u/huwualian

As someone who saw sjm’s instagram post confirming the leaks and went “oh, it’s so over” and was ready to most likely not continue the series anymore (i was having a mini crashout 😭)….

I truly think we shouldn’t lose hope of the books being Elain/Elriel centric! I know the blurbs give multi-pov and everyone is jumping to TOG level of number of pov characters…. but we truly have no way of determining whether the multi-pov is going to be contained to just 3 (elain-azriel-lucien) or encompass like 10+ like the fandom is speculating 💀

I know the blurbs not mentioning Elain like the previous ones mentioned Feyre and Nesta is disheartening, BUT we should remember that nothing in ACOSF’s blurb hinted at a CASSIAN POV👀

Perhaps SJM either realized she needed to tweak how she wrote the synopsis in order not to throw off the reader with a double/triple pov, or was told to by BB….

In addition, I have some hope that maybe this is a sign that SJM wrote Elain’s story more similar to Feyre’s rather than Nesta’s: as in romance happening while the plot was progressing towards a climax rather than romance happening while staying stagnant plotwise🤔

because let’s be honest, Nesta’s book was boring a majority of the time 😭 Her book was mainly nessian romance and valkyrie friendship development. It didn’t really push us forward besides Nesta finding the trove objects and even those just felt like little side quests thanks to them being in between countless scenes of girlboss kickboxing and climbing up and down stairs🤷🏻‍♀️

I would understand feeling cheated if SJM doesn’t go as in depth with Elain’s healing journey as we did Nesta’s…. but to be quite honest I think she went TOO in depth with Nesta’s…. I honestly believe that ACOSF would have been much MUCH better if SJM hadnt tried to use her as a self-insert for her own healing journey and instead written her book more similar to ACOMAF and Feyre’s healing journey. Unpopular opinion, but my favorite parts of ACOSF were when Nesta interacted with the IC. Everything else just felt like sludge I had to wade through in order to get to the good parts.

TLDR; I think the blurbs could be a sign we’re returning to ACOMAF/ACOWAR levels of writing in which case Elriel would be SO UP since nessian suffered GREATLY from ACOSF’s writing…. Think about the number of Nesta stans that HATE cassian and want him to die because of ACOSF…. I truly do not think ACOSF is what we want to emulate when imagining Elriel’s story☝🏼🙂‍↔️

It’s a common talking point in the fandom by one side regarding how Nesta’s trauma was overlooked/downplayed/ignored/etc. by the IC, and this goes a long way to supporting hate towards them.

However, I think the people who think along these lines are letting emotions take up rational thought. When you REALLY think about it, it’s actually pretty easy to see why/how the IC were so oblivious to Nesta’s suffering for so long.

As much as I know this is going to set some people off, I have to say it….. everyone in the IC either experienced the same trauma as Nesta or worse:
•Elain was also put into the cauldron (Nesta’s aversion to bathtubs)

•Feyre also witnessed their father’s death (Nesta’s trauma regarding cracking of firewood)

•All of the IC participated in the war effort and 4 of them actually ACTIVELY fought (general Nesta PTSD)

As readers, obviously we’re aware of how unlike everyone else in the IC (maybe not Elain but we’ll see in book 6/7), Nesta is the sole person still affected by the events in ACOMAF and ACOWAR. But to understand why the IC “failed” Nesta so badly, all you have to do is step into their shoes.

“Feyre is a bad sister/selfish because she forgot about Nesta saying she can’t stand to be in a bathtub.” - Elain also went into the cauldron, BEFORE Nesta. Elain is seen by everyone as more sensitive/weaker than Nesta. Elain LIVES with Feyre. We can presume that Elain takes baths. It’s not farfetched that this would all align and make it easy for Feyre to not realize how much Nesta is actually traumatized.

“Cassian is a bad mate because he didn’t realize Nesta was triggered by wood cracking while Azriel did!” - Nesta’s whole thing with the wood was due to hearing her dad’s neck break. You know who ELSE heard their dad’s neck (AND THEIR OWN) break?! FEYRE!! Feyre did not have the same reaction as Nesta. It’d be VERY understandable for Cassian to see Feyre going on like normal after seeing her father die and assume Nesta (WHO HATED HIM) was doing the same.

For the general demonizing that the IC suffers from, it stems from Nesta being “forced” to heal fast while everyone else took years to heal their past trauma. I don’t feel like getting into the whole Mor & Cassian’s trauma and healing process thing right now… so I’m not jekdkdkd What I WILL touch on is what the thinking process most likely was for the IC. I already mentioned Nesta’s trauma regarding bathtubs/firewood, so now it’s time for her general trauma. ALL of the IC participated in the war. Rhys, Cas, Az, and Mor actively FOUGHT. They were WOUNDED. They witnessed the deaths of fellow soldiers. Compared to that, the Archeron sisters were FAR REMOVED from the battle. I wouldn’t expect a soldier to think that a nurse would suffer from the same PTSD that they might….. Nesta had her one scene of being in harm’s way. Feyre was hunted by Ianthe and then witnessed the death of her mate. Elain was kidnapped by the King of Hybern. As far as we AND the IC know, both Elain and Feyre came out on the other side of the war mentally unscathed.

Nesta is CONSTANTLY believed to be the strongest of her sisters mentally. Rhys literally refers to her as being an Illyrian: aka she’s super fucking tough.

It should not be difficult AT ALL to see why and how the IC went so long believing she was being difficult rather than suffering emotionally/mentally. That isn’t to say you cannot feel bad for her plight. That’s the whole point of her book. She was so good at putting up this badass front her whole life, that it was impossible for others to truly see her pain until she began to stop being afraid to show vulnerability (aka the feat accomplished by the hike).

Something that I find really unfair surrounding Nesta, is how a certain group of people seem to think that she’s incredibly stupid…. that group being her own stans.

Nesta is constantly lauded for seeing through Rhys’s and the IC’s “good guy act.” In fact, many Nesta stans attribute her view of Rhys compared to Feyre’s as a reason for why they were so drawn to her in the first place.

Nesta is also constantly pitied for being mistreated by the IC (the mistreatment being two out of the SIX simply dont trade pleasantries with her).

So now we have Nesta who is constantly abused by these terrible villains who she already sees for what they truly are!!!!—EVIL assholes. You would THINK that this would make Nesta weary about trusting their word on literally ANYTHING. That is, according to Nesta stans who love crowing about how much smarter than all the IC Nesta is.

HOWEVER, we see Nesta stans’ second and third faves Tamlin and Eris being threatened and verbally attacked worse by Nesta than she has ever been by the IC…. The excuse?? “She’s going off of what fEYre’S BiAsED & UnREliABle NaRrATor self told her!!!!”

So let me get this straight, when the IC dont immediately embrace Nesta to their bosoms upon meeting her because they know how she has treated Feyre all of their lives, the IC are these assholes and Feyre is malicious for poisoning her new family against Nesta…. but Nesta letting Feyre’s ~biased~ attitude toward Tamlin and Eris is “not her fault.” ??????

So either Nesta stans REALLY love to baby this TWENTY FIVE YEAR OLD WOMAN…. or Nesta is actually an idiot. At least the IC loved Feyre and that explains them taking her side against Nesta without question. If Nesta stans are to be believed, Nesta is out here hating the IC, mistrusting them, seeing through them, being abused by them and….. also spitting vitriol at people they dont like and even threatening them (Nesta literally threatens Tamlin while TRESPASSING on his land but I never see the “rhys suicidebaited tamlin!!!!” brigade defending their sadboy against heartless witch nesta🤔)

ANYWAY!!!! All this to say that it’ll never not be ironic that a certain group of readers CLAIM to think so highly of Nesta and write dissertation after dissertation defending their reasoning but it all falls apart really quickly when their countless claims that contradict each other come into play!