#Anti Rhysand

[umthisistheonlyusernamenottaken]

What SHOULD have happened during the High Lord meeting

Beron moved to the Lady of Autumn's seat, resting a hand on her shoulder. The same arm that now bore a bright scar. She did not so much as flinch, but her hand tightened around Eris's wrist.

"You have injured my wife, viciously attacked my heir, and made an attempt on my life. These are acts of war, little girl. Perhaps your mate should have done better filling you with knowledge of politics and common sense rather than vile seed!"

"Beron!"

"I have spoken my piece!" he snarled in answer to Thesan's snap. Beron turned back to the Night Court and pointed his finger.

"Too long have we endured the arrogance of this insolent half-breed. Well. No longer." Beron spat out the words, "This meeting was the last straw in a bale of thousands. As High Lord of Autumn, I declare war on Night."

The ripple was instantaneous.

"Father, are you certain of this?" Eris murmured.

But Beron did not answer his son. His gaze was fixed on Rhys's frozen face. The male recovered quickly, a sneer forming on his lips.

"What matter is it of mine whether you wage war on us or not? We both know your forces are nothing in comparison to Night's."

Beron's face turned thunderous, and he opened his mouth to reply when a voice cut through, sharp and clear.

"Spring will stand with you, Lord Beron."

Rhys barked out a laugh, relaxing "Oh? With what army?"

Tamlin merely smiled, unsheathing those deadly claws and letting them gleam in the steady candle light.

"I don't need one. I killed one High Lord of Night before. I can do it again."

[greengzass]

omg i hate him so much

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.

[ladydeath-vanserra]

feyre: I can't believe you're making these poor people pay a Tithe right after a war!

also feyre: I mean I suppose I can't blame you for having your hands tied with the systematic oppression and brutality of women. change takes time, after all

[fenrysmoonbeamswife]

women who defend Rhysand are pathetic

but men who defend Rhysand are terrifying

[sadlybluespirited]

Rambling Thoughts

Rhysand, Cassian and Azriel have their trauma all situated in the violence against female Illyrians. Their mothers are all their starting points. Rhysand's mother's wings being almost clipped, Cassian's birth being a sexually violent act committed against his mother, Azriel's mother being cast out of a home with little financial recourse and restricted from having access to her (presumably) only child. These are all where their stories are written to have started and shaped who they are. There is a brotherly bond formed in part because of this history when they find each other. However there's also a level of exceptionalism in their story.

All three somehow escape the trappings of becoming like their male peers. One thing that makes them even more different. Cassian's poverty, Rhysand's half high fae status. I'm assuming for Azriel, it's his stunted growth from years of abuse and his status as a shadowsinger. Illyria primarily serves as a backdrop to their stories hence the nonexistent world building in the story which becomes confusing given the misogynistic society they live in, Cassian wouldn't be the only child born from such an act and given that EDIT: (it's female Illyrians, not male Illyrians who sometimes have children outside of Illyria) male Illyrians have children outside of Illyria) seen in some of the text I've seen from acosf, there's half Illyrian children running around somewhere in Prythian like Rhysand. Yet we don't see Cassian nor Rhysand make any effort towards seeking out these individuals, seeing tragedy in other male Illyrian stories. They don't really form part of the narrative. It's only these three. We don't even know much about Devlon (not excusing his misogyny) and his upbringing. We just know he's the most agreeable male Illyrian so far. So I'd argue that from what I've seen (everything before acosf), Cassian and Rhysand primarily are detached from their male counterparts as a whole. They "love their people but..." is referenced in the text and I've asked myself, what do you love about them? I never really felt like I had an answer. It might be that they say this because their mothers were Illyrians and for them to fully hate Illyria means they hate them too. We know Rhysand's mother wanted Rhys to understand his culture and had him raised in it. But what is it exactly that they love about their people? Neither Rhysand nor Cassian show any visible sign of love for their people when they're in Illyria. Illyria is almost treated like a headache or a stubborn child that won't listen. One if the few times Cassian is referenced as grinning in regards to male Illyrians (when it's not a joke being made about their sexual prowess and before acosf) is when Rhysand tells him to go and enact violence towards the Illyrians males who won't listen to orders (the orders being that female Illyrians are not to be doing chores before training). SJM's habit of poor world building means we don't know anything about the male Illyrians outside of their capacity to be violent and misogynistic. We're kind of not meant to. We're not meant to know that there could very well be other male Illyrians like Cassian, Rhysand or Azriel because then they become less special. If any male Illyrian does come out of this story, I guarantee you that SJM will tie that male character to one of the three, implying that they alone can see misogyny and correct it. That no one else in Illyria grew up like they did and turned out less (?) misogynistic. Because the backdrop of Illyria is meant to serve primarily Cassian and Rhysand as the good natured male Illyrians who just want less misogyny in the world. It's meant to uphold their exceptionalism. SJM will not allow Illyria and other male Illyrians to contradict Cassian and Rhys (and to a lesser extent Azriel). So we're stuck with a society that probably won't fully form itself beyond its current state.

[hrizantemy]

I’m sorry, but Rhysand saying “neither side was innocent” during the conversation with the mortal queens in ACOMAF, when the subject of fae enslaving humans was brought up, is one of the most egregious lines in the series — and it’s rarely discussed with the weight it deserves.

Let’s unpack that: he is speaking to a group of human women, representing the very group of people who were enslaved by fae for centuries, and when they bring up this long history of subjugation, torture, rape, and death, his response is to essentially say, “Well, both sides were bad.”

That is victim-blaming. That is revisionist history. That is colonialist rhetoric.

It’s no different than saying, “Well, the enslaved people fought back sometimes, so it wasn’t just the slavers who were wrong.” Rhysand, who wants to be painted as this morally enlightened, progressive High Lord, essentially minimizes the suffering of an entire species—the one his mate used to be a part of, no less—because acknowledging that the fae were uniquely cruel would be an inconvenient truth. He doesn’t show remorse. He doesn’t even offer an ounce of compassion.

Instead, he offers the oldest excuse in the book of abusers and empires: “It was mutual.”

No, it wasn’t. The fae were the enslavers. The humans were enslaved. Power imbalance matters. Scale and systems matter. And for Rhysand — who was alive during that time — to not only fail to acknowledge it, but dismiss it outright, is a massive moral failing.

What makes it worse is how it lines up with everything we’ve come to understand about how he views humans. Rhysand might love Feyre, but he doesn’t love humans. He doesn’t mourn their culture, their history, or what was taken from them. In fact, he only seems to acknowledge humans when it’s politically convenient (like trying to leverage Feyre’s mortal roots or the war). Otherwise, they’re an afterthought at best, disposable at worst.

And the fandom just…lets him get away with it.

There is no growth. No nuance. Just a man who calls himself “feminist” and “progressive” while upholding the very structures that oppressed entire peoples — and gaslighting them about it.

So yeah, “neither side was innocent”? I’m sorry, but what the actual fuck.

[bookbitchx]

I saw a comment on Reddit about a TikTok theory that Rhysand tied his life to Feyre to protect himself from powerful people who could kill him, aka Nesta, Tamlin, maybe even Lucien (when and if he becomes HL) and you know what?

His bitchass absolutely would hide behind his 20-something-year old mate.

[kathren1sky-blog]

Who is the abuser and evil now...?

Me, shaking my head at Feyre....PART 2

Also chapter 8 of ACOMAF -

Tamlin tells Feyre:

"Because you undermine the laws of this court when you behave like that. Because this is how things are done here, and when you hand that gluttonous faerie the money she needs, it makes me - it makes this entire court - look weak."

To which Feyre replies:

"Don't you talk to me like that."

Now I know that the circumstances were very different and I'm not arguing about the actions that lead to these conversations. I'm pointing out that Feyre such as hell did not like Tamlin telling her that her actions were hurting his image. And that made me think about chapter 2 of ACOSF when Feyre tells Nesta:

"It's about how it reflects upon me, upon Rhys, and upon my court when my damned sister spends money and does nothing to contribute to this city! If my sister cannot be controlled, then why should we have the right to rule over anyone else."

Ohhh ok Feyre so now image IS important.

And I just have to mention that having to go back to ACOSF and re-read this chapter filled me with a renewed rage, the Inner Circle can seriously just go fuck right off.

[wishcamper]

What I should be doing: my taxes

What I am doing: a comprehensive analysis of Rhys as a cult leader using Dr. Steven Hassan’s B.I.T.E. Model of Authoritarian Control

[thefatesofspring]

I don’t think it’s actually understood properly just how insane Rhysand’s mother was to say that in order for his mate/wife or GF to earn his love she must go into a DEATH GODS home & remove my wedding ring from there successfully.

Then & only then will you know if she is worthy of your love…but the catch?…she must never know what she’s actually going up against…she must never know beforehand that the weaver/stryga is a LITERAL DEATH GOD, who is a god damn cannibal, who can & will kill you immediately upon entering her home…

And Feyre the dumbass blindly trusted him, didn’t question him or his mother, didn’t understand that she had ALREADY gone above & beyond for Rhysand & to show him how much she loves him at this point & then when she does make it out he’s laughing in a god damn tree!!

I don’t like Feyre but every now & then I think about how many fucked up, life & death situations she’s actually been put in thanks to Rhysand & it makes me so angry for her & angry that she is truly so blinded by this bond & her love for this male that she doesn’t see the insanity behind it all.

[greengzass]

tbh i always thought that feyre was kinda dumb

[veenvss]

Innocence

jurian was a man. he will forever be a man. no stupid rich fae with all the power ever needed would ever take that away from him. he's a human. he's a human who's done bad things. bad things in the name of freedom. it was for a cause. he's a human. his soul is innocent, the gods knew that.

His hand shivered in the stream, the cold water running through his fingers. Branches of the tree whisked around his head in the breeze. He had stormed from that meeting, rage bubbling in the air around him. He was so far away from home, his people disconnected, forced to work for the man he once saw as his enemy.

The meeting had ended early. Jurian was sent for the Book of Breathings, which the Mortal Queens didn't have, so there was no need for discussion. One of them just had to pull him aside, an evil grin spread across her face.

"We spoke to him the other day," she whispered, gripping hold of his arm, her wrinkled fingers digging into his fresh skin. "That dark one." Rhysand. Jurian was familiar with him, too much so, unfortunately.

"Why are you telling me this? I don't think the King wants to hear you discussing secrets with our enemies," Jurian muttered, wrenching his arm from her grip. She cackled, letting him go.

"He told us a lot, about this city he had," she said. "Velaris, he called it, hidden away." That grin returned to her face. "He showed us where it was."

Velaris? That was new, although he had always heard rumours of some secret stronghold of the Night Court. He never thought Rhysand was stupid enough to share its exact location with people as vile as these queens.

"You know," she started again. Jurian resisted the urge to just ignore her and walk off. "He told us something else."

"Like what?"

"'Neither side is innocent'" she repeated. "He said that boldly as if the fight wasn't for our freedom from his kind." Jurian made a face at her words.

"There is no 'our', you weren't there," he stated. He made to turn around, but she grabbed his arm again.

"You chose the right side, Jurian," she whispered. "They will never trust our kind."

He, once again, pulled his arm from her grip and left without saying another word. He had rushed down those halls with such urgency the guards must have believed the war had already started.

"Neither side is innocent."

Jurian could almost laugh at how stupid it was. Sure, he wasn't innocent. He was a man who had done bad things, but to say his entire people weren't innocent? The people who were fighting for freedom, if not for themselves at least for their families. Jurian's mother, whose warm hands were the last he felt for years. She told him to be brave, that one day their time would come to be free. She had asked him to travel the world for her, and throw a stone with her name on it into the ocean, so she could always be among the waves she loved to watch.

He thought of his younger sister. They rarely saw each other, only when there was some accident and she was needed to repair the men, because of course their owners could dare waste precious fae magic on such lowly slaves. When they could they would talk about their farm, next to the ocean where their mother lived. They would raise animals together, and be free. They would live on their own schedule, with all the time in the world to do what they wanted, when they wanted, where they wanted. Jurian could almost smell the salty air they dreamed of, filling his heart with ache at the thought of his family.

What would his father think of him? He had never met the man, no one ever really did. Couples were locked in rooms until pregnancy, then separated. He remembered his mother trying to talk about him, but in truth, she never really knew him at all. Would he be proud of him? Of his fight for freedom to set their children free? Jurian had spent most of his life trying to live to the memory of a man he had never even met.

And his friends, all of his friends who had died for him and his beliefs. How much blood coated his hands, as he held them while they shuddered into death. They had spent years, as children and teens, creating their plans for escape. Those men had vowed to stay by Jurian's side until death or freedom. And now, despite everything, Jurian was the only one still alive. What would they think of him? None of them had lived to see the man Jurian turned out to be. The crimes he committed.

Crows landed on the stones nearby, watching him carefully. He knew what they thought. He stunk of death. It followed him everywhere like a cruel taunt. His friends, his innocent friends who died with the belief of freedom in their hearts. His mother dreamed of walking into the ocean. His sister, and their farm, by the sea. Their deaths clung to him, maybe that was what the birds could smell. Or maybe it was his own half-dead state. The five hundred years trapped as a ring on a cold finger and a necklace on an even colder heart, his true body lost to time, a skeleton, or maybe burnt to ash for his crimes, his soul waiting for a burial never to be given. Or was he just another one of those human corpses, thrown into a hole to be forgotten.

Was he forgotten? Who remembered him? Miryam? Jurian scoffed. He thought he had found a friend, a slave girl, forced to spend her life doing labour. They had connected, they knew each other. They fought for the same freedom of their people. She was the one who suggested his affair with Clythia. She was the one who defended him against all others. Yet, when it came down to it, she still looked at him with fear and ran into the arms of that heroic winged fae. He had set her free, given her everything she wanted. Granted her a long life, something Jurian was still trying to fight for himself. She had turned on him, had called him a monster. Told him he was as bad as the fae.

As bad as the Fae? The same people who had enslaved them, used them as toys to throw around and discard. Jurian was used as a horse, carted around with loads on his back and chains on his neck, whipped if he slowed for just a second. Miryam was sold as sex appeal, a gift purely for her body. And when he retaliated, against some naive female, he was the problem? He was the madman, crazed with ancient hatred. Clythia deserved everything Jurian did to her. She fooled herself into thinking she was in love with a mortal, fooled herself into thinking he was truly in love with her. A fae. They would lie together, and she would talk about what she would do to bad men because she didn't believe Jurian was 'one of them'. Jurian was a human. A man, born and raised. He was a man fighting for his right to live during that war, and he'll continue fighting for it until those damned creatures learnt their lessons.

Rhysand was a privileged boy who grew up in a palace with food and water. He had servants to care for him. Jurian could bet all the money in the world that Rhys had never once thought about who cared for those servants. He knew nothing about slavery, the torture Jurian and his people had to endure simply because they had rounded ears and lived a shorter life than the rest of them. What did Rhysand do when his father murdered all of those slaves? Did he think about their lives? Their innocence? Was Jurian's crime reflected on the rest of his people? Did they have to suffer for the crimes he committed, even now five hundred years later?

He could barely even talk to the humans around now. They had changed too much. They didn't even speak the same language. Jurian had tried, he said a few words and watched as the humans of the continent looked at him as if he just said he was some fae prince there to steal them away. He wondered if they knew who he was, a man who fought for their freedom. Was he remembered or forgotten, like so many of his people, thrown into holes and laughed at. Were they still called rabbits, living and dying before a fae had even reached maturity? Jurian thought again of his sister, did she survive the war? Did she mourn him? Her children would exist across the world by now. Did they live in shame of their ancestor, was he even remembered? Did these people know about the mass graves up north? Where their people were disposed of as nothing more than animals, trampled upon. Jurian would spend most of his nights sitting by the mounds of dirt, whispering prayers to his friends, and the others, who he had never even met. Innocent to the horrors of that war.

He had to get through this war. Get this information from Hybern, relay it to some High Lord in Prythian and then he could leave. Escape to the coast, like he always wanted. Own a farm, raise his animals and live the rest of his human life in peace, as human farmers did. He wasn't even sure he could die, if this Cauldron-cursed body would let him reject its power and wither away to nothing more than a sack of bones to be buried underground, like it was meant to be. Like it should've been, years ago.

Jurian had attempted to reach that fate, so many times since he was forcefully reborn into the scalding waters of that pot. Drawn out and thrown on the floor, naked and alone. He would claw at himself, tear apart his flesh, only to wake up the next morning with skin as clear as a newborn. The Cauldron knew his dreams and laughed as he so desperately scrambled for them. Despite all that, Jurian was a man. A villainous man from an innocent people. He breathed as a man. He lived as a man. No rebuilding from that Cauldron would remove his humanity from him. He had done those things for the sake of his humanity, his people and their freedom. His soul was innocent, as were the souls of every human who had died, fighting for their freedom. Rhysand could try all he wants, but he could never rewrite the innocence of Jurian's people.

i love jurian he's my little baby who's done nothing wrong ever in his life and he's so cool and amazing and he will live a happy life on his farm by the sea and he die an old man like he deserves after so long

masterlist

[grimseverity]

Shit would probably open up like this.

“Cassian dropped Nesta up at the house. I know this will be good for her, even if she hates me more than she already did.”

“But I won’t lie, a small part of me felt good watching her rage at us. That she felt just a little bit how I felt, trapped hunting and fighting to keep us all fed.

“It’ll be better that she’ll be out of the slums where someone could hurt her. Ironic really. Even now, Im still doing the work of keeping my sister alive.”

Shit would be insidious as hell.

Someone should write ACOSF from Feyre’s POV.

That girl would warp so much of the narrative it would read like a fever dream.

[lifeisabiscuit]

What if Nessian had a daughter and said daughter got mad at Rhysand one day for whatever reason and let's out an "I hate uncle Rhys". Is Cassian going to scream at his own child and tell her everyone hates her the way he did with his mate? Or punish her with a grueling hike? Or give her the silent treatment like the child he is? Or would he just take it out on her mother because that's clearly learned behavior from his "ungrateful " mate.

I don't want to hear any of this "Cassian would be a girl dad" nonsense. He wouldn't know the first thing about how to treat a girl respectfully.

[fenrysmoonbeamswife]

why was Feyre able to train at the HOW but Nesta was forced to train at the Illyrian steps in Illyrian leathers that made her uncomfortable??

there are all these very specific ways that Nesta is treated that just show it was never ever about helping her, it was always about control and anyone who thinks differently is not paying attention at an alarming level

[yaralulu]

I wonder if lucien ever looks at feyre and sees the way she’s acting and he just thinks to himself “damn maybe me and tam were right and this bitch really is getting mind controlled” because feyre must seem absolutely insane to him at this point.

Like he found out she was pregnant at 20 and he was like omg congrats (you never wanted this 😃?????).or he found out she locked nesta up in the HoW for her “own good” and he’s like oh yeah i’d love to see nesta training (YOU LOCKED HER UP???).Watching feyre turn into everything she ever condemned tamlin for must be one hell of an experience