Everything you need to know before you read Champion: Spontaneous Saturday (1)

Everything You Need to Know Before Champion Comes Out; Literally EVERYTHING

Spontaneous Saturday is a new weekly post on "Loving the Language of Literacy" where I post anything I want to. Whether it's another review, character spotlight, or even something like this, it will be spontaneous where I won't even know what I'm posting until that Saturday.

We ALL should know I'm a crazy wackjob for The Legend Trilogy by Marie Lu. I transcribed around 25 minutes of footage from "Meeting Marvelous Marie Lu". There you can find out about "Pantsers vs. Plotters", interrupting Marie Lu, a new series with the Black Death leading to magical powers, the history of paper clips, and Day being named after Daniel Radcliffe. 

This is just some news about "The Young Elites"

@sslluvsbooks <3 Aww! I just turned in my latest revision yesterday, which hopefully is a good thing.
— Marie Lu (@Marie_Lu) January 2, 2014

Now I want to focus on the Tri-Fold I made in May 2013 for a book report and all the information on it. Basically this is the post you could read if you were going to skip straight to Champion without reading Legend or Prodigy, although I highly suggest you don't do that. Maybe even if you need a refresher on the books before reading Champion. 

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the great Republic of America to our Elector Primo, to our glorious states, to unity against the Colonies, to our impending victory!” — The Republic Pledge

Introduction to the Republic:

Plagues-

Thousands of feet underground,there are meat producing factories that killed thousands of animals because of because of viruses. Then Congress remembered the Colonies War. Every time a new virus appeared, scientists took samples and crafted them into human viruses, and at the same time developed a vaccination and a cure,They handed out vaccinations to everyone but the poor sectors. They pump the virus into the sectors through a system of underground pipes, into the water, or directly into a few houses to see to see how it would spread. When there was enough evidence for what that particular strain could do, they would prick everyone with a cure during one of their routine sweeps. The plague wouldn’t come back until the next strain. Congress would run individual plague experiments on children who failed the Trial and died. All of the Republic’s people with weak genes were killed off. Congress also used the plague against the Colonies.own people are lab rats. Someday a virus will get out of hand, no vaccine or cure will be able to stop it.

Trials-

“You’re worried about a bunch of renegade Trial takers who managed to escape their deaths?”—- Legend, Day at Batalla Hall

Scores:

1450-1499- it’s instant access to 6 years of high school and 4 at the top universities in the Republic: Drake, Stanford, and Brenan. Then Congress hires you and you make lots of money.

1250-1449- you get high school and are assigned a college.

1000-1249- Congress doesn’t let you go to high school and you join the poor people working with water turbines or power plants.

Below 1000- you fail (most that fail are from the slum sectors), the government orders your parents to sign a contract giving the government full custody over you, tell your family you’re going to the “labor camps”, and then give your family 1000 notes as condolence.

In the beginning of the Republic, the Trials didn’t favor the rich, given to children, and were taken by choice, but the Elector won lots of support by making it a mandatory test for all children on their 10th birthday. It became so that this one test could decide your future. It consists of a written portion, physical, and an interview in front of a panel of judges . It is said by the Republic that the Trial was to encourage athleticism and hard work, enticing the fittest and best for more military-like people. When in reality, the Republic is lying to weed out the weak, defiant, and eventually, to control overpopulation because they were considered a waste of resources and space.Your family thinks you’re sent to the “labor camps”, if you fail, when in reality, they will just kill you or send you to the labs to be experimented on.

Republic:

“We have risked our lives for this country- not the country we live in now, but the country we hope to have. People  of the republic, know your enemy, the republics way of life, the laws and traditions that holds us down, the late elector, congress. I don’t want to see the republic collapse. I want to see it change.”—-Prodigy, Day’s support speech for Anden

The Republic was originally formed in the middle of the worst crisis North America. The eastern half of North America was underwater because of floods, so millions of people flooded into the west because they had nowhere to go. Because of so many people, it was pure anarchy with  no jobs, food, or shelter, and the entire country was in utter fear, panic, and rioters, with everything in absolute disrepair. The federal government had no money to contain and maintain crisis after crisis. The first Elector seized power by declaring the Republic a separate country under martial law that allowed soldiers to fire at free will, giving them a newfound power that they openly embraced so much that it became the military versus the people. Afterward, the Colonies declared war on the Republic.

Characters:

Daniel Altan Wing “Day”:

“I’ve fought the same injustices that you’re here to protest right now. I’ve suffered the same things you’ve suffered. I’ve watched my friends and family die at the hands of the Republic soldiers. I’ve been starved, beaten, humiliated, insulted,suppressed  and humiliated. I’ve lived in the slums with you. We have risked our lives for this country- not the country we live in now, but the country we hope to have. People  of the republic, know your enemy, the republics way of life, the laws and traditions that holds us down, the late elector, congress. But the new elector is not your enemy. You think your congress wants to end the trials or help your families? Its a lie. The elector is young and ambitious, and he is not his father. He wants to fight for you, just as I fight for you, but he needs you to give him that chance. He will lift us up, change things for us, one step at a time, build that country that we all hope to have. I came here tonight for all of you-and for him. People of the republic, do you trust me? Raise your voice for your elector and he will raise his for you. I don’t want to see the republic collapse. I want to see it change.”—- Prodigy: Day’s acceptance speech to Anden which prevented a ‘full scale’ uprising against Anden

Day, the beautiful blonde-hair, blue-eyed boy   is the most wanted criminal in the Republic because he irritatingly has defied every attempt of theirs to capture him. He isn’t layered like June, there are no double sides defying each other in his personality. His opinions are black, and white, he and the rest of the poor sector people are the victims of the cruel, power-hungry Republic. When he took the Trial at age 10, he was told he received  687, because the Republic wanted to take him away and experiment on him. When in reality, he received 1500, which June discovered when looking over his file in Legend. He stands at 5 feet 10 inches tall, with incredible intelligence, tinged with stubborn resilience and has astounding agility skills that June says are “up to par with those at Drake”. He has lost almost his entire family to the Republic’s deadly wrath. Besides being a wanted criminal, he can be very sweet, and loving to people who have been unjustly treated by the Republic. His status and popularity had the power to prevent the revolution that was at Anden’s door.  

    At the end of Legend, it is said that Day and June are the same person in two different bodies, and that is very true. Even though June is a rich prodigy, and Day is a criminal from the slum sector, they are the same in personality, ideas, and the way they think. They both are extremely athletic, intelligent, diligent, outspoken people that won’t stand for anything unless it’s their way.

June Iparis (ih-PAIR-uhs):

“I will hunt you down. I will scour the streets of Los Angeles for you. Search every street in the Republic if I have to. I will trick you and deceive you, lie, cheat and steal to find you, tempt you out of your hiding place, and chase you until you have nowhere else to run. I make you this promise: your life is mine. I have no sympathy for a criminal. Just a score to settle.” —- Legend: said by June, directed at Day.

“I want a partner who has her finger on the pulse of the people, someone extraordinarily talented at everything she does, You were born to shake the Republic.” —- Prodigy: Anden, directed at June at the request of her being his Princeps  

“Do you remember then I trusted you, even though everything I’d ever known told me you were an enemy? I sacrificed everything for what I believed, I’m here for your sake, and I gave up everything for you.” —- Prodigy: June, in her argument with Day in the bunker  

June is never seen without a flawless high ponytail that screams no-nonsense just like her character. She is a deep and layered character, with a personality that is completely her own. June is a 15 year-old military prodigy who is one of the two people in the entire world that has scored a 1500 on her Trial. She is 5 feet, 4 inches of amazing agility, combat skills, and endurance, all while  being graceful, but full of action at the same time. June has the charisma of a true politician and leader, with undeniable poise when she speaks, that make everyone want to hear and obey what she has to say. With her piercing, gold-flecked eyes, she picks up every single detail of her surroundings, and stores them in her extremely intelligent brain. This is how she appears to most of the Republic, a strong, dedicated soldier, that desires to do her absolute best at all time for her country. June has been faithful to the Republic, and believing everything she has been told since birth, like a good Republic soldier.

Another reason why June is such a layered character is because she takes the brunt of internal conflict unlike any other. On one hand, the Republic has given her so much, made her their darling, little prodigy, and on the other, she is introduced into a world she never knew existed until she started her search for Day. June has an absolutely astoundingly concrete sense of right and wrong, and her ability to act on decisions is superb. Just because she believes in Day’s innocences, she gives up everything to side with Day. Her money. Her status. And everything she has ever believed in for one boy.  

June and Day’s relationship is a very complicated one, especially viewing the fact that she is the reason Day got arrested in the first place. She also gets a lot of grief from Tess and Kaede because she is the reason Day’s mother and brother are dead. But Day didn’t kill Metias, June decides to get Day out of the jail she put him in.

Tess:

“I’ve done nothing but help you-I have been at your side ever since the  day we met. But I can’t bare to watch you choose a girl that’s done nothing but hurt you.”—-Prodigy: Tess right after she kissed Day

She is a A 13-year-old girl was rejected by her family at the age of ten, and becomes Day’s accomplice, caretaker, friend, and falls in love with him in Prodigy. She then leaves Day after he deviates from the assassination plan, making sure he knows exactly how she feels.

Eden:

Day’s 8 year-old brother that is sick with the mutant plague, and very close to death. He is the reason why Day is blamed for Metias’s death because Day broke into the hospital to get plague cures for him. He is used as a bio-weapon slash lab rat by the Republic, and finally gets released by Anden in Prodigy.

John:

“I would rather die than see them hurt you”

Day’s 19 year-old brother that is captured along with Day and buys time for Day’s escape because by taking Day’s place in front of the firing squad.

Commander Nathalia Jameson:

“When his execution date came, the court granted me permission to kill him personally instead of putting him in front of the firing squad. I think he would’ve preferred the firing squad.”—- Legend: Commander Jameson, directed at Day in Batalla Hall

The cruel head of one of Los Angeles’s patrols that requested that the prodigy with the perfect trial score join her patrol. Commander Jameson did many bad things that include: ordering Metias’s death, taking part in Anden’s assassination, and being responsible for Day’s execution date being changed last-minute in order to see where June’s loyalties lie.

Thomas Alexander Bryant:

“I’m from a poor sector too. But I followed the rules. I worked my way up, I earned my country’s respect.”—-Thomas directed at Day’s Batalla Hall interrogation

“Metias loved you, but you still turned him in.”—- June directed at Thomas in her detention center

His best friend Metias, is the one responsible for Thomas getting into a good college and being in one of the city’s patrols. Thomas is basically a lapdog to Commander Jameson, that accepts killing his best friend without hesitation, and in Prodigy when he is the one chosen to capture and interrogate June.

Anden Stavropolous:

“The elector is young and ambitious, and he is not his father.  He wants to stop the Trials and the plague experiments he needs to win the Republic’s favor first. He wants to fight for you, but he needs you to give him that chance. He will lift us up, change things for us, one step at a time, build that country that we all hope to have.”—Day’s acceptance speech to Anden

The Elector Primo’s dashing, regal, six-foot-two son that in Prodigy inherits his father’s position . Anden is just a 20 year-old man who came into power at a really fragile time in the Republic’s history. He is needs to prove to the country that he is not his father, and that he will change the country in his people’s best interest. To do this, he is determined to get Day and June on his side because he knows they have the power to repair, or destroy the country.

Metias:

“If you want to rebel, rebel from inside the system.”—-Metias directed at his sister June inside his diary

June’s protective, 28 year-old brother that is an expert hacker, and the head of one of Los Angeles’s patrols. He and his parents were murdered by the Republic because they had classified information that they were going to reveal to the Republic. His character is pretty small with probably 30 lines of dialogue, but on a higher level, he is the main reason there is a story. It’s because of him that June and Day meet when June is given the job to hunt Day down, and his journals are very helpful, giving a lot of answers to June.

Kaede:

A dark haired fighter pilot for the Patriots that is originally from the Colonies. She doesn’t play a very big part in Legend, only being the person that gets in a skiz fight with June. In Prodigy, she acts as Tess’s mentor and mother-like figure, while working with Razor and is by Day’s side for most of the story. Her biggest impact in the series is when she goes across the border to warn Day about Razor’s betrayal, and helps June and Day get back to the Republic. Unfortunately, she dies in a brutal jet chase  from the Colonies.

Razor/Commander De Soto:

He is the double agent for the Republic and Patriots that is actually working with the Republic and is hired to make it seem like the Patriots are the instigators of Anden’s assassination.

Legend:

Timeline:

1. Day watches his family’s house while soldiers mark  his family’s door with a three lined x.
   
2. June gets temporarily suspended from Drake University for leaving campus. Metias,  comes to pick her up, and is very upset. Metias drops June off at home and leaves right away for his job.
   
3. Day breaks into the Los Angeles Central Hospital, to try to get plague cures for Eden. He then makes a run for it, and escapes. Metias is there, and catches Day near a sewer opening. He’s about to shoot Day, when Day throws his knife at him, and goes down into the sewer.
   
4. Thomas, relays to June that Metias is dead, and Day is blamed for it. Thomas drives a shocked to the scene of the crime.
   
5. After being promoted to Commander Jameson’s squad, June has her first mission, where she tries to lure Day into buying a plague cure.
   
6. On another mission to find Day, June disguises herself as someone who lives on the streets,  but during her mission, she gets caught in a Skiz fight and is wounded.Someone throws a dust bomb, that gets rid of all the people coming after her. June doesn’t know it, but the boy who saves her is Day. Day allows her to travel with him and Tess, thinking that she is a street girl, and not a Republic soldier.
   
7. June tells Thomas through her microphone that she has found Day, so he sends a squad of soldiers to Day’s house. After June tells Day that the plague patrol is coming for his house, he runs all the way back to his house, surprising his family that thinks he’s dead. Day futilely tries to hide his family, but the soldiers find him anyway. During his arrest, Day finds out June is a Republic soldier, and that she is the one that turned him in. Day’s mother is killed, and his brothers are taken, along with him to Batalla Hall.
   
8. June is personally thanked by the Elector Primo and meets his son Anden at a celebratory ball held for Day’s capture
   
9. When Thomas tried to kiss June, she disgustedly pushes him away because he killed Day’s mother. After he leaves, J  une looks at Day’s profile and learns she isn’t the only prodigy with a 1500 Trial score.
   
10. After Day’s death sentences, people cause riots outside Batalla Hall. Later, when June logs onto her computer to review Metias’s death report, she realizes that Thomas killed Metias, not Day.
    
11. June looks thru her brother’s journals, and realizes there is a hidden message. She follows his instructions were Metias tells her that he has uncovered the truth about their parents’ death
    
12. June is determined to help Day escape so she gets the patriots to help. The plan she and the Patriots have is altered when she realizes Commander Jameson moves Day’s execution day up.
    
13. June gets confronted by Thomas about the missing electro-bomb and almost gets put under arrest when the missing electro-bomb goes off . Then she races to the front of Batalla Hall where Day’s execution is about to take place. John gets executed in Day’s place in order to give June and Day enough time to escape Batalla Hall.In order to stall, John takes Day’s place and dies for him.
    
14. . June and Day have to run as far as they can from Los Angeles, where June’s commander will be furious at her, and they would be searching for Day
    

Setting:

The Story starts out in the crumbling and poor Lake Sector where Day’s family lives. June, meanwhile, lives in the wealthy, upper class Ruby Sector. She works as Republic soldier at Batalla hall, where the majority of the later half of the story takes place, the events there all having to do with Day and his imprisonment. Legend in Barstow where Day and June reached when they ran from Los Angeles. The story Legend takes place all over future Los Angeles from the  plague-infected sectors, to the glorious gem sectors, and the sparkling military section.

Theme:

The theme throughout the story is determination, for both June and Day. June is determined to avenge Metias’s death that she thought Day caused by capturing him. Later that determination for vengeance is turned into the determination to do the right thing which is helping Day escape his execution. Day is determined for so many things, the biggest being to get plague cures for Eden, and later being determined to escape his arrest, and to free John and Eden.  

Prodigy:

Timeline:

1. June and Day arrive in Las Vegas, where they hope to receive help from the Patriots. On the JumboTrons, they see that Los Angeles is quarantined for the alleged plague. The pledge gets interrupted when the whole country gets the news that their Elector Primo is dead, and that his son, Anden Stavropoulos is the new Elector Primo.
   
2. Day and June’s identities are almost revealed, but Kaede, saves them from being discovered and they are taken to the Patriots headquarters.
   
3. In the patriot headquarters, June and Day request assistance in exchange for the promise of helping in the assassination of their new Elector.
   
4. June, Kaede, and Razor discuss the situation and plan of Anden’s assassination which will involve June warning Anden about the assassination plot against him and then leading him to the real one.
   
5. After parting ways, June purposefully gets captured by Thomas and interrogated. The interrogation turns into a cutting conversation about Metias and the reasons why Thomas killed him. She is then shipped off to the capital.   
   
6. When June arrives at the capitol in Denver, Colorado, she has dinner with the Elector Primo, Anden. After feeding the assassination story, June realizes that Anden may not be the person she thought he was.
   
7. In an underground bunker in Lamar Colorado, that is one of the Patriot’s strongholds, Tess and Day have a falling out. where Tess’s true feelings about Day and June’s relationship is revealed. She accuses Day of being faithful and loving June no matter what she does and tells him that June will break Day.
   
8. Anden trusts June completely now and he has a private very intimate talk with her where he kisses her. After he leaves the room, June realizes that Anden is nothing like the Patriots said he would grow up to be. So she lifts two fingers to the side of her brow, the signal they used in Vegas. The signal that meant: Stop.
   
9. Day and the other runners plan to detonate a train full of supplies for the war front. Day’s job of being seen so that people know that he is alive. Day gets distracted when he sees a train car with the plague symbol. He enters it in hopes of finding Eden, but instead he finds a little boy that like Eden. is being used as  a bioweapon against the Colonies.P. 206 fury quote
   
10. June gets released, and her decision about siding with Anden is even more enforced when he tells her of the Republics history. Tess kisses Day, and their previous argument resurfaces, ending with Day realizing his relationship with Tess, romantic or otherwise is over.
    
11. Even though June tries to delay Anden’s journey to the assassination location, Razor’s orders override it, and the plan continues as usual. Day waits for his cue, the third grenade going off, and when it does, June tumbles out of one of the jeeps and signals to Day, putting herself in full exposure of the Patriot’s and Republic’s soldiers. Chaos follows her act, full of grenades, and frantic decisions made by both sides with Razor commanding Day to stay on course and to ignoring June. They then run to another underground tunnel, but instead of following like she has always done, Tess makes her own path, by joining the Patriots and leaving Day forever.
    
12. June and Day have a huge argument that consists of biting remarks about the trustworthiness of the Elector, accusations of trust, and sacrifice.They are forced to evacuate soon after, but by that time June is sick with fever. So Day carries June through the tunnels until they reach the Colonies of America.
    
13. June is brought to a Colonies hospital because she’s extremely sick, she then has a dream with Metias in it where she finds out that that Razor was hired by the Republic to assassinate Anden. Day meets with Kaede who brings him the good news that Eden is released, the bad that the Colonies aren’t all they hoped for, and most importantly, Kaede confirms June’s discovery. Day, Kaede, and June then escape from the Colonies in a fighter jet, but not without a price: Kaede’s death.
    
14. Day delivers a glorious speech that prevents the Republic from launching a full-out rebellion. Afterward both Day and June are met with some news. Anden comes to June and offers her a job as Princeps, the second highest position in the country. Meanwhile Day is reunited with Eden, but gets delivered the news that he is dying.   
    
15. Day comes to June’s apartment, meaning to tell her of his condition, but ends up telling her to accept the job as Princeps-in-training, and that they would never have worked out. The book ends with one last parting kiss, that means goodbye.
    

Setting:

Unlike Legend, Prodigy’s setting is all over the United States in both Republic and Colonie’s land. The story starts in Vegas, which is the Patriot’s headquarters. When June and Day split, June goes to Denver, Colorado to meet Anden, and Day goes to the Patriots stronghold in Lamar, Colorado. When June and Day meet up again in Pierra for Anden’s assassination. The two then journey through underground tunnels all the way to the sparkling Colonies across the border. They go back in a stolen fighter jet to Denver Colorado , the current Republic capitol.

Theme:

The theme is the search for truth because June and Day are both being fed lies by the Patriots, and they’re just trying to sift through all of them to find the reality of their new Elector. The Patriots said Anden’s assassination would stoke the fires of the budding revolution. But June realizes that he isn’t the  ruthless, dictatorial leader like his father, but someone that can provide peace, prosperity, and freedom, everything she and Day need. So June goes against the Patriots plan, and does everything in her power to stop Anden’s assassination because she believes in Anden and knows he can change the Republic, yet another demonstration of June sacrificing circumstances in order to  do the right thing. Day only knows what he’s being told by Razor, and what he’s seeing from June, and they are both extremely contradicting. On one hand, Razor is the leader of the Patriots, and guarantees that he will get Eden back. Then on the other Day sees that June has changed her mind and told him to stop, but he doesn’t know what to stop. He chooses to believe June, and his decision is the right one when Kaede tells him that he was being tricked, working for the Republic instead of the Colonies.

I have to admit that I could not have done this Tri-Fold without the help of Paige and Erica, the two friends that helped me with this Tri-Fold after a lot of prodding. So I want to say "Thank you so much for all your help"

Champion: Marie Lu

Archived Goodreads Reviews~ Champion: Marie Lu

*Hi, so if you're wondering why the format is different for this review, it's because it's from my Goodreads account before I got a blog, so I don't have a fancy format or anything, just me and my opinion. If you've never been on this blog before, then maybe you will like the review regardless*

*I never have spoilers usually, but this review does, but I warn you ahead of time*

Rating: 10/10 5 stars
Series: Legend Trilogy #3
Genre: Young ADult, Dystopian, Romance
Publication Date: November 5, 2013
Recommended for: Fans of Hunger Games and Divergent
Page Numbers: 386

Goodreads Synopsis:

Original Archived Review with paragraphs:
I am extremely careful about what I give 5 stars, but Champion is a must (as well as the entire trilogy). I don’t even know where to begin. I have waited for 11 freaking months for Champion, and I have to say it’s not a letdown whatsoever. Believe me, I was reading every single review on the internet, from Publishers Weekly, to USA Today. If you want to know about the entire trilogy, I am posting Legend, Prodigy, and the overall series’ review soon, it will give you background on my obsession. 

*Warning: this will be unusually long because of my obsession with the story* *There are spoilers in here, but I have this review split in two, the spoilers are at the end and the general review in the beginning*
To describe Champion in my own words is this: “On top of the complex plot line and action, you have this underlying romance that fuels so many decisions throughout the book.”

You may be steered away from Champion because it is mostly a war book, like “Mockingjay”. “The Hunger Games”, and “Catching Fire” were good, by ‘Mockingjay” was a total flop. It is not like that with Champion. The Legend Trilogy is a series that deals mostly with the military, the Hunger Games doesn’t. You fight to stay alive in the ‘Hunger Games”, you fight as a way of life in Legend. June is a soldier, if you’re anyone in the Republic, you’re part of the military or a politician. A war has always been going on in all three of the books, it is only in Champion that we are focused on the details. This isn’t a story about the rebels rising up against the cruel oppressive government. This is a story about the rebels and the government rising up against their common enemy. 

The character’s conflicts are completely believable, as well as the amount of them. Picture the two halves of what used to be America fighting against each other, and already you have a lot of conflict. Each character has their own against themselves, the people they care about, and the rest of the world. For example, Day is dying (himself) and hsa to deal with getting weaker as well as the excruciating headaches, he is worried about Eden being used as lab rat (a person he cares about), he doesn’t want June to find about his oncoming death (a person he cares about), he loves June so much but doesn’t want to hurt her or compete with the boy king Anden (a person he cares about), and then there’s the fact that the Republic he recently pulled together is going to fall apart and may never get back together again if the Colonies win (the world). Those are just a few examples of one character’s struggle. 

Over the course of 2 years since Legend came out, Marie Lu's writing has definitely improved. Her plot lines became more complex, her characters more assured, and the connections between characters, something you have to be good at has drastically improved.
There is also humor in Champion that was hardly present in the previous books:
“What is this?” “A butter knife.” “This is not a knife.” This was a pre-released quote, and I had no idea what it was about, but when you read the book it is freaking hilarious. 
“Where I come from, a knife like this’ll skewer food, smear butter, and slit throats all at the same time.” Take that Serge.
“With your metal leg and half a brain, and my four leftover sense, we almost make a whole person.” Eden is so sarcastic it hurts.
Commander Jameson calls June “Little Iparis” if that isn’t funny I don’t know what is. Metias is “Big Iparis’ and she’s “Little Iparis”

I do have a few complaints. Marie Lu needs to improve on her area of similes, but not figurative language. She still uses, 'runs like the wind' and a few other cliche ones, nevertheless, she is able to sculpt a beautiful picture of the scenery, a person, or whatever she needs to when it's a section alone of description. In passing, for example in action scenes, she might be trying to describe Day's speed, or in a conversations with June's expression.

The nice little reference back to previous books, was a little overdone in Thomas's prison cell, although it was probably for nostalgia's sake, and because of former memories. There were three references on one page. 1. "Day is the legend," 2. "I followed all the rules, I worked my way up..." 3. "Because Day chose to walk in the light. And so did Metias." They were cleverly woven in, but the space between them is too short.

The only words to describe Champion’s ending are: ‘satisfying’, and ‘closure-giving’. It is a complete plot twist I wouldn’t have guessed if it was right in front of me. I wanted so badly to be angry at Marie Lu, want to find her house and stand outside with flaming pitchforks, but I didn’t. It’s not happy, it’s not sad, but it’s good. She has mastered the art of tying up each character's individual strings, then taking a step back and leaving them to go on in their own world. I’m not in love with the ending, but I love it.

*spoiler alert: most of this is just characteristics but some is actually what happens to the particular character*

The characters mostly focused on in Champion are June, Day, Anden, Commander Jameson, Thomas, and Tess. Each one of them has a closure-giving, conclusion to their personal storyline.

I have been in love with June since the moment I met her in Legend. Even her negative qualities pale in comparison to who she is as character. She goes through such believable character development through the series, and with her narration, you get to see exactly how she thinks. A few words to describe her are determined, passionate, persistent, intelligent, athletic, dedicated, strong, and a concrete sense of right and wrong. Her sense of right and wrong is what fuels the story, it’s the hard decisions she makes that define the story and steer it in the path it has now carved into the world. Her sense of right and wrong also applies to her emotions, and she discovers it’s wrong for her to be Princeps. And chooses what is right for herself, being a soldier, fighting on the front lines, relying on instinct, all of that is who she is.

Day is Day. What I interpreted in Champion alone is his incredible ability to be selfless and selfish at the same time. He’s selfless in his personal actions. Yet he’s selfish for keeping his illness from June, and not letting Eden make his own decision to help the Republic, Of course others will definitely think differently, but this is just what I picked up. Day’s character growth isn’t nearly as great as June’s but it does happen because of the endless obstacles continuously pummeling him.

Anden has an internal conflict during the entirety of Champion as to how to lead the war, and make the painful decisions war implies, while still remaining true to himself and not becoming the hated man his father was. He has impeccable grace and poise of diplomacy that serves as a shield between his emotions and the world’s conflicts. He is the Elector, the one with the final say, and his ending is not so much a conclusion than an endless fact, which is that he is the Elector.

Commander Jameson does horrible things, and so in turn, gets gunned down by Republic soldiers. As the ‘good guys’ we see her as atrocious and inhumane. In a moment of what seems to June as weakness, she tells June that she sees herself in June. That they are both cold, hard, calculating, and ruthless, that June could have become her. What hits June so hard, even though she wants to deny it, is that it’s true, that she could become her.

It seems so fitting that the beginning of Thomas’s story is making a hard decision for the Republic, by murdering his childhood friend because the state of California told him to. His story ends when he serves as a distraction to Colony soldiers to help Day and the Patriots get away. His last words are: Long live the Elector. Long live the Republic. You feel compassion for him for doing such a terrible deed because of his sense of duty that drives him and fuels him to do anything.

The last person focused on in Tess. She has a rather sweet moment with Day, where she expresses the reasons for her jealousy toward him. That she loved him as more than a crush, but as a lover, parent, friend, caretaker, sibling, and much more. She loved him because she could take care of him while he took care of her. He was her world for three solid years, so when June came in, she felt threatened. Tess is infected with the mutant plague, but her story ends well.

*Spoiler alert on the romance only*

Onto what I would call the most exciting part of the review if I was reading it. The love square. There’s June, Day, Anden, and Tess. June’s decision between Anden and Day isn’t really a decision, in a good way. June’s decision to not be Princeps goes hand in hand with her decision not to choose Anden. She sees her reasons for not being a politician because of what the pressure does to Anden. Seeing what it does to Anden, defines why she doesn’t choose him. Day and June have this unique chemistry as a couple that Anden can’t compete with. It’s obvious Anden is attracted to June and wanted her as his Princeps. They even date for about four years in the epilogue, but the plain fact is that June cannot love him the way she loves Day. June and Day do the deed from pages 212-215 and she says she loves him. Meanwhile Day says he loves Tess…. except not in the way she wished he did. So there’s nothing too juicy between them.

Having Day forget June is so painful yet so perfect. When they meet 10 years later everything is possible again. It’s like what Day says, “Each day means a new 24 hours. Each day means everything is possible again.” They didn’t just get a new day. They got a new chance.

Meeting Marvelous Marie Lu

Find out about "Pantsers vs. Plotters", interrupting Marie Lu, a new series with the Black Death leading to magical powers, the history of paper clips, and Day being named after Daniel Radcliffe.

The blogging world may not know this yet, but I am thoroughly OBSESSED, CRAZY, EXUBERANTLY ENTHUSIASTIC, about the Legend Trilogy (Legend, Prodigy, Champion) written by Marie Lu. I could literally talk all day about how much I love her as a human being, and I will do that in fact when I write my "Series Overview: The Legend Trilogy" coming really soon. For now, however, I am going to be talking about December 7, 2013, or last Saturday when I went to the Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore in Redondo Beach.

This is her original Goodreads post with all the details of the signing: https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/5358108-mysterious-galaxy-redondo-beach-signing-today

That however isn't how I found out about the signing. I found out about it through Twitter when Marie Lu announced she was touring for Champion. I don't remember the specific date she tweeted this (trust me, I looked in my archive), but I'm guessing from mid-September all the way to late October is when she tweeted about it. Marie Lu did in fact tweet me confirming the details on November 8, 2013.

Now that I knew for sure when the date was, I had to hatch my plan for asking my mom. I live in the Los Angeles Country, and Redondo Beach is around 45 minutes or more away, so I didn't know if my mom would take me or not. As you guessed it, (since I'm writing this post) she said yes, only because I had only been talking about the Legend Trilogy for the past 11 months. I even so far as to make a tri-fold for book report before Champion came out.

Anyway, onto the actual signing itself on December 7th. The weather had been really weird, ouring one moment, sun streaming the next. So I hoped that there would be less people. Anyway, we got there a good 45 minutes and it was good thing we had. Already almost all of the seats were taken, the remaining people forced to stand. So my friend from school Joyce, had convinced her entire family to drive down to Redondo Beach, so I met up with her there. Random Fact: I actually took over her Dad's seat, so her little brother had to sit in the middle of two chairs between her mom and dad. Anyway, so Joyce and I stood next to each other for a solid half hour discussing the Legend Trilogy. Random Perverted Fact: We got a funny look when I asked her---brace yourself, it's a valid question--if she thought June and Day used protection between the pages 212-216 of Champion--seriously they're in the middle of a war did they think of it? The bulk of our conversation was us repeatedly wondering out loud if Marie Lu was right behind the door (we were standing in a hallway, and there was this swinging door that the bookstore workers kept going in and out of) and we could go in like those crazy One Direction Fangirls and then get thrown out. Point in case, we didn't. At around 2:20, we sat down in our seats and then one of the bookstore workers walked by saying, "Oh, and by the way, Marie Lu cancelled." that just about freaked out us for half a millisecond.

Onto when Marie Lu finally came out of that hallway. I whipped out my iPod the second she did, and filmed her for 20 minutes through her talking, and the Q&A session. She had such cute clothes on, this picture is extremely grainy, but I hope you get the gist of it. Black jacket with little (I think) beaded epaulets, white infinity scarf, red plaid skirt, some lovely (maybe diamond) earrings, and what is not depicted, some four-inch heels. The picture is grainy, but it was a screenshot of the video.



 My transcription of Marie Lu's spiel (around 6 minutes long): 

So I'm gonna talk really really briefly because I don't wanna take of too much of the time, and want to open up the floor for some questions for you guys as soon as possible. We're gonna try to keep the questions spoiler free, so for anyone that hasn't finished reading Champion yet, if you have questions about the plot, feel free to ask them, but try to word it in a vague sorta way so we don't actually give anything away to people.

Basically, I've noticed there are two types of people I come across in life, the first kind is a "Plotters" and those are the writers that are super organized, and they plan out everything in advance. I have some friends like this, they have their outlines down and they know what's gonna happen in the books and they're very neat and organized with everything. The second kind are "Pantsers"and what a "Pantser" is, is a write rthat writes by the seat of their pants, as in we have no idea what's going to happen next and its just chaos, and that's the kind of writer I am. I do not plan anything in advance. With the Legend series, I started out by basing it off Les Miserables, I thought the story was gonna be like a teenage version of Jean Valjean versus Javere, like a teen criminal versus team detective. That was the original idea, but beyond that I had no planning when I went into the story. So there were a lot of things that had changed wildly from those early early moments. June started off as a boy in my very very first drafts. Especially in the very first books, there were some characters that I thought were gonna be like cameo walk-on characters that ended up staying for much longer than I thought they would. For example Thomas, Merias's best friend was supposed to show up once and give June a ride in his car, and that was it, he was supposed to go away, but he didn't. Kaede was another character that was supposed to just be a bartender that gave Day a clue once in Legend and then disappeared forever, but then she just kept coming back. That's all part of being a "Pantser" where characters disappear for no reason halfway through my first drafts.

When I first gave the story to my editor, when we were just pitching Legend. What happens is, it was pitched as a trilogy, so the first book was finished, and then I had to write these one-page summaries about what happens in books two and three. Being a "Pantser" I had no idea what would happen in books two and three. So my agent was like "Just make something up, make something sound cool," and I was like, "Okay," So I wrote these really really rambling one-page synopses and ?I just went back and read it a couple of weeks ago, and they are totally different from what actually happened in the books, especially for Champion which was titled "Legend 3" at the time because I had no idea what it was going to be called. It was vague to the point that if you read it, the synopsis says something like "It's a dark and stormy night, bad things happen, some people die, and some people make it out, the end." That was my synopsis, that's what I gave my editor.

So when it came time to actually write Champion, I didn't know what the ending was going to be. I didn't know what the plot was going to be. I went back and read over my original synopsis and I was like, "This is I can't use this." My editor even was like, she's very sweet and tries to work things in a positive way, so she was kinda like, "So what exactly is gonna happen in book 3? Maybe you should write a new synopsis." and I was like, "Yes you are absolutely right, I totally know what's gonna happen in book 3." which I didn't.

So I ended up really struggling with the third book. I thought book 2, Prodigy was going to be absolutely the hardest book I'd ever have to write, and was comforted at the fact that most of my writer friends struggle with the second books, it's sorta known the second book is your "Sophomore slump". So I figured if I could just get over book 2 and make it into writing book 3 that it was just going to be smooth sailing from there. I could not have been more wrong, book 3 almost killed me. It was honestly the hardest thing I've ever had to write because not only was I "pantsing" my way through this series. I had to now make sure all the threads that I "pantsed" had to come to a close at the end of this book. There was no fourth book to throw stuff into as a "stay tuned". There was no more of that. It had to come to an end. So there was a lot of crying and eating chocolate in the middle of the night, but it turned out okay, in that I finished. A lot of people ask me what it's like to finish the last book of the trilogy and I always compare it to how parents must feel--theoretically, I don't have a kid, yet--theoretically how it must feel to send your kid off to college. Where part of you is relieved and you're like, "Oh thank god," and the other part of you is like really sad, 'cause you know they're leaving, and I think that's kinda how I feel at the end of the book. I feel like the characters aren't really mine anymore, and they've sorta left the confines of my head, which makes me sound like a crazy person--'cause they obviously don't exist--to live out where characters go after series end, and I just sorta hope they don't get themselves into too much trouble. "Don't get drunk, I don't want you to end up in jail. Take care of yourselves out there." So now it's come to a close, that's kinda how I feel. It's a good feeling, it's a very wistful feeling, and I think I'll look back on it with a lot of fondness. 

   

*I understand that this is not all grammatically correct, but this is after all a transcription, so it is (my best attempt) exactly what she said*

The Q&A Session and my thoughts on it (around 17 minutes long):

• What's the ending of the book? Everyone dies. Just kidding, that was a question actually asked by the bookstore worker who introduced Marie Lu when she came in, and was also the one who said the signing was cancelled, which freaked everyone out.
• Since you're a "Pantser" have you ever written a storyline and when it came time to tie up the threads, you're like "I can't even begin to put this in there, it doesn't make any sense, and there's no way to write myself out of this corner." If so what did you do, or how did you figure it out? I've done that a lot in the Legend series, I did that with Legend. The very first draft that I had of Legend, I ended up having to take out the entire second half. So now I don't think there's a really easy way to do it, but I've talked about the process with some of my other writing friends who are plotters, who outline their way through. I think being a "Pantser" is basically a different version of being a "Plotter" in that our very messy first drafts is our method of outlining, it just doesn't look like a traditional outline. With Legend, I did end up having some threads that didn't end up making the final book. My agent, who is a very good editor in her how right was the one who pointed them out to me. I don't know if there was an easy way to get out of it other than I had to go back, and just rip out all of that stuff that didn't work and rewrite it. So for me, the process is very much about rewriting. I do the vast majority of work in revisions because my first drafts are so rough. Prodigy had a lot of that kinda thing too, just constant rewrites and edits. I'm working on a new series, and I'm in that first draft mode at the moment, and there are lots of threads that are not working out and making it through to the end. I write myself into corner all the time and I think I'm up to draft like 34, literally 1.34. It's kinda a tricky, messy process. Other writers may have an easier ways of doing it but I sorta just stumble around in the dark until I find the right path, and it eventually happens, it just takes me some time to get there.          
• *When did you know how Champion would end and how did you decide to put your characters through...so much? I didn't know what the ending of Champion was gonna be until I got to the very very end of Prodigy. So I was starting to think about what the plot of the third book, thinking what is the end of the third book. The only slightly "Plotter" part of the entire Legend process was when I wrote "Ending Options A-E" and wrote out little paragraphs and showed them to my fiance and was like, "Here's options A-E, which one do you like?" It was very much something that came later in the process. It was not an ending I had known from the very beginning and my... I hate to admit this, but I actually did kinda-sorta interrupt Marie Lu. So page 367 of Prodigy? Right in the middle of a sentence, where she says "my..." that's where I interrupted. I was mortified. Yes, that's how many pages Prodigy has? Well, the page number where, yes. Ya pretty much, that's when I figured out the ending of Champion. Actually now that I think about it, there is a paragraph at the ending of Prodigy. I think I may have figured out how this is gonna go. Even as I was writing the first draft of the third book, I did not know that was actually going to be the ending. The actual ending ended up being slightly different, a combination of multiple options.
• What made you come up with how Day got his name? Day is his streetname. He was a character in my head from when I was back in high school. In an old high school manuscript that never got published, and I liked him as character. I think the reason I called him that was as a reflection of his optimistic personality. Even though he lives in a very dark world, he's able to "walk in the light", that's his slogan. To seek out the truth, and to do the right thing even though everyone around him is kinda doing evil, horrible things. He's able to make sure he stays the core. Which is why his name is Day. Daniel his real name--this is part of where the "pantsing" comes in--a lot of my names I just sorta put in because they sound nice or complement the other names well. For him, I just wanted a real name that sounded kinda like Day. I was watching an interview with Daniel Radcliffe online, and I was like "Daniel sounds kinda like Day," So I guess he was named after Daniel Radcliffe.   
• Do you ask Primo to read your drafts, or is it just you reading your own? Primo's my own fiance. He read some of the earliest chapters of Legend and I always run my plots through him. So he gets spoiled for everything, super early on. Like "I'm just gonna tell you the plot for everything," and he's like, "No, why?" but then I do anyway, and he'll tell me "Oh, no that doesn't sound right..." or "This sounds better..." I do think he's very helpful in figuring out overall story lines.
• Is there any information on a possible film, and how much will you be involved in making sure it stays true to the books? The last I've heard is that the screenplay is done and they're in the process of trying to find the right person to direct. That is as far as I know. Right now the producers are working on the "Fault in Our Stars" which I'm really excited about, and "The Maze Runner" some very cool movies that are coming up. I think in general, writers don't have a lot of involvement in the film process. I think I've been very fortunate that CBS Films and Temple Hill, the producers have been very good about keeping me in the loop. While the screenplay was being written, they would contact me asking if the world building was correct. they would ask me details about characters to make sure they were getting it right. The thing with Legend is that translating any book into film is a little bit tricky, just because the mediums are so different. With Legend, especially in the second half, a lot of it takes place in June's head, so if the plot were to go literally, I think a lot of it would be June staring at a wall blankly, thinking. I've always said as long as the characters stay true, I am totally fine with the plot shifting in order to meet the demands of the visual film. That's my stance, and I'm sorta flexible with things as long as the characters stay true.    
• I'll keep on the same vein, are they talking to you about the visual look because the book is very visual and the way L.A. sounds and looks is one of the reasons that caught me right away. It's so early on, they haven't really talked much to me about it, but I have read the screenplay, and so I know what the descriptions are for it, and it sounds awesome. I think they're doing a really great job with that. I remember a really early meeting with Godfrey, the producer and he pictured LA in the future as sort of a grungy, bladerunner-esque thing. He said 'bladerunner' and I was like, "That is exactly the look in my head, so I think we're gonna be good to go." Based on what I've seen on the screenplay, it sounds like it's gonna be heading in the right direction with the visuals.
• *Do you think June would have ever done what Thomas did to Metias if she had ever grown older because Commander Jameson was saying June would have grown up into Commander Jameson, would she have done what Thomas did to Metias? Translation from my poorly stated question: Do you think June would ever have asked one of her subordinates to kill his/her best friend, or if June would even kill her best friend because of the law. That's a very interesting question, I've never been asked that before. To keep things vague I guess, June...I don't know if she would have made the same decisions that Thomas did just because she's not quite so blindly trusting of people. I think Thomas is very very loyal, he's a very very loyal person to the things he happens to choose to be loyal about, and he doesn't waver at all.  Whereas June I think wavers significantly based on information that she gets. So I think if she had for some reason never stepped out of the Republic's circle, I think she could have gone onto do some pretty terrible things. But I think she would have realized it eventually. I think it just happened sooner because she happened to meet Day.
• Can you talk a little about your next project, is the setting similar or different to Legend's? Right now the project I'm working on is currently titled the "Young Elites", but I think the title might change, I'm not entirely sure yet. But it's set in this alternate Renaissance Italy type world, and I kinda called it a cross between Ex-men and Assassin's Creed. Which is my favorite game franchise. It's basically about these societies of young people that have survived the equivalent of the 'black death' and some of the survivors of this plague have come out of it with unusual powers. It's this land where magic is very new, and people don't really know how to react to it. It freaks everyone out. So these young people with these powers tend to be condemned and feared. Some people worship them  and it's kind of a story of how each of these societies of young people are trying to find a way to defend themselves and try to gain power, in this world. The story centers on this girl named Adelina who is essentially like the teen female version of "Darth Vader" and I wanted to write a story that stars a villain-type character, and I've always liked "Magneto" and "Darth Vader", sorta like the bad people in comic books. She's kinda like that, so the first book is her spiral into darkness and how she goes from being a kinda sketchy good person to being not so good of a person.That was the challenge I gave myself with her and she's proving to be very very hard to write. It's hard to write about a bad person from a first person POV.     
• When do you know a draft is finished and when to move onto your next one? Do self-edit as you go, or completely stop and come back? With Legend I gave it to my agent first, who was kinda like my agent/barometer for how it was gonna go. I edit it to the point where I know I'm too close to the book and cannot see what else needs to change. Even though I do know in my gut that  this story is totally not ready to be published yet. I don't know how to change it to make it better, and that's when I know I need to give to another set of eyes. For Legend I didn't have any critique partners yet, so my agent was very much my go-to person for Legend and we went through two very big major rounds of revision on that. With the later books, I started making writer friends, so I had some critique partners, and they sorta became like my agent later on. So for Prodigy and Champion I would write until I just could not figure out what to do with it anymore, so I would hand it off to my critique partners and they would point out all these gaping plot holes, and things that needed to be fixed. So that would start another big round of revisions until I couldn't see how to change it anymore, That's my very chaotic process. 
• Since it was written between two people's POVs, was there one that was easier to write? The answer changes from the first book to third book. In the beginning when writing Legend it was most definitely Day, because he'd been in my head since high school so I felt like I kinda knew him which makes me sound again like a crazy person. I understood his voice, it came naturally to me. June was very difficult because she's smarter than me, and it's really hard to write about a character whose smarter than you. I would constantly have to stop and do research just so she could say two lines of dialogue. There's this really quick scene in Prodigy where she stars going off about a paper clip's properties, and I had to stop and go to Wikepedia to find the history of paper clips, and read everything there is to know about paper clips. So an hour later I could write two lines of dialogue. She was very tricky because she and I are very different personality-wise, but I did notice during the end of Champion that I enjoyed writing June's POV more so because I had unconsciously been putting bits and pieces of my personality into her without me even realizing it. We deal with certain things the same ways: tragedy, panic, and romance in very similar ways, and I didn't realize that until I was writing Champion. So that was a fun discovery and later on in the series she softens from being a hardened military girl to being someone who lets her emotions through. She was fun, challenging.       
• *This question was asked by myself when Marie Lu was signing my books Will the Young Elites be written in more than one points of views like the Legend trilogy? Actually, it will be told in first person by Adelina, with short third-person chapters from other people's point of views. The connection I made and how I interpreted this is that it will be like Pledge by Kimberly Derting how we got to see things from Brooklyn's POV or Maxon, or the Body Finder, how we got to glimpse into the killer's mind.

*The questions I asked

Getting the book signed: So Marie Lu signed my books, and while she was doing it felt freaking incredible. She was sitting less than two feet away from me, asking what my name was. That sounds like such a stupid thing to get freaked out about, but I did anyway because if you're a true Legend fan like me, you'll understand. I love the way her M curves over her name, the little heart over the i, and of course, the smiley face.

My final thoughts on meeting Marie Lu: I think she's one of the most down-to-earth people I know (know as in have met before). She is so cute in both the way she dresses and her manner of speaking, which I know sounds really weird especially because I'm younger than her. Anyway, she was so open, friendly, and as my Language Arts teacher would say, 'vivacious'. My single complaint that is completely understandable, but makes me sound like I'm lazy. Marie Lu did use lots of "ummm...sorta...kinda...gonna" it's regualr conversational tone, but it made my transcription sound a bit uneducated in the area of grammatics. Marie Lu seems so full of life, like the kid that would stand staring in awe at presents on Christmas morning, then suddenly pounce on them, but not without thanking her parents a billion times. That comparison sounds really weird like I'm a toddler, but it's what I think of.The overall atmosphere of the booksigning was so cozy, and made me feel like Marie Lu and all her fans were gathered around a warm fire, about to eat some hearty meal. She really tried and succeeded with connecting with her fans, and making sure when speaking to them, like she really was answering their individual question directly to them.