#queue071124

[ofbreathandflame-archive]

utm really establishes a lot of the problems in the series for me. so much goes into establishing rhysand's actions utm as the defining turn of the tide - but in reality, rhysand never actually accomplishes anything from those abusive moments. a lot of them, in retrospect, actually don't make sense, from a tactical point of view. like feyre...dies. amarantha just kills her. so all of the dancing, all of the sa, all of the drugging - none of it accomplished anything. if anything, they undermines the actual efficient ways that rhys does initially help feyre.

for example - rhys scaring feyre from the manor. its such a counterproductive move that i truly don't understand why the editor allowed this to go through. feyre is literally this close towards confessing her feelings toward tamlin and rhysand's visit single-handledly ruined the easiest way out of the curse - which is for feyre to just say i love you. i cannot stress enough that rhysand is literally completely alone. NOBODY KNOWS THAT HE'S THERE AND WHY HE'S THERE. and if they did he is quite literally a daemati; he could be explaining everything while he pretended to enact violence. he literally - and i mean literally- could have pulled tamlin aside and explained to him whats happening utm. TAMLIN LITERALLY JUST WANTS TO TALK TO HIM. as a matter a fact, tamlin and lucien get down on there knees and beg him not to tell amarantha....and he tells amarantha anyway. like - okay he suspects feyre is his mate, she's close towards confessing her feelings, rhysand knows why she's there and what tamlin and is trying to accomplish and his first instinct is to do something that would (1) damn feyre to death (her family lives right by the wall and (2) jeopardize the closest they've been in FIFTY YEARS towards being free from amarantha.

and im not not that it happens - with the right writing and direction, a good writer could get away with it. im mad that the story tries to reinvent those moments as evidence of love and pragmatism when its not. im not mad that rhysand is bitchy and antagonistic toward tamlin, im mad that the story tries to sell those behaviors as anything ing but...antagonism and bitchyness. the story could have literally just leaned into rhysand not being mentally sound and explain that in those moments, he is looking to exert power over tamlin and feyre. thats literally okay and expected given his predicament. him telling amarantha that feyre is a hunter led to her having to face down the wyrm, his drugging of her and taking of her clothes made it so where the hot food she was getting was inconsequential because she could no longer get her food down. he took her out her cell to sexually assault her every night for months and then took her memories away from her so she could even process the violation. she was so tired for dancing in a trance for hours that she was so tired that she couldn't even begin to think about what the the answer to the riddle could be.