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littlefeltsparrow · 4 days

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The Paradoxical Nature of Feyre

It’s interesting to consider just how much of Feyre’s character must overcompensate for Rhysand’s shortcomings as a character. I’ve always wondered at the impossibility of the morality involved in the characterization of feyre; in which, Feyre exists – as @feyres-divorce-lawyer has already elaborated on this this post – in this violent conundrum in which is operates as both the most qualified, but is oftentimes then characterized as the most inept to help.

To elaborate – Feyre’s character has to subsume an almost reverential when she is discussed in thorough conversations that question to her motivations, tactility, and efficiency. And because Feyre is never actually given qualities (or I should say – those qualities are never at the forefront when discussing why she is placed in these hierarchal / leadership positions) that prove she deserves to be a leader there’s no actual, tangible evidence to prove that Feyre is inherently qualified for any of these roles. When Helion asks Rhysand – “why did you make her High Lady” the story does not lean onto to any tangible reasons as to why we the reader should believe this other than ‘Rhys loved Feyre’

Here enters the actual problem with Feyre’s character: her being High Lady is a statement of Rhys goodness, not a statement on Feyre’s prowess. Because the story leans on such individualistic, arbitrary ideals, there’s nothing being said about Feyre as a character. So much of these conversations centers around Feyre being qualified but there’s nothing in the story that suggests otherwise. Feyre being reckless and brave prove that she is….reckless and brave – both those qualities don’t really make a good leader and they prove…nothing about Feyre’s skills. Realistically, of course Feyre knows close to nothing – of course she’s going to make very bad decisions and mistakes, of course her per view is limited. So much is put into proving that Feyre is the best that there’s often no conversation about how rigid that makes Feyre as a character.

Those are flaws that make Feyre a better character. One of my favorite moments when reading A Storm of Swords was the moment Davos realizes he needs to be able to read because ‘he’s a lord now.’ I love how he reflects on how hard the process is and how the children seem to read so easily and he has to sit down and sound out the words. Davos is such a good character because he represents the kind of struggles someone – lowborn, smuggler, illiterate, might have when integrating themselves into a new hierarchal world. But this also says something about him as a character – he chooses to begin the journey to learn how to read because he’s realized he needs tools in order to combat is inexperience. Even the fact that it’s not Feyre who realizes she needs to learn how to read but Rhys who forces her says so much about her character, negatively.

So when we have these conversations about Feyre, no one ever actually proves what makes Feyre qualified to lead. Begrudgingly feeding your family because you feel obligated doesn’t prove that you can lead an entire town; it proves perhaps resilience, perhaps resourcefulness but even then id argue Feyre isn’t even that (see: she seems to not learned any other skills other than hunting, complains about her shoes instead of just mending her own or switching with Nesta or Elain; she can’t cook, etcs). Rhysand making Feyre High Lady because he loves her says nothing about her as a character. It doesn’t expound her talents and skills – and ultimately doesn’t make anyone believe the title is tangible. Even the story doesn’t believe that to be true. Nothing about Feyre’s trials UTM prove that she is capable leader – if anything they prove the opposite (I do not mean this negatively – if anything, I’ve always felt that Nesta’s arc with the Valkyries fit Feyre much more than her own arc did. I could see Feyre being someone who operates under her own set of rules. I’ve always felt that Feyre seems to chafe under rules , so it doesn’t make sense that she would bound herself to such a leadership role as High Lady).

Back to the main point – the whole I’m making is that I believe that Feyre is talked about this way because so much of her character has to be muted to connect with Rhys. I think this conversation is always a consequence of Rhyland’s characterization and the novel's (and stans) rush to defend him. So many things have to be true about Feyre in order for her romance to Rhysand to be believable - and I argue that those changes are to the detriment of the traits Feyre's is initially characterized as having. And because Rhysand never has to undergo an actual character arc the pressure is placed on Feyre's character to align with the more negative traits Rhys possesses. Realistically, given how Feyre is characterized and given the whole “I hate the preening, gawking Spring Court” – I think its weird that she would immediately (1) do the exact thing in basically nothing with Rhys (2) allow herself to be turned into the most traumatic version of herself and (3) delight in random people’s pain. But because the story never asks Feyre to introspect she simply doesn’t talk about it. And even if the story wants to go there – so much of Feyre’s healing hinges on affirming that she is good and so introducing these bad, carnal, selfish thoughts into the mix seem to undermine that.

#anti rhysand #anti sjm #anti feysand #anti acosf #feyre archeron #anfi acomaf #ACOMAF #ACOWAR #sjm critical

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littlefeltsparrow · 5 days

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It's not a mask of cruelty if you're actually being cruel. A mask is letting rumors run rampant, and even starting some yourself; being cruel is drugging, sexually assaulting, and publicly humiliating somebody who is trying to save you, your land, and your people from a heinous dictator.

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littlefeltsparrow · 5 days

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the narrative parallels of tamlin bowing to rhys despite never submitting to anyone, not even amarantha, for the sake of protecting feyre, and the significance and depth of that act going unacknowledged by most readers vs the whole “rhys bows to no one but feyre” thing when it’s just performative, because rhys never actually shows her or anyone else any real deference since ultimately his word is law…

#performative is right #For Rhysand it’s all a bunch of empty words and promises that never meaningfully give weight to Feyre’s supposed authority #He’s comfortable at the top of the hierarchy and doesn’t want to share his power under any circumstances (but he’ll pretend to)#He has this reputation as the *villainous wife guy* who supposedly reveres his wife but consistently infantilizes and undermines her status #anti rhysand #anti feysand #tamlin #anti sjm

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littlefeltsparrow · 6 days

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The IC’s relationship to Feyre is defined by her role as Rhysand’s mate and therefore cannot exist beyond that role in their minds. They never became friends with Feyre on their own terms, they were pretty much obliged to bring her into their friend group because she was their leader’s girlfriend. Feyre technically outranks them by virtue of her title, but in practice we can clearly see how little sway she has in their group and how the IC doesn’t really respect her authority.

Feyre is still very young and an outsider to them. That’s why they’re permitted to treat her like a child to be taken care of and excluded from major leadership decisions and duties. You’re spot-on, Feyre only matters to them insofar as she matters to Rhysand and that’s exactly why Feyre’s authority as High Lady is a mere facade. It makes the seemingly “happy found family” dynamic very unsettling because it reveals it as a guise for something darker.

None of the IC were aware of feysand’s death pact, which is the main reason they did what Rhysand ordered and didn’t tell Feyre that her pregnancy would be fatal. They don’t care about her outside of who she is to him. If he was willing to step aside and let his mate die while birthing the heir to his court, they didn’t care either.

#anti inner circle #anti ic #anti rhysand #acotar #anti sjm #anti feysand #sjm critical #rhysand critical #rhys acotar #feyre archeron

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littlefeltsparrow · 6 days

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Schrödinger’s Feyre: Where Feyre is simultaneously a cunning and badass girlboss with a mind of steel and a fragile little lamb who doesn’t know any better. When they’re proud, she’s a skilled strategist and competent High Lady, but when it comes to facing the consequences of her actions and the implications of her power, suddenly she’s a little baby waddling through fairy land.

#And the perfect case study? just look at the indecisiveness of her stans when it comes to her culpability in the downfall of the Spring Cou #In one camp Feyre is an excellent and clever strategist who expertly infiltrated enemy territory to destroy those who wronged her #She exacts righteous revenge on her enemy with her wits…but when Tamlin points out the collateral damage wrought upon the innocent civilian #of the Spring Court suddenly it wasn’t Feyre’s fault at all and it was ACTUALLY entirely Tamlin’s fault that the Spring Court fell #Suddenly Feyre had nothing to do with it…how convenient lol #sjm critical #anti sjm #anti inner circle #feyre archeron #anti feyre #acotar #acomaf #acowar #anti feysand #anti acosf #anti rhysand #tamlin #pro tamlin

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littlefeltsparrow · 8 days

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Feyre’s little “femme fatale manipulator arc” in the first half of ACOWAR is stupid beyond words. According to Maas, the height of Feyre’s cleverness and cunning arrives when she pretends to be a battered woman to ruin Tamlin’s reputation and his court. This comes in spite of the fact that a huge portion of ACOMAF was devoted to telling the reader how Tamlin was an awful, abusive bastard and reiterating Feyre’s victimhood to a comical extent.

Like ooooh how subversive for her to weaponize sympathy for abuse victims (even though in reality, society is extremely hostile to victims of domestic violence) It undercuts the pseudo-feminist statement that Maas tried to make about abusive relationships and reminds us of the fact that Maas’s feminism is the most surface-level and lazy version there is. Even when she writes Tamlin as an abuser (even though she does a terrible job) she can’t help but give him the same plausible deniability that she affords to all her other male characters.

#sjm critical #anti sjm #anti rhysand #acotar #anti inner circle #anti acosf #feyre archeron #acowar #ACOMAF

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littlefeltsparrow · 8 days

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Feyre’s lack of political awareness and need to dickride the IC in any circumstance is actually astounding. Especially during the High Lords’ meeting when she just assumed her little gang is somehow better than everyone else

Feyre during the HL meeting: yeah Mor & Azriel could take on all 6 High Lords in a battle, no problem🥰

MY GIRL YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THESE PEOPLE!!! YOU’VE KNOWN EVERYBODY IN THIS ROOM FOR LIKE 6 MONTHS MAX!!!! And you were a human who knew nothing about them before that!!!!

Genuinely, have we even seen Mor or the Bat Boys do anything that warrants them being stronger/better than the guys who are literally magic personified??? The mfs who have been picked specially by a higher power, mind you. I’m sorry, but the Inner Circle is getting obliterated if it’s them against the High Lords 😭

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littlefeltsparrow · 8 days

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Narrative consistency found gunned down in a ditch at 3am. Now that you mention it…that’s an INSANE omission of a key point in Nesta’s character arc in ACOTAR. The story drops that tidbit once…and proceeds to never mention it again while the other characters harp on Nesta for her transgressions that happened before her trek to the wall. But the story needs to ignore that part of Nesta and point the readers focus towards contrived and repetitive conversations that force her to engage in a bizarre ritual of guilt-tripping for the wish fulfillment narrative.

Her good deeds are quickly forgotten while her flaws are overemphasized to the point of farce. Rhysand is the inverse of this and that’s what makes this dynamic so aggravating to read. Someone once pointed out that when Feyre told Cassian that Nesta had never been on a hike before, she was wrong because Nesta HAD hiked in ACOTAR. She hiked to the wall to search for her sister…but that might as well not have happened because it suddenly (and unfairly) becomes irrelevant to the story.

It’s definitely intentional on SJM’s part. She needs these kinds of contrivances to keep the story moving forward and justify a “redemption arc” that Nesta DOESN’T EVEN NEED!

I don't know about everyone else but I find it absurd that it was never mentioned again throughout the entirety of the series that Nesta had tried to rescue Feyre. She had braved the forest with the mercenary and attempted to seek a way through the wall. Why was it so easily forgotten?

Edit: It's almost as if it was intentionally not mentioned anywhere. Ever again. To make her character be perceived in a certain way by the readers.

#sjm critical #anti rhysand #pro nesta #acotar #nesta archeron #anti acosf #anti feysand #anti inner circle #feyre archeron #anti sjm #a court of silver flames #a court of thorns and roses

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littlefeltsparrow · 9 days

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Where the fuck are the magical consequences in the ACOTAR series?

I have two main examples, and the first being the pivotal change that kick-starts the whole Feyre and Rhysand storyline. That being, the Bargain.

Aren't bargain in general Fairytale lore cross the board mostly non-negotiable? That being said, Rhysand forced the unnecessary Bargain on Feyre while UTM so she has to spend 1 week a month with him for the rest of her life. I'd say the shit should have been void since the damn girl died and the bargain was made while she was human. Now she isn't; she's Fae and it still stayed and thus, has to spend 1 week of her now immortal life with him per month. OK, I'll bite. But then the first two or was it three (who cares) months...that didn't happen, adding to everyone's paranoia in SC. Had Tamlin searching high and low of ways to break it, and in the end, the Cauldron was needed to break it.

...so, what's the point in a bargain if you can pick a choose how it works? There were no stipulations. 1 week a month. That's it. The magic should respond violently/whimsically/something each time it's breached on one party or both. Does the magic of bargain mean nothing then if it's not fulfilled? And if so, couldn't Feyre had just told Rhysand to piss off when he came to collect her seeming nothing bad happened after missing the first couple of months initially?

Anyway, moving on.

The High Lord meeting.

They all go to Dawn to talk about Hybern and it was stated that the HL's can't harm or attack or do whatever to each other because the magic of the room prevents it, but that's...not true.

The NC got away with so much magical shit. Rhysand stealing Tamlin’s voice/mouth, Feyre losing control and harmed the Lady of Autumn and then didn't care and deliberately went to harm Baron. And then Azriel straight up attacks Eris. Like, the actual fuck?

Not a single consequence or magical interference in a space that's meant to be neutral. The whole scene just made the NC look dumb, though I'm sure Sarah wanted me to be on their side, but like, get a grip. Use your words than having an emotional outburst, but I guess those are only allowed and excusable for the NC.

So, does the magic in the room all the HL's and those in attendance, I guess, are beholden to only reacts with legitimate life-threatening ordeals than petty squabbles?

Anyway, magic holds no weight in the direct moments they're meant to and its weird.

#The HL revealed the Night Court for what it truly is which is a clique of grovelling sycophants who bully their way into relevance and #maintain the most irritating and pompous attitude in a situation with SERIOUS STAKES! The fact that they got away with so much shit at the #HL meeting is so aggravating…especially when they proudly tout themselves as the bestest most progressive court in all of fairy land #Emotional outbursts that cause physical harm are judged in terms of who they come from and not the morality of such an action #ughhhh #tamlin is the devil incarnate when his magic reacts to his magic and he regrets it #feyre lashes out and harms the entirely innocent lady of autumn and barely fucking apologizes #azriel attacks the autumn heir and not a single high lord cares #there’s no repercussions for anything at any point for the nc or ic #acotar critical #anti sjm

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littlefeltsparrow · 10 days

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it's so wild that Tamlin canonically does everything he can to break the curse but everyone forgets when Rhysand says he sat on his ass and did nothing. ig only Rhys' sacrifice gets to matter, only Rhys gets to be a martyr figure because Tamlin didn't hand himself over to be abused and used by Amarantha? weird

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littlefeltsparrow · 11 days

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Feyre betrayed Nesta in the worst way...

It's a common stance that many people, regardless of if they love or hate Nesta/Rhys/the IC, seem to have, but I don't think it is. Was Nesta complacent in keeping it from her since she found out? Yes. Was that wrong of her? Yes again. Was blurting it out the way that she did also not ideal, to put it mildly? Absolutely yes. But was it out of malice? No.

And Nesta didn't care. Couldn't think around the roaring. 'Have any of them told you, their respected High lady, that the babe in your womb will kill you?' Amren barked, 'Shut your mouth!' But her order was confirmation enough. Face paling, Feyre whispered again, 'What do you mean?' 'The wings,' Nesta seethed. 'The boy's Illyrian wings will get stuck in your Fae body during the labour, and it will kill you both.'

The idea that this was all said in malice just never sat right to me, and after scrolling through some comments on a video discussing the matter, the pieces finally clicked into place. First, let's talk about the hike, though.

Her breakdown after that hike wasn't a moment of catharsis and letting walls down. It was a weeks worth of exhaustion, dehydration and depression that resulted in Nesta giving in to the torture she was put through just to end it. It was a pivotal moment in the IC's efforts to break and then reconstruct her to their liking, or rather, to Feyre's liking. However, a vital stepping stone in reaching this point would be for them to gaslight and isolate her until she truly had no one. I mentioned before that I didn't think anyone in the NC would chose Nesta, and this is an example of why I believe that.

Nesta snarled, but Feyre stepped between them, hands raised. 'This conversation ends now. Nesta, go back to the House. Amren, you...' She hesitated, as if considering the wisdom of ordering Amren around. Feyre finished carefully, 'You stay here.'

Nesta is clearly upset and hurting and Feyre disregards that entierly, not even offering to discuss or find out why Nesta is hurt or feeling the way she is. Feyre didn't bother to try and understand Nesta before and she isn't bothering now. Either Feyre assumes she knows what Nesta is thinking/ feeling, or she just doesn't care. She dismisses her, telling her to go back to her prison, disregarding Nesta's choices, autonomy and opinions again.

If I recall right, it was Amren who informed Nesta that she was free to go where she wanted if she made it down the ten thousand steps. Feyre wouldn't order Amren, even to stand up for her sister, but happily go against Amren's own words to punish Nesta? Hypocrisy at it's finest.

All of this leads to one outcome: Nesta feeling trapped. Cornered and without a single ally in the whorld who would defend her properly. Isolated from anyone who'd be willing to treat her with decency, while believing she doesn't even deserve the basics of kindness. It leaves Nesta more prone to actually going through with committing suicide, since the behaviour of these people, mixed with her own self hatred, sets a precedent for how Nesta believe she'd be treated.

We see this when Nesta first meets Emerie, thinking to herself that 'the invitations would stop' when Emerie learned what nesta was really like. Or at least what Nesta perceived herself to be like.

Even though Nesta has Emerie and Gwyn, she has no reason to think, based on what brainwashing the IC has already done coupled with her self deprecating mindset, that they wouldn't side with the IC. This isn't to say Emerie and Gwyn are like the IC by any means. I think they're great friends to Nesta, and if that changes or not later on is more so up to SJM and her writing, rather than their characterisation. It's the reality that the IC have created for Nesta through abuse, gaslighting and borderline torture that's wound up feeding in to Nesta's already existing trauma and self worth that has lead to her becoming isolated this way.

And Nesta didn't care. Couldn't think around the roaring. 'Have any of them told you, their respected High lady, that the babe in your womb will kill you?'

The comment on the video I saw explained that, while Nesta was angry when saying this, she wasn't trying to hurt Feyre or take her anger out on anyone. Nesta was angry because she wasn't told that she made a new trove. She was angry that these people had the audacity to vote on her life, and take bodily autonomy from her. She was angry that Feyre wasn't acknowledging or even trying to understand how Nesta was feeling. She was angry that she was treated like the bad guy- or more like a petulant child in this scene, I suppose- and had her feelings dismissed again.

Dismissed the way her mother/grandmother used to when she was trained. The way her father did when he refused to hunt. The way the Mortal Queens did when Nesta merely asked them to save her people. The way Feyre did when she asked for Nesta's help again, and again, and again during the war, only for it to never be enough in the eyes of other. The way that Elain did when she got upset at Nesta time and time again for how she handled her trauma or how she wasn't over her trauma or how Nesta tried to protect her. The way Cassian dismissed her feelings when he got mad at her for having an opinion of Rhysand.

Nesta was angry. She had every right to be angry. Most people would be angry, and alone, and if they already had suicidal thoughts like Nesta, having been abandoned by everybody while gaslit into thinking it was fine, and then only called upon to be used for the benefit of others while the snickered behind her back and dismissed her again.

As the commenter put it; She was trying to find someone who would relate to her anger. Nesta wanted an ally, someone who wouldn't leave her alone. Someone to be by her side and, perhaps subconsciously, thought that Feyre, who'd hunted for them and helped look after them for years, would chose Nesta's side.

The parallels between Nesta and Feyre's situation here are clear, and I think Nesta understood that when she said what she said. I think that Feyre believing Nesta said it to hurt her was a gross misunderstanding on her part, but it's not like she ever asked Nesta how she felt. Now that I think about it, for all that Feyre talks about Nesta feeling too much, and taking everything to heart, she never once confirms with Nesta. Never asks how Nesta feels.

Since coming to the Night Court, Nesta's feelings and traumas have been twisted and spoken about only in relation to how Feyre feels.

'Do you know how embarrassed I was when we got the bill this morning and my friends-my family- had to hear all about it?'

The intervention began, not because of Nesta doing something to risk hurting herself, but because Feyre was embarrassed and started crying into her breakfast.

'All of it pains me… It pains me that Nesta has become… this. It pains me that she and Feyre are always at each other’s throats. It pains me that Feyre hurts over it, and I know Nesta does, too.'

Cassian is pained, not because Nesta is suffering so greatly that she isolated herself for her own sisters (who didn't really act like sisters between the end of ACOWAR to... well now, so it's understandable), or because Nesta felt her only reprieve from her pain was in sex and alcohol, but because Feyre hurts over it. He knows Nesta does (but he doesn't know she hates fire? Or is uncomfortable at their social gatherings, since in ACOFS he somehow hoped she wouldn't take the bribe money and say she enjoyed their solstice party??? Because...Why?) But, of course, it's Feyre's feelings on the matter that are prioritised.

'Nesta is Nesta. She does what she wants, even if it kills her sister.'

Rhysand, not that I expect much from him, honestly, is utpse, not because he can't find a way to help Nesta. Not because his court is actively cruel to Nesta, hell, he joins in. Not because Nesta is in pain, in no small part because of him and his court. Not even because Nesta is spending his money. Because she's upsetting Feyre. Because, god forbid, Nesta have trauma and handle it in a way that doesn't make his wife happy.

Feyre tells others how she thinks Nesta feels, the others go with it, or just come to their own conclusions, not sure which is worse, but nobody stops to consider how she feels. Feyre feeling like Nesta said it to hurt her, I think, is simply proof that she doesn't understand Nesta.

Let me ask you, if you found out you were lied to in a way that affects your ability to make informed decisions regarding your own body, by someone you were supposed to trust, and who should've had your back, and that your own sibling has been betrayed by the same people in a very similar, if not identical way, and yet you're the one being turned into the bad guy, and dismissed, would that not make you feel isolated and frustrated?

It's understandable that Nesta tried, either consciously or subconsciously, feel less alone by appealing to common ground to find an ally. Nesta mentions at the end of ACOSF that she believes Feyre loved her from the start, and after those years in the cabin, I think Nesta sees Feyre as someone reliable.

This scene doesn't feels like Nesta trying to hurt Feyre. It feels like Nesta trying to reach out to the one person she could rely on; Feyre. Her mother was abusive, her father was a deadbeat, Elain was her ward, and the IC hate her.

'Nesta studied me for a long moment. And then she said with equal quiet, though we could all hear, “I can’t get into a bathtub, anymore. I have to use buckets.” I hadn’t known—hadn’t even thought that bathing, submerging water…'

Amren tells Cassian to keep reaching out his hand, even though Nesta has reached out her own time and time again. Esspecially to Feyre, as she was the one Nesta relied on before. Possibly even the only person Nesta has ever relied on, and Fyre was the one she was trying to rely on now.

Nesta relied on Feyre, and needed to rely on her again. To have strength together, in a situation where they both lost their choices and autonomy to Rhysand and his (cause don't pretend it's even slightly Feyre's) IC.

It may have been wrong to say it in that way, at that time, under those circumstances, but this, to me, feels like Nesta's way of reaching out her own hand only to be misunderstood, punished, and dismissed again. And again. And again.

In a way, I think Feyre might have, unintentionally, betrayed Nesta in a worse way than Elain ever has. Elain was a ward. Almost like a child, to Nesta. They were never on equal footing. Moreover, Nesta was never punished if she upset Elain, no that she should be, or if Elain misunderstood her. Nesta never relied on Elain the way she relied on Feyre. She never trusted or had faith in Elain, the way she clearly trusted Feyre. She had thought she'd found an ally, with similar pain, in Feyre, in the moments she spilled the secret, but Feyre didn't care.

When I was reading the scene where Cassian told Feyre his idea to take Nesta on a punishment hike, she sounded all too gleeful when telling him how miserable Nesta would be. That, in my opinion, is the worst betrayal of all.

#anti inner circle #anti ic #pro nesta #anti rhysand #nesta deserves better #anti acosf #pro nesta archeron #anti amren

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littlefeltsparrow · 14 days

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Rhysand stans have chapter 54 memorized likes it’s the goddamn bible which is why it’s impossible to have a genuine discussion with them about rhys’s character.No I’m not asking you to recite rhys’s 20 page retconning monologue Im asking you if you think it was ok for him to treat feyre the way he did UTM.Please try forming your own thoughts and using your own words 🤗.

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littlefeltsparrow · 17 days

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Azriel in Silver Flames

I've basically hated the IC since... Acowar, honestly. But the more I think about it, the more conflicted I am about Azriel. I liked him in every book, but in retrospect, I'm not so sure anymore. This is mostly regarding his treatment of Nesta, since he honestly didn't do much before hand the start of Silver Flames, and he didn't do too much during it either.

I understand why Azriel would stay away from Nesta from the end of ACOWAR to the start of Silver Flames. He's observant, and I imagine he's figured out that Nesta doesn't want to spend time with the IC. Moreover, he may also see it as being in Feyre's jurisdiction, and wanting to stay out of it out of respect for her privacy and what not. It's his behaviour through out silver flames that has me conflicted.

Azriel was raised in confinement with limited interactions with other people. He saw his mother once a week, for limited time and suffered physical and verbal abuse, and torture during that time. He had no control over his schedule, food, social interactions, nothing. Yet, despite that, he allowed Nesta to be isolated and kept on a strict schedule and diet that she has no say in, and we never see any signs of him arguing against it. Especially since he knows being locked up somewhere against your will, where you can't leave, often made to do things you don't want, is what most of the IC's trauma roots from (Amren in the Prison, Rhys UTM, Feyre UTM, Mor in the CON, Azriel in his father's dungeon, etc). Why the, seemingly, most sensible person allowed this is beyond me.

Azriel, through out the book, never protests against this treatment either. He treats Nesta decently, though that is the absolute minimum. She should've been treated like that, regardless, of where she was or what she was doing.

He despises Illyria, knows the dangers out there, from both males and whatever's in those forests, yet he doesn't protest against Nesta going. We've seen that there are days where she wanders around on her own (like when she went to Emerie's), without protection. What would happen if she jumped off a cliff or a steep bluff? Or if she went into the forests? What about if some of the males attacked her? It's not like she was constantly supervised. trusting her witch status will keep them away is too risky, since some might not care. Azriel knows the dangers of Illyria, and he let her be taken there. He saw how Illyria hurt his mother, and how she was treated, first hand.

He doesn't do anything even after suspecting that Cassian pushed her down the stairs, or witnessing her being verbally abused by Cassian, and Rhys when he cares to show up. He doesn't defend her, or shut his brothers down, he just lets it happen, seemingly unbothered. Idk about you, but if I was at dinner, and my brother said to his girlfriend, the things that Cassian says to Nesta, I'd drag him out the front door by the hair myself.

Azriel also had a bag packed for Nesta and Cassian's hike from hell, waiting for Cassian to come get it. He let Cassian take Nesta somewhere else against her will. He, presumably, knew about the plan to take her on that hike, helped prepare for it, and just let it happen without a care. He knew where they were taking her, and what they were going to make her do, and he let it happen.

Then there's the issue regarding the Trove. Azriel pushes for Nesta's right to know about what her powers can do, yet he doesn't have any issue pushing her into life threatening situation to keep Elain from it? He says that Elain shouldn't be exposed to whatever darkness the trove and cauldron possess, but that alone implies that Nesta should be exposed to it, and that's despite her mental condition at the time.

While I don't think Azriel's status as a spymaster means he should know things like Nesta's fear of fire, and her suicidal ideation, but it does mean that there's a very good chance that he does (and yet he still sends her on that hike). Knowing this, Azriel implies that Nesta should go on these life threatening missions, where she could be killed, or commit suicide, or be taken.

Azriel is shown to stand up to/argue with Rhysand in the bonus chapters. He does so for himself and arguably Elain. Why doesn't he do it for Nesta too?

It's all of these little things that leave a bitter taste in my mouth regarding Azriel.

Would he have tried to beg/force Nesta to go instead of Elain had she refused, or if he would've stood up for Nesta if Cassian had become physically violent with her. If she refused to go on that hike, would he have fought for her right to chose like he did before? If Rhys tried to kill her, would he stand up to him for her? If Elain is mistreated in her book, would he stand up for her? If so, why not Nesta too? How can he call himself her friend if he doesn't at least try to talk about how wrong it is, assuming he even realises it's wrong to start with.

We haven't gotten much of his pov yet, and he doesn't really say much, but from what I have seen, I'm concerned. Azriel may not be actively trying to hurt Nesta, but it feels like he enables his brothers and his court too much.

Didn't Tamlin dod the same, along with his court, who watched Feyre whither away, and did nothing. Even if they didn't see what was happening in her head, they saw her wasting away from lack of sleep or food. Isn't Azriel doing the same to Nesta by letting her be treated that way? Reaming neutral still makes him part of the problem, doesn't it?

Am I the only one who gets this bad taste in my mouth when I think about this?

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