Throne of Glass, does what we do before really matter? #8

 I have been rereading one of my favorite book series of all time. It is Throne of Glass by Sara J. Maas. Instead of dissecting the whole series in the eye of the hero's journey I have just been thinking about the first book. By the time that you are onto the third book in this series the journey in that first book seems trivial, unimportant, and almost easy. However, it is not an easy journey, it is a matter of life or death, freedom or enslavement. It makes me question whether or not certain journeys matter if there are harder ones ahead that we have not yet faced, and once we face them do those past ones matter or are they inconsequential once we have faced a harder journey. In this book a young assassin who is well known and well renowned had been captured. The story starts with her in a slave camp when the prince of the kingdom comes to her and requests that she be in his fathers tournament for a champion who can complete his dirty work. If she wins and does in fact become the king's champion, after 5 years in his service she will be free and allowed to go off wherever she would like. She would be free, which is something she has never been in her whole life. She spends the book fighting for her life against men much stronger than her, trying to gain back the strength that she lost after being in a slave camp for a year and being malnourished and whipped. All while that is happening there is something else that is lurking in the castle killing off the king's champions and she needs to make sure that she too is not taken in the night. Her guide on this journey is the ghost of the first queen of the kingdom, telling her that she needs to win this competition and become the king's champion. It is a perfect example of the hero's journey. With a call to action, a refusal, and a guiding character who is there constantly helping.

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