#everybody makes mistakes *cue britney*

[abraxos-and-ataraxia]

Hey just want to let you know I’m really enjoying your story. Danae is a joy and fascinating to read. We see she’s past the loud stage of her anger. She’s now calm and in the acceptance stage. She’s accepted the fact that her high lord is trying to rid his hands of Illyria but what wants them under his thumb. 500 years is plenty of time to change things but he just has 500 excuses for her. But when you are calm and angry that’s when it gets taken to the next level because now you’re calm and fed up, rational and able think things through. She’s weighed the pros and cons and knows what she wants for her fellow Illyrian kin. Change is not pretty, easy, or done with pleases and thank you’s. Poor Emerie has drank the inner circle kool-aid but hopefully Danae was able to plant some seeds in her head to get her to second guess the half ass attempts that Rhysand and co. have done for her people. I know emerie extended the Valkyrie invitation but with Danae had no interested in fighting for her high lord? Danaes stance is that their options shouldn’t just be between cannon fodder or wives or live in constant fear of their own high lord and other Illyrian men. Emerie shows what Danae could have had but Danae would not be satisfied because then she would see that she would just be one lucky Illyrian out of all the other unfortunate ones who don’t have the luxury of being close to high lords family. I hope their talk made Emerie realize that letting Illyrian women serve as soldiers is a false liberation because now they are given the choice of being slaves that die for the high lord or slaves in their homes.

Hey nonnie!  Do you see these tears?  They’re for you and this feedback because I’ve been dying for discourse *cracks knuckles* alright here we go:

Danae is...impulsive and easily pissed off.  She really does just blurt out her unfiltered thoughts, but she’s not always wrong.  Her perspective as a twenty-something Illyrian who’s never actually met her High Lord and only really lived during Amarantha times is one we haven’t gotten yet, and one I was dying to write.  I mean, consider all of the WACK stories she must have heard, whisper down the lane, from Under the Mountain.  And that’s legitimately all she knows.  If that High Lord came up to me and smiled, I’d be terrified.  And she is!  Rightfully so!  Even before Amarantha, Rhys was fueling those horrible rumors.  He spent hundreds of years playing the Nightmare.  If anything, I’m surprised at how easily some of the acotar characters have just....accepted that he’s a nice guy.  It took Feyre longer than a lot of these side characters, and she’d only seen him be Mr. Scary for a few months, not centuries.

Emerie (ilysm babe) was a really good way to showcase how Danae hasn’t had enough time to learn to be quiet.  Danae hasn’t learned to accept “the way things are” yet.  She hasn’t grown accustomed to really questionable history and behavior in the Night Court.  Emerie is older (that’s the impression I have, anyway) and has lived her whole life in Windhaven, the only place anyone seems to visit in Illyria.  Her opinions have skewed over time, and that’s not her fault at all.  At some point in time, she stopped asking questions, and when she joined the Valkyries, nothing really changed, because who was going to remind her that things could be different in Illyria?  Nesta knew nothing about the place, and neither did Gwyn.  The inner circle isn’t going to suddenly start brainstorming reforms over dinner without some kind of spark, so why would Emerie suddenly start questioning her High Lord or Illyria?

To sum up, Danae is basically that kid you babysit who won’t stop asking “but why?”  Rhysand is the babysitter tiredly answering “because I said so, that’s why.”  And Emerie is the kid who just woke up from a nap and is hella confused.  There’s a debate going on?