One of the craziest things we see in this fandom is people "interpreting" actions and interactions in the way that they want, while ignoring that the narrative actually already tells you how to interpret it.
The charged glance between Azriel and Elain? The descriptor is right there, openly stating that this action has underlying implications to it. Azriel looking at someone who laughed loudly? No emotion or motivation even suggested. Why? Because it is a face value interaction, there is no emotion to it.
Azriel gives Elain Truth Teller? Certain readers are insisting this means nothing because Cassian offered Elain a weapon first. But Feyre, the narrator, spends an entire page talking about how unique and special the interaction between Elain and Azriel is.
Azriel rescues Elain? Antis whine that it is expected of him, it is just his job. Then Feyre details Azriel's rage filled eyes. We get Elain whispering "you came for me" to Azriel. Elain kicks the hounds off of Azriel. Then Azriel cradles Elain to his chest, and later she kisses his cheek. THAT IS NOT HIS JOB AND THIS IS NOT NORMAL! It's one of the most romantically coded rescue scenes we have seen in this series.
This insistence on saying all your opinions and interpretations are valid while SO many of them directly contradict cannon is ridiculous. "Well I read it differently!" - no you didn't read it at all. You glazed over it and ignored it because it doesn't help your head cannon.
And that goes hand in hand with these misinterpretations where people are claiming "we don't know what Elain wants" ... girl yes we do! She said it out loud! "I don't want a mate. I don't want a male" - "you betrayed us" - specifically speaking about Lucien. Even if you ignore her actions, those are her exact words!
But my personal favorite is, "we don't know anything about Elain!" Don't we though? Her sisters speak at length about her kindness, about her ability to see the good in the world. Feyre points out that Elain can be brave, she warned Feyre about Tamlin's attack in ACOMAF, she tried to kick off the cauldron before she went in, she smashed her feet into a vicious hounds to protect Azriel, and she stabbed the King of Hybern in the throat to save Nesta. Not only that, but we see her standing up for herself more and more. Elain is deeply thoughtful, as we can see in all the gifts she gives others. Elain has even picked up a job helping the Fae in Velaris with their gardens. And in the handful of times we get Elain speaking on page she has dropped more one liner jokes than half the Inner Circle. She is kind, thoughtful and funny. She is working through trauma of identity and loss, indicated by both Amren and Feyre. But sure “she doesn’t have a personality” SJM apparently just randomly writes important characters with no personality. If you think we don't know enough about Elain, then you haven't been paying attention. Or more likely, you don't like soft, kind characters so you just don't care.
You don’t get to “interpret” clearly stated events and intentions just because they don’t fit your narrative. Thats not theorizing, that is fan fiction, and pretending your theories are unbiased or objective is straight up lying.
This!
To see the length of their ridiculousness, imagine this:
There is an apple in a table, I like apples and my friend hates them. So I say, “there is an apple in the table”, and my friend says, “no, thats literally a pear.” Then I pick up the apple and give it to her; “but it is an apple, look, it’s round and red, you’re holding it yourself!” And she replies: “yes it’s round and red, but pears can also be round and red you know? I don’t like apples so I chose to see it as a pear, so if I bite it, I’ll like it.”
See? Pure gaslighting, that’s literally how their arguments work. You can’t interpret the text differently if it is a) or b). You can interpret if Elain likes cacti over roses, it’s not specifically stated so you can interpret it differently depending on how you think she would tend a garden.
Elain’s personality cannot be denied because it is specifically stated on text by several characters who describe her. You can interpret different aspects of her personality differently because there is still much unknown about her, but not what’s on text. You can’t also deny the truth teller scene significance when it is stated on page how rare it is that Azriel lends it to someone. It is that simple, acotar is not a difficult series to understand or read, it’s black and white most of the time.
