#anti cordelia carstairs

[pansexual-lilychen]

i honestly think alastair & grace should just drop their siblings and become each other’s siblings because they’re both better and more caring siblings than cordelia & jesse

[stabbydragon]

*clears throat* Can we just talk about how unfair it was that Cordelia was the one who got to kill Tatiana? Like there were a million other people who were way more qualified.

I’m pretty sure most people, like me, were rooting for Grace. After all, she was the one that Tatiana hurt most by physically abusing her, making her into a weapon, forcing her to brainwash James which made everyone she cares about mad at her, etc. Not to mention that Christopher, one of her only friends, the only person who defended her, and the one who encouraged her to pursue her passion for science, had just been MURDERED by Tatiana! And like, Grace was RIGHT THERE with a knife to Tatiana’s throat! Then CORDELIA had to come and ruin everything by summoning Lillith! WTF!?

Jesse was another person who had been hurt by Tatiana. This bitch, who he thought cared about him despite her flaws, as a mother should, SOLD HIM TO BELIAL so he could be possessed and forced to murder people which he would never do under any circumstances of his own free will! The guilt the poor boy must have gone through because of this bitch! Although personally, I don’t think he would be capable of murder, but it would have been better than fucking CORDELIA.

Also, the idea of either Jesse or Grace doing it to avenge their sibling? 😭

My second choice after Grace would be Lucie, who would be furious both because of Jesse being possessed, and because she had just found out that Tatiana had been the one to ruin James and Cordelia’s marriage, causing both her brother and parabatai a lot of pain. It would have set the scene for a fascinating conversation between her and Jesse regarding how they both felt about Tatiana’s death (the same is true for Grace) because I need more Ghostwriter scenes. Also, if she killed her partially on Grace’s behalf, it would better showcase what could have been a beautiful dynamic that desperately needs to be explored further. I need these too to become besties immediately! Lucie, unlike her boyfriend, totally deserved to be a morally ambiguous character. She had so much potential for stabbiness, so where’s all the stabbiness? It’s so unfair that she never gets to stab someone ONCE because she’s a main character and therefore needs to be morally perfect even though people who grew as rich as she did are the ones most likely to be evil. Besides, she could have ordered a ghost to do it while Lucie herself was far away, giving her an alibi, and any witnesses would not have seen the ghost. Honestly my preference would be if Lucie and Grace teamed up to do it together in Jesse’s name.

EVEN FUCKING JAMES a would have been a better option, not that I would like it much. He was the one who was brainwashed since he was fourteen after all. He was the one who kept on accidentally breaking his wife’s heart because of the gracelet.

While Cordelia was still hurt by Tatiana’s actions, she was farther removed from the situation. But because sHe’S tHe PrOtAgOnIsT, she had to be the one to do it. Not even of her own volition, but because she was being manipulated by a greater demon. Imagine all of your protagonists being so heroic and morally sound that they can’t even neutralize someone as twisted and dangerous and inhumane and this bitch without being physically magically controlled by Lillith herself. Is there anything more boring?

And what really makes me angry is that she finally gave in due to the death of one Christopher Lightwood, a character with whom she had no established dynamic. If this was CC’s plan all along, she could have made it so they had at least one single fucking conversation alone??? If the main catalyst for Tatiana’s death was Kit’s murder, then practically ANY OTHER CHARACTER a would have been better. Cecily and Gabriel and the others were in Idris but, once again, there’s Grace, Lucie, James, Thomas, Anna, Matthew, etc. Hell, even Rosamund Wentworth, who arrives pretty soon after Kit’s death, knew him longer than Cordelia!

*Ahem* Thank you for listening to my PSA

[feanoryen]

The reason James and Cordelia fall flat to me is because they are static characters.

The are essentially the same people at the end of the series that they were at the beginning.

The did not change, they did not grow, they just existed.

This is why Thomastair is the better ship in the series even though Jordelia is the main ship.

Thomas and Alastair change each other and improve each other's characters.

Jordelia f*cking don't.

[heavenwontbethe-same]

I'll say it: cordelia is the one who should have died

[spacehero-23]

i just want to share this absolute gem from one of my moots who's currently reading chot beacuse...

[lifewouldbebetteronmars]

“James told me some of it, then. The rumors Alastair spread. Perhaps you think I am terrible, still loving him.”

Cordelia Carstairs, Chain of Iron (pg. 297)

Reminder that these were Cordelia’s exact words to Matthew while talking to him about the rumors

[starryobsessiondepression]

A lot of people are saying Lucie was annoying in cot but Cordelia was so much worse in my opinion.

I was so done with her constant bitching in her povs. oh james doesn't love me ( james says he loves her) oh lucie worked with grace I feel like I'm being replaced ( does absolutely nothing about it and leaves lucie without even hugging her after not seeing her for almost a week and then starts a bullshit, stupid fight about lying while also lying to lucie) oh I might love matthew ( only thinks about james when she's kissing him) oh no I don't love matthew ( kisses him anyway) and it just. kept. going. every single time I read her pov. just constant whining.

cc made her so patheic in this book

[ash-morgensterns]

Post Chain of Thorns Rant

Just finished the book and I have lots of thoughts.

Split in two parts because of word limit.

I'm starting with Lucie, the real MVP of this book. The way she managed to keep Lilith trapped without any pentagram or protective spell but just using her powers was some QUEEN shit. It's safe to say that in this book she totally outshone Cordelia in terms of badassery, I mean she was responsible for both holding off the Mother of all Demons all on her own and defeating Tatiana and her army of Watchers and thanks to her powers the Watchers were defeated. Of course, CC couldn't help herself and she had to throw in some drama that prevented her to be with Jesse properly until the very end, and the fact that to reach the souls of the dead Silent Brothers was to make out with him was a tad weird, but given the level of badassery she reached in this book I feel like I can close an eye on it for this once. 

Now onto Cordelia.... First and foremost, she needs to cure herself of the obsession she developed towards Grace. My God, for 23 chapters it was like she couldn't go a whole paragraph without bringing her up somehow. James looked thoughtful??? Surely he was thinking about Grace. James was going to Curzon Street?? Oh yes, the house he surely bought for himself and Grace. Lucie has been distant lately?? Surely because of her new best friend Grace. Girl, get a life. Another thing that I noticed and annoyed me was how she still found every little reason to feel estranged from her group of friends, even after the conversation they had about this exact subject at the end of CoI. With Grace, it's because James has "feelings" for her (he doesn't and he told you that) and now Lucie is now dating her brother, and somehow that means that Grace is going to steal all the affection either of them felt for Cordelia??? As if people aren't allowed to have more than one friend??? And then again with Ariadne. She was engaged to Matthew's brother and she is close with Anna so they must be all friends and Cordelia literally says she feels left out because of it. Why????? You have had people falling over themselves to help you since the moment you stepped out of your carriage and you still have the courage to say they don't consider you their friend or that they would ditch you on the first occasion??? And let's not even mention her fight with Lucie!!! Lucie not telling her about the necromancy is totally justifiable and not only I'm sick and tired of people pretending it wasn't but also I really do not understand why on earth Cordelia had to go and bring up Grace (again!!!) when it's blatantly oblivious that if Lucie had been caught Cordelia would have been in deep shit too (especially since she had conveniently fled for Paris too). Meanwhile, Cordelia spent the entirety of the last book going from one place to another to solve her problem with Cortana and the only reason Lucie knows about it is that she was there when it all went to shit and Cordelia couldn't hide it from her anymore. Let's not even mention the fact that Cordelia herself told us the closest people to her were Matthew and Anna. Oh, and her using The Beautiful Cordelia against Lucie was a shitty move. Your best friend wrote you a whole-ass novel because you told her you felt lonely and bored and now you accuse her of being childish for the fantasy world she created with the sole purpose of cheering you up??? Screw You. For someone who is supposed to be the absolute protagonist of the series, she did absolutely nothing for the entirety of the book besides pining after James and unnecessarily prolonging the love triangle because she decided that maybe she was in love with Matthew instead. At first, if she couldn't lift a blade it was the paladin's excuse, but even though people kept hyping her up as the great hero who would get kill Belial when the moment comes... all she does is pass the blade to James for him to do the job himself and it's still James who tricks Lilith into freeing her from her paladin's oath. An absolute delusion.

I liked James a lot better in this book. Not that I hated him before, I just didn't really care about him. Now that CC has gotten him rid of the bracelet and was forced to write him actually interacting and caring for his friends we got a few scenes I really liked. I liked how he bonded with Jesse and how he and Matthew started opening up to each other more and how they started picking their parabatai bond back up. I also really liked the talk James and Lucie had in Cornwall after she woke up. Too bad that, for all their talks of sticking together more didn't really go far since they still didn't interact much during the rest of the book.

I overall liked how CC handled Matthew's problem with alcohol, that she showed that it's not a smooth path and that people often have relapses but I think that, to have him happy and healed in the epilogue she should have started his abstinence in the second book. Weird but not unsurprising that the other characters (especially Alastair) didn't have the same patience and kindness extended to Elias. Third consecutive book where we're told by one of his friends (in this case Anna) how they had noticed Matthew was suffering for years and yet nobody bothered to do anything or even just talk to him about it. Love to see it. I'm a bit sad to see him going off alone in the Epilogue, especially when everyone else has a companion. Not that I wanted him to be shoehorned into a super rushed romance, but I would have liked to see him travel with a friend. 

If it's true that Cordelia needs to cure her obsession with Grace, then she must take Thomas with her and help him get rid of his obsession with Charles. How many times will Alastair have to tell you he doesn't care about him anymore before you stop bringing him up in every conversation you two have??? Oh, and some of his internal monologues whenever Alastair was involved felt rather cringe. I get being flustered in front of your crush but there's a limit to everything. Other than that there isn't much else to say, considering most of his plot was about his relationship with Alastair. 

I feel Christopher's death could have been really interesting. By far the most interesting death in all TSC. When you think about it, by killing Christopher, Tatiana got what she had wanted all along. Revenge on her brothers. With Gideon losing Barbara to Belial's demons and Gabriel losing Christopher to Tatiana herself, both her brothers lost a child just like she had lost Jesse (in her mind because of them) all those years ago. Too bad his death scene was.... well, I'm not sure how to describe it exactly. The first word that comes to my mind is rushed. We get this super tense battle scene where you know you cannot win because your opponents keep resurrecting, you even get a scare about him (he nearly got hit by a blade) but no he's fine so we get back to the battle. Then when finally the enemy finally disperses, Lucie turns around and Anna (very calmly, absolutely chill) informs us that her brother is dead. We don't even get to know how he died right away, we need to wait for Cordelia's POV for that, and when calm settles nobody even bothers to mourn him properly because James and Matthew have been taken and that gets all the spotlight away from him... And sure, Christopher was pretty much a 2D character whose purpose was to speak of science and experiments (and being Grace's advocate in this book) and that didn't help his case, but yeah, his death was rather underwhelming. A special mention goes to the whole "James turned out fine so we should forgive Grace" thing? What the hell was that about Christopher??? 

[part 2]

[tessherongraystairs]

Not liking Cordelia when Alastair loves his sister to death and she loves him just as much which is obvious? Petty red flag

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA OKAY

Alr wanna play this game????

“that was so kind, Matthew” - Cordelia after Matthew literally used her to manipulate Alastair into seeing charles

“you must think I’m so terrible for still loving him” - after Matthew literally eavesdropped on a private convo between them and decided to trauma dump on her

Cordelia turning a blind eye when Matthew says anything about Alastair except that one time he accused Alastair of being a killer

[purplebass]

to me she was too naive in some moments, and also there is a character who literally dies for her (not saying name in case someone still hasnt read the book) and she doesnt mourn that character afterthat...

I get she was mad some characters had kept secrets etc, but she also kept secrets herself, so she's basically the pot calling the kettle back. And what you also said. She only thinks about James and Matthew being with Belial. I get it, I do, because that's the solvable issue at hand while the other character is dead so there is nothing else to do to save him. But I would've expanded her thoughts about how this character practically took a knife for her. CC could've expanded how maybe, she feels grateful but also a little guilty that because she knew, it was either her or him. Cordelia in cot turned into what I dislike about some fc who were often the mc's of urban fantasy shows in the 2010's (like for example, TVD). Her journey wasn't empowering to me. She came to London looking for a husband and looking for friends. She already found both at the beginning because she easily entered the dynamics of the TLH gang, even though she was whiny/a victim after discovering the "secrets". She also wanted to be a hero, did she succeed? Partially. Bc she spent most of cot choosing between two guys and dwelling on how others "betrayed" her, as if her drama was above anyone else's.

[victoriannarwhal]

Cordelia's pov is insufferable. Kill me.

[pansexual-lilychen]

Cordelia's behavior is just downright infuriating sometimes. like for example she literally was unable to defend herself or fight (she was basically useless) but still insisted on going into danger just for her friends to have to babysit her. also her whole melodrama about losing Lucie and James to Grace was just so? petty??

babes i’m so so sorry about the late reply i’ve been booked & busy these past few weeks & i try to get an ask in whenever i can!

honestly despite not liking cordelia myself all that much i am always very very hesitant when it comes to criticism abt cordelia. female main characters are known for being significantly more criticized than the other characters, especially their male counterparts, not to mention that she is the first woc main character we got in the series. i think people are often unnecessarily harsh on her. (no offense, but especially when words like melodrama, babysitting and petty are involved)

I do agree with the part where she largely got in the way during battles, especially the one in the courtyard of the institute when the watchers first attacked. grace stayed behind inside where she was safe, why didn’t cordelia? why did she never ask for help? i think her stubbornness inconvenienced so so much throughout chot.

however i do think that her reaction to the whole grace/lucie/james thing was legitimate. she thought the love of her life was in love with this girl who was the polar opposite of herself and everything she could never be, and then her best friend in the whole world went behind her back to spend a great amount of time with her, keeping secrets from cordelia with grace; man i get it i’d be filled with jealousy and so so hurt if my best friend did that. (even though lucie didn’t know about cordelia’s true feelings for james i still would be)

keep your unpopular chain of throns / tsc opinions coming my way!

[4uru]

Charles : *breathes*

Cordelia: the lord tests me everyday with your existence.

[im-out-of-it]

you know, I wouldn’t take issue with Matthew Cordelia James triangle if it was done well. we all knew she would end up with James because in CC world, everyone picks the herondales.

but if this was written better, perhaps it could have been better. maybe have Cordelia and Matthew fall in love while she’s pretend married to James? or maybe leave Matthew alone and put him with Lucie or someone else worthy????

not saying that Cordelia is a bad choice but she’s basically putting herself on Matthew because of all the miscommunication she has with James. we know Matthew will not be chosen. so all of this mess of a triangle is not worth it. Matthews purpose is to be there to get his heart broken in my opinion.

I feel that he doesn’t really serve a purpose? and I hate that Cordelia knows she doesn’t love him and is still “kiss me Matthew.” and then waits until he’s at a party full of drinks (while Matthew is trying to be sober) to basically be like “oh sorry I don’t love you.” and she’s not there to rehabilitate him or walk on eggshells around him but alsoooooooo girl couldn’t of found a better time to tell him?

I’m just saying personally I think she knew from the start she didn’t care for Matthew the way he deserved to be cared for, and shouldn’t of messed with him in the beginning. I would’ve loved to see Matthew with another male (female is fine but I love my gay ships, sue me) and seen him with someone. but also I’m happy for him if he’s happy traveling because there’s nothing wrong with that. but it felt like he kinda got the short end of the stick in the ending????? I just would’ve loved to see more growth and actually see Matthew going through all his shit properly

just saying he deserved better. but CC doesn’t know how to execute complex characters so I’ll be irritated over here now lmao

[heavenwontbethe-same]

Hey!! Long follower of yours but I've only recently been back on Tumblr and I just saw a post about Cordelia being the one who should have died in CoT. I was curious about it and read the tags and I'm already disappointed in Cordelia/CC. Because I really like Cordelia but I haven't read CoT yet, so if you're comfortable could you maybe elaborate a little? Just so I can understand if I should be prepared to be disappointed in Cordelia in CoT when I finally read it. (I don't care about spoilers so have at it). I'd really like to know your thoughts<3

hello! i would start off by saying that when you do read chot, to go in with an open mind because of course what i will be saying in this post is my own opinion and my perception of the books will obviously be different to how others see it. this post is going to be long and incoherent at points, i do apologise beforehand.

with that being said, i liked cordelia from the snippets we got before tlh even came out. i liked her in chog, even though there were certain moments that made me pause - her allowing her friends to make whatever assumptions or comments about her brother they liked without her ever blinking an eye, because she was too concerned with fitting in with them. but i still liked the book and still liked her.

choi is where i started to dislike her though, and it literally took me almost 2 years to finish choi because i found cordelia so insufferable.. in the very beginning of the book, alastair is looking out for her and wants her safe and out of trouble and says as much to matthew, but cordelia berates him in favour of her friend (page 17). at this point, cordelia knows the truth; if not in its entirety, then at least a considerable part of it. at the wedding reception, her friends are hostile to her brother despite all his attempts to be cordial. i believe at one point they even suggest that alastair made cordelia uncomfortable? the same alastair that sacrificed most of his life to protect her? and all before you're even a 100 pages into the book (page 96). she says, on page 297 to matthew, "perhaps you think i am terrible, still loving him." of course, she thinks it, she thinks alastair is kind and sweet and vulnerable, but god forbid she ever said any of this to her friends in her brother's defense. this post by @thepictureofsdr on cordelia and her continuous reluctance to defend alastair in any way shape or form is very well said.

and that was all just the sibling aspect of it. she continuously lies to lucie, her supposed best friend and future parabatai, about lilith and james and even matthew, while shunning lucie for keeping secrets of her own. lucie tries to talk to her, apologises for not telling her, but she can't move past it even though she literally did the same.

*chot spoilers*

in chot, during every battle or fight, she was reluctant to lift a weapon in order to not summon lilith. valid, but instead of seeking shelter, she would just stand there and wait for danger and have her friends babysit her while fighting off demons. there's a fight in chot where grace is inside because she can't fight. cordelia also won't fight but she's out there, not helping her friends fight them off, but also just standing there as a sitting duck waiting for them to attack??? and they eventually do attack because why wouldn't they, and three people are distracted from their own fights trying to save her. assuming you already know who dies, they die trying to save her here, all because she wouldn't lift a weapon but has to be in harms way anyway.

she hands off cortana to alastair, who not to mention lives with their heavily pregnant mother, knowing that demons now had a special interest in cortana after she became lilith's paladin. she eavesdropped on her brother and charles, when it was not her place to do so, she eavesdropped on james and grace and caused a whole other problem. she ran away with matthew to paris and led him on even when she knew she'd never get over james. she kissed matthew and ended up comparing him to james but still continued to kiss him anyways. she'd be in james' presence but think about grace even after james' continuous assurance that he felt nothing for her, and then she'd wish she was with matthew instead. every time she was in james' presence, she'd fixate on grace.

she did get more tolerable after she knew the truth, but that was such a small portion of the book and my opinion of her was already negative by then. she then goes on to rehash the lucie and lying thing even though it was resolved earlier in the book. the book ends with the epilogue stating that attitudes to her brother had changed because he had changed. and that was true, alastair wasn't closeted anymore and had changed, but cordelia follows it up with the line that he wouldn't have to worry about fitting in with her friends anymore, and that hit me the wrong way.

the overarching themes of her dynamic with most characters, whether intentionally or not, seemed to give off a holier than thou attitude. she never held herself accountable but was comfortable doing it to everyone else, even if her actions caused the problem in the first place. her relationship with alastair was particularly disappointing, given how much he sacrificed for her and how she was at times disappointed/ashamed to even be related to him. this just reminded me how this applies to edwina's character from the bridgerton show too, but i digress.

she never really had any character development throughout the entire series, so i would've preferred her dying instead of an actually interesting character.

[spacehero-23]

most controversial chain of thorns opinion...?

oh...well...

cordelia was really annoying before grace told her the truth. (she got way better post ch.23, but the damage has been done) I talked about this before but it seemed like cc had no idea what to do with her in the first half, but because she's the mc we needed her pov, so we ended up with a bunch of repetitive whining...

both lucie and cordelia were acting stupid, but if I had to pick a side i'd be on lucie's bc at least she tried to talk about their problems (was she right? no. absolutely not. but at least she did something. unlike cordelia who was sad grace was "stealing" lucie from her, but instead of talking about it, she said something passive-aggressive to lucie and left). chot showed that their friendship is not strong enough for them to become parabatai.