Last Podcast On The Left - LPN Deep Dives: A Court of Thorns and Roses / Episode 1: This Poor Provincial Town

Episode Date: February 22, 2023

LPN's Deep Dives makes it's much anticipated return with a brand new series!Join Natalie Jean (Some Place Under Neath) and Jackie Zebrowski (Page 7) as they titilate your earholes with their comprehensive "deep dive" style breakdowns of the popular adult fantasy novel series by Sarah J. Maas - A Court of Thorns and Roses.We find ourselves meeting a spirited young woman who can do both: shoot arrows and paint. This is our introduction to Feyre Archeron and her trek past the wall to the Spring Court. For episode 2 read one page in to Chapter 31 (page 269 in the paperback edition).

LPN Deep Dives presents A Court of Thorns and Roses with Natalie Jean and Jackie Zabrowski. It began with a cauldron, a mighty black cauldron held by glowing slender female hands in a starry endless night. Those hands tipped it over, golden sparkling liquid pouring out over the lip. No, not sparkling, but effervescent, with small symbols, perhaps of some ancient fairy language. Whatever was written there, whatever it was, the contents of the cauldron were dumped into the void below, pooling on the earth to form our world. Excerpt by Sarah J. Moss from a court of thorns and roses. Oh my god, we're already harmonizing. It wasn't. That wasn't harmony at all. It's beautiful. Wow, welcome. I'm Natalie Jean. I'm Jackie Zabrowski. Episode one of LPN Deep Dives,

A Guitar. Oh my god, and on the table, yes, I do have my Court of Thorns and Roses with all of my tabs on it. I don't have tabs, but I have. You don't have any tabs, not one tab. Look at all these folds. Look at all the tabs that I've got. Yep, we really read a book, didn't we? This goes to show it. How many tabs you have, though, shows how smart you are. I'm sorry, Natalie. You kind of lose this one. My dog ears don't count. Nope, your dog ears count for nothing, except for ruining the book. Do you ever get yelled at? I used to get yelled at for dog ear and books. Oh yeah, actually, I broke one of my best friends I broke up with. I felt like our the direct difference between us is that I like to show a book love by ripping it up and no right

in it. And she showed love by keeping them pristine. And I realized that was one of our opposites, you know, but opposites attract and sometimes they detract. Whoa, Court of Thorns and Roses, is this a story about that? I have no idea. Yes, so forewarning, we're going, this is going to be a bit of a media episode because we have to get into the whole baseline of this entire world in this episode. This episode is doing a lot of heavy pooling, everybody. It certainly is. Well, especially, and if you're familiar with fantasy, that always happens with fantasy, or sci-fi, the beginning of it, there's a lot of ground to cover. So get ready, get your lawns up, and I'm not talking about your bushes. Get them ready because we've got ground to cover.

That was the roundabout way to say ground to cover. You're playing the Sims a lot these days. I've been playing the Sims a lot. Okay. So yeah, we're just going to get right into it. We can't do too much chit-chatting at the top because we've got a lot to do in this series. So we're going to go ahead and just create the book open. Oh my God, it's a tune. Mine's an old book. I blew the dust off it. When we create it open, we're faced with this map at the top of the before we see any other words. So we're told from right from the top of this story that this ain't your mama's earth. It's a different kind of earth. Now, quick question for you. Do you usually look at the maps because when I first start the book, I don't look at the map. Interesting. I don't want to

know anything. I go into it blind. Oh, I definitely look at the maps. I did that with Game of Thrones books. I studied them even though I didn't know what they were. I don't know. I think I learned that way better. Okay, I'm a visual learner over here. But then do you go back and reference it, right? Oh, I go back and I look. Yeah. So we got this map. I don't know about how any of you read it, but I definitely check it out. And we are looking at a place called Prithian. It is sort of on the western side of the map. And there's an island called High Bird and a bunch of little bitty territories. I wonder what's going on in there. We don't know yet. Don't know yet. On the east side, we see a much larger corner of land as though we're only seeing the edge of perhaps a

continent. What do we take away from the very top? Well, we see that there is an area called the mortal lands and the fairy realms. And they are bisected by a big old line called the wall. And this ain't your game of thrones, wall. No, it's a different wall. It's a different wall. Different wall, different kind of wall. Okay. All right. So the mortal lands are in the south, fairy realms are in the north as well. And already the fairy world is sounding a lot cooler. We get the lands, they get realms. It's not fair. No, it's not. No. As the book opens, we're seeing things from the eyes of a young woman named Pharah, which thankfully Sarah works a clever pronunciation of this name onto page 13 of the paperback because I probably would have been calling her

fair. Fair the entire time. Fair. Yeah. If not for the way that she works that into the story. So also, by the way, everyone, for pronunciations, we're going to go off of the audiobooks and or Sarah an interview. So you go ahead and blame them if you don't like the way we say the words. Preithian. Preithian. But we know Pharah is Pharah full show. Yeah. So this book is told from first person. So we're only getting it from the view of Pharah's eyeballs. Very much a subjective view. I really liked it. A lot of times in fantasy, I don't, I personally don't read a lot that are in first person. So it's kind of fun to be like super in the head, especially after all the things that Pharah gets into. Oh, I love being in her head then. I'd rather be in her body, but we don't

go into that. You wait, man. Once the VR starts, when a court of thorns that roses me yard, please. Oh, yeah. I'll never come back to reality. I know it's going to be a problem. But you know, that's what I would like to spend my twilight years doing. Like if I'm eight years old, your vampire years. There's no vampires in this world. Sorry, there's no vampire. Not one single vampire is in this book. There are no high school going old vampires in this book. No, there's no school in this. No, thank God. No, Pharah is not in school. In fact, she is in a forest hunting for dinner for her family when she spots a deer in this punishing winter forest. That's where we meet her. We're walking into her world. Hello, Pharah. She's psyched because

her family's not doing super great. And this is possibly the only food they're going to get. So they're desperate. Suddenly, as she's about to take this deer down with her epic bow and arrow skills, by the way, this book was conceived of around 2009. So it was prior to the Hunger Games movies, but after the 2008 book Hunger Games. So I'm not really clear if she was aware of Katniss, but I don't think she was. No, I don't think that she was. Because I think sometimes people are like, oh, this is Hunger Games. No, it's very different from Katniss. They are two very distinct characters. The only way that you can compare the two is up top here. Yes. This is like really their only, I would say, comparison moment. So she's about to take this deer down

and a large wolf appears that's acting kind of strangely. And she's very scared. So in the fear that this wolf is something from the fey world, she decides to use this one precious object she has an ash arrow to shoot the wolf. According to her, ash wood is one of the only known things that can easily kill a fairy in this realm in this world. So the wolf oddly doesn't really seem to put much of a fight up and she manages to take this big old beast to the ground. And so she's now gotten this deer and this wolf and she's like, fuck yeah, man, I got food for my family. And I also have this big wolf that's kind of scary. I don't know what to do with it. He's too big. I'm going to take the skin. She goes and skins that big old wolf in order to sell it in her

local village for some cash. No, it's a very it's a very sad up top in Feyre's world. I think that this is really goes to show like at this point of the book, usually when I read fantasy, I try and find immediately like, am I just like the first am I like the protagonist? And I am not. I don't identify as a Feyre, especially with the whole like killing things and like taking care of her family. I don't think that I just so much she's got to take care of. She really is. As we'll learn here shortly, she's got a lot of responsibilities. Yeah, for just a babe. She's like 18, 19 at this. She is 19 years old. So when she arrives home, we get our first glimpse of her family and we learn that she has two sisters and we understand from this point that they have a certain dynamic

with each other. Her sister's names are Elaine and Nista. Though Feyre is the one out there fending for the family, we learn that both sisters are actually older than her. Her father is the other person in this home with them. He is described as maimed and mentally broken from losing their family's fortune from a bad investment many years. Aren't most fathers like that though? I feel like I could have described my father like that, you know, just mentally broken. I mean, definitely from a certain generation. Yeah. He I mean, emotionally maimed and mentally broken. Yeah, that's that's daddy. And he did go out and sail the seas trying to win fortunes. Oh man, yo ho ho. It was more the bottle of rum than the yo ho ho part. I have father issues. But

so does Feyre. It's one of the things we identify with. Tell me who doesn't. I'm sure some people do. I just I think all of our friends do. That's how you get into comedy. So she is the one who's like providing for the family at this point is what we're learning. She reminisces over the instance that causes her father's maiming in this first chapter, which is creditors came to shatter his leg because he must made a bad investment. And they're like, Well, instead of money, we're going to take it out in your blood, I guess. They were bad men. They did beats town. They were bad men. They did do beats town. And as fair as reminiscing, we kind of get the dynamic of the family by her remembering that nested Elaine ran and hid in that moment. And Feyre remained next

to her father begging them to stop even though she was kind of powerless as a very young girl. It's also crazy too, because it's an interesting dynamic between you know that someone that I'm assuming she has sisters, because it is it's an interesting dynamic as the youngest that she has the power and the responsibilities. Feyre is the youngest of the three. And as someone that is the youngest in my personal family, I know none of the responsibilities go to me. You want me to kill a wolf? Nah, I'm just gonna be over here doing drugs and getting in trouble. But nobody cares because you're the youngest. Can you imagine supposed to do they sent young Jackie out into Queens to find food for the family bad. Oh, someone feed me. It's just going to be me going

somebody feed me shaking my breast somebody feed me. I mean, that's that's work. Yeah, yeah. You would have told some yucks, you know. Yeah, and given some yucks. Good. Weren't you like 10? I was young. I was young. Yeah, I do wonder. I don't know what Sarah's dynamic is because she doesn't have a lot of biography stuff out so far. So I do I am also curious often like are any of these things reflections of her own family or her sibling dynamic but maybe one day when we're all best friends, we'll ask her about it. Sarah, be our friend, please. We respect you so much. That's how you make friendships, right? Is that sad? Begging her. So also their mother is deceased, which is another fairy tale trope, by the way. While the two sisters aren't, you know, the

evil stepsisters, there is a little bit of a reminiscence of that. We see they're a bit selfish and helpless. So they're not necessarily like monsters, but they're like kind of brats. When they see that fair has returned with something of value, here is the exchange that they have in the book. I love a new cloak. Elaine said it last with a sigh. At the same moment, Nesta rose and declared, I need a new pair of boots. I kept quiet, knowing better than to get in the middle of one of their arguments. But I glanced at Nesta's still shiny pair by the door. Beside hers, my two small boots were falling apart at the seams, held together only by fraying laces. But I'm freezing with my raggedy old cloak. Elaine pleaded, I'll shiver to death.

She fixed her wide eyes on me and said, please, Pharah. She drew out the two syllables of my name. Here it is, y'all. Pharah, into the most hideous wine I'd ever endured. And Nesta loudly clicked her tongue before ordering her to shut up. Through those initial scenes, we learn that Pharah's family is poor and sort of helpless, relying almost solely on this youngest daughter to provide. Also, Pharah provides this visual hierarchy in the simplest form, which is, in this section, we get a view of one of the only bits of color in this drab cottage. Pharah has painted their single chest of drawers for each sister, one drawer for each, roses for Elaine on Elaine's drawer, fire for Nesta, and the night sky around Pharah's own. For as we all know, Jackie, Pharah loves to

paint. She loves to paint. If there is one thing, I've got a couple of grievances with this first book in particular. And every three pages, one of my tabs is talking about her painting, because in my literature brain, I was like, maybe it does mean more. Maybe every time she references painting, it's meaning more. And sure, it is a connection to her family. It is a connection to her sense of self. But other than that, it's just that she likes to paint. We know she likes to paint. She would love all the sip and paint businesses we have in Modern House. Oh, give her some more. You know what, that's what Pharah needs, man. Why isn't she drinking? She'd probably frown a lot less. I mean, she might. Coming up, I don't know.

So, we learned in this chapter that Pharah's not taking care of her family solely out of the goodness of her heart, but because her mother on her deathbed made her promise that she would take care of the family, we learned more about her mother's dynamic with her later, which is, I mean, as the youngest child, why'd you do that? This is another thing, too, that I feel like they go against the grain of the actual fairy tale side of things, where it's usually like, oh, the glorious, perfect mother has passed. And in this series, that is not quite the case. No, it's not at all, really. And I do really like, also, the mother who's maybe flawed, we learn a lot about her through the eyes of her daughters, and they all have different

experiences with her, which is kind of cool. As any sister, like any, especially specifically female identifying children, have with their mother specifically, if they are female identifying as well. Yes, for sure. So Pharah's village is bleak and cold through Pharah's eyes. Again, we can only see it whether or not it's objectively so isn't clear, but we see it through her eyes, because we can only glean what she thinks and sees. So at one point, she says, the stone houses of the village were ordinary and dull, showing that she has a certain disdain for her surroundings, which would make sense. Since she also informs the reader that all of her friends and acquaintances turn their backs on the family when their fortune was lost.

Fun. Isn't that fun? So she was canceled by her friends. So of course, she ain't got no money no more. And oh, she wants to paint. Doesn't she want to paint? Well, she doesn't get to paint, does she? No, she doesn't have the money for the paints. She gets to shoot food. So I see how much I know about hunting. She wants to shoot food. So, yeah. So she, of course, wouldn't like her village. As we see, as we move along into this chapter, the sisters making their way towards the village, they encounter the area of the town where the vendors are there and they're attempting to sell this wolf's fur. They have several encounters while they're there. The first is by a robed woman who the Archiron sisters,

that is their last name, Archiron sisters recognize as one of the children of the blessed, which is a group of humans who worship the Fae. Does that mean that we are children of the blessed? I think so. Oh no, we're humans that just want to live in the Fae world. Yes. Because the more they describe the children of the blessed, they're like, oh, you mean you and I. Yes, we are children of the blessed. We are. Because they are the humans that are obsessed with the Fae world that like believe in the good of the Fae. And all I could think of was like, man, I have a let it be tattoo. Man, if I was like young enough, I'd be children of the blessed. I'd be like, yeah, man, I almost got a Namaste tattoo down my back when I was 19 years old. And that's because I

was eating mushrooms every day. But I think at the time, I definitely would have become a part of the children of the blessed. It sounds like you were trying to get to Prithian, but you didn't know it at the time. Because it's not real. Are you sure though? I don't know. I'm gonna keep try. Okay, let's keep trying. My poor husband. Well, if he would just get with the program. Yeah, dude. Put on. He has read the first book, so I'll give that to him. He's got to keep going. He's got to keep going. So yes, so the children of the blessed are a group in this world of humans who worship the fey and most humans don't like the fey. They are taught to fear them. And I mean, understandable. They put up a big wall and they're scary and they have magic powers and the human people are just

scared of the unknown. It's true. Human beings are scared of what they don't understand. Well, especially if all the people are poor and all the fair research, but no, it's true. A lot of it is also just, you know, superstition or the fear of the unknown. Yeah, man, writings on the wall. Is that what Stevie Wonder was singing about? Was he thinking about? Yeah, he was thinking about Prithee. Pretty sure. This isn't the wall he was talking about, I don't think. Yeah, I mean, can we prove it? No, we can't. So, so yes, the children of the blessed are generally looked at as fanatical and sort of annoying. I would like them, like in them, perhaps to like the Hare Christianans used to frequent public spaces, you know, the guys in the orange robes. Yeah,

I feel like that's sort of the vibe that we're going with here. And all of the people are like, get out of here. And this is where we establish that Nesta and Elaine are wearing bracelets that are supposed to ward off fairies because of the disgust and hatred they hold towards the fey kind. This seems to be the general consensus of the villagers as one woman who passes by the conversation they're having calls the robed girl a very loving whore. And which case, call me a child of the blessed. Yes, a very loving whore. Then as Pharah is deciding who to pitch this wolf for at, because there's a bunch of vendors, she spots a stranger, a woman mercenary, establishing that there is perhaps the series of woman warriors in this reality. A mercenary generally is described as

a capable fighter who sells their skills to whoever has the coin, if you're not familiar with that word, instead of belonging to, you know, a certain country or army, they just will sell their killing wares. They work for the blade by the blade. Yes, by the blade. But also this is another cool turn in like, especially a book like this, that it's a female mercenary, which is kind of fucking fun. Yes, I like early on that we establish that there are different kinds of women, that they're not all the same woman. We're not all the same. Faye loving whores. Oh, sorry. So we won't be saying whore a lot, I swear. I don't know. Once you pop, the fun can't stop. It's true. It's a fun word to say. Come on. So Pharah strikes up a conversation with this

woman who claims to have fought several Faye beasts as a private guard for a fate for at the Faye human border. She first dismisses Pharah, but after Pharah explains, oh, I got this wolf pelt on my own, man, because it's not something I sold. I killed this wolf. The mercenary's like, all right, game recognizes game, brah. And offers Pharah a large sum of money, way more than the pelt is worth. So Pharah's got a bit of coin in her purse. And then another kind of score comes along. Nesta clocks, Nesta clocks the boy, Isaac, who Pharah is involved with and teases Pharah about it. So this is another part of these fairy tale, you know, usually it is the protagonist is a virgin. She's pure. She's complete of hymen, but not this protagonist because she's been rolling

in the barn. Yes. And that is established. I know we mentioned it briefly in the intro episode, but both of us really love that it's established very early on in these books that she is not a virginal little lamb girl. I turned. Indeed, Isaac was watching from across the square, arms crossed as he leaned against the building. Though the eldest son of the only well off farmer in our village, he was still lean from the winter. And his brown hair had turned shaggy, relatively handsome, soft spoken and reserved, but with a sort of darkness running beneath it all that had drawn us to each other. That shared understanding of how wretched our lives were and would always be. I do also want to bring up the fact that we'd only talked about the eggs

he was bringing to market. And I admired the variation in colors within the basket he bore. You imagine that's a pickup line, man. Nice eggs. Like the color your eggs. You think that's how she did? She said, lack on your eggs. You sell on these eggs. I'm selling my eggs. She wasn't selling her eggs. They had consensual sex. Yes, they did. Yes. And I also really like the description, a rush of shedding clothes and shared breaths and tongues and teeth. Nice. Man, I've always wanted to have like a tussle in the hay. But then you think about it, do I want hay anywhere near my holes? I don't think. I think you would regret it. Yeah, I think I would. And then I'd get a rash. And then all week you'd have to hear me complain about the rash I got from when I had my tussle

in the hay. It's true. Tussle in the hay. It's just like needle in the hay. It's just like it. So yes, they did tussle in the hay quite a bit. And it's established early on that, yes, she's been having sex with this man for this young man for two years and that it is sort of the reprieve from this dark world that she's found herself inside of. And she, you know, doesn't maybe not in love with this guy, but she respects and appreciates that they have this joining during all of it. Yeah, a loyal joining. After the deed, we return to the family's cottage later that evening and are settling in after this great sale she's made when their front door explodes and a massive beast appears. Farrah doesn't know what this creature is, but it's

described as somewhere between a lion and elk and hound with claws and fangs and antlers upon its head. It's angry and it can speak. Murderers. It screams and Farrah is like, oh, shit. So that was a fairy, huh? The one I killed. Whoopsie. Sorry about that. I must have killed the fairy. That wolf was, I guess, a fake creature. And much like the description she gave of the day whenever Farrah's father's leg was smashed, her sister is run in cower and she stands and faces this beast. Who killed him? He roars and Farrah goes into negotiation modes. She has gotten the heart of the deal. So what would you say if somebody accidentally killed your friend? Like, what theoretically would you want in exchange for that? Because now she's realizing

this creature has appeared because she clearly killed somebody he knew even though she didn't know it was a fairy, right? So the beast lets her know there's only one penalty. The treaty between the humans and fairies allows a life for a life. He again demands to know who killed this wolf. I did, she says. As her family continues to cower and this beast is questioning her, she's responding. No, she didn't, she wasn't being attacked, but she did kill the wolf. No, she didn't know it was a fairy, but could you blame her after all the fey had done to her family? So he had it coming. Yeah, man. He had it coming all along. He had it coming. If you'd not been there, if you'd not seen it, how could you tell us that fey was wrong?

Yep. Yeah, I knew it. I got, I got the ref. That song randomly played while I was writing this. So Pharah accepts the blame for this killing and accepts her fate and begs only to spare her family from seeing the slaughter. The beast laughs at her request and explains that a life for a life can mean something else. I don't have to kill you here. That she can choose to return to Prithun with him and live her life out there with him. She asks why would he would want that and he is enraged that she would dare question his generosity. Oh my God, big, thick beast. It was big, thick beast legs, big, thick arms. I'm a monster fucker. Well, right now he's still, he's still a big animal. I know. No, that's what I'm talking about. I told you again,

I was more into the beast as a beast than I was into the human beast. And also I should say, we mentioned it before, but she is very open about the beginning of this series being inspired by Beauty and the Beast, both the original old folklore version, not folklore, I'm sorry, we'll get into that. It's not folklore. It was written by a direct author, but also the, we are in the correct demographic in age range as contemporaries of her to have been inundated with Beauty and the Beast in 1991 Disney version. So even this beast description, if you go and look at the beast in the Disney version, it looks like what she's describing. So you can just keep on fantasizing about that. Oh yeah, I can just close my eyes,

I can see him, I can see him licking me. Wow. Okay. Okay. Oh yeah, it's starting already. We're not even into the sexy parts yet. No, we're not even, not even a little. So, but after some pleading by Pharah's father to accept this offer, Pharah agrees. She says, okay, I'm going to go with you. Any bargain is made. The bargain is a very traditional fairy story mythology trope. You'd see it a lot in these kind of folklore stories. So Pharah agrees to leave with this beast who just busted into their cottage, though she's, you know, terrified rightly. And as she leaves, her father turns to her and says, if she survives to, he grabs her by the collar, it seems like, and goes, never come back here. Don't you ever come

back? Which I get is because he wants her to have something more than this provincial life. Oh, but also it's rude daddy problems. Who's got them? I've gotten some too. Yeah, I've got daddy problems. So obviously she does too, because I get he's, he's saying it in a sense of you're too good for this place, but he's also just like, don't come back. You could like totally like add that on, you know, you'd be like, because like this isn't for you, you're better than this life. Yeah, no, he's, he's kind of just like, get out of here. Yeah. At this point in the, in the chapter, she has gone over in her head, the many held beliefs about the fey and the realm Prithyan. And we as the reader are not really clear which of the superstitions are accurate. So we kind of go

blind with her into this other realm. And I find that very exciting because we don't know anything about where she's walking into. No, what it's going to be like. Yeah, so it could be like terrifying. So there's a sense that Pharah has that she might not even be able to breathe when they cross over the wall or, you know, it's like going to another planet, essentially. Yeah. You know, maybe she'll be murdered immediately. So any, any matter of unpleasantness really. So as they begin their two day journey back towards the wall, separating their lands, because Pharah's village is relatively close to this wall as far as the human population goes, we experience her internal anguish and uncertainty. As for this beast, he's also pretty mysterious at this point. We don't watch him

become violent, but he's also quite cold to her. So he has this magically, he has her magically restrained on a horse during this traveling and after a while, we get the first internal experience of what magic is to her. She smells a quote metallic tang and becomes unconscious. And that happens every time magic is around her. And that was another thing that they kept bringing up that I was like, my question is, why is it a metallic tang? What is it about magic that makes it like, why is that what is transferred into human senses? I feel like that's sort of akin to a blood smell. Yeah. So I don't know if it's something like jiggling your blood around. Jiggling my, my breast is around. Now, does that mean every time I taste blood in my mouth, if I like bite the inside

of my cheek, is that magic? It is. Please don't do this. I'll do it. Don't do it. Please at home as well. Do not try to bite your mouth. So I'm looking for magic. Yeah. Um, when she awakens, we learn that she is in fact not going to a torture dungeon, but has arrived at a sprawling estate bedecked in flowers. Little birds are tweeting. There's a trickling stream somewhere. I can't do that sound. Don't, aren't you calm right now? Everything about the scene screams opulence. This beast who we come to find out is named Tamlin, a little later on in the book, is still in creature form. So she just is appearing in front

of this sprawling estate and just following this elk thing into the mansion. She's having a real Monday. Oh my God, give her some lasagna. She wishes. Finally, he leads her in through the house in the land in this dining room and zip zaps up. He a light flashes and he becomes a real hunk of a man. At least we think he's a hunk of a man. We think. We can't really tell all the way because he's wearing this peculiar masquerade mask and it's covering the top half of his face. He's described as appearing young with a strong jaw and green eyes, broad-chested and sporting a bald trick. Yeah, he's got a bald trick. Which is perverts, strappy piece you would see on a typical, you know, you, you, but if you saw a pirate costume, they often be wearing one of those things

across it. It's like, it's, it's for weapon wearing. This is also another part of my sexual fantasizing inside of my brain that was actually interestingly difficult to get past. The fact that I didn't know what he looked like would be such a, like, I love that that was brought up many times or just like, even like, I think he's so, I think he's so beautiful if I knew what the rest of his face looked like. And that would be really difficult to do. Yeah. If you, especially if you could see half of it, if you could see none of it, that would be one thing. That would be very scary. But seeing half of it, so you just, like, are filling in the pieces of it. Well, I mean, little phantom of the opera. Filling all your pieces. I do think it's nice you can at least

see his mouth because I think if you could not be very, be disturbing. Yeah, and see his bald trick. You could see his bald trick only. So we've also learned that at this, during the scene, we also learned that he is of the high Faye based on his pointed ears. Only the high Faye have these sort of pointed ears in this world. And it seems to run on a sort of caste system where the pointy-eared ones are the ruling class and the rest are referred to as a lesser Faye, which is pretty rude. But it all is hereditary, basically. So if you are born into the Royalty. You know, like the movie. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, God, I just almost said a spoiler. No. Can't do that. I know where you're going with it, though. So it's interesting that the mask of the beast is one

layer only to be greeted by, only to be greeted by another disguise. So he's the trope of the hero being like cloaked or covered is common, but he was first a beast and then is also wearing a mask on underneath that. They're also greeted by a second red hot piece of man candy who is red-haired and finely dressed in this dining room. He too is wearing a mask and he has as well the distinguishing ears of the high Faye. So this is a big old like, this isn't just Faye. This is high Faye. So much more scary for Pharah because she's learned. She's learned all of these, you know, myths and super superstitions about the Faye and the high Faye are supposed to be very scary. So in my brain, I wasn't turned on by Lucian until later on. Isn't that interesting? It is because you like redheads.

Yeah, I do. I do. Obviously. I love, I love Janj. Give me a Janj. But in my brain, I never saw, I never thought of him as a redhead. I only thought of him as a fox because his mask, greed mask had a fox on. So I could only think of the fox and not of the red-haired part of him. It's interesting because it, we're also, we're seeing this through Pharah's eyes. So she's not necessarily drawn to him either. So that might also play into that. She's not describing him in a way that's very sexy. Yeah. So we actually learned the name of this other fairy first, this red-haired fairy. His name's Lucian. Lucian. And it's on page 53 of the paperback version. So even though we are greeted first with this wolf elk man fairy, we don't learn his name first off. Lucian is pretty

upset about his wolf friend that she murdered accidentally kind of because this Faye was glamored to look like a wolf. He was actually like a humanoid kind of Faye like the rest of them. So that wolf's name was Andrus, by the way. And Lucian, Lucian was very, you know, obviously upset because she, she killed him. So, you know, that made me mad. Probably. After this tense introduction, we have a sort of My Fair Lady montage where we meet Alice, the servant tending to Pharah. So Pharah's shorn and clipped and scrubbed for dinner. Yep. Though Pharah. Make her a real woman. Yeah, finally. This dirty rat. Nah, make it look, make it look more fuckable. Sorry. Oh, you're already, you're already apologizing? First episode already apologizing? I don't

apologize. Make her more fuckable, Alice. So, but however, Pharah refuses to wear the dress that Alice has presented to her. She's not like the other girls. She's a little bit different. Yeah. She won't, she won't with the dress on, but she does agree to wear a new fancy tunic. And we learn from Pharah's internal dialogue that she doesn't want to have a dress on because she, pants help her run, basically. So the reason she wants to be able to protect herself. Yeah, understandably. So this is also how she dressed in the human world, even though we kind of quickly learned that that's not common for girls there. And she's saying, no, I'm not taking my pants back. I'm wearing my pants. Yes. So she goes down to dinner and she, you know, has this

first interaction with them. Finally, at the start of chapter seven, we learn that the beast turned masked man is named Tamlin. So Tamlin was one of the stories we mentioned that Sarah J. Moss was inspired by in creating this series. And just briefly, Tamlin is a Scottish based origin tale, one that we, as people have used and reworked and rewritten over and over. It is of the oral variety, like many of our base human stories, which we would normally refer to as a folk tale or folklore. So this is to say there's not a, there's not an author credited to it. It is a story that's been told over the generations of people, sort of like, you know, the way that we as nineties kids somehow all knew that form of that game, MASH. Oh yeah. I don't know. Mansion

apartment, Shacker house. Yeah. Oh yeah. It just all, it just went through and there is a man who claims that he created it, but I don't think I believe him. No. So that's how we got all of our oral exchanges over the span of human time. You know, different kinds of oral exchanges. I am 12 going on 36. Yep. Pretty much. So, so the basis, there's many variations of the story, like all of these folklores. But the basis involves a mortal man whose name Tamlin, who after falling off of his horse, is captured by the queen of the fairies. Interestingly, also the lead female character in the story is often named Janet, which is Sarah J. Moss's middle name. Oh. Yeah. Also it's funny because Janet sounds like such a, like a Middle, Mid-East mom's name, but it's actually like an

ancient Scottish. I just think of Rocky Horror Picture show. Well, that's true, Janet Weiss. But also same. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't want to go too far into the Tamlin myth because it will address where Akatar goes. That will definitely come up later on. But worth mentioning it. This is just on a side note, and it has nothing to do with what Sarah's written, but like so many of our human oranges and stories, variations involve aring sexual assault and the taking of virginity. And that some versions involve the plucking of flowers and pregnancy. Some versions don't make any direct correlation to sex, and some do. And there is potentially some evidence that after the institution of Puritanical religions that a lot of these tales take a turn towards

the dangers of a free woman. Which you don't. I mean, you better collapse me up because I am ready to be freed and I will burn it all to the ground. Yeah. So keep us hidden away. They should be. They should be afraid. But that's not, of course, why Sarah was likely inspired by this folktale. I just, I think it's interesting to note that about, you know, traditional fairy tales. A lot of them involve some bad stuff. Women were treated bad for a long time. Not in these books, babe. Nah, nah, nah. So all are treated bad, but they overcome it. Yeah. I mean, you can't just be all fucking nice. What's the book? And then she lived happily ever after, then it would be the end. Boo. Boring. We'll come back to the Tamlin myth. So the main points that come through in this book,

I think, will be apparent, but yeah, spoilers. So off of the jump, Pharah's not too pleased, though I think many of us would be like, hey, thanks for taking me away from that shit family and giving me all this free stuff. Do you want to make out or something? I mean, yeah, you see the lips, you see their purr, you see their lush. She came from such poverty and they have this beautiful mansion that's filled with the most delicious. When she describes the food, I'm just like, give me the food. Yeah. It tastes better than any human food. Yeah. And she's starving. She's been starving. They've been starving for years. It's not like this is a new thing to them. Yes. But Pharah's, you know, the embodiment of being good and noble and all that. It's good and noble,

the word. Sometimes I find it annoying. Well, I think that's could be argued about a lot of protagonists and stories because they're the ones who are supposed to like teach us the moral lessons a lot of times. Give in, eat, kiss. Yeah, right. But she is too noble. So she begins to try to find a way out of this bargain because she's worried about her family. She, who are jerks, by the way, she pleads with, man, if my family was like that, I'd be like, sorry, peace. I'm out sorry for family. I know that we are family, but also I'm out, bitch. I'm fucking leaving y'all behind. But I also, I don't make you go hunt my food. So if you did, I would until I was taken to Prithian and then I would leave your ass behind. Goodbye. Good luck with that. This really is, it's like another one

of those like, it's the same kind of thing where it's like, we read Harry Potter growing up and then I was like, maybe there is a school that will take me away from this place. And now, as a full ass adult, I'm like, maybe I am bigger than just being mortal. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't ever go away. No, I'm not. That's fine. That's why we read. That's why we read. So yes, her family is like really toxic. But like, she still cares about them, so whatever. She pleads with the fey at these high fey men to let her go so her family won't die, and Tamlin claims he didn't leave them to die. Like, you think I'm not, he basically says, you think I'm that much of a piece of shit that I would let them die? And she's kind of like,

I don't know you, sir. You just took me. Which, you know, for me, I'd be like, oh, they're okay, even better. But even, but at the same time, this is like far earlier than when she finds out what actually happens with them. Yeah. Why doesn't she like, so what did you do? I didn't understand this, like, ask more questions. I don't know if it's because we're supposed to think that she's too scared. I guess. But no, I understand that sentiment. So there are some times in this book, I just want to shake fate right to death. Yes. And I would think it's of note two that we, and we'll talk about this a lot, but as we are going through these books, we're watching Sarah J. Moss grow as an author because she started writing these books when she was 23. And that's

sometimes apparent in the beginning of these books. And every book is better than the last. Isn't that insane? It just made, oh, oh, I thirst for it. Thirst and I quench. So, sorry, that, that wasn't a babbling brook. That was just me. Sound like a motor starting. Oh, yeah. She's motoring over here, everybody. It's also in chapter seven, we get the first glimpse of them wanting to know about her romantic life. Interesting. Lucien, in his arrogant way, asks why she's so sour when they're so pretty to look at, which leads the Fey men to question about whether or not she has a bow back home to which she replies, I was close with a man back in my village. And so then they sort of start needling in and asking if she loved this person. And she

says, no, like I didn't, we just slapped, you know? Yeah, man. She didn't say that. Just slapping in the barn. But then it says, again, that shared look between the two males. And do you love anyone else? Tamlin said through clenched teeth. A laugh burst out of me tinged with hysteria. No. I looked between them. Nonsense. These lethal, immortal beings really had nothing better to do than this. Is this what you really care to know about me? If I find you more handsome than human men, and if I have a man back home, why bother to ask at all when I'll be stuck here for the rest of my life? A hotline of anger sliced through my senses. So she is sort of, I like that description because she is at a point where she's like, what are we doing here? Why are you asking me these

questions? Yeah, because she doesn't know. We are clearly setting up that these men have a sort of agenda. And she's not privy to it at this point. So during this time, Pharah's days start to lay out in front of her. The Feymen basically tell her to run along. So she sort of trapped on these mansion grounds, just looking around, being like, why am I here? There is a distinct error on a secret garden in these stories. Yes. Yeah, no, I didn't know if you saw that too. But I don't know if it's conscious. I imagine it is because some of it is very direct. But as our contemporary, Sarah J. Moss, she was also probably inundated with the movie The Secret Garden. Jackie, was that a huge in your childhood? They put him in the ice bath. They put him in the ice bath for his legs.

Yes. He was so cold in the ice bath. And that only could help anything. No, I don't know what it was doing. Remember, they had that machine they stuck to him too with a crank. I watched that movie way too many times. Oh, I loved it. And I was also obsessed with the musical. I don't know if that was in your world at all. No, it wasn't. I sang, I don't want to look. I don't want to brag. But in my sixth grade chorus, we did a bunch of the songs from Secret Garden and I had a solo. Oh my God, I'm sitting next to a soloist right now. I just I don't like talking about it. All right. But you kind of just run. She even included a line from directly from the book slash movie coming up here in a second. I'm going to tell you. So at page 72, she finds a bit about why this

Fey man glamored as a wolf was in the mortal realm in the first place. Like why was this wolf just walking around in my forest? This ain't on her. No, I mean, she was out hunting. She needs to feed her family. Exactly. And that was a scary looking wolf. What are you going to do? So he explains to so Tamlin explains to fair at this point that there is a sickness in Prithian that has been plaguing the land for almost 50 years. We don't learn a ton about this. The blight. The blight that he's describing just yet as we look through fair as eyes, we will learn a little bit later though. But we will. But it also is part of the reason why they have the masks on their face. But again, she doesn't ask more questions. And he certainly isn't offering any no any answers.

As we move into chapter eight, Pharah is developing a rapport with these Fey men, particularly with Lucian, who feels very the dynamic feels very brother sister to me. And then during one of these interactions on page 79 of the paperback version, Pharah mentions that she's 19 years old, which again, something I really really appreciate about the books that even though she's young, she's not a little girl, but a lot of the kind of fantasy books like we mentioned in the game of thrones like all the characters who are girls are like 12. Yeah, no, this one is primed. She's all she's all juiced up. She's juiced ready for those big lips. Even though in the game of thrones books, the 12 year olds

are having sex. Yeah. So which is great. So as she, Lucian and Tamlin are sort of developing these relationships with each other and they gather at the dining room table a lot, Tamlin asks, did didn't your mother tell you anything about us when they're in a conversation to which Pharah replies, my mother didn't have the time to tell me stories. Strange. Not telling you that your own twin sister was Dan. My mother didn't have the time to tell me stories. My mother didn't have the time to tell me stories. She's such a surly little bitch. Lover. Which is, you know, that's a direct line. So in fact, also notable, what we know and learn about Pharah's mother is actually very similar to Mary Lennox's mother, which is a cold, well, we'll get into that. We

don't know too much about her mom yet. So I'm not going to say anything, but I'm curious if she was inspired by the secret garden as well. During these initial days, Pharah takes two riding through the surrounding forest with Lucian and her mind to come up with ideas to figure out how to get away, including trying to appeal to Lucian. It's on one of these outings where Lucian accidentally lets it slip that there is a she involved with this blight on Prithian, but refuses to say anything else. Interesting. There's a lady. Yeah, man, bad bitches, y'all. But not like a good bad bitch, like a bad, bad bitch. No, bad, bad. So at the start of chapter 10, Pharah encounters one of many Prithian creatures she will come to

face. This one called the Bog, a scary concept of being of a being who doesn't become real unless you look towards it and then it can devour you, which is very scary. So she was perhaps correct in being afraid of Prithian. She was in fact worn by her fake companions as soon as she arrived to not stray too far because there were dangers outside the estate. So soon after encounter with the Bog, she meets another threat at the start of chapter 11, a creature called Apuka that has the ability to transform into something that will lure you into its grasp with trickeries. In this case, it takes the form of Pharah's father late at night. And Pharah, mistakenly thinking her father has, in fact, come to rescue her when she spots him outside her bedroom window, runs out only to

be stopped by Tamlin, who at first seems to be catching her, and is actually saving her from the Puka. So basically she sees this come out. She's like, oh, it's my dad. It's my dad. And then Tamlin runs in and it looks like he's like being a jerk, being like, I caught you. And then he's like, no, that's not your father. And then it's gone. And so because your father's never going to come save you. He's mentally broken. Yes. And also then this is sort of a transition time for Pharah and Tamlin's relationship because he goes to, you know, from maybe a vague threat to her to a Faye who's saved her life with no real known reward for himself. So he came to her rescue. But also does a really good job of making you feel like, oh, this place is so beautiful,

but there's like a lot of bad shit going down. Yeah. There's a lot of creepy creatures. I like that she doesn't like Los Angeles. Yes. It doesn't steer away from like the re like being actually genuinely creepy. I hate that it's called the bog because the bog makes it sound like it's not a very scary creature. Well, it's a bog with two Gs and an E. Yes. In my head, I said, bogey. The bogey. I like that. And I'm scared of the boge, but I'm not scared of the bog. Well, I think you should be because it can eat you. I won't look at it. Okay. It's during this interaction that she reveals to Tamlin the promise she made to her mother to take care of her family. And Tamlin's like, baby girl, I got you. Don't you worry about it. He tells directly to her

that they are fed and well cared for. So this is the first time that he's sort of revealed what he meant by you think I would just abandon your family. He has done something that is allowing them to be fed and cared for, whatever that means. She thinks as one of the superstitions she was led to believe in the human realm is that fairies can't lie. So she just immediately accepts this as truth. And bullshit, by the way, mommy's dying. She asked her what 11 year old to make sure that she takes care of the family. I think she's actually younger than 11. She's 11 whenever they lose their fortune. So I think she's like eight or nine whenever good Lord. That'd be like you, child, you make sure these adults around you are taken care of for some reason.

You should have gotten divorced a long time ago, moms. If you can't trust your husband. It's true. Yeah, I shortened husband. Good, because it takes too long to say it. So, oh, also in the scene, I do think she's just ready to be freed from this promise because she she's like, oh, yeah, they can't lie. Cool. I'm not going to care anymore then. Goodbye. Because she's just my promise has been fulfilled very quickly, ready to let it go. Except that she doesn't because everything is still like, but my family, my family, it is cares about your family. Take care of yourself for once, for once, Pharah. I know it's nice. It's nice that she cares about them.

At the beginning of Chapter 12, we learn that she is illiterate. We get a bigger scope at this point of how neglected and used Pharah really was by her family. Even before her mother's death, we learn her mother didn't really have value for her daughter's education. So she barely taught her things that were so not sexy like reading, right? Yeah, but she learned how to flirt and have tussles in the barn. But no, her older sisters know how to read and write. But then by the time they got to Pharah, they're like, and yet they put all of their responsibility on her. Again, as the youngest, I got the, and wasn't really cared about quite as much. And it was great. But I still was taught

how to read and write. At least the tabs can't lie on the book. Look how good she can read. Yeah, no, it's kind of bullshit. But I guess we're like in this realm of fairy tale world where lots of women aren't valued as far as reading and writing ghosts. But that's borosnoro. It is borosnoro. And so as we're learning these facts about her, we come to a scene where it's late at night and she is, she can't sleep and she's walking around the house. She's sketching a map out using crude symbols because she can't write. So she's trying to basically just like get her bearings when nobody else is around, or at least she thinks nobody else is around. And in this moment, she has a chance encounter with Tamlin, who has returned

late and injured from hunting the bug or the boge that has tried to attack Pharah earlier, the one that had tried to attack Pharah earlier when she was riding with Lucian. You went out to hunt it like a big strong man. So now that there has been this shift in their orientation with one another, now that he came and rescued her, Pharah is like, can I help you clean your wound? So this also feels like a direct scene from Beauty and the Beast 91. I went and found that clip and it is, there is an in full steam where she's trying to clean his wound. So she cleans the wound and they have this sort of intimate conversation about how stuff's really hard. It's not sexy yet, but they're sort of commiserating.

No, I wish it was a different kind of sexy, hard conversation, but it wasn't. Patience. Yeah, I guess it's a fucking virtue. They slowly are becoming more comfortable around each other. And one day, they were asked if she can have access to the study on the estate's ground, which again is like Beauty and the Beast, when he leads her into this wide sweeping study slash library. We'd also be remiss if we didn't speak about Beauty and the Beast when we talk about a court of thorns and roses in general. The Disney version very clearly had a huge impact on her. Just so happy there's no chip. Chip is annoying as shit. What's that mean by me?

I hope he, I just want him to be inside and boiled inside of his own mother. But we did get Angela Lansbury out. Yeah, that was nice. So yes, as a 90s child, Mass was, I'm sure, inundated and it was everywhere in the 90s. Maybe in my grade, only maybe surpassed by the Lion King, but it's written all over the pages of the first half of this first book. But Mass also has a degree in creative writing. And as such, she certainly studied fairy tales. And in the origin tale is obviously present too. The original Beauty and the Beast is credited to Gabrielle Suzanne Bebel de Villeneuve. Oh, that's right. A lady writer in the 1700s. Yep. She's from France. And this is from a collection of hers

in 1740. Though like most printed fairy tales, there are draws from the oral historical story telling of folklor. So also the version that we as modern Americans know would be more recognized. It was published by an author named Jean-Melie Le Prince de Beaumont in 1756, who was the one who actually drastically abridged Gabrielle's original novel length story into something for school-aged girls to read and to teach them moral lessons. Yeah, go for the ugly ones, because they turn into a prince. And you lick their wounds for them. I don't think that they were probably teaching lessons that we would particularly agree with in modern society, but basically this woman- I would have stayed with Gaston. Yeah, I'm throwing it out there. Wow.

I mean, he's thick. Yeah, he drinks all those eggs. What would you talk about though? Who needs to talk, right? You're right. I ended up having sex with Smee of the Beauty and the Beast. What's his name? It's Smee of Beauty and the Beast. Lafou? Lafou? Lafou? That one, I don't know. I ended up having sex with him. It's true, Lafou. It's Lafou, I think. Okay. So yes, the woman who actually wrote the book is not often recognized as the writer of Beauty and the Beast, because the woman who turned it into a child's age book was a different lady. So I do think Mass read through both of those versions, and I think she takes some of the cherished elements from this baseline and begins to fiddle with them in this first book. So in Beauty and the Beast, for example, when she

arrives to the library, it's because she loves to read, but in Actarts, because Faire is trying to teach herself to read and write on the sly. But what about her painting? She can't paint right now. No, she's got the painting instead of the reading. That's, you know, that's how she makes it a little different. No, it's different. It's very different. Even though the Faire are pretty aware she can't read, she's trying to hide it from them that she can't. While she is spending time in this library slash study, she comes across this giant mural of the creation story, which is the thing we started the episode out with. It's this cool, I really enjoy, again, as a visual learner, I really enjoy the description of seeing this mural, which is describing the

creation myth, basically, of Prithyan. So also, if you look at the edges of the map on the first page of Court of Thorns and Roses, and on the corners, you can see the little cauldrons pouring out their contents, which I think is a fun little detail mark. This mural affects Faire in that moment, causing her to feel small and foolish. And she abandons her attempt at learning all these new stupid words she's trying to read and write. Well, it's also very interesting too, because in the Faire world, the idea of the cauldron and the mother is a very, their religious aspect of it is very inherent. It's a big part of the world of the Faire. But in the human world, in this story, religion is gone and the gods have been forgotten. So I do think it's a very

interesting way that she's, like, another way that the humans and the Faire are different is that they have different importances on the aspects of religion. The fact that there's this huge mural of the cauldron and everything is like, oh, cauldron to that bitch. I forget what they say. I love cauldron to that. You buy the cauldron and do my cauldron, but also cauldron to that bitch. I think it should be. Cauldron to that bitch. Tamlin's new catchphrase. No, I like that too. I think maybe that is to display how much they detest the Fae, that the Fae are the ones that's, those are Fae gods. We don't have those gods anymore. There's no gods for us. Because, yeah, that's sort of like mystical and magical. And then we don't like supernatural things

in the human world because they're jealous. Yeah, man. I wouldn't you be? Yeah. I'd be children of the blessed. They think that they can't tell lies. They think all these like crazy things about them. Like, and some of them are true. Like that sort of like ash, like the ash arrow. So in that moment, she feels very defeated and small, seeing this huge world that she knows nothing about. And as she's kind of going through these motions, Tamlin encounters her in the library and tries to offer his help. And she gets embarrassed. She's like, I don't need your help. I can read fine. Get out of here. I hate you. And she lashes out and in her head, she hears Nesta mocking her with these words that are not being said, but she hears them inside,

illiterate, ignorant, unremarkable, proud, cold. Oh my God, Nesta. Jesus. Man, Nesta really just never lights and lightens up. No. And I think could it be from jealousy? I don't know. Even so, Pharah's attempts at writing are in order to get a message to her family, even though her family's so mean to her. She wants to let them know she's okay, which is really why she's trying to get this, this, all this writing done so she can write them a note. She's still also attempting some form of escape and she decides to try to appeal to Lucian to gain information on how to capture a surreal, which is another creature she learned about from him earlier on in the book. This creature is supposed to be able to hold valuable information for people.

And at this point, we can't really gauge how much Lucian wants to get rid of Pharah. They've, like I said, developed sort of the sibling dynamic, but he's made his feelings known about how little he wants Pharah hanging around the house. And so when she goes up to him and asks about the surreal, you can't really tell if it's because he's like trying to get her killed or not. But she's like, can you let me know basically how I can like trap this thing for whatever reason I might have? And so he does. He lets her know how to catch this creature, this allegedly horrifying creature in the woods by setting up a snare and doing a bunch of stuff. So he also is like, you're crazy and you shouldn't do that. I might help you if you're in danger,

but I don't know. I might not show up. So she sets up her trap and it works. She catches one. We're introduced to a character we might just see again. He's described as made of bone, like an exoskeleton, which I find really cool. And she also describes him like this. A face that looked like it had been crafted from dried, weatherworn bone. Its skin either forgotten or discarded, a lipless mouth and two long teeth held by blackened gums, slitted holes for nostrils. Yeah. So I always, I like his description a lot. Like I like the idea of a person made out of bones, like your skin's bone. Oh yeah. That's gross and cool. So she begins to question this creature who's allegedly, who supposedly has all this information to give

all the time. And during this interaction, he reveals that Tamlin is actually a high lord, not just a high fay, but the boss of the high fay. Big, bad boss bitch. He's the daddy. He has some other fortune telling type musings at this point, but he delivers her final fear to her in this interaction. There is no undoing the bargain. She must quote, stay with the high lord and all will be righted. Interesting. Should maybe remember that quote. And also maybe remember that when you make a bargain with the fay world, you got to do what you say. I don't know why that's a lesson for anyone, but it's a lesson for us. It is. I'm scared of making bargains. I don't want, I can't follow through with anything. I don't want to make a bargain about

anything. I'm good. I'm fine. Even a sexy bargain. And I throw my family in the trash. Awkward. I'm right here. Sorry, Natalie. I think by marriage, it's fine. I'd still connect with you. I'll still make sure like you're doing I thank you. It's just the blood family. Got it. Cool. Thank you. That's all I care about. So as the cereal is holding council with her upside down in the snare, he's like upside down, giving these talks, some dangerous creatures of the forest encroach on the pair. They are called the Naga. And they're described as humanoid, but covered in pitch black scales like a snake. Here we get a sort of a save the cat moment for Feyre or save the cereal, I guess. Yeah. In this moment, she has to make a snap decision, run for her life, or waste

the precious moments freeing this feared and hated creature that she's trapped in order to save its life. So obviously, as a protagonist, she's choosing to free the cereal in the old fashioned moralistic fable device kind of way. We also get to see Feyre's raw talent for battle in this scene. She screams for help. But before Tamlin arrives, she's clawing and stabbing and arrowing her way through this group of these Naga creatures. And you love to see it. Man, go far. I know. It's fun. So I do like that she's in this like dangerous thing, and she's mostly taken care of it herself. But Tamlin, BERSINS, also finishes the job with her. But he does, in fact, arrive to help her. And we get one of the first glimpses of carnal desires when he removes his tunic to give her

to wear over her torn clothes, as she thinks. I pulled on Tamlin's tunic over my own, ignoring how easily I could see the cut of his muscles beneath his white shirt, the way the blood soaking it made them stand out even more. I mean, he just charged the woods to fight a bunch of creatures for her, so like, is she not going to get all horned up from that? But I also do, again, appreciate the fun difference of this protagonist that she doesn't immediately just like rip off her panties, like, he's taking care of me, my daddy, I need it all along. Yeah, she is still like, fucking take care of myself. But I also like, honestly, there's a lot like the beginning of my relationship with my husband. Fine, I guess you can take care of me.

I guess I am just like Vera. You are. I think you are. Yeah, I'll get you. So, yes, this is also strengthening that bond too, that's beginning to form between Tamlin and Vera. I believe we call this trauma bonding. But he seems to also like that she's not a weak little baby girl. So, Tamlin begins to press her over the coming days, trying to get her to let some of these walls down that she's built, you know, out of necessity to protect and save her family. He challenges her with this question, you love them, actually, you want to say that? You love them very much, don't you? And then causes her to consider whether they did love her back at all. It was always about her feelings and never about how they felt about her. And then he says, you gave up so much for them.

He says, do you even know how to laugh? Ouch. He cuts to the core of her. I mean, she's not a lot of fun. She's smiling. I wouldn't want a tussle in the barn with her. He wants to see that smile though. Can you imagine how frowny she was in those tussles in the barn? Yeah, but that's probably kind of fun. Yeah, I guess it depends. It's barn tussling. Yeah, barn tussling. It's all dark in there. They have no idea what's going on. It gets stabbed with hay. Yeah, I also, but he also doesn't go, let me see that smile, baby. Let me see you smile. Maybe he does. Maybe that's why she doesn't like him that much. Yeah, I wouldn't like that. So, in these exchanges, we also learn that there was a great battle over 500 years ago

when Tamlin was just a child. Oh yeah, he is old. And in those battles, there's some fairies fought alongside the humans, which is not something that Pharah had ever heard before, that it wasn't just humans against fairies, that some phay stood on the side of people and it resulted in the treaty with which they now live, a segregation of North and South Hemisphere split by this wall. Previous to this, the humans had been used as a slave force by the phay. So, it's probably fair to mention this problematic age gap. It's hard to discuss it seriously when talking about fantasy fiction. I mean, it's, she's 19. I know. 500. That's fine. There's discourse. It would be different if she was like 12, like a lot of other fairytales. I

think 19 is fine. And it, yeah, I mean, it does, it does really, I hate in, in stories, you know, in traditional stories when young virginal girl is the victim in the, you know, the, the lead girl, she's young and virginal and soft and white. And then the male protagonist is typically older, or if in the same age, like much more capable of things. And then any older women are either the villain or like sexless and dumpy. And granted, it's with modern fairytales like Disney, it's understandable that the lead characters are young women because of the audience. But here, without giving anything away for those of you reading along in real time, I'm interested to go on this journey of these books with you as mass herself grows up. Because remember,

when she started writing the series at 23, the main character being 19 is basically making her a contemporary. And already at that time, she had the wherewithal to not make it, not only like, not only an adult fair is not only an adult, but also a non-virgin. And that rules, as far as I'm concerned, even when you just look at something like Twilight, it could have been 10% less weird if they just set the books at a community college or something because of all the marriage stuff. Yeah. There's a lot of problems with Twilight. Yeah. So the fact that the old vampires are repeating high school over and over again is kind of weird in retrospect, you know. But in these books, she's at least making this a woman character and masses growing up with

these characters. So it's interesting. I'm just interested for you to read through that lens. So we learn a bit of exposition here in these scenes. And now that Farrah seems to let go of having to rescue her family, she's like, oh, what do I want? She wants to paint, everyone. She wants to paint. And a scene occurs where she asks for some paints and brushes to paint pictures. And she has to paint. And I can remind her of the secret garden here. Please, may I have a bit of earth? Oh, a bit of earth. This is where this is where I diverge from the book. And I'm just like, oh, my God, if I could just paint. Oh, give her the fucking paints already. So a place to make plants go. Yes, she just needs to bat your birth. A bit of earth. Give her the

paints. Please, may I have a bit of paint? So to talk about trauma bonding, we're getting towards the end of this episode. The same evening. You talking about us or we trauma bonding right now? I mean, that's, I think that's already that ship has sailed. So the same evening as this interaction that we just talked about, Farrah is awakened from a nightmare and here's a commotion downstairs, which turns out to be a fairy that Tamlin discovered on his land. This part is so upsetting. It actually makes me very like emotional when I read this. Yes. So this fairy is mortally wounded. He's dumped there by this woman, I guess, again, he keeps saying she. Interesting, isn't it? He's a fairy from a summer court we learn and this woman that he's talking about,

they keep talking about this. She has ripped off his wings, actually more like torture, pouring his wings off. It seems like he, she kind of hostile them off of the rusty saw wings. And now, you know, he's from a different court because only the spring court has these masks. So this fairy doesn't have a mask. Yes. And it's established. She's a lesser Faye and he's blue-skinned. He doesn't have the ears. And so it's a really, it's truly a heartbreaking scene. It makes me tear up as Farrah runs in to assist with what we soon find out as a death scene. They're unable to help this fairy who's bleeding out. And because he's beside himself with agony over the loss of his wings, he doesn't really seem to want to live very much. And Farrah holds his hand as he dies.

And this part always makes me feel teary. She says, you're going to get your wings back. And he asks, promise? Yes. And he smiles and closes his eyes. It's really sad. And we learn about all three of the main characters' capacity to feel love and grief in this scene, when all three are stricken in different ways with this blue-skinned fairy's death. And then the trauma bonding goes the other way. The following day, we get our first taste of something stirring. Thank God I need it. I need the horniness to be ramped up. What better antidote to witnessing death than some unabashed floating girl behavior? Oh my God. He's got feelings in there. Oh my God. He's got this rough exterior, like a monster per se. But then on the inside, gentle hands of a healer. Oh my God, the gentle

hands of a healer. So the next day, basically, I have such intense FOMO about the scene. I want to be here. So badly. Please. Please kiss me. I want to see the stars in the water. Oh. So Tamon says he he kind of comes up to Farron says, hey, so that sucked last night. Let's go relax today. And Lucien also comes along as a cock block for some reason. Why is he there? Get out of here. We're trying to create stirrings. I don't know why. Although for me, I'm down with it. I mean, if he wants to watch, he's watching. I was already saying when I was writing this, there has to be fanfic about this scene somewhere. I can't believe I think it's for the best that I haven't looked into the fanfic of this, of these books yet, because I'll never be the same again. I already

told you, I've already mentioned that I subscribed to several Patreons who does art fanfic of these. So yeah, talk about it. Whenever they're doing this, yeah, I think maybe they're trying to get across the point that Lucien's, for some reason, we don't know yet, is trying to get these two together. Yeah, man. Why? I don't know. So this is the scene. Yeah, but then he's not doing a good job if he goes with them on their romance on the grassy knoll. He wants to make sure there's penetration. Yeah. He just wants to get like, you know, an Eiffel. So I will watch the tape of watching that. Oh my God, please. So they go to this, this field and this is the way it's described. We sat atop a grassy knoll overlooking a glade of oak so wide and high that could have been the

pillars and spires of an ancient castle. Shimmering tufts of dandelion fluff drifted by and the floor of the clearing was carpeted with swaying crocuses and snow drops and blue bells. It was an hour or two past noon by the time we arrived, but the light was thick and golden. And they're just chilling on this grass. She just goes on to describe how she runs her fingers through the grass and it's like nothing she's ever felt. It's almost like a young Jackie on mushrooms. Oh, yeah. I am the children of the blast. So the three of them are vibing on this knoll. Again, get on it. Internet erotica if there's no fan. Yes. Tamlin goes, hey, uh, I want to show you something over here. Very much like a teen group hanging out and a boy is like, hey,

want to go like go over here or something? I want to go here, not for any reason, just so that we could like go over here. And then the groping starts. Yeah, but not here. No, no, he actually has something he wants to show her here. And it's not as penis yet. Sorry, guys. He takes her to a silvery. They really warm you up into it, though. By the time it starts happening, you're just like, yes. He takes her to a silvery pool that is a warm thick liquid that Tamlin tells her starlight. And so he challenges her to a swim. We're going to cover the scene in a different way, folks. But we're going to stop here. There's so much bass plot and I am famished. I wish I had some of that delicious fey food. I wish I had that. I wish that their clothing, there's not a lot of cl- okay.

Not yet. Not yet in the first chunk of this book, but we're going to be discussing Fasion in the upcoming season. Are you really going to call it Fasion? Fasion. We have to redo the David Bowie song. Fasion. Yeah. Right now, they are all just wearing tunics. Again, Baldricks that they put on the floor so they can swim in the starlight. Yeah. Put your Baldricks on the floor. Put your everybody Baldricks on the floor. Let your Baldricks hit the floor. Okay. Then we're all, they're all wearing tunics. All we know so far is Tamlin favors greens and silvers and Lucien prefers reds and oranges and golds. Beyond that, we've only established that the clothes are set in fairy tale time in the proper

women wearing dresses. It makes fares, tunic, and pants ensemble even more standout-ish. Not like the other girls. She's not. So we got it done. We got the bass line down. Join us next week as she glanced this way. I thought I saw. And when we touched she didn't shudder at my paw. Oh my god. Beauty and the Beast. Yes, please join us next week because things are going to start getting hot. So hot. And get this song out of my head. Please read one page into chapter 31 or page 269 in the paperback edition. And now dudes grappling with erotica for educational purposes only featuring Holden McNeely. No, I wouldn't let him have the satisfaction of embarrassing me.

I'd had enough of that lately enough of that girl encased in ice and bitterness. So I gave him a sweet smile doing my best to pretend that my stomach wasn't flipping over itself. A swim sounds delightful. I didn't allow myself room for a second guessing and I took no small amount of pride in the fact that my fingers didn't tremble once as I removed my boots. They didn't tremble as one moment. Then I buttoned my tunic and pants and chucked them into the grass like so much corn. My undergarments were modest enough that I wasn't showing much but I still look straight at him as I stood on the grassy bank. The air was warm and mild and a soft breeze kissed its way across my bare stomach. Side note that so much corn bit was added by me. Slowly, so slowly his eyes

roved down then up. Come on over Red Rover. That was also added by me as if he were studying every inch every curve of me and even though I wore my ivory under things that gaze alone stripped me bare. His eyes met mine and he gave me a lazy smile before removing his clothes button by button. Then I could have sworn the gleam in his eyes turned hungry and feral. Oh yeah you dirty dog. Dirty dog is added by me enough so that I had to look anywhere but at his face. I let myself indulge in the glimpse of a broad chest arms corded with muscle and long strong legs before I walked right into that pool. He wasn't built like Isaac whose body had very much still been in that ugh gangly place between boy and man. No. Tam- Tamlin's glorious body was held by centuries of

fighting and brutality. Ooh so yeah Lexie keeps trying to make give me to read these books but brah I don't think I can read a book with the characters names like Tamlin and shit you know what I'm saying anyways celebrity influencers are holding out. Booyah! Hey babies for more fairy talk and hot touch join us every week here on LPN deep dives at guitar available wherever you get your podcasts. This show is made possible by listeners like you. Thanks to our ad sponsors you can support our shows by supporting them. For more shows like the one you just listened to go to lastpodcastnetwork.com.