#rhys critical

[wishcamper]

@fancyfade thank you for the incredible template

#sjm critical #rhys critical

[whitedemon-ladydeath]

ok but thinking about Rhys saying Nyx is an "ancient night goddess" suggests there were multiple gods and there was polytheism, only for there to now be an Unnamed Goddess called the mother who also picks men to hold domain over the land she created like

Sarah this is reading so hard like fanfic I swear to God please be consistent in your world building I am BEGGING you

#a court of thorns and roses #acotar #sjm critical #rhys critical #i guess #i dunno

[ohmyfairies]

CC3 Theory - Spoilers Ahead!!

Since the TOG crew are the only ones who know what a wyrdgate is and how to shut it they obviously need to show up next book unless SJM is gonna give Rhys another ✨author’s favourite character✨ moment and have him know all they need for whatever contrived reason. We also know that when Aelin fell through the wyrdgate she fell through Lunathion first and then Prythian leading me to believe that Lunathion is in between Prythian and Erilea. So I’m thinking that idiot 1 and idiot 2 are gonna open another wyrdgate to find Bryce after she’s been missing too long but in the wrong direction- meaning Bryce is gonna bring the back up from Prythian and Hunt and Ruhn are gonna find Aelin and bring her back to CC to close the gates.

#crescent city #crescent city spoilers #throne of glass #acotar #sjm #sjm theory #crescent city theory #should I tag this Rhys critical?. #I’ll do it to be safe #Rhys critical #anti rhysand #anti Rhys #rhysand critical #also I call hunt and Ruhn idiots 1 and 2 in the fondest of tones #I love them bu they are idiots #key reads books

[yaralulu]

I think it’s crazy that rhys is constantly going on about how he can’t ever forgive lucien and he’s still trying to make his peace with him and how he can just about stomach him because what the fuck is he talking about 😍??

Is he forgetting that just a few years ago he was the one terrorizing lucien ,threatening him,demeaning him with stupid nicknames,taunting him with his dead lover and estranged mother every single time he saw him??

Is he forgetting that lucien had his ass handed to him UTM just for feyre—that he saved her life twice and was willing to die/get tortured for her??but sure rhys you’re the one that has to find it in you to forgive lucien.I really need rhys to get his head out of his own ass and realize that nobody likes him lol 🗣️🙏.

#i know lucien hates his ass #rhys lowkey jealous lucien stole his ex bf tamlin 🤷 #acotar #a court of thorns and roses #lucien vanserra #pro lucien vanserra #rhysand critical #sjm books

[arson-09]

Tamlin is actually such an underrated character in acotar. Because of feyres very biased narrative she forces readers to ignore the complexity of his character and man. its sad

Tamlin is a character who is genuinely GOOD at his core. He changed so much of the spring court for good, eliminating slavery within the spring lands and mortals having more protection. Hes a morally good character that made a few mistakes and is boiled down to just those mistakes. Locking feyre in the house and the magical/emotional blow up, which are both pretty decent fuck ups (i dont think siding with hybern fully counts as he was a double agent all along and tamlin was decently justified in thinking feyre was being kept against her will. lets be fr here) and even after he’s extremely fucked over by the nightcourt, his lands and court burned to shit, he still saves rhysand. Saves rhysand and tells feyre to be happy, even when he has every reason to NOT do that!

Hes a character that clearly holds himself to a higher standard. throughout acotar he puts lucien and feyres safety above his own, even sending feyre away when she was the only one who could save him. Even though what he did to her wasnt great its not completely irredeemable, rhysand did much worse things to feyre and other people but hes living his best life while Tamlin seems to find himself unworthy of being a person (acosf wheres hes been in beast form for roughly over two years) hes a perfectionist who now doesnt even think he deserves anyone because he accidentally hurt the people he loves most.

Sjm accidentally created a beautifully rich and morally righteous character who is so extremely fucked by the narrative. Which doesnt even work half the time as sjm cant seemingly commit to making him a full villain (seemingly by accident again she gave him quite a reasonable explanation to everything he did ‘wrong’ but still chooses to make him a punching bag)

If Tamlin was genuinely a morally evil character he wouldnt have NEARLY the amount of fans as he does. Hes a character that requires the minimum amount of media literacy and comprehension to understand and i LOVE him.

#acotar #a court of thorns and roses #tamlin #pro tamlin #sarah j maas #rhysand #sjm #anti rhysand #feyre #sjm critical #and most tamlin haters are so shallow #calling him tampon (which has so many misogynistic issues) is not the serve the girlies think it is #GOD hes so complex and its so good #i usually like the morally gray characters but this series writes them so poorly i go back around to loving the hero esq characters #tamlin has a certain ‘hero’ complex to him where he expects himself to save everyone and that its his duty #he said himself that hes only good for fighting and killing. he sees himself as subhuman or subfae whatever #and that level of self loathing/belief that others mean more than him makes him infinitely better than rhys or feyre #feyre and rhys are characters who are so full of themselves #obnoxious and hypocritical #i like feyre in the first book and basically dislike her in the rest of the series because she becomes so hypocritical and self obsessed #its 3am idk if this makes sense i just love tam :(

[rhys-ravenfeather]

Casual reminder that there’s already a ‘dark and gritty’ Scooby Doo series:

So yeah, anyway, if you haven’t watched it already, you should definitely give it a look instead of giving that other show any attention.

#rhys-ravenfeather signing on #scooby doo: mystery incorporated #seriously though--i have NOT heard (or seen) good things about 'velma' #heck just the trailer ALONE comes across as unnecessarily confrontational to me? #to critics and even just casual viewers even TEEN TITANS GO wasn't this brazen right out the gate

[loonylooly]

i find it really sad that ACOTAR is a series with so much damn wasted potential. It's all half baked ideas that could've been great, so much worldbuilding from the 1st book that goes completely forgotten, so many fascinating characters who's names we'll never even get, so many plotlines that get handled horribly, so much just.. meh. It's sad really. I wish we got even a smidge of the magic back from the 1st book. You can really tell that when SJM wrote the 1st book, she loved Prythian. Afterwards she just loved Rhysand

#had to turn it into an anti rhys post right at the end #live 2 b a hater #acotar #anti rhysand #sjm critical #< is that the right thing to put idk

[frooogscream]

David Jenkins said Ed x Stede were not supposed to have a real love story!

So not only where all the beautiful queer details not part of the original idea (Izzy being a jittered spouse instead of just evil lil henchman-because of how Con envisioned him, Jim being NB- added after casting Vico, Wee John doing drag- because of Kristian, etc.).

And even the main gay couple, the only queer thing remaining, was never supposed to end in a happy love story. 

This show was NEVER supposed to give us beautiful things and treat it’s queer characters with “kindness”! It was NEVER supposed to be for queer people!

Every thing I loved about ofmd was because of the queer actors involved in this show (+apparently a little thanks to Taika and Rhys seeing more of the beautiful potential this has as an actual love story then David ever did).

In some way this almost makes it beautiful again, like we were never even supposed to have what we got, just another mid queer baity comedy, but then all these amazing people poured their fucking heart into it and changed it in a way that actually made it mean something to us!

link to the interview compilation post+link to original interview: https://www.tumblr.com/ladyluscinia/733134895182970880/what-exactly-did-david-jenkins-say?source=share

#ofmd #ofmd s2 #david jenkins #our flag means death #ofmd 2 #ofmd analysis #ofmd thoughts #ofmd jim #ofmd izzy #ofmd wee john #con o'neill #vico ortiz #kristian nairn #stede bonnet #ed x stede #edward teach #taika waititi #rhys darby #ofmd critical

[keepittoyourshelf]

I’m having thoughts. As much as I rage against SJM on here, I would love for her to prove me wrong. Redeem* Tamlin. Give him his own version of Chapter 54. She’s done such a thorough job of stripping this character of whatever shreds of dignity he might have had left post-ACOMAF**, that it would be a Herculean literary effort at this point to get the stan portion of the fandom to love the guy again and finally stop selling those stupid “Tamlin’s Tears” mugs on Etsy. Go ahead Janet. Do it. I dare you. I will eat every word I’ve ever written about you being a one-note author that basically writes the same three characters over and over again.

*Him needing redemption is arguable as he not only apologized, he risked his life in the war and helped bring Rhysand’s apologist ass back to life.

**I actually think the way he verbally dismantled Rhys and Feyre during the HL summit was fucking masterful and exceedingly dignified. At least more dignified than referring to your own copious amounts of power and making vague threats of physical violence.

#anti rhysand #anti feysand #anti sjm #anti feyre #pro tamlin #anti inner circle #anti acotar #sjm critical #anti rhys

[litnerdwrites]

"You shouldn't criticise/analyse SJM's characters/worldbuilding because it just isn't that deep." Is a take I see a lot when someone analyses or criticises SJM, and while I get where you're coming from, I do have a couple of issues with this take.

First of all, it's important to be able to criticise all media, even your your favourites, no matter how good or bad they are. Media of all formats is a product of it's time and goes a long way into helping us learn about the sociopolitical climate of the time it was written, from the past, present or future. As a result, no piece of media can be considered 'perfect' or without points to criticise, and analysing it can give us perspective on issues we may not even realise exist. This is true for most, if not all media, from books to news channels to music or tv shows.

If you don't want to analyse or criticise it though, that's fine. Just ignore posts and videos of people who do, since there's no use in telling them that they're wasting their time. Some people enjoy criticising/analysing the media they consume, but if you don't, then just let them be.

Now, here's the bigger issue I have with this take. It might really not be that deep to you, but it might really be that deep for other people. Especially since SJM books have a pretty young fanbase. The books are YA, and are advertised as being for ages 12 and up.

Many kids, young girls mostly, that read, even just the first book, are shown Feyre forgiving Rhys at the end of the book after SA-ing her for three months or Feyre getting back with Tamlin after he watched her get tortured for three months, and romanticise it. Then there's the second book, where she ends up with Rhysand despite what he did, and even lets him do it again at the CON.

Nesta is pressured by Elain and Feyre to let her use their home for something incredibly dangerous despite her very reasonable concerns, only to then be insulted by Feyre's friends for a situation he wasn't even there for, only for some romance to between them to be hinted at. In Acowar she's further pressured by her sister, and strangers who hate her, to put her healing and coping from her trauma aside to push her clear boundaries to help her sister even more despite her and her friends not having a great track record of holding up their ends of deals from Nesta's experience.

And don't even get me started on the train wreck that was ACOFAS- ACOSF. If these actions and behaviours were acknowledged as being toxic or wrong, that would be fine, somewhat. However, the narrative paints these characters and behaviour in a positive light, despite the fact they aren't. For young readers to look at this, and to idolise these characters and their behaviours, thinking that it's what they want in a partner, is disturbing.

It's fine to not want to critique or thoroughly analyse a book, but discrediting people who do, especially if they're pointing out harmful behaviour being perpetuated in said books, is not. Ignoring the harmful behaviour these books perpetuate is making you a part of the problem, and I truly hope that your view on this behaviour would change if it was coming from a living person instead of a fictional one. Be it towards you or somebody you know.

#sjm critical #acotar critical #acomaf critical #acowar critical #acofas critical #acosf critical #inner circle critical #nesta deserves better #anti rhys #anti inner circle #anti rhysand #pro nesta #anti acosf #anti amren #anti mor

[lowquailityphotos]

Yall and SJM all acting like Rhys is the best option to be high king of the continent because of how "fair" and "just" he would be. Like dude we are canonically only shown one city in his entire court (which is also the biggest) that is idealic and that when it comes down to it that's who he would give it all to protect. The other cities or people we see in his court he canonically despises and has poor leadership or control over. What makes you think he'd be a good high king if he's not even really a good High Lord?

Literally doesn't matter if he's the most powerful high Lord if he can't do his job???

#anti inner circle #anti rhysand #sjm critical #Rhys legit contradicts the way he was intended to be written

[wishcamper]

Don't Worry Feyre, Darling: the relationship anxiety to coersive control pipeline

CW: emotional abuse, reproductive abuse

Creds: licensed counselor with focus in addiction, trauma, and gay stuff; experience in group and family counseling, mandated DV clients, and abuse victim support.

Before the mob comes: I am not pro or anti Rhys, and I think his contradictions say much more about SJM than anything. I also believe it’s possible for a fandom to reclaim/rewrite a character who has been massacred by an author.

We’re going to begin at Rhys helping Feyre during an extremely dark place in both their lives. We’re going to end at him withholding vital medical information from her for the sake of “protecting her”. But first, some context.

Inside all of the (amazing) drama around the 2022 movie Don’t Worry, Darling , was a story that is pretty well worn at this point: men deciding they know what’s best for women and giving it to them whether they like it or not. In the movie, Florence Pugh’s Alice lives inside a computer simulation where she is the modern equivalent of a 50s housewife: dresses, calisthenics, martinis, “making a roast”. (She also gets eaten out by Harry Styles but that doesn’t seem to be an explicit part of the world’s design.) The problem? She doesn’t know she’s in the simulation. Harry Styles, in between all the cunnilingus, drugged her and put her in the program against her will. Yikes! Why!

The movie explains that he believed their life in the real world was miserable, and that he was saving her from that by giving her this perfect life. She should be grateful, if anything! What he doesn’t tell her, but that we see, is that Harry Styles also seems to struggle with a sense of inadequacy for not being able to provide. He is failing to live up to personal and cultural standards of manhood but, instead of dismantling those standards, he makes it his wife’s problem by kidnapping and brainwashing her consciousness. Hm. Interesting strategy. Let’s see how it works out for him.

With Rhysand, his motives in the beginning are more understandable - he initiates rescuing Feyre from the very real danger of Tamlin and her own mental decline. He feels justified breaking whatever magic law because of his own experiences being trapped and believing people should have a choice about where they go and who they are. He emphasizes over and over that these choices are Feyre’s and that she has freedom with him. We see through ACOMAF that helping her gives him a sense of purpose after the trauma UTM. His friends remark on how Feyre brought him back to life, never questioning and even encouraging this pattern.

But Rhys clearly has a lot of anxiety about his relationships and closeness in general. He mentions on several occasions that people around him tend to suffer because of him, and how afraid he is of doing that to Feyre. She is very receptive to this and puts effort into proving him wrong. He finds safety in the bubble of their relationship that probably feels pretty fucking good. The unfortunate side effect of this is that instead of processing and resolving his own anxiety, he directs it through Feyre and his love for her. Meanwhile, he keeps his anxious maneuvers behind the scenes, like not telling her about the bond, taking her to the Weaver, encouraging her to learn to read, to train. It may be genuinely helping her, but there’s also this sense of ‘I know what you need better than you do’. And again, nobody questions this.

We flirt with this tension at the beginning of ACOMAF when Rhys enforces their bargain from UTM. As the reader, at that point, we are supposed to believe this is cruel of him. He interrupts her wedding for fucks sake, throw your shoe at him girl! But over time we start to feel like it’s okay because Feyre secretly wanted it, it’s ultimately for her own good. Rhys is the most powerful High Lord in history, I’m sure he could’ve figured out a way to break the bargain, but he didn’t. In fact he engineered a situation where she'd be at his mercy. Why? Because Rhys was worried about Feyre, felt her deteriorating through the bond. Because of that, he felt justified in coming to collect. Personally, I have no opinion about whether crashing the wedding was the right or wrong thing to do. But it does set up, at least in the world of the book, that removing someone’s autonomy is okay if it’s for their own good, if the ends justify the means. In fact, that overstep ends up being the road to Feyre’s life in the NC and her love with Rhysand, a love that is so great she willingly tethers her very life to it. Even in ACOWAR we see how their relationship is a way he regulates his anxiety *cough*battlefield blowjob*cough*. He gets used to Feyre’s health and happiness being his source comfort and can continue to avoid dealing with his own shit internally.

In his seminal work Why Does He Do That?, Lundy Bancroft, a specialist in treatment of abuse perpetrators, debunks the various myths about what causes abuse and why it happens. His thesis is disarmingly simple: people abuse because they believe it’s justified. He says one of the signs of abuse escalation is “a growing attitude that he knows what is good for her better than she does”. Bancroft also notes that abuse is so hard to spot because “most abusive men don’t seem like abusers” (emphasis his) and that abusive men have periods of being charming, funny, even kind. Abusive men often don’t see themselves as such, because the strategy works for them - they feel good when they displace their emotional problems onto someone else.(1)

And then Feyre gets pregnant with a baby that could kill her. Besides the fact they really should have talked about this before trying for a baby given Rhys is mixed race (Cassian and Nesta too, but that’s a whole other post), Rhys claims a sense of ownership over his wife and child almost immediately. He’s constantly being described as smug and glowing with male pride. Even when he’s not smarmy, he’s consumed with his own ideas about protecting them and can’t hear the protests of others. We see his anxiety morph into more overt control in attempt to handle the situation. He believes he’s justified in keeping the danger from Feyre because he doesn’t want to stress her out. But that is not about Feyre, that’s about Rhys. HE is scared, HE is lost, and so he makes a decision on her behalf to lessen the burden he’s already carrying, whether he’s aware of it or not. He must keep her in a happy bubble else how is he supposed to go on.

Don’t Worry, Darling is at least critical of this ‘I know better’ motive even if the movie is stupid, and Harry Styles gets some frontier justice in the form of a whiskey glass to the back of the dome. But ACOSF condones Rhys’ actions and even insinuates our main character is deserving of death for calling him out. Bancroft writes that “part of how the abuser escapes confronting himself is by convincing you that you are the cause of his behavior”. He wouldn’t HAVE to do this if you just TRUSTED HIM.

But here’s what I think. I think Rhys has walked down a path of using his relationship to balance his internal conflict. Anxiety is a force in every relationship, but with Feyre he must maintain her beautiful life where she never worries in order to feel safe himself. I can have empathy for this, kind of - he’s suffered significant losses and it’s understandable he feels protective of those he loves. I think about celebrities with non-famous spouses, and how they avoid talking about them because they don’t want the scrutiny. I believe Rhys thinks he’s genuinely doing right by Feyre. But Rhys is so averse to his own anxiety that he can’t let himself trust anyone else to resolve it. He can’t let go of Feyre as his safe space and almost condemns her to die because of it.

And this is how, ultimately, Rhys traps himself. He tries to create a bubble where Feyre can never leave him, and ends up signing both their death warrants. I hope the world of fan fiction can redeem him, because I really don’t think Sarah can.

And yes, I know it’s faerie porn and it’s not that deep. But this is a series marketed toward an audience at risk of abuse and intimate partner violence. Bancroft lays out key points at the end of the book that feel particularly relevant to the larger conversation:

“Once we tear the cover of excuses, distortions, and manipulations off abusers, they suddenly find abuse much harder to get away with.

If Mothers Against Drunk Driving can change culture’s indifference to alcohol-related automotive deaths, we can change culture’s attitude toward partner abuse.

Everyone has a role to play in ending abuse.

If you are trying to assist an abused woman, get help and support yourself as well

All forms of chronic mistreatment in the world are interwoven. When we take one apart, all the rest start to unravel as well.”

Why Does He Do That? , Lundy Bancroft. https://ia800108.us.archive.org/30/items/LundyWhyDoesHeDoThat/Lundy_Why-does-he-do-that.pdf

#acotar #acomaf #acosf #rhys critical #feysand is dysfunctional #don't kill me #intimate partner violence #why does he do that? #prythian university #sjm critical

[whitedemon-ladydeath]

yknow how in the hunger games district one was one of the first districts to join the rebellion? consider: Velaris joining the Illyrians in their rebellion and Uprising against the IC okay thank you and good night

#there are literally SLUMS in that city with Rhys' billion houses and constant displacing of people #a court of thorns and roses #acotar #sjm critical #anti sjm #anti rhysand #anti cassian #anti inner circle

[ziggyhadathought]

I wanna ask Rhys stans/fans what their estimate (to the nearest hundred thousand) on how many little girls have been legally mutilated under his reign.

#a court of thorns and roses #acotar #anti rhysand #acotar critical #high lord rhysand #rhysand #rhys acotar #anti rhys

[yaralulu]

Silver flames really is the weirdest of the bunch because you get so moments like these that just leave you feeling so icky.

Is this seriously implying that whenever feyre’s mad at rhys he just fucks her to make her forgive him?? Am i reading that correctly?? Is this really being brought up as something completely normal between them when it’s just gross and manipulative.The way he’s so smug about it too and the line delivery?? Ew😍.

I really wonder what was going through sjm’s head when writing acosf rhys because every time he opened his big mouth I genuinely considered jumping off the nearest cliff.I don’t think he was acting completely out of character but he was so unlikable in a way he never was before —and don’t even try to blame nesta he wasn’t any better from cassian’s pov.It’s just crazy how there isn’t a single person who could justify rhys’s behavior in this book not even the die hard rhys stans and I just need to know if sjm intended for that or if she genuinely thought we’d be stupid enough to be ok with everything he did.

#acosf rhys getting the acomaf tamlin treatment #do you think when feyre found out about the pregnancy #he just dicked her down until she forgot #acotar #a court of thorns and roses #acosf #a court of silver flames #anti rhysand #rhysand critical #anti sjm

[arson-09]

the average acotar fans r so boring. like wdym you have no concept of media literacy or complex characters. Why does everything have to be spelled out for you? I have never seen such a flat and lowkey boring male character receive so much love (rhysand) when he does the bare minimum and also. SUCKS.

#and then they shit on tamlin likers #like im sorry i can look past a character’s 2 bad deeds and acknowledge he was destroyed by the narrative #but god forbid i look at the performative feminist and go nah #acotar #a court of thorns and roses #tamlin #pro tamlin #sarah j maas #rhysand #sjm #anti rhysand #feyre #sjm critical #i mean sjm is kinda a shitty writer so its not completely rhys fault #theres no nuance theres no complexity theres no FLAVOR