#queen of nothing
Cardan: My wife looks amazing right now
Roach: Oh, Jude’s here
Cardan: No she’s not here but i can just fee-wait, she actually is look over there in the balcony she’s about to end locke’s life and I was right, she looks gorgeous
Jude Duarte from The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black, I almost gave up this fanart cause I didn’t like the colors but HEY never give up right? I ended up really liking the result, what do you think?
Cardan: *panicking* Jude! You’re bleeding!
Jude: *completely calm* Don’t worry, it’s not my blood.
I finished reading Queen of Nothing yesterday and then I watched Swan Princess, and everything Rothbart said started to sound like things Jude would say and now I can’t unsee it.
“You have much to lose and I have nothing. You may win in the end, you may ensorcel me and hurt me and humiliate me, but I will make sure you lose everything I can take from you on the way down.” - Jude in The Cruel Prince
“Mithridatism, it’s called. Isn’t that a funny name? The process of eating poison to build up immunity. So long as I don’t die from it, I’ll be harder to kill.” - Jude in The Cruel Prince
“Power is much easier to acquire than it is to hold on to.” - the entire theme of The Wicked King
Cardan: “She is my wife and the rightful High Queen of Elfhame.”
Jude: **raids Cardan’s closet** **asks Taryn for wardrobe help** **asks Tatterfell to do her hair**
- The Queen of Nothing
And as a bonus, Jude riding up to the giant serpent at the end of Queen of Nothing:
Their majesties
The mortal queen of elfhame
Cardan Greenbriar, High King
Cardan singing ‘Hey, Jude’ horribly when his lover is sad just to cheer her up is giving me all the feels.
WE GOING DOWN STREAKS
Oh Jude, you have no idea.
“Kill him before he makes you love him” will forever be my favorite quote from twk.
Jude and Cardan
Be angry at a nearer distance Jude Duarte
Jude:Night.
Cardan:
Cardan: awww okay goodnighttt
cardan, internally: SHE SAID GOODNIGHT TO MEEEE
It’s always “I miss you” and never“my heart is buried with you in the strange soil of the mortal world, as it was drowned with you in the cold waters of the Undersea.”
jude: cardan can i ask for a favour
cardan: i would move heaven and earth for you, but continue
mommy? sorry. mommy? sorry.
insta : frostbite.studios
Everyone single person in Elfhame:
Cardan Greenbriar:
Jude and Cardan went from
This ↓ (the cruel prince)
To this ↓ (the wicked king)
To this ↓ (queen of nothing)
Talk about an enemies-to-lovers relationship development!
Cover reveal for Book of Night!! What do you think?
jude duarte appreciation post:
- sexy murder goddess with her own agency
- not afraid to kick your ass
- top energy is off the fucking charts
- despite being pretty ruthless, she’ll do anything for the people she loves
- KNIFE TO THE THROAT
- men ain’t shit vibes
- but also is secretly soft for cardan and will fight anyone that hurts his feelings
- deliciously cunning
- a spy AND a queen (you get the best of both worlds)
- did i mention sexy knife lady??
- “i will keep defying you”
- enemies to rivals with mutual respect (but still some disdain) to lovers
- serious lesbian energy too like damn she can hold a knife to my neck any day
- grew into someone that actually deserved to be queen
- her hair HER HAIR i bet it’s so soft mmm
- stubborn as hell
- literally just so bad ass in everything she does, like she put a literal knife through her HAND come on people
- a lot more morally grey than most protagonists are allowed to be
- “if i cannot be better than them, i will be so much worse”
- wears gorgeous sexy gowns on the regular
- mixed bi queen!! yes girl!!
- ambitious and will never ever be sorry for it
So like a lot of people, QoN was kind of up and down in quality for me. There were a lot of great moments, but also a lot of moments that didn’t quite land the way they should’ve. Since I’m an overthinking former English major with too much free time, I’ve figured out what exactly is missing in QoN that was there in CP and WK.
Spoilers, obviously.
Here’s the issue: the emotional moments in QoN are not tied to the sexy moments the way they should be. What makes a sex scene (or make out scene) sexy? The physicality of the moment, sure. But also the emotional impact of the sex act for the characters. Anyone can have sex. Stick a penis in a vagina and boom, ya did it. But good book sex lands because it’s about the emotion in addition to the physical stuff.
What makes all the make out/hook up moments in CP and WK so damn sexy is that they aren’t just tied to emotion, they’re also tied to emotional revelation. In CP, Jude and Cardan’s epic first kiss is tied to the moment Jude first realizes that Cardan desires her. In WK, their hookup is tied to the moment when Jude finally acknowledges that she desires Cardan too. Yes, these scenes are all well-written and describe the physical aspects quite well, but that’s not what gets us all hot and bothered under the collar. It’s the pairing of the “oh shit he likes her” with the kissing and heavy petting.
I maintain that the single sexiest moment in the whole series is in WK, when Jude surprises Cardan in bed after she’s freed from the Undersea and he just drops this massive feelings bomb on her. They don’t even do anything physical beyond cuddle a little, but it’s sexy because the emotional revelation is through the fucking roof.
Which leaves us with QoN. It’s difficult to pinpoint one scene with a huge emotional revelation on par with WK because Jude and Cardan get interrupted constantly. Cardan mentions the missing letters, and then boom Jude’s kidnapped. Cardan rescues Jude, and then boom she’s off to rescue the Ghost. Cardan and Jude have an actual human conversation, and then boom they have to talk to the Council. They almost never get an uninterrupted scene, and it ruins the flow.
I suppose the big revelatory scene is when Cardan explains his true intentions behind Jude’s exile, and that she could have canceled the exile literally any time, and that he trusts her. This is the moment when they should have started making out like rabid rabbits. There’s the emotional revelation, so lets add the physical part, right? Except nope, they have to talk to the Council about boring plans and shit. By the time Cardan and Jude finally get to the horizontal naked dance, it’s dozens of pages later.
Their sex scene is fine for what it is, but it’s not tied to an emotional revelation anymore. We already know that Cardan wanted to do really kinky things with Jude, and we know he has a lot more respect for her now, so that’s not a big reveal. There’s no real emotional reveal and revelation in that scene, so the whole thing feels somewhat flat. Holly chose to save Cardan’s love confession until right before the confrontation with Madoc so that Jude could get all upset over Cardan possibly never knowing her true feelings. And I get that choice, from a plot perspective. Don’t spend your emotional currency all at once. But honestly, Cardan confessing his love to Jude should have been paired with the sex scene, because then we get that lovely emotional revelation kick. They wouldn’t just be having sex because they find each other hot, they would be making love over an emotional connection.
QoN is what it is, for better or worse. It’s not a bad book, but it misses delivering the same punches that CP and WK delivered so well.
Hmm -_-
WE GOING DOWN STREAKS
Why are people saying Jude’s pregnant, y’all know they didn’t have sex right?