#acomaf reread

[senu102929]

What happened to Feyre's wedding dress? 👰‍♀️ You know, the one she left at the Moonstone Palace but didn't return with to Spring, wearing her Night Court clothes instead?

Cerridwen and Nuala: My Lord, what should we do with the wedding dress she left here?

Rhysand: Give it to me, I'll take care of it.

Rhysand: *trying it on alone in his room in front of a full length tri-fold mirror, pretending he's getting married to Tamlin*

[romanticatheartt]

Lucien's vibe throughout the whole series:

[starsreminisce]

ACOMAF reread thoughts

Quite a few things changed with this experience. Obviously, I’m reading with the awareness that it’s the mating bond. Even when Feyre didn’t have the awareness that it’s the mating bond, she was still aware that something connected them. Notably, Feyre didn’t have access to Rhys until after the snap. When she asked about it, Rhys explained the mating bond to her, taking advantage of her lack of knowledge, though it's understandable given his upbringing with ill-matched mated parents. I still think he should have told her sooner, especially when she started to feel guilt. However, SJM had established how mating bonds work in their world, and it seemed like a significant thing to fight against.

Miryam and Drakon still found their way back together after three years, and there will always be this understanding that one mate has for the other half, bringing up Lucien. I maintain that Lucien was forced between two loyalties - Feyre and Tamlin. In almost every scene with Lucien, his facial expressions showed disagreement with Tamlin, but Tamlin was a High Lord back to full power. This wasn’t the book 1 Tamlin with limited power that Lucien could easily defy. Even in book 2, Lucien had promised and delivered to see what he could do for Feyre. He brought her to the village, witnessed her powers, fought to get her to learn her powers, and even left her alone when he saw she was unwilling to go back.

There are many antis who say that Lucien should have done more, but what else could he have done? I doubt he was aware of the art room explosion because he was shocked when Tamlin did it again in ACOWAR. Lucien knows how important a High Lord's protection is, having suffered from the lack of one. The High Lord of summer told Feyre that he was required to tell Tamlin she was there. Rhys had a moment where he knew Tamlin was more loved by the courts than he was. So where could they go? How could Lucien sneak her to help when Tamlin was monitoring her every movement and dismissing Lucien’s counsel? Feyre felt the High Lord command when Rhys told her to put the shield up, not realizing that Lucien was on the receiving end of Tamlin’s. The High Lords are power. The only time Lucien fought against that was for his mate.

It still makes me mad that Feyre went full Batman on him rather than talk to him, but Feyre was angry, and I don’t blame her for that. Even if Lucien were to find a court that could harbor them, he wouldn’t know how to bring Feyre back to the despair she felt. Feyre recognized that Lucien had come to patch her up Under the Mountain, but it was only Rhys who knew how to keep her mind intact, which is the whole point of the book. Only Rhys could have helped her in the way she needed to be helped - not Lucien.

As for Feyre’s comment about Elain and Azriel, sorry, but Feyre sees how Cassian, Mor, and Amren all interact with each other. She assumed Elain wouldn’t be able to keep up with them. The contrast between Elain and Azriel and Elain and Lucien was so obvious to me. Elain saw Az for the first time and stiffened at the sight, and Feyre expected her to faint, trembling when she sat down. Elain stared at Lucien, ignoring Nesta. Just like how Feyre did when she first met Rhys and how Nesta did when she met Cassian.

Az and Mor's dynamics were subtler than I remembered. It's intriguing that the passages highlighted Mor's desire to act, countered by Az's protective refusal. This parallels Tamlin's protective approach to Feyre versus Rhys's trust in her abilities. This dynamic lends itself to a Gwynriel endgame, as Az trusts Gwyn's survival based on his training.

In essence, there's protection through distance and protection through empowerment.

A mate empowers.

[colorlesschristmastree]

"No. Amarantha had... camps for them. The nobles and favored faeries were allowed to dwell Under the Mountain. But if the people of a court weren't working to bring in goods and food, they were locked in camps in a network of tunnels beneath the Mountain. Thousands of them, crammed into chambers and tunnels with no light, no air. For fifty years." (acomaf ch. 3)

Imagine you're a citizen of the Spring Court, who went through all of this, suffered torment and imprisonment, only to be freed by a human girl. You find out that she's going to marry your High Lord, you're elated and happy that the curse breaker who freed you from your prison is there with you. After being trapped underground for fifty years, your High Lord only gives you three months to fix the economy of your town enough to pay a tax, but it's okay because Feyre Cursebreaker is there, and you should be grateful to be free, grateful to be able to pay this tax and support her.

Time goes by and then one day you hear that your High Lord attacked her with his magic after she tried defending his sentries who you know served him during those fifty years, or even were trapped underground with you. You hear that she had visible bruises for days, and that Tamlin had whipped some of those same soldiers until their backs were raw.

Wouldn't you leave too?

The destruction of the spring court is not some war crime Feyre committed, it is the liberation and crying out of a people who were enslaved for fifty years, whose cries for help and change were disregarded for the sake of upholding tradition.

[unlikelysaintdelele]

some interesting things i've noted during my ACOTAR reread Pt. 4 (ACOMAF edition)

*SPOILER WARNING for those who haven’t completed the series*

So lost, Feyre found herself content with the idea of never becoming Tamlin’s equal, but deep inside she knew that wasn’t true. The signs of her sense of self going down hill are only beginning.

“You clearly don’t know Rhysand.” Casual language, no titles used. Shows a closeness between her and Rhys as she’s so easily defending him, one of the only times she’s assertive. She gives in to the whims of Tamlin and Ianthe on everything, but her will doesn't bend on her opinion of Rhys. At least in this instance.

Feyre hasn’t laughed in so long that she doesn’t remember the last time she did… how busy and self-absorbed is Tamlin that he hasn’t even noticed? Why isn't he more concerned about her mind?

I just imagine the Disney Enchanted wedding dress as Feyre’s wedding dress:

Bitch, Ianthe and the red petals! As mentioned earlier, Feyre has been giving in or complying with what everyone else wants. One of the few things she expressed for herself was "Not red." A firm statement with no room for compromise.

The kidnapping scene, itscomingitscoming. “As inescapable as the vow I was about to make”. The wording is so revealing of Feyre's true feelings after her describing her fear of feeling trapped, imprisoned. She’s not ready to get married. "Help me, help me, help me. Save me, please. Save me. Get me out. End this."

the night court was the most beautiful place Feyre had ever seen, straight from her thoughts. Just as Rhys was the most beautiful man she had ever seen!

Rhys: You look delicious today, Feyre darling~. This man has 1000% more rizz in his pinky finger than Tamlin has in his whole body. Love that his first time saying "Feyre, darling" in the book was when he was kidnapping her.

A new war is coming, from King Hybern. Rhys, the enemy, is the one who revealed this to Feyre. Not her fiance or her friends, the man who is seen as the enemy of those she loves.

Amarantha was an experiment, a test to see how long a territory could be kept. Hybern wants to reclaim the human lands.

Several untested high lords... ngl I forgot this piece of info in the later books. Broken courts with high priestesses angling for control like wolves around a carcass.

Feyre has a skill of catching the Suriel (always loved this detail), and she is the only hunter Rhys trusts

Feyre has the same signs that a high lord’s son might become his heir. Her powers could destroy her if she doesn’t learn to control them! This makes it so much worse that Tamlin isn't willing to teach her. He is harming her with his protection. Meanwhile, Rhys will teach her. The differences between the two males only grows.

"Tamlin won’t allow it." Like she needs his permission... Feyre also calls herself Tamlin’s subject. She doesn’t perceive herself as an equal. She's being brainwashed into submission. Rhys gets upset for her, "you are no one’s subject" as well as "Pretending you’re less than him, than Ianthe, than any of us." While Tampon expects her to accept a place below him, Rhys is pushing her to rise to her potential.

Rhys: “I know you, more than you realize.” HE DOES, HE REALLY DOES. he’s giving a voice to what she keeps pretending she’s not feeling, reminding her of the truth left and right. love him for that.

“Become a weapon.” Tamlin just wants her safe, guarded, and always inside. Rhys wants her to be capable and ready if (when) needed, he wants her strong.

Rhys placed Feyre in a room that was “so open”... because of her nightmares? so she’d always be able to have access to the sky, brightly lit by starlight? So she’d always know where she was when she woke?

AZRIEL WAS MENTIONED, AH!

Mor has control? of what? What games did they play and lose? Oh shit is it when Rhys went utm? what are they referring to!

Temple attacked, priestesses slain and trove looted. Def Hybern. What for?

Despite Feyre not being from the night court, and engaged to the high lord of spring, they are letting her hear the gruesome details of what is happening in theirs. They’re not shielding her from the truth like they do in spring.

“Great beautiful, brutal wings.” Rhys hates giving into his more beastly urges, but loves his wings, so it’s sweet that this is how she views him. Brutal, yes, but beautiful. She sees him as he is, past the monster he could be. He feels whole with the wings!

CASSIAN WAS ALSO MENTIONED. Apparently, he suspects it’s not Hybern but one of the Illyrian war bands as they “gleefully bowed to Amarantha.”

Winnowing~ no one had explained it to her before, she learns it from Rhys tho. Rare gift among the stronger fae. Without fail, what she should have been told by her friends, by her loved ones, she is instead being told by their enemy.

“Tamlin should know.” (this is about temples being attacked) that line sounded almost… betrayed. As if she’s realizing the severity of what is being kept from her. She does not like being shielded. It makes her feel, most likely, helpless. Powerless.

I know I'm shitting on him a lot, but I actually don't hate Tamlin. I understand every single one of his choices (doesn't mean I always understand his reactions, or even like either of them). We are told more than once why he's so suffocatingly overprotective and restrictive. The man is traumatized. Never again will he be powerless to protect his people, and he follows through (at first). I can respect that.

However, he is so blinded by his own issues, his own trauma, he has made himself incapable of truly helping Feyre. Over and over again, his choices reflect how he chooses to address his trauma over hers. There is no doubt he loves her or she loves him, but they are horribly mismatched for each other. If she had stayed, if Rhys never intervened, Tamlin would have destroyed her beyond repair. He almost did.

[shallyne]

"But Elain's cry - a warning. A warning to - to my right, now exposed, Tamlin ran for me. I hurled a knife at him, as hard as I could."

First of all: Feyre throwing a knife at Tamlin, love it.

Second of all: Elain is so scared. She's about to die and she warns Feyre about Tamlin 😭 if we don't get some Feyre and Elain bonding in Elains book I am gonna be mad

[moononastring]

ACOMAF reread, here we goooooo~

I will start by saying that HOLY SHIT Tamlin is an awful significant other. I know we all know this but damn, how do you miss your partner getting up every night and vomiting her guts out and act like it isn’t an issue??? GRANTED, he is also dealing with his own trauma but my dude, t a l k about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I CANNOT.

[highqueenofelfhame]

ACOMAF reread thread

(starting from pt 2: house of wind because that’s where i happened to be when this was requested.)

i fucking love cassian’s entrance SO MUCH. does anyone else hear a very distinct voice for him in your head? i’m constantly looking for an actor that sounds like him and can’t find one. but his voice is more distinct to me than even Rhysand’s.