As promised, in this blog I will be examining the similarities between Sarah J. Maas's two best selling series. Maas is an incredibly talented writer who has managed to make two completely separate series intertwine, if you read closely enough. Both series include the concept of Fae, but they take place in completely different worlds of her creation.
In both series, different universes are mentioned. From the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, Amren is a being that is not quite Fae, but something much more powerful from a different world. She came into the world presented in the series through a portal of some kind with several others like her, and she claims that they were worshiped as gods where she came from.
In the Throne of Glass series, the gods that the main characters worship are actually beings who traveled through a portal (called a Wyrdgate in this series) a long time ago and are trying to return home. Could these be Amren's siblings who traveled through the gate with her, but ended up in a completely different universe? I think so, and I think Maas intentionally designed her series to intertwine this way.
Another vague and barely noticeable connection is the Fae's weakness. In A Court of Thorns and Roses, the Fae can only be killed by ashwood, and it is their main weakness. The Fae from Throne of Glass are not quite as invulnerable. They can be killed many ways, but their main weakness is iron. In fact, iron is the main weakness of all magic wielders in this universe.
However, we see this crossover in A Court of Thorns and Roses when the majority of humans believe that iron is the Fae's Achilles's Heel (when it is actually ashwood). The main character wonder how this belief spread, but could it be from the world in Throne of Glass since iron is actually what kills them in this novel? Hmm interesting.
There are also theories that Aelin from Throne of Glass was the female that forged the cauldron seen in A Court of Thorns and Roses since the cauldron famously comes from another world. However, I have not finished the Throne of Glass series, so I can't confirm this without spoiling it for myself! The cauldron is literally worshiped by the characters from A Court of Thorns and Roses though, so it would be pretty cool if Aelin was the cause of this!
One ambiguous character from the Throne of Glass series is Fenrys. His power is unknown by anyone in this universe, but it is fairly common in A Court of Thorns and Roses. His "special ability" is winnowing, or being able to transport oneself from one place to another. Another theory about him is that he and his twin are the children of Feyre and Rhys from A Court of Thorns and Roses. This is mostly believed because Fenrys as kind of a combination of the names Feyre and Rhys and because he has dark hair, but I don't think that this theory holds much weight or is supported by either series very well. It is a cool idea though!
Since I have not done a blog on the Throne of Glass series yet, more information on this series can be found at Goodreads.