Previously, SO I WAS WRONG ABOUT ELAIN’S KIDNAPPING MEANING THE STORY WAS RAMPING UP. She’s fine. Everyone’s fine. Just a fun diversion before we get to the big climactic battle, I guess.
Also Mor confides in Feyre that she’s bi and that she hasn’t told any of her other friends that she’s known for hundreds of years, which super checks out for the one queer character in a story about the importance of found family. (Like, I’m the straight cis dude reader here, no one needs me to add my two cents about the nuance or accuracy of how a bisexual woman is represented in this book, buuuuut that doesn’t not strike me as at least a thematically curious choice?)
So. I was wrong about Elain’s kidnapping meaning anything. I have failed as a critic/summarizer in helping us all understand where the hell we are in this story, what it’s doing, etc. So, 600 pages into book 3, it’s time to pull out the big guns. Let’s talk about a little something called… the hero’s journey.
“Wait, a second,” the three readers who read this blog and are also huge Polygon fans are thinking, “Didn’t Polygon just do this?” Yes, they did! I’m stealing the idea. Just like how storytellers all steal these ideas from each other. Yes, dear reader. Stealing is how we grow.
“Matthew, I’m not watching a 15-minute video about Kingdom Hearts to understand three chapters of A Court of Wings and Ruin.” Fair enough! We’re going to go over it in this post too! But to hit the ground running, Brian David Gilbert kicks things off with this explanation:
We’re talking about the hero’s journey, or the monomyth. This is a concept that’s been around for a long time […] We’ve got twelve stages [that stories use] to help orient you.
TWELVE STAGES! I think we can argue that, taking the ACOTAR saga as a whole, maybe we’ve gone this far:
- Introduction in the Ordinary World (Feyre is a badass human hunter [lol remember that] taking care of her uncaring human family in an uncaring world. Also Clare Beddor is there and despite never having a single line of dialogue or even appearing, is incredibly important)
- Call to Adventure (Tamlin shows up and tells Feyre she’s in Beauty and the Beast now)
- Refusal of the Call (Feyre wants to escape the dangerous faerie world and return home… and does at one point, even after she starts to warm up to Tamlin, but…
- Meeting With The Mentor (…I think this might technically be Nesta telling her to go back to the faeries? Damn, Nesta, you are the best character in this story! I fucking knew it!)
- Crossing the Threshold (Feyre goes back and fights Amarantha, sacrifices herself and becomes and immortal faerie/incredibly OP)
- Tests, Allies, and Enemies (…aaaaaand I think this is the entirety of A Court of Mist and Fury and even A Court of Wings and Ruin up until this point.)
Wait, wait, wait, almost two entire books in this series are one step of the hero’s journey? Ok, now, it’s important to note that a story following/not following the structure of the hero’s journey does NOT mean a story is inherently good or bad. It’s just a common framework used for story structure! That said, maybe the fact that we’ve spent almost two books on one step of the hero’s journey might have something to do with how much of a slog this has felt like?
We’ll get back to discussing the hero’s journey later, because believe it or not, we might finally be getting past step 6 in these very chapters.
…sort of.
A Court of Wings and Ruin: Chapter 67
Amren tells the superfriends that thanks to the advice Feyre got from the Suriel, she’s finally found the spell in the Book of Breathings that will nullify the Cauldron. Yes, dear reader, all of the proper nouns in that sentence are just some of this story’s incredibly, incredibly long Tests, Allies, and Enemies step. We’ve truly come so far on this journey.
The catch is that Feyre, Amren, and Nesta will all have to actually physically touch the Cauldron, which is a problem since it’s the King of Hybern’s ultimate weapon, so the plan is for them to move on the Cauldron only when “the carnage was at its peak [and] Hybern might be distracted in the chaos”. Also interesting to note that Feyre points out that “Alone, it had nearly killed me. But split amongst others who were Made… We could withstand its lethal power”, which actually backs up the point I made last week about how book 3 is basically all about the superfriends learning that the big mistake they made in book 2 was trying to do everything by themselves all the time. …eeeeeeven though this is… this is still just the superfriends. Still, tests and allies, am I right?
Most of these chapters are preparing for the battle to come. First, and I swear to you this is real, Feyre and Rhysand return to the town that human Feyre grew up in and forcibly winnow human families to safety.
I went to my old village with Rhysand. […]
At first, they did not recognize me.
Then they realized what I was.
This seems like it’d be kind of a big deal, but that’s basically all the feelings Feyre shares about the experience. Glad that Feyre’s as checked out of this story as I am.
And this is all extra wild because step ten of the hero’s journey is “The Road Back” where the hero makes a return journey fraught with anticipation of danger back to their original home with the sword, which is not a literal sword but a metaphorical reward that the hero obtains in step nine, “Seizing the Sword,” after overcoming “The Supreme Ordeal”… which is step eight… ok, long story short, I have no idea why we’re here right now and Feyre is super nonplussed about even being here and this is kind of a mess
Anyway remember how I said Rhysand was forcibly taking them all to safety?
The second family did not believe us. Thought it was some faerie trick. Rhys tried to hold their minds, but their panic was too deep, their hatred too tangible.
They wanted to stay.
Rhys didn’t give them a choice after that. He winnowed their entire family, all of them screaming.
…look, I know this is the greater good and all but I feel like the repercussions of how they handled this are kind of a weird thing for this story to just gloss over.
At the day’s end, Feyre worries that the next day’s battle might really be the end for all of them, and that Rhysand might really sacrifice too much to try to protect them all…
And it’s time for motherfucking step seven.
if Bryaxis could buy my friends, could buy Rhys, any extra time while I hunted down that Cauldron … If it could buy them the slimmest shot of survival … Then the Bone Carver could as well.
I didn’t care about the cost. Or the risk. Not as I looked at my sleeping mate, exhaustion lining his face. […] if it was what I had to give, my own cost to buy them any sliver of survival … I would gladly pay it. Face it.
So I rallied the dregs of my power and winnowed away—winnowed north.
To the Court of Nightmares.
HERO’S JOURNEY STEP SEVEN: APPROACH TO THE INMOST CAVE
A thousand stairs. That was how many steps stood between me and the Ouroboros.
Chapter 68
Feyre walks a thousand stairs.
Chapter 69
Ok, I’m kidding, but would anyone be surprised if that was really all that happened in an entire chapter of this book?
Chapter 68 For Real
What is the inmost cave, you ask? Well, as Brian David Gilbert explains in the Polygon video:
This is such a pivotal moment in the story. In Star Wars, this is when Luke goes into the cave and faces off against a shadow version of himself. And in Kingdom Hearts, this is when Sora goes into Hallow Bastion so he can fight Riku, who is actually being possessed by Ansem, who is the Heartless version of Terra Xehanort, who was originally Terra but then was possessed by Xehanort before him. …Same thing.
lol good thing we’re not trying to explain Kingdom Hearts on this blog. (…no one leave a comment asking us to do Kingdom Hearts, please, I beg you.)
But basically, this is when the hero faces not the external conflict, but their inner conflict. “Wait,” you might be thinking, “Feyre has an inner conflict? Which inner conflict?”
YEAH, HOLD ONTO THAT THOUGHT.
Y’all remember how the bone carver’s offer for joining their fight against Hybern was the Ouroboros mirror, which Feyre can only claim if she looks into it, but everyone who looks into the Ouroboros goes insane? MIRROR TIME.
It only showed me myself.
Hahaha yeah reading this book does drive you insa- (remembers the existential crisis I had writing a post about this book two weeks ago) oh my god is my own blog the ouroboros
Then a monster appears behind Feyre, but when she turns, there’s nothing there, and when she turns back to the mirror she IS the monster
Where I had been standing … that beast now sat, scaled tail idly swishing through the snow.
Watching me.
No—not watching.
Gazing back at me.
My reflection.
WHOA GUYS I THINK THE MIRROR ISN’T SHOWING FEYRE ON THE OUTSIDE… BUT ON THE INSIDE???????
Feyre returns to the Bone Carver, triumphant, all, “sup, fizbitch, here’s your mirror” (to paraphrase).
He whispered, “You retrieved it.”
I looked toward a corner of his cell. The Ouroboros appeared, snow and ice still crusting it. Mine to summon, wherever and whenever I wished.
“How. […] What did you see?” […]
“That is none of your concern. […] You have your mirror. Now uphold your end. Battle awaits.”
The Bone Carver glanced between me and the mirror. And he smiled. “It would be my pleasure.” […]
“What do you mean?”
The Carver simply straightened his clothes. “I have little need for that thing,” he said, gesturing to the mirror. “But you did.”
I blinked slowly.
“I wanted to see if you were worth helping,”
So you get this, right? The mirror shows people who they really are, and sometimes seeing that drives people mad, but Feyre could… accept the good and the bad about herself? And apparently that was… what’s been holding up this story… for almost two… whole… b-, ok, I need to sit down.
I think—I think I loved it. Forgave it—me. All of it.
Was this a theme? Like… at any point in this story? Fucking Clare Beddor was a more prominent inner conflict for Feyre than this, and Ariel and I turned that into a running joke about a mouse who is a pirate.
Rage—blistering rage started to fill in the holes left by what I’d beheld in that mirror. “You wanted to see if I was worthy?” That innocent people were worthy of being helped.
Yeah, idk, maybe the Bone Carver could have tested Feyre on whether she had enough perspective to understand that Hybern probably also sees it that way? But, sure, cool, I’m glad that Feyre finally, like, loves herself for her flaws or whatever.
Chapter Nice
With step seven – and Feyre’s innermost conflict, apparently – finally resolved… time for hero’s journey step eight!
Rhys looked [us] each in the eye […] “I believe everything happens for a reason. […] I am grateful for it, whatever it is. Grateful that it brought you all into my life. If it hadn’t … I might have become as awful as that prick we’re going to face today. […] The great joy and honor of my life has been to know you. To call you my family. And I am grateful—more than I can possibly say—that I was given this time with you all.”
STEP EIGHT: ENDURING THE SUPREME ORDEAL… sitting through one of Rhysand’s motivational speeches!
lol jk it’s off to the seemingly final battle. Rhysand tells all the superfriends how much they mean to him.
“I would have waited five hundred more years for you. A thousand years.”
JUST TO BE THE MATE WHO’D WAIT A THOUSAND YEARS TO MATE MATE MATE MATE MATE
The armies square off…
Hybern had chosen well. A vast, grassy plain stretched to the shore. A mile inland, he had planted his army. […] I knew without counting that we were vastly outnumbered. […]
“We have five High Lords, and there’s only one of him. You all could shield us for a while. But it might not be in our interest to drain every one of you like that. He’ll have shields, too—and the Cauldron. He’s been careful not to let us see the full extent of his power.” […]
No sign of Beron or Eris—not a whisper of Autumn coming to assist us. Or Tamlin.
The two armies throw magic at each other “to try to bring down the shields around the armies”.
Magic against magic, the earth shuddering, the grass between the armies withering and turning to ash.
“I forgot how boring this part is,” Amren muttered.
God, I hope Amren doesn’t die. She’s one of the only characters I like.
Feyre gets ready for the big reveal…
“I never got you a mating present,” I said.
Rhys monitored the battle ahead.[…]
“I’ve been thinking and thinking,” I went on, “about what to get you.”
Slowly, so slowly, Rhys’s eyes slid to mine. […]
“But, I’ll admit,” I said as his eyes flared, “this mating gift is probably for both of us.”
…ok, that was cute.
Hybern’s shield came crashing down. My magic snapped from me, cleaving through the world. Revealing the glamour I’d had in place for hours.
Before our front line … […]
“Mother above,” Azriel breathed. […]
Both armies seemed to pause with surprise. “You retrieved the Ouroboros,” Rhys whispered. For standing before Hybern were the Bone Carver and the living nest of shadows that was Bryaxis, the former contained and freed in a Fae body by myself last night.
I love how this is like a huge, “oh, FUCK FUCK FUCK” moment for the two armies when they see that one of them suddenly, standing before them in the middle of the fray, has a giant beast made of interlocking shadows and… some random dude.
“Seems like you beat me to it.”
“To what?”
With a wink, Rhys pointed toward Bryaxis and the Carver. Another figure appeared. The Carver stumbled back a step. […]
Stryga—the Weaver.
“hahahahahahahahahahaha fuck” -everyone in Hybern’s army
“Here’s to family reunions,” was all Rhys said.
Then the Weaver, the Carver, and Bryaxis unleashed themselves upon Hybern.
Ok. I am very tired of this book. You are probably very tired of this book. I don’t really like any of the main characters in this book and am not really all that invested in them overcoming their supreme ordeal, seeing what sort of sacrifice it requires, what danger awaits them in the road back step after this fight. But you know what? I am hyped as hell right now.
If you enjoyed today’s post, please consider buying the BBGT writers a cup of coffee? That’d be swell of you!