#all the acotar characters have amazing potential | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jmoonjones · 1 year

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The General & the Valkyrie plot synopsis:

When the Valkyrie becomes withdrawn and self-destructive and all attempts to reach her fall short, the General turns to his tactical expertise for inspiration. Applying his strategic mind to the battle raging in her soul he slowly and gently helps her discover new interests and coax her from the pit of self-loathing she has sunk into, empathetically encouraging her journey of self-discovery by letting her know he's by her side if she needs him.

His consistent and loving support, along with two new friends independent of her sister, the Valkyrie is able to take control of her new powers, and gain true agency over her decisions and body for the first time in her life.

This is a story of her journey, bolstered by people who actually have her best interests at heart.

"I'm just so glad that in this universe the General wasn't an antagonistic jerk to her when they first met or drop her hand when someone he'd slept with 500 years ago walked in. Like, c'mon son" - The Winter Court Review

"Sometimes you can't trust the original author to stick the landing, and that's where the beauty of imagination and AUs converge." - The Day Courter

"I loved when she and her sisters go to the cabin, just the 3 of them, to hash everything out about the past and make peace with it. It felt really mature and a new step for their relationship," says one reader

"What? Am I annoyed with the canon version so much that I have replaced it entirely with a loving and supportive headcanon to give the Valkyrie what she deserves? Maybe. Did I want to make the General actually feel like he deserved his position in the military by having him use his brain? Also maybe. Perhaps all the characters in this world deserve better?" says the author, who loves Nessian but acknowledges there are definitely some things to adjust

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violetasteracademic · 10 days

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I know people are already discrediting Sarah's instagram post today, which is perfectly fine. Of course an author should be able to post about a new album they are enjoying and have that be it. And people are welcome to interpret this however they wish. Confirmation bias is a real thing, and none of us are above it.

For example, I myself am a writer. I spend a lot of time curating playlists that remind me of my characters and help me get in their headspace. I truly believe a lot of writers connect deeply to music and lyrics and poetry that hit deep on themes they explore. So this confirms my bias that Sarah is extremely excited about an amazing song that just dropped by a massive artist that reminds her of her work. That is truly one of the best feelings in the world.

Ana Huang curates playlists for every single one of her couples and books. She both posts them on her website and at the beginning of her books:

These photos were pulled directly from my kindle from her website.

Sarah does have a book announcement coming soon. One of the biggest stars in the world and one of her favorite artists released a song that has an uncanny amount of similar themes to a couple that every major news outlet covering the topic in the past months have suggested is "suspected or likely to be next" and Sarah was genuinely so excited about that song (out of 31 tracks) and said "Thank you for this GIFT."

Just a few weeks ago SJM made a big post about Spring. It was full of flowers, blushes and pinks, and BAKING! All of those things scream Elain, however there was a huge surge of "Sarah is so intentional, she does everything for a reason. There is no way this isn't confirming Lucien or Tamlin endgame." Those same people are now saying that this very pointed instagram post is meaningless and let the woman just post fun stuff that she likes. Sarah also loves flowers and baking in her real life, so that also *could* have just been things Sarah loves and just general ACOTAR buzz since there are new readers every day and the series starts in the Spring Court.

Another important major thing to note is that Sarah frequently states she does not have social media on her phone, she stays out of theory spaces, and she likely does not run her own socials. Most, if not all of her posts are directly related to her books and generating buzz. Her last feed post was about writing the ACOTAR book, and now a song came out that is potentially a perfect fit. This all falls within marketing and generating buzz and conversation. Sarah likely didn't just download instagram to her personal phone, which she avoids like the plague, just to post this one song and then delete it again. It is more likely it fits in with marketing themes.

The truth is, we, as the consumer, do not get to decide the intentions behind a public persona's social media behavior. But when it comes to Sarah's last two instagram stories, it's either both or neither. Either Sarah's flower and baking filled springtime post meant something AND this means something, or neither meant anything.

Sarah is aware everything she does gets dissected. I'm not making a definitive statement whether or not she leans into that, since she hasn't made an outright statement like the queen of easter eggs herself Taylor Swift has.

But there is only one character relevant to both of her instagram stories: Elain Archeron.

Flowers. Baking. Forbidden love.

We don't have to change up the rules or remove anything from the equation to show all signs point to Elain.

#elriel #elain x azriel #pro elriel #elriel endgame #elriel supremacy #azriel x elain

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kopfkino-o · 11 days

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where are all the elriels? I feel like im barely seeing them anymore, all I hear is gwyn and az and elain and lucien. 😭

WE ARE HERE, BABES! WE ARE HERE!!

You just have to curate your space and find the gems in the fandom, which there’s many of, on all sides! It’s different on all platforms.

But here on Tumblr there’s so many cool Elriel creators!! The wonderful @nikethestatue @elriell @violetasteracademic @silverlinedeyes @emmitaaa4 @psychee92 @merymoonbeam @acotar-taylorsversion and @acourtoflight are all great accounts to follow if you’re looking for some to start out with.

There’s also so many other amazing creators, theorieists, artists, and writers!! @bloomingdarkgarden has one of my most favorite fics of all time! And my lovely pal @gracie-rosee has some amazing Elriel art pieces!

I’ve always thought the Elriel/pro-Elain side(s) of the fandom aren’t as loud in online spaces, but we are definitely here, and we love theorizing, talking canon, and discussing meta on not just Elain, but other characters and potential plot lines too!! And it seems like there are more and more Elriel stans entering the fandom spaces each day, which is amazing!

Like I said, my biggest advice is to curate your space and utilize the elriel-related tags to the best of your ability! Because there’s so many awesome folks in our little corner of the fandom who have some really interesting ideas and things to say.

So welcome nonnie, if you’re new!! And hello again if you aren’t! My inbox is always open if you/anyone ever wants to gush, theorize, rant, or just say hello 🫶🏻

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whitedemon-ladydeath · 5 months

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acotar makes me so mad sometimes, and not for all the problematic parts, but for the way there's such a bare bone world building in place 4.5 books later and there could be some seriously amazing and creative and colorful world building potential

acotar has so many vibrant colors and characters and aesthetics but if u scratch the surface and chip away the paint there's so many holes and a lack of creativity in terms of complex characters or complex relationships. The side characters who have created different complexes and trauma in characters don't even have names

I was really hoping to learn more about Nestas past and growth and healing from an incredibly traumatic childhood by her mother only to get.... that

Mama Archeron is a cold, imperious woman who caused so much damage and devastation in her daughters and we don't have her name. I think it would have been so interesting to see something similar with her that I've seen with Cora from OUaT and yet Nothing but more trauma for Nesta and nothing for Nesta to come to terms with

Cassians mom, Azriel’s mom, Luciens mom, Papa Archeron, a SINGLE last name for an IC member

it feels like she keeps adding to the world building (which yay I always enjoy a good world building 🤌🏻) but then doesn't go back and build on things that still have gaping holes. Has Feyre ever once talked to her sisters about the promise that was imposed on her from her mom??

Rhys relationship with his mom and sister. Cassians relationship with Rhys' mom and sister and how those two women and their deaths affected him

idk what I'm really trying to say rn but it feels like,,, there's so much missing in the World Building for the sake of smut and romance but... at the same time she tries to insert commentary on important social issues and then contradicts herself

#a court of thorns and roses #acotar #sjm critical

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theladyofbloodshed · 8 months

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I see these amazing indepth analysis of themes and characters and motifs in acotar and it saddens me that it just doesn't matter. Like she didn't intend any of that when she was writing those books, it's all accidental, there's no intent there, I'm pretty sure the work I put into developing an au for a fic I'll never write is more than she put into her actual published books.

You look at these characters and their backstories and they're so fucking hollow?? These 500 years old fossils are STILL holding grudges about things that happened 500 years ago? Dude so much happened in only 1-2 years the acotar series is set in, you expect me to believe none of these enemies became friends? No friends became enemies? What did Rhysand do as high lord in 500 years? Why is Keir still alive? Mor and Eris couldn't solve their issues in this time? Cassian still feels worthless because of his childhood, the fuck were his friends doing? Azriel still needs healing and she'll probably try to convince us that it'll happen in the span of one book, something that hasn't happened for 500 years. Why are there still evil generals in charge of Illyrian war camps? 500 years and no progress in women's rights in Illyria ? What about the people living in the Hewn City? You expect me to believe they're all evil? What was the necessity to rule over them with fear or to present this evil image of the night court to the rest of the courts?

There is no actual logical answer to any of these cause no thought was put into any of it and we're all just living in fanon cause the canon is horseshit

I completely agree with you on everything here. In 500 years, the IC have done literally nothing. There's only the odd tidbit from Cassian about monsters and hook ups in his chapters. They've had no other friends. Azriel spent the first decade of his life imprisoned and it's still affecting him over 500 years later but in one book he will magically be better. They have made no allies, no progress, nothing in all that time.

This is one of the issues with immortal characters. They should have more history. Big sigh. These books had so much potential.

#anon asks

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gwyns · 2 months

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If Elriels think the next book is about Elain and Az then for the love of God someone please explain to me FOR WHO WILL BE THE NEXT BOOK??? There are still one novel and one novella missing.

Fine, let's say the book series is only about the Archeron sister. Then what? Is Lucien going to come out as a long lost Archeron sister?

Okay, another argument - Az and Gwyn are not MC, they can't have a book.

AND LUCIEN AND VASSA ARE MAIN CHARACTERS???

Let's move on to the last argument - the last book will be a multi POV.

SARAH SAID EVERY BOOK WILL FOLLOW ONE COUPLE!

Why do I have the feeling Elriels failed Math?😭 There is no sense the next book to be about Elain even if she did end up with Azriel. Do they really want to Sarah to finish the series with Lucien and Vassa - side characters and definitely not Archeron sisters (since these are their only arguments why the next book is about Elriel)

that's just it, as far as we know we're still getting two novels and a novella. sjm and bloomsbury have confirmed this and there was no mention of any plan changes in the new book contract she signed recently. like if this series is about the archeron sisters only who the fuck is getting the final novel?

sjm has stated multiple times that each novel is about one couple getting together. no multi pov with every acotar character ever and certainly no e/riel duology. isn't it funny how a new potential love interest for az was introduced in the last book and shared part of his bonus chapter with him? and isn't it also funny how elain and lucien are still mates and he's still looking at her with longing? amazing how that works. almost as if sjm wrote it that way for a reason

i loooove vassa but lucien is not interested in that woman, at all. did they skip over the fact that jurian and vassa are at each other's throats "as they like to be"? that's pretty fucking clear to me that they want to bang, if they haven't already and poor lucien is a third wheel yet again lol. however, i'm also realistic, i understand vassa's not going to get her own book. although i'd kill for a vassa and jurian novel after her curse is broken but you know whatever, i accept that'll likely never happen (please sjm i am on my knees)

bottom line is e/riels are hypocritical. gwyn can't be an mc because she's a side character but vassa can even tho she's a fucking bird. elucien and gwynriel can't happen because they're crack ships but e/riel and vucien can even tho they're the literal definition of it. like pick a side and stick to it for more than a day, you can't have it both ways babes

#antielriel #anti e/riel #asks #anonymous

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tamlinweek · 1 year

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Tamlin Creator Appreciation: Fanfiction Authors

Thank you all for your submissions for your favorite Tamlin creators! In the lead up to Tamlin Week (June 18 - 24, click here for prompts and rules!), we wanted to take a minute to highlight some of the amazing authors who have written Tamlin stories in the past. Here are some of the submissions we received, listed by ship, with some honorable mentions:

Tamlin/Briar:

a quiet, distant treasure (when you rise) by @yourethehero

Rating: Mature, Words: 12k (multichapter, ongoing)

Summary: The truth is - Tamlin knows he failed. He knows he could beg, and plead until the sun burned its last flame, and it would get him nowhere. There was only the future, the one he could build for his Court, and for this child.

“I love their fic! It's such a unique take on Tamlin's redemption arc and the interactions between Tamlin and his adoptive daughter are very heartwarming”

Tamlin/Briar Honorable Mentions:

A Dream of Roses by @isterofimias

A Court of Love and Healing by @readingwritingwatching

Tamlin/Feyre:

I Will See You Again by @goforth-ladymidnight

Rating: Teen, Words: 2k (oneshot, complete)

Summary: ACOTAR AU - Mere days before the seven times seven years are up, Tamlin decides to send Feyre back to the mortal lands. A glimpse at what might have happened if Feyre had opened her heart and said those three little words that held more magic than she thought possible.

“This creator is AMAZING, BRILLIANT and a great addition to the pro Tamlin community!”

Tamlin/Lucien:

lovely and lonely by @praetorqueenreyna

Rating: Mature, Words: 24k (multichapter, ongoing)

Summary: "In hindsight, Lucien thinks he fell in love with Tamlin the moment he first laid eyes on him." *** Lucien Vanserra must come to terms with his sexuality, and his complicated feelings for High Lord Tamlin.

“My favorite takes of the characters and Tamlin specifically by far.”

Tamlin/Nesta:

My Sun Shines Upon Me by @toast-com

Rating: N/A, Words: <200 (oneshot, complete), Summary: N/A

“Her creativity and descriptive writing. Tamlin creators, I am high-fiving all of you.”

Tamlin/OC:

Hyacinth by @suckerpunchfemale

Rating: Mature, Words: 90k (multichapter, complete)

Summary: Hyacinth, known as Cin, has seen the once thriving and prosperous Spring Court fall into ruin and lawlessness due to the absence of their High Lord, Tamlin. But after two years of waiting and hoping, Cin has had enough. Can these two trauma survivors, Cin and Tamlin, save each other and their home?

“I don't usually reach for fanfics with OCs, but you can't help but root for Hyacinth (aka Cin) as she tries to fix the very broken Spring Court in the wake of the war on Hybern. What I like about SPF’s portrayal of Tamlin is how she doesn't shy away from showing his suffering, but she doesn't let him wallow in his misery, either. He made mistakes, but he's not the villain here. It's a good and proper redemption arc! :D”

Tamlin/Rhysand:

A Court of Lies and Resurrection by @ashintheairlikesnow

Rating: Explicit, Words: 193k (multichapter, complete)

Summary: AU: Feyre is dead, torn apart by Amarantha when Tamlin did not send her away in time. Tamlin, forced to submit to Amarantha's terms, finds himself looking for help (and finding affection) in places he never expected.

“IT IS THE TAMSAND MULTI CHAPTER FIC!!!!! Their fic actually opened my eyes to Rhys potential post Amarantha which I didn’t realize was POSSIBLE”

Thank you so much to everyone who participated! Look forward to more pro Tamlin content by our wonderful contributors in June!

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nikethestatue · 2 months

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I feel like the timeline of releases also has to do with why HOFAS was bad and why I’m nervous for Elain’s book. So much time passed between HOSAB and the release of HOFAS. Maybe if they didn’t make us wait so long for a mid book, people wouldn’t have been so mad about the book being mid. And SJM is so fickle, the time in between publishing books she changes her mind so much I think. That’s why IMO her older books were more consistent, she wrote them so close together back to back, whereas now she’s taking over a year. Prior to September 2023 when she said she’s working on the next ACOTAR, I think the last time she touched ACOTAR was summer 2020. That’s the main reason I’m now nervous for Elain’s book. 3 years in between writing is just a recipe for disaster when it comes to SJM. First because we’ve had so long to think of all it could be and theorize and get our expectations and hearts set on an amazing story. Second because i don’t think SJM will deliver a good story based on where she is and how she’s writing rn. And like, if you’re gonna take that long, you better have been working really hard and the book better have no flaws! HOFAS felt like she rushed it yet she had 2 years to get it right?? Idk. Well, I guess we can only hope she will suddenly get back on track with Elain’s book! Wishful thinking tho. (I honestly don’t even mind if the Elain book is mid overall, so long Elain is true to character, has a good arc and gets to shine, and has a good romance storyline with Azriel, I’ll be happy.)

it saddens me that after HOFAS, all or most of hope and excitement over the next ACOTAR book kind of died down. I think it will come back once we know something, but seeing how SJM didn't stay true to anything in HOFAS, it seems that the wind's been taken out of everyone's sails. Whether it's Eluciens, Elriels or Gwynriels. It seems that everyone is very meh now.

I think whoever is still excited about this is not genuinely thrilled about the potential of the book, but is more like, let's get it over with. Which again, is sad.

Let's hope that she got new ideas, that now she doesn't need to hold back, that the crossover explained a lot of things that she can now incorporate into the ACOTAR world.

Let's hope that Koschei is a red herring and we'll be in for a true shock over the real villain Amren. Let's hope that because there wasn't much romance in either CC or ACOSF, SJM is yearning to write something romantic and a love story and not just cringey smut.

Let's hope she is brimming with amazing ideas and will deliver an incredible book.

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ae-neon · 1 year

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https://www.tumblr.com/ae-neon/717145034490839040/in-bad-news-the-acotar-timeline-both-in-canon?source=share

omg it is amazing! How did you do that, like, my hate in canon is so hard that the best i could do in a fic i will never finish, is killing them all except Az 😬 😂😂

sorry for the late reply

how I got myself to like the fanon IC I'm writing

So for me, I literally hate canon Cassian so much I don't even engage fanon Cassian content. I think acotar elon Rhys is the biggest flop alive, Mor is a nothing character, Amren should have died and Azriel gets too much pr and good grace for who he actually is.

But I've almost always taken both a critical and non-critical approach to the media I consume just because I have always had a love for stories and how they are told.

So while I dislike them, I also can't help but see them as mishandled characters puppeted by an author who lets her bias dictate the story and character narratives.

If fleshed out - not fixed, because flaws are still important - I think each character has the chance to be at least more sympathetic and interesting. Layer them, give them reasons to behave how they do, give them chances to learn and grow out of their worst traits etc

Why does Rhys love Velaris and hate the CoN? it has to be personal, and it has to affect his actions, but it doesn't have to make him stupid or unnecessarily cruel/dramatic.

Maybe he wears a mask because there are some high up nobles who hold other loyalties and are potential spies. Have him do things to earn their favour not just threaten them so its less likely they will revolt or unify against him.

Realistically it's the capital of his court, he has to spend more time there and engage with its people on more than just one level.

envisioning or reading things like this fleshes out the character into more than just a spray tan 49 y.o billionaire failson with a 19 y.o gf

#sjm critical #anti inner circle #anon asks #anti sjm

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yazthebookish · 1 year

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Since I haven't written a long post on here in a while I'm just going to sort of a refresher post on how the narrative supported Gwynriel from my reading experience while reading ACOSF.

I would also put a reminder here that I wasn't a hardcore shipper in the fandom before ACOSF and wasn't really involved in the fandom pre-ACOSF, so I was pretty much a casual reader and wasn't motivated by a certain ship or something to push an "agenda" to spite other shippers, because as I said I wasn't a hardcore shipper of any of the ACOTAR characters I was happy with Rowaelin so I already won.

But fun fact, I always had a gut feeling a new character might be Azriel's endgame. I loved Azriel but I wasn't convinced of any of the current options. I didn't think Elr*el had much because a lot of their interactions were open to interpretation and 3 brothers and 3 sisters is just very convenient and uninteresting. I have to give it to them the fanart was pretty and made them more appealing (I even had a few Elriel and Elucien art saved on my old Pinterest ACOTAR board) this was before I shipped Az with anyone.

I've always been the type of reader who will go with whatever SJM will write because I enjoy everything she writes despite their flaws. Her books give me so much comfort.

Moving on.

I read purely for Nessian but I was also looking forward to how Azriel's journey would be set up. I think even in one of my older Instagram posts before ACOSF I mentioned how excited I was to see how SJM is going to set up Azriel's journey because she gave him a bonus chapter from his POV and that alone made many readers assume the book after ACOSF is his.

I adored Gwyn from the moment I met her because it was so fun to see someone just be a tad snarky with Nesta. Gwyn wasn't all that friendly with her they were still testing the waters around each other but the more we read about her the more we saw an amazing character. I can tell Sarah enjoyed writing Gwyn because she got a lot of moments of spotlight in ACOSF and we will get back to that.

Now let's talk about Gwynriel.

I think one of the most important things people need to remember is, this is not a ship that came out of nowhere. If some casual readers say they didn't see much of it then that's valid (it's true Gwynriel are not romantically involved at this stage) but when there are other casual readers like myself who brought it up and said it's clear to us SJM is setting them up, why is that invalidated?

Eventually I wasn't just a casual reader I got heavily involved in the fandom and became an active Gwynriel fan. I was pretty thrilled about it after ACOSF and their future potential and was starving for more content from other fans.

I personally find it silly when people claim that Gwynriel is a crackship or made up. Its totally valid to prefer other ships and not be fan of it, it's not cool to invalidate what readers picked up on what the author put in her own book. Interpretation will differ and people will have different meanings for those crumbs, but regardless they are right there in the text.

Let's remember that this is an unfinished series. The author can throw in new crumbs that could establish something in the next book. We will know for sure in the next book.

In time it can be proven true or false, but Sarah has a pattern and her writing style can be predictable sometimes. She is not a subtle writer and she confirmed while talking about Azriel she threw in crumbs in ACOSF and in his bonus chapter and was looking forward to see what theories readers will come up with. That is confirmed by her, but readers will have different interpretations to what those crumbs mean. Me, as a casual reader that went into this book with no expectations, finished it thinking she is setting up Gwyn and Azriel (and at this point I still haven't read the bonus chapter. Now, after reading the bonus chapter it confirmed to me what I suspected while reading the book itself and I thought they were likely be mates). The bonus chapter to me was more in favor of Gwyn than it was for Elain because when the reader finished reading that chapter they are left with how it ended: Azriel burying the image of Gwyn's joy in his chest.

But the popular argument is the bonus chapter is not accessible for everyone and that's true. The bonus chapter gives us a hint to what's going to come up in the next book. Now, people have different interpretations to what the bonus chapter is hinting at but it still made people talk about Gwyn. Whether readers think they're mates, whether she's a Lightsinger, it just proves how the narrative placed Gwyn within Azriel's circle and this doesn't apply to the bonus chapter alone this applies to the book itself.

Now, we need to remember that ACOSF was narrated through Nesta and Cassian's POVs and so it won't focus on developing a romance off-page because no one wants that but it can still establish a connection or a future set up for certain characters. The narrative repeatedly paid attention to Azriel and Gwyn's interactions. It doesn't matter if it's romantic or platonic, Azriel was around other priestesses and Emerie (who we never saw interact with on page) but what the narrative kept bringing up is the interactions between Azriel and Gwyn even if they were subtle.

Sarah is known to leave subtle crumbs that she can build on later and it makes sense because Gwyn is a new character but I would dare say among the secondary characters in Nessian's book, she got more development than the other characters and Sarah left quite a few threads that she can connect Gwyn to (The crossover, Autumn court, Valkyries/Illyrian conflict, mysterious parentage, etc.) and she also established her healing journey and left it unresolved (her wanting to leave the library, her saying she still feels guilty over Catrin's death despite training, her not wearing the priestesses stone yet). This is why Emerie was a bit more in the background because Sarah did not put her in the spotlight as much as she did with Gwyn and we definitely want to see more of her and hope we do n the future books.

There would be an argument on why would Sarah dismiss potential ships that were there since ACOWAR and go for a new character. Let's remember that ACOWAR was published in 2017 and ACOFAS in 2018 while ACOSF was in 2021. Plenty of time passed and this is the reason Sarah herself explains why she never confirms ships—it's because she gets surprised where her characters take her on their journeys and there was even one interview where she said a new ship could pop up and she could go for that even if she had a different ship in mind originally. And to be frank, we can argue endlessly about what she had always planned but in reality no one knows anything. She's an author that could change a ship on a whim and still make it make sense and write a beautiful story for them. Even Gwynriel is not safe, Azriel could have an entirely different romantic partner in the next book that isn't Gwyn or Elain only because Sarah liked that option better.

So I feel like invalidating something based on what she wrote pre-2018 especially for ships doesn't really hold up. She already retconned two events from ACOMAF and ACOWAR in ACOSF so what she wrote in the past could not be that relevant in what she writes in the present day (and that depends). Azriel had shown romantic interest in Mor in ACOMAF, ACOWAR and ACOFAS. His interactions with Elain since ACOWAR were open to interpretation and based on how the fandom is divided on that can be interpreted as for either and again, bonus chapter isn't accessible for anyone so no one will know they almost kissed. It's not about who has the most interactions, it's about who is being set up as the endgame couple in the main novel eventually.

We also need to bear in mind that changing romantic endgames does not impact the overarching plot because if the author wants the new couple to be involved in that she can easily tie them to it without justifying why she wanted to do that change.

Now back to Gwynriel. As I said the narrative paid special attention to some of their interactions and Sarah making Gwyn a unique case when it comes to how Azriel's shadows react to her compared to everyone else is such a big thing. It was written intentionally and because she was a unique case many readers picked that up. It's spoken about a lot regardless of how the theories differ.

ACOSF made the fandom speak a lot about Azriel and Gwyn whether it's someone who is an anti or a fan. She is placed by the author in Azriel's circle there's no denial about that because even antis theorize about her role in Azriel's story since the connection is there.

So someone could be like "hey show me where they are romantic or confess their love for each other" that doesn't really kill that possibility because the crumbs are there, in an SJM book that what matters. We had Chaol and Yrene as an example of a couple that met in one book and fell in love. Gwyn and Azriel, if they're getting the next book, at least had a set up prior to their book. Many readers speak about the set up they have and what that could lead into in the future. Ultimately, what matters is what happens in the future and that's why I believe with what we have now it's likely going the Gwynriel route.

Am I saying this with 100% certainty? nope because I'm not the author but the last book published is what convinced me that it has a high chance of happening.

#gwynriel

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shallyne · 1 year

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All Our Lives - Feysand Writing Circle

Hello,

I'm Shallyne and a few days ago I posted that I'd like to create a Feysand Writing Circle, and I'd like to a explain a few things.

How did this idea form?

A few months ago, I posted a little poem for an incoming fic called "All Our Lives" but maybe some of you realized I didn't continue this idea. The reason wasn't that I disliked the idea then but I had so many ideas and the overall idea has so much potential and my brain created half a fic and then jumped to the next idea. A few weeks ago I started playing with the idea to start a writing circle and when I stumbled upon All Our Lives again, I thought this was an amazing opportunity.

What is the original idea of All Our Lives?

The original idea was to create a fanfiction which chapters were pretty much just oneshots. Every chapter is Feysand in a different universe. The idea was that all the oneshots are Feyre and Rhysand in a different lifetime, their souls always finding back to each other.

How can I participate in this Writing Circle?

You got an idea and want your story to be part of the All Our Lives writing circle? That's amazing, I'm so glad! It's not hard, you just click on the title of this post or -> here <- and you will be transferred to the AO3 Feysand Writing Circle collection. There you can add your fic to the collection.

But you don't have an AO3 account or want to stay anonym? This is not a problem at all! You can send me your fic in my ask box or send me a message here on Tumblr, where I will give you my email-address to send me your fic. I will then post it on my account but of course I will mention you, or say that it was send by an anon, to post.

What are the rules?

The rules are simple!

Every fanfiction in this Writing Circle will be a oneshot

There is no time limit

The word count is up to you

Every oneshot will play in a different universe

Stay respectful to other participants! You don't have to like every idea but that doesn't mean you need to tell them.

What do you mean with "universe"?

When I say different universe I mean that the fics are supposed to play outside of the canon acotar universe. You are free to chose from almost any universe, as long as it's not harmful to any group of people. For example: Book Universes (Throne of glass, Howls Moving Castle, Classics, Shatter Me, The Cruel Prince, etc.,), Show and Movie Universes (MCU, Gilmore Girls, Peaky Blinders, Burlesque, 50 first dates, Back to the Future, Wizard of Oz, etc.,), different time periods (Medieval, the Renaissance, Victorian, ancient Greece) or decades (20's, 50''s, 60's, 80's, 90's 00's), or even universes that you don't have a name for but so not play in the canon acotar universe (Modern AU, Regency AU, Angels, Demons, Mermaids, etc.,)

What is not allowed?

Canon acotar Universe

Multichapters

Another main couple (see something else?)

Something else?

Yes! So, you can include every other character, from the acotar or SJM universe, and any other ship but the main couple will always be Feysand. The whole story is about them and finding each other in all their lives, so writing around another couple would be pointless for this Writing Circle.

When will the Writing Circle begin?

Technically, you can already post whenever your ready. I would not take your fic down if you want to do that, it's allowed but if you want a direct date, I'd like June 1st as a starting date

I can't tell you when I will be able to contribute but I will be so excited to see your fics, my friends! Everyone is welcome and I hope you will participate!

Your question wasn't answered yet?

Then please don't shy away from sending me an ask or send me a message so we can find an answer

You can always find this post linked on my pinned post

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azsazz · 5 months

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okay, replying to the long anon message this way so i can put it under the cut for spoilers :)

if it wasn't for fanfics of acotar i would have dropped it in acowar tbh, there were too many inconsistencies with the plot and characters and so many things that happened so the story moved forward but had no reason to happen, like it was out of nowhere and she prioritized romance over plot more and more each book and then prioritized smut in acosf over her own characters. i know ppl like that book but that was a shit characterization of nesta and cass and everyone that showed up almost and what for? to have a bunch of smut scenes that didn't actual help anything with nesta's development or the plot (i think it didnt even help with them getting together bc i would have prefered they actually started getting closer organically and then the tension starting after that) and she actually had a good idea with the valkyries but then the blood rite kinda cheapened it in my opinion bc they literally won with the power of friendship when sjm could have just skipped more time ahead (since they're immortal) and then when the 3 of them were realistically ready they could have won, and since the 3 bat boys winning was such an important thing i think if she really had to have that parallel than she could have wrote it better

i absolutely agree with this. and there's amazing examples of fantasy books where the smut hasn't ruined the plot and it's flow is great. but like, she's just cranking these books out with little thought i swear. and she can brag that she wrote cc3 in whatever like 6 weeks or some shit and then scrapped the whole thing. but like? sounds like a rush job to me? and how does she keep up with all these fucking characters because i can't. cc3 will make me lose my mind i swear. cass/ness had so much potential tbh i was here for it but acosf was a complete whirlwind of fuckery. and i get that it was no longer feyres pov or whatever but what the hell, that's not my cassian.

im glad you mentioned the bryce and az chapter bc i havent read that series and i dont want to but sjm is crossing them over to get people to read it (which makes me want to read it even less lol) and its just one more storyline she probably can't keep up with. like it's crazy how we still don't know so much about the acotar world or the characters, even rhys we still don't know how far his powers go or so much about his backstory and why? bc sjm doesn't care about building a character, i know it's a romance book but you can't just ignore every other aspect of the book

literally the only reason i read it was for the crossover. it was one of the worst books ive ever read and long as fuck too. did not need to be that long. i couldn't tell you a single thing that happened in it to be honest besides the fact that literally every man bryce came across had to make sure to mention how beautiful she is. fuck off with that shit fr.

also! this one is kinda me being picky maybe but the jokes about feyre having canned food in this setting with no other modern stuff is actually bad world building imo, i mean there were no signs of industry in the book and then a can of soup shows up out of nowhere? before other more basic stuff than would have to have shown up already? idk what that was about. that and the leggings, im not saying it's not possible for them to be there but to this day my mom calls them tights bc that's what they were called until a few years ago so seeing the word in the fantasy setting sjm had set up literally pulled me out of the book

OMG you're so right i never thought much of the soup can but you're so rightttt im actually dying that's so funny. yeah, leggings was stupid as fuck too, you're telling me they have synthetic stretchy fabric? be so fr rn

maybe im in a mood today too lol but i really just much prefer fanfiction over the books, in fact i only finished them bc since i was getting spoilers from fics and thought i might as well read them

i feel this so hard 💙

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freyjas-musings · 2 years

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Personally, as of right now I can't see Azriel with either Gwyn or Elain. I definitely think the next book will be Azriel's but I don't find myself rooting for either ship because we weren’t given enough interactions between Azriel and Elain or Az and Gwyn. Since CC 3 is coming out before ACOTAR 5, I'm hoping that will change and we get more details so we can paint a clearer picture.

I do find myself leaning more toward the Gwynriel side, though. Mostly because I like Gwyn more than Elain, not because I prefer either of them with Az (I'd much rather he end up with me lmao). I don’t dislike Elain, but after ACOSAF and seeing how unsupportive she was of Nesta, she left a bad taste in my mouth. It quite literally felt like she was "abandoning" her for Feyra because Nesta was the underdog now, and after everything Nesta had done for her!

I have looked at theories from both sides, and I find the E/riel ones veery far fetched and overall not convincing. But there are two points that keep making me question my belief that Az is gonna end up with Gwyn.

1. That there were two bonus scenes, I will talk about the Feyra and Rhys one. Their conversation seems to be centered around Elain, so that gives me a pause cause why would Sarah just have them randomly talk about her on their bonus scene if she'snot gonna play a major role in the next book?

2. Until Azriel's bonus scene I would’ve never thought there was something romantic between Gwyn and Azriel. So my question is, why wait to give such crucial story details in a bonus scene that most of the avarage readers will likely never read?

I'm not a very meticulous reader, I skim quite a bit, so the fact that I didn’t sense anything brewing between Gwyn and Az throughout ACOSF is on me. I went back and reread their interactions after the bonus scene, and I could sense something there, but not much. I have read a lot of theories on here and the Gwynriel ones sound more convincing to me, the only two things I mentioned above keep me unsure.

Gahh, I can't wait until the next book is out, I'm driving myself mad over here. Miss Sarah sure knows how to capture our attention. I hope Gwynriel happens!

Hey , I just read what you wrote . I understand where you are coming from , it is true that Azriel's interaction with both Elain and Gwyn are limited but I do believe SJM gave us an indication of how the story is going in the bonus and I do believe Gwynriel is end game atleast thats how I see things progressing .

My reason for shipping Gwynriel has absolutely no connection to Elain at all . While I do agree her behaviour with Nesta was cruel and selfish... there are some beautiful qualities about Elain too ... her ability to see a silver lining in the worst situations is one of them. Having flaws is what makes these characters interesting, every single archeron sister is flawed whether it was Feyre while destroying the spring court or Nesta with the way she hurt people around including the way she treated Feyre as a child (while I see why she did it , it doesn't mean it wasn't wrong ) or Elain who is selfish and manipulative , its the Elriels who make Elain unbearable but its important to remember its fanon Elain not Canon.

Why do I ship Gwynriel ? Their potential as a couple is amazing if you look at their individual characters and what they can do for each other it makes for a compelling ship . Honestly I saw crumbs of Gwynriel through out ACOSF not just the bonus , as you read more SJM books you start seeing a pattern and they sure do check all of the end game requirements. Also, there is the whole mate thing that is most likely going to happen and I am interested to see their story.

I wouldn't hold my breath about any indication in CC3 for ship confirmations, while I do think it will be clearer than ever that it will be Azriels book next if some of this fandom hasn't realised it yet I doubt they will realise it then (remember SJMs latest interview where she clearly said Elain in "some form" making it obvious she won't get a POV yet people screamed otherwise) .

As far as the bonus of Feyre and Rhys goes all I got there was , there is more to Elain than what meets the eye she is not all sweet and kind. There is indication that she might do something (getting her hands dirty and hurting herself in the process ) that might hurt the people around her while I don't believe she is evil, she may be misguided . We have to understand SJM will need to set her up for her book so we will get more of her story in " SOME FORM" . I am not really worried about that meaning anything in terms of Gywnriel.

Am I a 100% sure it is Gwynriel? No , because I am not SJM .... but I am 99% sure based on my reading comprehension and from reading all of SJMs books that it will be Gwynriel 🙂...

#gwynriel #gwyneth berdara #pro gwynriel #gwyn acosf #acotar #gwyn x azriel #azriel shadowsinger #post acosf #azriel #acosf theory #acotar shadowsinger

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bookofmirth · 1 year

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Could I just dare to say that Bryathalar became a little not interesting? I'm glad that the CC books don't focus on romantic relationships, have a dual POV and we get to see other relationships develope. I actually quite loved Bryathalar in the first book because that's where they met and their relationship didn't start all sweet. I liked how it developed, how it turned into a friendship and I loved their friendship. I liked that we got to see them fall in love on page. But because we have seen it all in CC1, I didn't really care about that ship anymore in the second book. I still love their banter and that they’re a team, it's just that there wasn't such angst and tension between them. It was basically them bantering, sexy times here and there and solving political problems and secrets. Only in the end of hosab did Bryathalar catch my attention, because chances are that Hunt won't remember Bryce and their times together. With Bryce now in Prythian and Hunt being a slave again and maybe not remembering Bryce, I'm dying to know how it will turn out and them falling in love again is something I'm kinda interested in seeing it.

The reason why I didn't mind Bryathalar in hosab that much was because the focus wasn't on them 24/7. I'm glad that we got to see more of Ithan and him finding a new family. I just loved the friendship between Ruhn, Dec and Flynn. Ruhnlidia?? PERFECTION. Lidia/ agent daybright herself? ALSO PERFECTION. I liked the quite friendship between Hunt and Baxian. Ruhn and Bryce's siblings bond. Also... other ships such as Ariadne and Flynn? Ithan and that wolf? Yeah. There were parts that didn't sit right with me such as Tharion's POV and Danika's secrets again and more, but the good parts overshadow the bad ones for me.

I think that is why I won't be able to ship El/riel. Like ever. It's just because they basically have no tension, they've always been nice and polite to each other and now they’re sexual attracted. I'm just not interest in ships where the couple is already interested in each other. Worst of all is when they don't even banter, or hold a conversation for at least 2 minutes. El/riel bores me. I can't read a book of just them alone, where they only have secret sex until they finally confess their love for each other. I love Gwynriel and the whole "glowing chest" "a thing of secret lovely beauty" because I tressure fluff scenes and meaningful friendships than sexual attraction. I'm interested In Gwynriel because I would like to see them slowly becoming friends, then more than friends without Azriel realizing. I would like to see Azriel not knowing what this glowing thing in his chest is and I want to see the "Oh sh*t" moments when he slowly sees her in a different light.

But Elucien is the most interesting couple and they are the best. They have a whole lot of tension, so much potential for an angsty, slowburn love story. I'm very interested in how Elucien would start, keep the story going and then end it. They have the big potential that Nessian didn't even have.

I'm just not a fan of Love stories where the couple is already interested in one another, That's why I never had a moment of shipping Chaol with Nesryn, or Alina with Mal (I don't ship Darklina). Maybe sometimes there is an exception, but that's not always the case.

Personally, quinlar/brythalar isn't very interesting because I don't like Bryce XD. She is so deeply, deeply unsympathetic to anything he feels of experiences. But I get your thinking! I think I'll have to reread at some point just to refresh my memory before acotar 4.5 I mean CC3 comes out. I do totally agree with you that the narrative being split up so we follow other characters besides Bryce and Hunt was really helpful in keeping my interest, personally.

Totally agree that Ruhn and Lidia are amazing! They stole the show for me. Whenever I reread, it will be for them and them only.

tbh, I think that Az's character is way too interesting - and I say this grudgingly, as someone who isn't his biggest fan - to languish in a relationship that's so... sedate. It would be so one note. They've had two years to explore whatever they wanted to explore, and it was... that??? Really? No thanks.

Elucien tension is so freaking good right now. I am SO CURIOUS what they are thinking, how they are feeling. They are both so fucking polite and I want them to get MAD and say what is on their minds!!! I can't wait until they do.

#ask #anon #insert every sjm tag ever

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separatist-apologist · 2 years

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I hope you are doing well! I was curious what drew you into Elain’s character? Were there any moments in particular that stood out to you?

I really enjoyed how you described what scenes defined Lucien’s character. I had completely forgot about his whole table of weapons in ACOTAR!

Sure! Idk if you remember but I got in "trouble" with a certain part of the fandom for saying she was an extrovert LOL but I stand by that. In ACOTAR Elain is very much bubbly, outgoing with her group of friends. She's good at making people feel seen, she's good at getting her way without having to resort to threats. And like. Those are also my qualities.

We all pick one archeron sister to project onto. When Elain is telling Feyre that shes not interested in finishing the season and is like, let's go traveling instead. We can afford it, let's get out of here, I liked that. It's why I bristle when people are like, her personality is marriage and babies. Is it??? I disagree. I think Elains personality is a little more complex than that. I think Graysen was outside the norm. He's a love match for her, and I wonder if it wasn't accidental love like I'm not interested in another season but my friends are here and I like parties, and then whoops this man is actually really amazing.

ACOMAF Elain is the same. Willing to help though it might mess up her marriage, still outgoing and polite even when she's nervous. She's not loud like Nesta or Feyre which is why I think people got mad when I called her outgoing, but Elain makes friends everywhere she goes and people want to do things for her because she's nice. She takes the time to get to know people.

Right now she's traumatized and she's also a background character. I firmly believe Elain wears her own masks to suit her, and she's decided to internalize her feelings and pretend everything is absolutely fine. It's not as of the IC is super nice to anyone who can't keep it together. She's taken on a very background role but I don't believe for a second she just woke up one day and was like, whelp I'm over that violation of my body, time to bake bread. I think she's testing things out and acting out in small ways that aren't necessarily noticable

Idk if you boiled it down, Elain is still someone who would smile to your face to get what she needed, and if you forced her into it, would 100% stab you in the neck. I think a character that can motivate people to do things through a little eye contact and smiling is compelling and has the potential for comedy. I can't wait to read Elain as well-dressed and sassy. She already has her moments.

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lia-land · 10 hours

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House of Flame and Shadow

4/5 stars

*Spoilers for House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

Is SJM incapable of killing characters and having them stay dead??? She really cheapens her writing by choosing to not kill off characters, especially when she has so many main ones. Her other series suffer from this as well. This whole book felt exactly like her other two series. Main character who acquires a position of power and there is a war. Three series with this exact premise. I’m bored. Is there really not more to the YA fantasy/romance genre than this? SJM loves ending with a war, and for the third time, it was so underwhelming. She needs to let go of war plots because she’s not that good at writing them and it leaves a bad final impression. Her writing just feels incredibly formulaic in this book, just as it did in A Court of Silver Flames. So many phrases are repeated and I couldn’t help feeling like it was almost written by AI because of how much of a pattern there was. There’s a difference between having a writing style and whatever this was. I was surprised by the ghostwriter claims until I read this book and can sort of understand it now. Compare this to the first two books in ACOTAR, or the first 2 in TOG. What happened to that author?

My second issue with this book is that ACOTAR was used as a marketing tactic to get more readers for this series. I was hoping for more Rhys and Feyre. Any Feyre. There was such a good opportunity for SJM to make this the most amazing crossover and it wasn’t executed well. I understand that this is not an ACOTAR book, but if I hadn’t read ACOTAR, I would be so bored during most of the interactions between Nesta, Bryce, and Azriel. Actually, even having read and loved that series, I wasn’t that entertained. I want more, and not in the good way that derives from me enjoying it so much that I want more, but because there was so much potential here. Instead, it was just a ploy to get more money specifically for CC. I say this because all the crossover chapters seemed to only exist to attract ACOTAR readers to CC, but there was nothing in the writing that was there to attract CC readers to ACOTAR. Had I not read ACOTAR, I’d still have zero interest in the characters and their world after this book. This was written for a very specific audience. Publishing is a business, after all.

I did like seeing how the Night Court IC comes across to those outside the IC. Again, this is something that I only cared about because I’ve read the ACOTAR series. There’s also a bunch of big spoilers for ACOTAR, so I feel like SJM should have maybe specified that you should read the Crescent City series after, but as I said before, the aim of the crossover wasn’t to attract readers to ACOTAR. Just to CC.

I didn’t like Bryce in this book. She felt like a copy of Aelin from Throne of Glass and I’ve explained in reviews of that series why I dislike her. For a non-spoilery summary: she’s very annoying and has too many secret plans and SJM doesn’t know how to execute that well or when to realize that it’s repetitive. She does it in this series, too. Bryce in the cave in Avallen was so incredibly annoying. I loved that Sathia put her in her place. Even Hunt was annoying in Avallen. I almost wanted to DNF the book during those chapters. And why was Bryce suddenly queen of the fae… that was so random and out of character for her. Just very repetitive of SJM’s other books, as I mentioned above.

Tharion was probably the most consistent character throughout this series. He kind of felt like a copy of Thorne from the Lunar Chronicles. He was the only one who kept surprising me. I think, generally, the fandom seems to think he constantly makes bad choices, but I think that’s a very simplified view. He had to go to the Viper Queen or he would have been a prisoner underwater forever. He had to escape the Ocean Queen and follow the others to Avallen because it’s likely that the Ocean Queen would have given him to the other queens to maintain peace. His reasoning for marrying Sathia also made sense. I think the unspoken reasoning there was that he knew the others might have considered ditching him because they wouldn’t want the other queens on their trails and part of him might have thought that marrying Sathia would mean that they couldn’t cut him off. He felt the most realistic to me.

I still can’t find a reason to care about Ithan. The only real purpose he actually had in this book was so that we could learn more about Jesiba. I didn’t care about the wolves storyline at all and it was so underwhelming. Those chapters felt unnecessary and more like a set up for future series. Like what was the point of Ithan’s character?

I said this in my review of HOEAB and also in most of my TOG reviews: these last minute ‘plans’ and ‘reveals’ are unbearable. When Jesiba suddenly and conveniently explained the amulet thing and saving Bryce’s life, I had to roll my eyes. I won’t digress here, though, as I have said all I need to say on this in previous reviews.

My overall take is that I would have enjoyed SJM’s books a lot more if I hadn’t read all 16 back to back. I’ve just spent the past 3 and a half months reading three variations of the same story and characters. I loved the main three ACOTAR books and was chasing that feeling, but her other books didn’t match up. It seems to be an issue within publishing in general that authors seem to be rushing stories just to get them published. The first two ACOTAR books, especially, had me so hooked. I was hoping for stories of that quality. Perhaps it’s unfair to compare, but SJM pretty much set up the groundwork for that when she chose to use the Night Court crossover as a marketing tactic. I think this series could have stood on its own and would have been better off without the crossover.

In saying all this, I will most likely be reading any future SJM books because I’m invested in the worlds, but I hope we get back the same writing and story quality as the beginning of ACOTAR.

#sarah j maas #crescent city #house of flame and shadow #book review #bryce quinlan #hunt athalar #ruhn danaan #tharion ketos #danika fendyr #house of earth and blood #house of sky and breath

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