✨ ahhhhh, I haven’t drawn these two for ages and it was well needed, especially since poppy is one of my favourite MC’s! So here’s a scene I’ve been thinking about drawing since I’ve read FBAA
Ahhh, for the longest time I’ve been wanting to draw them, but every time I did it just felt like I wasn’t giving them justice. ANYWHO—finally got the courage to finish this piece. Honestly, poppy and cas are one of my favourite book couples and it shows!
⚔️ LISTEN, I haven’t drawn Poppy or Cas in a hot minute, and I decided that you know what? How about adding Kieran in there since I simp for him, BADLY. And can I just say that today’s quote is one that made me physically scream when I was reading this book the first time??? I honestly love every single character in this series, which is a first for me.
⚔️ ANYWHO, hope I did those three justice. Please DO NOT spoil The Crown Of Gilded Bones in the comments—I still haven’t finished reading it because I’m going through a really bad reading slump and just re-reading books I’ve already read.
It’s like, I DO love the whole, “LI is completely devoted to MC” thing, I do. It gives me butterflies. “Who did this to you” is an excellent trope, love a grand gesture, love proof that someone has been devoted and pining for a lot longer than they’ve let on. All that stuff is great.
BUT,
That doesn’t mean I want that person to no longer care about ANYTHING ELSE except their romantic partner. I DNF’d the third book of the FBAA series, but from the things I’ve heard and the pieces of the newer books I’ve read, Casteel is a completely different person. He no longer seems to care about anything at all except for Poppy, and most of the time he only cares about fulfilling her sexual desires. This is good fantasy fodder, I understand why this trope is appealing, but it’s the transition from a complex, multi-motived character to a bona fide disciple that is really disappointing.
I recognize that I haven’t read all of those books, so I can’t speak on it with total certainty, but -
I HAVE read all of the ACOTAR books, and while I don’t think Rhys’s character has degraded to the same level or degree as Casteel’s seems to have, I have still been really disappointed with his behavior since the middle of ACOWAR. It seems like he doesn’t really care about anyone except for Feyre and now their child, and that makes me sad. He’s screwed over Azriel, Cassian, and Mor, a few of them more than once, and hasn’t seemed apologetic at all.
These are supposed to be the people he DOES value and DOES want to protect. I understand that he was ruthless under the mountain, but he was ruthless for their sake. He’s lied to all of them and on several occasions basically refused to consider their feelings beyond a cursory mind-to-mind convo with Feyre. In fact, Feyre seems to be the only one of the two of them who still tries to prioritize their friends’ happiness and well-being even if it’s less convenient/a bit of a headache for her and Rhys.
Yes, I’m referring to Rhys pretty dismissively and harshly warning Azriel off of Elain in the bonus POV (really, Rhys, your best friend of five hundred years and you think he’s just tryna whet his whistle with one of the most “off-limits” women in Prythian?) , but also the way he handled the alliance with Eris and the bargain with Keir in relation to Mor, his asking Azriel to lie to Cassian about the illyrian rebels and essentially withholding crucial information from Cassian, and his lack of consideration for Elain’s opinion in the court machinations he’s laid out in his head. Even if Elain does want to be with Lucien (though I definitely don’t think she does) Rhys doesn’t seem interested in finding out.
But I’m not even here to argue about the ships! I just wish that authors would allow their male LIs to still have loyalties and motivations beyond their significant other. That’s what keeps the ship interesting! They can be together 100%, be completely and undoubtedly in love with each other, but still care about other things and people. I know you can make the case that Rhys wasn’t just disregarding his family for Feyre but also for the greater good, but then he put literally his entire court and really all of Prythian at risk when he made the death pact with Feyre.
Idk, this is a bit of a ramble, I’m not even sure if I have a definitive thesis here. I’d love to hear other takes on this but to me, Rhys’s abandonment of every other loyalty in his life to prioritize not just Feyre’s life, but also anything that might complicate their situation non-lethally, is not great.
I just, I don’t want complex characters to lose their complexity! That’s no fun! And it leads to a really boring and unsatisfying phase or end for a lot of otherwise fantastic ships.
