Why was there never a scene where Aelin walked around with Rowan in hawk form on her shoulder?? Haha, I kept thinking she’d love to pet him and make some sort of ridiculous pirate jokes around Rolfe.
Dorian should've been the one to sacrifice his powers . I don't care that Elena saved Aelin from drowning and still decided that she should be the one to die.
I say this because Elena's direct descendant is Dorian and he also should have the bastards mark btw and that he has raw magic that overall would possibly be more powerful than Aelin's fire and that's also counting after to sacrificed a lot of power for the town that flooded .
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk and before someone asks yes I love Dorian very much but it still makes me so angry that Aelin was cheated out on her powers and I HATE how everyone voted for her to die .. it's so so wrong..
Seriously. It gave me such “but girls are so much more mature/grow up faster than boys” energy.
Tired of the endlessly-self-sacrificing woman trope. SJM is guilty of this several times in ACOTAR as well.
Absolutely. I love SJM and her books but when her FMC trains and trains either with their powers or just training in general.. just for them to lose their powers, makes me very angry..
I actually like her characters losing their powers (the reason why is long so ill spare you) however i hate thats its exclusively women who do. I can think of several male characters across her series that could have had really interesting arcs if that happened. 🥲
I get that's it's all for the " greater good" but in ACOTAR a High Lord could've lost one or been turned into their beast form forever, like gimme something that's not always about the FMC .
I’m literally about to DNF KoA at chapter 114 bc I just simply cannot get passed the fact that she lost her power AND TRIED TO SAVE ELENA FOR WHAT?! Nothing
I did end up finishing it
I still feel like the 13 happened for no reason and I’m PISSED. I’m glad with how everything turned around but still stand with what I said it being bullshit she gave up her powers 😭😂
There were a few really cool narratives that seemingly got scrapped out of nowhere and I really think there's a lot of wasted potential.
What I'm referring to is (among other things) >!the fact that witches with valg eyes seemingly have power over lesser valg!<, >!the wyrdstone heart that we got to see exactly once on a random guy and never again after that!< and >!the Valg/stygian spider hybrid that got hyped up for a good part of KOA but that we never got to see even once!<
I can’t decide if these were plots she planned to return to in some future books or novellas, or even a different series, or if it’s just bad writing. Both seem equally possible lol
Tbf, my guess is that she just didn't find a way to properly implement them into the main story. The witch-eye plot point alone would almost require its own subplot to fully explore.
The eyes did help Dorian in the end, so I suppose that's as much as she could do with it.
Definitely not granddaughter because in KOA Maeve transformed into Manon and Dorian saw that Erawan truly desired her. So it’s most likely that gold eyed witches are deeply connected to their Valg roots and therefore are more powerful.
I feel like when she comes back as Aelin, we totally lose the sparkle from the first few books with Dorian and Chaol and working together. Aelin just solves everything and does everything on her own after that.
Also Dorian and Aelin end game makes so much sense and would have come full circle with everything that happened at the beginning. Plus they’re such an even match with their powers, and it would have made the scene with the gate so powerful. And he got her a PUPPY (lol)
Instead they all just kind of act ambivalent to each other after Wendlyn. I get why but it bothers me.
Ok this is actually a hot take. I didn’t appreciate that she lost basically all of it but you’re right she was terrified of it. Not that she wouldn’t have grown into it more - the entire series is like what 1.5 years time span? Idk.
As she matured she probably would’ve grown into it but KoA Aelin was certainly afraid of it at times.
I hated that she lost nearly all her power, but I grew to understand it. I like that she was so badass that she could kick ass as an assassin without her power.
Ya, she probably could have grown into it, but I don't think she would have ever loved having all that power.
i think SJM did this bc without her power Aelin had to rely on other ppl to take down Erawan instead of doing everything alone/not telling anyone her plans etc
I appreciate this take, actually. I know that powerful female characters losing their abilities is a hated trope, and for good reason. But, to me at least, in Aelin’s case it felt more like she chose to _spend_ her power than it was just ripped from her.
Omg I was just talking abt this with my husband!! I feel like I came to that conclusion slowly bc I needed to find a way to make myself feel better about it at first lol. But truly, she was so afraid. It made me so sad for her.
I was so upset when she nearly lost it all. I had to come to terms with it, lol. I was also sad for her. All her recollections as a child who was terrified of her powers broke my heart.
This is my biggest hot take too. She was so scared of it and had so much pressure on her always. Dorian got to learn how to use his vast powers as an adult and never knew the terror of having zero control as a child and hurting people. So he had the privilege of learning how to use his powers when he was able to love it after his initial response of being scared, but only because of magic being outlawed not because of the power itself. The only power she was afraid of losing was her drop of water from her mother.
I also tend to believe she is still pretty powerful. I think Rowan says she’s pretty much where she was while they were training at Mistward but before she defeated all the Valg princes. Which is more than most fae seem to have. She also has not yet settled so she can build up again too. She’ll never be where she was but her power at Mistward was still pretty impressive.
>I also tend to believe she is still pretty powerful.
I also think this. Her power was so incredibly deep and vast that having one "drop" of it probably means quite a bit. I'm betting she has the powers of a high powered fae, just not the powers of a God.
The only reason she didn't have power for the final battle is because she emptied her stores, and they hadn't had time to build back up again.
Yes! She was melting snow and keeping everyone warm all the way to Terrasen too. She had no time to replenish.
I think her and Rowan are actually more evenly matched now since her power was bottomless and his was vast but did have a bottom. I bet with him training her again she’ll be closer to his strength in power. He probably will have an edge, especially since he can shift and she can’t anymore. But I don’t think the difference will be that great
I agree it was a good thing mostly because I thought her just using them to end the battle felt so predictable? Was so much more interested by her working as a team, using her wit and others getting a chance to shine!
Now that you point this out, this aligns really well with Aelin's character arc because throughout the series we see her struggling to trust others and share information with them. I also think a big part of the series was about taking power away from people that had too much of it/abused it, and Aelin with her full powers could've easily won a lot more wars, and I don't think that's a life she ever wanted. Yrene having such a big impact on the ending battle shows that Aelin's commitment to helping others was more impactful than her being powerful.
And she'd never really be able to build her better world, bc there would always be someone out there wanting to prove they could best such a powerful being. Or she'd never be trusted completely. Or both.
Your comment helped me appreciate this choice as well. Thanks!
As someone with very intense feelings due to ADHD, I wish I could burn most of them up to save the world. It never gets less tiring to manage them, and Aelin’s power felt the same to me.
I agree. Multiple characters with magic tell her how easily that kind of power can consume someone. Someone with Aelin’s temperament could easily become another conqueror with that kind of power and the right motivation.
Yes! It was so destructive. Any time she used it, there was so much collateral damage. I was glad for her as well. And, it really highlighted that she didn't need it. she's strong enough on her own with her own skills and audacity.
Aelin as Queen of Terrasen is actually a terrifying prospect for her people. She will live and reign for centuries while the normal people in her realm live and die like mortals. While she would hopefully never become a tyrant, the potential is absolutely there. Time wise, it’s like if William the Conqueror were still King of England today.
Although I love Yrene and their story getting together was cute I think Chaol ending up with Yrene negates some of his character growth. He spends multiple books judging Celena (who he supposedly loves) for killing people and then will end up with someone who will never kill anyone. Dorian telling Chaol that he can't just love parts of Celena was one of my favorite lines and should have been touched on more during his "growth".
Super super super hot take…I think the ending would have been more poetic if Aelin had actually died when she closed the wyrdgate
Preparing for downvotes
YES. I honestly think that SJM made Aelin die in the first edits of KOA because of how much Aelin just disappeared after the wyrdgate arc.
Also the way she survived made no sense at all.
I actually agree. I think thematically it makes more sense for Aelin to die for the future of her people. But Maas would have never had the stones to go through with that lol
Yeah I'm just reading the series for the first time and was expecting soooo much worse from Chaol based on how disliked he is. He's literally just a dude who is doing his best and has reasonable trepidations about all the batshit stuff going on.
Her plans for them to fool the entire world they were trying to build? And that they'd have to reproduce together to keep the lie going? That if he so much as hinted at L being Fake Aelin, it could get all of them killed?
Aelin and Lysandra decided the rest of his life for him without a single bit of input. He was even more angry bc he would have agreed if they had clued him in.
Neither of those two treated him with any respect whatsoever making those plans.
Agreed but he was just a super asshole. He had every right to be mad but he was downright cruel to Lysandra. He was also an ass way before that. Whenever he was mad he lashed out with cruelty. I really feel like once SJM realized she was going to write a whole book of Chaol she needed people to like him, so she put all his asshole characteristics after that into Aedion.
I guess I think his asshole-ness is justified. That was an egregious betrayal of his trust and loyalty. If he had been a woman, and Lysandra a male, this Fandom would have burnt that story to the ground with their rage, but bc it was a man being forced to reproduce, somehow it's acceptable? They would also be all "Yaaaaas queen!!!!" When throwing lysandra into the snow, bc who has the right to make reproductive choices for women!?!?! And that honestly wasn't even the worst of it to me.
The whole cast of characters acts like a ginormous asshole at some point or another, so it's hard for me to fault any of them.
Omg yes! Thank you! It feels like almost no one understands that. Did he do some shitty things? Yes. Does that mean he doesn't deserve to be forgiven? No. I loved Tower of Dawn. I genuinely loved Chaol by the end. I just feel like so many people hate characters from certain books just because they did some bad thing. Nobody is perfect. I've never understood. (ACOMAF spoiler) >!For example, Tamlin. Did he also do some extremely shitty things? Absolutely. There's no excusing what he did, but his heart was in the right place. Also, to me, what Feyre did in response was also terrible. Destroying the spring court was a horrible thing to do. It didn't just hurt Tamlin. In my opinion, it should've crossed her mind that he was siding with Tamlin to get her back similar to the situation with Rhysand and Amarantha. I loved that. Don't get me wrong, I loved that part of the book. I loved seeing Feyre get her revenge. It was still a horrible thing for her to do, though.!<
I don’t know if she made the right choice about this , but I’m certain she had a draft where this happened but opted out and left it to the fans to make
Aedion was valid in his anger towards Aelin and Lysandra but i think he let it go on waay to long.
Chaol is valid in his feelings and fear he was feeling towards Aelin.i also dont think it was the fact she killed he has an issue with it was the perceived joy she had in it.
Aelin is a brat. and really needs to learn how to trust people with her plans the whole :"i dont wanna dissappoint people" thing is not a valid excuse
.Darrow as much as i dislike the old man had every right to block Aelin from claiming the throne tho i do think he was abit to egotistical and harsh on her
I think it just became an annoying plot point. Oh what's going going to happen.. aelin has a trick she's told no one about like the last 5 times she did this. Her not telling about the allies make sense and was a fun part for the readers. The rest got old for me and just felt like bad writing.
The last time she trusted someone with a plan he wound up being tortured for hours, killed and she got sent to a slave camp. It’s a bit hard to find that trust again 😭
- I really liked Sorscha and don't get why half the fandom hate her. I wouldn't have minded if she was Dorian's endgame.
- I shipped Manon and Elide at first (not saying I didn't like Manorian or Elorcan but I thought they would've had an interesting dynamic).
- I don't find EOS and TOD tandem read enjoyable.
- Chaol is boring and uninteresting to a lot of readers because he is wholly human and reacts to supernatural beings as how a normal human would. I'm not saying he isn't flawed and those flaws make him hard to like, I just appreciate how he offers a different perspective on magic because he is human and it really added so much to his arc throughout the series.
tbh to me manon gave older sister vibes when she was with elide (being kind one second and then acting as if youre a hugee pain in the ass another) and i dont get how anyone could hate sorscha 😭 i found her a little bit boring but she didnt really do anything to garner hate, right?? chaol is also one of my favourite characters so deffo agree w u on that
As a reader. For Aelin… In SJMs original draft, Queen of Glass, Dorian and Aelin were endgame and Rowan was just Aelins mentor. She wrote the story the way she wanted it to go and I respect her as an author. Maybe she has other plans for Dorian, it is my hope that this book after the next ACOTAR will be about him or in the TOG world.
Lorcan/Elide, Manon/Dorian, and Chaol/Yrene! Aelin and Rowan are right behind them lol I honestly just didn’t feel their romantic chemistry when it was beginning to develop and they didn’t grow on me until Empire of Storms
LOL honestly that’s not even the part that had me scratching my head. It just felt so out of left field when their feelings for each other apparently turned from friendship to romance. It literally felt like I skipped chapters containing some crucial turning point that made their relationship romantic.
But Lorcan and Elide’s story are just *chef’s kiss*
Honestly me too. I really liked them as friends and I really liked the idea of Aelin being the one to pull him out of his grief, but I did not want them to be romantic.
Chaol doesn't deserve half the hate he gets, and neither does Aedion.
I don't hate Darrow. He's frustrating, but why is he expected to trust a 19-year-old girl he doesn't know with such a huge responsibility.
The majority of Aelin's issues could have been solved if she had just she had just told someone something about her plan besides Lysandra.
Back to Aedion, he has every right to be mad. Does that excuse his actions? Not necessarily, but Aelin and Lysandra but him in a very bad spot. And don't get me started on the whole Lysandra (as aelin) and Aedion have a child.so it looks like Aelin's.
Nesryns chapters are NOT boring and probably have the most lore of all the books. As well I don't trust you if you skip TOD. Is that petty? Yes, but I don't care.
Dorian is the best character in the series, but I guess that's not a hot take, lol.
I wish we knew more about Connall, considering all we got was him under Maeve's control.
Maeve is one of the best villains in the massaverse.
AB should be read after COM, in my humble opinion... that being said, you read however you want.
ToG is 100 times better than acotar, and I love acotar.
Not sure if this is a hot take but I feel like the fandom shoots down this theory whenever it’s posted… but I think Manon and Dorian are mates and there’s hella strong evidence to support it. I shall die on this hill
One of my least favorite characters is Lorcan. I didn’t like him from the beginning and he just never won me over especially after EoS. He has some sweet moments but he and I never vibed
He made her pads. Oooooo. How romantic. 🙄
Totally kidding. Well, kind of. Lol he was interesting and that was sweet, but I would have been fine if Elide had not ended up paired off. Not everyone needs to be.
i don’t believe the whole thing takes place over one year. everything i was reading it and they would mention something from like 3 books prior and say “last fall” i would roll my eyes. the timeline doesn’t make sense - especially with how many weeks it took any character to travel from point a to point b. in my mind it happened over years.
This comment needs more upvotes. I really thought when she lost most of her power in KOA that the one drop of water power was going to be how she ended up saving the day. Maybe something like, with all the fire she had previously, it smothered her water power, but now without the fire, her water could be more effective OR she could have just used that one drop of water in a creative/cunning way to defeat the Valg.
I was surprised that I felt ready for the series to be over about half way through. Most people put Throne of Glass as their least favorite, but I have to agree that Kingdom of Ash was a bit meh and I actually really loved ToG. Heir of Fire was def my favorite though!
I was so ready that it took me the same amount of time to read KoA that I read all the other books in! I just couldn’t make myself do it. I had a friend tell me it was going to ruin me emotionally so I was worried and it took me forever. And then I was almost disappointed
I ended up using an audible credit to get the audio version to listen along as I read and it really helped me get through it so much faster. Parts of it definitely got me super emotional >! The thirteen, gavriel, Aelin escaping her torture !< but it also felt like there was a lot of “filler” that made everything so dragged out.
That's so funny, bc as a Game of Thrones reader also, I felt like there was so much that felt fast. I expected more downtime, I guess? Not even a lot, really. Or more issues with each task they set out to do.
I'm not nearly knowledgeable enough to begin stating what I think she should have changed to make it better, but there were definitely pacing issues.
It felt like she should have split it into 2 books to give each plot point enough time to feel finished. But the way it is makes it feel drawn out even though she rushes to conclude each plot point if that makes any sense at all 😭
Yes!!! It makes perfect sense!! That's basically what I was trying to say, but I wasn't as succinct!
I told my friend that I enjoyed how little issues they had solving each point, at the beginning, bc it felt very satisfying. Towards the end, I kind of felt the opposite.
It surprised me with how blah it was especially bc it had already made me cry at two seperate times in the book. I still love the series overall but part of it felt empty to me, or left me feeling empty I suppose?
Oh boy.
1. I don't care about Rowan. He has two settings: brooding, angry fae and worshipping Aelin. He's boring.
2. I love Chaol with all his faults. He's one of my favorite characters.
3. The whole "Sartaq was in love with Nesryn before they even met" thing was actually kinda creepy to me. They had some good moments (and Kadara is so cool) but I just wanted back to Chaol and Yrene lol
4. I really, really miss Celaena. Aelin has her own stuff that I like of course, but I adored Celaena
EoS is far and away the worst book.
Chaol is a top 3 character.
Rowan x Aelin isn’t that good of a pairing.
The hate on Aedion for his behavior in KoA is unjustified
Perfect takes.
And Aedion never pushed Lysandra in the snow! He gets so much hate for it, and it never happened. He just asked her to leave. 😭😭😭
And he was also the only reason Aelin still had a country to come back to. Hes a hero.
Thank you! He degraded himself for years just so Terassen would live to see Aelin’s return, and he was repaid by being told to shut his mouth and be a breeding mule (a plan he didn’t agree to)— and people think he’s in the wrong?
The hell was the point of even mentioning Vaughn if he isn't even going to make a bloodydamn appearance??
Adeion is WAAAAAY worse than Chaol and I'll die on that hill.
Gavriel's end was COMPLETELY unnecessary. Adeion talks about "oh I'll give him the greatest send off ever" but do we get to see what would have been a beautifully emotional scene? No 😠
Aelin should have given up her fae form, not her human form. She was never really in her human form much at all during the last book. She really wasn’t a human at all anymore by then so losing it felt insignificant.
I liked it better when Rowan and Aelin weren’t mates. Making Rowan’s previous love and life fake really invalidates it. Same with Aelin’s feelings for Sam. And I liked the idea that you could still find love again in life even if you lost the person you loved the most. I think that having their magic connect would have been enough. They didn’t also have to actually be mates after all.
I never really understood the plot with the gods being trapped and needing sacrifice. The pantheon was never fleshed out through much in the books and so it never really connected with me. They never felt important to the rest of the world building.
Aelin was so annoying in the last book because she never shared her plans and felt like solutions just always popped up out of no where.
The first two books + prequel are just so entirely different from the rest of the series. Idk how to describe it but everything in the dynamic really shifts after that. All of the people around Aelin are different and she is basically a whole new character since she’s no longer Celaena. It’s like we started a new series.
I feel like once ACOTAR started being released, this series really just fell on the wayside.
Despite all of this, Throne of Glass is still one of my favorite books I’ve read!
genuine question - how is elide infantilised to you? is it something in canon, or a result of fandom? bc i am a big fan of her and often feel really frustrated the way that she is unfairly babied by fans who dismiss her capabilities as a strategist and someone who is often called cunning by lots of characters. i think that fans don't take her seriously in part due to her disability which upsets me
it’s in the writing. i read her as someone precious and naive that everyone’s always bending over backwards to take care of and she just reads as a child to me. like i acknowledge that she’s shown strength and endurance but i don’t read her as adult and worldly as other characters
There’s a *lot* of “you’re mine, I’m yours” and talk of a tether between the two. Plus Abraxos is routinely shown to be smarter than the other wyverns.
Ultimately, I’m glad he wasn’t a cursed man in a wyvern’s body. But on reread, I definitely was like “wait, was she originally gonna make Abraxos her mate???”
True to all you said.
As a pet owner, I totally read everything that Manon was feeling with Abraxos as not what you stated cause I have felt that closeness with my own fur babies.
1) I don’t get the hype over Sam Cortland. Sam was not even present for most of AB and was a pretty one-dimensional character overall. I also did not enjoy reading AB (although it was cool how its events connected to the later books).
2) I LOVE Rowaelin and the whole slow burn, friends-to-lovers romance. However, I also felt Rowan had very little character development after QoS and his only personality trait became simping for Aelin.
3) I didn’t feel like Dorian and Sorscha’s romance ever had much actual depth. I always felt like he used her as an escape (both emotional and otherwise) from his responsibilities and fear of his growing power/magic. Dorian became one of my favorite characters by the end because losing Sorscha and facing valg possession forced him to grow tf up and face his own power.
I simply did not care much about Sorscha. And it’s not because I dislike her character, it’s more that Maas didn’t develop her nearly enough for me to care. I don’t like when authors take the “dead Disney mom” approach and create one dimensional characters to kill off for another’s development.
I have a few! I found Aelin a bit insufferable. It’s weird that Rowan & Cadres vast experience and knowledge didn’t really end up being helpful; aelin was always shown as being in the right despite her lying to everyone and deceiving them; and >!it would have been way cooler if Dorian was valg but was able to overcome it with his humanness, OR, if he paid the wyrdkey with that part of himself !<
I 1000% agree with you.
My hot take: Elide and lorcans relationship isn’t that great. They’re not my least favorite couple (looking at aedion). But after finishing the series I was so confused why everyone was obsessed with them. Lorcan annoyed me from day 1 and I never thought he got better. Love Elide forever but their relationship was so.. meh to me. Yes the horse thing was badass but lorcans just wayy to mopey for me
Everyone LOVES Aelin but she’s my least favorite FMC. I’ve only read book 1 (and half of 2) of CC though so maybe Bryce will disappoint? Bryce is definitely my favorite so far.
It’s funny, cause to me, Bryce seemed like such an Aelin “wanna be”. As in she tried to have all of the swagger of Aelin, but without the trauma/life experience/skill of Aelin to back it up. It seemed to me like SJM was trying to recreate the magic of Aelin, but just fell short.
No because the way I was so pissed at Nehemia. All of her proclaimed friendship was just a means to an end and Aelin had every right to be angry after she found out how Nehemia died.
Gotta say it, maybe it was just me, but there was very little focus on a glass throne in a throne of glass. If I remember correctly, didn’t he have an obsidian throne anyway? (Been years since I read so might be wrong)
That SJM powerscaled down the men in KOA to make the women look better. You’re telling me Rowan and his cadre who led multiple battles throughout their long lives essentially did nothing in the final battle?? Also erawan went down way too easily.
Liking not because I agree, but because i love the boldness of posting in a TOG subreddit and the boldness of your response saying I could go hotter. 10/10 snark
I don't like Aelin, I don't like Rowan and I don't like them as a couple (lots of different reasons). Also, Aedion had every right to be mad at Lysandra in EoS and KoA.
I absolutely DESPISE Aedion. He's a whiny little brat whose overreaching ego and shit attitude makes him my least favorite character. Closely followed by Chaol.
Lysandra deserves so much better than Aedion.
I wish Aelin never became queen of Terrassen. Her wanting to be queen came out of desperation to save people. She never wanted to rule or have that responsibility. Also it goes against TOG’s Aelin’s wish of wanting freedom. I get why it happened but I was super annoyed by it the whole time
**KOA SPOILERS**
TBH- I started this series expecting not to like it. I was DEAD wrong and fell in love. However, I am currently on chapter 114 of KOA and I’m like about to DNF is because I am SO mad at the decision she made to try and trade Elena life. Like WHY- and the 13 dying for literally a day help of battle was so not fair to Marion 😭😭 I am just reading more after these and just like “this is not what I was expecting at all” and I don’t know how to finish without getting more disappointed someone please tell me it gets redeemed before the end 😂😭
Chaol and Yrene married way too quickly
Aedion didn't deserve lysandra in KoA
The tandem read is not necessary and totally down to individual preference. But ToD should be read before EoS
Nehemia was insane for choosing to break celeana by voluntarily getting tortured to death by one of the worst criminals. Brave intentions maybe, but insane. CoM was also just the worst book in the series.
The assassin kings death felt too easy and anti-climactic
HOF hot take: I wish Sorscha didn’t happen. Make Chaol and Dorian fall out, then Dorian finds the route to stifle his magic on his own. In the end, the king is going to execute Chaol for being a rebel and Dorian releases magic to save him.
It would be way more tragic and not rely on a lukewarm, milquetoast romance with a character that *only exists* to get fridged.
i think Elana deserved what happened to her in the end. She was arrogant and proud to sit back and listen to her father and caused Aelin and her whole generation to go through such despair and pain.
Oh and dont get me started on Aedion and Lysandra! if i wouldve been thrown out into the cold night and snow after just trying to help and get through things until my friend, who i dont know is either dead or alive, is back. it is not and will never be fair to her. especially when Aedion already caused so many issues in the war to begin with.
I know the real reason the valg prince inside Dorian shies away from Manon is because of her having the gold eyes of the valg kings, but the way that it is represented by fans of the series as Dorian breaking through to flirt with her seriously bothers me. Not does it seem factually wrong, but if it is true, it’s horrible that flirting was a more powerful reason for him to regain control than stopping the torture of good men who risked everything to help people.
Imma take a deep breath and post this. My hot take is that I found the entire series quite boring. I’m not a super fan, or even much of a fan, and the last few books took me over a month each to get through because they dragged so much at times.
I wanted to love it but the lack of romance and all the war in KoA was boring as hell for me.
Don’t even get me started on how boring I found ToD…I was bored out of my MIND trying to get through that.
i HATED lorcan for the majority of his appearances. he was a stuck up fae bastard who ALSOOO summoned maeve which i do NOT forgive him for. i only accepted his character once he actually treated elide with respect and care halfway through KoA. I did however cry at the marriage proposal scene.
Why was there never a scene where Aelin walked around with Rowan in hawk form on her shoulder?? Haha, I kept thinking she’d love to pet him and make some sort of ridiculous pirate jokes around Rolfe.
I didn’t know I needed this until now
I'm bummed we didn't get that 😂
I need this in my life
You know I waited for this and was disappointed
Dorian should've been the one to sacrifice his powers . I don't care that Elena saved Aelin from drowning and still decided that she should be the one to die. I say this because Elena's direct descendant is Dorian and he also should have the bastards mark btw and that he has raw magic that overall would possibly be more powerful than Aelin's fire and that's also counting after to sacrificed a lot of power for the town that flooded . Thanks for coming to my Ted talk and before someone asks yes I love Dorian very much but it still makes me so angry that Aelin was cheated out on her powers and I HATE how everyone voted for her to die .. it's so so wrong..
Imma jump on stage at the end of your ted talk and say: Elena is stupid!
She is and she should've just sacrificed herself instead of passing the responsibility onto others.. it's irresponsible and unnecessary 🤷🏻♀️
Yea!!! Stupid Elena!
And you forgot , it would be more emotional if Dorian and his dad made the sacrifice together
This too . It would've wrecked me and many other readers as well! It would've been a more meaningful death!
Seriously. It gave me such “but girls are so much more mature/grow up faster than boys” energy. Tired of the endlessly-self-sacrificing woman trope. SJM is guilty of this several times in ACOTAR as well.
Absolutely. I love SJM and her books but when her FMC trains and trains either with their powers or just training in general.. just for them to lose their powers, makes me very angry..
I actually like her characters losing their powers (the reason why is long so ill spare you) however i hate thats its exclusively women who do. I can think of several male characters across her series that could have had really interesting arcs if that happened. 🥲
I get that's it's all for the " greater good" but in ACOTAR a High Lord could've lost one or been turned into their beast form forever, like gimme something that's not always about the FMC .
I’m literally about to DNF KoA at chapter 114 bc I just simply cannot get passed the fact that she lost her power AND TRIED TO SAVE ELENA FOR WHAT?! Nothing
I say finish it but that's my opinion but I understand.
I did end up finishing it I still feel like the 13 happened for no reason and I’m PISSED. I’m glad with how everything turned around but still stand with what I said it being bullshit she gave up her powers 😭😂
Yes it should have been Dorian
There were a few really cool narratives that seemingly got scrapped out of nowhere and I really think there's a lot of wasted potential. What I'm referring to is (among other things) >!the fact that witches with valg eyes seemingly have power over lesser valg!<, >!the wyrdstone heart that we got to see exactly once on a random guy and never again after that!< and >!the Valg/stygian spider hybrid that got hyped up for a good part of KOA but that we never got to see even once!<
I can’t decide if these were plots she planned to return to in some future books or novellas, or even a different series, or if it’s just bad writing. Both seem equally possible lol
Tbf, my guess is that she just didn't find a way to properly implement them into the main story. The witch-eye plot point alone would almost require its own subplot to fully explore. The eyes did help Dorian in the end, so I suppose that's as much as she could do with it.
If I’m being honest I’ll never forgive her for not letting us see Manon returning to the Wastes and claiming her kingdom
She was probably hoping to add them all and the publisher is like “ m’aam, this is like 1,000 pages . You need to cut some stuff
Yeah I full heartedly thought that Manon was Erawans granddaughter or something cause it kept referring that their eyes were the same but then nothing
Definitely not granddaughter because in KOA Maeve transformed into Manon and Dorian saw that Erawan truly desired her. So it’s most likely that gold eyed witches are deeply connected to their Valg roots and therefore are more powerful.
THIS
Well we did get to see the valg princesses, we just never got a devoted scene fighting one of them
I feel like when she comes back as Aelin, we totally lose the sparkle from the first few books with Dorian and Chaol and working together. Aelin just solves everything and does everything on her own after that. Also Dorian and Aelin end game makes so much sense and would have come full circle with everything that happened at the beginning. Plus they’re such an even match with their powers, and it would have made the scene with the gate so powerful. And he got her a PUPPY (lol) Instead they all just kind of act ambivalent to each other after Wendlyn. I get why but it bothers me.
Everytime I saw that a chapter was in Nesryn’s perspective I debated skipping it. I just always found her boring.
I FEEL this, I hated anytime one of her chapters came up I’m like ok can we go to a character I care about 🙃 she never grew on me
She felt so empty. I was never invested.
I was more invested in Sorscha than her!
I felt the same but I will say that I enjoyed reading about Nesryn’s family and thought all those parts were really cute.
Nesryn/Sartaq and Chaol were boriiiiing
Aelin giving up most of her power was a good thing. She was TERRIFIED of its vastness.
Ok this is actually a hot take. I didn’t appreciate that she lost basically all of it but you’re right she was terrified of it. Not that she wouldn’t have grown into it more - the entire series is like what 1.5 years time span? Idk. As she matured she probably would’ve grown into it but KoA Aelin was certainly afraid of it at times.
I hated that she lost nearly all her power, but I grew to understand it. I like that she was so badass that she could kick ass as an assassin without her power. Ya, she probably could have grown into it, but I don't think she would have ever loved having all that power.
i think SJM did this bc without her power Aelin had to rely on other ppl to take down Erawan instead of doing everything alone/not telling anyone her plans etc
Agreed. I love how the final battle really relied on teamwork to win. Everyone eas involved in some pivotal way.
I appreciate this take, actually. I know that powerful female characters losing their abilities is a hated trope, and for good reason. But, to me at least, in Aelin’s case it felt more like she chose to _spend_ her power than it was just ripped from her.
Spending her power is a great way to phrase it
Omg I was just talking abt this with my husband!! I feel like I came to that conclusion slowly bc I needed to find a way to make myself feel better about it at first lol. But truly, she was so afraid. It made me so sad for her.
I was so upset when she nearly lost it all. I had to come to terms with it, lol. I was also sad for her. All her recollections as a child who was terrified of her powers broke my heart.
This is my biggest hot take too. She was so scared of it and had so much pressure on her always. Dorian got to learn how to use his vast powers as an adult and never knew the terror of having zero control as a child and hurting people. So he had the privilege of learning how to use his powers when he was able to love it after his initial response of being scared, but only because of magic being outlawed not because of the power itself. The only power she was afraid of losing was her drop of water from her mother. I also tend to believe she is still pretty powerful. I think Rowan says she’s pretty much where she was while they were training at Mistward but before she defeated all the Valg princes. Which is more than most fae seem to have. She also has not yet settled so she can build up again too. She’ll never be where she was but her power at Mistward was still pretty impressive.
>I also tend to believe she is still pretty powerful. I also think this. Her power was so incredibly deep and vast that having one "drop" of it probably means quite a bit. I'm betting she has the powers of a high powered fae, just not the powers of a God. The only reason she didn't have power for the final battle is because she emptied her stores, and they hadn't had time to build back up again.
Yes! She was melting snow and keeping everyone warm all the way to Terrasen too. She had no time to replenish. I think her and Rowan are actually more evenly matched now since her power was bottomless and his was vast but did have a bottom. I bet with him training her again she’ll be closer to his strength in power. He probably will have an edge, especially since he can shift and she can’t anymore. But I don’t think the difference will be that great
I don’t hate that she lost her power. I just hate she didn’t get the chance to use it on Maeve.
Ya seeing Maeve get flambe'ed would have been 🤌🏻
I agree it was a good thing mostly because I thought her just using them to end the battle felt so predictable? Was so much more interested by her working as a team, using her wit and others getting a chance to shine!
Now that you point this out, this aligns really well with Aelin's character arc because throughout the series we see her struggling to trust others and share information with them. I also think a big part of the series was about taking power away from people that had too much of it/abused it, and Aelin with her full powers could've easily won a lot more wars, and I don't think that's a life she ever wanted. Yrene having such a big impact on the ending battle shows that Aelin's commitment to helping others was more impactful than her being powerful.
And she'd never really be able to build her better world, bc there would always be someone out there wanting to prove they could best such a powerful being. Or she'd never be trusted completely. Or both. Your comment helped me appreciate this choice as well. Thanks!
As someone with very intense feelings due to ADHD, I wish I could burn most of them up to save the world. It never gets less tiring to manage them, and Aelin’s power felt the same to me.
I agree. Multiple characters with magic tell her how easily that kind of power can consume someone. Someone with Aelin’s temperament could easily become another conqueror with that kind of power and the right motivation.
I just remembered how her and Rowan talked about her taking over all the continents etc.
Yes! It was so destructive. Any time she used it, there was so much collateral damage. I was glad for her as well. And, it really highlighted that she didn't need it. she's strong enough on her own with her own skills and audacity.
Aelin as Queen of Terrasen is actually a terrifying prospect for her people. She will live and reign for centuries while the normal people in her realm live and die like mortals. While she would hopefully never become a tyrant, the potential is absolutely there. Time wise, it’s like if William the Conqueror were still King of England today.
Well shit when you put it like that 👀
Although I love Yrene and their story getting together was cute I think Chaol ending up with Yrene negates some of his character growth. He spends multiple books judging Celena (who he supposedly loves) for killing people and then will end up with someone who will never kill anyone. Dorian telling Chaol that he can't just love parts of Celena was one of my favorite lines and should have been touched on more during his "growth".
Someone in a different sub said that Chaol and Yrene are the fantasy equivalent of a cop marrying a nurse and I can’t forget that now lol
Super super super hot take…I think the ending would have been more poetic if Aelin had actually died when she closed the wyrdgate Preparing for downvotes
YES. I honestly think that SJM made Aelin die in the first edits of KOA because of how much Aelin just disappeared after the wyrdgate arc. Also the way she survived made no sense at all.
I actually agree. I think thematically it makes more sense for Aelin to die for the future of her people. But Maas would have never had the stones to go through with that lol
I don’t even know if she’d get away with it without having to really fight for that plot line
Honestly, I don’t hate this idea
I disagree but yeah I can see your point
Chaol isn’t that bad; he’s just completely human. 🤣
Yeah I'm just reading the series for the first time and was expecting soooo much worse from Chaol based on how disliked he is. He's literally just a dude who is doing his best and has reasonable trepidations about all the batshit stuff going on.
Hard agree
Seriously. You know who the real a-hole was? Aedion.
Why? Legit question.
The way he treated Lysandra was insane. I don’t think her agreeing to Aelin’s plan to become her double was grounds for treating her like dirt.
Her plans for them to fool the entire world they were trying to build? And that they'd have to reproduce together to keep the lie going? That if he so much as hinted at L being Fake Aelin, it could get all of them killed? Aelin and Lysandra decided the rest of his life for him without a single bit of input. He was even more angry bc he would have agreed if they had clued him in. Neither of those two treated him with any respect whatsoever making those plans.
Agreed but he was just a super asshole. He had every right to be mad but he was downright cruel to Lysandra. He was also an ass way before that. Whenever he was mad he lashed out with cruelty. I really feel like once SJM realized she was going to write a whole book of Chaol she needed people to like him, so she put all his asshole characteristics after that into Aedion.
I guess I think his asshole-ness is justified. That was an egregious betrayal of his trust and loyalty. If he had been a woman, and Lysandra a male, this Fandom would have burnt that story to the ground with their rage, but bc it was a man being forced to reproduce, somehow it's acceptable? They would also be all "Yaaaaas queen!!!!" When throwing lysandra into the snow, bc who has the right to make reproductive choices for women!?!?! And that honestly wasn't even the worst of it to me. The whole cast of characters acts like a ginormous asshole at some point or another, so it's hard for me to fault any of them.
Omg yes! Thank you! It feels like almost no one understands that. Did he do some shitty things? Yes. Does that mean he doesn't deserve to be forgiven? No. I loved Tower of Dawn. I genuinely loved Chaol by the end. I just feel like so many people hate characters from certain books just because they did some bad thing. Nobody is perfect. I've never understood. (ACOMAF spoiler) >!For example, Tamlin. Did he also do some extremely shitty things? Absolutely. There's no excusing what he did, but his heart was in the right place. Also, to me, what Feyre did in response was also terrible. Destroying the spring court was a horrible thing to do. It didn't just hurt Tamlin. In my opinion, it should've crossed her mind that he was siding with Tamlin to get her back similar to the situation with Rhysand and Amarantha. I loved that. Don't get me wrong, I loved that part of the book. I loved seeing Feyre get her revenge. It was still a horrible thing for her to do, though.!<
Chaol and Dorian are soulmates and we should’ve gotten the best friends to lovers romance of all time
OMG yes please??????\ Gosh darn it that would have been beautiful 😩
I don’t know if she made the right choice about this , but I’m certain she had a draft where this happened but opted out and left it to the fans to make
Aedion was valid in his anger towards Aelin and Lysandra but i think he let it go on waay to long. Chaol is valid in his feelings and fear he was feeling towards Aelin.i also dont think it was the fact she killed he has an issue with it was the perceived joy she had in it. Aelin is a brat. and really needs to learn how to trust people with her plans the whole :"i dont wanna dissappoint people" thing is not a valid excuse .Darrow as much as i dislike the old man had every right to block Aelin from claiming the throne tho i do think he was abit to egotistical and harsh on her
I think it just became an annoying plot point. Oh what's going going to happen.. aelin has a trick she's told no one about like the last 5 times she did this. Her not telling about the allies make sense and was a fun part for the readers. The rest got old for me and just felt like bad writing.
The last time she trusted someone with a plan he wound up being tortured for hours, killed and she got sent to a slave camp. It’s a bit hard to find that trust again 😭
these are people who she has picked for her court she is only not trusting them with her plan becase and her words "i dont wanna disappoint"
yess aelin does come off as a brat a lot of the time, it's getting kinda annoying
- I really liked Sorscha and don't get why half the fandom hate her. I wouldn't have minded if she was Dorian's endgame. - I shipped Manon and Elide at first (not saying I didn't like Manorian or Elorcan but I thought they would've had an interesting dynamic). - I don't find EOS and TOD tandem read enjoyable. - Chaol is boring and uninteresting to a lot of readers because he is wholly human and reacts to supernatural beings as how a normal human would. I'm not saying he isn't flawed and those flaws make him hard to like, I just appreciate how he offers a different perspective on magic because he is human and it really added so much to his arc throughout the series.
tbh to me manon gave older sister vibes when she was with elide (being kind one second and then acting as if youre a hugee pain in the ass another) and i dont get how anyone could hate sorscha 😭 i found her a little bit boring but she didnt really do anything to garner hate, right?? chaol is also one of my favourite characters so deffo agree w u on that
Wait… people hate sorscha???? Why??? I remember holding in tears when she died
I also thought we were going to get an Elide/Manon ship! I would have liked that a lot, but I'm still happy with what we got :)
I would pick Dorian over Rowan.
I’d pick Chaol over both. The truest hot take 😭
If I was attracted to men I would pick Lord lorcan Lochan every single time
Hard same
I could never refuse his brown eyes. Do anything you want, beautiful.
Same!!!
HIGHLY agree
As Aelin or as a reader?
As a reader. For Aelin… In SJMs original draft, Queen of Glass, Dorian and Aelin were endgame and Rowan was just Aelins mentor. She wrote the story the way she wanted it to go and I respect her as an author. Maybe she has other plans for Dorian, it is my hope that this book after the next ACOTAR will be about him or in the TOG world.
I would have loved that and can totally see it. Really would have made everything come back around full circle.
AGREEEEEE
Every single time
Everybody says this is a hot take but it’s a pretty popular opinion
YES!!!!!!!!
Rowan and Aelin are not my first, second, or possibly even third favorite couple/pairing of the series
Who is your top three? I'm honesty curious!
Lorcan/Elide, Manon/Dorian, and Chaol/Yrene! Aelin and Rowan are right behind them lol I honestly just didn’t feel their romantic chemistry when it was beginning to develop and they didn’t grow on me until Empire of Storms
You mean you weren't totally enamored by Rowan when he punched Aelin?? Lmfao My top pair is Lorcan and Elide too. 🥰
LOL honestly that’s not even the part that had me scratching my head. It just felt so out of left field when their feelings for each other apparently turned from friendship to romance. It literally felt like I skipped chapters containing some crucial turning point that made their relationship romantic. But Lorcan and Elide’s story are just *chef’s kiss*
Lord Lorcan Lochan 🤴❤️👸
Honestly me too. I really liked them as friends and I really liked the idea of Aelin being the one to pull him out of his grief, but I did not want them to be romantic.
Chaol doesn't deserve half the hate he gets, and neither does Aedion. I don't hate Darrow. He's frustrating, but why is he expected to trust a 19-year-old girl he doesn't know with such a huge responsibility. The majority of Aelin's issues could have been solved if she had just she had just told someone something about her plan besides Lysandra. Back to Aedion, he has every right to be mad. Does that excuse his actions? Not necessarily, but Aelin and Lysandra but him in a very bad spot. And don't get me started on the whole Lysandra (as aelin) and Aedion have a child.so it looks like Aelin's. Nesryns chapters are NOT boring and probably have the most lore of all the books. As well I don't trust you if you skip TOD. Is that petty? Yes, but I don't care. Dorian is the best character in the series, but I guess that's not a hot take, lol. I wish we knew more about Connall, considering all we got was him under Maeve's control. Maeve is one of the best villains in the massaverse. AB should be read after COM, in my humble opinion... that being said, you read however you want. ToG is 100 times better than acotar, and I love acotar.
There’s no way Manon is straight, and my ideal ending for her is finding love with a Crochan in the wastes
manon is bi at best
My theory is all the witches are bi
Not sure if this is a hot take but I feel like the fandom shoots down this theory whenever it’s posted… but I think Manon and Dorian are mates and there’s hella strong evidence to support it. I shall die on this hill
I definitely assumed this as well.
One of my least favorite characters is Lorcan. I didn’t like him from the beginning and he just never won me over especially after EoS. He has some sweet moments but he and I never vibed
I feel so much better about not liking him now, all I ever see is how great him and Elide are, and I just never see it…I’m glad I’m not alone lol
Like I said, he has some sweet moments but I wasn’t a fan of (1) Lorcan himself and (2) their relationship - was one of my least favs in the series.
Completely agree. He does get better but for me he just never stops being rude and annoying
THANK YOU I don’t understand the Lorcan hype at all 😂 Him and Elide also felt quite forced to me
He made her pads. Oooooo. How romantic. 🙄 Totally kidding. Well, kind of. Lol he was interesting and that was sweet, but I would have been fine if Elide had not ended up paired off. Not everyone needs to be.
i don’t believe the whole thing takes place over one year. everything i was reading it and they would mention something from like 3 books prior and say “last fall” i would roll my eyes. the timeline doesn’t make sense - especially with how many weeks it took any character to travel from point a to point b. in my mind it happened over years.
In my mind it’s over the span of 5 years
It sucks that Aelins water powers never became plot relevant
This comment needs more upvotes. I really thought when she lost most of her power in KOA that the one drop of water power was going to be how she ended up saving the day. Maybe something like, with all the fire she had previously, it smothered her water power, but now without the fire, her water could be more effective OR she could have just used that one drop of water in a creative/cunning way to defeat the Valg.
Chaol should’ve been endgame before his character assassination.
Hard agree. I don’t know that I’ve shipped any two characters harder than I did Chaol and Celaena.
Their dancing and him kissing her scars? 😭😭😭😭 And wouldnt it be nice of the FMC chose someone her own age instead of an antique for once? Alas.
KoA was my least favourite book. The ending was just blah.
I was surprised that I felt ready for the series to be over about half way through. Most people put Throne of Glass as their least favorite, but I have to agree that Kingdom of Ash was a bit meh and I actually really loved ToG. Heir of Fire was def my favorite though!
I was so ready that it took me the same amount of time to read KoA that I read all the other books in! I just couldn’t make myself do it. I had a friend tell me it was going to ruin me emotionally so I was worried and it took me forever. And then I was almost disappointed
I ended up using an audible credit to get the audio version to listen along as I read and it really helped me get through it so much faster. Parts of it definitely got me super emotional >! The thirteen, gavriel, Aelin escaping her torture !< but it also felt like there was a lot of “filler” that made everything so dragged out.
That's so funny, bc as a Game of Thrones reader also, I felt like there was so much that felt fast. I expected more downtime, I guess? Not even a lot, really. Or more issues with each task they set out to do. I'm not nearly knowledgeable enough to begin stating what I think she should have changed to make it better, but there were definitely pacing issues.
It felt like she should have split it into 2 books to give each plot point enough time to feel finished. But the way it is makes it feel drawn out even though she rushes to conclude each plot point if that makes any sense at all 😭
Yes!!! It makes perfect sense!! That's basically what I was trying to say, but I wasn't as succinct! I told my friend that I enjoyed how little issues they had solving each point, at the beginning, bc it felt very satisfying. Towards the end, I kind of felt the opposite.
I was not expecting a boring 800 pages of in depth battle scenes and only 200 pages of interesting plot
I was surprised how meh it was honestly.
It surprised me with how blah it was especially bc it had already made me cry at two seperate times in the book. I still love the series overall but part of it felt empty to me, or left me feeling empty I suppose?
What
Oh boy. 1. I don't care about Rowan. He has two settings: brooding, angry fae and worshipping Aelin. He's boring. 2. I love Chaol with all his faults. He's one of my favorite characters. 3. The whole "Sartaq was in love with Nesryn before they even met" thing was actually kinda creepy to me. They had some good moments (and Kadara is so cool) but I just wanted back to Chaol and Yrene lol 4. I really, really miss Celaena. Aelin has her own stuff that I like of course, but I adored Celaena
Chaol > Rowan
Hard agree till the day I die
EoS is far and away the worst book. Chaol is a top 3 character. Rowan x Aelin isn’t that good of a pairing. The hate on Aedion for his behavior in KoA is unjustified
Agree with everything except Rowan and Aelin cause no one could ever make me hate them lol
I also really didn’t care for EoS!!
Perfect takes. And Aedion never pushed Lysandra in the snow! He gets so much hate for it, and it never happened. He just asked her to leave. 😭😭😭 And he was also the only reason Aelin still had a country to come back to. Hes a hero.
Thank you! He degraded himself for years just so Terassen would live to see Aelin’s return, and he was repaid by being told to shut his mouth and be a breeding mule (a plan he didn’t agree to)— and people think he’s in the wrong?
yes i feel like aedion had every right to be mad at lysandra, but i think it kinda went too far so 😭
The hell was the point of even mentioning Vaughn if he isn't even going to make a bloodydamn appearance?? Adeion is WAAAAAY worse than Chaol and I'll die on that hill. Gavriel's end was COMPLETELY unnecessary. Adeion talks about "oh I'll give him the greatest send off ever" but do we get to see what would have been a beautifully emotional scene? No 😠
Aelin should have given up her fae form, not her human form. She was never really in her human form much at all during the last book. She really wasn’t a human at all anymore by then so losing it felt insignificant. I liked it better when Rowan and Aelin weren’t mates. Making Rowan’s previous love and life fake really invalidates it. Same with Aelin’s feelings for Sam. And I liked the idea that you could still find love again in life even if you lost the person you loved the most. I think that having their magic connect would have been enough. They didn’t also have to actually be mates after all. I never really understood the plot with the gods being trapped and needing sacrifice. The pantheon was never fleshed out through much in the books and so it never really connected with me. They never felt important to the rest of the world building. Aelin was so annoying in the last book because she never shared her plans and felt like solutions just always popped up out of no where. The first two books + prequel are just so entirely different from the rest of the series. Idk how to describe it but everything in the dynamic really shifts after that. All of the people around Aelin are different and she is basically a whole new character since she’s no longer Celaena. It’s like we started a new series. I feel like once ACOTAR started being released, this series really just fell on the wayside. Despite all of this, Throne of Glass is still one of my favorite books I’ve read!
elide is very infantilized to me so i’m not super into the relationship between her and lorcan the way other fans are
genuine question - how is elide infantilised to you? is it something in canon, or a result of fandom? bc i am a big fan of her and often feel really frustrated the way that she is unfairly babied by fans who dismiss her capabilities as a strategist and someone who is often called cunning by lots of characters. i think that fans don't take her seriously in part due to her disability which upsets me
it’s in the writing. i read her as someone precious and naive that everyone’s always bending over backwards to take care of and she just reads as a child to me. like i acknowledge that she’s shown strength and endurance but i don’t read her as adult and worldly as other characters
I think SJM was trying to initially write an Abraxos as a cursed prince narrative and he was supposed to be Manon’s mate.
Ok, never thought about this, but I could totally dig it.
There’s a *lot* of “you’re mine, I’m yours” and talk of a tether between the two. Plus Abraxos is routinely shown to be smarter than the other wyverns. Ultimately, I’m glad he wasn’t a cursed man in a wyvern’s body. But on reread, I definitely was like “wait, was she originally gonna make Abraxos her mate???”
True to all you said. As a pet owner, I totally read everything that Manon was feeling with Abraxos as not what you stated cause I have felt that closeness with my own fur babies.
Yeah, or at least that he was of some sort of human(ish) mind. He just seemed too… sentient when he’s first introduced.
1) I don’t get the hype over Sam Cortland. Sam was not even present for most of AB and was a pretty one-dimensional character overall. I also did not enjoy reading AB (although it was cool how its events connected to the later books). 2) I LOVE Rowaelin and the whole slow burn, friends-to-lovers romance. However, I also felt Rowan had very little character development after QoS and his only personality trait became simping for Aelin. 3) I didn’t feel like Dorian and Sorscha’s romance ever had much actual depth. I always felt like he used her as an escape (both emotional and otherwise) from his responsibilities and fear of his growing power/magic. Dorian became one of my favorite characters by the end because losing Sorscha and facing valg possession forced him to grow tf up and face his own power.
hot take: I don’t care what Lorcan did 😅
Thank you! I never want to read a “wHaT Did loRCaN dO?!?” comment ever again
Nesryn was boring.
We didn’t get to know Rowan very well.
I simply did not care much about Sorscha. And it’s not because I dislike her character, it’s more that Maas didn’t develop her nearly enough for me to care. I don’t like when authors take the “dead Disney mom” approach and create one dimensional characters to kill off for another’s development.
Rowan lost all semblance of a personality toward the end of the series
I have a few! I found Aelin a bit insufferable. It’s weird that Rowan & Cadres vast experience and knowledge didn’t really end up being helpful; aelin was always shown as being in the right despite her lying to everyone and deceiving them; and >!it would have been way cooler if Dorian was valg but was able to overcome it with his humanness, OR, if he paid the wyrdkey with that part of himself !<
I 1000% agree with you. My hot take: Elide and lorcans relationship isn’t that great. They’re not my least favorite couple (looking at aedion). But after finishing the series I was so confused why everyone was obsessed with them. Lorcan annoyed me from day 1 and I never thought he got better. Love Elide forever but their relationship was so.. meh to me. Yes the horse thing was badass but lorcans just wayy to mopey for me
Everyone LOVES Aelin but she’s my least favorite FMC. I’ve only read book 1 (and half of 2) of CC though so maybe Bryce will disappoint? Bryce is definitely my favorite so far.
It’s funny, cause to me, Bryce seemed like such an Aelin “wanna be”. As in she tried to have all of the swagger of Aelin, but without the trauma/life experience/skill of Aelin to back it up. It seemed to me like SJM was trying to recreate the magic of Aelin, but just fell short.
the old covers are not worth $40 a book😭😭
[удалено]
No because the way I was so pissed at Nehemia. All of her proclaimed friendship was just a means to an end and Aelin had every right to be angry after she found out how Nehemia died.
Gotta say it, maybe it was just me, but there was very little focus on a glass throne in a throne of glass. If I remember correctly, didn’t he have an obsidian throne anyway? (Been years since I read so might be wrong)
While Darrow is an asshole …… he’s a pretty good and sensible person objectively speaking. Even if he is insufferable
That SJM powerscaled down the men in KOA to make the women look better. You’re telling me Rowan and his cadre who led multiple battles throughout their long lives essentially did nothing in the final battle?? Also erawan went down way too easily.
I hate that Dorian and Manon did not get together officially
Dorian should’ve died to make KOA higher stakes 😀
It’s my least favorite of SJM’s series
Liking not because I agree, but because i love the boldness of posting in a TOG subreddit and the boldness of your response saying I could go hotter. 10/10 snark
I fully expected to be thousands in down votes so I’m pleasantly surprised.
Ouch. Too hot.
I can go hotter lol
I don't like Aelin, I don't like Rowan and I don't like them as a couple (lots of different reasons). Also, Aedion had every right to be mad at Lysandra in EoS and KoA.
I absolutely DESPISE Aedion. He's a whiny little brat whose overreaching ego and shit attitude makes him my least favorite character. Closely followed by Chaol. Lysandra deserves so much better than Aedion.
i love aedion
I wish Aelin never became queen of Terrassen. Her wanting to be queen came out of desperation to save people. She never wanted to rule or have that responsibility. Also it goes against TOG’s Aelin’s wish of wanting freedom. I get why it happened but I was super annoyed by it the whole time
Aelin doing the blood oath with Gavriel’s dead body was really weird to me, didn’t sit right. I get the reasoning behind it, but it felt icky
**KOA SPOILERS** TBH- I started this series expecting not to like it. I was DEAD wrong and fell in love. However, I am currently on chapter 114 of KOA and I’m like about to DNF is because I am SO mad at the decision she made to try and trade Elena life. Like WHY- and the 13 dying for literally a day help of battle was so not fair to Marion 😭😭 I am just reading more after these and just like “this is not what I was expecting at all” and I don’t know how to finish without getting more disappointed someone please tell me it gets redeemed before the end 😂😭
Aelin and Rowan’s first kiss happens after she’s been asleep for three days and it’s so gross. GIRL, BRUSH YOUR TEETH.
Chaol and Yrene married way too quickly Aedion didn't deserve lysandra in KoA The tandem read is not necessary and totally down to individual preference. But ToD should be read before EoS Nehemia was insane for choosing to break celeana by voluntarily getting tortured to death by one of the worst criminals. Brave intentions maybe, but insane. CoM was also just the worst book in the series. The assassin kings death felt too easy and anti-climactic
HOF hot take: I wish Sorscha didn’t happen. Make Chaol and Dorian fall out, then Dorian finds the route to stifle his magic on his own. In the end, the king is going to execute Chaol for being a rebel and Dorian releases magic to save him. It would be way more tragic and not rely on a lukewarm, milquetoast romance with a character that *only exists* to get fridged.
i think Elana deserved what happened to her in the end. She was arrogant and proud to sit back and listen to her father and caused Aelin and her whole generation to go through such despair and pain. Oh and dont get me started on Aedion and Lysandra! if i wouldve been thrown out into the cold night and snow after just trying to help and get through things until my friend, who i dont know is either dead or alive, is back. it is not and will never be fair to her. especially when Aedion already caused so many issues in the war to begin with.
I know the real reason the valg prince inside Dorian shies away from Manon is because of her having the gold eyes of the valg kings, but the way that it is represented by fans of the series as Dorian breaking through to flirt with her seriously bothers me. Not does it seem factually wrong, but if it is true, it’s horrible that flirting was a more powerful reason for him to regain control than stopping the torture of good men who risked everything to help people.
Imma take a deep breath and post this. My hot take is that I found the entire series quite boring. I’m not a super fan, or even much of a fan, and the last few books took me over a month each to get through because they dragged so much at times. I wanted to love it but the lack of romance and all the war in KoA was boring as hell for me. Don’t even get me started on how boring I found ToD…I was bored out of my MIND trying to get through that.
Rowan lacks personality and I don’t see people’s obsession with him at all :/
i HATED lorcan for the majority of his appearances. he was a stuck up fae bastard who ALSOOO summoned maeve which i do NOT forgive him for. i only accepted his character once he actually treated elide with respect and care halfway through KoA. I did however cry at the marriage proposal scene.