#Preemptive knowledge of total character overhaul for Elain?

[flowerflamestars]

I was wondering what you think will happen in Elain’s book? I do not think she and Azriel will be a couple by the end of the novel. The bonus chapter from Azriel’s point of view in ACOSF hinted at a budding romance between Gwyn and Azriel, so I think that Elain and Lucien will end up together (I am not trying to promote certain relationships, I am simply guessing what will happen based on the evidence within the text). Lucien and Elain are going to be an interesting couple, as she has no desire to be with him. The only way I can see her relationship will him progressing is if he notices that she feels over protected and stifled by her family (mostly Nesta and Elain). He defends her without coddling him then he will help her stand up for herself and be independent. To SJM however, being a warrior and defending oneself means that they have to brash to other people. I want Elain to learn to stand up for herself on her own, without turning her into a warrior. I do not think being one matches what we know about her character at all. As for the plot, I am very unsure of what I think will happen. I think it will pertain to freeing Vassa then finishing off Koschei. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

In no particular order, I have very, very many thoughts on this!

The realest answer is that I don't even think I'll read the next book. SJM stay the fuck away from Lucien Vanserra, actually. I've talked about it before, but I don't think SJM has fully done a functioning ensemble cast/romance since like...Queen of Shadows, and from that point on we've gotten an increasingly formulaic kind of pairing. All stories are the same story, and that story is Feysand, but I digress.

The problem with Elain, much like the problem with Azriel, which I've discussed before is that...she doesn't make any sense. We're given extremely scant insights, which book to book contradict each other. Is she a paragon of human respectability? Is she secretly pleased by the lassitude her new life gives her? Is Nesta her best friend, or her foil? (ACTUALLY, does Elain HAVE friends?) Is her complexity buried beneath her more feminine traits (you tell those Queens to burn in hell, baby) or is she, genuinely, fully bought into a subservient trap? Does she even like men, or did she want to be safe? Does she even like baking or was it a thing forbidden her as highborn child? Does she like gardening, or was it the only way to incorporate beauty into total impoverishment?

We don't know.

So much of the Elain fondness or dislike is fanon.

It's kind of a classic writing problem of the books now, actually.

Which is- minus love triangle Bullshit, which we’ll get to in a sec- why presumably the Azriel book and the Elain book are the same book. They’re both window dressing, fluffed up in the worst possible way in the Nessian book.

In contrast, we actually have a very good handle on who Lucien is. Loyal, kind, a survivor, and a handsome competent man. A diplomat before a warrior, but not incapable. Genuinely magical. Someone who tries to do the right thing, even at great personal cost. He's one of the very few consistent characters, by dint of being sort of...sidelined, by the narrative? (honestly, thank god)

Lucien, as he is, is a ready-made protagonist. 

He has a canon backstory that is iffy in that every single SJM man has a token Dead Woman to be Sad About informing his character, who is allowed zero characterization or value beyond ANGST (see Rhysand’s dead mother. and sister. And Cassian’s dead mother. and Azriel’s tortured mother- none of whom are given NAMES), but there’s things to work with there. He’s intensely tied to a the Court system we know .02% actual info about, but he’s not actively a member of any court. He’s doing his own thing. He is, apparently, the only faerie INCLUDING FAERIES WHO WERE HUMAN RECENTLY who is willing to be around human beings.

That gives us room for a metric ton of plot. He could actually speak to Helion! He could help Jurian form a confederation of human kingdoms because hey, all the Queens are dead? missing?? He could return to Spring, a Court he was the second highest ranking faery in for...at least a century, I think? (which seems IMPORTANT in a place where the lands magic chooses leaders, but god knows if follow-through exists in Prythian) 

He could be revealed to be the actual heir of Autumn.

Let’s pause here, because let’s be real: SJM is not going to write a plot heavy acotar novel. I still do not remember the name of the last villain, but I remember the horrifically male-gaze blow job scenes like a reoccurring nightmare. This is a Romance holding a fuck the patriarchy keychain. 

Which brings us to Azriel. 

The funny thing about Azriel is that, actually, his character makes the most sense and was the least of a nightmare in the original love triangle the books set up and then discarded: Az, Mor, and Cassian.

The longing! the angst! the whole three-headed monster of it all.

Azriel in this love triangle is...a problem.

Most obviously because his POV whips out that he’s decided to maybe murder Lucien? Not even because he and Elain are together (they’re not yet), but because they could be, and Azriel feels like it’s fate...or destiny... or, ya know, horrific entitlement, that he and Elain be together. Three (not) brothers (who used to all fuck in the same room together but never touched) and three sisters. 

With the kind of...disintegration of the original Mor plot, we’re also left with this weird repetition going on? Here’s another beautiful blond lady with mysterious powerful magic who, for Reasons, is not held up to the standard all other ladies are and doesn’t need to be a warrior. Look, her fair golden hair is snagged on his sharp scary armor! Look, he tracks her through the crowd! 

He’s literally able to save Elain before she’s horrifically tortured, in a replay of all his centuries of Morrigan guilt with a better outcome.

It was kind of working, until we got his POV

(And then, again GROSS fact that only Feyre and Nesta have, uh, magical Illyrian internal structures now for baby wings. And apparently, all love is Love and Babies.)

It’s not really clear if Elain actually likes Azriel or if, you know, because of that sky-high pedestal, he’s just like... nice to her. In place where she knows no one, populated by assholes. 

We know Az IS into it- and we know it’s not going to happen for reason number 2: Rhysie says no. 

Az and Elain had more groundwork, but Azriel is a literal roadblock to that ever happening. Elain and Lucien are mystical soulmates, but Elain is literally (and honestly, after watching what her sisters have gone through, this IS the only thing that makes sense) leery of even being near him. 

We need a shake-up. 

(Gwyn is an obvious lead-up. I can’t even with the whole ‘light-singer’ nonsense, but, clearly this is where we’re headed. It’s been Gwyn/Az endgame since the ribbon moment, making Gwyn the only object of his attraction to....ever choose him.)

Assuming the Vassa/ human queens/ koschei / the lake?? plot isn’t flat-out dropped, I have to assume Elain is going to, somehow (probably because she wants to turn back into a human), leave Velaris and be in the mess of that. 

Lucien will be drawn in from the other direction- Jurian and Vassa- and Az will either be there with Extreme Prejudice, or there will be a Feysand Plot Reason why he and Gwyn are like, on a different continent. Elain will Save Herself from the Evil Sorcerer with Vassa’s help, in a presumed eastern european folktale smash up. 

The coolest take of this that lives in my heart actually would be Elain being the Baba Yaga figure here, the opposition of the Deathless, who helps the girls for her own reasons and with her own demands.

 It’s interesting to note that Vasilissa is usually aided in various stories by three knights: the red, the white, and the black. The Sun (or Dawn), The Day, and the Night. Lucien, Jurian, Azriel? some mix?

As for Koschei, there is a story with three magical princesses. And their three, magical, winged husbands. 

(And their brother, who must be revived after Koschei who I can frankly see as Jurian or Lucien if I squint)

What is most likely, really, is probably direct bits but not a direct lift of either story. Elements have to mix. Koschei stories tend to be about love and rivalry and we’ve definitely got that in spades. Maybe Gwyn AND Elain get kidnapped. Maybe Koschei is a sexy bad man with purple eyes round 2. Maybe Elain ends up with him. 

The second possibility is that the human stuff gets dropped. 

(Koschei lingers as a Future Big Bad for future...Feysand novels, probably)

And this is the AUTUMN COURT NOVEL

We have the lingering, two-way blackmail, deus ex Eris. It’s time for that promised coup, maybe? Maybe red-headed Gywn comes from the Land of Magical Redheads! Maybe Az is going to be his worst murder boy self! Maybe the magic will choose Lucien! 

Maybe we end the Tim Tam drama with the border changing, because that man does not want to be High Lord.

And then we can pay off changed, but semi-relevant The Flowers on the Drawer.  Lucien can go home! Azriel can murder...some Vanserra’s? Because he hella, hella wants to? 

The only thing I think won’t happen is endgame Elain and Azriel, but god knows anything else is on the table.