lucien does not have the trappings of a future MMC. he is constantly written out of the narrative, emasculated on purpose, supposedly powerful but not enough to gain any kind of notoriety. frankly, if you put him in the lineup of previous SJM leads, Rowan, Dorian, Hunt, Rhys and Cassian, he just does not belong there. he's not a part of the team.
similarly, gwyn doesn't have any of the defining characteristics of a FMC. she has met the objective that drove her story forward, (becoming a valkyrie), there are no further avenues of significant plot for her that are relevant in the wider acotar universe, and she's just not powerful enough. additionally, she has no established connection to feyre, who is the epicentre of the acotar world through a storytelling lens.
it's so obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes that these two just aren't main character material.
SJM doesn't like lucien enough to write about him for over 1000+ pages, and gwyn doesn't have enough story to tell to span those pages either.
it's obvious the only remaining choices are elain and azriel. there is no other option.
from a marketing perspective the casual (majority) audience doesn't care enough about gwyn or lucien to care to read three whole books telling their story when there are other, more important and interesting characters.
elucien is a plot device.
gwynriel was once emeriel which was once moriel. it's another L in a long line of Ls
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