#The Exploits of Elaine

[abuddyforeveryseason]

Here comes the sun, doo-doop-doo-doo...

It's the Buddy for May 9th. the sun! You know, the incredibly old giant ball of fire around which everyone you know is rotating. Do not look directly into it.

The first drawing I posted, for May 12th, was the moon. So, it's pretty fitting that the sun will be one of the last.

You know, I'm not really an artist. My dad is. He's not like, a famous painter or anything, but, he can paint - he can have an idea for something, sketch out the perspective on a piece of canvas, mix the color in the palette and come up with a finished, professional-looking painting.

He's also way into cars and motorcycles, so it's hard to put him in a box like that. Parents are complicated creatures.

I have eight things in my house that could actually count as "works of art". Two of my dad's paintings - one he made in the seventies, the other, a few years ago. Three made by my aunt (his sister), I put in the living/dining area over the table. She really liked my comments on them so my cousin gave them to me. A reproduction of The Persistence of Memory over my bed - the same one every college kid who didn't like Fight Club had. A reproduction of an abstract Jack Kirby painting over my TV I got from The Jack Kirby Collector. And a reproduction of the French poster for silent film serial The Exploits of Elaine, which I've seen on the background of Friends for eleven years.

I think it's an okay-looking place. Not as well-cleaned as some people would like, but I'm comfortable.

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

Who Killed Teddy Bear

Quick, name a film directed by Kevin Kline’s father-in-law. If you have a taste for failed sleaze you’ll come up with the third film in my “stalker trilogy,” Joseph Cates’ WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR (1965, Prime, Plex, YouTube). The other two are SCREAMING MIMI (1958) and SATAN IN HIGH HEELS (1962), and though the middle one is clearly exploitation, the other two are more exploitation adjacent. SCREAMING MIMI exists to display the physical endowments of Anita Ekberg without showing any naughty bits. WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR is more exploitation in the C.B. DeMille tradition of wallowing in decadence while seeming to condemn it. It’s altogether possible that Cates, writers Arnold Drake and Leon Tokatyan and producer Everett Rosenthal were seriously concerned with the culture’s growing sexualization, and you could hardly accuse its talented stars — Sal Mineo, Juliet Prowse and Elaine Stritch — of spreading smut. Yet it still has a smarmy feel about it, compounded by the low budget and unfortunate, choppy editing that seems to indicate they ran out of money before shooting everything in the script.

Prowse is an aspiring dancer making ends meet as a platter spinner at an early disco. She starts receiving obscene phone calls, but who is it? The vice cop (Jan Murray) who takes a particular interest in the case seems somewhat preoccupied with sexual perversion (he plays tapes of victim interviews while his ten-year-old daughter listens from the next room). But  he doesn’t have the body displayed in the shadows as the man calls her. When the stalker calls while Murray is there, the camera cuts to reveal it’s the club’s busboy (Sal Mineo). Meanwhile, Prowse’s boss (Elaine Stritch) seems to have her own designs on the woman’s body.

This is all shot rather primitively, with cameras following Mineo as he prowls 42nd Street, ogling suggestive lingerie in a shop window, looking at porn magazines and entering a theater showing CALL GIRL 77 (1962). The dancing at the disco is shot from a low angle to make it seem somehow sinister and hyper-sexualized. There’s also a flashback to Mineo’s past, when his seduction by an older woman led to an accident that left his young sister with brain damage. It’s all very sex-negative, yet for some reason there’s also a scene — beloved by gay men, their magazines and their porn sites — in which the camera makes love to Mineo as he works out in a tight Speedo. Is this to associate working out with sexual perversion, or does it possibly include our gaze in the film’s attack on sexuality?

The film’s main virtue is that it was shot in New York, offering a glimpse of the pre-Disney Times Square and theater actors like Rex Everhardt, Frank Campanella, Bruce Glover, Tom Aldredge and, of course, Stritch. She fares the best of the four stars, possibly because her part is too short to be burdened with the inconsistencies facing the others. Her pain when Prowse rejects her advances is touching (she had been directed to play the scene angrily but suggested what she considered a more realistic approach). Mineo probably suffers the worst from the inconsistent writing. He has solid moments, but there are other places where he doesn’t seem sure of where the part is taking him. Murray is unspeakably bad, not endowing his lines with much of anything so his painful story about his wife’s murder is almost funny. The role needed a George C. Scott, and they got a stand-up comic and game-show host, though I doubt even Scott could salvage the moment in which the detective suddenly remembers how mirrors work. Prowse is so beautiful it almost doesn’t matter how good she is. She gets a nice moment of dancing toward the end, and in her final shots, her body language is devastating. Just before the climax, she’s putting away records at the disco while humming “My Desire.” It’s an almost poetic comment on the action with a lot more resonance than the film’s usually shrill attacks on sexuality. If it was her idea, it suggests that, absent any directorial artistry, the actor sometimes has to function as auteur.

[craig-k3nn3dy]

this is also a gripe i have with craig kennedy, criminologist (though i can’t tell if they’re joking in that show or not) - i mostly don’t like kennedy’s actor in the exploits of elaine serial because i think he looks too old. i don’t think kennedy is any older than jameson. they were in college together.

yes i know people can go to college when they’re older and i know according to the show kennedy has three degrees (which, i don’t believe his ass has a law degree either), but i don’t know how common that was in the, let’s be honest here, late 1800s early 1900s.

and let’s be more honest here, kennedy is so autistic about science shit, he wouldn’t wait any longer than he had to

[cecilysass]

Sexualizing Scully (in Never Again and the whole series)

I’ve been thinking about CC changing the original Never Again script because he was worried about sexualizing Scully, and I’ve been trying to get inside his head on this issue. Ready for a long essay no one asked for? Okay.

CC’s decision to eliminate the sex scene from Never Again reveals a pretty absolute mindset from him at the time — hanky panky for Scully takes her into a titillating area, which is not okay, because the show doesn’t sexualize Scully. According to ep co-writer Glen Morgan, CC said “every other woman on television was jumping into bed, and they had worked very hard to differentiate Scully from other female television characters.” So button up, Dana.

I admit that like many others (including possibly GA), I have always been frustrated by this particular kind of “we don’t want to sexualize Scully” logic from CC, because it really seems to be confusing sexually objectifying a female character with depicting her acting from sexual motivations which is really only confusing if you’re a straight cis man who is used to thinking any combination of women and sex as somehow being about men’s tastes. In other words, it doesn’t seem problematic to show Scully acting sexually if you’re thinking of a female character as a subject and not as an object.

CC is often credited as being a pioneer in his commitment not to sexualize Scully. Everyone (CC, 1013, media, fans) frequently claims the decision not to emphasize Scully’s sex appeal was rare for TV at the time. This is kind of true, if maybe a little overstated.

By the time Never Again aired, in 1997, primetime TV also had Captain Janeway, Buffy Summers, Murphy Brown, Elaine Benes, Anita Van Buren. These are not “de-sexualized” characters necessarily, but also not at all accurately described as oversexualized stereotypes. Some of those characters predated Scully.  It was a less common choice to deemphasize a female character’s sex appeal on TV, but it’s also not really fair to say it was all Baywatch babe caricatures all the time. I think we can say this was something that was actively changing in the 1990s that would continue to evolve in the next decades. I do think it’s worth observing that some writers of the time had figured out how to write complicated female characters … who also sometimes had sex.

One quibble I have with the “1013 was special because they didn’t sexualize Scully” claim is that … they did sexualize Scully. All the time? No. But sometimes? Absolutely. 

Some of this I just don’t really think is debatable. If this had been a series starring DD and Nicholas Lea, would Krycek nervously take off his clothes in the pilot to show Mulder his bug bites? Well, of course we would have written outstanding horny fic about it if he had, but come on: NO WAY. (Because 1993, heteronormativity, etc.) As it was, they knew they were sexualizing the female lead a little and exploiting both leads’ sexual chemistry as a tease to get audiences interested in their pilot. Come on. They knew. This isn’t rocket science. They had a little show on Fox, and they were trying to get people to watch. 

(There was an interview years ago when GA said something to this effect, too. Something like: the bumps could have been anywhere on my body, but they had to be a place I had to take off my clothes.)

As many have pointed out over the years, Scully was also semi-regularly a focus of male sexual fantasy. Sometimes this was pathological and violent (see: Donnie Pfaster, twice). Other times, this was benign and played for gentle laughs (see: Frohike, Pendrell). Sometimes, the fantasy was quite vividly enacted on screen (see: Philip Padgett, Guy Mann). Please note that I’m not saying this should or shouldn’t have happened, only that it did. 

That said, I think Carter did take pains to avoid sexualizing Scully as an overall principle, and I think this was effective. He emphasized her intellect and her professional motives. We love Scully for this. It’s part of what makes the character who she is. Credit where credit is due.

Unfortunately, he did seem to believe that Scully being seen as a serious character meant not having sex at all. I don’t want to erase asexuality, and I sometimes hear people saying they recognize that in Scully. If this works as representation for people, it’s positive. But for me, I just don’t see Scully written as ace. I think she was being written, by men, as embodying an old trope about women not having sex or being too overtly sexy to be seen as trustworthy or taken seriously (see: Madonna-whore complex).

Now mind you, Mulder’s sexuality was a problem for the show, too. For sure. As with Scully, they wanted him devoted to the quest / platonic partnership only, which means he couldn’t really have an outside romance as a competing motivation for him.  I’d argue this did eventually paint the writers into a MSR corner, because both characters’ energy and emotions were really only focused towards one another as an extension of their quest. But they did let Mulder have porn, lots of suggestive talk, sexually aggressive exes (see: Phoebe, Diana), several ambiguous possible sexual encounters (see: Marita, Diana), and one unambiguous one night stand (see: Kristen). 

Scully does eventually get an ex who directly comes on to her—and notice who gave him to her. She also gets a vibrator in canon—also a female writer—but that takes decades, people, decades. Mulder’s been carrying on with that porn forever by that point.

I think this relates to my cynical idea that Carter’s insistence on avoiding sexualizing Scully is really about his protection of Mulder as his hero / protagonist, not Scully herself. More on that later.

One of my least favorite pieces of “Chris Carter deemphasized Scully’s sexuality” evidence is Ye Olde Story About The Busty Baywatch Network Scully. If you look at any number of interviews with Carter dating back to, say, 1994-1998, he often tells the same story about the network wanting to hire a leggy busty actress to play Scully and him insisting on Plain Jane Gillian Anderson instead. Often Pamela Anderson, the lead actress of Baywatch, is specifically mentioned in the story, or sometimes it’s just a “Baywatch type” actress. 

The repetition of this story is kind of gross, for two big reasons. Reason #1 is that it frames Carter as a hero for ... what? Rejecting the network’s toxic beauty standards to hire absolutely stunning GA, who, yes, is short, but isn’t exactly a radical rethinking of what’s attractive? I understand that Gillian Anderson isn’t “a Baywatch type,” but it’s not like she wasn’t a woman considered sexually appealing by MANY people. Including, incidentally, Chris Carter, who outright admitted Scully was his type. 

It is absolutely good we got GA. No one questions that. But in my opinion Carter got way too many kudos for choosing this supposedly non-sexy actress for Scully. Because honestly. “non-sexy GA” can’t even be said with a straight face. Even DD eventually started saying in 1996 that this story was weird and overdone, although he said it in a kind of an awful way: “That’s overblown. You look at Gillian, and she’s a beautiful woman. And how often do you see Scully in a bathing suit? Gillian’s not 6 feet tall and doesn’t have what’s-her-face’s tits, but she’s got as nice a face as any of them.”

Reason #2 is that Carter’s story seems to remind GA at every turn in those early years that she wasn’t hot enough for success if it weren’t for him insisting on her. This has an especially icky residue given her struggles over body image and equitable salary. (If you don’t think it had the potential to have that effect, just take a gander at DD’s quote when he was probably sincerely trying to be supportive above, and try to get into the toxic 1990s mindset of how people talked about women’s bodies.) 

Finally, one more complication regarding the sexualization of Scully: jealousy. I’d argue the jealousy trope was a kind of sexualization. The show has no issue with jealousy for vaguely sexual / romantic motives coming from Scully, even though the “hot women jealously bickering over the male hero” is a trope that seems pretty clearly derived from straight male sexual fantasies, too. Scully shows jealousy of female rivals for Mulder’s respect or trust early and often. Again, not saying this should or shouldn’t have happened: only that it did. (Actually, if you know me or my fanfic, you know I’m pretty down for some jealousy stories lol.)

In earlier seasons, Scully’s jealousy is played for laughs and is more ambiguously motivated, mixed up with professional jealousy. For example, she’s threatened by Bambi Berenbaum not only because she’s a hot woman who has Mulder’s attention, but also because she’s a competing scientist.  By the Diana arc, Scully’s jealousy is tightly tied to plot and is angst-ridden. It’s also much harder to explain, at least in late season 5’s The End, without romantic jealousy as some sort of driving motive. We can say in One Son there is a professional explanation—she thinks Diana is dirty and Mulder is being disrespectful of his partner—but why on earth is Scully sitting heartbroken in that car in The End if not for personal reasons?

And then there’s this, some cut dialogue from Sixth Extinction that has Scully and Diana arguing over Mulder. Here both characters are written managing to reference one another’s physical appearance in a way that has absolutely no relevance to their ostensibly professional conversation.

There’s no universe in which you can convince me this is in character for Scully (or for Diana really), and it frankly shows objectification of both female characters. But this dialogue was cut, so maybe someone felt similarly at 1013. 

Mulder is not shown as being jealous in the same obvious, overt way, and I don’t think Carter would have let that happen. This is where I start to suspect that the whole “Scully isn’t sexualized” claim of Carter’s is actually more about his protection of Mulder’s character than Scully’s. 

Carter didn’t want to sexualize Scully because he didn’t want Mulder to be seen as the kind of male character who would seriously be distracted by lust for his co-worker and partner beyond easy, low-commitment jokes. He wanted Mulder to be seen as pure of heart (porn aside) and entirely devoted to his quest. He wanted him to have a partner he wouldn’t be thinking dirty thoughts about, especially because 1013’s writers often seem to have a worldview in which desire and respect can’t coexist. And he wanted Scully to be uncomplicatedly devoted to supporting him.

So Scully is jealous of female attention of Mulder because it’s consistent with her devotion to the work, and Mulder is equivalent to their work. But Mulder’s not going to be shown spinning too much about male attention to Scully because he’s gotta stay single-mindedly devoted to the quest. (Until it is a threat specifically to his work, as when it’s Doggett replacing him on multiple levels.) 

Of course, by creating characters who only are interested in this mutual quest and in supporting one another— and then by casting constantly-handsy Duchovny and longing-eyed Anderson and presumably directing them to keep all that shit under control all the time — CC definitely created the perfect hothouse conditions for MSR. Apparently directors were telling them to dial back their performances of scenes all the time. And honestly, that feeling of constant restraint reads in the final cut. Even when they are just sitting there talking about a corpse they always look like they are holding back and buttoning in all these feelings. It’s constantly sexually charged. Desire and respect appear to be sharing space all the time. It’s a textbook case of getting the opposite of what you’re ostensibly trying to do.

I know I’ve touched on some hot button issues here. I welcome discussion if you’re so inclined.

[extremely-judgemental]

Fandom mentality is strange.

We hear how Amarantha tortured Rhysand under the mountain, about his past and the loss of his family.

We hear how Keir brutalised Morrigan for her choices, how she was shunned and abandoned.

We hear about Cassian’s childhood, what was done to his mother, and how he struggled in the camps before Rhysand’s mother took him in.

We hear about Azriel’s captivity, how his half-brothers tortured him, how he was released into the camps only because of his powers, and how Cassian abused him before he offered help.

We see Tamlin falling in love with Feyre, sacrificing his people and court for her safety and sending her away, watching the woman he loves die, trying to protect her after her rebirth, begging her to not throw herself in danger, making a wrong choice in a moment of weakness. We see Tamlin apologising to Feyre without excuses, trying to do better by involving her in court matters and taking every one of her advice, and finally getting his court destroyed by the woman he gave up everything for.

We see Lucien accepting and growing fond of the mortal girl who killed his friend, willing to die for her when all Amarantha wanted was a name, risking punishment by helping Feyre after the task, be used as a bait in one of the tasks. We see Lucien fighting his friend and saviour and High Lord for the same mortal girl, get sexually assaulted by Feyre in her schemes, be only rescued in the last minute because Feyre hated Ianthe for hurting Rhysand. We see Lucien lose his only friend and home he ever had.

We see how traumatising the days of poverty were. We see Nesta and Elain kidnapped by the fae, thrown into the Cauldron and killed, be dragged into a war by Feyre and her friends, lose their home and lives.

We see Nesta being harassed by her sister to gain alliances in the war, forced to work for the fae, thrown into a battlefield because she has powers that they can exploit. We see Nesta watch her father die in front of her eyes, kill someone for the first time. We see Nesta being preyed upon by a fae/man in her room when she didn’t want to be touched, stalked when she asked to be left alone, locked in a tower with the same man because she was self-sabotaging, forced to train, work and live a life she didn’t want. We see Nesta be coerced by Cassian right after she was sexually assaulted by an ancient creature, almost dying too many times under the Inner Circle’s ‘care’.

Not that the Inner Circle and Feyre don’t deserve the sympathy for their past, they do. But there is a huge disconnect in how trauma is viewed and treated by the fandom. Despite watching it all play out on the pages, the others are said to ‘deserve’ the abuse and mistreatment. If there is more than what meets the eye or in some ways these characters warrant this, shouldn’t the Inner Circle be held to that standard given we only witness how poorly they treat others outside of their little club and betray everyone around them? All we witness is how horrible the Inner Circle is and never once their real plight. Still they get the most empathy and validation.

Like I said, fandom mentality is strange.

[silverflameataraxia]

Nesta and Elain were the ones abducted, thrown into the Cauldron, tortured, violated, and turned High Fae against their will. They claim the trauma of that memory, yet somehow all Feyre can think about is what their trauma did to her.

Feyre used their trauma as justification to destroy an entire court, while simultaneously looking down on them for their response to their trauma (even though their trauma response wasn't that different from Feyre's in ACOMAF). Even then, Feyre didn't care about their trauma; she only cared about exploiting it.

Their trauma is Feyre and the IC's fault. It was Feyre's idea to get them involved with the human queens. Even knowing that Nesta and Elain could be labeled Fae sympathizers and killed for it, Feyre still thought about getting Rhysand to use his daemati mind tricks to force them to help without their consent. Then the IC baited the Attor right outside their house, thus making them an even larger target for the King of Hybern. It was Feyre and the IC who promised to protect Nesta and Elain, and then spectacularly failed to do so. Has Feyre and the IC ever been held accountable? Nope. And when Nesta called Feyre out for it, Rhysand threatened her with bodily harm or death.

Feyre spent so much time and energy talking about Nesta and Elain's trauma that you would think it's her own trauma. But it's not.

[bright-side20]

Ranting

When I think of it as a whole, the plot is pretty much very obvious where it's going.

We have the Bone Carver in ACOWAR foreshadowing the corruption of the Cauldron when he said that some creatures manipulated it and it became a weapon of destruction, which shows that SJM had a plan from the start and just developed it gradually. Then Feyre observes how Azriel treats her sister and how he seems like the one for her. She even asks why he wasn’t chosen to be her mate,why Lucien? So Rhys explains that Elain can reject the bond and that sometimes bonds are created randomly, not meaning the two are soulmates or even good for each other. But Fae try to make it work believing the Cauldron chose them for a reason,so they end up miserable. That bowl was directly accused of having a distorted system, with its swirling eddies that wrongly match people solely for breeding purposes.

Rhys explained all that, but he wasn’t really taking it seriously. For him, Az is in love with Mor and must be asking himself why the bond hasn’t snapped between them. Also, Rhys in fact is bond biased.

During ACOWAR, we got major hints,like the rescue scene, Azriel discovering Elain is a seer while her so called mate thought she’d lost her mind, the Truth-Teller scene and from ACOWAR to ACOSF, Elain and Azriel were slowly getting closer. Meanwhile, she completely refuses to be with someone she doesn’t know, just because fate says so. That’s the main thing here, most Fae try to make the bond work even if they’re not truly interested in each other, just because the bond must have snapped for a reason. And that’s exactly what Lucien is trying to do, even though he knows Elain wants nothing to do with him ,he literally said so himself. And Elain is refusing these Fae beliefs, as she should.

Some people love to act like the bc is the only proof of the Cauldron being wrong, but no ,that was a huge plot established in the main books. They just love to ignore it. The bc was just a reminder of what Feyre already said in ACOWAR. Azriel basically repeated the same idea: he doubted the Cauldron’s mate matching system and said it could be wrong. His POV also proved that what people around him assume about him being completely in love with Mor and never moving on is wrong. And eventually, he was thinking about Elain being his mate. Not Mor. Not anyone else.

HOFAS revealed some very important things that developed the plot further, especially with Azriel’s presence. It confirmed the corruption of the Cauldron (remember, this was foreshadowed by the Bone Carver), explained a lot about the Daglan and how they exploited the Fae (which matters, since the Cauldron operates under their system), and Nesta saying Fae believe the Cauldron controls their fates was, for me, very important. Later, it was proved wrong when it was revealed that the Mother is the true governor of all worlds and the Weaver of Fate. She’s the real creator of bonds, which explains that the Cauldron is an imposter, copying the Mother’s work in a distorted way. So, long story short, the Cauldron is wrong. And that’s what Elain’s book will end up revealing. Elain is the one who has the power to change this situation, to change the fae wrong beliefs about the mating bond and how they treat the female as a belonging to her mate, Elain is the one who has the ability to fix the Cauldron.

But according to some people, all this long ass plot buildup is going to lead to us opening the next book and finding out that all the characters were hallucinating. The Cauldron isn’t wrong. The plot is that Elain will sell herself to Koschei, Lucien will save her, and she’ll decide to give him a chance, no longer caring about “love would trump even a mating bond.” She’ll just realize how much of a good male he is, fall in love with him, and beg him for forgiveness. A plot of poor Lulu my baby deserves the world

And Azriel? Oh, btw Gwyn is your mate.

Sarah, what about the whole plot you’ve been developing until HOFAS?

Who cares, I’m a fated mates author.

[spore-loser]

Rhys holding grudges against Lucien and Nesta despite Feyre forgiving them is disrespectful of her wishes and hypocritical of him in general.

ACOFS: “But I cannot let go of how [Lucien] treated you after Under the Mountain.” “I can. I’ve forgiven him for that.” “Well, you’ll forgive me if I can’t.”

Lucien tried his best to help Feyre after UTM. He advocated for her at his own expense and there was only so much he could do because he was not the HL. He tried to bring Feyre back to the SC because he thought she had been kidnapped, was being mind-controlled, and sexually assaulted. Then (regardless of his reasoning) Lucien risked his life to get Feyre back to the NC.

“You still can barely talk to Nesta,” I said. “Yet Elain you can talk to nicely.” “Elain is Elain.” “If you blame one, you have to blame the other.” “No, I don’t. Elain is Elain,” he repeated. “Nesta is … she’s Illyrian. I mean that as a compliment, but she’s an Illyrian at heart. So there is no excuse for her behavior.” “She more than made up for it this summer, Rhys.” “I cannot forgive anyone who made you suffer.”

Feyre was right but Rhys just brushed it off with infantilization of Elain and a vague statement about Nesta. Both Elain and Feyre at that point had called out the double standard of blaming Nesta and not Elain.

The IC could judge Nesta all they wanted but none of them had a right to hold Nesta accountable for that situation. It was Archeron family business and Feyre’s choice to forgive Nesta. It is disrespectful to her and that choice for Rhys to forever hold a grudge and let it affect his behavior. Feyre repeatedly told him to back off her sister. She knew Nesta in a way the IC did not, did not take her behavior personally post-cabin, and could handle her. Being antagonistic to Nesta would in no way help Feyre’s relationship with her and only contribute to the strain.

What does Nesta being Illyrian at heart even mean? We didn’t get an explanation on that, so it is left up to our interpretations. 

“The Illyrians (…) are unparalleled warriors, and are rich with stories and traditions.” -ACOMAF

This is how Rhys introduced Feyre to his and his mother’s people. So I assume what he meant with the comparison is that Nesta is strong(-willed) and ruthless. Whatever he meant, his reasoning is: due to her similarity, Nesta’s behavior is inexcusable. 

I’m not saying Nesta’s treatment of Feyre was excusable, but at that point Nesta had done everything Feyre asked of her and then some. She had been involved in the war effort on every level, from diplomacy to helping in the camps to strategy to the battlefield. She saved Cassian’s life multiple times. She directly risked her life to distract the King of Hybern. She helped kill the King of Hybern. She was crucial to the war effort and Rhys just ignored that because of something Feyre had already forgiven Nesta for.

Rhys himself is actually Illyrian so why is his behavior excusable? For weeks he sexually exploited Feyre in front of everyone UTM without any logical reason except to get back at Tamlin. (Link) Feyre forgave him and they moved on without Rhys even offering an apology or them having a real discussion on how it hurt her. Why does Rhys get away with his abuse so easily but for the rest of Nesta’s life she is to be held responsible for something she was singled out for? (Not even holding her accountable for the verbal abuse, but specifically the hunting thing.)

“They’re my family. You have to forgive Nesta at some point.” (…) “Should that be my Solstice gift to you?” he murmured. “Forgiving Nesta for letting her fourteen-year-old sister go into those woods?”

It was not Rhys’ place to forgive, it was Feyre’s. And why did Rhys only blame Nesta for letting Feyre go? Their father was the one responsible for the Archeron’s poverty and he made no attempt to work even before his attack. Rhys knew this.

he hadn’t argued when I announced that I was going hunting. He hadn’t bothered to attempt to stand from his seat by the fire, hadn’t bothered to look up from his wood carving. He just let me walk into those deadly, eerie woods that even the most seasoned hunters were wary of. -ACOTAR

“My mother died when I was eight; my father lost his fortune three years later. He sold everything to pay off his debts, moved us into a hovel, and didn’t bother to find work while he let us slowly starve for years. I was fourteen when the last of the money ran out, along with the food. He wouldn’t work—couldn’t, because the debtors came and shattered his leg in front of us. So I went into the forest and taught myself to hunt. And I kept us all alive, if not near starvation at times, for five years.” -ACOMAF

Why did Rhys not hold it against Feyre’s father that he sat by and did nothing while his youngest daughter went out to hunt? Instead, Rhys asked Feyre if she wanted to name their son after him. The narrative obviously treated the Archeron father differently because he came through for his daughters in the end and gave his life for them, but why was he never judged by the IC for his failure to his daughters in the first place? 

Rhys holding a grudge against Lucien and Nesta for how they treated Feyre is peak hypocrisy. He mistreated Feyre throughout their whole relationship. (Link 1) (Link 2)

ACOTAR: Going into Feyre’s mind and using it to humiliate her, and everything UTM, which was all completely illogical and unnecessary to their survival. (Link)

ACOMAF: Rhys only gave Feyre the illusion of choice, emotionally manipulated her, and gaslit her about Tamlin. (Link 1) (Link 2) He put Feyre in dangerous situations several times without all the facts both at the Weaver’s cottage and using her to bait the Attor (near the Archeron house, also putting them at risk).  

ACOWAR: Being 500+ years old, he should have been the one to think better of entering into a toxically co-dependent death pact with his only twenty-year-old mate. 

ACOSF: Regardless of his reasoning for it, hiding that Feyre’s pregnancy was life-threatening is medical abuse. It’s disrespectful to her on multiple levels because she made it very clear to Rhys she never wanted to be left in the dark. He had her whole support system in on it too, isolating Feyre emotionally. Her whole family betrayed her trust over something Feyre should have been told before she even got pregnant. Even if Rhys is only half Illyrian, there was always a chance of his and Feyre’s children having wings, and it was common knowledge among the bat boys that wings were a danger to high fae mothers. 

[yoddhasblog]

One thing that makes me rage about ACOTAR every single day is that there is no mention at all about who did the household chores when Feyre was hunting.

It's canon that Feyre doesn't know how to cook. She doesn't do household work. She would spend the day in the forest hunting, which of course is a great thing in itself for a child( she was fourteen I think when she started hunting) but who took care of the house(hut).

Something tells me it wasn't Papa Archeron or Elain. In the first few chapters of Thorns and Roses Nesta had chopped wood twice(I think, it's been a while since I read the book). I'm assuming as there isn't much info about this that Nesta was the one to do all household work. There's cooking, cleaning, laundry, chopping wood, mending clothes, doing repairs around the house if required, groceries, and about a hundred other little tasks that keep a house running smoothly. Feyre didn't do it, Papa Archeron didn't do it, I can bet my life Elain didn't do it. Did magic faeries come to their house at night to do all this.

I don't understand where the narrative that Nesta was a spoiled and lazy girl who sat on her ass and didn't do anything came from. You know, my father had always told my sister and i, that whatever conflict we have between us, we should resolve it amongst ourselves. If you let a bunch of strangers know about the weaklinks in your relationships they will break you both apart. Of course, he tells us this due to our snake-ish relatives but honestly, when I had read about the relationship between the sisters, I wanted to scream at the book to not let the IC exploit their issues for personal gain. Which they did. That's exactly what Rhysand has been doing since he met the sisters.

[abuddyforeveryseason]

More manipulated images! With this one, I managed to do what I wanted last time, with Little Red and the B. B. Wolf. I used this french poster as base:

I've got a reproduction hanging in my apartment.

With Microsoft Photo Editor, I removed the blue background. I could've removed the green border too, but I was lazy, and it's pretty much a solid color, I could've changed it manually if I felt like it. (I'm only realizing that now, though).

On FireAlpaca, I separated the image into the blue part and the rest with two layers. I applied the Ben-Day process I figured out on the blue layer, and changed the rest of the image to a red tint. Then I converted the red tinted version to a two-color vector on Inkscape (the colors being pink and brown).

I repeated the process for the red tinted layer, separating it into two layers, then applying the Ben-Day process on both, one being black over a red background (dark red) and the other being red over a white background (light red).

I'm pretty pleased with the result, the other versions of the image I tried to modify, a long honking time ago, don't look nearly as good, see:

Lame!

As for the movie itself - or rather, the serial: It's an adaptation of three American serials (made by a French studio, however), starring Pearl White. You know, she was the inspiration for the Penelope Pitstop cartoons, always getting tied up and chained to a railway by bad guys. In the movies, however, she often got out of those traps without help.

The dude in the poster is the villain from one of those serials, Exploits of Elaine. His name is "The Clutching Hand", and he's one of the first movie supervillains - although Fantômas came first. He's also the first hidden villain, which is why he's got the bandana covering his face. Filmgoers had to go see every episode of the serial to narrow down his secret identity. It was kind of like a superhero franchise, you gotta watch them all.

See, he's got a mask under his mask.

Of course, one of Pearl White's movies, The Perils of Pauline, was produced by William Randolph Hearst, a real-life supervillain, so, let's not give the era that much credit.

[theweeklydiscourse]

Rhysand has surprisingly been very kind with Elain. He gave her a scenic tour of Velaris, he even let her wave dismissively at him and followed her around without being offended.

Suprising, isn’t it? Rhysand confessed to Feyre that he still held a grudge against her sisters for letting her hunt and even went so far as to say he wanted to “roar” at them. Yet Elain is somehow spared from this grudge despite being guilty of the same charges as Nesta (save for meanness). Rhysand, with the Inner Circle included, say that they resent both sisters, but their actions show that they only direct that ire at one of them.

Rhysand is nice to Elain in the same way that Feyre is nice to Elain.

“It wasn't that Elain was cruel. She wasn't like Nesta, who had been born with a sneer on her face. Elain sometimes just ... didn't grasp things. It wasn't meanness that kept her from offering to help; it simply never occurred to her that she might be capable of getting her hands dirty. I'd never been able to decide whether she actually didn't understand that we were truly poor or if she just refused to accept it.” (ACOTAR, Page 16)

Feyre’s assessment of Elain’s incompetence in the household is a benevolent way of calling her an idiot. According to Feyre, Elain is too mentally childish to be capable of exploiting her labour the way Nesta does…even though Elain exploits her labour multiple times in her introductory chapter. She’s surprisingly very generous and kind to Elain and spares her of the same resentment she directs at Nesta. Why? Because she kinda views Elain as a simple-minded child.

Rhysand is nice to her, but to me, it seems like that niceness is in the same vein as Feyre’s lenient treatment of Elain. He’s comfortable knowing that Elain will kiss the ring if need be, so he has no real reason to force her to obey or be hostile to her.

[craig-k3nn3dy]

i have watched the two surviving serials of exploits of elaine and i do not like them! i do not believe kennedy looks like that!

i do like how he greets elaine tho lol. things he should do to jameson

[extremely-judgemental]

Welcome to another one of my long rants!

Media has been violence porn for men since forever with female characters reduced to no more than an object to project their fantasies onto. So, when I read a book written by a so-called feminist woman who writes about badass female leads and feminist characters, and uses major societal issues to push her narratives, I’m expecting her to treat them for what they are and not brownie points for her creativity and aesthetics for her characters.

I'm glossing over every abuse mentioned in the ACOTAR books. I won't be taking responsibility for your reactions if you choose to read.

SJM loves trauma dumping, especially on her female characters. Whether a lead or a supporting role, every one of them undergoes a form of abuse.

Feyre is sexually assaulted by Rhysand for two months on top of being starved, imprisoned and forced to participate in life-threatening games. After this, she becomes a victim of domestic violence at Tamlin’s mansion. But in her apparent safer life with Rhysand, she’s thrown into the house of the Weaver—a death god whom even the ‘most powerful HL’ himself is afraid of. From there, the amount of physical violence she suffers is lessened though she becomes a perpetrator herself. And then, there is the impossible pregnancy (because even in a book about her sister, Feyre can’t take a fucking backseat) that even the best minds in the Prythian can’t save her from (since apparently these two bigger-than-thou are the only ones to ever mate or crossbreed).

Nesta is abused at the hands of her mother and grandmother, and she’s neglected by her father. She’s sexually assaulted by the man she intended to marry. She’s thrown into the Cauldron against her will and killed—which is equivalent to SA. She’s exploited in a war when she has no experience or training. She’s verbally abused by her sister’s family and disrespected. She’s imprisoned, tortured and tamed like an animal by the man she’s meant to end up with. She’s emotionally manipulated and psychologically abused by Cassian in the entirety of SF. She’s sexually abused by a Kelpie and to some extent by Lanthys. She’s kidnapped again and thrown into a game where she’s hunted and expected to kill.

Elain suffers the same fate as Nesta during the transformation. She’s later kidnapped by Hybern and the Cauldron during the war. (And in her book, I will bet anything that either some heinous abuse she suffered in the past from Graysen/his father or before her rescue from Hybern’s camp will come up, or she will be abused somehow by at least one man. Given how Rhysand abused Feyre and Cassian abused Nesta, I won’t be surprised if SJM drags Lucien down the same path as well because that woman’s idea of romance is hurting someone and apologising which is the equivalence of vulnerability in her stories. She would even use the ‘fire in his veins’ to push this, something he couldn’t control or whatever.)

Morrigan is brutalised by her father and dumped naked in unknown lands. Her abuse is so grotesquely described and too twisted for her crime of sleeping with a man out of wedlock.

Emerie loses her wings to wing-clipping, an improper method no less. Later on, she is abused by her father after he killed his wife in the same way. She even digs her own mother’s grave on his orders. She’s kidnapped and forced into Blood Rite for being a woman and wanting to never be abused by men again.

Gwyneth is r*ped by Hybern men. And she suffers the same as Nesta and Emerie for wanting to grow stronger and defend herself in the future.

Lady Autumn is abused by her husband.

Cressida suffers under Amarantha’s rule. (I don’t remember how exactly but I know it was mentioned somewhere. Remind me if you know.)

Clotho, other priestesses—all of them end up in the library after they suffered at the hands of men. They are too afraid of the world and broken by their trauma that they are content to spend the rest of their years never once leaving the library even for daily lives.

Almost every woman in SJM’s books is tormented in so many ways and it’s always the men who perpetuate it. And this is a theme that spans over all of her books, not just this series. Micah abuses Bryce. Pollux SA’s Lydia. I haven’t read TOG nor am I planning to, but I know there’s something in there to pick about.

I don’t mind a little violence and I don’t mind representation of such issues in a female oriented books. What I can’t tolerate is the idea is that a woman has to endure such things and rise above it all and only then she can be labelled ‘strong’.

Elain is the only soft character so far as SJM wants to keep that ‘inclusive writer’ status, and this pattern is also seen in the CC series where June is the only soft-spoken female and every other woman is either rageful or a fighter.

These characters are introduced with violence, their whole identity revolves around this. Their emotional intelligence, capacity and growth all stem from violence and how they heal from it. Feyre’s MO is her hunting and her trauma. But there’s no self-reflection to drive her growth. It’s her relationship with Rhysand that takes precedence and even then the SA is swept under the rug. Same with Nesta—her trauma is on the forefront while her healing is so vague and none of her real issues are ever addressed. In fact, violence is a core part of her healing. During majority of her screen time, Elain cries, suffers and gets rescued. Morrigan is all hatred and trauma and wine. Emerie and Gwyneth have depth but the first thing anyone recognises in either of them is their trauma—Emerie’s wings and Gwyneth’s indefinite abode in the library.

Clotho’s past alone is enough to prove SJM’s obsession with women’s pain. Clotho is not a major character and she has little screen time and yet her abuse is described in such detail for pages and often. Even a fleeting character like Lady of Autumn suffers the same fate. SJM’s idea of cruelty in men is perpetuating physical violence against women.

Moreover, all of these characters have the sense of justice and power which are strongly rooted in these abuses. None of them see the cruelty in the world and choose to stand up to it or fight it unless they have suffered too. As if one can have strength and courage only if they have been broken down by a man first. Like their fight can’t be driven by kindness and compassion for the people around them.

See, my female hero doesn’t have to be abused by every man as a trial for her to overcome. She doesn’t have to be a siren 24x7 seducing men left and right. She doesn’t have to sleep around with different men every night to let me know she’s likeable. She doesn’t have to kill in every chapter to be strong or brave. She doesn’t have to be sex on stick to be beautiful. She doesn’t have to have big boobs or ass in leathers to be beautiful. She doesn’t have to be thin and fair to desirably moderately tanned or dressed in skimpy dresses to nothing at all times. And she doesn’t have to have miracle sex with her abuser partner to heal every one of her traumas.

It’s infuriating how criticising these books calls for such hatred when these topics are exposed to young audience without proper warnings or sensitive measures. These are defended as written for and marketed to NA as if the brains of the 17 year olds level up to the full functioning adult brain overnight when they turn 18. The first book is still sold as YA and there is no warning in it either for the amount of violence, gore, SA in it. Even if the latter books are NA, someone who reads the first one in a series is bound to pick up the sequels.

SJM hides behind these technicalities and refuses to educate herself or take accountability for all these toxic narratives she’s passing off as feminism and ideal romantic relationships. She shouldn’t be writing about these topics as she herself has a warped concept of violence and she can’t recognise the different kinds of SA and uses it freely to pass them as sexual tension like in case of Feyre and Nesta.

She’s not the best fantasy writer out there. She’s not a progressive, feminist writer. She doesn’t even respect her own female characters for more than playing out her fantasies with these ‘ideal’ men she created in her head. If anything, SJM writes like a man who hates women.

[desmon1995]

After Dark: The Park, Power, and Abuse

Alright, let’s talk about The Warriors Album—specifically The Park at Night, which I’d argue is one of the most gut-wrenching songs in the entire album. If Sick of Running was a blazing, victorious high, then The Park at Night is its dark reprise, dragging the characters and us into a chilling, sobering low.

We just left off Sick of Running on a triumphant note. Ajax, fresh off advice from the Hurricanes, finally rallies the girls to fight back against the Furies, who’ve been pushing them to the brink. It’s this powerful, adrenaline-fueled moment that feels almost like a win. But just as we’re feeling that rush, The Park at Night drops us straight into a scene that feels like someone cut the lights in an alley.

The tone shifts immediately, with Mexican indie artist Elain’s haunting sample—“Folks go missin' in the park at night”—whispering through the track, setting an eerie, predatory vibe. It’s as if the girls are being watched, hunted, and in this fog of tension, we meet Barnes.

Barnes is played by James Rainer, the original Ajax from the 1979 Warriors film, and here’s where the casting choice really lands. The original Ajax was a vicious character, driven by toxic masculinity and a hunger for power. He’s homophobic, sexist, and would rather use strength to bully than find any real connection. Barnes inherits all of these traits. If you’ve never seen the original, you’d just think he’s a sleazy cop. But for those in the know, there’s a dark irony in Rainer’s casting, like Barnes is a shadow of his former self, or maybe an Ajax in a system that empowers his worst traits.

The timing couldn’t be worse. The Warriors have been through a nightmarish journey already, chased, ambushed, and betrayed by gangs across the city. They’ve likely lost Cleon, their leader, and with it, a sense of safety. So, when Barnes sees Ajax and reduces her to a “sex worker,” it’s not just creepy—it’s an abuse of power, this cop using his authority to exploit vulnerability. It’s heartbreaking.

And let’s talk about Ajax’s reaction. She’s not about to let this pervert slide. After everything she and her friends have endured, Ajax snaps and unleashes all her pent-up fury. This moment is raw and heartbreaking because it’s not just about Barnes; it’s about every man and gang that’s used and abused her and her friends. But Barnes, clutching his badge like a shield, retaliates by arresting her—not because she did anything illegal, but because he can. In this moment, Barnes embodies a brutal reality: men in power often get away with preying on those they deem “lesser.”

And, honestly, the symbolism here is haunting. Barnes calls in backup to hunt down the rest of the Warriors, making these taunting catcalls, even echoing the sound of a police siren. It’s both a literal threat and a grim commentary on how those in power dehumanize and hunt down anyone who doesn’t “belong.” It’s unsettling, especially when you consider that Ajax is a young woman—likely a teenager—which makes Barnes’ actions even creepier. He’s not just harassing her; he’s flaunting that no one will stop him.

As pointed out by @Genzwriter on The Warriors Album Reddit, this scene is a searing critique of how sex workers are brutalized by cops who see them as disposable. Barnes doesn’t see Ajax as a person or even a gang member; he sees a powerless girl he can intimidate. And Ajax? She’s rightfully enraged, and she’s finally done being quiet. But, of course, her fight back is met with punishment, as Barnes flexes his badge and power to silence her.

What’s amazing, though, is that Ajax gets the final word. Despite being overwhelmed, she declares herself a Warrior—a small act of defiance, but one that ripples out to inspire Fox later on in Reunion Square.

The Park at Night is a brilliant example of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Eisa Davis bringing their unique strengths together. Lin, with his deep love and understanding of The Warriors, uses the original Ajax’s character to reinforce this nightmarish descent for the group. It’s a painful homage, but one that works. And then Eisa’s contribution adds a whole new layer—the way she infuses this number with an authentic, powerful female perspective that wouldn’t have hit the same if this story was solely told by a man.

And then there’s the bleak reality of Barnes. He isn’t punished. There’s no justice served, no moment of reckoning. He walks away unscathed, and that’s so infuriating. The album doesn’t fault Ajax for her choice to lash out—she did what any of us would do after being pushed to the edge. But the reality remains: cops like Barnes are empowered to hurt the vulnerable without consequence, a message that lands painfully close to home.

The Park at Night is dark, relentless, and all the more powerful for it. It doesn’t pull punches, and it doesn’t offer easy answers. Instead, it shows us the breaking point for Ajax and her friends, and while it’s a bitter scene, it’s one of the album’s strongest. This song hits hard because it shows that sometimes, no matter how hard you fight, the system will do everything in its power to break you down.

[litnerdwrites]

I want to talk about the Valkyries

So, I love the Valkyries. Their friendship is everything, and frankly, the best part of the series. However, I've never really liked the idea of them being warriors, and I want to hear some thoughts and opinions on that.

It all comes down to this single sentence; “"There are many types of strength beyond the ability to wield a blade and end lives. Amren told me that yesterday."”

To me, Nesta's strength lies in her other skills and abilities. She was raised to marry a Prince, so there's no doubt she's far more educated than most in her station. She proved that she has a good head on her shoulders and heart in her chest when she calculated the cost of evacuating humans from the mortal lands bellow Prythian, which goes beyond the number of ships, mind you.

She'd have to calculate the cost of the ship, the sailors to man them, the cost of security to protect the refugees in case the ships are attacked, which would mean the cost of weapons made of ash (which we know is rare since the fae burned many of the ash trees long ago), the provisions of sailors, provisions for guards, provisions for refugees, medicine for those who are sick or elderly, the time it would take to sail from the continent, load up the ships, and then sail back, etc. It's not easy, and there are a lot of factors to take into consideration, but Nesta did it and presented it to The Mortal Queens, who might have executed them for siding with the fae or even just speaking back to them, with not a single ounce of fear.

Nesta endured her mother's abuse, and didn't let it make her resent Feyre and Elain, instead, fuelling her desire to protect Elain and allow them both to find happiness in their marriages, something which we can presume is rare based on the little information and context we have for the human lands, despite it not necessarily furthering her family, while not bothering to do so for herself.

Nesta won the heart of a duke before even stepping onto the dance floor, had Eris dancing in the palm of her hand, arguably before dancing with him, and her idea to distract The King of Hybern, when Rhys didn't consider it until she brought it up. Nesta united the High Lords. Not Feyre. Not the IC. Nesta. After witnessing her father's death, and having all her trauma come crashing down on her, attended a meeting with strangers, both humans and fae, at her sister's behest, then kept herself together long enough to make it back to Velaris and to her room.

Feyre takes strength and inspiration from Nesta and her steely resolve, in times like The HL meeting.

Within a single year, she forced herself to overcome her fear of bathtubs, alone, while enduring the criticism and verbal abuse of the IC. She endured that nightmare Solstice, dinner parties and other events with them watching her like a circus performer. She endured her so-called mates' abuse and the abuse he allowed his family to show her, leaving her completely alone. Nesta didn't throw herself into the river or try to commit suicide, as far as we know, during this time, and gave everything to keep her head above water.

Let nobody tell you that Nesta Archeron isn't a strong ass woman.

I think this is why her becoming a warrior bothers me. Her courtier and dancing skills are shown to help her thrive in a place like the CON, a place the IC hates and the narrative paints as being full of scheming, evil, deserve to rot in hell, asshole fae nobles. This is a disservice to Nesta's immense talents and skill in navigating these situations. to be exploited, and painted as something that is synonymous with the 'evil' of The CON.

Also, I think that certain parts of the CON's culture is similar to human culture, in some ways. Between that and Nesta telling Bryce about how she's okay with being fae because of immortality, I think SJM is doing a disservice to humanity and it's culture. Nesta's insistence on holding on to her humanity when she points out things like how Solstice isn't a human holiday, or how fae have regard for human custom or manners (twice), and even her modest style of dress is something I love about her character.

I hate how it feels like, that for all Feyre claims both the human and fae lands are her home, she's disregarding her human culture, and Nesta is being forced to as well. Assimilating into fae society doesn't mean that she has to abandon her culture, and I think it would've been great to see more human cultures and customs, even if they didn't have holiday's or religions, being integrated into the IC. Meanwhile, Feyre's only response is to try it, because she might like it, which I think is also incredibly insensitive. Feyre and the IC have essentially indoctrinated Nesta, and wiped her human values and traditions from her life.

Her so-called mate was also the one trying to make her train since ACOWAR, without regard for human customs and how much she values them. It's like none of them care for their human heritage, and want to abandon that piece of her all together. For all he claims to love her and her fire, he doesn't care for where it came from, and who she was before he moulded her into his version of a perfect mate.

Amren is the one who told Nesta that she doesn't have to be a warrior, and that's based on the strength Nesta displayed as part of her human upbringing, implying that, even then, she is strong without the ability to end lives. Yet, she's also one of the strongest advocates for Nesta being forced to train.

If exercise of some kind is what they think she needs, why not dance? Elain is aware of how much Nesta enjoys it, and given her repeated protests about being around Cassian, why not get her a dance teacher, outside the IC, and have her learn dances from different courts or places on the continent? It's something she enjoys, and gives her a chance to learn more about the world out there, while developing many of the skills she's been trained with since birth.

I don't want to hear anything about Nesta 'choosing' to be a warrior. She merely accepted her fate, knowing it was that, or certain death.

Honestly, I think I might have been more okay with the warrior thing, if she wasn't consistently exploited by the IC. Or if I wasn't convinced that Rhysand would treat the Valkyries as an extension of his military.

Speaking of the Valkyries as a whole, I think they have so much potential that's being wasted.

Why must they be warriors? Why not a group of healers, and diplomats, and dancers and explorers, and scientists? Why not have them as a way for Nesta to fulfil her own dream of seeing the world

I've made my stance on Rhysand's so-called attempt at equality in Illyria very clear in this post (where I talk about why Cassian would be the worst father ever), but the gist of it is that throwing women swords, and forcing them to be soldiers isn't equality. Giving them the same opportunities and education to chose to be a warrior, librarian, baker, blacksmith, teacher, merchant or whatever is the start of equality.

That's not to say that they can't be warriors too. It just irks me that it's all they are. That's not to say I dislike all fmcs who become warriors, though I do think that there's an overabundance of them. Why must being a warrior be what defines The Valkyries. I don't see how that makes them different to another military unit, even though Nesta is likely to be the only one expected to act like a real soldier.

The narrative makes Nesta a warrior with her other skills and passions being just a smaller part of her character. I think it should be the other way around. I think she, and The Valkyries, deserve to be more than warriors.

I feel like Emerie would be the only one who'd want to be a full time warrior out of the main three Valkyries. Even then, it's mostly due to how ingrained it is to Illyrian culture.

The concept of Nesta helping the Priestesses heal is perfect for her character, based on what we've seen her do for civilians and victims in the past. This is why I believe The Valkyries would've been more interesting if they took a humanitarian (kind of) approach to things. Helping women who are oppressed, like Illyrian women, or those in The CON, follow their dreams and escape abuse.

The IC call themselves The Court of Dreams, so wouldn't having The Valkyries be the ones to help the underprivileged start on the path to fulfilling their own dreams be poetic? It would give her a chance to travel too, if she went across Prythian or even to The Continent.

Stepping back from The Valkyries for a moment, there are many strong FMCs that aren't warriors at all. Personally, I think Stephenie Garber writes them best.

My favourite Evangeline Fox. I think she's the strongest FMC I've read/watched because her strength comes from her kindness, and belief in true love, even when the world is trying to prove otherwise. She refuses to give up hope for a happily ever after, and fights through impossible odds with her wit and heart alone for her love.

I also love Scarlett's resolve and quick thinking. I honestly think she's a lot like Nesta in some ways, when it comes to protecting her sisters (though I think Feyre is a bit like her at time s too). I'm impressed by the lengths she'd go to for those she loves, and her resolve when she decides that she deserves better than what someone's giving her. I love Donatella's determination, and decision to use other people's low opinions of her, and ideas of her being just another dumb blonde, choosing instead to use it to her advantage and prove them wrong out of spite.

I love Tohru Honda and her resolve to be kind and compassionate to everyone, even those who don't deserve it. She assumes ignorance or accident before malice and continues to strive to be better, for herself and for others. Her kindness and compassion is what inspires others around her.

I love Sophie's resourcefulness and bravery in Howel's Moving Castle.

I love Winter from At The End There Was You, because of how kind and chatty she is. How she choses to believe that the good can outweigh the bad and never stops asking questions or being curious.

Even jumping back to SJM for a moment, I love Bryce, not because she can weald weapons, but because of how resourceful, kind and witty she is. I love how she uses her femininity and others' low opinion of her to her advantage. Yrene was my favourite character in TOG, and I loved Tower of Dawn because of her. Some of my favourite moments with Aelinare when she's being girly with Lysandra. From chatting and sharing chocolates, to playing with Evangeline, or having some form of girl time (most of which are in QOS).

The Valkyries had the potential to be more than just, the now, stereotypical, strong, warrior FMCs.

“"There are many types of strength beyond the ability to wield a blade and end lives. Amren told me that yesterday."”

I think this quote should've set the president for The Valkyries. Looking back at this, I think it's less The Valkyries that I dislike and more the fact that they're warriors. I wish it played more into that quote, rather than giving us the same old story about finding strength through fighting. Personally, I think solving disputes between nations through words and dancing, or discovering the cure to sicknesses, or even bridging the gap between two sentient races sharing a world (humans and fae) all while fulfilling your dreams is more impressive than swinging swords around and ending disputes with death.

If there really needed to be some semblance of warrior like training, why not lower the intensity to self defence? Do something like Yrene and start teaching women self defence and educating them in reading, writing and maths. Give them the opportunities to better their lives and create futures for themselves. Make them about empowerment in whatever ways others feel comfortable, not just by becoming warriors.

TLDR: I think the Valkyries, namely Nesta, being warriors, first and foremost, is a disservice to her character and to the strength of women who find empowerment through other means. “"There are many types of strength beyond the ability to wield a blade and end lives. Amren told me that yesterday."” is what Amren said in ACOWAR, as quoted by Nesta, and I think that should've set the tone for The Valkyries. The worst part is how her own so-called mate doesn't respect that about her. I do want to hear other thoughts on this matter though. Do being warriors suite The Valkyries? Does it suite Nesta or her story?

[acourtofquietdreamers]

The way my heart hurts for Elain in this moment:

For a heartbeat, it appeared that Elain might say something to soften the words. But Nesta cut her off, seething at the pity about to be thrown her way. “Look who decided to grow claws after all,” she crooned. “Maybe you’ll become interesting at last, Elain.”

Nesta saw the blow land, like a physical impact, in Elain’s face, her posture. No one spoke, though shadows gathered in the corners of the room, like snakes preparing to strike. Elain’s eyes brightened with pain.

Elain is the girl who never felt seen for who she truly is. The girl who was only looked at as a pretty doll to be married off. The girl whose mother thought she had no drive, no ambition. Nothing, but a pretty face. And Nesta exploits that deep rooted insecurity by basically calling Elain boring in front of the IC. This clearly hurts Elain, but she doesn’t cower at Nesta’s words:

Something imploded in Nesta’s chest at that expression. She opened her mouth, as if it could somehow be undone. But Elain said, “I went into the Cauldron, too, you know. And it captured me. And yet somehow all you think of is what my trauma did to you.”

Nesta blinked, everything inside her hollowing out. But Elain turned on her heel. “Find me when you wish to begin.” The doors shut behind her. Every awful word Nesta had spoken hung in the air, echoing.

I’m so proud of her and I can’t waaait for Elain to continue to show everyone who she is.