I saw a “friendly reminder” post that wanted to remind the ACOTAR fandom that Elriel apparently has only had 7 interactions throughout all 5 books.
Since I haven’t been too active lately, I decided to be oh so gracious and do an accurate outline of their interactions because it seems that some antis have memory problems unfortunately🥲
ACOTAR:
No scenes because Azriel wasn’t even introduced. Duh…
ACOMAF:
Azriel smiles to himself when he notices Elain’s grip on her fork at their first meeting.
Azriel sympathises with Elain feeling disoriented.
Elain asks Azriel if he can fly & he answers in some detail (unlike with a certain character who also tried asking him personal questions😉)
Elain grins at Cassian once she notices Azriel is at ease.
ACOWAR:
Azriel carries Elain & offers to show her the garden to which Elain agrees and calls Azriel’s hands “beautiful” making him blush in response.
Feyre later sees them sitting together in the garden and starts to wonder why they’re not mates.
Elain starts talking about her visions to which Azriel questions her and winnows away after “studying” her for a moment.
Azriel & Cassian both still at the sight of Elain and Nesta in their gowns.
Azriel, once again, escorts and helps Elain in the garden.
Azriel realises Elain is a seer (unlike Lucien + everyone else who believed there was something “wrong” with her)
Feyre acknowledges the fact that Azriel alone listened to Elain.
Azriel questions Elain further about her visions.
Elain is awed by Azriel’s shadows and he gently grabs her hand to winnow with her.
Azriel was the first to think of Elain after they sensed the Cauldron’s presence at their camp.
Azriel was willing to get Elain back himself, even though Nesta warned him he’d probably die.
Azriel and Feyre rescue Elain together.
Azriel continues to hold Elain in his arms till the point where Rhys has to take her from him & Elain kisses Azriel’s cheek in gratitude.
Despite being seriously injured, Azriel’s priority was to take the chains off Elain.
Azriel gives Truth-Teller to Elain which she uses later to kill the Hybern King.
ACOFAS:
Elain stills once Azriel walks into the room.
Azriel takes the potatoes from Elain and insists that she sits at the table.
Azriel stops Cassian from eating and says they should wait for everyone to be seated (aka Elain).
Elain gratefully smiles at Azriel when he jokes about Amren who was “picking on” Elain at dinner.
Azriel wishes Elain a Happy Solstice (beating Feyre to it).
Elain gifts Azriel a sleeping powder which makes him laugh in a way Feyre’s never seen before.
By 3am, Elain and Azriel stay together in the sitting room, going over her plans for the garden.
ACOSF:
Azriel’s mood visibly worsens when Cassian tells him about Elain’s fight with Nesta.
Shadows gather “like snakes preparing to strike” when Nesta insults Elain.
Cassian notices that Azriel has lost feelings for Mor and questions why…
Azriel says there’s a darkness involved with the Trove that Elain shouldn’t be exposed to.
Azriel says that the eyes under his command cannot be blinded (in response to Elain potentially being in danger again).
Elain nods at Cassian and Azriel (more shyly at Azriel) to which Azriel smiles at her and she quickly looks away.
Azriel follows the sound of Elain’s laugh and they exchange a charged glance.
Nesta realises Azriel has feelings towards Elain when he chooses to linger at the door - “His secret to tell, never hers.”
Bonus Chapter = Azriel gifts Elain with a necklace and they nearly kiss. She ends up leaving it behind after she wrongly believes that Azriel thinks of their almost-kiss as a mistake.
As you can see, I also included scenes where they don’t necessarily interact with each other, but react to the other’s actions, etc. as OP counted scenes like that in their post. Funnily enough, that little detail was only applicable to their list of “Gw*nriel interactions”. How fascinating…
You know what you don’t do if you want to evoke romance?
Question the legitimacy of the couple. As in: “What if the Cauldron was wrong?”
Question the compatibility of the couple. As in: “Why make them mates?” and “Lucien caught me cringing at him when her words replayed […] I shook my head, trying not to imagine Elain subject to that […]”
Add to the mix another more suitable option. Creating even more doubt in your reader. As in: “Though she’d probably cling to Azriel, just to have some peace and quiet.“,“What if this [referring to Azriel and Elain together] is what she needs?”
Continuously use words and sentences that doesn’t sound right in a romantic setting, like “It was the most uncomfortable thirty minutes I could recall,” “She just ignored him or barely spoke to him until he got the hint and left,” “Not that he’d shown any interest in bridging that gap between them”, “Thank you, but I have other plans.” I prayed he didn’t catch the slightly relievedglimmer on Elain’s face,” “She wants nothing to do with me,” “I can’t stand to be in the same room as her for more than two minutes,” “And that entitles him to my time, my affections?” “He doesn’t know me.”
Reveal that in your multiverse the system responsible for mating bonds was corrupted and it’s not a perfect system.
At last, state in interviews that you are curious to explore the theme of “what if fate fails you?” and the rejection of mating bonds.
Voilà! That’s your recipe to create a subplot in the background of your book, leaving not only crumbs but actually loafs of bread for your reader to pick on and understand where you are going next with your series!
if the elriel book does not have an explicit bdsm forbidden romance between shadowboy and flowergirl then im just gonna explode and simply destroy the entire universe as we know it.
I wish age gap discourse hadn’t spiraled the way it has because I want there to be a safe space to say “Men in their 40s who date 25 year olds aren’t predators, they’re just fucking losers”
… honey you just described a predator LOL
No, I said what I said. But thank you for providing an example of how this topic has become insufferable on the internet.
i am honestly burningly curious about how a 40 year old man who fucks around with college grads is not a predator
“College grad” is not a developmental stage, nor is it what I would describe a 25 year old as. I was 4 years out of college at 25. My mother had two children at 25. You can be a fucking congressman at 25.
There’s a difference between a man who is immature and buys into misogynistic views of beauty and aging and one who is a predator. Also, many actual predators? Not losers and able to move through society pretty freely being seen as cool and the ideal, so conflating the two isn’t helpful.
This is going to be my final response to any attempt at discourse. You’re welcome to continue amongst yourselves.
also sometimes a 40 year old and a 25 year old just weirdly find each and it’s a perfectly normal relationship - like all human relationships are complex and situational, it’s so rarely an either/or thing let alone just one thing only
if a 40 year old dude only dates 25 year olds, DiCaprio style or something adjacent to it, then yeah he’s a loser
if a 40 year old dude meets a 25 year old through social event or friends or whatever and they happen to hit it off and make a go of it, and this isn’t some sort of reoccurring pattern for the guy, that’s just a relationship with an age difference
being predatory means something specific, and man I agree w/ OP and really wish people just stopped ascribing it to any and all relationship dynamics they personally might not like
predator and groomer - two words that need to go up on the “can’t use till you learn their meaning” shelf