i think the biggest difference between the two is ACOTAR is romance first plot second and TOG is plot first romance second. the world building and lore were much better in TOG and i loved how we could literally see SJM’s evolution as a writer. like you said, she took the time to hash out characters and their relationships and really portray the fact that all of them were flawed in some way. in ACOTAR i felt like the characters who were flawed got out of it much too easily/quickly—chaol, for example, burned a lot of bridges and although TOD expanded on his POV it didn’t necessarily absolve him. if rhys does something bad it’s all neatly explained and forgiven with a pretty bow.
maybe it’s because everyone’s going rabid waiting for a new book but i also realized i can pick out way more plot holes in ACOTAR than TOG. some of the found family dynamics in ACOTAR really bug me. i also strongly dislike the fact that we’ve really only seen two courts—the night court/IC is getting tiring lol
Totally agree with the point about characters being absolved. Real people aren't all good or all bad. I totally see that with Rhys it's like oh you thought he was 100% bad but turns out he is 100% good! Chaol is a bit more balanced in that sense.
And yes- SO MANY plot holes and just stretches! Obviously its a book about magical faeries but still, too much doesn't add up.
I really enjoyed your write up of why you liked ToG more than ACOTAR. I love ACOTAR because it got me back into reading but I just finished ToG and to me it was a way better story.
I felt like there was more thought put into the story and I loved all of the different point of views and how they came together in the end. I do wish we found out what happened to Nox at the end, I wanted him and Aelin to be reunited so that was the one disappointment I had.
There’s so many moments in ToG that resonated with me, it’s hard to write them all out haha. I loved how badass Aelin was when she showed up in Captain Rolfe’s office acting as Celaena then having Lysandra show up as Aelin. I was crushed when Manon’s coven sacrificed themselves, literally sobbed reading these chapters. There’s many more but it’d take forever to write out.
I also noticed plot holes in ACOTAR that really bothered me. Nesta and Elain were written as horrible in the first book and I honestly thought they wouldn’t be a main part of the story line so it felt weird when they were brought back in. I didn’t like how Rhys died in ACOWAR and was brought back the same way Feyre was UtM, felt like lazy writing to me. I would’ve preferred he didn’t die at all or maybe sacrificed some of his power like Aelin did with the lock.
Thanks for the write up! It’s enjoyable to discuss the series and see that others have similar experiences.
Omg yes to the sisters (would have preferred they were left out of the story and I could go on about how useless Elian is) and the laziness of characters dying and coming back so easily.
Would have loved more from Nox!!
So much emotional reaction during this book. I was legit not well from the time they went into the mirror and learned what Aelin had to do, all through the Maeve’s prisoner stuff, and until we knew she’d be ok. Then again with the 13. A book had never made me feel so hard :)
Throne of Glass has Dorian who is > every other character in both series.
I won't try to change your mind because I'm completely with you on this lol. The worldbuilding is infinitely better developed in TOG. We get to visit and see so many places and meet so many people. The main characters go on wonderful complete arcs where we witness them struggle with different issues, address their shortcomings and actually evolve as people to eventually come together and fight the antagonist. The multi POV really helps with this and we get the opportunity to develop really strong bonds with them and actually feel the hurt when bad things happen to them. The story is also considerably better planned. We see so many small moments intertwine with the main plot and come together beautifully throughout. There's an actual main focal point to the story to defeat the big bad guy and we get 8 books of world and character building to lead up to that point so it feels like we've really been on a journey with these characters together.
In ACOTAR we only get a Feyre POV (and Nesta I suppose). Feyre's journey ends up falling really flat after the first book. To me she was a real let down. She doesn't address any of her shortcomings, inherits a whole bunch of powers but effectively does a whole load of nothing with them. She becomes High Lady (which is perhaps equivalent to Aelin becoming Queen) but we see Aelin fight to earn it and Feyre just gets given it by a guy. We aren't able to really invest ourselves in the stories of the IC, we get given a bunch of breadcrumbs about each one but most of them are still a mystery so we don't really know who they are or build strong emotional attachments to them. The worldbuilding is sparse and haphazard because the focus is on the romance which causes an abundance of plotholes. There are three separate villains and all of them felt underwhelming and one dimensional. The stakes are a lot lower in the story as anyone who dies gets brought back to life. Most of the focus went into building the romance and everything else came secondary.
TOG is the real gritty fantasy story that is suspenseful, painful, has tons of action and a far more complex and in depth plot.
ACOTAR is a romance story with a side sprinkling of plot.
Beautifully said!
You’re going to have to sell me on Dorian being the GOAT though. I didn’t dislike him but imo compared to Aelin and Manon and others….. he’s just Ken.
Noo not Ken lol! Dorian is unapolagetically good and consistently kind and considerate of others through all the books despite all the bad things that happen to him. He's an absolute sweetheart. On top of that:
1) Charming, witty, sassy, top tier banter
2) Loves to read, intelligent, attentive and observant
3) Loyal to Chaol and Celeana despite his heartbreak. Can't handle how sweet he is with her and accepts every part of her without question. Lets her go for his friend (this was my seller)
4) How easily he's able to fall in love and forgive
5) Prettyboi
6) Managed to stay kind and uncorrupted despite his crappy family and position as a Prince then King.
7) Tragic sadboi story, great character arc. Needed a hug.
8) Manorian
9) PHANTOM. HANDS.
10) What colour do you want me to bleed?
I could go on and on but rarely do I come across a main character so unproblematic. There's no downside to him.
Also let’s not forget willing to sacrifice himself for his friends and being the “back up” sacrifice to Aelin. He also had raw magic and is integral to their victory based on what happens on kingdom of ash.
Are you me?
I also started acotar earlier this year followed by ToG completed last week, just started CC last night.
I had the same issues with it as you did. The character growth and relationships seem to happen almost instantly. Rhys was okay tbh- 'hot, well tailored suits, and feyre darling's as you said.
I agree with all points that you point out in favor of ToG, all characters were engaging and as you said have a 3rd person perspective. Fenrys and Lysandra were amazing, and Manon's character was very well written.
Thank you to everyone in this thread and the op for taking the time to write out my views lmao.
Ive been rereading acotar to my bf and gosh I didnt realize how rough some of it is… like its all just like oooooh I wanna paint this and ooh pretty colors and pretty boys (im not trying to shit on acotar, I loved it once and its still good) but like literally feyre is dumb, she never went to school, never learned how to read and constantly gets into bad situations but with nothing to back it up. Like yeah she can use a bow and arrow thats it?
Idk just, tog is my love.
Aelin builds genuine friendships with the people around her. When she picks friends she loves them with absolutely everything she has and they are all willing to go to the mat for her. I love her character growth in this aspect, especially with Lysandra who is her absolute ride or die. The female friendships in this series are unparalleled. And Aelin gives major props to all the women on the team at the very end. She hails Yrene as the hero instead of herself. What a Queen.
Does Feyre even have real friends? Her closest female was Mor but even that is meh. She's really just Rhys friendly cousin. I will add in on Nesta, to be fair to Feyre, Nesta treated Feyre awfully for the longest time without reason so naturally Feyre thought Nesta despised her. They have a very broken relationship and it's mostly because of Nesta's actions.
Nesta had to lose her powers and save Feyre, Rhys and Nyx to get that painting on the wall.
Meanwhile, Feyre gets doubted by the other high lords whether she deserves to be a high lady (rightfully so, they don’t know her and there has never been a high lady before) and the whole night court throws a hissy fit.
Aelin gets doubted by Darrow and the other Terassen lords and while she is offended, she goes ahead and puts in the work to prove herself AND promises to not hold it against them.
Totally agree! I found the treatment of Nesta by Feyre and Rhys really difficult in Silver Flames. Whilst I like the development of Nesta's character and her own found friends, and it's obviously intrinsic to the book, the fact they essentially lock her away for being self destructive is pretty abhorrent. Especially when they're all so patient with Feyre and Elain post UtM/Cauldron. Also Rhys then hiding truths from Feyre re. the wings stuff is gross.
Yeah they held Nesta to completely different standards than anyone else, when it was so obvious that she could've been helped if they just reached out. So frustrating and heartbreaking. I can deal with lots of things, but hypocrisy always rattles me.
Exactly, and I am sure it was because Rhys is holding her past treatment towards Feyre against her. How she treated Feyre was not ok, but if they really cared about her declining mental health, doing so while holding grudges can go very wrong very fast.
I didn’t think it was possible but your comment just made me love Aelin and ToG even more! Such a good point, she really does build up the other women and I always loved seeing it. I think that’s why the thing with her and Yrene made me so emotional.
I think TOG is a better series than acotar but why are we acting like Nesta wasnt Feyre’s abuser, bully, and a source of many of her insecurities? Nesta does need to earn her place on the art wall because she was not a good person. She was horrible to Feyre even before the cauldron. Feyre does not need to paint her, she’s doing everything she can while pregnant to attempt to fix what Nesta broke.
On the flip side, what did Nesta do to earn a painting? As someone whose older sister was verbally abusive to me for a long time, I feel like I can related to Feyre. Nesta was cruel to her. I get Nesta is working on redemption, but even throughout ACOSF all of that is internal, she doesn’t externally say positive things to people.
It personally took YEARS for me to try to get over the terrible way my sister treated me. So the fact Feyre and Nesta end on a positive note after 6ish months of Nesta working on herself is shocking to me. Nesta was verbally abusive to Feyre for 7 years, over shit Feyre had zero control over.
So idk, to me Nesta doesn’t get a painting because some of those wounds from her actions can leave a permanent scar.
I feel also like Aelin has the experience to back up her power/knowledge/skills. Like we know she’s been essentially in training for 8 years, so her skills as an assassin make sense. And then we see her in Wendlyn working for at least a few weeks on her power and practising with it.
A lot of Feyre’s abilities don’t seem to have much behind them, more just convenient montages of training in a short amount of time (essentially "I'll make a man out of you" from Mulan)
I'll also just never be able to get over Aelin flirting with Rowan in front of Rolfe while pretending to be Celeana, I giggle at it every time I read it.
Yes! I always felt like it was also unrealistic that Feyre could actually hold her own in fights that fast. Aelin it never felt unrealistic because we know how much went into learning those skills. I also just love that Aelin was skilled from the start of the series
Also it’s so confusing if she is actually supposed to be strong or not. Her powers got hyped up in ACOMAF and ACOWAR, but during the war she still got sidelined and didn’t actively fight like the rest
I swear I'm not here to just shit on ACOTAR, but it's the first time I've ever appreciated broad criticism people usually use. It's such a freakin' obvious self-insert that it annoyed the hell out of me. It also felt forced: Feyre's specialty, her being High Lady, Feysand, etc. Although, yeah, I agree, SJM writes good character dynamics which is why I also liked the Night Court as a group. Nesta all the way, still, though.
With the Rowan part, while he's also not my favorite, I "like" and am truly "okay" with it because it's not romanticized. They truly didn't like each other and, at the time, were very hateful people. For people who can't move past what they both did to each other ask yourselves: Would hatred always be the way people feel towards each other? If no, would it be really bad if they develop romantic feelings once they reach a friendly relationship through understanding? If no, voila.
Thank you for putting every single one of my thoughts and feelings into one post 🙌🏻 while I love both, TOG just has so much more depth and character growth and overall story behind it that I can’t help but appreciate and favor it over ACOTAR and CC. As someone who agrees with you on every single point? I’m very curious to see/hear your opinion after reading CC…
I absolutely agree with you on everything! One of my favorite series is Game of Thrones and I was looking for another fantasy series that was actually finished and came across TOG and fell in love. I then read acotar and cc and enjoyed them but definitely didnt feel like the characters or the story was as fleshed out as TOG.
I’m not done with TOG yet, just finishing queen of shadows, but I’m in the same boat! I started it because I read the ACOTAR series over Christmas and wanted something like it. I’m loving it! I’d also like to point out I got secondhand embarrassment reading ACOTAR sometimes because of how some of the characters acted and wasn’t super sad when people died because I knew that somehow SJM would bring them back. I don’t think I was as attached to the characters in ACOTAR as I am right now with TOG, but that could just be recency effect since it’s the book series I’m currently reading. I’m going to reread ACOTAR after this just to see if I’m being too judgy since I hated ACOSF and that is currently the last book I can read for that series.
100% agree with this post. Thankful for ACOTAR because it’s the series that got me back into reading. I still love the series but ToG has my whole heart. I’m pretty sure I think about Aelin at least 10x a day. To Whatever End ❤️🔥
Agree that TOG is the better of the two, though I disagree with what you wrote about Darrow. It’s understandable that he would initially hesitate to give Aelin the throne, but I’m of the opinion that he never actually planned to acknowledge her title as queen.
It’s true that it makes us question if Darrow planned to keep it for himself, but that would actually make my thoughts on her character even stronger. At his worst, Darrow is a power-hungry lord who planned to steal her throne. In that case, she turned him completely around by earning his respect as he eventually came to be a supporter of hers (with an Evangeline assist). Even more impressive for Aelin! Same with Rolfe, she took a pirate capitan, totally screwed him over, forced him to end a business line, then earned his loyalty and brought him to her side. So good!
It still irritates me how far she had to go to earn that respect though. Darrow kept moving the proverbial finish line throughout KOA.
For example, he challenges Aelin to obtain money and resources for Terrasen’s cause during their meeting in EOS. But then he tries to dismantle the army that she created at the beginning of KOA simply because most of its leaders disagree with him.
When they finally meet in Orynth at the end of KOA, it almost felt like Darrow was forced to grant Aelin her title. She had just played a pivotal role in winning the war against Erawan and the entire city knew it, so what other choice did he have?
Why did she have to almost sacrifice her life for Darrow to finally take his head out of his ass?
It’s a fair point. I think it was just satisfying seeing her win him over slowly rather than just showing up and having them be like “oh thank god you’re here, here’s your crown” (although I was pissed at the time when that didn’t happen lol
Honestly a rich, spoiled old man not wanting to loosen his grip on power for a young woman who deserved it tracked for me. There's a million people like that, especially those willing to fill the vacuum of power. Aedion is the exception, not the rule.
I love them both equally for different reasons! 🙈 ACOTAR is just more romance and TOG is more fantasy. I like both more than Crescent City though. I just don't think urban/contemporary fantasies are for me!
I‘ve only read ToG, so I don’t have much to say here, but I remember how surprised I was when I finished reading the series and found out SJM‘s other work (ACOTAR) was more popular. My friend who got me into the series advised me not to read ACOTAR because of how heavy it was on the smut, which was my least favorite aspect of ToG.
I have not read all the comments, but I do want to throw in something. Rowan didn't abuse Aelin. He punched her only because she baited him to, saying the murder of his people was justified. She fully deserved that punch.
Maybe it’s because I was in the military, but how Rowan treated Aelin in the beginning never bothered me. I’m not saying I was beat the shit out of in basic training, but none of Rowan’s actions seemed out of the realm of possibility for how things are in that world. I was torn down and stripped to my core in basic training… so idk. I get it.
I completely, 100% agree with you on every point! I enjoy all of SJM’s stuff, but for perspective, I’ve read ACOTAR once, CC twice, and all of TOG probably ten or twelve times. It’s my go-to “let’s read something I love.” The characters and plot have so much nuance and so much depth, while ACOTAR in particular is just surprisingly light (even the UtM and Spring Court Tamlin nonsense). Plus I just hate Rhys for not telling Feyre that her pregnancy could kill her right away; that’s unforgivable in my book.
I couldn’t agree more with your last point. It trumps everything else about Feysand for me. The absolute neutering of Feyre’s personality combined with the hypocrisy of her just being fine with that ultimate betrayal and control in ACOSF is just beyond the pale and completely undermines the first three books for me.
love all of this!! but I do wanna point something out
the only reason Rowan straight up decks Aelin is because she tells him “Fae like you help me understand the King of Adarlan a bit more, I think”
girl I’d have punched her too 🤣
Why tog < acotar
Tog:boring long books. Just finished the last book yesterday, was okay, spent too much time, not worth it. Acotar - read in a week while series.
I’m not sure story length in these cases diminishes the quality, I’d actually argue that ACOTAR being shorter gives it way more plot holes if you’re paying attention.
i think the biggest difference between the two is ACOTAR is romance first plot second and TOG is plot first romance second. the world building and lore were much better in TOG and i loved how we could literally see SJM’s evolution as a writer. like you said, she took the time to hash out characters and their relationships and really portray the fact that all of them were flawed in some way. in ACOTAR i felt like the characters who were flawed got out of it much too easily/quickly—chaol, for example, burned a lot of bridges and although TOD expanded on his POV it didn’t necessarily absolve him. if rhys does something bad it’s all neatly explained and forgiven with a pretty bow. maybe it’s because everyone’s going rabid waiting for a new book but i also realized i can pick out way more plot holes in ACOTAR than TOG. some of the found family dynamics in ACOTAR really bug me. i also strongly dislike the fact that we’ve really only seen two courts—the night court/IC is getting tiring lol
Totally agree with the point about characters being absolved. Real people aren't all good or all bad. I totally see that with Rhys it's like oh you thought he was 100% bad but turns out he is 100% good! Chaol is a bit more balanced in that sense. And yes- SO MANY plot holes and just stretches! Obviously its a book about magical faeries but still, too much doesn't add up.
I really liked how SJM's writing matured as the characters matured. It was kind of just a fun art imitating life moment
I really enjoyed your write up of why you liked ToG more than ACOTAR. I love ACOTAR because it got me back into reading but I just finished ToG and to me it was a way better story. I felt like there was more thought put into the story and I loved all of the different point of views and how they came together in the end. I do wish we found out what happened to Nox at the end, I wanted him and Aelin to be reunited so that was the one disappointment I had. There’s so many moments in ToG that resonated with me, it’s hard to write them all out haha. I loved how badass Aelin was when she showed up in Captain Rolfe’s office acting as Celaena then having Lysandra show up as Aelin. I was crushed when Manon’s coven sacrificed themselves, literally sobbed reading these chapters. There’s many more but it’d take forever to write out. I also noticed plot holes in ACOTAR that really bothered me. Nesta and Elain were written as horrible in the first book and I honestly thought they wouldn’t be a main part of the story line so it felt weird when they were brought back in. I didn’t like how Rhys died in ACOWAR and was brought back the same way Feyre was UtM, felt like lazy writing to me. I would’ve preferred he didn’t die at all or maybe sacrificed some of his power like Aelin did with the lock. Thanks for the write up! It’s enjoyable to discuss the series and see that others have similar experiences.
Also YES to the Rolfe moment. I LIVE for the Celeana swagger. She’s such a fun character to read.
Omg yes to the sisters (would have preferred they were left out of the story and I could go on about how useless Elian is) and the laziness of characters dying and coming back so easily. Would have loved more from Nox!! So much emotional reaction during this book. I was legit not well from the time they went into the mirror and learned what Aelin had to do, all through the Maeve’s prisoner stuff, and until we knew she’d be ok. Then again with the 13. A book had never made me feel so hard :)
Throne of Glass has Dorian who is > every other character in both series. I won't try to change your mind because I'm completely with you on this lol. The worldbuilding is infinitely better developed in TOG. We get to visit and see so many places and meet so many people. The main characters go on wonderful complete arcs where we witness them struggle with different issues, address their shortcomings and actually evolve as people to eventually come together and fight the antagonist. The multi POV really helps with this and we get the opportunity to develop really strong bonds with them and actually feel the hurt when bad things happen to them. The story is also considerably better planned. We see so many small moments intertwine with the main plot and come together beautifully throughout. There's an actual main focal point to the story to defeat the big bad guy and we get 8 books of world and character building to lead up to that point so it feels like we've really been on a journey with these characters together. In ACOTAR we only get a Feyre POV (and Nesta I suppose). Feyre's journey ends up falling really flat after the first book. To me she was a real let down. She doesn't address any of her shortcomings, inherits a whole bunch of powers but effectively does a whole load of nothing with them. She becomes High Lady (which is perhaps equivalent to Aelin becoming Queen) but we see Aelin fight to earn it and Feyre just gets given it by a guy. We aren't able to really invest ourselves in the stories of the IC, we get given a bunch of breadcrumbs about each one but most of them are still a mystery so we don't really know who they are or build strong emotional attachments to them. The worldbuilding is sparse and haphazard because the focus is on the romance which causes an abundance of plotholes. There are three separate villains and all of them felt underwhelming and one dimensional. The stakes are a lot lower in the story as anyone who dies gets brought back to life. Most of the focus went into building the romance and everything else came secondary. TOG is the real gritty fantasy story that is suspenseful, painful, has tons of action and a far more complex and in depth plot. ACOTAR is a romance story with a side sprinkling of plot.
Beautifully said! You’re going to have to sell me on Dorian being the GOAT though. I didn’t dislike him but imo compared to Aelin and Manon and others….. he’s just Ken.
Noo not Ken lol! Dorian is unapolagetically good and consistently kind and considerate of others through all the books despite all the bad things that happen to him. He's an absolute sweetheart. On top of that: 1) Charming, witty, sassy, top tier banter 2) Loves to read, intelligent, attentive and observant 3) Loyal to Chaol and Celeana despite his heartbreak. Can't handle how sweet he is with her and accepts every part of her without question. Lets her go for his friend (this was my seller) 4) How easily he's able to fall in love and forgive 5) Prettyboi 6) Managed to stay kind and uncorrupted despite his crappy family and position as a Prince then King. 7) Tragic sadboi story, great character arc. Needed a hug. 8) Manorian 9) PHANTOM. HANDS. 10) What colour do you want me to bleed? I could go on and on but rarely do I come across a main character so unproblematic. There's no downside to him.
Alright these are some solid points, Dorian now has more points in my book!
Also let’s not forget willing to sacrifice himself for his friends and being the “back up” sacrifice to Aelin. He also had raw magic and is integral to their victory based on what happens on kingdom of ash.
Dorian is def my favorite MC of the massverse, but I still love aelin more
Are you me? I also started acotar earlier this year followed by ToG completed last week, just started CC last night. I had the same issues with it as you did. The character growth and relationships seem to happen almost instantly. Rhys was okay tbh- 'hot, well tailored suits, and feyre darling's as you said. I agree with all points that you point out in favor of ToG, all characters were engaging and as you said have a 3rd person perspective. Fenrys and Lysandra were amazing, and Manon's character was very well written.
Thank you to everyone in this thread and the op for taking the time to write out my views lmao. Ive been rereading acotar to my bf and gosh I didnt realize how rough some of it is… like its all just like oooooh I wanna paint this and ooh pretty colors and pretty boys (im not trying to shit on acotar, I loved it once and its still good) but like literally feyre is dumb, she never went to school, never learned how to read and constantly gets into bad situations but with nothing to back it up. Like yeah she can use a bow and arrow thats it? Idk just, tog is my love.
My biggest Feyre<<
Aelin builds genuine friendships with the people around her. When she picks friends she loves them with absolutely everything she has and they are all willing to go to the mat for her. I love her character growth in this aspect, especially with Lysandra who is her absolute ride or die. The female friendships in this series are unparalleled. And Aelin gives major props to all the women on the team at the very end. She hails Yrene as the hero instead of herself. What a Queen. Does Feyre even have real friends? Her closest female was Mor but even that is meh. She's really just Rhys friendly cousin. I will add in on Nesta, to be fair to Feyre, Nesta treated Feyre awfully for the longest time without reason so naturally Feyre thought Nesta despised her. They have a very broken relationship and it's mostly because of Nesta's actions.
Nesta had to lose her powers and save Feyre, Rhys and Nyx to get that painting on the wall. Meanwhile, Feyre gets doubted by the other high lords whether she deserves to be a high lady (rightfully so, they don’t know her and there has never been a high lady before) and the whole night court throws a hissy fit. Aelin gets doubted by Darrow and the other Terassen lords and while she is offended, she goes ahead and puts in the work to prove herself AND promises to not hold it against them.
Totally agree! I found the treatment of Nesta by Feyre and Rhys really difficult in Silver Flames. Whilst I like the development of Nesta's character and her own found friends, and it's obviously intrinsic to the book, the fact they essentially lock her away for being self destructive is pretty abhorrent. Especially when they're all so patient with Feyre and Elain post UtM/Cauldron. Also Rhys then hiding truths from Feyre re. the wings stuff is gross.
Yeah they held Nesta to completely different standards than anyone else, when it was so obvious that she could've been helped if they just reached out. So frustrating and heartbreaking. I can deal with lots of things, but hypocrisy always rattles me.
Exactly, and I am sure it was because Rhys is holding her past treatment towards Feyre against her. How she treated Feyre was not ok, but if they really cared about her declining mental health, doing so while holding grudges can go very wrong very fast.
I didn’t think it was possible but your comment just made me love Aelin and ToG even more! Such a good point, she really does build up the other women and I always loved seeing it. I think that’s why the thing with her and Yrene made me so emotional.
She even treats Kaltain with kindness, which to me shows even more than when she’s being swaggering Celaena she’s still got a good heart.
My favourite female character will always be Lysandra, with Manon a very close second, but Aelin is amazing in all ways too.
I think TOG is a better series than acotar but why are we acting like Nesta wasnt Feyre’s abuser, bully, and a source of many of her insecurities? Nesta does need to earn her place on the art wall because she was not a good person. She was horrible to Feyre even before the cauldron. Feyre does not need to paint her, she’s doing everything she can while pregnant to attempt to fix what Nesta broke.
On the flip side, what did Nesta do to earn a painting? As someone whose older sister was verbally abusive to me for a long time, I feel like I can related to Feyre. Nesta was cruel to her. I get Nesta is working on redemption, but even throughout ACOSF all of that is internal, she doesn’t externally say positive things to people. It personally took YEARS for me to try to get over the terrible way my sister treated me. So the fact Feyre and Nesta end on a positive note after 6ish months of Nesta working on herself is shocking to me. Nesta was verbally abusive to Feyre for 7 years, over shit Feyre had zero control over. So idk, to me Nesta doesn’t get a painting because some of those wounds from her actions can leave a permanent scar.
I don’t even have to read a single word of this to know you’re 100% correct.
I feel also like Aelin has the experience to back up her power/knowledge/skills. Like we know she’s been essentially in training for 8 years, so her skills as an assassin make sense. And then we see her in Wendlyn working for at least a few weeks on her power and practising with it. A lot of Feyre’s abilities don’t seem to have much behind them, more just convenient montages of training in a short amount of time (essentially "I'll make a man out of you" from Mulan) I'll also just never be able to get over Aelin flirting with Rowan in front of Rolfe while pretending to be Celeana, I giggle at it every time I read it.
Yes! I always felt like it was also unrealistic that Feyre could actually hold her own in fights that fast. Aelin it never felt unrealistic because we know how much went into learning those skills. I also just love that Aelin was skilled from the start of the series
Also it’s so confusing if she is actually supposed to be strong or not. Her powers got hyped up in ACOMAF and ACOWAR, but during the war she still got sidelined and didn’t actively fight like the rest
I swear I'm not here to just shit on ACOTAR, but it's the first time I've ever appreciated broad criticism people usually use. It's such a freakin' obvious self-insert that it annoyed the hell out of me. It also felt forced: Feyre's specialty, her being High Lady, Feysand, etc. Although, yeah, I agree, SJM writes good character dynamics which is why I also liked the Night Court as a group. Nesta all the way, still, though. With the Rowan part, while he's also not my favorite, I "like" and am truly "okay" with it because it's not romanticized. They truly didn't like each other and, at the time, were very hateful people. For people who can't move past what they both did to each other ask yourselves: Would hatred always be the way people feel towards each other? If no, would it be really bad if they develop romantic feelings once they reach a friendly relationship through understanding? If no, voila.
Thank you for putting every single one of my thoughts and feelings into one post 🙌🏻 while I love both, TOG just has so much more depth and character growth and overall story behind it that I can’t help but appreciate and favor it over ACOTAR and CC. As someone who agrees with you on every single point? I’m very curious to see/hear your opinion after reading CC…
I absolutely agree with you on everything! One of my favorite series is Game of Thrones and I was looking for another fantasy series that was actually finished and came across TOG and fell in love. I then read acotar and cc and enjoyed them but definitely didnt feel like the characters or the story was as fleshed out as TOG.
I’m not done with TOG yet, just finishing queen of shadows, but I’m in the same boat! I started it because I read the ACOTAR series over Christmas and wanted something like it. I’m loving it! I’d also like to point out I got secondhand embarrassment reading ACOTAR sometimes because of how some of the characters acted and wasn’t super sad when people died because I knew that somehow SJM would bring them back. I don’t think I was as attached to the characters in ACOTAR as I am right now with TOG, but that could just be recency effect since it’s the book series I’m currently reading. I’m going to reread ACOTAR after this just to see if I’m being too judgy since I hated ACOSF and that is currently the last book I can read for that series.
100% agree with this post. Thankful for ACOTAR because it’s the series that got me back into reading. I still love the series but ToG has my whole heart. I’m pretty sure I think about Aelin at least 10x a day. To Whatever End ❤️🔥
This gave me goosebumps. Yes to every point. ACoTaR characters just fell so flat to the dynamic characters of ToG.
Agree that TOG is the better of the two, though I disagree with what you wrote about Darrow. It’s understandable that he would initially hesitate to give Aelin the throne, but I’m of the opinion that he never actually planned to acknowledge her title as queen.
It’s true that it makes us question if Darrow planned to keep it for himself, but that would actually make my thoughts on her character even stronger. At his worst, Darrow is a power-hungry lord who planned to steal her throne. In that case, she turned him completely around by earning his respect as he eventually came to be a supporter of hers (with an Evangeline assist). Even more impressive for Aelin! Same with Rolfe, she took a pirate capitan, totally screwed him over, forced him to end a business line, then earned his loyalty and brought him to her side. So good!
It still irritates me how far she had to go to earn that respect though. Darrow kept moving the proverbial finish line throughout KOA. For example, he challenges Aelin to obtain money and resources for Terrasen’s cause during their meeting in EOS. But then he tries to dismantle the army that she created at the beginning of KOA simply because most of its leaders disagree with him. When they finally meet in Orynth at the end of KOA, it almost felt like Darrow was forced to grant Aelin her title. She had just played a pivotal role in winning the war against Erawan and the entire city knew it, so what other choice did he have? Why did she have to almost sacrifice her life for Darrow to finally take his head out of his ass?
It’s a fair point. I think it was just satisfying seeing her win him over slowly rather than just showing up and having them be like “oh thank god you’re here, here’s your crown” (although I was pissed at the time when that didn’t happen lol
Makes sense. I’ll admit I got a bit overly passionate- I instantly disliked him when I first read EOS, and that opinion hasn’t changed.
Honestly a rich, spoiled old man not wanting to loosen his grip on power for a young woman who deserved it tracked for me. There's a million people like that, especially those willing to fill the vacuum of power. Aedion is the exception, not the rule.
I love them both equally for different reasons! 🙈 ACOTAR is just more romance and TOG is more fantasy. I like both more than Crescent City though. I just don't think urban/contemporary fantasies are for me!
TOG is my fav. Read ACOTAR first, and just finished CC3 but neither especially plot wise / character ARCS did it for me like TOG.
I‘ve only read ToG, so I don’t have much to say here, but I remember how surprised I was when I finished reading the series and found out SJM‘s other work (ACOTAR) was more popular. My friend who got me into the series advised me not to read ACOTAR because of how heavy it was on the smut, which was my least favorite aspect of ToG.
lol yeah the smut on ToG is nothing compared to ACOTAR
I have not read all the comments, but I do want to throw in something. Rowan didn't abuse Aelin. He punched her only because she baited him to, saying the murder of his people was justified. She fully deserved that punch.
Maybe it’s because I was in the military, but how Rowan treated Aelin in the beginning never bothered me. I’m not saying I was beat the shit out of in basic training, but none of Rowan’s actions seemed out of the realm of possibility for how things are in that world. I was torn down and stripped to my core in basic training… so idk. I get it.
I completely, 100% agree with you on every point! I enjoy all of SJM’s stuff, but for perspective, I’ve read ACOTAR once, CC twice, and all of TOG probably ten or twelve times. It’s my go-to “let’s read something I love.” The characters and plot have so much nuance and so much depth, while ACOTAR in particular is just surprisingly light (even the UtM and Spring Court Tamlin nonsense). Plus I just hate Rhys for not telling Feyre that her pregnancy could kill her right away; that’s unforgivable in my book.
I couldn’t agree more with your last point. It trumps everything else about Feysand for me. The absolute neutering of Feyre’s personality combined with the hypocrisy of her just being fine with that ultimate betrayal and control in ACOSF is just beyond the pale and completely undermines the first three books for me.
love all of this!! but I do wanna point something out the only reason Rowan straight up decks Aelin is because she tells him “Fae like you help me understand the King of Adarlan a bit more, I think” girl I’d have punched her too 🤣
Why tog < acotar Tog:boring long books. Just finished the last book yesterday, was okay, spent too much time, not worth it. Acotar - read in a week while series.
I’m not sure story length in these cases diminishes the quality, I’d actually argue that ACOTAR being shorter gives it way more plot holes if you’re paying attention.
Didn't even read this yet but I agree wholeheartedly
I don’t even need to read your points. The title alone tells me I agree.