elevatorladylady

[elevatorladylady]

Critical Reread - ACOTAR Chapter 6

Join me on a reread of A Court of Thorns and Roses

Chapter 6

Feyre gets a bath.

“What wretched power did they possess to make their lands so different from ours, to control the seasons and weather as if they owned them?”

I'd be curious to get more of an exploration on this idea. Are the high lords bending the will of the land? Does the magic balance out with having all of the seasons represented? What would happen if a high lord just didn't want to use their power to create a perpetual season? It would be really interesting if the land itself chose the season, even though we know it's tied to the high lord.

“Only a fool would run with no food, no strength.”

This is what I tell myself every time I try to convince myself to exercise.

“If misfortune forced you to keep company with a faerie, you never drank their wine, never ate their food.”

It's like SJM wants us to know that she does know the lore, but is actively choosing to exclude most of it from the world building.

“This beast was not a man, not a lesser faerie. He was one of the High Fae, one of their ruling nobility: beautiful, lethal, and merciless.”

I still struggle to believe that she knows the difference between any fae races when 95% of info she has on faeries is inaccurate. And really, do humans consider every other kind of fae "lesser faeries" too?

“That promise to my mother, cold and vain as she was, was all I had.”

Again, you'd think the idea of her family dying of starvation would be enough without the asinine promise.

“The Treaty’s summons led me to the mortal. I gave her safe haven.”

Is the Treaty's summons a real thing? If it is, why wouldn't it work to magically protect humans as well? Cause they mention several instances of the fae crossing the wall to attack humans, but humans don't have any recourse for when that happens.

“Perhaps he wore it out of solidarity.”

I looove the idea of Tamlin wearing a mask in solidarity with Lucien. Tam definitely would if Lucien felt self conscious about his scars.

“Well,” the red-haired one seethed, “now we’re stuck with that, thanks to your useless mercy, and you’ve ruined—”

What does it ruin? Am I forgetting something? Isn't actually what they were hoping for by sending Andras out there? Maybe it's all for show?

“While these faeries also looked human, save for their ears, I’d never learned what the High Fae called their servants.”

How can she tell a High Fae from "lesser fae" if they both look human with pointy ears? Are the high fae just prettier? Also, it'd be pretty cool if they had actual names for the different races of fae instead of just calling them all lesser. Feyre still uses the term as high lady and damn does that seem racist as hell.

“A bit fancy, but I didn’t complain when I donned the white shirt, nor when I buttoned the dark blue tunic and ran my hands over the scratchy, golden thread embroidered on the lapels.”

I want some fan art of Feyre in this outfit.

“I was too young to remember much before my father’s downfall.”

Didn't we establish that she was 11 when they lost their wealth? The narrative treats this as though she was 5/6 when she lost their wealth, but there is a huge difference between the two ages.

#ell reads #sjm critical #ell reads acotar

[elevatorladylady]

🌸🌱🌿🍃 TAMLIN 🍃🌿🌱🌸

So I knowwwwww the situation with Tamlin in the situation, but hey, im drawing all high lords and their NSFW versions so I need to include Tamlin in it! Plus, I do have a soft spot for him 🤌🏻😅

‼️ YOU CAN FIND THE NSFW VERSION ON MY PATREON, NEXT HIGH LORD IS RHYSAND ‼️

#pro tamlin

[elevatorladylady]

Getting back to rereads tomorrow. Sorry for the delay. Life has been a thing.

[elevatorladylady]

The way rhysand recreates what happened utm is evidence he didnt actually hated that he was "forced" to assault Feyre (poor rhys). Rhysand stans looove to justify what he did UtM. They feel sorry for HIM, not for feyre, because they think he must have felt so bad ☹ If he feels so bad, then why recreate the same scenario? Sjm likes to fetishize abuse and paint it as a "necessary evil" later. I've read a post about how feyre calls herself in acomaf: the high lord's whore. Interesting. Its such a trigger for rhysand AND feyre (she burned the LoA when Beron called him that) and yet, this is how they portray her.

hi anon!

this. again - i think this is also dependent on how people are choosing to read this story. bc often i find that people who justify these scenes often rely soley on what the book argues at a certain point, rather than actually looking and analyzing how the characters actions reflect against previously established information.

what i mean: if the story argues that rhysand earnestly feels terrible for having to put feyre in that situation utm, then he wouldn't have agreed or offered the con scene. it just would not happen. remorse does not manifest in recreating the very situation that you say caused you distress or shame. its not being introspective.

and this is how we get into what im gonna dub 'toxic canon' (this is a BIG problem in the asoiaf fandom) - where people use canon in a way that isn't comprehensive. if the story says 'this person was forced to do this,' - despite there being no evidence to actually support that "canon" statement." or they use the canon in a way that isn't wholesome, meaning they chunk the canon and do not look at how information given compares against information established.

so the story established that rhys feels sorry for drugging, embarrassing, and sexually assaulting feyre - but the story also have rhys recreate that same environment - which he gets pleasure from. it pleases and arouses him to see feyre back in that position. that negates the feeling of shame - he can't say 'i was forced to do this and i would not do it again if not for the circumstances" and thennnnn have him do that very thing when presented with an actual choice. its looking at a narrow piece of canon and not how that piece of canon actually reflects against the story as a whole.

so we can pick out a quote that says - "rhysand always gives me a choice' but how well does that statement actually reflect the story as a whole? how true is that piece of 'canon' if it is weighed against the events of the story.

its also a conversation about the problems in the romance genre as a whole, where violence is used in a way deemed 'necessary' by the author to negate the severity of the actions. its victim blaming in nature. bc we have to question why is violence against women always a plot point in this story - and why do the stories always use the rhetoric of necessity to support and justify said violence.

and this is why i really never agree with those rabid 'feyre' stans (feysand) stans, because they always analyze the story just this way. they write with the underlying idea that sjm will always agree with them bc they recognize the bias in the writing. they write with the implicit understanding that even if the quotes they use aren't actually supported by the comprehensive events of the story, sjm agrees with them bc she loves feysand (cue the 'feysand is the center of the universe' or the 'why read the books if you hate them') bc you only say anti-intellectual things like that bc you know the story will never actually challenge the characters. or when you know the entire series is catering to them at every turn.

#anti sjm #sjm critical

[elevatorladylady]

Okay, hear me out. Eris and Rhys.

[elevatorladylady]

when push comes to shove, nothing and no one can change that rhysand’s actions towards feyre utm hurt her. can we all settle on that? rhysand HURT. HER.

and it isn’t some shallow thing either. not even tough love like oh- “hE tWisTeD hER aRm tO sEt tHe BoNE” bitch nO

rhysand humilated her. he debased her and made a fool of her in front of hundreds — thousands, even — for his. agenda. maybe his actions helped her in the long run. maybe his actions are what saved prythian in the end. maybe he loved her all along. it doesn’t matter. nothing he says changes that rhysand’s actions traumatized and dehumanized feyre without her knowledge nor her consent. that, alone, is why i say that rhysand needed an actual redemption arc to pass as a better love interest than tamlin. he can’t just share all his reasons for stripping her down to literally nothing then call that a redemption arc. that isn’t how it works.

the readers can love him while feyre doesn’t. feyre should’ve been allowed the time and understandable wariness towards him after how he treated her utm. it’s not some shallow, ignorant hate from an inexperienced fool — it is the hate and the trauma coming from one of his victims. that’s not something to take lightly, and what does acomaf do? make a joke out of it. have rhysand fuckin hyperventilate or something the moment feyre brings it up. have feyre get over everything he did to her in months. have everything be okay because of some contrived explanation in chapter 54.

rhysand can have good reason for his actions and have them, in the same vein, still be acknowledged as actions that harmed people. i don’t understand why both of those things can’t be true at the same time. i’m never gonna believe that first part lmao, and i doubt many stans are ever going to believe that not to be true, but neither of our beliefs change a universal truth: rhysand played an active hand in oppressing innocents, not just of other courts but his own as well, and he hurt thousands of people in unbelievable ways. why, precisely, are his actions not able to have logical reason while still being acknowledged as harmful? these are two things that can be true at the same time, and yet rhysand’s character within the narrative is not treated as though it is. 

only one is true and i’ll give you a hint — it’s not the part about the harm he wrought on innocents.

#anti sjm #sjm critical

[elevatorladylady]

"It took five minutes for the water to actually heat enough to start filling the tub. There had been some days in the past year when she hadn’t even bothered to take the time. Some days when she’d climbed into the icy water, not feeling its bite but that of the Cauldron’s dark depths as it devoured her whole. As it ripped away her humanity, her mortality, and made her into this. It had taken her months of battling it—the body-tensing panic that made her very bones tremble to be submerged. But she’d forced herself to face it down. Had learned to sit in the icy water, nauseated and shaking, teeth gritted; had refused to move until her body recognized that she was in a tub and not the Cauldron, that she was in her apartment and not the stone castle across the sea, that she was alive, immortal. Even though her father was not."

Everytime I re-read ACOSF this scene breaks my heart. Love Nesta journey and every single mountain she had to climb in order to start her healing process.

Art by: tarcilaneves

Commissioned by: me

#nesta archeron

[elevatorladylady]

Answering this ask because my clumsy ass deleted the draft of the ans as well as the ask idek how that happened

HERE'S THE COMMENTARY ON ACOFAS CHAPTER 11: THE ONE WHERE RHYISE VISITS A SUICIDAL TAMLIN AND TELLS HIM TO ROT IN HELL 🥰

A tomb.

This place was a tomb.

How can someone be proud of doing something cruel to someone? If they are the saints they claim to be why do this to Tamlin bro? Istg i will NEVER to this understand how on earth did the editors agree to the plotline of the destruction of Spring Court?

Lucien had not come here to make amends during Solstice, I realized as Tamlin opened the door to the dark library.

Lucien had come here out of pity. Mercy.

Bruh why? why? wud he underestimate their bond like that? he speaks as if they hadnt been each others only family for centuries

Tamlin claiming an ornate cushioned chair on one side of it. The only thing he had that was close to a throne these days.

oh fck u little shit atleast tamlin doesnt OPPRESS his people!!

“If you’ve come to gloat, you can spare yourself the effort.”

Tamlin is so non-combative here and people still have the audacity to say Rhysie is the bigger male????

“Do you see any sentries around to do it?”

Even they had abandoned him. Interesting. “Feyre did her work

thoroughly, didn’t she.”

THATS NOT SOMETHING TO BE FUCKING PROUD OF RHYSIE

ISTG this asshole someone needs to kick him in the balls. HARD.

I smiled. “Oh, no. That was all her. Clever, isn’t she.”

No sir she is a dumb teenage girl who taught to destroy a court DURING WARTIME?

tbh if Spring wouldn't have fallen the war would have never gone down i said what i said.

I didn’t smile as I countered with, “I suppose you think I should be

thanking you, for stepping up to assist in reviving me.”

“I have no illusions that the day you thank me for anything, Rhysand, is the day the burning fires of hell go cold.”

my boi tamlin is so savage like??

SLAY

Tamlin deserved what he’d brought upon himself, this husk of a life.

He deserved every empty room, every snarl of thorns, every meal he had to hunt for himself.

Seriously? Tamlin, sweetheart, for the love of good kick this man and his bat dick pls.

Tamlin had burned them long ago, Feyre had told me. It made no

difference. He’d been there that day.

I really want to emphasize that Tamlin DID NOT take part in their death.

Had given his father and brothers the information on where my sister and mother would be waiting for me to meet them. And done nothing to help them as they were butchered.

BRO????

U expect a boy to go against his evil, physically abusive father? NO, strike that.

U WANT A BOY TO GO AGAINT A HIGH LORD?

No tell me? how was Tamlin supposed to fight a HIGH LORD and his brother??? Three against one??

And even if he tried to help them? we will never know? we get only rhysie's side of the story never tamlin's pov

“You brought every bit of this upon yourself,”

Yes yes lets go tell a suicidal person he brought every bit of his misery on himself

Yeh lets all applaud him

“You won,” he spat, sitting forward. “You got your mate. Is that not

enough?”

"No."

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK???

MANNNNNNNNNNNNNN

I WANT TO SCRATCH MY EYEBALLS RHYSIE'S EYEBALLS OUT AT THIS POINT

"You deserve everything that has befallen you. You deserve this pathetic, empty house, your ravaged lands. I don’t care if you offered that kernel of life to save me, I don’t care if you still love my mate. I don’t care that you saved her from Hybern, or a thousand enemies before that.”

THIS UNGRATEFUL LITTLE BITCH?!?!?!?!?

PLSSSSSSSSS

Why doesnt he care that tamlin has saved BOTH their lives on MULTIPLE occasions???

at this point 50% of the IC owe their life to tamlin

“I hope you live the rest of your miserable life alone here. It’s a far more satisfying end than slaughtering you.”

well he isnt even strong enough to keep his people in line and not a hair's breath away from rebellion, i doubt he'll be able to slaughter the HL who tore apart Amarantha, who fought a hundred of Hybern's monsters and soldiers in their camp ALONE, at the same time helping feyre escape AND was able to "drag" another highlord to war

*Drops mike*

But Tamlin only stared. And after a heartbeat, his eyes lowered to the

desk. “Get out.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you the bigger male

Tamlin didn’t have shields around the house. None to prevent anyone from winnowing in, to guard against enemies appearing in his bedroom and

slitting his throat.

It was almost as if he was waiting for someone to do it.

This breaks my heart so much. No, Tamlimn doesnt deserve this. NO ONE deserves this. Imagine being OKAY with someone being suicidal?!

#anti sjm #sjm critical

[elevatorladylady]

Some poor suffering gobs!!

[elevatorladylady]

These are the actual colours I painted with, but I played around a bit with gradient maps to get a few variations... I like them all, and cannot really decide which I prefer. Ref is from this.

#art

[elevatorladylady]

Valkyrie Week Day 2: Ribbon

An updated old drawing of our girlies and VALKYRIE KITTEHS playing with a ribbon. Yes, Nesta-kitty has a little fang.

@officialvalkyrieweek

#valkyries

[elevatorladylady]

can the whole “lovers read each other’s minds” trope in fantasy please go die in a hole because if it’s not something that happens AFTER the relationship is established, it always taints the relationship and its legitimacy for me. i have read a lot of stories with this trope, and i have never, not ONCE seen it done well. it’s always so invasive and a major reason for how the relationship goes from acquaintances to being as close as they are. that mind reading thing is always involved, and a lot of the time, it’s not consensual so it’s just icky.

[elevatorladylady]

shhh, they’re sleeping... 💭

#Valkyries

[elevatorladylady]

Here’s a man-bun!Lucien I promised ; )

#lucien

[elevatorladylady]

.......ACOSF SPOILERS........

FOR REAL

As a Nesta stan, I officially hated this book. HATED.

- Nesta constantly thinking what a garbage person she is. Everyone agrees with her that she is trash. They stop thinking she is trash when she apologizes for being trash. She literally GETS DOWN ON ONE KNEE TO APOLOGIZE TO SOMEONE IN THE IC.

- Cassian did not like it that she had sex with randos, which was a big part of why the IC exiled her. But he totally lets nesta fuck his brains out for weeks, despite believing it’s just as meaningless to her as all the damaging sex she’d had before. So casual sex with others = bad. Casual sex with Cassian = good.

- Nesta’s redemption is to serve feysand and be accepted by them and literally she hears the words “WELCOME BACK TO THE NIGHT COURT.” LIKE SHE WAS EVER PART OF THE FUCKING NIGHT COURT. She’s thankful to not be exiled anymore by people who shamed and reviled her (ya know, bc she realizes they were right).

- Nesta’s friendships feel like fanfic to me but I can’t say why. They just didn’t land for me or feel believable. It was supposed to be soft but it was laughable that they could in WEEKS/MONTHS turn into seasoned warriors ready to defeat the Rite. And be doing friendship bracelet summer camp kumbaya stuff together. Sarah J Maas has NEVER MET SUBTLETY.

- Nesta turns into a different person by the end than anyone we’ve ever known. But not in a way that felt earned. She literally just got a couple friends, banged Cassian a bunch, did exercise, and had some over choreographed “fight” moments. That’s the plot of the book.

- The plot makes no sense, is full of magical macguffins and queen shit and underdeveloped bad guys. It’s genuinely dumb and meaningless. This book mostly exists to have nesta think about how garbage she is and to fuck Cassian over and over.

- The smut was worse than usual. I couldn’t even read it. They’re talking porn to each other within minutes of getting involved. Like, where did my prim, guarded girl go?? This girl and the OG nesta archeron have never met. I didn’t find the smut hot at all. And sjm was not kidding about it being a LOT about fluids.

- The feyre pregnancy is worse than dumb. It’s insulting to readers’ intelligence that c-sections wouldn’t have worked. It was saccharine after school special level shit and it existed to take nesta down below feysand. nO OnE must be more powerful than feysand!

- The book wastes NO opportunities to remind us how much worse Nesta is than feyre. Feyre was sooooooo giving and generous and brave and special, as the book reminds us OVER AND FUCKING OVER. But nesta literally is sooooo out of shape she can’t do anything when Cassian starts training her, and she actually PISSES HERSELF when she confronts a scary creature. The book is an exercise in humiliating her and confirming her worst fears about herself. She has accurate thoughts about the IC at first but by the end she’s blubbering about how much she loves Big Brother like some godawful dystopian novel.

- Rhys decides to keep literally life or death medical information from feyre but naturally tell EVERYONE ELSE. And then nesta tells feyre in a moment of anger and everyone hates her for it, and Rhys orders her out of velaris or else he’ll kill her. THAT IS IN THE BOOK.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say when I’ve processed more, but this was the exact opposite of the book I wanted for nesta. I waited years for this and the whole time I felt like I was either embarrassed for her, sorry for her, annoyed with her, or like I didn’t recognize her at all. Cassian went from one of my faves to a sad piece of shit who cares more about Rhys than his own beloved.

There’s not one thing I wouldn’t change about this book.

#anti sjm #sjm critical

[elevatorladylady]

u ever have on mutuals whos so deep in another fandom that u know absolutely zero about and they make posts that look like they speaking another language or some shit

[elevatorladylady]

i actually would’ve preferred if feyre willingly and knowingly killed andras in the beginning of the story, fully knowing that he is fae. i feel like that, coupled with her going willingly under the mountain, is really good symbolism for how she’s changed. she killed a fae that clearly wasn’t going to attack her in the beginning, and now she’s walking to her death with the thin hope that she might save the life of one. i just feel like that would’ve been a more satisfying arc. obviously, feyre hates fae in the beginning, but it feels more superficial than it could’ve been.