Freedom vs. Control in The Stars Are Dying: Astraea’s Path to Agency

Introduction: The Thematic Claim

In The Stars Are Dying, Chloe C. Peñaranda weaves a taut thematic argument: genuine freedom is not the absence of rules but the hard-won ability to choose one’s own identity after breaking both external oppression and internal dependence. At its core, the novel tracks Astraea’s harrowing transition from a woman whose every breath is managed by Hektor Goldfell—through lockdown, fear, and chemical suppression—to someone who learns to stand alone, reclaim her power, and finally decide her own fate. The story insists that control can wear many masks: possessive love, protective imprisonment, and even addiction. Freedom, by contrast, demands painful withdrawal, the willingness to lose what feels safe, and the courage to let go of borrowed strength.

Hektor’s Gilded Cage: Control via Medication and Fear

Hektor Goldfell’s control is the first and most explicit form Astraea endures. He locks her in a cell when she disobeys, as shown in an early chapter where he coaxes her inside with the words, “If you loved me, you wouldn’t do this,” and she walks in without fighting, knowing resistance only lengthens her sentence. His methods are psychological as well as physical: he gifts her a small globe of stars and later shatters it when she defies him, making the destruction a weapon to teach compliance.

Most insidious is his use of medication. The pills Astraea takes daily are revealed to be Starlight Matter enhanced with a forbidden suppression spell. Nyte later explains that her body has become “dependent on it,” and withdrawal will mimic near-death. The pills are not medicine; they are a leash. Hektor keeps her placid, forgetful, and powerless by chemically dulling whatever celestial nature she carries. In this way, control is disguised as care. Astraea believes she needs the pills, just as she once believed she needed Hektor’s protection. The novel thus opens with a stark picture of freedom reduced to survival within a cage that looks like a gilded room.

The Trial of Choice: Rejecting Pride for Humanity

The second major encounter with control comes during the Crocotta’s trial, where Astraea must solve a series of matchstick puzzles to earn a key piece. The twist: a small girl will be killed if Astraea fails within three thirty-second tries. Her first instinct is to solve the puzzle—to prove herself smart enough to beat the game. But Nyte’s voice warns her, “Don’t let your pride cloud your rightful judgment.” On the final attempt, with the wolf lunging at the child, Astraea abandons the puzzle, throws her dagger, and saves the girl. The child vanishes, but she has passed the test.

The trial reveals that control can also come from within: pride, fear of failure, and the desire to win are themselves forms of bondage. The Crocotta respects Astraea’s choice because it shows she values humanity over victory. By forfeiting the puzzle, Astraea proves she can break free from her own ego. The key piece falls into her hand, not because she solved it, but because she let go. This moment marks her first conscious rebellion against the internal scripts Hektor has written for her.

Nyte’s Hardest Lesson: Withdrawal and Confinement

The third and most painful test of control comes from Nyte. After the battle in the throne room, he takes Astraea to a cell, crushes her pills with his fingers, and tells her the withdrawal will last two weeks. She screams, “Give me the damn pills, Nyte!” and he refuses, even as she accuses him of being no better than Hektor. He locks her in iron bars—the same kind of cage she feared most—and forces her to endure the agony of detox.

Here the theme sharpens into a bitter paradox. Nyte’s control is meant to free her. He is breaking the chemical dependency Hektor built, but he does so by inflicting the very confinement she dreads. Astraea must learn that some freedoms only come through a period of enforced helplessness. Nyte’s actions, though cruel in form, are loving in intent. But the novel does not let him off easily: Astraea calls him a hypocrite, and the narrative holds the tension between protective control and oppressive control. The question becomes whether any kind of domination, even with good motives, can ever be compatible with true agency.

Reclaiming Power: The Key and the Star

The climax of Astraea’s journey arrives when she finally wields the key. In the throne room, she answers its call, transforms it into a staff, and slams it to the ground, sending out a wave of starlight that stops the battle. When Nyte’s Nightsdeath persona takes over and attacks her, she does not fight back with violence. Instead she speaks to him: “The brightest star needs the darkest night … I need you. And I’m not afraid of you.” Her words are not submission but understanding. She reclaims her agency not by overpowering Nyte but by meeting his darkness with her light, breaking the cycle of fear.

Later, in chapter 56, she releases Cassia’s soul from her own body. Nyte explains that the soul has been draining her energy. Astraea sobs but lets the orb fly upward, watching it become a new star that blinks three times—the signal she and Cassia promised each other. Letting go is the ultimate act of freedom: choosing release over clinging, even when it hurts. In that moment, she is no longer controlled by grief, by dependency, or by the need to hold onto what she loves at all costs.

Contradictions: When Control Appears as Love

The novel complicates the freedom-versus-control binary by showing that both Hektor and Nyte use confinement—cells, restraints, isolation. Hektor does it to possess; Nyte does it to heal. Yet the text refuses to let Nyte’s good intentions excuse his methods entirely. Astraea’s accusation that he is a “fucking hypocrite” lingers. The difference lies in outcome: Hektor suppresses her nature; Nyte forces her to confront it. But the reader is left to question whether any forced path, however beneficial, can ever be truly freeing.

Similarly, Cassia’s friendship is a source of freedom, but it also creates a kind of control: Astraea takes on Cassia’s mission, wearing her seal, fighting her battle. She must learn to separate her own identity from the borrowed purpose. When she tells Nyte “I don’t feel like her,” he replies, “You are whoever you want to be.” That permission—not to live up to a dead friend’s legacy—is what finalizes her liberation.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does Hektor’s use of Starlight Matter pills demonstrate the theme of control?
   The pills suppress Astraea’s celestial power and create physical dependence, turning her body into a prison. Hektor uses them to ensure she remains weak and compliant, disguising chemical control as care.

2. Why does Astraea abandon the puzzle in the Crocotta’s trial, and what does this reveal about freedom?
   She chooses to save the child rather than satisfy her own pride. The trial teaches that true freedom requires sacrificing ego and that letting go of a win can be more liberating than achieving it.

3. In what ways is Nyte’s imprisonment of Astraea both a form of control and a path to freedom?
   By forcing her to withdraw from the pills and locking her in a cell, Nyte removes the chemical leash Hektor placed on her. His control is temporary and aimed at enabling her to reclaim her own agency, yet the parallel to Hektor’s methods is uncomfortable.

4. What role does Cassia’s soul play in Astraea’s journey toward agency?
   Carrying Cassia’s soul gives Astraea borrowed strength and purpose, but it also drains her. Letting go of the soul in chapter 56 is the ultimate act of freedom: she releases her friend to the stars and chooses her own path instead of living Cassia’s unfinished mission.

5. How does the novel define “freedom” for Astraea by the end?
   Freedom is not escape from all constraints but the ability to choose one’s own identity, bear the pain of withdrawal, and stand alongside others without losing oneself. Astraea’s final choice to help Nyte pass the veil and stop the king is made from her own will, not from coercion or dependence.