Even if these new acotar books have some crossover or easter eggs from the other two series, I just don’t care. I can use context clues to understand what’s going on. I can also google it. I doubt the crossover will be that intense.

I find it interesting that some people were taken aback by Rhysand’s actions in *A Court of Silver Flames* and Azriel’s bonus chapter—calling him controlling or saying he was acting out of character—but I don’t know how else to put it: that is entirely consistent with who he is 😭. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate Rhysand, but I think the narrative’s failure to question his actions has led some of you to believe he’s never done anything wrong. I see him as a morally grey character: he isn’t evil, but he hasn’t always done the right thing.

Rhysand was put in the role of the villain from birth: the Illyrians hated him for being half-High Fae, and the Fae of the Hewn City hated him for being half-Illyrian; he was never liked by either side. On top of that, the whole world hates the Night Court; they assume everyone there is evil, so they act the part. Rhysand has played the villain for so long that he’s comfortable in the role, even though he hates it; he’s good at it, and even when he tries to do the right thing, he does it like a villain.

When faced with a choice between lying, deceiving, and stealing versus being honest and vulnerable, Rhys chooses the unlawful path because it’s what he’s used to.

We see this with Tarquin: he actually wanted to be friends with him; Tarquin saw past his facade and wanted to form an alliance.

But Rhys didn’t want to take the risk—not because he didn’t trust Tarquin, but because the idea of being vulnerable terrifies him, especially after more than 500 years.

So, he manipulated and stole from him, even though he felt terrible about it afterward. The interesting thing is that he did it to SAVE Prythian, yet he still had to act like a villain; it pained him so much that he couldn't go through with the whole plan—he chose not to use his *daemati* powers on Tarquin’s guards, ensuring Tarquin would find out what had happened. And then he did the same thing with Mor and Keir: instead of telling them and asking for forgiveness, he chose to keep it from them, caught them completely off guard, and waited to face his punishment upon returning home.

Rhysand has always been obsessed with controlling the situation from the very beginning, because if he isn't in control, he feels fear.

But when Mor asked, "What if it had been Amarantha?" he decided to lie and say he would have accepted her—albeit reluctantly—even though he later confessed to Feyre that it was a lie and that he would have killed her immediately; Feyre had to ask him to tell the truth and be vulnerable with her.

Rhysand is a liar.

Rhysand is controlling.

Rhysand is selfish.

We see this in his relationship with the Inner Circle; they are his chosen family and he adores them, yet he is terrified they might come to think he is eviljust like the rest of the world believes. And what does he do? He lies to them, too.

He went to see Amarantha alone because he didn't want Cassian and Azriel to witness what he was about to do to her... Cassian, his WAR GENERAL, and Azriel, his spy and Shadowsinger who makes a living TORTURING people!! 💀 They had fought side-by-side in wars, yet he was still terrified they would view him as the evil High Lord of the Night Court the world believed him to be.

And when he was captured, guess what he did? He shot out his power to lock them completely inside Velaris; they could have helped—ESPECIALLY Amren—but noRhys refused to take that risk, so he stripped them of their choice by keeping them prisoner for fifty years.

Finally, he is selfish; the story Jurian tells supports that claim:

"from Jurian

"You forget I knew him in the War. You forget he risked his legion to save Miryam from our enemy's fort. That's how Amarantha captured him, you know. Rhys knew it was a trap—for Prince Drakon. So Rhys went against orders and marched his entire legion to get Miryam out. For his friend, for my lover—and for that bastard Drakon's sake. Rhys sacrificed his legion in the process, got them all captured and tortured afterward. Yet everyone insists Rhysand is soulless, wicked" I think there is a line between the principle of "leaving no one behind" and foolishly leading an entire legion to death or torture to save a single person, when you could fight another day and increase your chances of winning; but Rhysand wanted to save his friend.

He also tried using all his tricks on Feyre, but they didn't work; he attempted to lie to and manipulate her several times—and yes, that includes lying by omission—but Feyre saw right through him and called him out on it every single time. He used her as bait for the attor, lied about the Weaver’s ring, and lied by not telling her they're mates; however, because Feyre saw through him and confronted him, he became more vulnerable with her. She convinced him to take off his mask and tell the truth, and he did—though he still lies sometimes (just not to Feyre). There was one moment in *ACOFAS*, though, where he almost lied about having spied on her, but he immediately corrected himself when she gave him a wry look, saying, "Okay, yeah, I did; I'm sorry" 😭.

That is, until the pregnancy scare completely shattered him and caused him to revert to the lying, controlling man he used to be; this isn't new, nor is it out of character—that’s just who Rhysand is: A terrified control freak.

I’m sorry this is so long, but I’ve been thinking about it for a while; and please excuse any typos. 😭

HOLY MOLY I found a small paperback of {The Pillars of the World by Anne Bishop{ and thought it would be a great beach read (it was, I'm liking this much more than Black Jewels so far and not just because it's not obnoxiously sexual).

BUT THE MMC IS LITERALLY NAMED LUCIAN AND HE'S THE LORD OF FIRE AND SUN.

She couldn't have even changed the name????

With how much the IC loves to spend money and shop, I would have assumed Nesta and Elaine, who showed up to the NC in wet nighties, would have been bought a whole new wardrobe. But not even a year later, Nesta's clothes are all thin and threadbare. How is this possible in a magical world? Why doesn't Cassian or Elaine gift her a new coat at solstice? I get Feyre is paying her rent and bills, but surely Cassian or Elaine see her in these shabby clothes and coat and could buy her something nice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6tterd%C3%A4mmerung

My gripe is more with Nesta. IMO the story would’ve still worked nearly the same way but made a lot more sense/interesting if she’d been Made Illyrian. Her pre-fae attraction and later mating with Cassian would have felt more natural (in particular the fact that it was a potential death sentence prior to her changing her anatomy), and her training arc would’ve had an extra layer added since he would’ve been teaching her how to be an Illyrian. Nesta’s cauldron powers could’ve been pretty much the same too since it’s a soft magic system anyway. The added layer of giving her siphons for her to channel her power could’ve had a great payout. Top it off with her dislike of Windhaven, even the Valkyrie arc could have played out in almost the exact same way. The stark change from human to Illyrian would have added such a depth to her character and her feelings on truly no longer being human (especially if she had wings she refused to learn how to use), and then separated each sister a bit more distinctly (ie. if Elaine had also been made into a lesser fae that was more in line with her character’s specific personality, interests, and powers.)

Having all three sister made generically high fae feels like a lot of lost potential.

There probably is, but proportionally he doesn’t seem to be getting hated on as much as Nesta and Elain for his (lack of) contributions in the cabin.

Nesta and Elain get hated on for letting Feyre hunt and risk her life.

Nesta, in spite of doing all sorts of redeeming things after that, still gets hated for not helping Feyre and being rude. Never mind that as early as in the first book, she went looking for her at the wall/fae lands, even though it was known that it’s dangerous there.

Elain’s biggest crime is that she wasn’t doing industrial level farming. How dare she only plants the flower seeds Feyre got her as a gift, instead of yards of potatoes?

For me, the person who should be getting the most hate in this scenario is Papa Archeron. This so called “Prince of Merchants”, couldn’t find a single way of making money to help his family survive? All he did was mope around at home, making wooden figurines, while his teenage daughters had to take on all the burden.

Sure, Feyre was hunting, but we also find out that Nesta wrote to all their family and friends when they first fell from grace, which I imagine was very psychologically taxing for a teenage girl. As for Elain, it sounds like she always had to manage the emotions of everyone around the house and be the peacekeeper.

All it took was a generous financial boost from Tamlin, and suddenly he’s super rich and able to get a whole armada. We’re meant to think he managed all that from hustling with Tamlin’s money, but frankly with how incompetent this man was, he had probably burned through most of it buying houses and ships. Plus, how come none of the sisters seem to get any inheritance from him? Maybe that’s why Feyre is so concerned about Nesta drinking their money away, she now has to pay off all of her father’s new debt! Maybe in the next books we find out that Papa Archeron owes Koschei a bunch of money and his collectors are banging at their doors 🤷🏻‍♀️

For me, Papa Archeron needs to be hated the most in the cabin scenario. I completely understand disliking Nesta being rude back then. I can understand viewing Elain as though she was sitting back and letting others take care of her. However, out of all 4 people in that cabin, Papa Archeron was the only one with supposedly the real life skills to support a family financially.

And before people come and say “he had no money or other resources to use for hustling”, doesn’t Elain also get a ton of hate for not farming vegetables, when she would also need to get those seeds from somewhere?

At the end of the day, I do think that all that is due to poor world building and SJM’s lack of understanding of how poverty works. But still, it annoys me that after so many books, Nesta especially still gets so much hate regarding the cabin and letting Feyre hunt. When in the books it’s explicitly mentioned that she did try learning to hunt, but she couldn’t do it.

I’m also reading Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik now, where there is a similarly “incompetent” father, and seeing how he’s handled there just makes me extra annoyed both by Papa Archeron’s incompetence in the book, but also how he was written.

i genuinely don’t understand where some of the expectations around acotar 6 came from.

the last thing i remember sarah saying about elain was that we would see more of her in some way, but that she wasn’t promising anything 🙂 that was it. maybe there are interviews from 7–8 years ago where she said something more specific, but in the more recent interviews i’ve seen, there was never a clear promise that the next book would be “elain’s book.”

and yet somehow both sides of the shipping war seemed to build an entire future around that assumption. 💀💀💀

i understand why people thought it would be elain’s book. feyre had her book, nesta had hers, so logically it’s easy to assume elain would be next. but i don’t understand turning that assumption into an expectation and then getting angry when sarah does something different.

especially because, personally, i don’t think elain has enough development yet to carry a 1,000+ page book on her own. maybe she will after we actually get more of her. maybe she’ll completely surprise me. i’m open to that.

and this is where i really don’t understand the anger toward the valkyries. ❗️❗️❗️❗️❗️⚠️

nesta is one of sarah’s most developed characters. there is already an established friendship between nesta, gwyn and emerie, the valkyries have their own history and dynamics, there’s the illyrian storyline, there are unresolved political issues, and then there’s koschei and the dawn court sitting there with a ridiculous amount of potential. why would i be upset that sarah might actually explore those things?

the dawn court in particular is probably one of the things i’m most interested in right now. it feels like an actual fantasy plot that could expand the world rather than just being another extension of the shipping war.

and yes, i know people are going to say “but elain deserves her book.” sure. i’m not saying she doesn’t. i’m saying that “elain deserves a book eventually” and “acotar 6 was guaranteed to be an elain-centered book” are two completely different statements.

same thing with the valkyries. i’m seeing people act like their presence somehow came out of nowhere when nesta has been one of the central characters of this series for an entire book now. sarah clearly loves writing her. we already know how much she enjoys writing female friendships and warrior women. it really isn’t some completely random direction for her to take.

and honestly, i’m glad the next books might be multi-pov. give me multiple characters. give me actual fantasy plots. give me koschei, the dawn court, the valkyries, nesta, elain, lucien, azriel — whatever combination sarah wants to use.

i just don’t understand why people are acting like the story was stolen from them when the thing they’re angry about was never actually promised.

because at the end of the day, this is sarah’s story. these are her characters. she gets to decide where the story goes, not the fandom.
if someone doesn’t like the direction she’s taking the series, that’s completely valid. you don’t have to like every decision an author makes. but you also don’t have to keep reading. there are thousands of other books out there. close the book, pick up something else, and let the people who are enjoying the story enjoy it.

i think the fandom spent so much time treating their theories as inevitable that some people forgot they were theories.🧚🏻‍♀️

(((((((and to be completely fair, we don’t even know the povs yet. i could be completely wrong about all of this. acotar 6 could turn out to be much more elain-centered than i’m expecting, or the valkyries could have a smaller role than i think. none of us actually know yet.)))))

The crazy obsessive fans need to chill it’s making me embarrassed to be a part of this fandom because of these hoards of nit-picky fans. I get you love this story but touch grass. The criticism over characters personalities, book titles, using tropes, ETC. is too much!! Even Nesta vs. Rhys for example, they’ve both done good and bad things for different reasons and I like them both. So many main characters in this book series and her others have done good and bad things. And if you hate certain characters or her writing so much stop writing huge rants about them in comment sections just don’t read the fucking book.

EDIT: GUYS IM SORRY LOL - to clarify I am ranting about negative rants that people leave in comment sections or art work about the series.
Let me rant about rants haha the point of is about toxic fans. Have a blessed day ✌️+💖 jeez Louise and most of your comments roasting me are making me laugh so thanks for that hahah

Its my first time reading the series. I’m 65% into ACOMAF and one thing that really annoys me is the lack of world building in a fantasy book.
Starting with the fact that Prythian is just Great Britain and Hybern is Ireland. All scenarios, landscapes and creatures feel bland and generic. I don’t feel immersed at all, it all just feels like lazy world building. There are no magical creatures other than the Faes, no talking trees or otherworldly beasts, And when there are creatures other than faeries or humans, the book just straight up says.. “No one knows what they are”.
Hope that’s kinda fixed in later entries because so far it’s not doing it for me

Did anyone else kinda side eye that line in the blurb?

Like there are innocents on NC that are getting abused and wing clipped every day from the villages to Hewn City. What about the innocents of Spring (who were refugees..) who lost their homes because of revenge? The lesser fae in Summer, which I guess they did step in and help after Varian sent word (granted it was their fault summer was attacked…).

I also remember that Rhys helped Clare when she was captured but he could have not given Amy her name. 😅 Like I get the sentiment of them being the “misunderstood good guys” but they don’t have a problem with innocent lives being taken. Granted this will all probably be retconned in the next books so whatever.

I know I know, Im going off of a blurb and overthinking it. This is just a small mini rant but it just stuck out to me and I needed to get it out 😂

That the Valkyrie are unimportant side characters only there for Nesta’s story ever again. Y’all have been spewing that nonsense for years now downplaying their importance. SJM basically said hold my beer then wrote those titles.

That’s all.

WE GET IT. THE COVERS DON’T MATCH. BIG DEAL.

You know what other cover didn’t match when it came out? ACOSF who replaced the old covers with Feyre portrayed in them. People complained then and complained some more after they all changed because the side had flames instead of being plain like the others. Everyone still bought it so what is the issue? Besides are we forgetting that these are hard covers and that we still don’t know what the paperbacks will look like? For all we know the paperbacks will be a single color and all this collective frustration would have been for nothing

It’s so tiring and obnoxious. We all have been complaining about nothing coming out for months and when it does there is even more complaining because “oh the covers don’t match” “oh it’s not Elain’s book even though no one claimed it would be and we just assumed so” “oh I don’t want to read about Nesta and the Valkyries”. Boo hoo. This is why we aren’t getting anything, besides, we all know most of you will end up reading it anyway

I like pretty and cohesive things as much as the next person but we need to relax lol you don’t have to re-buy the whole series, the content of the books is the same. It’s not the end of the world, and if it is for you then simply don’t buy it (after all most of the people who are currently complaining are the same ones who ran with the “if you don’t like the books why are you reading them ?” take for months. Follow your own advice and protect your peace by dropping the series at the trilogy 🫶). I don’t want to say “be happy for the scraps you are getting” because I do feel that building up the hype to this level and dragging the announcement so much was low but….”don’t judge a book by its cover” I believe is my point

In what world does a man who wants to save and protect a women, force said woman to be paraded naked in front of others, dance naked and drugs her? And then, after all that traumatized her, he suggests to play the role of his whore again. Why? For what reason? Please, explain like I'm the dumbest, how is that the best Rhys could come up with and how is it accepted that he did it in order to protect Feyre?

For months after the SJM interview everyone kept saying that there is no way the book would be a multi pov because “It will for sure be about Elain and she deserved a book all of her own with her love interest” (which granted I think too, I just didn’t think the next books were hers) yet now there is a whole bunch of backtracking by those same people who are now all for a multi pov lmao

Whenever I or others mentioned that the next book will either focus on Nesta because of HOFAS or be a multipov there was always someone angry claiming that her story is over, the only way she’d appear in those books is similar to how Feyre appeared in ACOSF and that Nesta fans are jealous that Elain will get the bigger book while Nesta only got one. Now I’m seeing everyone scrambling to defend the multi pov guess and trying to include their faves with weird theories.

I’ll backtrack from the title, it would ALMOST be funny if I didn’t find the hypocrisy and the previous behaviour so obnoxious