#lotm analysis

(Sorry it it us not very coherent) (i mean in western culture tge dragon is usually thought as more masculine altho there were examples of dragons that were implicitly she)

this is likely what cf intended irt the relationship between audrey’s vp and her true self, yeah! audrey is cf’s take on the naive youngest noble daughter in most fantasy works, who either usually serve to uplift the protagonist’s sense of justice (lol) as a sidekick/love interest/ensemble cast member or to be constantly endangered to highlight the darkness of their world.  the damsel in distress, basically.

and you can see how audrey as a character functions in the same way, but with the usual twist of being able to stand up and fight for herself (with the caveat of ‘fighting with a woman’s weapon of emotions and relationships’.) her relationship with her vp is easily the best part of her character, since it shows that she’s aware that this version of her is what’s most desired by others. a pure, noble daughter who knows nothing about the darkness of the world, who can just sit there and shine prettily like a gem on a rack of jewelry. 

I simply must talk about something that has occupied my mind since involving myself in fandom after finishing LoTM. And that is the nature of the power system and why it's a reason for the success of this series. There are many posts analyzing the incredible creativity of the potions and beyonder powers, but what I want to focus on the most is actually not anything in the world of LoTM, but in ours. I want to talk about the Fandom. (Mentions of Harry Potter and Warhammer 40K fandoms as well).

So, on the theory that ravings can be used as long-range communication (serious article):

Amon’s ravings, to the Error Pathway: Hello there, searching for Pallez.

Pallez: *shivers*

Antigonus, to the Seer Pathway, starting a diary because of boredness: Dear diary, today I…

Amon, hacking the Seer Pathway’s ravings with a bug and taking notes: Interesting, interesting.

Klein, sleeping and accidentally creating ravings for the three pathways: Pork-fried lamb… sweet iced tea…

Pallez: ?

Fors: Isn’t this voice familiar…?

Amon, in the cosmos: Interesting, interesting.

I vote for long distance communication with ravings between pathways. The only flaws are that only the top of the pathway can send one-sided ravings to the other members of the pathway (can be corrected if the one making the ravings leaves his phone number (honorific name) at the end of the ravings to receive answers. However, in this case they would also need to create a network similar to the Tarot Club to let the low Sequence Beyonders talk to each other by passing by the top of the sequence).

Moreover, apart from the Great Old Ones, they can send and hear ravings for only one pathway—maybe except Amon who can create bugs (waiting for improvements to facilitate the communication with other pathways). Maybe everyone could know the honorific names of each person at the top of their pathway and ask the person on top of your friend’s pathway to pass a message to your friend).

Last problems, ravings can only be heard on the verge of a loss of control, an advancement or through a specific medium like Mr. Door and the crimson moon (so maybe set a specific time in the day for communication or another medium that can affect all beyonders). A disadvantage is also the great lack of privacy when you send a specific message but thousands of other people hear it. It is also unclear how ravings work exactly and are sent to the people of the pathway.

In other words, equality between all beyonders and ordinary people can create an internet network, with gods as the administrators. Waiting for further improvements to make this system more confidential and available to everyone, as well as more flexibility on the internet connection to hear the vocal message (ravings) in time.

In others words, ravings may not be adapted to long-range communication yet, but could at least be used for long-range announcements (if the impact on the mind can be tuned down a bit). That’s why I advise each god to start politics and spread their faith through ravings to the beyonders of their pathway.

we don’t view this as spam, no worries!!! though we were sort of under the impression that the asks were being made by different people 8p so this serves as a confirmation? of some sort? it’s like having a blind conversation! 

most of lotm’s characters aren’t very well-written, and that’s due to the fault of 2 things: cf prioritizing worldbuilding & continuity over character development, and lotm’s adaption of the high fantasy genre to a webnovel format: that is, themes existent within the worldbuilding are displayed through characters, and the characters are tools to express its systems (whether that be tech, magic, whatever.) in this case, sasrir (and the true creator along with him) is the story’s representative for the hanged man pathway, and so the story expresses its themes of ‘sin-bearing’ and ‘sacrifice’ through him. this is why he has the mythological backstory of eve. this is why he was mistaken to be the one who betrayed asg through the establishment of rose redemption. this is why he was born out of grisha’s need to be rid of corruption. 

all of these are doylist reasoning as to why sasrir is Like That, and because witchcraft’s cultural association with either the betrayal of or desecration of purity, holiness and the christian god’s principles, the Witch Pathway (through its namesharing, abilities and idea of ‘tricking’ others by being a pathwayful of Evil Transmisogynistic Caricatures), one can instantly make a connection between the two. 

we don’t think the potion would’ve digested for sasrir, though.. the kind of witch sasrir is a recontextualization of the archetype from its past uses: the witch as a scapegoat, both subordinated by God and yet somehow existing to try and prove that He is insufficient. witches in lotm are… not so full of contradictions. they’re encouraged, obligated even, to be malevolent, destructive and spiteful. everything bad said about them is proven true. nothing good said about them is given credence, other than their capacity to be a sex object. sasrir is ‘a witch,’ but he wouldn’t be ‘a Witch.’ 

also klein..

omigosh thank you!!!!!!! 8DDD our interest in lotm is rather limited as what we prefer in stories are what cf tends to neglect (character development, voice and how their themes may intersect/parallel through their relationship w the narrative, world and each other), so we’ve always approached our analyses with a certain.. middle of the road tone where we constantly have to acknowledge that our extrapolations might not be intentional on cf’s part. indeed, if it were not for how he’d written them, our favourite lotm character list would have been amon, trissy, cattelya and xio… klein likely would still be high, but not included in the tippy top at all u_u

we’ve posted about amon so much that it’s quite tough to find something new about them to say, hehe. our feelings on amon are rather complex— we like their character concept (the supposed ‘blasphemer,’ s witch whose betrayal of God is revealed to be a sign of their subordination by Him, their love (or perhaps fear) of Him, and that love is what traps them in a cage that they don’t even know is one. and when that God does met His downfall, they get themselves into another loop..), love the fact that they’re one of the only ones with a clear, distinct character voice, love their narrative themes & would love to pick their brain. the execution leaves much to be desired, but still! we spin them around in our brains. lovely creature, leave your father to fend for Himself when He revives, okay? 

as for klein.. it’s difficult to say! it isn’t as if we don’t like him as a character- why, he’s the only actually well-written one, so how could we- but his character concept is just one that.. doesn’t really appeal to us? the way his personality and sense of self is splintered off into pieces that represent facets of lotm’s world is a pretty refreshing take on the ‘worldbuilding themes expressed through characters’ high fantasy developmental style, but it‘s hampered by how we’ve also got other characters who fulfill the same roles, and so they end up stepping on eachother’s toes instead of working together. 

furthermore, cf really struggles with maintaining ensemble casts. heck, he struggles with just a small group! over time (or perhaps just from the start), many character voices start morphing into klein’s (likely because it’s the easiest to deliver exposition and strategy with) so you end up with the majority of the dialogues being klein talking to klein in a costume. our read through of lotm came fresh off of our homestuck reread, a work that has one of the most consistent maintenance n use of character voices in fiction, so it was a real shock!