#queue092723

[ofbreathandflame]

i often think that a lot of people facillitating the discussion about the 'necessity' of nesta's intervention always seem to fundamentally misunderstand what exactly is wrong with it

anytime someone shifts the conversation to the 'ends justify the means' ideology- a red flag goes off in my head; anytime someone makes any of these statements...red flag:

"the intervention might have been harsh but.."

"even though the inner circle could have done things better...

"the ic don't owe nesta anything..."

"nesta treated feyre badly so she deserves...."

"feyre cares about nesta and her intentions were good..."

"nesta did xyz to feyre, so its only right..."

because...these statements (and those adjacent to them), always seem to misrepresent what the problem is. its one thing for the inner circle to cut nesta off, for mor and rhys to hate rhys, for feyre to want to get revenge; its an entirely different scenario for the inner circle to put themselves personally in charge of nesta's wellbeing. like....they staged an intervention, they locked her in a house and did not allow to leave without an escort, the tore down her home, they locked in a home with a man she verbally and consistently reiterated she wanted nothing with.

one thing people consistently refuse to acknowledge is the fact that there is quite literally a tangible power imbalance between feyre and her sisters. feyre is literally the governing body of the entirety of the night court; her sisters....are her sisters. silver flames confirmed (and proved to me) that feyre does have tangible, official power over sisters. if feyre says, "you have to be locked in this house with this man," her sisters have no choice but to comply. if feyre says "you're banished," then elain would just be banished. nesta would be banished. and this why i've always said that feyre's function as an eternal victim is undermined by her position in the story.

and this is the kind of power imbalance i have often cited between feyre and rhys and feyre/tamlin. its the natural deference that forms between a subordinate and their superior. its not inherently negative (see: mentor/mentee; teacher/student; manager/employee) but it does mean that people in power have to be cognizant because it is often easy to fall into abusive/imbalanced roles. feyre cannot be nesta's sister and high lady through the intervention; she's either a concerned sister, or the high lady. ordering nesta as her high lady and as her sister mean two different things. feyre establishes herself as high lady in that meeting; she establishes to nesta that the intention of the invention was political in nature.

feyre isn't deferring to an professional who can properly help nesta; she (and the ic) are quite literally assuming the role of the professional. even if we did argue for the necessity of an intervention, that entails consulting and deferring to what they (the professional) outline is the best measure. its still facillitated...through the professional. and by doing that they are inherently consenting to the fact that that person is (1) a subordinate (2) their responsibility. we can't argue for the necessity of a extreme measure - and then in the same breath deny the resposiblities that entails. we can't justify the intervention by saying its the equivalent of a mental health facility and then say the people responsible somehow don't have a responsibility to the person who is essentially forced into being a patient by their standards. and then also claim they owe that person nothing.

and even then - then we have to think about the validity of the house of wind's equivalecy to a mental health facility. because (1) it's nesta that empowers the home, not feyre. its only welcoming because nesta...made it welcoming. its only caring because nesta made it caring. (2) feyre still makes nesta go on missions in her stead. nesta is sexually assaulted twice on said missions. she literally pimps nesta out to eris during her imprisionment. nesta is not getting paid, and she's only allowed to leave the house of wind during these moments. so even that comparison doesn't justify what feyre makes nesta do. she can't be in the equivalent of psychiatric facility and then be coerced into situations she has verbally expressed she does not want to do and that terrify her. we also have to think about the fact that feyre was absolutely down and allowed her sister to be locked up with another male who everyone knew was her mate; who nesta verbally rejected multiple times.

feyre is making the sister that she deemed was so mentally ill that she could not support herself then complete the tasks of a high lady? like how are justifying that? you can't say "this person has a debilitating addiction, therefore, she needs to be locked into a home, escorted, and policed" and then argue that this is the same person who should complete tasks that should be the high lady's job.

like what made tamlin abusive?

it wasn't being a concerned lover. it was that he assumes (and takes advantage of) the position of a high lord over feyre. we know whar tamlin's "intentions" were; he wanted to protect feyre. but how does he protect feyre....by presiding over her as her high lord not consulting her as her lover. a high lord can lock her in the house, restrict her access to his state, refuse to pay her. and again - the concerned lover and the abuser can absolutely co-exist. the 'good intentioned' sister or lover can still be an abuser.

we can acknowledge feyre's position as high lady, but that also comes with the responsibility of managing how you represent your power. the intervention is abusive. and illegal. and impractical. like even if you argue that "nesta heal" that doesn't change the fact that (1) nesta is fictional - of course she "benefits." writing that a character 'heals' from abuse doesn't negate that it is abuse. (2) if feyre had 'healed' under tamlin...he would have still been abusive.

its just very tiring when these conversation focus on the characters and not the frameworks behind them. nesta could have been the nastiest person to ever walk the earth and the intervention and the the behaviors thereafter are still indicative of abuse. and if the ic did not like nesta or could not tolerate for her she treated then they should have not have the power to enact extreme measures like an intervention and lock up.