#tsc deep dives

[edwinspaynes]

My super unpopular take is that all the miscommunication is what makes TLH so good. It's essentially a display of what makes the characters tick, and the way that they resolve it all shows how they fit together and what the spaces between them represent.

At its core, TLH is a series about trauma.

James has been sexually abused for years, making him unable to communicate about his lack of free will and the lies that his life were made up of. Cordelia grew up in an abusive household and is just now learning that her life isn't what she believed it to be. This of course makes it hard for them to communicate since both of them were blindsided by this new knowledge that all of their past experiences were lies.

Matthew has PTSD from his perceived misdeed, his Great Sin that has made him believe he's a murderer for years; he loathes himself, makes self-destructive decisions, and refuses to communicate as a result of the self-punishment stemming from that. Part of this punishment and self-harm is throwing himself into James and Cordelia's relationship to break his own heart and pay penance. Matthew miscommunicates to HIMSELF that this is what love is and this is what he deserves.

Alastair's canonical cPTSD puts him in the position of a protector who must keep secrets that have left him feeling broken and unlovable. Thomas, who has loved him since childhood, cannot speak of it for fear of upsetting his close-knit friend group. Not to mention that in his grief he's extremely rash.

Only by talking can they make their situations better, can they fit the puzzle pieces of their lives together and heal. But they have to wait until they're ready, and seeing when and how that happens is both a massive character study and a study in trauma. The things trauma makes us do and makes us hide.

This is the point of TLH. This is literally the reason it works.

[faithfromanewperspective]

jesse deep dive cause i can't sleep

was thinking about the Controversial Jesse Scene and--before i do any hard takes or really have opinions on it--i can't help but think the way he perfectly captures Traumatised Victorian-Edwardian Man. how we don't see how he's feeling most of the time, considering he's not a main narrator and nor is he in a position where he's constantly able to talk about his emotions. In fact it would be canon consistent to assume he actually has never been able to talk about his emotions with anyone ever. Nor is he or has he really ever been able to show them or express himself in any way. With Grace he could express his love for her, but he was always in a bit of a carer position for her; she was never really there for him to confide in properly. He's not overly guarded about everything--his trauma doesn't manifest like that. He recognises a generally caring community when he sees one; he applies all his skills on how to be respectful and kind and connect with people that he no doubt had to teach himself (Tatiana not being the best role model and all, and also keeping him away from the rest of the world for the most part).

With this background, it makes perfect sense for him to latch onto the Herondales, whom he's realised over decades how unfounded and exaggerated his mother's hatred of is. He's heard horrible things about them, and they're nothing like that when he gets to know Lucie and she tells him about her family (which as much as she vents about them in her first writing project, she actually loves her family and finds them generally supportive and not a source of trauma or hurt, so different from Jesse's experience of family). To him, getting to know the Herondales is a bit like leaving a restrictive cult and realising that rock and roll and dungeons and dragons are actually great and not charged with supernatural villains at all (and of course, subsequently getting far more into them than if they had never been forbidden in the first place). He idealises the Herondales a bit, and if I'm honest--I can't really blame him. They gave him the life he always wanted and his in-laws and wife are always going to feel like a sort of rebellion against and liberation from his mother, especially when she inadvertently but also kind of intentionally put him through you know, the whole possession thing. In which he 'did' everything he's worked so hard to not be anything like and which would've been traumatising on so many levels.

I know possession is a supernatural trauma and not really relatable to any of us (as far as I'm aware, can't ever say never) on here. But when it comes down to it: Jesse was raised solely by an arguably evil if not at least bitter, vengeful and delusional (in terms of feeding herself lies because she can't face the truth until they become her truth, I'm not sure if I'm using the word correctly here and understand it can be a sensitive and ableist thing if I'm not) woman, who isolated him from the rest of the world (much like a cult does). I know Tatiana did things to Grace she didn't do to Jesse. But it's also not a competition of who had it worse: each of their childhoods was what it was. Jesse has known literally nothing else. And yet he figured out how to be generally a good person, he researched how to be a shadowhunter and trained himself and his sister, did all the things that Gideon and Gabriel didn't figure out about their family until they left it, without actually ever leaving. We don't really get page time talking about these things, but it's pretty impressive when you think about it. But it also means his (relative, okay, okay) morality has been hard-fought for, and even though he logically knows none of what Belial did in his body isn't his fault, it's still as if he failed in the one thing he thought to be critical, more critical than what he wants or prefers: breaking the cycle of hurt breeding hurt that Tatiana lives in.

Combine that with the fact that he's never had anyone to hold space for his feelings. Had to figure that all out on his own, and grew up in an era (has it really changed though??) where it's virtuous to be calm on the surface even if, as we know, it leads to emotions simmering into rage when they do eventually surface, making an anger/trauma response when it does happen bigger than if, say, hurt was felt and processed and grieved with others who offer a corrective experience as would be ideal. And the fact that though he has a new network around him, they're not there to all be his therapists and he's still the new guy, still super polite and trying to make a good impression and super grateful and kind of surprised when they do include him--so he's not about to process, really, how to look past his own trauma and be there for his sister, when, in his eyes, she's had more agency than he had in his possession, something he would have longed to have just a smidge of so he could hopefully stop it, and seemingly taken the easy way out and done the thing that Jesse could never, ever condone and honestly thinks he raised his sister to be better than. It feels like a betrayal of Jesse: his morals he fought so hard for. And it reminds him too much of what he went through: James, who he's heard how much Lucie adores and all the times she's been worried about, not being in control of himself and accidentally hurting people (Cordelia at least, Lucie fills him in on that) for three and a half years.

Yes, he isn't taking into account the dynamics of power and abuse and how what Grace went through, too young to know better or really have any choice in the matter until it was normalised, held over her in ways she couldn't fight until Tatiana was briefly out of the picture (at which point she did straight away). Going with the cult metaphor, the brainwashing and gaslighting and blackmail and total under-thumb squishing was exactly what Grace was going through, she was being controlled as well, but from Jesse's point of view she had a little bit of autonomy, she didn't use it or even come to him for advice and help, and it just feels like a betrayal especially given all his unprocessed trauma. It's too much of a shock for a man who's just been resurrected (which would also have some jarring effects one would imagine). Yes, he wasn't kind in how he treated her, the way he should've been. Yes, he hurt someone so vulnerable and it's always going to be there in their sibling relationship history. Yes, the shock wears off and she's still his sister, James and Cordelia are back together, yes he should've stood up for her more but. I don't think it's out of cowardice, even if one could call it morally grey. He's behaving like someone with his resources and trauma would, arguably better than many. He did make a brother out of that event, putting in an effort to reach out to James. So many people don't know how to mediate, and honestly, this is a really tricky situation for all who do (Christopher mainly, who does accidentally belittle James' pain in a way and brush over it with the turn-the-other-cheek-privilege rhetoric, which is in some ways the attitude Jesse places on himself and those around him including Grace if you get where I'm taking you and the irony of it).

Anyway, I have thoroughly enjoyed every fic exploring this relationship and everything that went down with this event in every different way. I don't have a problem with saying 'oh Jesse should've' but I also don't see the point in expecting him to be morally perfect when we don't expect that of other characters, and when it happens to the extent the imperfections that make him three-dimensional are washed away, when he has so few of them to begin with and he's probably the least fleshed out male character of the main cast (not saying he's complete cardboard!!! he's just the amount of fleshiness many of the female characters are, who we also tend to expect to be morally perfect!) like yes it creates an island for Grace in many ways that Tatiana all but orchestrated the way she did Jesse's death--a lasting punishment if you will, for ceasing to be her 'weapon' by exposing her to the others she forced her to hurt. It's a shitty situation in so many ways and I hate that she gets this legacy even from beyond the grave. I only don't think Jesse should bear the full responsibility for bridging everything and processing it for all of them

[edwinspaynes]

I think that, to a point, this is true. However, I also do not think that there is any way that Alastair, at this stage in his life, could have really bonded with James or (especially) Matthew.

As you said, "Matthew evaded victimisation through his charms and privilege."

Alastair says in Chain of Iron that

The thing about Alastair is that, no matter how James and Matthew's life had really been before coming to the Academy, Alastair already viewed them as incredibly privileged. And this is valid! No matter how parentified Matthew was- and I fully agree that his upbringing was unfair and traumatizing- it is not similar to the systemic way that Alastair has been abused by society.

Matthew's parents do love each other. Regardless of how Matthew's home life looks, he will always be shielded by a society that fails to protect Alastair. Henry invented Portals and was a hero in the great Clockwork war; any achievements that Elias had are completely overshadowed by his current embarrassing behaviour. Matthew is white, and very rich; Alastair is viewed as an outcast in British society for his skin tone and does not have the riches to garner respect from those assholes. Even James's allegorical racism* cannot compare to what Alastair faces, because he is always going to be shielded by parents who love him and run the London Institute.

Alastair's view of James, Matthew, Christopher, and, yes, Thomas as privileged kids was never going to go away. And this was a reason that he admitted to bullying them. (I also personally understand this and think it's semi-valid, by the way. I can't blame a 15-year-old who has been consistently treated badly for this).

My point is that I think that, yes, James and Matthew hate the Academy as Alastair does. And, in a theoretical world, they could have bonded over that. But in reality they never were going to because Alastair's abuse by boys like Piers/Thoby/Augustus extends beyond the walls of the school while James and Matthew's does not, at least not to the same degree. And Alastair understandably was always going to view James and (especially) Matthew as part of the same abusive system that his bullies-turned-really-bad-friends were part of.

It would not matter if they had the time to bond over it. They never would have at that point of their lives, before Alastair gained some perspective and James/Matthew understood that Alastair truly does exist in a wildly different reality than they do.

*I also want to note that I personally do not view allegorical racism for supernatural factors as comparable to real racism. Obviously it is bad and needs to be acknowledged, but it is in my mind not the same thing. This may impact my views of James and his position in society vs Alastair's.

The real tragedy of the Matthew/James & Alastair relationship and what happened at the academy is that they could’ve 100% bonded over hating that place had they had an opportunity to open up to each other the way James and Matthew did with each other.

It just struck me that the people viciously bullying Alastair where the same close-minded people that bullied James as well.

They all developed different coping strategies depending on their own unique circumstances and personalities: Alastair felt forced to adapt because he had nowhere to go, feeling unsafe at home, James pretty much tried to disappear into his books, and Matthew evaded victimisation through his charms and privilege while actively trying to get home so he could reassume his parentified role in caring for Henry.

Obviously James & Matthew were kind of cut out for each other, and as mentioned they all had different circumstances, plus Alastair was a lot more disadvantaged socially from the onset, but I think if they had been in the same year and gotten lucky he might’ve had a chance to get along with James and/or Matthew.

Because even though they weren’t aware of it, their very antagonisation of each other (just like James & Matthew initially) stemmed from their different reactions to what was a similar experience with and disgust for the society they where thrown into at the academy.

[eclipnet]

reposting my old edits from tiktok 🎉🎉 this is from last may

(not a edit stealer old tiktok user was nostalgia.dotcom 🙏🙏)

[purplebass]

I was thinking about the relationship between Alastair and Paris. Paris was the city where he and Thomas met again after the Academy, but it also is the city where Alastair was born. I want to believe that he likes Paris because it is a place where he feels like he belongs because, after all, his life began in that place. He moved from country to country his whole life, and along he brought his cultures: he is Persian, but he is also British. For the sole fact that he was born in Paris, he may feel like he also belongs there. Paris is also, after all, the city where he and Thomas met again. In many ways, it represents the city where their relationship was given a second chance. Paris is the city where intellectuals often retreated and also an "escapist" city. Thomas and Alastair find each other there by chance and use Paris to get to know each other better and they do it by enjoying each other's company with books, with art, with cinema. What they create in Paris stays when they get back to London, and we see how they seem to have formed a friendship there - a friendship that began in Paris. So, Paris, you see, it's a meaningful place to Alastair

[sprolden]

@a-grayscale-galaxy these tags ... exactly. i feel like this is 99% of the reason why im still obsessed w tsc as a whole after a decade of books that are, let's be real, not even that good a lot of the time. as can be expected whenever one writes a 20+ book long series over the span of 20 years that covers more than 4 generations of the same families, there's a lot of unintentional (and sometimes intentional) implications and strange things happening and exploring that endlessly is so fun. and magnus bane is always there too. i love tsc forever

[faithfromanewperspective]

english class just came to you. what topic would you like to discuss first? and should i tag the co-educators?

y’all need to go back to english class and learn how to understand nuance. quickly!

[edwinspaynes]

No, but Gracetopher is Thomastair's tragic mirror and I think it's time we talk about it.

We have Alastair Carstairs and Grace Blackthorn. Both abuse survivors; both in unspeakable situations. Both people who have done horrible things at a young age because that's what they had to do to survive. Both very alone, with no one to love them but a sibling that they have a forced distance with.

Both perceived as monsters.

And then there are the Lightwood cousins, inseparable since birth. Thomas, a poetic dreamer with his head in the clouds, and Christopher, a scientific innovator who's well up there, too. (Both are also almost certainly autistic imo, but I don't want to derail this canonical analysis with my headcanons.)

They forgive.

And they're the first people in Alastair and Grace's lives to show them kindness, to reach out a hand and give them the grace they need to grow.

Thomas sees the best in Alastair, teaches him that he is loveable, that he deserves to be happy and share love, because love is the best thing we do.

And Alastair, as he deserves, is now "perfectly happy with everything exactly as it is." In Thomas's eyes, he has found hard-earned joy; he has found peace he never had.

Christopher sees the best in Grace, too. Where Thomas sees the pure and unfiltered love that Alastair holds, the selfless sacrificial affection, Christopher sees in Grace a will of iron and a beacon of strength. Grace, who has never been valued for anything more than her beauty, is finally seen as intelligent and passionate in Christopher's eyes. And, because she is these things, because he asks for the "honor of her opinion" and believes her "brilliant," she is, for a short time, herself.

And then Christopher dies.

Thomas and Alastair grow closer, and they have the chance to bring out the best in each other. Alastair opens up emotionally; Thomas becomes more confident. In the end, they become who they truly are because they find solace in each other. But Grace...

Well, Grace is right where Christopher left her. He left her no choice but to stay there forever, dust collecting on her pinned-up hair.

Without Christopher, she no longer has that mirror. She loses the only person to see her as she is - a strong, smart, brilliant girl with unfiltered and unlimited mental potential.

That's the tragedy of Grace Blackthorn. With a mirror, with those eyes (or crooked spectacles) that she could see her true reflection in, she too could have been happy. Alastair is the proof. But now, she does not get that. She is alone again. Dare I say that she is doomed by the narrative.

And yet. Yet.

There is a glimmer of hope, because Grace saw who she really is in Kit's lavender eyes, if only for a moment.

It's a far cry from Alastair's happy ending, and the story of Grace Blackthorn is in my opinion probably the most tragic in TSC.

But still.

She knows, deep down, that she can be more than a monster.

She can be a scientist.

[faithfromanewperspective]

Okay so I'm about to be real annoying about autism and biology(specifically genetics) real quick-

So first off, just because Ty has autism doesn't necessarily mean that Livvy does. Yes they are twins but they are fraternal twins, ie two eggs and two sperm, which means they only share about 50% of their DNA like regular siblings. Because that's what they are canonically, regular siblings who just so happened to both be conceived in a roughly 2 week window of each other and born at the same time.

Same with Mark and Helen. Only they share about 25% of their DNA with the other Blackthorn siblings.

Now autism is genetic, this is scientifically proven to be true, and as of 2023 1 out of 100 children has autism. Those chances increase if a sibling or a parent has autism because they share genes, and if one person has the gene then it's likely to assume that someone else in the family does as well.

Take my family as an example: my grandfather is autistic, so was his brother, and his sister's daughters(identical twins) were both autistic(because they share 100% DNA so if one is autistic likely the other is too), and so were their kids. So even though my great aunt is NOT autistic, both her brothers are, which meant she carried the gene for it, and it passed down to her kids and grandkids. Now none of my grandfather's kids got the gene, but all of us grandkids did. Because even though our moms weren't autistic, they carried the gene.

Now, there's not too much proven scientific evidence for how autism works genetically other than it is passed down and can even skip a generation or two. But because of how society is, especially how afab people are raised in society, there could genuinely be a significant amount of people who just haven't realized that they are autistic, not to mention the over a million people who aren't able to get a diagnosis. So please take what I've said above with a grain of salt.

NOW onto my personal headcanons with the Blackthorns-

I truly believe that Lucie Herondale is autistic and I will die on this hill. Which means that the gene could carry all the way down the Blackthorn line, all the way to present day. And since we know almost nothing about Andrew and Eleanor, we don't know if either one of them had the traits or if they just carried the gene.

Let's start with the oldest(s) and work our way down, shall we:

Mark: the nature audhd, he loves everything plants earth related and spend almost too much times researching flowers and berries that can be grown in California. He much prefers a date to the botanical gardens rather than to a movie theater(too loud) or a library(too quiet). But he loves concerts(jumping up and down bass boosted music).

Helen: the coffee autistic, she loves everything in the world of coffee, and if she wasn't so debilitated by her enhanced hearing making her uneasy out in public she would open her own coffee shop just so she could make coffees all day everyday. Aline gifts her different coffee scented candles for anniversaries, birthdays, and holidays.

Julian: the art autistic, he loves the feeling of paint on his fingers, and has spent an hour rubbing a new and soft brush over his palms and face(much to Emma's amusement). His go-to stimming behavior is sketching something either on scrap paper or with his fingers on the table or on his thigh. He loves drawing over his arms and hands with pen, and he also loves drawing all over his families' hands and arms as well.

(Ty is canon, so I'll skip him)

Livvy: the theater audhd kid, she loves reading Shakespeare and obscure off-Broadway plays. Once a week she puts on a one woman show for her siblings(mostly Dru and Tavvy) entertainment. She collects playbills, cds, records, merch, and autographs from shows she sees(she goes with Jocelyn or Tessa at least once a week) and covers her room with them.

Dru: the thriller audhd, she loves everything that gives her a fright and makes her adrenaline and blood pressure skyrocket. Her favorite "dates" are amusement parks with Thaís and Jaime, she makes them go on every terrifying ride. She, Livvy, and Emma have movie nights where they binge vintage horror movies and play indie horror games. She went bungee jumping for her 18th birthday.

Tavvy: the music autistic, he loves everything in the music realm: instruments, songs on the radio, Broadway musicals, and Julian humming while he cooks. He learns to play over 16 different instruments and uses each one to stim depending on what environment he's in(if he's at Cirenworth then it's violin or piano, but if he's at the NYC Institute then it's drums or guitar, his favorite is playing the pan flute on the LA Institute rooftop with Mark and Kieran).

I also hc that Livvy is trans that her and Ty ARE actually identical but apparently it's weird to say that😒

Sorry if this doesn't make any sense I just woke up from a nap😅-

dude. this is such a detailed ask. shaking screaming silently in excitement that i get to answer this!! all of this detail for me!! this is such a fascination of mine! anyway ANYWAY SO

I love your hc's about the blackthorns especially tavvy, idk why i see him as a musician as well but it just FITS. and hey, they are in LA right?? he def spends his teens sneaking out to see live music and he def gets SUPER into like a handful of artists and spends hours just playing around with their songs, remixing them or whatever (do i do this? am i talking from experience? do i have a sideblog dedicated to it?) and dru is absolutely that kind of adrenaline junkie. so am i! i say she gets really into lead climbing (rock climbing, but the rope is below you instead of above and when you fall it's TERRIFYING) and it helps her get really comfortable with her body esp when she goes with mundanes and downworlders and shadowhunters all mixed up. and i love theatre livvy, i really do, but her canon thing is computers and maths isn't it? maybe she's both. i can see that, different sides of her personality: she's into STEM a lot as a kid but realises she also likes to act when she's a bit older. you're dead right with julian, tbh what he was going through in the tda era makes it hard for me to see his neurodivergence clearly but yeah i can see it, and he's a cassandra clare male protagonist after all, he's gonna remind me of a bunch of people i know irl who are--slowly realising their neurodivergence, shall i say. mark and helen are dead right too. i see it. never did they come across as neurotypical to me.

and i do know, genetics of fraternal twins--if you're referring to the 'twin thing' or whatever i said i was meaning the bond between them and how they communicate so naturally! which is in part due to their proximity being together since the womb, but also because they are naturally so similar and also complimentary and actually, the fact that they both 'adopt' kit into their group is just another neurodivergents unite moment. like, it just works. so naturally.

and i 100% agree with you that yeah, sure maybe they're not ALL autistic in the family but with underdiagnosis and stuff and genetics it does make sense. Also irl i do think that 1% is a MASSIVE understatement (idk what the actual number could be, but the way i go out in public and in community with people i've known for years even when we're not brought together by things in common, and i just get the vibe of people, i'm pretty sure a lot more than 1% are autistic). now, with lucie. i never was quite sure with her, she's very much a could-never-have-been-neurotypical-herondale but the more I think about it the more it makes sense. it's really interesting to see her and james interact as siblings bc they're SO different but there's this common thread of likely being autistic, in fact a specific genre of autistic that clearly runs in their family (and i could say the same of anna and christopher, but that's for another post). anyway. just for fun. I reckon we can trace it back up both sides of their family to Linette Owens on the Herondale side and to Aloysius Starkweather on Tessa's side. and cassie invented genetics again.

but seriously, i fondly summarise tlh as 'bunch of neurodivergents adopt biracial traveller who doesn't fit in anywhere'. like SO MUCH of the cast is autistic coded, trust cassie to do that, there's also a heap of rep of adhd and cptsd and bipolar in the mix and then. there's cordelia

I also have to say I do love your trans livvy hc!! the more i think about it the more i'm like, oh, that could make sense. in the way she presents her femininity (which trans women don't have to!! I know!) and imagine her bonding with diana over it! anyway that's all i have to say. slightly differently coloured features to ty--that's just a technicality right? no, this could definitely work.

[codename-adler]

🌻🌻🌻

thing is, when i dive so deep into something i love, i can't talk about it. almost at all. like The Hunger Games? my final project for an SFF class was a rewritten ending of the first book bc i legimately could not write an essay about it.

anyhoo. same thing goes for aftg. like i mentioned somewhere, it took me years to manage to make this blog what it is, write fanfic, posts, interact, and hardest of all the funny stuff. but i came around. in the aftermath of this godforsaken miracle curse of TSC, i'm not sure how to proceed bc it's too fresh too close too much. i'm also looking at things mere hours after the end. tomorrow might be different!

all this to say, i'm thinking of going back to my All For The Game Cinematic Soundtrack project, years in the works, bc that does not involve talking! basically, i'm building a soundtrack as if aftg was a TV series, episode by episode, season by season. i'll be adding TSC to that.

the format went through many changes, at first looking like this:

now it's starting to look like this:

my playlist is currently 529 songs & 35h04 long! i'm very specific about every little thing possible, but i see it all so clearly, right here in my head, how the scenes go, the angles, the lighting, the beat... ah! how i wish i could produce it for real... i was very lucky to find a kinship in the marvelous @cielalune in how she wrote her breathtaking TLoU AU x aftg fic turn out the lights.

ty jo for the ask xx

[faithfromanewperspective]

#who am i kidding his deal is trauma#i Need to know what his and eleanor's marriage was like prev tags

@petalsofaflower-shutupthomas curious bc I know you’ve written them if you have any thoughts!

Andrew Blackthorn is a very... perplexing character to me because we know next to nothing about him but all his kids seemed to like him as a dad... and yet some of the only things we do know about him are that he a) gave Helen & Mark childhood trauma via Keats instead of having a normal conversation and b) he used to restrain Ty in order to "train him" to the point it made him throw up. like idk if there's a particular intention behind his character being good or bad (in general) but I definitely hate him lmao

[medeaaasworld]

I'm also scared to read tsc not because it's too angst-centered for my mental well-being, but because I'm afraid I'll get too involved and dive deep into jerejean abandoning my ongoing andreil fanfic😀

[aboutnavi]

My Thea-Kevin post is getting some attention lately because Nora is back for TSC and I just have to say people… y’all are so easily swayed it’s hilarious - get a fucking opinion, maybe? Or does everyone really need someone to tell you what to think? It’s an old post, I stand by it. I also completely respect Nora’s protectiveness over her character (Thea) and even more the fact that she gives the fandom freedom to think about them and their story - and here I am, thinking.

It completely breaks my heart the disregard for Kevin and his crooked-built personality (I’ve wrote this on a post before, because I do like his single minded Exy life, but the character was just poorly written, and I do argue about maybe being the fact AFTG is written in Neil’s POV and Neil pays losely attention to anything) but hey, maybe that’s me and my over obsession with characters I really feel deserves more. It also breaks my heart some of you steadily believes in not getting better, or being changed by the things you love. I would give it a try in not being so misarable, it might help.

This said, I’m so excited to see what Nora will make of the characters in TSC, because these characters are very dear for me. I’m also an old lady in fandom-culture so canon actually means shit to me. I’m excited about TSC? Yes. Will it change how I view the characters? Lol, no ❤️ By the end of the day, when online fandom bickery becomes too deep, I just block my phone and go dive in the ocean. It’s call having a life 🫶🏻

[faithfromanewperspective]

something sexy and romantic about emotional dependence when you're a lonely teenager. I get that--this is the only person who gets me after a lifetime of searching--but it isn't healthy. breeds a fear of them leaving, dying, etc. and janus just breaks my heart really bcus we see jace doing so well in tda (emma and julian is another story) after everything that's happened to him, and to think theres another version of him out there that got there, our james and cordelia's little great-great-grandchild, who has a million things going on but thinks being with/without clary is what makes or breaks his life (it's only a catalyst with many many factors playing in).

anyway I don't think janus is romanticised. I think he exists to show the danger of being obsessed with your partner if it takes over everything else: your morals, your respect of their wishes and them as a person. (and btw, this is something we see in abusers when they try to control their partners. just an extension of something we can relate to). I hate his existence as a character. I hope he gets a redemptive arc and some healing rather than just simply being killed off like malcolm and tatiana, though honestly, and I don't say this about many people because I don't fundementally believe it to be true: I don't think his character was constructed to make us believe that he could ever be happy in this life. it was unfair for him to get where he is, for clary to ask raziel to bring him back before the worlds split just for this.

and that's the problem. because if you read it the wrong way (and who's to say there's a right way? i hope hope hope this isn't it, and a basic knowledge of humans will tell you so, but most teenagers don't have that yet) it's like 'oh clary lives=good, happy jace; clary dies=he turns evil and loses everything we know and love about jace and can never be happy again'. maybe there is some truth to the premise of that. we all need love. but romantic love isn't the be-all and end-all.

what i love about tsc is it shows really realistically in a society that deals with a lot of trauma for a job, how much quality friendships and people you can be yourself and honest around or even who simply believe the best in you and choose you in front of everyone can be wonderful for getting through things that would otherwise be just about impossible. something that our individualistic culture, and the certain capitalist narrative of how to take care of our mental health needs to hear. we see this in every parabatai or once-parabatai duo ever (okay lucelia maybe not quite you) and, yes, relationships as well. and a good relationship does help you find yourself as an individual and see yourself for how amazing you really are, because your partner can see it, and for once you can learn to internalise it. thomastair is a great example of that in both directions, but they are also definitely not in a vacuum. they are surrounded by love from friends and family. and their personalities come out as individuals, not in relation to each other, because their relationship is healthy and not obsessive and sets them both free to become the best versions of themselves.

herongraystairs kinda sits in a grey area for this one. they're all so in love that it feels like magic, and they do refer to each other as variations of they saved me, brought me hope when their was none, or joy, beauty, whatever good thing. and that's their story and they were constructed to create a story that expands our limit of how much three people can all love each other and all in different ways. classic stuff you look for in a romance story--and it's true, it is beautiful. it is magical. but you can see how someone can look at that and expect their relationship, with their partner or even parabatai, to look like that, and put so many expectations on the other person that it ultimately goes to shit. if it's reciprocated it becomes an echo chamber of sorts that spirals very quickly whichever way it goes, a positive feedback loop of sorts, because the only real thing for these people is each other (and I think this links in to why parabatai mustn't fall in love: it pushes past the limits of human connection into something more dangerous that we have the capacity for). what i think means herongraystairs works is that the love they share radiates out to those around them, that and the fact that will and jem didn't stay parabatai (i know i know it is beautiful, it was especially as teenagers when they both needed each other so much, but you could say the same about emma and jules, plus we know from both james and cordelia that will and tessa do feel their childrens pain with something somewhat bordering on emotional dependence, not that it's wrong to be empathetic--but james has lived his whole life trying to present in front of his parents however makes them happy, and they should've shown the emotional regulation to make room for him to be a child, and that does permeate into his marriage especially). the fact that will's curse got resolved and he was able to relearn how to love. and the fact that when jessa properly got together they were literally over a century old and more than able to have that intense romance not take over their identities because they'd had so long to either live as themselves or learn Silent Brother (and warlock) secrets on how to ground yourself, survive being alone, etc.

but some, like emma and jules, speaking of parabatai falling in love (plus kitty was heading in that direction) never had that opportunity. both pairs formed in a really intense and difficult time and did need each other (they also needed parents who understood their trauma and their neurodivergence). I once thought that the ending to tda might be 'the power from parabatai falling in love is what we need to defeat all these demons now our numbers are low so now here's a new rune/spell so to protect against the danger' and I'm glad cassie didn't do that. still, you can see what it could be. and both those couples we did see in a really trying time (makes for compelling stories, if not relationships to model ours off) and I think do get healthier--one when they don't have to hide or be parents while they're still children, and one after some time apart to become their own people.

and then, if it's not reciprocated? that's where you get stalkers. the crazy exes we think about (not the ones who are reacting to this kind of abusive behaviour but those who perpetrate it). at the very very best you get something like early cot james but worse, self-sacrificing but unable to be vulnerable enough to take a chance for something good happening (and yes, there's abuse that does throw in extra complexity making it not a perfect metaphor, plus he's not completely like this as he has several people he attributes the best things in his life to so it kinda balances out and the ability to survive even when they are taken away, but what i'm saying is a more 'quiet' expression of the disappointment of expecting someone to meet all your needs and not getting it is to never expect to get what you need and never ask for it). worse, you get jordan kyle who thinks what he did when he wasn't in control of himself can be forgotten because, regardless of maia's trauma associations, it wasn't him and so he shouldn't have to deal with the consequences of it. you get janus who wants to kill his other self and take his spot, without thought of the experience of said other self and all who he's built connections with over the years (i do get that he's suffering). then you get malcolm who will kill dozens of people, resurrect his first love (yes there was a lot of unresolved injustice there so really who's surprised it might have led to this) without considering what she thinks. and tati who kept rupert imprisoned bc she thought she might resurrect him too after jesse who she also entrusted to a demon resulting in him going through everything opposite to what he wanted, not even starting on her treatment of grace and her constant need for revenge). all these people (not james) don't consider what even the object of their affections may want at all, because their own desire for them has overgrown their ability to make room for them to be a person, and they need them to complete themselves.

you can see how, as much as it seems like the opposite, that could grow from only caring what the object of your affections thinks. at some point if you become so reliant, so addicted to them, you risk them becoming first and foremost an object to you.

everyone has to make that choice, especially if, as many do, they come close to the line. for some the Right Thing seems easy, almost instinctive (good for them, but it's a privilege we must acknowledge). trauma and mental illness make it harder (guess what happens when you risk death every day and see it quite often and don't believe in things like therapy and affirming neurodivergence and the like) and we have to not be ableist about it. for some people, it is a constant battle that's often gotten wrong, and that's all the more reason why we need resilient support systems to take us as we are and carry what we can't (not just one partner).

but it's easy, isn't it, to fantasise about getting all that from some paragon you also have sex with and maybe build a family with too. humans need love and connection, we need it so much. but be educated, and educate others. yes this sells. feels good for a little while. but the satisfaction in being your own person and maybe, not necessarily though, having a partner who's so themself you fall in love with them for it (not just for the fact that they're the only person you let in and know how to connect with) and they you? it's the long game. and it is beautiful too. how good it would be (and i know it's not impossible and there would be a market for it!) to see that on page, in front of us. we know it is something our fave couples do learn, they do get going in that direction after often starting somewhere with a lot of potential to go either way (I'm looking at you, clace, why-fix-him-when-you-can-make-each-other-worse). but i think there are a lot of teenagers (and adults too! but teens are more vulnerable and less able to filter out what is actually toxic) who just want a roadmap. something we can connect to enough to be able to relate to and figure out how to make our own relationships healthier like we see on page.

can we talk about the emotional dependence that some tsc characters have to their partners? it’s honestly scary and it’s very romanticized!

PD: janus is a great example of that :)

[capcavan]

been watching stuff abt cults and correctional programs past days and im itching to make nest deep dive but with tsc on horizon it feels like unnecessary effort till we see what the new book will establish

[purplebass]

The Last Hours may divide the TSC fandom a lot, but I still think that it manages to come full circle at the end. The closing scenes of CoT happen at Hyde Park, where everyone is gathered for a picnic. This is nothing new, since the TLH gang also has a picnic in Regent's Park in chapter 4 of Chain of Gold. The main difference is that in the CoG, the park is the place where the equilibrium is broken by the demons' attack while in CoT the equilibrium is restored and the characters who survived are moving on with their life. It isn't unusual for an author to end the story where it began. TLH has a tie-back ending, which means that the plot is brought back to where it started and the reader often has a sense of déjà-vu because some events often repeat themselves in a different way (Barbara being attacked at the party in chapter 3 of CoG and Alex being kidnapped at the Christmas party in chapter 20 of CoT are also examples of this kind of tie-back storytelling). The ending of CoT is set in the summer of 1904. Summer is the season of maturity, and it's the moment when flowers and trees are at their peak. And it is also set in a park, which is the symbol of renewal and new beginnings. This ending is a nod to the beginning of the series too, because Cordelia and Alastair arrive in London at the end of summer in 1903 (for them, that was also a new beginning). You may either love or loathe TLH, but I don't think the plot is completely all over the place in terms of structure