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bookofmirth · 1 year

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I was wondering if you would be willing to take on an analysis of Cassian and Nesta’s relationship. I’m a sucker for romance and when I first read acosf I was so excited and happy for all the nessian although there were parts I felt so angry with Cassian because I felt were extremely unnecessary, like making Nesta carry a heavy pack all while not noticing her dehydration, telling her he’s shackled and not getting a decent reconciliation, to name a few. I feel like the story has this imbalance between the two characters because everyone already sees Cassian as this funny, mistreated by society, handsome huge cuddle bear in Feyre’s pov and we see Nesta as this unnecessary asshole in her pov. That, paired with Nesta’s self loathing, is why I can see why some readers are led to believe Nesta is awful to Cassian and might even go as far as agree that she needs to be worthy of him (which is why I have feelings about Mor who is an NC leader and one of her job titles is to help abused women but that’s another topic) then to read it explicitly in Nesta’s pov at the ending of acosf is what made me abandon the ship almost completely. which is a problem because we’ve agreed in previous posts just as Nesta’s pov is subjective by that same logic so is Feyre’s.

I loved reading your thoughts about Nesta and her father since that also didn’t make sense to me. I always figured Nesta’s trauma stemmed from the matriarchal side of her family and it’s helping me come to a certain understanding. I was just hoping maybe your perspective might give nessian a fresh angle I’m missing.

Hello! I will do my best. I assume we probably won't agree 100% but I am very much in the mood to lend some nuance to Nesta's character since the fandom is either intensely anti her or pro her, and both stances distort her character (and tbh some of the takes I've seen COMPLETELY missed the point of her entire character and of acosf, not to mention they are super vitriolic and antagonistic towards other people in the fandom. Calm the fuck down, y'all. No you op, just... the fandom.)

I take nessian as being a very different type of ship than any of sjm's others. Her other ships have tension that usually stops short of cruelty, but nessian are very aggressive as a couple and that energy turns antagonistic sometimes. Their dynamic is what made sjm make them mates, because Nesta is a force to be reckoned with and Cassian is not only strong enough to be with her and give it back, but he doesn't turn away from her either, when so many people in her life have stopped trying (Amren, Elain, Feyre to an extent).

I put the rest of this under the cut because it got very long!

Honestly, it confuses me when people get mad at Cassian for being mean to Nesta because that street goes both ways. They both say horrible things to each other that they know will wound, though Nesta does it first and more often. She calls him a brute and a bastard, when we know that that's one of his major insecurities. And this starts in Wings and Embers!

Her brows flattened. “Leader of the High Lord’s armies, and yet the brute remains. You cannot cow me with words, so you seek to intimidate me through your hulking size.”

Rhys, Az, and Cassian all call each other bastards on occasion but with them it's Bastard (affectionate). When Nesta calls Cassian a bastard/brute, she does it à la Beron and Eris. I honestly can't include all the times that she insults him that way. He lets it go at first, but then we know that, in his POV, this is actually an insult that gets under his skin and something he thinks about himself - much in the same way that Nesta thinks negative things about herself:

They were all staring. Cassian rolled his tensed shoulders, stretching out his wings. He’d revealed too much. Like a stupid brute, he’d let them all see too much, learn too much.

And someone else who uses that against him is Eris:

Cassian clenched his jaw. “So you’re to be my ally whether I wish it or not?” “The brute understands at last.” Cassian ignored the barb.

“It’s the ugliness of his fucking soul that riles me. I don’t care if he calls me a mongrel bastard.” Eris had called him such things today, she realized. Rage rippled through her. “It’s just that, ally or not, I hate him. He’s so slick and unruffled and … I can’t stand him.” He set down his fork and stared toward the window behind her. “Eris and his twisted word games and politics are an enemy I don’t know how to handle. Every time I meet with him, I feel like he’s got the upper hand. Like I can only catch up to him, and he sees through my every fumbling attempt at being clever. Maybe that makes me a stupid brute after all.”

And it's ironic to me that Nesta gets angry at how Eris insulted Cassian in that way, because she has done the exact same thing. So she knows that her blows are landing. In fact, that's why she does it. Nesta has identified a weakness and exploits it in order to push Cassian away, so I'm not surprised that it worked and he snaps. That's the reaction she's going for and that's the kind of behavior she needs to change because she's constantly pushing people away and then getting angry/sad when they leave.

The reason that I am emphasizing the things that Nesta has done here is not to say any of this is her fault, but that they both dish it out, and if we read the whole scenes, it usually starts with Nesta because that's just where she's at in her life right now. I dislike the arguments that because Cassian is older, he should know better or whatever, because 1) Nesta is an adult, and 2) as an Elder Millennial lol I know that age doesn't mean anything when it comes to maturity. In fact, I've lost my fucks with increasing frequency over the past few years. I know 20 year olds who are more mature than 40 year olds. It's just not that simple!

To go back to my initial point about their relationship, I think that even once the intention to harm is gone, now that some reconciliation has happened and they accept the mating bond, they will continue to be that aggressive couple. Feysand are leaders, nessian are warriors, and in the future I see elucien as co-conspirators and gwynriel as competitors. Nesta and Cassian both fight for what they care about, in the literal fighting sense, so it seems natural that that bleeds into their relationship a bit when they are still butting heads and trying to figure out how they work.

There are a couple of things you pointed out that I've noticed other people mention, so I wanted to discuss them!

like making Nesta carry a heavy pack all while not noticing her dehydration

I personally don't have an issue with the hike as a whole (I have another ask where I'll touch on it), but I did read this thing where Nesta passed out from dehydration as being both of their faults. Cassian just isn't paying attention, he forgets that Nesta isn't a hundreds of years old Illyrian tough guy and she *had barely gotten to the bottom of the stairs at the HoW (edit because I forgot she did that just before these shenanigans). Nesta is a grown adult, he's not her babysitter, she could have said something but instead she just suffered. (I wonder if that was also in line with her self-destructive behavior in acofas?) They're basically both being dumb here.

telling her he’s shackled

While he is doing this to hurt Nesta in that scene, all of the acotar mates thus far have said that about their mate. Lucien said it about Elain and Rhys about Feyre, though theirs were in more self-deprecating ways. To me, it just goes back to the push and pull that Nesta and Cassian have. I think the conflict in that scene is that they are essentially talking about two different things - for Cassian, Nesta rejecting the mating bond is her rejecting him. But for Nesta, the mating bond has nothing to do with Cassian and everything to do with her lost humanity. Cassian is taking her reaction personally (and why wouldn't he, when she has spent so much time picking at his insecurities?) and she is thinking of how the Cauldron and being Made affected her (and why wouldn't she, when she is still grappling with her trauma?) They are basically both thinking of themselves! And not considering how the other one feels.

and not getting a decent reconciliation

I think *fingers crossed* that we will see them in a much better place in future books. SJM said that Nesta's story will continue, so I'm just going to be optimistic here. Since the narration won't follow either of their perspectives anymore (we assume) we probably won't get an in-depth exploration of it. In fact, I was surprised when I got towards the end of acosf that I only had 30 more pages because I knew that so much still needed to happen. The end was very rushed but that's a whole different issue 😂

I am curious what you think of them after this! They aren't my favorite acotar ship; that's reserved for feysand and elucien, at least in canon. But I really love Cassian's character for his combination of strength and vulnerability, and Nesta is probably the most complex and interesting thus far, so I enjoy them from that standpoint.

#nessian #ask #unlikelypersonalknight1 #long post tag #nesta #cassian #thoughts on characters

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theladyofbloodshed · 2 years

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A Very Nessian Christmas

(I'm just tagging all y'all who are reading the au acosf. Please let me know if you don't want tagging in these one shots. @sv0430 @mis-lil-red @confusedfandomslut @emily-gsh @sunsetsofanemoia @a-court-of-valkyries @swankii-art-teacher @moodymelanist @nestaarcher0n @my-fan-side @c-e-d-dreamer @nestaspegasus @champanheandluxxury @chosenfamily-valkyriequeens )

A modern Nessian one shot set at Christmas time

‘Are you serious?’

‘No, I’m Cassian.’

Nesta’s nostrils flared. Her grip tightened around the bauble in her hand as she debated where best to aim at the giant bat in the living room. He was so big that she’d hit him no matter what, but was it better to aim for his face or somewhere more sensitive?

‘Careful you don’t drop that one,’ he winked, placing a shot glass down on the side.

For every decoration of his that Nesta had picked off the tree and rearranged, he had taken a shot of alcohol. His cheeks had taken on a rosy hue as a result.

‘Carry on ruining my tree and I'll shove these baubles where the sun doesn’t shine,’ she grumbled.

It was so easy to annoy Nesta. Cassian was relishing in it. They had started out with a great idea of decorating the tree together, imagining that it could be something romantic, then cuddle on the couch with a hot chocolate watching festive films. The way it was going, a war was more likely.

He had started off the decorating by rearranging the carefully placed nativity scene that Nesta had put on the mantelpiece. She had taken one look at the golden tinsel wrapped around him like a scarf and threatened to strangle him with it.

Now, Nesta gritted her teeth as Cassian looped another golden bell onto a branch.

‘There is already a decoration on that branch. It’s clustered. Put it somewhere else.’

‘But they’re buddies,’ he grinned, waiting to see if Nesta would rise to the bait and adjust the decoration to her liking.

She took a steadying breath then smoothed her gold-brown hair flat. Her eyes flickered back to the branch. It was too much to hold inside. She was about to yell and obliterate the festive spirit then the front door opened - saving Cassian from being barbecued.

‘Feeling festive?’ Azriel asked from the doorway as he hung up his coat. He took in the sight of Cassian draped in tinsel, swigging straight from the bottle. ‘Well, one of you is.’

‘Nesta’s threatening to kill me again,’ he said dreamily, gazing at that beautiful, terrifying woman stood on the other side of the living room.

‘It’s well deserved, I assure you.’

‘The lights outside are a bit wonky.’

Nesta massaged her temples. ‘Next year, I am decorating alone. I will sit you in front of the television with a film, like a child, and do it perfectly myself.’

‘She’s very considerate,’ Cassian said to Azriel.

‘Eat. Drink. Be merry. Just leave my tree alone.’

Nesta shooed both the males onto the couch while she continued decorating. It was fun to annoy her, to try and thwart her quest of creating a perfectly decorated tree. Their tree could have one bauble on and Cassian still would have found it perfect. Just having Nesta with him, humming Christmas songs under her breath as she set out every novelty item was perfect.

He’d not realised what a fanatic she was until they lived together. Organised as ever, she had compiled a list of films they had to watch on certain dates, her shopping - and wrapping - was complete by the 1st December, and she’d ordered him into the loft for boxes and boxes of junk. Their house had turned into a grotto. Cassian was surprised they didn’t have elves living in the house, using the gingerbread scented soap from the reindeer-shaped bottle. Even the welcome mat had changed to one that said Santa stop here.

‘What have you done with it?’

Nesta’s hands were on her hips, her feet planted as if readying herself for a fight. But her eyes darted round the room then roved all over his body searching his pockets for a shape with five points.

‘With what?’

Azriel watched them both, trying hard to disguise the smile that so often came from watching them bicker with each other.

‘You know what. Give it back.’

‘Oh, do you mean the star?’

‘Put it on the tree.’

Cassian stood. He towered over most people, but Nesta was used to it. She craned her neck to stare at him with pursed lips.

He made a show of stepping forwards, pretending to move to the tree then Cassian swooped down on Nesta and hauled her into the air. He lifted her above his head, thankful for the high ceilings in their house.

‘Put me down, brute.’

‘You said to put the star on the tree - that’s what I’m doing!’

Nesta halted trying to escape and hung limply in his arms until he lowered her back down the floor.

‘You’re an idiot,’ she laughed.

‘I’m your idiot.’

Cassian leaned down to kiss her gently on the lips. For her, he’d endure the train running round a track in the kitchen, the dancing snowmen that were triggered by movement - even the novelty toilet roll.

#nessian #cassian #nesta archeron #azriel #one shot #my writing

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