18 Ways Sarah J. Maas's Call Her Daddy Interview Reinforced Elriel
My thoughts on the interview, presented to you in chronological order:
1. SJM Is Not Doing Fan Service Gwynriel: Gwynriels love to say that Gwynriel is the "most popular ship." Even if it is (it's not), that wouldn't matter, because SJM made it clear she doesn't do fan service:
“And like I don't ever want to hear like, oh, we need to change this to appeal to like XYZ demographic. I'm like, no, that's not how you make art. That's not how I create my stories."
2. Nobody Should Dismiss Elriel’s Bonus Interaction As “Just Smut”: We’ve heard it a million times; “the interaction between Elain and Azriel in the bonus is ‘just lust!’” But SJM stressed that her spicy scenes are far more than “just sex.” For example, Nessian’s sex scenes are
“intensely tied to their own emotional journeys and their own journey as a couple. And so like this dismissal of it, like, it's just like smut, like whatever. I'm like, it's fun. I design it to be entertaining, but it's also moving and like I write like what I consider to be like cool shit that like means something to me.”
Yep, Elriel are hot for each other. But the bonus was just the tip of the iceberg and shouldn’t be dismissed as “just lust.”
3. Stop Saying That Az Should Be With Someone Other Than the “Boring Gardener” or the “Braindead Baker.”: As SJM herself said, “And I find that there is a tendency for people to roll their eyes at things that bring joy and bring women joy especially, and it pisses me the fuck off constantly.”
4. It Doesn’t Matter Whether or Not Elain Can Give Birth to a Winged Baby: I can’t believe this still needs to be said in the year of our lord 2026, but it doesn’t matter whether Elain can give birth to Azriel’s child. As Sarah noted,
“Like someone being in a loving relationship with a person and choosing to bring a new life into this world and to share their world and open up their hearts to someone. That's a beautiful thing. Like however you make a family, like that is a beautiful, wonderful thing.”
5. Stop Relying on a FB Comment from 2017 As Proof of Elucien: SJM reminded us all of how she can’t be forthcoming with readers sometimes for fear of spoiling future books:
But then like of course like it was so funny when like the first ACOTAR came out and people were like, I love Tamlin so much. I got a tattoo of him and like knowing what like was going to happen. I was like, I'm so happy. Like I'm so happy for you. Also, I'm so sorry. I will give you. I will pay for the tattoo laser removal in like a year.
Of course Sarah wasn’t going to admit to everyone in 2017 that Elucien was dead in the water, but they were and they remain so. Stop clinging to that comment.
6. Hot Characters Get Hot Names (and “Gwyn Berdara” Is Not a Hot Person Name): Okay, this one is a little tongue in cheek, but I had to laugh at this exchange:
Alex: Is it true that you, like, part of your process is you sit and ponder how sexy the character's potential name is before officially giving it to them?
SJM: Oh, yeah . . . But, like, usually, like, if, like, someone's attractive, I'm like, okay. let's find the hottest name.
Let’s be real–Gwyn Berdara? Least sexy name in the world. Not FMC material. 😂
7. Stop Trying to Make Tamlain a Thing: For all you, “Elain loves flowers, she belongs with Tamlin” truthers, let’s remember the part where SJM said,
“I've had so many women, especially. including some, like, very dear friends of mine who've, like, come up and told me about, like, how they saw their own abusive relationship mirrored in Tamlin.”
Does this sound like someone she’s going to pair Elain with?
8. Men on Their Knees = Good Sign: Sarah said, “I think it's, like, really kind of hot that, like, the super powerful dude, like, wants to get on his knees in front of his lady.” Certainly reminds you of how a certain Spymaster would “beg on his knees for a chance to taste” Elain, doesn’t it?
9. Elain’s Mating Bond with Lucien Does Not Mean “True Love”: I’ll just leave this little nugget here:
“there's a biological component to it where like you can be mated to someone that is like not actually your true love. Like there's like true, true mates and then there's kind of like nature made a mistake.”
RIP, Elucien.
10. Elucien = Forced Marriage: “Elain’s got like her own trauma and shit that she's going through right now. I mean, like, imagine, like, being transformed into, like, a whole new body, a whole new lifestyle. And, like, surprise, like, you've been, like, forcibly, like essentially married to like a stranger . . .”
Calling something a forced marriage doesn’t scream peak romance to me!
11. Lucien = Complicit in Elain’s Trauma: Sarah referred to Lucien as someone who “was like involved in bringing [Elain] into this world and like betraying [her] and like shoving [her] into the cauldron.” Tough day for all the “my baby Lulu is an innocent precious cinnamon roll” boy moms out there!
12. The Face Sarah Made When She Spoke About Elain’s Unwanted Bond:
I'll just leave this here 🤭
13. The Elucien Bond Is Inferior to the Feysand and Nessian Bonds: Sarah noted that, unlike what Elain has experienced, with “Feyre and Nesta, it was so easy for them … nature picked right.” Guess we know who nature picked wrong for!
14. The “SJM Is a Fated Mates Author!” Argument Is Nonsense: Sarah made clear that she doesn’t like to be pigeonholed into telling any particular type of story. Talking about the upcoming books, she said:
“And I had a vision from the start of, like, what it would be, how I would deliver it to you guys. And, like, that's what I want to do. And, like, getting to be in the driver's seat and decide, like, this is how I want to tell stories . . . Like, why do we have to, like, stick to, like, these boxes of, like, this is how you tell a story from A to B. I'm like, no, like, what if we do something different?”
She has told fated mates stories before, sure, but she made clear that she can tell Elain’s story any way she wants to (time to snip that bond, Elain!)
15. RIP, “Azriel’s Book” Truthers: Sarah emphasized that “these books are about women coming into their power.” Seems clear to me!
16. Bryceriel Found Dead in a Ditch:
Alex: Well, there are a lot of theories that Bryce's true mate is Azriel. Is there any truth to that?
SJM: No. I can tell you right . . . I'm sorry to anyone that shipped that and has been like ride or die with that but like no it's Bryce and Hunt.
17. Pinterest Boards Shouldn’t Be Taken That Seriously: For everyone out there clinging to ancient pins that “prove” Elucien and Gwynriel, SJM seemed utterly mystified that people are looking at / caring about Pinterest.
Alex: We've all seen the now deleted Twilight of the Gods Pinterest board.
Sarah: Really?!? [tone of disbelief]
She also noted that sometimes she has pins for “ideas” where “sometimes I want to share that with the world and sometimes I don't.” It was clear that she used pinterest for a variety of random things that often don’t come to fruition.
18. Gwyn's Name Was Not Mentioned Once: You’re telling me Gwyn is going to be one half of the couple anchoring multiple upcoming books and Sarah doesn’t even mention her ONCE?!?! Nah. No way. (And, no, she’s not not mentioning Gwyn in order to avoid “spoiling” the Gwynriel book, cope harder.)
In summary: I think there’s a reason Elriels have been celebrating today, whereas Eluciens and Gwynriels have been sending crazy anons, quietly admitting their ships are dead on Reddit, and suddenly being too “sick” and “busy” to comment on the pod. Welcome to the era of Elriel! 💙🩷
