Mare Barrow

I have lived that life already, in the mud, in the shadows, in a cell, in a silk dress. I will never submit again. I will never stop fighting.

— Mare Barrow^[1]

Mare Molly Barrow is a Red and a member of the Scarlet Guard. Like her brother Shade, she possesses superhuman ability due to a mutation, giving her the ability to create/control electricity. While she was forced to live among the Silver Elite, she posed as Mareena Titanos.

However, she and Cal were branded as traitors by the treacherous King Maven as they were accused for being the former King Tiberias's murderer, and were sentenced to execution. They were able to escape death as they were rescued by the remaining Scarlet Guard members. In Glass Sword, she is captured by Maven and imprisoned in exchange for saving her friends.

Biography

Mare Barrow and her family are lowly Reds who live in the Stilts, destined to serve the Silver Elite whose superhuman abilities make them nearly gods. Mare steals what she can to help her family staying alive, but when her best friend, Kilorn Warren is conscripted into the army, she gambles everything to win his freedom. This leads to an astonishing discovery: despite having common Red blood, she has Silver skills. This power is revealed at Queenstrial in front of the nobility, and to hide this impossibility, King Tiberias forces her to pose as the "long-lost" Mareena Titanos and promises her to his youngest son, Prince Maven.

At the palace, among the nobility, Mare struggles to become a proper lady and juggle the Scarlet Guard, a secret society of Reds who are planning on overthrowing the government. She becomes quite close to Maven and Cal, even developing feelings for the both of them, but her love for Maven is destroyed when he betrays both her and Cal by standing to the side while Elara makes Cal kill their father and taking the throne in Cal's place. Both she and Cal are imprisoned and nearly executed, but are rescued by the Scarlet Guard. In the end of the story they both vow to kill Maven.

After that she ends up in Naercey where she confronts Maven. Cal and Mare work together using their power to escape Maven. Once they escape they go to Tuck and Mare finds out that the Scarlet Guard is much bigger then she thought with Lakelander being apart of it. Mare is put in a cell with silent stone after trying to talk to Cal. But Kilorn, Farley, and Shade help Mare and Cal escape. Mare and her allies get off the island by stealing a jet and going to look for the newbloods.

Mare, Cal, Farley, Shade and Kilorn work together to find the newbloods and to help train them. But Mare must be careful as Maven has seen the list and goes around killing all the newbloods he can get to before Mare.

Mare feels guilty all the time and the only one who really understands is Cal. They grow closer while they train the newbloods. But every time Mare finds a newblood, Maven has left a note for her saying that he will see her on her birthday and Cal will before his next.

During one of her missions to find a newblood, she meets a man named Jon who can see the future and tells her that Julian and Sara are alive, along with the other newbloods. But she must leave now or all her friends will die.

At the prison, Mare, Cal, Farley, Kilorn, and the newbloods who chose to go storm the prison. Mare goes specially over the top and kills silver guards who were praying for mercy but Mare says "lightning has no mercy" and kills them. This damaged her relationship with Cal, so he did not help Mare with his fire. At the prison, they kill the queen but Shade is killed by Ptolemus and Mare goes crazy on the flight home making her friends mad.

Once on Tuck, no one talks to Mare but her family. At Shade's funeral, no one consoles her and Cal does not even come. To help herself from stop feeling guilty, she is going to stop the little legion from being marched on the front line. But as they are flying the plane there, Maven captures everyone that came to assist in the mission. Mare cannot watch them die after losing Shade so she surrenders herself. The book ends with Mare being forced to kneel towards Maven.

In King's Cage, Mare is living under the mercy of Maven Calore, the boy she used to love. Maven keeps her chained and imprisoned, upon the beliefs that Mare is too valuable to be wasted on common execution. He's initially engaged to Evangeline Samos, but later marries Iris Cygnet. The Scarlet Guard teamed with Montfort soldiers manage to liberate Mare as well a dozens of other newbloods under the sworn "protection" of King Maven.

Personality

She is known in her village for being bitter. Her mother even tells her, in the kindest way possible, that she is indeed rougher than her sister, Gisa. However, she does everything to protect her loved ones, and she also has quite a sense of humor. Like most Reds, Mare hates almost all Silvers.

After Maven Calore betrays her, she becomes much more secretive. She starts to push her closest friends and family away, to the point where she and some of her allies refuse to talk for weeks. By the end of Glass Sword, she develops what she thinks is a despicable habit of killing Silvers without mercy and has little control of the new monster which threatens to take up her humanity. In an argument with Cal, he tells her that she "has no love for anybody", including himself.

Physical description

Mare is described as having brown hair that fades into gray, brown eyes, and light brown skin. She is short and agile, standing at about 5'2".

Abilities and skills

Mare has the mutation that grants her a Silver-like ability despite having Red blood. As a result, she has the ability to control and generate electricity, making her an electricon. She is what herself and others call newbloods. Mare is also a skilled pickpocket.

Relationships

Cal: Mare first meets Cal in a tavern where she tries to steal from him but is caught. Instead of reporting her to the silver guards he gives her a tetrarch followed by another. He walks her back home as Mare tells him about her miserable life on his request. Before leaving, Cal tells her that he feels sorry for her. The following morning, Mare gets a job in the King's local residence where she uncovers the fact that Cal is actually the "Crown Prince" and he got her the job to save her from conscription. During the Queenstrial, where certain Silver nobility compete for Cal's hand, Mare displays electrokinetic powers against Cal's eventual bride, Evangeline Samos. She tries to run from the silvers before they can catch her but before she truly can Cal catches her and whispers the same thing he last said to her, that he is sorry. Cal and Mare develop an attraction to one another almost immediately following their first meeting, sharing their first kiss while she was still engaged to his younger brother. In the middle of Red Queen, Maven convinces Mare that Cal is her enemy as he claims he doesn't believe in a change. But soon, after Maven's betrayal, she figures out Cal wasn't the real enemy after all. She learns that whatever the case might be he'll always choose her. After Maven became king, the two escaped execution together with help from the Scarlet Guard and took a vow to kill Maven. Cal and Mare have a very close relationship. In Glass Sword, they agree to abstain from entering any romantic scenario but Despite their commitment, they fail to restrain from sharing a kiss and a few moments here and there that ultimately go against the agreement. They even share a bed when they are at Notch. Towards the end of Glass Sword, Mare admits to herself that, "If I could speak, I would tell Cal that I’m sorry, that I love him, that I need him.” Ultimately admitting her love for him. In King's Cage, Cal does everything to get Mare back and when he finally does, they can't believe it. While Mare tries to forget her experience from Maven's prison, Cal decides to help her exercise. On one particular stormy day, they were running when it started to rain. Cal suggested they head on back but Mare said that they should stay. They ended up making love in the forest. After that, their relationship grows more serious between them. They begin sharing a bed in the barracks of Cal where it is implied they have sex. In this book, Cal finally tells Mare that he loves her and Mare confesses the same thing, which she then asks him to break his promise that they made back in Tuck and to "distract" her. At the end of the book, Mare is heartbroken by the accepting to be king once again when his grandmother offers the opportunity instead of choosing her which seriously damages their relationship. "To stand in front of the person who is your whole world and be told you are not enough. You are not the choice. You are a shadow to the person who is your sun."
Gisa Barrow: Gisa is Mare's younger sister whom she often feels jealous of because Gisa is sweet and skilled and pretty in contrast to her roughness. Mare often feels that their mother wishes she were more like her little sister. Despite this, Mare obviously loves and cares about Gisa. Mare feels very guilty for causing Gisa to break her hand so she can no longer work.
Shade Barrow: Shade is Mare's older brother, but youngest out of the three brothers, who was conscripted. He was believed to be dead but at the end of Red Queen, it was revealed that he is still alive and he escaped execution using his power - teleportation. Mare is closest to Shade out of all her brother and is very heart broken when he dies.
Kilorn Warren: Kilorn is Mare's only true friend. They have known each other their entire lives and are extremely close, despite their constant bickering. They are best friends and he knows her better than anyone. Mare wears one green earring as a token from him. Kilorn loves Mare but understands that she does not feel the same way about him.
Maven Calore: Maven was formerly Mare's fiancé. The two were forced into a reluctant engagement after her abilities were exposed in front of the High Houses and Mare initially despised him. However, as time went on they grew closer and became real friends who confided in each other. Maven eventually joined the Scarlet Guard in order to help Mare gain equality for the Reds and get revenge for her brother's supposed death. After Maven and Mare were found out for being in the Guard, Maven revealed his treacherous plan for the throne, as he had betrayed her all along, effectively ending their relationship. Maven later attempted to have Mare executed but she escaped, vowing to return and kill him. In Glass Sword Mare is haunted by his memories and misses the boy he was. Towards the end, Maven captures Mare and makes her kneel before him. However, the truth of the boy inside was soon uncovered during the capture in King's Cage. Mare became the epiphany of the monster she tried so hard not to become due to the tormenting time alone covered by Silent Stone. Maven didn't visit Mare in her "cell" for a period of time but as time passed Maven made an idea to again stage another lie. Mare then became Maven's red puppet, doing everything he wants to lure in as much as newbloods as he can. One occasion where Mare and Maven sat together for a private breakfast where Mare slowly discovered Maven's true self. Due to this conversation, her hatred towards Maven is questionable. She tried to convince herself to only have hatred towards the King but she always wonders to thinking the boy beneath the crown, his burden, and his young soul. When reunited with Cal again, they even had the idea of "curing" Maven from the things his mom put him through. Nonetheless, Mare is still conflicted to whether or not kill Maven if she had the chance.

Trivia

Mare once broke her leg jumping off a porch on a dare from Kilorn. They spent half of their savings trying to pay for her cast.
Victoria Aveyard once said, that if an iPod with music from now survived, Mare would listen to ''electronic, Daft Punk, Avicii, some Sia, Florence, Halsey, Lorde. And EVANESCENCE and MCR like the little wannabe punk she is.''^[2]
Victoria once stated that if Mare could be any character, it would be Lindsey Morgan, otherwise known as Raven Reyes from "The 100".
Mare's favourite way of expressing her anger is spitting.
Mare said in King's Cage that she wouldn't dye her hair the color of her electricity like the other electricons(purple).

References

↑ Aveyard, Victoria (February 09, 2016). Glass Sword. HarperTeen. ISBN 9780062310668.
↑ Tumblr ask - July 16th, 2016

Mare Barrow

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