#jurian

JURIAN APPRECIATION POST

Jurian was a character written for us to dislike him at certain times, there was a big construction for that, but he always had a little something. Like, is he truly evil?? The guy who fought for the humans and wanted their liberation?? Oh but he did do some nasty stuff… we are supposed to think all of this and this is what makes him so interesting.

At the end of the day aka towards the end of ACOWAR, we find out that no, he is not evil. He made mistakes, is responsible for awful things that happened to certain people, BUT he helped the night court, he helped prythian and he helped humans. He might be the most actual morally gray character in the series.

We have Manon, Lorcan and Lidia. All characters that did awful things in the page. Not some past that we read about. We see their actions and decisions and they all got some sort of happy ending, because they are main characters. Of course, Jurian is not.

But Jurian has soooo much potential to still be a very interesting character that can add a lot to the plot and other characters. So, yeah, I do think Elain can be friends with him. Not just her, but many others. Jurian was fighting against faes towards the liberation of human slaves, had a very tragical end and ended up as an eye stuck with Amarantha, of all people, for centuries, and when he came back (very Glorfindel style in silmarilion and lotr, if you ask me, which is a huge green flag) he, AGAIN, was doing the best for the general humans. And I see Elain with this big connection to humanity in the series, so that's why I think their paths could cross and they could form a friendship of sorts.

He really doesn't show up a lot, but also, where would he fit in the acosf narrative? Sarah did set him up there with a connection to Vassa and Koschei, so he might have a comeback. I think people usually forget that he was, at a certain degree, friends with the IC when they fought in the war 500 years ago. They were all on the same side and, of course, they ended up having very negative takes on him later, but it doesn't mean it won't change if he does show up more.

It's exactly as you say, "fairy book romantasy logic".

My biggest metric of whether or not I can "forgive" a character is whether or not they are forgiven by the other character they wronged.

Feyre forgave Rhys for UtM.

Feyre forgave Lucien for not helping more when she was feeling trapped in Spring and for trying to get her back at Tamlin's order.

Feyre forgave Nesta and Elain for making her go hunting.

Nesta forgave the Inner Circle for sending her to the House of Wind.

Etc.

I'm inclined to forgive Jurian, given the circumstances. But Elain was the one "wronged", even if Jurian mostly did it to piss off Lucien, who's clearly forgiven him. If it turns out Elain finds out about Jurian's joke and can't forgive him? I'll probably feel differently.

Of course, I have my own moral opinions in the real world, but this is real and that is fake.

So I have always said we can’t trust information given to us through 3rd parties. Meaning if the information being given to us is coming from someone who was not actually present then their information should be taken with a grain of salt. And expect SJM to come back with the truth from the true source.

ie:Tamlin telling Feyre about what happened with Jesminda his oldest brothers holding Lucien down to watch. Then we learn from Eris that he was not there, he refused.

Also Drakon telling Feyre that Lucien found Papa A and Vassa and then we learn from Lucien that he was at the lake and did meet Koschei and did hear the bargain made between Papa A and Koschei for Vassa’s “freedom”.

Soooo I am wondering if Jurian and Clythia (Amarantha’s sister) had a mate bond. Now I am thinking that for Jurian the mate bond magic wound not feel as intense as it does for a fae.

Now granted we are told he was using Clythia to get the enemy fae army intel. And we are told that he is the one who killed her by cutting her up into pieces and laying them out for Amarantha to find.

But what if he was using her like we are told, the mate bond snapped with her, but he rejects her, Hybern or Tamlin’s father found out about her and Jurian, and they tortured her and made it look like Jurian did it to make Amarantha go mad with grief in hopes that their top general would push this war over the edge into victory with her anger and grief.

I have zero love loss for Clythia considering the side of the war she was fighting on, but mate bonds can change people. The fact that she was giving Jurian information about the armies locations and planned attacks kind of shows that she may have been switching allegiances and morals. A big change like this, that goes against her sister and her king would need a big connection to the opposing side, ie a mate bond to the human general.

So are we going to talk about how it connects to the eye?

Because Jurian has been an eye.

Lucien had lost an eye and now has a mechanical one.

god, I have so many.

as much as I love making fun of Jurian for having grandpa energy (and personally love DILFy Jurian interpretations,) I've always pictured him as tragically young. like mid to late 20s when he died. I headcanon that he was a young man during the initial human rebellions and ended up a general of the human armies at a fairly young age just because he was mean and pragmatic enough to survive the slaughter of the early years of the rebellion before the Fae began to ally with the rebels and it became a full scale war.

Jurian and Rhys were actually pretty close during the War and this influence had a devastating effect on Rhys's whole personality. search your heart. you know this is true. the constant bragging, the whole "I don't care if it means playing the villain and ruining my own life if my people are safe" shtick, man imprinted on Jurian like a baby duck.

he likes birds. tbh, I didn't even really mean this as a Jassa thing when I first thought of it. I'm just into birdwatching and can say with certainty, Jurian has the energy of someone who can look up and correctly identify any given bird, fae or mundane. it just feels right for his character.

he knows how to sew (good at it), cook (bad at it), and has a decent understanding of field medicine he picked up from spending time with Miryam and the human healers in the war. I can't imagine he has many hobbies because he's fairly single-minded and never had free time to develop them, but he has a vast array of practical skills that would seem a little odd until you realize he spent his entire adult life at war and a lot of these things can be matters of life or death if left neglected and while I think he's more than willing to use the resources at his disposal, he's someone who would rather develop these skills so he can have them in a pinch rather than rely on others to be around to take care of them for him.

I've said it before but Jurian never learned Azriel's name and does not care enough to ask. you cannot convince me otherwise.