Throne of Glass

“She became all too aware of the three long scars down her back. Even if she won her freedom…even if she lived in peace in the countryside…those scars would always remind her of what she’d endured. And that even if she was free, others were not.”

Celaena is thinking of what lies ahead, and what she’s leaving behind at Endovier. Her sense of shared suffering means Celaena takes on the responsibility to help others. The scars on her back are a physical reminder of what she’s endured, and what others still endure.

“Even then, she found the castle tasteless, a waste of resources and talent, its towers reaching into the sky like clawed fingers.”

Celaena challenges Chaol’s moral worldview, in which criminals are the embodiment of evil, suggesting that some immoral acts are perfectly legal. Over the course of the novel, Chaol’s code of ethics will be tested and reformed to accommodate greater nuance. 

“She nodded. ‘Despite your visions of a perfect world under an empire, your rulers and politicians are quick to destroy each other. So are assassins, I suppose.’” 

Celaena challenges Chaol’s moral worldview, in which criminals are the embodiment of evil, suggesting that some immoral acts are perfectly legal. Over the course of the novel, Chaol’s code of ethics will be tested and reformed to accommodate greater nuance.

“He should be hanging from the gallows. He had killed many more than she—people undeserving and defenseless. He’d destroyed cultures, destroyed invaluable knowledge, destroyed so much of what had once been bright and good. His people should revolt.”

Celaena sees the King as the ultimate kind of evil because of the scale of his violence and the intention behind it. Celaena’s history of professional killing was a necessary evil affecting compromised individuals; the King’s evil is perpetrated needlessly and against innocents.

“There was something girlish about her, too. Oh, he couldn’t stand her contradictions!”

As Chaol struggles to define Celaena, he also realizes his attraction to her: Celaena resists definition, frustrating and intriguing him. There is a long tradition of romance plots built on initial dislike, framing the unlikely couple of Celaena and Chaol against the more obvious pairing of Celaena and Dorian.

“Adarlan could take their freedom, it could destroy their lives and beat and break and whip them, it could force them into ridiculous contests, but, criminal or not, they were still human. Dying—rather than playing in the king’s game—was the only choice left to him.”

Celaena considers the motives of the Champion who tried to escape, connecting freedom, resistance, and survival. Agency, of any kind, is a tool to resist oppression. Human dignity is based on the ability to make decisions for oneself, making a kind of freedom possible for those who exercise free will.

“‘Well,’ he said, trying not to get lost in her strange, lovely eyes, ‘I don’t think anyone who plays like that can be just a criminal. It seems like you have a soul’ he teased. ‘Of course I have a soul. Everyone has a soul.’”

Celaena responds honestly to Dorian’s teasing, revealing the depth of her pain over her history as an assassin. Celaena longs to be seen as a whole person, not be reduced to her criminal career, and extends this grace to those around her. Dorian, who is starting to fall for Celaena, realizes the multitudes one person can contain, developing a more mature worldview.

“I’m already at your father’s disposal. I won’t become his son’s jester, too.”

Celaena confronts Dorian for using her to cure boredom. Forced to participate in the tournament for the chance of someday gaining freedom, Celaena exercises as much agency as she can, displaying a deeper sense of self-respect and resilience.

“‘I’m not trained to fight in battles,’ Chaol replied through his teeth.

‘You kill on the orders of your king.’ Your king. Nehemia might not be fully versed in their language, but she was smart enough to know the power of saying those two words.”

Nehemia challenges Chaol’s moral certainty and reveals her commitment to the Eyllwe rebel cause. This moment also foreshadows that Nehemia is fluent in Adarlan’s language, only pretending not to understand as part of her espionage. This moment shows Nehemia’s intelligence and strength of spirit, which become essential at the final duel. 

“She would not run from them as a common criminal. She would face them—face the king—and earn her freedom the honorable way.”

Discovering the secret escape from Rifthold returns a measure of agency to Celaena, which empowers her to make decisions from a new perspective. Celaena chooses to stay, showing the progression of her emotional healing after Endovier. Celaena is invested in notions of honor and reputation, despite her earlier desire to leave society behind.

“She shouldn’t have entered the tomb, she shouldn’t have strayed into the sacred places of the dead when she was so stained and tainted by her crimes.”

For the first time in the novel, Celaena expresses true remorse for her career as an assassin, fearful for her soul. Chaol’s opinion of Celaena as irredeemable affects her more deeply than she lets on.

“Nothing is a coincidence. Everything has a purpose. You were meant to come to this castle, just as you were meant to be an assassin, to learn the skills necessary for survival.” 

Elena reassures Celaena that she is not irredeemable. This moment also cements Celaena’s position as the Chosen One in the Throne of Glass universe, indicating her larger destiny. As is typical of High Fantasy, this destiny is communicated via supernatural means. 

“What were Wyrdmarks, and where did they come from? […] An ancient religion from a forgotten time—what were they doing here? And at the crime scene! There had to be a connection.”

Wyrdmarks are crucial to the plot. Celaena’s unfamiliarity with Wyrdmarks reveals her separation from her heritage, as she has a secret Wyrdmark emblazoned on her forehead. By the end of the novel, the Wyrdmarks are revealed to be far more than merely the mechanism of Cain’s murders.

“Find the evil in the castle…But the only truly evil thing in this world is the man ruling it.”

Celaena mistakenly connects the King’s to Perrington, Cain, and the ridderak, demonstrating the tension between fulfilling Elena’s quest and her own goals. Although Throne of Glass deals specifically with the tournament and the attendant murder mystery, later novels will reveal the King to be the source of ultimate evil Celaena must fight. 

“The duke was ambitious, but certainly not a threat to the castle or its inhabitants. But […] he couldn’t shake the feeling that Duke Perrington had been watching him, too.” 

In a moment of dramatic irony, Chaol dismisses Duke Perrington as a threat, even though the Duke facilitates Cain’s murders. Chaol’s moral worldview does not allow him to recognize the evil before him. Perrington, who knows Chaol is close to Dorian and Celaena, is careful to keep an eye on the man investigating the murders. 

“What is the point of being a princess of Eyllwe if I cannot help my people?” 

Nehemia’s lament over the massacre of the Eyllwe rebels invokes the theme of wielding power responsibly. In Throne of Glass, power must be used to help others over oneself. This resonates with Celaena—secretly the lost princess of Terrasen—engaging her sense of responsibility to her people. 

“I can’t call myself a man when I allow my father to encourage such unforgivable atrocities.” 

After learning of the Eyllwe massacre, Dorian is moved to confess the full extent of his hatred for his father. Dorian acknowledges his need to mature, knowing that he must find a way to stand up to the King. At the end of the novel, Dorian averts one of his father’s “atrocities” by preventing Nehemia from becoming a prisoner of war. 

“While it terrified him to see her down there, a hand’s breadth from Dorian’s unprotected throat, what terrified him even more was that he trusted her. And he didn’t know what that meant about himself.” 

Finally acknowledging Celaena’s trustworthiness, Chaol undergoes an existential crisis. Though Chaol does not entirely construct a new sense of morality and identity, he does acknowledge his developing feelings for Celaena, embracing uncertainty if not a new morality.

“‘Cain can’t kill her on his own?’ […] Her head gave a sharp, intense throb that echoed through her body. Maybe drugging her might be easier…” 

Perrington’s black ring averts Kaltain’s misgivings about poisoning Celaena. Perrington manipulates Kaltain via magic, exploiting her vulnerability as a selfish, vain, and manipulative woman willing to believe whatever will serve her own interests best. 

“For a heartbeat, she saw the king with stark clarity. He was just a man—a man with too much power. And in that one heartbeat, she didn’t fear him.” 

Celaena has recovered enough to face the King—her greatest enemy—without fear. Maas equates the power of empire with supernatural power, as the King’s corruption has increased his ability to cause suffering. In this moment, Celaena realizes that defeating the King would return him to more human degrees of power. 

“Let wood from the forests of Eyllwe defeat steel from Adarlan. Let the King’s Champion be someone who understands how innocents suffer.”

Though Nehemia’s request is primarily a symbolic show of Eyllwe’s strength, her words echo Elena’s missive to Celaena. Celaena realizes that as Champion, she will have the opportunity to undermine the King directly.

“It gave him hope—hope that he had not lost his soul in the act of killing, hope that humanity could still be found and honor could be regained…She had come out of Endovier and could still laugh.”

Struggling to forgive himself for killing Cain, Chaol imagines a new ethical outlook. Inspired by Celaena, Chaol allows for the possibility of redemption for himself and others, realizing that not all lethal actions are equally immoral. 

“Because there are people who need you to save them as much as you yourself need to be saved.”

In her final appearance in the novel, Elena informs Celaena that her destiny is far from fulfilled. Elena equates Celaena’s personal journey with her ability to help others, just as Celaena’s suffering has increased her understanding of the suffering of others. This message sets up Celaena’s continuing Chosen One arc for the next novel in the series.