Sometimes Here

I’ve been reading these books since middle school when they first came out, TOG was my first fandom, and HOF was the first pre-order I was awaiting for by SJM. I started off with SJM’s books when you still recommended the author by word-of-mouth rather than her being a mainstay in the genre and an expected money draw, and I remember when the publishing company actually put in effort to interact with the fandom and would release entire chapters released promo and even include things like bookmarks and stickers with the preorder. I’m a grown adult now, with a full-time job and family and responsibilities, and I don’t have nearly as much patience, definitely not for something that’s supposed to be a hobby I’ve spent all the years with, seen these books and this author grow and turn out to have such a greedy, gross, and aggravating marketing experience— and not just with new releases but also with the constant money grabs of low-effort “”special editions”” and endless new covers and dust jacket variants and having to pay for multiple editions of just to see the bonus chapters.

With that being said, you look at Gwyn and Emerie, and you look at ACOMAF Mor and Azriel, and to me Gwynriel and Emorie are variations on what Moriel was originally planned to be, but with consideration of the changes made to Mor and Azriel’s respective characters since the Moriel-sinking of ACOWAR. Gwyn is incredibly similar to ACOMAF Mor, right down to the backstory, tension, and reactions she illicits in Azriel; Emerie, a scarred Illyrian with a complicated relationship her people pining after Mor, paralleling what Azriel felt towards Mor in ACOMAF. Emerie and Gwyn were designed for Mor and Azriel, in the particular ways in which Mor and Azriel had complemented each other prior to the ACOWAR re-write.

The whole point of the chapter was that he’s wallowing in his loneliness after pining over a woman who does not and cannot love him for the last 500 years, and his brother got mated one after the other to two sisters no less. It’s desperation for any affection no matter how shallow. That he acted the way he did and said the things he did to Rhys, that Azriel as a character who had shown to have cared so much for how he treats women would want a blood duel that would hurt Elain, while also having no plans or care for what kind of relationship they’d get into it despite the fact she would be affected the most by being with someone who wasn’t her mate (mostly due to the fact that mates canonically go *insane* if anything happens to their mate). The bonus chapter was clear as day— there is nothing and there cannot be anything between them, Azriel didn’t think it through, is not thinking about it, and Elain returning the necklace is just not interested in anything further with all the other issues she has going on.

There was ample opportunity for SJM to have Elrie| interact *on page* more meaningfully, the way Nessian had throughout ACOWAR, get to know each other in a deeper level, but that didn’t happen. Maybe she toyed with idea for a hot second in ACOWAR, but ultimately decided “yeah, no, this isn’t going anywhere” and wrote the bonus chapter to say as much cause the fans it does have are too insistent to read the lines properly.

I do feel like this little quote at the same time as the Valkyrie-themed promo is a bit pointed. How many “gleeriel” jokes, jokes about the friendship bracelets, calling Gwyn a child because she is joyful and excited about things, jokes about the smut-reading club the Valkyries have, and how none of them deserved to win the Blood Rite, and how the whole plotline was cringe, how many condescending things have we seen about the Valkyries have been said in this fandom?

And then going on to other things women have fun with in the series, Elain’s gardening, Feyre’s painting…

No, actually, ACOTAR through ACOFAS is about Feyre and only Feyre. Others characters, including but not limited to the batboys and her sisters, still had importance, but it was always about Feyre and her perspective and her interactions with the world. The point of ACOSF and every book after is to explore characters that are not Feyre, in whatever way SJM decides. That has included Nesta and Cassian, that will include Elain eventually, Azriel eventually, but there’s also obvious plotlines involving Mor, Gwyn, Emerie, Lucien, etc. The ensemble of the cast is not limited to six characters that have sibling and sibling-in-law labels attached to each other.