DPlusARing

Aha thank you for this ask!! I really enjoyed answering it even though you may not agree with all my answers🤗I’m happy to answer any further questions you may have for me from my answers and I may add to them as I think of more.

Things that I don’t want to happen to Nesta in the next book:

Nessian

Her apologising to others

Mor manipulating more situations

Nesta letting Elain’s behaviour towards her slide. And Feyre’s. And Cassian’s. And Mor’s. And Rhys.

Things that I want to happen to Nesta in the next book:

Accept herself

Find her own inner circle

Never feel intimidated by others

Come into her power

Grieve her father and confront all her feelings about him.

Talk about her mother.

Show her visiting their graves

The beginning of neris/nerista/erista (I’m thinking a healthy slow burn)

Healthy relationships

Confront the others on their isolation of her and on how they treated her.

Not accepting anyone’s BS

Having a completely terrifying familiar that never accepts anyone else, especially not Cassian. Not even Elain. It’s completely hers and only tolerates others. Barely.

For her to learn enough to defend herself and not rely on others but usually save herself by her own wits rather than through physical force.

Leave the Illyrian war camp and claim a place that’s completely her own.

Create a home for herself, completely comfortable, cozy and all her own design with little trinkets reminding her of those she loves (including the wooden carvings of from her father)

To bond with the librarians in every court.

Start a book club in the prison that the Bone Carver was kept in.

Say goodbye to Cassian, even if he apologises.

In fact don’t fully accept anyone’s apologies. But if she does she would forgive but not forget or let things slide.

Not give any member of the IC her complete trust.

Bond with Azriel. I feel like they could have a really good platonic friendship.

Also have friendships with Lucien, Tamlin and those from the winter court.

Have friends from the ‘lesser’ areas of velaris.

Become High Lady in her own right. (Not through marriage, but I won’t turn down her eventually gaining the title of High Lady if the Autumn Court)

Show her ‘creative talent’ if Elain can grow and bake and Feyre can paint then Nesta has a talent.

Find out what’s going on with her and Amren.

Hear her give a full musically lilting belly laugh and watch as a room turns and falls into stunned silence from her bright joy filled smile and sounds.

So when we first met Morrigan in ACOMAF, I was pretty sure she was going to be one of my favorite characters. She seemed so kind and legit (plus my name is Morgan) so I was 10/10 prepared to love this chick.

You know how some characters you like, even though they have deep flaws or questionable characteristics? You want to see them grow or you can still just appreciate them– even if you don’t agree with their thoughts or choices.

After ACOWAR, Mor was not like that for me. Out of all of SJM’s characters, she’s the only one I couldn’t care less about reading more of her story. It’s so disappointing in a way. 

Some reasons why I think that may be *deep breath* :

I don’t like her personality; probably because she’s a big feeler and majority of her reactions are emotionally driven (balance is good…)

I don’t like how she treats Nesta. Even if I understand her dislike of the woman, Nesta has never done anything to Mor personally, and yet Mor intentionally treats her badly (this goes back to point #1)

I don’t like how she is possessive of Cassian and Azriel. Not protective, possessive. If you notice, all the little social situations where she puts herself between Cassian and Nesta, she does it in a way that makes Cassian have to choose her. Like, she can’t just redirect the situation, Mor has to have his attention for herself

And finally….the big one…I abhor how she treats Azriel. She has contributed to his emotional abuse and insecurities for most of his life, and even though he has some responsibility in letting her have that power, Mor refuses to be honest with him. I think we can all agree, she doesn’t need to tell him about her sexuality in order to have an open conversation with him about where they stand. In ACOWAR, she mentions she’s had moments she’s pictured wanting a life with Az, but honey. it’s been hundreds of years and abundantly clear you don’t want that.

(making this the last bullet point because I’m ranting now) It’s SO ironic to me her gift is Truth, but she’s never had the integrity to be honest with Azriel. We don’t really see her intentionally leading him on, per se, but because they are intensely close as confidants and friends, she has let him hope and consciously hurts him by making it obvious she’d rather sleep with other people like Helion. What a bitch move. (And people say Nesta acts like a bitch….Mor is supposed to be exponentially older and wiser).

I also didn’t like the way that when Feyre confronted her about it (the azriel thing) slightly she used her sexuality as an excuse.

I have nothing against her bisexuality, I have an issue with the way she only brings it up to defend her actions of emotionally manipulating others.

Hi, no I didn’t see the podcast and only found out that Nessian has been confirmed as endgame from another ask.

But if that’s true then I’m probably going to commit to my plan of not reading the Nessian book.

Very canon actually!

And so like canon, in the depths of despair, hatred, and the fact that Cassian thinks she's a nightmare but wants her- that magnetism exists, even when she's half-starved and miserable- Nesta sleeps with him.

And LIKE CANON- it's absolutely an act of self-loathing.

Except of course, Nesta has snapped. There's no lingering sense that she didn't deserve Cassian's touch, Cassian's supposed kindness. There is, however...a sense of shame?

It sort of comes out obliquely between her and Eris- and later in the story, when she talks to Lucien about how matebonds work- the fact of the matter is, Nesta doesn't say her fears or shitty thoughts aloud. Eris just is very, very good at intuiting them- they're afraid of so very many of the same things.

She had Cassian the only way Cassian actually wanted her.

And the bond didn't even snap to place.

It was too broken for that- it's my favorite tiny arc actually SPOILERS but like...Nesta doesn't even smell like Cassian. Cassian DIDN'T FEEL IT, when Nesta mixed her soul with Eris. The bond is fundamentally broken between them.

The terrible sex is proof.

Meanwhile, Cassian, who's first words to Nesta the next time he sees her are about Morrigan- Cassian is out here acting like the wronged party.

Okay so I just finished ACOSF and I don’t think Nesta x Cassian are endgame… 

Long-winded explanation with quotes for proof below!

But one of my many complaints is that Cassian doesn’t have enough worship Nesta Archeron energy. I cannot be the only one who thinks so. Look at Nesta stans. Some would say we have too much worship Nesta Archeron energy. 

Part 1.

“Is she a witch.” I opened my mouth, but Nesta said flatly, “Yes.” And I watched as nine full-grown, weathered Illyrian warlords flinched.

this is one of my all-time favorite Nesta quotes because it shows how purely intimidating she is. She doesn't need to resort to violence or displays of power or have any position of authority to be scary, she just is. acotar is always talked about as this "feminist" book, but all of sjm's "strong female characters" were always so reliant on men. f/eyre went under the mountain for tamlin, she got her powers from r/hysand, she got her authority from r/hysand, all of the women in the ic got their jobs from nepotism! but nesta was strong alone and she was stoic and intimidating even as a human (her will was so strong she could resist tamlin's spell!?) and you never see female characters get to be like that! but after acosf i felt like those qualities got completely steamrolled and nesta had Stockholm syndrome or something because it put her in this position of being in debt to the ic for 'fixing her" and making her strong again from Cassian's love and training. I wish her healing arc was more focused on her and her keeping that coldness and that attitude that made her who she was while also healing from her past trauma. All of her past trauma, including her sexual assault and her problems with her mother and father, which were literally barely touched on????

Part 2.

God this book made me hate the ic even more than i already did. Yes, including cassian and elain. I just don't get how there was such a severe lack of understanding from literally everyone... were we supposed to hate them???? I mean Mor alone and all that shit about how Nesta belonged in the hewn city? how could she wish that on another woman? It was so clear that everyone wanted nesta to be fixed for feyre and cassian's sake and no one actually cared about her. and CASSIAN. God... what happened? I loved him and nesta in acomaf and acowar because he was so sweet and actually tried with her but in this book? he was literally straight out the gate with that, "Not eating won't bring your father back". (literally chapter 5) Excuse me??! if he said that to me I would have slapped the shit out of him. who do you think you are? why would he say that? I get he was frustrated but it felt so out of character for him and their relationship. he was either talking shit about/ to her or drooling over her for a majority of the book and was r/hysand's fucking lapdog most of the time even though rhys is clear about the fact that he hates her so obviously she doesn't like him either?? Also, you literally have to be blind to not see the likeness between what tamlin did not f/eyre and what she did to nesta. even with rhys's fake "choice" bs. As for Elain, I'm just tired. This bitch was just as unhelpful in the human world and during the war, even more than nesta, and everyone just gives her a pass because she was "nice". Literally when you compare them, what did nesta do to the ic?? what did she do to mor and rhys and amren that made them hate her so intensely? I know they're supposed to not like her/have problems w her but it just felt so much deeper and I feel like they literally talk about hating her more than the actual villain of the book. AND NO ONE APOLOGIZES. Nesta is the only one who ever apologizes (for being rude and depressed???) the ENTIRE BOOK????? a whole fucking joke.

Part 3.

Nothing can convince me she actually healed. She literally tells cassian that she's still hanging onto her humanity near the end of the book and this is just brushed over? there were no conversations about why she did anything, her sexual assault, her mother, her relationship w the ic. there were just events and then suddenly everything was fine. you're telling me she saved feyre's life and then everything was just fine between her and r/hysand? you're telling me she survived the bloodrite, made up with cassian, and then was just fine with not being human anymore? you're telling me amren and rhysand made up some bullshit law to make nesta go to the house of wind and that was never addressed???

Part 4.

I so wanted nesta to be this insanely powerful death goddess. apparently no one can be more powerful than rhys though, so she had to lose that too. I felt like her having steal powers from the cauldron was actually a good plot point and good retribution for what it did to her and elain, and was a good character choice and showed how vengeful nesta could be. we honestly never even got to explore her powers that much (what does pure death mean... pls flesh out your characters power sjm I'm begging you) and I wanted to see her embrace that power and use it for good. (or evil. I feel a villain arc would have been completely justified.) All of her power was constantly being taken from her by the ic and its always seen as "in her best interest" when it's literally just gaslighting. Even the swords she made were taken from her and given to KiNg R/hySaNd because of course they were.

In conclusion.

Elain and Lucien - A Court of Thorns and Roses

No such thing as too much gorgeous Elriel art

Elain

Feyre