cookie-darlene

For me Nesta is quite a unique character. I consider her as an intriguing and interesting, complex and shockingly realistic literary character that was created by an adult and sophisticated writer. I believe the author is constantly developing throughout the life, and because of all difficulties, obstacles, troubles, unfortunate circumstances – people gain an invaluable life experience. And that was exactly what Sarah did with Nesta. Sarah has finally created something special. In my opinion, Nesta stands out among YA’s women characters, she is full of female’s natural sensuality, innocence, elegant, hubris. There’s an old saying that too much pride can kill a man, but pride and dignity are those features of Nesta’s character that suits her. I admire this remarkable depth of Nesta’s characterizations. There are so many characters, who are considered to be only as positive characters or negative characters. The time for such novels has passed, I would appreciate to see more characters like Nesta with dark sides full of stealth and scheming, cunning, grief and sadness. And underneath the mask of deep hatred and brutality, I could sense there lies someone truly passionate, caring and loving, protective.

In my view, the main weakness of Sarah J. Mass is in her major characters – all of them (Aelin, Feyre) have an obvious susceptibility to the Mary Sue’s Syndrome, when a certain character was given hypertrophied, unrealistic virtues, abilities and luck – “an idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character”. Personally, I’m not so interested in such characters: Feyre is the most powerful High Fae, she is presented rather idealistic by the author, all her ways and all her actions are most decisive and relevant, justified, reasonable. That does not mean at all that I do not like Feyre, I have been devouring with such a great pleasure all three books, I was interested in the world building, I was fascinated by Velaris and multiple new characters that were presented in the second book, each of them with broaden feedback stories, dark past and struggles, still Feyre in many ways she’s like many YA’s women characters. She lacks originality.

My point is that the real person is not perfect or idealistic. Even well-meaning people sometimes make fatal mistakes, good people do things. Therefore, for me Nesta’s perfection is in her imperfection. She is trying to be strong, just read through the lines and you will reveal for yourself that she does not want to bother others with her own struggles and sufferings. Readers can see only through Feyre’s perspective, and so many people continue to highlight Nesta’s rudeness and cruelty toward Feyre. And still Nesta was the one… She was the one, who look at Feyre’s table to remember what really happened when the beast came to their house.

“I left the shovel in the ground and slowly turned to face her. “Aunt Ripleigh’s house—”

“There is no Aunt Ripleigh.” Nesta reached into her pocket and tossed something onto the churned-up earth.

It was a chunk of wood, as if it had been ripped from something. Painted on its smooth surface was a pretty tangle of vines and—foxglove. Foxglove painted in the wrong shade of blue.

My breath hitched. All this time, all these months …

“Your beast’s little trick didn’t work on me,” she said with quiet steel. “Apparently, an iron will is all it takes to keep a glamour from digging in. So I had to watch as Father and Elain went from sobbing hysterics into nothing. I had to listen to them talk about how lucky it was for you to be taken to some made-up aunt’s house, how some winter wind had shattered our door. And I thought I’d gone mad—but every time I did, I would look at that painted part of the table, then at the claw marks farther down, and know it wasn’t in my head.”

Nesta. Feyre’s cruel, spiteful and hateful, angry sister was the one, who went to Prythian’s lands to save Feyre. She could not get through the wall, she could not reach her younger sister, but she had tried and failed, grieved that she could do nothing. But she was ready to sacrifice her own life in an attempt to rescue Feyre. Sometimes, what is more important than words are deeds and actions on the ground. For me actions speak louder than words. So that is! I don’t care what Nesta says, more importantly, what she did and does.

“Your beast’s little trick didn’t work on me,” she said with quiet steel. “Apparently, an iron will is all it takes to keep a glamour from digging in”.

A weak human’s mind against powerful magic of one the High Lords. I’m going to applaud to Nesta only because of that. And another thing I love so much in this character is her willingness to save her younger sister. Elain and their father were completely unaware of what was happening, and Nesta constantly kept reminding herself that her sister was kidnapped by the Beast and thrown to these dark and forbidden lands full of terrible creatures. It seems that she did not tell anything to Elain or her father and just went off into the woods. Alone! She did not want to hurt Elain or her father, to make them cry or feel bad, to reveal what really happened with Feyre. Because for Nesta the suffering of others are the real nightmare and hell. I cannot even agree with people, who keep calling her wicked, spiteful and hateful sister only because of her coldness and sharpness, harsh words. Coldness and sharpness, which she uses as her own and only one shield - to keep her from losing this pride of her. Spiteful and hateful sister would never have gone to the dangerous, hazardous place like Prythian.

“Elain said—said you went to visit me, though. That you tried.”

Nesta snorted, her face grave and full of that long-simmering anger that she could never master. “He stole you away into the night, claiming some nonsense about the Treaty. And then everything went on as if it had never happened. It wasn’t right. None of it was right.”

My hands slackened at my sides. “You went after me,” I said. “You went after me—to Prythian.”

“I got to the wall. I couldn’t find a way through.”

I raised a shaking hand to my throat. “You trekked two days there and two days back—through the winter woods?”

She shrugged, looking at the sliver she’d pried from the table. “I hired that mercenary from town to bring me a week after you were taken. With the money from your pelt. She was the only one who seemed like she would believe me.”

“You did that—for me?”

Nesta’s eyes—my eyes, our mother’s eyes—met mine. “It wasn’t right,”

So, whatever people saying about terrible Nesta, it’s completely bogus for me. It can be not for you, but it is for me. And that was one of the reasons, why I do not care about Nesta’s cruel words. I believe that she had her own struggles and suffering after the death of her mother, and readers still know nothing about this. We just need to wait to find out. But the idea that Nesta hates Feyre is utter nonsense.

She has been always fighting alone. No one saved her, when she was dragged into the Claudron – no one knows for how long she was into dark waters, what she saw in that darkness.

I feel more attached to Nesta. I love her without reasons, sometimes it happens. I love her because her true wish is to be loved in life, and she is looking for sincere and deep feelings and when she would be holding that love within herself, she become whole or wholehearted. If everything is imperfect in this world… sincere love is perfect in its imperfection. Nesta lost herself in the ageless darkness of the Claudron, she was changed to something more dangerous than the most hazardous and terrible creatures, who are leaving in the Prithian’s lands.

“Lots of things happen to people that they didn’t want to happen, and when it does, you get off your ass and deal. There’s no excuse available for letting a child deal with adult problems, and Nesta was damn near an adult when bad things started happening to that family. Plenty of people step up, she stepped down. I’m not sure why everyone is so willing to give her a pass”.

People even in their writings accept that Nesta “was damn near an adult” – she was not an adult. Sorry, but “near an adult” and “adult” are two different things (at least from my perspective – you have a full right to have another opinion). Adolescence and adulthood are two different things.

People admit that Nesta was not an adult. Come on, Nesta 3 years older than Feyre. In their family was an adult – their father. He did nothing and for that Nesta had been hating him for a long time. Her father was aware of it.

”My father only gazed at my sister. Ignored the monster behind him and said to her, “I loved you from the first moment I held you in my arms. And I am … I am so sorry, Nesta—my Nesta. I am so sorry, for all of it.”

He asked for her forgiveness. There are so many things we do not know about Nesta and her past, about her mother and her death, about creditors, who ransacked their house and brutalized their family. As if her father regretted that he did nothing for her mother. Nesta loved her father more than other sisters, because the despair following after his death, consumed her without leaving any space for happiness and love. Somehow, you can feel this horrific grief and Nesta by herself describes this grief:

“Still the silence raged and echoed around her.

Still she felt nothing.

There was anger, occasionally. Sharp, hot anger sliced ​​her”.

Everything is burning inside of her. It burns so much that this inferno can destroy the whole world. When you lose something so important, you stop being yourself - you do not want to see anyone, do not want to feel anything, and time really passes, you do not notice the flow of time, when you surrounded by silence and blackness. The author experienced this terrible moments and she wanted to share with readers her emotions and this terrible state, when utter void devours your soul.

“She was blinked, and winter had fallen. Blinked, and her body had turned too thin. As hollow as she felt”.

When you lose a loved one, sometimes you want to die. And you do everything for this purpose to drive yourself into eternal blackness. Someone goes through the pain, but someone changes forever, turning into another person. Perhaps, Nesta does not understand how Feyre and Elain are able to feel the fullness and joy of life, because Nesta rejects the life itself, not recognizing it, cursing herself for the eternal life and beauty. Elain can laugh along with the inner circle, whereas for Nesta this is a foreign laugh. She cannot accept someone else’s happiness, she wants to find happiness and warmth, but she cannot. Anguish squeezes her heart in a haze. Nesta cannot be a part of the inner circle, she cannot experience happiness, and therefore she feels uncomfortable with the inner circle.

“Elain’s present - her only present - in her lap. Her spine stiffened slightly. Not at the words, but at Elain, laughing with them. With us”.

And in the third book it is especially emphasized.

“… as I began to walk away, letting my sisters decide to follow or remain.

Elain came.

Nesta stayed”.

And for this I do love Nesta. She was the only one, who decided to stay, as if she could not believe that everything that remained of her father was this black earth. That was one of the reasons, whe she did not wish to visit her father’s grave in Velaris – she does not want to accept his death. For me, the next scene is extremely important, that means that Nesta had the same craving with her during the night, when Hybern came to their home. She always carries with her this amulet!

“Nesta looked towards the stairs, and I noticed the object she clutched in her fist. The small, wooden carving. I could not make out what manner of animal it was, but I knew the wood. Knew the work. One of the little carvings our father had crafted during those years”.

We do not know the real Nesta, we learn it from short passages that Maas let us see from Feyre’s perspective, but we still do not know what happened to Nesta, when her mother died. And what she did to protect her family. After all, even Feyre said that their creditors broke a leg to her father, but Feyre did not say anything about how they could pay off their debts.

“You know nothing about who I am, and what I’ve done, and what I want”.

And most importantly, it emphasizes the relationship between Nesta and her father. The father sailed on the Nesta’s ship.

“And leading the charge against Hybern, flying over the waves, unyielding and without an ounce of fear …

The Nesta.

With my father … our father on the helm”.

“Lots of things happen to people that they didn’t want to happen, and when it does, you get off your ass and deal”.

If only it were that simple, people would not die, there would not be acts of suicide, we would be living in a utopian society or a perfect world.

Even the author in her acknowledgements admits: “This past summer, I was about a third of the way into drafting “A Court of Frost and Starlight”, when I got the worst sort of phone call from my mom: my father had suffered a massive heart attack, and it was unlikely that he would survive”.

She wanted to share this dark feeling of grief with readers. And only for that I love Sarah so much as a talented writer. She is constantly developing her writings through her life experience, and she makes her stories full of emotions. It’s a rare thing to find among contemporary writers, especially among YA’s writers.

People suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder re-experience trauma in one of the following ways:

1.      They constantly recall memories of the experience

2.      They often see this event in a dream.

3.      They suddenly feel that the event is repeating.

4.      Feel weakening or decreasing connection with the world:

5.      Feeling of alienation from others.

6.      Compaction and reduction of emotions.

For a person who has experienced the loss of a loved one, time goes on.

Once again, this quote, please:

“She was blinked, and winter had fallen. Blinked, and her body had turned too thin. As hollow as she felt”.

Usually they discover some of the following symptoms:

1.      Sleep disturbances.

2.      Feeling guilty that the person stayed alive.

3.      Weakening of attention and memory

4.      Increased fearfulness

5.      They avoid some activities that awaken memories of trauma.

Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder appear immediately after the injury or several months or years later. They can last a short time or last a lifetime. Since people are able to hide their feelings quite well, including from themselves, especially if these feelings are painful, they can see nightmares, can do nothing with the death of their loved one.

Loneliness makes recovery so much more difficult. The lack of opportunity to talk about their experiences makes them even more difficult. Lack of an opportunity to understand what happened and why, guilt, social stigma and silence -  all of this complicate the process of healing. At first, a person is deafened by the fact that they have suffered. They try to deny what happened. Most people after the experience of shock and helplessness, the strongest feeling is the realization of their profoundly personal rejection. If there is one common emotion that arises in people as a reaction to the death of a loved one, it is a sense of guilt. Suddenly, there are an infinite number of reasons to feel responsible for this death.

·         What could I do to save the life of a loved one?

·         Did I do enough for this?

When people lose someone (or something) important to them, they are overtaken by sadness. Then they feel anger because of this loss. When people get angry, but feel guilty or afraid and powerless, they often turn their anger on themselves. As a result, depression occurs.

But depression in this case is often very long and deep. It paralyzes the will of people. They lose weight or overeat; it is difficult for them to form new relationships due to low self-esteem; they are sure: if one person rejected them, the same will be done by others.

“Nesta had successfully cloistered herself in some slummy apartment across the Sidra, refusing to interact with any of us save for a few brief visits with Feyre every month”.

People say: “She’s an alcoholic. She takes her sister’s money without thought throughout the entire cycle of books”.

People, who survived the death of their loved ones reveal the most diverse spectrum of medical problems. Many researchers found in them alcoholism, drug addiction, psychosomatic disorders. We were told about headaches, gastrointestinal disorders, heart attacks and much more. Some psychologists believe that people react in this way not only to the death of a loved one, but also to their sense of guilt. Bodily and mental illnesses become a way of self-punishment for the death of a loved one or identification with them. If a person experiences very strong anger, they can punish themselves.

Those who survived must experience a triple loss: the death of a loved one, rejection and the loss of illusions … the death of a loved one steals from a person the feeling of dignity, value and uniqueness. All these circumstances reinforce the grieving potential of hostility, and the danger that they can turn it into the only accessible or most suitable goal – for themselves.

Silence freezes grief. The longer we resist conversations with the closest people, the more difficult it is to unfreeze it. Regardless of how deeply buried our feelings, we end up suffering from their consequences.

There may be other reasons why people conspire to silence. Among them there is a sad belief that they somehow keep their closeness to the deceased person, while remaining silent. This is one of the ways to unite with a loved one, who, of course, also is silent.

Another reason that people keep silent is the understanding of the impossibility of communicating with the only person with whom they really would like to talk - with the person who died. The last word remains for the deceased person, and there’s nothing we can do about it. No wonder we do not want to talk.

Nothing that can be said will change the fact of death of the person we love, and nothing that we can say will not convey to them unspoken (or unsaid) words: “Do not go, I love you.”

“My father only gazed at my sister. Ignored the monster behind him and said to her, “I loved you from the first moment I held you in my arms. And I am … I am so sorry, Nesta—my Nesta. I am so sorry, for all of it.”

“Please,” Nesta said to the king. Her only word, guttural and hoarse. “Please.”

“What will you give me, Nesta Archeron?”

Nesta stared and stared at my father, who was shaking his head. Cassian’s hand twitched, the blade rising. Trying to get a good shot.

“Will you give back what you took?”

“Yes.”

“Even if I have to carve it out of you?”

Our father snarled, “Don’t you lay your filthy hands on my daughter—”

I heard the crack before I realized what happened.

Before I saw the way my father’s head twisted. Saw the light freeze in his eyes.

Nesta made no sound. Showed no reaction as the King of Hybern snapped our father’s neck”.

Nesta can not accept the fact that she is not responsible for the life of a loved one. Or, at least, recognize that there are some limits to which she should feel responsible.

“Feeling. I think Nesta feels everything—sees too much; sees and feels it all. And she burns with it. Keeping that wall up helps from being overwhelmed, from caring too greatly.”

“She barely seems to care about anyone other than Elain.”

I met his stare, scanning that handsome, tan face. “She will never be like Mor,” I said. “She will never love freely and gift it to everyone who crosses her path. But the few she does care for … I think Nesta would shred the world apart for them. Shred herself apart for them. She and I have our … issues. But Elain … ” My mouth quirked to the side. “She will never forget, Cassian, that you offered to defend Elain. Defend her people. As long as she lives, she will remember that kindness.”

·         Anger

Some people describe this feeling as an anger, others as a hostility. It can be anger at a deceased person for throwing you up or blaming you; it can be anger at someone else who, in your opinion, is to blame for the death of your loved one; it can be anger on yourself.

Anger can also last a long time. Some people find that with time, anger changes in direction and intensity. Others feel relieved when they can express the anger they feel towards the deceased.

·         Helplessness and fear

These feelings are usually the strongest at the beginning, but fears can come back to haunt you at any time. What if one more person in my life leaves me the same way? Will I be able to return to normal life?

Usually these people, continuing to live, see that their loved ones do not abandon them, and their fears gradually decrease. They can react more fully to the world around them.

·         Depression (feeling depressed)

The most stable feeling for all people who have suffered a psychotrauma is a feeling of depression. You can be helped by the knowledge that anger that remains unspoken is very often the cause of depression.

·         A loss

The loss is heavy. It’s impossible to replace people. You loved someone, and the person you love has left you. The sense of loss will not disappear, this can not be expected. Another thing is how important a sense of loss plays in your life. You can remember a deceased person and feel positive feelings for him, without continuing to mourn. But Nesta can’t. Not right now.

Nesta in the novella is on the very edge.

She is trying to fight against destiny – she doesn’t want to accept the death of her mother; the death of her father had a strong impact on her, readers can see what the death of loved people can do with a fragile and sensitive soul. She feels nothing. Nesta’s present state should not be necessarily connected with the Claudron, I believe that a person really can feel nothing because of the death of the loved one.

And I do not think anyone could get through what she went through. Nesta was in the war camp during the battles with Hybern, and it seems that she helped to treat wounded, brought fresh water, tried to bandage soldiers’ wounds. The girl who tried to distance herself from the suffering of other people was at the very center of cruelty - torn limbs, physical pain, death, bitterness, blood. No one likes war, but Nesta, who feels too deeply and sees everything that others do not notice, I’m sure it was incredibly difficult for her to be in a war camp. And Nesta watched Cassian during the battle, but she looked not only at him, but also at other soldiers who were dying. And I strongly believe that she blames herself not only for the fact that her father died trying to protect her, but also for the fact that she could not stop the Claudron’s power, she did not save the Illyrian’s soldiers who were killed by the Claudron. She could not prevent the destruction of the wall, which for many centuries had been the only barrier that separated the immortal regiments from weak mortals. And there are still many high fae, who wants to enslave humans once again. When Nesta met the mortal queens, she did not ask for her life, but for the lives of the people who were living in her village, in the Archeron’s mansion; she asked for the lives of weak people before the High Lords, she was trying to convince that people behind the wall were dying because of hunger. She asked Rhysand to try to hide people with families during the battle with the Hybern, but Rhysand refused, because there was no time, there was no place to hide so many people as if he really did not care.

·         The real Nesta is gentle person.

“But Nesta had jolted to her feet, staring at Cassian, at the helmet he had tucked into the crook of his arm, the weapons still poking above his shoulder, in need of cleaning. His dark hair hung limp with sweat, his face was mud-splattered where even the helmet had not kept it out.

But she surveyed his seven Siphons, the dim red stones. And then she said, “You’re hurt.”

Rhys snapped to attention at that.

Cassian’s face was grim—his eyes glassy. “It’s fine.” Even the words were laced with exhaustion.

But she reached for his arm—his shield arm.

Cassian seemed to hesitate, but offered it to her, tapping the Siphon atop his palm. The armor slid back a fraction over his forearm, revealing—

…

But Nesta’s pale fingers gently probed his golden-brown skin, and he hissed through his teeth.

“How do I fix it?” she asked. Her hair had been tied in a loose knot atop her head earlier in the day, and in the hours that we’d worked to ready and distribute supplies to the healers, through the heat and humidity, stray tendrils had come free to curl about her temple, her nape. Faint color had stained her cheeks from the sun, and her forearms, bare beneath the sleeves she’d rolled up, were flecked with mud.

Cassian slowly sat on the log where she’d been perched a moment before, groaning softly—as if even that movement taxed him. “Icing it usually helps, but wrapping it will just lock it in place long enough for the sprain to repair itself—”

She reached for the basket of bandages she’d been preparing, then for the pitcher at her feet.

I was too tired to do anything other than watch as she washed his wrist, his hand, her own fingers gentle. Too tired to ask if she possessed the magic to heal it herself. Cassian seemed too weary to speak as well while she wrapped bandages around his wrist, only grunting to confirm if it was too tight or too loose, if it helped at all. But he watched her—didn’t take his eyes off her face, the brows bunched and lips pursed in concentration.

And when she’d tied it neatly, his wrist wrapped in white, when Nesta made to pull back, Cassian gripped her fingers in his good hand. She lifted her gaze to his. “Thank you,” he said hoarsely.

Nesta did not yank her hand away”.

She has already in loved with Cassian. And here is my list, why I love Nesta. She is so princess-like person. She wants to find a great love for herself, and if Nesta loves – she will give everything she has to this only one person – her soul, her body, her heart. Nesta is torn between two feelings - she wants him to stay - she desires for warmth and love; and she wants this feeling to disappear, because she is afraid of losing Cassian so desperately.

“Twin instincts warred within her: to leave the faelight untouched and make him wait in the freezing dark, or to ignite that bowl and just get rid of his presence. Get rid of everything he was’.

Nesta understands what he is for her. At the same time, readers know that Nesta has dark gifts that she cannot control. She destroys the things that surround her - this can also be one of the reasons, why she is trying so desperately to step back from people she loves so much. For Nesta Cassian is as significant as Elain. And right now, she is afraid of losing him, and that is why Nesta does not want to let Cassian in her soul, in her heart.

‘The king - he had done this. To Elain. To Cassian ’.

Reason # 1.

Nesta is a bookworm. She loves to read romance novels and fulfill the desires of the heart. I love her character fiercely and passionately only because of that. Come on, Nesta is a bookkiller! We are a part of book community. SHE LOVES READING SMUT SCENES! Come with me, girl, I’ m going to cuddle you and love you for this.

Reason # 2.

She has a terrific fashion style. She is the one with the fashion sense. So, I can’t wait to see when Emerie will presented her with new Illyrian’s dresses. All best Feyre’s dresses were made in Illyria by Rhys’s mother.

And finally… I was just thinking about all these nasty posts like “I LOVE TO HATE NESTA – SHE IS EVIL”.

And so, I also came to ask myself: “What if I am the one, who is wrong? People say Nesta is terrible, but I love her without reasons, maybe the reason of all of this – I am a bad person too, but I am not aware of it”.

And I was like: I’M READY JOIN TO THE DARK SIDE! I’m so fucking ready for this. I want to be on the dark side because I would be with Nesta. I would be her loyal general! Please, I’m ready to destroy any light and peaceful kingdom to make any of her dark wishes come true. Bringing her enemies to their knees is the main aim of my existence!

So, when I received some bad and not very pleasant comments about Nesta I was like this:

I was not sure that I understood the person correctly, so I literally asked they: “Have you just criticized Nesta?” Well, English is not my tongue language, so there was a slight chance that I really did not understand, what this person wrote to me.

Actually, I’m so grateful for all these terrible antiNesta posts - it’s not easy to prove your point of view. It is a huge intellectual work to write endless comments lengthy in the number π. But most importantly, all of this only proves how popular such fantastic character as Nesta. I love the fact that there are so many people, who hate Nesta – this proves, how talented Sarah J. Maas is.

Unfortunately, my opinion would never change. And it is pathetic to try to change my mind. I’ve already said – I’m ready to be a part of dark side. And I’m going to defend my sweet girl with all nuclear weapons I have in my arsenal.

So… who wants to be a part of Nesta’s Death Squad? Sisters, join us!

1 Cherokee Trail of Tears 2 Japanese American internment 3 Philippine-American War 4 Jim Crow 5 The genocide of Native Americans 6 Transatlantic slave trade 7 The Middle Passage 8 The history of White American racism 9 Black Codes 10 Slave patrols 11 Ku Klux Klan 12 The War on Drugs 13 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 14 How white racism grew out of slavery and genocide 15 How whites still benefit from slavery and genocide 16 White anti-racism 17 The Southern strategy 18 The rape of enslaved women 19 Madison Grant 20 The Indian Wars 21 Human zoos 22 The colonization of aboriginals in australia 23 White flight 24 Redlining 25 Proposition 14 26 Homestead Act 27 Tulsa Riots 28 Rosewood massacre 29 Tuskegee Experiment 30 Lynching 31 Hollywood stereotypes 32 Indian Appropriations Acts 33 Immigration Act of 1924 34 Sundown towns 35 Chinese Exclusion Act 36 Emmett Till 37 Vincent Chin 38 Islamophobia 39 Indian boarding schools 40 King Philip’s War 41 Bacon’s Rebellion 42 American slavery compared to Arab, Roman and Latin American slavery 43 History of the gun 44 History of the police 45 History of prisons 46 History of white suburbia 47 Lincoln’s racism and anti-racism 48 George Wallace Governor of Alabama 49 Cointelpro 50 Real estate steering 51 School tracking 52 Mass incarceration of black men 53 Boston school busing riots

By the way  I got this list from facebook so I’m not an expert but I encourage everyone to look some of this stuff up, and so much more, if I missed something, go ahead and add!

Oh yeah,

54 chopping off indigenous women´s breasts off of leisure during the genocide

55 slamming indigenous children against huge rocks during the genocide

56 spaniards dividing into groups the indigenous women each white settler was gonna own and rape during the american genocide

57 In the catholic missions nailing native americans on crosses to represent the 12 disciples

58 and this: (I recommend the book The American Holocaust)

61. The government assassination of Martin Luther King Jr

62. White america’s support of Apartheid

63. Nazism

64. Skinheads

65. Various lies attempting to paint Ancient Egyptians as white Europeans 

66. “Modifying” authentic Egyptian artworks that demonstrate Black characteristics so they instead made it seem that Egyptians were white

67. Raping of Native American women and girls

68. The murder of Taíno Natives on the island of Ayiti (which we now call Haiti)

69. White racism ingrained in GI Bill, New Deal, Social Security Act and more

70. Second class badge (The History of Racism within Police Departments)

71. The ordering by the PBA to have cops terrorize NYC’s black and Puerto Rican communities

72. The destruction of Black Wall Street

73. The destruction of at least 10 other thriving Black communities

74. The History of Serial Killers (aka white males on murderous rampages)

75. White corporate sweatshop (Nike, Adidas)

76. Human trafficking

77. High rate of child molestation and rape among white communities

78. Forced sterilization of Blacks and Native women

79. Racist indoctrination of Black women through the media (ex: convincing Black women that unless they straightened their hair, they would not be considered beautiful, hired for jobs, make a living and etc)

80. “Last Hired, First Fired” racist hiring practices

81. Creation of various racial slurs

Because I love books and I CANNOT find an ask-prompt that satisfies my literary sensibilities AND my insatiable desire to troll. (Feel free to reblog). 

F. Scott Fitzgerald: How would you describe your ‘ideal’ brunch attire?

J.K. Rowling: What is your Hogwarts house? 

Donna Tartt: Which of the seven deadly sins are you most guilty of? 

Sylvia Plath: What is your favorite artistic medium?

Dostoevsky: Do you sleep feverishly or perhaps not at all? 

George R.R. Martin: Would you rather marry for wealth/power or murder for it?

J.R. Tolkien: What is your favorite magical creature? 

Jane Austen: What social faux-pas annoys you the most? 

Leo Tolstoy: Do you feel honor-bound to betray aspects of your formally bleak and morally corrupt life?

Hans Christian Anderson: What is your favorite fairytale?

Lord Byron: Are you narcissistic? 

JD Salinger: What is/was your worst subject in school?

Stephen King: What kind of curse would most effectively punish you for disrespecting the sanctity of some Native American burial grounds?

Oscar Wilde:  Would you sweep your rival a magnificently lethal leg at the top of a long flight of stairs? 

Charles Dickens:  How do you really feel about children? 

What I like about Nesta is that she’s not just a brat or a bitch. She’s bitter. And she’s the most multidimensional of the sisters, if not the most layered ACOTAR character in general. Nesta is shown to be an intovert and, more than that, someone who completely lacks social skills. It’s not just snobbery or her being a bitch. This is a factor too since, due to her being the older sister, she was the only one of the Archerons whose mother (who is not portrayed as a caring and sympathetic person) had a big influence on, but it’s definitely not the only one. She is uncomfortable with expressing herself and tries to express what she feels by snapping at people. 

She suppresses her emotions until they burn her from the inside out and she is quite vitriolic because of it. Some fans may find this outraging, but I find it interesting. And I understand her reactions. I understand her being hellbent on keeping innocent Elain safe and trying to do the best to protect the one sister who she thought couldn’t make it on her own, even if she ended up suffocating her. I do understand her anger at Feyre’s purity and at how easily she chose to do something about their situation instead of trying to force their neglectful father through circumstance to take responsibility and action for the way things had turned out for them. Her aggression is accompanied by many depression symptoms. 

At the same time, Nesta is the only one who remembered Feyre and who went for her. She would kill and get hurt for Elain. She would die before letting anyone harm Cassian and she cannot bare to . She was interested more than anyone else in the well-being of the human community and pushed for them to not be collateral in the war. Seeing her develop was my favorite part of these books and getting more of that is one of the main reasons I am interested in the sequels. As for her relationship to Cassian, I LOVE it. Cassian is social, fun, he speaks his mind and calls people out on their shit instead of trying to teach them some lesson through his behavior. He seems immature but he is quite intuitive too. He is loyal and honorable, which is what attracts her, but he can also see and appreciate the loving and hurt side that she is trying to shield from the world, which appalls her. 

Also, people keep acting like Cassian is this poor cinnamon roll that needs to be protected, but he is not. He is a warrior and a lord of bloodshed. He sees Nesta’s good qualities but her roughness and her untamed side are aspects that attract them. After all, it is canonically the first time that he was worried about Mor’s reaction to one of the women he was interested in because it is the first time that it’s something serious for him. And let me just say, that while Cassian pushing Nesta’s boundaries helps her develop as a character, in several occasions, Cassian pushes too far and her reactions, for an introvert and especially for one who feels her sexual drive pushed and not in control of her body after being sexually assaulted, are justifiable to an extent.

 Finally, I think that we have to keep in mind that Feyre is a biased narrator and she is not omniscient. After she accepted her mating-bond to Rhys she started accepting decisions that she would have questioned more in the past. She criticized Lucien too harshly in many occasions, despite his trauma affecting his behavior, while she does not do the same for members of the Night Court. She sees Cassian as the selfless guy who acts as a buffer to protect his friends, while Cassian actually feels guilty because he slept with Mor in the first place because he was jealous of the attention she was getting from Azriel and afraid to lost his best friend if they got too close. 

By taking income into account, it allows the impoverished able to still survive while paying any fines they may incur. And, ultimately, while $100,000 dollars would be noticeable to a millionaire, they would still get by. And, assuming the law is properly implemented, they would be paying the same equivalent of their yearly income that a poorer person would. That’s what makes it fair. They would be impacted the same way - but you are looking at the amount rather than the equation.

Person making 10 dollars an hour: “Fuck, I better slow down”

Millionaire driving a Jaguar: “LOL 400 DOLLARS, FUCK THAT, NYOOM”

Compared to a proportional ticket.

Person making 10 dollars an hour and must pay 400 dollar ticket: “Fuck, I better slow down.”