♡

One theory(?) I do not see often, surprisingly, about tlt is how Harrow never actually thought she was in love with the body.

I see it often discussed as 'she confused worship and love.' But I think her never being in love with the body is just as believable.

The first time it is assumed, it was by Gideon, who never felt strongly about religion. Harrow does not confirm it, and pushes Gideon in the pool, and often time, refusal to speak upon an assumption or strong denial means it is the truth. However, right before Gideon assumes the nature of Harrow's love is romantic, it is framed like a kiss between Harrow and Gideon is going to happen. And Harrow clearly is expecting it to happen as well. Imagine your crush is leaning in, as if to kiss you, only to ask if you're in love with Jesus Chirst and you're a devout Christian. I believe that pushing off your crush in the pool out of embarrassment and frustration is only fair then.

Then, there is the entirety of Harrow The Ninth. This time it's different, it is not an outsider believing Harrow is in love with a corpse/religious symbol, it's Harrow herself. And while it sounds just like I'm disproving my own theory, we have to remember in what state Harrow was in, and what we know of her. Harrow spends a good two-thirds of the book trying desperately to fill a blank. She does not know what the blank is, but she knows it's there and not right. All of the instances where she is shown to be infatuated with the body could be read as her taking the one thing she feels is closest to what she lost, and shoving it in that place to replace it. No, she could not have filled the blank with Ianthe, she has not known her long enough for her to fill the earlier blanks. It needed to be something that had a very strong presence in her early life. I believe the end of Harrow The Ninth goes very well with this interpretation as well. She finds out the truth, and what represents the thing she stuffed into the 'blank' is filled with what was originally the blank.

Then, the epilogue of Nona The Ninth. Again, we don't have Harrow's thoughts on what happens, and she seemingly does not have a lovestruck reaction to it. 'Why are you not appeased?' an easy answer would be that it is not what she actually wanted. Nona's really good at reading people's body language, and it does kind of disproves that point, I'll admit. But still, the thought can be entertained that Alecto misinterpreted Harrow's fervor, or that as Alecto, she is less great at reading people. She is too big an unknown for me to be sure.

Either way both theories are very fun to me, I just think this one should be considered more !

do we think that when harrow and gideon were toddlers and fought, harrow would throw random bones at gideon yelling its name like it's a pokemon. and that's part of the reason why gideon has so many bones memorized