The farther south one rode into Sunder, the heavier and thicker the wood of the trees, and the stronger and more imposing the houses and inns. Katsa had not spent much time in central Sunder; her uncle had sent her there two or three times, perhaps. But the wild forests and simple, sturdy little towns, too far from the borders to be involved in the nonsense of the kings

Is everything big and imposing or little and simple.  Come on, book, you are now contradicting yourself within a single paragraph.

The room had recovered from the hush that afflicted it when Po and Katsa first walked through the door. The men were noisy now, and jovial, and if they did peek at the royalty over their cups and around their chairs, well, at least they didn’t stare outright.

Remember how Katsa’s life so hard because everyone’s afraid of her and treats her like a pariah?

Yeah, me neither.

So they’re at this inn, and they’ve put out the word that they’re looking for info on Old Prince.  While they wait for someone to nibble on that bait, Katsa notices that the only other female in the room is a serving girl who is getting harassed.

I’m already on the wrong foot for this obvious set up for a Strong Girl Power moment, because it was the book’s decision to declare that women are fucking invisible and/or absent from this setting.

If she’s unmarried, I don’t understand why her father sends her out to serve these men. I’m not certain she’s safe among them.“

Maybe because women are not actually useless little delicate flowers that must be hidden in a back room for their entire lives.

Also maybe because this is a fucking business and SOMEONE HAS TO WAIT TABLES.  Naturally the innkeeper is going to put his family members to work, because in pseudo-mideval land, that’s how businesses work.  They’re family affairs.

Kasta manages to scare the people harassing the girl by simply standing up.

Later two more daughters come by her room to cut her hair, and Katsa asks if either of them know how to use a knife in self-defense.

“Does anyone teach the girls of the inn to protect themselves?” she asked. “Do you carry a knife?”

“Our father protects us, and our brother,” the girl said, simply.

The girls clipped and swept, and Katsa’s hair fell away. She thrilled at the unfamiliar chill of air on her neck. And wondered if other girls in Sunder, and across the seven kingdoms, carried knives; or if they all looked to their fathers and brothers for every protection.

This whole plot line here?  This whole “moral message”?

Can go straight to hell and burn in eternal torment.

We should not be aiming for a world where women can fight to the death with every threat they come across.  We should be aiming for a world where THEY DON’T NEED TO DO THAT.

Violence is rarely the answer, at least in the long run.  What is helpful is a supportive community.  Hell, two pages ago we saw that merely having someone willing to help the serving girl was enough to make the harassers back off.  We don’t need girls armed with knives, clutching them every time they’re around men and ready to get all stabbity.  That’s a fucking bleak outlook.  What we need is a world where in a taproom full of regulars, people are willing to say “knock it off.”

And frankly, we don’t have a lot of evidence that that isn’t happening.  The girls say they look to their father and brother for protection, and they give every indication that this is usually enough.  The description of the bar said that the place was very crowded and full of travelers instead of regulars, so maybe tonight was an anomaly and normally they’re perfectly safe serving. 

Or maybe not, but we’ll never know, because this book has decided it doesn’t need to show any female characters besides Katsa

On top of that, the girls in this scene are 11 and 14.  I don’t care how gung-ho you are, it should be universally accepted that an 11 year-old is not responsible for her own safety and it’s perfectly alright for her to look to older family members for that.

This whole bullshit that says that the answer to violence against women is to teach women to be violent is just victim-blaming trying to sneak by as concern.  It puts all of the onus on women, and no change is expected from the people perpetuating the violence or the bystanders allowing it to happen.  And that’s beside the fact that violence ain’t pretty in the first place and we really shouldn’t be trying to get more of it in the world.

And then of course, this scene doesn’t even fucking go anywhere.  It was just dropped into the narrative for…credit, or whatever.  Just to give Kasta props for being Girl Power and making “social commentary.”  Okay, fine, it was there to “make us think,” but what are we really thinking about?  That it’s bad for guys to grab 16 year-old girls and leer at them?

Wow, jee, thanks book, couldn’t figure that out on my own.

Or are we supposed to think that it’s bad that there aren’t more dead and/or bleeding bodies around?

Not only is this book scraping the rock-bottom basic of social “commentary,” but it’s offering up terrible (and clichéd) answers to the same.

A knock woke her. She sat up. 

Fucking riveting writing we’ve got here.

Po comes by her room to tell her that he senses the troublemakers from earlier are going to try and talk to them.  But he takes three pages to do it and has to emphasis the fact that he’s not even trying to not psychically read her.  But, psh, it’s not like he has to worry about any of Katsa’s “issues” with mindreaders; she got over that like two whole chapters ago!  Such issues are often so easy to set aside.  She’s merely mildly annoyed, now.

Katsa’s about as afraid of mindreaders as I am of crickets and nothing you can say will change my mind. 

So after we were told that these men are going to come talk to them, lo, the men come to talk!  Wow, good thing we were forewarned, or else that…wouldn’t have changed anything at all.

“You’re awake and dressed, My Lord Prince, My Lady,” the biggest of the merchants said as they filed into Po’s chamber.

So, I get that supposedly these two are SO famous for their magic and their eyes.  But.

I still have a hard time buying this.  I mean, we’re talking about normal people who, in the course of their lives, probably are not ever going to deal with nobility.  Much less two recluse nobles like our characters here.  Plus, this isn’t the land of internet.  Rumors spread, yes, but they don’t reach 100% saturation, and the ones that get wide-spread enough tend to be distorted.  Mostly, rumors will circulate in groups that have an interest in them, so a town will hear all about the tanner and the milkmaid having an affair while caring didly squat about who the nobles are banging, and vice-versa.  Information does not flow freely or accurately in pre-industrial worlds, and no one here has reason to actually care about any stories of two richie-rich nobles going around doing richie-rich things to other richie-rich people.

And yet fucking everyone knows who they are on sight?  Why, because they’re just that fucking special?

There’s an awful lot of haggling over the ‘compensation’ for their information, which, again, goes nowhere.  Why all the padding?  Was the author trying to work through some writer’s block and forgot to edit it out?

The visitors try and sell them a pack of lies, and Po plays along, eventually indicating that someone else is going to investigate their story while they carry on to Monsea. 

“We don’t go to Monsea in search of my grandfather,” he said. “It is a social visit.

Dafuq?  Earlier in the book, it was apparently of utmost importance that everyone assume they’re searching for Old Prince as a ruse, and now they’re changing the story midstream?

So then they all start talking about Monsea, and about how Leck has a “shelter” for “sick” animals who all have cuts and slashes.  WOW, JEE, SUCH SUBTLE FORESHADOWING, I WONDER WHAT’S GOING ON.  AND THAT WASN’T AN AWKWARD DROP OF INFORMATION AT ALL, NOPE.

And then the men start making sexist jokes about Katsa being “kept” by Po.  Because when I’m facing down a magical fighters who are rumored to be capable of cracking my face open with a sneeze, naturally I’m going to make jokes about her sex life.  Yeah, that makes sense.

What even is this about, too?  I mean, I know there’s people out there too dumb to figure out you shouldn’t talk about a woman like this, but I don’t think they’re going to be convinced of anything reading this.

Especially since the ultimate conclusion of the whole encounter is just that Po and Katsa twist some arms and make vague threats.  Want to talk about sending a message?  Let’s talk about what these men here have actually learned.  They’ve learned not to make certain comments around Katsa, and only because she can physically harm them.  That’s a singular experience.  Do you think they’re going to walk out of this encounter and say to themselves “wow, women deserve respect!” or are they going to say “man, what a heinous bitch”?  A singular encounter does not change people’s minds (usually), and perpetuating the idea of ‘might makes right’ (as they’ve done here by literally strong-arming people into compliance) just underscores their existing worldview that as long as they’re strong enough to force something it’s okay.

That is not an idea to be reinforcing if you really want to keep the innkeeper’s daughters of the world to be safe.

“I truly thought I might hurt that man,” he said, “very badly.”

“I didn’t know you were capable of such temper.”

“Apparently I am.”

Two options here.  Either Po doesn’t truly care about sexual harassment until it’s directed at someone he cares about, or he’s obsessed enough with Katsa to circumvent his preexisting morals and boundaries.  Neither of those are actually endearing.

“Po,” Katsa said, as a thought occurred to her. “How did you know I intended to attack them? My intentions were toward them, not you.”

“Yes, but my sense of your energy heightened suddenly, and I know you well enough to guess when you’re likely to take a swing at someone.”

So we have rules for how Po’s magic works, until the book wants to do something else, and then fuck the rules.  That’s nice.

They talk about what Po psychically sensed from the guys during the talk about Leck.  Apparently they know that Leck kidnapped Po’s grandfather, but they also think Leck is innocent at the same time.  I’m not really confused about that, because we had that whole fucking “mysterious stranger with one eye came in and took over a kingdom OH WHAT COULD IT MEAN” story.

Instead I’m wondering how the fuck these six random merchants in a different country have any kind of clue whether or not some king guy is kidnapping people.  Seriously.  Who were they, and why do our two main characters not question this knowledge?

Then they quite randomly talk about how Katsa could totally knock Po out if she wants to have private thoughts, and Po even gives her permission.  Because, apparently, these “accomplished fighters” haven’t yet figured out that knocking someone unconscious involves FUCKING BRAIN DAMAGE.  I get that they’re magic fighters and probably never had to deal with this, but they practice with normal people.  Haven’t they realized what happens when a fighter gets hit in the head a few too many times?  It’s not exactly subtle. 

I have a good friend that I served with in Iraq.  He came back with TBI – traumatic brain injury.  Basically, if you’re next to too many bombs when they go off, the force of it knocks your brain against your skull and causes damage.  He get so much as a scratch the whole time, but he knocked his head around so many times that it interfered with his ability to do abstract problems solving.  Literally.  He was in technical job that involved a lot of math, and he had to reclass because he was too brain damaged to keep doing it.

That is what happens when your brain bashes into your skull.  It’s even worse when your brain bashes into your skull so hard that you pass out.  If these two characters have been bashing skulls their whole lives they should know how that turns out because they should have seen it.

So either Po is an utter jackass who cares so little about his sparing partners that he either doesn’t check in on them or doesn’t notice changes in behavior, or he’s totally cool with losing his mental capacities and becoming permanently injured just because Katsa is kind-a sort-a uncomfortable. 

That’s creepy.  That’s…that’s coming on really strong, and it’s really fucking creepy.  She’s not even that upset in this scene, just mildly annoyed.  It’s like if someone didn’t like the noise you make when you chew your food, so you immediately and sincerely offer to rip all your teeth out.  It’s overkill, it comes off as unstable, and it’s fucking creepy.

Katsa, at least, is sane enough to go “um, no, I’ll just work on guarding my thoughts better.”

I think this is the first time that we’ve had a creepy romance, but I actually like the girl better than the guy.  Usually I hate them both equally, but Katsa’s holding her own against his creep factor.  I mean, she’s far from perfect, but give the girl a few brownie points.

“I’ve wondered… it occurs to me recently… that he could be Graced. That he could have a Grace that changes the way people think of him.

The rest of the chapter is just them figuring out that Leck’s grace is supernatural lying and realizing that his story full of holes is, indeed, full of holes.  Katsa wonders how she’ll protect herself from that magic, since (again) it’s not exactly something she can punch.

He considered her seriously. “Well. And that’s easy,” he said. “My Grace will protect me from him. And I’ll protect you. You’ll be safe with me, Katsa.”

Um, but didn’t it take you like a decade to figure all this out?  Your Grace doesn’t appear to be protecting you very quickly. 

On top of that, Po’s magic is to sense people’s intentions towards him.  I get how that means he can tell when someone is lying to him, but people who carry around Leck’s lies actually believe them.  Po’s magic isn’t to magically separate truth from falsehoods, and if someone honestly believes a lie then they’re going to deliver it like a truth.

In fact, how did Po figure this out at all?  His magic doesn’t cover it, because as we covered, if everyone truly believes what they’re saying then his magic wouldn’t enter into the equation at all.

But the characters don’t really care about that, they just go to bed.

Man, what a fucking useless chapter.  We got some tepid stabs at feminism which were really just pro-stab-everything, then meandering lies that don’t go anywhere, then talk about stuff we basically already knew.  If Po hadn’t already had his suspicions, then the talk with the merchants would have actually served a purpose, plus it would have made Po’s magic make more sense.  That should have been the first time that someone consciously lied about Leck’s morals to Po, and the disconnect between “Leck didn’t do it (lie)” and “Leck is innocent (truth)” could have sparked off everything.  Instead, what we’ve got is just reiterating what we already figured out, which means that nothing has been accomplished in this chapter except to have the characters finally catch up to the audience.