Summary
Seeing Redd by Frank Bedor is the second book in the Looking Glass Wars series. Alyss Heart is the new and inexperienced Queen of Wonderland. Hatter Madigan, the Queen's bodyguard has left to pursue personal matters and has not returned from his journey. The new bodyguard, Homburg Molly, is Hatter's daughter although unbeknownst to every one but her mother. She is an outstanding warrior but still feels the need to prove herself. This being the case she acts rashly which allows the enemy to get a hold on the Wonderland monarchy. King Arch of Borderland is the leader of the neighboring kingdom and is extremely misogynistic. In his kingdom women are almost less than merely objects, they are like animals. He once tells of one of his tens of wives had "to be put down because of her feisty temper." The Wonderland queendom is under attack by the very machines that the evil Queen Redd used to take over before. This confuses the Queen's governing body because Redd has disappeared. Arch is behind all the attacks and ends up kidnapping Molly. He uses her as leverage to drive Hatter out of hiding. For the first time in his life Hatter has developed feelings for a women and they had a child whom he also loves. He returns to the queendom but quickly leaves as his emotions get the best of him.
Redd finally emerges from as King Arch starts to gain power. She takes his kingdom from him with the army of black imaginers she gathered from Earth. She storms her old kingdom with her new armies and new found imagination. Hatter has been working for King Arch who had a weapon that can destroy all of these kingdoms in the world. Hatter has been on Queen Alyss' side the whole time though and when he is supposed to activate the weapon he skips a step per the Queen's request. When it ignites it does explode and cause destruction but not as much as expected. When the smoke clears though, all those who can use there imagination, can't anymore. Ex-Queen Redd retracts her armies saying that it was just a practice and then the book ends.
Redd finally emerges from as King Arch starts to gain power. She takes his kingdom from him with the army of black imaginers she gathered from Earth. She storms her old kingdom with her new armies and new found imagination. Hatter has been working for King Arch who had a weapon that can destroy all of these kingdoms in the world. Hatter has been on Queen Alyss' side the whole time though and when he is supposed to activate the weapon he skips a step per the Queen's request. When it ignites it does explode and cause destruction but not as much as expected. When the smoke clears though, all those who can use there imagination, can't anymore. Ex-Queen Redd retracts her armies saying that it was just a practice and then the book ends.
Themes
- Male supremacy and sexism in any form is evil.
- Good isn't always achieved through conventional means. Life isn't ideal.
- Emotions skew the way we act. We often choose the non-logical option when acting according to emotions.
Favorite Quote
"Boarderland men do not talk about their feelings. Boarderland men do not whine and complain. Boarderland men never show weakness or vulnerability nor admit to having either"(48).
Male supremacy or whatever you choose to term it, is a prevalent theme within the book. The kingdom of Boarderland is the only land that has this culture of using women and this land also is the only one trying to take over. Not only are men emotionless they treat women terribly. They have multiple wives are for their own pleasure and gain. This quote encapsulates what the author is trying to say about our society and the direction it is headed. The author definitely designed the culture of Boarderland to be evil to convey his feelings towards the matter. I don't neccesarily agree with the author but as it is in wrting the example is an exaggeration.
Overview of Arguement
If we didn't have emotions then the world we be predictable. So much so that we could predict the choices people would make.
Essay
We Could Predict the Future
I am confident that the human race could indeed predict the future. We could follow an individual around and know what he is going to do, to a point. We know that if all of humanity acted logically and thoughtfully than our lives would be easier. The one thing holding us from knowing and experiencing more, is in fact our emotions. Particularly the emotions of hate, love, and lust. This may sound counterintuitive but I have evidence from the book Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor.
The queendom in which the story is based has a Queen named Alyss. Her personal bodyguard, Hatter Madigan, is the perfect guard. He is quick, agile, smart, and never disobeys orders. He executes assignments seemingly emotionlessly and never fails. After the queendom is thriving and back in order he asks to go on vacation. When he returns it is revealed that he has a wife and child. This is when his emotions get the best of him. “‘If that is what you command, Your Majesty,’ he said. But something was welling up inside him, something he had never felt before and that at any other time he would have tamped down with all the force of his formidable will: disobedience”’(194). Hatter does the most uncharacteristic thing imaginable. He disobeys a direct order. Hatter would never have done this if he hadn't met his wife and had a child. Even though he doesn’t know the child he loves her and ultimately leaves his Queen. As we see love has changed Hatter’s reasoning and caused him to choose the illogical thing.
Love is not the only judgement clouding emotion. Rage can cause even more change of character. People get angry and do things they would never dream of doing otherwise. An especially strong feeling of anger is the want to exact revenge on someone who has wronged you. This is the case for the Captain of the Guard, Dodge Anders. His world was changed forever when he witnessed his father killed by the assassin, The Cat. He is consumed by pain, grief, and pure hatred. He has hunted The Cat for days without rest. Though lately because The Cat was presumed dead he has ceased his search. Once word comes of The Cat’s arrival back into Wonderland, Dodge immediately departs to take The Cat’s last life. “‘Dodge?’ Alyss said, watching the hand with which he gripped the handle of his father’s sword. It was shaking. ‘Dodge?’ But he was no longer with her. His world could fit only two: himself and The Cat”’(317). He is so committed to avenging his father's death that he disregards his Queen whom he’s also in love with. So strong is his hatred he never looks back. It simply doesn’t make logical sense to leave for days on end in search of a master murderer to try and kill him. Nevertheless emotions govern his thoughts.
The last and final example of emotions altering choices and destinies comes from Alyss’ aunt, the Ex-Queen Redd. As a child and heir to the throne, Princess Redd was irresponsible and showed signs of practicing Black imagination. This was enough to worry her mother and father enough to let Genevieve, her younger sister, become queen. She later shows the scene to her new followers:
“A younger, less bitter-worn version of herself railed at Queen Theodora…. [who] walked off, leaving her daughter to steep in futile anger. The scene shifted to Redd marching up a spiral hall. She had aged, grown haggard from years of disdain, the line of her mouth set in a permanent frown of disgust”(196).
Instead of going to solitude and cleaning up her act, Princess Redd chooses to be so enveloped in bitterness and hurt that she kills her parents and hides away. She never forgets how her parents wronged her and is so surrounded by disgust and agony that she turns into a monster. All because she was a rebellious teenager and was punished. If the strength of her emotions didn’t fester within her then she could’ve took the throne. We can logically predict this because she was in line to the throne and with corrections in her ways she would have thrived. She decided otherwise and has reaped the rewards of her choice.
Given the scenarios the reader could’ve predicted what was going to happen next but instead the characters acted unpredictably because of their intense emotions. We know that because of these emotions the characters acted weirdly. Without strong emotions such as love, hate, or lust we could predict the way people would act and therefore how the world would work. Maybe it is a good thing we can’t predict the future accurately, then life would become significantly less interesting.
I am confident that the human race could indeed predict the future. We could follow an individual around and know what he is going to do, to a point. We know that if all of humanity acted logically and thoughtfully than our lives would be easier. The one thing holding us from knowing and experiencing more, is in fact our emotions. Particularly the emotions of hate, love, and lust. This may sound counterintuitive but I have evidence from the book Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor.
The queendom in which the story is based has a Queen named Alyss. Her personal bodyguard, Hatter Madigan, is the perfect guard. He is quick, agile, smart, and never disobeys orders. He executes assignments seemingly emotionlessly and never fails. After the queendom is thriving and back in order he asks to go on vacation. When he returns it is revealed that he has a wife and child. This is when his emotions get the best of him. “‘If that is what you command, Your Majesty,’ he said. But something was welling up inside him, something he had never felt before and that at any other time he would have tamped down with all the force of his formidable will: disobedience”’(194). Hatter does the most uncharacteristic thing imaginable. He disobeys a direct order. Hatter would never have done this if he hadn't met his wife and had a child. Even though he doesn’t know the child he loves her and ultimately leaves his Queen. As we see love has changed Hatter’s reasoning and caused him to choose the illogical thing.
Love is not the only judgement clouding emotion. Rage can cause even more change of character. People get angry and do things they would never dream of doing otherwise. An especially strong feeling of anger is the want to exact revenge on someone who has wronged you. This is the case for the Captain of the Guard, Dodge Anders. His world was changed forever when he witnessed his father killed by the assassin, The Cat. He is consumed by pain, grief, and pure hatred. He has hunted The Cat for days without rest. Though lately because The Cat was presumed dead he has ceased his search. Once word comes of The Cat’s arrival back into Wonderland, Dodge immediately departs to take The Cat’s last life. “‘Dodge?’ Alyss said, watching the hand with which he gripped the handle of his father’s sword. It was shaking. ‘Dodge?’ But he was no longer with her. His world could fit only two: himself and The Cat”’(317). He is so committed to avenging his father's death that he disregards his Queen whom he’s also in love with. So strong is his hatred he never looks back. It simply doesn’t make logical sense to leave for days on end in search of a master murderer to try and kill him. Nevertheless emotions govern his thoughts.
The last and final example of emotions altering choices and destinies comes from Alyss’ aunt, the Ex-Queen Redd. As a child and heir to the throne, Princess Redd was irresponsible and showed signs of practicing Black imagination. This was enough to worry her mother and father enough to let Genevieve, her younger sister, become queen. She later shows the scene to her new followers:
“A younger, less bitter-worn version of herself railed at Queen Theodora…. [who] walked off, leaving her daughter to steep in futile anger. The scene shifted to Redd marching up a spiral hall. She had aged, grown haggard from years of disdain, the line of her mouth set in a permanent frown of disgust”(196).
Instead of going to solitude and cleaning up her act, Princess Redd chooses to be so enveloped in bitterness and hurt that she kills her parents and hides away. She never forgets how her parents wronged her and is so surrounded by disgust and agony that she turns into a monster. All because she was a rebellious teenager and was punished. If the strength of her emotions didn’t fester within her then she could’ve took the throne. We can logically predict this because she was in line to the throne and with corrections in her ways she would have thrived. She decided otherwise and has reaped the rewards of her choice.
Given the scenarios the reader could’ve predicted what was going to happen next but instead the characters acted unpredictably because of their intense emotions. We know that because of these emotions the characters acted weirdly. Without strong emotions such as love, hate, or lust we could predict the way people would act and therefore how the world would work. Maybe it is a good thing we can’t predict the future accurately, then life would become significantly less interesting.