Cinder is jealous. She's jealous of her step-sisters. They have pretty clothes and soft hands and a doting mother. She has none of which. Her sister Peony is her only human friend and even seeing her in a ballgown sparks "envy" in Cinder, because Peony gets a dress and can go to the ball. Cinder can't.
She doesn't believe she could be pretty. She's too clunky, she's not curvy. She pins it down to being cyborg or just naturally inadequate. Cinder doesn't have nice clothes or fancy things. Kai gives her gloves and they are "the most beautiful thing she had ever owned." And then they are ruined, like all the pretty things in her life. She has to survive, endure, and with that she doesn't have time for prettiness.
But Kai's first impression of her is that she's "cute" and "pretty." He calls her pretty in public, and he calls her pretty in his private thoughts. "Your pretty new mechanic in the lobby", "the pretty young mechanic at the market." He finds her gorgeous with her glamour, and his "knees threatened to buckle" in her beauty. Everyone else thought she was gorgeous, but no one was swooning the way he was. The glamour had amplified the attraction he'd already had towards her.
Thorne, upon seeing a cyborg stumble into his jail cell, has the first instinct to flirt with her. Not recoil, because of her metal and skin, but flirt because she's a girl and that's his favourite pastime. And what distinguished her from the many other pretty girls he normally flirted with? To him, "her irritation made her prettier". Her disgruntled personality, who she is, is her prettiness.
Adri tells Cinder that if she can't cry, she can't feel love. She does love, she loves so much, but she doesn't have time to grieve her sister or her anonymity or her freedom when she has a revolution to start. She has to tough it out.
When she's bound up in Kai's arms she feels safe, delicate, "almost like a princess."
Cinder pretends she doesn't have a crush on Kai because having a crush on a celebrity is "preadolescent," the trademark of immature, lovesick teenage girls. How can she be girly when she's a grimy mechanic? She "doesn't know the first thing about makeup", because do you think Adri would have ever let her buy some to try? Would Cinder have even bothered, believing nothing could improve a cyborg?
She dreams of "going to the ball and dancing with the prince." And when Iko teases her, Cinder says, "we all have our weaknesses". It is a weakness to be in love, because someone like Kai couldn't love her. She imagines being at the ball, "jealous of the girls who swooned to catch Prince Kai's attention." Jealous that they can be open with their attraction, jealous that he would pick them over her.
But he loves her. And when he does, she can't process the feeling "of being desired". She wants to carve 'C + K' into a wall, then berates herself for such "whimsy." Because deep down, she's always wanted to be wanted, and that truth is her weakness. But war doesn't last forever, and soon, she has no reason to hide that. There's no reason it would be a weakness.
Cinder is comfortable in baggy cargo pants and messy hair but she also dreams of wearing a beautiful ballgown. She loves her coronation dress. She calls the empress crown 'stunning.'
She never becomes obsessed with frills or glitter, but she slowly leans into soft, pretty things. She has a necklace from Kai and her engagement ring. It's sparkly and yet, Cinder, the so-called 'tough, aloof tomboy' thinks it makes her metal hand look "elegant". Maybe she starts wearing bracelets and earrings because they don't bother her when she isn't working on something mechanical. She doesn't even notice until Thorne jokes that she wears more metal in jewellery than the whole metal of her hand.
Maybe she buys herself a new set of tools with pink and blue iridescent handles simply because finds them pretty. Maybe when her friends tease her about how in love she is, she starts to acknowledge it.
Cinder is not some stereotype of a leading female character who is strong and as such cannot be feminine or soft or emotional. Was she given the chance to be?
Let her be soft. Let her be delicate. Let her pretty.
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LUNAR CHRONICLES BUT ON THEIR EQUIVALENT OF HOT ONES
Cinder does pretty well, excluding the creative string of swear words she comes up with. Finishes all ten wings.
Kai almost quits at 5. The only thing keeping him going is that Thorne quit at six and Kai knew that if he quit at 5 he would never hear the end of it. Gets to da bomb and then is like, Well I mine as well finish this.
Scarlet managed to finish all ten wings but is like beet red in the face. Has significant trouble answering questions
Fun fact, canines can't taste spice and neither can Wolf. Cleans his plate and drinks from da bomb bottle (cause Scarlet is watching) gives himself a stomach ache
Cress. Poor sweet cress. She ate all ten wings, crying, but she did it
Unlike Cress Thorne only got to 6. Talked some big game before hand. Will never live it down.
Winter just straight up doesn't mind the heat. Like this girl ate da bomb with a smile on her pretty little face. Bought a bottle to take with her
Jacin was stoic. So very very stoic. I mean he had the discipline to do it but he also answered in 1 to 3 word answers, also his ears turned red. Told everyone it wasn't that spicy.
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A small detail that I appreciate about tlc is that in all of the ships, each character started out at the same social level as their partner.
Kai and Cinder both born into royalty, until Cinder was sent to Earth and became an ostracised cyborg.
Thorne born into the American elite, Cress born to two of Luna's top scientists before she was declared a shell and stolen.
Jacin and Winter both children of lowly guards before her father was forced to marry Levana.
Scarlet and Wolf both average citizens before Wolf was subscripted into the wolfen army.
I think the conclusion to be drawn from this is that all the couples started off on even footing but for one reason or another were flung into opposite social realms. Yet none of them let prejudice get in the way of them being together.
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