*spoilers for kingdom of ash*

kingdom of ash was, unsurprisingly, amazing. but the thing that i loved most about that book wasn't the battles or the unrequited and requited love stories; it was the motif of sacrifice.

ever since the first book, we've been vaguely aware that there's this price, and aelin is pretty much destined to pay it. now, we've had an inkling for a while that it's going to be with the Wyrd gates, but it wasn't until we read kingdom of ash for everything to make sense.

yes, aelin chooses to sacrifice herself to seal the wyrd gates, in more ways than one. she starts with dorian, the both of them using their combined powers to seal it. but then dorian's father takes his son's place (which really gave me a sense of closure for some reason, especially when the king dies for real).

and aelin gives up all of her power, except for one drop.

that's what i love most about this book. yes, it made me kind of angry when i read it. because aelin was the fire-breathing bitch queen. her sense of self-discovery and forgiveness comes from her fire (pretty much the entire plot of heir of fire). everything extraordinary about her was derived from her fire-wielding.

and in the final battle between maeve and erawan, it's just aelin. no fire, no darkness-devouring light to end the reign of a valg queen and king. it's just aelin.

and i think that's the best thing that sarah j. maas could have done.

because it would have been very satisfying for aelin to burn erawan and maeve, and for her to burn the valg armies. but that's what we all expected. fireless, and in that same sense powerless, aelin still manages to eradicate the valg (with help, of course, but that has always been arlin's fashion). her worth does not come from her fire, but from herself. when she was celeana, she was never worthless; she was dangerous. and in this world where everyone seems to possess remarkable power, isn't it humbling that the heroine who has walked beside death her whole life isn't measured by her power, but rather by her choices?

it is disappointing that aelin will no longer be the fire-breathing bitch queen, but now she can be something more.