I've decided to address something about Gwyn and her role as a warrior.
Some say she's not one one; that she doesn't want to be one! and that she is not familiar/used to being one. Apparently, she has never fought, killed and she doesn't know shit about being violent - or, in better words, she's not okay with any of this. Ah!
There are reasons, according to them:
1. Gwyn went back to the library in the end of ACOSF;
2. She said she didn't want to be called a Carynthian;
3. The Blood Rite was the only time she was close to violence or things related to it and she only used survival instincts.
I may say they also believe we can't know about how she feels from Nesta's pov solely. 🧐
This is the training they do:
Clotho sat perfectly still. Then the pen moved. Train for what?
“To strengthen their bodies, to defend themselves, to attack, if they wish. But also to clear their minds. Help steady them.”
Okay, it is not only to fight. It is also to clear their minds. It could be just it, but that's Gwyn's conversation with Nesta:
“Why did you sign up for this, then?” Nesta drank the glass Gwyn extended. “If you already have mind-calming exercises you’re accustomed to?”
“Because I don’t ever want to feel powerless again,” Gwyn said softly, and all those easy smiles and bright laughs were gone. Only stark, pained honesty shone in her remarkable eyes.
She's not there cuz she wants to exercise and whatever, she's there cuz she wants to be ready to fight when she needs to. 🤷 Not to mention that when Nesta and Gwyn talked about the training, they were talking about being warriors:
Gwyn gestured to Nesta’s fighting leathers, the overlapping scales. “I’m not a warrior.”
“Neither am I. But you could be.”
They could be. And they have decided to be.
“Yes, thank the Cauldron. She’s writing a comprehensive history of the Valkyries.” [....] “A clan of female warriors from another territory.”
“If we are to be Valkyries born again,” [...] “maybe we should combine the Illyrian and Valkyrie techniques.”
At last, he said thickly, “Today, we learn Illyrian techniques.” He nodded to Gwyn. “Tomorrow, you bring me whatever information you have on the Valkyries’ style.”
“This is the Valkyrie test for whether your training is complete and you’re ready for battle: cut the ribbon in half.”
“A warrior’s training is never complete, but if you’re able to slice this ribbon in two—with one cut—then I’d say you can hold your own against most enemies.”
Gwyn lifted trembling fingers to her brow, touching the ribbon with which Nesta had crowned her. - Nesta’s voice was thick as she declared, “Valkyrie.”
They were training to be warriors: with Illyrian techniques and then, Valkyries. Gwyn as the one who said the ribbon was a test to tell if they were ready for battle and Cassian, for fucks sake, was the one who agreed. She cut it. She IS a warrior. And she became one knowing what it meant.
But she doesn't want to be called a Carynthian!
“The Illyrians are going to be furious about our winning, you know. Especially because I have no intention of being called Carynthian. I’m content with being a Valkyrie.”
She doesn't deny she is one. Our winning. She just talking about a title and about something that would make the soldiers, who hate them, mad. And she doesn't deny her being a warrior either: she's a Valkyrie.
Now, what about Gwyn not being used/familiar to violence? An-an. This is part of the training, just a small one:
“If you did that against an opponent,” Cassian said, “they’d be on the ground, gasping for air.”
“And then I’d make the kill.”
Make the kill. THAT'S what they are learning to do - defend AND attack. Or do you think warrior's techniques are for... I don't know, read? Or the dagger lessons Gwyn took were meant to cut fruits? She has been training to deal with all that includes violence and self-defense. She has been training for battle. And she hasn't give up or decided it was not for her.
Ah, but Gwyn has never fought or kill or used survival strategy.
Gwyn nodded. “I started running, and found a cache of weapons almost immediately.” She gestured to the blood on her Illyrian leathers. “I changed from the nightgown into someone else’s clothes. From a body, I mean. [...] She smiled crookedly at Nesta. “I kept to the trees the first two nights, watching the beasts, [...] she found herself with no other option but to scale one behind Emerie and Gwyn, the latter revealing how she’d managed to rest while up one: a long stretch of rope. and Gwyn had used it to bind herself to the trunk of a tree each night.”
Wtf is this then if not strategy?
“You led the beast right to them.”
“I learned where the beasts sleep during the day,” Gwyn said. “And that they get very angry when awoken.” She pointed to the cuts on her face, her hands.
I guess these soldiers are alive and well, right? Or did Gwyn send a beast to kill them?
as Gwyn ducked, slashing across his shins with a dagger. [...] Nesta whirled to the next opponent, but her friends had halted. The males around them were down.
But they are alive and perfectly fine. No killing. No fighting.
You can pretend all you want, Gwyn is familiar with all of that. And by saying this, I don't mean she's on a killing spree - I mean she knows how to kill. She knows how to fight. And she knows how to survive. All of this are part of her training.
And finally, Gwyn is "back" in the library not because she has given up on being a warrior. It has nothing to do with it. She is a Valkyrie and she is still training to get better and stronger. She went through the Blood Rite and she didn't run away. The library was her home even before that; she is there cuz she has her own struggles about the world! About feeling worthy. Things that will need to be developed in her own story.
“I sometimes wonder if I shall ever have the courage to go out there again. I fear every day that I won’t.”
In the end, she is the badass character you don't want her to be. Cuz she's a warrior, she can handle being a warrior, she will have her future out of her shell and all while she is sweet, caring, intelligent and funny. Yes, she's your worst nightmare.
