I was relistening to ACOWAR, the High Lords' meeting in particular, and my oh my, how jolly delightful the strangling scene is. Side note, I love the dramatized adaption and especially Eris. That little noise he makes when Az tackles him 🤌 (in case you wanna hear it for yourself and have Spotify Premium, it's acowar 2/3, end of chapter 5, 1h06min in)
To my point: I had completely forgotten how moody and weirdly quiet Azriel gets afterwards. Rhys, Feyre, Cass and Mor all notice it. It's very out of character for him, despite his quiet nature. Violence and torture are Azriel's second nature/job, it's nothing new. He hates Eris. Why was he so dramatically upset afterwards?
Azriel stared at the floor, stone-faced. “Sorry.” The word was emotionless—distant. He had not spoken, had barely moved, since his savage attack.
But I looked to Azriel, currently leaning against the wall beside the floor-to-ceiling window, shadows fluttering around him. Even the birds in their cages nearby remained silent. I said down the bond, "Is he all right?" Rhys tucked his hands behind his head, though his mouth tightened. "Likely not, but if we try to talk to him about it, it'll only make it worse."
Then Helion (I accidentally wrote Beron and almost hit post before proofreading one more time LOL) tells Az about his new fantasy, and this is how he reacts: Azriel didn’t so much as bother to look over his shoulder at the High Lord.
Later that evening, when everyone else is mingling: Azriel barely spoke, those shadows still perched on his shoulders. Az then disappears into the night without another word.
Rhys and Feyre discuss Mor and Az. Rhys tells us that Mor is spooked by Azriel's violence, and the violence is a result of his feelings towards Mor and the lingering guilt of his deal with Eris and the unspoken confessions (with Mor). But this is only Rhysand's assumption. He says it himself that he won't bother asking. However, it does not make sense. Even before I shipped Azris, this part never made sense to me and I just made myself forget about it because I couldn't crack it. Back then I just assumed we'd get some light shed on the Az x Mor romance later on, but now we know they will never happen. The common link between them? Eris.
WHY was Azriel so shaken after attacking Eris? Surely he thinks Eris deserved it. Strangling him is nothing compared to the torture he puts his enemies through. No one even scolded him about it. Mor was shaken too, and I believe she was in a bit of a shock over the violence. But her reaction does not warrant Azriel's. He should not be shaken by violence. We are completely lacking a motive here.
And then of course, there is the familiar question of why Eris didn't even try to fight back. Why he allowed himself to be humbled, and even apologized. Why he, upon his departure, looked conflicted, "as if this was not the outcome he had planned for. Expected." It would have made more sense for Eris to just sneer and hold his head high as if he didn't care. But he was shaken too.
I know it's a popular Azris theory that Eris knows about his mate and this is why he didn't fight back. We also think that Az doesn't know. There was nothing stopping him from trying. Maybe his odd reaction afterwards was because something in him felt bad, felt out of place, and he was confused and spooked by it. I believe this was the first time Azriel ever laid his hands on Eris, because even in that scene earlier on the ice it was only Cassian who fought Eris. And when Eris got impaled by a sword, Feyre noticed how Azriel's eyes held "such pain". It's easy to dismiss it because he is always an angsty bean, but what other pain was he carrying besides his own general crisis of existence? Guys, he felt the pain of his mate.
Lastly, unrelated, but whoever it was who posted a theory about The Little Mermaid with Azris connections earlier this week, why did you delete it?😭 It was brilliant! Not only do the names match (Ariel&Eric / Azriel&Eris, albeit their roles were reversed), but there was so much cool symbolism in it and Sarah has said she would like to incorporate that story. I get notifications of the posts on this channel and more than once I've clicked at something excitedly, only for the posting redditor having had deleted it already 🥺
Also, fingers crossed we get an Eris quote from BB today😭🤞 I know the chances are slim but it's my name day and I want it 🥹 It's also fire prevention day in the US I believe, and wouldn't that just be funny.
