#jordelia

[faithfromanewperspective]

don't usually self plug here these days but i'm stoked (and honestly shocked i could do it) to have EIGHT chapters of the chapter-by-chapter songfic albumfic about herondaisy in a universe that's a lot more fleshed out now. putting it here bc even though the tlh fandom has dwindled to almost nothing I do feel like the time this took to simmer and build was so worth it and i wanna hear your thoughts :))

[heronstairs]

herondaisy playlist

[thevagabondexpress]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

“Shit,” James hisses. Immediately he says, “My apologies, Cordelia. Tonight is about to get very bad. Very bad indeed.” Cordelia frowns at him. “Whatever do you mean?” “That,” says James, “is Tatiana Blackthorn, and that is her ward, Grace.” “Oh.” Cordelia knew, distantly, that Tatiana had a daughter, but it had always been the same distant way in which she knew that some fish had teeth, or that Canada was cold: seeing Grace Blackthorn in person was a whole different thing.

[dayscrazed]

"...a part of her had feared the same thing Cordelia did, that marriage meant the end of the story, that when the adventure of their love came to its conclusion, they would run out of plot. One look at James and Cordelia was evidence enough that this was absurd: that the story went on, even if it was unseen by anyone save the characters themselves. After all, though Lucie usually preferred to ignore the looks of romance exchanged between her parents, she had to admit that Will and Tessa grew even more disgustingly enraptured with each other as the years passed. Marriage, happiness- it wasn't the end of a story. It was simply the end of the story of the beginning."

-"The Beautiful Ajatara" in Better in Black, p. 85

[dayscrazed]

"We are the main characters in the stories of our lives. Everyone is. And maybe there's a part of you that worries what happens, now that it feels as if the love part of the story is over. Everything we went through- some of it was terrible. Some of it was wonderful. But there's a reason books always end at happily ever after. It's not because the story doesn't keep going. It does- it's just that nobody wants to read about the business of going about daily life, loving each other while you bicker about who forgot to call for a hansom cab and where are the tea-towels and such. People want to read the exciting part, when it's all risk and danger and will they or won't they end up together. But it doesn't matter whether anyone else wants to read the rest of our story, Cordelia. What matters is whether we want to live it together. And that's all I've ever wanted."

-James to Cordleia, "The Beautiful Ajatara" in Better in Black, p. 80

[dayscrazed]

“She burst into the drawing room, stopping short at the sight of Cordelia and James sitting in paired armchairs, gazing into each other’s eyes. This, of course, was nothing new. They were always gazing when they got the opportunity. Or touching, nuzzling, or stroking— there was surely no way for one person to wordlessly express love to another that Cordelia and James had not discovered. Lucie was, of course, overwhelmed with joy that her parabatai and her beloved brother had found so much happiness in each other. Still, she marveled that they never got bored with the gazing.”

- “The Beautiful Ajatara” in Better in Black, p. 53

[thebellekeys]

You're not missing out. BiB is garbage. And don't expect a story about James and Cordelia, they're barely in it. Lucie is the MC.

It's also just used as an excuse to address her problems with the fandom. There's a whole dialogue about how readers don't know what they want and character death improves stories.

Ooooh... tea??? I was out my normal fandom stuff for the last 6-8 months. Honestly, Cassie picking beef with the readers is like, not surprising in the least. 20 years worth of that.

On the other hand, was actually really hoping for Jordelia. :(

I do agree that character death improves stories (lol) but she should have expressed her gripes about that in a newsletter and... leave it out of KS.

[wellokaythentryme]

Am I the only one who really liked The Beautiful Ajatara?? The metanarrative was really sweet. It reflects what Ms Clare probably feels writing this series and it coming to an end, I didn’t mind at all that it wasn’t hyper focused on James and cordelia but used them as like a device to work out her own feelings on it all ending… quite beautiful 😢

I genuinely don’t know who I would be without this series. I’ve been reading it more than half my life… so crazy it’s all wrapping up soon.