The song "Set the Witch on Fire" is a popular Halloween tune that has gained popularity in recent years. It is characterized by its catchy melody and spirited lyrics that evoke a sense of playfulness and mischief. The song revolves around the concept of witches, which are traditionally associated with witchcraft and the supernatural. However, it is important to note that the song does not condone violence or harm towards witches or any individuals. Instead, it serves as a lighthearted and comedic expression of the Halloween spirit. The main idea of the song is to embrace the festive atmosphere of Halloween and celebrate the occasion with fun and creative ways, such as singing along to catchy tunes like "Set the Witch on Fire.
The lair was surrounded by dark-leaved trees leaning over the divot in the earth like jurors. The scent of decay mingled with fresh earth, but Liliana knew that Beledros had a formidable collection of arcane writings tucked away. Glowing spheres of various sizes lay tucked into massive root structures, protecting their contents from the humid air. Maybe there was something in the books and scrolls that could help her bring Gideon back. Liliana peered into one of the globes, careful not to get stuck in the thick mud underfoot.
They re all about to leave when the queen straight-up murders the people who harbored Cas and Poppy for two days, and Poppy rages and starts to go nuts, but calms down because she doesn t want to lose control and hurt everyone. That nexus of ancient energies wasn t some dusty book sitting on a shelf in the Biblioplex; it would be guarded by the most formidable forces Strixhaven could muster.
The main idea of the song is to embrace the festive atmosphere of Halloween and celebrate the occasion with fun and creative ways, such as singing along to catchy tunes like "Set the Witch on Fire." It is crucial to recognize the fictional and fantasy elements within the song and to approach it with a light-hearted and respectful mindset..
The War of Two Queens, snarky cliffsnotes edition *SPOILERS*
This all started about a year ago, I'd seen a lot of buzz about From Blood and Ash by Jennifer Armentrout. I checked and the third book in the trilogy (I thought) was going to be released soon, so I dove in. The first book was not the best writing but it was fun and hot, and I enjoyed it enough to go on.
The second book got a little nuts - all the lore I'd learned in the first book was a lie, and I couldn't figure out how she was going to make everything make sense. It's so funny to look back on now.
When I read the third book, A Crown of Gilded Bones, I discovered that it was very much NOT a trilogy, it ended on a giant cliffhanger with a total of six books. And the third book, you discover that everything in the *second* book was wrong, and there's a limit to how much lore I'm willing to learn. I was so frustrated that I wrote a slightly snarky summary . As much as I thought I was done with the series, morbid curiosity pulled me into book four, The War of Two Queens. In case anyone else doesn't want to invest hours reading it, here's my take.
Disclaimer - this is my opinion, and meant in good fun! If you love this book I'm very happy for you, honestly. Also, holy shit this is long, I'm sorry - I tried, I honestly did. I cut out so much.
The best way I can describe this book - pretend you're doing a puzzle, and it's a picture of a classic Mustang. As you're working, people keep coming up to you and saying, "hey, looks like you're doing a puzzle about cars!" and they dump some more pieces on the table. Some are from a sports car puzzle, some are F1 racing cars, and some are old Model T's. There's just no way to make them all fit together, but your brain keeps trying anyway. There's SO MUCH infodumping in this book, and I can't understand why JLA thinks her readers can even hope to absorb it all, much less make sense of it.
At the end of book 3, we'd left Cas in the clutches of Ilsbeth, the Blood Queen of Solis (who is also Poppy's biological mother) when he sacrificed himself for Poppy's freedom. She has Cas in a dungeon now, and comes to visit him with her creepy Revenant handmaidens who have a lot of face makeup. We learn that she's not a god, she's a demis - a false god. Great, glad that's cleared up.
Now we move to Poppy, she and her Atlantean army are assembling to take some of Solis's cities. Everyone keeps chiding Poppy that she's not acting like a proper queen, but she doesn't care. She also likes to stab things, don't you forget it. She's so upset about Cas being imprisoned that she can't even think his name, it's just . him. with a dramatic ellipsis.
They take the city of Massene, trying to minimize civilian casualties, but the army in Solis has already killed a bunch of people and hung their bodies all over the walls, dressed in Maiden veils like Poppy used to have to wear. (How did they get so many on short notice?)
In the castle, they find a creepy library and a ghostly old lady that speaks in rhymes but only sometimes. The old lady's puzzle pieces are that Poppy is the queen of flesh and fire, and the first mortal came from draken fire and the flesh of a primal. OK then.
Poppy has her drakens (dragon shifters) with her, and the one in charge is called Reaver. He likes to shift back and forth and doesn't like to wear clothes. I'm not mad at it. He dumps the puzzle pieces that gods can only be killed by other gods, or by shadow stone, which was used to make a lot of buildings. so it's not exactly in short supply. He also tells us that Poppy is the first female descendent of the Primal of Life, and she's going to need to drink blood.
Now we go back to Cas's POV - a random handmaid comes to his cell and starts giving him some puzzle pieces too, so he doesn't feel left out. She tells him that Poppy has blood from both the Primal of Life and the Primal of Death. Also Nyktos is not the true primal! If I cared what a true primal was, I might be impressed. Cas is hungry and not doing great but hanging in there.
Poppy is dreaming, and they're back in Cas's cavern. Cas is there too! They start to fuck and then they're like. oh. is this really happening? Maybe we should talk? Poppy wakes up and Kieran is sleeping on her floor, naked. Between all the shifters she's kind of surrounded by hot naked men. Before she can ponder her dream and naked Kieran too much, a big storm comes and kills 16 of her drakens with lightning. She tries to heal them but she can't, because Reaver tells her that only the Primal of Life can heal beings that are of two worlds.
Reaver is obvs sad about his dead draken buddies, but he's got more puzzle pieces he wants to spill. They all thought Nyktos was the Primal of Life and Death, but he's not. Kolis is the Primal of Death. No one has heard of him before, but they decide Kolis and Solis rhyme so they're probably related (I wish I was making this up). Eythos was the Primal of Life, he's Nyktos's father. No one has heard of him either. Also, third sons and daughters are magical, they have an ember of eather (magic stuff) in them, so that's where the ascension of third children came from. Maybe.
Poppy and her army move on to Oak Ambler, an important port city. They take it and save all the innocents, but find a bunch more dead people with elaborate maiden veils (seriously, where are all these coming from?) Looking for the Ascended, they find a temple with a priest named Framont. He dumps more puzzle pieces! Poppy's purpose is to remake the realms as one, and he serves the true king. They think that must be Malec. Poppy wants to stab him, but instead one of the priestesses leads them deep in the temple where there's a giant pit of baby bones from all the children the Ascended killed. Holy shit, they suck.
Poppy gets a surprise delivery of Cas's chopped off finger in a box, wearing his wedding ring. Ew. And there's also a note that says her mom is totally sorry for hurting her like this but she really needs her to come home. She strategizes with her naked shifter friends, and they decide to use Primal magic to locate Cas, even though it's forbidden. Probably if you really, really want to find someone it's ok, though.
All of the sudden, it's Tawny! Her hair and eyes have turned white but she's healed from her coma. She has SO MANY puzzle pieces, because while in a coma she learned a ton of shit. She saw Vikter, who is a viktor - someone charged by the Fates with protecting someone important. He knew all kinds of stuff about Poppy but he can't tell them everything because it would make the Fates mad. I have no idea why we care what they think, but sure. He gave Tawny a much longer version of the prophecy that talks about two promised queens, one of flesh and fire and one of ash and ice. Vikter also said that it's forbidden to say the Consort's name because it's so powerful, but he says Poppy knows who she is. She is puzzled. (ha)
Off they go to rescue Cas. Poppy has to drink, so she drinks from Kieran and there's some warmth and deepening of their relationship. He keeps sleeping naked in her room, and they snuggle. It's nice.
But wait - who's intercepting them?! It's the mystery handmaiden with the painted face, who blabbed to Cas. Her name is Millicent, and everyone thinks she looks familiar but can't place how they know her. (hmmm wonder if that will be important later). She tells them they'll never sneak into the castle, so they should just come with her to see the queen. So they do.
(I'm sorry, what the fuck?! Didn't Cas give his freedom to get Poppy away from the queen? I just.)
They arrive while the queen holds court, and she tells all her Ascended how evil the Atlanteans are, murdering all the innocents in the cities they'd taken. Because the Ascended, who regularly eat babies, have the moral high ground here. Poppy corners her and demands to see Cas, and the queen says sure. He's in bad shape and blood crazed, but Poppy heals him. He's just going to chill in prison for a bit more, though. Poppy stabs the queen's pet Revanent, named Callum. She's so stabby! Of course he doesn't die. It's hilarious.
Poppy spends a long time talking with her mom, who has puzzle pieces all over the place. The queen is mad because Malec is her heartmate, and Cas's mom tricked and imprisoned him. She thought he was dead but he's not, and she wants him back. In the meantime, the queen imprisoned and coerced his twin brother Ires into impregnating her. She claims she didn't rape him but Poppy makes the point that captives cannot reasonably consent, and I agree. Hooray for informed consent!
OK, now we're at the most WTF scene of the whole book, for me. Millicent goes down to Cas's cell. There's a bathtub of water that's been sitting there for days because he refuses to bathe. She washes her hair in that water, and it's not black after all - it's white blonde! And she also washes off her makeup. She looks *exactly* like Poppy but with more freckles and different hair. She's Poppy's sister. I knew there was something weird about her. She says Poppy is in fact the Harbinger and Cas will either have to kill her or everyone will die. He doesn't like that news.
Next, Callum comes to see Cas. (Is this cell really hidden?) Callum taunts him a little, and stabs him so he'll go fully blood-mad.
Poppy's still chatting with her mom, who admits she wants to use Poppy to destroy the world. They're back at a party and Millicent joins the conversation but no one comments on her dramatic makeover, so either she re-dyed her hair or. I'm not sure. The queen tells Poppy to go to her room and think about if she's willing to be her mom's instrument of revenge or not, they'll talk tomorrow.
Poppy, Kieran and Reaver decide it's time to grab Cas and run. They fight their way to the entrance of the dungeon, and Malik shows up to help them, but he won't leave with them because he and Millicent are heartmates. Cas is lost to bloodlust, so they knock him on the head and Malik takes them to some Descenters he knows. Thankfully they cure the bloodlust quickly, and I feel kinda bad for these random people that agreed to help them, because Cas and Poppy basically spend days healing and fucking their house down. 64% in and we have our first mention of honeydew! Kieran feeds Poppy again and they kinda seem like they want a threesome but it doesn't happen.
Malik is back and it's time for them all to have a serious talk. Reaver is there too - this time he tells us that Poppy is a Primal! Might have been nice if you spilled those beans earlier, although I still don't understand how it's different from a god or a deity or a Fate or whatever the hell else. When Poppy was born, it was prophesied that she would destroy the world. Her adoptive mom Cora didn't believe that, and tried to escape with her. That dark figure, that killed her mom? It was Malik! Genuinely didn't see that coming. He didn't want the world destroyed, but in the end he couldn't kill a child. Cas is pissed at his brother and they fight, but then all of the sudden the queen and her guards are there. Maybe should have spent less time fucking and more time leaving? IDK, just me.
The queen knows that Poppy knows where her heartmate Malec is, and she demands Poppy free him before she can be free. To make sure they don't go back on their promise, Callum curses Kieran with some time-bomb curse that will kill him in two weeks unless she gives them the antidote. They're all about to leave when the queen straight-up murders the people who harbored Cas and Poppy for two days, and Poppy rages and starts to go nuts, but calms down because she doesn't want to lose control and hurt everyone.
They leave the city and meet up with their army in the forest, everyone is glad to see Cas and Malik. They go to the forest to dig up Malec, and on the way talk about the Joining, because it could overcome Kieran's time-bomb curse if he's joined to their lifespan. Poppy wants to do it (you go girl) but they have to wait for a full moon. Digging up Malec goes surprisingly smoothly?! Like, they have to fight some freaky snake zombies but then they just bring his coffin back to camp.
It's a full moon! Time for the joining. Honestly, hot as fuck and I'm here for it. Poppy, Kieran, and Cas all drink each other's blood and have sex together and it's everything I wanted. At least I got something out of this book.
They bring the queen Malec's coffin, and discover that while she loves him, her intent was to sacrifice him to release Kolis, the Primal of Death, so she could unmake the universe. Releasing Kolis required a sacrifice, and we're supposed to be impressed with the queen that she chose to sacrifice her heartmate and not Poppy, her daughter. Poppy figures out that Seraphena is the Consort and calls her name, and using both their power she's able to stop the queen.
Poppy passes out, and when she wakes up, the battle is over and everyone on their side came back to life, because Poppy has completed her transition and she's now the Primal of Life. She also grew fangs and Cas thinks they're hot.
A draken named Nektas (who is even older than Reaver, and can manifest pants as a result) shows up to explain that the Primal of Life is a female role, and both Malec and Ires were forbidden to have daughters because this could happen, but they did it anyway. Poppy is glad that everything worked out. BUT WAIT! It didn't, because even though they killed the queen, Kolis was still released, and now they have to kill him. So, the battle is just beginning. Fantastic.
"Perhaps not," Beledros said. "But it is not you I would be protecting."
.
Reviews for "The Power of Music: How 'Set the Witch on Fire' Inspires Courage"
1. Daniel - 2 stars
I found "Set the witch on fire" to be a highly disturbing and offensive song. The lyrics and message seemed to promote violence and hatred towards witches, which is completely unacceptable. It is disappointing to see any form of media perpetuating such harmful stereotypes. I would not recommend this song to anyone, as it lacks sensitivity and compassion.
2. Sarah - 1 star
I was deeply disappointed by "Set the witch on fire" and would give it zero stars if I could. The lyrics were extremely derogatory towards witches, reinforcing harmful stereotypes and promoting violence. It's disheartening to see such a lack of respect for different beliefs and practices. This song is not only offensive but also does nothing to contribute positively to the music industry. I would advise staying away from it.
3. Alex - 2 stars
"Set the witch on fire" left a bad taste in my mouth. The lyrics were distasteful and seemed to celebrate the persecution of witches rather than promoting unity and acceptance. I believe music should bring people together, not divide them based on their beliefs or practices. This song misses the mark completely and is not worth listening to, in my opinion.
4. Emily - 1 star
I was appalled by "Set the witch on fire". The song's lyrics were filled with hate and violence, perpetuating harmful stereotypes about witches. It is disheartening to see such a lack of understanding and empathy in the music industry. I strongly discourage supporting artists who promote violence and discrimination, and this song falls into that category.
5. Matthew - 2 stars
"Set the witch on fire" was a disappointment. The lyrics were offensive and conveyed a negative image of witches, portraying them as evil and deserving of harm. It is sad to see such a lack of inclusiveness and acceptance in this song. I would not recommend it to anyone who values equality and respect for others' beliefs and practices.