Collapse or Change? Breaking or Forgiving? Republic or Rebel?

Tension Rises, and Friends Fight

        The story continues as Tess reveals her feelings towards Day and the tension between the two rise. Tess has always been jealous of June and had been convinced by a Runner named Baxter that she is a double agent. They never go back to what they were, but they forgive each other. After a while, Day finds a train carriage with a boy inside a glass enclosure. He thinks it's Eden and gets really excited until he is disappointed by finding out it's not him and it is revealed that the Republic has been using victims of the plague as a bioweapon against the Colonies. The soldiers approach and Day abandons the boy and swears to himself that he will kill Anden, no matter what.
 
        The day of the assassination arrives, but June is against this operation. She has been ill so she pretends to faint in order to stop them, but Razor keeps the car moving against the orders of Anden. June stops the assassination and causes her and Day to flee the area and make their way to the tunnels between the Colonies and the Republic. They destroy a Republic entrance and make a shelter in a bunker. June and Day argue harshly and Day reveals his jealousy towards Anden, and his anger because a part of him holds her responsible for his mother's and brother's deaths. He also states that June is still with the Republic and never left them. They stay away from each other, and June, in an attempt to make peace between them, teaches him to fight and it works. They forgive each other, but June grows very ill.

"June will break your heart. I can see it already. She'll shatter you into a million pieces."(Lu, 231)

In the aftermath of Tess' and Day's fight, she states that June will break Day. I find this quote interesting because it highlighted the fact that June is the one responsible for Day's mother and brother's deaths and foreshadowed Day and June's fight. I think this quote might lead up to June actually breaking Day, maybe she joins the Republic again and leaves him for someone else.

" 'How could you not want to see the Republic collapse'(...)'I want to see it change for the better.' " (Lu, 264)

Day and June are in the middle of a fight and they both make some good points. Day asks her how can she still defend the government, even after her family's death, and June says that she doesn't want the Republic to collapse she wants it to change. That is what I found interesting about this quote, that there is a part, even small, of June that still is part of the Republic. I think this might foreshadow the change of sides that June will have and how she will try to change the Republic from the inside (maybe?) and supports the theory that June will break Day.

Conclusion

The past few chapters have been intense, and it is both fun and hurtful to watch my favorite characters argue between them. They all make very good points and have a decent yet fierce fight. I think that Day and June's relationship will be nothing to what we expect and that Marie Lu will change the whole story around and add a plot twist in the end. I want to know how June will survive her illness and if she caught a virus or something like that. In the end, the past chapters were insane and I had fun reading and deciding with which character I would side with. 

United States of America, Pre-Republic

Change of Mind

     June is taken to the capital city of Denver, a snow-covered city protected by a large shield war known as the Armor to meet the Elector, Anden. She is surprised by how different he is from his father. Anden opposes the Republic Senate's ideals, who wish to maintain their control over the nation. June tells him that someone wants to assassinate him, she does this as a decoy so that he trusts her and moves to the real assassination location. 

    June eventually manages to convince the Elector that the decoy assassination is real, and receives a pardon from the Republic. As she spends more time with Anden, she realizes how different he is from his father and how he wishes to change the nation. She also notices that he is in love with her and later kisses her. After a few days, Anden wants to remove the Trial system that divides the nation and also make the Republic of America a better place. June begins to have doubts, and attempts to send a signal to Day to stop the assassination.

    Anden tells June about how the Republic began and how its intentions were good in the early years. Global flooding submerged most of the Eastern United States under water, and people were filled with terror as thousands fled into the west. The Republic was formed by the military to establish order, and they blocked the East US. Soon, though, the military gained too much power and the Trials, originally optional and fair, became mandatory and were used as a means of population control. Anden wants to change the Republic and bring it back to the way it used to be. June is further convinced that Anden is not a threat and repeats her signal to Day.

    Day is sent on a mission by the Patriots to make a fake attack on a train to provide proof that there was in fact an assassination attempt. Day makes himself known to soldiers to feed the rumor amongst the people that he lives. He has mixed feelings about June's warning signal and asks himself how far does he mean for her to go? After seeing Anden and June's kiss on camera, he suspects she might only want him to stop because she is in love with Anden.

"In the midst of it all, I hear a few call out, 'Day lives! Day lives!'" (Lu, 130)

People are starting to notice that the person who was killed in Legend during Day's execution was not Day. This can cause a huge problem in the Republic because people will stop listening to them and start looking up to Day. I think this is good because the Republic can fail if people do this. What I think will happen next is that the people of the Republic will stop trusting the Republic and start to realize what is really going on with the world.

"I never considered the idea that he might be able to get into June's head."(Lu, 136)

I think that this is a really interesting quote because Day makes the point that Anden is playing a game, not them. As soon as I read the quote, my mind started spinning around over what could happen, and what this means. What I think it means is that Lu is foreshadowing what will actually happen, Anden revealing that he's been acting and knowing the Patriot's assassination attempt the whole time. I think this is a really good twist and would be interesting to see if this happens. 

CONCLUSION

These pages were filled with little hints of what could happen next and what Day and June will become. It was also fun to learn what happened on the rest of America, but also a little shocking. I'm hoping to learn more, not just about America, but what happened to the whole world. I'm also intrigued to know if what I predicted is correct because I think that would make an excellent twist to the story. In the end, we'll never know until we finish the book. 

June, the Prodigy

 The New Elector Primo

    The second novel of the book trilogy Legend, Prodigy is the sequel to Legend and starts off with June and Day arriving at Vegas because they heard a Patriot base was hidden there and wanted to make a deal in order to save Eden, Day's younger brother which is captured by the Republic. June and Day disguise themselves because they are the most wanted fugitives of the Republic of America. The JumboTrons light up for the anthem but the pictures of the Elector Primo are quickly changed by another set of images, his son Anden Stavropoulos. The people of the Republic are alerted that the Elector Primo has died and his son has replaced him as the new Elector. When they are almost discovered, Kaede, a Patriot, finds them and takes them to a nearby barrack.
There they meet Razor, a double agent that is a high ranked officer known as Agent DeSoto, and a leader of the Patriots. They arrange a deal so that Eden is rescued and returned to Day. The drawback is that in order to save Eden, they must kill the new Elector Primo. June and Day are separated with June having to go to a Vegas airship hub, and Day is taken to the warfront city of Lamar.

    June is arrested on purpose and taken by Thomas, the responsible for June's brother's murder. We learn that Thomas and Metias were secretly in love but their relationship was forbidden because they both served in military together. June is taken to the Elector Primo by her request, and as a part of the Patriot's plan. When they meet, June doubts whether she should kill him or not, Razor knows something that he hasn't told her. Day is infiltrated by Kaede to the Colonies and he sees the world beyond the Republic: a huge land of sea caused by a shift from the sun that burned the whole South Pole.

"Everything I am familiar with is gone," (Lu, 29)

As we already know, June has been a part of the high class her whole life. She hasn't known the suffering of the poor sectors and she's used to answering orders and idolizing the Republic. Being with the Patriots and learning all these secrets from the Republic makes her feel unsafe and out of her comfort zone. Her whole life has been stripped away and replaced by a new one. I haven't been through that but I can tell it is a hard experience.

"Can I trust Anden? Or do I trust Razor?" (Lu, 76)

June starts to doubt about the murder of Anden. She figures out that Anden is not the man described by the Patriots. Or is he? This desire of knowing the truth is really bugging me and I want to know what the truth behind Anden is. Like June points out, there is something Razor knows about Anden that he hasn't told June and I'm dying to know what it is.

Final Thoughts

Day and June's story has been able to keep up and I just love how every one has their own traits and qualities. Marie Lu has a way of describing things that I just love. For example the way she described Las Vegas, tall skyscrapers with soldiers and armies all over the place. Vegas seems dangerous and safe at the same time. Another thing that has been crossing my mind is what will June do with the Elector Primo. I am very intrigued on what's going to happen next and whether or not Razor is trustworthy.