#sjmess

[watcherintheweyr]

Eris and Azriel are the Perfect enemies to lovers but only if and when Azriel realizes that compared to Eris, Rhys is a terrible high lord and the IC has been complicit and must do better, and only if Eris makes no excuses and is still unapologetically, strategically, a sharp-tongued, acerbic, too smart for his own good brat.

Also only if Azriel is allowed within the text to grow and embrace himself in a way I doubt SJmess will ever explore.

I just love them.

[flat-neines]

I've been thinking about this a lot but do you think that sjm unintentionally written feysand + nyx to be a Louis XIV analogue with the set up of the HK plot?

[zacksfairest]

literally screaming into my hands how am i not finding any roman legionary romances. what the fuck. i hate all of you.

[watcherintheweyr]

Lucien couldve been a moral check but instead the author decided to have feyre and Rhys demean, belittle, and mock him, his abuse and trauma, completely ignore everything he's ever done to help them, and the author... glorifies them doing it. They are never ever held accountable or face repercussions for how they abuse the people around them and its exhausting to read.

Hell, Eris could be the moral check because he is **everything Rhysand thinks that he is.** he's the heir to a massively powerful court who has to play act as a villain to protect the ones he loves, and even those he doesn't from the monster that is his sire. But beneath that he is constantly scheming and acting and plotting to help those around him- subjects and family both, and genuinely cares for the fate of Prythian. But the IC is literally obsessed with hating him. They LIKE hating him, so they'll ignore all the truths of his nature- even the ones they're slapped in the face with- because it doesn't fit their self righteous superiority complexes.

NESTA should have been a major moral reality check. Despite her prickly nature, she cares deeply- so, so deeply, and not only for herself and not even only for her family. But instead they literally battered and exhausted and isolated her until she broke down and became compliant to what they wanted, which the narrative then praises.

Rhys 'plays' as the villain- and has in fact committed monstrous acts as the 'mask'- but he's eternally defended and given a pass because of his trauma. Any time someone tries to hold him accountable for his actions he either has a panic attack, belittles them, threatens them, or flat ignores them, and everyone around him trips over themselves to defend him and his ego. He exhibits sexism, he exhibits major controlling and egocentric traits and they're all excused. He literally commits several of the exact same acts Tamlin is demonized for- and he's praised for them by the narrative.

Sjmess preens so proudly that he's morally grey, an antihero with a heart of gold- but that isn't the case. And any character who sees through that, like Nesta, like Lucien- is broken down and gaslit into seeing themselves as a problem, and then basically just letting themselves be used as tools for him and his inner circle.

He cares SO MUCH about Velaris, but he and Feyre are building a fifth home while there's slums in Velaris. He cares SO MUCH about equality for the Illyrian women and better conditions for the mistreated children but makes a million excuses for why he can't enforce his own laws or act to prevent atrocities he is fully aware are happening. He knows that Keir is a monster but lets him live and have control over the Hewn City- punishing everyone trapped there for the actions of those in power. Night Court citizens who have lived and died all without ever seeing the night sky.

His entire inner circle is actively horrible, immature, petty people who only care for sex and drinking and appearances (but then judge and condemn others for doing the same things) and yet they're 'the most powerful' they're 'the dreamers'. The narrative does nothing but stroke and prime and praise their choices and their egos and excuse the horrors they commit. Ever since Feyre truly became one of them, she's spiraled down a worse and worse path, becoming a person that ACOTAR Feyre would be disgusted by- and even despite all of that and the truth of it, despite being the fucking 'High Lady' she only truly has power if Rhys decides she does, if Rhys agrees with her. And with all of that, she is also still and ever a victim of the inner circle and their control, manipulations, and disrespect.

It's so disappointing. The whole world and series had so much fucking potential. So many of the characters have **so much potential.** but it's squandered.

I don’t think people get it. There is nothing wrong with liking something in fiction that you would normally despise in real life. That is not my problem with Rhysand and the Inner Circle. My problem is when an author writes a story in a way that clearly shows they agree with these characters. I love a little freak as much as the next person, but not when you’re trying to convince me every two seconds they’re the good guy while they’re simultaneously doing bad shit. And yes it’s first person POV, so of course Feyre will think she’s right. This is why there needs to be a moral check. Suzanne Collins did this really well with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Even without the existence of the OG series, you can tell the author/narrative does not agree with Coryo even though he thinks he’s right because Sejanus acted as a moral check, someone to challenge the MC’s view. Lucien could’ve been a moral check for Feyre. He so damn nearly was when he said “The girl I knew died under the Mountain.” BUT SJM DIDN’T COMMIT TO IT. Feylin could’ve been the tragic romance, Feysand the villain story. BUT SJM DIDN’T COMMIT TO IT. So instead, we have a half-baked hero who SJM clearly believes is in the right and not only is that poor writing but it reflects her irl beliefs. The way you think is reflected in the way you write. This series is targeted at impressionable teens when it’s clearly dark romance and I see people defending Rhysand and shitting on Tamlin and calling Rhys the hero. It’s ridiculous.

[tobestik]

coworker just started reading acotar, asked me if I'd read it and loved it too, I deflected by offering to send her my book spreadsheet I think it was very smooth

[mirandasidefics]

ew imagine supporting a zionist author. someone get this sjmess outta this fandom

With how your statement is worded, are you implying I'm a zionist and believe that I should leave the ACOTAR/CC fandom?

I'll speak plainly for myself, and this is the only time I will respond to an anonymous comment of this nature.

I'm for a free Palestine 🇵🇸 and against my country's support of Israel. I do what I can in my personal life to show that support for a free Palestine.

I write fanfiction largely for myself and enjoy writing for the ACOTAR and Cresent City characters. I do not believe that writing fanfiction automatically means I support the author. There are a ton of others out here who enjoy the series, write fanfiction for various characters, and are critical of or outright against SJM.

There are issues I have with SJM, but I still love some of the characters that she has created. I believe that people are capable of liking and enjoying artworks, be it books, movies, music, paintings, plays, etc, without supporting the original creator of said work.

If you don't like what I write, that's fine. Don't read it, but comments such as these are uncalled for.

If I've unknowingly made an offensive comment that could be seen as prejudice in any way against any group of people, let's have a private conversation about it.

[watcherintheweyr]

I'm gonna write tamlin a happy ending my damn self I can't take this anymore!!!

[watcherintheweyr]

This.

And honestly the fact that Azriel was able to attack Eris with no repercussions, that Beron couldn't get through his shadows, that Eris - literal heir to Autumn, general of autumn, therefore by worldlore laws, obscenely powerful- was taken that off guard and that helpless against it, makes no sense. It just reads as SJM desperately trying to show how Special and Different the Night Court is bc they don't play by the established world lore, aren't they so amazing?

Azriel shouldn't have been able to do that. He shouldn't be able to overpower the heir to Autumn or hold off an enraged High Lord- and he absolutely should not have had no repercussions for doing so. (And do not bring up the spell that made the HL powerless bc Feyre was able to blaze passed that w no issues when all of her power CAME FROM THE HIGH LORDS) It would make sense if Eris had allowed him to have the upper hand in that moment, to play a part (though i highly doubt SJM would actually go that route, nuance in plotlines is not her strength), but if it was genuine then like... why the fuck did the Night Court need anyone to help them in the war?

If the IC are genuinely All more powerful than the High Lords and their heirs, all of whom literally ARE magic. Chosen by the land and the Cauldron, then they shouldn't have needed aid in besting Hybern, and then Rhys sealing away the IC whilst Amarantha held them all prisoner reads very much as that he wanted that to happen- he wanted the courts to be put through 50 years of hell, torture, and murder. Because if the IC is THAT powerful, together they could've torn Amarantha into pieces.

If Rhys **genuinely** is more powerful than every other high lord, if he truly could've held true on that threat to take over all of their minds and forced them to give him what he wanted, then it makes absolutely no fucking sense that the other high lords resurrected him.

It's either Feyre being ignorant and brainwashed, or SJM is literally that bad of a writer.

Feyre’s lack of political awareness and need to dickride the IC in any circumstance is actually astounding. Especially during the High Lords’ meeting when she just assumed her little gang is somehow better than everyone else

Feyre during the HL meeting: yeah Mor & Azriel could take on all 6 High Lords in a battle, no problem🥰

MY GIRL YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THESE PEOPLE!!! YOU’VE KNOWN EVERYBODY IN THIS ROOM FOR LIKE 6 MONTHS MAX!!!! And you were a human who knew nothing about them before that!!!!

Genuinely, have we even seen Mor or the Bat Boys do anything that warrants them being stronger/better than the guys who are literally magic personified??? The mfs who have been picked specially by a higher power, mind you. I’m sorry, but the Inner Circle is getting obliterated if it’s them against the High Lords 😭

[thegoddessofsarcasm]

Fantasy authors stop making their worlds sexist, homophobic and racist for the sake of RealismTM challenge

[happy-bellamy]

I keep losing followers because the sjmess stans have realized I am no longer one of them so yikes bois and girls, reblog this and help a brotha out so I can establish a new core of followers that don't hate me!!! I'll follow back because I'm in a good mood and need some action on my feed anyways, avengers assemble!!!

[sjm-exposed-blog]

I was reading another post about ACOWAR only selling 102,000 copies & wow that is so low considering SJM is arguably the most hyped YA author right now. And b/c of the special editions one fan would buy like 4 copies? THUG and Turtles sold more w/ only one type of edition (I think). I guess terrible writing and treating your fans badly does effect your sales?! Lmao. Now I understand why KoA has six something special editions. Why even bother w/ a normal one?

Oh, wow, really? That does seem very low by SJM standards. I wonder how accurate those numbers are, though? I feel like the only people who’d have accurate sales numbers is Bloomsbury and SJM, so I would definitely take that with a grain of salt. But neither would I be too surprised if that was true, too. Everything is bound to affect book sales. It’s interesting that you mention KOA’s special editions – there are only four of this this time around (only…HAH.) I also noticed that seemed to have dropped Australia/NZ from their special editions? If I recall correctly, then both ToD and ACOWAR had special editions in the Australia/New Zealand region but don’t this time around. Guess they didn’t sell well enough to warrant one for KOA… 

[watcherintheweyr]

I mean I don't really think it's right to hold the stuff w Amarantha against Rhys bc even though SJM doesn't appear to believe men can have ptsd, Amarantha was abusing him- it was sexual assault. He was little better than a sex slave to her.

But otherwise.... this post is painful in how correct it is.

No surprise here but rhysand is a big fat liar especially between books 1 & 2

Currently sat at my desk just remembering little random things about ACOTAR & then seeing my post from yesterday about Rhysand, Feyre & Tamlin UTM & it struck me that he lied through his damn teeth about Tamlin’s magic in ACOMAF

Basically remember how in ACOMAF Rhysand says to Feyre that the reason he was doing all of that to Feyre was to get Tamlin angry enough that his wrath/rage/magic would explode thus killing Amarantha…well Rhysand goes on to say that no force in the world can go up against Tamlin’s wrath & I’m sat here thinking “hang on a minute…Tamlin didn’t have access to his magic whilst UTM so how can you be doing all those heinous things to Feyre (drugging & SA’ing) to get Tamlin angry enough to kill Amarantha when he didn’t have his magic & was no doubt on some magical leash to Amarantha”

His reasoning then changes to because he didn’t want Feyre to remember her suffering, didn’t want her to break & crumble in front of Amarantha…so which one is the actual reason pookie? I get that 2 things can be true at the same time but Rhysand legit only ever originally gave Feyre 1 reason which was to get under Tamlin’s skin & he states that as clear as day in book 1 but then in book 2 that’s when he says he does it because he doesn’t want to see her fall apart…

He then goes on to say Tamlin did nothing for 50yrs accept sit on his ass & accept his fate when both he & Feyre know that isn’t true!

Lucien legit told Feyre that Tamlin had no choice but to send his friends out to die/they willingly volunteered to sacrifice themselves to try & break the curse & TAMLIN FELT IT EVERY SINGLE TIME THEY WERE KILLED!!! Not only that but Rhysand was the one who not only sat on his ass whoring himself out to Amarantha but helped torture, kill & maim innocent fae, he did that for 50yrs & had NOTHING to show for it, no information on how to bring her down, no leverage, NO NOTHING!

Rhysand’s ability to lie & manipulate is astonishing & Feyre’s ability to accept said lie & manipulation as well as her ability to “forget” the actual facts she’s been told BEFORE the lies began is even more astonishing

[manonelide]

it’s like sjmess only watched the got show and tried to unsuccesfully copy paste dany as her own character and a self-insert, looking past the subtleties of dany’s character and layers of her personality and of course, the effing narrative and how it portrays dany... oh..

[zacksfairest]

Wait. Now I have to ask, what are your thoughts on ACOTAR?

Oh. Ohohohohoho. This is a can of worms that hasn't been opened in a LONG time in a public forum. (It's opened pretty much daily in private with friends lmao)

the short answer? I fucking hate it lmao

The slightly longer answer? I loved the first book. I thought it was a wonderful Beauty and the Beast retelling with colorful, very human characters. It was also one of the first fantasy books I ever read, and definitely the first book I read that dealt with the fae.

I absolutely adored Tamlin and (human) Feyre. Especially human Feyre. She was so very human and her struggle to survive in a foreign land practically designed to kill her, all while Tamlin is trying to break a curse and winds up accidentally catching feelings for real? Beautiful. I also adored the side characters. Lucien was such a good second in command to Tamlin, and a fun companion for Feyre. The world seemed so promising, with all of the courts and their various magics.

And then the second book came out and it went to shit lmao

I despise everything this series is and has become now. The second book found us with characters that were absolutely nothing like the characters we had spent the entirety of the first book with. It was practically a brand new book for a brand new series! SJMess committed character assassination of the most heinous degrees—SPECIFICALLY with Tamlin, the love of my life—all because she got too much of a hard-on for Rhysand and absolutely cannot handle the idea of a character being ~evil~, or at least Not Good, and also the love interest.

So she vilified Tamlin and beat the entire fanbase over the head with outlandish ~abuse~ that was just not even remotely there in the first book, and all while Feyre got to play the pretty victim with the pretty trauma, and Tamlin's trauma from their same shared experiences was depicted as ugly and unworthy of the same help and support that Feyre got.

There is so so SO much more nuance to my hatred for this series, but it would literally take me a 200 page thesis to get into every single detail to break it down.

An added little bit to why I hate the series: it has devolved into absolute smutty garbage with absolutely no substance whatsoever. Every character is barely even a rough outline of the characters they once were. The world is some monstrous amalgamation of High Fantasy and Urban fantasy where the fae walk around in ugg boots and leggings and long sweaters as they go Christmas shopping while also saying things like "My lord." And, not to mention, SJMess' blatant Straight White Feminism and her distaste for people of color, the LGBTQ community, women over the age of 25, and any man who doesn't have cheese grater abs and "golden brown skin."

Oh, and it's a known fact that SJMess doesn't even have an editor anymore. Her publisher knows her books will sell no matter what garbage she shits out, so they don't bother anymore. They just do surface level edits to make sure it's readable (but barely lmao). And it's super apparent.

OH!! A QUICK ADDENDUM!!! She plagiarizes a lot.  I can think of three specific instances off the top of my head that she ripped word for word from other works.  She’s a fucking hack. 

I read ACotaR through ACoFaS, though reading that novella was purely for masochism's sake, and I read the entirety of her Throne of Glass series. I am practically an expert on her shit and how much her shit sucks. And this is coming from someone who truly and completely adored the first ACoTaR and really had such high hopes for the series.

I have a lot of trust issues now with books because of it lmao

[watcherintheweyr]

This, bc Rhys being ThE mOsT pOwERfuL high lord, when they're all chosen by the land and all *granted* the power by the land and Cauldron makes *no sense.*

One singular high lord entirely eclipsing all of the others *makes no sense.* the world is entirely out of balance if that's the case- and then the land itself is priming the courts for war every time that happens. Because any time one lord is leagues more powerful than the others, you're flirting with that lord deciding he wants to overtake the other courts- that lord deciding he wants to rule all or many of the courts.

It means any time a weaker high lord pisses off the strongest, you're practically *inviting* war and conflict, and then the erasure of the conquered courts culture and way of life.

Rhys genuinely threatening the other high lords into controlling their minds to make them do as he wished *was not a good thing.* and if he actually had the power to back up that threat then there is no gods damned way they should've agreed to resurrect his stupid fucking ass.

Also, the fact that Rhysand decided he was godly enough to grant Feyre a title that is literally *name only* via the in world lore is just as ridiculous, entitled, and further throws the dynamic out of balance. Tarquin was right to be derisive when he said that Rhys loved to spit in the face of tradition.

Rhys making Feyre 'High Lady' is not some feminist girlboss moment. It's an empty title that just further shows how much Rhys considers himself above the rest of Prythian. Feyre only has as much power as he allows her to have. The title is literally just in name and i suppose symbolic but she is toothless compared to other high lords politically and powerfully, especially given that she is a 20 something former human who barely knows jack shit about fae life, culture, and tradition in her own court, let alone the rest. While she is a Made fae, she was not chosen by Prythian, and most of her Power came from the High Lords resurrecting her.

The concept that each lord is about equal but has one other lord that they're particularly effective against and one that they're weak to- that lends SO much more balance to the concept.

Furthermore the idea Feyre has that the rest of the IC is powerful enough to contend with, or defeat the other High Lords shows her ignorance because there is no reason that fae not chosen by the Cauldron or Prythian AS High Lords should have that much power. That again throws the world entirely out of balance, once again meaning that the other courts are nearly inconsequential to the Night Court. If that is the case, if the NC is SO powerful, Rhys eclipsing all other High Lords and his Inner Circle being on the same level AS high lords then there was no fucking reason the NC shouldn't have been able to fight their damn war alone against Hybern, and no reason that Rhys should've felt the need to lock the IC out of Amaranthas clutches- because if they were all truly that powerful, they could have destroyed her and ended her tyranny decades before. That would essentially imply that Rhys really didn't want to be free from being Amarantha's attack dog as much as he claimed.

And ykw on that note, the concept that Azriel and or Cassian can easily/effortlessly outmatch and best Eris, the known heir to Autumn, also makes no fucking sense. They should not be on the same level as him- because if they are then what the hell is the system actually doing? He is the heir apparent to Autumn because he is closest to his father, the High Lord in power. Azriel and Cassian being somewhat near his power level would make sense- but not the apparent ease that SjMess apparently loves to write. Unless Eris was consciously throwing every conflict that he's had with the IC, which knowing SJMess and her absolute worship of the Bat Boys, I doubt.

Anyways sorry for ranting on your post but- what are your headcanons for which high lord trumps who?

Personally I think it'd be absolutely hilarious if Day AND Autumn trumped night court since light and fire destroy shadows.

personally I don't think that there's a MoST PoWErFuL HiGh LoRD EvER. I think they're all equal across the board BUT they can take each other out/cancel each other out the same way pokemon types can ok thanks

[manondorians]

Tower of Dawn

white savior trope, women pitted against other women under the veil of ‘feminism’, cultural appropriation, ableism, cause god forbid diversity.. coming to you fall 2017