The timeline of sjm books and mate bond
In CHD Sarah talks about Elain and mate bond and something she said made me go 👀👀
She's proc she's got a lot of [____ ] that she's processing. And so like exploring like a concept of a free will like what does that look like with a mating bond?What like what does that mean? And like does nature like get it wrong sometimes Does it get it right sometime? Like what? And like that again like as a writer l have to be like very I'm like I like to like find things that like make me interested. Like you get mated to someone and like you don't want to be mated. I'm like, like what what do you do? Like you're stuck with this person. Like what? Like what do you do? But like I mean the guy's like hot, but it's like what if it's not? Like you don't know. Like it's just it's something that like I really like find to be an interesting concept versus like Phyra and Neessa where it was so easy for them. Like nature picked right.
Every body talked about the green part. Im going to talk about the red highlighted part in this post.
We are going to dive into her publishing schedule with tog and acotar.
Acotar > QoS > Acomaf > eos > acowar > ToD > acofas > KoA
You are gonna ask why this is important?
Now we are gonna talk about the best parallel there is...
"given to another" rowaelin x elriel parallel
This rowaelin quotes comes from EoS. We learn that Rowan and Aelin were mates all along and that Maeve manipulated Rowan into thinking that Lyria was his mate.
And now we have the exact same wording with Elriel. What this could mean?
If you look at the timeline of things.
Eos comes after acomaf. This means Sarah wrote acomaf first and afterwards wrote Eos.
In acomaf she wrote Lucien and Elain as mates in the most Tragic way possible. After elain was kidnapped, traumatized and changed againts her will...with the help of Lucien. And Sarah also talks aboıt that in CHD.
We know that Sarah got the deals for spin off books of acotar right after acomaf. Which allowed her to plants things in acomaf and in acowar(she wrote this after eos) she planted things and leave open ends. She actually talks about it in the fourth video in this post and says this:
because I knew so early on while I was finishing acomaf and working on acowar because I knew this is where I wanted things to go. It allowed me to plant things for her journey, even Elain’s journey.
So as you can see the timeline of things match really well with acomaf>eos>acowar.
Now to connect all of these to red highlighted part in CHD.
As I mentioned above Rowan was "mated" to another but it was a manipulation by Maeve. A way to break them bc Rowan's mate dies. Aelin is broken after what happens in earlier books.
Now how this connects with elain/elriel.
We are gonna compare Rowan/Lyria to Elain/Lucien.
Rowan’s face had gone blank, his eyes hollow as he stared at one of the flower girls in the center of the square, a basket of hothouse peonies on her thin arm. Young, pretty, dark-haired, and— Oh, gods.
She shouldn’t have brought him here. Lyria had sold flowers in the market; she’d been a poor flower girl before Prince Rowan had spotted her and instantly known she was his mate. A faerie tale—until she’d been slaughtered by enemy forces. Pregnant with Rowan’s child.(QoS)
But Elain was staring over Nesta’s shoulder.
At Lucien—whose face she had finally taken in.
Dark brown eyes met one eye of russet and one of metal.
Nesta was still weeping, still raging, still inspecting Elain—
Lucien’s hands slackened at his sides.
His voice broke as he whispered to Elain, “You’re my mate.”(acomaf)
As you can see both Rowan and Lucien see Lyria and Elain and *know* that they are mates.
Now comparing Lyria and Elain
He’d come to love Lyria—that had been true. And the guilt of it ate him alive whenever he thought of it, but he could understand now. Why Lyria had been so frightened of him for those initial months, why it had been so damn hard to court her, even with that mating bond, its truth unknown to Lyria as well. She had been gentle, and quiet, and kind. A different sort of strength, yes, but not what he might have chosen for himself.(KoA)
Elain had always been gentle and sweet—and I had considered it a different sort of strength. A better strength. To look at the hardness of the world and choose, over and over, to love, to be kind. She had been always so full of light.
But there she was.
His mate.
She was nothing like Jesminda.
Jesminda had been all laughter and mischief, too wild and free to be contained by the country life that she’d been born into. She had teased him, taunted him—seduced him so thoroughly that he hadn’t wanted anything but her. She’d seen him not as a High Lord’s seventh son, but as a male. Had loved him without question, without hesitation. She had chosen him.
Elain had been … thrown at him.
As you can see Elain and Lyria have parallels in their characters.
With rowan we see that he wouldnt have chosen Lyria for himself...like a parallel to Lucien thinking how Jesminda chose him...but elain was thrown at him.
And we are gonna use this quote again for Rowan/Lyria
He’d come to love Lyria—that had been true. And the guilt of it ate him alive whenever he thought of it, but he could understand now. Why Lyria had been so frightened of him for those initial months, why it had been so damn hard to court her, even with that mating bond, its truth unknown to Lyria as well. She had been gentle, and quiet, and kind. A different sort of strength, yes, but not what he might have chosen for himself.(KoA)
It was the most uncomfortable thirty minutes I could recall.
Mor and I sipped chilled mint tea by the bay window, the replies of the three High Lords piled on the little table between our twin chairs, pretending to be watching the summer-kissed street beyond us, the children, High Fae and faerie, darting about with kites and streamers and all manner of toys.
Pretending, while Lucien and Elain sat in stilted silence by the dim fireplace, an untouched tea service between them. I didn’t dare ask if he was trying to get into her head, or if he was feeling a bond similar to that black adamant bridge between Rhys’s mind and my own. If a normal mating bond felt wholly different.(Acowar)
After this, it is acofas and I want to add...
Lucien hadn’t explained the black eye and cut lip, either. He’d only asked Rhys and me if we knew of a place to stay in Velaris, since he did not wish to inconvenience us further by staying at the town house, and did not wish to be isolated at the House of Wind.He hadn’t mentioned Elain, or his proximity to her. Elain had not asked him to stay, or to go. And whether she cared about the bruises on his face, she certainly hadn’t let on.(Acofas)
“You look well,” I said to Lucien when we’d settled in the armchairs before the fire, Elain perched silently on the couch nearby.Lucien warmed his hands in the glow of the birch fire, the light casting his face in reds and golds—golds that matched his mechanical eye. “You as well.” A sidelong glance toward Elain, swift and fleeting. “Both of you.” Elain said nothing, but at least she bowed her head in thanks. (Acofas)
“You’re welcome to stay for the night,” I said, since Elain certainly wasn’t going to. Lucien lowered his hands into his lap and leaned back in the armchair. “Thank you, but I have other plans.”I prayed he didn’t catch the slightly relieved glimmer on Elain’s face. (Acofas)
Lucien considered my question. “Vassa and Jurian are two sides of the same coin. Mercifully, their vision for the future of the human territories is mostly aligned. But the methods on how to attain that …” A frown to Elain, then a wince at me. “This isn’t very Solstice-like talk.”Definitely not, but I didn’t mind. And as for Elain …My sister rose to her feet. “I should get refreshments.”Lucien rose as well. “No need to trouble yourself. I’m—”But she was already out of the room.(Acofas)
"Give her time to accept it.”“To accept a life shackled to me?”My nostrils flared. “That’s not what I meant.”“She wants nothing to do with me.”“Would you, if your positions were reversed?”He didn’t answer.I tried, “AfterSolstice wraps up, why don’t you come stay for a week or two? Not in your apartment,I mean. Here, at the town house.”“And do what?”“Spend time with her.”“I don’t think she’ll tolerate two minutes alone with me, so forget about two weeks.” His jaw worked as he studied the fire.(Acofas)
I found my sister in the kitchen, watching thekettle scream.“He’s not staying for tea,” I said.No sign of Nuala or Cerridwen.Elain simply removed the kettle from the heat. I knew I wasn’t truly angry with her, not angry with anyone but myself, but I said, “You couldn’t say a single word to him? A pleasant greeting?” Elain only stared at the steaming kettle as she set it on the stone counter.“He brought you a present.” Those doe-brown eyes turned toward me. Sharper than I’d ever seen them. “And that entitles him to my time, my affections?” “No.” I blinked. “But he is a good male.” Despite our harsh words. Despite this Band of Exiles bullshit. “He cares for you.” “He doesn’t know me.” “You don’t give him the chance to even try to do so.” Her mouth tightened, the only sign of anger in her graceful countenance. “I don’t want a mate. I don’t want a male.”(acofas)
“Why are you here?” Cassian asked, unable to help the sharpness. “Where’s Elain?”
“I am not always in this city to see my mate.” The last two words dripped with discomfort. “And I came up here because Feyre said I should. I need to kill a few hours before I’m to meet with her and Rhys. She thought I might enjoy seeing Nesta at work.”(acosf)
He and Lucien did not exchange gifts, though the male had brought a gift for Feyre and one for his mate, who barely thanked him after opening the pearl earrings. Cassian’s heart strained at the pain etching deep into Lucien’s face as he tried to hide his disappointment and longing. Elain only shrank further into herself, no trace of that newfound boldness to be seen.(Acosf)
I think these are enough to show that...courting is hard with Elain as Rowan was with Lyria.
As you can see there is a lot of parallels with Lyria/Rowan and Elain/Lucien.
With the red highlighted part in CHD podcast sarah says
And like that again like as a writer l have to be like very I'm like I like to like find things that like make me interested. Like you get mated to someone and like you don't want to be mated. I'm like, like what what do you do? Like you're stuck with this person. Like what? Like what do you do?
What do you do when you are mated to someone you dont like? In this case Elain.
And as you can see Lyria and Elain are both into flowers as well.
What if while in those acomaf>eos>acowar timeline sarah thought about this thing:
What if Lyria and Rowan were actually mated and...they werent right for each other? What would that mean for Rowan and Aelin? What could have they done in that situation if Rowan already had a mate?
Could elriel be Sarah's way of going with this direction and exploring that? Elain is (as far as we know) actually mated to Lucien. They are mates in the sense of acotar world. But...she doesnt wanna be mated. What could she do? What could azriel do?
So what if writing rowaelin in eos opened up sarah to this plotline in acowar? What if this allowed her to go with this routine of "what happens when your mate is not your true love but someone else is? What would you do? What could be done?"
Also we cant ignore the parallel of Rowan and Azriel. Rowan was suffering bc of Lyria and her death, that his mate died and he wouldnt be get close to anyone else. Azriel who was in love with Mor for years...both having stopped after meeting Aelin and Elain.
Another interesting parallel is this meta. It shows how Aelin and Rowan parallels to elriel bonus scene. That rowaelin scene is in QoS...so it opened up the question of QoS > Eos (rowaelin revealed to me mates) to Acosf(azriel bonus) to...elriel book(s).
It is another funny parallel that Elain and Aelin are anagram...makes a person think if it is just a coincidence or was done on purpose.
Okay that's about it. Thank you for reading 🩷💙
