…. @euterpessi - Tumblr Blog

“As an eldest sister, I would never excuse Nesta.”

As an eldest sister and a parent, I would never expect a child to replace the responsibilities of a parent and blame them when they fail to step up to the impossible task.

tonightweredrinkingfromthebong

animentality

chaotic-archaeologist

This is so true, and it's why I tell all incoming graduate students that you NEED to find something to invest yourself in that is not academics. You're going to have periods of struggle in your career, and when (not if) those happen they are far easier to weather if you have something else to bolster yourself with.

akanothere

Fanart for Peremo chapter 27 by @virennias

PLEASE READ I CAN’T TELL HOW OBSESSED I AM WITH THIS FIC THIS TOM IS ONE OF THE WORST (EVIL) TOMS EVER EXISTED AHHHHHHHHHH😩😩😩😩😩❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

gojoest

i genuinely think you being in satoru’s life is what makes him so achingly and unmistakably human. not that he isn’t already, but the world doesn’t see him that way. to most, he is this untouchable figure, divine and overwhelming. the strongest sorcerer. but you make him so relatable.

when you’re in the picture, suddenly he’s just a guy. a man in love. a man who talks about his wife the way anyone else would — excitedly and often without restraint. the kind of man who gets grumpy after an argument and lets it bleed into his entire day. the kind of man who sulks when you actually hang up first. who glares at his phone like it betrayed him and stares at your contact unblinkingly like it’ll make you call him back.

to everyone around him, it’s a little jarring (and honestly, a little endearing). they’ll catch him shopping at a random street stall, buying something tiny and silly or just a snack, mumbling how it reminded him of you or how he knows you’ll like this. like he’s literally just a man soft for the person he loves.

and then there’s the CT thing, which i think is when it starts to dawn on everyone. satoru — who once moved through life untouched and unreachable — begins letting his infinity drop. not always consciously, not intentionally; it’s just that he’s used to lowering his guard around you. you reach him in ways no one else does and without even realizing it, he keeps that barrier down when you’re near.

whenever you’re around his CT is off. and it always catches people off guard. yuuji is the first to notice. he goes to pat his sensei’s back casually and instead of his hand bouncing off infinity, it actually lands. there’s contact. yuuji blinks, freezes mid step and stares like …did i just touch him?

then there’s utahime. she and satoru are in the middle of one of their usual spats — he’s pushing her buttons on purpose (as always) — and in a flash of irritation, she throws her tea at him. normally it would hit a barrier and fall to the ground harmlessly. but this time, it hits him right across the front of his shirt. it splashes. then, everyone goes silent.

but they all know it’s not carelessness or exhaustion. satoru isn’t letting his guard down because he’s worn out — it’s just instinct. when you’re around, he doesn’t even think about it. his infinity drops like second nature. he’s simply a man so used to being loved by you, so safe in your presence, that the idea of consequences doesn’t even cross his mind.

and i truly and genuinely think that’s what makes him feel so human and so relatable to others, the way he lets love make him vulnerable without even realizing he’s doing it.

elainiisms

you ppl love villains/morally grey characters UNTIL they're a woman, then all of a sudden they are annoying, evil and irredeemable

irenkharab

Sweet birdie 🪶

i-cant-sing

*sighs* I can't believe his slenderman era ended and he became- HIM😭😭🔥😍🎉🥳😭💀😭

But also the AUDACITY he has to swap his closet with the strongest, HOTTEST enemy he ever had-

LIKE THIS 100000% TOJI'S ENTIRE FIT! A DEAD MAN'S FIT!

Omg like can u imagine Fushiguro reader (and probably the entire Zenin clan) have a fucking aneurysm when Gojo finally comes out of the jail box, all dressed up like dear old daddy?????😭😭

Such a menace (I love him🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️)

spacerockfloater

The way people switched on Tamlin the moment Rhys was introduced is diabolical.

“Tamlin never really loved Feyre, it was all a trick from the start”: It is stated that Tamlin was disgusted by the idea of forcing someone to fall in love with him and considered it slavery, but ended up being so in love with her that he ultimately lets her go and choses her freedom and safety over that of his own people. Rhys confirms that Tamlin loved Feyre too much. And he loved her truly. Not because he had to. Tamlin treated Feyre with dignity when she was engaged to him. He introduced her as his lady, to be respected and cherished by all. And she really was loved his people, too. Rhysand uses her as his lap dog to scare Hewn City and parades her as his whore.

“Tamlin never did anything for Feyre, he just used her”: He improved her and her family’s life in every aspect and offered her everything he had.

“Tamlin had sex with someone else in Calanmai”: Out of duty and responsibility because he didn’t want to force Feyre, who still wasn’t sure about her feelings, into it. All of the High Lords perform the Calanmai. Lucien says so. How convenient that this is never brought up with Rhysand. He surely does perform it as well. All the theories in here, “Lucien doesn’t know what he’s talking about/ This is a SC ritual only/ He probably just passes the duty on to someone else” are just a way for people to villainise Tam and glorify Rhys again. All of them inaccurate. The Calanmai is canonically performed by every High Lord. There’s no evidence that proves otherwise. As the son of one High Lord and the ambassador of another, Lucien would know. He is 500 years old. It’s just more convenient for SJM to never bring this up again because it raises the question of “Who was Rhysand fucking all these years?” and it makes her favourite character look bad. And once he is engaged to her, Tamlin flat out refuses to do it. Let’s be real for a second.

“Tamlin didn’t help Feyre under the mountain”: He literally could not. He was bound by a curse. He was forced to be Amarantha’s consort and a consort cannot oppose you. His powers were bound. Alis warns Feyre that Tamlin will not be able to help her. Stop acting as if he didn’t want to help her. He decapitated Amarantha the moment he got his autonomy back. Claiming that there’s no proof that Tamlin was under the influence of a spell when he literally didn’t break the curse and Amarantha’s magic didn’t allow him to use his powers is crazy. And even if he tried, he could never provide actual help. We see this when he begs Amarantha for Feyre’s life. Him showing he cares about her would only make Amarantha more jealous and vicious towards Feyre.

“Tamlin made out with Feyre instead of helping her”: He couldn’t help her run away. No one could do that. She would never make it, Amarantha would find her. In fact, Tamlin specifically could not help her in any way. He could only assure her he still wants and loves her. And she wanted that just as much. Rhys abused her physically, mentally, verbally, drugged her and much worse. And he enjoyed all of it. If he didn’t want to raise suspicions, he wouldn’t have placed a bet in her favour. Rhys is a masochist, SJM just decided to mellow him down in the next book so that we’d all like him over Tamlin.

“Tamlin ignored Feyre’s wishes and only wanted her to be his bride, he didn’t let her be High Lady”: Both Tamlin and Feyre were bad communicators going though trauma and Tam had a whole court to care for. Tamlin was unaware of how Feyre felt because she barely spoke up once. Rhys knew because he literally lived inside her head and had all the time in the world to focus his attention on her since his court suffered zero consequences during Amarantha’s reign. And Tamlin simply told her the truth: there’s no such thing as High Lady. Even her current title is given to her by Rhys, the magic of Prythian has not actually chosen her to be High Lady. The title and its power are decorative. And she said she didn’t want that anyway.

“Tamlin locks Feyre up and uses his magic to harm her”: He locks her in his humongous palace to keep her safe, after she just came back from the dead and his worst enemy is kidnapping her every month, while he runs off to protect his borders. Rhysand lock Feyre in a fucking bubble. Tamlin loses control of his magic. He doesn’t want to harm her. That’s not abuse. Abuse is intentional. Feyre and Rhysand lock Lucien and Nesta up. They lock the people of the Hewn City up in a cave. Feyre loses control of her magic and harms Lucien’s mother. Double standards I guess.

“Tamlin is a bad and conservative ruler”: Tamlin is such a beloved ruler that his sentries literally begged to die for him. Feyre had to fuck with their minds to finally turn them against him. They were his friends. He was so progressive that the lords fled his court once he became their ruler because he wouldn’t put up with their bullshit like his father did. He loved all of his people. He is against slavery. The Tithe was just tax collection. Rhysand practically rules over just one city, while ignoring Hewn City and Illyria. He treats 2/3 of his realm like shit and everyone except the residents of Velaris hates him. He collects tax, too, but we conveniently never see this. He ranks the members of his inner circle (my 1st, my 2nd etc.) and reminds them every moment that they are his slaves first and anything else second, while Tamlin treats them equally and even gives Lucien an official title by naming him Ambassador.

“Tamlin conspired with Hybern”: He was a double agent and his short lived alliance, two weeks all in all, not only didn’t harm a single soul, but ultimately saved all of Prythian as he was the only one who brought valuable information to that meeting. He dragged Beron to battle. Rhysand’s alliance with Amarantha harmed thousands and only helped save one city, Velaris.

“Tamlin is responsible for turning Nesta and Elain into Fae”: No, that was Ianthe, who got the info from Feyre. Tamlin was fooled by her, just as Feyre obviously was, or she wouldn’t have trusted her. Tamlin was disgusted by that act.

“Tamlin is less powerful than Rhysand”: Rhysand himself says that a battle between them would turn mountains to dust. Tamlin killed Rhysand’s dad, the previous High Lord of the Night Court, in one blow. He is just as powerful as Rhysand. SJM again just wants us to believe otherwise. And he is smarter, too. He was the only one not to trust Amarantha. And he was a good spy for Prythian against Hybern.

All of these takes are cold as fuck. SJM was testing the waters with ACOTAR and she made sure the main love interest, Tamlin, was insanely likeable, so that the book could be a satisfactory standalone story in case she couldn’t land a trilogy deal. She didn’t know it would be such a big hit. But once she realised she could turn this into a franchise, she had to figure out a new story to tell. She may claim otherwise, but there’s just too many plothotes to convince me. And in order to make her new main love interest seem like the best choice, she had to character assassinate the old one. There was no other way. ACOTAR Rhys was too much of an evil monster to be loved by the majority of the audience. But Tamlin was introduced to us as such a heroic and passionate man that is literally impossible to turn him into someone despised by all. Feyre’s relationship with Rhysand reads too much like cheating on Tamlin. That’s why anyone with basic analytical skills is able to realise the flaws of the narration.

ofbreathandflame-archive

Wait actually, I lied, here’s another thought:

I think it’s interesting that Rhysand never does these personalized selfless things, similar to how we see with Tamlin. There are so many moments that we witness take initiatives of kindness divorced from how he feels romantically for Feyre, or even his own family. When he goes to bury the Fae, he actually doesn’t want Feyre to come along. And she doesn’t. It’s a moment of just pure kindness that begs nothing in return. Even though Tamlin views Feyre’s family as lacking, he still chooses to return there entire wealth, even before he’d even actually fallen in love for Feyre. He didn’t actually expect anything from her. When she doesn’t say ‘I love you,’ he lets her go, even a detriment to himself and even his court. He doesn’t prioritize his own happiness over hers, weirdly (and ironically enough, considering maf). Even the act of falling for her, he doesn’t rush, so much so that Feyre never really actually notices the direness of his situation.

It’s so weird how much he allows her to discover for herself. So much of their love-story is Feyre observing Tamlin - partially because Feyre’s first introduction is Tamlin, so it makes sense her observations are more poignant. This sounds so pro-Feylin, but like I just noticed that we rarely get moments like that with Feyre and Rhys that aren’t already pre-perceived for us. Tamlin, although he’s supposed to, doesn’t initially want anything to do with Feyre - he’s feelings are developed overtime. This comes at a change from Rhys who, the entire time we know him, seems to already have feelings for her. Feyre never has to *do* anything to have his affection. So much of Feyre’s narration in MaF is just what Rhys said a few chapters ago; she’s never coming to her own conclusions.

In comparison, every Rhys seemingly does always seems to benefit him to some extent. Or to impress Feyre. There are never these moments where Rhys earnestly grapples with people outside his immediate circle. There’s such an isolated mess about his character. I’ve never been able to put my finger on it but this seems like what I’ve been thinking. Tamlin often does things out of kindness that come to his detriment. He saves Feyre when he didn’t have to, he saves Rhys when he doesn’t have to; and these decisions don’t…benefit him. He does it because he has a journey and realizes this is the right thing to do. It’s so weird how’s he unintentionally an actual nuanced character simply because…he faces consequences

ofbreathandflame-archive

Well, again, the issue is not that Rhys has done bad things, it’s how those actions are framed in the story. Let’s think about this – if Rhysand’s actions UTM were framed as negative then perhaps we would not be having this conversation.

Of course, we can argue that Rhysand (1) has developed negative coping mechanisms / perspective (2) Rhysand’s trauma informs the things that he does (both pre, during, and after UTM), and (3) Rhysand’s position was uniquely isolating because of the nature of the role he was forced to play. These are points that I believe can be argued and offer an interesting view; but for any of that to happen, we have to acknowledge that the behaviors are negative. That’s often the problem with the arguments that begin to arise – no one wants to admit that Rhysand has developed (or just has) negative qualities and behaviors. No one wants to contend with the reality of consequences. “Rhysand has always admitted that he would be willing to do terrible things for his family” – and yet there’s no elaboration on those “terrible things.” No one wants to talk about those proposed negative qualities. The story (and the audience) don’t want to admit that Rhys doesn’t really have a solid moral high ground over Tamlin, or admittedly other villains. Just because Rhysand “admits” he’s prone to basically being abusive doesn’t…make it any less abusive.

My proposed argument about Rhysand’s actions UTM are this: he chose to sexually assault Feyre, he chose to “protect” Feyre in ways that were extremely sexually explicit. I believe these are choices that Rhys chooses to make – and I believe they say something about him. It’s noted, to me, that Amarantha scarcely makes Rhys do anything that he does to Feyre. I also believe that his actions regarding Feyre were done with an air of autonomy; as in, I believe Rhysand takes these measures into his own hands. Ultimately, I believe that while Rhysand has to contend with the horrors, he himself becomes beholden to them at some point and ends up perpetrating the same behaviors.

We cannot argue that Rhysand sexually assaulted Feyre, and then argue that it doesn’t say something about him. It does. In the realm of the story – from a writing standpoint – I think a good author can still make a character like that sympathetic and understandable (see: Nahadoth and Itempas from N.K. Jemisin’s Hundred Thousand Kingdom). If I were analyzing Rhysand’s actions, I would simply make the argument that perhaps Rhysand’s abuse of Feyre mirror’s his own abuse by Amarantha hands, and he potentially sees Feyre (and her hope) as something to be threatened – or even shamed by. If Rhysand’s actions were written in a way that clearly exemplified that his actions are not meant to be praised (and are NOT are reflection of love) then he could be salvaged. I actually believe a lot of the abusive things Rhysand does makes sense given the environment and if the story leaned into this from a storytelling perspective and did away with needing to moralize, then this would all be fine. Framing Rhysand’s abuse of Feyre as something to be praised, admired, and loved for is actually quite insane. If we frame his actions as purely preservational and self-serving, that would make so much sense. Imagine being in Rhysand’s position; I guarantee everyone would do whatever they could to stop such extreme amounts of abuse and sexual violence. And even then, the story could still create a narrative that warns of the danger of sexual violence and consent, it would just be subtextual and more allegorical than concretely written in the text. Starting Feyre and Rhysand off in such a tragic place, having Feyre and Rhysand acknowledged truly what happened, having them discuss ways for both of them to move forward while building up the mating bond in the background. Have Feyre acknowledge this untrusting, sly, slick part of Rhysand and have her not assume her mate does everything out of the kindness of his heart. Build their romance out of a place of mutual atonement – play on the theme of guilt Feyre feels and the whole premise of the court. Let the connection between Feyre and Rhys be that they truly acknowledge each others darkness (and also let Feyre do selfish things – maybe she knew damn well Clare Beddor’s family might suffer a bad fate but its not her family and Feyre would do anything for them; Let Feyre kill those fairies with ease because she cares about her life. Let her contend with reality that she would actually do anything for her family and then have that be a connection between Rhys and Feyre.

Something that has always bothered me about the “we don’t talk enough about Rhysand’s trauma” argument that gets thrown around when we earnestly discuss the validity of his actions is the presumption of innocence in that statement. The unwritten statement is that the trauma somehow explains and simultaneously absolves him of the implications of his actions. I objectively agree with the sentiment – Rhysand’s trauma is not talked about enough and it should be. The argument dancing in the corner is the fact that people believe that Rhysand’s extreme amount of trauma absolves him – even going as far as essentially say that Rhysand’s abuse operates out of fear (or because of fear) which is essentially the exact same ideology the book bashed Tamlin for. In the end, the cycle just comes back around and the abuse gets pushed into the backdrop.