In the sixteenth chapter of The Will of the Empress, Sandry’s actions have disastrous ramifications for others. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read The Will of the Empress.
Trigger Warning: For fatphobia, misogyny, suicide, depression.
I can’t do this.
Daja and Rizu
I tried to keep it together while reading this chapter not out of any sense of shame for how I felt. Lords knows I clearly have no problem being ridiculously emotional on camera for TOTAL STRANGERS. I think that my sadness stemmed not just from the situation, but from the fact that I forgot how raw my own heart still is from what happened to me earlier this year. Break-ups are terrible, horrible things to go through, but at least with my first two boyfriends, I could blame them in the long run. I could rage at them, I could curse their names, and I could find the kind of closure that would at least allow me to move on. But with my last ex, our relationship ended due to external circumstances, and it left me feeling weightless and hopeless. Like Daja and Rizu here, the loss wasn’t due to a lack of love. On the contrary, there was a lot of love still present. No, other factors forced the separation, and few things feel more upsetting than nonsensical forces tearing people apart.
It somehow makes it worse. If Rizu had not loved Daja, I think that Daja could have directed her anger towards one person. Instead, she lashes out, first at Zhegorz and then at Tris, and it’s easy to do so because her rage and sadness has no focus. I never really got angry during my break-up, though there were factors that should have made me furious. It’s not fun to have to move suddenly (and frequently) when you don’t have a lot of money, and it’s not fun to have all your plans for months in advance be cast into chaos. But you know that scene where all Daja can do is cry into her pillow? That was what I went through. It’s like I skipped the anger stage and just went straight to wallowing. That was, of course, complicated further by the fact that I’ve had depression for most of my life, and trust me, it wasn’t pretty. I mean, some of y’all could tell something was wrong with me back in March, which is why I finally felt compelled to start talking about the break-up.
Compassion helped me get better. Friends like the one Daja has in Tris and Sandry made things livable. So I get teary-eyed reading this not for the sake of it or because Pierce wrote something that tugs at the heart strings. It reminded me of a tumultuous time and the brilliance of friendship that helped me get through it.
Tris
I haven’t been a thin person since high school, when constant running due to cross country and track kept me around 140 pounds. Since the end of my first year of college, though, I’ve had to deal with a very similar sort of bigotry and hatred that Tris describes here. I can’t speak for the experience of others, but I’ve felt the gay community in both Los Angeles and the Bay Area is brutal towards those who aren’t thin or who don’t have traditionally attractive bodies. I’ve been made fun of, yelled at, told that I’ll forever be ugly, and had food thrown upon me in clubs. And I’m not even as big as other people who get way worse than I do. But the point is that Tris’s experience rang very true to me, and I appreciate that it’s here. I imagine many of you felt the same way.
Forced Marriage
You know, there’s often claims made in fantasy or historical fiction that horrendous acts must be portrayed as-is so that “historical accuracy” can be maintained, as if there’s some spectral police force out there waiting to bust down doors and haunt manuscripts until writers fix inaccuracies. This is also common when these acts or behaviors or morals are presented without any in-text criticism. “Well, how am I supposed to decry racism? Everyone was racist then, so who would have said anything?”
Except here is an example of how to do that. Throughout this chapter, and in numerous ways, Pierce criticizes the horrid act of kidnapping women into marriage. Sandry criticizes it to Rizu’s face when Rizu tries to claim they’ll all be safe; Daja quietly admits while alone that Sandry is right; and then Ealaga boldly and plainly hands her husband a verbal scolding that he rightly deserves when he tries to say that Sandry is being unfair. It is one of the most fantastic rebuttals of reverse oppression that I’ve ever seen, y’all:
“What else is she supposed to do, when any unmarried woman of western Namorn must live her life and judge all men by those few who have successfully stolen women away? Each time a man succeeds, we place our daughters and our sisters under new safegaurds. We put their lives under new restrictions. We give them new signs that a man in whose company they find themselves might plan to kidnap them. Don’t we teach our women to view all men according to the actions of a few?”
And I’d also offer up the fact that this cultural practice is widespread enough that enough people would turn away from stopping it. While I’d never say that anyone is worse than the actual kidnappers, I think it’s important to examine who else is complicit in this monstrosity. That’s why it’s significant that Jak rejects such a world; unlike the other suitors, he long ago had experience with this practice (through his mother) and thus refuses to participate in it. Is that why he’s in disfavor with the empress? Did he say something to her about it?
The Will of the Empress
What an unfair cliffhanger! I suspect that this is all revenge, that Quen found a way to get at Tris when she was vulnerable, and if she is seriously hurt, I hope her foster-siblings burn the goddamn countryside to avenge her. Oh, you do not want to mess with these people, Berenene!
(I hope. I’M SCARED.)
The original text contains use of the words “mad” and “crazy.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29BhiHlkO_A
Mark Links Stuff
– I am now on Patreon!!! MANY SURPRISES ARE IN STORE FOR YOU IF YOU SUPPORT ME.
– IÂ will be at Borderlands Books, Book Riot Live, and Windycon this fall! Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates / Appearances page.
– My Master Schedule is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often. My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be Kings, season 1 of Sense8, season 1 of Agent Carter, seasons 1 & 2 of The 100, Death Note, and Neon Genesis Evangelion. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards series will replace the Emelan books.
- Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook! I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!
