#everyone has their own choice but dear god this fandom has an issue with toxic stans on all sides of every ship tbh

[ghostiewriter]

So I have a question and i just wanna say in no way am i trying to be mean or anything I'm genuinely curious and I hope i don't come off sounding like an asshole because I'm really trying not to be 😭. But I've seen that you ship gwyn and azriel from acotar and i read the series myself recently which i very much enjoyed but I really couldn't find myself shipping them together while reading it. I was waiting for something to happen between them that would tip me off that maybe they were into each other a little but i couldn't or i just didn't feel much when reading about them.

I wanted to ask what exactly your reasons were for wanting them together and again I'm really not trying go be rude i just wanted to see from your perspective.

you're not coming off rude at all, bestie!! its so fine!!

i'll be honest, up until acosf came out, i was at peace with the idea that azriel was probably gonna be paired off with elain and it didn't bother me all that much, but then gwyn came into the picture and everything just made sense to me

whilst the three sisters/three brothers plot would be incredibly predictable, azriel and gwyn's story is quite poetic to me.

here you have this powerful warrior whose always viewed himself lesser than his brothers, who goes for women he deep down knows he shouldn't, who never saw himself worthy of love or just never believed it was in the stars for him because he has all these "ugly" reminders (aka his scars being a direct and constant reminder of his trauma)

then you have gwyn who is the opposite of azriel in a sense. she went through something equally as horrible and traumatic, but her scars are internal. she is strong, bold and sassy when you eventually get to know her, and very determined but there is still that fear holding her back from being truly healed. she is terrified that the library will be her future forever, that the closest she will get to that kind of love would be in books she reads.

i think they both also parallel each other in how they view everything. they both care deeply about the people around them, but azriel's view tends to be more pessimistic when it comes to him and gwyn tends to be more isolating.

i think through the small interactions we do see of them, they just fit each other personality wise. azriel has seen gwyn at her worst and yet helps her get to her best through training. gwyn doesn't treat azriel like the scary spymaster everyone views him as, she treats him like a person. add in the wee "you're the new ribbon, az" and "see you tomorrow, shadowsinger" and i just think they compliment each other so well

gwyn catches him off guard, she helps him just relax a little and we see it throughout the book, but i think the best is in the azriel bonus chapter. he was so wound up and conflicted and going through so much, and all of a sudden here comes gwyn who throws him off and he actually seems quite relaxed throughout the interaction. gwyn would give him the unconditional love he doesnt believe he deserves because she sees him as a person

whilst i think azriel would help be the person gwyn needs to heal. obviously its a personal journey, but having someone there with her who quite literally saw her at her worst would be that small comfort she needs when she is healing. plus the fact she is comfortable around him shows that she does trust him

there is obviously other small moments like the fact he was worried when she was in the blood rite, their story being a parallel to a little mermaid retelling and the general angst of the necklace situation being something sjm would definitely do but i just truly adore them so much

and the idea that both of them have this aversion to touch but would help each other through it? help each other heal from their trauma/scars?🥹yeah okay im just such a sucker for them