r/ACourtOfDreams

Canon:
Primal manifestation of trauma and self-defense.
Mysterious sentinels of pure darkness.
Protective entities that guard their master with unwavering lethal precision.

The fandom:
Look at that precious widdle shadow floof! I bet he is a tiny shy cuddle-buddy who wants to boop noses. 🥺

These interpretations are making me not take Azriel seriously anymore…like what books are people readiiing ???

Image sources:
Kemet for Fenix Entertainment S.P.A
Angel-A for design bundles

​I was just organizing my Elain pinterest board and stumbled upon this fanart, and it honestly stirred up so many feelings. The way she looks in this piece… I don’t know, she just looks so sad, like she’s dealing with everything in complete silence.

​I really love how she is such a kind, reliable, and understanding person. She manages to be observant and mysterious while still being this sweet, shy, and introverted girl who is always ready with a smile. I also love that she is someone who actually knows how to apologize and take responsibility for her actions.

​​It honestly bugs me how so many people in the books and in the fandom write her off as useless because she is definitely not. I am so hyped for her book to finally come out because I know she is going to prove everyone wrong. I can't wait to see her show her true potential and prove what she is actually capable of.

I don't know, I’m just feeling so much love for her right now. Even before her book is out, I just love her so much 🥹🩷

Art by:

https://www.instagram.com/sage.and.other.herbs?igsh=NDdlYXlleHRhdjhy

Art: Katouart on ig

lowk my new best i think, but im also so glad its finally over

Has anyone else looked closely at the dates on the back of the Knix ACOTAR “Prythian World Tour” / “Book Boyfriend World Tour” shirts?

A few of them are impossible as real calendar dates (02-50, 03-42, 04-66, etc.), so I started wondering if they might be book/chapter references instead.

I went through and matched a bunch of them. Some feel pretty strong (Note 04 could be ACOSF or ACOFAS):

03-22 → ACOWAR Ch 22: We learn the Weaver is the Bone Carver’s twin sister (Stryga). The loom is mentioned, and loom imagery has been all over the Target merch drop. (ETA: also interesting with book 7's cover & the thread - 1st tour date listed)

02-05 → Early ACOMAF: Feyre goes to the Night Court for the first time. We get the breakdown of the courts — solar vs. seasonal — which could end up being significant (?). Correct me if I'm wrong, but is this the first time we learn Nuala and Cerridwen's names? "Nuala and Cerridwen were their names, and I'd wondered if they'd ever told me. If I had been too far gone Under the Mountain to even care."

03-42 → ACOWAR Ch 42: Right before a meeting, the IC jokes about who would start a fight first, and Azriel specifically bets on Autumn (interesting since this date is labeled Autumn Court). We also see the Dawn Court for the first time: “if the palace above the Court of Nightmares had been crafted of moonstone, this was made from sunstone…” Elain is constantly linked to dawn/sunrise imagery.

02-28 → ACOMAF Ch 28: Truth-Teller is named for the first time (“Truth-Teller – the name stamped in silver Illyrian runes on the scabbard”). We also get the line about Azriel’s trauma: “There was an icy rage in Azriel I had never been able to thaw… those years in his father’s keep, locked in darkness. Perhaps the shadowsinger gift had come to him then…” We also learn Azriel trained Nuala & Cerridwen.

04-07 → ACOSF Ch 7: Cassian questions what Jurian even is now (“Once human? Partially human?”). We also get the famous Lucien line: “Lucien stared out the window — as if he could see the lake across a sea and a continent. As if he were setting his target.”

04-07 → ACOFAS Ch 7: Rhys and Az talk. First about the Illyrians and unrest, but then it turns into talk about the human queens. Az asks if they should rope in Vassa and Jurian and Graysen. Azriel mentions here that he doesn't spy on Lucien, then he asks about solstice gifts. There's also a mention of Bryaxis.

02-23 → Feyre describes elain like a summer dawn; feyre learns about Elain's proposal; Nesta notes Graysen's estate is like a prison.

02-50 → Bloodbane and ash arrows are explained by the Suriel after Rhysand was hit (Azriel was hit with a bloodbane arrow before Elain was thrown into the Cauldron). Healing is also noted as a Dawn Court power. Pink flowering weed is mentioned.

01-19 → ACOTAR Ch 19 area: Feyre painting, more on Tamlin’s background and parents, and Calanmai.

03-54 → ACOWAR Ch 54: Full Vassa backstory (“they couldn’t kill Vassa… so they found an old death-lord… He cursed her and stole her away”). Jurian also says at the end of the chapter, “Tell the shadowsinger I’m sorry about the arrow to the chest.” Ash arrow mentioned again. Lots of Elain/Graysen/Lucien/mate bond tension in this chapter, too.

04-66 → ACOSF Ch 66: Balthazar appears. There’s been a ton of speculation about him. 👁

03-18 → ACOWAR Ch 18 area: Azriel’s scars and upbringing are brought up again when he offers to teach Feyre to fly (“locked in his hateful father’s dungeons… denied the ability to fly…”). Then, the whole conversation about whether Lucien can be trusted, ending with Feyre saying she doesn’t like that Elain is being used as a pawn. "I trust in the fact that we currently have possession of the one thing he wants above all else. And as long as that remains... his talent was wasted in the spring court. There was a reason he wore that fox mask, you know." Then, later, feyre: I considered his question. Did I trust Lucien? "I don't know, either." I admitted and sighed. "I don't like that Elain is a pawn in this." Now, I do think it's interesting that this is the last tour date on the shirt by knix, and then we have a fox print dropped by them inspired by his MASK!

Does anyone want to add to this or correct anything? I’d love to see what else people find.

SJM did work directly with Knix.

Could these be an Easter egg from the merch team / SJM for the next books? 🤯

It's been popping up on my feed for the past week, and I'd seen it a few times before too, but this past week there's been a massive surge. I even saw it on tiktok yesterday.

​The whole thing is basically people trying to prove whether Gwyn, Elain, or Mor is the ultimate standard of beauty.

​Guys... they are Fae. They are gorgeous by default. I think the only character in this entire series who isn't described as beautiful is Amarantha, whom Feyre herself says isn't really that pretty.

Feyre is stunning, Nesta is stunning, and the beauty of Elain, Gwyn, Mor, and practically most of the women in this series is constantly emphasized.

But for Elain, it's mentioned way more often for a reason. Feyre notes that Elain has always been the prettiest among them, and after becoming Fae, that beauty reached another level. Multiple characters in the series notice Elain's beauty and are in awe of it. But that doesn't mean the others are ugly. Please, they are all gorgeous.

Rhysand is the most handsome High Lord, but Azriel's beauty is also mentioned multiple times. Does that suddenly make Rhys any less handsome?? Exactly.

I don't know, this debate feels a bit pointless

As the title suggests I find it incredibly strange that fans jump to say you hate a character if you talk about them going through any type of hardship or inner turmoil, the amount of “Why do you want Azriel to lose his wings!! You fans of (insert ship/character) hate him!!” I’ve seen since the audiobook sample leak is crazy and it reminds me of the photo above.

Yes i love Azriel. Yes i want to see him go through the absolute worst. I want childhood flashbacks i want to get a close read on the psyche of a very traumatised person. I want him to go through the absolute worst and climb out of it. It makes him interesting, it makes him complex and most importantly it makes me happy and entertained.

Same goes for the other characters. Elain, Feyre, Nesta the IC they will keep going through awful things up until the last possible moments. The couples will fight, the sisters will fight, the bat boys will fight. They will be forced into difficult situations and make wrong choices and lose important things to them, because that’s interesting that drives the plot forward that keeps us at the edge of out seats.

This is a gigantic book after all and judging by SJM’s other series’s our crew won’t find peace and a HEA until the the last chapter of the entire saga.

Azriel 💙💙💙 Thoughts??

I think the shadows are being overanalyzed. They are neither good nor bad. They were created out of trauma and necessity. Their main role was to protect him and to keep him company on the many lonely childhood years he had. They still protect him to this day. But I think Azriel finds them kind of annoying and wishes they would stfu sometimes. I don’t think they will ever leave him but I do think and he gets tired of their constant chirping and wishes for quiet sometimes.

New acosh snippet reveal by Bloomsbury !

Bloomsbury just posted a new teaser for acosh and this is the one and it about azriel ! Also this is our final quote and we are no longer getting more !🥲

What do you guys think about this new snippet? Share your thoughts in the comments! The book will be out so soon in 18 days, omg I can't wait to read this one !

(art by me 🦇✨) I can't stop thinking about ACOSH and the last few quotes have made so excited!

I knew Feyre and Rhys had to be in the books a little bit, but since the titles dropped a month ago I was honestly terrified we'd only get one or two chapters with them again after half a decade.

I'm convinced they'll carry a focal arc and I cannot describe the euphoria that comes with the sense SJM is taking us back to ACOTARs golden roots.

I think some readers tend to have extreme "recency bias" and that's why Feyre and Rhysand are getting ungodly amounts of hate. I just miss them so much and we're about to get NEW content full of Feyre and Rhys exploring the world that started with them.

Bloomsbury has discussion questions for each book available on their SJM Activities website (here)!🧐

Given that A Court of Frost and Starlight is supposed to set up the character arcs to be explored in the subsequent “spin-off” books (acosf, acosh, acofme, aco8), I thought it would be fun to go over its discussion questions heading into acosh release day!!

Two questions really stood out to me as good prep for acosh:
👀Question 3 - I love that they called out Aranea’s tapestry…🕷️✨
👀Question 6 - We know that Cassian’s interpersonal issues were explored in acosf, and that Azriel’s POV is coming in acosh… could this discussion question also hint at Mor’s POV coming in acosh? When I first read the teaser from the female POV about not letting “this creature” bring her to her knees again, I immediately thought of Mor interacting with Keir or Eris…

I’m sure everyone saw the takes in the fandom rolling their eyes at Elain for mourning Graysen « *boohoo now you get to be super hot, live forever, have a hot mate and be surrounded by gorgeous bat boys, get over yourself » …*I honestly think takes like this are reductionist and just… dumb.

It was her first true love: Elain was very young, sheltered, and deeply traditional. Graysen wasn’t just a random casual fling. he was her very first experience of romance, and she was genuinely, deeply in love with him, to the point of being engaged to be married. (She also trusted him enough to give him her maidenhood despite what we know about Elain’s proper or non-promiscuous nature)

She lost her entire life through no fault of her own: Elain didn't ask to be turned into a Fae. One day she’s planning a human wedding with the man she loves, and the next, she is ripped away from her entire world, traumatized by the Cauldron, and told her life( as she knows it and as she wanted it) is entirely over.

The cruelty of his rejection: Having your fiancé reject you so aggressively (take off the ring!!!! Now!!) because you were forcefully transformed into something he doesn't understand, and telling you that you now "belong to another" is as heartbreaking as a break up can be.

When you reread their ACOMAF reunion, the pain is mutual. Graysen’s instinct was to run to her before his father stopped him, they clearly loved each other. His harsh rejection wasn't because the love faded, but out of fear of what she had become. They were obviously very much in love with each-other.

I think Elain’s grief was real, valid, and deeply painful, and she deserved a lot more empathy from the fandom for it.
If you’ve ever experienced the agonizing heartbreak of losing your first love when you were young and full of hopes and aspirations, you know how deeply a sudden, forced separation scars you. Not to mention the cocktail of other issues the Cauldron gave her.

Artwork is by: Cally.draws 🤍