#still very anti acomaf but like

[hiemaldesirae]

my favourite characters thus far: the 'villain' (tamlin), the mcs sister, the LIs (dead) sister, and the queen who died like a chapter after her second scene

[achaotichuman]

I still have no idea how people can stan Rhysand and think Feysand is the best romance ever, and totally healthy when he LEGIT MADE HER CRY SO HE COULD FORCE HIS PLAN FOR NESTA ONTO HER

FEYRE HAS BEEN GROOMED PEOPLE, IT IS SO FUCKING OBVIOUS

THIS IS NOT BADASS YAAS QUEEN HIGH LADY, THIS IS A 20 YEAR OLD WHO WAS TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF BY AN OLD MAN WHO SAW HER TRAUMATISED, SAED HER, AND FORCED HER INTO A BARGAIN, KEPT HER LOCKED IN A CITY WITH NO CONNECTION TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD, WITH ONLY HIS FRIENDS FOR MONTHS, AND FEED HER LIES AND PUT HER IN HIGHLY DANGEROUS SITUATIONS TO 'PROVE HERSELF' THEN RECREATING THE SCENE WHERE SHE WAS SAED BY HIM IN FRONT OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE. BEFORE 'MAKING UP FOR IT' BY SLAPPING A FAKE TITLE ON HER FOREHEAD AND SAYING 'ALL HAIL MY HIGH LADY'

RHYSAND GROOMED HER, HOW DOES NO ONE SEE THIS????

ACOSF just made me hate Rhys more.

It was so manipulative. As Feyres crying into her eggs he pulls out this plan he had been waiting to share for a long, long time, that he had consulted with Amren on for legalities.

And then has it presented to her by the 2 people she does not currently get along with, Amren and himself.

Lmao Rhys just pisses me off.

[ae-neon]

Okay, ramble about Feyris (part 1?)

Please keep in mind that this idea isn't tailored to your or sjms versions of the characters but more the concepts and themes of the books as well as what would have made for a more sensible and cohesive work (imo)

The concept of acomaf as a whole was the transformation of Feyre as well as the "reveal" of Rhysand's character. I say reveal tho I think it was also more of a transformation, because we're gonna respect what the work was TRYING to do

Eris actually has the better set-up for an enemies to lovers, villain is misunderstood, villain wins etc arc

Whatever fans might say, TAR is still the first installment of the series. It matters.

And while Rhysand himself is pretty well established as one of the main characters, he plays an awkward role - a complex, morally ambiguous character caught up in a very black and white plot. In terms of worldbuilding the night court is not given much and almost everything Rhysand does is retconned later anyway. He's interesting, yes, but it's almost painfully obvious that sjm had a change of heart halfway and a lot of the plot is retroactively built around him being endgame

Eris is not in TAR or at least appears very minimally (it's been years, forgive me) but the strings that might later connect him to Feyre are very solidly established in book 1 : her friendship with Lucien, her being helped utm by LoA and Beron being the first to offer his power to revive her. Even her being with Tamlin but I'll come back to that.

One of my personal gripes with the standard romantasy couple where the FMC is introduced to a new world is that she is socially cocooned, which diminishes her as a character. And yes, Feyre has her sisters and for 0.5 points out of 10, I'll count Isaac Hale but her parents, her village, her whole fucking country go unnamed. The worldbuilding around her is almost nonexistent. So her having these connections to Eris, through these third parties, creates a social web that while not completely isolated from him, still BELONGS TO HER. the connections she forms with these people might be influenced by him but they are established outside of him

The same cannot be said from the IC and Rhysand which is why it's sad but unsurprising they betray her to her possible death. They BELONG TO HIM and no amount of boozed up Christmas montages is gonna change that.

And mind you I said Eris had the better SET-UP and that Rhysand would have benefitted from being in the book less. The set-up being that Feyre's best Fae Friend Forever, Lucien - someone the audience won't question and feels for - vouches that his brother is a power hungry monster. Eris as the endgame would leave MAF more room to explore because we are still setting him up as a villain AND subverting that with Moments™ or inconsistencies, interactions etc

Whereas in canon, halfway through TAR Rhysand shows up to the party and immediately reveals he isn't "actually" evil - which disqualifies MAF from the Villain Wins AND slow burn categories. Their romance is also immediately hinted at by the flirting and Rhysand's YOURE MY MATE 😱 moment at the end so it's not like we even enter MAF with any real guesses on what's gonna happen. By WAR all the tension in the series sits on Nessian moments, the idea that something might happen to Feyre in Spring and the hope/dread that one of the IC might die. None of those things happened btw. WAR was anti-climactic trash

But Imagine WAR including some autumn scheming, hinged on Eris betraying Beron in the thick of the war and getting away with it, or setting up his brothers to die in a way that didn't implicate him so his mom wouldn't hate him - all this while Feyris is still in their will they won't they stage

And like I said in the other post Eris unlike Rhysand actually has the material conditions necessary to create and maintain this Mask of cruelty. He is under the thumb of his father, he cannot trust his brothers, he does not want to lose his mother, the place where he lives is not some locked away liberal paradise but a cutthroat and ruthless Court - making a pawn out of then falling in love with The Cursebreaker™ on top of all of that would be INTERESTING and stressful

Rhysand post TAR is just fucking around?? Every plan he has is objectively stupid because he creates his own hurdles?? and fails?? which retroactively kills his mysterious scheming mastermind vibe. Most powerful HL and can't even get an artifact from his own subject, MIND YOU HES A DAEMATI!! Oh but let Keir say whore and suddenly it's easy to control him, SHUT THE FU-

ANYWAYS

Imagine part of MAF or WAR being Feyre and Lucien deepening their friendship because she bridged the divide between the first and last born Vanserras? That's meaningful character content for all three. Not like a 4 page coming out to a girl you've known for 6 months because you apparently can't trust your "family" of 500 years...

Rounding this back to Tamlin, sorry but the Spring vs Night family feud is boring and I don't care about it because we don't know anyone involved. Oh his nameless, faceless mom and sister died? Oh...😕 Well...

But with the Lucien, Jesminda, Vanserra bros etc we at least have Lucien who is alive and BOTH THE AUDIENCE AND FEYRE care about independently from Eris

That would make Feyre trusting Eris so much more of a risk and maybe even an initial betrayal to Lucien - putting her friendship at risk. REAL STAKES, REAL WEIGHT BEHIND HER DECISIONS

The Vanserras relationships are also a good parallel for the complicated feelings Feyre has about her own family, which would help her dark maga moment feeling like she belongs in Autumn and not Spring feel more organic and rooted in her character and worldbuilding rather than just switching aesthetics to fit in with her love interest

*

ADD and tiredness kicking in but I think I'll post about them again sometime soon

[ofbreathandflame-archive]

stans are actually very funny bc they often time talk themselves into the weirdest corners.

the whole point of criticizing acosf and its handling of nesta's character is to prove the point that sjm...doesn't like nesta as a character. that's is literally THE point - that sjm often abandons her moral themes (abuse, trauma, assault, etc.,) for character's deemed as undesirable or villainous to a capacity - and its through the handling of those 'vilified' (i.e. main character opposed - not even villianous) that we can gauge the extent to which sjm actually believes the ideals of her story. like - it is alarming that the only tolerable, empathetic parts of the a court of silver flames were the moments you could tell where ripped straight from sjm's own life (the hiking, training, mind-stilling etc.,). any actual characteristics about nesta weren't explored...like at all. her relationship with feyre and elain, with her mother, her trauma from her sexual assault, her conflicted relationship with her grandmother, her life before the cabin, her life during the cabin. in 800 pages - i still don't know mama archeron's name. what was life like in the cabin? what did nesta do all day? what was the dynamic? what was going on between elain and nesta?i don't know anything about her and nesta, we don't know anything about nesta's human life, her conversation with clare bedor, her relationship with clare beddor, moments with her dad - not even touching moments with him (and part of this story is her finding love for her dad). mind you we read 800+ pages and we learned absolutely nothing about her.

we essentially read sjm's emotional journey in one part, and a taming of the shrew narrative in another. i think the only way sjm had genuine interest in exploring nesta's story is through essentially self-inserting herself and avoiding the actual plot-points she set up in the first three books. like did nesta have childhood friends? if losing the wealth so drastically affected her life wouldn't she reminisce about it a lot? would she yearn for her mother? who were her childhood friends, how did she function at court?

and the whole point of saying alll of that is to argue the misuse of these topics - serious discussions abuse are only reserved for certain situation, and others its completely undermined in a way that only reinforces the negative ideals to begin with. (i.e. nesta needs to abused bc..." "the intervention was harsh but" - pair that with discussion around what feyre needed in acomaf - and it makes much more sense).

nesta antis often jump between the fact that nesta is so favored that sjm nerfed feysand to 'redeem her' and arguing that sjm secretly does everything in her power to embarrass and secretly laugh at people who like nesta's character. (1) we've gotta pick one or the other (2) in my humble opinion - sjm would have always given feyre a pregnancy plot like this regardless of whether this was nesta's book or elain. its literally so sjm. im shocked people are surprised she pulled the pregnancy as she did.

as with the tamlin discussion we had under this post - i think the story undermines its discussion of abuse with feyre/tam by essentially insinuating that tamlin (when placed in the same victimized position as feyre) should have sucked it up and braved out his abuse with amarantha (and the same with rhysand as well - esp with the deliberate foil of rhysand's 'willingness' v. tamlin's unwillingness). and when we start to have a real conversation ultilizing our own irl analysis and standards we really see how harmful and rather sisyphean the conversation becomes. instead of engaging with these topics earnestly, they only engage in them to prove a point - which is how the issue began in the first place. the whole issue with rhysand isn't the fact that he engages with harmful, potentially villainous positions. no - its that the book wants to prove that tamlin is wrong by justifying rhysand's actions. so even though rhysand and tamlin almost always have the same written and expressed intentions in their abuse of feyre, the book flocks to justify one, and eschews the other. and thats why we get so much reactionary critcism of rhys that is surface: people only admit the problems because they know antis will, not because they actually believe their are issues in the story.

and perhaps im still speaking into a void here but i can tell there's tension between pro stans wanting to have these serious conversations but understanding they can only really introspect so far until the conversation begin to prod at the validity of the topics being brought forth. so stans have to jump between invalidating the romantasy genre ("its just faeries") and treating this book as a serious topic (cue: "sjm put a hotline in the back of the book"). this is also the exact reason why the racism conversations stall (i.e. why inherent superiority is always passively emphasized - despite cc1 + 2 centering human oppresion there is no human in the ensemble cast. despite the fact that illyrian women are the most oppressed - rhys has no illyrian women - or reg illyrians (not his brothers) in his inner circle. aelin 'sacrificing' her human body).

[feyrescourt]

This is a long and rambly discussion post for elriel nation btw so strap in

I want to preface this by kindly asking the elriel hive to not use any tags of #those ships if reblogged. I want to keep this in the elriel echo chamber. Please and thank u!

A huge part of fandom culture is to ship canonically compliant characters and crack ships. Everyone’s got them, and it’s totally normal, and it’s usually fun to engage with.

The majority of the time I have no issue with this (I am a wolfstar shipper and even though there is canonical evidence of them in the original HP books, they’re widely accepted online and balked at IRL usually due to homophobia and #that nasty, nasty woman’s bigotry), but over the last few years a certain group of crack shippers have taken it upon themselves to fly a little too close to the sun, and want to make it our (elriels) problem. I am talking about the Glees.

It’s late and this just popped into my head so I want to rant about it.

My friend who got me into ACOTAR gave me a breakdown of the ships (bc I read ToG first and went in blind. I became a doraelin shipper very early on and remained one halfway through QoS, it was a whole thing when I realized they were not end game lol), bc I asked her to after my ToG experience. She told me all the characters names and then told me about feysand and nessian endgames but didn’t mention az or elain’s situation. I asked her about it and she told me that she didn’t want to mention much about Az because “by the end of the series azriel has two options for how his story could go, elain or another way”. She shared some anti elain sentiment with me because she’s “boring and doesn’t do anything”. That went in one ear and out the other with me tbh.

When I started acowar, and feyre returned to the night court, I saw how elain and azriel were interacting and I concluded that mor was the second LI of az bc of acomaf. I was not apart of the fandom online at this point, so I was genuinely in the dark about everything around these two. I was just reading and talking to my friend about what I read. I also want to add that I still liked L*cien at this point in the series (it changed in acofas, I became apathetic towards him rather quickly when I finished reading that whiny ass convo with feyre…..I don’t play when it comes to her) but wasn’t sold on eluce because they had like one interaction and it wasn’t a great intro to a ship.

However this first meeting in acomaf….. :)

‘Can you truly fly?’ He set down his fork, blinking. I might have even called him self-conscious. He said, ‘Yes. Cassian and I hail from a race of faeries called Illyrians. We’re born hearing the song of the wind.’ ‘That’s very beautiful,’

“Rhys chuckled, Cassian’s wrath slipping enough that he grinned, and Elain, noticing Azriel’s ease as proof that things weren’t indeed about to go badly, offered one of her own as well.”

Well imagine my surprise when I finished acowar and it turns out mor (the person az has crushed on for 500 years) comes out to feyre before the book ends and she explains that she can never love az the way he loves her. After three books, and everything that happens in acowar it was clear to me that elain and azriel were being set up as each others love interests, despite the mating bond with l*cien.

After Acofas I was officially on the elriel train. I mean…

“Azriel strode to the lone window at the end of the room and peered into the garden below.”

“Azriel emerged from the sitting room, a glass of wine in hand and wings tucked back to reveal his fine, yet simple black jacket and pants. I felt, more than saw, my sister go still as he approached. Her throat bobbed.”

“But Azriel only took Elain’s heavy dish of potatoes from her hands, his voice soft as night as he said, ‘Sit. I’ll take care of it.’ Elain’s hands remained in midair, as if the ghost of the dish remained between them. With a blink, she lowered them, and noticed her apron. ‘I—I’ll be right back,’ she murmured, and hurried down the hall before I could explain that no one cared if she showed up to dinner covered in flour and that she should just sit.”

“Elain swept in, apron gone and hair rebraided. ‘Please don’t wait on my account,’ she said, taking the seat at the head of the table.”

“He [Azriel] was the portrait of relaxed, an arm braced against the carved mantel, his wings tucked in loosely, a faint grin on his face and a glass of wine in his hand. He slid his hazel eyes toward my sister without him moving an inch.”

“Azriel and Elain remained in the sitting room, my sister showing him the plans she’d sketched to expand the garden in the back of the town house, using the seeds and tools my family had given her tonight. Whether he cared about such things, I had no idea.”

(Damn the more I read elriel’s acofas moments the more I can’t help but conclude that they just hate/don’t understand introverts 😭)

Before I started SF, I decided to look at the online fandom and bitch……my jaw hit the floor with all the elain/elriel hate I saw on TT. And everyone was talking about a newer character in SF, and I was seeing the glee fan art and was like oh shit ok maybe elriel isn’t endgame.

Fast forward to SF……

‘What happened to Elain?’

“Nesta saw the blow land, like a physical impact, in Elain’s face, her posture. No one spoke, though shadows gathered in the corners of the room, like snakes preparing to strike. Elain’s eyes brightened with pain.”

……and I’m thinking ok, az obviously likes her. Then comes az’s BC. When I finished the elriel portion of the BC I was actually crying bc I was like oh fuck I really love these two….I knew it was over for me, and I was freaked out bc I thought I was going to get got with this “new ship” involving az. Plus I was thinking about elain being left alone in the dark without any explanation and feeling like an idiot for finally showing her true feelings towards him😭. It was like 3AM when I read it so I was hyper emotional lol. But then I read the rest of the BC and was still confused because I didn’t see any romantic subtext with g/wyn. I read it and saw a hurt male who couldn’t stand what he had done to elain the night before, was pissed at his brother for stopping it and making him feel bad when he was finally willing to voice what he’s been feeling for the past year or so and hating that he was shut down because we know he never voices his emotions, and couldn’t bear keeping a gift he picked out specifically for her. A necklace…..for solstice……Then I finished SF as a whole, and still, was confused as to why glee is a ship. Nearly all of their conversations were centered around training, and Sarah didn’t use any descriptors in their encounters that elude to any romance or mutual interest. (Btw I have a whole take on rhys’ part in that BC and I think a lot of ppl are dense and don’t understand what he was going through in that book but I can save that for another time)

Cassian and Feyre have more chemistry than those too lol.

I then talked to my friend about the these ships (elriel, eluce, and glee) ((i didn’t talk about eluce much in this post but that’s a lifeless ship too. I mean…..she can’t stand that red head anyway soooo)), and I said “I’m an elriel through and through. Idc that eluce are claimed to be mates you can tell she does not like him. also glee makes no sense to me.” Not verbatim but you get the point. My friend is very sensible so by the end of our convo, she told me that she’ll accept whatever way Sarah goes and that she’ll give elain a chance when her book comes out.

But isn’t that what all of this shit is about in the end: unjustified dislike/distain/hate for elain? That’s certainly how is appears to me. You cannot look me in the eyes and tell me that you love elain if you ship her with a male whom she has expressed, on multiple occasions, zero interest in AND becomes a shell of herself when he’s around because she just doesn’t want to interact with him. (I want to reiterate that I don’t hate L, I don’t think he’s awful or anything. elain just doesn’t want to know him. And that’s her right.) The glees don’t like her bc she doesn’t fit their stereotype for what they want in an FMC and therefore, for azriel. Which is why they have been chirping that the next book will be azriel’s. Not elain’s….WHAT??? You sound fucking crazy. The eluces (even though they claim they like her) dislike her so much that they go on and on about how she needs to grovel and apologize to the male they like because HE deserves to be happy……the same male who she associates with one of the most traumatic days of her life. Who also has not apologized to her for the part he played in that day, but I digress.

I say all that to point out that Glee specifically is in the crack ship category. No canonical evidence in the text can be used to claim they are ‘mates’ or endgame or anything more than acquaintances. And that’s fine, but don’t act as though they’re to be taken seriously as a canon ship when there’s no evidence to support it. Don’t boldly claim that azriel “has two love interests” when he literally doesn’t. He can’t sleep because of elain. He can’t stop thinking about her. He’s short with his family and others around him the days and weeks following solstice. His shadows threaten to strike nesta when she hurts elain and causes her pain. He doesn’t assign his spies to watch L*cien in acofas because he doesn’t want to know if he’s trying to court elain. He goes full lethal when he hears she may have been hurt. He follows the sound of her laugh to see what caused it. He goes on a suicide mission to save her. They communicate through looks alone when their family is around. Have you read an SJM book before? This is how she sets up her relationships. Like, holy fuck.

You cannot claim elriel is a crack ship because they have had background build up that both FMCs in their respective books have noticed and commented on. Cassian has noticed it too DESPITE not being hyper aware of what’s going on with az in SF. (referencing the scene in SF where elain tells everyone at family dinner about nesta’s love for dancing and the ball story from when they were human).

This ship war shit is fucking crazy because really this should only be between elriel nation and the eluces. Anyway, I’m over dealing with the fever dream brigade and their hallucinations. They’re going to come crashing down like Icarus when the elriel bible release day arrives and all our suffering will finally come to an end.

Then after that I’ll need to defeat the tamlin redemption arch threats, bc that is not a claim, that’s a fuckin threat and I won’t stand for it. But let’s tackle one problem at a time.

Pink: side notes/thoughts that give more context to my points

Blue italics: convos I’ve had being referenced

Purple: elriel moments <3

[olenvasynyt]

I have always been uncomfortable with the SF scene where Cassian takes Nesta on the hike, but I didn't fully understand why until my most recent reread. And it is one of the reasons why I am anti-Nessian.

This is a summary of my tiktok video, feel free to check it out, and follow me over there as well if ya want.

So this hike was right after Nesta lashes out and tells Feyre that the baby was going to kill her during the birth, and this was because of her frustration and hate towards Rhys and the IC and how she has been treated.  

Chapter 46 of ACOSF: “Is it respect that she offers you?” Nesta spat.  “Is it respect that your mate offers you?” Feyre went still. … “What do you mean?” “Have any of them told you, their respected High Lady, that the babe in your womb will kill you?” “…I do know that your mate ordered everyone not to inform you about the truth.  Did you all vote on that too?  Did you talk to her, judger her, and deem her unworthy of the truth?”

It broke something in Nesta—broke that rage, that roaring—seeing those tears begin to fall, the fear crumbling Feyre’s paint-smeared face.   She had gone too far.  She..oh, gods.

But as Feyre and Cassian both point out, she saw the parallels between Feyre’s situation and her own, and decided to avenge both of them.  Rhys and Amren were hiding the truth about Nesta’s powers, she knew that a lot of them did not trust her to know the truth about her own body.  

Chapter 47 of ACOSF: I think she saw the parallels between your situations, and, in her own way, decided to avenge both of you. That’s my feeling too.  Rhys disagrees.

I think Feyre’s situation was much more serious than Nesta’s powers being kept from her, but that is also why it was good for Feyre to find out the truth even if the situation was upsetting.  

Cassian was like oh "I’m sorry you found out the baby could kill you" and Feyre was like "I’m not.  I’m mad at you guys for not telling me.  Nesta was the only one brave enough to."

Chapter 47 of ACOSF: “I’m sorry you had to learn of it.” “I’m not.  I’m furious with all of you, I understand why you didn’t tell me, but I’m furious. Well, we’re furious with Nesta. She had the courage to tell me the truth. She told the truth to hurt you. Perhaps.  But she was the only one who said anything. — I wish you’d found out a different way. Well, I didn’t.  But we’ll face it together.  All of us. — I want you to come back home.  Both of you.

I love how Feyre, who is the one was the victim in this moment, was like “I’m not sorry this was how I learned about the baby but I’m glad someone told me.  Rhys overreacted, I calmed him down and I want both of you home.”

Rhys overreacted.  He completely and utterly overreacted. — Rhys had no right to chase you from the city, or threaten Nesta.  He has realized that, and apologized.  I want you to come back home.  Both of you.  

Now kind of going off topic with Rhys threatening to kill Nesta: people get mad at Cassian for not standing up for his mate.  And I can understand that, I also think that’s frustrating and Cassian not standing up for Nesta is something we see often, including the Ember and Randall bonus chapter in HOFAS.  But it can be complicated because a lot of people will defend Cassian like this: Rhys is high lord and it will be very hard to stand up to him as someone who’s not on his level, so of course Cassian couldn’t do anything to defend his mate in this situation.  And yes this is true, and we see a very similar situation between a High Lord and their superior with Tamlin and Lucien in ACOMAF. Lucien tried to stand up for Feyre but couldn’t, and was shut down and abused. 

But if people are going to use this idea to defend Cassian, that he couldn’t stand up and fight his high lord, we have to make this comparison between  Rhys to Tamlin.  And a lot of pro-Rhys people don't like that conversation.

But anyways, this argument cannot be applied to this hiking situation at all, because Feyre mindspeaks with Cassian and says that Rhys overreacted, she isn’t mad at Nesta, all of those things I talked about before.  Feyre says that she wants both of them home but Cassian still brings Nesta to a hike and says he’ll call it a punishment to sort of appease Rhys because he knows Rhys is still mad about the situation.  “Tell Rhys it’s a punishment.”  Rhys was not the victim in this situation, Feyre was, and she was like fuck Rhys!  He was wrong for overreacting!  Nesta was braver than you guys and I want her home.  

Where did you even head off to? The wilderness.  I think we’ll stay out here for a few days.  We’re going on a hike.   Nesta has never been on a hike in her life.  I guarantee she will hate it. Then tell Rhys this is her punishment.  Because Rhys, despite apologizing for his threats, would still be furious.  Tell him that Nesta and I are going to hike, and she’s going to hate it, but she comes home when I decide she’s ready to come home.

But Cassian still brings Nesta on the hike.

And he was definitely doing it for Nesta and to help her work out her thoughts and not solely because of Rhys, but this hike is a terrible way to help a suicidal person work out their thoughts.

This hike pisses me off so much. The way the IC decided to “rehabilitate” Nesta in general pisses me off.  I liken Nesta’s “rehab” to those therapy wilderness camps where people get kidnapped and brought to the middle of the mountains for.  Those rehab camps revolve around forcing people to get to their lowest to rehabilitate, to acknowledge their mistakes, and it is a horrible, abusive system and very often results in resentment at best and death at worst.  And I think Nesta being locked up was the same thing and this hike is the same thing.  One of the several things those rehab boot camps do is force their patients to go on strenuous hikes for multiple days, and when it’s beyond their physical capacity.  It can lead to exhaustion, dehydration, injury, and death.

And one of my least favorite things in this entire book is that when Cassian realizes that Nesta is suicidal, he continues the hike up the rocky cliffs of the Illyrian Steppes with barely any food and even less talk.  He doesn’t look at her or speak to her in days.

It is to force Nesta to get to her lowest moment so she’ll break down.  Exactly like what happens during those rehab camps.  It is forcing her into this breakdown in an unsafe place with no professional help. 

Cassian knew that Nesta often hated herself.  But he’d never known she hated herself enough to want to…not exist anymore. He’d seen her expression when he mentioned the threat of falling. And he knew going back to Velaris wouldn’t save her from that look.  He couldn’t save her from that look, either. Only Nesta could save herself from that feeling.

When I read SF for the first time I was so weirded out by this hike and I couldn’t figure out why.  I do not find these chapters moving or inspiring, I thought they were toxic and sad and I still very much do.  And if I’m going to be honest I felt like I was also being manipulated into getting emotional like how Nesta was.  

And this is where I’m going to get into my criticisms for SJM.  

I don’t know if she realizes this comparison between Nesta’s rehabilitation in general and the boot camps and just, bad, toxic therapy in general.  I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt because I think a lot of Silver Flames is about how the Valkyries helped heal Nesta and SJM and their hike during the Blood Rite was so much more inspiring at least for me and was definitely the climax and resolution to Nesta’s healing journey.  SJM illudes to the IC’s biases very often in SF and I thought she was making Nesta’s rehab toxic on purpose, but the reason why I struggle with giving SJM the benefit of the doubt is because she said in an interview that that hike Cassian took Nesta on was inspired by a hike she and her husband went on during a vacation.

I also hate how she adds the idea that the mountains are healing, and there is a voice telling Cassian to keep pushing Nesta forward, “just one more mountain”.  Like no.  This again adds to the comparison of the fucking bootcamps because that is also a tactic they use.

Chapter 48 of ACOSF: The peaks weren’t as brutal and sharp as those in Illyria, but there was a presence to them that he couldn’t quite explain.  Mor had once told him that long ago, these lands had been used for healing. Perhaps that was why he’d come.  Some instinct had remembered the healing, felt this land’s slumbering heart, and decided to bring Nesta here.

This is fantasy, of course, so I am fine with this element of a higher presence that is healing to the characters who are struggling.  And there is the symbolic element of climbing your mountain.  But I need people to stop saying that this is a realistic way to treat people with actual problems in the real world, not only with this hike but also with all of the rehabilitation the IC made her do by locking her up.  I might make a whole other video on that but if Nesta was in the House of Wind because she was addicted to alcohol and fucking strangers and spending money, this is not the professional way to go about it.  

I like a lot of parts during this final breakdown where they talk about forgiving yourself, leaving the past behind.  But I did not like the journey they made Nesta take to get to this point.  Nesta could have very well had this breakdown not on this hike.  

And this part ends with Cassian comforting Nesta. 

“I’ll be with you every step of the way,” he whispered into her palm.  “Just don’t lock me out.  You want to walk in silence for a week, I’m fine with that.  So long as you talk to me at the end of it.”

Like I appreciate this sentiment.  

But, another thing that annoys me is Cassian’s conclusion after this scene

Chapter 50 of ACOSF: “She’d been suffering, and he’d had no idea how much it consumed every facet of her life.  He’d seen her self-loathing and anger—but hadn’t realized how much she’d been aware of it.  To know she’d hurt this much, for so long.

First of all, how would Nesta not know she was aware of her self-loathing and anger?  She had actively talked about it before this moment??? She fucking has. And how did Cassian not know that she had been hurting this much for long long?  I thought he was her mate who understood her?  He talked about her traumas before in ACOWAR.  Plus, I thought she was being rehabilitated.  Helping her get not addicted to alcohol and spending money and having sex?  

There is such a lack of awareness when it comes to the IC and this situation and I get frustrated when readers don’t understand it.  People say that Nesta’s rehab was very serious and complex but no.  It wasn’t.  It is a terrible way to help anyone.  

I think Nesta and Cassian still have to work on a lot to be an actual healthy relationship.  And we saw the issues they still have in the Randall and Ember bonus chapter so I am very curious to see how SJM resolves their issues in future books, if she does so at all.

[amandapearls]

Not the antis saying that Elriels are the ones that don’t care about Elain…💀🤡 Because apparently Az would do the things he does for Elain for everyone else and that he just sees her as another lover, that he wants to keep a secret.

I’ve also seen them point out that Az was still dreaming and lusting ovwr Mor when Elain was just THERE. I mean, first of all… we don’t know the extent of his feelings for Mor. We just know what everyone assumes LOL. And yeah, Az is there to save people, he defends very strongly those he cares about, but did he EVER had a reaction to anyone else like he had for Elain when she was taken for example? Nope. Alsoooo, Elriel just has a normal build up, from friends to (almost) lovers. It took some time for Az to get over whatever he was feeling for Mor. Ofc. But he developed a friendship with Elain in the meantime, that turned into something more eventually. Even in ACOSF is said pretty clear that he basically gave up to Mor. After all this time. But I’m repeating myself, we don’t know the exact extent of what he felt for Mor. Maybe he just let ppl assume lol, bc I refuse to believe he’d just act like he doesn’t get the hint from Mor for like 500 years, when he knows basically everything. Things are more complex than that.

And the ones that don’t like Elain are the ones that pair and force her with a male she doesn’t want. At all. Guess which one is that. SJM said that it’s obvious who the next book is about and she also build this ship for several books now. Just stop pretending your ship has ANY chance. The lies y’all tell yourselves just so your ship can “earn” half a point in the romance department are laughable.

I genuinely can’t wait for the day to prove y’all WRONG. 💅🏻

Goodness you guys love sending long as hell anons.

1. I’d say that if you ship Elain and Azriel then you don’t really love Elain. If you loved Elain, then you’d ship her with the person who would treat her the best and actually care about her wellbeing (aka her MATE). Also, we don’t have Elain’s POV yet, so nobody truly knows how Elain feels about her mate.

2. When Rhys confronted Azriel about Elain in the bonus chapter, Azriel did NOT say “I think I’m in love with Elain” or “she’s special to me” or “I really care about Elain”. Nothing. Instead he called her the third sister. Then let us know that he “hadn’t gotten that far in his planning, certainly NOT beyond the fantasies that he pleasured himself to”. Sounds like lust to me. And since Rhys can read minds— I’m sure he heard Azriels thoughts and knew that it wasn’t love. Rhys did the right thing here.

3. Rhys confronted Azriel about Mor in the bonus chapter and Azriel completely ignored that question. Hence, I do think Azriel still has some unresolved feelings for Mor that he needs to get over before he’s with anyone.

4. It’s stated multiple times throughout the book series that Azriel looks at Mor with “heat and longing”. And at the end of ACOMAF, when Azriel was poisoned he still tried to protect Mor. His sole focus was on Mor. So I’m pretty sure his feelings for Mor are spot on with what other characters have said in the books.

5. Sarah stated it was obvious and it is. The next book will be Azriel’s with Gwyn as his love interest. I think Azriel will finally get over his unresolved feelings for Mor in his book and he will fall in love with Gwyn. Based off ACOSF and the bonus chapter, I think it’s clear that they’re definitely mates. Especially since Gwyn is the only female to ever make Azriel feel a “spark in his chest”. Sounds like mates to me.

Can’t wait for the next book announcement too ❤️❤️

[dimalry]

It's not about you being critical it's about misinformation:

{{ of his hands, stained blue from the places they touched on my waist, my arms, but somehow, never more than that. }}

{{ “Feyre, for Cauldron’s sake. I drug you, but you don’t wonder why I never touch you beyond your waist or arms?”

Until tonight—until that damned kiss. I gritted my teeth, but even as my anger rose, a picture cleared. }}

What you dr aw was very disturbing. And on top of that it was not canon while you tried to sell it as such. Rhys painted Feyre’s body to prove to her he's not touching her untoward. Yes he drugged but the alternative would've been her staying in her cell hearing the constant screaming. Her being in those parties while the next day she barely remembers anything was everything Rhysand could've done for her at that situation. And most importantly Feyre understood. And the reason her and Rhys work so well is she would go the same length if not more, to keep the people she loves safe and protected just like Rhys did.

I don't expect you to agree with me and I only bother because I really like your arts and it was huge shock seeing those arts. And even now your art is a headcanon not canon because Rhysand never touched her chest or any private parts of her. This fandom already suffers from misinformation and lies and people goes with it without their facts checked.

And most importantly Rhys apologised. He apologised through acomaf and he's still trying to make it up to her. He feels guilty for not being able to handle the situation better, not because he could do better. Saying the mmc raped fmc while that's the furthered from truth was what made me disheartened. No one's denying what happened UTM. But you showed a worse situation that it already is.

I'm not gonna make this ask any longer because I think me bringing facts wouldn't go anywhere since you have your own mind set and it will only adds to the toxicity.

But your post was anti and I think people who would rather not see these kinda post should have a safe tag. The "feysand critical" was fine but adding "feysand" tag wasn't.

I hope you have a good day

I understand and I‘m sorry about the misinformation. I never actually tagged the artwork as „Feysand“, only „critical Feysand“ and I‘ve removed the red handprints and kisses that suggest he had done more than canon states (when corrected)- I do not want my artwork about SA perceived as headcanon and my intention wasn’t to disturb anyone. I know I should’ve thought better.

It’s only tagged as acotar for now, but I‘ll probably take it down entirely. Or maybe just remove the drawings of Feysand and leave it only at Feyre hugging her knees- that should be accurate enough, since in canon she wasn‘t in good health like so many artists depict her as such. I think it would be fair to also correct artists who draw her like a super model utm.

I still think that SA had occurred and I blame it entirely on the author for handling it all so poorly. The apology in acomaf didn’t feel like an apology to me. I guess it’s different for everyone.

Thank you for your ask, have a lovely day as well 🫶🏽

[gwyns]

E/riel’s like to use fawn a lot (death and his lovely fawn), but the first time fawn is used, isn’t it actually connected to Lucien?😂 sounds more like Elucien than E/riel to me.

i went through my ebooks searching for the first use of fawn and it seems to be in acomaf when describing a fawn legged faerie however the first use of it outside of elain was indeed in relation to lucien and his iconic fawn brown jacket. so i will put it firmly in the elucien pile because what do you mean lucien has a jacket the same color as elain's eyes?? i'm going feral

i truly don't understand that death and his lovely fawn quote and since i currently have acowar open here's the exact quote:

"I saw the painting in my mind: the lovely fawn, blooming spring behind her. Standing before Death, shadows and terrors lurking over his shoulder. Light and dark, the space between their bodies a blend of the two."

so not only is that quote a straight up lie, i've always seen it as feyre remarking on just how much of a contrast they are, it doesn't have anything to do with ships in my opinion. like yeah it may look pretty but once you actually look, is it good for either of them? also it ends with this, my personal favorite part:

"The only bridge of that connection... the knife."

truth-teller was the only connection they shared and guess what elain did after hybern was dead? she gave it back, ending their connection

also! since they like to discredit elucien so much how about we look at their interactions at the end of this book?

"Are you hurt?" he asked, coming toward us. Spying the blood speckling Elain's hands.

"I'm fine," Elain said quietly, And then asked, noticing the gore on him, the torn clothes and still-bloody weapons, "Are you--"

"Well I never want to fight in another battle as long as I live, but... yes, I'm in one piece."

A faint smile bloomed on Elain's lips.

huh how interesting that elain was concerned for lucien and how he was the first person to make her smile since being made. moving on...

I spared Lucien the torment of debating whether to touch her, and linked my arm through his as I began to walk away, letting my sisters decide to follow or remain--if they wanted a moment alone with that burnt grass.

Elain came.

Nesta stayed.

very curious that elain made the choice to go with feyre and lucien instead of staying at the grave of her beloved father, but oh yeah she absolutely hates lucien

Elain fell into step beside me, peering at Lucien. He noticed it. "I heard you made the killing blow," he said.

Elain studied the trees ahead. "Nesta did. I just stabbed him."

then we have elain peering at him, clearly she's not that uncomfortable around him if she not only chose to stay close to him but also openly stare. and look at that! lucien giving his mate credit and recognizing she's capable of more than other, more broody bats, seem to think

then of course we end the chapter with elain asking him to stay in velaris, with a bit of a push from feyre yes but realistically... she didn't have to say a thing lol. the text says she blurted it out and that typically means saying the first thing that comes to your mind, it's not your filtered thoughts

anyway what was the point of all of this? not sure other than me showing canon proof that supports elain not hating lucien and him actively showing an interest and displaying "mate like" behavior so... antis can kiss my ass

[achaotichuman]

I dont understand why you're anti Elain. Like there's nothing 4 u to anti considering we know nothing about her💀

Like all the bitch does Is bake and cook and yall hating over THAT?? damn

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA HOLY SHIT EVERYONE LOOK I GOT MY SECOND EVER HATE ANON OMG

YALL HAVE NO IDEA HOW EXCITED I AM ABOUT THIS, I CANNOT BE GRINNING THIS MUCH IN PUBLIC OMGGG

Anywayyyy, so to answer your question anon. You are correct! We know very little about her, we have only seen the shit she does, and we can only make judgements based on her actions with no nuance because we don't have her POV yet.

You also don't strike me as pro Elain anon? You're taking away from her actions quite a bit. She has done plenty of things throughout the series.

What I don't like about her is her has to do with how she treats Nesta. She throws Nesta protecting and helping her, even to the point of neglecting her own self, back in her face and acts as though Nesta never actually cared about Elain herself and was only interested in making her trauma about her. Which is completely incorrect from what we see in ACOWAR and how Nesta protects Elain in ACOMAF.

I actually find Elain's selfishness very intriguing- I made a post about it here is the link.

But the thing about Elain, is SJM cannot write inherently selfish characters and have them work through that. Elain could force Lucien to eat glass and everyone would still worship the ground she walks on.

She doesn't experience consequences, all she has to do is shed a few crocodile tears and people bend over backwards to accommodate her wants.

I don't like characters with no substance, and in my opinion Elain is set up to be Rhysand 2.0

I go into more detail on this in my post.

And in any case I fully believe you, anon, are simply a teenager with too much time on their hands.

If you need a job to occupy your time, I recommend applying for a pharmacy assistant position, that was my first job. They're always happy to accept juniors, at least where I live.

And if you are somehow an adult sending these messages, I sincerely insist you get out of the house. Go out with some friends, have a few drinks, remember there are still some good things in the world. And if you can't afford that, parks are always free, and a good walk clears the mind of hate.

[bookishfeylin]

The whole story of Tamlin betraying Rhysands sister to his father seems a bit weird, and not a "Tamlin would never" sense. I don't remember all the details, but it's strange that Rhys revealed precise whereabouts of his mother and sister. Again not in a "he should have known better than to share", just...how did it come up in the conversation? It was supposed to be some camp or a road to a camp deep in Illyria so he would have had to be fairly specific for Tamlin's father to be able to locate the place based on the description, and I can't really think of a reason to go into that many details in a conversation with a friend about a meeting place with a third party where said friend is not expected to also be. Especially if it's supposed to be secret.

It's either Tamlin pried Rhys for details with an explicit purpose of using them later, which is unlikely, or...

What are your thoughts about this whole storyline? Do you think we will ever get a (convoluted SJM style) explanation of the events from Tamlin's point of view?

*sighs*

This whole storyline makes no sense whatsoever.

Especially in the broader context of the story. So before diving into what exactly happened, we need some backstory.

Per canon, Tamlin's father and brothers were highly abusive--worse than Beron--and Tamlin despised them all for being abusive and for their anti-human bigotry and for their slave ownership.

Per canon, Tamlin and Rhysand were close friends for a period of time.

And per canon, Tamlin is very loyal to his friends--taking Lucien in, for example, and protecting him from Beron and his older brothers despite the political liabilities of sheltering another High Lord's son.

So... we're meant to believe that a prince who is decidedly loyal to his friends and vehemently hates his abusive bigoted family one day decides to betray his friend for his abusive bigoted family???

And like. Why. Why does he do this. Yes it's part of ACOMAFs "he was evil all along he just wore a mask in ACOTAR to make Feyre love him" schtick, but it still falls flat. Even at his most evil in the trilogy Tamlin still hates slavery and hates his abusive father, so... Did Tamlin temporarily forgive slavery and bigotry and decide to kiss up to his dad by killing Rhysand's family? Did he magically forgive and forget his father and brother's abuse to go along with concocting an evil scheme with them? Did Sarah think this through at all???

It makes no sense that he'd betray a friend for his abusers in the first place, much less specifically pester Rhysand for information to give his father and brothers an exact location to find Rhysand's mother and sister. And as you mentioned, why wouldn't Rhysand find giving out specific information suspicious? Unless Rhysand simply referred Tamlin to a specific, secret place they both ALREADY knew of in the Night Court, which again implies that he and Tamlin were incredibly close and that they hung out a lot together, and undermines ACOMAF's assertion that he'd happily ruin a close friendship to play nice with his abusers. It's just... bizarre. It doesn't make sense.

And no, I don't think we'll ever get a Tamlin POV of the situation, because it'd further complicate things. With the established information we have on Tamlin's family dynamic, Sarah can't make this storyline make sense unless she (yet again) retcons something.

[goddessofwisdom18]

your favorite character being largely disliked by both the stans and the antis is actually so devastating. where am i supposed to go

there are three main opinions about mor in this fandom:

1. she’s fine bc she’s feyre’s bestie but you don’t really care about her personally (probably bc she’s queer because the stan girlies used to LOVE mor when moriel was semi-canon. i remember. i was there)

2. she’s fine but annoying bc she ~lead azriel on~ (main opinion on the acotar subreddit). never mind that if this was true, it would be as a result of a retcon, because again, pre acowar, moriel was going to be canon. sarah made mor sapphic because we were asking for more lgbt characters. (again. i was there.) and besides, i frankly don't think it is true, because azriel is the fucking spymaster with a million chances of knowledge at his fingertips and mor spent 80% of her time at a gay bar so idk how he couldn't have fucking known?

3. or she’s the fucking worst because she was. idk. mean to nesta. you know who else was mean??? and people love that about her because it's a result of trauma, it makes her flawed and relatable? literally nesta T_T this is not anti nesta i just don’t get it.

4. she's the fucking worst because she… supposedly lied about eris? ?? i'm not even going to begin to unpack this. why y'all IMMEDIATELY take the man's side and think what he's saying is bible… i don't fucking know. learn to decenter men in your life my friend. sometimes women ARE telling the truth even if they're basic or pick mes or whatever.

mor’s traumatized as hell and definitely has as much to back up her occasional cattiness as nesta had to back up her literal life long bullying. but few people will give her a feminist reading. few people will analyze how sarah wrote her story or what that means. few people will even give her credit as a real villain. she’s just an annoying pick-me bitch and that’s the end of it.

think about the lack of grace rhysand gives nesta. think about what that might mean for mor, to whom rhys (and his friends) was a sort of savior, because her life in the hewn city was that bad that somehow dealing with rhysand is better. that was who she grew up with; that was what she was taught to see as good because at least it wasn’t keir.

not to mention that her life is shaped around her survival via her desirability to males. ESPECIALLY as a sapphic woman can you imagine what that would do to her psyche?

but no. no fan posts about her. no headcanons. nothing nada. just me and the mor week posts and the occasional obligatory stan reference bc she's part of the main cast.

i understand being annoyed bc of the double standard in canon between her and nesta's heavy drinking, but even then i see posts all the time about "i would love rhys if it weren't for the narrative's worship of him!" and none for mor because she's just a ghost. she's nothing to anybody. despite being A MAIN CHARACTER!

not to mention but like. generally positioning yourself perpetually in opposition to the paradigm rather than just having values whether they're popular or not is not a great way to go about things. i completely understand liking eris regardless of what he's done - i am a tamlin stan despite the fact that he was very well abusive in acomaf - but the fact that there are antis out there who are so convinced mor is lying, or who want sarah to write that storyline, is so digusting to me. women in groups you don't like, political sides you don't like, women you think are annoying - they still deserved to be believed. don't give into respectability politics. come on now.

[serendipity-by-chance]

feyre and her position as high lady

This is sth thats been talked about in the fandom (especially by anti feyres) so i wanna touch on this today.

I dont know why people try to paint feyre gaining her position as High Lady of Night Court by marrying Rhys as an insult when it’s not. A lot of feyre stans come to her defense by listing out everything she did to save NC and prythian so she should be high lady but my debate is different. Feyre having the position of a high lady should be the norm lol. Historically when rulers marry their spouses do become co-rulers or sth very close to it. when kings take wives they become queens. not Lady. QUEEN. Feyre is the queen. it’s the same way Rowan became King after marrying aelin. or how nesryn will be the future empress. Because they married the ruler/heir to those throne. Feyre did the same.

SJM’s inability to write women in power doesnt mean feyre needs to be diminished. We can have a whole other discussion about how SJM’s world of faes is basically the human world misogyny except faes just live longer and have magic. We can also talk about sjm’s forced gender roles and on her characters even tho these characters are faeries and as such wicked, magical creatures to whom sexuality and gender is meant to be a whole other thing. but nevermind that. sjm’s inability to write good fantasy isnt the point.

the point is what sjm did with feyre was normal lol. feyre married a king and she is the queen. the position of a high lady isnt sth new. it always existed as said by rhys in acomaf when he tells feyre that yes high lady can exist not just high lords. and also him creating the position of a high lady wouldnt be wrong neither would it be sth weird. in the past rulers have created position of power for their spouses/lovers. one example is Hurrem from the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan created the title Haseki Sultan, almost equal to imperial consort, for her. Also i dont want people saying that feyre cant handle political power blah blah when again using women like Hurrem it shows that people can rise from their unfortunate backgrounds to become great political powers💀 Why do you think people were dying to make their daughters queen? It’s because the Queen wields power and influence. Feyre rising in rank bc of marriage isnt anything new or antifeminist. It’s still done in the world today minus the royal title😭😭 do people not marry people from different socioeconomic backgrounds?

I know feyre antis who whine about this are certain stans who then go on to claim another woman as high lady or queen of sth she isnt. u can cry all u want but none of them are ever having what feyre has lol

[zenkindoflove]

5 and 9 for the salty ask game ☺️

Putting these answers under a cut. Anti-Azris and anti-Azriel.

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

Ruined? Not really. I'm really binary in how I feel about ships. It's either my OTP or I feel kind of meh about it. There are some ships that are NOTPs now and I guess you could say that participating in fandom created the situation. Azris is an example of that. I found it curious and interesting at first as I do with most slash pairings. But not to the point of really diving deep because I don't like Azriel. When I created Alexius and fell in love with him and Eris together, they became OTP and it's very hard for me to get into other ships that contain a character in my OTP. And since I already disliked Azriel and this fandom's obsession with pairing him with every person, I was pretty much done with the curiosity after that. And I think given my next answer, it'll be clear why it just wouldn't be fun for me to ever explore.

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

Azriel - SJM really shot him in the leg for me from the jump in ACOMAF. I almost always side eye and get annoyed with the dude who is still pining over his best friend when he's been friend zoned. It icks me out. He was the worst in the High Lord's scene. His macho display to protect Mor's honor by choking Eris really made me see him as this aggro, incel type bro who tries to white knight for a woman not even interested in him. I know people in this fandom are always like omg that scene is SOOOO gay. But if anything it's the straightest thing Azriel has ever done. There is something particularly damaged in straight dudes heads that makes them act like Azriel did in that moment. And I was so turned off and grossed out.

And then Azriel really did himself no favors by flirting with Elain and shitting on Lucien. A lot of people hate the bonus chapter and consider it OOC. To me, his self loathing thoughts and unearned possessiveness was really who I was already imagining. He's insecure and not in a way that endears him to me. I've really loved a lot of dark, broody, and violent characters in the past (Sandor Clegane comes to mind) but Azriel's specific blend of brooding and edge lord behavior does not make me root for him or want to learn more about him. I think if SJM really started having him become more self aware and go on his own healing journey (and please be independent of a woman showing him love because he is nothing but red flags for anyone in this series at the moment - he needs to work on himself first before his love story begins) I could see myself coming around from dislike to feeling neutral about him. It's possible though the way this fandom stans him and how aggressive and weird his fans are have totally ruined me ever liking him though.

Salty Ask Game

[rosesfox]

people try to justify in every way not liking elain. you might just not like her, you don't have to come up with a bunch of shit. this is a huge rant anti-gwynriel stans and pro-elain.

a person who made a direct connection between the hate that gwyn receives, which, according to her, is caused by her never being wrong, unlike elain, who was wrong with feyre and supposedly has a fandom that acts as if she had never done anything wrong. some replies said that elain had no development and that all her actions were forgiven for free. like wtf are you talking about 

so let’s dive into it: elain's fandom doesn't act like she's never done wrong. no one acts (unlike the nesta fandom, which this person is a part of by the way) like elain has never done wrong. what is talked about, however, is that elain has changed. since acomaf, by the way, elain is no longer the same person. in fact, it is elain who asks nesta to let feyre use the manor, elain is the one who recognizes that the two wronged feyre and it is she who, even in a moment of fragility after being thrown into the cauldron, tries to help feyre. since then, elain has only gotten better. she actively took part in the feyre's life and never blamed her for anything. why would i still hate elain if she has changed and does not commit the same acts?

y'all love to create justification headcanons for eris, tamlin, nesta, whatever, but when it's elain, nothing is good enough. it's always a very interesting character and full of layers, flaws and humanity, until it comes to elain. fucking hypocrites.

second that: elain doesn't have a book. elain did not have space and time to have a rich development. she hasn't been a protagonist yet, so obviously she doesn't have the same build as feyre and nesta. it's just dumb to compare her to the two, or to expect everything to have formed when we don't even have a point of view of her.

but then, you praise a character like gwyn who is a secondary character and only serves to be best friends with nesta, as if she were an extremely rich character. she is so insignificant in the story that it would not make sense to make her deeper, as the protagonist is nesta. it wouldn't make sense to downplay nesta's story to solve gwyn's problems as she doesn't have that purpose in the story. basically her entire fandom is passionate about headcanons. 

i hate this fandom and everything they talk about too strongly.

[shadowqueenjude]

I’m curious bc I don’t know many anti-Azriel people on here. He def gave me the ick in the ACOSF bonus chapter but if he does have growth and we see more of the soft side of his character will you hate his book? I don’t think he “took Lucien’s traits” in HOFAS, he was shown to be really thoughtful in friendships with Nesta in ACOSF. I personally just think he’s a dumbass in relationships, with low self esteem.

But I think he’ll have growth in his book and that’s not necessarily changing his personality or making him watered down Lucien. To me they have similarities but they’re still very different, I guess I’m just curious as to whether you’ll continue to give the books a chance with his book coming up.

Hi! Thanks for the ask! This will be a little bit long so stick with me. I do believe he is exhibiting Lucien characteristics in HOFAS. More evidence: Snarking at the enemies as I mentioned previously: Lucien snarked at Amarantha. This is OOC for Azriel who went straight to choking Eris to death in the High Lord meeting for one comment. Secondly, he refused to sing for Gwyn, his mate, who he often trains with, but he sang for Bryce, a girl who he barely knows and doesn't trust at all? It doesn't make sense. Thirdly, canonically Azriel didn't even hug Feyre after she nearly died. Do you really expect me to believe he'd stroke Nesta like that? Again, Lucien in ACOWAR with Feyre. Azriel with Feyre:

And I don't think the following scenes are just him being an idiot:

I haven't even mentioned his treatment of Mor and Elain. Azriel is 500 years old, he should know better. His actions can't be dismissed as "he's an idiot and sad." Sure, doesn't give you an excuse to act like this. I do think that Azriel and Lucien have similar backstories while having altogether different personalities which contributes to Azriel's jealousy of Lucien: I made a post about this here: https://www.tumblr.com/lorcanisdabest/738004022330621952/azriel-is-jealous-of-lucien?source=share I can't bring myself to read Azriel's book if Lucien doesn't get his HEA first because it really doesn't feel fair. Azriel gets to bitch about not having a mating bond, say whatever he wants about Lucien, nearly choke Eris to death, creep on Elain and Mor, and immediately get his HEA with Gwyn? Lucien has been suffering with this mating bond since ACOMAF. I might read it if it comes after Lucien's book but only if Azriel acknowledges his shitty behavior and the fact that Lucien IS worthy because he has behaved inexcusably towards so many characters. I also don't want him to become sassy all of a sudden. I do believe Gwyn will bring out a different side of him but I always imagined Azriel to kind of be like a darker Lorcan so HOFAS felt like rushed characterization to me. Lorcan, as you can tell from my username, is one of my favorite characters of all time, so Azriel being similar to him is not a bad thing at all; not everyone has to be Lucien. I was actually neutral with Azriel when I finished; he was a nonentity to me. But after reading the bonus chapter and participating in a fandom that ignores all his flaws for so long, I've grown to dislike him. So he has a lot of work to do.