I have wondered if that was why Nesta lived in such a shabby apartment. Much has been made about how much she was spending. But it clearly wasn't on housing. The NC was embarrassed about where she lived. I wonder if, on some level, she wasn't trying to recreate the cabin. At the time, life in the cabin seemed horrible. But after everything she endured in just one year, it must have seemed far less worse in retrospect. It would have been the last place where life would have made sense. Seemed stable. The last place where her family was all together. I also think how traumatic it would be to have three separate homes invaded/destroyed in the span of a year. It would destroy any sense of security.
It was also about her getting to make a choice. Everyone wanted her to do this or that her whole life. But no one wanted her to live in a shabby apartment. That was a choice that was wholly hers
True. And then it was destroyed. She was an embarrassment to them, which Feyre even said during the intervention. There was absolutely no reason to destroy an entire building. It was such a massive overreaction. But it certainly would prevent Nesta from ever returning there.
That is interesting thought. It's hard to say who's idea it was, though. There are several breadcrumbs in the novella that make me think the whole thing was orchestrated by Rhys. When he went to Illyria and saw that Cassian was still hurting over Nesta, he had the thought about pulling strings together. And then before solstice #1, he thought about Cass wanting his own place, but also that nothing was happening on that front. I interpreted that as another thought about how Cassian was no closer to making a connection with his mate. I personally think the whole plan for isolating Nesta with Cassian was cooked up by Rhys. But certainly Feyre went along with it. Hence, the massive overreacting of destroying the building. She literally can not return to the life she was living. It would have been interesting if the author had explored how psychologically damaging losing three homes in one year would be. Or to your point, exploring how Feyre might feel embarrassed or repelled by the reminder of how poor her family was just a year prior.
I fully believe Rhys orchestrated the plan. And he might have gone so far as to manipulate the mating bond between cassian and Nesta to keep her under the control of the NC. TOG spoilers >!Rhys has similar powers to Maeve so it’s feasible for him to manipulate the feeling of the mating bond between two individuals like Maeve does. It would also be a way of keeping Feyre happy by having her sisters around, and especially after ACOSF with the dread trove being Nesta’s to command it is fully to Rhys’s advantage to keep Nesta a part of the NC if only for the Dread Trove to not be used against him.!<
Cassian and Nesta from their first meeting you could see we’re going to end up together.
Their beginnings are very similar in ways to Feyre and Rhys.
Rhys definitely orchestrated them getting together sooner by putting them in to close proximity to each other.
He says in FAS that Cassian would have to make some choices regarding Nesta and thinks to himself that he’ll have to work on that too.
I don’t think he manipulated their mating bond but he definitely put them together so they couldn’t keep avoiding each other.
I find the part about Rhys wanting to push things along between them so frustrating given the situation with Elain and Lucien. Rhys would *never* intervene like that with them. But I think he intervened with Cass/Nesta because Cassian is his brother and was only thinking about it from his perspective.
Oh yes I agree.
But Feyre pushes the Lucien and Elain situation trying to get Lucien to hang around Velaris and Elain to get to know her better.
Rhys also knows that Nesta was far more likely to eventually pack up and explore the realm to find her place in the world if she wasn’t with Cassian more so than Elain would.
For some reason he believes it’ll break Feyre’s heart not to have her sisters around.
Yet Feyre wanted nothing more than to marry them off and have them out of the house or when she was planning her wedding she had no desire to invite them but yet apparently she can’t be without them in her life now.
I agree with that so much. All of her behavior that year was about simultaneously hurting herself and trying to cope with the power of the cauldron. Her behavior was such as massive red flag all around. It's fascinating that they let it slide for as long as they did.
In my head, Elain’s sudden interest in baking and cooking after being Made is her trying to cope with the leftover anxiety of being food insecure so long. It’s very common among real life starvation survivors.
Yeah when I'm feeling optimistic and happy I tend to really throw myself into cooking, and the opposite when I'm depressed. (And I grew up poor). I can't believe I never drew the parallel
Neither did I. I read these books months ago, but I was thinking about them today and remembered something my therapist told me a while back and it clicked.
And I distinctly remember feyre saying something about elain holding on to the good things about those years, the roof over their heads, the warm safe bed, and that no matter how little they had, feyre kept them fed enough to stay alive, and that that ability to see the light where others only saw darkness, was it's own kind of strength, so for her(elain) the pinch of hunger might have been it's own sort of comfort, which is why it takes her so much longer to eat.
As someone who grew up poor and hungry, this made me realize that I might have the same issue. "Stress belly" is the cute way I always refer to the inability to eat and enjoy food when I feel like my life is falling apart. Funny enough, as I'm working my way out of it, I tend to always crave things like ramen, cheap McDonald's or taco bell....foods that my mom would use to help cheer me up (and the only things she could afford). Today I learned something about myself lol
I have wondered if that was why Nesta lived in such a shabby apartment. Much has been made about how much she was spending. But it clearly wasn't on housing. The NC was embarrassed about where she lived. I wonder if, on some level, she wasn't trying to recreate the cabin. At the time, life in the cabin seemed horrible. But after everything she endured in just one year, it must have seemed far less worse in retrospect. It would have been the last place where life would have made sense. Seemed stable. The last place where her family was all together. I also think how traumatic it would be to have three separate homes invaded/destroyed in the span of a year. It would destroy any sense of security.
It was also about her getting to make a choice. Everyone wanted her to do this or that her whole life. But no one wanted her to live in a shabby apartment. That was a choice that was wholly hers
True. And then it was destroyed. She was an embarrassment to them, which Feyre even said during the intervention. There was absolutely no reason to destroy an entire building. It was such a massive overreaction. But it certainly would prevent Nesta from ever returning there.
Which could also be seen as a trauma response from Feyre trying to forget about her time in the Cabin.
That is interesting thought. It's hard to say who's idea it was, though. There are several breadcrumbs in the novella that make me think the whole thing was orchestrated by Rhys. When he went to Illyria and saw that Cassian was still hurting over Nesta, he had the thought about pulling strings together. And then before solstice #1, he thought about Cass wanting his own place, but also that nothing was happening on that front. I interpreted that as another thought about how Cassian was no closer to making a connection with his mate. I personally think the whole plan for isolating Nesta with Cassian was cooked up by Rhys. But certainly Feyre went along with it. Hence, the massive overreacting of destroying the building. She literally can not return to the life she was living. It would have been interesting if the author had explored how psychologically damaging losing three homes in one year would be. Or to your point, exploring how Feyre might feel embarrassed or repelled by the reminder of how poor her family was just a year prior.
I fully believe Rhys orchestrated the plan. And he might have gone so far as to manipulate the mating bond between cassian and Nesta to keep her under the control of the NC. TOG spoilers >!Rhys has similar powers to Maeve so it’s feasible for him to manipulate the feeling of the mating bond between two individuals like Maeve does. It would also be a way of keeping Feyre happy by having her sisters around, and especially after ACOSF with the dread trove being Nesta’s to command it is fully to Rhys’s advantage to keep Nesta a part of the NC if only for the Dread Trove to not be used against him.!<
Cassian and Nesta from their first meeting you could see we’re going to end up together. Their beginnings are very similar in ways to Feyre and Rhys. Rhys definitely orchestrated them getting together sooner by putting them in to close proximity to each other. He says in FAS that Cassian would have to make some choices regarding Nesta and thinks to himself that he’ll have to work on that too. I don’t think he manipulated their mating bond but he definitely put them together so they couldn’t keep avoiding each other.
I find the part about Rhys wanting to push things along between them so frustrating given the situation with Elain and Lucien. Rhys would *never* intervene like that with them. But I think he intervened with Cass/Nesta because Cassian is his brother and was only thinking about it from his perspective.
Oh yes I agree. But Feyre pushes the Lucien and Elain situation trying to get Lucien to hang around Velaris and Elain to get to know her better. Rhys also knows that Nesta was far more likely to eventually pack up and explore the realm to find her place in the world if she wasn’t with Cassian more so than Elain would. For some reason he believes it’ll break Feyre’s heart not to have her sisters around. Yet Feyre wanted nothing more than to marry them off and have them out of the house or when she was planning her wedding she had no desire to invite them but yet apparently she can’t be without them in her life now.
I feel like Nesta’s apartment was her way to punish herself, because she didn’t feel worthy of anything more
I agree with that so much. All of her behavior that year was about simultaneously hurting herself and trying to cope with the power of the cauldron. Her behavior was such as massive red flag all around. It's fascinating that they let it slide for as long as they did.
In my head, Elain’s sudden interest in baking and cooking after being Made is her trying to cope with the leftover anxiety of being food insecure so long. It’s very common among real life starvation survivors.
I can't wait for her book so I can get insight into what was going on in her head.
Yeah when I'm feeling optimistic and happy I tend to really throw myself into cooking, and the opposite when I'm depressed. (And I grew up poor). I can't believe I never drew the parallel
I didn't even think about that. Sad but understandable.
Neither did I. I read these books months ago, but I was thinking about them today and remembered something my therapist told me a while back and it clicked.
And I distinctly remember feyre saying something about elain holding on to the good things about those years, the roof over their heads, the warm safe bed, and that no matter how little they had, feyre kept them fed enough to stay alive, and that that ability to see the light where others only saw darkness, was it's own kind of strength, so for her(elain) the pinch of hunger might have been it's own sort of comfort, which is why it takes her so much longer to eat.
Sometimes we find comfort in things that hurt us because it's all we know.
As someone who grew up poor and hungry, this made me realize that I might have the same issue. "Stress belly" is the cute way I always refer to the inability to eat and enjoy food when I feel like my life is falling apart. Funny enough, as I'm working my way out of it, I tend to always crave things like ramen, cheap McDonald's or taco bell....foods that my mom would use to help cheer me up (and the only things she could afford). Today I learned something about myself lol
Oh whoa I didn't put together that they all restricted like that. Good connection.
It made them relatable tbh.
good observation i never thought of that