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A ŷ user asked this question about How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories (The Folk of the Air, #3.5):
Why does everyone love Cardan and glorify his (frankly abusive) relationship with Jude? There is definitely a difference between 'bad boys' and 'assholes', and Cardan falls into the latter for me. He's interesting, but why in the world would you have the hots for him?
Katy Cage Cardan is the lover/rival/villain we love to love-hate. That's the point.

To be clear, I'm not saying it's good. Not saying it's bad, either. Just that…mǰCardan is the lover/rival/villain we love to love-hate. That's the point.

To be clear, I'm not saying it's good. Not saying it's bad, either. Just that it IS. Ever heard the tale of the scorpion and the frog? It's like that. Cruelty is sorta in Cardan's nature. And there's nothing y'all can do but watch him wreak havoc.

To the sensitive types who whine about his abusiveness: Stop investing so much energy into worrying about a fictional character's behavior. You recognize that he does bad things. Gold star for not being a sociopath! Now get over it.

To the Cardan stans who claw out the throats of those whiners: Stop excusing his cruelty, because there ISN’T an excuse, no matter how tormented Cardan seems. Sometimes people do bad things. Their reasons don’t change the nature of the bad thing itself.

Let Cardan be the hellish little beast he was meant to be. And Jude, too. They're both villainous and antiheroic at the core. And when we read about them, we get to indulge in a bit of villainy, too.

It's all fun and games in Faerie—as long as, when we close the book and return to reality, we let our inner villains go to sleep.(less)
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How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories
by Holly Black (ŷ Author)
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