I’ve seen Emerie being used a prop, or reduced to her friendship with Nesta, or her potential ship with Morrigan and like… here we are, with a female woman of color that is CANONICALLY a WoC, and from an author that rarely gives us anything other than white muses, and she’s also LGBTQ representation, and a reminder that one is not defined by their trauma. She’s representation for people that haven’t been represented in books in a while, and she’s a character that deserves more. She’s intelligent. She’s tough. She’s driven as fuck and insanely strong. And she deserves to be seen as such.

Lucien is not white Helion is not white Emerie is not white and I cannot believe I have to say this but Tarquin is absolutely not white

so explaining my take on Lucien’s heritage— I don’t think he’s Black, I think he’s Middle Eastern (there are Black North Africans, but geographically, I’m penning North Africa rather than East, West, or South). Sarah J Maas is known for being vague and having PoC characters remain ambiguous, but let me let y’all know why I have my take on it.

Date palms and sand-swept palaces remind me more of North Africa and strictly North Africa; Egypt and Morocco in particular.

Now as for his dress, it’s very Mediterranean, very Roman/Greek but also not. Another issue with SJM is that she often meshes cultures together, which is EXTREMELY problematic, and that is the vibe I am getting with Helion and his court. To finalize what I assume is an attempt at a court that is built off of North Africa and Ancient Egypt, I looked at the appearances of the others from his court.

Rich dyes, and KOHL. Kohl is a cosmetic that is heavily popular in North Africa and particularly Egypt — when you look at paintings and representations of Ancient Egypt, the people are ALWAYS wearing Kohl. Now combined with imagery of desert palaces and palms, along with Mediterranean dress that was worn by the Ancient Egyptians, and my take is that Helion is meant to be North African, and strictly Egyptian.

This is a reminder as well that Egyptians are a wide variety of colors— while as an Egyptian I am more olive, I have relatives that are Black. Egypt is a heavily diverse country, and there ARE Black Egyptians. And Lucien, to me, likely sounds as if he’s got a skin tone that is almost gold, not olive, with yellow undertones.

AND THIS IS A REMINDER THAN LUCIEN VANSERRA IS NOT WHITE.

Me looking at Azriel after reading this book

_{a review for acosf said that cassian’s behavior in the first six chapters is because it’s how he thinks he should treat nesta - - - and it’s emphasized he doesn’t know he’s hurting her, and once he finds out, his behavior completely changes. keep in mind, cassian does not know nesta as much as we all think he does. this is similar to rowan and aelin in hof ! !} 

_{how are y’all having elriel / elucien / azriel and gwyn ship wars WHEN THE BOOK IS ABOUT NESTA ? ? ? have i miSSED something ? ? ? literally look at my url and how i still only talk about nessian in the tag because the book is about them ? ? ?}

_{four more days until nesta hopefully beats mor’s ass can i get some noise}

_{THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST SIX CHAPTERS OF A COURT OF SILVER FLAMES. nesta calling mor a hypocrite is sensational. i also think mor is… projecting her trauma onto nesta. i think there’s a huge issue if a woman that is over five hundred years old is incapable of seeing that nesta, who is barely a child in fae years, is absolutely traumatized. this much is obvious by the narrative in the first six chapters and how nearly anything will have nesta remember the moments that are the most traumatizing to her. for mor to compare nesta to the court of nightmares ( her placing her hand on her abdomen at the end of chapter five or six ) was absolutely disgusting. i think that mor herself has unresolved trauma from what she went through and that bleeds into her perception of nesta. i also dislike her telling cassian that nesta belonged in the court of nightmares, which was an insult, according to cassian. i’m not a fan of morrigan, and i genuinely hope we get to see nesta putting her in her spot. nesta archeron did more than she needed in acowar. if not for her story at the meeting of the high lords, things could have gone differently, and horribly. do not forget she was willing to sacrifice herself for all of prythian as well, and that the inner circle did not care for her, nor show any concern until cassian was going to go with her.}

_{rereading acomaf and y’all telling me they don’t have therapists in the night court ? ? ?}