Shadow & Sight

Elriel 🌸🖤

[mabevil]

“three sisters with three brothers is too cliche and overdone”

alright bet, name three stories you’ve read with three sisters x three brothers

[cassianfanclub]

They can’t.

1) Because the don’t exist

2) Because they don’t understand what “cliche” means

[sakurakittypeach]

the deeply misogynistic idea that a woman cannot make any mistakes before being worthy of love is so prevalent in elucien/gwynriel spaces is actually crazy.

elain should be with lucien but should beg for forgiveness before they get together.

azriel should be with gwyn because he deserves better than elain and gwyn is more worthy.

like these are both frequent talking points of gwynriels and eluciens and it genuinely baffles me how they cannot see such blatant sexism.

you do not have to be unflawed to be worthy of love. you should always strive to do better and apologise where you must, (both of which elain has done), obviously but these are things we should be doing anyway because we're human.

being worthy of love isn't a number above your head that deducts a point for every mistake you make. that's ugly thinking.

when characters are flawed it makes for better story. nobody adores katara or katniss or diana of themyscira because they were immediately perfect??? that's so boring i am yawning. why do i give a fuck if someone is perfect. what story is there left to tell.

give me elain archeron with all of her cowardice and all of her kindness. i want to see her meekness and the agency with which she grows. i want her to throw duty to the wind and own her defiance.

elain archeron is imperfect and that's why she's important.

[acourtofquietdreamers]

“𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒂𝒛𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑬𝒍𝒂𝒊𝒏, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒖𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒚 𝒏𝒆𝒖𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒍, 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒊𝒕. 𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎.”

…

“𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔.”

This is the last interaction we see between Elain and Azriel in ACOSF and I think it perfectly sets the stage for their romance. Their feelings have been slowly building for multiple books now and tension like that can’t be kept secret for long.

This commission by the talented thiaperezart captures the mutual yearning and desire between Elain and Azriel so beautifully! Fingers crossed we finally get to see Azriel on his knees for the woman he’s been so desperate for in the new books 💖

Art by thiaperezart on instagram and commissioned by me

Characters belong to Sarah J. Maas

@elriel-month

[cassianfanclub]

I maintain that Gwyn’s biggest haters are Gwynriels

[acourtofquietdreamers]

Elriel Month: Yearning

Art by rockieartt on instagram and commissioned by me.

Happy Elriel month everyone! We are finally getting more Elain and Az content this year 🥹 I'm anticipating a lot of yearning and angst between these two in book 6 so I wanted this commission to capture that feeling. In this piece, Elain and Az can't help but reach for each other as they pass in a corridor. Between their charged glances, words left unspoken, and brushing of hands - they are the ultimate yearners and I'm so excited to see where their story goes 💙🩷

Huge thanks to rockieartt for creating this for me! You capture Elriel so beautifully every time.

@elriel-month

[nikethestatue]

The Inner Circle are the people who STOOD IN THE CIRCLE HOLDING HANDS BEFORE THE FINAL BATTLE.

They are the people whom Rhys addressed in his final speech. They are mentioned by the order of who became part of the Inner Circle first.

Cassian, then Azriel, followed by Mor, then Amren, then Feyre. And then, Nesta and Elain.

“I believe everything happens for a reason. Whether it is decided by the Mother, or the Cauldron, or some sort of tapestry of Fate, I don't know. I don't really care. But I am grateful for it, whatever it is. Grateful that it brought you all into my life. If it hadn't... I might have become as awful as that prick we're going to face today. If I had not met an Illyrian warrior-in-training," he said to Cassian, "I would not have known the true depths of strength, of resilience, of honor and loyalty." Cassian's eyes gleamed bright. Rhys said to Azriel, "If I had not met a shadowsinger, I would not have known that it is the family you make, not the one you are born into, that matters. I would not have known what it is to truly hope, even when the world tells you to despair." Azriel bowed his head in thanks. Mor was already crying when Rhys spoke to her. "If I had not met my cousin, I would neer have learned that light can be found in even the darkest of hells. That kidness can thrive even amongst cruelty." She wiped away her teas as she nodded. I waited for Amren to offer a retort. But she was only waiting. Rhys bowed his head to her. "If I had not met a tiny monster who hoards jewels more fiercely than a firedrake..." A quite laugh from all of us at that. Rhys smiled softly. "My own power would have consumed me long ago." Rhys squeezed my hand as he looked to me at last. "And if I had not met my mate..." His words failed him as silver lined his eyes. He said down the bond, I would have waited five hundred more years for you. A thousand years. And if this was all the time we were allowed to have... The wait was worth it. He wiped away the tears sliding down my face. "I believe that everything happened, exactly the way it had to... so I could find you." He kissed another tear away.” ― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Wings and Ruin

And then, he said this:

That's it.

It's not Lucien, it's not the Valkyries, it's not Varian, or anyone else.

The original IC and the 3 sisters.

There should be no arguments about this. It's SPELLED OUT.

The books are about the IC and the Archerons.

[elainsgirl]

All I'm saying is,

Nesta tells Gwyn about the plans to go to the prison, Gwyn tells Merill...Then Briallyn shows up at the prison. Later on, Koshei himself reveals there is a spy in the NC...

Nesta tells Azriel he is the new ribbon and later on we see Gwyn stare down the ribbon as if its an enemy on a battlefield...

Elain, a seer, just so happens to gift Azriel earplugs in the same night he meets someone whose able to enchant his shadows, who are affected by music, through singing...

[psychologynerd]

People are allowed to make missteps and miscalculations. This is a large, international fandom where there are different cultures and social norms. I have made mistakes and said things that were insensitive through my own mental/cultural filters and biases. Making a mistake doesn’t make you a bad person.

What is always most evident to me is when people can take feedback and correct an action they have been told is hurtful and harmful. They apologize. They take accountability. And they learn.

We are all human.

Instead of making things so dichotomous and doubling down in this tribalistic approach to fandom, maybe we need to pay attention to how receptive people are to feedback and not globally label. If you see somebody receive feedback and correct it, give some grace.

Everybody is working to, hopefully, be a better and more compassionate person at the end of the day. Labeling a group of people bc of one person’s actions is cruel. Particularly when said one person received feedback, removed the post and apologized for the oversight of something harmful.

[lovelydreamshadows]

when you're pro-IC and pro-Elriel you're always winning

[elainarcheronsvisions]

BB: “we will be back with the inner circle soon”

Random comments: “Can’t wait to be back with the Valkyries and Band of Exiles”

[cassianfanclub]

It’s been 5 months since Call Her Daddy, btw 🙃🙃

Mind you, they’ve had no issue taking our preorder money, announcing 30 different merch collections to spend our money on, like videos about how it’s really not that big of a deal that we don’t have a title yet, all in that same time period.

Why the fuck should you spend your money and care about these books when neither BB or SJM has the decency to even tell us the title of the book we are purchasing??

[adifferentsortofstrength]

Light and Dark

The space between their bodies a blend of the two.

[cassianfanclub]

I love them, your honor 😭

[nikethestatue]

I was chatting with @mrspettyferr and she brought up a great question: how many interactions did Azriel and Gwyn actually HAVE in ACOSF?

Outside of the bonus chapter, which we'd count as one interaction.

You'd think ten? fifteen? maybe eight?

Something meaningful. Something hefty.

Two.

They had TWO meaningful interactions.

Gwyn challenged him during the BR prep and told him 'we are looking forward to proving you wrong' and then at the end of the training, when she extended her hand after reaching the finish line.

Listen, we'll be generous and thow in 'see you tomorrow shadowsinger' as a whole separate and unique interaction.

TWO.

THEY HAD TWO INTERACTIONS.

Six years of this bullshit have been about two non-interactions about nothing.

Think about that.

And think about Gwynriels who bought into this after two interactions.

TikTok University strikes again.

[cassianfanclub]

And not only that, but both of those interactions happened in the same chapter!! They have one chapter of trainer/trainee convos. And even the bonus turns into a trainee/trainee convo!

[sakurakittypeach]

if you genuinely think SJM switches love interests on a whim, you are an idiot. in every sense of the word. <3

[cassianfanclub]

Y’all really gotta let that rat thing go omg

[ashkinsreads]

some of y’all really need to stop giving into GL/EL bait and just ignore them and their anons

[cassianfanclub]

The ACOTAR fandom is ground zero for the literacy crisis.