#gwyneth berdara

[washmchineheart]

gwyn spends one night outside the library and ends up in the fucking hunger games

[foxylady13]

SJM Interview and My Thoughts

Court of Maas has a transcript up of one of Sarah J Maas's interviews. There was some things I found very interesting from it.

Let's start with this one:

The "meeting a character and just knowing that they're the next story" screams Gwyn to me. Why? Because she was a new character that was introduced and Sarah had to meet. And Gwyn herself has lines in ACOSF that hint at more to come with her story (and Emeries)

“You had this much to say about us?” Emerie said, choking on a laugh. Gwyn rubbed her hands together. “With more to come.”

The back of her throat ached; her eyes stung. “We’re in a book.” Gwyn’s fingers slid into hers, squeezing tight. Nesta looked up to find her holding Emerie’s free hand as well. Gwyn smiled again, her eyes bright. “Our stories are worth telling.”

Also, Sarah's answer on the question if we'll get an Elain POV in the next book was met with "we'll see Elain in some form" which to me implies she's more than likely not the main character & that just adds to my previous statement.

Next we have this:

"She realized she wanted to write men who will do everything together with their partner and not insist on being 'the hero' themselves"

That screams like Azriel and Elain are a no go since we know Azriel likes being the hero when it comes to her. Just look at him going to Hybern Camp with Feyre to try to play hero... or what about in ACOSF when Cassian talks about Elain being captured and this is what was said by Azriel:

Azriel stiffened. “I know. I helped rescue Elain, after all."

Azriel is "the hero" and will always insist that way with Elain. He's not the one for Elain.

But you know the pairings where the men will do everything together with their partner and not insist on being the hero for their partners? Gwynriel and Elucien.

We already see this with Azriel and Gwyn. He couldn't be the hero for Gwyn when she went into the Blood Rite because of the laws even Rhysand couldn't break. He even tells Cassian they trained them well and to trust in that training.

“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. “You—we—trained them well, Cassian. Trust in that. It’s all we can do.”

Also, here are even some ideas of them doing things together that fit with their pairings:

Elucien

Traveling to different courts & explore the world together. Hosting parties and being politically savvy.

Gardening - I actually have a commission of this I'll post soon 🤭

Cooking/Baking - Lucien will want to help Elain and it's something I can see then enjoying doing together given their personalities.

Gwynriel

Spy missions. Training. Singing.

Research in the library for universe theories or general reading & just imagine them sitting up in bed together reading passages to one another, analyzing them, theorizing. Thank you @alex-catlady for this one!

Flying - Gwyn on a Pegasus and Azriel flying beside her. Maybe even making into a race for a little competition? Azriel flying with Gwyn in his arms.

[azrielsbxtch]

The only “luring” that happened on solstice night was Azriel’s shadows being naughty and not telling him Gwyn was on the ring because they wanted to see Mom and Dad together.

[gwynsdefenseattorney]

✨✨Friendly Reminder✨✨

We don’t need random articles and songs not written by or having anything to do with Sarah to confirm anything. The books speak for themselves. If you need to comfort yourself with things not involving Sarah then. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Elucien Artwork by @brielyasmin (IG handle) Gwynriel artwork by @lucielart (IG handle)

[bookishwithathought]

I need Azriel to have a confessional moment with Gwyn, similar to Rhys with Feyre in the cabin. Doesn’t need to lead to a chapter 55 moment (I actually prefer if it doesn’t lead to anything physical so it doesn’t distract from the tenderness of the confession, and the last thing Az needs is getting physical too soon with his mate, boy needs the inner work to happen first), but more than anything he needs someone he will trust on that level, where he’s unfiltered and uncensored. He’s not even like that with his friends of centuries, he shuts down even with his closest people.

I need it so I can hug my box of tissues with snot running down my chin and vision blurred by tears while reading it.

I need Gwyn to take his face into her hands, stare at his face until he meets her eyes, and say “you’re enough. You’re good. You are exactly what you ought to be and exactly who I want, and I’ll always remind you in case you forget. I’ll also kick your ass in the process” with a wide grin at the last.

Amid tears. Azriel grasps her hands still on his face and smiles. “It would be my pleasure to have my ass kicked by you everyday. Just be here everyday.”

OK BYE 😭

[kayas-obsession]

Look, forbidden romance is nice and all but this,

“No,” Gwyn wept.

“No, I won’t. I’ll face it with you.”

Something deep in Nesta’s chest cracked. Cracked open completely, and what lay within bloomed, full and bright and pure.”

THIS is what I want for Azriel. Someone to absolutely break that dark mass of self hatred inside of him.

Not by him hiding, deflecting, brooding and trying to feel nothing but feel EVERYTHING.

To have that love that is so beautiful and unbending and show it off to the world. Like Rhys and Feyre do. Which Azriel himself stated is something he envies.

[nymphhazel5]

A wild thought

Okay why would an author make a character in his bonus character write about how his relationship with a female character and really hint about how it’s just so wrong and how it feels wrong, how it’s nothing more than just sexual attraction. Then make him go get some fresh air only to meet another female character who brings him out better. And she made us know more things about him than we did in the last 4 books. Then have a small conversation and he shows a lot of reactions (like good ones ofc) . When he leaves he could hear a singing calling out to him. Then the author ends it with the words

A thing of secret, lovely beauty

Ps: he could even imagine how her eyes would light up.

[orphicauroras]

Gwyn and Azriel are both Carynthians btw

Which means that when they get together they'll be the first and only (until we get more women and men participating) couple to bear the title of Arktosian, Oristian and Carynthian.

[justthinkinboutbooks]

Someone on Reddit, in response to someone asking about the lightsinger theory and where is comes from said this,

“IMO It's a pretty mean suggestion.

Since Gwyn was a victim of a brutal assault, I think they've latched on to this. To me it feeds the whole argument that either she made up her attack or that she staged the whole thing. In either case fooling not only Azriel, but also Rhys and Mor.”

That’s not the entirety of their reply, but the rest isn’t really relevant to what I want to say.

But I am truly dumbfounded because I have never once seen it suggested that Gwyn staged the attack on the temple.

Have any of you??

Like I’m a full-on Elriel who believes the lightsinger theory and I’ve read so many posts about it (even some with bad takes from other Elriels) and I’ve never seen this suggested.

Who is arguing that Gwyn made up or staged the attack???

Obviously she didn’t 😭

Just because she potentially has lightsinger abilities doesn’t make her evil, people!

[animezinglife]

Let’s add some laughs into the fandom.

Without saying their name, describe your favorite ACOTAR character badly.

[lovelygwyneth]

Azriel's shadows with Gwyn.

[olenvasynyt]

In the Azriel bonus chapter, Az leaves Rhys after their little fight and he says this: 

“He'd been so vigilant about keeping away from Elain as much as possible, and had stayed up here to avoid her, and tonight ... tonight had proved he'd been right to do so.”

And then you know what happens?  When Az keeps away from Elain, and he goes to the training pit, he stumbles upon Gwyn.

I think so many things point to Gwynriel in this bonus chapter.  The shadows reactions to her are something people often bring up to support Gwynriel.  They are curious, they dance to her breath.

And I can talk more about how the shadows react, all of the similarities Gwyn and Az have with each other ( made a post about that already, link here!), the foreshadowing people like to bring up, the retconning SJM has done for Gwyn, etc.  But I feel like I don’t even need to mention any of those tidbits even though I think they are important.  

All I need to know is the bonus chapter (which is usually used to tell the reader what will happen in the upcoming book) starts with Elain, and ends with Gwyn.

We can also analyze how the chapter is set up, the transition from Elain to Gwyn, the stark contrast between the two interactions and the feelings Az experiences, and we can compare a few sentences that are alike to understand what SJM might be trying to do. So I want to simplify what happens and focus on Az’s feelings throughout the BC.

It starts with him restless and filled with lust and desperation.  There is a constant looming feeling of self-harm almost because Az doesn’t take care of himself.

He found himself leaving the room. Entering the foyer, and he stumbles upon Elain. During his time with Elain, we get this lust, self-hatred, guilt, desperation.  He doesn't want to taint Elain with his presence. He constantly says this is wrong, it’s a mistake.  

He knew it was wrong, but there he was, sliding the necklace around her.

Wrong—it was so wrong.

And then Rhys interrupts and we see anger and spitefulness from Az.  He is defensive, he is in denial.  

"So you will leave Elain alone. If you need to fuck someone, go to a pleasure hall and pay for it, but stay away from her." Azriel snarled softly.  "Snarl all you want." Rhys leaned back in his chair. "But if I see you panting after her again, I'll make you regret it."  Rhys had rarely threatened punishment or pulled rank. It stunned Azriel enough that it knocked him from his rage.

And when he leaves, he goes back to this kind of self-harm because he goes and uses cold to numb his feelings.  

Azriel tucked in his wings and left without another word, stalking through the house and onto the front lawn to sit in the frigid starlight. To let the frost in his veins match the air around him. Until he felt nothing. Was again nothing at all.

He felt nothing.  Was nothing again at all.  A way of self-harm, and it brings out his self-hatred that we saw before.  We continue to get these feelings of disappointment and regret when he says that he was right in avoiding Elain, and we see him have feelings of temptation, rage, frustration, and writhing need.  And he goes to work off these feelings.

He aimed for the training pit, giving in to the need to work of the temptation, the rage and frustration and writhing need.   He found it already occupied. His shadows had not warned him.

And then we get to Gwyn.  We see his interactions with her and how he has a bit of empathy and maybe pity, but also amusement—he can’t help his soft chuckle. He also opens up to her and drops a very important personal bit of information, something Azriel almost never does.  

"Do you, though?" she pressed. "Sing?" Azriel couldn't help his soft chuckle. "Yes."

And we get him working off his temptation and rage and frustration but in a way he didn’t expect.  He was planning on doing it alone and probably in the same sort of way we see with how he sat in the cold by himself: he uses pain to dull his feelings.  But instead of doing this, we see him help Gwyn with her training.  And we see a change in his emotions: his shadows, aka his inner voice, end up calming.  The restlessness in him eases.  He feels content and calm around Gwyn, even after what happened with Elain and Rhys.

Ariel dipped his head in a sketch of a bow, something restless settling in him. Even his shadows had calmed. As if content to lounge on his shoulders and watch.

I truly don’t understand how people take this as Gwyn manipulating Az with her “lightsinger” abilities.  Because he starts with so many negative emotions, and walks out calm.  The restlessness in him eased.  That’s nothing nefarious, it’s a good thing!  So many sentences when he’s teaching Gwyn show that this is a good thing.  

So we see this switch in his emotions.  But let’s also talk about the several sentences that contrast with each other in the bonus chapter.  

We have a sentence that contrasts with the one I brought up before of him flying and making himself so cold he gets numb so he doesn’t feel anything.

Azriel tucked in his wings and left without another word, stalking through the house and onto the front lawn to sit in the frigid starlight. To let the frost in his veins match the air around him. Until he felt nothing. Was again nothing at all.

"Again," he ordered, rubbing his hands against the cold, grateful for its bracing bite and the distraction of this impromptu lesson.

When he left Rhys, he was nothing, and the cold made him feel nothing.  But during this lesson, he’s still cold but he’s a teacher to Gwyn.  He is something.  He has a healthier way of coping with his feelings when he’s with Gwyn.

He also says this to Gwyn:

“Happy Solstice," Azriel said before aiming for the archway into the House. "Don't stay out too much longer. You'll freeze."

This is adorable and ironic and sweet and ugh...such a good little nod to the details SJM brought up before.

When Azriel leaves the training pit, we get another sentence that uses “he found himself” in this bonus chapter:

Before it was, “He found himself leaving the room. Entering the foyer.” And at the end of the BC we get, “Instead, he found himself at the library beneath the House of Wind, standing before Clotho as the clock chimed seven in the evening.”

SJM is using identical phrases to kind of draw a circle in Az’s journey throughout this bonus chapter.

 He finds himself at the library, and the chapter ends with Az thinking of Gwyn smiling and something sparks in his chest…it brings a smile to his own face.

She deserves something as beautiful as this. I thank you for the joy it shall bring to her.  Something sparked in Ariel's chest, but he only nodded his thanks and left. He could picture it, though, as he ascended the stairs back to the House proper. How Gwyn's teal eyes might light upon seeing the necklace. For whatever reason . .. he could see it. But Azriel tucked away the thought, consciously erasing the slight smile it brought to his face. Buried the image down deep, where it glowed quietly. A thing of secret, lovely beauty.

And that last sentence: a thing of secret lovely beauty…that was used before when describing the necklace that he gifted to Elain but she ended up returning.

The golden necklace seemed ordinary- its chain unremarkable, the amulet tiny enough that it could be dismissed as an everyday charm. It was a small, flat rose fashioned of stained glass, designed so that when held to the light, the true depth of the colors would become visible. A thing of secret, lovely beauty.

The way this chapter flows, the way we compare these moments of him with Elain and him with Gwyn; the way we see how his emotions change…t’s so fucking important.  And I truly feel like this bonus chapter is just screaming to us that E/riel is done and Gwynriel is endgame.  

The chapter starts with Elain and ends with Gwyn.

(I did a three part series of my thoughts and analysis of the Azriel bonus chapter and this post is a summary of part 3! Shameless link for some shameless promo lmao)

[foxylady13]

Art is by Jemlin_C

[gwynsdefenseattorney]

Y’all. I think I actually found my favorite e/riel moment. 🫣😱🤭

I absolutely LOVE how he didn’t even volunteer to stay behind with Elain, he made Cassian DRAW STRAWS to see who stayed. Absolutely love it.

ALSO I absolutely love that he NEVER thought of future with her but could plan a whole ass snowball fight all year long. 🤭🤭🤭

The poetry of him saying them both in the same bonus chapter. ✨✨PRICELESS✨✨

[gwynrieldefenseatty]

Never forget that Ruhn Dannan felt a spark in his chest for his mate, Lidia.

Never forget that Azriel felt a spark in his chest for Gwyn, his mate