Seize the Power: Narrative Analysis & Reflection - Chapter 1 thru 3
Narrative Analysis for Self-Reflection
Prologue - Bash
Overall Summary & Analysis:
This is the first chance the reader gets to see of Sebastian’s perspective (not including the bonus chapter). It illustrates how Sebastian’s family treats him.
The Darkyra Deity (Kai) uses him as a tool.
His mother turns away from him after Adriana doesn’t come back. Instead of them grieving the loss together, she walks away from him. It’s revealed later the Queen’s priorities are the country over her children.
Adriana was self-sacrificing in the cave, knowing that she had to be strong for Bash because she didn’t see a way out for them.
Bonus Tidbits:
The courtier smiling at Sebastian and whispering in Adriana’s ear is Kai possessing their body. Kai knows Sebastian is going to lose it because they are the one that is making his shadows/their shadows agitated.
Sebastian has the ghost of his memory because his shadow is remembering the quake his parents died (Kai was there too). Sebastian doesn’t recognize the pieces of the memory because his shadow is the one that remembers, not him.
Kai shows Sebastian an image of his sister, Adriana, wearing the crown and being eaten alive by the crown (since it’s a power siphon).
Sebastian’s shadow is offering to kill Adriana because his shadow also killed his parents (father) for him.
Reflection Questions:
Journal & Reflect—leave your thoughts or questions in the comments:
How did your reaction to Sebastian change from Book 1, to Book 2, and now to this prologue? Were their moments of doubt in his intentions?
If you did (or didn’t) have moments of doubt toward his intentions, can you see how his actions could be interpreted differently from an outsider’s perspective? Did not having his point of view until the prologue of Chapter 3 frustrate you?
Where in your life could you interpret someone’s action in a different way if you decided to tell a positive story instead of a negative one? (Try on the thought: We are all trying our best.)
Chapter One - A Cell with No Windows
Overall Summary & Analysis:
The Void
Amaya has officially descended into the true void—she is in the depths of darkness, losing hope.
The prison chapters are an allegory for what happens inside our minds when we have no internal strength/power.
We become trapped and victims to outer sources of authority.
During Descend into the Void, Amaya experienced a taste of this loss of power and depression.
Now she has the opportunity to take what she’s learned in the prior books and make new decisions about what she chooses to believe.
The Hallucinations
Amaya cannot differentiate from her shadow, Sebastian’s shadow, and the “bad” shadows (revealed later to be Kai’s shadows).
The italicized text in the prison chapters don’t have tag attributions. The reader is supposed to question are these Amaya’s thoughts? Kai’s? Sebastian’s shadow? Is it her remembering things that people have said to her? Is it her remembering what she has said to herself?
This is a metaphor for how our own thoughts sometimes have disorienting origins.
Who told you it was morally superior to work hard and not be lazy?
Who told you that you had to do the things you are should-ing yourself to do?
Who told you that good mothers do X?
Who told you that good wives do X?
Who told you that good ____ do ___?
Who told you the things that you currently take for granted as “truths”?
Can you trust the thoughts are true if you don’t know where they came from?
Power-less
Amaya “loses” her voice and can’t respond to her name being called. She lost the ability to decide for herself what shadows (i.e. thoughts) she will believe in.
Reflection Questions:
Journal & Reflect—leave your thoughts or questions in the comments:
Do you resonate with Amaya’s position? What thoughts that play on repeat in your head “start as someone else’s, but have since become my own”?
What are some “truths” that you believe in? Do you remember the first time you were told this? Is believing in this truth helpful or harmful?
Recognizing your thoughts is the first step to changing them. What thoughts are harmful to you? (When you look in the mirror: what are you saying to yourself? When you spend money for yourself: what is the story you are telling? When you take time to relax: do you feel guilty? What thought is creating this feeling?)
Bonus Tidbits:
“The cell I was locked in had no windows.” The first sentence is a call back to Descend into the Void when Nico complained about a superfae movie that showed a prison with windows. He said none of POW prisons he was in ever had windows because fae can draw power from the natural world. This foreshadows what will ultimately be the solution to the draxis/crown’s power: the fae can draw power from their world without needing deities/crowns/outside sources other than themselves and the natural world.
The vibration on her leg is Sebastian’s shadow trying to comfort her, but she’s already losing her mind and thinks it’s a rat.
I was reading House of Leaves when I was writing Seize the Power. A lot of the darkness imagery and sense of dread was inspired by that book.
Chapter Two – Hose/Doctor
Overall Summary & Analysis:
In this story:
Shadows = thoughts
Darkyra Deity (Kai) = Society/Outside Authority
Kai’s ultimate goal is to break Amaya down into pieces and rebuild her into the person they need for their plots.
If we don’t choose our thoughts, we absorb society’s messaging and take it as our truth.
Kai renames Amaya to take away her prior identity.
Kai retells the story of Amaya’s past in a way that promotes their case. (That she kills because if she doesn’t, she will be killed. That she likes killing.)
Kai demands gratitude from Amaya to make her feel indebted and that any complaints she has are selfish and unwarranted.
Kai frames her pain and suffering as a choice. “…it’s up to you how much you’d like to suffer.”
Kai isolates Amaya (and Sebastian) from all outside influences
Kai chuckled. “You are what I made you to be.”
Seize the Power - Chapter 12
Identity: Society—social media, politicians, authority figures, religion, friends/family—is always trying to tell us who we are supposed to be.
Retell the Story: The biggest story that capitalism likes for us all to buy into is that if we just work hard enough, we can succeed. When society believes in this story we can villainize “unsuccessful” people as bad and wrong.
Gratitude & Guilt: Women and minorities especially are sold the line that they should be thankful for what they’ve been given. Don’t complain about the wage gap. Be grateful you have the honor of being a wage slave at all.
The Lie of Choice: Society wants us to think we are choosing our pain and it’s our fault we are poor, weak, and powerless.
Isolation: Kai doesn’t want Amaya in the general population of the prison so she isn’t influenced by other people. The echo chambers we get into on social media and the news media channels are only serving to inflame and further dig us into corrals.
Reflection Questions:
What identities do you label yourself with? How does putting yourself in a box help society keep you from seizing your own power?
Is the story you are telling about your past empowering or disempowering? Do you talk about your accomplishments as “I just got lucky” or belittle yourself in order to appear humble? What story are you telling about your abilities? (Example: I’m scatterbrained. I’m not reliable. I’m a hot mess. I’m not smart, I just work hard.)
Can you tell the difference in your body between genuine gratitude and guilt-ridden gratitude? (Example: I love and enjoy this yummy cup of coffee VS I know I should just be happy that I have a job at all…) Where are you guilting yourself?
Where in your life have you fallen into an echo chamber? (Examples: Do your friends always complain about their bodies? Does your social media promote “girl bossing and hustling” as morally superior to rest/relaxation?)
Do you actively try to search out new sources of information or do you let your social media algorithms do the work of giving you the information you rely on?
Bonus Tidbits:
In Buddhism, the word “Maya” means: ignorance/deceit. The illusion of maya is that one may mistake a rope for a snake in the dark (incorrect perceptions of reality). When Kai renames Amaya to Maya this is a symbol for the illusion they are putting her under. Kai psychologically tortures Amaya to underscore that it’s Kai’s perception of reality that she is living now, not her own.
Every time Kai uses darkyra shadow power, they bleed from the nose. The body of Kai is rejecting Kai’s possession as seen in Descend into the Void when Kai possessed Jeremy. The more power Kai uses in a body, the faster the breakdown of the body.
The doctor chooses to cut Amaya’s infection rather than heal her with high priest(ess) power because as a criminal/prisoner, she is no longer a human that deserves respect and care in the eyes of authority figures.
Chapter Three – Lost - Bash
Overall Summary & Analysis:
Sebastian has immense self-hatred, which directs all of his thoughts, feelings, and actions. He cannot see anyone’s actions toward him as anything but a reflection of what he believes about himself.
Where does self-hatred come from?
Epigentics & trauma—Kai is a hated deity; they are angry, vengeful, and cannot form healthy relationships due to the thousands of years that they were belittled by society & the treatment of their siblings.
Childhood trauma—Up until his eleventh year, one could imagine a world that Sebastian overcame any epigentic trauma by having two loving parents (even if they weren’t his birth parents). Guilt from his parent’s deaths and the way he was abused by the queen fueled his own self-perception for the rest of his life.
Discrimination—darkyras are feared, and what do people do when they are scared? They start to hate. For people with minority identities, the constant undercurrent of hatred and discrimination is a daily stressor.
Self-talk—the only one of these that Sebastian has control of. We cannot choose our genetics, our childhood, or how society treats us. We can only choose how we will treat ourselves.
“I’d be whoever she wanted me to be.”
Sebastian - Seize the Power - Chapter 3
Sebastian says the same thing to Amaya in Ascend from the Shadows, (the scene where Sebastian froze Rien and gave Amaya fae nettle). In that scene, it seems sexy and a little exciting that this mysterious shadow wielder is almost simping for her.
But in Seize the Power, we see that this sentiment was not just flirting.
He wants to change into someone who is worthy of unconditional love.
Sebastian’s self-hatred is his running narrative for the rest of the book until he realizes he has the power to choose a different thought (self-compassion and self-forgiveness).
Bonus Tidbits:
The prison thought Sebastian was brain dead so they didn’t give him the heavy doses of power suppression that they gave Amaya. His powers react to Amaya being nearby and he breaks his wrists when he rips the chains they’ve shackled him with out of the wall.