#sjm world

[gwandas]

We don't talk enough about how funny the dreamer shit in ACOTAR is. The IC are all sitting around acting like they're these underdogs when they are literally the government. Wdym you're dreaming of a better world... that's your fuckin job. Get to it, chop chop!

[spacerockfloater]

The way people switched on Tamlin the moment Rhys was introduced is diabolical.

“Tamlin never really loved Feyre, it was all a trick from the start”: It is stated that Tamlin was disgusted by the idea of forcing someone to fall in love with him and considered it slavery, but ended up being so in love with her that he ultimately lets her go and choses her freedom and safety over that of his own people. Rhys confirms that Tamlin loved Feyre too much. And he loved her truly. Not because he had to. Tamlin treated Feyre with dignity when she was engaged to him. He introduced her as his lady, to be respected and cherished by all. And she really was loved by his people, too. Rhysand uses her as his lap dog to scare Hewn City and parades her as his whore.

“Tamlin never did anything for Feyre, he just used her”: He improved her and her family’s life in every aspect and offered her everything he had.

“Tamlin had sex with someone else in Calanmai”: Out of duty and responsibility because he didn’t want to force Feyre, who still wasn’t sure about her feelings, into it. All of the High Lords perform the Calanmai. Lucien says so. How convenient that this is never brought up with Rhysand. He surely does perform it as well. All the theories in here, “Lucien doesn’t know what he’s talking about/ This is a SC ritual only/ He probably just passes the duty on to someone else” are just a way for people to villainise Tam and glorify Rhys again. All of them inaccurate. The Calanmai is canonically performed by every High Lord. There’s no evidence that proves otherwise. As the son of one High Lord and the ambassador of another, Lucien would know. He is 500 years old. It’s just more convenient for SJM to never bring this up again because it raises the question of “Who was Rhysand fucking all these years?” and it makes her favourite character look bad. And once he is engaged to her, Tamlin flat out refuses to do it. Let’s be real for a second.

“Tamlin didn’t help Feyre under the mountain”: He literally could not. He was bound by a curse. He was forced to be Amarantha’s consort and a consort cannot oppose you. His powers were bound. Alis warns Feyre that Tamlin will not be able to help her. Stop acting as if he didn’t want to help her. He decapitated Amarantha the moment he got his autonomy back. Claiming that there’s no proof that Tamlin was under the influence of a spell when he literally didn’t break the curse and Amarantha’s magic didn’t allow him to use his powers is crazy. And even if he tried, he could never provide actual help. We see this when he begs Amarantha for Feyre’s life. Him showing he cares about her would only make Amarantha more jealous and vicious towards Feyre.

“Tamlin made out with Feyre instead of helping her”: He couldn’t help her run away. No one could do that. She would never make it, Amarantha would find her. In fact, Tamlin specifically could not help her in any way. He could only assure her he still wants and loves her. And she wanted that just as much. Rhys abused her physically, mentally, verbally, drugged her and much worse. And he enjoyed all of it. If he didn’t want to raise suspicions, he wouldn’t have placed a bet in her favour. Rhys is a sadist, SJM just decided to mellow him down in the next book so that we’d all like him over Tamlin.

“Tamlin ignored Feyre’s wishes and only wanted her to be his bride, he didn’t let her be High Lady”: Both Tamlin and Feyre were bad communicators going though trauma and Tam had a whole court to care for. Tamlin was unaware of how Feyre felt because she barely spoke up once. Rhys knew because he literally lived inside her head and had all the time in the world to focus his attention on her since his court suffered zero consequences during Amarantha’s reign. And Tamlin simply told her the truth: there’s no such thing as High Lady. Even her current title is given to her by Rhys, the magic of Prythian has not actually chosen her to be High Lady. The title and its power are decorative. And she said she didn’t want that anyway.

“Tamlin locks Feyre up and uses his magic to harm her”: He locks her in his humongous palace to keep her safe, after she just came back from the dead and his worst enemy is kidnapping her every month, while he runs off to protect his borders. Rhysand locks Feyre in a fucking bubble. Tamlin loses control of his magic. He doesn’t want to harm her. That’s not abuse. Abuse is intentional. Feyre and Rhysand lock Lucien and Nesta up. They lock the people of the Hewn City up in a cave. Feyre loses control of her magic and harms Lucien’s mother. Double standards I guess.

“Tamlin is a bad and conservative ruler”: Tamlin is such a beloved ruler that his sentries literally begged to die for him. Feyre had to fuck with their minds to finally turn them against him. They were his friends. He was so progressive that the lords fled his court once he became their ruler because he wouldn’t put up with their bullshit like his father did. He loved all of his people. He is against slavery. The Tithe was just tax collection. Rhysand practically rules over just one city, while ignoring Hewn City and Illyria. He treats 2/3 of his realm like shit and everyone except the residents of Velaris hates him. He collects tax, too, but we conveniently never see this. He ranks the members of his inner circle (my 1st, my 2nd etc.) and reminds them every moment that they are his slaves first and anything else second, while Tamlin treats them equally and even gives Lucien an official title by naming him Ambassador.

“Tamlin conspired with Hybern”: He was a double agent and his short lived alliance, two weeks all in all, not only didn’t harm a single soul, but ultimately saved all of Prythian as he was the only one who brought valuable information to that meeting. He dragged Beron to battle. Rhysand’s alliance with Amarantha harmed thousands and only helped save one city, Velaris.

“Tamlin is responsible for turning Nesta and Elain into Fae”: No, that was Ianthe, who got the info from Feyre. Tamlin was fooled by her, just as Feyre obviously was, or she wouldn’t have trusted her. Tamlin was disgusted by that act.

“Tamlin is less powerful than Rhysand”: Rhysand himself says that a battle between them would turn mountains to dust. Tamlin killed Rhysand’s dad, the previous High Lord of the Night Court, in one blow. He is just as powerful as Rhysand. SJM again just wants us to believe otherwise. And he is smarter, too. He was the only one not to trust Amarantha. And he was a good spy for Prythian against Hybern.

All of these takes are cold as fuck. SJM was testing the waters with ACOTAR and she made sure the main love interest, Tamlin, was insanely likeable, so that the book could be a satisfactory standalone story in case she couldn’t land a trilogy deal. She didn’t know it would be such a big hit. But once she realised she could turn this into a franchise, she had to figure out a new story to tell. She may claim otherwise, but there’s just too many plothotes to convince me. And in order to make her new main love interest seem like the best choice, she had to character assassinate the old one. There was no other way. ACOTAR Rhys was too much of an evil monster to be loved by the majority of the audience. But Tamlin was introduced to us as such a heroic and passionate man that is literally impossible to turn him into someone despised by all. Feyre’s relationship with Rhysand reads too much like cheating on Tamlin. That’s why anyone with basic analytical skills is able to realise the flaws of the narration.

[pinkwhite]

"Tarquin said, claiming the seat at the head of the table between Rhys and Amren. A bold move, to situate himself between two such powerful beings". mind you this his court, their in his palace, and like he's also a HIGH LORD???

[lainalit]

You would think with the way in which Sjm fans argue against Sjm criticism by saying that they "just turn their brain off while reading her books" that she writes cute little contemporary romance books alà Ali Hazelwood and that the critics are just being pretentious when in reality she writes fantasy books in which there are always poorly done themes of oppression, mental health, DV, SA classism, racism, feminism, disabilities, lgbtq+ etc. in it

[romanticatheartt]

Rhys would sacrifice himself to save the world and let Feyre live

While Feyre would rather be no world than sacrifice him

And if there's no Feyre, there should be no world

[dippedinmelancholy]

It's so horribly clear SJM was writing off of vibes for the backstory of Feyre for ACOTAR, specifically their downfall into being poor and how Feyre was the only victim, since she hunted. Her narrative is that Nesta is a bitch and Elain is too stupid to realize she should be helping. Oh, and her dad is just like, there I guess. As someone who really grew up poor, poor enough that my family used a washboard at one point to scrub our clothes, grew tomatoes and cucumbers just to have something to eat through the summer, went months in a row with no electricity and the smallest things in the world felt like actual miracles . . . It's such weak writing. You don't hit rock bottom immediately. Hunting alone simply isn't enough. No one can convince me they were just eating whatever meat Feyre brought home, that's not how making food last goes. You make stew (arguably a lot since it's what stretches the most).You don't buy new clothes all of the time, you mend them. You ration your flour, your milk, you trade what you can with neighbors. It's evidence that either Feyre or SJM just doesn't value feminine work, because when you're so poor you don't know if you can eat for the full week, it's the feminine work that keeps your house alive. Additionally, Elain is so clearly not stupid????? Feyre just imagines the worst of both of her sisters. She thinks Nesta is simply bitchy to be cruel to her specifically, rather than Idk, she's pissed at her worthless deadbeat dad and mourning that their mother is dead? It's Elain who buys Feyre the paints, so she knows enough to try and make Feyre happy. In ACOSF, it's CASSIAN who goes on this who tangent about "Nesta was wrong, Elain saw everything and knew exactly why she did it" in regards to Nesta's anger and the memory of Nesta stealing a Duke's heart at 14. So it's not a recent development thanks to being a seer/fae. She's always seen. She's always known. She just let others cater to her. Let others take on the social and physical burdens. Let her sisters put her own happiness and softness above her own. In a better world, all three sisters who be an exploration of trauma responses from the beginning. Instead, they were written to ensure you saw Feyre as the perfect victim, rather than a complex person who doesn't react well, because no one does.

[hunnyy-bunnyyy]

The dissonance between era inspiration in ACoTaR is one of the more brushed over flaws in the book series. Looking at the Inner Circle's fashion alone, we jump between "literal scraps of fabric" (Under the Mountain, Court of Nightmares) to "orientalist painter's imaginings of the Ottoman Harem" (clothing described during Feyre's first few visits to the Night Court) to "modern 'corset' dress" (Feyre's Starfall dress, majority of Mor's clothing, most of the clothes drawn in fan art) to "modern -- almost sci-fi style -- skin-tight leather armor" to "sweater and leggings combo".

Then, between courts, we have Helion wearing Spirit Halloween's take on the ancient Grecian tunic; Feyre's Spring Court wedding dress looking like an 1830s fashion plate; and Dawn heavily implied to have traditional East Asain clothing (e.g. kimono, hanfu, hanbok).

On top of all of that, some of the Dawn Court's small cities ". . . specialized in tinkering and clockwork and clever things. . ." which -- combined with Lucien's metal eye and Nuan's mechanical hand -- implies a sort of post-industrial revolution time period. However, a decent chunk of the fandom says that ACoTaR is medieval; which, yeah, it's medieval themed in the first book -- sans the "dress" Rhysand forces Feyre to wear UTM.

The wild inconsistencies in ACoTaR's inspiration leads, not to a rich and diverse world, but a world that seems ramshackle and haphazard -- like it's creator simply threw together a board on Pinterest and called it a day. This is a major part of why the world building is so abysmal, it relies on convenience to the plot and whatever pleases the aesthetic whims of the author. Cultures deemed "pretty" or "badass" are thrown together, irregardless of how far apart they actually are. This is not only disrespectful to the narrative, but to the readers and the cultures used as inspiration.

All of this to say: Sarah J Maas is a bad author, not just because of the way she handles serious topics like power dynamics and abuse, but also because she cannot put together a world that is even the slightest bit cohesive.

[stargirlfeyre]

People upset that Feysand made a death bargain as if Rhys wouldn’t destroy the world (and himself) if Feyre was no longer in it anyway.

Death bargain or not, Rhys does not and is not living in a world without Feyre. There is no life for him without her.

[amaltheas-garden]

people still shocked that in the year of our lord 2024 some of us don't want to see Dany get her 'happy ending' by becoming the white savior who was promised

[thrumbolt]

It will never stop being amusing to me that the warning Ianthe gives Tamlin in the beginning of ACOMAF about how Feyre will get either killed or abducted by other high lords and kept for breeding essentially came true.

How Feyre ended up exactly how she feared she would with Tamlin: A waifu who does basically nothing except have her little art studio and her little desk job and pops out babies for the high lord. Sure, what you want in life can change and consent makes all the difference, but it is still an absolutely WILD narrative choice.

[violetasteracademic]

Trying to chill and vibe in the ACOTAR fandom when you love each Acheron sister, all of the bat boys, the IC, the Vanserra brothers, the BoE, the Valkyrie, and still think Sarah J. Maas is a pretty good writer and love her books.

[sluttypatrickstar]

there is actually no fucking way you are saying this about bestselling white piece of shit fantasy author sarah j maas. there is actually no way you are comparing sarah j maas, a woman who used breonna taylor’s murder to promote her book, to women of colour who are regularly and routinely sidelined in the publishing industry and who struggle to get marketing budgets or publishing contracts in the first place and whose work is often pigeonholed. there is simply no way

[ennawrite]

you wouldnt last an hour in the asylum where they raised me.

(happy wednesday!)

[ruhnlidiasworld]

Ruhn with “that Night Court dude” HE DOESN'T GIVE A FUCK ABT RHYSAND HE'S ONE OF US THAT'S WHY I LOVE HIM

[lainalit]

Artist: @AnnaShoemaker

[nessiandefenseattorney]

to all the Rhysand haters out there I want you try to imagine just how can a person can get done in the span of FIFTY YEARS.

good, think about your favorite celebrity, about famous companies that started at NOTHING, about your parents and grandparents, about how much society has changed in the last fifty years.

and now that you have in mind what truly long time is FIFTY FUCKING YEARS, good now I just want to remind you all, Rhysand has been raped repeatedly for THAT SAME AMOUNT OF TIME and never did he ONCE, NEVER ONCE did he break, NEVER ONCE did he falter and NEVER ONCE DID HE TELL AMARANTHA ABOUT VELARIS AND HIS INNER CIRCLE.

Please for the love of god leave the poor man alone and let him be happy, he did more than enough.