#poc tog

[witchthewriter]

I hope this isn't a weird question but do you have a list of sjm characters that you headcanon as poc? Because I want to see what you think and if they line up with my own. I had never seen manon fan casted as asian, but im in love with it!!

I love this question! I've been re-reading the three series, getting ready for CC3 to come out. I have so many things to say, but I'll leave all that to another post - also thank you for this question, it's awesome. Please comment how you feel/what you think in the comments xx

𝐀𝐂𝐎𝐓𝐀𝐑

First of all, the Bat Boys are NOT white. If I see another person fancast Matthew Daddario as Ariel, I will implode! I know it's difficult getting the perfect cast for a story we all adore.

Another point, the Bat Boys are Illyrian, and they are actual real people. Their usual features are tan skin, brown eyes and brown/black hair.

Also, Lucien - who I have fancasted in the past with Martin Sensmeier. I thought it was an interesting idea for a Native American to have that role.

And Amren is MOST DEFINITELY Asian. Without a doubt. There is no ifs, buts or maybes about it. She is most definitely Asian, and I will take offense if someone thinks otherwise.

Also, I don't want the Archerons to be so conventionally pretty, or petite. That's why Alycia Debnam-Carey is my Feyre, Dagmara Bryzek as Elain and Jessica Brown-Findlay as Nesta. I want women who aren't models!

The Valkyries;l Emerie is described as brown, as she is an Illyrian woman. And I'm completely fine with Gwen being red-haired, freckled and pale.

I'm curious about Mor, her physical features are fine - but her 'power' has yet to be revealed. Because it doesn't make sense???

𝐓𝐎𝐆

There are a lot more cultures in this series than the others. For me, it was so interesting because I'm desperate to know how different countries/continents, experience magic.

Learning about the Ruk's, with Nesryn and Sartaq, that was amazing.

I thought Manon was Asian, I always thought she was?! I mean from that link, that's how I imagined her. Whenever I see fanart where she isn't Asian, I just don't see them as Manon.

I definitely think the Cadre could be more than "tanned from hours of training in the sun." I think Lorcan could be a black man! And I def think Fenrys is half-black. Maybe with a white mother though. I hope I'm not coming off as insensitive! Please tell me if I am, because that isn't my intent.

Honestly, I don't care about what's 'canon,' I think there are way too many white characters in every part of literature. I know about history and when it comes down to fantasy worlds, I think black people should be allowed to indulge themselves as much as they want, without having to think about their awful history and what their culture has gone through.

𝐂𝐂

I actually thought Danika was black, it was a surprise to see fanart and she isn't??? For some reason, it doesn't sit right with me to have a white Danika.

Again, I feel like there aren't enough people of colour. We have little fire sprites, we have a lion-dog pet, a serpent queen, angels, and barely anyone who isn't beyond tan.

I don't think this series has a black character ... other than a few background characters that are only mentioned here and there ... if anyone wants to weigh in - I'm still learning about cc, I forget A LOT.

But in no way has SJM been as horrible as J.K. Rowling. Not only was she racist, but cliche', and a pick me. There was too much pick-me energy among the female characters. I'd like to think that at Hogwarts, the girls stick together no matter what (for me, female friendships are so important. It's sisterhood).

#anon #sjm #sjm poc #acotar #tog #cc #witchthewriter #headcanons #anon qs

[renjunniex]

Thank You, For Being You

Isaac Lahey x Fem!Reader Series

Omega Part 1

Omega Part 2 | Shape Shifted | Ice Pick | Abomination | Venomous | Frenemy | Restraint | Raving | Party Guessed |

A/n: This mini-ish series will take place from season 2-3. Also just a disclaimer I’m not POC and when i write i always imagine myself in the situation I’m writing and then describe it accordingly of course i will do my absolute best to keep this inclusive for everyone however if i make a mistake please feel free to let me know! This is also my first ever x reader story, I’ve always done OCs when writing on other platforms so be patient with me please! Thank you and love you guys! <3

Prompt: after everything that happened with Peter had finally been resolved it was time to watch over Lydia, unfortunately not everything goes to plan.

————————————————————

You were sitting in the hospital waiting room with Stiles, who was unfortunately snoring and very clearly dreaming about Lydia. Stiles rolled over in the chair, mumbling some nonsense you could care less about. However, it still made you chuckle, he’s been in love with her since you could remember and while you wished he would just leave it alone you knew he couldn’t.

Melissa walked through the door with Lydia’s father, he glanced at you and Stiles before pointing to you guys, “He’s been here all morning.” Melissa’s eyes met where the man was looking, “He’s been here all weekend.”

You chuckled and looked over to Stiles just in time to see him unknowingly freak out a poor staff lady with his sleep talking, “Sorry, he’s little… well as you can see, an odd sleeper.” She rolled her eyes before walking away, clearly not wanting to be bothered. You bumped Stiles in the stomach with your elbow and he shook awake making the balloon that was tied to the chair swish in his face.

“I’m going to get going, I’m exhausted and these chairs were not made for sleeping, even though you seem to have figured it out.” He glared at you before sitting up completely, “Did you want me to drive you home?”

You shook your head slightly, “No, don’t worry about it, Melissa’s house isn’t too far from here and I could use the fresh air after everything that’s happened.” He nodded understanding what you meant, from Scott’s werewolf problems, to Peter being an absolute menace to our grade point averages, and to top it all off your new abilities that awoke when Scott was bitten (you guys still have no idea what it is), it seemed that you guys didn’t even have time to breathe for a while.

“I’m just going to let Melissa know that I’m heading home and then I’ll be on my way,” You smiled and with a wave exchange between the both of you, you turned and made your way to the front door, where Melissa was standing behind the desk. You gave your parting words and she gave the motherly warning of “be careful” that you’re beyond used to at this point.

You see you are Y/N L/N, no relation to Melissa McCall or her son that you’ve known since you learned to talk, but your parents were in some accident when you were little and from then on Melissa and Sheriff Stilinksi took care of you. At first it was just them switching off every few weeks, then after Scott’s dad left you stayed exclusively with the Sheriff and when Melissa was able to move on from that event she took you in completely. You’ve been with her ever since, Stiles and Scott were like your brothers, always there for you when you needed it. Never made you feel like you were the odd one out, even though you were. That didn’t matter though, because you had all you needed, the perfect family in your eyes.

Your thoughts got interrupted by the sound of a machine, you turned your head in the direction of the sound only to realize you had reached the cemetery without realizing and it was Isaac Lahey working the machine. ‘His dad must’ve made him work a night shift, again.’

You actually knew the boy pretty well, you were in Chemistry together, even had a project you two were paired together for. He was such a sweet guy, insanely cute too although that you would never admit to anyone but yourself.

You knew to a slight degree of what his dad has done to him, you wanted to tell someone but the tall boy had a panic attack at just the thought of the idea. He said it was because if things were to go wrong he couldn’t bare the thought of his dad trying to hurt you.

You decided you were gonna stop by and keep him company for a while before making your way back home. You walked into the dark graveyard, making your way towards the rig that Isaac sat on so clearly focused on his work. He only noticed you when you raised your hand in the air and let your voice ring out.

“You seem quite focused over there, you wouldn’t mind some company, right?” You questioned with a slight smile on your face.

You could see his eyes just so slightly light up to the point where you could’ve probably made yourself believe you imagined it. “No, no, I wouldn’t mind, so long as you don’t mind being slightly uncomfortable in this one person seat.” He smiled so softly and you have to admit it made your heart flutter ever so slightly.

You put your hand over your heart and with a sarcastic look and tone you gasped, “Oh no, stuck in a one person seat with the ever so charming, Isaac Lahey? How ever will I cope?” He chuckled at your response and reached a hand out for you to take.

“Thank you my dear Prince Charming.” You said with a fake accent.

“Prince Charming, huh?” He inquired while holding onto your hand. You smiled and gave him a proud nod, “Yep, only a prince would allow a peasant like me to sit in this amazing contraption.” You gestured to the yellow machinery. He huffed amusedly before silently going back to his work and for the next ten minutes you both just basked in each other’s presence. You looked down and saw your hands still interlocked, you could almost feel your heart stop in that moment. Without even thinking more about it, you gave Isaac’s hand a small squeeze and right away you felt him squeeze your hand back.

You looked up at him, “Hey Isaac?”

“Yes, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing! I just was wondering if maybe you-”

Your phone rang before you even got a chance to finish, you sighed and gave him an apologetic look to which he shrugged it off in a light hearted manner. You looked down at your phone, which was still ringing, only to see a name that instantly made you worry.

Stiles?

Why would he be calling right now?

You answered the phone, only to hear the stuttering and chaotic mess that is the young Stilinksi boy, “Y/N!” You pulled the phone away from your ear, it caused Isaac’s head to snap to you, his eyebrow raised.

“Stiles, what could you possibly need right now, I’m kind of busy,” You huffed.

“LYDIA!”

“Lydia? What about Lydia?”

“She just left out the hospital window!” Your eyes widened, “She WHAT?”

“Yeah you heard me, look I’m gonna come get you, Scott already knows so we’ll regroup and find her.”

“There’s no need to come get me, I’m not that far right now, I’ll be there soon and then we can get Scott,” you glanced at Isaac hoping he wouldn’t be upset at the situation but he just gave you a look that said ‘it’s alright, I understand’ and you knew it would be okay.

“How are you not home yet?”

You sighed, “Now’s not the time, okay I’ll explain to you later.” You said your goodbyes and hung up the phone.

“Isaac, I’m really sorry but I have to go it’s an emergency,” you looked at him as he gave you a slight wave off, “It’s alright, I’ll see you at school.” You gave him a smile and without a second thought you kissed him on the cheek and hopped off the rig, starting your jog back to the hospital. “I’ll see you at school!”

Little did you know, you left the tall boy slightly red with his hand on his cheek.

————————————

a/n: andddd that’s part one, i thought about doing the full episode in one part but i feel like that’s a lot to read over. Tbh none of this has been read over either lol ANYWAYS let me know what you think and if you see any mistakes let me know!

#Isaac lahey #teen wolf #Isaac lahey x reader #isaac lahey imagine #teen wolf imagine #teen wolf x reader #stiles stilinksi x reader #stiles stilinski #scott mccall #alison argent #lydia martin #teen wolf series #isaac lahey fluff #isaac lahey angst #teen wolf fluff

[korkiekenobiconfirmed]

I'm on a roll with the s/j/m hatred tn so I'm going to compile a masterlist of all her shitty lgbt/poc representation and why it sucks booty cheeks. it should be noted that none of this is meant as shade on any of the characters themselves... I actually happen to like quite a lot of them

EDIT: there are some nice additions to this post in the notes you can check out

LGBT rep

Aedion (Bi/Pan)

Literally known as “Adarlan’s Whore” (a nickname that references both his allegiance to the king and his tendency to sleep around)

His only same-sex relationship is with a vaguely-mentioned unnamed lover from the past (it’s not even said straight-up that they’re a man, but I’m assuming they are bc they’re mentioned to be a commander of the Bane)

He’s shown being attracted to women and only women for two and a half books. He’s a womanizer retconned into the slutty bisexual stereotype

His liking men & women is compared to prostitution

It’s insinuated in koa that he slept with an ex while he and Lysandra were fighting (because the cheating bisexual trope is such a new & creative one!)

Helion (Bi/Pan)

He’s always trying to have 4somes with three of the main characters

Realistically he’s probably one of the most powerful/interesting High Lords but this gets sidelined in favor of him flirting with eVeRyOnE

All we really know about him is his name and the fact that he’s a bit of a manwhore… very 2-dimensional

He has an affair & a child with a married woman… just the Slutty/Cheating Bisexual Trope (Volume 2) :/

Mor (Lesbian? Possibly bi?)

She’s never shown in any real relationships (with men or women)

She had tragic off-screen relationship with a mortal queen a few hundred years ago

We get literally no hints that she’s gay throughout the series, she just randomly mentions she likes women at the end of book 3

She gets no happy relationship, she stays closeted to spare Az’s feelings (as though he’s not a grown ass man), she’s retconned into her sexuality most of the way through the series… just shitty shitty rep all around

Hasar (Lesbian)

She’s a villain, and a shitty one at that

Lesbian rep from a side character in one novella that half the fandom didn’t read? What’s even the point?

Thesan (Gay)

A very minor character & his unnamed “lover” who serve no narrative purpose whatsoever… thanks for nothing sarah

Emrys & Malachai (Presumably gay)

Oh look! More minor, background mlm that might as well not exist for all they do for the story :/

They are cute though, I’ll give them that

POC rep

Nehemia

First (and only) black main in ToG

She dies to fuel the white protag’s character arc… a very tired trope

She was actually a pretty well-written, likable character up until her brutal murder, which made it that much worse to hear about her organs strewn all over the room

Sorscha 

Described as “plain” (particularly in contrast to the white women like Aelin & Lysandra)

We know she’s POC because of where she’s from, but the way her features are described suggest she could still be white

Dark hair, gold eyes, “tan” skin

She really just fawns over white-boy Dorian every 2 seconds before dying a violent death to fuel Dorian’s arc…

…Aaaand I’m sensing a pattern here

Nesryn

Much of her character (especially in QoS) is reduced to her beefing with Aelin (and thus being villanized by the narrative) because of jealousy over Chaol 

Simply described as having “tan” skin (again). I think sarah is allergic to calling people brown

She is also described as plain compared to white protagonist

She has a (presumably middle eastern) family that only wants her to stay home and be a baker/someone’s wife

Yrene 

Once again very racially ambiguous to the point where she could even be white, with “tan/golden” skin, golden hair, and golden eyes

She almost immediately ties her literal life force to a white man she hated like a month ago. Seriously, can WOC not fawn over a hunky white man for once?

She defeats erawan in the end — considering she’s been a character for such a short time, this just feels more like a deus ex machina the anything really set up by the plot

Helion 

Not going to fully rehash what I said above but generally… he has great potential, but is basically not a character

Tarquin 

He’s portrayed as very nice and reasonable, if young and naive, yet he literally only exists to get manipulated/robbed by the main characters

He seems like such a sweetheart. He deserved much better than Riceman and Feyrug doing him dirty like that

I’ve heard rumors of a High King/Queen F*ysand plotline in later books…if that happens, Tarquin will likely be bending the knee and forgiving the people who fucked him over just a short time ago

Lucien

He’s described as very caring and loyal (yay!) which seems to always get him taken advantage of (damn!)

He’s portrayed (especially in ACOWAR) as someone we’re supposed to dislike when all his actions are perfectly reasonable

He’s literally retconned out of being white when it’s revealed Helion is his father instead of Beron. I’ve seen ppl get mad at “white-washed” fan art but it’s hard to expect much else when his original character description was straight red hair, amber eyes,  and “tan” skin (holy shit agAIN)

The people of the White Fangs from TOG

They’re described as having black hair, black eyes, and “tan” skin

They live isolated in the mountains (away from civilization) and are described as “savage” and warlike, always raiding villages in the mountains and stealing women away from their homes… 

Cain, who’s from these people, dabbles in dark magic/religion nobody else understands

This is feeling, intentional or not, like a horrible Native American caricature. Idk maybe that’s just me

#anti sjm #anti acotar #anti tog

[olderthannetfic]

If it was just (or even mostly) my fellow white people staying that Stitch was harassing them I'd be inclined to think that it was yet another "white woman tears" situation. But so many POCs have said the same thing and so I'm listening.

--

Anyone whose primary output is negativity is to be avoided, no matter who their targets are.

But also, yes, the target pattern is highly predictable. They're all like this, from mega psychos like winterfox to top tier fandom predators like the TOG faker to wannabes we'll never hear of. The biggest enemy is anyone who could debunk them.

[nightlyteaandpaper]

ACOTAR Vs. Racialize Stereotypes

I am not going to speak on TOG because I have not read it and have no plans to read it; I do not care. At all. However, some things in this series kind of...turn my stomach around and I really need to let them out before I spiral.

I understand that Prythan is located in what would be the UK, so I am not mad about the number of white people displayed, especially since this is a traditionally published (1) fantasy (2) female-lead (3) young adult (4) turned to adult (5) novel written by a white woman (6) from upstate New York (7) who has never seen poverty a day in her life (8, and I read her biography, so I know that for a fact.) I'm not mad about that, because in my own story, despite it being very diverse (and I mean very diverse), the majority of people are black or half black, with there being some Indigenous people and South and Eastern Asian people (and very little white people.) However, while I am not mad at what is being portrayed, Im annoyed about how it is being portrayed.

In this series, we meet our first person of color in the form of Alis, the maidservant. At the time, we didn't know she was black or black-coded. Still, we quickly find out because, for some fucking reason, the glamor Tamlin gave his people also changed the color of Alis's skin, and this was because he didn't want Feyre to freak out... so, either Tamlin is a racist or Feyre is (this is a joke, please laugh.) However, what is not a joke is that Alis is depicted as the magical negro-troupe, where she gives sage advice and aids our disastrous main character. This being one-off , would not have been an issue, but for some reason...it is not. Within the same book, we meet the shadow twins who are still coded as people of color with tan skin despite being underground for fucking 50 years. If Rhysand, for some reason, is pale as a fucking ghost, everyone really should be pale, but the maids were people of color. In the first book, all the Help were people of color.

This, combined with the depictions of the Ilyrans, who are pretty much thought to be middle eastern men, as aggressive, backward people, is CRAZY. It is INSANE that the mostly white, NC is the progressive court of all the fucking land, but they refuse to do anything about the situation literally within their borders. They do a lot of grandstanding when it comes to feminism (which is another topic) but...do nothing to stop it. Instead, they just shit on the Ilyrans and call them backward and aggressive, and it is not lost on me that the two full-blooded Ilyrians who escape, shit on their ethnic group whenever they get a chance, and the one who is even remotely proud to be a bat-thing, is also depicted as aggressive and cocky and so very much obnoxious. It is also not lost on me that the three bat-dudes who escaped, all found their sanctuaries in the arms of white women. Of the women in the IC, none of them are people of color (I thought Amren was Asian and Morr was biracial, but that wasn't the case, in fact, she wasn't even related to Rhys on his mom's side.) And it is also not lost on me that the "objectively good" and feminist bat-boy of the trio is also half-white.

We have two POC High Lords in the series (good, I guess) and both of them get a raw deal from the author. Helion is a man who does not know he has a son (I also don't understand why Feyre is the one to figure this out when she has only been in this realm for, at most, a year and had literally just met Helion three days prior. Lucien has been alive for almost 500 years, and NO ONE, not even Helion, figured it out? They half to look a lot alike for her to put it together that easily.) Helion (also the bisexual High Lord) is a fucking hoe who has a child he does not know about in a completely different zip code. No one else has that issue, which would you think would be the case since some of these have been alive for...almost a thousand you.

And now we have my darling Tarquin. He is the youngest of the High Lords at 86. It is known that he would have given the literal shirt off his back if he could be friends with ANYONE, and he wanted to be friends with Rhysand because he saw something in that guy that he liked. And instead of asking "Hey, can we...can we see your book" and then, if Tarquin said no, they steal it, they just steal the shit. Then they had the audacity to consider sicking Amren on them because Tarquin, who was betrayed, gave them blood diamonds, but they never have this energy when it comes to their white counterparts.

Here is what gets my goat--there is something so insidious about a white-coded woman telling a black-coded man what to do in his own house. Tarquin had every right to want to kick Feyre and Rhysand in the teeth and throw them out, but instead, he calmly bitches for a few seconds and then tells Feyre to leave. Upon this, Feyre refuses to exit this man's house, while choosing to approach knowing damn well that his entire life is destroyed because of the butterfly affect her shitty (war criminal) actions in the Spring Court had on his court. And when he looks at the man who he wanted to be friends with and says, "take your mate and leave," Rhysand says "She is the High Lady of the Night Court; she can do whatever she wants..." the amount of entitlement that seeps through those pages made me sick and made me look up a few of SJM's controversial takes. The real-life implication of this entire scene is...crazy. Not to mention that it makes it seem that being the High Lady of the Night Court was more important than being the actual ruler of the current kingdom they are standing in.

What made me even more upset was that...even after all that, Tarquin steal forgave them and helped...

I don't think I need to explain why that is problematic. We are all smart here.

#writing #indie author #books & libraries #acotar #acowar #acomaf #anti sjm #anti acotar #acotar analysis #sjm #racism #fantasy #I think too #i think too much #But I am not a fool #I am actually very smart #lgbtq community #anti feylin #anti rhysand #Heavy on the anit Rhysand

[halfmoth-halfman]

Wait why the SJM hate? Honest question I had no idea she was a bad person?

ok so i've gotten quite a few asks like this and i'm gonna answer them all here. sorry anon, i'm using your ask as my little soapbox for a moment.

explanation under the cut- fair warning it's long and talks about racism, misogyny, abuse, and rape/sexual assault

this is also gonna be the one time and one time only i address this because i'm a CoD writing blog and (and i'm gonna sound mean here) google is free and if a bunch of people, especially a large group of poc (and more specifically black people), have said an author is problematic and you don't take the time to at least listen or do your own research on that author that's your own fault and willful ignorance.

for some of the other anons asking who sjm is: sarah j maas is an author most famous for her throne of glass (tog) and a court of thorns and roses (acotar) series.

for people who want to say i don't like her because i haven't read her book: i was, at one point, a fan of hers and have read every single one of her books.

sjm and her works are presented as ya and for a lot of people, much like how harry potter and jkr were for my age group, her books were probably their first pick up at around 13 and their first introduction to the ya fantasy genre, to ya romance, or to sexy scenes.

the problem is, her books are hailed as "feminist" titles, when all she does is romanticize these extremely toxic and straight-up abusive relationships between her characters as romantic. the moment the dark, broody love interest is introduced, the female mc loses all agency. (this isn't just an sjm problem, but she's who we're talking about right now)

(tw: rape/sexual assault/abuse/misogyny)

you're given a protagonist who's supposed to be intelligent/capable/able to take care of herself, but as soon as the male love interest (who you can tell sjm likes far more than the female mc) swaggers in, and become a part of the story. the moment the heroine starts to fall, she becomes a side character in her own tale: all of her motivations, her purpose, her desire are now only about furthering this broody mystery man with shadow powers and his ambitions. it may be said that they're equals, there might even be a few tender moments of false hope that the heroine is going to get her spot back as the main character of the book, but it's all a façade. she is and always will be subordinate to the male love interest, and every other man she comes across. and sjm has a big problem with making it clear through her writing that really, it was never the heroine's story in the first place, it was always the man's.

@happysharkintensifies put it best in this post:

It was never her story in the first place. It was his. She no longer makes decisions or takes initiative for herself; it's now for him. It's no longer about her mission or goals or desire; it's now about his. It's no longer about her struggles or pains or hardships, it's now about his. And it's not just her story that's stolen from her. Her personality, character and strengths are wittled away as well. If she's competent and skill at something, then she'll suddenly have the rug pulled out from beneath her by a man who inexplicably outclasses her. If she's confident, well-spoken, and respected, then she'll suddenly become tongue-tied, flustered and condescended to by a smirking man who's somehow more witty and eloquent than she is. If she has ambitions that don't immediately revolve around men or relationships, then she'll suddenly have her mind changed by a man who'll make her forget and discard her goals in favor of his. If she's disinterested in, or indifferent to men, she'll suddenly become infatuated with and softened up by an excessively attractive man almost instantaneously. And, worst of all, if she confronts him for his gaslighting/manipulation/violence/abuse, she'll suddenly find her anger and will crumbling as the story and narrative excuses and forgives him for his misdeeds. Worst of all, she'll be forced to admit that she's wrong."

and to especially add on to that last point, in the acotar series, feyre (the golden white woman) is raped and sexually assaulted by both of her love interests. and when it happens at the hands of rhysand (sjm's favorite brooding love interest) it's described and romanticized as an act of protection- he's doing this for her benefit, and it's not allowed to be brought up in a negative light because he's assaulted her for her own good. the amount of times women in her series are abused/gaslit/manipulated/killed and it is framed as romantic because she's either in a relationship with the man doing it or because he "likes" her is quite frankly disturbing and is a shit message for her majority teen fanbase who are reading these books and solidifying that same stupid rhetoric we all heard as kids that "if a boy hurts/bullies/is mean to you that means he likes you".

there's also the trope she seems to favor in her books of "only good (and mostly white) girls get to keep their powers".

good girls put their man first. they're modest and humble. they need to be saved by a big, strong, brooding man with a dark past. they would never wear revealing clothes and are so so scandalized when they have to be paraded around half-dressed for a plot point. they only fuck when they have to or are forced to because any sort of sexual agency is immediately looked down upon by their man and god forbid they disappoint their man. they're often mistreated by any man they meet and will take the abuse and thank the man for the treatment because they're a good girl.

they're not like other girls, the bad girls.

bad girls are too independent. they're too strong, too proud, too into their looks. they need to be put into their place. how dare they be seductive, wear revealing clothes, sleep with whomever they want.

@ekileh puts it well in this post:

feyre is the literal holotype of a good girl. she puts everyone else, especially her male partner, before herself. she is a little more selfish at the beginning of the books, but she undergoes a lot of character growth by acowar/acofas. in acowar i think it makes her compelling because she’s so recklessly brave that it almost sets her allies’ efforts back (it’s almost a mistake!) but everything always works out for her. but by acofas, when she’s wearing herself to the bone doing charity work, she’s become a martyr. she also is forced into wearing sexy clothes (by rhys) and they don’t do anything sexual until there’s, of course, only one bed. she’s so OP her powers eventually get nerfed for plot reasons (nesta, elain, and other side characters need a chance to shine, so feyre gets pregnant, shielded, and now has a baby to protect so she probably won’t risk herself unless anything threatens nyx), but her powers are still there. she still has control and agency over her powers. she’s just choosing not to use them or put herself in harm’s way because she’s now a mother. nesta, amren, and aelin are bad girls because they are selfish, proud, difficult to get along with. we don’t know much about amren’s sexual history but we know aelin cockteased rowan for months, and nesta made her way through velaris and jumped right into bed with cassian—not for love, but for a distraction—once she was confined to the house of wind. (i know feyre claimed her one bed moment with rhysand was for a distraction as well, but she wasn’t really in the same place as nesta where sex was an active self-destructive coping mechanism for her. and she later admits to rhys she was lying about wanting distraction to protect herself.) and yeah amren and aelin gives up their powers for the wars and nesta gives up her powers for……a wider pelvis. because bad girls can only be redeemed by sacrificing their power. good girls will gladly sacrifice their power and lives, but they are always spared. bad girls may offer their lives too (as amren and aelin did), but even if their lives are spared they never get to keep their power like good girls do. (and of course OP men always get to keep their powers.)

(tw: racism/homophobia/ableism/abuse)

before we get into this next part: i am black, more specifically a queer black woman living in america.

it's no secret that sjm's books are severely lacking in diversity. there's the illusion of diversity with the "dark" brooding love interest and his gaggle of equally broody assholes- the slight tan, or golden bronze, or light olive skin meant to placate readers looking for more representation. and sjm knows this, so she gives them a setting and culture that's a poorly picked apart and reduced version of real life non-white cultures without any care of thought.

and what representation people of color do get in her books are almost the same as most other popular fantasy novels (looking especially at you, game of thrones):

they're the dark-skinned savages, the uneducated and violent

they're the conquerors, the people who have been harassing our straight white girl main and ethnically ambiguous faves and need to be put in their place

they're the former servants or slaves who are rising against their oppressors but aren't doing it in a polite or kind way the mc's deem fit so their often valid points are immediately dismissed

they're the beautiful, strong seductresses who are in the way of the perfect white mc getting with her dark, broody man so they must die, often in an unnecessary or extremely violent manner

sjm says she supports the black lives matter movement, says that there is diversity in her books, and then in the same breath will prop up and praise art for her books that blatantly whitewashes what few characters of color there are, she will give the excuse that it was her publishers who lightened these characters skin without her knowledge because, of course this character who she's never described as anything other than tan with european features is actually supposed to be a character of color,

she will use the death of a real black woman murdered by police as a way to promote her next book (link)

it is exhausting and unbelievably hurtful, to have to watch as an author (especially a non-black author) who has shown no respect towards her black characters or any of the real cultures she boils down to basics for her books praise herself and let her fans praise her on having diversity in her books, blatantly and carelessly use a movement meant to bring to light and discuss the violent ways black people are murdered at the hands of the police to promote herself and her books where black and characters of color exist only to be killed and black and poc women are fridged for white pain.

it is also hurtful as someone who is a part of the lgbtq+ community and disabled to have to sit through books that contain things like:

this woman identifies as lesbian, but she's going to be in a love triangle with men and will suffer unbelievable amounts of sexual abuse and violence at the hands of men so her lesbianism will disappear because sleeping with men is her trauma response

all bisexuals are threesome sex fiends

magical cures for disabilities because how dare someone not want to be "normal"

it's not abuse if it was done for your own good followed by the outrageous lengths sjm goes to in order to redeem male abusers and rapists like rhysand, and tamlin, and eris to the point where some of them get the best happy ending but then violently murder all female abusers in the most horrific ways

look, at the end of the day, sarah j maas is a popular author. she writes (imo) mediocre books that are really only for white women/teens/young adults to live out their tall, dark and handsome mystery magic man fantasy. but she's famous, and more than happy to let her fans speak over any valid criticisms black and people of color have brought up over her writing, and her acts as a person.

she will never go away, most likely never change or acknowledge or take responsibility for things she's said/done/written, her fans will probably never care or give a shit about these problems, and as long as people continue to support her and buy her books she won't give a shit either.

all i can do is curate the content i consume to ensure i don't have to see or deal with her or her writing.

if you're a fan of hers- fine, you do you. i know there are people who i'm sure are perfectly nice individuals who are fans of her and i'm sure there are people of color who enjoy her books- that's entirely up to them. i'm not going to go around telling people to not read her books, or go into spaces for her fans to scold people over their like of her. If you want to read her books and support her despite the harm she's caused and the criticisms poc have spoken about, that's on you and i have little respect for you.

i know i sound mean in some of this, but this is my blog and i'm sure there are hundreds of other blogs out there ready to sing sarah j maas's praises. so, if you're a fan of hers and don't want to see criticism of or any type of negative feelings towards her or her books, i am going to politely suggest that my blog is not the place for you.

#anon #moth answers #answered #anti-sjm

[sincerleyren]

I'm loving the new Crescent City book but I'm forever side eyeing SJM as a white author putting Thunderbirds as a species of Vanir, and not even making the characters with those powers Indigenous?

I think she handles representation so poorly, from her pretty much discarding Mor's storyline since making her queer to killing off one of her few major POC characters Nehemia in TOG.

#sjmaas #sjm #sjm critical #crescent city #acotar #throne of glass

[writingsbychlo]

i dont know if i can say this because i don't really want to sound mean or ungrateful but azriel feels a little poc in sls and i get that it is a different kind of story so i get that. the dialogue gets me a bit out of it though, some phrases just seem too modern for the setting? and the clothes as well like the hoodies and the jeans, i think it's just a me problem but it takes me out of it a little. i do understand that these are fair details since it's your story and sjm adds stuff like leggings and canned soup even though it makes no sense

i do love the concept of the story and i like that azriel is finally getting a soft story because they're hard to find but these take me off it :/

I… don’t know what to respond here. I know you’re not trying to be mean or ungrateful as you said but like I really don’t know what you want me to put in response? do you want to say I’ll stop doing that stuff? because I won’t. I’m not trying to be mean when I respond here either I just really don’t know what your expected response was for this, I genuinely do not know what to say.

I put hoodies and such in because as you said, leggings and sweaters are canon in SJMs world. in ACOTAR itself, feyre wears leggings and a sweater. hoodies didn’t seem too far of a stretch for me, it’s just a sweater with a hood. I mean, jeans I guess are modern? but I don’t really envision them all wandering around all the time in tunics and baggy pants. I know they do in TOG but that’s also written with different concepts to ACOTAR too.

I mean, I guess all I can say is that I’d recommend not reading this series of it doesn’t work for you? you can still enjoy my other works, but this one is gonna have more of that stuff, and if that doesn’t work for you then this isn’t the series for you.

also, side note, if anyone can answer for me: i thought ‘poc’ was a shortened version of ‘person of colour’ but am I wrong? does it mean something else?

[bookishfeylin]

Do you think the TOG books are any good? I personally don’t like that they’re in the same Universe as ACOTAR

Hello! I haven't read Throne of Glass, and I refuse to because of the apparent racism in how the Black characters are handled (and nonblack poc too) and some other issues with the books such as the heavy promotion of Eurocentric beauty standards ("ashryver eyes") coupled with an insistence on calling poc ugly/plain, my overall exhaustion with the "white woman is the chosen one" trope, and a general distrust of Sarah's writing due in part to her nasty habit of retconning things and in part to her weird takes on imperialism/colonialism/slavery and even glorifying them depending on who's doing the imperializing/colonizing/enslaving. I have my mutuals to thank for helping me dodge a bullet there

But I believe they're in the same multiverse and not the same universe, iirc? So you don't have to worry :)

#ask #anti tog #sjm critical #anti sjm

[boxofbonesfic]

But bone, how's it racist to tog white! Reader. Like we also have our tag like black reader or desi reader, we're also excluding large chunk of the people.

And I don't need them to include me. I can make my own damn community.

so you chose to come into my inbox without having read any of the posts i made explaining my position? y’all are fucking exhausting i literally made like twelve posts about this, how about you read those before you ask me redundant shit?

like i have said literally eighty fucking times since this whole thing began: if you see no problem with racists being openly and blatantly racist, then fine? but i do, and i’m going to be vocal about it. whiteness is not culturally neutral, it is not the fucking default.

PoC having a sliver of representation is literally not the same as white authors attempting to maintain the status quo by excluding us, and if you don’t understand that, you need to gtfo my inbox until you’ve reached that point.

it’s like the difference between “black lives matter” and “white lives matter”. one of those statements is a response to the social and political disenfranchisement of black people, because we have been shown exactly how little the socio-political machine hates us, and the other is a racist dogwhistle.

#skinfolk are not kinfolk #if you’re fine experiencing racism just be silent then? wtf are you in my inbox for #ask the bones #y’all are irritating

[spacelazarwolf]

I'm an intersex POC (won't state my racial/ethnic group due to me being one of the few who fall into this category with my race/ethnicity on tumblr and I don't want tog ey doxxed) who still presents feminine due to being in the closet except for in one way: I don't do anything about my body or facial hair. I have a mustache and a neckbeard and I am HAIRY. I'm also naturally broad shouldered, have a deeper voice, and as bulky. Transmisogyny is something that has been apart of my day to day experiences, I have often had people try to clock me as a trans women (particularly in bathrooms). This isn't some sort of offshoot thing either that isn't recognized, I've had conversations about how I as an intersex PoC and my transfem friends have had often similar experiences and this is something that's all owlesged in fucking queer theory. This isn't even exclusive to transmisogyny, intersex AMAB people (particularly East Asian, Jewish, and native AMAB folk) have been targeted directly and violently by transandrophobic rethoric. TME/TMA does not fit my experiences nor does it fit the experiences of many intersex people (particularly intersex PoC) and it's so fucking clear that said terminology was created to fit white perisex standards.

i’ve heard this from a lot of other intersex folks as well! life is simply too complicated for things to ever be black and white, and i think in conversations about gender and transness we all need to be more cognizant of how intersex people are affected by these issues as well.

#ask avishai

[olderthannetfic]

Since we are talking about the tog Racefaker again, let me say something about her inner circle. I know for a fact that some of these people have already jumped on the "stop racism" crusade (yes, I'm using this term because it fits your mindset) personally I don't think we should "ban them from tumblr" or from the fandom, they can and should stay. maybe it was an honest mistake: they believed their friend Len was a poor muslim poc and acted accordingly, but after realizing with tangible EVIDENCE

--

that she lied about her financial, social, religious and ethnical situation, and after accusing REAL POC of racism and vilify their art and fictions and actively cooperating into kicking them out of the fandom, AFTER ALL OF THAT, if you really gave a shit about ending racism and doing better, you would have apologized at least. you would have contacted these people and talked to them and listened to them. but you didn't. I remember a famous fanartist - mutual of Len's - writing that "they didn't need to offer any explanation" or something, after the exposé was out, quietly turning their tumblr into private mode and laying low for a while. Not to mention one of Len's closest mutual and friend, who is now active part of the End Racism campaign and never once apologized for her antisemitic jokes. I'm asking to you all: if you can't even admit you were wrong, if you can't say sorry, how dare you pretend to teach anti-racism to other users?

[spaceshipkat]

A/ster queried Lightlark for 10 years and was rejected for 10 years. She's 27 now, which means she wrote Lightlark at 17... and I get the feeling she edited very little if none at all in these 10 years. Just like Mess wrote ToG when she was a teen.

The book definitely needed a couple more rounds of editing at the very least. The writing is juvenile (teens are so smart! start treating them as such!), the rep virtually non existent (one relevant character is poc and gay, yay tokenism!), the misogyny ("pure", not like other girls protagonist, the slut-shaming). These are deep issues with the author's and editor's mentality and aren't easy to get rid of. But more editing would've definitely improved the writing style, at least.

But the publisher was in a hurry...

10 years of rejections, then A/ster makes a viral tiktok and bam! one week later she's contacted and signed by a publisher. The hype continues, A/ster sells the movie rights. The publisher does everything in their power to ride the wave and publish the book as quickly as possible.

Less than a year and a half from that tiktok, Lightlark is published... after 10 years of rejections.

I'm sorry to sound like an asshole, but rejections happen for a reason. Yes, agents want something that's easy to sell, the industry churns out books like a fast food chain, creativity isn't always welcome... but sometimes your writing is just bad? This wasn't a case of Lightlark being "too mold-breaking", too creative to have a place and a market in YA. Not at all. It's just like any other YA I've read by super hyped authors.

Something something publishing is a business that only cares for money and hype

A/ster also acts like this is her first novel when it's not. I understand it's her YA debut, but she acts like her duology doesn't exist. I know her agent dropped her because the duology wasn't as successful as expected and A/ster couldn't stop talking about the Lightlark project, but still.

The biggest issue is that people were promised a "diverse Hunger Games meets ACOTAR". Diverse being the key word. And people were really excited because A/ster is Latina.

Her parents are both millionaires, she and her twin sisters were given money to start their various businesses, but her mom does come from Colombia. So even though A/ster is a rich, privileged, young pretty girl (like most YA authors atm) people were excited. Especially poc.

Baiting diversity is just so low 🤢🤦🏾‍♀️

the timeline is, as i understand it, more along the lines of she’s queried various books for years (and anyone—not you, anon, but i’ve seen a lot of people throw doubt about this—saying it’s unrealistic that she queried for a decade bc she’s only 27 is unfair, and i can use myself as an example bc i too am 27 and have been actively trying to get published since i was 17, having written books from the age of 12) and then signed with her first agent for her middle grade books. those released in 2020 and 2021, but the numbers weren’t doing so hot, probably thanks to the pandemic. Aster meanwhile was writing Lightlark and refusing to work on anything else, even though her agent said no to Lightlark many times (which is a fair thing for agents to do! they know the market better than any writer, so if an agent says “no, work on something else bc this won’t work in the market,” you should take that under serious consideration). bc Aster refused to work on anything else and her agent didn’t want Lightlark, they parted ways (which is also a fair thing, however much it might suck; besides, knowing what we do of Lightlark, i can see why her first agent said no), after which Aster went on tiktok and made her viral video and then, presumably, queried Lightlark with that under her belt. that then got her a new agent, who also then used that viral video to sell Lightlark to her editor, and from there to foreign publishers bc she has like a dozen of them now (or at least did when i last checked).

so yeah, all of this definitely comes down to the publishing industry seeing an easy dollar and deciding to run with it. if they spent more time on edits to make the prose more elegant, the world-building and plot more cohesive, clean up the bad elements you listed, anon, and made the characters more realistic, i could see why publishing decided to publish the book. it does have a premise that would bring a lot of people in (hence why it went viral and why so many people are excited about it) but the premise doesn’t do as promised, and very few of the things Aster claimed were in the book in her various tiktoks are actually in the book, so people feel and very much have been lied to. the ratings on goodreads say more than enough, i think, especially since a good number of the one star reviews are based on those readers having actually read the book/listened to the audiobook (i read a lot of them, so idk why people in various places are acting like most of those one star reviews are people just being mean to Aster).

and to be fair, an author and their publisher acting like an author’s new book is their debut isn’t unheard of. my best friend had that happen to her (though not bc her technical debut was bad or its sales didn’t do well) and i’m sure countless other authors have, too, even if the author doesn’t publish/re-debut under a pen name. it could happen for many reasons, but especially when sales don’t do well and it’d be more marketable to have an author be introduced as a debut vs an established author with mediocre sales. and from what i’ve seen, she still posts about her MG debut on her insta? or at the very least she hasn’t deleted those various posts about it. but, granted, i don’t pay attention to her tiktok so it’s completely possible i just missed her acting like her MG debut never happened.

either way, there’s a lot of hurt she caused by making readers expect things she promised were in the book, not only from a plot/trope standpoint but as an author of color promising to write a book for readers of color who wanted an ac0tar where they actually exist and in center stage. it’s no surprise to me she’s getting a lot of flack for that. like you said, diversity baiting is fucked.

#ask #anonymous #lightlark

[phatburd]

There is some part of me that really wants to do a crossover between The Old Guard and Eric Flint's 1632 series. Except, there's a couple of big problems ....

Flint's treatment of 17th century Europe is really fucking dated.

Including Booker and Nile into the narrative would be impossible. Well, possibly Booker, but Nile wouldn't be in the story at all. Grantville gets transported to 17th century Bavaria in 1999 or 2000, way before Nile comes along in the TOG narrative. And which would be a real fucking shame because Flint's version of 17th century Europe can do with more non-white people in it. There were actually more non-white POC in Europe in the 17th century, and Flint's treatment of it shows his biases (accidental or not).

Oh, yeah, I could incorporate 2020s research into what 17th century Europe was actually like, but that would mean having to rewrite lots of Flint's 1632. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I'm not ready for that level of overhaul.

It's a fun book series, don't get me wrong but, man, those blind spots are fucking glaring sometimes.

What is 1632? It's this.

#untagged #Youtube

[bookishfeylin]

I don't want to accuse Sjm of Zionism, there is simply not enough evidence and it is a severe accusation because of the state of Palestine right now and can very easily be blatantly Anti-Semitic. But I do want to say with her track record of being racist, misogynistic, homophobic and with a tendency to write her white main characters as conquerers and colonizers (Its not confirmed but we can all get a picture of Feysand being primed for High King and Queen) it does rub me wrong.

Not to mention a lot of ToG has that same undertone. There's a conversation between Aelin and Rowan where they talk about conquering more lands after taking back Terrasen and she says that if she gets “bored of being queen she will conquer and gain more land to be empress". And once again I'm not saying this to accuse her of Zionism, but it doesn't feel right and Sjm is known to write in a way that mirrors her personal beliefs. I say this with only regards to her actions (through her writing) and not her beliefs as a Jewish woman.

There's nothing wrong with visiting her family in Israel, or even having a grandmother that still volunteers at a military base because that's her grandmother's actions and not hers. There is something wrong with the fact that she wrote Aelin as someone who's "taking back" her country and then contemplating conquering more. And Feysand possibly being High King and Queen when they treat PoC coded Illyrians like they're savages and you don't see them outside of the Mountains unless they're dying for Rhysand on the battlefield. It just all feels very colonizer to me.

I hope I'm not coming off as rude, the issue of Palestine is very close to my heart and reading ToG and Acotar and seeing some things mirrored in them has always kind of remained unsettled with me and I would love to hear your opinion on it.

Hi anon! Nope, you’re not rude! :) So a big disclaimer: I am a Black American. Any analysis I can offer on this is through that lens, fortunately or unfortunately. That being said:

While the pro-imperialist, pro-colonialist, and pro-"both sides" themes PERMEATING Sarah's writing do likely point to her beliefs or biases (even unconscious, internalized ones she has), so do the artistic works of many white creators, often in way worse and way more blatant ways than Sarah's books. How many of tumblr's beloved “children’s shows” feature the imperialist/colonizers/genocide committing villains be shown as redeemable, as sympathetic, and worthy of redemption while simultaneously declaring any victims of colonization/genocide who have the audacity to fight back as the REAL bad guy, or just as bad as their oppressors? And not just children’s shows—so much media in general has this same theme, where the colonizers are more redeemable than the colonized, often including a cautionary tale warning oppressed peoples to “be careful” in our liberation efforts so we don’t become “just as bad.” (See my on media tag for a lot of discussion on this, among other things.) Our media—our books, our television shows, our movies— are, unfortunately, FULL of colonizer/imperialist apologia. Full of some “they’re human too!” nonsense that I am TIRED of having shoved down my throat. My point is, Sarah's writing is more likely due to her being a white woman in western society rather than any support of what’s happening to Palestinians. She’s one white creator among many, and merely exists as a symptom of a greater problem in our society and white fans who argue that pointing this out and critiquing this disgusting trope of “oppressor is redeemable and sympathetic and HUMAN but oppressed aren’t” in their favorite cartoon is being a ~toxic anti puritan~ make this worse. So does her writing point to her own biases about the nature of oppression? Yes, but in a way that appears to be no different than most media made by white people in the West, and unrelated to her thoughts on the Israel-Palestine conflict specifically. But yes please be unsettled because these ideas are ALARMINGLY present in media.

#i hope I came off as nice??? I truly was trying to be very polite in my response #I just think her problematic writing is more due to her having biases like nearly every other white creator #And I don’t like jumping to ‘her works suggest she might support israel’ #On media #SJM critical #anti sjm #anti acotar #ask #anon