#acotar pre-canon

[fourteentrout]

Tamlin with a tail, anyone? Click for quality

Dialogue ID:

T: “Wow, they really are so much smaller!”

R: “I’m aware, Tam”

T: “They’re cute. You should tuck your hair back more often”

T: “I’m sure females would love it”

R: “I’m not so sure about that, Tam”

[clockwork-ashes]

Chapters: 1/16 Fandom: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Eris Vanserra & Lucien Vanserra, Lady of the Autumn Court & Eris Vanserra, Beron Vanserra & Eris Vanserra, Eris Vanserra/Original Character(s) Characters: Eris Vanserra, Lucien Vanserra, Lady of the Autumn Court (A Court of Thorns and Roses), Beron Vanserra, Vanserra Brothers (A Court of Thorns and Roses) Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, The Autumn Court (A Court of Thorns and Roses), Originally Posted on Tumblr, this was posted over three years ago there and i finally have an ao3, my thoughts on the characters have changed quite a bit but i figured why not put this here too, anyway i love the autumn court and i wish we knew more about the vanserra family, wrote this right after reading acosf, and have still not stopped thinking about these books Summary:

Eris Vanserra is heir to the High Lord of the Autumn Court, but he often wishes differently.

A series of events in Eris’ POV starting when Lucien is born.

[lzrsaugust]

soooo, i felt like mseeing with water color today and this is the first sketch :D

and erm, so uhm, this is how it ended ╭( ๐_๐)╮

uhh idk man i think something went wrong ahaha, so more abt this piece(the sketch, the only reason i kept the water color was for the animals and the hair more abt that later) I was thinking of maybe Tamlin waking from a pretty bad nightmare pre acotar maybe 100-200 years old like his father just died and he just bacame high lord i personally think Lucien is 300 ish so hes not around yet, 100-200 fresh from his father's death, previous spring lord being canoncally (srry dont feel like spelling rn) worse than beron, i imagine his and his brothers having a somewhat zoldyck family situation. anyways back to the scene, something seomthing nightmare, seomthing something no one there to help, somethig seomthing Tamlin doesn't want to bother his only friend (Andras) and its maybe dawn-ish, super tired, barely anysleep for days from sorting out the absolute trainwreck of a court that is currently srping, and just then there in the absolute chaos of orverwhelming emotions, trauma and ridiculous amount of work, there is just a little pocket of peace and tranquility where he things oh, maybe things won't be this bad in the future, yada yada,

in the sketch the hair was smoother as there wasn't too much thought when i was doing it and the second one i thought of the scene and i wanted it to be messier cuz he just woke up from some nightmare. yada yada, can't remember what i wanted to put here, so uhm if you can actually draw and feel like it please please please try this i really wanted to capture, this dam feeling, but cant really like hes super tired physically and emotionally but there is like this tiny glimmer of hope and i can't freaking describe it but yeah if ya want to i really wanna see it visually 🥹 (did that word vomit make sense? i hope i didn't scare anyone aways :))

and finally the animals! they are his children, he birthed them your honour.

In all seriousness he could totally do it, but nah i like to think he found/saved them when he was young or something like that. they are some kind of fae animal i geuss, like not completly mindless but they don't really form cohesive thoughts much, like intelligent has magic and the fae don't eat them. Uhh I think the cat looking one in the sketch would be some kind of rose tailed lynx somewhere on the third or fourth trophic level in the fae ecosystem, is an carnivore, the flower on the tail is a result of their magic, they could use a bit of air and plant magic for hunting, their young only has a bud on the tail maturity depends on individuals in the species, when they do a new petal grows every decade. They are usually live alone and thus has a reclusive tendency, and they come and go as they please, occasionally they stick around for awhile if they like you. The bunny looking one has some kind of bug wing like ears and could fly, ears get bigger with each century, they live in colonies and could grow their own food in the wild, in captivity they are the companions of the agriculture inclined “lesser” fae, they help tend the ground and plants and stuff they arnt considered “lesser” fae. In the wild they that’s smaller colonies and are also know. As bush bunny because in addition to their wing like ears their fur often resemble leaves and their tails have small flowers that are different depending on colony and bloodline. A defence mechanism would be to gather up and pile on each other to camouflage as a bush of flowers. In the watercolour one, the one on his shoulder is some sort of a mix of a cat and a rabbit or I suppose the two previous fae animals? Long furry ears, but this time it the tail that elongates as they age, the fur along with the flower tip tail changes along with the animal’s mood and when they form a bond they will use it to express whatever, like in the scene I wanted it to be a purple hyacinth and hydrangea mix ish to show compassion for Tamlin’s situation. They are usually protectors of the miniature flower spirit “lesser” fae, they look cute and stuff but like the long ears when tense and stretched become sharp and wolf like ish, and tail grows thorns. Usually they are pretty shy but are super friendly when you gain their trust. The last one(birb) is a owl and deer ish mix, their feathers darken with age, are usually very calm but could be very playful. They live in large parliaments and they migrate from each seasonal court to avoid their more unfriendly phases (hurricane season in summer and spring. Blizzard in winter, rainstorms in spring and autumn ect), they form strong bonds though rarely with other species, they are protective of their young and Tamlin was taken under this one’s wing when he was ten.

wow you actually made it this far, despite how incoherent it was, thank you!! I have more ideas but my brain capacity has reached its end. As always hope you enjoyed and have a great day/night! :D

[ofduskanddreams]

The Sky Has No Walls

For @damedechance. The request: you know I LOVE "is the sky on fire?" So my prompt would be: a lil drabble about the first time Az trained/worked with daggers and what that was like for him. Alternatively, Az learning how to fly from Rhys/Cass.

This fic can stand alone, but will probably make more sense if you read Is The Sky On Fire? first.

The Bat Boys (platonic) ✦ Rated: T ✦ 918 words ✦ on AO3

Azriel knows they mean well. The shadows assure him that they have no ill intentions. The comments from Rhys and Cassian as he stands on the edge of the tall rock, however, are seldom helpful. 

The air is crisp and piney. A steady wind blows through the trees, rustling their needles. He’ll never get tired of the smell, of the fresh air filling every corner of his lungs, of looking at the open sky stretching endlessly above instead of dark rock.

Azriel shakes his head, sending droplets of lake water flying as he looks down at the moonlit water. Rhys and Cassian are sitting on the smooth top of the rock behind him, waiting.

It’s frustration—that’s what the shadows called this particular heat-in-his-chest sensation when he’d asked. 

“You can do it, Az,” Rhys encourages.

Azriel wants to tell the insufferable little lordling (a funny nickname for Rhys that he’s heard their peers use often) that he doesn’t think he can. He wants to give up, to go back to the house and the warmth of the bed that Aella insists he will get used to.

But then Azriel recalls the faces people make at him when he walks through the camp. Some see the shadows and fear him, sometimes that fear is mixed with another feeling the shadows called “pity,” but the expressions that stay with him into the late hours of the night are the sneers (another word the shadows taught him.) It’s those people who call him a no-sky when Rhys, Cassian, and Aella are out of earshot.

He doesn’t want to be a no-sky anymore.

The first time it happened and Rhysand did hear, his Fae magic had lashed out and shoved the person into the mud. Rhys had gotten in trouble for that, so Azriel pretends that the name-calling has stopped. He is already confused about why the two boys want to spend time with him, grateful as he is for their help with strengthening his wings. Azriel can also admit that it’s kind of nice to not be alone, even if it has been an adjustment as Aella calls it.

“Your wings are strong enough now,” Cassian adds from his place beside Rhys. “You just need to trust them.”

He says that like fighting the pull of the ground is easy.

“It’s hard,” he tells them, turning away from the water and sitting cross legged before them. “Flying is too different.”

“What do you mean ‘different?’” Cassian cocks his head, then has to brush his hair away from his eyes. “You’re Illyrian, we’re all born to fly.”

Azriel doesn’t know what to say, exactly, but he wants to make them understand. That way, they won’t be so disappointed in him. “The sky… it’s so big. It doesn’t end.”

His shadows settle around his shoulders, offering him the comfort of their slight weight as he thinks through his next words. 

“I was born with wings, but I lived underground until I was brought here. My room was small and it was mostly dark, but I always knew where the walls and the floor were, even if I couldn’t see them.” Azriel takes a deep breath, keeping his gaze fixed on the gray rock instead of their faces. 

He doesn’t want to see their disgust, he’s seen it once before and it hurts. That’s why he doesn’t like to talk about before with them. He knows his life was wrong and that they don’t like it.

“The sky has no walls. And that is… strange,” he finishes awkwardly, hating how sometimes his words don’t match what he wants them to say.

Azriel doesn’t realize he’s fiddling with his glove-covered hands until Cassian’s finger hooks around one of his and he goes still, looking up at the younger boy. 

“It’s okay to be afraid,” he says. 

Rhys copies Cassian, hooking a finger with one of Azriel’s on the opposite hand. “The sky is very large, but that’s what I like about it. I can go anywhere. When I’m flying, I am free.”

Azriel looks up at Rhys, confused. “Aren’t you already free?”

“I am,” Rhys answers. “But flying is a different kind of free.”

Azriel didn’t know there were multiple kinds.

“Flying,” Cassian begins, “it’s like a different world. Everything on the ground becomes so small, it’s like it doesn’t matter anymore. And it’s fun.”

“That sounds nice,” Azriel says. Because things that happened on the ground not mattering anymore sounds like everything he wants. But he’s also still afraid. “The ground is all I know. You say I need to trust my wings, trust the wind….” Azriel tugs his hands away, tucking them under his thighs and admits, “I am not good at trust. I do not know the sky like you do; I don’t know how to trust it.”

“Do you trust us?” Rhys asks quietly.

Azriel looks up at them. “I think so.” And that surprises him but he thinks he doesn’t mind.

He knows he likes the way his words make Cassian and Rhys smile—it makes him feel warm. 

“It’s okay if you don’t want to keep trying tonight,” Rhys says with a nod. “The sky isn’t going anywhere.”

“Neither are we,” Cassian adds. “I’m excited to fly with you—when you’re ready.”

Azriel stands, brushing his hands on his trousers. They’re still soaked from his last attempt, but the way Rhys and Cassian are looking at him fills Azriel with a new determination. 

“I’ll try once more before we go.”

✦ ✦ ✦

tagging: @iftheshoef1tz @octobers-veryown @talons-and-teeth @ablogofsapphicpanic @foundress0fnothing @moonpatroclus @panicatthenightcourt @krem-does-stuff @areyoudreaminof @fieldofdaisiies

[flowerflamestars]

Me, thinking about repairs, packing to move, packing to go out of town TOMORROW, making three hundred lists to keep straight the details of two stressful family Christmases, bolting awake at three am: ELUCIEN MURDER HONEYMOON

[ircnwrought]

i'm caving. i'll add their tags/info this weekend sometime

++feyre ++rhys

[lovemyromance]

Bro the thing is - I'm not even anti-Elucien.

If SJM were to do a full 180 and suddenly ACOTAR 5 is all about how Lucien comes to Velaris and actually spends time with Elain and Elain starts to slowly fall for him and they have whatever XYZ cute moments - I'd be down!

I'd read that book. I have no shame in admitting it. Smash.

If SJM were to suddenly write Elucien giving each other the time of day and finding whatever "healing" in each other - cool- that's fine - smash.

But what we have been shown of their relationship thus far in the books - I legitimately cannot ship that. There is nothing for me to root for?

"But they're fated mates"

Yeah that means jack shit to me because I'm a human woman. Why would I put value in a fictional concept over love - a very real and human concept.

Elain & Lucien - as they have been written right now - literally do not have a relationship?? Let alone a romantic one I want to root for. They ignore each other. Live apart from each other all year - seemingly without issue. Elain doesnt even want to be in the same room as him. She shrinks away from him. She has a wary look in her eyes when she looks at him. She makes sure she never sits next to to him. She doesn't use any of his gifts.

So just tell me - what am I rooting for? What about their current relationship is supposed to be worth my interest? Why would I want them together if they're like THAT? That's not a romance - that's not even acquaintances. That's a pass from me.

On top of all that, we have the introduction of a male Elain actually seems to want. They have had build up - far more than Elucien has. Azriel is constantly written on the page with Elain and vice versa. Whether it's when his shadows light up at her smile or when Elain's potato steam rises like Azriel's shadows. Like why did SJM even write that about potatoes? Nobody has EVER looked at the steam from potatoes and thought "wow it looks like shadows 🤩"

They've been explicitly tied together on page countless times, far more than Elucien has even though they're "fated mates".

Not tied together through fan-theories of cloaks and sunlight and flowers and ugly black dresses.

Canonically, Elain & Azriel's is the only romantic relationship on the page.

So everything Eluciens are rooting for - is just the hope that "one day" Elain will get over it and suddenly she and Lucien will be together. Suddenly, Lucien & Elain will have feelings for each other and be in love blah blah.

Y'ALL ARE TRYING TO FIND EVIDENCE FOR A SHIIP THAT IS NONEXISTENT ON THE PAGE.

That's what bothers me. Elucien is currently not together, not interested in each other, not even around each other in any proximity.

All this debate is about current state Elriel vs pre-successful Elucien??

It's giving ... that one Jason Mendoza line in the Good Place where he says "I'm not a failed DJ... I'm pre-successful."

"It's not a dead ship - it's pre-successful!"

It's like.. let's ignore what is actually written in the text ... so we can argue about how they're not gonna work out bc XYZ reason... even though the other pairing isn't even talking to each other right now.

"All this is buildup for Elucien" how are y'all saying that if we don't have the next book yet? 😭😭 Can I then say... well your buildup is just buildup for Ultimate Elriel Engame?? Uno +4? Reverse reverse? Where does it end?

Build up - as the name implies - has to BUILD UP TO SOMETHING. How y'all saying "Elain and Lucien ignoring each other is buildup for Elucien" if there is no Elucien in sight??

I'm telling you rn - once there is an Elucien in sight - on the page - smash, idc.

But until then - I have literally no reason to doubt Elriel? So why would I consider Elucien an endgame ship if there is no endgame in sight for them on the page?

[bxriles]

A while ago I announced that I would be writing a fic about an uprising in the Court of Nightmares. Here’s the summary I gave:

There's a set of siblings in the Hewn City, dreamers who have been abandoned by their High Lord. One of the sisters enters into a political marriage with Rhysand (pre-ACOTAR) and mysteriously ends up dead after discovering that he's found his mate. After the people learn of her death, a rebellion led by the two remaining siblings ensues in the Court of Nightmares and goes all the way up to Illyria.

WELL I am happy to announce that the first chapter will be posted on Sunday, June 16th! I’m planning to post it on my ao3 but I could be persuaded to post it on Tumblr as well if people want that.

As a disclaimer, if you’re someone who LOVES Rhysand and the IC, this most definitely is not the fic for you. If that upsets you, please just scroll on and protect your peace. There is a reason why I mostly used anti tags here.

K THANKS! SEE Y’ALL SUNDAY 🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼

PS - I’ve gotten lots of questions in my DMs ever since I initially posted about this, so see below for some FAQs:

Q: Is this an anti-Feyre fic?

A: Nah. While Feyre certainly is an antagonist, she is not the villain. Feyre has her flaws, but she’s not who the characters in this story have beef with. That would be Rhys. That said, the Hewn City characters do not like/respect her because of what she represents to them.

Q: Will there be romance/who is the love interest?

A: Yes! I can’t help myself and I loooove to include romance when I can! Eris will be the love interest, but the romance will not be the main focus.

Q: Will this be a y/n fic?

A: No. This will be a story with several OCs. I know people tend to dislike OCs, but the reality is that we just don’t know that many canon CoN characters, so I need OCs to tell this story. Plus, I personally love OC stories and I like writing them. I hope that you’ll be willing to give them a chance!

Q: How many chapters will there be?

A: I’m honestly not sure because I keep waffling with the chapter length. I have 15 chapters outlined, but that could grow into 20 or shrink into 12 depending on how my revisions go. Let’s tentatively plan for 15, give or take a few as time goes on.

Q: When will updates be posted?

A: As was the case with all my other fics, I’ll do my very best to update once per week, usually on Sunday. There may be weeks where a chapter is a few days late depending on how hectic my life is, but I will do everything in my power to update every week! I take a lot of pride in being someone who always finishes my fics, and I don’t want to start leaving them incomplete now!

[iocaisaint]

Random ACOTAR takes

cw*: my unsolicited opinions

I agree with #that woman that canon Lucien and Nesta (and I mean pre-ACOSF) would've been terrible for each other sorry

As of right now Nesta is the only Archeron sister with direct connection to the Dusk Court, like her and her alone 🤷🏾‍♀️

Out of the love square (?) Lucien is lowkey the only one with a storyline that isn't made out of paper mache and hope. There's so many angles you could go: Beron, Eris, LOA, The Autumn Court or Spring Court, Tamlin, or Day Court, Helion, being an heir, or helping Vassa with Koschei + his overall friendship with Jurian + Vassa + humans as a whole and that's without touching on the mating bond even once. Real set-up wished she'd done that with everyone else

That being said, I disagree with a bunch of Lucien's stans when it comes to his characters, y'all have a power fantasy for him that's in direct contradiction to how he's actually written (I mean I get it the books treat him like trash)

If Nesta is pregnant I'll have a crash out to end all crash outs.

Everybody in this fandom bar maybe Feysands are shipping fanon, the scenes that y'all talk about and the ones that exist on page are either not the same or straight up don't exist.

I hate the HK/HQ plot even for Nesta, like is blatant colonialism.

Everybody here is a hypocrite when it comes to their faves we'd all be happier admitting then bending over backwards.

I do not care for Elain, simply because fanon Elain is so far removed from what's on page, that most her pro arguments simply don't make sense to me.

There's no reason for Helion to give up his Pegasi but I know HOFAS was a mess but when the place was revitalised after the Asteri were murdered they came back, my guess is that place and the prison are mirror worlds so the same will happen once the Prison is liberated

Azriel isn't boring but he also isn't extremely interesting. If he was a girl no one would gaf about him, but there are enough concepts of an idea where I could see his book not being awful.

Neither the pro or the anti side gives a fuck about Emerie, double points if you're engaging in that ship war. No I won't expand on this, I'm right.

Nessian sucks, that's all.

Actually no I'm expanding on that point, the fact that people defend no "I love you" from the MMC is crazy, that fact that people defend Nesta being threatened without Cass stepping in even worse, the fact that Rhys knows he can berate Nesta in Cassian's presence....like they had an 800+ page book and I'm still having to hear about how they need to "grow as characters" y'all aren't serious people

I've become more neutral-positive to Feyre because some of the arguments against her are just crazy but on that note she'd be deeply more entertaining if the narrative wrote her refusal for self reflection as a flaw

Gwyn cannot be a evil light singer and irrelevant at the same time please pick one.

Also I don't hate the light singer theory, sorry. Monsters not actually being monsters is this series's bread and butter. It'd be great if a woman finally got that treatment

I can already tell Eris is about to be retconned to hell because SJM hates a character not being vindicated by the narrative to redeem them (she already started by implying Eris wants his father dead for #feminism). Let it be known I like/d him as is

I don't get into arguments about Rhys cause I find him boring. Y'all are fighting day in day out about faerie Ronald Reagan

Nesta should've been bi, how tf did we get stuck with Mor

I have more but that's it for now.

[lordofhaterism]

Like for context as to how bad ACOTAR's descriptions are, Pre-Acowar azriel fanart was the wild west. Some of it is just people ignoring descriptions for vibes (all the depictions of az as pale despite being directly described as tan in canon get me) but like most of it was because nothing entirely coherent about him was described other then his colour scheme, so it varies from literal emo hair but toned down to I Can't Believe It's Not Rhys to Severus Snape but with a smaller nose for no good reason to the bowlcut hes usually depicted with today. And notably the bowlcut isnt even that common pre-acowar, its basically mostly Charlie Bowater doing that, with the most common depiction being Rhys but Gother. Then the colouring book happens and its essentially becomes THE canon depiction of these characters, streamlining the entire situation.

[elainsgirl]

This is azriel thinking that Gwyn is charming: "A warrior sizing up an opponent, all traces of that charming irreverence gone." Yet he only thinks of Elain sexually.

Hey anon, I rlly appreciate the fact you took the time to give me a canon quote disproving what I said,

however on that note, I wouldn’t exactly be jumping up & down with glee - Anon, irreverence means to show disrespect to someone/something that is regarded and treated with respect. In this content, Gwyn was charming with Az as she is with everyone but didn’t you get the vibe she didn’t exactly want him there? From her early dismissal to her mundane answer when Az asked about her solstice - she wasn’t exactly giving, “omg Az is here with me! Im so happy!” Vibes. The only thing about Az that held her interest was the shadows and his title *cough* even to the end, Gwyn was focused on cutting the ribbon, not once looking back at Azriel.

Its like when you run into your teacher after school. You put on this fake, “miss im so glad to have ran into you!” attitude, but deep down you want to run the other way from the awkwardness of unexpectedly running into her. Then you both stand around for a good 5 minutes making polite conversation whilst secretly wishing it was over, you talk about school, maybe ask your teacher how she’s doing or ask a vague, general question about something in her personal life she’s shared, “Miss, how’s your dog charlie? You mentioned she was poorly,” in which she responds, “oh, he’s better now darling”. You stare at each other and cue your exist to leave whilst making a mental note not to go to that shop anymore at the time you did to avoid such an awkward interaction from happening again.

Thats the vibe Gwyn gave Az in the bonus. To the last part of your comment, anon, the bonus was one present moment of Azriels life. Its not his entire thought process. It won’t show his full feelings and opinions, only the ones he’s feeling at the moment the bonus takes place. I don’t know how long you’ve been in the fandom for - but before acosf, so pre-2020, the biggest anti elriel arguement was Az doesn’t view elain romantically. He has no attraction towards her and sees her as a platonic sibling. Then the bonus comes along and completely annihilates this arguement. Sjm disproved it & established Elriels relationship as romantic with a side of attraction. These new ACOTAR books are NA therefore anon, the male Li will have explicit thoughts about his LI. Its not a bad thing.

Sjm didn’t need to spend her time convincing us Az cares abour elain, she’s done that multiple times over the course of 4 books. She didn’t need to spend her time telling us why Az likes elain - you can 1) deduce that from the books and bonus 2) this is saved for the main book where the mmc during his grovelling monologue will tell the fmc all the reasons he’s obssesed with her.

Sjm however did need to categorise elriels relationship into it being romantic or platonic and with the way the bonus went, she made it the former. Just like she did with Nessian in their bonus, she categorised their relationship immediately into romance, so when you read Nessian’s scenes, you read them with a romantic tone. The same can now be said for elriel, everything Az did for elain from acofas to acosf, can now officially be read under a romantic tone erasing the idea of elriel being platonic. Sjm successfully ended one of elriels biggest anti arguement.

Idk why Az having explicit thoughts about elain has you clutching your pearls, you do know if gwynriel is endgame, he will have the same thoughts about Gwyn? Ig Lucien most also only want elain superficially since he also had explicit thoughts during his monologue. Have you read wings & ember? Azriel’s bonus is a parallel to it

[fourteentrout]

For the first time since they started training together, tamlin took his shirt off. Rhys didn’t know how to react. Mostly an excuse for me to draw a shirtless hot guy with big pecs. And Rhys’ tats, those are fun to draw. Click for quality.

[pastelpinkkadan]

I’ve been in the ACOTAR fandom for a long time. Like, before ACOSF was even announced long time. So I’ve seen the progression of this fandom and here’s something that’s interesting to me.

People new to the books (or people who have ONLY read ACOSF, which is another topic for another day), may not know that at one point Elriels and El*ciens had a mutual understanding with one another.

Regardless of your ship, everyone basically agreed that Elain’s book would be a love triangle between Elain, Azriel, and Lucien.

Now, how that love triangle would end was where we disagreed. And also if one ship had more promise than the other. But that was FINE. We all still agreed that either ship had enough potential for a love triangle trope to at least HAPPEN.

But that’s all gone out the window. As soon as the whole “Gw*nriel” ship started popping up, I swear so many El*ciens BOOKED it to the Gw*nriels. Suddenly, there was no possibility of a love triangle. Now, Az and Elain would have absolutely nothing to do with each other because Az was all about Gwyn. Like, no love triangle tension or drama. Just, “oh he’s with Gwyn now so Elain will be with Lulu. In fact, there was nothing romantic with Elain and Az in the first place!”

And the biggest difference I’ve seen is the “Elriels are delusional” comments from El*ciens. THAT was not a thing until Gw*nriel came up. THAT is new!

Even though I shipped Elriel, I still respected El*ciens because they also respected Elriels. They understood why we shipped them, and we in turn understood their points as well. It wasn’t perfect, but it was way less toxic and hateful than what we have now.

And yes, I get that there are toxic Elriels too, but soooo much of it is a response to this strange shift. Like, no one refuted canon text or scenes back then. We all read the books, we just disagreed on how things would end. And you know what? I MISS that. Bring it back. 😭

Pre ACOSF El*ciens (love y’all, 😘) > Post ACOSF El*ciens

[maybeiwasjustjade]

The Tragedy that is the Vanserra family

*I just want to preface this by saying that I’m well aware that this might be a controversial opinion. My issue is simply with how that particular pairing was written, because clearly not a lot of thought was put into it when SJM changed canon to fit this pairing in. This was also not written with the intention of victim blaming. Only that this plot genuinely sucks ass because it makes everyone out as uglier than need be.

For such minor characters (sans Lucien, and Eris to an extent), the dynamics SJM has blessed us with paints such an interesting family coated in absolute tragedy. It also doesn’t help that almost all of it was seen through Feyre’s pov—who’s not exactly reliable nor capable of introspection most times.

All we know so far of Beron and his relationship with his children amounts to:

Aside from Helion and Rhysand, Beron’s the only HL that was active during the war 500 years ago.

He abuses his wife, though when it started is still ???

He routinely tortures Eris, and more than likely all his remaining children

He LOATHES Lucien

And it’s so easy to paint Beron as this needlessly cruel, manipulative 2D bastard who only exists to cause pain and carnage over everyone that breathes near him. The male tortures his children and sentenced one of them to death for falling in love with someone ‘lesser’—that alone makes him the worst male to come out of acotar by a landslide.

But there’s an art to Beron’s cruelty that SJM could have fun with. Routinely siccing and manipulating his children against each other, forever ensuring that they’d be too busy fighting and hating each other over him so that they’d be unable to overthrow him. And maybe he does have his reasons. Maybe he thinks that this is the only way possible to raise an heir that would be ruthless and merciless enough to overthrow him and destroy his competitors—probably the same thing Beron did to claim his throne. And if the children are too busy with each other to go after him…all the better.

Show them no compassion. Torture all the disobedience out of them to make them strong. Pit them against each other to please him. Heinous tactics, but evidently it works when Eris and Lucien are the results of it.

But this dynamic only works if that was who Beron is, and how he was raised to be. I don’t suppose we’ll ever really know, not unless a large chunk of Lucien’s future storyline revolves around his roots in Autumn. But knowing sjm and how dirty she did Spring, Lucien’s arc will be about Day.

But back to Beron and the LoA:

Curious how the LoA is still nameless, but SJM purposely and canonically provided a timeline to show how much of a poor victim the LoA is. I want to make it clear that I am not condoning the abuse the LoA is facing from Beron. I don’t think anyone deserves to be abused or tortured the way Berons does his family, nor will anything justify it.

However, I am side-eyeing the way she WROTE Helion and LoA’s affair. I think what she little she wrote yet specifically gave painted them both as absolute fucking morons.

Canonically, we have no idea if Beron knows without doubt that Lucien isn’t his. Hell, we have no proof that he even knew about Helion at all; only that Helion certainly believes so, and what Feyre perceives as the truth. And that truth is ugly.

My opinion is that for the story to work, Beron can’t have known about Helion specifically. An affair perhaps, but not specifically who. Why? Because I wouldn’t doubt Beron would have killed Helion for it the moment he found out. Helion wasn’t High Lord until <50 years pre-Acotar. If Beron wanted Helion dead for having an affair with his wife, I doubt even the previous HL would have stopped Beron from lobbing of Helion’s head. Now assuming Beron knew about the affair specifically, but not about Lucien, I can see canon coming to fruition.

The only issue is Lucien’s features. He needs to look very, very similar to the LoA and not at all Helion. If Beron knew it was Helion, he’d be paying double attention on Lucien’s features to see who sired him. But say he doesn’t care who did it, only that it did. Lucien was screwed from the getgo as a possible affair baby. But that’s hardly the biggest issue with how the affair was written.

According to Helion’s recount of his affair, it started during the war when he rescued the LoA. Sure, rumor has it they met before her marriage, but it wasn’t until then that it became an actual affair. And it lasted decades. We don’t know how old Lucien is. Most have guessed that he can’t be older than ~400 at series starts. Following the timeline provided by Helion, there’s about 130 years age gap between Eris and Lucien, and five sons between. The LoA had at least two more kids born before the war started, leaving three sans Lucien to be born after.

See where I’m going with this?

If the affair only ended because Beron found out, preferably before Lucien was born or he’d be dead at birth, then on-off or no, that affair lasted a century. My question is: did Beron begin tormenting his wife before or after he found out about the affair? And was he already torturing his children before he found out, or was that punishment for what their mother did?

If Beron only began abusing and assaulting the LoA after Helion, then there’s a chance he only started hurting his sons around that time too. It also begs the question on whether or not Helion sired more than one Vanserra child. Even if the answer was no, it’s not like Beron would believe the LoA. Not after she cuckolded him. So he hurts her as punishment, doubling that pain by going after all their children too.

Lucien especially, for being mama’s favorite. I doubt Beron ever had to do much to encourage the torment Lucien faced from his brothers. He never had to; she did it to him all on her own by loving him best. And in a household where everything is a competition and love a weakness, Lucien was weakest by being the most loved. Oh, how they must’ve loathed him for it. His birth was the reason their lives became a living hell. A mother that perhaps loved them, but not enough if she outright favored the youngest, knowing his existence was their punishment.

But that’s the kinder story, if you can believe it. A female who was never happy, who found happiness outside her wedded husband, and was punished for it terribly. Her cold husband turned cruel bastard, who punished her for the crime of finding joy outside of him and their children. She didn’t know this was going to be her future.

Yet, the alternative is so much worse.

Because it implies that Beron already was a cruel and abusive bastard, who already hurt his wife and children immensely, and the LoA went and had an affair anyway. I can’t blame her for wanting to escape from Beron. Perhaps she was actually happy with Helion. But she did it knowing that the punishment would be so much worse if Beron found out, and he did.

Helion couldn’t have protected her. Claiming Lucien as his son would’ve been a death sentence to both from Beron’s wrath. And with a century long affair, there was no proof that Lucien was the only one that wasn’t Beron’s child. Not unless most of the Vanserras look like their father more, and we don’t even know that because they have no names or features described. And even then, the LoA was lucky that Lucien’s skin tone and features favored her instead.

I don’t care that a woman cheated on her abusive husband repeatedly. You do you, and all that. I care that the LoA is written as knowing what an absolute monster her husband already was to their living children, and clearly not thinking of what he’d do to them if she’s caught. This is Beron—he could’ve killed all their children as punishment. The man tortures his son bloody—I wouldn’t put it past him to kill them all and start fresh. She put them in so much danger by having Lucien.

I don’t like the way Helion knows what a bastard Beron is, yet not caring when he had a century long affair with a HL’s wife, knowing that she might be killed if found out. And he would be powerless to stop it.

I don’t like how neither of them even considered that she might’ve gotten pregnant from their affair, especially knowing that the LoA already had SIX CHILDREN.

I hate how their affair is going to be spun into some kind of romance of the ages, mates who were forcibly separated by a monster, when in reality it’s more like the love story of two morons who didn’t spare a single braincell to actually think before going back to each other often enough to have a whole ass CHILD.

Jfc, SJM definitely didn’t think through enough when she decided to add this into the story. Too many plot holes, and not enough sense to justify the absolute stupidity of cuckolding a High Lord with someone who couldn’t even protect her if they were caught. She wanted drama but spared no thought to logic, per usual.

[ofduskanddreams]

CH 1: I See The End Before It Started

Rated: E Chapters: 1/? Words: 3960

Summary:

[Five Hundred and Eighteen Years Before ACOTAR]

Rhys tried to pull his magic back but his power desired the opposite. It felt his rage and demanded vengeance. Because this couldn’t happen, this couldn’t have already been decided, it couldn’t—he wouldn’t allow it to go through.

“Rhys.” Azriel’s voice was hoarse, jarring him back to the present. “Rhys, please.”

His feet moved, depositing him on the bed and he drew Azriel tightly to him.

“Everything,” Rhys vowed, face half-buried in Azriel’s neck. “I will do everything I can to stop this, brother. I will not let him have you.”

“Who’s trying to take him?” Cassian snarled, rising.

Az made a noise into Rhys’s shoulder, the sound was only recognizable as a name to him because he’d read it on the letter now crumpled in his fist.

“Az?” Cassian gently implored.

Rhys felt Azriel’s lungs expand, freeze, then contract. He lifted his head. His eyes were glassy, rimmed red. To Cassian he turned and spoke those two damning words: “Eris Vanserra.”

from chapter one—read all of it here on ao3! (be mindful of the tags)

tagging (just guessing here. probs forgot some folks. let me know if you want to be added/removed)

@damedechance @iftheshoef1tz @ablogofbipanic @foundress0fnothing @melonsfantasyworld @lady-riel @krem-does-stuff @octobers-veryown @houseofhurricane @the-lonelybarricade

[highlordofkrypton]

TAG LIST FOR NEEDLE & KING, a prequel focused on Rhysand's Parents & his childhood with Cassian, Azriel and Morrigan.

NEEDLE & KING is my upcoming fanfiction that weaves my own background of pre-colonial filipino culture into ACOTAR's Illyrian lore, along with some other liberties. It is canon divergent, but I'm so proud of the work that's gone into this.

I've currently finished PART 1, approx. 25k words, that focuses on RHYSAND'S MOTHER'S upbringing.

I'll be posting these completed chapters within the week while I keep working on the next part 😊

If you want to be on the tag list for whenever a new chapter comes out, please reply to this post!