dear elain lover 🌹💭🍰,
1. what about elain’s character do you love?
2. what scene of the seer’s is your favourite?
3. what is your top theory for the quiet dreamer’s upcoming book?
4. anything else you’d like to say about the lovely fawn?
I forgot I had this draft from several weeks back, apologies 🙇♀️!
MY FIRST ANON 🤧🤍‼️ hello sweet nonnie 💖! I don’t talk on here but I would love to talk your ear off about Elain.
I don’t even know where to begin!
1. My adoration for Elain comes a lot from my understanding of her character. I connect with her so deeply- her softness and kindness which is taken as a weakness. The fact that she does get angry but holds her tongue to not inconvenience others. I do believe she masks and had to raise to her mother’s expectations, flitting about a ball and smiling because that’s what she was groomed to do. I relate a lot to that especially as an INFP, I am very introverted but many can’t tell because how I was expected to be cordial and read cues and respond appropriately, appeasing my mother.
Many are SHOCKED when I tell them I am in fact NOT extroverted, that I do a good job at “playing sociable” and when I burn out or I am comfortable in silence among a familiar, they find it rude. And so, I see a lot of myself in Elain. I think the character we see “glowing with health” is slowly becoming comfortable showing her true self. I don’t think this “extroverted” persona was ever real, the same as Nesta’s cruel one wasn’t either. There are definitely aspects of their personality that were always true but they lived first under their mother’s fist, then impoverished and traumatized, then just traumatized and war beaten.
But acosf Elain makes me SO excited for where her character is going especially with her wittiness and charm. The small fire that we see with statements like “Shall I tend to my little garden forever?” lets me know she is next and ready to show her teeth. 🩷( Added: the double meaning and parallel with the necklace to Elain- a thing of lovely, secret beauty, who’s true depth of color show in a certain light- it makes it clear we don’t know all Elain has to offer and that she DOES have a true self that only Azriel can read and see 🤍. A thing of secret, lovely beauty.)
2. I have SO MANY but I guess we can start with where I actually began to develop a true fondness for her. Her genuine curiosity during the first dinner shared with the batboys reassured me that despite the fear they grew up with, there would ALWAYS be a place at her table for Feyre and extended family. I adore the moment she clutches her fork- small, gentle and frail Elain,ready to wield it against formidable Illyrian warriors. And the small smile Azriel has at seeing that ❤️. But she easily shifts from ideas of impaling them with her fork to asking Azriel “can you truly fly” to which Azriel (who barely small talks with strangers, or even.. doesn’t speak at all even among family) begins speaking to her with ease. And she even looks to him for reassurance and comfort throughout the meal. And I think it is THAT scene that told me Feyre can always come back to her sisters, there would be no splitting between her families and they can gradually heal and have a life they’ve never could’ve imagined before. Together. It’s not my FAVORITE, I have so many favorite Elain moments so I hope I have satisfied with the one that definitely made me like her 🫂!
Bonus: One of my favorite scenes to remind people of is when she has to take a shot of whiskey before a very stressful solstice 😆!
3. Mm controversial ones I suppose, it is so dangerous to even utter you like Elain out here let alone theorize on her without having someone seethe 🥲 but I can share the ones that I do think about!
• Elain asked for sunlight because they dull her visions. In Crescent City we learn “what blinds an oracle? Light.” Elain was lost in the murk and continued to be a hermit *until* Azriel’s understanding of her power freed her. Their understanding made her feel less alone. She’s overall a very misunderstood character both in and out of the book, but she sought understanding more than anything. It made her feel less scared of what she was seeing. If this theory is true, it is possible Azriel’s power of shadowsinging will complement her own. That if she needs a dim environment (as she had when scrying), Azriel will be able to give her one. They are the eyes and the ears of the Night Court. Literally.
• The necklace represents Elain and Azriel knew that when choosing it. There’s a thread somewhere on it, I don’t have the link. I just have this saved because it blew my mind!! If someone has the link please share 🙏
The stained glass motif, the fact no one knows Elain truly yet Azriel can tell when she lies, they can read each other without words ! Her true depth of colors when shown in a certain light 🥹 being overlooked and seen even by the fandom as “plain” but she has SO MUCH IN HER, such beauty to show. I know a lot of people say we will never see that necklace again but I think this is so much more intentional and important than the nondescript gift Cassian himself “gave away” to the river. I think especially being that Azriel put it in FATE’S hand and Elain’s whole theme being about what she is fated to, what she WANTS to do and how she sees fate and can perhaps change it.
Which ONTO THE THIRD THEORY I REALLY LIKE
• Cassian’s own “death fate” was thwarted by Elain in ACOWAR. When she says “No, it will not.” she has foreseen his death. He was MEANT TO DIE in that battle. He almost did, had our kingslayer not stepped out of shadow to change that fate. She was reassured by Azriel that truthteller would never fail her, that it strikes true so she used that to kill the king and effectively changed the fate. I really don’t like when I hear Azriel coddles her when here we have a scene Elain rejects Cassian’s knife, likely so he has more to defend himself, likely because she is UNSURE of her own abilities- and Azriel steps forward and disregards that hesitation, setting the dagger in her palm, promising her it will serve her true.
I do think we will have a reflection on that scene and discover and understand the extent of her fear, confusion, and trauma back then. And that Azriel was there to see her, reassure her and gave her purpose and life again. We see a total switch between acowar and acofas/acosf where Elain is much more at ease, “glowing with health” and vowing to practice her powers.
I CAN’T WAIT TO READ HER BOOK. I cannot.
4. My close out thoughts are just: give Elain a chance. Everyone else gets grace and love for their flaws and indecencies and this girl grows flowers happily and gets tossed about.
