The Kings of Clonmel discussion

Alivia Winkel Per. 4
Ranger’s Apprentice: The Kings of Clonmel
By: John Flanagan

The Outsiders were a group of bandits that pretended to be religious to gain the people’s trust and to gain power. The people didn’t like their king. Will, Halt, and Horace helped the king and got rid of the Outsiders by having Horace pretend to be the legendary Sunrise Warrior.
With this book in the series, I believed the conflict was unique. Usually, you would expect an adventure action book to be one man against another, or something along those lines. This book did have Man v.s. Man, but not like you would expect. The antagonists, (The Outsiders) were pretending to be religious. Pretending to be religious isn’t something you see in a book very often. The Outsiders gained the people’s trust to raid the castle, so that Tennyson, the leader of the Outsiders could have the throne. It also helped the Outsider’s cause that the king, King Ferris, was an unpopular figure. Another unique attribute to the conflict was that Halt was Ferris’s twin brother. Halt and Ferris had a complicated past, resulting in Ferris seizing the throne even though he was the younger brother. When Halt, Will and Horace offered to help King Ferris to get rid of the Outsiders, he refused because he was afraid that Halt would take the throne. They eventually found a solution, but I thought that the conflict and the way that the antagonist gained power was unique.
The other literary element that stuck out to me was the theme. The theme I got out of the novel was that although you may have a problem or complicated past with something or someone, it shouldn’t stop you from helping them. In the book, Halt had to decide on whether to help his brother get rid of the Outsiders, or to let the group of bandits take over the throne. Halt was tempted to just leave the problem to his brother, as an act of revenge, or to teach him a lesson, but Halt chose to help him to save the people. He did not love or even like his brother in any way. Ferris was a coward and a cheat, but because of the possibility of someone else getting hurt, Halt reluctantly helped. We may have a problem or a grudge against someone, but if they are ever in danger, we should help in any way we can.
This novel in the series was one of my favorites because of the unusual conflict. It was intriguing to find out how they would solve the problem of the Outsiders. The solution they came up with was unique. They chose a legend that everyone knew, the brave strong Sunrise Warrior, and made him a reality by having Horace play the part. The relationship and background between Halt and Ferris was interesting as well, because it added another problem for the protagonists to face.