Aelin’s character progression:
“Gods, he took up the entire bathtub. She mutely handed him her favorite lavender-scented soap, which he sniffed at, sighed in resignation, and then began using.
She took a seat on the curved lip of the tub and told him everything that had happened since they’d left. Well, mostly everything. He washed while she spoke, scrubbing himself down with brutal efficiency. He lifted the lavender soap to his hair, and she squeaked.
“You don’t use that in your hair,” she hissed, jolting from her perch to reach for one of the many hair tonics lining the little shelf above the bath. “Rose, lemon verbena, or …” She sniffed the glass bottle. “Jasmine.” She squinted down at him.
He was staring up at her, his green eyes full of the words he knew he didn’t have to say. Do I look like I care what you pick?”
Sarah J. Maas. “Queen of Shadows.”
I love this definitive character progression. It aches in my heart. For those who read the assassins blade, you’ll remember that Celaena smelled her lavender soap on Sam and jokingly told him not to use it because it was so expensive, and bought him some cheap soap to use because he didn’t care either way. She was young, 16. Then when he was murdered, she hated herself for it, for her selfish actions of telling him not to use her soap.
Then you have 18 year old Aelin, silently offering her lavender soap to Rowan, who has no idea the weight of her actions, the things going on in her mind as she uses all of her finest soaps on him. Never to be selfish like that again.
Happy Valentines Day friends.
