#acotar critical

[youareatragedy]

I feel like no one talks enough about how Elain did Lucien so dirty in that bonus chapter by trying to make out with another guy when Lucien visited, because if it were the other way around, people would be furious at Lucien.

If you say Elain doesn't owe Lucien anything, you are wrong. She has had enough time to understand mate bond, and if she doesn't know enough about the bond at this point, it is due to her lack of effort to understand. She just doesn't want to. Selfish, isn't it? She could definitely just reject Lucien if she doesn't want him, and then freely hook up with Azriel, but no, I guess she just wants to keep Lucien as a backup. As an assurance that she won't be alone no matter what, because Lucien is gentleman enough to not reject the bond without legitimate reason. And just because Elain avoids him, I don't think Lucien can just reject something so sacred as long as Elain doesn't outright say it. So I think being in the good graces of the IC means no one can hold her accountable for anything then?

It's so easy for people to still like Elain and justify her when she treats her non-IC mate like shit, but there's an uproar because Nesta didn't immediately smile and nice to Cassian, because Cassian is a member of the IC.

(Example number infinity of ACOTAR fandom only favoring women who aren't a bitch to Rhysand. Nesta = Bad. Elain = Needs time bc she's young and doesn't understand much.)

[extremely-judgemental]

Just going to leave this gem of a comment here.

There are characters in authors' works who just start to exist in their own right, regardless of the role the author wrote for them. Tamlin is such a character. A well-crafted character who just happened to be there.

@dedolubka on Tamlin

[delaneytveit]

y’all i cant. i just saw a post that rhysand hiding the pregnancy complications is better than “tamlin beating feyre nearly to death”

i-

HUH?????

they MUST be confusing acotar with one of their dark stalker romances or something i swear GAWD.

[youareatragedy]

The ant!Nesta people are something else—delusional to the extreme. They know they must turn off their empathy and critical thinking to find a reason to hate her. If only they could use that energy to examine the toxicity of Feysand and the IC, this fandom would be filled with gummy bears instead of the shitpile that it is.

This is it....today is the day....I've literally seen and heard it all as of right now....it can't get any wilder than this....

Someone in Threads just posted that Nesta's behaviour in ACOFAS was "politically dangerous" to Rhys and Feyre, and that politically they should have done something about it sooner....and I can't.

Feyre destroyed an entire court out of spite.

Rhy and Feyre stole from another court.

1/3 of their court hates them due to Rhys' prejudice and discrimination, is frequently starting uprising against them, and ardently disobeys their orders to not physically assault the women of their territory.

The other 1/3 of their court is a place of nightmares, where it's literally (supposedly) like living in the purge everyday. It's governed by a man that would happily see Rhys and Feyre dead and would do it himself if he could.

The entirety of Prythian believed that the Night Court were the bad guys for centuries, and saw them as the actual biggest villains in all the land...and this is somehow with Beron being around, Rhys was still seen as so much worse than that.

But somehow, Nesta being rude to them in front of the 1% elitist population of Velaris when they tried dragging her out of the places she used to stifle her trauma was politically dangerous to Rhys and Feyre????!

I honestly think this is where I check out....because I'm not sure there's any hope left out there if this is where we are at.

[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.

[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💋!

[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…

[delaneytveit]

THE WAY THAT FEYRE THINKS ABOUT CLARE AS FAR AS ACOWAR AND SHE STILL DOESNT SAY ANYTHING?????

like it literally got brought up at the HL meeting and nesta was right fucking there but feyre just shut it down???

i’ve been thinking pretty much all day about nesta trying to cross the wall to find feyre . that’s CRAZY!!!! that’s a positively wild thing to write in your book and then immediately turn around and forget about a few books later. she was willing to risk death (OR WORSE?) at the hands of what she believed to be super-predators to save her sister. hello? HELLO?

[youareatragedy]

As much as I hate Feyre, I genuinely sometimes feel bad for how SJM uses her. SJM never seems to take mental health issues seriously in her books, and I think she made Feyre’s character worse in ACOMAF by making her look even more foolish. I can’t believe someone who went to all that effort for Tamlin would just trust and believe Rhysand to that degree in such a short time. And yeah yeah people heal from trauma differently, but this is the same guy who literally degraded her in front of all of Prythian, humiliated her, and taunted the person she thought was the love of her life for months.

SJM made Feyre seem so easily manipulated and childish—not even naive, just childish. And then, the moment she becomes fake 'High Lady' she’s somehow both self righteous and constantly bragging about her "powerful family” at every opportunity like she’s above everyone and everyone should bow to her husband. After the war, she opens a painting studio but still doesn’t care about the lives of the females in her court outside of Velaris. This.. all of this while being mad at Tamlin for doing something basic like collecting taxes—something a functioning government has to do.

I honestly don’t get what SJM is trying to do with Feyre. Time and time again, she clearly makes Feyre her self-insert. Is she admitting that the only feminism that matters is white feminism? That the moment SJM married her husband (who she claims is Rhys), she lost her agency and he became her handler? Is this a cry for help? I just don’t get it.

So yeah, sometimes I feel bad for Feyre. She’s so SO young, and her husband is 500 years older than her—we should hold him waaayyy more accountable for every shitty thing Feysand does. But the mystery of Feyre’s bad character progression always makes me wonder: did SJM do it on purpose, or does she truly just not see the problem? (I’m leaning towards the latter because her fans—a lot of them—also can’t see what the problem is with Feysand and the IC.)

[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.

[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.

[litnerdwrites]

@high-speed-r Exactly!

I think this is because Acotar is meant to be character driven, in comparison to tog that is plot driven, series, and it just fails at that. Like, the IC barely go through any character development at all. Cassian goes through zero in acosf, and Rhys gets the tiniest smidge, if you squint, in acowar. It's not too much to ask for the main characters, at least, to develop to some degree, even if it's not their book, because that's the point and driving force of the story. Yet only the Archeron sisters, Lucien, maybe Tamlin, and I guess Az (based on a bonus chapter) have even had, at the very least, the slightest hint of a character arc, and we're like five books in.

You care very little about the IC because they don't have personal stakes, or even much of personalities beyond stereotypes. It doesn't feel like they started their character arcs, so there's nothing for readers to root for. As things stand, they could be replaced by other characters who fit similar stereotypes, and you'd barely notice.

Meanwhile, Lucien has changed and developed over the course of the books. He's become an actual character beyond a stereotype, and the audience can relate. We know he's loyal, witty, and a very talented emissary, with friends almost everywhere. Despite this, he's lost his home many times, and seems to be looking for one, along with kinship. He's been nothing but respectful to Elain, but still seems to hope, maybe because he thinks he'd find that kinship with her. This is some of the basics of what I've learned about his character since book one, and book two onwards, he's barely there.

That's what I think makes him different from the IC, and why it seems way easier to be attached to him as a character.

tbfh what did Mor think was going to happen once they found out that she slept with Cassian to ruin her engagement. She's honestly lucky CASSIAN wasn't killed. Eris did exactly what Mor wanted. If he took her into his court, she'd become their property. He left her there to give her a chance at freedom but she's still mad at Eris for doing exactly what she wanted like this girl is just so 😩

[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.