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#acosf critical
kataraavatara · 17 hours
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A Court of Silver Flames: “Cassian looked over a shoulder, to where Nesta had been asleep for the past few hours, curled into a tight ball against the wall of rock. I think we'll stay out here for a few days. We're going to hike.
Nesta has never been on a hike in her life. I guarantee she will hate it.” (Feyre’s response)
A Court of Thorns and Roses: "My hands slackened at my sides. "You went after me," I said. "You went after me- to Prythian."
"I got to the wall. I couldn't find a way through."
I raised a shaking hand to my throat. "You trekked two days there and two days back-through the winter woods?"
Hey guys? Guys? THIS is why it’s important to have a team who will actually check you when you make a mistake. This makes Feyre, the main character of the series that Sarah wants people to like, look absolutely awful.
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All I'm gonna say is. . .finding it pretty fucking unfair that not only can Cassian have his wings "shredded", Hunt and Baxian can have theirs sawed off all together and be *good as new* in a few short days but for the Illyrian females, two little snips and it's game over forever.
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littlefeltsparrow · 8 days
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That’s the thing about extreme options as a “last resort”, because in order something to be a last resort, you need to have actually made a tangible effort beforehand.
Sending Nesta to the house of wind was not a last resort, not in the slightest. Because the IC’s idea of helping Nesta before that was to say: “Hey Nesta! Here’s an invitation to a party full of people who don’t like like you!” and giving her unfettered access to the Feysand joint bank account. There were many other options they could have pursued before moving to the extremes.
They’re the leadership of the Night Court, why not ask the bars and taverns not to serve her?
They’re in control of their finances, why not cut her off or give her an allowance?
They have multiple houses, why not offer her (not force her) that as a place to stay for a change in scenery?
There were numerous steps they could’ve taken, but instead they leapt to the most extreme and invasive option possible because it gave them near absolute control over Nesta. They don’t care about her healing, not really, because if they did they would not have centred themselves in Nesta’s struggles. They made it all about themselves!
Nesta is treated so callously because she’s an alcoholic and dealing with her trauma through hypersexuality. Both of which are harmful to her mental and physical health, but that still does not justify essentially placing her under an exploitative conservatorship and calling it “healing”.
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During my re-read of ACOSF, I was re-examining my feelings about Cassian. Up until the hike, I was starting to wonder if maybe I was remembering him all wrong. Cassian has his bad, stupid, ugly moments but they're par the course for SJM heroes and tbh, not half as bad as Rhysand/Rowan. Cassian is struggling with his own feelings and his inability to just say what he needs to say in a way that doesn't come out as offensive or hurtful. It's forgivable, I think.
But now I'm at the hiking scene and I forgot how foul this whole thing is. He's been, in his head, all but thinking about how much he loves her. Needs her. Wants her. She's everything to him, he'd curl up and die if he lost her (his thoughts when she's lost in the bog). He'll take whatever she's offering from him just to have some little piece. Desperate and earnest to see her show up to yoga with him, encouraging her to reach out to her friends, telling Rhysand to leave her alone.
Only to turn around and treat her like trash. Throwing that pack at her, laughing with Rhys that she's gonna HATE hiking, that it's her punishment after Rhys, only hours before, promised Cassian he would kill her. He knows fire troubles her and keeps one going for days and doesn't ever examine the link between his own fire and her constant flinching or how she's curled up in on herself. He thinks about it constantly over 400 pages, how she refuses to sleep in front of fire, how strange that she begs him/the house to make it stop. He knows there is trauma around it. How she's barely eating. That she doesn't speak for days.
And it's troubling and awful to read. He's supposed to love her but it doesn't feel like love. And then it gets reframed as "for her own good" and "cassian knew what she needed" just like Feyre a few pages back immediately forgiving Rhysand for keeping the news she'd die from her but saying she's "furiously angry" with them all. He knows best and Feyre submits to this judgement. Cassian knows what Nesta needs, and Nesta submits.
That hike doesn't solve shit between Cassian and Nesta btw. She's still all set to marry Eris because she thinks Cassian's TOO GOOD FOR HER and she's NOT WORTHY of him. The man who didn't care if she didn't talk to him for days and only felt sorry when she fell face first in the dirt from dehydration and exhaustion. Who took his girlfriend on a hiking trip against her will, he's loving and kind and sweet ONLY because the author says so. Cassian is an asshole. Keeping this scene makes Cassian's behavior feel sinister. He's nice until he's not. He wears his heart on his sleeve until he's mad.
Feyre was over it. She told him to bring Nesta back. Cassian decided to do this on his own to score points with his best friend/frat brother and to exact a little revenge that wasn't his to dole out. Anyway I guess I'm back to ranting about Cassian. The Archeron sisters deserve better, these men are serving dust.
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shallyne · 1 year
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Can I hear your thoughts on acosf specifically FEYSAND?
If you expect some Feysand slander, you're on the wrong Blog my friend.
But I can do acosf slander because that book is a fucking dumpster fire. I'm sorry (I'm not) but it is
Feyre is still the cutest and most badass person in the whole universe after acosf. She was a victim and she did not deserve anything of it.
The IC pissed me more off than Rhys with the pregnancy secret. I got why Rhysand didn't tell her (doesn't mean it's right) but he wanted to find a solution before telling her. He didn't want to stress her if there is a way to avoid the stress BUT the Inner Circle is a bunch of hypocrites here. No one could at least say "Hey, that might be a bad idea. Don't you think she should know? That she deserves to know?" No, they shut their mouths but then turned around like "NeStA sHoUlD kNoW aBoUt ThE sWoRd" I HATED IT
I'm still a Feysand stan tho. A Feysandnyx stan now. How I feel about the IC we will see in the oncoming books.
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confusedbookworm · 2 years
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wannabewriterlol · 2 months
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I want tamlin and Nesta to start a therapy group and just work through the copious amount of gaslighting they’ve faced by Rhysand, Ferye, and the his merry band of idiots.
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simmanin · 6 days
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Remember in ACOSF when Rhysand got the bill from the bar and he read it out loud and raged at the table while Feyre silently cried into her breakfast?
Yeah, what the fuck was that? Did that not make anyone else feel severely uncomfortable? It felt like a weird power play, with the intentions to embarrass Feyre so she would agree to lock her sister up. He didn’t care about the money. And we know at least him and Amren have been planning the intervention for a while, given how fast they called Nesta to the river house and the lies Amren spewed so confidently.
Idk if SJM intended it to come across that way, but it was really fucking weird to me
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theweeklydiscourse · 1 month
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Yeah and one more thing, Cassian is a worthless bitch. How much can an “icy, amused gleam in Cassian’s eyes” tell us? I’ll give you an answer, Cassian is simply a dog that obeys whatever orders his master gives him and delights in carrying out his will. “Ick” doesn’t even begin to describe the feelings I have towards this moment of characterization, it gives me concrete evidence of Cassian’s worthlessness as a love interest.
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Let’s go over his plan, shall we? Cassian intends to take Nesta on a gruelling hike as a punishment for her telling Feyre the truth, but it is strongly implied that he is inflicting this punishment to placate Rhysand’s rage about being exposed as a liar. Nesta, a person who has never been hiking before, is forced to carry a pack that is 1/3rd of her body weight up a mountain during an emotional crisis. Cassian’s says nothing about what Feyre told him, he barely speaks to her during the hike and leaves her alone with her guilt and by extension, her suicidal ideation. Tell me, how exactly is this meant to help Nesta? This is exactly why I’ll never buy the Inner Circle’s arguments that they only want to help Nesta, this is not helping, this is abuse masquerading as therapy.
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Oh! So he does know that she hates herself! This makes his plan even better. In the midst of her obvious emotional turmoil and guilt, he can take her to a location where one could easily fall and die/harm themselves, all while not telling her anything about Feyre’s recovery and letting her anguish for two days straight! He’s the fucking worst!
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spacerockfloater · 1 month
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Sarah J. Maas has no idea what’s going on in her series.
There, I said it. That’s my biggest pet peeve with this series. After the first book, it seems like she’s just desperately trying to create more books to sell, but has nothing left to say. Even the King of Hybern is such a one dimensional villain. What is his backstory? What are his ulterior motives? Why does he hate humans? What’s his NAME? What about the entire COURT OF HYBERN? What are people doing over there? Why are they all described as pale soulless black-eyed creatures? No animals? No nothing? How do the fae live there? How did they manage to raise such a HUGE army if they are below the poverty line? He clearly does not need any slaves if his forces are so strong that they nearly annihilated Prythian?
Unfortunately, this universe is so poorly built. I really loved the first book and it pains me to say this because the world of Prythian is such an interesting concept but it is so UNFINISHED and UNEXPANDED that I wish the series would end after ACOTAR. I felt like there was no story to read afterwards, I was simply watching Feyre’s reality show. And frankly, other than Nesta, Tamlin, Jurien and Eris, who are all SIDE characters, no one seems to experience personal growth or change? None of our protagonists become better people? They just, bond with one another in a weird friendship cult that’s lowkey starting to feel very incestuous.
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nestaapologist · 1 year
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kataraavatara · 16 days
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hey guys im not an expert in rehab or anything but i dont think permanent exile is a threat you pull out during someone’s first intervention. maybe like their fifth intervention, when all the other interventions have failed. mental health experts please advise.
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Why I Dislike the Entire Baby Related Plot line in ACOSF and Find It Utterly Ridiculous
This is probably old news to most people but I realized recently that I never truly ranted about this and I’d like to take the opportunity to. I love a lot of things about Sarah J Maas’s work, but this is not one of them. Hardcore Feysand and SJM stans should probably stay away, I highly doubt you’ll like what I have to say.
Point #1: Feyre’s totally abrupt mind change/desire to be pregnant as an immortal fae at 22 after knowing her 500 year old husband for a year and SJM’s attempt to explain/justify it is a blatant example Author Self-Insert
I feel like I should start off by saying that, in almost every single case, I am a total and complete sucker for anything baby related in literature. This is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but I am the kind of person who loves to see the stereotypical happy ending between characters, featuring marriage and babies. Some people like to keep things open ended, some people just don’t feel that every relationship needs to end in such a way, some people find it cliche. . .but I am definitely not one of those people! Despite it being admittedly corny/cliche, I normally eat that shit up. I have always been a very maternal person and one of my favorite tropes is when a beloved couple has a baby in a story. I am usually totally open to seeing it take place.
However, in ACOMAF, when Feyre expressed to Rhysand that she wanted to wait a while before having any children, I found myself (for once) in total and complete agreement with her. It made total sense to me based on Feyre’s character and her experiences up to that point. Feyre has spent most of her life being responsible for, and caring for others. She expresses in ACOTAR that she never really spent time doing anything for herself out of enjoyment. She also has just gone through an extremely traumatic experience that she is still very much in the process of healing from. She had been dealing with major PTSD throughout the entire story that manifested itself physically, mentally, and emotionally. Not only that, but my goodness!!! Feyre is 19 years old!!!!! 19 is a young age to have a child at in a human lifetime. In the lifespan of an immortal fae, which she now is, she is a god damn infant. She literally has the rest of eternity to procreate. Despite my love for characters having babies, I totally respected and understood her decision and thought it made perfect sense. 
All of this was stated in ACOMAF and was made abundantly clear. And then. . .SJM gets pregnant and now all the sudden, Feyre wants to get pregnant!!!!
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Look, I get it. I really do. SJM, as a first time mom, was caught up in the wonder of pregnancy and wanted Feysand, her favorite couple, to experience it also. Like sure, fine. Reasonably understandable. And Feyre is no less of a “feminist icon” for chosing to be a mother. I just find it funny that she had just had Feyre lay out extremely valid and logical reasons as to why she did NOT want to get pregnant for a while and then dramatically changes her tune in such a short time frame. Just a few months later, Feyre WANTS a baby! Like, come on. At least admit you changed Feyre’s mind because of your own pregnancy!! It really doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the similarities in the timeline. ACOFAS, where Feyre announces her wish to have a child, came out in May 2018 and Sarah’s baby was born a month later, in June. Like, this CLEARLY influenced her dramatic change of heart. And like!!!! Just say that!!! Just admit it!! It’s pretty understandable!!! 
If this was what Sarah wanted based on what was happening in her own life, based on what she had already written, it would have made way more sense to me for Feysand to get pregnant on accident. It’s been stated many times that Fae children are rare and difficult to conceive. Fae women only have two periods a year, and many couples try for years to have children without any success. Not really sure why SJM couldn’t make Feysand get caught up in a moment and bang without any contraception (as they did all throughout Ch 55 of ACOMAF), not REALLY worrying about it because pregnancies are so rare, and then be surprised by an unexpected pregnancy. This would make the Illyrian wings plot line make more sense as well (which I’ll get to a minute--essentially, if Feysand were TRYING to conceive a child, why would they knowingly have unprotected sex while Feyre was in Illyrian form????) I think a surprise pregnancy they weren’t expecting would make a lot more sense given the context of everything that had already been set up. 
But instead of doing this, SJM decides to cook up a reason for Feyre to give us as to why she has suddenly and dramatically changed her stance on something so major in such a short amount of time. 
The weaver only stared toward the tapestry. “I thought we’d have a thousand more years together.” She began to coax the loom back into movement. “In the three hundred years we were wed, we never had the chance to have children. . .I don’t even have a piece of him in that way. He’s gone and I am not. Void was born of that feeling.”
I didn’t know what to say as her words settled in. As she continued working.
It could have been me.
It could have been Rhys.
These months, the what-ifs had haunted me. All of the what-ifs that we’d so narrowly escaped. And this holiday tomorrow, this chance to celebrate being together, living. . .
The impossible depth of blackness before me, the unlikely defiance of Hope shining through it, whispered the truth before I knew it. Before I knew what I wanted to give Rhys.
The weaver’s husband had not come home. But mine had.
I have two responses to all of this:
This does not come across as a healthy rational reason for wanting a child. It’s honestly kind of concerning. Feyre just finished telling us in ACOMAF that she wanted time to live her life and be her own person for a while before having children. Having her completely change her mind after a conversation with someone who had lost their husband in the war before having children honestly seems like a product of unresolved PTSD. You should not decide to have a child out of fear of your spouse dying and you being left with no part of them. Like if you make the permanent and life altering decision to bring a child into the world over a conversation like this, maybe you’re still dealing with some trauma regarding his “death”?? The whole thing honestly comes across as pretty codependent to me. “Damn, now that I think about it, we’ve had some really close calls. We could have died at any time. We shouldn’t waste any more time! I don’t want to be left without a piece of him!” 
Which brings me to #2. . .
2. LOL Feyre honey, this will never be a problem for you, remember???? You shouldn’t waste a second of your time even worrying about those feelings. If Rhys dies (AGAIN, he’s only alive now thanks to Tamlin, but we’ll just ignore that), you’ll be seconds behind him!! 
Point #2: Rhys and Feyre have no business bringing children into this world after making their magically sworn oath that if one dies, the other will as well.
I can not even begin to express how irresponsible and thoughtless I find Rhys and Feyre to be for making a magically binding pact that if one of them dies, the other will as well. My mouth honestly hung open as I read that part of the end of ACOWAR. It was presented in that moment as something romantic and to me, it was horrifying. I would never ever EVER want my significant other to cease living if something happened to me. I can not imagine making a willing agreement to set this in motion. Everything else in this series regarding codependency was CHILD’S PLAY compared to this! 
What doubled my rage and fury over this situation was the fact that Feysand made it and then went, “Hey, you know what would be a great idea?! Let’s have a baby!” Like. . .you fucking fools. No matter what angle you look at this situation at, it’s horrific. Let’s say the baby wasn’t in the picture. They are still the leaders of the largest Court in Prythian. Their lives do not belong to only themselves. They are responsible for thousands of people. Feyre doesn’t REALLY hold any magical political power, but Rhys has just doubled his chance of dying, therefore leaving the Night Court open and vulnerable to whoever the magic of the High Lord’s power would then choose. Now let’s say that the two of them are not in positions of power, but are just two random citizens of Prythian. The repercussions of their decision would not be on as grand of a scale, but they would still be completely guilty of making an extremely irresponsible and selfish decision regarding the care and safety of the children that they CHOOSE to have. The fact that they made this bond and then CHOSE to have a child is disgusting to me. So. . .you two are okay with doubling your child’s chances of becoming an orphan? If their mother dies, they automatically have no father? If their father dies, they automatically have no mother? The selfishness in this act is unbelievable to me. When they finally have their “Oh shit” moment in ACOSF when Feyre’s life is in danger from the delivery, Rhys says, “We never thought it would turn out this way”. Like really????? You didn’t???? You live in a violent warring society, have tons of political enemies, and are the mOsT PoWeRfUl beings in all of Prythian. You put a god damn shield around your wife so no one could even SMELL her during her pregnancy because you claim you have so many enemies. AND your species is known to have risky complicated births!!! And, like always, Feyre and Rhys aren’t really made to have to acknowledge any real accountability over their choices. Amren calls them out for like a minute and then we move on, with our only concern being, “How can we save them?????” while not REALLY stopping to address or examine the fact that they did this TO THEMSELVES. 
Wow, I really went off on a tangent!!! I have been wanting to rant about that pact for a while. My whole point was, Feyre’s reasoning for deciding she DID want to have a baby after all fell totally flat for me. You’ll never have to worry about living without Rhys. You’ll die when he does. I honestly think an accidental pregnancy would have made way more sense, especially regarding my NEXT point! 
Point #3: Nyx having wings was ALWAYS a possibility and this is something Rhys and Feyre should have planned and prepared accordingly for. SJM’s attempt to remove all accountability from them in the dangerous situation they found themselves in is absurd (yet not unexpected). 
I remember, plain as day, reading ACOSF for the first time and finding out that everyone in the IC was so distraught over Feyre’s pregnancy. We pretty much immediately find out that their reason for their distress is that the baby apparently has wings. I’m sitting here like Yeah????? Like. . .of course it does????? Didn’t we all know that would happen??? 
Raise your hand if you always assumed and expected that Feysand’s baby would have wings.
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Like. . .is there really anyone out there who didn’t? I’m pretty sure every single fanfic and/or fanart I saw of their future child included wings. Rhys says that one of his favorite childhood memories was jumping out his bedroom window with his mother and flying around Velaris. His wings are largely featured in many parts of the story. We know his sister canonically had wings as well (the ones that were pinned to the wall like some kind of trophy by Tamlin’s father, along with Rhys’s mother’s wings). He’s a “Bat Boy”. He doesn’t have shape shifting abilities like Feyre, his wings are a PART of him and clearly a part of his sister as well. No one granted him the ability to form them, he was born with it. Yes, he can make them appear and disappear at will, but they are there due to his family’s DNA, through his Illyrian mother. I ALWAYS assumed their baby would have wings!
But according to what Rhys tells us in ACOSF, it’s actually because of Feyre that the baby has wings. 
“Feyre was in an Illyrian form when he was conceived.”
“That can make a difference? I thought she only made the wings--nothing else.”
“She shape-shifts. She transforms her entire self into the form she takes. When she grants herself wings, she essentially alters her body at its most intrinsic level. So she was fully Illyrian that night.”
I honestly just kind of have to laugh at this. What source of information is telling them that this is the reason the baby has wings???? Is this speculation or is this medical fact?? Rhysand has wings as part of his genetic makeup from his Illyrian mother. The baby is just as likely to have inherited these wings from him. How do they KNOW that these wings are there because of Feyre’s form when the baby was conceived?? How do they KNOW she’s transforming her “entire self”?? Is there some kind of genetic testing in Velaris now?? How do they know the difference between what she looks like and what she IS???  You’re telling me this healer Madja just totally dismissed the possibility entirely? “Well, it couldn’t possibly be that the baby developed wings due to his Illyrian father and grandmother. It’s definitely because his fae mother altered her complete genetic makeup by giving herself a pair of Illyrian wings during sex”. 
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Okay, so according to this logic. . .if Feyre transformed herself into Amren, had sex with Rhys and conceived a baby, then transformed back into herself, she would essentially become a surrogate mother for the child she was carrying. The baby would be Rhys and Amren’s biological child, and would carry no DNA from Feyre. Is that really what SJM is claiming? 
I’m sorry, I’m not buying this one bit. Feyre’s ability was SHAPE-SHIFTING. Altering her physical appearance. Not literally BECOMING them and taking on their freaking DNA!!! Spoilers from Empire of Storms: Remember how there was an entire plot of how Lysandra, a shape-shifter, agreed to transform herself into and live her life as Aelin? Who would need to provide heirs for Terrasen? And how it was deemed that she would need Aedion, Aelin’s cousin who greatly resembled her, to father these children, so it would be believable that they were Aelin’s children? It was established that Lysandra was Aelin in appearance only, her physically looking like her wouldn't actually mean anything as far as DNA goes. They would need Aedion, who actually DOES share some DNA and family resemblance to Aelin, to achieve this. This was a huge deal in ToG and a major part of Aedion and Lysandra’s story/relationship. I know you could make the argument that they are technically two different series, therefore the rules of the magic system could be different, and I would acknowledge that. But it still seems weird to me to make “shape-shifting” mean something so completely different in two series that have a ton of commonalities in their magic systems. 
Another reason it seems so implausible to me is that in ACOWAR, Azriel had to specifically TEACH Feyre how to form her Illyrian wings:
“The frame needs to be a bit thicker,” Azriel offered as a weight began to drag down my back. “Strengthen the muscles leading to it.”
I obeyed, my magic listening in turn. He provided more feedback, where to add and where to ease up, where to smooth and where to toughen. In this scene, Feyre is clearly not “becoming” an Illyrian. She is molding and shaping wings onto the back of her body. If Azriel needs to help her make physical adjustments to their appearance, I have a really hard time swallowing that she’s supposed to be “transforming her entire self” and “altering her body at its most intrinsic level”. No, I really just think this is SJM’s half-baked way of making something happen simply because she needs it to happen for the story she wants to tell. It just seems very very weird to me that Feyre would be the reason Feysand’s baby has wings, with nothing to do with Rhys involved at all. It goes against pretty much everything I assumed about them and their relationship this entire time and it just doesn’t seem believable to me. 
I think that entire reasoning and weird and really stretching things, but whatever. Let’s just go with it. SJM says it is so, so it is. My point in pointing all of this out is to call back to what I said earlier: If SJM wanted to really go with this angle, that Feyre and Rhys getting it on while she was in Illyrian form was the reason the baby had wings, I think it would have made much greater sense in the context of this story to have Feyre just get pregnant by accident. Feyre had already established that she didn’t want to have children for a while. Create a scenario where the two of them get caught up in a sexy moment and have some kinky Illyrian sex without using or taking any form of birth control (as they do in Ch 55 of ACOMAF, minus the Illyrian part). Then oops!!! Feyre’s pregnant. It’s not a total devastation to either of them, because they knew they wanted to have children eventually, and fae children are rare and considered a blessing, so they just figure it was fate. THEN they can be totally upset and shocked when they realize the consequence of what happened between them. Obviously, they would have never had full on Illyrian sex if they were TRYING to conceive a baby, right?? Feyre obviously had no clue but Rhys would have definitely put a stop to it. 
As soon as I read the part where Rhys explains why Feyre having a child with wings is dangerous and deadly, the very first question that immediately exploded into my mind was, “If that’s the case, why the hell are these two having unprotected sex, TRYING to get pregnant, while she is in Illyrian form????” If you’re taking your birth control herbs or whatever and you just want to have some kinky Illyrian wing sex, fine!!! Great!!! But like. . .hello!! What are we doing having unprotected “Build a house with a nursery, Feyre” sex in this state?? I didn’t understand why no one was asking that question. Like, did they not put themselves in this situation??? 
And honestly. . .forget everything to do with Feyre. No matter how “small” the chance, the possibility of them conceiving a winged child always existed, due to Rhys’s Illyrian heritage. Wouldn't you think that once they knew they were going to start trying for a child, whether they knew how Feyre’s powers worked or not, if there was even the SLIGHTEST chance the baby could inherit wings, Rhys would inform her that she needed to conceive and then STAY in Illyrian form for her safety?? As I pointed out earlier, it doesn’t make sense to say there’s no chance at all the baby could inherit wings from Rhys. You’d think Rhysand, who loves and adores Feyre above all other things, would have ensured from the moment they began trying to conceive that there was not even the slightest chance this could be an issue for her. 
The only conclusion I can come to is that SJM would say that Rhys and Feyre weren’t aware that Feyre’s powers worked that way. Because all the other alternatives involve him or them looking pretty fucking irresponsible, which we all know is NOT ALLOWED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. No, there is no criticism allowed whatsoever. It’s not their fault!!! They didn’t have sex under unsafe life threatening conditions while TRYING to get pregnant!!!! Rhys didn’t not inform Feyre about the dangers of fae delivering winged babies or take steps to prevent it from happening!!! It’s not Rhys’s fault the baby has wings, even though he carries that genetic makeup in the actual genetic makeup he was born with and carries with him at all times!!! It’s because of some of Feyre’s strange gifted magic and they didn’t even know about it!!!! 
Okay. . .so we’re back to where we were before. If we didn’t know about it then, how do we know about it NOW? What led you to believe that the baby has wings because of Feyre’s weird powers, when you had no idea before?? If they didn’t know her power worked this way, wouldn't they assume the wings were from Rhysand?? But instead, we’ve got Rhys telling us it’s because of the form Feyre was in. How did you find this out and why did you just find it out now??????
Ugh, we could go in circles forever. I realize I’m probably thinking way too much into this. SJM clearly just needed a scenario to exist where Feyre was pregnant with a winged baby that endangered her life and since it goes against her very nature to make her and Rhys do anything bad whatsoever, this is what she came up with. However, it goes against MY very nature to just blindly accept it and move on! 
Point #4: The fact that there were no alternatives to saving Feyre and the baby’s lives is not believable in the slightest. 
I feel like I should point out the admitted absurdity of what I’m saying by calling a specific detail in this series “not believable”. We’re talking about a fantasy series where an immortal fae is pregnant with a baby with large bat-like wings. Obviously, NONE of it is objectively “believable”. When I use language like that, I’m referring to how it is not believable within the context of the world and magic system SJM has created. 
So when Cassian first hears about Feyre’s predicament, one of the first things he asks Rhys is a pretty logical question: Why doesn’t Feyre shift BACK into Illyrian form, so she DOES have the pelvis and birth canal and all that other fun stuff that will allow her to deliver the baby safely? This is Rhys’s response: 
“Madja has put a ban on any more shape-shifting. She says that to alter Feyre’s body in any way right now  could put the baby at risk. On the chance that it could be bad for the baby, Feyre is forbidden to so much as change the color of her hair until after the birth.” 
I’m sorry, this is dumb to me. The baby is ALREADY at risk!!! The situation is basically presented and described as a death sentence to both him and Feyre. It’s told to us over and over that hardly any babies and mothers ever survive these circumstances. It’s why Rhys is freaking out so badly. It seems to me like this is a chance worth taking. They’re using language like “it COULD be bad for the baby” and “there’s a CHANCE it could put it at risk”. They don’t KNOW what would happen, because no one has ever been in Feyre’s position with the unique powers she has. If Feyre can make specific small changes to her body, like the color of her hair, why couldn’t she just make a small specific change to her uterus, without shifting her entire body into some other form? Yes, there is a “chance” it could harm the baby, but how does it look like things are going for the baby on their own???? To me, it seems like the odds are “98% chance you’ll both die” and “Unknown odds about what will happen”. I feel like I know which one I’d go with!!
This is extra infuriating, because this decision, about what Feyre does to her body when her life is at risk, is something she UNQUESTIONABLY should have been a part of deciding. Feyre could have thought that taking a chance on the unknown was worth it, rather than resigning both her and her child to what essentially would be (and did end up being!!!) a death sentence. We’ll never know what she would have decided however, since Rhysand robbed her of making this choice or even contributing her input when he decided to withhold all of this information from her.
“You might be my mate,” he said, “but you remain your own person. You decide your fate – your choices. Not me. You chose yesterday. You choose every day. Forever.” 
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File this away under: “Reasons I Despise Rhysand”. #No one likes a hypocrite. 
Moving on. . .that’s a rant for another day. 
The other option that is presented as a safe alternative  is delivering the baby through cesarean section. This is shot down by Cassian, who tells us this: 
“Any attempts in the past to cut the child out of the mother’s womb have been. . .” he shuddered. “No mother has ever survived. So we won’t even try that route.” 
And when the moment actually comes, as Feyre is literally bleeding out and both her and the baby are dying we get this from Madja:
“There is nothing we can do,” Madja said. “Cutting the babe out of her will kill her.”
“Cutting it out?” Nesta demanded, earning a sharp glare from Rhys.
Madja ignored her tone. “An incision along her abdomen, even one carefully made, is an enormous risk. It’s never been successful. And even with Feyre’s healing abilities, the blood loss has weakened her.”
I’m sorry, I have to laugh at this. This is the most blatant case of Convenient Story Telling I have ever seen. I understand that this is a high fantasy world where no technology exists. People use lanterns and ride horses and use herbs to heal things. However, C-Section births have been happening successfully for hundreds of years, far before the time of modern medicine. The first recorded case where both the mother and child survived was in Switzerland in 1500. The first one to occur in the United States happened in 1794. Obviously these procedures did not occur without serious risk before modern medicine, but they DID happen successfully. And you mean to tell me that in a fantasy world where extremely powerful magic exists, we couldn’t make one happen???
It just seems so contrived to me. No normal rules of medicine or healing have EVER had anything to do with this series. Let’s just cite a couple of examples:
Lucien has his eyeball clawed out by Amarantha and was given a magical metal eye replacement, crafted by Nuan, the alchemist from the Dawn Court.
Feyre has her arm shattered by the Middengard Wyrm, has tendons and bone hanging out of it, festering with infection, and Rhysand heals it to perfection with his bare hands.
Tamlin gets stabbed through the heart by Feyre, has a gaping chest wound that pours blood all over the floor, but is healed enough to attack and kill Amarantha the moment the curse is broken. 
Cassian somehow knows what lactic acid is 
Madja can perform magical ultrasounds where she can tell the baby’s gender and general shape/size/presence of wings.
Nesta recalls how in the battle against Hybern, Cassian had “been gutted and Azriel had held his entrails in with his bare hands”.
We are existing in a world where BOTH of this baby’s parents have literally DIED and been brought back to life!!!!!
If this is a world where all of those things can happen, it seems ridiculous to me that a successful cesarean birth is impossible and would result in certain death for both Feyre and the baby. Clearly this society has the healing capability to save someone who’s guts are literally hanging out of their body (Cassian) and yet we’re supposed to believe a c-section is completely impossible? And not only that. . .we are dealing with a magic system that literally brings people back to life. Feyre AND Rhys were both killed at certain points in this story and restored to full life through magic. I’m not saying the exact method used on them could be applied here, I’m just saying. . .it seems unrealistic that there couldn’t be SOME sort of magical solution to someone bleeding out from a c-section. It’s just a case of very convenient story telling, which is something that has always bugged me in stories. 
Point #5: The climax of what was supposed to be Nesta and Cassian’s story felt centered around and overshadowed by Feysand. 
I guess at this point, I shouldn’t really be surprised. But I still couldn’t help the sense of disappointment I felt over all the drama at the end of this book being all about the Feysand baby. Nesta had just gone through the fucking Blood Rite, something no female had EVER survived or even participated in in the thousand year history of the Illyrians. Not only did she survive, she came damn near close to winning/completing it (admittedly unrealistic, considering she had been training a few months and was up against insanely powerful Illyrian warriors who had been training literally decades, but whatever. . .that’s how a lot of fantasy stories roll). I felt like we didn’t even get a moment to sit with that and really reflect on it before we’re whisked away to Feyre’s delivery room, and all of that drama ensues. It felt like we didn’t have a true emotional moment about anything to do with the Rite before it was abruptly cut off, leaving me with a disjointed feeling. 
I understand that this moment was supposed to serve as a big important healing moment between Nesta and Feyre. I understand that that was an important part of Nesta’s story. I’m all for some sisterly love and it was certainly satisfying to see Rhys go on his knees in gratitude before her. I just personally wouldn't have chosen THIS moment to be the climax and The Big Ending of the entire book. And maybe my feelings on this wouldn't be as strong if I didn’t already know that SJM is unnaturally obsessed with Feysand. That made it harder to swallow. Whether this is rational or not (and I acknowledge that of all the points I made, this might be the one that isn’t entirely), it felt like SJM just featuring her faves again. 
This ended up being WAY longer and more rambly than I had planned on, but once I got started, I just couldn’t stop! I’ve been bottling this all up for over a year now and it clearly needed to be let out. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: I have respect for Sarah as an author but I will never not critique something I feel is poorly executed, as long as I can back it up with logic and facts from the text. I feel like I’ve done a pretty fair job of doing that. 
In conclusion: Rhys and Feyre are not fit to be parents at this point in their lives based on their own choices they have made, nor does it really make sense for them to even WANT to be at the moment. The situation they found themselves in was entirely preventable and SJM’s excuse and explanation for it was convoluted. I don’t find it to be believable in the slightest that there was no other possible way to safely deliver the baby and save Feyre, based on the word that SJM herself created. And Nesta ended up feeling like a supporting character in the dramatic finale of her own story. I wish she would have gotten her full moment in the spotlight without any involvement from SJM’s blatant favorites. Nesta really deserved better. 
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littlefeltsparrow · 16 days
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Nesta’s emotional breakdown at the end of the hike was not a product of a well-meaning attempt to improve her well-being, but a manipulative pseudo-therapeutic strategy that aimed to simulate vulnerability and masquerade as progress in Nesta’s character arc.
The narrative would have you believe that the hike was an ordeal of self-discovery for Nesta, that Cassian was using a bit of “tough love” to help Nesta get better and grow as a person. But it operates on the idea that exposure to nature, which is presumed to be inherently beneficial, would give Nesta the push she needed to work through her issues and unpack the trauma that had been affecting her all throughout the book. But, this couldn’t be further from the reality that we are shown. Exercise like hiking can be immensely beneficial to one’s mental wellbeing and it can also be therapeutic in some cases, but such benefits are negated when the people involved are subjected to undue hardship and danger during that exercise.
It’s not a coincidence that Nesta opening up to Cassian comes directly after an extremely straining hike, during which she exhausted herself mentally and physically all while in the midst of intense psychological stress. Nobody told her that Feyre was alright after their heated argument, nobody told her that Feyre AGREED that Nesta did the right thing and understood why she did it. Consequently, this omission prolongs Nesta’s emotional anguish and guilt unnecessarily and makes the ordeal of the hike even worse.
Nesta, who has never hiked before in her life, is forced on one against her will, chaperoned by Cassian who does not speak to her and hardly looks at her during the 2 day hike. This is a detail that exposes this hike for what it truly is, a means of breaking Nesta’s spirit to get her back in line. It was never about piecing her back together, it was about shattering her emotionally to punish her for defying Rhysand’s authority. But, the text doesn’t want to admit that, it wants to pretend to make a grand statement on mental health and make a cheap copy of Cheryl Strayed’s memoir “Wild” without any of the pathos. Cassian can feel warm and fuzzy about the accomplishment of opening Nesta’s heart, when in reality, that vulnerability he witnesses is entirely a result of prolonged stress and pain.
So could it be, that Nesta’s emotional “ breakthrough” at the end of the hike, was not due to Cassian’s and the IC’s efforts to help her, but the combined strain of dehydration, exhaustion and intense emotional distress finally catching up with her after repressing it for 2 days straight?
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wishcamper · 2 months
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I really hate the idea of Nesta having to play the courtier’s game. The dancing scene in ACOSF felt so yucky to me bc like - here’s a woman who was groomed to be a child bride now being asked to use her body and the promise of fucking her to achieve someone else’s ends. Again. It didn’t feel empowering to me, it felt belittling and objectifying.
Nesta is smart! Let her talk to Eris if you must make him want her. Don’t take one of the only things that gives her joy and debase it to sleazy political maneuvering. She shows over and over that she’s so much more capable if you just give her the opportunity.
Idk I just hate the way people continue to use her even when she’s “well”. Her powers, her sexuality, her physicality - let my girl enjoy things without spoiling them! It feels like Sarah had all these grand visuals in mind when it came to ACOSF (the ball, the hike, those godforsaken fucking stairs) and didn’t stop to think if any of it actually made sense character development-wise.
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ae-neon · 10 months
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Nesta Vs ACOSF, a rambling rant
TW: mentions of sexual assault and abuse
Besides the "love" story that read like a quiet descent into domestic horror, ACOSF has one element that keeps me from being able to pick it up even just to sift through for Nesta gems: sex.
Here me out, I'm not a prude and I think we could have gotten a smutty romance but...
At her core, Nesta has always been a proud and modest person.
To be clear, with pride, I mean that her sense of self - her famous steel spine - has kept her together and unbroken even during harrowing circumstances. It's vital to her. It's so ingrained in her that - given we have no other explanation - we can assume it's what shields her mind from literal magic. However, like any trait, her pride can also be a thing that comes off as negative in the wrong situations.
With modesty, she was raised to keep a certain ideology that based her value on sex, beauty, marriage etc but it's important to understand that Nesta applied those standards inwards, at herself. (Eg In acotar, she brings up Feyre and Isaac in defence of her and Tomas, in acomaf, she is mostly upset about not hearing from Feyre or being notified that Feyre has switched courts - not about Feyre sleeping with Tamlin and then Rhys)
Now, I don't think Nesta's modesty makes her better than Feyre, in fact I was happy to get the representation of two different types of views on sex
But what I didn't consider at the time was that SJM was painting this out to be a negative trait.
In retrospect it seems obvious even though Nesta has defied her narrative destiny and become a sort of icon, at the end of the day she was still supposed to be written in a negative contrast to Feyre.
It seems funny but imagine you consumed the book the way Sarah intended, the way so many in the fandom have. The old Sarah Says rule, for my long time mutuals.
For example:
The dinner in acomaf - it's obvious Nesta is upset that she hasn't heard from Feyre only to have her come through not only as a whole Fae but bringing others and endangering their entire family.
But imagine it as a one dimensional reading and suddenly the "I fuck" dialogue is a girlboss moment of feminism giving a fuck you to the strict patriarchy of the "mortal lands" let's ignore how the Fae are actually more patriarchal and the Illyrians even more so than that
So understand that Nesta's modesty is being directly contrasted with Feyre's sexual freedom. The reader - at least from sjm's perspective - is supposed to agree with Feyre and disagree with Nesta in a sort of win/lose, yes/no, black/white dichotomy.
And because sjm is consistent and boring and a self-inset author, this dynamic doesn't change even when the protagonist does.
Only now sjm and her feminism has changed from fuck-whoever-I-want girlboss to kinky-but-only-with-my-husband tradwife
So Nesta can't be prudish and cut off because 1) it's not as conducive to the breakdown of self and buildup of a dependent and abusive relationship and 2) it's not in direct contrast with Feyre's current monogamous, traditional family values character.
So Nesta starts drinking and sleeping around and it's not because we're going to explore the unraveling of the pride and modesty at the core of the character as part of her transformation or as a result of her trauma
But because it's supposed to be a bad look, degrading, it shows she's failed, it makes her a loser
All of that is already insane. And even more so when taken with the context of her assault by Tomas and the sex centred relationship she has with Cassian
Now add to that the fact that in the book, Nesta is an object of desire for 2 villains and undergoes assault and drowning AGAIN
Sjm literally gives less than 2 fucks about SA, that much is obvious even from the way she inflicts and then disregards the experience of both Feyre and Rhysand respectively. It's a tool for her, a quirky story element
But to have Nesta experience such a similar thing - especially when the experience of being Made can be read as a sort of rape allegory on its own - and all for the sake of "romance" fantasy??
Even Nesta's reading habits are sexualised, to be clear I don't think there's anything wrong with reading smut, but the scope of her intellect and reading is narrowed down when we're suddenly made to believe most of the books she reads are smut.
This is someone who likely taught herself economics and investment within months in order to not just pay off the debt, upgrade her whole family's way of life but also rebuild the family fortune. Someone who, having stopped schooling at around 14/15, did the math needed to calculate the feasibility of the evacuation of a small country.
Someone who's verbally stated life goal was to see what a woman could make of herself in the world.
Even her love of reading is used as a stepping stone for how horny she is, instead of it being a result of her deeply ingrained need for escapism
She reads smut because the only thing she has in common with Cassian and the IC is sex. Because sjm thought one of the core elements of a friendship between 2 SA survivors and a disabled woman from a culture that mutilated her for being born a woman would be their desire to fantasise about men.
All the while the male love interest treats her like garbage.
We could have had a smutty book filled with sex where each scene could have been the growth of Nesta's trust and love of Cassian through intimacy. It could have been a sexual relationship that involved and explored kink - which explored vulnerability and the negative impact of how Nesta's pride became a source of stress and strain.
It could have been an exploration about the complicated relationship with desire and oppressors that many survivors have. But it isn't.
It's hahaha horny, so RELATABLE
Even when it comes to the abusive situation Nesta grew up in, it's just hung up like decoration on the character. Not explored, let alone healed. I don't wanna hear that sjm explained or explored Nesta's abuse when we don't even get her mother or her grandmother's names
We don't get
The complexity of being a trapped and abused woman who came from a trapped and abused woman who came from a trapped and abused woman
Or the complexity of a dysfunctional family
Or even the journey of recovery from addiction and self-harming behaviour
Now, not every aspect of Nesta or any survivors lives have to boil down to how it relates to their experiences but SJM is praised for her "recovery" and so much of this book is about sex and abuse but has no depth
It could have been a less-deep, fun experience of sex and desire and kink. But no
Nesta has sex with many faceless men because sjm is condemning her as a failure. Sex is her punishment, it makes her dirty and unworthy and cheap.
Then, through her "healing", she becomes a sex doll for the right guy. Sex is her reward, it makes her hot and useful and appealing.
Sjm writes not just like a man but like a particularly talented misogynist so it's the way sex is used that really puts me off
Edit: ultimately I think the sex and romance should have interacted with and evolved her pride, modesty and past experiences, rather than those things being demolished to turn her into a sex doll
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