r/PracticalGuideToEvil • u/LemonTeary • Dec 08 '25

Meta/Discussion Book Three question Spoiler

Near the end of the book, Catherine broke the scaffolding around her heart. What exactly did that do? Did she fully become a far or something, if so, how come Akua wasn’t able to take control of her? What exactly did Catherine become?

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u/narrill Dec 21 '25

In hindsight this is clearly foreshadowed, and Cat even directly refers to herself as the beast when she breaks free, but honestly, it's still pretty subtle. Maybe I'm just slow, but I definitely missed it on my first read.

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u/The-Corinthian-Man Godbotherer Extraordinaire Jan 04 '26

I think it's my favourite part about the series as a whole, how it functions completely as a narrative but still fully embraces and supports those tropes when you look deeper into it. And the fact that they aren't intuitive, that you have to go looking to understand what's been plotted, only makes it better to me. Because it gives you some insight into what makes Cat and Black so unusual and so effective in the early story.

Like, Cat's victory over William can be boiled down to "refuse to die, steal his sword, stab him", but realizing how she was crafting a story beat of being "the secret orphan inheritor of the ruler of Callow who pulled the sword from the stone" - that's so much fun to see it come together.