#neverseen critical

The Gnomes And The Plague

The gnomes in Neverseen (and the series, in general) are definitely...

Something.

Growing up, I used to love Alluveterre and, like many other people, believed it to be the best place in all of the Lost Cities. I loved Calla and found her comforting. I thought the Neutral Territories were a cool concept.

But the more I think about them, the less I like them. The more I think that we were ROBBED.

And that feeling only gets stronger with each reread.

1//Gnome are severely underdevelopped

Of the eleven introduced and named gnomes in this book (Sior, Amisi, Lur, Mitya, Calla, Brier, Yuri, Gora, Kloris, Nesrin, Vered), only ONE of them has a personality and appears in more than one scene (i.e. a scene with at least one line of dialogue).

And it's Calla. Who dies by the end of the book. We can definitely see where Shannon's priorities went 👍

Oh! And honorary mention goes to that one gnome Sophie and Fitz "rescued" not far from Exilium (Chapter 46), because he is never brought back ever, not even to.... I don't know... thank them to have saved his life?? And he is never named either. What happened to him? Did he heal from the plague? Did he perhaps *gasp* die? Did he stay in the Lost Cities? Or return to his dead forest? Guess we'll never know!

[Note: my dude (^) was so disrespected that Shannon created a carbon-copy of him in Stellarlune, Chapter 13, just for that carbon-copy to immediately die with even less characterisation. Huzza!]

To put things into perspective, Neverseen is the first book where gnomes finally become relevant. Before then, we only had two named gnomes: Barth the Reaper, and Gerda, a she-gnome who works in Havenfield. Both only have one scene (pretty sure Barth doesn't have a single spoken line).

So let's just say? In terms of relevance? Not ideal. Neverseen was Shannon's best opportunity to redeem the mistreatment of the slavery-allegory species.

But if I'm writing this, it's because she (evidently) failed.

It's driving me crazy that we don't know the first thing about the gnomes we meet, and that we never see them more than once.

For example, in Chapter 16, Shannon casually drops the bomb that Lur and Mitya were the ones who found Sophie and Dex when they were kidnapped. With that information, they have to become important characters, right?

.... right?

Wrong. We later (Chapter 37) learn from word of mouth (Calla, who seems to be the only one who cares about the main plotline) that Lur and Mitya caught the plague. And I kid you not, this is what follows this revelation (Chapter 38):

Our heroes are too above Lur and Mitya to bother visiting. This is why the provisional hospital should NEVER have been in Lumenaria. It robbed us of emotional scenes and an increase in the stakes. It gave elves the perfect excuse to be lazy.

Sophie is tasked by Calla to send a message via telepathy. How was this NOT Sophie's idea? Why does Calla have to REMIND her to comfort the people who SAVED her life?

Why did Calla have to spell out what Sophie must say? Why did Sophie not add her own message? Did she not have more to tell them?

The message itself is incredibly bland and unemotional: "we're not giving up, and you shouldn't give up either, and if you have information to tell us, do tell. love y'all, even if you barely register as characters."

Worse, Lur and Mitya are not given a voice to reply, not now nor ever after (since we won't see them again 😱). Sophie speaks for them, acting as a mere translator rather than someone who cares about them.

And Mitya's reply is not something inspirational or heartbreaking either, she only focuses on the one part of the message that can advance the plot: information.

2//The plague was too underwhelming

Sure, we saw its devastating effect on the forests from the Neutral Territories but we know basically... nothing of it. It's kept vague for some reason.

And that's because Shannon made a terrible mistake, which essentially murdered the stakes of this book:

She set the provisional hospital in Lumenaria. Just as our protagonists left the Lost Cities for good.

Why, WHY would you make such a stupid choice? This not only inhibited the main characters to meet and interact with infected gnomes (LUR AND MITYA AND SIOR), but it also created a giant plot hole.

Because, I don't know if Shannon ever caught that, but the gnomes from the Neutral Territories are free. They are independent. They have no alliances with the elves or with the goblins or with anyone whatsoever. To live freely, they had to refuse the protection of the elves (who were basically blackmailing them). Or any other species, for the matter.

They had to accept that help would not come to them.

And that's a powerful move that is no doubt a source of pride for our free gnomes... except it has consequences. Or it should have had consequences.

To start: the elves should not have aided these gnomes. They should not have meddled with the plague, they should not even have worried about the plague, until the plague began to affect the gnomes that are enslaved hardworking citizens of the Lost Cities.

Until these gnomes rebelled and went on a strike in solidarity with their suffering (but free) kins.

The elves should have been the villains.

I don't know where the hospital should have been, or if there should have been a hospital at all. What I do know is that it should never have been in the Lost Cities.

Back to the plague, though. The consequence of the hospital being so inaccessible to our main characters is that we know virtually nothing about the disease, which prevents us from fearing it and seeing it as a true threat.

There are far too many things that remain unknown:

How was it transmitted (e.g. waterborne, airborne?)?

What were the symptoms physicians used to differentiate the six phases of the disease?

How many casualties were there, if any?

How did the ogres prevent the plague to infect their crops/the grass their cattle graze?

Did patients all fully recover, or were some of them permanently disabled?

How long did recovery take?

Did the disease progress at even rates, or were there ideal conditions that accelerated it?

Were there patients more vulnerable than others?

Were the Braves gnomes who were immune to the disease (e.g. Calla?)?

What is the name of the plague?

You may think these questions are superfluous or nitpicks, but they matter because they emphasise the core theme of KNOWLEDGE.

These are crucial facts that not only add realism and depth to the plague, but also, more importantly: the stakes and dangerosity it lacked so cruelly. The more we would've learned about the disease, the more we would have understood that this is the real shit. The more urgency we would've felt.

Imagine the reality a simple name could have given to the plague. If it was called the Red Plague or Dimitaria or something.

Imagine the rawness of a scene where Calla realises she's immune and decides to become the cure.

Imagine if the gnome Sophie and Fitz rescued was Patient Zero, imagine if he thought he deserved to die because he believed he cursed his people.

Imagine if Flori was younger and a character in this book and she caught the plague and Calla was more determined than ever to save her.

Imagine if Lur and Mitya and Sior were characters we loved and one of them permanently lost their voice.

Just... Imagine.

3//Not all elves, but it's always the elves

Okay, this is where the Alluveterre rant (or its first part, at least) enters the mastodon that is this essay.

I used to love Alluveterre because of its aesthetic. It was giving Wood Elves from the Lord of the Ring. It was so superior, lookwise, to crystal and plastic Sparkly-Sparkly Elfland.

But here's the thing.

Alluveterre is just another evidence of the gnomes being oppressed by the elves.

You may not remember it, but in Alluveterre, we are told that the gnomes live in their own little village at the base of the trees, a village that we do not get to see.

Meanwhile, the gnomes built gigantic, luxurious tree houses for the elves that they host. Tree houses that look down on the valley where the gnomes live.

I wouldn't mind this choice if it was ever properly addressed and called out as it is: oppression and exploitation. If it was proof that the Black Swan ain't all that about equality, and isn't so different from the Council.

Because why, even in their own land, are the gnomes placing the elves on literal and symbolical pedestals?

In Chapter 7, Calla, the free gnome, apologises to Della, the entitled snobby bitch elf, for not having prepared a fancy suite for her. Even though Della is an uninvited guest. Even though Della is in the wrong and technically an intruder in this land of FREE gnomes and a potential threat to their safety. If Della wants her own suite, she can build it herself. Or sleep on the floor. Her choice.

Oh, you want more examples? Bet.

The Alluveterre gnomes manufactured fancy single-wear dresses for our heroes. Meanwhile, the gnomes wore humble clothing identical to what was described as enslaved gnomes' wear in the Lost Cities.

Yet our heroes still complained about their pajamas (+ Sophie hating on the dresses). Chapter 8, Chapter 11, Chapter 14.

Also, the Black Swan took credit for those pjs when it was obviously gnome-made (Chapter 14).

Calla, who played such a critical role in Project Moonlark is not part of the Collective and is not a member of the Black Swan (Chapter 12)

In fact, only elves are considered "members" of the Black Swan and granted pendants (including Timkin and Cassius, who were useless). Lur, Sior, Amisi, Calla and Mitya were said to "work for" the Black Swan, instead of "with"

The same kind of phrasing is used with the dwarves (Ermete, Irja, and Kun).

The Alluveterre gnomes cooked and cleaned for our heroes, even though they don't live in the tree houses. They had to climb six times a day just to serve and clean after breakfast, lunch and dinner? To make their beds? For these slugs? Grrr.

The Alluveterre gnomes had to speak in the Enlightened Language, despite having no reason to learn that language since they are FREE and in their own land.

Our heroes didn't attempt to learn the gnome's language, not even to say hello or thanks. They had lessons from dawn to dusk and not a single one of these lessons involved learning to communicate with their hosts?? I'm in disbelief.

Calla, despite creating Sophie and being 4,316 years older than her, constantly bowed and curtsied in Sophie's presence. Sophie (nor any other elf) was never shown to bow back or curtsy to a gnome. Ever.

Forkle, by far the most oppressive elf of the bunch, screamed and attempted to punish Calla because he didn't "allow" her to take Sophie and Biana on an unauthorised mission (reminder that Calla is NOT a member of the Black Swan, thus not under his orders, and she's literally hosting that bitch). Chapter 19

A mission which, by the way, would have been refused by the Black Swan even though it was an important concern to Calla and her friends.

Sophie carelessly threw her shoes by the window (Chapter 17) and was never said to collect them in the morning. She's actively polluting the gnomes' land with her plastic shit.

Neither Sophie nor Forkle apologised to Calla for having withdrawn informations about the secret treaty from her. Forkle even yelled at Sophie for having told Calla (she didn't intend to, Calla learned it by accident). Chapter 58

Worse, Sophie cried and begged for forgiveness when she did the same thing to Keefe in the PREVIOUS CHAPTER, even though (not to compare trauma or anything) what Sophie hid from Calla is objectively worse than what she hid from Keefe.

EVEN WORSE: our heroes hid the drakostomes from Calla for a baffling total of thirty-seven days. A whole ass month. This isn't a betrayal, this is a direct stab at the heart. If I were Calla, I would've never forgiven Sophie and Forkle.

Yet for Calla there was no guilt, no regret, no apology, nothing. Calla left the room and Sophie didn't reach out for an entire week. How did Calla still care for that girl?

Keefe wasted food by throwing his breakfast bowl from the table (Chapter 17). Nobody cleaned after his mess meaning it was probably a poor gnome's job.

Biana, upon learning that the gnomes can see Vanishers, became utterly obsessed with becoming invisible to them. She showed annoyance at the fact that the gnomes never revealed this to the elves. This was just... so weird. Why was it such a big deal that the gnomes can see Vanishers? They're allies. (Chapter 18)

There was virtually no difference between how the Lost Cities elves treated their servants and the way our heroes treated the free gnomes who were caring for them out of the goodness of their woody hearts.

4// The elves are completely useless and never learn

This issue exists because Shannon seems convinced that in an ideal world, we wouldn't have to do our own chores. It's the same mentality as people who defend AI and think it's "useful" because it removes us from doing repetitive, annoying tasks.

But here's the thing. It's not humbling or embarrassing to do your own chores. To cook and clean for yourself. To know how to repair your broken car or sew holes in your fave shirt.

It's gratifying.

What's actually embarrassing is the elves becoming completely helpless when the gnomes from the Lost Cities went on a strike (the only sensible decision they made in the entire series). The oh-so-competent elves suddenly being unable to cook for themselves, to grow their own crops, to clean their own houses, to make their own clothes.

This is what we call weaponised incompetence.

How is it ideal to depend so much on someone else? What if that someone else decided to stop working for you, huh, huh? What's utopic about your comfort resting on someone else's discomfort?

And here's the thing: the gnomes should have realised that they have all the power. That if they stop working, the entire Lost Cities would collapse. The gnomes should have screamed "BASTA" when Bronte said "oh yeah we knew you were in danger and hid it from you for centuries, sowwy 🥺" (have I told y'all that I hate Bronte with a burning passion in Neverseen?).

They should have left the Lost Cities one by one. For good.

No "we forgive the elves." No "we will only blame the ogres." No "we will resume our places as servants." No "the elves subjected us to the same blackmail that they used on our ancestors and we fell for it AGAIN." No "we're besties with the elves now even though nothing changed."

Screw that. Screw defending the status quo.

The elves messed up big time and they should suffer for it. They should learn that nothing good will come from being so fucking dependent on another species. That if they were so superior, so smart, so powerful, then their beautiful palaces wouldn't break down the second their glorified slaves decided to flip them off.

That withdrawing knowledge has consequences and those consequences cannot be reverted back with a simple "sorry".

That there is such a thing as too little, too late.

5// Blatant lack of cultural appreciation

I feel like I've already talked about this to some extent in 3//, but I need to reiterate: our heroes are not immersed in gnome culture enough. They stay elves through and through. Their visions and bigotry are never challenged and allowed to change. They stay among themselves just like they used to in the Lost Cities. They do not feel the slightest discomfort or change in routine compared to their Lost Cities selves.

And it pisses me off.

The most immersive moment in this entire book is when Calla teaches Sophie how to cook her signature dish. It's in Chapter 54.

But even that moment is ruined by four things:

Sophie is still withdrawing information from Calla, and feels zero guilt about Calla placing her on her fucking will. Hey Sophie? How about you tell Calla that you don't deserve to be on her will because you've been lying to her for an entire month? This was the perfect place for the dam to break, for Sophie to reveal the drakostomes and beg Calla for forgiveness, instead of four chapters later, with Calla accidentally discovering it.

This moment would have never been allowed to exist on its own if it weren't for the revelation that the plague does feed on shadowvapor. I hate that moments with the gnomes are never allowed to just be. The gnomes are constantly pressured to be plot relevant and take as little space as possible, even though elves like Keefe are allowed to be stupid for pages.

Sophie and Calla do not share the meal together. In fact, I'm pretty sure Calla doesn't serve herself a bowl, she makes them for Sophie and her friends. Sophie is said to "almost" want to invite Calla to eat with them, but doesn't because... it's never explained. She has a random thought-hopping on how she let Ruy go and how he may have started this whole thing. And in the next chapter Calla doesn't eat with them. Great 😁👍

On the topic of cultural appreciation and immersion, tell me why (ain't nothing but a heartache)...

Our heroes still wear elvin fancywear when they are literally in gnome territory and in a FOREST?

Our heroes do not cook and clean for themselves?

Our heroes do not interact with Alluveterre gnomes other than Calla?

Our heroes live in detached tree houses instead of with the rest of the population?

Our heroes do not learn how to speak the gnomish tongue?

Our heroes do not learn gnomish songs and stories?

Our heroes do not learn or witness gnomish customs and celebrations?

Our heroes do not learn gnomish skills or gnomish games?

Our heroes do not meet and befriend younger gnomes?

Our heroes do not bow or curtsy to gnomes?

I'm actually going insane over the amount of wasted potential for fun, worldbuilding scenes we missed because Shannon is so insistent on Sophie and friends living above the gnomes.

6// Racial coding and implications

You know what time it is... It's time to address the concerning parallels to our history which are never properly addressed due to Shannon's dismissal of the potential that maybe, just maybe, her gnomes are slaves.

Oh, sorry, are we getting into sensitive territory?

Well, I don't care.

I've been sprinkling allusions to slavery throughout this essay but I'm finally addressing it. The gnomes are, by definition, slaves.

According to a quick research, this is what defines a "slave":

a person who is forced to work for and obey another and is considered to be their property; an enslaved person.

a person who works very hard without proper remuneration or appreciation.

Gnomes were coerced to work for the elves or live in constant danger in the Neutral Territories. The elves never offered the ethically responsible option to the gnomes: we help you find new land and protect you from future attack.

They also work excessively hard. I don't care about Shannon's disgusting insistance upon the gnomes being "workaholic" and needing minimal sleep and sustenance. The gnomes, Lost Cities or otherwise, have shown to have little to no freetime. They are performing tasks that go far beyond "caring for the elves' gardens":

You know what, here's an extract from this post:

"Oh, you know, the gnomes don't do that much. All they do is upkeep the elves' gardens, do their housekeeping chores (e.g. washing Keefe's dirty bed sheets), fabricate prattles & other candies, build houses, decorate said houses, make fancy dresses, build enclosures, reinforce said enclosures, train animals to be vegetarian, install security systems around cities, rebuild cities that got burned down by a salty old man, and basically carry the elves on their back for free. See? Not too much."

And let me insist on the "for free". The gnomes are not remunerated for their labour. They do not get paid in lusters or any other currency. All they get is the elves' "protection", which they should have had from the get go. This is basically blackmail.

And they are completely underappreciated for this unpaid labour that literally carries the Lost Cities, as shown in 3// and 4//. They do not even get basic rights such as voting in Councillors elections or education.

People have already brought up the fact that the gnomes have dark brown skin, which has been justified by some people as "well, they're trees, and tree bark is dark brown." First of all, tree bark is not always dark brown. This source and this one should hopefully give you a glimpse into the sheer variety of colours the gnomes could have had for their skin tones.

Were we simply unfortunate that Shannon doesn't seem interested in describing her non-elvin characters? Probably. Does this have implications? Certainly.

I hope I'm not breaking these news to you, but often characters of colour are overlooked in media, in many areas but one of them is physical descriptions. They either don't get any or not many, or they get very stereotypical and unflattering ones.

Either way they get the shorter end of the stick.

The gnomes (but also the dwarves, who are to a lesser extent victim of the same... icky writing) definitely fall into this category of overlooked appearances. And you can tell this is Shannon's biases and not her writing style, since she will go to great length to create variety within her beautiful elvin characters. Not a single one of them has escaped the attractive physical description.

Shannon, I beg of thee, please describe a gnome as beautiful or handsome in the future. Just once. Same for the dwarves. It's odd to me that only the elves, goblins and ogres, all considered more or less "equals", get to have attractive characters (every elf + Grizel and Brielle + Ro) but the exploited and dark-skinned species doesn't.

Even Sandor is considered an attractive "specimen" in the standards of his own species (Nightfall). So why no gnome? Maybe Flori, or Amisi, or Mitya, or Sior, or Lur? Just. SOMEONE.

And give us more variety, more descriptions of their appearance! Pleaaaaaaaase? Pretty please with cherries on top 🥺????

7// Calla's weird writing

Now, onto addressing the elephant in the room: the "character" of Calla, a walking Mammy stereotype.

Here is a list of Mammy characteristics which Calla falls into:

Elderly, dark-skinned woman: Calla is 4,329 years old, and hasn't been described to have brown skin but since all gnomes do, then so does she. I'm not sure where the wiki got the idea that she has green skin. Gnomes have been described to have green thumbs and teeth, but the rest of their skin/bark is dark brown.

 Idealised figure of a caregiver: Calla is an amazing cook and braids Sophie's hair and sings her lullabies and helps her fall asleep. She gives candy. She is shown to tidy the room at some point.

Amiable, loyal, maternal, non-threatening, obedient, and submissive: though Calla is shown to disobey orders in Chapter 19, and refuses to apologise for it, she was shown more often than not as quite submissive, and only disobeying out of despair.

Her love, doting, advice, correction, and supervision are reserved exclusively for white children: true! In my opinion, Shannon made a huge mistake by introducing Flori in the next book, since it suggests that Calla has been utterly neglectful to her "favourite niece" for the entirety of Neverseen. Calla literally states that her ideal will is one that includes Sophie and her recipe. Where is Flori, in the picture? I don't care that Flori knows the recipe in Lodestar. That's a retcon.

More often than not, is an asexual figure: look, I don't have anything against my asexuals. I long for more asexual representation. But the fact is, Black women, especially those who fall into the Mammy stereotype, are rarely shown to have romantic interests. It's odd that we are introduced to three gnome couples in this book, but Calla seems to have no one she is attracted to, and no one who is attracted to her.

She has no non-white friends: Calla is not shown to have any close friendships with other gnomes. Or any deep relationship, for the matter. She mentions "friends" but they seem more like colleagues. Here's the hard truth: Calla is completely disconnected from the other gnomes. She is closer to elves than gnomes. Why do you think she chooses Havenfield as her resting place, instead of Alluveterre, her home?

Infinite patience: that's a requirement to deal with the amount of entitled bullshit these kids are throwing at you on a daily basis. And to forgive Sophie for hiding such critical knowledge from her for thirty-seven days (yes, I'm repeating myself, but this is a crazy stat and I didn't create a timeline of the book just so I'd use it once).

Lives separately: Calla has her own house built within a tree's trunk. She's also said to live in the forest. Her house is far less fancy and much smaller than the elves' despite this being her land.

Categories which Calla does not fall into: 1) being overweight (because there is only one body type in Shannon's world, and it's skinny), 2) disciplining the kids (because Calla doesn't have authority), 3) sassiness (because Calla doesn't have an actual personality, let alone a sense of humour), 4) self-deprecating wit (that's a Keefe-only character trait).

She is not entirely devoted to her white family exclusively, since she sacrifices herself in the end for the interest of the gnomes.