anonymous question (as a note i’m struggling with generals atm. I’m not sure what my ~overall feelings~ are it’s gonna take some processing time. I will however talk about some specifics) 

This is a long post that contains a lot of spoilers about all of the book. (also salt) don’t read if you’re not into that, this isn’t brief. 

Anonymous said: thoughts on Mor?

Well, nonnie, she falls into a lot of dangerous and harmful stereotypes about people of colour:

She is seen as uncivilised and savage compared to the other white characters when she arrives at court. 

She acts animalistic and the white characters laugh at her for it because she walks around with a spear and wears furs rather than dresses. 

She is laughed at for her broken English and Kaltain, especially, hurls racist insults at her.

Her death was not at all meaningful and used to motivate Aelin like in ToG and, instead, she is killed because an assassin intended for Aelin got mixed up and accidentally killed Nehemia instead.

She was essentially the only representation for POC and was in fact a token character so SJM could get props for diversity.

If she hadn’t been the only character of colour in this book then perhaps the characteristics and mannerism allotted to her would not be so insulting to the community of colour but this is still an insult to her character overall as she deserved to be so much more than a token black character who got killed off because SJM was bored with writing about her.

Sadly this is still how she is depicted in ToG and it makes me so angry to see her character, who had so much potential, ruined like this.

Ah. The enormous elephant in the fandom. Seeing as this monstrous grey-skinned mammal hide is in my face on tumblr all the time, I thought I might toss in my two cents. 

The battle seems to rage between those who feel a) Rowan was abusing Aelin by biting her against her will, forcing her to shift, and thereby Maas is endorsing abuse, and b) those who frown upon Rowan’s actions, but feel the scene lends a hand to propelling the plot and story line forward.

But there is another party privy to this war. Me. I offer you a third slice of the crumbly apple pie.

If I’m completely honest and open with you, I LOVE this scene. It made the top 5 in my list of favorite scenes from HoF. No, I’m not into any weird kinks or dominate men…quite the opposite is true. But we’re dealing with Fae in this scene. Not humans. 

Fae are a different kind of creature, humanoid in appearance, but animalistic in their behavior. While they enjoy banter and battles of words, their true wars of dominance are fought with fangs and claws, magic and power. Fae are true forces of nature. We can’t hold them to our human morals and standards.

I believe Aelin needed to be bitten. She needed to be reminded of who/what she once was. Aelin is Fae. She is power and strength, courage and dominance. She is the creature that prowls in the night, soars into the storm, strides onto the battlefield and then stands victorious surrounded by the many enemies she cut down like so much carrion. She fights. She rages. She burns. She bites.

I saw nothing abusive in Rowan biting Aelin. Nothing at all. I actually found my cheeks growing warm, my heart beating faster in my chest, my knuckles turning white as I gripped the book closer, reading faster, getting excited. Because they’re Fae. Because they’re freaking cool. And because I knew, in that moment, Rowan had just awakened in Aelin the powerful Queen she was always meant to be. And she is going to slay.

“Aelin needed to be bitten.” 

WHAT THE HECK. you’re saying aelin deserved to be abused? wow. holy hell.  

“But we’re dealing with fae in this scene, not humans.”

So if i, a gay unicorn with magical fire-breathing powers, came up to you and bite you on the neck (which keep in mind is seen as a sexual act in fae culture) you’d be fine with that because, you know, it’s only a gay unicorn with magical fire-breathing powers scene we’re dealing with not humans, you’d be fine with that?