Throne of Glass

The handsome Dorian is one of the secondary protagonists of Throne of Glass. Dorian longs to stand up to his father, and his arc is a classic coming-of-age story of developing the confidence and moral fortitude to reject the King’s values and challenge him directly. Dorian is reckless and flirtatious, yet also bookish and intelligent—he and Celaena bond over their shared love of reading. Dorian is also a romantic, with dreams of marrying for love rather than for political advantage.

At the beginning of the novel, Dorian seems petulant because he can only resist the King in superficial ways: leaving before he is dismissed and choosing a Champion that will annoy his father. When Celaena calls out this childishness, Dorian begins to develop real respect for her, which eventually grows into love strong enough to motivate Dorian to assume his responsibility as Crown Prince: At the Yulemas ball, Dorian and Chaol note that Celaena makes Dorian “[look] like a man. Like a King” (297). Eventually, Dorian’s love for Celaena finally enables him to openly contest the King and Perrington’s military strategy. However, Maas ends Celaena and Dorian’s relationship, forcing Dorian to continue gaining maturity and facing his responsibilities to his people on his own.

Chaol, another secondary protagonist of Throne of Glass, is the third point in the novel’s love triangle, although Chaol and Celaena’s romance never moves beyond friendship and hidden attraction. At first, Dorian’s developing relationship with Celaena makes Chaol fear that Celaena secretly wishes to harm the Crown Prince of Adarlan. Eventually, Chaol realizes that he also harbors jealously of the romance. Chaol’s feelings for Celaena throw him into existential crisis, as he tries to reconcile the horrors and crimes Celaena committed in her assassin past with the funny and vibrant young woman he knows. Unable to consider Celaena wholly evil, yet not convinced she is wholly good, Chaol must reevaluate his entire moral outlook.

Maas uses Chaol to explore moral uncertainty. As Celaena and Chaol grow close, and as the violent murders of the Champions and the King’s ruthless military strategy challenge Chaol’s sense of right and wrong, Chaol learns to find nuance in ethically fraught situations. Chaol’s moral dilemma reaches a breaking point when he kills Cain, his first time taking a life. Haunted, he understands that like Celaena, he cannot be defined by an absolute moral code: Honor can be lost and regained. 

In addition to being a natural friend to Celaena (the two women are warriors, readers, and revolutionaries), Nehemia is a foil to Dorian, an example of a leader who embraces the duties of a future sovereign. Several times in the novel, Nehemia inspires Dorian to stand up to his father: At the end of the novel, Dorian understands that “while Nehemia might be playing a game that she had no chance of winning, Dorian couldn’t deny that he greatly admired the princess for daring to play in the first place” (375), a thought that pushes Dorian to object explicitly to his father’s military strategy.

Nehemia struggles with her identity as princess and role in the salvation of her people throughout the story. At Rifthold to foil the King’s military plans as much as possible, Nehemia is distraught at her failure to discover or prevent the massacre of the 500 Eyllwe rebels. However, Nehemia still protects the court from Cain’s ridderak, bears Celaena no ill will for suspecting her of the Champion murders, giving Celaena the name Elentiya (“Spirit That Could Not Be Broken”), and saves Celaena’s life. Nehemia declares that “[her] love for Eyllwe drowns out [her] fear of the King of Adarlan” (382), embodying resistance to oppression.

Although the novel indicates these characters’ importance in the larger series, Perrington, the King, and Kaltain function mostly in subplot in Throne of Glass.

The vain and wealthy Kaltain schemes to get close to Dorian. Kaltain’s arc is one of dramatic irony: She is being manipulated by Perrington, all the while believing that she is actually manipulating him via his sexual attraction to her. The reader is aware of Perrington’s ulterior motives: to use Kaltain’s ambition to hurt Celaena. Kaltain realizes her hubris only when Perrington double-crosses her at the final duel, struck by the realization that “He’d acted the besotted fool only to plunge a dagger into her back” (372). Kaltain’s vanity and ambition make her more vulnerable to manipulation, rather than better able to recognize foul play.

Perrington’s cruelty is matched by his cunning, as he uses magic to manipulate Kaltain into poisoning Celaena and supports Cain summoning ridderak to siphon powers from other competitors in the King’s tournament. Cain, Perrington, and the King all wear magic black rings, implying that Perrington and the King are aware of Cain’s actions—as Perrington notes, he limits his magic interference with Kaltain because “I don’t want the power to turn her into Cain” (389), alluding to Cain’s demonic transformation.

Although the King is largely absent from Throne of Glass, his presence hangs over the novel as the embodiment of the oppression of the other nations of Erilea. News of his massacre of the Eyllwe rebels greatly affects Celaena, Dorian, Chaol, and Nehemia. The King and Perrington do not undergo dramatic character arcs, but rather undertake more subtle movements toward their goal of total domination. In subsequent novels, the King and Perrington are revealed to be possessed by demons, explaining their enormous capacity for evil.