Whips of Smoke and Glass Swords

Mar 15, 2018

The various threads of Holly Black’s Valient and Val’s heroine’s journey coalesce in the climactic fight between Mabry and Val. In it, Mabry is cast in a completely villain-esque light as the epitome of darkness. While Val doesn’t view herself as a hero, she says to Mabry, “I think you’re a villain” (294). Mabry is also described in a darkly sexual way. She emits a “deep, sensual laugh,” connecting her, in some ways, to Val’s mom (288). While Val’s mom is a more complicated character than Mabry, her twisted sexuality and indirection still connect her to the faerie. I wonder if this scene also serves as a surrogate for her relationship with her mother. In Val’s defeat of Mabry, she may be also trying to reprimand her mom for her actions. However, this dynamic with her mom is more complicated than the more simple battle against Mabry’s evil, as she can’t take back her mom’s actions and probably won’t ever understand her them. I don’t know if her mom ever will either.

Also, in the scene, Val’s and Mabry’s choice of weapons are interesting. Mabry chooses an armor of mist and a “whip of smoke,” that reminds Val of sparklers and can become insubstantial at Mabry’s will (293). Val’s physical and, as we see, breakable sword of glass contrast against Mabry’s magical weapon. This creates a very stark divide between Val’s human nature and Mabry’s faerie self. In Val’s defeat of Mabry through doing something unexpected, I think Black poses an idea of what separates humans from other (in this case magical) beings. While these humans are immersed in the world of faeries, something inherently human about them acts as a dividing force. In this fight scene, it would seem that Val’s adaptable nature and quick thinking are her inherently human traits that Mabry’s evil cannot comprehend. Mabry cannot adapt, but Val can, and this saves her. I think this also contrasts Mabry against Val’s mom, and might give Val hope for her relationship with her mom in the future. While Mabry failed to change, Val’s mom’s human nature at least gives her the possibility for change.

6 responses to “Whips of Smoke and Glass Swords”

kaitlynegp

March 15, 2018 at 9:23 pm

I think this interpretation is utterly fascinating and I would love to say something coherent in response. I have no clue what to say. This is well-stated and I didn’t consider the connections between Mabry and Val’s mom.

I think, at the end of the novel, we do see change in Val’s mom. The one connection I have is that Val, in some ways, becomes the adult in her relationship with her mother. Val’s mother attempts to have authority over Val, telling her she can’t leave again, but Val utterly dismisses her. In the final scene, Val’s mother is terrified that Val will leave again, but Val dismisses her and says “I’m just going to the park.” This seems to me to be a role reversal: toddlers often are sad or scared when their parents leave, but the parents either are dismissive or attempt to assuage their child’s fear. I think this final scene does show, then, Val’s mother’s (I don’t like that she doesn’t have a name, it makes writing about her difficult) capacity to change because she DID change. She had to, so Val could become the adult and replace her (following the heroine’s journey).

I know this doesn’t quite get into the connections you make between Mabry and Val’s mom, but I think that the relationship between Val and her mom had to suffer and change in order for Val to replace her mother.

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1. allisonrayco
  
  April 1, 2018 at 2:14 pm
  
  I didn’t think about the connection with age at the end, and I think it is interesting how Val’s mom’s immature or juvenile actions at the beginning of the novel put her in this position. I like that you brought up the necessity of this change so that Val has the chance to become the “adult” in the relationship. I also agree that Val’s mother is harder to write about because she is unnamed.
  
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akaron

March 15, 2018 at 10:27 pm

Wow both the original post and the comment bring up a lot of good points I’d never thought of! I didn’t think about how the choice of weapons reflects the characters, I especially like the idea that Mabry’s weapon could be insubstantial while Val’s was very straightforward reflecting the differences between humans and faeries. As for Val’s mom I’m not sure if her character will change or not, but it is most likely that after what she did and Val’s long absence and coming back a different person, she will think about her own actions more and not make the same mistakes in regards to her and her daughter’s relationships. The end scene where Val is going out and her mother gets nervous reminded me of what the sort of “helicopter parent” was supposed to be like, rather than what her mom was like at the beginning of the story. This makes sense in a way since it is natural for her mother to worry after Val running away from home that she might decide to do it again. I think Val’s relationship with her mother is an interesting topic and could’ve been focused on a bit more in the book- that being said there are other books in this series that may talk more about it. Either way things more or less seem to work out for Val in the end.

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1. allisonrayco
  
  April 1, 2018 at 2:18 pm
  
  I also agree that I wanted to learn more about Val’s relationship with her mother as it seemed a little underdeveloped in the novel, though maybe there were parts like the fight that might more indirectly address Val’s thoughts on the matter. I would be interested to see how reading the other books in the series introduces other nuances to this topic.
  
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storylesher

March 18, 2018 at 3:37 pm

I totally also did not make the connection between Mabry and Val’s mom, but I think you are absolutely right. Val is definitely at a battle of sorts with her mother, especially when she finds out Tom is cheating on Val with her. She leaves home because of this and goes on this crazy adventure where she makes a lot of bad decisions, but ultimately finds her strength and who she is as a person. A lot of this occurs through her fight with Mabry, where she proves to herself that she is strong enough to go home and face her mother. However, Val’s mom definitely isn’t the villain that Mabry is. So while Mabry is a stand in for Val’s mom in Val’s fight to find herself, I think Mabry’s character also works to show us that her mom is not really evil, just lonely and confused.

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1. allisonrayco
  
  April 1, 2018 at 2:21 pm
  
  I like the clarification that Val’s mom is not at the same level of villain that Mabry is. I also think that your description of Val’s mom as lonely and confused also could describe Val at different parts of the novel, and it is interesting that they are similar in this way. However, we don’t get to see how Val’s mom deals with it as much, as she is largely absent throughout the novel.
  
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