Why do these books suffer so heavily from protagonist-centered morality?
For a while now, I have been trying to figure out what my main problem with the series is. Then I was chatting with someone about the books, and we kept butting heads because she was obsessed with what the story was objectively trying to sell to us about the characters. In which, I felt completely different about.
For context, I am not a huge fan of either Tamlin or Rhys. I do think Rhys is the better partner for Feyre, and I can stomach him more than I can stomach Tamlin, but Rhys is still not a good partner to me. And I told her that much, but she kept disagreeing and bringing up how Rhys “saved” Feyre. And yes, he did save her, but that still doesn’t objectively make him a better partner.
We kept going back and forth, so I brought in a third party who hadn’t read the books. I laid out both Tamlin and Rhys’s actions; the good, the bad, and the outright horrible, and essentially said, “Pick your fighter.” And she literally responded with, “None. Both of those men are awful.”
Objectively she had heard about Rhys, seen fan art. And thought he was hot, but after hearing all those things, she couldn’t understand why she had been sold a pipe dream of him on the internet, because that wasn’t the Rhys she had heard about.
The person I was arguing with was genuinely gobsmacked because, after really thinking about it, she realized she probably wouldn’t pick either of them too.
And that’s when I finally realized my issue with the series. Because why should it take so much convincing for her to realize that Rhys withholding his wife’s pregnancy issues from her, was a horrible thing to do, and why isn’t it treated as such. But it took nothing for her to instantly realize Tamlin’s fault. Anddd…someone who hasn’t read the series instantly got the point. And who knows maybe if the person who hadn’t read the series, had read the series, maybe she won’t find that much of a fault in Rhysand as well.
But it begs the question of why the narrative is constantly condemning one character for their actions while completely absolving another for doing things that are just as bad, if not worse?
And don’t get me wrong, there’s always going to be some level of protagonist-centered morality in books, especially romance books, because the narrative usually wants us to see the love interest as desirable, misunderstood, or ultimately “good.”
But I think it becomes a problem when it starts bleeding into every single aspect of the story, even the non-romantic parts. And it becomes even more obvious when you personally don’t favor the “chosen” protagonists the narrative is trying to push. It makes the entire book an uncomfortable jarring read.
Take this for example: Azriel tortures non sentient Autumn Court soldiers, and the fandom, and honestly even the text itself, treats it like it didn’t happen.
Ask a random person who has read the books and love the IC, they’re always like what?
That did not happen. But it did.
Azriel is still seen as the dark, sexy, brooding shadow-daddy character because it’s Azriel. Nobody questions it, it’s a means to an end. For the greater good.
“Those soldiers probably deserved it, after all they were being controlled by the crown.“
Meanwhile Jurian tortures a human slave owner, and suddenly the narrative acts like he’s untrustworthy and immoral . The books almost seem to try and even convince us that there’s a reason for that, even if Jurian’s actions came from a desire to protect humans, he’s still not to be trusted for it.
Another perfect example is the discourse surrounding Lucien and the mating bond. The narrative treats him like some pushy creep who’s forcing himself onto her, when all he actually did was tell her the bond existed, and bring gifts for holidays, and make sure she is healthy and well. And him spilling the tea( that I am pretty sure Elain, even sensed before he told her) matters because now Elain actually HAS A CHOICE.
In contrast to Rhysand and Cassian, both of whom hid the truth about their mating bonds from their partners at first. They still tried to emotionally get closer to those women while withholding major information that directly affected them, which honestly feels way more manipulative to me. And you know what, that’s okay.
We are reading a fantasy romance, its a fictional world, a lot of things can go, like emotional manipulation👀, but…. why then does the narrative never treat them with the same level of discomfort that Lucien gets treated with .
Infact Nesta is treated horribly for not outright accepting Cassain’s affection right of the bat. But somehow Elain doesn’t owe Lucien anything according to the narrative? I don’t even think she owes him anything, maybe a conversation? but that’s about it. The same way Nesta never owed Cassian anything.
And Rhys literally physically harms Feyre at one point. He twists her already injured arm to force her into making a bargain with him. Can you honestly imagine what the narrative would have done to Lucien’s character if he had done something like that to Elain?
Waittt. We don’t even have to imagine, look at how he is already being treated now for the kidnapping of Elain. And objectivey, that’s light work compared to what Rhys did to Ferye UTM.
Elain shouldn’t be forced to be with a guy that reminds her of her trauma or was involved in her trauma, infact according to Azriel, “Lucien will never be good enough for Elain”, but in the same breath Ferye should and can be with Rhysand after UTM, and Rhysand is good enough for Ferye
Okay🤷🏽♀️
We often hear the words morally grey, but are some of these characters really truly morally grey. Because to me its simply reads as black and white. It’s either your horrible actions are good, and for the greater good, and the narrative treats it as such . Or they are bad, plain and simple. There’s no inbetween. And for the second set of characters, they never get to escape those mistakes or horrible action, it hunts their narrative, even after they have atoned for them.
Even as I write this, my brain is waging a war against me, because surely if Rhys didn’t twist Ferye’s already injured arm, he won’t have been able to make the bargain, and then save her, later on in the books, right? So surely since it’s for the greater good, then maybe it’s right that he never had to properly apologize for it.
Cassain had every right to feel stifled, and even tells Nesta that he feels shackled to her, because narratively she’s not being a very nice person. And he is still a good mate. One of the best going by SJM’s wording.
But Lucien can’t even have a fleeting thought about feeling shackled to Elain, according to some people in this fandom.
It’s a never ending circle.
Sometimes reading these books feels like being trapped in some weird social experiment or an episode of Black Mirror because the author keeps trying to spoon feed the audience on how we’re supposed to feel about certain characters, even when the actual text often suggests something completely different. And people just go along with it, and when you don’t. You are often treated like you are insane.
To this day, I genuinely haven’t been able to properly get into other fantasy books because of this series. Acotar was the first and last fantasy novel, I ever picked up.
l have developed this irrational, and almost childish fear to pick up another fantasy book, and face this same issue, so I stopped all together. If you guys have recs, that don’t suffer from this issue, I would love to hear them.
And this is not me even saying SJM is a bad writer, or that people that take these books the exact same way SJM feeds it to us are strange. But I also just feel like people should be allowed to notice this pattern, and feel a type of way about it, and not be condemned to feel that way.