#while also asking for a redemption arc for tamlin

[f1ameheir]

unpopular opinion of the morning :

everyone in the sjm world fandom asking / theorizing for a tamlin redemption arc but at the same time shitting and rolling their eyes at chaol’s redemption journey … like you can’t even handle chaol’s and , while i’m only half way through tower of dawn , even i know and aware of the fact yes he was an ass at times towards aelin , but he was no where near as bad as tamlin was to feyra and everyone. and yet you sit there and say that? make it make sense.

[shadowsatdawnx]

as someone who has been a victim in the past of domestic violence, and also as someone who wants to see a tamlin redemption arc, this has been the most exhausting couple of days i’ve had in this fandom.

people can ship tamlin and elain. i don’t personally like it, especially when it is so often used as a way to demean elain or knock her down, but i have my own problematic ships i like (dramione and reylo here!) so ship to your hearts content.

but to go out of your way to harass the admins of a week that have absolutely nothing to do with tamlin in the first place while hijacking the elain week hashtag and purposefully triggering the people who asked for the rule in the first place is a new fandom low.

i’m going to be stepping away for a while. this has been incredibly triggering and bad for my mental health, and it’s not worth it because nothing we say matters to these people anyways. they’re doing this out of spite and at the expense of DV survivors and they don’t care. they think it’s funny. there’s no use arguing with people like that.

please, elriels, take care of your mental health first and foremost 💜

[acourtofthought]

Hi sorry to take you back but you didn’t answer one of my questions. I am still wondering if SJM ever written anything like that, like a romance in her other books where the sister ends up getting with her sister’s ex? I haven’t read any of her other books apart from ACOTAR and I honestly feel like that’s not her style. Also thanks so much for answering my other questions, you cleared a few of my doubts. I do think Bloomsbury is making her stay silent on elucien mating bond just so the shipwars keep running and so we are at the edge of our seats when the book comes out. I feel like if she speaks on it we will know instantly that they will end up together. She spoke on it once and practically said they would do that’s my guess.

Sorry about that! This is the first of Sarah's books where we've read about siblings. Aelin did not have a sister and neither did Bryce so there's never been a setup where Sarah could have had a sibling end up with their siblings ex. I have seen this trope with other authors but it's not at all set up the way the Archeron sisters are set up. The entire point of their arc is for them to grow together, to let go of the trauma's of their past and the misconceptions they've had about one another and become closer as a result. (With that said, it doesn't mean they all need to live in the same town and end up in relationships with three "brothers" where they all have regular family dinners together and can only ever do things with each other, I adore my brother but he lives on the other side of the United States). With other authors, the trope only usually works when sibling A, the one who first dated the love interest, mistreated them (i.e., cheated on them, belittled them, was a spoiled brat, etc). Then when sibling B starts dating the ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend, you're rooting for the pairing because we have grown to dislike sibling A. In order for Sarah to make the Elain / Tamlin ship work, Feyre would have to not be the heroine of the original trilogy. She would need to have been the antagonist and while yes, she has done questionable things over the course of the series, the narrative is that Tamlin was the one who wronged she and her sisters what with his refusal to allow her to train, his inability to control his temper and his decision to play double agent with Hybern and put his faith in Ianthe. All in all, Feyre was the one who initially suffered at Tamlin's hands. I'm not saying Tamlin is entirely bad but he's definitely not set up as the good guy who was mistreated by Feyre. Also, Tamlin physically assaulted Lucien as well. He allowed Lucien to perform in the Rite with the female who sexually assaulted him. He put Ianthe's word over Lucien's. It's ok to still want a redemption / healing arc for Tamlin but we have to consider what Sarah's opinion of Tamlin is and what she is likely to write about for his character. She is on record as saying he sucks and that he's a douche. She's also on record as saying Lucien has always been one of her favorite characters. Therefore the likelihood of her having Tamlin end up with Lucien's mate, after everything Tamlin has done to Lucien since the start of the series and after Lucien already lost who he thought his mate was, is almost non-existent (in my opinion). I also think the likelihood of Sarah writing Elain falling in love with Tamlin is also zero percent. Every since the end of ACOTAR, Elain has gone out of her way to do more for Feyre. Preparing a horse and satchel for her, planning a ball for her, telling Nesta how Feyre gave and gave for years and now it's their time to help her, preparing a special cake for Feyre's birthday, telling her how she's always been the foundation that holds them up, asking Nesta not to upset Feyre during her pregnancy. I'm not getting the vibe that Elain would now turn around and fall in love with someone who did cause Feyre a lot of hurt, that she'd suddenly be expecting Feyre to welcome Tamlin to family get togethers and want to introduce him to her nephew Nyx. There is no way to make that storyline believable after everything that's happened. That's not to say Elain won't offer Tamlin forgiveness, that she'll tell him she no longer blames him for the events of Hybern and maybe she'll even thank him for what he did for her father but I think it's a pretty huge leap from that to wanting a romantic future with Tamlin.

[highladyelenna]

Wow, okay. So i didn’t think I needed to clarify that this post:

was indeed a shit post and a fucking joke.

But, some people decided to take jokes and treat them seriously so I guess let me defend myself??

I said that this scene was important for Feyre not because of ANYTHING that had to do with Rhys. This scene was important to Feyre because she needed to learn how to rely on herself. She was used to relying on Tamlin or Rhysand in her new life. So much so that she forgot she relied on herself and her instincts most of her life. Feyre wanted to be apart of the war coming. She wanted to help. So she needed to learn how to be collected and calm and rely on herself in order to survive. In war it’s messy. It’s dangerous. You are risking your life every second. Every choice you make risks your life. Now, was this scene dangerous? Yes. Could Rhys have taught her this an easier way? Yes. BUT you need to remember that this scene was in order to prepare to go steal the Book from Tarquin. Would that be an easier situation to be in? No. Would it be less dangerous? No. So, as much as I felt for Feyre. As much as I wish Rhys did it differently, I understand why. He didn’t do it to “prove her love” the ring just happened to be there. And, let’s not forget that Rhys was there the WHOLE time. Do you really think that he’d just let her die? He would’ve stepped in if she needed but he can’t coddle her. She needed to learn to stand on her own two feet.

This post really had nothing to do with Tamlin. Quite literally NOTHING. So bringing him up to start an argument is just kinda wild. But this brings to their next comment.

The countless innocents that you are referring to..I assume is under the mountain? Which..is no one’s fault but Amaranthas?

Rhysand UTM was terrible. He was cruel. He was a monster. Because he HAD to be. He had to play his part to free Pyrithan. He is a morally grey character and they do things that most people don’t agree with that’s the whole point.

The kiss scene was not okay. It was assault and that’s that. Doesn’t matter if it was just a kiss. He had a reason for doing it but again it was assault point blank. I have never stated in any of my posts that I condone him forcefully kissing Feyre no matter his intentions. Even though Feyre understood why it was uncomfortable to read and SJM should’ve written something-anything else.

I’ve stated my opinion on the pregnancy situations many times. But basically, I think the whole situation was utter bullshit and SJM using Feyres pregnancy to give Nesta a redemption arc was bullshit.

Rhys not telling Feyre about the pregnancy and trying to find a way to fix the situation wasn’t okay. Madja should’ve told her. Rhys should’ve told her. Everyone should’ve told her. I really wish we got the pregnancy from their povs just to get into their heads and thought processes.

“Bullied Feyre into being the perfect little wife” im sorry but i think you got Rhys and Tamlin mixed up on that one 😉

“locked nesta in a tower because she didn’t ‘behave properly’” right because Nesta couldn’t ever leave the HoW and no i’m not talking about the stupid steps. All she needed to do was ask one of them to fly her down and then she’d be able to leave. and yes because Nesta was totally not killing herself by drinking and starving herself for a year, no they totally locked her up bc she wouldn’t listen to Rhys. Right in the dot with that one. Really got me.

Personally Silver Flames was a mess and I hated everyone’s actions in that book and wish SJM didn’t even write it at that point because it’s so bad.

Anyways, the difference between you and I is that I can admit that I don’t agree with every action Rhysand makes. I can admit that I don’t agree with the things that he’s done, while also appreciating the food that he’s done. The good in him. The way he’s become a better version of himself over the books.

Now, I’m not really going to make this post about Tamlin because my original post wasn’t about him but I will say Tamlin was never and will ever be the better choice FOR FEYRE.

So, can y’all please stop turning every light hearted post and joke into a fucking war in the comments? Like please. It’s really stupid and you can go rant and rave on your own blogs and in your own tags but leave ours alone. I don’t really delete comments bc Express your opinions on posts that warrant it for all I care but really? Turning a joke into this is just crazy.

This fandom has gotten so crazy over the years and Im really over it like ugh.

Anyways: rant over. Sorry for the long post.

[shadowqueenjude]

Feytamsand, Part 5 for @polyacotarweek free day! (Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4)

While Rhysand has clearly done some good, he has also done a lot of bad! I think it would've been neat to see Rhys take responsibility for his actions and have a true redemption arc! That is the main focus of my piece today!

Rhysand abhorred the Summer Court.

Most people loved it here. The glorious sun beaming down on this land, the ocean breeze, the mermaids and hippocampi and all the natural stones. But Rhys sunburned easily, and the heat was NOT being kind to him. He winced as the skin on his face began to peel. “The former High Lord of Night, defeated by a little sunlight,” Feyre teased. Tamlin reigned in his laugh, and Rhysand sighed. “And you would’ve been defeated by the easiest riddle of all time were it not for me,” he countered. Feyre griped, “You know that I couldn’t read because we lost our fortune early, and my sisters never bothered to teach me. Why are you making fun of my poverty?” “Weren’t you 11 when you lost your fortune? I believe that’s old enough even for a human babe to have learned. Or were you too busy chasing butterflies?” Tamlin quickly turned his laugh into a cough. Feyre rounded on him instead. “I hate to say it,” Tamlin muttered, hands up in surrender, “but he has a point.” Rhysand turned to look at Feyre smugly. “See? Even Tamlin agrees with me. That should tell you enough.” “Whatever,” Feyre snapped, storming up ahead. Rhysand cringed at himself but carried forward. “Do you two always argue like that?” Tamlin asked Rhysand, head tilted like a cat’s. Rhysand bit his lip, debating how much to tell Tamlin. Ultimately, he decided to tell him all of it. “Yes, but we usually have makeup sex after and forget about it.” Tamlin shook his head somberly. “Feyre feyre feyre. She always had a tendency to use sex as a coping mechanism; she did that with me too.”

Rhysand blinked. “As a coping mechanism?” Tamlin nodded. “Talk to her about it,” he pressed. “It’ll help her.” Rhysand scanned Tamlin’s face, searching for a trace of insincerity, but finding none. “Thank you,” Rhysand said quietly. Tamlin nodded. As they walked, they reached the entrance to the Summer Court house used for diplomatic meetings. Rhysand opened the door, bowing to Tamlin. “After you.” Tamlin grinned. “We both know you’re no gentleman, Rhys. Best stick to being an insufferable bastard.” “This is how I’m treated when I try to do something nice,” Rhysand complained, but it was lighthearted. He knew Tamlin was joking. Rhysand jolted when Tamlin wrapped an arm across his shoulders. “Thanks, Rhys. Better?” “Yes,” Rhys said. They walked together just as they had centuries ago, like nothing had changed. Tarquin sat there waiting for them. “Hello, Tamlin. I must admit, I am shocked to find out the present company you are keeping.” “They are here to take responsibility for what they did in Spring so that I may convince my people to return home,” Tamlin said. “Or more precisely, I am,” Rhysand cut in. Tamlin and Feyre both whipped around to look at Rhysand. “What do you mean?” Feyre demanded. “This is my mess too.” Rhysand shook his head. “You would’ve never done this if it weren’t for me. I was the one who made you this brutal, this vicious. And while I don’t regret it, because it helped you survive, I regret that it led you to cause harm to countless innocents needlessly. Let me protect your reputation and do this. Please.” “No,” Feyre snapped, pushing out of her chair and grabbing Rhysand by the shoulders. “This is both of our burdens. We will deal with it together.” “No,” Rhys said adamantly, placing a hand on Feyre’s cheek. “Please. I have been so stupid and selfish. I used you, Feyre. For once, let me do something for you. Don’t rob me of this chance.” Feyre blinked at his earnestness, pulling away. Tarquin and Tamlin both had strange looks on their faces. Rhysand ignored them. “Well, do you know what you’re going to say?” Tarquin asked. Rhysand nodded. “Would you mind running it by us first?” Tarquin asked. Rhysand shook his head. “I won’t do that. If I do, I’ll lose the nerve.” Tarquin sighed. “I hope you’re being truthful. Most would call me an idiot for trusting you again. Perhaps I am. What say you, Tamlin? You know him better than I.”

“I say, for the first time in centuries, Rhysand is acting honestly,” Tamlin said. Ironic, since Rhysand was lying to cover up for Feyre. Tarquin nodded. “Go ahead then, Rhys. Wow us with your apology.” Rhysand took a deep breath, ignoring the rising heartbeat of his heart, the blood rushing by his ears, the stiffening of his fingers, the slight trembling of his lips. He mustered a smirk with a confidence he didn’t feel. “You know I will.” Then he found himself facing a riotous crowd. Suddenly, he felt like an outsider watching his body facing the crowd. His mouth wouldn’t move. His body was frozen. Where were the words of acknowledgement he’d planned? He couldn’t remember a lick of the speech he’d planned now. For the first time in centuries, Rhysand is acting honestly. Rhysand ripped off the mask. Stared at the people of Summer. Some people in this crowd wished to return to their home court of Spring but didn’t trust the High Lord because of his wrongdoings. He must change that. He must right this wrong. “People of Summer, there are some of you in this crowd who have taken up residence here because Spring was massacred by Hybern. Your High Lord, Tamlin, has been taking painstaking efforts to rebuild Spring. His court is ready to start accepting your return any day now. I know many of you believe him to be a self-serving git who got his court burned by Hybern, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. You see, Tamlin was playing double agent the whole time, gathering information to help destroy Prythian’s enemy. The destabilization of Spring was unfortunately my doing, as I believed him to be an ally of Hybern, and for my own petty selfish reasons. Do not hate Tamlin. Hate me instead.” Rhysand closed his eyes and waited to be drowned by the riot that was sure to come after his declaration.

[bookishfeylin]

what are your #anti sjm unpopular opinions? this side of the fandom is pretty similar in our opinions so i was wondering where you differ. asking this to a bunch of people btw.

Hi anon!

I have... several unpopular opinions for this side of the fandom, and it's a testament to how much better our side is that I haven't been harassed by anyone over here because of them.

My first and largest is that I love, love, LOVE (book 1) Feylin. Many people here still don't like Feylin, if it's not considered downright taboo. And obviously, on THAT SIDE of the fandom it is THE no-no ship, THE untouchable territory. But I go there anyway :)

My second unpopular opinion that I know differs from quite a few mutuals and followers of mine is that Tamlin did not redeem himself by resurrecting Rhysand, is nowhere near close to redemption by the end of ACOWAR (anyone who's reading ACOHAS probably already knew this was my feeling tho lol), and furthermore I believe that he should not receive a redemption arc in canon. Redemption arcs in fiction aren't about morality and what characters "deserve them", imo, but rather how it works thematically and if it fits the message the story is trying to convey. Rhysand being redeemed/having his assault of Feyre swept under the rug in ACOMAF was bad enough for this series' own themes about abuse and SA, but Tamlin being redeemed completely spits on them. It sucks, because as I've said time and time again Rhysand and Tamlin are the same in how they act and it's incredibly hypocritical to not call out Rhysand for abuse while calling out Tamlin, but Sarah has decided Tamlin is the embodiment of the abuser(TM) just as Feyre is the embodiment of the victim(TM) and Rhysand is the embodiment of the healthy love interest(TM) so Tamlin narratively can never truly gain "redemption" without screwing up the story's themes or questioning those labels, and frankly, allowing him to be redeemed would be incredibly insulting to this series' themes and message about abuse. In my fanfic ACOHAS it only works because I go the route of "everyone sucks" and call out everyone's abuse, Feyre and Rhysand's included, so as to even the playing field and Tamlin's arc ends in a way I THINK is narratively satisfying all things considered. But Sarah will never acknowledge that anyone aside from Tamlin is abusive, so a redemption cannot work for him in canon. So I don't think a Tamlin redemption will ever occur in the books, nor do I truly think it's a good idea from a narrative viewpoint.

I also think that rather than merely complain about a lack of diversity in Sarah's books you should also try to promote alternatives (not that I don't complain myself but people who complain about something and then DO NOTHING to attempt a solution irritate me. The solution is simply to stopping buying Maas books and to promote more authors of color, and what I hate specifically is that I don't see enough critics of Sarah elevating authors of color as much as they complain, not the complaining in and of itself).

And my last unpopular opinion: neither Nesta OR Elain are that interesting. THERE I SAID IT. The complexity they had a little bit of in book one was flatted and removed in ACOMAF. And now BOTH of them are boring. Sorry.

[songofthesibyl]

It was definitely encouraging to read. I did get the sense SJM was telling us to hate Tamlin through the different characters’ POVs in ACOFAS and ACOSF—it was overwhelming. But, I also had to think of why else these scenes may have been included. In the other interview excerpts I posted she said she was setting up several characters in ACOSF—this may not include Tamlin, and she may have just been having characters hate him for shits and giggles—but Mor for example equated Eris and Tamlin, hating both, wanting to kill both, and yet it definitely seems like Eris is being set up for something. At the very least, on a practical level, Tamlin has to be dealt with if she is going to write Lucien’s story. As far as healing—absolutely agree about Rhys, and that may have been why he is acting the way he has been in recent books. At the very least she keeps throwing trauma his way. There’s the death pact (which is criticized by the IC, so we can trust those criticisms). And there’s the bonus chapter of HOFAS in which his response to Ember calling him out is “are you calling me a monster?” Indicating he still has a lot to work through in how he perceives himself and what he has done. (That’s a general problem with writing 500 year old characters—if they’re all mature and evolved they have nowhere to go. So all of these old fae have to have problems they “should have” dealt with by now.)

I feel like she could have made Tamlin a lot worse in ACOWAR—he was definitely still written as bad for the first half, but it had only been three and a half months. He wasn’t going to be all healed and evolved (I mean him specifically). And it would have been difficult for him to get help anyway, without a Velaris to go to, and with the realities of being High Lord. So he could have kept getting worse, morally speaking, after the High Lord’s meeting. Even if his redemption in the second half was purely because she wanted the Rhys resurrection scene, and it was “boring” as she said to write a two-dimensionally evil character—those were still choices she made. She wasn’t forced, nor was she forced to use a pregnancy arc for Nesta’s healing.

I think Tamlin’s running away probably has been going on for a long while—even going back to what happened with Rhys. So the trauma is new, but the coping mechanisms, or lack thereof, go way back—to burning the wings alone, instead of sending them to Rhys, and then never talking about it again. The same for Rhys—I mean after centuries he didn’t even know where the wings were. In ACOFAS, Tamlin asks if he forgives him, and Rhys replies, “I don’t recall ever hearing an apology.” Then Tamlin says he doesn’t think an apology will matter for either Rhys or Feyre. Instead of pushing past that and simply being honest and apologizing. That for me hinted that if Tamlin did finally face that, it would be an indication of his healing—not necessarily a happy ending of course, Papa Archeron etc—but healing all the same. It just remains if that was at least part of the reason behind her writing all that.

The last interview excerpt I want to post is where I finally found the domestic abuse victim resource info posted. It’s in a special edition of ACOFAS, at the end of the interview—so, it is not in other versions of the novella. I don’t necessarily want my views or interpretations fed to me. But I wanted to get more insight on where the author was coming from apart from pithy sound bites, and got this relatively nuanced take on Tamlin. To keep in mind, however, the books are not about him, nor is she making excuses for him (considering the info at the end and all):

“But with Tamlin, I knew I needed to make their romance believable in the first book. She had to fall in love with him, and fall in love with him while not quite seeing the red flags. After all, it was the first time in her life that she’s ever been in love and felt like someone was taking care of her. Feyre had always needed to take care of everyone—her sisters, her father—and to suddenly be in a place of luxury, where now she isn’t the caretaker but is instead being cared for…that’s a situation, at least for me, where I think it’s easy to imagine how someone would fall in love with Tamlin. After all, he was the first person to ever prioritize her.

But I also knew that whatever happened Under the Mountain to Feyre and to Tamlin would really break her—and break them. Prythian’s not our modern world. They don’t have therapy. They have magic, but they don’t possess some of the resources that we do in our modern world, or even the vocabulary to be able to talk about trauma and PTSD the way we can.”

On the importance of tackling mental illness, depression, and PTSD in her characters:

“I never wanted Feyre and Rhys, or even Tamlin, to have all their suffering swept under the carpet. To be magically happy again, because that’s not how it works. Maybe some people can just keep going, but for a lot of people, myself included, sometimes those traumas linger and need to be faced and healed.

In Mist and Fury, Tamlin doesn’t do that and it destroys him.”

She goes on to say it almost destroyed Feyre too, and went on to describe Feyre and Rhys’ healing journeys.

I think Tamlin is meant to be a foil in many ways—not all of which succeed for me—but if that healing is the central theme of ACOMAF, and the original trilogy in general as she says, then Tamlin is also a foil in this very important way. He doesn’t have a healing journey because he does not face these things—she said he is destroyed. It shows what can happen when one doesn’t face things, and that to me is the central conflict of his character—that avoidance, that depressive, fatalistic aspect of his thinking. He disassociates after killing the Bogge, in a scene very similar to one in Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et La Bête; he is ashamed after killing the Naga, and I think having to perform the Great Rite as well. Instead of dealing with it he avoids and runs away and bottles it up. His first real love might have been Feyre, just as the author says Tamlin was Feyre’s, and he was desperate to hold onto it—but he ultimately wasn’t in a place to have that be a healthy relationship.

The scene mentioned above from Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et La Bête in which Belle observes Beast walking down the hallway in a kind of trance.

These kinds of characters have always fascinated me—not necessarily at the expense of the protagonists, but in addition to them. I don’t think they are necessarily misunderstood good people—often they aren’t really good people at all—but that spark of good, the high ideals that they fail at, becoming “the very thing they swore to destroy”—all of these things are very interesting to me. Most often these characters are dismissed as whiny and boring and bad. But even as failures, as antagonists and sometimes even villains, I like to know what motivates them, how they fail, the consequences and regret—and yes, the hope they might get better. But these are often tragic characters, as Tamlin most likely will be. That doesn’t make him any less interesting or compelling to me.

[lufecu01]

MY thoughts after reading acosf

Being mean and cruel does not make a character badass

Being feminine and having a hobby doesn’t make a character boring

Saying a character is the kindest of all yet failing to see that kindness in the book?? Idk, she only seems polite to me.

Nesta got on her knees for Amren and begged for forgiveness, but she couldn’t even voice a thank you to Feyre?

Trauma is not an excuse to treat others like trash

Nesta being there for Elain her whole life even when she was severely depressed and traumatized, only for Elain to get mad and basically abandoning Nesta when she’s dealing with her trauma her way does not sit right with me

Acosf was a healing and growing journey, not really a redemption arc.

House of wind stairs plot. Do I need to say more?

Giving up powers you didn’t want in the first place to save someones life is not a sacrifice

She shouldn’t have given up her powers

Eris and Nesta intrigued me more than Nessian

The scene w Lanthys showing Nesta him and her together was kinda…hot

Villain Nesta could’ve been so powerful

I would absolutely love Nesta if she treated both her sisters the same and was cruel to everyone else

Feyre is severely underrated in her own series

Idk how I feel about Feyre locking Nesta in the HOW and being compared to what Tamlin did.

“Elain is Elain” what??

I wanted Feyre to snap at Nesta and bitch slap her AT LEAST once

I feel like so much was left unsaid and swept under the rug

I think I liked Nesta more in acowar than by the end of acosf

Idc, Nesta should’ve apologized to Feyre

Loved the Valkyries friendship so much more than Feyre, Mor, and Amrens

Acosf made me sympathize w Nesta, but I still don’t like her

Azriel stopped loving Mor after 500 years bc of Elain just like that?

Elain doesn’t owe Lucien anything but at least a formal rejection to him. Where’s that kindness?

She was asking Amren about turning human again, i think she would’ve asked how to sever the bond long ago.

Lucien wouldn’t invoke a blood duel.

People think there’s something between Lucien and Vassa but not Azriel and Gwyn?

Elriels relationship is like “🙂��� in my head

Mixed feelings about Azriels bonus chapter

Him and Elain obviously have feelings towards each other, but how would that play out in the long run?

Elain would always have that bond w Lucien, Azriel probably has a mate out there, his shadows skittered away from her, I’m trying so hard to like them. They just give me the ick together.

How do his shadows work?! They run from someone and dance with another persons breath?

I really want a Tamlin redemption…

Elain was semi curious about Lucien in Acowar (while still being in love w Graysen, even after having recently experienced something traumatic) and after she just completely ignores him??

I don’t blame Az for thinking sexually of Elain, but dude couldn’t think of anything else?

Also don’t blame him for wondering why she’s not his mate since his brothers are mated to the sisters

He could’ve at least said he has feelings other than lust towards her idk

Why did he avoid the question ab Mor?!

Gwyn could definitely be a lightsinger(highly doubt shes an evil one though)

Cassian gifting the symphonia to Nesta is the sweetest thing ever

Ok but what if Gwyn asked Azriel if he sung bc she heard a faint singing before (like Azriel did after talking to Gwyn) and it’s actually their mate bond singing (music between their souls) or something. Idk maybe I’m reaching

Will not apologize for this:)

[bythenineshards]

Feyre and Sacrifice

Within the Acotar Fandom there's words that get thrown around quite a lot. Growling, purring, crooning, snarling, watery bowels and the picking of lint off of shirts. These can be annoying but they're harmless. Then there's the terms that get thrown around with reckless abandon that are a determent to the meaning and depth of that word. For example, the word abuse is basically synonymous with just saying something mean to Feyre without the consideration for the actions that led to that reaction. Then there's the in-between. The terms and phrases that are thrown around that only really cause harm if you think about it for more than a second. Something said by the fandom and characters that leaves one scratching their head asking, "How?"

"She sacrificed so much"

In a narrative, specifically with this connotation, the speaker is referring to the definition of "Sacrifice" as giving up (something important or valued) for the sake of other considerations. So the fandom is saying that Feyre gave up a lot of things she cared about for the good of everyone else. So what exactly did she sacrifice?

From the first page of Acotar, Maas separated Feyre from the concept of sacrifice. Instead, she does what she always does. Maas tells you that Feyre has sacrificed so much while providing nothing to lose. Before I explain I'd like to provide 2 examples of characters sacrificing in the manner Feyre is talked about doing.

Spoilers for Gravity Falls

The first example is a small sacrifice. It's meant to show how much Dipper cares about his sister Mabel. While at a carnival Dipper wants to have the perfect day with his crush Wendy. Mabel wins a pig and names him Waddles. Dipper screws up his day but through some unimportant shenanigans he's able to use time travel to redo the day. He does so and achieves the perfect day. However in having the perfect day, Mabel is unable to have Waddles. Dipper sacrifices the perfect day in order for his sister to get Waddles. The result is Wendy getting back together with her ex Robbie. (Side note: Wendy is too old for Dipper and it's obvious this was just a one sided first crush)

The next example is also from Gravity Falls but it's much bigger in scale. Grunkle Stan is a slimy selfish con artist of a man. He cares only about money. Over the course of the show and summer Stan Pines grows to love and care about Dipper and Mabel. Becoming particularly fond of Mabel as he realizes how similar they are in odd ways. Through a lot of shenanigans I don't have time to explain, the only way to defeat the villain is to trap him inside someone's mind and erase that person's memory. Stan does this. He willingly has all of the memories from that Summer erased in order save the town. Thus completing one of the most underrated redemption arcs in recent memory.

So back to Feyre. What does Feyre have to lose? In Acotar, Chapter One, nothing. It's made very clear by the second page that she feels no love for her remaining family. Only cold resentment and obligation to provide for them. She has no real ties to anyone. Even the guy she's seeing is just a casual fling. She thinks practically about their relationship. She knows it won't go further than it has. In the beginning, Feyre has one thing she loves. Painting.

When Feyre leaves to go after Tamlin, she's going into it with the goal of living happily ever after with TimTam. In order for something to be a sacrifice she has to lose something. At the end of the book she has exactly that.

"She lost her life and humanity!"

I'm sorry but within a work of fiction, a character dying then getting better isn't a sacrifice. It's childish. The loss of humanity doesn't mean anything. Feyre had no real plan to return to her family. She says she will but she also said she'd let Nesta know if she survived and didn't keep that promise. Sooo Feyre's word is worthless. So the big sacrifice she made was dying for a sec and coming back hotter, stronger and brimming with power?

There's also the fact that Feyre didn't do this for the people under Amarantha. She did it for Discount Legolas. She didn't know about the curse under Alis exposition vomited it for 13 pages. Her motivation was the same. In order for her dying and being made Fae to be a sacrifice, she would've needed to care about her humanity. If Maas wanted it to be a sacrifice then it would need to be a little like this:

1. Feyre leaves to rescue Tamlin.

2. Feyre finds Alis and is given the exposition dump.

3. Realizes her entire relationship with Tamlin is built on a lie and kidnapping.

4. Decides she doesn't want to be with him.

5. Goes Utm anyway to make a deal to free the courts with the goal of returning home after she succeeds.

6. Utm stuff... Maybe have her tell Mops McGoldie that she doesn't want to be with him.

7. Dies. (Optional: leave her dead. Then we wouldn't have the shitstorm that is Rhysand's bs)

8. Is brought back as Fae and now unable to return home due to the racism toward Fae.

This way she actually lost something. Something lasting.

Throughout the series, Feyre doesn't lose anything, she has zero consequences for her actions and never has to grow. I see it all over the place. How much Feyre has sacrificed for everyone yet there is nothing that she has actually lost. Maas doesn't know the meaning of sacrifice and neither do Feyre's Stans.

I mean I could be totally wrong. They could mean that Feyre slaughters goats on an altar to appease a dark and cunning goddess of Mary Suedom and my copy of the audiobook just had all the goat blood bathing cut out.

[wisteriabookss]

An Extensive Analysis of Eris

The recent excerpt from ACOSF has got this fandom spinning on it’s head because it includes a feral-smiling Eris waltzing with Nesta. As a result, people have now delved deeper into his character and whether or not he deserves a redemption arc (or an arc of any kind). 

So naturally, he has been compared to Rhys, because Rhys also appeared to us in the beginning as a cruel, cunning person, who was eventually revealed to have a bigger heart, and a valid excuse (at least amongst the IC) for his behavior.

I made this post to mainly catalogue all that Eris has done, analyze his actions, see if he indeed can be compared to Rhys, and to determine whether or not he should have a redemption arc. 

What We Know So Far

Our first mention of Eris is in ACOMAF, when Rhysand is explaining to Feyre what happened to Mor. I could put the quotes here, but just to save some time I’m gonna make a long story short.

Mor’s father, Keir, declared that she was to be sold in marriage to Eris. Eris is known for being cruel, and Mor begged Rhys to stop it. Rhys brought her to the Illyrian camp for a few days, and she decided to sleep with Cassian in order to ruin her “pure” image. Because she slept with Cassian, Eris refused to marry her. Said, “she’d been sullied by a bastard-born lesser faerie, and he’d now sooner fuck a sow.” Her family, although it’s not said explicitly, basically beat her, and then dumped her body on the Autumn court border with a note nailed to her body that said she was Eris’s problem now. Eris left her for dead in the middle of their woods.

Now, we’re going to look at what he exactly said during this event, given to us from Mor’s POV in ACOFAS:

“Don’t touch her.” Those steps stopped. It was not a warning to protect her. Defend her.

“No one touches her,” he said. Eris. “The moment we do, she’s our responsibility.” 

Cold, unfeeling words. “But—but they nailed a—” 

“No one touches her.”

A pale, beautiful face appeared above her, blocking out the jewel-like leaves above. Unmoved. Impassive. “I take it you do not wish to live here, Morrigan.”

He must have read it in her eyes. A small smile curved his lips. “I thought so.”

Eris took a step away. Someone behind him blurted, “We can’t just leave her to—” 

“We can, and we will,” Eris said simply, his pace unfaltering as he strode away. 

“She chose to sully herself; her family chose to deal with her like garbage. I have already told them my decision in this matter.” A long pause, crueler than the rest. “And I am not in the habit of fucking Illyrian leftovers.”

Now that we have Mor’s side of the story, we’re going to look at what Eris has said about that fateful day during a discussion with the IC in ACOWAR:

Mor snarled, rattling the glasses. “You never gave any evidence to the contrary. Certainly not when you left me in those woods.”

“There were forces at work that you have never considered,” Eris said coldly. “And I am not going to waste my breath explaining them to you. Believe what you want about me.”

. . . .

A frown at Mor as he drained his wine and set down the goblet. “I’m surprised you still can’t control yourself around him. You had every emotion written right on that pretty face of yours.”

“Watch it,” Azriel warned.

Eris looked between them, smiling faintly. Secretly. As if he knew something that Azriel didn’t. “I wouldn’t have touched you,” he said to Mor, who blanched again. “But when you fucked that other bastard—” A snarl ripped from Rhys’s throat at that. And my own. “I knew why you did it.” Again that secret smile that had Mor shrinking. Shrinking. “So I gave you your freedom, ending the betrothal in no uncertain terms.”

“And what happened next,” Azriel growled.

A shadow crossed Eris’s face. “There are few things I regret. That is one of them. But … perhaps one day, now that we are allies, I shall tell you why. What it cost me.”

A main takeaway from this is that there seems to be much more to story of what happened between Eris and Mor.

Does that mean him leaving her in the woods is excusable? No. Absolutely not. He didn’t try to take the nail out of her (which would’ve been the bare minimum), he didn’t alert Rhys that she was there, he didn’t do anything to help her. He started to make the situation even more traumatic by saying vile things to her. Whatever reason he gives for not helping her will be just that: a reason. But not an excuse. Those are two very different things.

Eris say’s that leaving her there is one of the few things he regrets. There’s something in that. I’m not saying under any circumstance that he should be forgiven because he feels guilty, thats stupid as hell, but it is showing that he’s not some apathetic, other-worldy evil person. There’s some semblance of a conscious in him. 

He also say’s that one day he’ll tell them why he did it and what it cost him. By what it cost him, I’m guessing he’s talking about the cost of ending his betrothal to Mor, because I can’t think of what he lost by leaving her there. 

I don’t think there’s been any mention of someone getting revenge on Eris because A.) Rhys told Feyre that, “Azriel found her a day later. It was all I could do to keep him from going to either court and slaughtering them all.” and B) her family was obviously going to do nothing cause they’re the ones who hurt her.

I’m not going to try and theorize what cost Eris had to pay. It obviously is something (or someone) important to him.

But to me, one of the biggest things we got from this discussion is that it seems Eris knows Mor is gay. That secret smile of his that had Mor shrinking, the way he says he knows why she slept with Cassian, and that he gave Mor her freedom by ending the betrothal without giving a reason . . . he knows.

He knew she was gay, so he ended their engagement, no questions asked. And then Mor was dumped in his woods, and he did nothing to help. 

Morally grey, indeed.

(P.S. To the person that posted something along the lines of, “I can’t wait to see Mor’s face when she see’s Eris dancing with Nesta,” . . . get help)

Another excerpt I wanna look at also happens during the recent discussion we’ve just seen, but it has to do with Feyre and Lucien.

“You hunted me down like an animal,” I cut in. “I think we’ll choose to believe the worst.”

Eris’s pale face flushed. “I was given an order. And sent to do it with two of my … brothers.”

That little hesitation before he says ‘brothers’. . . sus. That’s all imma say. (maybe there’s more than one illegitimate son in that family . . .)

“And what of the brother you hunted down alongside me? The one whose lover you helped to execute before his eyes?”

Eris laid a hand flat on the table. “You know nothing about what happened that day. Nothing.”

Silence.

“Indulge me,” was all I said.

Eris stared me down. I stared right back.

“How do you think he made it to the Spring border,” he said quietly. “I wasn’t there— when they did it. Ask him. I refused. It was the first and only time I have denied my father anything. He punished me. And by the time I got free … They were going to kill him, too. I made sure they didn’t. Made sure Tamlin got word—anonymously—to get the hell over to his own border.”

Where two of Eris’s brothers had been killed. By Lucien and Tamlin.

Eris picked at a stray thread on his jacket. “Not all of us were so lucky in our friends and family as you, Rhysand.”

We see another semblance of conscious here when Eris refuses to take part in the slaughtering of Jesminda. To even be in the same room as it. He then made sure that Lucien wasn’t going to die by making sure Tamlin was at his border. 

I’m not putting these quotes here to say, “Look, he cares about stuff , so let’s excuse everything he’s done.” No. There is no excusing any of his actions. Just like we can’t excuse Rhysand’s behavior in the first two books, or Cassian’s, or Nesta’s, or even Feyre’s, etc. But what we can do is see the reasons for their actions, and try and understand why they acted the way they did. They have their reasons, and Eris has his. (P.S. I’m not trying to compare what they’ve done, I’m just noting that they all had reasons to do what they’ve done, and they all deserve to be heard out.)

Comparison To Rhys

As I said earlier, Eris has drawn a lot of comparisons to Rhys. I agree with most of them.

This fandom has catalogued all of Rhys’s questionable actions like . . .

*TRIGGER WARNING: words like sexually assaulted*

Rhys sexually assaulting Feyre three times in the first book by drugging her, and then compelling her to give him lap dances in front of the folks Under The Mountain. He then displayed Feyre again in a sexual manner in the second book in front of The Court of Nightmares as, and I quote, “The High Lords Whore.” 

In both situations he could’ve done things so much differently. In the first book, he could’ve just, oh I don’t know, kept her in her cell? Or maybe brought her upstairs as a normal person?

And in the second one she literally could have been ANYTHING else. Everyone thinks she’s his prisoner, so why didn’t they go with that? Why couldn’t he have just dressed her in some raggedy-ass clothing, messed up her hair, and then tell her to act super stoic or frightened? Really Rhys, she just had to be your whore? (I know it was consensual but that doesn’t make her persona okay. He could’ve picked literally anything else)

Did he have his reasons for doing this? Yes. Does his reasons excuse what he did? No. You don’t have to make everyone else around you act a part just because you do.

So while we may not excuse Rhys’s actions, we can understand his reasons even if we don’t agree with them. Same with Eris. We know Eris has his reasons, and I doubt we’ll all agree with them, but he still has them.

Let’s also not forget that Rhysand made a deal with Eris and Keir that he would support Eris’s claim to the Autumn Court throne when Eris decides to kill his father for it. He also allowed Keir and his court to come into Velaris, and even though they’ll be turned away by every vendor, he still allowed them in. While he had his reasons for doing this (the Darkling army for ACOWAR) he still did it. It still hurt Mor.

Redemption Arc 

My biggest hesitation in thinking Eris will get a redemption arc is wondering where it would fit in the books for him to have one. We don’t know how if his waltz with Nesta is just a one-time thing or if it’s a result of a friendship between the two. The second book is supposed to be centered around Elain, Azriel, and Lucien, so that could also be a spot where he get’s an arc, maybe through a relationship with Lucian or Azriel. 

Either way, I’m not gonna bring down the hammer and say that he shouldn’t get a redemption arc. Tbh, the term ‘redemption arc’ kinda annoys me because it shouldn’t be about redeeming what was done in the past, but more about learning from past mistakes and taking the initiative to grow into a better person. That’s what I want for Eris. He’s not going to magically be revealed to be this super sweet fun-loving guy like Rhys. I don’t want him to be revealed like that either. 

I just want to see more of his character, see why he is the way he is, and, like i’ve said a million times in this post, know his reasons for acting the way he does. 

One last thing before I go. I’m not interested in seeing any relationship blossom between Eris and the IC, or Nesta, and I think it’s unlikely anyways. There’s a possibility for them to have an understanding, sure, but no friendship. I know there are some people who automatically adore Eris because they hate Mor and that’s just stupid. Mor isn’t my fav either, but I won’t cheer Eris on just because he hurt her. 

That’s all I’ve got. If you’ve made it this far, I appreciate you. Really.

[kingandfireheart]

The biggest Eris Vanserra moments from ACOTAR -ACOSF: What the fuck is happening in Autumn (Part 1)

I was originally very confused about how people seem to LOVE Eris all of a sudden, so I went back through the books to find out. SJM has definitely sprinkled the bread crumbs for some massive Eris revelations - will he have a redemption arc? does he even need to be redeemed? What are his secrets? Why did he leave Mor? Why did he protect Lucien? Why did he want to marry Nesta?

Cassian and Feyre voice doubts about Eris that really had me thinking about all of his scenes in the books:

" Beron studied his son with a scrutiny that made some small, small part of me wonder if Eris might have grown to be a good male if he’d had a different father. If one still lurked there, beneath centuries of poison. Because Eris … What had it been like for him, Under the Mountain? What games had he played— what had he endured? Trapped for forty-nine years. I doubted he would risk such a thing happening again. Even if it set him in opposition to his father—or perhaps because of that."

"You know what a monster your father is and want to usurp him; you act against him in the best interests of not only the Autumn Court but also of all of the faerie lands; you risk your life to ally with us … and yet you left her in the woods."

I went through all five books and pieced together the most telling Eris moments (they are all below the cut)

What I gained from this exercise was a few observations

Eris may have a moral compass - he curbs Beron's and his brother's bad behavior, and he stick his neck out to help in the war . He also seems to genuinely care for his soldiers. Eris pushes back against Beron, the oldest and most terrible High Lord, even when it results in punishment

Eris is playing a long game here, and it isn't limited to just him being high lord. We still don't have the full story on Mor and Lucien : what were the larger forces at play? Why did he buy Mor time? What did he show Rhys and Mor to convince them to trust him? Does he care for Lucien like a brother? Is he just a part of the schemes?

The Lady of the Autumn Court is definitely a big piece to the Autumn Court, Lucien, Helion, and Eris puzzles (Here is a list of her moments!)

See my other compilations of Character moments here: Lucien Sass, Nessian Mating Bond (Pre-ACOFAS), Cassian + Words of Affirmation (ACOSF), Lady of the Autumn Court

A Court of Thrones and Roses:

Tamlin tells Lucien's Story

"Lucien is the youngest son of the High Lord of the Autumn Court.”... “The youngest of seven brothers. The Autumn Court is … cutthroat. Beautiful, but his brothers see each other only as competition, since the strongest of them will inherit the title, not the eldest. It is the same throughout Prythian, at every court. Lucien never cared about it, never expected to be crowned High Lord, so he spent his youth doing everything a High Lord’s son probably shouldn’t: wandering the courts, making friends with the sons of other High Lords”—a faint gleam in Tamlin’s eyes at that —“and being with females who were a far cry from the nobility of the Autumn Court.” Tamlin paused for a moment, and I could almost feel the sorrow before he said, “Lucien fell in love with a faerie whom his father considered to be grossly inappropriate for someone of his bloodline. Lucien said he didn’t care that she wasn’t one of the High Fae, that he was certain the mating bond would snap into place soon and that he was going to marry her and leave his father’s court to his scheming brothers.”

A tight sigh. “His father had her put down. Executed, in front of Lucien, as his two eldest brothers held him and made him watch.” My stomach turned, and I pushed a hand against my chest. I couldn’t imagine, couldn’t comprehend that sort of loss. “Lucien left. He cursed his father, abandoned his title and the Autumn Court, and walked out. And without his title protecting him, his brothers thought to eliminate one more contender to the High Lord’s crown. Three of them went out to kill him; one came back.”

---

“As emissary,” I began, “has he ever had dealings with his father? Or his brothers?”

“Yes. His father has never apologized, and his brothers are too frightened of me to risk harming him.” No arrogance in those words, just icy truth. “But he has never forgotten what they did to her, or what his brothers tried to do to him. Even if he pretends that he has.”

Under the Mountain

When Amarantha tortures Lucien for Feyre's name:

Behind them, pressing to the front of the crowd, came four tall, red-haired High Fae. Toned and muscled, some of them looking like warriors about to set foot on a battlefield, some like pretty courtiers, they all stared at Lucien—and grinned. The four remaining sons of the High Lord of the Autumn Court.

---

Lucien’s brothers lurked on the edges of the crowd—no remorse, no fear on their handsome faces.

---

“Her name?” she asked Tamlin, who didn’t reply. His eyes were fixed on Lucien’s brothers, as if marking who was smiling the broadest.

Amarantha ran a nail down the arm of her throne. “I don’t suppose your handsome brothers know, Lucien,” she purred.

“If we did, Lady, we would be the first to tell you,” said the tallest. He was lean, well dressed, every inch of him a court-trained bastard. Probably the eldest, given the way even the ones who looked like born warriors stared at him with deference and calculation—and fear.

---

Lucien sagged on the ground, trembling. His brothers frowned—the eldest going so far as to bare his teeth at me in a silent snarl.

---

A ripple of laughter spread across those assembled behind us, the loudest from Lucien’s brothers.

When Rhysand takes Feyre to the parties at night:

Faeries and High Fae gawked as we passed through the entrance. Some bowed to Rhysand, while others gaped. I spied several of Lucien’s older brothers gathered just inside the doors. The smiles they gave me were nothing short of vulpine.

---

We reached the throne room, and I braced myself to be drugged and disgraced again. But it was Rhysand the crowd looked at—Rhysand whom Lucien’s brothers monitored. Amarantha’s clear voice rang out over the music, summoning him. He paused, glancing at Lucien’s brothers stalking toward us, their attention pinned on me. Eager, hungry—wicked. I opened my mouth, not too proud to ask Rhysand not to leave me alone with them while he dealt with Amarantha, but he put a hand on my back and nudged me along

During the second trial:

In the crowd, red hair gleamed—four heads of red hair—and I stiffened my spine. I knew his brothers would be smiling at Lucien’s predicament—but where was his mother? His father? Surely the High Lord of the Autumn Court would be present. I scanned the crowd. No sign of them

---

“Answer it!” Lucien shouted, his voice hitched. My eyes stung. The world was just a blur of letters, mocking me with their turns and shapes.

The metal groaned as it scraped against the smooth stone of the chamber, and the faeries’ whispers grew more frenzied. Through the holes in the grate, I thought I saw Lucien’s eldest brother chuckle. Hot—so unbearably hot.

---

“Just pick one!” Lucien shouted, and some of those in the crowd laughed—his brothers no doubt the loudest.

When Tamlin and Feyre make out in the closet:

“You’re both fools,” he murmured, his breathing uneven. “How did you not think that someone would notice you were gone? You should thank the Cauldron Lucien’s delightful brothers weren’t watching you.

After Feyre breaks the curse:

The Attor and the nastier faeries had disappeared instantly, along with Lucien’s brothers, which was a clever move, as Lucien wasn’t the only faerie with a score to settle

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Court of Mist and Fury:

Lucien telling Feyre about Jesminda:

“Even if I what?”

His face paled, and he stroked a hand down the mare’s cobweb-colored mane. “I was forced to watch as my father butchered the female I loved. My brothers forced me to watch.”

Rhys tells Mor's story:

His throat bobbed. I could tell it was rage, and pain, that kept him from telling me outright—not mistrust. After a moment, he said, “I was there, in the Hewn City, the day her father declared she was to be sold in marriage to Eris, eldest son of the High Lord of the Autumn Court.” Lucien’s brother. “Eris had a reputation for cruelty, and Mor … begged me not to let it happen. For all her power, all her wildness, she had no voice, no rights with those people. And my father didn’t particularly care if his cousins used their offspring as breeding stock.”

“What happened?” I breathed.

“I brought Mor to the Illyrian camp for a few days. And she saw Cassian, and decided she’d do the one thing that would ruin her value to these people. I didn’t know until after, and … it was a mess. With Cassian, with her, with our families. And it’s another long story, but the short of it is that Eris refused to marry her. Said she’d been sullied by a bastard-born lesser faerie, and he’d now sooner fuck a sow. Her family … they … ” I’d never seen him at such a loss for words. Rhys cleared his throat. “When they were done, they dumped her on the Autumn Court border, with a note nailed to her body that said she was Eris’s problem.”

Nailed—nailed to her.

Rhys said with soft wrath, “Eris left her for dead in the middle of their woods. Azriel found her a day later. It was all I could do to keep him from going to either court and slaughtering them all.” I thought of that merry face, the flippant laughter, the female that did not care who approved. Perhaps because she had seen the ugliest her kind had to offer. And had survived.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Court of Wings and Ruin:

Lucien tells his story:

“I’d say that sounds more High-Lord-like than the life of an idle, unwanted son.”

A long, steely look. “Did you think it was mere hatred that prompted my brothers to do their best to break and kill me?”

Despite myself, a shudder rippled down my spine. I finished off the apple and uncoiled to my feet, plucking another off a low-hanging branch. “Would you want it—your father’s crown?”

“No one’s ever asked me that,” Lucien mused as we moved on, dodging fallen, rotting apples. The air was sticky-sweet. “The bloodshed that would be required to earn that crown wouldn’t be worth it. Neither would its festering court. I’d gain a crown—only to rule over a crafty, two-faced people.”

Lucien+Feyre vs. Autumn Court Brothers:

“Father,” the one now holding a knife to my throat said to Lucien, “is rather put out that you didn’t stop by to say hello.”

“We’re on an errand and can’t be delayed,” Lucien answered smoothly, mastering himself.

That knife pressed a fraction harder into my skin as he let out a humorless laugh. “Right. Rumor has it you two have run off together, cuckolding Tamlin.” His grin widened. “I didn’t think you had it in you, little brother.”

“He had it in her, it seems,” one of the others sniggered.

I slid my gaze to the male above me. “You will release us.”

“Our esteemed father wishes to see you,” he said with a snake’s smile. The knife didn’t waver. “So you will come with us to his home.” “Eris,” Lucien warned. The name clanged through me. Above me, mere inches away … Mor’s former betrothed. The male who had abandoned her when he found her brutalized body on the border. The High Lord’s heir.

---

“This can end with you going under, begging me to get you out once that ice instantly refreezes,” Eris drawled. Behind him, cut off by his brothers, Lucien had drawn his own knife and now sized up the other two. “Or this can end with you agreeing to take my hand. But either way, you will be coming with me.”

---

Glaring—then considering. Watching the three of us as I said to Eris, to his other two brothers, to the sentries on the shore, “You all deserve to die for this. And for much, much more. But I am going to spare your miserable lives.”

Even with a wound through his gut, Eris’s lip curled.

Cassian snarled his warning.

I only removed the glamour I’d kept on myself these weeks. With the sleeve of my jacket and shirt gone, there was nothing but smooth skin where that wound had been. Smooth skin that now became adorned with swirls and whorls of ink. The markings of my new title—and my mating bond.

Lucien’s face drained of color as he strode for us, stopping a healthy distance from Azriel’s side. “I am High Lady of the Night Court,” I said quietly to them all.

Even Eris stopped sneering. His amber eyes widened, something like fear now creeping into them.

Lucien advises the Inner Circle:

Lucien studied me again, and it was an effort not to squirm. “My father would likely join with Hybern if he thought he stood a chance of getting his power back that way—by killing you.”

A snarl from Rhys.

“Your brothers saw me, though,” I said, setting down my fork. “Perhaps they could mistake the flame as yours, but the ice …”

Lucien jerked his chin to Azriel. “That’s the information you need to gather. What my father knows —if my brothers realized what she was doing. You need to start from there, and build your plan for this meeting accordingly.”

Mor said, “Eris might keep that information to himself and convince the others to as well, if he thinks it’ll be more useful that way.” I wondered if Mor looked at that red hair, the golden-brown skin that was a few shades darker than his brothers’, and still saw Eris.

Lucien said evenly, “Perhaps. But we need to find that out. If Beron or Eris has that information, they’ll use it to their advantage in that meeting—to control it. Or control you. Or they might not show up at all, and instead go right to Hybern.”

Eris in the Hewn City:

If the Ouroboros could not be retrieved, at least without such terrible risk … I shut out the thought, sealing it away for later, as Keir left. Leaving us alone with Eris.

The heir of Autumn just sipped his wine.

And I had the terrible sense that Mor had gone somewhere far, far away as Eris set down his goblet and said, “You look well, Mor.”

“You don’t speak to her,” Azriel said softly.

Eris gave a bitter smile. “I see you’re still holding a grudge.”

“This arrangement, Eris,” Rhys said, “relies solely upon you keeping your mouth shut.”

Eris huffed a laugh. “And haven’t I done an excellent job? Not even my father suspected when I left tonight.”

I glanced between my mate and Eris. “How did this come about?”

Eris looked me over. The crown and dress. “You didn’t think that I knew your shadowsinger would come sniffing around to see if I’d told my father about your … powers? Especially after my brothers so mysteriously forgot about them, too. I knew it was a matter of time before one of you arrived to take care of my memory as well.” Eris tapped the side of his head with a long finger. “Too bad for you, I learned a thing or two about daemati. Too bad for my brothers that I never bothered to teach them.”

---

“Of course I didn’t tell my father,” Eris went on, drinking from his wine again. “Why waste that sort of information on the bastard? His answer would be to hunt you down and kill you—not realizing how much shit we’re in with Hybern and that you might be the key to stopping it.”

“So he plans to join us, then,” Rhys said.

“Not if he learns about your little secret.” Eris smirked. Mor blinked—as if realizing that Rhys’s contact with Eris, his invitation here … The glance she gave me, clear and settled, told me enough. Hurt and anger still swirled, but understanding, too.

“So what’s the asking price, Eris?” Mor demanded, leaning her bare arms on the dark glass. “Another little bride for you to torture?”

Something flickered in Eris’s eyes. “I don’t know who fed you those lies to begin with, Morrigan,” he said with vicious calm. “Likely the bastards you surround yourself with.” A sneer at Azriel.

Mor snarled, rattling the glasses. “You never gave any evidence to the contrary. Certainly not when you left me in those woods.”

“There were forces at work that you have never considered,” Eris said coldly. “And I am not going to waste my breath explaining them to you. Believe what you want about me.”

“You hunted me down like an animal,” I cut in. “I think we’ll choose to believe the worst.”

Eris’s pale face flushed. “I was given an order. And sent to do it with two of my … brothers.”

“And what of the brother you hunted down alongside me? The one whose lover you helped to execute before his eyes?”

Eris laid a hand flat on the table. “You know nothing about what happened that day. Nothing.”

Silence.

“Indulge me,” was all I said.

Eris stared me down. I stared right back.

“How do you think he made it to the Spring border,” he said quietly. “I wasn’t there—when they did it. Ask him. I refused. It was the first and only time I have denied my father anything. He punished me. And by the time I got free … They were going to kill him, too. I made sure they didn’t. Made sure Tamlin got word—anonymously—to get the hell over to his own border.”

Where two of Eris’s brothers had been killed. By Lucien and Tamlin.

Eris picked at a stray thread on his jacket. “Not all of us were so lucky in our friends and family as you, Rhysand.”

Rhys’s face was a mask of boredom. “It would seem so.”

And none of this entirely erased what he’d done, but … “What is the asking price,” I repeated.

“The same thing I told Azriel when I found him snooping through my father’s woods yesterday.”

Hurt flared in Mor’s eyes as she whipped her head toward the shadowsinger. But Azriel didn’t so much as acknowledge her as he announced, “When the time comes … we are to support Eris’s bid to take the throne.”

Even as Azriel spoke, that frozen rage dulled his face. And Eris was wise enough to finally pale at the sight. Perhaps that was why Eris had kept knowledge of my powers to himself. Not just for this sort of bargaining, but to avoid the wrath of the shadowsinger. The blade at his side.

“The request still stands, Rhysand,” Eris said, mastering himself, “to just kill my father and be done with it. I can pledge troops right now.”

Mother above. He didn’t even try to hide it—to look at all remorseful. It was an effort to keep my jaw from dropping to the table at his intent, the casualness with which he spoke it.

“Tempting, but too messy,” Rhys replied. “Beron sided with us in the War. Hopefully he’ll sway that way again.” A pointed stare at Eris.

“He will,” Eris promised, running a finger over one of the claw marks gouged into the table. “And will remain blissfully unaware of Feyre’s … gifts.” A throne—in exchange for his silence. And sway.

“Promise Keir nothing you care about,” Rhys said, waving a hand in dismissal.

Eris just rose to his feet. “We’ll see.” A frown at Mor as he drained his wine and set down the goblet. “I’m surprised you still can’t control yourself around him. You had every emotion written right on that pretty face of yours.”

“Watch it,” Azriel warned.

Eris looked between them, smiling faintly. Secretly. As if he knew something that Azriel didn’t. “I wouldn’t have touched you,” he said to Mor, who blanched again. “But when you fucked that other bastard—” A snarl ripped from Rhys’s throat at that. And my own. “I knew why you did it.” Again that secret smile that had Mor shrinking. Shrinking. “So I gave you your freedom, ending the betrothal in no uncertain terms.”

“And what happened next,” Azriel growled.

A shadow crossed Eris’s face. “There are few things I regret. That is one of them. But … perhaps one day, now that we are allies, I shall tell you why. What it cost me.”

“I don’t give a shit,” Mor said quietly. She pointed to the door. “Get out.”

Eris gave a mocking bow to her. To all of us. “See you at the meeting in twelve days.”

Inner Circle Reacts to Eris Alliance:

Mor whirled on Azriel. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Azriel held her gaze unflinchingly. Didn’t so much as rustle his wings. “Because you would have tried to stop it. And we can’t afford to lose Keir’s alliance—and face the threat of Eris.”

“You’re working with that prick,” Cassian cut in, whatever catching-up now over, apparently. He moved to Mor’s side, a hand on her back. He shook his head at Azriel and Rhys, disgust curling his lip. “You should have spiked Eris’s fucking head to the front gates.”

Azriel only watched them with that icy indifference. But Lucien crossed his arms, leaning against the back of the couch. “I have to agree with Cassian. Eris is a snake.”

Perhaps Rhys had not filled him in on everything, then. On what Eris had claimed about saving his youngest brother in whatever way he could. Of his defiance.

“Your whole family is despicable,” Amren said to Lucien from where she and Nesta lingered in the archway. “But Eris may prove a better alternative. If he can find a way to kill Beron off and make sure the power shifts to himself.”

“I’m sure he will,” Lucien said.

High Lord's Meeting

(the highlights - there's a lot of Beron, Eris, and Helion to piece together here)

Beron—slender-faced and brown-haired—didn’t bother to look anywhere but at the High Lords assembled. But his remaining sons sneered at us. Sneered enough that the Peregryns ruffled their feathers. Even Varian flashed his teeth in warning at the leer Cresseida earned from one of them. Their father didn’t bother to check them.

But Eris did.

A step behind his father, Eris murmured, “Enough,” and his younger brothers fell into line. All three of them.

Whether Beron noticed or cared, he did not let on. No, he merely stopped halfway across the room, hands folded before him, and scowled—as if we were a pack of mongrels.

Beron, the oldest among us. The most awful.

Rhys smoothly greeted him, though his power was a dark mountain shuddering beneath us, “It’s no surprise that you’re tardy, given that your own sons were too slow to catch my mate. I suppose it runs in the family.”

Beron’s lips curled slightly as he looked to me, my crown. “Mate—and High Lady.”

I leveled a flat, bored stare at him. Turned it on his hateful sons. On—Eris.

Eris only smiled at me, amused and aloof. Would he wear that mask when he ended his father’s life and stole his throne?

---

Tamlin only angled his head at Rhys. “When you fuck her, have you ever noticed that little noise she makes right before she climaxes?”

Heat stained my cheeks. This wasn’t outright battle, but a steady, careful shredding of my dignity, my credibility. Beron beamed, delighted—while Eris carefully monitored.

---

Rhys went on, “I … convinced her that it would serve little purpose.” “Who knew,” Beron mused, “that a cock could be so persuasive?”

“Father.” Eris’s voice was low with warning.

For Cassian, Azriel, Mor, and I had fixed our gazes upon Beron. And none of us were smiling. Perhaps Eris would be High Lord sooner than he planned.

---

“If you want proof that we are not scheming with Hybern,” Rhysand said blandly to them all, “consider the fact that it would be far less time-consuming to slice into your minds and make you do my bidding.”

Only Beron was stupid enough to scoff. Eris was just angling his body in his chair—blocking the path to his mother.

--

But Beron said, “You may be inclined to believe him, Rhysand, but as someone who shares a border with his court, I am not so easily swayed.” A wry look. “Perhaps my errant son can clarify. Pray, where is he?”

Even Tamlin looked toward us—toward me.

“Helping to guard our city,” was all I said. Not a lie, not entirely.

Eris snorted and surveyed Nesta, who stared back at him with steel in her face. “Pity you didn’t bring the other sister. I hear our little brother’s mate is quite the beauty.”

If they knew Elain was Lucien’s mate … It was now another avenue, I realized with no small amount of horror. Another way to strike at the youngest brother they hated so fiercely, so unreasonably. Eris’s bargain with us had not included protection of Lucien. My mouth went dry.

But Mor replied smoothly, “You still certainly like to hear yourself talk, Eris. Good to know some things don’t change over the centuries.”

Eris’s mouth curled into a smile at the words, the careful game of pretending that they had not seen each other in years. “Good to know that after five hundred years, you still dress like a slut.

---

Only Eris knew how far that alliance went—information that could damn this meeting if either side revealed it. Information that could get him wiped off the earth by his father.

Mor was staring and staring at Azriel, who refused to look at her, who refused to do anything but give Eris that death-gaze.

Eris, wisely, averted his eyes. And said, “Apologies, Morrigan.”

His father actually gawked at the words. But something like approval shone on the Lady of Autumn’s face as her eldest son settled himself once more.

---

Beron’s face darkened. “Watch your tone, girl.”

“She doesn’t have to watch anything,” I cut in. “Not when you fling that sort of horseshit at her.” I looked to the alchemist. “I will take your antidote.”

Beron rolled his eyes.

But Eris said, “Father.”

Beron lifted a brow. “You have something to add?”

Eris didn’t flinch, but he seemed to choose his words very, very carefully. “I have seen the effects of faebane.” He nodded toward me. “It truly renders us unable to tap our power. If it’s wielded against us in war or beyond it—”

“If it is, we shall face it. I will not risk my people or family in testing out a theory.”

“It is no theory,” Nuan said, that mechanical hand clicking and whirring as it curled into a fist. “I would not stand here unless it had been proved without a doubt.”

A female of pride and hard work.

Eris said, “I will take it.”

It was the most … decent I’d ever heard him sound. Even Mor blinked at it.

Beron studied his son with a scrutiny that made some small, small part of me wonder if Eris might have grown to be a good male if he’d had a different father. If one still lurked there, beneath centuries of poison.

Because Eris … What had it been like for him, Under the Mountain? What games had he played— what had he endured? Trapped for forty-nine years. I doubted he would risk such a thing happening again. Even if it set him in opposition to his father—or perhaps because of that.

Beron only said, “No, you will not. Though I’m sure your brothers will be sorry to hear it.” Indeed, the others seemed rather put-out that their first barrier to the throne wasn’t about to risk his life in testing Nuan’s solution.

---

Rhys lifted a brow. “Your staggering generosity aside, will you be joining our forces?”

“I have not yet decided.”

Eris went so far as to give his father a look bordering on reproach. From genuine alarm or for what that refusal might mean for our own covert alliance, I couldn’t tell.

---

This argument was pointless. And I didn’t care who they were or who I was as I said to Beron, “Get out if you’re not going to be helpful.”

At his side, Eris had the wits to actually look worried.

But Beron continued to ignore his son’s pointed stare and hissed at me, “Did you know that while your mate was warming Amarantha’s bed, most of our people were locked beneath that mountain?”

I didn’t deign responding.

“Did you know that while he had his head between her legs, most of us were fighting to keep our families from becoming the nightly entertainment?”

---

Beron shot to his feet, not bothering to brush off the dust, and declared to no one in particular, “This meeting is over. I hope Hybern butchers you all.”

But Nesta rose from her chair. “This meeting is not over.”

Even Beron paused at her tone. Eris sized up the space between my sister and his father.

She stood tall, a pillar of steel. “You are all there is,” she said to Beron, to all of us. “You are all that there is between Hybern and the end of everything that is good and decent.” She settled her stare on Beron, unflinching and fierce.

“You fought against Hybern in the last war. Why do you refuse to do so now?” Beron did not deign to answer. But he did not leave. Eris subtly motioned his brothers to sit. Nesta marked the gesture—hesitated. As if realizing she indeed held their complete attention. That every word mattered.

---

She looked to Beron and his family as she finished. Only the Lady and Eris seemed to be considering—impressed, even, by the strange, simmering woman before them.

I didn’t have the words in me—to convey what was in my heart. Cassian seemed the same.

Beron only said, “I shall consider it.”

A look at his family, and they vanished. Eris was the last to winnow, something conflicted dancing over his face, as if this was not the outcome he’d planned for.

Expected.

The Lucien Paternity Revelation:

Helion began asking why we wanted to know, what Hybern was doing with the Cauldron … and Rhys fed him answers, easily and smoothly.

While we spoke, I said down the bond, Helion is Lucien’s father. Rhys was silent. Then— Holy burning hell. His shock was a shooting star between us.

I let my gaze dart through the room, half paying attention to Helion’s musing on the wall and how to repair it, then dared study the High Lord for a heartbeat. Look at him. The nose is the same, the smile. The voice. Even Lucien’s skin is darker than his brothers’. A golden brown compared to their pale coloring.

It would explain why his father and brothers detest him so much—why they have tormented him his entire life.

My heart squeezed at that. And why Eris didn’t want him dead. He wasn’t a threat to Eris’s power—his throne. I swallowed. Helion has no idea, does he?

It would seem not.

The Lady of Autumn’s favorite son—not only from Lucien’s goodness. But because he was the child she’d dreamed of having … with the male she undoubtedly loved.

The War:

Out of a rip in the world, Eris appeared atop our knoll, clad head to toe in silver armor, a red cape spilling from his shoulders. Rhys snarled a warning, too far gone in his power to bother controlling himself.

Eris just rested a hand on the pommel of his fine sword and said, “We thought you might need some help.”

---

But Beron. Beron had come. Eris registered our shock at that, too, and said, “Tamlin made him. Dragged my father out by his neck.” A half smile. “It was delightful.

---

Rhys’s voice was rough—low. “And what of your father?”

“We’re taking care of a problem,” was all Eris said, and pointed toward his father’s army. For those were his brothers approaching the front line, winnowing in bursts through the host. Right past the front lines and to the enemy wagons scattered throughout Hybern’s ranks.

The Final Meeting:

Eris was bruised and cut up enough to indicate he must have been in terrible shape after the fighting ceased yesterday, sporting a brutal slice down his cheek and neck—barely healed. Mor let out a satisfied grunt at the sight of it—or perhaps a sound of disappointment that the wound had not been fatal.

Eris continued by as if he hadn’t heard it, but didn’t sneer at least. Rather—he just nodded at Rhys. It was silent promise enough: soon. Soon, perhaps, Eris would finally take what he desired—and call in our debt.

We did not bother to nod back. None of us.

Especially not Lucien, who continued dutifully ignoring his eldest brother. But as Eris strode by … I could have sworn there was something like sadness—like regret, as he glanced to Lucien.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Court of Frost and Starlight:

Mor's Flashback (TW: physical abuse, violence)

But the Autumn Court male standing beside Keir … Mor made herself look at Eris. Into his amber eyes.

Colder than any hall of Kallias’s court. They had been that way from the moment she’d met him, five centuries ago.

Eris laid a pale hand on the breast of his pewter-colored jacket, the portrait of Autumn Court gallantry. “I thought I’d extend some Solstice greetings of my own.”

That voice. That silky, arrogant voice. It had not altered, not in tone or timbre, in the passing centuries, either. Had not changed since that day.

Warm, buttery sunlight through the leaves, setting them glowing like rubies and citrines. The damp, earthen scent of rotting things beneath the leaves and roots she lay upon. Had been thrown and left upon.

Everything hurt. Everything. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t do anything but watch the sun drift through the rich canopy far overhead, listen to the wind between the silvery trunks.

And the center of that pain, radiating outward like living fire with each uneven, rasping breath …

Light, steady steps crunched on the leaves. Six sets. A border guard, a patrol.

Help. Someone to help—

A male voice, foreign and deep, swore. Then went silent.

Went silent as a single pair of steps approached. She couldn’t turn her head, couldn’t bear the agony. Could do nothing but inhale each wet, shuddering breath.

“Don’t touch her.”

Those steps stopped.

It was not a warning to protect her. Defend her.

She knew the voice that spoke. Had dreaded hearing it. She felt him approach now. Felt each reverberation in the leaves, the moss, the roots. As if the very land shuddered before him.

“No one touches her,” he said. Eris. “The moment we do, she’s our responsibility.”

Cold, unfeeling words.

“But—but they nailed a—”

“No one touches her.”

...

She began shaking, hating it as much as she’d hated the begging. Her body bellowed in agony, those nails in her abdomen relentless.

A pale, beautiful face appeared above her, blocking out the jewel-like leaves above. Unmoved. Impassive. “I take it you do not wish to live here, Morrigan.”

She would rather die here, bleed out here. She would rather die and return— return as something wicked and cruel, and shred them all apart.

He must have read it in her eyes. A small smile curved his lips. “I thought so.”

Eris straightened, turning. Her fingers curled in the leaves and loamy soil.

She wished she could grow claws—grow claws as Rhys could—and rip out that pale throat. But that was not her gift. Her gift … her gift had left her here. Broken and bleeding.

Eris took a step away.

Someone behind him blurted, “We can’t just leave her to—”

“We can, and we will,” Eris said simply, his pace unfaltering as he strode away. “She chose to sully herself; her family chose to deal with her like garbage. I have already told them my decision in this matter.” A long pause, crueler than the rest. “And I am not in the habit of fucking Illyrian leftovers.”

She couldn’t stop it, then. The tears that slid out, hot and burning. Alone. They would leave her alone here. Her friends did not know where she had gone. She barely knew where she was.

“But—” That dissenting voice cut in again.

“Move out.”

There was no dissension after that.

And when their steps faded away, then vanished, the silence returned.

The sun and the wind and the leaves.

The blood and the iron and the soil beneath her nails.

The pain.

Eris in the Hewn City:

“I would suggest reminding Beron that territory expansion is not on the table. For any court.”

Eris wasn’t fazed. Nothing had ever disturbed him, ruffled him. Mor had hated it from the moment she’d met him—that distance, that coldness. That lack of interest or feeling for the world. “Then I would suggest to you, High Lord, that you speak to your dear friend Tamlin about it.”

“Why.” Feyre’s question was sharp as a blade.

Eris’s mouth curved in an adder’s smile. “Because Tamlin’s territory is the only one that borders the human lands. I’d think that anyone looking to expand would have to go through the Spring Court first. Or at least obtain his permission.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Court of Silver Flames:

Mor meets with Cassian:

“Eris bought me time.” Her words were laced with acid.

Cassian had tried not to believe it, but he knew Eris had done it as a gesture of good faith. He’d invited Rhysand into his mind to see exactly why he’d convinced Keir to indefinitely delay his visit to Velaris. Only Eris had that sort of sway with the power-hungry Keir, and whatever Eris had offered Keir in exchange for not coming here was still a mystery. At least to Cassian. Rhys probably knew. From Mor’s pale face, he wondered if she knew, too. Eris must have sacrificed something big to spare Mor from her father’s visit, which would have likely been timed for a moment that would maximize tormenting her.

Cassian meets with the Band of Exiles + Eris:

Lucien’s gold eye clicked, reading Cassian’s rage while warning flashed in his remaining russet eye.

The male had grown up alongside Eris. Had dealt with Eris’s and Beron’s cruelty. Had his lover slaughtered by his own father. But Lucien had learned to keep his cool.

---

Eris was their ally. Rhys had bargained with him, worked with him. Eris had held up his end at every turn. Rhys trusted him. Mor, despite all that had happened, trusted him. Sort of. So Cassian supposed he should do so as well.

---

Eris snorted again at Cassian’s fumbling, and, unable to help himself, Cassian at last turned toward him. “What are you doing here?”

Eris didn’t so much as shift in his seat. “Several dozen of my soldiers were out on patrol in my lands several days ago and have not reported back. We found no sign of battle. Even my hounds couldn’t track them beyond their last known location.”

Cassian’s brows lowered. He knew he shouldn’t let anything show, but … Those hounds were the best in Prythian. Canines blessed with magic of their own. Gray and sleek like smoke, they could race fast as the wind, sniff out any prey. They were so highly prized that the Autumn Court forbade them from being given or sold beyond its borders, and so expensive that only its nobility owned them. And they were bred rarely enough that even one was extremely difficult to come by. Eris, Cassian knew, had twelve.

“None of them could winnow?” Cassian asked.

“No. While the unit is one of my most skilled in combat, none of its soldiers are remarkable in magic or breeding.”

Breeding was tossed at Cassian with a smirk. Asshole.

But Eris shrugged a shoulder. “I think plenty of parties are interested in triggering another war, and this would be the start of it. Though perhaps your court did it. I wouldn’t put it past Rhysand to winnow my soldiers away and plant some mysterious scents to throw us off.”

---

Eris’s long red hair ruffled in the wind. “Whatever it is you’re doing, whatever it is you’re looking into, I want in.”

“Why? And no.”

“Because I need the edge Briallyn has, what Koschei has told her or shown her.”

“To overthrow your father.”

“Because my father has already pledged his forces to Briallyn and the war she wishes to incite.”

Cassian started. “What?”

“Explain what the fuck you mean by Beron pledging his forces to Briallyn.”

“It’s exactly what it sounds like. He caught wind of her ambitions, and went to her palace a month ago to meet with her. I stayed here, but I sent my best soldiers with him.” Cassian refrained from sniping about Eris opting out, especially as the last words settled.

“Those wouldn’t happen to be the same soldiers who went missing, would they?”

Eris nodded gravely. “They returned with my father, but they were … off. Aloof and strange. They vanished soon after—and my hounds confirmed that the scents at the scene are the same as those on gifts Briallyn sent to curry my father’s favor.”

---

“What does Beron say?”

“He is unaware of it. You know where I stand with my father. And this unholy alliance he’s struck with Briallyn will only hurt us. All of us. It will turn into a Fae war for control. So I want to find answers on my own—rather than what my father tries to feed me.”

Cassian surveyed the male, his grim face. “So we take out your father.”

Eris snorted, and Cassian bristled. “I am the only person my father has told of his new allegiance. If the Night Court moves, it will expose me.”

“So your worry about Briallyn’s alliance with Beron is about what it means for you, rather than the rest of us.”

“I only wish to defend the Autumn Court against its worst enemies.”

“Why would I work with you on this?”

“Because we are indeed allies.” Eris’s smile became lupine. “And because I do not believe your High Lord would wish me to go to other territories and ask them to help with Briallyn and Koschei. To help them remember that all it might take to secure Briallyn’s alliance would be to hand over a certain Archeron sister. Don’t be stupid enough to believe my father hasn’t thought of that, too.”

The Inner Circle Assigning Cassian to Eris:

And then Cassian had been slapped with a new order: keep an eye on Eris. Beyond the fact that he approached you, Rhys had said, you are my general. Eris commands Beron’s forces. Be in communication with him. Cassian had started to object, but Rhys had directed a pointed look at Azriel, and Cassian had caved. Az had too much on his plate already. Cassian could deal with that piece of shit Eris on his own.

Eris wants to avoid a war that would expose him, Feyre had guessed. If Beron sides with Briallyn, Eris would be forced to choose between his father and Prythian. The careful balance he’s struck by playing both sides would crumble. He wants to act when it’s convenient for his plans. This threatens that.

Eris meets with Rhys and Cassian:

“You’ve turned into quite the little traitor,” Rhys said, stars winking out in his eyes.

“I told you years ago what I wanted, High Lord,” Eris said.

To seize his father’s throne. “Why?” Cassian asked.

Eris grasped what he meant, apparently, because flame sizzled in his eyes. “For the same reason I left Morrigan untouched at the border.”

“You left her there to suffer and die,” Cassian spat. His Siphons flickered, and all he could see was the male’s pretty face, all he could feel was his own fist, aching to make contact.

Eris sneered. “Did I? Perhaps you should ask Morrigan whether that is true. I think she finally knows the answer.” Cassian’s head spun, and the relentless itching resumed, like fingers trailing along his spine, his legs, his scalp. Eris added before winnowing away, “Tell me when the shadowsinger returns.”

Eris meets with Cassian and Nesta:

“The Dread Trove,” Eris mused, surveying the heavy gray sky that threatened snow. “I’ve never heard of such items. Though it does not surprise me.”

“Does your father know of them?” The Steppes weren’t neutral ground, but they were empty enough that Eris had finally deigned to accept Cassian’s request to meet here. After taking days to reply to his message.

“No, thank the Mother,” Eris said, crossing his arms. “He would have told me if he did. But if the Trove has a sentience like you suggested, if it wants to be found … I fear that it might also be reaching out to others as well. Not just Briallyn and Koschei.”

Beron in possession of the Trove would be a disaster. He’d join the ranks of the King of Hybern. Could become something terrible and deathless like Lanthys. “So Briallyn failed to inform Beron about her quest for the Trove when he visited her?”

“Apparently, she doesn’t trust him, either,” Eris said, face full of contemplation. “I’ll need to think on that.”

“Don’t tell him about it,” Cassian warned.

Eris shook his head. “You misunderstand me. I’m not going to tell him a damned thing. But the fact that Briallyn is actively hiding her larger plans from him …” He nodded, more to himself. “Is this why Morrigan is back in Vallahan? To learn if they know about the Trove?”

---

Cassian grimaced. “Technically, Azriel and I did. Your soldiers were enchanted by Queen Briallyn and Koschei to be mindless killers. They attacked us in the Bog of Oorid, and we were left with no choice but to kill them.”

“And yet two survived. How convenient. I assume they received Azriel’s particular brand of interrogation?” Eris’s voice dripped disdain.

“We could only manage to contain two,” Cassian said tightly. “Under Briallyn’s influence, they were practically rabid.”

“Let’s not lie to ourselves. You only bothered to contain two, by the time your brute bloodlust ebbed away.”

Eris snorted. “There were certainly more than that, and you could have easily spared more than two. But I don’t know why I’d expect someone like you to have done any better.”

---

“Did you even try to spare the others, or did you just launch right into a massacre?” Eris seethed.

---

Nesta took one step closer to Eris. “Your soldiers shot an ash arrow through one of Azriel’s wings.”

Eris’s teeth flashed. “And did you join in this massacre, too?”

“No,” she said frankly. “But I wonder: Did Briallyn arm the soldiers with those ash arrows, or did they come from your private armory?”

Eris blinked, the only confirmation required. “Such weapons are banned, aren’t they?” she asked Cassian, whose features remained taut. The conflagration within her burned hotter, higher. She returned her attention to Eris. If he could toy with Cassian, then she’d return the favor. “Who were you storing those arrows for?” she mused. “Enemies abroad?” She smiled slightly. “Or an enemy at home?”

Eris held her stare. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Nesta’s smile didn’t waver. “Would an ash arrow through the heart kill a High Lord?”

Eris’s face paled. “You’re wasting my time.”

Eris and Nesta dance:

"Don’t believe the lies they tell you about me.”

She pulled back just enough to meet his gaze. “Oh?”

Eris nodded to where Mor watched them from beside Feyre and Rhys, her face neutral and aloof. “She knows the truth but has never revealed it.”

“Why?”

“Because she is afraid of it.”

“You don’t win yourself any favors with your behavior.”

“Don’t I? Do I not ally myself with this court under constant threat of being discovered and killed by my father? Do I not offer aid whenever Rhysand wishes?” He spun her again. “They believe a version of events that is easier to swallow. I always thought Rhysand wiser than that, but he tends to be blind where those he loves are concerned.”

---

Cassian could only stare at Eris’s throat, pondering whether to strangle him or slit the skin wide open. Let him bleed out on the floor.

“That’s not my decision,” Rhys said calmly to Eris. “And it seems foolish for you to offer me anything I want in exchange for her, anyway.”

His jaw tightened. “I have my reasons.”

From the shadows in his eyes, Cassian knew something more lay beneath the rash offer. Something that even Az’s spies hadn’t picked up on at the Autumn Court. All it would take was one push of Rhys’s power into his mind and they’d know, but … it went against everything they stood for, at least amongst their allies. Rhys demanded their trust; he had to give it in return. Cassian couldn’t fault his brother for that.

Eris added, “It is a bonus, of course, that in doing so, I would be repaying Cassian for ruining my betrothal to Morrigan.”

---

Again, Rhys’s lips twitched. So bloodthirsty, Cassian heard his High Lord croon to his mate. But Rhys said, “Anything I want, whether it be armies from the Autumn Court or your firstborn, you would grant me in exchange for Nesta Archeron as your wife?”

Cassian growled low in his throat. His brother was letting this carry on too far.

Eris glared. “Not as far as the firstborn, but yes, Rhysand. You want armies against Briallyn and my father, you’ll have them.” His lips curved upward. “I couldn’t very well let my wife’s sister go into battle unaided, could I?”

Eris, Cassian, and Nesta meet (the last time before the Rite)

Cassian only gave her an amused wink before continuing, “Your letter seemed to imply that your father was making a move. Out with it.”

“My father went to the continent again last week. He came back seeming normal, without the glassy-eyed aloofness my soldiers displayed. He did not invite me to accompany him, or explain what he discussed with Briallyn. I can only assume the fallout is approaching, though, and wanted to warn you. It was not something I could risk putting in writing. But for now … for now, it seems as if the world is holding its breath.”

---

“That’s absurd,” Nesta snapped. “What do we have to gain?”

Red flame sizzled in Eris’s eyes. “What did the King of Hybern have to gain by attaining the Cauldron and invading our lands?”

“We have no interest in conquest, Eris,” Cassian said, crossing his arms. “You know that. And we’re not going to use the Trove.”

Eris barked a laugh. Nesta could see that he didn’t believe them—that he was so used to the twisted politics and scheming of his court that even when the simple, easy truth was offered, he could not see it. “I find myself not entirely comfortable with your court possessing two items in the Trove.” His gaze shifted to Nesta. “Especially when you have so many other weapons in your arsenal.”

---

Eris picked at a piece of lint on his jacket. At his side hung the dagger Rhys and Feyre had gifted him, simple and plain compared to the finery on him. Her dagger. “You’d be truly stupid to go after Briallyn directly.”

“Leave the heroics to the brutes, Eris,” Cassian said. “Wouldn’t want to risk cutting up those pretty hands.”

Eris’s fingers curled slightly on his biceps. Nesta reined in her smile. Cassian’s words had found their mark.

---

Eris only said, “If you fail in retrieving the Crown, you risk Briallyn using it upon you. She could turn you on each other. Make you do unspeakable things. Even reveal to her where the other two objects are. And you’d have no choice but to tell her everything.” He worried about them revealing their alliance—for his own sake. “You threaten to expose us. Do not pursue the Crown.”

---

Eris glowered. “Has this been the plan the whole time? To string me along, make me an enemy of my father, then use the Trove against all of us?”

“You made yourself an enemy of your father,” Cassian said, smiling faintly. “When he finds out, I wonder if he’ll let your hounds rip you to shreds, or if he’ll do it himself.”

Eris paled slightly. “Don’t you mean if he finds out?”

Cassian said nothing. Kept his face neutral. Nesta stifled her smugness and did the same.

Eris observed them. For the first time since Nesta had known the male, uncertainty banked the fire in his gaze.

And then he turned toward the other subject in his letter, facing Nesta before he asked, “And my offer for you?” Not one ounce of affection or longing laced his words.

Nesta lifted her chin, smirking at last. “I suppose once we have the Crown in our hands, the Night Court won’t need you after all. Neither will I.”

She could have sworn Cassian was repressing a laugh, but she kept her gaze on Eris, who went rigid, rippling with rage. “I do not appreciate being toyed with, Nesta Archeron. My offer was sincere. Stay with the Night Court and you risk your ruin.”

Cassian cut in smoothly, “Try to fuck us over, Eris, and you risk yours.”

Eris’s upper lip curled. “Do whatever you want.” He straightened, as if shaking off any emotion, face going cold and cruel again. “It’s your lives you gamble with, not mine.” He chuckled, nodding to Cassian. “So what if the world loses another brute to war? Good riddance.”

Eris getting kidnapped and ensnared by the Crown:

Azriel said tightly, “My spies got word that Eris has been captured by Briallyn. She sent his remaining soldiers after him while he was out hunting with his hounds. They grabbed him and somehow, they were all winnowed back to her palace. I’m guessing using Koschei’s power.”

---

I had to use that brash princeling Eris to draw him in.” A soft laugh. “Eris tried to help his soldiers when they surrounded him during his hunt. Help those wretches. He rode right up to them, rather than gallop away as any wise person would. They grabbed him with minimal fuss. Even those infernal hounds of his could do nothing as Koschei winnowed him away.”

Eris might be a good male?

Eris went on, “Always mix truth and lies, General. Didn’t those warrior-brutes teach you about how to withstand an enemy’s torture?”

Cassian knew. He’d been tortured and interrogated and never once broken. “Beron tortured you?”

Eris rose, tucking his book under an arm. “Who cares what my father does to me? He believed my story about the shadowsinger’s spies informing him that a valuable asset had been kidnapped by Briallyn, and that you lot were disgusted to arrive and find it was me, rather than someone from the Summer or Winter Courts or whoever stoops to associate with you.”

Cassian unpacked each word. Beron had tortured his own son for information, rather than thanking the Mother for returning him. But Eris had held out. Fed Beron another lie.

And then there was the way Eris had spoken about the other courts. Something had been off in his words, his tight expression. Was the male jealous?

Cassian opened his mouth, more than ready to launch that question at him and bestow a stinging blow.

Yet he hesitated. Looked into Eris’s eyes.

The male had been raised with every luxury and privilege—on paper. But who knew what terrors Beron had inflicted upon him? Cassian knew Beron had murdered Lucien’s lover. If the High Lord of Autumn had been willing to do that, what wouldn’t he do?

“Get that pitying look off your face,” Eris snarled softly. “I know what sort of creature my father is. I don’t need your sympathy.”

Cassian again studied him. “Why did you leave Mor in the woods that day?” It was the question that would always remain. “Was it just to impress your father?”

Eris barked a laugh, harsh and empty. “Why does it still matter to all of you so much?”

“Because she’s my sister, and I love her.”

“I didn’t realize Illyrians were in the habit of fucking their sisters.”

Cassian growled. “It still matters,” he ground out, “because it doesn’t add up. You know what a monster your father is and want to usurp him; you act against him in the best interests of not only the Autumn Court but also of all of the faerie lands; you risk your life to ally with us … and yet you left her in the woods. Is it guilt that motivates all of this? Because you left her to suffer and die?”

Golden flame simmered in Eris’s gaze. “I didn’t realize I’d be facing another interrogation so soon.”

“Give me a damn answer.”

Eris crossed his arms, then winced. As if whatever injuries lay beneath his immaculate clothes ached. “You’re not the person I want to explain myself to.”

“I doubt Mor will want to listen.”

“Maybe not.” Eris shifted on his feet, and grimaced again. “But you and yours have more important things to think about than ancient history. My father is furious that his ally is dead, but he’s not deterred. Koschei remains in play, and Beron might very well be stupid enough to establish an alliance with him, too. I hope that whatever Morrigan is doing in Vallahan will counteract the damage my father will unleash.”

----

Eris was still their ally. Was willing to be tortured to keep their secrets. And Cassian didn’t need to be a courtier to know his next words would slice deep, but it would be a necessary wound. Perhaps it would be enough to push things in the right direction.

---

“You know, Eris,” he said, a hand wrapping around the doorknob. “I think you might be a decent male, deep down, trapped in a terrible situation.” He looked over his shoulder and found Eris’s gaze blazing again. But only pity stirred in his chest, pity for a male who had been born into riches, but had been destitute in every way that truly mattered. In every way that Cassian had been blessed—blessings that were now overflowing.

So Cassian said, “I grew up surrounded by monsters. I’ve spent my existence fighting them. And I see you, Eris. You’re not one of them. Not even close. I think you might even be a good male.” Cassian opened the door, turning from Eris’s curled lip. “You’re just too much of a coward to act like one.”

[cinearia]

The "Morally Grey" in ACOTAR

I decided to write something I have been thinking about since I saw some people saying this when pointing out the wrong attitude of some characters in ACOTAR (aka Rhysand and company), but I think this can apply in general. In another specific story, but I will focus on ACOTAR.

And please, if you disagree, that's fine. This is an opinion of mine that I decided to write and post, because I find it an interesting subject that does not necessarily apply only in ACOTAR, but that is in the saga and I have seen people commenting on it. I don't want to fight with anyone, okay? I put in the tags that fit in.

So...

I love morally gray characters, but just to make it clear right now, I don't think that EVERY story has to have ambiguous characters. It's okay if the story is to follow a line more heroes versus villains line. But one of the things I saw here on tumblr and twitter about the attitudes of IC, Rhysand and Feyre was using that same argument, that they are not perfect, that they have their flaws. I definitely agree with that.

But history itself does not recognize this (and some fans too). Because nobody seems to call their shit out.

Starting from a general view that can include all of the IC. Like, how not to worry about your image while protecting your city? Okay, i get it, we had to be the tHe BaD gUyS, but y'all will suffering the consequences for this, especially if its to protect your own city. Some other people are protecting their citys too. Doesn't mean that you are wrong, but everything has consequences.

Or, how they constantly abuse their power; how Rhysand threatening and using his powers even at a political meeting sound good? How Feyre ended up hurting someone during that same meeting, even if unintentionally, was just fine? No one will call their shit about using their powers? Do you really seek to make allies and friends in the middle of a war by showing abuse of power and threatening others (and not just feysand doing this)? Or saying that they should step over the others so that there is only one king and queen in Prythian (that was right for you, Amren).

And that is partly the fault of writing. Now, more specific:

They lie and steals a valuable artifact from a possible ally and political leader of an entire court? Ah, but it is for a greater good. It will not jeopardize the confidence of a HIGH LORD OF A COURT who was supposed to be his ally in the midst of a war.

Did Feyre decimate an court? Ah, but the leader was abusive to her, she felt trapped in the place that was rebuilding because of a curse of hundreds of years, even though there are innocent people. And, of course, you will have the consequences for this.

(this one more personal and less political) Elain, perhaps the least worst of all, neglected Feyre as much as Nesta did, and also do nothing when she went hunting? Ah, but Elain is Elain.

Did Rhysand hide information from Feyre's pregnancy that she and the baby could die in childbirth? Ah, but he didn't want to worry her, he was scared to lose her and her son. And the whole IC agreed not to tell her anything? Ah, they also care about her, the High Lady.

(And this is the worst and yes, I’ve seen someone say that) Rhysand did it all with Feyre UTM, drugged her, put her in a dress that didn’t cover anything, made her dance all night on his lap? But because he wanted to protect her, we need to hear both sides of the story.

And that's fine because they are the good guys in the story. But it is nothing more than pure hypocrisy, and no consequence falls on them. If it happens, it will be unfair, is just to move the plot.

Do you want us to believe in the heroes of history, do you want us to side with them? Great, we can do that. We could have liked Feyre and Rhysand and the whole IC more, as a group that doesn't always do the right things, except that would have to change literally EVERYTHING (a little bit of charisma would be good).

Instead, for me, it became an egocentric boring FoUnD FaMiLy group that only cares about their own city - and it's not necessarily wrong to be concerned only with Velaris, it's part of their history. But forcing an image on them that doesn't match their actions makes me believe the opposite, especially cause started in ACOSF, again from AMREN, about a King and Queen in Prythian.

So, I came to believe that it was a POV issue. For IC, they are the heroes of history, and think they are better than the rest.

It would be curious, in fact, if the whole point was that Feyre's POV would incapacitate us from seeing the flaws that she doesn't see. And totally proposital. That is why we have to see her as a saint, but at the same time so badass. Wow, no one, i repeat, NO ONE, suspect of me while i pretend to be innocent.

Or how we see her mate so perfect, to the point that history doesn't allow us to stop and think 'wait, this is kind of ...weird'. Or that, as much as there is an error there, but not leat the reader question the characters themselves. Rhysand, for Feyre, is perfect.

We have to see Rhysand as that altruistic, laid-back person who does everything for others, mostly because he did it for Feyre, and that can't be denied. He saved her, took her to her city, her family. What made me stop to think is how Feyre may be reproducing their behavior. How he seems to want her to be part of it so badly. I don't know how to put it into words, but that's more or less what I wrote in another rant I did.

Everything she does is justified by the other characters. At the same time that she, Rhysand and everyone in the IC have hypocritical and very wrong attitudes that history itself does not recognize. And, worst of that, the story seems glorify her POV.

Seriously, when she disobeys the instructions given to her (what she does the most) she has no one to say 'girl, please stop. Just STOP)

And with this said, i add:

We don't have to agree with everything that the characters and the protagonist do. We can love them and still disagree with them, because they are people, or fae, like any other, and there will always be something in them that we will disagree with. It makes them real. They can be heroes and still have their dark side.

The reasons may be as noble as possible, but that will not exclude the consequences, it will not exclude them from being wrong. They do not necessarily need to take a spur or a lesson in morals, but just do not miss out on what every action can bring, especially political leaders in the midst of a war.

Whenever the IC does something, it is for a "bigger" reason, but without giving us the chance to even question it. We don't see them paying for their words, without necessarily moving the plot of the story, in a story that focuses so much on the development of the characters themselves and putting the war in the background (or how should been). Without us being able to question the motivations of the good guys and always doubt the villains.

And this is where I’m going to focus on a more specific point; funny like any character who is "MoRaLlY GrAy" and who "have YOUR rEaSoNs" are men or with history of abuser. Thats funny, right? The new one now is Eris, who was part of Mor's trauma and one of Lucien's nasty brothers, that one who already attacked Lucien, the one who was going to kill Feyre. Who did all that to Mor.

But having Eris saying that she, the victim, didn't tell the whole truth, and the history is now showing that we will see his side...

It just makes me ask, how, in ALL the process of creating and writing these books, passing for her editors, in the books that she wants to pass the message of feminism so much, SJM didn't stop to think, or didn't have a friend to put their hand on your conscience, how wrong does it sound for the abuser to say that the victim is lying?

Why are the men in this saga constantly gaining the gift of doubt?

I can no longer see Rhysand as being morally gray precisely because of what SJM wants us to believe as he is and justifies his actions. What could have been in ACOTAR stopped being completely from ACOMAF, probably because SJM wanted that in her story, the girl would stay with the """villain"""

For from then on, every action of Rhysand is justified and without future consequences, since we are supposed to root for him. Now he is the protagonist's new love interest. So we don't blame him for what he does. So, everything is fine. He's not the bad guy.

And meanwhile, Tamlin comes down to being the bad, abusive guy and... That's it. And no, I don't think he's a good person, he doesn't have to have an arc of redemption, what he did with Feyre is still wrong. The difference now is that Tamlin is just that, those are his only attributes now, while Rhysand has attitudes as bad as, perhaps more, than he had. One is being extremely vilanized while the other is the hero of history, when they are only two sides of the same coin.

I can share this hatred as ALL characters feel for Tamlin, if I didn't see how everyone else did such bad things. Let's remember too, one has the job of torturing people, another has decimated an entire village. They really do what they want and... It's okay.

Doesn't work say that the story has a morally grey area with the characters if the consequences balance it does not lean towards the protagonists.

It costs me less to believe that they are what they are every time SJM reinforces in Feyre's POV how selfless Rhysand is and how much Feyre talks about how badass she is and the two of them such a powerful couple. Literally, I start to think the opposite.

(I did a second part of this rant, but I think it can get a little more personal cause focus in Nesta and Feyre that I decided to split it in two)

[talkfantasytome]

Hiii, how are you? could you give me your pov ? this is something that the fandom must have already debated but I really didn't pay attention because I believed it wouldn't happen.

Ok, I remember you talked about foreshadow and also about Eris and Lucien but I didn't really pay attention at the time because who would take over the autumn court but Eris? because he who was presented to us as an option. I don't believe that if Gwyn is his granddaughter from some vanserra she will inherit because she already found her place with Valkyrie. Lucien I believe would abdicate because he said he didn't want to because it would be like ruling for fake people. So I still have that thought.

I really don't think Tamlin or Helion will die but I have seen some people saying that it would be a foreshadow for Lucien to become HL. I saw that some people said that Tamlin could abdicate, there is also the story of the cauldron choosing and so on. I mean, in the first book there is Feyre talking about Lucien being a good HL and in the third book there is their conversation about being HL.... I just don't see it that way, so I get dual thoughts about it. So I came to talk to you because I genuinely like your pov.

Do you think this is actually connected to Lucien and could be a foreshadow or is it just information that Sarah wanted to add in the book? Or maybe this is in relation to autumn but I really have the thought that Eris who will inherit.... if this is a foreshadow who would it be for I keep wondering.

Do you have any thoughts or theories about it?

Hi there! Thanks for the question. 🙂

I wouldn't say I have any theories on this, specifically. In terms of foreshadowing about Lucien being a High Lord/being a good High Lord, my guess is that it was mostly foreshadowing or preparing us for the fact that Lucien is actually Helion's son, not Beron's, and Helion's only child. Which is a massive reveal. Pretty much anything in books 1 or 2 or early book 3, even, that might be hinting at Lucien becoming a High Lord could also be hinting at or preparing us for this.

And now we're seeing more bits and pieces that, to me, tell us it's going to be harder for that fact to remain hidden. Such as the dominance Lucien was able to display with Cassian.

Whether Lucien will actually become a High Lord by the end of the series, I honestly don't know and am very torn/conflicted. Because, in the end, I do think the most plausible course would be for Lucien to take over Day. Which would mean Helion would have to die (😭), but I don't really see that happening, because what about the Lady of Autumn?

I don't think Lucien would get the Autumn High Lord's seat. Of course, I want Eris to get it, because I do love him, so I might be biased. And while Lucien could get it, Eris has displayed a lot of power and proof that he would be better than Beron, so I don't really see how he wouldn't end up being Autum - unless the theories that he's also Helion's son are right, but I don't believe those at all.

For Spring, while Tamlin sucks at the moment, I do hope for a redemption arc for him. However, I think it's more likely the arc would involve him dying for someone else over him abdicating - though I'd prefer him living and returning Spring to it's glory. BUT, with Elain in the mix, I can't help but feel like there is a possibility that, one way or another, Tamlin stops being High Lord and Lucien ends up taking on the mantle. However, what about the Day Court, then?

I doubt you can be High Lord of two courts, and I don't see Sarah preparing Lucien for that. The biggest argument for Lucien getting Spring, imo, would be that Elain would love it there. BUT, when Elain was asked what she needed in ACOWAR, she didn't say flowers, she said sunshine. So I honestly see them more likely ending up there.

So, yeah, those are my general thoughts on it. I don't know if Sarah is trying to provide foreshadowing that Lucien will become a High Lord. I do think the earlier stuff is definitely more hints at the Helion reveal than saying he will be a High Lord by the end of the series. And, honestly, I don't know if we'll see Lucien become a High Lord by the end as much as we'll see him claimed and legitimized by his true father, and we'll see him settled and happy with the family he always deserved.

Because that, to me, is Lucien's happy ending. It's not being High Lord or having that power. It's being with his mate, getting to see his mother in a healthy, loving relationship, having a true family that cares for him and loves him, and going off into the sunset with a peaceful, happy, content life ahead of him. Yes, he'll continue to train and it's not that he dislikes his power, but honestly, this is where Lucien and Nesta remind me of each other. I think that Lucien can handle the power he will be given, I think he will use it well and for good, but I don't think he looks to use it to get more power, to rule or take control. Should he end up ruling, he will do it well. Yes, sometimes not wanting the seat can make you worse at the job (Tamlin), but for others, it's not about not him wanting it, but just him wanting something else more.

Like Nesta, I think Lucien wants love and happiness more than anything else. So his HEA isn't becoming High Lord. It's having a court and a home where he truly belongs, and believes he belongs. And I KNOW Helion, LoA, and Elain, together, would be able to give him that once all is revealed and settled (and Beron is bai bai).

[sheikah]

Ok, completely opposite opinion of Anon in regards to ACOTAR, even though I completely respect theirs!

It’s foreshadowed from the get go in like, the second chapter who Feyre ends up with and that she will become Lady of the High Court and there are bread crumbs sprinkled throughout the entire book. There’s also a PAINFULLY obvious seen towards the end where if you read it, you’ll immediately realize, “oh, Rhysand and Feyre are mates. That’ll cause issues.”

Tamlin’s character isn’t destroyed. His flaws that were there in the first book are made more prevalent thanks to his PTSD from events that happen in the later half of the first book, and most importantly it’s very apparent that Feyre and Tamlin just, aren’t meant to be together. They both want different things from one another and aren’t suited for each other. While I do think Feyre did Tamlin dirty to a degree, he does some REAL shitty things, though I am fully on board with him getting a redemption arc. It just shows, and this is a theme with multiple characters throughout the series, that your first love isn’t always your last or your greatest, and I disagree that it’s horrible to switch romances.

SJM has said she plans series out way in advance. She knows where characters and plot points are headed so she sprinkles in bread crumbs. She doesn’t make shit up as she goes along or bait and switch to be clever *cough* D&D or completely change her character’s to go against earlier writing and characterization to spite readers *cough* Leigh Bardugo. I get that people liked Tamlin, but SJM wasn’t trying to be a dick and mistreat her readers.

Yeah, I got some other asks last week saying this, too! And like you said, it's the opposite of that last anon's thoughts and that of several other people I've talked to. This means everyone has their own interpretations of the series and that's ok! I appreciate you taking the time to type all this out. But since I haven't read these books I can't really add much, and I don't plan to read them, so I think this is going to be the last ACOTAR related ask I'll post for awhile 😅

[highqueenofelfhame]

acowar reread thread

so i think i’ll update this post every few chapters unless anything super major happens that i want to immediately react to, that way you get my commentary but i’m not totally flooding and flooding and flooding your feed with a super super long post. i think i’m going to edit it under the cut and reblog it every time it gets updated and i’ll also number every update so it’s easy to find where i left off. if you guys prefer the other way i’ll transition back to the other way for acofas.) this is super fun i’ll start doing this for more books if you’re interested, including books i read for the first time. (after acofas, crescent city is next and it’ll be my first time reading it!)

UPDATES UNDER THE CUT.

1) chapters 1-5 I’ve read up through chapter five and so far my favorite thing is just how DONE feyre is with literally everyone in the spring court. the amount of times she’s had to like look away and not roll her eyes is just hilarious, her dry inner monologue, she just made a comment about having to remind herself to laugh and not strangle tamlin while they were dancing at the summer solstice and it just is so funny to me. 

i miss rhys. but the few times they’ve spoken through the bond is enough to tide me over. he told her he loved her once and i sighed out loud. i’m such trash for this bitch. 

feyre hijacking the summer solstice ceremony is COMEDIC GOLD. like you kNOW ianthe was fuming and furious and trying to save face the best she could but like hats off to feyre man. her character development from book one to where we’re at in book three is fantastic. she’s not a simpering little girl anymore, she’s a bad bitch and she kNOWS she’s a bad bitch and it’s just.. fucking great. 

i also, as much as i don’t want to, feel for lucien A LOT. i think a lot of his behavior is heavily influenced by how he’s been treated by tamlin for most of his life and i feel genuine remorse from him and the fact that he can like tell something is up but isn’t saying anything just shows, to me anyway, how much remorse he’s genuinely feeling. 

also alis knowing that something is up is just a testament to how attentive she is as a faerie and a friend and i really love that about her.

“I was the nightmare” YAS BITCH. FUCKIN YAASSS.

2) chapters 6-10 feyre is so goddamn clever. the entire time she’s bringing down the spring court she’s witty and fierce and clever and really just iS THAT BITCH, HUH? 

i don’t like jurian but the fact that he still has compassion within himself for his kind despite being literally insane for being just AWAKE and aware for like 500 years is... nice and pleasantly surprising because i feel like you wouldn’t think that of him being that he’s siding with hybern so that he thanked feyre when she tried to get the children of the blessed out of there... i don’t know why i’m bringing this up, it’s just something that stuck out to me and that jurian also vouches (to feyre) about rhysand’s character and how decent of a person he found him to be. it’s just very interesting and i feel like speaks leaps and bounds about rhysand as a person. 

feyre pushing tamlin to explode again... just CHEF KISS. like she really thought of everything. she thought of everything to internally make his sentries doubt him and then completely hate them by orchestrating the ianthe vs sentry debacle. she made herself seem very compassionate and kind and and showed tamlin and ianthe for what they were by doing genuinely so little. like all she did was make them show their true colors on their own and it didn’t take tOO much manipulation. idk feyre is just incredible in the spring court. 

forcing ianthe to hurt herself and molding her mind to make her think she’s always afraid is so much better than just outright killing her.. (if i remember from my last read, it doesn’t hold up, but the thought is there and it’s genius) I also think that this shows a lot about feyre and her character because despite everything she couldn’t just leave lucien alone with ianthe and the unwanted advances. she stayed and fought for her friend (and by extension her mate) even when lucien wouldn’t really fight for her and so feyre is just a fuckin real one like... she’s the kind of friend that you want in your corner. 

killing the hybern twins: glorious. such badassery from lucien and feyre both. 

and i think it’s nice that she let lucien come along with her on her journey back to the night court despite maybe not wanting to but i also think that she knew if she left him behind he could get in serious trouble or wind up dead and so again, i think it says a lot about her character as a person. 

3) chapters 11-15 i’m kind of reading and recapping every 50 pages or so which typically ends up being 4-5 chapters and it’s a good system so far so we’re gonna keep it up! 

the first thing of like, real substance to comment on is lucien saying his father will kill feyre for wielding his power but feyre just responding with “he can get in line.” like her sass is sO GOOD In this book, especially in the spring court chapters.

uhhh big fuck you to eris, i don’t know why people want him to have a redemption arc, he is literally a fat sack of shit that deserves to burn and i’m not sorry for saying so. he’s abusive and cruel and doesn’t deserve like, anything at all. although i will say good on him for balking a bit when feyre revealed she’s high lady. 

CASSIAN AND AZRIEL SUPERHERO LANDING ON THE ICE AND KICKING ASS!! I remember vividly the relief i felt when cassian showed up and was able to fly and i still felt so much victory when it happened again. it’s one of my favorite moments of the book so far and just really gets me. also feyre just dropping the “I’m high lady of the night court” bomb is DELICIOUS and i can’t get enough. i read it like six times. because you know as soon as the illyrians yielded to her that the autumn bitches were like “shit.”

“My love.” kILLS ME. you guys, i’ve only read this book once but i’ve reread their reuniting multiple times because it’s just so soft. rhys is so goddamn soft. he loves her so fucking much. i want rhys to call me my love and lick my tears away. goddamn. 

something i think about a lot is how in acotar when tamlin had feyre alone after months of torture he just tried to fuck her despite knowing things weren’t safe. however, knowing she was home and safe, rhys didn’t try for that immediately. like yes, they kissed, but there was so much conversation before they fucked that it just, says a lot about their relationship. tamlin also always demanded to know everything about feyre’s visits as soon as she was back, not even bothering to kiss her hello but rhys was like ‘that shit can wait’ AND THEY’RE ABOUT TO GO TO WAR. rhys loves her so wholly that he wanted to make sure she was okay before he ever bothered to ask about the spring court and how everything unfolded the last few weeks. idk i’m trash for rhysand, y’all. let’s make that a shirt.

the way that rhys threatens lucien, “i won’t bother to explain it again, and i will rip out your fucking throat.” is so sexy. like how casual it was, so sexy.#ripmythroatoutrhysand

amren being a bedtime story but irl is just a cranky aunt lmao.

nesta’s ferocity is, yes, frustrating, but also so heartbreaking to me. for a very long time i had a really rough relationship with my sister and i can see my own sister in nesta (who, by the way, would murder me if she found out i said this so, kara, if u see this, i love u endlessly and i love nesta with my whole heart) especially nesta’s behavior more so in acofas which i’ll talk more about when we get there. but i just, i feel for her man. she’s been traumatized and life as she knows it has been ripped away from her and some people respond to trauma with bite. and i know it doesn’t make it right or okay but it still just makes me feel for her.

cassian and nesta’s banter just gODDAMMIT SLAYS ME. i cannot wait for an entire fucking book of this shit and an entire book of their back and forth. i think nesta loves him and doesn’t know what to do with it because she’s scared so she’s acting like a cornered animal. like nesta is a snake that will strike when cornered and threatened and i just god i can’t wait for their book. 

elain... broke my heart a lot more than i remembered. as someone in the midst of my worst depression i find myself able to relate to that hollow and empty feeling like...all too well and it struck a cord and i almost cried at how empty she was. 

4) chapters 16-29 there is the whole meeting at amren’s apartment and cassian defends nesta, saying that he understands her actions, her snark, why she is the way she is, and it just honestly reinforces my love for cassian. i don’t have much to say about it but that i just really love the respect that he has for others. more cassian things: feyre brings up again how even broken and literally bleeding out and on the ground with his wings completely shredded he was still crawling toward nesta and reaching for her and trying to get to her. “because i can’t stay away.” fucking cracks my heart open every time. 

i love everything about the first family dinner back together. i love all the banter, i love that nesta sat in and even contributed to dinner conversation a little bit. lucien being so uncertain of the dynamic is hilarious. amren like opening herself up in a way to nesta and telling her that they’re the same, and to make sure her eruption is felt across worlds, i love it. i’m marking a lot more from amren than i thought i would. cassian at one point, he points to az and says “don’t try to blend into the shadows” and it actually made me chuckle to myself because hE DOES THAT. and it’s funny that cassian calls him on it. 

i don’t think nesta gets enough credit (for like anything, we all been knew i’m a slut for her and stan her with my life) but even as broken and angry as she was she did still offer to help explore magic that she doesn’t want and got as a result of trauma so that she can try to help. she isn’t completely useless. and i like that she has backbone and isn’t just a pushover little bitch. (that isn’t directed toward elain. like i previously mentioned, i’m finding that i relate a lot to her in her current state.) i just mean that i’m glad she sticks up for herself and doesn’t just like, do what people tell her to do. ya know?

rhys being so open to feyre pushing back on him about things like, again man. tamlin erupted and got angry, rhys is like “hell, i deserved it.” just, the differences in their relationships and the toxicity that comes from tamlin and the devotion rhys has for feyre is (say it with me) DELICIOUS.

i also like that just because feyre is high lady that the IC doesn’t just like flop over and bend down and take shit (i’m looking at you, spring court.) like cassian isn’t afraid to be like “you pissed me off by sacrificing yourself.” because he cares. LIKE, AGAIN WITH HIS DEVOTION. his loyalty is just so pure. it isn’t blind but it is pure and i just, god i love it. 

also everyone forgets that azriel has a dry ass sense of humor and i don’t see any of y’all writing it into your fics. “In order to fly, you’ll need wings” he said drily. IT’S DELICIOUS. dry humor is some of the best. and i like that feyre is learning more and getting to spend more time with him. 

5) chapter 20-27 this one will be a bit of a dump because i accidentally read too much today so far to try to catch up from my lack of reading yesterday so... oops. 

“Let’s see what names you call me when my head is between your legs, Feyre darling.” ugh. i wish a mans would say that to me. not really. i wish rhys would say that to me and only rhys. maybe rowan. or aaron warner. or cassian. or -- you get it. 

amren is SO FUCKING FUNNY without doing it on purpose. like genuinely hilarious. “she’s fine. stubborn as an ass, but as you’re related, i’m not surprised.” rOAST THEM. also amren makes nesta almost smile and she makes her laugh all in the span of like ten seconds AND nesta almost smiles when amren brings up cassian. coincidencE? i tHINK NOT.

again with rhys soothing her nightmares. like god it’s so good i dont even have to say anything else abt it.

feyre realizing that the bone carver is her and rhysand’s son. SO GOOD. like SERIOUSLY SO GOOD. and this doesn’t matter at all rn but i think that rhysand’s son has the potential to be more powerful than even him but that’s a thing to get into for another time.

EVERYTHING THE BONE CARVER SAYS ABOUT NESTA. also that it’s directed at cassian is very interesting and i think the bone carver knows they’re mates. like i wonder if cassian is seeing what feyre sees: his own son. WOULDN’T THAT BE INTERESTING. “How she calls to you.” also the comment about “what did you wake that day in hybern, prince of bastards?” what did cassian wake. the wording here is interesting and i have... a lot of questions. does anyone else just also really fucking enjoy the bone carver as a character? like he’s excellent i’ve never read anything quite like him.

“nothing about nesta could frighten me” UGH MY NESSIAN HEART CAN’T FUCKING TAKE IT.

also cassian stepping it later when nesta is furious with rhysand about the flying. like, one when he sighs and says she’ll never fly again is just... funny and adorable but how nesta was charging for rhys and he casually stepped in front of her and he talked her down. “It was amren’s fault, of course, but no one believed me. and no on dare banish her.” like just babbling a bit to bring her back down to earth. absolutely fascinating and delicious that it worked, wouldn’t you agree? ;)

court of nightmares is always a pleasure. fuck eris. 

also later at the town house when amren and mor and rhys are kinda going at it a bit and cassian gets nesta’s attention and nesta sidles over to him without questioning it... like. god if they aren’t endgame i’ll never read an SJM book ever again and i wholeheartedly mean that.

so i’ve seen the posts about amren being an angel i’m not sure if you guys have but yeah i think that’s a really solid theory. i think she very well could be a biblical angel because she mentioned that according to some they were perfect, that they laid waste to twin cities (sodom & gamorrah if this theory is correct) and she also mentioned yielding her grace and that she would fall. she also says she was a messenger and soldier assassin for a wrathful god ruling a young world and all of that, in my opinion, lines up with a lot of what is in the bible and what christians believe to be true. so i really really like this theory, i doubt it will ever be outright confirmed, but i think this is going to be my canon tbh. 

elain is.... out of her mind. it’s fucking weird everything she says is so cryptic and odd. like it’s just weird. i don’t think she’s insane and i can’t remember exactly where elain’s storyline goes in this book but like... rn it’s just weird and cryptic and a little unsettling and also interesting that she only really responds directly to azriel because everyone else she kinda ignores but she talks to him. interesting. 

6) chapters 28-49 clearly i accidentally read A LOT so we have a lOT Of ground to cover. 

NESTA WAS TOTALLY CHECKING CASSIAN OUT AND THAT’S ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT.

azriel has fucking jokes, man. page 303 (hardcover us edition)  “That pine tree wasn’t there a moment ago.” “Judging by its size, i’d say it’s been there for ... two hundred years at least.” feyre even notes that he has a dry sense of humor and it comes out more when they’re alone. i can’t get enough of it. i wish he talked more. 

“Cassian finished the muffin, licking his fingers. I could have sworn nesta watched the entire thing with a sidelong glance. He grinned at her as if he knew it too.” i just love nessian so much i’m going to point out all of their cute reactions this is turning more into a nessian reaction thread SUE ME.

I think that nesta has a lot of regret and guilt over her life.over how she treated feyre because it comes out when nesta brings up to feyre that she didn’t know she couldn’t read (and again at the high lords meeting when she says they would have starved if it wasn’t for her.) i think she feels deeply and just doesn’t know what to do with it, doesn’t know how to express it. 

When they almost get taken in the library, and cassian gets there and nesta “launches herself at him.” my heart. she was scared and she didn’t care she was just so relieved. like fuck me up that’s the shit i like.

nesta asking where cassian is the moment they get back from the battle in adriata and she was worried and scared for him. later when she does see him i think this is when the mating bond clicks into place. it’s page 398 and she says “You didn’t come to -” and then cuts herself off. they have a really fucking intense moment. cassian takes her hand and laces their fingers and they don’t really say anything for a beat until he says “Next time, emissary, i’ll come say hello.” but his voice is low and rough when he says it. “The world seemed to go utterly still at that interrupted sentence, nothing and no one more so than cassian.” i think this is when it clicks for him. maybe not for nesta but definitely for cassian. 

RHYSAND RIPPING TAMLIN’S ABILITY TO SPEAK AWAY LIKE YES WE STAN A MOTHERFUCKING KING. fuck tamlin. fuck eris. and fuck beron. also nesta defending cassian in the high lords meeting (page 438, because beron calls him a bastard.) again, i’m just saying, she’s defending her fucking mate i can’t deal. feyre also exploding in the meeting and rhys just being like “You’ve proved your point, my love.” SO DELICIOUS. “I made her high lady because i love her. her power was the last thing i considered.” like fucking hELL that is how you treat your woman.

after the meeting, helion being like “You handing eris’s ass to him will be my new fantasy at night, by the way.” DELICIOUS. fucking hilarious. 10/10 recommend helion as a high lord and a mans we love to see it. 

also cassian being so concerned when nesta starts to have that feeling about the cauldron being used before the wall gets shattered.he didn’t doubt her feelings for a second, i mean no one did, but he was completely unyielding when he sensed her fear and immediately looked for any sign of an immediate threat.

nesta saying she’s never worn pants and cassian saying “i have no doubt you’d start a riot if you did.” he’s thinking bout that ass. also cassian giving her a quick lesson in defense before they yeet off to the human lands to see graysen and his family. IDK I REALLY LOVE NESSIAN OKAY?!

7) chapter 50-the end. i accidentally finished the book. oops. 

super intersted in nesta’s powers and if she is a witch. i can’t remember acofas at all and if nesta’s powers manifest in that book but i’m eager to see if the fracturing of the cauldron didn’t effect whatever powers she took from it. i think that could also be part of what ultimately is wrong with her on top of all the trauma. 

nesta helping cassian after that first battle when his wrist is hurt. she didn’t take no for an answer and helped him and it was just really soft until mor showed up and cassian pulled his hand away. i’m conflicted about what it means to be totally honest. what it means for his feelings for nesta and what it means where mor is concerned. i don’t love how morrigan treats nesta and cassian’s... relationship? but i don’t dislike mor. i think she’s dealing and coping and has her reasons that we will likely find out about. 

“Only you can decide what breaks you” is something i’d like to get tattooed. i dont really have anything else to add to it. 

i was sobbing during rhys’s battle speech to everyone. i dont rlly have anything else to say about it other than i’m emo. 

nesta saving cassian. again i don’t have shit to say about it other than like it makes me so emotional.  she just started blinding screaming, hoping that he would come. i can’t even begin to think what his death would have done to her.

the bone carver smiling at feyre before he did hits a very specific piece of my heart and i’m not sure why or what but i had chills all over my body. 

cassian telling rhys to let him return the favor/repay the debt. HURT. another thing i cried over. like shut the fuck cassian AIN’T NOBODY DYIN TODAY. 

tHE Nessian moment to end all nessian moments when they would die together. like big fucking wow. you can’t tell me they’re not mates. that they don’t love each other despite how complicated all of it is. like cassian is so soft in the most unique way for her because he knows she bites and he lets her and he bites back and i just think it’s what he needs.

“tell the high lord to leave out a cup for me” AMREN SHUT UP. like fucking christ i teared up then too because i really really love her character. she’s unique and funny and dry and cranky and i just love her so much. 

i’m tired of rhys sacrificing himself. there, i said it. i cried like a fucking baby and of course he woke up being a snarky little shit.

i love the end of this book. i don’t know what i’ll do with myself until january when the next one comes out. i’ll probably go back to the other format for my next read through because it’s easier and less longwinded and i think you guys liked the other way better. anywho, thank you for coming along on this lil journey!!

[imaginedhaven]

10) Which character do you ship yourself most with and why?

11) Ships that annoy you and why

12) Do you ship Amren and Varian or would you rather Amren remain alone?

13) Any theories about where Amren came from and what her real form is?

15) Do you want Tamlin to die? Are you pro redemption arc? How do want his arc to end?

16) Which villain out of both series do you hate the most?

22) Do you prefer the Celaena story arc or the Aelin arc? Or do you find that the difference between the two is simply character growth?

23) Long haired rowan or short haired rowan?

24) Which character would you most like to hook up with?

31) Did you ship feylin in acotar or were you always side-eyeing it suspiciously?

32) How do you think Feyre will handle being in the spring court again?

33) Head canons for your otp!

34) Name a ship you hope ends like the titanic… (+acosf)

42) Favorite funny moment from ToG

45) Are you down for Rowaelin/Feysand babies in the epilogues or would you want them to wait?

Hoo boy! Long one! Lol.

10) As much as I don't feel like I have enough of a grasp on her character to write her effectively, I would absolutely let Manon do whatever she wants with me.

11) I don't think I have a ship that annoys me overly much? I have a high bar for ship annoyance these days. There are ones I'm less keen on, but I don't think I've come across one yet that's an anti-ship for me.

12) I don't think I have enough to go off of for their ship! They're given so little time for development that I don't know what to make of them.

13) I have absolutely no Amren theories. I feel like there's not enough contextual evidence to pull one together, at least not for me.

15) Ah, Tamlin. The first of many matches on the fire that is the ACOTAR fandom lol. I... don't hate him? Controverial opinion, I'm sure. But I think he genuinely didn't realize what he was doing to Feyre, which in a way made him more dangerous for her but also leaves room for a redemption arc. I don't think I want him to die. I think he's not in a good place to have a partner right now, but I think there is still room for him to learn and grow.

16) I don't know if I have a villain I particularly hate! For me, I don't divide overly much into "characters I like" and "characters I hate", it's more "characters who resonate with me" and "characters who don't".

22) The Celaena story arc is part of Aelin's arc and we couldn't have one without the other. Both are valid.

23) Both are valid. Long haired Rowan always came across to me as a more ethereal look that we would typically associate with elves or Fae, while short haired Rowan is all strapping muscles and practical warrior.

24) See shipping above. I wasn't kidding when I said Manon can do whatever she wants to me.

31) While I came into TOG pure and unspoiled, I had seen some of The Discourse surrounding ACOTAR before I started reading it. I knew Feylin would not end in a HEA, and I do think that colored my reading.

32) Since in general I love a good healing arc, I would love for Feyre to be able to come to terms with the Spring Court. That being said, I'm not sure the Spring Court is a great place for ANYONE to be right now.

33) I am bad at headcanons, but sure lol. Rowaelin's first child is calm and full of grace, even slightly shy. Neither one of them knows where the child gets it from. The second child gets their attitude and temper from both parents.

34) Again, I don't think there's a ship out there where I'm like "nope, absolutely not!". Shippers can be truly nasty about "my ship" versus "not my ship", and I personally prefer being chill about the whole thing and trying to see the valid point in any ship I come across--even the ones I wouldn't call my OTPs.

42) Hands down, the cake Aelin makes for Rowan in the deleted HOF scene.

45) I am 100% for babies generally, with the caveat that I also want other good things for them! I don't want babies just thrown in because that's what happens next, I want babies who are impactful and meaningful in the story without being the sole reason for existence for their mamas.

~*~*~

Send me TOG/ACOTAR asks!