Imagine how you would respond if Feyre (or your best friend) sent you this letter...
I genuinely cannot understand how people justify Rhysand’s actions or hold him up as this ideal partner.
So I wrote this "letter" as a bit of a rant/experiment—this is what it sounds like to me when his behavior is defended and romanticized.
If your best friend described her husband like this, how would you honestly react?
Because to me…this doesn’t read like “perfect feminist dream man” at all.
Dear Bestie,
I have met the perfect man. He is a feminist and the most powerful High Lord and can literally control people's minds! Hot, right? I'm so in love!
One of the first times I met him, he invaded my mind, and it was so painful and scary I thought I would cease to exist. But he assures me he was just pretending to threaten me. There was an innocent girl who was tortured and died as a result...but I try not to think about that and—he is really the hottest man I've ever seen!
Then, when I was at my most vulnerable, thinking I might die, he twisted the protruding bone in my injured arm to force me to accept a bargain that he didn’t fully explain. But don’t worry—that wasn’t physical abuse or manipulation. He had a good reason for doing that. He also licked my tears lol so hot.
He also drugged me and tattooed me and dressed me in the most revealing attire you can imagine and made me dance for him and for others’ entertainment. I know that sounds a bit weird, but trust me, it was for my own protection. Things could have been a lot worse if I had just been left alone in my prison cell.
He spied on me using the bargain tattoo when I finally got to return to the Spring Court with Tamlin. Tamlin couldn’t talk to me about very much knowing that Rhys was listening, but I’m still mad at Tam for that! But don’t worry, Rhys wasn’t invading my privacy or creating a rift between Tamlin and me. He was actually looking out for me and knew exactly when to show up to steal me away from Tamlin at the most impactful moment. Lol. Thank goodness!
Originally I wanted to return to Tamlin to work things out, but Rhys made me see that he was actually an abusive jerk, so I married Rhysand instead and never looked back!
At first he did lock me in his cloud castle for a week, but don’t worry—that was totally different from when Tamlin trapped me in his manor for five minutes. When Rhys locked me up, I didn’t mind. And later when he suggested we lock my sister up for her own good, I thought to myself - that's a totally reasonable idea!
He withheld information from me about being his mate...but that’s because he had a good reason.
He asked me nicely to play the part of his sex toy in front of his people under the mountain. His people are so awful that they aren’t allowed to leave from under the mountain, and he scares them into obedience, which is honestly kind of funny! Also, he fingered me in front of all of them and it was embarrassing, but only a little bit, because that’s actually when I realized we both had the hots for each other! Yay!
He did the funniest thing. He put my life in danger by setting me up to retrieve his mother’s ring from this woman who wanted to eat me. Yes, it was terrifying and I ended up with literal human fat slathered all over me, but I did succeed while he slept in a nearby tree, so yay me! Isn’t that romantic? Turns out it is the ring he proposed to me with!
He always tells me I have a choice. And it’s true! He always gives me a “this or that” option to choose from.
He let me train with my powers, which led to Hybern’s lackeys hunting me down (just like Tamlin said would happen—but I don’t like to dwell on anything Tamlin is right about), but luckily Rhys and I were flirting a lot and it was exciting, so I don’t care about the danger he exposed me to.
There was this one time that we went on a mission to retrieve a really important book. Amren (I’m not sure what she is, but she’s pretty badass) and I both almost drowned and died. Rhys promised to protect us, but somehow wasn’t able to. He didn’t really seem to care and didn’t comfort me (or Amren) at all, but he was soooo invested in the book that I guess he just totally forgot about us, and that makes total sense. It is a really, really important book. Hopefully the next time I almost drown, he will at least ask me if I’m alright. If he doesn’t, I’m sure it will be because he has a good reason.
I was in a lot of danger when I got pregnant with our child too, but luckily Rhys didn’t bother to tell me and wouldn’t let anyone else tell me either, so I could just enjoy my pregnancy. I guess it was a little weird that I was trapped in a protective bubble, but I didn’t think too much of it. Yes, I almost died and didn’t have the chance to make my own decisions around that, but in the end I didn’t die, so all is forgiven!
He does hate my sister and bullies my ex-fiancé (even though they were both pretty close to suicidal), but who can blame him? It’s really not as bad as it sounds. I mean, Rhys would be dead if it weren’t for Tamlin, and my child and I would be dead if it weren’t for my sister, but...Rhys is so hot and good in bed, so it’s easy to overlook these things.
So what do you think?? He sounds incredible, right? A total feminist. I can’t wait for you to meet him. You won’t believe how hot he is!!
Love always,
Feyre