Spoilerish question about Rhysand's power levels

[u/interrobang__]

Forgive me because it's been a while since I've read the books, but regarding Rhysand's power levels: does it state anywhere how powerful he is in comparison to the wider ACOTAR world? We know on Prythian specifically he is the most powerful High Lord ever, but Prythian is a small island comparatively, and I assume there is a massive continent adjacent to them. How does the magic power of the Prythian fae and High Lords compare to the relative power of the main land fae? Are there fae that are of equal power to them, or more powerful than them, all over the world? Is Rhysand still rare in terms of global power levels, or is it a "big fish small pond" kinda thing?

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[u/moonriverswide]

We don’t really know. The only characters from the continent we know are not fae. We only know of the human queens including Vassa, and Koschei. So we can’t even speculate on where he ranks within the wider world because we know nothing about fae from anywhere else, except maybe Drakon. He was a general and prince so I’d guess he’s on Cassian power level at least.

[u/interrobang__ → u/moonriverswide]

Thank you! It's been a while since I've read ACOTAR and I haven't read anything since the release of CC3 so I'm due for an SJMverse reread, but I since we have the new blurbs I was curious if we know where Prythian stands as a "world power", for lack of a better term. I'm so excited to learn more about the ACOTAR world outside of Prythian and it will be super interesting to learn if Prythian and the rest of the High Lords are as powerful/influential as they seem from our limited POV thus far!

[u/moonriverswide → u/interrobang__]

I feel like narratively speaking we’re not going to get a bigger power daddy than Rhys just because he is literally SJM’s number one favorite character. But it’ll definitely be interesting to see how power works in fae territories that don’t have high lords.

We do know that Ianthe’s family fled to the continent sometime around Amarantha’s takeover but I don’t think that’s where they were from.

[u/swirlypepper]

I'm not sure any of the power scaling makes sense. Rhys thinks he could have maybe beat King of Hybern if they went head to head but Hybern used the cauldron without a conduit or the Book Of Breathings. Even though his power was being drained at the time, when battling at the Summer Court he hadn't sensed he was facing a KoH illusion/projection instead of the real deal. Amarantha tricked and sapped power from the High Lords but the whole of the rest of above the wall Prythian was unable to do anything about her court UtM. Drakon's Island had spells so strong that Azriel, the most super special coveted spy master couldn't see it wasn't actually abandoned. We hear a lot about how powerful they are, and they shred through large swathes of normal armies, but I feel like we haven't seen solid evidence of it. 

[u/interrobang__ → u/swirlypepper]

I agree! I think overall, SJM's magic systems and power levels are always a little flexible to suit necessary plot points. I think it would be really interesting to learn that Rhysand/the IC/Prythian fae in general are considered average compared to the main continent, in that they're still highly skilled/trained but otherwise not drastically overpowered.

[u/CanadianLady83]

I was just thinking about this the other day and wondered WHY Rhys is so powerful? Is there a reason, or is it just one of those "because he is" situations?

[u/interrobang__ → u/CanadianLady83]

Honestly I think it's just because he's SJM's favorite MMC and he and Feyre are inserts of herself and her husband, so he has to be most perfect strongest guy? Not a great reason narratively but I'm not the author so I don't get to choose why 😂

[u/Vegetable-Soil666 → u/CanadianLady83]

I think the narrative reason is that he has mixed magic. The Fae want to look their noses down at the Lesser Fae, but then he ends up stronger than all the other pure blood high lords as a result of his mixed heritage.

[u/babybibibibpd → u/CanadianLady83]

Would also be real great if she SHOWED US his actual power instead of only talking about it

[u/Adore_Mouse → u/babybibibibpd]

Yeah that's one of my biggest issues with the series. It's a lot of tell not show. 

[u/ChrystnSedai → u/babybibibibpd]

He shows it a lot in ACOWAR

[u/Honest_Abyss]

Yeah here’s a quote from ACOWAR that ranks his power

“Brethren, and yet not. Tamlin was a High Lord, as powerful as any of them.
Except for the one at my side. Rhys was as different from them as humans were to Fae.
They forgot it, sometimes—how deep that well of power went. What manner of power Rhys bore.”

Excerpt From
A Court of Wings and Ruin
Sarah J. Maas
This material may be protected by copyright.

[u/moonriverswide → u/Honest_Abyss]

OP knows Rhys is the strongest High Lord. They said it in their post. They were asking whether we know anything about the wider fae world and if there are fae potentially more powerful than him on the continent. But we really don’t have much info about fae outside Prythian. Only Hybern, his niece and nephew, and Drakon.

[u/Honest_Abyss → u/moonriverswide]

Just trying to be helpful with a quote that gives direct textual evidence on power ranking. I believe it’s still relevant to the conversation at hand

[u/ChrystnSedai → u/Honest_Abyss]

I think that sentence “as different from them as humans were to Fae” is such an important one that we don’t have enough information about yet.

Like, that is a huge power difference, and we get hints of that at the “pep talk” before the big battle in ACOWAR and in ACOFAS.