Pictured above: The first thing
that came up when I Googled “sick queen.”
Imagine that Lianne is that dragon-goat thing in the bed. Alanna can be the narwhal.
Alanna grabs onto the emberstone,
and sure enough, the Queen is glowing orange.
And—this is big, so make sure you’re sitting down and not drinking
anything—she decides to actually do something about it.
She waits until the feast is in
full swing (TPierce’s verbatim narration there) and then sneaks out to Roger’s
chambers, using a cunning combination of magic and lockpicks to break in. Sure enough, in his workroom she finds a wax
replica of the Queen chillin’ in a fountain, the water gradually wearing her
away. The Duke apparently taught the
pages ages ago that you can use dolls like that in works of sympathetic magic,
include magically-induced illnesses (hence why the Queen never got better from the
Sweating Sickness—she was in the fountain the whole time). Alanna also finds a bag of replicas of
herself, Jonathan, the King, Duke Gareth, Myles, and the Lord Provost, all
wrapped in a veil. The veil is
apparently a magical thing that kept everyone inside it from seeing what Roger
really is, which… okay, I guess that partially explains Alanna’s annoying “I
have no proof” thing when the proof is literally about to gore her to death in
the woods. In an unheard-of act of actual
sense-making, Alanna remembers to take the dolls with her before she gallops
back to the Great Hall to yell treason.
Girl is making logical decisions, what even am I reading.
The first thing she does when she
gets in front of the King is tell him that she broke into a man’s
chambers. The second thing she does is
show him the dolls. Roger, naturally, is
very rageful and blustery and accuses Alanna of making the dolls herself, to
which she replies, “Pssh, naw.” He then
challenges her to single combat, and all the readers rejoice because they are
totally fucking sick of this conflict at this point.
Before she goes down to do her
Inigo Montoya routine, Alanna has a tete-a-tete with Jonathan, Myles, Coram,
and Thom. (George shows up after a few
minutes, too, because of course he does, the creep.) Myles for some reason asks why she suspected
Roger. Seriously, dude? She was discussing how much she hated him
with you like two chapters ago. Jonathan
is equally nonplussed. Come ON, guys,
she talked to both of you! A lot! Alanna decides that this is the perfect
moment to tell Myles that she’s not a dude, because she may be dead in less
than an hour. Myles is like “shyeah,
duh, please don’t get stabbed in the throat.”
Myles for President forever. Everyone
leaves but Alanna and Jon, and they have a romantic moment that—shockingly—does
not make me want to punch anyone in the face.
Alanna looked at Jon and went into his arms, hugging him tightly.
“I’m sorry, she whispered, fighting back tears. “I know you love him; but I couldn’t let it go on. He was killing your mother.”
Jonathan held her close. “I love you more.” His voice was breaking. “Don’t let him kill you.”
Alanna shook her head. “I don’t plan to. Believe me, I don’t.”
No one is being an asshole here,
it’s great. Although I feel the need to
point out once again that that semi-colon
does not go there.
They go down to the Great Throne
Room, where Roger is basically baying for blood and everyone else looks kind of
awkward and uncomfortable. (Except the
Queen, who is as previously established a bedridden dragon-goat.) As Alanna gets ready for combat, she realizes
that even if she loses, she’s won, because people are throwing Roger some
serious shade, and even if he kills her—thus proving himself innocent,
according to the bizarre Tortallan legal system—they will never see the Duke in
the same way again
Right, so there’s swordfighting,
which is generally as dull to read about as it is exciting to see in a
movie. There’s a lot of parrying and
lunging and stepping back and the basic gist of everything is Roger thinks
Alanna is going to be really rash and overconfident and starts getting pissy
when she isn’t. Then he uses an illusion
to make her think he suddenly has two swords, which is a foul (as evidenced by
Thom screaming “foul!” like he’s at a goddamn soccer match). Alanna remembers she has a magic-seeing
necklace—that’s twice in one chapter she’s remembered that! Fancy!—and she
figures out which sword is real after a second, but not before Roger has
overpowered her and started forcing her to the floor. She rolls away and keeps a hand on the emberstone,
the better to make sure she knows which hand he’s actually using, and goes in
for the kill while he’s switching hands.
Alanna gets first blood, but the Duke strikes back, and ends up slicing
through Alanna’s tunic, shirt, and the special corset she uses to bind her
chest.
Pictured above: the Tortallan
Court.
The King halts the stick-waving
because WHAT THE HELL BOOBS. Thom starts
to explain while Alanna fixes her shirt so the duel doesn’t become Girls Gone
Wild: Corus Beach. When she’s done the
King asks her what she has to say for herself.
Alanna replies that she never wanted to lie to him, but she wanted to
win her shield even more, and she does not regret what she did. It’s a really great moment which is, of
course, ruined by Roger freaking the fuck out.
He calls her a demon and starts
trying to stab her. She parries, cutting
off a lock of his hair in the process.
He retaliates by immersing himself in a giant orange cloud.
Pictured above: Death. I’m not saying it’s not effective, I’m just
saying it lacks poetry.
Alanna, never one to let a
gigantic orange doom-cloud stop her, uses Lightning to slice open the cloud and
stab him twice. And that’s how Roger of
Conte dies. The end.
… aaand just when you think the
book is over we have an EPILOGUE! Alanna
and Coram are getting ready to ride into the southern desert to do some
heroing. Everyone is clustered around to
say goodbye like they’re at the goddamn airport. Gary tells her that she doesn’t need to leave
just because she killed a measly ol’ Duke, and Alanna says that she needs to
find herself and that she’ll come back once she’s done so. Raoul says that she sould stay because he
feels like he doesn’t know “Sir Alanna” at all, to which she replies that “Sir
Alanna” is just Alan with the truth being told, which is sort of lovely and perfect. George tells her to remember the theives’s
signs he taught her, presumably with a subtext of “if you don’t I’ll totally
drug you.” They all then leave Alanna
alone to say goodbye to Jonathan, because apparently they are the worst kept
secret in the whole gd realm. They kiss,
she promises (again) to come back, and then Jonathan watches them ride away. Alanna thinks about the road to knighthood,
the duel with Roger, and the possibility of future happiness for herself. It is a very solemn, weighty moment. And then she ruins it by being a dork.
She let out a whoop of sheer exuberance and kicked Moonlight into a gallop. “C’mon, Coram!” she cried, galloping past him. “Let’s go find an adventure!”
Pictured above: Adventurers.
So how does the whole knighthood
thing go for Alanna? Will George do the
creep at her even while she’s in the desert?
How awkward is it going to be to reread this next one as an adult with
some basic understanding of race relations, honestly? Find out next time when we start THE WOMAN
WHO RIDES LIKE A MAN!
(lol, rides)
Wow...Just...wow.
ReplyDeleteAlright first, do you just hate George or something? How is he a creep? And the theives sign is to keep her safe. If she is out numbered by a group of thieves and she shows them the sign then they will leave her alone - at least that's the point.
You are insanely critical...
Hello!
DeleteI do hate George, in fact, although I didn't when I first read the books. As a kid I thought he was a really sweet, romantic guy; however, as an adult a lot of his behaviour reads as very obsessive and controlling (all the surprise kisses, pursuing Alanna when she tells him not to and thereby actively making her uncomfortable, drugging her, etc). I did forget that about the Thieves' Sign, though, so thank you for reminding me!
I lurk on here, but just wanted to let give you my ~support~ in writing this blog. It's obvious you're writing from a humorous POV and I really enjoy looking back on the books and seeing them from a different, more adult, perspective. Like, gurl, lighten up and laugh at the books/characters a little.
DeletePeople need to stop taking criticism so damn personally. If you love George, it doesn't make you a bad person, but there are parts of his character that are problematic or just poorly written, full stop. Personally, I love reading criticism of my favorite characters and my favorite character is Jon, so this is bordering on, like, masochism.
Anyways, keep up the good work! I'm not excited for WWRLAM though....