every other mated pair sarah j discusses gets a romantic date that caters to the female lead's interests but nessian? they fuck . that is it . it's like maas wanted them to have sex but couldn't figure out how to get them there without them also being romantically involved, or that the romantic relationship and mating bond would justify them having sex . she writes a eight-hundred page smut novel but characters just hooking up ? that's going too far . and since she's achieved her goal of them fucking, she doesn't flesh out their relationship. imagine you ask an author what your favorite couple does together in a modern setting and she only mentions the sex they're having ...
although I don't like Nessian (I hate Cassian), I'm sure Cassian can't read. He grew up in camps and their only concern is to survive and fight. Logically, no one would have taught him to read or write. A few cute things, for a date, could be going to a library and Nesta would read a story (and maybe she could teach him how to read). A date may just be a small activity in between. There is no need to think about anything big, but of course, for the author, only sex matters to Nessian.
cassian can read, he is fully literate ! in fact he is recommending nesta books on strategy and war in ACOSF and one of the sex scenes (🤢🤮) starts because he wanted to drop off books to nesta's room . i'm debunking your assumption here because i write analysis on the racism in ACOSF as well as the misogyny and i would hate for people to see cassian in the same way the racist characters see him in the text, because it weakens analysis of what the fuck is actually going on with his misogyny and his internalized racism . but more importantly to the argument in this post, cassian and nesta only connecting sexually is not because he's incapable of connecting with her through her hobbies . they live in a magic fucking house that reads smut and at any point he could just ask to see what nesta's been reading . it's because they're together only because of the mating bond and cassian is using her for sex
sorry, I thought that because of how sjm described the Illyrians, but I might be forgetting things (just like I forgot that part of Cassian). Thanks for letting me know, I won't make that mistake again.
