Bear with me, this review/recap/overlook will include spoilers and my own personal opinions of the events that take place in the books Falling Kingdoms, Rebel Spring, Gathering Darkness, Frozen Tides, and Crystal Storm. If any of these are spoiled for you in the upcoming post, it is now your own fault, for I have given you this warning. I, in no way, own Falling Kingdoms or the characters in it.
Clearly, this being about the first 5 books in a rather long, tasking series, this will be a super long post. I will try my hardest to keep spoilers at the minimum, despite my prior warning, and I will do my best to keep this in sections. I will talk about the character evolution, the relationship evolution, and the plot evolution. As a reminder, these are my opinions and I don't mean to offend anyone.
Evolution of Characters
Princess Cleiona Aurora (Cleo) Bellos of Auranos: It's safe to say that Cleo is one of my favourite characters. Her transition from book one Cleo to book 5 Cleo is amazing and truly inspiring. She's forced to become this strong, deceitful person so quickly, you can't help but fall in love with her. In the first book, she is so happy-go-lucky and loose, she hates the Limerians by the end of book one, understandable. By the end of book five, though, she's in love with her worst enemy. Strong, proud, and willing to do anything to get her throne back. All the loss she has endured, it's only fair that something should finally go her way.
Prince Magnus Lukas Damora of Limeros: Magnus, like all the main characters, also went through a great transition. It's obvious in the first book how closed off and cold he is toward everyone, which is no surprise given his parents. The only light being Lucia in his life for so long. The end of book five was so incredibly heartbreaking for me, reading what happens to him (shan't spoil). After being with Cleo through so much, he finally opens up and when he does, it just turns on him. I just feel so bad for him. And I love him. So much.
Princess Lucia Eva Damora of Limeros: Being almost the sole hope for so many people must be a struggle in itself, but when everyone is fighting over the same power, it must be so much harder. I'm not saying that Lucia's loss of Alexius is anything to excuse the destruction she caused after the fact, but I feel like she should be cut some slack at the very least. It's possible, I think, for Lucia to redeem herself in the last book, having finally seen through the thick fog that blinded her for so long.
Jonas Agallon: Regardless of what I've read about Jonas, I find he has very few layers to his character. Simple peasant boy turned rebel. In ways it's so predictable, it should be expected. But as a rebel leader, Jonas fails in so many ways, seeing as his plans seem to almost never work and even when they do they result in a great loss of life. I understand his rage against losing his brother, but in his quest for revenge, he basically left his family behind and almost single handedly caused the Auranian battle in book one.
Felix Gaebras: King's assassin turned rebel. Somehow trained by some of the world's hardest people, yet manages to get in the clutches of Princess Amara and imprisoned. I'm not going to say that Felix's actions earned him his current position, but Felix's actions earned him is current position.
Nicolo (Nic) Cassian: I've loved Nic since book one. His banter with Magnus (whom he needs to make friendship with) alone is great, but his friendship with Cleo is the most pure thing ever and they deserve to be friends forever. He's just so sassy despite losing his sister and he's so strong and independent, I just love it! P.S. Nic, please be okay.
Princess (Empress??) Amara Cortas of Kraeshia: Power hungry. To the very core, power hungry. I hope she gets what she deserves in the long run.
Relationships
Magnus/Cleo (Magneo): Nothing in this world or the next could possibly convince me that they don't 100% belong together. They are passion and love and if they ruled together, they could become the most powerful couple, I'm convinced.
Jonas/Cleo: Dead end romance? Seemed like they had something going on that just kinda died off.
Lucia/Magnus: Started out super gross, but ended out being okay. I don't ship it, but I do want them to make up and be close again. It's the least that Magnus deserves.
Magnus/King Gaius: Super intense. Every scene with them is a show-down and I have to slow down to take in every minute. When Magnus finally stood up to him, I practically cried. Yet Gaius continues to intervene with Magnus's life, as if anything he does could fix their relationship.
Nic/Cleo: Worlds strongest/best friendship
Ashur/Nic: I want them to be happy. Let them be happy *looks hopefully at Morgan Rhodes*
Lysandra/Jonas: I'm actually convinced that they would never have worked out. Jonas was so in love with Cleo and then suddenly he's in love with Lys? SPOILER Right after she died?! I just don't believe it.
SERIES AS A WHOLE
To get across just how much I love this series, keep in mind that in order to properly do this post, I reread all five books and book marked pages I thought were important. And after I finished book five like yesterday, I wanted to start all over again. This series is so beautiful and I can't believe I called it a Game of Thrones wannabe the first time I read book one. I am so happy I decided to keep reading, it really shows that you should never judge a series by the first book. I will actually cry very real tears when I finish the last book, but until then I'll just reread the series until my books fall apart.
No comments:
Post a Comment