matthew having nightmares every night since christopher died… i can’t do this
how i imagine anna & matthew’s first conversation went after the events of every exquisite thing
the grudge is matthew & alastairs song!!
autistic matthew headcanon I wanna hear it
easy!
so obviously his autism shows in really different ways than his dad’s but here goes:
special interest: oscar wilde (duh)
severe masking: him acting all high and popular at the academy
missing social clues: him trying to impress & befriend jamie at the academy
other points that are not as striking to me but noteworthy: autism can be hereditary (his dad is on the spectrum), he’s good with animals, also there have been some studies suggesting a link between a more extroverted person with asd & alcoholism
this is very spontaneously thrown together but yea if anyone wanna add anything feel free
guys v important question!!
okay listen i know chain of thorns wasn’t exactly the most popular book frontal BUT what was everyone’s favorite part of the book?
i saw this scooby doo edition of clue at the store the other day & fred looks exactly like matthew, literally down to the carnation
i’m still pissed we didn’t get to see the conversation between charlotte, henry and matthew.
something i noticed the other day just to put things into perspective: the miscarriage happened in early 1901, and matthew tells them in late 1903, so about 2 to 3 year lie between these events. for us as the reader the miscarriage happened in mid 2019 when gotsm came out, and math tells them in early 2023, so for us it is 3 1/2 years we actually waited for the resolve even longer than the characters did just to get no satasfying end to that arc. wow.
girls love it when there's a bisexual man btw
i hate you "pair the spares"/"everyone must be paired" tropes, i hate you forced last minute romances, i hate you implication that a happy ending means a romantic partner, i hate you amatonormativity
pov: me after everyone complained that matthew was still single at the end of CHOT
I think my most unpopular ChoT opinion (I'm sorry to the previous asker) is that despite my general hate for love triangles, I wound up not minding this one. I was deeply dreading it after ChoI, but I felt like it was a huge driving force for Matthew's growth (and he's my favourite character). I might make a post on this because there were definitely multiple factors that contributed, but I think Matthew's first wakeup call that he had a drinking problem was Cordelia (rightfully) being mad that he lied to her and leaving Paris. I don't think this wakeup call would have happened without the love triangle, and that makes me feel pretty at peace with it.
I also really liked how Cordelia vs Matthew's addiction was handled. I was really worried that Cassie was going to somehow make Cordelia his therapist and/or salvation, and I hate when female characters (especially badasses like Cordelia) are put in the position of being a carer or glorified therapist. But ChoT actively subverted that trope by making Cordelia pull out and having Matthew be his own salvation.
Idk as an avid love triangle hater, I didn't mind.
(Tw sexual abuse from here on)
Another one is that I didn't think that James was being unreasonable at all in not wanting to talk about the bracelet. I know a lot of people wanted to shake him for being uncommunicative, but it felt realistic and understandable when you consider that James is, in fact, a long-term sexual abuse survivor.
This isn't Grace hate, she's one of my faves and I think Tatiana is the one to blame. But James's reaction deeply checked out.
guess who just wrote a really long reply to this ask, then while trying to post it tumblr glitched & deleted it? anyway, here’s the short version because i cannot type this whole think out again:
i think seeing matthews love for cordelia as a device to advance his character development in his journey to sobriety does make the love triangle more bearable and is a fresh approach, however i am still an avid love triangle critic and i am sure there were other ways to push his arc further.
but i also liked that CC didn’t put this much pressure on cordelia for matthews journey, and made her his catalyst to reconsider his drinking rather than make her his entire motivation & support system. and i did love how she included the merry thieves & expanded maths support system like that !! one of my favorite scenes in the book!!
i also didn’t mind james keeping the grace situation a secret that much. sure as a reader it can feel frustrating when your ship is this close to being canon and the only thing standing between them is james not telling cordelia the whole story; HOWEVER i would argue that it was not his pride (as he says himself) but his trauma from the whole situation, and that plays out rather realistically in my opinion. i know i had written another thing here but i forgot i’m sorry
anyway, people please keep the unpopular chain of thorns opinions coming!!
(so sorry i had to add jem to this list)
