A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas, Elain Stabs Hybern, Nesta Takes His Head, and Tamlin Gets One Fucking Point, Pt 4

0:00 Some truths can't be spoken. Some secrets can't stay buried. And sometimes, the most dangerous thing in the room isn't the enemy. It's the blade in Azriel's hand. Welcome to part 4 of A Court of Wings and Ruin, where Truth Teller is about to make things very, very interesting.

0:42 Have you ever watched Game of Thrones? That scene where she drops the knife and she kills the White Walker? Anyways, Elayne shows up. I, I was a little— I wanted Nesta to be the one to deliver Well, I guess technically she does deliver the killing blow, but I wanted her to really have her moment. But I love that Elayne shows up out of the shadows and kills the King of Hybern with the collar. Just not fucking around. Exactly. Exactly. She puts the knife into the back of his neck. She says, don't touch my sister. All of a sudden, I heard a gurgle. And I'm like, what the fuck?

1:28 A gurgle? Like, what's happening right now? And then the eyes on the, on the Hybern King like widened and all this other whatever. Like, you sneaky bitch. And then Nesta just goes over after Elayne sticks him and just like, like, like— opening a can. Yeah. Fucking cuts his head off. Just cuts his fucking head off. And I'm like, yes, Nestor! Finally! Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anybody want to play football? We've got the king's head. I know. I know. And this is like, not to overshadow, I did love that right before this is when Cassian and her have this really romantic moment where he thinks he's dying. And so he tells her everything that he's wanted to say. And, you know, he's like, oh, my one regret is that we didn't have longer, and I'll find you in the next life. And they kiss, and it's this whole beautiful thing. And he's so ridiculously romantic and kindhearted and sweet.

2:30 And I love the idea that he's, like, such a fucking miserable prick when it comes to dealing with the Valyrians, whatever. And then... It's, like, hard, right? And then he has these absolutely beautiful, tender sentiments with, like, every woman. Yeah. That is part of his family. Even the men, but, like, especially the women. Yeah. So sweet. Right. So, but while all this fuckery is happening, then Feyre and Amren are trying to get to the cauldron. Because they finally figured out how to put the cauldron together, like what the special words were. Or was it to break it apart? No, to put it together, because it was in 3 pieces and they needed to put it back together. Okay, so, uh, Amren's figured out how to do all the things. Yeah, because Amren lies to her.

3:35 Hey, read this. Did she say like, read this spell, or once you do this, this will happen? But it was really to unbind Amren. From her human form. How fucked, by the way. There's chaos, people are dying left and right, and she's like, perfect time, perfect time for me to get the fuck out of here. Right before she did that, she like fucking unleashes on the Hiberian army and like everybody dies, okay? Because they are now at the fuck around and find out moment. And that's also when the scary monster dude from the library comes and the Boneweaver come, and there's all sorts of like fuckery going on. Yeah, they're out and they're— and I remember, uh, there's like a scene where Feyre has to remind them like, hey guys, only kill the King of Hybern soldiers, like leave everybody else alone. And they're like, goddamn it, you can literally do whatever you want so long as it's not our guys.

4:33 Yeah. Yeah. So she's trying to rein them in and leash them back. But yeah, the monsters are afoot. Chaos is among us. And Amren wants to be unbound. And this is where I think we see her boyfriend. I think you called it, like, the guy that loves her, is pleading with her to stay. And she's like, nah, I gotta go. I gotta peace out. I gotta go. Breaking free of this shell. She wanted to be her true self and not this blood-drinking creature. praised lady that she is. And I, I, I was a little torn because I really like— I, I get what Amren was trying to do, but she wanted to be back as her, as her own person. And like, how hard for Feyre to have to do this. In the meantime, like, you know, all these people are dying. Feyre doesn't get it until she's done, until it happens. And then it's too late because then Amren's not Amren anymore.

5:32 Yeah. I think she tells Feyre, tell the High Lord to leave out a cup for me. And Feyre says, okay, I will. And she goes, poof, and is unleashed from this human form. And I think, doesn't she appear as some flying fiery something or other and completely wipes out everybody? Oh, yeah. Everything's like juices. You guys are all like gonna die. Yeah. Meanwhile, her— the guy that loves her is like torn to bits because, oh, this lady, or whatever she is. Okay, next I cried. Okay, listen, y'all give me books that make me like have heart-stopping moments, and then you make me fucking cry.

6:18 What'd you cry over? Because Rhysand is trying to help Feyre out and he dies. Yeah. He gives her his power to finish the job. And in doing so, he's giving it to her, right? So it's not like she's taking it, but it takes the two of them working together to be able to heal this cauldron back and fuse it all, fuse it all together so that it could be whole again. And he whispers in her ear, I love you. And that's the last thing she hears, and then he dies. So now that it's, it's done, it's put back together, she's sort of getting her ground about her, like, okay, that's, that's squared away, but something is missing.

6:59 And Feyre immediately doesn't feel him anymore. Mm-hmm. And she turns back and she sees Rhysand is on the ground and he's not breathing, and she doesn't hear his heart. She can't feel the bond. And she realizes, holy shit, he's dead. And she is just like— the audio, fuck me, bro. The graphic audio for that scene is brutal because she is just— Is it? Yeah. It's gotta be, 'cause it's just a brutal scene even to read. The pain in that voice actor was legit. Um, and it's just like the way the author, I think, wrote that scene of, like, emptiness. Like, she felt nothing. Like, there was no— there was, like, the absence of this love and this bond. And it's just quiet. And there's nothing there. And Feyre is screaming to, somebody help him! Somebody help him! She's trying to convince all the other High Lords that are there, like, give them— like how they made her, she wants them to make Rhys. And she has to convince them. And this is the only part where I thought— He gets one point. Yes. One point. Yes. And it, it is such like an interesting scene because these High Lords are stepping forth and giving a piece of themselves to Rhysand.

8:23 Um, and she looks over and she needs Tamlin to step forth. And he is looking at her like they're looking at each other. And she says like, She notices there's no emotion on his face. It's just void of anything, and he's staring at her. And so in her mind, she assumes this motherfucker ain't gonna do it, right? Like yeah, Tamlin being a little bitch again. Yeah. Um, and so she thinks all hope is lost, and then she hears like kind of scuffling, and she looks back and she sees his eyes, Tamlin's eyes looking back at her, and he looks conflicted, and he says something like like I want you to be happy or. Be happy, Feyre. Yeah. Be happy, Feyre. Yeah. And so he gives a piece of himself to Rhys. And then it's Feyre's turn. She's got to give a piece of herself to him, but she's struggling. She doesn't know how. And I don't know, like that torment I felt for her in that moment, because it's like, she just wants so much to save the man she loves, but she doesn't know how. I thought that was really poetic. And she has to ask for help.

9:24 Help me save him. And somebody teaches her how to give a piece of herself to him. And she does, and Rhys comes back to life. Remember when we were talking about the Boneweaver and how she was now seeing what their son would look like? Yes. So remember how I said, what a powerful, what a powerful child this would be? Because, you know, now you have Feyre that has all these powers, and you have Rhysand who has all these powers. Okay, that kid Like, everybody's gonna want that kid because— But before he even has all those powers, he's the most powerful High Lord to have ever been. And now he's got 7 more niblets of power from 7 other High Lords and a lady.

10:19 So you're right, G, like, this kid, I don't even know. This is crazy. My hope is, is like, when Sarah J. writes these books, is that she remembers what that dynamic is, right? And how we need the 2 worlds to come together and how this child of 2 very powerful faes could, uh, what Dude, are you gonna spit your drink out? No, I have swallowed the drink. I am refusing to give you any more information from any of the other books. Thank you, because I need to read. Um, but I'm just kind of hoping that, that, that dynamic plays into this because like I want to see the human world and the fae world come together and— Okay. Just for right now, for right now, because my own personal, you know, world that I live in is a complete shit show, and I would just rather see a little bit more kindness and a little less war.

11:29 Um, that's really nice. You want, you want peace. You want world peace. Yes, world peace and sex. I'm like Sandra Bullock on one of her— Misconceived Ideality. Misconceived Ideality. Such a good movie. Yeah, you want world peace. Um, I have a question because what happens next— so Rhys, I, I love that when he finally— when he comes back to life, he says like the funniest line, which is like, oh, if we're all here, then either this went really well or really bad, right? Like, he's like, what the fuck is going on? Um, but I'm curious, and maybe it was made clear in the book and I missed it, do you guys know that, or do you believe that Rhys knew that Amren would unleash herself? Like, do you think he knew that that was her plan? No, I think it caught him by surprise also. I think he had an idea. I don't think he could confirm it, but he had an idea, right? Because what happens next is that they bring Amren back, and I thought that was so interesting. They bring her back as a normal High Fae, which I think is what she wanted.

12:37 And Rhys knew that. So then I wondered, I wonder if Rhys knew that that was gonna happen, that she would unleash herself. He's a sneaky little fuck anyway, so it's hard to tell. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it could be. But he found her in the dark. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you're right. She had just been hanging around. She hadn't crossed over or whatever. They come back together. So he just grabbed her on the way, on the way back. He's like, hey girl, need a ride? Got you. Right? And then she still comes back as this like 4-foot-nothing gnome, man. It's fine. Yeah. Beautiful, sexy Amren. Yeah. Maybe I want to sit next to Amren at that dinner. I'm just kidding. She wasn't there, but let's bring her back. Girl, I don't care. Like, yes. Yes, please. I know that Nesta— I mean, they basically paid their respects to their father because You know, they bury him. Yeah, sacrificed himself. Well, I guess he didn't really sacrifice himself, he was murdered. But they, uh, go back to the Night Court, and, uh, I think there's like a little moment there where Nesta invites, uh, Lucien back to join her at the Night Court.

13:52 Yeah, because Lucien came back with the queen and the dad. Yeah, the Phoenix Queen and the dad. And this is where— okay, so this is where I see Lucien and the queen are flirting. IMO. But this is— he's doing an awful lot of smiling, an awful lot of, like, close combat conversations here. Uh, he seems to be paying quite a lot of attention to her. Uh, what about Elayne? Yeah, do you think he's doing it though to get what he needs? Like, he's working I'm like, he's working what his mama gave him.

14:33 I mean, it's, it's said in one of the other books that he uses not just— shut up, G. G, is that drink hitting? Is that what's going on? Lucien's like bending over. She's bright red and she's on mute and she's trying to talk. She said, hold please. Let me find the button. It's because what you were doing is you were like shaking your chest and I was just fucking laughing. All right, I'm going back on mute. You sure? Maybe we should go outside and put our feet in the grass and ground real quick. Like it said earlier in one of the books where it's alluded to that he does use his body as part of communicating all the things in all the different courts.

15:27 So yeah, like he's like a bit of a slut. I feel we've— we— I think we learned that in book 1. I think it's like slut with purpose. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, he's like— I mean, I think he enjoys it if we're being honest. Like, yeah, he's like, hey, let me do what I gotta do. Well, and yeah, and it probably seems because this— it's easier to flirt and hang out with his queen than it is to get through Nesta to get to Elain. And then Elain's fucking Looney Tunes 80% of the fucking time. She's cute. But after the dad dead— yeah, but after the dad dies— Elain is Looney Tunes 89% of the time. But then after the dad leaves and after the war is over, she has these more moments of clarity where she's like, oh, hi. I know you.

16:17 Like, come on. You know what? You're right. You're a pain in the ass. You're a pain in the ass. No, you're right. You're right. But didn't Grayson and his dad, they also came and fought in the war too? They fought along in the Court. Well, because, I mean, what was the alternative? To let the human realm— Yeah. Like, I don't think they did it for, you know, any part of helping the Night Court. I think they did it because they— They're the human realm and they were being attacked. Yeah, and the reason why they went before the war, the reason why they all went to the— sorry, let me just chew this ice real quick. Okay, perfect.

17:04 Oh, and that's what the Bone Carver sounds like. My kid's gonna be so mad that I did that. He's gonna be listening and be like, what the fuck, Mom? Yeah, well, whatever. The reason why they all went before the war, they all went to see that guy, the fiancé, was because they were like, where are we gonna put all these people? Yeah, that are between the wall and the big cities, because the, the human queens were just gonna be like, Fuck him. Yeah. And so they went to Jameson or Jason or whatever his name is. Grayson. I don't know why I'm defending this guy or like saying his name. I don't give a fuck. But yeah, whatever, it's fine. Um, so they were like, we need you to open your, your gates to humans who are going to be displaced. And the dad was like, absolutely fucking not. I will. Yeah.

18:09 And they're just kind of like, well, you're being a dumbass. And he still won't. And then that whole thing with Elaine and Grayson's like, nah, fuck you, bitch. I don't like you. Whatever. Such a pain in the ass. So yeah, he does show up and he does fight, but like, and who else comes and fights? It's, um, Who brings the Armada? Oh, the dad and the Phoenix Queen. And then how did the— um, where does Jurian show up in that? Oh, I forget about Jurian. Okay, so in the beginning, beginning— we should never— we should stop drinking when we do this podcast. No, I love it. In the beginning In the story, uh, Hybern brings Jurian back. Yes.

19:09 And he sends him to the queens, the human queens, and they just welcome him into the court, into their courts. And then the meetings, like, at one point in this book, he's like, shows up to the meeting when they're having that meeting with all the High Lords or whatever, and he shows up. Mm-hmm. Just like, what the fuck, bro? And he's like, no, I've been feeding you guys information this whole time. Like, I've been on your side this whole time. Yeah, he kind of has been like popping in and out, uh, ever since he was brought back. Like, because he popped in when the twins, uh, the Highburn— the King of Highburn's niece and nephew So Farah sees him in the spring court too. Yeah, because he goes with them. Yeah, because he shows up there with them and he's just watching her the whole time like a fucking little creeper boy. Yeah, because he kind of knows.

20:06 He's like, yeah. And he's already on their side anyway, so he's just sort of like letting it all go. Mm-hmm. Yep. Then I don't— I forget what part he plays in the war. He shows up too when they go to the fiancé's house. Jurian pops up in there too. Like, he just pops, like, throughout the series. But Jurian is the one that was in love with that lady, right? Yeah, from the last war. Yeah. And they used that— that hunt, he was hunting for her, but he used that as the— he used that as the COVID for— Miriam. Yeah, Miriam.

20:47 Yeah, Miriam and Drakan. They— he was looking for them, and they show up again, and Because he couldn't find her. Like, oh, is she dead? Is she not? Where is she at? And Rhysand has known this whole time where the hell they are, and they show up. But they went to go see him, and they— yep, and they couldn't find them because they put a glamour on the island. The glamour was too good. And they are the ones, right, that take the cauldron? What do they get? They get something really— They take the cauldron. Yeah. The pieces of the cauldron. Yeah. Put it in their little boat. We're going to sail away with it. Yep. Sail away. Never to be seen again. Or maybe. I love it. I love it. I'm like pins and needles on this next— not this next book, but the one that comes out in October. Mm-hmm.

21:40 Who do you think, uh, whose point of view do you think it'll be about? I'm done guessing. I'm done guessing because every time I think I got it, something else happens. Or I hear somebody else's opinion and I'm like, oh yeah, I forgot about that part. I need to know more about Elayne. Elayne? It's not going to happen in the next 2 books. It's not going to happen in the next 2 books. You'll get a smidge, but That's about it. You get like beep beep. Yeah, that much. Barely. I mean, she smiles, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. She goes back to like gardening and cooking. Yeah, smells. Yeah, like curls her hair.

22:21 Yeah, makes her perfume. Okay, we're good. Well, where the book kind of ends is that they all go back to their respective homes. Um, they try to, uh, reevaluate and recreate a new treaty. Um, I don't think they come to an agreement on it in this book, but the intention is there. Um, Cassian survives, Rhysand survives, they're all, you know, in one piece. But stupid fucking Nesta, God bless her goddamn heart, just retreats back and becomes a bitter-ass bitch again. She just— like, I was just like, dude, I had so much hope because you see her with and she cut off the fucking king's head.

23:06 And also during that scene— That whole moment with Cassian. Yeah. I'm like, okay, we're on the right page. And no, we're not. She comes back and she's miserable, more miserable arguably than she was before. She needs to get railed. That's what she needs to do. Yes. So that was— there was a lot here. I'm sure we've missed a bunch of shit. We'll come back to it. I have a question for you guys. Which character in this book do you think redeems themselves? Were there any redemptions here? I think Lucien has a good— Lucien has a good, good thing here. Tamlin's still an asshole. He's dug himself so far into a hole that even bringing Rhys back wasn't enough for me. I agree. It was 2 people. It was Jurian. Yeah. And Lucien. Yeah, Jurian out of left field. Yeah. Yeah, 'cause you— yeah, you definitely don't expect it. You're like, who's this guy? But yeah, I agree.

24:08 He seems like a homie. Keep going 'cause you're saying good things, G. We're agreeing. We're agreeing the shit. I just— I really think that they redeemed themselves because, you know, Lucien, you know, was Tamlin's bitch boy forever, but know, finally woke up and smelled the roses. And Jurian got tired of being dicked around. And like, he— you would, you would think that he was, um, all Team Hiberian, but he's not. He's like, I'm, I'm fucking out. I'm gonna go figure this shit out. We're gonna, you know, try and save the world. And I— it was just a really interesting perspective for me because in the end Lucien really did come through. I want to root so bad for Lucien, but I just have a feeling I'm going to be super mad about the whole thing. Do you think that there are only positives, um, or do you think we'll see some negative side effects of Rhysand being made?

25:05 Because they did make a big deal about like, well, we've only ever done that for people like you, not people like Rhysand. We've only ever done it for humans. I think they're— I think they're a little afraid of what's going to happen. Maybe he'll be become too powerful. Gotcha. Okay. I'm kind of hoping he doesn't turn into an asshole. Okay. I think he kind of already is an asshole. Do you, um, do you have any thoughts of what went through Tamlin's mind when he saw Feyre crying over Rhysand and the author painting or writing that scene of like, she finally registers like he's conflicted, like he's got some look about him all of a sudden.

25:45 Any thoughts of what he was thinking? I think he finally opens himself up to the fact that he is— that she actually does love Rhys, and it's not some hocus-pocus, like, uh, spell or something that's keeping her interested and in love with him, that she really does actually love him. Yeah. I think, I think that he finally realized that he lost. Like, his— the way that he controlled her and didn't let her be her own person, her own fae, or whatever we want to call it. But he finally figured out he lost, and there was absolutely no way of getting her back.

26:35 Right. Give us the tip. What's the tip, man? I don't know. I love all the fiery fucking scenes in this one. I love every last one of them. Still like a, like a, like a PG rating. Well, I like that he was like gonna eat her out in the library. I don't think that happened though. I like that he was teasing her about it. What if Tamlin is the epitome of your traditional good guy main male character in romance books and Sarah J. Maas is just showing us longtime readers that that kind of mail is not what we are actually hoping for. Maybe it's an opportunity to open up thoughts around that kind of mail. Maybe it's a way for the author to try to open up the eyes of people who would follow that sort of personality in real life and maybe like introduce them to people who act like this aren't, um, as good, quote, like traditionally good and traditionally positive.

27:57 And I feel like you kind of even like transformed that a bit when you were saying, you know, Tamlin is doing the things that like stereotypically you would say you want or expect of a man, and it's, it's not what we want. Right. And, and for me, just the tip on this, just from like my age group and why I like to read these books, I didn't have to read 55 fucking chapters before we found a spicy scene. We don't— we only had to get to like chapter 14 and it was fucking hot. Feyre was literally doing the striptease for Rhysand, and to me it was just hot because like when women do that, I think it's just like the sexiest thing you can do. Yeah. Yeah, to just be confident in yourself to be able to put yourself out there like that is Is a, is a huge turn-on. Absolutely.

28:52 Till the next book. Till the next book. The next one is Nesta's book after that though, right? Yeah. Which I will tell you, my favorite memory of me, I was— this is deepest, darkest depression, right? It was a fucking mess. And in order to like get into cleaning, because as one does, you just let everything go to shit. I would pop on audiobooks. And this was around the time when my friend was like, oh, I'm reading the series again, whatever. I'm listening to that book with Nesta. And I was mopping the floor in my kitchen and I'm not going to spoil it, but there is a scene that I fucking love. Of the entire series, it's my favorite scene. Mm. And I remember mopping and just pausing and being like, Holy shit! And I was like, okay, Nessa. Yep, I said, okay, Nessa, I see you.

29:49 I get it now. It all—I was like, this is a badass bitch. And then that was—that was what she redeemed herself for me.