Especially with the release of The Unwanted Guest, I feel like I see too much focus on the “romantic” (as in idealized and regarding any type of love) message of the series and not enough on what I personally think tazmuir’s actual thesis statement is. We forget that she is a horror author, and I think that is her entire goal. Every set of relationships we’re presented with are codependent, unhealthy, consumptive. Someone is consuming someone they love, someone is being consumed by someone they love. Even if they claim not to, even if they try to find a more “fair” way to do it (ex.: Paul), it’s still what is happening in the end. (Abigail and Magnus are the only exceptions I can think of.) Pyrrha is the only character who seems to recognize this, and she tries so hard to call it out, but no one listens because they think it’s romantic. Because every relationship is either seen as romantic or wretched, both by the characters and by the readers, even though they are all so bad. I think tazmuir is trying to make readers question this. Why do we find certain toxic relationships - like Harrow and Gideon - romantic, but others - like John and Alecto - horrifying? Why is one acceptable but not the other? Where do we draw the line? In regards to TUG, why do we jump from changing each other with love, to consuming each other in its name?

I think this will be even more clear in AtN.

I don’t usually post my own art anymore but

Gideon the ninth was just too too too good

i am just a tiny bit obsessed with this parallel tazmuir the woman that you are <3

i see your “gideon was always an asshole” and raise you “yes she was but also she was property gideon doesn’t feel like she’s her own person gideon doesn’t feel like she has autonomy gideon doesn’t really know what emotions are, she never had anyone to talk to about anything except maybe aiglamene and then this girl who has been nothing but mean to her for her whole life is telling her that she’s her ‘only friend’ and that she is ‘undone without her’ and even if gideon feels the same way imagine how confusing that is for her??? maybe she lets harrows head get hit on the wall because she sucks (girlboss btw) but maybe its also because she doesn’t understand that her own pain-- and by extension, harrow’s-- is serious. she’s been abused and beaten her whole life and when you grow up like that you don’t understand that it’s a big deal. gideon doesn’t understand that she needs things. she just understands when she’s hurting.”

Everyone I've met in this fandom is a decent, kind, wonderful person and so I'm not sure how some of you finished a work about the horrors of consuming one's beloved and the destructiveness of capitalism — and then promptly went off to "jokingly" badger/threaten/nag your favorite author's boss because she isn't providing content fast enough for you?

I'm being overly snarky and I know that in a lot of cases this is just an expression of how excited people are: “Starving for Alecto news” translates to “I'm so excited for the next installment of this series!” But let's maybe work on phrasing? If your post sounds like your parent being passive-aggressive about why the dishes aren't done, maybe take a shot at some edits.

I am also beyond stoked for Alecto but I don't go to a restaurant and bitch at the waiters because the chefs are taking a little too long to get my dessert just right. Good art takes time. Grab a snack.

the naming section explanation of gtn will forever make me laugh my ass off.

‘you should have the trick of the “us” sound by now. if you don’t, it’s fine, nobody cares, it’s a random name in a novel about bonermancy.’

‘“crux” as in “cross”, which is funny in multiple ways.’

‘DIE-ass. i’m sorry, i couldn’t come up with anything better.’

‘and it’s not even accurate! it should be Badtwin and Lessbadtwin’ (rlly just all of corona and ianthe’s sections)

‘as in, i wish naberius would TURN into a bat and fly out the window’ as well as ‘naberius is one of the demon princes of hell. will this mean anything significant later on?? (No.)’

jeannemary being remedies of joan of arc <3

‘i might as well have called jeannmary and isaac “Don’tgetattched” and “Deadsoon.”’

‘“sex” as in “you’d have to be weird to want this with harrow.”’ + all of sextus + cam’s

‘a case of a women you want t exist who really doesn’t. in this essay i will’ THIS FUCKING ONE!!!

‘“Johnny Quickdeath” would’ve also been a good pick.’

Love how in the first half of GtN every single other person in Canaan house is looking at Gideon and going

She’s so TALL and STRONG and SILENT and BADASS with her SUNGLASSES and BLACK ROBES and FACEPAINT and VOW OF SILENCE

And then Gideon’s POV is just

Boobs boobs boobs boobs boobs boobs boobs boobs boobs I fucking hate Harrowhark Nonagesimus boobs boobs boobs boobs boobs

bitches be like 'i don't hate myself' and then go on and read the locked tomb

(Based on this post, which I saw and immediately realized was the perfect meme image to demonstrate this sentiment.)

For all my TLT girlies (gender-neutral), please read Tamsyn Muir's standalone fantasy novella Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower.

There is:

Subversion of classic fairytale tropes

A princess protagonist who starts out just like all the other girls and slowly morphs into a murderous bimbo

A secondary MC who is very Harrow-coded

And a non-binary icon to boost!

Graphic death and violence

General gross stuff

TazMuir's trademark sense of humour

One of my favorite things about the locked tomb is that you just absolutely cannot predict where it's going. The first part of Nona (found in one of the previews) is labeled with "5 Days until the Tomb Opens" and I'm over here like "what the fuck does THAT mean??" Literally it straight up tells you that the tomb opens in 5 days and I still don't know what that means. If Nona turns out to be Alecto that's amazing for me and everyone else who thinks Nona is Alecto, but what then? Literally what happens when we find out who Nona is. What happens when the tomb opens.

Also where is this series even going????? How is Alecto the Ninth going to end literally what ending is this series heading towards. I have no clue. Will we get a Griddlehark happy ever after? Does John die for real? Does Alecto do...something? If anyone has theories about how the series will end please share them because I have no idea. Despite that, I'm sure that whatever end we get, we'll look back to page one of Gideon the Ninth and be like "oh my jod tazmuir is insane she foreshadowed the end of the whole series on page one and we were all too stupid to see it."

Tamsyn Muir made the most unpredictable series ever and yet she foreshadowed everything perfectly. There's a reason Act V of Harrow the Ninth is my favorite section in any book ever. It connects the insane, batshit crazy plot of Harrow and wraps it up in a nice bow. What I guess I'm saying is that Tamsyn Muir could tell us straight up how it ends and nobody would get it until it actually happened. This series is absolutely 100% unpredictable until tazmuir pulls it all together in the end and I love it.

do yall have any authors who feel similar to tamsyn muir? i am devouring everything i can find by her because her writing grabs me in a way no one else’s does, but im quickly running out of anthology short stories to satiate myself with

With Larian no longer working on D&D, my impossible, pie-in-the-sky dream would be a Larian-produced Locked Tomb game.

The story would follow Matthias/Mattea Nonius and their necromancer (insert name here). It's presented as a tale rather than the actual true story, so they can get away with a lot of canon deviations. Ortus and Harrow provide the narration, with Ortus being the dominant narrator by default and Harrow interjecting about how that's not what actually happened. Though the more cynical and underhanded your actions, the more Harrow interjects about the true, gritty history (or at least, Harrow's edgy interpretation of it).

Characters include a Third Cavalier who is basically just Astarion again, a Seventh necromancer who has a gimmick that stops their heart for a turn (effectively killing them, though they get better), and a BOE prisoner of war who ends up fighting alongside the others out of necessity not because she likes you or anything baka.

Also, there's a secret "Gideon Mode," unlockable if the story goes completely off the rails.

If you need a TLT nutrition drink for the brainrot...

Reading through The Deepwater Bride & Other Stories by our girl Tazmuir has been fascinating.

You know, everything from a magician's mentor named John and heralds that prelude eldrich terrors, to mysterious names being referred to as Letter-Em Dash (as in "A—"), and girls in caves surrounded by water.

Princess Floralinda 2 News!!

Found another new Tamsyn interview (from Fall 2022)! It’s short, and not really about TLT. But drops THIS news I haven’t seen anywhere else: Floralinda 2 will be called “Queen Floralinda Takes Her Throne.”👸🏼 No word on the release date.

the unwanted guest: the real treasure was the friends we ate along the way <3