A Court of Wings and Ruin Chapter 7: Jurian Explains Why He’s A Character, Finally

So, some of you were maybe expecting a Sweet Valley High post to show up today, and I may have contributed to that expectation by saying that was what we were gonna do. My b. So here’s what’s up. I (Matthew!) have a bit of a stereotypical New York City apartment hell scenario going on, and Ariel and I agreed to dial back the blog output to two posts a week until things get settled.

ANYWAY, BACK TO THE THIRSTY FANTASY YA.

Previously, Feyre is secretly making everyone at Summer Court tear out their hair by constantly manipulating everyone. Feyre, Lucien, and the maybe-incest siblings are inspecting holes in the magic border wall, for some reason (probably to do with magic), and we left them at a cliffhanger where they’ve encountered some human Children of the Blessed! Remember them? Yeah, they showed up for like four paragraphs at the beginning of the first book of this series. It’s all hashtag throwback Thursday all up in this bitch.

A Court of Wings and Ruin: Chapter 7

Anyway, the maybe-incest siblings with ridiculous names want to… eat the humans?

Brannagh and Dagdan looked like they’d just found second breakfast waiting for them.

Idk. I have no fucking clue if the implication is they eat humans or rape humans or sadistically torture and dismember humans. It’s open-ended enough it could actually be fucking any of those rather different options. I have a degree in literature and I can’t figure it out.

Anyway, Banana and Damndaniel start sizing up the humans, cooing at them to come and “we can… enjoy ourselves”. Jurian (who is human) gets tense and worried about the humans, asking them what they’re doing here, because who the hell understands what Jurian’s motivations are. The evil faeries want to work with him, he wants to work with them, except also he’s not down for murdering humans, which is definitely a not-insignificant part of what the evil faeries want to do. Who the hell knows.

“We have come to dwell in the immortal lands; we have come as tribute.”
Jurian cut cold, hard eyes to Lucien. “Is this true?”
Lucien stared him down. “We accept no tribute from the human lands. Least of all children.”

And Feyre starts filling their brains with nightmares.

“Get out. Go back to your villages, back to your families. You cross this wall, and you will die.”
They balked, rising to their feet, faces taut with fear—and awe. “We have come to live in peace.”
“There is no such thing here. There is only death for your kind.” […]
I speared my power […] into their minds. […] So soft—defenseless. Their minds yielded like butter melting on my tongue. […]
But the three of them now blinked—balking.
Beholding us for what we were: deadly, merciless. The truth behind the spun stories.
“We—perhaps have … made a mistake,” their leader said, retreating a step.

The Children of the Blessed immediately run away. So glad we finally got some payoff on that bit of worldbuilding that briefly appeared in… the third chapter of the first book. Maybe at this rate, in the fifth book in the series one of them will reappear eating a sandwich. Banana and Damndaniel move to pursue them, but Feyre stops them, saying that if they do, “then you and I will have a problem”. Jurian’s character motivation continues to make no sense.

Jurian’s eyes were on the place where the humans had been.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice rough.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied

lol cool, me neither.

The maybe-incest siblings spent the rest of the day doing whatever it is that they’re supposed to be doing, which sounds like me barely trying to summarize something that doesn’t make much sense, but isn’t terribly far removed from what’s actually in the book.

Whatever it was they were inspecting, whatever they were hunting for, the royals didn’t inform us.

They end up spending another night in the woods, and Jurian and Feyre end up having a private conversation around the campfire, where Jurian still can’t believe that there are actually humans as stupid as the Children of the Blessed.

“Five hundred years ago, they’d have been flogged for that nonsense,” Jurian said. “We were their slaves and whores and laborers for millennia—men and women fought and died so we’d never have to serve them again. Yet there they are, in those costumes, unaware of the danger, the history.”
“Careful, or you might not sound like Hybern’s faithful pet.”
A low, hateful laugh. “That’s what you think I am, isn’t it. His dog.”

…are …are you not?

Seriously, who is Jurian? He’s a human who works for evil faeries, who for some reason even want to work with him, and for some reason he wants to work for them even though I’m pretty sure their entire deal is taking over the world and oppressing humans… which… is what… he is…

Anyone understand any of what Jurian’s deal is?

“Everything I did during the War, it was for Miryam and me. For our people to survive and one day be free. And she left me for that pretty-faced prince the moment I put my people before her.”

Oh! A chapter about Jurian’s motivations! That’s convenient! About time Jurian explained what he’s even doing in this book. Ok, so, uh… explain yourself?

“I heard she left you because you became so focused on wringing information from Clythia that you lost sight of the real conflict.”

Oh we’re not off to a great start.

“Miryam told me to go ahead and fuck her for information. Told me to seduce Clythia until she’d sold out all of Hybern and the Loyalists. She had no qualms with that. None.”
“So all of this is to get Miryam back?”
He stretched his long legs before him, crossing one ankle over the other. “It’s to draw her out of her little nest with that winged prick and make her regret it.”
“You get a second shot at life and that’s what you wish to do? Revenge?”
Jurian smiled slowly. “Isn’t that what you’re doing?”

…ok that cleared things up by… enough, I guess. How interesting that we have a male character who’s complicit in terrible things that are ruining the whole world all because a former lover jilted him. This story sure was missing one of those.

Intriguingly, Jurien has some thoughts on this whole “everybody is scared of Rhysand, international sadist superstar” narrative. He tells Feyre that, hey, funnily enough, I knew him during the War, knew the risks and sacrifices he took, and know just how smart he is, so, ok, sure, all of you keep telling each other he’s a “soulless, wicked” villain.

“Rhys was too smart to do anything but have the vilification of his character be a calculated move. And yet here you are—his mate. The most powerful High Lord in the world lost his mate, and has not yet come to claim her, even when she is defenseless in the woods.” Jurian chuckled. “Perhaps that’s because Rhysand has not lost you at all. But rather unleashed you upon us.”

Feyre doesn’t really engage with Jurian guessing the plot of the entire second book.

“You love to hear yourself talk, don’t you.”
“Hybern will kill all of you”

Good talk, Jurian.

In the morning, Feyre wakes up and finds that the maybe-incest siblings had indeed gone out and caught the human Children of the Blessed and left “what was left of the three bodies” in their campground. Lucien points out they 100% did this to make “a statement about their power” to Feyre. Feyre is like, lol, k, I can play this game too.

“Do we bury them?”
Lucien considered. “It sends a message—that we’re willing to clean up their messes.”
I surveyed the clearing again. Considered everything at stake. “Then we send another sort of message.”

…guys, I think all of these alliances might be on really shaky ground.

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