Aelin vs Dorian: Why KoA is Aelin’s Book and One Way to Read the Lessening of Her Powers
I’ve seen this issue come up post-Kingdom of Ash a ton so I wanted to give it a good ole fashioned meta. This is going to be long, and detailed, and full of quotes from Kingdom of Ash and the series as a whole. So I’ve broken it into two parts to make it easier, with TLDR’s up top for ease. (except please do read this because I’ve worked on in for a month and my phd dissertation has suffered because of it).
I feel like there are aspects to this that I haven’t articulated very well, but it’s time to post! It’s time! As always, thoughtful comments are welcome, but pls no one yell at me.
Part 1. Why Kingdom of Ash Should Be and Is Aelin’s Story First and Foremost
TLDR; Because Aelin is the chosen one and true hero of the story, she’s the one who performs the sacrifice to save her world and because she does this, any argument that Dorian’s actions are in any way of equal importance to hers or that he is also “the hero” is invalid.
Part 2. The Meaning Of Aelin Losing Her Powers, and Why “But a man didn’t lose his powers all the way” Is Not Great Counter Argument Given What the Series As a Whole Says About Power
TLDR; Aelin isn’t disempowered or anything, demonstrated by that fact that she effectively avoids a fate that condemns her to death, saves the world, and screws over the gods, and learns that her true magic is in her heart of fire, not her literal fire. Aelin and Dorian both lose a lot of their powers, and this is really significant because it means that neither of them are going to be doing any conquering any time soon.
All page numbers from American hardcovers, unless otherwise noted.
Part 1: Why Kingdom of Ash Should Be and Is Aelin’s Story First and Foremost
Okay so at this point you’re either like “duh Lucia of course KoA is Aelin’s book” or you’re like “NO IT WASN’T, DORIAN HAVILLIARD SPOKE TOO OFTEN” or you’re like “Chaol and Dorian didn’t have sex so this book was irrelevant to me,” or maybe you’re only here for Manon Blackbeak and you think KoA should have been her book not Aelin’s, in which case I would like to show you the way to books .5-2 in the series.
Whichever way you’re thinking, the debate over whether Aelin is the hero in KoA seems to come at it from a few angles, mainly being:
1. Dorian in KoA was the chosen one and is the hero just as much as Aelin
2. It’s fucked that SJM gave Dorian such a big role in KoA because it’s Aelin’s story
3. It is Aelin’s story because she’s the character who ultimately saves the day, does the World Saving Thing, and facilitates other characters doing the other World Saving Things. If the story belongs to anyone but Aelin, it’s the other female characters who SJM serves to us on a silver platter with the words “WOMEN SAVE THE WORLD” engraved in 32 point Arial Bold font. When you look at the canon text, and don’t just fall back on your knee jerk reaction to either hate Aelin or hate Dorian, it’s pretty damn clear: Aelin, assisted by various ladies, saves the mother fucking world, solidifying her place as The Heroine within the text and also making the point that successful women are backed by other successful women.
I’m going to be arguing point 3, in case you couldn’t already tell.
Point 1: The World Saving Thing
The Lock scene. The scene we had all been waiting for since EoS, since Elena sent us all on a meandering hike through the marshes of Eyllwe to find a “lock” (see: not a lock, actually a mirror, Elena is a crafy lying biotch) that could save the world.
Forging the Lock is the World Saving Thing. It’s the killing Voldemort of this story. It’s the dropping of the ring into the fires of Mount Doom. While other things, like finding the deathly Hallows or Aragorn taking up the sword that was broken and has been reforged, are also important, there is no denying that killing Voldemort, destroying the ring, and Forging the Lock, are *the* things that need to happen. Obviously, in this universe, instead of Hallows and swords, we need to find Wyrdkeys and Wyrvens and Healers. But does that stuff matter if someone doesn’t use their entire life force to forge a new lock for the Wyrdkeys ensuring that no more demon lords can come through the gates and sending the gods back to the world from whence they came? NO IT DOESN’T, IT MEANS FUCK ALL WITHOUT THE LOCK.
What’s the point of the final battle if the Wyrdkeys are still out there for Erawan to use to summon his abusive ass brothers to Erilea? What’s the point if Maeve gets her hands on a Wyrdkey? Whats the point, basically, of Dorian finding all of the Wyrdkeys if someone doesn’t then do the sacrificing thing to put them back in the gate?
The entire point is to get rid of the keys by forging the Lock and ensure that the world remains safe for centuries to come.
And who is the someone who does the sacrificing thing??? MOTHER FUCKING AELIN ASHRYVER GALATHYNIUS, THAT’S WHO.
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