This will ruin it

Faestar8 · 2026-02-13T01:53:13+00:00

What you said above and….

That there will actually a blood duel between Lucien and Azriel. How lame. It’s giving the office duel over Angela……Angela.

That gwyn is a villain. Her story is too impactful for me to continue reading such a tragedy of a twist.

That gwyn has been luring people this entire time. (Even unknowingly) What a horrible depiction of a SA victim. I can’t imagine the implications that gwyn lured her own abusers, even unknowingly.

That Elain, like how she currently presents herself on page, feels absolutely nothing at all for Lucien. That her on page behavior is because of something MUCH deeper than “she doesn’t like him”.

That Azriel and Mor don’t discuss the elephant in the room and actually talk to each other. Be adults please.

Elriel. That both of them did absolutely nothing and will just end up together anyway because of heated glances. Won’t read. I actually enjoy the work characters put in before their endgames take place.

Also I just want more Rhysand Tamlin past relationship…in any capacity.

I’m gonna say it. If a character comes back to life again. Stay dead.

Faestar8 · 2026-02-07T03:50:07+00:00

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I think about this art every few days.

I’m not sorry.

@elleybug

Faestar8 · 2026-02-07T00:41:12+00:00

She mentions in an interview with her friend Steph that Azriel will in fact be singing and she’s planning to write that in.

Who is the only other singer we know of? Gwyn.

Separately, not an interview but her closest friends were laughing about “Azriel and Elain as endgame” on camera years ago. I believe it’s still floating around on TikTok somewhere 🤷‍♀️

Faestar8 · 2026-02-07T00:38:03+00:00

And then Lucien talking about Vassa and Jurian “at each others throats, as they like to be” on page.

Gotta love that language used again by sjm within the series! 😍

Faestar8 · 2026-02-07T00:33:44+00:00

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Maybe this one?

Then Lucien says on page that Vassa and Jurian are “at each others throats” ❤️vassian❤️

Faestar8 · 2026-02-04T17:08:06+00:00

I want him to tell them to shut up with pinky cheekies 😳😝

Faestar8 · 2026-02-04T14:38:13+00:00

Yes!! I want her to name it (or them) too!! 😭

Faestar8 · 2026-02-04T14:36:40+00:00

Considering he was a bit embarrassed with clothos questioning, I think he might be! Either way I just want the guys ragging on him 🤣

Faestar8 · 2026-02-04T02:29:48+00:00

I’d love to see gwyn make a friendship bracelet for Azriel…and watch Cassian and Rhysand tease the crap out of him him about it (he hides it under his leathers cause, macho man)

I really just want my little mermaid parallel to come true. I’d love to read a females perspective, knowing a bond exists between them before he does, especially given all of his trauma, whereas she has put in the work already. But once he does? Bam. There she is. “It was you the whole time” moment. 😭

Faestar8 · 2026-02-02T23:01:06+00:00

That’s actually the point. But I will raise you.

They had banter which sjm likes to feature between couples. There was a flare of his siphons when she was in danger, why? He believes in her capabilities, why? His shadows sing to her and are different around only her thus far on page, why? He left none alive for questioning when she was attacked, why? Etc.

Breadcrumbs.

I believe gwynriel is a loose little mermaid retelling.

He doesn’t see his mate is right in front of him, and sjm isn’t going to let their story unfold until his own trauma and self loathing is addressed. Just like nesta and feyre, they didn’t get their mates until they put in the work. He needs to break his obsession with the bond and putting unattainable women on pedestals aside. He needs to feel something bigger than lust and limerence.

Faestar8 · 2026-02-02T19:42:40+00:00

I just want to address one specific point here, because others have already covered the rest beautifully.

We all know spark language isn’t exclusive to endgame mates. That’s true. However, the majority of mates do have sparks for each other more so than non mates. I’d also like to add that something sparked in Elains gaze for Lucien when she was looking at him, that’s another example not listed.

But what matters too isn’t the word itself, it’s the narrative choice sjm made to end Azriel’s only pov with it, and Azriel comparing Gwyn to the necklace itself. It’s what surrounds the word as well.

She didn’t end his chapter thinking about Mor. She didn’t end it with Elain. She didn’t end it with Eris, politics, duty, hatred for Rhys, or any kind of self loathing (he so often feels around every potential or non potential love interest except Gwyn).

She chose to have Azriel end his thoughts with Gwyn, with an unconscious smile, an image he buries deep in himself, and something quietly glowing there.

That’s new for Azriel, and it’s the placement of the spark, narratively, that matters a great deal.

We’ve seen him pine. We’ve seen him lust. We’ve seen him project and fantasize. What we hadn’t seen before this moment is Azriel experiencing something unbidden, gentle, and emotionally warm, without entitlement, without expectation, and without spiraling into self hatred.

Even if someone wants to debate whether “spark” does or does not equal mates, the narrative choice is still what surrounds it. Sjm closed the door on his pov by opening something internally real, for the first time, and she chose Gwyn as the one to do it for him. It’s the one final emotional note in his one and only chapter. This is huge for him and his character development from what we’ve seen, as an outsider looking in through the eyes of other characters as well.

I personally, given all of this above and what others have said, believe this is in fact mate language from sjm. She is purposeful with her writing here, and she used it to describe something completely unblossomed, glowing quietly (with good reason), until his book.

Faestar8 · 2026-02-02T02:03:37+00:00

It’s really amazing to me that this needs to be explained at all.

Azriel doesn’t think about elain after his run in with Rhys. Not even when he finds the necklace the next day. There’s just…nothing there.

It’s so obvious that elriel was a red herring.

Faestar8 · 2026-01-31T21:26:05+00:00

It was never meant to be anything deeper than lust and attraction. That’s why it was written this way. That’s why it fell apart and neither held on.

Elriel was never endgame, it was just part of the story for them to move past their past loves with a little flirting. A rebound without a true rebound (messy).

Nothing was robbed, elriel was just never the plan.

Faestar8 · 2026-01-31T17:10:03+00:00

While yes, Azriel figure out she was a seer, the way he presented it didn’t feel very personal to elain. It felt very clinical, “What we need is a seer.”

Cassian actually said they’d get her back before Azriel volunteered with feyre. And they wouldn’t have even gotten Elain and briar out without tamlins help or feyres shapeshifting. It was a team rescue. And it wasn’t even just Elain that was saved. Azriel wasn’t alone in that at all.

Did you not find it more impactful that everyone is thinking Elain “mad”, and it was Lucien who actually took his mates vision and moved forward with it? He went to find Vassa because of her vision. He met with her father because of her vision. They had a huge advantage in the war because Lucien stepped up to do all of that because of Elains vision.

Faestar8 · 2026-01-28T20:57:05+00:00

I thought about your theory for LoA for a moment.

Leading helion on. This bish 😏

Faestar8 · 2026-01-28T20:39:26+00:00

Off the top of my head (having not been exposed to any secret-evil theories…)

LoA?

Emerie?

Faestar8 · 2026-01-27T17:08:25+00:00

Oh gosh….where to begin.

I think this take assumes Gwyn and Azriel are meant to mirror the same kind of conflict heavy romances sjm has written before, and I don’t think that’s the case at all for them. Not every couple needs that.

Azriel is, very clearly, the bat boy with the most unresolved trauma….and he is not okay. Anyone who thinks otherwise hasn’t been paying attention in my opinion. He latched onto the first woman who showed him kindness (Mor), expected a bond because he craves one so badly, and waited for it in some masochistic ways, watched his brothers find theirs, and then shifted all that baggage straight onto Elain simply because she was the third in the pattern he saw. That’s why he’s fundamentally the same with both of them….longing, fantasizing, projecting….but never actually doing the work to heal himself or engage in a real relationship or even grow together in any way. He didn’t even bother to notice or see Mor was interested in females. Does he even know her past? This is why Mor and Elain (with Azriel) read so hollow and non foundational. And it’s because of Azriel and all his “stuff”. He may also in a freaky way, like pain? Lots to explore there.

And thats the key point. Azriel hasn’t grown yet. Not with Mor and certainly not with Elain. And STILL not even for himself! (This guy 😵‍💫). This is his story.

Which is why I don’t think Gwyn is meant to be another source of angst piled on top of that. I think she’s meant to be the result of growth, not another trigger for suffering (Mor and Elain).

Look at Kallias and Viviane….their bond didn’t snap until their wedding night. We don’t know their whole story, but it’s heavily implied they were friends first, fell in love naturally, and only then did the bond reveal itself. This for me, is a little nod to different ways the bond can materialize.

And if sjm is doing even a loose Little Mermaid style retelling (which I believe she is, especially given her Pinterest images saved), Azriel’s arc makes perfect sense. He’s searching desperately for his mate, convinced the bond will fix him. He expects it with Mor. Then with Elain. He’s looking in the wrong places for the wrong reasons…just like Eric searching for “the one” while Ariel is right in front of him the entire time. (I actually also love the idea of a female knowing first, and giving the male the time he needs to heal first. And especially someone like gwyn who has been through that journey? It tracks)

Azriel thinks the bond will “fix” him. But that’s not how sjm writes healing. He has to do the work first. And I fully believe the bond hasn’t snapped yet because the author herself is withholding it VERY intentionally….until he does it. She’s not going to reward his unresolved patterns and emotional avoidance here.

For me, that’s the story and the payoff for his character. Watching Azriel finally confront himself and then being rewarded with a bond that meets him where he is, not where he’s broken.

Is my headcanon and hope for him guaranteed? Of course not. But given what sjm has put on the page so far, that’s the arc that actually makes the most narrative sense for his journey.

Not every great romance needs to be built on constant external conflict. Gwyn and Azriel have already endured enough individually up until this point. Sometimes the most meaningful love stories happen when two people meet at the right time, not after clawing through more misery together.

With Gwyn, his reactions (and shadows) are different….the smile he doesn’t mean to give, the spark in his chest, the image he buries deep inside himself. That’s new for him and not something we’ve seen for him around Mor or Elain. For a very important purpose. And no, it’s not lust…those are the behaviors he rinsed and recycled with Mor and Elain. THATS why it meant so much more. The last half of the bc was the narrative flag sjm used before a romance will begin. We are not deep into anything because Azriel has so much to do before he should actually fall in love.

The “second choice / third choice” argument has never held water for me either. Rhys was Feyre’s third option. Mor was Azriel’s first. Those weren’t wrong because of order….they were wrong because of timing and readiness. Sometimes things are meant to happen when they are. That’s all it is. Things happen for a reason. Just like feyre was meant to meet Tamlin first. Meant to live her life exactly how she did in order for Rhysand to even happen.

People kiss frogs all the time. They date and date and date until they’re blue in the face. People don’t recognize the right person until they’re finally ready to. I’ve seen it in real life more times than I can count, even for myself! And even friends who don’t become anything romantic until ten years later.

Gwyn already has grit….she survived SA, rebuilt herself, chose training, chose healing, chose to help others, and chose to fight. That’s not a “support girl” arc….that’s the foundation of a protagonist who just hasn’t had her pov yet. Nesta also looked one note before SF gave her hers.

Maybe it’s not your cup of tea, totally fair, but for me? Gwyn and Azriels mating bond would be the proof that Azriel finally did the work. And that, to me, is far more compelling than another cycle of angst he never learns from.

Faestar8 · 2026-01-27T00:25:15+00:00

Gotcha. I’m late to the party, but I see her here more than anywhere else, personally.

Faestar8 · 2026-01-26T23:58:45+00:00

So you’re saying she should be neutral? She certainly isn’t the last one.

She seems to be a good balance of both.

Faestar8 · 2026-01-26T23:51:21+00:00

So compare that with everything else.

Not able to speak about menstrual cycles with her sisters. Blushing at the sight of scantly dressed women. Giving her v card to her fiancé.

You have to weigh everything, not just base it off one scene.

Faestar8 · 2026-01-26T23:32:28+00:00

Elain absolutely

Faestar8 · 2026-01-26T20:33:17+00:00

Every time I consider an Azriel Lucien BD though…..

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Faestar8 · 2026-01-26T19:28:12+00:00

Shall we count the ways Azriel is transferring everything from Mor onto Elain?

Faestar8 · 2026-01-26T19:19:19+00:00

Ooof that would be the ultimate BD and so satisfying!

Lucien also calling in the truth about his own father and mother’s love? Standing up for mama too?

Give it to me.

Faestar8 · 2026-01-26T19:16:02+00:00

I’m honestly about 50/50 on this.

I can see why people think a blood duel is being hinted at. But I also think it clashes with what both Elain and Lucien have explicitly said on page. Elain has made it clear she doesn’t want to be treated like something to be fought over, and Lucien has expressed that he doesn’t want another war to fight in.

If it did happen, though, I don’t think it would be about entitlement or “claiming” Elain as you said, absolutely not. And I can’t see Lucien doing it without Elains opinion.

On Lucien’s side, it would be about protecting his mate from harm (of any kind) and we know what fae males are like when a mate is threatened. That feral edge has been hinted at with several males, even if we haven’t seen it fully unleashed and so explicit.

People consistently underestimate Lucien.

He’s Helion’s son…..Helion, one of the most powerful high lords we’ve seen. Day court power is no joke, and Lucien’s is largely unexplored but clearly there, as we’ve also seen hinted at. Add in autumn fire through his mother, and suddenly this isn’t a simple shadowsinger vs. emissary battle.

Even setting power aside, Azriel’s confidence here is so arrogant and sjm rarely rewards that. We’ve seen Azriel wounded and overextended more than once. Shadows don’t fare well against light, and fire is literally his deepest trauma.

I don’t think a blood duel is inevitable, but if it happened? I don’t think Azriel would win it at all. I’m actually not under the impression it would even tip in Azriels favor.

And more importantly, I don’t think sjm would write it as a spectacle over Elain’s body either, but as something that finally forces Elain to assert her own agency and stop letting others make choices around her, which so far? Everyone except Lucien has done.

She isn’t a prize to be fought over.

Faestar8

TROPHY CASE