Character Analysis
What's Not to Love?
Raffin is a pretty cool guy. He's a prince who accidentally dyes his hair blue while searching for a cure for headaches; he's Katsa's closest friend and confidant; he's kind, he's reliable, and he's a founding member of the Council, determined to help improve life in the Seven kingdoms.
There's really not much to find fault with in Raffin, and because his appearances in the book are so brief, it's kind of tempting to write him off as a two dimensional—or flat—character. But there are a few things about Raffin that we find pretty interesting, so let's not write him off just yet.
Blonde Ambition
For one thing, as sweet and mellow as Raffin is, and as goofy as his blonde-hair-turned-blue may make him seem, Katsa indicates that he actually seems to possess a fair amount of ambition:
She'd never heard of a man, not even her cousin, who didn't want as large a holding as he could have. […] when Raffin listed his complaints about Thigpen, he never neglected to mention a certain disagreement over the precise location of the Middluns' eastern border. (10.65)
So clearly Raffin is concerned with the size of the kingdom he will one day inherit, and that makes us wonder if even he, who seems so kindhearted and silly now, could be corrupted—or at the very least find his principles somewhat compromised—when he finds himself wielding a king's power.
And Then There Was Bann
The other thing we find intriguing about Raffin is his relationship with Bann. The backstory we get on these two tells us that:
Bann was Raffin's friend of many years, a young man who had worked in the libraries as a boy. One day Raffin had stumbled across him and the two children had fallen to talking about herbs and medicines and about what happened when you mixed the ground root of one plant with the powdered flower of another. […] Shortly thereafter, Raffin had begged Bann's help with a particular experiment, and from that point on had effectively stolen Bann for himself. Bann was Raffin's assistant in all things. (9.14)
So obviously the two young men are close. Inseparable even. And we didn't really think twice about that until Po's comment in the epilogue. When he and Katsa are talking about their decision to be lovers but not to marry, Katsa is concerned about all the people who don't get t, and Po says: "Don't worry about it. We'll muddle through. And there are those who do understand. Raffin does, and Bann" (E.22).
Again, it could mean nothing so much as, "Hey—Raffin and Bann are a couple of understanding guys," but we think there's more to it. We think Raffin and Bann are a couple. Of course this is open to interpretation, but one thing we really love here is that the possibility is definitely there, and—true to form—in writing Raffin and Bann, Kristin Cashore has once again completely avoided stereotypes.
Katsa is not a stereotypical woman, Po is not a stereotypical man, and, if Raffin and Bann are gay, they haven't been stereotyped in any way either. Kind of refreshing, isn't it?
Spoiler alert (but actually this time): In Graceling's quasi-sequel, Bitterblue, Raffin and Bann's relationship is actually confirmed. One point for Shmoop on that hunch!