Ascendance Series Veteran 👑⚔️🌹

a lil redraw of a feb 2022 piece!

TFP: Tobias and Roden attempt to gang up on Sage. Nobody trusts one another. By the end, Roden hates Jaron and thinks he's a fraud and Tobias is near-reverant.

TRK: Tobias is incredibly loyal to Jaron. Roden is brought back around to Jaron's side and pledges loyalty to him. End of the book the entire kingdom is pretty much worshipping Jaron.

TST: Every second chapter has some sort of confirmation that Jaron has gained the highest degree of loyalty from everyone he knows. Everyone in Carthya would apparently go to the devils lair for him and Roden and Tobias say that they will be first among those who do. Roden says "these are my men but your army" and is a respected Captain.

TCP: Roden apparently reverted back to his insecurities at the start at TST and attempts to resign as Captain. Roden and Tobias both, at numerous points, say how 'they don't know why they put up with Jaron'. In general, respect for Jaron seems to have depleted.

Here's why that bothers me:

Consistency - he just won an impossible war and everyone was pretty much set on following him to hell and back. It makes no sense for Roden or Tobias or anyone else to suddenly start questioning Jaron's person/intentions. At that point, given the previous books, they should trust him implicitly and honestly be the closest of friends.

The feels - Jaron did not deserve to be fed the image of abandonment by those who he sees as his found family. Especially after all the shit he has done for them and Carthya and been put through.

So I'm continuing to read and just came across more to substantiate how this is both a plot inconsistency, makes no sense and justifiably irritates me.

- Tobias was actively berating and bad-mouthing Jaron when they escaped the ship for not successfully getting Amarinda off with them. Like full on being a massive a-hole about it and telling Jaron that everything bad that ever happens is his fault.

In TST, Tobias didn't blame Jaron for the failed escape carriage scheme that almost got Amarinda captured. He was a bit antsy but he always believed that Jaron would be able to find a way out as he has proven time and time again he can. This time round, it's like Jaron's "brilliance" was completely ignored and distrusted. And with no reason.

And I don't think it's fair that all of them can actively add to Jarons' deep rooted insecurity that he is to blame for everything. He attracts these situations because of who he is and maybe handles them in questionable manners, but ultimately he can't be blamed for being literally captured at random? They chose to be friends with him, they knew the dangers.