#it's about The GrowthTM 😌✨

[slightlyrebelliouswriter23]

the one thing about cardan that makes me incredibly uneasy is when he slut-shamed taryn. oh so her and locke hooking up is all wrong but then he goes to bed every night literally draped in faeries? 🙄 make it make sense

i get where you're coming from, nonnie, but i think it's a bit more convoluted than that.

Cardan is mean to Taryn in TCP, yes. but that's primarily because Taryn is the accomplice to Locke making Nicasia cry. even if her part in it was indirect, to the fae, that's all they'd probably need to hold a grudge against someone forever.

the closest thing Cardan gets to explicitly slut-shaming Taryn (that i can think of, at least) is when he tells Jude "not that I'd be the first to green gown her". but we have to remember that Taryn is knowingly keeping a very big secret from Jude. a secret Cardan knows about, but is sworn to keep. so he can't say anything directly to Jude to warn her. this is his way of "telling her" without telling her.

and since Jude is "involved" with Locke, i think Cardan sees Taryn going along with Locke's games, despite the fact that she could tell Jude if she wanted to, as a deep betrayal of Jude. a betrayal not too unlike the one Nicasia committed against him only a few months prior. it hits a little too close to home.

i've mentioned before that Cardan's feelings for Jude in TCP are present, albeit complicated. so likely, the idea of someone Jude loves wittingly betraying her did not sit well for him. and he dealt with those feelings of discontent the only way he knew how: by lashing out at the person who caused them.

now, i'm not commending Cardan for being mean to Taryn. personally i think he should've focused the brunt of his ire on Locke. but Taryn is an easy target. she's mortal, an identifier that makes sense to scorn in Faerie (because that's the way their society is). and a mortal who is generally pretty submissive at that.

Locke on the other hand is one of the fae, one of the gentry, has a history of deriving pleasure from other people's vexation and misery, and ultimately has a lot more power to make Cardan's life a living hell in return.

it would be a lot of work to get back at Locke for making Nicasia cry. it would be infinitely easier to get back at someone else who had a hand in the matter.

and if there are two things we know TCP Cardan hates most, it's mortals and work.

not to mention, it is very likely that Cardan's maliciousness towards Taryn is something Balekin would've rewarded him for. or at the very least Not Beat Him for. if Cardan had lashed out at Locke instead of Taryn, who knows what Balekin would've done.

also! as sort of an informal addendum, Cardan was.... not a nice dude in TCP? like idk if y'all remember that cos it seems like fandom usually takes big scary characters and flattens them into melodramatic himbos/simps. and i'm not saying that isn't part of Cardan's character, but...... he is also scary as hell.

we all agree that Jude is the scariest thing in Faerie, yes? and she lived there for a decade with loads of faeries. the scariest one for her was Cardan. Jude was terrified of him. that should say something to you about how Not Nice Cardan was at the beginning of the series.

so even if you don't agree with my analysis, and still think that what Cardan did was slut shaming (which you are totally within your right to think)..... i mean. YEAH. he was kind of terrible for a little while there! the title of the book is literally The Cruel Prince, idk what to tell you 🤷‍♀️

–Em 🖤🗡

more thoughts on cardan's feelings for jude

more analysis & theories