Throne of Glass FanGuide 4: What to Know Before Kingdom of Ash

Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Fantasy Bang Girls Podcasts.

“For two sisters, die deep into the love and fantasy lore,”

character series, series, and more! I'm Lexi, older sister, and fantasy lore nerd. And I'm Nicole, younger sister, and romantic at heart. And today is our final Throne of Glass Fan Guide. As this episode four wraps up our unique journey through this epic fantasy series.

As always, please listen closely to our spoiler warning,

because it is very specific and different for each of these fan guide episodes. These Throne of Glass Fan Guide episodes are split into two parts. This episode four part one contains plot spoilers for every book in the series except for Kingdom of Ash. Specifically, we'll be focusing on spoilers from Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn. If you have not read Kingdom of Ash, this part one is for you.

It's all about setting ourselves up for the finale. Then part two includes whole spoiler series. Remember, this is the case for all of these Throne of Glass Fan Guide episodes.

“We'll give you an obnoxious spoiler warning so you know when we move from part one to part two in case you have to jump off.”

Part two discusses the end of the series with emphasis on our characters journeys in Kingdom of Ash. While we're on spoilers, these Throne of Glass episodes do not include spoilers for Akatar or Crescent City, though we might be hinting that a few things today because we can't not.

If you want our mass first conversations, we have a three hour compilation for you to listen to from our 11 months of deep diving Akatar.

Late to that episode is in the show notes. So with all of that said, if you know that Naze is a vulgar queen, what? Thank you, Stigian Spider. You're safe to listen to part one. But if that's all you know, that's all you're allowed to listen to.

You're not allowed to listen to part two. Like Lexi said, we will have a big ol' spoiler warning for you as we move into whole series spoilers. Next, we have fantasy fan girls, our adults who say adult things about adult books. In other words, friends, this podcast is rated R.

“Friends, we are discussing what Lorcan did.”

And you're gonna want to be mindful of those little listening ears. Yes, indeed. Additionally, we are so excited to see what upcoming live events on April 8th. We are partnering with the Denver Nuggets and Rebecca Yaros for a fourth-wing themed basketball night at ballerina. Plus, we are so excited to do a live show at the Neptune Theatre on April 19th in Seattle. Tickets are on sale now for you to dive deep into how to train your dragon with us.

Check out our website or the links below for more information and more events and in case you missed it. The fantasy fan girls network be Bopin!

First up, fantasy fan fellas has officially launched their season two where booktock stars

Steven Walker and our very own Hayden Sandby Manager are diving deep into Brandon Sanderson's Missborn, The Well of Assension. Season 1 of fantasy fan fellas covering Missborn Book 1 is out now on the fantasy fan Fellows feed and season 2 is well underway. Be sure to give them a follow link in the show notes.

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storms and tower of dawn gather round as she highlights what happened in these two books

first up empire of storms we kick things off with a road trip to terrison where

Alan brings her hello it's been a while support my kingdom tour aka lobbying with the lords he's been running the place for the last decade like an HOA board meanwhile it's the last season of game of thrones the witches roll and drift hold and suck the city last boy Dorian almost kidnapped but luckily monon says absolutely not kills a witch whoops and helps Dorian escape her ruin Dorian and Rowan piece out two skulls bay

bonding over trauma and magic lessons after getting a DM from the little folk and Alan heads to ilium with the crew ilium to reclaim the ancient masonian temple cue epic battle montage even casually consults Brandon's ghost like he just popped in as the Obi-Wan can noby hologram he tells her to find the lock in the stone marshes

explains the keys must seal the word gate and arrow one immediately pops up the

possess and dovey or overseer like a horror movie jumpscare a lead is on a solo mission

“with caltains word key with essence of arm and tracks through the forest looking”

for alien slash Selena until she is found by lorkin who absolutely could leave her alone but chooses chaos and feelings they travel together become friends and arrive at the stone marshes with aliens crew highlights include a lead resourcefulness which is green behavior lorkin's protected this sir become the cloth strips for a lead cycle because Sarah Jamass said realism a promise that lorkin might someday have a home

cue emotional damage mine lorkin's i don't know smash cut to the witches where the council decides menons punishment for killing a witch is killing another

witch aka asterion but sike menongo street at mother blackbeak this first

sin leaves the fight with a new title last surviving crock and air but menons severely wounded escapes with a broxos and the thirteen ride off like absolute legends back at skulls bay the game tries to convince Ralph to join the anti arrow on alliance and let them use the magical map tattooed on his hands may have

“sense Gabriel and Fenris to kill lorkin awkward even more awkward when they don't”

mean while aliens summons the volk to skulls bay as leverage against Ralph help us resurrect the masonians or enjoy vulgan doos doom Ralph agrees chaos battle ensues like Sandra turns into a sea dragon choosing a aquatic dominant saves everyone and reminds us all why she is an icon she is the moment 80 and promises to marry like Sandra someday and let's see and I collectively

scream let her have her moment 80 and aliens plans go sideways when she accidentally invites goddess diana into her body not in the fun way especially not when diana nearly nukes the town drains aliens power and drops the ominous phrase quote the queen who was promised cool cool but love saves the day and bang bang bang bang bang I said why are you fucking on sand of all places bang congratulations

alien and ruin also who's your daddy 80 and 80 and meets his dad gavriel and immediately decides to hold a grudge like a pro alien summons

“Elena and we learn some very important information that shockingly”

Elena held back TLDR finding the block is urgent man you know when this would have been nice to know I don't know like any of the previous four books would have been great anyway the crew sails towards the stone marshes and a braxos shows up carrying an injured man on like a good boy everyone immediately helps her albeit reluctantly unless you're doryn

who when possessing exactly one functional bracelet focuses all on menon upon reaching the marshes alien annihilate some ilkin in a jaw dropping power display but instead of the lock they find an all knowing which mirror mirror on the wall who's the agrees of them all me at a later because while alien menon are in the mirror they see Elena and gavin not defeating aero on nope they trap him using the i-evalena

aka the lock yay we found it or rather we had it all along but damn it the lock only works once and Elena used it selfishly to save her people on a very temporary situation whoops and the gods are furious because Elena used the lock wrong like they're the board watching a new employee struggle to figure out the company's website punishment you're not fired but someone from your bloodline must die to forge a new lock

and you lucky Elena must guide the sacrifice i don't know if HR approved this also naemia and Elena were working together this whole time the whole time an alien actually died when she was eight but she was brought back surprise meanwhile a massive sea battle breaks out against maze forces which luckily are fewer because Roman convinces fanbam to turn on maith

but they're still losing it's a bird it's a plane it's a thirteen flying down like a cavalry from hell a little manon don't pick number three don't pick number three manon and are spat out of the mirror only to find maif who is holding the lead hostage what are you doing here maif oh lurking invited you here lurking you weren't in

there can only be one showdown lurking in gabriel go full let freedom ring

“and maif breaks their blood of hmm i might be missing something oh what is it”

oh yeah maven myths that she mind-hacked ruin installed a fake mating bond with liria and did it purely for emotional damage jail maif jail and aelin desperate to save a lead surrenders and is locked in an iron coffin and taken away so that's all of the surprises right right where's my wife she's gone and here's your new wife like Sandra Lynn aelin

like Sandra doesn't work for me doesn't work for aedian and doesn't work for ruin so like Sandra aelin addition takes the allies to terrison while ruin lurking gabriel and a lead abandoned their plan and go feral searching for the real aelin tower of dawn cale in Nazrin are in the are we dating era and sailed to anticova where kale

hopes to fix his spine his guilt and internal politics all at once they meet up with a cogon and his intimidating line of airs to pitch and alliance with team aelin and how can says no but allows kale to access the torches may aka the magical male clinic

“enter Irene towers heir to the healer on high of the torre she is assigned to heal kale”

despite loading otterland it's people and everything kale has ever done love that for them kale spirals hard about his identity as an injured soldier confronting guilt rage and literal demon trauma i read drags him into emotional and physical healing it's like therapy but make it magical and surprise

healers are basically bulk crypt tonight all the while someone is starting to hunt

Irene to stop her research on how to cure kale and murders another healer by mistake nothing like some casual horror mean while Nesprin decides name character independence hello sartakets nice to meet you why yes i love to visit the rooken areas with you who doesn't love a dragon adjacent bird with the rooken we learn that they've got stingy and spiders a plenty bad bad

what's worse they're stealing rook hatchlings leave the babies be smashed cut to two people who want to smash Irene is making nice progress on kale's injury and kale is trying his darndest to heal without any interwork you know it helps me feel connected to my emotions a spa day at the hot springs kale and Irene confess their feelings for each other over a

lock it and bang bang bang bang at a bang i said i nothing like a ten cock can me get better surfaces please bang let's get ready to rumble after taking a hot bath kale how dare you it's time for Irene to go in and obliterate his injury which means kale has to face his inter demons alien hate get out of here door hand guilt get out of here Irene you you can

stay and he's healed but that's enough happiness because Nesprin sartak and falcon a sheep shifter and my sander's uncle fall directly into a spider trap my nightmare everybody then a spider casually strolls in from stage left like it's auditioning for a Broadway play and drop a full-shek spirit level war monologue may this evolved queen

but she ghosted her husband and his bros in the valk realm because apparently happy endings are overrated luckily our crew is scuppies returning to antica just in time for the healer on highs taken by none other than

“dova don't remember her it's okay nobody does either she's been”

possessed by a valk princess and has been a serial killer the whole time the whole time the whole time in her wrath and pregnancy hormones she lashes out with dark power and mortally wounds kale bud it's a good thing we've got some healers i reen pulls kale back from literal jaws of death but apparently fate is petty and insist on

a receipt kale and Irene are now officially life bonded one dies the other dies no take backs no refunds if i reen's magic weekends kale regresses but it's okay kale has healed and doesn't care if he's fighting on a chair on his feet so long as Irene is by his side everyone agrees it's time to

sail north to help alean wreck the valk but always love winds so attack confesses his

feeling about nezzron to his father and it's instantly named air want to be Empress nezzron and kale and Irene get married and with their gold couch and toe set sail to a ralea whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo two out of three for a two out of three whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo whoo will dive into this fan guide setting up what's next in the series with no plot

spoilers after a quick word from our sponsors. It is time to turn to our throne of glass cheat sheet aka what this fan guide is all about. Once again we are preparing ourselves for what we need to know as the world continues expanding in the throne of glass series. As always due to the nature of this fan guide we are sharing basic information from empire of storms and tower of dawn about the world politics and

goals characters a whole bunch of stuff here today. It is intended to help you feel ready and oriented as you start reading the kingdom of ash. So let's get started. Kingdom of ash will open with a two month time jump from the end of empire of storms. So let's go through what all has happened in those two months. Aileen is Maeve's prisoner trapped in an iron coffin with chains

hands of Maeve's new psychopath Karen who replaced Rowan as a member of Maeve's cadre and he's

“bad to the bone. Maeve wants the word keys and plans to torture the information out of Aileen.”

Luckily Aileen at least neatly passed the word keys to him and on back on the beach before she was imprisoned so she does not have them. But yes she does have information about the word keys that Maeve desperately wants. Additionally, in Maeve's twisted way she sees as a saving Aileen from sacrificing herself to forge the new walk. Maeve would much prefer to have Aileen at her own tool to be wielded. All that power would be wasted on sacrifice when Maeve thinks that she can

harness Aileen under her control. It's also a known where Maeve is holding Aileen. On the road looking

for Aileen is elite, lurking, Gabrielle and Rowan. Rowan has basically just become a husk of who

he is and he is 100% focused on getting his wife back because yes they're married. Rowan and Aileen got married the night before Aileen and The Non went into the witch mirror and only like Sandra and Aileen were witnesses and the captain was performing the ceremony on the ship. While the

“intention was to, yes, celebrate their love but make Rowan the official King consort to Tarison,”

what Rowan didn't know is that Aileen highly suspected that she might need to die in order to forge the walk. And by having Rowan as King consort, he is there for Tarison no matter what, especially with a fake Aileen by his side, again unbeknownst to Rowan and Aileen and Laissandra had concocted a plan where in case Aileen has to die or gear be taken by Maeve, that was unknown though. Laissandra will shape shift into Aileen and pretend to be the queen of Tarison,

while Aileen sires their babies. It was an unpopular decision that I went into all last episode during the spoiler section, Aileen and his furious. I'm furious and Rowan is not accepting it. Last episode you mentioned Laixie, it's like he already lost Lyria and now he's not going to lose Aileen too. It's that truly sums up where Rowan is in a nutshell. He is determined to go get his wife and his mate because they're not only married, we also learn at the end of

Empire of Storms. Maeve has been pulling some weird psychological shit and she knew that Rowan

Aileen would be mates and very powerful ones at that, so she broke into Rowan's mind convinced him

that Lyria was his mate and then had Lyria killed so Rowan would basically pledge himself to Maeve via the blood oath. Then Maeve has been hounding the Galithinia's house to bring Aileen around to Doran El forever. In the hopes that Aileen would meet Rowan, see her mate locked into a blood oath with another, thus basically making Aileen eating out of the palm of Maeve's hand. Lorcan and Gabrielle, who have both now had their blood oaths severed from Maeve too,

are joining this mission because to be honest, Rowan cannot be alone right now and they're going to be here to help their brother. And the lead is here partially because she feels responsibility and she wants to tag along, but she also owes so much to Aileen. She's about as loyal as you can be to the Queen of Tarison without having a direct blood oath to the Queen. While we're on a lead, she hates Lorcan's guts because she blames him for Aileen's capture. I mean,

well, Lorcan's seeing the ships coming in and readying for the attack called Maeve to their location on the beach of El Way. Thinking that having her there would then protect a lead and

“make sure she did not become a casualty of the fight. Now you're thinking, why would he do that?”

Lorcan and everyone else on a really afford that matter have no idea that Maeve is a Volk Queen. Don't worry, we're going to get to that download very very soon. Lorcan has been nothing but blindly faithful to Maeve because she is who he's known all along. He loved her for a long time

and he basically sees her as his one and only salvation. And boy, boy, he does know that he fucked

up especially when his blood oath was severed and he was seen crawling to Maeve on the beach. Yes, a lead is fucking pissed. Then we have Aidan and Leicandra who are with the silent assassins of the Red Desert, Ansel of Breyer Cliff and Galen Ashriver who is the crown prince of Wendland and Aidan and Aidan's cousin. They all battled together at the end of Empire Storms in the Battle of El Way against Maeve's forces and are now heading to Terrison with Aidan aka Leicandra.

The only people who know that Leicandra is Cosplaying Aidan in this group is Aidan and he is pissed at this girl. Which again, I am not opening that kid of worms. Manon Dorian and the 13 are journeying to find the crockin witches and rally their forces. With the intention that once when they find the crockin witches and bring them onto their side, they'll all meet up north with the rest of our friends in Terrison. Switching over to Rift Hold, the capital of Otterland,

it was sat by the witches at the top of Empire of Storms and is, um, no, look and so great! Even look and worse because Dorian has left. The people of Rift Hold don't know that he left

calling him a traitor for leaving them. And you can imagine how this guilt weighs heavy on our

“boy Dorian. Then we have the Tower of Dawn crew sailing from the southern continent to fight”

for Eurelia. The cognates forces coming to ally with Terrison R, an Armada led by Princess Asar, a cavalry led by Prince Koshin, 1000 Rukin led by Sartak and 300 healers led by Irene and the

healer on high Hefisa. The best part, this host is only half of their forces. The second half

is still Rowan in Antica, before they travel to Eurelia. This was kind of short notice everybody, should be ready in a few weeks. Irene and Kale are married and returning to their friends. This means Irene will see Aileen again after their faithful encounter years ago when the mysterious Yanna Sassin sent Irene toward her destiny of becoming a healer. The price of saving Kale's life after Val Prince's Duvaz attack was a shared life force between him and Irene. As Irene's

magic gets strained, Soda's Kale's strength. So he will lose the ability to walk the more Irene works as a healer and thanks to his inner healing, he's okay with all that. And if one of them dies, so does the other. Hmm, that's a little nerve-wracking heading into war. But with this force coming from Antica is Nazareth and Sartak too. They're engaged to be married and then become

Emperor and Empress of Antica. But first, they plan to defeat the Volk army and free the northern

continent by leading the Roops into war. And the Antica group does know that made his Volk unlike the Eurelia group. Of course, we have our wears the word. I said a word, word, word, wears the word keys. Where are the word keys? And who has them? Dorian! Dorian has the word keys. Aileen gave them to Manon who is with Dorian. Dorian carries two word keys with him, the one hidden in the Amulet of Oranth, and the one elite handed over from Coutaine. Our princely has taken the

“responsibility to find the third word key. He thinks it's the way that he can best help to keep the”

two word keys far away from Maeve and to find the third, which yep is probably in Morath. Since we're talking about word keys, the objects Arowan is looking for like his life depends on it, so he can bring back his brothers into the world. Let's do a quick update on this here big bad. We know that Arowan is paranoid about the healers, because he knows there's one who's blessed by Silva aka Irene. Last book in Tower of Dawn, we learned that Arowan sent a Volk ring and it took

overdue with the intention of taking Irene to Arowan, who wanted to leverage her powers for his own twisted uses. Making it so that the highest chance of him being killed or the Volk healed out of him is wiped off the table. Arowan remains in Morath, but Parrington's body has been fully shed. Now he is seen as a beautiful young man with gold and hair to match his gold eyes.

“He's working on getting witch mirrors up and running towers that basically amplify shadow fire”

and will basically obliterate everything in their path. And we can't forget about the huge reveal we also got in Tower of Dawn about Maeve. She's not a fake queen, she's a Volk queen who is not from this world. TLDR long ago in another world, three Volk King brothers fell in love with Maeve, but she married Orkis, the oldest and most powerful instead of Manticse or the youngest Arowan. But Orkis wasn't around very much, which left Maeve alone on the home world and she began finding

information for herself on how to travel between worlds in a handy dandy library. Eventually she figured it out and escaped Arowan landing in Arowan with her hand maidens, the spiders, through the word gate in the southern continent. The spiders stayed in the southern continent to guard the word gate they travel through and they've stayed loyal to her all this time waiting for their Volk queen. When Maeve arrived in the immortal lands in the northern continent,

at the dawn of time, she ripped into the minds of the phase sister queens, Mora and Mab,

along with her people to make everyone believe there had always been three fake queens instead of two.

Maeve hit her true identity well, so even the Volk kings wouldn't know who she was if they ever came to this world. And so Maeve ruled as the eldest fake queen and outlasted the other two fake queens since they gave up their immortality for mortal lovers. But guess what? The Volk kings found this world in their search for Maeve. Long story short, Maeve helped defeat the Volk kings and sent two of them back to their world, all without revealing her true identity as the missing Volk

queen. According to her, she does not want to destroy this world. She's just a twisted ruler who wants everyone under her control. How did we learn all this? Giant spiders, of course, stitching spiders or the care and queen as they're called on the southern continent. They're massive beasts, the size of a horse, and they resemble black widows. And thankfully, they can talk! They can talk! They can talk! Two variations of these stitching spiders exist. One's on the northern continent

because they're still quite ruthless for their bargains for the softer than air stronger than

“steel spider silk. We've seen their bargains twice so far in throughout a glass. Falcon, who is”

a merchant from Assassin's Blade, then we also meet again in Tower of Dawn. We learn that he's a shape-shifter and licendrous uncle. He traded 100 yards of spider silk in exchange for 20 years of his life. So he is technically in his 20s, but he looks like he's in his mid-40s. Then, Manan almost had to trade off her beauty for spider silk for a Braxos' wing back in Erafire, but she tricked the spider mohaha and she did not have to give up her beauty. Then, we have the spiders on the southern continent.

They guard the original word gate that may've passed through in order to get into this world, protecting it so that if/when their queen wishes to come back. And one more time for emphasis,

we also learn at the Tower of Dawn that extra extra powerful healers, Irene, have the magical

ability to eradicate the vulg from this world, including Era1. 10 years ago when Era1 was rising

“to power in the shadows as Duke Perington, and with the king of Alderlin under his control,”

magic was outlawed and magic users were hunted down and eradicated. Yes, including healers, this was very intentional. This was a year before the magic actually disappeared, which the king of Alderlin was personally responsible for as we talked about last episode to protect a son. 12 Gods accidentally came into the world of Eurelia and became trapped here after passing through a temporary word gate. They've been eager to get back to their own world for a very,

very, very, very, very long time, which Nicole will explain shortly how that fits into the plot. I'm not going to go through all 12 Gods because to be honest, this episode is already too long, and we have to keep this high level, but the prominent gods are Helless, the Dark God, the God of Death, and ruler of the burning realm of the underworld. Oh my gosh,

my mass first eyes, which Jane, Lorcan believes that he has been guided by Helless's whole life,

and his powers are a gift from this God. Then we have Anneth, consort of Helless. The lady of white things and Goddess of Slow Deaths, Anneth has been guiding a lead her whole life, and you get it, Helless and Anneth, Lorcan, and a lead at is so good. We're familiar with Diana, goddess of hunting, maidenhood, and the moon. Her symbol is the Golden Arrow, which Selena was given back in Throne of Glass, but she's since given it to Nezron. Diana and Mala were rivals and sisters, but they've

both watched over Alyn all her life. It is believed, though untrue, that Thay Queen Mab was reborn as Diana, which I know can't be confusing, but at least to my understanding, they are indeed separate entities, which brings us to Mala Firebringer. The Goddess of the Sun and Lady of Light, learning and fire. Mala was once meet of Brandon and gifted him her fire magic. Brandon and Mala were parents to Elena, and Mala had to give up her mortal body aka her life

to become the lock the eye of Elena. Mala is Alyn's ancestor, and Dorian's too. Hence,

white both of them have such powerful magic. Dorian has her brute raw magic that was passed

down through Elena, and Alyn has her fire magic. Then there is Silba, the goddess of healing, healers, and gentle desks, who we learned quite a bit about in Tower of Dawn. Irene is blessed by her, gifted with powerful healing magic. Okay, so I went through the witch mirror download with

“Elena and the gods all last episode, but it is so important as we go into Kingdom of Ashes,”

so it's worth doing another quick TLDR. In the witch mirror, Alyn and Mannon witnessed a memory of Elena's ceiling arrow one in an iron sarcophagus. Using the eye of Elena, which is the lock of the gasp, but because Elena drains the lock fully, the gods are pissed. They plan to use that lock to bind the word keys together, open a word gate, and return themselves to their OG god home world. They made the deal that they would also vanish arrow one from this world in the process. But with

Elena's actions to use the lock to entrap arrow one, she technically wasted the lock and robs the gods of that opportunity, and the gods are pretty pissed, because they know that this was only a temporary solution. Arrow one will rise again, he's not dead. Something Elena is willing to now pass along to whatever descendant of hers. Oh Elena, the gods tell Elena that her punishment for wasting this lock, and wanting to pass along a burden on someone else with Arrow one wakes up,

is that Elena will have to walk said person through their fate and watch them die in the process in order to forge the new lock. Which we can see how that weighs on her, and now she feels guilty about it, because she's gotten to know Elena, and she sees how good Elena is. I mean, it's because of Elena that Elena was resurrected when she was eight years old, when she actually did die on the riverbank. And Elena, who will this is such a tough look for you, but either Elena or Dorian

die in the process. Then only then will the gods be allowed to go through the gate back to their home, and they promise they will take Arrow on with them. So Nicole, I have to ask, do you think that the

“next SJM series that we're getting? If we get a fourth one, would that be this twilight of the gods?”

Or something along those lines? I could one hundred percent see the gods being a part of it,

especially thinking about how the mass first is a whole, all do you revolve around gods?

And not the same ones necessarily, but I could see how that would cause some overlap, and then maybe this is like a totally separate world. I don't know. I'd be really curious. I do too. I think it would be a separate world, like potentially even that OG home. And anyway, I just love thinking about all the possibilities. But this brings us to a very important phrase, quote, "nameless is my price." In Crown of Midnight, it is about a yellow legs who says, "nameless is my price, but gold will do

for now for the first time." Then in Empire of Storms, Alien realizes, while Alien is talking, that the price is death, and the nameless has to pay it. So it's been here the whole time. Brandon was bastard born in Wedlin, and where's the bastard mark aka the nameless mark?

The first time we see this mark of the nameless is actually in book one when Selena is fighting

Kane, and the mark on her brow begins to light up. So this is now Alien realizing that she is the nameless who must be sacrificed. Side note, beautifully tragic symbolism that she is the nameless and Empire of Storms ends with her having an iron mask covering up her identity, literally making her nameless again. Oh, and in the fire heart epilogue of Tower of Dawn, she is only called the princess. Yeah, she is not named, she is nameless just like Dorian had been

as well as his father when they were possessed by the Volk. I know that's a different scenario from what Alien is going through, but this concept of nameless is so tangled up with the Volk and needing to defeat them. Yes! Oh, it's so good! Let's shift our whole attention to the allies of Tarasin. After Alien called in her deaths and everyone is rallying around to show up to fight for a better world to defeat Erwan. In no particular order, we have Ansel of Breyercliffe,

the current queen of the western waist and symbolized by a wolf. Tarasin and the waist have always

been allies. And yes, if you're like, but wait, I thought the western waist used to belong to the witch kingdom and manon is the last part of the witch, so it's inherently her land to rule, even if as a witch you can't live there, you are correct. That is a subplot that I am breezy over right now. Ansel showed up with a hundred ships and stone marches toward the end of Empire Storms. How the heck does she have ships? Well, she had sucked the territory of MelSons,

which was allied with Morath and its queen yielded to Ansel, so she now has their fleets and now leads a large army. It is split up right now, though. Ansel and Adian are strategizing where to

“bring her army once when it's whole again. Remember that Ansel was Alien/Lanus, first meaningful”

female friend back in Assassin's Blade where they bonded in the red desert. Except then Ansel betrayed said friendship and the silent assassins. Selena allowed Ansel 20 minutes to escape before she was going to fire an arrow to take her down, then ended up sparing Ansel's life by firing the arrow after 21 minutes, so it purposefully missed as Ansel escaped. Well, Alien is calling in that debt, she saved Ansel's life and now Ansel and her army are coming to the queen of Tarasin's aid.

Then there's the silent assassins of the desert, led by Elis, the mute master's son. Again, friends of Selena's from Assassin's Blade. This was the group that Ansel betrayed, but now they're all on the same side, so we're good. The silent assassins are legendary at being, well, assassins, so a good group to have is an ally. Then we have the bane, who are an elite force previously/currently led by Adian, compromised of rebels, former artilotting soldiers,

and survivors hidden by Adian. Second in command of the bane is Killian. They typically operate in the stacked corn mountains, and the group is generally faceless, but defined by their fierce loyalty to the Ash River line. Alien also has some allies from the Eastern continent, Prince Galen Ash River of Windland's forces. Galen is Alien's cousin on her mother's side. Alien sent him, not his father, the king, a letter earlier in Empire of Storms,

“bluntly saying, quote, "terrorism remembers Evelin Ash River, which is her mother. Do you?”

I thought at Nysword for your people, return the god's damn favor." "I love that!" Galen showed up on the beach outside EOA, claiming, of course they remember, and he has brought his fleet to fight for terrorism. Also, from the Eastern continent, our "fay allies," specifically, the white thorns after Rowan convinced them to switch sides and fight for good, first stay with me. This is Rowan's relatives in Doranel, who led part of

Maves Armada, until they chose to fight alongside Rowan and his queen.

He has a heavily tattooed hand, aimed with a map that magically changes to show treasures,

enemies, and ships. That is so sick! I love this! Alien got him onto their side, back in Empire of Storms, when she ooops lured the vault into the bay, making Rolf reluctantly agree to fight for terrorists in the war in exchange for alien saving their asses in the bay. He also will get the title of Lord of Ilyam and King of the Archipelago. We also know that Rolf is heir to the Los Messinian people, banished 300 years ago,

so he has been off searching for the Messinians, wherever they are hiding nowadays to be allies of alien. As part of this deal, any more ships that these pirates sack, they will get to keep whatever gold or treasure is on board, while any weapons or ammunition will go to the front.

“Honestly, a pretty sweet deal for any pirates. Then, rounding out the northern allies we have the”

13, who have officially yeeted out from under the Iron Teeth Matrix Control and have gone rogue.

Last book, it was them who swooped in and basically saved the day from the sea battle,

and as a friendly reminder, here are the members of the 13. We have Manon, the leader, Asteran, Manon's cousin, and second. She may favor it. She's awesome, and she has held that position for over a century. Then we have Sorrell, who is Manon's third. She's known as the stone to Manon's ice and Asteran's fire. We have Vesta, who is the only member of the 13 with Red Hair. We have Fallene and Fallene, who are demon twins, Eta and Briar, who are cousins, both known as

Manon's shadows. They rarely speak, and they're basically trying to blend in with the dark. We have Thia and Kaya, who are partners. We have Liana or Lyn, as she's preferred, or she will attack you. If you call her anything but Lyn, then we have Gislane, who is the oldest and most cleverest of the 13, and lastly, Imogen, who mostly keeps to herself. Then, we've got the southern continent. We have the military of the Cognite, the cavalry led by Koshin, the Armada, led by Princess Asar,

and the Rooks led by Sartak, heir to the throne, and the individual clan, Harthmothers. And, of course, we have the healers of the Tore Chesmey, led by her Fiza, and Irene.

“Honestly, a lot of allies, Alyn, kind of, I mean, she's not in a great position, but she's also”

her horse. Let's go back to those witches, though. Minon is the disowned heir of the Black Beek clan, and the 13 along with her. Matrix, Black Beek, believes Minon to be dead or severely injured after how Minon left with a fatal stomach injury earlier in the Empire of Storms. And, by the end of the book, the 13 appeared on their weapons to help save the day in the battle on the southern coast. Now they fly with Minon to search for the Crocodile Witches, which brings

us to, Minon is the last living Crocodile Queen, born of two parents, an iron teeth witch, and a rare Crocodile Prince, created her out of love, and hoped to break the curse of the iron teeth and unite their people. And, Minon is on a mission to find and rally the Crocodile Witches and join Alyn's cause. It is how she can contribute to the war effort, and honor the old terrorists and which kingdom alliance. But, it's proving hard to find the Crocodile Witches these

“past two months to try and convince them to fight for a better world. Minon believes that they”

really can make a difference in this war, especially against the iron teeth legion who will be fighting for an air one. Quick TLDR on the Crocodile Witches, where iron teeth take after the witch's folk ancestors, the Crocodile Witches take after the fey ancestors, meaning to basically put it they're more peaceful. During the first demon war, the Crocodile's fought with Brandon against the Volk Kings. The Crocodile Dynasty ruled the Witch Kingdom, before they were overthrown by the

iron teeth witches. For the past 500 years, the Crocodiles have scattered across the lands, living nomadic lives, disguising themselves as wise women and healers. During that battle between the iron teeth and the Crocodile 500 years ago, the last Crocodile Queen Rianan cursed the witch lands after she held the kingdom gates for three days and three nights. Thanks to her, the iron teeth

may have won the war, but they would never win the land. The exact verbage of the curse is, quote,

"blood to blood and soul to soul, together this was done and only together can't be undone. Be the bridge, be the light. When iron melts, when flowers spring from fields of blood, let the lands be witness and return home." The iron teeth have been hunting the Crocodiles ever since, and sufficient to say they are enemies. But Menon has been believed to be the one who can unite their people, being a child of both witch bloodlines to lead them into a battle for this world,

and hopefully reclaim their land. If you're wondering how Menon is related to Rianan, the last Crocodile Witch from 500 years ago, allow me to explain. Rianan's child survived the iron teeth overthrow, and several generations later, Rianan's descendant was a rare-born

Later on, he would have a daughter with a Crocodile Witch, who was Menon's half-sister,

“she killed back in Arifire, accidentally. She didn't know it was her sister. Once his other”

daughter named Dr. Rianan died, Menon became the soul-living bloodline of Crocodile royalty, and therefore, the last Crocodile Queen. I also want to highlight the importance of the Crocodile Crown of Stars, an ancient heirloom to the Crocodile Witches, but it was stolen by Baba Yellow Legs, from Queen Rianan's body when the Witch Kingdom fell 500 years ago. This Crown of Stars is a silver band with nine glowing stars. And yes, we did foresee it in Crown of Menon,

when Baba Yellow Legs was wearing it in her caravan. But, after Selena killed Baba, it's unknown how it made its way back to the Yellow Legs clan. Since Dorian is traveling with the witches, let's do a quick TLDR on what we know about his magic so far. Dorian has what is called Raw Magic, and a hell of a lot of it. Which means he has a well of power vast enough that he could

“sacrifice himself and forge the lock. Again, this is because he's a descendant of Brandon and Mala.”

What does Raw Magic mean though? It means everything. His magic can take the shape of

really anything he wishes. Sergei Mass was really like, you're going to have basically the most

OP power in this entire book, but all of the emotional damage you're welcome. He tends to favor ice, shadows, and phantom hands, but with him right now holding onto two of the three word keys, that power is basically like humming inside of him. He's vibrating, if you will. And of course, we have Menon and Dorian who are banging like rabbits. While they're not head over heels in love with each other, there's no long walks on the beach or candlelight dinners with heart to heart

conversations. There is absolutely a physical attraction. Dorian is still healing from Sorsha, and he needed someone unbreakable as he puts it. And we'll see Dorian tap back into that flirtatious prince. We met back in book one. He's really going back to that, that Dorian we know and love. For Menon, Dorian is the only person she really lets dominate her. She is going through a journey

of softening her heart exterior to the world, and basically being the villain. So this is a

big deal that she's also softening and submitting during intimacy. I love that they're both first for each other, but in different ways. It's so cute. Yeah. Before we move into our whole series spoiler segment, we have to close out this fan guide part one with the all important question. What are our thoughts about the final book the end of this series? And I'm actually going to have a follow-up question in here as well after we talk about this. Tina Mavash, in my opinion,

is what I would call a perfect final book. It is the perfect end to this series, which it cannot be overstated how big of a deal it was for Sarah J. Masks to stick the landing of a series. She started writing when she was 16. And she stuck the lid, but that isn't insanely hard to do. I wholeheartedly agree. It is so incredibly hard to stick the landing for a series, whether it's a TV show or a book or whatever it might be. And this epic fantasy, I love it. I can't imagine it

“ending any other way. And I feel so complete by the end of it. And I think that's really a good”

sign of a wonderful series where you feel sad that it's over, but also just like settled and it's like okay. Yeah. I'm good with that. Well that was wonderful. Yeah. So while Tina Mavash's many people's favorite book, I got to admit it's not my fave, but an huge butt italicized underlined, bolded. I think that this is by far the most impressive book. That is such a good way of putting it. Yes. Now, I do feel like all my previous reads of this series, Kina Mavash is actually

my second to least favorite book. But again, another big butt. This fan guy deep dive jumped. I mean,

the series up in my appreciate. Like, this series is now god tier to me. Like, I had did not expect to love this series as much as I did at the end of this fan guide. But this book has now jumped up multiple spaces just because of how gut-wrenching it is. I fully see how some people's lives are before and after. Like, before I vacuum the Mavash is the time in their lives. And then they have the after I read Kina Mavash is the time in their lives. It feels very similar to me

in a court of mist and fury. I feel like I don't read a lot of books that have these epic battles in it because let's be real. They are intimidating. But Sarah J. Mass just nails it in this series. This book rips your heart out over and over and over and over and over again. And while there are some storylines that in my opinion aren't the most engaging or end in ways that I might disagree

to. A-lens is one of them that you just read and you're just like, holy fuck. And to be honest, I don't know how much else I can say without word vomiting spoilers. So last episode, we were

“talking about plot-verse character driven books in the series. And I believe for how high stakes,”

how many battles and moving pieces there are in this book, it does such a great job of balancing character development and giving them their space to shine, along with everything else going on in the story. Like there is room for relationships to breathe, amid everything else that is going on and just fits so effortlessly. I cannot even imagine writing a book like this with so many character POVs, storylines, secrets, romances, character traumas, the gods coming in their relevant historical events.

It is by far one of the most impressive books I've ever read. If not one of the most impressive ones. I think about Lord of the Rings with the two towers, it is that kind of level of mastery here. And by the end of this book, the series, we've all been with these characters for so long, it's hard to leave them. We don't want to because look at what we've been through with them. Okay, so Nicole, now I have my follow-up question for you. We've done our abbreviated version

of the steep dive and I just love how we've done this, first of all. This is so different, so much fun.

“What are your book rankings within this series after we've gone through all of this?”

Oh god, okay, so Queen of Shadow still remains my top book. Tower of Dawn is my number two. And then the next three are like, I'm going to pretend like they're neck and neck. So this is all number three. Crown a midnight, era fire and kingdom of ash. I literally, as you were talking earlier, I was like weaving things around. I was like, no, it's actually kingdom of ash, that's number three. No, it's actually era fire. No, it's true, it's so crazy. All of those are on the same playing field.

I'm sorry. I will not pick. Then I have Empire of Storms, followed by Throne of Glass, and last but in my opinion, least Assassin's Blade. I hate having to make this decision because I'm sure it'll change depending on the mood. But again, similar, when we're ranking these, just like, god tier series. So hard. It's because like every, even putting a Throne of Glass at the very end, it's like, it is all there. Like, we have the Eye of Elena and tomorrow. So like, all of these

say, it's just like, how can I put that second to last when it has all the setup? But it's also second to last in my book. I don't know. So hard. So mine is Queen of Shadow as well as number one. Then it is era fire, followed by Kingdom of Ash. I actually did switch Kingdom of Ash and Tower of Dawn after I finished reading Kingdom of Ash this time. Then fourth is Tower of Dawn, followed by Empire of Storms, Throne of Glass, Assassin's Blade, and last but not least in my

opinion, Crown of Midnight. Okay. I'm curious why Crown of Midnight is last in your book. Besides everything within the Hemia, it was a little bit forgettable. Like, when I think about

“all the storylines in the series, that one to me is the most forgettable. So that's why it's last.”

Yeah. Okay. That's super, I will never forget finishing Crown of Midnight and getting the

she is Alyn Asher for Call of the News. Oh, absolutely. That moment. I was like, oh my, and I love the Bobby Yellow, but no, I do it. There's so much that happens in these series, where it's just like, it's so, it's so hard. It's so hard. They're all good. For me, I love Assassin's Blade because it is literally all set up. And it's like, when you're reading it, I love how everything still matters so much, even though you don't know it in the moment. And for me, like, you know,

you're saying with the Crown of Midnight, the ending for me, it was the ending of Assassin's Blade, and how it propels everything forward for our main character. Yeah. I will say this, this abbreviated deep dive has made me appreciate Assassin's Blade. And again, I am not a short story's person. I think that is why it ranks lost for me. And I do appreciate where that book is as a part of the series rather than feeling like it was kind of like, that's bonus. Like, it's there. Oh,

it's not bonus. Now I don't feel that way. Good. Good. And Kingdom of Ash, I, after this reread, again, I read it for the first time. This is only my second time reading. So fast. When we were

so in the weeds of starting FFG, there was a million things happening, and I couldn't truly

appreciate the series. It was really having to read it as fast as I could, because I was getting spoiled left and right. And this reread, even though I haven't done it very fast as well, I have been able to go on this journey and really immerse myself in it in a way that I wasn't able to previously. And this has made Throne of Glass. Now, I had previously loved Akatar more mostly because it was my first

all of that. But Throne of Glass, it's so much more than just the better plot at this point now for me. Like, I have such a greater appreciation for the character development and just how masterful and epic it

“is. And so I think Throne of Glass is now one of my all-time favorite series. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.”

I think I think for me as well, I don't think it has topped a court of misin fury. For me, that still remains my favorite Sarah J. Mass book. But I think for series. No, I think Akatar still remains my favorite series, but Throne of Glass is nearly up there with it. Yeah. And that's a big deal for you to say. Yeah. It was my least favorite. And it was for very similar reasons.

Like, I never felt that connected to the characters because I was just binging it so fast. And then

I was binging it for our Akatar coverage. And it just felt like I had one foot outdoor, always when I was reading it. And this time being able to put both feet fully in this world was just like a whoa. Oh my god. So I'm so glad we did this because it has made me fall in love with this is now one of my new favorite series. Yeah. All right friends, we are about to begin our Throne of Glass full spoilers for the last time. Oh, I'm sad. So if you have not read all of Throne of Glass,

all eight books, this is your time to say goodbye. But first, some housekeeping items. This may be our final Throne of Glass episode. But next Monday, we are switching over to one of my favorite series of all time. One of my top books of all my entire life when the moon hatched as we prep for that deep dive. Next Monday will be our no spoilers fan guide and intro to deep diving when the moon

“hatched. And episode one covering the prologue through chapter 15, which is, I think our longest”

first episode to date is airing on March 9th. We love to give the biggest warm welcome welcome

welcome to our newest pharaoh fans and deep divers in the fan club. Thank you so so much for being here. Welcome welcome welcome. Sammy Stephanie S. Brittany S. Lauren N. Guilted tail. Sarah A. Rachel L. Valerie R. Caleb. Courtney M. V. Martha S. Iris. Lauren Christine V. Wardee. Jamie B. Holly R. Casey S. Jony. Kelly Aubrey P. Christina Zackenshan. Hayley D. Cori. Kira L. Kristy M. Shannon S. Malick C. Nancy. Sharmin M. G. Kate Marilyn Aurora Danielle.

Janelle Jules Pea and Jensen. Welcome welcome. I really like hey I want my name shot on the podcast and be sure what all this love to join our fan club at fantasyfandgirls.com/fandclub link is also in the show notes. We are very active on social media with many fan guides and lots more. So please be sure to follow us on Instagram and slash heart TikTok @fansyfandgirlspod and if you're watching this on YouTube or want to watch on YouTube, please hit that subscribe button to keep following along.

While you're hitting buttons, please hit that five star rating button on whatever podcast platform you were listening on. You all, I cannot express how helpful it is to take 30 seconds,

“not even two seconds of your day and just hit that five star button. If you want to take 30”

seconds, you can write a little love note in the review section as well. All right, before we move into our spoiler section, let us take quick break for a word from our sponsors. Friends and fellow readers, this is our official warning that we are about to enter our throne of glass spoilers part of the episode where we discuss character journeys for the final book and our favorite highlights spoilers spoilers spoilers for the whole series. So in case you missed it, if you have not finished

all eight books in the throne of glass series, respectfully lovingly we are not going to spoil the ending of Kingdom of Ash for you. And yes, we are going to be going through the multiple endings this book has. So please leave. Love you. We have one more book to read. Go read that. It's only a thousand pages. They come on back to these part 2s. We're so excited for you to join us for these part 2s. Okay, Nicole, we can't recap every book of the series and not Kingdom of Ash, right?

Right? As long as you're ready for me to talk for 30 minutes on this episode. So Nicole, please do us the honor of summarizing the eighth and final book of this masterful series.

First up, we have our most traumatized search party. Rowan is out here leading a grim little road

trip with Gabrielle, Lorkin, and a lead searching for Alyn like it's taken but with more trauma and fewer cell phones. Meanwhile, Alyn is having the worst two months of her life being either locked in an iron coffin or tortured by Karen like it's his full-time job because it is. Also, Maeve is trying to get her to swear the blood oath so that she can use her as a magical

learning to control his magic swiftly becoming most dangerous Disney Prince with daddy issues alive, he uses his sword de Morris to summon Gavin Havillard's ghost like, hey King, quick question about

“the world ending artifacts. Gavin says that the third word key is in Morav. Skirt, a spider attacks”

in what is the Cole's Nightmare 101, but it accidentally leaves our crew to the crockin witches. Thanks to terrifying spider, surprise Manan's great-grandmother Glenis is alive and surrounded by crockens who really don't trust Manan. I mean, understandable. Dorian pulls a big brain move by sensing the spider's magic, copying its magical blueprint and teaching himself how to

shape-shift. First step, spider's second step, boobies, then he summons Calthane spirit who also

confirms, yes, the word key is in Morav C. Previous email. Then across the lens, ADN is running the war effort while Laissandra pretends to be alien, which is completely obliterated any hopes of a relationship. But just to put the nail in the iron coffin, but um, radiant angry throws a healing way Sandra out in the snow. Naked, where is the red flag guy from TikTok? Lord Darrow orders ADN back to orange, the capital of Tarzan, ADN says,

“"I won't go to orange, and instead sneaks the army to prepare with a little help from Nox,”

Owen throw back." Well, the battle goes terribly. Laissandra shifts into ADN to inspire Moral, but gets injured, which then ADN realizes, "My love, my own most lost you," and Laissandra says, "You threw me out in the snow, you bitch." But secrets out, she's not alien and ADN isn't wobble, getting demoted, and losing his emotional support, sort of, or if. I'm not going to say good, but good, back to the witches. The iron teeth witches attack the crock in clans. So,

Manon kills the yellow legs, matron, who shows up wearing a crock in crown like an absolute clown, spares the blue blood air, petra, and intimidates grandma black beak into fleeing with her tail between her legs. Glentous crown's been on Queen of the Witches. Dorian decides it's time for him to go on mission impossible, mouse edition, and heads to Morath for the third and final wordkey. While Manon and the Witches travel to Tarzan to offer aid. Back to Aelin, who is

kneeling in shattered glass while Mae Force's connoll Fenris's twin to kill himself on Maeve's orders, because Maeve woke up in two psychological warfare. Maeve then feeds Aelin fake memories like she's editing her brain on Canva, and follows it up with a casual threat of a volk collar, you know, as a treat. Meanwhile, outside of Dorianelle, Aelin is doing what she does best, quietly being the most competent person in the room, getting intel on where Aelin is being held,

and the group immediately goes all oceans 11 mode to plan a rescue. The day before the rescue,

Maeve convinces Aelin that Rowan has fully ghosted her, like block, deleted, left on red never coming

back. This emotional devastation is so powerful that the mating marks straight up piece out of existence, girl. Aelin decides she's done, and she plans to provoke Karen into killing her. If Enris, however, blocks this plan and says absolutely not. He breaks the blood oath, casual god level defiance to attack Karen. Chaos ensues Aelin escapes the camp, running out of it just as Rowan and Coa are running into the fray like their Jack Sparrow on the beach

with a tribe running after him, but the mission is too full successful. They retrieve a broken and dying Fenris from Karen's tent and bring him to Aelin who saves his life by making him swear a blood oath to her and commanding him to "live!" Girl really said no dying on my watch and it worked, and Rowan tortures Karen skins him alive and kills him. No notes, five stars. Even after escaping Aelin is deeply traumatized and struggles to believe that she's actually free,

which is hard-breakingly realistic and very rude of SJM. Enter the little folk, sneaky absolute icons who help Aelin and her rescuers escape Doranel through underground caves to Terrasin. During this time, Aelin starts returning to herself and makes lorkins where the blood oath just

“to make sure it's super clear about where his royalties lie. Do you accept these terms and conditions?”

Sure, cut to Cale and Irene who roll up in Aelin with the Cogans Army and immediately overrule Cale's dad because surprise, Cale outrinks him now. Nothing says character development like legally outrinking your emotionally distant father and having your wife knock him down off his pedestal. Bravo Irene! Cale takes control of the battle plans and leads the forces against Aeron's army

for five straight days. Five days! Sir, please rest. Then finally Aelin and her cadre show up.

The battle continues outside the walls and Aelin makes her dramatic re-entrance. The enemies don't stand a chance because she's arrived dressed like a final boss and the fashion moment. A leave continuing to be the bravest human with zero magical powers and infinite courage, races across the battlefield to save lorkin. Yay, shirt pads worked my guy! Just when everyone's

like an emotionally damaged mole. The queen vaporizes the incoming floodgates and saves everyone. Because when Aelin Galithini is shows up, she shows up with maximum drama and even bigger magic. Meanwhile, Dorian Havelier, the unhinged, rodent sneaks into Morath and discovers Mave colluding with Aeron. I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed in you, Mave. Then she drops her villain TED talk revealing her plans to offer the care and quee as hosts for the fog princesses and emits

she's basically been kicked out of Doranelle. That last part was a little bit of an overshare

Mave. Dorian, master manipulator and emotionally exhausted genius, convinces Mave to play double agent by offering to marry her and make her the queen of otterland. Iconic behavior from a man who's solution to global catastrophe is one of I propose. Once Mave thinks she's one Dorian

“finds the word key inside another woman's arm, clearly arrow one doesn't have a you've already”

used this password you can't use it again on his word key. Then the king walks away alive with Morath blowing up behind him. Again, what James Bond levels shit this little mouse is up to? What's that? It's the final boss playlists beginning in Aeronth all hell breaks loose. The battle begins and two of the world ending witch towers are destroyed, but the third is still standing and it's an OSHA violation. Manana arrives with the 13 and 5,000 crockin witches practically screaming

"HELP is on the way dear!" The final witch tower is destroyed by the 13 who sacrificed so sacrifice himself so everyone can live manan live and just like that the book reaches through the page and

punches us directly in the soul. The bloodlines of Bran and finally reunite when Aeron and Dorian

come together and decide one very chill, very casual question. Should one of us Aeron called dips die and forge a lock now or later? And democracy votes NOW! But Aeron and Dorian decide they might be able to survive if they both go in. Only to have Aeron dropkick Dorian out. Girl have you heard of accepting help. Aeron sees the dead king of otterland who decides it's time for a little pick me up energy and he forges the lock with Aeron. The gods come in. Elena is murdered,

“sorry not fully sorry, and Aeron is told to go home. Life is a how. Aeron falls through”

universes. Ooh, pretty with the GPS in the form of a wordmark tattoo. Oh no, she's going too fast. Thank you Batman and prego girl for slowing her down. I totally don't know who you all are and it's not the biggest holy shit! No man of an easter egg in the series. Aeron survives but no! Her fire magic is almost entirely gone. We returned to Orenth where supplies are empty. Strength is done for and hope is on the last battery bar. But wait, writing in a me literal lord of the north,

no not Rowan. Aeron dive straight into battle, where Gabriel feels the gates of Orenth and a truly hold the door at moment. Maven Aeron arrives with the spider vulg, princesses because the apocalypse truly needed an arachnophobia DLC. After letting one conversation with Aeron changes entire battle plan, Aeron decides actually I'm going to go deal with Irene and pieces out. Irene, Dorian, and Nezron in the most overqualified group project of all time successfully

trap Aeron. Irene kills him with her magic, proving that once and for all, healers are the final bosses. Go medical professionals. Maven traps Rowan, Borken, and Fenris in illusions. Since you

can't physically win, emotional manipulation is always an option. But the bro himself Fenris

manages to incapacitate Maven using golden but surprise, a ring is also put on Maven's finger, a ring from Silva. And basically is the opposite of Lord of the Rings. Maven with the one ring is not really the mall. Dead, she's dead. And just like that, the vault forces across the land crumble into dust and a force event in a full event in game fashion. If you don't hear the dramatic music in the background, that's on you. With the war finally over, Aeron is crowned queen of the

baddest pitches. The end. And thus, the reader closes the book. Stairs at the wall. And sits in utter despair for approximately seven to eight business days. Good thing they have us to tune into where we can relive it all in these fan guides, right? I relived it all in this. Oh gosh. Let's begin with Aelin. Poor, poor Aelin at the beginning of Kingdom of Ash. Gone is a swaggering, fire breathing, bitch queen. We knew from the last several books. Maven is determined to fracture Aelin's

identity with this psychological and physical torture, manipulating her memories and distorting the truth about her loved ones and tempting her with this false relief to reshape Aelin into

“Maven's own obedient weapon. At least, that's what she's trying to do. Well, in this part of”

Maven's torture, she heals Aelin over and over and over again, which not only greatly confuses Aelin, because it means it's harder for her to know what's reality and what's just a pigment of her imagination, but also all of Aelin's scars, which have been a huge part of her journey since book one.

and who the salt mines of endovier shaped her to be in order to create this better world. And now,

they're just gone. It made her promises, too, like with Nehemia and the Maven Mark with Yes. Rowan is gone, and it's like that anchor to herself is gone with it, and while Aelin is not submitting the psychological twisting of what's real, what's not real, she is succeeding in that, and that's terrifying. But Aelin does not yield. You do not yield, her mother tells her from beyond,

“and this comment becomes Aelin's anchor. You do not yield. You must be brave a little longer.”

You must be strong a little longer, because you do not yield. Maven is trying to break her. But Aelin cannot let herself be completely broken. Too much relies on her, and she is too

unbreakable within herself. She has done the personal development work, damn it!

So Aelin survives by retreating inward, cleaning to the scraps of her identity as tight as she can, because she does not yield. Not to the bigger power trying to manipulate her and break her, not to the weakness within herself as the cracks are forming. No, she is stronger than that. She will not let this trauma define her. She will not portray her people or herself. You do not yield. And this will become a rallying cry for Aelin throughout this book, where her greatest weapon is

her will. Her ability to survive against every possible odd. In a kingdom of ash, once when she escapes, which don't where I will get to that in our top ten moments, Aelin's leadership style shifts from what we saw in Empire of Storms. She is no longer the untouchable queen with limitless magic and flame. She is a survivor of torture who chooses to keep fighting for herself and for her people in her kingdom. One of the most like just gut-ranging moments

is when she is in aniel. And after she has the big reunion with kale and Irene and everyone,

“and then she goes to Rowan and it's just the two of them. And she's like, "Did I convince them?”

Did I convince them that I was a swaggering queen again?" And she's like, "I'm faking it and I'm trying." And it just, "Oh my God, because for a while on the page I was convinced." I was like, "Yeah, absolutely. This is Aelin looking to go." And then seeing that out of sight behind closed doors. And it's just like, "Oh my God!" I know. Well, she exactly. She appears on the outside to start to come out of her shell again and seeming to return to that cocky self-assured badass that we've all known and loved. But we do see that

this is really a show. I think SJM does such a phenomenal job of showing the realities of mental health, not just in this series, but in her other ones as well. How a person can portray their usual self to the outside world one moment, but be empty moments later when in private. Yes. Well, a small scene we do have to talk about the annual battle and how Aelin emerges in gold armor. Not only

“was this just a moment of rejoice for all fan artists out there and if you have not looked up art”

around this moment, you are missing out. But this is a big moment for Aelin as she transitions from Maves Prisoner both physically earlier in the book and then mentally after she escapes. Back to this queen of Terrison. She is a symbol of salvation for so many. I mean we've been seeing that since Crown of Midnight when Archer was like Aelin's coming back and he lit up and she's like what the fuck are you talking about? So for her to emerge from the Keep Archway as the queen of Terrison,

Clad in gold armor. This was the first official battle according to Aelin in her inner monologue.

This was the one that would set the tone for the war and would send a message. Not only to more Earth, but yeah, it sounds a message to more Earth. It also sounds a message to her allies. She's not here in a crown of jewels or a diadem highlighting her queenly status. She's not behind the doors. She is wearing a headpiece of armor, quote, "a crown for war, a crown to wear into battle, a crown to lead armies." This is the moment Aelin fully steps into her role as a leader of the

new world. She is saying, "I'm not staying behind walls. I'm here fighting with you." And it's because of that rallying cry that echoes of the queen has come, the queen has come, begin to ripple throughout the battle. This is a neon golden sign that Terrison is ready to fight. We get to see her give up on revenge in the hope of saving lives, when she uses maves killing blow to save Annie out from the wave. So many times throughout the series, it has seemed that she has made revenge a priority,

but in this moment she chooses life for all. A very queenly choice to really be only choice. Fast forward to the final battle where Aelin no longer has her magic, but her enemies don't know that. I love the little detail how her hands are shaking so much. She almost drops her weapon, but she makes sure it'll hold firm. She is willing to face Maven Aeron knowing that she won't

of hope for others to keep fighting in signature Aelin fashion. And also in signature Aelin fashion,

she taunts her enemy. Playing Maven Aeron off of each other and showing seeds of doubt about maves motives. At the end of the day, Aelin doesn't need her fire to defeat these two. Not when there are healers here, expelling the evil vulg. Not when she has the courage to face these two and stir the pot. Not when she has friends entrusted allies to help. So real quick, let's talk about how we feel about Aelin losing her magic, because that is definitely a big conversation in the

“readership. And most of her magic, we all know what I mean there. I think this is one of those”

fantasy tropes that can either be done very, very well or not. It can serve a plot in the character's

perfectly. Or it can feel like it's only there for shock value. Character resurrection is another one,

but we're not touching that right now. I'll be honest, I love that this is a consequence. It costs Aelin experiences after everything that goes down with the word keys and the gate. She and also Dorian too have such tremendous power. And yet when it comes time for the final showdown, they alone will not be able to defeat Maven Aeron. It's not going to be that easy. And I actually really love how this happens because it is a team effort. So many storylines in the series building

up to the big moments. Instead of relying on Aelin and Dorian to just take care of it, I think about the scene when Aelin and the lead are in the bath tubs together. And Aelin is saying like, "I don't have my magic anymore. I'm not who everybody wants me to be." Like that's all everybody cared about. And Aelin's like, "That's not true at all Aelin. You are our queen because of who you are because of your humanity that you still have within yourself because she's also not just

no longer having her fire magic. She also is no longer human. She's only they." And that is another thing that Aelin is really grappling with, where it's like she feels human still, but she's not anymore.

“Well, and I think that one of the other reasons this particular losing of magic really works”

is because it's working within the magic of the world. Yes. Let's set up for the over a book now that in order to create the new lock, either Aelin or Dorian would have to pour their entire magic into this lock and then use their last little bit of life force to seal the gate. And that all happens, but it's just Mala giving her that last little kernel at the very end. And so because it was set up and it wasn't just like, "Oh, oh dear." Oh no. Yeah. It feels really appropriate for this

word. It would be crazy if it didn't have. Yes, exactly. It has been set up and it lives within this world and how we know magic exists. Yes, exactly. Aelin's journey throughout the series has been coming into her magic and owning it as part of her identity as Aelin instead of Selena. And yet, it's not all she is. This immense fire magic that she's had, it has served its purpose. And I actually love that I say that before the big battle, because again, other characters have

their purposes in the 11th hour too. Costs are already a big theme in this series.

“Nameless is my price to begin with. And I think it is so fitting that there is a cost for destroying”

the workies and being caught in time and space. Again, don't worry, Nicole's going to walk us through all of that here soon. I love it. I think it works absolutely perfectly for the story for Aelin's arc and character and for the entire cast of characters. Yeah, I agree completely. And like Lexi said, we'll get into literally a B-B-B walkthrough of the free endings of this book has. But for now, it feels only right to close out our final Aelin analysis with the ending

coronation. Because remember back in Throne of Glass in Crown of Manai and Erafire, Selena was so

deep in herself and the lie of her identity that she had become to basically live that Aelin Galatinius

was dead. This is 17 months later. That's it. That's insane. And here she is in Terrison, in a crumbled building that they rush cleaned in like 10 days, taking her rightful place as Queen. Oh my god, I'm going to cry. Every step, every path she taken had led here. It is no accident that during this coronation scene she passes by each of her allies. Each and every single person who brought her here to this moment to her crown to her throne to her kingdom. It's not silly, but I know

it seems silly. I'm proud of her. I'm so proud of her. I'm quoting this entire thing because it's so beautiful. Quote, "It weighed on her. Nestled against her bones. That new burden. No longer an assassin. No longer a rogue princess. And when Aelin lifted her head to survey the cheering crowd, when she smiled, Queen of Terrison. And the fairy Queen of the West, she burned right as a star.

I love that so so much. Let's talk about Rowan now. Oh my goodness. His love and support for his mate. You can feel it. You can physically feel it through the pages. I feel like so much of Rowan's

character in this book can be summarized in two scenes. The first is when Aelin is back and she's

banning in the freezing lake. And he asks, "Can I hold you?" He is at a complete loss of what to do for her. And it's heartbreaking. But instead, she does not go to be held by him. She gets in the water. The steam hisses. She erupts in the flames. But slowly, she starts to return to her self. And she's able to talk to him about what occurred with Maeve. And that's the relationship. It's not him touching her or holding her. It's them having this incredibly connected intimate

“moment, even when she's 15 feet away. And I think that that's what makes them so raw as a couple.”

I think that's so beautiful. And then the second scene is right before Aelin goes into the lock and he's like, "Come back to me, come back to me." And I'm not going to say Rowan's story arc is entirely encompassed in Aelin in this book because it's not, but the majority of it is. The vast majority of it is. To be honest, she needs that right now. But the fact that he almost loses her more times than I can count off the top of my head in this book. And each time

he has to live with her facing off with Aerona and Maeve alone. He has to live with her going into the lock and pushing Dorian out and knowing that she's going to die. It's so tragic. It's him having to experience being mates with someone who is very much on a mission to sacrifice herself. Because that is where she thinks that she is the most worthwhile. She was not expecting to live after everything with the word gay and lock and such. And she's like, "I don't know what to do now."

It's like, "Well, he's like, "We live? Yeah, we live." Oh my god, I'm so happy they get their happy ending. Rowan really does spend this whole book just waiting for those moments where he can help his mate like Nicole's talking about. And many small opportunities arise and he is right there to step up to bat. His alpha intuitions are to protect and fix. But his mate instincts tell him

that she just needs his support. And that is what he tries to always listen to. This isn't mean

that Rowan doesn't argue or debate in the decisions slash sacrifices that she's constantly making to her detriment doesn't frustrate the hell out of him. But he also doesn't stand in her

“way like Nicole's saying here too. Or in the case of the word key destruction decision,”

he pushes to figure out another way. In his mind, there's always an alternative because he will not settle for the conclusions that Alan has settled for. And together, they're able to figure out alternatives. When I can imagine how frustrating that would be for Rowan, where he's like, "What if you and Dorian went in together?" And Alan's like, "Well, Elaina didn't tell me that." And he's like, "Elaina didn't tell you a lot of things." Are you kidding me? That's

not what we're going with. I'm really proud of Elin for listening to another voice and deciding to go about it a different way. Even if in her mind, actually, I didn't have a mind to the entire

time. She was thinking, "Well, I'm just going to push Dorian out anyway." Yeah, never mind. I'm

moving her an alphabet. Because one of the things I do love in this book is that we do see that Rowan cutting this still. He spreads this rumor about the Volk collar in the successful hopes that Maeville go and retrieve it and leave the camp. Now, what he doesn't know is that she's retrieving it for Elin and she's threatening his mate with it. And yes, that really stresses him out. But that reason for that rumor is the only reason she's with them. Or when he makes this,

this is like one of those beautiful moments. He makes the map tattoo out of Wordmarks

“interwoven within the old language story of him and her relationship on her back. And that's how”

she gets home. Oh my god, this book is so good. You know what, maybe it is actually my third and maybe it's my third and maybe it's not the only one with a blood oath to Elin. And real quickly, let's talk about how Elin's blood oaths are not like Maeves, who controlled her cadre through the blood oath and used them for her own game. That's not the intention of Elin's blood oath at all. And as we learned back in Queen of Shadows, her blood oath is more of a strong

suggestion to do something. First is an order that will kill them if they refuse. The blood oath to Elin is by chosen loyalty. And I'm going to include Fenras in that too because he chooses to keep the blood oath after she saves his life with it. It's a litifies trust and a vow to fight for terrorism and protect the kingdom at all costs. Note how I'm not saying Elin at all costs. It's for her kingdom. And I love how by the end, ADN finally gets his blood oath. He sought

all of his life. Even his father Gabriel in death has an honorable blood oath as he died defending

loyalty. These feigh warriors who have chosen to follow her into the dark and bring forth the light.

“During the final battle, Rowan is just so proud of them and that they are fighting for something”

so much bigger. Something that they truly care about versus just an order that may have told them to do. And how they all have come full circle to this together, to defeat evil. Well, they all get to fight. I mean, obviously not Gabriel, but like they all get to fight against me for the first time together. Yes. It's almost like this is their sweet revenge as to what this horrendous valk queen put them through for centuries. Oh my, okay, okay, okay. We'll get into

all that moment. Moving into Dorian, one of my favorites in this book. He has a what I'll call like the most in your face character development throughout this book. He's traveling with the witches. He's an outsider. Again, he's known as a traitor to his people of Rifthold. He's at a crossroads. He either continues being a passenger, like he was to his father with being a royal, like he was to the vault prince. Yes, that was against his will, but still. Then he was too

alien as she was taking the reins and he felt like he was never in charge, having to remind the

people around him that he is a king. And now he's a passenger to the 13 on their way to the croquins. So he can either do that, continuing a passenger, or he can take matters into his own hands. And he chooses the latter. We see him with the starting to hone his raw magic, specifically around shapeshifting. The use of shapeshifting is entirely symbolizing his identity crisis. And it's perfect. After realizing that he can become anything or anyone that he wants, he realizes he has no idea

what he wants to be. And in real life, when we no longer like we've become, we can't just drop it in anything. First, we have to identify who we want to be and how we can become them in an authentic way. And we can't just fake it. And Dorian learns this as he's trying to shapeshift. He must

first learn who he wants to be within himself before he can be free enough to be what he wants to be

on the outside, which side note, I'd love the scene of him shapeshifting into a croquin witch, and menon immediately knows that it's him. And she's like, I'm surprised you're not fondling yourself right now. And he's on men. He's like, well, if I had time, I would totally go and do that. Yeah, I don't have time right now. Another time Dorian and other time. It's through the shapeshifting and free discovering himself that he realizes that he has more

to offer. And he realizes I'm going to go to Morath and get the third word key. That is how I can help this war effort. Oh, he loved it. In his way, he's called to this responsibility. Everyone else has their marching orders or have stepped into a leadership role. And Dorian ceases this extremely less than ideal task because no one else is able to do it. And he has the means to be able to make it happen. Well, and Dorian's decision to go to Morath is like him

saying, finally, I am control because even menon is like, please don't go. Yeah, like, and he's like,

no, I'm going to. I'm going after the final key. I'm going to do something that makes a big

“difference in this war. Like, all my other fucking friends are doing. And I think it's the conversation”

with Caltain's spirit that really shifts things for him. Book one Dorian was avoiding Caltain. He believed her to be a basic, doft woman of the court, who was just trying to get to his crown and don't over him. Then to see her in book two as a prisoner. And so, quite frankly, he just didn't really care. For Dorian, there were other more important things at the time and he didn't really consider saving her from the fate with Perington as a priority. And then here for the first time,

he's able to apologize to someone who was directly affected by who he was at the beginning of this series. And in the scene with Caltain's ghost, he's able to make a men's for the person he was before the collar and before Sorsha. And Dorian really needed this. But one of the things I love most about the scene is that he needed to see someone who is beyond at peace. Yes. Well, he doesn't bring up Sorsha to Caltain. Sorsha is all over the page. He has this reassurance now that Sorsha is there

in death and watching over him and his friends. And she's okay. Despite everything that happened to her, so it's like because he now has this peace that she's okay. He can go be okay too. Which brings us to Morath. I want to applaud Dorian because even though he knows there's a chamber filled with collars that Arrowwon would bring him to straight to if he's caught Dorian decides to go and be the

“king his father wasn't or wasn't able to be. And that was more important than the fear. And we see”

a different version of Dorian and Morath. There's this moment in Arrowwon's room where he thinks

stop trying to be who they are and decide who he wants to be for himself. I love the scene. Honestly, I love Dorian in Kingdom of Ash and how he starts thinking very strategically here and Morath. Well, he's a king here. He actually, he's making plans. He's going behind Maves back pretending to promise to make her a king of Otterland. This isn't Alan style planning where she's planning 103,000 steps ahead with 12 different outcomes. This is Dorian planning. It's Flerdy Perfection.

Well, and how he is able to trap Mave in his own mind after learning from the Valku had possessed him. He is taking that weakness that darkness that he has understandably shied from within himself into a strength. Knowledge about how the enemy works is power. I am obsessed with how he handles things with Mave. He outsmarts her. Well, and then he brings Morath's towers crashing down as he flies off into the sunset as a river with the rust of the port that's brilliant leaving

Mave begging after him. Literally begging him. It shows that she is not as powerful as she's been

“portrayed so far. Honestly, her entire presence in Morath is the beginning of her downfall,”

showing herself to Erwan when she's been hiding from him for so, so, so, so, so long, because alone she can't go up against Alan anymore after Alan out of her as a terrible Valkuwing to Dornel. There is an iconic sequence with Dorian and Alan deciding together. Their joint power might be enough to use the three word keys and destroy the word gate they open. They need to destroy these keys now, so Mave or Erwan will not have the opportunity to take them back.

Especially now that all three of the keys are together, not spread out across the continent. Dorian and Alan are individually stubborn enough to want to be the one to sacrifice themselves,

each of them feeling that it is their responsibility. Alan, because she is Alan, who will never

let a friend go in her stead when she has been anticipating this to be her sacrifice for a while now. Well, I mean, think of Nehemia and how Nehemia sacrificed herself for Alan, that was Alan's last draw, her Selena's last draw. That was the thing that propelled her forward and made her promise

“she is going to make Nehemia's sacrifice worth it. And that's how she sees it. I mean,”

literally, Elena and Nehemia's conversation at the end of Empire Storms and the Witch Mirror sealed that for Alan. And the whole idea of what it can be Dorian instead, she's like, no, like, it cannot be anyone else. She has that in her head, because if she lets it be someone else, that is her letting someone else take the fall for something, yeah, exactly Diane said of her. But then there's Dorian, because he is also really pushing for it to be him.

He has nothing left to lose. Unlike Alan, who has a mate, allies, a kingdom supporting her and needing her to rule. He does not feel important enough to carry on. And he's fully prepared to be the sacrifice. Really tough look for Kael when he's like, Dorian, you can't. And Fenris is like, you'd rather my queen. So, and Kael's like, I mean, I'd rather need her of my friend's sacrifice himself. Yeah, all of them are going on his hand. He's like, come on, just let Dorian do it. Come on!

But obviously, Alan will not have any of this. When they are joined by Dorian's father in the beyond, Alan pushes Dorian out because one of them will still have to rule. And she thinks that it should be him. One of them absolutely has to survive this. And when they both stepped in, they could feel just how difficult and how impossible it was going to be to return together. There are initial plan of maybe we can do this together. It was not going to work.

So, yeah, Alan taking it upon herself to ensure one of them has a chance. It certainly won't be her. That's not her style. So, she goes forward with Dorian's father to take Dorian's place as the second person to destroy this word gate. While, yes, technically, this is Dorian getting sidelight again and losing some of his own magic. Not as much as Alan, but some, this time,

“it's because he's too important. Not because he's not important enough. But it's not her choice”

that makes him grind his teeth. It's that his nameless father showed up. Holy himself and not the

vulg possessed version Dorian has always known. Fast forward to the final battle with Air One,

where in his final moments Dorian is able to do one thing for his father, who has not been erased from the afterworld, too, to give him his name back that Air One took from him. Dorian, his father's name was also Dorian. And the one moment he remembered it was when he held his first born son in his arms for the very first time and gave his same name to his son Dorian. His father hid his own name within his son, a small bit of defiance against Air One. And for Ar Dorian,

darkness is part of him, to learn that his very name isn't defiance of that darkness, a reclaiming

“of the light, it just gives me chills with what a full circle moment. I feel like Dorian's character”

arc at the end of this book, really, the series can be summarized in this one quote, Dorian Smild

and found himself for the first time in a while looking forward to tomorrow. Like that just makes

me want to cry, I'm so proud of him for figuring out who he is and why he has a reason to get up in the morning and it's him, it's him, and building a better world because he has the power to do it, not because he has the stature or the friends or anything like that. Like, I'm just so proud of him exactly. And I also love that with his character. It ends with him still having room to grow and getting past a few things too. But like you're saying, we see just how far along in his

journey he's come and that he really is hiding down the right path. And then after reuniting with Manan, we see that there is quite a bit more to the relationship than distracting and powering sex. It's new and unknown. They've both survived this and there is potential for both of them too. And I'm so excited for them to explore whatever that might be. I love who was it was it, a lead or Irene or somebody who's like, just get married already. Oh, I feel like a very

Irene thing to say. Let's move on to the happily newly wedded couple K-all and Irene. The way to the war is being quite heavily on their shoulders. I mean, K-all needs to go to N-L where Ero-1 is marching, which also means confronting his father, who we know from K-all's got a lot of pent up anger towards this man. While K-all was able to heal and forgive himself for not upholding the vow around his father and going back to N-L and becoming Lord of

N-L again, he wasn't forgiving his father for who he is, which I mean is kind of fair. He's horrible. But just when the way to the world isn't enough for these two, Irene is also with child congrats you to. Yay! And during the war, when your husband is fighting on the front lines, and you are set to drink the vulg out of the big bad evil villain. And oh yeah, if one of you

“dies, the other dies too, which means the baby's life is on the line, it's a little extra stress,”

which K-all learning about the baby from his father stole that. That was a tough look. That was like, his dad was like, you don't see how your wife goes completely green, whatever food comes around, you don't see that she's extremely tired and K-all's like, no! It's like K-all! My God! Take a sexy glass, please! His father is such an ass. And I also love seeing K-all stand up to his father. K-dove Ash is really where we see how K-all's development has very positively impacted him,

and how he now handles situations. Like when his father reveals the letters from his mother, he recognizes this is on his father, not internalizing it as his own fault. Like, I do think he would have done if he had leaders previously. Yeah, his father does not deserve his time and energy anymore, and I'm just so proud of K-all. And then later on, we get this beautiful moment between K-all

and Gabrielle, where K-all finally admits to himself that he will always want to forgive his father,

“and that he thinks that's what's happening with ADN2. He wants to forgive Gabrielle.”

But it's not just his father or relationships with others, it's how K-all handles himself while fighting, whether it's on horseback when his legs aren't working, because Irene is using her healing magic on the injured involved possessed, or when he's standing and fighting on his own. Whichever way, he is still who he is. The ability to use his legs does not define K-all, and it's all about how he fights with honor and loyalty to his loved ones.

One of the things I love about this series is how Irene is the one who kills Erwan, not our main character, Alyn. It's a character who we really only got to know what book ago. For Sarah J. Mass to do this was brave. And it pays off tenfold because of multiple reasons. Number one, we mentioned this last episode, but I'm saying it again. The fact that Erwan fears, not the people who bring destruction, but the people who bring healing is so f*cking poetic.

The second reason is because I love when a big bad villain has, I'm going to call it the choice

to come back and be good, but they are so dark and twisted that they literally kill themselves, almost. It's not because they're killed ruthlessly, but it's because the darkness inside them has consumed them wholly. And we see this with Erwan when Irene is pulling the bog out of him,

in kills. The third reason is that I love that Irene is not afraid. She is so full of hope

and joy for this better world and a free world for her husband and child that the darkness, Erwan is trying to fight back with in the ending battle, it can't even touch her. We needed the character that symbolizes hope and carnit to end Erwan. And I mean the line quote, "You have no power over me," that Irene says to Erwan as she's killing him. F*ck it's so good. And then last but not least, yes, Alan is our main character,

“but this is an ensemble cast. And I think I'm learning more, I was not a big fan of the ensemble”

cast before this fan guide situation. I am a big fan of it now. It has completely changed my mind.

In the fact that the battlefield is chanting Irene, Irene after Erwan dies, it just shows what

you were saying earlier, how everyone is part of this war and part of the battle. It's not just the queen of terracen. Oh yes, I also want to point out to another moment for a kill when Irene is going to be flying with Dorian, and I think like Sandra, to go to the Erwan and kill it, he lets her go. And I think back to Crown of Midnight, it's grown of glass with Alon, and I wanted to just like, be like, dude, you gotta let go of the controller exactly. And we

see how far he has come again and his relationship with his wife. It is not anything like a relationship we've seen from him before. It is right for him because he's with the right person and he's done the inner healing, and he can let her go be big and brave and wonderful. Well, it's a reminder that people can grow and heal and become a different person, make different choices. In our work is important. Yeah, God, I can't express all of that.

Speaking of inner work, we have our grown mind on the last crocken queen. What a big journey she goes on in this book that is a compilation of her arc throughout the series. I know we're saying that so much on this part too, but it's all just so true, especially from an on. She knows the risks of seeking out the crockens and showing herself to them. She's a kill on site target,

“but deep down, I think that she recognizes her importance of this war and the role that she has to”

play, like we were saying earlier this episode. She is no longer an indecisive leader or alone or unsure of her morals. That is all very clear for her now, and it makes her a stronger leader, not just for the 13, or even the iron teeth previously, but now for the crockins as well. What's a little leadership without a little skating? As part of getting the crockens to trust her, Manan lures the yellow-like witches to the camp, although she obviously lies to the crocken saying

that this wasn't my plan all along, but the attack also costs eight crocken witches. And it also made them late to rally an ill-way where a whole slew of crockens were white out. Old Manan would not really have thought twice about this lie, about the losses, about the manipulation, and all of that kind of things. As an iron teeth witch, she was taught to think in manipulation through violence. But that's the issue. Here, when she lures the yellow legs,

she was thinking like an iron teeth witch, ruthless, scheming, and that guilt weighs on Manan as a result of that decision, and shows her just how far she's come and distancing herself from the iron teeth way of living. The fact that she has a guilty conscience after that, the fact that Dorian is like, "Yo, that was not okay!" Like that was a lot. It really shows that Manan cannot think like an iron teeth witch and lead the witches into a new world. Yes, which brings us to when she faces

the three matrons and in this fight, Manan shows brutality, kindness, and mercy. One per matron fight, yellow legs matron, dead, yellow legs. We don't like them, okay? They're mean. They're extra mean. Blue blood spared for her daughter's sake, and then Manan's own grandmother fled and Manan

“let her leave. And I think that we could also even look at this as symbolic of the three-faced”

goddess that the witches honor. The young Manan, who would be the maiden, would kill without thinking. That's who she used to be. Then the older slightly more mature version of herself, the mother,

sees that value in an ally with the blue blood. And finally, the wisest, the crown,

version of her, knows that mercy to a coward can be more damaging than death. Because this makes her grandmother look absolutely terrible. This is her grandmother's biggest fear. She would probably kill Manan if Manan came back in the same state that her grandmother had been in. And Manan after this, she crowns herself. Literally, with the crown of stars from the dead yellow legs, who it did not rightfully belong to. And ah, it is this moment that she truly shows the values

blows, the rightful witch queen is here to lead her people. Which brings us to the heart-wrenching moment.

“In battle, the final witch tower is positioned at orange. And enemy iron teeth witches are”

willingly performing the yielding to implode their power as they jump into the mirror-lined pit. Channeling their power with that of the mirrors, magnifying it into such a destructive blast that in its wake are only ashes. Just a few blasts of this, and the entire city will be destroyed.

So the solution is to try and take apart the tower before another iron teeth witch jumps into

this mirror pit, does the yielding sacrifices herself, and causes an even worse blast through the city. And that is when the 13 quote all looked at one another, like they had had some unspoken conversation and agreement. Our beloved Asteran, a witch who has loved and lost smiles at Manan with eyes bright as stars, live Manan, live. And then Asteran punches her in the gut to knock

“the wind from Manan and allow herself time to run to her living before Manan can stop them,”

and Manan is helpless at what happens next. And as sad as it is, there is such poetry to how the scene plays out. Or each of the 13 are named. Their sacrifices remembered as they break

the line and fall, falling as they live with triumph and fierceness and precision until there's

only Asteran left, taking her final stand against Manan's grandmother, cutting down all these iron teeth witches who represent the restraints and evilness, like let's just fucking go Asteran, who has undone her shirts, so her scars unclean are visible for the all the world to see with this black beak, matron has done to her, and what she has to fight for. And then it is not in darkness, but light as Asteran makes the yielding, taking out Manan's grandmother with her.

And the rest of the 13 performed the yielding as well. Their last act of defiance, their last act of fighting for a better world, their last act honoring their leader, Manan, and what they have collectively worked toward this series. This sacrifice makes us all, we like absolutely babies.

“I think I recommend listening to the audiobook on a plane, especially with your little master.”

You're welcome. We have gotten to know the 13 over these four books, learning just how close this oven is, but it's how they are all better as one together. That really makes it stick in our hearts. They have been Manan's rock against which the surf crashes for literally a hundred years. In many ways, Manan is who she is because of them. Without the 13, Manan would still be under her grandmother's clutches, but they taught her how to think

in a different way, and how to question the ways of the world even when it was difficult and required a flak ton of bravery. Without them, Manan will have to discover herself again. But luckily, she's got a braxos who lost his mate to Astoron's women in the yielding. Oh my god! Together, they will honor the 13 until their dying breath, ensuring their sacrifice was not in vain. And beyond the veil, the 12 sisters of Manan will watch her rebuild which culture,

bringing a little piece of their spirit to the Western Wastes, knowing that they are watching

her build a better world. 4. At least the first half of this book. 80 is an ass!

Completely out of line. He is a walking capital L and look. We understand why he acts the way he does. Let's go through it shall we? 80 has spent his whole life trying to defend a land for the memory of his family that he thought were completely lost to him. Then he finally gets his cousin back and he starts to heal and forgive himself for all the things that he did with Aderlin over the years as a way to survive. Even though he is left out of plans, he is still trying to be part of

something finally fighting for what he's been desperate to get back to. And then Elin is taken, and he has failed her again, and he's angry with himself as a result. Until he finds out that the two people, he loves most in the world, have been planning this whole thing behind his back. Plans that involve him, siring errors, and living a lie. Again, it is all him internally screaming that this is not what he thought this life would look like. He has been years

trying to turn any plan the king of Aderlin had for him to his advantage and avoid being his puppet to then feel like he's being treated like a puppet of aliens. And this level of betrayal for Aderlin, unsurprisingly, brings out a very visceral reaction in him, blaming anyone who is involved

too. When Darrell orders Aderlin to ornth, an Aderlin says no, goes to Peranth, and loses the battle,

and in that battle, it's revealed that Leicandra has been pretending to be Elin. He is demoted,

“rightfully so, I think, rightfully so, and loses his sword, the sword that has been his”

north star, this entire series. I do love that he has ran on his side, who's like, okay, wait, hold on, like, this is, like, do we need to take his sword away? Like, that's his emotional support, so I don't know. I mean, Ren, and also I will say to that he has proven himself as a leader to the bane, to his army, his small army, right, and they're like, okay, we're going to pretend like this other guy is the gem, but it still is Aderlin, and so he has solidified that and

had that achievement there for himself, but even when he is demoted, he's not in the eyes of his men.

I know we've hurt on this a lot, so I'm just going to leave it at this. Aderlin, you get a giant neon L, bold underlined, tells lies on the front of a gigantic building that we can all see for miles and miles, for how you dream to lie Sandra, especially when you sent her away from your tent, when she was seeking a sliver of companionship at her lowest. And now I want to turn our attention over to lie Sandra, who starts kingdom of ash just so alone in her mission of

“having to pretend to be Aelin, the only person who knows the truth is Adian, and he's not speaking”

to her. She understands he needs space to be angry with her, but she also won't accept being talked down to the way that he is blushing out her, but we see from her POV that she is losing hope in her sense of self preservation. She is internally struggling so much while having to compartmentalize it and fulfill her duties to a court she promised her queen, to make the real Aelin sacrifice worth it, to belong and to be part of something so much bigger determined for a better world.

It isn't until what they think is the beginning of their end, and they both give up their hatred of each other and their previous actions that Adian and Lysandra are able to really come together and realize that the animosity is only serving to make them both unhappy. And I was actually surprised that on this reread, as I was finishing the book, I felt a sense of excitement for Lysandra and Adian that I have very much been on the train of she does there's

so much better than him, and while I still do agree with that for the majority, I do want to give Adian the same sense of grace that we are giving kale and I don't even say lurking as well, though all very different circumstances in their own ways. And Lysandra is able to be the bigger person and he is able to show her that he is sorry. And during those days of battles where they're out fighting and risking their lives every single day and then in the evenings and in the

mornings they're able to just hug each other and they feel that with one another and I really felt that connection and that them working through all of this and coming together during the hardest times. I found that a little bit empowering really. Well, I do feel like it's a good reminder for us readers that not all relationships are straight in there all. Like it reminds us that some ways that you get to be together can be very, very, very messy. And no, we're not all perfect either. And it reminds

us that it was like I was saying earlier with kale, like people can grow. Yep. And I don't think we

“get enough time with the growth version of Adian. Yes. And I think that's one reason why a lot of”

people only see him as the old Adian. Which, understandably, like we don't get a different version of him. Because we get that version of Adian through Queen of Shadows and then Empire Storms and then a lot of Kingdom of Ash. And it isn't until there are so many other things going on that the two of them had these little pockets of relationship development. Yeah. And so while I do give Adian a lot of shit and there's love story. It's just not my favorite. I don't think it's meant to be a favorite in

the series. Like he's not written to be an MMC in my opinion. I do understand there is realism to their story. Maybe a little bit extreme. But yeah, not all love stories are smooth. And we all do make mistakes, especially with those that we love. And it's kind of how are we going to make it up to them. And I'm going to trust that Adian does start doing that. And that he got his head completely out of his ass. One of the things I do love is when Adian is sitting at Lysander

aside. And he's like, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. She does not forgive him. She's like,

I have never been more humiliated when you did that to me. And I crawled for men. And I've done

all of these things. And you made me feel small. I think that if she had forgiven him in this moment, I would be like, like, let me out of the fact that she didn't. And that really had to make

okay, sir. I trust you. Yeah. This also brings me to another moment of lasting change for Adian.

“And that is Gabriel's death and the impact it has on his son. Adian has been, oh boy, ignoring”

Gabriel's existence, basically since learning about his father and Queen of Shadows. He's mad that he hasn't been there his whole life. He's mad that he's connected to me. The reason that Gabriel wasn't able to be with Adian's mother. And Adian is mad that Gabriel just came into his life and suddenly wants to be a part of it. And then he dies in an attempt to fight off the Volk so that Adian and the Bane can safely get behind the gates of warrants. In Gabriel's mind, this was a way for him to save

his son. And finally, finally, choose his family even if it was in his final moments. In to Adian, I personally think he subconsciously thought he'd have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years for his father. Yes. And him icing him out and putting him in the doghouse was his way of punishing him for a little while for how Adian felt growing up without a father, but eventually he knew he would have those years with him. But when those years are suddenly taken away, all because Gabriel,

again, chose to save his son, Adian is hard-broken because he does not know if his father died believing that Adian wanted nothing to do with him. And yeah, I do know that a lot of people aren't happy with him and like Sandra ending up together. I'm still deciding where I lie on that totem pole, but I really want to believe that it occurs to Adian in this book that he needs permanent change. He has treated people entirely reaction based on Sandra, Alien, Gabriel.

And when he realizes he'll never be able to make peace with his father fully, he learns that time

is not guarantee with those that you love. And again, I like to think that this lesson is now inked into him, much like his father's name is added to the terrace and not that Rowan tattooed onto his chest. And so that's where I'm like, I want to believe that there is that lasting change

“from Adian, but unlike kale and lorken, we don't see it. So that's why I think he's a harder,”

he's a harder seller. He's a harder seller of a character. Yes, yes. Well, speaking of lorken, let's talk about him and lead because things are not looking so good for them at the beginning of Kingdom of Ash. We see lorken deeply regretting his actions and the loss of elites affection. He's willing to do whatever it takes to make things right. It goes right back to what we were talking about last episode, how with lorken actions really do speak louder than words. And he recognizes that

and he's seeking to rectify his mistakes and gain elites trust and love again. A lead has every right to be angry at lorken, given what she believes about him having crawled after me. Later when she finds out that he was crawling to save Alyn, she refuses to admit how that changes anything, but that's when she does begin softening to him again. And then of course there is the epic scene that changes everything when lorken is left for dead on the battlefield at Aniel

and the damn is about to break. A lead is the only one who realizes that he is missing, not even

“his brothers noticed that he was not among all of them. And all a lead can do is remember her promise”

to always find him. That's just like her mantra just chanting. I have to find him. I have to find

him. I promised. And she may be mad at him, but at the end of the day, they are each other's person. And find him. She does taking a horse named butterfly who has been called Hellus' horse and it is Hellus who's guided and washed over lorken his whole life, the poetic irony. The fact that the, like, how have we not mentioned Farasha, the butterfly? How have we not mentioned butterfly? I love the kale specifically brings Farasha because he's like, I want to storm into

battle against the bug on a horse named butterfly. Like I just think that is such a kale moment. God, I love it. The moment of her in the audiobook where Elizabeth Evans has a lead's voice.

It's like, oh, God, it's heartbreaking. A lead's a story has always been about overcoming

whatever comes her way. And because she is always looking forward forward, forward, past hardships, past hardships, she really rarely gets to look backward and have closure. That changes when Vernon is captured and it's up to a lead to decide what to do with him. The man who has made her suffer for years in ways that are unimaginable, it would not be out of the question for her to want to do the same things to him. But a lead is always choosing the harder, more courageous, high road. And she

decides that, yes, we need to get information out of him and what would they do? Like there's 100,000 valk soldiers marching on orange. That's bad. But when it's time, she says, make his death quick.

guided by the goddess of slow death. Like that's just so poetic. She decides to give him a fast one.

Ah, until Ellen she wants to play on which I put all of a sudden with that a lead is like, okay, that's fine. I'm not gonna lie. There are so few things I'd like to change about this book. It is a perfect book in my opinion. There's that one scene though where Ellen does that, where I'm like,

“could you have just let her have that win? No, like, could you just let her have that?”

I am with Ellen on the punishment that he got is what he deserved and I am all for what happened. Exactly. Exactly. It's not what a lead wanted and that just makes it feel like, why do you ask her that? If you're just going to decide anyway. This is one of the reasons why I do think Lorkin is so enamored with a lead. He is coming from Maeve who was ruthless and heartless and she would have chosen the slowest death possible for someone like Vernon and to see a lead with compassion

and knowing that it makes her stronger, it's a new comprehension for him. And I think it's one reason that he falls so hard for this woman. That's another thing that has changed for me in the series is Loliden work and appreciates how skyrocketed. I no longer think he is old saggy man balls. Like, oh, my job is done. Like, is he book boyfriend material for me? No, but I really appreciate who they are.

“Honestly, no one in this series in my opinion is like, my favorite book boyfriend or anything like that.”

But it's like, I feel like I know everyone and I feel exactly appreciate them. I have a very

platonic appreciation for every character. That's exactly how I am. I would never want to be with

kale and yet he's my favorite, him and Irene are my favorite relationships. So he was rolling. And it's like, oh, yeah, I just, yep, yep, yep, yep. To me, Alene and Lorkin, they're one of those fictional couples that just work without trying too hard. The treatment and other as equals were trust and respect so valued. He was a violent warrior and now has something someone to truly love and protect and fight for. All right, friends, let us finalize this episode with closing out

with our 10 highlighted moments. We usually do these as foreshadowing, but because this is the end, these are more our favorite moments that stick with us that make the series a god tier series. Number one, the entirety of Alene escaping namesclutches. As someone who is literally writing a book about torture, shouts to oath of the chosen, I, I even squirm sometimes with what happens with

“Karen and Maven what they did to Alene. It's honestly inspiring. But then little moments that we get”

from Alene during those scenes, like that you do not yield that Lexi mentioned earlier, or the blanks with Fenrus and Alene, how one blink means yes, two blanks means no, three blanks means are you okay? Four blanks means I am here. I am with you. Five blanks is this is real. You were awake and six blanks means liar. Like I just the fact that they did all of that without even communicating is just oh my god, but nothing compares to Alene escaping and not thinking that

she was going to escape. The plan was for her to antagonize Karen into literally killing her, but it's Fenrus who after hearing Alene get thrown against the wall, making her first whimper in over two months. He like breaks the blood oath and gives her the opening to make her run for it. And I love love that Rowan and Co are literally running earlier than planned into save her, but it is her who gets to run away and save herself. And the little detail that Alene knows that

this must be real and not one of Maven's visions because Maven never showed her lorkin in her visions.

So it's lorkin's presence here. That tells Alene this is different and yes this must be real. Yes. So I want to talk really quickly about how long Alene was in Maven's clutches because these are actually very interesting numbers. She was in Maven's captivity for two months, three days and seven hours. Now the second chapter in Assassin's Blade opens with quote, two months, three days and about eight hours later, the clock on the mantle chimed noon,

Captain Rolf, Lord of the Pirates was late. Then again, so we're Selena and Sam. That hour difference is not an accident. From later in Assassin's Blade, it is the difference of an hour that Selena was late finding Sam's body still warm. But here, that hour saved her life, because if Rowan had waited two months, three days and eight hours until the moment they'd actually

Like that, that's one of those things where I'm like fucking serrigering that to all my god.

“And also her running out of Maven's camp directly mirrors the day she tried to escape”

and don't be her. Well, this escape starts in the very same way. No plan for her to survive this. This time, she's no longer alone and she does escape with her life. Oh my god! But we're not done yet because one of the most hauntingly beautiful and emotionally powered scenes in the series is when Alene cries, take it off over and over and over again with the Iron Mask on. There is no easy way to

remove it from her until yay Rowan makes word marks with his blood to make them open. And poor girl has been so strong through these past few months, burrowing her emotions and fear because she does not yield. But in the safety of her friends and freedom, the panic creeps up until it's a full blown panic attack. She's clawing at her face to get out of this cage.

“The emotions that she goes through only saying take it off from rage and fear of taking off”

to helplessness and feeling so small, take it off. It is such a real and raw and emotional scene that truly stays with us readers. I'm going to again shout out Elizabeth Evans because the way she changes the take it off, take it off, take it off. Even when there's not a in-text way of changing it up, she does and it's oh my god. It is horrific and perfect along these same lines, Fenris. He deserves his own top 10 highlight. And the bond that he and Alon form

developed from their shared trauma and horrible experiences, they were all each other had during those awful months. They created their own little language that only they share. Maybe knew that by forcing Fenris to watch Alon be tortured would be his own torment and there was nothing he could do about it. Until he was willing to sacrifice himself and go against the blood oath, which in and of itself was supposed to kill him. And Alon subbing in with her own blood oath

and commanding him to live. And once when they're free and Alon's fire surrounds them both as she just holds him. It is the two of them who have just been freed together. And Rowan's not the one holding her in case in the fire. No, it's Fenris and her because they were in this together and they just got out of it. And then later on, she offers that he doesn't have to keep the blood oath because she wants him to have his own autonomy and freedom that he's been denied for

so, so long with Mayave. But of course, a blood oath to Alon is not the same as it is with Mayave. He can be his own person with her and he chooses to fight by her side. And how Fenris stays in his wolf form for so long, completely lost without his twin brother who died because of him. After speaking such horrible things to Fenris, "Ah, my heart does hurts for him so much. Overall, we see Fenris go from this cocky, fun-loving, young at heart mail to a much more

closed-off and quiet mail. The loss of his brother will always be hard on him. But given that he

blamed himself for it, makes it just that much harder. And he also had to watch a female that he now loves like a sister being tormented for two months. Like Alon, we see him having little moments of being his old self, but only when we're in a POV that is not Alon's. When we are in Alon's, though, we kind of see the real sight of him. When he fantastic, show don't tell of how we hide that we are suffering from the wider world. Number three, we already honored the 13th sacrifice,

but it needs a spot in the top 10 for how beautifully it is written, where we are all right there, feeling the emotion and saying no. It is so, so better sweet. And the scene that follows with menon at the sight of where the tower used to stand, but she is not alone as much as he feels it right then. Alon's are behind her all there to honor the 13th as they pay their respects. And there, a whisper on the wind, menon can hear her great-grandmother Glynas say the words, quote,

"be the bridge, be the light, when iron melts, when flowers spring from fields of blood, let the land be witness and return home." And far away, on the barren lands of the western

waste, a flower begins to bloom for the first time in 500 years. Menon is not the only one who

“broke that curse. She is one to unite the witches, bring them here to this fight, so I think of”

her as that bridge, but it is the 13th who carry out the task and bring about the second part of the cure. They are the light, they melt the iron, they are the reason that people brought the flowers to this field of blood. There is something so heart-rangingly special about these memorable character deaths like this that are, again, I think, so better sweet, that serves such a greater

begin to bloom, and a brach-so-slaves. That is a symbolism and a foreshadowing literary masterpiece.

“Yep, number four, the scene where Menon tries to get Dorian to stay and not go to Morath.”

She's afraid that he'll go there and return as something that she doesn't know that she'll have to kill him. And what's left on said is that she cares for him too deeply. Her offering and alliance between them and their kingdoms, aka Menon Proposing marriage, but Dorian sees it for what it really is, a sacrifice. As much as they care for one another, she is too free-spirited to be tied down by marriage, to be truly satisfied with that life.

And then when he tells her to leave her crown on before they banged. I know when more time he leaves while she sleeps. And then when she wakes up and sees that the bed is cold next to her, she'll confess to one of the 13, I thought that he'd stay. And just, "Oh, my heart, my heart." I know we really didn't have time to explore the depth of complexity between their relationships,

“but they, oh my god, their connection is so subtextual, and it's just, it's so well done.”

- The crown on is really masterful. - Leave it on. - Leave it on. Number five, our character's

time and annual, but specifically when Alyn stops the damn water. How fucking amazing! We learn

she has been tunneling into her magic for the past three months, which would be impossible under any normal circumstances. But Alyn took advantage of being unable to release her power for those two months she was in case in the iron. May thought it would be her doom, but Alyn wielded it to her advantage and kept storing it, digging deeper into her bottomless well for Winslash if she escaped. I love it! And I love that she's saving it for the

kill blow for Maeve, very Jack Sparrow of her, but unlike Jack, she uses her shock she's been saving to defeat her enemy to save a city, an army and thousands of people instead. I love it when they're all trying to figure out what to do in the wake of the stamp breaking, and Alyn is just quiet around the chaos around her. And she's thinking, realizing what she has to do, and coming to terms with that. And the way Rowan uses his power to make the steam, you know,

not boil people alive. Like, what teamwork? And then I already talked about one of my other favorite moments when I'll eat races to go get lork and so I'll skip over that here. But oh, my gosh, I love that so much. - Well, in one of my favorite moments in any hell is where I

“rain puts Lord Westfall in this fucking place. Chaos Dad is horrible. Have we mentioned that?”

And the way he talks down to both Irene and Kale is despicable. And I'm quoting her entire clap-back because it is perfection. What? I am the heir apparent to the healer on high of the Tore Chesme. I came at your son's best back to the lands of my birth to help in this war, along with 200 healers from the Tore itself. Your son spent the last several months foraging an alliance with the cognate. And now all of the cognants army sailed to this continent

to save your people. So while you sit here and your miserable keep tossing insults at him, know that he has done what no other could do. And if your city survives, it'll be because of him, not you. - Oh, my God! - I love Irene. - Well, we're on the topic of Irene. I give her the biggest gold star for doing what she's doing while pregnant. Because I really

so much for her first trimester sickness. I had awful nausea and much worse my first four months

with both of my kids. And I could literally barely get out of bed. I ended up almost again hospitalized. And Irene and mothers in every form are such badasses. And how it leads, like, I'm not going to stop because Irene's pregnant. She just don't go when I have to keep up with her. Like, Irene doesn't want to use the medicine for herself. She wants to let it be for the others. She's like, I just give me a few peppermint things. Like, girl, I know that that's not going to help

anything like you. Number six, the reunions between kale, alien, and Dorian. They have all been a part since what the end of Queen of Shadows, right? - Yeah, with kale, yeah. He was even Dorian doesn't really count for that. Because he was awake for like two seconds. And he was like, where am I? - Yeah, yeah. Like, three of them together with all kind of right lines for, for more than a few minutes. It's kind of been since Crown of Midnight. - Yeah. Wow. So starting

with alien and kale, who are so surprised to run into each other in Aniel. - That he shoots to his feet.

And tears starts dreaming down her cheeks because the first thing that alien sees is him standing,

oh my gosh, you did it. I knew you'd do it. What difference from where they've been? Each of them

healing kale for giving her for himself. Oh, it's also beautiful. And their hug, and when he says he didn't heal alone. And then we have Irene and Aelin and Aelin cuts in before he can even introduce his wife. And Aelin is like, Irene towers remembering her. Irene shows her the note that the queen wrote to her years ago and says, quote, "I didn't waste it." Not a coin you gave me or a moment of the time the life you bought me. I didn't waste it. I'm a puddle. But we're not done weeping with the reunions.

“When Dorian meets up with our crew returning from Morath with the key, he sees a writer holding”

a commanding seat. And as kale, Westfall, dismounted, and ran the last few feet toward Dorian,

the king of Otterland, wept. Just so cool is right now. Their romance has journeyed so so far in the series. From boys, planning after the same girl, to all the horrors that they've endured together and apart, the challenges that they've eased faced, the inner and outer trauma, and through it all they are united. And just like the king ordered his hand, he succeeded. In healing himself and in bringing an army, loyal besties to the end. Number seven,

this podcast coverage would be positively incomplete if we did not speculate what Lorcan did. And I'm going to be bonus. This is probably the easiest theorizing you've ever done here at Benus gang girls. Nicole, care to do us the honors. Just wipe my tears away. Hold both of these. Oh my god. So, if Lorcan was going to show a lead,

“everything. And I mean everything. I think it's only right that we fantasy”

fan girls who uncover books deep secrets. Decide, once and for all, what? Lorcan did. Lorcan launched his meat missile. He bumped his ugly into a lead's ugly. He had dinner at the y. He left peek-a-boo with private parts. He started a r... I am doing a bit. He started the rump rump rodeo. He did the no-pan stance. He sailed the noodle canoe. He slapped the stack of buttered pancakes. He gave her his selfie stick.

He fed the kitty. He fell. He flossed the banana slime boats. He bumped with his meat popsicle. He tickled the taco tunnel. He hopped on the beef biscuit. He drowned in the slippery honor. He played Pogo through the custard knuckle re-hungry when he ripped out anything I was. And last, but certainly not least, Lorcan took his skin vote to tuna towel. This is just hilarious, though. And I'd love

their end. He binds his life to hers when they're wet. So, their whole issue of an immortal with a human, it's all. This scary, fay warrior who used to hate to be the butt of a joke. One of the reasons he hated England so much, now he's saying he'll wear Lord Lorcan lock in, probably for the rest of his life, even if the whole kingdom laughs at it. They will get their happily ever after, going to ramp to rebuild. I'm just so happy. All right, number eight,

because so much happens at the end of this book. It would not be right if we did not go beat by beat through the three endings, starting with the lock, the gate, and the gods. Before making

“it to orange, the crew decides it is time to put it to a vote. They have the three key. It's”

finally together. Should they go ahead and seal the gate, wiping Arrowwon off the board. Because

remember, when the gods leave this world, they're taking Arrowwon with them. And killing, Aelin, or Dorian, but really Aelin. Now, the gods would be leaving too, which also means that there's a possibility silver, aka Irene's powers would leave. But this means the Arrowwon with the gun, and his entire vulgarmy might also cease to exist the moment the gate is closed, and he is in another world. So that's option one. Option two, do they wait? Go north to

orange as fast as possible, fighting the entire vulgarmy, but it would also risk Maeve or Arrowwon getting their hands on the keys again. So it is time to put it to a vote, and it is decided to do it now. Which brings us to a compromise between poor poor Rowan and Aelin, deciding to have both Aelin and Dorian forge a new lock.

either Dorian or Aelin have to sacrifice all their power, including their life. But if it's both

“of them, they might be able to pour half of their power to forge a new lock. So before the others”

have the opportunity to weigh in on their thoughts, democracy be damned, apparently. Dorian and Aelin along with Kaylan and Rowan to watch, go and forge the gate. So here we go. Drawing the word mark for open, closed lock unlock into the ground. The word mark she learned from the beginning of this tail, which is crazy, then Aelin begs a slice down her forearm and the black word keys go right on inside. Smash cuts to the between realm. Aelin and Dorian are standing in front of an

archway, which leads back to their world smelling of pine and snow. The twist. And so Aelin and Dorian begin pouring their magic into the lock and it becomes clear in front of them. But it also becomes clear that no way is either of them surviving this. Then they hear one word. Stop. It is from

“Dorian's father, the original king of Otterland. Not the father who was possessed by a Volk, though.”

Instead, it was the father who was inside all along fighting against the possession from Aeron. How did Daddyo get here? Dumb Morris. Dorian was wearing Dumb Morris when he entered the word marks. And the sword decided there was apparently one last truth he needed. The truth. Nameless is my

price. And we finally get the double meaning behind the long since heard phrase. Yes, it meant

that you're a descendant of Brandon and the basterborn Mark and all of that. But Dorian's father, whose name was taken by Aeron is also nameless. Jumping ahead a little, because it's not here that we learn Dorian's father's name. Instead, it is in the final face off with Aeron. Dorian orders Aeron to tell him his father's name to give it back, give it back into existence. And Aeron shares the he wiped the name from existence. But the king remembered it only once when he was

naming his son Dorian. Yes, his father named his son after him because beholding his son for the first time was the only moment the previous king was brought back to himself. So, because of this,

back to the word gate, Dorian Sr will pay the price in Dorian Jr's stead. But Aeron will have to

continue on because Dorian Sr only has just enough power to cover Dorian's sacrifice. And before he can know it, Dorian is pushed back through the archway back to Eurelia while Aeron and Daddyo continue to make the lock. It's back in the real world when Dorian tells Kael and Rowan what happened and Rowan realizes that no matter what this was Aeron's plan, to kick Dorian out and sacrifice herself. Quote, she had lied. His fire heart had lied and now he would watch her die.

I'm sorry, El Aeron again for another lie to your mate and husband poor fucking Rowan! Oh my god, back in the word gate. Aeron and Dorian Sr continue to poor poor poor magic into this new lock. And just as the king vanishes, so does Aeron's magic. Not a drop is left with in her and the lock is reforged. Suddenly, the gods appear, Elaina is held captive ready to be summoned back to their worlds so they can get home at last. They're like, all right, it's time. The train

was supposed to leave 40,000 years ago, excuse me, and it is here that Elaina will have to use her last kernel of self to seal the gate after them shutting them in their world. And then we get the famous line. Once upon a time, in a land long since burned ash, their lived a young princess who loved her kingdom. And it is here where Elaina offers them a bargain. To which the gods, Diana specifically, is like, da ha ha, a bargain? I'm 40,000 years late for a meeting in my room!

Meh! But one god offers to hear it. While we don't get her name, we know her voice is kind and loving, and we can assume that this is the goddess Malah. Elaina's bargain is as such. She will not make them take Arrow on back with them. Instead, leaving him here in Australia, this is an interesting take, Elaina. But in return, they would allow Elaina to go into the after world where she can spend it with those she loves. Remember, part of Elaina's punishment for bringing Elaina back

to life when she was eight is that Elaina can no longer go spend the rest of her life with Gavin

“in the after world. She would basically be alone in the ether. Now, why on earth would Elaina do this?”

Great fucking question! Elaina's already dead! Why would she do this? During the vote, Elaina, of course, had an ulterior motive. She wanted to hear them say that they could defeat Arrow on on their own if he was left in this world. Without the gods taking him whenever they

and Elaina got that reassurance. Thus, giving her the opening to save Elaina's soul from being

damned and alone forever. Again, Elaina's already dead! I'm sorry! I don't have any remorse for her. But, the gods are like, "We'll be so nice. We'll be so remorseful." We'll fulfill one part of the plan. Will leave Arrow one in Arabia? But, both Elaina's dead, leaving Elaina alone in this in-between world as they go strutting into their world of green meadows and grasses and cows or whatever assholes are fucking assholes. But, one God decides to

“remain. Mala Firebringer. Remember, Mala was the one who sacrificed herself to foraging the original”

lock the island Elaina. She forgot herself as a result, and she also forgot her daughter and her husband in the process. But, here, Mala hesitates almost like she remembers, and more specifically,

she remembers that Elaina is her heir. So, she asks Elaina to seal the gate. But, first,

she holds out a hand and offers Elaina a kernel of her power. Quote, "For what you offered on her behalf, for fighting for her, for all of them. With this extra power, Elaina will be able to seal the gate for the gods and still have a piece of herself left so she can travel back home." But, how does she get home? Where's the nearest exit on this highway of life? But, the tattoo on her back has a hidden meaning. Rowan tattooed the story of her and him on her back in the old language.

But, within that story, he hid word marks that are a map for her to travel back home to him. "Oh my God, this is beautiful." So, right before she seals the gate behind the gods to their

realm, Elaina is brilliant. She taps into that eternal god-like power through the gate and furious

at them for their deceit and leaving Erawan in the world, while poofing Elaina out of existence, Elaina rips a hole in the sky in their peaceful meadow home. A hole straight to hell that she accidentally opened a portal to back at the beginning of the story. This is back in front of midnight. And, then, Elaina closes the gate with just hell raining down on the gods. Bravo, Elaina, brava. Then, Elaina slings out a kernel of her new power from Mala towards the lock and leaves through

the gate back to her own world. But, she's not suddenly back in Erawania. She is falling past world after world, after world, after world, worlds of light, worlds of towers, some large, some small, past, quote, "a great city had been built along the curve of a river, the buildings impossibly tall, and glimmering with lights." "Hi, Luna, the end! Oh my god! I love it so much, that's crescent city! Yeah, it is where crescent city is!" Then, she goes past a world of

rain and green and wind, shout to wind, watch, even though that's a completely different series. Past a world of only oceans, but she's going too fast, fast, fast, too fast. And then, oh my god, I'm like covered head to toe and shells. She passes through a world of snow-capped mountains under shining stars, where a winged female stands beside a heavily pregnant,

“faffy male, both of them staring up at stars. Elaina is probably splinging, huh?”

"Oh my god, I did the best!" "Wow!" "Shouts, that was a throwback!" "It was a throwback!" "I got that! I got that! I got that!" Elaina flings her hand out, trying to signal to the couple that she can't stop, she can't stop. And the male, who is the most beautiful man, she's ever seen! He's actually just beautiful beyond reason, looks up at her, and she, oh my god, and lifts a hand, releasing a gentle summer's night power, slowing her down. Now, I'm not going to just

word vomit a bunch of nassverse spoilers here, but I do want to highlight that kingdom of Ash came out in 2018, and a certain ac guitar book came out in 2021. There is a three-year difference here. Sarah J. Mass, you psycho-path, oh my god! Now, after being flown down, Elaina sees her home, the land of pine and snow, and she throws herself back into the world, back into her own body. Bravo! That could have been the ending, that could have been the ending! But it's not,

because we still have Maeve and Aero1 to deal with, so we're going to smash cut back to Orent.

“Remember, there are thousands of vogue attacking, and Aidean and crew are basically just”

holding out into the last of them die. On the battlefield, when all hope is officially officially lost, in runs a line of golden armored soldiers, followed by a hoard of flying rookin, the fierce dark on horse lords, the army of the little folk, and, of course, writing in on

there's not an immediate turning up the tides. Orent is still fading, and walking in together,

“side by side, Aero1 and Maeve, ready to watch Tarzan's downfall. Aelin runs right to them, though,”

with absolutely no magic. She's got, maybe a Colonel, maybe a little Colonel left, but she's going to hold the gate. Aelin is striding towards our big bads here, and we get the all we get this line, quote, "Her name was Aelin, Ash River, White Thorn, Galithinius, and she would not be afraid." And this is the last time we hear that line in the series. Oh my gosh! But she's not here to end our two big bads. She is here to buy her loved

one's time. How? By talking, of course, joking about how she misses the pairington form, joking about how she spent 10 years building up to this moment for give her for wanting to save her it, taunting about how the keys are gone. And, of course, outing Maeve on her plan to send

“Aero1 home, surprise Aero1, Maeve was going to betray you all along. Understandably,”

the shakes up the volcano little, especially knowing that there are healers upon healers upon healers in the city. Aero1's greatest fear. So what does Aero1 do? Hey, about my music and buy, and Elkin comes in and picks him up, taking him to the healers so he can end their power once and for all.

Leaving Aelin to face off with Maeve. Let's stay with these two for a second. Maeve starts off

by trying to distract Aelin with illusions, convincing her that she's dreaming and that she's back to being tortured, trying to trick Aelin into giving Maeve the blood of, but Aelin's mind is too strong, and thankfully she does not fall for the illusion. And then, the cadre joins the fray, Rowan, Fenris, and Lorcan all charge at Maeve. But her illusion magic shifts to them, and they all begin screaming. Rowan sees Aelin's body dead on the spikes of the gates of orange.

Then Lyria standing behind him saying, quote, "You brought this upon her, too," I suppose. Calling him a lesser male that he only brings suffering to those he loves. Fenris is trapped in

wolf form seeing his twin brother. Connell says that everything that happened to him was because

of Fenris, and that he didn't even mourn his twin. But since Fenris is a wolf, he cannot talk back. And Lorcan sees Aelin, standing in front of the lofty towers of Peramp, but she is telling him that he is nothing. He is nobody. And when he admits that he thinks she might be his mate, vision a lead says, quote, "Nate, why would you ever think he were entitled to such a thing after all you've done?" But then he sees old a lead on her deathbed while he remains young

at her side. But wait, Aelin, taking the burning golden sword because, yeah, did I forget to mention golden on fucking fire, as she wides in with the Lord of the North, she uses the fire to burn Rowan Fenris and Lorcan shaking them from their visions. Distracting Mabel taunts. Aelin writes word marks she learned from the books that Kael and Irene brought back from the Southern continent. She writes them in the snow, opening a portal to the ancient tribe of the wolf

writing terrorists and fay, who have been long since victimized by Maeve and her Stigian spiders by keeping all of their healers chained up. The wolf tribe storms in and attacks Moraff's unsuspecting ranks while Rowan through the Karnaumbond gives Aelin his magic. Though all of this time Fenris is lying on the ground and only through their four blinks does he start to come back and then he vanishes. When it was away, reappearing right behind Maeve and stabs her through the heart with golden.

Just to really finish her off, then Aelin puts the golden ring, Silpa's forged ring that was once atheroes. The ring goes right on her finger and she gets ripped apart from within. And then just

“to triple make sure Aelin then swings golden and be heads her. But remember, I want to be bird though.”

I want searches for the healer, seeing Irene immediately, going down to taunt and ready to kill her. But suddenly, he can't move! Surprise! Motherfucker, you are trapped and immobile in a wordmark, and Irene suddenly shifts to a man with sapphire eyes. Hello, Dorian, who's shape shift into Irene to be bait. Irene drops onto the tower, being dropped off by Lysander in Rookhorn, everyone just wants to fly today, and immediately her power glows bright. Elite plunges to Morris into Arrow 1's gut.

Dorian uses his raw magic in the form of healing to stagger Arrow 1 back, and Irene gets to business, thinking of a better world and hope and every ounce of her optimism over Shadows Arrow 1's darkness.

describe the vault in the series, that is all. How dare you bring that up and not allow yourself

“to scream about that in the microphone, by the way. When her magic slows down, Dorian barrels his”

own into her, replenishing her quote into warmth and strength and joy. And finally, Irene gets to

his core. The twisted, hateful creature inside of him, and she swallows it with her healing magic home. Her hands go eases until he has nothing left but a dark flame, and then she snuffs it out. Rodded Gray Skin immediately is burned by Dorian. An Arrow 1 is nothing but ashes and dead dead dead. the chance go wild for Irene! I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read, I read

How great a father he would have been to 80 and if he ever had the chance to know that his son existed and got to be the father that he did want to be, you know, his sacrifice for his son in his mind would be the greatest act of his life. I really do think that that is what was really truly driving him to go to tears and yes of course he appreciates loves and respects alien but it was really for his son that he had that own personal motivation. And then

if I need to lean, by having advantage lean in the story, we get to experience what this war looks like from the eyes of a child and while she's not on the page for very much the series at all, she does play a vital role in winning over the ruling families of terracen. Not even just for alien but it just kind of happened because she's such a wonderful little child and she provides the reader a different perspective especially when there's so many different POVs and so much going

on with this war. She also provides the reader a different perspective too. When she first appears in

this book we get to see her be unapologetically excited to see alien and by Sandra, not just with relief but pure joy and at the time the two of them they're not feeling too great towards each other. Later we experience her fear but also how these circumstances they're retiring her in real time and she is not fearful for herself but for those that she loves. I also think that her role as showing alien as a father figure because an alien really does take on that for yes, Darrow obviously

it softens this asshole of a man. But it really does show that an alien would be a great father figure

“and especially given the relationship that he had for this father. I think that that's just a”

great way of softening an alien in order to make the transition from him and Lysandra not being okay. Yeah, to him and Lysandra, committing themselves to each other. Exactly and like you said though with Darrow as well where we could see the humanity within him and several of the other leaders as well of Teresan. I love a grandpa softy. I love a grandpa softy figure. Oh shoot what's the same because with an m oh gosh. Mark Rampartot. Mark Rampartot. Mark Rampartot. Mark Rampartot. Mark Rampartot.

Mark Rampartot. Mark Rampartot. Mark Rampartot. Mark Rampartot. Mark Rampartot. Mark Rampartot. Mark Rampartot. Yeah that was so sad. So sad. Anyway I just wanted to highlight those two of course there are so many more but those two in particular and number 10 let's close this out folks last but certainly not least the beautiful symbolism of so many moments at the end. Lysandra walking in with a chin held high the lady of Carvera she used to worry whether she would be deserving at this title

“and in this war Lysandra has proved herself beyond a doubt she was essential in this fight for”

a better world. She's this powerful and brave shape shifter who's respected and revered and I just

love that so much for her. The crown that Darrow places on Alien with twinning bands of gold like woven antlers and in its center is not a gem not some flashy gem no no but something infinitely more precious. The cut bit of crystal containing the only bloom of King's flame from Orland's reign it was most precious to him and his symbol of peace it was what he was so proud of that he was able to make the King's flame bloom during his reign and now it is bestowed upon Alien and then

when Alien asks her loved ones to walk out with her all of him because this celebration this win for a better world it truly does belong to all of them like we've been saying this will episode. Every single one of them has contributed to this better world and fought for it in sacrifice for it and held on to hope for it against all the odds. Alien and Rowan with their first dance wearing a gown of black and gold that makes me think back to the dragon dress she wore for

both of them with crowns of fire just free and happy and it's love and Kale's mother's letter

“expressing her love for him and how proud she is of her son and that she hopes she can stay with”

them once he and his family are settled. Kale is finally getting his family he loves and I

reen is starting to tolerate Chesme here in Eurelia because of course she is that just makes sense and finally let's bring the series home with the King's flame blooming. I love so so much how Alien finally gets to experience this magical joy at the end where she sees the King's flame blooming across the entire plane of Thralis. It's a symbol of peace dating back to the reign

of Brandon and the King's flame blooming is proof that a new era of a better world is here at

last thanks to all of our characters and especially Alien leading this kingdom into the light to whatever end and there we have it fantasy fangirls has officially covered the throne of glass series in this four part fan guide. You're welcome people from the back of us for two and a half

“you have to understand why. We really hope that you've loved this different approach. I know I've”

absolutely loved talking about this epic series and revisiting it being reminded how much I love it.

I also think that we so funny because this was our first time ever doing something like this and we were

expecting it to be a little bit of a, I'll call it a lower lift but not in a way of like half-assing it because if you know us we don't have half-ass anything. It was more like a okay like we'll talk about you know like everything you need to know before X-books and then we decided to add the second part where it was much more of a character analysis a deep dive and when I say that this is the hardest episodes we've ever outlined I've seen it. Oh my god these were some of the

hardest outlines because there was so much in these books that we feel like deserves these moments in the spotlight and I think we did a good job. I like to think so too. Yeah and thank you all so much for listening and joining us. It really does mean so much. Thank you for being on this journey

“with us. The only thing that is making me not want to immediately go back and do a reread is because”

next Monday we are kicking it off with one of my favorite books of all time when the moon hatched as we prep for that deep dive. Next week is a no spoilers fan guide for when the moon hatched as we get so excited for our deep dive the following Monday which is March 9th covering the prologue through chapter 15. That episode spoilers for the entire world. Oh my god. Thank you to our throne of glass content guest researcher Sammy for all of her help on these fan guides. Oh my god

it would have been impossible to do them without you. Yes and of course our executive producer aka our sanity manager Hayden also co-host of fantasy fan fellas. Please give us a follow on Instagram and slash heart TikTok @fansyfango's pod and fantasy fan fellas and fantasy fan reads. And last but not least share this with your fellow Throne of glass friends who ever you would go to whatever end for. Alright everybody thank you so much. Bye bye. Lorken launched his meat muscle. He bumped his

ugly into a lethal missile shit. Oh my god. All right we're going to do that again. Excuse me.