#anti sjm: elain archeron

[ofbreathandflame]

(okay so this is actually a couple months ago but i was writing something and i was oh - this kind of sounds familiar to something ive written somewhere. its a draft so forgive me for jumping around hehe

ive seen the resurgence of this topic and it really hints at the differences between the way the pro/anti sides read this books.

this argument is a much older one - and the orginal argument was that sjm undervalues feminine work, not 'feyre undervalues feminine work.' the framing is very important toward the argument being made; if we say that 'feyre undervalues female work/femininity' then we're looking at a very narrow focus. we are making a statement about her character, not the characterization and writing decisions that go into making the character. when we say that 'sjm undervalues feminine/house work' then we are making a much broader statement. because then we are making a criticism toward the writing decisions, not character decisions. the reason this is important, in particular, is because often the story struggles with distinguishing sjm's voice from feyre - hence why we are often told things, and shown another.

the important takeaway from this argument is that sjm often chooses not to show or elaborate on the 'feminine' coded things; that in the books thereafter - there are two black-coded women in the background doing alll of the housework, and another older black-coded woman doing all of the medical work. and another black-coded woman in the spring court doing alllll household of the work. its that even though the 'laziness' of the sisters was a focal point in their relationship fracture, the story never actually acknowledges these things - or that even feyre did them. the focus is always on the hunting. its that the book assigns these task to black women and never talks about it again. that feyre was able to assume this fatherly role (hunting) is what the story argues is the sacrifice. bc the story is adamant about the women not falling into the 'party-planner' 'lady' 'baby-making' role. why be 'just a mother' when you can be a highlady fire wielding, death-beating, seer, goddess warrior. being 'just a mother' isn't enough. being 'just a party planner' isn't enough women who occupy that 'just a mother role' are often women who are violently killed off and unnamed, victims of hyperviolence, or characterized as vapid (rhys and tamlin mother, lyria, sorsha, marion, loa, cassian's mom, az's mom, mother archeron, dorian's mother, ember - who occupies both roles imo). there is an unwritten, negative consequence associated with being 'just a mother' -- and its not until sjm herself becomes a mother that we even see semi-positive representations of motherhood (yrene, embe, feyre; and even in this case - feyre still falls into the catergory above). in short - the narrative works against sjm newfound appreciation of motherhood and it's also demonized as femine-coded work that isn't considered valid.

instead of actually holding the sisters accountable for ‘not doing enough’ the narrative just assigns the task to invisible women and moves on from the discussion. and this segues into a wider discussion of representation and white feminism; how it’s okay to always place black/brown-coded women in invisible positions of servitude and service (madja, alis, nuala and cerridwen, nehemia, sorscha). think about this - the story essentially praises that feyre does all of this work and that she deserves to rest by....giving the work to these black handmaidens to do; ofc this argument is analytical and subjective (i.e. its my opinion), but i think there's always something so weird about framing the discussion around the fact that 'feyre deserves to rest,' instead of actually getting at the problem of having servants to begin with.

we get a moment where feyre sees her boots falling apart and instead of just taking nesta's boots (bc she was asking for another pair) or mending her own (feyre is just assumed to only have one pair). she kind of just throws herself a pity party. there’s like feyre doesn’t think like a survivalist, nor do her sisters even act realistically impoverished. even if nesta and elain where stereotypical mean girls they still would not act like that given how long they’ve been in that position. im sure nesta and elain know how to sew, so at the very least, they could’ve been mending clothes, making their own clothes and shoes. that is a ‘feminine’ coded task that could have easily been incorporated into the story to make their circumstance more believable. instead the emphasis is always put on the masculine coded activity: the hunting.

the reason the statement even comes up is because the story often disparages 'femininity' in the name of progression (i.e. this is why elain's character exists in a vacuum; she is praised for the same qualities she was vilified for). the 'progression' in this case is an approximation to masculinity. its why the sisters must go on a journey before settling into femininity and why the book essentially believes training is the answer for the illyrian women oppression. its what the book distinguished feyre away from her sister with. it’s that the story doesn’t acknowledge a decade, of at the very least, regular household tasks.

[lovelygwyneth]

I love how poetic it is that Elain is represented as the spring/flowers and they bloom with the sun (Lucien) but die in the darkness (Azriel).

While Azriel's shadows run away from Elain, but dance and are happy with Gwyn's presence.

Mates are made to be complementary, their essence brings life to their mate, not erases it.

[whitedemon-ladydeath]

remember when Tamlin set the sisters up financially so they could find stability after Feyre was taken without prompting or asking but then Rhys promises to keep the sisters safe after he and Feyre ask for their help, Feyre who had also said she'd make them help if she had to, and then he failed to keep that promise and it led to them being murdered bec I do

[sunnyshadows24]

Friendly Reminder that even Feyre cringed at the thought of Lucien & Elain sleeping together 🤣

Our High Lady of the Night Court Is the ultimate Elriel Shipper 💅🏻

[gwynsdefenseattorney]

✨✨Friendly Reminder✨✨

Honestly I feel like this needs to be a damn daily reminder cause some of y’all ignore canon.

Repeat after me.

Lucien👏🏻Did👏🏻Not👏🏻Have👏🏻Anything👏🏻To👏🏻Do👏🏻With👏🏻Elain👏🏻And👏🏻Nesta👏🏻Being👏🏻Kidnapped.

Now repeat it until it sticks and yall stop lying about him being involved. His only wrong doing in that situation was he was on the wrong side of the line. Ianthe has the sole fae responsible for that.

Elucien artwork by viliaud00 on IG

[the-darkestminds]

I’m sorry but I do not believe anyone who says they love Lucien and at the same time ship him with Vassa. Why would you ship him with a human he will outlive by centuries? Sjm has made it clear that the mating bond is rare and cherished among fae. And Lucien clearly longs for a relationship with Elain. If you love Lucien so much why don’t you want him to have that epic, fated love? 🤨

[bookishwithathought]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by luna 🌙 (@readsof_luna)

Art based on SJM’s Pinterest board before she deleted it in 2021, which means Elucien’s been endgame for years.

The author decides, and it’s been decided. How we can argue against it, I don’t know.

[greenleaf777]

Theres a reason its Az whose the one that takes Elain to the garden and just sits with her

A reason Az is the one that figured out Elain’s power

A reason Az is the one the to go save Elain in Hyberns camp

A reason Az is the one to jump up and volunteer to spend his time with her

A reason its Az that Elain buys gifts for not her “mate”

A reason its Az thats the one sitting with Elain deep into the night listening to her talk about her interests

A reason Az is the one Feyre questioned about being Elain’s mate(this wouldn’t have been brought up at all if it wasn’t important)

Az would have never been put into those scenes if he wasn’t meant to be her endgame.

It could have been Lucien or either of her sisters

[aelin-elucien]

I seriously need a good elucien fanfic, anyone has a good recs?

[ofbreathandflame]

This might not be normal but I’m dying to know your opinion on the ship wars. I don’t know why I’m obsessed with your opinion on the matter but I am very interested in your thoughts on it. 🙂

hi anon!!!

(pls note these are my opinions)

i don't have extreme opinions on the ship themselves. like lucien, elain, gwyn, azriel, and morrigan are all very boring characters to me. i feel like all of these pairings would be like watching paint dry. like let's think about it - elain's pov would literally just have to rework and rehash so many events in the story to make her likable (to the general audience). we've already discussed their vague human life and its clear sjm didn't really event that much lore about their lives before the story. elain has no conflicts with any members save for the whole weird and awkward mate / azriel situation. there's no established villain. azriel has no personality. lucien is in limbo and has no personality. the whole thing about lucien being helion son is ultimately useless and doesn't really change anything (the story is also arguing that i should root for helion despite the fact he just is okay with loa being abused). beron is a caricature villain who made his life harder by just reviving his age old enemy whom he dislikes and has since he was born. so how serious am i supposed to take him as a villain?

koschei is just there and is also another villain with no personality. morrigan also has no personality. gwyn is also just there and I mean I wouldn't say there's a lot of build-up for her either. but at the very least she has some inner conflicts to resolve. rhys is obviously not going to be a real barrier. there's literally no appeal to any of these characters IMO.

if the story would handle an illyrian plotline with emerie and azriel at the wing, i'd probably be interested but unfortunately sjm is the writer so it wouldn't be good. but yeah weirdly enough I would enjoy an emerie x az story (not romantic - but I wouldn't mind; I would love an emerie x female illyrian but alas there are no named illyrian females in this entire series besides her). i think the story unironically sets up an interesting dynamic between the illyrians and the night court but the story genuinely doesn't seem them as victims in any capacity - but I've got to admit its an interesting setup. think about it:

illyrians mothers raise these sons who grow up to hate them. women are isolated in these communities and robbed of their ability to fly; but these women are also semi-indoctrinated to sone extent to exalt this system of brutality and violence. mother's send their sons off to the blood rite to die so that they can serve and protect an utopia (velaris) that they have no access to. their high lord passes law - but is naught to enforce them because he recognizes who integral this oppression is to his political and militaristic aspirations. their high lord leaves their burgeoning communities without leadership for almost half a century to join forces with amarantha but then comes back after his tenure and SLAUGHTERS and tortures hordes of people for doing the same thing despite the fact he removed any court protection from them.

its interesting to me! id read that. it also kind of reminds me of the dynamic between paul atreides / jessica and their use of the fremen in dune (please read if you haven't! very fun and surprisingly easy read!)

[nightlyteaandpaper]

Unseen Labor: Exploring the Undervalued Contributions in Feyre's Cabin

Feyre did not do all the work in that cabin, and I think it is dishonest to say she did. She did the physical labor, but that is not all there is to keep a household functioning. Feyre has told us she does not know how to cook, so who was cooking in that cabin? I know it wasn't her damn daddy.

Feyre has never mentioned cleaning ANYTHING in any of these books, so who cleaned the cabin? Who decorated the cabin? Who washed the clothes? Who mended the clothes? Who provided healthcare to the sick members of the family? Who taught basic life skills to the best of their ability?

No, Feyre doesn't see any of this stuff mentionable (therefore, the audience doesn't think about it) because SJM has some weird mid-late aughts hang-ups about what tasks are "traditionally feminine." She sees no value in these tasks, and she places no value on these tasks; thus, she never mentions them happening. But if the audience learned that while Feyre was hunting all day, Elain was cleaning the cabin, Feyre's sacrifice would not be seen as so great because our response would be, "Well, that is what a family does. The youngest just happens to be the best at hunting."

If the audience found out that while Feyre was hunting all day, Nesta was planning meals, cooking, mending clothes, and providing half-ass health assistance to their father, we would say, "well, it seems like everyone carried their weight." We will not see it as a huge sacrifice.

But no, SJM does not mention these things, despite them being very real objectives and responsibilities that come with taking care of a household.

[whitedemon-ladydeath]

thinking about the beginning of acotar where Feyres being resentful towards her sisters (fair) but then she goes onto say "Elain doesn't grasp things" (which is gross and has ableist undertones but anyways) and that it simply never occurs to her to help but then Feyre doesn't.... ask. if you know there is no malicious intentions from Elain, that she "doesn't grasp things", that it simply doesn't "occur to her" then WHYYYY don't you just ask her. I'm sure she'd say yes ffs

[jungliet-capuleet]

We can see how useless Feyre has become inside the Acotar narrative when in HOFAS she barely appeared, she doesn't have important roles after her pregancy and guess what? I bet the next books will have almost nothing of her scenes cause hear me out: she was only there as a "door" for her sisters to come into the story, after her "happy ending" she became a trophy wife with a child and no one needs her anymore. Now we're about to see Nesta's and Elain's journey and judging by the plots we have now linked with CC both have much more potential to be muuuch more interesting than Feyre's lack-of-personality-abusing-weirdly-written-romance.

And of course people who don't like these other characters will say the up coming books are bad. "Hello? There's no evil-pretending to be good-Ratsand and his empty wife? I won't say it's cool"

Her journey has ended. It's not like, for exemple, Danika. That wolf girl died on CC1 and still on CC3 she's important and even for seconds she's remembered with love and caring. Feyre is not even remembered by her so called husband!

Sjm has the knife and the cheese on her hands. I hope she doesn't drop the cheese and shove the knife down her stupid ass✨

[emmitaaa4]

Gwynriels: “Elriels are so toxic and immature, they’re always rude in comment sections.”

Also Gwynriels:

See this is what I mean when I say it’s not that all Gwynriels hate Elain, it’s that all Elain haters are Gwynriels.

that says a lot about the ship 🤷‍♀️

[elrielffs]

"Elain deserves better than Lucien" I say into the mic.

The crowd boos. I begin to walk off in shame, when a voice speaks and commands silence from the room.

"She's right," they say. I look for the owner of the voice. There in the 5th row stands: SJM herself.

[simmanin]

that ship being referred to as ‘forbidden love’ is actually laughable

We are talking about two grown ass adults who have full autonomy over their bodies. All they have to do is grow a backbone and call Rhys out on his bullshit. OR talk to Elain’s sister (AKA their HIGH LADY) and she would get on Rhysand’s ass so fast.

Like I’m sorry but the sneaking around wouldn’t make for a good story. What would there be to learn there? Will they heal and grow while hiding in the shadows? While keeping secrets from their loved ones? Constantly looking over their shoulders so no one sees them? Also, Elain already feels rejected (hence why she gave the necklace back after Az called their almost kiss a mistake), why would she sneak around with him? In her mind, she’d probably view them hiding it as him feeling ashamed of her. That doesn’t sound like a very good love story, IN MY OPINION.

I just find it hard to see any romance in their story, if SJM goes the ‘forbidden love’ route. They’re not forbidden. If they really truly wanted to be together, then Rhysand would not be able to get in the way of that.

Plus, they both deserve to be loved loud and proudly. A love hidden in the shadows cannot grow. It cannot bloom. They can never fully love one another if they feel the need to hide it. Why do so many people want a secret, hidden love story between two characters who clearly have issues from past rejections?

Sarah Janet Maas, please free them from the shackles of this ‘forbidden love’ trope, I beg you 😭