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SOPHIE'S TRAUMA (Or lack thereof)

Something that's always irked me about TCY is how flippant Sophie is toward references to Rafal. This old ass bitch groomed and took advantage of her, manipulated and brainwashed her with the Swan Gold, and by the Ever-Never Handbook she's talking about him like he’s an unfortunate ex and not, you know, a fucking monster.

In TLEA it is specifically stated that Sophie is terrified of Rafal before he gives her his ring. Even after that, she makes numerous comments on feeling unsafe around him. There's no denying that she was affected by Rafal's behavior during the time they were together, so why is he written off as another guy Sophie couldn't keep? Why does Rafal become a punchline from the Handbook forward, not even a year after his death?

To put it simply: Sophie was taken advantage of by an older man. She showed obvious signs of how this was negatively affecting her in TLEA. It's safe to assume that she would gain some sort of trauma from this, but such is never exploited in QFG onwards.

Sure, Sophie is a very frivolous person, so her making a joke at the expense of an ex or commenting on how he's “still hot” doesn't come unexpected. But Rafal isn’t a Tedros or a Hort or even a Rhian. Sophie was never actually in love with Rafal—she thought he was hot as a teenager, yeah, but her romantic feelings for him were made up by the ring, and the rest was about her desire to become Evil’s queen and her jealousy toward Tagatha.

It’s like… shouldn’t the memory of Rafal affect Sophie in some way outside of, “yeah he was evil but at least he was hot”, or whatever? Isn’t there a chance that maybe the reason she was happy on her own at the end of TLEA was because being with Rafal had scared the concept of having a prince out of her? And that her lunging for the first cute boy she sees in QFG is completely out of character?

Trauma and grief affect people differently. I’m not going to pretend to be a psychology major when I’m not. I can’t speak from personal experience, but I can confidently say that Sophie “getting over” Rafal as quickly as she did felt shallow and lazy.

The closest thing to a reaction at the mention of Rafal that we see from Sophie is her comparing theSnake to him in QFG and getting a little unnerved. I find it bizarre that Sophie’s pretty much moved on from the whole ordeal not even a year later.

The argument that displaying a character suffering from trauma in a children’s book is inappropriate doesn’t work here, either, because Soman’s already written the toxic relationship she would be suffering trauma from into the damn book. That’s not to mention Tedros getting tortured in book 2, Callis getting burnt at the stake, Sophie being brutalized and left to die by the Elders—seriously, I could go on for years about the things that aren’t “suitable for a M.G. novel” in this series.

In fact, I believe it would be important to show Sophie having nervous or negative reactions toward references to Rafal. It would display the damage a relationship like theirs can have on a person, and then maybe less 12 y/o’s would find Rafal and Raphie less hot.

This can be applied to more than just Sophie, too. Literally every character in this series has lost a parent or guardian. Tedros was tortured, Sophie died in book 1, Agatha watched these horrible things happen to her friends… the list goes on. It amazes me that not one character has mourned or shown grief for a dead character or has had a breakdown over the immense amount of shit they’ve been through. Callis is mentioned maybe three times over the course of TCY. It’s insane.

Is this comprehensible? I’m not sure. It’s vvv late but I need to get these thoughts out.

Bottom line: I don’t think the Sophie/Rafal situation was handled well post-TLEA, and the representation of the trauma these kids undoubtedly should have is nonexistent.

ps5 brain monday

Is it bad that I’ve owned the new SGE book since April and I still haven’t read it? Like, I’d fallen in love with the series. I’ve been reading it for what is essentially six years now - started at 14, now 18. But I feel like there’s something stopping me. I don’t know if it lies more on Sophie or Tagatha. Don’t get me wrong Soman is a fantastic writer but you can see his favouritism towards Sophie and it gets old fucking fast, and you can play favourites but it’s when it affects the character arc it also creates a problem.

Sophie doesn’t learn anything nor face any consequences, despite the fact she’s the root of most - if not all problems because, to put bluntly; she’s a brat. Soman doesn’t acknowledge this. Sure, Agatha will give her a slight scolding but since when does Sophie take her seriously?

To be honest people bitch about Tedros being “on his period.” when he wanted Sophie dead, but I was rooting for him. Tagatha have their problems but Sophie amplifies them.

If Sophie’s not learning anything, then she’s not a good character - long-term at least. And I don’t want to have to force myself to keep reading her bullshit. I physically threw TLEA across my room when Sophie started degrading Agatha. I thank Sophie for one thing and one thing only; The moor scene.

Sophie’s a shit friend, period.

Which leads on to Tagatha. Why can’t these two just be happy? Seriously Soman let them breath for five fucking minutes. I’m sick of them falling out because Tedros takes a bitchfit over something so minute that could be solved in one conversation. Tedros isn’t 14 anymore - which to be honest it’s difficult for me to imagine the characters younger than me because I’ve literally grew through my high-school years with these books.

Edit: It is 2019 and I still haven’t touched it.

@constantly-rainning made a magisterium public community :00! Feel free to join!

The graphic novel comes out today and I realized I never posted this drawing of the coven!!

people on my "making AUs for OCs" post keep going like "oh you mean like a STORY? like a BOOK? OP that's just a STORY!!" like no you don't get it. you don't get how much my friends and i play with our ocs like dolls. we're talking swap AUs. homestuck classpecting. MLP AUs. evil AU. "so just making stories" you're like a little baby to me. leave my sight

Thank you for sharing!! This has been consuming my brain ever since i saw you post it. So many possibilities with this concept.

The parallels with their parents are so interesting too! Because it really does seem like sophie and tedros are repeating their parents mistakes.

Like- sophie trapping tedros in the relationship. Threatening to go back to evil if tedros leaves her, possibly even babytrapping just like vanessa did?

Or maybe tedros wanting to pull a guinevere on sophie and elope with agatha

When you decide to write the fic or not, thank you for sharing your ideas! Looking forward to your future works!

- also would be ok if its ok to make my own take of the concept too? Just to be sure :'DD!

Hii! Your what if scenario fic idea of "tedros and sophie getting married and being miserable" is so interesting! And I'm just wondering if you have more to share about it because I'm invested lmao (no pressure tho!)

Yes!!!

I always thought about what would have happened if Tedros fell to Sophie's manipulation in book 3. The whole "you need a strong queen, one who can handle it" shit, so yeah, we'll go from that.

I didn't decide yet if I am going to write it (probably will), but if it happens, I wanted to explore the parallels between Agatha, Sophie and Tedros, Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot, Stephan, Honora and Vanessa.

Sophie's and Tedros's marriage would be *hell* for both of them. Tedros would remind remind her of Stephan, because he is still in love with Agatha (although didn't marry her because he's STUPID)

Sophie would remind him of both his parents. Emotionally distant, irritable, irresponsible, triggering about the worst parts of his father.

At the same time, he can't help but be reminded of his mother... Because, I'm pretty sure Sophie would be unfaithful...

I hope any I said made any sense, sorry if It was hard to understand, english is not my first language.

Oh, and Camelot's political scenario would be in (even more) in shambles.

I'm glad to see other people interested in the idea!!! Thanks for asking!!

Oh my god did we play minecraft for NINE hours??? That's crazy

very normal picture

school for good this, school for evil that. where's my school for the morally grey?