If I Could Cuddle My Dogs All Day I Would

Got into a major Elucien mood thanks to @lucienarcheron so here is a sketch of them🫶

Elriels claiming that if Gwynriel/Elucien are canon that it will be fan service and character assassination.

As if sjm didn’t include mate language at the end of Azriel’s chapter. As if sjm didn’t purposely end that same chapter with Azriel calling Gwyn’s joy and reactions beautiful. As if sjm didn’t change the entire Sangravah attack so that Azriel was actually there and personally saved Gwyn. As if sjm didn’t have Azriel slaughter all the soldiers when he is known for keeping two alive for questioning.

As if sjm didn’t make Lucien the heir of day and the only thing Elain needed was sunshine. As if sjm didn’t make Lucien have so much trust and faith in his mate that he travelled to dangerous territory with no aid or army because of a singular vision. As if sjm didn’t already change Lucien’s mate from Nesta to Elain, and fully said that she couldn’t deny how well suited Lucien and Elain were instead.

But yeah.. it’s fan service.. definitely not two ships that have been foreshadowed through text.

As for character assassination? Yeah because Gwyn and Azriel wouldn’t bring out the best in each other? He is already more confident, secure, and at ease in their small interactions. She has become so strong and confident around him as well.

Because Lucien and Elain wouldn’t be compatible on every level? That the day court wouldn’t be the perfect place for both of them to grow and heal?

But yeah.. its character assassination

At this point, Elriels need to accept that everything Eluciens and Gwynriels talk and argue about is through TEXT. Sarah j Maas has given us all the evidence we need.

Don’t be shocked when it happens.

Embarrassing 😭😭🙏🏻

It’s literally an art trend.

I can’t with the elriels.

This fandom is ridiculous.

And I don’t want to hear it from them when they use my dress ideas from my commissions for their Elriel commissions months later.

I feel like people miss the part where if Elain and Lucien ended up together, it's because they both made the choice to make it work.

Lucien currently is trying to find some common ground with Elain to get to know her but he obviously is being respectful of the fact that she chooses to keep a distance from him so he isn't around much.

Elain is making a choice to not pursue or explore the bond as of the current canon (which remember that canon is always subject to change based on future events).

These characters are making choices, no one is forcing their hand to do something against their will. Both Elain and Lucien did not have a choice in being mated to each other.

Did no one ever read a romance where a couple where so at odds with each other at the beginning but then they eventually fell for each other the more they spent time and got to know to one another? It's very common in historical romances and Elucien's bond is similar to the dynamic of a couple pushed into an arranged marriage/marriage of convenience with their bond—they're basically strangers and won't know how compatible they are until they spend more time or make the effort to know each other.

And to sum up what Mor said in ACOFAS: Elain and Lucien are not ready to deal with their bond right now until they figure out who they want to be and where they want to be.

SJM wouldn't add that to ACOFAS unless she wants the reader to know Elain and Lucien are not ready just yet to deal with it.

This is important for Elain and Lucien and it has to be explored through their own POVs. It's why I believe the reason they're kind of stagnant right now is because that development requires their POVs (to also see how they navigate through a mate's instincts and that can't be narrated from another character's POV).

I stand by the theory that the rejected mating bond story we would likely get is Helion and Lady of Autumn. The clues in ACOWAR are screaming that Helion and Lady of Autumn are mates. That story leaves more room for a more impactful and tragic rejected bond story to be told in the book—like, enough time passed to see the repercussions of a rejected bond and how Helion and Lady of Autumn dealt with it for centuries. We already got glimpses of it when Helion was telling Feyre and the IC his story with Lady of Autumn in ACOWAR.

To me a rejected bond isn't just a scene of two characters sitting together and Elain goes "I reject you" and Lucien is like "okay it was nice meeting you". That's not impactful or makes for a good story in my opinion. I think that trope could be used for secondary/minor characters who had time to deal with it, but not for the main couples especially since SJM promised a HEA for all the characters.

Every time I read theories about the ships

Elucien: here is a detailed essay with canon text that's supports my theories

Gwynriel: here is a detailed essay with canon text that's supports my theories

Elriel: here are theories I made with text that wasn't written like that in canon or with canon text that is so vague that it can apply to anyone also here is SJM who evolves her life around them with her music taste, clothes and emojis she uses

OK, but if you say that Azriel is avoiding Elain because he has a crush on her and is scared of what he might do if they're alone,

I can say that Elain is avoiding Lucien because she has a crush on him and is scared of what she might do if they're alone.

Twitter trend

Rowan punched Aelin.

Rhysand twisted Feyres broken arm to force her into a bargain.

Cassian repeatedly overstepped boundaries of Nestas.

And y’all have the nerve and audacity to complain about Lucien? Get serious.

You know, I just don't understand why e/riels are saying that the book is going to be about breaking a mating bond between Elain and Lucien. That they're going to just be perfectly fine going their own way (despite SJM saying over and over and OVER again that you can't just 'break' a mating bond. it will always be there).

They want Lucien dead so Elain can just have him out of the way and go to Azriel. Despite the fact that a dead mate would be THE WORST kind of pain she'd suffer! We saw how long it took her to get over Greysen, you think she'd just shrug off Lucien? That she wouldn't feel that ache and pain, of a part of her being gone forever? That's what you all want?

Or, they want Elain to just ignore her bond with Lucien, to sneak around with Azriel. They want for Elain to cheat on her mate, to be "Screw my mate, I want someone who isn't!" Meanwhile saying Lucien should just go with Vassa? To 'give up' on Elain just because she hasn't thrown herself at him yet. They're like "FORBIDDEN ROMANCE!"

Guys. SJM isn't writing stories of cheating mates, or stories of giving up on a mate because in the immediate moment they just don't want you. Look at the theme here! Choosing your mate. She's not going to write stories about devastating break ups. That's not her style, that's not what she's known for. Her work is known for love and destiny, about finding out that the person who is your mate, is the person you'd find yourself choosing in the end anyway. About your heart knowing something that your mind just may not be aware of yet.

That's the theme of her books. That's the kind of author she is. This is a ROMANCE novel, not a DARK/FORBIDDEN romance! If you all want dark romances, there are plenty of other authors out there for you.

SJM's writing has mates who find their way together, who find love through being together. Soul mates whos destinies are intertwined. She isn't going to give Lucien and Elain anything less than finding love with their mates, each other.

She said already, "there's a great amount Tension, healing, and growth for them to be had together." She told us they were end game, now we just need to see how.

Elain is a cuddler and Lucien is a living furnace.

This piece is a gift for my dear friends @separatist-apologist and @lucienarcheron 🧡

✨✨Friendly Reminder✨✨

Elain is not happy, Elain is not thriving, Elain is not adjusted, Elain is NOT okay.

Elain IS masking.

I think some of y’all forget what Sarah writes about. With social media, especially TikTok, focusing on the “smut” of it all people forget that Sarah’s books are NOT just a romance story. Her stories are healing stories. Every single one of her FMC’s had some form of trauma that they’ve had to work to over come. Her stories are about women finding themselves, empowering themselves, and becoming a better version of themselves than when their journey starts.

Elain has a shit load of trauma that has not been addressed yet. We know that because she says as much in ACOSF. Telling her sisters that they are making her trauma about them and not about her. IF she was happy, and thriving, and well adjusted then she has no story to tell in the way Sarah tells them. Just her romance with Lucien (will not even entertain the other one, you know what account you’ve landed on) is not enough for Sarah to write a 800-900 page book because that’s NOT what she does, it’s not how she writes. After SIXTEEN books I think we should all have this figured out by now.

Stop trying to ignore Elain’s trauma, saying she’s fine, she’s happy, she’s thriving all because you don’t want to admit her story COULD (or more realistically WILL) take her away from the Night Court, and Azriel. If you love Elain’s character like you claim to you’d realize at the current moment the Night Court is not a great place for her right now. She’s being coddled by the Inner Circle and she’s not been given the opportunity to grow beyond the little box they all have her placed in.

4 Books of Buildup is not something E/riels and E/riels alone get to claim.

Yes, there have been moments in ACOMAF through SF that put the idea of E/riel into your head. Feyre thinking on how "handsome" they'd be together (literally the most shallow reason in existence for someone pairing two people but I digress), Az helping Feyre rescue Elain in ACOWAR, him offering Elain TT, Az sitting with Elain and listening to her talk about her seeds in ACOFAS, their "charged" look in SF and depending on the day and argument about whether the BC counts, their near kiss.

Yet between every single one of those moments, there is another love for Elain or Az or both. Elain was in love with Graysen in ACOMAF through ACOFAS. Az was still hung up on Mor, even in SF. He was happy not to stay and guard Elain, later helped rescue Elain then went on to look at Mor with heat and yearning on Solstice. He gave Elain TT but only because Mor begged him to sit out of battle. He was relieved that he was not expected to get Elain a gift that first year.

In all of those 4 books though, Elain and Lucien are confirmed mates. Confirmed by the King, by Feyre, by Rhys, by Az, by Mor, by Elain, by Graysen, by Lucien, by Eris.

It is CANON that they are mates. The "4 books of E/riel moments" are canon too however it being love is heavily debated because neither Elain or Az have confirmed it to be that. There is NOTHING in canon that unequivocally states she wants a relationship with him, that she wishes he were her mate, that he is completely over Mor, that he would take Elain without a mating bond.

In comparison, there is CANON showing Elain and Lucien are mates. Lucien calls her his mate, Az confirms their bond can be scented, she makes sure Graysen knows Lucien's name when Graysen is referring to her mate, Lucien acknowledges the real thread between them and Elain confirms she felt it too.

Could SJM decide to pull a fast one over on us in the next book and reveal the mating bond as fake? Sure, because she can do whatever she wants as the author however at this point in time, Elucien being mates is more canon than E/riel actually being in love. And to those who claim Elucien's bond will turn out to be fake, that the 4 books of proof of an Elucien mating bond can easily be undone in the next ACOTAR, then can't we say the exact same of E/riel? That the 4 books of "open to interpretation" interactions of E/riel could also easily be undone (I think they kind of already were in the BC but that's another discussion).

If a storyline which was confirmed (once again) by Feyre, Rhys, Az, Cassian, Mor, the KoH, Eris, and the author herself in interviews can be magicked away after 4 books of Elain and Lucien's arcs being built around that narrative, that it could suddenly be proven as fake, then how is anyone arguing against how the unconfirmed love between E/riel (of which no characters are even aware of considering Nesta called Az Gwyn's new ribbon and Rhys told him to find a hooker instead) can be even more easily deconstructed?

If it's that easy to undo a confirmed mating bond then anything hinting at Elain and Az is a house of cards in comparison.

 @nestaarcheronweek | Day 07: Free Day

“You said you had an eight-pointed star tattooed on you,” Bryce explained. “And you found the chamber with the eight-pointed star in the Prison, too.”

Nesta lifted her head. “So?”

“So I want you to take the Starsword.” Bryce held the blade between them. “Gwydion—whatever you call it here. The age of the Starborn is over on Midgard. It ends with me.”

“I don’t understand.”

But Bryce began backing toward the portal, taking Hunt’s hand, and smiled again at the female, at her mate, at their world, as the Northern Rift began to close. “I think that eight-pointed star was tattooed on you for a reason. Take that sword and go figure out why.”

- HOFAS, Chapter 100.

In one of her past interviews, Sarah J. Maas commented Nesta's journey was just beginning after Silver Flames, and after reading House of Flame & Shadow I believe part of her journey will be linked to the Dusk Court, as not only did Nesta bargaining mark has an eight-pointed star form (which is associated with the Starborns and thus the Dusk Court), as now she is the Gwydion owner. And as much as Nesta power is usually linked to death, its also showed capable of bringing life (as we have seen with the House of the Wind and Feyre & Nyx). I also found it particularly curious that Pegasus started appearing in Avallen once the land was healed, since Pegasus seem to have an association with the Valkyries.

Thank you @/paolapieretti.art for creating this stunning art! 

Art by: @/paolapieretti.art

Commissioned by: @melphss

Characters belongs to: Sarah J. Maas

'Beyond the door, a winding stair lit by black nephrite lamps, and far below, the place called Nowhere where the Dead drift down, where nothing is exactly forgotten.' — @nestaarcheronweek