#- alec lightwood actually

[witchlingcirce]

Uhm thinking massive thoughts about how one of the few times Janus ever thought to himself while controlled by Sebastian is when he kicked Alec’s dead body where his parabatai rune would’ve been

[tiredandoptimistic]

I have a lot of empathy for Clary Fairchild, because I too am on the shorter side of average but somehow ended up surrounding myself with freaks of advanced height and ended up looking like a gnome by comparison

[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

[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

[im-out-of-it]

part 3 of season 2, episode 10 MALEC FIRST I LOVE YOU “by the light of dawn”

30. Alec just being fine answering the phone and fighting valentines men. like this man doesn’t need to be so fine doing the bare minimum

31. Alec complimenting aldertree which is a big feat

32. I love how aldertree is like oh he forgives me but Alec will never forgive you for giving his sister yin fein which she ended up being addicted to. Izzy will have to live with that her whole life. Aldertree knew better.

33. I can’t believe you have me saying another nice thing about jace but this is rare when he actually thinks of Alec (I know I posed gif on the right but I hate when the gifs don’t cover the whole screen)

34. LOOK HOW HOT HE IS HOLDING A WEAPON

35. Simon: you’re a terrible father, don’t you care?

36. it’s funny when you compare the book valentine to show valentine because book valentine doesn’t give a flying fuck about clary. he really couldn’t be bothered. he actually hates her if I can remember clearly. Valentine left his son to burn so do you think he’s going to care how his daughter feels about him? but we aren’t at that stage yet but Valentine has a clear purpose in his mind. destroy downworld, and make shadowhunters better- that’s his dream, not being a father. he’s responsible for his wife dying so Valentine is cool if clary despises him

37. THIS MAGNUS MOMENT (I’ll honestly probably will repost my three parts I already did but whatever)

38. I think it’s important to remember that Magnus always usually feels in control. he has his magic and he’s used to helping people anyway he can so the fact that he is stuck protecting clary and not doing anything, it makes him feel stuck

39. valentine isn’t playing clary

40. got to give it to Alan who plays valentine because he turned awful villain book valentine that didn’t make any sense to show valentine. I can’t stand book valentine because his motives never made sense to me and I thought he was badly written. his motives don’t make any sense in the show but I think he’s written a whole lot better

41. so Alec is looking like a dream for what reason exactly? I’m sorry but I think this is the hottest Alec has been YET and he’s been it since the first episode of the show. like he just keeps getting better and better. I don’t know how anyone who could look at Alec would still prefer jace. LOOK AT HIM

stopping at 42 and will do a fourth part in a moment

[lurafita]

I have this head canon that Asmodeus’ progeny have a sort of geas on their eyes. Not out of love for his children but more of a possessive/righteous sense of “you will Never collect my mark as a trophy”. Anyway, someone even touches the area around Magnus’ eyes with Ill intent and they are flambéd with hellfire and sent directly to edom. I also think that extreme emotional rage can trigger whatever fucking monster lurks in the parabatai bond (I mean let’s make use of that, that sounds like a fun plot device that was never used) so some ignoramouses kidnap Magnus one tries to go for his eyes and is fried and Alec gets there in time to see the attempt and turns rabidly feral. And moral of the story, it’s the only thing Alec and Asmodeus agree on, even if their reasons are different. Anyway, your John wick au made me remember this.

I know Asmodeus is super trash, but I have such a weakness for him being a good dad to Magnus. Or at least a protective dad, even if he is too selfish to let Magnus follow his own desires and would rather have him by his side in Edom. So even though Asmodeus is super trash, I still like the thought that he does hold genuine love for his son, even if it is twisted. So I definitely stand behind the protection eyes thing. Though they only really help if someone tries to remove his eyes while Magnus is still alive, if they kill him first and then remove the eyes, even if they still get vaporized, that wouldn't help Magnus a whole lot. BUT, it is still a protective measure, and making Magnus completely invincible would get boring quick, so I fully support the headcanon. The parabatai bond thing is interesting. I must admit, and a lot of fans will probably loudly and vehemently disagree with me, - but I'm not a fan of the whole parabatai thing. I have only seen the tv show for shadowhunters -, and I'm honestly not interested in the books after learning about some of the things that the books have that the show doesn't, - but from what I have seen of the parabatai bond in the show, it just doesn't seem worth it at all. We weren't shown how it is an advantage in a fight, only how it is a really bad disadvantage if your parabatai gets hurt and then you feel that pain too and then it's a two for one deal because both are then useless. The bond also didn't seem to inspire great loyalty, as it didn't keep Jace from going behind Alec's back early on, and it didn't keep Valentine from throwing his parabatai (Luke) to the literal wolves, and it just didn't appeal to me at all from the show's perspective. Nevertheless, I could get behind actual useful sideeffects of it like a berserker powerboost kinda thing if strong emotions get channeled through and then kinda wind themselves on repeat and reach ever greater heights and yes, I do absolutely adore the thought of Alec just seeing red and killing whatever he needs to to get Magnus safe, so I give many kudos to the bond beast monster hiding inside parabatai pairs. :-)

Also, how you doing? I hope you remember to drink enough water. Stay hydrated. And try to get enough sleep. It's important to fill your battery back up.

[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

[buffyspeak]

shadowhunters rewatch 2023:

2.01 vs 3.10

[bi-james-barnes]

my brain is so funny because what do you mean i know the economic journey that a set of spanish coins has been on and that Alexander Gideon Lightwood-Bane celebrated his 12th birthday the day after 9/11 in the same city but i can not remember which states are New England without a google search.

[amrubrum]

if she kills off someone from the tmi gang then what

[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.)

[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.

[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

[booksandmore]

hot take alec lightwood listens to olivia rodrigo

[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