A few of the unnecessary intentional times that Elain has been on the page and was compared/linked to Azriel. SJM didn’t need to do it… but she did anyway.
Painting us a picture. 🖼️
At this point Elain is still “technically” engaged to Graysen, who could have been her obstacle with Lucien.. not Azriel. But sure let’s wonder if Azriel is what Elain needs. 💍
The potato steam will always be so funny to me… because why are being told that it is like Azriels shadows. 😂🥔
Love the DIRECT comparisons to Azriel in regards to secret keeping and spying.🕵🏼♀️
And finally one of my favorite silver flames quotes. Elain’s rose carving half hidden in shadows and Nesta’s reaction to it. 👀
I know Elain can and will make her own path as a strong FMC… but I love the connections sjm has went out of her way to make between her and Azriel. 🩷💙
THIS is foreshadowing. THESE are crumbs. THAT is how you setup a romantic pairing.
my evil hot take is that being an elucien/gwynriel has to be some kind of humiliation ritual bc how do you keep taking L after L after L and still persist with these two ships blander than plain. flour
You’re absolutely terrified that anything published about Acotar might—God forbid—hint at something involving Elriel, aren’t you? I feel so bad for you that I’m almost tempted to send Sarah an email asking her to rewrite the romantic subplots.
But how much influence one can really have over an author who writes whatever they want is up for debate. 😬
Btw moonstone and pearl aren’t the same thing, genius.
Yes. That’s called storytelling. Storytelling isn’t a series of random events happening. Even for plot points and twists you didn’t see coming, good storytelling means you should be able to go back through the story being told and find the hints and clues that led you to that point.
This will be a long post. But rest assured that by the end of it you will have no doubt Elriel is endgame.
-Sjms Own Words
"And I know what I want to write for the second spinoff novel, but I'm keeping the door open after that"
And in the same interview she says this
"Elain is a gardener, and everything I did in those weeks became research for her book"
Meaning the second spinoff novel is 100% Elain+ her Li, and she has no clue who the third is about yet.
“I realized at that point I wanted to tell not just this story about Nesta and Cassian, but also I wanted to tell the story of all these other characters who were in the earlier books as kind of side characters."
Hint- "Earlier" doesn't mean Acosf. EVen if Eluc*en happens, rest assured that Gwynriel will never get their own book.
Oh wait...
"Azriels story is one I'm very excited to write"
Meaning Azriel IS getting a book. Which means that Elriel is getting their book, because Elain is the only character he could have a book with.(A more in depth post I made recently here)
-All the threes
"Three sisters and three brothers is boring, Sjm would never do that"-Every Anti-Elriel.
Yeah, but...
-Elain, Nesta, Feyre
-Rhys Cassian, Azriel
-Utm, The prison, Ramiel
-Feyre, Amren, More
-Nesta, Emerie, Gwyn
-Elain, Nuala, Ceridwen
-Carynthian, Orystian, Arktosian
-Lucien, Vassa, Jurian
Sjm does EVERYTHING in threes.
Also
"All three sisters blessed by fate and gifted with powers to match your own"
Three sisters, three brothers.
-The Death of Koshei the Deathless theory.
Heres the original post about this
Now. Please, go read the original post and show it some love!
Okay so, We all know Sjm LOVES her fairytale, mythology, Legend retellings, right?
And I know we're all thinking, Gwynr*el will be little mermaid! Elriel will be sleeping beauty!
But lets put that aside and acknowledge the fact that the entire series(Spinoff series at least) is based on The Death Of Koshei the Deathless.
And I'm gonna sum up the beginning of the story. Three sisters get married to three wizards who turn into birds.
The Archeron sisters and the Bat(bird) boys.
-Neither Elain, nor Lucien want anything to do with their bond
"I can't even Stand to be in the same room as her for more than two minutes"
"I don't want a mate"
"Elain, the wretch, had taken the seat between Feyre and Varian, about as far from Lucien as she could get"
"Elain had been... Thrown at him"
And they lack several of the traits mates have.
-There are so many Elriel Paralells
I'm just gonna link a shit ton of parallels, and there will probably be more I didn't link.
And there are SO many more! these are just all the ones I found before I was bored out of my mind.
-Despite not being Mates, Elain and Azriel act like them.
Azriel and Elain are very attentive to each other.
Azriel was the first person to realize that Elain was a seer, when Madja said that a mate would figure out what was wrong. He's always the first one to offer to take her to the garden. Elain noticed Azriel was always having headaches. She knew Azriel wasn't sleeping well so she gives him headache powder, and earplugs to help him.
Azriel saving Elain was CLASSIC mate behavior. He was feral. He knew it was dangerous, he knew he could likely die. But he was the first one to decide to save her. Not Feyre, not Nesta, Azriel.
Azriel also have Elain truthteller. His favorite weapon. He had never let anyone touch it, but if it was for Elain, he'd give it up. And Elain was refusing not just the weapons Cassian was trying to offer her, but the idea of having to participate in violence. But if it was Azriel, handing her a blade she knew meant something to him, because he wanted her to be safe, she'd accept it.
-It's canon they're attracted to each other.
I mean, it is. If you want the "Gwynr*el scene" in the bonus to matter, then the Canon mutual attraction Elriel has in the bonus scene has to matter.
But then again, The second half of the bonus chapter introduces something completely new. It completely introduces the idea of Gwyn and Azriel, but Elain and Az having feelings for each other can be guessed without it. The bonus chapter is just saying "Guess what? It's true" but it doesn't change anything the way it would if Gwynr*el were to come out of that scene.
-There has been 4 books of build up, and nothing has happened between them
You're probably thinking that proves Elriel won't happen more so than it will. But it actually shows that she's setting up their romance.
It's building and building and building, so that when it finally happens, it's in their book.
They never kissed so that we can see their first kiss in the actual book, not a bonus chapter in another characters book.
-Azriel shows the most emotion around Elain.
I have a whole post on this. Azriel shows emotion very little, but out of 144 times Azriel has EVER shown emotion, 30 of those are because of Elain.
And that's not even counting the bonus chapter. So we've no idea how much emotion he's willing to show when he's alone with her, when nobodies watching.
We know they steal glances, and brush hands when the other characters aren't looking.
Elain brings out the part of him he hides the most, more so than any other character.
-Acowar
Just, the entire book is full of evidence for Elriel
From Lucien and Elain not working out, to Azriel showing Elain the garden, and Elain calling Azriels shadows beautiful, and Feyre asking Why Elucien, why not Elriel? questioning the validity of their bond, to Azriel getting Elain back, to giving herr truthteller, to her using his shadows to kill the king, to the cover of the book being a scene of theirs.
I wonder how the Gw*nriels are doing, since Gwyn wasn't even mentioned in the questions and for the El*ciens, the first thing asked was if the bond will be rejected 😂 god, it's truly beautiful to be an Elriel.
Sure, maybe she was asked about, but clearly it wasn't important enough to include in the promo haha.
Antis bragging about the interview clips showing that ACOSF was there the whole time when they are really just proving that ACOWAR and ACOFAS were purposely moved to be in the shot of the teaser 🤭
