#elriels are cool af

[bookofmirth]

Hi! I’m an Elriel, but I have a totally legitimate question that I’m hoping you’ll clear up for me!

So if you don’t think Gwyn is a lightsinger (which I’m pretty sure you don’t and that’s totally your prerogative), why do you think Sarah invests so much time and specific, descriptive language into depicting Gwyn a certain way and especially when she’s singing? Just that there’s mentions of Nesta feeling entranced, of Gwyn glowing (which is repeated a bunch) etc.

Is it just that you think Gwyn has autumn court powers, or that she really is just THAT good at singing 😅?

Looking forward to reading your answer, thanks for taking the time!

Hi! Sorry this took a few days, I knew I was going to write a long response and I was doing a readathon last weekend. 🥰 Also I hope the fandom isn’t getting you down. 😬

Short answer - Nesta really likes music and most of the main characters glow at some point in the series. Sometimes we can read the story at face value, especially since sjm tends to use the same metaphors and descriptions across multiple contexts. Occam’s razor tells us that the simplest explanation of things is usually the right one, and I think that really needs to be applied to a lot of the readings of this series because sjm is Not That Deep.

Longer answer:

I think the Nesta and Gwyn singing thing is easily explained by the fact that Nesta stans music in general. It’s something huge that we learned about her in acosf - she used music in much the same way that she used alcohol and sex, and if you listen to a choir or chanting irl, it’s mesmerizing. It’s beautiful. The main difference re: music, alcohol, and sex, is that Nesta has always loved music (and dancing) and so that’s why the gift Cassian got her was so great. It was personal to her as a character.

Here are some examples of Nesta’s connection to music (in multiple contexts, not just in relation to Gwyn) (also the word music is used 81 times):

Sex, music, and drink she’d learned this past year - all of it helped.

That thing deep in Nesta stirred, but she ignored it, pushed it down as best she could without the distraction of music or sex or wine.

“Yes,” Elain said. “She was trained in dance from a very young age. She loves it, and music. Not in the way I enjoy a waltz or gavotte, but in the way that performers make an art of it. Nesta could bring an entire ballroom to a halt when she danced with someone.”

But what Feyre does with paint, that’s what Nesta did with music and dance.

(Nesta to Gwyn) “It’s a long story, and not one worth telling, but through it all, I picked taverns and pleasure halls to frequent because of the music. I’ve always loved music.”

(same scene) “The drinking, the males, I don’t miss any of it. But the music... that I miss.”

And then Gwyn invites Nesta to come listen to the singing. Occam’s razor = Gwyn saw that her friend was in pain and missed something that she loved, and offered her a chance to experience it again. It’s after this that Nesta ends up unintentionally scrying to find the harp, and it makes sense that music is what would help her with that because she uses it to forget her anxieties (see: the first two quotes above).

I was going to do a full meta on the use of the word “glow” in acosf, but when I did a search in my ebook it came up 64 times 💀 Some examples, and I tried to vary the uses I found:

immortal glow radiating from Elain’s fair skin

Amren’s eyes glowed, a remnant of the power that once burned inside her

Rhys’s violet eyes glowed

his siphons glowing

Gwyn’s hair seemed to glow brighter with her song

“do you know that your eyes glow when your power rises to the surface?” (Cassian to Nesta)

Elain had been glowing the next morning

Gwyn lowered her hands, noted the lack of glowing power in Nesta’s eyes, and sighed in relief.

And inch by inch, fresh steel glowed - truly glowed, like moonlight lay within the metal

Her eyes practically glowed in the dimness (Nesta)

No grey fire glowed in her eyes (also Nesta)

His grin was brighter than the glowing siphon (Cassian)

One small lantern glowed, faintly illuminating

Nesta seemed to glow with the attention

Eris’ eyes gleamed with wanton desire, as he drank in Nesta’s smile, the glow about her

And as a side note, in acowar (I believe? someone correct me if I’m wrong) Lucien’s hair is also described as glowing when he gets upset. I think it’s when he and Feyre are escaping the Spring Court.

Another side note, Feyre, Nesta, and Elain are all described as glowing during and after sex.

So what I get from this, in this mini meta, is that “glow” is used in two ways: 

to show that something is going on with fae powers, 

or as literal description of light

While yes, Gwyn is described as glowing, the word is used most often to describe Nesta’s eyes glowing, although Lucien, Rhys, Amren, Elain, Cassian, and Feyre all glow at some point as well, and more than once. That alone points to it being maybe about fae power, but if we were to say that Gwyn glowing = lightsinger, then what does it mean when all these other characters glow? 

Occam’s razor = Nesta is super into music, nearly all the characters glow when their powers are acting up.

The idea of lightsingers is cool, especially if it were used to complement or contrast shadowsingers. But then their description in acosf is.... creepy af. And there isn’t any description of glowing (or singing!) as being inherent to their power. I don’t think anyone has ever suggested that Azriel, as a shadowsinger, tortures his victims with... song? Or lures them with song? 

My main thing with analysis of certain words or phrases is that they need to be applied across the board. If we’re going to say that use of a word is super important in one context, then it should be looked at in all contexts. That’s when it becomes a theme, and so looking at the word (or phrase, or idea) across contexts can tell us what the theme is. For example, discussion of Az’s shadows should include every instance of them being described for the full picture to emerge. I think there are other examples that make people think Gwyn is a lightsinger but glowing and music aren’t enough because when looking at the broader context and use of those words 1) there is way more evidence to show that Nesta was being influenced not by Gwyn’s “power” but more by her own preference for music, and 2) If we’re going to say glowing is a lightsinger thing then almost everyone in the books is a lightsinger.

I hope this makes sense! Sorry this got long, I like to cover all my bases. 

[feyreandhercourt]

My Spicy-Hot Take

The difference between theorizing for TOG and ACOTAR is theorizing for TOG made, like, sense. Things certainly evolved through the series but there were a lot of seeds and bits of foreshading laid into the first few books, and that comfortably sustained the next several hundred thousand words. I'm not saying every scene was planned, and it didn't need to be. It certainly helped that it followed one (main) character who had a distinct arc outside romance.

ACOTAR... does not have that. I don't say this in a hating way, at all. But ACOTAR is, IMO, Sarah's world to just do whatever the fuck she wants. Okay we have a bat winged race? Cool, now we're gonna do it with angel wings. Something emotional happens in SJM's life? We can put a few nods in it. Clothing? My girl is in leggings and sweaters. Yes, Feyre can open an art studio. Build-your-own dreamhouse. We want to explore Illyrian culture? Lit. Actually wait we don't want to get to into that? Backtrack. Moriel (tho was it ever a thing)? Elriel? Elucien? Gwynriel? Whatever blows her hair back. An entire set of magic maguffins that people somehow completely forgot about? Why not! (I cannot emphasize enough, this is something I can't see having been in TOG, at least not the way it was handled.) Suicide vows? (FEYSAND BB WTF) oh guess we should go back and have Amren say that's dumb af. Who lives? Who dies? What is Vassa up to? Who knows! The answers are literally always changing

Some things are obviously planned. Nessian was very clearly always gonna happen (though we do have the flames-dresser>>lucien flames theory, so even that isn't really true, let alone how the sisters were characterized in acotar but I am digressing upon digressing). But beyond that, ESPECIALLY with shipping (and I gotta say, I feel like we as a fandom focus on shipping because I honestly cannot tell you what the plot is going forward outside of romance--are we dealing with the human queens, Vassa's thing, the potential Rhysand-dictatorship, the Illyrian uprising??) we have NO solid foundation. Sarah is changing her mind as she is writing. What seems foreshadowed in one book can be tossed by the wayside in the next book.

And this is, I cannot emphasize enough, FINE. It's her story, and as long as she's having fun, more power to her. But there's no point twisting ourselves into pretzels over what the text says (especially from more than one book back) because this is EVOLVING in a clearly unplanned way. Again, I repeat, this is FINE. And I'm not saying don't ship your ships. Ship them. Draw them. Write fics. It keeps the fandom alive and fun. By all means, theorize. Draw text evidence. Spice it up and theorize about whatever the plot is, too.

But the holier-than-thou subtext of a lot of these posts is EXHAUSTING. No one is wrong for what they ship. And no one is "right" because SJM could literally decide ya know what Elain was just a proxy for Azriel and Lucien's repressed feelings for each other and they ride off into the sunset. (Or dawn court, I suppose.) There's no "but actually the text says this" because, guys, the text is super inconsistent. Which is just the nature of SJM writing an explosively successive series that definitely came about when YA was different vs her other series that was planned out for like... a decade.

I love theories. I love text analysis. I read stuff I don't agree with, and I'm just happy to be part of an active fandom. But play nice and accept that SJM is probably gonna invent robots at some point in Prythian.

[asilentfrenzy]

(this dissapeared when i tried to save it as a draft 😬)

hmm smells like bait but i’ll bite anyway to get this out of the way lol

i can see why it’s a ship, obviously (then again i have been involved in fandoms long enough to know that any ship is possible lol). elain is sweet and vulnerable, and azriel has the right approach out of all of them during her current healing stage in the books. azriel is the dark brooding character who needs to heal as well. it’s a classic gentle, soft girl with the mysterious, closed off boy type of ship. however, i don’t think they’re right for each other beyond friends (which is all i saw them as until i came to the fandom and saw that they were some giant ship that people are really confident about being canon??). azriel is very dark (he tortures people) and he has quite a temper, and that just doesn’t seem like something elain needs or is prepared to deal with. he has a lot in his past that i don’t believe elain would push him to actually deal with just as i don’t believe azriel would push elain to bring out the parts of herself that she needs to deal with. they would be a very… quiet and safe couple, but almost distant in a way (boring). azriel has also been (and is still) pining over the same woman for 500 years

and on the other side of why i don’t ship them - lucien. i am a lucien stan, and up until his mate he has had to suffer with the tormenting memories of the woman he thought was his mate being murdered in front of his face by his father while he was held down and forced to watch by his brothers. for him to find his actual mate only for her to be used as an “example of hOw a bOnD cAn bE rEjEcTeD” or, even better, to be used to accommodate the idea of “azriel deserving to have someone reject their mate for him” (are you fucking kidding me lol do you know how fucked up that sounds?? ya bc apparently lucien deserves to be the mate that is rejected i suppose lol gross af) ON TOP OF losing his best friend, his court (both courts actually), being treated like shit by feyre & co, and pretty much being completely alone aside from like julian and vassa (which oc everyone “ships” because they need somewhere to put lucien to help their ship sail and she’s pretty much his only option) that?? would be pretty fucking shitty lol

but, aside from the bond, i genuinely ship elain and lucien. lucien is socialable and charismatic like elain, he enjoys nature, is outgoing, lively, lighthearted, etc. lucien is blunt and calls people out - elain likes to dismiss things that she doesn’t want to deal with to maintain the “ignorance is bliss” type of bubble she tries to maintain. lucien would call out this naivety, where idk if azriel would. not like lucien would at least

and no, not saying elain is “owed” to lucien so chill tf out, friends lol

like a lot of ships in different fandoms, elriel is drawn together by a few interactions (that were sweet of course, not taking that away) that are blown to the utmost proportions. azriel is a fan fav as the quiet, brooding and misunderstood guy, and while him and someone like elain have the potential for a sweet relationship - i don’t think that it has to be elain specifically to fill that role that shippers see for him as his s/o

mates are rare. as much as the fandom likes to pick and choose when they want to acknowledge the significance of the bond, the bond is still VERY significant. and i definitely fucking think lucien is the LAST character who deserves his bond to be used to paint an “example” of when a bond is rejected lmfao like what

yeah. elain and azriel have had more positive interactions. but they have also been in a war/dealing with the repercussions of a war. they’re immortals. they have time

(sorry, but i just saw the “imagine if azriel had someone choose him over their mate” bullshit again for like the 13th time and can i just say 🤢🤢🤢🤢 imagine wishing for/being cool with someone else’s suffering and rejection just so your boy can feel warm and fuzzy inside lmfao CAN’T RELATE)

what azriel really deserves is to receive the honesty from mor about where she stands, have the time to get over her, and to find someone who has the full capacity to understand him and has enough in common with him for them to truly thrive

also three “brothers” with the three sisters?? c'mon now

[fawnandshadows]

✨Appreciation Post✨

Hello! I hear the cool thing to do is to make a list full of Elriels, so here is an organized list of Elriels that contribute lots of art and joy to the fandom! Wanted to give my friends a little extra love today 🤍

Writers: 

@ultadverb

@mrspettyferr

@fayruh-darling

@thesistersarcheron

@batboyazriel

@shedoessoshedoes

@casuallivi

@impossiblescissorspeachpaper

@thefangirlofhp

@danydragons21

@dottielovegood

@tswaney17

@nikethestatue

@snelbz

@theladyofdeath

@rhysanoodle

Theorists: 

@merymoonbeam

@wingedblooms

@silverlinedeyes

@offtorivendell

@gopeachllama

@silverdreamscapes

@psychee92

@icedflames

@ofduskcourts

Artists:

@hollycove

@stargirl00s

@starswhogaze

@alwayssara

@livlochan

@sncinder

@sweetelains

@azrielandelain2

@swankii-art-teacher

Commissioners: 

@lesolehabitantdelalune

@leiaamidala

@elriell

@forget-me-not-s

Fun-loving shippers:

@santkazoya

@jasmine-scentedarkness

@enamoured-x

@shadowsandbloom

@dreamofdusk

@athena-85

@kayla-2

@azriel-shadowsinger

@sakurakittypeach

@emnlln

@cassianfanclub

@123moiaussi

@elvery

@feyredarlinq

@riddlecrux

@dracolovebot

@gentlehearted-kingslayer

@nyxreads

@bookstaninthesoul

This is by no means a completed list because I am sure that I have forgotten some amazing Elriel blogs, and for that I apologize! So please feel free to join in and spread the love! This list only consists of Elriels on tumblr, but feel free to link Elriels on other social media as well! <3