so, basically, this reddit response took an annoying amount of time so i am also posting it here
because, ya know, i am feelin' moody and controversial today i suppose (and because reddit deleted all my fkn italics and bold font sections and that kills me). and i'm drunk lol
listen, i don't hate the books. i don't like feyre's character and what she turns into. there are plenty of elements in the books i love otherwise i wouldn't be in the fandom. i just have issues with the inner circle's superiority complex. which would be fine, all of the high fae in different courts likely think they are superior to each other, except the inner circle try to pass themselves off as morally superior as well and like they aren't like the rest of them
okay, so since i'm a lucien stan and already have these bits screenshotted, i am only going to cover examples of how she, and how she lets her friends, treat lucien (though how the whole high lord meeting was handled and her inner dialogue during that whole scene is also a good example of how the inner circle basically seem to think they do and should run all of prythian)
anyway, this is going to be long as fuck. but i am obnoxious soooo
"I'd never realized that while Lucien had been trained as a warrior, Caspian, Azriel, and Mor could wipe Lucien off the face of the earth in a single blow."
"Mor swept her attention over Lucien once more. I almost pitied Lucien for the weight of her gaze"
"Cassian took up a place against the banister, crossing his arms with an arrogance I knew meant trouble. Azriel remained beside me, shadows wreathed at his knuckles. As if battling High Lords' sons was how they usually spent their days.
I wondered if Lucien knew that his first words here would either damn or save him."
"Unsurprisingly, Cassian and Azriel were casually seated in the dining room across the hall, eating lunch and marking every single breath Lucien emitted. Cassian smirked at me, brows flicking up."
in case she didn't make it clear, guys - her friends are SUPER big bad and scary and lucien should be VERY intimidated. as if he hasn't lived his entire life being intimidated. even after he left tamlin and went to the night court where apparently the inner circle members are SUPPOSED to behave much better than how tamlin behaves
oh, and apparently it's perfectly acceptable for them to mock him and find amusement in their belittling and intimidation the whole time
"My mate leaned against the carved archway and drawled to Lucien, 'I assume Cassian or Azriel has explained that if you threaten anyone in this house, this territory, we'll show you ways to die you've never even imagined.' Indeed, the Illyrians smirked from where they lingered in the dining room threshold. Azriel was by far the more terrifying of the pair."
this one is just so interesting because the last real exchange lucien had with rhysand went like this -
"'You draw blood from me, Lucien, and you’ll learn how quickly Amarantha’s whore can make the entire Autumn Court bleed. Especially its darling Lady.'
'Oh? Here I was, thinking you still mourned your commoner lover after all these centuries,” Rhysand said, stalking toward me.
'I knew you liked to stoop low with your lovers, Lucien, but I never thought you’d actually dabble with mortal trash.” My face burned. Lucien was trembling—with rage or fear or sorrow, I couldn’t tell. 'The Lady of the Autumn Court will be grieved indeed when she hears of her youngest son. If I were you, I’d keep your new pet well away from your father.'
Lucien’s face was dark, but he lowered himself to his knees, then touched his head to the ground."
sure, rhysand was "pLaYiNg hIs pArT". doesn't make his words any less impactful or change the fact that that was the last true exchange lucien had with rhysand
"Rhys bared his teeth. My limbs turned light, trembling at the dark power curling in the corners of the room. Not fear - never fear of him. But at the shattered control as Rhys snarled at Lucien, 'My mate may one day find it in her to forgive him. Forgive you. But I will never forget how it felt to sense her terror in those moments.' My cheeks heated, especially as Cassian and Azriel stalked closer, those hazel eyes now filled with a mix of sympathy and wrath.
Lucien, to his credit, didn't back away a step. From Rhys, from me, or the Illyrians.
The Clever Fox Stares Down Winged Death. The painting flashed into my mind."
lol, yes, lucien deserves to be threatened and intimidated yet again for tamlin's actions. and again. they're all big bad and scary and wayyyy more powerful than lucien so of course feyre is just SO impressed he wasn't super duper scared of them and shaking in his boots
and hmm - i wonder if this is similar to the kind of terror rhysand felt from her during this other scene with him that also took place in the manor (while lucien was present and standing in front of her and DEFENDING her, despite who the threat was)
"Those invisible claws lazily caressed my mind again - then vanished. I sank to the floor, curling over my knees as I reeled in everything that I was, as I tried to keep from sobbing, from screaming, from emptying my stomach onto the floor.
'Amarantha will enjoy breaking her,' Rhysand observed to Tamlin. 'Almost as much as she'll enjoy watching you as she shatters her bit by bit.'"
but it's okay, i guess, because he was playing a part or whatever. but lucien is unforgivable for pleading with feyre to just wait while he kept trying with tamlin right before she got stuck in the manor while they left to prepare for war
"I fought a cringe as I halted in the threshold. Lucien was still in his travel-worn, filthy clothes. His face and hands, at least, were clean, but... I should have gotten him something else. Remembered to offer him -
The thought rippled away into nothing as Rhys appeared at my side."
feyre really had to fuck her boyfriend before at least getting lucien some clothes after he helped her on the journey back. classy. at least she KINDA felt bad for half of a second. what a saint
"'What about Tamlin? Did you plan to disembowel him before you left and simply not get the chance?'
I ripped the loose thread right out of the bedroll. 'I debated it.'
'But I think letting his court collapse around him was a better punishment.'"
personally this quote is fucking chilling and disgusting to me. again - a court full of innocents being destroyed and made completely vulnerable before a huge war was justified because, you know, fuck tamlin - now everyone has to pay. even worse was that she enjoyed it in the meantime. THEN had the nerve to feel SLIGHTLY guilty about it
“At least you have armies to give it to,” Tamlin said mildly, breaking his roiling silence. A smile at me. “Though perhaps that was part of the plan. Disable my force while your own swept in. Or was it just to see my people suffer?”
"Surely you knew that when you turned my forces on me, it would leave my people defenseless against Hybern.”
I said nothing. Even as I blocked the images from my mind.
“You primed my court to fall,” Tamlin said with venomous quiet. “And it did. Those villages you wanted so badly to help rebuild? They’re nothing more than cinders now.”
“And while you’ve been making antidotes and casting yourselves as saviors, I’ve been piecing together my forces—regaining their trust, their numbers. Trying to gather my people in the East—where Hybern has not yet marched.”
"And some small, horrible part of me enjoyed the thought of taking one more thing away from Tamlin, something vital, something essential."
good to know why she is really considering being oh so merciful and ALLOWING lucien to stay in her court. also glad to know she really hates the innocents in spring that much to also want to take one of the most competent and vital members in keeping spring together away as well (also. no one is saying tamlin isn't also at fault for his court falling apart, so chill out, friends)
"'I know a place,' Lucien said, walking toward the cave that would take us to his home.
To the lands of the family who'd betrayed him as badly as this court had betrayed mine."
literally claiming what happened to her in spring - the court she took pleasure in destroying and leaving completely vulnerable for the war despite it being full of innocents - had hurt her AS BADLY as lucien's court where he had been viciously abused his entire upbringing and had the love of his life murdered in front of him by his family. right
"And as for Lucien... It wouldn't hurt, I told myself, to keep tabs on where he was. How that conversation with Azriel had gone yesterday. Make sure he remembered the rules we'd set."
oh she DEFINITELY kept tabs on him. especially when she invaded his mind and spied on his personal thoughts 🤗
oh! and remember when feyre used lucien (who was very afraid of tamlin at this point) to make tamlin jealous. i will add a bit here but then i will link to the REALLY disgusting scene where she used his empathy towards her through their shared ptsd from under the mountain to make him hold her while she pretended to cry while in lingerie in his room so tamlin would catch them
"I gave Lucien a subtle, pleading look, and he barely hid his smirk as he sauntered over to me.
Our dispersing party watched as he braced my waist in his broad hands and easily heated me off the horse, none more closely than Ianthe.
I only patted Lucien on the shoulder in thanks. Ever the courtier, he bowed back.
It was hard, sometimes, to remember to hate him. To remember the game I was playing."
https://asilentfrenzy.tumblr.com/post/633263002394722304/remember-when
(link above is the screenshots of one of the most disgusting scenes with feyre)
"I was running out of borrowed time. I could winnow, but then I'd abandon Lucien to them if he somehow couldn't manage to himself with the faebane in his system from the food at the camp
Leave him. I should and could leave him.
But to a fate perhaps worse than death -
His russet eye gleamed. 'Go'."
hmm. yeah. nice of her to consider leaving him like that after she used him so much that even if he did escape them - he would be absolutely fucked just on the fact alone of tamlin thinking they were together. how selfless of her to decide against it after lucien told her it was okay to leave him
and let's not forget how she decides it's HER right to decide if lucien knows whether or not his father is who he is after a life of suffering at the hands of his false father. and then there's the fact that he is the sole heir to the day court. but i guess they should get to decide who is in power and who isn't. because they believe they should be the true dictators of all of prythian because, ya know, moral superiority and whatever
"Fire. His mother’s gift.
Yes, it was Beron’s gift. The gift of the father who the world believed had sired him. But not the gift of Helion. His true father.
I still hadn’t mentioned it. To anyone other than Rhys.
Now wasn’t the time for that, either."
annnnd we will end with how she treated him in acofas, though there are PLENTY of more examples not listed bc this is already long af
"Lucien got to his feet. 'I don’t need your charity.'
I rose as well. 'But Jurian and Vassa’s is fine?'
'You’d be surprised to see how the three of us get along.'
Friends, I realized. They had somehow become his friends. 'So you’d rather stay with them?'
'I’m not staying with them. The manor is ours.'
His golden eye whirred. 'What is.'
Not feeling very festive at all, I said sharply, 'That you now feel more comfortable with humans than with the High Fae. If you ask me—'
'It seems like you’ve decided to fall in with two people without homes of their own as well.'
Lucien stared at me, long and hard. When he spoke, his voice was rough. 'Happy Solstice to you, Feyre.'
He turned toward the foyer, but I grabbed his arm to halt him. The corded muscle of his forearm shifted beneath the fine silk of his sapphire jacket, but he made no move to shake me off. 'I didn’t mean that,' I said. 'You have a home here. If you want it.'
Lucien studied the sitting room, the foyer beyond and dining room on its other side. 'The Band of Exiles.'
'That’s what we call ourselves. The Band of Exiles.'
'You have a name for yourselves.' I fought my incredulous tone.
'Jurian isn’t an exile,' I said. Vassa, yes. Lucien, two times over now.
'Jurian’s kingdom is nothing but dust and half-forgotten memory, his people long scattered and absorbed into other territories. He can call himself whatever he likes.'
Yes, after the battle with Hybern, after Jurian’s aid, I supposed he could.
But I asked, 'And what, exactly, does this Band of Exiles plan to do? Host events? Organize party-planning committees?'
Lucien’s metal eye clicked faintly and narrowed. 'You can be as much of an asshole as that mate of yours, you know that?'"
(because apparently "the court of dreams" and "the court of nightmares" aren't also cheesy nicknames, but it's cool. make fun of his)
annnnd that's the conclusion of my novel long rant 🤗🤗 excuse the fact that there are probably a thousand typos and errors
titsay
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