#anti sjm nesta archeron
Nesta: *glares at Cassian the same way she glared at everyone*
Cassian: she thinks I am not worth being kind to because I am but a lowly Illyrian bastard
Nesta: *doesn’t speak to Cassian after the war the way she doesn’t speak to anyone*
Cassian: Nesta has deemed me unworthy of her time because I am but a lowly Illyrian bastard
Nesta: *drinks herself half to death and copes by tearing the new body she hates as if it is an object which means nothing to her*
Cassian: wow. Nesta is sleeping with all these males instead of me because I am but a lowly Illyrian bastard.
The IC (and fandom): Nesta how COULD you constantly tell Cassian he is not worthy. How could you go on and on about him being a bastard. How could you target him specifically with your cruelty when HE is so clearly the one in a vulnerable spot right now. You don’t understand. He was once poor for like 8 years as a child and 500 years later despite endless wealth and power is still caught up in that and attributes everything wrong in his life to it. How could you reinforce that by not fucking him immediately??? What a monster. Witch. How awful!!!
Friendly reminder that Nesta literally mentions the *bastard* thing ONCE in a BONUS CHAPTER while Cassian is purposefully sexually goading her. She then defends him for literally the rest of the series while he is continuously ashamed of her and doesn’t even talk to her in front of his friends so …
Can we please move on from this narrative?Like damn, a girl can’t even be traumatized by a war without everyone making it about Cassian’s insecurities.
These conversations about Nesta are really interesting. Because there’s the standard back and forth about the cottage situation –which is just a consequence of poor writing –but then there’s the conversation about domestic violence/abuse. The ability to call out abuse seems wholly dependent on the type of victim…not the actual abuse.
Because on one hand, a lot of people who whole-heartedly dislike Nesta usually recognize that Cassian is sort of abusive or at least they see the red flags in him, but their ability to empathize with that Nesta is stunted because they believe she deserves it. I think that’s why the intervention is so conflicted because the conversation regarding the actions taken by the IC isn’t actually all that contested. Everyone recognizes the problems (Rhys, Amren), it’s Nestathat’s the point of contention.
Of course, this is because SJM essentially writes this. It’s why I began to really dislike Feyre as a character (like how she’s written, not her as like a sentient person). It’s also why I titled my first set of posts ‘the perfect victim.’ That’s essentially what the story argues about the topic of abuse. Abuse is bad because Feyre is good, not because abuse is abuse. So, this trickles down to Nesta. She’s not a perfect victim, she’s not a 'good’ person. That’s the angle of the hiking scene, Cassian…wants revenge. The entirety of the IC wants a sort of revenge. You know when someone says a comment like: 'Your pretty for a black girl,’ or something along those lines? They do believe you’re beautiful, and they want to acknowledge that. But they still intrinsically believe you are inferior. It’s the same with the idea of the white savior, or something similar. The intervention is written to humiliate and get revenge on Nesta…but the story also needs to have this moral high ground.
I’m kind of eager to see more opinions because I think the points people are making about Nesta are so crazy because it’s like a weird kind of disconnect. It just really bothers me when people say things like Cassian is too good or when people justify some of those scenes.
