Rumors and stories

A large portion of Unforgiven was about Rumors and past stories of certain characters. However  ironically, in most cases it was not the character telling a story about himself, but another person telling a story about a character. Sharing stories, and spreading them almost seems like the history textbook of the Wild West. The stories a person heard about someone were almost considered the best evidence there is; even better then the actual person telling a story about themselves. For example, when the kid asks Will Munny about the story he heard about Will killing two deputies, he believed himself more then Will. When he asked, Will replied that "he does not recall". Instead of the kid accepting it, he says whatever, and that the kids uncle said it was one of the most spectacular things he has ever seen. It goes to show that the story and rumor is the "real textbook". Even though Will Munny should have the best memory on the event, the kid still believed the story more than Will. But on the other hand, the ending of Unforgiven shows you that perhaps the rumors were not as exaggerated as you might have thought. The rumors in the beggining and middle were mostly about the past of Will Munny, and how other characters viewed it. After a few stories, you started getting a sense that perhaps they werent real. Will did not reflect the character that he does in the stories. However the ending drastically changes your view. At first you are slowly introduced to Will's real character. You see him kill a man, and have no regrets about it; unlike the kid, who after killing a man completely fell apart emotionally. And finally the most important scene. You knew Will was going to kill Little Bill, but it was certainly not expected that he would take out another group of men along with Bill. That last scene showed that perhaps all these rumors about Will killing people, actually had some truth in them.
But there was one final rumor, which I actually considered false or somewhat different from the rest. Right before the shoot-out at the bar, Little Bill asks Will "You are Will Munny, killer of women and children" and Will replies, "Yes I am a killer of women and children". There were two odd things about this rumor. Typically if Will was indeed a killer of women and children, then you would expect him to not have any sympathy over life, and kill whoever he pleases. However at the bar, although he massacred more men, his only intentions were to kill Little Bill and the Bar owner, as revenge for the killing of Ned. This was shown when he told everyone to move out of the way right before shooting the Bar owner and Little Bill. He did not intend on killing anyone else. The other odd thing about this rumor; this was the only rumor that Will actually "admitted to". In the past whenever Will was asked a question about his past , he would always reply "I suppose" or "I dont remember". But in this one occasion he replied "Yes I am a killer of women and children" unlike all his other responses.