#crowntide

You don't understand -- I literally picked up this series when in my shadow-daddy era, ready to be a Grim girly with all the publicity this series got that I got absolutely whiplashed when I found out that Oro was not only not the main love interest, but he is also not the favoured love interest. (I did not know the names of the love interests, only brief outlines of the plot; and idk that there were 2 LIs, I just thought that the second ship was with some kind of secondary character that people preferred over the main. I do not like spoilers)

Anyway, to right this injustice of Oro being constantly sidelined (dude was in like 20% of book 3 and somehow still carried the whole plot. Insanity -- even coming from an Oro stan), I have decided to compile an argument on why I believe, undoubtedly, that Oro is the better love interest:

Spoilers below, obviously.

Updating the meme since the last two “exclusive” Crowntide covers are out. I guess I was just too ambitious with the target special edition because it’s just a deeper purple. Maybe in person it’s gonna be different. Also they just straight up Ctl+C Ctl+ V the B&N edition (even same ISBN, diff sticker) for Indigo books. Not the end of the world since no B&N in Canada I guess but it’s weird with the “exclusive edition” sticker on there.

Hi, so my life revolves around music and books. Currently obsessed with Conan Gray and McKenna Grace. I don’t pick favorite books, but I’m currently reading Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. I’m also finishing Crowntide by Alex Aster, and starting The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R. M. Romero. All amazing books. I write a lot as well, currently working on a piece about a band, three girls, it focuses on one of the and her struggle with her own identity. Talk to me about Hadestown!!! Btw if you’re homophobic, transphobic, racist, or trump supporter please leave!

I'm mainly going to be addressing the major hate posts that I saw. I don't want people in the replies talking about "you forgot about this!" or "You didn't talk about how____". Don't be that person. If some of this stuff is incorrect, I want someone to correct me. Not with a counterargument, but with what actually happened in the book. My memory is a bit hazy.

I searched up #lightlark and expected to find others who enjoyed Alex Asters book to the level that I do, but no. Within the entire 10 minutes that I scrolled, I only saw about 5 posts of people who actually liked it.

If you don't like the concept at first glance, nobody is telling you to read it ml. Nobody is forcing you to pluck every single book in the series from Barnes & Noble, just so you can be able to write an extremely detailed, abhorrent review. I know I might get some strong opinions about this, but pointing out every little miniscule detail to whine about isn't going to put you higher on the podium. Though, I completely understand that some people might find the plot and writing style a little weird; everyone has a different opinion.

A lot of the complaints that I actually bothered to read were talking about how the rulers lives being bound to their people was not a good choice, but I respectfully don't agree. Not everything is going to be peace and sunshine, and there are going to be major obstacles and responsibilities. Especially for rulers.

Near the beginning of the book, it says that rulers were responsible for using their power to keep their realm alive and thriving, which is usually what rulers are supposed to do given their high status. If the ruler dies, obviously their realm is going to die with it unless they have an heir. Which, of course, none of them did because of the Centennial.

Some of you guys act like Isla chooses to constantly get herself in danger. What she chooses to do--even if it doesn't turn out well--is always for the better of her people. Yet ya'll act like she throws herself off of cliffs for the love of the game.

I've also seen people complaining about how Alex doesn't know enough about politics, and...what was the point of even saying that? Lightlark doesn't take place on earth. It's a fantasy world with castles and powers and realms with rules that aren't going to line up with the governments that are here.

This one is actually so unnecessary: OP's complaining about quotes like "who did this to you?" are cringing so goddamn violently. As if one of the MC's just said some millennial cringe line while howling at a full moon with red eyes. But...all of these booktok people would be giggling and kicking their feet if it was literally any other book. Interesting.

It's also gotten to a point where people are hating on the fanart, as well as the people who made it. That issue speaks for itself.

A lot of you need to realize that this is a fantasy world made up by Alex Aster with the rules that she wants to implement. Rulers wear their crowns all of the time, they have powers, there are different government systems, and again, authors have different writing styles. Every author is different, has had different tutors (if any), and some get inspiration from the writing styles of other books that they have read.

The amount of people comparing the situations in Lightlark to real life happenings, and going on to say that it "isn't realistic" are something else. Nothing about fantasy books are realistic. Are you going to read about somebody coming back to life and complain that it isn't realistic? Or are you going to read about a creature that the author created themselves, and piss your pants about how their trying to be different? (yes, I've seen that before.) Get a grip.

Just so people don't think that I'm bowing at Alex Aster's feet, here are some things that I agree with in terms of criticism:

-The dislike towards Isla's obnoxious stack of powers. She was born Wildling and Nightshade, along with her two flairs, Oro and Grims's powers, Starling abilities, and probably more. It's unnecessary, and makes her seem more like a god then one of the six rulers.

-Some of the questionable lines such as "clad in her dagger filled pants." Even so, some of you all don't need to vomit up insults or bash her head with a rock about it. I never thought that I'd see so much hate over somebody having a different writing style. A lot of writers write because they like to do it, not to please every single reader. Of course, I'm not excusing bad grammar as a writing style. There are just pointless things that you guys choose to hate on.

-The dragged love corner. It should have ended some time ago. But this is MY OPINION: I like the suspense. Especially because I'm team Oro, and I want Isla to swerve away from Grim at the end.

i love that in chapter 1 we get an immediate back to lightlark basics where a follow-up novel introduces a new name for something that was in the previous book(s) without one. suddenly skyshade being called the “otherworld” by multiple characters and we just gotta accept that and move on. it’s just something small but funny

this line from grim’s pov: “He had thought that he was helping her, but he had really taken away her choice. And even though she had forgiven him, he would never forgive himself.” i don’t remember grim ever saying or thinking that he regrets or feels bad for doing this to her, i’m vaguely remembering the Opposite where he does that nonsense of doubling down on doing some dubious/evil shit just because it was for isla?? so this made me snort. 

also this one: “If he could only follow that thread across the universe to her. He had tried, of course, the moment he left the maze. But his portaling ability wasn’t strong enough.” just makes me think again about how it’s impossible to tell what power scaling looks like in this series. so many abilities/actions get the reaction of holy fuck they’re so powerful, but then when their ultra high player level would instantly solve a problem then suddenly they’re not strong enough. idk

“His wife was certainly the strongest person in their history—possibly in the universe.” made me laugh because it’s more riding isla’s dick, but also because suddenly we’re throwing out the word “universe” constantly in this book, along with “galaxy”. the sudden jump to galactic stakes and schemes is so batshit insane and you have no choice but to roll with it

“It was part of why she left, he knew. The otherworld was rumored to be a place where the dead could be brought back as they once were. She wanted to reverse her mistakes. To right so many wrongs.” i can’t remember there ever being a line about people being brought back “as they once were” until this?? maybe i just missed it, but sounds like some new retconning that the series loves. this book also includes the talk from skyshade about using lark’s raising the dead powers to resurrect everybody, but i still?? don’t understand that plan either, because we see lark’s ability used and she just makes fucking zombies. i don’t know how we see lark cast dnd 5e create undead and then assume she’s also capable of true resurrection (but hey. isla’s made insane leaps every book and they’ve come to be true just for her so idk)

i do find it funny that infinite island!laila is tearing into grim about being whipped and not properly doing his duty to nightshade, aka starting a million wars or whatever they’re into. i just think nightshade’s hysterical for how every ruler just constantly wanted to start fights they never fucking won. this bit though: ““What about our realm?” she demanded. “What about our legacy? What about all of us who died for you to become heir?”” i hate grim so very much but even i gotta say the sibling slaughter wasn’t his fault lmao and like. their legacy is the same as it ever was?? everybody still hates nightshade and its ruler, so no reason to complain here tbh

this line from grim’s pov about isla: “I have seen the worst in her, and she has seen the worst in me.” made me wonder has she truly seen it all from him? i might be forgetting some throwaway sentence about him traumadumping his edgelord backstory of killing thousands because his daddy told him to?? it wouldn’t change much anyway, she forgives everything he does (either naturally or by being gaslit so whatever)

“He could feel a claw scraping through his thoughts. Through his very soul, with blade-like precision. Burrowing. Searching. His body tensed as he felt a cut deep within himself, but he did not stop moving. And finally, that voice was ripped from his head. Along with a small, critical part of him.” i found this part interesting. it doesn’t describe what “small, critical part” was taken, and about 30% through the book it hasn’t come up again. so i’m wondering if this is going to tie into some bullshit act 3 twist, or if i just missed something around these paragraphs that explains it

i also found this interesting: ““Will this save her?” he asked the cave. And in its echo, he heard a response. It will give you your greatest wish. Them. Together. Forever.” i almost don’t have enough faith in the writing to believe it’s true, but this sounds like a deceptive stereotypical genie ass response and grim’s not going to like what it actually means. maybe i’m looking too deep into it, or hoping for too much, idk

this opening descriptor for skyshade: “The sky. It was a glorious swirling of color, mixing like paint to form shades she hadn’t ever seen before. It was beautiful—like a sun had smeared itself across the sky. A band of silver threaded through it, sparkling like melted down stars.” i don’t have anything negative to say, i actually really liked this :) i actually have really enjoyed a few of the descriptions for this new world, though there are also multiple of the usual letdown ones.

this conclusion from isla: “The power that once could have saved her life was clearly gone. This was a world of ashes and ruin.” she also continues to make huge assumptions about there being nothing besides the dessert and who people are and what’s happened there, and it’s eyeroll worthy every time. she’s been there all of 5 minutes and has determined that there’s not a single tree on the entire planet?? ok. (at least she’s Wrong about this, for once)

i’m oro’s #1 stan and it drives me up the wall how fucking boring it is that he also has these “fuck my duty, it’s isla as priority 1 at all times” moments in narration. one of the most interesting parts of his character (at least to me) is that he actually cares about his lands and people and makes the choices to put them first, he even has multiple moments (up until the 30% mark where i paused reading) where he points out that it’s the difference between him and grim. just fully lean into it!! it makes sense the hero of the hero/villain love triangle would prioritize the masses, especially when the whole world and now apparently Universe is in danger of being wiped out. i love the moments of him being the one to stay strong while grim is crashing the fuck out over isla being in danger, because he’s gotta stay locked in to help both her and everybody fucking else in the world, please stop undermining them with small comments about how he’d also do insane shit just for one damn woman.

this here “His gaze traveled to her throat. The Moonling wasn’t wearing her necklace. She had worn it all throughout the Centennial, and afterward. Isla had told him it had to do with the child she had lost.” had me saying SINCE WHEN??? out loud. part 21 in “is tabby dumb or was this truly never mentioned”

i did cackle like a mad witch over them meeting cleo and her information just being even more shit from oracles. there is truly only like 3 things driving these plots and it’s oracles, magic items that are needed for literally every step, and out of nowhere plot twists.

this from isla: “She had carved a skyre into her skin from the metal of his coffin. It had allowed her to use power in the maze. Why wasn’t it working now?” made me yell OH FUCK OFF at my screen before laughing. insane retcon in response to reviews/critiques #259 right there

somewhere around here where isla’s working out that she’s not seeing illusions but visions of what the world once was, it got me to thinking about how this is something that really bugs me in this series. how it’s almost always isla coming to conclusions in her head rather than interacting with the world and characters to learn information, it’s so boring. let her talk to these captors!! hell, make lark more talkative, i don’t care!!! it’s so dull and lazy just ignoring all of these characters. you could change this entire sequence to isla and lark just walking thru the sands together until the storm started and nothing would be different or missed. if you need the mangled corpses from the cart then they can just find them on the ground, since there’s going to be no true exploration of why these people are scavenging the deserts or chatting with them at all

“She was here to fight for everything and everyone she loved. Including her husband.” name 5 more people you love besides grim and oro. impossible challenge, you don’t fucking talk or connect to people (and if you do, aster kills them offscreen or in another unceremonious way)

oro’s observation here on grim: “He only cared about getting Isla back, and that, Oro knew, made him villainous—but it also would be an advantage.” i liked this. that’s all

i also enjoyed this “Oro turned to see Cleo frowning at his stance. “You never were best in your class,” she murmured, as if she really couldn’t help herself.” unfortunately we’re so starved for it that i just love and eat up any interactions between characters that don’t involve isla. i love acknowledging that these old ass people have history with each other, this was cute

cleo here not only causing an entire sea to go still at her command, but then parting it with an unfathomably big crevice (because grim and oro travel along it for fucking ever) and maintaining that hold for? hours?? just making me think again about the power levels in this setting and how difficult it is to fully grasp them. 

i actually! really loved the reveal that there’s an ancient prison under water!! too bad nothing interesting happens with it

oro kills a guy in an impressive way or whatever and grim instinctively compliments him in his thoughts then feels disgusted by the thought. i need them to fuck immediately, is the thing. please both of you drop the isla relationship and just hook up, it’d be funnier and more interesting

grim thinking that he’d be able to accept it if isla chose oro and i straight up do Not believe him. i just don’t. you’re lying to yourself, grim. i like the moment of you feeling pity for oro over this triangle, but i call bullshit on the rest of this 

““She might be Nightshade,” Oro said, “but she is not a monster. She doesn’t want to be. She runs from that side of herself, yet you . . . you bring it out of her. You make her the monster you want her to be, so that the monster within you isn’t alone.”” catch me hooting and hollering on my bed, smacking my wall, shaking my tablet violently, so over the moon having this shit called out in text. face to face conversation. i’ve had these exact thoughts in previous books and it’s so delicious having a character (oro!!!!) directly speak on it in the text, forcing grim to confront it. he goes on to deny it because Of Course but that’s fine, still got it

i just generally enjoyed that chapter for them. specifically for the conversation, i fucking hated that we ignored the entire location’s concept and yet again we have characters ignore new people in favor of just slaughtering them en masse. took a d4 of psychic damage each time it mentioned them thoughtlessly killing another prisoner as they continued their argument

this moment here: ““Thank you,” Grim breathed, begrudgingly. Oro sighed. “Don’t say that.” “Why?” Oro turned to him. He looked tired. His crown was off-kilter and filthy. “Because then I’ll really think the world is fucking ending.”” Please Just Kiss

back to isla with this: “Using portals was dangerous. She could be ripped to shreds in the journey, should her theory be wrong.” another line where it’s delivered like we’ve known this fact all along but it was just introduced to us in this very book. lmao.

“As she took inventory to make sure nothing was broken, she sensed something strange about this forest—an energy of some kind. An old, deep-rooted ability. It circled her, as if in curiosity. She felt it like a finger stroking her cheek.” i liked this :) that’s a fun description

this bit: “Grim’s vision turned black with panic. He would have fallen over, if it wasn’t for Oro, holding him steady. He looked over at the Sunling and saw an understanding. They were both united in their worry. In their pain. In their love for her. What a strange thing . . . to be grateful to a man for loving his wife.” unfortunately i do love it and i want to push my polyamory propaganda here. if i can’t have the men abandoning isla to choose each other, let them all hold hands please god

i feel like i don’t even have to bitch about how this lost king is just another prophecy delivery device. it’s just exhausting at this point, 5 novels in

“Cronan has spent millennia tearing apart galaxies, looking for a single place.” “In this world exists one last key, fated to unlock the entire universe, including the world he seeks. With it, he could conquer every galaxy. Join them. Control any and all power that flows through them.” i’m sorry but it’s just Laughable. we jumped so far from being worried about lightlark to now worrying about Full Fucking Galaxies And Universes. alright

the line “The universe would have remained safe if she had just stayed” being a hilarious callout of how isla just makes the dumbest decisions ever. it’ll never not be funny, especially when remembering the line from book #1 about her “strategizing like a general”

i have a little list of changes i’d make for books in the series (inspired by sbu english club to do this with stories now, adore them) and i felt The Sky Break Open isla style when we got the reveal that the island had been teleporting to another world when disappearing during the curses, because that had been one of my concepts. i’d said i wanted it to be skyshade because it felt like you could make that connection somewhere with the heart of lightlark being used to cast the curse (and blah blah other shit i’d come up with), so i wasn’t Exactly on the money but wow. was close. still can’t decide if i’m super excited over this or worried that i came up with an aster idea (or maybe that’s also fun, that i was so in-tune with the setting that i managed that lmao)

The Threads of Time is just insane. i’m not going to question it because the narrative won’t allow me to, but wow. alright

“”She becomes the villain of this world just as many times as she becomes its hero,” he said.” is just funny. she’s already done shit that makes her a villain in the world, my guy, do we really need more piled on to make it OfficialTM

i was interested here!! with the lost king saying that he chose his sentence, because he “wanted to live a thousand lives.” perhaps it’s my over-reaching and over-imagining, but it immediately made me think of that moment with grim and the infinite island genie promise and how it sounded deceptive in its promise. idk if there’s anything there, just a passing thought

so the thing is that i do not like isla, but we get 2 chapters of her reliving memories of terra straight up abusing her in the most horrifically violent ways and i want to protect her at all costs because That’s A Child. i cry over everything so i wasn’t surprised that i found myself crying over these flashbacks, and reliving that frustration over these books refusing to acknowledge how horribly her “guardians” (her fucking Retainers. btw. their proper titles.) treated her and trying to breeze by what they did. it feels nice that isla finally got to say what they did was wrong and have a cry about it but idk, it feels a little too late. after we went thru all of skyshade with grim and the whole book refusing to acknowledge their abuse of isla?? too late, i don’t really believe you care @narrative

oro saying “my love is not lesser because I care about this world” was really nice to read. i like seeing it acknowledged by both the character and the book in general that the good guy doesn’t love someone any less just because he has responsibilities and other people relying on him, that was good. grim tries to reject that truth because of course he does, but idc. 

azul casually dropping “And, of course, the orbs of storms captured over the centuries. Our ancient collection” to retcon away one of the magic items made me snort entirely too hard. yeah, sure

the scene of grim snapping at azul to speed along the conversation with his dead husband + oro kindly asking him to do it as quickly as he could, with grim thinking this: “Oro always got to be the hero, just for pretending to be so different from Grim. Grim’s honesty made him a villain, apparently.” no, asshole, it’s because you’re an insufferable pest who belittles and barks at people for not immediately jumping to do what you want, which is usually something ridiculous to begin with. i can’t decide if this is grim being up his own ass on purpose or if the book wants us to believe this is a true observation

“I love you, he sent through a bond that he could barely feel any longer. I’m coming for you. He glanced over at the Sunling, who was also frowning at the surrounding mist. We both are. He said it only because he knew it might make her feel better. To know that they hadn’t killed each other yet. Though he desperately wanted to.” i am once again asking for the polycule route

this line from grim about isla: “she always managed to pull him down into the present. Because that was where she lived” made me laugh because it reminded me of a booktube’s discussion (maybe sbu?? can’t remember exactly) on how isla lives purely in the present and she has no history or future, she’s just bouncing from event to event, action to action. 

grim about his father: “He didn’t want to tell his father any of it. He didn’t even want his father to know his wife’s name. He would leave him in the past, where he belonged.” i actually liked this. i’m fully in support of the boundary set against his horrible abusive father, even if it’s his ghost or whatever

tragically i’m an oro stan so i did cry throughout the chapter of him getting to speak to his brother’s ghost, and then even violet’s. i’ll always be a sucker for a character obscuring the truth to maintain somebody’s happiness and loved him protecting violet’s love for her best friend. oro realizing that he’d forgotten what his brother’s voice sounded like hit me like a fucking hammer to the chest, ugh