maia: wow, csevet is so confident and prepared always, i’m jealous
csevet, offscreen, presumably: (sweating as he writes and files his own employment papers, reassuring himself that the emperor clearly DOES want him around so the odds of being arrested for usurping his authority are really very low)
ID: an 8-panel sketched comic of characters from the goblin emperor, parodying a love live fan comic. panel 1) cala is shown from the shoulders up, but low enough on the horizon to appear to be kneeling, with a rueful smile and a speech bubble containing a screenshot of text from the book that reads “Oh, damn. We did so hope we would get here first. Serenity.” 2) in a much simpler style that remains for the rest of the comic, beshelar covers maia’s ears, glaring with his mouth a large circle shape and with a drawn out “gasp”. 3) beshelar drags maia, whose face is completely neutral, out the door of the room, his own expression unchanged and still gasping. 4) the door is mostly closed but beshelar’s head pokes through with a short “gasp.” 5) maia, drawn in slightly more detail, is seated at a table writing something, looking regretful and saying “damn.” 6) a mostly empty panel but beshelar is in the bottom left corner looking over his shoulder with the same expression from before. 7) still looking behind him, face unchanged, beshelar walks with balled fists towards cala in the background who looks blissfully unaffected. csevet tries to intervene with raised hands. 8) beshelar is still looking over his shoulder with the same face, but kneeling with his fists balled in the front of cala’s robe where cala lies on the floor, still smiling blankly and raising two shruggy “ok” hands. end ID
ID: 10 cropped images of digital drawings of characters from the goblin emperor and witness for the dead. 1) csevet leaning over maia, flushed and watching his face. maia with his head thrown back. 2) csethiro and vedero with their foreheads pressed together, vedero seen from behind, csethiro flushed and gripping vedero’s shoulder 3) csethiro laying down, eyes closed, and blushing, knuckles pressed to her mouth 4) vedero’s face pressed into a pillow, supporting herself on her forearms, flushed and mouth open 5) csethiro with her hair down, looking down, smiling and blushing 6) csevet looking over his shoulder, hair down, blushing deeply 7) maia on his back slightly propped up, blushing and looking up in deep adoration 8) csethiro sitting upright, hair braided, looking down flustered and biting her lip 9) csethiro leaning over maia head bent in concentration. maia with his head thrown back gripping her arm with one hand and the sheets behind him with the other. 10) iäna leaning over thara, their foreheads pressed together, his braids cascading over him, looking lovingly into each others eyes. one of thara’s legs folded up, toes curling. end ID
(I’m using twitter for the time being! I have everything filtered because I’m extra paranoid, so you will need an account to view. BUT I may end up throwing these onto ao3, now that there’s a place I can host the images!)
there was an excellent analysis post about maza’s robes (go check it out it’s really good), and the additions supplemented it with resounding evidence of cala’s weird girl energy. i tagged it with, “he would wear crocs”
literally begging and pleading for someone to draw beshelar going WHAT ARE THOOOSE at cala’s crocs
so here you are
ID: two digital sketches of characters from the goblin emperor. 1) cala athmaza standing feet apart, hands behind his back, and deret beshelar next to him, shoulders hunched, knees bent, pointing down at cala’s feet. cala is a tall lanky elf with knee length robes and circle glasses. he’s wearing crocs with socks and has a smug expression. deret is a slim elf with a topknot and padded leather uniform. he’s flushed and looks distressed and outraged. he’s yelling “WHAT ARE THOSE?!” both have sashes with a little kitty face on them. 2) maia drazhar and csevet aisava from the waist up, holding a sheet of paper between them. csevet is a short elf of average build with multiple rings in his ears. he’s holding a pen in the other hand and is looking down at cala’s shoes. his ear is twitching and “judging” is scribbled next to him. his expression is reproachful. maia is a tall, thin goblin-elf with thick curly hair piled with pearls. he is wearing a cape and circlet and is also eyeing cala’s shoes. his expression is dubious and he’s saying, “oh…those are certainly um…unique.” end ID
“She had a picture book with many wonder tales in it - destroyed, we suppose, along with her other things when she died. she had brought it from Barizhan.”
“You miss her,” Arbelan said.
“Of course,” Maia said again. “We loved her very much”.
His Imperial Serenity Edrehasivar VII Drazhar, 209th Emperor of the Elflands, Bridge Builder and Rider of Horses His Grandfather Bought Him As A Pretty Paltry Apology for Not Being Around To Help Him or His Dead Mom
ID: a digital colored portrait of maia drazhar from the goblin emperor. he is a young goblin-elven man with gray skin, gray eyes, and long curly dark hair. he has a long face, long nose, and full lips. he is wearing white furs over white finery, and a silver circlet with a pale opalescent gem set in the center. he wears several drop earrings with gems, and a set of blue tashin sticks in his hair. his hair is half-pulled up, threaded with gems. he looks off to the side with a neutral expression. end ID
Re-reading The Goblin Emperor and I just. The way Maia’s abuse colors every interaction he has? The persistent guilt and fear and the assumption that everyone is mad at him all the time (which to be fair is not a far off assumption to make in his position) is really hitting hard this time around. Like when Csevet is like “hey where did you get these really specific diagrams of that one bridge” and Maia is just overwhelmed with guilt and has to tell himself over and over again that he didn’t do anything wrong. Or when Beshelar is like “hey that one dude who keeps sending you party invitations while you’re holding court isn’t actually your friend” but Maia is convinced that Beshelar doesn’t like him so instead of taking it as the concerned caution it is he snaps back and basically tells him to leave him the fuck alone.
It’s a really well done exploration of the way emotional abuse messes you up psychologically but it also makes Maia’s courage stand out so much more. He knows (thinks) he is hated. He knows (thinks) none of his decisions will make anyone happy. But he stays on the throne. He makes the decisions he feels are right. And he’s miserable, but he’s also not catering to the approval of others because he knows (thinks) he doesn’t have it and will never have it and that frees him in some ways while also being horribly tragic because people do like him!!! He does have some support!!! But he can’t see that. And so he never falls into the trap of trying to cater to it.
Like that one scene where he is mediating a land dispute or something and he knows he can’t pick a side so he’s like “fuck this, I can’t make everyone happy so I’m going to make sure no one is happy” and basically throws out all the proposals for splitting up the land that were all super biased in one group’s direction and splits the land up fairly so that everyone gets some but not all of what they wanted.
He knows he can’t make decisions that will make people happy. Not because he doesn’t want to, but because it is beyond his power and ability and popularity. So he makes the decisions that are fair, and just, and that he can live with.
IT’S THE WHOLE DEAL WITH THE BRIDGE!!!!!!!
He KNOWS it’s not a popular proposal with the eastern nobility. He KNOWS he’s going to be laughed at if he champions it. But what does he say??? “Of all our subjects, they are not the ones who need our help.”
And Csevet is all like, “It is not a sentiment we expected from an emperor.”
“We cannot help that,” Maia said, wearily.
“Serenity, we did not mean–”
“No, but others are bound to make the same observation, and they will say what you do not. They will say it is our mother’s Barizheise influence and deplore it. But it does not change that we must do what we think right.”
It does not change that we must do what we think right.
Maia can’t please his nobility, so he doesn’t try. They don’t like him, and a lot of them will never like him, simply for the fact that he looks like his mother. But just as he can’t change his heritage, he can’t help who he is, and he can’t not make the decisions he thinks are right.
I think an important aspect of the books is that Maia is not necessarily a reliable narrator. He doesn’t really know how to read people who aren’t Setheris. Like. The degree to which Beshelar dislikes him I think is very much filtered through Maia’s embarrassment and Beshelar’s own awkwardness at their first meeting. And I think that comes into play a lot when he makes decisions, because yes, he wants people’s perception of him to be good, but he also knows (thinks) that he’s fighting an uphill battle on that front and some days he just runs out of fucks to give about other people’s already negative opinion and does whatever. And I think that’s a good thing. Proves there’s still a grumpy teenager somewhere under white robes and crown.
