as someone who studies at home a lot and who has a housemate who will start playing the guitar at random moments i would like us all to stop romanticising Will playing the mandola randomly at the cabin. alyss has things to do and us work from home girlies are tired of it.

Halt in a room with Will, Gilan and Horace: It’s calm in here. 

Halt: It scares me…

Find the Ranger(s) LOL

Why have I not seen LITERALLY ANYONE talk about how in Erak’s Ransom, when Will saves the group, Horace yells “Will!!” And holds up his tied hands AND WILL SHOOTS IT AND FREES HIM??? LIKE THAT WAS SO COOL WHY DO WE NEVER TALK ABOUT THAT????? The fact that, number one, Horace knew Will was skilled enough to do it, number two, Horace TRUSTED Will not to shoot his hand, number three, Will understood what Horace wanted him to do, and finally, the fact that WILL WAS ABLE TO DO IT IN THE FIRST PLACE?? Now obviously rangers are very trained and blah blah blah but THATS STILL BADASS????

EVERY DAMN Ranger's Apprentice after 10 seconds of silence:

Canon Things I think people forget too much

Halt never, ever goes by Halt O'Carrick.

Redmont was the only fief we know of with an established Ward.

Most of the Diplomatic Corps is comprised of men--Pauline DuLacey's contributions at Redmont are the exception, not the rule.

Will is canonically stated to be a better ranger and better shot than Halt by the time he's established with his silver oakleaf.

Feel free to add more!!

Something I love about the way Flanagan writes villains is how he just lets them be evil. So many authors and directors try so hard to have “realistic” villains; poor, broken people who have been pushed too far. Those villains can be great and all, but holy shit, if an antagonist’s agonizing backstory only exists for the sake of making a bad guy’s character ‘believable’, it often makes the story clunky.

Flanagan never tries to explain his villains or justify their actions. There’s no “you know, maybe we’re not so different” moments between hero and villain. Morgarath wanted to take over Araluen because he was power hungry. Keren wanted to seize Mackindaw because he had an inflated ego. Jory Ruhl kidnapped children because he wanted money. These are some of the most shallow motives for villains, and I love it. Honestly, I think these are actually more realistic than the ‘morally-grey misguided soul’ type of villain. Do you have any idea the fucking atrocities that are committed for money or power or even just so some guy can jack himself off? A fucking lot.

And I absolutely love the effect it has on the overall story. There’s no wasted time on the main characters learning to understand the villain, no ethical dilemma someone has a breakdown over, no cheesy sob stories. All of those tropes are great in their own stories, of course, but I’m sick and tired of stories that clearly just want to be action and/or adventure getting a shallow moral lesson shoehorned into it because the author got marked down in their high school English class for not being ‘realistic enough’.

Flanagan knows what he wants his stories to be about, and he lets those stories be what they want to be. The rare moments where he gives his villains some deeper motives never convolute the character, but enhance them. Love it.

Halt be getting karma, especially after the ah, short skirts comment. Actually, never mind. He was just messing around and trying to keep the poor boy's innocence.

Though, that was kinda ripped away fast.

halt doodle

[During The Siege of Macindaw]

Horace: What time is it?

Will: I don't know, pass me my mandola and we'll find out.

Will: *plays mandola loudly and out of tune*

Xander: WHO THE FUCK IS PLAYING THE LUTE AT TWO IN THE MORNING?!

Will: It's 2am

Crowley didn't get the chance to see Cassandra as a queen

Halt: I called you like ten times! Why didn’t you pick up?  Crowley: *remembers dancing to the ringtone*  Crowley: I didn’t hear it.

Will's first day of the ranger apprenticeship.

I love the scene when Halt is reading some reports, he's musing to himself and Will starts asking him questions. And Halt, for the first time, actually answers them :]

Did we ignore the fact that it’s canon that Halt made Will sleep in a tree once. (For context this was said in the sorcerer of the north) when Will came up with Greybeard Halt, Halt hated it so much that he had Will spend all night in a tree. Can we imagine this for a second. Like 15-16 year old Will, pulling out this mandola at random times as soon as Halt speaks, and starts singing at the top of his lungs “GREYBEARDHALTISAFRIENDOFMINE”. And he must have done this so many times that Halt was so fed up that he forces Will up a tree. And I think it would make it even funnier if he chased him up a tree and Will was so terrified of what would happen if he came down that he just stayed up there

Round 1, Poll 10: Keeper of the Lost Cities vs The Ranger's Apprentice

KotLC is incredibly popular right now, but Ranger's Apprentice still has staying power and supporters; I'm really not sure about this one!

Remember to reblog for a bigger sample size!

Character Sketch Series: Gilan