Thanks, I Hate It.

Lucien Vanserra was the character who most respected his mate throughout the ENTIRE saga.

He didn't kiss her without consent, didn't force her into a deal, didn't tell her to her face that no one liked her, didn't twist her broken arm, didn't make her train when she didn't want to; didn't hide a high-risk pregnancy from her, nor did he threaten to kill her sister when she told the truth, he left the room because he thought he was bothering her, acknowledged that she killed the King of Hybern, believed in her vision and went after Vassa on his own, fought his way across the battlefield just to check if she was okay, made Elain laugh, gives her gifts he knows she likes, doesn't demand an answer from her, couldn't give a damn about a Blood Duel, calls her "Lady" instead of "third sister," had a 💖🎶💖 moment when he first saw her in ACOWAR, and broke the Hybern's King power without even realizing it, just so he could run to her and cover her with his coat.

“…𝔩𝔞𝔱𝔢 𝔠𝔬𝔣𝔣𝔢𝔢 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔬𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔰 𝔦𝔫 𝔞 𝔰𝔲𝔫𝔫𝔶 𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔦𝔯…”

I'll use ACOSF as an example. Maybe unpopular opinion but I see that book as Nesta's story instead of Nesta and Cassian's story because I didn't learn anything new about Cassian or see further character development. Instead, his focus throughout the story is on Nesta and the impeding threats surrounding Prythian. I don't see him recovering from a traumatic event because the story doesn't show us an event he's traumatized from. If he is traumatized, it's from the past and off screen. I honestly don't know if it has bearing on his present (correct me if I'm wrong, i don't remember much). He doesn't need to learn about his powers, he already knows what they are. He's honed his combat skills over the centuries. He knows his history, his purpose, his role, his sense of self. He has established dynamics with his found family, he doesn't need to search for a new one. He has a home and a sense of freedom. He had all of these things when we met him. Is there anything else to see from Cassian as his own character? I'm sure there is, but I don't think we got that far yet. It's similar with Azriel. He has his issues with Mor, his thing with Gwyn, dealing with feelings of insecurity and inadequacy. But what else of him? He has some growing to do yes, but he seems tethered and grounded in so many other ways.

I personally want to read about someone who is untethered in a plethora of ways. Someone who isn't settled, who isn't "rooted" in place yet. The Archeron sisters are a given. Their stories involve learning about their new bodies and powers, understanding their sense of self and purpose, dealing with their recent and past trauma, finding a home and a family in Prythian, and so forth. And then...I think about Lucien Vanserra who is practically the poster boy for "untethered". He has so many unfinished stories left in him. He lost his home in Autumn and Spring, he sort of has one in Night but then he's also living in the human lands, so where is his true home? Beron wants to take over Prythian, will he be sucked back into the court that caused him pain and suffering? The man he thought was his father isn't, how will he deal with that? Does he need to learn more about his Day Court powers? What will he do to help Vassa and her curse? Will he ever reconcile with his brothers and mother? Will he ever reconcile with Tamlin? What's his dynamic with the Band of Exiles like? They're a pretty new friendship group after all. And this isn't even touching on his bond with Elain or his past with Jesminda!

🌸🌱🌿🍃 TAMLIN 🍃🌿🌱🌸

So I knowwwwww the situation with Tamlin in the situation, but hey, im drawing all high lords and their NSFW versions so I need to include Tamlin in it! Plus, I do have a soft spot for him 🤌🏻😅

hi anon!

this. again - i think this is also dependent on how people are choosing to read this story. bc often i find that people who justify these scenes often rely soley on what the book argues at a certain point, rather than actually looking and analyzing how the characters actions reflect against previously established information.

what i mean: if the story argues that rhysand earnestly feels terrible for having to put feyre in that situation utm, then he wouldn't have agreed or offered the con scene. it just would not happen. remorse does not manifest in recreating the very situation that you say caused you distress or shame. its not being introspective.

and this is how we get into what im gonna dub 'toxic canon' (this is a BIG problem in the asoiaf fandom) - where people use canon in a way that isn't comprehensive. if the story says 'this person was forced to do this,' - despite there being no evidence to actually support that "canon" statement." or they use the canon in a way that isn't wholesome, meaning they chunk the canon and do not look at how information given compares against information established.

so the story established that rhys feels sorry for drugging, embarrassing, and sexually assaulting feyre - but the story also have rhys recreate that same environment - which he gets pleasure from. it pleases and arouses him to see feyre back in that position. that negates the feeling of shame - he can't say 'i was forced to do this and i would not do it again if not for the circumstances" and thennnnn have him do that very thing when presented with an actual choice. its looking at a narrow piece of canon and not how that piece of canon actually reflects against the story as a whole.

so we can pick out a quote that says - "rhysand always gives me a choice' but how well does that statement actually reflect the story as a whole? how true is that piece of 'canon' if it is weighed against the events of the story.

its also a conversation about the problems in the romance genre as a whole, where violence is used in a way deemed 'necessary' by the author to negate the severity of the actions. its victim blaming in nature. bc we have to question why is violence against women always a plot point in this story - and why do the stories always use the rhetoric of necessity to support and justify said violence.

and it isn’t some shallow thing either. not even tough love like oh- “hE tWisTeD hER aRm tO sEt tHe BoNE” bitch nO

rhysand humilated her. he debased her and made a fool of her in front of hundreds — thousands, even — for his. agenda. maybe his actions helped her in the long run. maybe his actions are what saved prythian in the end. maybe he loved her all along. it doesn’t matter. nothing he says changes that rhysand’s actions traumatized and dehumanized feyre without her knowledge nor her consent. that, alone, is why i say that rhysand needed an actual redemption arc to pass as a better love interest than tamlin. he can’t just share all his reasons for stripping her down to literally nothing then call that a redemption arc. that isn’t how it works.

the readers can love him while feyre doesn’t. feyre should’ve been allowed the time and understandable wariness towards him after how he treated her utm. it’s not some shallow, ignorant hate from an inexperienced fool — it is the hate and the trauma coming from one of his victims. that’s not something to take lightly, and what does acomaf do? make a joke out of it. have rhysand fuckin hyperventilate or something the moment feyre brings it up. have feyre get over everything he did to her in months. have everything be okay because of some contrived explanation in chapter 54.

rhysand can have good reason for his actions and have them, in the same vein, still be acknowledged as actions that harmed people. i don’t understand why both of those things can’t be true at the same time. i’m never gonna believe that first part lmao, and i doubt many stans are ever going to believe that not to be true, but neither of our beliefs change a universal truth: rhysand played an active hand in oppressing innocents, not just of other courts but his own as well, and he hurt thousands of people in unbelievable ways. why, precisely, are his actions not able to have logical reason while still being acknowledged as harmful? these are two things that can be true at the same time, and yet rhysand’s character within the narrative is not treated as though it is. 

I don’t remember the specifics, but I do remember Rhysand threatening Feyre with the fact that she’d likely develop and infection; so, with the knowledge, she likely had a compound fracture/break.

Compound: a break where the bone pierces through the skin; due to the breach of skin, it is the most likely break to develop infection. This type of break is characterized by the displacement of bone.

With that being said, it’d be more likely that her bone heals wrong from lack of setting.

"It took five minutes for the water to actually heat enough to start filling the tub. There had been some days in the past year when she hadn’t even bothered to take the time. Some days when she’d climbed into the icy water, not feeling its bite but that of the Cauldron’s dark depths as it devoured her whole. As it ripped away her humanity, her mortality, and made her into this. It had taken her months of battling it—the body-tensing panic that made her very bones tremble to be submerged. But she’d forced herself to face it down. Had learned to sit in the icy water, nauseated and shaking, teeth gritted; had refused to move until her body recognized that she was in a tub and not the Cauldron, that she was in her apartment and not the stone castle across the sea, that she was alive, immortal. Even though her father was not."

Everytime I re-read ACOSF this scene breaks my heart. Love Nesta journey and every single mountain she had to climb in order to start her healing process.

Art by: tarcilaneves

HERE'S THE COMMENTARY ON ACOFAS CHAPTER 11: THE ONE WHERE RHYISE VISITS A SUICIDAL TAMLIN AND TELLS HIM TO ROT IN HELL 🥰

A tomb.

This place was a tomb.

How can someone be proud of doing something cruel to someone? If they are the saints they claim to be why do this to Tamlin bro? Istg i will NEVER to this understand how on earth did the editors agree to the plotline of the destruction of Spring Court?

Lucien had not come here to make amends during Solstice, I realized as Tamlin opened the door to the dark library.

Lucien had come here out of pity. Mercy.

Bruh why? why? wud he underestimate their bond like that? he speaks as if they hadnt been each others only family for centuries

Tamlin claiming an ornate cushioned chair on one side of it. The only thing he had that was close to a throne these days.

oh fck u little shit atleast tamlin doesnt OPPRESS his people!!

“If you’ve come to gloat, you can spare yourself the effort.”

Tamlin is so non-combative here and people still have the audacity to say Rhysie is the bigger male????

“Do you see any sentries around to do it?”

Even they had abandoned him. Interesting. “Feyre did her work

thoroughly, didn’t she.”

THATS NOT SOMETHING TO BE FUCKING PROUD OF RHYSIE

ISTG this asshole someone needs to kick him in the balls. HARD.

I smiled. “Oh, no. That was all her. Clever, isn’t she.”

No sir she is a dumb teenage girl who taught to destroy a court DURING WARTIME?

tbh if Spring wouldn't have fallen the war would have never gone down i said what i said.

I didn’t smile as I countered with, “I suppose you think I should be

thanking you, for stepping up to assist in reviving me.”

“I have no illusions that the day you thank me for anything, Rhysand, is the day the burning fires of hell go cold.”

my boi tamlin is so savage like??

SLAY

Tamlin deserved what he’d brought upon himself, this husk of a life.

He deserved every empty room, every snarl of thorns, every meal he had to hunt for himself.

Seriously? Tamlin, sweetheart, for the love of good kick this man and his bat dick pls.

Tamlin had burned them long ago, Feyre had told me. It made no

difference. He’d been there that day.

I really want to emphasize that Tamlin DID NOT take part in their death.

Had given his father and brothers the information on where my sister and mother would be waiting for me to meet them. And done nothing to help them as they were butchered.

BRO????

U expect a boy to go against his evil, physically abusive father? NO, strike that.

U WANT A BOY TO GO AGAINT A HIGH LORD?

No tell me? how was Tamlin supposed to fight a HIGH LORD and his brother??? Three against one??

And even if he tried to help them? we will never know? we get only rhysie's side of the story never tamlin's pov

“You brought every bit of this upon yourself,”

Yes yes lets go tell a suicidal person he brought every bit of his misery on himself

Yeh lets all applaud him

“You won,” he spat, sitting forward. “You got your mate. Is that not

enough?”

"No."

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK???

MANNNNNNNNNNNNNN

I WANT TO SCRATCH MY EYEBALLS RHYSIE'S EYEBALLS OUT AT THIS POINT

"You deserve everything that has befallen you. You deserve this pathetic, empty house, your ravaged lands. I don’t care if you offered that kernel of life to save me, I don’t care if you still love my mate. I don’t care that you saved her from Hybern, or a thousand enemies before that.”

THIS UNGRATEFUL LITTLE BITCH?!?!?!?!?

PLSSSSSSSSS

Why doesnt he care that tamlin has saved BOTH their lives on MULTIPLE occasions???

at this point 50% of the IC owe their life to tamlin

“I hope you live the rest of your miserable life alone here. It’s a far more satisfying end than slaughtering you.”

well he isnt even strong enough to keep his people in line and not a hair's breath away from rebellion, i doubt he'll be able to slaughter the HL who tore apart Amarantha, who fought a hundred of Hybern's monsters and soldiers in their camp ALONE, at the same time helping feyre escape AND was able to "drag" another highlord to war

*Drops mike*

But Tamlin only stared. And after a heartbeat, his eyes lowered to the

desk. “Get out.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you the bigger male

Tamlin didn’t have shields around the house. None to prevent anyone from winnowing in, to guard against enemies appearing in his bedroom and

slitting his throat.

It was almost as if he was waiting for someone to do it.

The utter smugness with which Rhysand narrates this scene. The way he feels so superior to a male he’s no better than — worse, even. It infuriates me. This guy acts like he’s so much better than Tamlin, and for what reason? I feel so bad for Tamlin here. It is so unnecessary for Rhysand to even go there. The fact that he went out of his way to winnow all the way to the Spring Court just to torment Tamlin and rant about how he deserves his fate is so petty on a million different levels. I hate it so much.

These are the actual colours I painted with, but I played around a bit with gradient maps to get a few variations... I like them all, and cannot really decide which I prefer. Ref is from this.

Valkyrie Week Day 2: Ribbon

An updated old drawing of our girlies and VALKYRIE KITTEHS playing with a ribbon. Yes, Nesta-kitty has a little fang.