 Normally you're supposed to point at these with some sort of swagger stick or something, but I don't have one of those So I'll be pointing with this lovely plastic training knife. It's not sharp. Don't worry. So Red Queen it was a super popular series back in its heyday and much like thrown of glass. It was so popular that Basically everything young adult that's come out for about eight years now has been trying to cash in on its success Mostly by just copying exactly what it did. It follows a teenage girl named Mare Barrow Mare lives in a world that's dominated by two classes of people There's silvers who have silver blood and also have special powers and there's reds who have red blood and no special powers One day one of her friends who is a red gets conscripted into the army So she tries to save him and then the whole story Goes on from there I would suggest taking a shot every time a stupid or trope or overused cliche comes up But I stopped drinking a couple of months ago, and I don't want to kill any of you rather than doing a long review With a bunch of harsh analysis while we go over things I figured this time I would just do that thing where people stand in front of a wall or whiteboard and then just Summarize the plot and I'm doing that for two count them two main reasons number one It's a resource for people who want to know about this story and want to be able to talk about this story Without having to take the time to read five increasingly long and increasingly boring books and number two Because everything in young adult fantasy is exactly like this series I can effectively roast all of them at once by just summarizing this one book series So people can stop asking me it saves me time and it shows all of you just how devoid of creativity This entire genre is my brief thoughts on the series It's bad, but it's far from the worst thing, you know There are some things in this series that are genuinely pretty good But overall it just doesn't work like it's so lacking in genuine emotion and genuine character That I just didn't care about most of the stuff that was happening and also just to let you know this is a summary Okay, so if I leave something out, that's because it wasn't important. So if you're going James Why didn't she mention this? That's because it wasn't important Okay, stop pretending it was important and also there will be spoilers ahead. So just just be aware Also, yes, I am reading from my notes get over it. So before we get into the main summary Let's go over some background information, which you probably will need to know So the king the story takes place in the kingdom of nord I'll put a map up on screen So you can see it here This is our world thousands of years after the apocalypse And the people there know that it's our world thousands of years after a big apocalypse And nord is in the northeastern united states What is now the northeast in united states although the coastlines have changed quite a bit Now nord has been at war with the neighboring kingdom of the lakelands Which covers most of the great lakes area for a hundred years by the start of the story and Basically at some point after the apocalypse, which is never explained in a lot of detail Not even in the supplementary materials Some people somehow got powers along with silver blood And these powers range from control of metal to being able to heal people to just being really really strong Like they're they're just superpowers and there's no real rules to them Like they just exist and everyone who has one set of powers gets their own unique name E.g. people who can control fire are called burners people who can control water are called nymphs people who can control metal are called Magnetrons, etc. There are also some people who have power to Undo other people's powers and suppress it and prevent them from using it that are called silences And there's also this substance called silent stone, which they can use to suppress people's powers So if i'm ever describing a situation where it seems like it would be useful for characters to use their powers Just assume that one of those things is being used now silvers inherit their powers They are genetic and so they formed a bunch of noble houses that rule Pretty much every country we know about at least every country we know about in this part of the world Now norda is an absolute monarchy It's ruled by a silver king and a bunch of silver nobles who support him But there are other countries like piedmont in the american south which has run more like an oligarchy But still ruled by silvers now reds in pretty much every country we see have very few rights And in norda if they aren't working by the time they turn 18 They're automatically conscripted and sent to the front lines of the lake lander war which It has been going on full throttle for 100 years that i don't know how that adds up But it it's been going full throttle for 100 years and again because this is post apocalypse They have some technology we have in the real world Like they do have guns planes aircraft carriers bulletproof glass and so on But they don't have all of our technology. They don't have advanced computers They don't have long range communication like telephones or anything like that Now our protagonist is a teenage girl named Mayor barrow now since she's largely devoid of personality and really only there to project onto I am going to represent her with this picture now mayor lives in a town on a riverbank called stilts Because all the houses are built on stilts. It's yeah kind of a dumb name Now she has a thief at the beginning of the story. She goes around stealing a bunch of stuff That's how she makes a living and she also has four siblings She has three older brothers who are already off fighting in the war And she has one younger sister who is studying to become a tailor. She also has super cool unusual hair I've always wanted her hair though. I'd never tell her that where hers is like fire My hair is what we call river brown Dark at the root pale at the ends as the color leeches from our hair with the stress of stilts life Most keep their hair short to hide their gray ends, but I don't and that's really all there is to know about her At the beginning of the book. Uh next character we need to know about is mayor's best friend who is named killorn Now he is a boy. He's a little bit older than her and he works as a fisherman's apprentice So I've decided to represent him with this picture of henry winkler holding a fish henry winkler what? So I've decided to represent him with this picture of henry wink- So I have decided to represent him with this picture of henry winkler holding a fish He is mayor's best friend. They have been best friends for years He doesn't want to die in war and he hates silvers and that is all there is to him Now the current king of norda is this guy king tiberius the sixth of house calor represented here by robert baratheon He has two sons both of whom are around the same age as mayor for reasons that will Very quickly become a parent and the older one is his heir. That's tiberius the seventh and Usually he's called cal sometimes. He's called cal I mean i'm just going to call him cal throughout this whole thing to avoid confusion But keep in mind that is technically a nickname and the books kind of switch between his two names at random Sometimes he's cal sometimes he's tiberius prince cal will be played by timothy shallow may Now keep in mind cal is the son of the king's first wife the original queen of norda Who died back when cal was a baby not long after he was born Now he is an amazing fighter and a brilliant strategist despite being only 18 years old He is already a general in the army then there's the king's current wife who is queen elara Now she is what's called a whisper which means that she has the power to read people's minds as well as control people's minds And she is the king's second wife and the mother of his other son prince maven Now maven is much less of a fighter than his brother He's kind of the sweet nerdy brother that no one pays much attention to and since he's not the heir to the throne His father really just seems to want him out of the way Now all of the men of the kalora family are burners meaning they're fire manipulators And since silvers usually inherit their power from their fathers They all the noble houses are patrilineal which actually Makes sense and it makes sense why noble houses would be known for having specific powers like Yeah, that I was expecting to go into this book series and really roast the setting but Not so much like the setting isn't perfect But it had a lot of thought and care put into it like certainly more than other parts of the book And if you're really curious about that like read the broken throne spin-off Like it's a collection of novellas as well as some like supplementary materials Just going over what the world is like and some of the supplementary materials are kind of interesting So now we start the summary for real the first book is called red queen as you may have guessed Now we start with mare walking through the market in her tome town of stilts and stealing stuff And that that's kind of it like there's nothing unusual about this particular day She meets her friend kilorn remember henry we Henry winkler holding a fish I should have chose someone with an easier name to say She meets kilorn and they go to a nearby arena Which is just built in their town to watch some silvers fight and apparently this is really common for them Like apparently they just often go there to see silvers fight each other and show off their powers It's supposed to be like a way of saying don't rebel reds or you will die And one of the silvers that they watch fight is a strong arm Which just means he's really strong and the other one turns out to be a whisper again a person who can control minds and the whisper wins Obviously because he controls his opponent and makes him stab himself And the people are watching that and mare's like whoa crazy now based on that you may be thinking If it's possible to control people and read their minds like this Then why aren't the whispers in charge of the entire world? Is there going to be some sort of twist in the story about how the silvers are just puppets without realizing it? And that in a weird way, they're just as much of a prisoner of their class as the reds are of theirs What a shame that would have been kind of neat So mare goes home to her parents and her younger sister giza remember she has other siblings But they're all off at war right now now giza is a taylor's apprentice So she's really good at making silk embroidery and stuff and that's just what she's doing when mare comes home She's like sewing stuff together and she doesn't take part in any of her sister's unsavory activities That way she can be super innocent and pure and then the hero can protect her mare's parents act Really annoyed with her for stealing and tell her hey, you're gonna get caught one of these days And you're gonna get really in trouble trouble, but they don't try that hard to stop her They just sort of roll along with it and together they all read a letter Which just arrived from one of mare's brothers a guy named shade and it basically just says hey I'm alive and maybe I'll be relevant later in the story And then kilorn knocks at their door and he is freaking out because Apparently his master the master fisherman died in an accident and he's about to turn 18 So that means he's going to be sent to war very soon And there are no other job openings or other apprenticeships open in town like he has no options He's about to get conscripted and mare decides that since she's also going to turn 18 soon Her and kilorn are just gonna flee to avoid it. You know, they're just gonna run away She doesn't know where but she decides they're they're gonna flee And since she doesn't know number one where to go or how to get past security forces They go to the guy who fences all of her stolen goods His name is will whistle in order to help them will introduces them to the leader of a rebel group calling itself the scarlet guard And their leader for whatever reason is a teenage girl by the name of farley Now all we learn at this current time is that the scarlet guard wants to bring down the current establishment and make reds equal Their goals are kind of vague. We don't know where they come from right now But we do find out later that that's the gist of it. There are rebels They're trying to fight against the current regime now farley agrees to take them both out of the country But only in exchange for 2000 crowns, which is a lot of money in norta And so mare comes up with a plan she she'll never be able to steal that much in their town So she gets giza her sister to help her go to the royal family summer residents and steal a bunch more valuable stuff Now keep in mind normally the royal family lives in the capital archie on which is really far up river But their summer residence is right nearby stilts And also their summer residence is an entire city and also the city just disappears when they're gone Like all the people leave for half the year So giza helps mare get smuggled into the city by letting her use one of her uniforms And then while mare is walking around trying to find stuff to steal a newscast comes on which announces that the scarlet guard staged some sort of bombing recently and farley Speaks on it. She gives a speech and they send out a message And she just ends her speech with the phrase rise red as the dawn now No one has ever heard of the scarlet guard before But all of the silvers who most of the people in this area are silvers Fly into a rage and immediately start killing all of the reds around them So it's just a full on pogrom, which seems like something that would happen to An ethnic or religious minority as opposed to the lower classes, but okay, whatever So during the riot mare manages to find giza and they're about to get out of there But giza decides to try and help and get caught trying to steal from one of the silvers And as punishment a policeman or immediately grabs her and crushes the bones of her sewing hand And they can't afford proper treatment for this like there are healers, but they can't afford it Which means that giza is going to be crippled for life And so she'll lose her apprenticeship and who knows what'll happen to her She'll never be able to be a tailor Now you might be thinking does this lead to any tension between mare and giza Does mare have to reconcile her desire to protect her loved ones from injustice and fight the system with the collateral damage That will inevitably accompany that Is this the beginning of a character arc where mare becomes paralyzed by indecision because she can't stand the thought of her actions harming innocence Shame because that sounds kind of neat Spoiler alert in one of the later books giza just gets healed off screen and is perfectly fine after that and There's no further tension in their relationship They both go home, but mare can't face their parents and she's really ashamed of herself So she just runs off to an inn to get drunk and while she's there she picks some pockets She's really unsure what to do with herself, but she just decides okay. I'm gonna steal money That's what I'm good with and she gets caught by the last man who is leaving the inn In spite of him catching her trying to pick his pocket He's surprisingly nice and he just gives her some money And she is suspicious about this but they talk for a bit and he seems into her for some reason And turns out his name is cal And we find out pretty quickly that he's prince cal the prince of norda, but Again cal is a nickname so Mare doesn't know that at first She spends a couple of pages going on about how terrible her life is and how awful things are to this complete stranger And then she goes home and while she's there the power has gone out because Apparently her family didn't have enough electricity ration cards to have power I'm not exactly sure how this system works, but they didn't have enough cards Mare gets mad and so she hits the breaker box at their house And then it mysteriously comes to life and they have electricity again So she talks to her dad a bit about how she's not going to run from her responsibilities anymore And then she rereads the letter from her brother's shade and notices that it ends with the phrase rise red as the dawn Which was the exact same phrase that farley said in her scarlet guard message And mare takes that to mean that her brother is somehow affiliated with the scarlet guard The next morning some soldiers knock at the door and at first they think it's just a routine search But then a young woman who is with the soldier says that mare has been summoned by the royal family And at first she thinks it might be due to her association with the scarlet guard And so she thinks she's about to be killed, but she can't do anything about it Otherwise her whole family will be killed along with her And her family also thinks that something bad's going to happen to her But she's really sad and she goes off without a fight They sail up river for a little while and reach the royal family's summer residence again And it turns out mare is going to be a servant now Yeah, cal felt sympathy for her plight and decided to give her a job And this job is supposed to help her provide for her family and it will also prevent her from being conscripted Which is actually kind of nice of him Like it would have been nicer of him to like ask her first or be clearer about what was going on So she didn't think she was about to be executed, but you know It's kind of nice of him There's a lot of activity going on around and mare asks why and it turns out that something called the queen's trial is going on Today is queen's trial the daughters of the high houses The great silver families have all come together to offer themselves to the prince There's a big feast tonight, but now they're in the spiral garden preparing to present hoping to be chosen One of those girls gets to be the next queen and they're slapping each other silly for the chance Basically, there's a big arena and a bunch of young noble girls go in there one at a time to show off their powers And the one who is most impressive gets to marry the prince and therefore be the next queen of norda Now the arena where they show off is surrounded by a force field because Force fields exist in this world as a servant mare is going around giving people drinks and stuff She sees cal up in the box with the royal family and deduces. Oh, hey, that was the prince And she winds up being knocked into the arena arena and hits the force field But rather than being burnt to death like most people would be a bunch of electricity shoots out of her body and Shorts it out because it turns out mare has lightning powers. What? Now the other girl that's in the arena at that time tries to kill her But mare runs away and winds up getting seized by the guards They take her to a cell while she's unconscious and then queen alara who remember is a mind reader Goes through her memories and confirms that she is a red and they check her blood and like yeah, it's red So she's a red But she has silver powers which has never been seen before So the main character girl who was supposed to be one of the oppressed lower classes Actually gets to be super special and powerful in a way that nobody has ever heard of isn't that convenient And you may be thinking mare dislikes silvers for what they've done Does that mean she's going to start hating herself for having silver powers? Will she have to come to terms with her powers driving a wedge between her and her loved ones? Will the series ever address the irony of a red revolution only being possible due to silvers being on their side? What a shame that sounds neat So mare is brought to the throne room so she can see the king the queen the two princes and some other people They mentioned how special and unprecedented she is because apparently this has never happened before again And too many people saw her powers in actions. So they can't just kill her and hide this thing So the king decides to pretend that she is a long lost child of a silver named Ethan titanos who died a while ago He also decides that mare is going to marry his younger son Maven and she will never tell anybody the truth because if it gets out that red Reds can have powers too and that the silvers aren't inherently better than them Then the legitimacy of his regime will start to fall apart And he also thinks that a red being raised to royalty will be a propaganda boost to help quell the rebels I don't know exactly how that's supposed to work But that's what he claims is probably going to happen And in exchange her and her family will be taken care of and her brothers get to come home from the war So mare agrees not that she has much choice and her new name is marina titanos or titanos I'm not actually sure how to say that and so she's going to become a queen But she's also a red She's a red queen so the word gets out and now mare is just she's just a princess now Every day maids put on makeup to make her look paler because silvers have paler faces because their blood is silver And she starts lessons on how to be a royal how to act like a proper noble lady, etc And people believe this entire story awfully easy considering that if she didn't know she was a silver Then that would mean not only had she never used her powers before But she had never bled In her entire life like at no point did she cut herself and go hey, that's not red. That's silver. That's weird which That's not believable if it was a boy. It's pretty much impossible for a girl Like i'm reminded of a scene from game of thrones. Why would a girl see blood and collapse? A girl see more blood than boys Now it takes over a hundred pages to get to this point and the rest of the book up until the climax Is maire just getting used to life at the palace forming rivalries falling in love with cute boys You know the drill I should mention that the winner of the queen's trial is a magnetron named Evangeline Samos and again a magnetron is somebody that can control metal as the winner She immediately becomes prince calis fiancé She also hates maire as you may have guessed when she immediately tried to kill her back in the arena She Doesn't really have a reason to hate maire. She just she just hates her and she does gain something of a personality later on But in the first book She really is just mean for the sake of it at one point maire and cal are talking to each other And he complains about how he has no control over his life And maire just tells him to shut up and that she doesn't care Which was kind of a nice moment to be honest and she witnesses cal and maven Doing some really intense training and showing off their powers and she's like whoa They're both so cool and sexy Even though later on we find out maven is supposed to be a really terrible fighter Most of the plot holes in these books aren't super big, but they start to add up after a while Now she also goes to lessons from taught by a tutor named julian Now julian is a singer meaning that he can also control people, but he can only do it by singing Pretty much the same thing as a whisper, but you know just slightly more limited He also dislikes the current regime And he studies all the time so his room is just absolutely filled to the brim with books Now he is the resident smart guy who always explains stuff about the world or figures stuff out before the other characters like he's just That's his role throughout most of the story. He is the smart guy Now he is also prince cal's uncle because he is the brother of cal's mother who was the previous queen who remember is dead Now while mare and julian are talking to each other They find out that mare can actually create lightning from nothing while most other silvers can only manipulate stuff that's already there E.g. maven and cal always wear these bracelets that produce flame for them and without any fire They they can't do anything their powers don't actually work And this doesn't go anywhere, but it does seem kind of important for a minute Like it seems like hey mare's powers are super super special and upon hearing this mare Is like so shaken that she runs away Like she hears oh my gosh, I have super super powers No, and she runs away and then guards chase her down and grab her before maven comes by And they have a mildly heartfelt conversation about how he feels inferior to his brother and how she feels really homesick and stuff And it actually seems like they're getting along and then he takes her to his brother cal And cal takes her on his motorcycle to visit her family So this is a fantasy novel And it has a scene where the love interest takes the main character on a motorcycle ride I just needed to say that out loud so that you understand what we are dealing with here Now mare is happy to see her family and they're happy to see her two of her older brothers are back from the war But she notices that her brother's shade the one who wrote the letter is missing And it turns out he actually tried to desert from the army right before he was released And then he was executed and mare is so upset by this She lets out a burst of lightning and it destroys all the lights in her house And then she tells her family everything that's been going on And they've been getting an allowance from the king in order to stay quiet But they didn't know about mare's powers until this moment She goes back to will whistle the fence and says she wants to join the scarlet guard Because shade dying was just the final straw. She's like, okay. I have a spot inside the palace I can probably do something to help them and then she joins after talking with farley a little bit And then after leaving she runs into killorn who also joins the scarlet guard The next day in the palace mare learns that one of the maids is also in the scarlet guard And she slips her a note for a meeting later that night And then mare goes in to train her powers for a while She describes herself as being very bad at it, but then julien is like, whoa, I'm impressed with you Because obviously it's a terrible young adult fantasy novel The main character needs to feel super bad and inferior to everybody while also being super special without effort julien mentions or at least implies that his sister was killed by the current regime and tells mare to be really careful And finally she goes to meet farley and some other members of the scarlet guard and surprise surprise maven is there too And he tells a long story about how he saw soldiers die at the front lines of the war And he doesn't think that he's above reds and that he wants to help But he wants to avoid violence whenever possible. He doesn't want to outright overthrow the regime and kill everyone He just wants to make things better Now killorn is also there and mare is annoyed that he joined the guard because it's super dangerous and they fight about that for a bit The next day mare has a super powered fight with evangeline and nearly dies But the fight is stopped before things go too far again her and evangeline just kind of don't like each other There's no real reason for it at this stage, but they don't like each other Now queen elara tells her off for a bit for not acting like a proper young noble lady And mare snaps at her so the queen chokes her for a bit and then tells her to get lost Cal goes to the front line with a legion of silver soldiers that are going to pretend to be red soldiers by wearing their uniforms And he got the idea by watching mare fall into the arena He said whoa if we pretend to be reds, they won't see any of us coming and they'll be super surprised We'll we'll destroy them and apparently nobody thought of this in a hundred years of war And then cal and mare dance for a bit and I guess she's falling in love with him or something So we're supposed to feel something You'll notice i'm going into less detail about these scenes as the book goes on And that's because they become less important and far less happens in them It takes almost a hundred pages for the actual story of this book to get going And yet somehow the setup for the main story still has the most stuff I actually care about And then everything up until the climax is really just like I said earlier her wandering around the palace As mare is heading back to her room Maven comes out and they talk about how he's going to give the names of a few targets for farley to kill Now mare does nothing here. She wanted to be a spy. She wanted to help out But she doesn't actually do anything. She's just nearby while other people do all the infiltrator spy stuff because She's simultaneously super important and doesn't actually do anything because again, it's a young adult fantasy novel What did you expect now later cal comes into her room and kisses her because he just Felt like making a move on his brother's fiance, I guess like again, let's But let's not forget like it's not just that cal has a fiance and he's kind of sort of cheating on her with mare He's cheating on her with his brother's fiance What a dick and mare knows this is wrong But she's just so attracted to him that she immediately gives in and then the next day We have the obligatory ballroom scene where there's a celebration dance of some sort It doesn't actually matter what it is, but it's a celebration dance of some sort mare gets to dress up and look all pretty despite her supposedly being a prisoner in a horrible situation Because we can never forget that this is at the end of the day wish fulfillment She has a talk with the king and queen and the king is like Oh, you almost look like a proper lady, but you're still a tool to me And then he tells maven or you just need to find a cause to occupy yourself because you're not the heir You're less important burp a burp and then mare and maven dances well and she's like omg. I love him too It's a love triangle and you might be wondering if mare is in love with two men who are brothers And therefore have a relationship with each other as well as her Will this cause issues between them? Will mare realize that by not committing and stringing two people along She's being unfair to them and just indulging herself Is she going to have a character arc where she realizes that she needs to be decisive if she wants to find happiness? Shame because that sounds kind of neat. Anyways, the scarlet guard attacks the party They get a few people high up on the balconies with rifles and then they start shooting down into the crowd And then mare shuts off the lights to cause further chaos and there's a big explosion Her and the royal family flee to a bunker underground and the king and queen argue for a bit about whether or not They should have dealt with the scarlet guard earlier Now cal and evangeline Come to the bunker and take them to where some of the attackers are being held because they got caught and are now Being held prisoner the ones there are farley kilorn and two others And cal is like mare. Why is your friend in here because he recognizes kilorn as her friend and she's like I don't know. I just got him a job at the lumber yard. I just wanted him to be able to eat I don't know what he's doing here. And this raises no further suspicions So cal and one of his guards torture farley for a bit by freezing her blood And then healing her so she recovers and they can keep doing it over and over again Please keep that in mind as the series goes forward Cal has no problems torturing people now evangeline's brother is a guy named Tolemnus Samos and he shows up and he's super mad so he just kills one of the scarlet guard prisoners And it's not actually one of the important prisoners that mare cares about. He's Just a guy there and they need to kill him so they can show off how evil tolemnus is So mare and maven go off to see the aftermath of the attack and the explosion and they're like Oh, no people died We're so shocked that people died in this terrorist attack that we are accessories to Because they're idiots. Look the morality of this action is definitely questionable But what did they think was going to happen? Like they gave them targets Did they think the scarlet guard was going to write a strongly worded letter? I just want to take a moment to point out that the majority of the population of norda Live in obscure poverty with no rights and they rise up against their oppressors in the name of equality And their oppressors just so happen to be wealthy aristocrats And all the people rising up are called reds This book series isn't actually any sort of allegory for communism It's just a coincidence and I think it's kind of funny Now you may be wondering the scarlet guard is fighting for a just cause But they're willing to use brutal methods to achieve their goals Will this series dive into the morality of revolution and terrorism? Will we get to see good people turned into monsters by the world they live in and be willing to kill innocence in the name of Justice will mayor have to struggle with the morality of using brutal methods to fight a brutal regime? No No No Shame because that sounds kind of cool So the next day mayor talks to julian and asks him to help free the prisoners And because you know if they talk then not only are they going to die But the rest of the scarlet guard is going to get found out and she's going to get found out and maven's going to get Found out and they are all going to die And julian figures that she had something to do with it and that if the prisoners give up any info She will be killed So he agrees to help her now mayor gets one of her escorts a magnetron by the name of lucas Who is actually evangeline's cousin to come with her and then julian sings to him Making him open the cell that has all the prisoners in it Now mayor gets shot by a different guard during the chaos of the escape But julian makes somebody heal her so it doesn't really affect anything And then the others escape and mayor just goes back to bed Now the next day maven tells mayor that the scarlet guard actually didn't set a bomb during the attack They just shot a gas line which caused a bunch of gas to escape and then cow while trying to Fight them sent out a bunch of fire and then that hit the gas line and that's what caused the explosion But queen elara is just such a brilliant manipulator that she just decides to tell the world that the scarlet guard caused the explosion Because she's just Such a political genius. I tell you so the whole family leaves to the capital city archon And cow is no longer going to the front lines like he was supposed to earlier and while they're sailing up river They force reds in the regular villages They pass to stand at the bank and watch them and applaud And if anyone descents the police will actually whip them just in the middle of the crowd They also pass through a place that they call grey town that mayor has never heard of And it's a horrible place full of pollution and there are a bunch of factories all over because it's what they call a tech town And there are a bunch of tech towns all over the country. The people there aren't even allowed to join the military They just make the technology and manufacture all the stuff like bullets and such It's a horrible place far worse than the town where mayor is from Now you might wonder why the towns that produce technology and electricity are run like concentration camps while the rest of the country isn't No idea. I have I have no idea why these places are supposed to be so much worse than the regular towns But they are so they get back to the real palace and mayor has to help the king give a speech on television She announces that there is a curfew in effect and more police are going to be all over the place The conscription age has been lowered from 18 to 15 And anyone who gives information about the scarlet guard gets five conscription waivers that they can share The idea here is to split the reds up and make them start fighting each other So mayor goes to her room and finds a note from julian It's a list of a bunch of soldiers who were allegedly executed on the front line Including her brother's shade and julian noticed that they all had the same genetic mutation And mayor has that same genetic mutation meaning that all the people who were executed were also reds Who had powers just like her and the government has been working to cover it up and julian also gives her a list of a bunch of other people who have the mutation and Here's the thing. I don't know why the government tried to cover this up Like sure obviously you can't just let them run around being lower class people with powers because that would make you look bad And could also pose a threat to your rule But why not just if a red is discovered to have powers? Why don't you just bring them into the aristocracy and give them a bunch of special privileges and stuff? You know, then you're getting them on your side because as we see later on in the series There's a substantial number of people who have this genetic mutation And all of them really hate the silvers for good reason And so they're all fighting against them. They could have just nipped this in the bud years ago So mayor has a conversation with cal where she points out that he is partially to blame for the explosion Which is true Like it's not entirely his fault, but he is partially to blame And he just kind of pretends that no no it was only the scarlet guard And mayor basically tells him hey when you're king you could end the war and make society better And he's like no way changing things at all would result in a billion trillion deaths And then he tells her that maven actually actually suggested destroying all of her old records like her birth certificate School records anything that confirms she was born a red and then they went ahead and did it And now nobody can figure out that she has the mutation Unless they have an IQ above 70 in which case she's probably fucked luckily for her None of the villains in this series have an IQ above 70 Somebody slips mayor a note telling her to go to a specific theater at a specific time So her and maven go there and then they run into will whistle again And they get taken to a hidden underground train like the remains of a subway car Like this is implied to be in the ruins of new york city or at least near the ruins of new york city The train goes to an abandoned area that's surrounded by signs and markers that trick geiger counters So people think that the ruins are irradiated So it's the home base of the scarlet guard in norta Keep in mind that the scarlet guard operates outside of norta But this is their home base in the country and they mention that things are horrible for the reds now because there's increased Conscription increased executions the curfews etc And mayor gives them the list of people with powers that julian made and explains the situation to them going Hey, there's other reds out there that have powers I think this is the list of a bunch of them you should go out and find them And so farley decides that the only way to take over the government is via a coup because they don't have the numbers or Enough weapons or anything to just fight the army head on So basically they realize they can go to archie on and cut off all the government buildings from the rest of the city And from there they can run the country The only way they can think of to pull this plan off is to get cow on their side And the only way they can think to get cow on their side is to have mayor manipulate him By using the fact that he seems to be in love with her It's kind of a vague plan not a very good one So mayor and maven head back to the palace where a member of the scarlet guard has been captured But before that member of the scarlet guard can be captured. She eats a cyanide capsule and dies That night the scarlet guard blows up a bridge near the palace Which cuts it off from the other side of the river again It's isolating the palace the treasury and other government buildings from the rest of the city Now Cal gathers up his legion which is nearby and it is loyal to him personally And that he's gonna prepare them to attack But mayor stops him and tries to convince him to use his soldiers to take over the palace and Quote force his father to change the world No specifics are given there just You should force your father to change the world But Cal is like why would I ever do that? I love my dad and then he has her arrested So maven and mayor are taking to the throne room to see the king and queen And maven is just like yep, I helped plan this I helped to try and overthrow you dad What are you going to do about it? And before things progress much more queen Ellara just takes control of cal and tiberius And maven breaks free from his restraints and it turns out that they just used mayor She seems unnecessary to their plan because Maven was already with the scarlet guard and they just needed somebody to work with the scarlet guard So you feel like they could have just used him whatever mayor was being used queen Ellara Killed cal's mother many years ago And so that she could marry the king and that's actually covered a bit more in the prequel novella called queen song if you're interested And Ellara controlling cal makes him behead his father And at the last second she turns the security camera on so that she catches footage of it And then she acts all shocked and horrified and starts going. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh She killed the king and then she broadcasts that so everyone sees it and everybody thinks that cal is a murderer And since he ascended to the throne illegally by murdering his father, then that means by default maven would become king and said And the thing is people Know that the queen can control people's minds But at no point does anyone question the narrative at no point do they go Hey, maybe this lady over here is evil and she actually like Controlled her son to kill the king so her son could become king. Maybe that happened I don't know like no no one stops and thinks that these people would be real big fans of king ganendra. I tell you that much I wonder if a single person in my audience is actually going to understand that fucking joke So cal and mare try to run away But they're captured Instantly and they are sentenced to be executed and you might be thinking okay They're going to be beheaded or hanged or maybe put in front of a firing squad Nope They're just going to throw the two of them into an arena along with a bunch of other silvers and they're going to fight them And the other silvers are apparently going to kill them during the fight. That's stupid Use your common sense Evangeline as well as a bunch of others are chosen to kill them And then they throw them in and a whole big fight starts and this goes on for a little while mare doesn't Do that much during the fight She just she doesn't she helps a little bit, but mostly it's cal doing everything And they win and they kill a few of the other combatants because what sort of a book did you think this was? But then maven as the new king summons thousands of soldiers all around the arena to just shoot them to death And mare summons a lightning storm like the clouds open up and start shooting down lightning all over the place And she and cal managed to escape during the chaos that causes They escape into some tunnels and then they fall into water and the main character goes unconscious So they can be moved somewhere else in a surprising way because what sort of book did you think this was? They get rescued by a few members of the scarlet guard, which includes farley killorn and shade mares apparently Dead brother whose name is so edgy He has to be represented by shadow the hedgehog because it turns out shade is still alive somehow And the book just ends with them all vowing revenge on maven And cowl also gets taken prisoner by the scarlet guard and put in silent stone cuffs so that he can't do anything because they Don't actually trust him And if that summary felt long trust me the rest of the books are much worse So then we move on to the second book which is called glass sword And I just want to take a moment to say that these covers are way too similar like Seriously look at these and then look me in the eyes and tell me these are distinct and you can easily tell them apart Also, I just want to say thanks to my younger sister for giving me her copies of the first two books because She didn't want them anymore and was going to throw them out and if I hadn't gotten them However many years ago she gave them to me. I don't know if I would have actually read this series So glass sword begins with mare on the underground train that takes them to the abandoned city from the last book And washing all off all the blood from her fight And they go to the hidden scarlet guard base and they have to immediately flee because the army found out where they were Because remember they brought maven along for that trip before It's It's still strange that they trusted a prince Like that is so strange to me, but they did it and so he knows where the base is He tells the army where they are and they fire a bunch of missiles and artillery at them And then the army comes in on foot and there's some fighting now It turns out that shade's special power is that he can teleport So he does that a few times and while he's doing it He also winds up getting shot shielding his sister from a bullet and he lives But he does get shot now during the battle King maven shows up so that he can gloat and then they escape in a submarine Which they just call an underwater boat because I guess they're germans So shade informs mare that the scarlet guard has more strong holds all over and it turns out that farley Is not actually their leader. She's just the commander of this cell So she's the leader of all the scarlet guard in norda, but she is not leader of the ones outside the country So they head to an island called tuck where they have another base and it's really really far out of the way So nobody knows it's there. This one's super super secret And like I said before this entire time cal is being held in chains because no one is sure if he can be trusted And when they arrive at tuck mare sees that the rest of her family is there too Like yeah at some point shade got them and just brought them over here So there's no need to worry about them or their safety and i'm just going to tell you now The first book took 100 pages to get started This one takes 130 pages to get started and pretty much everything that happens in that 130 pages is pointless The scarlet guard is also led by a man who is almost always just referred to as The colonel the colonel Chastises farley for failing to overthrow the norton government with 100 soldiers because That seems like a reasonable thing to pull off like literally He just gave her 100 soldiers told her to try and overthrow the government and then when she failed He's chastising her for it Okay, he's also her father and it turns out that the colonel and farley are originally from the lakelands Like I said the scarlet guard is an international organization And they want to recruit reds with powers who they call the new bloods because they think that Those will be their best foot soldiers to help them overthrow the current system Now the colonel has cal chained up somewhere and is doing Some sort of medical experimentation to him. It's not explained at all and mare tries to get him out But kilorn betrays her and she winds up being imprisoned by the colonel too Kilorn is actually cool though. He was playing double agent and he helps them escape And basically the colonel has them in a room where they're strapped to a chair And he's doing experiments on them and then they ambush him Because he didn't bring any guards with him in the room and then they inject him with whatever he was about to inject Mare with I don't know why there were no guards in the room with him And I don't know what this injection does to him other than make him pass out for a while So shade cal mare kilorn and farley all go steal a jet and start flying off and luckily cal is a pilot He just he knows how to fly luckily and they all flee from the island to escape the colonel because I guess he's evil But then at the end of the book they team back up with him again and they forget all about this. It doesn't make sense, man They It doesn't make sense They decide their best course of action is to go around and gather up new bloods and to form an army Once again, this took 130 pages to happen And the conflict with the colonel goes nowhere and makes no sense They could literally have just gotten to the base and the colonel says, hey Go out and recruit these new bloods like just give them the assignment And there could be very little fuss and it would save us so much time And you might be wondering Is this supposed to be a split among the rebels that represents how people rebel against authoritarian regimes for a variety of different reasons Is it an example of how some people are rightfully mad at silvers But don't actually care about fixing problems instead just desiring revenge Will mare have to reconcile her own desire for revenge with a desire to change the world and prevent injustices from befalling others Shame because that sounds kind of neat. I think this plot point Only happened because the author wants to show mare being even more of a badass rebel by having her fight Not just the authority of the government, but also the authority of the rebels like I don't know. This is why I wanted to do a summary of this shit Like I am saving you all So much time from having to read this while also allowing you to take part in the conversation surrounding it You're welcome now most of the rest of the book from this point forward is just the heroes going around Gathering up new bloods and recruiting them and I'll be honest. It's not horrible It's better than the first book at least for the most part So first they go off and they recruit a man named nix who his power is that he has impenetrable skin And he's a middle-aged man. His wife died a while ago. His two daughters were both killed in the war Specifically cal was their commander and he got them killed in a battle So as soon as he sees cal, he's immediately pissed and tries to kill him But they managed to subdue him and they ask him. Hey, do you want to come fight the power with us? And he says He has nothing left and He's willing to put aside his hatred for cal temporarily if it means bringing down the whole system So already this guy who's only been here a couple of pages has more personality than most of the cast And he does nothing else the rest of the series after this scene where he's introduced They go to the city of harbour bay where everybody speaks with boston accents Which did bring me some amusement like imagining everybody talking like they're from boston is very very funny And while they're in harbour bay, they ask a gang for help tracking down their next target And the leader of the gang is a guy named crance who immediately leads them into a trap Because everyone in this series just constantly betrays everyone else because that's how the real world works Apparently, I don't know. Maybe all this betrayal is just trying to emphasize that mayor while she is very very powerful She is also very vulnerable. She's like a glass cannon Or a glass sword anyways crance didn't actually betray them I I think because he himself set the trap and then he immediately helps them escape the trap I don't know make of that what you will so he stays with them when they leave the city as well Just just see you're aware that like that happens. I I guess he's a good guy, but I really don't know So they run through some tunnels There's actually a lot of running through secret tunnels in this series and they pop out somewhere safe They argue some more mayor distrust people Etc. And one of the new bloods they were looking for was a guy named Wolliver galtz and he's dead before they get there Mayor cries for a bit because this stranger died and she was unable to save him They get ambushed yet again this time by maven and some others and they actually managed to so do them for a bit And maven actually Brands mayor it's it's written in a weird way So I wasn't sure that he was branding her until much later when they clarify, but I don't know. She just he does something bad to her here. Ooh And so mare passes out From the pain and then she just wakes up on the jet like they already escaped while she was passed out How did they escape? Who cares maven is also engaged to evangeline now Like him and his brother just swapped love interests like cal and mare are now a thing Which I find kind of funny and I also feel like it would be super awkward Because I I also have brothers if we like swapped girlfriends or something that'd be weird It would be weird So they gather up a bunch more new bloods and they hide them all at a scarlet guard camp and Soon there are 26 people there who are all training their powers Now what's their goal beyond this? Unclear at the moment. They are just gathering up an army to use for Something at some point. I swear the longer these books get the less happens Like the first book is the shortest of the series by a fair margin And that one has much more stuff happen than the third book and the fourth book And a little bit more than the second book So mare goes out on the jet to gather yet more people and while they're out there They meet a man named john who can see the future Now like all good fantasy series this person who can see the future Only exists because they can tell the main characters that they're important and special And his prophecies also change multiple times because Why would we want Prophecies if they didn't change multiple times the prophecy serves no point is what i'm getting at anyways john tells them that Julian has been taken prisoner and is now being held somewhere called choros prison Which is a very notorious place that the heroes are afraid of and it's meant for holding silvers It's full of maven's political opponents mostly But there's also a bunch of new bloods there that the queen wants to brainwash and use as an army Again, I feel like they should have been doing this for years, but whatever Now john says that they'll find something helpful at little sword lake So they head off there and john manages to escape Now while they're at little sword lake a girl pulls a gun on them But they manage to subdue her now this girl's name is Cameron It that That did not want to stick Cameron is a new blood specifically She is a silence meaning she can shut down other people's powers and she's originally from a tech town But she escaped and then she was caught and sent to choros prison for a little while But then she escaped from choros prison. So the characters realize okay this girl knows stuff She can help us break some other people out of there Now she really doesn't want to help them But they convince her to help by reminding her that the prisoners will die if they don't do anything And they also offer to train her and help her learn to control her powers Now they only have three days to storm the prison and get everybody out Why do they only have three days because john said so like that's that's it John just said they only have three days. So Cameron tells everybody the layout of the prison The only really important part is that the cell blocks are all checkered So they'll have one silver cell block and one new blood cell block one silver one new blood Etc that way none of them trust their neighbors and it prevents them from working together Now they fly into the prison and they are able to land by radioing in And pretending that a new blood named nanny is maven because nanny can make herself look and sound like other people They enter the prison They kill a bunch of guards and then they move on trying to reach the command center And they get found out but they fight a couple of people And then they reach the command center without too much trouble really like it's surprisingly easy to get into this prison Now along the way they see some people in the cells including a little girl who is on the verge of death from starvation And while they're fighting Mayor has a bunch of guards at her mercy And she sees there things back on this little girl who is about to starve And all the guards beg her not to kill them and say they were just following orders Orders I bear my teeth in a snarl Lightning has no mercy Once I watched my brother's burn ants with a bit of glass. This is similar And worse Hey, look at that Mayor had a moment of character development Are you thinking that this might lead somewhere? Will mayor finally decide to embrace her violent desires and allow her humanity to become one more casualty of this war? Or will she see this side of herself and be so horrified she refuses to ever use her powers anymore? Shame because that sounds really neat So they manage to reach julian and they get him out of the prison by shade teleporting him to the jet Now by this point they've released a bunch of the prisoners and there's just a full-scale riot going on And tons of people are trying to get away. The guards are trying to get them under control. There's powers They're shooting just tons of chaos going around all over the place Now mayor manages to get away, but right before the escape tolemus who apparently was there Actually kills her brother shade Another important thing happens in this scene and it's a little confusing So the queen is also there for whatever reason And she's surrounded by a ton of guards And then it cuts to shade being killed And then the next chapter begins and the queen is just dead Like she's just already gone Seemingly mayor killed her but it happened in a 10 second gap that they just don't show in the book for some reason So wall flying off farley and mayor get into a fight because obviously and mayor tells her that shade's answer to her question is yes, and Mayor doesn't know what it means and the audience doesn't know what it means, but we find out eventually Now cal tells mayor that she lacks empathy and only sees other people as tools to be used Which is really rich coming from a general who threw away the lives of thousands of his own soldiers But okay Mayor decides to do a news broadcast with the queen's body. Also at this point, they're just they're cool with the colonel again Like I said, they just make up without the issues So mayor and the colonel do a news broadcast alongside the queen's body And they show footage of the prison because that way they're hoping they will turn some of the silver houses against maven Because again, he had a bunch of his political opponents in prison there and she's hoping that okay They'll start working against him Specifically they're hoping that the silver houses will all fight and tear each other apart while the reds are unified And that will allow them to win rise red is the dawn So they go back to tuck with the colonel and like I said He's fine with them like they bring him the new blood prisoners. So he just lets everything go from before Again, they injected him with mystery chemicals. You'd think he'd be a little upset about that But he's just not and mayor gives her broadcast telling everyone about her being born a silver was fake Like it was a lie made up by the previous king and she tells them about the new bloods and how they're real and that Everyone should join the scarlet guard so that they can rise up and overthrow the government She also makes it clear to the silvers that all their missing friends and family members were at the prison That maven sent them to and that maven killed his own father Now the colonel takes her to see some ambassadors after that There are two twins named rash and to hear who share a telepathic link In fact, they seem to have like one brain just split between two bodies because they're constantly finishing each other's sentences and stuff And anyways, they are from the free republic of montfort, which is a country way to the west out in the rocky mountains Now years ago montfort overthrew their monarchy Which was very similar to nortas and replaced it with an elected government where reds silvers and new bloods are all considered equal Now maire has never heard of this before and thinks it's weird But is excited by the thought of it. She's like, wow, we we would get to choose our own leaders and We would all be equal. That sounds great. Now. It's not too weird that an undereducated Over-propagandized red girl from norta wouldn't know about different forms of government After all the regime probably wouldn't want its citizens Getting any sort of ideas, you know, so they would probably not tell them about democracy and stuff But later even educated characters like evangeline are shocked by the idea of a government that isn't a monarchy And they're shocked by the idea of equality between reds and silvers But again, they just have a nearby country that recently had a revolution about this and They just don't know about it. I'm not sure how that works But anyways, the important part is that montfort is arming and funding the scarlet guard and the kernel Isn't actually in charge the red generals of command are But we barely see them so they may as well not exist in this series Apparently there's actually a whole complex alliance between similar groups to the scarlet guard that montfort is helping out and helping to Arm them. So like again, it's an international movement of a bunch of different organizations We never hear about any of the organizations besides the scarlet guard So they may as well not exist, but apparently they're there now the twins ask maire to escort all the new Bloods to montfort and she doesn't trust them because john said something cryptic that makes her suspicious So they bury shade and then they fly off somewhere But while they're flying a magnetron grabs their jet and pulls it out of the sky. This was This was actually a pretty cool scene. I'm not gonna lie like The jet starts getting like crushed around them and falling out of the sky while they're in it It's is actually a cool scene. So it turns out maven and some of his minions were on the ground Where they crash and there's a fight and maren company realized that they're probably going to lose So she just gives herself up as a prisoner in exchange for all of the others being set free maven agrees and then he Puts her in a collar of silent stone to Prevent her from using her powers and then brings her to the throne room and forces her to kneel And then the book just ends And it's continued in book three tomorrow. I lost my knife. So I will now be pointing with this Handy dandy long sort. Okay, this joke is not working. Nope. No, I'm not pointing with the sword. It's not happening So we now go to book three, which is called kings cage and kings cage is My least favorite book in the series by a pretty big margin And I don't like the others because the others They take about a hundred pages for anything to happen This one takes over 300 pages for anything of note to happen like at the beginning Mayor is held prisoner by maven And that is seriously it for a long time. Also, it is raining outside. So if you hear thunder or anything I don't know if the microphone's picking it up. But if you do, I apologize This is also the first book to have chapters from multiple povs because the first two books were done entirely from mayor's first person perspective And now we're throwing in other characters and Honestly, the more I see this done the more I freaking hate it. Like it never needs to happen Stop doing it. You are solely making filler because you're a shit writer. Stop doing it So anyways, mayor is held in a cell for the first few weeks after she was captured at the end of the last book Then she's let out along with a silent stone collar on her neck to prevent her from doing anything Now maven is busy trying to navigate this difficult political situation and has her around as some sort of weird emotional supports I I don't know. It's never super explained But I don't think this is the sort of thing that needs to be super explained Like he feels as if he's broken her mentally so she won't do anything And he also seems to have some lingering romantic feelings for her And he actually confides in her about his mother's abuse because you see in this book We find out that his mother queen alara actually went into his head and removed his love for his father and his Brother and as well as also just messed him up psychologically a bit more to basically make him more ruthless Like she purposely turned him into a sociopath and that's kind of an interesting idea, but we don't really go that far with it And that is basically all that happens and mary's held prisoner for about six months in universe In other words, mary's being held in a cage which is controlled by the king She's being held in a king's cave I don't know joking aside The only thing here that was kind of good was again his mother reaching in and Turning him into a sociopath like it was pretty hardcore. It did make me sympathize with him a bit Like he is just a kid. Remember he's only like I don't think they specify his age, but he's around 17 or 18 at this stage And he is just used as a tool. He has these confusing feelings towards his abusive parent And he's only here on the throne and he's only king because if he tries to leave at this stage He will be killed and hearing all that you may be thinking Will mary try to find the person underneath that damaged mess? Will she try to heal him magically or otherwise? Will maven attempts to reconcile with his brother and move past his mother's conditioning? No That's a shame. It sounds kind of cool. And mary still loves maven kind of I I think I I don't know again Her feelings towards him never make any sort of sense like at the beginning sure She was kind of into him because he was nicer and stuff But after that the fact that all of her feelings didn't immediately evaporate is very strange to me The most interesting thing from this whole segment is when somebody tries to assassinate maven And it's not the scarlet guard or anyone It's actually some people from other silver houses who want to overthrow him like that That's like the only interesting scene from this whole sequence And there's one other thing that I have to mention about this though And that is that mare reads a history book about the world which is Fine for the most part like it gives a couple details about the history of this world and how it works how it's set up That's fine And it turns out that this war between norda and the lakeland started because lakelands the lakelands started to take norda's land and it's because they lost agricultural land out west to another country which is just called prairie Which is the laziest name ever which actually makes sense wars are usually fought over resources of some kind so Yeah, the lakeland's invading that that makes sense. It actually makes sense how this would start But you might wonder in the past 100 years of wars of war, how many people do you think have died? Guess Just just take a guess you will probably be wrong, but just take a guess Okay, are you ready? It is half a million silvers and 50 million reds and that is just a war between these two Not very well populated countries Like the norda and the lakelands are pretty small. It's after an apocalypse They don't seem that densely populated. They seem like they have less people than those areas do today even Bruh, so we spend a little bit of time going over things from Cameron's point of view remember the girl who just showed up in the last book to help them break into the prison And doesn't really do anything after that. Yeah, we see some things from her pov So she is at a scarlet guard base and mostly just watches other stuff happen That's kind of important like it turns out that kilorn and cal are no longer rivals For whatever reason they're just kind of wary around each other. I'm glad we're seeing this from Cameron's point of view though You know, it's not like we could show it from one of their point of views Or show them getting to know each other and getting to like each other and getting to trust each other You know just just tell us that they're okay with each other now. You know that that's great Also farley is pregnant right now We don't know how it happened or who the dad is until later, but it is just kind of mentioned. Yeah, she's she's pregnant now And anyways while all this is going on the scarlet guard decide that they should take over a norton stronghold called corvium Which is right along the border with the lakelands like it's a very important spot for the war And since it's so important they think yeah, if we take this it'll send a message And cal says that it's suicide and they shouldn't do it, but they decide they're going to do it anyways And off screen cal actually leads the attack He leads a daring assault on the walls in the middle of a blizzard and he takes over the fortress That sounds cool. I kind of wish we could have seen it instead of hearing about its second hand after the fact But you know it sounds cool at least so back with maren maven They actually meet with the king of the lakelands and the scarlet guard is causing trouble in both countries So they want to take care of them and they think the best way to do that is by finally bringing an end to the war Eventually maven agrees to marry the princess of the lakelands to cement an alliance and her name is Princess iris. He was supposed to marry evangeline But I guess he he just didn't want to anymore like it was more politically expedient to marry iris because you know that Ends the war and the end of war means fewer people dying. It means the end of conscription It's actually a very positive thing for the people of both the lakelands and norda even if it's done for selfish reasons And upon hearing that you may be wondering with maven ending the war He's going to make the red population of his country a lot happier with him Will he continue on improving their lives and giving them more rights? Maybe this will alienate him from the other silvers leaving him with a support base of regular people Kind of like an ancient greek tyranny Maybe mare will have to choose between supporting the regime of someone she hates who is making the world a slightly better place Or continuing to fight against him on the slim chance that she'll be able to make the world a much better place Does any of this happen? No shame That sounds kind of neat So maven and iris get married in this big public ceremony And from this wedding mare takes only the most important information He doesn't kiss her the way he kissed me any fire. He might have as far away I wish I were too. Oh Fuck off the fact that this love triangle or Panagon or hexagon whatever the hell it is at this stage is not dead is a crime against the very concept of literature Maven and mare had next to zero chemistry to start with and then he tried to kill her multiple times Got her brother killed imprisoned and tortured her like that. Why? Why is she even a little bit into him? There's nothing here to make the romance feel real and the author couldn't even commit to it Like there's no actual moments between the two of them The story just sort of acts like they're in love but being torn apart by circumstance or being torn apart by maven's particular flaws Not mare's flaws obviously because mare doesn't have an actual personality Let alone flaws that might cause her issues throughout the story I genuinely think there are a lot of people out there who have no idea That you can have a storyline happen without bringing up kissing every 10 fucking minutes Like the very thought of having a story where romance isn't the central feature Confuses and scares them. Okay. I'm sorry. The rant is over. Let's go back to summarizing Now during the wedding the scarlet guard attacks and they bring out a storm So it's raining and lightning is raining down all over the place and then the guard attacks and a giant fight breaks out Now mare manages to get away But evangeline catches her and evangeline drags her off to an isolated area and mare thinks Oh great. She's finally about to kill me which as the one-dimensional villain. She's been up to this point That wouldn't be that strange of her to do But she actually grabs the key to mare's collar and frees her on one condition Her brother tolemus gets left alone like no one tries to kill him and mare agrees to it So she frees her and she runs off now It sounds like evangeline is just 100 done with maven at this point And I kind of assumed it was because he dumped her and was marrying iris instead And she was just tired of getting thrown around But there is actually more to it than that which we find out in a little bit. Thank you I whisper words. I never thought I would say to her. They unsettle us both You want to thank me baro? She mutters kicking away the last of my bindings then keep your word and let this fucking place burn She said the f word So mare runs off through this whole battle in some chaos. She fights some dudes She eventually finds cal. He continues fighting some dudes and then she escapes Yeah, it turns out the scarlet guard staged the attack to rescue her and also send a message that the king is unsafe and weak And while they were there they figured hey if we can kill any vip's then that'd be great Now we also get a few chapters from evangeline's perspective from this point forward And it turns out that she's really surly not because she's being forced to marry a prince that she doesn't love And then a king that she doesn't love and then just being abandoned by both of them which Would be semi reasonable. She's surly because of that, but also she's gay Yeah, she has a sort of girlfriend who she knows that she can never be with because she's just here to be a political pawn And to marry some powerful man like her girlfriend is named elaine and she just kind of Exists evangeline's father really just sees her as an object that he can push around and trade with people for other more valuable objects and Honestly, it's understandable why she might be so moody now evangeline's family is called the samos family And they used to rule an independent kingdom, which is just called The rift and it's in an area between the lakelands and norda And we don't get an exact location really and we don't see a map of it But just a general description of where it is now her father Volos Samos has actually decided he's going to declare independence and the rift is going to split off from norda Now their family name is samos, which is spelled kind of like amos as in amos Burton from the expanse. So That is going to be the representation of volos samos after that big announcement We go back to mare who is now safe with the scarlet guard again And she eyes up cal and is thinking. Oh my gosh. He's so hot and awesome So I guess again. She's just still in love cal. I whisper in his ear lips brushing flesh He smells like smoke and blood heat and sweat My head fits perfectly in the space between his neck and shoulder They are now in the country of piedmont, which is in what is today the american south And there's a giant branch of the scarlet guard hanging out there Now the country is run by an oligarchy of princes one of whom gets elected to be high prince and in charge of the whole country And that governmental system becomes important later mare sees her family again And I don't even remember if I mentioned it because it's just so unimportant But giza's hand has been healed at this stage. So again, there's no tension or fighting of any kind there It's just she she hurt her sister and now she's fine And so mare sees her family again. She gets cleaned up. She gets medical care And you remember how farley is pregnant? Well, it turns out that the dad was shade who is mare's dead brother Yeah, there was Not any real hinting at this before it just kind of popped up like at the end of the second book like I said before She tells farley that hey the answer to your question was yes And she doesn't know what it means, but apparently like that's victoria avillard's idea of hinting at a romance Farley is also a part of the high command of the scarlet guard now So she actually outranks the colonel her father They have a meeting with the premier of montfort like the premier being like basically the president or prime minister He's the guy who's in charge of the entire country and he is a man named dain davidson That name is so amazing I need to say the entire thing every time I mention him So dain davidson like I said is in charge of this entire country He's an elected leader and he just came to this secret base in a foreign country By himself like he didn't send an ambassador. He doesn't seem to have much security. He just he just came here by himself Okay, now his main goal throughout this whole series is he just wants to spread democracy You know, he wants to make reds and silvers equal and he wants to get rid of all the absolute monarchies and other Well, there aren't all absolute monarchies per se But he wants to get rid of all the monarchies and aristocracies throughout the whole world that we see Which actually does make sense like Typically speaking monarchies don't let democracy stand Especially if those democracies overthrew previously held monarchies So all these other countries are probably going to try and get rid of the current montfort government when they get the chance So he's just acting preemptively now mayor gives them all of the information she has She mentions that maven has holes where his mother removed love for his brother He has trouble with his allies that she mentions the assassination plot, etc Now dane davidson Explains that piedmont is actually under their control Sort of because it's led at the moment by a guy named high prince brakin Who works for them because they kidnapped his children and are currently holding them prisoner And so that's why he lets them use this big military facility like as their base They they just kidnapped and are holding on to his children prince brakin has limited control over the country though Because again, it's run by an oligarchy. So he can't do whatever he wants and His help will only go so far now mayor trains for a while and winds up getting back in shape She gets stuck out in the rain with cal and it's romantic, I guess Because we just need to spend more time on this bullshit like You might think that since there's two books left. We're halfway through the series. No We're not halfway through We're like a third less than a third of the way through because the third and fourth books are just stupidly fucking long And at this stage the books start to get weirdly convoluted as well Like I've read more convoluted stories, but it is odd how these ones handle it So farley has a baby and she names her clara and remember clara is Mayor's niece now like that's a new member of her family. So the rest of her family all kind of dotes over her and It doesn't lead anywhere, but you know, she there's there's a baby now And then we go back once again to evangeline's pov now her father Volosamos decides to support restoring cal to the throne in norda And he's only going to do it in exchange for the rift getting independence and to cement the alliance You can probably guess he's gonna have cal mary evangeline like This just keeps happening She just keeps getting engaged to different guys and then broken up with The floor seems to tip beneath me It takes every ounce of will and pride to remain on my cold and vicious throne You are steel. I whisper in my head steel does not break or bend Hey, look It bends That's kind of what makes steel a useful metal Like it it'll flex and then snap back into its original shape Instead of breaking That's kind of key Evangeline you have power over metal You should understand this Anyways, mary and cal have some more will they won't they His grandmother shows up and she's an ally. She's also nobility. So she's important, I guess There's really nothing else going on here. Like I swear This might be the first book series I've ever read where every single book suffers from middle book syndrome Which middle book syndrome if you didn't know is where the author doesn't have enough shit to fill the story with So they just kind of throw in a bunch of random bullshit Now there needs to be a big final climactic battle because what kind of book did you think we were talking about? So maven and the lake landers decide they need to take the fortress of corvium from the scarlet guard Now the scarlet guard teleports a bunch of reinforcements into the city. Why are there no evil teleporters? I don't know, but there are no evil teleporters. So the heroes just have a gigantic advantage here However, even with the reinforcements, they are massively outnumbered and massively outgunned So you might be thinking will this lead to a giant stalingrad-esque siege? Will the defenders be backed into a corner suffering from aerial bombardment and artillery while the city falls to pieces around them? Will they be forced to turn every building into a fortress inflicting as many casualties on the enemy as they can before being forced back Further and further all lanes for escape cut off Will they have to desperately claw victory from the jaws of defeat using not only their wits and power But their iron determination to see a better world That's a shame. It sounds kind of neat. Now the heroes all stand on the walls surrounding corvium, which defensive walls like that are really not how modern warfare works, but Sure, whatever and they stand on the walls watching the advancing army come in and they start shooting at the soldiers In the midst of a giant storm and the giant storm is actually keeping their air fleet grounded So they don't really have aerial support and there are walls of water That are being summoned by the lake landers to protect their soldiers from all the electric blasts that mare and others are sending out And that protects them even though water conducts electricity But the bullets just go through the water This is literally the exact opposite of what should be happening So the enemy army reaches the wall and they open up a breach and so mare goes in to defend the gap alongside Dane davidson who let's remember is the elected leader of a country. He's just fighting on the front lines alongside them Like that's why i'm using this picture of joe biden because imagine if joe biden Just went out and fought on the front lines of a war it would be strange So dane davidson, he he has a new blood i should clarify He can actually make force fields with his powers So he holds back the breach until he can no longer hold it back and then he drops it So all the others attack all of a sudden and they just take out a bunch of enemy soldiers like that But it's not enough. However, evangeline and her dad and some other people drop from the sky Like literally they just fly over and then parachute out and land in the middle of the battle And then they decide to help and then that's the end of that chapter And then the next chapter the battle is already over like it just picks up after the battle is over We don't get to see how it ends the heroes won. So I guess that's good We just don't see exactly how awesome, so Yeah, the king of the lake lands got killed during the fighting Specifically, he was killed by a lord named salin iral Some of these names man, I swear And he was supposed to kill maven actually like he was working as a double agent on behalf of volo samos Evangeline's father, but he didn't get the chance to kill maven So he just figured hey, I'll go kill the king of the lake lands Volos however is very very mad because previously the lake lands didn't really have a reason to attack them But now they do and so he strips saline of all of his titles and gifts them to other nobility So then everybody there with by which I mean the scarlet guard cal the rift and montfort agree to an alliance And basically cal is going to be the king of norda The rift will be granted independence The reds are going to be treated as equals in spite of still leaving the monarchy and aristocracy in charge And evangeline and cal are going to get married like that's the agreement they all come to Now they all acknowledge that this is a very strange alliance But they really don't have a choice like the situation is not great for them And mare is upset because her kind of sort of boyfriend that she's been kind of ish dating for A while on and off is getting married and then That's the end of this book Like it just it ends there like Personally, I feel like if this is supposed to be the penultimate book in the series Maybe you should have had them lose the final battle that way. They're at their lowest point And you can be wondering. Oh, what could possibly happen next? But what do I know? So then we go to war storm which is by far the longest book in the series And it again seems to have the least amount of stuff happening in it It starts with mare being super super sad about cal getting married still And farley tries to cheer her up because that's the important thing right now And most of the heroes decide okay We're going to fly over to montfort to talk to the government Which makes perfect sense I mean governments pay a lot of attention to what teenagers say Now dane davidson Wants them to go over and talk to the government so he can convince them to send more weapons as well as actual soldiers Essentially he wants the country to stop being a secretive backer of the scarlet guard and just be a full-on ally who participates in the war Again keep in mind that the leader of this country has gone in himself and was fighting on the front lines But apparently that's Okay Now around this time mare starts thinking that if she just puts cow back on the throne and leaves everything the same Then everything is going to be the same as it was before like the reds are still going to be trampled underfoot Even if cal decides to be nicer He's still going to be a slave master at the end of the day and when he's gone Maybe whoever takes over next will not be nicer So she decides to start scheming behind his back alongside dane davidson to make sure that Any new government that gets set up in norda will be a democratic one So in other words she is willing to give up their relationship in order to make the world better Which surprised the hell out of me because hey look character development From the main character girl victoria. That's not how you're supposed to do it. She's supposed to maintain her blank slate personality Also mare's family is going to be resettled over in mont fork because they would just They they would rather live over there Now evangeline actually wants to help her prevent cow from becoming king Because if he doesn't become king then she will not have to marry him and she can go You know be with her girlfriend Hopefully maybe possibly now None of this is bad, but it is a little convoluted, but at the same time that is politics for you. So like I guess that's again. It's not bad. It's kind of well written So throughout all of this there's a big war going on and that's kind of like a storm Which means mare is caught in the middle of a war storm The next chapter is from the perspective of iris. Remember the princess of the lake lands who just got married to maven Now her dad was killed at the end of the last book and she's very mad about that and Her mom is now the queen of the lake lands I'm not exactly sure how those laws of succession work Like you'd think it would be one of their kids who became the leader, but okay Whatever her mom is now the queen of the lake lands now They have the a funeral where the king gets dropped into a river maven is there and iris Thinks about how she doesn't like him, but they have to stick together And they decide the best plan to come up with is to get prince bracken's kids back so that he will stop helping the scarlet guard And you'd think they could cover all that in like Eight pages, but it takes probably closer to 30 So mare and evangeline and all the rest of the heroes go to montfort and they land up way in the mountains And they're overlooking the capital city, which is called ascendant Now dane davidson Points out that he knows evangeline is gay and he mentions briefly that he is also gay and he has a husband And evangeline starts thinking hey Maybe I could move here with my girlfriend elaine She also sees all the reds over here are happy and she's like what? No way these people are like ants There's no way they could be genuinely happy And then so they all sit down for a dinner party and alarm bells start going off It turns out that there are raiders that are attacking the capital like Dane davidson explains all this to them again over the course of several pages Basically raiders are the remnants of the old silver houses who got overthrown a couple years ago And they all fled to the border regions and sometimes they head in and attack And all the heroes there decide they're going out to fight the raiders Why the montfort military doesn't just handle this i'm not sure but the heroes all go out to fight the raiders Now while they're traveling down the mountains their transports get attacked and disabled and they wind up stranded on an exposed cliff And then the raiders just ambush them and they're all riding motorcycles Again the fact that this is a fantasy novel like a fantasy novel with More modern technology is perfectly fine But for some reason the motorcycles in this always just make me laugh So there's a big fight that breaks out and in the middle of it a herd of bison appears Like just yeah, there's bison nearby They're frightened by the fighting and they charge through and they hurt some people and during all of the chaos We're seeing this from mare's pov a silence comes by and shuts down her powers And then she just decides. Oh, no, I can't do anything So she literally just drops to her knees and holds still And then this guy comes up behind her and is about to slit her throat But then farley shoots him with mare. It's like one step forward and 18 steps back I swear to god. So she uses her powers to shut down the motorcycles electric components and then they all stop working Because she can do that now. I I guess And meanwhile while this battle is going on iris actually attacks the fortress in monfort where prince bracken's kids are being held Like she sneaks in and she gets them out like the raiders were sent in as a distraction At least I think they were it's not made super clear now to cover her tracks iris puts some other kids in place of prince bracken's so that they won't be discovered for a while And anyways mare and company talk to the montfort government and they convince them to send an army to help It doesn't take much convincing, but they convince them You know these storylines would be a lot better if they weren't constantly switching back and forth and distracting from one another and destroying each other's pacing like I've noticed that a lot of books that follow multiple storylines have this exact problem but Still now as they leave montfort they find out that prince bracken's kids have been saved and now piedmont is against them it's no longer safe for them there and iris and maven and one of mare's friends Form a telepathic bond with someone who is in piedmont and they have a long distance conversation I don't know why they couldn't just use a radio or something But whatever they have a long distance conversation Now they agree to give back the scarlet guard base without a fight like just turn it back over to piedmont If piedmont allows everyone there to leave alive. I am simplifying things here a bit Yes, I know but trust me neither of us wants me to sum up 30 pages of this shit in excruciating detail Neither of us so they all agree and all the scarlet guard soldiers just escape into the swamps and Because they were an underground insurgency until very recently They already have the infrastructure in place needed to get those soldiers out of there and to where they need to go so All right, I guess it worked out okay for them Now mare and the others agree to get rid of the tech towns in norda and everyone else is wondering Oh my gosh, how the fuck are we going to have electricity or manufacturing without those and i'm just thinking By just having like factories and power plants the way we do in the real world You know, you just set them up and Then you tell people if you come in here and work will pay you and then They do it like that. This is a bizarre plot point and it goes on for the rest of this book Like the idea that without the tech towns, there will be no tech. It's it's very strange Now they're short of their quota. So it's about time for another big battle So they decided to go back to the city of harbour bay in norda and capture the city their plan basically is for mare to go to a nearby tech town And shut off all the electricity while evangeling and their fleet just charge in and attack the harbour So mare kilorn Cameron and a couple of other people you don't care about hit the tech town They attack it. They destroy the power station with lightning and then some soldiers come and they fight them off Meanwhile, evangeline and a fleet of ships charge right into the bay They just just go right in there a bunch of them are killed by nymphs And then they capture the fort in the middle of the harbour, which is called fort patriot Or patriot base. I didn't actually write it down and I don't give a shit It's one of those it's patriot something after capturing the base They realize like there's still a lot of nymphs around that could hit us with all this water So they try fleeing across the bridge which leads from the fort to land And then a bunch of people get washed off into the water And then cal who is in the middle of the battle decides he's going to teleport to one of the lake lander ships Where iris is hanging out and he's going to fight her And evangeline teleports to a different battleship And then takes control of their gun using her metal powers and like forces it to turn and fires it at iris's ship And hearing that you might think that she's trying to kill cal But no, she's not they're on the same side It's just that they're really bad at coming up with plans and keep taking unnecessary risks Now mare by this point has left the tech town and is coming over to the battle to try and help out And she decides she's going to go out to the ship where cal is fighting to try and help him herself And she's about to sail out on her own But she doesn't get the chance to because cal loses the fight and gets thrown into the water while wearing his armor So he sinks and who would have ever thought that a guy with fire powers would be at a disadvantage when fighting somebody with water powers Who is surrounded by water now someone were never told who or how but someone manages to fish him out of the water And he is okay at this point the battle is over I thought it was still ongoing because again iris is still around and there are still enemy battleships there And they mentioned before there is an entire other fleet coming in to reinforce the bad guys, but Okay, sure Whatever no one cares I care, but no one else does the local lord of the city officially surrenders And he acknowledges cal as being the true king of norda Now mare and cal see each other alone and he tells her i thought of you before the end I saw your face in the water so clearly he is In love with her i guess and they have the obligatory conversation where they're like we can't do this But they but we really really want to and then after a moment of that They just have sex the next chapter is from maven's pov, which we have not had this entire series But sure why not this book is only 630 fucking pages. We could always throw more in there It turns out that the rift controls most of what used to be norda's air fleet Plus they also have montfort's support and they have their own air fleet And now they control a major port And the norton navy is badly damaged and the lake lander navy has taken some losses too The only good news after this battle is that iris actually flooded the base in the middle of harbour bay So it is now basically useless to the rebels or the rightful king however you want to look at that Now maven is in a very very precarious position here without lake lands and the piedmont propping him up He already would have lost so cal actually sends him a message saying he wants to meet with him And maven agrees so they all sail off to a nearby very small island cal gives his brother a very very simple ultimatum He abdicates from the throne and then he gets to live like that. That's it. That's the deal they make And maven refuses so mare looks around at his royal allies and tells them Hey, his reign is going to collapse soon and you would be you would be better off cutting ties with him because he's crazy And he's not very good at this and he's in a very shaky position And they refuse because the idea of reds being equal to silvers is like a threat to their legitimacy And they just they can't do that Also, they're hoping that nord will collapse so that they can take over parts of it Remember the lake lands has been fighting against nord to try and take over parts of it for a hundred years now Again, this is all convoluted But that is how politics works. So I can't say it's bad per se And as they're leaving a fight looks like it's about to break out But no actually it was a secret plan from julian and cal's grandmother Basically, they agreed to trade maven for salin iral. Remember the guy who killed the lake lander king at the end of the last book And cal didn't know about it, but he goes along with it So like they all just capture maven and they capture salin iral and then they trade them for each other iris and her mother immediately drowned salin iral and it's described as being really horrific But it doesn't actually feel that horrific compared to a lot of stuff We see in this series to be honest and evangeline we're seeing this all from his from her pov So she thinks that maybe they traded her father too But nothing happens with that yet I don't know why they don't take the opportunity to turn him over because it's later confirmed that He was also part of the deal, but they don't take the opportunity to turn him over Maybe they were just afraid that evangeline and his other kids would protect him I I don't know and just like that the war is over except there's 200 pages of this book left So not really like at this point. I guess the lake lands and piedmont are just Going to conquer the rest of the country now like I don't know At this point. It's not even convoluted. It's just like, oh, they're still fighting. Okay. I guess I guess that's what's happening So maven is taken to the throne room where cow officially says hey, I'm king now And his brother sentences him to death and maven tries to act flippant, but he really he fools nobody They all know he's scared and he has nothing left so that There's nothing to do here We don't need to be afraid of him and his only requests are that he wants to be buried with his mother Uh, okay, I guess there's nothing inherently wrong with that And he also wants to be killed by maire Now maire refuses to be the one to kill him and so maven is just taken away to a cell somewhere Now dain davidson shows up and gives his big speech to cow where he mentions that montfort's democratic system is better And he needs to give up his throne and completely change their system of government And if he refuses to do that then montfort and the scarlet guard Will withdraw their support and he'll be on his own to fight pigmont and the lakelands And while this is happening maire herself even steps in and says hey, you step down or we step back It's very simple choice make it man. And you might wonder Will cow be unable to reconcile differences between his allies? Is he going to be unwilling to give up his father's throne and leave maire hanging in the wind? Will their flaws and the harsh reality of geopolitics force this group of friends to part ways? Yes, actually all all of that happens. I was I was taken aback to be honest Like normally the heroes in this sort of book would just convince everyone to work together through the power of friendship But the power of geopolitics and extreme violence is much stronger So cal doesn't seem completely against the idea of stepping down from being king But he says it can't be done right now Because if he does then the rift and the other silver houses won't fight alongside them if they do And maybe they should just wait until later since the lakelanders and pigmont if they take over will be even worse for the reds but Dane davidson and maire and the rest of them don't buy into this and they say Okay, we're leaving so all the red forces leave and they apologize They specifically say hey man, you're you're our friend and we wish you luck But we're not fighting for a different slave master. It's not happening However, cal does agree to shut down the slums. He the tech towns He does agree to end conscription and he does promise to give better wages to reds But that's all he can promise at this time Now maire stops by maven's holding area to talk to him for some reason And he gloats about how his brother is going to lose the throne soon too So they both lost it one right after another now maire actually tells maven that cal Tried looking for someone to fix the mental damage that his mother did to him And he couldn't find anybody but he tried looking for a very very long time Making it clear that he still loved him up until very very recently when he realized Okay, there is no hope for my brother and maven is very shaken by this and then maire leaves Evangeline is also still there and she's still salty about being forcibly married Now dain davidson left evangeline a note telling her that if she comes to montfort and renounces all her titles Then she can live as she wants Along with her girlfriend. They can get married or whatever if they feel like it And her girlfriend says they should do it and evangeline is like no way My dad would kill me. He dragged me back no matter where I went I also want to take a moment to mention that her girlfriend elaine is actually marrying one of her brothers which Adds another layer to all of this like it's not really gross or creepy or anything But it is kind of funny and I needed to mention it Anyways, maven was supposed to be publicly executed But at this point evangeline learns that oh no, he was taken by montfort for Some reason which is never made clear. They just they took him away and They're annoyed by this and then maire and the others take him back to ascendant while they're over there maire is feeling kind of conflicted about leaving cow because Again, she loves him. He was their ally, but She knows in the end it was the right thing to do But she also feels like okay, maybe things are going to end up worse So she just goes wandering in the mountains and she runs into john Remember him the guy that can see the future it turns out that Because he could see the future he knew how things would work out and he is actually the one that killed killorn's master Way back at the beginning of the first book and nearly got him conscripted So he's the one that kicked off the events of the entire series I'll bet a lot of you forgot about killorn to be honest because He was maire's best friend who she was trying to save And he's just done nothing like he exists, but he's Not important anymore like whenever I describe a lot of these important events You can just assume he was in the background somewhere, but he doesn't really do anything Now john tells maire that if the lakelands managed to take over the norton capital Then the world will get a lot worse. He says the path gets long and bloody, which is pretty vague But I mean who wants a prophecy that actually tells you anything important, right? He also mentions that the attack on the city is going to be in a couple of weeks And then he walks off and leaves the series Maire goes back and tells the others about this and they decide that their best plan to again They want to overthrow the norton government and replace it with a democratic one Their best plan to do that is to take the city away from cal And then hold it from the lakelanders and then they can free the reds, which I I don't know if that's the best plan, but that is the plan they come up with Now in order to infiltrate the city and take it over They need maven's knowledge of the tunnels and secret passages in the city And you know where this is going they ask him and eventually he agrees to help them And then kind of out of nowhere we get a cal pov chapter It follows his coronation and how he hopes maven doesn't suffer because in spite of everything He still loves him, you know, he is still his brother And it also talks about how the situation is totally hopeless, which is all stuff we already knew Like again, I feel like that bit about Cal still caring about his brother in spite of everything he's done to him Would hit a bit harder if we didn't see things from cal's perspective and have him specifically say that he still loves his brother Now the tech towns have been shut down and without them norta is starting to fall apart because I I don't know I seriously do not understand this plot point in the slightest The farms are also being abandoned because reds being paid better Equals reds abandoning the jobs that they need to make a living Like again, you raise people's wages and they quit their jobs I don't understand how victoria avayard sees the world Then cal takes a bit of time to read from his dead mother's diary And she wrote a passage about how he'll bring peace to the world and make it better and stuff Like there there really is nothing important that happens here But it's implied that cal is changing his mind about wanting to be king at this stage and honestly I find it strange how cal does a bunch of cool stuff in this series But a lot of it happens off screen like again when he led the battle to capture corvium And when he fought iris on the battleship and stuff And we don't get his pov for that it happens off screen, but we get his pov for this I find that odd now maven is also being brought to montfort and we get something from his perspective and he is still evil These books really needed a better editor, man I swear now evangelin and cal are together while they try to come up with a desperate plan to save the city Basically, they want to make every street into a fortress and wear the enemy down as much as they can They also think that they might be able to get a bunch of the enemy reds to surrender by promising them better treatment in norda It's not a terrible plan. Honestly. It's not a great one, but it is the best one. They have given the circumstances However, evangelin's father decides once the battle is going on that he doesn't want to fight anymore And he's gonna leave the city. He's just abandoning his ally and finally Evangelin snaps and just is like fuck you dad and then she runs off Now her parents actually sick a pack of wolves on her to prevent her from escaping But her brothers Decide to save her including tolamis I'm not gonna lie. He's not that important I only put his picture up here because his name reminded me of tolami Now julian and cal's grandmother appear in the middle of battle and they Along with evangelin's brother take her father captive and evangelin grabs her girlfriend and runs off to montfort While the battle rages around her like she just says okay I'm done with this shit and then she runs off now while she's leaving though She does see cal and she tells him if it's not too late for me It's not too late for you and they do wind up parting on good terms Now mer is entering the city now secretly, you know through the secret tunnels, which are everywhere in the series alongside maven mer has purple hair now For some reason like they just mentioned like right before the final battle. She gets it died purple She just I don't know it's a thing and they go through the tunnels and then they appear up in the norta treasury and maven manages to escape obviously And mer and the others meet cal and they tell him hey We're offering again if you give up your throne we will help you and this time he agrees which again, it seems to be implied that it was partially because his Mother's diary inspired him to make the world a better place, but also let's forget His primary silver ally has already abandoned him at this stage So he has nothing to gain by staying as king like it He just says okay, I'll Get rid of my ally who's already gone in order to gain my other allies Now everything is solved and they just need to battle the bad guys the lake landers have ships which they bring up onto the river and they decide to Sink some of the lake lander battleships in order to block the others in But oh no cal is on a bridge and it collapses. He's he's fine though. Nothing bad happens. It's just He's on a bridge and it collapses and then right after that We see julian and cal's grandmother again And he sings to volos samos evangelin's dad and makes him leap off a bridge to his death So this is them completing their deal that they made with iris and the lake lander queen Again, I don't know why they didn't do this earlier, but they didn't and also the lake landers don't retreat or surrender after that So It doesn't seem to matter instead the battle goes on for a little while longer But the lake landers decide to retreat because submarines are in the river and they start sinking their battleships and they realize Okay We don't really have a chance of winning and even if we did it would be at too high of a cost So they just fuck off and go home. So the battle is won But mayor needs to kill maven now because that's how this works She chases him down into a dungeon made of silent stone so neither of them can use their powers However, maven has managed to grab a knife And again, mayor doesn't have any weapons or any special training. She's not particularly gifted as a fighter without her powers I'm not sure what she was planning on doing here. This is really just a dumb decision On her part, but to be fair maven is not a great fighter either so they Fight for a bit and then She kills him And just that that's it. That's the end of maven calor And then when mayor meets back up with the others she hears that there has been a ceasefire between all the countries The war isn't officially over, but there is a ceasefire for now Norda's military is officially gone Like cal has abdicated and all the silvers are being stripped of their titles and everything The country is being rebuilt and it's being restructured However, mayor decides she's going to go back to montfort because there's really nothing for her here anymore and her family moved over there Now before leaving her and cal do have a little heartfelt goodbye. They clearly still love each other But they have obligations which keep them apart. So they agree that Maybe later they can get back together and try and make things work And so they end on a note of mayor saying that the world is getting better and that's it That is the end of war storm, which is the final book of the red queen series honestly This ending could have been worse like at the very least it acknowledges that monarchy is a shitty system And it acknowledges how difficult it is to reform a government But it also doesn't spend a whole bunch of time going over exactly how they would reform a government You know, it's basically just hey monarchy is kind of shitty We shouldn't just replace an evil king with a good one because that's not really fixing the problem You know, that's something I Would like to see more of in fantasy However, instead of spending too much time on going over the nitty gritty of reforming government It spends too much time repeating information from other characters perspectives and throwing in the occasional pointless action scene like I would mind all of the Weird divergences in this series a lot less if the characters were better But by the end the only one I had any sort of attachment to was Evangeline You know, she wasn't an amazing character or anything But she did have a lot more depth than I first gave her credit for and she did grow on me a little bit I also did kind of like how they handled the gay stuff in the series like again Evangeline Is gay, but it doesn't completely define her like it's an important part of her story and of her identity But it's not the only thing there and again Dane Davidson was also gay But that was just one aspect to him. You know, like there There's more to the guy the length of these books is just extremely obnoxious, but I could have worked with them being this long If the series had spent some of the some time Exploring the neat ideas that it brings up because as we've gone over there were a lot of really neat things That could have happened in this series, but just don't happen Like the mind controllers running the entire world with all the other silvers being their puppets Mayor being unable to deal with the cost of war the scarlet guard just being straight up terrorists Maven being a king who genuinely makes things better for the reds of norda and so on like These ideas are all brought up, but none of them are explored even though the opportunity is there And at the end of the day That is the real problem with red queen And the real tragedy of red queen really like it has a hundred opportunities to do something Interesting or cool or unique and it just refuses to engage with any of those opportunities Like rather than trying to tell a story. This series is 24 hundred pages of pandering That's all it is. It's pandering. Its target audience is people who don't want the same thing over and over They demand the same thing over and over to the point where anything that even resembles an unfamiliar idea is met with open Hostility, this is basically just the female equivalent of shitty isekai light novels Now there are many different groups of entitled nitwits just like this and they are spread all across culture Like we have anime fans. We have young adult novel fans. We have star wars fans We have regular fantasy fans Like these are people who become violently angry when their escapism doesn't meet every single one of their bizarre criteria And they have created an environment that makes it nearly impossible to take any sort of creative risks Red queen and other stuff like red queen is not just wish fulfillment It is wish fulfillment written at gunpoint and it dominates our culture and our economy Like red queen is not the worst book series ever like it's not even close to the worst book series ever But if it was the worst thing ever That would be something You know that that would be something notable This isn't notable in any way other than the fact that it is very popular anyways. I hope you enjoyed this summary I hope now you understand red queen and you can talk about it with other people Also, I might do a rewrite video of this next week because like I said, there is a lot of potential here And it's all squandered. So I just feel like maybe I could do something with that. I don't know. We'll see Also, uh, stay tuned for fourth wing because a lot of you have been nagging me to try and do that and I'm like Less than 50 pages in now, but it's already trash. So we'll we'll see how I handle that. I don't know Goodbye Wait, don't click away. I know you think the video is over and that these are just the end credits But we have a sniper nearby. He's aiming directly at your head. 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