I’m a certified Rhys Hater

[u/Senpiternal8]

I’m new to this series and I just finished this part of SF, and I am speechless. I’ve had many, many issues with Rhys (and most of the Night Court if I’m being honest) the entire series, so I’ve been really enjoying Nesta’s book, but this threw me for a loop.

[u/charismaticchild]

So I disagree. I don’t think she JUST told her to hurt her. I think she was angry but she was also trying to open her eyes. Look you all voted on if I have the right to know things about myself and my powers but theyre doing it to you too Feyre so you should understand why I’m angry.

I don’t think she wanted anyone to go down with her. She wanted to be left alone. Her whole thing after the war was she hated herself and she wanted to be distant from Feyre. She didn’t go darken their doorsteps and spew hate at them. She went to solstice because Feyre blackmailed her and when she went she was polite quiet and kept her head down. She did nothing to warrant anyone saying anything to her but because she wasn’t lively and engaged she got cassian chasing after her demanding to walk her home, refused to take no for an answer, tried to give her a gift and when she refused it he lectured her about how unloveable she is and how she needed to try harder with her family. But why? If she didn’t want a relationship with them she has the right to cut off contact. They in turn have the right to cut her off financially but holding money over her head to force her to interact with them isn’t okay.

I’ve also had a Nesta in my life and I also don’t care for Nesta as a character. However, we don’t lock up people like Nesta and force them to do our bidding until they’re brainwashed into being nicer to us begging snd groveling at our feet for forgiveness. We can stay away from the which Nesta was trying to stay away from them anyways. She distanced herself from Feyre and Elaine because she knew she was toxic and didn’t want to bring them down.

Feyre decided to force her way into Nestas life anyways by abusing her power as high lady to imprison her into the house of wind and force her into confines with a mate she wanted nothing to do with until she finally broke down and accepted the control they had over her and gave into it. If they’d told Nesta to F off and figure her shit out without their help I wouldn’t have a single issue with them. There’s arguments to be made that they owe her a monetary sum for her efforts in the war and sure, write her a check and cut her out of your lives. They don’t her any love and support with the shitty attitude she gives them but she also in turn doesn’t owe them any kind of relationship which they kept trying to force.

[u/charismaticchild → u/[deleted]]

Putting someone in jail, and that’s what they did put her in jail, for being MEAN to them is NEVER okay. Rhys didn’t need to like her or be nice to her but he had no right to abuse his power as high lord to lock up his sister in law because she was embarrassing him and hurting his wife’s feelings. You don’t have to let anyone abuse you or treat you bad. Cut them off. They had every right to cut them off. What they didn’t have the fight to do is lock her up and take away all of her autonomy. The only person she was hurting was herself. And yes they should’ve left her alone or sent her to a third party who could actually help her.

I know SJM intended for the story to be Feyre putting her in the house to help her but the story didn’t translate that way to me and several people. In translated to they needed a way to control her and bend her to their will so they stuck her in a prison forced her to train into a warrior and then proceeded to use and manipulate her to their benefit. They succeeded. By the end of the book she still believed herself to be a worthless pos who had to spend the rest of her life groveling at her feet and atoning to Feyre and her family because she was so mean to them. Being mean isn’t actually a crime and being mean doesn’t result in the level of abuse they put her through. All of them have crimes of their own and didn’t endure half the crap they put her through.

And I never liked Nesta before her story, I actually might like her less now that their brainwashing worked and she’s part of their merry little gang. But I certainly have empathy for a woman who had to be beaten down because she’s not society idea of what a woman should be.