Cardan's letters

Cardan's letters to Jude

By Antares

Everyone knows I am madly in love with Cardan Greenbriar. This post is basically a spoiler to those who haven't read The Wicked King. So if you haven't, I'll kindly advise you to read it, then come back here to read my banter on these heart-wrenching letters Cardan wrote to Jude.

This isn't the letter, but Cardan wrote it in The Cruel Prince when Jude haunted his thoughts all the time. And it was one of the dorkish things he's ever done while think he was doing something disgusting. Jude, evermore, thought this piece of sheet displayed his hatred. 

This might not be the famous letters he wrote to Jude when she was in exile, but it still is one of the best things.

(This paper isn't the one from the book, but I like this version better)

This is the first letter I'll be talking about. If you're wondering where the letters are from, it is from Barnes and Noble special edition, and I doubt everyone has so I'm sharing it here.

Anyway, here we have Cardan, our clever idiot who thought Jude would workout the fact that her exile is actually a stupid riddle he made for fun and it's not actually real, but she was in too much pain and heartbreak to realise that. Anyone can see he sincerely thought Jude was being stubborn and not coming back. 

This one sentence was enough for me to fall to the ground and grin. I was having an inner battle whether to smile and fangirl or to punch Lady Asha for burning these letters or to gush over Jurdan or to bonk both their heads for their stupid stupidity.

This one letter alone made me feel ajsdna???djkankcdsmack??.

The second letter is cute and sad. He is right about the fact that she is probably angry with him, not a new thing, but I assume he thinks Jude isn't coming back because he has offended or upset so much she doesn't want to come back to the land she calls home. 

And the last sentence, "I urge you: Come be angry at a nearer distance." makes me smile. He knows she's usually angry, but he'd rather have her be angry with him in Elfhame.

(It breaks my heart that he wrote all these letters and she never got them.)

The third letter is just as good, if not—better. Mah boi, Cardan, thinks Jude is wary about the Undersea, that they might take her again. Which is slightly funny because the only thing that does scare is Cardan and how her love for him might be her downfall. 

But he doesn't say he knows she's suspicious. He also thinks it's perhaps because he can't seem to think of any other reason she might stay away. Cardan probably doubts this: Undersea scaring her. He is well aware she won't let fear get the best of her, but once again—the only reason he can think of.

There is also change in the way he signing off the letter here than the first two. And that change gradually increases. 

He unexiled her. And she didn't even know. She didn't know she could come back anytime she wanted either, but this is exactly what she knew and what she was waiting for. Her readmittance was what she could hope for.

And she didn't even GET IT. 

Jude better destroy Lady Asha before I do.

And let's talk about the last para and the last line. *dying animal sobbing noises* what *sniff* can *more sniffing* I say? You know how they say love will break you? Yeah, well, my heartbreaks because I love them so much.

(How do I align the pictures here, lol?)

These two are the same letter. Cardan addresses Jude not by her name, but by her title. "To the High Queen of Elfhame." He's serious now.

So serious, he wrote in the most poetic manner ever. So serious, he practically confessed his feelings among other things. So serious, he ends the letter by writing the most touching sentence.

I'll let you judge for yourself. Two pages long and JUDE NEVER GETS IT. and I'm supposed to live it. 

Anyway, I hope these letters impressed you as they did to me. You can come by anytime to read them, they aren't going anywhere (not even to Jude .-. )

Expectantly ;) ,

Antares