I love mess!
As a seasoned blogger of four days, I want to quickly share how much fun I’m having sharing my thoughts about Ship of Destiny and my broader RotE journey. What I thought would be just sending my words out into the lack has turned out to be the plenty. For those of you who have found my posts, liked, and to my very first subscriber 🥹- thank you! It delights me to think someone may have actually chuckled at something I’ve written. With that- onward!
***Liveship Traders spoilers through chapter 18 of Ship of Destiny***
There’s a lot of political maneuvering happening right now all along the cursed shores. We’ve got a Housewives-style post-battle reunion at the Traders’ Concourse. To think, just chapters ago we were having teenage dance drama here. Simpler times. Now we are in heavy negotiations with a dragon. And if you think I mean “negotiations with a dragon” metaphorically, rest assured: they had a detailed discussion about whether the dragon would need to sign a written agreement.
Tintaglia’s signature aside, Andy Cohen was desperately needed to mediate the personalities jockeying for power. Let’s start with Serilla. We are really one step forward, two steps back with her. First, she turns on Goon Squad leader Roed Caern, who is vanquished with a firm shove off a dais. If only toxic men in real life could be so easily thwarted. He’s literally shoved aside and we just carry on as if his bully reign were a mere puddle to step over. With Roed out of the way, Serilla has an idea: what if she was in charge of everyone? Serilla, you have been here five minutes. You shoved one dusty man off a stage. Please calm down.
Another person who needs to calm the fuck down: Mingsley. You finally get your fifteen seconds of screen time and what do you do? In the immediate aftermath of slavery being abolished, you suggest a spiffy little rebrand to indentured servitude and carrying on business as usual. Your presence in this story seems solely to confuse me and be a dumbass. I see why you and Davad Restart got along.
Emo Reyn is not at all having it with Tintaglia, but I’ve got to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what his beef is. Don’t get me wrong, Tintaglia is an absolute menace, but it was pretty well established she wasn’t going to be able to land and rescue Malta from the raft. She showed you where Malta was, Reyn- it’s not her fault you fumbled the boat. Also, her entire species is on the brink of extinction. Pardon her for not ranking the state of your puppy love at the top of her concerns. (If it makes you feel better, it is at the top of mine.) Tintaglia tells him:
“You imagine a significance to yourself that doesn’t exist, Reyn Khuprus.”
Gotta admit, she kind of clocked him here.
And then we’ve got Selden laying it on THICK. Selden has found his voice, and apparently that voice just waxes poetic to the dragon. But good on him, because it works and Tintaglia is absolutely eating out of his palm. It reminds me of Shrek meeting Puss in Boots in the illustrious film Shrek 2.
So, we’ve got some plans: Rain Wilds River infrastructure upgrades and new housing development in the works. The freed slaves are conned into settling in a geologically unstable swamp, where they get the privilege of building their very own treehouse town and slowly growing deformed- but they are happy so far be it from me to piss in their Cheerios. Reyn and Tintaglia don’t have time for the paperwork. It’s time to rescue Malta, and then they’ll get around to checking in on the on-the-brink-of-death serpents. The serpents are going to need a little time as King Kennit’s minions anyway, no rush!
Other thoughts:
Malta continues to show the trader in her. I’ve got to hand it to her, she can manipulate with the best of them. Pairing her with the pathetically useless Satrap is really brilliant. In that vein, Wintrow, Malta, and Selden are quite the set of siblings. I’m going to need an alternate universe story of Keffria and Kyle just trying to survive a summer break in suburbia with these three.
Now Selden’s got scales on his face. Here is a look in at Selden, Malta, and Reyn chilling on a Friday night in Trehaug in six months:
Wintrow’s crush on Etta: this really can’t end well. One second he’s waxing philosophical about the priesthood, and the next he’s upset when Etta’s answer to his question “what could he possibly learn on the ship?” isn’t “how to fuck.” Wintrow! Straight to jail!
We’ve got King Kennit doing King Kennit shit. He really is that bitch. Which makes it hilarious to me that his greatest enemy at the moment is a bracelet with a little wizardwood carving of his own face. Constantly getting negged by a Pandora charm would really rankle the nerves.
We have some truly asshole dragons and dragon-adjacents popping up in the story. Between Tintaglia, Bolt*, Paragon, and Carrion, its a real Mt. Rushmore of Cunt. I was happy for Maulkin and the tangle to connect with She Who Remembers after the struggle- and their reward is being Kennit’s muscle for a bit. I’m sorry, but it’s becoming increasingly clear how the dragons got themselves into this situation. Always time for a little side-quest when survival is on the line!
*Bolt is one Vivacia mention from Wintrow away from going full Darth Vader force choke on his ass. Yikes!
Still no Kyle. The longer we go without a check-in, the more my terror grows. Spooky!
Off to learn something useful, like navigation!
wizardwordship 