So, recently, I've been seeing a lot of discussion around **"choice vs. fate"** in acotar spaces  - to put it nicely -, especially when it comes to the upcoming book in the series.  
  
I was very surprised when I saw some fans arguing that "choice" isn't exactly a relevant topic to debate, for various reasons such as: "the characters aren't real", "SJM will write whatever she wants, so said characters don't have any real agency", and I find that position surprising considering I personally found the topic of choice to be *extremely* relevant throughout the books, surrounding the characters, particulary as the story picks up from ACOMAF, as you'll see.

I remember even thinking upon a first read that it was *too on the nose* to have the reader be repeated constantly that our protagonist - and certain characters surrounding her - had free will to choose whatever she thought was best for her.

With that in mind, I took it upon myself to gather the most relevant bits of all the books that focused precisely on choice, surrounding the topic of **agency,** or lackthereof, in particular surrounding the woman's ability to make decisions for and about herself. And found *plenty,* only from filtering the word "choice", and leaving out other variants like "decision" or "option", because this post would've been 50 slides long 😂.

So on that note, it is even more surprising to me now, how certain fans can say Elain will not be faced with such choices to make, specifically about who she'll decide to love or where she'll decide to make a home, simply because "she isn't real" or "Sarah will write whatever anyway". 

Female autonomy and women's ability to choose is a **core** concept of these books, and it's touched on so much that I simply don't understand how anyone could deny it. The narrative repeatedly insists that women must be allowed to define their own paths, even when those paths defy expectations, bonds, or fate itself. Refusing to acknowledge that undermines one of the most consistent throughlines of the series.   
  
If anything, it sounds to me that there's a vested interest in denying Elain the ability to choose differently than what is expected of her, because acknowledging her agency would mean accepting that the bond is not a guarantee, therefore letting down a side of this fandom who seems to have missed the point entirely, and forgotten that these books are about **the women.**

The topic of choice across the series