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The whole thing with what Elain wants is for someone who actually sees her, knows her, understands her, listens to her. And I am sorry but the only character that has done all of this has been Lucien.

It made sense, I supposed, that Azriel alone had listened to her. The male who heard things others could not … Perhaps he, too, had suffered as Elain had before he understood what gift he possessed.

-Acowar

……

Elain stood between Nuala and Cerridwen at the long worktable. All three of them covered in flour. Some sort of doughy mess on the surface before them. The two handmaiden-spies instantly bowed to Rhys, and Elain—

There was a slight sparkle in her brown eyes. As if she’d been enjoying herself with them.

-Acowar

…….

“I’d feel bad for the mice,” Azriel muttered. Mor and Cassian howled, earning a blush from Azriel and a grateful smile from Elain—and no shortage of scowling from Amren. But something in me eased at that laughter, at the light that returned to Elain’s eyes.

A light I wouldn’t see dimmed further.

-Acofas

…..

But Azriel asked softly, taking a single step over the threshold and into the sitting room, “What other?” Elain’s brows twitched toward each other. “The queen—with the feathers of flame.” The shadowsinger angled his head. Lucien murmured to me, eye still fixed on Elain, “Should we—does she need …?” “She doesn’t need anything,” Azriel answered without so much as looking at Lucien. Elain was staring at the spymaster now—unblinkingly.

“We’re the ones who need …” Azriel trailed off. “A seer,” he said, more to himself than us. “The Cauldron made you a seer.”

-Acowar

…..

Lucien didn’t head for the stacks. He just went to the open doors. He paused right between them and said to me, to Nesta, “She needs fresh air.” “Take her to the sea. Take her to some garden. But get her out of this house for an hour or two.” Then he walked away.

Azriel smiled faintly. “Would you like me to show you the garden?” She seemed so small before him, so fragile compared to the scales of his fighting leathers, the breadth of his shoulders. The wings peeking over them. But Elain did not balk from him, did not shy away as she nodded—just once. Azriel, graceful as any courtier, offered her an arm. I couldn’t tell if she was looking at his blue Siphon or at his scarred skin beneath as she breathed, “Beautiful.”

-Acowar

……

I am one of many people think that Elain is not fully heal off page. And yes we should get her pov to know more BUT we also connot dismiss her progress from other charactes pov and just say “we still dont know”. We saw her being void in acowar to baking and gardening in acofas/acosf. Nesta noted she glowed with good health in acosf. Theres progress there. And please theres a lot of characters contributed to that progress mainly Nuala & Cerridwen.

As I put a paragraph from Acowar, Elain never balked from Azriel. In his bonus chapter, Elain initiates all the moves, from saying “put the necklace on me” to “yes” for a kiss from Azriel. Thats looks to me as a woman who are not shrinking into herself from a man that she likes.

Im not discounting the fact that Lucien might know what Elain’s need etc etc. But from the text, she showed a lot more of negative aura? when Lucien around. And YES I AGREE WITH YOU THAT ITS NOT BECAUSE OF HIM BUT ITS WHAT HE REPRESENTS

Elain, the wretch, had taken the seat between Feyre and Varian, about as far from Lucien as she could get.

who barely thanked him after opening the pearl earrings. Cassian’s heart strained at the pain etching deep into Lucien’s face as he tried to hide his disappointment and longing. Elain only shrank further into herself, no trace of that newfound boldness to be seen.

“He doesn’t know me.”

“I don’t think she’ll tolerate two minutes alone with me,

“I can’t stand to be in the same room as her for more than two minutes.

So, we have read bit here and there about how she thrives (have a job, purpose) in the night court without Lucien. I dont think Lucien good for Elain. I dont think Elain is good for him as well. I think they both stuck in this bond both forced to accepted. They can be friends, good friends in fact. I can see that happening. But endgame, i dont see that. After reading hofas and how sjm said that One could have freewill and agency if they are not interested in their mates and could reject them?? Hell yeah

The fact that Elain lose her newfound boldness and shrank further into herself whenever Lucien around yet antis said HE is what she NEED. HIM??? WHERE??

#pro elain #anti el/ucien #anti lucien

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Just saying, I don't think the fact that Elain and Nesta have things connecting them both to dusk is a coincidence. I think they've both been set up to be influential to it from the start. And, interestingly, through Truth Teller. (Maybe representative of Nesta's friendship with Azriel and Elain's connection to him? Because Azriel DEFINITELY has something to do with it, too.)

What she and Elain had done.

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Idk, if the Time article was just going off of fan speculation, where were Gwynriel and Elucien?

Especially Gwynriel. Like, isn’t that their whole shtick? How popular they are on social media? If a writer is going to be searching the internet for who fans speculate the next book is about, why not mention those ships too? Or at least allude to there being different options?

So either the Time writer saw those ships and thought they were without merit, or, SJM and BB have decided the time has come to start getting the masses comfortable with an Elriel book

Regardless, it was a VERY pro Elriel article 🌸🦇

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The fact that Elain lose her newfound boldness and shrank further into herself whenever Lucien around yet antis said HE is what she NEED. HIM??? WHERE??

#pro elain

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Dusk court revival, an Elriel theory

I’m actually so glad the conversation has been brought to Azriel and his shadows reaction to Elain. Whereas I don’t find it to be a bad things that his shadows skitter away in her presence since I believe this to mean his shadows are comfortable with her. This conversation has brought me to a pro Gw*nriel argument that said Elain is bad for him because her sunlight makes his shadows disappear and that she basically cancels out his existence. But I don’t think this is the case with them at all.

We all know how Elain is sooo heavily linked with the dusk court.

Not only is the prison/dusk court her mountain to conquer. She has been likened to it multiple times. (These are just from the top of my head that I can cite without skimming through all the books)

When Feyre described Elriel together in the middle of the war, she called the space between their bodies light and dark, A BLEND BETWEEN THE TWO. I don’t think one cancels out the other, but they blend together and that blend surely relates to dawn/dusk!

To me, their juxtaposition isn’t meant to cancel each other out but to show us that they’re the two essential characters that will play a part in the dusk courts revival. SJM has already been putting in the groundwork for them!

I love the theory that they will be the potential high lord and lady of the revived dusk court. This piggybacks off of the theory that Az is a descendant of the Avallen Fae that ended up on midgard (cc) and with Bryces presence and the crossover happening, it would make so much sense for Azriel to take on the mantle of their high lord seeing as though he is the only direct descendant who is also Prythian. And who better to serve as their high lady than the cauldron blessed seer who can scry, who Az is already obsessed with, who likes Az back and who has the dusk court mountain to conquer!!

I can honestly stand by this theory a lot more than the ones that talk about G and Az and their nonexistent plot.

With the pacing of the plot in ACOTAR and the Maasverse in general, we find ourselves with Koschei and the prison/dusk court. Whereas, koschei is still heavily related to Elriel (being that Elain can scry for dead trove items and Koschei seems to have a particular interest towards Azriel) it can also be build up for a Vassa/Lucien novella! But with the dusk court/prison being a much closer plot point now with HOFAS coming and SJM mentioning how HOFAS will set up the next ACOTAR book, I am a 100% convinced this is the direction she’s going with Elriel!

Not only do we have all that CANON FORESHADOWING from the previous books to support Elriel, we also have CANON GROUNDWORK for the potential Elriel book. There’s literally so much canon material to work with when it comes to this pairing that it would make absolutely zero sense for SJM to just throw that all away in favor of a new pairing without any foundation besides a metaphorical ribbon and a regifted necklace we don’t even know she received. I’m sorry but there’s literally no set up there that would move the plot forward. They’d have to invalidate all that Elriel build up and start from scratch for their pairing to make sense.

🎨: clarywhy

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“Elain should stop being annoying and accept Lucien already”

umm okay since when woman rejected or disliked a man… annoying??

Do Acotar fandom understand what it means to accept a mating bond??

It means you will bind yourself to that other person FOREVER. Be it your soul, body everything. He is yours and you are his. Like they cant get divorce or start a new life w someone else if that fail. This is not a simple bf/gf thing like this is a big deal, very permenant and forever once u accept. Its completely fine if you two ALREADY FALLEN IN LOVE and the mating bond is there to seal the deal. Like that’s romantic

But for Elain that never was the case. She has NO FEELINGS for Lucien. Her heart belongs to Graysan when her mating bond was revealed. And when she start to move on from him she develop feelings for Azriel along the process.

Like cant yall understand why she couldnt just “accept” Lucien.

“But she should give Lucien a chance”

this mentality or mind set really falls down to the mating bond and how the majority of the fandom sees the mating bond only from Lucien’s pov. Yeah he’s hurting not denying that and its sucks for him. But cant people sees this from Elain’s pov as well??

The place she came from there is no mating bond. She turned fae against her will and suddenly said to be some Fae’s mate whom she doesnt know anything about and whom she sees as the one who “betrayed her family” whether he’s guilty or not, but In her mind Lucien literally allied with the bad people that kidnapped her. Do you think Elain will ready to fall in love w him?? or attempts to open her heart for him??Like lets be real no bs if you’re in Elain postion will you see Lucien as this trustworthy, safe, worthy of her love kind of guy? I need people to be serious here coz Elain reaction to lucien made perfectly sense to me I dont know why people are so mad!! the first reaction of Elain to him were: “She cringed away from the coat, from him” .

Her being wary around him made sense to me and some people even went further to said Elain’s racist or a snob needs to bffr. Yall insane.

People would say it will be like feysand coz they also start in a bad place coz rhys is the ‘villain’ in book 1 but Feyre first word abt rhys was he’s the most beautiful man she ever seen. Theres ATTRACTION. AND HATE. which is good coz when there’s hate there’s PASSION and that could lead to FEELINGS.

and believe it or not Elain and Lucien did try spent time w e/o. Remember that tea time and in acofas?

And theyre being so polite to each other too. Elain is indifferent towards him. There is just awkwardness. Both Elain and Lucien has no interest in bridging the gap. Both cannot stand in e/o presence in a room more than 2 min (Lucien’s word not mine). Visiting Elain is not always in Lucien’s agenda when he’s in the night court. And thats canon per Acofas & Acosf. They’re just not into each other. You cannot tell me the reason Lucien even look at Elain is not because of the mating bond. Attraction and feelings cannot be forced full stop.

“Elain need to learn how to cope coz mating bond is her culture now”

She started gaining control of her life. Which readers expect that of her right?? to have a backbone? to be the narrator of her own FATE? RIGHT????

so why is it so shocking and oh so horrible for Elain to not want her mating bond? We see previous MCs rebel and protest to fight for their story but why drew a line for elain?

we accept her character development to be this independant woman who would not be coddled, some even want her to leave the Night Court to find her true self.

We want all the above for her EXCEPT her control over her love life. When it comes down to the person she should love, kiss and fuck, In that terms Elain should submit to the bond and just shut up??????

“Oh no how dare she reject her mate!! how dare she liked Azriel and not her mate!! the audacity, she’s so blind to his kindness, the jacket, the gloves, the pearl he gave her!! how dare she be so annoying and hurts his feeling. Elain GET IT TOGETHER HOE!!!%*\”

Cant yall see how irony this is?? What happened to attraction and feelings? Does that should be thrown out of the window?

Why is it a rocket science for Elain to actually like Azriel?? This fandom worship Azriel and want him to fuck them in their dreams (im not making this up). Why its ok for the readers to be attracted to Az but not Elain??

Its not rocket science its just this fandom already has this mindset about the mating bond and the perks of having a mate. Feysand and Nessian are what successful mate couple look like.

But we shouldnt be naive enough to believe that ALL MATING BOND ARE HEALTHY

Theres a lot of unhealthy mating bond mentioned briefly such as tamlin’s and Rhysand’s parents and a couple more from the Creacent City series.

Rhys said the mating bond is not a perfect system.

You can feel bad for Lucien. Thats fair. And it sucks to know that male has stronger mate instinct than the female. But what yall cant do is to put the blame on Elain. Both Elain and Lucien are the victim of the mating bond. The fault belong to the Mating Bond system and the Society that urge male to covet their female mate and have whatever it takes to make the bond work.

Wouldnt his fan wants him to find his own person who loves him for who he is? Thats literally what Lucien craves for. Acceptance. Atp Elain’s body language and reaction showed that she’s anything but accept him. And truly I dont see that will change anytime soon. SJM has spent 4 books and not any point we see Elain beginning to change her mind. Acosf literally showed that.

“If Elain will not end up with Lucien then why haven’t she properly reject him yet?”

This is not real life. Yeah!!! Elain’s happened to be a book character. And in books there are storytelling aspects and huge plot reveal. You cannot expect a huge moment in a character’s arc be done in any other people pov?

Like why people really want the news of Elain finally rejecting Lucien be in Nesta’s pov? Wheres the fun in that?? it didnt make any sense. Obv SJM is waiting for it to be in ELAIN’S BOOK whenever that will come out. So cant yall just wait?? Like pls just think for a sec.

“Elain doesnt deserve Lucien”

okayyyyyy…is that a dig at Elain? Coz like I said Lucien deserve someone who wants him for him and thats not Elain and vice versa.

“they should end up together coz they are mates”

Im sorry but mating bond will NEVER be the ultimate factor to fall in love with someone or SJM’s reason for her characters endgame. And certainly not for Elain who will marry for love. For all of grayson fault, Elain did truly loved him once.

Feyre doesnt love Rhys bcoz of the bond, but bcoz of love she agreed to bond w him.

…..

So to end this long post I would remind people that this is a romance story. Where the end game will be two people in love. So ATTRACTION and FEELINGS plays a huge role for the build up.

Also I highly think Lucien or the mating bond are not what Elain hates the most. I think she hate the fact that she has no say in this. That her choice are being taken away. And everyone around her expecting her to just accept the bond.

I genuinely dont have anything against people that actually ship elucien for their aesthetic and really hope for their endgame. Some people want Elain & Lucien to break the mating bond together to free themsleves of the fate that control their choices and along the way get to know e/o and developing feelings and so on. See!! this is a good story which doesnt diminish anyone’s character arc and certainly allow all characters to have a choice. “I love u for who u are and not because of the bond” Like with SJM masterful writing that could be pretty lit.

With that being said, I really side eyed and hate those who treat Elain as the devil incarnate for refusing Lucien and called her “shallow, dumb, indecisive, selfish” follow with “she will see her mistake, she will beg forgiveness, she will realise that she’s so blind to the-” oh no no no

Her feelings are valid. Refusing Lucien has been put as one of her flaws or why she should be hated is SO CRAZY to me. Yall dont want people to coddles her or treat her like a child so then…pls start accepting her words as it is. Dont try to twist it or double it down. If she says she’s part of the night court, then she’s part of the night court. If she says she doesnt owe Lucien anything, that means she doesnt owe him shit.

#elain archeron #pro elain #pro elain archeron #rant

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The Seer & The Shadowsinger

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Them: Elriel is gross. Azriel is toxic and feels entitled to Elain. He doesn’t care about her. He only wants her physically and only wants to use her body.

Also them: omg Gwynriel is so cute! They’re amazing. Gwyn is so much better for him and most importantly she has a bendy pelvis and can give him babies unlike Elain.

Me: can y’all not see the absolute dumb fuckery of this argument? Apparently Azriel only wants elain’s body and yet your biggest argument in favor of Gwynriel is literally that Gwyn’s body and anatomy is more physically “right” for Azriel because she can supposedly give him children. This is so asinine lol.

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I see alot of Elain stans wanting to read about soft female characters and that is why they love Elain as the next lead of the acotar book. I get it. Please don't misinterpret what I'm about to ask but soft girls are way too overrated. This is why men easily step on women, because women are too soft and can become a doormat. Elain is "too kind", "too forgiving", and some stans hate "girlboss" but did one of you pause and think that maybe the reason why some people like girls like Gwyn or Nesta is because they are the representation of women who stood up after centuries of patriarchy? Women aren't lesser. We love to read more girlboss characters in fantasy books because they empower us. Just some food for thoughts but I love Elain too, she can show more flavor in the next books

Hi anon,

First, I want to clarify to you that (imo, I can't speak for all) but Elain stans don't really hate badass characters. There's that. And I don't really think feminine women are overrated considering how characters like Elide, Yrene, Elain (at least in this fandom) are overlooked because well, they don't wield sword or isn't bitchy enough.

The thing here anon is, instead of women empowering women (may it be fictional or real) it became a competition. Of who's better, who can wield sword better, who can kill, who can say the last word, who's fit to have a love interest. It comes to the point where some women especially in this fandom look at characters like Elain and decides they are weak because they aren't the kind of women (as per to your own words) who stood up after centuries of patriarchy. Instead of uplifting every female characters, women started tearing female characters down that they deemed boring or unimportant in the series.

Anon, there is strength in gentleness. There is strength in forgiveness, in fact according to research people who forgives tend to live longer and their hearts healthier. Just because women are feminine doesn't mean we are lesser. We have a vital role in the society, and whoever sees feminine women as lesser, are the real lesser one. Because looking down at somebody because they don't meet your standard of strength shows insecurity.

Most women are feminine anon, I think it's time for us to stop demonizing femininity. Hollywood fooled us hard, let's open our eyes, this is why it's very important to also see characters such as Elain take the lead and have her own book.

There's enough representation of girlboss character in fantasy series, and I have no complaint in that. But there's also nothing wrong in embracing your feminine side and wanting to see a representation of it on fantasy books.

And let me tell you, irl, it's not women who held guns that helped on the war, it's the women most people sees as doormat. In fact, during the WWII, men underestimated these type of women and thought of them as fragile and helpless but they are spies, anon. They became a big weapon in war. Women are capable of anything despite of their trait. It's 2023 anon, let's stop underestimating women because of their gentleness or because of their hobbies and desires in life.

Stop tearing down women (fic or not). Just because you don't relate to them doesn't mean no one does. Every kind of women can be a main character.

And this is long enough but OMG (I am trying to be calm, really) stop looking down at my sweet girl! Lol okay bye.

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Couples that sassily dismiss their High Lord with a hand wave, stay together

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The reason we “hypocrites” call Azriel saving Gwyn romanticized (by the way, << that is how you spell the word ‘romanticized’ too many of y’all fell asleep during your language arts classes) is because of the following:

Romanticize:

verb

To deal with or describe in an idealized or unrealistic fashion; make (something) seem better or more appealing than it really is.

Gwyn’s rescue had very little to do with her. She just happened to be there at the time Hybern’s soldiers attacked. Had any other priestess been saving the children, then THAT PRIESTESS WOULD BE THE ONE SAVED. People wanna sit there and claim “oh it’s so romantic”, “the beginning of a real love story”. No. I don’t care if I’m being rude-you can fuck right off with that shit.

Gwyn was assaulted. She had strange men violate and defile her. Do you honestly, in you heart of hearts believe that immediately after that she (or any woman for that matter) would want to so much as LOOK at another male? Do you think she would see her attackers being slaughtered and think that the male killing them would be kind to her?? Or do you think she would still be fearing for her life thinking someone else-someone even stronger than those who hurt her would take advantage of her?

And then we (the fandom) see art depicted of that moment. When Gwyn is still terrified. When she’s still in shock. When she’s bearing the bruises and marks both physical and emotional from not just losing her sister but a piece of herself as well…

I have no issue with depicting art of horrible moments. That’s part of art. But we say it’s romanticized because Azriel didn’t hold her and comfort her-he gave her to Mor. He didn’t look for her-He happened upon her, and did his job. He did what he would have done for any female.

The difference between this and Elain’s rescue is that Azriel went into Hybern’s camp SOLELY FOR ELAIN. Come hell or high water he was going to save her. Specifically.

Azriel noticed she was missing

Azriel stated he would get her back.

Azriel was willing to die to try to save Elain.

He was just in the right place at the right time for Gwyn.

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Who is in the INNER CIRCLE according to SARAH J MAAS:

Rhys

Feyre

Mor

Amren

Cassian

Nesta

Azriel

Elain

Just so we ALL understand WHO Sarah (the author of the books) thinks is in the inner circle .

Also it’s 8 people? With Bryce in the middle 8 pointed star?

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“Through love, all is possible”

First I want to say that this is a crack theory. It’s just something that made me go “👀” while I was rereading cc so... make what you will with this post.

Warning for HoSaB spoilers.

We all know the famous quote of Crescent City

“Through love, all is possible”

And while I was rereading it this part caught my attention because @offtorivendell talked about mother/elain connection with me.

With all the mother-goddess stuff she presided over

So I thought about how “through love all is possible” could relate to elain?and I remembered this👇🏻

Love would trump even a mating bond

Through love all is possible

How about breaking a mating bond all because of love? Or even breaking one mating bond and creating another one with the one you love? Because... through love, all is possible

And let’s not forget mother and elriel connection scenes... (thanks to @icedflames and @forget-me-not-s for pointing out these scenes)

Nesta felt the need to set that carved rose(the one her father carved for elain) in shadows directly beside a mother figurine

Only the Mother might witness them

And with with Hosab we know that the worlds are definitely connected.

So the question is...

The goddess Hunt was talking about is The mother from acotar and the “through love all is possible” relates to elriel?

Again... this is a crack theory. 💜💜

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Beyond the windows, darkness had indeed fallen. The longest night of the year. I found Elain studying it, beautiful in her amethyst-colored gown. I made to move toward her, but someone beat me to it.

The shadowsinger was clad in a black jacket and pants similar to Rhysand’s—the fabric immaculately tailored and built to fit his wings. He still wore his Siphons atop either hand, and shadows trailed his footsteps, curling like swirled embers, but there was little sign of the warrior otherwise. Especially as he gently said to my sister, “Happy Solstice.”

Elain turned from the snow falling in the darkness beyond and smiled slightly. “I’ve never participated in one of these.”

⊱❊⊰⁣⁣⁣

Happy Early Solstice ❄️✨

⁣⁣⁣⤞ art by aysha.nasir15(ig)

⤞ commissioned by me and @leiaamidala

Links to Twitter , Instagram

⊱❊⊰⁣⁣⁣

Do not repost, please.

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I support Aemond Targaryen and I can't wait for him to finally meet his love Alys T.T

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They live for “something sparked in his chest” but always forget “Then his gaze shifted to Elain, and though it was utterly neutral, something charged went through it. Between them.”

I’d rather have charged glances any day. Especially when it’s “between them” ✨

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when azriel defended elain at dinner in acofas, he earned a grateful smile from elain. that's when feyre noted, "but something in me eased at the laughter, at the light that returned to elain's eyes." "a light i wouldn't see dimmed further"