Ravens and Circles and Blah Blah Blah

The Raven Cycle is about finding Glendower, but also not about finding Glendower at all. Everything is cyclical, there is no real beginning or end it just goes around and around and sometimes the next go-around is a little different than before. Sometimes there are five points of beginning and sometimes the ending isn't really the end.

Entering the fandom is so interesting because I think it's full of people who first read the series when it came out, so the finer details are a little cloudy when they haven't done a reread in a while. It's an interesting comparison to read their posts as someone who has just freshly finished reading for the first time. I wish Tumblr search was actually useful so I could really deep dive, but for now at least the "year:" filter is really handy. I still haven't come across any fanart of the shell raven at Cabeswater though!!! I thought you Tumblr people loved the chalk horses on hills in England what is going on where's the shell raven art!! I still haven't decided if I want to start the sequel trilogy yet. The only things I know about it is that Ronan and Adam are in it and the rest are new characters. Kinda meh on that honestly. I can't lie my first thought was that it's probably a fanservice-y series for people who want more Pynch. And I love Pynch they literally made my stomach do backflips when I was reading The Raven King but like... what is another series without the gangsey... do not separate them... I don't know maybe I'm entirely off base but I'm also not getting a great first impression of this author lol so right now the Dreamer Trilogy is giving me similar vibes to the Max Ride and Artemis Fowl sequel series (which is that no one cares about them). Like are there other merits other than the yaoi or what.

raven cycle things

all of them having a personal connection to cabeswater:
gansey: finding cabeswater is what makes him realize that the glendower search might actually be something big and his work and research hasn't gone to waste
blue: living as a non-psychic surrounded by psychics for her entire life, all she's wanted is to be able to actually see magic for herself, and cabeswater and the ley line is where that happens
adam: he makes the sacrifice to connect to cabeswater and it becomes intertwined with his very being from then on, even after cabeswater sacrifices itself for gansey he still can feel it faintly inside him
ronan: he built cabeswater, a physical manifestation of the power his dreaming truly has and a place he vows to rebuild and protect

some random favorite scenes that have stuck with me:
- the first and second pynch kisses and adam's convo with gansey about it. the line about all the objects of ronan's worship being under one roof GOD
- henry pulling up to blue's school, them having a theatrical argument so as not to compromise her principles, and then gansey pulling up a minute later and of course she has to get in the car
- the raven day festivities with gansey surrounded by all the makeshift ravens
- declan driving four hours to henrietta every sunday morning for church with his brothers
- adam adding the bass boosted drums to their little cabeswater nature song and everyone immediately going "ugh ronan" and then him smirking over at ronan when ronan says it wasn't him
- blue dreaming of the stars and her conversation with artemus the tree and her realizing that there's a reason why she's always felt torn between two worlds
- President Cell Phone <3
- gansey only wearing his wireframe glasses at night when he's more vulnerable and exhausted and anxious
- noah stepping through and around time and whispering the line to gansey when the wasps attack him
- ronan admitting that he's gay because kavinsky asked and ronan never lies
- blue's secret phone calls to congress
- henry (i think) calling gansey-ronan-adam the president, congress, and supreme court
- all of blue's outfit descriptions i love her fits so much
- i saw a post about how unique and refreshing it is that adults and family plays such a big role in the series compared to other ya books at the time, where parents were often dead or simply not in the narrative at all. the women of 300 fox way play such an integral part to the story and they care so much about blue and the boys and henrietta. i love that they play such an active role in the story to the point where everyone is kinda a main character, not just the gangsey, and the pov of the book really helps everyone shine