is it common, In the a court of thorns and roses fandom to dislike the cannon work? I don’t actually care at all for the books themselves, but I LOVE the fan works I’ve read. They’ve far outstripped anything in the original work. Is that like a common position in the fandom ? Am I unusual? I haven’t engaged much with the fandom outside reading on A03.
I think a lot of us dislike the cannon. For a dozen of reasons, actually.
The male leads are supposed to be some feminist kings but the majority of what they do is deeply misogynistic (Rhysand hiding vital informations from Feyre, having her play the role of his lover (for lack of a more civilised word) rather than a powerful woman (she can be considered even a religious figure given she's meant to be a saviour)).
Not to mention the world-building. Half of the things said in book one are changed in book two, relationships between characters alter off page and without any reason why (we all remember how Feyre and Nesta's relationship progressed in book one, and how different it was in book two).
I've also read fanfics that are way better than the books themselves, and I think a lot of us have. So, no, you're not alone!
I'm afraid that I dislike Mor because she could've been better. She could've been a girls girl. She could stand up for the women in the CoN and in Illyria, but she doesn't seem to care about women outside of her immediate circle of friends. My dislike for her has nothing to do with the fact that she likes women, it has to do with the fact that she could've been a stronger, more developed character who stands up for oppressed women but nope. She ends up being 2 dimensional and mean.
"Nesta should have consulted with the IC. She didn't know Rhys wanted to kill Bryce!"
Meanwhile, Nesta literally said this in the scene prior to the Ember BC
"No." Nesta's eyes held no mercy. "Now shut the portal and be gone." She glanced over a shoulder, where the stars seemed to be winking out in the far distance. "Before the High Lord gets here and rips you to shreds."
Nesta laughed joylessly, glancing at the approaching darkness. "All I have to do is wait until he gets here, you know. Then you'll wish you'd shut that portal."
No, there would have never been any consultation. Rhysand would have shown up and instantly killed Bryce, which is exactly what he said Nesta should have done. It was Nesta who said that Bryce deserved the chance to speak, and it was Rhysand who completely disagreed with the concept of communication and consultation. The lack of consulting was because of Rhysand, not Nesta.
Anyone hating on Nesta for not consulting with the IC is straight-up delusional.
like i dont think romance/romantasy is "anti intellectual" but when booktok is CONSTANTLY pushing the same cishet white abuse apologism and tradwife propaganda.... it becomes an issue
why cant you read romance/romantasy that also brings discussions and diversity with gender roles and race etc like legit so many issues go away once you start reading diversely 😂
Which historical event is, in your opinon, not talked about enough?
Warning: I get very political in this.
Because it is an event that shaped the situation my country is in now. In a bad way, I mean.
The Golaniad.
So, basically, this was a peaceful protest in 1990 organised by the students and professors of the University of Bucharest demanding the removal of the former Comunist Party members from power.
Let me paint a better picture.
25th December 1989 - Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena Ceaușescu (who was also complice to everything he and the government did) are executed after a trial that wasn't really a trial. They were guilty, though, everyone knew this.
Ion Iliescu and the FSN (National Salvation Front) seized power during the revolution. It should have been temporarily until elections could be held. They declared it was only temporarily, but, of course, it was a lie.
23 January 1990 - the FSN decides to run into the elections they were organising. Known anti-communist members who joined it during the revolution leave.
The president of FSN, Ion Iliescu - former member of the communist party. Like, he was Ceaușescu's friend. He was a member of that party, he was a communist, and he was still allowed to become president.
FSN won the elections.
22 April 1990 - the Independent Group for Democracy organises a peaceful protest.
Groups of people march towards the Romanian Television (TVR) station, calling for its political independence.
The following day, an even larger protest (around 2,500–3,000 people) is organised, occupying the road in the University Square.
The night between 23 and 24 April, the authorities began a repression of the protesters. They beat up the protesters and arrested some of them.
Now, it's pretty clear that the protesters didn't see that and thought Oh, well, I guess we should stop. Like, who would?
25 April - the protesters' number reached 30,000. The sympathetic press reported even higher numbers, up to 50,000 each evening.
Ion Iliescu (the president) refuses to negotiate with the protesters. He calls them golani, which basically translates as hooligans, ruffians, and even legionnaires (those were the anti-communists who were also anti-democratic and antisemitic, movement inspired by political violence and Christian terrorism). For the record, the people were protesting against the government that, despite its fall, kept members of the Comunist Party in power. It had nothing to do with the legionnaires.
Then, the FSN realises that the protests are too big.
Firstly, they use the media against them. The protesters are called hooligans, parasites, traitors, fascists. Again, because they didn't want the members of the Comunist Party to remain in power.
These people had three main demands:
1. The eighth point of the Proclamation of Timișoara: leading members of the Romanian Communist Party and the Securitate should not be allowed to be candidates in the elections.
2. A 1975 law of Ceaușescu (which was not yet repealed) allowed the President of Romania to directly control Romanian Television and Radio. They wanted it gone. They wanted all the candidates to be allowed access to the media, not only Iliescu.
3. Postponing of the elections, since the only party that had the resources for the campaign was FSN.
The protest lasted for 52 days. Not because their demands were met or even because the president agreed to hear their demands, to negotiate with them, to do anything that would appease them. Because Iliescu called the miners from the Jiu Valley, who crushed the protests. Protesters and bystanders being beaten and wounded. Sources differ on the number of the casualties, the government confirming seven deaths related to the events. However, other sources confirm that the death toll was much, much higher. Over 1,000 individuals were illegally detained. Official sources say the injured were between 746–1,000. Others say it's higher. The majority of these protesters were students and professors.
The name of the protest comes from the word golan (again, hooligan). The adaptation to Golaniad resembles the way Ceaușescu (again, the comunist dictator we had just gotten rid of) called the protesters at Timișoara (where the revolution basically started), and it was the same adaptation Ceaușescu used to make certain events be compared to the Illiad or the Olympiad . The protesters also composed their own hymn, "Imnul Golanilor":
Iliescu's term ended, someone else came to power, but the damage was already done. Our government was corrupt and still is because of him.
Iliescu was tried for crimes against humanity. Not only during these protests, but after he took control, 862 people were killed. And many believe those were death he could (and should) have prevented. He was accused of "directly spreading misinformation through televised appearances and press releases, contributing to the institution of a generalised psychosis".
Guess what happened? The charges were dropped.
And, on 5th August of 2025, he died. What did my people do? Mourned him. The current president declared it a day of national mourning. Countless are still singing his praises, the praises of a man who did so much evil to our country, took so many lives.
Like, his death happened some time after we cancelled some elections and held another. There were some candidates, but we had two (the first, and then the one who was, basically, also the first because they were working together) who are probably some of the biggest idiots I've ever seen. You might have heard about the Americans cutting the Greenland-shaped cake. Who was the idiot cutting the cake? The second candidate, the one who lost (the first might have won, but the elections were cancelled, so...). Even though we could very well say we could end up in a situation similar to Greenland because there are other countries who want pieces of land from our country (Transylvania and Dobrogea).
Honestly, this country is filled with corruption. Every time I think of the Golaniad and what's happened in the last couple of years, who a guy my people almost made president supports and the clear political statements he's making, I'm thinking: No, we will never get better.
Gonna take a moment and think bout the fact that SJM wrote a story where the male who SA'd the fmc is the "good guy," and the men who believed the fmc without question when she lied bout being SA'd are the bad guys. Idk how that makes me feel.
The MMC of my turkish telenovela is raising my standards in ways no one ever did.
Like, this man watched the love of his life marry his enemy, knew he couldn't do anything about it, managed to endure it only because that guy killed someone and got twenty years in prison. Then, twenty years later, the love of his life shoots him, but he doesn't tell the police she did it because he doesn't want to see her in prison. What does he ask in return? Her guesthouse. Why? Because he says, "In the place where you became mine, that bastard can't touch you.". Then, he tells her that the only reason he endured her being married to that guy was because he was in prison, he couldn't see her, he couldn't touch her, he couldn't hear her voice. And, later, when Esme has to go back to her bastard of a husband, he tells her: "I don't want a woman who would go to another man just to save my life. I want a woman who will burn by my side." Like, this man is keeping an old cassette with a song she sang to endure her absence.
And the green flags are not even over yet!
His sister marries the nephew of his enemy. Like, everyone (including me) was fully expecting this guy to turn his back on his sister (only for a while, though) because she married into the family of the guy who killed their father and who took the woman he loves from him. But no. He's smart enough to know that his sister didn't marry that guy because she loves him, but he also figures out there isn't anything he can do about that, so he has one condition to accept their marriage: both his sister and the guy she married are going to live in his house because he doesn't trust his enemies not to use his sister against him.
And there is also his entire relationship with Eleni. Like, this guy saw this young Greek doctor who doesn't really have any idea what she's doing (Eleni herself said that when it comes to medicine and science, she's a genius, but she is a bit naive when it comes to life) and decided to basically adopt her. Like, when Eleni calls him because she has literally nowhere to go, he comes immediately, he loses his mind when she almost gets killed, he's willing to end his entire feud so she, his sister or Esme don't get hurt. And the worst part? This guy doesn't even know Eleni is actually his daughter. Like, he didn't know for twenty years that he and Esme had a daughter, then he finds out (thanks to Eleni) and is absolutely heartbroken and decides to raise hell. He thinks his daughter is dead, not knowing he has basically adopted her.
There is this moment when he suspects something, even before he finds out he and Esme had a daughter. So, he asks his cousin to do a DNA test. The test comes back negative (Esme's husband and sister-in-law who first arranged to get rid of Eleni blackmail the woman who was doing the test to make it show the result they want), he's like Screw DNA, she's my daughter.
Again, the scene when he tells someone [I don't remember exactly who] to stop trying to use women to end their blood feud and start learning the men of their family to restrain themselves. Like, look at these scenes:
By the way, gelin means bride, but also daughter-in-law, but it can also be used to refer to any woman who marries into a family (usually by the generation of the parents of the groom or the one before (just like damat which means groom or son-in-law or any man but it can also be used to describe any man who marries into a family by that family's members) because there is also yenge (or eniște for men) which means sister-in-law but is also used the same way as gelin but usually by members of the same generation or the one after).
Thinking about how the narrative can’t let the protagonists be criticized meaningfully, so all valid points have to come from irredeemable assholes.
Tamlin at the High Lords’ meeting:
“I’m going to prove I’m a spy, drop crucial Hybern intel, and voice extremely reasonable doubts about trusting Rhysand.”
Also Tamlin, immediately:
“Anyway Feyre’s a slut and emotionally unstable.”
Sir.
SIR.
You had actual points and the narrative said, “No ❤️” and hit the asshole button so no one would agree with you.
Rhysand: Feyre, darling, I have never got involved with the weird love triangle that my best friends have had going on for 500 years and neither should you
Also Rhysand: your sister is a nymphomaniac alcoholic and I am going to force her into an intervention and trap her in my house because that is my business and I know what’s best
Elide Lochan with no magic at all coming up with the plan to trap and kill Erawan, rams him through with a sword, and bags the hottest surliest demi-fae who gives up his immortality for her
I think one of the reasons Elide is one of my favourite characters is because, at the end of the day, she's human. She's not some overpowered fae, she's not a warrior, she's simply very smart.
When Rhysand’s mother decided his future wife must be able to escape the clutches of a death god in order to prove her love for her son, Rhysand straight up surrendered Feyre to the Weaver. He sent his mate to a trap no other fae ever survived solely to satisfy his dead mother and his own ego.
When Tamlin had to make a woman profess her love for him in order to save all of Prythian at the risk of her getting harmed, he sent Feyre home.
I was looking through the comments on a post on reddit asking what Papa Archeron could have done for his kids, and, no joke, people said he should have supported the Duke's marriage proposal to Nesta. Nesta was fourteen-years-old at the time. Fourteen.
This fandom loses its mind at the concept of Mor's family selling Mor into marriage at seventeen-years-old but actively encourages the Archeron family to sell Nesta into marriage at the age of fourteen?
This fandom coddles the grown-ass adult more than the teenage child. This fandom will give Papa Archeron a free-pass to not perform his parental responsibilities because of his disability, while actively encouraging the fourteen-year-old child to marry and be used as a breeding mare to support the family.
