“Astra inclinant, sed non obligant.”

I feel like I need to make something really clear.

*If* (for whatever reason) there is another woman Azriel is very into, Elriels do not want our girl fighting another woman over a man. If there is even conflict to work out that means Az has all the agency and the choice is up to him- we do not want it.

Full stop.

Idk a single Elriel who wants this. What woman wants to read a harrowing tale of 2 women squabbling over a man in Romance!? Not I. Not anybody I know. I have never met a single Elriel who has expressed that desire to me.

Literally none of us want Elain to fight another woman for Azriel’s heart/love.

We all, by and large, love Elain and read these books for the sisters. We want to see Elain take control of her life and find her agency/voice; step away from people pleasing and be seen. We want her to make the tough choice and do what is right for herself and not what is political or in the benefit of others.

None of us (that I know of) are under any presumption that the power in Elain’s story is going to be given to a man. We want Elain to choose. We want love to trump a mating bond.

Respectfully, if the agency is taken away from Elain in the Elriel ship, the other girl can have him. None of us want a man for her who is so feckless to jump from Mor, to pining over Elain for a year, to the next available woman.

If that’s the case, let Elain world-walk to Hel and give us a reverse harem with the princes of Hel.

If that man is not 100% in love with our girl (which he is), we don’t want it.

Elain + Azriel | Peace & Quiet

Azriel when Elain is taken:

Notice how Azriel volunteered to go get Elain knowing he could die and he didn’t care he was going anyway…

Lucien when Elain was taken:

Notice how Lucien doesn’t go after Elain himself when she’s taken but wants Tamlin to save her….

Lucien when he goes to find Vassa:

Notice how Lucien volunteers to go find Vassa knowing it’s dangerous and he doesn’t care he went anyway…

And that ✨parallel✨tells us all we need to know.

Elriel nation we win <3 I can't wait to read their story ;;

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I’m not sure why it’s seen as some sort of ‘gotcha’ when G’s say it’s ‘Azriels book’.

We’re elriels. That is a a ship name. A ship includes two people — the structure of these books is, one couple per book, each character having their own POV.

No one’s arguing with you that Azriel will be the next MMC. Elain’s book, Azriels book — they’re the same thing.

Cassian had a greater presence in the original trilogy than Nesta prior to their book, he even had his own POV in ACOFAS. Azriel getting a bit of limelight on the run up to the Elriel book is not shocking to us.

incredibly fucked up you can put off things for “tomorrow” and then. and then tomorrow comes

Can’t stop thinking about how no Fae Male has actively questioned and fought against a mating bond except Azriel.

Like, think about it.

Sure, Feyre questioned the mating bond between Elain and Lucien, and even questioned the cauldron. But she was human first. She didn’t grow up knowing about bonds and how they are rarely, if ever really, rejected/fought against.

But Azriel does. He’s hundreds of years old. He knows how permanent and basically unbreakable mating bonds are. And yet he’s questioning and going against it anyway?

Even Tamlin didn’t do that. Once he 100% knew about the mating bond between Rhysand and Feyre, he didn’t try to break it. He may have still wanted Feyre, but he never actively tried to get it to break or tell them that the Cauldron was wrong. And Tamlin was going to MARRY Feyre at one point; they were together and he loved her. But he still didn’t truly or bluntly go up against the mating bond.

Yet Azriel has tried. He’s the only male in this series that we have seen actually try. Even if others have liked Feyre or Nesta, once their mating bonds were revealed anyone else interested BACKED OFF.

Elain and Lucien’s bond has been revealed, but Azriel still has feelings for Elain. He’s questioning and fighting it. Something we’ve never seen with any of the male.

We’re suppose to believe that means nothing? That that isn’t going to be prevalent in the upcoming book? And that SJM will simply say “Oh Az fighting it was just random nonsense and now Elain and Lulu will live happily ever after!”

Be so for real.

Colour me delulu and lost, but I love how these 2 passages between 2 endgame couples from TOG and CC who CHOSE each other as mates follow it with

and how both scenes parallel with Elriel - which is by now more than obvious who the next Maas-novel will be about 😉

Funny how, in all 3 scenes they all were about to do "something" but suddenly can't go through with it right there...

Lorcan and Elide (EoS, ch. 60)

Probably don't mean much in context, but the same exact wording is also found in Elain and Azriel's very first interaction btw 👀 (ACoMaF, Ch. 24)

But just Who was Azriel willing to offer up his life for? Read 'A Court of Wings and Ruin', Ch. 64-65 😉 And in ACoSF, ch. 22...

... where in the very next page, Az says...

But, reading further, What (and Who) does Azriel really and actually want?

Bryce and Hunt's scene in HoSaB, ch. 17 has wordings that parallel well and has the same energy as Az's BC during Solstice in ACoSF where we find out exactly What and Who Azriel wants.

And it's pretty obvious who Elain wants - and she herself knows it too.

Another fun parallel is that Bryce is formally engaged to Cormac; while Lorcan is bound by the Blood Oath to Maeve at the time in both scenes - just like Elain formerly was with Graysen and then bound through the Mating Bond with Lucien - which were all the reasons why they couldn't do what they wanted to... Yet. 👀

Yet, will you look at that... Elorcan and Quinlar were endgame.

Through ✨️Free Will. Choice. True Love.✨️

I can't wait for Elriel to both finally figure it out and prove the Cauldron and "the forces that be" wrong and trump any predestined mating bond 😌

🥖🫓🥨🥐🍞👥️👀

*this has been in my drafts for a month while re-reading, and I haven't finished HoFaS yet, but pretty sure it still applies well 😜

Something I love about Elain and Azriel’s relationship is how special and rare their connection is written.

Azriel never let anyone touch Truth Teller, but he let Elain.

He gently took her hand and pressed the hilt of the legendary blade into it.

Cassian gawked at Azriel, and I wondered how often Azriel had lent out that blade— “Never … I have never once seen Azriel let another person touch that knife.”

Azriel would never get over Mor…until Elain entered his life.

If the warrior ever stopped quietly loving Mor. I doubted it. Azriel would likely love Mor until he was a whisper of darkness between the stars.

He was still happy to be Mor’s buffer with Azriel, but there’d been a change lately. In both of them. Mor no longer sat beside Cassian, draped herself over him, and Azriel … those longing glances toward her had become few and far between. As if he’d given up. After five hundred years, he’d somehow given up. Cassian couldn’t think why.

Mor could offer herself to Azriel and he wouldn’t move, but he accepts Elain with “offer and permission”.

“The issue, actually, wouldn’t be me. It’d be him. I could peel off my clothes right in front of him and he wouldn’t move an inch.”

Offer and permission.  

He nearly groaned with relief and need as he lowered his head toward hers.

Feyre has never heard a sound so joyous and seen Azriel’s eyes as bright as they were when Elain made him laugh.

Then Azriel tipped his head back and laughed.

I’d never heard such a sound, deep and joyous ... I’d never seen his hazel eyes so bright, the hues of green amid the brown and gray like veins of emerald.

Their connection is unlike any other Azriel has had in his life. Elain is bringing something out of him that no one else has been able to and in return, Azriel truly sees Elain. He saw that she is a seer when no one else did. He sits with her in the garden and listens to her plans well into the night. He helps her set the table and makes everyone wait till she’s seated to eat. He arms her with a weapon with a gentleness that gives her the confidence to accept it. He is the first one to realize she is missing and goes to save her, no questions asked.

They are so endgame it hurts🥲

I think most Elriel fans understand that the Time magazine article isn't ACTUAL confirmation, what we do understand is that it's the logical conclusion based on the writing from SJM herself, as picked up on from that journalist.

How are you gonna sit there and say we lack critical thinking skills when that journalist, with probably no bias herself, admits that that would make the most sense for the continuation for the story?

It doesn't confirm anything, no, but it's hilarious to see from a huge outlet like Time when Gwynriels/Eluciens do nothing but mock our reading comprehension skills.

Elriel IS the logical concsluion for the continuation for the ACOTAR series, as evidenced from all of SJM's previous writing.

Feyre:

“Love would trump even a mating bond.”

“Love would trump even a mating bond.”

“LOVE WOULD TRUMP EVEN A MATING BOND.”

Bryce:

“Through love, all is possible.”

“Through love, all is possible.”

“THROUGH LOVE, ALL IS POSSIBLE.”

"Azriel's book is next, not Elain's. Hers will be after his."

Babe, it's gonna be the same book lol

People pointing out the “fan suspect” part as if these articles are the only thing elriels have and not 3 books worth of build up. Do the math….we use the books and articles as evidence. And all the articles are mentioning elain. You need to have both. Not just bonus chapters. These journalist do research, read the books, and sometimes need approval from Sarah’s team. Wrap these temper tantrums up by the time their book comes out. Elriels aren’t acting any different from other ships. If it was the other way around and the article mentioned gwyn, yall wouldn’t get upset at stans for being happy about their ship. Grow up…

“Please,” Azriel said, his gaze now on her hands. On the Starsword—and on Truth-Teller. Something like panic filled his hazel eyes.

Heyyyyy, buckle down kids because this is going to be another long one, it is as usual a jumble of thoughts and opinions but I have tried to organise it into the following categories;

As usual, these are just my opinions on the matters at hand, you don’t have to agree with them. I am just enjoying breaking down Sarah’s writing and looking beyond the surface for the deeper meaning, she loves to leave as an undercurrent to her stories.

As always will be tagging “Anti” if anything is and it is under a read more, so if you are a fan of the opposing ship you should be able to avoid it easily and go on your merry way.

Keep reading