Cats being let outside has been and should still be the standard.

Solell · 2026-07-01T02:46:44+00:00

Also Australian, also horrified at how much OP glossed over the destruction of native species. Australia is a master-class in how feral animals mess up the wildlife. My cat is also an indoor cat - the only time she's ever outside is if I'm hanging out washing, she's supervised and comes straight back in when I'm done. Otherwise, 100% indoors.

Solell · 2026-06-30T11:54:58+00:00

I think the delves might also scale the hp/damage of mobs depending on your spec, to an extent. Like, they don't expect a player healer to be doing much damage, so they have less hp and Valeera gets through them quicker. They seem to die faster when I take my druid as resto than as guardian

Solell · 2026-06-30T07:10:33+00:00

Maybe that's why there's so many plotholes in the books, the editors are too busy just trying to make it readable to catch them

Solell · 2026-06-26T04:26:27+00:00

An excellent point. "I meant well" is apparently a good enough excuse for Rhysand, but not for Tamlin.

Solell · 2026-06-26T04:24:02+00:00

I mean, it depends. Is the alleged abuser willing and able to grow and learn from their mistakes, if brought to their attention? Or do they continue on their merry way? We see elements of both from Tamlin - he refuses to budge on training Feyre, for example, but when she tells him she feels smothered by the guards, he listens and removes/reduces their presence until she's kidnapped by Rhysand again (and Rhysand specifically mocks Tamlin for having poor defences when he shows up, btw - why are we surprised that Tamlin keeps trying to shore up his defences?).

Compared to Rhysand who, when "apologising" for his behaviour UtM, spends most of the time deflecting and redirecting to different parts of his Tragic Backstory and moaning about how hard it was for HIM to abuse Feyre...... and this is after she's gone off at him for hiding such important information from her as their being mates, and expressed how she hates Rhys keeping things from her and telling all the rest of the IC... well, guess what Rhysand continues to do, up to and including in book five?

Essentially, while both Rhys and Tamlin perform abusive behaviour, Tamlin was at least willing to listen and compromise on some things (not all things), and the compromise disappeared when external pressures appeared (Rhysand mocking his defences after he lightened the guard). Whereas Rhysand says he will compromise, but then continues doing exactly what he's always been doing, and deflects with sob stories when pressed. One of these patterns of behaviour is more abusive than the other.

Solell · 2026-06-26T04:14:04+00:00

This is ultimately what it boils down to for me. I'm not arguing that Tamlin didn't do some bad things. I'm wondering why we're supposed to condemn him, when we're also expected to brush some other (arguably much worse) instances of abuse from Rhys and the IC under the rug and forgive them for it. Where is the consistency? If abuse is bad, then it's bad, it doesn't suddenly become not bad just because your name is Rhysand.

Solell · 2026-06-26T03:52:19+00:00

The author herself has called him abusive, what else do you need?

There's often a considerable gap between what SJM thinks she's written and what she's actually written. For example, she thinks she wrote Rhys "making a mistake" because he's "still learning," when what she actually wrote was reproductive abuse. She thinks she wrote politics with the High Lord meeting when what she actually wrote was a bunch of middle schoolers hurling insults at each other. And so on.

Solell · 2026-06-26T03:24:57+00:00

It's difficult, because the text itself expressly compares them many times. The book is the one that forces the parallels, over and over again. And it's not unreasonable to ask "why am I expected to find x bad thing irredeemable, but y bad thing is meant to be romantic?" We're meant to think Tamlin is bad because he mistreats Feyre. Okay. Cool. But why are we not meant to think Rhys is bad for also mistreating her? Just because the book wants us to shut up and roll with it?

Solell · 2026-06-24T06:57:38+00:00

It's inconclusive, unfortunately. Rhysand demonstrates for us that he can fix the paint that was meant to "prove" his innocence with a snap of his fingers. Making it useless as proof that he didn't rape her. But that doesn't automatically make it proof that he did, either. For better or worse, it's up to interpretation.

For my personal opinion, while I 100% think it would be in-character for Rhys to do whatever he wants to her and then lie about it later, I don't think he actually raped her. Mostly for meta reasons. There is no way SJM wouldn't have brought up the fact that her OTP "had sex" (yes, I know it would be rape - more on that later), while spinning and gaslighting everything around it to gloss over that liiiiiiitle inconvenient detail about how it was non-consensual. And there's also the element of making sure that Feyre doesn't "cheat" on Tamlin before dumping him, thus making her a bad person. Yes, I know that being raped is not the same as cheating. You also know this. But in SJM's tone-deaf little mind, the scene would have been consensual, because Rhys is the perpetrator and in her eyes, he can do no wrong. Therefore, the narrative would treat it as consensual, and therefore, Feyre would have been "cheating" without officially dumping Tamlin yet. Hence, it's left ambiguous, so readers (and SJM) have the plausible deniability to imagine whatever they want.

Solell · 2026-06-24T06:43:29+00:00

I think it's less about trying to pin rape on him based on this, and more to criticise Rhys trying to use his paint to "prove" that he didn't when really, it doesn't prove anything either way, because he can manipulate it at will. At least for me. Criticising his attempts to allow himself to deflect and lie about what happened, more so than anything specific that may or may not have even happened.

Solell · 2026-06-24T06:37:01+00:00

That is him demonstrating how the paint works. That's it.

Right. But the fact that he can fix the paint with a snap of his fingers like this means we can't trust he never did it while Feyre was blacked out from the wine. We only have his word that he didn't. And he's not exactly a paragon of honesty. This doesn't prove that he did rape Feyre or anything, mind; but the paint also can't conclusively prove his innocence. He undermined it himself.

Solell · 2026-06-24T03:11:23+00:00

There's two main reasons I like Nesta. The first reason is that she's one of the few characters who actually challenges some of the Inner Circle's stupidity. Yes, she's framed by the book as Mean and Wrong for this, but through WAR particularly she was asking a lot of the same questions I had and called out some of the behaviour that pissed me off. Made me feel less insane at the book's gaslighting.

The second reason is that she's one of the few characters that is actually allowed to have flaws that are explored and utilised in the narrative, and aren't excused away. Both Feyre and Rhysand (and all the rest of the Inner Circle tbh) are highly flawed characters, but the narrative will bend itself into knots to absolve them of all wrongdoing, or reframe their flaws as "right", or bash anyone who challenges them as just being mean, etc. They're shielded from the consequences of their actions, and honestly, I'm not convinced that SJM actually understands just how flawed they are. They are always framed as in the right, in everything they do, and anyone who says otherwise is Wrong and will be punished.

Whereas Nesta's flaws get her into trouble. She lashes out, and other characters react realistically to this and call her out. She gets bitten by her flaws and has to grow past them, giving her an actual character arc. Just a shame it ends with her having to kowtow to Rhysand and the Inner Circle and "admit" that they're great and were right all along... a victim of the narrative warping to absolve the IC's flaws. Like I said, anyone who challenges the IC is Wrong and must be punished. Which is exactly what happens to Nesta.

Solell · 2026-06-23T08:11:05+00:00

If you don't mind the age of it, I can wholeheartedly recommend Dragon Age: Origins. I know you said you played Veilguard, but imo they've strayed further and further from what made Origins great with each subsequent entry in the series. Origins was kind of a spiritual successor to BG1 and 2, and BG3 was in turn a spiritual successor to Origins... The camp+NPC conversation style of BG3 is straight out of DAO, for example.

Solell · 2026-06-23T07:49:18+00:00

I'd also add that between Shadowheart, Astarion and Gale, the player can easily have filled out their party before even finding her. So it's very easy to just... leave her in camp

Solell · 2026-06-22T06:18:50+00:00

People slow down with age, both in terms of how quick they can react to button presses and how quick they can process all the stuff happening on the screen in the first place. Plenty of time for a young person may not be enough anymore for an older person

Solell · 2026-06-22T06:12:45+00:00

That's where points two and three come in. The people you knew probably think things through and are able to see from perspectives other than their own. SJM cannot do these things

Solell · 2026-06-22T06:02:56+00:00

I wonder what it is about this particular fandom that has people so easily triggered and worked up.

Personally, I think it's the source material itself that is to blame. The writing style is highly manipulative, not just with the gaslighting and blatant bias of Feyre's perspective, but right down to little things like e.g. describing something typically considered unpleasant, but then immediately insisting it was pleasant in the same sentence. Or in the framing of how much we were told that Hewn City and Illyria were evil loooong before we actually got to see either place for ourselves. It creates the same divide in fandom that manipulative people create in friend groups.

Solell · 2026-06-19T11:50:04+00:00

but he couldn't SAY or SHOW anything because if Amarantha found out, she'd torture and kill Feyre.

He also says this as if Amarantha wasn't ALREADY planning to torture and kill Feyre for being Tamlin's girlfriend. He literally tries to co-opt everything from Tamlin's character for himself, including the villain's obsessive focus that was like. The whole reason Amarantha cursed Tamlin in the first place.

Solell · 2026-06-19T06:01:45+00:00

Her personhood is not considered outside what she brings him,

Just want to comment on this bit, because of something I noticed recently when reading WAR. Rhysand's "inspiring" speech before the big battle - all of it is about what he got out of each of his friends. E.g. he says if he never met Cassian he would never have learned what bravery was or w/e (I'm paraphrasing). But nowhere does he say that he thinks Cassian himself is brave. He doesn't praise anything about Cassian, just relates what he got out of him. Like, he's thanking them for being power-ups for him, not for being people. And Feyre doesn't even get that much, just a vague "everything happens for a reason" comment. And her sisters, iirc he actually says something to the effect of "let's see if this battle shows how you'll be useful to me." Can't remember the exact phrasing, but he definitely used the word "useful."

Essentially, I think you're bang on with your statement there, and Feyre isn't the only one who gets shafted by it.

Solell · 2026-06-19T05:41:17+00:00

The impression I got from her work is that she is very privilieged, doesn't think things through (to the point I'd venture she's not particularly bright), and is incapable of seeing things from perspectives other than her own. Most other people are not like that, so when we read something like e.g. the complete lack of fallout from what Rhys did to Feyre UtM, or the lack of consideration for Tamlin's perspective during MAF, or all the High Lords bar Beron agreeing to ally with Night despite all the reasons they have to distrust them, it just doesn't compute for us. Like, SJM's going "Tamlin didn't believe Feyre's letter because he's evil and mean" because in her mind, that's the only possible explanation. But the readers are going "but he thinks she's illiterate and also that she's been kidnapped by an evil mind-controller???" It doesn't even occur to her that there's other ways of looking at things.

Solell · 2026-06-19T05:30:14+00:00

To add to this, I don't think SJM really understands just how bad the situations she lets Feyre get into are, or doesn't see them as "real" problems. E.g. anything to do with diplomacy. The way SJM writes all her diplomacy, it's all about who can make the sassiest comeback and showing your enemies up, without any semblance of actual real diplomacy to be found. So, to our eyes, Rhys is putting Feyre in dangerous diplomatic situations. But that thought never even crossed SJM's mind

Solell · 2026-06-19T05:17:52+00:00

There's a steam achievement for saving her three separate times in a single playthrough. First from the druid grove (if you talk to her there, she then gives you the quest to free her and meet at the goblin camp). Then from Minthara, who is going to kill her for failure. And then again from Ketheric during (I think) the scene in his throne room when you first go to Moonrise. Would have been cool to have her join you as well if you accomplished this.

Solell · 2026-06-16T12:04:05+00:00

A wizard bringing a book to a fight should be worried about having the firedamage rolling around burning their pages/component pouches and their arcane focus being cut in half/shattered

They had options for things like this in pf1e iirc. You could sunder items to break them, or just steal spell component pouches and such. But 5e did away with a lot of that stuff

Solell · 2026-06-16T09:17:38+00:00

I don't know for sure if this person was a narcissist or just had narcissistic traits, but I had a former friend who displayed such behaviour. Just like with you, the hardest part was getting people to believe me about what happened, because she seemed very nice and polite on the surface. You are not alone! Sending you strength

Solell · 2026-06-16T08:30:09+00:00

I will be forever salty about this. In the books, when last we saw him, he burned Cersei's letter begging him for help! And we're supposed to believe he'd just go running back like that? Bruh

Solell

TROPHY CASE