I wrote this in a comment originally, but you know what I’ll do a reblog.
Mind you, I still very much like all the characters and ships, I am *not* saying this for shipping reasons.
The issue here isn’t about what Azriel’s taste in music is in canon, or what Lucien’s might be (we don’t know cause we’ve never gotten his opinion on that front written into the books, so anything like that would be headcanons). The issue is the use of the word “culture,” which is not a neutral term when being applied to POC.
Yes, Lucien and Azriel are PoC in *our* world, but as far as the ACOTAR world they have highly different associations.
Lucien still is perceived as high fae, and a high fae who has largely interacted with / has been influenced thus far by courts that are more aligned with white western culture (Spring & Autumn, and I’m not including Day in this explanation because even though he has lineage there, he has not been *influenced* by the court). To clarify: I am not calling Lucien white, I’m saying he is influenced by the cultures of courts which SJM has chosen to position closer to white-western cultures. An apt comparison is like someone in the diaspora who grew up in a western country compared to someone back home: while there is still an element of race involved in their interactions, the person from the diaspora is usually seen by white-presenting people as more “acceptable” by western culture compared to the person brought up back home since their presentation is more conformist to western culture.
Azriel, is lesser fae, Illyrian. The word “lesser” in and of itself already has a negative connotation, but add do that the fact that Feyre has called Illyrians “barbaric” while also shifting into their wings, the fact that Illyrians are shown to be living in tents as highly militarized, misogynistic society…I blame SJM’s own biases towards POC for how Illyria is written, but it does not change the fact that this presentation of culture is aligned with the western view of POC cultures, and how white people have chosen to view and represent POC through words for decades. (If anyone’s read Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the way SJM writes Illyrians is not dissimilar from the way Conrad wrote the Congolese people, and his words back then has shaped the way white people talk about POC, the same way SJM’s writing has shaped the way romantasy authors believe its acceptable to write POC.)
Saying “Azriel is less cultured” or would “prefer the music of the pleasure halls,” despite the fact that he is a singer and has been shown to have interest in music whereas Lucien has not been shown that only serves to reinforce in fandom the negative associations and portrayals of POC in canon through micro-aggressive language, rather than question those associations established and further implied by the author’s problematic writing.
By the way, yes I am aware that Azriel listened to Bryce’s music that is nothing like a symphony in CC3, but that does not mean he is less likely to enjoy symphonic music compared to Lucien, who has not been shown to take an interest in music. There’s tons of classics musicians who listen to rock and pop and club music, and that doesn’t make them less “cultured” for enjoying one over the both or enjoying both.
The issue with that post was not the Elucien headcanon, I even kk d of understand where OP might have been coming from. The issue lies in the combination of bringing in Azriel + using the word “culture” in a way that reaffirms the implication of those more aligned with POV culture to be “lesser” or incapable of appreciating said “culture(s)”.
If we’re holding other people accountable for micro-aggressive and actively-aggressive rhetoric, we need to be able to hold that standard for ourselves too when we slip up, rather than acting like it’s “not a big deal.” It’s not even just about characters, you share the space with POC and a lot of us have heard those words applied in similar contexts, and what you might not perceive as harmful is actually pretty damn demeaning to us.
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