#Arati Bridgestock

[rinadragomir]

Chain of Thorns Illumicrate edition arts🔮

[aratilightwood]

[rhiannons-bird]

Here’s another round

[daisymydaisycarstairs]

the tlh gang pretending to miss the portal to Idris from dark London because they were chasing after a dog that runs away at the very last crucial moment is so typically childish shenanigans of them

[helenofblackthorns]

CJ's farewell art vs the characters canonical heights

[kaitcreates]

The last hours charcters ranked from how good at fighting they should be

Alastair- didn’t grow up in London and would have experience fighting demons

Cordelia- only lower then Alastair because he’s older and would have more experience

Thomas- Didnt get expelled from the academy early, extra time experience during his travel year to Spain, would make couple mistakes but could kill a demon by himself.

Anna- never went to the academy but probably still went on a travel year somewhere and learned fighting there, most likely got trained by her parents

Lucie- has been actively training for years and has probably gone on patrol in other countries with Cordelia. Not amazing but can hold her own.

James- expelled from the academy early but seems to take training fairly seriously, could win against a still target and possibly a humanoid one as well.

Matthew- never took training seriously and expelled from academy early. Has some natural talent so not terrible but would need assistance to win in a fight

Ari- Never trained beyond basics, some natural talent but not enough to win a fight.

Christopher- More interested in science then training, still probably received some training during his time at the academy, never developed those skills afterwards though.

Grace- Self taught along with Jesse, most likely has bad technique and never really continued her training after Jesse died.

Jesse- Most likely self-taught himself longer then Grace(cementing bad technique in more) but has been dead for some years and his body is very weak. Maybe around Ari’s level by the end of chot.

[bemtevis]

you're telling me ari became friends with CHARLES but not ALASTAIR?!?

[sheisbeautyweareworldass]

headcanon that, besides teaching winston some curse words in persian, alastair also teaches him to say “i want alastair” so by the time anna and ari return from india and get him back, winston spends the first month yelling “i want alastair” whenever someone is near him

[rinadragomir]

Chain of Thorns Fae Crate arts ☾

Listen, yes, I know the quality is shit, but I really tried my best to make it look...not too embarrassing 🫰✨🌿 I'll post good quality pics as soon as I get them ~

[thevagabondexpress]

the most anarchist reading of tlh you may ever encounter (or not, i don't know what hobie brown has to say)

On the note of my last post, it feels like there are a lot of places where it feels like TLH can be taken as a cautionary tale about power, and not just how power corrupts but specifically the way that when you are given power, you start to rely on it because it's convenient and the structures around you make it necessary to use your power and make it hard to use your power for good and pushes you toward using it for evil.

Grace is put in a position where she has to use her magic because she lives in a world where women have little power and she hasn't been taught any good, healthy ways to claim agency for herself . . . and then this twisted gift is offered to her as a shining way up and out. The system at the Academy forced Alastair to acquire power and to misuse it in order to stay safe. Lucie's power is immense and over time she grows lax about ethics because the more powerful she grows, the more inconveniencing those ethics become. As an openly genderqueer person at the turn of the century Anna is extremely disadvantaged structually and she acquires massive amounts of social power through sheer force of nastiness and grit in order to combat that . . . turning her into a couch-casting-movie-producer type that uses up and destroys exactly the kinds of hopeful young women she used to be, someone her closeted sixteen-year-old self would probably be as horrified as enthralled by.

The power Charles has as the Consul's son and obvious successor puts him in a position where he believes he can't keep the power he has and be wholly himself, and he's afraid of losing his power because he doesn't know how to live without of it. Inquisitor Bridgestock abuses his power basically to fulfill a grudge he's been carrying. Arati fully doesn't know the extent of the power she holds over Anna, and yet somehow she still misuses it anyway. And while Will and Charlotte remain good people, they're the Consul and the Head of the London Institute and they've become trapped in positions of power that prevent them from rebelling against the system the way they used to, because they are the system now and they've learned its ways.

tlh is an anarchist's cautionary tale about structures and power and while i know our beloved author did not intend that, i will stand by that reading so help me.

[thousand-winters]

I'm REALLY into the idea of Ari moving into the Carstairs house after she got kicked out. It would be a great way to foster an organic friendship between her and Alastair, and I think Sona would have been an awesome mother figure for her as well! This is so so good I LOVE it. Also, what do you think of a Grace/Ari friendship? I like that too. And Alastair/Grace of course (wrote a fic about this yesterday lol). In my mind the three of them are inseparable besties and I take no ceiticism

Oh, yeah!!! I hadn't even thought about Sona, that would have been so sweet.

Especially because I'm now thinking about how Sona was trying to give Cordelia advice and such but Cordelia wasn't communicating properly with anyone, while Ari was struggling with her mother accepting her as she was, so in a way, both of them could have been a bit of a shelter for each other in that sense, with Sona feeling protective over this girl whose mother isn't looking out for, and Ari feeling some kind of desire to repay her kindness by being there for Sona as well, when her daughter is far away. I think this could have helped Ari's storyline particularly with accepting Flora back into her life, because she would have a sort of reference for the kind of maternal figure she would start to understand she deserves, so she would approach Flora's apologetic attitude with this sort of mindset, the "I will give you a chance because you're my mother and I love you, but you don't get to try to change who I am". She would see Sona's attitude toward Alastair to know that it is possible for a mother to accept her child regardless of social conventions

Absolutely agree!!!

Those three are the trinity of personally victimized by Charles Fairchild lol. Okay, but speaking seriously, I think there are a good amount of things each of them can relate to with the other two, so they got some good points of understanding to approach their budding friendship from. In my heart, they become this tight-knit group of friends as well

[bankofwildflowers]

CHOT SPOILERS!! DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU DONT WANNA BE SPOILED!

Helloo dear fellow last hours fans I just wanted to waltz in and say a completely unnecessary factoid: Ariadne's new name Arati is pronounced Aarti or ah-rti, the way you normally say "ah"! The spelling would suggest it's like uh-ruh-tee but nope. It's a kind of a Hindu ritual where you basically praise Gods with a holy flame and some other stuff. That flame itself particularly is also called Aarti and honestly I'm so pleased at this development

Also the pata (a type of sword) mentioned belonging to her father is like putt-taa. The u sound is an "uh" sound without the h, like the "u" in "unworthy." And the 'a' is another 'ah' sound

This is coming from a person who got intensely excited seeing their native language in the book I hope you guys find it interesting too hehe

[helenofblackthorns]

Do you have any unpopular or controversial shadowhunter opinions 👀🗣️

I've been mulling this over all day and I don't... think I have any?? I have opinions that I may have thought were unpopular in the past but I've since posted about and had people agree with. also atm the fandom is so small that I can't really say what's popular vs unpopular, it feels too much like singling people out 😭

um. I guess the one thing is I don't think Charles is totally irremediable?? I've never really hated him like some have, I guess because I don't put too much weight on the timeline; its all over the place & has been since the beginning. also I'm just not a fan of how his character is treated by the narrative overall. I hate his relationship with Alastair but I don't hate him if that makes sense.

also I have to this alternative version of his relationship with Ari rattling around my head lol. essentially early on they're both very hesitant (especially Ari) and consider calling it off but instead find out the other is gay too and both go "hang on, this is great!" and develop a like 30 year life plan on how they're going to become The political power couple of the Clave. everytime they're on a romantic stroll looking so in love in reality they're actually debating in depth some obscure policy (or alternatively, being the world's worst wing person ever). idk it's a fun little headcanon of mine.

[kaitcreates]

Dru

Ari