#women of the Night Court

[acourtofquestions]

credit: jessdraw.s

[chloesimaginationthings]

Is Michael Afton gay or European in FNAF?…

[cactusboil]

Rice’s effectiveness as a HL (and how fkn lazy and useless he is)

The Night Court is one of the largest and toughest (I suppose??) territories to deal with in Prythian. So doesn’t it make sense that it would obviously handled by the “strongest” HL existing in Prythian? Of course it does. And not to mention his oh so powerful IC always backing him up.

A little timeline thing:

The fae vs human war happened 500 hundred years prior to the events of acotar. It is said that the previous spring HL (tamlin’s dad) was killed by the end of the war, so we can assume that rice was around his 20s-30s when he took over as HL of NC. I’m gonna skip approximately 100 years including the time he wasn’t HL and was utm. So that’s 400 hundred years of being a HL.

And what has he done? WHAT HAS HE DONE FOR NC? Nothing. Don’t bring up the “change takes time, oh he banned wing clipping in some of the camps🤡” bs. If he can break Keir’s bones infornt of an entire audience made up of Hewn city ppl for simply bad mouthing Feyre and Cassian, a general of his army can clear out an entire village of Illyrians in retribution to his mother’s death, then I’m pretty sure that he along with his clique of the strongest ppl to ever exist can do so much more. He can barely hold up a wing clipping ban.

Making the Illyrian women train means nothing really, if they don’t have proper health care and safe homes to go back to. It means nothing when some Illyrian women don’t want to be fighters and just want to be able to live freely. Oh and what about the Hewn city women? Morrigan herself has said how her cousins are suffering yet no one does anything for them.

His double standards with Velaris vs Illyria and Hewn City is glaringly obvious. He goes around tryna be macho with other HLs but is a pussy when it comes to his own court.

400 hundred years is a lot of time. It is more than enough time for someone that is actually interested in helping their ppl and motivated to bring a good change to their court. But it is too little time for someone like rice, someone that has prejudice against his own ppl, that is lazy and truly doesn’t have any intention of helping anyone tbh.

[viktoriaashleyyx]

Tw: violence against women and children mentioned.

I have been an Anti-Facist Norse pagan for almost 15 years (a pretty lonely life ngl) and the best thing to come of this is my skill to sniff out alt right, facist propaganda before anyone else. Everyone tells me "it's not that deep" until they realize, yep it is that deep.

The ACOTAR books have now been added to my list of Alt Right pipelines and I am convinced that SJM herself is either currently a facist or will be spiraling towards it soon.

If any criticism of the main characters, inner circle, Night court values draws you into a frenzy where you need to use a 1300 word straw man argument to lower your heart rate and pat yourself on the back, you need to do some self reflecting.

Like who you like, I don't honestly care, I'm not here for friends, but if you justify literal Jim Crowe laws because "those people will ruin our beautiful perfect city" I am going to side eye you. That is not something a healthy, non racist, Pro humanity person fantasizes about. There is not a single, natural born illyran woman who can use her own wings under the 500 year rule of "the most powerful high lord." Fantasizing about a lazy sex crazed leader who still allows the breaking of children's bones for misbehaving, is not normal. I am not going to trust you if you justify and praise violence toward children, even fictional children.

The fact that you will go to war to defend the abhorrent policies and actions of the NC when people try to have critical discussions about the texts is shocking to say the least.

Every single character in these books are subject to criticism. SJM herself is subject to criticism for the way in which she portrays these communities and glosses over the unjust policies. The way the Jim Crow laws in Velaris were introduced is a common manipulative tactic to desensitize the reader to the policy itself, paving a way for it to, once again, exist in our world. "It just a fantasy book calm down" no. Media has always been a large method to distribute propaganda.

I don't give half a fuck who Elain ends up with but please, please, please criticize the Night court and recognize it's atrocities or it will affect how you vote and how you see the world around you.

[arson-09]

tonights acotar thoughts are with the Illyrian women and how rhysand has utterly failed them despite his supposed efforts

Hes ‘allowed’ them to become warriors if they wish. But thats not even the bare minimum. from my memory he acknowledges that he doesnt enforce the wing clipping laws (smooth move) so that’s basically useless and as to be expected of a man, he misses the point of feminism and equality laws. WHERE are the laws and protections for women in marriages?? if the illyrian are so ‘brutal’ and ‘backwards’ the assumption can be made that divorce isn’t a thing unless the man requests it. No women requested divorces and probably no such thing as no fault divorces. As well as forced marriages (which also brings up the consent age) Adding on, what about abortions and other pre natal and natal laws and protections? again, assuming women arent allowed to have abortions or simply any bodily autonomy, where are those decrees rhysand? Im not even getting into the potential of LGBTQ+ illyrians and their rights (Logically there are LGBTQ+ illyrians but ofc sjm wouldn’t mention them)

He makes such a fuss about it being a womans choice (a hypocrite as we see in acosf) yet unless a woman is able too or wants to fight he doesnt seem to care. Which is also a major flaw of sjms writing, women only gain their independence if they can kick ass and fuck as they want. Which is of course valid but thats a very shallow way to view feminism and equality. The whole point is that a woman can choose, wether its to be a warrior or a stay at home mother, but theres nothing done for those women who want that lifestyle.

This has influenced me in my fic writing a lot to where a this topic has become a major focal point in my fic somewhat by accident. I think that logically there would be a rebellion from mostly illyrian women against rhysand, hes promised them so much yet has delivered so little.

[ivymoonstudios]

high lady of the night court

[seleneprince]

Low-key thinking about writing an au where Nesta ends up in the Court of Nightmares as a "punishment" by either Morrigan or Rhysand himself. They believe the experience would break her enough to make her compliant and finally learn her lesson.

But it doesn't quite turn out the way they expected

The Court of Nightmares breaks Nesta, and then puts her back together. Against all odds, she manages to turn the situation in her favour, by actually healing and experiencing some growth. Living in the Hewn City is an eye opener to her, showing her the dark side of the Night Court the IC are so adamant in ignoring. She makes unlikely friends, who all act indirectly as pillars of Nesta's journey to character development. Each of them represent a particular phase she has to pass

A blind assassin that was thrown there for certain crimes, exiled from his home until he repents. A male with a dark, tormented past that he carries with a playful attitude and wicked smile. He becomes Nesta's first friend in Hewn City, saving her from a fate worse than death shortly after her arrival.

A mysterious Illyrian lady with a moon tattoed on her forehead and the rest of her body covered in more tattoos usually wore only by Illyrian warriors. She owns and leads an illegal bussiness to sell all kind of dark magical services. Most of her employers are Illyrian females that ran to the Court of Nightmares to avoid the clipping tradition. She's also a witch, and very interested in Nesta's future.

An excentric half-Fae female who's best friends with the assassin and works as an spy. Her appareance is different than the average courtier, which hints that she's not really from the Night Court. She seems crazy and entirely unpredictable, usually at the centre of any chaotic situation that occurs, but she's much more than what she lets on. Her true origins are an essential twist for the plot

What was meant to be Nesta's punishment ends up with her accidentally setting in motion a revolution against the Night Court government.

[hrizantemy]

Rhysand and his Inner Circle have long been portrayed as progressive leaders, yet their approach toward the Illyrian women and children paints a different picture. While they claim to support equality, their efforts for the Illyrians always fall short. For instance, the Inner Circle makes only surface-level attempts to help the oppressed Illyrian women, such as permitting training and instructing them in fighting, but they never address the root cause of the problem—Illyrian male dominance and the entrenched abuse within the society.

Their reluctance to stop the abuse of boys, who are broken down and treated harshly to make them “stronger” warriors, is because they need this brutal culture to continue so the Illyrians can remain their battle-hardened soldiers. If Rhysand were to truly dismantle the toxic traditions, it would jeopardize the cycle of abuse that fuels the creation of his army. The Illyrian people, especially women, remain pawns in a broader system where real, lasting change is conveniently ignored.

Instead of confronting the patriarchal abuse head-on, Rhysand and the Inner Circle turn a blind eye to it when it becomes inconvenient. The warrior caste’s ability to fight in wars and support his regime outweighs any deeper commitment to justice or reform. They allow abuse to continue under the guise of tradition, knowing it reinforces the very power structures they rely on, ensuring the young boys and oppressed women remain trapped in cycles of violence and subjugation for the Inner Circle’s benefit.

[girl-drink-drunk]

dan fielding is the best version of the male player character because not only do i believe that he makes all his partners feel good but he's also a canon bottom who likes it when women (and harry) use him

[acourtofquestions]

There is something powerful to the fact that the “I love you” of A Court of Silver Flames is not Cassian & instead is the Archeron sisters.

… That the first person who replies, "I love you too” to Nesta; a person who has never been able to say I love you, be allowed to love or be safe in that. Let alone have it reciprocated, without being immediately followed by their death (or destruction of some sort). And that that person is her sister; who loved her before & will love her after, who would fight to keep her safe & actually take care of her.

And Feyre finally gets to hear that from her big sister; from the family she thought she never had. It gives a full circle from how she left; feeling out of place among the human world, to end up in Prythian in the first place, she thought she was alone & left out to dry (or more likely freeze to death). To then in her almost end for the family she did find, she is saved by the sister she always had; the one who followed her to the edge of the wall, fought for her & spent days trying to rip into Prythian; to save her no matter the cost, and when the time came she “gave it all back” to pay it.

Feyre loved her, even when Nesta thought she wasn't worthy of it. Nesta loved her even when Feyre thought her sister hated her. And they both finally get to hear it, say it, see it, feel it, know it. They are worthy & they are loved regardless, they have an unconditional family of relatives & found loves. Their story enters a new world, one that is no longer alone. And there's something powerful in THAT as the choice, “I love you”.

+ We all know Cassian LOVES Nesta, even Nesta knows CASSIAN LOVES NESTA!!! It's been shown, thought, practically said (just got cut off)… it would’ve been nice, but it's already known. It didn't need assurance like they did.

[ennawrite]

Question for my fic:

(also spoilers if any of you read When Night Bloomed)

Should the Illyrian women’s wings be fixed specifically by a woman of color? I have a character that I’m giving healer like magic to (think Yrene from the Throne of Glass series) and I think her magic + something like spider silk would be able to fix their wings, but my fmc is a white female (more specifically, she’s Tamlin’s daughter & it’s a Nyx x Tamlin’s daughter fic LMAO)

I started out with what I thought was a solid plan but now I’m wondering if that might be a bit insensitive? She wouldn’t be a savior at all imo, she’s more going in to help repair them & then leaving and is gonna be like “Make sure this shit doesn’t happen again 😑” to Nyx

It will also take a huge toll on her body, so it’s not like she’s healing them with zero ramifications. I don’t want it to feel like it was something that could have easily been done this entire time, as to not belittle their pain/suffering. And there will also be lots of moments with the Illyrian women telling their stories :’)

Maybe I’m overthinking it but I also don’t want to write something insensitive when I truly do admire Emerie & the other Illyrian women who have spent so long suffering under this sick and corrupt system.

Anyways, any feedback at all will be greatly appreciated. I promise no feelings will be hurt, I’m open to any and all criticism 🤍

[maisonaime]

Ilithyia's Blessings - Part 3

I am posting this in the middle of the night hot off the dome because I am exhausted but want to get this out there. Please forgive any errors grammatical or canonical and go with the flow for me please :) I actually love where this went and I'm excited to flesh out the consequences of this chapter as the story continues to develop. It will likely be anywhere from 8-12 parts in total with epilogues and whatnot. 1.6k words

Warnings: Dark Feyre, blood, unhinged behavior, pregnancy trauma, familial trauma, mentions of illness and death

Part 1;  Part 2

Part 3:

Centuries of the Illyrian winds echoing off his wings allowed Azriel to sense the unique shift in the air at the House of Wind as he remained for a few final moments, in blissful ignorance of the circumstances unfolding. For the first time in centuries, the spymaster would be one of the last to know. 

Sweat beaded at the nape of his neck and curved a path down his spine as he performed his training routines in the ring. Lost in the movements he had led his body through for centuries, he hardly noticed that his shadows had abandoned him, their relentless whisperings silenced. He would have thought nothing of it; they often slipped away to their own devices when he entered the meditative state his training permitted him. It seemed even they understood that the training ring was one of the few places Azriel could find complete solace from his roiling mind.  

Until his shadows were suddenly back and swarming him and howling, their chorus an indiscernible fever pitch. On his next inhale the air tightened, punctuated by sharp bursts of the metallic redolence he knew to be his brother's magic. 

On the exhale he tilted his head to the sky, and murmured a prayer to the Mother, siphons flaring as he steeled himself for whatever bloodshed was imminent. Instinctively his mind was both latching onto and pushing away the bolt of dread he felt for the most obvious potential source of this frenzy of wrath from his brother. 

As he turned to push himself into the sky and take stock of the tenebrous horizon, Nuala materialized from a haze of smoky shadows with wide eyes and shaking hands.He had never seen such dismay surfaced in his trusted apprentice; dread carved another chunk from his stomach. He nodded towards her, encouraging her to speak.

“Feyre is gone, she – she disappeared from the townhouse.” Azriel’s heart dropped in the pits of his stomach. “Nesta told her about the boy having wings and she unleashed herself on Amren and Morrigan and then she left. Not a trace of her. Rhys has gone absolutely feral, he’s barreling towards Nesta as we speak – along with everyone else. Cerridwen followed them.”

Azriel stood stock still, unblinking as his heart and his fists clenched. This gods damned family would be the death of him, he felt so incredibly tired. At the same time, he just barely noted the relief he felt knowing the next time he spoke to Feyre he wouldn’t be lying to her. 

They’ll level half the city and throw the entire Court into question if this unfolds publicly.” she added, earning a knowing glare from Azriel as he reckoned with his next steps. 

“Thank you Nuala” he managed to bite out. “Pack a bag for Nesta, Cassian will want to get her as far away from Rhys as possible. Leave it on the balcony, then check every residence they share. The cabin, the palace in the Hewn City, everywhere.” 

Nuala was already evaporating back into the ether to do just that, having anticipated the request from Azriel and already running through the mental list of possible dwellings she had compiled. 

Azriel took flight and looked towards the city, where churning black clouds thundered towards the center. He drew his shadows around him, prepared to let them carry him on the wind to where his circle of friends was just beginning to converge.

He was winnowing as he had a thousand times before – the thousand time prior was how he knew something was so wrong about this journey through space. He was being pulled towards something, absorbed into a pit of angry, despairing power. He assumed it was from Rhys creating some sort of dismal vacuum of fury, as he yielded to primal and unholy powers alike. Azriel squeezed his eyes shut, silently praying to the Mother that his brother didn’t inadvertently rip him to shreds in his fit of rage. 

But when he opened his eyes, breathless and on solid ground. He was not in Velaris. He was not in the Night Court. He was not anywhere near the specter of power he had known and dealt with for centuries, knew like the back of his hand.

No. He was faced with a new beast entirely. And as he met the eyes of his High Lady, he knew he was considerably fucked. 

“Hello Azriel.” Feyre’s wolfish grin was empty, her eyes red and puffed. “I think it’s high time I find out how valuable you really are as our resident Shadowsinger.” Any relief he previously felt winked out as the weight of their errors settled on him with her pointed gaze.

Her distress was obvious, her outrage palpable. She clutched the swell of her stomach like she might hold the child in her, lest it rip itself out by the talons on its bastarding wings. Azriel gulped as he was faced with malevolence he had not even seen from Feyre in the Court of Nightmares. 

Azriel saw instantly that there would be no straightforward path out of this mess, that he along with the rest of them had grossly miscalculated the consequences of shielding Feyre from the truth of her pregnancy. Her pregnancy Azriel repeated to himself, dumbfounded by his own stupidity. Her child they had all lied to her about, intentions set aside. 

Though far from possessing the necessary biology to truly understand Feyre’s feelings, he imagined how he might feel if his family kept a secret of that magnitude from him. If he perhaps contracted the rare wasting sickness that caused Illyrian wings to rot and disintegrate from the inside out. Easily detectable, but highly fatal and only symptomatic in its final stages. He imagined he wouldn’t take too kindly to the lack of dignity in having his own fate concealed from him until there was no chance of a say in the matter. 

He sank to his knees and lowered his eyes, laying himself prone to her judgement. He said nothing, conveying his submission to her through his posture, yielding to the might of her power without protest. 

“Let’s make a bargain.” Feyre sneered, eyes shining with spite. “You will tell me everything that is said about me and this child; every detail of how our family plans to proceed; everything you see, do, hear will be memorized and relayed to me. You will find a way to get the information to me as close to instantly as possible. You will do so without telling or alerting anyone to our correspondence.” Azriel said nothing. “And you will not look for or even consider pondering a way to get out of or around this bargain.”

“In exchange I will consider allowing Rhysand to be a part of mine and this childs life.” dread finally claimed the last of his abdomen as the severity of her words struck him.

He opened his mouth to try to agree, to do anything that might help the situation and preserve a thread of connection with Feyre to her family, her support system. The words caught on his tongue as his fealty to Rhys overpowered his independent will, the betrayal of his vows a physical manifestation of pain ripping through his chest. 

He spoke through gritted teeth “Feyre I can’t swear myself to anything that disavows my loyalty to Rhys. I am bound to him, by magic as much as love.”

“And what of a blood oath? Would that usurp your vows to your High Lord?” she spoke without missing a beat and Azriel’s eyes snapped back to hers, gaze narrowing. It was in this moment he realized they stood at the center of a vortex of darkness, the eye of a formidable hurricane that concealed any hint of their whereabouts for Azriel to report if he somehow found a way out of swearing a gods damned blood oath to Feyre. Magic so old it called to the marrow of his bones. Magic that would render him little more than a slave to her will; he would be hers entirely to use and dispose of as she pleased. And yet, and yet, and yet… if it was the only way…

“Yes.” he breathed. 

“Yes what.” she insisted.

“Yes I will swear a blood oath to you. Feyre.” he affirmed, only a touch of the lament he felt seeping into his tone. 

“Good” she purred, unrecognizable to his eyes. And in a flash she was before him, a slash across her wrist pressed to his mouth for him to drink from. She tasted like life and mountain air and power and fury and something deep in his chest tugged as his life force latched to hers. Then it was his turn to offer blood for her consumption directly from the junction of his shoulder and neck. The bargain was sealed and thrumming in his chest, so much like what he imagined a mating bond to be but so exquisitely wrong in its essence. Even his shadows recoiled from the shift, as if recognizing the parasitic force that had latched itself to their master while simultaneously adjusting to submit to it. 

Azriel let out a hysterical little chuckle as he realized Rhysand was going to tear him limb from limb, and Cassian might even help. He had not only swore an oath that usurped the vows he swore to his brothers, but an oath that rivaled even a mating bond in its powers and manifestations. Tricky magic that would not be easily untangled. Magic that compromised every promise he had made to his Court and family. Magic that sealed itself into and across his chest with a tattoo of a gleaming golden band that wrapped around his torso, directly across his pounding heart. 

“Wander back home now Azriel, I’ll call on you when you’re needed.” there was nothing in her voice, her eyes; it was the most chilled he had been during the whole encounter.

He blinked and he was freefalling through the sky, careening from the exact spot he had dissolved from minutes earlier. He let himself fall for a moment, pondering how well and truly fucked he was. In the next moment, he twisted, shot out his wings, and dove towards his original destination, praying that he wouldn’t be greeted with the carrion he knew the gathering forces were capable of. 

[jayktoralldaylong]

It wasn't till I realised how gigantic Cassian's wings are that I remembered he and Azriel are lesser Fae. They really do walk everywhere with giant wings at their back because they can't make them disappear and reappear. Giant bat wings are the Illyrian version of a tail, green skin, webbed feet or sharp teeth. They don't have super powers, they're just elves with wings (and Siphons of course, but we get the idea).

I figured Human vs Fae would be the biggest point of racism in this world but OMG how the Old Generation of Royals detest the Lesser Fae.💀 Like ah ahn, your own race again?? Lucien's execution was ordered cause he insisted on marrying one. Rhys' father was furious too.

It was bad enough that he found out his mate was Lesser Fae. Bad enough that he'd decided he'd take the risk with a hybrid child and raise Rhys so strong and cold enough to withstand the hate he'd been born into. Then he sends his son off to training and Rhys comes back having befriended the two most infamous bastards in the entire of Illyria and was calling them "brother". Nah, Rhys' father boiled. 💀💀💀 Legit sent Cassian to the front lines of every battle and kept Azriel so busy he'd never leave his side.

(Also hypocritical about the Lesser Fae being less cause they barely pass as human).

Cassian - An orphan titled the prince of Bastards for reasons that are spoilers.

Azriel - Born from a 'mistress', speaks to shadows, mangled and scarred by his family's torture.

Baby Rhys: They are my brothers. 😌😊

His Dad, explodes with rage: Lesser born half breeds and you call them your family?! Do you think I worked this hard to raise you to perfection just for you to throw it all away.

Rhys: But they're my brothers. 😭

His Dad: They're weaknesses that's what they are. 😒I will not have you be the death of me Rhysand! Rhys: (Ends up bringing about his father's death because he befriended TAMLIN! 💀 - Real ironic. Tamlin, the pureblood High Fae, the downfall of Rhys' family.)

[stargirlfeyre]

“All the sisters have wronged each other in some type of way” actually Feyre has never done anything wrong. Don’t try to group her in Nesta and Elain’s bullshit.

[jadeseadragon]

Margaret W. Tarrant (1888-1959), Titania and Oberon, illustration for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare, watercolor and ink on board. 228 x 177 mm; 9¼ x 7 inches, image, on 10 x 8 inch board.

[batsplat]

Paging an expert because im a noob but am i making things up in my head or has dasha k’s serve been kind of lowkey quite good recently because at least to me it seemed to be working better than in the past matches ive watched of her i think(?). lack of tennis twitter usage means idk any super specific comparison stats so this thought is mostly supported by vibes and also on my highly uninformed eyeballs that were watching the recent matches and also onscreen match stats which ik can be misleading but i am still easily swayed by.

(Also by recently i mean like the last 2 ao rounds vs like 2024 ao because that’s all ive watched so far <- has still yet to watch more than like 4 matches b/w ao 2024 and ao 2025, so maybe she already made the serving improvement last season and im late to the party lol)

okay i'm gonna be honest, i've been completely negligent in my duties as a fan here because i've watched like. five minutes of dasha play this tournament

can't remember when she was playing first round but DO remember second round where she was FIRST ON and like... i swear slams do this really annoying thing where they just put on fifty million fun women's matches first thing in the day almost as if to get rid of them. and then at some point in the day you turn around and it's only. Men. playing for like HOURS at a time and i don't want to watch that shitttt. and dasha was clashing BOTH with jabeur/osorio and anisimova/raducanu, and unfortunately it just slipped down my priority list and i literally blinked and she was done. which, i mean good on her but also horrid scheduling. and then third round i think i watched a few points but i was basically just asleep

so i do feel like to some extent i have to put a pin in this ask and only return to it once i've properly had the chance to see dasha in action. she's the underdog in tomorrow's match and i'm gonna try really hard to wake up for it. i think with serving in particular i do need to SEE it, like unfortunately i've spent a lot of my life analysing serves for coaching purposes (serving is extremely not my favourite part of the game so i don't really ENJOY squinting at slow-mo's but like,, u gotta do it) so i do feel like i'm quite solid at assessing them quickly... but you do need a match. i watched the extended highlights of the putintseva match --

-- and idt she's done anything major with her technique per se. i'm just gonna give a quick rundown of some of a couple of the main technical issues with her serve, going to try to keep it as simple + accessible as possible but am happy to give clarification, before getting to the actual stats and the bits that ARE vaguely promising

to my eyes, the main limiting factor of that technique remains the preparatory phase, aka everything that happens until the player moves out of the trophy position (that moment when they pause before they explode upwards - basically as 'low' as the player goes). i've put dasha's trophy position side-by-side with my go-to women's player for 'look you can be short and a fantastic server', the dearly departed (retired) ash barty

there's some quite obvious differences here. ash actually had quite an extreme angle at which she leaned backwards so let's ignore that part - the main two things you can focus on here are a) the bend of the knees, and b) the angle of the right arm. to put it simply, dasha's movement isn't explosive enough. there's not enough tension there... it's like if you press down a spring - the further down you press, the greater the effect when you let go. the right arm angle is particularly egregious though, to be clear, it is an absolute nightmare to tinker with in any way that is sustainable. it means that when dasha starts her actual racquet motion, there's just a little bit... missing, in terms of how much weight she's managing to put on that ball

there's also an issue with how that explosive upwards movement is timed. this one's quite hard to capture in screenshots, but basically when you're serving... it's tough because a lot of different body parts are doing a lot of quite complicated things at once. you're moving your racquet, you're opening your chest, you're exploding upwards with your legs. with barty, you've got this real dynamism where the body is basically already taut at the point where she's leaving the ground, and she then twists to hit the ball

compare and contrast with how dasha looks when she's about to leave the ground. the legs are still kinda bent, the body isn't really leaning backwards, there's just this visible lack of tension in the body, there's just far less upwards explosion

i mean idk if u can see because it's like three pixels but y'know

so yeah, obviously not a major overhaul over the off-season. i do GET that serves are very tricky to work with and also like,,, quite sensitive, where if you fuck it you might REALLy fuck it and suddenly you just cannot get a serve in anymore. the thing about barty as a server is that... because she's so short (1,66 to 1,7 for kasatkina), she's this great example of EVERY body part working together perfectly to create this unitary dynamic movement. like when rybs serves up aces, it's a bit more whatever because... if i were as tall as a tree, i too could simply whack a ball downwards. that's why barty kinda the modern benchmark to me for how you can completely maximise what you have at your disposal (though obviously barty was operating with unfair amounts of natural talent, which can't hurt)

anyway, that's the micro level technique analysis. let's check out the macro level and see what her stats have been like. i've pulled these basic stats from tennis abstract (best tennis website on the internet) for convenience sake:

now to some extent, it's tough to read TOO much into these numbers. like, yes, dasha won a lot of service points - but she also won a lot of points in general. she won the matches! she's playing well! because the serve tends to be such a neutral points starter for dasha, it can be quite tricky to interpret whether an increase in service points won tells you much about her serving quality. i would say that, more than anything else, her *second serve* points won jump out at me. this is an area where dasha traditionally really struggles because her second serve is, to put it politely, truly abysmal - so 75% of second serve points won in her second round match is really really good. i scrolled back and the last time she won more than 75% second serve points was in may 2023, where she won a staggering 100% of her second serve points against stearns lol (but it can't have hurt that her first serve % was.... 96.6%...? good job). as you can see, she experienced a bit of a drop against putintseva - as you'd expect given the increased quality of opponent - but 55% for her standards is still broadly quite good. and looking at that h2h specifically, you can see poots does have the ability to do more damage on the second serve than she did in this latest match:

the other thing we can do is check her return stats, to try to again tease apart how much difference the serve is actually making:

now I'd have to actually do some maths on this which I am... not going to do, but just eyeballing these numbers... idt there's as noticeably a positive aberration for the return numbers as with the second service numbers. if you look at the matches she's won (she suffers a lot of blow-outs when she loses, leading to a real collapse in numbers), i'd say her first serve returning against poots was clearly very good but otherwise it's all broadly what you'd expect. dasha is an excellent returner and an awful server, so in general it's quite a good sign when her serving numbers are markedly better than her return numbers. after r2 i would have also given a shout out to her lack of double faults, but then she did post a 12.7% double fault stat in her poots match lol. dasha can get quite egregious with that stat because she knows how much pressure her second serve is under

we do also have tennis abstract's very handy stats leaderboard to work with to give a bit more big picture context for these stats. in the last 52 weeks, on average dasha won 60% of her first serve points and 43% of her second, making her the fourth worst player in the latter stat in the top fifty (arguably better than you'd expect lol). she has won 41% of her first serve return points and 57.7% of her second. so while in these matches she has been beating her average numbers across the board, as you'd expect in three fairly comfortable wins, the biggest aberration is in second serve points won

in conclusion. i think you're onto something, in that she's been doing a good job at protecting her second serve!! but ALSO, not to end on a downer note, i would always advise caution. dasha is a very good match player and has managed her first few opponents well.... but because of her unbalanced serve/return prowess, she's susceptible to both winning matches very clearly and losing them very clearly. now we're getting to the bit of the draw where you're probably going to see the latter. navarro is like... i mean honestly, dasha COULD beat her, that's a winnable match. they've not actually played before, so no clue what that match-up looks like. navarro seems to be quite an accomplished first serve returner, but in positive news for dasha she clocks in as merely average at second serve returning. though you don't need to be a GREAT returner to do a lot with dasha's second serve. honestly i don't really watch navarro much, she's by far the top ten player i've seen the least of by like... several orders of magnitude, so we'll see lol. in any case, even if dasha gets past that she does obviously run into one iga swiatek, where the journey will very much end. iga is in that category of players who can just swat away dasha's second serve like it's nothing, and in a way ANY improvement at protecting that thing better would be highly welcome. we'll see!! it's been a good run for her, best she's had at a slam since 2023. poots was a good win. hopefully she can keep it going one more round