Chain Of Iron Spoilers - Blog Posts

If Alastair has made up with Jem, does that mean Jem will start visiting the Carstairs in COT whenever a Silent Brother is needed to check on Sona? Will he keep Alastair company? Will they eventually get to talk and Jem tells him all the things Elias should've told him years and years ago? Will they talk about Alastair and his role in caring for his new sibling and mother? Will they talk about Alastair in his younger years when he hated to bully but did it anyway and now doesn't know how to fix it? Will they talk about all the pain surrounding his father and his father's death?

Will Jem ask him about music? Or will Jem finally just let Alastair have someone - a friend - who he can gush to about being excited to have a new sibling? Someone to list off names to: all the names he thinks would be lovely for a boy and then all the names he thinks would be lovely for a girl and if Jem doesn't know what some mean or where they come from, Alastair translates them and they argue about which would fit better 🧐 I will sell my soul for this 😭

james is actually just gonna wander around with Cordelia's glove and mourn over it for at least 1/3 of chain of thorns lol 😭

I like Grace but I'm thinking that leaving her alone to testify to Charlotte was very bad actually. I know James didn't really have an option at the time but, still, I'm just very worried about it.

The way it was talked about before the book came out made me think there was going to be more of Elias and his interactions/relationship with Alastair and Sona. I mean, there must've been a scene where they each first interacted with him alone. Idk, it felt really meh to just have a total of about 3 scenes wherein Elias was either being weird, drunk or just horrible and then he dies. Like, "here hate him for being bad before I kill him." I think the whole thing should've been explored more, idk.

We also get one line that suggests he doesn't want to have the new baby, which is another thing that was hinted at a bunch and which I thought would actually be talked about openly at some point and explored, not just tucked away in a rant before he dies and never really formally addressed. And I might be misremembering, but weren't Alastair and Cordelia going to have secret and important meetings about him or something? There was one scene where they talked after dinner but that's it? And Sona was so sure he'd changed and needed to be given another chance - - why?

I realize the writing must be based around whatever drives the plot, so such scenes would seem add-on but that only calls into question why Alastair isn't so much more important to the plot 😤 smh,,,, I just think there could've been a lot more Carstairs scenes in the book that would've helped in understanding each of the Carstairs characters.

cassandra just give alastair one (1) friend 😭😭

I agree but Alastair probably would've just gone over there and tried to murder James lol

Cordelia should have gone to Alastair not Matthew. She could've spilled all the beans and he probably would have taken a more logical approach than immediately leaving for Paris without telling anyone!!!

we never actually got to see Alastair and Elias interact on their own... why

if Cordelia really did give Cortana to Alastair, that would solve the mystery of how the blade stays in the Carstairs family and reaches Emma. Cordelia might even be able to wield it later on (assuming she finds a way out of her situation) but I think she might just tell Alastair to keep it in the end, if not for himself then for their sibling.

this is actually, besides thomas hitting his head on the wall apparently, the funniest bit of the book

i'm dying to know what Cordelia asked Alastair - - did she tell him about the paladin situation? did she really give him Cortana? If she did, what was his reaction? How did she get through it? Did he comfort her? Did they plan to find a way out of the whole thing?

There's also something grand about Alastair as a child, demanding the blade be his, to Alastair now as an adult refusing to wield the sword at all. He doesn't just love Cordelia, he respects her as a Shadowhunter and fighter and will not take her weapon for himself 😭 I really doubt, even if she gave it to him, that he would use it.

how does matthew somehow think James will forgive him for this, how did he just leave his family the day his brother almost died, how-??? i know this whole thing will be put on the 'bracelet blinding james' but even without that, "hey I love you run away with me from your husband, who's supposed to be as close as a brother to me" is-- ???? how is this not obviously a total betrayal, even if he thinks James is with Grace

honestly the word "paris" now wounds me, i cannot handle this 😭

So in Learn About Loss, Jem (Brother Zachariah) inquires after Annabel Blackthorn, believing her to be an Iron Sister. This must surely mean that Malcolm will not do anything too obviously necromantic in CoT, otherwise Jem surely would have heard.

The fact that "Lucie" was the first thing Jesse said when he came back to life 😍😍😍😍

Also, was anyone else suprised that he woke up and after seven years of death instantly was strong enough to lift and carry Lucie? Maybe it's an indicator of how much power Lucie used on him. Which, in turn, would explain her fainting (and could assure us that she's quite alright and just needs rest to fill up her energy levels again)

Alastair in ChoG: *snaps at Thomas for calling him by his first name, they are not school boys anymore*

Alastair in CoI: *apparently likes the name Thomas so much he uses it like five times per page*

On a more serious note, he only calls Thomas "Lightwood" in front of the Merry Thieves or when he's trying to mask his insecurity ("speak sense, Lightwood")

I'm 100% sure that Will knows about Thomastair

Paris really is the Thomastair city. Why were they locked in the sanctuary in the first place? Because the Mortal Sword was in Paris.

Iconic.

Has anyone ever thought about how ironic it is that the present lines of Blackthorns possibly only exists because one of their ancestors commited necromancy? Like, we always joke about Herondales and Blackthorns engaging in necromancy, but it's quite likely that Ty and the others only exist because of Lucie's necromancy.