Elizabeth Montgomery And Agnes Moorehead As Samantha And Endora In Bewitched

hmm, is the title "The Beautiful Cordelia" a nod to Jane Austen's "The Beautifull Cassandra"

I don’t have links but I really want to talk about The Last Hours because I’m so excited, so I’m just gonna ramble??

The theory I heard that makes a lot of sense to me is that the baby Sona is currently pregnant with will be raised by Alastair. This would explain how Alastair had a child (despite claiming he’d never marry) and is the great-grandfather of Emma Carstairs according to the family tree. It would also explain why the third Carstairs child is nowhere to be found on the family tree itself; since CC has claimed that it’s been purposefully altered, perhaps this is one of the alterations -- Sona had a baby, for some reason could not take care of that child, and so they were taken in by Alastair and raised as his. This is a sad theory though, because Sona is lovely and I don’t want anything to happen to her at all :( 

I am really hoping there will be a very close relationship that will develop between Jem and Alastair and I base it on this one point, in Forever Fallen, where Jem mentions a specific cradle, which he’d personally seen carved over 100 years earlier at Cirenworth ---

“The cradle had been carved more than a hundred years ago from an oak felled in these woods. Jem had seen it made, with careful hands and patient love.”

He doesn’t mention who carved it by name, but Cirenworth has only been owned by the Carstairs since 1895. It was bought by Elias Carstairs, years after Jem had become a Silent Brother, so the only way this passage could make sense is if he’d seen either Elias, Alastair or a child of either of the two build the cradle. 

Now, he can’t have seen Elias, because it’s known and pretty much canon that Elias refused to allow Jem to visit or be near his family whatsoever. It can only either be Alastair or someone directly after Alastair, which means Alastair must’ve had a close enough relationship with Jem if he’s just let him casually show up for a day of woodworking or to be close enough to his child that he’d be there if his child were the one doing it.

So, there is a baby; there is a cradle built by either Alastair for a child or a child of Alastair that Jem would’ve seen at Cirenworth.

I don’t know if this makes no sense but I just wanted to write it all out. I’m really excited!

I’m looking to go down the rabbit hole of theories for Chain of Iron and Chain of Thorns from The Last Hours trilogy. If anyone wants to comment, or link me to any of the theories, I would be much appreciated.

what studying literature feels like

The TE Lawrence quote ‘Sacrifice uplifts the redeemer and casts down the bought’ – you mentioned that it might be a clue to how Alec/Ralph’s relationship ended.  I wondered what your thoughts are on this?  I can never work out if it is that Alec wants to ‘look after Ralph’ or doesn’t want Ralph to ‘look after him’.  I mean, a bit of both I’m sure, but I still wonder what it looks like? And also, how was it reading that cliffhanger ending for the first time?

So, my whole idea comes from the fact that Alec and Ralph seem somewhat similar in personality to me. I got the impression that both wanted to take some responsibility; Ralph in literally everything, and Alec in a relationship...about the T.E. Lawrence quote: full disclaimer, I haven’t read the book it's from. I'm probably way off base, but just on its own, the quote to me came across as: complex men understand that sacrifice uplifts the one who partakes in it, and casts down the one for whom it is done. The first redeems the second, but the second will always be beneath the first; he is ‘bought’ (i.e. indebted) and also ‘cast down.’ When it’s mentioned by Alec, I assumed he was referring both to himself and Ralph as being those ‘complex men’ who also 'sacrifice.’ There was also a direct mention of Sandy prior to it being brought up, so I linked the whole thing both to Alec’s relationship (and impression) of Ralph (who he says is ‘complex’ but remains innocent about it), along with his relationship to Sandy (who I assume is the one ‘bought’).

So, the way I read it was: Alec identifies himself as a ‘complex man' who understands the implication of being the one to sacrifice for another person; he identifies Ralph as such a complex man too, but seems annoyed that Ralph doesn't understand that the people for whom he sacrifices are inevitably 'cast down' and 'bought.' He maintains an innocence about things in general and this bothers Alec. Later on, Alec obviously says that Ralph never let him do anything in their relationship, so I made a leap and connected this comment to the quote and came away with a vague idea that in their relationship Ralph probably would’ve been the one who 'sacrificed’ and Alec would’ve been the one who was ‘cast down,’ i.e. Alec was expected to depend on Ralph, who took all responsibility while Alec was never allowed to fulfil any similar role; Ralph never let himself depend on Alec, or let him help in any way. This would’ve been an inherently unequal relationship and I don't think Alec would've liked it (because again, I see him as similar to Ralph in the sense he wants responsibility; he himself also says most of their arguments resulted from Ralph's inability to just let him help or do anything).

Re the cliffhanger: the first time I read it, it did a number on me…I didn’t much understand it, because I was rushing to get through and see what happened with Ralph. When I finally got to the end, and read ‘I should’ve had to come back,’ I was honestly...flabbergasted, I think is the correct word? I didn’t realise that Laurie was lying, so it seemed the sweetest thing in the world. I remember the whole day after I finished the book, I kept thinking about those words and wondering what happened! The last paragraph seemed to indicate a happy ending (I read it like three times over lol), but I hated how abrupt it all was. It wasn't until some time had passed that I actually started to liked the abruptness. Also, it really made me want to read the Phaedrus!

The heather in bloom

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), poem 85 from “The Gardener”, 1914 Translated by the author from the original Bengali. New York: The Macmillan Company.

The lightwood family- Gideon and Sophie, Eugenia, Barbara and Thomas. 

Characters by @cassandraclare

Do you guys see the resemblance? 

Jane Eyre: Incorrect Quotes (68/?)

was the inquisitor corresponding with Tatiana lightwood? is that why he would want to burn a random letter and any other evidence he had that he had a vendetta against the lightwoods and herondales? 😭😭😭

cordelia was basically anna in ‘do you wanna build a snowman’ that time alastair came home and wouldn’t talk to her lol