hating so many things / I'm so negative / I need / I need / I need space"
Ragatha - November
"Can't pick them out / Can't press them in / I'll never hide my scars"
"One small sound / One small sight / One unsheathed knife must glint / In an alternate timeline's light"
"Not only is it thicker / Blood is stickier than water / And maybe that's relevant somehow / Can I explode now?"
Kinger - Disembodied Mind
"I am in trouble with myself again / I am in trouble trouble trouble trouble / But I do believe there's a reason to live / That is why I'm gonna go to sea in a sieve"
"And I don't believe we could ever agree / That's why I'll do anything to keep myself away from me / Maybe when I'm out of sight, I'll see me in a better light"
"Eyes shut tight / Better get this right / Every word of the spell / To rip the soul from its shell / Say goodbye to the stranger on the other side / Say hello to the bliss of a disembodied mind"
Gangle - After the Ball
"Sorry for trying to get in the act / I thought a performance was what y'all expected / Turns out I'm more sideshow than Cirque du Soleil / But I value grit over fancy tricks anyway"
"Red headed stepchild / Plucked from the granary / An indentured clown on the face of it / To counter cuts to the greasepaint budget / Presumably"
Zooble - Mayday
"Before he slips you off the needle / Drops you into unstitched space / The wasteland which henceforth / Shall be referred to as 'your place'"
"Always the last and never the least / Always the fast and never the feast / Always the cult of domesticity / Always the jolts of electricity / Always surpassed and never decreased / Always amassed and never released / Always the past controls your mind / Never the peace you hoped to God you'd finally find"
hello locked tomblr! i was at the tamsyn muir event in oxford - here are my notes
i've tried to group them thematically rather than chronologically, and to point out spoilers when i can. there are some parts that i missed/didn't hear correctly - i would appreciate it if others at the event correct me :D
Key takeaways
Alecto is still being written! Muir was reluctant to say a year, so it will probably be more than that
Alecto wonât be written in a Biblical style, and there will be multiple POVs. It will mostly be told from Harrowâs POV (I hope I heard that right)
Muir loves the idea of a TLT videogame
Muirâs not yet done with Floralinda
Q&A: Alecto when?
(putting this first because I know you want to know!)
Alecto is not yet finished
Reason why:
Muir was already slated to write another book before Alecto (Floralinda, I think)
Floralinda took longer than expected
Muir also suffered from health issues
Muir was about to say Alecto would come out in a year, but was reluctant. It will be soon. It will be before she dies.
Once Alecto gets to the editor, it will be fast-tracked. There will be few advance reader copies
And Alecto will not be 2 books, do not fret!
Publishing journey for the Locked Tomb Series
TL;DR â Muir got published because she had good contacts
George R. R. Martin was Tamsyn Muirâs mentor at Clarion
Muir took what she described as the âtraditional routeâ into publishing
She spent around 3 years publishing short stories
Then she got contacted by an agent for a novel
Muir acknowledges that routes into publishing are not like that now
Sometimes, fanfiction writers are approached â Muir doesnât approve as that ruins the hobby, it adds a financial incentive and makes people do it for a career rather than for fun.
Muir wouldnât do anything differently
We joked a bit about an agent who remarked on the âsisterly relationshipâ between characters in Muirâs manuscript
Advice for aspiring authors
Send stuff to an agent regardless of where you are
Work in the industry
There was a bit of discussion on self-publishing â it doesnât suit Muir personally, but itâs a good route for someone with the energy to be their own editor, advertiser, etc.
Q&A: something about being a successful writer (sorry I forgot)
Basically, getting successful requires having good connections
Videogame Influence on Locked Tomb Series
Muir is a big fan of the emergent narrative that videogames afford
Muir worked for Disney and wrote videogame scripts before GtN. Thereâs an insane House of Mouse script archived somewhere, which Muir wrote.
Novel writing is very different from videogame writing.
In a videogame, you have to fully flesh out the in-game universe and provide enough choices and points of interest for players
This taught Muir to be in-depth when writing her novel universesâŚ
âŚwhich particularly influenced her to write tonnes of AUs for the Locked Tomb series
There are two versions of Nona, for example: one which is whatâs really happening, and one which is Nonaâs POV
Q&A: did the videogame influence help Muir to write so confusingly in the Locked Tomb series?
Muir strongly cites Umineko as a key influence
This is a perfect example of a slow reveal, like in the Locked Tomb books
Muir doesnât strictly plan her reveals (e.g., on the second reread, the reader finds this out), but she does love a slow reveal and works hard to make close reading rewarding for the reader
Tamsyn Muir would love for the Locked Tomb series to be adapted into a videogame!!
A funny story was told where Muir got approached by a gacha game company⌠which didnât come to anything
POV voice shifts in the Locked Tomb series
A key reason for the books being so different is that Muir didnât want to write the same thing again â she gets âeasily boredâ
She focussed on the sentence links of each character â Gideonâs sentence links are very different from Harrowâs
Vocabulary also played a key role (again, compare Gideon and Harrow)
The second person narrative in HtN was planned for a while, the tricky thing was convincing publishers to accept it
Muir has an HtN draft somewhere, 50% written, thatâs in third person
POV in Alecto the Ninth: It will not be written in a biblical style
There will be different POVs
Q&A: Book inspiration for writing in the second person?
Muir notes that she didnât write in perfect second person â it was actually first person
She will always turn to On a Winterâs Night a Traveller
And this is another videogame inspiration
She mentioned Homestuck then said donât mention Homestuck soâŚ
The theme of memory in the Locked Tomb series
Memory as a result of love, and memories which are a source of pain
This is a key theme in HtN â note how memory affected Harrow throughout the book
Itâs also going to be a key theme in Alecto
Muir is using memory as horror
The horror of not being able to trust yourself and to know what is real
Sheâs drawing on her own experiences of being schizophrenic
Magic systems in the Locked Tomb series
Muir wasnât actually a big fan of necromancy before writing TLT
She found it too passive in Dungeons & Dragons
She wanted an active magic system, something unintuitive that required hard work and study to learn
She also wanted a magic system to be gross!
TLT magic system was described as âtelekinesis with meatâ
Worldbuilding in the Locked Tomb series
Q&A: what was Muirâs worldbuilding starting point/seed?
Muir struggled to find this out. Thereâs no magic formula
Creative writing canât be taught, only practiced
For GtN, she wanted a story about duty, and duty vs freedom
She wanted the story to be about two young women
Gideon was originally a cop/fireman
For Muir, worldbuilding is there to serve the plot. She does not worldbuild for worldbuildingâs sake
Everything in Muirâs books is there to serve the plot
Would the TLT protagonists make a good DnD party?
Absolutely not!
Although Camilla and Palamedes would be fine
There was some joking around about how Muir and her friends tried to play as Gideon and Harrow in DnD and it didnât work out
Genre merging in the Locked Tomb series
Muir identified her blend of comedy and horror as unique to Kiwi fiction
She used Peter Jacksonâs early films before the Lord of the Rings as an example
For Muir, science fiction and fantasy are merged â it only really feels like science if you do hard sci-fi
Muir grew up with Star Wars, so it felt natural to set her fantasy world in space
The genre merging created publishing problems
Publishers want an easy comparison to other books to make it sell, but there was nothing like Gideon the Ninth
We joked a bit about TLT being compared with Dune
Q&A: now that TLT books are out, has Muir noticed any very similar books that GtN etc. are being compared to?
Not really.
Muir sees the most similarities with people who know her and have had similar influences
An example is A. K. Markwood
Another book that seemed very similar is âDawn Hound by Necksy Strownackâ another New Zealand author (I did a quick google and I think this is the Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach?)
Comedy and Humour in the Locked Tomb series
Muirâs advice for aspiring writers is not to write humour to appeal to everyone, as youâll please no one. Stay true to yourself.
Muir writes plenty of humour into her manuscripts, which are often cut away during editing
Q&A: memes that didnât make it: (note: I struggled to catch what was being said under all the laughter and I am also woefully uncultured â many of these are me transcribing as best as I can. Do correct me if Iâm wrong!)
Mr Bonesâ Wild Ride
Emperish meme
Horse Plinko (this got referred to a lot!)
Harrow calling Ianthe the âGod of Thotâ in HtN
And many more
Muir mused about whether she will dial back the humour in later work, or whether she will go full throttle as she doesnât care anymore
Writing process for short stories vs books
Muir sees her short story days as mostly behind her, although she is getting one published soon (as we are aware!)
With short stories, you only have time for one thing, whilst with a novella, you have time for plot and subplot
Short stories are great to practise your technical writing skills
Muir personally would not turn her short stories into novels â she wants to do something new
Q&A: The planning process for the Locked Tomb series
Muir had already planned the whole story before writing GtN
GtN and HtN are the question arcs
NtN and AtN are the answering arcs
Muir really enjoyed writing a New Zealand story
Lesbians as epic heroes in the Locked Tomb series
Muir doesnât see this as jarring â why canât epics have lesbians in them?
All epics want you do to is die gloriously
You can do anything after that
Q&A: Epic influences on the Locked Tomb series
The Iliad. It all comes back to Homer, and the Iliad.
There was some insightful discussion on how the Locked Tomb world codifies its past. In a sense, itâs stuck in time. Thereâs no golden period to hark back to.
The discussion then turned to the idea of the hero, and what a hero should be.
This is heavily explored in Gideon the Ninth, which centres around Harrow failing to prevent Gideon from being the hero
Add lesbian to anything
Muir would love to see a lesbian Hunger Games
Floralinda vs Gideon and Harrow
âFloralinda blowsâ â Tamsyn Muir
Floralinda is a supervillain story about a âbad girl who gets worseâ
Muir has written/is planning to write more on Floralinda
Q&A: Advice for writing characters who suck?
Just let them be shit, go hard first and donât hold back
Take a sin, take a virtue
All of Muirâs characters, in some way, are a âfuck upâ
Catholic imagery in the Locked Tomb series and Catholicism in general
Q&A: was it difficult to link lesbians with Catholicism in the Locked Tomb series?
It felt good for Muir, a lesbian Catholic
And also very fun!
Q&A: whoâs the hottest saint?
In the TLT universe: Valancy!
In the real world: Saint Barbara
This sparked some light-hearted banter
Q&A: Meaningful names in the Locked Tomb series
Muir loves writing meaningful names that hide things in plain sight
Muir does not browse âBehind the Nameâ lol
She has a âlaundry listâ of names she likes which sheâs accumulated throughout her life
Homer and ancient Greek influences played a key role
Also Biblical names
Changing names are highly important in the books, e.g., Gideon to Kiriona
Muir doesnât mind if people sus out a characterâs plot after immediately reading their names
Umineko inspiration
Lolita and the Locked Tomb series
Q&A: the audience member read Lolita at the same time as NtN. They were wondering if the similarities between the two were deliberate.
Muir loves Lolita and thinks that Nabokov is an expert in writing misery
Muir was open about being a child sexual abuse survivor. The influence of this is pervasive in her work.
There is a strong focus on relationships with authority people
Particularly in NtN, which contains sexual threats. This was hard for Muir to write.
Another example is the relationship between John and Alecto.
They are not a one on one comparison between Humbert and Lolita, but the theme of a man fashioning a girl into the perfect partner is there
Whether there is a sexual element in this will be answered in Alecto the Ninth
Muir explicitly does not want to include overt sexual violence in her work
Misogyny in the Locked Tomb series
Q&A: In the worldbuilding of the Locked Tomb series, how do you balance the misogyny that still exists (which is particularly obvious when John talks to/about Mercymorn) and the outward appearance/initial impression people get of the houses having gender equality (e.g., Abigail as head of the fifth, Jeannemary as a knight)?
This question had Muir wriggling in delight
The answer to this is addressed in Alecto
Why is John fucking up in the creation of his utopia?
Muir encourages readers to question what you, the reader, perceive as misogyny, versus what the characters perceive as misogyny.
Q&A: Cannibalism in the Locked Tomb series
Cannibalism is a metaphor for toxic love
Cannibalism of the soul is much more severe than cannibalism of the flesh
Link to Lolita
Itâs eating someoneâs life and personhood. A central theme in TLT is exploring love as something taken violently
Can you love someone without taking something from them? This is one of Muirâs favourite ideas
And, itâs not necessarily negative
Example of Camilla and Palamedes (spoiler for NtN!!)
They had to eat each other
Grappling with the question: Is love weightless?
Q&A: How much of their old selves are preserved in the Lyctors?
HtN spoilers!!
John didnât simply wipe and rewrite them â if not, why are they trying to kill him?
John wanted his friends, so he tried to bring his friends back
Interesting implications for the two people he didnât know well and only saw as cowrokers
BUT then the Lyctors are changed by their immortality and John
Q&A: What was it like to write immortality?
Muir acknowledges that she doesnât do a perfect job, and that itâs actually impossible to actually write immortality â it will be too alien for the reader
But this links back to the theme of memory â how much can the Lyctors retain?
The Lyctors are heavily weighed down by time, Mercymorn in particular
Q&A: How long would Muir last in the TLT universe?
0.5 seconds
Muir doesnât see herself as a necromancer or cavalier
Nor is she particularly aligned with any House
Q&A: Books that Muir is reading right now that she would recommend
(again, my poor listening skills and lack of culture limit me here!)
Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran
âPayback for Malory Towersâ
A.K. Markwoodâs new book, the Seventh Banisher
Muir has advance access. AK is her friend.
Q&A: Books and media that influenced Muir as a child
She was a highly prolific reader as a child!
Obviously Animorphs
Weird Kiwi fantasy stories
Margaret Margey
She read a lot of David Eddings as a teenager and got annoyed at the role of women in the books
Gormandust was a key inspiration for TLT (I googled this and âGormandustâ doesnât exist, hopefully someone more in the know can help to translate my poor transcription!)
Grimmbolts was another influence (again, I probably didnât hear this correctly)
Q&A: Warhammer inspiration
Muir didnât get into Warhammer until after HtN. She loves it.
She has been approached to write for the Black Library but she had to decline as she had too much work
Q&A: Whatâs Muir going to do next?
Muir does not want to keep going back to TLT, she is happy to release it to the fanfiction writers once itâs done!
There are a couple more things in the TLT universe she may add
For example, thereâs a big Harrow AUâŚ
Muir wants to go back to videogames
But in her history, the projects she works on tend to fold
Muir is trying to write her own videogames and is slowly learning Python
A very good question about deconstruction was asked, but I missed it because I was too excited
Everyone was really lovely at the event! Cambridge folk, you have a lot to look forward to :))
Everything about Maul: Shadow Lord was really just to incessantly remind Maul that the worst mistake of his life was not trying a bit harder to run 9 year old Anakin over with his speeder in Phantom Menace.
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Ally's correction of "Revelations" to "Revelation" before staring deadpan into the camera really did something validating for my Bible college-attending soul.
sugurugetos
stormborns
snowghoul
yousharknotpass
