there’s a content creator on tiktok complaining on why she dislikes Sel and Selbree as a couple because she deems it as struggle love and that Sel barely had development over the course of three books? How does it feel to be completely wrong 😭 If you read Legendborn and can’t see the obvious change in Sel that’s highkey a you problem. But the forced hate he gets is just really weird in this fandom, like you still don’t have to like him but why ignore his development???
not this post summoning me. listen, I have been out of the LB fandom for a minute, but this just suckered me back in.
is sel a perfect character, absolutely not. De he try to kill Bree in the beginning, yes. But if you take in the context (if anything happens to Nick, y'know the person he BONDED to, OATHED to PROTECT, he will suffer greatly for it) then you will understand why he behaved the way that he did. I doubt it was about race, Sel would have treated her the same way if she was white because Bree did come out of nowhere and Nick had an immediate attachment to her.
Haven't read Oathbound yet, but I heard Nick gets more development and more screen time (correct me if I am wrong). However, if you want to talk about a character having less development that's literally Nick. Nick did not have a lot of development in the first 2 books (he was literally absent for most of the 2nd book).
and to say that Bree & sel are 'struggle love', would these same people saying that if Bree was white? because how is their dynamic any different to that Draco x Hermione, Alina x darkling, or any other enemies to lovers trope? is there constant bickering annoying and played out? yes. but I would say calling it 'struggle love' is a bit of stretch, since at the end of BM and in OB he sacrificed his humanity for her is actively paying the price for it. but you know that he would do it all over again if he had to - LB Sel would not have done what BM Sel did, and that my friend is growth.
If Sel is not your cup of tea, that's fine. Like the commentor before said, Sel is a slowburn character. If you prefer Nick and Breenick that's fine too. But don't discredit a character's growth and development simply because you don't like them.
*proceeds to open up draft of unfinished bee/sel fanfic* now I am heated.
