#acotar critical

[fenrysmoonbeamswife]

does anyone ever think about how Feyre is closer in age to her child than she is to her husband

[my-acotar-thoughts]

I feel like I would like Rhysand as a morally grey character if there was something about him I could trust but I honestly can’t. I can’t tell what’s a manipulation and what’s the truth with him and that would scare me if I met him. SJM literally gave him the power to alter your memories and thoughts! I’m sorry, but if I can’t trust my own senses around you, how can I trust you???? Actions speak louder than words but he’s proven even his actions are deceptive. You really expect me to believe he kept his hands on her waist only when he showed Feyre he can use his magic to manipulate the paint on her body under the mountain to appear how he wants and fix itself???? We don’t know what Tamlin and Lucien saw but Lucien was clearly concerned over the fact that THIS was the male Feyre loves and that to me is a red flag cause Lucien was always the realest friend. I want to like Rhys. I want him to give me a reason to like him as a character but with his track record and general way of doing things, he scares me.

As someone who hates Rhysand and has interacted with the acotar fandom, I’ve seen a lot of insane comments being made.

But one thing that has always confused me is how Rhysand’s stans love to claim how he’s so morally grey but then be surprised and angry when people don’t like him. Like yeah that’s what being a morally grey character means, not everyone will like them.

(I don’t agree with him being morally grey, I think he’s just evil)

But also the fact that they claim that he’s morally grey, but justify every single thing he does and says. Because Rhysy is perfect and he’s never done anything wrong 🥺🥺🥺.

So how can he be morally grey if he’s perfect and has done nothing wrong?

[youareatragedy]

"Shut up! Everyone in ACOTAR is flawed, and that’s why we like them!

True. But when you only like the characters your favorite character likes, it becomes a double standard. It’s a problem when you like these characters so much that you refuse to admit how problematic they actually are. It’s a problem when you’re so biased that just because your favorite character dislikes Character A, nothing that character A does—whether it’s saving universes or saving your favorite character’s life—matters to you. It’s a problem when you stop thinking critically and justify destroying an entire country as revenge against an ex, simply because it aligns with what makes your favorite character happy.

That’s childish. That’s not how adults should consume media. What’s next? If SJM had Rhysand say that Illyrian women should live in a Handmaid’s Tale society, would you applaud it and say, "Oh good, that makes sense. Rhys is awesome. Finally, the females in Illyria have a clear purpose"? I’m begging this fandom to stop being cringe and step away from this "if I say jump, you ask how high" mentality.

Rhysand isn’t warming your bed at night. Calling Nesta an ungrateful bitch—when she’s simply young, setting boundaries, and healing at her own pace—sends a harmful message to the real world, whether you realize it or not. Similarly, shouting that Rhys was SA’d while insisting Tamlin should have just submitted to Amarantha sends another damaging message—and neither are messages we should be okay with.

Rhys isn’t real. Cassian isn’t real. The Inner Circle isn’t going to show up with Christmas presents and hot chocolate to chat with you and ask you to be a part of their "found family".

Turn your brains ON. Love Rhys and the IC, but don’t be blind to the fact that they’re insanely toxic characters who should face consequences. And stop calling people who like Nesta or Tamlin "abuser apologists" when you’re willing to ignore Rhys and Cassian beating up a very traumatized Azriel or gloss over the fact that Feyre endured SA by Rhys UTM.

[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.

[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.

[legendl0re]

You would think that because of Rhys went though being coerced into sex with Amarantha, he would have been more sympathetic to Nesta’s being SA’ed by Tomas Mandray, the Kelpie, and the allegory that is the Cauldron.

But nope. Man’s empathy is a big fat goose egg.

id have thought after the whole scene where Rhysand learns what Nestas trauma is and how SJM made that scene a Whole Thing he'd start to treat her like a damn person but noooo. he has to keep treating her like she's some feral animal. so like. WHAT was the POINT of that scene??? why make it a WHOLE THING? Why have Rhys be like "her trauma is...." and get all choked up for him to just keep being a colossal piece of shit to her

[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 😭

[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💋!

[herrinarte]

The ACOTAR fandom is so weird because what do you mean Tamsand isn’t one of the most popular ships 🤨 Tamlin is literally on Rhysand’s mind 24/7, either this man is massively insecure, gay as fuck for Tamlin or massively insecure about the fact that Tamlin ain’t fuckin him right now and could be with someone else so he has the uncontrollable urge to tell his ex-boyfriend to kill himself. How are people not saying this is gay????

And then there’s whatever the hell is going on with the bat boys. Fucking in the same room? What you just gonna stare at each other? go one step further and just do it with each other. Stop being a coward bro 😤✋

And Azriel choking Eris, uh it’s just floor play. Don’t worry it’s cool, they have a list of dos and don’t that they made when they got married.

How can you look at Lucien ‘fire in his blood’ Vanserra and Tamlin ‘literally a big ass beast’ and go no I don’t think they have had nasty passionate sex under under a cherry blossom tree 🤓 like huh????? They’re literally roommates. Lucien lost an eye for Tamlin. Tamlin felt more betrayal over loosing Lucien than Feyre. YOUR HONOUR THEY ARE IN LOVE

Then the Valkyries…um gay too. Lesbian throuple. Come on people get creative. The girls are kissing and cuddling and having beautiful sex and you are all boring.

I have never seen a fandom go so feral for dry ass ships in my life. Literally no other fandom would ignore the plethora of gay ships.

This is your sign to stop caring about what is canon and start being fun, cool and interesting xxx

[sad-scarred-sassy]

Correct me if I’m wrong but Nesta, Lucien and Tamlin are the only characters that actually show remorse for their wrongdoings and apologize and they’re coincidentally the most hated characters in the acotar fandom…

[extremely-judgemental]

How convenient Feyre doesn't have a single memory or glimpse of how Rhysand abused her for two months though she was drugged but her memories weren't taken away. Her body doesn't recognise his touch as danger and isn't repulsed by him. Her trauma hasn't left a mark on her mind and body.

How convenient Feyre's PTSD is about being locked up in a cell and not the man who tortured and broke her hand forcing her into a bargain. Her nightmares are filled with the creatures that abused her once and threatened to spit roast her but not of the man who touched her and kissed her without consent and paraded her naked.

How convenient Feyre goes back to using sex as a crutch with Tamlin and later with Rhysand when it was the very thing that was used against her UtM. Her body readily wants a man's touch right after her rebirth.

How convenient Lucien is the only source of information who told Feyre what was done to her. He is also the most considerate and sweetest friend she ever had. He could have withheld some of that trauma to spare her the humiliation and heartbreak.

How convenient Feyre and Tamlin agreed never to speak of what happened UtM. Feyre doesn't understand how Tamlin's rage extends beyond his possessiveness. For her to turn a blind eye and blame him when they won't even talk about it.

How convenient every HL wants to hold Rhysand accountable for the very things he explicitly claimed to be remorseful of (Winter children massacre) and not the other atrocities he participated or committed in the fifty (or 500) years.

How convenient the HLs are polite enough to not ask Feyre how she forgave Rhysand after he SA'd her every night and willingly plays his whore whenever he wants.

How convenient the HLs don't ask if Feyre is also being mind controlled by Rhysand when he proved his strength by taking over Tamlin's mind in front of everyone.

How convenient every HL forgive Rhysand and Feyre for every mistake they ever made and make compromises throughout but never expect anything in return. How convenient mere 'sorry' always seems to be enough when their courts are suffering because of IC.

How convenient Tamlin insults Feyre but doesn't ask how she accepted her abuser as her mate when she accuses him of the same (sometimes worse) too.

How convenient Lucien is so charmed by the beauty of Velaris that he understands why Feyre left Spring for it but doesn't hold a grudge for what she did to his home.

How convenient Nesta, who's been SA'd twice, never finds out her baby sister also went through the same and is in love with the perpetrator. She never finds out the baby she saved is the child of Feyre's abuser.

How convenient Rhysand and Feyre agreed to deal with their trauma in secrecy. No one in Velaris ever finds out what truly happened UtM.

How convenient 'We save abused priestesses together' Morrigan or 'Careful how you speak about my High Lady' Azriel or 'No male better than Rhys' Cassian never find out how Rhysand hurt Feyre.

How convenient Rhysand himself was SA'd over and over again and so it's all fine to do the same to Feyre.

How convenient what happened UtM stays UtM.

How fucking convenient.

[youareatragedy]

I just think it’s sad that Feyre doesn’t have her own individual life anymore. Her life revolves around Rhys. Heck, she doesn’t even have her own death anymore.

All her fears during her relationship with Tamlin became a reality, just with someone else. The only thing she has that is her own is painting. Maybe her powers as well, but she doesn‘t do anything with them and she‘s trained by Rhys.

Her very soul belongs to Rhys. Their relationship, which everyone claims is healthy, just seems so suffocating. Ever since acomaf, it has either been Feysand or just Rhys. Barely just Feyre. It seems that the fandom finds it difficult to separate these 2 as well.

Idk what freedom Feyre is bragging about here. She really left her old cage only for her to be trapped in another cage. I mean.. good for her? This one has more space and it’s bedecked with jewels, but in the end it‘s still a cage.

I agree 100%. Feyre is just an idea now. People don’t really care about what happens to her. She did her "job" as a consort: being a wife and giving Rhys (the character the fandom truly cares about) an heir. There’s a feys-nd month going on right now, and most of what I’ve seen is Feyre in gowns, crowns, holding and playing with Nyx, or painting, or being in an event/party. Rarely do they portray her as an actual leader or a warrior.

The fandom reduced her to that and then cries victim when no one takes Feyre seriously anymore or cares about her opinion. It’s sad because as much as I didn’t like her in the first book, I at least wanted her to be free of the pressure she was under back then (she was 19!). As long as the fandom can’t separate Feyre from Rhysand to properly criticize her character development, I think Feyre will always be doomed and will lack any real substance as a character. SJM herself seems blind to the misogyny Feyre’s character has endured.

[delaneytveit]

its wild to me how tamlin point blank explains what fey/re did to his court, how she hurt it and weakened their only defnese against Hybern in the process because she threw a hissy fit over the fact that he tried everything to get her back from someone who has made the entire world think that he is the absolute scum of the earth. and fey/re has the audacity to say that he “doesn’t get to rewrite the narrative”

like HUH??????

i’m sorry but… there was not a single thing that he said she did that she didn’t do.

like sweetheart you admitted that what you did to the spring court was bad not even 3 pages ago. but now that you get called out for it???? now its rewriting the narrative.

[bookbitchx]

Whoever's book is next, I want Rhysand to shut the fuck up throughout it, tyvm.

[wallflowers-in-the-wind]

One thing I will never forget about Feyre is that she left a high lord who was true to his word and actually helping fae from other courts. Everyone was welcome and he was putting everyone else’s needs above his own. But because they weren’t good at communicating and were pushing their trauma to the side and refuses to find comfort in each other and talk they both got hurt. Tamlin took things too far in an effort to save her from herself and she left.

But Feyre chose to leave him for Rhysand. A high lord who doesn’t care about his people or anyone else he can’t manipulate. A liar who lives in dreams and can talk a big game but never follow through. Someone who commits SA and hides information without a single apology for his behavior. And wears a mask because it’s so important that no one knows who he really is instead of using his power and ability to help the people he refuses to help with the exception of one person.

She chose the worse possible option that got thousands of people, hurt or killed, and doesn’t care as long as she can have a fake title to throw around whenever she wants to feel important.

[legendl0re]

I was reminded of a scene in ACOFAS that made me despise Rhysand, the one where he visits Tamlin and just berates him over and over, and now I remember why and can form it into words:

This scene just proves that Rhysand can’t stand the fact that he will forever owe his life, his happiness, even the existence of his own kid, to Tamlin.

That’s what makes him so angry and hateful, that Tamlin proved to be the better man and bought him back despite everything that happened between them.

He is goading Tamlin because he wants to desperately prove that he isn’t that good person, but Tamlin won’t bite. Feyre destroyed his court, Rhys and his father killed his family and forced him to become a High Lord, the one thing he never wanted to be, and yet still he gave that last piece so the two of them could be happy.

Rhys should be kissing Tamlin’s shoes for that, but instead he can’t cope and is attempting to drive the man deeper into depression, not to mention disrespecting his borders with Cassian and Nesta and Eris’ little meetings.