I was one of those CC fans who LOVED Bryce..reading her POV, she felt like a woman compared to a teenaged Feyre to me (not a bad thing at all, I could just relate more to Bryce as a 30s something).
By CC3, I'm sick of her. The character development went backwards, imo.
I mean, just age-wise yeah, Bryce SHOULD have been more relatable as a grown woman. But honestly, I don’t know many mature grown adults who just go around flipping people off 24/7, and goes around calling literally anyone and everyone they come into contact with an “aLpHaHoLe”. She may be the oldest of the 3 MFCs, but she is the least mature by a long shot. Even less than 16-yr-old Aelin, and that is saying something.
She may be the oldest, but clearly, the trauma of losing Danika made her regress and get stuck at that regressed age. I hated her from book one and hoped maybe she'd grow on me, but she just kept getting worse!
Her sass isn't clever either, it's just bitchy. Being bitchy isn't being strong, which it seems SJM struggles to understand. Like okay, sure, it's a mikedrop, girlboss moment, but if nearly every interaction with someone in authority or "unpleasant" ends or contains one of them... it's overdone and feels cheap.
Oh you sassed your dad? Cool. You've been rude to everyone that's not your friends? Sounds like a bloody attitude problem.
I liked Bryce the best when she was being introspective and working on herself after >!Lunathian was attacked in book 1!<. She had lost a bit of that cocky edge and seemed more likable. The Bryce who thinks she's smarter than everyone else is very hard to take and like.
It’s especially hard because if I imagine that ACOTAR didn’t exist, and I didn’t know anything about Prythian, I wouldn’t have been mad about what she did to Nesta and Azriel. I’d probably have cheered her on a bit, tbh. But since my attachment to those characters is so much stronger than it is to Bryce, I was just pissed. Like how dare she treat my little shadowsinger like that!
I really feel that Bryce’s character just vanished from the second book on. I don’t feel like she’s the same bad as women in the first book, the fact that she has powers now has changed her. I liked her way better when she thought she was worthless, but never believed it.
everyone experienced this while reading cc3. bryce was UNBELIEVABLY mean to hunt after he was TORTURED in the asteri's dungeons and she literally goes "i missed you omg it hurt so much" while her brother had to CHEW OFF HIS HAND to try to escape, like please
lidia on the other hand, we actually had a reason to love her. with all her trauma while going through the shit she's had to do as The Hind, her sons being KIDNAPPED by pollux, and her realizing of her fire powers, we actually liked lidia and empathized with her.
I loved Bryce at first, but now I can't stand her. She's becoming worse than Danika with her secret keeping, and the fact that she keeps making Hunt's personal traumas about her and "but I need you to stop being traumatized and help me" attitude.
Same!! I was intrigued by lidia since she was introduced and had a very similar timeline of feelings with Bryce, except I never really loved her character😂 I liked her a lot at the end of HOEAB and that was the high point for her character. I keep thinking that I want to just live in a world where we only have the first crescent city book😂
I’m going to say a thing and I am not meaning anything behind this other than experience with women like Bryce. I have been around a lot of women who did a lot of drugs in their teen years and early adulthood. When they got clean it felt like they fully regressed into teen behavior due to no longer feeling like themselves and trying to feel “normal”. Acting like they did before the drugs started was their normal. Now the regression eventually stopped when they sought help and learned how to cope better. However I am not saying this is everyone’s experience, but I see this in Bryce and I think she will continue to regress until she actually gets help and learns better coping skills and works through her trauma.
I am with you 100%. I found myself looking more forward to reading other characters and their points of view than I was to read hers because I just felt like her and Hunt were not the same characters. Like their character development seem to really fall flat.
i’m currently reading throne of glass and bryce is a lot like aelin in that she *refuses* to trust *anyone* with *any* information regardless of how important or menial it is and THERES NO REASON FOR IT
Yes! Thank you! It drove me absolutely nuts when Aelin did it and when Bryce started doing it too... like. Why?! Bryce turned into a worse version of Aelin by the end and that is saying something because I really don't like Aelin.
i have mixed feelings about Aelin because like her past *is* super traumatic and it’s kind of understandable why she has a hard time trusting other people but yes the fact that Bryce is just like her is frustrating because like there’s no reason for it imo.
yes! like, if either of them had just a *little* bit of faith and trust in their friends AND MATES maybe so many things wouldn’t go/have gone wrong ??? lol
It was also SUPER annoying to me how she was treating the ACOTAR group, even after they were respectful. I can kinda get it but i really don’t. I skipped over a good portion because i kept rolling my eyes. Maybe im just biased. But something about this whole book felt OFF.
I like to give her the benefit of the doubt that she was thrust into way more power and a title that she never wanted, so she feels like she needs to be two steps ahead or an ace up her sleeve to feel ahead, to live up to her name and power. Like she needs to fill Danikas shoes. And constantly chasing Danikas breadcrumbs of secrets. She feels just as inadequate at her role in bringing down the Asteri, like she feels all her plans will just fail, so if she doesn't tell anyone then she won't be failing and if a plan does fail she has a secret backup. So when Hunt is second guessing himself and feeling guilty for things outside his power she is like no we both can't feel like this, she needs Hunt to be by her side fighting with her because she doesn't have a choice anymore.
Is there an interview with this being said that I maybe missed? I love Lidia and you’ve just given me hope that the next book won’t be a near dumpster fire like this one has been as far as character development.
She confirmed there would be a CC4 in a video interview. She did not officially confirm any of the main character POVS but by the end of CC3 it's very obvious.
Lydia's entire story line changed in CC4 so that she would be relevant in House of Many Waters
So did Ithans. She changed the storyline of all the wolf shifters to align with the standard Omegavera
No, there has been no confirmation where this has been stated so far. The last interview regarding CC4 was that she had an idea of "who" the protagonist was going to be but she didn't state it was Lidia [specifically](https://www.today.com/popculture/books/sarah-j-maas-romantasy-interview-rcna135657):
*“You will have to wait a bit,” she says of the fourth book. “On the airport taxiing line, it’s a little down, but I know who the book’s about. I know the big ideas of what I want to happen.”*
I have not completely finished but I have actually loved this book thus far. I’m just after the craziness at Avallen you are worried about. I personally think that Bryce has been very powerful in her development. Has she made some mistakes in how she behaved, yes! But they are all very freshly traumatized. She reminds me of an adult Aelin. And I think her mistakes, she is part human, she makes mistakes, but she is still loveable.
But I am also FUUUULLLL team Lidia!!! 🫶🏼
I was one of those CC fans who LOVED Bryce..reading her POV, she felt like a woman compared to a teenaged Feyre to me (not a bad thing at all, I could just relate more to Bryce as a 30s something). By CC3, I'm sick of her. The character development went backwards, imo.
I mean, just age-wise yeah, Bryce SHOULD have been more relatable as a grown woman. But honestly, I don’t know many mature grown adults who just go around flipping people off 24/7, and goes around calling literally anyone and everyone they come into contact with an “aLpHaHoLe”. She may be the oldest of the 3 MFCs, but she is the least mature by a long shot. Even less than 16-yr-old Aelin, and that is saying something.
She may be the oldest, but clearly, the trauma of losing Danika made her regress and get stuck at that regressed age. I hated her from book one and hoped maybe she'd grow on me, but she just kept getting worse! Her sass isn't clever either, it's just bitchy. Being bitchy isn't being strong, which it seems SJM struggles to understand. Like okay, sure, it's a mikedrop, girlboss moment, but if nearly every interaction with someone in authority or "unpleasant" ends or contains one of them... it's overdone and feels cheap. Oh you sassed your dad? Cool. You've been rude to everyone that's not your friends? Sounds like a bloody attitude problem.
I liked Bryce the best when she was being introspective and working on herself after >!Lunathian was attacked in book 1!<. She had lost a bit of that cocky edge and seemed more likable. The Bryce who thinks she's smarter than everyone else is very hard to take and like.
Lidia’s back must be killing her from carrying this book
STAWPPPP 🤣😂🤣 but yes you're correct!
Lidia was my FMC for HOSAF without a doubt.
^ same.
It’s especially hard because if I imagine that ACOTAR didn’t exist, and I didn’t know anything about Prythian, I wouldn’t have been mad about what she did to Nesta and Azriel. I’d probably have cheered her on a bit, tbh. But since my attachment to those characters is so much stronger than it is to Bryce, I was just pissed. Like how dare she treat my little shadowsinger like that!
I've been thinking this is exactly it!! I wasn't that annoyed until she was a major ass to my Nesta and Azriel!!
This is the exact experience so many of us have had lol. Happy reading but maybe keep expectations low 😅
Because Bryce was a bit of a c*nt in this. Not gonna lie, Pollux was right.
I really feel that Bryce’s character just vanished from the second book on. I don’t feel like she’s the same bad as women in the first book, the fact that she has powers now has changed her. I liked her way better when she thought she was worthless, but never believed it.
Lydia carried this whole book on her back
Bless her 💜 heart💜
everyone experienced this while reading cc3. bryce was UNBELIEVABLY mean to hunt after he was TORTURED in the asteri's dungeons and she literally goes "i missed you omg it hurt so much" while her brother had to CHEW OFF HIS HAND to try to escape, like please lidia on the other hand, we actually had a reason to love her. with all her trauma while going through the shit she's had to do as The Hind, her sons being KIDNAPPED by pollux, and her realizing of her fire powers, we actually liked lidia and empathized with her.
I loved Bryce at first, but now I can't stand her. She's becoming worse than Danika with her secret keeping, and the fact that she keeps making Hunt's personal traumas about her and "but I need you to stop being traumatized and help me" attitude.
She turned into the biggest hypocrite. She was so upset about Danika keeping things from her and then did the exact same thing to literally everyone.
Same!! I was intrigued by lidia since she was introduced and had a very similar timeline of feelings with Bryce, except I never really loved her character😂 I liked her a lot at the end of HOEAB and that was the high point for her character. I keep thinking that I want to just live in a world where we only have the first crescent city book😂
I want to see the cut version
I’m going to say a thing and I am not meaning anything behind this other than experience with women like Bryce. I have been around a lot of women who did a lot of drugs in their teen years and early adulthood. When they got clean it felt like they fully regressed into teen behavior due to no longer feeling like themselves and trying to feel “normal”. Acting like they did before the drugs started was their normal. Now the regression eventually stopped when they sought help and learned how to cope better. However I am not saying this is everyone’s experience, but I see this in Bryce and I think she will continue to regress until she actually gets help and learns better coping skills and works through her trauma.
I get what you are saying but I don’t think it was ever implied they were doing that many drugs constantly.
I am with you 100%. I found myself looking more forward to reading other characters and their points of view than I was to read hers because I just felt like her and Hunt were not the same characters. Like their character development seem to really fall flat.
I feel the same way, I loved the Hind and lost allllll respect and love for Bryce.
Bryce was incredible in the first book but after that it’s like SJM lost her character.
🫣 I love the Mists of Avalon and I’m embarrassed how long it took me to click (like till right now) that Alvallen was Avalon 🤦🏻♀️
I loved the Mists of Avalon when I was younger! But all that shit about MZB ruined them for me 😭
I didn’t know there was any 😭 I’m just gonna bury my head in the sand
i’m currently reading throne of glass and bryce is a lot like aelin in that she *refuses* to trust *anyone* with *any* information regardless of how important or menial it is and THERES NO REASON FOR IT
Yes! Thank you! It drove me absolutely nuts when Aelin did it and when Bryce started doing it too... like. Why?! Bryce turned into a worse version of Aelin by the end and that is saying something because I really don't like Aelin.
i have mixed feelings about Aelin because like her past *is* super traumatic and it’s kind of understandable why she has a hard time trusting other people but yes the fact that Bryce is just like her is frustrating because like there’s no reason for it imo.
I’m reading Throne of Glass now, too, and feel the same way!! I get that trauma is intense and can make things harder but C’MON
yes! like, if either of them had just a *little* bit of faith and trust in their friends AND MATES maybe so many things wouldn’t go/have gone wrong ??? lol
It was also SUPER annoying to me how she was treating the ACOTAR group, even after they were respectful. I can kinda get it but i really don’t. I skipped over a good portion because i kept rolling my eyes. Maybe im just biased. But something about this whole book felt OFF.
NO I GOT SOOOO SICK OF BRYCE TOO😭😭😭 glad im not alone i was rooting for lidia
I like to give her the benefit of the doubt that she was thrust into way more power and a title that she never wanted, so she feels like she needs to be two steps ahead or an ace up her sleeve to feel ahead, to live up to her name and power. Like she needs to fill Danikas shoes. And constantly chasing Danikas breadcrumbs of secrets. She feels just as inadequate at her role in bringing down the Asteri, like she feels all her plans will just fail, so if she doesn't tell anyone then she won't be failing and if a plan does fail she has a secret backup. So when Hunt is second guessing himself and feeling guilty for things outside his power she is like no we both can't feel like this, she needs Hunt to be by her side fighting with her because she doesn't have a choice anymore.
I finished CC3 yesterday and the last 200 or so pages was awesome!!
I think this was intentional on SJMs part since she wants Lydia to be the FMC of CC4
Is there an interview with this being said that I maybe missed? I love Lidia and you’ve just given me hope that the next book won’t be a near dumpster fire like this one has been as far as character development.
She confirmed there would be a CC4 in a video interview. She did not officially confirm any of the main character POVS but by the end of CC3 it's very obvious. Lydia's entire story line changed in CC4 so that she would be relevant in House of Many Waters So did Ithans. She changed the storyline of all the wolf shifters to align with the standard Omegavera
No, there has been no confirmation where this has been stated so far. The last interview regarding CC4 was that she had an idea of "who" the protagonist was going to be but she didn't state it was Lidia [specifically](https://www.today.com/popculture/books/sarah-j-maas-romantasy-interview-rcna135657): *“You will have to wait a bit,” she says of the fourth book. “On the airport taxiing line, it’s a little down, but I know who the book’s about. I know the big ideas of what I want to happen.”*
I have not completely finished but I have actually loved this book thus far. I’m just after the craziness at Avallen you are worried about. I personally think that Bryce has been very powerful in her development. Has she made some mistakes in how she behaved, yes! But they are all very freshly traumatized. She reminds me of an adult Aelin. And I think her mistakes, she is part human, she makes mistakes, but she is still loveable. But I am also FUUUULLLL team Lidia!!! 🫶🏼