BTW.

Liesel and Aadhya are 100% part of the polycule in that IT IS CANON that “school allies” is its own specific kind of relationship for indie kids in this setting. They are all basically queerplatonic partners. It is canon. Naomi said it. Right up there next to marriage.

I love how Liesel is to El what El is to Orion. Someone who forcibly yanks them from the scruff of their neck away from a cliff with sound logic and higher intellect when they’re about to stupidly jump off.

God, imagine Orion telling the kiddos at the new Scholomance about his cool and scary girlfriend, who hunts the monsters even other monsters are scared of. She looks into the mawmouths, these impossible things made of eyes and mouths, and tells them, "You Are Already Dead".

El thinks the work ahead of her will be difficult because people don't want to believe her about mawmouths and enclaves being connected, and that's absolutely true. But I would bet that between the network she already has (between Aadhya and Liesel, not to mention Shangfeng's influence) and the next generation, it'll be a lot harder to keep that secret under wraps.

Not to mention she has her father's family working with the sutras, she mentions two cousins who are experts in Vedic Sanskrit incantations, and given their family history with having had a Golden Stone enclave in the past, they likely have knowledge of artifice and suchlike that can work with them. If anyone can build off the originals and make the Golden Stone enclaves better than modern ones, I'm putting my money on her family.

Yeah, I think she's in a stronger position than she realizes.

Rereading the scholomance series, and on the bit after El and Orion have their first time and wow.

Orion knows so so well there's something incredibly wrong with him, from the way he seems to have been avoiding getting more intimate with El bc he fears feeding on her mana (the implication it was this from the start of his mana starvation on senior year, not just the general risks El fears) to how he breaks down sobbing right after they have sex because she's the only (first) right (human) thing he ever wanted, and he explains he only ever wanted to hunt mals and suck their mana since he was little so he doesn't resent his parents for letting him do that (and he knows exactly what el thinks of that but orion is grateful, bc yeah. mawmouth-boy amalgama he needed it) (and the were desperate to make him more normal, except in golden enclaves we discover they're at fault orion is like this and wow.) and how he knows going fucking nuclear on the Shanghai Enclaves and co who tried to murder El wasn't normal, and that it unsettled El. I love that he remembered that it scared her, bc he doesn't want to, and tht after the incident he thought on it all and decided he didn't want to be that kind of guy.

I mean, getting angry and trying to reflexively retaliate when someone tries to murder you and El (whom he adores) I get it, most of us aren't heroine El Higgins as much as she likes to pretend she isn't, but that scene lasted more than just the moment, El got her giant shield, and then Orion demonstrated he's got a fucking nasty temper and a reflex for going to inflict gruesome violence, after taking the most chilling seconds on book canon trying to process just what almost happened to them both, but mostly El on his PoV. El tried to redirect him like twice and he went back to try very intently to have his chance offing Yuyan, Zixuan and Co, the second one when Magnus came with New York and the rest of allied enclaves thanks to Liesel and wwiii magician versión almost gets off was O.o, until El threatens everybody with mass destruction which brought back Orion to the world of, oh yah my scary girlfriend who could kill everyone in this room including myself is awesome. Dude.

It's the way you end reading all that scene and their conversation almost at the end of the book, and you feel El is not getting what Orion is trying to say, missing that there is something really really wrong with him. Because I think senior year Orion has had no choice but notice all the ways he doesn't make sense, and the way he seems to always need more mana from mals so much he starts looking mad to the outsiders and not caring for anything else (I think it feels to him like executive disfunction in that he gets into a loop of "I should be doing homework x but I can't bc I first need to hunt mals except I can't find any so I'm tired so I can't do anything") , to the point he starts fearing taking El's which almost happens in the library if not for Precious (hello??? rereading that having read the golden enclaves sent chills through my skin, holy shit) and I think he must have noticed by then. Because Orion is simultaneously more observant and more out of touch than he seems on first impression.

Agh no wonder he decides to stay behind and disappear into the void with the Scholomance, I wonder if face to face with mawmouths and his own almost lost of sense of himself to the rush of mal-mana consumption right at the end of The Last Graduate he realiced what he must be and just. Choose it as the only option so as to not go mad and hurt(eat) El. Must have killed him.

No, given The Golden Enclaves I'm sure this is exactly what happened. Orion needs a hug so so badly.

And then he passes that last book lost on the hunger, then goes through a grueling purification to bring back what's left of his sense of self and humanity, with the knowledge that hes more like a mawmouths but back (but still a monster inside) , discovering his mother did this to him after killing hundreds of kids actually, and she may love to get her hands on El and use her (which Orion isn't thrilled about), and the enclaves may go to war in wwiii magic version (this time for real) , and you know, no wonder he quits trying to stay (alive, as a person) a quarter to end or so of The Golden Enclaves.

I love him, I want his perspective on a spin off novella or something after canon, bc it has to be the most weird mix of super transparent and also heartbreakingly sad and heartwarming once you read between the lines, and because I want his super subjective PoV on Galadriel because he loves her so so much in both the adorkable teenagy way and in a "you've saved my life and existence and the world makes sense bc of you" which has to scare them both a bit. Also Orion PoV on the rest of characters now he isn't blinded by the hunger and he can actually interact with others and have interests of his own. Fascinated by his possible hobbies.

Relationship struggles in the scholomance series

Ibrahim looking at Orion :😍

El to Jacob : stop your boyfriend from falling in love with my boyfriend

Liesel seducing El :😮‍💨🙄😤😏😏😎　

Orion to Alfee : are you just going to watch your girlfriend seduce my girlfriend ?! No!! El!! please don't fall for her again!!

Khamis tugging Nkoyo's right arm : she's too good to be your friend

El tugging Nkoyo's left arm ( teeth nashing ) : Oh yeah ?! Well I think she's too good to be your girlfriend

I love El's character growth in the books so much. I love how my girl goes from:

"If I bust my ass even more and prove my worth and maybe beg, perhaps, just maybe, if I'm lucky and Aadhya takes pity on my soul and if the stars align and I work hard enough, perchance Aadhya and Liu will want to help me"

to

"I don't know what the fuck to do, where is my girlfriend so I can ask her."

Just want to say thank you for carrying the entire Scholomance fandom on your back. I check the tag every other day and you always have a new post or something and I appreciate it a lot

It's me!! I have finally become that One Obsessed Fan that fuels the fires of fandom by just being That Into It.

Thank you, friend, that is very kind of you x3

Honestly, I'm just desperate to talk about it. At all times, I am rotating my blorbo Galadriel in my head. The feelings have to go somewhere.

(also, there is someone writing a WHOLE ASS musical in the tags, so I feel I can't take all the credit here. A WHOLE ASS MUSICAL!)

What drives me insane about the fandom’s reaction to the El/Liesel storyline in TGE, is that. Listen.

Percico, in the PJO fandom, has a major popular fic, whose entire plot centers around Percy cheating on his girlfriend with Nico. I loathe that fic. I hate it so much. I despise it. I do not actually like seeing gay ships going canon on the basis of cheating, because cheating storylines ARE THE ACTUAL WORST. The fic murdered Percy’s character (he would not fucking do that), it disrespects his relationship with Annabeth (HE WOULD NOT FUCKING DO THAT), and in doing so cheapens and spoils the relationship with Nico which I’m here to read about.

El/Liesel was not fucking that.

I love this polycule. I really do.

El is like, “I will do the right thing, BUT I WILL BE MAD ABOUT IT THE WHOLE TIME.” Orion says, “I will do the right thing to help my girlfriend :)”

Liesel is all, “I will do the right thing and pretend the whole time is for strictly logical, pragmatic reasons”

AND ONLY ALPHIE is over there like, shoving the dead corpse of his colonialist maw-mouth making grandpa in the closet, and proclaiming he will do the right thing BECAUSE IT IS RIGHT.