#feyre critical

[washmchineheart]

so let me get this straight tamlin locking feyre was the biggest crime in the world for the inner circle but locking nesta in a place she physically couldn’t leave is okay because is in the name of healing?? yeah that makes sense feyre you are def not acting like tamlin!!

[kataraavatara]

these were a little too real for tiktok. maybe someday…

[achaotichuman]

Acotar Rant

Whenever I see shit like ‘Tamlin is depressed and wants to die because Feyre left him’ ‘He’s so desperate for Feyre and that’s whats driven him to this point.’ All I can think is, do we just collectively think Tamlin is immune to trauma??

To even grasp this situation you have to go way back before the book even starts. Tamlin was preyed on by the pedophile that helped ruin his childhood who then cursed him because he told her no.

He then had to watch all his close friends die in vain for him while he desperately searched for decades for another solution. He brought in refugees fleeing from other Courts. He. Carried. His. Dead. Citizens. And. Hand. Buried. Them. And he had to do it all without ever being able to fall apart.

The Feyre came along, and he learned to care for her. He didnt want her to just be used to break the curse because he didnt want to just be using her. He fell in love with a person that saw past the mask (both figuratively and literally) and allowed him a safe space. One that had long ago been stripped from him.

Then she was sexually assaulted, tortured and killed in front of him. He watched the love of his life die for him and he was completely unable to do anything about it.

Then he was given another chance to protect her and he took it. Granted this is not to excuse his actions, but there has to be some nuance given to the fact that he watched her literally die and was by the grace of God given another chance.

Then this same girl that he loved and desperately wanted to protect from the same thing happening again, was kidnapped. This same woman then tricked him into believing she had once again been raped by the same monster who assaulted her under the mountain and killed his family.

The very same woman then mind raped his sentries, his friends, and then proceeded to destroy his Court which he had spent decades trying everything in his power to protect, from the inside out. Then allowed Hybern to rampage through, destroying a neighbouring Court in the process.

He had to watch his people die all over again, when Feyre lied to him, he saw her dying under the mountain all over again. And he still went to war! He was spying on Hybern and gave over vital information about them to the High lords!

Then he dragged Beron out by his neck to fight for Prythian.

And when all was said and done he helped bring back the monster that had destroyed him mentally all for the sake of the girl that had killed his people.

Then he left them all alone in the end. Spring was abandoned and him along with it. This man, who very clearly has abandonment issues from the fact he was rejected by his family and beat within an inch of his life to the point he ran from home to the War Camps, was left completely by himself.

Lucien does come to see him once every now and again, but I also don’t blame Tamlin for not wanting him too. Considering even though Lucien had extremely valid reasons for leaving when he did, he still left Spring for dead without an explanation.

In the end, it is not ‘Tamlin needs to get over himself and his ex’ its Tamlin needs an extreme amount of mental help. He is a survivor as much as the rest of them.

Not even Feyre was able to recover from her mental health without a ton of fucking help. No one was, everyone got their support groups in the end

Tamlin went through it all without ever taking himself into consideration and still made it. He deserves to be able to fall apart.

[yaralulu]

Don’t remember ever hearing an apology either.I know she doesn’t feel bad about what she did to the SC (crazy) but she doesn’t feel bad about what she did to her friend and how she destroyed his home and his life basically ??

[simmanin]

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

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

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

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

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

[deathbealady]

has anyone talked about how gullible Feyre is, and the implications of it for the entirety of the ACOTAR series? Feyre is basically the sole lens through which we see the world for the first 3.5 books, and although a lot of things we kind of have to just take at face value (explanations given to her about how the fae courts work, etc), she also misinterprets a lot of stuff bc she’s young/naive/uneducated/lacks perspective. it’s understandable to a degree, but I feel like Feyre lacks serious critical thinking skills to the point that it’s alarming. (I’ve mentioned before Feyre is not my favorite character, and this is one of the reasons why)

like, I’m just thinking about how in ACOMAF, Rhysand has her writing lines to practice reading and writing. okay sure, fair enough

but Feyre writes “Rhysand is the most powerful high lord” one time too many and she’s suddenly like “Rhysand IS the most powerful high lord!”, which is bizarre. Rhysand is a powerful daemati, yes, that’s been demonstrated to us. we know that as a high lord, his power would presumably be comparable to that of the others. but for him to be the most powerful high lord? I don’t recall that any of that is really shown to us, it’s just Feyre/SJM telling us repeatedly until we believe it (which parallels how Feyre presumably wrote those lines so much she began to believe them herself)

Basically she starts hanging around Rhysand, and she manages to get brainwashed so quickly and thoroughly that it’s kind of wild. think of how quickly she takes to the Inner Circle and she immediately decides they are *her* family (and kinda forsaking her own actual sisters in the process if ACOSF is any indication) because Rhysand calls them his family. like honestly? if Nesta decided she didn’t trust Rhysand based purely off of how differently her sister started acting when she was hanging around the Night Court, I don’t fuckin’ blame her!

[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

[novaricewrites]

If Magic Chooses-

So we know the magic in Prythian ties the land, Courts, and the High Lords and can be vaguely sentient (as with the Cauldron).

It's unclear how it chooses the High Lords but the magic seems to be deliberate and adheres faithfully to whoever it chooses. Even Amarantha couldn't fully access it despite all that she did - she could only prevent the Lords from using it against her.

So imagine if this was explored.

E.g: The time when Feyre and the IC stole the Book of Breathings from the Summer Court as guests - literally committing a crime worthy of a magical death sentence. This then left the Summer Court open to Hybern's invasion, further enabled by what Feyre did in the Spring Court.

This didn't just harm the High Lords. It harmed the Courts in a major way. The very land and the people living in there were devastated by it. And it must have caused mass turmoil that even the magic sensed.

So imagine because of this intricate connection to the land, the people and the High Lords - it caused Feyre's bond to the Spring and Summer magic to become hard to control or even the magic rejecting her.

The kernels of magic are technically still the High Lords'. They're not Feyre's magic but were gifted like handing her a scale off their essence. And it would make sense if the magic reacted to the state of the High Lords (and deeper the courts themselves) if they experienced deep, visceral emotions & damage thanks to Feyre.

Magic being fickle about who wields it would sort of suit the capriciousness of Faeries. It would also require Feyre to use her wits and sense to navigate situations instead of resorting to the Feysand tactics of Lie, Steal and Justify.

It would give actual consequences and gravity to her actions, and add depth to why her being a Made Fae is a big deal. She is now attached via these kernels of magic to the land in a way that she can't run from. Just as High Lords (even those reluctant like Tamlin are).

Just the plot potential and character development. And the internal conflict over actions that we never got.

[lorcandidlucienwill]

It...bothers me that Feyre looked into Lucien's mind and saw endless sadness and hopelessness and then never thought about it again. Like...Feyre, he's supposed to be your FRIEND???!! Do you not care that he's so endlessly sad and guilt-ridden and hopeless? People talk about how Tamlin did nothing to help Feyre in ACOMAF like he could read her mind or some shit, which he clearly cannot. But Feyre actually READ Lucien's mind and just...didn't do shit? Never once tried to talk to him about why he might be feeling that way. I mean, how can you claim Feyre is his friend if she doesn't care about that? I mean Lucien fought for Feyre against his own High Lord but Feyre couldn't even talk to him about his feelings?

[wingsdippedingold]

I know SJM will portray Feyre to be the pinnacle of the perfect mother, but I can't imagine that she actually would be. Between her abusive relationship and power dynamic with Rhysand, personal mommy issues, her relationship with her sisters, the reason she had Nyx in the first place, and the fucking death pact, I can only picture her as loving on the surface but ultimately neglectful, treating Nyx's issue the same way she treats Nesta's.

This isn't anti-feyre, but that I think a. she's too young (and didn't event truly want kids yet), and b. isn't yet in a good position to be a mother.

Anyway Astraea's adopting Nyx and they're gonna bake cookies with Nesta, and she's gonna help him be a good High Lord and prepare the Night Court for his rule. And he will have morals and not abuse women or his power👍

I think that will both help Astraea make amends with her own childhood by giving Nyx the one he deserves as well as making her peace with her familial ties.

Nyx will be the good high lord that Rhysand stans delude themselves into thinking Rhys is.

[a-court-of-moonlight-and-ire]

Okay, second post, this ones mostly about Feyre because honestly, as of chapter 3 I havent really noticed Tamlin being out of character and from what Ive heard his character assassination was supposed to happen very quickly. Idk, right now he just seems like the same guy but traumatized although I'll fully admit that I didnt care that much for him outside of the Feylin romance (which was pretty sweet but too boring for me) so maybe I just didnt pay enough attention to him to fully grasp his character

Feyre is frustrating to me right now because I dont think shes out of character either, right now shes also just the same woman but traumatized, but like, I already know the extent to which her character will be bent for the sake of Rhysand. In these first three chapters she literally thinks something along the lines of "What's there for me to do but sit at home and spend Tamlin's money" Tell me, what does she end up doing in the night court huh????

Another thing thats frustrating is that Feyre clearly has issues communicating her feelings and wants, I know because I also had issues with that, and instead of learning that very valuable skill of telling others about your inner world and trying to work on her relationships (with both Tamlin and with her sisters), shes just gonna end up with a guy who can read her mind so theres no need for her to challenge herself and grow in any way. Yay. One thing especially stuck out to me in this regard was her attituide towards wearing dresses. Feyre does not like wearing dresses, its not like she never got to wear them back at home even though she wanted to, she just doesnt like wearing them in her day-to-day life, but she feels like she has to because she thinks its what Tamlin wants and because she thinks that if she wears pants its gonna somehow signal to the citizens of the spring court that something is incredibly wrong. But again, she doesnt tell anyone this, she doesnt ask Tamlin if he can just explain to everyone that everything is fine and that Feyre just has an unconventional way of dressing, which he would probably be fine with if its still the same guy from the first book. And it doesnt even seem like Tamlin directly made any kind of comment to her about the dresses she wears, she just saw that he was happy when he saw her wear them, which couldve well been him being happy to see her in general but she doesnt even consider that

Theres also the fact that its very unclear what she wants/what her problem is. Now, this actually isnt something that bothers me that much on its own, Feyre is traumatized and lost, obviously she doesnt know exactly what she wants at this point beyond "the situation Im in sucks and makes me feels bad, I want to get out", I think what bothers me is mostly the knowledge that Tamlin is gonna get blamed for a lot of this stuff when its really not his fault.

And I do want to make it clear that I dont think hes doing a great job handling this situation, I know a lot of people in the acotar critical sphere find his actions understandable and justifiable from his perspective and thats true, but hes still doing a bad job handling Feyre's emotional state. Like, one of your beloved's main issues is that she feels horrible because she feels trapped at home, for the love of god just let her go outside on her own. Maybe send her to village thats far inland or close to the border to the mortal realm, surely those monsters are not gonna manage to come that far if youre all going on patrols to kill them as soon as possible. And even if they do, the people of any village are gonna bend over backwards in order to protect their capital c Cursebreaker, shes gonna be fine

But, to get back to my original point, even if Tamlin was a daemati or whatever like Rhys and could read her mind the way she needs it to be read, he would still not be able to figure out what exactly Feyre needs right now because she doesnt know it herself! I literally read all of her thoughts and I dont know! Does she want to help others and be responsible for a whole bunch of people because its what shes always known to do? Does she want to avoid resonsibility for now because she wants to recover from her traumatic childhood of having the responsibility of keeping her family alive on top of all the new UTM-trauma? Its hard to say and that makes sense for Feyre at this point in her life, but she cant just blame people for not understanding her when she doesnt properly understand herself and refuses tl verbalize her feelings

Anyway, thats it for today, hope you enjoyed this

[kataraavatara]

last thing about acotar I promise. but I really can’t get over silver flames because who tf sent feyre to the cersei lannister school of becoming your abuser. forcibly locking up a woman because you don’t know how to deal with her trauma responses. hmmmm sounds familiar feyre. who’s playbook did that one come from i wonder.

[achaotichuman]

Acotar Rant Time

Tonight I'm feeling the audacity, so I'm just gonna say it.

Feyre was far more respected and far more highly regarded in the Spring Court than she ever has been in the Night Court.

In the Spring Court, she was brought in as their last hope. The savior, the High lord's salvation. And she fulfilled that, she became their salvation, their warrior, the Spring Court's champion of sorts. She was the Cursebreaker. She may not have been High lady, but to be honest. She had the same responsibilities and expectations. She was second only to the High lord, and for a 19-year-old with no experience in politics, nor any knowledge of how the Court's function, those are some pretty damn high expectations. Everyone respected and adored her. They didn't want her to help with rebuilding because they respected her as a leader and wanted her to rest. If Tamlin became incapacitated for some reason or another, she would be the one to step up into his position. That was simply another responsibility and expectation she had, and the Spring Court didn't ever dare say she wouldn't be capable for the role because they trusted her to fulfill that to the best of her ability. They loved her!

Now consider the Night Court. The Night Court was the most closed off from Under the Mountain. Velaris never having even being affected by Amarantha, so they would've had no clue of what went on. Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I do not believe the Hewn City was really touched, and Illyria had some join Amarantha to follow their High lord, but I believe they were fairly well off compared to other Courts.

So, no one really has any idea who the fuck Feyre is, she to them is just some 20-year-old High Fae girl who showed up one day. To the Hewn City she was brought in as a slut Rhysand liked to fuck. Are they supposed to respect her for that? She was dressed in rags in the same manner she was UtM, she was put on display as a pretty doll. Everyone hated her from the get-go and had no respect for her, because she was also condoning Rhysand's abuse to them. Making them bow to her and overall being a bitch to a whole city of people. The next time they see her she is suddenly High lady. Was that supposed to make them respect her? Of course, it wouldn't have! She joined in on abusing them, acting like a horrific person, and demanding they bow to her even though she had done nothing to deserve it. They only do what she asks because they have been taught to be terrified of Rhysand.

The Hewn City has no reason to think of her as their ruler. Feyre has proven time and time again she does not respect them, so why should they respect her? Most of Illyria most likely does not even know she exists considering how widespread it is. Not to mention Feyre also does nothing to help the woman abused there, so again, why should they respect her? Because self-fucking-righteous Rhysand says so?

And Velaris. Again, most of them probably don't even know she exists. And they also have no reason to think of her as their ruler, considering she has done nothing for them, and they would have never known how she broke the curse. To them, she's just another woman going about her day, no one special. No one they care about or answer to.

This post is not to say Feyre shouldn't have left the Spring Court. This is to say Tamlin is not sexist in any way. When he said High ladies did not exist that was simply a statement of fact and reassurance they would not call her as such as Feyre at the time did not want to be High lady. He put her in a high position of power and exalted her name. She was loved and respected by all, and there was no fear-mongering necessary to get her that respect, she earned it and Tamlin upheld it. Rhysand however, dragged Feyre's name through the mud and she let him.

I fully believe Feyre had every right to leave Tamlin. However, her reputation was ruined permanently by going to the Night Court.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[bookishfeylin]

At any rate, I need y'all to explain how, exactly, Feyre destroying the Spring Court was meant as punishment for Tamlin if his people weren't hurt/suffering from it in some way. It's reiterated in every book that he despises being a High Lord, so it's not like losing his position and power was what bothered him so much. So what was Feyre hoping would bother him???

She talks about painting the walls of Rosehall red... what did y'all think that meant??? Feyre tells Lucien that she didn't want to kill Tamlin because she thought his court falling apart around him was a better punishment... And Tamlin was explicitly was upset at the High Lord's meeting because of the state of his people, mentioning their villages being nothing but ashes now.

Feyre wanted to use innocent people's suffering to punish their leader. Rather than like, kill Tamlin or something else reasonable, she took her anger out on innocent people. She wanted to use their death and displacement, their pain and suffering, to punish him. And as much as I love Feyre, and as much as I believe it'd be better if Feyre had killed him or something in ACOWAR, it's wholly sadistic to do that innocent people. It's the white woman syndrome all over again.

[deathbealady]

Y’ALL. I had a very important revelation while yelling about ACOTAR with a friend today

I’m sure everyone has realized this already but please humor me bc I’m simply raging from this revelation

So, remember how in ACOMAF or ACOWAR (sorry I forget which, but I know it’s one of them), Feyre had told Rhysand that she wanted to live and enjoy her new immortal life with Rhysand before they went on to try for kids? And then, in ACOFAS, she immediately changed her mind and decided she wanted to have Rhysand’s baby? That old thing?

Well, my friend and I were talking about how we didn’t like this change of mind for Feyre and thought it was stupid and unnecessary. I mean, sure Feyre is allowed to change her mind but like, stay with me for a moment on this

Feyre specifically changed her mind because she met that lady who lost her husband and said she didn’t even have kids to have that part of him left. Yes, I can understand how hearing the woman’s story can hit hard. It was very sad, and I get how Feyre would hear that and be like “I’m so lucky to still have my husband” and “we should make the most of any and all time we left have together” and that’s why she decides they should have a baby right now after all, bc omg what if Rhysand dies again????

Except… Feyre literally never has to imagine a world where one is left behind with no part of the other left, because they fully had a conversation that went: “hey. if I die, you die?” “bet”

They made that irresponsible AF death pact at the end of ACOWAR, so they have nothing BUT time in the world together! They will literally never have to live without each other!! Which makes the whole plot point of Feyre rushing into having kids even stupider than it already was, because Feyre made the decision based on a literally impossible hypothetical situation

Feyre:

This kind of bs is what I’m talking about when I say Feyre is so dumb it’s embarrassing. It’s really so fucking sad because (like so much else in the ACOTAR series) she could’ve been really great, if only SJM would get out of her own way 🙃

[whitedemon-ladydeath]

thinking about that acotar quote of cassian and Rhys talking about servants hearing feyre and Rhys yelling (Feyre yelling at Rhys) for Rhys going too far. so how often does this happen?

sure makeup sex is normal but sex after fighting consistently is uh. not really super healthy? especially as we've seen Feyre and Rhys are having important conversations during sex (about her sisters?????????)