In honor of the release of Danielle Goudeau’s Choice of the Petal Throne, I wanted to share something that’s been kicking around in my head a while.
I think my favorite part of The Man of Gold is at the end, when the protagonist must choose, as is traditional, between two love interests: on the one hand, the good-hearted girl with Aryan racial signifiers, and on the other, the tempestuous beauty who makes his heart race but is proooobably kind of evil, and the Imperial Prince steps in to say, in effect, “You have clearly forgotten that we live in a polygamous society! Marry them both!”
Damn right, Prince Eselne. Subvert those tropes like a boss.