#don't you love my tendency to start capitalizing as a post gets longer?

[theheightofdishonor]

one AU per ship

iwaoi- a prince and his royal knight/bff of a war-torn country who've known each other their entire lives. "fire forged bonds of trust and friendship" like obviously, these two were made for this AU. (they're begging for a military au but i'm not about that military romanticization so)

kenhina- i never shut up about it so you probably already know but gang AUs are honestly the best for them. Hinata's the newest member of Karasuno, Kenma's the mysterious right hand of Nekoma, sprinkle in some cases of misconstrued identities and you've finally got an AU that best translates the full weirdness of kenhina's besties/rivals/would kill each other for fun dynamic. Like I don't even go for this ship but i'm such a sucker for this.

daikuroo- idk how many of you were also around for my teen wolf phase but i'm giving these two my supernatural detective agency au, Daichi's the detective,Kuroo's a demon being hunted for a crime he didn't commit. It's a glorified cop/robber i know but i'm so attached to it. And Daichi is canonly a cop so...

Akaashi x Osamu (idk their ship name) - pygmalian and galatea but half the story's dedicated to the chaos that happens after galatea/akaashi comes to life. This is partially because akaashi is just that pretty and partially because I think that osamu as pygmalian shows off his intensity and passion and dedication which usually gets hefted on to atsumu in an attempt to make osamu "the cool aloof twin" (also if you don't know, the myth's basically that pygmalian is a sculptor who falls in love with his own statue and the goddess of love brings it to life for him)

Semi x Shirabu ice skating AU because pretty, steely Shirabu deserves to be an ice skater. They're rink mates but they're also rivals and Shirabu's the rising prodigy that Semi can't help but resent aka their canon dynamic OR, they're a pair- in an imaginary world where the ISU allows same sex skating pairs ofc- who still resent each other but are forced to work together.

Tendo x Suga - medical drama. This is a genre I don't personally watch but I think tendou and suga have the vibes for it.

Asanoya - Hades and Persephone. Like basic, yes but it works so well for them?? Canon Asahi is constantly misunderstood as this intimidating thug guy which translates so well to Hades and Noya's the persistent Persephone with a will strong enough to force the gods to heel. (also i think it's funny that asahi means "morning sun" and he lives somewhere where the sun never shines)

#don't you love my tendency to start capitalizing as a post gets longer? #this is such a wack mix of ships #my greatest fault is that i hate deviating from canon too much #so in all of these (except the medical drama cuz idk how to write those) you'll see an attempt to keep the dynamic as true to canon as #possible #ships i love but couldn't bear to change anything from canon and thus are not on this list: bokuaka arankita #i had to try so hard ot get asahi and noya on here because i love them but also i never have much to say about them #anyway tagging commences #haikyu #haikyuu!! #asanoya #daikuroo #iwaoi #kenhina #shirabu x semi #osaaka #i think that's the proper mix of their names but who knows #turns out i don't have a tendou suga tag #alas #tendou x suga #iwaizumi hajime #oikawa tooru #tendou satori #sugawara koushi #azumane asahi #nishinoya yuu #shirabu kenjiro #semi eita #sawamura daichi #kuroo tetsuro

[kit-kat-katie]

I love you, but you love him, and he loves me

A/N: Sometimes I forget that the things that I say have a tendency to age like milk... apologies for the lack of updates and fics. I've been drowning in schoolwork since the semester started and I haven't had much of a chance to work on an extended fic like Our Time. The current plan is to have this post up for February, put up a Johanna fic in April/May, and then finish up Our Time over the summer (hopefully). Anyways, here's some Clove fluff that's a week late for Valentine's Day! :D

oh, thanks for 100 followers! I am so happy that people enjoy my content without a regular schedule. thank you so so much again!

TW: underage drinking/smoking, brief mention of weed, small fighting scene, reader is put into uncomfortable romantic situation

Pairing: Clove x GN! Reader (Rivals to Lovers in 2x speed)

Summary: You love Clove. She likes Cato. Cato likes you. Your life is a comedic love triangle until your best friend's drunken disaster causes you to connect with Clove and discover something new about her.

“On your left.” 

Catelyn gives you a quick warning before flipping you on the back and slamming you against the mat. You squirm against her grip for a moment before spotting a weakness in her legs.

An opening.

You grab her leg and pull her to the ground before taking her hands and pinning them to the ground.

“Don’t count me out yet.” You sneer as she scoffs.

“Fucker.” She mumbles as a buzzer goes off in the distance.

You immediately jump off of her and offer a hand up, which Catelyn begrudgingly takes.

“Trying to impress your girl?” She raises an eyebrow before you shove her aside.

Clove’s staring at the two of you, well, just you since Catelyn’s stepped off the mat to grab a drink of water. Her eyes immediately drift off to look elsewhere as you let out a sigh.

You wish she’d look at you longer, as much as she looked at Cato.

It’s funny, in an ironic way.

You love her.

She loves him.

And he’s paused his sparring to walk over to you.

Probably to ask you on a date or to go drinking or to go do something with romantic undertones that you don’t want to do.

So he loves you.

Catelyn had egged the two of you on before realizing that you wanted nothing more than for him to leave you alone. You didn’t want to refuse Cato’s invitations - he was the choice for a Hunger Games tribute in the near future, and that’d piss off more people than your trickiness could outmaneuver.

Perhaps running through a nearby window would be the best way to avoid him?

…And he’s right in front of you.

You glance behind him, only to see Clove's jaw tighten.

Fuck.

~

An invite.

“That's all he wanted?” Catelyn teases as you make your way to the place where Cato always invited you after sparring practice.

It wasn't like the two of you were going to be alone. It was a tradition for the top contenders for this year's Hunger Games to engage in a few… adult activities before the Reaping occurred. This way, the two tributes shipped off could get to enjoy a little bit of adulthood before heading to the Capital.

It wasn't anything too awful, just some cheap booze and a few blunts to pass around. Any people that passed you all by would simply look the other way - who'd want to risk being harassed by a group of teenagers?

You didn't usually partake beyond a few sips from some cheap bottle of booze - someone needed to carry Catelyn home, after all.

When the two of you slip behind a pair of buildings, a few boys around Cato's age wave you over.

“Let's get this over with.” You grumble, hoping to spend this evening without uncomfortably resting in Cato's arms.

~

You failed.

Horrendously.

When you arrived, Cato threw an arm around you and hasn't let you go since. You're tempted to drink more so you don't remember what he's said or done, but seeing your friend nearly face plant into a campfire has you rethinking that decision.

As if matters couldn't get any worse, Clove arrived just in time to see Cato place a kiss on your cheek. She huffs before glaring at the two of you from a fair distance away.

This time, you notice, her glare isn't directed at you.

She's glaring at him.

~

Catelyn's barely able to stumble forward as you throw an arm around your shoulder. She excitedly points at a lamppost and tries to point at it, but she ends up falling out of your grasp and onto the barren road.

“Catelyn, c’mon,” You try to coax your friend from the ground, but she shakes her head, “We've got to get home before sunrise.”

“Nu-uh!” She slurs, face-down in the pavement.

You sigh, pinching the bridge of your nose until you hear footsteps come from behind you.

“Need some help?” 

In all of her brazen glory, your knight-in-shining-armor (a black leather jacket, a plain t-shirt, and blue jeans), Clove, offers to help.

“If you don't mind, I know you might be busy with someone else.” You quietly say as she shakes her head.

“I wanted to take a walk to clear my head, away from everyone else.”  She grabs Catelyn from the ground, who whines like a petulant child, before you hoist one of Catelyn’s arms over your shoulder.

Clove does the same, and the three of you walk in silence until a biting question slips off her tongue.

“Do you like Cato?”

“Absolutely not.” The answer leaves your lips before you can refine the words with a bit more thought. “We're friends, sure, but I don't feel anything for him.”

Relief escapes her lips as she takes a deep breath out, then in. She smiles, as do you in return.

“Good, good. I was worried that you were into him.” 

“Why?” You stop, which causes Clove to stop.

“I thought- I thought I liked him, but I saw him kissing you and… I didn't like how it made me feel.” She blushes at her honesty as you bite your lip.

“If you like him, Clove, you can have him. I certainly don't want him.”

She harshly laughs before turning to look at you.

“Don't you get it? All of those times that I saw you two together, I thought I was jealous of you. Today, after seeing him draped over you, I realized that I'm jealous of him.”

Her confession leaves you breathless as you pause to consider her words.

She… likes me.

“Clove, I…” It's your turn to get nervous as you try to meet Clove’s unwavering gaze. “I really, really like you too.”

Catelyn, in a moment of drunken clarity, lifts her head up to look at the both of you before loudly sighing.

“Just kiss already, you idiots!” She lets go of the both of you to (not-so) gracefully fall on the ground as your arm finds its way around her.

You lean in to kiss her, before pausing.

“Is this okay?” You mumble, centimeters away from her lips. 

A mischievous smile slips onto her face as she answers by kissing you back.

You wouldn't have many nights like this again, but this night would always be special to you.

#fanfic #the hunger games #the hunger games fanfic #the hunger games fluff #the hunger games x reader #x reader #clove kentwell fluff #clove kentwell fanfic #clove kentwell x reader #clove kentwell

[manikrege]

If you turn 30 in 5 years or less, I need you to understand something.

My best friend, who's 26 and a self-started small business entrepreneur now, told me her deepest wish & biggest dream was being on the Forbes 30 under 30 List.

Like a best friend, I hyped her up & told her it was inevitable - she'd definitely get there.

But then we marinated on the truth that she only has a few years left (now even less) to make it happen ... It looked too difficult.

In response, I assured her there's enough time because I didn't know what else to say. I didn't have the words that I should've used at that time, until today when I came across a stupid LinkedIn post which brought back the memory.

The post was from your stock footage old HR recruiter complaining about Gen-Z's tendency to prioritise all the wrong things. Yes, cue the eye rolls already.

She talked about how buying an iPhone for 1L is okay for us but using that as capital to start our own business feels too risky.

How we always complain about salads being expensive but going on a dinner date is okay.

How enrolling for a 3L course to upskill feels too costly but we're cool with spending that amount on traveling/vacations.

I usually just scroll past by, because I can't take LinkedIn less seriously nowadays - it's become Facebook at this point - but in this case I wrote back in the comments.

See, I did go on a fancy dinner date last month! *wink wink*

Omg this was my first one EVER. I'm turning 25 soon and I've never done something like it because I was always studious in school & then prioritised my career right from day uno of my first job, so I always told my friends that I find getting into a relationship something bored people do - I said dating is for kids & I'll look out for someone once I'm well settled.

But I was lying to myself. Of course I wanted to know & be with someone - emotionally & physically, too. Of course my body understands attractions & has certain needs, and my mind craves companionship from time to time.

So I did follow through with my Bumble match & we had sat down at a fancy café named Poetry in Powai - and we talked for 3 goddamn hours nonstop. I've become very health conscious but that day, the person's presence loosened me up & I had fried junk food & TOTALLY LOVED IT.

In passing, they said the most beautiful thing anyone has ever told me - they said they could watch time passing by as the Sun set outside the window but they let it go because they were so lost in me (and so was I in them).

Someday I'll talk about my first kiss because writers gotta milk out every opportunity bwahaha but the point is that this goes against everything the God-fearing, traditional mindsetted, 20-year-old Manik believed in. If he saw the future, he'd curse me for wasting my time on irrelevant useless stuff and ask me to focus on myself.

Secondly, I've been taking myself out on solo dates on the weekends (still do now, and my partner totally understands). I fell in love with this gorgeous mall called Phoenix Palladium & I spent 3 hours walking every square meter it covers last weekend after office. In April, I'm saving up to go on a Goa trip with friends. But the agenda is the same - I no longer hustle on the weekends. I'll either sleep and do my gym sessions in between, or I'll get myself out of my room. I have fun.

Thirdly, I did buy a fancy phone too because it had a good camera. I'm very camera conscious but one of my new year resolutions was to push myself out of that awkwardness & click a selfie every day - I've maintained that streak so far.

I'm saying all of this because it feels great.

It's what I'm supposed to do when I'm 24. I'm supposed to fall in love, go on dates, be intimate & get my heart broken just to see how the hurt feels like (although dear partner if you're reading this, don't break up so soon please!).

I'm supposed to start loving & respecting my own body & realising that while being healthy & working on fitness is definitely so important, the composition of my body doesn't define how beautiful I am so it's totally ok if I give into my craving and have that pizza today.

I'm supposed to be doing goofy things. I AM SUPPOSED TO BE WASTING THIS TIME OF MY LIFE PRECISELY BECAUSE I CAN AFFORD IT. Silly shit. I'm supposed to be failing & making silly mistakes so I can learn from them & pass the lessons to the next generation.

Why. The. Fuck. Should I feel guilty about having fun & doing things that made me happy? Why should I always take life so seriously? Where has that gotten me so far?

I lost my childhood because I was always focused on growing up. My parents first, my teachers next & my friends afterward - everyone has had these unsaid expectations from me that I'll become successful in life. And I'm grateful that they believe in me. But I was talking to one of my interns & was telling her I had a wild Friday. She said that she couldn't imagine me partying & dancing because Im always so focused & serious at work.

And she wasn't exactly complimenting me. It hurt that people can't imagine Manik Rege being a party person. And I don't like that.

All my hard work has always been steamrolled with obstacles politics & failures. Life has always pushed me down on the floor & laughed as I mustered the strength to stand up again, and start from scratch. I have rebuilt myself a thousand times but now I'm done with the hustle.

I'm not giving up on my dreams & ambitions.

I'm just throwing away the sand glass that emptied itself at the mark of turning 30 years old.

Because I didn't confess this to my best friend back then but being in Forbes was my biggest dream too and not reaching there in time to qualify was my darkest fear.

I personally know people who've been featured in the Forbes list. I'm happy for them. But I felt so jealous because that was my idea of being successful too.

My idea of success, as fed to me by others, was having a well paying job and a wife and a kid and a house by 30. My idea of success was fame and money and stability and career growth.

So every time someone asked me to do something that didn't directly contribute to those holy goals, I used to back out. I didn't realise how much I was missing out on. Because I thought it was all pointless.

Almost every fourth Reel I see on IG is about some entrepreneur repeating my uncle's wisdom about how I shouldn't waste this time of my life in anything else apart from building my career.

And i respect that but I've also secretly just wanted to be a goddamn teenager for once. And do teenagey stuff.

Why did I always feel guilty about it? Why did I regret having junk food once in a while. Or trying to find someone good on dating apps. Or just not working & exploring the city. Because it didn't make me successful?

Ok you know what I'm going to list down shit that I think makes me very successful. These are my achievements in the past few years:

1. I battled a severe health crisis & basically came back from the dead. I was 108kgs, now 84kgs and the transformation gave me so much confidence. I now love the gym, look forward to trekking in the monsoon, and feel good about my own body.

2. I made peace with my parents. They're lovely & have always loved me but like any parents, they're flawed & sometimes irritating too. But we talked about our differences in opinions & perspectives & agreed to co-exist. We worked on our past trauma - stuff we never had the courage to discuss because I felt it would make me look like an ungrateful kid. But we apologised for what we know was wrong & we're slowly healing.

3. I had sex.

4. I made a few new best friends who have become the strongest support system I've ever had. We have so many beautiful mature conversations & always hype each other up so much that it looks cringey & overdramatic but we love each other painfully to shreds.

5. I lost my well-paying job abroad because of COVID & had an year long gap but I fearlessly fought my way back into the industry. I'm 3 years behind if I consider my original timeline that I used to believe in when I was 20. I don't even earn half of what my friends do. But I now have a job & am figuring out my career all over again despite have faced such a deadly blowback years back.

There are so many others but my point is that I never stopped to congratulate myself on these achievements. AND THEY ARE ACHIEVEMENTS.

Finding so much body confidence & having the courage to fall in love with yourself is an achievement. Because I know so many people who struggle with it.

Healing difficult relationships is an achievement. And being able to talk about such mature themes so openly is achievement.

Experiencing real intimacy is an achievement.

Failing in your career but not giving up is an achievement. Regardless of whether your attempts are showing results or regardless of how slow the progress is. Changing professions and following your passion or simply surviving in a job until you have a better one. It all takes balls.

Gathering the strength to make your bed in the morning when you're so sore & hurt. Or just keeping the pillows correctly. Or making yourself breakfast or cleaning your room. Or just bloody smiling when everything is going wrong in your life. Or facing your anxiety by placing your own order at Subway in person.

These look trivial but I promise you, they're very difficult for a lot of people. And for once, I just wanted to tell YOU specifically that I'm so proud of you. You're doing amazing sweety.

HAVING THE COURAGE TO LIVE & BREATHE & EXIST IS AN ACHIEVEMENT.

I want my friend to know that she'll always be the most awesome entrepreneur I know. Because she's the first friend of mine who had the balls to step out on her own.

While I hope she does get into the Forbes list, it's nowhere in my list of priorities or expectations for her or myself now.

Because I know her. I've seen her struggle. And the fact that she carried on is reason enough to say she's awesome.

I also want her to know that she was the first one to take me clubbing. And I don't want all this hustle to take that special part away from her. She's a party person. Now so am I.

And I wish for both of us to continue finding happiness in that totally unproductive space.

I want us to be happy about doing something without calculating how better it makes our lives in the future.

If watching Netflix, for example, is your sin, please do enjoy it. Reading books isn't the only way to learn. Nor should learning every day be a norm. YES, it's okay to not grow & just experience normal fun stuff.

Pursue your ambitions with all your grit but do not let anyone guilt trip, gaslight or shame you into thinking that you must constantly be at it every single day.

I have been through multiple burnouts. I have seen others burn out too. It's not pretty trust me. It's not at all worth it.

Sure your job is your survival but please treat it only as that. It is what you do to afford the life you like or want to build. It is not the definition of your worth & talent because baby that is infinite.

So you know what, screw this, I no longer care about competing. I want everyone to be successful & I'll be successful in my own way. And we'll celebrate each other.

I am done with this bullshit tutorial tution class mentality where they used to separate us into the class of smart kids & the less smart kids. I was in the smart ones but now I realise how toxic that distinction was. And those adults do it because they love watching us fight with each other. They've always made us all compete against time because they don't understand the repercussions of running too fast.

I am now realising how powerful I become when I stop trying to win myself & reach out to help others from the bottom of my heart. Let me lift you up, and I'll tell you when I need you too. Let's support each other. Let's communicate our needs & figure out how we can work together rather than fighting to one-up each other.

And let's work together on the Forbes list. If we make it, great. If one of us does, great. If we don't, great because then we can accept it means absolutely nothing.

If you're going to turn 30 in 5 years or less, understand that 30 is not the cutoff.

You are on time. You have a shitload of time left.

You are on track.

And you deserve to have fun.

30 is actually when you start growing. 30 is when you set the foundation. And so is 60 - there is no such thing as being late.

30 is only the beginning. Are you excited for it?

[sweetbitterimpossiblecreature]

A Brief And Concise Summary Of Is Wrong With The ACOTAR Series

I think we can agree that a lot of ACOTAR is pretty iffy. Consider this a very brief refresher.

What's Wrong With Feyre/Rhysand (juxtaposed against Feyre/Tamlin)

Rhysand drugs and sexually assaults her in Book 1

This is "for her own good". Because he "has no choice". Despite the fact that, from what we know of the plot, Amarantha thinks that Clare Beddor was the one Rhysand was diddling, and is only interested in Feyre because Rhysand, "her" man male, has taken an interest in her.

If we extrapolate from this we can figure that Rhysand is the one directly putting her into danger.

Now, let's be clear: drugging someone is bad. Sexually assaulting someone is bad. One could argue there were extenuating circumstances. But if, in such a situation, what your mind goes to is "I know, I should assault this person... for their safety" I have questions about your moral qualities. There were a million things he could have done. He could have done whatever he did to Clare - that is, remove her ability to feel any pain - easily. He could have helped her escape. Under The Mountain, he - while still there unwillingly - has a lot of power, as Amarantha's side piece. Maybe this would have resulted in him being punished- however, he is hundreds of years old and a badass motherfucker, and she is a nineteen year old human girl.

Now, onto Tamlin. Obviously not a lot of people really ship F/T anymore after ACOMAF, because compared to F/R, it's boring. I read another person's post about it, which was very enlightening: they said that Feyre's personality is essentially a mirror. When she is with Rhysand, she's snarky and malicious- because she is "bouncing off" his energy. When she's with Mor she's super feminist and "in awe of her strength". On the other hand, Tamlin is kind of an empty character. He's a pretty boy with anger issues, which should be more interesting than it is. SJM manages to make him bland. Because Feyre has nothing to bounce off of, (a lot of this is from the person's post), she and Tamlin together is mainly just him introducing her to his world.

What Tamlin Does: prevents a skinny twenty year old from going on dangerous missions with him and combat-trained soldiers, accidentally blows up a room with her in it, and, at the end, prevents her from leaving the house.

This is not a Tamlin apologist post. Obviously it was really fucking gross of him to do that, and their relationship was toxic. However, a lot of his abuse stems from their inability to communicate, as well as own negligence. He does not knowingly and purposefully sexually assault her or rape her mind. And tbh, leaving a girl without combat training at home while he goes on missions with a bunch of muscled sentries is... kind of reasonable?

Again: not a Tamlin apologist post. It was abuse. However, if Rhysand is "allowed" to sexually assault, mind-rape, and drug Feyre "for her own safety", why is Tamlin demonized for preventing her from leaving his mansion "for her own safety"?

Another pertinent point: Rhys is never punished for sexually assaulting her. It is brushed off as part of his "mask" or that his hand was forced. Jesus Christ my dudes, his hand was not forced under her skirt. If he has to maintain his gross rapist abuser tyrant oppressor mask... why? Who did that benefit beside him? None of his actions remotely helped Prythian. They were done solely for his buddies - five people safe in a rich hidden city - and no one else, which is explicitly stated.

Finally, the power dynamic is fucked up. Feyre is less than twenty five years old. Rhysand is 500. There is a tendency in fantasy romance to romanticize a centuries year old man with a young girl, because the man does not show symptoms of age, and so it is easily ignorable. However, can we just briefly acknowledge how fucked up it is? Rhys is over five times older than Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, and other known predators/abusers. She is twenty. That is really fucking gross. She is in a vulnerable position and he takes rampant advantage of that.

If he had wrinkles, liver problems, and erectile dysfunction, more people would acknowledge it.

Let's be clear: I'm not saying writing a book with an uneven power dynamic is automatically bad. For example, in The Locked Tomb series, which is in my opinion THE BEST FANTASY SERIES THAT HAS GRACED THIS EARTH (lol i'm starting fires), one main character Harrowhark Nonagesimus is in a position of power over Gideon Nav, the other main character. However, this is not glossed over or romanticized. Gideon resents Harrow for this- there is a relationship of mutual antagonism, fraught with unwilling familiarity and intimacy from growing up together. They are roughly the same age. While there is a certain power dynamic (in that world, there is a dynamic of necromancer and cavalier, i.e. sorcerer and sword) the "empowered" character (Harrow) emphatically respects her and does not abuse this power, although both would of course deny this, and she does make a show of threatening and being aloof. In short, while Gideon obeys her, Gideon also has power over Harrow, and the idea of what is essentially slavery is not romanticized.

Feyre Doesn't Face Any Consequences For Her Own Actions

Let me present a radical notion: a guy preventing you from leaving his house does not justify completely fucking ruining his country and harming the people inside it.

In other words: Tamlin does not deserve what she did to him.

I know that sounds iffy. We're conditioned to think that if someone is an abuser, then they are the scum of the earth, they deserve to die, torturing/murdering/doing anything to them is completely A-OK. However, here's another radical notion: someone harming you does not justify you doing worse.

Obviously, the effects of psychological abuse can cause you to hurt other people (see: Nesta), but Feyre deliberately and maliciously (oh, God, that insufferable POV of her in Spring Court; she reads like a cartoonish Disney villain) dismantles his country. She uses sexual manipulation (Lucien), torture (causing the sentry to be whipped), and mind-rape (who didn't she do this to? lol).

A summary of the entire first half of ACOWAR: "It smelled like roses. I hated roses. For this capital offense against my olfactory system, Tamlin and the entire Spring Court deserved to burn in hell. I knew exactly what I was doing. I smiled at him sweetly: no longer a doe, but a wolf. He didn't see my fangs.............." *aesthetic noises*

Man. I'm starting to think SJM had a horrible experience at a Bath & Body Works and took it out on the rest of us. Don't do it, Sarah!! I know Pink Chiffon and Triple Berry Martini are way too strong, but don't take it out on an innocent population!!

She steals from Summer Court (there are, yk, other solutions to theft. Like maybe asking politely) and ruins Spring Court. Her boyfriend - yeesh sorry, MATE - does nothing while a dozen Winter Court children are murdered.

Now: moral ambiguity is not automatically bad. Again using The Locked Tomb as an example, in the second book (spoiler alert), Harrowhark has a sort of moral ambiguity. She was raised from the beginning to worship the King Undying as God, and so she obeys him without question. Because of this, she commits a lot of crimes in His name: she "flips" - i.e. kills - the life force of planets, and she plots murder (albeit the murder of someone who tried to kill her first). There is no attempt to justify this. There is also no attempt to paint her as a virtuous and yet also badass Madonna figure. She is desperate, plagued with the "wreck of herself", and the book clearly displays her moral pitfalls. While her POV is of course colored by her mindset, it also is limited by her lack of information, and we as readers can acknowledge that.

BACK TO ACOTAR: Feyre is seen by everyone as gorgeous, formidable, and essentially perfect. Rhys sees her as flawless, "made for him", wonderful, beautiful, blah blah blah. (THEY ARE SO BAD FOR EACH OTHER; THEY EXCUSE AND GLORIFY EACH OTHER'S CRIMES, IT'S SO BAD, GUYYYS). Tamlin is insanely batshit in love with her, or whatever. To the Night Court she's the High Lady. In this way she personifies the Mary Sue character. (Excerpt from the TV Tropes page on Mary Sues: "She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye color, and has a similarly cool and exotic name. She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing. She has an unusual and dramatic Back Story. The canon protagonists are all overwhelmed with admiration for her beauty, wit, courage and other virtues, and are quick to adopt her as one of their True Companions, even characters who are usually antisocial and untrusting; if any character doesn't love her, that character gets an extremely unsympathetic portrayal." Sound familiar?)

There is the Ourobous scene. And yet, paradoxically, while presented as an acknowledgment of her flaws, it is in fact a rejection of them. She sees her own brutality... and instead of recognizing that she has these deep, deep moral flaws and realizing that she needs to grow and be better, she in fact "accepts" them.

Guys: Self love means: "I'm important to me, so I'm going to get a massage today after work", or "heck, why not splurge on some expensive lotion, you only live once" or "you know what? I had a tough day today. I'm going to get that strawberry cupcake". SELF LOVE DOES NOT MEAN "oh, I accept all the war crimes I have done, I love myself". LOVING YOURSELF DOES NOT MEAN ABSOLVING YOURSELF OF ALL WRONGDOING.

It's this refusal to acknowledge wrongdoing that is so grating about ACOTAR. It's so goddamn one-sided. And you can tell that after Book 1, SJM decided to completely change the trajectory simply because of how jarring Book 2 reads compared to the first one.

Also: Feyre is a very, very young girl (compared to the other ruling fey) who did not know how to read for the majority of her life. She has no experience whatsoever in politics. Her being High Lady is not a win for feminism.

Rhysand: He Sucks

First, he is 500 years old. He should be written as such, not as some 20 year old virile frat boy feminist. Fantasy is all the more compelling for its elements of realism, which is a concept that SJM does not appear to grasp.

Second of all, his morals are absurd. He is written as the Second Coming of Christ, as someone who can do no wrong, ever, and his flaws only serve to make Feyre love him more. Anything shitty he does is written as part of his "mask" and she can See Beneath It and knows that it "hurts" him to maintain this "mask".

Fellas, WHY DOES HE HAVE TO MAINTAIN THIS MASK???? There is no reason for it. If A) he does not give a shit about Court of Nightmares (we'll get back to that), only about Velaris, and B) Velaris is hidden/protected from the world, what is he pretending for?

It would not hurt him politically to be seen as someone who cares about his country.

"Pretending" to be "Amarantha's whore" does not in any way shape or form benefit the macro-world that is Prythian. In Amarantha's name, he commits atrocities. He commits war crimes; he systemically oppresses entire societies. It doesn't even really benefit Velaris, because Velaris is already hidden.

Let me put this in a real-world perspective. This would be like if Donald Trump was suddenly like: "I know I was a shitty president but IT WAS ALL PART OF MY MASK, WHICH WAS TO PROTECT THIS MICROCOSM OF PRIVILEGED PEOPLE THAT I CARE ABOUT". Like: okay? Sorry, or whatever, but I don't actually give a shit. What about the parents of the children who died? What about Clare Beddor? What about the people who were held in slavery, murdered, tortured?

Rhysand: omg it sucks that my cousin Mor was oppressed by this toxic misogynistic culture from the Court of Nightmares.

Also Rhysand: lol whatever, who gives a shit about Court of Nightmares. They all suck. They meanie. Lol what did you say? That there might be other girls just like Mor who are oppressed by this system? Lol whatever. I can't do anything, I gotta maintain my Mask. I gotta sit on this throne and show the entire Court that not respecting women is completely okay.

In summary: by parading Feyre around as his "whore" (!!) he demonstrates by example that it is completely okay for the Court of Nightmares to abuse their women.

A good ruler cares about all his people. Rhysand cares about a tiny tiny fraction of his people: those who were fortunate enough to be born into Velaris.

God, I'm exhausted. Onto Nesta:

The only character who successfully breaks the Mary Sue effect Feyre exerts on her people is Nesta. Her POV for the first half is a joy to read.

Obviously it sucks that Nesta was a huge bitch to Feyre for the beginning of her childhood. However, it was wrong for Rhysand to threaten her- he is a man male with a huge insane amount of power, and it is not okay for him to threaten to bring the brunt of it down on a young girl because she was a bitch to his girlfriend.

I've seen a lot of discourse on the morality of F/R sending her out of Velaris. Here is my two cents:

It was okay for them to cut her off of their money. If they don't want to enable her self-harm, that is their choice. Again, it's their money, even if it wasn't fairly earned (Rhysand born into an enormous fortune).

It was not okay for them to banish her from Velaris with the implication that she was an embarrassment. Let me explain.

If Rhysand and Feyre are talking to her as sister/brother-in-law, then that is that. They have the complete right to express disapproval and try to help. However, they should not be using their royal privilege against her.

If they are talking to her as ruler to subject, then they have the power to banish her from the city. However, a ruler would not give a shit about a random subject getting drunk and having sex. So, they should not be talking her about her problems as a ruler to subject.

I've heard it compared to her being sent to rehab. However, rehab is a system designed to help people with certain problems. It has specialized medical centers and involves therapy. Nesta gets her life threatened multiple times. It is not rehab.

In summary: why did SJM inflict this upon us. Throne of Glass was actually good! GAHHH! After the first few books she completely whipped around and introduced the idea of males and mates and fey and that C is actually A and the quality took a huge nosedive. Sigh.

Final horrible but unmistakable truth: The entire ACOTAR series reads like a bad A/B/O fic. I hate to say it but it's true. We're lucky there were no heat cycles. OH WAIT

#anti sjm #anti rhysand #anti acotar #anti acofas #anti acomaf #anti everything #anti feyre #to some extent #mentioned: the locked tomb #mentioned: gideon the ninth #mentioned: harrowhark nonagesimus #anti #strongly anti #pan-int #that's my ao3 tag! #meta #my post