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Live, love bookish warriors

So it randomly occurred to me today that maybe I love Gwyneth Berdara so much is because she reminds me of my other bookish warrior, Violet Sorrengail!!!!!! I mean they're booth supeeeer smart, supeeeeeeeer pretty, very good with daggers, thought their fate lies with tombs (still might), can translate multiple languages, can charm anyone and are overall just the most iconic female book characters of all time! I don't care what anyone says, they'd be the best of friends in my mind!! <3

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Nesta: oh no, we’re surrounded! How will we stop them? Cassian: with the powers of…… friendship! Emerie: bravery! Azriel: incredible violence. Gwyn: and love!

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SO, we all know Az did something to his half brothers right in revenge?? But what about his stepmother? What happened to her??? Because if she's still alive and Gwyn finds out what she did?! 👀👀 wouldn't want to be on the end of that!

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Gwyn’s Beauty🩵🧜🏻‍♀️

We often talk about Azriel’s striking looks. The prettiest of the three brothers. But what about Gwyn ? Let’s start off with the necklace as it is canonically, Gwyn’s parallel.

We see a nod to the necklace’s description in acosf when Nesta was momentarily taken aback by Gwyn’s beauty. It’s not just that Gwyn is described as pretty. It’s how people begin to see her that changes. Nesta starts off with a more subtle description, then later says Gwyn rivals Mor and Merrill, who are basically the top-tier beauties in the series. That kind of comparison is never made lightly in this world. SJM is putting Gwyn in the same league as the women the narrative already treats as the most beautiful.

That’s a very different approach to how the Archeron sisters are described. Their looks are almost always defined through comparisons to each other. Feyre is plain next to Elain. Nesta is striking and is the only sister who isn't flat chested. Elain is the classic beauty. It’s all relative. But with Gwyn, she’s not being contrasted against someone else. She’s placed next to characters like Mor as an equal. Her beauty stands on its own and grows as she gains confidence.

Even Az makes a comment about how he’s noticed Gwyn has changed in the BC. Besides thinking how far she has come since that day in Sangravah and her charming irreverence, he also notices the way her freckles crinkle on her nose, how her hair shines like molten metal, and by the end of the chapter, he’s still thinking about how her eyes would light up. I’m just saying, he’s starting to pay attention to her appearance in a different way. Seems like a (slowburn) foreshadowing buildup to the classic mate line : ‘she’s the most beautiful female he’s ever seen’. Also just to say the shallow thing, SJM likes to make her main characters hot, so just saying.

As far as her beauty goes, I've always imagined Gwyn as someone who has this ethereal beauty to her that shines the more she comes out of her shell. Just think about it. She's fae and a nymph. A redhead with beautiful mix of blue-green eyes and years of yoga practice. And to top it all, the acolyte training includes grooming them in the art of seduction too. (Funnily, gwyn’s non-priestess nymph grandma seduced a high fae lol so that’s two layers of seduction built in her). All that beauty, litheness and grace from all sides rolled into one person. She has to be a beauty to rival the top beauties. I don't even want to be subtle about it tbh. Yes, I'm crowing about how pretty she is here and shamelessly singing her praises. She's a brave, kind, smart, tenacious, loyal and ethereal looking beauty, and this is all based on textual evidence from a single book. SJM sure has favourites. Can Az fight?

‘Or maybe nothing at all had changed beyond that confidence, the way Gwyn's shoulders were pushed back, her head held high, her smile free as she said, "Roslin. Dierdre. Ananke. I was hoping you'd come."

I think this spells out perfectly what SJM is illustrating with the heightening of Gwyn's heavily detailed beauty. It's a theme that with self-acceptance, self confidence comes the best version of oneself. She's illustrating that Gwyn is already on her healing journey and the Valkyrie training fuelled it even more, allowing others to see the beauty she had all along. A thing of secret, lovely beauty, indeed. 

(I found this on gwynriel reddit recently, and added bits and pieces of my take inside it)

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🗣️ EMERIE WEEK STARTS TOMORROW 🗣️

Emerie Week 2025 starts tomorrow, guys! Grab your smutty recs, choose your weapon, and get ready to celebrate one of the best characters in the series!

You can find the prompts and rules here.

Art by @cedakotes

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How I sleep knowing that Elucien/Gwynriel are endgame, Nessian are true mates and Rhys is not the villain because I read the books.

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Why do I feel that if Gwyn and Elain met they would love each other 🥹 like I just know Gwyn would be so interested listening Elain talking about her garden and would maybe recommend some books about flowers, different type of seeds…

it’s a need! 🩵🩷

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You don’t think Nesta would go to the ends of Prythian for Miss Gwyneth Berdara? THINK AGAIN.

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The court of fading light and wings

I need Nesta to be chosen by the mother and the land itself as the High Lady of Dusk! I mean how amazing would it be for our misunderstood and illtreated warrior to be the first High Lady to be chosen by the land ITSELF! And I can already imagine Dusk being the official land of the valkyries, yk? Like their own home that no one can take them away from. She'd be ruling alongside her sisters, Gwyn and Emerie, too and I feel like Gwyn would be her spy master and leader of the valkyries (something about her being the first one to cut the ribbon shook me) !! Emerie I feel like would make an incredible second in command for Nesta . She seems like someone who comes off as short tempered but is internally just really good at controlling her emotions/reactions so she'd always calm Nesta and remind her of her role and that she needs to make logical decisions even when she's mad, for the sake of their court and their people. Gwyn would be good at pulling Nesta out of her doubt and gloom with her bubbliness and optimism (Nesta's third in command probably). I also feel like Nesta would crown Gwyn and Emerie as official PRINCESSES of the Dusk court!!!! And the land would be filled with pegasi!!!!! They'd have such a blast riding their winged creatures and training and overall just HEALING! I have some thoughts on Nessian but I think I'll share those another time! Point is, Nesta, Gwyn and Emerie are the rightful rulers of the court of fading light!!!!

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Nesta deserves better and the valkyries are on her team ALWAYS!

Am I the only one that wants to see Nesta, Emerie and Gwyn runaway together and travel through the courts making friends and allies along the way? I feel like their sisterhood NEEDS more spotlight and I wanna see some bad-arse scenes of them fighting tooth and nail protecting each other! I want Nesta to learn how to winnow, Gwyn to discover cool powers and Emerie to find a healer for her wings, cause that treatment from the IC is NOT it!