Human Nesta would shake Nessian Nesta by the shoulders screaming "What the fuck is wrong with you???!!!!"

Human Feyre would be drawing her bow trying to shoot Feysand Feyre just so she would never become her.

Human Elain would look at Elucien Elain and be like, "Nice."

The way people switched on Tamlin the moment Rhys was introduced is diabolical.

“Tamlin never really loved Feyre, it was all a trick from the start”: It is stated that Tamlin was disgusted by the idea of forcing someone to fall in love with him and considered it slavery, but ended up being so in love with her that he ultimately lets her go and choses her freedom and safety over that of his own people. Rhys confirms that Tamlin loved Feyre too much. And he loved her truly. Not because he had to. Tamlin treated Feyre with dignity when she was engaged to him. He introduced her as his lady, to be respected and cherished by all. And she really was loved his people, too. Rhysand uses her as his lap dog to scare Hewn City and parades her as his whore.

“Tamlin never did anything for Feyre, he just used her”: He improved her and her family’s life in every aspect and offered her everything he had.

“Tamlin had sex with someone else in Calanmai”: Out of duty and responsibility because he didn’t want to force Feyre, who still wasn’t sure about her feelings, into it. All of the High Lords perform the Calanmai. Lucien says so. How convenient that this is never brought up with Rhysand. He surely does perform it as well. All the theories in here, “Lucien doesn’t know what he’s talking about/ This is a SC ritual only/ He probably just passes the duty on to someone else” are just a way for people to villainise Tam and glorify Rhys again. All of them inaccurate. The Calanmai is canonically performed by every High Lord. There’s no evidence that proves otherwise. As the son of one High Lord and the ambassador of another, Lucien would know. He is 500 years old. It’s just more convenient for SJM to never bring this up again because it raises the question of “Who was Rhysand fucking all these years?” and it makes her favourite character look bad. And once he is engaged to her, Tamlin flat out refuses to do it. Let’s be real for a second.

“Tamlin didn’t help Feyre under the mountain”: He literally could not. He was bound by a curse. He was forced to be Amarantha’s consort and a consort cannot oppose you. His powers were bound. Alis warns Feyre that Tamlin will not be able to help her. Stop acting as if he didn’t want to help her. He decapitated Amarantha the moment he got his autonomy back. Claiming that there’s no proof that Tamlin was under the influence of a spell when he literally didn’t break the curse and Amarantha’s magic didn’t allow him to use his powers is crazy. And even if he tried, he could never provide actual help. We see this when he begs Amarantha for Feyre’s life. Him showing he cares about her would only make Amarantha more jealous and vicious towards Feyre.

“Tamlin made out with Feyre instead of helping her”: He couldn’t help her run away. No one could do that. She would never make it, Amarantha would find her. In fact, Tamlin specifically could not help her in any way. He could only assure her he still wants and loves her. And she wanted that just as much. Rhys abused her physically, mentally, verbally, drugged her and much worse. And he enjoyed all of it. If he didn’t want to raise suspicions, he wouldn’t have placed a bet in her favour. Rhys is a masochist, SJM just decided to mellow him down in the next book so that we’d all like him over Tamlin.

“Tamlin ignored Feyre’s wishes and only wanted her to be his bride, he didn’t let her be High Lady”: Both Tamlin and Feyre were bad communicators going though trauma and Tam had a whole court to care for. Tamlin was unaware of how Feyre felt because she barely spoke up once. Rhys knew because he literally lived inside her head and had all the time in the world to focus his attention on her since his court suffered zero consequences during Amarantha’s reign. And Tamlin simply told her the truth: there’s no such thing as High Lady. Even her current title is given to her by Rhys, the magic of Prythian has not actually chosen her to be High Lady. The title and its power are decorative. And she said she didn’t want that anyway.

“Tamlin locks Feyre up and uses his magic to harm her”: He locks her in his humongous palace to keep her safe, after she just came back from the dead and his worst enemy is kidnapping her every month, while he runs off to protect his borders. Rhysand lock Feyre in a fucking bubble. Tamlin loses control of his magic. He doesn’t want to harm her. That’s not abuse. Abuse is intentional. Feyre and Rhysand lock Lucien and Nesta up. They lock the people of the Hewn City up in a cave. Feyre loses control of her magic and harms Lucien’s mother. Double standards I guess.

“Tamlin is a bad and conservative ruler”: Tamlin is such a beloved ruler that his sentries literally begged to die for him. Feyre had to fuck with their minds to finally turn them against him. They were his friends. He was so progressive that the lords fled his court once he became their ruler because he wouldn’t put up with their bullshit like his father did. He loved all of his people. He is against slavery. The Tithe was just tax collection. Rhysand practically rules over just one city, while ignoring Hewn City and Illyria. He treats 2/3 of his realm like shit and everyone except the residents of Velaris hates him. He collects tax, too, but we conveniently never see this. He ranks the members of his inner circle (my 1st, my 2nd etc.) and reminds them every moment that they are his slaves first and anything else second, while Tamlin treats them equally and even gives Lucien an official title by naming him Ambassador.

“Tamlin conspired with Hybern”: He was a double agent and his short lived alliance, two weeks all in all, not only didn’t harm a single soul, but ultimately saved all of Prythian as he was the only one who brought valuable information to that meeting. He dragged Beron to battle. Rhysand’s alliance with Amarantha harmed thousands and only helped save one city, Velaris.

“Tamlin is responsible for turning Nesta and Elain into Fae”: No, that was Ianthe, who got the info from Feyre. Tamlin was fooled by her, just as Feyre obviously was, or she wouldn’t have trusted her. Tamlin was disgusted by that act.

“Tamlin is less powerful than Rhysand”: Rhysand himself says that a battle between them would turn mountains to dust. Tamlin killed Rhysand’s dad, the previous High Lord of the Night Court, in one blow. He is just as powerful as Rhysand. SJM again just wants us to believe otherwise. And he is smarter, too. He was the only one not to trust Amarantha. And he was a good spy for Prythian against Hybern.

All of these takes are cold as fuck. SJM was testing the waters with ACOTAR and she made sure the main love interest, Tamlin, was insanely likeable, so that the book could be a satisfactory standalone story in case she couldn’t land a trilogy deal. She didn’t know it would be such a big hit. But once she realised she could turn this into a franchise, she had to figure out a new story to tell. She may claim otherwise, but there’s just too many plothotes to convince me. And in order to make her new main love interest seem like the best choice, she had to character assassinate the old one. There was no other way. ACOTAR Rhys was too much of an evil monster to be loved by the majority of the audience. But Tamlin was introduced to us as such a heroic and passionate man that is literally impossible to turn him into someone despised by all. Feyre’s relationship with Rhysand reads too much like cheating on Tamlin. That’s why anyone with basic analytical skills is able to realise the flaws of the narration.

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.

What gets me about Feyre’s character is the inconsistencies.

Like in ACOMAF, we see her get upset over the Tithe thing in the Spring Court. And she chooses to help the wraith, even knowing that they’re not notoriously ‘good’ people. While I don’t think the Tithe makes Tamlin a monster, I can see why Feyre would get upset. It felt very much like something she would do up until that point.

However, when she goes to the Hewn City, it never dawns on her that there could be other innocent women there like Mor. I know she’s not in control at first, but even when goes back as their High Lady, she never questions it. When Keir ignores her, she even thinks “As I’m sure he ignored most women in his life”. And then he excuses himself from the meeting to ‘deal’ with somebody’s daughter (the man who mutilated his OWN daughter, btw) and she’s just cool with it???? It’s so clearly stated how women have little to no rights in the Court of Nightmares and everyone’s just cool with abusive, sexist men staying in control? And Rhysand’s whole “umm actually I rule this city 😠” every 9 months when he needs their army is so fucking stupid like bro you are allowing these men to hurt these women and you DON’T CARE. But that’s our feminist king😻

And don’t even get me started on her taking out her own personal vendetta on a whole court instead of just Tamlin. Ya know, the people she was just fighting for against the Tithe? Yeah she was like “fuck it you’re all dead to me now”. Okay Mrs. High Lady making terrible fucking choices already😭

I guess SJM is saving the dismantlement of the Court of Nightmares for Mor’s book (if we even get that) but for Feyre to not even question it more just because Rhysand said so genuinely aggravates me so much. She had no problem questioning Tamlin’s ruling decisions but somehow Rhys is absolved from all of that? Really? Is the dick that good, girl? Did she lose her morals in becoming his mate and High Lady? I need answers

Nesta and Tamlin being like the only reasonable characters in acotar yet also the most hated is so funny. They have the most nuance and in my humble opinion actual character yet they are heavily boiled down to being… mean. like thats all they get.

They dont fall for the night courts bullshit and get fucking crucified by the majority fandom for it. They have negative emotions that effect Feyfey and rice and tamlin and nesta are EVIL for it. Im sorry to break it to all yall feysanders but the whole world doesnt revolve around those mfs and character (and real people) are allowed to dislike and not agree with them💀💀 especially when they are FUCKING HYPOCRITES AND SUCK🗣️🗣️

I wish soooo badly that Nesta had said something like “taking a page out of Tamlin’s book?” to Feyre when they told her she’d be locked in the house of wind. Feyre prob would’ve cried and Rhys prob would’ve killed Nesta for making Feyre cry but the satisfaction for me in that moment would’ve been 🤌

SJM writes stories about women overcoming their fears and finding other female characters and building a better world - and yet, I see an alarming amount of people being misogynistic and sexist towards the very same characters they read about.

Claiming Feyre is a bad painter when there's literally no evidence for it, calling her boring for choosing motherhood, calling her weak for having a human heart (something she is PRAISED for by everyone else), trying to blame her for everything her abuser did; Discrediting Morrigan and claiming she lied, giving Eris the benefit of the doubt therefore making Mor into the bad guy; Claiming Elain is a wh*re, a b*tch because she has a mate she doesn't care about but for some reason she has to be faithful to him, she has to reject him, ACCEPT him when all we've seen is her discomfort around him. Claiming she isn't good enough for a man because, supposedly, she can't have his babies; calling her useless because she doesn't want to use violence; Unfortunately, there are many other examples I could name.

Please note that the male characters are NEVER the object of such criticism - in fact, people will doubt the women who told showed us men are abusers and do everything in their power to believe them instead, ignoring the very canon content the author wrote herself ("there's definitely more to it!"; "feyre is an unreliable narrator!"; "why should we believe mor?")

And now, with HOFAS nearly out, I keep seeing people wanting Bryce to hate Elain? To be a bitch to Mor and Feyre? Where in the books did you ever get the impression any of these female characters would hate each other?

I genuinely never expected to see so much misoginy when I first joined a book fandom where female characters are literally the focus of everything. What saddens me the most is how much these ideas seem to be growing instead of disappearing.

You all need to grow up.

Romanticization of sexual assault

I wept harder, and he laughed. The stones reverberated as he knelt before me, and though I tried to fight him, his grip was firm as he grasped my wrists and pried my hands from my face. The walls weren’t moving, and the room was open—gaping. No colors, but shades of darkness, of night. Only those star-flecked violet eyes were bright, full of color and light. He gave me a lazy smile before he leaned forward. I pulled away, but his hands were like shackles. I could do nothing as his mouth met with my cheek, and he licked away a tear. His tongue was hot against my skin, so startling that I couldn’t move as he licked away another path of salt water, and then another. My body went taut and loose all at once and I burned, even as chills shuddered along my limbs. It was only when his tongue danced along the damp edges of my lashes that I jerked back. He chuckled as I scrambled for the corner of the cell. I wiped my face as I glared at him. He smirked, sitting down against a wall. “I figured that would get you to stop crying.” “It was disgusting.” I wiped my face again. “Was it?” He quirked an eyebrow and pointed to his palm—to the place where my tattoo would be. “Beneath all your pride and stubbornness, I could have sworn I detected something that felt differently. Interesting.” “Get out.” “As usual, your gratitude is overwhelming.” “Do you want me to kiss your feet for what you did at the trial? Do you want me to offer another week of my life?” “Not unless you feel compelled to do so,” he said, his eyes like stars. THIS IS NOT ROMANCE. Some of you might be into that, but this is absolutely fucking NOT romance. Like it's not a healthy relationship. I would be fine if people admit that but some people act like it's healthy???? Like??? Tamlin "kidnapped" Feyre, sure, but he treated her well and protected her from fell beasts. Rhysand, in his attempt to "protect" her, caused her more harm. This. Is. NOT. Protection!!!! You know what? Fine. Fucking fine. I can admit that MAYBE Fae Feyre and Fae Tamlin are not the best match, that they were better off when Feyre was human. But to imply it's less healthy than Rhysand and she fell for the first bit of kindness she was shown???? Like I would've accepted Fae Feyre with Lucien or something and Human Feyre with Tamlin, because I really do feel like Lucien understood Feyre better than Tamlin did in many ways (this is not a shot at Tamlin, I just think Lucien is smarter and he's better with people and remember that Lucien vibed with Feyre BEFORE she vibed with Tamlin). But SA victim with her sexual assaulter? No no no no no. He didn't even fucking apologize.

Honestly we could REALLY get into the fact that a lot of the insanity in Acotar is an excellent exercise in why you can't really separate the art from the author.

Sjm's zionism is OBVIOUS in the text. The ic destabilize governments to the detriment of people they will never have to care for, steal artifacts from other countries, displace people, cause invasions, commit war crimes for 50 years "for the greater good" all while their own people are living under unchecked brutality and poverty.

They are rich megalomaniacs that care for no one but themselves and their own emotional and material satisfaction and they are PRAISED for it. In fact anyone who even remotely disagrees with the IC is almost always one of the villains in the story (Beron, Tamlin, etc) as if to condition the reader that asking questions that are critical of the IC puts you on the wrong side of the narrative morally.

All of that sounds REALLL familiar huh?

"Tamlin did nothing to help Feyre under the mountain!"

He sent her away for that very reason. He wouldn't be able to protect her the way she'd need to be. She chose to come back and knew this. Was warned. Any inclination of even knowing her would have her dead. Anyone remember poor Claire? His powers were leashed and he being watched. He sent Lucien as aid. The moment they did have alone was one born of desperation that they both - I repeat, BOTH, succumbed to with him kissing her and Feyre reaching for his belt trying to fuck him. When things got bad, he begged for Feyre’s life and crawled to her through a wound pierced in his heart. He killed Amarantha the moment the curse broke and the opportunity came.

But he did nothing.

Sure.

Why didn't Rhysand just winnow her away? He had the most contact with her alone during that time (though the majority was her drunk as fuck, dressed in scraps and performing as Rhysand’s plaything practically naked for 3 months straight for...reasons. He had the most freedom out of all the HL's. He could have done more. But alas, the plot needs to be moved forward and everything he did is fine now, so...heart eyes, I guess? 😍🤭)

Now, what I'd say is doing nothing is Feyre and Rhysand just standing there as Elain and Nesta were kidnapped from their beds due to Feyre sharing Intel with Ianthe about her sisters. And then the Queens also knowing of her sister. Her sisters who she dragged; practically forced into Prythian's mess and couldn't even keep them protected. They both just stood there as Elain and Nesta were plunged into the Cauldron, essentially killing and remaking them against their will, not even fighting as hard as Tamlin and Lucien did for women they didn't even know.

That speaks more volume to me.

If I were in Lucien's place, I would have never forgiven Feyre and Rhysand.

When Feyre fled with Lucien from Spring Court, the only options were Summer and Autumn. Feyre said she couldn't go to Summer because there is a price on her head, so they went to Autumn, where Lucien's brothers wanted to kill him. Now, I don't think Tarquin would have killed Feyre if she said she was the High Lady of Night because he seems a pretty decent guy, and I don't think he's a fool. Lucien's brothers wanted to kill him, and I doubt they would have been punished for it. And he still goes there with her! And then Sjm says Feyre is a much better friend than Lucien????

Then, at the HL meeting, Feyre burns Lady of the Autumn's arm. Later (or before, I can't remember), Rhysand threatens to kill Lucien's mom. I wouldn't have forgiven those two, honestly.

It's already annoying how much they and the ic can do, and so many forgive them.

“Rhysand is the most powerful High Lord” this and “Rhysand is the strongest fae” that, but are we just gonna forget that Tamlin, within 30 seconds of becoming Spring Court’s High Lord, was able to fucking annihilate Rhysand’s father, who had been Night Court’s High Lord for fuck-knows-how-long and was able to kill all of Tamlin’s brothers and father?

Like, aren’t strength, valour and power Tamlin’s thing? Why did we have to take away all of these qualities from him and give them to Rhysand?

It just seems so… odd, to me at least, that Tamlin had to be nerfed in order for the reader to be convinced that Rhysand is superior in every way and therefore the better choice between them.

The fact that Rhysand never apologizes for anything he ever does in the text is infuriating and indicative of the preferential treatment Maas gives to her male love interests. She could NEVER have her beloved Rhysand debase himself by reflecting on his actions and making an effort to mend his relationships with others because she’d rather just give him a convenient excuse to absolve him. Having him apologize would be an admission of wrongdoing, and in her eyes Rhysand can do no wrong.

It makes Rhysand incredibly unattractive in my view, he seems incapable of humility and self-reflection to the point that he’ll so casually dismiss the pain and distress of other characters for “the greater good” as if that makes his actions any less harmful. Meanwhile, Maas will GLADLY take any opportunity to make Nesta grovel on her knees for forgiveness and indulge her obsession with “humbling” her to the point of absurdity.

He never even apologized to Feyre for what he inflicted on her UTM. Having good intentions doesn’t magically absolve you of all your crimes and negate their harmful consequences.

my dislike for Feyre started when she went back to the Spring Court in ACOWAR and told them some made-up sob story about how horrible Rhysand was to her and insinuated that he committed horrible, ungodly crimes against her but then got mad when people believed her and was like “How DARE you think my mate is a horrible person 😡” like babe…let’s think a bit…

(also: i dont hate her, i just prefer pretty much everyone else over her at the moment lol)

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.

“Elain deserves better than Lucien.”

At no point during this entire series are we led to believe that Lucien isn’t a high quality, compassionate, and thoughtful male. ✋😤