No, but seriously. It’s been so long since I’ve read this (and the series in general?) that I forgot where the Official Frontier to the Archipelago is.
Charles was the one with the undigested-mustard-and-cheese nightmare? That’s one of the most ridiculous Christmas Carol puns I’ve heard in a while…
Bert saying their first stop is Avalon is the first Arthurian reference in the series, right?
So, of the two goat-people-hybrids from Greek myths, fauns are more suited for a ship’s crew… because apparently satyrs take the drunken sailor trope to the extreme.
God, Charles’ reaction to all this sounds like Susan’s reaction to first entering Narnia…
Wait, hold up. Did the one faun actually break Charles’ toes in response to Charles’ reaction, or were they just bruised? And how badly was his foot hurt really? Because I don’t remember whether or not the whole thing was brought up again.
Avalon’s definitely one of those places that are still really pretty even when everything there is falling apart and getting reclaimed by nature.
So, not only is the first reference to Avalon from Arthurian legends, it’s the first appearance of the series of Green Knights.
Anybody know who exactly was involved in the current Green Knight’s backstory? Because I kinda feel like that’s one of those cultural references that’s gone way over my head because it’s something I haven’t read/watched/whatever. (Unless he is actually Lancelot and I completely missed the official confirmation in his appearance in I think either The Shadow Dragons or The Dragon’s Apprentice… And here I am spoiling shit again.)
OK, yep, Avalon is the Official Frontier Marker since the destruction of Atlantis.
The Morgaine are immediately introduced as something like the Witches from Macbeth, but the further into the conversation with them it gets, they also give off similar vibes to the three witches from The Chronicles of Prydain (especially Cul, who reminds me of… Dammit, I need to reread the Prydain books again.)
They’re already calling King Arthur “Wart” like in The Once and Future King, which also seems to be inspiration for the nickname “Bug.” (Fun fact: when I was a kid, I’d occasionally jokingly call my mom’s brother “Bug,” partially because he’d kinda bug my grandma, who he still lived with at the time, and partially because it rhymed with his name, Doug.)
OK, so, they just unloaded a lot of shit when talking about the cooking cauldron: Ceridwen said it’s not the infamous Black Cauldron (which will appear later), said Black Cauldron has raven designs all over it (ravens = recurring theme?), the Morgaine already knew Magwich stole it, and apparently Charles will eventually steal the “Maggot” nickname from Ceridwen and Cul.
“‘Putting things into it was easy,’ said Celedriel. ‘It was taking them out again that was hard-because once it was open, there was no telling what would escape.'” Oh, the foreshadowing.
Bug wants to be a knight when he grows up. Oh, boy, you have no idea…
“‘But without the Mapmaker’s heir, all is lost,’ said Ceridwen.” Oh. OH… That’s some Dragon’s Apprentice shit right there…
So, apparently, the Green Knight’s final duty was to, uh, send Bug to “restock” the Indigo Dragon. Also, who’s Lucie? That just reaffirms that I still have no idea what his backstory was referencing.
OK, who’s Sera, and why’s she so obsessed with this flower?
So, this dude with half a face shows up. Like, half a face where part of his head is exposed down to the skull, or like, half a face like Two-Face from Batman?
Sera was almost kidnapped by the creepy dude, got hurt when her brother tried to save her, then died. And they both missed the rare flower’s bloom.
So, wait, was Ethan the boy in the flashback? Was the flashback a dream actually a memory?
Yeah, so, the fact that the cousins live on a farm in the country should’ve been an obvious tipoff that they’d have a shitton of pets.
So Isaac and Edmond are twins. Also, what kind of name is Osbert?
Piper’s totally not Prim from The Hunger Games.
Even if I don’t like this book, the house that the cousins live in does sound pretty. Except for the bathrooms.
Aunt Penn’s rarely home because of some involvement in the peace process. So, a) Penn’s probably some government official, maybe UN?, and b) the war’s basically already primed to happen.
Osbert’s a stuck-up ass, and Edmond’s still psychic.
Katrina put Ichabod in a magic-Rip-van-Winkle-coma-thing, Ichabod’s back because the Horseman’s back, and Ichabod and possibly Abby are the two Biblical Witnesses. Or something.
“Perhaps General Washington knew more than he was telling me when he made his remarks about the true stakes of the war in the colonies…” No shit, Ichabod…
The Horseman hates the sun. Right.
Also, Ichabod and Abby have to get rid of the Horseman’s head and rescue Katrina. Great.
What’s the deal with Reverend Knapp?
No, but John Cho’s character dying and coming back so much was ridiculous.
Oh, God, I forgot how much I hated the formatting of this book. It’s supposed to sound “conversational,” but a lot of the paragraphs are jumbled together, and there aren’t any paragraph breaks and quotation marks for quotes, and the whole thing just feels like a massive run-on sentence. Wait, no, I didn’t actually forget that. It’s definitely one of the top two things that annoyed me about this book (and the second comes later).
So, Cousin Edmond shows up at the airport in London instead of Aunt Penn. (How many times am I going to have to correct myself and not spell it Edmund like in Narnia?)
Also, Edmond is all but literally described as this redneck hick kid. He’s this 14-year-old kid who smokes and drives underage (even by British standards – Their smoking and driving age is 16, right?), and he’s the one who drove out from the country in the family Jeep to pick Daisy up. And he apparently chopped off his own hair? Also, apparently he’s psychic.
This is basically a short rehash of the first season of Sleepy Hollow on Fox told by Ichabod. So, spoilers for that, too?
“One barely knows where to start.” Oh, Mr. Proper Grammar… One barely knows where to start? This is your journal. Just say I barely know where to start.
So, yeah, this is right at the beginning of the pilot when Ichabod first wakes up and gets arrested for the sheriff’s murder, and he has no idea what’s going on.
OK, yeah, the Headless Horseman’s back and is the one who killed the sheriff, but it does kinda sound crazy.
The bow tattoo is bad.
Ichabod knows the story about Benjamin Franklin and the kite, lived through the time period that it happened, but still doesn’t know that the whole story is an urban legend and that the electricity would’ve killed Franklin? (I saw that last bit on Mythbusters.)
Yeah, Ichabod’s way behind on his American history from being supposedly dead for over 200 years.
Why the specific Bible verse? (I’m asking both as a “this’ll definitely get answered later” thing and an “I’m actually way behind on the show” thing.)
Of course there’s a paranormal element to the Revolutionary War because of course there is.
Wait, what? Amy’s mom has a rat called Star? I’m not shocked about the fact that Star’s called Star or that she’s a rat. I’m more shocked by the fact that Amy’s mom has a pet to take care of when she can’t even take care of her own kid.
Here’s one of those “animals can totally predict natural disasters” moments.
And now the tornado shit’s going down…
Hey, Stephenie Meyer, please note that rain can come down in sheets, like here in this book, but “sheeting rain” isn’t a phrase that’s used in any normal conversation.
Of course the whole trailer park thing was a setup for how Amy’s got no real shelter from the storm, and that the storm’s going to pick up her trailer to take her to Oz. With a rat.
I’m trying to see how often I’ll be going “How historically accurate is this book, even with all the sources at the end?” the whole Dear America series.
My first instance is something I’ve seen in the Goodreads reviews: OK, sure, this isn’t written using the grammar a kid in the 1600s would’ve used, but how would a modern kid reading this know what the hell was being said if the book was written like that?
“Just kidding. This kid’s not that patient. We’re switching around her first and middle names.” – Mem’s mom on Mem’s birthday twelve years earlier.
That’s… a very short way of putting the stuff about all the religious persecution at the time.
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