DAMN for all we hate him sometimes Mr Flanagan can set a scene. suspense bro

"a wraith slowly taking physical form" pop off i guess

I forgot Mikkel was the bosun! Good for him

"Erak was a fervent believer in the principle of redistribution of wealth, so long as a great amount of it was redistributed in his direction" 😭

Thorn and Mikkel are such besties I love them

NOT THORN TRYING TO GET MIKKEL TO THE SHIP EVEN AS HE'S ALREADY DEAD 😭 oh my heart

Also I realised we get a little bit of a solid timeline - Mikkel dies 12 years before the events of The Outcasts, so Hal was 4

Drunk Thorn lives in a boatshed??? I would kill to have this elaborated on lol

Ten-year-old Hal AUGH

And Karina's 38 when Hal is ten. A little bit of an internal timeline at least

Karina gets bitches I forgot about that actually. Good for her.

Thorn and his self-worth OUUGH

Isak’s holding his phone so tight he accidentally presses the volume waaaaay up on A Milli, and he lowers it quickly before the bass causes his eardrums to burst. When he looks back up, the boy’s staring right at him. His gaze is easy, soft, and near-indolent, like he has all the time in the world to stare.

The Heron is slightly more than half the size of a normal wolfship. Writing this down in my head

The junior lookout being stupid <3

Hal deciding to show off for once in his life. Good for him

On that note yes king bully the twins into actually behaving

Here's Helligulf. What a king. Young people really don't get a showing in this chapter

Thorn father moment!!

Hal's just short of his 16th birthday a week before brotherband training which means he may well have his birthday during the training and also places him probably among the youngest of the boys. Hmm. Fic idea

Hal having a hubris moment. He deserves it though tbh

Also Stig has been so funny this last chapter or two

HAL GETTING THE FEAR OF GOD PUT INTO HIM THIS IS SO FUNNY

Hal the Araluen boy :( poor guy

"Perhaps, without realising it, he had wanted to be accepted as an equal." 😭😭😭😭

Stig bigging Hal up they are so cute I swear

ERAK AND SVENGAL OH LORDYY

I was a bit dubious about sverak but this one passage has converted me. They have been married for at least 15 years at this point

We've been having a lovely time with our new friend Hal for the last 10 chapters or so and now we're back to the legitimately emotionally harrowing content

Ernak 😭

This is difficult for me to read now and I first read these at like age 12 damn

I honestly don't have much to say about these chapters it's so legitimately heartbreaking

Oooh the Andomal

This is actually such a good establishment of Zavac as an antagonist. One hell of a fucken first impression

These chapters break my heart so much every time

Lotte here she is!!

Nina too here are my girls!!!

Hal managing to act at least somewhat normal when talking to girls while Stig immediately loses the plot is hilarious to me

Nina going after Stig. Yes queen make the first move because this fool certainly won't

Hal making the conscious decision not to be corny. This is character growth

TURSGURD NOO here he is we hate to see it

"Big, muscular, handsome." Alrighty then.

Yes Lotte stand up for yourself

THORN TO THE RESCUE AGAIN!

Thorn's green teeth 😭

Hal having a Main Character Moment

At the end of the chapter but I want to know what happened with Stig and Nina. How did that talk go

Thorn being cryptic (as always)

Hal zoning out staring at Thorn good one Hal

Lordy Hal just hit the man

Hmm interesting he doesn't really think of Thorn as a mentor as much as like a friend

LORDY HAL JUST HIT THE MAN

Thorn speaking autism to Hal to teach him to fight. Thorn paternal figure arc activate

Ooooh Hal's Growing Up wooow

MY GIRLFRIEND THE BOAT!! SHE'S HERE!

The (original) Heron is 15m long. Ok. Writing notes

Hal was hired by Anders at 13. Good good. Record-keeping Mostly activate

Also Gunter Moonstalker is a BANGING name well done mate

Interested that Hal approached Ulf and Wulf to help with the ship. Ingvar I understand a bit but like ... why the twins over all the other random people he's probably vaguely familiar with? Interesting

OKAY OKAY MASSIVE TIMELINE MOMENT. THEY'RE FINISHING THE BOAT IN THE LAST WEEK OF SUMMER BECAUSE BROTHERBAND TRAINING BEGINS IN A WEEK. HUGE HUGE HUGE

Brotherband training begins at the start of autumn then. Massive massive

Chekhov's reef points

Augh all the iconic quotes here we are

Hal referring to the twins, Ingvar and Stig as his friends T.T

I feel like we start off on the right note with Hal immediately cringe failing. In terms of literary first impressions - this is a very good one I think.

STIG AHHHHHHH HERE HE IIIS

Thorn to the rescue!

This dynamic is everything actually. Hal the stupid mastermind being enabled by Stig and Thorn who actually saves their asses when it goes wrong

The DETAILS ouch. Hal's least favourite recurring bit.

The "lobster trap incident" was in autumn. I am going to work out the timeline I will do it

Hal being worried for Stig down the cliff is cute actually

Augh I love this scene

"a friend and companion" awwww

A little annoyed that we don't find out how old the boys were in this scene. I was really hoping for that