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gertchase/polin parallels 1/∞

when everyone roasts your looks but wifey’s got your back

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Illustrations for Jane Austen’s classical novels.

By ChihAriel

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Kit, do you really have a girlfriend? If the answer is yes, I am so happy for you. But... what about... Ty?

I love you!

Kit: I see my mom is trying to get you all to ask me whether I have a girlfriend. I see through you, mom! I mean, I'm single, I can date who I want, but I feel like my family may be spying on me...

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Dear Kit,

Have you by any chance found anything about a certain A. E. C at Cirenworth? Maybe Alastair Carstairs?

Kit: Yeah, I think I might have seen those initials in an old book?

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For Magnus: How's the family?

We're going on vacation soon for a well-earned rest in the Caribbean. I better not hear from any Shadowhunters or Downworlders with problems I need to solve because I'm going to be on the beach with a mai tai.

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I look at the Jordelia art and wonder when was the last time an official art of them was published and not a very intimate, sexualized scene... It's not even a criticism I'm curious do you know and can show me? I remember them playing chess in a drawing of Cassandra Jean but that's it!!

I don’t remember any CJ artwork of them playing chess. I know Naira Peredo did one of them but she wasn’t commissioned by CC.

First I’m not trying to disrespect the artist I just know people are uncomfortable with the artwork so hence why I did what I did. These are official artworks technically since CC hired them to do it. There is a total of 5 official ones I found (if there is more of Them someone please inform me). 4 out of 5 are the whispering room or bed scene. Only one is a sweet moment and it’s the last photo shown.

This is the only non explicit OFFICIAL artwork I’ve seen of them BY THEMSELVES is this one:

(This was released before CHoI came out.)

I believe this says a lot. I don’t think I have to further explain. But if you want me too send me another ask!

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Cordelia Carstairs Sexualization in the books

Okay soooo as we know Cordelia was highly sexualized in the book. Remember it’s a YA book. For hundreds of years WOC have been more overly sexualized then white women. It’s honestly fetish-like. Especially to the eyes of men. Like wasn’t there a part where she basically kind of stated that she knows James is just using her for her body. Or is my mind making up things? Anyway it’s disturbing that she though that!!!!! Like think about it compare to Tess, Clary, and Emma, Cordelia is very sexualized. Tessa was never sexualized. Clary and Emma were barely ever sexualized in their books. All those mains are white. Also, where is ALL the same amount of sexualized artworks of Tessa, Clary, and Emma. They definitely don’t have as many as Cordelia. Also let’s not forget James and Cordelia are MINORS! MINORS!!!!! Let’s not forget the hell ruelle performance where she is wearing a not so corseted, draped-like, fitted dress and then did a dance that was meant to be only done by married women because it’s known to be inappropriate! We have a brown main character who is canon to be curvy and she is doing an scandalous performance in a scandalous club. What does that say about how WOC are perceived in these books?

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i don't hate the jordelia artwork we got but i wish artists could draw something other the the whispering room scene or the bed scene in choi. i feel cordelia is more sexualized than other main characters from cassie clare and that's highly disappointing (especially because she's the first main character that's not white in one of her books) if there are going to be more jordelia drawings please let it be of them playing chess, or their wedding reception, or them fighting demons!!

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THIS WAS A LOT OF DAMAGE OP

“Agar oun ba to mehraboon nabood, bargard khooneh va motmaen bash man kari mikonam ke az ghalat kardene khodesh pashimoon besheh.”

This is Alastair to Cordelia. This breaks my heart because she ran away with Matthew after James basically broke her. What makes my heart break even more is imagining Alastair’s reaction if it knows the truth to why she left especially since he told her to come home and she didn’t.

“If he ever hurts you, come home, and I will make him regret it.”

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is this not what happens

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So I saw a post about how Will would be super unhappy seeing everything his descendants are going though but you want to know who’s really mad up there? ELEANOR BLACKTHORN!

Like this woman’s family hasn’t caught a break since she died.

- Andrew gets super depressed loosing her and later gets turned into an endarkened by Sebastian.

- He’s soon after killed by Julian who did it to protect Ty orphaning all of them.

- Mark gets taken by faeries and the clave neglects to do anything to help him.

- Helen is exiled for none of her own wrong doings.

- Julian has to raise his younger siblings because Arthur isn’t stable enough to.

- Tavvy is kidnapped by Malcolm.

- Malcolm actually kills Arthur to revive Annabel.

- When things are starting to look good for them since their getting Helen back the stupid clave makes Annabel snap and she stabs Livvy, killing her.

- Livvy doesn’t even get to reunite with her parents because Ty’s attempted necromancy ties her spirit to his necklace.

- Most of their siblings do not know about this.

Do not even get me started on how awful things are for the Blackthorn family in Thule!

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Reflections: The Story of Tessa

This isn't an objective or even fair assessment of TSC, but because of how much Clockwork Angel and herongraystairs mean to me given that I read TID back when I was twelve, I sort of visualize the whole of TSC as the story of Tessa, with the different trilogies being punctuations, in the overarching scheme of things, in the Tessa Herongraystairs story.

I once said that Tessa marks the chronological inception of the story of the five families: the Herondales, Carstairs, Fairchilds, Blackthorns and Lightwoods. No family would have a lineage in the present day in its current state if not for Tessa and the Clockwork War and the way herongraystairs' played out chronologically. So, sometimes I just map out the whole TSC as the story of Tessa and the different books in TSC as linear checkpoints in the narrative of The Bestest Girl Ever aka Tessa Gray. It sort of looks like this when I break it down in my head:

Phase 1: Inception - This is TID (and the literal equivalent of the Big Bang for me from a linear perspective) yunno like the passion the love the power the sacrifices the desperation the growth of the characters in this series. I think the choices made in this trilogy set the course for everything.

Phase 2: Wessa - this is TLH. It's Wessa's Happily Ever After that we get to glimpse, ie, their follow-up to TID and the lifetime that Wessa got to have together: the ever-important Love Story No. 1 come to life. The end of this lifetime is marked by Learn About Loss and A Deeper Love from GOTSM for me, another punctuation. Lifetime No. 1 includes the Tessa Herondale story and that of a lineage she will produce that will reappear in her life in a century's time: it’s her family and experiences with Will, the story of her children, James and Lucie, and a Shadowhunter life in Edwardian London.

Phase 3: Impetus - This is City of Heavenly Fire aka, the book that changed the trajectory of Tessa and Jem's lives completely and the figure that shifted everything for them: Jace Herondale. Jem gets freed from the yin fen and his strife, and a whole new door gets opened because of this "other story of Fairchilds and Lightwoods and Herondales" and whatnot. In this way, you can picture the whole of TMI as the story of Jem's inevitable freedom from Brother Zachariah. From this angle, the epilogue of Clockwork Princess (*cries*) and the epilogue of City of Heavenly Fire are not just an ending or a beginning. It is sinply the midpoint in the narrative of Tessa Gray.

Phase 4: The Search for the Lost Herondale - This is both TDA and GOTSM. The Carstairs owe the Herondales. Tessa and Jem don't get to have their Happily Ever After just yet, because they need to find Kit. We know they love Kit with the pureness that parents just possess, but we also know that they see Kit as a little piece of Will that Jessa can still have in their lives (which mirrors the way Brother Zachariah in TLH was a means of having a little piece of the old Jem in Wessa's life). Cassie made Jessa work for their happily ever after here. The punctuation mark for me here is Through Blood, Through Fire and Forever Fallen from GOTSM.

Phase 5: Jessa - this is TWP. We haven't gotten much of it yet, but it's basically the Happily Ever After of Jessa that we've been waiting for since our Phase 1. This is the second follow-up to TID and the life that Jessa now get to have. This is Love Story No. 2 come to life, and it likely will be punctuated by the end of TWP. This is the story of Tessa Carstairs, one of a warlock's life in Devon with a family in Jem, Kit and Mina.

So to conclude, I'm a huge-ass Tessa stan okay, so sometimes I just see the whole of TSC as the story of Tessa with her two relationships and lifetimes - it's her love and family-building with Will and Jem just stretched across different epochs, each as milestones in a singular but linear character arc. I see Tessa Gray stepping onto the docks of London in TID as the inception of TSC from a narrative perspective and her relationships with Will and Jem as complements to each other.

James and Lucie are to Wessa what Kit and Mina are to Jessa. Shadowhunter Tessa is to Wessa what Warlock Tessa is to Jessa. Rescuing Kit (to have a bit on Herondale in their relationship) is to Jessa what having Brother Zachariah visit the London Institute every two minutes was to Wessa (what I mean here is that it was never possible to fully have both Jem and Will with her at once - Brother Zachariah was a fragment of the Jem Carstairs that Wessa loved, while Kit Herondale is a pretty souvenir of Will and the Herondale bloodline that Jessa so love).

Hence, Tessa's character arc is the spine of TSC when it comes to *major emotional stuff* for me. Amidst each individual book, the sheer size of herongraystairs is a penumbra always living in my peripherals. Tessa is an ever-lurking constant in the narrative of TSC itself, and I guess I sometimes just imagine TSC as a giant hallway: the paintings that hang at the sides are the individual TSC books, and Tessa Gray is the granite upon which they sit.

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Mina: Shit!

Tessa: KIT I'M COMING FOR YOU!

Kit *panicked*: IT WAS EMMA NOT ME

Emma *even more panicked*: THAT'S A LIE, IT WAS JACE

Jace: ... I'm gonna die

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1878.

Will: I miss Tessa

Jem: me too

1903.

Tessa: I miss Jem

Will: me too

1937.

Jem: I miss Will

Tessa: me too

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tonight i’m thinking about how all throughout tda kit watched the blackthorns and noted how the siblings all loved each other and how he’d never had anyone like that but now he has tessa and jem and mina and i’m crying a bit

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i have to write my thesis, so i did these instead. carstairs family charts because we finally have mina flower card and also Carstairs Supremacy

thoughts?

[art credits - Cassandra Jean and Charlie Bowater]