#given the marlovan culture and their practice of beating boys as often as it can physically be taken it is godsdamn impressive how 'well' an | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

greatshell-rider · 2 years

Text

i forgot about barend being an artist but

Barend snorted, rubbing his nose on his sleeves, then went back to his sketching; it wasn’t just horses anymore. Barend drew ships, in amazing detail. Sponge admired the ability, but secretly wished Barend would return to drawing horses. Horses were alive, beautiful. Ships were boring.

...

When Sponge pulled away, Barend got shakily to his feet. He was home, all right. And he could sketch all he wanted, pretending his mind was out there on the water, skimming before the wind, but he knew he was here, and winter would be long and full of pain and fear.

was sure the hell of a reminder

#from drawing horses to ships #thinks about how marlovans are obsessed with their horses and their horses are the most vital part of their warrior society #thinks about how the horses represent ties to the land and to marlovan culture and how in drawing ships it represents barend's longing for t #the freedom of the seas and yea that one's obvious BUT then adding on the experiences of inda and fox. also marlovans with honestly much str #stronger personal connections to the land (fox eventually less so #but he was obsessed with getting revenge/becoming king for a wee bit iirc) and how at first ships/the sea/becoming pirates might not seem as #freeing for them as it is so blatantly for barend #yes for fox going to sea allowed him to learn the sword and practice his knife skills and all that but! it goes further than that!#im thinking about how inda's goodbye to tdor was snappy and rude AND CONSTANTLY COMPARED TO TANRID'S OWN BEHAVIOR #tanrid who had been beating on inda all that winter so inda was picking up his bad manners particularly then in the face of excitement/relie #relief offered by his return to the academy. thus why he was a binch to tdor #but the important bit is! inda was becoming like tanrid. even if only for a small/short bit. inda! of all the guys!#inda favored by his mother. inda who never sought violence nor glory. inda only ever wanting the best for his friends. etc etc #given the marlovan culture and their practice of beating boys as often as it can physically be taken it is godsdamn impressive how 'well' an #anyone fuckin turns out. (especially sponge with the added pressures of being a prince ahem that's off topic)#it's little wonder tanrid turned out the way he did. it takes only a little wonder and speculation to see inda becoming a much harsher and #harder person than he turned out to be had he stayed in iasca leror all his life and trained in the academy until he was grown #key word HAD. my boy went to sea! and in the same manner as fox and barend it FREED him. from the brutality of marlovan society. for years #he had to HIDE being a marlovan. he had to learn a whole new way of fighting and tactics. on sea rather than on horseback #it did what the sierandael feared all along: taught him to look and think in different ways than typical marlovan teachings. taught him to #be independent. (relatively. ofc inda still struggled with the chain of command shit when evred ordered him to conquer the strait aha.)#to not be so blindly obedient as is literally beaten into boys as children. going to sea SAVED inda and changed him perhaps dramatically #than what he might've been had he stayed at the academy. and for fox yeah initially he was always so full of anger over the injustice done #to his ancestors that still heavily punishes him and his family today and so he was threatening to be a hashtag problem at home #but being on sea for so long as a pirate and with inda certainly fuckin changed the guy (gay ass bitch (affectionate))#as we see by the end of the series when he settles down in his family's prison for a few years not causing civil unrest before quietly #fucking off to norsunder (holds head in hands)#anyway #ships and horses amiright #inda quartet

0 notes