#emma will read the beautiful cordelia i know she will

[bluesadansey]

🔥 anything tsc related

the biggest problem with Queen of Air and Darkness to me is that it really should have been two books. I really enjoy the grief exploration in that book in the wake of Livvy’s death felt cathartic to me on reread and I find Julian’s switch-off arc in relation to that fascinating. I enjoy Thule in terms of how it ties into the main arc with the blackthorns although I’m not crazy about the twp set ups from it. Basically there’s quite a bit in that book I do like but as a finale it’s rushed and disappointing. I also do think either Julian or Emma or both dying would have made the ending slay and I say this as someone who clearly looooves them both and Blackstairs (considering how much I love blackstairs as it is think I would be even more insane about it if we got full tragic potential realized).

Grace x Lucie is thee toxic yuri dynamic in tsc and I think ya’ll are cowards for not paying attention to it. Literally the only reason I would reread tlh is to write fic about them ChoI era because someone should.

on a related note Lucie Herondale reads as a lesbian to me, she says at one point she’s never been attracted to a boy other than Jesse who is kind of a phantom she can make into whatever she wants / project storybook romance tropes onto in a sense for most of the books and she reads as more attracted to Cordelia with the whole ‘Beautiful Cordelia’ fanfiction and like I said her most interesting dynamic with the most chemistry is her and Grace, so yeah I get comp het vibes personally I know that’s my subjective read.

I’m pretty neutral on Clary sometimes I really liked her sometimes I was frustrated by her but I do think this counts as unpopular since most either hate or love her. I do think she falls into the 2010s heroine who is written to have an overly romantically focused arc but all her interesting bits of characterization are about tangential platonic dynamics that the author doesn’t care to elaborate on much… but also this could be an ungenerous or overly generous assessment since it’s been years since I touched og tmi. I do side eye some people for giving Jace a lot of grace to be ‘complex’ and process his trauma and be dismissive of how much she goes through in the books ( I kind of hate Jace. without nuance)

I think I deserve one on one Tessa and Julian interactions in twp, not for any logical reason I just think I deserve it since they’re my two favorite tsc characters. And there’s a lot of fan service in recent tsc anyway… let me have this.

Kieran is overrated I don’t dislike him and enjoy him in the context of Kierarktina and as a foil to Julian, but I don’t fervently love him the way a lot of people do. (I also really disliked his fandom when the tda books were coming out so that might influence this).

I want Thule! Emma to come into play in twp … I’m very interested in the idea of her in the aftermath of Thule Julian and Sebastian’s deaths. I had an idea for a fic about her but didn’t write it partly because of laziness partly because I felt I’d have to go back to tmi to remember endarkened lore for that.

Grace Blackthorn discourse was kind of unserious… not because I don’t think people can have valid reasons to dislike her obviously those exist. What she did to James was sexual assault and of course fans who hate her for it are valid. But I COULD NOT with some of statements about her especially on twitter that were like ‘well if she was a Male Character ya’ll would never forgive her and she would never get a redemption arc she only does cause she’s a pretty white girl’ like GORL. GORL what universe are you living in what paranormal/fantasy media do you consume and engage in fandoms for if you think that a male character who does a nebulous magical consent violation is going to get Less grace (no pun intended) from the narrative and fandom than a female character and would NEVER get a redemption arc. I can’t even ya’ll are dumb. If I’m being really generous maybe they just don’t read/watch a lot of paranormal media other than tsc because otherwise I…

Thanks for the ask <3

(send me a 🔥+topic/fandom and I’ll give some unpopular opinions)

#asks #tsc #tda #tlh #tmi #chaosandtwo #mutuals #sa mention #sorry but me as someone who blogs about TVDu reading that: you have to be Kidding me 😭 #more like if she were a man she would have ended up with the love interest she violated and gotten everything she wanted #s speaks

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Saturday, March 30th

DARLA: I wanna say I'm sorry. I wanna say it and mean it, but I can't. Aren't you gonna tell me it's okay? ANGEL: No. DARLA: No? It's really not, is it? We did so many terrible things together. So much destruction, so much pain. We can't make up for any of it. You know that, don't you? ANGEL: Yeah. DARLA: This child... Angel, it's the one good thing we ever did together. The only good thing.

~~Lullaby~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Say Hello to My Little Friend by NotASlayer (Buffy, Spike, T)

without that blood by GlassFullOfSass (Giles, Stranger Things crossover, T)

Parties are more fun in the bathroom by RandomPizzaEater (Buffy/Spike, E)

Is She Over Me? (Like the Stars and the Sun) by MadeInGold (Buffy/Cordelia, T)

not so normal again by InvisiblePinkToast (Buffy & Dawn, T)

i think you're really beautiful by EmilytheSlayer (Buffy/Spike, G)

Warmer than a Comforter by evieelyzabethh (Spike/reader, not rated)

Choosing peace by itsalwaysteatimeinwonderland (Spike/reader, not rated)

Untitled by vampandvisiongirl (Angel/Cordelia, not rated)

Spike texting Angel by scooby-group-texts

[Chaptered Fiction]

Raven, Chapter 9 by sparrow2000 (Xander & Spike, G)

A Reincarnation in Sunnydale, Chapter 34 by DracoRim98 (Buffy/Angel, M)

Night of the Witch, Chapter 2 by Bregan_Daerthe_Agent (Hannah_Girl), Hannah_Girl (Willow, Tolkien and Supernatural crossover, M)

Lavender Haze, Chapter 14 by Sera (Buffy/Jax, M, Sons of Anarchy crossover)

Rebehold the Stars (Love from the Other Side of the Apocalypse), Chapter 11 by asokatanos (Emryslin) (Buffy/Spike, T)

Straight to the Heart, Chapter 10 (complete!) by QuillBard (Buffy/Faith, M)

Blasphemy, Chapter 11 by wickedrum (Buffy/Spike, T)

Raven, Chapter 9 by sparrow2000 (Xander & Spike, G)

Greatest Love Story Postlude, Chapter 11 by FalseGinger (Angel/Spike, M)

The Reason Why, Chapter 6 by Xyex (Buffy/OC, M)

Slayer No More, Chapter 9 by jsaint34 (Buffy/Pike, M)

The Boring Stuff: Inca Mummy Girl, Chapter 3 by missfiggy (Buffy/Angel, T)

The Evil that Men Do: Chapter 4 by VladimirHarkonnen (TheLightdancer) (Willow & Tara, E)

lost behaviours of a self-destructive mind, Chapters 1-2 by EmilytheSlayer (Buffy/Spike, M)

Weight of the World, Chapter 1 by Enigmatist (Buffy/Spike, not rated)

Bloodlines, Chapters 1-31 (complete!) by Tait_scott (Angel ensemble, M)

Weight of the World, part 2 by Enigmatist (Buffy/Spike, not rated)

Untitled, part 3 by Enigmatist (Angel/Spike, not rated)

Early One Morning, Chapter 28 by all choseny (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Afterburn, Chapter 31 by Melme1325 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

In Any Life, Chapter 7 by Spikelover4ever (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Love Lives Here, Chapter 42 by Passion4Spike (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The Balance, Chapter 30 (complete!) by ClowniestLivEver (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Triangles, Chapter 30 (complete!) by ClowniestLivEver (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Embrace, Chapter 30 by Harlow Turner (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Tag, You're It! Chapter 30 by VeroNyxK84 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Glimpses of the Cellar Dwellers, Chapter 30 by Maldorana (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

How Could I Not? Chapter 30 (complete!) by simmony (Buffy/Spike, R)

X.X, Chapter 30 by Rea (Buffy/Spike, R)

30 Ways to Say I Love You, Chapter 30 (complete!) by Maxine Eden (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Crossing Over, Chapter 30 by Julikobold (Buffy/Spike, G)

Forever and Always? Chapter 30 (complete!) by scratchmeout (Buffy/Spike, R)

Accidental Casualties, Chapters 29-30 (complete!) by Julikobold (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Dead End, Chapter 30 by all choseny (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Pick Me Up, Chapter 30 (complete!) by Dusty (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

The Dawnster Drabbles, Chapters 29-30 by Passion4Spike (Buffy/Spike, PG)

Truth or Dare, Chapters 29-30 (complete!) by Chelle (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Left on Read, Chapter 29 by ashcrashed (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

I love you, Chapters 30-31 (complete!) by Lilacsandorangeblossoms (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Boyfrenemy, Chapters 25-26 by Lady Emma (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Out of the Wasteland, Chapter 30 (complete!) by Harlow Turner (Buffy/Spike, R)

Bad Idea, Right? Chapters 29-30 (complete!) by scratchmeout (Buffy/Spike, R)

Bang, Chapter 30 (complete!) by scratchmeout (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Something Lingers, Chapters 22-25 by goodbyetoyou (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork: Buffy & OC by artsying-ifer (worksafe)

Artwork: Angel and Connor by artsying-ifer (worksafe)

Artwork: Lilah and Lindsey by genericaces (worksafe)

Fanvid: Connor | St. Bernard by genericaces (0)

Fanvid: Buffy & Angel / Love Exists by darkswordsfish7 (0)

Fanvid: buffy & angel | snow on the beach by lostlcve (0)

Fanvid: Buffy x Riley - Love Story by Featureless Expanse (0)

Fanvid: Buffy & Spike | I LUV IT by TheMillennialSlayer (0)

Fanvid: Buffy The Vampire Slayer (the best one) by Burger Boy (Buffy movie)

Fanvid: Buffy and Angel - Walk Away by juliaroxs241 (creator also posted multiple other vids)

Video: No Lie. Buffy The Vampire Slayer... by Gamesneditz (0)

Artwork process video: Riley by Sadiq's Solitude (worksafe)

[Reviews & Recaps]

BTVS/Angel Rewatch Chronicles: Seasons 4/1, Part Three by QualifiedApathetic

Video: Buffy Season 5 Deep Dive/Spoiler Discussion Part 1 by Revisiting the Buffyverse

Video: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season Four, Episode Fourteen: Goodbye Iowa by Slayed! The Buffyverse Revisited Podcast

Video: Smashed-Slayer Sunday by Jane Talks Buffy

Video: Thoughts on Season 3 and extras! by Vic

Podcast: A Girl, A Guy, and Slayers: A Buffyverse Story by A Girl, A Guy and A Buffy Podcast (creators posted multiple other podcasts)

[Community Announcements]

HELLO STUDENTS OF SUNNYDALE HIGH SCHOOL by sunnydale-high-school-rumors

[Fandom Discussions]

In Season 2’s Becoming, after being outed as the Slayer to her mother ... by coraniaid

do you ever think about how connor’s kidnapping and return “kills” the son that angel hoped for by justafriendofxanders

Willow being into the Gor books by kyliafanfiction

how gunn was the only human left alive at the end of the show by moistvonlipwig

My favorite Sp*ffy moment is when Spike watched Buffy and Angel interact again for two minutes in End of Days by nevergonnabemuchmorethanweather

Reptile Boy: Giles was more of a parent to Buffy than Joyce if we being real by theredpharaoah

the saddest connor line by angelthemanspanker

Angel the Series is insane by danceandsing

Why Buffy, as a character, fell in love with Angel as a character by zalrb

Rewatch thoughts and questions continued by multiple posters

Would you have tried to rehabilitate Faith after Consequences? continued by sybil and AbercornBay

Angel's role in the apocalypse by redskinsguy

Food related Buffy phrases for kitchen wall art? by Lady_Cath_Diafol

Love sassy Spike! by FirePhoton_Torpedoes

rip ____ you’ve would have loved but with buffy characters! by Certain_Advantage799

Not really liking season 6 by bevgron

What is Ethan's vendetta against Giles? by sushibananawater

What's a scene in the Buffyverse that upset or pissed majority of the audience off, but you actually understand the character's POV? by PristineSituation498

Why and how Buffy fans should watch Angel by Kardnival

Emulating this game [Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002) Xbox] was 100% the main reason I bought a Steam Deck by iamjimothy

[Claddagh ring] Can anyone else relate? by funishin

Season 6 Foreshadowing? by c_atlas_t

Angel Puppet by Dry-Dragonfruit5216

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

Video: The Barbie Movie and Buffy the Vampire Slayer?? Yep, meet Nickolaus Brown, costumer extraordinaire! by Kada (Buffy part starts 29:08)

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Join the editor team :)

#buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #angel the series #ats

[matthewlucies]

"She’s started the massive job of sorting through decades of papers and journals that used to belong to the people who lived here."

Cassie made it canon that Emma is going to find Lucie's manuscripts and read The Beautiful Cordelia as she should!

#i dont make the rules #emma will read the beautiful cordelia i know she will #the secrets of blackthorn hall #the shadowhunters chronicles #shadowhunters #shc #tsc #emma carstairs #cassandra clare #sobh spoilers #sobh #lucie herondale #the beautiful cordelia

[vickchan2]

Someone please tell me Tessa told Julian about queen Lucie Herondale too!!

They would have loved to hear about her!! And I will give up my first born if Emma tells Tessa she found The Beautiful Cordelia so she can give it to her to be read to Mina someday

Also, the next Blackthorn who needs to visit Tessa is Mark Blackthorn. Tessa needs to know her polyamorous ways were passed down

Challenge: Tessa Herondale Castairs please tell the Blackthorn you are their ancestor

#the last hours #the infernal devices #tessa gray #will herondale #lucie herondale #james herondale #kit herondale #wessa #jessa #mina carstairs #secrets of the blackthorn hall #julian blackthorn #emma carstairs

[anarmorofwords]

Hc turns out Alastair actually likes politics

Hes smart and hed like to make a change in the way shadowhunters are treated

Hes like Christopher in that aspects, wanting to use different ways to advocate and carry out his mandate thought hes a good fighter

But he thinkseverything is extremly wrong and corrupted and its all shit after the breakup and he starts having HIS own thoughts

And necesarily he doesnt want to actually actively participate in politics

He wants to live his life and be happy

But it never stops nagging him that there is something wrong

So he does what he knows how to do

He writes, and advocates, and apologizez to Thomas cause he is aware Gideon is high up in politics but see your fathers not the problem im critisizing a system.

Writes it under A.C.

And everyones knows its him but no one can prove it so

Hes very vocal aboit his opinions

Once he dies the clave really tries to hude everything he did

All his small victories, his writtings everything because it challenges their costumes. Until Alec is able to find them

And theyre brilliant

And after getting 1900's speak (which is hilarious cause he just walks around the apartment with Alastairs letters like "hey babe what does effontry mean?" And magnus will shout "means someones being a huge dick" "Thank you Magnus")

Its actually pretty smart

He asks if Magnus has any idea who AC is and Magnus really doesnt know (he wasnt in shadowhunter buisness around that time he just visited offly) (and by offly I mean every ten years)

So he takes one of the letters for some time to try to figure it out and after reading everything just clicks like "Oh shit this was Cordelias brother"

And Alec is like???

Magnus: okok remember how I told you half your ancestors just didnt just "not marry" but were excrutiatingly gay

Alec nods

Magnus hands him the letter: see this was one of your ancestors lovers and he was a smartass cocky mf

After that lovely explanation he actually gets down to genuinly explain who Alstair was

His theory was really good Alec noted

At the end he takes into account some of the things he wrote

And when he finds an old letter (that had nothing to do with politics) he gives it to Emma

She lost everything she had of her family besides her sword

He knows shed like to have his ancestor as equally liked to participate in fuck the clave agenda

ok wait I'm having a moment *aka crying*

You KNOW this is exactly what he'd do. Like, I don't even know what to say I'm so emotional about this concept

He would totally see Charlotte's struggles with Maurice and the rest of Clave, and that's even more reason to keep it anon (to a degree, as you said) so people couldn't say he's biased (because Fairchilds/Lightwoods/Herondales' are friends and everyone knows that.)

(But honestly would many people be able to guess it's him?!? Like those asses that used to know his wittiness and eloquence wouldn't believe his opinions changed (because even after he starts "living with his dear friend Thomas" and gets closer to Lightwoods etc., that's not enough proof for people to suspect him, and he's not vocal about his views. and his friends etc wouldn't say. Idk just thinking out loud)

Oh I'm pretty sure Thomas wouldn't mind BUT ALSO IMAGINE ALASTAIR JUST STRAIGHT UP DISCUSSING THESE THINGS WITH GIDEON

like we know Gideon basically adopts him (aka that's a headcanon I'll never ever abandon it's canon shut up everyone) and loves him like his own son and so they just meet for dinner/tea/whatever to chat, and Alastair would often just suggest things to Gideon so he could present them to the Clave please this would be perfect

Also I don't know as much about Enneagram as you, but from what I've read wanting to leave their mark on the world is pretty important to eights, so on one hand yes those writings helping and inspiring Alec years later is beautiful af, but also THE CLAVE BURYING IT ALL FOR DECADES BREAKS MY HEART

just... Alastair dying, say, probably somewhere around/after WWII, and seeing how mundanes world went to shit and seeing similarly dangerous fucked up notions among the Shadowhunters (I barely remember TMI, but I doubt the Circle jsut appeared out of nowhere and there were no idiotic ideas like theirs before ) atahgasyab my heart </3

the thought of Magnus reminiscing about TLH gang to Alec shit shit shit- *cries more*

And damn Alec would find so much comfort in Alastair's story - a man who fought for the right cause even despite all he went through, and even in those much worse times. It brings Alec strength to face his own battles, reminds him to never give up. sometimes he's tired and defeated and thinks maybe it would be better to just leave it all behind and try to fight for nothing more than his own family's well-being, but then he glances at one of those essays, framed over his desk, and he takes a deep breath. He thinks of Alastair, and says to himself 'its for him'. For the guy that didn't get to see the changes, but relentlessly advocated for them all the same. Its for Thomas, Eugenia and Anna Lightwood, Matthew Fairchild, Kamala Joshi, who all should not have lived through those struggles. That's what he can do for them now.

fuck fuck fuck look I don't like Emma but the thought of her smugly realising one of her ancestors was not only a badass gay icon but an advocate for change that messed with the Clave as much as he could hold up I'm gonna cry-

Basically-

#zia you'll be the death of me #the last hours #tlh #alastair carstairs #chain of iron spoilers #thomas lightwood #the shadowhunter chronicles #alec lightwood #magnus bane #alec lightwood bane #mutuals! #zia ask #tw swearing #tw caps

[beclynn-herondale]

Jace and Kit bonding

Jace and Kit were meeting up for their monthly visit. It was Jace's turn to go to Cirenworth and see Kit.

Next time Kit would come to New York. He enjoyed it there because Jace and Clary would let him eat all the cookies he wanted.

Sometimes Jace would bake the cookies, he was good at baking, and Clary would decorate them, he was not good at decorating. “That's why Clary is his perfect partner,” he'd said half jokingly one time.

Clary and Jace had come to be protective of Kit, as they had with Emma Carstairs and the Blackthorns. And like they were with their nephews.

Jace and Kit had been sitting around for a while in a comfortable and peaceful silence.

”So,” Jace said breaking the silence. “You've heard about Will Herondale and James Herondale and even Tobias Herondale. But did you hear about Lucie?”

“I've heard a little,” Kit replied. “Didn't she write a lot?”

“Yup. Basically, she was like a fanfiction writer,” Jace smiled. “I wish we could read her work. I believe it was called The Beautiful Cordelia.”

Lucie Herondale had also done other things, things that were technically breaking the law. Which only made Jace want to meet her more.

“Sounds gay,” Kit said.

“All good things are a little gay,” Jace laughed a little. It was something a drunk Alec had said randomly one time, and it stuck. “She was also cousins with the Lightwoods.”

“I think they should have been the Gaywoods,” Kit laughed.

“Agreed,” said Jace. “And then there's Cecily Herondale-Lightwood. She killed a giant demon worm.”

“She sounds badass.” Kit sat up from where they were lying on the floor.

“She was,” Jace gave a slight nod as he sat up as well. “I bet she was super cool. Did you hear about Ella Herondale?”

He nodded. “She seems like the bravest of them all, honestly.”

“That she does,” he agreed.

Jace thought of Rosemary — he didn't know much about her, but she seemed like a brave woman as well. But he thought better than to bring her up, he didn't want to upset Kit.

“I feel like the Herondale women are just cooler,” Jace said.

“Jem said that if Will heard you either of us saying that he'd put on a show to prove his coolness,” Kit informed.

Jace shrugged. “The coolest people I know are women. Clary, Izzy, Emma," Jace listed. "Tessa as well. I could keep going.”

“True.”

“Alec's also cool,” Jace added.

“He seems like it. I talk with him a lot when he and Magnus come to visit,” Kit said. "He seems so assuring and wise.”

“He is. But he'll never admit it,” Jace smiled fondly at the thought of his parabatai.

“How high do you think Cecily had to jump to land on the back of the worm?” Kit asked, shifting back to the original topic.

“Very high, probably,” Jace answered. “I bet it was super cool.”

“Don't you think anyone killing demons is cool?” Kit raised an eyebrow.

“Yup,” he winked. “And they look good doing.”

Kit shook his head, but smiled.

“I wonder if Tessa has a copy of Lucie's writing,” Jace said.

“She might. But she might not want anyone reading it," Kit looked down. "It might be something precious to her, you know?”

Jace did know. The Lightwoods still kept that toy Shadowhunter that Jace had given Max. They never got rid of it, it wasn't something your could get rid of. Izzy barely let anyone touch it for the longest time. Or the text messages from Robert they'd never deleted from their phones. He could imagine that's what Lucie's writing if for Tessa.

“But,” Kit added, “maybe she would love that we're interested in Lucie's writing. Did you know she used an axe?”

“I did. Have you ever seen the show Brooklyn Nine-Nine? Simone and Clary introduced it to me. One of the women in it said 'What kind of woman doesn't own an axe?' And I bet Lucie would have agreed.”

“I've watched the show. Rosa is a badass.”

Jace nodded. “We should watch it together next time.”

“Sure, I'd love that,” Kit agreed. “Then we won't have to talk about things.”

“Ah, teenage angst,” Jace sighed.

“Like you weren't the same as a teenager,” Kit shot back.

“Oh, no. I was worse. That's why I'm sighing.” He smiled.

“Whatever,” Kit snorted.

“I wonder if Cecily liked blades,” Jace looked up.

“Probably. Isn't that like a Shadowhunter thing?”

“Maybe,” Jace shrugged. “Or maybe it's a badass thing. Speaking of which, how is training with your sword going?”

“Good,” he said, a little uninterested.

“How's Mina?” Jace decided to change the subject.

Kit's face lit up then. “She's adorable and amazing. She's going to be a badass.”

He went on to tell Jace about everything Mina was doing. He told her about their recent visit with Magnus, and how she called him Agnes.

“You know what I think?” Kit had mischievous grin. “I should change Magnus' name in my phone to Agnes. Then change Tessa's and Jem's. You should also change yours.”

That would be hilarious, Jace thought.

Jace held his hand out. “Let's shake on it.”

Kit shook his hand. “Even if he turns us into something, it'll be worth it.”

“Agreed,” Jace grinned. “Besides, he already has me in his phone as 'Blondie.' I'll consider this pay back.”

“And they say revenge isn't sweet,” Kit joked.

They both laughed.

Kit was like a little brother to Jace now, it was something he hadn't felt in a long time. Not since Max. He was grateful for Kit.

It came time for Jace to leave, he said good-bye to Jem, Tessa, and little Mina. And for the first time Kit didn't hesitate to give him a quick hug good-bye. Jace ruffled his hair.

He was a good kid, Jace thought.

Tag list: @khaleesiofalicante @chibi-tsukiko @spotsandclawsthings @megs-readstoomuch @magnus-the-maqnificent @replayfootsteps @my-archerboy @jazzkaurtheglorious @simply-ellas-stuff @bookfast-at-tiffanys

#something i wrote on the spot #i was inspired #jace herondale #jace lightwood herondale #kit herondale #christopher herondale #jace and kit #tsc #the shadowhuter chronicles #the mortal instruments #twp #the wicked powers #bec's fanfics #tsc fanfics

[ladyhindsight]

I haven't read TLH yet but wait, if the Carstairs in the books are the same Emma is related to, does that mean that she has a half Persian great-grandparent? And Jem (half Chinese) is supposed to be related to her as well...

Yet she looks like the female version of Mr. White Man Jace Herondale LMAO

It's so messed up how all the Shadowhunters of color are half white and have English last names except for the Rosales (which are stereotyped as particularly religious, because they're Mexican I suppose 🙄)

And how the only characters of color who are fully not white, are all Dawnworlders aka half demon (or fully demon, in the case of Madame Dorothea)

The only exception being Magnus, who's half white (and incidentally the romantic endgame for a white character...)

I think I read one of your replies in the past where you said that this is not whitewashing on Clare's part, but as someone who is black and latino, I can tell you that Clare's narratives surrounding race/ethnicities are incredibly racist.

She not only whitewashes the SH in any way she can because everything revolves around English family names and white protagonists, but also the beauty standards she promotes are very Eurocentric. I was told that Anna often tells Cordelia that Cordelia can't wear certain colors because they don't go well with her dark skin, and Cordelia internalizes that (it's also a very racist rhetoric that is very popular today).

Someone made a list of all the characters of color with unusual eye and hair color (as if to compensate for their dark skin) - I think Cordelia herself has red hair and golden eyes 🤦🏾‍♀️- and of all the characters with blue/green/grey eyes. Brown eyes are the most common irl, yet they rarely feature in Clare's books (and if they do, the character always envies people who have light eyes, like Isabelle wanting Alec's blue eyes)

Combine the eye thing with the fact that evil/demonic Sebastian had dark eyes, but the moment he becomes good he has light eyes (green to be exact), and it's really not a good look

Demon/evil = dark

Dark skin = ugly

Must be compensated with light hair and eyes

The racism of the main characters is never challenged because they are the Heroes and can do no wrong (like in Anna's case, who I was told also treats women like objects/trophies and makes her brown love interest feel guilty for not coming out in a racist, homophobic society??? Like what the hell does CC hate f/f relationships so much??)

I know that many white people or people outside of the US (certain stereotypes are very prominent over here, but might not be well known elsewhere) do not realize how problematic all of this is. 99% of the posts I've seen about it was from people of color. It is a big issue.

I’m getting a feeling that The Last Hours is going to be some big Carstairs Family Tree reveal. Pretty dull if it’s true that Alastair is Emma’s ancestor by blood that Emma doesn’t bear any resemblance to him. Or Jace to Cordelia for that matter. I looked up the (current) family trees, and apparently there is no word on the appearances of Owen or Marcus Herondale. But we know Stephen was blond and blue-eyed, so.

I didn’t say it wasn’t whitewashing. I thought there wasn’t an outright ill intent behind the whitewashing rather than Clare’s insistence on everything happening to the same families and characters that are white and everything else conforming around her favorite characters. It doesn’t make it acceptable, and her lack of capabilities as to creating a consistent narrative obviously haven’t changed at all. It also doesn’t help the fact that Clare rather swats at some of the criticism in form of Zara Dearborn than listens to the points that readers have made.

It is discouraging to imagine that you’ve created all these characters from all over the world but then refuse to show their natural beauty and to broaden the notion of beauty and what it can be. I’ve only read the first chapter of Chain of Gold, but Cordelia wasn’t really described at all? I knew what James Herondale looked like before Cordelia. I went to check the wiki page and it says Cordelia’s eyes are black, so that’s something. I’m left to find out whether Clare waxes as much poetry about her eyes than she does of golden or Blackthorn ones. Which I doubt.

I’ve attributed a lot of Clare’s writing to her thoughtlessness and inability to think the implications in her writing. It is incomprehensible to me that it would be deliberate for Clare to be outright racist because what good would it do to her, especially when she basically wants to hailed as the queen of inclusivity and representation. She evidently doesn’t realize what she writes is hurtful, welcome the feedback, or own up. I think it is safe to say that many readers are fully aware of her behavior during her fan fiction days. And in that sense it is consistent that she rather bury her mistakes under deleted websites and deny their existence than admit to it.

It shows what her focus is not really in depicting what she thinks she is depicting, whether she admits it or not, realizes it herself or not. But it’s exactly what you said: the heroes can do no wrong, can’t have their behavior challenged (but always sympathized), can’t have them admit to any wrong doing whatsoever. And it applies to the racism in the series as well as their behavior in general. No one gets to one-up them ever, and that is some insecure writing.

If it was the point of Anna’s character, that this behavior would stem from how sheltered and accepted she has always been and the she is completely unable to relate to or understand those who haven’t had such privilege as her, then yeah, make Anna despicable and having no empathetic to her love interest or Cordelia, but make her also own up to it and call her out. Otherwise it’s nothing, no meaning, just plain ignorance towards how you are writing your characters and the implications of it.

#The Last Hours #Series discussion #Anti CC #Anti Cassandra Clare #Reply

[bookswitchcraftandcats]

Rainy Days (Part 2 of 4)

Link to AO3 --- Part 1 

Summary: Emma and Julian are in charge of the London Institute for a week and find a box that once belonged to Cordelia Carstairs and contains poems written to her by James Herondale. The story switches between Emma and Julian and oneshots about things that happened in Jordelia's life to inspire the poems.

Disclaimer: Cassie owns the whispering room scene

Sorry if the formatting for the poems is messed up, I tried.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

“What do you think he meant by ‘cut through the wickedest of powers’?” Emma says while looking at the poem. Julian is laying next to her idly playing with her hair. He always loved the golden color of it and how it seemed to glow in the sunlight. It had taken him hundreds of paintings to get it just right.

“I don’t know,” he responded, “but I do think that he really loved her, almost as much as I love you.” They both blush and he kisses Emma’s nose.

“I love you too,” Emma says. She laid her head against Julian’s chest. They were both kind of tired and not used to such cloudy weather. Emma thought more about her own sword and the poem. It was kind of strange to think about how long ago this was written, and how it was about the same sword. It was like when Julian paints pictures of her and Cortana. Maybe one day one of their descendants will find his painting and have the same adventure.

“James Herondale seems to have been very good with words,” Julian says while looking over the old poem again, as though he can take some romance advice from it.

“You're just as good,'' says Emma while she looks through the contents of the jewelry box. She opens another compartment.

“What is this?” she says reaching for a stone, it lights up at her touch.

“Witchlight,” Jules says, looking at the angelic light.

“This must have also been Cordelia’s,” she states, still looking at the small rock in her hand, “maybe it meant something to her, or someone special gave it to her.”

She knew she had a brother, Alastair, maybe that was who gave it to her. This box seemed to hold things she valued so it couldn’t be just any witchlight. The stone was heavy in her hand, it’s light reflecting through the room. She thought of the light Jace had given Mark and about what comfort Cortana gave her. Sometimes it wasn’t about what the object could do, but who gave it to you when you needed it most that matters.

“When did Tessa say she was coming?” Jules asks, bringing Emma out of her thoughts.

“I think around 7 ish” she says, “we still have a good amount of time before they come.”

“What do you think she will think about this...does she know this is here?”

“Probably, she lived here for over half a century, if anyone knows this institute it is her.”

Emma looked at the clock. They still had like 2 hours before they would be here and there was nothing left to do today. They couldn’t even explore the city with all this rain.

“Do you want to read another one?” she asks Jules.

“Sure,” he says as he picks up one titled The Whispering Room.

The Whispering Room

You step onto the old wooden stage, And tell us a fairy tale with your movement. Gliding and spinning in arcs of gold and fire, Every soul is drawn to the beautiful legend.

You step off into the crowd that you shocked, Carrying a sense of confidence as you turn to me. And then we ran off to find a hiding spot, Away from the stares and chatter of the club.

We step into a room with an open door, You're looking even more gorgeous than before. We kiss in a way that wasn't of careful fairy tales, It was a real kiss jarring me into a clearer world.

The heat from the fire now not the only source. The world seems to fade to you and only you. If only this could could be captured and last forever, Among the smoke and sounds in the whispering room.

The Merry Thieves were moving out of the Devil’s Tavern. They all had houses now and didn’t really have much use for the room. They figured another generation of boys up to no good could benefit more from them then they can now. They had a lot of stuff stored there so all week they had been moving and bringing stuff home. Tonight, James and Cordelia were there to sort through some of the books. It began to rain as they worked so they probably wouldn’t be taking many with them unless the storm stopped.

“You kept a lot of books here,” Cordelia says while looking through another shelf.

“We couldn’t keep most of these at the institute” James explains while picking up a book about how to summon demons.

“I guess not,” Cordelia responds. She then spots an old leather journal that seems familiar. “I think this was one of your notebooks.”

James walks over from his pile of books. He spots the journal and laughs a little.

“That was one of my old poetry journals.” She pulls it off of the shelf and they sit on the couch.

“Any about me?” she asks with a smirk. He blushes and Cordelia raises an eyebrow.

“Probably” he says, turning through the pages. He stops at one that is titled The Whispering Room and they both burst out laughing.

“That was quite the night” James says.

“And the part you remember was when we were hidden kissing in the Whispering Room,” Cordelia says, shaking her head.

“I remember that dance too,” He states with a smirk. She was very beautiful on that stage, no one watching will ever forget about that. Cordelia still gets comments about it whenever they are down at the Hell Ruelle.

“I’m sure a lot of people remember that dance,” she says.

“You know,” James starts, “I might need a reminder, I wouldn’t mind seeing that dance again.”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t,” she responded, kissing him on the cheek.

Then the door opened and Thomas and Alastair walked in. James and Cordelia both blushed a bit.

“I don’t even want to know what you were up to,” Alastair says while walking over to grab a box of Thomas’s books. Most of them were in languages only Thomas and Alastair knew how to speak anyways.

“Hello” Thomas says, “I didn’t think you two would be here tonight.”

“We just had a few more books to grab and then figured we would stay until the rain stopped,” James replies while not so slyly putting an arm around Cordelia.

“It’s so weird leaving this place,” Thomas says while looking at the now nearly empty room. “We caused so many fire hazards here.” They all glanced at the burn mark on the back wall from an explosion gone wrong.

“We can always cause fire hazards at my house,” James started but was cut off by his wife.

“Absolutely not!” Corldelia said as Alastair laughed. James ignored this and continued,

“Besides, some other group of boys will enjoy causing trouble here just as much as we did.”

They continued to pack their things and looked outside as the rain began to stop and the sun creeped out from behind the clouds. A fire message appeared on the wall calling them all to the institute. Taking one last look at the room James fondly remembered the days when they did cause mischief and they had the night in the whispering room. While it was more peaceful now, he would always love the memories of adventure. He smiled at Cordelia and took her hand as they climbed into the carriage, off to have some more nights worthy of poems of their own.

Tag list: @fortheloveofthecarstairs  @thehotfaeriethreesome  @shadowrunner2000  @alastair-esfandiyar-carstairs1 @surrounded-by-exquisite-clutter @gabtapia  @niathesanctuary-bolastair-kanej

Let me know if you want to be added or removed from the tag list :)

#chain of gold #chain of iron #cordelia carstairs #james herondale #julian blackthorn #emma carstairs #jordelia #jemma blackstairs #the dark artifices #the last hours

[thetypedwriter]

Chain of Iron Book Review

Chain of Iron Book Review by Cassandra Clare 

You know, I was actually really irritated when this book came out because once again, the Dark Artifices seems to be shafted for this new series (that nobody asked for) to shine, but fortunately I wasn’t as bothered by it as I predicted I would be. 

In case you are in the small minority of people who haven’t heard of Cassandra Clare and her millions of Shadowhunter books, Chain of Iron is the next nephilim installment in Clare’s never-ending series. 

Chain of Iron is the sequel to Chain of Gold, and the series as a whole is a sequel to the Infernal Devices series, but a prequel to the original Mortal Instruments as well as the Dark Artifices which is the sequel series to the Mortal Instruments. 

I would be surprised if you weren’t baffled right now. 

I’ve said this before for other Shadowhunter installments, but these books are not user friendly for new folk. You genuinely need to have read the other series to get full enjoyment and understanding of these books.

 If you do read them without having read the others, I'm sure it would still be enjoyable to a certain extent, but a large case of ensemble character and relationships will be lost to you and a big portion of these novels are the relationships within them. 

To delve right in, Chain of Iron has our main cast of friendly teenagers nicknamed the Merry Thieves (which I just abhor, sorry, not sorry) return from Chain of Gold after fighting one of the princes of Hell, Belial, and now with Cordelia and James being married as to avoid a scandal of Cordelia’s reputation and James’ criminal record. 

In addition, there is a new serial killer on the loose murdering shadowhunters at dawn and stealing their runes. Most of the book is dealt with trying to catch the culprit, the Consul and Inquisitor along with the whole of adult shadowhunter authority being inconsequential and inept as usual (how these people became parents are beyond me as they never have any sort of clue what their children get up to) along with side plots including raising Jesse Blackthorn from the dead and romance galore in typical Clare fashion that makes you want to rip your hair out because if everyone just communicated and was honest there would be no issues. 

The beginning of the novel is molasses slow.

I’ve come to expect this with Clare’s books. Actually, I think I’ve figured out the formula entirely. Here is is:

Mostly nothing of consequence happens for nearly 400 pages except for character building and small instances of plot 

Intersperse some random demon attacks for flavor 

Everyone is beautiful, everyone is in love, and love is the most groundbreaking, earth shattering thing in existence 

Get into the last 200ish pages and shit hits the fan with action, misunderstandings, and confessions 

Nobody is honest with anybody and lying is commonplace

End the behemoth on a cliffhanger so that the audience is kept in suspenseful anxiety until the next installment 

You can’t see me, but I am bowing right now. 

Genuinely, that is how 90% of Clare’s novels pan out. Obviously, as she has a very successful and long-running book series, the formula works. 

That being said, there are some vices and virtues to it. 

For this book, the beginning was slow. Almost nothing of significance happens for most of it and it's a dredge to get through. 

However, it’s mundane to get through in the same way that reading fanfiction of your favorite characters is mundane. What Clare does for 400 pieces of paper is build up her characters and their relationships. Normally, you would do this interspersed with plot, but not in this case. 

It’s not very conventional, but it kinda works?

I definitely struggled connecting with the characters from this series more than any other of Clare’s novels. The Mortal Instruments, as the original, were beloved if a little cheesy. Then came the Infernal Devices with witty Will, soulful Jem, and intelligent Tessa. Then we got the Dark Artifices, which to me, is still the best as Julian, Emma, Mark, Christina and the others are the most flawed in any of the series and I enjoy that. 

I enjoy that they’re not perfect, I enjoy that they’re devious and conniving. It makes them more interesting and more worthwhile to read about. 

Instead, the main characters in Chain of Iron and the subsequent series are mainly James, Cordelia, Matthew, and sometimes Lucie. I would argue that no one else matters in the book and are just added in for some sugar, spice, and everything nice. 

Some of you might be outraged at this statement. What about Grace? You might say. Or Jesse? Or Thomas, Christopher, Alistair, Ariadne or Anna?

They don’t matter. 

They matter in a very small, plot convenience, fluff ensues kind of way, but not really in any way of substance. Or, at the very least, that’s how I feel. 

Anna is just there to be cool, Thomas is a gay gentle giant with literally no personality, Christopher is so basic and is essentially the Trader Joe’s version of Henry who was better and more interesting as the first, Alistair is a redeemed bully, and Ariadne is an orphan who loves Anna. 

The end. 

Once again, sometimes Clare bites off more than she can chew and I wonder if she just throws these characters in there just because it makes her happy. 

As for our main protagonists, they’re mediocre. Matthew is definitely the most interesting in the bunch and I was jubilant to see him get more screen time this time around. The increasing realization of his alcohol abuse, his feelings for Cordelia, his nonplussed attitude. 

All of it is intriguing. I still don’t like him as much as other protagonists from other installments, but he is by far the winner of this triad. 

James is too perfect, too beautiful, and a worse version of his father. If I wanted more Will I would have turned to fanfiction of the Infernal Devices instead of imagining up his son. The only interesting thing about James is his demon connection which is not even something he does, but rather something that is done to him. 

Cordelia is banal. Once again, she’s too perfect, too brave, and too kind. Literally nothing is wrong with her. She’s level headed, intelligent, forgiving, and fierce. 

Basically, she’s boring to the brim. 

I do think Clare did a better job this time around to include more of Cordelia’s Persian heritage, but it still mainly fell to the backburner of her lackluster and blank personality. In fact, I think James made more of an effort for Persian food and culture than Cordelia did, but I digress. 

Also, a small note, but still with weight, why does Cordelia have eight names??

It bugs the living daylights out of me that in a single sentence she will be called Cordelia, Layla and Daisy. 

Clare. Give the girl one name. My god. 

Actually, as a side note to this side note, Clare is talented at many things, but nicknames are not one of them. EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER IN THIS NOVEL has a nickname and all of them are horrible. I have never in my entire life known a Matthew that has gone by the nickname Math. 

What. In. The. World. 

Anyways, the only other character of note is Lucie. I like and dislike Lucie. Lucie is also boring and her novelist passion is aggravating to me. However, I did like her turn with necromancy and her increasing desperation to save Jesse that drives her to work with Grace and lie to her friends and family was a much-needed note of interest. 

Overall, this book did make me like the characters more than I did in Chain of Gold, but it took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get there, more than what I think should have been afforded. If you need to kill 400 trees in order to make me like your main characters, that’s a problem. 

Whatever the method, I do care about them more than I did previously so I suppose mission accomplished. I do think some of the strongest relationships in the book are the romances, but then also the parabatai bond between Matthew and James. 

Matthew and James have one of the best relationships in the book and I’m equally frustrated and intrigued how things will play out with Matthew now having confessed his feelings for Cordelia. 

I do feel like female parabatai get shafted in a lot of Clare’s novels compared to the boys. The coed pairs often do well like Clary and Simon or Emma and Julian. Otherwise, the boys far outrank the girls in terms of bond and friendship. 

Even in this novel, the “friendship” between Lucie and Cordelia is laughable. They barely talk to each other or spend time together and when they do is shallow.  Whereas Matthew and James seem much more involved in each other’s lives. 

That being said, if you noticed I didn’t speak much of the plot it’s because for me plot comes very much second in a Shadowhudenter novel. It’s there of course, and it’s entertaining, but I do enjoy the characters and their relationships more than anything else which makes Chain of Iron  better than its predecessor but still worse in my view than any other of Clare’s novels. 

Plot just doesn’t compare to the soul crushing love and friendships shown between the pages, for better or for worse. 

Recommendation: The Dark Artifices > Infernal Devices > The Mortal Instruments ...and  The Last Hours fall somewhere after the Mortal Instruments and the trillions of side novels that Clare has co-written with other authors and all seem to be about Magnus Bane.

Score: 7/10 

#chain of gold #chain of iron #cassandra clare #shadowhunters #the mortal instruments #the infernal devices #the dark artifices #ya fiction #YA Books #YA literature #book blog #book #book review #YA Book Review #popular fiction #Popular Books #Book Recommendations #book rec #book reccs #LGBTQ fiction #7/10 #ya books #ya literature #book recommendations

[tsc-living]

I'm not trying to come off as mean because I think your opinions are super valid and I actually really appreciate a different view on Cordelia, but why is it that when a male character in TSC is lovesick for a girl/guy it's romantic and adorable and said guy is seen as near perfect, but when a girl is it's seen as just being lovesick and weak/pathetic? I just don't really understand 😓

Lol no, I don't like it either, not when it's written the way Cordelia was written. I think I speak out more now, on Cordelia, because I have more confidence. I don't care if I lose followers, and I don't care if people come into my DMs and attack me for my thoughts. When I created this blog, I cared more about those things so I kept my mouth shut.

I'll also address the fact that obsession (even predatory behavior) from a man aimed at a woman has a long standing history of being romanticised and the predominantly female based readership of TSC may still be subscribed to that way of thinking. Paired with women's internalized misogyny (think: women's behaviour to Taylor Swift, Kristen Stewart and Jameela Jamil), Cordelia will automatically be less favourable to some. This is something I've considered in my own analysis of Cordelia and I still feel confident that my dislike of her character isn't based in that inherent idea. We must also address the often times creepy, near enough fetishization of mlm characters by females with the uwu cute baby gay boy attitude (think: Nico Di Angelo from the Riordanverse). If Alec, Magnus, Kit, Ty, Kieran, Mark, etc were obsessive over their respective Male counterparts to Cordelia's extent with James, it would just fuel that creepy attitude. We do kind of see it with Kit and Ty anyway. The only excuse I can respect for that is mlm or queer people in general appreciate the reality of the gay experience when you're young and still learning, and CC cut it off at the knees and we are desperately trying to keep it alive. I digress.

So please, without further adieu, have my opinions on Shadowhunter men in TSC.

James: Get your head in the game dude. Liked him in TFtSHA but he's gone downhill from there. 2/10

Matthew: Gives me anxiety, not sure if I like him being the cornerstone for bisexual representation, but we'll see. Has started yet another fucking love triangle. Again, I like him in TFtSHA but has gone downhill. 2/10

Alastair: I like him but that's just because I relate to him. Can't wait to find out more about myself him as the story goes on. 7/10 (docked points bc he's kind of a douche canoe).

Jace: Obsessive. As an adult (the age I am now when I read Chog), his love for Clary makes me supremely uncomfortable for 90% of the series. 3/10

Simon: Again, his teen angsty crush on Clary I can do without, but when he starts crushing on Izzy, it's not as obsessive and lovesick as it is with Jordelia. He has the vampire thing to think about, and the getting stuck in hell part of it, and there's more depth to his character (although not enough, let's be honest). 8/10

Alec: Manages to focus on things other than Magnus for thirty seconds. We even have the entirety of CoHF where Alec is suffering with his fear for Magnus' life, but we don't know that deep until we have the conversation between Jace and Alec. Good man, loved the fact he got some character development, cares more than just about his boyfriend. 10/10.

Will: Bro. His character all around is... a lot. He gets praised as this broody, beautiful, perfect type, but during my reread every time he waxed poetic about Tessa I rolled my eyes. He is just as bad as Cordelia, but I do think CC rounded out his character a little better eventually (I hope she does the same with Cordelia). I like Will in the glimpses we get of him as an adult and a father more than I like the Will in TID. 5/10 for TID, but overall 6/10

Jem: This man deserved so much more in depth character work, but at the very least he wasn't boiled down to 'I love Tessa and that's all I'm capable of'. He is driven by love, but he loves more than just Tessa. 9/10

Gideon & Gabriel: We don't get a lot of their side of the story and Gabriel is like 19 and dating a 15 year old so we're moving right along. 4/10 for Gideon (wish it could be more but we dont know hime) and 2/10 for Gabriel (because he did make me laugh).

Julian: I just... no. I don't like Blackstairs story very much. Julian kinda freaks me out and his obsession with Emma is A Lot™️. 4/10 (because he loves his family and has been through too much).

Mark: Hey look, a character that has a relationship and isn't entirely consumed by it. There's some poly confusion (like gay panic, but for polyam). I support him, and I wish him well. 7/10

Ty: Not sure he knows what's up. Good egg. Have yet to see his (in depth) POV of Kit so this could change, but so far he's pretty chill. 10/10

Kit: Get a grip, then get a clue. Is perhaps a little obsessive as the books wear on, but his character is balanced more in favour of trying to do what he needs to do and trying his best and that's less motivated by his (unacknowledged) crush. If he dissolves into a lovesick and obsessive character with little to no other personality traits, then his score will go down. 9/10.

#long post #cordelia discourse #asks #anon ask #unpopular opinion

[talesfromunderland]

And It Comes to An End.

Pain was a funny thing, the way it only could be on a cruel world. Tessa had believed she’d known it, living for centuries, watching those she loved slowly turn to dust. She thought it could no longer surprise her.

How terribly wrong she was.

The day was perfect, with it’s clear skies and cool morning breeze. Perhaps too perfect, for the grimness and grief was heavier than any storm cloud could hope to make.

Tessa watched so many people come and go, whispering words of comfort as they passed by with their bloodshot eyes.

Funerals were all the same, Tessa had long ago decided. The same bleak cloud over one’s senses, not allowing the sun to warm their skin or the wind from cooling it. It made everything easier to feel far away, to detach themselves so easily from their bodies and minds. She saw it on faces of Emma Carstairs and Julian Blackthorn, the grief. On Magnus Bane’s, the hollowness.

All of this she watched, standing away from all of them, on a little hill under the tree’s shadow, as she always did this days.

Even from here, Tessa could see two specific figures watching them all. One asleep, though.

Mina had started to fuss at the long hours they had stayed standing and only short minutes after Kit had picked her up did she fall asleep. Tessa longed to run her hands through her daughter’s beautiful silky hair, so much like her father’s.

She wondered if she would be able to restrain herself this time. Though fate seem wanting to test her one final time as she beheld Kit.

Tremors ran along his shoulders, whether from carrying Mina or something else, invisible to all eyes but Tessa’s, even at the distance. Her very spirit strain to reach over, to take her baby girl and embrace her boy, to soothe the wound on his ever aching soul. to help, to always help. Instead, she kept her arms firmly on her sides and her feet pinned where they were.

The past days had told her not to try. 

Not again. 

Not ever.

That was the heavy burden of being dead among the living.

She still didn’t really remember how it happened. Tessa knew the events but in the way one knew a second-handed story, not her own. There had been a distress call, an Institute under attack with gravelly injured residents. She and Jem had arrived, fought them off and bought the members enough time to escape when a heavy, foul-smelling body crash on her and darkness became her view. From then on, she didn’t remember.

Maybe it was a small mercy, being unable to remember such cruel deaths. To not have to carry such a burden to the afterlife.

“Such a horrid event for such a beautiful day,” drawled a voice behind her, one she hadn’t heard in over a century but never forgotten. “Had this sun been shining on London, I would had laid buck-naked on the Institute's roof, getting such a gorgeous tan.”

A huff of a laugh, this one from another voice, said, “I’m afraid that funerals can’t be scheduled only on rainy days, William, no matter if stories or movies say otherwise.” Another huff and Jem said, “And not all of us would enjoy the idea of watching you running around naked.”

Will faked shock and quickly got to adjust his collar, as if trying to recompose his dignity.

“I hear that many people would find it an honor to be witness to the pure glory of the Herondale body, so I really see no downside.”

“Your descendent had the privilege to bestow such honor, thought the witnesses have other words for the moment.”

They went on like that for a while longer, thought Tessa only half listened. The wind around them had taken a chiller feel, even in her ghostly form.

Would she remember the wind, when she was gone? Would she forget, even for a moment, the people she left behind. Her heart refused to consider the possibility, though her mind did little else.

She ignored their approach, only acknowledging them when a hand she knew better than her own was placed on her shoulder.

“Tessa?” said Jem.

“I don’t want to miss anything.” It was the truth. She did not want to forget anything, not the faces of her friends and family, not the views this world offered, not anything. She would forget nothing.

As if reading her thought, Will said, “Time is non-existent on the other side. There will be days you will remember everything here as if it happened a minute ago. Others where you will remember nothing expect what’s in front of you. But,” he added, “I never forgot either of you, on the other side. I would sometimes my life before: Magnus, the shadowhunter life, the Institutes...but never you. I forgot many but never you. Either you. You were the only things I never forgot once during all those years.”

Those words... Will always knew what to tell her, what she need to hear, whenever words felt too much for her. It gave her the strength to do what needed to done next.

To walk toward she saw their crowns, one gold, one dark, to one of them who would see just as if she were alive...

I forgot many... but never you...either of you.

Love wasn’t weak. It never was and never would be. This pain... it would serve as a memory, as I reminder of all the things she had lost but also gained, in places neither she or Jem would be forgotten. It would be all they had left until it was time, because it was proof of all the good things they had done. They were missed because they did good. Who could ask for a better legacy?

The first thing when she reached them was see Kit’s eyes. They were hollowed, dark and bloodshot, the signs of the many sleepless nights, whether from crying and comforting Mina.

The weight in her chest became heavier, having left him so much on his shoulders, but she steeled herself enough to speak.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. Kit didn't even flinch. She’d heard the sadness in her voice but was please to know it didn’t tremble. Not like her heart. “I’m so sorry, Kit. I wish it hadn’t end like this. I wish we might have had more time, to tell you everything. But remember you are loved. You’ve always had and always will be. Mina will be alright. You will be alright. You are not alone. You will never be alone. We love you.”

Invisible tears fell down her tears as she took a step back. She could will them away if she desired but right now they feeling of the warm water on her skin calmed something inside her.

This was their final good bye, until it was time.

Kit wouldn’t turn to her, Tessa knew. Not to any of them, maintaining his sights ahead the only thing from keeping from falling to his knees, avoiding questions he wasn’t prepared to answer.

So Tessa left him, her chest caving in for every step she took her away from them.

She didn’t see the new tears that fell on from the golden haired boy. Didn’t see his arms tightening around the sleeping child in his arms, not as he whispered on her tiny ear, “They are alright. They are happily. They are finally together.”

When Tessa finally reached them, Will was smiling faintly at her. “They will be alright,” he told her. “Carstairs and Herondales always stick together. And I have a feeling,” he added, “that the Blackthorn boy will do everything to help them.”

Tessa smiled. “Which Blackthorn boy?” Indeed, Tiberius had returned, sticking to Kit’s side with silent solidarity. Julian, other hand, had gone straight to Christopher and had volunteer to care for Mina to give them a bit of privacy, thought Kit was unmoved. The eldest Blackthorn boy could never pass the chance to, the Angel always protect him.

At her side, Jem was looking at them both with such love, something he never hided but now shone so deeply that Tessa knew she was truly seeing the full extend of it.

“What?” she laughed softly.

Jem shook his head, still smiling as he took both her and Will’s hands as he said, “Nothing, just,” he beheld at the hands at his hands then at the ones Tessa and Will also clapped together, “that the circle has finally come to an end.”

Tessa smiled, and realized she was not afraid. To what may await beyond this world, this dimension, she was not afraid. How could she be, when her very parts of her soul were together once again, like never before and how it always should had being.

Together always. Until the end and whatever may be beyond.

“And it comes to an end,” she said.

And then they vanished.

Here you @daisyherxndale just like a promised! I'm so sorry it took me so long to write, i tried and tried and nothing but now i have this! This is the first time I write Herongraystairs so I hope I did it right. Lost of love.

Also tagging: @oopstheregoesthatlifeofmine @imabitchforjemcarstairs @vanillalipstick66 @khaleesiofalicante @christopher-lightwood-my-heart @fair-but-wilde-child @idontgetit-whydoihavetosaymyname @cordelia-carstairs-owns-me @cristinablackthornkingson @alastaircarstairsx @nerdygurlly @biablackthorn

Originally posted it as this headcanon, before I was able to write it into this.

#herongraystairs #will herondale #tessa gray #jem carstairs #tsc #the shadowhunter chronicles #tid #the infernal devices #fanfic #mine #herongraystairs fanfic

[yuzuka-rei]

my last hours: chain of gold review

its practically tradition for me, every time i finish a cassie claire book, i whip open my long abandoned tumblr and yell about characters. 

discussion is always welcome but if you’re like SUPER into this book don’t read this you’ll just get mad. also claire dont read this. 

my biggest problem with this book is that it doesn’t take enough risks, it sticks to a known successful formula (the infernal devices remains the best shadowhunters series) and what results is a book that is nostalgic, not bad, but not breaking any new ground. 

i’ll talk about what i liked first. i loved some of the storylines claire brought up in this book, BUT SHE BARELY EXPANDED ON ANY OF THEM.

you know what would’ve felt fresh and painful? charles fairchild. i want to read about Charles Fairchild, and his ambition, i want to read about his love for Alastair and how all he wishes is for his lover to just understand how much he *wants* to be consul. i want to read about his conflicted affection for Ariadne. i want to sympathise with HIM, because that would be so interesting, similar to what we had with jessamine, but with a man this time. we don’t have to like him, he just has to be interesting. 

what i’d also have loved would be more about lucie’s insecurity about being “the second herondale”. tbh, it would’ve been really interesting for her to have turned to the dark but this is a shadowhunters book the moral conflict always comes with the relationships, not the fantasy plot. but anyways what is the DEAL with “the beautiful cordelia” that is the fucking gayest thing i have ever laid eyes on in my entire life. also thats all lucie and cordelia’s relationship is based on, just the fact that lucie writes to cordelia, and it makes it feel so cheap because all cordelia does is think about james. lucie reminds me of dru, the forgotten younger sister, but because dru was not expanded on in tda i think it would’ve been fresh to read about lucie and her insecurity

also: matthew fairchild. right now he feels super repetitive, basically just will herondale again but this time he also fucks boys!! what a CHANGE. will shouldve been able to see his younger self in matthew and help him, so this makes minimal sense. even if we *have* to have this super repetitive plot element, i want to read about matthew and how he is different drunk and sober. i want to see him literally fail his friends and risk their lives, multiple times, because he is too drunk to do shit. i want to see him sober, suddenly so uncharming and pitiful. also i fucking want to see hints that he’s in love with cordelia. yes there are “hints”, but this “love” feels really cheap as well. basically so many of the relationships in cog feel super cheap because you’re supposed to believe that matthew falls in love with cordelia because of like three interactions. (although a parallel to this would be cristina and mark, who also didn’t have that much interaction before they fell in love, but mark was so broken and cristina is literally the sweetest, that made more sense. matthew and cordelia?? kinda a cheap play esp considering how will and jem were also parabatai) 

WRITE MORE ABOUT ALASTAIR. matthew seems way too put together and a “tragic romantic figure” in this book to make us Really see alastair as someone who should be hated. i want to HATE alastair but at the same time feel so much pity and pride for him. i know claire tried to make us dislike him but didnt work lol

oh i also loved the merry thieves i LOVE their friendship please give me more of that sweet sweet friendship juice. now this sort of marauders (im sorry im such a big marauders fan) brotherhood is something i haven’t seen from claire before and id love to read more about it

NOW I SCREAM ABOUT WHAT I DISLIKED

1, james fucking herondale. he is the most blandly and poorly written “male lead” in a claire book i’ve read for a long time. i’m all for reading about very stupid boys who are stupid about girls but the whole wild shift between grace and cordelia makes him seem like trash even with the bracelet influence. i disliked julian (i literally forgot his name and had to search it up), but julian’s fierce devotion to his family was interesting and grounded him. james is just ?? i guess he has the ability to go to the shadow realm?? like ngl i know nothing about his character and tbh i dont want to know more. 

2, cordelia. carstairs. who is basically if you scrambled clary and emma together and added a pinch of cristina. she’s not a BAD character, and since we’re supposed to see her as the “self insert” (i assume), her being a bit bland was probably intended. but this IS like... the fourth shadowhunter series. can we get a female character who is the hot troubled one instead?? i want HER to be the one with the tragic terrible secret, i want her to lash out and go drinking and push everyone away. cordelia in this book exists to love and protect james, and that makes her... even more boring than clary, who you know at least had her own strong agenda instead of this “oh i have to save my father wait hes a drunk” arc

3, matthew fairchild is basically just will herondale if he were less in love with his parabatai and more gay coded (oscar wilde?? waistcoats?? really???) . i wish he were written as a proper casanova, seen dating a different girl or boy every scene because then it would Hurt to see cordelia dismiss his feelings because of his behaviour. tbh i just,,, like matthew fairchild but hes so similar to will it hurts that his potential is being squandered.

4, this book just feels like tid but the side characters are like the tda ones. 

5, anna lightwood is basically magnus bane and i hate it but i love it

6, tbh most of the romances weren’t heart wrenching. cordelia having to marry james as an alibi was the only cool thing out of this book and even that was a bit odd. alastair being charles’ secret lover was Pretty out of the blue and that hurt but he literally left the relationship after one scene?? thats not realistic?? i want alastair to fall back into old habits, then try to leave again, then fall back again, then leave for Good. all of these romances are so whirlwild and mean so little, and they probably seem really cool to a 14 year old child but now they just feel... childish and stupid. TDA may have spoilt me for well built relationships, as much as i dislike emma and julian, their romance made SENSE. kit and ty? had feelings development. kieran and mark had their whole “we had to love each other to survive but now we don’t have to now what” struggle that was well laid out anyways. 

BASICALLY, THE CHARACTERS IN THIS BOOK WERE WRITTEN TO BE IMMATURE, SHELTERED 17 YEAR OLDS AND IT’S UNSURPRISINGLY BORING TO READ 

also: if jesse blackthorn, a dear character in our hearts, showed love towards his mother, she would feel more three dimensional but alas sakjfh

#chain of gold #the last hours

[starkdreams]

An observation, but also a rant...

I have so far read every book in Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunter Chronicles series (not the Malec ones because I refuse to acknowledge its existence). Unfortunately, I notice a pattern in every single one of her books so far, and it goes like this:

Character A: the MC. Typically female. Beautiful, but modest about it. A writer or reader or artist. Perfect but thinks she isn’t. Always has some outstanding physical feature. Super, super special. The absolute greatest thing to grace humanity.

See: Tessa, Clary, Emma, Cordelia, James (a male, *gasp*)

Character B: the sub MC. This character is typically male and is typically the love interest of the MC. This character usually has more potential to be more interesting and entertaining, but their personality is usually butchered to make the MC look better. Tragic past. Also loves some form of art, such as writing, music, painting. Feels the pain of a thousand knives over the perfect MC. Sole existence is to think and speak about how amazing the MC is. Might have a few personality traits. If they’re lucky they have other friends and family that aren’t the MC, but they would kill those people for the MC anyway because they’re perfect. Might actually have a plot line that doesn’t have to do with MC, but MC will get involved anyway.

See: Jace, Julian, Will, Jem, Matthew F, Simon (who moved down to Character C after CoHF)

Character C: the interesting characters. They’re usually pretty cool and very likable. They have a good personality, nice characteristics, and are actually interesting. They get little to no time, unless the MC needs to be cheered on or idolized. They may actually have story lines of their own, but they will often be overshadowed by whatever is going on

See: Isabelle, Livvy, Anna, there’s so many but I’m blanking on most of them.

Anyway, the point is... why does she make such interesting B & C characters and completely cut down their potential to promote the MC. I get it, I do... they’re the MC. The book is about them. But don’t promote your series with an ensemble cast of characters when the entire ensemble is the MC’s fucking entourage.

This annoys the shit out of me, because I tend to love the C characters. You’re telling me you create Isabelle Lightwood, a character that grows to understand mundanes, who doesn’t apologize for who she is, who fought for respect while surrounded by men, who dresses like a female and knows she’s pretty without being a bitch about it, who is badass but gentle hearted, and I’m supposed to like Clary over her? Give me a fucking break. 

Please, please I am begging you Clare... pay more attention to your side characters. If you want them to be lap dogs for the MC, then don’t make them semi interesting. I’d love to see more of Matthew other than hearing him do a battle cry in James’ honor or puppy dog eyeing Cordelia. I would have loved to have dived more into Julian’s feelings after Livvy died instead of having him turn his feelings off so the MC can feel bad about herself and wallow in self pity. You did Isabelle dirty and I can’t even discuss it, tbh.

And for anyone wondering why I didn’t add Alec and Magnus to the list, here’s why. I read TMI as it was being released. Malec were side characters, nothing more. When TID came out, Magnus was a side character, nothing more. Shadowhunters came on TV, the Malec fan base grew, Clare saw her money shot and she wrote 3 new books about them. So they fall into their own category I call “Cash Cow” and “Please Don’t Actually Buy That She’s Trying to Be Diverse This is All For Money”.

Feel free to shoot me an ask to discuss. Bullshit cry babies telling me to off myself will be deleted. @tandybowhen

#the mortal instruments #the infernal devices #the dark artifices #the shadowhuter chronicles #shadowhunter chronicles #cassandra clare

[rosereview]

Chain of Gold Review

Okay so I just finished Cassandra Clare’s newest book, Chain of Gold, the first book in her new series The Last Hours which is set in the Shawdowhunter world and is a sequel to the Infernal Devices series and a prequel to the Mortal Instruments. I have loved Cassandra Clare and the Shadowhunter world since I really got into reading when I was in grade seven. Since then I have read all of Cassandra Clare’s books and every year when one or two new books come out, I run to the bookstore, buy it, and then go back home and read it as soon as possible. I am literally in love with this world and these characters and every time you think it can’t get any better, a new one comes out and it exceeds all expectations. 

In this review I will definitely spoil everything that happens so if you haven’t read the book, I wouldn’t recommend reading this review. This review will be split into different parts where I focus on different aspects of the book starting with my favourite part of any book, the characters. 

Characters

So first I’ll talk about the characters individually and my thoughts on them and we will focus more on their relationships with other characters in another part. 

To start off I want to share my thoughts on the main female character, who is also on the cover, Cordelia Carsairs. At first I wasn’t sure what to think about her because so far in all of the series, the main female character was never my favourite at the start, like Clary, Tessa, and Emma. At first all three of them were a little annoying, but now I love Tessa and Clary. (I’m still trying with Emma.) But each of them I learned to love over multiple books which is where their character really developed. In Chain of Gold, Cordelia started off kind of annoying and dumb, but throughout the book she really develops and grows and learns and now I love her after only the first book in the series! While moving to London she really learns how to behave in society while also saying true to herself which is very admirable. She such a strong girl and person and when she finally gets friends she is less dumb to the world around her and how life works. I now really care about her happiness especially with a certain someone, which we will get to.

Next I want to talk about James Herondale. Well I went into this knowing I was going to love James, I mean he is a Herondale. And while I do love him, I am also continuously angry with him and the situation he finds himself in. By that I mean with Grace Blackthorn who I despise with a passion, but we’re talking about James right now. I loved James during the middle of the book when he was not under the control of Grace and freely falling for Cordelia while loving his friends fiercely and not really hiding anything from them, like any of his feelings. I was also so proud of him for how he handled all the news about his grandfather, Belial, and how he didn’t give in to all the demon talk and trying to put all the weight on his shoulders to protect everyone he loved by sacrificing himself. I did not and still do not want to see James possessed by a demon or Prince of Hell. Overall I loved James, but not as much as I had originally thought.

And the reason I didn’t love James as much was because I loved one boy a bit more… Matthew Fairchild! Omg I am like Magnus Bane in the way I have a soft spot for broken boys. First Jace Herondale and his daddy issues, then Will Herondale and his inability to let anyone love him, and finally Julian Blackthorn and him having to be a father to his siblings while being hopelessly in love with his parabatai. Matthew fits right up there with the greats! In the short story in the Ghosts From the Shadow Market where you find out what Matthew did that makes him broken, and I did not like him after that, but then I read this book and changed my mind. I really saw how much he changed from being a self entitled Consul’s son, to being a kind and caring and selfless boy that made a big mistake. Now Matthew feels like he has to keep his secret and pain all to himself while taking up drinking to numb himself. It hurts me to watch but it makes me love him so much more. The way he loves James is beautiful while he still knows James has his own faults. Seeing Matthew with Cordelia and how he loves her almost makes me want him to win her heart, but I know James and her are who are meant to be together. I just want Matthew to find happiness and to forgive himself and love himself, and that needs to happen before he finds someone to love and who loves him back. 

Next we have Lucie Herondale who is amazing. She is just the perfect depiction of the annoying younger sister who also just has so much depth and story to her at the same time. I definitely relate to Lucie the most with her loving to write and tell story, while also fully in love with her family and friends and having such a strong relationship with her brother. She doesn’t want to be left out of the fun, but at the same time understands when some of her friends have to go on an adventure without her. All the while she is trying to understand her own gift and to help out people in need, like Jesse Blackthorn. Lucie has her own little secrets and even though she knows it will be against the law, she still wants to help out people who need her, like Jesse and even Grace, who continues to play her brother, but Lucie sees the way she lives and feels bad. That shows great character and kindness. 

Someone that really surprised me in this book, more than Matthew, was his complete opposite, his nemesis, Alastair Carstairs. At first I hated him from what he did to the boys at the Shadowhunter Academy, and that might have been a part of why I wasn’t fond of Cordelia at the beginning. But now you kind of understand why he did the things he did and said and he truly didn’t know the damage he was doing by saying all the stuff he did. During the book we see how much Alastair does to protect his family, especially his sister even when she doesn’t see it fully, and we also see how he is dealing with his own demons like his sexuality and needing to accept himself. I can’t wait to see more of Alastair in the next books.

From Alastair, I would like to touch on Thomas Lightwood who I have to say I love. Honestly I love all of the Merry Thieves and Thomas is no exception. He is definitely the kindest in the group, trying to see the good in everybody which is no easy feat. He is also sort of Christopher’s protector to a point, making sure he doesn’t hurt himself and such, which sometimes puts Thomas in the background. He also has feelings which he doesn’t understand and I can’t wait to explore that more. 

That brings me to Christopher Lightwood, Thomas’s cousin and a mini Henry. I LOVE Christopher! That boi needs protection! He is just so precious and the way he still always tries to protect his friends and his big sister, oh it is just beautiful. Literally he is the most wholesome character and I love him so much. That one scene when someone was saying something bad about Anna and Christopher got so mad and protective. It was the best.

Now I’ll talk about Anna Lightwood. I’ve loved Anna since the first time we saw her in the short stories and my love has just grown. She is such a complex character while still being loved by all, as she should be. She observes her Merry Thieves and knows what’s going on before they even do. She reminds me of Magnus Bane in that way. She also has a history with Ariadne that I can’t wait to see more of how that history comes back to make Anna fully happy again. 

I would also like to touch on Barbara and Eugenia Lightwood. It was honestly the saddest when Barbara died because Thomas doesn’t deserve that, but also Gideon and Sophie. To lose a child is the hardest thing to go through, and after everything that Gideon and Sophie have been through, they don’t deserve that. But besides that, I really liked Barbara in the short time that we knew her. Cassie never really talked about Thomas’s sisters before the books came out so I didn’t think they would really make an appearance, which made me sad because they were Gideon and Sophie’s daughters. But now that Barbara showed that she was actually fairly important for the plot of the book, I’m excited to see more Eugenia in the future. I want to know what happened to her that makes her not accepted in society, which is hinted at during the book saying she was ruined because of stuff to do with a boy. But now I want to know more and see her more. 

Next is Grace Blackthorn who I hate. I hate her and her manipulative ways with James. A small part of me kind of feels bad since she has a terrible adoptive mother and her brother died, but still she is a batch. That’s all I have to say.

Jesse Blackthorn is someone I actually want to see more of and who I’m very intrigued by. He’s very nice and thoughtful despite having a disaster of a mother. I really don’t have much else to say about him besides the fact that I want him to be alive but not if it hurts Lucie or gets her into trouble. I hope Grace does all the dirty work. 

Lastly we have Charles Buford Fairchild… I don’t even know what to say. How did Charlotte and Henry raise such an asshole? They are literally the best and practically raised Will, Jem and Jessamine, how is their first born a dick? Matthew is even an amazing guy who cared about everyone but himself while Charles is the opposite. He cares only for himself! God, and the way he talks about his mother not being a strong Consul and how he took credit for everything that the younger kids did makes me want to barf. He literally doesn’t deserve anything, including a loving family and amazing parents and brother. He makes me mad.

Relationships

Now I want to talk about the relationship between two or more characters in the book.

To start off, all of the sibling relationships are life, excluding Matthew and Charles. Like James and Lucie, Cordelia and Alastair, Anna and Christopher, Thomas and Barbara and Eugenia, even Jesse and Grace. They are all really beautiful and make me happy.

Matthew, James and Cordelia- this little love triangle actually really interests me and I love all the scenes that have all three of them running around and going on adventures. I’m really excited to see more of them in the next books.

Lucie and Cordelia- this friendship is really nice to read about, but I was kind of disappointed not to have more scenes where it’s just the two of them. I feel like there wasn’t a whole lot of time to do that in this book,mbit hopefully in the next one we can see that and their parabatai ceremony. 

Thomas and Christopher- I love that these cousins have such a strong relationship and I really want them to be parabatai. I just think that would make their relationship that much stronger and I want that for them. 

Jesse and Lucie- I really like these two together and I know from the family tree that came with the Clockwork Princess, that they end up together and that is how the Blackthorn line continues, which makes me happy. But there were also some false dates and such on the family tree, like Lucie’s birthdate, so I also don’t know if we can trust the family tree but I do really hope that these two end up together and somehow Jesse is resurrected without it hurting Lucie in any way.

Anna and Ariadne- At first when we met these two in the Ghosts of the Shadow Market short story, I did not like Ariadne. I mean, she broke Anna’s heart and made her think love was only pain and heartbreak so now she only does one night stands, which is kind of sad because she deserves someone special. But then at the end of the book when Ariadne goes up to Anna and says that she will do anything to get her back, I was so excited and happy because even with their history, they are perfect together and are meant to be, so I hope to see more of their relationship blossom in the next book.

Thomas and Alastair- So like I said before when talking about Alastair, I didn’t like him because of the things he said and did when he was at the Shadowhunter Academy, and I was a little bit annoyed that Thomas was the only one being nice to him because he really didn’t deserve it. But then we saw them in Paris and honestly, that made me so happy. I love Alastair now and I think that they both deserve happiness and someone special, and I really hope that is with each other, but if not, then I hope they both find other people to make them happy.

Charlotte and Henry and Matthew- What I really want to see more of in the next book, is Matthew with his parents. We know that Matthew has a strained relationship with them because of what he did in the past, poisoning his mom and killing his unborn sister, all because of what Alastair had said to him at school, but I really hope that they can fix their relationship in the next book. I want to see more Charlotte and Henry caring for their kids like the other parents do, and maybe some more one-on-one with Matthew and Charlotte where they try to see what the problem is and Charlotte trying to help her son. Also I want to see Charlotte give Charles a whooping for being an asshole. 

Plot

Now that we are done with all the characters, I would like to touch on the stuff that actually happened in the story. What I really loved though, about Chain of Gold, was the amount of scenes where it was just character interaction and development because like I said before, I love the characters in a story the most. This is usually what Cassandra Clare does in her books, which makes them longer and bigger, because she focuses on her characters and their journey’s, all the while getting some action in there. That was what we had with this book, a little less action and a little more learning about who these characters are as people and I really enjoyed that. But aside from the characters, the plot was very intriguing in itself. We learn that for these kids’ whole lives, London has been pretty demon-free, which causes everyone to have a false sense of security and none of the Shadowhunters are very experienced in the field. When demons do start to come back, it is a shock to their London community especially when the demons walk in the daylight and are only there to injure Shadowhunters and make them sick. I thought that whole plotline was very interesting, especially since the whole city had to go into quarantine because of this sickness, and that is literally what is happening in the world right now with COVID-19. I laughed out loud when that happened.

I really enjoyed the whole connection to the demon realm and James and his grandfather, because we never touched that in the Infernal Devices series with Tessa, and it's cool to see how it’s only coming out now and how it affects her kids. Even with all that, and the Herondale’s usually need to sacrifice themselves for their loved ones, I love how James didn’t when he was in the demon realm. He had a chance to give himself up to Belial to possess James and save everyone in London, but he didn’t and instead found another way. That was refreshing to see, because I don’t think I could have gone through another book with my boys cursed or possessed. (Literally Jace, Will and Julian.) I mean, James still has some power over him from Grace and that damn bracelet, but at least for the time being James isn't also possessed by his demon grandpa.  Speaking about the bracelet, I really liked how the bracelet wasn’t on for the whole book, so we could see how James usually acted around his friends and family when he wasn’t being controlled by anyone. I was mad when the bracelet went back on, but we can’t get everything we wish for, especially when it’s a Cassandra Clare book. 

I also definitely knew that Tatiana was behind everything, since the beginning and knew that she tied in to everything including Belial and his plans and controlling Grace and everything. She is just the worst and I have always hated her and I will always hate her. She’s like the Zara Dearborn of this series, you just hate her so much and there's no sympathy for anything she does. At least with Jonathon Morgenstern, you felt a little bit bad for him because his father made him the devil he is and he just wants to be loved by someone. And for Axel Mortmain, he just wants to get revenge for his warlock parents who were brutally killed by Shadowhunters, and same with Malcolm Fade who just wants his dear Annabel to be alive with him. Literally you can find the good in antagonists sometimes, which is literally my favourite thing to see in a story, but with Tatiana Blackthorn, she’s a bitch and she should die. 

Lastly I just wanted to say that every scene with all the Merry Thieves was beautiful and I can’t wait for more of them!

Thank you for staying till the end if you made it this far. If not I understand, it’s all kind of jumbled and long, so no hard feelings if you couldn’t read this whole thing. And sorry for everyone who did read this and got lost because all my ideas are just one big mess on the page, but oh well. I write this for me, so who really cares. 

Until next time!

~Rose Reviews

#chain of gold #cassandraclare #shadowhunters #the last hours

[discountalien-pancake]

1) CC is worse than Maas in terms of her female characters being cameras for guys. Emma in Qoaad is worse than Faerug in the acowxr. it's ridiculous. she spends her whole time thinking about Julian or observing Julian or thinking about her forbidden relationship with Julian. and she's supposed to be the PROTAGONIST. she had a good arc in the first book of the trilogy, but from there it just became all about Julian. and I'm willing to bet it'll be the same with Cordelia for the Last Hours.

2) CC has posted so many snippets of Cordelia, and from them, one is entirely on her brother, and in the others she's talking about how she loves James and how James is so beautiful with shining pale skin and beautiful golden eyes and blah blah blah. CC in general seems to be obsessed with James, which sucks because he's so boring. He's hot white guy, he's smart, he's a great dancer, he's the leader but he doesn't know any of it so that's so sad for him. Urgh

—

I haven’t read most of her newer books, but from what I remember, Tessa was much the same. It was a real slog getting through even one book of TID. She spends sooo much time focusing on her white boys’ manpain—as if I’m supposed to find that justification for Will trying to get Tessa to cheat on his best friend with him, or why it’s totally okay for Jake to lust after the girl he fully believed was his sister. All CC does is write unhealthy relationships built on toxic premises, then uses them to splooge over the guy(s).

#anti cc #anticassclare #pancake answers

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

@shattered-catalyst asked me what underused female Marvel characters that I’d like to see in the RPC. I misread it as asking what underused female characters I would like to see in a canon Marvel story, and started making this list. Then I realized what they ACTUALLY asked me---and answered it HERE-- but since I had this list started I thought I would post it! As a note, I tried to overlook my own biases for whom *I* simply want to see back in action, versus if there’s actually story potential there that I think other fans would genuinely want to see. It’s also by no means complete/comprehensive, so if you think someone is missing and deserves to be on here---you’re probably right! Feel free to add to it! BLINDSPOT - Blindspot is a female member of Mystique’s Brotherhood who was friends with Rogue, and had the powers of memory manipulation. After several missions, Mystique decided to cut ties with her due to lack of trust. Blindspot left, but not without wiping herself out of Mystique and Rogue's memories first, as she always covered her tracks, which is why Rogue doesn’t remember her (actual reason is she was retconned in, she’s a 2000s creation) Years later, when Rogue had become an X-Men, they would come into conflict once more, as Blindspot wanted to ‘save” Rogue from Xavier’s “brainwashing”, but Rogue would still leave Blindspot with her X-uniform to remember her by. Blindspot is unique in having been a Brotherhood friend to Rogue, as she was never shown as close to any of the other members, and was also mysteriously immune to Rogue’s powers. I think Rogue fans might enjoy seeing her in a Rogue story again, and perhaps learning more about their time together. CATSEYE - I think ALL the Hellions were criminally underused, and I know from X-Men/comics discussion boards that there’s an audience for their return. Catseye seems to be the favorite in terms of who people found most interesting, and I agree. A girl who believes she’s a cat who can turn into a human form, rather than the reverse, is a really neat concept, not to mention Sharon had a charming personality with surprising depth for what little time she got. There’s a lot that could be done with her return, and I think she could totally be the lead in a revived Hellions story on Krakoa, or a story depicting their time as Frost’s students at the Massachusetts Academy. CORDELIA FROST - Look, everyone loves Emma Frost, I think it’d be easy to get people interested in a Cordelia story. Not to mention the fact that like...Adrienne is dead, Christian was institutionalized, but Cordelia has been running around this whole time. She seems to have had some big plans once upon a time, what happened to that? Nothing ever came of it. Why not? What’s she been up to all this time? Also, we should finally get to see what kind of powers she has! I’ve seen it quoted around the Internet that Emma claims Cordy is “the Professor Xavier of empaths” but I’ve not only never seen the source for where she says this, she’s never demonstrated ANY kind of powers in canon, besides Emma not being able to read her mind. I would like to see what the “subtle, dark, and devious” Frost baby gets up to! DARKSTAR - Darkstar is a mutant and she’s been present in the comics since 1976. She’s been a member of X-Corps, as well as served in the Champions with Angel and Iceman back in the day. Yet her loyalty (coughBRAINWASHINGcough) has always brought her back to serving Mother Russia first and foremost. We saw recently though that Russia has gone back to its “All mutants serve the State or die!” position, and not allowing its mutants to go to Krakoa. It’s pretty easy to work Darkstar into a story about that, and finally exploring the way she was deeply conditioned to the point her “choice” to serve her country is probably anything but, and coming to terms with that at last. I’d really like to see a story like this, because Darkstar is kind of unique in that her brainwashing wasn’t a dramatic trauma-conga full of torture and abuse, she actually seems to have been treated well, she was just also kidnapped as a baby and never knew anything else. I think it’s about time we get a story that shows abuse doesn’t always “look like abuse” and how denial of someone’s agency can run so deep that their own choices that they THINK they’re making of their own free will, really are products of that. Also, her story could be an easy way to get my STARLIGHT fix, and FANTASMA on top of that. Remember, Fantasma was banished to Limbo, and pulled Starlight in after her. Why WOULDN’T Darkstar want to go rescue her teammate? And there’s a member of the X-Men who is mistress of Limbo and can open portals there, it’s totally easy! Darkstar enlists Magik (who has a huge fan following, and thus would get people interested) to guide her through Limbo so they can find Starlight and bring her home, but on the way they run afoul of Fantasma! Who, being a Dire Wraith sorceress, makes a great foe for Magik! PHANTAZIA - During 1990s, Toad struck out on his own and formed his own Brotherhood, which consisted of several old faces---Pyro, Blob, and Sauron (despite Sauron not being a mutant)---and a new one, the woman known as Phantazia, aka Eileen Harsaw. Phantazia had the power to manipulate electromagnetic energy fields. This allowed her to fly, disrupt machinery, and  disrupt the bioelectric energy fields and nervous systems of other living beings as well, resulting in pain, paralysis, loss of physical coordination, and in the case of superhumans, the inability to control their powers, causing them to fluctuate in strength, cease functioning altogether, or spew out uncontrollably. Not much is known about her personality, but she seems to have been well-educated, as Blob refers to her as “Ms. PhD” and tended to stay out of the arguments between her male teammates, ignoring them while she read books on scientific subjects, such as astrophysics. . She also displayed loyalty, such as when she also opted to stay with her teammates when only she among them was invited to Magneto’s new mutant sanctuary of Avalon. Alas, Eileen met a wicked fate---for some reason, she was one of the few mutants to retain their memories of the “House of M” reality shift, and the shifting back and forth drove her insane. She was last seen in a S.H.I.E.L.D. custody cell, babbling “House of M” over and over. I think Eileen was interesting. She had a cool powerset, hints of a personality, and was never much of a “bad guy” certainly not enough to deserve what happened to her. Female Brotherhood members are also pretty rare, so she catches my eye for that too. I like to think Xavier found her and fixed her mind, and she’s going to hang out with her old pals Pyro, Blob, and Toad on Krakoa. HAVEN - I’ve been yelling about her on this blog for like 5 years, but if you’re not familiar with her, Radha Dastoor aka Haven was a villain who ran a cult dedicated to bringing about the end of the world as we know it in order to usher in a golden age of peace. She only did this, however, because she was being possessed by a demon. Her real self was a kind, charitable woman who was just all about feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and, as it happens, advocating for mutants. Though it had little to do with her villainy, Haven still found time to be a demon-posessed super-terrorist AND write books promoting mutant/human peace and give lectures condemning bigotry. She seems like someone who SHOULD have gotten saved from said demon, but no, she dies alone in the mud after being victim-blamed by a Marvel deity. Her entire arc is really misogynistic, she’s only possessed because she had sex once and then got pregnant, she’s basically punished for breaking the purity taboos of her culture once, and it’s also pretty...racist isn’t the right word, but she’s the first Indian and Hindu character in the X-Men comics, and a lot of her terrorist philosophy fed to her by the demon comes from actual Hinduism, which has unfortunate implications, as does the fact that the “brown woman with a funny religion ended up being a terrorist just like the government said so X-Factor attacking her before they were sure of this is okay” was part of her story. Eesh. Anyway, she was a very good person and an interesting character, I think bringing her back as someone trying to do good in the world again as a human ally to mutants while also dealing with what happened to her and what she did and her loss of 20 years of agency to possession, would be a good story. I at least want to see a cameo of her taking care of a bunch of orphan and refugee kids who are a mix of mutants, Inhumans, Warpies, aliens, and humans. LORELEI - Lorelei is another little-known woman from the Brotherhood of Mutants, and unique in that she’s NOT a mutant. At one point, Magneto used a machine to mutate members of the native tribes in the Savage Land, giving them super-powers. These Savage Land Mutates served him in their homeland, fighting the X-Men at his command, but he left them behind when he returned back to the rest of the world...all save Lorelei, who he took with him for his new Brotherhood, citing a possible “Pygmalion complex” for why. Lorelei was a beautiful blonde woman who could control men with her voice. However, she seems to have a childlike intellect, as she speaks very simply and in the third person, and doesn’t really seem aware of what she’s doing or why she’s being told by Magneto to do it. It’s a really worrying dynamic, and I also worry about Lorelei once Magneto just...kinda ditched her, I guess, and left her with Unus, Blob, and the Vanisher. Then she turns up back in the Savage Land serving yet another bad guy. Lorelei--or Lani Ubanu, as seems to be her name before Magneto transformed her--comes off as an unaware innocent that just gets constantly picked up and used by greater villains because she doesn’t know any better, and given that this is because of the powers Magneto gave her, I’d like to see that come back and have him take responsibility for her. And if she’s NOT as unaware and innocent as she seems, I’d like to see that, because she’s been around since 1969 and she doesn’t have a personality and she barely speaks! Flesh this girl out! MADELYNE PRYOR - I feel like this one is cheating a bit, because I’m not sure I’d say Maddy is under-used. She’s seen more action just this decade than all the others on this list saw in their entire careers COMBINED. It’s more than she’s just...not used well, in my opinion. 2000s writers generally seem to forget that her stint as the Goblyn Queen came from being infected by demonic energy and also insane (for VERY understandable reasons), and seem to think she’s just evil on her own. Not to mention they take all the depth out of her; she’s a character with a full personality of her own and some very fucked up struggles that she was not to blame for, but that all gets boiled down to “Scott’s sexy evil ex who is mad he left her so now she trounces around in skimpy clothes she never actually wore when she wasn’t possessed because EVIL LADIES ARE SEXY CUZ FEMALE SEXUALITY IS EVIL” and it’s just....u g h. When Maddy was herself, she actually was very heroic, to the point she sacrificed her life to save the world (her FIRST death, which everyone forgets). But she also has good reason to be really angry and bitter at the X-Men, and I don’t see her letting go of that even when she’s back in her right mind. So I think depicting her as an anti-hero, who saves innocent people yet works against the X-Men, would be a neat story, with the ultimate conclusion being her letting go of her grudge, not for THEIR sake but for HERS, to not have her be tethered to them any longer, not even by hate, and finally live a life that is HERS. MISS SINISTER - So, Miss Sinister is NOT Nathaniel Essex in a lady suit. She’s actually an entirely different person, and actually has a very sympathetic situation. She’s a woman named Claudine Renko, whom Mr. Sinister injected with a virus containing his own DNA. The idea was that in the event of his death, the virus would activate in her or one of his other test subjects, transforming them into Sinister complete with his consciousness replacing their own. But when it activated in Claudine after Sinister’s apparent (but in fact only temporary) death in the “Messiah Complex” story, Claudine did not become possessed by Mr. Sinister nor become him---not exactly. She became essentially a female clone of him, gaining aspects of his appearance (such as the chalk white skin) as well as his telepathic powers. He might also be how she got her wicked personality, but since we don’t know anything about her prior to this, that could just be how she was already. But she also suffered invasive memories of Essex's life, and that as a malignant presence within her mind, he was slowly killing her as a means of self-resurrection. He even managed to manifest briefly before being re-absorbed back into her. It was for this reason that she wanted to switch bodies with X-23, thus gaining Laura's healing factor, something she had wanted after her stabbing, and thereby freeing herself of Essex. The plan backfired when Essex took control of Laura's body and used her to mortally wound Claudine. Laura managed to overcome Essex's presence in her mind, expelling it through force of will. She was next seen working with Emma Frost on using The Mothervine, though Emma ended up turning on her. I remember feeling bad for Claudine when I read her story with X-23. Having someone else trying to take over your body is a pretty good motive for doing something as evil as trying to steal someone else’s, while also being inexcusable to do. It’s unlikely she was a willing subject for Sinister, so she probably isn’t to blame for what happened to her, but is to blame for her actions after, which is the kind of villain I like. Also, while she’s usually in lingerie ala a Black Queen of the Hellfire Club, she wore a really cute little normal outfit in a story with Sebastian Shaw and Daken...which ironically is when she actually was Black Queen! I���d like to see more of Claudine, and find out more about her story and who she was before all this, and whether or not she’s REALLY free of Sinister, as she seems to be now. After all...is anyone ever free of him? Bonus if she teams up with Madelyne Pryor! NOCTURNE - No not TJ Wagner, THIS LADY! I don’t think anyone (except me) is hoping for her return, as I don’t think anyone else really knows about her, but Spider-Man stuff is still popular so there’s no reason she couldn’t come back and have a prominent role in that. I really hope they go with the interpretation that she’s gay, since now is a time that they can actually have that open instead of coded, but more than just the representation of a gay WOC (which is awesome) I really am interested in her adjustment and journey into her new identity, and in particular her communication via empathy powers rather than speech. That really intrigues me about her. I think she could become very compelling and popular if brought back and handled well, perhaps in a story that brings back other neglected characters in the Spider franchise as well. SAT-YR-9 - Okay, so in the Captain Britain/Excalibur comics of the 80s, there was a woman named Courtney Ross. She was a banker and Captain Britain’s ex, and she became a side character, having adventures with the team and even besting none other than ARCADE through STAND UP COMEDY. Then one night, a version of her from another universe emerged in apartment, killed her, and took her place. This evil counterpart was Sat-Yr-9, who had been a cruel dictator in homeworld, and has been running around doing evil in 616 since while masquerading as Courtney. Captain Britain discovered the ruse and vowed revenge...but has yet to really do anything, probably because Sat-Yr-9 herself really hasn’t done anything since either. She popped up for a brief moment in the 2000s as the new White Queen of the Hellfire Club, but that’s it. I would like to see more of her, in that role or outside it. Given her connection to both the Hellfire Club and to Kitty (whom she was grooming under the guise of “Courtney Ross” and seemed to have big plans for, as well as some mysterious connection to that was never explained) I think she’d be great for the Marauders series. Or in the new “Excalibur” series that stars Psylocke as the new Captain Britain! I also think there would be interest in a story that finally resolves her murder of Courtney and shows Brian finally at least TRYING to make her pay, I still see it talked about on Marvel boards how unsatisfying and frustrating it is that Brian vowed revenge DECADES ago and has yet to do anything about it, and how much of a waste that makes Courtney’s death (Courtney was surprisingly popular with fans even to this day due to how she handled Arcade, it instantly endeared them to her...and then that’s RIGHT when she got killed off, literally the evening after) Maybe Betsy is the one who finally gets her at last! THRENODY - I think that Threnody’s coming back in the recent Deadpool series revived enough interest to justify bring her back yet again, and I think her baby being killed, however monstrous it was, means that fans are probably ready to see her get a happy ending for once. I know I sure am. ZALADANE - Zaladane was a personal villain to Polaris, and given that Polaris has never really had a book that was about her (as far as I know, I’m far from a Lorna expert) I think bringing her back as the bad guy for a Lorna solo series would be cool. I also would like it resolved if she’s Lorna’s sister or not. It seems to add up at the time it was written, but changes to Lorna’s backstory continuity since make it impossible. I think that a suitably comic-booky explanation could work for that, such as “she *is* Lorna’s sister but from another dimension, not 616, and also that explains how/why she’s in the Savage Land” or something like that. Plus it satisfies both the people who think she is and who think she isn’t.

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