Some fandom nonsense that probably makes sense to no one else, lol

[mistressofmuses]

Literally me and Taylor over text right now, discussing the summary of the next October Daye book.



We think the "long-time ally who was an enemy all along" is Marcia.

She's been sus as fuck from book one. Taylor and I are both dying on the "Marcia is sus" hill, and we have been for YEARS.

(To be clear - I have never read other discussion of the series, so some of this could be common consideration in fandom, or could have thoughtful debunkings, etc. This is based on our own readings alone!)

In no order, except roughly the order we thought of things:
- Firstborn, like Amphitrite, seem to be weirdly apprehensive about her
- Toby, especially early-series Toby, was consistently a terrible judge of character, and she was extremely dismissive of Marcia in the early series, where she's initially portrayed as a ditzy valley girl
- Her first several appearances are solely in Golden Gate Park, which stands out as one of the only truly neutral territories the region has
- (This also means she was probably present while and where Toby was a fish for 14 years)
- We still know absolutely nothing about her past
- For some reason she got to attend the whole Selkie/Roane thing, which was big world-changing shit in-universe
- She's dismissed as being a quarter-blooded changeling, so thin-blooded that she needs fairy ointment to even see the existence of magic... But even as Toby's ability to sense bloodlines has drastically improved as the series goes on, she's never mentioned anything about Marcia's bloodline or what type of fae she may be. Quarter-blooded should in no way be faint enough that Toby can't sense it.
- Toby is the one who selected her for her role managing Goldengreen, but it's still sus that this is Evening's old knowe.
- Her position in Goldengreen gives her a very easy opportunity to Fuck Things Up, since Dean trusts her - Quentin's boyfriend AND Toby's new stepbrother in one convenient target.
- There was a whole red herring thing in one book where they were searching for someone whose magical signature was cinnamon, and then Marcia was making cinnamon rolls, and the description leaned super hard into it, but then it wasn't ever significant, and it STILL BOTHERS ME
- Taylor looked up Marcia as a name: it apparently means "proud, warlike, martial", and there was also a legendary monarch of Britain named Queen Marcia. Mythological connections and meaningful names are Big Deals in this series.
- In a meta sense, basically all of the characters from book 1 either got killed off, or got MAJOR plot relevance (often winding up switching whether they were allies or enemies). Marcia has gotten upgraded from "unremarkable gate attendant", and has been present for a lot of Plot Stuff, but not to the extent of most other early characters. Just enough to be extra sus for staying relevant.
- I was trying to remember if she was in book 3, because since the new book summary mentions the Broken Ride (presumably Maeve's), and book 3 involved breaking Blind Michael's ride, there might be some relevance.
- Yes she is in book 3.
- Once specifically talking about how her valley girl appearance tricked Toby the first time she met her. (HA)
- Then again later in the book, where there's a weird sidenote that despite her being thin-blooded, for some mysterious reason magical aids like fairy ointment work BETTER for her than they should, quote "making her see between realities". WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

Backup theory on the secret enemy is Stacey, which would probably hurt Toby a lot more. But Stacey has had a lot of much more intentionally positive interactions with Toby, from pre-series as a teenage friend all the way through to the most recent book.
She IS being really weird and cagey about her kids, and the fact that they're different kinds of seers, and have abilities that they *shouldn't*.

The other big thing that I want an explanation for is who the fuck Dawn was. She was apparently a real person who did exist, but she sure as fuck wasn't Evening's sister. Who was she? Where is she now? WHAT THE FUCK.

-

But after our Marcia stringboard, we promptly moved on to how many suspicious similarities there are between Gillian and Quentin.

The Torquill family has a whole thing about naming female members after months. October, our protagonist; May, Toby's fetch-turned-sister; August, Toby's actual sister; Countess January; her daughter April; September, who died pre-series...

Toby's bio daughter's name is Gillian... which is the feminine form of Julian, aka Julius, aka July. It's not super blatant, but there it is!

But July means five (despite being the seventh month). Guess what else means five? Quentin! The diminutive of Quintus! Her adopted son!

Taylor found an even more out-there connection:

Quentin's magical signature is heather and steel. Gillian's is fennel and primrose (used to be grass and primrose, until Big Plot Thing.)

Toby's signature is cut grass and copper.

Metal signatures are rare. Quentin's mother also has steel as a component of hers. (Which I still think is interesting, since iron is toxic to the fae, but is a component in steel. I think it's only possible because she was born mortal, but that's off-topic.)

But back to Gillian and Quentin... Heather and primrose are pretty closely related: both part of the Ericales order of plants.

(And Quentin's mom's other magical signature is dried hay, which is oddly similar to Toby's cut grass...)

Quentin isn't Toby's bio-kid, no way she just... forgot. We know his parentage is legit. BUT the similarities are interesting to me! Even if they're just thematic connections that have no strong plot relevance, they're interesting!

But at some point we probably have to admit it's weird to be digging into plant classifications to try and formulate theories about an urban fantasy series, lol.

Comments

[umadoshi]

I have zero thoughts to add, but this was really interesting to read! ^_^

[mistressofmuses]

Thank you for reading it! I probably could have organized it a bit more coherently, but I'm sticking more with "conspiracy theory" than "persuasive essay." (But I'm still super suspicious of Marcia, lol.)

[umadoshi]

(But I'm still super suspicious of Marcia, lol.)

I'll definitely be keeping an eye out to see what happens with her now!