If you’ve been following me for any length of time, I think my stance on Rhys post-ACOSF, specifically regarding how he treats Feyre and her pregnancy, is pretty established. But I want to take the time to unpack why it bothers me so much, and what SJM could have done to make this plotline work for me.
One of the main things about this plotline that doesn’t work for me is that Feyre is almost completely erased from it. When the dangerous pregnancy is first introduced (331), the only reaction to Rhys deciding not to tell Feyre about the full extent of it is Cassian’s stomach twisting. The conversation soon gets moved to the political implications of Feyre’s pregnancy. There’s no conversation about how horrible this is for Feyre, or the devastating impact this news might have on her, or whether she would prefer to know what she’s facing so she could make decisions about her own body or even help everyone find potential solutions. Instead, Cassian and Azriel are focused on what the situation means for Rhys’ emotional state and the Night Court in general. Of course, all of this is happening without her in the room.
To his credit, Cassian does tell Nesta about the situation right away, and, par for the course in this book, she’s the only person who, in my opinion, shows a reasonable reaction on page:
“Is Feyre distraught?”
“She doesn’t know the full scope of it. But all of us who have grown up here know what it means for a High Fae female to bear a baby with wings.”
Nesta willed herself to settle the fear leaching through her. “And Rhys needed to fight out his fear.”
“Yes. Along with his guilt and pain.”
“Perhaps another court has a healer who knows more than Madja. Maybe one with a winged people. The Dawn Court has the Peregryns – Drakon’s people are Seraphim. Miryam doesn’t have wings and yet she’s given birth to Drakon’s children.” (336)
Even though Nesta and Feyre have a rocky relationship at this point, Nesta immediately asks about Feyre’s feelings, calls out Rhys, and then gets focused on solutions. But again, we get more confirmation that literally everyone in Prythian (or at least the Night Court) knows the implications of Feyre’s pregnancy. Except for Feyre herself.
We get Rhys’ motives on this whole situation after it’s revealed that the quest for more information on a safe delivery has gone badly:
Azriel asked, “And Feyre still doesn’t know?”
“No. She knows the labor will be difficult, but I haven’t told her yet that it might very well claim her life.” Rhys spoke into their minds, as if he couldn’t say it aloud, I haven’t told her that the nightmares that now send me lurching from sleep aren’t ones of the past, but of the future.
Cassian squeezed Rhys’ shoulder. “Why won’t you tell her?”
Rhys’ throat worked. “Because I can’t bring myself to give her that fear. To take away one bit of the joy in her eyes every time she puts a hand on her belly.” His voice shook. “It is fucking eating me alive, this terror. I keep myself busy, but… there is no one to bargain with for her life, no amount of wealth to buy it, nothing that I can do to save her.” (446-447)
Rhys gets this impassioned speech about his feelings – which, to be clear, does not excuse his withholding the information from Feyre, let alone conspiring with her friends and family and medical professional to keep that knowledge from her – but what do we get from Feyre, when she finally knows? This is what she tells Cassian, after she’s had time to process:
Cassian shook his head, though Feyre couldn’t see it. I’m sorry you had to learn of it.
I’m not. I’m furious with all of you. I understand why you didn’t tell me, but I’m furious.
Well, we’re furious with Nesta.
She had the courage to tell me the truth.
She told you the truth to hurt you.
Perhaps. But she was the only one who said anything. (488)
So we find out that Feyre is furious, and we learn a few lines later that Rhys has apologized (though not for what, exactly, and to whom), and we see later in the scene that Feyre is ready to fight for her life and her baby’s. But we never see it. We actually never see her speak any of these words aloud, to Cassian or to Nesta or to Rhys. All of her admissions are mind-to-mind. On the page, at least, SJM literally takes away Feyre’s voice. Contrast that to the multiple scenes that Rhys gets to talk about his emotions, to explain what he’s thinking and what he’s doing, to find solace from his friends. And yet none of this is happening to Rhys’ body. It’s happening to Feyre.
Imagine if, at minimum, Rhys had had just that brief mind-to-mind confession, and it had been Feyre with all the speeches. Talking about how it felt to have died once to save Prythian, to fight so hard against Hybern, and then to find that, at the beginning of her happily-ever-after, she finds herself facing death. To feel that her body has betrayed her. And of course, how it felt to find that Rhys, her mate, had kept all of this knowledge from her. The betrayal and the hurt and the rage. Isn’t that so much more interesting than Rhys’ feelings? Why don’t we get to see it?
And listen, I know ACOSF is Nesta and Cassian’s book, and it would mess with the dual perspective structure, but imagine if we had gotten a scene, or a whole subplot, of Feyre just raging at Rhys for this horrible decision and its impact on her. If it wouldn’t have worked in the book itself, imagine if we’d gotten a novella (or an extended bonus scene!) of the harm it caused to their relationship and the work he did to heal it.
If it’s not going to happen in canon (and at this point, I don’t think it is), I legitimately want to write that fanfic, and I think it’s telling that whenever I mention it to anybody, no matter what their feelings are on Rhys, that’s the fanfic they wanted to read. Because I think we want to see Feyre and Rhys battle it out, deal with a terrible situation, and come out stronger. Because happily ever after doesn’t mean everyone involved is perfect all the time, but being in a great long-term relationship means working through heartbreak and difficult seasons and yes, even terrible decisions. And because, leaving aside what the readers want and going back to the story and the characters themselves, leaving out this moment of reckoning glosses over the harm that Rhys caused, and all but writes Feyre out of her own story.
To be clear, I actually don’t mind if Rhys does horrible things. He was introduced to us as a morally gray character and I think that’s part of what makes him interesting. But we never see Rhys held to account for his actions. Instead, the text treats him more like a romantic hero, focusing on his feelings and his motives, and the way they impact him.
Part of writing a successful morally gray character is holding them to account, and part of writing strong women is showing their full emotional arcs. In the pregnancy plotline in ACOSF, SJM fails to do both. She makes Rhys a bigger villain than I think she ever intended. She makes Feyre regress from the powerful, capable High Lady who used her magic and her voice to great effect. And she makes it really difficult to believe in Feysand, the central couple of her series, without a lot of justification and mental gymnastics.
Finally, it’s impossible to talk about the pregnancy plotline in ACOSF without acknowledging that this is essentially an abortion plot done badly. I’m a woman living in the United States, and so a man taking away a woman’s bodily autonomy and power to choose during her pregnancy is tough to look past, especially at the current moment, and particularly when it’s glossed over by the book. While Feyre likely would not have wanted to end her pregnancy based on what we see on the page, her choices are taken from her by the people who should care from her most. This aspect of the plotline badly needed to be dealt with head-on, and I think it’s going to age poorly in the years to come.
