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ladyhindsight · 4 days

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We are half-way through the book, and it feels like going nowhere. Team Good is trying to find a way to help Jace, sure, while doing some side quests. Sebastian and Jace are progressing with their own plan as well, and Clary just hangs along not really actively trying to find out anything but to build rapport with Sebastian and make out with Jace. It all seems so aimless at the moment.

Chapter opens up with Alec returning to Magnus’ place after the meet-up with Camille.

A way to make your character to look more dumb than probably intended is to do this. Because what purpose does it serve how long does it take for Alec to realize this insignificant thing?

→ “but the living room was glowing with the blue-white flame coming from the pentagram.”

Alec goes to sleep next to Magnus who had different ideas than sleeping, and we cut to Simon and Isabelle having difficulties cuddling.

Astute observation. Also, it’s always childhood and nostalgia when Simon thinks of Clary. Isabelle will later in this book make a great point about this, but Simon never really gives up that aspect of Clary and his relationship to move forward and grow up, does he.

Just in the previous chapter I said that it’s such an outlandish take for any Shadowhunter to be inclined to think like this. Obviously individual opinions exist and not everyone necessarily likes them, but the fact that it’s one cause of the whole point that makes them Nephilim in the first place, it’s ridiculous that the scars are made such a point of beauty/ugliness in this book.

More so is the opinion that Isabelle presents here, that girls aren’t supposed to be covered in scars. Who thinks that? Where does he get that? What is the influence behind this idea that girls specifically are supposed to be unscarred? Warrior women and daughters of Raziel aren’t supposed to be scarred when they too use runes?

This is so idiotic and more a mundane issue, which for all the superiority the Nephilim feel towards them should make them think it all stupid.

Simon is also hungry and Isabelle tries to seduce him to drink from her. Simon resist but Isabelle is insistent, from which we could draw some parallel points that no means no, but:

This is unintentionally hilarious.

Simon is worried that he drank too much.

I’m going to need some peer-reviewed studies on this. Sure, blood volume as in plasma is replaced and can be replaced quickly, which means even quicker for the Shadowhunters. But even with Shadowhunters and they hyper blood, hemoglobin will take weeks, so does it really help if you’re going to be anemic? No.

Cut to Jace and Clary, and Clary is surprised that Sebastian told her the truth, that he didn’t feed the human girl to the vampire girl.

The writing does it utmost to teeter the edge of maybe we can trust Sebastian and give him a chance, but it doesn’t really work when you have child murder on your tally. Doesn’t need feverish mulling-over when you've witnessed firsthand and secondhand the evil Sebastian is capable of. Clary is neither that worried about the human girl Sebastian dragged along, she just wonders whether Sebastian lied about her fate and is to be trusted.

I don’t know where the jeans appeared because it was told in the chapter 8 that: “The drawers held camisoles and underwear, tops in cotton and silk, skirts but no jeans or pants.” And this is the only wardrobe that Clary utilizes in the moving house of Sebastian. Though obviously Sebastian or Jace could’ve gone and bought her some.

They truly know each other so well.

I'm just taking a dig, they don't have to know or can't know each little thing about each other, but it's funny because otherwise the writing really likes to tell you just that.

Again, the em dashes function like a comma, a colon, or parenthesis. Like commas and parentheses, em dashes set off extra information, and here they are intended as a colon but used like parenthesis. Without the em dashes the sentence here in the excerpt would go like this:

She looked away from him and busied herself putting together a breakfast plate from what was on the table, the chewy, round kind.

→ and sliced bacon that was the chewy, round kind.

Or something.

Much like me with all of Clare's writing. Why, why, why...

The motion he is doing is still running, not floating.

→ making it look like he was running in the air.

Clary doesn’t know Jace can cook eggs, and Jace doesn’t know Clary doesn’t like eggs. Also Clary doesn’t know how to tell Jace she doesn’t like eggs.

Imagine not being able to voice your dislikes because the other one might get disappointed. Imagine just answering Jace’s question: “Neither, I don’t like eggs.” But no, we needed a stupid segue to relationship wisdom from Sebastian, since Clare doesn’t realize that even these tiniest of things and inconsistencies eat away the actual consistency of her narrative she sometimes manages.

Why does he need to strip at all?

Oh, right. For another character-defining moment.

There will be another point also in the book that refers to this same point. Why does it matter where to rune is placed? Because the series has barely told us anything about the workings of runes, it has barely made any sense with the use of them.

You can infer that it matters where the rune is placed. But what runes work best and placed where? Maybe this is not necessary knowledge for the story to work, and maybe I'm just too pendantic about it, but since it is made a point that each rune is placed on a specific place here, I'd personally like to know why those places exactly.

Maryse then gets her one and only PoV.

Jem is so insistent on separating Jace as Herondale that it isn’t even subtle. “Your son” would suffice. (he does say that after though)

Case in point. Also there is no consistency as to what names the Silent Brothers even use.

I just love this exchange because Maryse tells Jem what’s what! And yes, Jem, you did, with your obsession of Jace's Herondale-ness.

YES, HE WAS. And the mentality like you are the reason he did not get to be! Also, what does this even meeeeean???

Cut back to Team Evil. They are on a mission to do something, after hanging around the town for ages, but Clary doesn’t know what they are after. (A chunk of adamas)

This book just loves “subtly” incorporating the incest theme. The sibling love theme just continues and continues, and I am tired and sickened at the “subtlety” under which Clare thinks she operates, though I get why Sebastian phrases it like this.

Why was it so difficult to leave Jace and Clary to wait outside somewhere? Because plot couldn’t happen.

Truly the peak of Jace’s training.

We end the chapter with this cliffhanger but no worries, Clary will experience her warrior awakening in the next chapter, which was actually kind of nice. All the other stuff in this chapter, not so much, which is not a good fanfare for what is coming next.

#Clary Fray #Jace Herondale #Sebastian Morgenstern #Isabelle Lightwood #Simon Lewis #Maryse Lightwood #Jem Carstairs #CoLS Chapter 12 #City of Lost Souls

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ladyhindsight · 10 days

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Team Good summons Azazel. As far as Clare’s foresight goes, the story also introduces the mystery of Magnus’ father, since it will be also revealed in the next and final book. considering Magnus originally wasn't a son of a Greater Demon

We can always trust Simon to narrate Alec and Magnus’ relationship issues. We can also trust Alec to have such cartoonish reactions since more is more and less is not enough for you to get it.

What is up with these ancient and/or centuries old beings harassing Alec about his relationship with Magnus. Well, in Azazel's case, probably millions or billions of years or something.

Azazel wants one happy memory from each of the participants in exchange of his plan proposition. Not the solution but an idea for one. Eventually Magnus banishes him, because they will need time to think about what Azazel said. Jordan and Maia then arrive at Magnus’ place.

Like it’s worth enough to start? Like it means necessarily anything?

→ Their cheeks were red from the cold, and Maia was wearing Jordan’s leather jacket. (I'm just bored of even the smallest things being dramatized to the max)

We cut to Jace and Clary’s grand escape from the Italian police for stealing the boat.

Related to a message I received a bit ago. Implying Jace held Clary while they escaped, because why would Clary know how to do any of that herself? It’s not like she has been trained by Jace to do anything.

They eventually return to the moving house of Sebastian who is entertained by two scantily dressed girls, one of which is a vampire. They talk shit, then Jace and Clary go up the get ready for bed. Clary goes to get a nightgown.

The idea of dressing yourself with something you father bought for your mother in hopes of her wearing something sexy. The writing doesn’t really acknowledge that so let’s not either.

I’m getting Not Like Other Girls vibes, but also far less than say, in City of Bones. This seems more good-natured musing rather than putting other girls down because you aren’t that feminine yourself.

Clary goes back to Jace, and things get hot and heavy like with every other scene with them in this book. The honestly do nothing but heavily make out whenever they are together. Which is ironic considering that Clare herself has said that Clary didn’t have a relationship with Jace in this book because Jace here was not himself but controlled by Sebastian. Which makes me question why there is so much physicality written between them then.

Plenty of reasons to stop. Mainly the one mentioned above: Jace not being Jace but one controlled by Sebastian. A reason of which Clary constantly reminds herself of, to the absolute point of being tiringly repetitive. How many times and ways you can write about Jace not being Jace because this book sure does utilize it all and then some.

Vulnerable as in for an attack with a weapon? A sharp one perhaps? :)

Glad we agree, not that it changes Clary’s behavior. It’s insane that Clare thinks that as long as she keeps writing and reminding everyone how Jace is not Jace and Clary is conflicted, it changes absolutely nothing of worth in Clary’s behavior because they keep canoodling to the end. So we enter the repetitive narrative every single time and scene they get physically close.

We cut to Simon sitting on the bed in one of the spare rooms at Magnus’. Isabelle comes to him to gossip about Maia and Jordan, because everything needs and audience and gossiping over for it to be worth something.

Why is Simon happy for Jordan? Fuck Jordan.

→ “Oh. No. No, not at all. I’m glad for Maia. This will make her really happy.” Because fuck Jordan and Jordan’s happiness. Simon was Maia’s friend first.

Then we cut to Alec visiting Camille again. In this scene, the idea that Alec visits Camille to learn more about Magnus (because Magnus is unwilling to disclose any of that information himself) becomes apparent.

This also feeds into the mystery of Magnus’ parentage and how cool and great of a demon his dad is. Compare this insistency on Magnus’ father now to the original version City of Ashes where Magnus wasn’t part Greater Demon at all.

While actively screwing up everything.

Magnus told Alec not to trust Camille but blindly trust Magnus. And then people were somehow surprised that these sucky adults both played into Alec’s insecurities and the end result was what it was? And then accountability was on no one else than Alec. I hate this storyline more so for the fact that no one acknowledges their shortcoming towards Alec but it is for Alec to carry the heavy load of his own culpability.

→ I don’t think Clare ever realized how bad it is to constantly underline Alec’s youth and age.

→ Also why are we taking relationship advice from Camille? Also consider how screwed up a situation is when the only person you can go to ask advice is someone like Camille. Do we acknowledge at least that much in the story? Nope.

→ Also sad.

I don’t believe Clare agrees with this because it is the narrative she distances herself from the further the series go, and effectively abandons it in City of Heavenly Fire. And she writes Camille, an antagonist, spouting this. But let’s not pretend that this isn’t exactly how she has written and keeps writing Clary and Jace’s relationship. They would survive every death except each other’s.

The rest is just nonsense as usual but that part stuck out. Cut to Clary dreaming her dreams.

I can’t with the scars. This book out of all the other books so far is absolutely obsessed (relative to each other) with the “ugliness” of scars that heavenly warriors as the Nephilim have and whether other HEAVENLY WARRIORS as the NEPHILIM may find them ugly. It’s such a weird mentality to have when their source of power and skill and ability is rooted in the very thing that gives them scars and makes them different from the mundanes.

This should be a nonissue, but it’s beginning to feel like obsession over how hot these specific scars actually are—the ones created by faded runes. Since unless you’re Sophie and have an actual ugly one right on your face, then the writing will go above and beyond to tell the readers how it isn’t really that ugly and she is so pretty you barely notice this big-ass thing on her face.

Her spine. Neck would suffice, especially since “her spine” is used so many times instead just ‘back’ or ‘neck’.

→ “Jace’s arms were around her, his fingers tracing a slow line up and down her spine.” → “The two of them fit together, as always, her head under his chin, her spine against the hard muscles of his chest and stomach…”

And then just two paragraphs over:

→ “She slept like that, her head tucked under Jace’s chin, her spine fitted to his body, their legs intertwined.”

Then there’s plenty more to come such as: “from the base of her spine”, “pressing against her spine”, another “heart beating against her spine”, “shudder go down her spine” and another “base of her spine”.

Which in some cases it’s fine and descriptive but mostly “her back” would suffice.

Clary wakes up and leaves Jace to sleep. She goes downstairs and sits with Sebastian.

Really, I thought he poured both for himself.

Obviously he is lying and all, but Clary was there to hear him in City of Glass and knows how it couldn’t have been accident in any way.

They talk some more, have once again the whole argument who is more like who and who is really not anything like each other (meaning either of them) which they manage to regurgitate plenty more times during the story with the exact same way and result.

#Clary Fray #Jace Herondale #Sebastian Morgenstern #Alec Lightwood #Isabelle Lightwood #Simon Lewis #Camille Belcourt #CoLS Chapter 11 #City of Lost Souls

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ladyhindsight · 14 days

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We are doing this again. Unlike with City of Bones, the revisions in City of Ashes deal more with narrative mistakes being corrected and some utterly incomprehensible changes rather than the world-building being so blatantly unprepared that it needed to undergo full-on metamorphosis.

Here I've compared three different e-book versions of City of Ashes, one of which I presume is the original 2008 text, one that is the 2015 edition, and one I quite frankly have no idea which it is but most likely somewhere in-between the other two. This, I figured out so smartly, is because some things have remained unchanged as in the 2008 edition, but it also includes later changes that have been made in the 2015 edition which are not present in the original text.

I was looking for a nicely formatted file and then noticed by chance that these three are all different. While I understand and know that it is perfectly normal for a book to undergo changes and corrections throughout different editions, I am no less confused by some most of these.

And here we have one of the many boomerangs because what. Why. The second one was the best because now you've just repeated the word 'floor' unnecessarily, so it sounds just dumb:

→ he strode across the floor, his boots echoing against the floor

The prose has truly peaked.

Here's a good example of how some changes made after the original release are also in the 2015 edition but not in the original text, which places the 2010? release in-between the two. In some cases the 2008/2010? are the same but 2015 one different.

→ Daniel was first Maia's twin brother but was then changed to an older one. It's a minor change but also inane. Because what does it matter, why couldn't Daniel be Maia's twin?

→ Maia's character being introduced with her full name is better.

→ Where did the mahogany go?

It's gone as it should. In City of Bones it is said that "in the center of the room sat a magnificent desk. It was carved from a single slab of wood, a great, heavy piece of oak that gleamed with the dull shine of years."

It was oak. So you just couldn't replace 'mahogany' with 'oak' then? So you just deleted it altogether? Okay.

Another boomerang. Let's go with 'body'. No, let's change it to 'form'. No, let's go with 'body' again.

I am left with the impression that Clare didn't know what to do with this interaction/scene or what she wanted from it, neither did she think how it would fit the structure of the part I of the book, because how are all these so different. Sorry, it's early. No, sorry, it's late. No, I'll tell you what, sorry for waking you up at all, really.

TIME. The scene before this is Luke, Clary, and Simon having dinner at Luke's some time after the episode caused by Jace in Hunter's Moon (Chapter 2 "Hunter's Moon"). It's the same day the book began. This part of the chapter that begins with Jace being woken up and then meeting the Inquisitor in the Institute Library intercepts that scene. The Inquisitor accosts Jace and then decides to take in to the Silent City as a prisoner. Then we get back to Luke, Clary, and Simon. Clary is helping Luke "clean up the remains of dinner" when Maia comes over. Simon and Maia talk and once Simon returns to the kitchen, it is said that "The smell of cold night air came in with him." It's the same day as the book began. It is night. Simon and Clary talk about tomorrow and prepare for bed. Then in the next chapter begins with Jace's held in a cell in the Silent City. Then we cut to Simon and Clary making out as they haven't gone to sleep yet. The narrative structure doesn't give any reason to think these scenes aren't happening somewhat concurrently. Especially when Clary then receives a message from Isabelle which reveals Jace has been taken away. When Clary, Isabelle, and Alec go rescue Jace, and the Conclave meet them outside, it is still night. ("The sun couldn't have risen yet--could it?" / "despite the witchlight illuminating the night.")

→ Jace couldn't have woken up 5 a.m. because he would've slept through the night and it would've been the next day, meaning the scenes with Clary happened previous evening/night, which doesn't make sense to write them in such order. Also it would've been morning already once Jace was rescued from the Silent City. This was corrected tooo..

→ Midnight, which makes more sense narrative-wise and structurally, because why insert scenes with Jace that take place in the small hours of the next, if the scenes with Clary are still the previous day and the events cross when Clary gets the message from Isabelle? So instead here Jace has merely taken an evening nap.

→ Eventually removing any indication of time propably gave more flexibility to the interpretation as to how long all of this took to happen. Which was still the one and the same night but whatever.

ALEC'S EXCUSES. There are three and they all mean different things.

→ First Alec has stayed up all night, not even trying to go to sleep. He looks tired, which by the following conversation they have could be also interpreted as him being worried about the situtation surrounding Jace.

→ Alec tried to sleep, and the rest is the same. Not that different, so I don't get why change it at all. Maybe Alec not getting sleep despite trying underlines his worrying.

→ Alec straight up says he went out. The 2015 edition removes all of the previous indications because how dare anyone else have dark shadows under their eyes but Jace. How dare Alec look like he might have something to worry about. Nay! He was with Magnus.

Also, Clary trying to rewrite history by having Jace seek out Alec? Also, "friend"? How about brother or, better yet, parabatai?

→ "They came" and "they explained" were erraneous to begin with since Maryse tells Isabelle (Jace and Alec as well) in the first chapter that Robert was "unfortunately [...] still in Alicante."

→ I don't know whatever that mess in between is, but in the 2015 version Clare seems to have sorted it out.

Boomerang. At this point in the story, the only Downworlders drained of their blood was the warlock Elias, who appears in the prologue. The werewolf cub that was killed in the allie was never drained. ("It seems whoever murdered the werewolf was intercepted before the blood could be taken..." -Maryse to Luke in chapter 3 "The Inquisitor")

→ As a side comment: It was a wild goose chase in the sense that this mission did not need the whole Conclave attending to it and leave the Institute utterly unmanned especially if someone needed to contact them.

I don't understand why.

Added badassery.

Added a nice explanation and rules to the creation of vampires.

This was also an error to begin with, because just couple paragraphs before it is literally said that "Clary yanked the blade back" in each version. She already did it, which it is only reasonable the sentence was eventually removed.

Simon's love for Clary watered down, which I think is for the better. This is also relevant in a later part here...

Another thing I don't understand why.

This was also an error (depending on the interpretation). In this scene, before this part, Jace already closes his eyes once but opens them up. Without shutting his eyes again, him not seeing Valentine rather reads like he's so far away in his thoughts that he doesn't "see" him. But as this was corrected by adding the sentence about Jace shutting his eyes again, it probably was just an error.

→ 2008: Magnus was healing Maia, because Luke was outside being attacked by the demons that Jace and Clary went to investigate and then dispatched. Luke was brought in after the attack and Magnus healed him then. I can't help but wonder how Clare (or her editor for that matter) couldn't keep up with what was happening in the story.

Clary couldn't have been worse off because Magnus didn't have a chance to go help them while he was supposedly healing Luke inside the house while Luke was lying outside on a riverbank. So that was reasonably removed.

→ 2010?: Luke was corrected to Maia because that's who Magnus was actually healing. Only problem here is that only one of the lines were changed, and the "you would have died" is still inaccurate since Magnus couldn't have helped Luke before the demons were killed and he was brought inside to be healed.

→ 2015 is finally correct.

→ the person you love/someone I love were all corrected accordingly.

→ the blue part, however, was wrong in the same book, because if we return back to that part, Simon actually says you know what the worst feeling I can imagine is. Not the worst feeling you can have is.

This was also an error because Jace had given Clary his jacket and he only had the shirt on. It was also made a point since the demon shit had burned down his shirt sleeve pm his shoulder enough for Imogen to see his Herondale scar.

→ 2008 version never happened. The scene in City of Bones is the following:

Clary stepped back, but Jace stood very still as the glass rained around him, staring at the empty frame of the mirror. Clary had expected him to swear, to shout or curse at his father, but instead he only waited for the shards to stop falling. When they did, he knelt down silently and carefully in the welter of broken glass and picked up one of the larger pieces, turning it over in his hands.

and then, after no rocking back and forth in between (either in the original or revised version):

He said nothing, only whispered something under his breath. She couldn’t quite hear the words, but she reached out and took the bit of glass out of his hand. He was bleeding where he’d held it, from two fine and narrow gashes. She put the shard down and took his hand, closing his fingers over the injured palm. “Honestly, Jace,” she said, as gently as she’d touched him, “don’t you know better than to play with broken glass?” He made a sound like a choked laugh before he reached out and pulled her into his arms. She was aware of Luke watching them from the window, but she shut her eyes resolutely and buried her face against Jace’s shoulder.

It's like Clare imagined a whole other scene in City of Bones, recalled it while writing City of Ashes and kind of forgot that it wasn't how the scene even went.

Anyhoo. These are the ones I managed to catch. Ta ta.

#City of Ashes #Clary Fray #Jace Herondale #Alec Lightwood #Isabelle Lightwood #Luke Garroway #Magnus Bane #Maryse Lightwood #Edition mods

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ladyhindsight · 23 days

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The title refers to the point in this chapter where Jace takes Clary to witness the Wild Hunt riding across the night sky. Which, I would’ve liked to believe, was more foresight in terms of the rest of the story whenever new concepts appear, but then I remembered the Wild Hunt will be relevant right in the next book. So not a lot of foresight after all. Disappointment more like since this is the first time it is mentioned in the whole of TSC.

This chapter opens up with Jordan and Maia in the Praetor House. They are feeling awkward together so Jordan goes to take a shower and Maia is left pondering on things.

→ What still is beyond my understanding is why Maia (and Jordan) are so invested in Jace. They have no comprehensible connection nor a relationship, and the last time Maia and Jace had any meaningful interaction, it was in City of Ashes when Jace antagonized the whole pack of werewolved because of his self-imposed angst fest.

→ “She sprung up.” Because adverbs < actual verbs

→ The shadows were closing in. Because filtering < not separating reader from the action

Maia then joins Jordan in the shower and they do the yucky-yuck. We cut to the Team Good where Jocelyn finally learns that Clary has left to join Jace and Sebastian. Jocelyn blames Simon for letting Clary leave so easily. Then Magnus tells Jocelyn that no one can stop Clary for doing what she thinks is right and that Clary is a great deal like her mother. Which supposedly serves as a burn.

I don’t know what it is, why Jocelyn must be called “Clary’s mother” every given opportunity (or Clary Jocelyn’s daughter for that matter) when we know who she is, and, for example, Maryse is mostly always called Maryse. I am sick of it.

→ of course Magnus must have known Jocelyn/her when she was young, (also thank you, Simon, for explaining the obvious.)

→ I also feel that recap to be incredibly unnecessary, so just: when she betrayed Valentine and the Circle. Because who are you trying to win sympathy points for here?

Isabelle then stands up for Simon and berates Jocelyn.

It’s worthy to note that Clary’s own decisions and consequences on those decisions are blamed on everyone else available than her. Clary is reckless because of Jocelyn trying to protect her, not that Clary has a brain or mind of her own, yet the blame never lands on her. I would regard this more leniently if Isabelle threw some selfishness into the mix, like “if her actions meant that she would get her brother back then so be it”, but as of now, it has nothing to do with anything else than other characters sticking up for Clary for the sake of sticking up for Clary because no blame, no matter what, will fall on her.

Also, when had Clary ever said that, and also once again, with their trackrecord, they don't know each other or have known each other long enough for Clary to make such statements. Are you sure you aren't trying to just tell me stuff again?

Jocelyn is upset and gets more upset, and of course her upset with Simon especially could be read as that she can’t berate Clary for making such dangerous moves at the moment. But none of that will ever come anyway, so I dislike this whole conversation no matter what.

Even if Jocelyn is trying to scare them with consequences of their secrecy (or rather, Simon’s) and punishment by the Clave, it’s still so counterproductive. The Clave has given up on Jace. Jace, currently, is to be killed on sight alongside Sebastian. What on earth does Jocelyn think the Clave is going to do to Clary who joined these people on her own volition once it learns her part in this?

Jocelyn throws a tantrum while leaving, and Magnus suggests they get to the summoning of Azazel, the Prince of Hell who makes weapons, to inquire about one that could separate Jace from Sebastian.

We then cut to Clary and Jace on their date and it’s all incredibly boring.

Nu-uh. The em-dash serves no purpose when the only following clause includes just one thing.

→ Jace and Clary spent the day wandering through mazelike tiny streets that ran along…

Ha ha. Straight men joking about being gay. Funny. Also tasteless and gross as to getting someone drunk for sex.

Nu-uh. There's a lot of these throughout the book but gotta point them out every once in a while.

Cut back to Jordan and Maia who have had their steamy moment in the shower and are now lying in Jordan’s bed. They are talking when someone knocks on the door and calls for Jordan to go see Praetor Scott.

Their whole interaction in this chapter has been canoodling each other, and the urgency to help Luke has disappeared entirely. No, they don’t have all the time in the world when they specifically came to the Praetor House to help Luke from dying which he is rather actively doing at the moment. Though Maia probably means they have all the time they need in general, not just in this moment, it is still put up against the urgency in the story, which does not work.

Team Good is preparing to summon Azazel. Simon laments how animals don’t like him anymore now that he is a vampire but Chairman Meow is unbothered.

This doesn’t really fit in here. It cuts the flow between two sentences that should be consecutive.

→ Simon was taking a moment to rest and drink some coffee; it stayed down well, and the caffeine took the edge off the beginning prickles of hunger. Magnus, as it turns out, hadn’t been joking about the candles. All afternoon, they had been helping Magnus set the scene for raising Azazel.

It’s still clunky, but at least the effects of caffeine that are so far removed from the rest of the idea in this paragraph don’t interrupt each other.

Magnus then calls for them—Simon, Alec, and Isabelle—to gather around. We then cut to Maia and Jordan, and I’m so disappointed every time that happens. Praetor Scott presents them with the cure for Luke’s problem. Then Raphael makes an appearance to complain about Maureen having gone rogue and how the Praetor Lupus hasn’t made any headway as to her because they’ve (or Nick who is assigned to her case) been unable to find her.

These are teenage characters, I'll give you that, but this is also incredibly juvenile way to discuss sex or people having it. The idea that someone has to take notice, an adult no less, is weird and frankly also gross. Why does Scott need to care what the hell two horny teenagers are up to or even comment on it or even take notice?

It's closely related to Clare's need to have her intercharacter relationships and intimacy validated by an audience. Someone has to see or know, and it is so tiring that nothing can happen without constantly bringing it into focus or it being treated as a newsletter.

How has Sebastian and the disappearance of Jace incapacitated the whole of the Clave—all of the Nephilim—that they are unable to even continue with their daily duties? Clave sucks and that is the message Clare does put forward a lot, but how come the whole entire earth is so unable to take action, to aid New York, since their Conclave is so busy dealing with this disappearance that they aren’t even doing anything substantial about?

The Clave has no structure other than the Inquisitor, the Consul, and then the heads of the Institutes that lead their own Conclaves. It’s inadequate and unorganized and this will not change no matter how much Clare complains about the Clave she herself created. No one calls for more structure, does not create more positions to take on the load. There is essentially no progress because I don't think Clare sees this as one of the many flaws of the Clave. I think Clare believes this to be solid organization structure.

Why didn’t Raphael handle this himself in the first place? Even if he wanted to utilize “legal” or professional avenues first, he’s still going to handle it himself if these fail, so why not cut to the chase? Because we wouldn’t know about Maureen otherwise, though this knowledge comes at the expense of Raphael being a pretty ineffective leader of his clan.

Then the rest of the chapter is about Clary and Jace and their date and their canoodling because that’s pretty much all they do in their one-on-one scenes. Here Jace takes Clary to a boat to see the Wild Hunt, and then they have to escape because the boat owner comes, and yep. A lot happens in this chapter but at the same time it’s filled up with a lot of unnecessary and stupid prose.

#Maia Roberts #Jordan Kyle #Simon Lewis #Jocelyn Fairchild #Jace Herondale #Clary Fray #CoLS Chapter 10 #City of Lost Souls

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ladyhindsight · 25 days

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something ive noticed while reading the mortal instruments is an annoying trope that happens lots in ya fantasy: the "strong female protagonist" (clary) who's never more powerful than her boyfriend (jace). its just so annoyingggg

Clare does it covertly (or “covertly”). On paper, Clary’s powers and abilities are greater than Jace’s. Jace is physically and physiologically superior Shadowhunter, but Clary can utilize somewhat powerful magic in ways others cannot. Yet narrative-wise Jace is the best, the most graceful, the most amazing thing ever to happen to the Nephilim, while Clary talks down on herself, compares herself constantly to Jace and how clumsy she is in comparison (not mentioning the fact that Jace has trained his whole life while she has just begun, at least in terms of books 1-3). How Jace’s hair looks better and she is disheveled while taking a tumble down a hill et cetera. Nobody hypes up Clary like the writing has everyone hyping up Jace, friends and foes alike.

Emma is the best Shadowhunter of her generation—though I feel like they are all the same generation, lol—and has a legendary weapon to up her abilities. Yet Emma’s Jace-level skills don’t really matter in terms of the story and add nothing to anything. She could be completely average and the story doesn’t necessarily change (compare to Jace whose powers help him in battles and escape actual dire situations), because most of what Emma is as a Shadowhunter is tied to her ownership of Cortana. Julian, however, is such a badass schemer, such a wannabe Petyr Baelish, so ruthless and thus so amazing, and it is for him that the story kicks forward on occasion. It’s him that creates Livia’s Watch, he who schemes to keep his family together, he who knows how to play the Clave’s games. I am surprised again why Emma is the protagonist at all.

All of this aligns with the similar theme where the heroine is not really the protagonist rather than the observer of the amazingness of the male protagonist. Which is excruciatingly obvious especially with Clary/Jace and Emma/Julian.

Tessa has a power of shapeshifting, she is Nephilim and warlock—though I still don’t really know can she cast proper spells?—she even harnesses the power of an angel at the end of it all, yet we keep mourning the difficult life of Will Herondale who isn’t even that impressive a Shadowhunter. James does not count because he is a stale bread and as sharp as a marble ball, so having Cordelia up him as a protagonist doesn’t require much. Though, again much of her is tied to the ownership of Cortana because names and objects carry more weight and meaning than the actual character and content in Clare’s writing.

So yes, on paper these girlies are badasses and thus it’s easy for Clare to deflect the criticism on the subject, very similarly as she has done with Jace all these years. She just seems to forget that concepts are all fine and dandy but mean nothing if they don’t matter in terms of the narrative you create. Like, Clary can be as powerful as you make her but when you treat her as lesser, what do her powers then matter.

#Clary Fray #Jace Herondale #Emma Carstairs #Julian Blackthorn #Reply

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ladyhindsight · 1 month

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On "Chain of Thorns"

@daisymylove replies to this post.

I think my (at least then) perception of Lucie is overshadowed by a lot of the other things that I found worth critizing in Chain of Thorns. I wasn't as bothered by her, maybe her naivete a bit, but your points are true. I don't think I had the capacity to think about Lucie more in depth since she, with Jesse, was a pretty bland character that was so inoffensive to me in ways that most of the other characters or their treatment by the narrative were not. 😂

As to Will, I didn't mean to insinuate that it was on him or solely on him that Tatiana became insane. What I took notice of is this "let me wash my hands out of this mess" type of thing, because Clare found it enough to note that Will has humiliated and bullied Tatiana in the past, but also to sort of brush past it and claim Will had no part in the development of Tatiana's emotional life (at that time anyway). As I noted that, in the end, it was such a minor thing compared to all else Tatiana went through in her life (though she still held resentment towards Will), so it was mainly the wording I had problem with.

Will's wording belittles his own actions and the fact that Enclave was on her side and Will was punished sort of tries to erase the impact and consequence of the humiliation of Tatiana and bullying he still did and caused. There is still no accountability on Will's end in ChoT, which by changing the wording could be otherwise. That I sort of tried to fix with whatever I came up with to satisfy myself on that aspect.

It also ties to the similar theme surrounding Will in TID where, to borrow your words, the narrative goes above and beyond to permit his awful behavior and still coddle him despite how horrible he is. Which I felt was an extension of that in this instance.

#I'm just gonna squeeze in here...#Will Herondale #Tatiana Blackthorn #Lucie Herondale #Chain of Thorns #The Last Hours

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ladyhindsight · 2 months

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It has become increasingly difficult to make progress with this book. It’s the sort of slump I get into with each installment, which is ridiculous considering how much time I actually spend thinking about the series and forming my thoughts. But hey, back again with another chapter.

One of the reasons why returning to the story sucks is that I remember this book better than City of Fallen Angels, and I don’t know how to internally deal with how bad the storylines of (especially) Alec, Maia, and Jordan are. But as always, let’s give it a go anyway.

The chapter opens with Alec having secretly slipped away from his post in order to meet up with Camille and accost her about the spell that could make Magnus mortal. At this moment, there is no narrative reason to think Alec is playing Camille in order to learn more about Magnus (unlike Clare once states that that was the very reason why Alec went to repeatedly see Camille), and considering that the only thing Alec inquiries about is the spell itself, that whole idea holds little water as of now. Anyway.

→ No comma before “and”

→ Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Being gay does not mean you cannot appreciate female beauty or “appeal” since not everything is about physical attraction anyway. Also, funny but petulant: “I guess you’re beautiful, but I hate you so, no.”

→ This is also inconsistent with an earlier scene with Alec and Camille in the book where it says that "She was as beautiful as Alec remembered her."

Propping up Jace and also tooting your own horn. Additionally, Jace’s “cleverly disguised put-downs” are never cleverly disguised, they are always just plain old and rude put-downs.

Imagine being so jealous that you have to bully a teenager. Also, let’s leave Jace’s amazingness out of this. And no, that wasn’t something. That isn’t anything.

Imagine being so jealous—and inappropriate—that you have to flaunt your previous sex life with the ex to a teenager. Also no comma before ‘and’.

→ Considering if there is such a spell at all, why isn’t everyone just taking other people’s immortalities away left and right? Use your brain, Alec.

→ Shadowhunters can learn to work spells (like Valentine, hello?)

→ I like how Alec does not question at all how this supposed spell even works, like how would Magnus know who it was? This storyline and dialogue are so asinine that Clare wasn’t even trying to make it anything.

Alec and Camille reach an impasse, and we cut to Isabelle and Jocelyn making their way to the Adamant Citadel.

Because Jocelyn is uh-mazing. If there is one thing we have learned about Shadowhunters is that they have to rigorously train when they are teenagers but once they become adults, all the training ceases because they have apparently reached the max capacity in skill that never deteriorates. See: every adult Shadowhunter in the series ever.

The only reason why Isabelle might currently dislike Jocelyn is the fact that Jocelyn refused her the information about Robert’s affair, but otherwise there is nothing narrative-wise (considering that later in the chapter Isabelle brings up this fact again).

Also I don’t understand how any of these clauses are related:

→ Jocelyn was only a step behind her, (she was nimble and fast)

→ and as aggravating as Isabelle found Clary’s mother, (Isabelle is annoyed by Jocelyn. Additionally, I really dislike constantly calling Jocelyn what has basically become her moniker, Clary’s Mother)

→ she was glad in a moment, when Jocelyn raised her hand and a witchlight rune-stone blazed forth… (Isabelle, though being annoyed by Jocelyn, is glad that she illuminates the space?)

Okay, great. But why was Isabelle glad about it? She wasn’t worried about not knowing where they had arrived, she wasn’t afraid of their strange surroundings, she wasn’t anything about anything.

→ Then a portion of the wall slid back

Per Collins Dictionary: “You use as well when mentioning something which happens in the same way as something else already mentioned, or which should be considered at the same time as that thing.”

Per Cambridge Dictionary: also; too

→ What do you mean demon-stone as well? What is demon-stone? Another name for adamas like the demon towers in Alicante? I can’t remember (nor find) an instance where any material, especially adamas, was referred to as demon-stone. So you now just figured to call adamas demon-stone?

See the point above. What is demon wire?

→ Iron Sisters should have the courtesy of calling people with their preferred and up to date names. But barely anyone in the series actually do so anyway.

→ Being outcast means being ostracized by the society or a group, which Jocelyn sort of is, but also no because she left on her own volition. She wasn’t rejected or cast out. Also she had the freedom to prance around Alicante in City of Glass and no one made a huge fuss nor intended to escort her back to the border.

→ I also don’t particularly like the style of Cleophas’ speech, just complaining on my part

→ Meaning Silent Brothers can read minds whenever

→ Meaning Iron Sisters can read minds elsewhere but in the Citadel. Do they though?

→ Also Jace Lightwood, woooo

→ Fingers of her hands as opposed to fingers of her feet??

→ …fiery gaze. Her fingers were very long—not elegantly…

→ …adamas wall. A second Iron Sister stepped through, as if emerging from a haze of white smoke.

→ though her hair was gray and the ends of her two braids bound by gold wire.

Because what the hell is that original mess of a blurb.

→ It is a very shitty thing to entrap an angel, don’t do that.

→ In case you happen to do so, you could never force it to do your bidding.

→ You cannot force them to give you holy weapons but you can take something (undefined) by force

Okay, makes sense… until later.

The Sisters tell Isabelle and Jocelyn the nature of the demonic bond between Sebastian and Jace, essentially what everyone had already gathered but like, really honing it in.

→ Isabelle throws a Clary-esque tantrum at the Sisters and storms off very Clary-esque way.

Again, Isabelle not much liking Jocelyn though they have never interacted in any meaningful way, never built any sort of relationship where Isabelle would dislike Jocelyn for any reason, so again, there’s no reason for any of this narrative-wise.

I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: Jocelyn is a prop character, a plot point, an exposition regurgitator. There is no reason why she would even know about any of this. See this post.

We cut to Clary in the magic house, and Jace comes to get her from her room.

These sort of musings make me rip my hair out (figuratively) because these are so wholly empty and meaningless thoughts in order to add drama and flare and angst. Clary know Jace is not himself, he is somehow, someway tied to Sebastian and is not behaving right at all. So yes, he must be happy!! Why is she here to save him at all from all this happiness with Sebastian!!!!! Good lord.

Not much happens then, Jace takes Clary out on a date, and we cut to Maia and Jordan arriving at the Praetor headquarters. The word “alpha” did not age well and I cringe every time it is used.

Yes, it is, in fact, bad. This is not the time to gaslight yourself.

→ which was build a blocks of golden stone (stop filtering)

I love that we are getting brand new werewolf facts like the eyes and the protein intake in the FIFTH INSTALLMENT OF THIS SERIES.

Then cut to the Gang discussing the findings of the chapter:

→ If you happen to summon an angel, prepare to be blasted with divine wrath

→ but remember, you can take weapons by force, unless you get blasted, you know, with the divine wrath

→ Did you know that two things can be true at once? The ritual allows you to summon Raziel (because it does, duh) and be protected from his divine blasting. Also why the fuck did Raziel give means to summon him if his going to be a little bitch about it.

CLARY’S MOTHER. MY DAUGHTER.

→ Just use their names, please.

Oh my god, how does he know anything. Not like he hasn’t been sharing almost esoteric knowledge before in the series, and Alec finds it himself to be surprised by it only now.

Wow, I truly loathe this. Surprise

#Alec Lightwood #Camille Belcourt #Isabelle Lightwood #Jocelyn Fray #Clary Fray #Maia Roberts #Magnus Bane #City of Lost Souls #CoLS Chapter 9

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ladyhindsight · 3 months

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On the topic of shadowhunter religion: I read these books back in middle school, and though I overlooked a lot of problems in the series, the shadowhunter religion has always bothered me. The worship of the angel makes no sense. Since the angel canonically exists and so does God (as in the God of the Bible), why would anyone worship the angel? I realize that they recognize him as the creator of their race, but their creator was also created by another, higher power. The Jewish/Christian God generally doesn't like worship of anyone who's not Him and would probably be VERY angry if one of His angels just created a religious group around himself. So it would make much more sense for Shadowhunters to worship God and maybe venerate the angel the way Catholics and Orthodox do. But I guess CC, who's not particularly religious, I believe, would be uncomfortable with that. Still doesn't excuse the sloppy worldbuilding, though.

Good point! And another one that is unaddressed and probably will be. Jace himself says in City of Bones that he doesn't believe in angels but then has no explanation or belief to the origin of the Nephilim or their angelic abilities. Cristina believes in angels but do you need to believe in angels when you in fact know they exist and the creator one has been already summoned twice in a rather quick succession?

And since all the stories are true, why not other god-like or angel-like or any comparably same level religious or mythical beings have not created their own group of soldiers to fight the demons or any evil threathening their world(s)? Clare just thought that 1. Shadowhunters have their own religion (that makes no sense) and 2. They cannot partake in any other religion and thought people were just going to leave it at that.

Also the parabatai oath being a mesh of Ruth 1:16-17 and Books of Samuel, scriptures that canonically exist in their world is just not acknowledged? blargh.

#Reply

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ladyhindsight · 3 months

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The second part of the book begins, and I am already done with the whole quote that starts the part:

I love you as one loves certain dark things — Pablo Neruda, “Sonnet XVII”

Because it isn't even a whole quote, not even a one I can find in this form, and it's not even the whole verse. This erases the whole meaning to fit into this loving certain dark things narrative, especially considering the actual following verse:

I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I also don't know what translation Clare got that from because all I can find is the latter one. ANyway. We continue with Maia and Jordan, and Jordan can go fuck himself:

→ To begin with this, fucking hell. This refers to the ending scene of chapter 4 where Maia has a flashback to trauma Jordan caused.

He pulled her closer. He was shaking. She felt the heat of his strong body against hers as his hands slid down her back. “Maia,” he whispered. He started to lift the hem of her sweater, his fingers gripping the small of her back. His lips moved against hers. “I love you. I never stopped loving you.” You’re mine. You’ll always be mine. Her heart hammering, she jerked away from him, pulling her sweater down. “Jordan — stop.” He looked at her, his expression dazed and worried. “I’m sorry. Was that not any good? I haven’t kissed anyone but you, not since…” He trailed off. She shook her head. “No, it’s just — I can’t.” “All right,” he said. He looked very vulnerable, sitting there, dismay written all over his face. “We don’t have to do anything — ” She groped for words. “It’s just too much.”

And this fucking idiot thinks it's because he might be a bad kisser. Maia has nothing to apologize for, and I'm already sick of this chapter trying to flip this dynamic over to where Maia owns Jordan a goddamn thing.

→ The whole "I don't want to be friends" and Maia acting shocked is stupid because Jordan has come onto Maia plenty of times already that she should know what he actually means. This is all idiotic.

Then die.

This could've been said also by Jace, Simon, or Magnus because all the jokes are tonally and in terms of content always the same. Ha ha, two straight boys kissing. Funny.

We skip to Clary exploring the place Jace has brought her to and rummaging through a wardrobe.

Morgenstern men love heteronormative clothing for women who wear gear meaning also pants.

→ A scene that never happened but would've been a great callback to the previous book if it was written out.

→ Hopefully Clary would remember things that happened just a while back with a visual reminder. Also → "It had been a clear day in early October.."

The last time the box was mentioned was in City of Bones where it is told that the box held "with the medals were one or two photos, a wedding ring, and a single lock of blond hair. Sometimes Jocelyn took the box out and opened it and held the lock of hair very gently in her hands before putting it back and carefully locking the box up again."

Which makes me question whether Clary then knew what the contents of the box actually were since there are no metals or a wedding ring. Which is fine, but what is not fine is that the box goes unmentioned for forever and once it makes an appearance, Clary is suddenly in the know of the contents and the contents themselves differ drastically from what was previously told. Continuity where?

Here Isabelle is an outlet of Clare's bias. Different characters of course can have different opinions and preferences, but because other characters like Lucie also keep talking how brown (hair color) is ordinary and boring and how the writing keeps coming up with ridiculous similes and metaphors for every other eye color/hair color than brown or dark, it's obvious. Even more so when a little later down here Isabelle thinks blue eyes are more interesting than black.

Meaning faerie men possibly far older than her? Shadowhunters who? Who are these Isabelle's sexy ex-dates when none is ever mentioned or makes an appearance and the premise is that the Lightwood kids have grown up pretty secluded in the New York Institute because of their parents' exile?

So Isabelle thinks she would be more interesting if she had blue eyes instead of black ones. Because appearance is what makes to interesting, not your character. Pretty on point for the narrative.

Just call her Jocelyn. You just did.

→ ...and saw Jocelyn looking at her. Jocelyn opened her mouth...

Or if you must, this order makes more sense:

→ ...and saw Clary's mother looking at her. Jocelyn opened her mouth...

→ No need for any of these. This is Isabelle's PoV, we know this is what she can observe.

→ Isabelle rolled her eyes at him and turned around/away etc. Then paragraph division and the description may commence.

Cut back to the Boredom Crew.

Thank you for the clarification. Otherwise I might have confused him to some other shared father??

Jace has not shared that look with anyone ever because the only people with shared secrets and in the know have always been Jace and Clary because the narrative is jealous of Jace having that kind of relationship or bond with anyone else.

Also Clary has not known Jace long enough to say "in a very long time."

→ Is he squinting?

→ No need for this, it's her PoV. Stop overexplaining.

→ Or: "His look was calculating: he was deciding what he was going to allow Jace to do, how much leash to give his "brother."

#Maia Roberts #Jordan Kyle #Isabelle Lightwood #Clary Fray #Jace Herondale #City of Lost Souls #CoLS Chapter 8

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ladyhindsight · 3 months

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all I can think about is how interesting seeing shadowhunters like you mentioned, from other cultures, even like smaller countries in Europe would be (I might be biased, but Eastern European shadowhunters sound so interesting?? like how would that work into how they work, locations, local downworlders, other groups, politics etc), how much can you get from a handful of families lol I read the og books a while ago and only heard about the prequels/latest book trilogy and left it at that, felt stale

The opportunities of implementing culturally and socially/societally completely different Shadowhunters are endless. I don't think Clare has capability as an author outside her usual shtick, but imagine! The fact that the Shadowhunters operate globally but so little of it is utilized in any degree is ridiculous. Will mentions Helsinki Institute in Chain of Thorns and? Finland also has Shadowhunters but what of it? Filomena, an Italian Shadowhunter, makes appearance in Chain of Iron but her role is to basically die, and we learn nothing of Italian society of Shadowhunters. Eastern Europe, the most of Balkan or South America or Asia, the whole continent of Africa—none of these actually or conceptually exist in the Shadow World. And no, random characters from such and such places making appearance does not count.

What this mostly tells me—aside from the fact that Clare has never given much though to her world-building—is that she isn't in love with the world she has put together. She likes it only to the point it serves her romance stories with a fantasy backdrop, for which these brand new concepts as the Scholomance, Centurions, the Iron Tombs, warlocks not being able to grown their hair after stopping aging, telepathic faerie rings, werewolf-typical eyes, and new aspects to magic and the Marks for instance come along only once they sort of brush relevance to the story she is writing in any given time.

#Shitty world-building is probably the number one problem always #Reply

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ladyhindsight · 3 months

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I would like to know since the stories are so focused on the usual families is there a shadowhunter family you would like to see be the main in a series or a certain trope???

Not necessarily any particular family but as a concept something completely other than the usual focus mainly surrounding United States and Europe. Like an Institute in a smaller country and a smaller city or a town, or a random group of ragtag Shadowhunters travelling around to hunt demons and solve mysteries, helping people, hunting things lol, maybe a completely other story on how other parts of the world are faring after the Dark War or the main events in The Mortal Instruments.

OR!! just a story in Idris and the power struggles there because we don''t know even half the time what's going on there. Things just happen because the plot needs such things as the Circle and the Cohort to gain footing but it is completely left out how these things even happen. Idris is still so incredibly unexplored as a place and a concept. The story focusing on something completely other than the usual families could be anyone else really. It doesn't even have to be families per se, just good individual characters, fuck their names, because the emphasis put on family names doesn't make the character itself good.

As to the tropes, I'm open for anything and everything, no particular preferences as long as they make the story work and the world interesting to experience. But literally anything else that Clare always utilizes for a change. :'D

#Reply

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ladyhindsight · 4 months

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to be fair the first 3 books of TMI were not bad for a 2000s YA series. I would have rated them 3.5/5 I think what really destroyed any ounce of good things the book had was the last 3 books. Very unnecessary which is evident in the 4th book city of fallen angels where nothing really happens. It was best for Clare to stop at the first 3 TMI books and the with the infernal devices prequel.

In my understanding, this is a rather popular opinion, especially where the books 4-6 are concerned. And the series is definitely incredibly reflective of 2000s. But I can't agree that they weren't bad, even for a YA series of that time. City of Bones alone was such a mess of a premise, a mess of a book, the writing incredibly neglectful of basically everything, and generally just so bad.

I do agree though that the rest are no better (and City of Fallen Angels is the worst of the worst as much as it makes me sick even thinking of the pointlessness), but at the same time they do introduce more elements to the world and make it feel a bit wider, they somewhat dive more into character dynamics even if barely, whereas the world and the relationships between the characters City of Glass ends with is pretty hollow and not truly and honestly concluded. I guess I am in some aspects glad that the rest of the TMI exists, but at the same time, at what cost.

#Series discussion #Reply

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ladyhindsight · 4 months

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I saw your ask about how CC changed Will and Jem’s ages and birthday’s, and I wanted to mention that in the 1st edition of Clockwork Prince CC included as an extra a letter that Will wrote to his parents for his 17th birthday (a letter he never sent). At first I thought that this letter was written before the events of TID, but Will mentions that Tessa lives in the Institute. So that means that Will most likely turned 17 in July either during the events of Clockwork Angel or in between Clockwork Angel and Clockwork Prince. That would also make Jem’s birthday most likely in May if he’s supposed to be 2 months older than Will. This would also make the fact that Will was already 12 by November 10 more believable

So CC really screwed herself over by messing with this believable timeline. (If you need a place to read it, the letter can be found on the Shadowhunter wiki in the TID Extras section).

It is absolutely bewildering why she felt the need to do that at all! She had written three books and this extra letter based on the premise that Will and Jem are both 17. I don't understand what possible reason there could've been to change the birthdates and birth year altogether and mess everything so royally up! 🤡

#Will Herondale #Jem Carstairs #Reply

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ladyhindsight · 5 months

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Hey, I really love your take on some of more controversial aspect of tlh. I enjoy cassandra books, but I kind of feel that dawnwolders are incovinient to her, because she do not make any of them main character anymore. The only dawnwolders that are main characters are half-nephilim or no longer ones. Tlh do not have any and in my opinion won't twp have one ( ash doesn't count as he is some sort of hybrid of demon, fearie and nephilim). This is especially noticable in james case. The one that train james was not warlock but silent brother nor he seek to connect to dawnworlders community (his parabait is the one who fit more with them) also tessa only acted as warlock between her marriages. Vampires have not been present in the plot for 7 books.as a characters that have any influance on it). Luke and maya are the only warewolfs that are in more then 2 book. The only ones to have some page time are fearie and even then it is not much outside some ship drama( I really do not care about kierarktina and cristina, because cristina literally despait claiming that she wanted to help fearie didn't do anything for them but cry pity until she become atracted to mark and kieran. Then she helped only them). Do you think we will have at least one new main character who is dawnwolder in twp, like full blood dawnwolder not kit or ash that are part nephilim?

Hii!

Thinking back on it, this has been rather continuous theme from the very beginning of the whole chronicles. Magnus has been the only Downworld character that's been consistently featured in almost every book and every series, and you can see that Clare enjoys writing him. But let's consider someone like Maia who becomes a major side character in TMI. Maia first appeared in City of Ashes, because that random nameless mention in City of Bones doesn't count, but her story was aimless.

Her point of views were unnecessary and did not contribute to the story at all. The narrative and as such the cast treat her terribly, and even though the narrative in City of Ashes prefers us to think that she’s an essential character, it still fails to conclude her story. She just disappears. She serves a plot point and anything beyond that is forgotten as inessential. City of Glass has barely anything to do with her, and in City of Fallen Angels her role in it is as essential as that of, say, Alec, which is not at all. Her impact on the plot is minimal if even that.

Of course, there is Jordan who arrives to introduce Praetor Lupus, because Clare managed to concoct another concept to tie The Infernal Devices to The Mortal Instruments and actually work on the worldbuilding, but why is it all so minor compared to the focus Maia and Jordan's relationship receives. A relationship that begins with no point and ends with no point.

Luke, for one, is there for the connection to Clary and Jocelyn and acts as the eyes through which the past and truth is eventually revealed because Clary herself is (naturally) disconnected from the Shadow World. But to be honest, I don't know if this is an issue of these characters in TMI being Downworlders or that they simply fall into the same role as every other character that is not Jace or Clary. Because no one else has any business with the main plot for a major part of those books.

But with The Last Hours, the Downworlders just act as the backdrop to the "forbidden" parties the Nephilim characters attend in Hell Ruelle. They assist the plot development, some are comic relief, but there's no major character that is Downworlder (aside from Magnus but at this point he doesn't count). The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices probably featured more Downworld characters, The Dark Artifices somewhat as well, but none that was new or major. Malcolm was the villain, Magnus is obligated feature, whatever faerie there is is to be vague and not give straight answers as to the plot that concerns the Nephilim characters.

It's not as surprising that Downworld characters are so sidelined when the worldbuilding is basically in its infancy still. Clare somehow thought that it is realistic that New York vampire clan rules over the rest of the world, that there are no vampire characters, factions, inner politics at all. Similarly to the werewolves. It's a very tiny circle that even gets room on the pages. Now that Raphael as the only major vampire character is gone, Lily has taken his place and serves the sam role as Maia does for the werewolves.

Now that you mentioned Cristina, I kinda laughed because I didn't realize how little she did in the end actually do. Her ambitions were great but in the end she found herself in a relationship with an Unseelie king and a half-faerie Shadowhunter. Regarding The Wicked Powers, I don't think Clare is going to come up with any major character that is fully Downworlder because the only one she can consistently manage is Magnus.

#Series discussion #Reply

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ladyhindsight · 5 months

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what’s interesting about what you said about the poc shadowhunters having white names is that alastair and cordelia weren’t always meant to be half persian. in the original character art for those characters they were portrayed as white. so cc must have changed their race to add more diversity to the series, which is really weird if you consider the fact that cc also make characters who were supposed to have kids gay and dating other men.

I'm so sick of that family tree. I'll never definitively find out what on earth she intended with the TLH characters, considering the series itself fell flat despite all that "errort." I gathered from the flower cards that Cordelia and Alastair were changed the most, and as I've commented before on that, I think it's a bit suspicious that fans had to ask for new updated ones that matched their description in the series.

Sona also was suspect to a lot of change—the name, the family, the backstory that was then blamed on the false family tree. I appreciate that Clare decided to add more diversity, and some of Persian culture was brought more forward in her writing of Chain of Thorns, but the only reason I can come up with why Cordelia or Alastair have to be half-Persian, half-English is so that Carstairs and Herondales are somehow related (in the future) and that she gets to have Cortana that Clare has hyped up since The Infernal Devices, which is then eventually passed down to Emma, and not even by her line because she becomes Herondale!

Or as if they needed some connection through Elias to Jem to insert themselves to the London Shadowhunter society. A plot point that isn't all that necessary or couldn't be executed any other way. I mean they could've been just Jahanshah, have their own mythical weapon—but alas, no connection to the present day characters and the same steel and temper as Joyeuse and Durendal. And Clare would've had hard time justifying why they keep hanging around in England.

Over time and course of Clare's inability to plan her series, her inability to write outside Herondales, Carstairs, Fairchilds, Lightwoods, and Blackthorns and riding out that nostalgia tied to those names, we've arrived to this convoluted point where every poc character has to be half-white/half-western because what is the point in a major character that isn't either Herondale, Carstairs, Fairchild, Lightwood, or Blackthorn who were all white right from the beginning, especially before the readership became more vocal.

Also the obsession with the "Shadowhunter names". It's long been clear that it is the name that makes the character, in the end, not the other way around as it should be.

#Cordelia Carstairs #Alastair Carstairs #The Last Hours #Reply

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ladyhindsight · 5 months

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Hi, I saw that previous ask that was sent by someone else about the parallels between the Shadowhunter society and Israel and it reminded me about the way that Cordelia is portrayed in TLH. When CC initially said that there would be Iranian characters (Cordelia and Alastair) in TLH (before the series was released), she was asked on her tumblr blog if these characters would be Muslim. She said that they cannot be Muslim because Shadowhunters do not follow any religion therefore they are all atheist. But this was really strange to me because in all of her books, the characters reference God a lot, their swords are named after angels in the bible, they are always quoting bible verses, and they also reference events that happened in the bible. So it always seemed like to me that the entire shadowhunter society was based off of religion. If Shadowhunters are all atheist then why are they always talking about God and the bible? In TMI, it’s stated that the two first Shadowhunter parabatai were Jonathan and David who were close as brothers; this is referencing Jonathan and David from the bible. It’s stated that the entire Shadowhunter race was founded when the angel Raziel mixed his angel blood with human blood which means that in this universe angels are REAL. I also think it was stated that Raziel was sent down by God or something but I can’t remember. the demons of hell (Asmodeus, Belial, etc) are also real. Hell is real as well apparently.

So basically the implications of this are that Cordelia assimilated into the Shadowhunter religion rather than her own. Since she’s a Shadowhunter that means she’s half angel.. so of course she can’t be Muslim because her entire existence disproves that in CC’s view. So since CC chose to make angels and God real in her universe, and also saying that Cordelia and Alastair cannot be Muslim, what is she even trying to say?? That God and angels and the bible are real but other religions aren’t??

Not to mention that Cordelia and Alastair are half white by father and have English first and last names (just like all of CC’s characters of colour..)

The faith of Raziel has been a previous discussion point on the blog years past, so I'll reiterate some points here. The topic has rared its head every now and then again, mostly because it is inconsistent and senseless and pretty insensitive to the whole concept of religion.

Clare created a religion for the Shadowhunters to follow, to believe in Raziel as their angelic creator, and formed some base rules for it, which essentially are that Shadowhunters have their own religion and thus don't practice others, and the Ascendants have to convert from the any previous religion to the one of the Nephilim. When discussing Sona, it is stated that "some Islam and Qur’an stories have been blended into Sona’s beliefs, though she is not exactly Muslim as Shadowhunters do not conform to any mundane religion and have their own where they worship Raziel." Which is still yeah, alright, but the whole faith in Raziel is still contradictory at best.

How can you draw so much religious inspiration while at the same time divorce yourself from it completely? The Nephilim religion is based on their creation, mundane religions also based on creation myths, so how is the Nephilim one the one everyone has to adhere to when all the stories are true? It's ludicrous that the Shadowhunters are brought up with such doctrines as "all the stories are true", basically act atheistic, but also at the same time demand other people from other religion to join their faith instead and adhere to their doctrines in which you wouldn’t necessarily believe in.

It seems "all the stories are true" don't apply to religion but fantasy elements such as witches, warlocks, vampires, werewolves, and faeries. With religion (Abrahamic ones to be exact), Clare is being picky.

The Shadowhunters aren't even particularly religious themselves, they have no culture or customs surrounding the faith of Raziel, no rites or holidays or sacred traditions or anything. They might as well be atheistic in the sense that none of the characters, sans Cristina (and her family?), practice the Nephilim religion. But even with Cristina, how does her faith show other than her belief in angels and her religious medallion she wears? Clare not being particularly religious is really reflected on the fact that not much though went into this. Previously when discussing Jonathan Shadowhunter, I said that:

Jonathan’s country of origin is never told, but of course from when the map was what it was during the Crusades. Not that it really matters because we can pretty much deduce they were Europeans since the First Crusade was initiated by the Latin Church and was partaken by the contemporary European kingdoms and empires. There’s also the fact that the roots of the birth of the Nephilim are in religious wars, and trying to remove Jonathan Shadowhunter and the origin of the Nephilim from that is evasive. Okay, let’s leave this thing here and go do this completely other stuff, totally didn’t just try to invade another land and get distracted. It’s interesting to note some liberties authors and filmmakers take when it comes to representing a part of some culture, religion, or myths. What makes inspiration differ from misrepresentation and all that. The wiki states that: “Jonathan then transformed his sister, Abigail, and his friend, David, into Shadowhunters. Inspired by the tale of their coincidental biblical namesakes, Jonathan and David took that story and became the first parabatai, performing a ritual where they took each other’s blood, spoke the oath, and inscribed the runes upon each other.” In Books of Samuel, Jonathan and David, bonded by a strong friendship, form a covenant by taking a mutual oath. “Now it came about when he had finished speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself.” It’s funny that an author writes their coincidental biblical namesakes when there is absolutely nothing coincidental about it. It isn’t just that Clare was inspired by the writings in the Old Testament, she outright writes that her characters took that story, being coincidentally named the same, and created the parabatai bond based on it. They acted on religious texts. And of course, Jonathan’s sister just happened to be named after the second wife of King David. [...] Why is their faith so centered on Raziel alone when their universe is obviously filled with other god-like beings and entities? I guess it’d be fine if Raziel was worshiped as a patron but didn’t exclude other faiths and the Nephilim didn’t outright demand you to just drop the religion you practice. Why is it suddenly the Shadowhunters’ business what you can worship and what not? There plenty of polytheistic religions so why can’t the Shadowhunters be polytheistic too? It’s nothing away from worshiping Raziel.

Clare made ground rules for the Nephilim religion but failed to ask the follow up question that essentially makes the basis crumble. Let's even consider Jace Herondale who first said that he does not believe in angels or a god. As the series progress, it becomes all the more evident and rather glaringly so that angels (Ithuriel) and Raziel himself/themselves(?) are very real. Jace experiences no growth or acknowledgment as to this. When Jace is faced with Lilith, he throws her and Sammael's love and Sammael's earlier demise at hands of the archangel Michael at her face, names his angel blade Michael when fighting Lilith, but at no point do we really see how did we get from point A to point C where any of this contradictory behavior is realized or discussed between the characters. Or even acknowledged that holy shit, these biblical beings actually exist.

Hell, even The Last Hours has God (or a god?) himself smiting down Belial, a fallen angel, and NO ONE EVEN BATS AN EYE. Most Shadowhunters are really apathetic towards heaven-level stuff happening right in front of them. In some other older post I said:

The thing that strikes me as particularly odd is that they constantly cite the Bible, and their oaths—the parabatai one, for instance, from the Old Testament—are of biblical origin, and Jonathan Shadowhunter himself was told to be a crusader, yet none of it is considered Jewish or Christian. Angels are inherently religious beings, and Abrahamic religions and whatnot where they appear are far older institutions than Shadowhunters are as a race. I just don’t see it as a good idea to draw so much from their religious mythology but completely cut ties with their spirituality and meaning.

[Here's a link to a post compiling some of the earlier pondering on this mess.] If you want, you can also check my Jonathan Shadowhunter tag, I've been sent some great thoughts about him and the Nephilim creation.

Part of the problem also lies, once again, within the worldbuilding, the major lack thereof, because I don't think materializing the Princes of Hell was in the early plans for Clare, at least considering books 1-3 of The Mortal Instrument. None of it was essential to her nor a primary objective in the development of the Shadowhunting world.

#The Shadowhunter Chronicles #Series discussion #Reply

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ladyhindsight · 5 months

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I admit I was ignorant on the matter but now that I know more about Israel and its army, I can't help but see the similarities between them and the Shadowhunters/Nephilim. I always wondered how could CC hail a society of child soldiers that forces assimilation or violence on anyone that opposes them as heroes.

And her obsession with European features and how all characters of color are half white and change their last names (super common practice in Israel). They either assimilate to the European/Nephilim culture, or they're demonic beings that want to kill the heroes.

Sarah J Maas too, and her obsessions with imperialism = good! colonization = good!, if I grow bored of ruling I'll go on a colonization spree to bring culture to savage people! (Idk if you've read her books)

I'm jewish but I grew up in a mixed family (of ethnicities and religions) and my jewish mom is an atheist who taught me Zionism is a racist, fascist ideology so I always avoided Israel like the plague. I regret staying ignorant for so long and not educating myself sooner. Now that I have, I see works by Jewish authors in a different light. And it makes me nauseous 🤢

During the early years of the series publication Clare’s biases were especially well out there, pretty implicit in her writing. There was the mess with the “I think” post, her favoritism of specific appearances (that to this day apply!), the favoritism of the Nephilim in general—the whole character of Jace Herondale himself! It’s not at all unfounded idea that what you said could be true. The same themes certainly are present in her works.

(I haven’t read anything from Sarah J Maas, but I’ll take your word for it.)

The whole series pretty much—including the child soldiers—romanticizes war. The true and heavy losses are not focused on (Max, anyone?), are brushed aside if they do not serve the anguish of a main character, death in battle is trivial if it is either the nameless/minor characters or the bad guys dying. But it could be a more general problem with young adult literature as well, not excluding that.

It’s rather unfortunate for Clare’s actual and true fans that she remains silent. I haven’t seen or found any statement from her. One TikTok commenter said that they needed her “to be one of the good ones.” It’s sad that her supporters who pour their heart, love, time, and money (!!!) into her and her works have to teeter on the edge of uncertainty because she is saying nothing. Clever really, being silent as if trying to play both sides in order not to alienate or lose either side of her fan base (and I don’t even know what other people) as if people will forever be satisfied with not making a stand of any kind.

Clare is a New York Times best-selling author, multiple times over, she has a platform. She has the platform to amplify the voices in Gaza, to condemn the action of IDF, even as little as to show support for the innocent civilians suffering in inhumane conditions, but it seems there’s nothing. I obviously can’t say what she could be doing that is not public, but if you’re doing charity or giving aid to the people—a big if since what do I know what she really thinks or does—it’s still strange that you wouldn’t share that at all.

Don’t be too hard on yourself and shame yourself for not knowing sooner or not knowing better earlier. There’s ton of things around us—media most of all—that might affect the amount of information people even receive about this, or any issues around the world. A lot of people, including myself, learn more and more over time, and the point is learning and becoming more aware of the absolute tragedy and horror that is happening in Palestine and has been happening for decades already.

#Anti CC #Anti Cassandra Clare #Reply

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