The Dark Lord & The Serpent King

Author/Story Notes

First of all, yet another tremendous thank you to everyone who reads and supports my writing! It's seriously amazing to me to know that someone other than myself enjoys reading my work. I really love this story so it's cool to share it with you all.

As I continue to publish the third book (first several chapters are up!), I thought it'd be nice/interesting to share with you some of my thoughts on this book as well as the series and characters more generally.

To begin, the absolute million galleon question: why did Tom reset the timeline?

I think the answer to this is rather complicated (not surprising, given what we know about Thomas). To start, let's review what we know about Tom, especially his relationship with Y/N thus far:

Here we have Tom, who has clearly completely fallen for/fixated his sights on Y/N at this point, yes? Now, hopefully you know me well enough to know when I say "fallen for" I'm not speaking of love. This is Tom Riddle after all, and as such there's no love, at least not as far as we comprehend it. But as Tom himself states:

"It's the closest thing approaching love I'll ever feel, ever know. In fact, it's leagues closer than anything I ever thought myself possible of. And so, in absence of knowing what else to call it, I term it that. For me, it's love ... Whatever it is, it's an unbearably strong emotion. And it - the feeling I have for you - has begun to consume me."

Personally, I'd label it total obsession or more murkily (but perhaps more accurately) Y/N is to Tom the only truly relevant factor in the human equation of reality (or, put another way, he allows for hesitation of her in his mind where he would not grant this with anyone else). Now, why is that? Tom would say because she's the most useful person in the world (he'd credit her skill as a seer as making her worthy of attention). I believe when pressed, he'd add something vague but more truthful like "I'm addicted to our interactions." Deeper still, he finds her and her mind a fascinating place. In a world that bores him, she is (seemingly) the one thing that does not.

So then, there we have Tom, trying his best to woo her or really in essence, get her to come to heel (kinky but where's the lie? lmao). She, of course, steadfastly refuses and thus far has been tremendously successful in doing so. I believe Thomas crossed an irredemable line, a veritable 'point of no return' when he murdered Ra, particularly the excessive and grotesque manner in which he went about it. He allowed himself to go too mad, too extreme, and knows he can't get back whatever it was he and Y/N had before (though that was completely toxic too, of course). As such, when it became clear to him that he'd slipped so fatally, he decided to reset the timeline and begin his attempt again. PS, hehe spoiler but only sort of not really: if you reread this book, there's references to the fact Tom's done this reset of time/reality at least once before if not multiple times ...

Long story short, Tom was unhappy with the trajectory of his relationship with Y/N and believed he wouldn't be able to regain full control so he reset to begin anew.

Y/N:

I wanted to leave you some quick notes about my favorite character in the whole story, Y/N. Sometimes people ask me why I never name my female characters (tbh it comes up more frequently on AO3 than Wattpad I think that has to do with readership and the type of fics more popular on each site). Basically, the short but unsatisfying answer is "I don't want to name her." To me, I really want the reader to fully immerse and pretend to be the character, and I feel like a name would limit that.

Further, it's very important to me that Y/N never be described physically (other than the fact I write her as a female character but even that's flexible in my mind). I feel very strongly that Y/N should never have any phenotypic description (skin tone/color; hair type/color; height; weight; etc, etc, etc). This is why I'll never use terms like "she blushes and turns bright red" (not everyone blushes visibly) and why I don't describe much about how she looks other than in the most broadly human sense. This way, hopefully, everyone can put themselves in her shoes for the purposes of the story.

I really love Y/N. I really admire her, and I really like her being a fine mix of brave and also human (vulnerable; weak at times; flawed). I like the idea of her being (or thinking, at least) that she's an average witch and not "the greatest witch of all time" or else some larger-than-life character.

I think people who fall for her in this story do so for her mind and personality, not anything to do with how she looks (it's irrelevant).

Ra:

Oh, Ra. That was so sad for me, and I couldn't sleep the night I wrote that chapter. I really don't cry, you guys. Like, really don't cry. But believe me, I cried when I wrote that chapter, and I've cried every time I've reread it.

Ra is a great character. I hesitate to write angelic characters, I fear perfection in characters - and believe me, I'm not suggesting Ra's perfect (he's human, after all). But I do think he's got an undeniable halo around his head.

I hope readers don't feel as though Ra is a plot device for Salazar and Y/N's relationship. It's actually a real fear of mine that people might think that. But to me, in my mind, Ra's a full and complete character, he's valid AF and I view it as being a complicated matter of timing (in other words, Y/N met Ra then Salazar and fell for both of them all while Tom's causing erotic chaos in the background lol).

Another thing I'd quickly like to mention: I really don't usually go for "love at first sight" trope in fic, but in this case, this is the exception to the rule. I really believe (and I think its compelling) that Y/N and Ra instantly fell for one another, both romantically and just in love on the most human of levels. Of course, they're classic "wrong place/wrong time," which is completely tragic.

People ask about fancasts for Ra, I didn't have one originally but a reader who I really appreciate suggested Mena Massoud, a Canadian actor, and I really like that fancast for Ra.

Salazar:

Omg let's chat about Sal, yes? I honestly - completely - cannot believe you guys love Sal as much I do. I really thought everyone would hate this idea of me introducing him as a character, so what a pleasant surprise to discover the opposite! I've been angling to include Salazar Slytherin in a fanfic for SO LONG and it dawned on me mid first book to bring him into this series and honestly I couldn't be happier about the energy it's brought to this book.

My goal, and my personal experience, is that when I read a Salazar x Y/N chapter, I'm in love with Salazar. Then, when I read a Tom Riddle x Y/N chapter, I'm in love with Tom. And of course, going back and forth like this gives me complete whiplash and I'm living. I hope that perhaps some of you find this experience as well.

I like Salazar because if Tom's the demon, Ra's the angel, Salazar's just a man, nothing more, nothing less. I originally conceived of him (and it's ok to laugh, believe I did) as being "sort of like a medieval pirate." I like his humor, his wit, his unabashed flirtations. Above all, I like him being an imperfect rogue but one who's clearly hopelessly in love with Y/N.

As far as Salazar fancasts, I didn't have one when I first conceived of him in my mind). The same reader mentioned a bit above also suggested Israeli model Nir Lavi and I think that's just a wonderful match for how I imagine Salazar in this story, so thank you for that!

Hecate:

I'm dying to give her a section here, but I'm abstaining. I want her to remain mysterious for some time, but she'll definitely be back in the third book as a rather major character. I absolutely love Hecate, I can't wait to share more with you about her.

Looking forward:

... I think that's about it for now, look forward to the completed third book. I'm not sure when I'll finish posting it, I need a bit of time to gather my thoughts on where we're headed and how I want to go about it. Also, I just need a bit of a break! I'm dying to get back to Coiled, my other fic, and I'm going to take at least a few months off this series to work on that. But it's definitely coming, and as always, once again, thank you for reading and supporting!