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bookishfeylin · 11 months

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Hello! I popped in a few days ago to say how much I love your blog and I thought I would circle back a little bit with some of my (messy) thoughts on the ACOTAR series from an LGBTQ+ perspective. (Maybe I could make a side blog for this. God knows how I struggle with the horrible writing in the Dragon Age games on main). My credentials: trans man and bisexual, but I’d like to blanket that I don’t speak for the entire community and, of course, I am speaking from my own experiences.

So, the first lgbtq+ character prominent we’re introduced to in SJM’s bibliography is actually Aedion from Throne of Glass, and the only reason I’m starting off with him is because I’m really mad that he was our first prominent bisexual character in the books and there was 0 mention of his relationships with other men; it was a throwaway line before his romance with Lysandra (in which SJM butchered his character in the last book. Not to say that bi men can’t date women! I liked their ship but I was mad at how it was treated as tokenism).

Within ACOTAR, we’re first greeted with Helion, and the issue with his writing is… pretty glaring, I think. The promiscuous bisexual is a harmful trope that’s been toted around for a while; “oh, you’re bi? you must be down for sex all the time with whoever you want” which… ignores the fact that sexuality can be a spectrum and does assign bisexuality a sort of sexual morality that people have used to condemn us for a long time. Not to say that Helion can’t be promiscuous, but there is a focus on it as a huge aspect of his character when there are other ways to do it.

I feel like Morrigan is a little self-explanatory. It’s… not great, imo, that SJM isn’t being a little more clear about her (if she prefers sexual relationships with men but intimate romantic relationships with women, great! But please SAY THAT). The way she strings Azriel along is cruel and unnecessary—she shouldn’t need to feel afraid to come out to people who are supposedly “her best friends” or “are like brothers to her”. Hell, she felt safer coming out to Feyre, who’s she’s known for considerably less time! I’ll also touch briefly on the whole situation with Eris… insofar as to say that I think SJM writing it out with such violence was unnecessary and the optics of “I prefer women because men harmed me” that, while may not be necessarily true, the appearance of it being true reads really poorly because it’s what conservatives and conversion camps like to tout about lgbtq+ people (“you’re only like that bc someone hurt you”).

Thesan is another one, but SJM left his lover unnamed. C’mon. There’s barely any named NPCs in this series as it is, it wouldn’t have killed her to slap a name on his husband/mate.

Speaking of mates, I need to gripe about the mating bond too—in ACOMAF, I believe it is, but just in general, the bond is used to indicate NOT who would be happiest in love, but it is based on which pairing would “make the strongest offspring”. So, if we walk away from the heteronormativity of that explanation, how the HELL do you get gay mates? And if you’re gay, what happens if your “mate” is someone you’re not romantically or even sexually attracted to? Do you just have to deal with this uncomfortable and predestined tension and expectations to suck it up and make babies, anyway? And why should it be based on children and the ideal nuclear family? (We know why. But from a meta perspective, why?)

And as a brief aside, I still haven’t seen a trans character. Not that I’d want to. I think I would end up being terribly offended if she tried to do so. Sorry this ended up being so long! Maybe I should’ve devoted it to my own post 😔

No, you're fine! I'd had my own thoughts about some of these but I'd never considered the full extent of how abysmal her representation truly was. Tysm for this!

#ask #anon #anti sjm #sjm critical #anti acotar #anti tog #anti acomaf #acotar analysis

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sockmonstergotstyle · 5 years

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600 pages into Empire of Storms

Aelin being all badass with her fire powers scares me but oh god do I love it

Also I love Lysandra turning into ugly ass sea monsters lmao. I was worried she was just the pretty character, but she certainly wants to be anything but that character and I respect that

Dorian is into bdsm #confirmed

Also those fucking “invisible hands” of his alsjsksjaka

I love how Manon’s character arc has gone from “Do I have a heart??” to “Am I a bottom???” we stan

Also glad to have Slag Dorian back briefly I haven’t seen him since Throne of Glass

Aedion being confirmed bi yes Sarah

Bit concerned it means he’s gonna die now tho

Although tbf I’m fairly certain he’s the one who gave Dorian a black eye so like I’ve cared more about his safety than I do rn

Manon wanting to sink her teeth into Dorian skdjskaja why does everyone in this fucking series have a biting kink

What was Dorian’s dead ex called? I’ve been calling her Ned since the end of HoF and now I can’t remember her actual name

Lorcan, Fenrys and Gavriel admitting to being whipped after helping Rowan is the closest we’ve had to a ‘*softly*bro’ moment in the whole series

They better not leave without Abraxos or so help me

Idk who the red haired lass is or if I’m supposed to like her but I suppose she’s alright

Slightly off topic but earlier I had a sudden and very vivid mental image of Aedion and Rowan fighting but instead of sword fighting they were very seriously break dancing???

Anyway, what’s all the secret info we’re not being told? There’s been several conversations that get cut off just before getting to the good bit and I’m curious. What did Aelin ask Rowan to do?

I’m so excited to finish the book, but at the same time I don’t want to bc that means there’s only one book left with all the good characters hhh I don’t wanna say goodbye yet

I know there’s tower of dawn in between but like meh

My next update will be when I finish the book I’m so SCARED

#im not ready #sockmonster reads tog #empire of storms #tog #throne of glass

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