YMMV / Throne of Glass

• Anticlimax Boss: Arobynn, the King of Assassins, is built up as an extremely dangerous, cunning and resourceful crime lord, with the protagonists worrying about how they're going to deal with him. He gets stabbed to death in his sleep by a prostitute with no combat training, offpage, and that's the end of that.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Chaol is one of the most divisive characters in the series, especially after the third book. Some readers think he's a selfish, bigoted, self-righteous asshole who treats Celaena poorly and is loyal to Ardalan for far too long. Others think Chaol is a realistically flawed but ultimately well-intentioned person who makes mistakes like anyone, learns to overcome his prejudices and gets treated a bit harshly by Celaena and the others. And don't even get us started on whether or not he and Celaena should be a couple. Some readers who previously disliked Chaol thought that Tower of Dawn (which focuses primarily on him) served as a worthy redemption, while other readers still couldn't stand him and felt he barely changed (to the point readers have admitted to skim-reading or outright skipping Tower of Dawn because it revolves around Chaol).
  • Rowan, especially after he and Aelin become an Official Couple in Queen of Shadows. Some readers enjoy him as a sexy, heartbroken badass fae warrior and think he and Aelin make a great power couple. Other people think he has no personality or story arc outside of being Aelin's love interest and find Dorian and Chaol to be better developed (both as characters and in regards to their relationship with Celaena/Aelin). Other aspects of their relationship have generated controversy as well, namely the age gap, power dynamics and their initial hostility. Some don't see an issue with them having a Mayfly–December Romance (especially seeing as it's a fantasy story) and view them as having Belligerent Sexual Tension that develops into mutual respect. Other readers view their relationship as problematic given that Celaena is a teenager while Rowan is her centuries' old tutor - and thus in a position of authority over her - and find his aggressive treatment of her abhorrent, especially given Celaena's emotional state at the time. ^note she's going through a depressive state and expresses survivor's guilt after the murder of her best friend and realization most of her family died to protect her
• Broken Base: Fans have been known to argue over who was better: Celaena or Aelin. Some fans miss Celaena and greatly dislike Aelin for being too harsh and serious and just generally almost nothing like Celaena, and therefore find her unlikeable. Some like Aelin just fine and find her to be badass and interesting, and appreciate being able to finally see Celaena's true self.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: It's mentioned several times that Terrasen's royal family were all massacred ten years prior to Book 1 but no one is sure what happened to the eight year old princess. Celaena is eighteen at the beginning of the series and was taken in by Arobynn after being found half-dead near the border of Terrasen a decade ago. Celaena also mentions she used to have magic and Terrasen's royal family is known for being descended from Fae. Cain mocks Celaena about her parents being dead. Oh, and she has a connection to Elena's spirit, she being a former queen of Terrasen and the princess's ancestor, who all but states outright they're related at the end of Book 1 ("Blood ties can't be broken"). Gee, I wonder if Celaena turns out to be the long-lost princess? The series does at least try to put a more unique spin on it; rather than Celaena having lost her memory or being otherwise ignorant of her heritage, she's fully aware she's the princess but insists That Woman Is Dead out of trauma.
• Contested Sequel: Queen of Shadows has fans pretty split on opinions on it. Some view it was the worst book in the series so far and find it to be a huge disappointment, while others see it as the best so far and very much worth the wait.
  • One of the main causes of the rift is the characterization of Chaol and Celaena/ Aelin. Some fans thought that they acted completely OOC and were unnecessarily harsh to one another, while other fans see the characterization to be well-done and realistic when one takes in their character development during Heir of Fire. The latter also tend to point out how Celaena and Aelin are practically two separate characters, so it should be expected of Aelin to be very different from Celaena.
  • Another cause for argument over Queen of Shadows are the ships; specifically, the fact that Aelin/Rowan became canon. Many Chaolaena shippers became incredibly upset when Aelin and Chaol didn't get immediately back together, and thus resented the Rowaelin ship. Other fans (Specifically non- Chaolaena shippers) are either happy for Rowaelin becoming canon or are simply okay with it, feeling that by that point in the series, Chaolaena becoming canon was very unlikely anyway, citing that Celaena may have loved Chaol, but Aelin didn't. The former half tends to be the ones who also view Queen of Shadows in a negative light while the latter reacted positively to it.
• Continuity Lockout: Particularly in the latter half of the series, if you haven't read the prequel The Assassin's Blade, there are characters and plot developments introduced there that otherwise come off as complete Ass Pulls in the main books.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Abraxos Manon's wyvern and Fleetfoot are seriously popular.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • Chaol and Celaena. Fanart, fanfics, and fanmixes abound for the couple. Hilariously enough, when Dorian crops up in fanworks, he's more often with Chaol than with Celaena.
  • After the release of Heir of Fire, some people are shipping Rowan/Celaena, despite or sometimes because of their blood bond at the end of the book and Aedion/Celaena, despite the fact that they're related. Aelin/Rowan became canon in Queen of Shadows, though the other ships are still popular.
  • Now that Queen of Shadows has been release, Manon/Elide and Aedion/Lysandra have become incredibly popular ships.
• Fridge Logic:
  • Chaol somehow made Captain of the Royal Guard without ever having killed someone before. Sure, he's only twenty-two (twenty-three by the second book) years old, but he's the CAPTAIN of the royal guard of an empire that spends most of its time conquering neighboring lands and dealing with rebels from said lands and he's never killed someone before?
  • The witches once had a Witch Kingdom, which they seek to rebuild. However, it seems strange their realm is referred to as a kingdom considering witches are a matriarchal and predominantly female race ^note in the case of the Ironteeth witches they're all female, while amongst the Crochan witches males are rare while "king" is used to refer to a male ruler. The witches' rulers are always referred to as either queens or matrons. It might make sense if non-witches called it the Witch Kingdom out of ignorance but weirdly enough the witches themselves refer to it this way too, despite kings not being a thing in their society.
  • Elide is described as a human woman with witch ancestry on her mother's side. However, witches in this series are said to be an all or mostly female race who are capable of breeding with humans, although the resultant offspring will always be just witches rather than hybrids of some kind. It's never explained how Elide and her mother are mostly human when by this logic they should be full-blooded witches.
• Growing the Beard: A common opinion amongst the fanbase is that the third book, Heir of Fire, is a significant improvement over Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight. A criticism of the first two books - especially the first - is that the plot and pacing can feel off, such as the main storyline's lack of development, excessive focus on romantic subplots, uneven worldbuilding and Celaena having little depth beyond being an Escapist Character with a lot of Character Shilling (a frequent joke being that for an infamous assassin, Celaena sure doesn't do much assassinating). Some readers also weren't thrilled that the only other significant female character besides Celaena gets killed off in the second book. It's widely agreed that Heir of Fire is a step-up in quality, with the main story getting more focus, interesting character development for Celaena and the other protagonists, better implementation of worldbuilding and the introduction of popular characters like Elide, Manon and the other witches. Some readers attribute this to Sarah J. Maas being a teenager when she began writing the series (Throne of Glass was also her debut novel) so it's understandable she had gotten more experienced by the third installment. Whether the series stays good is a matter of debate amongst readers, but most find Heir of Fire to be one of the strongest entries.
• Ho Yay: Rising with every book between Dorian and Chaol. Particularly heavy in Queen of Shadows when being told that Chaol is dead shatters the possession the demon/the King has had on Dorian for the entire book and spurs Dorian to open up a can of whoopass.
  "Please," Chaol said hoarsely to the king, and [Aelin's] heart cracked at the word, at the agony and desperation. "Free [Dorian]. Name your price. I'll give you anything."
  Dorian surged from the chair and dropped to his knees beside the bed. He grabbed Chaol's hand, squeezing it as he pressed his brow against his. "You were dead," the prince said, his voice breaking. "I thought you were dead."
  Dorian: The Torre Cesme might be your only hope of walking again.
  Chaol: I'm not leaving you. Not again.
  Dorian: You never left me, Chaol. You never left me.
• Hype Backlash: Throne of Glass was a big hit in the 2010s (the original version Queen of Glass was also one of the most popular stories on FictionPress between 2003 and 2008), selling millions of copies, launching Sarah J Maas' career, and getting attempts at an adaptation before the series was even finished. It particularly received praise for being an epic fantasy teen girls could enjoy, given its lead was a teenage Girly Bruiser and the inclusion of Feminist Fantasy aspects, with some calling it "Game of Thrones for teen girls" or "feminist The Lord of the Rings". However, it didn't take long for the series to gain detractors, with some of the backlash ranging from complaints about rampant cliches and overfixation on romance (especially the inclusion of graphic sex scenes and sexualized violence in a teen-oriented series), to questionable depictions of people of color and gay/bisexual characters. Opinions on Celaena are also divisive; initially some praised her for being a badass female character who also embraces femininity (avoiding the maligned Real Women Don't Wear Dresses), while others find her fixation on boys, parties and fashion tends to override the 'badass assassin' part of her character and that she comes off as an over-powered Cliché Storm whose constant Character Shilling gets annoying.
• Improved Second Attempt: There was some controversy over Nehemia's role early in the series, namely that she's one of the only major characters of color and her role essentially boils down to being Celaena's friend and dying horribly less than than halfway through the series purely to motivate Celaena. It doesn't help that something very similar happens to Sorscha (who is implied to have mixed ancestry) in the third book. We're later introduced to Yrene Towers, a biracial woman whose father is from Eyllwe (Nehemia's country). Her meaty role in the later books and in particular her being the one to take out the Big Bad almost seems to have been added to make up for the Nehemia controversy.
• It Was His Sled: Celaena actually being Princess Aelin, the long-lost heir of Terrasen, is a twist that's now widely known by readers, partly because it's revealed relatively early in the series (Book 2 of 8) and forms a major plotline, and partly because it's pretty obvious to begin with.
• Les Yay: The series is full of female characters who develop close bonds, so it's no surprise that there's a lot of chemistry to be had.
  • Celaena and Nehemia's close bond, complete with anywhere-but-their-lips kisses It becomes increasingly apparent from the closeness they share and the Affectionate Nickname Nehemia gives Celaena, not to mention when Nehemia is murdered she hunts down and mercilessly tortures Nehemia's killer in the same way Nehemia was killed before she lets him die. After she has got revenge she drops into utter desolation and despair that is a major driving force of the plot in Heir of Fire.
  • There is also Manon and her Thirteen, and Lysandra, a courtesan who allies with Celaena and thinks she's proposing when Celaena gives her a ring with a seal. It was an offer for a new start on a significant patch of land, but still.
• Narm:
  • When Rowan and Aelin have sex in Empire of Storms, their ardor is so intense that they turn the sand on the beach into glass and Aelin bursts into flames (she's fine afterwards).
  • Maas' use of the words "male" and "maleness" to describe the way the Fae males behave has drawn equal parts ire and amusement from the fandom.
  • Maas' tendency to overuse ellipses and em dashes (including multiple on one page) is distracting at best and annoying at worst.
  • No one can cry or otherwise go misty eyed normally, they are always "lined with silver," "filled with silver," or there is a line of silver running down a cheek.
  • The fact that the King of Ardalan's sword is called Nothung drew chuckles from several readers; it's presumably intended to be pronounced something like "no-fung", but some read it as "not-hung", leading to jokes about the king Compensating for Something.
• Nightmare Fuel: The series has some high-octane nightmare fuel despite being a YA series, including:
  • Cain, especially during the climax of the first book.
  • The scenes leading up to and following Nehemia's assassination-the brutal way the princess is laid out in her rooms, how close Celaena comes to saving her friend, and the no-holds-barred revenge that follows.
  • Almost every time we see the Valg princes. Special mention goes to Dorian's descriptions of what it's like to be possessed by one, and the horrors the demon forces him to watch through his own eyes.
  • Kaltain's wasted state in Queen of Shadows, complete with heavily-implied abuse from her partner, Duke Perrington, and her shadowfire-black flame that does less immediate damage to the physical body, but inflicts a world of pain. Until she kills herself unleashing it on Morath.
• Padding: A common complaint even from readers who like the series is that it can feel unnecessarily long. The story itself isn't that complicated but it gets dragged out by taking ages to get to the point or including sequences that do little to develop the plot. The original draft consisted of three parts which corresponds to the first four books, only for the finished version to be stretched to eight books in total, and most of them are very long books at that. Notably, the main conflict seems to be wrapped up by the fourth book, only for it to suddenly be revealed that the Big Bad is not the true Big Bad after all, basically enforcing the series' continuation.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Lots, thanks to a large and active fandom.
  • Dorian/Aelin: Doraelin
  • Chaol/Celaena: Chaolaena
  • Rowan/Aelin: Rowaelin
  • Manon/Elide: Malide
• Romantic Plot Tumor: A criticism of the first book is that the narrative tends to focus far less on the assassin competition and murder mystery that was advertized, and more on the love triangle between Celaena, Dorian and Chaol. While many readers don't have a problem with the romance per se, for those that went into the book expecting it to be "Game of Thrones for teen girls" (as it has often been described) they often find themselves underwhelmed. The sequels tend to get better about this, focusing less on romance and more on the rebellion against Ardalan.
• Sequelitis: Opinions differ on when this set in - for some it was Empire of Storms, for others it set it in as early as Heir of Fire, but many fans agree that this definitely happened over the course of the series. Between Chaolena breaking up, the increased focus on characters that many consider to be the core three of Celaena/Aelin, Dorian and Chaol, and accusations of repetitiveness to Maas' other series, fans have been less impressed as the series went on.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: It's been pointed out that some parts of the series, though especially the final book Kingdom of Ash, appear to be lifted straight from The Lord of the Rings (in particular the films) with only minimal changes. Some of this ranges from similar-sounding names and lines, all the way to scenes and plot points that appear near-identical to The Lord of the Rings (Manon summons allies to war by starting a beacon-lighting chain across mountains much like Pippin in Return of the King, the siege of Anielle is similar to Helm's Deep, the dam scene resembles the Ents' attack on Isengard and so on). Even people who otherwise enjoyed the books picked up on the similarities, while detractors criticize it as yet another high fantasy story trying to ride on the coattails of The Lord of the Rings and barely even trying to disguise this.
• Too Cool to Live: Nehemia. She's reminiscent of Princess Leia in that she's a courageous and strong-willed princess who is Wise Beyond Their Years and is secretly supporting the rebellion. She's skilled at deceiving and manipulating others, with her strengths lying more in political manoeuvring and spy-work than than just throwing her weight around. She's actually more proactive and heroic than Celaena is (at first). Unfortunately, she gets killed off just two books in, with her death even serving to motivate Celaena into actually being the hero. A lot of readers were disappointed by this; it's also been pointed out that it has problematic implications given that Nehemia is a woman of color - and pretty much the only major character of color in the series until the later books - whose main role is to die to motivate the white protagonist.
• The Un-Twist: In the first book, the revelation that the brutish and unsubtly-named Cain is in fact the killer. He's such an obvious suspect that it seems too obvious but nope, it is him.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The series is classified as young adult fantasy and for the most part the books' content isn't too different from other young adult series...at least until Empire of Storms, which has surprisingly lengthy and explicit sex scenes for a book aimed at teens. Some of the violence is pretty graphic too, including lengthy torture sequences at the start of Kingdom of Ash.

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