Gwen and Elyan really are the siblings of all time to me. Excellent cautious one and impulsive one duo, especially since Gwen isn't actually that cautious. She's usually down for a wacky scheme, she's just surrounded by so many headstrong idiots (affectionate) that she has to play the voice of reason sometimes.
Gwen and Elyan both dealt with the consequences of their life choices: Gwen stayed in Camelot and had to watch her father be killed, Elyan kept running off on different adventures and he got himself imprisoned. In Gwen's hour of need, Elyan stayed away. In Elyan's hour of need, Gwen orchestrated her own quest to save him. I'm fascinated by how Gwen doesn't really expect Elyan to come home or to protect her, but she still does everything to keep him safe. And then she gets the reward at the end of her heroic quest, and her brother is finally back home and willing to be part of her life. Being a knight seems like a perfect compromise, since it gives Elyan an outlet for his wandering urge while still keeping him rooted in Camelot, but it apparently was too perfect because when Gwen is banished Elyan isn't willing to give up his knighthood to go with her. He literally took Arthur's side in the divorce, I'm never gonna stop thinking about it. Gwen basically constructed her own tragedy: she did all the work of getting her brother back, and then set him up with a lifestyle so nice that he was willing to prioritize it over her. I always assume that this was why Elyan was so intense in his efforts to save Gwen from the dark tower. He regretted his inaction, and so he overcompensated and charged into danger without thought in order to save her. Again, it's a great little tragic circle: Elyan was too passive in letting Gwen suffer, and so he tried to fix this by becoming overly reckless and getting himself killed instead. Morgana set up the trap with the thought that Gwen's husband would be the one leading the charge, but she failed to consider that her brother would be the one most focused on saving her.
Anyways, there's like three Gwen and Elyan plot points and they're all fascinating to me. What do you mean that Elyan has spent his entire life trying to find a balance between adventure and loyalty, and he never quite got it right. What do you mean Gwen will always protect him anyways, because he's her brother and she loves him.
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