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Manon, a half assed attempt

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(I hope no one has done that yet)

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Our friends at Osprey Games have just announced A NEW, OFFICIAL card game based on the Throne of Glass series! Featuring artwork from Coralie Jubénot: Embers of Memory: A Throne of Glass Game is coming October 2019. Pre-order your copy here: www.bloomsbury.com/superpage/sarah-j-maas-books

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The full sleeve art for the Barnes & Noble edition of Kingdom of Ash!

I was honored to be involved in the final installment, both Sarah and the series definitely shaped my life a little bit. Hope you all enjoy the final book! 

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Me starting the final ToG book:

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Who wants to join the Aelin support group??

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Nehemia was gone. That vibrant, fierce, loving soul; the princess who had been called the Light of Eyllwe; the woman who had been a beacon of hope—just like that, as if she were no more than a wisp of candlelight, she was gone.

You deserved better.

I’ve had several paintings of Nehemia throughout the years, but only one I’ve finished. Each painting I tried to do, I just felt like never actually captured her. I’ve tried so many times to even come close to this beautiful, strong, amazing princess. I hope I did her some sort of justice. 

Instagram

Prints of this on my Redbubble

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It’s dawning on me just how genuinely difficult it is to figure out if an FMA character is good or bad when they’re introduced.

And this is because literally 90% of them debut by trying to beat the shit out of Ed. Seriously. If you tally up every good/ally character at the end and divide them into “tried to beat up Ed in their introductory episode” and “did not try to beat up Ed”, I’m willing to bet the first category is larger. 

A list of eventually “good” characters who were introduced by assaulting Edward Elric:

Roy Mustang

Winry Rockbell (manga introduction)

Scar

Izumi Curtis

Greed

Greed again

Slicer(s)

Tim Marcoh

Ling Yao

Lanfan

Fu

Mei Chang

Buccaneer

The Entire Briggs Mountain Army

Jerso

Zampano

Darius

Heinkel

I made a helpful collage

Extra fun fact, the series Big Bad, Father, is introduced to Ed by healing Ed’s wounds. Ed and Al spend at least five minutes of that episode thinking “Maybe this dude isn’t so bad” which honestly I understand when you consider 2/3 of the people Ed meets typically try to kill him.

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some characters from Throne of Glass

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I’ve always struggled with why I like Aelin so much. Not in that I feel as if I shouldn’t love her—I wholeheartedly adore Aelin. She’d my favorite character from, like, anything. She’s a total chaotic-good badass in the same vein as Matrim Cauthon (my SON) and Magnus Bane.

But like…why this character? Why have I chosen this one to devote an entire blog life to? I mean seriously, I’ve been reading fantasy books forever, and though I’ve read books I initially love as much as ToG (Kate Daniels, the Fever Series), ToG is what I’ve stuck with longest in terms of obsession. And it’s largely due to Aelin. 

While I was reading The Assassin’s Blade the other day, I was struck by just how angry Aelin is. She’s in Skull’s Bay and she’s just…fixing for a fight. She’s this hot ball of rage, of fury, of untamed, unfettered anger. 

And that’s when I realized how few female characters we get who are this angry, who are allowed to be so angry. I mean in real life, anger is a masculine coded emotion. We associate it with men, it is accepted within men, and while men are viewed as having anger, women are viewed as being emotional. (you can check out Stephanie Shields Speaking From the Heart: Gender and the Social Meaning of Emotions for more on this). In other words, women are viewed as being innately emotional. Women’s emotions are coded as being part of who they are, not due to some external force. So she’s being emotional, rather than reacting appropriately to something that has happened. And we view the only acceptable emotion in men as anger. 

This leaves very little space for female anger. Either you’re being “overly emotional” or “over reacting.” Or, you’re being too masculine. You’re angry, like a man. Your rage is not something people want to see. 

In fiction, we get so few angry female characters. And I mean truly angry characters. Not momentary anger. Not the anger of Inej telling Kaz she will have him without his armor. Not the anger of Hermione yelling at Harry for not speaking to Ron in book 4. Not the anger of Elizabeth turning down Darcy’s proposal. A raging, burning, angry female character. Where is she?

She’s Aelin. Aelin, for all of the Assassin’s Blade, for ToG, CoM, and most of HoF, is angry. She’s furious. At the King, at the empire, at Chaol, at Rowan, at Maeve, and finally, at herself. She has other moments of course. She’s happy, she’s sad, she cries, she laughs, she enjoys herself. But underneath it is the well of anger, anger that she rarely accesses, because as she explains to Rowan, “I’m afraid I’d burn the whole world down out of spite.” 

And we see that anger break free at times. When she kills Archer Flynn. When she yells at Emrys and Luca. When she screams at Rowan about the fae genocide. When she beats him up. She keeps her anger leashed, for the most part, and HoF is really where we see that anger crest and break the dam. It’s so deliciously good. 

Because why shouldn’t she be angry? She’s been dealt a shit hand. Her family murdered, her kingdom colonized, her best friends murdered, her childhood dominated by an abusive monster, her first love dead, her second love hates her and on and on. Why shouldn’t Aelin Galathynius be pissed?

I think why so many people see a change in her post HoF is that in part, she loses the anger. That’s okay. You can’t be angry forever, and part of her journey is allowing herself to release that anger, to acknowledge it, to stop pushing it down. Throne of Glass is, I think, at its core the story of a young woman learning to let herself be angry and then conquering that anger. In QoS and EoS she’s still the cocky, badass, chaotic-good, witty Aelin that we know and love. But she’s a lot less angry. Yes, she’s still pissed. At Darrow, at Maeve, at Elana, at the Gods damned gods. But…she’s learned to be okay with that anger. She’s realized that she won’t burn the whole world down. 

Anyways, I love Aelin because she’s angry. And I love SJM for giving us an angry female character. And I love her even more for doing it again with Nesta. 

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A Aelin and Rowan matchbox design I did for Fox and Wit!

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I think that one of my favorite parts of Assassin’s Blade is how… Celaena has all this ego and swagger, but she goes out of her way to free slaves, to teach a woman how to defend herself, to fund her so she can become a healer, she felt remorse when she realized she’d killed someone who was working to free more slaves.

And this is Deep Assassin territory, this is Celaena “shirking” her duties as princess and supposedly wearing dresses and flitting about Rifthold and killing people without a conscience. At least, that’s the reputation. It’s a good thing she became an assassin because it taught her the skills she needed to survive, but she was never cut out for it, not really. Not when she cares so much about people, even though she pretends otherwise.

It makes all the comments about how annoying she is and how her confidence is overblown etc. seem to miss the mark so horribly.

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RATTLE THE STARS!

Come celebrate the epic finale of the Throne of Glass series with Sarah J. Maas and fellow readers! 

Sarah will be making four exclusive tour stops across the country, and each special event will feature trivia, a Kingdom of Ash photo booth, a pop-up bookshop filled with Sarah’s favorite reads, exclusive event swag, and so much more! With your ticket, you will also receive a special tour edition of Kingdom of Ash signed by Sarah herself (available only at these events)! 

Tickets are limited—don’t miss out on your chance to rattle the stars one last time! 

Tickets for the events will go on sale Tuesday, July 24th at 12:00 pm Eastern. 

October 23rd at 7:00 pm New York, NY Buy tickets: https://www.symphonyspace.org/events/sarah-j-maas-kingdom-of-ash

October 25th at 7:00 pm Chicago, IL Buy tickets: [link to come before 7/24]

October 27th at 7:00 pm Houston, TX Buy tickets: https://www.bluewillowbookshop.com/event/sarah-j-maas-0

October 29th at 7:00 pm Los Angeles, CA Buy tickets:[link to come before 7/24]

Ticket Levels:

Note: Ticket prices cover the venue and a copy of Kingdom of Ash. Additional proceeds from the event will be donated to First Book, a charity dedicated to providing equal access to quality education for children in America.

*Since the holiday season will be near, each event will also feature a canned/dry food drive for donation to a local food bank. Any donation goes a long way!

VIP Ticket: Limited to 50, includes: -Everything included with a standard ticket, PLUS: -Photo with Sarah J. Maas -Personalized, signed copy of Kingdom of Ash -Prime seating at the front of the theater

Standard Ticket: Includes: -Signed copy of Kingdom of Ash -Exclusive new Throne of Glass tote bag -Exclusive print featuring art by Charlie Bowater -Exclusive Kingdom of Ash Tour button

Don’t miss any of the other fun activities! Each event will feature Sarah J. Maas trivia, a Kingdom of Ash photo booth, fan art gallery, Throne of Glass-themed temporary tattoos, and more!

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The cover for KINGDOM OF ASH is here! The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas concludes on October 23rd–are you ready?

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@worldofsarahjmaas // @sjmaas

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Maeve: How much impulse control have you lost without Rowan around?

Aelin: Bold of you to assume I had any to begin with.

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[CROSSOVER] Eyes of silver and gold. 👑👑👑

Insta: arz28👀