u/EmergencyMuch4232

Any other hunger games fans here???? I’m just feeling so spoiled that we are gonna get ACOTAR 6 at the end of October.. and then the SOTR movie at the end of November.. and then December always FLIES by (for me) and then January 12th we get ACOTAR 7 🤩😜😋 just one after another

I can barely contain my excitement. I am going to be living my best life for those few months haha

(Plus the apothecary diaries S3 + movie and S3 of Percy Jackson!!! Every fandom is getting FED this winter)

This is an extremely unpopular opinion because I constantly see posts about how much everyone hates Danika and thinks she’s a bad friend to Bryce.

Which, everyone is allowed to have their opinion, but so many of these people LOVE Aelin!!!! Which makes it easier for me to point out why I love Danika.. Aelin and Danika are extremely similar, the difference is that we are told the story through Aelin’s POV and we never get Danika’s POV

Things Aelin lied about and kept secret:

- her literal name and true identity
Sam died never even knowing who she really was, but apparently Danika keeping her mate a secret because he works directly for the dictators she’s rebelling against and doesn’t want to put him in danger is worse somehow? She was protecting her mate. Keep in mind that if Celaena had died at any point before HOF then she would’ve died with all her secrets just like Danika did.

- her political power
kept it from Nehemia who desperately could have used an ally! Nehemia literally had to sacrifice her life and die because no matter how hard she tried to push aelin to do the right thing, she kept wanting to run away and never admit who she is. Nehemia literally died because Aelin was so determined to keep her own secrets. And she kept those secrets for selfish reasons.

- her gathering of armies and plans for war
Aedion has literally spent the entire ten years apart from aelin fighting for Terrasen, and fighting with their armies. He is rightfully concerned about Aelin’s plans and asks her “where are our armies?” And she still refuses to tell him. And everyone acts like Aedion is a jerk for asking that. He’s just supposed to blindly trust that Aelin has a plan for literally everything? If so, then why don’t we trust that Danika had plans and motivations that we haven’t been privy to? Bryce does trust her best friend the way that Aelin wanted Aedion to trust her. We see in Aelin’s POV that she feels a lot of guilt keeping secrets, which makes it easier to sit with. We don’t get Danika’s POV, but I’m sure she didn’t enjoy keeping secrets from Bryce.

Also keep in mind that Aedion and Aelin have known each other since they were literal children and are basically siblings. Danika and Bryce have known each other for 4 years before she dies. Why is it okay for Aelin to not trust people with her plans, but is not anyone else?

Let’s look at these two situations:

A. Your best friend puts a weapon in your back without your consent (that gives you magical powers), makes sure you're okay by ensuring you wear a protective necklace, and seeks to protect the entire PLANET from destruction by doing so

B. Your cousin arranges for you to impregnate the woman you're in love with without your consent, and decides for your future children to all be raised with her own husband pretending to be their father in place of you, and the mother of your children pretending to be her for the rest of your life. To live a lie for your whole life and your children sentenced to also live a lifetime of lies.

To me they are similar, but Aelin’s is actually worse. I’d rather have a magical tattoo than have my entire life and my children’s lives decided for me but ok

Aelin also lies about her plans for the gate. She lets everyone vote on what they “want to do” but then it actually results in nothing because Aelin had secretly decided that she was going to trade Elena’s life for Erawan. She doesn’t tell anyone about her plan to do this, and it completely goes against what they’ve all worked toward. She lied and it backfired and if Rowan hadn’t given her the tattoo, it would have been for nothing. If she had died falling through worlds, Rowan would be left trying to figure out what happened just like Bryce has to. Aelin’s lies all could’ve had very severe consequences, but luckily she lived.

And I just have to say that I absolutely love Aelin. I know who Aelin is, she’s fierce and brave and loving and self- sacrificing. So is Danika. Characters who are self-sacrificing can be liars bc they don’t want others to share the burden. ACOTAR spoiler: >!even Rhysand!<

Danika comes back to help Bryce multiple times after she DIES!!!! She is loyal to Bryce even in death.. I rest my case

I have no idea what to tag this as, but I just wanted to come here to say that I absolutely love the ending of throne of glass/KOA

I know a lot of people weren’t as satisfied, but you really can’t please everyone.. and I am someone who is usually not as pleased.

I’ve always been a huge fantasy lover but fantasy very often has a tragic ending. LOTR will always be superior to everything in my heart, but even LOTR has a sad ending for the MC, and it’s always bothered me about the genre.

Sorry, but I’m a SUCKER for a HEA, and I don’t want to read strictly romance over and over. Sue me for wanting adventure and world-building but also a happy ending!!!

I just finished reading the Farseer Trilogy (which my mom has been recommending to me for years) and I absolutely love love loved it. I really did, but I sobbed my eyes out like a baby for a whole day afterwards, and not in the same way I cried at the end of KOA. I am genuinely so depressed from that ending, I’m still recovering. Which isn’t a bad thing, but I am so thankful for SJM for giving me a fantasy series that feels epic and is full of adventure and grief and friendship and challenges, and then rewards me with a happy ending for once. Thank you Sarah, thank you. Some might think it’s cheesy, but I love it.

I know some people don’t feel like the ending was happy enough! But I was terrified when I was reading KOA.. I am so trained by authors who write sad endings. It’s part of what makes me love SJM so much!!! 😭😭

Okay this is gonna be a little bit of a messy explanation but

I think the overall point of ACOTAR is that romantic love and family love are deeply intertwined.

In the first book of ACOTAR, Feyre’s entire character development is centered upon her relationship with her family even though they’re not present in most of the story. She worries nonstop about her family, then slowly realizes her entire identity has been formed by feeling needed by her family. In the spring court, she realizes her entire identity has been shaped by the promise she made to her mother. She is filled with resentment towards her sisters, who she feels unseen, unappreciated, and unloved by. She has to “let go” of her family before allows herself to fall in love. Her character development is completed when she returns home, sees her family is safe and realizes her sisters care for her more than she had previously thought. In the beginning, she was terrified to leave them alone and had no idea who she was without them, and at the end she leaves them of her own accord to go be with her love.

Every character in this series has either severe family trauma due to them being abusive, or their family has died. I mean literally every character. Gwyn and Emerie and Tarquin and Lucien included.

Family drama everywhere.

Nesta’s love story is also impacted by her strained relationship with her sisters, and also by her childhood memories of her mother. Nesta struggles to accept love or even accept herself, because of the way her identity shaped in relation to her family. Her story is also defined by breaking away from her family, finding herself, and then her character development is completed when she saves Feyre and the baby.

Speaking of Feyre and the baby, we are literally seeing a family be created. I actually really love that Feyre got pregnant before the series is completed. I love it bc it ties back to the theme that family and love are intertwined. Our family history impacts how we love (both romantic and non romantic) and our love impacts our family.

Even Rhysand and Nesta’s struggles to get along show another aspect of how romantic love literally impacts our family lol. We all have in laws that we have to learn to get along with for the sake of our love and our family.

So while ACOTAR is very clearly a romance series, I think it’s interesting that family is a central part of the story. The way that the fandom has very split, and very emotional reactions to Nesta vs Feyre, in my opinion, is intentional. I’ve seen both sides. Some say “SJM wrote nesta and Elain to be awful in the first book and then tried to retcon it later” I could not disagree more - she showed us that there was more to the sisters when Feyre returns home at the end of book 1. I’ve also seen people say that began to hate Feyre when they read ACOSF, and that SJM “assassinated” Feyre’s character. I could not disagree more with this statement also. I think SJM purposely wrote them to be conflicting, because that’s the point of the bigger story. Its enemies to lovers, sisters edition. I think that we are slowly being given the ✨Archeron sisters✨ love story. After each sister goes on their own journeys I think all 3 will come together in some way.

Even SJM said on CHD that Tamlin is the way he is because he had an abusive family. It doesn’t excuse his actions, but his story is realistic and emphasizes the impact that family has on our ability to love.

I will really admire SJM as a writer if this is the direction she continues to go in. I think it makes a “romance” story into something deeper, and more compelling. It examines what it means to love, and how love comes to be, and why love is so powerful.