content warning for discussions of sexual assault and rape
It had been a while since I have written a meta post for kkc but I just reread Wise Man's Fear and made myself read the Felurian scenes in their entirety.
And wow, am I mad at myself.
I cannot believe I let myself forget the way Kvothe clearly states Felurian breaching consent. The Felurian scene have always been upsetting to me, they never felt consensual, and many interpretations of the book had me thinking that maybe this was just me or just a very small section of the scenes.
But no. Kvothe initially gives consent to Felurian (well, arguably but thats a discussion for another time). He chooses to leave his companions to be with Felurian. And then he wants to leave. when he tells her he wants to leave, this happens: "My mind went numb as quickly as if I'd been struck a blow to the back of my head. . . I felt the need to have her. . .Only because of my Arcane training did I hold onto any concept of my own identity at all." (639)
He has revoked his consent and she had denied him the power to leave. She does not allow him to leave. Kvothe is an object to Felurian. If this is not clear enough in the abuse of power Felurian has, Kvothe then goes on to say he feels as he did when he was in Tarbean and sexually assaulted. "She touched my cheek softly. Softly, I bent to kiss her, and something broke in my mind. I felt the snap as four years of my life slid away. Suddenly I was back on the streets of Tarbean. Three boys bigger than me. . . had dragged me from the broken crate where I'd been sleeping. . . Two of them held me down. The third cut my clothes off my body." (641) Kvothe then describes that he was able to escape but still traumatized from the event. And that his state of mind was similar to how he felt when he was with Felurian. This wakes his sleeping mind, where he finds Felurian's name and finally has the power to leave, but hesitates because he doesn't want to kill her.
Kvothe does not have her name or the wind's name at his beck and call after this moment and persuades Felurian into letting him go by promising to make her famous in his song. He does not have consent to leave at any moment. And while she does show him kindness at moments, she is holding him against his will for most of his time with her.
Yes, he enjoys part of his time with her. Yes, he learns from her. But that does not negate the lack of consent involved with the entire interaction that often goes unnoticed in the fandom. And it would be easy to say an entire relationship was horrible and toxic but instead we see the push and pull of how toxic relationships can have caring moments while still revoking consent. However, the lack of attention people pay to Felurian as an absuer and rapist and how Kvothe is written off as simply "wanting fairy sex" when he literally is not in his right mind when he runs off and then has his ability to leave revoked by Felurian.
My conclusion, I suppose, is to stop writing off the Felurian scenes as frivolous sex scenes and acknowledging the lack of consent that is explicitly addressed and then the underlying threat to Kvothe's safety that persists from Felurian throughout the scenes.
I also suppose the issue of interpretation has many conflicting factors. For example, our patriarchal society doesn't like to view men as victims of sexual assault and women as perpetrators of sexual assault, which is also reflected in Kvothe's world as well, as when he tells the story, men are mostly excited on his behalf and women are rolling their eyes at his story. I think Kvothe's attitude towards it also reflects this. And this is why I think a lot of people misinterpret this scene.
I am interested to hear other people’s thoughts as I am still processing how these scenes were written and interpreted, both by the characters in the book and by fans.
