u/RavensSing

Just played through the DLCs for each (haven't finished them though) and here are my thoughts till now since I have to write them down.

Cove: Maybe it's just me but his friendship route was always so romantic to me for some reason? Like, short of being indifferent him and my MC genuinely seem to constantly reach for each other regardless of whether they're in love or just friends. I know queerplatonic best friends exists but I always read romantic undertones, even on his platonic route.

I was originally planning to do Derek's romance but even then Cove kept reaching and my MC kept reaching out in response. Like, they have a real 'nobody else in the world is like you' vibe unless you play a totally indifferent route. He has flaws but my MC loves him and loves helping him with them, and then he does sweet things like the trifecta dates just to make sure we're happy.

Baxter: Ohhhh boy.

I love him. I really do (I heard he ghosts you after the DLC but eh, I haven't reached that part yet so I'll ignore it). He's so fascinating and mysterious to me. Ngl I think I would prefer to date him over Cove IRL, but Cove was made for my MC. Still, does anyone else think he's yearning in his DLC even on a 'fond' route? I feel like it. My MC and Cove were already dating by the time he arrived, but if they weren't he probably would've been a summer crush/fling while my MC dealt with his feelings for Cove.

ALSO IF YOU THINK HE'S OVER-THE-TOP PURCHASE HIS DLC SO MUCH IS EXPLAINED!!!

Derek: Hmmmmm, ngl, this one's probably unpopular but I didn't feel a romantic connection with him. Like, he was definitely crushing on MC, hard, but neither me nor my MC would've been intereted in him so it's good we just went the friendship route.

Just finished the 'Dark Is The Night' series by Kelly York and I really want an Edwin-like POV. So, basically, I want a book where the main character is a homophobe who does something especially bad (not unforgivable but still awful) and spends a good portion of the book guilty/trying to atone.

Preferably set in high school/college and with less smut (saying this to sort of filter out the bdsm books. Just not my thing). Also no instalust!

I just binged the Dark Is the Night series by Kelley York and got addicted to it (and, don't hate me for this, I really want to know more about what happened to >!Edwin. Idk why, I'm attracted to pathetic characters who are guilty af!<). The writers imply that they're planning more books in the same universe, plus there's that cliffhanger at the end of book 3.

Still, it's been a good few years and I can't find any news. Did they scrap it or...? I'm not saying this to, like, pressure them or anything, but I really wanna know! They have a mailing list I just got on (first time ever subscribing to an author) and I checked their Insta but there's nothing I can see.

I was recently on a subreddit I thought I'd like and won't name because the rules forbid it (I didn't like it), but anyway, they were talking about Tamlin. A few things stuck out to me, but namely, the fact that he didn't sleep with Amarantha and accept her offer was treated as an issue of moral rigidity rather than the fact that he didn't want to be raped.

Like, "he was trying to maintain his moral goodness by not sleeping with Amarantha and manipulating her the way Rhysand did" sort of shit, instead of "HE DIDN'T WANT TO BE RAPED LIKE RHYSAND WAS BEING, NIGHTLY."

Their point was that if Tamlin had accepted Amarantha's offer and taken her into his bed, he could've gotten close enough to manipulate or even kill her. And his choice to not do so was framed as his attempt at remaining morally 'pure' or superior.

I read this thread a few hours ago and remember feeling exceptionally pissed about it, and realized this is why:

This framework –very happily and smugly, I might add– handily frames his decision not to be raped as moral rigidity and lack of flexibility, rather than a desire to not be raped.

To put it frankly, if Tamlin had accepted Amarantha's offer, he would've been raped. And if you disagree with this, then you disagree with the fact that Rhysand was also raped Under The Mountain. Both situations are strikingly similar, except for the fact that Rhysand chose to become Amarantha's sex slave by using his Daemati to make her want it, nightly, while Amarantha chose Tamlin to be her obsession. In both cases, while the males are allowed to make a choice, it's obvious that neither of them would really want it if it weren't under duress and coercion. Rhysand says yes. Tamlin says no. Both are results of coercion.

Tamlin not sleeping with Amarantha is not him 'being morally rigid' or 'being an idiot', it's not wanting to have his consent violated. And Rhysand being Amarantha's pet while playing double agent (which I'm honestly skeptical about for reasons I won't get into. I do think that he was probably a double-agent because SJM adores him and wouldn't give him a single bad thing in his history, but there's plenty of reason to think he wasn't and that he was playing both sides to see which one would give him the most gain) is brave, and morally incredibly good, but it does not make Tamlin bad for not going to the lengths Rhysand did Under The Mountain.

I know this is probably a fairly popular opinion (I hope, at least), but I just wanted to put that out there. Tamlin not sleeping with Amarantha was not because he was morally rigid, and framing it that way pins all the blame on him rather than the fact that this *insert words here that I'm not sure I'm allowed to say on this subreddit* was obsessed with him when he was a teenager (in Fae time). It's very victim-blamey and I hate it.

I'll be the first to admit I probably would've accepted Amarantha's offer and killed her in her sleep, but I'm not going to fault the others for not doing it. Plus, Rhysand was in her bedroom for fifty years and wasn't able to do anything beyond cursory attempt at rebellion. Yet somehow Tamlin, who had even less power than he did, was supposed to...what, jump off his throne and attack her?

Also, side-note, but I find it hilarious that Rhysand bashes Tamlin for banging Feyre UTM when the way things went, Tamlin kissed her, Feyre started taking off his pants and instigated sex, and they both wanted it. Plus, Rhysand had more power UTM than Tamlin and wasn't able to get Feyre out with three months of time, while Tamlin was supposed to use his five minutes of alone time to...Idfk at this point. Blow her out of the mountain using the magic he didn't have? Kill all her guards and mount an epic escape that would lead to both of them being killed? (Plus Feyre had a bargain with Amarantha, so she couldn't have escaped anyway).

Tamlin was an idiot for kissing her since Amarantha would've smelled him on her and made things worse, but at this point both are going through their own fresh trauma and neither are thinking straight (I fully believe Tamlin might've been SAed UTM. Amarantha wanted him for fifty years and once she had him, she'd just keep him in her bedroom for an ornament so he could watch Rhys fuck her? Lmao, she isn't into that sort of play...probably).

This turned into a huger rant with more parts than it should've had, but TLDR: Stop blaming Tamlin for not wanting to be raped. Thank you and goodnight!

I'm not saying I'd hate it if they became friends again, but at the same time, I don't trust SJM to write it competently anymore. Like, Lucien straight-up lied to Tamlin and abandoned him (don't come at me with the 'Tamlin abused Lucien' thing. Rhysand literally uses Cassian as a punching bag. If your best friend left you for a girl while you were busy spying on an evil King who would kill you if he found out you were spying, and then your entire house was razed and destroyed, WOULD YOU BE FINE WITH IT? HUH? NO. TAMLIN WAS GOOD TO LUCIEN BY GIVING HIM HIS BELONGINGS, I WOULD FUCKING PUT THEM IN A FIRE. He's lucky he walked out with both his legs intact in FAS)

And Lucien clearly suspected Rhysand and Feyre were mates. He said nothing. He saw Feyre was acting weird (hugging him while he was bare-chested to make Tamlin suspicious Lucien was fucking her), and did fucking nothing.

And if they do get back together I dont think SJM is actually going to talk about it because she refuses to think that Tamlin is a person with emotions that her faves might've hurt. If I were Tamlin I'd tell him to have a good life, to stay in Night, and that if he ever comes on Spring's borders again I will kill him. Instead, she'll probably just talk about how 'hurt Lucien was, poor boy', and yes, he was hurt, but he wasn't the only one! This relationship is a two-way street.

Rant over.

I'm so confused. I read someone said Tamlin abused Lucien and I just blanked. What?

I know this subreddit is going to be really biased, lmao, but I'm so confused. When does this happen?

So, barely a few hours ago, I made a post talking about how SJM tries to include real-world nuances and problems in her writing, and how it doesn't gel with her own narratives most of the time (someone descibed it as applying makeup but not blending it, which I think is an apt description).

Velaris having poverty when it's a tiny city-state and its leaders all have huge-ass amounts of money and a room full of just crowns makes no sense. I understand that governing a city takes a lot of money, but firstly, these dudes are magic, half the stuff they need can be automated by magic and done costlessly, second, Rhys is ridiculously rich. Most royal families own like 7 to 20 crowns in total. He apparently owns a roomfull? And he has six houses.

Having poverty in a city where the leader is so rich, in any other story, would signal that the leader is indulgent and vain, focusing more on his own personal wealth than on the betterment of his dream state.

But this is Rhysand, so instead the focus is kept on how awesome he is.

I woke up a few minutes ago and thought about how I would've written Velaris, and I came up with one simple idea: rich people have the resources to do awful things (see: Epstein island). Bored people have the idleness to do awful things.

What if, due to the extreme boredom of everyone being rich and able to do anything, a black market of sorts grew in Velaris for more extreme pleasures? Hard drugs, human trafficking, et cetera. What if Illyrian families sent their kids to child-fighting rings in Velaris, and these kids are kept by families in hidden rooms (luxurious compared to the Hewn City) and fed and clothed and trained forr child-fighting rings or alternatively, prostitution?

Rhysand knows about this, but is unable to use Daemati because he's bound by ancient laws (when he created Velaris he vowed to never use Daemati on his people and doing so would be an act of war), and while he did manage to stop it in the past, after 50 years of him being stuck UTM it's restarted (the IC tried doing something about it but were too busy trying to keep Velaris afloat without trade or commerce).

Plus, after Velaris re-opened itself, the people of Velaris started hosting the pits outside Velaris, in unknown areas in Illyria? Which would make them even harder to track down. And alongside that, the noble families in Velaris are all constantly working against each other and Rhysand in order to gain the upper hand.

Now, this isn't the most ideal solution. Velaris is supposed to be a utopia, after all, and if Rhysand is to be touted as the best High Lord ever, it'd be better to have Velaris remain a utopia (it doesn't need to be perfect, but it shouldn't have any big problems like child-trafficking) while focusing on the problems outside Velaris in Night Court, showing how Rhysand has a great idea and a great prototype, but large-scale implementation still needs to be worked out.

However, if we don't want Velaris to be a utopia, I believe that the 'black market of pleasure' idea better fits the rich, decadent and gluttonous vibe better than poverty and poor people that still exist while the High Lord hoardes his wealth.

Okay so these are the examples I can think of but there are probably others. Basically, my issue: SJM tries to make her writing nuanced by making things not as black and white as they are, but she overdoes it to the point where things either look awful or great.

These are my main examples:

Night Court: SJM didn't want to create a perfect utopia since she wanted her world to feel real, hence why she bought in real-world problems like sexism, wingclipping (organ mutilation), poverty, et cetera. Cool! Nothing wrong with this. But then she talks about how Velaris is so great and Rhysand is such a great leader and it just doesn't work with the internal logic of her own narrative (Rhysand has six houses, he can't sell five? He can't sell his entire room full of crowns? He can't BUILD MORE HOUSING FOR POOR PEOPLE????? HIS ENTIRE POWER EXTENDS OVER A SMALL GATED-COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE WHO WERE LUCKY ENOUGH TO BE BORN IN THE RIGHT PART OF NIGHT COURT??????).

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Tamlin: SJM didn't want him to be a caricature of an abusive boyfriend (you know, wife-beater-dude who smells like piss and beer. Oddly enough this would fit Rhysand more, what with the alcoholism, narcissism, et cetera). SJM gave Tamlin sympathetic reasons for his actions (protecting Feyre) and gave him actions that would make sense from his POV (plus I believe she's giving him a redemption arc, based on what she said in CHD. No, I will not discuss this, so don't argue in the comments).

The thing is...everything he does is sensible. Like, the escorts aren't that bad, very respectfully, GROW UP FEYRE.

Literally any rich family from that time (and even now) has bodyguards, WHY is this such a point of contention for her? (And she still has bodyguards in Night, so, like, WHAT WAS THE POINT OF ALL THAT?).

Him locking Feyre up is also reasonable. He's the leader of a Court, a small country, and he cannot bring untrained civilians into a fight! Bringing Feyre to wherever he was going would be the equivalent of taking a teenager with a gun on a NAVY seals mission (and to Tamlin, Feyre is a teenager. Like, she's 19 years old to his 500, come on. The fact that he's in a relationship with her is weird, but, like, eh, it's romantasy I'll just ignore it). Even Feyre admits that she wouldn't be much use in a fight and he says she's a liability. The only thing he did wrong was refusing to train her, imo.

Once again, SJM tries to make her writing nuanced but then just ends up overdoing it. And, like, it's great! It's good that her writing tries to be complex...but then she tries so hard to sell us on the opposite direction as the text (saying Rhysand's a great leader, saying Tamlin's an awful boyfriend who sucks and is abusive) and I just want to bash my head against the wall.

It's so much tell-not-show. I hate it so much. I hate that I love Tamlin so much. Ugh.

Sorry for all the yelling. Might clean this up and post it in r/acotar later to see what people think.

EDIT:

There are ways of writing this stuff in a nuanced manner that wouldn't have needed so much 'tell-not-show'. If Rhysand is the 'greatest High Lord ever', show it! First of all, I'd have just removed poverty from Velaris entirely. It makes no sense in this world. If Rhysand really is the 'greatest High Lord ever', he'd ensure that people in one city would at least have a bare minimum standard of living (i.e, not a slum, three meals a day, constant water access) using his seemingly endless coffers.

Instead, focus more on the problems outside Velaris. Make Velaris the utopia that Rhysand says it is. Or, alternatively, just make Rhysand less rich. The fact that he has so much money and still can't fix the problems in his city (not his Court, just Velaris) absolutely shatters the 'greatest High Lord ever' delusion. Instead, II would've:

1. Had Velaris be a functioning city-state so Rhysand can focus on the Hewn City and the Illyrians, creating education drives, doing censuses (not sure if that's how this is spelled) to count the number of wingclippings per year, then put in laws to prohibit this, then do the census next year. Rinse and repeat, and every time there's an offender kill or imprison them. Or just maim them. This is a fantasy world, if Azriel can torture the mentally ill, Rhysand can torture literal abusers. Just make Rhysand do something useful.
2. OR, made Rhysand poorer. Maybe he's already invested a lot in Velaris and doesn't have all that much cash to spend. That would make him look like a good leader, since he's clearly spending as much time and resources as he can to make Velaris his dream come true.

Tamlin: Honesly, first thing I would've done is just have a timeskip. Fae live centuries, why not give Feyre and Tam some twenty years to deal with things? This would also make Tamlin's refusal to actually sit down and deal with his trauma more unreasonable and indefensible. Also, I would've just removed the whole 'Feyre hates the escorts' thing because she comes off as a child in this.

Instead, I would've focused more on her frustration with not being given more duties (Tamlin in ACOMAF actually did offer to give her duties and asked her if she wanted a title) and not being given anything to do, coupled with the fact that she's unable to train. I'd also make Tamlin more paranoid. Maybe he tracks her wherever she goes since he doesn't want to risk her getting caught by something. Maybe she does manage to do things like handle the estate or deal with problems while he's gone, but he insists she stop because she might be tired out or she might not be able to handle it (another thing I hate is the fact that fo all Feyre talks about wanting a title and wanting power, she doesn't do anything to actually earn it. Let her earn shit on her own merit!). Maybe she even trains in private, with Lucien helping her (Which could be another point of contention for Tamlin: the perceived betrayal from his best friend).

Also, show him having panic attacks more frequently (and thus more outbursts of magic). Have Feyre be a more competent politician while also trying to help him through his trauma (while he insists she doesn't need to do that, that he's fine, blah blah blah).

Also, just scrap the whole 'locked in a manor' plot. Feyre looks like an idiot in this. Maybe people start noticing Feyre's doing well and Tamlin gets his head out of his ass and realizes she might be right. Then something happens (she gets attacked or something) and he loses his head again trying to protect her (in this case she doesn't insist on following him to a fucking battlefield) and does something that breaks the camel's back and she snaps, leaving.

This way, he still looks sympathetic and complicated while at the same time being far more unreasonable than what we actually got.

I'd also make Feyre's revenge on ACOWAR more morally dubious instead of the fine, girlboss moment that it's presented as. For me, the end of Tamlin's arc would probably be him getting therapy and an HEA with no romantic subplot (while Feyre is far away, enjoying her own life).

EDIT: Another example of this 'costume of nuance' writing is probably the politics in ACOTAR. The High Lords meeting was a sham where the Night Court violated the no-attack pact twice and Beron's wife was actually injued (which, even if he disliked her, would be taken seriously as an act of aggression in any reasonable political structure. Imagine if the US Presidential guard shot the wife to the Prime Minister of the UK at a diplomatic summit). Furthermore, Spring being destroyed seemingly has no impact on the rest of Prythian (save for Tarquin taking in refugees). Rhysand isn't hated for what he did under Amarantha, but Tamlin gets no help restoring Spring even though he did the same thing under Hybern as Rhysand, and was instrumental in winning the war.

17M. At this point I'm genuinely just getting so annoyed all the time. I ignore it most of the time but still, especially at formal events (I'm going for a visa appointment in two days) and my Father warned me to 'comb it properly and keep it neat'. Which, yeah, fine, except I do comb it and it's the same result! I think he just doesn't understand what curly hair actually looks like, and when I explain it, he tells me that I can't have curly hair because of genetics (because apparently traits can't skip a few generations. I have so many things to say about him but I don't know if Reddit'll allow it. My hair is definitely curly though, strands go from being 2C to 3A, I think. If long enough they form a question-mark shape).

If I don't somehow straighten it (funnily enough he hates me using heating tools and I got yelled at and called a ton of awful things for using a hair dryer) he'll probably spend the entire day texting me and ordering me to call him so I can have even more slurs yelled at me. Fun! Mercifully, he doesn't live with me.

It's not long enough to tie in a bun or anything (nape length) and for some reason my parents hate it when I have a fringe too. They've also started saying that my forehead has acne because of my fringe (there's no acne. Just some roughness that most people wouldn't even notice unless they touched the skin) and that I look dirty. Which, fair, when it's not washed.

But it's still pissing me off so fucking much. Especially since I really like how I look. I used to have boringly flat hair and kept wishing I had curls.

Also, routine, because I don't want this removed lmfao:

1. Twice a week: coconut oil, leave in for four hours, then wash off with shampoo (L'Oreal hyaluronic acid shampoo. I know people hate their products, but it works just fine). Shampoo and oil is twice a week, usually three-4 days apart.
2. I put L'Oreal's hyaluronic acid conditioner in (look, this brand is big where I'm from and it's cheap! Works as well as curly-hair brands for me, personally). This is everyday (I swim and also use sea salt spray).
3. Sea salt spray for added texture and volume (love it. Also everyday).
4. Gel twice a week (Fix My Curls, flaxseed), though personally I get alright results with just sea salt spray too. Afterwards, I warm up my hands with a sweet-smelling oil and scrunch it out.

Hi, everyone! I've applied for a German student visa (bachelors) and my application's been stuck in preliminary review for three weeks now (got off the waitlist ages ago, submitted the application on the 25th). Is this normal? Asking since the website said it'd only take a week, and all the other comments and posts I've read say that it took them 2 weeks in total. The university is a public university, one of the TU9 (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Saying this since I want to be clear that it's not a private university, so I don't think that's a reason for the delay).

Finances are all fine as well (blocked account has around 12336 EUR, and my parents' bank statements have 29.8k EUR in this month. First semester tuition has been paid). APS-exempt (British A Levels, uploaded the Anabin confirmation) and a minor (so I provided a consent form signed by both my parents, who will also accompany me to the embassy on the appointment date).

EDIT: Bangalore.

I love this so much.

Like, I don't think Tamsand can ever work out in canon (but a guy can dream, right?), but even in the Tamsand fics I've found (and there are many that are so well-written, stylistically), the number of fics that actually talk about how both hurt each other is...slim to none. It's always Tamlin apologizing (funnily enough this also happens in the actual canon) - _ -.

How about Rhysand apologize for the death of Tamlin's mother while Tamlin apologizes for the deaths of Rhysand's sister and mother? How about Rhysand apologize for Feyre destroying Spring, something he actively supported? How about Rhysand apologize for the Spring citizens he killed under Amarantha? Ugh. And what sucks even more is that these fics I've read are all well-written and genuinely good. Just...one line from Rhysand. ONE ADMISSION OF WRONGDOING AS WELL. WHY IS THAT SO HARD?

It's Rhaenicent all over again (basically this ship from House of the Dragon. All the fics have Rhaenyra apologizing when Alicent gave as good as she got - _ -).

Any suggestions?

Like, it's all explained in ACOWAR. He's a double-agent, and without him the war would've been lost on multiple counts (he was the one who forced Beron to fight, he was the one who found out about the Faebane caches so an antidote could be made).

Like, I'll admit, there are reasons to hate him (though as a Tam-stan I'll point out that these reasons are applicable to anyone in these books, with Tamlin's own actions being far more reasonable), but people keep saying Tamlin sided with Hybern like they just forgot everything in ACOWAR that wasn't Rhys and Feyre.

Wait, did they?

EDIT: Someone in the coments called Tamlin selfish and...

Honestly? He should've been. Dude should've just gone with Amarantha when he had the chance, let her make him High King, and rule with her. His competence/intelligence (proven by his actually useful espionage with Hybern, unlike a certain Lord of Night who apparently sat on his ass for 49 years) and her pure sadism would've made them the best morally awful (since he's allying with Amarantha) power couple in Prythian.

Basically, a book where one of the love interests is a Tamlin (does exactly the same things as all the other characters but is the only one to get lambasted for it. Basically a hatesink for all the characters). Bonus points if the MC also hates him at the start!

Preferably MM (male x male) but anything goes. I just finished my fanfic (Which I've now taken as canon) and need one last bit of closure, lmao. With a happy ending. I know this is a specific request, so sorry about that!

EDIT: Preferably after 2001.

EDIT: You guys, you don't have to respond to this. I will argue if I need to, up until I don't feel like it, but it'd be easier for both of us if you just didn't.

I dunno, this possibility has been stuck in my head for ages now. Like, obviously it would have to be before Lucien's eye got gouged out, and it would be basically giving into someone who lusted for him as a literal child, but it's STUCK IN MY HEAD.

She would've literally made him High King. I dunno, I can imagine a vengeful Tamlin going back in time and going: fuck it, let's just do this, I'm done.

I KNOW THIS IS A TERRIBLE SITUATION, OBJECTIVELY. But like...it's also very much on my mind. They could've been a weirdly good power couple? Like, Amarantha's pure sadism and lack of morals coupled with Tamlin's intelligence and power (which is comparable or even greater than Rhysand's). If we removed the whole 'lusted for him when he was a teenager (ew)' thing, she just looks like a standard yandere.

This is purely a joke opinion but also what I truly believe. Like, Feyre thinks Rhysand's the hottest because of the mating bond (I'll admit, he's probably attractive like literally every Fae in this book, but still), but literally all the evidence points to Tamlin being hotter.

This is purely a joke opinion but also what I truly believe. Like, Feyre thinks Rhysand's the hottest because of the mating bond (I'll admit, he's probably attractive like literally every Fae in this book, but still), but literally all the evidence points to Tamlin being hotter. I'm turning off reply notifications since I'm uninterested in arguing, but just wanted to get this out there, lmao.