#mm rants

[themadmorrigan]

Morally grey is great and all but if a character only ever does evil/questionable stuff, they're still a villain, guys. No matter how hot they are.

[mothmage]

thinking about how at 15 my only goal for the future was to get out of [redacted] and now —

[mourningmilkshake]

Happy 4th of July kids are still being separated from their parents and being forced to testify in court by themselves without lawyers because they 1) don't have money for a lawyer and 2) don't even fucking know what a lawyer is.

Happy 4th of July Trumps administration has not released a statement on how they're going to reunite families if they release them because they are disgusting pieces of absolute shit. (Actually apparently they did and it's if the parent still wants their children they can pick them up if not oh well. They didn't keep track of the parents and this is the solution they came up with.)

Happy 4th of July I will say thank you to the men and women and non binary people who fought and died for this country so I can be free but I will not thank those that continue to attack smaller nations for resources and because they are smaller than us. I will not thank those who think owning a gun with the power to kill 40 children is their God-Given Unalienable Right without proper background training/checks. I will not thank those who believe that Sandy Hook's aftermath was an attack on their 2nd amendment right. America is the biggest bully, not the largest superpower. We are living in 2018, not a comic book.

Happy 4th of July I feel sick to my stomach knowing I get to celebrate the "land of the free, home of the brave" with my family while children and families who are separated have to sit in internment camps and wait to see if they'll ever be reunited with their families. They are getting thrown into camps because they're doing what CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS DID AND HE GETS A NATIONAL HOLIDAY. But I digress.

Happy 4th of July I fucking hate that people feel safe and secure and don't care about the well-being of these immigrants illegal or no because they feel justified to this land. Illegal immigration doesn't exist on stolen land my guy. And how dare anyone turn their nose up at someone wanting to make a better life for themselves. Fuck them actually.

Happy 4th of July when those men signed the Declaration of Independence "all men are created equal" meant only white men, and they refused to acknowledge those black backs who they built America on because they believed they had a right to the land, even today. They believed black men, women, and children were property and that ideology has bled into today so much so that black people cant even have a barbecue or sell literally fucking water or literally walk down the street because some entitled Anglo-Saxon will get their panties in a twist.

Also, fuck Christopher Columbus.

Happy 4th of July America is they most cowardly piece of shit "superpower" right now and I'm embarrassed to be here.

[themadmorrigan]

I love elucien as much as the next guy but I need some of y'all to breathe and step away from the summoning circles. SJM is NOT worth that amount of anxiety and cortisol.

[themadmorrigan]

So... Feysand

If you're a fan of Feysand, this post is not for you: proceed with caution, and I will delete any hate I get (unless it's funny). I'm not going to go on any unhinged rants or anything, but I'll be very, very honest: this isn't a couple I care for for a lot of reasons, and most of them are due to SJM and her handling of them. I'll throw this behind a cut, though, so it doesn't clutter up peoples' dashes.

I don't like the way that their relationship includes things such as (a) him twisting her broken arm (with a compound fracture no less) to quite literally strongarm her into accepting a deal with him; (b) he can defend it whatever way he wants, but I think it's majorly messed up that he drugged her and made her dance UTM. And not just once, but over and over and over again and he didn't even really apologize for it!; (c) I think it is well and truly fucked that he kept from Feyre the knowledge that having her baby would likely kill her. ANY ONE of these things is a non-starter for a relationship in my eyes, but all three? Hell no. HELL no.

In a similar vein? This man is 500 years old. She is 22, and a neglected daughter of a once-wealthy merchant. He makes her High Lady. Okay, cool - but then like... sure, he taught her to read, but did he or anyone else arrange to teach her politics? The history of Prythian? The history of the NIGHT COURT? Fae customs and culture? Did anyone give her the tools she actually needs to be an effective ruler, rather than a symbolic figurehead whom he parades around?

I... okay, how do I put this... I feel like Rhysand is really what put the nail in the coffin of what made Feyre Feyre to me in ACOTAR. Sure, human Feyre did some questionable or outright stupid things (sleeping with Isaac even after he got engaged being one small example) but she always tried to keep what was "right" in mind. And when they were in Summer, trying to get the other half of the book of breathings, she actually has a moment of clarity! She knows what she's doing is wrong... she sees how good of a person Tarquin is, and she gives up that sense of justice, actively causing harm in the process. And from there, it felt like there was one decision after another that eroded her common sense and/or moral compass and continued to perpetuate hurt in the world. Now - that could be SUPREMELY interesting, don't get me wrong! Doing evil for the sake of the greater good? Playing with the concepts of POV and flawed narration and morality? Getting people to root for the bad guy only to pull back the curtain later? That whole fucking Ourobouros scene? THAT was a villain origin story for me. And that would be absolutely fantastic, except that...

They're supposed to be the good guys. And this is where SJM comes in: she's not pulling an Uno reverse on her readers. She is actively, full-throatedly telling us at every opportunity that Rhys and Feyre are right, that they are good people, that they deserve to be High King and Queen. And in doing so, she has piled on countless layers of plot armor to excuse or brush away their actions or find some reason to remind us, again and again, that actually, these are the good guys. Personally? I would have found them a lot more interesting as antiheroes. Or even outright villains. The whole setup loses its luster when there are never any consequences for the things they do, when they are always forgiven (except by objectively worse people such as Beron or like, Amarantha or Koschei), and when they get rewarded for their behavior.

So in closing, Feysand reads, to me, like a teenaged wish fulfillment fantasy but written for an adult audience. Girl meets man who is enamored with her, gets her anything and everything she could ever want, helps her get revenge on her stupid shitty ex (I don't actually believe this about Tam btw), makes her a queen but without any real responsibilities and goes along with whatever it is she wants to do. I say they deserve one another because, well... Feyre is the creature that Rhysand made in his own image. Mates are supposed to be equals, I guess.

Anyway, this is all just my opinion. Nobody has to agree with me, and if you like Feysand, great! No hate to you, and much love.

@tinyy-jj, @theknittingoracle - remember, you asked!

[themadmorrigan]

Has someone ever compiled all of SJM's interview quotes? I need an easy way of fact-checking when people quote her, because of this fun little tendency people have to cherrypick the parts that support their argument.

Because if I see, "But [Elain] said she didn't want a mate or a male one more time...!" to justify e/riel, I'm gonna scream. That quote was about Graysen. Or, outside of books, "She asked what if nature gets it wrong!": when I'm pretty sure there was more to that quote than just that. -_-

[mothmage]

been enjoying my life and doing fun things and eating good food and just generally really (perhaps even excessively) enjoying my life the last few days. which could mean nothing 😃

[mothmage]

sleeps for 3 hours and wakes fully rested, jittery with energy: