r/ACourtOfDreams

Take 100:
This is a pro Inner Circle sub. We delete anti IC posts and comments.

Think of it the same way you’d think of any ship based sub or for example the Tamlin sub. No one goes into the Tamlin sub to post about how amazing Rhys is compared to Tamlin, because that’s obviously not what people are there for. The same rule applies here, just flipped. No one in this sub wants to read posts about how annoying Rhys is while Tamlin is the best character in the world. Or you wouldn’t go into a Gwynriel sub to talk about how Elain and Azriel are so much better. It’s the same logic.

This sub was created specifically for talking positively about the Inner Circle. Venting about anti IC takes you’ve seen elsewhere is allowed, the same way it’s totally fine for people in the Tamlin sub to vent about anti Tamlin discourse. That’s part of the point of having a dedicated space.

We’re all adults here and I really don’t think this is hard to grasp. If you want a space to critique the Inner Circle, there are plenty of subs for that. This just isn’t one of them.

Thanks for understanding!

After my reread of Silver Flames, I actually don’t understand the argument that Elain and Azriel can’t carry a 1,600 page story. If anything, SF proved the opposite to me.

Part 4 felt incredibly rushed considering it contained almost all of the major action and payoff. The entire book was basically building toward those final events, and then suddenly everything happened at once. So many plot points could have had more room to breathe. Honestly, SF could easily have been split into two books. Part 4 deserved the page count that Parts 1 and 2 had together.

That’s why I’m actually grateful Sarah decided to structure the upcoming story as three books. To me, that decision says she knows these arcs need space.

And yes, I strongly believe that ACOTAR 6-8 is Elain’s story, with Azriel alongside her in a dual POV setup similar to Nesta and Cassian in SF.

With Nesta, we genuinely didn’t know where her story was going. We had the groundwork of her isolating herself from everyone and that was basically it. We had no foreshadowing for the Valkyries, no idea about the extent of her powers, nothing about the Dread Troves, nothing about her fighting in the Blood rite and so on. All of those plot points only opened up in SF itself.

With Elain, it’s the complete opposite. We already have so many plot threads pointing directly at her story, PLUS presumably plots we don’t know about yet. Put them all together and she can easily carry 1,500 pages on her own.

Take the most obvious one, the mating bond. I cannot imagine the bond won’t be one of the major arcs. How is she going to handle it? Will she reject it? How does bond rejection even work? How many fae have actually rejected a mating bond before? What happens to both parties when a bond is rejected? Could rejection trigger a blood duel because Lucien’s mate instincts overcome him? Sarah has mentioned the blood duel twice already in connection with Azriel, so I’m convinced she’s setting it up to pay off in this series. She did the same thing with the Blood Rite in ACOFAS, mentioning it before it became real in SF. I’m expecting the same pattern with the blood duel.

And if Elain rejects the bond, does she go further and try to break it? There’s so much to explore there. Or does she accept it? But that would require an enormous buildup, because it wouldn’t make sense for her to go from avoiding Lucien for two years and shrinking next to him to suddenly being content with him from one page to the next. Either direction needs real page count to land.

We have the mountain trial. If Sarah follows the mountain pattern; then Elain also will have a mountain arc like her sisters.

In SF, Elain said she is ready to train and sees herself as part of the Night Court. So I’m expecting a training arc, not as a warrior but as someone learning her seer powers. To me, Nestas mention of the twins and Azriel maybe training Elain, is foreshadowing that she’s more likely heading toward the spy club. Which probably means a mission of some kind.

That’s already a lot. And then there’s the question of how much Koschei gets resolved in this book versus saved for a finale. Even if the actual fight against Koschei is being saved, there will still be heavy Koschei setup in Elain’s book.

And we haven’t even touched Azriel’s backstory. His mother is still alive, there’s the Rosehall connection. Will Rhysands order staying away from Elain lead to a secret relationship?

So I see massive potential here. If Sarah intends to write all of this in detail at a slow burn pace, then yes, two or three books makes complete sense. Elain and Azriel can absolutely carry 1,600 pages, at minimum. Anyone who has ever written fanfiction or a book knows that this much plot can easily fill a thousand pages and then some.

So I'm back after fighting a brutal fever for two days lol and one of the things I've been thinking about with all of that ample free time, is that infamous black dress from Silver Flames. And me, being the Nuala and Cerridwen enthusiast that I am, recalled coming across relevant information that can give framework and bring some clarity to a topic that's been discussed to death.

This might even have been brought up before, but I'll provide textual evidence for what people have been saying for maybe years now, which is: the way Elain looked was intentional and not SJM "foreshadowing" that she doesn't belong in the place her own family lives.

This will be long, sorry, because there's a lot of evidence for what I'm trying to describe, so be patient with me lol. I'll go chronologically, then, starting with Nuala and Cerridwen's first appearance ever during ACOTAR:

>The faeries brought me up through dusty stairwells and down forgotten halls until we reached a nondescript room(...).
From the neck up, I was regal: my face was adorned with cosmetics—rouge on my lips, a smearing of gold dust on my eyelids, kohl lining my eyes—and my hair was coiled around a small golden diadem imbedded with lapis lazuli. But from the neck down, I was a heathen god’s plaything.
ACOTAR, Ch. 39

We experience for the first time the fact that N&C basically work as (because we don't know about the Night Court as a whole, yet) Rhysand's personal stylists for characters going on missions. The goal here was to make Feyre exposed, provocative, with Night Court-like make up: rouge, gold, black eyeliner; and basically put her in a costume that made both Tamlin enraged and everyone else UTM believe that Rhysand was an evil scheeming man that made the human prisoner his new "plaything". And the body paint is self-explanatory. It was purposeful and deliberate.

As we know, the twins vanish after UTM but we meet them again next book:

>My old handmaidens from Under the Mountain appeared at my door just past dawn(...), they informed me that breakfast would be served in thirty minutes, and I was to bathe and dress.
I didn’t bother to ask if Rhys was behind that last order, or if it was their recommendation based on how grim I no doubt looked, but they laid out some clothes on the bed before leaving me to wash in private.
ACOMAF, Ch. 5

They again, select clothes for Feyre to wear, even though not for a specific mission but because Feyre would've had no clothes of her own after being taken from the Spring Court, leaving out some Night Court attire for her to wear. SJM could've had Feyre simply pick out her clothes from a dresser without the twins intervention, but instead they're directly responsible for what she wears on her first day in Rhysand's court. We see this again further into the book when part of the IC goes to Adriata for the half of the Book of Breathings from the Summer Court:

>Nuala selected seafoam green accented with rose gold, curling and then braiding back my hair in a thick, loose plait glimmering with bits of pearl. Whether Nuala knew why I was there, what I’d be doing, she didn’t say. But she took extra care of my face, brightening my lips with raspberry pink, dusting my cheeks with the faintest blush. I might have looked innocent, charming.(...)
Rhysand’s gaze swept over me, noting the clothes that were obviously in honor of my host and his people.(...)
“You’re looking well today,” Tarquin said, inclining his head.
Nuala, it seemed, was a spectacularly good spy. Tarquin’s pewter tunic was accented with the same shade of seafoam green as my clothes. We might as well have been a matching set. I supposed with my brown-gold hair and pale skin, I was his mirror opposite.
ACOMAF, Ch. 34

Go Nuala, right? When I tell you guys that I think the twins are amazing and a key asset to the IC, this is exactly what I mean! She doesn't just dress Feyre to look pretty or to distract Tarquin. She's straight up dressing her to look like she belongs in the Summer Court in order to trick its High Lord into thinking she's an unsuspecting female that can be fully trusted. Again, there's a purpose to the outfits and it's not just the first thing they find to throw on an Archeron. You see where I'm going.

Next chapter, we witness the same strategic outfit decission for Feyre with Nuala's help:

>I’d worn the necklace (Tarquin)’d given me, and Nuala and I planned my clothes around it. We’d decided on gray—a soft, dove shade—to show off the glittering black. I had worn nothing else—no earrings, no bracelets, no rings. Tarquin had seemed pleased by it, even though Varian had choked when he beheld me in an heirloom of his household.
ACOMAF, Ch. 35

The goal was to now highlight that insanely expensive heirloom Feyre got Tarquin to give to her, for him and everyone to focus on it and possibly distract them from noticing they had ulterior motives with their visit on top of highlighting that Feyre fit right in the Summer Court. All of this through just her outfit choices.

For the next example, we have the lead-up to Starfall, which we know involves an ICONIC dress which of course is the result of Nuala and Cerridwen's help:

>Crafted of tiny blue gems so pale they were almost white, it clung to every curve and hollow before draping to the floor and pooling like liquid starlight. The long sleeves were tight, capped at the wrists with cuffs of pure diamond. The neckline grazed my collarbones, the modesty of it undone by how the gown hugged areas I supposed a female might enjoy showing off. My hair had been swept off my face with two combs of silver and diamond, then left to drape down my back. And I thought, as I stood alone in my bedroom, that I might have looked like a fallen star.(...)
Cassian let out a low whistle. “I should have let Nuala and Cerridwen dress me.”
ACOMAF, Ch. 44

Yet again, the twins being legends and a key component of major memorable moments across the series. I'll do one more relevant example from ACOWAR and then we'll move on to the black dress itself.

>We had taken my gown from Starfall and refashioned it, adding sheer silk panels to the back shoulders, the glittering material like woven starlight as it flowed behind me in lieu of a veil or cape. If Rhysand was Night Triumphant, I was the star that only glowed thanks to his darkness, the light only visible because of him.
I scowled up the stairs. That is, if he bothered to show up on time.
My hair, Nuala had swept into an ornate, elegant arc across my head, and in front of it(...) The crown.
ACOWAR, Ch. 41

Props to Feyre for recycling her dress, we love an upcycling queen! But again, Nuala - who we see being responsible for most of Feyre's fashion choices way more than Cerridwen - was very strategic about the way she helped her dress that night because they were trying to send a message: her and Rhysand as a unit, as High Lady and Lord, with a crown to match the occasion. Again, strategic choices for the way the main character dresses in order to accomplish something.

And finally, we reach Silver Flames. Here are some quotes for context:

>“You don’t have to do anything you don’t wish to. But Elain mentioned that you have particular skill on the dance floor. Skill that once won you the hand of a duke in a single waltz.”(...)
Nesta asked, “You want me to dance with Eris?” Her heart began to pound, not entirely with fear.
“I want you to seduce him,”(...)
“I think Eris is our ally, and will expect to dance with a lady of this court at the ball no matter what. I won’t let Feyre within five feet of him, Mor might kill him, and Amren is more likely to scare him off than win him over, so you and Elain are the only options.”
“Elain doesn’t go near him,” Feyre said.
ACOSF, Ch. 55

>(Mor) asked Nesta suddenly, “What are you wearing to the ball, anyway?”
Nesta, leaning against the worktable to catch her breath and listening to the strains of the violin through the Veritas orb’s shimmering mirage, shrugged. “One of my dresses.”
“Oh, no.” Sweat beaded on Morrigan’s brow, and her braided golden hair curled slightly with the moisture. “Eris …” She searched for the words. “He’s all about appearances. You have to wear the right thing.”(...)
“I’ll look around.” Morrigan pushed off the windowsill. “See what we have.”
ACOSF, Ch. 56

Now, with this framework we know a couple things:

1. The IC want to show Eris their loyalty by offering him a dance with one of the Inner Circle women.
2. Mor, Amren and Feyre are out of the equation. Leaving Nesta and Elain.
3. Feyre says Elain isn't an option.
4. Therefore leaving Nesta to be the one responsible to catch Eris' eye.
5. Mor confirms it's very important that Nesta looks the right way, therefore she'll see what they have. Not "I" but "we".

This leads me to believe that, considering that in pretty much every instance the FMC had to look a certain way to portray a certain image or convey a certain message, Nuala and Cerridwen, but mostly Nuala, have been the ones responsible for strategizing what they would wear. We're confirmed that what Nesta wears needs to catch Eris' attention, meaning the only other choice available, which is Elain - Eris' brother's mate, by the way, which I think is at least funny, that they have to keep Elain away from him like he would truly not care about that bit of information lol - needs to be ignored by him.

>Both sisters wore black. Both walked behind Rhys and Feyre, a silent indicator that they were a part of the royal family. Had mighty powers of their own. They’d planned it that way, wanting Eris to see for himself how valuable Nesta was.
Elain in black was ridiculous. Yes, she was beautiful, but the color of her long-sleeved, modest gown leeched the brightness from her face. It wore her, rather than the other way around. And he knew the cruelty of the Hewn City troubled her. But she hadn’t hesitated to come. When Feyre had offered to let her remain home, Elain had squared her shoulders and declared that she was a part of this court—and would do whatever was needed. So Elain had let her golden-brown hair down tonight, and pinned it back with twin combs of pearl. He’d never once in the two years he’d known her found Elain to be plain, but wearing black, no matter how much she claimed to be part of this court … It sucked the life from her.
ACOSF, Ch. 57

So let's stop right here before we move on. There's vital context that's constantly left out when this topic is brought into conversation: Elain will leave the Night Court is said and backed by Cassian's inner monologue of "no matter how much she claimed to be part of this court … It sucked the life from her." Sure, he did say that. But he also said other things that are blatantly ignored when that is argued:

• Elain was offered to stay home by Feyre
• She refused because she's just as much part of the Court as any of them
• "Squared her shoulders" and decided to show up anyway to do "whatever was needed"
• Even though she's visibly uncomfortable she pushed through because she probably felt it was important that people also saw her as part of the Royal Family.

None of this points out that Elain is so unhappy she's being foreshadowed to leave. But also, the rest of this same paragraph is hardly ever taken into consideration. Let's notice how she's described: the IC needed Eris to only notice Nesta, so she wore a modest gown compared to what Nesta wore, wich we'll study in a minute, donned a color she'd never worn before and that sucked the life out of her; her hair is described as "down and pinned back with combs of pearl" which is a rather plain look compared to her sisters. So given this description, the goal is achieved. Elain is wearing an outfit, strategically chosen to accomplish the Inner Court's mission, like we've seen time and time again before in other instances.

Now let's see what Nesta was wearing:

>Nesta in Night Court black threatened to bring him to his knees.
She’d braided her hair over her head in her usual style, but atop it, a delicate tiara of glinting black stone rested, slender spikes jutting upward in a dark corona. Each spike was topped with a tiny sapphire, as if the spikes were so sharp they’d pierced the sky and drawn cobalt blood.
Silver thread embroidered the skintight velvet bodice, the straps so narrow they might as well have been nothing against her moon-white skin. The neckline plunged nearly to her navel, where the silver thread gathered to hold a small sapphire that matched the ones on her crown. (...)
Her red-painted lips cocked in a feline smirk as her kohl-lined eyes took in the room watching her every breath.
ACOSF, Ch. 57

Quite a stark difference, isn't it? A very revealing dress, narrow straps, scandalous neckline, covered in shiny threads, sapphires, red lips, dark lined eyes, a tiara. Meanwhile Elain is completely covered, with a plain dress, no noticeable makeup that Cassian describes and no crown despite having just said she's from the Royal Family? Seems like whoever styled her really needed for Elain to be as near unnoticeable as she could possibly be. And yet, still, when they greet Eris, this happens:

>“Ordinarily I would ask you to dance, but my condition has left me unwell enough that I worry about what so much spinning would do to my stomach.”(...)
Now she made a show of looking between her two sisters. Elain gave a passable impression of appearing interested. Nesta just looked bored.(...)
Nesta barely glanced to Eris, who pulled his assessing gaze from Elain to stare at the eldest Archeron sister with a mix of wariness and intent that set Cassian’s jaw grinding. Or it would have been grinding, if he hadn’t mastered himself in time to keep his face blank as Nesta began walking toward Eris.
ACOSF, Ch. 57

Elain looks at Eris, Eris also looks at her first, despite looking indisputably plain in comparison to Nesta who should've caught Eris' eyes immediately, according to Mor who said he's "all about appearances". This reinforces the idea that Elain had to be deliberately styled to appear as understated as possible, otherwise the Inner Circle’s plan to have Eris focus on Nesta as soon as possible would have failed.

Nesta is dressed to dominate the room, meanwhile Elain has her usual beauty, which has been brought up very frequently across the series, muted to achieve the previously established goal. Much like in previous books, the styling choices of the Night Court attire were carefully carried out with a purpose, and not because they're meant to be foreshadowing of a certain character "not belonging there". They're a form of manipulation of the environment and perception of those around, to create a specific impression and image.