#every day i mourn for feyre's character and the agency she was robbed of because sjm decided that rhys was king

[spidersmiceandeverythingnice]

So I watched/listened to a plot synopsis of ACOTAR out of curiosity and wow. It's obvious SJM thought of a misunderstood bad boy halfway through her Beauty and the Beast retelling and then proceeded to make him *too* bad. As in, "drug and assault you for a month to help you not be traumatized" (really Rhys, was that the *only* way you could have "protected" Feyre? Are you sure?). I see why everyone's angry with how the book ended it's such a mess.

god, yeah. as much as it makes me mad when people skip book one, i totally get skipping book one because it is ABUNDANTLY clear that SJM published it without thinking about literally anything. She spends so much of the rest of the series retconning/reframing events so the guy that she made into a genuinely scary villain in book one is now a fucking saint who builds sanctuaries for battered women in his magic secret city of saints and artists - like, let's ignore the fact that he left a severed head on someone's doorstep as a prank, and the fact that he committed SA, and the fact that he violates peoples' minds/boundaries on the regular.

Like, the most charitable interpretation of Rhysand's actions UtM is that he re-enacted his own sexual abuse on Feyre, because he entered into the pseudo-relationship with Amarantha unwillingly, but believing that it would be the best way to protect himself and his family. The LEAST charitable interpretation of his drugging and assaulting Feyre repeatedly is that he was trying to keep her dazed, constantly in a state of sleep-deprived sickness, struggling to recovery, and thereby prevent her from solving the Super Obvious riddle - because again, he worked for the evil queen willingly. Even if his motivations were "good" he still actively terrorized the rest of the country in the name of protecting the one place and handful of people that Rhysand, personally, deemed most valuable. Like, dude, people DIED. Rhysand later spends a lot of time whining about how NOBODY FOUGHT OR SACRIFICED AS HARD AS HIM..... bro. I don't know how to tell you this but at least two of the other High Lords were running an active rebellion in Book One (the Winter Court confirmed; Rhysand later murders the Winter Court's children - and SJM desperately wants you to forget that this event happened/mattered; the Summer Court was implied to be assisting) and if Rhysand hadn't interfered, Tamlin probably could have used Feyre to break the curse's stupidly complex conditions on his own.

But also!?!? None of this fucking matters, because the canonical actual reason that Rhysand gives for - and I cannot emphasize this enough - DRUGGING AND SEXUALLY HARASSING/ASSAULTING FEYRE, THE GIRL HE CLAIMS TO LOVE MORE THAN LIFE ITSELF, REPEATEDLY - was that he was jealous.

He says this, to Feyre, on the fucking page. Rhysand did not like that Tamlin and Feyre were clearly in love, that their relationship seemed strong, and he wanted to make Tamlin angry and jealous - by hurting Feyre, and using her as an object with which to taunt him.

Rhysand never apologizes for this, by the way. He just gets sad and says that he regrets it, and Feyre feels sorry that she upset him by bringing up her trauma, which he caused. Fucking CHRIST.

And later, according to SJM's narration, I am supposed to revile and condemn Tamlin for getting angry and being upset/traumatized by having witnessed someone he loves he dangled in front of him like a toy by a guy who wants to hurt/kill him and is capable of destroying people's minds!? I'm supposed to be upset when he tries to rescue Feyre from Rhysand later!?!? HELLO!?!? We can talk about Tamlin's character flaws but first of all, he's never sexually assaulted anyone, and second of all, he's against slavery for no reason than because slavery is bad.

No, actually, this is relevant, because Rhysand later tries to "both sides" fucking SLAVERY.

Anyway rant over, fuck ACOMAF especially.