Fridge / Cradle Series

Fridge Brilliance

• Eithan proudly claims to be descended from a great janitor. The ancestor of the Arelius family is Ozriel, the Reaper, who destroys entire worlds... thus cleaning the universe. In fact, Ozriel's own records indicate that the whole reason he invented his overpowered Path of Destruction madra was to clean up the plague of dreadbeasts threatening the world.
• In Ghostwater, Dross is easily able to simulate an entire battle with Harmony the second he is turned on, but in Underlord he needs time for Skysworn recruits and the prince. What's the difference? Harmony carried around an Eye of the Deep for weeks, showing it how he fought, and Dross absorbed all that from the tree. He already had more than enough information for a simulation.
• A minor one. Yerin was raised from a very young age by the Sword Sage, who has very few skills that do not directly relate to the sacred arts and never bothered to teach Yerin anything outside that narrow worldview. However, she did spend about a year and a half with the Frozen Blade sect, including the Sword Sage's fiance. Min Shuei and her female disciples likely taught Yerin all the things about puberty and the like that the Sword Sage wouldn't have been able to teach her. In fact, it's quite possible that's why he brought Yerin to the Frozen Blade school in the first place.
• In Wintersteel, it's revealed that Akura Fury could have advanced to the Monarch stage at any time since being introduced in the books. Why didn't he? It's known that Akura Malice has a measure of future sight, and from what background we're given of her Family is the most important thing to her. With the possibility of her own death thanks to Penance it's possible that she's had Fury hold back his advancement, potentially for years, so that in the event of her death the Akura clan would never be without a Monarch and would not fall to ruin like the Aurelius family did after the death of their own Monarch.
• In Wintersteel, Yerin advanced to Herald (not Sage) and Lindon advanced to Sage (not Herald). Previously, everyone speculated that the opposite would happen, but with the revelations on what Sage and Herald actually are, it makes perfect sense. Yerin always pursued her Master's path, not her own. While she had some pretty deep insight into it (enough to briefly touch the Icon a few times), she never embodied it like a Sage should. Lindon on the other hand embodied Emptiness since he was tested as a child, and lived it every second of every day. With the help of Dross, he's also the one that is researching the intricacies of his Path.
• The reason Makiel couldn't predict the theft of the knock-off Reaper scythes? Iri was fated to sell them to the Mad King, who is currently playing the host to a Chaos Fiend (creatures who can't be predicted with Fate). It is possible that the Mad King is the one who put her up to it, which would immediately negate a huge part of the security present around the scythes.
• In Bloodline, the only clan that initially accepts the warning of the Wandering Titan is the Kazan clan. Why is this? Well, think about who the Wei and Li clans thinks is behind the earthquakes and color change; the Kazan. They are presumably the only Earth madra practitioners in Sacred Valley, and they can of course rule themselves out.
• Lindon's sect is called the "Twin Stars sect." While this is of course a reference to his Path of Twin Stars, it has a second meaning: It refers to Lindon and Yerin, the two leaders of the sect.
• One from the audiobook: The narrator gives Yerin and Min Shuei the same accent to help demonstrate their adopted daughter/mother relationship.
• In the first book, Lindon is a weakling who is pathetically grateful for any kindness and will repay it with Undying Loyalty, while Yerin is The Ace but has serious abandonment issues and thus will immediately latch onto anyone willing to spend time with her. This makes them perfectly matched to travel and train together, basically guaranteed to never betray each other, and push each other to improve. That part is pretty obvious, but the brilliant part is that Suriel definitely saw all this, which was why she told Lindon to find Yerin. There were probably plenty of other ways for him to leave Sacred Valley, but she determined that Yerin was the one most likely to push him forward.
• Playing off the above information. This fits everyone that Eithan, or by proxy Lindon, have gathered: Mercy has serious Parental Issues and is just desperately looking for someone to tell her that they're proud of her and for True Companions who don't just see her as the "Monarch's Daughter". Orthos sacrificed everything he was only to be abandoned and locked in a cave with almost no hope of ever being restored. Dross was dropped into a well and forgotten for decades. Little Blue was locked in a glass case for who knows how long when it is shown that natural Riverseeds are always in groups. And finally, Ziel like Orthos had his entire life destroyed due to his failed plan to bunker down during the passage of Dreadgod, and while he has many supporters he himself does not believe he deserves to be saved. Until they all meet Eithan and/or Lindon.
• The Arelius family sounds quite similar to the Aurelian Empire of The Elder Empire. Word of God, however, is that there is no connection between the families. Reaper finally provides a hint at an explanation: The man who would become Ozriel lived in a time where there was a fairy tale about a mythical city of knowledge called "Arelia." Those who sought knowledge and advancement were said to be "seeking Arelia;" this is clearly where the family name comes from. Over in Asylum, the Emperor came to power in the Library of Ach'magut, a massive treasure trove of knowledge built by an extraplanar entity. The Library is probably the source of these legends about Arelia, so both the family and the Empire were named after the same thing.
• With the reveal of the Dark Secret, it starts to make sense why Emriss Silentborn was murdered by three Monarchs in her first life. She was attempting to gather and spread all of her obtained knowledge to every corner of Cradle. She definitely would have attempted to let everyone know that the only reason why the Dreadgods continue to exist is due to the presence of the Monarchs.
• In Wintersteel, Lindon discovers that his memories of Suriel have been altered when Dross tries to project it to the others; Suriel herself is far less impressive in both skills and appearance (she doesn't even have Abidan armor), and several major secrets are tweaked (Northstrider is spoken of in the past tense as if he's dead, and Sha Miara is not mentioned, as if her mother is still alive). The obvious explanation is that Suriel did something, but no one can figure out why. If nothing else, you'd expect Lindon's memories to be altered as well. However, it makes sense when you consider that some of the most powerful people in the world (the Heart Sage, Emriss Silentborn, and the Silent King) are all Dream experts, and might have been able to draw those memories from his head. Hell, maybe Elder Whisper could even have done that. Lindon could have gotten into a lot of trouble if anyone had seen his unedited memories of Suriel.
• Why would Emriss Silentborn, the greatest advocate for world stability, throw in with Lindon the moment she realized that he was willing to kill the Dreadgods? The greatest threat to world stability is the Monarchs themselves.
  • Why wouldn't the Monarchs realize this? They spend so much time justifying not ascending that they believe their own lies.
• During the heist tour, Dross enthusiastically explains to Lindon and Yerin each thing that they are stealing, even though they both have already read the descriptions. When they reach the Everwood target Dross is completely mum. If Yerin hadn't already realized what she could do with the Dreamway, Dross' silence would have been a huge clue that his and Lindon's oath was stopping them from saying something.

Fridge Horror

• Whenever a world has too few humans present, Chaos has the opportunity to invade it. This means either everything falls to chaos (after which the broken pieces of the iteration go to infect other worlds), or the Abidan destroy it (preferably with Ozriel's scythe). How many trillions have fallen to chaos alone? Talk about a Cosmic Horror Story.
• The Mad King thinks he can control the Chaos Fiend currently possessing him, but his actions suggest otherwise. All his current actions spread Chaos both directly (him being present in Iterations) and indirectly (the Hounds intervening in worlds, which mess up fate). He is the one being controlled, but he doesn't know it.
• In Bloodline it's revealed that the reason why the Sacred Valley practices Sacred Arts the way that they do is that in the beginning they were attempting to counteract the effects of the suppression field by learning things one at a time. Unfortunately this reasoning was lost to time and their training methods degraded till we reached the present day. Fridge Horror sets in when you realize just how many other Unsouled there will have been in that time and how many other children suffered the same fate as Lindon, except they didn't have the benefit of running into Suriel.
• Without the research conduced in Sacred Valley and the creation of Subject One rather than 4 Dreadgods the world prior to Subject One could have dozens of Monarch level Dreadbeasts at any one time in random locations thanks to Hunger Aura being all over Cradle. Of course none of this would matter if the Monarchs of Cradle would just ascend as they're supposed to.
• In Waybound, Yerrin, Mercy, Ziel, and the others ascend, but nearly get stuck in the Void, as the Way is still in chaos from the Mad King's attack. The Abidan Kiuran says that they were lucky; they would likely be the last ascendants from Cradle able to make the journey to the Abidan. Ozriel gets the group to sign on to the Reaper division by letting them know that if they can bring stability to the different worlds, that will stabilize the connection to Cradle and make it safe enough for Lindon to pass through. Despite this, two years later, the Way is still in enough of a mess that Lindon ends up on a Silverlord world and needs to be collected by Fury. While we don't see anything of Lindon's parents or Fisher Gesha, and it's unclear if he smuggled them through the Labyrinth when ascending, we do know that his sister Kelsa, Jai Chen, and even Larian of the Eight Man Empire wanted to ascend on their own. If the Way is still in enough disarray years after Ozriel and the crew started cleaning up, to the point it's sending people to the Abidan's enemies, what will happen to Kelsa and Jai Chen, or anyone else from Cradle who ascends?