#so idk how to really categorize cassian

[andorerso]

"I don't understand the Maarva hate" the woman literally kidnapped a child. a white woman literally kidnapped an indigenous-coded child. for a fandom who likes to talk about the ~nuances~ and ~small details~ of the show, some of you are sure fucking blind to the colonialism and white savior parallels here.

[vidalinav]

Hi! I love your vision about the Acotar characters and I wanted to see the opinion of someone else on a thought I've been keeping on my mind. Well, in acosf it was clear that Nesta had no idea of the mating bond, but, I think we can all agree that Cassian knew it, he said that to her after she refused to acknowledge that they were mates. Anyway, the question I keep running on my mind is: if there wasn't a mating bond at all, would Cassian fall in love with Nesta? Does he only wanted to be with her because of this attraction? Or even better: does Cassian only got attracted, fell in love, with Nesta because of the effects of the mating bond? Their feelings towards each other only exist because of the mating bond? I like to think that no, that they really started to falling in love when they start to get to know each other, but it's hard to have any arguments to prove it. We haven't a lot of moments of them making their feelings pretty clear. It got a bit of confused to me. Seems just the mating bond talking sometimes and it feels like they wouldn't be together without it. Idk, I want some opinions here hahahah

Wow, okay. Flattered that you want my opinion of this. I love receiving anons.

I'd say on a surface level it boils down to how much you are convinced of their romance, because mating bonds don’t mean anything contextually. I’ll explain. 

Many people are not convinced of the romance, which is why a lot of people don't care too much for Cassian. A lot of other people like Cassian but either choose to ignore many narratively weird things he does or how he works in "Nesta's story" (putting quotation marks since he is a dual pov) or categorize it as his "flaws." My own stance is that I can admit that Cassian can and should have flaws, but what his flaws were to what they are now are not as complicated or complex as they were prior to acofas. It's infinitely more interesting to read about how Cassian wants Nesta but perhaps doesn't want to admit it for fear of rejection, fear of how things are going to change regarding Mor and Azriel, fear of just being loved and not knowing how that feels. Change is scary. And in acowar, I LOVED that push and pull. That I can't resist you, but I also don't want to admit it. That I'm going to show you a thousand ways I love you, but it's intimate and quiet and sacred and right now it's a secret that I don't want to tell anyone, you know that I’m going to take my hand away when Mor gets in the room circumstance. It fit so much his dynamic of being the comedy relief, the other characters maybe not taking him seriously or what he does, and then also playing this buffer, you know because all of this is a mask or one facet of him, and Nesta's standoffishness was a mask as well and merely one facet of her. It was a beautiful thing, this idea that they could see each other and wanted to see each other, protect each other, not being able to stay away. The potential for that was amazing, because it integrated both romance and potential character development. A mating bond didn’t matter at this point, though we speculated. But even if they didn’t have one, we knew the connection was set in stone. 

In acosf, it really was a let down, because we learn Cassian can't really see Nesta, and doesn't really understand her or put effort into knowing what she's going through. He puts effort in some areas, but motivations are questionable and the areas he puts effort in are questionable. Which is so odd, when you think of the fact that this is the guy who is the only one who validates what Nesta went through in the cauldron, that "her body was violated. It stopped belonging entirely to her." The one who kept coming back over and over, who couldn’t stay away. Before acofas, I'd say 100% the mating bond didn't matter. They might of had one, but that was not what their romance was based on. It was deeper than any frilly bond that any one and everyone does have.

So I agree both with people who think he's horrible and those who don't think he's horrible and is very sweet, and this makes all the difference to “is the romance fulfilling or not?” Which then segments this notion of the mating bond. The mating bond doesn’t make the relationship. The relationship makes the mating bond. Unfortunately, I'm going to once again mention that SJM wrote this story weird, where there's a lack of grey but a heavy amount of black and white. That's how I'm going to explain it. Because there was so much of two different extremes and no meeting in the middle. The push and pull was gone or maybe reduced to the sexual aspect of their relationship, but I say even that is not a push and pull because they aren't really fighting against their relationship. It's a very shallow push and pull, rather it seems that SJM wants to say there's a push and pull but that actual problems within their relationship have everything to do with how characters are perceived particularly Nesta, rather than conflicts within their narratives and their relationships with other people. It wasn’t about Cassian and his insecurities, and it should have been at the same time, because he was grappling them when he didn’t go to Nesta, when he pulled his hand away, when she laid her body over his and then spent weeks healing without any acknowledgment of that moment by her. It was all about Nesta's reputation, their opinion of her and her opinion of herself, and the readers’ opinion, and changing this stance. I can't say that it was really about anything else at the core. It certainly was not a healing arc. It was not her discovering her powers. It was not even about her training or making friends. That is what I will remember of it, but it wasn’t the main recurring theme. It wasn’t even involving Nesta’s own internal monologue beyond her self criticism and changing this to appreciation. Personal thoughts are way more complicated than this, even if people relate. Cassian could have had a better and more thorough narrative that could’ve sold me completely on this romance. We get action that we can equate to emotion yes, but we don’t get true emotional integrity and this makes romance iffy, because romance is 100% about emotion and how people fee. It’s the problem with show don’t tell. It cannot be all show and no tell.

So regarding the mating bond, I don't really think it matters. I wouldn't think too much about it, because in a text, even without the use of a mating bond, the author would show some "fated" connection to two people, that of course may extend cosmic levels if we're being romantic. We don't have to label it mating bond when two people have some connection, but a mating bond works the same way in this series regarding romance. Mating bonds don't mean anything and I say this because there's no clear rules as to what they are and what they do. Characters can reject mates, the cauldron doesn't get them right all the time "theoretically," they don't mean relationships will last, they sometimes are great, they might mean only strongest offspring. It's basically SJM saying hey this literally doesn't mean anything, but know that this relationship is special for some reason but who knows really, especially now that all my mains have them or will have them. Ultimately, it’s mating bonds are decided by the mates in question. (rolls eyes) What you need to be convinced on is the romance, and are you convinced?

It's something I'll never be able to answer contextually with acosf, because that book was a hot mess. I'd spend hours writing about every way that it is, but I have fics to write and that's more enjoyable.

(edited)