Addicted to Ink discussion

What did you think of the returning cast and the new characters introduced in Queen of Shadows?

A lot of people are mad about Chaol but I understand that Aelin and him are super angsty and miserable and looking for someone to blame. They are bound to hate and blame each other for things that are both of their faults, and in the end, they learn to be friends again. They are also very different people than they were before so I get why they aren't romantically together and to me, their situations make sense. But also, I'm not quite sure how I feel about Rowan and Aelin being together. I definitely like it but at the same time, I don't quite understand when their amazing friendship turned into romance, it feels kind of like it came out of no where.

Honestly, some of the characters felt a little out of character. I felt like in HoF, Manon was really learning to have a heart, but in this book, it felt like all of the progress she made was gone and she was back to being more heartless than ever. I also found it weird that Aelin seemed to accept killing Dorian with little to no hesitation, she didn't even seem that torn up to me about it, which upset me.

Besides them, I loved Rowan as usual and Aedion, although I'm so sad we didn't get more on him. I also love Lysandra, she was such an unexpected character and so awesome!

I get where Chaol and Aelin are coming from in the beginning when they're mad at each other and always fighting. As horrible as it was, I get it. It seemed like one of those things where they were too close to the situation to really see the bigger picture and to everyone else it was obvious that there was no use in them blaming each and fighting because really neither was truly at fault.

I also think that what happened between Chaol and Celaena in CoM was a huge deal and something that they weren't going to get past easily.

I honestly didn't see the Rowan-Aelin relationship coming because in HoF I was completely convinced that their relationship was 100% platonic so for it to turn into romantic was a bit of a surprise even though many people have been on this ship since HoF. But I guess that's kind of explained by Rowan trying to put aside his feeling for her because she was his queen and he serves her and what would her court think of them being together, etc. So yeah, I was surprised but I don't mind them being together because they do have a good relationship and I can't picture Aelin and Chaol being together anymore because they really do seem like different characters now.

I liked Nesryn! I hope we get to know more about her in the next books. I'm also excited about Chaol and Nesryn going to the southern continent together.

Lysandra was a total surprise! She is now one of favorite characters in the book!

I thought Manon was even more awesome this time around. I think in HoF we see a little bit of humanity in her but she's still that witch who is about loyalty, obedience, etc and it took Asterin's story and Elide (especally) to really push that change in her.

I love Manon, I know a lot of people were mad to have to read her bits in HoF but I've always loved her. And I agree about Nesryn, she is so awesome! I can't wait to see what part she has to play in the upcoming books, that girl can definitely take care of herself haha

The one thing that irks me a little bit was the when HoF came out, everyone was freaking out about Rowan and Aelin, saying how amazing it is that Sarah J Maas has a relationship between a guy and a girl that isn't romantic or sexual. They were all foaming at the mouth because their relationship was "above that" and whatnot and how refreshing it was to have two characters just as friends. And now everyone is jumping on the romance boat between the two. Which is great and all and I like them together romantically, but at the same time, I'm a little sad because I really loved what they had before too and I feel like everyone forgot about it because they just wanted them to smooch haha

yes! I never pictured Aelin and Rowan in a romantic relationship and its still a little strange for me because I love their platonic relationship and I never felt the need for it to be more. but I guess if they're happy together I can be on board with that but I really never pictured them together. I was 100000% convinced that their relationship would remain platonic to the end

I absolutely agree with the out-of-character-argument. I had issues with understanding Manon (still LOVE her, though) and Chaol (obviosly).
Aedion and Lysandra felt a little bit stereotypical and flat, but I liked them.

Sometimes I just wished for a character who isn't unbelievable beautiful and handsome in addition to being the most powerfull fighter ever, you know? But who knows, maybe Lysandra decides to spend the next two books as an ugly, horrifying beast (with huge claws and fangs, of course) ^^

But my most favourite person in this book was Kaltain. I knew she was going to be important at some point in the story and it completely blew me away how dark and twisted and diabolical she became. Could someone please resurrect the poor girl?

I didn't feel like they were OOC. I can kind of understand why people might be thinking that and as a Chaolaena shipper I was heartbroken by all the fighting between Aelin and Chaol in the beginning but I felt like their behavior was understandable, even though it was painful to see.

I think Chaol's behavior in the beginning stems from him feeling a lot of stress and also feeling very helpless. The stress comes from a couple different things. One, he's basically thrown out everything he believed in and worked for for so many years and even though he now knows that the King is terrible and that all these things he's done are absolutely horrible, the change in his life is too much too fast. Second, once he finds out what happened to Dorian with the collar he blames himself for part of it and wants to save Dorian but doesn't really know how to do it (this also goes with the feeling helpless part). Third, he is now a leader of the rebels and the rebels are tryign to save all these people being captured by the king's men (the valg) but they're unable to save everyone. He wants to save everyone, obviously, but he can't and that adds to the stress.

It also adds to the helplessness because he doesn't know how to help everyone even though he wants to. Another factor in the helplessness has to do with magic. Chaol is human. He has no magical abilities whatsoever. Aelin wants to release magic because it's the only way they might be able to help everyone and fight the valg army growing in Morath. Chaol pretty much grew up in a world with no magic and in this world, everyone was almost equal. But now, when magic is freed, some people will have abilities that will put them at an advantage over others. Chaol and other humans like him will be the weakest group. This, I think, makes him feel a little helpless and makes him wary towards releasing magic.

Eventually, he realizes that magic needs to be released so he tells Aelin how to do it. And in the end he even asks to see Aelin's ability.

This is long, I know. But I just didn't see Chaol's character as being OOC. I completely understood why he was behaving as he was and where he was coming from. If anything, Chaol showed even more character development in QOS.

Ifrah wrote: "I didn't feel like they were OOC. I can kind of understand why people might be thinking that and as a Chaolaena shipper I was heartbroken by all the fighting between Aelin and Chaol in the beginnin..."

I completely agree, think everyone that threw a huge fit and cancelled their pre-orders really need to just give this book a chance. I mean, I was the BIGGEST Chaol and Aelin shipper ever but I still loved the book and accepted everything that happened.

My favourite character will always be Aelin followed by Dorian and now Rowan but I love the original trio (Aelin, Dorian and Chaol). I really enjoyed the character development of Lysandra who is now one of my favourites! Manon also was great again and I loved Aedion.

My favourite character will always be Aelin followed by Dorian and now Rowan but I love the original trio (Aelin, Dorian and Chaol). I really enjoyed the character development of Lysandra who is now one of my favourites! Manon also was great again and I loved Aedion.

I have to say my favorite character in this particular book was Lysandra. I thought she was sassy and a great part of the team. Not to mention, shapeshifter? Awesome.