#and I'm purposefully only tagging this as Elriel because I have a lot of haters

[lovemyromance]

Why do you think there won't be an Illyrian plotline? There's been a lot of emphasis on Ramiel, the BR, the focus on the political unrest in Illyria and the backwardness of the wing-clipping of Illyrian females

This might get me cancelled but quite frankly I don't think SJM is capable of or even wants to explore that kind of story.

I don't like bringing race into things, but SJM is a white woman. It can't be ignored. While I'm not trying to say that people of a certain race can't write about injustice or about a different oppressed race, especially one that's fictional- I just think SJM specifically doesn't have the right voice... so to speak... to write such a story.

Like I am sure she understands injustice. She understands classism. She understands oppression. But a story like that deserves a full focus, a full detailed account into that narrative of feeling oppressed, feeling like you are inferior, feeling like you are lower than an entire group of people ... all based on something you couldn't even control.

That kind of story doesn't fit into what she has set up for ACOTAR. SJM is not writing a story about social justice. She is writing a romantasy. The focus being on romance, just as much as it is on the fantasy elements of magic and powers and drama and suspense and thrilling action.

The Illyrian world building isn't the focus of her story. It is the backstory to explain the current state. Like the distinction between High Fae vs Lesser fae. It exists to serve as background context, and nothing more in my opinion. It is a plot device. It shows why Rhys/Cassain/Azriel are the way that they are. It adds to the political conflict post ACOWAR. It gives Emerie a backstory.

I see that entire subplot the same way I think SJM uses SA as just a "check the box: trauma ✔️" when she's coming up with her characters backstories. It exists for the sole purpose of character building. SA trauma is used for several of her main and side characters, but it's never really focused on. Rhys talks about it with Feyre, explaining how horrible it was, but nothing beyond that. No focus on Rhys's healing from that, not even a Rhys POV about his thoughts on it. Gwyn also has SA, but beyond sharing her background with Nesta and being in that library, it's literally never brought up again. Lucian's SA with Ianthe is also barely brought up or even talked about.

Emerie feeling anger and self-hatred over her wings being clipped is honestly the most SJM has done with the Illyrian plotline. Azriel has outright claimed he doesn't care if Illyria is blasted off the map. Cassian tries to help, but most of ACOSF was focused on him and Nesta. This would've been the perfect opportunity to have Nesta train in Windhaven and learn more about the Illyrians and help Emerie -> but she didn't want to train there. So back to the HOW we go.

And to be clear - I'm not trying to criticize SJM. She is writing a romantasy. That needs to be kept in mind. People who open her books are expecting romance, drama, action. They are not expecting to read 800 pages on fictional social oppression. They are not expecting to read 800 pages of someone recovering from SA.

Like there are other books for that. There are amazing other books for that. But ACOTAR? That's not what ACOTAR is made for.

SJM has not even set up any main characters to be able to narrate that Illyrian subplot. Emerie is the only one that comes to mind that could actually give a detailed account of what it feels like. But she's not even talked about when it comes to getting one of the next spinoffs.

These kind of stories about social injustice need to be handled with care and grace, but also be truthful enough that it's not sugarcoating the true atrocities people faced. And I know this is about a fictional world, but I see this world building as similar to real life events. Like when early American colonizers drove out the native Americans. Jim Crow laws. Apartheid. Indians that suffered under the rule of the British. Jews during WWII.

Illyria might be fictional but oppression is not. If you're going to write about something like that, it's going to be open to a lot of scrutiny and it will have to be the focus. It will have to be written with careful, yet honest words. And SJM - or at least her editors- know that too.

It doesn't fit the story she has set up with ACOTAR. And if she tried to do it now, I don't think it would even go over well.