Oh pal! Do you have different earrings or just the one? Whend you get it done?

I know that all the names of The Locked Tomb Series have a lot of deep meaning but I just love the Seventh house. Like, the way you can figure out the plot twist just by reading the names. (Spoilers for Gideon the Ninth).

Dulcinea is named after Dulcinea del Toboso from El Quijote. The titular Quijote lives in a fantasy world due to reading too many books about Knights, so he starts imagining the world around him as the one from his books. He kinned too close to the sun. Dulcinea del Toboso is his lady love, the most perfect woman in existence. Obviously Don Quijote's "squire" Sancho Panza doesn't believe Dulcinea exists. She's part of Quijote's fantasy. So to try to snap him out of it he brings him a peasant woman named Aldonza Lorenzo, ugly and stinky, saying it's Dulcinea. Quijote assumes she must be under some curse and bows to free her (he never gets to). So obviously when I read Dulci's name in Gideon the Ninth and she turns out to be too perfect to be real...yeah, I figured out that wasn't the real necromancer from the seventh. Tbf, I'm from Spain so Dulcinea immediately triggers my second grade memories.

Protesilaus. This one's crazier and I didn't get it until the end of the book. You see the name sounded familiar and I was sure it was from some Greek myth or tragedy. Turns out in the Iliad the Oracle tells the Greeks that the first man to set foot on Troy would die. That's why Odysseus jumped on his shield to not "set foot on trojan soil". Protesilaus was the first one to actually disembark and, as such, was killed. Just like TLT protesilaus was the first one to die (protecting Dulci). Also in some versions of the story his wife, wracked with grief, asks the gods to see her beloved again. The gods take pity on her and allow her five minutes, after which they both die. This reminds me of how the real Protesilaus was brought back by Harrow's bubble, created by her grief for Gideon.

Cytherea is another name for Aphrodite and Gideon's very obvious lust aside, this tracks too. Not only is Cytherea described as really beautiful, she's a Lyctor which makes her godlike. It's also her love for her cavalier that makes her lose her head a bit. And even while she's Killing everyone in Canaan House she makes it a point to state that she still loves all of the contestants. She even admits to still loving John (much like Mercymorn). Also, the one that finds out she's not who she says she is is the man in love with the real Dulcinea.

Gotta love Tamsyn spoiling her book with names. This series is so fucking good.

GtN and HtN spoilers!! CW: talk of not having control over your body

just randomly thought of this now so excuse my incoherentness or possible ignorance or if anyone has said this before (this is also my first ever tumblr post so sorry for formatting errors), but i was looking at fanart of cytherea the first and just loving it. i realized there’s just something so baroque about her, and i think that’s on purpose. because she’s of the 7th house yes, the emperor’s joy and all that, but also because she’s a woman, and also because she’s dying. she’s expected to be beautiful because of her affiliation and her gender, all while she’s decaying from a disease that she was doomed to be born with and could never escape until it ultimately killed her. wilting away infront of everyone. and the ENTIRE time, she was given roses. roses, the pinnacle of beauty. every single rose she was given had a meaning, a life. and every single rose died. inevitably, wilting away infront of her. reminding her of her own fragile, ‘beautiful’ self. and even after she was dead, she was laid to rest drowned in roses that were modified to stay perpetually fresh, along with her body (i think) ((which of course john would do, after reading nona i’m not surprised)). not even eternally asleep could she catch a break. i think tamsyn muir was saying something here about how the ‘ideal woman is a dead one’. she is silent, still, and malleable. that’s what she pretended to be in canaan house. but i don’t think she ever could truly be. she was too angry. too enraged. also the fact that she became a lyctor in hopes she could be cured but just ended up suffering in a stagnant state of sickness for thousands of years, the fact that she was purposely given this disease. the fact that john LIED. lied to everyone. lied to HER. before her life, during her life, and after her life, things were done to her body without her informed consent. her cancer being almost prophetic, her unknowing improper lyctoral ascension, and the possesion of her empty shell of a body. (also it being used as a medium for pyrrha and wake is a whole other thing) she IS the rage of not having control over your own body. i think, ultimatley, that’s what her character is about. i mean, i’m pretty sure harrow stabbing The Sword™️ INSIDE her unwilling corpse was probably a metaphor or something…

“we take so much. i’m so sorry.”

(again i just thought of this thirty minutes ago so feel free to add anything 🙏) ((i also wonder how this parallels dulcinea and her life but it’s 1 am and i don’t feel like thinking anymore. but i think we’ll learn more about her in alecto.))

the art that inspired this was a beautiful cytherea and harrow drawing by pygmypouter on tumblr!

this was really quickly done so not the best quality, but I was relistening to the audiobook and just HAD to draw this scene 👁

the unwanted guest made an unrepairable damage to my soul

Little over 100 pages into GtN, and I have to say, I really love Dulcinea!! She might be my favorite character besides Gideon, she’s just so interesting.

iii / vi / vii / ix

I may have fallen a bit too deep BUT.

The Houses.

Exploring

throw her a bone

For that one user that said Gideon needed to be bigger, you are dead right and I proudly present exhibit g(a)y

Hey Harrow! Do you draw at all? Could be anything from people to bones to architecture!

And does anybody else draw anything? I know Cam does, but who else? And would any of you be willing to share your most recent or favorite drawings?

why dont you do arts and crafts for 5 hours and then youll calm down

Anybody remember this show?

Welcome to the gun show >:y

nona the ninth / the unwanted guest

wanted to sketch something fun