#like is SJM gonna make us learn EVEN MORE CHARACTERS?

[writingsbychlo]

unpopular opinion but elain and nesta are not part of the inner circle. they all chose feyre. nesta alienated literally all of them, and just because she’s found her peace with some of them doesn’t make her an IC member. nesta chose her own IC, gwyn and emerie. she is not part of feyre’s IC.

elain has no friends.

that’s not a dig at elain it’s a fact. az isn’t a friend, he’s been turned in a love interest. she’s not friends with rhys or cass or mor or amren or the valkyries.

elain and nesta are not IC!!

#it irks me to see IC fanart featuring them and labelled as the IC #like no #no??? #also this personally plays hugely into elucien over elriel for me #if elain got with az she’d be forced to take on his friends #where’s she gonna get more from? what #like is SJM gonna make us learn EVEN MORE CHARACTERS? #or perhaps will elain befriend vassa and jurian in the human lands #living a life between fae and human with lucien #gettin the best of both worlds #and making her own IC like her sisters have

[eerna]

so how's fourth wing so far :]

CHECK IN TIME! OK so I am on chapter 22, which is the 51% mark of the book. I continue to be disappointed, but now I have read enough of the book to know I'm not overreacting or judging too early.

Anachronisms continue to run rampant. At one point the MC uses the expression "Are our wires crossed?", which is an explicit reference to telephones, meaning this world has telephones but not pens. This could have easily been a modern fantasy and better for it, there is 0 reason for keeping it a historical setting.

I am on chapter 22 approximately because I actually accidentally fell asleep during Amber's trial and it was so insanely ridiculous I just signed off, and then rewinded to the beginning of the chapter when I woke up. Dain not believing his best freind in the entire world and a bunch of other people because "AMBER LOVES RULES TOO MUCH TO BREAK THEM!!" is one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen.

The characters.... Good lord literally everyone is just an empty shell of a person, someone who serves a certain role in the story and nothing else. It's been a while since I read a book where not a single character gave me anything to work with. That includes bad things I could complain about, or flaws. No one dares step a toe outside the stereotypical roles - wow, here's the Petite Delicate MC With Hidden Power, her Overprotective Childhood Best Friend (well ok he is depicted as bad in this one but more on that later), her Fun Extroverted New Best Friend, the Mysterious Brooding Dark Haired Bad Boy, the Evil Bitch, the Craaaaazy Murderous Competitor....... Like damn give me SOMETHING.

The deaths that people say raise the stakes and feel brutal and realistic are really funny to me because it is Super Obvious who is gonna be next to die. Why are we suddenly focusing on this random background character? Because they are gonna perish next page. Please pretend to be shocked when it happens. Rinse and repeat.

Ngl the "our dragons are mates and that means we are gonna be serving the army together for the rest of their lives also gotta learn how to work together" as a forced proximity method is an absolutely amazing idea. Too bad I feel nothing for this specific combination of characters.

The romance is so immature. It's not even SJM level relationship development. So Violet is in love with her childhood best friend, but then decides she doesn't want to be with him because there is no "spark" when they kiss. Not because he is controlling and belittles her and has no faith in her. Oh no. It's about how she can't even look at Xaden without getting horny!!!! It's about how she hates him as a person but his BODYYY WOWWWW YUMMMMM!!!! PLENTY of sparks!! At one point she describes his cousin and feels the need to specify the two look similar, but she is NOT physically attracted to him, which is just so funny. The book is still painfully straight and treats me to the "Big Burly Muscular Man and his Tiny Dainty Little Woman" shtick.

It's the EPITOME of those "imagine a book where..." tiktoks. Ohhhh the villain is KILLIN PEOPLE to SAVE THE MC even though she thought HE HATED HER..... Oooohhh he has DARK HAIR and ENCOURAGES HER TO BE STRONG....... Ooooooh the MC has bnded to THE STRONGEST DRAGON EVER and also HAS TWO BONDED DRAGONS which has NEVERRR HAPPENED BEFORE...... It feels like a collection of out-of-context quotes meant to be shown as a greenscreen backdrop while the reader pretends to be screaming into their hand in the foreground.

All in all. I am still not enraged angry the way some other books from the book club have made me, but we still haven't reached the smut so there's plenty of time for the nosedive. I'm just reading this and wondering why this specifically was chosen as the next Big Thing. What makes it special??? I see Nothing. Maybe I will find out if I keep going - I don't personally have to like it, but I'd like to figure out why so many other people do.

#eernask #eernanon

[whitedemon-ladydeath]

Preparing, Cooking and Curing Venison

ok so I'm from rural Iowa, right. and Hunting is a big, big thing. I have a very vivid memory of a hunter hanging a deer upside down in his backyard to bleed it dry

and while rereading the first few chapters and reading the "few hours" in terms of curing the meat, it had me a bit 🤨. even tho I had never hunted myself, it did trigger an alarm in my head so I went deep diving. never in my life did I think I'd be looking into curing meat and here we are

there's several ways to cure meat but the most traditional is dry curing with salt. I see 'traditional' I see 'old school'. This is like medieval times so it seemed the most logical and ideal form of curing

1) eating raw venison is a Risk. no one who is actually versed in hunting and eating game is going to risk getting sick when they're already starving. Diarrhea and loss of fluids is a huge risk factor

2) Feyre said she alloted a "few hours" to curing meat. it needs a MINIMUM of 24 hours to 5 DAYS in order to properly cure. as stated above, would people be willing to pay for a "few hours of curing" when 1) curing meat was a common practice 2) with it being a common practice are people really going to gamble with a "few hours" of curing with the risks of illness from unproperly preserved meat 3) it needs a ton of salt in order to do cure. Salt was a luxury for a lot of medieval folks. it probably cost them a decent sum to be able to aquire

while venison is "easy" to cook, it can be tricky as it can easily get overcooked and very tough. As we can see, it's roasted. roasting is predominantly done in an oven or a crockpot. considering it's medieval times, I'm gonna guess an oven. Ovens were very rare and very expensive in the home and community ovens are more likely to be used.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say they cooked it over a fire. it's a few minutes to prevent over-cooking. it's not a typical food that would be cooked in a more lavish lifestyle and since Feyre could not cook, I'm going to wager that it took a little bit of trial and error for one of the sisters to learn how

"but Atlas!" you say. "Its just fantasy. Who CARES if it's not accurate!"

don't care

she could have done the research needed for hunting if her main character is gonna be flouncing around as a "huntress"

I feel like this is just further elaboration of SJM speed running the beginning of acotar to get to Bigger Plot Points tbh. she makes being a Huntress™️ Feyres whole ass theme that Jumpstarts the series. She cannot cook. She cures the meat. her sisters and father get labeled as Lazy. so who cooks?

a little bit of consistency pls

#a court of thorns and roses #acotar #sjm critical #feyre archeron #elain archeron #nesta archeron

[elains]

Some ideas on Theia, Fionn, Pelias and the High Lords

Since House of Flame and Shadow is coming out soon, I want to leave this registered here for posterity hahaha. I'm doing most of this by memory, I haven't really reread, so any mistakes you find that's probably it lol. Also this is WAY more focused on CCity and its character's than ACOTAR proper.

ACOSF introduces us to the Daglan and Fionn, the First and Only High King of Prythian. According to the Prythian side of the legend, he has a sword called Gwydion which was dipped into the Cauldron by the High Priestess Oleanna, which he used to defeat the Daglan. Milennia of peace followed, the land was divided in the precursors to the courts, but then they were at the brink of war. He became High King and was betrayed by his best friend and his Queen, who was also queen of her own territory in her own right.

In Crescent City, we are introduced to the figure of Queen Theia, the Starborn Queen who led the Fae out of their homeworld and brought them to Midgard. She had two daughters, Helena and an unnamed second one. She was betrayed by her most trusted general, Pelias, who then married her daughter and forced her to bear his children. Her other daughter escaped, never to be heard from again. The Starsword beloged to Theia. Come HOSAB, we learn it and Gwydion are one and the same.

Applying Occam's Razor to these two characters, the simplest outcome is that Theia was Fionn's wife and the one who betrayed him, Helena and Nameless Daughter are their children, and Pelias is the best friend and general who betrayed him. Fionn probably wasn't a great person because let's be real, Theia found Aidas later and SJMs has a thing for making past love interests looking bad when a new one is in town (example: Shahar for Hunt).

I don't want Fionn to have been evil! And I guess this is what these ideas boil down to. I'm not even gonna call them theories because they aren't really based on hard evidence. Just fun What Ifs, possible parallels, headcanons. Who knows? So without further ado:

What If Pelias played the role of Iago?

We all know Pelias is utter trash. He betrayed his Queen and forcibly married her daughter so she could be the mother of his now royal children. If he was Fionn's best friend, I have exactly zero reason to think he wasn't trash and power hungry then too. All in all, regardless of what Theia and Fionn's relationship was like (and I want to believe they were both good people), I believe Pelias was the root of all evil.

I can see him feeling inferior to both: Theia with her blazing starlight compared to his meagre one and Fionn was probably remarkable in his own way. I like to think that though they didn't love each other, there was respect and trust and even camaraderie. They both played their part in expelling the Daglan. Fionn got to be High King and married Theia, who was Queen of Dusk. He was their friend, relegated to their shadows.

This gets even juicier if we accept as true that Pelias was always a Starborn Prince. Maybe he was Theia's illegitimate brother, maybe a distant relative. I can see him wanting everything his friends have: the crown of High King, the title of King of Dusk, everything. Greed and Jealousy that drove him to manipulate his closest friends into turning against each other and ended with Theia slaying Fionn.

He never got to reap the rewards in Prythian, though: Theia's killing of Fionn sent the realm into disarray. We are told the Fae were lured to Midgard, and I think that's because Theia took the chance to flee a whole land that wanted her dead for her crime either for justice or their own greed (we will come back to it). Theia escaped believing Pelias was her friend and trusted general. I don't think they were ever lovers. Maybe that too played a role in his jealousy and anger, how Theia never loooked his way and found love with Aidas.

Regardless, he betrayed and murdered her anyway, dooming her daughter to a lifetime of unhappiness.

What if Fionn and Theia were siblings?

Frequently, across Crescent City, we hear that the Starborn have intermarried to keep their bloodline pure (how utterly Targaryen of them). We have yet to hear about any historical examples of such unions, but Fionn and Theia provide a fine opportunity for this to be brought to the table. The Last Starborns marrying out of duty to keep their bloodline pure in their old world. It also goes well with how Gwydion and Truthteller are siblings blades, one belonging to each.

Could Theia have been a Queen of her own territory in her own right then if they were siblings? Why not? Plenty of queens in history were queens in their own right, regardless of their husbands. She could have been the oldest and heir to the Dusk Territory, Fionn the younger sibling who was chosen as the High King. Or maybe he was the eldest and gave up the throne to her. Maybe the territory passed down in the female line or to the strongest starborn. In any case, it's not really a hurdle.

In this scenario, Pelias as their best friend (distant relative/bastard half-sibling/wtv) still works. In fact, it complements it because it highlights Pelias's hatred and envy for them both. They get everything, he gets nothing. Taken further if Fionn didn't have the Starborn's light, but was a legitimate prince.

It would also create an interesting parallel between Ruhn and Bryce. Siblings, one dark and one light. "Maybe there's a knife for me out there", Bryce herself says. Ruhn's the older brother and as far as we know, the heir, but it's Bryce who is most often compared to a Queen. Not him, though if I recall, Bryce think she will be a good ruler. She is right. Ruhn might carry Pelias light, true, but his shadows are Fionn's.

This time, it doesn't end in tragedy.

What if Theia was Fionn's daughter?

This is VERY far-fetched, I freely admit to it, and was born out of me trying to rationalize the difference between ACOSF and CCity: Gwydion is Fionn's sword, but it'salso the Starsword, which is Theia's.

Simplest solution is either: it was Fionn's and Theia took it all after she killed him and Midgard doesn't have the full story or it was always Theia's and Prythian remembers it incorrectly. The Dread Trove we know was likely made by the Asteri and it wasn't originally Fionn's.

Crackpot theory: Fionn was the Starborn King, hero to the Fae, and married the Night Queen to secure his rule (that's where shadow power would have com into the bloodline). Fionn and his Queen have a daughter, Theia, and Theia herself has two daughters of her own. Who fathered these kids is 100% irrelevant. Sarah didn't give the Archeron sister's father a name, I'm not holding my breath he isn't just a no one.

Pelias is Fionn's best friend and general, and madly jealous of the man. Likely wants to marry his daughter, too. In any case, he and the Queen betray and murder Fionn, intent on setting Theia on the throne. In the end, Pelias tricks Theia into believing it was all her mother, and he is on her side. The Night Queen, ruler of Nightmares, was always a means to an end. Maybe she was aligned with the Asteri too, considering the Wild Hunt imagery in the CoN.

Or maybe the Queen was dead by then, and history has conflated her with Theia. Maybe Theia, Queen after her mother, thought her father was becoming a tyrant and decided to kill him. Maybe Pelias pushed her into it, thinking he could marry her. We actually never know how long Fionn reigned. Theia never stole anything at all: it was always hers by right. She was to be the next High Queen.

And then the High Lords intervened.

What if the reason Theia fled to Midgard was because of the High Lords?

Theia was lured by the Asteri to Midgard. But why? Why did she gave up everything in her former world to a new one? What could have driven her to take such a risk? I think she wouldn't have, had she any other choice. Theia was, to put it simply, pushed against a corner because she had a rebellion in her hands.

If she killed Fionn and he was recognized as the High King and well loved, this may as well have started a rebellion. Not even because he was a good king (maybe he was), but for their own power. The Royal House is in disarray, regardless of its familial arrangement, and what better place to strike? They do not want a High Queen whatsoever.

So they attack Theia. Maybe at some point she loses parts of the Dread Trove, which is why Helion has the reaction he has to the mask: it's an echo from when his ancestor used it against Theia. In any case, she's fighting a losing war. Her people will be eliminated. She's losing and desperte, and the Asteri's call is her salvation. She doesn't notice the trap.

Victorious, the High Lords weave history to be whatever he wanted, twisting or erasing the role she played. And, perhaps, this is why there have been no High Ladies: there's magic preventing it, magic which the first High Lords established to keep the power at bay, because Fionn's only heirs were women.

And this closes the bunch of ideas I wanted to write down lmao. Probably none of this will become canon but hey, it's fun to think of other possibilities! Again, this was all by memory, incosistences galore, self-indulgent, I don't really expect any (except Pelias is the Iago but that's pribably what EVERYONE thinks, but I needed to write it down for the rest to make sense you know).

#ccity #hosab #acotar #hoeab #sjm #crackpot theory

[xadenviolct]

You know what I find almost... IDK, sad but funny, I guess--when it comes to the SJM/ACOTAR fandom?

The ship wars.

I remember a time (an age ago and in other fandom circles) where everyone was just "ship and let ship". We all had our faves, our OTPs and even our NOTPS. We all had our PREFERENCES and opinions and like-- that's just normal human nature. What one person likes, another will not, and vice versa.

There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with such a thing!

But what the ACOTAR fandom reminds me so much of is the OUAT fandom when it comes to ships. And damn, that was a nasty time. A horrible time (a lot like what SJM's books bring out in people today on the internet).

Because it became about attacking people, hating on people, thinking one side was dumb or delusional or stupid and it was just downright HATEFUL. The whole "us versus them" mentality was sickening and, while that, too, is part of human nature (sadly), at the end of the day, it all boiled down to one thing:

It was all FICTION, and some people were outright hating on/insulting REAL PEOPLE over such things.

The ACOTAR fandom gives me major flashbacks to that OUAT time. Just saying.

So here's the basic thing I've learned after time in many different fandoms, after many different ships and faves and whatnot:

Stay in your lane. Ship and let ship. Canon will be whatever it is (it might be "your" ship and it might be "their" ship, who knows; that's the AUTHOR'S/WRITERS' decision), but you know what the fucking beautiful thing about fandom is--

WE CAN DO (AND SHIP) WHATEVER AND WHOMEVER THE HELL WE WANT.

I'm gonna use OUAT since that canon is over, whereas ACOTAR is still-ongoing for an example. Canon-wise? Captain Swan (Killian/Emma) ended up together, happily ever after.

Did that mean those who shipped Swan Queen were wrong? That they couldn't participate in fandom? That they were somehow stupid or whatever other insult one side hurled at the other?

Fuck no. Swan Queen fans got from the story what they wanted, and there is nothing at all wrong with them continuing stories and art and whatnot with those characters and ships. Same for Captain Swan. The beauty of fandom is that shared ENJOYMENT of a source material and the potential to "what if" our way anywhere and everywhere.

Personally, I feel there's more story telling potential in an Elriel story than an Elucien story, but you know what? If SJM writes the book and it turns out Elucien, I have absolute faith in her that she will make the story work. That it will be written in a way for me to see it better (I mean, c'mon, lots of opinions changed on Nesta herself after ACOSF so let's be honest... it's bound to do the same with Elain in her book.)

But also-- whichever way it turns out (Elucien, Elriel, whatever), that is one version of the canon story. You want to ship the hell out of the other version? Fucking go for it!

Quit insulting each other for what one person likes/enjoys and just-- enjoy your stuff.

#acotar #sjm #elriel #elucien #elain #azriel #lucien vanserra #reading #stories #fantasy #books #fandom #ship wars #ouat #fandom discourse #ramblings of a mad woman #personal #okay that got a long longer than I initially intended #I'm sorry for rambling #But yeah just-- #enjoy what you enjoy and stay in your lane and ultimately remember that there are LIVING humans on the other side

[ae-neon]

Hi there! I've just discovered you work "The House of Mirrors" and I am loving your writing, and the idea of Nesta x Rhys. May I ask what draws you towards the Rhysta ship?

I've found it to be a really intriguing ship when looked into with insight, and it's sad to see that it's immediately dismissed as "oh Nesta will go Amarantha on Rhys, it will be another abusive relationship" etc

Sorry for not answering this ask sooner, I am on mobile 99.99% of the time and my asks always get buried for some reason. Also, my grammar and language spelling will be inconsistent, Tumblr keeps correcting my spelling to American EN

and it's sad to see that it's immediately dismissed as "oh Nesta will go Amarantha on Rhys, it will be another abusive relationship" etc

honestly not even gonna touch on this because whoever thinks that is so set on being against this pair that they've clearly deconstructed parts of their brain. No one is forcing them to ship it and they're going as far as to imply SA?? not someone to be entertained or taken seriously

so why Rhysta? hmm, I think I've posted about it somewhere, but my tagging is so terrible I wouldn't be surprised if it was lost forever

Firstly, I'm gonna be transparent in just preferring Nesta as a character to Feyre.

Feyre isn't terrible (most of the time) but she's pretty generic and inconsistent (and wildly offensive sometimes) but tbh, for the most part, I'm not anti-Feyre, just anti the way sjm uses her

Honestly, I would have preferred to read an ACOSF that centered around Feyre being HL, becoming a Valkyrie, doing the blood rite etc. than what we got in canon.

all this to say that even though I am a Nesta fan, my interest in this ship isn't rooted in hating Feyre

let's get into it

the first reasons are things that I see as tying Nesta and Rhys together so things like:

I prefer likeness in pairs as opposed to opposites. and funnily enough, 'like calls to like' is a sort of rule in the magic system. despite how I might disagree with what's given in canon, when we are first introduced to Rhysand, we're given the impression of someone who is more brains than brawn - and Nesta is characterised in the same way certain parts of the writing reflect a connection: Night and Death, both seem to have the most direct personal conflict with the KoH, both are willing to sacrifice their bodies for those they want to protect things like this are common in other characters too, but not in the same way. Feyre is also a character that sacrifices herself for other, and so is Cassian, but the latter two have a streak of selflessness to them. they would die for people they don't know. Rhysand and Nesta's brand of sacrifice is much more personal Nesta having unique mind powers, a strong connection to Illyria and it's magic and the magic in the NC (she literally makes his childhood home come to life and magic tied to the land is a trait of High Lord/Lady magic) it would have been poetic if they belonged to Feyre to show fate/the mating bond always meant for her to be with Rhys. But they belong to Nesta. Why I also just think Nesta's character and temperament are more suited to politics. She's stubborn, but she's also the type of person who listens and learns and judges people off their character rather than if they are 'on her side' Things like her being more mature and raised to thrive somewhere like the Hewn City add to this

the second reasons are reasons I dislike the canon pairings that would be either not applicable or severely lessened in rhysta

I am not a fan of Hades x Persephone (F.eysand) I despise The Taming of the Shrew (N.essian) Enemies to Lovers is only real when they can hate each other equally, a big power imbalance turns one party into a victim The power imbalance cannot be solved by making a 19 y.o with ptsd an overpowered fae with no experience or agency but, for example, if Rhys had to contend with a stubborn and somewhat uncooperative human - in a land he can't waltz around in, with a mind he can't enter and being the party that needs her help - suddenly there's a much more even playing field. Cassian is pushy and flirty in a way that involves a lot of physical intimidation and boundary crossing, that shit is not cute. in fact, in the canon Wings and Ember excerpt, Cassian crowding Nesta against the fireplace makes her think of Tomas Mandray, the man who almost assaulted her. there are ways around it like being close cause you're dancing or sparing but Nesta isn't a fighter (acosf can fuck off) and Cassian doesn't know how to dance. they're completely mismatched Feyre is naive and insecure in a way that makes her easy to manipulate. like I know a lot of people find the CoN scene sexy but it had been weeks, maybe two or three months, since she'd non-consensually been in that position for real UtM. Nesta might have been convinced to put on a show by dancing or wearing something a little provocative by her standards but that wouldnt have been something that directly mirrored a trauma of hers. I think, politically the handling of the Summer Court sets the tone for the abject failure of F.eysand as a political team. Nesta would have trusted Tarquin. She handled herself well (at the cost of her pride) at the High Lord's meeting.

im sure there's more

but again, this isnt really at the cost of Feyre being the protagonist especially of book1, there are things Feyre does that I don't think Nesta could or would. just that book2 might have had more povs or something

this also takes the approach of Rhys being a slightly different character than in canon, one more like what we were promised and one slightly more suited to Nesta

but that's literally what love interest characters are. they aren't supposed to become the centre around which the protagonist and plot now revolve

anyways,

I'm so glad you read and enjoyed House of Mirrors!!! please don't be shy to drop me another ask

#long ramble #anon ask #rhysta

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

As a follow-up to my let people use fanfiction as narrative therapy post I would also like to state for the record:

Ain’t nothing wrong with self insert fanfiction. Or Mary Sue OCs that are basically self inserts. Also nothing wrong with people writing ‘bad’ fanfiction that has nothing to do with the canon really. I don’t give a shit. People are making art and that’s awesome. I may not read stuff that isn’t to my personal tastes, but I am Glad people are making their art regardless. Especially young people. Especially people who are otherwise new to writing. Hell yeah, Make Art.

One thing I have noticed about fandom on tumblr is that in very large fandoms with mass appeal, there are often a lot of kids and youths and young folk watching or reading and thus wanting to create transformative art about it. This also means that a high concentration of fic may tend more towards having less to do with the actual canon of the thing and being more focused on whatever those kids really wanted to write or read about it. To discuss one specific example, the largest subsection of fandom that currently exists around the DC batman franchises on this site is the batfam fandom, a fandom comprised mostly of younger fans who are fans more of the platonic ideal of batman and his adopted kids and close associates that only really exists in their own works and also the webtoon**** For most of those people the appeal is the found family aspect, and that’s what they want to read and write about. Hell yeah. Good for them. At least they’re writing. At least they’re making art.

****I know there are a lot of people in the batman comics fandom that have serious issues with the webtoon and the way that dc comics publishing agendas have begun to reflect more what people on the internet are talking about and less coherent storytelling that makes sense based on past canon. And this is a very fair criticism.

But this is not a problem limited to dc. This is a problem of all major production companies who produce art for mass release. TV shows being written in response to what people say on reddit has been ruining creative endeavors in an obvious way at least since Game of Thrones was airing. Books being published based on what will be popular on tiktok derived from the popularity of some frankly terrible novels (yes I do mean acotar) leads to some absolute drivel on the best seller list. Of course the comics industry is also fucking things up the same way.

Your enemy there are not the young fans new to fandom who are just discovering writing fanfiction and doing so by writing about whatever interests them most. Please stop blaming kids and other people who aren’t writing fanfiction close enough to your concept of canon for this problem, it is far bigger than that.

Let people make their maybe bad art in peace. Everyone has to make bad art on the road to learning how to make better art. I am glad they are making their art regardless.

Also no shade meant to those fans this is just an observation and I wish you all well, but I do find it a little funny that the people who Are experts on the dc comics canon who I have seen criticize the existence of the batfam fandom on here are also usually like ‘this is my favorite character, I hate every single run this character has ever been in except this one from 30 years ago and five panels of this one run that got cancelled early.’ Like, you don’t really like most of the canon you wish other people would familiarize themselves with right? Give new fans a chance to want to learn more about it. Most of the fans in that circle are pretty young, they’re gonna have kinda bad taste sometimes and that’s fine and good actually. They’ll grow out of it and maybe some of them will come to know the comics canon more closely.

This is also why even though I am vocal about personally disliking the works of SJM (acotar my beloathed) and its impact on the publishing industry, I am honestly happy for anyone that read those books and enjoyed them. Same for every other book I don’t like. If you read it and get something out of it hell yeah good for you. I was unironically into twilight for many years as a teen I am not here to pass judgement on teens or anyone for that matter for what they enjoy.

Most big fandoms I have dipped my toes into have this same problem. If there are a lot of young people in that fandom, there’s gonna be a lot of fanfic that is written by people just learning to write, and that’s great, I love that actually, good for them. But those are always the fandoms where I see people being perhaps more vitriolic than necessary towards other fans for not being up to snuff. Let people make art that you don’t think is good, please. It’s fine actually. If you don’t like it you don’t have to read it. Just be glad someone is making art that makes them happy and move on.

#this is a long one but I have been seeing a lot of this tendency to blame new writers for not keeping to canon #and I have been having some Thoughts. so #fandom #transformative fandom #fanfiction #fandom discourse #fandom sociology #batfam #publishing #television writing #sjm critical #caitie speaks

[thevagabondexpress]

R & W

I'm so sorry but this is really long

R: Which writers (fanfic or otherwise) do you consider the biggest influence on you and your writing?

I have a post about this somewhere but I don't know where it is right now.

For non-fanfiction authors, KJ Charles has become one of them in recent years specifically in regards to pacing: she taught me how to make things go faster, so I can get the plot out of the way and then go back to add development and things in later.

Seanan McGuire is a big one. I'm very into Celtic mythology and faerie things and yet I also get tired of the fact that everyone consistently uses the Seelie and Unseelie Courts and never really goes beyond that, has this kind of shallow understanding of ooh, tricksy faeries and fancy court politics and yeh deh deh da when there's all of this old lore like the Book of Invasions to be tapped, and also modern, living legends people still tell stories about today, like "tell Tom Tildrum, 'Tim Toldrum is dead'" (the cat sidhe) and the cave of Black Agnes and etc. Seanan McGuire's Toby Daye mysteries really kind of opened the keg on that for me. While she makes her nods to the format of a lot of fae fiction to keep it recognizable, she's unafraid to tap into the truly weird sh.t Celtic Irish, and Welsh myth and lore have to offer (her protagonist was trapped as a fish for several years for instance) which really inspired me to do my own research and let myself throw out the "Oberon and Titania" model of faerie fiction as much as possible in favor of worldbuilding based on both modern rural legends and also texts predating Spenser and Shakespeare. It so far has shown up more in my original fiction than my fanfiction but Rivers & Gates starts moseying in that direction and I have a very big fanfic called Fly Over The North Shore (I'm Going Home) that's going to tackle a lot of Fir Bolg, Fomori, and Tuatha de Danann lore especially.

Shirley Jackson's another big one, I learned a lot of my horror-genre cues and stylistic mannerisms reading We Have Always Lived In The Castle and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Also, this might surprise you, but SJM by negation. She had a whole bunch of elements in the first Throne of Glass which she then promptly dropped, leaving me without the pieces of the story which drew me in the first place: plot elements that inevitably work their way into a lot of things I write because I wanted more and didn't get it. Author influence by not doing what she did. (Points if you can guess what those pieces are).

As for fanfiction authors, Purlturtle/NuMo in the Bering & Wells fandom has been a big one especially in terms of learning the little characterization tricks you need to really bring people to life. I know it's not a fandom you're familiar with but I'd still recommend Strata anyway, it's incredible. Also ashesandhoney from the Herongraystairs tag. She's able to make me actively invested in and interested in a character I usually avoid due to gender dysphoria weirdness and I've spent ages trying to figure out how she does it.

W: What is your favorite pairing to write? Favorite pairing to read?

Hm. For favorite pairing to write I'd say Gracetopher. Because I just adore both Grace and Christopher individually but also because my favorite thing as an author is to find loose threads and yank as hard as I can and if we bring Christopher back from the dead suddenly there are loose threads everywhere, just all over the place, and so many ways they can go. And a lot of those paths tangle these two together, sometimes platonically, sometimes romantically, sometimes in ways where even I don't know what's going on.

However, they're really not my favorite pairing to read. While I do like fanfics I've read of them (@luciehercndale does them incredibly well) I feel like there's a level of nuance and pain and also a layer of gleeful chaos to them that I don't see brought together often in the way I want from them. So I'm gonna say Wesper from Six of Crows and Alan/Jack from The Last Binding. Also Bering & Wells.

Wesper because there's a lot of authors who all have very different but also very good takes on the characters and they're one of those ships that just excels when put into random situations so they're just fun and fun is good.

Alan/Jack because I have a historical journalists problem and also because holy shit the smut that exists in that tag.

Bering & Wells because they're just. Everything to me. For so many reasons. I don't know how to explain it. Excellently executed enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers to aquaintances-with-angst. Jamie Murray's Helena still takes me out every time I see gifsets. Normally I get annoyed about percieved queerbaiting as everyone does but the ending to this ship in canon doesn't feel like that: it feels like a natural end to a relationship like theirs that's been through the wringer that it was put through. They were absolutely destined to meet each other, but they weren't necessarily destined to stay together in every single universe and they're written in a way where I can accept that. If I could get tattoos safely, forever destined to meet at gunpoint might be one of them.

[elrielbliss]

my thoughts on sjm's interview

i have mixed feelings, so let's talk about it

sjm inserting herself as nesta:

i think one thing that frustrated me is whenever SJM was asked about Nesta, SJM would always relate the question back to herself. i'm not trying to be mean, but i really wish authors would separate themselves from their characters. taking inspiration of what you went through to write a character is fine, tons of people do it. but it really did seem SJM was inserting herself into nesta's character and made the interview feel more about SJM at times rather than the characters. don't get me wrong !! i love sjm !! it's clear and she even admits she did a recent reread of ACOSF and didn't realize how many of her own thoughts and struggles made it into the book -so it makes sense why she talked about her own journey so much. i just hope in the future it's not that apparent that she's inserting herself into characters that much.

sjm talking main characters:

it felt like SJM was only talking about nesta + cassian and feyre + rhys, which i guess makes sense since they're the only ones with books, but it also felt weird to ignore all the other characters + avoid talking about them. i did appreciate sarah maclean pointing out SJM's books are about heroines and that the guys take a backseat in the books (making it clear azzy is not gonna have his own book)

in regards to the future of ACOTAR:

one interesting thing maclean asks: "when you started tog, you were also writing this (ACOTAR) are you cooking future books with actual texts?"

sjm: "YES" "i know where i want the series to go" --- so does this imply she started writing future books since she answered yes?

but then SJM claims later in the interview in the fan portion she hasn't started to write future books later in the interview? but then there is proof of SJM saying back in January that she has started to write the next book of ACOTAR when she gets inspiration... so what's the truth?

SJM talking about maps "there's still a lot of the map that's left blank" - i'm very interested to learn more about this and think she was totally hinting about the dusk court!

fan question segment:

sjm complimenting each sister - literally my favorite thing, but wish she said something better about nesta than her smutty book but lol. sjm describing elain as a quiet dreamer was EVERYTHING to me and she once again repeats that elain has a different type of strength. she also loves that elain believes hope is better than hate. how people still think she will turn evil? idk man.

no comment on 2nd question - waste of a question imo lmao

sjm deflecting from the elriel question and she was lowkey smirking while the question was being asked !! she is not a slick woman !! sjm says "you'll get more of elain in the next - i'm not going to promise anything" "you'll get a form of her" "i haven't written the thing yet" like nah finish the sentence SJM. next book as in cc3? next book as in acotar5? and why did she stop halfway through the sentence and switch what she was saying? also her saying she hasn't written the thing yet when she said earlier in the interview she said that she does write future books while writing current books and knows where she wants to take the future of ACOTAR... clearly she knows what she has planned and is just avoiding the question.

this question had like 5 parts to it - it was a hot mess lmao but sjm calling all these conspiracy theories but also careful reading was also hilarious. gwenny lightsinger confirmed lol !

super interesting question + theory i had never heard of. sjm was smirking during this one too!! but also sjm says "idk why you even ask me these questions" like sis these are fan questions we all want to know more about the series that you have been depriving us of. i have zero idea how time travel could work but i am intrigued !

conclusion: interview wasn't needed - it was an easy money grab. i probably won't buy tickets to another event like this unless it's in person (+ includes signed book) or if i 100% know SJM will actually be making an announcement of some sort. most people i would assume paid the $15 so we could ask fan questions and have them answered, only for her to ignore them and not even hint at anything. i hope in the future if she is going to ignore fan questions that the fans are told ahead of time what they can and can't ask so that our questions won't be disregarded. it definitely seems like SJM is going to drag ACOTAR out, which is why i kind of want to be less involved with the fandom until she makes cc3 announcement or acotar5. not sure if she has writer's block or something for ACOTAR but she def seems like she is having a more enjoyable time writing CC3. but overall the interview left me feeling disappointed that she couldn't give fans any hints or stuff to look forward to in the future.

+ also side note for cc she made a comment and described the first 3 book as bryce and hunt's story giving me more hope they'll be endgame lmao.

#my thoughts on sjm interview #heres to hoping we get news on something soon

[pearblossommina]

ToG Read-A-Long, Empire of Storms, day 7

Ch 40

"I've never been with a man. Never had the chance or the interest."

He cocked his head, his dark, silken hair sliding over his face. "Do you prefer women?"

😌 “Yes in fact - there’s this beautiful witch named Manon - and I am desperately in love with her - and she saved me one time, and it was the most beautiful perfect lesbian rescue sequence ever - and she likes to eat men - and I’m gonna learn how to eat men someday too!”

(I’m not sorry) (I’m still shipping it)

I do like to see characters pining for each other, but I think some of the fun of it went out for me when Elide told him she was a virgin and he immediately started fantasizing about her sexually. Idk, there’s nothing wrong with being a virgin, or having a partner who’s not one, but it just felt a little icky and predatory of him? It’s not like she offered, lol. She… kind of specifically said she’s not interested.

So

Stop being gross Lorcan

Ch 41

Ok so now we’re back to building up that friendship. Back to the Shrek and Donkey vibes that started it all. The, “Do you have any friends? Me neither!” conversation was perfect, so heartwarming, in a kinda fucked-up dark and sad way. Can you two stay like this, and not be gross, lusting after untouched virgin, weirdos!

Ch 42

"I am not a woman," was all she said. But hot temper laced those molten gold eyes.”

Then tell me how you identify you sexy non-binary babe

(Hey have I mentioned)

(I love Manon)

"Witch, woman ... as long as the parts that matter are there, what difference does it make?"

Dorian. You’re on thin ice boy.

"There is no one else I'd want guarding my back." Other than Chaol, but ... it was no use even thinking about him, missing him.”

I miss him too! You’d think with all the perspective changing in this book we would have heard from Chaol at least one time. What has he been up to!

“Often, the dream was that a great cat, pale and speckled like old snow on granite, sat in the cabin with her, its long tail slashing back and forth when it noticed her glazed attention.

Sometimes, it was a grinning white wolf. Or a calm-eyed golden mountain lion.”

Who is the grinning white wolf? Is it Aedion? I still wanna know what his animal form is!

Ch 43

The little boat ride between Elide and Lorcan

I really like that part where she tore into him and told him he had no friends because no one can stand to be around him, called him pathetic. You go, girl! So fierce! Get him!

The Shrek and Donkey third act breakup, soon we will get our Hallelujah moment and they’ll come back together.

Ch 44

“Rowan's hips began to move, setting a lazy, smooth pace as he kept his canines buried in her neck.”

✋😮‍💨

I have to say. As horny as this book makes me. And as much as I adore reading the sappy, romantic smut SJM writes. I don’t really like Dorian x Manon? They… they just seem so random together…… I dunno. It’s just off somehow, and it really doesn’t do it for me. Despite being a huge Manon-loving horndog, watching her submit to Dorian was, like, really unsexy somehow.

Am I broken!

I thought all I wanted was more smut and romance, and here it is, laid out on a silver platter, and I’m like, mmm, no.

(At least I’ll always have Rowaelin.) (Team bite her!!! BITE HER HARDER!)

#tog read along 2023 #empire of storms

[moonchmonch]

Random twst rant please ignore if you don’t want to see me talk about Malleus X Yuu in a rather blunt manner (or you read SJM books💀💀)

Can I be so honest about people who like Malleus x Yuu content? Not the ones who are like high schoolers tho you guys are valid like I’m talking you haven’t been in Highschool in years and abt to graduate college type beat.

Ok so Malleus to me is someone who very much shows signs of Autism. I like him a lot since I loved the live action version of Maleficent when I saw it when I was younger and overall his silly way of going about. He is powerful yes but at the same time he’s still a confused and slightly spoiled child to me in a way especially when we learn about his meltdown he had as a child (furthering my opinion Malleus has autism or is in the spectrum in general.) also the fact he isn’t as old as Lilia is so he still has some years on him as a Fae. So when I see people shaping him into some kind of modern fantasy YA /Sarah J maas love interest it makes me look at someone like 💀💀💀 for the most part. I’m sure there are exceptions for people since I’m really only talking about people who outwardly say it and like if you’re a minor I don’t care ship yuu with Malleus all you want have fun but if not I’m gonna be even more so kind of like 💀💀. Mostly bc my bias towards YA fantasy. I mean I get the appeal of him but he’s not gonna be whirlwind romantic like everyone thinks he’s awkward and his special interest is gargoyles for fucks sake 😭😭. But that also goes to say this is mostly for people who see themselves in Yuu not the ones who have like cool Yuu OCs you’re cool. Anyways this is a rant bc so many people want this to be an Otome game bc they’re use to being able to date handsome characters and now that they don’t I feel like they’re sobbing on the floor like a toddler over it . I mean women power ig but like idc how hot you think Malleus is can we talk about his personality or his role in the story please? Poor Malleus just get shelved in the hot magical character box everyday 😭. I love you Mal imma get you outta there one day.

NOT TO MENTION THE X READER TAG OH GOD. IT REALLY BRINGS OUT THE WORST IN PEOPLE LET ME TELL YOU. LIKE IT MAKES ME 🧍🏾‍♀️🧍🏾‍♀️🧍🏾‍♀️🧍🏾‍♀️🧍🏾‍♀️. But that’s a whole other thing and is honestly the reason I’m making this post.

Peace and love tho do whatever the fuck you want don’t let me stop you but you’re always gonna remind me of the 31 year old white women who ship their self inserts with Bakugou 😭😭😭.

#this feels mean #but like I need to let this be known #please tell me I’m not the only one who feels this 😭😭 #if you read SJM tho I’m not judging you #I am im lying #I’m sorry #not really #but I need to say I’m sorry bc that’s the appropriate thing to say #twisted wonderland rant #twst #twst thoughts #more of twst fandom thoughts #I Like otome sometimes dont get me wrong but it’s kind of one dimensional at times so #moonchspeaks #IT TOOK ME 10 MINUTES TO FIND THE READ MORE BUTTON GOD

[rosenecklaces]

Nesta for the trivia game

Ohh this one is interesting let me activate my brain

First impression: It was kind of... weird, how I felt with nesta because I do not hated her and even felt she had some internal range/frustration that she just didn't know how to manage accordingly ( or sjm didn't bothered to flesh out more) but she was verbally abusive of feyre indeed and while reading i wished we knew of the why, why feyre, what happened to make her say things to her like that?

Impression now: Boyyy is even more weird LOL, ACOSF was so messy my god and I hate we kind of lost what the other books gave us about her and hinted at. But ok, coming back to Nesta, I like her a little more (surprisingly) and I do felt for her in some occasions (the way she handled her trauma, the sleeping with strangers without taking care of herself, the alcoholism, the spending money holding a grudge) it was very raw in that part and it was an interesting take on her and how mental illness/low self worth affects someone. That being said, im still waiting for her apology to Feyre and Elain ( her comments of their dad and she being a dog where heavy as hell), im glad she saved Feyre but they 100% still would have this tense bond if they don't fucking talk and Nesta explain to her + elain how she felt all those years knowing she couldn't provide for them and recognize aloud the damage she made on her hatring wage

Favorite moment: I hate how most characters think she was the one who attacked hybern and proceeded to kill him BUT I loved she beheading, loved this kind of team effort with elain it was so good. Also when she used the golden mask, I tought I was gonna get tired of all the girlbossing warrior moments but that was A Moment okey. Gonna say her soft side with cassian got me, they had this wild sex driven attraction but when they cared for eachother and she said "my mate taught me well"? That's the good shit I came for + The "never again, never again" scene

Idea for a story: TO HER TO BE LADY DEATH AGAIN GOD. why the hell she lost so damn cool powers I hate it here give me necromancer nesta again sjm. Also I would love reading something about her and her sisters traveling together for a good while, just getting away from velaris and other people and spending time together, would like nesta collecting books from everywhere

Unpopular opinion: The valkyries thing... it was so cheap tbh, it could had be handled better or you know, not make nesta a warrior but a diplomatic character, I think she would had learned more fluently and manage night court exterior affairs, it would also helped her connect more with feyre, making her see that it is not easy to direct and take care of a whole court and maybe getting the animosity and hate for rhysand dissappear or be presented as them not settling down with their opinions and what each thinked of how things should be done. I also don't understand how she viewed emerie and gwyn as her new sisters like girl you barely know this girls and wherent you wary of everyone who gets close to you not long ago? 😭 it was kind of strange to me, same with her friendship with azriel, it came of thin air with the strand being "they both see eachother and don't judge and they are both feared" nesta wasn't feared like he is??? But ok sjm weird flex

Favorite relationship: as much as I have my complaints about how nessian was handled, I'll give it to them when they have a moment to shine they shine, that's why I can't hate nessian even if acosf was imperfect, she is lady death and him lord of bloodshed he is her knight and she thinks she doesn't deserve him while cass fears to lose her and idc I love it I can excuse their messiness because the good stuff was enough to keep me hooked. I also like some nestaemerie, I feel their friendship was way more genuine than gwyn/nesta, and as I said I hope we get more of archeron sisters bonding we had too little of them but I still root for this dysfunctional sisterhood (I also crackship her with vassa, it could be interesting seeing them interact)

Favorite headcanon: I think nesta can heard/comunicate with the deceased even after losing her powers, I like to think some piece of it is still there deep inside her. I also think she wouldn't marry, I don't see her as the type ( maybe if cassian ask her and seem excited for it? And still I doubt that) I can see her with one child or adopting. Even if I preferred she wasn't a warrior, I think Nesta would be General of NC one day, I see her alongside Cassian directing troops + the Valkyries, she could also be a "professor" in the library for future Valkyries that wants to learn more of battlefield planning, maps, nurses in battle, sword crafting etc. I wanttttt short haired Nesta so bad is a NEED, like I really think she would be the one pulling a sick as fuck haircut. I also think she would win more scars as time passes and wears them with pride, be by training and in battles ( a scar crossing her lip/eye could be sexy)

#ask tag #nesta archeron

[alltheworldsinmyhead]

ON FEYSAND’S PLOTLINE IN ACOSF

              !!!!MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE ACOSF!!!!

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Let’s be honest for a while, okay?

ACOCF had potential to be SJM’s best book, if not for any other reason then because of the sheer idea of it. Coming-of-age, healing story of the most complex and polarizing character she has ever created set in the time of peace, away from the familiar setting (according to the later changed concept which still remains in the snippet at the end of ACOFAS), development of her arguably most feisty and angsty love story... It could be her absolute trumph. Even with the change to stick to Velaris instead of exploring the Illyrian culture of the Mountains and with the added conflict of the Mortal Queens and Koshei, it still could work quite well. 

It didn’t. For many, many reasons, but the most important one, in my opinion, being the feysand pregnancy plot. 

Nothing about this plotline made sense. Not a single thing. From start to finish, it was an absolute disaster from the character-writing POV, from the narration POV, from every single context of it. It broke the rules of real-life logic, it broke the rules of this fantasy world setting and it completely exposed that Rhysand, while not a bad guy, is a pretty terrible partner, even worse ruler and an absolutely terrible contender for the High King title. 

Let’s break this whole mess down (and expect this post to be mammoth-sized. it’s not my fault, though, write to SJM if you have any complains):

1) Feyre, 21, decides to get pregnant, even though less than a year earlier, she expresses the delight with not being forced to bear children to her new mate and told him herself she wants to wait a while and enjoy her life with him. Feyre decides she wants a baby though and Rhysand goes along with it, even though he is aware how young Feyre is and how hard her life has been up until this point. He wants a baby too much to have an honest discussion with Feyre about it, to stop and wonder what is the reason for her sudden change of heart, to reassure her that they have a lot of time ahead of them and don’t need to rush. No. She mades a sudden decision to have a baby after A YEAR OF MARRIAGE and not much more of being turned fae, JUST AFTER having her whole world put upside down, having received a completely new title and responsibilities, surviving the wat and being mated. Great. 

2) Feyre decides to get pregnant and Rhys goes along with it less than a year after the end of the bloody war. It is politically a delicate time, everyone is still not sure how the balance will shift, some countries don;t want to sign the peace treaty, etc. There are a lot of enemies and a lot of turmoil remaining. But sure. Let’s have a baby. Perfect time to add yet another target, another weakness that can be use by the Mortal Queens, Beron or whatever else with malicious intent towards the Night Court. 

2) Feyre gets pregnant after approximately a year of trying. I know healthy people of reproductive age for whom it takes ages more than this. Fae’s pregnancies are rare af and precious and happen once in a blue moon, but ofc SJM broke the world’s rules for her darling Feyre. And again, for Kallas and Vivianne who are also expecting the baby, even though it has been a maximum of 3 years since they’ve mated. 3 years is also not a particularly long time to try to have a baby for those who have issues with their reproductive systems like Fae women. Thank you, next. 

3) Rhys has unprotected sex with Feyre in her Illyrian form when she conceives, even though he knows full well having a winged baby would kill her. He does it anyway, for shits and giggles apparently. They probably have sex in the sky above Velaris, for all we know. 

4) The baby has wings. Now, the whole explanation with Illyrian wings being bony (bc they resemble bat wings) and Seraphin ones being more flexible (bc they resemble bird ones) is so insanely stupid that it takes around 3 seconds to wikipedia this shit and find out it’s exactly the opposite. But okay, the baby has wings and Feyre will die while giving birth, along with the baby. Madja forbids Feyre from turning into an Illyrian to carry the pregnancy because it MIGHT hurt the baby. Now, remember, Feyre conceived while in Illyrian form and then turned into High Fae. The baby survived it just fine. The baby MIGHT be hurt by Feyre turning .... but it will FOR SURE die if she stays High Fae and Feyre will too. Idk about you, but I would take the risk of MIGHT instead of FOR SURE. Especially when she is already in labour and dying. Cauldron or Nesta or idk who alters Feyre’s pelvis after the baby is cut out of her for no apparent reason but to allow feysand to make exactly the same mistakes later on. How convinient. And Nesta also alters her own pelvis bc god forbid she won’t be able give Cassian babies like the little useful mate she is now. She should’ve probably done it with Elain too, just in case she decides to fuck Az in the future, because fuck consequences and fuck the stakes in the story that make the readers actually CARE about characters bc they know the author may actually kill them and not save their life every fucking time.  

5) I don’t even want to comment on the fact Rhys hid the true danger of this pregnancy for Feyre and their family went along with it. It is absolutely disgusting. And Nesta telling her and that being condemned as the act of the ultimate cruelty which is a final straw to break her self-loathing back.... is abhorrent. It made my sick, actually, phisically sick. There is no justification for it. No at all. And the fact that they did not even consider abortion sends a message that I really don’t want to think too much about it. Feyre was 2 months along when they learned the baby is winged. 2 months. 8 weeks. It wasn’t a baby yet, let’s be honest. They could’ve at least discussed it. She - oh my god, I cannot believe SJM wrote it this way, I’m gonna be sick. 

6) For the entirety of Feyre’s pregnancy, they have no plan to really help her. Labour plan? Haven’t heard if it.  They have money and power and access to the healers of the whole land. And did not figure out how to stop her from bleeding out after a fucking C-section. THIS WORLD HAS MAGIC AND THEY COULDN’T STOP HER FROM BLEEDING OUT AFTER A FUCKING C-SECTION. Didn’t even ask Thesan, the High Lord of Healing, to be present. Cassian had guts hanging out of his stomach and survived. Az was fucking slashed apart in Hybern and survived. But yeah, Feyre was on a brink of death after a C-section. Great, Sarah. Keep it up. Let’s force the thought into young girls’ heads that labour is the most lethal thing ever, why not. 

7) Also, for the entirety of Feyre’s pregnancy, Rhys keeps quiet about this idiotic bargain. He, as far as we know, doesn’t make any plans for the moment when him and Feyre and possibly their baby are dead. If they died and baby survived.. who would take care of it? Does Rhys have a conversation with his family about it? NAH. Doesn’t write any sort of plan how to keep the Court going, doesn’t inform even the closest of his co-workers how they should proceed to act after he’s gone and his and Feyre’s power go to god-knows-who. Their deaths would mean a sure chaos for the weakend and fragile Prythian and the Night Court especially and yet nor Rhys nor Feyre make any sort of preparations for it. Rhys doesn’t tell his brothers or Mor or HIS SECOND IN COMMAND they will all soon have to somehow manage without him. He was about to just leave them to their own devices and told them in the last. possible. moment. 

And this man - this man is, according to Amren, the best candidate to handle the whole country? To unite it? This fool who makes idiotic bargains, who thinks first about his cock and his own selfish desires and considers his subjects and his responsibilities as a High Lord last and least important of all? Who has so much trust in his wife, in his High Lady, the mother of his son that he doesn’t tell her she will almost surely die on a birthing bed because it MAY UPSET HER? 

This plotline was the straw that broke my back. ACOTAR, at it’s heart has always been a ya fantasy with added ‘spice’ and I was willing to bend my critical-thinking skills in many cases and forget and forgive many smaller idiotic issues in this series. But this? It is not idiotic. It is massive and stupid to the point when it becomes insulting to the reader. It was a plot straight out of a bad fanfic, not something that should be in a published book written by someone who writes for a living. You could even argue that Twilight has handled this toxic trope better.  I have wasted my money on this book and thinking about it will always be painful for me. So yeah.

ACOSF could be great. Ended up quite pathetic. 

#acosf #acosf spoilers #a court of silver flames #rhysand #feysand

[highfaelucien]

While on the topic of wishing sjm had done something different for her characters, I really wanted something more for cassian. For example, cassian’s wings going from being completely ruined in the end of acomaf to being 100% healed in acowar made no sense to me. I think it would’ve been an opportunity for the growth of cassian’s character to see him go through the loss of losing the ability to fly and instead retrain himself to be a warrior in other ways and find other things about himself that prove his own worth to himself. Given the fact that cassian’s confidence is aligned with his ability to protect and serve others, it just would have been sooo good to see him overcome his grief and become even stronger of a character. And how wings, in general, are a sense of male pride among illyrians. I think this would’ve been the perfect way to write cassian and have him break away from his own idea of masculinity. He could have redefined what it meant for him to be a Man ™. Ugh, it just could have been so GOOD, imagine the character we could have gotten from him.

Listen, after ACOMAF, when this happened, EVERYONE was buzzing about this. Most people thought he wouldn't outright lose his wings permanently, but there would be a LOT required.

And then ACOWAR came and approximately nothing happened whatsoever. Oh he had to be healed. the healer had to rebuild his wings. he had to do strength training every day. But fundamentally: not a sausage.

Personally? I think Maas chickend out. I think she was unable to commit to taking Cassian's wings, or figuring out how to write him as anything other than what she's established him as: fun jock man who likes to hit things real hard and make dick jokes sometimes.

Having to see Cassian vulnerable? Having to see him broken, and struggling, and having to reevaluate his entire life and self-esteem and sense of masculinity would have been an incredible option for a character arc.

Most of the theorising/Nessian fics involved Nesta helping him. The two of them being broken/fundamentally altered by their experiences in Hybern - she being killed and Made with a dark power, Cassian losing his wings.

There was expected bonding over that, peeling away the masks they both wear to discover the softness underneath. The two of them being able to reach one another, because of their bond, in a way the others could not. It produced some pretty epic stuff, honestly.

And how badly I wanted that I didn't FULLY realise until the disappointment of ACOSF, when it hit fully.

Because instead of stripping Cassian back and seeing the tactician, the strategist, forcing him to put his other skills to use, to develop those skills, rather than 'smash with sword and ask questions later'. This man is a General. All the combat training in the world doesn't let you be good at this job if you can't command, if you can't use tactics, if you can't strategise.

And THIS is where I wanted to see Nesta. Nesta, the woman who calculated how many ships would be needed to save the humans of Prythian. The woman who looked at Greysen's manor and assessed its capabilities and saw a prison. The woman who devours history novels, who has a tactical, cunning mind. Who has never been a warrior or a creature of brute strength or physical abilities.

THIS is how I wanted to see Nesta evolve. This was how I wanted to see her develop. I didn't want her taken out of lady's dresses. I didn't want her forced into fighting leathers, to basically become another copy of her sister, and follow down that path.

I wanted her to take her own. I wanted her to finally be in a place where she could learn, and strategise, and contribute. And I wanted her to work with Cassian on this - who was grounded because of his wings, who couldn't command on the frontlines anymore, or even fight. Who had to stay back, and see how he handled this. How he maintained his authority. How he maintained his sanity without his wings.

We could have had so fucking much. Such a powerful narrative about survival. I wanted her in the library, with the other survivors, (and with fucking MORRIGAN - not sidelined, not dismissed, not being bitchy and catty for the sake of it. But someone who visits the library frequently, who interacts with the women there, and sometimes just is a woman there herself, because there are still hard days.)

But no. No instead of something nuanced, and original, and actually tailored to Nesta's strengths as a character, we got Yet Another Weapon's Trainng Montage.

We got the narrative that the only way to heal from abuse is to be able to beat the shit out of your abusers. Because that's #GirlPower, right?

It makes me so furious I almost want to just. Just fucking rewrite the whole damn fucking thing myself the way it SHOULD have gone.

And I know you talked about Cassian and not Nesta, so I do apologise, but they were tied together. But I agree.

We all wanted Cassian to evolve from that 'Lord of Bloodshed' / "savage brute" because reading between the lines and forcing some nuance from these books, which is the only way to survive: Cassian has a lot of layers. There's a lot of trauma there. A lot of insecurity. A lot of angst. A lot of heart. A lot of fucking INTELLIGENCE. (I'll fight on that point, I really will. Cassian is not a dumb himbo who can barely add 1 and 1).

But sjm was too busy writing him having a hard on for Nesta to explore....anything about himself. Or his relationship with Azriel, and Rhys, and Mor, and everyone else.

The removal (even temporarily) of his wings would have allowed for a LOT of that exploration.

Firstly, the fact that he injured them by CHOICE, saving Azriel's life. That would have been such a deep connection and bond between them. The guilt that Az would feel - but the potential for Cassian to step in, even with his wings gone, and say that he'd do it again.

Because Azriel is his brother. He loves him. And it was worth it. It would be worth it a hundred times over to save him. Because he's worth saving. And he's worth sacrificing for. And what that would have done for Az as a character, too. Who always offers himself up first for dangerous missions, puts himself in peril to protect the others.

And having Cassian join Feyre and Az's flying lessons? Because Cass having to relearn how to fly once (if) his wings healed to that extent, means letting Azriel train him. Because those old instincts aren't enough. And he has to learn how to strengthen them, and train with them. And how this affects his perception of himself and his masculinity, as he said. But also deepening his understanding for Az, and the bond the two of them share, in having this experience together.

Bonding with Rhys, who FINALLY fucking opens up to someone and has some nuanced therapy-like conversations about what happened with Amarantha. The sacrifces they've made for their people. How they'd do it again but it still hurts, and changes them, and how they have to learn and grow and move on from that and heal together.

Rhys working with Cassian on his other talents, using him as the skilled strategist and tactician he MUST be. Helping him to develop that, keeping his brother from losing his mind while he can't fight or use his physicality to solve problems, as he usually does.

Mor personally healing and tending to Cassian. Mor being there at his bedside every day while he was bed bound. Mor becoming as possessive and overprotective of both him and Az as any mate ever has been.

Mor speaking to him about her own rehabilitation after what her family did to her, the physical toll that took on her. Mor's heart breaking because she nearly lost both him and Az and she couldn't handle that at all. Mor reiterating how much she fucking loves him, and how she needs him.

Mor helping him through the darker days of his depression because she's been there. And she knows what it is to put on a front. To always be laughing, and joking, without the seriousness of life -leave that to the others. But sometimes it's too much and he needs to break down. And be angry. And furious. And hopeless. And scared. And that's what she's there for. Because she understands.

Mor winnowing him to his favourite spots that he can't fly to anymore, just so he can be there. The two of them spending time, and bonding, and developing that relationship we got in ACOMAF beyond 'we bicker constantly and drink together and make sexual innuendos'.

Even Amren showing up and doing her part. Snapping at him to stop brooding so much. But also bringing him some of her puzzles. Some of her favourite military history books (which she has anotated and edited to highlight the bits that have been incorrectly reported). Spending time with him to stop him going mad. Exhausting herself those first few days personally attending to Cassian's wings, and snarling at anyone who tried to interfere.

IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH.

IT COULD HAVE DEVELOPED SO MUCH WITH THE INNER CIRCLE. AND CASSIAN. AND NESSIAN. AND JUST. EVERYTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER BUT NAW. IT WAS BASIC ASS AND BORING AND I'M GONNA DIE MAD ABOUT IT.

#cassian #nesta archeron #nessian #rhysand #azriel #morrigan acotar #amren #acotar series #acotar meta #cassian meta #IT'S WHAT WE DESERVED I TELL YOU #IT'S WHAT WE FUCKING /DESERVED/ #im still ANGY #answer tag #anonymous #taryn answers #long post #taryn rants #anti sjm #anti acotar

[ae-neon]

Disclaimer: this is embarrassing but I once shipped Nesta and Rhysand. HEAR ME OUT

I'm not a Feysand and Nessian fan and in particular I think they work better as separate characters. BUT THIS ISN'T BECAUSE I USED TO SHIP NxR, I read with an open mind and take things as they are so this wasn't any kind of weird ship jealousy

Rhysand was never a good guy but before the nauseating retcon/whitewash of ACOMAF, I thought he was interesting.

Obviously by the end of ACOTAR, sjm had already set the seeds for the ship switch from FeyLin to FeySand. But I was a newbie to sjm and had no idea the fuckery she was gonna use to do this.

Still, between MAF and TAR I was left to think of how things might go and I heard enough of other people's opinions and reactions to know that Rhys was gonna become a sort of dark "hero"

Now I'm not against enemies to lovers, but only in the instance that the enemies isn't a super personal element : to clarify I mean if the characters personally enact violence on one another - it's a no from me.

Also I don't really like super edgy characters so Feyre being a brutal survivalist and Nesta being a bitch was just enough for both of them to fit the sort of girlboss trend but not overdo it into Strong Female Character territory.

Now by the end of TAR, Nesta was already the character I was most looking forward to even if I didn't actively think of her as my favourite. I thought her ability to negate(?) the glamour of a HL was gonna mean something, I thought Nesta going out to the wall to get her sister back was gonna mean something, I thought Feyre and Nesta rekindling and making up was gonna mean something, I thought their nameless parents and the three sisters reflecting aspects of pagan goddesses was gonna mean something. It didn't.

I was half reading MAF, stopping every three chapters cause my eyes hurt from how often they rolled at the over-the-topness of it all. Characters who'd been almost 3D suddenly had 2 traits we were beaten over the head with, retcons left n right and the side characters were eating the main characters up. Here's where my brain started wandering off the well laid sjm path.

So I embraced delusion. What if FeyLin didn't ignore each other's trauma? What if they had a rough patch but ultimately worked things out?

And then I started spiraling.

I kept seeing "like calls to like" stuff (no idea it was stolen?) And knew Rhysand was the most powerful HL then learned Nesta STOLE FROM THE CAULDRON.

The sister with the keen intellect and not so subtle royal descriptors and the sneakiest, most scheming HL in the book??

Nesta's unforgiving nature and unwillingness to be lenient to the Fae Vs the man who secretly hated what he'd done to protect his people??

Like forget who they are now and tell me you can't seeeee it

Nesta's want to return to an upper class life and Rhysand's (initial) aristocratic air?

She'd never let him dress or treat her the way he dressed and treated Feyre so we wouldn't have that God awful CoN, Rhysand's pet stuff.

Actual magic mentoring. Learning history and politics!!

No Illyrian culture vulture stuff but Nesta loves to learn so she'd still have been fascinated to learn about them.

Her facing and overcoming ignorance on the Fae while insisting that humans weren't wrong to be afraid.

Both of them at first pushing the other to confront who they are and what they've done but also building a strange intimacy when they realise the other truly knows and sees them and still thinks they can and will do whatever it takes to save as many people as possible

Quiet nights in his private library where they realise they don't hate each other's company

Less emphasis on training and more on the politics between the Mortal Lands, the Continent, the Courts and Hybern

The potential left me breathless.

[Please don't argue with me in the comments. I let this go long ago and I promise I'm not a threat to your literally cannon ships😭]

#acotar #anti acomaf #rhysand #nesta archeron #cassian #feyre archeron #anti ic #anti nessian #anti sjm #crackship #rarepair #anti feysand

[helion-ism]

let’s talk about elucien

there are so many reasons why I love elain x lucien and why I think these two would not only be amazing together, but also why they belong together. one of those reasons is lucien’s sassy personality, which we already got a glimpse of in acotar (and that I miss terribly btw), and which is, in my opinion, exactly what elain needs in her life. we’re talking about lucien “your eyes are like stars, and your hair like burnished gold” vanserra. we know he’s got quite a big mouth, that’s how we got to know him, but we also know that mouth is exactly what’s gotten him into trouble before. case in point: the eye incident. lucien doesn’t mince his words and yes, that is one of the reasons why elain really needs to spend some more time with him. 

she has been coddled by not only her father, nesta, feyre, but also the entire inner circle, which has allowed her to live her life passively. yes, she killed the king of hybern, and good for her, but she did it because nobody else could have done it at that point in time. ever since the war ended, elain has not actively contributed to any plot matters, whether by choice or because someone else took the choice from her. azriel said in acosf, “there is an innate darkness to the dread trove that elain should not be exposed to.” even amren pointed out that elain is capable of defending herself, but for some reason, nobody let her even though elain said she would try to find it: “then I will find it. I might require some time to … reacquaint myself with my powers, but I could start today.” and yet,  by the end of the book, elain’s been barely in it and has not contributed at all. (I know some people claim there’s certain things already happening in the background, but honestly, I’m not satisfied with that development happening off page, so I can’t wait to finally go on her journey and actually see her do stuff)

this moment is crucial:

does it look like she is happy with the way the others treat her? not really. when nesta snapped at her, elain started laughing. that signals relief to me because nesta, the one who has always tried to protect elain the most (nesta baby Ilysm), is the one who suddenly lost her patience. elain needs somebody like lucien, somebody with a big mouth and sassy attitude, who can coax her out of that paralysis she’s been stuck in, a bit like nesta in this scene. additionally, the banter would be top tier. I want another “if I offer you the moon on a string, will you give me a kiss, too?” moment, please. god please. (elain blinks. “and where would you like that kiss?” — and lucien just loses his mind.)

another thing that lives in my head rent free is the fact that lucien has travelled almost everywhere and could introduce elain, who wishes to see more of the world (see: “elain had always wanted to visit the continent to study the tulips and other famed flowers”), to the different courts and the continent. I refuse to accept that we will not get to learn more about the other courts, for my sake, but also for elain’s sake. I want her to see the spring court at least once. I want her to go and see those tulips she’s dreamt of. I want her and lucien to discover the day court as a new home, which brings me to the next point. 

elain has been craving sunshine for some time now. there’s several quotes that emphasise her connection to sunshine/light, here are a few of my favourites: 

I marveled at it, actually — that those years of poverty hadn‘t stripped away that light from elain.

the suite was filled with sunlight. every curtain shoved back as far as it could go, to let in as much sun as possible. as if any bit of darkness was abhorrent.

she had been always so full of light. perhaps that was why she now kept all the curtains open. to fill the void that existed where all of that light had once been. and now nothing remained.

what can I get you, elain? — sunshine.

elain doesn’t belong into the night court. feyre has found her family there, with rhys and the inner circle. nesta has found (or should I say accepted) cassian and found gwyn and emerie, her chosen sisters. but elain?

elain is somewhere in the background hiding with the twins and tending to gardens of the citizens of velaris. you can’t tell me that is satisfactory to you. she is currently ignoring her seer abilities, and the members of the inner circle are basically encouraging her to do so. the only time she’s been confronted lately was during that conversation with nesta and her reaction was not exactly what any of us readers would have expected, was it? that tells me there’s much more about her we don’t know yet, and I’m convinced we won’t know until she finally leaves and finds her own people, finds herself again and start dealing with everything that happened to her. elain must leave the night court, i.e. the darkness, behind in order to grow.

the same goes to lucien: he’s not at a place where he can just jump into a relationship or mating bond. he’s got so much stuff going on. lucien was forced to abandon his home and his abusive family, his “father” killed the fae he loved in front of his eyes, his best friend is an abusive pos who never appreciated him anyway, and neither has anyone in the night court. lucien is used because of his connections and because of the mating bond that ties him to elain, whether he wanted it or not. feyre knows he would never turn away from elain unless she explicitly wishes him to, and so she and rhys and the others use that to their advantage. it is smart, of course, but at the same time, they also keep important information about his own life from him that could change many, many things. so he’s spending his time with mortals in the human lands — a place where he as a fae really does not belong. 

lucien being the heir to the day court, well, to me, it feels like sjm is practically screaming it into our face: how could he find a home in the night court, the literal opposite to the day? darkness vs. light. and what about elain “he’d never once in the two years he’d known her found elain to be plain, but wearing black, no matter how much she claimed to be part of this court … it sucked the life from her” archeron? just looking at the symbolism, not only do the quotes from above indicate that the night court cannot possibly be her home, but also very recent quotes from the latest book. elain is a side character in the night court. and so is lucien. they both need to leave in order to become main characters — and it doesn’t even matter that both are already crucial to the further plot of the series because how can they possibly contribute to it in a place where they are both kept down? 

mor said in acofas: “stay out of it. she’s not ready, and neither is he, no matter how many presents he brings.” and “let him figure out where he wants to be. who he wants to be. the same goes with her.” mor’s power is “truth”, whatever that means. but there you have it. they’re not ready to be with each other yet, and that’s okay. 

[elain and lucien are also connected not only because of the mating bond, but also because of the plot. lucien must know quite a lot about her and her sisters simply because of all the time he spent with their father. the father who made a bargain with koschei. koschei who put a spell on vassa. lucien is therefore tied to both papa archeron as well as koschei and vassa. elain, we know, is a seer, despite her not using her abilities (or is she, and we simply don’t know?). elain is (obviously) connected to her father, but also to koschei and vassa (remember those visions she had).]

now let’s get to the mating bond stuff, and I need to say this loud and clear: elain has always had and will always have one (1) true mate. there’s no such thing as “false mate” or even multiple mates. there has been no indication whatsoever. lucien is the mate the cauldron had given her when she was born. and elain is the mate the cauldron had given him when he was born. even when she was still human, they already belonged together — tied together by strings of fate. absolutely nothing will change this fact. should elain reject the bond, lucien will remain a part of her life/her soul forever. should lucien reject the bond, elain will remain a part of his life/his soul forever.

when she was still human, lucien had already felt a pull between them and tried to save and protect her from hybern. when elain was already fae, when it came to protecting her, azriel clapped cassian’s shoulder and left (is this the true mate they’re all talking about?). it’s unfair to lucien, elain, AND azriel and this comparison alone is enough to disprove this theory.

the thing is, lucien has been nothing but respectful, kind and caring towards elain. when he arrived in velaris in acowar, he could immediately sense what she needed and said, “she needs fresh air” (vs. the response “we’ll judge what she needs”) and “take her to the sea. take her to some garden. but get her out of this house for an hour or two.” (I’m gonna make another post about this because I have a few thoughts on this)

of course, she doesn’t owe him anything, but elain herself doesn’t wish to be treated like a child, she maybe she should start acting like an adult because although she doesn’t owe lucien an apology or explanation, she has to have a conversation with him, like two responsible adults. there is no way feyre or anyone in the inner circle hasn’t told her that she can reject the bond and move on with her life. but just like her powers, this is another thing she chooses to ignore. I’m not blaming her because I know she has to work through her trauma first and heal, but by the end of the series, she has to acknowledge that at least.

in acosf, elain says “I am not a child to be fought over” when they discuss the dread trove. I wonder what she would say about the fact azriel threatens to challenge lucien to the blood duel because of her? based on literally everything we know about lucien, I can say with certainty that he would not physically fight over elain. if she only had a conversation with him and told him to move on and leave her alone, lucien would do just that. he would leave her alone and try to move on as best as he could (which we know is difficult for males). but he would never act as entitled to her as to demand a blood duel and fight to death. it goes against his principles. 

to finish this off, sjm summing up everything I just said:

#elucien #mating bond #mp