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@heteronormative-nonsense
The stans in the notes of that cultural appropriation post are nuts. "She could have had an all white cast but she tried!" Killing off all darker skinned characters isn't trying. "Illyrians are dark skinned!" They're portrayed as savage and cut off the wings of their women. How can someone be so ignorant? Is it their age? Are they too coddled to understand? I don't get it
Your totally right anon and I don’t fucking get it either
i cannot fucking believe ya’ll are actually tryna be mad at SJM for “cultural appropriation” when it’s A FUCKING F I C T I O N A L WORLD !!!!!!!! like it’s an entire world she created herself, so who tf cares if she uses certain cultures clothing/tattoos & puts them on white people??? as a writer myself, i dont think she meant to be offensive; she (just like ANY OTHER WRITER OUT THERE) saw something she liked & incorporated it into her own worldbuilding.
also it’s not our earth, & they’re not even human, like she created her own races so she can make them however the fuck she wants!!! AND she didnt make everyone white, for example the illyrians!!
so sit down & shut it, its a fictional world (but i will defend it until the day i die)
@discountalien-pancake @polysorscha this is the new low. Pay close attention to “defend it until the day I die”. This mentality. Sigh
OP, do you even know what cultural appropriation is? Because what you’ve described is literally the definition of cultural appropriation. It’s taking elements of a culture you don’t belong to and claiming them for your own. SJM does this with no respect for the cultures she’s stealing her ideas from and gives these things to her white characters for aesthetic purposes. Again: the literal fucking definition of cultural appropriation.
That her work is fiction does not erase the fact that it is AT BEST insensitive, and honestly mostly just flat out racist. It’s not “her” worldbuilding if the only culture it contains is bits and pieces stolen from real-world cultures, and it is outright disgusting of her to give these things that carry so much cultural weight for poc to her pasty white characters.
As for the Illyrians being poc,,, that’s questionable at best. It’s never explicitly stated in canon, and being tan does not equal, nor has it ever equalled, being of color. White people can be tan. Rice was PASTY white before SJM realized (or was told) she needed to have more diversity.
And the existance of characters of color does not mean that the representation is any good. The Illyrians are explicitly stated to be a race of violent, misogynistic rapists and murderers. If you think that’s good representation,,, you’re a lost cause.
Anyway, let’s do a little tally, shall we?
Nehemia: dead
Sorcha: dead
Nesryn: sidelined for like 4 books
Sartaq: see Nesryn
Yrene: not a poc. Golden is no better than tan as a descriptor. Also she’s ableist garbage who exploited Chaol’s disability for a teaching moment without his consent or even any kind of forewarning.
Elide: eh??? Maybe?? Who fucking knows, her name isn’t from the Southern Continent.
Manon: do I need to tell you why this is fucking bullshit. Also she doesn’t fucking count bc that is a shitty retcon of the HIGHEST order.
Amren: Asian, I guess. Also described as being two steps from ugly, which is incredibly offensive considering how not a single one of the white characters is anything less than radiantly gorgeous. Also there is literally not a fucking squidge of worldbuilding for the Asian fae. None.
Helion: was black, suddenly retconned as South Asian. I feel like this should already be obvious, but poc are not interchangeable.
Tarquin: the slutty brown bisexual, because clearly we need that trope /sarcasm
So literally all the characters of color are 1) dead, 2) fake, 3) racist stereotypes, or 4) sidelined. Wow, what incredible representation. /sarcasm
The only person who needs to sit down and shut up is you, OP. You, as a white person, have no right to tell poc what is or isn’t appropriative or racist. And trust me, SJM’s writing is both.
Stans really do not know how to read things written by POC in fandom, do they? How many times do POC need to explain that something is racist or offensive before we stop being ignored, ridiculed, and gaslighted? In what world do you think it is okay to dictate to POC that we are wrong about something being racist or culturally appropriative when we are talking about OUR OWN FUCKING REP? Maybe in SJ/M’s.
Cultural appropriation of actual cultures of marginalized people directly leads to fetishization, erasure, and violence against POC, so yes, we DO care if she uses certain cultures and puts them on white people like so many other white authors. Even if she didn’t MEAN to be offensive, that doesn’t matter. Intent is not effect. Your kind of attitude is the same one held by white people who think it’s cute to dress up as a ridiculous caricature of one of us for Halloween. How about instead if investing your energy into telling us we’re wrong and we need to sit down and shut up, use it to understand what the fuck our cultures are about, what cultural appropriation is and why it’s wrong, and listening to POC when they tell you something is harmful to them.
And okay, it’s not our earth and the characters are not human, but when will people understand that FANTASY IS LITERALLY CREATED IN OUR WORLD?! Every author inevitably carries their own set of internalized biases and prejudices that are reflected, purposely or not, in their writing, and then that writing has an effect on the people who read it afterward. Just because it’s fictional doesn’t mean it was created in a cultural vacuum.
*clears throat*
CHAOL AND DORIAN HAVE BETTER CHEMISTRY THAN ANYONE ELSE IN T0G AND THAT’S THE TEA
i will always be angry at sjmaas’ treatment of her characters and the harmful gross stereotypes she used
nehemia deserved better
manon and the thirteen deserved better
elide lochan deserved better
i am repulsed. i hope we can usher in a future of better representation, better storytelling, and overall better stories.
anyways, support authors who are doing some good in this world with the stories they’re telling.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
So I’ve been looking through k0a spoilers and it’s…not good
SPOILERS FOR K0A AHEAD:
So it looks like literally everyone gets married (el0rcan, lysaedi0n, man0rian)
Rip our m.alide and cha0rian souls
Irene is pregnant and will probably live out her days as a housewife who occasionally heals people
Alien travels through a wyrdgate or smth and passes through velaris
While passing through, she sees failure who is pregnant and a hawt mail (probably riceman)
She also passes through…wait for it… NEW FUCKING YORK
Aedi0n tosses a naked, barefoot L.ysanda into snow because he gets mad at her about Alien’s plan she agreed to
All of the 13 except Man0n die (yup, even the lesbians)
Conal dies (he’s moc)
There is el0rcan and man0rian smut (I wouldn’t be surprised if there was also rowalien smut)
From what I’ve seen in the excerpts, during the el0rcan smut, L0rcan has a foot fetish and does some kinky shit to E.lide’s feet (not sure about this, but E.lide was moaning or smth while L0rcan was holding her foot so…)
All of Alien’s scars are erased because we can’t have any white, cishet characters that *gasp* have flaws
Neither Alien nor D0rian die
None of the white, straight main characters die
Abraxos the dragon…has a mate (yes, you read that correctly) And the mate is Asterin’s dragon
Btw I’ll be adding onto this list whenever I find more. Please send me any spoilers you find <3
I’m so pissed that fayrug’s pregnant. Isnt it hard for faes? God i cant take alien AND fayrug being speshul at the same time, just bc you CAN connect the worlds doesn’t mean you should.
It’s such a big yikes! Not only is it canon that fae children are extremely rare and that’s apparently a huge part of why the mating system is so gross, but also in AC0WAR Faerug said she didn’t want to have a child for another few decades or centuries. Now this??? SJ/M has no respect for her own canon if it gets in the way of shoving her faves’ truuuuue love in our faces. It reminds me of the “mates can’t hurt each other” thing as well. Even though Failsand and Ratalien are mated couples, they have definitely hurt each other in many ways.
And what does it add to the story that Alien sees Rice and pregnant Faerug? Why did this need to happen? Who thought this was a good idea? Everything about it is bad and unnecessary.
The author of this article talks about how curious she is about the mythology and the other countries in the T0G world, and how this curiosity is a good thing. As if Sarah is actually going to ever expand on the religious worldbuilding or mention the other countries as anything more than plot devices.
What Sarah does in her books is not cleverness. It’s laziness. There is a difference between revealing plot points slowly but surely and just never expanding on them at all.
While reading a good fantasy book, you should be more like this:
And less like this:
on sj/m’s Pinterest on her CC board she posted a picture of a white blonde girl with a big ass crown on her head looking off into the distance and I just fucking know she’s gonna have a new Super Special Powerful and Tough main character who is Not Like Other Girls and Everybody Loves Her even thought she is Deeply Damaged and goes through Peril And Hardship only to Fight Through It with the help of her Super Diverse Teammates and 1 Extremely Hot Male who Loves Only Her Unconditionally Babe :)
IM SORRY IM BACK BUT LIKE IN CC SHES GONNA BE STEALING FROM THE FUCKING BIBLE AND MAKING EVERYONE A FUCKING ANGEL/ASSASSIN/QUEEN/SHAPESHIFTER/FUCKINGALLPOWERFULGODDESS OR SMTHN AS A CHRISTIAN IM LITERALLY SICKENED WHY CANT SHE JUST MAKE HER OWN GODDAMN CHARACTERS FOR ONCE WHY DOES SHE HAVE TO STEAL AND COPY AND PASTE EVERYONE IM ENRAGED
“I can’t wait to introduce readers to Bryce, its heroine, who I think would be very good friends with Aelin and Feyre. The world of Crescent City is more modern than those in my previous series (basically, if the Court of Thorns and Roses and Throne of Glass worlds had modern-day technology), but it’s still chock full of magic, brooding warrior-types, and mysterious and deadly creatures.” SHE WILLINGLY CHOSE TO DESCRIBE IT AS THIS KMS IT’S EXACTLY LIKE EVERY SINGLE OTHER BOOK SHE’S WRITTEN
Heyo! So I went and scrolled back through the CCity board and I think this is the pic you’re talking about:
Which is weird and ironic because this looks like it should be Alien. Like it fits into T0G’s aesthetic perfectly because SJ/M has no concept of cohesive worldbuilding or originality. But yes, you’re so right about SJ/M writing Bruce into yet another Perfect And Beloved Female ProtagonistTM. I’m already predicting that Ron and Fury are going to be her sidekicks, possibly Juniper as well (but I think there’s a very good chance Juniper will either be her rival or the fridged best-friend). I also see Potluck being a potential point in a love-triangle, which is absolutely pointless because SJ/M has no grasp of how to create convincing romantic tension. Also I hate love triangles on principle.
As for stealing from the Bible, I kind of have mixed opinions on this. Mess is apparently Jewish, which means she has a claim to Biblical mythology and it can’t really be considered appropriation. Add to that the fact that modern Christianity is built on a foundation of imperialism, and you end up with this huge body of mythology that in a way demands that people make references to or base stories on it. Lots of good stories have Christian mythology worked into them, in the same way that a lot of stories reference Greek and Roman mythology. SJ/M’s problem is that she does it badly. She’s using the fact that angel/demon stories have a built-in body of common knowledge and lots of rich imagery associated with them to avoid having to do the work of building the aesthetics and the mythos herself. That’s why her fae fall so flat–for fae to be interesting, they need to be inhuman, whimsical, sinister, haunting–and SJ/M fails in every regard. It’s not that she isn’t capable. There’s a few bits where she describes the lesser fae and they are convincingly otherworldly. But the high fae aren’t even elves. They’re literally just immortal humans with pointy ears and raging perma-boners.
And yes, I think SJ/M is running out of ideas, not that she had that many to begin with. You can see how quickly her work deteriorates as a series progresses. Also “still chock full of magic” my ass. The magic in her books is so forced and nonsensical that they’d be far better off if she just removed it completely, especially T0G. There’s not a single instance of magic that I can think of that is actually important or necessary. Even the wyrdkeys, which are in theory central to the plot, are kind of pointless. Like, orphaned princess raised as an assassin who finds her goal shifting from securing her personal freedom to liberating her people and others suffering beneath imperial rule–that’s a perfectly decent premise all on its own, if a bit generic. The addition of the magical superplot doesn’t make it any less generic. I kind of went off on a tangent there, but basically SJ/M is a lazy and unoriginal writer who likes to paint herself as some kind of virtuoso.
stans: sjm is the queen of rep
me:
Thing that I no longer want to see in fantasy literature
Poor, ordinary protagonist becoming the king of whatever and the greatest warrior the world has ever seen
FAES AND NONSENSE MAGIC (I will accept Faes only if they are truly well written and mysterious as they should be)
Surprise, you are a king/queen, even tough you know less than Jon Snow about what means to rule a kingdom
A prophesized mesianic saviour (again, unless it is done truly well)
Deux ex machina in the last battle against the Dark Forces That Want To Conquer The World
The kickass heroine who is considered a strong character and the embodiment of feminism only bc she kickass and despises other girls, while every man she meets falls for her.
Love stories between teen girls and thousand year old immortal men
Daenerys Targaryen stereotypes
The evil king that must be overthrown, to make room for the prophesized king/queen and saviour who knows less than Jon Snow about ruling a kingdom
👏👏👏
10. No. More. Elves. Unless you can make them original without plagiarizing Tolkien (and these are all dependant on whether or not you make it original).
11. When royals screw over their kingdom by “marrying for love” and marry somehow who offers nothing to their country and knows nothing about ruling.
12. Mentors. Old, young – nope.
13. Why are the kings always evil? Always? Give me more Aragorns (not literally – stop plagiarizing Tolkien).
14. The Smart Prince who has a bad relationship with Gruff King Father.
15. Irresponsible royals who fantasize about running away from their kingdom and going where “no one knows their name” as if being poor is a bed of roses.
16. Dark Lords who have no purpose or motive other to be dark
@a-thousand-times–goodnight i couldn’t have said better than you.
But let’s keep paying
17. The all time “I’m not like the other girls trope”
18. The evil queen who is evil because she has sex in order to get what she wants (Cersei Lannister is unique, so pls stop)
19. The main Hero and his pointless friend who is there only to support the Hero (Sam Gamgee, I am sorry if the bad authors who thought they were better than Tolkien wrote versions of you that have no relevance to the plot)
20. The brooding alpha male immortal perfect boyfriend who is obsessive and abusive but you must love him regardless
21. Sneaking into the Dark Lord unbreakable castle (but not so unbreakable for us) to steal something from him/to kill him
22. Main Hero and his gang of friends going on an adventure
23. Stupid resurrection (Gandalf and Harry Potter were not brought back to life just because, So if you don’t make it logical, then just stop doing it)
23. Female antagonists are all witches or somehow involved in “the dark arts”
24. Magic is outlawed
25. Evil or mysterious, brooding bad-boy half-brothers (who usually have a thing for the main girl)
26. The male protag has jet-black hair, pale skin, and blue (or green) eyes
27. Variations of orcs that we all know are just orcs
28. Protag finds out they must “make the ultimate sacrifice” (but it’s cool cuz they come back)
29. A magical object that must be destroyed (hmm where have I seen this one before… 🤔)
30. Vampiristic sex
31. INCEST (bc it seems that incest became a real trend especially among the YA) (AND a romantic relationship between two cousins is still incest)
32. The perfect bad guy who is actually good and a lovely feminist plus his gang: his two bros, the minority girl and the blonde girl.
33. The Way the love interest’s despicable actions are excused bc tragic past
34. Every character has a tragic backstory
35. Every character is orphan
36. The Way the protag becomes a Jesus Christ retelling
37. ASSASSINS. For the love of God, don’t write assassins if you don’t know how.
38. Star-crossed lovers and magical Bonds between them, so the reader will know for sure they are star-crossed lovers
39. The Elves/Faes who behave just like horny teenagers are not Elves/Faes, just the embodiment of some weird fetishes
40. Game of Thrones-esque backround, unless you really come with an original concept
41. No more titles such as Fire-Bringer, Dawn-Bringer, Queen/Prince that was promised, Wolf of The North, Hand of the King becaus this is plagiarism and one day, GRRM will call you out
(I am reading a YA fantasy assassin book right now and boy is #37 true)
42. Fantasy maps that are all identical to each other in shape and layout (we have the smoky or misty gray mountains, the only desert in the entire world, somewhere very snowy, an emphasis on “The North” bc GRRM, the “bad place” from whence all evil comes)
43. Dreadful, on-the-nose location names (“The Frozen Wastes” 😒)
44. Undeveloped magic systems based on elemental abilities
45. Perfect coronation scene
46. Dwarves ripped straight from Tolkien
47. The kingdom’s colors are red and gold–excuse me, crimson and gold
48. You better believe there’s going to be something involving wolves or lions, be it a country emblem or a character’s trademark
50. The enemies will wear black. This is a must. (I laughed so hard when the Valg changed Rifthold’s colors to black to show how utterly evil they are)
51. Wraiths will exist in some form or other
52. Adults are thick-skulled obstacles who don’t know the first thing about warfare or running kingdoms because only our teenage protagonists can be smart
53. Special Sword™
54. There are NO adult because every parent is dead and the teen gang saves the world
55. RIPPED-OFF LINES
56. RIPPED-OFF PLOTLINES
57. The villainizing of a love interest to make room for the new love interest, instead of letting those two characters just fall out of love and break up
58. Celtic names and French names and Hebrew names belonging to characters from the same country bc the world-building just sucks
59. Unique features such as silver-gold hair, turqoize/purple eyes I mean we don’t want Galadriel and Daenerys clones
60. Any magical power related to fire/light anu sort of that
Note: #42, #43 #44, #47 and #50 are so true it hurts
61. Women barely interact with women (unless they’re talking about men) and men rarely interact with men (unless they’re strategizing a battle)
62. Tavern brawls
63. The men are 6ft tall, brooding, with rippling muscles and swords strapped to their backs (no other body type exists unless they are old and withered or old and indulgent). They probably also have not-so-dark dark secrets.
64. All “good queens” are flawless and motherly
65. Sword-wielders are inherently brutish and archers are inherently graceful
66. It’s raining at night and the characters must stay in a dingy, shifty tavern/inn (seriously, always)
67. Fairies exist, but that’s it. They have no relevance.
68. There will be a convoluted fantasy battle with next to no strategizing that feels like it came right out of a video game.
69. Undeveloped polytheistic version of Catholicism with deities, temples, and priests, but no actual teachings or traditions.
70. An oracle – probably blind (and the only blind character in the universe) – who gives cryptic and useless advice for no apparent reason other than that the author can’t lay out all their cards yet
I’ll continue with #78 bc @faithfire her points on out list, so:
78. The politics of 1200s and the hygiene of 2000s
79. The Dark Lord has a dark fortress in some dark mountains
80. Huge spiders (they are bad) (Jesus, Melkor and Sauron will be angry bc you stole their pets)
81. Huge Eagles (they are good) (Manwë will be pretty pissed-off bc you stole his pets)
82. Dragons (either good or bad) (You really need to be original with this one) (AAALSO, wyverns are still Dragons)
83. Some wicked flying creatures similar to the Nazgùls and their fell beasts that are basically the Nazgùls and their fell beasts
84. The Shire-like village, bordered against the wide world outside (Tolkien was unique in describing the smallfolk life and how an epic adventure physically change them, so leave it)
85. The epic war in the last book which usually lasts 3 pages at most
(If we reach #100, we’re good)
86. Evil advisors/courtiers who aren’t in the least bit trustworthy, and yet everyone trusts them.
87. An emotional moment to show the stakes are rising when the character must part ways with a beloved animal (horse, dragon, or dog).
88. If dragons are good, they act like dogs or cats and are basically all copies of Toothless from HTTYD
89. An entire land composed solely of mindless, evil characters, whether they are creatures, humans, or dark elves of some sort
90. One member of the Fellowship – pardon: the ragtag gang – will betray the others at some point.
91. The girl who was raped (in the tragic backstory category)
92. The super original power of entering into an animal’s mind
93. The creepy basement of the castle
94. The basic noble bitch who wants to marry a Prince
95. The word “smut” in a supposedly medieval setting
96. The Dark marks which represent some sort of evil magical power
97. The brainwashed soldlers of the Dark Lord
98. Every evil name consists of prefix “Mor” because of Mordor (see “Morath”)
99. The civil war/the rebellion which ended a royal dinasty
100. The Valinor-like places (see that Ve/laris shit)
OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE IT WE REACHED #100 😂😂😂
101.) there are excellent toilet facilities, yet every country is ruled by a monarchy/ patriarchy
102.) have the choice to kill or capture the villain, and always capturing them
103.) teenagers who out wit every adult at every turn
104. The constant Dr. Dooferschmirtz speech of the Bad Guy which allows the Hero to trick him.
105. The magic school
106. The Draco Malfoy-classmate
Thank God my own novel has only the useless friend (I just can’t get rid of him, I love him too much for that )
[also : sjm is quaking]
😂 well giving him a purpose would be a quick-fix!
The only problem is that after rewriting the novel his old arc doesn’t make sense anymore, so for now he’s just there to be emotional support to one of the mcs
One of my friends suggested that he and that other MC could be in a realitionship but the point was for me that they should stay in a platonic friendship. Guys and girls in books being friends is not so common so it would pretty much ruin their friendship. So now I’m stuck and I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to pair him up with someone who he hasn’t got any chemistry with (unlike a certain author who does what she wants with her characters) and killing him off would be just a useless shock factor and wouldn’t have any meaning.
Tbh… i don’t agree with a lot of the later ones. Like, specifically the ones that have to do with supposed anachronisms, with regards to plumbing and stuff. The ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as Ancient China and the Meso-Americans all had plumbing and very good hygiene, so it’s not unrealistic that a fantasy society that doesn’t go through the Dark Ages might have “modern” standards of hygiene ie. toilets, showers, etc.
Also, 47 with the crimson and gold…. I mean, they’re stereotypical royal colors for a reason. There’s a lot of history behind why those colors are given that symbolism.
Also with fire magic/elemental magic, I’m going to guess you mean like, Alien’s bullshit fire magic where she can just raze a city or whatever the fuck. But like, elemental magic isn’t…. /bad/, and can actually be pretty interesting? Or just, yknow, a thing common people have instead of being EPIC SYMBOLISM.
Also i feel like half of the things that aren’t referring to character tropes aren’t really as common as this list makes them seem.
But since no one seems to have addressed this yet:
107. The only race of non-white people are portrayed as barbaric savages.
Well, many of them are generalizations. When you’re reaching for #100, you start reachin’. :P I agree with you on the plumbing one.
For 47 – certainly there’s symbolic meaning behind those colors, but it does tend to be the default for good guy kingdoms. Other colors have symbolic meaning as well, such as purple for royalty and majesty.
And elemental magic is wicked cool, but it does tend to pop up in every fantasy story I’ve read (at least in my experience). I’d just like more creativity.
Yes to #107 😒
Lmao, that’s fair. And yeah, elemental magic is common as hell and I’m down for more variety.
Oh and:
108. Slaves! But nobody knows where they come from! Why? Because the main character needs to angst over it!
Great additions
Plus:
109. Sidelined LGBT and PoC characters.
Oh my god i can’t believe we forgot:
110. Token slutty bi
111. Magically “cured” disability
112. Every characters who opposes the allmighty MC is evil
Y’all r too shady agdhkalsd
113. Actions of a love interest being excused cause they aren’t ‘human’
Look! The fans make a good point.
Facts only
Rhysand: i have a near bottomless bank account Poor people in velaris: please help us Rhysand: i wish i had the means to help them
Rice: I’m the most powerful High Lord^TM and I’m such a huge feminist who wants to help everyone in my court
I/llyrian women: hey we’re being violently discriminated against based on our gender, could you possibly help us out and change the laws with your political influence?
lesser fae: we’re all dying in ransacked homes we can’t afford to fix because of this horrible war and life as we know it has completely changed, could you spare a thought to make a strategy that will help us recover?
M0r: I just want to find happiness and safety from my past abusers and to use my influence to help people avoid going through something like what I’ve been through, could you let me do my duty without interfering in a way that would undermine and horribly trigger me?
Rice:
The whole thing with how sjm wrote money and fwyre’s reaction to it can be explained by the fact that sjm has NEVER struggled for money. Ever. She grew up in Ny with wealthy parents - moms a judge, father a lawyer. She went to private schools. In college and after, her parents and her boyfriend/now hubby paid her bills so she could write. She had like, one job post college for a hot second and then got laid off. But she’s never wondered where her rent $ will come from. Or her next meal. (1/2)
(2/2) and this is fact - all this mentioned in a podcast she did in 2016 (mashable?) and other sources I have. With her advances and royalties from her books, she’s always had funds to do what she wants, so her writing about fryer being poor while sjm sits in her $3 million home in pa and drives her Porsche is absurd.
tbh i’ll never understand why sj/m wants to write about poor people. with how conceited she is, it stands to reason that she’d want to write about the “good things” in life (champagne, caviar, whatever the hell else rich people spend their money on), but i guess it just goes to show what her idea of conflict is: which boy do i bone? what do i do with all this money? (it’s interesting you have sources about this!)
and it’s absurdly clear that sj/m hasn’t once ever spoken to an actual poor person. had she, she might realize the woman giving faerug the art studio and refusing money is one of the stupidest and most unrealistic things in the books (and that is really saying something).
Also feyre after becoming a highlady and becoming hella rich turns into an arrogant, holier-than-thou, person. She thinks she owns the world and belittles people.
yuuuuuuuuup. she’s a watered down alien, bc at least alien has some semblance of a personality
I’m not saying Nest/a’s nice, or even a good person. I’m saying she’s boss af and the most interesting person in these hell books
Also literally no one the fuck came to “hunt” or “crucify” feyre. *eye roll*
Brw why does the concept of crucifixion even exist in this society?
Oh but then HOW would we feel sad for poor poor feyre. Also who cares that crucification is a complex topic, that has a lot of history, has religious background and is actually very terrible. Buy who cares right?
Mess just fucking throws words around bc they sound cool, without giving two fucks about the fact that words exist in context, and if your society doesn’t fucking have crosses and crucifixion like in ancient rome or feudal japan, crucifixion is not a word you can use!!
All jokes aside
(this is going to be a long ass post)
Also : please take this with a grain of salt
How to write like s/jm :
First of all : one of your goals should be your quotes being used as “aesthetic” quotes/titles or what so ever
You know, like
Velvet wrapped steel
I will not be afraid
Fire breathing bitch queen
Okay. Now for real
This will be in a random order
For the characters : use faes or at least something that has wings. ‘cause it’s all about the wing span
Your characters should he white (cause they’re the only people who exist appearantly…)
You can make one or two characters poc, maybe even someone who’s gay or a lesbian.
Also : their personality should be all the same : territorial, toxic, one dimensional(i would put more things here but what else is there)
If you make a good characters(e. g. : Man0n, cha0l, D0rian, elidee, N/esta even caelena)on accident, don’t panic :ruin them
Which means : make them so OOC that you can’t even believe that they’re the same person from 2 books ago.
Also also : if you create good ships that you actually don’t even like (cha0l0rian, Mali/de) force them into realitionships with characters (no, they don’t need chemistry)
(you probably know who I’m thinking about)
Also : describe them only shortly (but the “villains” get a long paragraph on how ugly they are), like :goldblonde, tan, muscular, tall, broad, thin (no, even though they throw up a lot it won’t have any impact on anything), aqua blue eyes (maybe even green or violet).
World building : you don’t need a good one
Just describe it shortly and that’s it (probably medieval, but with hygiene of the 21 century)
If you like something from other media (books, series,…) change it a bit and use it.
Of course you could make a clever reference, but no.
Take a quote and change it a bit.
Villains (if you can call them that)
Don’t give them names( if you do, make them share a name [for the possibility of an “amazing” Crossover])
Don’t make them threatening at all.
They can’t do anything against or dear MC.
If they’re female they should burn in hell.
Females?
DISCUSTING.
If you have male “evil” characters give them a redemption arc.
Even if they’re abusive.
They’re male, they can’t do anything wrong.
But if theyre sexy and hawt.
If theyre ugly and old burn them too.
If you find something from a culture you like, use it
You may ask : should I base the culture in my book on an already existing one, should I make a twist with it?
No no no child : use what you want and fuck it.
Names
Any culture, any religion, any meaning.
Smash them together.
(even though you COULD research for good names that actually makes sense in the context of your book)
If you like a word, use - no, abuse it.
Like, MATE, MALE
Gentlemale
Em dashes
Do I need to say more?
Okay, this is everything for now.
If a stan reads this : please don’t kill me. I’m only 15 years old, I haven’t met my mate yet.
