Shadow of the Templar discussion post
In the interest of not cluttering up my flaily OMG the final Shadow of the Templar book is up!!! post with spoilers, I decided I'd start a new thread to discuss the final book (and anything else related to the series). I know there are a few of you out there who haven't finished yet, but feel free to drop by and join the discussion as soon as you
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Comments 517
Yes to all of your highlights, particularly No. 2, when the team showed up. That was such a surprise! Maybe a bit improbable, but there are a lot of slightly improbable things that happen throughout the series that I accept completely while reading. Later on I may think "huh?", but that doesn't spoil the story AT ALL for me. I love suspending belief when reading. I read to escape, so I don't need everything to be entirely plausible ( ... )
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And yes, I'm sure Jeremy has a supply of condoms and lube. I bet they come in handy for all sorts of things. ;D
Heh. Good point!
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Yes my thoughts were a gentle blow job; 69 sounds good, but side by side. I imagined whatever happened, Jeremy would be doing most of the work. ;-)
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And yeah, I wondered about the hints too, but I came to the following conclusions:
1) I think the Johnny thing, and Simon's flat out nasty hissy fit following it, were more about Simon being jealous and unable to admit it than it was about anything else.
2) Sandra and Simon's feelings that something was off--well it was, when you think about it. Jeremy hadn't leveled with them, because they didn't know Bran was going to "shoot" him like that. He'd told them everything they needed to know, but he hadn't told them everything.
Gah, such good books. Sad they're over, though.
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1) I think the Johnny thing, and Simon's flat out nasty hissy fit following it, were more about Simon being jealous and unable to admit it than it was about anything else.
Ah. That's a good point. He's probably jealous/upset on a couple of levels -- first that Jeremy is in charge and he's not, and secondly that Jeremy and a member of his team are building some sort of relationship that doesn't involve him. ("Self-centered? Me? Self-centered?" *g ( ... )
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I think that when Simon indicated that his team was more important to him than Jeremy was (silly Simon), Jeremy had plenty to think about.
That special kiss before the "big bang" plan went into action is fascinating. Was it a goodbye kiss? Was it a please-be-safe kiss?
It could've been in the back of Jeremy's mind not to go back to the villa, and then when his phone broke, maybe he saw that as a sign. He was very off-hand in that scene; he seemed more upset than he perhaps should have been, considering everything appeared to have gone as planned.
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I have spent an inordinate amount of time rereading that scene, and I'm still not quite sure what that kiss is all about. I keep going back to this part:
"I just hope that whatever you're hiding, it won't fuck us up," he said, squinting and scanning the darkness in front of him ( ... )
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I can't even begin to express how much I loved it. The ending in particular, mainly because I was half expecting there to be some sort of big declaration, but then there wasn't, and while on the one hand that was incredibly frustrating, in the other it was so true to the characters it took my breath away. Throughout the whole thing their actions have spoken louder than their words, and that was carried through until the end ( ... )
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The ending in particular, mainly because I was half expecting there to be some sort of big declaration, but then there wasn't, and while on the one hand that was incredibly frustrating, in the other it was so true to the characters it took my breath away. Throughout the whole thing their actions have spoken louder than their words, and that was carried through until the end.Yes! I know exactly what you mean. Throughout the series I occasionally found myself wishing these two would do something a little more traditionally romantic (like sometimes when one of them is feeling bad about something I want the other to just HUG him already!), but I'm always glad the author didn't go there because that's not who these characters are, and I do love them for that in the end ( ... )
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Anyway, Simon's actions in the last part really were a big declaration in Simon/Jeremy speak. :-)Yes, exactly, and I meant to say that in my first comment and got sidetracked - if Simon wanted to show Jeremy how much he meant to him, that was definitely the way to do it. The only way for him to be more explicit would have been to actually say the words, but of course he wasn't going to do that ( ... )
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Yikes, that does sound traumatic! I was about 90% sure that Jeremy was going to be okay because the thrust of the previous books had always been toward a happy ending and (perhaps even more so) because it's unimaginable that he wouldn't be. He's like the cat with nine lives. (Sort of how unimaginable it was that he would have been arrested, as I feared he had been early in the story!)
I love him too. God, do I love Jeremy. The word that always comes to my mind to describe him is "delicious." :-)
Haveing said that, however, I often wanted to shake both of them until their teeth rattled. Stupid, stubborn men!
I KNOW. If they would just use their words once in a while, they could have avoided ever so much grief!
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I'm taking this from one of your earlier comments:
I always sort of wondered whether Johnny knew about Simon and Jeremy or not. There's a moment in the third book where Johnny says something along the lines of "I just think he and Archer get along better than Simon lets on," and I thought maybe he had caught on. (And I think Johnny is one of the sharper members of the team in terms of intuition, even though he says very little.) But then there was a part in book four where Simon seems to indicate that most of the team doesn't know, so I wasn't sure.
After re-reading "High Fidelity" I'm coming to the conclusion that Johnny knows, and Dave probably does too.
In Chapter 25, when the team's returning to their hotel after meeting Jeremy and Simon, Johnny teases Mike about Jeremy coming back with Sandra. This is an ambiguous conversation, but I think there's some sub-textual implication that Johnny's letting Simon know he knows. (Johnny, satisfied, fished out a fresh toothpick and bit down on it. "Better hope Sandy ( ... )
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I just realized that the author tied up yet another loose string I had forgotten about: the conversation with Sandra way back in book two (I think) when she rants at Simon about how he only tells his team what he thinks they need to know. For all he considers his team so important to him, Simon has been hiding from them too, and by the end of book four he finally respects/trusts them enough to tell them the truth.
LOVE THESE BOOKS SO MUCH.
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Thank you so much for pointing these out!! I LOVE THEM. Not only will I reread them many times, I found them very inspiring for my own writing...I'm just so impressed with the author's development of the entire world of the characters and the complex and interwoven plot. As you said, I adored how it all came back together in the end. ZOW!
I've read all the comments up to here and have much to add...perhaps I'll go horn in on some of the earlier threads, but I particularly wanted to agree that I think the odd "red herring" when Simon feels something isn't right towards the end is that Texas has figured out about the relationship, and maybe even asked Jeremy about it while they were off alone. That's my current theory, and it adds to my growing love and appreciation of Johnny as a character.
I SO want this to be a movie. :D
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I particularly wanted to agree that I think the odd "red herring" when Simon feels something isn't right towards the end is that Texas has figured out about the relationship, and maybe even asked Jeremy about it while they were off alone.
Hmmm, interesting. *strokes chin* Do you think he would ask Jeremy about it? I hadn't thought of that. I'm not sure I can picture Johnny asking straight out because he's such a closed-mouthed sort of guy. But I could see it coming up in an oblique way perhaps, in an "I know that you know that I know but neither of us is going to say anything" sort of moment. How did you see it happening?
Incidentally, I totally share your Johnny love. I fell hard for him in book three. ♥
I SO want this to be a movie. :D
That would be awesome. Though I have no idea who ( ... )
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That is exactly what I'm imagining...in fact, that would be a fun ficlet, the awkward conversation in the car or out at the gazebo where Johnny tries to tell Jeremy that he knows why they are all there.
Mostly, I cannot figure out what else they had going on that was all secretive, as Johnny did not seem to know that Jeremy had faked his death after the big blowup. And I love the idea of that awkward conversation. Heh.
I also agree that the picture of these characters I have in my head is so much better than any actor, but it is fun to imagine the movie version. :D I remember you saying somewhere that you pictured Jeremy blonde, which is hysterical, because I keep giving him black or dark brown hair in my mind. Ha! I think it is a sign of good writing that we have our own, very clear vision of the characters.
I'll go poke around above and see what else I can blather about. *tries not to give up on all productivity and reread immediately*
And we need icons! *investigates*
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*facepalm* Yes. I totally want fanfic for this series. There are so many scenes I'd like to see -- all the sex scenes, naturally, but also the conversation where Simon comes clean to his team, and a bunch of gapfillers from Jeremy's POV because I'm not always 100% sure what he's thinking. The author has promised some outtakes -- those are probably the closest we'll get. :-/
I remember you saying somewhere that you pictured Jeremy blonde, which is hysterical, because I keep giving him black or dark brown hair in my mind.Canonically he has brown hair, I believe -- it's stated in the books someplace, and if you look at the author's gallery (not only does she write, she draws too!) he's consistently drawn that way. I did initially picture him as blond because he reminded me at first of a certain fanon version of Draco Malfoy. But as I read deeper into the series the ( ... )
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