Written In Shadows

Hello, and welcome once again to the Plotstains Perspective. Today I’m going to discuss some brilliant work I think my friend Blackbird has done when it comes to some of the deeper aspects of Shadows Rise.

If you aren’t caught up to Shadows Rise, I suggest you do so considering the potential for spoilers if you aren’t up-to-date on all things Shadows Rise. 

Without anything further, let’s get into it. 

Contrary to what Blackbird might believe based off of certain things I’m not allowed yet to say, I really like Lena as a character. She can drive me crazy at times (again, I won’t say why), but at the end of the day, there’s just so much to like about her from both a personal level and a literary level. Today I want to discuss the literary aspect of her character and something I hadn’t noticed until I read through the first draft of the latest chapter. Lena has a unique and interesting literary relationship with the Wolf Hunters. They act as interesting foils to one another. 

To those of you who don’t know what a foil is, it is basically a literary device in which two characters share a similar trait, but the author uses that to accentuate how each character is different. A classic example comes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth between Macbeth and Banquo. Both of them are told a prophecy by the witches at the beginning of the play, but only Macbeth chooses to take fate into his own hands and make the prophecy a reality. Meanwhile Banquo chooses only to ponder the thought of the validity of the prophecy. They share the prophecy, but act upon it in a way which juxtaposes them. 

The trait that Lena and the Wolf Hunters have in common is that they all have loved ones who were assassinated by the Wolfpack. That’s where the similarities end, though. For the Wolf Hunters (as seen by Sebastian and Kyle), this leads them down a path of revenge where they wish nothing more than to see the entire society of assassins living in the forest wiped out. In Lena’s case, she has (as far as we can tell so far) found it in herself to forgive the Wolfpack for what happened; so much so that she’s willing to live with the very woman who murdered her mother and go as far as becoming a part of her killer’s family. 

Given the heavy themes of revenge that pervade the story (especially the first arc and, as we’ll later see in this arc and onward), this is some great work from Blackbird. I’ve got my suspicion, based on the things I know, that it wasn’t at all intentional, but it is, nonetheless, brilliant. 

And that’s the great thing about writing. Sometimes you come across ideas while writing out your story that play right into the themes or motifs that you’re trying to write about in your story. When that happens and you notice them, you’ve got to seize on the opportunity to use them to their fullest extent. It makes me hopeful that Blackbird will expand on this foil in the future and I’ll be sure to encourage her to do so as we move forward with the story. 

What do you think? Does the latest chapter give you some insight into the themes of Shadows Rise? Am I looking too deeply into this? Does the fact that Lena’s been living with the Wolfpack since she was a newborn change things for you? Leave a comment to let me know. 

Now, for some quick house-keeping. As you can see, there wasn’t a Plotstains Perspective after 3.02. I think you’ll have to get used to not seeing one of these after every chapter. The reality is I don’t always have something interesting to talk about. I’d rather wait until there’s something interesting I’d like to say. So sometimes it might be two or more chapters until new Plotstains Perspective is released. I hope that’s okay. 

Until next time, then.

-Plotstains