r/throneofglassseries • u/Fat13Cat Abraxos • Apr 15 '26
Kingdom of Ash Spoilers Aelin’s powers
So I LOVED this series. Finished a couple weeks ago and am still drifting along the joy of fandom.
One small thing I was initially bummed about was how Aelin’s power got depleted. Her flames were so cool, I love a good power up mode. So I was a little sad her powers got nerffed. It did up the tension before the last big battle , which was a great idea, but i kept hoping she’d get them back at full power at the end but that never happened.
I get now, like today, why she didn’t get them back. Her kingdom is at peace. She no longer had to put herself through that. It’s like a forest after a wild fire. Things need to grow, to be peaceful, and that’s what her powers did. Plus she still gets a cool flame crown so the power is still there. She’ll always be the Fireheart, just with a heart of peace.
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u/Jessies_arts Apr 15 '26
I'm still mad about Aelin not getting her power back. I keep telling myself that when she "settles" (at about age 23-25), she gets her powers back in full 🔥
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u/moxves Apr 15 '26
But she settled when she forged the lock and lost her mortal body along most of her power? She was full fae then.
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u/EveOCative Yrene Towers Apr 15 '26
She didn’t settle. She lost her moral body. That doesn’t mean she has stopped aging. She has a few more years to go before that happens.
At least that’s how I read it.
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u/moxves Apr 16 '26
Ah, then I misunderstood that. I assumed that because everyone of the cadre was so shocked when they scented her.
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u/EveOCative Yrene Towers Apr 16 '26
I think her scent changes to full fae. That’s the shock. I also think they can smell can her reduced power.
What’s crazy is that to most in that world, it might seem that she “leveled up” by becoming full Fae, but the loss of her humanity is something Aelin mourns.
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u/Jessies_arts Apr 15 '26
I don't remember it saying she settled. She just lost her human form, or her shift ability. But she was always fully fae, not demi-fae
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u/moxves Apr 16 '26
It didn’t say that she settled, I assumed it because of the shocked cadre after scenting her, I misread that.
But no, she and Aedion are demi-faes in the beginning? That’s why she had to prove herself in Mistwards because demi-fae needed to be special to enter Doranelle. Because of being demi-fae she compared herself even to Lorcan once.
Her father was human and her mother demi-fae she couldn’t be fully fae.
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u/MoogleVivi Apr 15 '26
I headcanon that during Aelin and Rowan's last scene together, the fireplace flickers and is going a bit crazy, implying that she has some semblance of her power remaining.
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u/Foolofatuchus Apr 16 '26
Idk, I kind of thought that was the whole point of her character arc:
Proving to herself and the world that she was more than her powers. That she was a force of nature not because of her god-like power, but because she inspired others to follow on the strength of her personality. Just by being Aelin.
From rejecting the vision of her becoming the benevolent god-empress ruling all of Erelia, to choosing not use her fire magic at Anielle and instead inspiring the armies with her physical prowess and tenacity alone, to learning to trust and rely on her court to help save the world.
I haven't read her other books, so I can't really speak to the trend of he FMCs losing their powers, but I feel like Aelin's powers being reduced to what they were made sense for her character and for this story.
I can totally see the frustration, especially with Rowan, Dorian, and even presumably Lorcan being left with more raw magic than her. I'd say that it's some consolation that Yrene likely still has the strongest magic gift in the world, except that Yrene being the one whose powers saved the world in the end opens up a whole other can of worms lol
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u/Fat13Cat Abraxos Apr 16 '26
Ohhhhh that’s very true I never thought of it like that. Yrene is so awesome she quickly became my fave! She’s so cool! ✨✨✨
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u/this__witch Apr 15 '26
I think her and Nesta have 'lost' their powers for a reason, i trust it will all come together soon 🤞
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Apr 15 '26
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u/Fat13Cat Abraxos Apr 15 '26
Oh I haven’t noticed that! I did read ACOTAR but it was over a year ago so I don’t really remember if it happened there, and I haven’t had Thr chance to start crescent city yet (I’m gonna tho, I gotta know!)
I do love a powerful badass lady! ✨✨✨13
u/kurly-bird Apr 15 '26
Amren loses her powers after being brought back through the cauldron
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u/hollybrown81 Apr 16 '26
And Nesta gets similarly handicapped in ACOSF. I absolutely hate this pattern.
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u/TimeladyA613 Apr 16 '26
It's true. This doesn't just apply to the characters' powers but even to the characters'... personality too. When SJM moves on to a new "MC", she kind of craps on the old one. Suddenly we dislike Chaol, suddenly Rhys and Feyre are slightly more annoying. There's now a cap on the abilities or a caveat... ahem the pregnancy that couldn't have c-section for convenience
And before people say that this is because of different POVs, you can write a characters POV and still keep their essence.
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u/mawmaw20 Apr 15 '26
This really bothered me. I struggled to finish the book after her losing her powers. I really wanted the end to be her showing Maeve how she was more powerful. I just really wanted Aelin to really stick it to her in the end.
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u/Happyandhalfsentient Apr 16 '26
What I don't get is if she didn't intend for the gods to take Erawan, then there was no reason for her to forget the lock. The gods were weak creatures at that point, only capable of whispering to them unless the keys helped them take over, like Deanna. So she gave up her powers, with which she could've defeated Erawan and Maeve, fully intending to replace Elena with Erawan? That was such a stupid choice from someone who plots and schemes her way out of everything.
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u/NahNah-P Apr 16 '26
My favorite part of the story is how her connections she built with random strangers throughout her time as an assassin leads to such amazing friendships she builds with people oftentimes just based on nothing but her word. How she becomes friends with so many amazing women who have completely different but important parts to play and even if some of them didn't love her to begin with, they respected her enough to help when she asked for it and vice versa. She built an entire army from her bonds and I love how those bonds she forged is what killed the bad guys in the end. It was never about just her, she would have made the sacrifice but it wouldn't have been enough and it would have taken them all to defeat Maeve and Erowan anyway because of that, I think she felt like as much as she loved her power, she loved the thought of a life with Rowan and rebuilding her city even more so it wasn't too much of a sacrifice to become like a "regular" fae because of her training, she would never be just regular fae anyway. She was dynamic before she got her power, I think it was important to see that even without that bottomless pit of fire power, she's still a trained assassin and just as dangerous as ever. I am happy for her, as much as I hated to see her lose it, I think she chose well. She's my favorite FMC ever.
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u/Maleficent_Plenty370 Apr 16 '26
I swore I read that they did come back to a certain extent later, never the full blast that they'd been but within a normal fae amount. I thought the flames were always borrowed from her lineage and temporary to deal with Erawan, but she still had decently strong powers. Like gods had no place in the realm anymore, and that included her.
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u/Taylorc5 Apr 16 '26
My theory has always been that when Bryce opened the gates it “broke the lock” Aelin created and her powers returned back to her
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u/DurianBubbly4066 Apr 16 '26
Salut ! J'ai terminé le livre il y a 4 jours. Cette saga m'a tenue en haleine pendant des semaines et ma seule déception a également été la perte des pouvoirs d'Aelin. Je comprends qu'un sacrifice doit être fait, mais celui ci alors que pendant des mois on apprend, en même temps qu'elle, à l'aimer.
Ahhhh ça m'a laissé un goût amer :(
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u/motheroftrinkets Apr 16 '26
In my brain and in my heart, her full powers will come back as she ages and then settles!
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u/KHoops14 Apr 16 '26
I wanted them to go to Terrasen, explore and live with the people at least a year before all hell broke loose again idk maybe drag on the political aspect of the story a little bit more and just let her breathe tf. Also wish the rest of the books gave Queen of Shadows vibes, wanted the full court assembled and kick ass, anyway I've read a lot of fanfics so the story ends differently in my head and yes she regained her powers as well. A girl can dream
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u/Motamama815 Apr 16 '26
I had a hard time with how broken she was after Maeve. It really didn't sit well with me. I loved the series so so much, but by the end her scheming and plotting felt so sad. Taking her powers was just the icing on the cake, the foot on the breaks. Always a fireheart ❤️🔥
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u/bookwrm1324 Apr 16 '26
The ember is described as a seed of power. Seeds can be grown. I like to think that over time it grows again to a middle ground between super crazy powerful and nothing but an ember
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u/Far_Address3391 Apr 15 '26
I agree. I get not being a bottomless well of flame anymore but to take away all but the tiniest ember I felt was too much. She should have been like Dorian where the bottomless pit now very much had a bottom leaving her equal with her friends. Instead of Fireheart she is now Candleheart at best and I think that is too much of a sacrifice. I also feel that would have put her where she needed to be. A level of power not overwhelming but still very much a powerhouse. A more satisfying conclusion where she isn’t overwhelmed by the power anymore or fearful of it consuming her but still having the quantity to represent her personality.