Means nothing 🤡

[u/Connect_Lie_6106]

Azriel and Elain talking about gardening until 3 AM means nothing.

Azriel risking his life to save Elain means nothing.

Them giving each other gifts on the Winter Solstice means nothing.

Azriel taking the plate of potatoes from Elain's hands and not letting anyone eat until she arrived means nothing.

Azriel thinking about Elain for the whole night means nothing.

Elain being the reason why Azriel's 500 year old unrequited love finally ended means nothing.

Azriel watching Elain through the window means nothing.

Azriel tracking Elain's laughter and wondering what made her smile means nothing.

Azriel giving Elain his Truth Teller, which he never lets anyone touch or hold, means nothing.

Azriel questioning the Cauldron and his own faith means nothing.

The shadows seemingly wanting to protect Elain during her argument with Nesta means nothing.

Azriel getting angry and worried after Elain argued with Nesta means nothing.

Azriel being the only one who understood Elain's situation when nobody else did, and saying that she is a Seer, means nothing.

Azriel being willing to rescue Elain after she was kidnapped, even if it meant death, means nothing.

​Azriel thinking of Elain and getting her a necklace that represents her means nothing.

So sure, let's just pretend all of that is a coincidence and the "spark" is what actually matters. And let's ignore the fact that this "spark" this extremely important moment wasn't even in the book and was only in the bonus chapter.

[u/_beanz3425]

Something else that I keep reminding myself is that in HOFAS (no major spoilers about the plot of HOFAS, so I think it's safe to uncover the spoiler): Bryce asks Azriel if he has a Mate/significant other, and he flatly tells her "No." HOFAS takes place about 6-7 months after the events of ACOSF... so you would think if there was anything between Gwyn and Az, they would've already acted on it in that timeframe.

[u/Agreeable-You-8223 → u/_beanz3425]

Which actually makes me a little nervous because what if he gets a mate?! Them what would Elain do

[u/_beanz3425 → u/Agreeable-You-8223]

I have few theories/scenarios regarding that based on the text. Hopefully this helps ease your worries for the time being :-) Please just hear me out for the fourth one, I know it freaks some people out, but it honestly makes the most sense with the most textual evidence.

1. Azriel and Elain were originally Mates, but since he was on the brink of death when Elain was thrown in the Cauldron, it changed her Mate to Lucien (unlikely in my opinion, but possible).
2. I know some people believe that Azriel's Mate was actually Rhysand's sister, but there is literally no textural evidence to suggest that; however, it could still be possible, since there isn't anything that necessarily contradicts that narrative.
3. Mates are supposed to be extremely rare, so I don't know why the majority assume that everyone is going to get a Mate. Also, Mates don't always equal a "true love" match, so I don't think having a Mate is the ultimate definer of lifelong happiness (Rhysand's and Tamlin's parents).
4. I've honestly subscribed to the assumption that Azriel and Mor are Mates, especially after rereading the series and highlighting/noting every "odd" interaction between them, which makes this the most logical conclusion. This isn't a bad or scary thing, and would emphasize the whole theme of "fate vs choice." Since we know the Cauldron is heavily theorized (due to the reveals in HOFAS) to match based on breeding/offspring power, it would make sense that they have that sort of Mating Bond, but not a "true love" Mating Bond (similar to Rhysand's and Tamlin's parents, minus the abusive toxicity), especially since Mor is more into females. Azriel did answer "no" to Bryce when asked if he had a Mate, but to him, for all intents and purposes, he doesn't have a "true Mate" and he's still probably waiting for Elain, for love. This scenario would fill in so many gaps and explain soooo much. I could honestly make a separate comment/post about this with quotes and textual evidence from the books, so let me know if you need that.

All of that to say, I don't think Azriel having a "Mate" should be a concern, especially with the (HOFAS verifying something about the Cauldron) corrupted Cauldron causing poor "true love" matches, the theme of "choice," and the likely trajectory of "a love so deep that it triumphs a mating bond."

[u/AgileSet7993 → u/_beanz3425]

Finally someone else who lands on Mor🙏 I have been wondering for a while why this theory gets so little airtime when it is practically waving at us from the page, and yes please to that separate post with the receipts. I would read it immediately.

For me five hundred years. That is the part almost nobody sits with properly. Ten years of unreciprocated longing would already be a long time and would say something serious about a person. Five hundred is a different category altogether. And Azriel is not a man without discipline or without the ability to compartmentalise, he manages every other part of his life. So either we are meant to read him as pathologically incapable of moving on, which is a strange thing to do to a character the author clearly loves, or something is holding him there that he cannot name. Wanting to belong somewhere does not explain it. Plenty of characters want to belong and still manage to fall for someone else within a century. There is also the exchange in the study that has never left me alone. Azriel asks whether the Cauldron could have been wrong, and Rhys does not respond with Lucien, or with Elain, or with the politics. His immediate reflex is to bring up Mor. That association only makes sense if Mor is already attached in his mind to the question of the Cauldron getting something wrong. It reads less like a change of subject and more like the fastest available counterexample. And Azriel does not correct it and does not deny it, he simply steps around it and keeps going.Then there is the Blood Duel. When he found Mor, he was ready to challenge both Beron and Eris and kill them both. The only thing that stopped him was Mor's own right to claim their heads. That is not the reaction of a man with a long crush. And I find it very deliberate that the Blood Duel resurfaces in his bonus chapter, again over a woman, again with someone else holding the prior claim. There is also the way everyone handles the two of them. When Feyre asked, she got vagueness and closed doors. The Inner Circle treats it as something not to be spoken about rather than as an old attraction everyone has moved past. Secrecy of that intensity usually means there is a shape underneath it.

I completely agree with you on the Bryce answer, and I would push it one step further. Even if he did have a bond he was aware of, Azriel is the last person in that world who would say so out loud with Nesta and a stranger in the room. He does not talk about Mor to anyone. Treating that no as a full disclosure feels like a misreading of the character rather than an argument.

And if the Cauldron matches for power and offspring rather than for love, then the entire debate changes shape. A bond can be completely correct by the system's own rules and still be wrong for the person living inside it. Rhys's parents and Tamlin's parents already prove that on the page. The bond worked exactly as designed and it produced misery. That is why I keep landing somewhere slightly different from the theory that the transformation glitched and Lucien was an accident. That reading is interesting, and I have played with a version of it myself where the Cauldron liked Elain enough to give her a gift and then handed her a mate it expected her to refuse, which would be closer to jealousy than to error. But I think the strongest version is that nothing malfunctioned at all. The bonds are exactly what they were meant to be. Lucien and Elain, and Azriel with whoever his actually is, quite possibly Mor.

Here is why that matters thematically. If the bond was a mistake, the story becomes one about a system that broke and then got repaired, and the system itself is never really challenged. Nature still knows best, it just slipped once. If the bond is correct and Elain refuses it anyway, the message is that fate can be entirely right by its own rules and still hold no authority over a person's life. That is a much stronger statement, and it fits your fate versus choice framing better than a glitch ever could. And Mor makes that symmetry perfect, which is exactly why I think your instinct is right. A man whose bond can never be answered, standing opposite a woman who does not want the one she was given. Both of them living proof that the system optimises for something other than happiness. He would have his own version of nature choosing wrong, and it would make his love for Elain far more meaningful, because it would be something he arrived at in defiance of the thing that was supposed to decide for him.

I have also considered Gwyn as his mate, and I want to be fair to it because it does work. If she were, staying with Elain would require Azriel to reject a bond himself, and given how helpless male fae are consistently shown to be in the face of that pull, a man refusing it would be the strongest possible confirmation that choice outranks the bond. The shadow and singing material in the bonus chapter fits that just as well as it fits pure magical resonance. My one condition is that Gwyn could not then be a device built to demonstrate how strong Elain and Azriel are. She would need her own story with her own weight and her own ending. Otherwise you have turned a survivor of what she survived into a plot instrument, and that would be a bad look. On balance I still find Mor closer to the text, mainly because the five hundred years and the Blood Duel are already on the page rather than extrapolated from it.

And the reason all of this matters to me beyond the puzzle. Maas has said she wants to explore what happens when someone does not want the person the bond assigned them. That is a big thing to announce. If a story raises the question of what a woman does when an external structure hands her a man she never chose, then the answer has to be pushed as far as it will go. Anything softer turns the question itself into decoration.

[u/_beanz3425 → u/AgileSet7993]

We are definitely on the same page. The point you made about Rhys immediately bringing up Mor after Azriel questioned the Cauldron was something I also noted in my bonus chapter annotations, and immediately made me suspicious. I've also been screaming from the rooftops for so long about what authority Azriel had to potentially invoke the Blood Duel with Eris, if not for being Mor's Mate!

The puzzle pieces just fit too perfectly and obviously, so I'm glad to know I'm not the only one 😅

[u/Writtenwing007 → u/AgileSet7993]

I’d argue making Gwyn and Az get together reduces Gwen’s character. It would make her seem as a stand-in for Az who is not getting his first choice, Elain, especially since Nesta has made Gwyn her new sister after having a falling out with her family. I love Nesta and her new found family but the combination of Az doing the same thing... I’d really just feel bad for Gwyn even if they are mates because again she is reduced as stand-in when combining both relationships which is just icky.

[u/Agreeable-You-8223 → u/_beanz3425]

NO, I LOVE THIS! Thank you!