#Acotar criticism

[starscreambbymama]

The idea of The Hewn City revolutionizing and breaking off to make their own court makes so much sense to me. I see no point for Rhysand to keep them underground. What because everyone down there is supposedly evil and content with it??? For over 500 years in the Hewn City and Mor is the only one not evil??? Yeah bullshit. I don't understand why no one has conjured up the idea to revolt. Hell they have every right to, they live in complete darkness 24/7, I doubt they're getting much nutrition, be used as cannon fodder, their High Lord only ever comes there to act like an ass hole show off his trophy wife and fuck off right back to Velaris where they clap cheeks inside their 9th mansion. The only time a couple citizens of the Hewn City are allowed out and visit Velaris,they're treated like absolute dog shit

[onerainydayatthespringcourt]

My frustrations with the Acotar series have become so severe that there’s a small (yet growing) part of me that’s convinced that Sarah J. Maas literally wrote the series as some kind of on going experiment where the last book in the series will be one that explains that it was all just a hoax. That Feyre and Rhysand and the IC are the true bad guys of the series after all.

Because why else, literally why else, would she write it so painstakingly obvious that they are so unbelievably awful. I mean there are so many holes in the logics that they apply. So many things one has to criticize them for. I mean??? Feyre literally has this one moment (just a single fleeting moment, two and a half books in) in Acowar where she thinks about the consequences of her actions for others and whether it’s truly just (or just straight up self righteous) and then she fking throws that thought away a single second later. She was for real like "mmh, should I be more reflective? Would that benefit someone? Ah, what am I even saying, forget about it.". And that was it.

How is it that Sjm will literally point at the problems in her work herself with a fucking ten feet pole, highlight it in unerasable neon graffiti, but then ALSO completely disregard them in the next line or scene or next book? How is that even possible???

Meanwhile she gives Tamlin every reasonable excuse in the entire world as to why he acts the way he does, while simultaneously having all the beloved main characters talk about how terrible of a person he is. When Sjm herself literally writes explanations for the way he acts that check out 100%?? Every time??

I refuse to believe that the irony in all of it is unintentional.

I just can’t. It has to be some sort of mastermind scheme of hers that I’m just not quite getting yet.

[bookbitchx]

"There is no such thing as High Lady."

Call Tamlin a misogynistic sexist asshole or whatever else you want, but he's right.

High Lady is a title Rhysand gave to Feyre.

It's honorary.

It wasn't 'earned'. She wasn't 'blessed' with it, and she certainly wasn't chosen by the land and the magic.

If there was a title and it meant something, don't you think Viviane, of all women, would've been granted it by the lands for holding down the fort in Winter Court for 50 years while Kalias was stuck UTM?

Kalias could've also easily slapped the title on her like Rhysand did with Feyre, and yet he didn't. You know why? Because Viviane doesn't need it. She's already respected and seen as his equal by his court and the others for what she has done.

Feyre can't say the same, can she?

SJM sets it up as this badass moment of empowerment, but all I saw was Rhysand giving a baby (by Fae years) a title and letting her run loose with it as well as letting it go to her head.

The first thing she did after getting that title was go and get revenge on a whole ass court because she had issues with its High Lord which is insane in of itself but it brings me to my point, that there was no political repercussions where as if Rhysand had done it, it would've declared an internal war between Night and Spring.

It would've been a good ass arc if she had learned Prythian politics, history, diplomacy, the cultures, and customs of the other courts, including her own, so much as visited the other courts, slowly climbed the ranks and learned instead of Rhysand shoving that crown on her head and down everyone else's throats.

It's like taking me, a complete clueless, inadequate foreigner, and making me the Queen of England. Utterly ridiculous.

"You just hate Feyre being High Lady because you want Nesta to be one."

The same thing goes for Nesta, babe. NONE of the Archeron sisters are qualified to be High Ladies, honorary or not.

One of the hills I will die and kill on.

[gwandas]

We don't talk enough about how funny the dreamer shit in ACOTAR is. The IC are all sitting around acting like they're these underdogs when they are literally the government. Wdym you're dreaming of a better world... that's your fuckin job. Get to it, chop chop!

[dippedinmelancholy]

This isn’t aimed at any one creator, but just a trend I’ve noticed, especially with the holiday art.

Often when all three of the sisters are drawn in ACOTAR art, I’m seeing both Elain and Feyre in the softest, most cottage core dresses/sweaters ever designed, and Nesta is in the sluttiest, high slit line, low neckline, titties out dress you’ve ever seen.

Words cannot tell you how much this infuriates me. Nesta, the one character whose modesty was SO FUCKING IMPORTANT TO HER. Nesta, who feels uncomfortable baring herself in such a way in any social setting. Nesta, the only sister described to have a large chest and yet finds comfort in high necklines and long dresses, hiding as much of her flesh as she can, who has been repeatedly SA’d ON PAGE, over and over and over again, is the one sister who is drawn this way? Why??????? why is such a core part of her stripped away even by the fandom? Against Feyre who is apparently free and uber Girl Boss as she consistently wears the sluttiest dresses ever made? but not in the fan art, no, it’s nesta who needs to dress that way, because how else could recognize it was her?

idk it just feels gross and wrong and horrible mischaracterization of her, especially if you’re trying to show her as healed and comfortable with her family. I promise, Nesta is never happy if her tits are out in public.

[little-fireling]

These pages could be talked about every single day and it still wouldn’t be enough. In this scene Feyre was mean and selfish. She didn’t spare a single thought to how Lucien was feeling and she felt no guilt for the terrible situation she’d singlehandedly landed him in.

I will say this until the end of time: Lucien deserves better.

[veenvss]

au where at the end of the war the high lords refuse to bring back rhysand cause "if feyre got their powers what about him" and then he actually dies but because feyre was never chosen by the magic of the land she isn't the next high lady and instead it's actually mor's brother and the ic go mental cause they all lose their jobs and have to deal with the repercussions of their lack of action

[spacerockfloater]

The way people switched on Tamlin the moment Rhys was introduced is diabolical.

“Tamlin never really loved Feyre, it was all a trick from the start”: It is stated that Tamlin was disgusted by the idea of forcing someone to fall in love with him and considered it slavery, but ended up being so in love with her that he ultimately lets her go and choses her freedom and safety over that of his own people. Rhys confirms that Tamlin loved Feyre too much. And he loved her truly. Not because he had to. Tamlin treated Feyre with dignity when she was engaged to him. He introduced her as his lady, to be respected and cherished by all. And she really was loved by his people, too. Rhysand uses her as his lap dog to scare Hewn City and parades her as his whore.

“Tamlin never did anything for Feyre, he just used her”: He improved her and her family’s life in every aspect and offered her everything he had.

“Tamlin had sex with someone else in Calanmai”: Out of duty and responsibility because he didn’t want to force Feyre, who still wasn’t sure about her feelings, into it. All of the High Lords perform the Calanmai. Lucien says so. How convenient that this is never brought up with Rhysand. He surely does perform it as well. All the theories in here, “Lucien doesn’t know what he’s talking about/ This is a SC ritual only/ He probably just passes the duty on to someone else” are just a way for people to villainise Tam and glorify Rhys again. All of them inaccurate. The Calanmai is canonically performed by every High Lord. There’s no evidence that proves otherwise. As the son of one High Lord and the ambassador of another, Lucien would know. He is 500 years old. It’s just more convenient for SJM to never bring this up again because it raises the question of “Who was Rhysand fucking all these years?” and it makes her favourite character look bad. And once he is engaged to her, Tamlin flat out refuses to do it. Let’s be real for a second.

“Tamlin didn’t help Feyre under the mountain”: He literally could not. He was bound by a curse. He was forced to be Amarantha’s consort and a consort cannot oppose you. His powers were bound. Alis warns Feyre that Tamlin will not be able to help her. Stop acting as if he didn’t want to help her. He decapitated Amarantha the moment he got his autonomy back. Claiming that there’s no proof that Tamlin was under the influence of a spell when he literally didn’t break the curse and Amarantha’s magic didn’t allow him to use his powers is crazy. And even if he tried, he could never provide actual help. We see this when he begs Amarantha for Feyre’s life. Him showing he cares about her would only make Amarantha more jealous and vicious towards Feyre.

“Tamlin made out with Feyre instead of helping her”: He couldn’t help her run away. No one could do that. She would never make it, Amarantha would find her. In fact, Tamlin specifically could not help her in any way. He could only assure her he still wants and loves her. And she wanted that just as much. Rhys abused her physically, mentally, verbally, drugged her and much worse. And he enjoyed all of it. If he didn’t want to raise suspicions, he wouldn’t have placed a bet in her favour. Rhys is a sadist, SJM just decided to mellow him down in the next book so that we’d all like him over Tamlin.

“Tamlin ignored Feyre’s wishes and only wanted her to be his bride, he didn’t let her be High Lady”: Both Tamlin and Feyre were bad communicators going though trauma and Tam had a whole court to care for. Tamlin was unaware of how Feyre felt because she barely spoke up once. Rhys knew because he literally lived inside her head and had all the time in the world to focus his attention on her since his court suffered zero consequences during Amarantha’s reign. And Tamlin simply told her the truth: there’s no such thing as High Lady. Even her current title is given to her by Rhys, the magic of Prythian has not actually chosen her to be High Lady. The title and its power are decorative. And she said she didn’t want that anyway.

“Tamlin locks Feyre up and uses his magic to harm her”: He locks her in his humongous palace to keep her safe, after she just came back from the dead and his worst enemy is kidnapping her every month, while he runs off to protect his borders. Rhysand locks Feyre in a fucking bubble. Tamlin loses control of his magic. He doesn’t want to harm her. That’s not abuse. Abuse is intentional. Feyre and Rhysand lock Lucien and Nesta up. They lock the people of the Hewn City up in a cave. Feyre loses control of her magic and harms Lucien’s mother. Double standards I guess.

“Tamlin is a bad and conservative ruler”: Tamlin is such a beloved ruler that his sentries literally begged to die for him. Feyre had to fuck with their minds to finally turn them against him. They were his friends. He was so progressive that the lords fled his court once he became their ruler because he wouldn’t put up with their bullshit like his father did. He loved all of his people. He is against slavery. The Tithe was just tax collection. Rhysand practically rules over just one city, while ignoring Hewn City and Illyria. He treats 2/3 of his realm like shit and everyone except the residents of Velaris hates him. He collects tax, too, but we conveniently never see this. He ranks the members of his inner circle (my 1st, my 2nd etc.) and reminds them every moment that they are his slaves first and anything else second, while Tamlin treats them equally and even gives Lucien an official title by naming him Ambassador.

“Tamlin conspired with Hybern”: He was a double agent and his short lived alliance, two weeks all in all, not only didn’t harm a single soul, but ultimately saved all of Prythian as he was the only one who brought valuable information to that meeting. He dragged Beron to battle. Rhysand’s alliance with Amarantha harmed thousands and only helped save one city, Velaris.

“Tamlin is responsible for turning Nesta and Elain into Fae”: No, that was Ianthe, who got the info from Feyre. Tamlin was fooled by her, just as Feyre obviously was, or she wouldn’t have trusted her. Tamlin was disgusted by that act.

“Tamlin is less powerful than Rhysand”: Rhysand himself says that a battle between them would turn mountains to dust. Tamlin killed Rhysand’s dad, the previous High Lord of the Night Court, in one blow. He is just as powerful as Rhysand. SJM again just wants us to believe otherwise. And he is smarter, too. He was the only one not to trust Amarantha. And he was a good spy for Prythian against Hybern.

All of these takes are cold as fuck. SJM was testing the waters with ACOTAR and she made sure the main love interest, Tamlin, was insanely likeable, so that the book could be a satisfactory standalone story in case she couldn’t land a trilogy deal. She didn’t know it would be such a big hit. But once she realised she could turn this into a franchise, she had to figure out a new story to tell. She may claim otherwise, but there’s just too many plothotes to convince me. And in order to make her new main love interest seem like the best choice, she had to character assassinate the old one. There was no other way. ACOTAR Rhys was too much of an evil monster to be loved by the majority of the audience. But Tamlin was introduced to us as such a heroic and passionate man that is literally impossible to turn him into someone despised by all. Feyre’s relationship with Rhysand reads too much like cheating on Tamlin. That’s why anyone with basic analytical skills is able to realise the flaws of the narration.

[fenrysmoonbeamswife]

A T E and left no crumbs

[infiniteetcetera]

When I say the men of TOG all easily beat out the ACOTAR boys I am not just referring to Dorian Havilliard or Rowan Whitethorn (the obvious standards) but THE HUNTER WHO WAITED FOR ASTERIN??? NOX OWEN???? ILLIAS THE SILENT ASSASSIN???? Men at every level of TOG are serving looks, loyalty, and respect that is unmatched ESPECIALLY compared to ACOTAR and CC

[b00kdiary]

Eris Vanserra is Rhysand if he didn’t have the Inner Circle.

Eris Vanserra is a dreamer with no stars. The Autumn Court is his Hewn City, it’s his Court of Nightmares.

Free my man 😭

[extremely-judgemental]

Tarquin offers friendship and peace and Rhysand steals from him.

Helion treats him as a friend and helps him with concealing the trove and Rhysand keeps the truth about his son (with the woman he loves) from him.

Lucien works for him without expecting anything in return and Rhysand baits him with his mate and exploits him against Tamlin and Band of Exiles.

Eris spies on his father risking his life and Rhysand betrays him after promising a marriage alliance and throne and help to find his soldiers.

Tamlin helps bring him back to life and Rhysand repays it by telling him to kill himself.

Nesta sacrifices her powers to save him, his mate and his child, and Rhysand wants to kill her for using the trove (that belongs to her) the way she sees fit.

What an ungrateful fuck.

[motherrstorm]

elain: my entire world was turned upside down, my body was violated, and I'm really struggling to grasp this new lifestyle. Im not ready to face lucien or acknowledge the mate bond at all.

the ic: okay elain, that's absolutely okay. we'll let you have your space from everything + lucien and give you protection from him should you need it.

nesta: my entire world was turned upside down, my body was violated, and I'm really struggling to grasp this new lifestyle. Im not ready to face cassian or acknowledge the mate bond at all.

the ic: LMAOOO. you're going to stay with him in a house you can't leave, he's going to be your caretaker and have influence over your day to day tasks, he's going to take you on dangerous missions for us, and we don't gaf that he's fucking you when impulsively having sex is one of the reasons why we put you in the house.

ps: if you don't listen to him, we'll deport you. good luck babe💋!

[merwgue]

The only reason I believe the acotar books are fantasy and not horror because if I were tamlin and an illiterate-barely-legal girl tried to ruin my court I would have BOMBED the night court. You bitches would have seen female rage. Mary curie would have had NOTHING on me. Uranium discovered on the SPOT.

Send tweet.

[me-amora]

"You were either hurt by a Nesta or you were Nesta and that is how you perceive the book"

OR MAYBE YOU CAN SIMPLY EMPATHIZE WITH CHARACTERS AND SEE MULTIPLE POVs AS YOU READ, LIKE ANY NORMAL PERSON SHOULD BE ABLE TO!!

Seriously, have we reached a social media narcissism complex that is so bad that anything and everything needs to revert to us?? Have we, as a society, completely lost the ability of trying to understand different points of view and/or analyzing things from a detached view without having to self-insert 100% of the time. And ofc everything, including the characters you like, will always be biased. BUT it's just worrying when people are not able to perceive a story from any other angle that isn't an overly personal extension of themselves

[ladydeath-vanserra]