#even Clary doesn't really compare them or thinks Jace is better | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ladyhindsight · 1 year

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I think CC's fixation with light hair/eyes has something to do with her inability to describe dark or any other colours that are not green, blue, gold, or grey and her obsession with euro-centric features. And that's why most of her POC characters have European/American ancestry or just have the rarest eye colour in the world. There's definitely some racist ideology in various aspects of the TSC but I want to concentrate on her writing in general...

It's not a secret that CC is a mediocre writer but the way she describes the physical beauty of her characters is.....just mediocre even for CC. Like she cannot appreciate the beauty of a character without excessively fixating on their "light features" even when the character is white.

Most of the important white characters-as far as I can remember- had light eyes or light hair or both (Jace, Clary, Matthew, Kit, Mark, etc) and for the ones with dark hair or eyes only their light features get highlighted: Emma's blonde hair gets more highlighted than her brown eyes, Julian's ocean-blue eyes get more attention than his chocolate-brown hair, Ty and Tessa's grey eyes, Will's and Alec's blue eyes, Keiran's sliver-black eyes, James's golden eyes all get more attention. And dark traits like black hair are only used to tell how their light eyes stand out. There are many ways to tell readers that her characters are beautiful(physically) without fixating on their eyes and CC never does that. The only time she doesn't fixate on eyes is when she is comparing them to Michelangelo's David or some painting that no one knows existed.

Simon is not supposed to be normal, I suppose so he's an exception.

She gives all her main or just favourite characters light eyes and light hair even if it's rare just so she could describe them better and make them stand out from the rest of the characters without putting much effort into it. And yes, I did not mention Izzy as she is not a main character nor CC's favourite.

honourable mention: Lucie in COI mentions that her brown hair is "boring" or something like that and that she wishes her hair was red like Cordelia only for Jesse to tell her that her hair is beautiful. That scene reminded me of how Izzy wished she had light-coloured eyes and how Jace had to tell clary that she is beautiful.

It is at least a complete inability to do so, if not outright unwillingness. All the important characters must look almost otherworldly, and for some reason that, for Clare, involves only typically light features. Her mediocrity as an author does little to help the fact when her go-to descriptions almost always involve just the hair and the eyes. As if by reiterating tens of different ways how any of the characters look it will make them appear more beautiful and rounded, when all she is doing is filling the pages with boring imagery that adds nothing to the story nor the actual characters. It’s one of the most self-indulgent things she does in her writing.

Oh, the paintings. I hate the paintings. Instead of describing the actual sight or what you want to come across to the readers, Clare opts out of describing altogether and just says Caravaggio. …And? As you said, there are multitude of ways to write character descriptions, bring out their appearance and beauty that actually holds value as to their character. When it is so heavy-handed, a point of fixation rather, it tends to do the exact opposite, especially when it involves only certain types of characters holding certain types of features and others are being excluded for the sake of not being that.

I agree with you—a lot of that sucks about Clare’s writing has mostly to do with her painful mediocrity, her thoughtlessness, and the incapability to develop in her craft. She has found her formula, and it’s not really good. It’s no wonder that all the questionable and mean stuff just seeps into everything on the pages. Though Isabelle is heralded as a beacon of beauty, she is more about plunging necklines than her dark eyes. It comes off as a disingenuous cover so that Isabelle’s character wouldn’t seem not included. She is said to be incredibly beautiful, whatever do you mean I don’t favor her? Magnus’ hairstyle is often the point of focus, and his eyes that are not dark but gold-green and cat-like. The more central characters, i.e. Clare’s favorites, on the other hand, are about their eyes and hair to which countless adjectives can be attached. I’m pretty sure that Jem’s silver hair and eyes got more descriptions and drooling that his natural black ever did in the series so far.

Clare really knows only a few tricks and it’s always Blackthorn eyes, Herondale eyes, fiery red hair, crow-black hair, blue eyes, green eyes, golden hair, golden eyes, golden curls, and golden guys.

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beclynn-herondale · 3 years

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Right now on of my writing projects (one of many) is what I call the "Alec corruption arc fic" mainly because I'm not 100% sure about this. I've written some of it and probably won't really start working on it until I finish up the fic I'm actively posting to Ao3 right now, but one of the ideas I want to incorporate is every TMI character's worst traits coming out.

Which actually makes me want to sit down and think of what their worst traits are. What their weaknesses are. I really, really need to re-read TMI again, but I think I can figure out what parts of these characters I can use to my advantage. (i. e. Have it make them at least some sort of morally grey.)

Jace had always stuck out to me as a very sensitive character, but he hides it with his rapier wit. Jace is the angel boy, the one who cried when his pet falcon died, the one who was never enough for Valentine. A very merry "fuck you" to Valentine for that, and all that he's done.

I won't say that Jace's sensitivity is his worst trait, in fact, his arrogance and tendency to try and cover up his emotions might be something that could tip the scales. A lot of the time, Jace tries to cover up his emotions with jokes and avoid what he's feeling. (Magnus does this a lot too, but to a different extent. Magnus will always do this even with the people he loves, Jace is more likely to break down and cry after some point.)

Clary's worst trait might be her naivety. She's new to the Shadow World, new to everything, and is more likely to believe in the mundane ideals her mother taught her, and what she learned from Simon. Although I have to point out in my fic I would want her to have grown up as a part of Shadowhunter society, so she wouldn't be that naive.

I really can't think of one for Izzy?? Then again I haven't read TMI as recently as I would like, and Izzy does have a slightly more minor role compared to the other TMI mains. I probably wouldn't do much with Izzy, she's going to be a good person for the fic, as good as she can be.

Both Alec and Magnus are very self-sacrificing. That's something we've seen so often throughout the books, they're very often making sacrifices. I don't know if I can use that as the basis of Alec's corruption arc, though. Most of the time corruption arcs happen through desperation, the need to not have to make sacrifices.

With Simon I really have no clue. The only thing that would make even slightly morally grey would be his vampirism, but one of the main points of TSC is that blood doesn't matter, we're just all people. Simon's an awkward nerd, but he's nowhere near the extent I can see Jace going.

Do you have anything you want to add? I'll assume you've read TMI more recently than me or recall the characters better. It's just interesting to me what our beloved characters have lurking in the shadows.

Hey!

This is actually a good idea!

Also, I love morally gray characters.

Can I just take a moment to say, thank you for understanding Jace's sensitive side, people forget how sensitive he is. As Clary and Alec say "He's fragile." but they feel only they see it 😭

Which is why the heavenly fire was such a big deal for him, because he's actually a highly emotional person.

Also, I always saw a lot of his arrogance even as a cover up for his feeling not good enough. Because if he used arrogance no one would assume he felt that way, and would leave him alone.

But you got him right.

Clary, yes, definitely has naivety. but we also forget she could read people well and see right through, know their weaknesses, much like tw Valentine, she just doesn't use it for evil purposes. And usually uses it to understand people. But in an au like this, you could use that.

We also know Clary has quite the temper at times, and a very "fight me" attitude as well.

But I think the way she doesn't always understand the shadow world like Jace does, can definitely be used.

Izzy is extremely passionate in her personality and the way she cares and loves, her temper is also passion based. And she let's that lead her sometimes.

She's also extremely protective (I love this), and would literally do anything to keep her family and friends safe, which if you did want to give her bad traits, you could use. As she'd probably take extreme measures to defend and keep them safe.

Simon actually, maybe this was just me, has a tendency to let others achievements and abilities put him down. He often compares himself, and he lets it rule at times, not always, but a little.

And in the beginning of TMI, I personally felt, he had that nice guy thing going on, obviously he grew out of it and Isn't like that anymore, and got with the iconic babe Izzy. but it could be used.

Don't get me wrong I like Simon. But he kinda did get on my nerves in the beginning when Jace was trying to keep Clary and him safe, but they both insisted they knew more. When Jace, in fact, was the experienced Shadowhunter. Which is why Jace looked like an asshole so often, because he had to be that way to keep them safe and out of the Clave's hands. Because as we saw in CoG they wanted to use Clary and did in a way use Simon.

I think Clary and Simon were both a little naive to the shadow world in the beginning. Simon definitely did learn the way the shadow world worked a little faster than Clary, but I think that had to do with him becoming a vampire.

Alec and Magnus definitely both are self sacrificing. And it definitely gets them into situations.

Alec's need to always keep his siblings safe and sacrifice himself so they can be safe and live.

Magnus' need to always help those in trouble even when he knows he shouldn't.

And Magnus' tendency to keep secrets about himself and to not talk about his feelings definitely falls under that. And the way he dodges personal questions, every single time lol. But same.

Alec's insecurities could definitely be used here too, as we know those insecurities lead him to do things in CoFA and CoLS (don't like to think about that stuff tho).

A road you could take is having them finally have enough, and being like "These people owe me now." or something like that.

Though, thinking of Alec or Magnus being like that is scary 🤣

(idk if this made any sense or helped lmao)

#alec lightwood #magnus bane #jace herondale #clary fairchild #isabelle lightwood #simon lovelace #tsc asks #@queenlilith43 #beau peeps 💛🧡

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