Context:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvQthncne_s

The Problem With Sarah J. Maas' Toxic FandomYouTube

Hello, the last year I've been looking for readers who can write decent reviews on a reception wiki I've created. I've met a few people who are interested but so far I've only gotten one decent review. I have multiple wikis of this topic but so far nobody's shown enough interest to participate, what do you recommend doing to find the kind of users I'm looking for?

https://literaturereception.fandom.com/wiki/Literaturereception_Wiki

Literaturereception Wiki@getfandom

This review contains spoilers.

Fair warning, this is a long analysis, but there's pretty pictures by Wendy Pini.

After reading her book, I feel Maas has been fairly criticized for a lack of diversity and inclusion in 'A Court of Thorns and Roses.' However, there is an additional element that has not been recognized elsewhere, but makes this lack even more egregious.

We're going to talk about how Maas not only takes from Wendy and Richard Pini’s comic series, 'ElfQuest,' but specifically how, in doing so, she removes the diversity and inclusivity that has been part of that series since its inception in 1978.

A quick summary of both stories.

In the first arc of ElfQuest, we meet Cutter and his tribe of elves, the Wolfriders. In retaliation for killing a human, their home is burned and they must make a new one, crossing a desert to do so. They discover more elves, the Sun Folk, including their Healer, Leetah. Cutter Recognizes her; a bond forming between them compelling them to mate. After completing three trials that test Cutter's physical, mental, and emotional/spiritual prowess, they act on their Recognition. Later, Cutter and the Wolfriders meet the Gliders of Blue Mountain. Blue Mountain and the elfin court within it are manipulated by a tyrant sorcerer, Winnowill, aided by her bat-winged second, Tyldak, who eventually betrays her to help the protagonists due to Recognition with one of the Wolfriders. The Wolfriders and their new allies triumph over Winnowill, though in doing so their understanding of themselves and their world is forever changed.

In ACoTaR, Feyre lives with her two sisters and their father near the border of Prythian, a Faerie realm. Feyre is compelled to enter the woods near her home to hunt for food, unintentionally killing a Faerie disguised as a wolf. Tamlin, High Faerie Lord of the Spring Court, abducts her to his Prythian estate in retaliation. Little does she know, she’s going to be instrumental in undoing a curse. Queen Amarantha, a tyrant sorcerer, has captured the other Faerie courts. Keeping them Under the Mountain, she is aided by her bat-winged second, Rhysand, who eventually betrays her to help the protagonists due to a magical bond forming between him and Feyre compelling them to mate. Feyre succeeds in breaking the curse after completing three trials that test her physical, mental, and emotional/spiritual prowess, though in doing so she is forever changed.

I’m sure you can already see similarities here.

Let's go into detail.

The High Ones

Maas’ Faeries are Faeries in name only. They're supernaturally attractive people with pointy ears and magical powers; functionally indistinguishable from your standard DnD elf. Faerie traits like the inability to lie, weakness to iron, and the importance of True Names are absent. Instead, those are myths the Faeries created to fool humans, their only real weakness being ash wood. In both stories, there are humans who fear and hate the Faeries/elves and those who worship them.

I question why Maas decided to have her characters be Faeries in the first place. If you aren't going to give them the characteristics that make Faeries distinct from other mythological creatures, then what's the point?

Maas neither writes around what are considered typical Faerie rules, nor does she make up intriguing new ones. Holly Black does a great job of the former in her books, particularly the Folk of the Air series. Margaret Rogerson intriguingly handles the latter in, 'An Enchantment of Ravens,' constructing a deliciously unique power dynamic between Faeries and humans I've not seen elsewhere.

The Wolfriders and Feyre both pass through a massive wall to reach their new home

The inciting incident in each story is a conflict between two communities - one magical and one non-magical - that ends in murder and results in the main characters being compelled to relocate to a new home. For ElfQuest, it's Cutter killing a human, for ACoTaR it's Feyre killing a Faerie.

Let’s analyze some characters, starting with Cutter and Tamlin.

Cutter

They’re very similar in appearance; both fit, lean, graceful, and blonde with fair skin. They only really differ in their eye color and their height.

Their names are also similar.

In ElfQuest, the Wolfrider elves have the names they use amongst themselves, but also a Soul name given only to those they Recognize.

Cutter’s Soul Name is "Tam."

"Tam Lin" is a ballad about a mortal man captured by the Queen of Faeries who is rescued by his love. Some of ACoTaR’s story beats as well as its leading man's name and shapeshifting abilities are definitely taken from the ballad. But given everything else that happens in this story, I suspect Cutter's Soul Name also plays a part.

Savah and Cutter

In ElfQuest, "Tam," is short for, "bantam," as in a bantam rooster. Cutter is compared to a bantam rooster in appearance and temperament by characters within the story as well as Wendy Pini, herself.

Cutter and Tamlin both show an affinity for wolves. The literal blood of wolves runs through the veins of Cutter and the Wolfriders. They also bond with wolves who become their hunting partners and mounts. In ACoTaR, Tamlin transforms members of his court into wolves. So, they’re each in charge of groups who are both elf/Faerie and wolf.

Both are leaders, have a sense of noblesse oblige that can border on self-sacrificing, and come from a noble lineage.

Cutter and Tamlin also meet their love interests in similar ways.

After invading each of their respective love interests' homes, Cutter and Tamlin both dip into the romance via abduction trope.

Cutter and Leetah

Cutter abducts Leetah while riding on a giant beast.

Tamlin abducts Feyre as a giant beast.

We see the influence from the Pinis' work in other ACoTaR characters such as Lucien, as well.

Redlance

Lucien, Tamlin’s right hand man in ACoTaR, is an amalgamation of two of the Wolfrider characters - Skywise and Redlance.

The way he’s described physically sounds very similar to Redlance while his personality - witty, charismatic, and sometimes sarcastic - is almost identical to Skywise's. They both fill a similar role as the right hand man for their stories' leading men.

Skywise

Skywise and Luicen are both associated with foxes. In fact, the name of Skywise's lover, who he tragically loses before the Original Quest, is Foxfur.

Lucien also tragically loses his lover, Jesminda, before the events that take place in ACoTaR.

Skywise and Lucien both later Recognize/mating bond with their greatest loves. Each of these love interests undergoes a transformation into a willowy, beautiful elven being. In both stories, these transformations help Skywise and Lucien Recognize/mating bond with them.

The love interests' names are also similar.

Skywise's lover is Timmain.

Lucien's lover is Elain.

Winnowill and Tyldak

Amarantha, the tyrant sorcerer who controls the Faeries Under the Mountain, is ElfQuest’s Winnowill.

Winnowill and Amarantha both hold their respective courts captive within a mountain stronghold and share strikingly similar appearances. The major difference is that Winnowill has black hair while Amarantha has red hair, likely influenced by the color of the flower she’s named after, amaranthus.

Winnowill and Amarantha's personalities are identical. Both are cruel and manipulative, delighting in torturing others through magic.

Dewshine and Tyldak seeing each other through the eyes of Recognition

Each of them has a bat-winged right hand man - Tyldak with Winnowill and Rhys with Amarantha - who Recognizes/mating bonds with one of the protagonists - Dewshine in ElfQuest and Feyre in ACoTaR. Each one eventually betrays his mistress to help the protagonists, spurred on to do so because of the bond with their respective love interests. In both cases at the beginning of the relationship, the man is immortal while the woman is mortal.

Also, for those who have read the book, did you notice something about that name? Winnowill?

In ACoTaR, teleportation is called, ‘winnowing.’

Hm.

Winnowill psychically attacks Strongbow

There is a psychic magic called, ‘Sending,’ in ElfQuest that includes abilities such as telepathy, mind-reading, attacking and healing that Maas seems to have adopted for the 'Daemati' in her world.

We see Winnowill threaten to break the peoples' minds with this power.

Rhys threatens to use his abilities to do the same thing ACoTaR.

Treestump explains Recognition

Recognition = The mating bond.

One of the main points of conflict in ElfQuest is Cutter and Leetah's Recognition, an irresistible mating urge occurring between two elves. It is highly prized, sought out, and considered sacred across the communities we see, much like the 'mating bond.'

Cutter pining for Leetah

Leetah is bewildered by her connection to Cutter, initially resisting their new bond and the loss of control she perceives it to be.

Cutter, on the other hand, has much more positive feelings. And though he yearns for her, aside from her initial abduction, he respects the choices Leetah makes concerning how she handles their Recognition.

Given time to sort out her feelings, Leetah comes to accept her Recognition with Cutter and they become lifemates.

Feyre and Rhys share a similar dynamic.

In both stories, we also see the woman's former lover oppose her Recognition/mating bond to another man in spite of it's sacred status.

Cutter is challenged by Rayek

The Trial of Head, Hand, and Heart = the three trials Feyre endures Under the Mountain.

When Cutter and Leetah Recognize each other, Rayek, an elf of the Sun Folk and Leetah’s former lover, challenges Cutter to the Trial of Head, Hand, and Heart. Should the challenge be accepted, the elves in question must endure trials that test their physical and mental abilities, as well as a final trial that makes them face their greatest fear.

Feyre’s trials Under the Mountain do these exact things. First she must show physical prowess by besting the Middengard Wyrm, then she has to show mental prowess by solving a riddle, and finally she has to show courage by facing what has been framed as her greatest fear - losing Tamlin.

Another similar story beat exists in these trials. Cutter receives outside help when solving his test of mental prowess from Skywise. Feyre also receives outside help from Rhys to conquer the trial that tests her mental ability in solving the riddle with the switches.

Much like Recognition being taken to form the ‘mating bond,’ Feyre's three tests take the Trial of Head, Hand, and Heart beat for beat. In fact, Feyre's last task is literally a trial of heart.

Leetah and Feyre both sneak out to the hills at night to witness a 'savage' ritual not meant to include them - the Howl and Calanmai, respectively - that help them to better understand the nature of the story's leading man and his community

If one or two of these things had been present, I might call it pure coincidence. But as it is, that's a lot of similarity to dismiss out of hand. In fairness, Maas' other books that I have read so far do not take from ElfQuest in the way her first one does. Though, her departure from that source material may well explain the abrupt and immediate tonal shift to open eroticism in the next book. It is also abundantly clear when Maas became a fan of the Grishaverse.

Inspiration comes from everywhere, and I wouldn’t even be that bothered by all of this if it wasn’t for the fact that, as previously mentioned, a justified complaint about Maas’ work is its lack of diversity.

Suntop and Ember with Cutter

ElfQuest has a variety of PoC characters who get to fulfill many different and important roles. For example, Leetah is one of the main characters, the love interest for our leading man, a powerful magic-user, and well-respected within her community. The children she and Cutter have, Suntop and Ember, are biracial and we see them navigating the cultures they come from, recognizing the values of both.

While sometimes imperfect (Ekuar nicknaming Rayek, ‘Brownskin,’ is not great), the Pinis stood their ground on their comic's representation. The following is an excerpt from a 2018 interview you can read here:

The Weird of Wendy Pini - ElfquestElfquest

To become a Saturday morning series on CBS in the 1980s, for example, much had to change. Leetah, a sophisticated dark-skinned woman, senior to her pale lifemate in emotional and spiritual maturity, would have to be made white. Mixed-race couples, the Pinis were told, would alienate viewers. Cutter and Leetah’s son, a gentle mystic, and their daughter, a firestorm of action, would have to have their genders swapped.

“F*ck all that,” Wendy says.

In the first three books in the ACoTaR series - correct me if I’m wrong - I don't recall any characters who are confirmed PoC within the text. The only one who might be considered coded East Asian is Amren.

Leetah and Vurdah discuss Skywise and Cutter’s bond

In ElfQuest, there are multiple queer relationships, such as the polycule between Dewshine, Scouter, and Tyleet. Dart, Mender, Pike, Vurdah, and Maleen are just some who experience queer relationships, and the Pinis have explicitly said that elves don't differentiate their desires as, 'gay,' or, 'straight.'

Even our leading man, Cutter, has more than a hint of queerness to him. It's explicitly stated that Cutter and Skywise are Recognized and know each other's Soul Names.

Queerness is absent in ACoTaR and handled poorly in the following books that make up the first trilogy. In the second book, a character who is a reincarnation of a queer woman, or at least someone who shares her spirit, is brutally murdered. In the third book one of the characters... kind of comes out as bisexual? I still don't know quite what to make of their coming out to Feyre. I’ve heard them described as a lesbian, but their behavior suggests they’re bisexual. However they identify, their experience as a queer person also feeds into the whole, 'bury/traumatize your gays,' trope.

I cannot get over the fact that there are Faeries in Maas' world that are homophobic. Does Maas know that, 'Faerie,' is literally a pejorative term for queer people? In a world she created and could shape however she wanted, Maas decided to include homophobic Faeries.

ElfQuest isn’t shy about exploring themes of gender identity. Tyldak’s winged form, granted to him by Winnowill, helps him feel more like himself and lead the life he wants to lead. Later in the series, Suntop undergoes a transformation into an ocean-going, Wavedancer form. These could be interpreted as trans allegories, but the Pinis don't stop at the allegorical.

Cutter and Timmain

Cutter and Timmain are a single soul sharing two bodies of different genders.

There is no ambiguity about it.

And Rayek?

Rayek and Winnowill are... complicated

Like Cutter and Timmain, Rayek and Winnowill are two people of different genders sharing a soul. Later, they also share a physical body that fluctuates in its gender expression.

I remind you - these books were originally published in 1978.

In ACoTaR, Maas describes the Faeries not as, 'man,' and, 'woman,' but as, ‘male,’ and, ‘female,' like she’s talking about animals or scientific specimens. I could understand Feyre adopting this dehumanizing speech initially as she hates Faeries, but it persists even after Feyre is transformed into a Faerie. Just as strange, Maas seems to go out of her way to avoid using the descriptors, ‘masculine,’ and, ‘feminine.' I think the only time she’s used either that I remember is when she’s having Feyre describe herself as looking feminine in her gown before hers and Tamlin's wedding. In 'A Court of Mist and Fury,' Rhys even bizarrely describes a ring as being handed down not, 'from mother to daughter,' but, 'from female to female.' No room is left for anyone to identify outside of the gender binary.

In her later books Maas also gets kind of weird about things like childbirth, pregnancy, and reproductive organs/anatomy. It's off-putting and, along with the insistence on, 'male,' and, 'female,' casts a transphobic pall over the entire series.

Overall, Maas comes off as someone who would do well to consult with educators in the queer community if she plans on having LBGTQIA+ characters in her future books.

The ElfQuest Comics are some of the most diverse, inclusive, and important pieces of fantasy ever made. They have inspired and influenced countless creators while providing a safe space for minorities to see themselves reflected in its characters.

They are worth your time.

Go read ElfQuest for free here.

ElfQuest Reading Room - ElfquestElfquest

Bonus Round!

Unrelated to ElfQuest, but there is a scene in ACoTaR that bears a striking resemblance to one from another series of erotic fantasy adventure novels.

In Kushiel's Dart, a series by Jacqueline Carey, the main character is a queer member of an order of what are basically angel-descended holy courtesans living in fantasy France. Part of how the 'Servants of Naamah' show their devotion is to have 'marques' or large tattoos inscribed onto their backs. During a grand party thrown annually called the Mid-Winter Masque, the series' main character is contracted to be the companion of one of the main antagonists, who is a woman. The main character is dressed in a sheer shift, essentially naked before the court, and paraded around possessively on a velvet leash by the antagonist.

In ACoTaR, a newly magically tattooed Feyre is dressed in provocative clothing, essentially naked, and paraded around grand parties Under the Mountain possessively by Rhysand.

The main character's name in Kushiel's Dart is Phedre, which is pronounced one sound away from Feyre. Additionally, the antagonist who contracts her services is named Melisande which sounds a lot like, Rhysand.

If Maas did take this scene from Kushiel's Dart, that would mean that there is a second series featuring queer and PoC characters that she took from, but stripped it of their queerness and racial diversity.

Podcast Link: https://tr.ee/mufzOzigAN

We are so excited to finally share our ACOTAR Podcast!!!

We would love for you to listen along and join us on our podcast journey and hanging out in Prythian for as long as possible!

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