sol!

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petedavidsonscock
petedavidsonscock

i want to talk about the sun/moon motif in in other lands. let’s go let’s do it.

luke is a blonde guy with tan skin. his last name contains the word “sun.” serene is inhumanly pale with dark hair. the two of them have a unique warrior bond and swore never to ride into battle without the other. luke is the sun and serene is the moon; simple enough, right?

wrong.

let’s switch gears and look at elliot’s dad’s description of elka. “‘she was the first thing i saw when i walked into a room … whatever she said was brilliant and startling … she was like that, a constant bright surprise … she was never what i expected. i was even surprised when she left’” (page 128 in my ebook).

the scene is so sad, primarily because of what his dad next says to elliot: “‘you’re not like her. … nobody will ever love you enough to stay.’”

this is heartbreaking for two reasons. first, because what the hell kind of parent says that to their own child. but second, because elliot is like elka. he is brilliant, startling, surprising, and very bright. he’s not to everybody’s taste—we know that—but elka here is being described by someone who was (is still?) in love with her. i have no doubt that serene or luke would consider elliot’s dad’s words a pretty solid description of elliot.

(elliot’s character mirrors elka’s in other ways too. obviously, they are both able to travel to the borderlands; both experience more ambivalence than most real-world recruits seem to about whether or not to stay. they have similar senses of humor [i think? hard to tell if elka is joking around but it seems like she’s less than fully serious] and are abrupt and spiky. elliot likes elka, gets her. they have the same color hair. and both of them ultimately leave elliot’s dad and go to the borderlands.)

the parallels between elliot and elka are numerous and crucial to understanding the text, which allows us to pretty safely analyze the only real description we get of elka as applying to elliot as well. and what else is true of that description? it’s super sun-coded!

elka is (was) obvious, unignorable: a source of brightness, light, and warmth. just like the night that follows each day, her abandonment is framed as inevitable and unstoppable.

(note that the same is true of elliot! the dialogue here is “‘You know what day it is. You know what’s coming.’” / “‘I know that you’re going’” [876 in my ebook]. elliot’s leaving is also expected, unsurprising; a given.)

in conclusion, elka is the sun, elliot is elka, and therefore elliot is the sun. but then… who is the moon? let’s look at our options.

luke is not all that sun-like, but he’s also not much of a moon archetype. he hates crowds, hates being the center of attention. he’s shy, which i guess could be moon-coded? but he isn’t very mysterious about it, which to me is key to the moon part of the dynamic.

serene, as mentioned, is a better candidate, except that she and elliot don’t make a pair; elliot is wrong about their being fated for each other, just as he was wrong about luke being a perfect golden hero. serene gets her own sun, too: golden-hair-scented-like-summer. perfect sun motif.

as for luke and elliot… i don’t know. i’m not really that into the whole moon/sun dynamic as a general trope, so i’m not that invested, but i think you could pretty convincingly argue that luke is in fact the moon to elliot’s sun.

anyway that’s the post. elliot is the sun, serene is the moon but not elliot’s moon (this i think contributes to why elliot was so sure they would end up together: on some level he was aware of the tropes at play), luke seems like he’s the sun but is either the moon or possibly, like, some sort of cloud formation, and golden is the sun to serene’s moon. okay bye.

U SAY U’RE A WINTER BITCH BUT SUMMERS INYOUR BLOOD CANT HELP BUT BECOME THE SUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i’ll be more coherent tmrw i promise. for now i leave myself a note i hope i will understand they r both each others suns. they both light up every room in each others eyes they both see the other as the sun serene is certainly the most moon of all of them but elliot & luke are Both suns although maybe in diff solar systems. or so they think. fated to different worlds but still shining 4 each o ther. sol u should reference ur icarus posts too remember those in the morning pls luke is more star than sun. he guides and we follow. elliot can’t help but shine everywhere and power everything luke is a constant and is beautiful and leads the way. elliot is the power idk nobody screenshot this yet pls i’ll clean it up when i wake up iol luke sunborn elliot schafer