#- alec lightwood actually

[helenofblackthorns]

kinda bothers me that so many people misinterpreted Malec break up era as Alec being biphobic (therefore the books are Bad). does Alec does say things to Magnus that are biphobic? yes. but i feel like it's very obvious that he's not saying them because Magnus has dated many people of both genders in the past but because he outright refuses to tell him anything about them. like Magnus won't even tell him how old he is, he just brushes him off & makes jokes about it. and that would make anyone a bit of an asshole I fear

[tiredandoptimistic]

Okay, so I'm rereading "The Course of True Love (And First Dates)," and I just got completely knocked out by this one line from Catarina

Because like, she's joking! It's literally just a joke about how seriously Magnus is treating this one date (and Magnus replies as such), because they both know that warlocks don't tend to get married, that Magnus specifically has spent mortal lifetimes with people and yet never found one who considered marrying him. And yet! This random Shadowhunter who awkwardly asked him out, who Magnus accepted on a whim and is panicking about over the phone will end up being the person he marries. I'm not normally in the Malec trenches, but I'm kinda getting hit by the way Alec completely turned Magnus's life around, how he turned the idea of a wedding from a joke to a reality.

[booksandmore]

i really would not change a single thing about the malec plotline (breakup and all) but sometimes i really do wish we got to see alec date at least one other person yk? and i dont mean that in a pre-cog focing himself to date a woman to hide his sexuality way, i mean in a post-breakup rebound/fling kinda way like i just know the drama would be legendary

[dayque]

*At the end of a meeting with the centurions and students of the scalomancer*

Ty: Alexander! I wanted to thank you for your work as Consul, having a person like me in such an important position, promoting laws that include us and showing the rest of the shadowhunters what we are capable of... It's something I never thought possible before you.

Alec: It's a pleasure to serve the Clave as someone who is gay, we are just as capable of do a good job as

Ty: I was talking about the autism... But being gay is also cool

[idk-i-just-really-like-tsc]

but daddy i love him by taylor swift but it’s alec lightwood throwing away the clave and his parents and everyone’s expectations for magnus

[spicyvampire]

“Hello. Who is this?”

SHADOWHUNTERS 1.05 “Moo Shu to Go”

[lurafita]

I'm back on cracky demon!Magnus!!!

Let's say when first coming to earth, Magnus has a very literal understanding of the language. So when overhearing a conversation between two women about "catching a boyfriend", he makes an honest to god trap, involving a chocolate parfait and a net. Alec will never, ever, ever admit that his secret sweet tooth landed him with a demonic boyfriend.

.

[buffyspeak]

shadowhunters rewatch 2023:

2.01 vs 3.10

[amrubrum]

if she kills off someone from the tmi gang then what

[im-out-of-it]

THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS

Magnus doesn’t push Alec to come out and seriously, I love this so much. I haven’t been watching the show but I’ve just been reminded of my love for show Malec. I seriously love how Magnus isn’t acting it’s the end of the world if Alec doesn’t come out. Magnus understands that Alec has responsibilities, obligations, and is closeted. it seriously breaks my heart and disgusts me how Malec is written in the books

I know I bitch about it ALL THE TIME but they didn’t deserve that treatment! I take zero issues with Alec being concerned that he’s not living up to Magnus’s standards or feeling that Magnus is going to move on after Alec is dead, like I don’t have any issue with his concerns. it’s understandable especially since he’s never been with anyone before, he’s a mortal, and at the time, I don’t think he really understands love. I’m not on board with Alec having feelings for jace. I don’t think he truly did. and even if he did, that is the most toxic relationship Alec could have. Jace treats him like shit and as show Simon said, jace treats Alec as a lap dog.

I just love the fact that Magnus isn’t throwing a fit (especially for a hundreds years + warlock who knows a thing about being out) of Alec isn’t automatically ready to come out and be in a relationship. he’s not making asinine statements like “oh you treat everyone like that?” or just making small remarks when Alec isn’t ready to come out to the clave. I don’t like how the book doesn’t really go on or make it clear what would happen if someone came out to the bigoted clave. and it’s been centuries since I read TMI so I can’t remember exact details but I know Magnus and jace were awful to him before he actually came out, and it’s not talked of much of the aftermath when he does get with Magnus. there’s a line where he says how other shadowhunters talk to him but it’s just a mention, and never dived in more after that

I don’t know what happened from TLH to TMI to make almost all the families so fucking hateful

but Magnus understands that Alec is trying to repair his family’s honor and he’s not out here saying stuff like “well if you marry Lydia, then you don’t really want me.” this is why I love that Alec is older in the show. y’all he is 17 (I’m pretty sure) in the books and that’s really fucking young. to be sure that you’re ready to come out to the most hateful, bigoted clave who will likely shun you and treat you less than and be in a committed relationship with a downworlder who is a powerful warlock.

I’m just saying, that I don’t think anyone understood, realized, or cared about the gravity of the situation. Jace is no better and we’ve already spoken of how he’s the worst parabatai and friend but the way Magnus treats Alec in the books (because cc doesn’t know how to write healthy couples and lgbt+ rep) is atrocious. and I really hate how he gets blamed for almost everything in the books. I’m a huge Malec fan (show Malec) and it’s hurtful in a way to see how they’re written. and I know cc planned on killing Alec off. it’s obvious she didn’t give a flying fuck about him, about Magnus, about any of the downworlders, about any of the minor characters, anyone who is a POC, lgbtq+ or any of her back up characters, IT IS OBVIOUS

and this is reason #78191717922 why I will always hype up and prefer the show over the books. and when I say the show, I’m mostly referring to Malec. Malec understanding Alec before Alec truly understands or I suppose admits what he wants is beautiful. show magnus, he gets it and I think that’s lovely

[faejilly]

so I wanted to riff off of @alexanderlightweight's response to the Alec/Bow/Quiver/summoning meta post by @ralfstrashcan that I reblogged recently, but also I didn't want it to get lost in an increasingly long reblog chain, so I'm gonna quote and start over here:

100%

my headcanon is that it's alec's shadowhunter ability like clary's rune ability and apparently the herondale ghost talking ability(??)

if we really want to take it a step further. we can even talk about how izzy has specially made weapons that have to be super tricky to use which means weapons ability

but that's just my brain. which made that one scene where alec goes back to the institute make no sense, to retrieve his bow because literally every other time he doesn't need to (they just wanted to give clace the training moment and set up the whole hodge thing)

1: I also think Alec's 'have to go get a bow' is just an excuse, but he's using it to a) get away from Jace behaving incomprehensibly & Clary being So Very Clary, AND b) to cover their tracks now that he's realized just HOW comprehensively his siblings are going to go off the rails in the next day or so. (And on a narrative level I really like the scene with Hodge so I'm glad it exists. 😅)

2: I headcanon that part of the reason Alec (& to a lesser extent but still noticeably so, Izzy) can get away with pushing so many Clave/Nephilim boundaries without actually getting deruned despite their parents being on Thin Fucking Ice™️ with well, everyone, is that they have inherited both Family Traits and that's valuable enough (especially after all the losses during and after the Uprising) that the Clave really really doesn't want to get rid of them.

(Similarly, there's some hope that Jace and/or his expected children might show signs of the Wayland traits coming to life again as they've died out otherwise. Obviously that goes a bit sideways once they finally pick up on How Very Herondale he is, but luckily he's Herondale so that's still a benefit.)

Truebloods: very literally truth-tellers. Variations on their skills include the ability to recognize lies, off the charts charisma when they are invoking what they believe to be the truth, and an ability to make the most awkward truths palatable to audiences that normally wouldn't want to engage with them. They were traditionally the guardians of the Soul Sword whenever it left the City of Bones, but that honor faded away over the years as the Council with the Consul/Inquisitor as heads centralized power in their own hands.

Izzy can be seen doing this during her trial, because even when her personal behavior has included digs & microaggressions against Downworlders, she believes that they as a people can and should do better and her speech clearly works in-universe because of that resonance of truth.

(She even occasionally manages the sincere/heart-felt clunky dialogue that works despite being clunky that Alec's so good at, and poor Jace doesn't, despite his best attempts, because for all he's a Lightwood in every other way that matters, he's not actually part Trueblood.)

Maryse has several hints of Alec's same blunt (inexplicably successful) sincerity once she lets herself stop hiding behind Politics & Expectations. When she's upset with Izzy about spending time with the Seelie in s1, she has a line that always felt very self-recriminating to me; (I'm paraphrasing here since I'm too lazy to pull up the script or episode): 'never trust a people who can't lie, they'll find more imaginative ways to stab you in the back'. She knows this about the Seelie because it's what she's always done.

(Alec's shock at his parents being in the Circle can't be because it's against their politics as they've never really tried to behave better. Perhaps it's because it never occurred to him that they could lie that well. Especially his mother, since he has a much better relationship with her than Robert.)

This means that Maryse buying into Valentine's rhetoric was invaluable to him, because she could back him up and help make sure people would fall for it, because she was a Trueblood. Equally, when she turns, that is part of why the Clave lets them back in. Her vow to now toe the party line is completely believable, because she promised on her children... who are also Truebloods.

This also means that their bloodline is one that would not always be popular since they can call out power when it's behaving badly; thus the apparent decline of Trueblood standing in the way that the show refuses to ever really acknowledge it in the present day timeline, and instead talks about Lightwood honor.

(But countered in the way The Clave doesn't move directly against Alec Lightwood, HotI, despite gay and living with a Downworlder, despite how much clear disdain he has for so many of them and their policies. They aren't willing to risk what a Trueblood could do if pushed into active rebellion.)

Lightwoods have a much more palatable martial gift. Their affinity for the adamas in their weapons means they can bond with them, sometimes strongly enough to summon them, manipulate them in the field, adapt them and rune them and enhance them in ways most Shadowhunters can't. (We never see anyone doing anything resembling Alec runing his arrows in s1 after all. What if most of them can't?)

As shown by Izzy in s3 as Weapon's Master, in Alec's ability to beat his parabatai (the supposed best fighter of a generation) when they're sparring with weapons even if he loses once they get to hand-to-hand, Izzy's unique skill with a whip, Alec fighting with everything he gets his hands on, from seraph blades to his signature bow to actual arrows for stabbing. (As seen in everything in ralf's original meta post and delightful fic.)

There's even something in the fact that Izzy was interested in joining the Iron Sisters (which while prestigious also involves even more sacrifice from a people who have to sacrifice a lot already and are thus vital enough that they let Cleophas join despite her past because they needed her) and yet Izzy stayed active duty -- and presumably eventually marriageable.

(I frequently wonder if part of why she chose to make herself as unpalatable as possible for a traditional/political match was a lingering bit of awareness that that was what The Clave most wanted from her, regardless of who she wanted to be.)

ALSO! There has to be a reason that Robert Lightwood was valuable enough to keep even when they got rid of Maryse, a reason the show reiterates Lightwood honor over and over again, a reason he & Maryse got to be co-Heads of an Institute (even if the general fanon that they were more constrained than most Proper Heads does fit what little we see), and we never actually see Robert fighting or sparring, but we are repeatedly told that his children are the best of the best.

But it's seldom mentioned as a compliment, is it? More like an expectation. They're Lightwoods, they have to be the best with their weapons, or what is the point of them? It's just another weight added to Alec's so-called crown, another expectation Izzy has to both flaunt and fight against every day so she can have at least a little bit of herself left to hold onto.

(The one thing Jace is good at, the one bit of the monster his father built that helps; he's as good with a blade as a Lightwood. It's the only thing that gives him hope for redemption, the only thing that gives him enough conviction to ask Alec to be his parabatai and protect his soul from himself.)

[helenofblackthorns]

Alec and Clary hating each other's guts in cob is iconic & funny but what makes it so much funnier is how quickly they get over it. by the epilogue they're both like "I feel so bad about all the mean & completely untrue things I said to you and for being really shitty/shoving you against a wall/nearly causing you to die :( im so sorry. anyway, let's never tell Jace any of this k?" and then proceeded to never acknowledge any of it again. by coa it's like it never happened at all. like it doesn't even get a mention in their inner monologues or anything. the one time it does come up is in tftsa due to Simon's incomplete memories & him being under the impression Alec doesn't like Clary. and when he brings it up to Alec his immediate response is this

like I'm obsessed with their dynamic, nobody's doing it like them

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

Looking over my main characters/the arcs I tend to write/the characters I tend to be attracted to writing 200k+ words about, patterns start to emerge (most of which describe me pretty well, ngl). So I'm kinda curious.

[booksandmore]

hot take alec lightwood listens to olivia rodrigo

[dayque]

Alec: I still can't believe I'm autistic.

Jace: The repetitive routines, your lack of ability to start new conversations, and the fact that you know by heart all the demonology books in the library don't seem like enough signs to me either...

Magnus: Don't forget his extensive and horrible collection of lance weapons..

Alec: Are you guys bean sarcastic?

[teaforthotxxx]

Sometimes I think Im ok but then I remembered that the characters I genuinely related to the most when I was 14 were:

Sirius Orion Black (2013/2014 edition but i still love the new version of him that the fandom has made)

Lestat de Lioncourt (Vampire Lestat vibes also highkey relate to his midlife crisis in Tales of the Body theif)

Alec Lightwood (book ver - sry to show ver but I can’t relate to being a top in anything)

Like tell me I was a bi catholic girl that had severe religious trauma and gifted kid burnout in a convent school without telling me I was a bi catholic girl that had severe religious trauma and gifted kid burnout in a convent school.