#charles force

Haha yeah I know what you mean! It’s amazing to think that once upon a time, Charles Force was the nerdy, awkward kid whose sister was the most popular girl in school. I feel like he was so ready to grow up and grow into his legacy as Michael Pure of Heart and Regis of the Coven, while Allegra just wanted to be Allegra van Alen, a sixteen year old girl who was great at field hockey and had a crush on the hot blond guy who was tutoring her in Latin and calls her Legs. Charles is just trying to look out for Allegra but Mel makes it too easy for us to want to fall in love with Bendix instead, and I wish we got more Charles/Allegra and understood what she saw in him when they truly gave their relationship a chance. 

owwwwwwwww. I hate this almost as much as I hated Jack dying in the last book. (Jack is my fave character next to Schuyler leave me alone)

RIGHT. GABRIELLE/MICHAEL IS SO TRAGIC IT HURTS. Gates of Paradise especially was so sad when you realize how broken everything was for them when they were the ones who should have had it all. They were archangels, supposedly the most glorious of them all, but by the time the War finally reached the gates of Heaven it was too late--their relevance and power diminished to the point that the fate of the Fallen rested on the shoulders of Schuyler van Alen instead.

rosaxx50 replied to your post “which ship breaks your heart more: jack/mimi or charles/allegra”

NOOOOOOOOOO. THIS POST. MY GABRIELLE/MICHAEL FEELINGS. THEY LOSE EVERYTHING, THEIR NAMES, EACH OTHER. Like, I def think Charles was worse in what he did to Allegra back in Florence, but they are both so heartbreaking.

I agree, Michael's betrayal in Florence is definitely greater in magnitude emotionally, and yet you also understand that he does it out of love, however twisted it is to lie to her like that. In his mind this is the only way he can protect her from the pain of the truth of what happened, which is why it makes everything that much more heartbreaking. He never stops loving her and it becomes their downfall because he thinks that he's doing the right thing and it destroys both of them.

Gabrielle knew something was wrong and gave him so many chances to confess what really happened, but by the time he finally told his side of the story when they were trapped in the white darkness, it was too late. So she tried to find a way to do the most important thing to her: save the rest of the Fallen and discover how to get back to Heaven again.

CHARLES/ALLEGRA. That scene with Jack/Mimi in Gates of Paradise gets to me but literally everything about Charles/Allegra is heartbreaking (“even the sun sets in paradise” I JUST CAN’T). He loved her so much that he gave up Paradise for her, and he never even looked back once because it wasn’t Paradise without her, and they lost everything because of it. 

You could have had your victory, Michael. We would have been rid of the demon that plagued our people, the demon that brought shame to the angels and cursed us into darkness. The demon who wanted Heaven for himself.You should have let me die.See what you did?We believed you had vanquished the Dark Prince.That you had sent him to Hell.But you saved me instead.

His love wasn’t enough for Allegra—it was never enough for her, not when she was the one who made the decision to leave Heaven for the Fallen. She needed to see that her—their—people were saved by the Almighty, and when she realized that he gave up their salvation for her life, she can’t accept it. 

I have a lot of mixed feelings about the finale. On one hand, I really loved Schuyler’s sacrifice and how Michael had to make the same choice all those years ago but failed to do what she did—that was one of my favorite moments in the entire series. But on the other hand, the rest of the battle was pretty underwhelming for everyone else. Maybe it’s because there was so much emphasis on the revelation of Michael and Gabrielle’s past and what Schuyler’s role really was that nothing else really seemed to leave an impression, but when I go back and reread the ending I can’t help but to feel it could have been executed better.

And you’re right, Dehua and Ted are the ones who get killed. “Of the Venators, both Sam and Deming had lost their twin" is how it’s phrased in the book, and I even had to look it up to confirm because this was pretty much the only comment we got on their fates. I think one of the problems in literature in general is giving twins their own identities so it’s easy to confuse one twin for another. When I first read Gates, I had to take a moment to remember which Lennox twin Deming was bonded to because I had so little emotional attachment to them as individual characters. I think that’s what happened with the deaths in the finale in general: there hadn’t been enough development of the side/non-PoV characters for them to grow on us that when they died, their deaths don’t impact us emotionally the same way as Jack and Mimi’s (ultimately fake) deaths did. 

Charles Van Alen + incarnations >> requested by rosaxx50

"Return to me," he whispered.

She remembered his strength and his power, but most of all she remembered how she had been drawn to his innate sense of justice, his goodness, the pure light that emanated from his soul...He had chosen earth over Elysium to be with her.