#velaris

Heyyyy… soooo I was originally gonna post the new chapter tonight but during my last edit I realized it’s nothing the way I wanted and how I wanted to go with this story😭

I believe the subplot I was going to do would be perfect for a completely other story but not with the one where the plot is mostly explained with reader being raised to fear Rhysand.

Because of this, I am redrafting the fourth chapter and I am very sorry. I know most of you are very excited for this and I was too but I want the writing to be the best I can do and that writing was not. I have other drafts I will be posting and I will work on the arrangement when I can but it will most likely be fully done when I get done with my class which is in a week

I am starting the new draft for chapter four tomorrow because I have a day off so I hope to come out with it on Friday or Saturday

Anti-SJM.

Pro-SJM.

Anti-SJM but still ACOTAR-invested.

Anti-ACOTAR but pro-Throne of Glass.

Pro-Rhys but anti-IC.

Anti-Rhys but Feyre defender.

Anti-Feyre but still Nesta apologist.

Pro-Nesta but anti-Nessian.

Critical fans.

Ex-fans.

Hate-readers.

Lore archaeologists.

People who left but still receive the psychic newsletter.

People who “don’t care anymore” but can write 4,000 words by moonrise.

It proves one thing though: Nobody is free. The unsubscribe button is decorative. 💀

The books are not just being read, they are being litigated. Like seriously. A normal fandom has fans, haters, shippers, maybe a few discourse goblins in the walls.

SJM somehow has created an entire civilization of competing courts:

people defending the text, people defending the characters against the text, people defending SJM from her critics, people defending ACOTAR from SJM, people defending one book from another book, people rejecting canon but staying loyal to the emotional concept, people who left but still know every trial transcript by heart…

That proves the foundation is unstable but magnetic.

Because if the books were simply bad, people would leave.

If they were cleanly good, people would mostly celebrate.

But because they are conceptually powerful and structurally messy, everyone keeps coming back to argue over what the story meant versus what it actually did.

That’s the cursed genius of it. Not necessarily intentional genius, but still effective. The emotional promise is strong enough to trap people. The execution is weak enough to make them fight forever.

And before you start protesting. I considered many actors. Between those, yes, Ben Barnes, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Jacob Elordi, Fionn O'Shea, Nicholas Galitzine, and at least several more.

But because Rhysand is NOT just dark hair, handsome, powerful and morally grey, here is the criteria:

✨Jamie is the only one who posseses the exact hyper-specific "dangerous angel" duality that Rhysand requires.

✨Yes. Shadowhunters has been acknowledged as his failure. But seeing backwards and analyzing his career objectively it was a failure in casting choices. And for that if you want to see who flopped more fantasy projects than him: Lily Collins. Respectfully.

✨ Has proven himself terrifyingly well as Vecna/Henry Creel in Stranger Things.

✨ Has a classic face. Sharp cheekbones. Intense eyes and is perfectly capable of projecting Rhysand's calculating majestic persona.

If that is not enough. Here is the criteria I used for the search.

Rhysand requires simultaneously:

✨ danger

✨ intelligence

✨ sensuality

✨ theatricality

✨ emotional restraint

✨ ancient exhaustion

✨ predatory elegance

✨ softness hidden under calculation

✨ swagger

✨ mythic charisma

✨"villain before lover" energy

✨ voice authority

✨ eye intimacy

✨ touch-starvation tension

✨ high fantasy credibility

✨ devastating close-up survival

Most actors hit 2 to 4 of those categories. Very few hit the "night itself walked into the room" and that's why the fandom has been fighting and split into DIFFERENT VERSIONS. That's why even SJM can't help herself. It is a very difficult role.

The reason why Jamie survived:

Gothic Rhys (elegant, dangerous, vampire-coded, bat coded, poetic, seductive, emotionally haunted...)

Prince Rhys (charming, seductive but safe, polished, strategic, aristocratic...)

Feral Night Rhys (unnerving, emotionally intelligent predator, soft voice/dangerous aura, starved intensity)

The BookTok Rhys (hot, tall, sexually charged, visually dominant) - this is where adaptations can die btw.

And Jamie carries naturally theatrical darkness, mythic energy, old-world cadence, visible fragility under menace, emotional unpredictability, fantasy legitimacy, eye intensity and touch starvation energy.

He has that "beautifully dangerous dying prince" energy. Which sounds dramatic until you realize... THAT'S LITERALLY RHYS.

He does however require the Correct Feyre balance. And can become TOO gothic if the adaptation leans wrong. Requires too restraint in styling so he doesn't drift into pure vampire aesthetics.

But: He naturally understands performance through gaze and that matters enormously for ACOTAR. And ultimately... the secret category:

✨ Can he survive Chapter 54?

This is the ultimate Rhysand test. Not abs, jawline or else.

But if the audience can believe vulnerability, confession, restraint, longing, devastation, worship and emotional exposure WITHOUT the illusion collapsing.

And I'm barely touching the love triangle dynamics, but Jamie does act perfectly as Luke Eisner counterpart (Tamlin). Luke being the Golden Prince. Jamie being the Dark Prince. One poised and slightly stiff. The other one being theatrical, physicaland intensely expressive.

"Leaning on the wind" makes me think of Azriel and their tie to him

"And the garden showing through," their relationship with Elain and her being a source of life and them being vessels of death. Life and death coming together in harmony.