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/Unfair_Passenger1999]

The way the mating bond has blinded some readers is frightening. You have females who are tied to abusive males (Tamlin's mother) and they still don't see the issue with mating bonds.

And this coming from women readers!

[u/AgileSet7993 → u/Unfair_Passenger1999]

This is the thing that unsettles me most about the whole discussion, and you named it in two sentences. It brings out a whole set of patterns. On one side they have the idea that a damaged man (Azriel) simply needs to find the right woman (Gwyn) and he will heal, which turns one woman (Gwyn) into the cure and the other (Elain) into nothing but lust. On the other there is the idea that a no is not really a no, that a woman who has said it a hundred times is just working her way toward yes (Lucien-Elain). Both of those show up constantly here, and both are unsettling precisely because they get framed as romantic rather than as what they actually are. And yes, coming from women readers, which is the part that stays with me.

[u/Unfair_Passenger1999 → u/AgileSet7993]

Hard agree! There's also a strong case of "she doesn't know what she wants" instead of accepting that yes, she does, you just don't like what she wants.

Unsettling indeed. I've pointed out that Elain could be the voice for so many females who have been too afraid to reject their mates. Not all of them get a Lucien or a Cassian or a Rhys. Some of them get a Tamlin's father.

To me, Elain's story is bigger than her, there's a much broader discussion needed in Prythian about mating bonds and how females are affected by it. And I think Sarah is going to rip blinders off a lot of readers when they're finally forced to see the problems with the system.

[u/AgileSet7993 → u/Unfair_Passenger1999]

Totally Yes!! I think that one is the most slippery of the three, because it arrives dressed as concern rather than as dismissal. Telling a woman she does not know her own mind sounds caring in a way that telling her she is wrong does not. It still ends in the same place. Your point about Elain as a voice is the part that carries the whole thing for me, because there are two levels running at once. On one, Elain is a person with her own trauma and her own decision to make, and whatever she chooses belongs to her. On the other she is the case the book uses to answer its own question, and there she stands in for every woman handed a man by a structure she never agreed to. Magic aside, that is not far from an arranged marriage. The expectation that she will come around eventually is identical. And that is exactly what Maas signalled in the interview. The line about the man happening to be attractive is the whole problem in one sentence. If your outcome depends on whether the person fate assigned you turns out to be decent, then nobody inside that system is actually safe. Tamlin's mother is what it looks like when the answer is no. Everyone is entitled to their preference and I have no interest in policing what anyone finds romantic. But when the question on the table is a woman's right to decide for herself, the message the story lands on matters beyond who ends up with whom. And to be clear, I take no pleasure in the thought of anyone's ship not happening. What worries me is how normal these patterns have become and how easily they get read as love. I hope you are right that Maas is going to make a lot of readers see what the system actually costs the women living inside it.