#SJM is a Gwynriel and Elucien shipper

[oristian]

Elain is much better suited for the male who is associated with sunshine, traveling, court gatherings, cunning and sass. The male who travelled to the mortal continent on a whim from her visions. The male who asked to learn more about her, and, six months later, remembered the detail of her being happiest while gardening with gloves—which is what he brought her for Solstice. The male who was the first and only character to verbally credit her for helping kill the King of Hybern.

The male who ran across an entire battlefield just to make sure she was alright. The male who understands that she needs space and gives her such so that she can be comfortable, despite how it pains him to be away. The male who gave up his home and best friend to come and be closer her, to get to know her. The male who saw through her murky state and declared that she needed to go outdoors—which is what ultimately helped her. The male who continues to work as an emissary for the Night Court just to be close to her. The male who is her mate, who was handpicked by a higher power just for her.

Azriel is much better suited for the female who has also experienced the depths of darkness, but chooses to smile at it instead of run and hide. The female who would rather die alongside her friend than to let her face their enemies alone. The female who pushes and pushes and never gives up, despite the circumstances. The female who sees his shadows as more than an accessory and smiles at them. The female who also lost a piece of innocence unwillingly and viewed herself as tainted and unworthy, but is making strides in improving her image of herself internally. The female who has seen him in his own darkness—the one he hides from others—and instead chooses to be around him.

The female who understands that he would rather be alone, but stays because he wants her to. The female who experiences similar responses to late-night stressors and chooses to train. The female that he feels an indescribable pull towards, and one that brings a smile to his face at just the thought of her. The female that chose bravery over fear when her friends needed her most of all. The female who thrives on knowledge and enjoys learning new things. The first female Valkyrie reborn, the first female Carynthian, a warrior. The female who has been foreshadowed to be his mate, handpicked just for him.

The list can go on and on for either of them, but long story short—I much prefer Elain and Azriel to end up with the male and female who is portrayed as their equal.

[valkyriesno1fan]

Fanon: Azriel and Elain just get each other like no one else

Canon: Elain saying she’s not a child to be fought over and Azriel wanting to do a blood duel

Also Canon: Elain saying she doesn’t belong to anyone and Azriel whining about why the third wasn’t given to him

But sure. They get each other so well😍😍

[azrielsfavoriteshadow]

[gwynniethenymph]

I do see the interactions between E/riel. Every Gwynriel / Elucien does.

I know they have the hots for each other. I know Azriel gave Elain Truth-Teller. I know he saved her when she was kidnapped.

I can recognize that and still say it doesn't bother me at all because, in every single one of these interactions, at least one of them was in love with someone else. Or for every single one of these interactions, there was opposite foreshadowing.

The fact that E/riels completely deny the existence of Elucien and Gwynriel foreshadowing and similarities or "suspicious" interactions tells me a lot.

[darkest-fantasy]

The Elucien fan artists are eating it up and it’s only been day one

I’m so excited to see what else you guys have coming for us!

[1800naveen]

Even if Gwyn was a light singer, why would that be a bad thing?

That's cool and it would be like yin and Yang with her and Azriel.

OMG, THEY COULD BE CLOAK AND DAGGER!!!

YEAH, NOW I WANT IT TO BE LIGHT SINGER GWYN TO BE TRUE!!

[frainstryan]

oaky… so have i accidentally written my first ever acotar one shot that just so happens to be elucien perfectly in time for the theme masks… yes yes i have! 🤣🤣

[greenleaf777]

Azriel thinks and does this when speaking with Clotho and you’re gonna call him a toxic incel?

GET FUCKED

Az is the most kind, caring, loving and respectful member of the inner circle(besides elain)

[the-darkestminds]

See? Even Feyre wants Elain to give Lucien a chance.

[oristian]

Imagine thinking that an almost first kiss in a bonus chapter—told from the male’s perspective, followed by him expressing that he has no plans with her outside of sexual attraction—means that that couple will be endgame.

Juxtapose that with a male running—bloodied and exhausted after traveling for weeks and coming back with an entire army—across a battlefield just to make sure his mate was safe after a violent war.

Couldn’t be me, but y’all stay safe though.

[mycadences]

When Elain was about to be thrown into the Cauldron (so this was before she even entered the "oh so evil and corrupt" Cauldron that "definitely twisted and created fake mating bonds!"), notice who was the one who had a visceral reaction:

Also notice how I didn't include Azriel's reaction? Yeah. Because he had none. Azriel had no reaction to Elain's greatest trauma -- her transformation into a High Fae. I can't even find any quotes during that scene, and if you don't believe me, grab your copy of ACOMAF and verify it for yourself. This is why they are definitely NOT mates. Meanwhile, Lucien tried to help Elain although it was their first meeting, so how it possibly be that their mating bond is fake and created by the Cauldron when he felt the bond even before she went in?

In fact, during ACOMAF, Azriel was heavily implied to be shipped with Mor:

But Mor, as we all know, was likely retconned and revealed to be bisexual in ACOWAR (with a greater inclination toward females), putting an end to their ship.

Meanwhile, contrast Azriel's reaction toward Elain's violation to how Cassian reacted when Nesta was going through the same thing:

Cassian's wings were shredded. He was in a sea of agony. And yet when Nesta was being thrown into the Cauldron, he was fighting to stay conscious at her screams. Because Nesta is his mate.

The same way that Eluciens are undeniably, irrefutably mates, evil Cauldron be damned.

Alternatively, you can also contrast to this scene:

Azriel is the Night Court's Spymaster. Yet he didn't leave a single one of the Hybern soldiers alive for questioning? He killed them all immediately, suggesting that he was in a fit of blind, uncontrollable rage.

Which one screams mate behavior to you?

Edit to add: I finally found it! The evidence that Azriel knew to keep at least two enemies alive for questioning, so it was obvious he was incapable of thinking clearly when he killed every single one of the Hybern soldiers who hurt Gwyn.

In this scene (in ACOSF), Cassian and Azriel were attacked by Autumn Court soldiers, and if Cassian knew the reasoning behind keeping two soldiers alive, obviously Azriel (the actual Spymaster) would, too.

"But -- Elain was wearing a cobalt blue dress when she met Azriel!"

Yeah, so? Nesta was wearing an amethyst dress when she met Cassian...

... and she ended up with Cassian, didn't she? If cobalt is Azriel's color then crimson is Cassian's (these are the colors corresponding to their siphons btw), and if SJM intended the scene to be a parallel, wouldn't she have Nesta in a crimson dress?

Also tons of people wore cobalt outfits. Feyre, Eris, Helion, even Vassa in ACOSF. I guess we should start shipping Vassa and Azriel! Azris shippers should celebrate, since by Elriels' logic your ship is confirmed!

And if you really want to compare outfits, I think it's significant that both Azriel and Lucien draped their coats over Gwyn and Elain respectively in light of their traumatic experiences. This is how you do a proper parallel.

Even SJM herself alluded to being an Elucien shipper:

Yes, this was from her actual Pinterest account before she took it down. If you search online for it, you'll find other people talking about it and that this is true, it's not just some random fake account lol.

Elriels claim that Gwyn is the red herring in their ship. I propose the opposite -- Elain is the red herring in Gwynriel's ship, like how Azriel is the red herring in Elucien's ship. Because think about it, if Elriel were really meant to be, why would SJM need to introduce Gwyn as a potential love interest for Azriel? She already had one red herring in Lucien, did she really need a second one? No, she didn't. So why? Why does all the evidence, new and old, point toward Gwynriel and Elucien and not Elriel?

Because there was never Elriel. Elriel were never mates, nor would they ever be. There was only ever Elucien (which came first) and Moriel (but Mor was retconned into being bisexual), which eventually gave rise to Gwynriel and highly likely Emorie (Mor x Emerie).

[azrielsfavoriteshadow]

Antis making fun of Lucien for “being homeless,” but this man has been able to create a home with whomever and wherever he has had to.

Sounds a bit like his mate, but maybe that’s just me.

[gwynniethenymph]

Sarah is just taking this long to write the damn book because she can't decide if it's Gwynriel or Elucien 🙏

[zenkindoflove]

Fandom Shipping Terminology 101: ACOTAR edition

Hi! So I decided to put a little resource together for the ACOTAR fandom. Since many people join the SJM/ACOTAR fandom and have never been in fandom before, they encounter a lot of fandom terminology that they are not quite sure what it means or have seen others use it incorrectly so they get a false impression of the meaning of the word. So I put this together, including examples from the fandom, so that people can use it as a reference to learn more about what these terms mean and when they're appropriate to use. This list is focused on words related to shipping.

Tldr definitions (note: these are definitions that I wrote based on my own experiences/research on fanlore. These are always up for interpretation and meaning and nuance change over time and depend on fandom context)

Canon ship - a relationship where the characters have romantic interactions in canon

Fanon ship - a relationship where in canon the characters are platonic but the fandom has accepted as a ship with romantic undertones, canonical potential, or has become so popular within a fandom it's has surpassed the need/desire for canon

Crackship - a pairing of two characters where the idea of them together is strange or funny depending on the circumstances. Often in these ships, the characters have little or even no interactions in canon

Rare pair - agnostic to fanon or canon status. A rare pair simply means the fandom does not make a lot of fan content for it.

End-game - This is a canon ship that is together by the end of a series.

Slash ship - Fanon ships that feature queer relationships. M/M usually takes on the term slash and F/F has the term femslash.

OTP - Stands for One True Pair. This is a ship that a shipper considers to be the most important one that they love in a fandom.

NOTP - anti-OTP, or a ship that a shipper detests/is squicked out by

Multishipping - the act of shipping a character with multiple other characters.

For more context and thorough examples read more under the cut 

First, what the heck is a ship?

The origins of shipping and becoming obsessed with fictional relationships predate our modern understanding of fandom. Modern fandom roots can be traced as early as Star Trek: The Original Series. But the terminology of calling a couple you like a ship or the act of obsessing over fictional (and sometimes non fictional) couples "shipping" has its origins in the X-Files fandom. While ACOTAR is a romance, many fandoms do not have romance as a central element of its plot, and yet, shippers find a way. That's exactly what happened for the fans of Mulder/Scully. Those who wanted them to be in a romantic relationship were called "relationshippers" which then got shortened to "shippers". The verb "to ship" would appear later from this origin.

The way to think about "what is a ship" though is really based on do people think up romantic scenarios with these two characters? If yes, then you have a ship. And in ACOTAR, oh baby, are there MANY, MANY SHIPS.

Canon vs. Fanon ships

Where does a canon ship end and a fanon one begin? Now that, my friends, is not as clear cut as you might think.

I think this discussion is very important for the ACOTAR fandom because of the state of the ship war currently. Often, there is back and forth about which ship is canon or fanon (and *eye twitch* people throwing around crackship as a derogatory term to de-legitimize a ship which makes me wanna punch shit).

I'm gonna burst everyone's bubbles and say, I personally think Elriel, Elucien, and Gwynriel are all CANON ships.

Why? Well, that's the part that is up for interpretations my friends. What is deemed canonical romantic interactions? That is where a lot of lines can become blurry and if you have ever shipped a fanon ship before - you KNOW what I mean by that. Is it a charged glance? A caress of a hand that lingered too long? Is it a shared kiss? Or do the characters have to explicitly declare "I'm yours and you're mine"?

I've shipped a lot of kinds of ships. Canon. Fanon. Canon that had its end-game blown up. You name it, I've shipped it. And to me, a canon ship is anytime the writer of the canon is putting characters in a romantic situation, regardless if they end up together or not by the end of the series. If they wanted you to feel butterflies and think "could they?", and you felt butterflies, well my friends, you're responding to canon romance. And we've seen evidence of all three ships having those moments.

But, what does that mean for fanon ships? I have shipped a fanon couple where I got butterflies from their canonical scenes together. I've read into their moments and thought "wow, that was romantically charged". I think this is where the lines of canon and fanon are blurred. Because what this comes down to is, did the author intend this? Or am I seeing more into an interaction because I like it? Most fanon ships do hinge a lot of their interest in said ship because of what happens in canon. But, often times, the authors of said content are not necessarily wanting you to take away from their writing that these two characters are interested in each other romantically. You just can't help it. You see it. You see the potential, and you want it to go there so you see more of it the more you look.

Sometimes fanon ships are very clear that the canon is not even hinting at these two characters together romantically. And that is perfectly fine. To me, a fanon ship is a ship that has become so ingrained in the fandom community that the fandom thinks of these two together romantically. That it doesn't really matter anymore what the canon says or doesn't. The fandom has created this relationship and it lives and breathes within what the fandom builds for it. Azris is a perfect example of a fanon ship in ACOTAR. The canon interactions between Azriel and Eris are sparse and platonic in nature, yet the fandom itself has created a whole fanon around them with a large enough community that as soon as you enter the ACOTAR fandom, you immediately know this ship exists.

Rare pairs and Crackships

These two terms are often used interchangeably as if they are synonyms. Now, a rare pair can be a crackship but not all rare ships are crackships and vice versa.

Generally, a rare pair is devoid of canon or fanon connotations. A rare pair is a ship that receives little attention from fans and has few associated fanworks. So, a rare pair could be a fanon couple that few people think about romantically. For example, Emerie and Gwyn have a lot of interactions in canon. I would not think shipping them together to be a crackship because I mean, they're friends, they like each other, they read smut together. There are a lot of scenarios one could imagine them falling in love. But they have a whopping 12 fanfics under their tag in AO3. Therefore, they are a rare pair but not necessarily a crackship.

A rare pair can also be a canon ship. For example, Thesan and his unnamed lover are canon. However, when you look up their relationship tag on AO3, there are 23 works and most do not appear to be focused on them.

I also have seen people use rare pair for very popular ships (like Azris) when they mean fanon. Again, rare pair is really an indication of "how much fan content can you find for this" not necessarily are they canon.

Crackships really were birthed from the intention of putting two characters together "4 da lulz" to bring back early 2000s internet lingo. Crack shipping is usually a pairing that the idea of them together is a little absurd but also fun. Beron/Tamlin is a quintessential crackship example, especially why it came to be (but we will avoid getting into all the origins of that). There is no real reason to think Beron or Tamlin would ever have a romantic interaction and thinking about it makes you laugh. Crackships can sometimes turn into fanon ships. This is another example where the lines do get blurry. But really, crackshipping is about intention and the use of absurdism within fan creation.

I also want to say, often what I see in the Elucien v. Elriel and Elriel v. Gwynriel ships wars is the use of crackship in a derogatory way, and thinking that if one of these ships does not become end-game, therefore, it proves the other was a crackship. Simply put - no. That's not how it works.

End-game

Related to the above point, I think often where the ACOTAR ship wars really derail themselves, is conflating fanon/canon/endgame with each other. I don't see people often using the term end-game, when really, it would help so much with the judgmental and strange ship policing that this fandom loves to do. Specifically, this fandom has a hard time talking about the value within shipping fanon, or shipping the blurriness between fanon and canon for any characters that do not have end-game potential. ACOTAR is not a complete series. Therefore, in a strict definition, no couples are end-game. However, given the genre, there are several couples who are clearly going to be end-game. And really, what I think the ship war community needs in their discourse, is to start using the term end-game when they want to discuss the outcome of Elucien, Elriel, or Gwynriel having a canonical Happily Ever After. The reason being is that you can use end-game, and not insult another ship. End-game is simply a fact. There is no hierarchy involved in what ship is best or not. Because ships can be beloved whether they're canon or fanon or canon who did not end up together. And they all can have very valid reasons why people ship them despite not achieving end-game.

I also urge the ACOTAR fandom to realize that end-game is not the end of YOUR experience of your ship. Your ship lives on despite what the canon may or may not give you. Even if you ship a canon ship that does not achieve end-game, you can create those fanon end-games for yourself. Many popular ships end up being popular because of the effect of that ship not achieving end-game. And while I am using the prime-ship war as examples within this post, I've seen other microshipwars popping up within the fandom as well. So, I'm not trying to pick on this specific set of conflicts, it's just the one I see most prominently.

OTP vs NOTP

I think the ACOTAR fandom could also really benefit from adopting this terminology.

The point of declaring OTPs and NOTPs is a way for you to signal to others in your fandom, "This is how much I care about this ship. Whether I love it it or hate it. Tread carefully". These terms are not meant to say one ship is better than the other from a moral standpoint. Instead, it's to indicate to others that you have a strong preference. You're going to love your OTPs regardless of what arguments others throw at you to convince you to not love them. You will probably be very annoyed by your NOTPs regardless of what others try to do to convince you that they're actually cute/sexy/hot/perfect for each other. And what the ACOTAR fandom could benefit from, from readopting OTP/NOTP language, is having a common understanding where different shipping communities boundaries are and how they can better utilize those boundaries to prevent constant fighting. Now, ship wars are inevitable because of how people see their OTPs and NOTPs, but general rule of thumb is - don't engage with your NOTP's content for your own mental sanity.

Multishipping

Multishipping can be used in many ways. Some people use it to say, hey I'm in this fandom, and I ship a lot of couples. But the origins of multishipping as a term, comes from ship war discourse in other fandoms. Multishippers generally are people who ship one character with multiple other characters. For example, if you ship Elain/Lucien, Elain/Azriel, Elain/Gwyn, Elain/Tamlin, etc etc etc, you are a multishipper. I generally would not consider someone a multishipper if all of their ships do not cross streams. It just sort of means that you ship a lot of couples. Which tends to be normal for romance series with a lot of couples. Maybe not a single of those couples is your true OTP, and that's what you mean by saying you're a multishipper. And that's okay. I think though that multishipping generally in other fan spaces is a marker of you telling others that you don't draw harsh lines with who you see characters with. I often see multishippers not declaring NOTPs. It's kind of a state of how you go about shipping often. I, for one, identify as an OTP shipper. I've never really multishipped. But I also have a very strict standard of what I call my "ships". Anyways, this is to say, this term has a lot of uses. And sometimes it can be confusing which of these uses a person means when they say it.

Slash shipping 

I've seen over the years that slash as a terminology has fallen out of favor. In the past, slash shipping was the pinnacle of shipping in fandoms. The term slash comes from the first modern fanon ship, Kirk/Spock, where the / between their names, which we now all know and use to indicate a romantic pairing (note: & is used to indicate a platonic interaction between characters), exists because the Kirk/Spock shipping community really were the originators of shipping communities creating fan content and sharing it in with each other in a massive way. In general slash (and femslash) is an important modifier of shipping because it explicitly tells you that this is a queer ship which often were not mainstream and considered canon until more recently. With the rise of canonical queer ships, I think the subversiveness of shipping queer couples has lost it's edge, therefore slash is not needed as much anymore to directly state the nature of your ship.

I wanted to keep this in the post though, because I think it's incredibly important history for ALL ACOTAR fans to understand. Shipping queer couples, and especially shipping FANON queer couples, has always been the backbone of fandom. Kirk/Spock walked so Destiel could fly. These are all queer ships that have strong fanon roots (and that fanon has had impacts on their canon) and have shaped fandom and your concept of shipping and romance tropes in inextricable ways. You don't have / without Kirk/Spock. You don't have Omegaverse, without gay shipping within the Supernatural fandom. And I wanted to make this point because this fandom has a strong het (heterosexual) ship bias. Which is okay. It's a romance series with a lot of heterosexual canon couples. But, I think because of that, many people are not entering this fandom with an understanding that people shipping queer fanon couples have been the ones who were the originators of many fandom terms that we have come to know and use today.

Conclusion:

I hope you all found this informative and that you can take away something from this post that can help you have better interactions and ability to communicate with others in this fandom. Again, I want to stress, that this is heavily influenced by my own 25 years of experience being in fandoms. And I haven't seen it all. Others will have different interpretations of these terms and experiences using these terms. So, feel free to add on anything that you think would be helpful to those in the ACOTAR community to better understand how to "ship and let ship". I do think that ship war are inevitable and not necessarily a bad thing. But using the right terms can help you engage in a more respectful way within ship war discourse.

[nymphpriestessvalkyrie]

One of the best things about being a Gwynriel and Elucien shipper is that I don’t have to hate, diminish, insult, or make evil *any* of SJM’s characters.

I get to think of all of them as hot as fuck, tragic in all the best ways, inspiring and interesting, and totally deserving of a great story and a happy ending.

I don’t have to trash a single one of them *or* their fans to make my ship look superior.

Isn’t it nice when you actually like the characters the author you like created? When your enjoyment of the books doesn’t depend on forgetting or skipping or burning all the parts those characters are in?

💖🌻💖🌻💖🌻

[frainstryan]

Elucien week:

@elucienweekofficial

MASKS:

Summary:

Elain finally gets to go on a mission for the Inner Circle... to a masquerade ball?

She runs (literally runs) into the somewhat familiar face of her estranged mate but he doesn't recognise her until he does....

Snippet:

She kept following her feet until she hit something, as she looked up, she realised it wasn’t something but someone. Someone she definitely didn’t need to see.

Lucien gently braced her with two hands on each side of her upper arms lifting her slightly out of his way, “Sorry about that.”

He hadn’t realised who she was, a small part of her she had buried way deep in her chest was offended and banged at her ribcage insisting he realise. But even if she wanted to alert him to who she was, she couldn’t get a word to squeak out of her mouth.

He swiftly nodded to her with a frustratingly charming smile, but he stood still next to her, his large arms crossed against his chest watching as people began to pair up to dance. The way his arms were pressed against his chest alerted her to his dress. It was the typical Summer Court, long, adorning shawls of white but against his tanned, dark skin he looked almost golden. Elain couldn’t help but stare. His red hair wasn’t braided as she had seen it be before but flowing, like the material he wore, down across his shoulders. She preferred it like that, she could imagine plaiting tiny braids in his long hair and weaving daisies through them. She quickly closed that line of thinking but stayed staring as his metallic eye clicked over each person dancing.

“Did you want to dance?” Elain asks, she hadn’t meant it to be a proposition but the moment the words escaped her lips she knew how it sounded. And now she also knew that Lucien would accept to dance with her, thinking she was just any other female, and as she took his hand, he would realise that it was her and it would just make everything ten times more awkward.