#randomrant

Honestly I could rant about this for ages but I'll try to shorten it as much as I can.

First of all, I want to preface with the fact that I ADORED these books in middle school, they were literally my lifeline and I thought they were pretty good. Maybe my criticisms are partially because I've gotten older, but I started noticing these things even as I was still reading the series so I doubt it. Also no flame towards the people that still love this series! :) (and spoilers ahead btw)

First off, I want to start off with the obvious: that Sophie is the dictionary definition of a Mary Sue. She 1: has no obvious flaws besides being clumsy (and this is normally only to push the romantic plot), being stubborn (is this even a flaw?), and getting injured all the time. 2: Is almost an EXACT replica of Shannon Messenger- no hate to her, but still, a LOT of Mary Sue characters tend to look like their authors. And 3: She has all of the guys flocking to her doorstep.

I love a good fantasy romance, and it's honestly the majority of what I read, but at one point it just gets plain tiring to sit through almost 10 books of the MC being COMPLETELY oblivious to ANY romantic encounter or even that someone MAY be romantically interested in her. Lets look at Fitz, for example (who could have been written with SO much more depth but thats another rant). Sophie didn't realize that Fitz could possibly have liked her until, like, the 7th book?? And they were pining for each other the WHOLE time with NO progress. Same thing with Keefe, he's so obviously in love with her and she has NO idea, even though this has been happening for three years? I'm not saying this isn't COMPLETELY unrealistic, but for relationships and characters to have growth you need for them to become more aware, which is what never happens for Sophie.

Finally, I want to talk about the plot devices used to push this series along. While I definitely think Shannon's world building is done well, the story has gone one for much too long. Different things keep popping up out of nowhere to push plot - new enemies randomly introduced, new underground groups with no foreshadowing involved, and not to mention that every time something big needs to happen Sophie suddenly gets a new ability (which pushes her Mary Sue trope). I think it makes sense for the Black Swan to engineer Sophie to be able to carry multiple abilities, but 5? Not to mention that a lot of her new abilities are somehow the rarest in the entire universe or not even heard of at ALL. When you put new things into your world without rhyme or reason, in my opinion, it makes things confusing and seemingly random.

precisely right... Skali same school HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHAHAHA

My boyfriend: *sits down next to me* „Who‘s that woman? Is she new to the team?“ *pointing at Catherine*

Me: „That‘s Steve‘s unnecessary Love-Interest.“

Bf: „Uh, I feel the hate...“

Me: „It‘s not hate she‘s just not needed.“

Bf: „Because...?“

Me: „Steve has Danny.“

Bf: „Ah I see.“ *shrugs, pours himself the glass of water he originally came for and leaves*

He knows me so well he doesn‘t even question my ships any longer <3

(Srsly I do not hate Catherine - at least until now, I‘m at the beginning of S3 - but she feels kind of like a forced character? Like „Oh Steve needs a heterosexual love-interest so here‘s a random girlfriend that only pops up now and then and doesn‘t have ANY character-traits apart from being cute and having Navy-Skills. If you add character, give them traits! I‘m so tired of empty female characters! I want more characters like Kono! She‘s a great round character...So by now this has turned into a random feminist rant. That escalated quickly.)