Look at what SJM is reading rn (not me stalking her goodreads account 🙈) :

“In the Forest of Serre” by Patricia A. McKillip is a retelling of a legend of Firebird from Russian folklore 😍

Being a Bird of Flame is Vassa’s curse... From Koschei… An evil villain who has a flock of kidnapped women on his island... Who modified Vassa’s body without her consent… Hello??

Bird of Flame is not romantic. Vassa wants this curse broken and wants to continue to be a human queen (canon). Basing a romantic pairing solely off of a traumatic event of one of the characters is so odd.

I understand everyone has their own opinion, and this is mostly because we haven’t had another book, but seriously. Are people still fans?

The anti Rhys, IC, Feyre tags just send me off the edge.

People have spent so much time on ACOSF and fine combing it to the point their forgot about all the other books.

Rhys is suppose to be morally grey. Honestly? He wasn’t really in ACOMAF and ACOWAR. Which is why we were all obsessed with him. The obsession has moved onto Azriel or Lucien I’d say more so now because we still don’t know their stories.

But if you’re hating FEYRE, Rhys, the IC, or really any character to that extent I would probably just leave the “fandom”.

Yes, you can like others more, and have strong opinions on actions etc of the characters. But I think some things are dived into so much that it becomes so toxic.

Nesta is not a saint. She did a lot of hurtful things. So did Rhys. So did Feyre. So did Lucien, Elain, Mor, Amren, and Cassian. Azriel I guess as well. But these are… characters. Characters are meant to have flaws.

If you’re looking for a static character, look towards Beron or the King of Hybern or Ianthe or anyone who has been cast as a “villain” in the plot. Or secondary characters.. cough cough

Every other character is, upon preference, suppose to be liked more or less.

You relate to Nesta more? Cool. She’s really an interesting and misunderstood character. Like her the most.

Feyre? Okay good choice. Like her the most.

Elain? Awesome. I really have a soft spot for her and I can’t wait to hear her story. Like her the most

Any strong bat boy preferences? Amazing. I’d love all of them to be real and living in my house tbh but a girl can only dream.

And that continues will all the characters.

CHARACTERS HAVE FLAWS SO THE STORY IS NOT DULL.

And this surpasses just Acotar. This is in all of SJMs series. In all series everywhere.

"Lucien and Vassa are my favourite couple, they're so cute in the few scenes we got of them and they already have chemistry." Ummm... what can I say about this? Let's not get too excited shall we?

Vassien shippers often use the following scenes to prove that Lucien and Vassa are going to be a thing in future books:

Lord have mercy! They read that Lucien blushed and they were like "Yup!! Endgaaaaame!". Guys please... Let's really look at this first scene. Don't you understand the reason why Lucien blushed? This man blushed LOOKING AT ELAIN because Feyre made a comment that could be interpreted as Lucien having some interest in Vassa and this man was there thinking like "Feyre I can't believe you just said this in front of my mate. Vassa has a foul mouth but it seems like you have one too, if you say something silly like this.. you'll get along just fine.." hence why him cutting her a wry look. It's not that hard to understand this, c'mon!!

As for the second scene, an animated conversation between two characters doesn't prove that a romantic relationship between them exists or will exist. At best it proves that a friendship exists there or that one is being built. In my humble opinion, this second scene was written for two reasons, to create doubt and division within the fandom (adding Vassien to the ship wars, even if they're just a red herring) and to make the following scene less surprising.

In this scene Lucien reveals to Feyre that he's been living with Jurian and Vassa in the human lands. If we didn't have the knowledge that Lucien was friends with any of them we'd be like "wait... why in the world are you living with them? You're not that close like... what?" but thanks to scenes like the 2nd one, we know that Lucien is familiar enough with at least one of them to have decided to share a house with them. And let's be honest.. after being ignored by people he considered his friends (Feyre I'm looking at you) for months in the NC, why wouldn't he? After seeing that his mate didn't react to his presence the same way he reacted to hers, why wouldn't he?

People seem to forget that this was Lucien at the begining of ACOWAR:

Before he met Vassa, he didn't care about other females at all because he knows he has a mate now. This man is one of the most loyal people in this series. If he wasn't looking for female attention or interested in any female other than his mate before meeting Vassa, why would that have changed after meeting her? This is Lucien in ACOSF (after living with Jurian and Vassa for months):

After all this time, this man is still LONGING for Elain. Why would he long for Elain if he had feelings for Vassa? Again, in my humble opinion, it's because he doesn't have those feelings for her at all.

Now THIIIIS might be an indication of a possible future match 👇🏼:

Vassa and Jurian share the same vision for the future of the human territories. Maybe, just maybe, they'll rule them together. Vassa and Jurian are at each others throats as they like to be? SJM once used this same expression with another couple, Nessian, and they ended up together didn't they?