#tsc male leads

[thatexygurl]

how in the hell did jeremy knox end up being better than the fanon version of him?

#aftg #all for the game #the sunshine court #i dont read jerejean fics #but its crazy to think how im absolutely obsessed with him right now #i think i'm equal parts happy and upset i refrained from reading jerejean fics still undecided #but hes so...sports drama male lead coded #this can be a manhwa actually #tsc

[sarascamander]

No, you don't understand. I would DIE for Julian Blackthorn.

#your honour he's my son #and the best male lead in tsc #i said what i said #Julian just hit harder #he and Jem are my special sons #Julian blackthorn #the shadowhunter chronicles #shadowhunters

[bluesadansey]

I had been trying to figure out where some of my issues with Emma's characterization post LM came from you are absolutely right, it definitely feels like CC stopped focusing in Emma's gray morality to focus on Julian's

In theory I think the idea of their arc being Emma starting off the more ruthless and revenge driven character then easing up on that mindset as things unfold with Malcolm (I really like that little moment where she tells Julian about how her conceptions have changed since killing Malcolm didn’t give her closure, but we should have seen more of her introspection on this after it happened before bringing it back up in QoAAD) vs Julian being more of a wolf in sheep’s clothing whose manipulation and ruthlessness becomes more apparent over time, until eventually Emma is willing to do something morally gray (break the parabatai bonds) that in this set of circumstances Julian will not do, is compelling to me but the execution on Emma’s side falls short after LM because there’s not consistent enough exploration of her changing attitudes towards glorified vengeance and violence, more of an occasional check in. Part of this has to do with pacing/structure and although I love TDA and find the ensemble probably the most compelling overall of tsc series it is overstuffed with how many povs their are as much as tlh is. But also Julian clearly took priority to her at some point and his arc is more the focal point of books 2 & 3 despite all the povs, maybe if that was only the case for LoS it could work because then LM is more Emma focused LoS is more Jules focused but even though QoAAD is pretty all over the place Julian’s emotionless + grieving arc feels like it’s at the heart of the book, and I like that arc I mentioned I related to quite a few of the grief manifests as repressed/controlled emotion aspects so subjectively that clicks for me, but it does put Emma in the role of having to be more of a tether morally for most of the book and then there’s not enough of a transition between that and the moment where she goes to break the bonds. So yeah it’s partially cc prioritizing exploration of the male mc’s gray morality as the series goes on and being less interested in the female leads corresponding gray morality (and I know I would be far meaner about this if I didn’t like Julian as much as I clearly do) partly just other pacing and point of view distribution issues towards the back half of TDA that lead to this. Is how I see it. I do also think there’s something to critique about how while I adore blackstairs and enjoy that they flip some gender roles typical of cc’s earlier books couples, if when gender inverting the bad-boy-with-a-heart-of-gold x good-girl-going-bad trope the male version of the good girl with a dark heart thing gets to have a more centralized arc that is allowed to go further gray morality wise than female chars you’ve written in that vein (I would say that both Clary and Lucie count as this, Lucie in particular has a lot of parallels to Jules imo which is fun family tree wise ) and have the more centralized arc whereas while I do think Emma is a much better written character than Jace who she was clearly originally conceived as the female version of, she doesn’t have the centralized status Jace does narratively.

I do think both modern TSC arcs end up prioritizing Jace / Julian over Clary / Emma in terms of who’s character and dynamics the series eventually revolves around most (although again TDA being so ensemble changes this a little). I’m meaner about it with tmi because I don’t like Jace and Clace doesn’t work for me as a ship, and more just passively critical about it with tda because I do love Julian and Blackstairs really works for me as a ship, so I’m definitely a bit of a hypocrite there but I’ll still critique what’s relevant. I think both historical arcs do better with this I’ve spoken before about how Tessa is my Favorite tsc char as well as protag, and I think her arc and narrative is really really good and that she is central, maybe tied with Will towards the end but definitely her narrative isn’t given less importance than the guys and I’ve disagreed with takes on that to the contrary. Cordelia is an interesting case because again, the overstuffed nature of the cast means she often does not feel like the protagonist in her own story and I found that aspect worse in tlh than for Emma in tda. However I actually really don’t agree with takes that Cordelia’s story went badly because she was turned into ‘just a love interest/got lost in her romance plot’ because imo James is way less of a character in his own right than she is even in the last book where he has more agency than he did with the gracelet. Her emotions and struggles drive the plot of their romance much more than his do, and outside of it she does get to be a more proactive character in the Lilith paladin plot, dealing with her familial relationships etc. So while I did often feel like I would rather tlh focus on Cordelia herself more that really had nothing to do with James who I think was just not a priority for cc a lot of the time. Perhaps there is something to the cursed plots Will / James start out with and that device creating a need for cc to lean on the female protagonist’s characterization more (but also I’ve only read TLH once so maybe my opinion would change if I revisited I do want to say I don’t think I am a TLH or TMI expert).

#this got long and kind of off topic #asks #chaosandtwo #tda #tsc #tid #tlh #tmi #s speaks #my meta #kind of #emma carstairs #mutuals

[pansexual-lilychen]

(so sorry i had to add jem to this list)

#cassandra clare #tsc #shadowhunters #tsc polls #the shadowhunter chronicles #simon lewis #simon lovelace #jem carstairs #mark blackthorn #matthew fairchild

[onomatopoeiasuga]

teenage brooding mood is the best way to describe any tsc male lead

usually they are herondales

#cassandra clare #tsc #the shadowhunters chronicles #secrets of blackthorn hall #sobh spoilers #sobh #will herondale #kit herondale #james herondale #jem carstairs #emma carstairs

[darcyolsson]

actually how do you feel about the queer rep in tsc in general, b/c i feel like it's so good but also sometimes. Bad. like Anna was so messy imo, both as a nonbinary character and her relationship to Ari. but at the same time she writes so much queer rep for such a big and mainstream series.

i think the short answer is "overall very good, but not perfect, as can be expected from a cishet woman in her 40s"

long answer is yeah, it's a bit of a mixed bag sometimes, but generally good. i think she treats her queer and her cishet characters equally, without putting too much thought into certain sterotypes she wants to avoid, which does lead to a few questionable moments. (though she does avoid killing her queer characters like the plague, which, so true. keep that up)

i think a good example of this is how both magnus and matthew, two of the most prominent bisexual characters, are both known for being very flirtatious people, which is a negative sterotype i think most authors as dedicated to writing rep as cc would want to avoid. at the same time, there's also slutty characters who aren't bi (jace, isabelle, anna) and bi characters who aren't slutty (mark, kieran, helen). would it be better if she had avoided this stereotype altogether? i don't know!

same goes for the way cetain characters talk about magnus' femininity. though it's generally respected and generally admired, it's absolutely used as the butt of a joke like... all the time. would it be better if no one made fun of it, even though magnus' femininity is also explicity admired in-text by just as many people? i don't know, you tell me.

anna is......... a lot to unpack, isn't she. i can't really say how i feel about her gender identity since i'm not nonbinary myself, but i do think that if cc set out to write a genderqueer character she could have made that more explicit. i get that tlh being set in the 1900s leads to some complications, but i think a sensitivity reader may have helped her a bit here.

i do think her and ari's romance lacked a certain depth that other couples were given (and same goes for helen and aline, though they are obviously not main characters). i think this is mostly due to the way cc writes her male and female characters, or rather, their romances. it's a little hard to put into words but i feel like, in the end, her female characters are the ones who are regular people while the male characters often step into the sexy love interest role, ready to admire the Main Girl any opportunity he gets. that's not to say that most characters don't carry elements of both these roles sometimes, but it kind of leaves us with, like, Lesbian Sheep? does anyone get what the fuck i'm trying to say?

basically, when your romances depend on men being sexy dreamboats waiting for a girl to slowly fall in love with him, it's hard to write one without a man in there. the reason why ari and anna don't read as romantic is because they're both rational, three-dimensional people, whose main purpose in life is not getting the attention of some girl, when cc's romances almost always depend on the core dynamic being Regular Girl x Universally Admired Guy Who Would Kill Himself For Her If She Asked. (sizzy is a very notable exception to this, with izzy being the universally admired guy, while simon is the regular girl.)

basically, think her desire to write all her women as relatable, rational people for whom romance is not the single most important thing in their lives is preventing her from doing it. i'm very curious to see if twp will give us a better take on a lesbian romance but i don't count on it unfortunately!

#answered asks #anonymous #tsc #meta #also izzy is evidence she can write female dreamboats but also that was 10 years ago i think she forgor now #cc it's not too late. you can do it #also there's some slight misogyny in the mix there too like i do feel like her male characters are allowed more depth than the female ones #but im not sure how exactly that fits in here or how to word that #tmi

[readwithlivvy]

what would be your ranking for the tsc male leads horniness

hello!!

it's your lucky day because i made that post quite a while ago and searched my blog for sooooo long just to find it lmao

heres the link!

#shadowhunters #jace herondale #jem carstairs #will herondale #julian blackthorn #james herondale #ask me anything #my asks #anon

[alastairstom]

I have wondered if cc giving less to Will/Wessa since tid finished has something to do with her trying establish herself outside of the idea that she can only write bad-boy-with-a-heart-of-gold x good-girl (obviously Will and Tessa are so much more than that they’re one of if not the best take on / partial subversion of that idea I’ve come across in fiction as someone not predisposed to like that relationship trope I adore them) love interests / romances since that’s how TSC was spoken about for a while? in both TDA and TLH she very clearly attempts to write male leads and central ships that divert from that regardless of whether you think she does that well, so I think it’s possible the added attention to Jem/Jessa as the franchise has progressed also has to do with her being conscious of that (of course I like Jem & Jessa so it’s not a big complaint for me, but on my last tid reread I did think that the way she treats him and the dynamic seems to have shifted post tid so I don’t think your entirely wrong about that.)

I suppose anything is possible! I just find the 180 so annoying.

[blackwellhampton99]

Strategy of All-Inorganic Cs3Cu2I5/Si-Core/Shell Nanowire Heterojunction for Steady and also Ultraviolet-Enhanced High speed broadband Photodetectors using Image Capability.

(D) 2013 Elsevier Limited. Almost all rights reserved.Tuberous sclerosis intricate (TSC) is surely an learned multisystem disorder; it may include renal system, mental faculties, skin color, lung area, and lean meats. We statement DMXAA the 37-year-old women TSC affected individual presenting using lesions on your skin (angiofibromas, molluscum pendulum). Radiologic examination Donafenib Raf inhibitor uncovered extra human brain and also renal lesions on the skin consisting of tumors, growths, along with angiomyolipomas. Remedy together with rapamycin revealed enhancement within skin lesions. The number as well as volume of angiofibromas and molluscum pendulum diminished slowly within Six months. Throughout the ninth 30 days of treatment, magnet resonance image had been repetitive for kidney along with mental faculties lesions. Image resolution results revealed decline in tumor and angiomyolipoma sizes. Dental rapamycin therapy may enhance renal, human brain, and also wounds in TSC condition. For that reason, it might be an alternate therapy pertaining to TSC people.Tracking cultural friendships amid Tibolone conspecifics can be a allure for your advancement involving social cognition. Exactly how interpersonal cognition, for example interpersonal knowledge, scarves along with any species' cultural firm can be, nevertheless, mostly far-fletched. Many of us looked at your cultural expertise in outrageous Guinea baboons (Papio papio) ranging within Senegal, a new species in which lives in any liquid group modern society together with overlapping an environment make use of. Using play back findings, many of us analyzed precisely how males identify among subjects from their individual as opposed to. any bordering or possibly a new person cultural device ("gang") and considered varying designs together with Gps (Gps device) info. Although territorial species usually differentiate in between team and nongroup people and quite often respond a lot more strongly in order to visitors as compared to neighbors (the particular "dear enemy" result), subjects with this very resistant types need to mostly disregard some other device associates as well as mostly attend to subject matter off their personal product. Men reacted clearly after playback involving telephone calls registered coming from people in their particular company, since they went to merely lightly to be able to neighbors or perhaps new person calls. Apparently, adult males benefit from keeping track of your cultural movements in their own interpersonal system, whilst it remains solved whether they tend to be uninspired or perhaps not able to keep track of the particular identities along with actions of people exterior their particular team. The study highlights how the allowance associated with social attention can be updated to the details of any species' sociable business, whilst a fancy interpersonal firm will not automatically lead to the requirement for more elaborate cultural understanding.Thioredoxin reductases, important organic redox mediators pertaining to two-electron moves, consist of sometimes A couple of cysteines or even a cysteine (Cys) plus a selenocysteine (Businesses) in the energetic website.

[readingsmylife]

when will the tsc fandom learn that all of cassandra clare’s male leads are terrible people? the only reason they carry any weight is because of their looks.

would you all still stan them if they hadn’t been described as having angelic faces and having chiseled abs?

This doesn’t apply to Jem Carstairs

ladies, you can do better than this. especially you, Tessa.

#tsc male leads #the male leads in question are jace and will herondale and julian blackthorn #its too early to tell if james herondale belongs in the list #but cordelia seems to good for him #anti cc #aanti jace herondale #anti will herondale #anti julian blackthorn #clary fairchild #tessa gray #emma carstairs #emma freaking carstairs deserved better than julian blackthorn #cordelia carstairs #matthew fairchild is also part of this list #anti matthew fairchild #he's a cis white male like the others but atleast he isn't straight

[bluesadansey]

personal ranking of tsc leads counting only primary female lead and primary male lead of each series:

1. Tessa 2. Julian (I’m actually sorry he’s this high :/ but I have to speak my truth) 3. Emma 4. Cordelia 5. Will 6. Clary (I do quite like/am fond of her it’s just… sorry girl I gravitate to the other heroines significantly more and also she’s not in one of the series (TID&TDA) I have much stronger feelings about in general) 7. James 8. Jace (actually meant as offense he sucks)

wasn’t counting TWP mc’s in this but currently would put Dru between Clary and James I like her (she already has more personality than James which is… lol) and I adore that she’s a gothic queen at 13 but she hasn’t gotten to do much so future ranking pending. Unsure if Kit or Ash is technically supposed to be male lead of that series if it’s Kit I like him about equal to Clary tbh if it’s Ash we literally know next to nothing about him So he’s tied with James ig

#s speaks #not tagging this is not to start discourse literally just for me a diary entry! #(you can comment with your ranking if you have one though. If you do see this) #top 3 are like. I would die for you 20/10! 4-5 is I love you 10/10 6 is I like you a lot but in a more normal way like 7/10 7 is like. #Go girl give us nothing 5/10. Maybe a bit lower idk #Jace is the only one I actively dislike #didn’t count Jem because he’s second lead but he’s be between Emma and Cordelia. Carstairs supremacy

[faithfromanewperspective]

james/judith herondale, neurodivergence and the sticky lens of gender

Girl in a dress with black curling hair in a low ponytail. Resigned, brave, so used to the shadow world and the uncertainty and horror it brings on a regular basis, that it's just a part of everyday life. She's the James we know, yes, but the vibe seems a little different. As if the world were viewed through a different colour lens, or you woke up suddenly in a different dimension where things are similar enough to be familiar, but just feel off. Unmistakable, yet. She's a bit more blunt, and her independence hits a little different. Especially when she seems so fragile, her story narrated through a sheen of sadness. She's cold, and her hands always are, golden eyes not a symbol of warmth--maybe she reminds us a little of the midnight heir. Or nbs. But, as the reader, you want nothing more than to hug her, until whatever's got her so wound up disintegrates, and you're left with a character that's so interesting you can see why they had to be characterised twice.

Recently, I have gotten into the amazing @thevagabondexpress's genderbent tlh series (seriously, check them out, they are in some ways better than the originals and I do not say that lightly). Anyway, like any good protest song/punk album should, they got me thinking. A lot. About something I thought was mostly a social construct and relatively inconsequential until it changed the whole plot more and more as the series went on--and gave me a new way of viewing some of the characters I thought I might share.

First, we visit James (the one character I'll fight anyone for interpretations of), reconstructed as Judith Herondale.

I never thought this recharacterisation would get me so emotional! I guess it hit me how much I'm used to really well characterised male characters in tsc--and female not so much. But, as it turns out, it doesn't have to be this way. And my mind is blown. Because it's been a long time, so long I can't remember, probably back to my tween years and jacqueline wilson novels, since I've seen a female character that just stands out beyond the pages and shows me things about myself that I hadn't seen before in bold, enthralling colour. She's James, but she's not. (this is long long, you've been warned!)

The first thing I noticed was that Judith's independence and stubborn need to solve any problem or mystery that arises is a bit more noticeable--in contrast to what's expected of a woman of the era. She reminds me a little of Clary actually. But I think what stands out is that, unlike a lot of our female protagonists, she doesn't have a male character showing her the ropes or taking the lead in all the adventures she leads her friends on. And, somehow, still, it seems unusual and unsafe for a girl to be going on her own to do what she does. When she wanders around London after the breakup with Grace. It seems a little more unhinged, desperate, and a little more noticeable. And there are more occasions similar to this, I don't want to spoil it for the reader (the plot deviates from canon quite a lot especially as the series progresses). But my point is, it leaves you as the reader worried. A lot of things about Judith do, actually.

Second, James is said to be the leader of his friend group; Judith definitely is. She takes care of her little brother and his friends. She's most at home with the rest of the Revolutionary... something (aka the Merry Thieves in canon) and I love love love seeing the friendship the four of them have (or at least Judith has with the other three). Gender doesn't change that, and it's really refreshing to see those kind of intense, no-pretense, light-in-the-darkness kinds of friendships among women. Makes me miss my primary school friend group, but also, for the first time, shows me something of what we could still be, represented in our own gender. Yes, this friend group have their own problems, and they suffer as they would when Judith slowly unravels (more on that later). But for now, overall, I love how she takes care of the others, especially Christa (in comparison to canon, because James and Christopher was a friendship I didn't see explored or resolved the way it deserved, and James does sometimes treat him in a bit of a derogatory way). Still, just as James does encourage and support his friends to thrive as they are and access the things that bring them joy, Judith also does something similar in the way she leads them on adventures. I don't know if a style of leadership that isn't too bossy and more collaborative is harder to recognise as leadership at all when a man does it than a woman? Or maybe our canon James doesn't actually live up to his 'leader' role on page as much as Judith does. I'm not sure. Please comment!

Just like James, Judith seems more neurodivergent during alt-COI and after, during the enchantment and after it's off and she's making sense of what's happened to her--but then going back to alt-COG, you can kinda fill in the gaps. She's definitely (probably) autistic and reminds me of someone. Some kind of stereotypical female protagonist who solves things and is stubborn--Anne of Green Gables? Nancy Drew? Scout Finch? Seriously, guys, let me know who it might be. I don't have the best memory for books (and shows) I consumed 10-20 years ago. Unless it's Clary again. I can't remember. But, back to James, I think seeing Judith has reminded me of how he reminds me much more of a more common female protagonist who you're kinda viewing the story through their eyes and they don't have a larger-than-life personality like many of our Herondale or otherwise men do. (I find it kind of refreshing, and hey, he is Tessa's son, and not everyone can be Matthew Fairchild.) But somehow, Judith manages to be both. A bigger personality, in some ways? Or is it just James as a girl is more jarring and more memorable? Or is she slightly different? Or is it just that she's culturally more allowed to feel her feelings? (More on this later). Anyway, her personality stands out, but also not. She's kind of a shadow, quiet, going through the world not really as the centre of people's attention, not really wanting to be, liking to be on equal footing with her friends. Slow to open up, ready to escape a bit with a book or something at most times (or literally turn into shadow), most at home with a small circle of similar friends. Uncomfortable with being taken care of--whether out of preference or just not thinking of anyone ever taking care of her, we're not sure. Probably seems lost in her head quite often though she's present with those closest to her or who she's focused on to solve something. Especially when she's not under an enchantment. Feels, processes things quietly, uncomfortable with crowds but not standing up for what's right or true in front of them. On guard with a world who so often say hurtful things, but accepts and has processed things the way they are, and yet, does always seem to be weighed down by something (we discussed PDD/dysthymia, and as Thomas says, 'James's eyes were always haunted'). Shadowed. She's a lot like James, like she should be. So why does her personality seem to stand out more? Is it just because when a boy has ideas and likes to feel things alone rather than talk about it immediately, it's normal, but when a girl does she's awkward and headstrong? Or is there more to it?

I had a bit of a theory based on something I noticed about James that was taken away to--increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the plotline. So that miscommunication doesn't do more damage than actual demons. And that is this weird insecurity James has about worrying his parents. It's like he senses that they long for him to be happy and have friends and everything. You know Will and Tessa. It makes perfect sense. And James being James, he feels I think both a little suffocated by this and pressure to make them happy in return (good old slight accidental neurodivergent enmeshment, not that I think they're actually enmeshed per se, just all very sensitive to each other's emotions and slightly misapplying principles of kindness and well-wishing with blurry boundaries. or maybe that's the definition of enmeshment). Anyway, he does this as subconsciously as any form of neurodivergent masking for those of us who are also high-masking and intuitively highly attuned to others' energies: he puts on a facade, the way he communicates, to try and tell them what they want to hear. Be what they want him to be (and actually beats himself up a fair bit when he isn't, especially when he was younger). It develops into lying being his go-to response when he doesn't feel safe enough or the right kind of focused attention that adults around him can afford, to tell the truth. He's such a well-intentioned and relatable liar. Something about how the nervous system works and a lesson on how honesty is a two-way street made much more feasible by communicated safety, acceptance and lack of reactivity. I could go on. Cordelia is kind of the same, James finds it relatable, and it almost destroys their marriage about a thousand times in its first month. I can relate. Many of you can too. Take it as a lesson. Practice cultivating both honesty and the environment it thrives in. And if you want to see what happens when it's actually used, take a look at this AU.

Judith is more direct, and this, I think, comes out in both her narration and the actual plot. Because James' 'I'm-actually-okay' masking comes out even in the way he thinks/communicates. He goes through life, feeling and experiencing everything in the moment as it is, but it's as if he accepts it so as not to dwell on it and worry something. He seems like he's taking skills from therapy and taking them a little too far. Or is I-must-not-worry-or-burden-you just the only language he knows? Probably both. Judith, on the other hand, yes she feels so much she dissociates herself all the way into shadow and teleporting MUCH farther than just Chiswick at least once, but her habitual go-to isn't straight up lying, or concealing anything, really (it could have saved her getting arrested like Cordelia did for James if she was a bit more like him, or maybe not, but it is how it is). And as a result, everything is closer to the surface and you can't help but want to give her a hug. There it is. I think I mostly answered my own question. And it's great, too, to have female characters you can just feel so easily as a reader. Who don't seem to be masking in the way they communicate (narrate). Refreshing. We need more examples of this.

And that, also, I think is why as a reader it can be harder to see just how much James is going through during TLH. Combined with the fact Cordelia does view him through kind of rose-coloured glasses (which, honestly, is more what James needs in comparison to either sympathy which he hates or the bigoted disgust at his heritage that definitely has impacted his self-esteem). Whereas, I think with Judith it's a lot easier. And it's physically painful when we see her slowly losing it, or her guilt later, once she can feel things again. And yet, she's also very practical even then, able to pour herself into the task at hand. As stubborn and resilient as she is fragile. As resourceful as she is disabled, both happy to rely on others in respectful community and able to rescue herself and others as well. She bends the simple categories we put characters in based on their personalities, seeming to be multiple contradictory things. Which is both what a realistic person does, and is just like James. No one only needs rescuing, and no one is only a rescuer. Certainly not when we try to put gendered stereotypes on those things. Judith would hate being helpless, if you thought that was what a woman was supposed to be. And James would hate that too, but he would also lose the humanity, sensitivity and relatableness we love so much if he were only a hero. And Cordelia would lose her admirer. No one wants that.

I really liked Claude and Judith's relationship dynamic: it was realistic and still an abstraction of canon, even if Judith, if she has loved Claude romantically for years like James has Cordelia, she doesn't realise it yet (even once the spell is gone). They respect each other and mostly stand up for themselves too. I wish we could get more of Judith trying to figure out what she felt (just to see how it compares to canon). But maybe romance is romanticised as much as gender is normalised in the colours we're told to view the world through, and this is both more realistic and actually healthy--as healthy as you can get given the circumstances.

Overall, there's one big change (more honesty), a small one (lack of romanticising romance and unchanging childhood love) and I think the rest is pretty consistent between James and Judith, but the way I at least perceived it, are coloured by the view we have of gender (and the Big Change does exacerbate some of this, and also some of it does unfortunately have to do with physical safety less than purely constructed social norms). Of many of the things that are common and were abstracted, I could say are hard to capture and translate into a different context but still do equally.

Judith got me thinking a lot, because James is a character I relate to a lot both with how I mask my neurodivergence and personality, and what's actually underneath, and seeing a 'female version' I guess (who is also more unmasked) made me double take a fair bit and think--am I actually like that, when I'm not pretending to be what they want to see of me? And maybe, just maybe, that's actually a pretty cool thing to be.

*they/them referring to the quadrilogy, not its author (who did such a great job and got me thinking so much through the stories). This character will always remind me to eat some iron when I feel the depression setting in. Just to cover all bases. Stay tuned for more of said thinking about the other characters!

#genderbent tsc #genderbent tlh #james herondale #the last hours

[pansexual-lilychen]

Grace sexually assaulted teenage boys under mind control but yes let’s romanticize her TSC fandom because she’s ✨pretty✨

actually, she was forced (sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly) to those actions by tatiana. throughout the books it’s mentioned that grace has had no romantic interest in james and that she doesn’t want this relationship with him. in the flashbacks it’s made clear that she much rather stay friends with him, it’s even mentioned that she doesn’t mind the idea of james being in love with cordelia at all and she kept trying to break him free of the bracelet, several times before he managed to free himself - here it is important to note that everytime she returned the bracelet to jamie she was forced to do so and either her own life / safety was threatened or jesse’s.

this is a very nuanced situation and though it maybe hard to comprehend, grace was forced into this situation, in a different way from jamie, yes, but forced non the less.

now as for matthew, ive always hated that scene, but i also understand that grace felt like she had no other option and this was the first thing that came to her mind to keep matthew off her back. she was raised by tatiana in a way that she only knew her feminine charms as a weapon, literally, so that’s what she used on matthew (i imagine to her it is no different than a blade, not that it excuses anything).

again i feel like every bad thing she has done can be lead back and blamed on tatiana, or belial in some instances. she grew up in an abusive household with a mentally unstable and cruel women to “raise” her, that constantly threatened her, belittled and bullied her, not to mention groomed her to be her right hand women; and later when tatiana was temporarily out of the picture (after being attacked by a demon and later while being imprisoned) belial took over and threatened jesse’s safety.

throughout the book when grace powers are elaborated and how tatiana forced her to practice them on mundane men and then use them on james it is always stated that she does not enjoy using her powers, she sees herself as jamie’s friend and has his best interest at heart - while still trying to protect herself and her brother (again she initially didn’t even tell tatiana for that her powers didn’t work on james and tries to take back the bracelet twice to free him.). this is to me especially underlined by her interaction with christoper in chain of iron, where she knows she could let him do her bidding and force him to help her but she states clearly that she doesn’t want to do that.

i do think that the matthew situation was a little different as it wasn’t directly ordered by tatiana but rather an action that grace did on her own, but to me it is a cry for help, grace doesn’t know how to help herself unless it is through her powers so even though i do not condone that one specific action i do unterstand why she did it.

and lastly, i wanted to mention again how grace is very much a victim of her circumstances and she was forced into the relationship with james just as much as he was, only she wasn’t brainwashed. also cassandra clare very much wanted grace to be a complex character rather than just a morally good character and called her actions morally grey on several occasions.

one last thing i want to clarify: i never, ever romanticized the sexual assault any of the characters went through. i believe you, anon, wrote me this ask after i compared her to suki waterhouse. this comparison: 1) started out as a joke and clearly labelled as such, and 2) is just two blonde girls in white dresses. the original post had nothing to do with grace’s characterisation, actions and least of all the brainwashing of any of the male characters

#anon #ask #answered ask #grace blackthorn #grace cartwright #cassandra clare #tsc #shadowhunters #tlh #chog #choi #chain of gold #chain of iron #the last hours #matthew fairchild #james herondale

[belle-keys]

Reflections: She got better after Clace concerning tropes

(NB... this is gonna be my last Reflections because I've got uni and shit to take on in September 😗)

Okay, so we know Cassandra Clare uses age-old tropes in her books: enemies-to-lovers, strangers-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, the evil seductress, the fearless warrior, the secret special snowflake, etc. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, becuse it’s sort of impossible to create written media without using any tropes. It’s how you use the tropes that makes written media interesting, and what I’ve noticed is that Cassie has gotten better at using tropes and paragons since TMI in her books by adding little twists and turns to them to avoid them becoming generic.

Starting off with TMI and Clace for example, we see that Clary is the classic “special teen with hidden powers that discovers a new supernatural world”, falling into that category with Bella Swan, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, etc. Jace is the aloof hottie with a Dark Past, and operates like a modern day Achilles if he made it out of Elysium, lmao. He’s pretty akin to Edward Cullen, Peter Mellarke, Dimitri Belikov, etc. Clace and their character arcs especially in the first TMI trilogy were pretty generic, even at the time they were published. (NB but Jace really is Achilles man like he’s *golden*, has the military-type fighting skills and discipline, powerful daddy issues, best of the Shadowhunters kinda like how Achilles was the best of the Greeks, feared and lauded by everyone, believed he’s destined for tragedy).

But looking at TID, for example, Cassie went with the Love Triangle trope that was especially popular around the time that TID was written, and she was like “oh hell no” and then created the greatest thing in the world known as Herongraystairs *Spongebob rainbow gif*. The late 2000s were kind of a mild time, and the rule of thumb was that the the main girl just had to end up picking one man in the triangle but nawww Cassie decided that Tessa Gray (bless her) would get both of her male counterparts at appropriate times, love them equally AND have it happen without any hostility between them. She completely outdid the Love Triangle trope.

I made a post discussing why Jemma is a great ship and a great spin on the Forbidden Lovers trope already, but I also need to say that Julian is an exceptional character. He, without hesitation, takes on the most traditional of feminine roles in the series yet isn’t feminine at all- he’s a very masculine protagonist. Julian’s more masculine roles (being a leader in a political revolution, being a schemer, being a fighter) are perfectly foiled with the traits which often assigned to female YA protagonists (no sexual experience before Emma, raises his siblings and bakes and shit, isn’t the one who’s snarky and quips or gets violent quickly). In having Julian take on the main parent role in TDA, it allowed Cassie to show a YA male lead who’s secure and doesn’t depend on what others make traditional masculinity out to be in order to dictate his behavior.

Now let’s look at TLH lastly. I’m really partial to this series as you all may know *cough*. The trope here is Secrets and Miscommunication (which I know some of you absolutely hate, but I think some of said miscommunication is actually necessary given the social context of the series but alas, I don’t blame yall for hating TLH because of this at all, lol). See, what works about the whole secrets and miscommunication trope tho is that everyone is not what they seem. Like Matthew’s the Wildean Libertine right, but he’s actually managed to use that branding as a shield from the shame of his guilt (Oscar Wilde’s philosophy laudes beauty and love, yet Matthew himself does not believe himself to be worthy of this coveted love - Matthew’s soul has turned Gothic despite his self-branding as an aesthete). Grace is the Evil Seductress, the Femme Fatale who must be eliminated so the Good Girl can get the guy, but in reality, Grace is inquisitive and inventive and loving when she’s not guarded - the one woman who the world thinks is heartless is actually the one who hurts the most and enjoys hurting the least. Then we have the James who’s the Eligible Bachelor - he’s well read, a leader, good at Shadowhunting, polite, handsome, and desired by the ladies of London. Yet at his core runs Belial’s blood and his inevitable ties to literal Hell. James, who should be the classic charming hero, is running from something very unmistakably rotten within him (even though his heritage is beyond his control). So these societal paragons are all tinged with something unexpected that makes them interesting imo.

So yeah, to conclude: yes, Cassie’s writing uses a lot of generic tropes but I’d argue that her writing has improved to make age-old tropes and epithets interesting and novel as TSC progresses. I think we also could all attribute the creation of the Herondale to Cassie: obnoxiously attractive and poetic young male with a bottomless heart and strong opinions on the proclivities and capabilities of ducks? Yeah, that’s a Herondale.

#the last hours #tlh #tlh gang #james herondale #grace blackthorn #matthew fairchild #tmi #tmi gang #jace herondale #clary fairchild #clace #jordelia #fairstairs #the dark artifices #julian blackthorn #emma carstairs #jemma blackstairs #jemma #heronstairs #tessa herongraystairs #tid #tid gang #the infernal devices #will herondale #jem carstairs #tsc #the shadowhuter chronicles #tsc gang #cassandra clare

[yourlocalnetizen]

Why is it that the best boys of TSC are always treated as second male leads to angsty Herondale boys.

Like Herondales are given development and emotional depth whereas Simon, Jem, & Matthew who are just as emotionally compelling if not more so aren't given as much (at least in the main series).

Also apart from Julian in TDA Cassie hasn't written one series without a Herondale the male lead.

#Kit's a different story because he's not playing the love interest to the main girl #Jem gets a good ending but he doesn't get as much focus as Will in TIF and Tessa goes strait to Will when she thinks he died #simon lewis #jem carstairs #matthew fairchild #tsc #tmi #tid #tlh #cassandra clare

[crimeronan]

Can you explain the appeal of Julian Blackthorn? This is a genuine question because I read the books and came away utterly bored by him and unconvinced of his moral greyness as opposed to like, Adam Parrish’s. He seemed so one dimensional to me but I want to know if I’m Wrong TM considering I tend to be very very biased toward my favourite characters and bored by the rest, and my favourites were Mark and Kieran. So maybe I just didn’t pay him enough attention??

it’s been a while since i wrote any earnest tsc meta but cringe culture is dead and the chance to infodump about my julian thoughts has me vibrating where i’m sitting so.  yes okay.

technical stuff

(aka: things pertaining to How The Story Is Constructed)

cassandra clare’s characterization has become much stronger just in general since she first began writing the series like twenty years ago

perhaps most importantly: the more recent stuff i’ve read from her has involved characters who actually grow, change, and learn from their past mistakes 

rather than repeating the same stupid decisions over and over again

and over and over and over some more

seriously take a shot every time someone in tmi miscommunicates or self-destructs in ways They Have Learned Not To Do for no real reason. u will die of alcohol poisoning

in tda this shines ESPECIALLY with the evolution of mark, kieran, and cristina’s relationship, but that’s a separate post

clare’s trademark is also the angsty traumatized jerkass love interest with a secret heart of gold

the woman is almost singlehandedly responsible for draco in leather pants and the proliferation of this kind of character type in fandom and teen lit. this isn’t a criticism it’s me marveling at how if you commit hard enough to a single trope you truly can change the world.  follow your dreams

sad jackass with a heart of gold isn’t an Inherently Problematic Character Type

but poorly done it can lead to relationship dynamics in which one partner is constantly being hurt by and then forgiving the other despite them making no real effort to change, because they are narratively absolved due to being sad

(there’s a lot of this with earlier jace content.  in some ways i think will was later created specifically to be a same-archetype protagonist who actually does get called on his shit and grow. that’s also another post)

also if all of your sexy male love interests are tortured jackasses with a heart of gold then people start calling you a one-trick pony

enter julian blackthorn!

from the very start everything about him is designed to be the INVERSE of the heart of gold jackass.  which immediately makes him interesting just from a meta perspective

(mark and kieran are also both alternate angles on this time-honored archetype.  mark gets the heart of gold and kieran gets the jackass and then they’re both much more deeply messy than that.  yet another post)

julian is kind, self-sacrificing, empathetic, artistic, emotionally supportive, responsible, and favored by old grannies everywhere

so a completely nonthreatening milquetoast guy, right

immediately forgettable if you’re only here for the dramatic conflicts and shithead antics of clare’s other protags

except that he is A Mess

and that he has structured his priorities very carefully, and they are as selfless as you expect from The Hero (TM) but they are also Not Heroic (TM) and they do not align with the moral framework The Hero (TM) is supposed to use

moral ambiguity in characters always exists in relation to their narratives imo. you mention adam parrish - trc’s narrative already mucks around in different ethical shades of gray, and adam falls on the canon scale about where julian does on his canon scale.  both more willing than the average pov character to do the ruthless thing or make the fucked-up choice if the ends justify the means; both with an intensely strong sense of internal priorities that they adhere to at all costs, both so unbelievably fucking down for murder; etc

i do think there are ways julian’s choices could have been pushed even further, but considering the number of readers who hate his guts already, i can see why clare opted not to go for the most controversial possible conflicts

so we’re flipping the narrative

instead of seeing this angsty bad boy and peeling back the layers of his trauma to find his heart of gold, we’re seeing the put-together selfless family man and peeling back the layers of his Responsibility Mask to expose the rotting husk underneath

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

THAT IS FUN AS FUCK

then when julian DOES lash out in hurtful, uncontrolled ways, he has significantly more narrative justification for it than most of clare’s protagonists (will elaborate in characterization thoughts)

julian is also interesting as fuck because of how his struggles allow for a more in-depth look at the failings of shadowhunter society, something that’s also sorely lacking in clare’s earlier work

his apparent amorality is simply the result of him making pragmatic and impossible choices because he has been faced with fucked-up ethical dilemmas since age 12 Because Society Has Failed Him

which opens the door for narrative exploration of how and why he’s been failed so badly & what needs to change

i also love that he has such a coldly calculated way of analyzing situations and allowing harm to occur when need be, bc a lot of clare’s early protagonists have such a bad case of Rush In And Get Myself Killed Because I’ve Got Feelings About Impulsive Heroism syndrome that i wanna push them in front of a truck

probably there’s other meta narrative stuff i could say but i’m stopping myself and moving on to character analysis

characterization stuff

(aka: reasons why i’m also attached to him in a vacuum)

i don’t read him as one-dimensional at all tbh

u may feel the narrative pushes “ruthless julian blackthorn” too much without delivering enough actual ruthless julian But i don’t think that’s the same as having only one dimension

from the get-go, the big question centered on julian is always “how far are you willing to go?” and the narrative pushes the stakes slowly higher and higher to continuously test julian’s “the price is always justified” mindset

he has a far more layered and realistic response to trauma than clare’s early protagonists - trauma affects every single aspect of his personality and how he conducts himself, and the effects vary depending on the circumstances

his conviction that he has to be the perfect parent to his siblings because they will fall apart if they see him show weakness??  rooted in how he feels like he’s fallen apart since losing the stable adult support he once relied upon

his willingness to hurt semi-innocent people, commit coldblooded murder, manipulate people using political leverage, allow harm to befall any stranger if it protects his family??  rooted in how he has already had to ask himself how much he’s willing to sacrifice, and how his family is his only source of stability when the world has never done Shit for him

his conviction that he has a darker heart than anyone else because he killed his possessed father, even though intellectually he knows he was saving his brother’s life??  rooted in having no means of processing this trauma and being unable to voice his feelings for fear of backlash from a deeply non-understanding society

the way he represses every single negative emotion he ever has, to the point where emma - his actual literal magic soulmate who can feel his emotions - is startled to find him hurting or angry??  once again all about how he has to be the perfect father or he’s failed completely

the way his anger is so totally disproportionate to different situations and the way his negative emotions can only come out in completely uncontrolled breaks??  all that repression baybey.  this kid has not processed a single bad feeling in five years.  every single real grievance and petty annoyance has been festering indefinitely inside him like a slowly spreading infection

julian’s arc involves him needing to get thru being his worst self to actually start to heal

as in, he has to actually learn to acknowledge his feelings, take care of himself, lean on his family, and let other people take some responsibility

he also has to learn that in his quest to be the perfect emotionally controlled authority figure, he has not actually learned how to control or deal with his emotions. like. At Fucking All. good god

the narrative setup is also about asking “how far are you willing to go?” until the answer is finally “not this far.  not this far”

and once he reaches that point, he has to reevaluate everything about how he weighs his priorities and morals and plans, etc

(i also like that emma has a perpendicular arc in which she’s always the one tempering julian and telling him “no we can’t go that far” until she’s willing to do something horrific that he absolutely won’t and HE has to stop HER. very sexy)

it’s also just really nice to have a character who’s learned to relate so well to literally every single member of his family while still having a very detached ruthless interior consciousness. i have similar feelings about how adam teaches himself to love people, but with julian it’s spelled out more explicitly in canon & it’s a more central character theme

i’m sure i’m also forgetting stuff here but this post is long enough so i’m gonna say good enough

and like i said in the tags on my other post, there are things i’d personally write differently if it were my story - plot points i’d shift, character contrasts i’d up, themes i’d explore differently, pacing i’d adjust, etc.  i have plenty of ways i could be nitpicky and editorial about the effectiveness of julian’s arc.  but i also don’t feel like writing them out at the moment & none of my critiques on effectiveness have an impact on the core appeal of his character 2 me.  he’s so fucking good

#replies #tsc #tda #julian blackthorn #meta #long post #ungodly long post. #shadowhunters #Anonymous