I have seen numerous TikTok’s this week hating Elain, wanting her to be evil and die, and I just don’t get it. Someone explain to me the Elain hate in this fandom, explain it to me like I’m five, because it makes no sense.
Is it just that so many women can’t fathom that a woman can be great without being a warrior? Is it that they can’t self insert with her? I don’t get it.
This character has been written to be liked, loved even. Her character arc has been one of the most fleshed out in the background since her one dimensional start in ACOTR.
She has gone from being someone who has things happen to her and ignoring most things, to becoming aware of others needs, to actively working to make the world a better place.
I mean it was Elain who convinced Nesta to let Feyre to use the house, to repay all she had done for them and help others. It was Elain who despite being scared and having a fiancé who hated Fae try to be welcoming to Rhys, Azriel, and Cassian.
I think one of my underrated, favorite Elain moments in ACOMAF is when she was so pleased Feyre and her friends would spend the night. It says she beamed. She wanted her sister there, wanted to make her comfortable.
Elain warned Feyre even though she was terrified, dragged from her home into Hybern.
I know people said she was useless at the beginning at ACOWAR, but everything had been taken from her and she was lost in visions she didn’t understand. Still she tried to warn them, tried to tell them. Once it was discovered what she was experiencing, she helped.
She didn’t have to go to Grayson and his father to plead for the mortals. She did. She helped Feyre find the Suriel, and during her rescue, she didn’t act helpless or do nothing. She fought back and help save the human girl.
Yes, she didn’t handle the fighting well, but can you blame her? When it came time to do what she must to save her sister. She didn’t hesitate. At the end of the book she wanted to help others and plant gardens. It doesn’t seem like much but it showed she was willing to heal and to spread life.
In ACOFS, Elain’s character was pretty much shown to be a kind, perceptive female, who cares about others. She spends her time helping around the house. She is kind to others as they are shopping. She bakes Feyre an amazing cake, wants to heal the breach between Nesta, and buys Azriel a thoughtful, humorous gift.
We can see that those in the IC do like her with their interactions in ACOFS and ACOSF. I know there are plenty that think she is too mean to Nesta, but their conversations and interactions are very realistic. She cares about Nesta, but doesn’t have to stand there and being abused right back. Neither are perfect, but they both have a right to be angry and hurt and deal with their trama as Elain points out.
There is nothing in the books that show Elain to be unlikeable or unwilling to help. She is figuring out her new life, and I am sure she still struggles with things, but nothing has been written to suggest she will go evil or want to hurt her family, blood or found.
So tell me how you can hate her or want her to go evil. Tell me how a character that stepped out of a shadow, killed the King Of Hybern, is friends with half wraiths, is blessed by the Cauldron with powers, for now has a mating bond with the son of a High Lord, has attracted the notice and affection (yes, he cares about her) of a shadowsinger and spymaster, lives in the home of the high lord and lady of night, and obviously has made contacts in the city, is boring and not worthy of a book?
The Elain hate makes no sense:
