rainstorms-moonrivers - Tumblr blog

[rainstorms-moonrivers]

okay so I feel like I should clear a few things up from the “true villains of red queen” post, because I didn’t articulate my point well and people replied with valid criticisms.

Okay so someone (I don’t remember their name I’m sorry) commented about how Julian couldn’t really say anything about Elara and Maven to Tiberias the Older (I don’t remember what number he was sorry) because after his sister died Julian didn’t really have standing in court, he was just the royal librarian and his love got her tongue removed just for knowing what Elara did. So yes I accept it I was wrong, he had a pretty good reason not to say anything.

When I said Julian was at fault for what happened to Maven, I wasn’t trying to say he was entirely at fault. That’s my fault for not making that clear, I read the post back and yeah I could’ve worded it better. What I was trying to say was yes, Elara is entirely at fault for the abuse Maven suffered, she is the abuser. I just wanted to have like I don’t know a conversation about how Julian and Anabel contributed in a small way to Elara’s ability to enact that abuse. Not saying what happened to Maven was entirely their fault and I’m not excusing Tiberias the Older’s hand in it either, I think I said in an earlier post that his neglect also heavily contributed to Maven’s abuse. It’s just abuse is complicated thing right? There are a lot of components to it, and I just wanted to highlight that. No it wasn’t Julian’s fault that Elara abused her son.

I was just trying to point out how Julian’s and Maven’s relationship might’ve contributed to her being able to emotional abuse her son. I mean Julian and Maven don’t have a good relationship, even before Mare gets to the palace. The first thing Julian tells Mare is that Maven’s “his mother’s son.” So you can assume they’ve never really gotten along. But you can’t assume it’s because “Maven and Elara were trying usurp Cal” because they themselves said they only started scheming for the throne when Mare arrived, and Maven, despite not being able to feel love for Cal, still felt something close to it and had a somewhat decent relationship with Cal that he would hold onto in his own way until he spares Cal the pain of “killing his little brother” by pretending the boy he was supposed to be was never there in the first place So at least I assumed that wasn’t why Julian didn’t like Maven. The only other reason was because of what happened to Sara and his sister. Which when you think about it is crazy considering Maven wasn’t even born when that happened. But Julian can’t hold Elara accountable for it, she’s the queen, and he’s just a librarian, but he can in a way hold her son accountable for it. That’s all I was trying to say.

so no. I don’t think Julian is entirely at fault for Maven’s abuse. I’m not saying it’s all Julian’s fault that Elara abused Maven. I was just trying to have a conversation about how Julian and Anabel might’ve contributed to Elara’s means of abuse by giving her things like favoritism (on Anabel’s part) to manipulate Maven with. Just like Maven’s father did by neglecting his youngest son even though he did love Maven without being able to show it.

I’m open for a further conversation about this in the comments, and yeah, if you disagree that’s fine, we all have our opinions so yeah have a great day and thanks for reading this super long post

[rainstorms-moonrivers]

Thomaven One-shot // Writing Prompt: “I was singing in the shower and you heard me and you asked me to sing louder”

[rainstorms-moonrivers]

the true villains of Red Queen

you want to know who the true villains of the Red Queen series are? Julian Jacos, Elara Merandus, and Anabel Lerolan.

Especially Julian and Anabel.

Because at least people acknowledge Elara's involvement in Maven's mental abuse.

But Julian and Anabel. They had a hand in that abuse being actively ignored and no one ever called them out on it.

Ever.

Cal should've ripped them a new one.

It's because of them he lost his little brother.

They knew what whisper influence looked like. They saw it in his mother and they would've recognized it in Maven. They should've done something. They should've done the bare minimum of telling Cal's father what was happening to his other son.

But Julian was holding a child accountable for his mother's crimes and Anabel had blatant favoritism.

[rainstorms-moonrivers]

Maven Calore was wasted as a tragic character.

Maven Calore as a tragic character was wasted. I'm not trying to say that he as a character was bad. If anything he was a good, well written character, one of the most well written characters in the Red Queen series. What I'm saying is that he as a character was truly wasted as an oversimplification of "people with mental issues are horrible monsters."

Throughout the series the point was made that Maven was a product of his mother's abuse. The same kind of abuse that was done to Cal's mother, Queen Coriane Jacos, which resulted in her having multiple miscarriages and taking her own life. Something that was known by multiple characters in the series aside from Mare. And yet no one does anything to try and help him. No one aside from Cal, his brother, and even then Aveyard doesn't have Cal do much aside from mentioning his want to help Maven and then having Davidson say he'll see if he can find anyone who might be able to help Maven with his mental issues, and then later on say that there is no one who could help him.

Which is the bare minimum.

This is not to excuse anything that he does in the series, and this is definitely not to justify shipping him with Mare, because I don't ship them at all.

That being said, Maven had so much potential as a tragic character. He could've had something akin to a redemption arc, perhaps not a redemption arc, but a healing arc of sorts. If Victoria Aveyard had taken the care to actually explore the character she created beyond the "mental issues = monstrous & evil." Because despite it being a difficult pill to swallow, Elara is not solely responsible for turning Maven into who he is in the series.

King Tiberias with his neglect and absence in Maven's life is one factor.

Julian Jacos holds a lot of the blame for the abuse Maven endures before the start of the series. Something that is largely ignored throughout the entire series. Much as everyone loves him. Julian like a lot of other characters in the series has his actions excused and brushed aside because he's on the good side. But Julian being Coriane's brother would have known what a person being mentally tortured by Elara looked like. He would've been able to identify the signs of her mental torture in Maven as they had presented themselves in his sister. Even though Maven is spectacular at masking his emotions and his behaviors, Julian would know what to look for in a person whose being manipulated by a Whisper. And while he has a justified hatred for Elara. He doesn't have a justified hatred for Maven. Just because Maven is Elara's son doesn't mean that Julian should've directed any of that animosity towards Maven to the point that they have a strained relationship by the time Mare gets there.

Seriously this man is like at least 40 and he's been having beef with a child since said child was born.

Elara obviously did a good job at isolating Maven from the rest of his family. Something Julian or Anabel should've noticed. Which is another thing.

Anabel's blatant favoritism. This is something that also get's excused and swept under the rug. It could be because the first time we see Anabel on page is in the second book when her son has been murdered and her grandson has been chased out of his country. But no one ever seems to bring up how easy it is for her to just disown Maven. She never shows any sort of sadness for who Maven's become or what's happened to him.

She never shows any sort of regret for allowing her grandson to be hurt so terribly to the point he would watch his father murder and feel nothing. She never shows any contempt for Elara in regards to her abusing Maven, and instead only for Elara usurping the throne. She doesn't even show any grief like Cal does when they finally capture Maven and he's on the path to the chopping block.

So it's not that big of a jump to say that she probably showed favoritism towards Cal even before the events of the book. She probably even encouraged her own son to be neglectful of his own son, probably because she didn't like Elara and she still saw Coriane as the true queen of Norta.

And yet no one seems to call her out on this? Not even Cal from what I remember. Which you would think that at least Cal or hell maybe even Mare who was kind of developing compassion and understanding for Maven later on in the series, would call out Julian and Anabel for their contributions on Maven's continued abuse.

Because even though Tiberias neglected his youngest son. He did show in his final moments to care about Maven. So if someone had just brought up their concerns about Elara and her relationship with Maven. A lot of trauma probably could have been avoided.

Which brings me back to my original point. Victoria Aveyard had a golden opportunity to take a character with mental issues, who was a victim of mental abuse and rehabilitate them.

She didn't have to excuse anything Maven did.

In fact if she did excuse all the horrible things that Maven did it would have cheapened the whole rehabilitation arc.

But she could have instead of writing a whole book of them looking for Newbloods, taken the time to have Cal and Maven, Mare and Maven, heal their respective relationship, give Maven a proper journey, and written a much richer story than just "people with mental health issues are evil"

Instead Maven Calore as a multifacted tragic character was wasted.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

Discourse is always welcomed.

[rainstorms-moonrivers]

writing prompt: it’s 2am why are you in my room and where’d you get that cat, can I have it?