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Well, again, the issue is not that Rhys has done bad things, it’s how those actions are framed in the story. Let’s think about this – if Rhysand’s actions UTM were framed as negative then perhaps we would not be having this conversation.

Of course, we can argue that Rhysand (1) has developed negative coping mechanisms / perspective (2) Rhysand’s trauma informs the things that he does (both pre, during, and after UTM), and (3) Rhysand’s position was uniquely isolating because of the nature of the role he was forced to play. These are points that I believe can be argued and offer an interesting view; but for any of that to happen, we have to acknowledge that the behaviors are negative. That’s often the problem with the arguments that begin to arise – no one wants to admit that Rhysand has developed (or just has) negative qualities and behaviors. No one wants to contend with the reality of consequences. “Rhysand has always admitted that he would be willing to do terrible things for his family” – and yet there’s no elaboration on those “terrible things.” No one wants to talk about those proposed negative qualities. The story (and the audience) don’t want to admit that Rhys doesn’t really have a solid moral high ground over Tamlin, or admittedly other villains. Just because Rhysand “admits” he’s prone to basically being abusive doesn’t…make it any less abusive.

My proposed argument about Rhysand’s actions UTM are this: he chose to sexually assault Feyre, he chose to “protect” Feyre in ways that were extremely sexually explicit. I believe these are choices that Rhys chooses to make – and I believe they say something about him. It’s noted, to me, that Amarantha scarcely makes Rhys do anything that he does to Feyre. I also believe that his actions regarding Feyre were done with an air of autonomy; as in, I believe Rhysand takes these measures into his own hands. Ultimately, I believe that while Rhysand has to contend with the horrors, he himself becomes beholden to them at some point and ends up perpetrating the same behaviors.

We cannot argue that Rhysand sexually assaulted Feyre, and then argue that it doesn’t say something about him. It does. In the realm of the story – from a writing standpoint – I think a good author can still make a character like that sympathetic and understandable (see: Nahadoth and Itempas from N.K. Jemisin’s Hundred Thousand Kingdom). If I were analyzing Rhysand’s actions, I would simply make the argument that perhaps Rhysand’s abuse of Feyre mirror’s his own abuse by Amarantha hands, and he potentially sees Feyre (and her hope) as something to be threatened – or even shamed by. If Rhysand’s actions were written in a way that clearly exemplified that his actions are not meant to be praised (and are NOT are reflection of love) then he could be salvaged. I actually believe a lot of the abusive things Rhysand does makes sense given the environment and if the story leaned into this from a storytelling perspective and did away with needing to moralize, then this would all be fine. Framing Rhysand’s abuse of Feyre as something to be praised, admired, and loved for is actually quite insane. If we frame his actions as purely preservational and self-serving, that would make so much sense. Imagine being in Rhysand’s position; I guarantee everyone would do whatever they could to stop such extreme amounts of abuse and sexual violence. And even then, the story could still create a narrative that warns of the danger of sexual violence and consent, it would just be subtextual and more allegorical than concretely written in the text. Starting Feyre and Rhysand off in such a tragic place, having Feyre and Rhysand acknowledged truly what happened, having them discuss ways for both of them to move forward while building up the mating bond in the background. Have Feyre acknowledge this untrusting, sly, slick part of Rhysand and have her not assume her mate does everything out of the kindness of his heart. Build their romance out of a place of mutual atonement – play on the theme of guilt Feyre feels and the whole premise of the court. Let the connection between Feyre and Rhys be that they truly acknowledge each others darkness (and also let Feyre do selfish things – maybe she knew damn well Clare Beddor’s family might suffer a bad fate but its not her family and Feyre would do anything for them; Let Feyre kill those fairies with ease because she cares about her life. Let her contend with reality that she would actually do anything for her family and then have that be a connection between Rhys and Feyre.

Something that has always bothered me about the “we don’t talk enough about Rhysand’s trauma” argument that gets thrown around when we earnestly discuss the validity of his actions is the presumption of innocence in that statement. The unwritten statement is that the trauma somehow explains and simultaneously absolves him of the implications of his actions. I objectively agree with the sentiment – Rhysand’s trauma is not talked about enough and it should be. The argument dancing in the corner is the fact that people believe that Rhysand’s extreme amount of trauma absolves him – even going as far as essentially say that Rhysand’s abuse operates out of fear (or because of fear) which is essentially the exact same ideology the book bashed Tamlin for. In the end, the cycle just comes back around and the abuse gets pushed into the backdrop.

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velaris and ba sing se are actually really similar when you think about i- *i am dragged off stage*

#me except with fucking metropolis from the 1927 silent film metropolis because im deranged #guy whos just watched metropolis (1927) seeing any other setting with a massive class disparity: getting a lot of metropolis vibes from this

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One thing thats been bothering me since I started acomaf is that in that book theres so much emphasis was put on not only people potentially wanting kidnap and/or assault Feyre for powerful children, but specifically powerful sons cuz its a hyperpatriarchal society now and girls dont matter and then in ACOSF she. gets a son. while shes also high lady of the court that arguably has the biggest misogyny problem in Prythian. Like, yeah, in-universe there was a 50/50 chance i guess but out-of-universe thats just bad storytelling

Heres what I personally would find more interesting: Nyx is born afab but transitions into a guy later in life. Feyre and Rhys are like "okay, thats good now if we bury the fact that he was born female he can atleast be a respected politician in the Night Court, but since he wont inherit the high lord power we still either need to have another child to make sure the power doesnt go to Kier or figure something else out quick" and then they die without having another child or figuring something else out, but. the power still goes to Nyx. He sees the injustices of this fucked up patriarchal society so he starts being very vocal about being born female as high lord and is basically like "hey, this obviously means that we were wrong on some level about (biological) males always being more magical or blessed by the Mother or whatever, maybe it doesnt actually matter and we should stop treating our women like shit" It causes nationwide chaos, countless debates about gender and transgenderism and atleast four major religious schisms

#not to toot my own horn but this post is pretty awesome #trans inclusive radical misogynist god

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#cassian rhysand and azriel in that order

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Just realized how trapped Feyre was by that original bargain she made with Rhys. Its sort of made moot early on because she moves to the NC and its not really brought up again till the KoH breaks it, thinking its the mate bond.

But like.

What if she didn't want to date Rhys? What if she wanted to move away? Would the bargain have been fulfilled just being in the NC boarders? What if she wanted to move home with her sisters? Would she even be able to choose that if theres a chance she could be delayed bc the wall makes it difficult? What if she believed Tamlin that she was being hunted by Hybern and fled to the continent? What if she really liked Taquin and wanted to stay in Summer? The bargain would drag her back every month for the rest of her life- a life that was finite when she made the bargain originally and now would span a millenia potentially.

Shit like this is why the books frustrate me. Again, i dont actually care about anything Rhys does or doesnt do, but THIS and the death bargain* put Feyre on a way way wayyyyyy shorter leash than anything Tamlin could have done.

(*the death bargain conceivably will curb Feyre’s reckless, self sacrificing stunts that moved the action of the entire series and made her a hero if it meant Rhys was also in danger. And now with a baby? Oof. Tied down if not locked up)

Does this matter? No. But im so tired of him being Mr. Choices and The One Who Rescued Her From The Tower or whatever. Its an illusion, he owned her.

Anyway, pour one out for Tamlin because he did in fact get the KoH to break that bond so Feyre can actually leave Rhys’s ass if she chooses.

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Im sorry this has nothing to do with acotar but i need to get this off my chest and I cant put it on my main blog because i wanna tell you guys about a weird person here on tumblr but ive interacted with them before and we share a very small fandom and we're gonna watch the 1989 musical adaptation of the hit movie Metropolis together today, and I do NOT want them finding this post or connecting it to me somehow

Anyway, I talk a lot about Elisabeth: das Musical on here even when its not really relevant, and the thing about Elisabeth is that its about an austrian empress who was alive some 125 years ago so its historical rpf and any fan creations based on it are implicitly also historical rpf, and for some reason my brain reacts very badly to that so i cant properly interact with the fandom even though i would very much like to. So i thought to myself "I need to start microdosing on Elisabeth fandom in order to build up an immunity and cure my brain of its weird reaction" and I decide follow someone who i know makes a lot of really good analysis posts, not just for elisabeth but for some other musicals I enjoy as well. So far so good. But after a few days i come to realise that theyre not just very interested in the musical but also in the real life austrian imperial family of the mid-to-late 1800s, specifically Archduke Rudolf (who was Elisabeths son). They re just full-on blorboposting about this archduke who killed himself

And Im not gonna lie, something about that does discomfort me a lot, but i think its a kind of discomfort that i need in my life so. Idk i guess my point here is, pick some random timeplace in history that youre interested in and pick out some historical figure that was alive then and then try to find someone whos really weird about them on tumblr. Just make sure theyre just weird-weird and not like, nationalist-weird. Iirc the person Im talking about is from finnland and it seems like they mostly use their encyclopedic knowledge of rudolf specifically to write gay fanfics about him and the personification of death, so yeah. Now I really wonder which one came first, like were they obsessed with this guy before seeing the musical and then the musical allowed them to channel that into gay fanfic, or did they discover this musical and it led them to become obsessed with him? Questions, questions, although they do also post about other rudolf-media, which there isnt that much of especially compared to the amount of elisabeth-media thats out there, I think its pretty much just a musical and that 2006 movie. I havent seen the movie myself, I have seen the musical though and goddddddd its insane how much worse it is compared to Elisabeth: das Musical, pretty much the only worthwile thing about that show is the sex suicide song. anyway

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My friend @fox-in-flowers just made me think of this:

Can we talk about Rhysand not contributing to killing a SINGLE big bad???

Amarantha: Tamlin

Hybern Twins: Lucien and Feyre

Ianthe: Feyre

King of Hybern: Elain and Nesta

Briallyn: Nesta

Rhysand is fucking useless🤣

#thatd actually so funny

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does anyone else feel like the acotar series is lacking the FAE feeling? like. Book one has it a MILLION percent, yes. the Spring Court is RIFE with Fae Elements. The CoN does too in the dark elegant Fae Way but the rest? it really doesn't tbh. they all just Feel like Immortals, and I think that's such a vast difference between acotar and tog bec in tog they're so painfully FAE, right down to the pointy ears and canines and Not Human Morals

but hey maybe I'm just a Faerie Snob bec that's something I deeply, deeply enjoy in Holly Blacks books. They're SO undeniably fae but acotar just,,, isn't. idk

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Dawg how are you 22 with a wife and kids you should be outside playing

#feyre........

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It's funny to think that Rhys took his entire crew to the HL meeting because the last time he went to a party alone, he got stuck there with no friends.

Nuh uh. We're all going down together this time.

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Day 6 of @tamlinweek - Fairy Tale Twilight AU

Most would say the baby plotline was dumb, bad, and waaay too Twilight adjacent. And they'd be right. BUT CONSIDER! What if the real problem was it wasn't Twilight enough?!

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Hey so. its been a while. I havent had a lot of energy these past few weeks and when I did I didnt really wanna spend that energy on this bad book series, but its the weekend and its been wayyyy too long and I need to finish ACOMAF before shit starts falling out of my sieve of a brain. As always, I am motivating myself with the prospect of contuining to work on a proshot of the takarazuka production elisabeth after this, the 2014 flower troupe one specifically ^-^ or maybe I'll watch a fucked up black and white movie from the 20s thats two and a half hours long, we'll see

Today we're reading chapter 53, the precursor to The most infamous chapter 54. Im not gonna lie, I kinda forgot most of what happened last time. There was a mate reveal, Rhysand was being really pathetic which made him hot to me for the first time in about 600 pages of me knowing him, Feyre was super pissed so they sent her to the mountain cabin to cool off a bit and paint, i think thats it

is it just me or is it kinda weird that Feyre is fantasizing about green grass and flowers and flowing rivers when the NC so far has been defined by being a very wintery place. Like yeah, obviously they have seasons in the solar courts but like, theres a lot of mountains which means a lot of snow, its the most nothern court etc

And Feyre didnt like winter in the first book because she associated it with bad times at the cabin so that makes sense but idk. I feel like if youre retconning her so much already you could easily wrie something about how she actually likes winter now that she has the power to withstand it or something but no, sure, have her fantasize about very spring-y weather in the book where the spring court gets demonized to hell and back why not

'[Rhysand] would give me the money for my shop, for what I was offering would cost nothing. Maybe I would sell my paintings to pay him back the money. Because I wanted to do that under any corcumstance, soulmates or not.' I was gonna write something snarky about Feyre in ACOSF but then it hit me that shes never going to have financial independance from Rhysand ever again and now Im just sad and anxious for her

(sry, im too lazy to translate this whole paragraph rn) '[Rhysand and I would do a bunch of fun stuff that couples do.] Never again someones slave or whore.' Its so wild to me that shes saying all this about the guy who made her his slave and whore MULTIPLE TIMES AT THIS POINT. like hey sarah, do you think your readers dont remember all that? do you think constantly calling back to it will make them forget somehow

Ive seen some people describe this book as gaslighting and honestly, its not even that its just lying. this story is just a bunch of lies that keep contradicting or otherwise disturbing eachother because the person telling it isnt even a good liar

Okayyyyy this chapter was a lot shorter than anticipated can you tell i dont plan these out at all but i dont feel like doing more than this and also while I was reading i got a really good idea for an Anastasia AU for a different fandom im in and I keep getting distracted and I wanna start working on it as soon as possible. And also, I'd like to be focused when I finally read that most infamous of chapters, thank you and good afternoon

#flames and darkness liveblog #anti acomaf #anti sjm

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Rhysand wouldn't be half as annoying if Sjm had the guts to let him be cringe.

He is plenty cringe already, but I don’t think Sjm is aware of that fact.

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#the change we need for the acotar fandom tbh

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tbh all three archeron sisters should be at the club

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Come get your mans @tamlinweek

I've done it, I've spread my pretty boy Tam propaganda, my life is complete

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Lol imagine marrying the guy who publicly paraded you naked for three months to get a rise out of your boyfriend. Like what the actual fuck is this book honestly.