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.
I don’t have links but I really want to talk about The Last Hours because I’m so excited, so I’m just gonna ramble??
The theory I heard that makes a lot of sense to me is that the baby Sona is currently pregnant with will be raised by Alastair. This would explain how Alastair had a child (despite claiming he’d never marry) and is the great-grandfather of Emma Carstairs according to the family tree. It would also explain why the third Carstairs child is nowhere to be found on the family tree itself; since CC has claimed that it’s been purposefully altered, perhaps this is one of the alterations -- Sona had a baby, for some reason could not take care of that child, and so they were taken in by Alastair and raised as his. This is a sad theory though, because Sona is lovely and I don’t want anything to happen to her at all :(
I am really hoping there will be a very close relationship that will develop between Jem and Alastair and I base it on this one point, in Forever Fallen, where Jem mentions a specific cradle, which he’d personally seen carved over 100 years earlier at Cirenworth ---
“The cradle had been carved more than a hundred years ago from an oak felled in these woods. Jem had seen it made, with careful hands and patient love.”
He doesn’t mention who carved it by name, but Cirenworth has only been owned by the Carstairs since 1895. It was bought by Elias Carstairs, years after Jem had become a Silent Brother, so the only way this passage could make sense is if he’d seen either Elias, Alastair or a child of either of the two build the cradle.
Now, he can’t have seen Elias, because it’s known and pretty much canon that Elias refused to allow Jem to visit or be near his family whatsoever. It can only either be Alastair or someone directly after Alastair, which means Alastair must’ve had a close enough relationship with Jem if he’s just let him casually show up for a day of woodworking or to be close enough to his child that he’d be there if his child were the one doing it.
So, there is a baby; there is a cradle built by either Alastair for a child or a child of Alastair that Jem would’ve seen at Cirenworth.
I don’t know if this makes no sense but I just wanted to write it all out. I’m really excited!
I’m looking to go down the rabbit hole of theories for Chain of Iron and Chain of Thorns from The Last Hours trilogy. If anyone wants to comment, or link me to any of the theories, I would be much appreciated.
Thomas's diary is something Sona would have relations to as it is in Spanish, this we can deduce it was started in his overseas trip and includes his first truly nice memory of Alastair. James' gun was what he used to save Cordelia from Lilith in COI.
James' gun may have a silver band, (it's not found yet so Cassie may have future plans for it) and Thomas's diary was a cherished possession of one of his closest friends.
So far, my theory about the ghost being Sona or James is holding up well.
Or it's James. He was extremely concerned with Matthew's drinking, the annoyed shake may be him being annoyed at them for dredging up memories of his parabatai or may even be him sobbing or dry-heaving at Matthew's name, he was bound to Grace since childhood, Lucie risked herself for Jesse Blackthorn, he could easily recognise Alastair's dagger and to Cordelia and Alastair, Cirenworth was the home of the Carstairs. Also the wine flask may remind him of what Cordelia suffered due to Elias. He is also mentioned in the Bane Chronicles, The tales of the Shadowhunter Academy and in the epilogue of the TID series. His ring (a silver band with herons) was also given to Jace and Jace gave it to Kit. Also he was mentioned by Tessa and Clary in the epilogue of a City of Heavenly Fire.
GUYS IT COULD BE RISA OR SONA
DISLIKES MATTHEW ( Risa does, Sona could after Cordelia ran away with him) ✅
Has something to do with Alastair ✅
I think it's Sona Carstairs, nee Jahanshah. Cordelia was almost killed due to Tatiana, Alastair has his heart broken due to Grace and so did Cordelia, not only that but the flask was clearly a wine flask and she may have had an adverse reaction to it due to Elias. Also at her depths Sona always considered herself a Jahanshah.
GUYS IT COULD BE RISA OR SONA
DISLIKES MATTHEW ( Risa does, Sona could after Cordelia ran away with him) ✅
Has something to do with Alastair ✅