Just had a think about it and realized that TTS doesn't actually have any good Big Bads, and at this point I'm pretty sure that they all have the same root cause. Bear with me as it might take me a minute to reach the reason.
Cassandra's easy to explain. She has no real goals and the only motive they give is jealousy (despite the many reasons she should reasonably have). She's irrational to an out of character degree, which should be blamed on the Moonstone but they repeatedly tell you that she's in her right mind. Also seems to have the reasoning skills of a 5 year old (bc if she didn't the plot wouldn't work). All her villain arc boils down to is the fight her and Raps have been having the entire show's run, which might make you wonder if Sonnenburg knows how to conceive of a relationship between two women that's actually positive.
Varian and Frederic are an interesting pair because while they're both technically the antagonists of the season, the fact they're in the same story ruins the other for wildly different reasons. Fred symbolizes the weight of society's expectations, which Raps struggling with is nominally the main theme of the season. Her song about it in the S1 finale highlights the issue with Varian: He doesn't really have any interaction with that theme, he exists to be a tool to move the plot forward. Varian also torpedoes Fred's "overprotective misguided father" plot by making Fred look like the biggest shitstain in the country, making it super hard to empathize with him as intended.
But the real problem is that, for all intents and purposes, Rapunzel is incidental to this story. A large part of S1's plot is Frederic and Varian being at odds while she doesn't do much. Hell, in the the scene where he captures them I'm pretty sure it's almost exclusively those two talking to each other! It boils her down to a macguffin for Varian's plot and a wish fulfillment machine for Sonnenburg so that he can imagine a child that'll forgive her daddy no matter what he did.
If you removed Fred's antagonistic role, Varian works better because he's not basically using her as a proxy to fight her dad, and if you removed Varian Fred works better because it's not as abundantly clear that he's functionally a well loved despot. (There'd still be signs but the most glaring one would be gone)
Also, not only does Varian not interact with the theme of "be yourself no matter what people's perceptions are of you" (a thread that should logically end with her giving up the princess title but whatever), trying to make him fit into it only pokes holes in it. Because it makes you have to think what his perceptions were, and it'd either be "a good friend who would help me in a time of need" or "someone whose job it is to help her people and by extension me". Which uh, kind of feel like they'd be exceptions to the theme's moral.
Now, Zhan Tiri. This is where I realized the thing that unifies all of them. She's introduced as a terrifying demon sorcerer, all powerful and a threat to all life. Every time she's brought up it's to hype up how badass she is. And then you meet her and she's an incredibly weak and incompetent dumbass whose plans only work because of luck and that the people she manipulates get hit with the idiot ball. A random wild possum is all it takes to ruin her day. She's not even a demon, she's just a weird old lady with a boomerang! She's so powerless she needs to steal from other characters to get out of a cage, and the final fight with her is literally like a minute shorter than the time they spend in the monkey cave.
But that's all to lead me to this point, which is when that change happened: For the first two seasons, Zhan Tiri is a man. Described exclusively as one, with not a single hint to the contrary, by characters who know her personally and have no reason to lie. But then, S3 gets rewritten and suddenly Zhan Tiri is not only a woman, but incredibly lame. In other words, she only stopped being a legitimate threat when she stopped being a man.
You might ask if I'm inferring that Chris Sonnenburg has problems with women. To which I say, "of fucking course I am". Like, Cass is based on a girl he had a crush on in college and he put her in a catsuit in S3 bc it gets him off. He cares so little about all the mothers in the series that out of the four three are dead and only two have names. Rapunzel basically stops having a character arc after S1. The constant, constant assertion that once you're married you're tied down and can't do anything fun or exciting anymore. Stalyan in general. Lady Caine got sidelined bc he thought it'd be a fun joke to play on the audience to set up a cool female rival character who never gets to do anything. Also that the wives and daughters in the show mainly exist to prop up their husbands and fathers.
Back on "can he conceive of a positive female relationship", there are basically only six in the series. Cass and Raps, Raps and Arianna, Arianna and Willow, Raps and Stalyan, Cass and Adira, Angry and Red. Rapunzel and her mom usually have a cute relationship, but most of the time Arianna is busy not being a character or acting as her husband's mouthpiece. And most of her time with Raps feels like a Hallmark card level of artificial schmaltz However, Arianna and Willow's relationship seems almost entirely Bad. Seen mostly in the one episode she's in, but the finale starts with Arianna telling an anecdote about a time Willow was so upset with her she built a literal brick wall in their room, and instead of respecting her boundaries she smashed it down with a hammer. Somehow this is framed as a positive relationship.
Kiera and Catalina are the most consistently positive, but their issues fall under "lack of understanding of kids and how to interact with or raise them", which is a topic for another day.
And that's not even getting into all the behind the scenes shenanigans like a good chunk of the AFAB people in the crew leaving after S1 as he was so awful to them specifically, and that time he cyberstalked a pair of dating cosplayers who dressed up as Cass and Raps.
In conclusion, the reason the series doesn't have any really good main villains all comes down to the fact that Sonnenburg is simply not a creator who cares about women or their interiority at all.
S1 is two guys getting into a fistfight with her in the middle but one of them has a knife in each hand and the other is a literal child. As the man with the knives is her father, she helps him, as all good daughters do.
ZT gets nerfed into the ground, which I presume was bc corporate told them to fit the programming block they were in better, and the best way he could think of to make ZT less threatening was by making her a short woman. That or he just didn't want to bother trying to adapt ZT into the new S3 so he made a new version of the character that sucks. As a joke. (Edit: I have been informed that it was actually the other producer, Ben Balistreri, who suggested the change. As a joke.)
Cass is the only woman he truly cares about bc she's his Super Sexy Dream Girl, and even then he couldn't get into her head enough to give her a reason to do anything she does. It feels like the only thing he could come up with was "Women are getting into super petty fights and making up all the time, right guys?" - "Man who somehow doesn't grasp that the room he's talking to is mostly women"
And all he wanted was for her to get her own show, presumably so he could tell the stories he really wanted to write without the albatrosses on his neck that were Raps, Eugene, and all the other movie characters and all corporate's restrictions on how they can be used.
But I doubt he ever realized that wasn't the albatross at all, the real thing dragging it down was that he only cared about Rapunzel and Eugene as an excuse to talk about their dads. And the little plot summary he gave to try and generate groundswell to get the Cass show to take off was... "Cass goes on a quest to find her birth father".
Chris, that's the seventh week in a row you've shown Daddy Issues to the class!
So lately I’ve been getting into the Tangled Series, and much to my upmost delight I stumbled upon Vat7k. After a week of being confused and not knowing how to read this or why it doesn’t technically exist I finally came across Varian’s Tangled trials written by TheArtistsMuse and IFoundYouJustineTime on ao3, which is definitely one of my favorite takes on the Seven Kingdoms storyline!!! I’ve been obsessing over this story for two weeks and I’m already going insane </3
Long ramble about this below cut
I decided that I didn’t like how some of the characters were originally designed so I took it upon myself to redesign them how I pleased so I don’t want to rip my hair out whenever I draw Nuru >_<
Basically my versions of the Seven Kingdoms cast is based on Varian’s Tangled Trials, just because I like that story a lot and I feel like it’s true to the characters. I did take some parts of the original character profiles and incorporated them into my own character descs, but they feel a lot more personalized for me because I wanted to write them MY WAY!!!!
The characters side by side so you get a feel for their true heights compared to one another El oh el!!!
I didn’t change much about Varian’s outfit (I don’t like his original one that much (like the one with the orange scarf) cause he looks like ink sans </3) because his outfit is already pretty solid!!! I js did things more in my style and tried making him look more steampunk esc instead of elf esc?? Cause boy what are those shoes?? overall I quite like how he came out MY BOYYY
Hugo is also like the same situation. His design is also already pretty solid but I felt like he js??? Needed more??? Idk if I did him justice or if he looks cooler cause he’s already SO KEWL!! I also wanted him to look a little more steampunk esc but I kept him to same overall : ) I also didn’t want to give him freckles cause Varian already has freckles and I thought it would be neat if he had scars instead (I’m a genius)
Nuru went through a change or two!! Overall she’s a pretty flat character who I feel doesn’t get much development just because she’s not someone I want to focus on in the story?? She doesn’t interest me much and I think her design is a part of it. She just looks so?? Boring in the original??? So instead of her dress having the constellations I switched it to her scarf and ditched the dress, cause I feel like traveling in a dress is impractical. Lost the leggings, the shoes, the dress, changed the outfit a lot, and I feel like she looks like what I was going for. She’s very Glimmer from She-Ra coded and that’s the point, so I think she came out neat from what I was envisioning. She also has hand wraps because THIS GIRL CAN SCRAP
Yong also overall doesn’t look very different, I just switched some of his colors around and made his hair a little longer, switched a few parts of his outfit and overall just tried to make him look more interesting. He’s also a pretty flat character but he gets very dynamic in Varian’s Tangled Trials!!! I quite like what they did with his character there it was SO NEAT!!!!
The original character sheets are below here for comparison!! I feel like how I designed them are more true to how I PERSONALLY think they would be like ykwim??? Overall I love this nonexistent series and I will be thinking about it for the next 6 months
I’ve watched several Sarah J. Maas interviews. You can find under my Tiktok saved videos the SJM interviews. Huge thanks to lda9090 for posting and compiling these clips.
Based on everything SJM herself has said, it is pretty obvious who the FMC of ACOTAR 6 will be. I honestly don’t know why I even have to spell this out, but here we go.
In a 2015 interview, SJM talks about how Nesta and Elain changed the original draft of the ACOTAR series, ultimately leading them to have their own books:
“The biggest changes happened during Acotar the sisters remained kind of just like cardboard cutouts… and while I worked with my editor we thought you know, who are these women, whats their story, whats their narrative and I realized that there was a lot more to Nesta and Elain than just what Feyre saw. So there’s a point in the book where you learn something about Nesta and what she is done for Feyre… and now the sisters have their own stories coming up. That was one of the big changes that altered the course of the books too.”
Paperback ACOFAS special interview
Everthing I did those weeks became research for HER book
(Truth Teller flexing with roses... hehehe)
During ACOSF Tour/Promo
“Do you have another book planned to the other sister (Elain) SJM: yes! As soon as Nesta and Elain came back in ACOMAF I knew they would have journies beyond”
“There are actually lots of little secrets in silver flames that’s set up for Elain’s (book)."
"Each of these books are standalones that features like it’s own couple“
(About boys) “I love that you’re appreciate that you know the guys kind of take a backseat because it is.. when I write the first drafts I usually have to remind myself to let the guys do some things just like the girls” (she prefers to have Female MCs)
Steph (several) interviews:
“Who is the next book about? - I thought is pretty obvious”
“Will Azriel get his own book in the future? - I can’t confirm officially right now but once you get to the end of ACOSF you will get who the next book will be about.”
“Have we met Elains LI in the the last 5 books → yes”
“Azriels journey is one I’m really excited to write (not only because of his bedroom habits)“
SJM (several) interviews:
SJM loves planting long-term foreshadowing.
She has repeatedly said she knows what will happen five books ahead and enjoys laying groundwork early.
In an ACOSF interview, she explicitly mentioned that Silver Flames contains little secrets planted for Elain’s book.
One couple per book. Nesta Cassian Book 5, Book 6...
She ignores reader pressure. SJM has said she mutes reader expectations and listens to her characters instead. They lead the story, not the fandom.
Which raises the question: what has Elain been telling her for the past four books?
Her thoughts on Elain: “I like that Elain is a quiet dreamer. She has a different sort of strength.” She highlights the moment in Book 1 where Feyre sees the cottage with despair, while Elain sees it with hope making Feyre wonder which of them is actually stronger.
SJM loves happy endings.
She once said that when she truly loves a book, she keeps it on her nightstand for months just seeing the cover makes her happy. (Yes, Azriel + headache powder… Amren keeping Varian’s necklace by her bed, too.)
Fun fact: SJM has said she wouldn’t want to experience the Spring Court because Tamlin sucks her words, not mine. Do with that information what you will… especially where Elain is concerned.
Bonus: Today.com Interview (January 30, 2024)
“I let my characters guide a story. And they usually wind up with the people that they need to be with and who offer them the most growth and joy.”
Question: We’re talking about fate here, but at what point is a character the agent of their own fate? What happens if someone rejects their mate? (Listen, if I were Fae and I didn’t like my mate, whatever God chose for me is not my business.)
Answer: “That’s something I find to be very interesting, What if the forces that be put you with the wrong person? Or what if you just decide, eh, I’m not interested. … There’s a lot to explore within the concept of mates and your agency about it. “I’m not going to say if I am exploring it in future books or not, but it definitely offers a wealth of things to explore with this concept of freewill and what is true love. Is it something that’s destined? Or is it something that you make? Is it both?”
Based on all of this, I hope everyone and their ancestors know by now that the next female MC will be:
Elain Archeron.Elain Kingslayer.Elain the Seer.
So… Who Is the Second Lead?
Let’s look at the established pattern.
The main ACOTAR books focus on three sisters.
The love interests of the first two sisters are two of the three Night Court brothers.
That leaves one brother.
Azriel.
By sheer structural logic alone, the second lead of Book 6 would be the remaining Night Court brother, the one SJM has said she’s very excited to write about.
But let’s keep going: because for some people, logic alone apparently isn’t enough.
If you don’t like the idea of a 3×3 structure, I’ve got more threes for you:
Three sisters
Three brothers
Three siblings (Weaver, Bone Carver, Koschei)
Three tasks Under the Mountain
Three mountains
Three Dead Trove items
Three exiles in the Band of Exiles
Three females with long hair paired with three winged males in the cabin painting
Three residences (River House, House of Wind, Townhouse)
Three major countries currently on the map
Three friends in Feyre’s trio, Nesta’s trio, Elain’s trio
Probably even more…
Next :
Reasons/Evidence:
Koschei: These elements are already heavily established in the books. Koschei is the current villain, Vassa is his victim, and Lucien is actively searching for a way to break the curse.
SJM's Pinterest: SJM had a Pinterest board for the ACOTAR series years ago that included artwork of Blodeuwedd named Elain.
Fun fact (erinsuselessopinions found) and I looked at and here:
Blodeuwedd is part of a triad together with Arianrhod and Cerridwen.
In mythology, Cerridwen is associated with the cauldron and is the Welsh goddess of grain and fertility. She guards the cauldron of inspiration and is also a goddess of transformation.
Blodeuwedd represents both death and life and is often called the White Goddess.
The name Nuala comes from Irish mythology. It is a shortened form of Fionnuala, meaning “fair shoulder,” and is also another name for Una, the wife of Finvarra, the king of the fairies.
Nesta went from snarling at Lucien in ACOWAR to willingly chatting with him in ACOSF.
Nesta ignored the collective sense of relief that filled the room and pivoted, finding herself peering up at Lucien, who greeted her with a wary dip of his chin. Elain, the wretch, had taken the seat between Feyre and Varian, about as far from Lucien as she could get.
Then Nes goes onto converse with Lucien. A little later in the chapter:
He’d (Cassian) gotten her a present then, too. And she hadn’t cared, had been so wretched she’d wanted to hurt him for it. For caring.
SJM had no need to emphasize Nesta noting Elain sitting apart from Lucien or call her beloved sister a 'wretch' for it. Then in the same chapter, have Nesta think back about how 'wretched' she was with Cassian last Solstice and admit it in her book.
I don't think Elain or Nesta were wretches to their mates as their reluctance or resentment towards the bond was/is understandable, but hey take it up with SJM. She wrote it.
So her calling Elain that is... interesting because it shows disapproval, that while Elain's avoidance is understandable, it not only hurts Lucien but makes even characters like Nesta find it distasteful.
SJM talking about Elain's perspective in interviews where she hints at resentment towards Lucien is 100% valid. What's also valid is having both Nesta and Cassian note Elucien tension in their book.
While Nes thinks Elain's a wretch, Cassian's heart strains at the longing and disappointment on Lucien's face at the Solstice.
So yeah, Elucien is gonna serve us angsty endgame goodness 🌷☀️
