I thought Iād be able to write a semi coherent post expressing my thoughts on the finale and the book overall after stepping away from it for a while. But as Iāve started thinking about it again, Iāve only gotten more annoyed. So hereās some disorganized rambling on my issues with Blades 2 instead. Probably just gonna make separate posts for my thoughts as they come to me.
I feel like I should start with Valax because sheās one of the biggest reasons why I feel like this book was absolute dogshit tbh. When you create a whole new character who will eventually be instated as member of the main friend group or an LI, thereās a certain amount of prep work that has to go into establishing them as a character. That work doubles when the character starts off in opposition to the MC or other important characters. And in Valaxās case, not only did she start off simply opposing MC and what we stood for, she stole us from our home and family, forced and kept us in a vulnerable state (for a year? 2 weeks? do we even know atp?), and then violated us by quite literally trying to bleed us dry.
MCās kidnapping and torture were the catalyst for this entire book. Yet the perpetrator doesnāt have to acknowledge anything that she did at all⦠Our friends can ignore and downplay what happened (even though it was apparently oh so hard without us) for the better half of the book⦠And worst of all, MC defaults to brushing everything off, placing trust in this person, and even going out of the way to empathize with her at every turn.
We have the option to express some anger and frustration with our friendsā treatment of us in a rushed scene in the second to last chapter of the book. But thatās where the majority of the focus goes. The only mention of Valax is MC expressing confusion about her role in things and a little bit of hurt about being ābetrayedā. Yet up until that point, the writers had done nothing meaningful outside of diamond scenes to actually establish her as someone that could be trusted or become a friend, nothing to show that she could empathize with MC and the insane amount of trauma inflicted on MC and friends because of her, and nothing to prove that she was even seeking forgiveness for it in the first place.
Then to add the icing on the cake, they turn around and invoke the word āfriendā in reference to Valax at every opportunity in the last chapter. They have her claiming she couldnāt hurt us. Pouting and shedding a couple of tears in what is probably the most ridiculous and melodramatic CG Iāve ever seen. And MC once again empathizing with her at every turn. Placing trust in her, protecting her, standing up for her, offering to leave her friends, family, and entire life behind to go to the Shadow realm with her.
Itās already been established that MC was basically just a tool the writers used to tell all of the other charactersā (especially Niaās) stories. But as of now, I feel Valax far surpasses Nia in that regard. MC had to bleed, lose time that canāt be replaced, have her agency stripped from her, and ultimately suffer in silence through all of it just so Valax (a completely new character) could have her lackluster story told in scenes that you donāt even see if you donāt pay for them.