#anti gracetopher

[readwithlivvy]

i am NOT ready for grace and christopher what the fuck

[pansexual-lilychen]

”we need more complex female characters“

y‘all couldn’t even handle her

[lifewouldbebetteronmars]

Title from right where you left me by Taylor Swift

Angstmas Days of Summer Masterlist

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(I Stayed There) Dust Collected On My Pinned Up Hair

December, 1904; One year after the death of Christopher Lightwood

“Grace?” It was Thomas who called to her this time, instead of one of the Fairchilds like it normally was. They were concerned about how much time she was spending down there in the lab.

Everyone was it seemed. It had even spread to Christopher’s friends.

She didn’t respond, too focused on the book in front of her. It was Christopher’s journal, she’s read it cover to cover dozens of times by now. She could probably quote it word for word now if asked.

Grace could hear Thomas’s footsteps, loud and heavy, on the stairs. She ignored him and again started to focus on Christopher’s journal, mouthing the words as she read.

“Grace?” Thomas called again when he got down to the lab. He sounded concerned. He shouldn’t be concerned but he sounds so concerned.

“Matthew told me you’ve been down here for weeks, he’s concerned about you. The whole family up there is, really, even Charles and Charles doesn’t care for anyone.” he kept talking and Grace kept ignoring him. Maybe if she ignored him he would go away and leave her alone. She deserved to be alone.

He kept going on and on, rambling before Grace finally slammed the journal shut and turned to glare at him.

Thomas just smiled at her in response. “Oh, hello, there you are.”

She just turned back around and started going through the beakers and organizing them, a mindless enough task. “Yes, here I am. I am fine, leave me alone.”

“Sorry, Grace, but I can’t do that.”

“And why not? You have two legs and two feet. It seems to me like you can leave.”

“I can. But I can’t. Not today.”

“And what is today?”

“Grace, you what today is.”

“No I don’t, please, enlighten me.”

“It’s the day Christopher died, Grace.”

The beaker fell out Grace’s hand and smashed to the floor, shattering in pieces all over her feet.

Today couldn’t be that day, it just couldn’t. She would know if it was that day. She would know. He had to be lying.

“No, it’s not. You’re lying,” she accused him. “I would if he…if he died, today. I would never forget.”

Thomas looked at her with a sad expression. Grace truly looked at him now and he looked like he’d been crying. He wasn’t lying. It really was today.

“No.” she whispered, voice hoarse.

“Yes. I’m sorry, Grace.” Thomas said, his tone was genuine and Grace hated it. He shouldn’t be the one apologizing.

“No, no, no! I’m the one who should be apologizing! It’s all my fault! It’s my fault that Christopher is dead and that today is sad! It’s all my fault!” Grace screamed. She didn’t know where all the anger came from and why it had came so suddenly.

But once it started, it couldn’t stop.

“None of this ever would have happened if hadn’t been for me. I’m a horrible person. I manipulated James, Matthew, Charles, I probably even manipulated Christopher too. It’s because of my actions that he died. They should’ve kept me in the Silent City. He should still be here and I shouldn’t be. He should still be here right now and you should blame me, you should be angry. You shouldn’t even care about me at all because I killed your best friend. I’m just as bad as she was.”

Thomas had gone quiet, listening to Grace rant on and on. But now he spoke up. “Tatiana killed Christopher, not you. And yes, you manipulated the people I care about, people that Christopher cared about, but you have apologized for it. But it wasn’t your fault that any of this happened. You know as well as I do that Tatiana is the one at fault here. She abused and manipulated you for years, and then when you finally fought back, she killed your first real friend. And that’s a trauma Grace, a trauma that you didn’t cause. She was a bitter person who let what happened to her effect her actions until she died. You are nothing like her, Grace. Please don’t say that you are.

No one blames you or hates you, Grace, everyone is just concerned for you. You’ve been down here for days without eating or drinking, you don’t respond to anyone. Jesse’s concerned, the Fairchilds are concerned, I’m concerned, all of your friends are concerned. And before you say it, I’m not going to stop caring about you because you’re my friend and when you’re my friend, I never stop caring about you, no matter what you do. Just ask anyone and they’ll tell you. You have people that care about you, just like we cared about Christopher, we care about you too. You can lean on any one of us if you need to, because today is hard on everyone.”

Grace looked down at the broken shards on her feet, unable to look at Thomas anymore. He was Christopher’s best friend, his cousin, no, his brother. And he didn’t hate her.

It was silent for awhile, neither of them speaking. Until Grace broke the silence

“I loved him.” she whispered, barely audible but Thomas heard her anyway.

“I know.”

She looked back up at him. “You know? How?”

“Because he loved you too.”

That took Grace aback. Christopher didn’t love her, he couldn’t have loved her, he barely knew her. But at the same time, he knew her better than anybody. And she loved him for it

“How do you know that?”

Thomas smiled sadly and reached behind him for a small parcel that Grace didn’t notice he had had with him. “He had these made for you, before he died and you were still in the Silent City. He thought they would make a good first weapon for you.”

He handed her the parcel and she opened it with trembling hands.

Two silver hairpins laid in the tissue paper, delicate and sharp, with detailed spiders attached to the end. She had always loved spiders, something she had mentioned to Christopher during one of his visits.

And he had remembered.

Tears started fall from her eyes uncontrollably and her chest began to feel tight. Grace couldn’t breathe.

She clutched the parcel close to her chest as she fell to the floor and sobbed, all of her grief and sorrow finally being unleashed.

It wasn’t long until she felt arms around her, holding her as she sobbed.

She could feel Thomas’s tears in her hair.

He was grieving too and he felt her pain.

For once, Grace didn’t feel so alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The hair pins look like this btw (except in all silver)

Tagging (ask to be added/removed)

@tessherongraystairs @petalsofaflower-shutupthomas @littlx-songbxrd @wagner-fell @aliandtommy

[lesbocrocker]

Why are you all shipping Christopher with Grace when you could be shipping Christopher with ME?

[zoyalannister]

TikTok made me find out that some people feed AI with fanfics to get a finale when they’re incomplete, I hope my readers are enough civilized to not do that.

AI basically just copy and paste stuff and since I'm one of the few Gracetopher authors on Ao3 probably it will just copy the ending of other my fanfics.

And also I don’t want my works to be used for learning processes to copy other authors, too.

The only exception will be if I will ever write an Omegaverse, because apparently it bugs the learning process of AI. In that case, feel free to feed it to any AI you want.

[edwinspaynes]

now I'm curious on those thoughts and character, can you put them under a read more?

Sure. I guess.

Devoted Grace/Gracetopher lovers, exit stage left. I like the ship too, and this is NOT an anti post by any means, but it definitely is a somewhat critical hypothetical.

Over the past few months and couple of TLH reread, I've found myself becoming ... disenchanted with Grace. I still love her character. I find her interesting and her story is undoubtedly resonant, though I think other characters had stories that packed a better punch for abuse survivors and those looking to heal. But I'm not really feeling protective of her anymore, or like, adoration for her anymore, if that makes sense.

I think this is partly because I have become SUPER attached to James again, as I was for most of my TSC fandom life. It was easy to brush Grace off when I temporarily wasn't spinning James around and around in my head like a plate in the microwave 24/7, but I'm back to that state I was in for several years. I just took a little hiatus ♡♡♡♡♡

Anyway.

That's Thought 1 on the Character.

Thought 2 is a what-if scenario where Christopher hasn't died. What if Christopher hadn't died and Gracetopher became an endgame ship in Chain of Thorns?

I think that, while I really like their dynamic and would 100% want Kit to be happy because he deserves it, it would have caused James, Matthew, and Thomas a LOT of pain. I think Thomas would be really angry and distance himself, but would not fully cut Kit off - but I think it would be his right to if he did. I think James and Matthew might genuinely stop talking to Christopher because of everything Grace did to James (and to Matthew that one time), and I think they would be right to.

I think it'd be different if they got together in like 5 years, but immediately in ChoT would have been a trainwreck and I could not take Kit's side even if I like him and Grace together. But it's hard to know without having James's PoV on Kit defending Grace in ChoT, which we'll never have.

[purplebass]

can you name which ships or characters? To know not to expect more fics of them soon, thanks!Also if you could give some reasons that made you change your mind during rereading the stories under a "read more" I would love to know

I just wanted to say that even though these ships may not be in my "to write about" list soon, it doesn't mean that I won't write about them anymore... just not now

Well, since I mostly write about TSC and TID/TLH, of course some ships are going to be from there. I want to underline that THIS IS NOT AN ANTI POST, btw. Aat least it doesn't seem anti to me, I don't get deeper into the specific reasons from canon I don't want to write about them at the moment, I am being very vague here and about my personal reasons why I can't

The first ship is Jordelia. I was so invested in them when I first read COG, and back then I even began a long fic about them. I had playlists made and all, had a ton of ideas. COI and then COT sunk the interest I had and now it's below ground, basically. This is probably the first CC series where I don't care about the main ship at all. After my reread, my feelings got even stronger, but I do not let them get my down. I tried writing a fic with them alone, but I couldn't bring myself to. Every time I think about them, my mind is blank. I like to include them in other fan fics because I enjoy writing their dynamics with other characters, though.

The second is Gracetopher. I like them enough, but they are hard to write to me, and I often am scared of disappointing people with my characterization of them (since I know a lot of people who like them). The last fan fic of them I posted got some backlash from one specific user, and that also turned me off because, not going to lie, I am afraid that if I post a new fic, this user is going to show up to criticize me again and I don't know if I can take it a second time. So, since they are hard to write for me, I just try to include them in my other works if I can, but I am not planning to write them (even though I have a few ideas on my fic notebook).

The last ship is probably Gabrily, because it's the other TID ship I've written about. I like them, of course, but I don't have any ideas about them at the moment and I want to focus on something else :)

[karouvas]

ask game:

tsc (i’m sorry i always ask about them, my brainrot is strong and i love hearing your thoughts)

and community

don’t apologize pls lol I also am brain rotting hard and have few people to talk about it with so it’s appreciated :)

The Shadowhunter Chronicles

M/F OTP: there are others I really like or love in a more normal way, but Emma/Julian Will/Tessa and Jem/Tessa are the ones that hit on another level for me emotionally, I’m clinically insane about them. Also it’s a bit hilarious to think about, since this was formative media for me (I first read TID in late elementary/middle school and TDA as they were coming out in high school) how my taste in ships generally speaking was shaped… like if you look at pairings I gravitate towards in other fandoms since there are def patterns xd. The impact!

Other M/F ships I have love for (including this category because ik i don’t talk about them as much and in another fandom where I had less dynamics I’m super fond of to choose from I could have placed them in that first category think of them as like second tier Otp’s for me ): Mark/Cristina, James/Cordelia, Simon/Isabelle (last one also was formative they were thee hot girl/soft boy nerd ship to me in middle school. But it has been a while so unsure if they’d hit the same on reread, they are the tmi couple I would most like to see in the better in black collection though!)

M/M OTP: Jem/Will! And then follow up Kit/Ty Surefire ways to get me invested in a ship: they do necromancy together, meet cute with a knife to the throat, they break up without ever dating. Triple check.

F/F OTP: along those lines it’s Lucie x Grace literally the main reason I want to reread TLH (well I do also just want to see how it reads back to back and not broken up and I have other reasons but like. Those are less important) is to be able to properly write fic about them, like it genuinely pisses me off this fandom is so boring and tasteless I can’t believe I actually miss the legacies fandom they were annoying as hell but at least they understood that when women do dark magic together it’s polite to write detailed analysis of how gay they are 😭. The way I know cc has seen Buffy too like flop. Also it just fits archetypes of antagonistic femslash I tend to love in general see: Julia/Marina Aria/Alison Elena/Rebekah and more

OT3: Herongraystairs and then Kierarktina

Friendship OTP: Tessa & Magnus + Will & Magnus! And for familial relationships I adore all The Blackthorn siblings in TDA and their dynamics but especially Julian and Mark’s relationship is v compelling to me and I also love Cordelia and Alastair’s relationship v much it was my favorite overall development in TLH. And then for psuedo familial dynamics I Love Charlotte’s relationships with Tessa Jem Will and Jessamine. her relationship with Jem might be my softest spot overall especially because they have moments in CP2 that make me go 🥺 but as a documented Tessa lover I adore how having Charlotte as a mentor figure effects her arc. So those are my favorites Ik I failed at picking just one. Oh I also adore Emma and Cristina’s friendship although I also sometimes ship them romantically

Canon OTP: Blackstairs Wessa Jessa like I said

Crackship OTP: what even counts as crackship? I will admit that during my CP reread I did look up how many Will/Magnus fics there are on ao3 although I did not read them (there are 12 for inquiring minds).

Anti-OTP: The worst ship to me is Jordan/Maia but it’s been a long time so the vitriol has worn off and I don’t have another solid notp besides them but the other canon pairings I’m #unimpressed with are Clace Ghostwriter and Gracetopher … Lucie/Jesse probably irks me the most these days because I actually want to like them because the concept is so good but the execution falls flat for me and I really like Lucie and want someone more interesting for her (like Grace lol.)

Community

M/F OTP: ultimately when I’m actually watching the show it’s Jeff/Britta love their emmaxknightleycore vibes. But I did get really into Abed x Annie at one point and even wrote some fic about it over quarantine (when I first got into Comm) so I have a soft spot for that concept too

M/M OTP: Troy/Abed. They of course are The otp of the show.

F/F OTP: not really otp status but well I did write this Annie x Britta Carmilla Au: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27728689?view_adult=true

(I orphaned that account post quarantine)

OT3: Troy/Abed/Annie

Friendship OTP: I mean all the study group dynamics but I especially have soft spots for Annie and Troy + Abed and Britta moments

Canon OTP: Jeff/Britta

Crackship OTP: what even counts as crack …

Anti-OTP: I just don’t like Jeff/Annie I used to viscerally hate it these days I’m just like. It’s not for me lol.

[immortal-enemies]

this would probably be an unpopular opinion but i don't understand how everyone seems to sympathise so much with grace

yes, tatiana was abusive and she didn't deserve to have the kind of childhood she did - but does that really make her "a great character that needs a redemption arc" though? She's done a lot of awful things (explaining in detail is tiring but i think we all get the gist lol) and not everything was because she was simply forced to. This one is based on personal preference but i really don't think she has that much of a personality either.

something common I see is "she would be a lot more loved if she was a man" and while i agree, i honestly think she would also be criticised a lot more by the fandom. So many of the m characters have the "they're terrible because they had a bad childhood/was abused and didn't actually want to be awful" trope and the fandom is critical of them (as they should). But why is it different with grace?

I'm not trying to invalidate other's opinions but i just find it hard to agree with her getting a redemption arc. I'm fine with people liking her character, I guess it's more of when they try to justify what she did and excuse her actions? also sorry this is so long 😅

Hey!! Absolutely no problem!! This was, for lack of a better word, interesting to read.

Alright, I'm sorry that this took so long to answer, but I was considering exactly HOW I was going to answer.

So, I'm turning this ask into a ask/rant. Under the cut is my current, unedited, written at 12:00 am, honest opinions on Grace and ig Tatiana, keep in mind that I am, I guess, “anti grace blackthorn” so this isn’t full of defenses for her, quite the opposite, in fact. Read at your own risk (fair warning, it’s long), but since no one will probably read it anyway, idk.

Yes, after CoI that is an unpopular opinion. No, I don't understand it much either. To a certain degree.

One of the things I think that people seem to forget/overlook/ignore is that, despite everything, Grace still had a choice. She decided to give in and spend years abusing a young boy. Tatiana is abusive, but that will never change the fact that, at the end of the day, Grace still had a choice. And yes, I understand why she did it. She was in a horrible place, mentally and physically, but she still decided. No amount of arguing will change that fact. It's her life, it's her choice.

Yes, she did do horrible things without needing to. Her power in to compel/control men. She didn't have to kiss Matthew and use it as some sort of blackmail, but she did. She actually had no reason to other then some personal reason. She could have made Mathew forget. In CoI Grace claims that Matthew would have forgotten the kiss anyway, so why do it in the first place?

That's one of the problems I have with how CC wrote Grace. She had to make the one girl abusing a boy be because she didn't want to show her young female audience that they can be abusive too. Women can be just as abusive as men, and TSC is an awful example of that. Looking at all of the abusive characters who were like that simply for their own possible benefit, the ratio of men to women in that is completely off balance. Not saying it has to be equal, but I'm fairly certain Grace would be the only female character abusing a male character for her own personal gain, while adding a character to her (yes, I also agree that she has none.) not necessarily a character to look up to, but she's not that in canon either.

Now, a point on Tatiana: Tatiana is a character who was driven to be crazy by severe trauma, grief and mental illness, and is portrayed as one of the main villains of the series because of what those factors led her to become. It's also used as a plot point that "she could have reached out to anyone in her family; they were willing to help." So you're telling me that she's the villain because she didn't reach out to the people who, in her point of view, murdered her father, husband and son? ESPECIALLY in the 1800-1900's? That ain't it. We all know that the Shadowhunter families, and Shadowhunters in general, are not responsible for this, but when you look for someone to blame, especially in a horrific mental state, that could very easily be the only thing you hold on to. To be clear: I'm not defending her. Going back to my Grace point, she DID still have a choice in who she became, but I hate how people go "UwU Grace" and then "Tatiana is the bad one 😡" when they're very similar.

Now, onto your last point: gender.

Yikes, touchy subject in fandom.

Yes, if Grace was a man, she would be much more liked from the beginning. But also, if she was a man, then the Grace stans probably wouldn't BE Grace stans, and would hate him relentlessly and criticize and hate. One of the main reasons that people excuse her so much are because she's a girl who's abusive to a boy!! And like, boy's can't BE abused. ESPECIALLY by women, right? I mean, THEY'RE always the abusers!! (/s)

Something else: Christopher.

Alright. This isn't very big, but people praise Grace for not controlling Christopher in CoI. That's horrible. You don't praise people and say "UwU so cute couple goals!" at the fact that she didn't do something absolutely awful to him.

A general criticism of YA is how, in general, m/f relationships are portrayed in a kind of stereotypical/abusive way? Like, you have the guy who, in absolutely NO way can call out/say ANYTHING negative about their female love interest, and are often portrayed as afraid of them. That's... Ew. And then you have the girl who is a badass mf who gets some sick pleasure out of scaring the "love of their life"? Ew. But it's also always said that that's what a relationship should be, and I'm not saying that that's what young girls are going to look up to/expect a relationship to be like, but fiction does affect reality. And honestly for a while I was genuinely terrified at being in a relationship because I didn't want to treat a guy how these girls in YA do. That was mostly unrelated, but I thought of it while thinking of a response to this ask so it's gonna be included.

Anyway, it does beg the argument: what would I have done in Grace's position? What was she supposed to do in such a difficult situation? Well. A mere year ago I would have said "I wouldn't have done it" but know that I would if I was broken down enough, especially at the age Grace was when she got her power. But now, I can easily and honestly say, that I would not agree to anything Grace did. If I was put in her position, I would venomously refuse.

There was more I wanted to say, but like, no one is reading this anyway do like-

[my-constant-star]

I’ve seen a lot of people talking about what’s going to happen when The Merry Thieves find out about Thomastair, but I’m more worried about their reactions if Gracetopher happens. Because what Alastair did at the Academy was bad, but what Grace did was much much worse. She literally mind controlled James for years, emotionally and sexually abusing him, and not all of what she did was because of Tatiana. How is Christopher going to get into a relationship with her without destroying his friendship with James?

[sleptite]

every time i read the word gracetopher or someone says they ship those two or call them cute or whatever i die a little bit more inside

[dragon-tales7]

I just realized... if Grace and Christopher do end up together in COT (PLEASE PLEASE) then Charles will have been left for a Lightwood THRICE

[pansexual-lilychen]

i just realized christopher & grace are (adoptive) cousins,, why must cassandra clare push inc*st into every single one of her books

[readwithlivvy]

idk you guys I can't bring myself to ship gracetopher... like kit is totally fine with his science experiments and grace needs fkn therapy.

[melanielocke]

Master list

Book recommendations

Flowers Bloom Until they Rot and Fall Apart

@flowersbloomuntiltheyrot

Masterlist

The Stars Collide

Sci-fi AU with arranged marriage, Thomastair centric

AO3 | Chapter list

Alastember 2022 (Finished)

AO3 | Chapter list

Thomastair

That's alright, let's give this another try | AO3

Which has a sort of sequel, but can be read seperately

Love will tie the Tourniquet | AO3

A lesson in Waltz | AO3

What if Paris was the first time we met? | AO3

Because I was following him | AO3

Take the Color from your Eyes (I bleed for you) | AO3

Bring the Broken Back to Life (sequel)

Thomas and the Six Vaguely Familiar Cats | AO3

Part 2

Alastair and Charles

(All anti Charles)

Tolerate it AO3

Which I later rewrote and posted on tumblr titled

Illicit Affairs

The Infirmary | AO3

Tired of Nothing Left | AO3

Alastair and Cordelia

You have no idea what I've done for my sister | AO3

You'll be in my Heart | AO3

He's how much older? | AO3

Stay away from my brother | AO3

Forever Winter | AO3

Every Wasted Word | AO3

Alastair and potential father figures

An experiment with a Fairchild | AO3

Joshwood

A surprise baby

Eugenia is pregnant with Augustus Pounceby's child.

AO3

Part 1

Part 2

Breath of the Wild AU

A couple of one shots set in the universe of Breath of the Wild, where Thomas is Link, Lucie is Zelda and Cordelia is chief of the Gerudo.

Entrance to the Forbidden City | AO3

Cordelia, Chief of the Gerudo | AO3

Lost in the Shadows (Complete)

A modern paranormal AU featuring Thomastair and Lucelia

AO3 | Chapter list

Conceal, don't feel (Complete)

Carstairs siblings Frozen AU. Main pairings are Thomastair and Lucelia, side pairings are Joshwood and Gracetopher.

AO3 | Chapter list

Call of the Forest

Horror AU, centered around the Carstairs family and Thomas. Unfinished, might finish it if people ask.

AO3 | Chapter list

We Bury the Sunlight (Complete)

Post-CoI Thomastair fic consisting of multiple chapters centered around the issues Thomas and Alastair would have if they were to pursue a relationship at this point and how to overcome them.

AO3 | Chapter list

Send me requests from this if you want Prompt list

[edwinspaynes]

i implore you to please use tags correctly on tumblr dot com. this is not directed at any one person but at y'all as a unit because i've seen a lot of people mistagging things lately.

if a post is critical of something, do not tag it with that thing. for example, i love matthew fairchild. i don't want to see your anti matthew bullshit. i track the #matthew fairchild tag so i see stuff about him. i have blocked the #anti matthew fairchild tag so i can curate my tumblr experience. basic etiquette is not tagging the matthew-critical post with #matthew fairchild. an added kindness that costs you $0.00 is using the #anti matthew fairchild tag.

if you make a post about a certain topic, do not tag it with anything and everything from the same media. for example, i track the #thomastair tag. i go into the tag expecting to see stuff about thomastair. i do not expect (or want) to see stuff about ghostwriter. but some people like to post about one ship and tag all the other ships, too. so there will be a ghostwriter post that's also tagged as #thomastair, #jordelia, and #gracetopher. this is annoying as fuck and clogs up the tags with irrelevant content.

thank you for your time, i am getting off my soapbox now. have a great day.