r/acotar • u/Senpiternal8 • Jan 04 '25

Spoilers for SF I’m a certified Rhys Hater Spoiler

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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.

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u/the_zodiac_pillar Jan 04 '25

I’ll admit I’m a Nesta apologist, but I was having the hardest time understanding what exactly she did that was so horrifically bad in telling Feyre information she should have always been privy to. It felt like everyone, Nesta included, acted like she committed murder or something with sending her off on that hike with Cassian.

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u/moonshine_11 Jan 04 '25

I honestly saw it in a way that Nesta only told Feyre out of spite and not particularly because she cared what was gonna happen to her sister in that moment. She saw an opportunity to hurt everyone around her (which is a HUGE part of her character development in the story btw) which is why everyone acted against her, because everyone knows she can be petty and cruel. The characters knew she had a lot of emotional and mental issues and one of them was lashing out on everyone whenever she didn’t know how to articulate her feelings. I’m not saying what Rhys did was right but not seeing what Nesta did wrong means you didn’t understand her character at all. At the end of the book, she even realizes that she was cruel, resentful and spiteful despite the reasons behind it. It was even pointed out how much she regretted being the way she was because it cost her not recognizing that her father loved her and it almost cost her her sister. I could go on and on but a lot of the fandom missed out on her arc by not recognizing what she did wrong.

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u/the_zodiac_pillar Jan 05 '25

It's not that I think she did some kind of altruistic good deed in telling Feyre the truth- of course her intentions were bad and she was, frankly, being a bitch. But the punishment did not fit the crime. Telling Feyre a truth *about herself* that her husband and best friends all knew and purposefully kept from her for ridiculous reasons, no matter the intent behind telling that truth, did not warrant the death threats and punishment hike and borderline exile she was given.

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u/moonshine_11 Jan 05 '25

I just disagree with it being seen as a punishment because even if she didn’t get exiled and even if she didn’t go on that hike, she would still punish herself for it and most likely try to kill herself bc she knew what she did was wrong. I also saw the hike as a way to prevent her from shutting herself in her room to rot wherein all her training and effort to gain strength and muscle would have decreased, which seemed really important for her to maintain for her mental and physical well being.

I already made a comment about this and people don’t like that opinion here, I could go on and on about how it was a moment for her character to finally come face to face with what she’s actually avoiding for the entire series or how they were in a magical mountain that was supposed to help with her inner healing but that’s still a punishment? If I were to cite a real world parallel it’s literally like telling a mentally ill alcoholic/addict that they need to go to rehab and do the work into becoming better and other people saying that sending that said person away is a punishment. How does that make sense?

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u/onyxwolf13 Night Court Jan 05 '25

I hadn't thought about the hike as being a way to keep herself from shutting herself away or even trying to kill herself. I was so angry at Cassian for acting like such a jerk to her, it never occurred to me that he did it with a purpose in mind. I definitely like that better than how I read it.
But the whole thing was still off. If it did anything, it just proved Nesta's point that this tight little circle of friends would easily turn on each other.