UNHINGED LOCKED TOMB THOUGHTS (SPOILERS) | Nona the Ninth

[@tofutrash8903]

On the topic of asshole Gideon, I think a large part of Kiriona being Like That is that’s how Gideon presents even in book 1 when you’re not privy to her inner monologues. Like yeah Kiriona has More Trauma*™ and being dead plus literally having no heart would make anyone bitchy but I’m pretty sure she was an asshole before that. Plus! She was a indentured servant, then she was a forced cavalier, she died for Harrow and in her perspective was rejected, died again and when she comes to her friends are talking about her like the only thing they want from her is her blood to open the tomb and not ya know, mourning. I am excited to see how Kiriona will evolve! Harrow is a bone witch that is suspiciously good at the heart after all. Or at least that’s what some people in the fandom have been saying I don’t have enough brain juice to have remembered that piece in the books. Nice video! I think the fandom needs more stuff like this because while I love deep dives I also want to vibe with people that also don’t know what’s going on XD

[@devlyn873]

I love these books so much and understand them so little Me the whole time I'm reading them: "This is So Good!! ...I wonder what's happening?"

[@ZIMmissesyou]

Yes exactly that 😂

[@podakayne]

🤣😂😅😂not laughing at you but with you. i know exactly what you mean.

[@kayleesparks]

Omg I feel so seen

[@Flweem]

I feel like the implication is that John's necromantic power was granted by the soul of Earth - what would eventually become Alecto. They talk about how one of the first things she said to him was "I picked you to change, and this is how you repay me?" And then, presumably, John created more necromancers as part of the Resurrection. After all, we know through Harrow that it's possible to create necromancers with enough death, and John even calls what was done to Harrow "a kind of Resurrection"

[@kiyahnnavissi3340]

i think that’s why he’s John Gaius: his cavalier is Gaia herself

[@ZoeyMari]

What I like about John's presentation in the series, is that in Harrow, you see him through her eyes, and Harrow has been a devout nun all her life. From an incredibly young age, she has been trying so hard to make up for the sin of her birth, the genocide her parents committed in her name at her very conception. And then after she had rolled away the rock, gazed upon the body, and in her view caused her parent's deaths, she felt like she had an even greater sin to make up for. So of course she looks at John and sees wisdom and gentle forgiveness and divinity at first. But then she is around him more, and by the end she realizes he truly is just a guy (if one with functionally nigh-omnipotence). And that's really what makes him so disappointing as a God: the fact that he isn't better. And then in Nona we see why, when he explains how he really was just a guy, who made mistakes, and made the wrong choices, and made a mess he didn't know how to get out of. (And of course the fact that he keeps making meme jokes that only he will get, exactly because of what he did, and he's sad about that but also enough of an ass to make a none pizza with left beef joke to comfort Harrow as she bares her every sin to him, just as a little joke to himself)

[@tofutrash8903]

Doing a separate comment b/c different topic but on the subject of Paul I think I’d be really sad if I was Paul. Because yeah Paul is a New Thing and the narrative really holds on to that because Nona mourns the loss of Cam and Pal but like if Paul is this new thing born from both Cam and Pal I don’t think it’d be too much of a stretch to say that Paul also holds the love of their friends and family that Cam and Pal have together! Imagine seeing your friends and family mourn for the loss of You and you want to help them and say I’m here and I love you! But you also know that you’re not the You they’re mourning for. Paul has to start maybe not from ground zero but they do have to rebuild relationships with people that they already love and I think that’s heartbreaking.

[@ApatheticImagination]

On the name, "Kiriona" is just "Gideon" transliterated (written as it is spoken) to Maori (which John uses like modern day New Zealanders do, which makes sense because he was one)

[@ZIMmissesyou]

Whoa! I had no idea and that is super cool! Thank you for sharing that with me! 😁

[@user-zd7we1zv5i]

So, Jod is alive at the end of Nona. Alecto stabs him by way of hello. Also, he was the one who resurrected shithead Gideon, I’m pretty sure. I think AtN will just be Alecto kicking his shit in for a solid four hundred pages

[@lorisaunders8355]

Totally with you on so many counts! And just happy to know it is continuing… I did read rather than listen, which was super helpful. I constantly went back to the list of characters and to check details from previous books. After more wiki lookup, guess I will re-read as well

[@blackmetalerik962]

hopefully the 4th book won't take as long as winds of winter

[@GX_Pixel]

I don't mean this in a mean way. The way you were lost the whole time is a good case in why sometimes books are better off read than listened to.

[@ZIMmissesyou]

I don’t think you’re wrong and one day I would love to read the books with my eyeballs too! But I find focusing on and even just motivating myself to pick up physical books to read a lot harder to do, audiobooks keep reading and stories accessible to me! And in defence of the audiobooks, which in my opinion are amazingly done, I am notoriously bad at names on my best day! (And faces but that’s less of a problem while reading, haha) I have a feeling of I read the books first physically my brain would have just glossed over some of those names the way that it did when I tried to read twilight as a teen and took FOREVER to figure out how “Carlisle” was supposed to be pronounced and I’d still be lost after my first read 😂

[@GX_Pixel]

@@ZIMmissesyou Make mistake I endulge in audiobooks as well and it was in fact this book series that God me to pick up physical books again after I too struggle to understand what was going on. I actually bought an e-reader and found that it was easier to read books that way. I would try giving that a shot if you haven't already. Thank you for replying btw I was worried I would come off as rude.

[@JackCross3]

*Nona Spoilers* I really loved the audiobooks for this series. The narration is sooo good with all of the different voices helong give personality to so many characters. But I think it's a double edged sword that may have contributed to some confusion since you can't super easily re-read a section if you're confused later. And there's definitely some intentional voice trickery like in book 2 where most of the book she's doing Harrow's voice for the narration and only changes it to Gideon after the reveal. One thing I really appreciate about Tamsyn Muirs character writing is that she lets things get really messy. It all feels very human. I was also pretty bummed when Camilla and Pal become Paul, but I felt comforted, strangely, because Nona was also sad about it. I think a weaker, but not bad, book would have had them fuse and then have Nona say "and Paul is a perfect representation of love". Instead Paul gets to speak for themself and Nona is allowed to feel mixed feelings about it, much like I did. And I really liked the John chapters. Partially for the Lore. But I also like hearing this stuff from John. Like, he's an evil emperor sure. But I think Tamsyn is really doing a good job of making him seem very human. Like, I think she's doing a good job showing how very human it is to make bad decisions when you're stressed or feeling trapped or whatever. It also kinda makes sense with how much Gideon kinda sucks in this one like you said. But I think rather than it being about her soul, it's because, as Nona says in one line, she's so deeply sad. I think a lot of the villains in this series are just deeply sad people.

[@lindqvistsandra]

I had to re-read Harrow and Nona and ask other fans to understand some details. I´m so impressed by many of the TLT fans and their big brains. I´m not still not sure I understand the epiloge of Nona! Still love it tough.

[@FrontTowardsAnemone]

Please, someone explain to me: #1: how Gideon's Body went from being in the possession of BoE (the body that refused to rot in As Yet Unsent) to being in the emperor's possession #2: how Gideon's Body got out of harrows and back into her own body at the end of harrow the ninth. Please. I'm so confused T_T

[@Username456-b4p]

I recently finished Nona and I'm happy I found this! I can't get enough TLT content and it's good to hear from people who were also massively confused while reading

[@briankuczynski6884]

4:54 houses as space stations is literally true at least in the case of the 6th

[@iwyt3995]

Hey! ASD person here as well. :) The Locked Tomb books always had lore. Whilst Nona certainly gave us even more lore than every before (and I lurved every. fraking. minute. of. it.) I feel the lore was certainly there from the get go and Harrow gave us a decent amount of it. Don't worry. I know what you mean though. The John segments were by far my favorite parts of the book!

[@ZIMmissesyou]

There has definitely always been lore! But I guess the initial how things came to be lore was something I never thought we would actually get, you know? Like the books just said “this is how the world is, don’t question it!” And that was that and then that was NOT that at all!

[@iwyt3995]

@@ZIMmissesyou I probably would have had big problems with this series if we _didn't_ get any of the lore... Fortunately that was not the case!

[@iwyt3995]

@@ZIMmissesyou OK. Here's a bit of lore I don't think we'll *ever* get. I don't ever expect to get an in-depth look at the full of extent of John's imperial might. And what I mean by that is the proper details of the Cohort. I mean, what is the Locked Tomb equivalent of the Sardaukar or the Feydakin? Are those the Lyctors, some elite branch of the Second House, or the entirety of the Fourth House (which I always thought were the Emperor's canon fodder.....:( )? That is a lore detail I don't think we'll ever get answered because overall, it's not that important. At least not to the overall story that's trying to be told here.

[@Ldysith84]

I feel like I need a strategy guide to read alongside Nona the Ninth. I was so confused 😅 even up until the very end! And I just ended a conversation with my friend who got me to read these books saying "I swear I'm not a dumbass!" when discussing Nona 😂

[@niccordova5834]

So I just finished the third book and..... Ummmmm I would have to say I am exactly right there with you. I loved all the books but absolutely have no idea what is going on. I actually ended up on your video because I was looking for a video of someone explaining it and here we are🤷🏻‍♂️

[@ZIMmissesyou]

Oh no, I’m sorry I definitely didn’t explain anything 😂 but I’m always glad to find other people as lost as I am

[@BrokenDarkFire]

I learned things while watching this 😅 I definitely need a reread. I really enjoyed it and I think I caught about 65% of what’s going on - fandom and rereads are gonna have to explain the rest. But this is definitely shaping up to be one of my favorite series of all-time because I love books that are so rereadable.

[@jasonlarkin8807]

Love this! Thought I was off track but man, could be worst, hahaha

[@RaspbrylZ]

I'm also pretty autistic and I also needed to consult the wiki in parts. Don't feel too bad about being lost I was completely lost until I wasn't. I still like Ianthe even if she's toxic AF. The Soup Scene was pretty iconic NGL. I will say this the writing in these books is somewhat reminiscent of the Zero Escape / Somnium Files game series for me because I often find myself totally lost as to what is going on until it finally clicks sometime near the end.