I ship Elucien because Lucien is the better option for her
These are the rather disjointed points I have on why Lucien is the best guy for Elain, based on him respecting her, being incredibly compatible with her, and having deeper subtext that he and Elain will heal together-- all using canon to support my points.
Firstly, I find it interesting that the main point E/riels use is that you hate Elain if you don’t ship their couple, but for me it is almost always the opposite. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a post on why Azriel is good for Elain, but they always talk about how she’s his sunshine, that she will heal his self esteem issues, that she’ll be his soft damsel in distress to his brooding violence. Their biggest argument (and from what I’ve seen, their only argument) for why Azriel is good for Elain is: “It’s Elain’s choice, and she chose Azriel.” There are, however, very deep holes in this logic for me. The biggest problem with this is that while Elain is clearly struggling with not having agency at the Night Court, Azriel is a part of that. Azriel advocates against Elain’s desire to help with the trove because it’s “too dark of her.” Then, in the bonus chapter although Rhys is obviously the one pushing them apart not only does Azriel barely push back, his arguments are:
Fate chose the wrong person
Lucien doesn’t deserve her
He could easily kill Lucien anyway
None of these points revolve around Elain’s right to choose. He does not say, “who cares about her mate, she chose me.” Elain and Azriel being mates would ALSO be fate deciding her life for her, and from everything we know about her she would detest the Blood Duel (and as far as we know about Lucien, he would never enact it). And on top of this, Azriel obeys the order and has not spoken to her since. So I don’t understand how people can fantasize about Elain finally snapping at the IC after finding all of this out and not realize that anger is also going to be directed at Azriel for not advocating for her. Meanwhile, Lucien (who also didn’t choose to be bonded with her) is ironically the only one respecting her autonomy. Also her not accepting the bond or not breaking it is her making a choice; she doesn’t have to choose Azriel for her choice to mean something. And, of course, you can’t forget this book series literally started with Feyre being positive that the Spring Court was her home and Tamlin was her mate, so I don’t think it’s crazy to assume that Elain will also come to a similar conclusion (which she kind of already has after rejecting Azriel in the bc). Afterall, wouldn’t it be fitting for the book that closes out the Archeron sisters’ love lives to do a full circle: Feyre thinks she loves Tamlin, but he betrays her so she leaves the Spring Court for the Night Court; Elain thinks she belongs at the Night Court, but they betray her so she finds a home at the Spring Court.
Elain is NOT sunshine/light. She is constantly seeking out sunshine. Both Azriel and Elain need light. There have been no implications that Elain needs shadows or that Azriel needs flowers. In this metaphor Azriel’s light is Gwyn and Elain’s sunshine is Lucien. I get this seems like a strange point to rely on metaphors but it’s a bit silly to dismiss it with how ingrained it is in not only Azriel and Elain’s characters but most of sjm’s couples and how they interact (Nessian= death and war walk hand and hand, Feyrand= night and the stars that shine within).
Elain’s problem is the bond NOT Lucien. This is incredibly important because it would be incredibly lame for a love triangle in a romance novel to end with “I choose him, not because he’s better or anything I just didn’t have to be tied to him.” In real life, a woman choosing to not engage with a guy is completely okay and her choice, but this is a book and it would be a very unsatisfying narrative conclusion for her to not at least get to know Lucien. It would also be unsatisfying for Elain to have already come to terms with her trauma off page. Sjm did not include a scene in FaS in which Elain is alluding to looking to be human again only for her book to open with “yeah, anyway, life is great now.” I mention this because Lucien is the representation of her Fae life, of being tied to fate, so she will have to deal with him face to face to deal with her trauma. Sjm also did not have Elucien being on incredibly good -- dare I say, a bit flirty-- terms at the end of WaR only to do a complete 180 in the next book for seemingly no reason and NOT eventually address why it changed. So that is already two important conversations that they need to have for Elain’s healing journey.
Finally, Lucien and Elain are incredibly compatible (yes, even after the Cauldron). While E/riel is secretive, quiet, and cunning, you could pretty much argue so is Elucien. Lucien is a fox, of course he knows how to trick and withhold to his benefit (Feyre and Rhys note this in WaR), of course that also comes with being cunning, and he certainly knows how to be sneaky, as shown when he and Feyre snuck out of camp and led the Bogg to the twins in WaR. Obviously he’s not going to be a spy, but I wonder if Elain will be or if these traits will simply be a part of her courtier role (which she is clearly more tied to than being a spy). But none of that is enough to base an entire relationship on. Good thing we know that Elain and Lucien a ton other things in common: both share trauma in being torn away from their homes and lovers, both love to help wherever they can, have an aversion to violence but will enact it to protect the people they love, are snarky and humorous, loves the outdoors and maybe travelling, are drawn to domestic activities, live to be mediators and make connections, are incredibly caring and compassionate, care about their appearances but don’t mind getting their hands dirty, and have powers centered around insight.
This is sort of revising one of my past posts that I had written more emotionally than I would have liked to. I could honestly write more on why I personally ship Elucien and lean towards them being endgame, how there’s more foreshadowing to their relationship, and their powers might be tied (and not in a random ass “Elain can suddenly travel through shadows” way), but I know I already wrote too much and most people already aren’t going to read this entire thing so I’ll leave it there.
