#looking at you r/hysand

[goforth-ladymidnight]

For as much as SJM has proclaimed that R/hysand was always endgame-- though I despise that bait and switch with every fiber of my being-- I think she re-wrote him into the story to make him more important that he was initially. What do I mean? My theory (with evidence) is below the cut.

Feel free to skip it if your favorite book in the series is A/COMAF. Seriously. If you usually skip most of ACOTAR to get to the R/hysand parts, skip this. You won't like it.

Excerpt from ACOTAR ch. 20, 21 (Calanmai): I almost slid down the steep bank as I entered the hollow. At one end, a cave mouth opened into a soft hillside. Its exterior had been adorned with flowers and branches and leaves, and I could make out the beginnings of a pelt-covered floor just past the cave mouth. What lay inside was hidden from view as the chamber veered away from the entrance, but firelight danced upon the walls. Whatever was occurring inside the cave—or whatever was about to happen—was the focus of the shadowy faeries as they lined either side of a long path leading to it. The path wended between the trenches among the hills, and the High Fae swayed in place, moving to the rhythm of the drumming, whose beats sounded in my stomach. I watched them sway, then shifted on my feet. I’d been banned from this? I scanned the firelit area, trying to peer through the veil of night and smoke. I found nothing of interest, and none of the masked faeries paid me any heed. They remained along the path, more and more of them coming each minute. Something was definitely going to happen—whatever this Great Rite was. … As I scanned the crowd, my eyes met with those of a masked faerie across the path. One was russet and shone as brightly as his red hair. The other was—metal. I blinked at the same moment he did, and then his eyes went wide. He vanished into nothing, and a second later, someone grabbed my elbow and yanked me out of the crowd. “Have you lost your senses?” Lucien shouted above the drums. His face was ghostly pale. “What are you doing here?” None of the faeries noticed us—they were all staring intensely down the path, away from the cave. “I wanted to—” I started, but Lucien cursed violently.“Idiot!” he yelled at me, then glanced behind him toward where the other faeries stared. “Useless human fool.” Without further word, he slung me over his shoulder as if I were a sack of potatoes.

That little ellipse between paragraphs accounts for R/hysand’s first appearance in the novel. I took out five whole pages, and if you weren’t looking for him, you wouldn’t know it. The story doesn’t miss a beat without that scene. I promise, the only thing I took out between paragraphs was what happened when F/eyre stepped away from the crowd, and half a paragraph when she rejoins the crowd and stops shaking.

The three faeries who accosted her are never mentioned again in this book. They’re barely mentioned in A/COMAF. They were there as a plot device to introduce us to R/hysand that much sooner, and that’s it.

Honestly, it was unnecessary, and to keep the peace, I want to point out that the following observation is strictly from a writing standpoint. F/eyre has arrived at the hollow. Something important is about to happen. The faeries are gathering. Something’s coming down the path... and then F/eyre steps away.

Wait, what? I’m not kidding. Right after “Something was going to happen”, this happens:

I made my way back up the hillside and stood along the edge of a bonfire near the trees, watching the faeries. I was about to work up the courage to ask a lesser faerie who passed by—a bird-masked servant, like Alis—what sort of ritual was going to happen when someone grasped my arm and whirled me around.

Whyyyy? There is nothing to compel her to move away from the action. She could have asked anyone standing next to her about what was happening, but she didn’t. She stepped away, and that was only so that the narrative could introduce R/hys before the halfway point of the story. 

That’s right. Calanmai takes place during chapter 20-21, and there are 46 chapters. I think R/hysand’s appearance in chapter 26 was always intended to be his introduction, but SJM wanted to make sure “the most beautiful man [F/eyre] had ever seen” made an appearance before then. She couldn’t let her readers fall for Tamlin too hard, after all... 

Sigh. 

Anyway, that’s the post. F/eysand is canon, I get it, but I will never not be salty about the wasted potential of this series.

Anyway, @swiftsnowmane this^^^ is what we were chatting about in the comments of my Tamlin/Tam Lin post a while back.

#pro tamlin #no surprise there #sjm critical #if rhysand was always endgame #why did you make tamlin likable #seriously why include an oc love interest #when you could have given tamlin dark hair #i take that back #leave tamlin's blond hair alone #i wish she would leave tamlin alone #the guy can't even win in his own story #geez

[thebookisalsobad]

I think the thing we need to keep in mind when it comes to morally-grey characters is this distinction between actions being explainable vs justifiable.

I want to clarify that I adore morally-grey characters, and even straight up villains. Silmarillion Sauron (Marion) has me in a chokehold, and he's basically just evil personified. Jason Todd is my favorite comic book character, and he's almost always portrayed as an anti-hero.

But in the case of most (successful) morally-grey characters, the narrative never sets out to justify their actions. It's not there to tell you that their world-view and actions are correct because xyz, or even that you have to like them in spite of their flaws. Instead, they try to explain why these people do what they do. Jason Todd kills people because he has certain beliefs and life experiences that have led him to this point. Is that morally (or otherwise) justified? Idk, maybe, maybe not? There's a discussion to be had, but the narrative isn't here to scream at you telling you that you have to agree with Jason.

My issue with characters like R/hysand is that the narrative is constantly trying to convince me that he's in the right. I can't think of one scene where he faces the consequences of his more abominable actions, and certainly none where those consequences are framed as anything other than unfair. He had to do the bad thing. There was no other choice. It was bad in the moment, but right in the long run. He’s the best most sexy and powerful high lord and anyone that disagrees is morally bankrupt.

That's not good execution of the morally-grey trope. At least, not in my opinion. Morally-grey characters should make you think and question the structures around you. They shouldn't force the narrative to bend over backwards justifying cruelty.

So when people say r/hysand is a shitty person and folks go ‘he’s morally-grey, he’s supposed to be bad’ I can’t help but laugh. The complexities of that character don’t go beyond ‘this is dark and looks cool.’

#anti sjm #anti acotar #anti rhysand #anti feyre #anti feysand

[gold-wolf-soldier13]

sorry for ACOTAR posting at 7am on a wednesday but unfortunately this series has given me brainrot even though I hate it💜 anyways my most recent though is (also unfortunately) about R/hysand and how much more I’d have approved of F/eysand if SJM really just had F/eyre go “fuck it, we’re evil now”.

So like, for a bit of explanation- I love the Star Wars series, I have issues with it ofc but who doesn’t rn, and the one thing I’ve been consistent on is that Padmé Amidala is a far better woman than I could ever hope to be because if I were in her position and Anakin Skywalker had come to me and said “baby I made you an Empire” I honestly would have just said thank you and gleefully bitched about the paperwork later. I love that dynamic between characters, and while I understand why Padmé as a character would never do that, I love fic exploring the concept of if she did.

There’s a fic on ao3 called How to Take an Empire that while not exactly the concept I described above is in that same vein of accepting Vader as Anakin and vice versa and it’s a fic I love immensely and highly recommend fans of Ahsoka Tano read at some point. And I personally think it’s very apt to compare R/hysand to Darth Vader (never Anakin tho😤).

R/hysand is introduced to us as a vile, cruel, sadistic man and spends the rest of the series acting in the same manner, just with the authors and characters explicit coddling. He’s spent the last fifty years working as the feared right hand to the woman who essentially made herself queen of Prythian through trickery, deceit and (supposedly) long con type plans. I’m getting a very Palpatine x Vader dynamic from them. R/hysand does all the dirty work (read: war crimes) for Amarantha that Vader does for Palpatine and then doesn’t have the decency to have his own prequel tale (god forbid) to show the inevitability of his fall nor the subsequent redemption through love and compassion.

Where for Vader, redemption = death because some crimes can never be forgiven, for R/hysand we get empty justifications on why he did the horrible things he did and the narrative forgives him for it.

My original point tho, tangent aside, is that if SJM had the balls to actually double down on all of his awful behavior- looked us as readers in the eyes and said “this is your man, these are all the horrible things he’s done, and this is still your man” I’d have been okay with it if F/eyre had looked at that and said “yeah, I’m okay with that actually”.

But she didn’t and now we all have to live with it.

#anti rhysand #anti feysand #anti acotar #I personally don’t like dark fic but I’d respect the series more if it actually embraced the darker aspects it introduces #I’m sorry for the sw rant but I’m constantly thinking about anakin

[longsightmyth]

Just watched a stan (not naming names) argue that you can't judge R/hysand by real standards and that Sarah wouldn't have written F/eysand if she thought it were abusive, and when someone replied that Sarah used real standards to highlight how Tam the Tool was abusive and how its weird how R/hysand seems to be given a pass for things Sarah called out Tam for doing, and the stan lost her ABSOLUTE MIND and argued that Sarah basically decides who is what and she isn't beholden (1)

Is this one of the interactions from one of the very rude fans who like to show up in @worldsnotsaid's inbox?

It is fascinating to see the arguments people make. Some of them even make sense! That's not one of them.

As you pointed out, if Sarah Janet is going to advertise and discuss acotar as if it examines real world subjects, then I think it's fair to judge it by real world standards on those subjects. If Tamlin is abusive in-world because he would be abusive out of it, then so is Rhys.

But in fairness the books do tell us (very loudly, at length) that Tamlin is abusive and Rhys (and Cassian) are Paragons of Virtue, and when you're looking for a popcorn book you don't always look at the difference between what a book (or other piece of media) says and what it shows.

#myth rags on a court of thorns and roses #abuse

[elevatorladylady]

Critical Reread - ACOFAS Chapter 22

Join me on a reread of A Court of Frost and Starlight

Chapter 22 - F/eyre

R/hysand takes F/eyre against the wall. R/hysand gifts F/eyre an estate.

“You never told me where you got it—where you got all my favorite dresses.” R/hys arched a dark brow. “You never figured it out?”

There are literally zero clues that they would have been made by his mother.

“Long ago, when I was still a boy, she made them—all your gowns. A trousseau for my future bride.” His throat bobbed. “Every piece … Every piece I have ever given you to wear, she made them. For you.”

Did SJM forget that R/hysand’s mom also had a daughter? Was she a magical seamstress? Is that why they fit so perfectly, or did she just assume her future daughter-in-laws dimensions?

“I want a mountain—with three stars.” The Night Court insignia.”

I do believe that F/eyre loves the Night Court, but nothing in this book has shown she actually cares about being a leader of it.

“He moved to stand before me, gently taking my hands in his, turning them palm-up. To the cat’s eye that stared at us. “I never snooped, you know.”

Why would he even say this, when they both know it’s not true?

“Yes. More than anything. I’d realized it, felt it, in the weaver’s gallery. “Would it be … Would it indeed be a gift for you?” I dared ask.”

This is not the long and elaborate conversation that should be had before deciding to have kids. 

“I don’t want to,” I said, and meant it. The weaver had made me realize that, too. Or perhaps just see clearly what I’d quietly wanted for some time now.”

What a retcon. When she previously said she wanted to wait she just didn’t realize she actually wanted kids. Good thing that doesn’t play into any real dynamics about women waiting or not wanting kids.

“ I was looking through his eyes”

If they didn’t give me such an ick, I think I might like the idea of using telekinesis during sex.

“Look at how perfectly we fit.”

This feels cringe to me. A lot of people fit well during sex and it bears no meaning on whether it’s a good fit otherwise.

“We had no bodies here, but I felt him as he seduced me, his dark power wrapping around mine, licking at my flames, sucking on my ice, scraping claws against my own.”

Okay, fine, I will admit that mind sex seems pretty cool.

“And when my mind could form words, when I could again feel his essence around me, his body still moving in my own, I sent him that image one last time, into the dark and stars—my gift. Perhaps our gift, one day. R/hys spilled into me with a roar, his wings splaying wide.”

We can all agree its weird to think about a child while cumming, right?

“That’ll come out of your salary, you know.”

I sure hope F/eyre still has a salary.

“We have no space at the town house. You and I can barely fit everything in the bedroom.”

A five bedroom townhouse is just too small for a newlywed couple looking to expand their family!

“And no one wants to be at the House of Wind.”

They know the House of Wind is too remote for even F/eyre and R/hysand who are the two people in Prythian who can both winnow and fly, but even SJM assumes it will be perfect for someone who can do neither.

#sjm critical #anti sjm #ell reads #ell reads ACOFAS

[a-court-of-messy-break-ups]

#nesta #acosf #nesta archeron #cassian #nessian #stan nesta #nesta deserves better #nesta stan #i love her so much plesse #acotar #fuck acosf cassian istg #no one can fix her she can do that by herself #looking at you r/hysand #acotar memes #anti acosf

[ladyofthe-springcourt]

Thing #589 that I don't understand about R/hysand.

He wears this mask meant to make him look like an awful person. The court that is known as his true court is known for being brutal and torturing people is a normal Tuesday activity. And gets pissy when whe mortal queens want actual proof that he wants peace and doesn't trust him right off the bat. Like-

What did you expect?

#anti acotar #anti inner circle #anti feysand #anti sjm #anti rhysand #gosh this serious is going to drive me insane

[screamingintune]

Okay, I've found the cursed gifs and kind of feel sorry dumping it here, but-

This is r/hysand's dad, probably? When he senses the 'mating bond click' or something? But meaner looking.

And well. The High Lord himself in ac0maf 😔

I hate it thank you so much 💖💖💖💖💖

#i seriously feel like D@mon was partially the inspo for Rice #their vibes are just too similar #anti rhysand #anti rhys #anti sjm #anti acotar #anti sarah j maas

[highlordofthenightcourt]

@archeronhighlady continued from here x

Rhysand brought her hand to his lips, pressing a soft, loving kiss to each of her knuckles. His darling wife... to think he’d almost lost her and she’d almost lost him, all in the space of a year. A single year. It was the blink of an eye for him, one day it would be for her too. “I might even let you choose your own dress, wouldn’t that be novel?” Rhysand joked lightly. The idiots at the Spring Court could do what they liked, have their ceremonies, their traditions, but it was all ridiculous to him. Though, she did always look stunning in the dresses his mother had made for his future mate. But it was her wedding, she got to choose her own dress. “Small? Have you met Mor? Have you met me for that matter? We don’t do small,” he grinned. “You may have to reign us in.”

#archeronhighlady #stars eternal

[battlestar-royco]

because you said not to get you started, now i’m curious lol: what’s the tea on the ac0tar names?

 LMAOOOOO you people enable me too much. Also, shoutout to linguists, if I get any of this stuff wrong, please let me know in a comment or ask or something and I’ll totally eat my words where I make mistakes. This post is gonna examine not just spelling, but also the BALD cultural appropriation and general carelessness with naming people, places, and things. This is gonna be a lot of typing SO.

First of all, let’s look at the names we’re actually given.

F/EYRE: so stupid on so many levels. 1. The average English speaker would think to pronounce this as “Fair,” maybe “Fey-ree” when SJ/M’s desired pronunciation is Fey-ruh. In this case, she should’ve spelled it as Feyra or Faera instead of unnecessarily confusing her readers. 2. This is more of a personal gripe because SJ/M can’t write non-conventionally attractive characters, but “Feyre” is supposedly of Celtic origin, meaning “fair/beautiful.” I know it’s a BATB retelling, but really SJ/M? We know she’s hot, even though Faerug plays coy in the beginning of AC0TAR with the “I was rather plain” [proceeds to describe the epitome of mainstream Western beauty]. Faerug’s hotness is basically a main theme of the books. You don’t need to name her “beautiful.” 3. The name of the main mythical beings is FAE and their lands are sometimes referred to as fucking FAERIE. SHE LITERALLY NAMED HER MAIN CHARACTER AN ALTERNATE SPELLING OF FAERIE. CAN YOU IMAGINE IF BELLA WAS NAMED VAMPIRA, IF SCOTT MCCALL WAS NAMED LYCAN MCTHROPE, OR IF HERMIONE WAS NAMED WITCHEA??? LMFAOOOJFMWIBGOIWRBHOITOUEOTIH

A/RCHERON FAMILY: I don’t take as much issue with the names “N/esta” and “E/lain,” but maybe if SJ/M had stuck with the Celtic originated names, they would’ve all flowed better together and paid more respect to Celtic nomenclature. The “A/rcheron” pun would’ve been kind of clever if it didn’t mean that Faerug’s last name had the word “Archer” in it. This is a crime on the same scale as “America Singer.” It rubs me the wrong way how SJ/M applied the Greek “Acheron” and the iconic H&P myth to horrendous Failsand. They have nothing to do with Greek mythology. They’re just sadistic, egomaniacal sex robots. Don’t bring Hades and Persephone into this!

R/HYSAND “R/HYS”: “R/hys” is typically pronounced “Reese” or maybe even “Riss” lol so that’s fine. But once the -and suffix is added, it changes the pronunciation to RYE-sand, implying that “R/hys” alone is pronounced like “Rice.” The “H” in “R/hys” makes the “Y” soft. However, the “Y” would change into a long “Y” (ee sound –> why/I sound) in “R/hysand” because most readers would assume the two syllables are broken up like “Rhy-sand.” Therefore, now that Y is at the end of the syllable, it becomes long. So what is the truth???? SJ/M should’ve just stuck with R.hys/Reese/Reece or Rheesand.

T/AMLIN: he’s only named as such because SJ/M wanted to market the book as a crossover between BATB and Tam Lin. This book barely has anything to do with the Tam Lin myth. She should’ve gone with an original name for this.

L/UCIEN: randomly French name when the other named Autumn Court characters are Eris, Beron, and Jesminda. None of those are French. Plus it gets worse when you realize he was randomly shoehorned into being H/elion’s son because H/elion is a Greek-inspired name. And then V/anserra (Italian maybe?) is given as his last name when NO OTHER FAE has a last name. Why???

A/ZRIEL: this is spelled in a way that corresponds with the pronunciation but it reeks of cultural appropriation. SJ/M stop using names that “sound hot” 2K18. (Also, how can a name sound hot??? This is something I’ve been very confused about for years.)

MORRIGAN “MOR”: why? Why name her the Morrigan if you’re not going to respect the origin of the name, never explain her powers, and just completely sideline her? grsgrwg?/FEfwagrwtwhns!!

Moving on to the utter laziness of names in this series:

PEOPLE/PLACES/THINGS NAMED AFTER RANDOM CULTURES OR MYTHS: Illyria, Bharat, Ouroboros, Koschei, Veritas. All these names are legitimately ripped from legends and time periods, and plastered into SJ/M’s books. She couldn’t be bothered to make up her own names???? She didn’t even flesh out the places/things she named after them with due attention to detail??? Somehow she’s still renowned as a fantasy queen??????

THEORETICALLY SIGNIFICANT BUT UNNAMED CHARACTERS/PLACES: 1. Papa Arch and Mama Arch, 2. Rice’s entire family, 3. literally any part of the human lands; namely Faerug’s village, 4. the human queens, 6. anyone’s last name, 7. the King of Hybern.

NAMES THAT ARE MEANINGLESS OR STUPID AS FUCK: the Book of Breathings, the Darkbringers.

#asks #anti sjm #anti acotar

[astrababyy]

How is Nesta considered an abuser by part of the ACOTAR fandom for how she treated F//eyre in the cabin, but R//hysand isn't considered an abuser for what he did to her UTM by the same group of people?

Honestly, it can’t all be blamed on them. A lot of it is issues with the narrative — like, a lot of it — makes it far easier to like Rhysand than Nesta, considering how Feyre’s perspective shapes the two. Canon refuses to allow Nesta’s trauma to be show in all the real facets of it. All the good, the bad, and the things people would tend to sympathize with.

I think part of it is also that Rhysand had reasons for why he acted that way that could be considered valid (as long as those reasons are barely glanced at because they fall apart the moment you look closer). It’s also that Feyre’s POV is much more sympathetic towards Rhysand than it is towards Nesta. And we see much more vulnerable moments for Rhysand, making him easier to humanize ig.

Part of it could also be the equivalent of why many fans like Eris — he’s in interesting character. And y’know, he is ig. As one of the only consistent characters in the series, he is pretty interesting if it’s from literally any POV but Feyre’s.

It’s also pretty difficult to apply morals to these characters because 1) to quote @/worldsnotsaid, the bar is literally in hell, 2) because most of them suck anyway and 3) the circumstances of these situations tend to make these decisions contradicting morals a bit easier to sympathize with.

Again, to reiterate, it’s mainly biases in the narrative, even in Nesta’s own POV at times. Of course, at a certain point, it gets a lot more obvious than before, but those are the main reasons I think a lot of stans like Rhysand over Nesta. Not to mention, there’s also the ones who know all this stuff and choose to like him anyway. There’s nothing really wrong with that. The fact that they acknowledge the things he’s done is enough for me.

#astrababyy asks #astrababyy

[elevatorladylady]

Critical Reread - ACOFAS Chapter 14

Join me on a reread of A Court of Frost and Starlight.

Chapter 14 - R/hysand

R/hysand talks with Mor about Keir visiting Velaris and having her go to the continent.

“Even with workers seldom halting their repairs, the rebuilding was still years from being finished.”

If only they had magic to help them along.

“Even five centuries later, the rage threatened to swallow me until I’d left the Hewn City and Autumn Court in ruins. But those were her deaths to claim. They always had been. I had never asked why she’d waited so long.”

So he wants to murder an entire city and court because he doesn’t like some of the people that live there? And he’s the one out there trying to make sure that other courts behave?

I love it when they act like it’s some noble act to not have killed someone they don’t like instead of admitting that they are willing to work with whoever they need to to achieve their goals.

“The families,” I said at last, “are at their other estates.” 

I wonder how many of the people displaced by Hybern’s attack just went to their other estates. They make it seem like a lot of people were displaced, and desperately need shelter, but Velaris is supposed to be pretty wealthy and here we have confirmation that at least this block all own other estates.

“that they were likely going to sell rather than face the ordeal of building from scratch.”

Why wouldn’t the wealthiest families rebuild their homes in what is supposed to the greatest city ever? F/eyre and R/hysand have their entire home built in less than 9 months. That’s not that long to spend at your other estate.

“Perhaps I had brought this upon myself, by enforcing the Hewn City’s borders for so long. Perhaps their horrible traditions and narrow minds had only grown worse while being contained. It was their territory, yes, but I’d given them nothing else. No wonder they were so curious about Velaris.”

Can you imagine ruling for 500 years and just now thinking that treating a bunch of people like shit and leaving them to their own devices might not be a good way to rule? Of course other parts of the Night Court would like to be treated half as nice as Velaris is treated.

It’s nice to see him reckoning with this but it feels like too little too late. Will we actually see him act on any of these revelations in future books?

“In a way I hated, if only because I was to blame for it. I’d told myself it had been worth it. ”

If Mr. You Always Have a Choice just admitted that Mor didn’t actually a choice in the matter, I’d feel differently about this. Instead he withholds the information from her so she doesn’t have the opportunity to choose differently than him. Good thing this type of situation never ever happens again.

“Just because Cassian and Azriel had to suffer through having them be freezing all the time didn’t mean I had to.”

This is such a silly bit of world building. Illyrians actually suffer from their wings being too cold, yet they all live in the coldest part of the Night Court and don’t have any kind of protection for their wings. And what a privilege the High Lord and Lady have to only have wings when they actually want them.

“We didn’t discuss Mor’s mother. Ever.”

Why? Seems like it’s just an easy out to not have to give her any characterization.

“I didn’t dare ask Mor about Azriel—what she’d gotten him, what she planned to do with him.”

Have they really been walking on egg shells around this topic for 500 years?

“If I’m flitting about the continent, who will deal with the Court of Nightmares?”

Seems wild that she was even asked to look after the Court of Nightmares in the first place. I swear this would all make more sense if R/hysand had only been ruling a short time before Amarantha instead of hundreds of years.

“Is he dead?”

“No.”

“Then I’d say you controlled yourself admirably.”

Wow, R/hysand didn’t commit murder. How admirable.

“Too long. She’d been cooped up within the borders of this court for too long. The war barely counted. And it wouldn’t happen in a month, or perhaps a few years, but I could see it: the invisible noose tightening around her neck with every day spent here.”

I just don’t get exactly why R/hysand assumes this. She’s not currently trapped there. She has friends in other courts. I could see her need to get away from the Court of Nightmares, but doesn’t she love Velaris? If she wants to travel more, she’s certainly not hinting at it, and is even reluctant when R/hysand offers her the opportunity. 

If it’s just about Keir, then isn’t she more trapped in her role and less trapped within physical borders? There is something interesting here, but I don’t think it’s being explained well.

“You always have a choice.”

saythelinebart.jpeg

#sjm critical #anti sjm #ell reads #ell reads ACOFAS