#teamcal

Ugh, breathtaking 😍 Just amazing

VICTORY COMES AT A PRICE.

Mare Barrow learned this all too well when Cal’s betrayal nearly destroyed her. Now determined to protect her heart—and secure freedom for Reds and newbloods like her—Mare resolves to overthrow the kingdom of Norta once and for all… starting with the crown on Maven’s head.

But no battle is won alone, and before the Reds may rise as one, Mare must side with the boy who broke her heart in order to defeat the boy who almost broke her. Cal’s powerful Silver allies, alongside Mare and the Scarlet Guard, prove a formidable force. But Maven is driven by an obsession so deep, he will stop at nothing to have Mare as his own again, even if it means demolishing everything—and everyone—in his path.

Victoria Aveyard: It really isn’t the relationship that drives the st-

I was rereading QUEEN SONG the other day and realized once again how sad Cal’s childhood must have been.

According to Coriane, Cal was “a fat baby, smiling early, laughing often, growing bigger by leaps and bounds,” and according to Maven in KING’S CAGE, Cal was “always smiling and talking and laughing and perfect.” And then when Cal was only seven months old, Coriane died. The poor baby might not have understood a lot of things yet then, but he must have felt the loss of his mother. The once always-smiling-talking-and-laughing baby became lonely. He was left under the care of nannies, because while Tibe loved his son, he was too busy being king and most likely spent most of his free time sulking and drinking the pain of losing his dear wife away… until he became an angry, lonely, and heartbroken king. 

Norta needed a queen and a spare ASAP. Only three months after Coriane’s death and just a month before Cal’s first birthday, Tibe had to remarry. (Had because I think Tibe would never have wanted to get married again, only three months after Coriane’s death, much less to Elara whose guts he hated.) This time, he unknowingly married the woman who had caused the loss of his first three unborn babies and psychologically tortured and killed his first wife and who would also plot his demise eighteen years later. And so, that was how Cal got himself an evil stepmother. He had to live with the woman who had killed his mother without knowing about it. Did Elara ever mistreat or control Cal in any way? We’ll never know. Just imagining Queen Elara holding baby Cal makes me sick.

And then Maven came. Cal’s Mavey. The brother he loved with all his heart. The brother he looked up to. The brother he’d always known would make a much better king. Maven had a mother. Of course, Cal never knew Elara’s sick way of raising her son; in his eyes, his brother had a mother who loved and cared for him, and to him that was more than he could have ever asked for himself. “Cal definitely wished his mother was around. And there were other qualities in Maven that he admired and wanted, but couldn’t find in himself.” Tibe did shower Cal with so much love (to the point that Maven felt neglected) to make up for Coriane’s absence in his life, but a mother’s love is still different and cannot be substituted. Imagine how Cal must have felt all those times seeing Maven and Elara. He was envious of Maven for he still had a mother, but despite his envy, he still loved him nonetheless. But in the end, Maven betrayed him.

Cal was controlled and forced to kill his own father thanks to Elara and Maven’s scheming. He lost the only parent he’d ever known, and he will forever blame himself for his death. The horrible nightmares. (”And when do you sleep, Cal?” “I don’t. Not anymore.”) He lost the crown that was rightfully his. He was a sad child who grew up with the knowledge that he was going to be king after his father. He made that his only mission. He equated his identity to the crown. But who is Cal without the crown? Without his father by his side? Without Mare by his side? That’s what I want him to find out for himself. 

hey my dear rq stan friends, i just wanted to say some words here about some issues i saw lately in this fandom. please don’t judge me, because this is a public space and everyone is free to say whatever they want and i don’t have intentions to hurt or offend anyone, just trying to say things from my pov as a lot of people here are doing ;) 

 first of them, the “ship war”;  

mareven couldn’t be more abusive, i mean… seriously?? i don’t wanna judge anyone, you guys could ship a rock and a cup of tea and i’ll be like “good for you buddy”. but when it turns to something abusive, there’s a little problem… 

 i guess you guys are against those couples which the men hits the women and all that, right? and why mareven would be diferent? LOOK AT THE WAY HE TREATED HER IN KC! he basically put a collar to have ‘control’ over her, he used mental abuse in her during GS, those letters? the dead baby? yeah….  

so y’all should look at these abusive relationships before wanting it to happen, what if it happens to a friend of yours? i hope it doesn’t come to that point, bc i’m sure you guys wouldn’t let it happen, right? 

 now i’ll say some things about the hate on cal; 

i saw some ppl here saying that he is a racist, and i mean…. if he really was that, do you think he would fall in love with a girl that is a red? he would obviously be mean to her and say that she is inferior or all of the other things that an actual racist says, and i’m sure he would leave or kill the scarlet guard as soon as he could. but guess what, he helped them, he trained them and they’re alive, or at least some of them. 

 cal isn’t perfect, he made mistakes as EVERYONE in the series, he is a human being like them and basically like us too. we all make mistakes, but we should look at those who really regret their mistakes and wants to change and do better. 

 now let’s go back to maven;

 he already made and still makes mistakes and cruel things, but i saw some people saying it’s not his fault and that it was all because of elara and bla bla bla. 

 ok when i read about the control elara had over him, i was a little sad for him, that wasn’t a healthy mom and son relationship. but i mean… all his actions in KC were HIS OWN ideas, elara wasn’t there to control him and make him do all those things anymore, and i have to say he is little bit (or maybe a lot) of a psycho too, he’s a wonderful villain, i must admit it, but let him as the bad guy only, at this point of the story he has no reasons to be good (and he was never good from the start, it was all a lie to make mare join his side, remember?) 

 and if cal is racist, wtf is maven then? 

 i am a cal stan who respect everyone who likes maven, but i can’t accept an abusive relationship or someone who tries to make everything upside down to turn a bad person into a good one with no actual good actions coming from them. so don’t try to make maven seem less evil than he is when he already said himself that he knows what he’s done and doesn’t regret it. 

 no need to hate on anyone, vaveyard is an grown up woman and she definitely knows what she’s doing and what is best for her story, so please respect if you want to be respected. [i like maven ok?]

“If your heart’s not in this, you’re going to get a lot of people killed.”

He whirls, almost knocking me on my ass with the speed and force of his movement. I have seen his fire firsthand, but never so strongly as the flame blazing in his eyes.