rainwaterspark | Throne of Glass - Deconstruction

Chapter 29

Last time on why am I even doing this anymore, we had more failures in common sense and even worse romance.

Finally, we’re back to the goddamned competition. This time, it’s a straight-up duel.

“Defending her, are you?” Verin taunted. “Is that the bargain? She opens her legs, and you keep an eye on her during practice?”

…Remember what I was saying earlier about misogynistic hate crimes existing in this world? There you go.

It’s unnerving in this book because Celaena is supposed to be a badass, and yet she’s constantly faced with sexist, misogynistic insults that render her vulnerable. But at the same time, the sexism is never really addressed; this book is definitely not about Celaena fighting against sexism to promote a more gender-equal society.

And seriously, the author didn’t need to resort to crude gender-specific insults to rile Celaena up. One of my pet peeves is default narrative sexism in fantasy, when by definition fantasy takes place in a world different from ours. And this book in particular can’t even claim that sexism makes the world more realistic when there are such glaring failures in technology and common sense.

Celaena predictably beats the pulp out of Verin, which at least is cathartic.

“Here’s a lesson for you, Weapons Master,” she said, stalking past him. “Give me real men to fight. Then maybe I’ll bother trying.”

Also in the 1% of dialogue in this book that is actually good.

After the test, Celaena rambles to herself about random things.

she’d always imagined that there’d be someone to help her—a loyal friend or a one-armed soldier or something. She hadn’t imagined she would be so…alone.

Why not? Her parents were killed at a young age and she grew up on the streets before she was taken in by an abusive assassin mentor. If anything, that should’ve taught her not to rely on others.

And “one-armed soldier”? That’s…really random.

She wished Sam were with her. He’d always known what to do, always had her back, whether she wanted him to or not. She would give anything—anything in the world—to have him still with her.

Because Celaena doesn’t know what to do in these situations, gosh her life is so difficult without a boyfriend.

Celaena keeps rambling about the tapestry and Terrasen (I should add that we know very little about Terrasen even though Celaena acts like it’s the best place ever just because she was born there).

Find the evil in the castle… But the only truly evil thing in this world is the man ruling it.

King who is a mean father and has the gall to conquer other kingdoms and inexplicably burns books in other languages = PURE EVIL.

The characterization in this book really sucks.

Oh hey, we return to Kaltain Rompier’s POV again.

Perrington wanted her; she knew it. And if she pushed, she could easily get him to offer to make her his duchess. But duchess wasn’t enough

I really don’t know how the narrative wants us to feel whenever it says things like this, because I find that these passages only serve to make Kaltain sympathetic, while Celaena obviously views Kaltain as PURE EVIL.

The queen’s green eyes were bright, and she smiled at Kaltain. Just then Kaltain’s head gave a bolt of pain so strong she clenched her fists

…Huh? More ham-handed foreshadowing? Don’t tell me Kaltain gets killed, because I would be seriously pissed off if that happened.

The queen continues to act like a superficial jerk.

Kaltain’s face warmed, and her head pounded mercilessly. She wished for her pipe

Pipe? As in, to smoke?

I’m an excellent judge of character; I knew how extraordinary you were the moment you entered the court. Only you are suitable for a man of Perrington’s prowess. What a pity you didn’t meet my Dorian first!”

Screw you, Book, for making the queen say such inane things.