I'm Sobbing "any Remaining Fans"

SOPHIE'S TRAUMA (Or lack thereof)

Something that's always irked me about TCY is how flippant Sophie is toward references to Rafal. This old ass bitch groomed and took advantage of her, manipulated and brainwashed her with the Swan Gold, and by the Ever-Never Handbook she's talking about him like he’s an unfortunate ex and not, you know, a fucking monster.

In TLEA it is specifically stated that Sophie is terrified of Rafal before he gives her his ring. Even after that, she makes numerous comments on feeling unsafe around him. There's no denying that she was affected by Rafal's behavior during the time they were together, so why is he written off as another guy Sophie couldn't keep? Why does Rafal become a punchline from the Handbook forward, not even a year after his death?

To put it simply: Sophie was taken advantage of by an older man. She showed obvious signs of how this was negatively affecting her in TLEA. It's safe to assume that she would gain some sort of trauma from this, but such is never exploited in QFG onwards.

Sure, Sophie is a very frivolous person, so her making a joke at the expense of an ex or commenting on how he's “still hot” doesn't come unexpected. But Rafal isn’t a Tedros or a Hort or even a Rhian. Sophie was never actually in love with Rafal—she thought he was hot as a teenager, yeah, but her romantic feelings for him were made up by the ring, and the rest was about her desire to become Evil’s queen and her jealousy toward Tagatha.

It’s like… shouldn’t the memory of Rafal affect Sophie in some way outside of, “yeah he was evil but at least he was hot”, or whatever? Isn’t there a chance that maybe the reason she was happy on her own at the end of TLEA was because being with Rafal had scared the concept of having a prince out of her? And that her lunging for the first cute boy she sees in QFG is completely out of character?

Trauma and grief affect people differently. I’m not going to pretend to be a psychology major when I’m not. I can’t speak from personal experience, but I can confidently say that Sophie “getting over” Rafal as quickly as she did felt shallow and lazy.

The closest thing to a reaction at the mention of Rafal that we see from Sophie is her comparing theSnake to him in QFG and getting a little unnerved. I find it bizarre that Sophie’s pretty much moved on from the whole ordeal not even a year later.

The argument that displaying a character suffering from trauma in a children’s book is inappropriate doesn’t work here, either, because Soman’s already written the toxic relationship she would be suffering trauma from into the damn book. That’s not to mention Tedros getting tortured in book 2, Callis getting burnt at the stake, Sophie being brutalized and left to die by the Elders—seriously, I could go on for years about the things that aren’t “suitable for a M.G. novel” in this series.

In fact, I believe it would be important to show Sophie having nervous or negative reactions toward references to Rafal. It would display the damage a relationship like theirs can have on a person, and then maybe less 12 y/o’s would find Rafal and Raphie less hot.

This can be applied to more than just Sophie, too. Literally every character in this series has lost a parent or guardian. Tedros was tortured, Sophie died in book 1, Agatha watched these horrible things happen to her friends… the list goes on. It amazes me that not one character has mourned or shown grief for a dead character or has had a breakdown over the immense amount of shit they’ve been through. Callis is mentioned maybe three times over the course of TCY. It’s insane.

Is this comprehensible? I’m not sure. It’s vvv late but I need to get these thoughts out.

Bottom line: I don’t think the Sophie/Rafal situation was handled well post-TLEA, and the representation of the trauma these kids undoubtedly should have is nonexistent.

The original: Constantine

The remix: Call

The cheap knock off: Alex

Made a twitter thread of the brushes and textures I use!! Wanted to share them here too

Links for everything can be found here

Was thinking abt Tedros's talent and why he never had one in the books (thank Kate for making me wonder abt this stuff) and...it would've been really funny if Tedros has a Talent but no one knows he does because it has nothing to do with fighting or swordplay or being the future of Camelot.

Like his Talent being something like proficiency with musical instruments or singing. Talking to birds or other small creatures. Growing plants. Tedros being a disney princess would've been his peak character trait and also hilarious.

do you ever wonder about the function of academic subjects in SGE? like: how does studying literature work if their stories are limited to actual, real-life fairy tales? do people even write fiction (also applies to gavaldon. are their only stories the ones in the fairytales. that's so sad)? is studying literature equivalent to studying history?

and yes, in the school for good and evil, it must be important to learn the practical skills: how to use magic and conduct yourself and stay alive. but what about critical thinking?

ANYWAY. this is my segway into the AU where august sader starts teaching media literacy, gets the students to question the stories, the system & the school master [basically what sophie & agatha do in the first book. good and evil as friends; as equals. but done by an Actual Adult], and overturns the underlying beliefs that govern the world of SGE.

also: inclusive education. i have a lot of thoughts about sader as a blind student during his school days, and how that shapes his teaching philosophy.

also: good teachers!! i similarly have a lot of thoughts about how sader must genuinely love history & how he might enable his students to do the same.

Pt. 6

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miles is taller than 42-miles because of his spider bite. This is like when your younger brother have a grow spurt and now are slightly taller than you.

MAGISTERIUM FANDOM LISTEN TO ME

Now that all six of us are here, I have a very important announcement

On september 9 this year, it's the ✨10 year✨ anniversary of TIT

So idk, maybe we could so smth. Maybe we could collectively share how this series ruined our lives or draw or smfh

Reblog to gain traction!

@ashpkat

@wuffgang-ameowdeus-moozart

@quilleily

Tagatha modern clothes

Agatha’s mom is a doctor right?? that makes her rich lol