Tag: acomaf

Also when Rhys insinuated that Amarantha abused him I don’t think it was rape or abuse (following the official definition of it) because he was more than consenting and we don’t even know if he really disliked it; there wasn’t any “actions” that proved otherwise but just some words from his part. I don’t want to justify anything of course but I still have a doubt about the accuracy of the relationship he and Amarantha shared and if I’m wrong about something I truly want to apologize. Thank you.

Okay, yeah, I understand that you’re just trying to figure things out, but this sounds a lot like rape apology, so you do need to be careful when talking about things like this. Whether or not Rhys’s decision to subject himself to Amarantha makes sense from a narrative perspective isn’t really the point in this case. Taken as it is in the text, Rhys was still very much Amarantha’s victim. Yes, he had his own reasons involved in the scheme, but it was clear throughout Rhys’s recounting of events that he really didn’t want to participate. He also describes in both ACOTAR and ACOMAF in great detail how very much under her power everyone Under the Mountain was. 

I waited. But he [Rhys] shook his head. “Even if I felt like helping you, I couldn’t. She gives the order, and we all bow to it.” He picked a fleck of dust off his black jacket. “It’s a good thing she likes me, isn’t it?”

  I opened my mouth to press him—to beg him. If it meant instantaneous freedom—

  “Don’t waste your breath,” he said. “I can’t tell you—no one here can. If she ordered us all to stop breathing, we would have to obey that, too.”

ACOTAR pg. 301

He has no power to deny Amarantha anything. Without an option to say no, there is no consent, regardless of what Rhys’s long game is. He was far from “more than consenting” and we definitely know he disliked it. 

“But for fifty years—whenever I was inside her, I’d think about killing her. She had no idea. None. Because I was so good at my job that she thought I enjoyed it, too.”

ACOMAF pg. 433

You claim that there aren’t any “actions” that prove he wasn’t consenting or didn’t dislike it. What about when he tried to kill Amarantha? Or this line, in ACOWAR?

Rhys murmured, “If she …” His swallow was audible. “If she showed up at this house …” I knew who he meant. “I would kill her. Without even letting her speak. I would kill her.”

ACOWAR pg. 249

Further, the suggestion that a rape victim needs to act in order to be believed, and that their words are not enough, is a very dangerous thing to say. The U.S. Department of Justice’s updated definition of rape says, “physical resistance is not required on the part of the victim to demonstrate lack of consent.” Claiming otherwise is the very thing that has allowed rape and sexual assault to be so ingrained in our society. “Why didn’t she say anything sooner?” “Why didn’t he fight her off?” “How do we know they’re telling the truth?” If you look at the #MeToo movement, this is exactly the kind of thing they’re trying to fight against. 

SJM’s use of sexual assault as a thread in her series might not be baked all the way through, and there’s certainly some things you can criticize there from a narrative perspective. But in this case, Rhys was clearly a victim of Amarantha, he clearly was not consenting, and he clearly did not like it. Again, I understand that you’re trying to figure this out and mean no harm, but this is an important thing to learn when discussing a difficult topic like this. Believing a victim is, as a rule, a far better take than disbelieving them.