Koschei

In Germanic mythology, these women are typically valkyries.

Why the fuck is Meryl researching the valkyries? If Meryl is being influenced by Koschei, is Koschei directing this research because he has the valkyries trapped as swan maidens? [pensive music]

I guess there are hotel chains that will sell sheets.

Yeah, did you not know this?

Adult books, et cetera.

Each week we dive into a specific topic in depth.

This week we are digging into ACOTAR's closest Loch Ness Monster comp, Koschei.

Koschei.

And I was like, oh my God, is Morven Valk possessed?

Okay, next theory is about Koschei, which we know is a big part of these next two books.

Right.

So he's confirmed as the immediate villain of the blurbs.

know.

Here are our receipts.

Koschei is gathering powerful allies.

Those allies want to reclaim the human lands.

Yeah.

So let's now talk about Vassa, Jurian, and Koschei.

We're going to have to get into it knowing what we know of the new books.

Now we have to talk about things because we have to be ready.

So let's start with Vassa.

Vassa is a human queen.

She was betrayed by the other human queens given to Koschei, essentially.

She lives with them, cursed by Koschei to be a firebird by day and a woman by night.

I also thought it was odd that he suspected Ish was weird with the queens, and then took it upon himself to go free Vassa, even temporarily.

Which, how is a regular man, a seller of goods, if you will, able to convince Koschei the big bad of this? Like, that's fucking weird.

I don't think we've heard the last of that bargain that Papa Archeron made, and it's definitely something that I think we're going to be seeing in the future books.

I've already talked about the last name Archeron and how it's a derivative of Akron, which is one of the five rivers that brought people to the afterlife in Greek mythology, the Hell Realm.

So saltwater sandals help.

Question number two.

Do you think that Papa Artron bargained his life with Koschei? Like he knew that he was going to get taken out.

He knew and was like, cool, I will give that.

We should just probably kill her, right? We should all just stab Caesar.

Nesta asks what a death lord is anyway, and Cassian explains that Koschei, like Lanthus, cannot be killed.

He's the master of his own death.

And we will go over Koschei theories in next week's spoiler section, because there are a lot.

And Bryallen and Koschei may not even know where the Dread Troph is yet, but apparently Bryallen held a little mixer for all the best spies and warriors, and what do we have here? Asriel.

A male who wouldn't know a lesbian if she ran over him in her Subaru.

Uh-oh.

And the most obvious answer to that wears pink sneakers.

You know what I'm saying? Like he's given Voldemort and his like, this like, you know how we didn't know what Voldemort looked like for a minute and then he popped up and we were like, oh shit, he's a badass.

Like that's what Koschei is giving because he's just like this figure that's like, doing too fucking much and we're afraid of the boogeyman essentially.

Like up until this point, we've had, he's not been on the page beside other people talking about him.

He feels like a big badass.

And who's to say that like, this would be awful.

I recognize that like Asriel saved Gwen from that whole situation.

What if Koschei put Gwen there, like planted her to get close to Nesta because Koschei knows that Nesta took something from the cauldron.

And so now he's trying to wield Nesta via Gwen.

Traditional alliances are crumbling and no amount of diplomacy seems sufficient to repair them.

With the continued threat of Koshchei the Deathless on the horizon, a united front is crucial and farther out of reach than has ever been before.

Bands will be tested, power will reshift.

and old enemies will emerge from nightmares of the past.

nowhere.

Is this potentially how Koshchei will be defeated since now both of those swords are with Nestor in Prithian?

So much setup for...

Whatever