#lucien who is purposefully kind not because it's what he's naturally drawn to but because its the person he *wants* to be? i love it

[achaotichuman]

Okay okay okay, so the Vanserra brother's all have a toxic or unhealthy relationship with each other to some extent. It's only natural in the environment they live in, they never learned what a healthy family dynamic looks like, and they have been taught through the means of violence all their lives.

My point is, don't exclude Lucien from this.

The trope where there's one family memeber (aka Lucien) who just happen to be born perfect and was never at all influenced by the violence of his family house hold? Overused, overdone, boring, boooo, DJ play the next track I've heard this one already.

Buuuut, Lucien who is just like the rest of his brothers and purposefully took the time and made the extreme effort to break out of those habits and behaviors and began to heal from them? It adds flavor, it's adds complexity to his character, AND GUESS WHAT IT MAKES IT ANGSTIER.

Lucien as a young adult is at first an aristocratic asshat who is the life of the party, with many friends but really no true friends because he can't let any of them get to close to him. He acts like a typical asshole, and then he meets Jesminda. And no I am not about to say she 'fixed' him, what would have happened, is that he fell in love with her wild spirit, her personality, the way she didn't even bat an eyelash at him.

But Jesminda is never gonna go for him, because of who he is, who he projects himself to be. She tells him the day he learns to let his heart melt is the day she will marry him.

So, Lucien purposefully learns to be a better person, he leaves the behaviors he was taught as a child behind. He starts to heal from Beron's severe neglect and abuse. And when Jesminda notices he is genuinely making a a change, she helps him, they become friends before they become lovers. He opens up to her, and she to him.

And then his heart melts, and they both fall in love naturally.

Beron notices Lucien's change in behavior, has his brothers spy on him. Finds him with Jesminda, puts two and two together. And decides Jesminda is poisoning his son's mind, and has her executed. Under the guise she was trying to convince Lucien to rebel against the High lord.

Lucien is distraught, he runs to Spring. He swears up and down that never again, he is never opening up to another person again. And then he meets Tamlin, who shows him kindness, patience, and allows him space to heal, helps him to slowly get to his feet over many years.

Then once more, Lucien melts again. He finds himself better again, maybe better than before.

Then boom Amarantha. He swears he will hate the human girl that Tamlin is forced to take a bride.

And then he finds she has this wild spirit that almost mirrors who Jesminda was. And the cycle repeats.

Also also also.

I just want a scene where Lucien as a young adult sneaks into one of his brother's room when they're asleep and attempts to smother them.

Like,

Silas (Second eldest brother)- *Snoring* *Feels something on his face* "Wha- WHAT-"

Lucien- *Actively smothering him with a pillow* "Shhhhhhh it'll be over soon, shhhhhhhhhhhh."

Or Lucien holding a knife in a kitchen alone with Eris and just thinking 'It'd be soooo easy...'

STOP MAKING LUCIEN THE OUTLIER

HE WAS JUST AS CRAZY AS THE REST OF EM

[achaotichuman]

Acotar Rant

I actually think Elain being selfish and manipulative is a very interesting character flaw for her. It clashes with what she tries to project which is an image of perfection, loveliness and kindness.

Thing is, she isn't inherently kind. She isn't merciful or innocent. She killed a man with zero hesitation. We have no idea how she even got across the fucking battlefield, you don't think she struggled to get there??? She purposefully set out to murder a man and it didn't so much as affect her later from what we can see. She doesn't show mercy.

When people talk about Elain killing Hybern, no one ever brings up how fucking out of character that would be for her in their version of her. Just, so many people are like "Elain should get credit tooo!!!!" and then their version of Elain is the perfect, kind flower girl who can do no wrong. Like, no, if you want her to get credit you have to acknowledge that was pretty cold-blooded, and its perfectly in character for canon.

Consider how Feyre reacted to killing Hybern soldiers in Summer. She vomited her guts up and felt guilt even though they were the enemy. Elain doesn't so much as bat an eyelash.

She is selfish. Compare her actions to Nesta's throughout the entirety of ACOWAR, Nesta is out there trying to help purely out of the kindness of her heart, and Elain fucks off, because she doesn't want to.

She lets everyone baby her, she packs Nesta's things and doesn't utter a single word when the IC locks her up, even though Nesta would have taken a knife to Rhysand's throat if he dared do the same to Elain.

And its not that she feels threatened by the IC, and this evident for when she cries and says 'Nesta isn't trying' and allows herself to their manipulative device to force Nesta into scrying.

Elain is not stupid, that's quite obvious. She's shown herself to be observant and intelligent, so I doubt she was unaware of the NC using her. She knew, and she actively allows it.

I use the wording 'she lets', because I think for Elain. Instead of having the same rhetoric of her being a defenseless child who cannot think for herself, she actively has to work against bad habits and built in tendencies.

She clearly WANTS to express an image of perfection and kindness, even though her natural inclination seems to skew to the negative.

To have a perfect character is to not have a character at all. There's no growth or journey, and for Elain, she'll always side with the person that's most likely to give her the outcome she wants the most.

She wants to be left alone? She lets the IC baby her.

She wants nothing to do with Lucien? She sticks by Feyre (who routinely sees her and Azriel as a better couple.)

Now I don't think she is a mastermind or actively working for an evil cause, I just think she is naturally drawn to selfish desires even at the expense of others.

And this would make her so so interesting. She's not perfect, the projection of her image is by design, it's not the 'real' Elain, she's a bit shitty. It makes her more *human*, it makes her less of a cardboard cut out. Now we have actually have a path of growth laid out. It involves deciding between continuing down a line of chasing fleeting happiness and materialistic desires drawn out but the former future she had promised as a human, or actively working towards being the person she truly aspires to be. That truly kind and gentle soul.

Elain has a very empty character, and I will tell you that it was a choice to make her like that. It makes her so much easier for SJM to write, because she is malleable, SJM can turn her into anything she pleases later on. So, my arguing that Elain is inherently selfish is mute because despite the actual actions of Elain's character, SJM will not reflect on them as foreshadowing, Elain is like this because making her do anything of value would deprive SJM of her writing freedom while writing her. Because she would actually have to stick to whats already been set up, even a little.

What I actually think will happen, is Elain will be Rhysand 2.0

She'll do things that are inherently bad, but get away with them because 'shes perfect and can do no wrong.' Thats how SJM writes, and she'll either make Lucien a shitty person along with it, or make Lucien Elain's bitch who will simply become an empty character to slap beside Elain.

Anyway, regardless of potential, Elain will be like the rest of the lot. She has to be to fit in with SJM's brand.

This is not an incredibly deep dive into my thoughts on Elain. I have a lot more, but this is a pretty good generalization of them all. If SJM is not a coward, she will make Elain selfish and have her recognize that.

She lets everyone baby her

I would also like to reinforce, I use the word 'lets' here because Elain does not fight against the constant infantalisation even though it's clear as day, because she wants the image of being perfect. And I can go on and on about how thats probably the result of her childhood and being the middle sibling often comes with trying to get the attention of your parental figure when usually it will be cast on the eldest and youngest. But y'all ask if you want that deep dive.

Kaaaaaay bye