My theory on where she was going with the blinding was that, if anyone figures it out, his Grace becomes much more obvious and he's in danger. So there was this tension about Bitterblue kind of guessing what was up. But then...the book ended! So apparently it didn't matter that Bitterblue might guess the truth, or that Po's secret might come out. I assumed this was a set-up for the sequel, but the next one is a prequel. I dunno. SO MANY PEOPLE I respect are crazy in love with this book that I wonder if I'm just not getting it. (But I'm kinda glad you agree with me!) I think the reason I liked the Bitterblue plot best was because it was already THERE -- the other plots were all halfway/maybe/possible things. There was a section in the middle that I thought was really good, though. I do think that if the book hadn't been hyped up the wazoo and I'd just read this as a "first novel" I would have enjoyed it more.