foils are used to emphasize the difference between the protagonist and (usually) the antagonist. in this case (i know we know this), gansey is the protagonist and whelk is the antagonist. whelk talks at length about how he had been gansey. he even says “and now gansey was a king here, and he didn’t even know how to use it.” whelk always used his power to take from others and get whatever he wants and the fact that gansey doesn’t do that bothers him. in the present and the past gansey and whelk have essentially the same goal just with different motivation. they are both looking for the ley line but where whelk is motivated by greed and lust for power, gansey is motivated by his desire to find purpose for himself and those around him. whelk is even willing to kill is “best friend” for control of the ley line. gansey is not even willing to risk doing the ritual because he’s worried about the safety of, primarily, his friends. i think the scene that illustrates gansey and whelk as foils the best is when whelk pulls to gun on gansey to get the journal from him and gansey says, “if you’d just asked, i would’ve told you everything in there. i would’ve been happy to. it wasn’t a secret.” and whelk, who is shocked by this, replies “you disgust me. you think you’re invincible. guess what. so did i.” this scene makes the distinction between whelk and gansey so obvious. although gansey and whelk come from the same background — both from wealthy families, both attending aglionby — where gansey is giving whelk is greedy. whelk is only after power and views giving as a form of weakness. gansey gains power from giving. whelk’s qualities and character arc are used to highlight the goodness in gansey which makes them foils.
Hey ya’ll it’s cha’ girl coming at you with another plea for money lmao I need at least $500 by the end of the month, and even with overtime at work I’m just not gonna get there so I’m doing commissions!! I’ll draw just about anything you want (terms and conditions do apply) so hit me up
If you don’t have the money for a drawing (or you just don’t want one lol) I really really appreciate y’all spreading the word with reblogs!! Thanks much!
Still images and ID under the cut! Commissions are open! PM me for details!
ID: A digitally painted gif of Gansey from The Raven Cycle. He is a young man with tan skin, brown hair, and green eyes. He is wearing a light blue polo shirt and khaki shorts and is standing in front of a lush green mountainous backdrop, looking up slightly with a small smile on his face. The gif flashes between this image and a similar image with a darker sky, and a skull in place of his face. In the second image he is swarmed with bees and their are spectral gray hands grasping at him. The image is framed by a digitally drawn ornate gold picture frame. END ID]
at one point gansey’s parents tell him he can only bring one plus-one to an important political dinner because “the rules are the same for everyone and we’re trying to be fair,” and then they very friendly-like encourage him to bring blue because “she doesn’t often get opportunities to attend events like this,” and so forth
and gansey’s like. i know you want me to be straight and monogamous in public but. uh. mom. dad. i cannot POSSIBLY express enough just HOW MUCH you’d rather i be publicly gay with henry cheng than bring BLUE SARGENT to your REPUBLICAN POLITICAL FUNDRAISER.
The way Adam said it made the fireplace quiver, as if something dark had just rolled off his tongue to engulf the living room. Gansey held his gaze in a comfortable silence. It sounded like a warning.
“What are we doing?”, he said again.
Gansey attempted an innocent smile. “We’re drinking scotch and talking about…”
“You know,” Adam interrupted him, “what I mean.”
—
Merry Christmas with this idea I’ve had in my mind ever since Evermore came out last year. In this post-canon ‘verse, with the gangsey heading towards their thirties, Blue and Henry on the other side of the world, and Adam and Ronan’s relationship on the rocks, Gansey and Parrish both find themselves in DC during the holidays - Gansey at his parents house, Adam just passing by for the weekend. And the road not taken looks real good now.
Like many other stories, this too shall remain unpublished and hidden in my phone notes, but I couldn’t help drawing something from it! Also, I have been so obsessed by this concept that I also made a gifset for it last year. And of course I have an all-TS playlist for Adam and Gansey called yee-haw, 'cause duh.
Hope your holiday season is filled with love and warmth
“We have to be back in three hours,“ Ronan said. "I just fed Chainsaw but she’ll need it again.” “This,”Gansey replied, “is precisely why I didn’t want to have a baby with you.”
“You can be just friends with people, you know,“ Orla said. "I think it’s crazy how you’re in love with all those raven boys.”
Orla wasn’t wrong, of course. But what she didn’t realize about Blue and her boys was that they were all in love with one another. She was no less obsessed with them than they were with her, or one another, analyzing every conversation and gesture, drawing out every joke into a longer and longer running gag, spending each moment either with one another or thinking about when next they would be with one another. Blue was perfectly aware that it was possible to have a friendship that wasn’t all-encompassing, that wasn’t blinding, deafening, maddening, quickening. It was just that now that she’d had this kind, she didn’t want the other.
“I wish you could be kissed, Jane,’ he said. ‘Because I would beg just one off you. Under all this.’ He flailed an arm toward the stars.” ― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves
trc really is abt this insane little dude whos like actually this dead welsh king is alive and buried in virginia and hes said to grant wishes to ppl who find him and i know this bc a voice in my head told me this as i was dying at age 10 . but this is normal its just a funny little hobby ive spent my life obsessing over in a desperate attempt to give my second chance at life meaning im just a little eccentric u know how it is and also im dragging all my friends in w me and they kinda dont believe me but i am so charming that everyones like wait what if hes right <3
you know those super chaotic tiktoks that feature a group of teenage boys doing something wholesome yet stupid and ridiculous? That’s just the raven boys incarnate. anyway in this essay i will
