There are several reasons to be in favor of multi-povs without bringing ships into it. I thought it might be interesting to discuss because I have seen at least some people from every ship thinking that might be the case.
We have to look at the Call Her Daddy podcast.
The next three books are "one book":
And then I realized it was going to be four parts, a book told in four parts.
So, it's basically it would be like three physical volumes, but it's like one thing altogether.
So, it's meant to be read ideally as like one massive, massive story as opposed to like a trilogy. It’s not a trilogy.
Something about the POV(s) surprised SJM:
Q: You can't tell us whose POV it's from?
A: Um, no. And that was one of the, like, surprising things for me in like, writing this and what came out.
I'm going to be blunt and say this: Elain is getting a POV, and probably the main one/a major one. Anyone who thinks otherwise... I'm not really sure what your thought process is there. It's time. Past time, in fact.
Given that Elain getting a POV is arguably so painfully obvious, I'm curious what was it that surprised SJM?
She also says that the way the story "came out of her" was surprising, but it felt right:
The story that was finally ready to come out of me was big. Really, really, really big. And as I started writing this in like this Montana energy vortex, like, it came out of me in a way that surprised me.
But like what I was writing felt right. Like that was what the story that needed to be told.
The story she ended up with was "really, really, really big". And with so many plots up in the air, assuming ACOTAR 8 is the last book (don't know if this is confirmed), that makes sense. We're going to need a lot of pages to cover it all.
I also found this quote particularly telling:
But it's like it's a different-it's, you know it's ACOTAR, but just I'm telling it in a way that's exciting to me and like gives me the space that the story demanded and the characters demanded.
Some things I thought were interesting potential hints about what we might see:
Q: What is the King of Hybern’s actual name?
A: Fred. Frank. Frank. I don't–
Q: Actually yeah because–
A: That actually might be something that…
Q: We could find out–
A: That is discussed.
So, we're possibly revisiting something about the King of Hybern, including finding out his name? Is this a Valg-related King of Adarlan situation? Sus...
Q: Okay. How do fae get into the House of Wind, because they don't have wings? Like, do they climb the stairs?
A: This might be something that you find out.
I don't know that this points to anything specific, other than the fact that the HoW will be there at some point.
Q: Okay. What are Mor's powers?
A: Like, truth?
Q: Truth.
A: But you like have other powers beyond that. But I don't– I'm not going to reveal any more about– there might be more about that! Who knows?
Mor's powers, hopefully. I know I'm dying for an explanation.
Q: Okay. Can you tell us anything about the Dusk Court, and are you going to explore any of it in your next book?
A; Yeah, but you have to know– Like, what do you want me to say, Alex? What do you want me to say here?
Q: I love you.
A: What do you want me to say?
I think this is a good indication we'll interact with the Dusk Court. Obviously, we learn a lot about the Dusk Court in HOFAS, and the crossover is the most "recent" version of Prythian we've seen. And a whole missing court either awakened or waiting to be. So, again, that makes sense that we'll talk about it.
Q: Okay, how did the Book of Breathings and The Walking Dead end up in Jesiba's library?
A: I don't know, you'll have to stay tuned for answers.
Now that we know the worlds crossover, it explains the mechanism of how the books could be in Lunathion. But addressing this would bring the crossover into the ACOTAR series specifically. Even if only briefly.
Q: There are a lot of theories that Rhys and Ruhn are related. Can you confirm or deny?
A: hesitates
Q: You're like “fuck off!”. You can say fuck off.
A: I'm not saying that, I like you, i'm not going to–
Q: Okay, fair, fair. Is Maeve related to any of them?
A: I mean, what-- I feel like I should just hand over my notebooks to you and you can like comb through them for like all the little notes that I've made.
We know Rhys and Ruhn are related, through both being descendants of Theia, via Silene and Helena respectively. But, given that it's been 15,000 years... even if you say fae live 1000 years... that's a lot of generations to have so strong of a resemblance. It's less clear if we will find out if Maeve is related to them, but her tone (see the video 1:42:56 to 1:43:06) felt evasive to me. Obviously up to interpretation.
Anyways, all this to say, we have the obvious big plots...
Koschei: The biggest thread I can see right now. He's been teased since ACOWAR. It's time for the edging to stop.
Vassa and the remaining Human Queens: Given how big Briallyn was in ACOSF, I wouldn't be surprised if the Queens are sort of "mini-bosses" on our way to Koschei.
Ramiel: What are they hiding down there???
The Autumn Court: Both through Beron's alliance with Briallyn and Eris's alliance with the Night Court, this is in need of some resolution. I think Eris taking over would be a good pre-Koschei confrontation event.
The Dusk Court: I don't even know where to start with this. The court itself, the crossover fallout, Gwydion...
Vallahan: What do Mor be doing over there?
None of those are super character-specific. They can all be addressed without regard to ships.
We also have more character-specific plots (not an exhaustive list):
Elain's Seer abilities are the most obvious
Nesta's connection to the 8-pointed star
Lucien's parentage and the Helion/LoA/Beron situation
Azriel's connection to Gwydion via Truth-Teller
The Valkyries had a lot of build-up for it all to "end" with the Blood Rite
The concept of the Elucien bond and its ramifications (needs to be addressed regardless of endgame ships)
I could go on, but the point is...
The story has gotten too big for a dual-POV to do it justice.
And I mean any dual-POV. Elain and Azriel. Elain and Lucien. Gwyn and Azriel. Frickin' I don't know... Clotho and Balthazar. Any dual-POV limits the impact of a lot of these plots. Yes, Elain is a Seer and could theoretically be connected to any plot at any time. But using her visions like a deus ex machina to get her involved in a plot feels... inorganic. And yes, Elain could simply be told by characters already involved in said plots. But again, inorganic.
The story COULD be told through dual-POV, but is that the best choice, narratively?
As I said at the beginning (a million years ago by now), I care more for the quality of the story overall than who ends up with whom. And I feel that quality is best served with multi-POV.
Imagine the TOG plot, from HoF onward, being in exclusively Aelin and Rowan's POVs:
Literally who is Manon? She just shows up in Queen of Shadows with absolutely zero context.
No idea what is happening back in Adarlan with Dorian's powers and eventual possession, Chaol's internal struggles.
No knowledge of Aedion and his secret work on Terrasen's behalf.
I won't go into specifics, but also imagine CC from ONLY Bryce and Hunt's perspectives.
The story would get told, but the reader's perspective and understanding of the story would be extremely inhibited.
It has nothing to do with if I think Elain COULD carry all three books, because I definitely think she could. I think her story will be the most complex and interesting we've seen so far. But SHOULD she carry all three books? I think it would be doing the overall story a disservice. Will she just be running around from place to place, even crossing the sea, so that we can address all of these plots from within her POV?
Elain WILL get her story regardless.
I don't think that anyone would say that Crescent City isn't Bryce's story because of the multi-POVs, or that Throne of Glass isn't Aelin's story. Hoping for multi-POV in the upcoming books isn't about trying to take away Elain's story. It's about experiencing Elain's story in a greater context, in a way that gives the overall story room to breathe.
And obviously, nothing about this post changes the fact that the books are already written, in whatever POV(s) they will be. But it felt nice to point out that wanting multi-POVs goes beyond ships.
So I don’t think the formula has changed. I hear what you’re saying but I respectfully disagree. I think it’s still dual POV. I think it’s Elriel. I think it’s 1 large book broken down by part bc it got too long to bind (and also Sarah wanted us to get something before the entirety was complete). She also didn’t want to have to parse it down to fit industry and binding standards. The story got too big.
So you left out the rest of what she said in the quote about the pov.
“You can’t tell us whose pov it’s from?” “Um, no, and that was one of the surprising things for me and what came out of me, it’s—you get a lot of like insight into various things.”
I agree with @wingedblooms regarding insight.
ToG is entirely different and started as multi-pov. It was never dual POV. I don’t think the POV is changing to multi for this next book. I still think the formula is romance forward with the first 2 spin-offs.
Personally, I think we’re getting another ACOTAR book after this giant next book (6-8) and I don’t believe Elain’s book will close every single plot.
I think the last book is very likely going to be multi-pov and I am hopeful it will include each sister.
Let’s go plotline by plotline here:
Koschei: connected to Elain. She saw him. Azriel has also seen him at the lake when they went to retrieve Eris.
Vassa and the remaining queens: connected to Elain. She saw Vassa. She connected the IC to Vassa. Her ill-fitted mate lives with Vassa. Elain met the queens in the archeron estate in the human lands, wished them well to burn in hell and was in Hybern with them for her making.
Ramiel: Connected to Elain and Azriel.
The Autumn Court: Elain’s ill-fitted mate is a son of Autumn. His father is aligned with Koschei. Azriel has bad blood with Autumn. We’ve seen the blood duel come up.
The Dusk Court: yes the star tattoo that Nesta no longer has and HOFAS. Azriel was there for the history hologram lesson. We don’t require Nesta’s pov. Nesta and Elain were made in the cauldron. They’re imbued with the raw power of the cauldron that was taken and warped from the land. They are both (Feyre too via her making. Let’s not leave her out of this) highly relevant to dusk and many of us believe the sisters make up different facets of Theia’s light and have starborn power (elain has wielded truth teller). The Dusk Court is also a slumbering court: slumbering land.
Vallahan: I personally think Elain could take over Mor’s role and Mor will train with the Valkyries. We’re definitely going to see a lot of Mor in the next book as the love story materializes. Mor is highly relevant to all of it.
So…Elain is a common thread amongst all of these plots. And she’s a seer. A gifted, cauldron-made seer with PowerS. Who will have many insights.
To keep it simple, I think Elain can and will address the plot lines you brought up. I don’t think they will all be closed by the end of book 8. I think there will be another book, most likely plot-heavy, and not romance-centric to tie it all together.
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