#(buried a thousand leagues deep in this story is Azriel going: I WANT TO FUCK HIM I WANT TO BE HIM)

[theknittingoracle]

Ohhhh! This is so chewy! Thank you!

Effloresce pov speculation: Jurian. What is he doing? Is he still in Amarantha's ring? Did Hybern dunk him in the uppity magic cookpot and he's just hanging around Spring, being a forgotten threat to fae? Also, it's so bizarre that all the fae, some who knew him personally, have forgotten how dangerous he is. He seduced Clythia, murdered her brutally, led Amarantha on a merry chase and made sure she was useless as a general until she ripped him to pieces. He did that on purpose. The Fae forgot.

JURIAN MY AXE-WIELDING MURDER MACHINE HEART OF GOLD REVOLUTIONARY HERO!

Okay, I'm going to try not to spoil too too much, because Jurian has like, his own whole thing going in Effloresce. I looked at canon and said, actually, that man is fascinating.

Effloresce!Jurian is the same age as canon Jurian but ONLY chronologically.

(The ring is SUCH a cop out in canon- if the Cauldron can resurrect from a single body part, no important fae would be dying?? Or staying dead? If someone had the power to TRAP THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE DEAD, surely we'd...hear more about it? We got a whole magic horse biography in acosf for some reason, but JURIAN? No information. He is...sane after being trapped in a ring for five centuries? Comes out of that ring, and Hybern assumes he's been...tortured into submission? IS ON THEIR SIDE?)

There's three big things here that I'm playing with- one, Jurian REMEMBERS human slavery. He remembers the world he fought to destroy and the birth of the next. He remembers what ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

Two, while I reject the ring/Amarantha premise, I think it's basically impossible to believe the fae, who are immortal, would let a mortal (ish) man who'd killed some of their most powerful just have a peaceful life after the war.

SIDEBAR: They're not in the story, but I have HUGE Miriyam/Dracon HATE. They're just...in hiding? forever? On an island no one kind find? They could have been SO COOL but the vibe is so much more commune turned cult. WHY ON EARTH would they get the Cauldron, Prythian's sacred vessel of creation? They're not EVEN FROM PRYTHIAN

Three, he's an even louder metaphor for Feyre's total mental shift. Humans meet Jurian and go: JURIAN? OUR JURIAN? Feyre has like, a second of wonder before being like: BUT HE MURDERED HIS GIRLFRIEND RHYS SAYS HE'S A MONSTER. She, like most faeries, seems to think fae are inherently better. That their lives matter more. Clythia killed all her slaves rather than free them, but we're supposed to think Jurian's espionage is the gross part? Compared to whatever shit the fae were up to???

Jurian's basically a walking neon sign that reads HIGH FAE ARE DANGEROUS TO HUMANS AND KILL THEIR OWN DESCENDANTS, wrapped up in the courtly manners of a bygone era, errant knighting about trying to help humans, seething beyond belief that the crowns his people fought to create have allied with their greatest enemies.

(Also I gave him a sexy murderous girlfriend with a bad attitude. because. canon didn't even give the mercenary a NAME. Also his beef with Miriyam sucking being attributed to jealousy is such a ridiculous reduction. It's not that she didn't choose HIM, she fell in love with the man who OWNED HER and fucked off forever to secret paradise while the world went to hell)

By humans, Jurian is quite literally the opposite of forgotten. Faeries made it so in their massive, unbelievable arrogance.