lily

Get this into your heads: the characters are not real. The stories are not real. But the people hurting because of it are very much real and you have no right to harass them for expressing negative opinions about said media. You don’t get to use other people belonging to the same minority as a shield just because they’re able to ignore what makes that media so offensive (or even because they have internalised racism/homophobia etc).

dorian lost sorcha and manon lost her home.

they both needed help.

but of course! what a good opportunity to write a sex scene!

Like a lot of poc authors do it too but you don't complain do you?

Yo, idk whether you have any reading comprehension. I’ve explicitly stated that western media rarely portrays dark-skinned and brown-eyed people as attractive or glamorous and tries to grab at every single opportunity to whitewash people which adds nuance to giving people of colour white hair. You see it all the time when they pick lighter skinned actors over darker skinned actors (ex: choosing a lighter-skinned actor for Jesper Fahey). Giving people of colour white hair/non-brown eyes is yet another subtle and insidious way of whitewashing them even if that isn’t their intent (just as writing in harmful tropes is completely possible if you don’t use a sensitivity reader). If you want to represent people of colour, then go the full way and actually represent them - give them the effing brown eyes and brown skin, it’s not that hard - instead of giving us half-assed rep. This especially applies when the only (or one of the only) poc in the book has non-poc features.

The thing with authors of colour is that they personally know how it feels to be starved of representation - they know how it feels to lie in bed late at night wondering how you could possibly be good-looking if you don’t look like the light-skinned, blond-headed, blue and green-eyed protagonists you read about or see on screen. So they’re more careful with what they write. So far, I only know of Children of Blood and Bone featuring white-haired black people, but here’s the thing: the cast of characters are mostly constituted by people of colour anyway (as opposed to a WHITE cast + 1/2 people of colour in books by white authors). The diviners do have white hair, but they continue to have coiled hair even when it turns white and their culture is spelled out on page, with everything from their traditional practices to their food being described. I personally think this is alright, but not all people of colour might share my opinion and they would still be right to feel so. BUT authors of colour can still fuck up too, and we will criticise them if that happens. 

Either worst or least favourite

I have a theory I want to test

Other courts + human queens: *don’t immediately trust them, believe them, want to team up with them ,, etc....*

Rhysand and the inner circle (and Feyre):

YA fiction has always, always been for kids and teenagers aged 13-18. Yes, it’s very likely that younger kids will pick up these books. I was 11 when I read The Hunger Games and Divergent. Similarly, I was 13 when I started reading adult fiction. But I knew what I was getting into, and I knew that going up an age group would entail more mature topics. I understand that it is on me, as the consumer, to research the content of the media I consume and protect myself. By reading genres that were above my recommended age level, I knew that I might read things that made me uncomfortable, and I was okay with it because I also knew that those genres were not written for me.

Which brings me to S/JM, Shelby Mahurin, etc. Because these books are adult books written and then published in the YA genre. These were absolutely not categorized correctly by publishing. These books were not written for kids aged 12-18, but they were advertised as such. And because of it, kids were introduced to themes that they weren’t ready for. There’s a big difference between “coming-of-age” stories and “erotica but it’s fantasy” and authors/publishers need to start respecting that difference. 

So yes, it’s the responsibility of consumers to understand what they might encounter in the material they read. But publishers and authors are equally, if not more, responsible to ensure that the content they release and advertise is appropriate for the audience they target. You cannot tell me that A/COMAF going on every YA bestseller’s list won’t result in young teenagers picking up those books. You cannot. At some point, if an adult book peddled as YA is shoved into everyone’s face, the teens are going to pick it up. 

This responsibility has been completely tossed aside in the past few years, and maybe it’s because of a cultural shift that has flooded media with a demand for violence, sex, whatever. But this general demand does not make it okay to now target younger audiences with that material. Teenagers have the right to demand media that does not make them uncomfortable, and it is unfair for other (ADULT) audiences to demand they change the name/makeup of their genre so stans can keep reading “YA books” by their faves instead of demanding that said authors publish those books under the appropriate marketing.

The same goes for even A/elin who came from a kingdom whose people had been oppressed but still contemplated the possibility of conquering the world and bringing “books and music” when in fact, Orrynth’s library was destroyed because of an invading ruler who wanted to conquer her kingdom. She knew how M/aeve abused her oath and instead of taking that as a cautionary tale, she still allowed people (Rowan and A/edion) (and forced L/orcan) to take the blood oath.

Don’t even get me started on B/ryce being half-human and sympathising with the very people that have enslaved her kind for 15,000 years (demonising the humans who have resorted to violence out of desperation in the process), or spending the whole book talking about how she would never date an alphahole and still going on to fall for one anyway.

A/N - I read the ACoTaR series a couple years ago, so please tell me if I make a mistake about this series. My memory could be faulty, and I really don’t want to misrepresent or straw man these books.

Feyre is the main character, protagonist, perspective, and hero in the ACoTaR series, and she’s just as terrible as her husband. 

At the end of the second book, Feyre decides to be a spy in the Spring Court. She did that because the Spring Court was Hybern’s ally on Prythian. She also decided to destroy the Spring Court while she was there, because then she’d be weakening Hybern’s only ally on Prythian. Here’s the thing, though...Feyre’s an idiot. Feyre (and anybody in the Inner Circle, frankly) is stupid and a terrible person, because she destroyed the Spring Court government and almost entirely forgot about the people, the civilians, of the Spring Court. 

Anybody with two brain cells knows that by destroying the government of a land, they are also creating chaos and instability in the entire land. That by creating problems for Hybern in this scenario, Hybern would probably retaliate harshly on the Spring Court. But Feyre only briefly considered that. Tamlin told her, “Hybern has promised that our people shall remain untouched and undisturbed” (36), and she then proceeded to destroy the Spring Court from within. 

Why, WHY would you believe the evil bad guys you’re about to go to war with when they say they’ll leave people unharmed? Why would you trust them? Why would you allow the safety and stability of an entire land full of people dependent on the land YOU’RE ABOUT TO GO TO WAR WITH?? This is honestly one of the worst and stupidest decisions I have ever seen a character make. She was so uncaring and unthinking towards all the innocent people she’d be harming in her little spying scheme. The harm she caused was much greater than the reward of weakening Hybern’s ally. 

Feyre’s a coward, too, because when she’s confronted with Tamlin telling her that all the villages in the Spring Court were burned, she’s like, “I shut out that, too. He’d said they’d remain untouched, that Hybern promised—” (848). She can’t even face up to the repercussions of her own stupid decisions. Also, yes, you should definitely rely on the bad guys to keep their promise and be kind towards innocent civilians. 

BUT WAIT! There’s more! Because the Spring Court fell, the doors were left right open for Hybern to attack the Summer Court. Tarquin, High Lord of the Summer Court, tells Feyre and Rhysand, “‘You left the door open for Hybern. They docked in his [Tamlin’s] harbors [...] It was an easy trip to my doorstep. You did this.’” 

You want to know what Rhysand’s great response to this completely true accusation was? “‘We did nothing. Hybern chooses its actions, not us’” (722).

HUHHH?? YOU HELPED THE BAD GUYS! 

That’s like knowing there’s a murderer outside a person’s house, and handing them the key to the house. You’re helping the evil dudes by weakening the Spring Court. In that situation, you don’t have the right to say, “They control their actions, not us.” 

My critique about what Rhysand and Feyre did to the Spring Court isn’t over. There’s more. See, in the third book, A Court of Wings and Ruins, Tamlin shows up at the High Lords’ meeting and says that he was pretending to be loyal to Hybern, that he was allying with them so he could get inside information. At the end of the book, Tamlin did end up helping Prythian’s side. Throughout the entire series, we see Feyre and Rhysand commit the most deplorable acts for (seemingly) good reasons. Yet, when they saw Tamlin do something questionable (allying with Hybern) they did not even consider that he could just be pretending and doing it for a good reason. They didn’t even consider that Tamlin could be pretending to ally with Hybern. They irresponsibly didn’t consider that before destroying the ENTIRE SPRING COURT. They didn’t even take the necessary precautions to make sure that Tamlin was actually as bad as they thought! 

This is made even more anger-inducing by the fact that after Tamlin shows up to the High Lords’ meeting and explains himself, Rhysand tells him, “‘I believe you. That you will fight for Prythian.’” Rhysand was so quick to believe Tamlin, which shows how irresponsible and hasty the Night Court was in deciding to destroy the Spring Court, because Rhysand was open to the idea of Tamlin fighting for Prythian! 

Rhysand actually even tells Feyre, “And perhaps we did him [Tamlin] a disservice by not even considering the possibility. Perhaps even I started to think him some warrior brute” (875). It’s nice that Rhysand has the brain cells to actually think this, but self-awareness doesn’t negate the destruction they caused to the Spring Court. And it’s not a “perhaps” situation, they did the entire Spring Court a disservice by not considering that. And it’s especially ridiculous since Feyre and Rhys’ number one talent is acting (Rhys’ mask Under the Mountain, and Feyre playing that gross role in Hewn City in ACoMaF). 

@shoutogepi @gallickingun @animatedarchives @sanguinekeigo @isolshi @katsushimaa @katsuki-goodness @hermesitax @hikari-writes @chibi-rach @cutiesofbnha @tomomoni @todorokiakina1 @kingtamakimurder @bnhatrashh @tetsurouskuro @rat-suki @yuki-osaki @ererokii @savagetrickster

@ging-ler (my sister!) @oodlyenough @skullservants @good-beans @modpsycho100 @michellespensctratchz @dekusmynamecryingsmygame @mental-health-stuffs @reigens-wife @anime-tion @flashgloria @duela-quinzel @likepotato @monday-headache @oinkgoeskiaya @pipascz @herstorycallyinaccurate @hotlipsyouincrediblenincompoop @cyborg-squid @swimmingferret @mcsherrybr @heywizards @mistwraiths @butchbulbasaur @darkxaidan @c-0-v-3-n @decomposingpisces @yamsinacan @gayknight @nokikissa @grgrif @obiwankenobees @em0ritsu @soumarti @captainsmileyfacej @jellipack @relatablepicturesoftinywhalesfin @skynecraft @teenytinynonbinary @arachnid-archipelago @toadlikespancakes  @illgiveyoumygavichal @honeybeebe @youre-strong-clem @keyboard-worrier  @deafmic @dusty-monkey @reigen-arataka @feelingstqbby @chameshida @raionmimi @skysyren @kitkatsparkletits @yergink @bluewaterlily @bluepriestess @spiritualdread  @corundum-sa @chocolatemilk-mob @tk-baha @emoshinso @faitans @words-not-working-for-mouth @zestypeener​ @chasingwayfinders @sorry-for-my-sarcasm @666deadmanbones and of course @a-sleepy-gnocchi

I wanna show some love and appreciation to these peeps:

@nova-waves (NUMBAH ONE IN THE WAWORLD)

@poisonerrose @alwaysbored005 (I know y’all have already been tagged but seeing y’all on my dash brightens my day and makes me happy too)

Plus @poisonerrose, @gemathest, @i-only-simp-for-natalia-arron, @queencamden, @iparis-in-paris, @tracywarcross, @txal-sharky , @dune-stuff, @thequeenkatharine, @o0azalea0o, @isabellucia, @nitolemacoc (I’ve only known you for a day lol but you seem really cool), plus every mutual I had contact with that I forgot

Thanks for the wonderful content you bring into my smallass fandoms, or for being great friends, or for generally making this hell site feel like some sort of second home