Fighting & Kissing Review: Throne of Glass

We're going old school today! And by old school I mean a very near-and-dear to my heart YA, but it is rather 'old' in book years -- Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas.

The first Throne of Glass came out in 2012 -- seven years ago! That seems like forever. And while I know that there are some inherent problems with this series, I'm not really going to go into it here. (Many other blogs have discussed the series and its flaws in depth but I'll always love this book for re-introducing me to YA books and inspiring me to write my own stories!)

For today, we'll just focus on the fighting and kissing! Because...

Right? 😆

First up, we have a short fight scene that's actually one of the first full-on fights that Celaena has in the story. She's been hiding her assassin skills and taking a bunch of crap from the other contestants as they compete to become the king's champion. This is an actual planned fight -- not an impromptu self-defense or attack on someone -- which makes it different than the other fight scenes we've looked at so far. There's an actual ring of sorts and two combatants. First one to draw blood or push the other out of the ring wins. Celaena is up against a nasty thug named Verin.

"Verin’s grin widened as he lifted his blade. He swung, but Celaena struck, ramming her fist into his arm, sending the blade soaring through the air."

Normally, I don't nitpick straight away but I have to here. "Ramming her fist into his arm" is so vague and confusing. Did she punch his arm? That's definitely not really a thing that works. Also, he's got a sword. I definitely would not be trying to punch someone's arm if that arm is holding a sword. Because I would most likely get cut or stabbed.

Now, it's possible that Maas here wanted to describe Celaena parrying his attack. (A parry is used in boxing and in swordplay and it's basically deflecting an attack by using the opponent's momentum.) Maybe Verin swung and Celaena dodged and then smacked his arm once it was past her? Honestly, it's hard for me to come up with a good scenario where she sends the blade soaring through the air while he's swinging. (If anyone has possible suggestions, I'm open to hearing them.)

"In the same breath, her palm hit his left arm, knocking it aside, too."

A ha! We've got some more context here. She's parried his left arm away right as she magically knocked his swinging sword from his right hand.

I guess, in Maas' mind, Celaena punched Verin's right arm and he let go of the sword. 😒 I suppose this is possible. It would really depend on Celaena's skill level and Verin's size difference. If he wasn't that much bigger than her, I could see her getting away with punching his arm. But if there's a significant weight difference, this would not be a move I would suggest because it wouldn't work very well. Physics applies to fighting as much as it does to everything else. Also, she'd have to hit him exactly in the correct spot to force his hand to spaz out and release the sword. Which would be very difficult if someone is swinging a three-foot sword at you.

Anyway, enough with the weird arm punches, let's get to the kicking part.

As he staggered back, her leg came up, and Verin’s eyes bulged as her foot slammed into his chest. The kick sent him flying, and his body crunched as it hit the floor and slid out of the ring, instantly eliminating him."

Her foot slams into his chest and sends him flying across the ring! Yes! Fantastic! I have seen this exactly thing happen in Thailand. It was two female fighters and within the first thirty seconds, one of them push kicked the other in exactly the right spot with such power that the girl went flying across the ring with her body all folded in half. She must've flown at least five feet. It was awesome.

(And before you feel too bad for the girl who lost, push kicks might knock the wind out of you but they don't really hurt terribly. There's a big difference between a Thai-style push kick and a karate-style snap kick. They look really similar but have very different effects. Push kicks push people away and cause little lasting pain. Snap kicks don't push people away but do generally hurt a lot more. It's a matter of how the force is applied to the body. Again, physics!)

Honestly, Maas could've just skipped all of the weird arm blocking / parrying bits and went straight for the push kick. It's a fantastic defensive move that fighters can use at maximum distance from their opponents. Now, this would've sped the fight up and possible killed some of the dramatics of the scene. My recommendation would be to have Celaena dodge the sword twice and then, as Verin raises the sword for a final cutting blow, Celaena would counter with the awesome push kick. She wouldn't have to lift a finger. Just a few toes. Aaaannd end scene!

So to sum up:
1. Don't have your characters punch people in the arm to disarm them. There are better, more realistic, ways to achieve that goal.
2. Do have your characters push kick people. Push kicks are amazing. (If you want movie examples, there's some great ones utilized in John Wick, there was a giant one in the end of Captain Marvel, I can keep going on. I love push kicks and always remember them in movies.)

Now onto the kissing!

This series gets a lot of flack for the lack of diversity and for the alpha-male type of relationships it portrays. These are both very true points that did get worse as the series progressed, but we're only looking at the first book today and it wasn't really an issue in this part of the story.

The kiss in this book is after a masked ball scene, very Cinderella / Ever After-esque. (Which apparently this story sort of began as a Cinderella retelling, so that's fun!)

Dorian, the prince (and my absolute fave character in this whole series) follows Celaena up to her suite. They've been flirting off and on for a while so there's been a good bit of build up to this kiss.

Dorian approached her slowly, halting only a hand’s breath away. “You left the ball without saying good-bye,” he said, and braced an arm against the wall beside her head. She raised her eyes, examining the black detail on the sleeve that fell just above her hair.

“I’m impressed you got up here so quickly—and without a pack of court ladies hounding after you. Perhaps you should try your hand at being an assassin.”

Yesssss, the banter! And she's up against the wall and his arm's overhead. Classic set up!

He shook the hair out of his face. “I’m not interested in court ladies,” he said thickly, and kissed her. His mouth was warm, and his lips were smooth, and Celaena lost all sense of time and place as she slowly kissed him back. He pulled away for a moment, looked into her eyes as they opened, and kissed her again. It was different this time—deeper, full of need.

 I also love the kiss, pause, and kiss again. Tropes are tropes for a reason and this one is working so well in this scene.

Her arms were heavy and light all at once, and the room twirled round and round. She couldn’t stop. She liked this—liked being kissed by him, liked the smell and the taste and the feel of him.

My biggest writing style caveat with this book is the constant comparisons that Maas uses to describe things. "Heavy and light" is just one example. She does it multiple times through-out the book. Though, to be fair, I only noticed on my second and later read-throughs. The first time I read it, I was probably skimming so I didn't notice it as much.) I will also say that, thankfully, she quits using this technique in the later books.

Unfortunately, the kiss ends shortly afterwards as Celaena realizes she's kissing the price of the realm that oppressed and destroyed her people. Definitely kills the romantic mood.

One of my favorite things when I was reading this book was that she didn't automatically end up with the prince in the end. Celaena basically tells Dorian that the reality of their situation will never work because of who they are. When I first read this book, the ending felt different and fresh.

But my absolute favorite thing in this series is that Celaena and Dorian stay friends despite all of the crazy stuff that happens -- all the way to the final book! They look out for each other and fight for each other and never give up on one another... And sometimes that's worth a lot more than all the perfect kissing in the world. 😘