#shane analysis

Great insight into Shane's own familial struggles!

It was his favorite color as a kid. He loved it so much he painted his treehouse that color.

What did he think when he grew up and it became the color of his worst enemies? Did he begin to hate it? Did he look at his enemies, dressed his favorite color, and feel the color take on different meaning to him?

There's something there.

There's something about how everything he loved became twisted. How he grew to hate the things he loved. How that hatred was mistaken, and yet understandable at the same time.

First of all, Conor expressed several times that Shane is a weasel and that he wanted to punch him in the face. This should've happened. I need this physically. It is a need. I need to see Conor get to punch Shane in the face. He knocks him in the stomach in that same book, I think, but it's not the same as a rage-filled punch in the face. Conor was robbed.

Also, in canon, Shane is an incredibly unreliable narrator when it comes to Conor. In The Book of Shane, he claims Conor had bragged to him about Gar's wolverine dying in Rise and Fall, which is blatantly incorrect. So Shane clearly holds a slanted view of everything Conor does. Also, since Shane's gentle, kind exterior was an act that hid his true colors for so long, I think it makes sense that he thinks that Conor's is, too. From Shane's perspective, Conor's as much a weasel as he is. He tries to catch Conor off-guard, but he's always so perfectly kind and pure, it unsettles Shane.

Conor collects wood for the fire when it's Rollan's turn? He's not just being nice, he wants something from Rollan. Conor stays an extra hour despite saying he needed to go home to his family? Maybe he's in a fight with one of his brothers. Conor lets Meilin take the bed and sleeps on the floor for the third night in a row? Well, obviously, he just feels guilty that he has been sleeping in a nice, warm bed for the past few months. Shane doesn't see anything Conor does for the sake of being kind as kind. He sees it as manipulative. Because that's what he was like.

"'You got a true response through trickery,' she said. 'What you just did to us was a betrayal.' 'I- I'm sorry.' Shane's smile fell" (Wild Born, 66).

This was a training exercise. A training exercise. And Abeke already responded poorly to the "betrayal" despite understand the logic behind it. This is all the way near the beginning of Shane and Abeke's relationship budding, and you can already tell it was doomed to fail.

What was Shane thinking? He knew from the start that trust was an essential component of a relationship to Abeke. He'd already lied to her by saying his bond was a natural one, and by claiming that he was with the Greencloaks. There was no reasoning out of it at this point, no "Oh, maybe once I explain it, she'll still be my friend", no possible way to work around the lie. He knew from the start that his relationship with her was doomed to fail in the end.

And yet, he still cherished his time with her and he still loved her. Personally, I think this shows that Shane was in some amount of denial about it. I think he pushed it all out of his head and basically just went "Well, it's not a problem now, so it may never be one, anyway". Or maybe he thought he could earn her trust so that any betrayal she felt when he revealed himself would be overruled by her friendship with him? It's so interesting the amount of delusion Shane was living in from the start.

Of course, it's possible that he wasn't delusional at all, and was well aware that Abeke would one day leave for the Greencloaks. But I doubt it. Shane was just a kid, and a lonely one at that. Abeke was his first and only real friend. I think some part of him always hoped, even desperately, that she would never leave.

The parallels between Abeke and Drina? Both of them close to Shane, yet he doesn't really understand either of them? That Drina's bond to her spirit animal was the start of his story and that Abeke's bond to her spirit animal was his end? That he loved them both so much yet was able to shove that love aside and exploit them despite that? That he faces them both one-on-one? That his story and relationship with both of them is so tragic? Drina's "I'd be so great" and Abeke being bonded to a Great Beast?

We see Shane's true colors for the first time when he betrays Abeke by letting his own sister get killed. By her own spirit animal. And his redemption was when he saves Abeke from the same fate.

He gives Drina the Bile, which cures her. He himself is destroyed by the Bile, which allows him to save Abeke in a number of situations, but to his own appearance's detriment.

He saves Drina's spirit animal bond, saves her from the bonding sickness. He also saves Abeke's spirit animal bond, which kills him.

Drina is literally Abeke, except this time Shane doesn't fail to save her. Shane does for Abeke what he wishes he could've done for Drina. He tried to save Drina, not realizing he was going about it all wrong. That he in the process he was losing himself. But he saves Abeke in the same ways he tried to save Drina, but this time he does it correctly. Nobly, even. With true good intentions at heart.

This line is so interesting to me, because it proves just how much Rollan doesn't understand Shane. Shane was a colonizer and was responsible for a lot of people's lives being ruined, but as far as canon evidence goes, he never forced anyone to call him a king or anything like that. He was indirectly brutal and incredibly manipulative, but he always had a tired, gentle demeanor. It was all a lie, of course. Part of the act. But he wasn't the kind of guy to force people to call him king.

"'Whose was it before the Conquerors took it over?' 'It's a palace of one of the lords of the Niloan steppes,' Shane said with another sigh. 'Listen, I'm not proud that we've taken over someone's home. The lord is still alive, and I'm doing my best to make sure the Niloans who work and live here are kept safe and have enough to eat. I'm trying to make the best of this situation'" (Rise and Fall, 3).

Shane could be lying here, I suppose. But I don't think he is. It doesn't really fit with his character. I do believe he truly tried to keep the Niloans alive under his horrible conditions. But I don't think he would have forced the Niloans to call him king. He wanted to rule over them, but as long as they were under his control, I don't think he particularly cared about whether or not they saw him as a king or not. He just wanted to stamp out any rebellion. Him calling the lord "the lord" shows that he does sort of respect the lord's authority and leadership to some extent.

"'You're responsible for the wrecked village west of here?' 'Yes my king,' the captain said. 'We met resistance there, but we overcame it.' There was pride in his voice. Shane slapped him across the face. 'Idiot,' he seethed. 'Those were innocent people'" (The Book of Shane, 97).

Again, Shane does demonstrate a quality that, in his twisted head, likely seems caring and compassionate. Of course, it's not. Caring about people whose lives you uproot only makes you a marginally better person. But it does prove that Shane tried his hardest not to kill people. He felt like he had to to some extent, but I wouldn't call him a "ruthless leader". He did what he felt was necessary from his own twisted point of view. He did, from his point of view at least, try to protect the innocent.

"Achi scowled. 'Sometimes bad people do good things,' he said icily. 'It doesn't mean they're good people.' Shane said nothing, just watched as Achi was carried away" (The Book of Shane, 97).

Achi just showed Shane a lot of disrespect, but Shane let it slide. This feeds into some other things, like Shane's desperate need for friends and validation. But mostly, it shows that Shane tolerated disrespect as long as it wasn't anything physical or too rebellious. He was a horrible person, but he was never the sort of king that would make you go down on your knees every time you addressed him. I wouldn't say he's the kind of guy that would force people to "call him king on punishment of death".

I kind of wish we'd had that chapter from Abeke's perspective instead of Rollan's. I wonder what she was thinking in that moment. Was she thinking that Shane was a ruthless leader that would force people to call him king on punishment of death, too? Or did she have a less aggressive, more manipulative idea of him?