Rin was so angry in The Poppy War. It was weirdly comforting. Oftentimes fantasy stories have a beautifully flawed protagonist in such an unrealistic way that it’s almost annoying. Clumsy but falling at the perfect time so the dark knight, enemies-to-lovers male character is always right there to catch her. Sarcastic and awkward but then in the end everyone tells her it made them more honest. These aren’t really flaws. 

Rin, on the other hand, has no control over her anger and the more she learns the angrier she becomes. She says the wrong thing, gets overruled and has a tantrum about it so hard she has to be sent out of the camp entirely to calm down because her rage is so intense. She is cynical, pragmatic. I wouldn’t say she lacks empathy so much as she rejects it any time the feeling creeps up on her.

Rin isn’t even an idealistic anti-hero. I’d say that was Altan — driven by a mission to create something bigger than himself, powerful in a way that drew everyone to him. Solemn, hurt, broken by the world around him that made you sympathize with who he became and inspired by how he got through it. 

Rin is so hard for me to describe. This book is about the consequences of her rage. Only someone with the presence of the Dragon Warlord could force her to deal with it. She begins the story terribly broken by what she did, what she experienced. She is destroying herself and everyone around her. 

Yes, Rin is terribly powerful, but she has no control over it. Everything she does is accidental. Or impulsive. She is not driven by a higher calling. She says early on in the story, “If she wasn’t making the decisions, then nothing could be her fault.” -171. Rin hasn’t figured out what is right and what is wrong because she understands how grey  it all is. Although, she doesn’t understand how much she is being manipulated until it is far too late.

She spends a good deal of the story unable to call the fire or commune with the Phoenix god. All she can be is a foot soldier and she convinces herself that she likes it more. She is a cog in the Republic-making machine. She is an incredible warrior, with or without the fire, but it is still without purpose. 

In one moment, Rin is desperately fighting the urge to kill all the women hiding in the Ram Warlords home for their betrayal; and then seconds later she has to remind herself not to comfort the screaming baby she’s holding to get the Warlords attention. This is such a perfect representation of Rin. Whatever emotion she feels in any moment has a way of taking over and she has to remind herself what she’s doing and why. 

She spends so much time and energy running from something that clearly runs faster than her. I really appreciated the interactions that her and Chaghan had. Before the Sorqan Sira catches up and basically brings Rin to a new state of being, Chaghan and Rin admit what has made them so hostile to each other. 

This story would be so much easier if it was a love story. If Rin was in love with Altan and so was Chaghan, and Altan was the aloof figure who died before they were able to find out who he would have picked. But it’s really not that simple. Altan looms over Rin in a way that only someone she loves can. They have a deep connection and they understood each other in a way that Chaghan, who can see inside their minds, couldn’t. And he hates that. His devotion to Altan was more adoration than love. 

It isn’t until Rin is bonded to Kitay that she can actually understand what love is. The book ends with a lot of heartbreak and a lot of concern. Rin was so hopeful for so long. Even when she was broken inside, she was a tool that could be used for something that inspired her. But the Dragon Warlord wasn’t who he said he was. 

There were things going on that she never could have known. I am quite curious as to what the interaction between Nezha and Rin will be like when it eventually comes. I never understood why she always forgave him, it’s like she believed he didn’t understand what he was saying. Maybe it was more that she believed with enough time, she could convince him to see things differently. 

Rin understands clearly that her upbringing made her the way she is. She also believes that a person can change with the right influence just because she did. What she fails to see is that she came to Sineguard in the first book expecting to become different; she was so open to change that she basically required it of herself. Nezha grew up in the world that she was desperate to be a part of. There is nothing better than what he has. Everything is certain, unquestionable. Anyone who came in and suggested things could be different was a threat, not an opportunity. 

Everything is even greyer than Rin thought it was. Nezha was a sacrifice for his father’s experimentation and knowledge. Kitay was angry in a way that Rin never knew because it presented itself differently than hers did. Daji wasn’t the horrible monster that she was always made out to be. I won’t say she’s good, but her fight was different from Rin’s. She had enemies Rin didn’t even know were a part of the story, or at least Rin thought they played a far different role. 

I’d like to discuss the moral relativism that Kuang pulls out more but I will wait until the last book to make any assertions there. It is easy to discuss philosophical ideas abstractly and independently. But to create an environment where it is expressed and explored, not in history but in a story so that allows you to experience it from start to finish. This is what makes good literature exceptional.