[ladycriersb1tch-deactivated2021]

Ambiguous Representation

It has come to my attention that people have been debating on SJM and anti-SJM Tumblr whether the Illyrians, especially the bat boys, are people of colour or not. 

I did some digging, and I found this on SJM’s Pinterest:

Rhysand, Cassian and Azriel are white. Just because SJM claims that she has characters of colour doesn’t mean it’s true, especially when her representation is incredibly ambiguous.

[spiderlingsblog]

Is anyone else a little bit angry at Mor for not having told Azriel- she didn’t have to tell anyone else just Azriel and of course he would have kept her secret. 

It’s just that he’s loved her and had hope for 500 years - all that time waiting for a girl that he will never have. 

If she told him all those years ago he could have recovered, looked elsewhere, perhaps have found some one and have healed by now. 

It’s just - 500 years. That’s a damn long time to string someone along for.

I understand completely that it would have been hard and her reasons for not but… she says she loves him, and yet, can she not see how devastating this will be?

I’m just a bit angry because Azriel deserves to be loved, to feel loved and be happy with someone. And I feel like Mor is preventing that until she tells him. I know it’s hard for her but if she truly loves him and wants what’s best for him then she can do this one thing for him- to free his heart for another to fill. 

500 Years. 

[yrningdohwa]

How could anyone disagree with this? I 100% agree

[mor-is-a-lesbian-icon]

I’m going to break down why this post makes me physically shake with anger in a calm and controlled manner.

Let’s take a look at your first paragraph. In this paragraph you say that you are angry at Mor for not telling Azriel she isn’t interested in him. You say that she ‘didn’t have to tell anyone else’ and that ‘he would have kept her secret’. However you’re forgetting that lesbians are not obligated to come out to people. That coming out is fucking terrifying, I, a lesbian, can testify. Mor doesn’t know that Azriel will still accept her, that he won’t tell anyone. You could argue that Azriel loves her and would obviously accept her, but she’s not certain. And even if she was it doesn’t make it any less terrifying. When I came out to my parents, I was terrified. Even though they the epitome of the white British liberal elite and would love me no matter what. I lived in the closet for years despite this because I was still terrified they wouldn’t accept me, to the point that I planned where I would go if they kicked me out. My point is that you should never be angry at someone for not coming out, especially not at a woman that lives in a deeply homophobic society like Mor.

So lets look at the second paragraph. In this paragraph you talk about Azriel’s pain that loving Mor brings him. What you are describing is here is how Azriel is in the friend zone. So instead of going into a long spiel about everything wrong with the friend zone I am going to recommend googling the search term ‘everything wrong with the friend zone’.

In your third paragraph you said that if Mor ‘told him all those years ago’ he could have ‘healed’. Again you are forgetting something here. You are forgetting that Mor is under no obligation to come out to people. You are also forgetting that most people are perfectly capable of moving on from someone without being explicitly told that their feelings are not returned. That Azriel, a spymaster, someone who should be good at figuring people out should be able to tell that she’s not interested in him.

Your fourth paragraph is the one that actually inspired me to write this post. In this paragraph you say that Mor has strung Azriel along for 500 years. This made me so angry because nowhere does it say, in the books, that Mor has led Azriel along. In fact it says that Mor would actually sleep with other men in order to scare Azriel off. So what this means is that some part of you believes that by not saying no to Azriel she is saying yes. That by simply existing and befriending him she is saying she’s still interested. This is so misogynistic on so many levels. Look I know that SJM obviously completely retconned Mor’s sexuality because she was critisized for lack of diversity. I know that Moriel was supposed to be endgame. But even in Acomaf she never leads him on.

In the fifth paragraph you prioritise Azriel’s feelings over Mor’s. This is both homophobic and misogynistic. Why? Because you imply that a man’s pain over loving a woman who doesn’t love him is more important than a sapphic woman’s fear of coming out.

Finally you argue that Azriel deserves happiness which he cannot have because Mor hasn’t told him she doesn’t love him. This is ridiculous not just for the reasons I have already listed but also because what you are essentially asking Mor to do is give up her safety and security that comes with her being in the closet so her friend that has lusted after her for 500 years can move on, something he can do anyway. Again you are prioritising straight men over sapphic women.

Look, I don’t presume to know your life, your sexuality, or your struggles, so I don’t know if this comes from a place of privalage or not. I am not calling you homophobic or misogynistic. But what I am saying is that this particular post is deeply homophobic and sexist, and I can only hope that instead of dismissing me as some hater trying to attack your queen, you instead see that this post made me literally shake and brought me to the verge of tears. That this post brought up memories of the fear I get when around people I haven’t come out to, the fear that they will somehow know and reject me or worse hurt me. I am begging you to take another look at this post and think of the implications and messages that this post sends.

[cinaja]

So, in summary.

Cassian, Fae general of the Night Court with centuries of battle experience and enough killing power that he needs 7 Siphons to control it, goes to meet Nesta, a young human woman he met once before, who has every reasln to fear Fae and who, as he himself states, would never stand a chance against someone like him. He purposefully invades her personal space, either to annoy or to intimidate her and asks her extremely personal questions even though he barely knows her. In the process, he finds out that she was once sexually assaulted. Upon that, he does not step back to allow her space (even though he can smell her terror). He instead reacts by first getting angry, then takes her by the hands without making sure that this is okay for her first. Then he kisses her without her consent. Keeps flirting even though she is making it clear that he doesn't want it. When she knees him in the balls, he grips her knee so hard it hurts. All within minutes of finding out that she was once sexually assaulted. And people call it sexual tension???

[salteacrackers]

Dorian Havilliard is not just some pretty boy.

He’s the King of Adarlan.

He can handle himself in a sword fight.

Sure, he doesn’t gut people for a living, but A//elin has no right to treat him like an inadequate child.

Honestly, he should just dump her sorry ass.

[inthemidstofbuddie]

I honestly think the reason sjmess chose to do this is because of her fundamental misunderstanding of feminism. Feminism does not mean putting down men in favor of women, it means equality. However, sjmess prescribes to the negative side of feminism that gives it a bad rep, and she only continues to perpetuate the problem with situations like this.

Instead of writing a world in which women aren’t “lesser”, she fights back with having her horrible colonialist throw that typical “women don’t belong in war” back on one of the few characters in her book worth love and respect.

It’s exhausting.

[femtopulsed]

Poison in t/og

So in the poison challenge in t/og, I realised two of the poisons mentioned where bloodbane and monkshood.

One big problem: they’re the same plant

The active ingredient in both is aconitine, my personal favourite poison. It’s an incredibly lethal and efficient neurotoxin which is soluble in oil and fat, and has no odor nor colour. 

However, in the poison challenge it is also described as tasteless. It’s not, as aconitine itself tastes incredibly spicy (there has been a case where a chemist identified aconitine solely by its taste). It also has no cure to do this day.

The lethal dosage of aconitine is 1/60th of a grain, which is a measurement used by toxicologist which equates to about 63 mg (for imperial system users, this is 3.7 times 10 to the power of minus 5 ounces). Chances are that there’s more than this amount in the wine the contestants drank, which would lead to death in somewhere between a minute and 24 hours depending on how much there is.

Celery also identifies monkshood by dipping her finger in the wine, and looking at the purple colour on her finger. I’ve said earlier that the poison is colourless, and it is also soluble in fat and oil, meaning she would have been introduced to the poison. There have been cases of gardeners dying from brushed their hands against monkshood flowers.

In her fight against cane, Celery’s symptoms are completely unrelated to aconitine. Aconitines symptoms are quite characteristic and also incredibly painful, Celery wouldn’t be able to stand, let alone fight. 

Her symptoms are: nausea, a spinning head, hallucinations and disorientation. These can be effects of aconitine poisoning, but there are a few obvious ones missing. 

The first is excruciating pain. No matter if the dose is lethal or not, Celery should be on the floor. Aconitine causes a feeling of intense swelling and pain in the throat and mouth (although neither actually swell up). 

Secondly, loss of strength. Celery is still strong enough to stand up and fight against Cane, which would not happen. Seizures are also a relatively common effect of aconitine poisoning, but may not happen (aconitine has a lot of symptoms and some of them may not happen to an individual).

Loss of strength is combined with a shortness of breath and tachycardia (rapid heart rate). Celery describes a slower heart rate than usual, which is completely wrong in every respect. But then we all know how much research s/jm does.

There’s some more mental effects as well. Victims of aconitine state that they felt “the oncoming of death”, no matter if the dose was lethal or not. This is probably due to the brain recognising its symptoms as lethal.

tl:dr Sarah Janet didn’t realise two poisons where actually the same poison and she failed to represent the symptoms of a poison on epic proportions

[problematicauthors101]

Author: SARAH J. MAAS

Sarah J. Maas is the author of Throne of Glass series, published by Bloomsbury USA Children’s.

Racist series (both Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses)

White fantasy worlds (Having different races as in dragons, faes, and whatever doesn’t mean it is diverse).

Disrespectful towards bisexual people and sex workers

Romanticizes abusive relationships + includes abusive male characters. Rowan hitting the MC as an example. 

White savior trope (no, it’s not feminist because a white girl saves the world)

The only POC in the series die to make the white girl achieve her goal and make her think and it’s just to develop and make the white girl be “better”

Deleted a main character, who is disabled. There is not one POV/chapter in the latest book from this character. 

When they did the Barnes & Noble Q&A that one time, when readers asked, respectfully, really wanting to know why SJM did all this stuff in her books, they blocked all of them without any response. They don’t care about readers.

[anti-sjmessy]

nobody:

not a single fucking soul on this planet:

male authors and sarah j. maas:

Leaves and runs away

[salteacrackers]

sjmess stans love to say that she has representation in her books because “Rhys is tan” but then repost fan art where he looks like a cracker

[wxste-lxnds]

Can we talk about ACOWAR and the library scene?

I’m up to this part of my reread in ACOWAR. When I first read this at, like, 14, I kinda glossed over it and moved on. I wasn’t interested in reading all the smut.

But now I’m older and have a different, more educated perspective on things and I have to say. I’m fucken disgusted.

Rhy/s and Fey/re go into the library and meet a Priestess who was gang r*pe at some point. She’s got ruined hands and no tongue as a result of this gangr*pe.

“A long time ago, Clotho was hurt very badly by a group of males,” Rhys said quietly. I didn’t need details to know what that had entailed. The edge in Rhys’s voice implied enough. “They cut out her tongue so she couldn’t tell anyone who had hurt her. And smashed her hands so she couldn’t write it.” (Maas, acowar).

“I made this library into a refuge for them. Some come to heal, work as acolytes, and then leave; some take the oaths to the Cauldron and Mother to become priestesses and remain here forever.” (Maas, acowar)

Rh/ys claims the library is a refuge for women who’ve experienced sexual violence/assault. Which, could’ve been a really nice thing. If this didn’t happen a few pages later:

““My blood heated a bit. “Hmmm,” was all I said, pulling a book toward me.

“I’ll take that hmmm as a challenge.” His hand slid down my thigh, then cupped my knee, his thumb brushing along its side. Even through my leathers, the heat of him seeped to my very bones. “Maybe I’ll haul you between the stacks and see how quiet you can be.”

“Hmmm.” I flipped through the pages, not seeing any of the text.

His hand began a lethal, taunting exploration up my thigh, his fingers grazing along the sensitive inside. Higher, higher. He leaned in to drag a book toward himself, but whispered in my ear, “Or maybe I’ll spread you out on this desk and lick you until you scream loud enough to wake whatever is at the bottom of the library.”

We go from discussing a very violent sexual assault, to Rhys trying to bone Feyre on the table, only in a few paragraphs. You cannot claim Sarah Janet is a feminist and promotes healthy sexual relationships when this is what she’s feeding to young and impressionable teenagers. If you can’t see something wrong with this entire chapter, you are the problem.

[ink-and-thunderstorms]

This is also a good (albeit disgusting) example of a lack of privacy courtesy of the inner circle. R/hys telling F/eyre A/zriels backstory for example (possibly Mor’s too I can’t remember for sure) and the invasion of others minds.. and once again here as he tells F/eyre the exact details of this woman’s trauma without permission that we know of, all to add to the false “rhYs MalE Is SuCh a FeMiniSt” narrative

[bumfuzzlingqueer]

I can’t imagine having a library for assault survivors and going “ah yes, this is the perfect place to have sex”

[ink-and-thunderstorms]

[alennamartin]

Just gonna leave this thread in here. I feel like she said something that I tried to say but didn't know how to express it.

[bittenwraths]

I’m just going to say it and people may get mad but nothing about his abuse narrative rang true. He didn’t have to learn to regain control of his body, nor was his abuse really addressed, all of it kind of felt like it was added so the audience would feel bad for him. Compare that to the way it was handled in Phoenix Unbound. It actually impacted the character.

In short it just feels to me like a lazy addition and a cheap way to justify his actions so we go “ooooh poor smol bby.”

[soorajaki-deactivated20210719]

you’re absolutely right and you should say it. the “he was a ghost” shite never made sense to me because he never was. he was shown to be the exact same, from start to finish. he didn’t improve, didn’t get the therapy or help an abuse victim would want/need, iirc? he didn’t need to improve apparently because he’s the great rhysand. actually . . . his abuse was only brought up to strengthen his relationship with feyre or for people to, as you said, feel bad for him. 

i think two very very big examples of the lack of care sjm put into his abuse narrative was the fact that he was all good and perfectly ready to: 1. jump into a relationship immediately after UtM and make it very sexual 2. have The Do in the same position he was abused in.. that’s what i remember from acomaf. now correct me if i’m wrong, but wouldn’t that,,,,,,trigger him?

[lilytriestoexist]

1. isn't the first photo nina from s0c??

2. why is she white/pale-skinned. 'golden-tan.' cmon stans, don't whitewash one of the only poc characters with a hint of relevance to the story.

[alectology-archive]

Also note how she's described as "pretty, but not stunningly beautiful". The only other woman who's described as not being blessed with beautiful features is Hasar; funny that they're both women of colour 😒

[lilytriestoexist]

sarah janet about white women: she was AS STUNNING AS THE STARS, she was BREATH-TAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL, she was A GODDESS WALKING ON EARTH, she was MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN ANY OTHER WOMAN

sarah janet about poc women: she was,,,, pretty??? but plain. also golden.

[alectology-archive]

Writing white women: She had CERULEAN ORBS ringed with the GOLDIEST GOLD and lips as plump and crimson as a RED ROSE. Her ALABASTER SKIN gleamed as BRIGHT AS THE MOON and men would have waged wars over her exqusite GOLD-RED hair. This beauty was a CURSE but also a WEAPON.

Writing women of colour: she had hazel eyes, wide hips and curves in all the right places. Women of colour have always been sexualised, but I guess I'll ignore that.

[alectology-archive]

“For him, that’s what battle is. A Symphony.”

- C/assian, A/cowar

Sarah Janet stop romanticising battle and violent men challenge

[lilytriestoexist]

he was a symphony 🤩✨🦋💫🧚‍♀️ but i didn’t listen 🌸🌈🧚‍♂️👑✨

[something-called-sno]

TODAY I learned:

That the art in the Special Editions of ACOTAR and TOG (that show up at the end of the book), that the artists didn’t get any payments for it.

AND ONTOP OF THAT, the artist pays royalties to SJM and Bloomsburg to sell artwork, but as soon as she puts out a collaboration coloring book, she gets a cease and desist letter from Bloomsburg and SJM. Apparently that’s not included in royalties

Lets be honest- THE ARTISTS OF THE FANDOM SINGLE HANDLEDLY MARKETED HER BOOKS. AND THEY GET SLAPPED IN THE FACE.

I mean, I noped out of the fandom a while back because of some bad tasting stuff and how a SJM just treats her fans and leeches off them.

If you want to read more, go look up @/po_jainter on instagram.

[lilytriestoexist]

aeIin gaIathynius, queen of terra/sen colonialism

i'm sure countless other (and far superior) antis have already dissected this disgusting section but i'm tired and full of rage so let's get started.

[all the excerpts are italicised and taken from Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Ma/as, pages 1083-1085 (at least, in my ebook)]

“You could, you know,” R0wan said, his tattoo stark in the lantern light. “Take it [the world] for yourself. Take it all. Use Maeve’s bullshit maneuvers against her. Make good on that promise.”

hmm just because you can doesn't mean you should! though i suppose i can cut him a tiny amount of slack as he's been in doraneIIe/in maeve's service his whole life and doesn't really understand the consequences of colonialism, which the people of eriIea were well acquainted with due to adarIan's imperialism. still though, not off to a great start from r0wan.

“There was no judgment. Only frank calculation and contemplation. “And would you join me if I did? If I turned conqueror?”

“You would unify, not pillage and burn. And yes—to whatever end.”

that...is such an idealised take on colonialism. i get that he hasn't experienced it first-hand and probably doesn't understand the ramifications of greedy imperialist nations trying to 'unify' countries that never asked to be unified and don't want to be unified, but come on. does r0wan/sarah think the other eriIean nations would bow down and kiss aeIin's feet if she strutted up to them and demanded they join her empire? that's not realistic at all. these are independent nations with divergent cultures; they wouldn't just throw their lot in with terra/sen. there'd be fighting and conflict, and since aeIin's still got some of her fire gift, there'd be burning. though sarah probably would like to think that aeIin's just that good of a queen they'd be eager to be vassalised.

also, 'to whatever end', especially in this content, bothers me a lot. i know it's meant to be romantic and a declaration of love and devotion, but you shouldn't just follow and agree with your significant other blindly? if they mess up or say something harmful you should call them out on their mistakes. it's how people grow. validating their bad behaviour no matter what out of so-called love isn't emblematic of a healthy supportive relationship! if your partner suggests colonising other nations please don't go along with it!

He nodded. “But if you could … would you?”

For a heartbeat, she could see it—see her face, carved into statues in kingdoms so far away they did not even know Terrasen existed. A living god—Mala’s heir and conqueror of the known world. She would bring music and books and culture, wipe out the corruption festering in corners of the earth …

not only is this gross, this is also wildly inconsistent with the trauma she's faced in the past. first of all, this is such blatant idealisation and glorification of colonialism that i want to throw my phone at the wall. the fact that aeIin is even entertaining this idea, even justifying it in her head, is disgusting. music and books and culture? bitch, they already have their own music and books and culture. they're civilised nations, not poor barbaric cave dwellers just begging for their white saviour to come and show them the light. this is exactly the kind of mindset that led to western imperialism - white people thinking that other countries need to be westernised in order to be successful and civilised, as if they didn't already have rich, ancient culture and history that was ignored in favour of spreading western ideals and western power.

and more than that, as i saw another anti elaborate wonderfully on (i can't recall the @ but it was very great and articulate), aeIin was herself a victim of adarIan's imperialism. the king of adarIan wiped out terra/sen's royal family apart from her and basically took control of the country, bringing it into his adarIanian empire. all the trauma in her life happened as a result of adarIan's imperialism and empire-building. so why is she entertaining the idea of becoming a conqueror herself? it doesn't make sense and it doesn't add up with what's happened in her past. i am an avid disliker of aeIin but if her characterisation was consistent she would abhor colonialism (she's arrogant and powerful but with everything she's suffered leading back to colonialism it's not right for her to buy into it).

She said softly, “Not now.”

“But later?”

“Perhaps if being queen bores me … I’ll think about making myself empress. To give my offspring not one kingdom to inherit, but as many as the stars.”

what's with this goddamn romanticism of colonialism?? 'as many [kingdoms] as the stars' FUCK. OFF. @ sarah don't use pretty flowery prose to try and paint colonialism as some sort of gift for rowaeIin's future super special progeny. the word choice is deliberating pushing a pro-imperialism narrative and it's so utterly disgusting. conquering other countries isn't cute!! building an empire for no reason other than your own greed is not cute!!!

There was no harm in saying it, anyway. In thinking about it, stupid and useless as it was. Even if wondering about the possibilities … perhaps it made her no better than Maeve or Erawan.

at least she fucking admits it lol.

also, i'm editing this to add that this scene could've been a great scene to highlight greed and arrogance as aeIin's flaws. this discussion of colonialism could've been used to characterise and develop aeIin. but it's a shit scene because sarah can't stand her precious aeIin having flaws so she, through r0wan, validates and justifies the idea of empress aeIin instead of calling out imperialism and allowing her protagonist to have meaningful flaws. also, this is the woman we're expected to root for to become queen of terra/sen. and at the end of the series she does become queen. my thoughts would be different if t0g had subverted the lost heir trope and ended with aeIin recognising she isn't prepared to be queen and giving up her claim to the throne, but it didn't, and so this scene isn't a character building, ending hinting scene, but instead a useless at best, grossly pro-imperialism at worst scene.

[sunshinetotheside]

Sigghhh.Everyone,from alien to nehemia,is described as golden.Throne of glass. lmaaaoo.more like Throne of oscar awards.

[alicentsgreens-deactivated20240]

Random thought incoming but I just realized that in the rare instances that sj///m deigns to write a gay relationship, she always says stuff like "oh he's his lOvEr". She always makes it sound so sexual and illicit like the reader is supposed to go "oh my, how scandalous but also wowE the author is so inclusive". Like I've never heard her describe a gay couple being domestic or just affectionate with each other minus all the sexual wah wah. Maybe this is partly bc everything in her books is so damn sexual but at least her het couples get 1 or 2 tender moments. Ofc for that to happen she'd actually have to spent time and effort fleshing out her gay characters instead of just using them for tokenism.