IDK HOW Y'ALL DIDN’T FIND IT SO GROSS THAT AZRIEL REGIFTED ELAIN’S NECKLACE TO GWYN. I HOPE GWYN PULLS A CASSIAN AND TOSSES THAT BITCH IN THE SIDRA (to clarify, she would be tossing the necklace) (to clarify again, i wouldn’t mind if she tossed az’s dusty ass in too).
Azriel never said he was entitled to/deserved to be with Elain, those were Rhys’s words. Azriel said it didn’t make sense for two of the brothers to be with two of the sisters and not the third. Obviously it’s not the healthiest reasoning, but I think he’s reasoning in order to explain his strong feelings for Elain and to make sense of the powerlessness and envy he feels. Imagine pining after someone mostly unavailable and ultimately uninterested in you for 500 years, then finally finding someone else who makes you feel a lot of things and gets you better than maybe anyone else AND who is into you just as much as you are into them (he smells her arousal folks, Elain is super into Azriel and has been forever - literally fight me, I will give you receipts) and then to be forced to watch that person be essentially claimed, against their own preference, by someone else. Also, since when is it not absolutely certain that a fantasy romance ship is happening when someone expressly forbids it for political reasons??? That is such a classic trope!!
Azriel can’t catch a fucking break. How could you not have all of those feelings and then feel like fate screwed you when that person’s two sisters are destined for your two brothers? It’s a rationalization ADDED ON to the feelings he already has for Elain, he doesn’t have feelings for Elain because he thinks he’s entitled to her, he hopes that fate is showing him that his feelings are not in vain (AGAIN).
SJM herself said that she’s sprinkled breadcrumbs about Azriel’s story for a long time, which also makes me think Gwyn isn’t endgame because she’s such a new character. The moment between them in the bonus chapter actually reminds me a lot of Cassian’s moment with Emerie in ACOFAS. A lot of people predicted that he might be torn between her and nesta, but really it was just a way to flesh out that character outside of Nesta’s narrative. It seems more like SJM is trying to incorporate Gwyn into larger parts of the story and as more than just nesta’s friend. Perhaps what we need to glean from his interactions with Gwyn are the things Azriel values, and the personal growth he might go through, in a vocational sense, in the next book.
It makes him happy to make Gwyn happy because he ultimately cares very strongly for people who have suffered and survived and thrived. Cassian cares about what happens to the illyrians, Azriel doesn’t - the Valkyrie (to an extent) and the illyrians are Cassian’s mission, Azriel doesn’t have anything like that, yet. Azriel doesn’t like the violent things he does for the court, and that is probably part of why he feels so unfulfilled and lost. The most valuable things he has done have been the type of thing he did in saving Gwyn at Sangravah and training the priestesses with Cassian. This is all rooted, of course, in the suffering he witnessed his mother go through. All three of the illyrians are defined by the violence and wrongs done to their mothers, and two of them have found ways to make relative peace with those wrongs. Azriel has begun to and has done much to help wronged women and children and people, but I don’t think he’s had his Aha! Moment yet in the way that Rhys and Cassian have. His interaction with Clotho feels like an indication of his greater purpose, an alternative concern to his romantic woes re: Elain.
I’m not saying this means that Gwyn ISNT involved in a romantic way in the next book, but I think it’s hasty to assume it’s romantic just because Azriel has a meaningful, connected moment with her. Think about Manon and Elide or Feyre and Lucien, two friendships that bridged a lot of characters together and that could have gone in a romantic direction but didn’t. She tends to do that more with friendships than romantic relationships I think. I also think there was a clearer indication of Emerie’s interest in Mor than Gwyn’s in Azriel (I know there’s more interaction between Azriel and Gwyn, but Emerie is clearly into Mor when she says she doesn’t come around Windhaven anymore), and it seems almost as tidy to have Azriel and Mor end up with the other two Valkyries as for Azriel to end up with the third sister. Azriel, Mor, and Cassian are very nearly as much a sacred trio as the Illyrians. Also, I think it’s more likely that Mor will end up with Emerie because she hasn’t had a real romantic interest be yet revealed (the only thing I can think of is Viviane’s younger sister, but that was also superrrrrrrrrr subtle and I might have read too far into the text) and SJM pretty much never decides to start those in the course of one book (of which this extra Azriel POV chapter would be a part).
I also just want to say that Elain has been consistently uncomfortable with Lucien. He gets her the gloves for solstice, and it’s because he has a fundamental misunderstanding of her as a person. He sees her as something delicate to be sheltered and protected from thorns and elements, but that’s actually one of the things Elain loves most about gardening, and is probably how she wishes she could live her life if given the freedom and confidence. In the Feysand chapter, Feyre specifically mentions the gloves that Lucien got Elain and the consequences of Elain not wearing them. On the surface it seems silly because she hurt herself, using the gloves makes total sense, but Rhys and Feyre are actually talking about Elain as someone who is growing and who actually likes to get dirty and FEEL things. It would make COMPLETE sense for Elain to be with Lucien, he’s her mate and he’s courtly and traditional (for a high fey, anyway) and it would be very politically tidy. But maybe this new, changed Elain just doesn’t want that anymore. Maybe she thinks Azriel’s scarred hands are beautiful because they’re nothing other than what they are, and she’s not afraid of having her own scars (I.e. the thorns).
I don’t know for sure that it’s a great sign that Azriel got Elain jewelry. That could be an indication that he sees her beauty and delicacy similarly to the way Lucien does, and certainly he is protective of Elain. BUT think it could mean something different because it was juxtaposed with the pearl earrings that Lucien gave Elain. They were plain, we’ve never had any indication that Elain is interested in pearls or even regular jewelry. SJM OBVIOUSLY put much more thought into the description of the necklace and AZRIEL OBVIOUSLY put much more thought into his gift for Elain than Lucien did. He thought about Elain and what she means to him and gave her something that appears gently beautiful and informal but is even more lovely when someone PAYS CLOSER ATTENTION TO IT, as Azriel always does with everything, and especially Elain.
just can’t imagine SJM having anything that is awkward and at best uncomfortable and uncommunicative turn into an endgame relationship. Elain and lucien have no passion, neither sexual nor antagonistic nor romantic. All of her relationships tend to involve a pretty instant attraction and ongoing tension with tiny little moments sprinkled in from the get. Elain is only ever uncomfortable around Lucien. On the other hand, she is innately comfortable with Azriel pretty immediately (again ask for receipts and I will give them).
They also meet each other pre-cauldron, Lucien is literally like, “she’s my mate!” During one of the most traumatic and dissonant moments of Elain’s life. Remember how much Rhys DIDNT MAKE FEYRE’S LIFE OR TRAUMA ABOUT HIM???? He waited FOREVER to tell her about the bond, was pretty certain he could never be with her, would have been happy to never tell her and just have her be happy. Cassian was pretty sure of the bond with nesta and did not come close to mentioning it until they declared themselves together forever. Rowan and Aelin were also terrified to admit to each other that they were mates, again because they worried what it might do to negatively affect the other. But there’s Elain, fresh outta the cauldron, they all heard her screams and saw her terror and despair, and the first thing he says is “she’s MY mate.”
Also want to be clear I’m not trying to hate on Lucien. I mentioned above that Lucien is used to being pretty courtly and traditional, I think he was raised in the autumn court and has a very traditional understanding of what the mating bond means. I don’t think he is ever trying to claim Elain because he’s inherently trying to ignore her wishes or control her, but because he feels that bond and believes in the fact that it is sacred. Elain was born human, doesn’t really understand the significance of mates the way Lucien does. Of course she wouldn’t have a matching reverence. Elain is used to love and building trust and a relationship with someone over time and with patience. Which is exactly how her relationship with Az progresses.
Really think about Elain and Lucien, what about them seems compatible? He plays the game, he’s clever, his specialty is in people and he likes to have repartee with those he’s close to. Elain is pretty much always herself, she doesn’t change to suit her company, and she frankly doesn’t seem to love figuring people out. She loves being with the people she loves, but the politics of people don’t interest her - nature interests her. She’s kind in a way that Lucien would probably probably find boring in someone who isn’t his mate. In ACOSF, nesta is constantly thinking about the difference in her relationship with her mother from the relationships her mother had with her sisters. She makes it really clear that Elain never knew how to handle people in the same way as nesta or any courtier, and that she wasn’t really all that interested in intrigue or politic (which is why their mother was never interested in Elain). Elain and Lucien do not understand each other and do not understand the other’s passions or motivations. I like Lucien, I don’t love him the way that some folks do, probably because I never really got over his failure to feyre in ACOMAF, but I do want him to be happy. I think he can’t give Elain what she wants or needs and vice versa.
Lastly I want to talk about symmetry and fresh narrative. At this point, mating bonds are pretty played out. SJM has set a lot of groundwork re: the fact that mating bonds are NOT always perfect, and are NOT always happy. Rhys talks a lot about his mother and father. They were very unhappy together; they did not understand each other. It sounds like Rhys’s father was a politician and Rhys’s mother was wild and raw and genuine. This is part of the reason he waits so long to tell Feyre about the bond (and obviously he doesn’t even get to tell her, she finds out on her own). I am definitely not trying to say that Lucien is like Rhys’s father, he’s not, he’s a much better person, but I do think that the differences in Rhys’s parents’ values and passions mirror the dissonance that can be felt between Lucien and Elain as well. I think all of the wind was taken out of the relationship before it started because Lucien named Elain as his mate so quickly- it was really unearned. It is so EARNED in Feyre and Rhys’s story and Aelin and Rowan’s.
I think the idea of choosing love over nature is actually extraordinary. Elain, who has never really had a choice in her whole life, will make the most subversive and difficult choice of the series by rejecting her mating bond. And Azriel, who has never believed himself worthy of good things, will be chosen over a mating bond because he is so extraordinarily deserving of happiness and love and to be truly chosen as someone else’s paramour even beyond the influence of a mating bond. Is there any greater narrative validation of Azriel than that???? SJM writes grand, dramatic cosmic payback for her characters, and this would be a crowning achievement in that vein.
As for Lucien, what he has needed is a way out of the lines he’s always been expected to live in. He was never at home in the autumn court, he was never truly at home in the spring court, and despite Elain, he is definitely never at home in the night court. Lucien’s love, the thing that made him more happy than anything else in his life, was inherently unconventional, and then the convention he lived in destroyed it. Letting go of Elain and the mating bond will be the best way for him to reject the rules that have confined him for his entire, mostly miserable life. Elain will choose Azriel, and Lucien will choose to let her go, not just for Elain but also for himself. I’m willing to bet he might even give up his immortal life to be with Vassa and Jurian. Obviously that whole trio’s dynamic is still pretty murky, but I THINK he seems to be into Vassa (hell who knows - maybe he’s into jurian). Certainly he is happier with them than he has ever been anywhere else (tamlin was Lucien’s dear friend, but Lucien was also fucking terrified of him), and maybe it’s not and will never be about romantic fulfillment for him. That being said, that seems unlikely given SJM’s tendency to pair off her characters.
As for people being mad about the sex stuff…… have we not been reading the same books? Cassian and Rhys have both made it clear to Feyre that Az can get it, he hasn’t been chastely pining for Mor his whole life. Nesta also specifically confirms in this newest installment that Elain is not a virgin, hello bread crumb set up. Elain and Azriel are both sexually active adults who are sexually attracted to each other. Why should they not be able to have agency over their own sexuality in the same way as all of the other characters? Because they’re shy? Because they seem nicer and gentler?
I think it’s actually really infantilizing to make Elain a victim/inactive participant in her solstice interaction with Azriel. Sure, narrators aren’t always reliable, but SJM always uses the fey scent as a story device to confirm sexual interest and initial/general consent for the reader without suspicion or misinterpretation. I. E. Nesta and cassian both had really warped understandings of how the other felt about them for a lot of ACOSF, but they always came back to knowing for certain that they were sexually attracted to each other. That is something that SJM makes pretty freakin clear in most situations. I don’t think that Azriel thought anything that was darker or dirtier than anything Rhys or cassian has thought about feyre and nesta. In fact it was definitely less kinky than how cassian and nesta often thought of each other sexually before they really got together.
Also, a lot of elain’s reactions to Lucien in ACOWAR remind me of mor’s reactions to Azriel throughout the series. You could tell she was feeling some type of way, but in reality it was guilt and sorrow that she couldn’t return his feelings, not that she was tortured by her love for him. I feel like when Lucien goes to the continent and Elain displays emotion about it it’s more about the fact that she feels bad she doesn’t feel more for him even though she does feel the bond. I’m sure it was really confusing for her. Elain’s reactions to Azriel, though, remind me more of the little snippets of interaction between Aedion and Lysandra before they had more POV in the ToG series and also those between cassian and nesta in ACOMAF and ACOWAR before THEY had POV chapters.
Wow so yeah here’s my dissertation. I hope someone out there reads this and is like YES THIS IS WHAT IVE BEEN TRYING TO SAY, because I love when I find posts like that.
ONE YEAR LATER!!! Thankfully I still agree with a lot of this (THREE CHEERS FOR CONSISTENCY), though I think I’d also say a lot of it a little differently now I was so keen! I will totally go through this point by point if someone wants.
It’s like, I DO love the whole, “LI is completely devoted to MC” thing, I do. It gives me butterflies. “Who did this to you” is an excellent trope, love a grand gesture, love proof that someone has been devoted and pining for a lot longer than they’ve let on. All that stuff is great.
BUT,
That doesn’t mean I want that person to no longer care about ANYTHING ELSE except their romantic partner. I DNF’d the third book of the FBAA series, but from the things I’ve heard and the pieces of the newer books I’ve read, Casteel is a completely different person. He no longer seems to care about anything at all except for Poppy, and most of the time he only cares about fulfilling her sexual desires. This is good fantasy fodder, I understand why this trope is appealing, but it’s the transition from a complex, multi-motived character to a bona fide disciple that is really disappointing.
I recognize that I haven’t read all of those books, so I can’t speak on it with total certainty, but -
I HAVE read all of the ACOTAR books, and while I don’t think Rhys’s character has degraded to the same level or degree as Casteel’s seems to have, I have still been really disappointed with his behavior since the middle of ACOWAR. It seems like he doesn’t really care about anyone except for Feyre and now their child, and that makes me sad. He’s screwed over Azriel, Cassian, and Mor, a few of them more than once, and hasn’t seemed apologetic at all.
These are supposed to be the people he DOES value and DOES want to protect. I understand that he was ruthless under the mountain, but he was ruthless for their sake. He’s lied to all of them and on several occasions basically refused to consider their feelings beyond a cursory mind-to-mind convo with Feyre. In fact, Feyre seems to be the only one of the two of them who still tries to prioritize their friends’ happiness and well-being even if it’s less convenient/a bit of a headache for her and Rhys.
Yes, I’m referring to Rhys pretty dismissively and harshly warning Azriel off of Elain in the bonus POV (really, Rhys, your best friend of five hundred years and you think he’s just tryna whet his whistle with one of the most “off-limits” women in Prythian?) , but also the way he handled the alliance with Eris and the bargain with Keir in relation to Mor, his asking Azriel to lie to Cassian about the illyrian rebels and essentially withholding crucial information from Cassian, and his lack of consideration for Elain’s opinion in the court machinations he’s laid out in his head. Even if Elain does want to be with Lucien (though I definitely don’t think she does) Rhys doesn’t seem interested in finding out.
But I’m not even here to argue about the ships! I just wish that authors would allow their male LIs to still have loyalties and motivations beyond their significant other. That’s what keeps the ship interesting! They can be together 100%, be completely and undoubtedly in love with each other, but still care about other things and people. I know you can make the case that Rhys wasn’t just disregarding his family for Feyre but also for the greater good, but then he put literally his entire court and really all of Prythian at risk when he made the death pact with Feyre.
Idk, this is a bit of a ramble, I’m not even sure if I have a definitive thesis here. I’d love to hear other takes on this but to me, Rhys’s abandonment of every other loyalty in his life to prioritize not just Feyre’s life, but also anything that might complicate their situation non-lethally, is not great.
I just, I don’t want complex characters to lose their complexity! That’s no fun! And it leads to a really boring and unsatisfying phase or end for a lot of otherwise fantastic ships.
The day that people stop romanticizing and sexualizing Gw*n’s sexual assault is the day I will know peace. Just because he was there, and killed the soldiers, does not make this a romantic gesture or proof of a romantic relationship. And it completely diminishes the trauma she experienced by trying to center it on a man and framing the aftermath as a romantic gesture or foreshadowing of some kind.
Mor was also there. In fact he gave her a cloak and then immediately handed her over to Mor who would have then been the one to primarily take care of Gw*n in the immediate aftermath of her trauma and yet…I don’t see anyone shipping them together because of this. You know why? Because it’s not indicative of anything and it would be weird. It’s one human being showing care and concern for another during a time of intense pain and trauma. Nobody thinks Mor taking care or Gw*n is a prelude to romance. Is it because she’s a woman? How does anyone even know Gw*n is interested in men? The whole thing is gross but I guess it is what it is.
It was not a tender moment. A beautiful moment. A romantic moment. I doubt it was something that Gw*n would want a reminder of by keeping the cloak that Azriel used to cover her naked and bleeding body. It was traumatic and violent, to the point where she had trouble leaving the library.
Seriously ship who you want to ship, but please don’t romanticize a brutal assault. It wasn’t romantic, it was the most traumatic and painful day of her life, and Azriel and Mor, who were total strangers to her, witnessed it.
Azriel showed the decent, most bare minimum level of compassion, and i really believe almost any other character in the book would have done exactly what he did.
It makes me sad that such a basic level of compassion, or even just human decency, is being singled out as romantically extraordinary. If that moment was romantic, then the bar for cis het men is even lower than I thought (which I actually didn’t believe was possible).
“Something sparked in Azriel’s chest, but he only nodded his thanks and left. He could picture it, though, as he ascended the stairs back to the House proper. How Gwyn’s teal eyes might light upon seeing the necklace. For whatever reason…he could see it. But Azriel tucked away the thought, consciously erasing the slight smile it brought to his face. Buried the image down deep, where it glowed quietly. A thing of secret, lovely beauty” -ACOSF, Az bonus chapter. Sarah J Maas
I’m so excited to drop this Gwyn commission! Thank you to the lovely artist Yasmin who made this gorgeous Gwyn piece for me! It was such a pleasure to work with Yasmin ❤️
A little break from commissions and projects to draw my favourite Illyrian. I hope I’ll have the time to work on this illustration. If not, at least he’s my first personal sketch of the year TT TT
