Ughm, I don't care what anyone says, SJM didn't plan shit about Mor's revelation, it was VERY OBVIOUSLY AND SLOPPILY tacked in there for "drama" and "oh!plot twist!". I'm currently rereading ACOMAF and I can tell you with 100% certainty she meant for readers to ship Moriel and never, ever alluded to Mor being anything other than straight. She's just a sloppy writer, I guess.
Hello Anon :) Sorry for the delay answering this, I needed to sit on this one for a bit.
Overall, yes, I agree with you. Mor’s arc in ACOWAR doesn’t seem planned AT ALL. And as it’s been already pointed out by a few people - if we assume SJM did plan it that way, it kind of makes it that much worse for me.
I just…hate this, you know? Ever since her first scene in ACOMAF, Mor has quickly become one of my favourite characters and seeing the way her storyline, her agency and sometimes even her characterization was butchered in acowar makes my blood boil. And for what? For faux angst, man pain and drama, just like you said.
And yes, moriel was totally teased in acomaf and acomaf made me trash for them and I AM salty about it too. Some people will say that it was vague and I can agree that this was/is a kind of ship that doesn’t appeal to everybody. Both quiet and intense. But on the narrative level, SJM is actually as subtle as a brick about them? I’m talking about lines like “Az would likely love Mor until he was a whisper of darkness between the stars” and Mor’s “The issue, actually, wouldn’t be me. It’d be him. I could peel off my clothes right in front of himand he wouldn’t move an inch.”
My anger actually goes FAR beyond that? I just hate how her character was treated by the narrative.
And let me be clear, I LOVE the idea of Mor being bisexual. I actually don’t agree with your statement that SJM “never, ever alluded to Mor being anything other than straight”. Maybe that’s because I’m biased on this but I’ve always headcanoned and perceived Mor as bi. But then again, I headcanon that pretty much most of the Inner Circle is bisexual (Mor, Cassian, Azriel and Rhys, TOTALLY).
It’s just…as soon as SJM started writing her sexuality as a plot twist, she stripped Mor of everything else? In ACOMAF, this is Mor:
“A queen—a queen who bowed to no one, a queen who had faced them all down and triumphed. A queen who owned her body, her life, her destiny, and never apologized for it.
And what do we get in acowar? We get Mor who is miserable, who is denied any say in matter of importance to HER (like, idk, co-operating with her abusers), who is denied her righteous rage over decisions OTHERS make for HER. We get Mor who feels so unsafe and is so frightened that she feels the need to sleep with men to “keep her cover” and to spare the feelings of a man (which is…I stopped trying to wrap my head around it because I think Mor wouldn’t need to come out to Azriel to let him know she doesn’t feel that way and maybe it would cause his own feelings of inadequacy to surface, so maybe that’s why she didn’t but I just don’t know, it just doesn’t make sense and it won’t because you’re right, it’s all sloppily written and unplanned).
In ACOMAF, Mor, at least to me, is the epitome of selflessness, self-love, confidence. She’s a proof that you can go through a nightmare and come out of it scarred but stronger. She’s a proof that you can be kind and selfless AND keep your ground and look out for yourself AT THE SAME TIME.
In acowar…instead of Mor and Nesta bonding over their past, we have them pitted against each other. Instead of Mor guiding Nesta through that difficult time (like she did with Feyre), we have Mor acting…let’s just leave it at OOC.
And last but not least, I just want to add how salty it makes me that as soon as Sarah decided to make Mor gay, she also felt the need to make her miserable. And I think the worst of it is when Mor comes out to Feyre and tells her about Andromache and how she couldn’t keep any steady relationship since then and how she sometimes sleeps with men so that no one finds out and also because it reminds Azriel they won’t be together and then…When Feyre points out that it sounds lonely and sad…Mor says that it’s “good enough”. She tries to convince herself that she’s happy with the way things are and that it’s GOOD ENOUGH? That she should be satisfied with the scraps of happiness she can get???! HOW IS THAT REMOTELY OKAY?
And please not that apart from Mor, we have a High Lord (Thesan) - MALE - who is happily (as far as we can tell) and openly gay and in a relationship. We have another High Lord (Helion) - also MALE - who is openly bisexual and while it’s alluded to that he suffers/suffered because of unrequited love/doomed romance (Lucien’s mother), his sexuality has nothing to do with his possible heartache.
UNLIKE Mor, who, I cannot help but notice, is very much female and the only one out of three who is miserable and it’s directly connected with her sexuality. More, she tells herself that it’s GOOD ENOUGH, that she should take what she can get.
Do I…Do I really need to point out how deeply hurtful this is on so many levels? At least it is to me.
I feel like I’ve got off topic but this has been boiling up in me for quite some time.
IMPORTANT: I’ve seen there’s been a lot of turmoil lately in the fandom about so much negativity and “hate” floating around. I just want to point out that:
1) criticism doesn’t equal hate
“criticism” : the act of criticizing usually unfavorably; a critical observation or remark ; the art of evaluating or analyzing works of art or literature
“to criticize”: to consider the merits and demerits of and judge accordingly
“hate”: : intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury; extreme dislike or disgust
(source: merriam-webster)
2) criticising SJM’s WORK doesn’t equal “hating on her”; it also doesn’t equal insulting her personally
3) she wrote a book for public consumption, it’s a product, I am a consumer and I’m allowed to have opinions about it
4) at the same time - I am NOT trying to shame anyone for what they like and dislike; this is extremely important - this is my blog and I express my personal opinions and sometimes I might be passionate about it but I don’t deal with any universal truths here and it doesn’t make anyone any less of a reader if you don’t agree with me
5) I repeat - I’m not trying to shame anyone for liking acowar or ANY other book, for that matter
6) that being said, if something that I post makes you uncomfortable/angry etc., I tag all my salt under “anti sjm” tag
Hope y’all have a good day.
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