#Elain and Lucien are Sarah's only main characters who experienced the immediate snapping of their bond and it sets up their romance to

[acourtofthought]

You know what makes Elain and Lucien such an interesting story?

With Feyre and Rhys, Feyre did not know that she and Rhys were mates but many readers suspected it especially as she began to fall in love with him.

With Nesta and Cassian, we didn't initially know that Cassian realized Nesta was his mate (until he confirmed it in SF) but many readers suspected it especially because we could see how they were always drawn together even from the start.

With Az and Gwyn, it's seems neither is aware that there could be a mating bond but the readers suspect it and it seems like we're going to get a scene at a later point where he thinks, "I should have known when I was so blind with rage I didn't leave anyone alive for questioning" or "I should have known when I felt that spark in my chest for her."

With all of these couples, we could clearly see what they could not and we understood that the reason they were drawn to the other or feeling certain things for the other is because of the mating bond / possible mating bond.

But with Elain and Lucien they were aware of their bond from the start. Now it's not a question of "maybe they have a bond because they're falling in love!" (since it's clear that the unknown bond is what drew the other characters together and they were able to fall in love due to that proximity) but a question of "can they fall in love even with the knowledge of this bond that came about at the worst possible moment in their lives?"

It presents a very unique spin of how two characters can fall in love in this series. Sarah has done the "we're falling in love and lo and behold we were mates all along!" over and over again (we got the same thing with Rowan and Aelin in TOG and a weird version of that with Bryce and Hunt) but never "I'm purposely trying not to love you because I know we have this bond that I didn't ask for and I found out about it while I was engaged to and in love with someone else so I want to fight against possibly falling for you and I'll do that by completely ignoring our bond".

It's very much like an Arranged Marriage trope where both people put up walls because they didn't choose the marriage for themselves but eventually end up finding a love that exceeds everything they imagined and I'm 120% here for it.