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thaliagrayce · 1 year

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y'know what we don't talk about enough? Hazel died. We talk about how she grew up in the 30's and 40's and we talk about how out of place she feels in the modern world, but! She died! She was dead! She has spent more time dead than alive, and not by a close margin!

How does that effect a person??? We got some of it in the flashbacks, but once those caught up with her present timeline and she shared them, they just kind of... disappeared. And she was a regular girl with some weird past experiences. That's one way of doing it, sure!

I think it would have been a lot cooler if she was just a touch creepier. If she felt a little bit Wrong. Yeah, in general she's more approachable than her brother, she's more sociable and less closed off, but. If you actually spend any time with her, it can be difficult to tell which child of the underworld is actually more unsettling.

Hazel is bright of personality and has a dazzling smile, but sometimes she'll just... shut down. She'll go completely blank for like half an hour and nobody knows what to do with it. Sometimes she forgets she's alive. Sometimes she'll spout the grimmest shit you've ever heard like it's nothing, she won't even notice it's weird until the room goes quiet. She spent decades in Asphodel, which is designed to make people forget about themselves and wander around for eternity, only she didn't have the luxury of forgetting! Wild! After she comes back to life, sometimes she forgets that she's allowed to Do Stuff now. She can spend so long sitting and staring at nothing. Sometimes she'll start crying on cloudless days because it hits her again that she can actually feel the warmth of the sun on her skin and she can hear birdsong. Every little mundane experience is a blessing and she will make you remember that in the most foreboding way possible.

#hazel levesque #hoo #mj talks #like. i am fascinated with characters who die and come back different and it JUST hit me that there was so much potential for hazel there #the idea of how death lingers was not explored At All in heroes of olympus #of course there's the obvious part in that there were what. 3 named character deaths total? 4 if you count leo #which i very much don't because it didn't stick! there were no consequences to this gigantic war!#the first series did well with that because we had plenty of named characters who died #even though some of them were introduced only to die like six chapters later. we still knew them on some level #and more importantly percy knew them. he felt their loss in a way that made consequences seem real #heroes of olympus didn't have any of that. hazel could have been a great way to talk about it a little more!#also i just love characters who have obviously gone through death. that has to change a person! tell me how it changed you!#anyway. i think i'll make hazel creepier from now on in my writing #she deserves it <3 #nico is creepy in an obvious way. he's got power over death and that clings to him like a second skin. he can't hide it #and he's learned that he doesn't have to. there is power in being othered #hazel seems lovely when you first meet her! none of the death power all of the glitter and gold and riches #and then she'll look you dead in the eye and say 'you really don't know how lucky you are to be able to breathe until you can't anymore'#and move on like it's nothing! what!#underworld siblings

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strawberryicemoon · 2 months

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Does anyone else feel like the Della that was set up and the Della we actually got were two different characters.

Primarily I think Della's just dumber than we were initially lead to believe. And I think there's something in one of the first things we knew about her was that she had pretty handwriting, where I struggle to believe the Della is patient enough to have neat handwriting. The last Crash of the Sunchaser implied she designed the Spear of Selene. Scrooge said someone who "sees the angles". Like I get that don't speak ill of the dead was in play. And I also get wanting Della's legacy to not match perfectly with her true self, but some of the literally flashbacks we saw implied she was clever (she figured out Dewey was from the future, again, she was sketching the Spear). Having the characters stretch the truth is one thing, but flashbacks is another. I mean we literally saw her Scuba-Diving in a flashback, but in show she hates fish.

Not helped by the fact I assumed she named her children, and was using that as a gauge of her personality. And like. Turbo is very funny. I get why you'd make it a surprise reveal. Recontextualize her personality. But we already were introduced to her in the episode before. Also I just didn't like it tbh. (And kinda like my beef with the whole April May and June thing, I'm not a duck fan, I have no horse in this race, and things can be different, but considering to my understanding the few glimpses of previous iterations of Della, she definitely named her sons, and changing one of the few things that previously existed about the character felt weird to me, cheap even. On one hand I get wanting to show just how disconnected from her son she is and how much the incident cost her. But on the other hand it was just salt in the wound at that point, for a few jokes about the boys names… which have generally been changed to be even more embarrassing than they were previously for more jokes).

I really did like Whatever Happened to Della Duck. The only "Weird' things to me was how technically and artistically unsavvy she seemed to be, when we had scene her sketching the spear of Selene. Like that was a whole ass plot point. And also how oblivious she seemed to what was happening with the Moonlanders when she was presumably "sharp". But y'know. I can excuse one misunderstanding, and she was probably just a bit crazy from being alone on the moon for so long (and any prior mental health issues) and when she gets back other characters will probably be unnerved by her a bit because she's changed. But this was apparently normal Della (aside from not liking her reflection). If someone had spelled out in show the ways she had changed while on the moon I think it would have made all the difference. (Though Ducktales in general has an issue for completely neglecting to state important information until its necessary but long after it was relevant, so the fact no one says that doesn't mean it can't be true tbh).

I think the core of the character, and thus why she caught my attention remained. She's a traumatized woman who did something impulsive (that should have been fine), that had disproportionately huge consequences. And now has to get to know her children. She has to learn to parent on the fly. She has to establish herself as an adult when she's otherwise been stuck in place. She has to reestablish herself with her family, and a new sense of identity in a world that's changed without her.

And looking some of the Della description from the pitch bible we got recently, and the Della described there is closer to the one I thought we were getting prior to her debut. It makes me wonder when that changed. I know early on, in the Moorshire episode, they realized they made Launchpad too dumb after they finished it. To me it feels like they did that with Della (and to a certain extent Donald as well), but then never made the realization about what they did. We already had launchpad as the stupid adult. We didn't need more. Also, to be honest, I struggle to name any strengths over other characters besides the pragmatic "better at flying than Launchpad". Now, don't get me wrong, I still like canon Della. She had a lot of great moments. But to be honest I think all of her best moments, would have also worked with the Della I thought we were getting. Her fears about losing the kids, so lying to them about participating in the fight. Her song. Her punishing Louie for being stupid. The bit where she talked about being unable to look at her reflection and breaking her glass. Teaching Dewey to fly. Realizing how much her kids looked up to her and to what extents they might be idiots to prove themselves to her. I don't want her not to be reckless, just more thoughtful. That said, the way the other characters treated her didn't really help. It felt like at least for a while she was being ignored. Like she wasn't being treated seriously, but also no one was trying to help or understand her. (Which we got Donald blasted off into space after being ecstatic to see her, made me feel like Donald might actually see her... but then 5 episodes in to S3 Donald gets a girlfriend and the twins rarely appear together).

Liking those elements of the pitch bible might be a bit of the classic "the grass is greener" nonsense. And the fact it's just a barebones description not a full fletched character, and to be fair I don't care for every detail in it. But even before the pitch bible, I was bothered by the fact Daisy, not Della was the person who understood Donald best. (My aromantic self does not appreciate the prioritzation of romantic relationships). And here in the pitch bible. It says Della knows Donald best. We didn't get a single glimpse of "was scared to be a mom", even though I'd solidly developed the head canon that the Spear of Selene ride was a form of post-partum fear even before reading this, and I understand that might have been difficult to work into the show, the lack of support for Della in general, or any hints of empathy for why she did what she did doesn't help. Even of dealing with trauma from the instance. I can't say the "stuff just happens" angle is objectively bad. But this is still a story. A narrative. Not reality. It feels cheap as a character, for her biggest mistake to basically boil down to "oops", rather than a huge character flaw. Like yes, being reckless is a flaw. But considering what the family is USUALLY doing, it… isn't? It really isn't any worse than what they family does normally so for her to be punished so harshly for it is a bit unfair.

In the finale the fact it's revealed that Bradford told Della about the spear, also feels kinda cheap to me. I think its an interesting reveal… but considering this is information one of our main protagonists knows it feels bizarre that it is a reveal to the audience. (Or that no one asked Della before). Also it feels a bit like it's trying to absolve Della of blame, but it doesn't address the core problem of (sure the show never states there's a problem but Scrooge makes reference to Della's "one last big adventure" and it's hard not to see this as an attempt to break out of some sort of mental funk. And it again, needlessly victimizes Della. She got stuck in space for 10 years, couldn't even name her own children, loses her leg, gets betrayed, loses her plane kinda-sorta, and is kind of treated like an idiot by many of the other adults around her. Because some guy was trying to mess with Scrooge. Della's moon trip sucks, I don't think they needed to make it worse by making it not even her fault.

I wish we had gotten a scene of Donald telling the boys what Della was like from his perspective. He's her twin. And I really don't want to welcome the comparisons between DT17 and GF. But the lack of any character drawing the parallels between Donald & Della and Huey, Dewey and Louie is absurd. But they don't utilize it. Like at all. No one ever looks at Donald and goes, oh. He lost his twin. That really sucks. The triplets never go. What would it be like if I lost one of you. Like twins are sometimes just siblings. They don't need to have "super special relationship", but in a show about family it's sure awkward that they don't. I am so mad that Huey, Dewey and Louie didn't get to see another side of their Uncle Donald brought out by Della. Or alternatively a Della struggling to connect with her brother. Even better both.

I know the "is the character acting ooc or do you not actually know the character" is well, a thing. I am aware that the post-partum depression, actually clever and observant Della is mostly made up by me. But I also know where in canon it came from to me. Della never acts out of character from once she's introduced. But that character is still a bit off from the character we had come to expect in the first season and a half. She's not completely divorced from what we were told about her. But still. Do I love Della, or the idea of Della. Honestly, I don't know.

This is definitely very OPINION, and not really anything objective.

#I feel like I'm being nothing but negative #Ducktales has fantastic characters who bounce off each other really well #a great sense of humor #and some beautiful animations and moments of pure emotion #But the poor plot #worldbuilding and thematic cohesion really hurts it #I keep feeling like the Della in my head is nothing like the canon one #I can recognize when I'm not talking about the character in canon #But I think my head Della is the way she is because of how she was set up #and how the set ups weren't meaningfully addressed #I take solace in the fact that their Della seems little like previous Della's so I feel free to change her in my fics #But it is really frustrating when looking at canon #tbh I'm not even entirely sure that I didn't force myself into liking Della considering the difficulty I had getting through some of those #I really do like Ducktales #but also...#Anyway #ducktales #ducktales 2017 #Della duck

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cerise-on-top · 7 months

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what do u think Farah, Kate, Valeria’s types are, like personality wise or physically? love ur stuff so much, there isn’t enough stuff for the cod women and it is the worse💋

Hey there! I don't think they have a type per se, to them it's more important to have a good connection with someone! So I only wrote about what I think they'd like their partner to be! I didn't write about any physical appearances, though, since I think that sort of thing doesn't matter at all! The chemistry is important to them more so than anything else!

Valeria’s, Farah’s and Laswell’s type

Valeria: She’d likely be into someone who knows what they want from the get go, who can get aggressive at times but knows when to be quiet as well. Someone intelligent, who knows not to mess with her and her business too much, willing to let a lot of morally interesting things slide. Someone who can be loud at the right time, who isn’t afraid to stand up for themselves. However, I think she’d also be into someone independent. She doesn’t have a lot of time for a relationship, always out and about somewhere, so she’d want someone who can take care of themself. Someone who knows how to do house chores is also a big plus. You don’t have to worry about her doing nothing, if she wants to she can hire a maid or something, but it’s sort of domestic to her to have a partner who knows how to cook and use a vacuum cleaner. That way she won’t have to worry too much about coming home to a messy home. Her ideal partner would be up for going out with her from time to time, and wouldn't be shy in front of other people either. Someone motivated would be nice as well. Just someone willing to do things with and for her. But the most important part would be loyalty. Someone who knows that what she does is wrong, but stays with her despite it. Valeria can’t allow someone to work against her, not even someone she loves.

Farah: She’d probably like someone chipper. She’s surrounded by war and death at all times, so having someone cheerful with her, who can lift her spirits when she’s feeling down, would be ideal to her. Besides, she loves the domestic parts of life as much as the next person, so she wouldn’t mind settling down somewhere with someone, but she also wants to be with someone willing to go out with her to maybe explore the surroundings a bit. Doesn’t have to be a lot either, just watching the sunset while going on a walk with her would suffice for her. Her ideal partner would be open for most things, from cultures to just some outings. And although it’s only a small part of her, she secretly does wish for someone who’s not straight. That way she can share her experiences with someone else and not feel as alone. Someone who can show her something new almost every day would also be appreciated. Farah is a very loyal person, so she’d love for her partner to be the same. Communication is key, so someone willing to talk to her if something bothers them, regardless of what it may be, would also be nice. It would also be nice if that person could stay calm during most parts of their life and not lose hope immediately, someone who trusts that Farah will come home safe and sound to them and not freak out about every small thing.

Laswell: I think she’d be into someone calm. Someone a bit older, maybe even a few years older than her, who has seen the finer things life has to offer and who can appreciate them. Nothing would faze them and they would never raise their voice. Someone, who doesn’t need to see the world anymore, who has seen most of it. Someone stable and content. While Laswell could take care of someone, she doesn’t want someone reliant on her since she’s abroad more often than not and doesn’t have the time for someone like that always. While it would be nice if that person could speak up for themself, she doesn’t mind having to speak on their behalf from time to time. That person doesn’t have to be the next Einstein, but she’d love someone she can have sophisticated conversations with over a glass of wine. Someone willing to drink some wine with her in general would be nice. Laswell is too old to want very many complications, so she too would appreciate someone willing to say what bothers them so they can work it out together. Not everything needs to be perfect, but she’d prefer it if she could talk it out with them. Although she can splurge a little bit here and there, it’s important to her that her partner is responsible with money and doesn’t buy everything that comes to mind. She wants them to be well off, and that is, mostly, only possible if you know how to save money. She thinks butches are hot, but she’s not opposed to a cute femme either.

#cod #valeria garza #farah karim #kate laswell #I wasn't sure if I was going to write this request in the first place #I always felt bad whenever I read about a character's type and I very much was not that #and I don't want other people to feel bad because of it either #so I'm just gonna say it again: The chemistry you have with those characters is more important than fitting into their type #there's another word I'm looking for but I for the life of me can't remember it right now #anyway if you vibe with a character then by all means imagine yourself with them and don't listen to what I have to say #this was just for fun and really shouldn't make anyone feel bad #if you're the things I listed then that's great! but even if you're not the girls would still love and adore you all the same!#again these are just desirable traits for them more so than anything else! nothing to go by!#I can tell you that the girls would love you just as you are!

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knightelf · 1 month

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i want so badly to start reading again and i want so badly to start the realm of the elderlings series but why is . why is literally everybody i know including myself speedrunning bankruptcy. like i cannot afford to do jack shit anymore and buying BOOKS is pretty much not gonna happen like....dear god...

#i genuinely do not know a single person that isnt freaking tf out. like its always been not Great but it was at least somewhat manageable #at one time....now i feel like we are all spiralling toward having nothing like it really really looks that way #im gonna run out . my savings are almost completely gone #this...cannot continue....we cant even grocery shop And pay rent anymore like hoky fuck

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radiosummons · 2 years

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For two characters that barely share more than five minutes on screen together and say even fewer words to each other, DinLuke sure has me in a fucking chokehold.

#dinluke #din djarin #luke skywalker #look #i know that shipping characters #who barely even know each other #is nothing new #but wow #the mandalorian fandom #really worked fast on this one #and they're right #dinluke is a great ship #radio queue

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waywardsalt · 3 months

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with my phantom hourglass replay, there are two things i noticed;

a possible theme you could glean from the game is action vs inaction, and i think it's especially prevalent before you even leave mercay the first time, with oshus frequently urging link to not go after the ghost ship, then to just wait until the broken bridge is fixed, and seems reluctant at every turn while link and ciela are more than eager to go and do something about this problem, and the people of mercay in general talking about things and their problems but never seeming to act on their fears or desires, as well as the mention that due to the ghost ship, very very few people are still sailing around, while linebeck is one of the only people we see in the game actively going after the ghost ship and still sailing around. i might make a longer post just talking more about the action vs inaction in phantom hourglass but i just noticed it a bit and thought it was a bit of an interesting sort of theme you could find in the game.

linebeck moves so fucking much. i think he moves more than any npc in the rest of the game. not just in his intro cutscene where he is very animated, just in how much he moves when just standing in his little idle post, it's damn near distracting when the camera is focused on him, he moves a lot. i don't think i've really acknowledged how much he moves, and it really gives the impression that he's antsy or eager to get going, both of which fit him pretty well with how he acts.

#phantom hourglass #linebeck #loz #legend of zelda #salty talks #imo the action vs inaction thing feels esp interesting to me when looking at oshus specifically. he and his world are in grave danger #and he knows it and he actively does nothing and even seems reluctant to let ciela and link go ahead and do something.#of course he comes around on it but it's very interesting. has he given up at that point? thats what it suggests to me #that hes like. joined the people of mercay in just lying down and waiting for other people to fix their problems or just. not do anything #otherwise on mercay you have that old guy in the bar who spends the whole game not leaving bc he doesnt want to face his wife #and she never goes to the bar to actually look for him and just talks about it if anything #the guy with the blue tunic talks a lot about linebeck and his ship and almost gives the impression that he really wants to talk to him #but yknow. doesnt. theres the women that tells you about docks being shut down and how linebeck is the only person who's showed up #the woman you see at the broken bridge who's just like oh well! time to wait til someone fixes it.#even the guy fixing the bridge iirc is like well fuck i gotta do it or else oshus is going to bitch at me abt it #everyone seems reluctant to act which makes for an interesting way in how our main crew stands out #it is less so oh theyve been chosen specifically for this its moreso they're the ones who are fucking doing something about this #for their own various reasons some of which are more selfish but theyre still doing something #will likely have more stuff to say when im done but ofc we have other characters in the game who have to do with this #anyways. linebeck is so animated all of the fucking time it's great i dont think theres any other character that moves as much as him #when he's just standing around to talking to link it's great. he's so ready to get going.#it works with him being an anxious mess and also with like. oh he's probably understimulated. you know he's got a nasty case of wanderlust #i can put it with the idea that he's understimulated and afraid to stim in public so he's just constantly moving #he probably drums his fingers on tables bounces his leg when sitting paces around switches the way he sits or lays down often #tbh this kinda fits in with him being one of the main characters who takes action moreso than a lot of other characters #his arc culminates in him taking action he's going after the ghost ship he's moving around the world the only issue is that one of the #actions he takes is running away from his problems literally n metaphorically (tho idk if facing the jolene problem is a good idea for him)

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phioneplatinum · 3 months

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He's ok! I think! Maybe! Probably...

anyways late night saturday vrchat session was a thing that happened and it sure was chaotic as you'd expect we didn't get a lot of pictures but we do have these ones! :D hoping to add emotes to the tempo soon, but alas....visemes are hard to work with. hopefully i can get it sorted out soon! i def wanna get the silly emotes working oh yeah don't mind the basil omor in the third image that's just @komasan192

also im fully willing to plan out a vrchat session for harmoknight tumblr! i usually do em on friday, saturday, and sunday nights since thats when im mainly free :D maybe this weekend? :0

#harmoknight #phione's rambling #vrchat #i shared the tomodachi life lore with a friend during the gamering #most of us lost our shit it was so fucking funny #i wanna work on more avatars...maybe tappy next #i looked at gargans model and i've come to the realization that im legally not smart enough to figure out how to make the face work #meanwhile tyko's model ended up being in multiple parts and i dont think thats how it works???#i might end up seeing how ninja ripper works for ariana lyra and woodwin #oh and training tempo too #i really want those models ripped aaaa #OH yeah #i think tempo is ready [even though literally nothing has changed with him since last post]#im not. great at modeling or unity so his visemes are a little wonky #they dont really. move with the face which is weird #but you know what he works and that's what matters to me #he also has his staff toggle but idk how to make it work on pc im sorry pc users #im really not familiar with all the unity stuff!! sorry!!

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good-beans · 2 days

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Art for my mom :)

I was telling her about how cute the milgramblrgram art was, and she knows I swore off drawing real people but here was a Window of Opportunity where I was doing it lol 😅 We're going to visit her dad soon and she asked if I could make something of him of his kids! I found a fairly recent photo of them and used it as a starting point

#its nothing crazy idk i just wanted it under the readmore #im still nervous drawing real people because im really not that great and ive always been met with 'oh you think i look like That? :/'#so milgramblrgram boosted my confidence since i dont actually know what anyone looks like so no ones feelings could be hurt 😂#but then i did end up doing some from photos! so we'll see #i dont think hes really going to care much - his mind is the reason were going out to visit #i kinda drew it for my mom specifically and i could tell how happy it made her <3 #im too tired to decide if this is oversharing or not but idk i wanted to show it 👍#i was supposed to get a lot more done today but homework took longer than i thought #and this took a normal length of drawing time but i tried to finish it all today because i procrastinated rip 😂#but it feels like an Accomplishment you know?#i dont even know #i think mayhaps its time to sleep 😅#rose rambles #my art

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regular-lord-reckoner · 1 month

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i’m home !!

procedure went real well, everything was really smooth and almost as soon as they said, “you can count backwards if you want,” i don’t think i even said ten before i was suddenly in recovery and sipping some ginger ale.

honestly the worst part was the iv because they had to do it on the side of my wrist because apparently my veins are crooked ?? i just hate ivs anyway so that’s no surprise but other than that no complaints.

everyone was real nice and made sure i was well taken care of (my nurse even had me pee one more time before so she wouldn’t have to do a catheter which with my history…..thank you)

but yeah, i’ll have a follow up in about a month just to make sure everything’s good and the iud is doing its thing !!

i do have some cramping and bleeding but that’s normal, although a little funny because i literally just stopped my period yesterday but…oh well !! hopefully in a few months i won’t have hardly any so this we can handle and i hace some medicine (and my ~medicine) that’ll help so i’m all set.

mom had to go run some errands so my little recovery buddy is keeping me company. also, a moment of recognition for my new favorite shirt (thank you as always, Boss Dog Art; i’ve already got my eye on another one that says, “i think therefore i am against transphobia around the world” or something like that and it’s got a cool skeleton on it; this is my third shirt from them and they’re really comfy and good quality so not sponsored but check them out, they seem cool):

#It’s been a rough week leading up to this i’m not gonna lie #one of my neighbors was shooting on Sunday when i was in the pool #which i’m used to at this point #but for some reason i got triggered into a panic attack #and could not catch my breath #could not calm down for several minutes just scream crying #had to dunk my head underwater a few times and splash myself in the face #eventually i just buried my face in my towel and screamed cried until i physically had to stop #because i thought i was about to have a heart attack #so that wasn’t so chill #spent the rest of the day shaking #guess you just never know when it’s gonna hit!!#another plane has hit the ptsd towers #sorry #not for nothing though but the shooting stopped so there’s that #they probably thought someone had a fuckin’ ari aster movie turned up over here #nope just a mentally unstable bitch doing her best which clearly isn’t great but what can ya do!!#it was kinda funny though because i’ve been hesitant to go back out there since #but finally yesterday i had even worked longer the day before so i could really enjoy it #it had been sunny all day #no signs of rain #i’m ready to get some exercise in because i knew it might be a while #before i can again so i was really looking forward to a nice 30 minute run #damned if it didn’t start raining as soon as i got out there #and that was fine #i still ran a little got my water weights in #but the kicker was i looked at the weather on my phone and it looked like it was going to keep raining #so i said okay let me just go take a shower and settle in for the night #it didn’t rain and the sun came back out so oh well!#but point is…today went well and i’m doing okay and things could always be worse so no worries <3

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the-eclectic-wonderer · 5 months

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@\hecatesbroom (not tagging so I don't annoy you lmao) has been teaching me how to make gifs, and I'm happy to report I've been using this power for the greater good (to make gifs of beautiful women)

Bonus under the cut:

Three little Elizabeths because I couldn't resist her charm 💙

#these are not very well made lmao but i dont really care all that much. im having a great time #actually ngl im having the time of my life #nothing better than staring at beautiful women for hours <3 #im noticing now i've only picked gifs in which Dorothy is not smiling. criminal on my part #but in my defence i've been captivated by her hands #that gif where she crosses her arms... i would like her to...#no... i shan't say...#rose is *so pretty*. so pretty!! good heavens!!#(as is elizabeth lmao betty white really was that girl)#literally incredible how she manages to make confusion look so beautiful she's magnificent #and blanche. oh god. where do i even start.#her smile is. agh. how do i even tell you all i am literally in love with her #look at her in the top left and tell me you're not DESTROYED like #she makes an inappropriate joke. waits to see rose's reaction. and then brightens up in the cutest laugh in the world #i would literally unironically do anything for her #(to say nothing of bottom center. ooohhh that nightgown. the poise. i am but a wee lesbian and she's everything)#ok im done rambling in the tags. thank you alys for giving me this power i shall not misuse it #the golden girls #life with elizabeth

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brightwoods · 1 year

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Does anyone else feel like almost all of the conflicts that had to do with the various character dynamics in Chain of Thorns didn’t actually get resolved, they just unexplainably ceased to exist after two books of building them up because CC didn’t feel like writing them anymore and she didn’t know how to resolve it naturally after how she’d built the issues up so much?

Like how none of the characters but Cordelia and Thomas had any clue about the Alastair and Charles situation and then suddenly in CoT it was like who doesn’t know? Of course Matthew knew and didn’t say anything before and then randomly brought it up to Cordelia in Paris while assuming she knew too

Or how Alastair and Thomas went from how things were at the end of CoI with Alastair thinking it could never work because Thomas’s friends hate him to oh look everyone suddenly is friends with Alastair with no grudge with no development of that in this book at all, just an abrupt shift

Especially the Alastair and Matthew dynamic where Matthew hated Alastair and wanted him to have nothing to do with any of their friends and he spent CoI ranting about him to Cordelia. And then suddenly in CoT it’s like of course Matthew is supportive of Thomas and Alastair and oh look Matthew and Alastair are suddenly not just tolerating each other for Thomas’s sake but friends despite barely interacting and no development actually showing and never getting any mention of the other in their own POVs, just having Cordelia be like Alastair stop being dumb, you’re literally friends with him now

Or like everyone other than Christopher and Grace where it was like oh we don’t like her for how she’s treated us and her friends straight to anyway she’s one of us. Like yes Grace was useful and yes Tatiana manipulated her whole life, but none of that was why anyone changed their minds or opinions? It was just suddenly the flip of a switch when it was convenient for CC

Or Anna and Ariadne where it didn’t so much develop as Anna just acted mean to Ariadne on and off throughout the series and at the end of CoI she wanted nothing to do with a relationship and then in CoT she was just suddenly like sure I guess I do. Also, slightly different note, but I did not like that Anna barely interacted with anyone else for the entire book and she was just off in the corner being an irrelevant romantic subplot for almost all of the book except when she showed up to barely even be shown in the background being sad about her brother being dead

(Although Anna still got more of a reaction than everyone else and his death was poorly executed all around in the sense of how did you write this so predictably and poorly that no one even knows when he died and it’s so background and 99% of the characters don’t care at all and we don’t see his parents finding out or much of Thomas’s reaction or anything and it’s just as if he wasn’t a character anymore 2 seconds later which is a different genre of issue with CoT but similar problem in the sense that both issues made the book feel a lot more emotionless to read)

And how the issues of Thomas and Alastair being together as two men and Anna and Ariadne being together as two women in this time and the issues of what would happen if the fact that Charles and Alastair were gay got out to the entire Clave just disappeared and never got addressed at all. We know how the ClVe reacted to Alec Lightwood YEARS later. We know society was homophobic at the time TLH is set and that it seems like shadowhunter society was a lot less open-minded than mundanes a century later

I understand that Charles being blackmailed and making shitty decisions was annoying but it was like suddenly everyone finding out wouldn’t have consequences and all the other queer men characters were like how could you possibly be worried about this :/ as if they haven’t spent the whole series knowing they have to be careful about who they tell. And then suddenly it was just of course it’s totally fine and safe to have everyone find out and why wouldn’t you be fine with that. And it was really written in a way that had other queer characters like oh Charles is such a coward for not being ready to publicly tell a bunch of homophobic people his sexuality and it just wasn’t it??? And super weird after Thomas was terrified of telling even Anna and Matthew for years. And also, I did not care for the fact that when Charles did go risk getting outed to finally do the right thing, we didn’t even get to see it through any character’s perspective or how that important meeting went, we just got one line of dialogue from somebody else saying that it happened with no details at all. And I can’t think of other examples right now but there were quite a few moments like that where we got one line saying that something had happened that was important to the plot and to characters’ development that seemed like it would have been more interesting than some of what we did get to see where it was just totally breezed over and way too easy and totally background to less important stuff

And then there was the whole no one reacting to Ariadne and Anna dancing together publicly thing was like yeah that’s nice I guess but not realistic and it doesn’t go with the way things have been presented up to that point, it also just feels like a situation where CC was like well this would be easier for me so there just won’t be consequences and then they can easily end up happily together

And then there was the whole Thomas and Alastair thinking they couldn’t realistically be together thing and knowing they couldn’t get married or be known to be together by anyone they’re not close to and then at the end it’s still not really addressed how they’re going to be together? Like there was the laziest write off of the family tree being wrong and then we still are just left to assume that eventually they move in together and suddenly it’s not a problem and everyone’s fine with it? And then I also feel like we don’t actually know if everyone found out about Alastair and Charles’ sexualities after the blackmail or if people are going to assume about Thomas and Alastair or if that’ll cause issues or if no one knows outside of who they’ve told and they have to be careful or what. Which like wouldn’t necessarily need to be addressed if it wasn’t for the logistics of being together as two men in that time being part of the obstacle that they were struggling with being in their way and then it felt like it was totally forgotten to even be one at the end by CC

Idk like I’d love to think they just lived in a world where homophobia didn’t exist but it felt like homophobia was a plot point when CC wanted it to be an inconvenience and then suddenly disappeared just to make her writing easier the moment she didn’t want it there anymore instead of actually addressing the plots she raised with it if that makes sense?

And sorry, I really did not mean to go on a rant this long. And maybe everyone else had a very different reading experience than I did and other people don’t agree with some or all of this. I personally am just very confused about how the book was almost 800 pages long and it felt like so much of the development in it was us abruptly being told that development had happened rather than actually getting to see it and how so many of the issues were abruptly solved in an I don’t want to write this issue anymore kind of way rather than anything actually needing to be worked at outside of the Belial situation

Edit: You know what, I mentioned it in my tags but I feel like it’s annoying enough to put in the body of the post and make it even longer. What the fuck was with everyone outing or potentially outing everyone else just so that characters could openly talk about the queer characters and tell them to do what they want them to? Why did Matthew out his brother multiple times? Like yes, the people he said it to coincidentally already knew, but he didn’t know that. And why was Thomas outing Alastair? The straights got to keep their secrets as long as they wanted and fix their problems more naturally. Why did I have to sit through queer characters constantly having their sexualities and romantic histories to everyone else when they clearly had not okayed it? Why were the queer characters doing so much of the outing? Why were people who cared about them and knew what it felt like to be afraid of the wrong person finding out just broadcasting their sexualities to make it easier for CC to breeze past development to have their things get resolved fast? Why did no character have an issue with it at all?

#As a queer person the whole using homophobia against her characters as plot just to pretend homophobia doesn’t exist and call her characters #cowards for worrying about it as soon as she’s decided writing it doesn’t serve her plot agenda anymore really icks me right out #Like yeah I’d love homophobia to not exist but girl what are you doing that’s so gross to go about it that way #ALSO everyone outing or potentially outing everyone else to other characters to make it easier to get the queer characters to do what she #wanted them to was a HORRIBLE vibe. Why is Matthew outing his brother? Why is Thomas outing Alastair? Why is everyone telling everyone else #people’s sexualities as if it’s nothing and everyone has a right to know when that character clearly did not feel that way #And it’s so out of nowhere every time too #Hot take: Charles protecting Alastair’s privacy instead of outing him was more valid than anything any of the other queer characters said #about Charles or Alastair’s sexualities even if I hate Charles and his going along with the blackmail was bullshit #Also now that I’ve written all of this down and 99% of what I wrote about in here has to do with the canon queer characters that’s not #a great look either that she did breeze over some of the stuff with the other characters for sure but she was way more likely to skip depth #and development with the queer characters in CoT #CC said no slow burn gradual changes in this book… there’s only room for abrupt 180s and Cordelia running 🏃‍♀️#Sorry if this has weird typos and other mistakes in it. I typed on my phone and didn’t check for autocorrect nonsense and I’m too lazy to #reread this all rn at my current brainpower level #CoT #Chain of Thorns spoilers #Chain of Thorns #The Last Hours #The Shadowhunter Chronicles #Cassandra Clare #My Posts

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