Chosen by my patrons on Patreon- an artwork based on the Queen of Nothing by Holly Black :)

Patreon | Instagram | Redbubble

Cardan and The Roach sneaking into Madoc’s camp to rescue Jude like

Imagine Locke's dad coming back from his journey into the wild or whatever, and he opens the door and is all "honey, I'm home!" Only to find the man who murdered his wife and the woman who murdered his son in his house 😂😂😂

The Queen of Monsters :D Finally getting to sit down and illustrate some stuff from this book! It was just perfect.

Why Locke’s death was off-page

I know a lot of people were annoyed that Locke’s death was off-page and I can’t blame them. We all wanted to see that turd get stabbed in the neck. But I get such a keen sense of satisfaction thinking about how much Locke would have HATED finding out his death wasn’t important enough to make it on the page. That he wasn’t the master of stories like he thought he was. That Taryn was the main character and he was just a footnote.

Having his death off-page undermines what he would want as a character. And frankly, I love that

This is such a great point!  It’s really interesting (and satisfying) to see it that way.  But until now, my main concern about Locke’s off-page death is:  really, is he dead?  The thing about Locke is not only that he’s a trickster but that he was playing a deeper game than we initially thought. (I almost fell off my chair when it was casually mentioned he basically orchestrated Jude’s abduction in TWK!)  Because he is an absolute idiot, and we are seeing everything from Jude’s POV, I think we have all underestimated him.  How far was he willing to go with his obsession for creating a story?

It is quite possible that Taryn did kill him and he never saw that one coming.

Also, it is equally possible Taryn thinks he killed him but she didn’t.  The fact that he was “returned” from the sea without a recognizable face is not to be dismissed.  There is something that feels unfinished about the whole situation.  (I keep going back to the fact that Leigh Bardugo was an influential enough reader of early drafts that she QoN is dedicated to her.  And Bardugo is definitely one for the idea of “if we can’t clearly see them dead, they aren’t.”)

Not to mention the fact that Cardan seems completely unmoved.  By now we all know Cardan is not the monster Jude initially thought he was.  And while he had enough reason to be angry at Locke, in the story itself they never had a real falling out.  It is weird to me that Cardan doesn’t have one word of mourning, not even in the fake inquest.  He knows Locke very well.  Does he not buy it either?

And of course, the third option is that Locke is not dead and Taryn knows it too.  Playing such a convoluted game to show there’s still plenty of story in her.

The fact that maybe we will never know is what makes this so fun and well written.

Hello I want to know how Cardan reacts when he knows how Balekin forced Jude to kiss him and how Locke tried to hunt her down when are we getting those novellas?

baby finally got to run into his arms just like she wanted to in the wicked king :')

Jurdan headcannon about Cardan hearing mortal music.

I'm not a writer, y'all, so you'll have to forgive me if this written like garbage.

.......

So after Jude and Cardan return to Elfhame after getting their family settled in the mortal world, Cardan receives a strange package.

It's from Viv.

He opens it up and there's an old school Walkman and a cassette tape.

On the cassette it says "Viv's Mortal Mix*

Cardan fumbles around with the contraption for an embarrassingly long time before he finally figures it out.

The mix has everything from "baby got back" by sir mix a lot, to "moonlight serenade" by Glen Miller.

Cardan spends his afternoon walking around the palace listening to this mix and looking for his wife

He obviously wants to share this with her.

He enters the garden as the last song starts to play.

It's "hey Jude" by the Beatles.

He starts giggling and decides to wait to to show the mix to Jude.

Weeks go by and Cardan memorizes the song in it's entirety.

One day he finds Jude is their chambers and she's obviously having a bad day.

Her face is red from holding back tears and she just looks tired.

Cardan tries to console her by asking her about what's wrong but Jude is stubborn and is tight lipped.

She asks for time. She'll be ok in a little bit.

Cardan feels helpless. He can't stand to see Jude like this.

So he sits down next to her, puts his arm around her and pulls her close to his side.

Eventually she loosens up a bit and rests her head on his shoulder.

He starts mindlessly running his fingers through her hair.

And ever so softly

He starts singing "hey Jude"

He's only a few lines in when Jude makes the realization.

She lifts her head up to look at him and he paused to kiss her forehead and continues singing to her.

She just smiles and rests her head back on his shoulder.

Why Locke’s death was off-page

I know a lot of people were annoyed that Locke’s death was off-page and I can’t blame them. We all wanted to see that turd get stabbed in the neck. But I get such a keen sense of satisfaction thinking about how much Locke would have HATED finding out his death wasn’t important enough to make it on the page. That he wasn’t the master of stories like he thought he was. That Taryn was the main character and he was just a footnote.

Having his death off-page undermines what he would want as a character. And frankly, I love that

I was thinking about something similar the other day, and it occurred to me that despite the number of stories and subplots Locke himself has caused in the lives of others, he’s almost never the main focus in any of them. Take the scene in TCP where Jude and Taryn fight after Jude finds out that she was never the one Locke was ‘interested in’, their fight is all about the two sisters and Locke’s almost an after thought. 

In TWK when Locke ask’s to become master of revels, you get the feeling that there’s more going on between Carden and Jude in that scene than there is between either of them and him. 

And when Jude plays the queen of mirth its Carden she’s focused on and Locke gets pushed out of the picture, again.

The only two times I can think of when he’s in the spot light Jude almost kills someone in his hunting party, and when she threatens him. And you could argue that we didn’t even know it was Locke in that scene, so it might not even count.

Maybe that’s why he takes so many of the named characters we know as lovers, too. bc for a brief while he’s the center of attention, and the reason he loves stories and attention is bc he never grew up with enough. He’s mother died when he was not much older than Jude when she came to Fairy, and he lives in an abandoned mansion. There’s more going on at Balekin’s estate in terms of inhabitants compared to Locke’s. And the fact that his mother could make provisions for his unborn brother but leaves nothing but a big lonely house is honestly…kinda depressing.

Maybe Locke was just really lonely the whole time, and combined with the fact that he’s a fairy makes for a pretty awful end result.  

i need a what we do in the shadows-style mockumentary about madoc in the mortal world IMMEDIATELY no i don’t take constructive criticism

you ever just think about how far jude has come? how she went from learning to slyfoot properly to stealing a prince and becoming a kingmaker? from kingmaker to spymaster to prisoner you high queen? she’s done so much i love her with my whole heart :’)

Queen of Nothing /aka Jude

(“The Folk of the Air” series by @hollyblack)

Finally finished this one!

The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black

you ever just think about how far jude has come? how she went from learning to slyfoot properly to stealing a prince and becoming a kingmaker? from kingmaker to spymaster to prisoner you high queen? she’s done so much i love her with my whole heart :’)

Why is no one talking about how awesome Heather is??? Like I loved the whole story arc between her and Vivi, and I loved how it ended. And when Heather was searching the library for books on snake curses, ICONIC! I thought something was actually gonna come of that. And I just love the slice of humanity she adds into the story, like sure Jude and Taryn are mortal but I feel like Heather really brings the relatable humanness to the story（sorry I didn’t explain that very well). Basically I stan a pink haired lesbian icon and she deserves more recognition.