Wings and Embers

No one was my master— but I might be master of everything, if I wished. If I dared.

[bookishfeylin]

The selective application of real world standards in the ACOTAR fandom is truly the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. When discussing Nesta's behavior or Lucien's actions or Tamlin's style of leadership or... anything Tamlin does, really, we have to use real world standards and ignore the circumstance and context, ignore that this is a fantasy world and hold them accountable by our values. They cannot act like they are in a world that is fantasy, and if they do they are faulted for it. They cannot act on the knowledge they know and have of their circumstances, and if they do they are faulted for it. They cannot merely exist within the broken system that is Prythian's power hierarchy, rather they are faulted for not attempting to better things and make their world mirror ours. But the minute those standards are applied to Feyre and Rhysand or anyone else, suddenly we need to keep in mind again that this is fantasy and to not judge by real world standards. Feyre and Rhysand are praised by the narrative as progressive leaders attempting to change the system of power. They objectively aren't, because you truly cannot be progressive while actively upholding the system that oppresses others and, for example, leaving brown women and children to rot in the places you dislike because you've stereotyped all the brown men as savages too dumb and uncivilized to change whew the racist writing of the Illyrians jumps out, nor is it progressive to remove your wife's bodily autonomy by keeping information about your wife dying in childbirth from her. If you get upset at that being pointed out because ~it's fantasy~ then you can't exactly write 10-paragraph long essays about how horrible other High Lord's feudal systems are, now can you? After all, it is fantasy. Feyre and Rhysand are adored for their "healthy" relationship, despite that being woefully not true by any real-world metric. Hell, with having the male get so jealous when other men look at his mate that he feels the need to fight them, break the bones of people who call her a whore, and have the couple become incredibly co-dependent once they mate, mating bond in and of itself is wildly unhealthy by real world standards! If pointing this out bothers you because ~it's fantasy~ and you believe you can't use real world standards to judge a relationship between two magical creatures in a retelling of a Greek myth, then you can't write essays about the healthiness or unhealthiness of any other relationship in ACOTAR. After all, it is fantasy. Feyre and Rhysand are excused for their atrocious actions that harm and displace tons of innocents because they are "acting for the greater good" or lack the information to wait at a later time for revenge, despite the dire consequences their objectively horrible actions. If this bothers you because ~it's fantasy~ and they don't need to act by real world standards and every horrible thing they do can be excused with "it's for the greater good" or "they didn't have enough information at that time", then you can't critique other characters who don't abide by real world standards of what behavior is ok and not because they canonically have limited information or are doing something for "the greater good." After all, it is fantasy.

Either everybody is critiqued by real world standards, including the faves, or no one is, including the characters you hate the most. You can't hold a certain group accountable by real world standards and be surprised when people do the same right back.

[nestaswhore]

i literally can’t get over SJM’s approach to writing men and women, and the way she thinks about them in her head

in multiple parts of the interview she brings up nesta’s bad behaviour. says she doesn’t need to be an asshole forever. talks about a minor arc in acosf where nesta was being scared her friends would find out what a ‘piece of shit’ she is and i’m not here to argue if these things are true or not because YES nesta has been a bitch to people and god the text has reminded us about 1000 times what a horrible person nesta is and how horrible she’s been to others in her life. which fine that’s totally fair. but the way she calls out nesta and then waxes poetic about the men is just vile

from the interview it’s clear, in SJM’s opinion, growth for nesta means not being an asshole anymore forget dealing with her immense feelings of self hatred and unworthiness, nesta always needs to be indebted to feyre and the inner circle but to go on these long talks about nesta being horrible, nesta growing, nesta accepting she’s done terrible things AND THEN dead ass turn around and sing about the utter perfection that is rhysand and cassian ??? are you actually kidding me ???

do i even need to go into what rhys and cassian have done wrong? rhys can do all the absolutely shitty things he’s done from the moment he was introduced to hiding medical information from his wife in the latest book and … he’s perfect? cassian can exhibit about 700 pages worth of red flag behaviour where he is most certainly NOT perfect or good or amazing and it’s not even a slight mention?

i can’t really formulate my thoughts into words on this topic properly because there’s just so much to cover but it’s so irritating and annoying. and just makes sarah look like she’s oddly obsessed with the men in her series and condones seriously toxic behaviour from men and then calls it ‘the way every woman should want to be treated by their partner’ 

even if you’re the greatest nesta anti on the planet and you manifest every day that nesta dies in the next book, do you still think the way SJM handles men and women is okay? like stan rhys all you want but we all know he is farrrr from perfect. same goes for cassian

ugh idk everytime i hear SJM talk about nesta i get so irritated. how is she actually preaching about writing healthy relationships where the man is ‘only there to uplift the woman’ if she can’t even see the red flags IN HER OWN WRITING AND WORK

[nestaswhore]

‘if nesta hated the night court and the infer circle so much then why didn’t she just leave?’ blah blah blah

firstly, in-character nesta would’ve taken a good look at her two shitty options in that intervention and said fuck you and left to the human lands. ‘but she knew she would die’ well nesta was willing to starve to death to prove a point for like five years straight so argue with the wall that she wouldn’t have left to spite rhysand and amren because she’s a stubborn bitch

secondly, the feysand stans have THEMSELVES acknowledged that sjm has insane bias towards feysand and she’ll never make them look bad. literally go through their posts and you’ll find multiple essays saying feyre and rhysand are her favourites and she’ll always make them seem the best!

so having nesta go to another court and realise she loves it more than the night court and finds she’s not miserable and hated by everyone would not be the best look for feysand. and maybe you think that feysand has the right to treat nesta like shit and kick her out of their court but the truth is that sjm would never have them do that because it doesn’t fit in with their perfect saint status. and nesta falling in love with and finding her place and happiness in another court doesn’t fit in with the idea that the night court is the best court ever that sjm has clearly been trying to push for the last three books

do you really think that any other ‘healing arc’ that isn’t changing for and being accepted by the inner circle exists for nesta? if she’s as powerful as rhysand, do you think the inner circle would even let her leave? they lock her in a house and then only let her out when they need her to do things for them that they can’t do themselves. she’s basically retrieved one the most powerful weapons in their world, made them knew weapons with her death powers and then killed briallyn? like she’s single-handedly solved some major issues for them and handed unbeatable weapons to them on a silver platter!

if anyone really believes that sjm could actually write a full book about nesta healing in another court and slowly learning and mastering her powers without shoving rhysand and his majestic beauty down our throats every couple pages then have we read the same series?

i honestly don’t know what to say when stans say ‘well then nesta should leave!’ yes absolutely she should lmao. i don’t know any sane person that could ever be capable of healing around people that despise you and don’t wish you well

i would bet all my money that sjm physically can’t write a book about nesta escaping to another court, falling in love with it and realising that she doesn’t belong or fit in with the night court and that it’s alright to move on from mistakes made in your past and start fresh and anew and find her own place and purpose in the world that is something other than being feyre’s mean older sister

[bookofmirth]

What I find so beautiful is that Lucien first asked Feyre about how Elain is like and then told her that he wanted to see if she's worth fighting for. Not like probably most mated male like Rhys's father who immediatly swooped his mate up and married her like a day later. Then the fact that it was after he got the chance to look into her soul (to find out what is wrong) and Feyre asked, he couldn't finish his sentence and fricking BLUSHED because of whatever he saw in her soul... then right after that he decided that she's worth fighting for. Not after he first met her.. I- oh come on. Then he stayed and still stays respectful and loyal. Litterally giving her all the time and space she wants and needs, even if it all kills him. The mating bond is probably fricking screaming at him and yet he can control himself wayyyyyy better than any other guy (Cassian couldn't stay away from Nesta and literally annoyed the hell out of her 😂). Also let's not forget to mention that while in Azriel's POV he only thought about what Elain's 😼 can do, Lucien kept worrying for her and kept thinking about her health care. I felt pain tho, when he mentioned in his POV that he felt guilty for thinking Elain is the most beautiful women he had ever seen because that was what he said and thought about Jesminda years ago. Lucien is, out of every male in that series, the most respectful one, yet he gets all the sh*t. 😕

Right, Lucien's reaction to the bond is WAY DIFFERENT than other dude's have been. Like yeah Rhys's dad sweeping in to take his mom away was very convenient since she was about to have her wings clipped, but it was also very possessive.

Other dudes: "mate? mine."

Lucien, an intellectual: "but who is she in her soul?"

Yes he thought "mine" in his head but that was the bond, and the whole point is that he is suppressing that instinct in order to see if 1) he likes her, 2) she likes him, and 3) if the wait and the strain of the bond in the meantime is worth it. That's... a good thing. If Lucien didn't care about who Elain is, if he only cared about the mating bond, he would have acted so, so differently. He wouldn't be treading carefully at all. He wouldn't be giving her space. He wouldn't still, two years later, be looking at her with longing. Mr. "I'm a mated male now" would be off having dalliances, not blushing and looking at Elain because he doesn't want Elain to get the wrong idea when Feyre says that Lucien sounds like an acolyte of Vassa's.

I- oh come on.

hahaha this just made me laugh, don't mind me

Lucien is, out of every male in that series, the most respectful one, yet he gets all the sh*t.

He has surpassed Rhys at this point, which isn't hard after acosf, but STILL. He's constantly dealt a shitty hand and still tries to play it the best he can without hurting anyone, with the knowledge and power he has.

[lovinpages]

Something I keep wondering about is how the Inner Circle votes over Nesta. How they analyse and judge her over and over again. And when Nesta finds out, I can’t help but get so angry with all of them. How they hurt her like this, and then just say they’re doing it to protect her. Not even think about her feelings.

Protecting someone doesn’t mean you can judge them as much as you want with an entire group. When the people she loves, make her feel they hate her. They make decisions about her, that will have an enormous impact on her life. She doesn’t even get a say in it. They don’t think about how all this makes her feel. And when she gets so incredibly angry with everyone she thought loved her… she gets abandoned. Yes, she said too much.

And everyone understands Feyre when she’s incredibly angry with Rhys and the rest of their family for not telling her about the danger of the baby being born. She gets her space to be angry. But Nesta? No, they just make all the decisions for her and she doesn’t get a say in it. She doesn’t get the space to be angry. She just has to accept it and deal with it. They don’t think about her feelings and trauma’s. They say she only thinks about her own trauma’s and not theirs. But they all did that themselves too. The only one who really tried, who really understands her is Cassian. And later, Emerie and Gwyn too. But I can’t get over how awful the rest of the Inner Circle treated her. Yes, in the end Nesta needed the training and work in the library that they forced her to do. She needed to be away from the city. But I think they never had the right to make all of the important decisions for her besides that. To analyse her behavior like that. They don’t even try to understand why she is so hurt. And I get why she was hurt. I mean who wouldn’t get hurt when people you love (and you thought loved you too) analyse you and make every decision for you without telling anything about it to you. Until you find out some way.

No, the only thing that was more important was how they felt. And the worst part is that Nesta forgives them without any doubt. She blames herself, not them. But I think they’ve treated her awfully too. Yes, Nesta was awful. But she did apologize to everyone in the end. She forgave them, but they didn’t apologize. They even didn’t accept her apology out loud, but just said some wise words as a reply, nothing else. And Nesta didn’t say a word about how she was treated. She only thought about her own behavior and how bad that was. She only blames herself.

She heals herself in the end. Yes, the Inner Circle made the right decision about making her go train with Cassian and work in the library. But everything else came from herself and the girls she met later. From Cassian. Not from the rest of them. And they still expected her to apologize. But apologize themselves? I wonder if it even crossed their minds as they think they handled everything perfectly… it makes me look at them differently. It makes them look arrogant in some way to me. I believe it’s not fair and I am so happy that she found a true family in Cassian, Gwyn and Emerie. And found a home, not only in the House, or with Cassian, but also in herself.

[yazthebookish]

Tamlin:

[gwyns]

i feel like az’s sensitivity to elucien’s mating bond comes mainly bc he is acutely aware of them. He is paying extra attention to lucien and elain. He resents lucies for being elain’s mate. It makes sense that az’d perceive it more than the other bc he is paying more attention. I do think az has feelings for elain that go beyond lust (him keeping the headache powder by his bed and staring at it), but for me it stems much more from the fact that he desperately wants what his brothers have. He wants Elain to be his mate (and this is my opinion, feel free to disagree) not bc she is Elain, but because she is one of the 3 sisters. He said he’s jealous of what his brothers have. it’s hinted that he feels like he’s entitled to Elain. Az spent 500 pining after someone who repeatedly showed him (in very painful ways) she doesn’t want him for a relationship. He wants to be loved. But he’s a deeply traumatized character (i personally thinks the most traumatized), that had a awful childhood and terrible examples of what a relationship looks like in his formative years. He is scarred and scared to end up alone. The parallel i can make for Az feelings towards Elain is something akin to a “psychological pregnancy”. He wants her to be his mate, so he’ll act like she’s his mate unconsciously. I think he’s not in love with her, i think he’s in love with the idea of having a mate and having the happiness his brothers found. Feel free to disagree i just had to get that out of me chest oof

i actually agree with this wholeheartedly. i think you've hit the nail on the head with the "he's not in love with elain, he's in love with the idea of a mate" bc that's how i've felt since i took the time to reflect and think on his chapter.

it's so clear (to me anyway) that his chapter is to showcase how desperate he is for any love. he sees his brothers happy with elain's sisters so of course that must be it! he will find happiness with an archeron, it's worked two times before so why not now? and he sees lucien as an obvious obstacle to him finding happiness so he wants to eliminate him without even taking into consideration what a dead mate would do to elain. we all saw how feyre reacted to rhys' death and even if elain isn't currently in love with lucien it would still hurt her.

despite what some people may think az isn't over mor, he may have started to try and move on but acosf showed us she's still a touchy subject for him. he's avoiding her and avoids discussing his feelings for her, that's a red flag. that's not someone who has moved on. i'm sorry but he's been pining over her for 500 years, he's not going to just get over her in a matter of months, especially with no type of closure.

and how he refers to elain in his chapter? he puts her on a pedestal and talks about not wanting to "taint" her. this isn't some flowery use of words to describe love, it's him doing the exact same thing he did with mor. he's building elain up to be this perfect person that he is not worthy of and it's not healthy in the slightest.

as an example, cassian likes to "overdo" it when describing things about nesta. like how he said eating nesta out was a religious experience. but the difference here is that he knows nesta isn't perfect and he loves all of her qualities, good and bad, he sees them, he acknowledges them. azriel doesn't. azriel hasn't seen all of elain and she in turn, hasn't seen all of his sides. they can't love each other as it stands rn bc they don't know each other. they've had over two years to do that, why haven't they? why do they keep putting on these fronts around each other?

i think you're right with saying azriel is probably the most traumatized. he's so traumatized he doesn't even know what love is. he craves it, he yearns for it, but he doesn't know what it is.

i feel like i'm just rambling at this point so i should stop, but overall i agree with everything you said anon! whenever we get azriel's book it's definitely going to be interesting.

[starofvelaris]

A COURT OF SILVER FLAMES | Nesta and Cassian

Based on the characters and story by Sarah J. Maas.

Please do not repost without credit/permission.

Follow my art Instagram g.luna.art for more

[accidental-rambler]

A Court of Silver Flames ♛ favourite quotes (1/?)

[nesta-archxron]

[aquariaheir]

Look at this gorgeous Nessian art by Po Jainter.

ACOSF has truly destroyed me. I didn’t realized how much I miss this characters ❤️

[sallteas]

In the library… ♥

(Not an ACOSF spoiler! Also please don’t spoil anything for me either! I’ve been working on this with @/acobaf (IG) for a month prior to release! Thought it’d be a nice successor to my other Nessian piece!)

[propshophannah]

And then I fainted.

[vmiae-deactivated20240428]

Before I go to bed, another WIP of Gwynriel 🧡✨🖤

[helion-ism]

watch nesta be this is me trying by taylor swift in acosf ......... they told me all of my cages were mental so I got wasted like all my potential ....... and my words shoot to kill when I‘m mad, I have a lot of regrets about that ....... and it‘s hard to be at a party when I feel like an open wound, it‘s hard to be anywhere these days when all I want is you ......... oh god

[helion-ism]

WELL.

[art-by-artemis]

“Nesta in Night Court black threatened to bring him to his knees”

[fhsfjdkfgkkdkgg-deactivated2020]

@faenet event: colour palettes

How they shuddered in fear, on that island across the sea. How they trembled when she emerged. She took something - something precious. She ripped it out with her teeth. 

[fire-breathing-faerie-queen]

“The king I wish to be is the opposite of what you are.” He gave Maeve a smile. “And there is only one witch who will be my queen.”

- Kingdom of Ash, page 660