Mumfucker Prime

200 dead children

literally Joan of Arc

First Flower of the Ninth House, the Best Cavalier They have Ever produced, Their Triumph, the Best of Them All,

“My children, it is you. You are not what we wanted, not what we planned for, but you are my experiment, and you are a success.”

So I just finished Adrian Tchaikovksy's "Children of Time" and it's easily my favorite book of the last decade. I am so emotional over these sentient jumping spiders <3

Alternate version under the cut:

Based on the design made by @googoogaga733!

You can now purchase the vector file for this drawing on my ko-fi!

By Cody elevenbenevolentmammoths (I'm just a Ken whose Job is Stage - so please take my analysis with that heaping tablespoon of salt. Also I'm writing this in my downtime at work, so while I've got the wiki to reference, I don't have the books on hand.)

Thesis:

Naberius is Gideon's primary narrative foil and closest character parallel.

Outlook and Attitude:

As cavs, both Gideon and Naberius are members of an exploited class, and though they have experienced very different levels of material privilege within that class, they are both physically and emotionally abused by individuals (not just structures) in power over them. (This puts them in the minority of the Canaan House cavs, alongside Colum. I am discounting Protesilaus here, as he does not seem to have been personally abused in life, only in death--and not by his necromancer or current Seventh House leadership-- so the circumstances are different.)

Understandably, given all that, they are both prone to lashing out in anger. They have similar axes for qualities they respect in people (physical aptitude, martial accomplishment), and are quick to judge people harshly. Gideon is better about keeping her negative comments to herself--partially (if not mostly) because she is faking a vow of silence for a large chunk of the book. We (rightfully) clown on Babs for beefing with a literal 14-year-old...the same 14-year-old that, in her narration, Gideon was calling awful, dreadful, crap, abominable, etc. I imagine she would have been a lot less popular at Canaan House if she started out speaking her mind as freely as Babs does--or, y'know, as freely as she herself did on the Ninth.

Gender Performance, Sexuality, and Coding:

Gideon is a butch lesbian; Naberius is queer-coded. He is a low-tier member of a Mean Girl Posse. He cares too much about his appearance and his smug little jacket. He sews. He has a posh accent. If Corona and Ianthe are to be believed, he has at least once voiced the opinion that studs are earrings on a diet. Any one of these items is enough to get a man called a slur in certain circles. Any two taken together and you've got a 90s Disney villain. All that is to say, Babs is not performing hegemonic masculinity, at least not as we would understand it in a contemporary context.

Is Babs explicitly queer, though? No. Neither is he explicitly straight and/or cis. We don't have access to his internal thoughts on the matter, only the choices he makes in Gideon's presence that the narrative deigns to report on. And what do we see him choose to do? Why, he tries to impress Marta until she shuts him down, and then he starts following Colum around like an overeager puppy. Bi rest my case.

Which leads neatly into...

Inter-House Relationships:

I'm just saying, if Cytherea was actually Dulcinea, and assuming Colum is the youngest Asht brother, both Gideon/Dulcie and Babs/Colum would have an age gap of 9 years. Is that a coincidence? Quite possibly. But what seems less of a coincidence is that Gideon and Naberius, both feeling ostracized, both latch on to the first person they can find who will tolerate them. And in both their cases that person appears about a decade older than them, is chronically ill and disabled*, and seems perpetually exhausted.

And--oh boy, tragedy time!--If Ianthe hadn't eaten Babs, Colum's death could have been averted. Meanwhile, if Harrow hadn't eaten Gideon, Cytherea couldn't have been defeated.

About that.

Structural Parallels:

They are the only two cavs at Canaan House to become Lyctor Cavaliers, as it were

Through much of the book, Naberius is positioned as Gideon's main athletic rival.

Both serve necromancers who are harboring a Big Plot-Twist Secret :) :) :)

Both go on to haunt the narrative in HtN

Both of their reanimated corpses make a bombastic reappearance together in NtN.

The Big What If:

If they had been switched at birth, somehow. If Gideon had been raised on the Third to be the Tridentarii's cavalier. Would she have turned out like Babs?

Let's see. Perhaps that question is already answered for us, more or less. Because we do have a version of Gideon who was brought up under conditions of extreme privilege. We do have a version of Gideon who's been taught she is special. We do have a version of Gideon who has a strange relationship with Ianthe, a version of Gideon who is sad and sulky and has nothing kind to say, a version of Gideon who makes a remarkably Babs-like little speech about her new superhuman enhancements.

That version of Gideon is called Kiriona Gaia.

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