Jonathanspenguinboxers

Credits for art: @cassandrajean

Mmmmm fucked up that Jocelyn is forever perceived as "Valentine's wife" first and foremost, as though that's the only person she'll ever be. Her entire life as Jocelyn Fairchild is insignificant compared to the few years she spent with him. But at the same time, it's not quite wrong. Jocelyn's entire life from the time she was a teenager has been shaped by Valentine. She supported him, she overthrew him, and then she spent fifteen years hiding from him. The Morgenstern name may no longer represent who Jocelyn is, but she can't be allowed to forget what she did when she loved him.

Totally did not stay up until 4AM for this half-baked edit

GET TF OUT STUPID MOSQUITO

Credits for art: @cassandrajean @hanilezabeth @elisal_art (Insta) Davood Diba (ArtStation) @sophia_volovik (Insta)

The best part about city of ashes is getting both Jace and Clary pov’s and seeing how similar they really are, the two of them having a similar feeling of displacement, knowing they're kind of in a limbo of where they're suppose to be.

Clary has to struggle with wether she is a Shadowhunter or a mundane, having a foot in both doors. On top of that, she has to deal with the fact that the father she's longed for is quite literally the worst man alive. It's a similar case with Jace where he has to revaluate his entire life after the reveal of Valentine being his 'father'. He's left too wonder about his own sense of self and if he's too much like Valentine.

Before I go further, I want to say that I truly adore Cassie Clare and her writing. I've been reading these books for over ten years now, and they mean a lot to me. That being said, I find myself truly conflicted with the direction she’s taking with this aspect of the Shadowhunter universe.

An imperative story arc across the entire chronicles is the oppression of the Downworlders by the Clave and Shadowhunters in general. We have had two major villains, Valentine and the Cohort, motivated by their hatred for Downworlders, and two more, Malcolm and Mortmain, motivated by their suffering due to the oppression of Downworlders.

As we're coming to the end of the series, I am concerned that this arc is not progressing as much as it should have by now, accompanied by the fact that I don't think it's being discussed in-universe in the right way.

A major example of this is the racism (specism?) of the Shadowhunter protagonists. Now, I'm hesitant to bring this up because, simultaneously, it's one of my favourite things Cassie has done with this arc because it's heartbreakingly realistic. The main Shadowhunter characters, despite their heroic qualities, have still been raised in a culture convinced of their own superiority. That doesn't disappear overnight.

So we have these constant microaggressions from the people we're meant to be idealising; Jace calling Magnus "warlock" despite being friends for years, Emma infantising the pixies. Which, I know, might seem small and insignificant, Magnus doesn't seem to mind and the piskies were, admittedly, small and adorable.

Jace winked at Magnus. "Prepare to helped, warlock, whether you like it or not." ~ Queen of Air and Darkness, Chapter 22

But Magnus was also alive prior to the signing of the first accords, when it was borderline enouraged for Shadowhunters to kill Downworlders, and the piskies do seem to possess an advanced intelligence enough that Emma's treatment of them just seems... insensitive.

"I am so ready to hunt down those tiny adorable creatures and give them what for," said Emma. "SO READY." ~ Lord of Shadows, Chapter 20

The issue arises when they aren't called out for it. They're never corrected. Another microaggression that was common in The Dark Artifices was the constant implication from the Blackthorns that Faerie and Fae customs is this brutal, backwards, treacherous culture. Kieran and Gwyn, our resident Faerie main characters, rarely try to combat this narrative even when their partners push it. The one time that Gwyn actually DOES shut that argument down perfectly is at the whipping, in a situation where he's playing the less moral role.

"Careful, boy," rumbled Gwyn. "You have your laws and we have ours. The difference is only we do not pretend ours are not cruel." ~ Lady Midnight, Chapter 22

The ONLY time I've seen these attitudes called out and challenged on a consistent basis is by Simon in Tales From the Shadowhunter Academy.

"I think that's gross," said Simon. "You know, the way you think vampires are." Julie made a face at him. "You're so sensitive, Simon. Why must you always be so sensitive?" "You're so terrible, Julie," said Simon. "Why must you always be so terrible?" ~ Tales From The Shadowhunter Academy, Born to Endless Night

That was something I really loved about these short stories, because, to me, they seemed to really confront the main issue of the series head on. And Simon, as a former Downworlder turned Shadowhunter, was the perfect vessel for the discussion. But Simon is no longer a main character, not in any recent series, and not in the future ones.

This further backs up a controversial point of mine that Mark, Kieran, and Cristina should have been the primary characters of The Dark Artifices, as their story more closely correlates with the issues of the series.

But there is a point where the protagnists' microaggressions become less frustrating and more blatantly dangerous. It's set up as the villain's state of mind that Shadowhunters' lives are more important than Downworlders'. That's the core of the Circle's and the Cohort's beliefs. However, there are multiple times where are main characters' completely buy into that

A small detail that I feel is brushed over in the series is the technicalities of the laws regarding Downworlders. Particularly the one where it's confirmed that there are no legal protections on Downworlders having a trial.

"So why isn't there a Downworlder jail?" Simon said. "Why aren't there Downworlder trials?" "That's not how it works, Simon," Julie said. ~ Tales From The Shadowhunter Academy, The Lost Herondale

This conversation segways off a conversation Simon has with Isabelle when he expressed irritation at her having killed a vampire he was questioning the guilt of. Isabelle doesn't understand what he's having an issue with.

The complete injustice of the law becomes even more frustrating when compared to that of Shadowhunter criminals. A vampire is accused of killing mundanes, the Clave sends an execution party. Maryse and Robert plot against the government, help launch a coup, murder countless Downworlders, and they get promoted to Heads of an Institute. Oh, sorry, 'exiled'.

But nothing hits this nail on the head more than the final battle in QoAaD. Obviously Team Good™ is worried about the potential of harming The Cohort members if there was a violent outbreak. The worry for the Unseelie folk who were literally just following orders from their monarch was less noticable.

"Because these Cohort members are all Shadowhunters," Jace said frankly. "I've been trying not to kill them... but it's a lot harder not killing people than killing them." He sighed and threw a knife at an attacking pixie. ~ Queen of Air and Darkness, Chapter 31

It becomes even more ridiculous when the only law focused on amending Downworlder rights changed on screen (page?) is the right for them to fucking marry Shadowhunters. Because god forbid Shadowhunters can't marry who they want, right Alec?

Look, maybe I'm being a bit too harsh here. Because the Downworlder-Shadowhunter Alliance and Simon are now operating mostly off-screen. But that's my point, they shouldn't be. This is a major arc for the Shadowhunter Chronicles and it feels like we're missing a lot of the victories.

And my worry when looking at the new protagonist group in The Wicked Powers is that there isn't a strong Downworlder voice. Especially with Cassie saying that Faerie/Shadowhunter offspring are technically Shadowhunters. Though I don't really see how, considering they biologically have as many Faerie traits as they do Shadowhunter.

But with Kit primarily identifying as a Shadowhunter, and Ash spending most of his time with Janus, it feels like the two contestants for the FAERIE crown are both more Shadowhunter than Faerie.

Which, if I were a Faerie, would piss me the hell off. I hope Ash’s faerie heritage and CULTURE (he’s a RAISED faerie) isn’t erased.

From the first time she meets valentine and he’s talking about how he’s her father and how important that is etc she doesn’t waste any time telling him that luke is her real dad and repeats that to valentine and others a number of times throughout the series.

There’s something so special about this being a definite fact in clary’s mind rather than a realization she comes to eventually. Like oftentimes in these types of situations it takes some time and thought and wrestling with it for a bit for a character to come to this conclusion (which is a perfectly valid arc) but for clary it was just a fact of her life that luke is her real dad.

Even when he and jocelyn got married I don’t remember clary ever thinking about how this ‘makes it official’ or anything bc in her mind it’s already a fact of life. In the later books once we get a bit of his and jocelyn’s povs, they both refer to clary as “our daughter” and jocelyn acknowledges it as something she loves about him. He’s the one who taught clary to swim in the lake at his farm, who was always letting clary and simon raid the shelves at the bookstore for movie nights, who took her in and replaced all of her things without a second thought while jocelyn was in the hospital

ya lit meme: [2/2] antagonists ≡ sebastian morgenstern

I'm not sure I can come with 5 from the top of my head; it's been very long since I've read any of CC's books. Some of these I've definitely talked about before because they bother me.

At the absolute top of the list of hated writing decisions is Sebastian fucking Morgenstern and how he's handled...in general. CC (or the narrative) tells us that the demon blood makes him just straight up evil and strips away his humanity. Lilith even warns Valentine about it happening. This makes absolutely no bloody sense. Why does demon blood make Sebastian irreparably, inherently evil? Why doesn't it make any of the warlocks inherently evil (ignoring shadowhunter racism)? Werewolves and vampires infected by demonic illnesses also aren't black-and-white evil. The way demon blood works makes no goddamn sense in these books. If it makes Sebastian evil shouldn't everyone with demon blood be evil?? And by the same metric, since these books pose demonic and angelic as two absolute opposites, shouldn't angelic blood then make people inherently good? We see, demonstrably, in multiple books, that this is not the case. I wouldn't even go so far as to say that Jace and Clary, who have extra angel blood, are inherently good. Besides, saying that he's evil because he has demon blood in him waves any sort of agency the character has. He has no motivation for what he does besides being evil, because that's all the narrative ever really lets him be. Sure he has his weird obsession with Clary and/or Jace but that also gets explained away with him having demon blood. The very emotional scene at the end where his eyes turn green and all also plays into it: Jonathan Morgenstern never would've done any of this if it weren't for the demon blood. The narrative device that drives the last three books (the entire second half) of TMI is not the villain himself but the concept of demonic blood that is internally inconsistent in the world.

Valentine getting killed by Raziel. Valentine's main flaw in the books is pride - he believes he knows better than the Clave, he believes he knows the will of the angels and of heaven. Letting him be killed by Raziel, the patron of Shadowhunters may be dramatic irony but it is not narratively reflecting his character. What I think should've happened is that Valentine makes his wish at Lake Lynn and he is denied by Raziel. It should've been at least somewhat public and the fighting should've stopped while Raziel was present. Valentine should've been denied by the angel. Raziel probably would've fucked off right after because he doesn't really give a fuck. Valentine is crushed, confused, outraged and, worst of all, humiliated. The fighting probably breaks up after this, Valentine gets away. And then he goes full Lucifer Morning Star in his defiance of heaven and spends the next three books finding a different way kill the downworlders and also the shadowhunters who oppose him. By now he has no real regard for heaven left, he can make an alliance with Lilith or the princes of hell. He was not above torturing Ithuriel before this so you can take it in the direction of him turning against heaven entirely.

Simon regaining his memories after drinking from the mortal cup and ascending was unnecessary and I'd go so far as to say it takes away from his sacrifice. Simon gave up everything knowingly. He should not have received it back upon completing his Shadowhunter training. Let him regain fragments, sure. Feelings, impressions, flashes of memories. But not everything. It undermines the emotional weight of his sacrifice.

The Clave electing Robert Lightwood, a known criminal exiled to New York for taking part in the Uprising of all things, as the Inquisitor, is unhinged. Do I think Robert would make a decent Inquisitor? Sure, why not. Do I think it is feasible that the Clave, who just fought Sebastian Morgenstern and who just fought Valentine for the second time, would then elect one of the founding members of the Circle of Raziel? No. Of course, we didn't actually introduce enough non-circle member adult Shadowhunter characters who could be elected so we're sort of stuck with Robert by default. In fact, why didn't we introduce any adult Clave members who weren't at some point in the Circle? Surely there has to be someone in Idris who didn't follow Valentine when they were 17.

City of bones -> The sleeping beauty by John Collier

This is another painting of the classic story/tale of 'sleeping beauty' I thought it was pretty fitting for city of bones as Jocelyn's coma / her being missing is not only a major driving force of the first book, but also a major aspect in the tensions of coa and cog. I also read the painting as having a certain stillness or uncertainty to it, which I again thought was fitting for the circumstance.

City of ashes -> Romeo and Juliet (The balcony scene) by Frank Dicksee

This was the hardest one for me to pick and I still don't really know if I like... if anyone has any better ideas please share. But anyways, the artwork depicts the last kiss of Romeo and Juliet before the tragedy between them struck. I again struggled with this book but I thought this painting was fitting with the 'forbidden' romance aspect of city of ashes, and the shared kiss between Jace and Clary in the seelie court!

City of glass -> Aeneas fleeing the burning City of Troy by Louis de Caullery and David Teniers

I was struggling with this one at first but then I found an artwork of troy burning and I thought, well this is fitting. I found that it was really fitting for city of glass as both cities get surprised attacked (the trojan horse vs sebastian & valentine) which results in the city getting sacked, and all hell breaking loose.

City of Fallen Angels -> paradise lost Gustave Doré

ahhh now I was debating putting the other very famous fallen angel painting but ofc, paradise lost won since it's yk.. it inspired some of tmi. I thought this painting was very fitting as it is Lucifers descent into Satan, similar to Sebastian's resurrection and his demon blood!

City of lost souls -> orpheus and eurydice by Edward Poynter

I was kind of debating putting this one as the cohf cover since they literally do go to hell, but I thought the idea fit a bit better for cols. Clary goes on a dangerous mission in the hopes of saving Jace, similar to how Orpheus goes to the underworld to retrieve his wife. I thought the similarities where too good to pass up.

City of heavenly fire -> the fall of the rebel angels by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Last but not least, city of heavenly fire. This painting symbolises the final triumph of good over evil which is an essential aspect of the novel. Clary is the good that triumphs over Sebastians rebel army of ‘fallen’ angels. Kind of more literal than the others but I just thought it was soooo fitting.