i’m doing my 2nd ever read through of acowar. i haven’t read it since it was published.
but even with all of these years in between, even not knowing what i did back then when i read the book the first time, even knowing what i know the series is leading to now, i can’t help but laugh at how dumb non-elriels are. taking a step back and looking at the full picture (just like feyre did when she realized elain was a seer) really gives so much clarity
it was obvious in 2017 where the story was going.
it is obvious nearly 10 years later where the story is going
- acomaf: sjm was clearly planning moriel endgame, nessian endgame, and elain was set to be with lucien but that wasn’t set in stone since i think she knew elain’s book would be so far down the line that she didn’t have to commit 100%. that’s why she threw in a few lines that undermine EL (picturing elain painting a pretty picture with azriel and getting along with him and his quiet). she was probably already considering the mate rejection trope since she said nesta was originally supposed to be with lucien (which would have been our og mate rejection plot). once she pivoted to nessian, elain filled the gap for this potential storyline. i say potential because i truly think she was caught between if she wanted to continue with mate rejection or just have elain and lucien be mates, but regardless, that would be a problem she could handle later down the line
- in between acomaf and acowar: i believe this is her first retcon and pivot. if i remember correctly, i think she got some criticism about a lack of diversity and in order to fix that, the only character she thought she could fix this would be mor to explain mor’s visible lack of interest in azriel. i think sjm wanted moriel to work out but she kinda wrote herself into a corner by making the cas mor and az dynamic so messy. (parallel example: she wanted to write a threesome between az cas and nes and didn’t because of the plot implications it would leave. it’s the same case here except she’d already gone over that line and wasn’t sure how to fix it). in acomaf when feyre asks mor about her relationship with az, mor gets very stiff and tense and it felt defensive, as if she was shielding her true feelings, which at this point was supposed to be romantic. i think sjm was writing mor to conceal her feelings for az until az could work through his self worth (example: the line about how mor could walk in a room naked and az wouldn’t even flinch). so she decided to scrap moriel, and this is when i believe she shifted to elriel endgame instead because she didn’t want azriel or elain to be single. lucien unfortunately was not part of sarah’s inner circle so he gets thrown to the side but because she clearly can’t have a single character be unhappy, she decides to make the hidden sixth mortal queen that we the readers knew nothing about as his new endgame. a romance that would happen in the background because it wasn’t important enough to the main plot but it ties everything up in a bow
acowar: very very clear signs of elriel and an end to moriel. there are distinct comparisons of both moriel and EL to show the reader what direction this is going in. such easy to understand 1 + 1 =2 examples. here’s just a few since i literally just read these
1. in the court of nightmares during the meeting with keir and eris, when mor is upset, az puts his hand on mor’s and she instantly snatched her hand back like she was burned. feyre points attention to the phrase “burned” and compared it to az getting his scars. feyre then draws attention to this again when she is training with az and said he was flexing his hand over and over as if he was reliving the moment of mor pulling back from him (also could be seen as mor pulling back from his darkness, his scars, everything that represents him). and then only a few chapters later feyre draws specific attention to elain and azriel’s first ever one-on-one interaction. az has just carried elain to the townhome, were given a visual of her golden hair on his black armor (her light with his dark), were told his shadows were nowhere to be seen (and he literally just touched her for the first time ever and they’re already gone), and as he sets her down she just looks at him. feyre then tells us how elain was so fragile and soft in comparison to az and yet elain did not balk from him. and then she looks at his hands, the same ones mor pulled away from just a day before, and calls them beautiful. the comparison is night and day and serves to say that on azriel’s end, he is going from mor -> elain
2. every instance where lucien tried to interact with elain before they knew she was a seer, she was unresponsive. the only time she reacted was to flinch when he pulled the mating bond. every time lucien tried to sense what was wrong with elain, he had no solution except to get her some fresh air. when he talked to her, she literally didn’t respond. when azriel would ask probing questions about her visions, she responded. she responded to others too, it wasn’t just az, but she pointedly ignored lucien. (also all her dresses here were pink, white, and light blue lol). the fact that sjm wrote that it was az who flew her to the townhouse, not cas or rhys or feyre who was trying to learn to fly, is important because it directly led into the scene described above with her hair on his armor. when he sets her down, she immediately responds to him. she looks at him, speaks to him about his hands, and actively decides to go to the gardens with him and take his arm. no flinching, no lack of response. again, this is just a few chapters after lucien tried to interact with her. it’s once again showing the change in elain to the reader from lucien -> azriel
3. the comparisons between jesminda, vassa, and elain. feyre is told autumn court males have fire in their blood and immediately thinks to herself that she doesn’t want elain exposed to that fire. (again, also shows signs of the initial nesta and lucien pairing since nesta has fire connotations). we are then later put inside lucien’s head where we see his comparisons between jesminda and elain where jesminda is described as being fiery and free and wild, so much so that it drew lucien in and he was helpless but to love her. and who else just so happens to be introduced as a woman who physically embodies fire, who is currently being trapped (echoing the themes of freedom) who rages across the sky because she can’t be contained. vassa. and who volunteers to track her? lucien. once again showing us how lucien is going from elain -> vassa
4. feyre’s symbolic comparisons about how elain and az vs lucien and vassa complete each other. (and this is only at the 50% mark of the book!!!) feyre asks rhys why elain and az aren’t mates, if the bond is wrong between elain and lucien, and rhys explains the difference between biological, nature made bond’s and true love bonds. feyre also paints a picture of how az was the one to notice what was wrong with elain because he too was misunderstood and over looked and underestimated. feyre draws attention to the fact that a shadow singer who hears things others don’t, heard elain when others didn’t, and how elain who sees things others don’t, feels understood by az (and again connecting to how elain sees things below the surface aka calling az beautiful). (important side note: i think mor’s power of truth was actually supposed to originally reflect this symbiotic bond bc she’s basically supposed to be able to also see beneath the surface to uncover the truth aka fulfilling this same role elain now does for az, but since she pivoted, the power of truth has just been retconned to not really do anything since i think it was supposed to work in tandem with az…lol). lucien and vassa are shown to be what each other needs when the reasoning for why he leaves is because he isn’t needed (and again, note how az specifically said that elain was needed by the night court due to her seer powers, so all of you elain is leaving truthers can shut it since once again, elain and lucien were put in comparison to each other to show their differing paths.). the other reason he gives to go on this quest is because of his eye and his ability to see through spells and glamours and maybe even curses. he hasn’t even been revealed to be helion spell-cleavers’s son yet, but we’re already seeing how lucien will have the ability to be what vassa needs to break her curse, once again making these 2 characters have a purpose to each other that only they can fill
anyways, this is all i have so far but it’s just so so so clear that i didn’t even know what else to say
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