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psycholonials
thinking about the parallels between z's crown/sword choice and john's meat/candy choice
the protagonist, after running from their cosmically ordained responsibilities to a place of safety where they don't feel quite at home, is faced with the option of returning to (canonical/global) significance, or finalizing their escape and settling happily into obscurity. i think it's p clear that psycholonials deliberately echoed the epilogues in this regard
psycholonials
but when zhen chose the sword, she was ACTUALLY able to live a happy life with abby, and eventually to stop thinking about it being a dichotomous choice with the crown at all
john's choice, of course, didn't quite work out that way
i think the difference is that (A) unlike john, there's no timeline where zhen chooses to go back, so it's *her* choice rather than one decided by the narrative, and (B) zhen actually understands the person she's choosing to stay with