Hi hi hello Cambria here on my main blog I have zero braincells to add any thoughts to this message but what are your Clara Thornton thoughts specifically I loved your comic so so much and that you even thought to make comparison between her and that phenomenon with birds it is so unnerving and also the panel at the end with Jackson and her having the same expression ….. AAHHH anyways. I am always here to talk about Clara and GTH if you have more thoughts this is me asking you to please share them and I will listen
OH MY GOD THANK YOU ily cambria GOD i wish we knew more concrete stuff about her childhood so that there was more to discuss. like surely there was some real and not just perceived form of alienation between Clara herself and her cousins' family when she was taken to live there, but we don't get any evidence of it in the game which I think is just tragic. Like it doesn't seem like something Clara would ever mention organically because of her desire to appear strong, Harper probably wouldn't mention it because she might have been too young or naive to pick up on it, and Wade probably never knew that such tensions even existed.
Like by all accounts Roger and Marie were great people and parents, but given their demanding jobs, the fact that they already had two children, and the fact that they presumably didn't have much info on grief and trauma and how to guide children through it, it's very possible they were just never there for Clara in the same way they were there for their own kids. I mentioned in another post that because grief in children surrounding parental loss often comes with a lot of resentment, it's possible that young Clara pushed herself away from her new family, and they just didn't know how to respond to that, didn't know how normal it was, and thus never treated her as one of them. I want to know so badly what they did, no matter how well-intentioned, that would leave Clara feeling like she'd ever be pushed out of the family after being taken in by them as an actual child and living with them for 8+ years. That would be a seriously major insult after being brought up with them!!!
Or was it because of the possible incest thing? Lately I'm back to thinking that that may have actually been intentional from the writers!
Idk this story is just sooo complex and rich and I'm honestly both glad it exists in a Nancy Drew game so that the dark parts can be understated and we can imagine our own backstories and also sad that it has to be so limited because I would also read a full novel or watch a whole Netflix original series about the Thorntons of Blackrock.
I also wish we got more info about the eventual reconciliation of the Thornton family. To what level was Clara a part of that? If she wasn't, and all her lifelong fears were confirmed at the end of the game, that would be really tragic. It would make sense, since her manipulation of Harper and Wade may have left their relationships far beyond repair, but god wouldn't that be a sad corruption story? And did Clara go to jail for what happened in 1989? (I kind of doubt it, given her socioeconomic status, the fact that the fire was so many years ago and may have been entirely accidental, etc., but who knows.)
But then, by the end of the game, Jessalyn is at the core of the family, not Clara or Harper or Wade, and she seems to have a lot of love and forgiveness for her mother. And maybe Clara could start to become a new person now that she's not being burdened by this horrible secret and if she sees that she will always have at least some of her family! I love a story whose theme is that it's never too late to change, and that shows that change comes because of love and support!
Do they all do holidays together? Does Jessalyn ever drag them all on tropical family vacations, even though Harper doesn't really like her cousins, Wade sees maybe an hour of sunlight per year, and Clara hasn't had fun in twenty years?? Do Harper and Clara try to kill each other with carving knives on Thanksgiving? I just need so much more on this deeply fucked up but also very funny family.