Yote Diamondback saw beauty in Quinn Cozens’ prison
Yote Diamondback and Quinn Cozens are protagonists in two different book series across two different genres. But they share one huge connection.
Quinn lived in small-town America and hated many aspects of it even if there were a few things he loved. Yote traveled to an area strongly resembling what Quinn grew up in.
In one world and universe, Quinn spent years lamenting about small-town living before he saw otherwise. In another world and universe, Yote saw the slower-paced, more conservative lifestyle as charming.
If you don’t know what I’m getting at, Quinn resented the place. But he learned to appreciate small-town living in his world. Yote always appreciated a mirror-image of that same small town in her world.
Ironically, the would-be Gryffindor in Quinn possessed the dark side here, while the would-be Slytherin in Yote showed off her light side.
Quinn wanted to make it big, and felt that being from a small town doomed him to blue-collar work and a timeclock. Yote knew that it didn’t matter where one lived or where they came from. Anyone could achieve what they wanted while treating their eyes to rolling hills, scenic landscapes, and tiny specialty stores that lined Main Street.
Yote Diamondback had ambition and wasn’t scared to show it
In The Arcane Prophecy, Yote Diamondback’s thirst to prove herself starts in the first chapter when she grows sick and tired of playing second fiddle to her sister, Jett. Yote envies Jett’s looks, her popularity, and resents that Jett didn’t want to be her best friend anymore when they stepped into middle school.
Yote dreamed of attending the Lamerth Academy, one of the most prestigious schools in the fictional nation of Etharia. She was dejected when she didn’t get in, and settled for Arcane. Still, as Yote chased her ambitions, she never looked down on anyone for the way they lived during her time at Arcane.
Heck, she preferred small, indie-owned pizza parlors and eateries. She didn’t mind that Arcane wasn’t this massive school with national attention like Lamerth.
She proved you can own an ambitious streak and go out of your way to get what you want while living the small-town life. What did Yote want, exactly? More credentials, elite credentials, on her transcript so she could reapply and attend Lamerth.
And if you want to know how and why Lamerth rejected her, find out in the first three chapters of The Arcane Prophecy.
Quinn Cozens was ambitious but made the wrong choices
Quinn wanted to shed the label he felt fate and society forced onto him. Small-town boy from a depressed tri-state area that collapsed when the steel mills left while he went to a rinky-sink public school. He was neurotic for years, almost self-loathing.
When he got older, Quinn developed a long-term plan to escape that small town. He became a personal trainer, quietly won power struggles against management behind the scenes, nearly monopolized the clientele, and decided he didn’t wanna be friends with anyone from that gym when he made it clear he was taking his talents elsewhere.
Quinn failed in those “bigger and better” endeavors and blamed everyone. Relegated to working as a “grunt” in warehouses, Quinn ultimately decided to fulfill another ambition: sports writing. That was when he started loving and appreciating where he came from.
Sounds Slytherin-like, I know. But I’ve often likened Quinn to Albus Dumbledore. Bitter because he failed to see his ambitions early, but ultimately saw reason. That said, Quinn’s still a firebrand when you meet him in Beyond the Lost Horizon.
Yote Diamondback approached things well, Quinn didn’t
Even at fourteen, when the high school she wanted admission to rejected her, Yote didn’t flinch. She was pissed, but she took the high road, knowing that she didn’t need to lash out at people.
As for Quinn, he was perpetually angry for years. When he was Yote’s age, Quinn lashed out at anyone who even remotely took pride in where they were from. Words like “stupid,” “backward,” “dumb,” “uneducated,” and “ignorant” were part of his everyday vocabulary.
Quinn may’ve matured, but he could’ve taken notes from Yote if she wasn’t born in another world or ultimately another universe. Still, maybe I’ll do a cross-over one day. You never know.
