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baojaeh · 3 months ago

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Brilliant analysis! Must read

The Lasting Impression of "A Thing of Secret, Lovely Beauty"

I was thinking more on the “thing of secret, lovely beauty” phrasing and the final words in Azriel’s ACOSF bonus chapter. For SJM to end the chapter with these words, as a callback to their prior use early on, I believe she is hitting us over the head so we pay close attention to them. They are literally the last words we get from Azriel’s one-and-only POV so far. That alone should add an air of gravitas to them. So, I want to explore why the end of the bonus chapter matters and why it indicates that we’ll see the continued development of Azriel’s relationship with Gwyn in their book (which I believe will be ACOTAR5).

But, bear with me a bit as I first touch on considerations that lead up to Azriel’s POV and help support the significance of those final words . . .

I know there is criticism from some readers who claim there is “nothing to Gwynriel”--that there are no developing feelings between Azriel and Gwyn during ACOSF, he never thinks of wanting her like he wants Elain, he wouldn’t even go as far as to call Gwyn a friend, etc.

While I disagree that there is no proof of something shifting between the two of them (and I’ll explain why in more detail below), I would agree that there is nothing overtly romantic established between Azriel and Gwyn by the end of the novel. However, for me, that’s a moot point. And it’s also a strong indicator that there is “something to Gwynriel.”

Although ACOTAR is published in the fantasy genre, it also has a foot planted firmly in the romance genre--and there is an unspoken agreement between author and reader that, for romance arcs, the romantic development happens on the page and is experienced through the POV of at least one, but ideally both, members of the pairing. This is necessary for readers to understand authentic connection, to allow the relationship space to breathe, and to provide intimacy for emotional investment. Otherwise, the romance can feel unearned or like a plot device.

SJM has already been on record that each ACOTAR book moving forward will focus on a different romantic pairing. So, assuming Azriel’s book is next based on ACOSF and HOFAS in particular, why on earth would SJM lean into an end game romance for Azriel during Nesta and Cassian’s book? There would then be little room for growth or challenge in Azriel’s own book--no tension. How incredibly boring. Plus, I’ve been reading SJM since 2012, and if there is one thing I’ve learned when it comes to analyzing her writing, it’s that she loves giving characters the space to change along with a healthy dose of tension. Characterization (and to a certain extent plot) is all about tension. For example:

what a character WANTS vs. what a character NEEDS

where a character STARTS vs. where a character ENDS

what a character BELIEVES vs. a character confronting a TRUTH

We can clearly see how Azriel’s tension is being established within each of these examples--to foreshadow both his personal growth and his romantic arc with a potential mate in Gwyn. When it comes to the developing shift in how Azriel begins to see Gwyn, SJM says everything we need to know in the bonus chapter. We know he's noticing not just her physical features (ex: her eyes, her “hair shining like molten metal”), but who she is as a person (ex: how much she has changed, her “charming irreverence”).

By the time we reach the bonus chapter/ Solstice in the ACOSF timeline, Azriel is also no longer observing Gwyn from a distance. There HAS been a change and plenty of indicators that something is beginning to shift between them. It isn’t romantic, yet; but, it honestly shouldn’t be if we’re playing by the romance genre rules. What it should be, however, is a clear signal that something natural and genuine is happening between two characters who are slowly beginning to understand each other.

As a reminder, when we first see Azriel and Gwyn interact, it’s during training when Azriel has been brought on board to help Cassian with the increase in new priestess recruits:

“Gwyn had been distracted today--one eye on the other side of the ring. Cassian could only assume she was watching his brother, who had given Gwyn a small smile of greeting upon arrival. Gwyn hadn’t returned it. . . . She’d said nothing about it during the lesson. Only glanced every now and then toward Az, who remained dutifully focused on his charges.”

We have no reason to believe that Azriel and Gwyn have had any interactions since Sangravah (although I guess their book could contradict that). So, if we’re to assume this is the first time they have seen each other since then, it’s a notable moment. It establishes a baseline for Azriel and Gwyn so that the reader can begin to measure their developing growth and comfort with one another.

That first growth measurement takes place during Azriel’s bonus chapter. We eventually end with the final words of Azriel’s POV, where the image of Gwyn’s joy is “a thing of secret, lovely beauty” to Azriel that he buries “down deep, where it glowed quietly.” That seems like quite a jump on the measuring stick from the first interaction at training.

So, how does this jump happen? Well, friends, it happens very gradually and naturally--almost as if there is intentionality behind it.

Azriel goes from:

→ "dutifully focused on his charges" during their first interaction at training;

→ to turning his attention away from his charges ("Gwyn let out a high-pitched noise that was nothing but pure excitement. Azriel, on the other side of the ring with the rest of the priestesses, half-turned at the sound, brows high.");

→ to moving closer into Gwyn's physical space by training her and Emerie together while Nessian were on their hike:

“Az told me you also started preliminary work with the steel blades while we were gone.” He nodded to Gwyn and Emerie, the former glancing toward Azriel, who watched in silence. “So show me what you learned. Cut the ribbon in two.” “We slice the ribbon in two,” Emerie asked Gwyn warily, “and our training is complete?” Gwyn again glanced to Azriel, who drifted closer.

→ to what we can infer was one-on-one training with Gwyn alone when Azriel "hadn't lingered" when winnowing Nesta and Cassian to the human lands because "Gwyn wanted him to go over dagger handling";

→ to, finally, the bonus chapter in Azriel’s POV where Gwyn catches him by surprise (in more ways than one), and they share a moment of soft laughs and contentment before he envisions her eyes lighting up upon receiving his gift--where the image of Gwyn glows quietly inside his chest as “a thing of secret, lovely beauty.”

So not only are those final words an interesting literary juxtaposition in a bonus chapter filled with incredible juxtapositions, but they hold significant meaning. They show the reader that this is not coming from left field; nor is it a casual gesture for Azriel in the name of just being kind. A progression has taken place since that first meeting where Gwyn did not return his smile. Canon tells us that Azriel is one of our most stoic characters. So this is intentional, even if he tries to brush off the action to Clotho, our weaver of Fate--who “was smart enough to see through his deflection.”

Now, I mentioned earlier that a romantic arc in the romance genre needs to develop on the page within the characters’ POVs. So we are in luck, then, that we’ve been gifted a tiny sliver of Azriel's own POV. Therefore, we truly should be paying it close attention since it can act as a sort of prologue to what we can anticipate for his actual book.

So what does that POV ultimately tell us? I wrote a bonus chapter analysis to help answer this, so I won’t rehash all of it here. But the last words of Azriel’s POV are, in my opinion, important enough to warrant an analysis of their own. If I were SJM, and I knew that it was going to be a long while before we got Azriel’s POV again (with two Crescent City novels and a 5-year gap in between), I’d make those last words count. That’s our “lasting impression.”

And when we think about the lasting impression that Azriel is leaving us with, it has nothing to do with Elain. It has nothing to do with his anger at Rhys. It even has nothing to do with his own self-loathing.

That lasting impression is entirely, and intentionally, focused on Gwyn.

And, I don’t think we can truly understand the weight of that without considering everything that leads up to those final words--how the refusal to return a smile turns into gradual awareness of each other, which then leads into personal training sessions and a Solstice encounter that shows Azriel contentedly (and selflessly) thinking about Gwyn.

If Azriel’s POV left us there (thinking about Gwyn as “a thing of secret, lovely beauty”) with no other interactions or acknowledgements of what is shifting between him and Gwyn, I believe that alone would be enough to tether the reader to what’s to come in Azriel’s book. But that’s not what happens in ACOSF. As I mentioned before, the bonus chapter is just the first measurement we take in how much growth has happened since that first interaction at training.

We must not forget that after Azriel’s POV and the acknowledgement of what has now settled inside his chest, it doesn’t just end there. Instead, we get the following:

Cassian glanced over at Az, but his attention was fixed on the young priestess, admiration and quiet encouragement shining from his face.

Azriel went wholly still, as if he, too, had felt the shift. As if he, too, were aware that far larger forces peered into that training ring as Gwyn moved.

Gwyn asked Az, her teal eyes bright, “What do we get if we finish the course?” Az’s shadows danced around him. “Since there’s no chance in hell any of you will finish the course, we didn’t bother to get a prize.” Boos sounded. Gwyn lifted her chin in challenge. “We look forward to proving you wrong.”

Gwyn threw Azriel a withering stare as she strode past him. “See you tomorrow, Shadowsinger,” she tossed over a shoulder. Az stared after her, brows high with amusement. . . . "Remember how Gwyn was with the ribbon?" Nesta winked and clapped the shadowsinger on the shoulder. "You’re the new ribbon, Az.”

She [Gwyn] wanted to be the first. Wanted Nesta and Emerie and her to be the ones who wiped the smirks from Azriel’s and Cassian’s faces. Especially Azriel’s.

And when Gwyn reached the finish line, bloody and panting and grinning so wildly her teal eyes glowed like a sunlit sea, she only extended her battered hand to Azriel. “Well?”

“There are plenty of other unspeakable things that could be happening to her,” Cassian said, voice thickening. “To Emerie and Gwyn.” The shadows deepened around Azriel, his Siphons gleaming like cobalt fire.

Succeeding in the Blood Rite didn’t mean the training stopped. No, after she [Nesta] and her friends told Cassian and Azriel most of the details of their ordeal, the two commanders had compiled a long list of mistakes that the three of them had made that needed to be corrected . . . So they would keep training, until they were all well and truly Valkyries.

This is a litany of proof for how much Azriel and Gwyn continue to circle around each other after Azriel’s POV as they observe, interact, and think of one another. It’s not stagnant. They are not just sharing the same “charged glances” time after time. It’s also why I view any “the bonus chapter doesn’t matter” arguments as unserious--to believe so is to discount everything that comes before it, the lasting impression of the bonus chapter itself, and all the moments listed above which come after it.

In my opinion, there is no denying the gentle arranging of chess pieces within ACOSF in particular, aided in large part by Azriel’s own POV. There is a direct sense of narrative continuity which can now be picked up immediately after ACOSF in regards to Azriel and Gwyn. The seeds have been planted and when they begin to bloom in the next book, the reader feels like they were there when everything started. So, as Azriel goes on his healing journey (in which there is A LOT of healing that needs to happen), the hope is that we also see how he and Gwyn grow together and challenge each other--and it will feel earned as a reader because we will have seen the journey evolve.

But, none of this can happen without the final moments of that bonus chapter. Just as important as Azriel noting Gwyn’s “secret, lovely beauty,” we must also note that Azriel “buried the image down deep, where it glowed quietly.” It suggests to us that he isn’t ready to consciously acknowledge the depth of what Gwyn might mean to him. He lives in shadows (both literally and metaphorically), and we have seen that emotional vulnerability does not come naturally to Azriel. Burying that image of Gwyn is perhaps a defense mechanism–protecting that fragile, new feeling from scrutiny, rejection, or even his own self-doubt. And as readers who have spent a great deal of time with Azriel, we know how much he struggles with these things (and will hopefully be working through them in his novel).

However! The fact that Azriel treasures the image at all, means that it matters deeply to him. He hides it away, instead of discarding it altogether. He is just not ready to look at it head-on yet. And, honestly, I find that exciting and THAT makes me want to keep reading about Azriel and Gwyn. It makes me want to scrutinize their shared moments after Solstice, as well as the tiny clues which may be present in HOSAB AND HOFAS (I’m doing a Crescent City re-read now, and trust that I have lots of new thoughts, lol).

In closing, for the reader, this act of internal burial is a quiet promise: there is something blooming beneath the surface, even if Azriel can’t say it out loud yet. It keeps us emotionally tethered to his journey, because we know he feels more than he lets on. Once again, it is our lasting impression. When he eventually does confront what he buried, it will be that much more powerful--not just for his romantic arc with Gwyn, but for his personal growth and healing. The fact that SJM ends Azriel’s POV with Gwyn’s image and light, even if kept in secret, invites us to hope--and to wait--for the moment he finally lets it rise to the surface.

#brilliant analysis #gwyn x azriel #pro azriel #azriel shadowsinger #gwynriel

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