#it especially sucks because witherward ends with a big fat question mark about the future of camden’s alliance with the sorcerers | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

eliotquillon · 2 years ago

Text

rereading witherward after wayward has me SO unwell because now i know what cassia sims’ head is like and ilsa just treats her like shit. it’s really obvious from their initial scenes together that cassia recognises that she and ilsa have a lot in common (estranged from their family + golden child older brother, raised around people from a completely different culture to her “own”, a lot of pent up anger and bitterness about being “robbed” of what should have been theirs) and is trying to empathise with ilsa about it but ilsa is SO paranoid and defensive that they never really click. e.g cassia asking ilsa if she has trouble shifting is automatically perceived by ilsa as an insult - but cassia herself had trouble with her magic as a result of not being raised around other sorcerers, and is close friends with fyfe who is a weak shifter; she’s asking not as an insult, but because she’s trying not to assume anything + she has the experiences and resources to help.

we know from wayward that cassia is incredibly anxious and desperate to be liked, and she doesn’t have any female friends her own age (apart from sybella, who is both separated by a border and cassia’s brother’s girlfriend). i don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that part of cassia’s initial excitement + nervousness about meeting ilsa was due to her hopes of making a close female friend. ilsa isn’t really in the wrong for her behaviour, per se - she’s just watched her own close female friend get murdered, and her entire world is actively being turned upside down - but it kind of fucking sucks for cassia.

#witherward #wayward #wayward hannah mathewson #cassia sims #ilsa ravenswood #i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again #cassia lied about her argument with gedeon so ilsa would have a better relationship with him than cassia did with ollivan #the cassia we see in witherward is obviously far better at magic and more at ease than in wayward #but she’s the same girl underneath really #i think it’s especially admirable that she continues to reach out to ilsa even when the text makes it clear that ilsa reminds her of gedeon #to the point where cassia is described as being on the verge of tears the first time she meets ilsa and gets a good look at her #it especially sucks because witherward ends with a big fat question mark about the future of camden’s alliance with the sorcerers #and not only does that potentially make cassia a target of further suspicion #sybella lev and virgil are still in the heart as of the end of wayward #along with their families and cassia’s mother #i think you can kind of read between the lines and assume that the heart is still an oppressive dictatorship like it was under fisk #given that cassia explicitly tells alana she’ll get coup’d if she runs for high sorcerer #and in general i think cassia’s just in a really difficult position post-witherward

1 note · View note