Gays against sjm

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[inthemidstofbuddie]

It’s still highkey problematic if she WAS East Asian the whole time because, let’s not forget, there’s this entire scene where she bdsm ‘submits’ to Dorian in Empire oF Storms, and if she is an asian woman that would have some pretty racist and potentially orientalist undertones

yeeeeeeeep i’ve seen a lot of people talking about this! sj/m knows no bounds.

[ireallycantevenanymore]

Wow. What a reach.

[inthemidstofbuddie]

as a white person, it’s not my place to argue. if POC find this offensive and racist, it’s offensive and racist.

[discountalien-pancake]

As an asian person, it’s literally the opposite of a reach. The portrayal of Asian women esp. East Asian women as sexually submissive is rooted in sexist and racist stereotypes that come from a long history of white Western imperialism. It’s particularly insidious in relation to Korean and Vietnamese women, who were forced to become prostitues to serve the US Army during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

This is especially prevalent in porn, and gee, whaddya know? SJ/M wrote a creepy fetishistic sex scene featuring a white prince dominating an Asian witch.

And while I doubt that many older straight men are going to be reading SJ/M’s books, it’s important to note that these portrayals of Asian women directly contribute to a highly racialized rape culture, in which white men think it’s okay to go overseas and rape women and girls who have been forced into sex slavery. Again, I doubt SJ/M’s books will have much impact on straight men, but it will have an impact on young Asian American girls.

[inthemidstofbuddie]

k0a spoilers courtesy of @westvillard

1. El0rcan, Lysa/edion and Man0rian are canon. El0rcan and Lysa/edion get married (mentioned by Alien during the epilogue)

2. There are El0rcan and Man0rian smut scenes

3. The Thirteen die except for Manon

4. Alien travels through worlds and passed by Velaris; sees a winged fae male (presumably riceman) described as “beautiful beyond reason

5. Manon proposes a alliance between Adarlan and the witches via marriage to Dorian

6. There’s a scene where Aedion is pissed at Lysandra cause of Aelin’s plan and tosses a weak Lysandra out of his tent, into the cold

7. Conall dies

8. Chaol and Irene travel to Anielle and meet with Chaol’s father

9. Irene really is pregnant

10. The epilogue mentions Alien writing Nehemia’s parents a letter

[mordeservesbetter]

Not surprised by the majority of these. 10 really pisses me off though. Nehemia was supposedly SO important to Alien - why is she only writing them a letter?! Why not, y’know, visit them? Apologize for some of their kingdoms’ villages being burned down?! Why does Sarah have to just brush them off like they’re nothing (or just an afterthought?!)

[inthemidstofbuddie]

the letter thing makes me think of how riceman and co thought letters were diplomacy

[sjhet]

[jsephkvinsky]

honestly wlw tog fans are really braver than any us marine

[ashildrs-archive]

[vanimeldes]

L/ucien’s mother…was abused by B/eron and when Rice tells him that his mother should have taught him what means when a woman says no…..

He…basically…remindes L/ucien…how his mother….was….abused…

I AM ENRAGED

[inthemidstofbuddie]

[sjhet]

[helenaferron]

I guess I’m a rhysophobe

[battlestar-royco]

Stans (and Mess) seem to forget that one time a minor character literally asked Rowboat "What are you doing that makes her come in here with such emptiness in her eyes?" It's an actual fucking quote in H/oF!!

Ugh YES. R.owan is the unholy union of toxic masculinity, blandness, and abuse. Don’t even get me started on the infamous Bite that has spawned essays of discourse on this site, Goodreads, and other blog platforms. Didn’t he also punch Alien? And had to resist punching A.edion (HER COUSIN??!) for sitting too close to her after they had their hideous beach sex? That’s a red flag if I ever saw one, regardless of if he’s “fae” or not. For so many reasons, I have never understood why people ship them. Rataelin are only together because of countless retcons concerning their past partners and their friendship in H0F. He treats her like dirt for hundreds of pages, and then all of a sudden in Q0S they’re mates? And he gets a pass for the way he treats her because he’s a “fae”?????? SJ/M maybe if your magic system requires an in-world explanation for its abuse, it isn’t cute. It isn’t edgy or sexy. It isn’t enemies-to-lovers or friends-to-lovers. It’s just toxic.

His entire existence irks me so much because with him came the fae craze and the transformation from Sardines to Alien. R.owan has none of D.orian’s lighthearted arrogance and wit, nor a burgeoning desire to do better than his father. C.haol constantly tortures himself, ruminating on whether to make the dutiful or the moral choice. Although many readers found Sardines annoying, she was a much more dynamic character than Alien ever was. She actually had flaws that inhibited her success. She could be funny, she could use her skills to get what she wanted, she could change for the better. R.owan…? He suffered the loss of his girlfriend who we never met on the page. He’s heir to a city we have no investment in and that we have never seen him lead. What is his inner conflict? What are his personality traits? Who is his family? What are his goals, besides looking hot and punching people for Alien? How does their relationship evolve? What character development and introspection has he undergone? What losses has he suffered since Lyria? And now D.orian and C.haol are forced to lose their integrity as characters so they can become like R.owan, which is to say: boring, misogynistic, and proprietary. Why, SJ/M, why????? We get it, C.elorian and C.haolaena are sunk in the deepest ocean, but ffs leave C.haol and D.orian alone so we can at least be rewarded for reading through the constant, harmful Rataelin propaganda.

[camille--reads]

hi, women aren’t objects to protect men’s feefees and also mor doesnt owe assriel a goddamn thing, in other news stans are demons

(thanks to @disproportionately-heterosexual for the pics)

[disproportionately-heterosexual]

Hoooooly shit these pictures make me so goddamn angry. Do stans not know how fucking hard coming out is? In canon, Mor has only come out to ONE person: Feyre, and in canon, they’re best(?) friends. Feyre is the only person Mor trusts with this information. Furthermor(e), it’s also established in canon that Mor sleeps with men to let Azriel know she’s NOT FUCKING INTERESTED. And Mor hasn’t come out to him because she’s TERRIFIED OF HOW HE’D REACT.

As someone who has had to come out THREE TIMES (once as bisexual, once as trans, and then as trans again), it’s hard. I had a panic attack over coming out as transgender to my parents, and they weren’t the best about it and didn’t get better until very very recently. Coming out is a big deal, and it’s not anyone’s fucking business whether Mor comes out or not. Her sexuality is her own, and she does NOT owe it to any man to come out.

“Oh, Azriel would be so hurt1!1!1!1!!!” FUCK THAT SHIT. You’ve been pining after her for goddamn CENTURIES and you haven’t gotten the hint that maybe she doesn’t want your crusty fucking bat dick? Azriel is fucking obsessed with her based on how he can’t take a goddamn hint and it’s honestly terrifying how stans are painting HIM as the one suffering from all of this.

Mor has been closeted for longer than anyone on Earth, because she’s terrified of how people would react to her being gay. She’s had to deal with this man creepily pining after her for CENTURIES and is too scared to say anything. Mor is a mess, and you fucking expect me to believe that Azriel is the one suffering? Fuck off. Lesbians are not required to out themselves for men. A person’s sexuality is their own; don’t you DARE use it against them.

Fuck, I hate this.

@spaceshipkat since ur the wiki queen and also a Big Bi like me, i thought you might like to get angry at this.

[inthemidstofbuddie]

thanks for the tag, geoff, you lovely bean! <3

honestly, the amount of hatred i feel toward assriel (and i will forever be pissed sj/m ruined that name bc i actually liked it before he was a character) is matched only by the level of disgust i feel toward stans who think mor has to out herself to end precious assriel’s manpain. i was speculating a bit today with some anons after i had a sickening thought that sj/m might try to retcon mor’s sexuality due to the backlash she’s received from her confession scene (stans are pissed, as evidenced above, bc their ship can’t sail; antis are pissed bc stans are putting the feelings of a man male over the well-being of a gay woman; most everyone is confused about her sexuality due to bad writing, but she’s a lesbian, harold), and try to sell it as some bullshit “i actually do like men! i just hadn’t met the right man male yet! i was just playing hard to get! teehee!” bc sj/m can’t stomach the idea that she might’ve fucked up in an epic way, so instead of just owning her mistakes she’s gonna frantically retcon and pretend like that confession scene never happened.

the stans are right, though: m0riel was obviously set up to be endgame from the get-go, and evidence is sound in that regard. i mean, there were so many scenes in ac0maf meant to make readers ship m0riel, and sj/ms ac0tar pinterest is inundated with m0riel pics. furthermore, assriel doesn’t “deserve” a love interest simply bc he went through a lot (what, exactly did he go through that is anywhere close to touching the horrors mor has lived through, still lives through bc the inner circlejerk is a surface-deep friendship and nothing more, and will probably always live through until she decides to leave the inner circlejerk behind, though i sincerely doubt that’ll ever happen bc sj/m can’t stand her precious male favs looking bad?). no, assriel deserves a punch to the face and then some. i have a battle axe. i’ll go to town on him. bring it, dickwad. 

and yeah, the idea that mor has to out herself to protect poor assriel? stans need to meet me in the goddamn trenches bc imma go to town on them, too. i swing both ways, stans, and i’ve got a battle axe. like, my younger sister has outed herself to my immediate family and was easily accepted. i, on the other hand, am out to tumblr, my friends, and my little sister. that’s it. i don’t fear for the reaction i’ll get from my immediate family, but it’s a choice i’ve made to not out myself just yet for no other reason than i do not feel comfortable enough to do so at this time. i only just accepted it myself in october of last year. 

and i am honestly not sure why sj/m made the decision to keep mor in the closet. if gay people are so accepted in the universe of ac0tar, why didn’t she come out before, if she has such a close relationship with the inner circlejerk? no, i absolutely do not blame her for keeping it a secret due to assriel, but i’m not sure why sj/m chose to include that at all (male favs and all). sj/m props up the inner circlejerk all the time for being squad goals, so why did sj/m feel the need to keep mor in the closet bc she’s so scared of assriel’s reaction? sj/m is just completely in love with them that it simply results in yet another feeling of contradictory canon–which, lbr, sj/m excels at. she’ll have character 1 rightfully called out by character 2, and then character 1, in another scene, will wank on and on about how right they were (i’m thinking of faerug and nesta here). it just results in making assriel come across as that guy who is called a “good boy” by his parents and defenders, despite the fact he’s centuries old and can be held accountable for any actions he makes, and he doesn’t need to be spoken about like he’s a goddamn toddler. hold him accountable, for christ’s sake! 

i just…there are so many things that went wrong as soon as sj/m decided to make mor a lesbian who suffers an obscene amount of abuse from the very people who claim to love and support and protect her. i just want mesta to be canon, and for the two of them to run away to mor’s estate and live happily ever after without ever seeing the inner circlejerk again. is that too much to ask???

[comingoutofthecauldron]

“haha i wonder if r.hys would break a lesbian’s bones or fetishise her :)”

(thank u @viragay for supplying me with this)

[inthemidstofbuddie]

why do u like Aedion? He's so fucked up

i guess it depends on your definition of “fucked up” and which version of aedion you’re thinking of. my version of aedion is the one who exists in h0f and q0s (i will never finish reading e0s bc sj/m does all my favs so wrong). and a caveat is that i read h0f in 2014 and q0s in 2015, so it’s entirely possible i’m mis-remembering things. this, however, is how aedion appears in my head. 

he was such a complex character due to the life he’d built for himself as the commander of the bane. you were never quite certain if you could trust him and what he wanted out of life, why he was willing to work with chaol, if he was in the king’s pocket or not. he was clever, but he wasn’t too much of any one thing: not too good, not too bad, not too hypermasculine, not too toxic (this is h0f and q0s, remember). 

my crackship was chaol x aedion, too, and i remember it culminating when the two of them were sitting in alien’s apartment in rifthold. it was a quiet scene, apart from any other characters, so it was…heart-warming, i guess! to see these two men who had built themselves up for the same king in vastly similar ways: aedion is one of the king’s most successful commanders, chaol is the youngest captain of the guard to ever exist in rifthold; they both tamped down personal feelings for years to do their jobs, but by h0f they were working toward their own mission: to take down the king; they both have a legacy, aedion as an ash/ryver and chaol as the lord of anielle, that they either don’t feel worthy of or don’t wish to pursue due to personal convictions/outward complications. 

aedion is who chaol could be if chaol was arrogant and used his looks to achieve necessities, and chaol is who aedion could’ve been had he never been forced to flee from terrasen and pledge loyalty (”loyalty”) to the king of adarlan. and since chaol was the first character i truly loved in the t0g series (i started loving him in t0g and my love never wavered!), aedion being his mirror just made him wiggle his way into my heart. 

plus, i have a severe soft spot for tough guys with a gooey middle, ones who use that tough exterior to hide what people won’t allow them to freely express. and aedion and chaol are both that, just in very different ways. 

so yeah, that’s why i love aedion. he’s the typical playboy in h0f (his tough guy exterior) but once chaol gets to know his gooey middle, he becomes a very intriguing character i can’t help but love. yeah he’s fucked up, but pretty much everyone in the t0g world is fucked up in one way or another. aedion’s version of fucked up (pre-e0s bc miss me with his fucking hypermasculine bullshit sj/m curse you for ruining every male character for your own kinks. yes i am ringing the shame bell) is one i can understand. alien or rowboat’s, both by themselves or in comparison to aedion’s? no way in hell. 

[inthemidstofbuddie]

I never found Sardines and Nehemia's friendship a good example of female friendship. They became bffs bc they both hated Kaltain. No female friendships Mess writes is good. Sardines and Ansel spent like a month together and Sardines was shoked that someone she has known for a month would betray her. Alien and Lysandra used to be enemies who wanted to kill each other but suddenly they're bffs in QoS with no buildup to it. Fryer is too far up Rice's ass to be a real friend to Mor when she needs it

oh is that the reason they become bffs? for some reason, i remembered it started bc sardines spoke nehemia’s native tongue, vs the language in adarlan (that’s another thing that’s never explained–where do these languages originate? how far do they spread? wouldn’t the king of adarlan require everyone in erilea to speak adarlanian?)

but yeah, the friendship between alien and lysandra is a friendship if you squint and forget how to read, especially now bc it’s all one-sided: lysandra must obey and worship alien or alien will skin her alive. i never met ansel, so i can’t really speak for how she is as a character, though if she’s anything like yrene (since they were both introduced in the novellas) imma scream. three aliens is three too many. and yeah, the entire inner circlejerk is about as close as my tongue is to my elbow, which is to say if that’s what a baseline healthy and close friendship looks like, my friends and i by comparison should be united as one entity at this point. 😐

[longsightmyth]

To be completely fair, Nehemia starts the friendship specifically because she knows Celaena is Aelin (Elena told her). She uses hating Kaltain as a bridge to bond over, and then works to have Celaena teach her the common tongue (which Nehemia already knows).

Nehemia as I interpret her is a slytherin ready to do anything to get shit done. There are moments of Nehemia in text that shine through like that, but far more often she’s bent into weird character squiggles to prop up Celaena (though I guess also in the spirit of fairness those character squiggles could be purposeful on her part in an attempt to manipulate Celaena)

[inthemidstofbuddie]

see, that’s one reason nehemia’s storyline disappointed me so much. sj/m let this amazing character exist solely to send alien the colonizer on her ~epic quest~ to kill the king and take his place free erilea from tyrannical rulers, when nehemia should’ve been leading the charge. she’s trained to be a ruler, far more brilliant than sardines and alien combined, is an expert strategist, knows magic, and so much more. if sj/m had actually had the guts to kill sardines in place of nehemia, can you imagine how much better the series would be? or hell, even had nehemia survive, alien become the mini-dictator she is, and then pit the two of them against each other bc they have different viewpoints and philosophies. and obv nehemia would win, bc she’s a mastermind, and then she’d marry sorscha and all would be well.

but sj/m is a coward in her writing, so obv that couldn’t happen. le sigh.

[throne-of-no]

I’d read that.

I always thought Nehemia story had so much potential especially after learning so much about her in Eo/S. I can remember texting a friend of mine who I buddy read it with (Because let’s be real, to get thru that shit storm you needed a friend support) after reading the part where it talks about Nehemia’s journy and stuff, like. “Holy shit??? Why wasn’t the entire series from HER point of view.” and he honestly agreed with me. 

Like I’m sure Sarah realized how much a better Nehemia was and was like. “Well, she’s gotta go! Can’t have someone outshine my self insert!!!”

[battlestar-royco]

good examples of withholding names from the audience:

teen wolf, where everyone refers to stiles as a shortened version of his last name until the final episode, and the fact that no one uses his complicated first name is a running gag throughout the show.

new girl, where schmidt’s first name was a guessing game for fans for six seasons, and when it was finally revealed it made perfect sense and it was hilarious.

harry potter, where no one ever used voldemort’s real name, the power of fear based on his name was explored throughout the books, and the entire plot of the chamber of secrets relied on a clever anagram.

bad examples of withholding names from the audience:

ac0tar and t0g, where the author didn’t think of giving her villains names until fans were begging her, and two characters from different series were given the same name as a joke.

ac0tar, where l/ucien is the only fae who has a last name while everyone else has only a first name, implying that every fae in fact has a last name but we just don’t know them for no reason.

ac0tar, where family members who should’ve had a critical effect on characters’ lives, such as rice’s sister and faerug’s parents, are never named.

[battlestar-royco]

When I was reading through the ac0tar series, Mess’s use of the word “fuck” really bothered me and I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why, especially when it’s a word I use myself almost daily. Then about halfway through ac0maf, I realized what it was: She only uses fuck in the sexual sense (which is fine, you do you), and then it’s to get a reaction out of another character. No one (if I’m remembering correctly) ever uses it casually or in a non-sexual context (1/2)

And it may not necessarily be a bad thing, it was just something that after I noticed it, I couldn’t STOP noticing it (2/2)

This is such a good point! It’s really a testament to the over-sexualization in the books, especially considering how PG-13 movies are only allowed one use of the word “fuck” and that the use must be non-sexual. Of course everything has to be sexual in these books so naturally SJ/M would only use the word in that way. I get the feeling she doesn’t really think about using curse words beyond how they can further her ships and make her books seem really mature and edgy.

Overall I think curse words are fair game in fiction, but they have to be used to a point, otherwise the audience gets numb to it and it loses its effect. The way a writer uses curse words really says a lot about their mindset, IMO. For example, the writers on Br/eaking Bad were allowed only a few f-bombs per season. Whenever it was dropped, it was either hilarious (”Fuck you, and your eyebrows!”), in a moment of ultimate tension (“Are you fucking nuts?” [Mr. White holding a bomb] “Wanna find out?”), or to capture an emotionally charged exchange (“Can you walk?” “Yeah.” “Good. Now get the fuck out of here and never come back.”), and it always resonated with the audience. On the other hand, in season 2 of W/estworld, every episode dropped at least one f-bomb (and sometimes up to a dozen) and it lost its intended effect REALLY fast. It just felt like the writers saying “WE’RE A REALLY MATURE HBO SHOW AND WE’RE ALLOWED TO USE PRIME TIME TV WORDS AND WE’RE SO EDGYYYYY.” It made no sense because all the characters were in a professional corporate setting most of the time, and it made them seem rather unsophisticated and childish. It often felt really shoehorned and unnatural, especially in the softer-spoken characters who generally spoke more eloquently. G0T has the same issue where they use sooooo many curse words and slurs to show how horrible their world is, but it just makes the show come off as nihilistic, insensitive, and toxically masculine. SJ/M seems like an “I’m so edgy” writer because her characters do all these “adult” things like excessive cursing and drinking, but it loses its meaning because she overuses it and the characters are simplistic sketches of people from simplistic sketches of cultures and backgrounds.

[maraiabroxses]

I guess we’re “twisted people” for liking Nesta 🤷🏽 what are y'alls thoughts on this? 🙄 (Hope y'all don’t mind me tagging you, just want to hear your responses) @spaceshipkat @polysorscha @star-crossedvoyager @empireofshitstorms

[inthemidstofbuddie]

So I found a feminist book blog I really liked a while back, but they lost me entirely when I stumbled across a post praising the ”feminism” in mess’s books. Its not the first time I’ve seen something like this happen; mess pulls the same girl-hating, misogyny and “i’m not like OTHER GIRLS” bs (not to mention the unhealthy relationships) as other bad books use but people miss it. I don't get what it is about these books that tricks ppl into thinking mess is a feminist kween??

oh yeah, it’s totally femininst when there’s pointless, baseless girl hate; 

when the male characters mansplain feminism;

when female characters are only allowed to have multiple partners if they 1) don’t have a different one every night, 2) don’t hurt the poor man feefees of the guy who pines after them, or 3) don’t act more dominant in any given encounter with a man; 

when faerug comments that clothes she wears in the night court show off parts of her body that she supposes some females might like (implying that it’s wrong to wear clothes that show you off unless it’s for a male character’s enjoyment, such as when faerug wears the two curtains on the throne with riceman); 

when alien decides to keep kaltain in the prison where she’s tortured and starved but sends a nice blanket along instead of helping her escape like with nox; 

when female characters act holier-than-thou to anyone who doesn’t want to be in a relationship; 

when female characters don’t want to be in a relationship with their “mate” who is “such a nice guy look he brought you a present” and yet are repeatedly forced into it by other female characters (listen i’ve never been an elain fan, but even i want faerug to leave her the fuck alone); 

when a female character stays in the closet bc she’s terrified of what the male character who pines after her will do; 

when “feminism” equates to “i can sword-fight” and nothing more; 

when a female characters is turned into a camera for a male character, which feels so much like something a trashy straight white male author would do; 

when a female character is ridiculed if she has bigger boobs; 

when female characters can be thin and good or fat and evil; 

when female characters are rightfully condemned for rape but male characters get off scott-free…

yeah that’s totally feminism, right? i can’t get over the feminismsmsmsmsmsms help i’m drowning in them. and all of that is barely a drop in the bucket!

[sjhet]

Manon had too much big dick energy that SJM couldn’t handle it in e0s. rip in peace.

[disproportionately-heterosexual]

Some More SJM Wiki Bullshit

So I hopped on over to the T/OG Wiki to see how old E/lide was for reference and uh,,,,

Wow!1!1!1!!1! Such eloquence!!1!1!1!1!1! Much high epic fantasy!!1!1!1!1!1!1! Also, forgive me if I’m wrong, because I’ve not read the books in ages, but I don’t believe “in a pissy mood” adequately describes ACTIVELY HATING AND DESPISING ONE’S “LOVE INTEREST”. God above, if El0rcan is canon, I’m going to eat my copy of Q0S

Since you are the Wiki Queen, I thought you’d like to see this @spaceshipkat

Eugh.