To the elriels who stalk my page even though I have them blocked—this one’s for you 😘
Oh bless your heart. Let me help you understand some things:
1. It’s not hard to understand that Eluciens want Elain to get to know Lucien, hopefully fall in love with Lucien, and choose him. (Just like we wanted with Feyre and Rhys in book 1). Again, this isn’t hard to understand.
2. We don’t want Elain miserable. We want Elain happy and thriving.
3. The reason I ship Elucien is because I actually like Elain. Lucien actually genuinely cares about Elain and her mental / physical health. He also respects Elain’s choices. He would treat her like a queen and we all know it. Anyone who says otherwise is delusional.
4. But if you really want to get into canon let’s do it. How about the quote from Elain in ACOSF when she said she didn’t want ANY male. Guess what? That includes Azriel.
Let’s look at another canon scene where Elain returns the necklace back to Azriel and doesn’t look back.
After Azriels bonus chapter, Elain and Azriel don’t have any interactions together for the rest of ACOSF.
5. And you saying that “we don’t need women to have their healing journey revolve around a guy” (I’m paraphrasing here) is HILARIOUS coming from the elriels who literally center Elain’s healing journey around Azriel.
6. Elain’s journey is tied to Vassa, Koschei, and the lake. That’s ELAINS plot-line. She’s the one who had the vision about Vassa, the lake, and Koschei. We wouldn’t know about Koschei without Elain’s visions. You know what other character is tied to that plot-line? Lucien. Her mate. But first and foremost it’s ELAINS storyline.
It’s not hard to figure out that Elain’s journey will take her to that lake. It’s heavily foreshadowed, along with her not belonging to the Night Court. Sarah made it so obvious I almost feel bad for you guys.
7. "Healing doesn't need romance." Cool. Neither do dragons, magic siphons, immortal faeries, magical mating bonds, or half the plot devices in this series. Yet here we are... reading a fantasy romance.
You don't have to ship Gwynriel. That's called having a preference. But pretending your preference is objectively more feminist because you've psychoanalyzed fictional characters and projected real-world therapy language onto them? That's a you problem.
These aren't real people. Sarah decides whether a relationship is healing, healthy, symbolic, or doomed because she literally wrote the characters.
8. And it's funny how "don't tie a woman's story to a man" only becomes a talking point when it's a ship you don't like. Every couple in this series ties two characters' stories together. That's... the romance genre.
So where does this end? Are we going to start writing think pieces about Off Campus because Hannah is a sexual assault survivor who falls in love? Are we going to attack every romance author who's ever written a survivor finding love? Are we going to campaign against every fated mates book because apparently fated mates is now inherently problematic? WHY ARE YOU READING SJM
9. Romance authors write conflict because conflict creates stories. If every character was emotionally perfect before page one, there wouldn't be much of a novel.
At the end of the day, we're arguing over immortal fae in a book series that isn't even finished.
10. Lastly, yes I stand by my original statement: if you think a sexual assault survivor getting a healing journey and falling in love with someone is “icky” then I think you’re a shitty person.
