Debunking Vassien Part I

SJM can take anything she's written in a book and give us a completely new story in the next, undoing everything she's already told us. She's the author so she can figure out a way if that's what she chooses. But the information given SO FAR makes Vassien unlikely to me.

I've seen this excerpt being mentioned to support their pairing:

"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."

As if Lucien is thinking of how he will avenge Vassa. But that excerpt follows this:

“And you think Koschei would do all of this,” Cassian pressed, “not out of sympathy for the human queens, but with the goal of freeing himself?”

“Certainly.” Vassa peered at her hands, fingers flexing. “I fear what may happen if he ever gets free of the lake. If he sees this world on the cusp of disaster and knows he could strike, and strike hard, and make himself its master. As he once tried to do, long ago.”

It seems more like Lucien is responding to the threat to their world rather than in defense of Vassa alone.

The following has also been used:

A twitch of the lips, a spark in that russet eye. “She’s doing well enough. Savoring every second of her temporary freedom.”

Comparing the "spark" to other mate coded language.

However:

That smile of his sparked something bold in my chest. (Feyre while talking to Tamlin).

Her eyes sparked. “Oh, you are delicious. You let me torture that innocent girl to keep this one safe? You lovely thing! (Amarantha to Feyre).

But something sparked in the queen’s eyes as she looked at Rhysand. Amarantha’s whore, they’d called him.

Those two in the antechamber,” he added, eyes sparkling, “might not be on that list of people you should bother knowing, if they keep banging on the door like children.”

Mor’s eyes sparkled. “You got him kicked out, didn’t you?” My answering smile set her roaring.

Her eyes were the brown of a fawn’s coat. And he could have sworn something sparked in them as she met his gaze.

This word is used in failed romances, amusement by villains to their enemies, completely platonic friendships and for the actual mated pair of Elain and Lucien (even though people claim she has no interest in him). How is "spark" definitely romantically coded for Vassian? It could be any number of things. Lucien himself acknowledges that he, Jurian and Vassa get along to which Feyre realizes they are his friends.

Lucien is an affectionate and caring friend. This scene:

Lucien, surprisingly, was chuckling, his shoulders loose and his head angled while he listened.

Is no more telling than this:

Lucien paused half a foot from me. He didn’t so much as object as I threw my arms around his neck, burying my face against his warm, bare chest. It was seawater from Tarquin’s own gift that slipped from my eyes, down my face, and onto his golden skin. Lucien loosed a heavy sigh and slid an arm around my waist, the other threading through my hair to cradle my head.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I’m sorry.” He held me, stroking soothing lines down my back, and I calmed my weeping, those seawater tears drying up like wet sand in the sun. I lifted my head from his sculpted chest at last, my fingers digging into the hard muscles of his shoulders as I peered into his concerned face.

And this:

Both Jurian and Lucien stared at her, the former’s face utterly unreadable, and the latter’s pained.

Is also not indicative of romantic feelings as concern and sadness / pained expressions ARE something he feels for female friends as shown by his relationship with Feyre.

Lucien has already admitted he's a mated male to Feyre and has no interest in other females. Yet we're supposed to assume that by the end of that same book, he's already interested in another? This male who pined for Jesminda for centuries is supposedly giving up on Elain after a few months for Vassa?

This is where we leave things:

“At each other’s throats, as they like to be,” he said, a tad sharply.

She wondered what that was about—and for the life of her couldn’t read it.

Followed by:

Cassian’s heart strained at the pain etching deep into Lucien’s face as he tried to hide his disappointment and longing.

The first scene reads more to me that Lucien senses something is going to happen romantically between Jurian and Vassa and he's worried that he's about to become the third wheel once again.

Also, if he wanted to be with Vassa, what is standing in his way? Nothing is preventing him from being with her. They're around each other and spend enough time together to know if that's what they want.

I also don't think Luciens future is ruling in the Human Lands with a human female who has a human life span. The "at their throats" comments sounds a lot like a Nessian type of situation to me.

“He’s keeping everything running. I think he’d have been crowned king by now if it wasn’t for Vassa.”

“Vassa and Jurian are two sides of the same coin."

It sounds like Jurian is already accepted by the people in the Human Lands and he and Vassa are very similar which SJM usually likes for her pairings. Jurian could easily rule beside Vassa based on this, not Lucien.

If Lucien were feeling romantically towards Vassa, I don't imagine he would still be staring after Elain with longing and that is how we leave the two of them until the next book is released.