im going to long post here about tlt because almost no one is going to see it here and i am mad about people being wrong on reddit and too old to voluntarily fandom post on tumblr
ill start with jod because the 'wow this guy is just evil and entirely bad' takes on reddit are killing me body and soul
so i don't accept the narrative that the dream sections in nona are entirely full of lies. they plausibly link together the facts we already have, and also john comes across terribly (and from the latter sections, does not appear to have noticed this exactly) so i think it's broadly the truth, albeit the truth as john perceives it. i do think that the idea that john is less going after the boe/remnants of those who escaped less because he has dedicated himself wholly to revenge (though ofc that's in there and you know, i get it) but to remove any firm evidence of any narrative except his own. 'no one has a right to know' 'nobody can judge' etc. i'm not arguing that this is a sympathetic or good perspective, just that it doesn't appear particularly mysterious to me, it's internally consistent.
i did see someone pointing out that there has been necromantic involvement in boe in the past (eg whatever is going on with aim) and whatever cassiopeia has done for the 6th, so i think we have to consider it likely that the betrayals we know about in the text are not the whole and entire of john's motivating anger.
anyway i basically think he started out as a pretty good guy, or at least as a normal person with the expertise that might have helped him save a large amount of people, and a strong sense of wanting to save the planet. and then a lot of difficult things happened and he found himself as a nearly all-powerful cult leader. and we've seen in the text that it was pointed out that he had to make a choice between stopping the rich leaving/getting revenge and actually saving the planet, and we see him try to choose the former, and then not even succeed at that.
something maybe more interesting that we havent seen speculated about much is what jod knew when about troia cell. harrow was obvs a bit preoccupied when she was told first that the bodies of the remaining canaan house survivors were missing, but we know ianthe would have been all over that question immediately - in the epiparodos we get her saying 'i need to see a man about a queen' (presumably: ask god re corona) and i think we can only assume that ianthe is working on the assumption that corona is alive and possibly safe that whole time. it's clear in ntn when corona asks 'harrow didn't tell you?' re judith that whatever jod has told ianthe it hasn't included harrow's meeting with them (whether that's because he doesn't know or for other reasons we have no evidence, though im leaning towards the former), and my impression was that ianthe made the choice she did at the end of htn because there was the possibility that corona was in or around the houses at the time of jod's death and therefore the death of dominicus could have killed her.
now i know i said at the top that i dont accept that jod is entirely bad but im taking an awful left turn here into the opposite view because he still sucks. so the headline spoiler that we've received from on high is that there's going to be a wedding in atn. anyway reddit seems to think this will be ianthe and harrow and you know, i would draw that, sounds great and terrible, sure. but i do come back to the whole bit where we can see: john clearly wanted someone to get alecto out of the tomb (gideon admits as much and i think we can all be clear that there was never much chance she'd be able to 'kill the monster' in there). john also has some idea what was down with harrow and alecto i think, or at least towards the end in the dream sequence/alecto's memories, john is crossing out j+e (?john and earth) and then j+a (john and alecto) and replaces it with j+h in a heart, presumably meaning harrow. people have made a lot of the annabel lee stuff and the bits in htn with harrow and john feeling kind of groom-y. there is then the whole harrow being a nun thing. 'married to god' having been, at least for some orders at some times a thing?* so maybe that's where that's going. although i think the married to god thing is like a jesus thing, so maybe marrying the son of god/gideon, which would be exactly what we want. which is why i'm not expecting that. we'll see??
feels like there's a real trend on reddit to interpret corona as the 'good' twin despite the whole cainabeth thing. where im at right now is like... i love ianthe (obviously, written for me) and i think she is terrible, just awful. but she's pretty direct, in a weird way. she wants her sister to be alive and with her, she has enough of a disregard for others to have eaten babs without any real thought of the consequences. corona otoh has been visibly seeking to do the right thing (i don't hold her switch to boe against her despite the sixth's fair greivances tbh) but there's like. a note in there? im trying to imagine what being the hot and beloved but also - essentially - useless twin must have been like. boe gave her the opportunity to matter in her own right? idk. im not sure it would even be evil of corona to kill ianthe at this stage i just feel like i'm missing something here
anyway that's enough words. i enjoyed these books way more than i wanted to. embarrassing honestly
*sorry not so much a 'lapsed catholic' as 'baptised that one time and then got an exemption so i could read nietzsche in religion class' situation i could be wrong on this