#lets be honest Nightmare would be an absolute NUISANCE with wings

[paintedkinzy-88]

And what do you know, I'm back with the Nootmare! This time, he is in fact winged!

Unfortunately I still couldn't fit in four of them, but to make up for that, his wings are bigger!

And yes, the tiny, next to useless legs are gone, for they are wings now instead!

(PS is it just me, or is my artstyle becoming more like yours over time? I swear it's unintentional, lol!)

HAHAAAA DOUBLE DOODLES GIMME GIMME GIMMEE—

Out here taking my two main AU concepts and combing them into one. Which is ironic since you’d think the dragon au would include wings but nOT ALL OF THEM—

Again. Slap some wings on them noodles. Proper western dragons. They look badass, man (ง’̀-‘́)ง

I am LIVING for the details here, those spikes are so delicious, and the goopy texture looks so nice! I totally understand taking out a pair of his legs, too, that’s honestly a good call. Man would have literally eight limbs on his torso and that’s a LOT, even for Noots. XD

(And absolutely no worries chejfjjsbfjs just honored your drawing my stuff in the first place ;w;)

[basaltdriver]

(SPOILER ALERT): ACOWAR and how more of everything is not necessarily better

A Court of Wings and Ruin was so much, and yet not enough.

Parts of it were really good. I liked Feyre’s antics in the Spring Court, and how she had agency and control, how she orchestrated everything and played everyone against one another. But once she left Spring it seemed that all disintegrated. And I had a problem with how Feyre never truly faced or cared about the consequences of her actions at that court. 

She allowed herself to become beloved--holy, adored by the Spring Court’s people and warriors. And then she just left them all behind without half a thought, to be slaughtered by Hybern, all to spite Tamlin. This was not the same Feyre that gave her jewelry to a water wraith during the Tithe in ACOMAF. It was so out-of-character for someone as humane as Feyre to turn her back on all of those fae and let them die at Hybern’s hands. Especially when later on in ACOWAR, she risks hers, Elain’s, and Azriel’s lives to get some random human Child of the Blessed out of the Hybern war camp. Especially when they fight a whole damn war about it.

Half-baked character development and inconsistency were the main problems I had with the book. The other thing was the menagerie of new characters that were flashed by us so quickly, I can hardly discern one personality from the next. I liked Helion-- I found Rhys might have modeled a lot of his personality off of the High Lord of Day-- but the other High Lords were forgettable and didn’t contribute much to the plot besides more bodies. There was the Autumn Court boys-- and who the hell is Eris? What did SJM want from this character when she wrote him? If he was an abuser, if he allowed such terrible things to be done to Mor, how dare she now try to write him as a potentially sympathetic character? Eris gave Mor some bullshit about her not understanding the circumstances around which she was brutalized... Just, screw that. I refuse.

I did like Jurian more than I was expecting to, though-- he was an interesting character. Drakon and Miryam and Nepherelle (is that how it’s spelled) seemed cool but uncompelling, and we hardly got to see more than their faces. Really, this book needed to be pared down a LOT. It was such a large-scale plot that it could never have been adequately contained in one novel (hence the spinoffs). Yet, with almost everything, there was little to no closure. You did not come away from it remotely satisfied.

Also SJM really did a number on her characters. Allow me to elaborate on a few of our faves:

Lucien: He’s given more depth here. I actually like what SJM did with him here by letting his character flesh out more, except having him ghost out for 85% of the novel just to conveniently return at the very end, and to also give us no resolution about him and Elain, was just a jerk move. Also, why did no one tell Lucien “Firedick” Vanserre who his real father is? Why was this MAJOR LIFE-CHANGING PLOT TWIST just casually floated and then never mentioned again? Who the hell does that???

Tamlin: Also, relegated to play the cliched role of “bitter abusive ex-boyfriend” up until the very end where he is suddenly given all sorts of character development that was, quite frankly, completely uninspired. We’re supposed to believe he was spying on Hybern this whole time???? And then just be chill with the absolute lack of closure between him and Feyre, with the fact that throughout this entire novel he and Feyre don’t have a single decent, honest conversation? Nope. Just, no.

Rhysand: I will always love Rhysand. But he was not the same cunning, driven High Lord that orchestrated Amarantha’s downfall and helped Feyre crawl out of her darkest days. No, now he was... petty. Weak. He never confronted or challenged Feyre on her mistakes or bad decisions, never pushed her to be better the way he did in ACOTAR and ACOMAF. Feyre didn’t really ever push back against him when he made completely avoidable mistakes, like when he hurt Mor by bringing in Eris. It’s not like I don’t like that they are gentle with each other and cherish one another-- I love that about them-- but there was nothing between him and Feyre but a lot of blind validation, which is not healthy. They acted like they were both scared to anger the other one which is, like I said, not healthy. 

Every instance where Feyre was given control or power seemed tokenized (like that time she sat on the throne in the Court of Nightmares-- pretty and bold, but without depth.) And speaking of tokens, lets go to my next character:

Mor: Goddamn it. Just, damn it. Mor deserved better than this. We all wanted more representation from SJM, okay-- not at the cost of the story’s integrity, but more naturally incorporated representation-- but this is not what ANY OF US meant. Mor deserved better than to become the Token Gay with no other purpose but to be sad and gay and sad about it. It was so random, and such a limp excuse for what was going on between her and Azriel (really? she dragged her heels for 500 years because she didn’t want to admit her feelings or upset Az’s fantasy about them being a happily-ever-after story? really????) The brave, strong, fearlessly honest Mor we got to know in ACOMAF is missing here. And it is a damned shame, because I loved her so much.

Nesta: I will be honest here; I was never a Nesta fan. She was just too cold and sharp and unnecessarily mean. As an older sibling myself, I could never quite reconcile her decision to put her youngest sibling in harm’s way just to spite her father, when any other person would go out of their way to protect their siblings. Her protectiveness for Elain I always found laughable when she wouldn’t even get off her ass to help them when they were mortal and destitute-- no, she let her baby sister risk her life for them all instead. Such an unflattering contrast to Cassian’s unswerving loyalty. I found her fickle and bitchy, and I didn’t think she deserved Cassian at all. Yet, in ACOWAR, she did earn some respect from manning up and finally taking on some damn responsibility rather than just being a whiny, bitchy nuisance that nobody wanted to deal with. I also enjoyed her camaraderie with Amren. 

Elain: Deserves all of the happiness in the world. Just let her plant the world into a giant garden, damn it!

Azriel: Also deserves all the happiness in the world. I would be perfectly fine with it if Elain bunked the mating bond with Lucien and she and Az wound up together instead. I think they make a good, well-matched pair, especially with how Az is so fond of her (he gave her Truth-Teller! The blade he’s never given anyone!!!). Also, for the love of all that is sacred, just let my poor Shadowsinger get over Mor already. Please.

Cassian: Deserves to have whatever he wants, whenever. Honestly, give my Illyrian baby everything the world has to offer. I never want to see him hurt again. He was injured far to many times in this book. My heart broke for him.

Tarquin: Needed to be in this book as much as Tamlin needed to be out of it. Really, he got, like, four pages of direct interaction. That’s it.

Okay, I have more (I have SO MUCH MORE) but this was long enough for now. I’ll leave you to read and stew.