#maven and cal

[carmilllaofstyria]

Maven at the end of Red Queen

[girllblogging777]

if i had a nickel everytime i read a romantasy book about a poor girl from the streets who got picked to participate in a trial between rich kids with superpowers, while having to live at the palace where the two brothers fell in love with her before she betrayed them and ran away, i'd have two nickels.

[folkwhore12]

maven calore was committing regicide and usurping a throne at 17 what the hell are you doing. sitting in bed reading fan fiction. get a grip

[dontsteponourgowns]

Has anyone here read red queen bc I NEED someone to rant to

[maveys-baby]

no bc the part in War Storm, right after they capture Maven and they're carrying him away and he's talking to the voice in his head saying, "I did as you said, I did as you said" breaks my heart into a million pieces every single time omg.

[mo-online]

i'm actually begging for some red queen mutuals 😭 i'm rereading yet again and idk anyone else who's read it that i can scream to unfortunately

[mavenne]

“I wasn’t always this way, was I? You remember better than I do. When I was a boy, your little brother. Always trailing at your heels, eager to spend every moment I could with you. I used to ask to sleep in your room, didn’t I?”

Cal narrows his eyes. “You were afraid of the dark.”

“And then I wasn’t. Just like that.”

if you like my work and wanna support me visit my ko-fi

[highladyofterrasen7]

Me @ cal

[the-best-skibidi-rizzler]

What do the silvers even look like?

Like i was thinking about it and realised how strange they would look, like any undertones or pink in our skin would be silver for them like...

their mouths, their tounges, when i first read the books i kinda just pictured a silver blush maybe twighlight esque looking y'know? but like they'd be so freaking silver

please tell me I'm not the only one who took this long to realise

[planetmaven]

i'm almost done rereading Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard, and I've just realized something about Cal that I didn't notice before.

Growing up, Cal was never my favorite. I favored Maven so much, maybe even a little too much. So, Cal was very annoying to me? I hated his every line and I was very irritated with every word he said and every action he took. But I was 13 at that time.

I am 17 years old now. And I've found a sense of maturity I didn't realize I had once discovering this.

Cal Calore is a burning flame. He is passionate and driven, with a kind heart, but he is indecisive, and this flaw drags him down.

I noticed just how often his trauma is overlooked. Cal lost everything. His mother, at a young age. His father. His brother. His friends. His kingdom. His home. His titles. The list goes on. He was taken from everything he knew and slammed down into an entire new world.

He wasn't even welcomed by the Reds. The first thing they did to Cal was lock him up alone when they reached Tuck.

And then when they met Nix, Nix was immediately taunting Cal for being "seduced by Mare into killing his father", but once Cal reveals the truth of what happened, they all fell silent.

No one. Not a single person, except probably Mare, has asked Cal if he was okay.

Cal lost everything. I mean literally everything. And not once in the whole book did we see him cry, break down, or fall apart.

That is a kind of strength I could never imagine.

[imjulia-andilikecats]

THROWBACK: When The Calore Brothers' IQ Momentarily Drop in Some Scenes:

The Red Queen Fandom:

[a-library-ghost]

so we all picture him as maven calore right

[isabellaapotter]

kings cage spoilers (red queen) ‼️

“maven is below the treasury, he has a train” i say as we clamber away together. his arms tighten around me. he steers us toward the main gate, quickening his pace with every step.

“i’m not here for maven”

I PHYSICALLY CANNOT. mare and cal are just too fucking perfect and those are the first words he says to her??? after MONTHS??? and stupid fucking samson merandus trying to FIGHT THEM AGAINST EACH OTHER ARE YOU KIDDING?? he could have had other motives for staging the attack but instead his only concern is getting. mare. out. i need them to hug and never let each other go again thank you

[rainstorms-moonrivers]

the true villains of Red Queen

you want to know who the true villains of the Red Queen series are? Julian Jacos, Elara Merandus, and Anabel Lerolan.

Especially Julian and Anabel.

Because at least people acknowledge Elara's involvement in Maven's mental abuse.

But Julian and Anabel. They had a hand in that abuse being actively ignored and no one ever called them out on it.

Ever.

Cal should've ripped them a new one.

It's because of them he lost his little brother.

They knew what whisper influence looked like. They saw it in his mother and they would've recognized it in Maven. They should've done something. They should've done the bare minimum of telling Cal's father what was happening to his other son.

But Julian was holding a child accountable for his mother's crimes and Anabel had blatant favoritism.

[hrizantemy]

So firstly, I feel like my post comes off like I hate Mare, and I don’t—she’s actually one of my favorite FMCs. She’s the character that got me into reading in the first place. My criticism isn’t about disliking her; it’s about analyzing her arc, especially in Glass Sword.

Second, I know I skipped a lot of the in-between. That’s because I’m currently doing a reread and I’m only on page 163. So my focus right now is on the early signs of Mare’s hypocrisy—like when she insists she wants to give new bloods a choice, but then immediately denies Cameron that very choice. When you compare that to how she acts later in the book, it becomes even clearer how far she’s slipping.

You’re right that Mare is a flawed FMC who actually faces consequences for her actions, and I love that about her. She’s not glorified, and Aveyard doesn’t shy away from showing her moral decline. But that doesn’t mean I can’t call out specific moments where her actions contradict her own ideals. That’s what makes her such an interesting, complex character—she messes up badly, and then she has to live with it.

Mare’s trauma is one of the defining forces that shape her character, and we see its effects on her constantly throughout the series. She’s not just reacting to what’s happening around her—she’s carrying everything that has already happened to her, and it directly influences her choices, for better or worse.

1. Her Time as a Pawn in the Silver Court – Mare spends months being used as a puppet, forced to lie, to play a role, to watch her every word and movement just to stay alive. She hates how powerless she felt, how easily she was manipulated. That experience fuels her obsession with control—because to her, losing control means being vulnerable again. It’s why she refuses to let herself be a pawn ever again, even if it means making ruthless decisions.

2. Trust Issues & Isolation – Mare struggles with trust from the very beginning, but after the betrayal in Red Queen, it only gets worse. She convinces herself that she has to carry the burden of saving the new bloods alone, pushing away the people who care about her. She thinks detachment will make her stronger, but all it really does is isolate her, making her even more emotionally unstable. We see her grappling with this—she knows she’s alienating herself, but she doesn’t know how to stop.

3. Her View on Power & Responsibility – Mare goes from being a powerless Red to one of the most powerful people in the world overnight. That’s not something she adjusts to easily. She doesn’t want to be like the Silvers, but she also knows that power is the only thing keeping her alive. The more she fights, the more she justifies making harsh, morally gray decisions—because in her mind, if she doesn’t, then she’s as weak as she was before. We constantly see her struggling with where the line is, and how far she’s willing to go before she becomes the very thing she hates.

Mare isn’t just a character who goes through trauma—she’s shaped by it, and we see her struggling under the weight of it every step of the way. That’s what makes her such a compelling protagonist.

Me calling out Mare’s hypocrisy doesn’t take away from the fact that it stems from her trauma. I know exactly why she makes the choices she does—I know she’s acting out of fear, control, and desperation. I know that every mistake she makes is a direct result of everything she’s been through. But understanding why she does something doesn’t mean I can’t still acknowledge what she does.

Her trauma explains her actions, but it doesn’t excuse them—and that’s the whole point of her character arc. She’s flawed, she contradicts herself, and she struggles with the weight of her own decisions. That doesn’t mean she isn’t a great character—it makes her an even better one.

So yes, I criticize her. Yes, I point out when she’s being hypocritical. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love her character or that I don’t recognize why she is the way she is. If anything, it makes me appreciate her arc even more.

Mare isn’t just a soldier or a leader—she’s a symbol, whether she wants to be or not. From the moment she’s exposed as the Lightning Girl, people project their own hopes, fears, and expectations onto her, and it weighs on her constantly.

1. She’s Not Just Mare Barrow Anymore – The moment she reveals her abilities, she stops being just another Red girl from the Stilts. To the Silvers, she’s a threat. To the Scarlet Guard, she’s a weapon. To the new bloods, she’s a savior. But who is she to herself? She barely has time to process what’s happening to her before she’s forced into a role she never chose.

2. People Either Fear Her, Hate Her, or Need Something From Her – Very few people in Mare’s life treat her just as a person. To many, she’s a monster—Silvers hate her for breaking their world order. To others, she’s a beacon of hope—new bloods see her as the one who will lead them to safety. Even within the Scarlet Guard, she’s not fully trusted. Almost everyone around her has an agenda, and she’s caught in the middle.

3. She Feels the Pressure to Be More Than She Is – Mare is 17 years old, but she’s expected to lead, to fight, to win a war. The Scarlet Guard and the new bloods look to her for guidance, even though she has no idea what she’s doing. She’s learning as she goes, making mistakes, and every failure feels like another weight on her back. The pressure to be strong, to be right, is unbearable, and we see it breaking her piece by piece.

4. She Falls Under the Weight of It – Mare knows she’s not invincible, but she forces herself to act like she is because everyone expects it. She isolates herself, believing she has to carry the burden alone. But the more she tries to be the perfect leader, the more she crumbles. She loses sight of herself in the process, becoming colder, more ruthless, and more willing to justify things she never would have before—because if she isn’t the Lightning Girl, if she isn’t strong enough, then what’s left of her?

Mare’s struggle isn’t just about fighting a war—it’s about holding up the expectations of everyone around her while trying not to lose herself in the process. And for a long time, she fails.

I think Mare is so much stronger than I was at 17—I could never go through what she did. The sheer amount of pressure, trauma, and responsibility she carries is insane, and the fact that she keeps going, even when she’s breaking, is honestly admirable.

And just to be clear, I actually agree with a lot of what you’re saying @imjulia-andilikecats. I love Mare as a character, and I don’t want my criticism to come across as me hating her or dismissing her struggles. Pointing out things I don’t like or moments that frustrate me doesn’t mean I think she’s a bad character—if anything, it’s because I care about her arc that I even bother analyzing it. So I don’t want what I’m saying to be taken the wrong way or for it to seem like I’m trying to start anything. I just love discussing her complexity!

[annabellelupin]

Evangeline: maven stop making your sexuality your entire personality. no one cares that you have a dead ex boyfriend so shut up about it

Maven: literally all you do is go on about how pretty Elane is you have no room to speak

Evangeline: that's different

maven 🤝 eve

being queer and morally grey characters that carry the entire story