[00:00:21] James: Hey everyone, and welcome to Books, Cats, and Chaos. I’m James.
[00:00:29] Ka-Ce: And I’m Ka-Ce, and we are a husband and wife team, and we are here with Freyja visiting today. If you are viewing us on YouTube, you can see our lovely Freyja.
[00:00:42] James: Kind of, since she’s sleeping away from the camera.
[00:00:47] Ka-Ce: Well, maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll turn around.
[00:00:50] James: Oh, maybe we’ll get lucky and Trouble will decide to come out from underneath my desk. We’ll, see. [00:01:00] Okay, so this is episode two of our podcast. And we will be discussing chapters seven through thirteen of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. And this is the first book in the Throne of Glass series. This is my first time reading this series so we’re not going to be discussing any spoilers from the rest of the series.
[00:01:28] So nothing from Crescent City, nothing from ACOTAR I only know what I know from TikToks and memes and Instagram and all that stuff, but none of it means anything to me. So yeah, it is what it is, which means we won’t be spoiling anything for you. Because I don’t know, but you know, not you, the viewer, you as in the wife.
[00:01:58] Ka-Ce: Yep.[00:02:00]
[00:02:01] James: So yeah only Throne of Glass and we’ll be moving on through the next couple of chapters.
[00:02:09] Ka-Ce: As a content reminder, this podcast is for mature audiences only. We are adults who will be using adult language to discuss. adult themes, adult content, and more. So please, if you have little ones about, save this for later, come back to us. Just wanted to throw that out there.
[00:02:34] James: Unless your little ones are keen to that no, I’m kidding.
[00:02:39] Ka-Ce: Oh my gosh.
[00:02:40] James: I’m not a parent. You know what? Make your own decisions. I can’t tell you what to do. I’m not your mom.
[00:02:47] Ka-Ce: This is our child. Children.
[00:02:49] James: That’s true. That’s one of our children. And they don’t care how we speak as long as it comes with food.
[00:02:55] Ka-Ce: Love.
[00:02:56] James: and love and, oh, and there she goes, wow, you got an earthquake. It’s [00:03:00] earthquake Freyja going on over there.
[00:03:02] Ka-Ce: Yep. And there she
[00:03:03] James: there She goes.
[00:03:04] Ka-Ce: us.
[00:03:06] James: All right. So if you haven’t already, but you like what you hear so far.
[00:03:15] Please don’t forget to rate, subscribe, or comment on the podcast send us comments on social media. We are doing our best to get out onto as many different avenues as possible with this. So yeah, if you see us anywhere Instagram, Facebook, YouTube,
[00:03:39] uh, TikTok, eventually our website. Once I get off my, butt and actually get it done.
[00:03:50] Ka-Ce: We’re working on
[00:03:51] James: Yeah, so, if you like it, subscribe and comment. And if you don’t like it, then go somewhere else. [00:04:00] We don’t want that kind of negativity in our life, so. Okay,
[00:04:08] Ka-Ce: gosh.
[00:04:09] James: enough of that nonsense. Let’s let’s go ahead and get crackin here. Cause that’s what y’all came for, right? I’m assuming. You didn’t come for this nonsense. You came for this other nonsense, that’s what I’m talking about. Alright, chapter 7 through 13. So Celaena, Dorian, and Chaol arrive in Rifthold.
[00:04:34] They parade through the streets, which Celaena does not like on their way up to the castle. They get to the castle, which immediately you can see is adorned with glass. Just everything. And Dorian, they get there and Dorian says, alright, later. He goes to see his [00:05:00] father and Chaol says I’m going to take you to your room. So they go to her room. It’s a huge upgrade from the salt mines. Obviously, I mean, a box would be an upgrade from the salt mines. But actually the room is very, nice, much nicer than she was anticipating. I think in any, way. Any reasonable, you anything.
[00:05:35] Chaol puts guards outside her door, under her balcony. Cause he still doesn’t trust her. Under the guise of being bored and wanting to see more Celaena has Chaol give her a tour, using every moment to plot dozens of escape routes from her room. She also uses the time to try and stay out of the glass castle portion.
[00:05:55] During the exploration of the gardens, she comes across the inky black [00:06:00] stone clock tower that was built by the king. It’s adorned with gargoyles that creep her out and she gets to have her own little beauty and the beast moment when Chaol takes the library. This is where we really get a first glimpse into her love of books.
[00:06:21] Which everyone seems to really give her a hard time about at first. She wants to go in and is immediately denied by Chaol. The King decided to move the meetings of the champions up and Chaol and Celaena have to rush to get there. The king outlines the rules of the competition all while staring Celaena down.
[00:06:41] Training begins immediately the next day and we are introduced to the 23 other champions. The king leaves Rifthold, not taking any soldiers against Chaol’s recommendation, and then Celaena meets Princess Nehemia and Lady Kaltain. [00:07:00] So, a lot has happened in this next set of chapters. Good story building.
[00:07:10] Good world building. Not so much character building, not yet anyway. I feel like the character building comes through each chapter, through yeah, they’re, yeah.
[00:07:30] little like glimpses and snippets of, their personalities, but we’re not, it’ll come later. It all ties in.
[00:07:43] Yeah, yeah, it really does. So chapter seven we’ve got them arriving in Rifthold and there’s a lot of fanfare, there’s a lot of parading. They are apparently taking the long route to the castle, [00:08:00] which Celaena is very much against. She doesn’t like feeling, well, first of all, she doesn’t like being put in front of groups of people.
[00:08:10] I mean, she’s an assassin. She doesn’t want to be in front of a bunch of people.
[00:08:15] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:08:16] James: at this point too, she’s still feeling very much like a prisoner. And
[00:08:23] Ka-Ce: cause she’s like riding with Chaol at this point. Instead of riding her own horse, she’s riding a mount with Chaol.
[00:08:30] James: yeah,
[00:08:31] Ka-Ce: reason.
[00:08:32] James: right. It really, one of the things that really like I noticed when I was reading through this was it’s very typical of the way that you imagine the King’s men and the King’s guards coming home through the streets and all the citizens are there and you got the prince and the ladies are like Oh
[00:08:56] Ka-Ce: Oh, my gosh.
[00:08:58] James: And, Dorian is [00:09:00] just yeah, Hey, what’s up?
[00:09:03] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:09:04] James: then they immediately, they’re like, ah, and then they see Celaena and they’re just like,
[00:09:09] Ka-Ce: Right,
[00:09:09] James: know?
[00:09:10] Ka-Ce: she just plays it up, and she’s like blowing kisses and
[00:09:13] waving.
[00:09:14] James: then, she’s fine.
[00:09:17] Ka-Ce: Mmhmm. and Chaol is like, what are you
[00:09:21] James: Right. Yeah.
[00:09:23] Ka-Ce: like, why?
[00:09:24] James: I know it says he pinches her arm, but in my head, if it if I was Chaol at that point, I would have just been like smack on the back of the head. Stop it.
[00:09:35] Ka-Ce: And this is why you are not Captain of the
[00:09:37] Guard.
[00:09:38] James: I mean stop being a little shit because but it’s, funny on the surface. Right. But I think part of it is her, you’re, they’re showing us again, her need to always stay in control. She doesn’t like the way that the other women are looking at her because she [00:10:00] knows that they’re looking at her going, Oh, who this bitch, we got to kill her.
[00:10:03] Cause you know, she’s one more person in front of the this imaginable imaginary line of women between me and the prince, right? None of these women stand a chance
[00:10:14] Ka-Ce: Right.
[00:10:15] James: woman
[00:10:17] Ka-Ce: Wants that
[00:10:17] James: that chance. And she’s just another obstacle, even though she’s not, but she is and, Celaena, I’m sure doesn’t like the fact that she knows that they’re looking at her like that.
[00:10:30] She’s it’s not like that
[00:10:32] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:10:33] James: but instead of trying to do anything, she’s fine, I’m just going to be a shit about it.
[00:10:38] Ka-Ce: Yep.
[00:10:40] James: Fine. Think what you want
[00:10:43] Ka-Ce: I’m gonna play this up. If I’m here, I might as well play it up and have fun with
[00:10:48] James: right. I know the whole like thing just stuck out to me. Cause you really get to see just her personality come out a bit. As much as she’s allowing it to, which is [00:11:00] she’s, snarky and she likes to do things her way and but then immediately we’re wrenched out of that kind of playful intro to her with the docks, right?
[00:11:18] So we’re immediately going from her. From her little banter whatever, to an immediate feeling of regret and guilt as she’s passing the slaves right
[00:11:34] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:11:34] James: docks. And it’s made note that some of them are prisoners of war. Some were accused of doing magic. Probably some were just bought and sold, but she has this really strong need to go over there and tell them, I’m not with these guys. I was one of you. I’m still one of [00:12:00] you. Like, I am a
[00:12:01] Ka-Ce: prisoner.
[00:12:01] Hmm. Mm hmm.
[00:12:02] James: I don’t look like it right now, but I am a prisoner.
[00:12:05] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:12:06] James: and it wouldn’t do her any good.
[00:12:09] Ka-Ce: No.
[00:12:09] James: they would,
[00:12:10] Ka-Ce: I mean, now she’s dressed in riches and everything, so clearly doesn’t look like one of them anymore.
[00:12:17] James: well, and even if she didn’t, I mean, even if she ran over and she was in just a simple tunic, whatever they’re, going to be like, yeah, but you’re not in chains. You’re not, clearly you’re not one of us.
[00:12:32] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:12:33] James: if they could even get that far. I mean, these are broken people so you just, you have that immediate switch of.
[00:12:42] playful banter to immediate guilt. And she just it’s a, switch, just such a, it’s so quick, and then it just continues to get worse [00:13:00] we did see that she had tried to free a bunch of slaves I guess always trying to stick to the man
[00:13:15] Ka-Ce: Yeah. So, yeah, two years before going to Endovier, she did help free 200 slaves, so she feels very strongly about the slave trade and everything. So yeah, I think this is more of that character building. We’re seeing more of who and what she is and like where her morals are. So yes, she’s an assassin, but she does feel very strongly about slaves, about wanting to free slaves and not wanting to be a slave after having been a slave.
[00:13:50] So I like that, like we’re learning more about her, but we’re not being told. her, if that makes sense. [00:14:00]
[00:14:00] James: Right. Yeah because she’s not actually coming out and saying, I don’t like slaves. It’s we know she doesn’t because her actions have been. shown that she’s very much against that. So it’s, yeah, it’s good character building for her to, for us to figure out where she is on this.
[00:14:21] Cause it’s it’s funny. It’s I’m an assassin and I kill people for a living, but I have standards.
[00:14:32] Ka-Ce: yeah. It’s very important to have standards as an assassin. Girl’s gotta have standards somewhere.
[00:14:42] James: Right. Okay. So, So they get through this and they immediately get to the castle. And so she’s already off her game now, right? Because I’m sure the cracking of the whip also brought back PTSD of her getting whipped. [00:15:00] Right.
[00:15:00] So now she’s in the courtyard and she’s noticing that there are glant glass lamp posts and this immaculate garden opening area and it’s just.
[00:15:14] So it’s just so much and there was a part I remember reading where they get in there and. I think it’s Dorian talking about how just how big and how many rooms and he’s and it’s just why pointless.
[00:15:35] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:15:36] James: So it’s like this, castle is so overdone that even the people who live in it are over it.
[00:15:46] They’re just like
[00:15:48] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:15:51] James: the stupid pointless castle.
[00:15:55] Ka-Ce: I don’t think we’ve come across one person yet that actually likes [00:16:00] This big, throne, big, glass castle.
[00:16:04] James: Yeah.
[00:16:06] Ka-Ce: like Dorian himself, well, yeah. So Dorian welcomes Celaena to the castle and everything. They both share the same sentiment that this is just overdone and ridiculous. But he leaves her in Chaol’s hands and Chaol leads her to her new chambers, where Dorian goes to leave and meet the king, his father. And when she arrives at her chambers, it is much larger than she anticipated. She has a bedroom, bathing chamber, dressing room, dining room, music and gaming room, plus a balcony. Holy hell, I want this. Plush furniture,
[00:16:52] James: bigger than our house
[00:16:55] Ka-Ce: right?
[00:16:56] James: a prisoner.
[00:16:58] Ka-Ce: Right? [00:17:00] What do I have to get this? So as soon as Chaol leaves her, she immediately goes, what I call, into survival mode, and she’s making note of all the exits, the windows, the doors, and everything.
[00:17:13] And she finds that her room is guarded. There’s guards outside the windows, below the balcony, outside her door. So then she goes and she searches her whole suite for weapons or anything that she can make weapons out of. And there’s literally nothing. Chaol had the place cleaned out. She found a few bone hairpins, and some string.
[00:17:36] So she tied those together to make a little makeshift knife. She does have a pool table, which in a fantasy book I found like entertaining
[00:17:47] James: It’s true. It was a little out of the, it was like, pool table?
[00:17:51] Ka-Ce: right. But she does leave like the pool sticks and the balls there because trying to fashion those into weapons would have been like a dead [00:18:00] giveaway. So, I don’t know, do you think this was smart of Chaol to strip the room of everything that she could have made into a weapon? Do you think this is taking it too far?
[00:18:12] she is the Prince’s champion?
[00:18:16] James: I think that Chaol knew what he was doing. I was a little surprised that he left the pool. Sticks and the balls there. Cause
[00:18:26] Ka-Ce: That is true.
[00:18:27] James: I mean, you just hold one of those balls in your hand and just clock somebody up the side of it. I mean, you’re going to, you’re going to get blood, you smash in the front of the nose.
[00:18:35] I mean, those can do a lot of damage and you’ve got a pool table. You got 10 of those things like so I don’t like, was that an oversight on his part or did he look at it and go, nah, she ain’t that dumb. But, you know, I don’t know. I just, was it an oversight? Oh,
[00:18:58] Ka-Ce: who knows? [00:19:00] Maybe, it was the servants who were clearing out the room and they didn’t think twice about that. They took the fire poker sticks and stuff like that, thinking those are weapons, clearly, but gonna take a game piece and make that into a weapon. Who
[00:19:15] James: knows?
[00:19:15] Yeah, I don’t know. It was a little odd to me, to
[00:19:21] Ka-Ce: Yeah, I was thrown a little bit about the whole pool table, but I was like, okay, maybe it’s got to come up in some world at some point, maybe, right? So then, Celaena naps. She gets measured for new clothes, which she is totally happy about. Bathes, and then we meet Phillipa, her new personal servant.
[00:19:43] And she’s the only servant who knows who Celaena is. They get some interaction throughout the book. But I personally loved Philippa and how she stood up to Celaena and didn’t appear to be scared or afraid of Celaena. She was just [00:20:00] like, girl, shut your mouth. Do as you’re told. You are so beautiful.
[00:20:04] Just keep your mouth shut.
[00:20:06] James: Was one of those, it was literally like, try me. I’m old, but I think you’d find a you might not
[00:20:17] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:20:17] James: not want to underestimate this this old baby here, cause
[00:20:22] Ka-Ce: I feel like Celaena needed her to after having been away from The comforts and everything for a year and not really having that connection, human connection to people. I feel like Celaena needed somebody to be as tough as nails as Phillipa. And it helped that Phillipa loved dressing Celaena up too.
[00:20:46] And was like, I need to make you look beautiful. I need somebody to say that you look beautiful and I will be happy. And Celaena is just yes.
[00:20:54] James: She was she was a good ally for her, Celaena, [00:21:00] that’s that strong support when it was somebody that Celaena couldn’t toy with,
[00:21:08] Like, Cause you constantly see her toying with with Chaol and
[00:21:16] Ka-Ce: And
[00:21:17] James: And Dorian, but then Philippa is there and she comes in and she says something and Celaena’s okay, She’s this badass assassin and this, older servant is do this.
[00:21:31] And she’s okay, like we all need Phillipa in our life. I think,
[00:21:40] Ka-Ce: We do. Somebody to build us up and tell us we look pretty, but at the same time don’t take shit.
[00:21:46] James: yeah.
[00:21:47] Ka-Ce: Tell us how it is.
[00:21:49] James: So while all this is going on, right. The Celaena is just having a great time great. I mean, she’s having a better time now. [00:22:00] Dorian is not having a good time, which he already knew he was walking into a mess, like he was not, I don’t want to say he wasn’t prepared because he was, but yeah, I mean, his family dynamics are a mess, right.
[00:22:20] So he goes to meet the king, his father, which he had told them I’m off to see the king. And He initially, he’s just there waiting for him, for the King to speak to him because he is trying to follow at least some of the the proper, I don’t know what you’d call that protocol decorum it doesn’t matter if you’re the son, the Prince or not, the King is the King and you just don’t press your luck.
[00:22:55] Right. I think, too, it’s [00:23:00] coming from broken family and everything. When you have somebody who is the dictator and who is the abuser, you tend to remain silent to gauge. What, how, and what they’re going to say first, it’s like a self survival mechanism. I don’t know what the real terminology is, but like you are just waiting to see what they say and how they say it.
[00:23:30] Ka-Ce: So you know how to respond. So you don’t get
[00:23:34] The backlash and stuff. At least that’s how I read it. That’s how I was picking it up.
[00:23:39] James: yeah, I could see that. I mean, we do see Yeah. the King has no sense of humor. Like he doesn’t, he’s you’ve wasted five words when you could have told me this thing in two that’s like the King that’s how I got the [00:24:00] personality of the King was like, why are you wasting my time in my air? Why are you still here? Like you told me the thing now go away, So obviously we know Dorian’s there to relay that his trip was successful. And we do get some more insight into Dorian as he’s looking at his younger brother, noticing the differences. Between him, his brother, and his father, and then the mentioning of his mother, right?
[00:24:34] Kind of when they’re talking about his eyes, and how Dorian You get the idea that Dorian feels like he doesn’t quite belong to the family because of his differences. They just touch on it a little bit. On his how come my brother looks more like him, but I don’t.
[00:24:58] And I have, you [00:25:00] know my eyes are this and his eyes are that. And just, he’s very unsure of that, family dynamic, I guess. I don’t know. It’s just like an insight I feel to Dorian’s character of just how he feels when he has to interact with family. Like He doesn’t quite fit, We know that, well, this is actually where we find out that Dorian going and picking Celaena had been a gamble that he had done unsanctioned, which we didn’t know this initially because we had heard Oh, you’re going to be the King’s champion. And then we find out, Oh, well, you’re technically going to compete to be the King’s champion.
[00:25:53] Ka-Ce: Yeah. Mm
[00:25:54] James: now here, we’re finding out that the King is like, Why
[00:25:59] Ka-Ce: hmm. [00:26:00] Mm
[00:26:00] James: this one?
[00:26:02] Ka-Ce: hmm.
[00:26:02] James: She’s literally nothing but trouble.
[00:26:07] Ka-Ce: Which is funny, because skip forward a couple chapters and we learn who all these other contenders are. And she’s not the worst of them.
[00:26:19] James: not by
[00:26:19] Ka-Ce: But the
[00:26:20] James: shot
[00:26:21] Ka-Ce: but the king is like, she is so she’s the worst of them. She’s a witch. need to guard yourself against her. And then you read about the other champions and you’re just like, oh, okay.
[00:26:35] James: I think it’s
[00:26:36] because, because his dad was more along the lines of you need to guard your loins because she’s a woman, right? And, the king doesn’t. Well, we already know the king doesn’t think highly of women in any capacity. Yeah, I don’t think like at all, honestly, from any like interaction that we [00:27:00] see so the king has to get down with Dorian and just, Tell him Celaena will only give allegiance to herself.
[00:27:19] Dorian needs to not get involved with her. He needs to not trust her. Don’t give her if she needs an inch to operate, give her 15 16th of the inch, don’t give her anything beyond that because you do. And she’s gonna. She’s going to take it and she’s going to use it against you. And I feel like Dorian, like he knows this cause she is an assassin, but this is his his way to look at his dad and be like, you know what? [00:28:00] F you. I’m gonna do this. I’m gonna prove you wrong. Like what what’s the problem here? Why are I can handle this. Like you didn’t raise an idiot, but clearly the king thinks that he does.
[00:28:24] Like he doesn’t seem to have a lot of faith in his son.
[00:28:29] Ka-Ce: No, you don’t get the sense that the king has a lot of faith or anything in Dorian, but then the way the king talks to everybody else, you get that the king doesn’t think highly of anybody else, except for maybe Perrington.
[00:28:45] James: Yeah. He’s like the only one. And even then you see him get a little short with him sometimes, but
[00:28:50] Ka-Ce: Yeah. But
[00:28:54] James: Yeah, it’s an interesting dynamic to see between Dorian and his father, where you [00:29:00] have one who’s I’m doing this thing and I have a very clear way I want to do it. And then you have Dorian who’s well, I’m gonna do it the way you said, mostly, by the way, I brought the assassin here and she’s going to compete.
[00:29:21] And the king, I feel like Dorian was expecting there to be more more resistance, like the king resistant, right? He was like, this is a mistake. Don’t get involved. Don’t knock her up. Don’t
[00:29:37] Ka-Ce: Why didn’t you choose somebody more like Cain, like Duke Perrington did?
[00:29:42] James: But then after he says all of that, he just sits back and is okay.
[00:29:53] Ka-Ce: See how this goes.
[00:29:55] James: let’s see how this goes. Cause I’m, curious to see if you f*** up, [00:30:00] you know?
[00:30:02] Ka-Ce: Or if she f***s you up.
[00:30:04] James: Yeah, exactly. Right? So it’s an interesting dynamic. But it is funny that, yeah, when he tells him you should have picked somebody better, somebody, and then later we do see, it’s like, she ain’t even the worst out of I mean, Yeah, exactly.
[00:30:23] Her code of assassin stuff that we discovered is, she’s very particular about the types of people that she’ll kill. First of all no innocents, no kids, no whatever. Some of these people in here they’d probably eat babies if you gave them a chance which, I mean, yeah, we’ll get down to that.
[00:30:46] But the King clearly doesn’t trust her for other, reasons, I think, yep,
[00:30:58] Ka-Ce: And everybody, that was [00:31:00] Freyja once again. And then we also get, without having Perrington actually in the scene, we get more of that. Oh, and there she goes. We, get more of a sense of what Perrington and Dorian’s relationship is. The king sent Perrington with Dorian on this trip to get Celaena and Perrington immediately goes and reports everything.
[00:31:30] Dorian is yes, your watchdog was there, and of course I behaved during this trip because your watchdog is here. So now we know where this animosity comes from, other than Perrington just being a huge dick.
[00:31:47] James: Yeah,
[00:31:47] Ka-Ce: He is this watchdog.
[00:31:50] James: the king obviously didn’t trust Dorian to get the job done
[00:31:54] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:31:54] James: so, like Perrington is a dick, there’s no denying that [00:32:00] but yeah, the bigger problem is from the king, because the king trust anybody to do anything So yeah, not even his own son.
[00:32:15] Ka-Ce: Nope. Alright, so moving into chapter 8. This is where Celaena and Chaol tour the grounds. And Celaena is using every bit of resources she can to plot dozens of escape routes from her room. The original stone castle, which is where she’s staying, is old. There are stairs and hallways that lead to nowhere, so her escape routes would require some extra thought.
[00:32:46] Celaena refuses to tour the glass castle. She you know, standing on glass floors makes her feel queasy. We learn a little bit about Prince Holland, who is Dorian’s younger brother. He’s the one [00:33:00] that actually looks and resembles like the king. We don’t actually get to meet him. He is sent away to a school in the mountains because he is an evil menace.
[00:33:09] I mean, what younger brother or sister is not an evil menace? But no, for reals, he is, I think, They go into a brief story on what he did and he, is truly evil. So Chaol and Celaena are walking through the gardens and they hear an explosion and then another. Come to find out it’s the clock tower.
[00:33:30] This inky black stone building thing is a clock tower and it has gargoyles perched on the clock tower. And Chaol admits that as a child, he would not go near this thing. It scared him. To me as an adult, it sounds scary already, Celaena says that the clock tower is something you would see at the Gates of Wyrd.
[00:33:56] And it’s revealed that it was built around the time [00:34:00] of Dorian’s birth, so about 20 years ago. Chaol doesn’t answer as to why it was built. So yeah, I just didn’t know. Even casually mentioning that it was built around Dorian’s birth seems weird. I don’t know. And then you have the gargoyles and usually, like when you read about gargoyles, you think, Oh, they’re symbols of protection, like they’re protecting something.
[00:34:29] But these gargoyles, I get the sense that they’re not there for protection. They’re there to mainly scare away.
[00:34:38] James: Yeah.
[00:34:39] Ka-Ce: Like scarecrows.
[00:34:40] James: the clock tower.
[00:34:42] Ka-Ce: Well actually I also learned that the original gargoyles like in Europe and stuff, they’re actually, they were used for rainwater. So the rainwater would go down the roof and they would collect and it would help pour the rainwater off of the [00:35:00] buildings and not trickle down into the buildings or on the side of buildings.
[00:35:03] It’s like a whole thing. I don’t know. I’m not an expert on it. Read up on it. But these gargoyles seem more menacing, especially as they continue their walk, Celaena swore that the gargoyles jaws opened wider and their fingers were, like, pointing directly at her. And then as they’re walking, she notices a ruin like tile on the paved pathway.
[00:35:27] It’s a circle with a line through the middle that extended beyond the circle. ends of the line hooked, one downward, the other up. Chaol doesn’t know what it is. It doesn’t sound like Chaol knows a whole lot about stuff at the place where he’s living. Especially for a guard. then she notices that the gargoyle is actually pointing at this mark, not at her. And she wants to know if there are more. Chaol assumes that there are. So.
[00:35:55] James: Yeah, that actually cause they made a big point to talk [00:36:00] about how magic had disappeared and it was the king who had basically done it.
[00:36:08] It’s so if he got rid of that and they’re enslaving magic users and whatever, why did he leave these things carved into, you would think that would be like, one of the first things to do would be to replace the stones, right?
[00:36:23] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:36:24] James: would you keep magic runes?
[00:36:27] Ka-Ce: There.
[00:36:28] James: the, very gravel of, or not gravel, but the stonework of your castle, when you’re like very much saying, yeah, get rid of everything, all the magic gone, you even say the word magic, and I’m gonna cut your head off.
[00:36:42] Ka-Ce: Except, if he built that tower, the clock tower, with the gargoyles and the gargoyles are pointing at the word marks wouldn’t, that mean that the king placed those marks down in the pavement?
[00:36:59] James: well, yeah, [00:37:00] and that the whole thing is why would he keep obvious magical.
[00:37:08] Markings. When,
[00:37:11] Ka-Ce: I don’t think they know that they’re magical at this point.
[00:37:14] James: oh, do they not, they don’t, oh, I guess most people just don’t know what they are, huh? They’re just like
[00:37:18] Ka-Ce: Yeah,
[00:37:20] James: or something.
[00:37:21] Ka-Ce: they’re just like these symbols and stuff. I don’t Chaol doesn’t know what it is, and Celaena’s what is this? And he’s oh, no. She’s is there more? And he’s oh, no, probably. So, yeah, I don’t think they make the connection right away.
[00:37:37] James: could be. Yeah. So they just. So it’s
[00:37:41] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:37:42] James: and the gargoyle is pointing at it. That’s a little weird, but, yeah,
[00:37:48] Ka-Ce: Okay, let me restructure my thought there. Brain is doing one thing. So you know those paintings where the eyes follow you no matter which [00:38:00] way you move? I kind of feel like that’s the same thing with the gargoyle. At first, when first reading it oh, it looks like the gargoyle’s looking and pointing at me, but then let me move over here.
[00:38:11] Oh, no, the gargoyle’s pointing at this tile with this mark in it. I feel like that the gargoyle was actually following her. I don’t know.
[00:38:25] Maybe that’s just me. well, I mean, they don’t, really go into it, but I mean,
[00:38:30] No.
[00:38:33] James: yeah, I don’t know.
[00:38:34] Ka-Ce: Okay.
[00:38:35] James: Maybe, not. I don’t know. It’s I will say that through the entirety of the first book, I kept expecting one of those gargoyles to Do
[00:38:49] do something to make a reappearance at some point. And yeah, as much detail given Yeah.[00:39:00]
[00:39:00] I was really expecting there to be something Yeah. side note. So then, From here, where did they go? They went to the library, right? Which is like a dream come true for Celaena. Cause, she just, apparently, as we find out, loves books. And,
[00:39:29] eh, well, yeah, I mean, she, yeah, she’s a book girly, so what do you do in your free time? Well, when I’m not killing, I’m reading.
[00:39:38] And if I’m not, if I’m not reading or killing, I’m sleeping.
[00:39:44] Ka-Ce: we’re playing dress up.
[00:39:45] James: Or, yeah, right. Yeah it’s she’s fairly simple in that regard. Like she knows
[00:39:57] Ka-Ce: She knows
[00:39:57] James: She knows what she likes. [00:40:00] Let’s see. So they get to the library and she’s very much I want to I feel like, she probably switched her personality up a little bit at this point, cause she’s like her and Chaol they’re walking and he’s here’s the thing.
[00:40:26] And she’s oh, okay, cool. Whatever. What’s that? I don’t know. And then they get to the library. Right. And I just imagined her being like, Can we go in? She’s I’m not going to be standoffish about this, because she really wants to go in. And she’s can we please go in?
[00:40:45] Ka-Ce: See, I got the sense, and maybe this is just me, but I felt like she was just so excited. She must’ve been like, busting at the seams it’s been a year since she’s seen or read books, and she’s just oh my god, [00:41:00] please Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go.
[00:41:04] James: right. But she’s not being like, she’s not being a shit about it. I just in my head I see her as just 180ing that attitude and being like, I’m going to be really good and really nice. And please, can we go in here?
[00:41:24] Ka-Ce: Yeah. So yeah, Chaol is actually surprised that she likes to read and asks if she visited the great library of Orynth in Terrasen. Supposedly it’s twice the size of this library. And this library has, was it, a million books in it. Which is a lot. And, we learned, so we get to learn a little bit more of her backstory.
[00:41:51] We learned that yes, Celaena has been to that great library. But the librarians wouldn’t let her explore, afraid [00:42:00] she’d ruin some valuable, manuscript or something. they don’t go into details as to why or how she would ruin it.
[00:42:10] James: I mean, they probably just figure she’s some uneducated wouldn’t appreciate it anyway. Like those people who buy books and then they they fold the stuff.
[00:42:23] Ka-Ce: Oh, the dog ear. Oh, don’t dog ear your books. That’s my cringe. That’s my ick.
[00:42:30] James: That’s probably what they thought that she was going to do. They’re like, she’s going to come in and she’s probably going to rip pages out and use them as napkins and this uncultured heathen swine
[00:42:45] Ka-Ce: Or do you think they, this is foreshadowing something else? Hint, hint.
[00:42:52] James: about her not being allowed into the library. Or,
[00:42:57] Ka-Ce: Or she, was allowed in, but she had to be [00:43:00] like, followed and she couldn’t explore on her own.
[00:43:08] James: I mean, I don’t know, cause I mean, they, I see that they don’t want her to be alone. By herself anyway, just as a general rule.
[00:43:17] Don’t, I don’t think anybody other than the king would have any real issue with her being in the library because there’s not a whole lot. So she could actually use in there from strictly a li a library point of view.
[00:43:38] Ka-Ce: meant when she was younger,
[00:43:39] like She wasn’t allowed by herself in the library.
[00:43:45] James: oh. On the other and ter, what is it,
[00:43:49] Ka-Ce: Terrasen?
[00:43:50] James: That’s where, yeah, that’s when she was younger. Right.
[00:43:56] I mean, yeah, maybe they were afraid she was gonna learn something [00:44:00] about something. Well, because we do find out that all of the books in the library, in this library, anything that had to do with magic was destroyed.
[00:44:11] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:44:11] James: allegedly, supposedly. And in that other library probably was not the case. Not yet.
[00:44:24] Not when she was younger, so if there was anybody trying to keep her from learning certain things, then then yeah, that would make sense about keeping her out because don’t want her to get the wrong ideas and not that it mattered because shortly after she was turned into an assassin.
[00:44:46] So And let’s see, even though she goes in there she can’t really we find out that she can’t really do much because [00:45:00] the books are reserved for the royal family, which is a point of contention with her. She’s like, all these, there’s a million books in here I can’t take,
[00:45:16] Ka-Ce: Hmm.
[00:45:19] James: And Chaol is, yeah. And, and Chaol is nah. the rules. I can’t help you. He is unbending.
[00:45:31] Ka-Ce: Oh, I love that she goes behind his back and writes to Prince Dorian, requesting permission to borrow books. And like having not written for a year, so we get this little scene where she has to practice her letters and practice writing until she feels comfortable again. Not something you would think about, but again, that nice attention to detail.
[00:45:56] But yeah, so she writes to Prince Dorian, has the servant send the letter, [00:46:00] and we don’t see it on our end, but Prince Dorian does write back and sends of his favorites from his personal Mm hmm. to her and again, it’s that show don’t tell like we’re seeing more of Prince Dorian’s character and not just this pompous like I’m a prince and I’m here to rescue you thing It’s this is the real Dorian. Dorian likes to read. Who would have thought this lady’s man likes to read?
[00:46:31] James: We also get a little bit of a glimpse in to see his more snarky character too they bring her back and they’re like, you’re coming in to do this trial, the thing, but nobody can know that you’re an assassin. Right? And so then she writes him a letter and that’s the first thing he does when he writes her back is he says, my most true assassin [00:47:00] bro,
[00:47:00] Ka-Ce: flowery words.
[00:47:02] James: but bro, you just said, this is hush, nobody can know Yeah. And then he’s like in a letter to my assassin,
[00:47:13] Ka-Ce: Right.
[00:47:16] James: I mean, I
[00:47:17] Ka-Ce: Knowing that Perrington is watching him and everything, like he doesn’t think about that in a letter where Perrington can intercept that,
[00:47:25] but I mean, does Dorian just assume that because he’s the prince that nobody would dare to read the letters? I mean, most of them probably but. There’s always some sneaky someone somewhere who’s just huh.
[00:47:42] James: Come on, dude. Come on, dude. Yeah.
[00:47:46] hell?
[00:47:50] Ka-Ce: So we finished this chapter with there’s a bunch of women out in the gardens near Celaena’s balcony and one in [00:48:00] particular, we don’t get her name right away, but we do meet her Lady Kaltain. She is loud and rude, talking only of her dress and Prince Dorian and Dorian’s supposed new, lady lover.
[00:48:15] And it’s interesting that this is also where we get the first mention of her having a headache. We see this throughout so I just, I found it interesting that we’re not even given her name, but we’re told that she has a headache and she needs to go retire. Oh,
[00:48:37] James: Oh, yeah. Yes, that was an interesting little tidbit of information that was, thrown out there. I had a thought about that and then I, don’t remember [00:49:00] what it was now. Yeah it was just Celaena with her kind of, We’re seeing her interactions with the different levels of people within the castle and the court we’ve had the, we’ve had the king and we’ve had Dorian and we have had Chaol and then now we have the court ladies.
[00:49:29] of the court ladies who we just know she just adores so much. She loves those court ladies. You can feel just it rolling off of her like these women and what was it where, they were out there and cause they were, talking about switching the way [00:50:00] that, that they were dressed because somebody else was dressed the same way. And she’s just. listening like this nonsense talk.
[00:50:10] And she’s just oh yeah, because I think Lady Kaltain’s wearing one color, but she’s going on and on how Prince Dorian prefers this color and all the women are like, no, but you look so great. Do you want to change? And she’s just oh, no. But yes, I want him to notice me. it’s just like such drivel.
[00:50:33] right. Yeah. It’s, such a show.
[00:50:38] Ka-Ce: It is such a show, but at the same time we get Celaena who is constantly admiring herself and all of her new outfits and all of her new dresses that she gets. So it’s just funny because she’s just Oh my God, these women will not shut up about their outfits and changing and whatever, but I’m going to sit here and I’m going to admire myself.
[00:50:59] And [00:51:00] I got this new dress and look at me.
[00:51:02] James: right. But then this is also where we find out that there’s already rumors about Celaena traveling through the castle. I mean, this, she’s been here for what a day, half a day. I don’t remember. Has it been a day? Has she spent a night asleep yet?
[00:51:19] Ka-Ce: yeah, she’s been to sleep
[00:51:21] because the following day she goes in tours and
[00:51:24] James: okay. So, I mean, she’s, yeah, so she’s been there for a day, maybe two days, right, depending on just how long it took to go through the town and all this, and there’s already rumors where these ladies are like, I heard that there was some new wench about, hopefully she doesn’t get Dorian’s eye, and she’s Are they talking about moi?
[00:51:47] Ka-Ce: Right? and then they’re all doing their little jibber jabber, whatever, and she pushes the pot off the thing.
[00:51:55] James: Like, She’s such a shit.
[00:51:59] [00:52:00] yeah, it’s, I just, I love the little personality things that pop through where she’s just was there somebody down there?
[00:52:07] Ka-Ce: Oops.
[00:52:09] James: Didn’t I, do that but to their credit the, Kal, I think it’s lady Kaltain immediately like looking at it and she’s everyone, shut up, shut your mouths because she picks up on she’s somebody’s listening get that move,
[00:52:31] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:52:33] James: She is she is insufferable as a character.
[00:52:42] But yeah she’s not stupid she just,
[00:52:48] Ka-Ce: She’s vapid,
[00:52:49] James: yeah. You know, who she actually reminds me of not to not, so extreme, but since we, started watching Buffy again, [00:53:00] no, she literally reminds me of Cordelia because Cordelia is, in the show is so self centered and vapid and but she’s also really smart. Like she gets good Yeah. she’s on the cheerleading squad, works hard you know and i Yeah. character is the same. she is so into herself but she’s not stupid and we get more of that later with her interactions with Perrington and unfortunately she’s in a fight, she can’t win, which is unfortunate for her but I don’t like her character, but I appreciate her character. She’s a good character.
[00:53:50] Ka-Ce: Yeah. I felt like I didn’t like her throughout this book. I appreciated her more further along,[00:54:00]
[00:54:01] And then re reading this series for our podcast, it, you notice more things and my heart just breaks and that’s all I’m going to say. But, yes. No She’s a, good character. Like she’s the character where you look at it and you’re just like, Oh, I can’t stand her. And that’s a good character because you recognize that she don’t like them but, they are, she’s written well.
[00:54:32] yeah.
[00:54:34] James: She’s just, she got an unfortunate cast and it happens.
[00:54:44] All right. So moving on to chapter nine, we’ve got Celaena is admiring herself in the mirror, and this is one of the first couple of times [00:55:00] I think, she only looked at herself in the mirror what one time prior to this, or was this the one where, she really notices how much weight she’s lost.
[00:55:10] And That was our previous episode.
[00:55:14] was, yeah, before. So now she’s seeing herself like cleaned up and frillied and like, gained weight.
[00:55:23] she’s damn I look, pretty good. Yep. as we know, Philippa is the only person who knows, or sorry, she’s the only servant that knows who Celaena is. And she says it’s a shame since she could snag herself a lord or somebody of ranking with how good she looks.
[00:55:45] Ka-Ce: hmm. that’s Phillipa patting herself on the back like, I dressed you up good, girl. Right.
[00:55:51] James: We were working with a good base, but [00:56:00] And then she says she, tells her not to pay attention to the rumors of being the prince’s new love. And interest Interesting. wench on premises that nobody seems to know who it is Yeah.
[00:56:17] They’ve got their ideas.
[00:56:19] Ka-Ce: I mean, and that does ruffle Celaena’s feathers because who wants to be known as the new lover? She’s no, I have skill, I’m an assassin, I don’t want to be labeled as the new lover, the new whore. Yeah, this just further showcases like their banter together and I absolutely love them.
[00:56:41] But their moment is short lived because Chaol rushes into the room to drag her to the sudden champion meeting with the king. The king just decided he wanted to everyone then and there. And she has no time to change. So she’s going to meet all of these other [00:57:00] warriors, thieves, murderers, assassins, all prettied up.
[00:57:05] James: That I think worked to her advantage because
[00:57:10] Ka-Ce: so?
[00:57:10] James: the get go, I think everyone, most of them looked at her and went, oh yeah, okay.
[00:57:16] Ka-Ce: And she’s not a competitor. She’s just some frilly girl in her frilly
[00:57:20] James: Or, and even if she was a competitor, they’re gonna be like, this competitor took the time to play dress up?
[00:57:28] Ka-Ce: Mmm.
[00:57:29] James: She getting all pretty.
[00:57:32] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:57:32] James: she won’t even make it through round one. It, I don’t think it was intentional, but it really did offset, I think the, attitude of a lot of the other competitors.
[00:57:45] Oh,
[00:57:47] Ka-Ce: see, I was thinking like, cause the king rushed wanted this meeting suddenly now when it was scheduled for later. he was trying to throw everybody, mostly her off [00:58:00] game. But that’s interesting. I didn’t think about the way she’s played up and dolled up as working in her favor. I didn’t think about that.
[00:58:10] That’s good.
[00:58:11] James: Well, I mean, I mean, imagine if you’re in a competition, okay. Say you were in a competition for what’s that show we like ultimate ninja warrior,
[00:58:21] Ka-Ce: yeah.
[00:58:22] James: so, you know?
[00:58:23] American
[00:58:24] ninja warrior, right? And so people come and they’ve got their athletic gear on or whatever. And then some dude, and this just happened, all just happened, I think it was a couple years ago.
[00:58:33] Some dude shows up in a t shirt and jeans and obliterated the course. And people were like, what? The hell? Because when you, have a thing
[00:58:48] The way people are presented
[00:58:50] and Themselves for a thing by being, dressing appropriately, right?
[00:58:56] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:58:57] James: everyone has already [00:59:00] heard that the competitors are they’re prisoners or they’re there because of a debt that’s owed or right. And then you got some chick that comes in dressed to the nines, probably a full head of hair, she got her hair did. She’s got makeup nobody’s looking at her going, Oh yeah, she’s going to be the one that kills me.
[00:59:30] Ka-Ce: Yeah
[00:59:31] James: it just. And I mean, because I know I take that back, though, I would be the opposite, because if I was in a competition where people were going to kill each other and I saw somebody come in that was overly dressed, I’d be like, that’s the one I’m staying away from. I’ve watched too many things where it’s the ones who are dressed nice or the unassuming
[00:59:56] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[00:59:56] James: they slit your throat while you’re still trying to tie your shoes. [01:00:00] I would just be like,
[01:00:00] Ka-Ce: the innocent looking ones.
[01:00:02] James: That’s how I am. But I don’t, these guys aren’t a lot of them aren’t that smart.
[01:00:12] because they’re thieves and killers and other than a couple that we meet, but they’re not they’re not there because of their brains. They’re there because they’re good fighters and
[01:00:25] they, They’re good killers.
[01:00:26] and they have an excellent chance of winning.
[01:00:30] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:00:30] James: That’s why they’re there. But yeah, there’s just the whole dynamic.
[01:00:33] It was just funny to me that I feel like it would throw everybody, like everyone’s thrown off already because.
[01:00:40] I mean, imagine you’re in the middle of a bath or whatever, and your servant runs in and is King! Now! And you’re like, I’m soapy! And they’re like, figure it out!
[01:00:49] Ka-Ce: Right.
[01:00:53] James: So yeah, everyone’s already off and going what the hell?
[01:00:56] But it’s the king. King says you do, [01:01:00] right?
[01:01:00] Ka-Ce: yeah.
[01:01:01] James: yeah. And then they’re not going to take her seriously. And then, as they’re on their way, Celaena herself actually, we see, starts to have her own little panic attack.
[01:01:14] Ka-Ce: Hmm.
[01:01:15] James: because she she is strong as she is, mentally the, king is something else, which with her first meeting with the king, she wasn’t anticipating it, but now it’s the anticipation of that again holy hell.
[01:01:40] Ka-Ce: Yeah. Coming from the trial with the king, the one that sent her to the salt mines that, that’s, I, I would have an anxiety attack too. I already have anxiety attacks about every little bump in my life, so, yeah, I [01:02:00] love that we get this shift in Chaol at this moment. He sees this, he can sense this from her.
[01:02:06] And he’s advising her to help calm her down. Giving her some advice, don’t look the king directly in the eye. Don’t talk back, just keep your head down. Yes king, no king mind your manners. And then he tells her that she looks pretty. It’s the simplest thing. It helps to calm her down.
[01:02:30] James: Right. And that’s, I feel like we’re seeing this side of Chaol that he’s he is the soldier. Right? I mean, he’s the captain of the guard. So he is a soldier through and through. And he, when they went to get her, he was very rough and gruff and do what I say and stop being a shit and just all this stuff.
[01:02:57] But then we’re seeing that he still, [01:03:00] he has a heart, like he is not unfeeling and he, probably recognizes her plight
[01:03:10] Ka-Ce: Mmm.
[01:03:11] James: probably is telling himself, don’t make it personal. Don’t get involved. You’ve got one job and that’s to train her and watch her and keep her from killing anybody or running away,
[01:03:24] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:03:25] James: But he is still looking at her and going, but she’s so young, she is still just she’s just a person.
[01:03:36] She’s just a woman,
[01:03:38] Ka-Ce: Mmm.
[01:03:39] James: slash woman. She’s so young. I mean, I know she’s was 17,
[01:03:46] Ka-Ce: Eighteen?
[01:03:47] James: Yeah.
[01:03:48] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:03:49] James: So I mean, yes, by normal standards, she’s a woman, but you know, you don’t just magically shift from one thing to the next thing on your birthday. Like [01:04:00] she is still very young. And he, sees that.
[01:04:06] And I think that he is able to. Before she even wants to admit, really, he can see some of her vulnerableness,
[01:04:16] Ka-Ce: Mmm.
[01:04:19] James: And I think he doesn’t want to, because,
[01:04:22] you know, I,
[01:04:22] Ka-Ce: it’s easier to keep her in that assassin box. She’s a criminal. She’s an assassin. She’s not human. I can deal with her in this, her vulnerable side and spending all that time with her showing her around, finding out she loves to read and then seeing her have this panic attack.
[01:04:40] It’s oh.
[01:04:42] James: yeah, assassins don’t have panic attacks
[01:04:45] Ka-Ce: right? Assassins don’t like to read. Assassins don’t like to chill and play games and stuff. Yeah.
[01:04:55] So he’s starting to see her as a human. As [01:05:00] not just a criminal.
[01:05:04] James: Yeah, it’s a nice, it’s a nice interaction between the two of them. I liked, it. I liked seeing him respond to her in a, not jerk way.
[01:05:19] Ka-Ce: Finally, yes.
[01:05:20] James: cause he could have easily just looked at her and said
[01:05:24] Ka-Ce: Toughen
[01:05:24] up, bitch.
[01:05:25] James: get your shit together. Like the King’s coming.
[01:05:28] Ka-Ce: Right.
[01:05:29] James: not what he did.
[01:05:31] He made it personal. He did it in such a way that it completely blew the sail out of the anxiety thing like this there’s good like I give it nine out of ten Chaols
[01:05:49] Ka-Ce: Point for Chaol.
[01:05:50] James: Peak Chaol behave Behavior.
[01:05:54] Ka-Ce: So rolling into chapter 10, Chaol and Celaena enter the chamber, and they immediately take [01:06:00] their spots next to Prince Dorian. All the champions are standing with their respective nobles slash sponsors. There are 23 male competitors plus Celaena. So is the only female competitor. I get that this is a man’s world, but it would have been nice to have seen at least one other woman in the running just to
[01:06:23] James: Yeah that
[01:06:24] actually that stood out to me too. Like you would think that with that many competitors that they would have found At least two or three other women. I mean, even if they were other assassins or they’re not going to be probably.
[01:06:41] Ka-Ce: something.
[01:06:42] James: Yeah. They’re not going to
[01:06:43] be Like, warriors. Not like the big bulky barbarian.
[01:06:48] I mean, well, I take that back there. That
[01:06:50] Be,
[01:06:51] Ka-Ce: are female soldiers and stuff, but it would have been nice to see that dynamic, even if it’s cliche, be like, oh, there’s [01:07:00] another woman, can we bond? Can we team up together, at least for the first part? Or, no, there’s this animosity right away because we’re the only Two females or three females in this, maybe that would have been too cliche, but it still would have been nice because all stories have cliches in them.
[01:07:20] I just it, I would have liked at least to see one other female competitor and I
[01:07:27] James: yeah.
[01:07:28] Ka-Ce: that Celaena is the star of this book. So she’s got to have attention on her, but
[01:07:34] James: They could have had at least one or two other female competitors though. I feel like that would have made more sense just because. with the dynamics of people and in general,
[01:07:49] Ka-Ce: yeah,
[01:07:50] James: unless they’re just trying to show that
[01:07:55] Ka-Ce: this is such a
[01:07:55] James: male
[01:07:56] this is such,
[01:07:57] Ka-Ce: world.
[01:07:57] James: is such a, that nobody would even [01:08:00] think that a woman could be a contender.
[01:08:02] And so the fact that she is the only woman, Also works to her advantage because they’re not going to take her seriously, because they’re like, oh, she is, why is she here? Somebody F’d up
[01:08:16] Ka-Ce: All right.
[01:08:18] James: did you call for Alexa when you meant to say Alex?
[01:08:22] Ka-Ce: Right.
[01:08:25] James: I don’t know. was a little, it was a little weird.
[01:08:30] Yeah. When I read it, I can see it from both ways, I think, but it would have just been nice to see. At least one or two
[01:08:39] Ka-Ce: Yeah. From Celaena’s point of view we see that most are bulky. Most competitors had no spark or cleverness in their eyes. Three of the competitors were actually in chains. One is somewhat handsome, which is funny that she’s like noticing that out of everything. [01:09:00] And the last one she notices is a gargantuan man standing next to Duke Perrington and notices that he also has obsidian eyes.
[01:09:10] So, so far, that’s what, two or three people that have obsidian eyes in this story, which again, like I said last time, people don’t normally have obsidian eyes. So what is the connection if Duke Perrington has obsidian eyes and his gargantuan champion has obsidian eyes? Anyways, King goes over the rules and details of the contest.
[01:09:35] There’s 13 weeks to train everybody with a test once a week. happen at the tests. Some might die in the process of the tests and or trainings. Additional tests will be held as the King sees fit, the final test being a week after Yulemas, which is like Christmas where the final four will face off in a duel. And throughout all of this [01:10:00] The king of Adarlan keeps staring at Celaena because he recognizes her. I feel like this is like an intimidation tactic. I see you, I know who you are, I know why you’re here. So with all of that said and done, the king will be departing and he will return for the final test.
[01:10:23] James: Yeah, it was the whole thing, it’s like the king was trying to get under everybody’s skin. From the get go, right? Cause he, first of all, he calls this thing and he’s I’m meeting with everyone now and everyone’s Oh shit. Okay. And then everyone gets there and he’s immediately already like bored.
[01:10:49] He’s okay, you finally all got here. Now we can get started. And then we see a major thing that, that [01:11:00] Celaena has a big issue with is the King’s you’re competing for the title to be my champion, right? The King’s champion. And you’re going to fight our enemies. And she’s Yeah I’m gonna be the right hand murderer for the king.
[01:11:20] Because she came, well, I mean, all of them probably did, but she came from a region conquered by him, right? I mean, she lost her life because of him. She knows what being the champion means.
[01:11:36] Ka-Ce: yeah,
[01:11:36] James: just a fancy way of saying, kill that person because I said so and she has a very serious problem with that because that’s even farther than what she even did in her assassination stuff like she still in a lot of her assassination life said, no, I will not [01:12:00] kill these people.
[01:12:02] And I mean, other assassins may have been sent to do it, but at least it wasn’t her. And she knows that by becoming the champion of the king, that’s not going to be a choice that she’s going to be able to make.
[01:12:16] Ka-Ce: No, the king says I want this person dead. You have to kill that person. There is no saying no, I won’t take this job.
[01:12:22] James: Yeah and, we find out that the king, Pretty much thinks of just about all possible scenarios. It’s Oh, you don’t want to do that. That’s fine. But if you don’t, your friend over here is going to die instead. It’s well, shit
[01:12:42] Ka-Ce: Yeah,
[01:12:42] James: we’re also going to probably kill the whole line of the family, not just your friend.
[01:12:46] And it’s well, son of a bitch, fine,
[01:12:51] Ka-Ce: the king does not mess around.
[01:12:54] James: And, so, I mean, she’s already at this point, even questioning, I think [01:13:00] whether she wants to be the champion, like
[01:13:06] She could just do okay, and then. But what does that entail? Is it just going back to the mines? Or can she escape in time,
[01:13:21] Ka-Ce: yeah.
[01:13:21] James: you know?
[01:13:22] Ka-Ce: And not get
[01:13:22] James: caught.
[01:13:23] And yeah,
[01:13:24] Ka-Ce: So
[01:13:27] James: Yeah, the dynamic from the king he comes in and he really just upsets everything. And throws everyone off, and then he leaves.
[01:13:38] Ka-Ce: Chaol and Celaena meet up with Dorian after the meeting to size up the competition. Dorian wants to know what she thinks of all of her competitors. She, right off the bat is like Cain. Cain is my biggest competitor. Dorian reveals his plans for Celaena, [01:14:00] mainly her identity. He wants her to go in as Lillian, and she is going to be a thief from Belhaven.
[01:14:09] And Celaena is what the hell is this? What kind of backstory is this? This is what you give me to work with. I was Adarlan’s assassin and now I’m some jewel thief from some backwater fish town.
[01:14:23] James: Yeah, right?
[01:14:26] Ka-Ce: Way to knock her down, right? So, he, his thing is Competitors may know a thing or two about Adarlan’s assassin and use it against her.
[01:14:37] For the competition, she is to be known as Lillian Gordaina. Her mother is dead. Father is a wealthy merchant. She is the sole heir, but she steals jewels because why not? She met the prince by trying to steal from him. And Celaena obviously thinks this cover story is stupid. She does [01:15:00] talk about Cain, Duke Perrington’s champion.
[01:15:03] She does that, he could knock her out with one punch. This gargantuan man, tiny. He can knock her out with one punch, but due to his size doesn’t look like he would be able to move fast. So she has that working out for her because she is smaller. She can move fast. So I think it would be more of trying to stay out of Cain’s line of sight and just wearing him down. Oh, so then the dynamic trio, as they are walking through the hallways, into Lady Kaltain. she immediately dismisses Celaena in her bid to hog all of Dorian’s attention for herself. Dorian makes it a point to interrupt and introduce Kaltain to Celaena as Lillian. Celaena and Dorian bond over their, [01:16:00] I don’t want to say hatred, but like their annoyance with Kaltain.
[01:16:04] James: It’s obvious dislike. I mean
[01:16:08] They have a real life, and she’s just If only I could marry a prince.
[01:16:15] Ka-Ce: yeah.
[01:16:16] James: Ya know?
[01:16:18] Ka-Ce: and, and we find out Kaltain is there and she’s linked to all of this through Duke Perrington. What were your initial thoughts about Cain and about Celaena sizing up her competitors?
[01:16:38] James: Yeah Cain is pretty much the one that I, had pegged that I was like, yeah, he’s going to be in some form or another, he’s going to be an issue. I didn’t peg him as being an overly intelligent [01:17:00] character.
[01:17:02] I thought he was going to be more of that muscly brute, like you throw a rock at me and I break it with my hand, but.
[01:17:11] Ka-Ce: All bronze, no brains,
[01:17:12] James: Yeah and then her response to, to Oh, I looked at everybody and I could take them all in a fight because she’s still very I think overly optimistic about her abilities.
[01:17:33] I mean, even in her prime, She probably would have some issue with some of them because being an assassin that relies more
[01:17:45] Ka-Ce: Stealth and sneaky.
[01:17:46] James: and sneaking and you’re not always super good at front confrontation
[01:17:55] Ka-Ce: Mm hmm.
[01:17:56] James: I mean, we do learn that she is very good,[01:18:00]
[01:18:00] Ka-Ce: Yeah, she is skilled.
[01:18:02] James: but she is And some of her competitors are this big and there’s just, but she’s confident and even if she’s not confident, she’s lying about it, which I think that Dorian’s picking up on she’s oh, they’re all look pathetic and Dorian’s you’re so full of shit.
[01:18:27] Okay, great. I bet. No problem, like he
[01:18:31] Ka-Ce: Yeah,
[01:18:33] James: with it and just being like, we’ll see how you do which is, great. But then yeah, she goes immediately from this situation and then to meet a lady, Kaltain, it’s like one fight to the next fight, but two different warfronts.
[01:18:51] Ka-Ce: Yeah, oh yeah. Two different mental strategies.
[01:18:58] I love that [01:19:00] Dorian is also he finally sees like an ally with Celaena against Kaltain because he’s Dorian is just not wanting to play this game. He knows why Kaltain’s there. He knows her tricks and, what she’s ultimately after, and he’s just not having it he, he’s had his fun with all the ladies of the court and stuff, and he’s just like, bored with it, you he, wants a challenge.
[01:19:30] He wants something different, something new. And I love that they can like just look at each other and they’re like already teaming up against her.
[01:19:43] James: Yeah,
[01:19:43] Ka-Ce: and they haven’t known each other that long, like a couple of weeks and they’re like bonding over books and over their annoyance with Lady Kaltain.
[01:19:54] James: I mean, sometimes that’s where you find your allies is and you think, [01:20:00] Oh, okay. You’re alright.
[01:20:02] Ka-Ce: Yep. You’re not what I thought, but I’m digging this.
[01:20:07] James: I mean, and it probably helps that Celaena is not head over, tripping head over heels to, to get to Dorian he
[01:20:18] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:20:18] James: she’s not Oh, hi, hello, Prince. Da He enters the room and she’s Oh God, you again?
[01:20:26] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:20:27] James: What do you want? He’s just excuse me. What? I’m sorry. It’s a little hot in here because yeah,
[01:20:37] Ka-Ce: that they can be a shit together. They’re both equally egotistical shits, and they can play that off of each other. I really love their banter. At first they didn’t get off on the right foot. He’s a prince, she’s a slave, she didn’t know what he wanted, and now [01:21:00] she’s able to let her guard down a bit, and they can both just battle it out between them.
[01:21:07] It’s great.
[01:21:11] James: The, scene with all of them and Kaltain and Lady Kaltain is very much what you expect from that royal society where they come in and it’s just the, it’s the, hey, how are you with the Oh, that little bubble showed up on my video.
[01:21:32] Ka-Ce: That’s what I was talking about! Okay, sorry.
[01:21:35] James: I don’t, to everybody watching this, I don’t think anybody else is going to see that. I don’t think it shows up in the recording. It just, it caught my eye when I did it and now I won’t do it again. Anyway that was so odd. You have this, the royals the royals where someone comes in and they’re like, Hey, how are you?
[01:21:58] How you been? When they’re really saying, [01:22:00] Oh, why are you here? I saw you four years ago. There it goes again. I saw you four years ago. And I could have gotten another four without seeing you except for you Dorian. Cause I want some of that but it’s that subtle undertone of everyone being super nice and super face I’m so happy to meet you and all this and all that.
[01:22:26] None of them care. And Celaena picks up on that so quick and she’s just Oh, well this is good interaction because it shows that she knows how to handle herself on multiple fronts. Like they do a thing and she’s I’m gonna stab a bitch. And then the other front and she’s like, All right, word games, I can deal,
[01:22:53] Ka-Ce: this. Heading into chapter 11, Chaol has to wake up Celaena on her first [01:23:00] day of competition. She, like many of us, stayed up too late reading her books from Dorian. And as she’s getting ready, she thinks to herself, it would have been nice if Dorian had considered springing her from Endovier earlier so she could have had time to regain her strength.
[01:23:16] How long had he known about the competition? I figured, this is a good point. Do you think he purposefully sprung her out last minute even though he wants her to win, or do you think he had opposition and it took him longer to spring her out than he expected, which is why it just seems so rushed and so last minute?
[01:23:40] James: I don’t, that’s a good point, actually. Yeah. Cause as you get to know his character, he doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would wait last minute to, to get things done. Right. Cause he’s got plans. Other than a [01:24:00] couple of occasions where he goes in with a half baked plan he’s gotta
[01:24:06] figure some stuff out. But for the most part, he seems like he’s trying to chess this, right? And he’s got three, four steps ahead. Whereas he’s dealing with his father who’s like a whole nother chess board away. Cause he’s just
[01:24:24] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:24:25] James: All over the place. so yeah, I would probably think. Or imagine that he just could not get it together to get her as soon as he wanted. He probably, but see, then I think about it what would be the best way to keep somebody off their game
[01:24:46] Than to get them at the last minute so that they feel rushed? Because if she is the most dangerous assassin, right?
[01:24:59] You don’t want [01:25:00] her getting her strength back too quickly before the competition, because then there’s a chance that she’s going to. Get that strength and leave, kill you, kill some other people whatever. But if
[01:25:13] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:25:14] James: there, and you’ve got her on a tight schedule of just the barest of time, and the barest of whatever, and you’re like, Hey, move it or lose it, lady.
[01:25:23] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:25:24] James: That’s gonna keep her off her game. And if she is truly the best assassin, she’s gonna figure a way out on how to adapt. It feels like it’s a gamble on his part. Like I can’t have her, I need her strong, but I can’t have her too strong,
[01:25:44] Ka-Ce: hmm. Mm hmm. Mm
[01:25:46] James: but I can’t have her too weak for too long because that’s a.
[01:25:52] feel I actually would be leaning towards that. And I feel like that’s a hell of a gamble for him to take. [01:26:00] Because he is trying to keep her improving, but not improving so fast that she becomes a liability to him and what he’s trying to do.
[01:26:18] Ka-Ce: I
[01:26:18] James: think that’s I, would be willing to, go along that route, I think.
[01:26:23] Ka-Ce: I
[01:26:23] James: think
[01:26:24] Ka-Ce: you make a good argument. So as Celaena’s rushing to eat breakfast and everything Celaena and Chaol are getting their banter on and I love that she calls him out on his treatment of her because he has been treating her as this dangerous criminal, which she is a dangerous assassin. Sorry, I just realized Jammies is sleeping on my box of pictures. So he’s been treating [01:27:00] her as this dangerous criminal assassin, but then he shows this moment of treating her with some concern and trying to help her out before she steps in front of the king and everything.
[01:27:15] And then very next day, he goes back to treating her like a criminal. And she says, if I say I’m a jewel thief, will you treat me with more courtesy? And I think he like has to stop and think about that. He’s not used to a being called out on his shit, but he’s not used to being called out on his shit by a supposed hardened criminal. So yeah.
[01:27:43] James: also liked And I’m trying to see, I feel like part of the reason why he’s so mad is because she went behind his back to get the books. And As soon as he found [01:28:00] out about that, he was like, this little shit. All right. You know what?
[01:28:04] Ka-Ce: Because,
[01:28:05] James: I was, nice to her yesterday, but damn it.
[01:28:11] Ka-Ce: Well, yeah, because proper protocol, she’s not supposed to contact the Prince and she did. Yeah, of course she’s gonna be smug about it.
[01:28:19] James: but yeah I, feel like that is part of the reason why he’s, being so ornery this next day is cause he probably heard about it from Dorian. And then he’s what the f, I
[01:28:39] Ka-Ce: and yeah, like he, he’s going to wake her up and he sees all the books and he’s like, why aren’t you awake? And she’s I was up late. I was reading all the books.
[01:28:48] James: know it’s hard to relate though. Huh?
[01:28:52] Ka-Ce: yeah, I don’t know what that’s
[01:28:54] James: Not at all, no.
[01:28:55] Ka-Ce: staying up until two, three in the morning, one more chapter. [01:29:00] And then, yeah, trudging the next day at work.
[01:29:04] James: Mm hmm. Well, yeah, this did not work in her favor for the day’s activities, for sure. So he gets her up, they got their banter which, I enjoy the banter in this, because, I feel like, regardless of what they want, you can see the budding of the friendship that’s starting to, come neither one of them admit it, right?
[01:29:39] No, she’s an assassin and a prisoner. Oh, he’s the captain of the guard and, a dick. You know, as we go through and we find out that Chaol basically doesn’t have anyone he can talk to. Can talk to Dorian, but Dorian’s still the prince. Really confide in [01:30:00] him with things.
[01:30:02] He obviously, they do banter Dorian and Chaol, but
[01:30:06] Ka-Ce: yeah,
[01:30:07] James: third
[01:30:07] party. Yeah, she has, there’s no pomp and circumstance with her because she is nobody so she says something and so then he goes, well, bullshit and says something back and I think both of them are like, all right, I like that
[01:30:28] Ka-Ce: Yeah
[01:30:28] James: There’s
[01:30:29] just,
[01:30:29] Ka-Ce: different kind of banter with her and Chaol versus her and Dorian.
[01:30:33] James: yeah, they’re enjoying it. They won’t admit it, but they’re, enjoying it.
[01:30:37] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:30:41] James: I was like in the, I don’t remember, but yeah. Okay.
[01:30:47] Ka-Ce: So they rush through the castle, rush through the barracks, they get to this large rectangular room, it’s like the grand ballroom where all the champions are already sparring with their sponsor’s trainers. And this room is [01:31:00] heavily guarded, like all the way around, heavily guarded. There’s a rack of weapons with nearly every different type of weapon.
[01:31:08] And Celaena says she’s familiar with them all, but also realizes, I think for the first time, she’s finally realizing that, yeah she may know her stuff, but so do all of her competitors. So maybe she doesn’t have a leg up on the competition like she originally thought. So, which is what you’ve been saying all along.
[01:31:31] Chaol
[01:31:33] James: was girl, you don’t get cocky girl. That’s what happens. You know what?
[01:31:42] And
[01:31:43] I, I I just want to say, I know that it’s coming later, but before it even came, I pretty much called, it where I was like, she, in her mind, [01:32:00] she is still Ardalan, Arda, lands, Adarlans yeah, I can’t, I’m gonna f*** those words up, she’s still the best assassin, right?
[01:32:12] She keeps forgetting, she’s been out of the game for over a year. Right. Her body shrunk to nothing. I mean, you get, you still have muscle when you’re like swinging a pickaxe or whatever, but you’d be surprised at how much you can get done with not a lot, especially if you’re just doing and you’re not doing like full body swings and stuff like
[01:32:33] that.
[01:32:34] Ka-Ce: I think she does mention that it was a heavy pickaxe, and I think they were doing, but
[01:32:42] James: Yeah. It’s,
[01:32:42] going to be minimal though.
[01:32:45] Ka-Ce: movement. Yeah, so you’re
[01:32:47] James: So in, in her mind, she’s I’m still number one. And it’s okay. A year ago. You were probably number one, but [01:33:00] you have forgotten that time has passed and you’ve lost a lot of muscle mass and and endurance and stamina. And, so her seeing that she’s not the only one who can use all the weapons is a good wake up call for her.
[01:33:21] Cause it’s Oh, ah, damn it. And, then of course, later on, and this is what I was saying, I called this where she has her training sessions
[01:33:33] Ka-Ce: yeah,
[01:33:35] James: I knew that was coming because, there’s no way there’s, no way that she would be able to just pick up she was and then continue.
[01:33:48] And I and it, was important and I’m glad that it was addressed that she recognizes and sees these little glimpses and goes, oh, I [01:34:00] have to address that
[01:34:04] Ka-Ce: Yeah,
[01:34:05] James: It’s, again, it’s good character development
[01:34:09] Ka-Ce: it is.
[01:34:10] James: recognizing that, there’s something that she’s got to pay attention to. I, appreciated that little attention that was put in there.
[01:34:22] Ka-Ce: Oh, no, I did too. I love these books. I love my romantasy. I love having the female main character. But a lot of times they are these young 18, 20 year olds and they come in with no previous knowledge of how to fight or their magic system or whatever. They’re suddenly thrown into something and then overnight, they’re like, bam,
[01:34:49] Warrior, the best whatever, and it’s yeah, this was a fun book, but it’s not realistic.
[01:34:56] Not saying that Throne of Glass is realistic, but it’s a fantasy [01:35:00] world. And she was trained as an assassin her whole life. She was really good at what she did. But yeah, she was thrown into the salt mines and now she’s coming back. Of course, she still has her ego, but as you said oh crap, she’s realizing she’s not at the top of her game anymore, like she thinks she is.
[01:35:20] And it’s so good to have that realism tied in into this fantasy world.
[01:35:26] James: Well, and I think that’s pretty natural. What people, I feel would fall into two camps with that. Like they’d come out of that and be like, don’t stand a chance with this. What’s the point of even trying, or you fall into the camp of I’m good. I still got it. And then you’re humbled quickly.
[01:35:47] Ka-Ce: Yeah,
[01:35:48] James: Know,
[01:35:49] Ka-Ce: humbled and then you’re like, okay, now it’s time for my, glow up scene, my training montage.
[01:35:55] James: Yeah, exactly.
[01:35:58] Ka-Ce: So Cain enters [01:36:00] and immediately heads straight for her. He looks her up and down and says he thought she’d have run off by now. And she gives him the tight lip smile and responds, the fun’s just starting, isn’t it? He chuckles, whatever, grabs the weapons he wants to train with and leaves. And Celaena is just filled with rage. Who the hell does he think he is, was this intimidation tactic on Cain’s side? Just, is he that much of a bully that he’s gonna pick on her, the one female? But what does it also say about Chaol? Because Chaol brought her down there.
[01:36:43] He escorted her, and he didn’t say anything. He watched this whole interaction, didn’t say anything but once Kain leaves, he tells Celaena to save it for the competition. To save her rage [01:37:00] for the competition and I don’t know. I cause he is the guard.
[01:37:11] James: Yeah, I this whole interaction I like this interaction because it shows the conflicting space that she’s in. So, so you have Cain that comes up and he’s Oh, I thought you were going to run by now. And she’s blah, blah, blah, talking real big. Right.
[01:37:37] Ka-Ce: Yeah
[01:37:38] James: I’m gonna put him in an unmarked grave and all this stuff and just being very, just but then she’s talking and Chaol’s calm down, calm your shit. And she’s I will not call my shit like
[01:37:59] Ka-Ce: [01:38:00] yeah.
[01:38:00] James: and then she immediately gets mad and turns on him.
[01:38:05] And she’s thanks for interfering. And he’s he didn’t need my help. And she’s it would have been nice. It’s okay. Like you’re expecting him to act like this knight in shining armor, because you’re this damsel. And he’s nah, bitch, you are the assassin. You don’t need my help.
[01:38:27] Ka-Ce: But see, I think yes, she doesn’t need his help to fight her own battles, but I think, was her way of reaching out because she hasn’t had someone in her corner for so
[01:38:40] James: Oh, definitely.
[01:38:41] Ka-Ce: And,
[01:38:43] James: But I think it was his way of keeping her at arm’s distance and being like I’m not your friend. I’m not here to help you in any other way, other than to get you back up to competition level.[01:39:00]
[01:39:00] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:39:00] James: she’s it is, it’s like their little interaction, you feel like there’s a subtext of her being like, I thought you were my friend.
[01:39:08] And he’s we’re not friends.
[01:39:10] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:39:12] James: It’s I’ve known you for three days.
[01:39:17] Ka-Ce: Yeah. I, no, I do. I see that.
[01:39:21] James: It leads to a great scene because then they get into it.
[01:39:26] Ka-Ce: yeah.
[01:39:26] James: fine, if you’re so tough, back it up. And she’s boy,
[01:39:31] Ka-Ce: Hmm.
[01:39:32] James: she’s and he’s No, let’s do it.
[01:39:35] Ka-Ce: Let’s do it. Yeah. Yeah, so she chooses the, was it rapier? Rapier?
[01:39:42] James: it’s a rate it’s pronounced rapier. Yeah.
[01:39:45] Ka-Ce: Okay. To duel. And I love That’s what she chooses, he withdraws his sword, unsheathes his sword, and he takes up the basic fighting stance, and is on guard. And [01:40:00] she’s who the hell says on guard? The f***?
[01:40:05] James: I also love that she at everything and she, points out that she’s they took everything from me. Even the silverware. But they’re letting me handle swords.
[01:40:19] Ka-Ce: Right?
[01:40:23] I
[01:40:24] James: can I
[01:40:24] Ka-Ce: with dinner, but
[01:40:26] James: can I butter my can I butter my bread with a rapier? Will they let me take it?
[01:40:34] Ka-Ce: So, yeah, they start, they’re ha they’re pretty good. playful banter again as they’re sizing each other up. And she’s forced to admit that he’s pretty skilled and stronger, but she’s quicker. Chaol trips her to win and Celaena notices that Cain saw her go down and Cain grins at her, which further enrages her.
[01:40:59] [01:41:00] Chaol tells her that she has skill, but some moves are undisciplined. And this whole thing, cause we had just binge watched the Dragon Prince from Netflix and I immediately thought of that very first episode where we see Callum and Soren like fighting with the wooden swords in the courtyard.
[01:41:21] James: Nobody goes for the sweep!
[01:41:24] Ka-Ce: Callum, yeah, he tries to do like the sword sweep at Soren’s ankles and Soren’s that’s not a thing. And Callum’s but, and then he later sees Rayla do it and he’s ah, I knew it. And That just whole thing just reminded me. Like
[01:41:39] James: Yeah,
[01:41:40] Ka-Ce: like, oh my God, this is so,
[01:41:42] James: I really liked too that they made Chaol, I almost called him Callum. I really liked that they like, that they made Chaol he’s what is the word? He’s very [01:42:00] I can’t think of the word obviously he’s the captain of the guard, right? But
[01:42:08] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:42:09] James: a lot of times in these stories, you get where the main character comes in and, Ugh, I’ve never picked up a sword before. I’ve never picked up a bow. I’ve never cast a spell. And the other person’s I’ve been doing this for 1500 years.
[01:42:24] And then the new person beats them. Oh my god, I’ve never been beaten by a newbie before.
[01:42:32] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:42:32] James: that so much, and they did not do that, or, not they, she did not do that here, and I’m like, yes, thank you, he’s the captain of the guard for a freakin reason,
[01:42:44] Ka-Ce: Like he should know how to handle his stuff. And
[01:42:48] it, it was nice that Celaena was forced to admit, like despite his on guard and his standard stance, that he actually knew what he was doing and [01:43:00] he actually managed to trip her and catch her off
[01:43:02] James: guard.
[01:43:02] Because he is a good soldier
[01:43:05] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:43:06] James: Yeah, I like that. He’s a good soldier. He’s not a OK soldier or a you know what I mean? Like he legitimately
[01:43:16] Ka-Ce: Knows how
[01:43:17] James: want him. Yeah, you want him on your side because he will. He will. He will take care of shit for you.
[01:43:25] Ka-Ce: Yeah. They continue to spar. This time she goes for hunting knives and that just leads us right into chapter 12, where Theodos Brullo the head weapons master and the judge of the competition comes in. We get that he’s older, he’s stocky, balding man, was a weapons master of 30 years, and he’s trained many, people.
[01:43:50] And Celaena determines that he must have trained Chaol. He’s a no shit he straight up [01:44:00] tells everybody, You’re all here, we all know that you’re going under aliases, that you’re here with some stupid lame story to tell in front of all the nobles and shit. Let’s get this out, give me your names.
[01:44:14] Give me who you, what you are. So this is our introduction. quick introduction to the rest of the contestants. And, I wish that we could pull up like you were watching the X Men cartoons and at the end, they had the character and the, stats and they’re rotating.
[01:44:35] Yeah I, wish we had that for this.
[01:44:39] James: I know. Right. I’d have to go and look at them and be like, and now pause while we.
[01:44:45] Ka-Ce: Right?
[01:44:46] James: Don’t look at where my hands are pointing because I’m not putting anything up there guys. I’m just doing that cuz maybe
[01:44:55] Ka-Ce: So we have Cain.[01:45:00]
[01:45:00] James: Maybe when we eventually get the website done and we do
[01:45:05] Ka-Ce: You’re going to
[01:45:06] James: We can put like a character sheet in the description or something. I don’t know. Don’t hold me to it
[01:45:12] Ka-Ce: No, I
[01:45:13] James: I’m a very busy man
[01:45:16] Ka-Ce: So we have Cain. He’s the soldier in the king’s army from White Fang Mountains, and Celaena is surprised because many people from the White Fang Mountains rebelled against Adarlan, so why is he here? Next we have Xavier Forul, master thief of Melisande. We have six seasoned soldiers, all thrown out for questionable behavior. Three thieves, including dark haired, gray eyed Nox Owen. Three mercenaries, looking ready to boil someone alive. Two shackled murderers. Chastain, Chastain? Eye Eater. He ate the eyes of his victims.
[01:45:58] James: how is she worse [01:46:00] than that guy?
[01:46:01] Ka-Ce: Right? And Ned Clement, aka Scythe, notorious for using a scythe to torture and hack apart priestesses. Celaena is surprised that these two were not executed, but from their tan skin she guesses that they were at Calaculla, the southern sister labor camp to Endovier. So why would the king keep two notorious murderers alive, unless it’s exactly for this sort of champion
[01:46:32] James: really makes you wonder how far in advance the king has planned all of his stuff. Now I’m sure that as I get further into the series, I will figure out how much the king has planned.
[01:46:47] Ka-Ce: Yeah,
[01:46:48] James: considering I’m very slow and I’m still on Heir of Fire.
[01:46:55] Ka-Ce: We are going to have a reading retreat weekend where you’re just going to sit and read.
[01:46:59] James: [01:47:00] we’re going to get to the point where we’re going to get to Heir of fire and then each chapter is going to be new to me as we do the thing. We’d be like, I just read this last week,
[01:47:11] Ka-Ce: Your mind’s going to just be exploding like from week to
[01:47:15] week.
[01:47:15] James: Pretty much. But it does make you wonder how much at this point, how much the king has planned in advance. How long has he been planning this competition, the champion? The things that he wants the champion to do that we get into in the next one.
[01:47:37] Ka-Ce: Hmm.
[01:47:38] James: and
[01:47:44] It, just, it leaves a lot of questions that don’t necessarily have any real answers yet. Because even on that regard, like, why wouldn’t Cain have been killed? Because, I mean, if they were from a [01:48:00] very rebellious area of, The country, he’s very capable and very strong. So why would you keep him alive?
[01:48:10] Unless there’s a
[01:48:11] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:48:12] James: reason for it, which I mean, we find out, but I feel like
[01:48:18] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:48:19] James: person, not every person, most of these people have a purpose of some kind, you just don’t know what that purpose is. I don’t think the purpose is for her to really win in any maybe give a good show, but.
[01:48:37] Ka-Ce: But hopefully somebody will take her out. Two birds, one stone.
[01:48:42] James: Yeah, because it’ll put Dorian back in his place. Okay, you had your fun, your champion didn’t cut the mustard. Now listen, to what your father tells you,
[01:48:55] Ka-Ce: yeah.
[01:48:58] James: Or [01:49:00] it’s just it, Yeah, it sets up a whole just what is the plan here, because
[01:49:07] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:49:08] James: very interesting. I think it’s very interesting.
[01:49:12] Ka-Ce: Yep. So, continuing on, we have two scarred, silent men who seem to be cronies of some far off warlord. We have five assassins, not including Celaena. Four of them are not even in the Assassin’s Guild. She mentions that she would keep an eye on them, but they’re also not from the silent assassins from the Red Desert.
[01:49:34] One is a gangly, haughty boy. One’s a hulking brute. So One’s a disdainful run of a man. One’s a sniveling, hawk nosed prat who claimed an infinity for knives. Aw, we having Trouble.. And we have Grave, the last assassin who gave her paws. He’s the third person who entered the room wearing shackles. He’s grimy, oily, looks her [01:50:00] up and down and smiles.
[01:50:01] And she notes that he’s the type that never stopped at just killing, especially with females. So he’s the one out of all of the other assassins that she’s I need to keep an eye on him.
[01:50:13] James: It’s never, good when a character is described as oily.
[01:50:21] Ka-Ce: No,
[01:50:22] James: up a visual of just a person who is greasy from
[01:50:29] Ka-Ce: not
[01:50:29] James: not bathing and just Doing all manner of what, and they don’t care about their presentation because they have one thing in mind and that is to kill or whatever,
[01:50:47] um, just brings up just not great visual
[01:50:52] Of, of the character, like at all,
[01:50:56] Ka-Ce: yeah. Celaena is forced to introduce [01:51:00] herself as Lillian, Jewel Thief from Bellhaven..
[01:51:03] Is embarrassed. Oh yeah, she’s embarrassed as all of the men snicker. Celaena is told to keep a low profile by Chaol, and this rubs her the wrong way for obvious reasons. And he, mentions that it was foolish to spar with her in front of everyone because he didn’t think she would be that good.
[01:51:24] And I find this Like a little contradictory because he knows her reputation and despite having guards surrounding her room, having kept her chained to him like throughout their journey to Rifthold and everything. He’s yeah I didn’t think you’d be that good. So that’s why we sparred in front of everybody like dude, it’s one thing or the other. Like I don’t
[01:51:49] James: know.
[01:51:50] Yeah, that’s, I mean, it is odd.
[01:51:56] Ka-Ce: everybody. This is Trouble. If you’re watching on YouTube. This is our [01:52:00] oldest. He’s our tuxedo.
[01:52:02] James: Yeah. He’s a good boy. But yeah it, it’s, I feel like he’s chastising her when he knows that he let his temper get the better of him because she kept talking crap and he was like, fine, you know what, throw down. And then she’s fine, throw it out. Well, what’s he going to do? He can’t be like, Oh, well, no.
[01:52:28] Okay. He’s the captain of the guard. He’s not going to walk away from that. So it’s like he walked himself into a situation
[01:52:37] Ka-Ce: and he
[01:52:37] James: before.
[01:52:38] Ka-Ce: he does he can’t hold back either in front of all the criminals. They gotta know that he’s, especially in front of his own guards, too, that are surrounding everything.
[01:52:48] Um,
[01:52:49] James: So I feel like, yeah, he’s chastising her, but it’s really he’s the one who’s like, aww dang it. I blew that one.[01:53:00]
[01:53:00] Ka-Ce: yeah. He is thankful that no one noticed how good she actually is with weapons. He doesn’t want anyone sizing her up for the competition. Doesn’t want her to excel. her to stay hidden, or stay in the middle of the pact. That way they can focus their attention on getting rid of the bigger, stronger, faster champions like Cain. That way when they realize it’s the final day of the test, they are up against her, the look on their faces will make all of the insults and lack of attention worthwhile. So, I mean, when he spells it out, it’s a good strategy. It still stings. It still sucks.
[01:53:37] James: But that’s the thing is that he is thinking about the strategy, and if she is even in her weakened state, if she’s too good, too soon people are going to pay attention to her and you don’t want people paying attention to her. [01:54:00] Because then she’ll lose her edge, especially with her being not on her a-game, like she feels like she’s on her a game.
[01:54:08] She’s not on her. She’s, I mean, she’s at best. She’s at her D plus level right now. She doesn’t want to admit it. I saw that eyebrow quirk.
[01:54:18] Ka-Ce: I mean, I don’t know, for having been in the mines and everything she, can, I feel like she could take out a lot of us.
[01:54:30] James: Well, yeah, that’s because we’re regular people. I couldn’t fight off a horde of old ladies. What are you talking about? But okay, maybe a C minus the whole point is, that she feels like she’s a lot better and more capable than she is. And she has to face the stark reality that she is not as good as she was, and I think I feel like she [01:55:00] has to face that in order to get better, because otherwise, yeah, she’s going to take it for granted, and then she’s going to get trounced so keeping her in the middle of the pack, because when you’re the at the end, you get picked off.
[01:55:21] It’s easy. It’s easy. You’re like, Oh yeah, just, let me just nudge that one off. And, but the middle of the pack are the ones that you you pay attention to cause you’re like, this could be where they are, or they could be better.
[01:55:38] But I don’t know. So I’m just gonna not really devote a lot of energy to them yet.
[01:55:44] Right. And in terms of keeping her off of pretty much everyone’s radar. I think it, it works to her advantage as much as she hates it. But obviously who wouldn’t hate it? [01:56:00] Like you’re the best at what you do. And now you’re a nameless, nobody doing subpar. But
[01:56:07] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[01:56:08] James: I think too, I feel like maybe Chaol was also looking at the situation and going, if she goes all out, she’s going to burn out so fast.
[01:56:19] Ka-Ce: Yeah. That’s
[01:56:20] true.
[01:56:21] James: going to go all out for this competition. Right. Say the first competition, and then happens if she goes all out and then she’s got to sleep for three days to recover, she loses those three days of training,
[01:56:36] Ka-Ce: Yeah. That’s
[01:56:37] true.
[01:56:38] James: go mediocre I mean, that’s what they tell you when you work out and you’re doing weight training and stuff.
[01:56:44] It doesn’t do you any good to go in and go out and do 25 max squats or whatever. And then you can’t walk for the next five days because your glutes hurt so bad [01:57:00] because
[01:57:01] Ka-Ce: You gotta take it
[01:57:01] gradually.
[01:57:02] James: And I feel like he’s not saying it, but he is trying to help her. By forcing her to take it slow because sees that she’s got a ways to go to recover. She may not realize it, but I mean, this is what he does for a living. He trains soldiers and he trains and he knows you can’t go in from zero to a hundred in a day. Because then you lose, I mean, you’ll lose every time. So I feel like it’s a good strategy. Which we immediately see after when the first test is running
[01:57:46] Ka-Ce: I don’t think it’s a test.
[01:57:47] James: or
[01:57:48] Ka-Ce: But
[01:57:49] James: well, they have to go.
[01:57:50] Ka-Ce: as a group is, yeah, they have to go running, and those who
[01:57:54] James: You know,
[01:57:54] Ka-Ce: distance are forced to go home.
[01:57:57] James: I mean, it’s just like a test[01:58:00]
[01:58:00] Ka-Ce: yeah, I guess so, weed them out. But yeah, so she does, stick to the middle of the pack during the run and, she does she is sick by it, even though she stuck to the middle, and even though she wanted to be the first place she, makes an excuse that she dropped her ring and had to go back to go find it, when she’s out of sight of everybody she goes and she pukes her guts up, but dude, I’ve been there.
[01:58:33] James: well, and I mean, and imagine if she had gone full out, like she may have gotten to the end of the race and immediately puked her guts out in front of everybody.
[01:58:46] Ka-Ce: Yeah,
[01:58:46] James: that,
[01:58:47] Ka-Ce: have put her,
[01:58:48] James: yeah, that would have not been a good, I mean, that might’ve gotten her sent home. Like they might’ve looked at that and said, yeah, technically you finished, but
[01:58:57] Ka-Ce: if you can’t handle the distance, you can’t handle the [01:59:00] speed, then
[01:59:00] James: yeah. And then Chaol coming to find her afterwards and he doesn’t even say anything. He’s just watching her. I, feel like he knew that this was, if, not if for certain that this was gonna happen, I feel like he thought there’s a very high possibility that she’s gonna react negatively to exercise in general right now, because just of how her body is it’s one thing to be strong and have the muscle on, but if you don’t have stamina and endurance and good breathing, I mean, she’s in the mines.
[01:59:41] So you’ve got dirt, dust, and lack of movement, her lung capacity ain’t shit now a deep breath for her probably hurts so, I feel like he was looking at this from multiple angles and he was like, [02:00:00] I’m gonna,
[02:00:00] Ka-Ce: she can’t handle this run, then,
[02:00:03] James: yeah, I’m gonna tell her You got to keep it in the middle to keep a low profile, but what he’s not telling her is, I need her to keep it in the middle so that she doesn’t kill herself before we get to the
[02:00:17] Final thing.
[02:00:19] So I think it was smart. And I think he, he knew what he was doing. Cause like I said he, trains soldiers. That’s something he sees every day.
[02:00:33] Ka-Ce: it’s literally his
[02:00:34] James: It’s literally his job. And so he looks at that and says just, do this. If you want to get better, just do this, please. That’s how I look at it anyway. So, so then they’ve done their run. [02:01:00] We roll now into 13. It’s lunchtime when they get released. What’s his name? Brullo, Celaena is super hungry. She’s I could eat everything right now. And Chaol is basically this is great and all, but you need to bathe, cause this is.
[02:01:34] Ka-Ce: stinks,
[02:01:35] James: is this is not good. Aren’t you supposed to be a lady? And, she’s definitely not eating like one, which I think also he’s kinda she is the exact opposite of everything that he
[02:01:55] Ka-Ce: has
[02:01:56] James: grown up with. He’s women don’t [02:02:00] do, they don’t do This This is not this is not how this works. And then so there’s banter in the lunch area, right. And we’re seeing them connect more. And honestly this is banter that I think we can all like connect with.
[02:02:29] I mean, I feel like you and I have banter like this on a daily basis, just about it’s just she’s, what did she say? She’s Oh, I hate fish. I’d rather die than eat it. And he’s that’s surprising. Why? Cause you smell like what?
[02:02:48] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[02:02:49] James: He has, he’s Oh, I lost Trouble. He’s he’s got no tact, but he doesn’t care about having tact.
[02:02:57] He’s just
[02:02:58] Ka-Ce: No.
[02:02:59] James: this is a [02:03:00] situation and the fish smells better than you do. And she just, she’s just was like, bro, what?
[02:03:10] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[02:03:13] James: And, then of course What does he say? Oh, he likes her fighting when he says that her manners are a disgrace and that she’s like, Oh, I can be a lady if you want.
[02:03:25] And he’s just
[02:03:29] Ka-Ce: I’ll believe it when I see it, of, uh, yeah,
[02:03:33] James: if you can, then maybe do it. But yeah, we’ll we’ll, see. But again, the banter shows that they are, becoming more comfortable being around. Each other’s presence, at least they’re still at the point where obviously they’re not friends.
[02:03:56] They’ve only known each other for five days, but [02:04:00] they are at least seeing some connection and how they can talk with each other. It’s a like minded people seek each other out.
[02:04:19] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[02:04:21] James: a a person that they can talk to and. And there’s just something about it. When you find a person that you can banter with, never stops.
[02:04:32] Ka-Ce: Oh no,
[02:04:33] James: Like literally everything that comes out of your face is going to be snarky just to see if the other person acknowledges it or gets something
[02:04:44] Ka-Ce: can match it.
[02:04:45] James: exactly. There’s just something about it. And once you know that somebody does you can’t. You can’t turn it off. Like
[02:04:53] Ka-Ce: No, it just comes naturally. It just flows.
[02:04:56] James: that? It’s, what’s that, meme [02:05:00] that’s on Instagram where this is the thing where they’re like you take it off. I can’t take it off. Take it off. I can’t take it off. It’s always with the makeup, with the cosplay.
[02:05:11] Ka-Ce: Oh
[02:05:12] James: you seen, have you seen any of the, that’s what I, with the banter, it’s once it’s there, that’s it.
[02:05:18] You’re, you will never go back to a normal conversation.
[02:05:22] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[02:05:29] James: But it’s, good that we see we see this interaction with them and apparently it has, the whole situation has an effect on her because the next morning when he comes to get her, he doesn’t have to wake her up because she’s already, she’s back to trying to work out because she is [02:06:00] seeing now the gap that she’s got to get through you know what I mean?
[02:06:08] She’s
[02:06:09] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[02:06:09] James: that was okay, but yeah, I got to do better.
[02:06:16] Um,
[02:06:20] Ka-Ce: yeah, so she might have to pretend that she’s middle of the pack, but she definitely won’t train to be in the middle.
[02:06:28] James: No, not at all.
[02:06:32] Ka-Ce: And, he acknowledges that. Without saying anything, he acknowledges and appreciates that, she’s taking that initiative.
[02:06:42] James: No, it’s good. I liked the character development that, showed her acknowledging her shortcoming and, wanting to, and her realizing that time is of the essence. Like
[02:06:55] Ka-Ce: yeah, she doesn’t have a moment to lose.
[02:06:58] James: going to have to get [02:07:00] back what she lost, or she’s not going to stand a chance,
[02:07:05] Ka-Ce: Yeah
[02:07:06] Definitely.
[02:07:06] James: of worry a little bit she’s still in that mode where I still got this,
[02:07:16] Ka-Ce: But, it could be better.
[02:07:18] James: make double sure. I gotta get a little bit better. So yeah. Let’s see. So we then have the What happened? Oh, so in the afternoon, training is cancelled due to rain. She gets permission from Chaol to walk around in the castle since he doesn’t have anything else to do. And she gets to meet her favourite person again Lady Kaltain.
[02:07:54] Ka-Ce: Oh yay..
[02:07:56] James: But then we meet a new person, Princess Nehemia, [02:08:00] who is from somewhere that I’m not gonna try to say.
[02:08:04] Ka-Ce: Eyllwe..
[02:08:05] James: Eyllwe? Okay.
[02:08:09] Ka-Ce: See, you would know this if you listened to the audiobooks.
[02:08:11] James: I ain’t got time
[02:08:12] for that. And so, yeah. They, they have their nice little interaction. Trying to find the spot where the interaction was.
[02:08:31] Ka-Ce: Celaena starts speaking to Princess Nehemia in Nehemia’s language
[02:08:38] James: Oh yes,
[02:08:41] Ka-Ce: she is speaking with the intonation of the peasants which Nehemia points out. And Celaena has to lie because nobody can know that she’s been a slave at Endovier. And that’s where she learned Eyllwe was from the slaves at Endovier.
[02:08:59] The slaves [02:09:00] talked about Princess Nehemia, boasting of her beauty and her bravery. She is the light of Eyllwe. And she’s going to save them from their plight, and she’s, supposedly going to pose a threat to the King of Adarlan. Not only that, she’s been smuggling information and supplies to the rebel groups hiding in Eyllwe. So you have Nehemia who doesn’t speak their common language. And, out of nowhere, Celaena is speaking Nehemia’s language, and everybody around them is just shocked. Like especially Chaol. He’s wait, what? I didn’t know you could speak another language.
[02:09:47] James: I also love that in the midst of all this, they’re still shitting on Lady Kaltain.
[02:09:54] Ka-Ce: poor Kaltain, man. But, I mean, she brings it on herself, too. Because she is [02:10:00] just being so pompous
[02:10:01] during all of this.
[02:10:02] James: But, even in another language, Nehemia’s Yes, and they assigned this one to me. And she’s just
[02:10:13] Ka-Ce: Get rid of her. Get rid of her now.
[02:10:17] James: This poor girl can’t get a break, Man.
[02:10:23] Ka-Ce: Even Nehemia is I hate this glass castle. It is the most foolish thing she’s seen. And I love that. Everybody is calling this glass castle out.
[02:10:35] James: Everybody hates this castle. I love that’s a common theme, that everyone just hates this damn castle.
[02:10:42] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[02:10:43] James: to be the the, pinnacle accomplishment of this kingdom. And everyone’s yeah,
[02:10:50] Ka-Ce: my God.
[02:10:51] James: but why?
[02:10:55] Ka-Ce: Yeah, So Celina wonders, because she did [02:11:00] hear all of this talk from the slaves during her times at the mines. What Nehemia’s true reason for being at the castle is. Nehemia tells her that her father sent her here to learn the language and the customs and maybe even potentially getting married to somebody to broker an alliance. But Celaena thinks that there’s still more to it. That Nehemia is not just there to learn the language and the customs. That,
[02:11:37] James: Dangerous work though.
[02:11:39] Ka-Ce: Oh yeah,
[02:11:40] James: definitely,
[02:11:41] ha
[02:11:42] Ka-Ce: there with the King of Adarlan. It, seriously. So dangerous. And I found it interesting that to wrap up that paragraph Nehemia is brought into this council, Chaol leads her there and everything, [02:12:00] but Celaena mentions that she, not mentions, thinks to herself that she has never had many friends, especially girls.
[02:12:07] the ones she did often disappointed her, such as What she had learned with her time at the Silent Assassins in the Red Desert. And she swore never to trust girls again, but now wondering if she had been wrong she had been able to connect to Nehemia so fast.
[02:12:25] James: Ha ha ha
[02:12:27] ha.
[02:12:28] Ka-Ce: the first time I read it, I thought of it as an interesting passage and I immediately thought Oh girl, please don’t be a pick-me girl.
[02:12:36] I, I don’t want to read a story about a pick-me or whatever you only hang out with dudes because blah, blah, blah I really like you, Celaena, please don’t be like that. And then this story and you continue learning more about Celaena and everything, and I can [02:13:00] see now, reading back, like where she’s coming from, it is heartbreaking.
[02:13:06] James: Hmm.
[02:13:06] Ka-Ce: I’ll say on that. I don’t know if you had any thoughts when you first read that paragraph.
[02:13:13] James: I mean, yeah along the same lines, honestly, just it’s hard when you don’t want to trust other people and, when you feel like you stand out from, I don’t know how to say she feels like the odd one out. Right. But then she does see something in this person that is very much like her.
[02:13:52] And probably because of the way she talks, where she’s very blunt about things [02:14:00] she’s not beating around the bush, she’s, she, she’s just when she’s talking, she’s get rid of her. I’m tired of seeing her face. She’s not doing that. She knows how to play the game of pomp and circumstance,
[02:14:24] But she’s not bothering to do it when she knows that nobody else can understand them.
[02:14:32] Um, and I mean, yeah, you would question whether that’s is she doing that to be more approachable, but in their world that would make her less approachable because she’s supposed to be a princess, but she’s talking very blunt and crude and so I think she, she does see that potential connection and it [02:15:00] is hard to want to reconnect when you’ve felt like you can’t.
[02:15:07] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[02:15:08] James: But yeah, I mean, it was good. I liked I liked a lot of the interaction that they had. It was just fun the way that Celaena is basing a lot of relationship stuff off of the way that she interacts with people.
[02:15:31] Mean, we all do that, right?
[02:15:33] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[02:15:34] James: but she’s doing it in such a way that it’s like, when I talk to this person, they are talking to me and they’re not giving me Like 90 percent of the time, they’re not giving me a line yes, they’re hiding Dorian’s hiding stuff and Chaol’s hiding stuff, right, but they’re not pampering her,
[02:15:56] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[02:15:57] James: her like an idiot, and they’re not treating her like [02:16:00] if Chaol’s got an issue, he’s just eh, I really don’t,
[02:16:07] Ka-Ce: it is.
[02:16:07] James: care what you think of me, this is my issue with you right at this exact moment today,
[02:16:12] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[02:16:13] James: Fix it, and and that’s she responds well to people who are honest about the way that they talk to you like, I think that’s the way that she gauges a lot of her relationship stuff is people who just talk like regular people.
[02:16:34] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[02:16:34] James: not trying to hide like lady Kaltain where she’s just Oh, well, aren’t you just the most precious flower in the Northeast garden of frozen wonder. Like.. You’re like, so did you just call me an ice bitch? Cause
[02:16:50] Ka-Ce: Yeah, is like a double, what is it, a double entranda you’re saying one thing, you mean something else, and the politics and [02:17:00]
[02:17:00] James: Yeah. Yeah. She doesn’t like the politics. So
[02:17:05] Ka-Ce: yeah. So while eating, think they’re eating dinner, Chaol watches Celaena, and, you know, Chaol’s lost in thought. The king hadn’t taken any of the guards Chaol suggested. As some of the royal hounds have also gone missing, their half eaten remains found on the northern wing of the palace. And, I’m just like, this is as the captain of the guard, wouldn’t you be questioning both of these things more?
[02:17:39] It’s not his place to question the king, but I figured this would be more than just a glancing thought. Wouldn’t you want to know which soldiers the king ended up taking? Like, why did he take those ones instead of the ones you suggested? What are their backgrounds? Why would he select those guys?
[02:17:58] And, I don’t know, [02:18:00] wouldn’t you want to know if there was a beast or a mad person or something that hanging around the castle that’s going around and attacking the royal hounds. You have this competition going, you have the queen that’s still here, and these ladies. You can’t just have something loose going around and attacking the dogs at the castle.
[02:18:21] James: yeah.
[02:18:23] Ka-Ce: this should have been more of his focus, but he’s eh, I’m gonna eat dinner with Celaena and I’m gonna think about these things. But also I’m here and not Doing research on all this other stuff that’s happening.
[02:18:40] James: Yeah. I mean it, did seem that it should have been more than a passing thought. But you know, maybe it wasn’t first time something like that had happened and they just thought there was some [02:19:00] wild beast that occasionally wandered into the court and that they’d have to find it and kill it. You don’t, you just don’t get enough backstory on if this was something like that’s happened before something new, something that’s unfortunate, but within expectations of living next to a forest
[02:19:21] Ka-Ce: True.
[02:19:22] Is true.
[02:19:23] James: you don’t know.
[02:19:24] And, yeah, reaction is a little passive, but You just don’t know. I mean, maybe he was told nothing else matters, you just keep your eye on her, and everything else is just somebody else’s problem. And that’s just, he is a soldier. So it’s this is a problem, but it’s not my problem.
[02:19:51] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[02:19:53] Deal with this first and everything else is secondary.
[02:19:56] James: yeah, it’s [02:20:00] yeah, it’s hard to, I don’t know. There’s just not enough information or really, it was an odd thing to just throw in there and then not, I mean, we do know we find out what it is, but you know it’s. I guess I would just say it’s probably just something not new just maybe occasionally they just, they find something somewhere, somehow, I don’t know, it’s just,
[02:20:37] Ka-Ce: And then we see Chaol is becoming like more intrigued by Celaena. She’s arrogant, yet clever, kind, and charming. And she teases him, like they’re bantering is like developing and and she asks if she wasn’t an assassin, would he fancy her and he says no, [02:21:00] but he’s at a he’s contradicting himself because he says no, he knows that she’s dangerous. But he is continuing to study her and watch her, but he’s noticing these things that she is clever and she is kind. She stopped to to Nehemia and put her at ease she likes to read. So it’s, you’re seeing, seeing a development of his character. He’s not just this straight, laced, edged, guard. He’s, his walls around her are coming down.
[02:21:42] James: oh yeah, well, and because he’s seeing the assassin and he’s seeing the woman and he’s having trouble keeping the two of them separate now, because he’s she kills a lot of things, but [02:22:00] she’s also petite. Not too hard on the eyes and, she calls him out on it and she’s yes and he’s just you eat weird,
[02:22:18] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[02:22:21] James: But yeah, it’s a nice it’s a nice development to see that, that knowingly or unknowingly he’s letting his preconceived notions of her are colliding with.
[02:22:42] The her that he’s met and then, yeah, they’re just developing. And
[02:22:52] Ka-Ce: So after all these chapters, team Dorian or team Chaol?
[02:22:58] James: yeah, this I’m still on [02:23:00] team Chaol at this point.
[02:23:02] Ka-Ce: Yeah. She, does have more scenes with Chaol. She, has very limited interaction with Dorian up till this point.
[02:23:12] James: Yeah.
[02:23:13] Well, even after all those other interactions, I still I’m on team Chaol because. He just I feel like there’s less potential BS involved with him. He has more opportunity to be to be real with her. Dorian is gonna always have to play that politics game. And as a member of the Royal family, you’re always going to be wondering if there’s an angle somewhere, somehow.
[02:23:55] Yeah.
[02:23:56] Ka-Ce: Which is a shame. I think, if Dorian wasn’t [02:24:00] a prince things
[02:24:03] James: yeah. If he was a son of a merchant or something, like I think hands down, he’d be like, he’d be giving a Chaol a run for his money Yeah.
[02:24:17] I think just by nature, the fact that Chaol and Celaena are with each other almost every day because of training and stuff, it’s just more natural for that relationship to grow faster.
[02:24:32] Ka-Ce: Yeah.
[02:24:33] James: She has a different relationship with Dorian because he’s an intellectual and the books and all this stuff. But at the end of the day, he is still royalty. He is still a politician and that just makes it hard. Yeah, just it’s unfortunate, but you know, it just, yeah, it is what it is.
[02:24:59] [02:25:00] And yeah. That wraps up our chapter 7 through 13. Uh, Anything else you want to point out or that you felt like we didn’t discuss? I feel like we covered everything.
[02:25:21] Yeah. I mean, we got a lot, we rambled on for quite a while. Jesus. Yeah, I just like that. We there’s a lot of character development. There’s good amount of the stories being set up here. I mean, there’s a lot more that still needs to be set up. But it’s at a, it’s at a nice pace we’re seeing a lot of the relationships being formed and we’re seeing some of the antagonists as they come in can’t figure out what some of the other ones are doing.
[02:25:59] We [02:26:00] have mid level antagonists. high level antagonists. So it’s just, yeah, interesting to see where all of everything is going to get tied together. How is it all going to play out? And who makes it out alive, really? Because not everybody does.
[02:26:25] Ka-Ce: Yep. All right, so I think that wraps up chapters 7 through 13. Next week we will go into chapters 14 through 20. So if you haven’t, read those chapters before joining us next week.
[02:26:47] James: if you like our our thing that we’re doing here, try to, get a view on, YouTube, give us a like [02:27:00] Instagram, YouTube Facebook, Tik Tok,
[02:27:07] subscribe. Once we figure out how to get this on to on the the other channels Hopefully you’ll be able to listen to this on Apple podcasts and some of the other ones as soon as I figure that out too. I say that it may already be done, so take this with a grain of salt. And yeah, so as we tend to do at the end of the episode, we just want to give a shout out to our friends over at K911 ResQ.
[02:27:42] They’re a rescue devoted to dogs and cats that nobody wants. They’re broken, defective, and depressed. They focus on senior homeless. And those that would otherwise be overlooked because they aren’t cute kittens and [02:28:00] puppies. Their mission is to save just as many as possible. It’s a lot of hard work.
[02:28:07] They do good stuff. So if you’re looking to adopt, foster, volunteer, or just want to make a donation, you can go to K911resQ.com. K911ResQ. com.
[02:28:21] Ka-Ce: And we will put the link in the show
[02:28:23] notes.
[02:28:24] James: links in the show, and it’ll show up in the captions as well. And yeah, I think that about wraps it up. So we will see you next time.
[02:28:38] Ka-Ce: Alright, take care, happy reading!
