The Tsc World-building Sucks And I Will Probably End Up Writing An Essay About This, But It Needed To

The tsc world-building sucks and I will probably end up writing an essay about this, but it needed to at least be said.

tsc char aes -> ‘Mina’ Ke Yiquiang Carstairs

matthew 100% dresses his merry thieves for events and none of them even try to stop him

tda char aes -> Mark ‘Miach’ Blackthorn

His eyes were full of feral amusement, a carelessness that spoke of a world where there was no human Law. He seemed to bring the wildness of Faerie into the room with him: a cold, sweet magic that was nevertheless a bitter at the roots.

Jup. It’s generally assumed that Claude is like, a lot older than him, so it fucked him up. And I think there’s no doubt that he’s a little iffy with the way he seems to corner Math in CoI and eyes up Cordelia like she’s his next meal. I’m honestly torn on this, because we just don’t know Claude’s age. But if he’d be as horrible and incompetent as Charles I don’t think Hypatia would tolerate him.

All we know from the text is that Claude broke Matthew’s heart, that he has an important position in the Ruelle (wich he might not’ve gotten as a minor), and that the relationship must’ve happened sometime between Cast Long Shadows and CoG. So Matthew would’ve been 15-17. And if Claude is about Charles’ age that’s fucked. But we can’t know for sure. And he might’ve gotten the position because he’s talented or has connections through the Praetor - who, also, I don’t think would tolerate him if he were a complete piece of sh*t.

This was a little ranty but just serves to say: it’s kinda open to interpret whichever way. There’s been theories that Claude might end up biting Matthew because he’s abusive or vengeful or sth, but I don’t think that has been sufficiently set up.

But either way I still like the Math/Alastair parallels.

"Alastair and Matthew are so different they could never be friends or even get along!"

Yes bc it's not as if both of them were neglected by their parents, dealt with bullying at school bc of rumors about their parents, distance themselves from people when their true selves start to come out, self loathing, feel responsible over their baby sister, have had to deal with their father's burdens, were raised more by a family friend than their parents, have dealt with abusive relationships with a man much oldler than them whe they were 15, are both queer men in the early 1900s, feel like they need to protect Cordelia, worry about their friends but never let anyone worry about them, or felt responsible for someone's death at the age of 14, or anything like that. No bc they're too different right? Right?

I made a lil chart