#koa reread

[kanerallels]

There are many reasons why the King of Attolia is my favorite book in TQT, honestly. It's just-- he's far from home but he's with the woman he loves. He's been forced into a role he doesn't want, but he's doing his best to learn everything he can about it so he can do it well. He acts like a fool and lets his courtiers make fun of him but he knows exactly what he's doing. Everyone thinks he's torturing poor Costis but he's actually making a friend in his own unique way, and finding an ally. It's this combination of "kid far from home looking for anyone as a friend and ally" and "genius plotter getting rid of his enemies and also winning the loyalty of everyone around him using the world's most convoluted plan possible" all while he's also navigating a new marriage

The second best part is Aulus and Boagus

[dieinct]

can anyone who has read the later queens thief books tell me whether the truly disgusting orientalism abt the mede empire lays up at any point in time? it's the reason i never read the costis and kamet book and i would frankly LIKE to it just. is so viscerally distracting i don't want it to sour me on the series

[imaginariumgeographica]

You know what it is about costis is its the former gifted child vibes

[cheeeryos]

[feyarchived]

i’ve got >50 pages of hofas and then im DONE* with the maas worlds FOREVER

[idfendyr]

You're prbly gonna hate me for this

But I was rereading EOS and on the part where Manon goes against her grandmother, before that, Asterin says what she thinks were her last words

"Bring our people home, Manon."

And then Manon snaps and goes to kill her grandmother, fights her long enough and, in her narrative, stay alive long enough for her thirteen to escape. To get a shot at surviving.

She was ready to die if they got to live.

Then in KOA, Asterins last words to Manon are,

"Bring our people home, Manon."

Now, several things.

Firstly, in EOS she may have said these as more of a plea, but in KOA she says it was a kind of, like, determination and confidence, because she truly believed in Manon to do it. Had fate that the witch she had turned into could and would do it.

Second, her last words to Manon were always meant to be a promise Manon was supposed to make to her. So even if she was dead, there was something of Asterin with her.

Now, lastly, her saying this in KOA was all this. But I can't help but think it was also like she wanted Manon to remember when she first said those words to her. How Manon was ready and willing to die for them to live.

So in a way it was for Asterin and the thirteen to indirectly say, You were willing to die for us, we're willing to die for you.

BECAUSE THAT WHAT IT WAS.

They were willing to die for her to live just as she was for them.

Suffer with me.

[emerydraws]

grgh.

starting my reread of KoA tonight ! miss these bastards

[kanerallels]

The thing about Eugenides and Attolia is that they both have this impossible way of, despite being prickly little jerks sometimes, making anyone and everyone who follows them absolutely ride or die for them

[sophiekrd226]

A few days ago, I was rereading KOA with my friend, and I hadn’t noticed the similarities Elain might have with Yrene regarding their powers (might contain TOG spoilers):

-It’s mentioned twice that Elain’s body glowed when she came out of the Cauldron (ACOMAF and ACOSF) and Yrene also glowed with her healing power (which was also said to be a power of life and death 🤯).

-Yrene’s power could open portals to other worlds and was crucial in defeating Erawan, something I think Elain could do too 🫶

I’m not sure if anyone’s talked or thought about Elain possibly having a second power similar to Yrene’s, but if so, tag me! I’d love to dive deeper into this if anyone shares it ❤️

[kimchiagustd]

one week post KOA reading and not surprisingly, i am still mourning... spoilers ahead but i need to let go of all these feelings.

i miss this new family i discovered, the excitement of the next chapter or the next book, the anguish, the tears, the cliffhangers, the surprises, the couples and friendships dynamics. i miss everything about tog!

my brain is still processing aaaallllll the events of 7000 pages and a lot of things are settling when i could not process everything while still reading the books…

but to me, this saga is a masterpiece for so many reasons. as a woman, there are so many things validating in these books, i don’t even know where to begin with.

the sorority in tog is still mind blowing to me, probably my favorite part of the whole saga, that we clearly don’t talk about enough. the ending with aelin walking to meet her people with her girlfriends, marching with them as equals still gives me goosebumps. aelin and lysandra friendship (bestfriends and soulmates), aelin and ansel friendship (free young spirits), aelin and manon friendship (rivals then equal queens), aelin and yrene friendship (sisters), aelin and nesryn friendship (admiration and role models), aelin and elide friendship (bonded by fate and a love for the same kingdom) are so precious to me... i could write entire essays about them. i adore how all the female characters just fell in love with aelin, saw her vision of a better world and just followed her to the end. and then, the thirteen, do i even need te explain myself? i think a part of me will forever mourn them. the heartbreak i felt after their death is unspeakable. i never read a book with such flawed and beautiful characters. asterin (her hunter and her whichling), sorrel, vesta, imogen, ghislaine, faline, fallon, edda, briar, thea, kaya and linnea have my whole heart.

marion and josefin are branded in my very soul. their characters had so few pages but gods, how their sacrifice still resonate in me...

then the different journeys of all the characters… chaol has a special place in my heart, despite everything, despite all these things being said about him. he had so many flaws, did so many mistakes, but what a journey, what a fight against depression and disability, what an end… he was so lost and tormented throughout thousands of pages, even while being passionately in love with celeana (not aelin!), and is so appeased at the end, married and soon to be a dad… i rarely felt so proud of someone, fictional character or not. i am convinced chaol is one of the best written characters of the saga.

i read a lot of mean things about aedion too and that just broke my heart because the man redefined loyalty all by himself. he lost everything he was taught to believe in, whored himself with the enemy for his people while believing he lost his entire family and kingdom, lost every men and women in koa as a general (his very essence as a person!) and still held the line for hundreds of pages like rowan told him to do so. I. JUST. DON'T. GET. WHY. he is so hated for some fights with lysandra (that i don't excused!) in a horrific context, in the middle a many battles and thousands of casualties. just reread aedion's arc during koa : the only thing he experienced for hundreds of pages is failure, death, grief, terror and guilt, believing he failed terrasen again. LEAVE. MY. MAN. ALONE. plus, aedion is a bisexual icon, and he slayed the whole books, period.

same thing with lorcan. oh my lorcan… i won’t even begin with him but gods, what awful things i read about him… i don't know why but i fell really hard for this character, despite knowing very few things about him. he was far from being perfect, we agree on that. but what a redemption arc. him being finally at peace at the end, after 500 years of wars, (self-)hatred and being used and fooled by a valg bitch queen, made me tear up as mush as sam's death (shocking, i know but i don't make the rules).

i think, surprisingly regarding our society, people were harsher with the male characters than the female ones. aelin, manon, lysandr and elide lied and did mistakes too, yet somehow, people forgave them immediately. i think we should reflect on that.

a few words about baby dorian too... i think his end was my biggest and bitter disappointment at the end of the whole saga. i can't even tell how his ending wreaked me. he is the one character not at peace at the end of this whole journey. his city is utterly ruined, he is alone in his big castle (the very place where he lost the first woman he sincerely loved and the very place where he was enslaved) with the thought he killed the man he hated his whole life but somehow wasn't the bad guy, his friends are all married or happily in love, even manon won back the witches and her lost kingdom... but dorian is lonelier than ever and that does not sit right with me. he was such a hopeful and loving young man at the beginning of the saga but is broken at the end... i NEED a sequel, he deserves one, more than anyone.

and rowan, oh rowan... i think "love" is not strong enough to define aelin and rowan relationship. the way they overcame depression together long before falling in love with each other is one of the most beautiful thing of this saga. they just saw each other. i love how rowan accepted aelin 1000000%, flaws, scars, fire and all. i love how he never overstepped. like many people, i read acotar before tog and thought no one could surpassed rhysand but how wrong i was... to me, rowan is the best for so many reasons. he never took decisions for aelin, always respected her every moves, respected her pace, never lied to her. i am emotional writing this because him saying "aelin is my heart... my fireheart"... *sob* aelin loves rowan with every bones and cells in her body but rowan's love for aelin? i don't know, there's something about it, i can't find the right words... i don't think i'll ever find an other rowan in an other book. rowan was intensity, hatred, heartbreak, depression, longing, guilt, pain, redemption, learning, harshness, softness, falling in love, crossing an ocean for the woman he loved, giving her an armada when he had nothing, tattooing wyrdkeys in her back to bring her back to him, waiting, loving, loving, loving again and again and again. rowan is suddenly the sweetest and most beautiful name i've ever heard. rowan is love and so much more. rowan is aelin's heart and soul and the key to this new world because aelin without rowan is fear and too far gone. rowan is everything. and what i am about to write seems crazy but i think because there's so much things happening in tog, so much characters loving each other, so many couples we rooted for, we took for granted rowan's love and actions and he somehow became a secondary character - crazy, right? i think we loved passionately his character (especially in hof and qos) but somehow forgot on the way how utterly incredible and unique he is. him saying in qos aelin must build a theater in terrasen after the war and then him offering it to her as a mate / wedding gift at the end of koa? i mean, our boy is a man of his word and i love him so much for it. WE TOOK ROWAN FOR GRANTED AND DID NOT GIVE HIM ENOUGH CREDIT.

anyway, i could write so many more things about so many characters and scenes that broke me in these books (my same is sam cortland and i am not afraid) but you got the idea.

tog is the best saga i've ever read and i am not the same person anymore after reading it. i'll take time to heal. but how grateful i am i have a good run with all these characters...

[rowaelinsdaughter]

it's been 7 hours since I finished my koa reread and im still numb from the cry and my heart has a hole in it. like, i have reread tog 3 times and i have the same emotions, i cry, i laugh, i i i.... I LOVE TOG SO MUCH I WANT TO CRY AGAIN AND DONT TALK TO ME PLEASE OR ILL CRY AGAIN

[feyarchived]

i’m starting hosaf wish me luck getting through this brick thank u

[thesistersarcheron]

Hi pretty lady!

I’m currently a hundred pages into Heir of Fire and I am NOT feeling Rowan even though I know that he’s endgame. I’m currently still mourning Sam (my baby) and just feel like I’m not gonna fall in love with Rowan and Aelin like I have other pairings even though I really want to. Without spoiling the rest of the series can you tell me if it gets better and if I might eventually love him too? I know we have a lot of the same tastes in ships so I thought I would ask!!

Thanks ❤️❤️

I’m gonna be real with you, anon: I was focusing too hard on Manon and Elide (and potential connections to the ACOTAR universe) while I was reading HOF-KOA to remember much about Rowan Whitethorn.

I was his #1 Hater when I was reading HOF and now I think about him somewhat fondly, so… he must have redeemed himself at least a little bit. 😂

Slight spoilers below the cut, but nothing that will ruin your reading experience in my opinion:

I’m also a big Chaol stan (I mean, come on, he saves the dog every chance he gets and I fuck with men like that), so I was tearing through Rowaelin’s story in Empire of Storms to get to Chaol’s story in Tower of Dawn.

Overall, he’s not my least favorite love interest from SJM, but I also wasn’t very invested in Aelin as a main character, which might be why I’m not so interested. I have been thinking about rereading TOG lately, so that may change.

[goddess-aelin]

I’m rereading parts of KOA and I think we don’t talk enough about how after Elide told him that she didn’t care if he walked off the battlefield, Lorcan had absolutely zero self worth left. He let his shield drop during the battle to invite death to come to him. He was never planning on making it back to the keep and basically said no one would miss him. It hurts my heart and it’s absolutely an overlooked part of KOA.

Great now I’ve made myself cry

[kanerallels]

Ahhh, to be lying in a pose of intense apathy

[yazthebookish]

It's been a while so here are some updates!

I READ GOLDFINCH LAST MONTH AND I AM STILL HEARTBROKEN THE PLATED PRISONER SERIES IS OVER (or at least Auren and Slade's arc). I loved it so much but I warn you that you'll get hurt. I'm saving a commission to celebrate Goldfinch on its release day 💛

ALSO! I finished my Throne of Glass reread early this month and had such a blast with this reread!! I already miss them 🥹

I made summary posts for TAB, TOG, COM, HOF, QOS and EOS (almost took me out that's why I skipped TOD and KOA). I don't know how I keep finding easter eggs and clues with every reread, it's my first reread of the series since HOFAS came out, so it's fun to connect new info to what we know already 👀

A comprehensive Throne of Glass series guide is in the works which I've been promising everyone I'll do for a very long time. It genuinely makes me happy when readers enjoy these posts and I get to read everyone's thoughts and theories ❤️

I'm bummed we didn't get any updates or news from SJM about the next ACOTAR book but I'm accepting that the earliest we're getting it is September 2025 (since SJM doesn't seem to release during Summer seasons).

That won't stop me from posting new theories and I'm cooking some really good ones 👀 that might mean I'll have to reread HOFAS 🤡