#Horace dearborn

[weregonnabecoolbeans]

Scene from QoAaD that gives me a headache..

[rhiannons-bird]

tsc is actually just about fighting evil old men (most of whom are also terrible fathers)

[omgserafinablog]

If Horace was copied from Trump, then Valentine was probably copied from Hitler. What did he say? That there is no democracy in the circle? ☠️

[i-am-trying-my-best-okay]

The way this format can apply to the villains in each trilogy means a lot to me:

[marrr444]

Maybe it isn't Zara's fault after all. Maybe it is because she was brought up into the ideals and opinions of the Cohort. Maybe the idea that Shadowhunters need to be conservative and the hate for downworlders are things she purely adopted from her father. For all we know her mother could have been killed by a rogue downworlder and that might have caused his hatred for them. Maybe she just hasn't ever analyzed what is right and is wrong and has had her moral compass created by someone else. One thing we do know about her is the fact she feels the need to be the best and she will do anything for it, even if it's not right or even legal. But yet again, that could be because she has learned that Shadowhunters as a kind need to be the best. What I'm saying is that we don't know if Zara just doesn't have an opinion of her own or if something has happened (other than being brought up by her father) that has caused her to support the cohort.

For all we know she could get a redemption arc in the wicked powers much like Jessamine did (yk, excluding the death part) even though I don't think that idiotic backstabber could ever learn to be open-minded. But maybe it just isn't her fault.( I want her dead.)

[kaitcreates]

Horace

Max

[hopestrope]

Does anyone else just say "the clave" and think of the annoying stupid old clave and go like "uGH" and then remember we have Alec as Consul and Diego as inquisitor and everything is going well? Or is it just me?

[starrieshq]

My Opinions On Zara Dearborn

In The Dark Artifices, Zara serves as one of the main antagonist, along with her father Horace Dearborn. While there are multiple scenes in TDA (especially in QOAAD) that show scenes between Zara, Horace, Manuel, etc, I wish that Zara was a more developed antagonist. All that we as the reader really know about her is that her mom died when she was young and she was raised by her father, she (along with her father and the Cohort) is a conservative Shadowhunter, wanting to maintain already present ideas (the ID papers for downworlders for example), she ultimately wants shadowhunters to be able to be superior over downworlders.

Also to clarify, I DON'T LIKE ZARA.

[livvyofthelake]

i am currently experiencing the craziest high a human being can achieve just sitting on her couch i've just been taking deep breaths trying to chill out for ten minutes it's terrible anyway i need to Post about my friend alec. first of all he was there for me in eighth grade do not ever underestimate our bond i know i don't talk about him much these days and you might believe i don't really care about him but you have got to understand that my history with this fictional man runs deeper than any of yours and even when i had nothing i had alec. the bond a gay middle schooler who reads fantasy has with alec lightwood is completely indescribable unless you also experienced it but like. liken it to whatever you guys have with the angel from supernatural maybe idk. anyway the thing that has always gotten me about alec and magnus is that alec is a shadowhunter yes, but more than that he hates the government always. (i have problems with the show for reasons related to this but i am not talking about freeforms shadowhunters rn she is not my friend ok she is like my occassional late night hookup who hates me but the pussy is insane. sorry for that metaphor) anyway the way that at every turn magnus expects alec to be a Shadowhunter with that shadowhunter sense of duty and loyalty to their government and their way of doing things and their penchant for hero complexes, and at every turn alec is something different. because alec is someone who has experienced so many of the injustices of shadowhunter government and tradition, his parents were in a hate cult that they were manipulated into joining because of the ineffectiveness of their government and their desire to make the world a more just place, and they got out and were punished for it, and by extentsion their whole family was punished for it. because their governemt wants to show that it's all powerful and no one can go against it without facing life altering consequences. alec's best friend was raised by a man who taught him that being a shadowhunter was about hatred for demons, when really it's about love for humanity. alec is surrounded by people who have suffered at the hands of tradition, and he consistently turns away from it and doesn't let it break him or the peeple he loves. being a shadowhunter means having a duty to their cause, but to alec being a shadowhunter is about having a duty to the people he loves. in city of heavenly fire magnus is talking to luke and he says "sometimes it comes down to a choice between saving one person and saving the whole world, and i'm selfish enough to want the person who loves me to choose me. but nephilim will always choose the world" and later in the book when magnus belives he needs to sacrifice himself to save everyone he tells alec not to stay with him, and to go back to the world, and alec says "i don't want the world, i want you" and it makes me crazy and i think about it like once a week every week my whole life. he doesn't want the world! because the world without love is meaningless!! alec is a shadowhunter and he will always be a shadowhunter and a hero but there's no point to being a hero if there's no love... he doesn't care about duty half as much as he cares about love. and that is always what sets alec apart as a shadowhunter and as a leader, in queen of air and darkness (helena this is maybe a spoiler but don't worry about it it's not going to ruin your experience with tda if you know this) he gets voted as the new consul to represent the half of the clave that isn't part of horace dearborn's new hate group (shadowhunters always have hate cults it's like their thing it's like how americans have white supremacists. actually horace and zara dearborn are literally an allegory for trump, remember tda is a book series born out of the trump era, qoaad came out in 2018)

and the crucial thing about alec agreeing to be the consul was that he was NOT going to be a traditional consul. he was never going to do the ceremony and tradition bullshit their society likes to demand from it's government officials, alec saw his father get caught up in shadowhunter government and he watched him die for it and he would never involve himself in those traditions. he hates the inhumanity of shadowhunter tradition, that is literally the entire point of tmi and clary, the entire plot of those 6 books is that a group of young peple who fucking hate the government are instrumental to saving the world because their ideology directly contradicts the emotionless traditions of their leaders. alec is a leader because he is a revolutionary, not because he is traditional. that's what's so cool about it, he didn't just become the consul. he became the consul of a divided society and he is on the side of everything that is good and right and equal, while the other side wants to hide in tradition and rot away. that is the whole point!!! love is the point!!! being a shadowhunter is about love! they were never meant to be perfect stoic warriors, they were created out of love for humanity, they exist to protect people, to bring some level of peace to the world, and through time they forgot that, and alec (and clary) are the people that lead them back to remembering why they do what they do, why they fight this endless war, why they have to keep doing it. god. just truly one of the characters of all time. i need to just hit post now this is getting crazy

[weregonnabecoolbeans]

Me: *Reading QoAaD*

The Cohort: *does cohorty things*

Downworlders and others who are aware of mundane history: Hey! This is not good! Like at all! This will just get worse! I know this because this has literally happened before and your stubborn refusal to admit that mundane history matters is gonna lead to some really tragic shit!!!

Shadowhunters (who are basically an endangered species rn because of two wars they fought only 5 years ago that happened because they fell for the exact same propaganda from a man just like Dearborn and the Cohort) :*falls for Circle Cohort propaganda*

Shadowhunters: Uhhhh you’re not trustworthy or something…shadowhunters are the best! We could never be wrong!! Let’s continue to scapegoat entire groups of people because we obviously are the only people worth anything at all!!!

Magnus Bane: *the most exasperated and exhausted sigh to ever be sighed*

Me: Wow this book is a great example of why learning from history is important in order to stop it from repeating itself.

Me: *thinks about everything that is CURRENTLY HAPPENING IN THE ACTUAL REAL WORLD RIGHT NOW*

Me: *through tears and gritted teeth* Good thing this book is fictional 🥲

[rhiannons-bird]

TDA FANCASTS / FACECLAIMS (repost)

I’ve decided to add to the noise with my own content because at this point I’ve seen Froy Gutierrez and Timothee Chalamet fancast for just about every single male TSC character and I think we all deserve some variety. This will probably be followed up with posts for the other series in the near future. I’ve tried my hardest to find people as close as possible to my headcanons, but I feel like 95% of Cassie Jeans art still does the best job at representing what I picture these characters to look like in my head. Feel free to agree or disagree and let me know what your fav faceclaims are 🤗

Emma Carstairs - Bridget Satterlee (it’s not perfect and personally I still imagine Emma with sharper features, but at least she’s got the brown eyes and Emma vibes)

Julian Blackthorn - Darwin Gray (again pretty much the best I could find, idk why Jules and Emma are so hard to get right)

Cristina Rosales - Natalia Castellar Calvani

Mark Blackthorn - (Young) Gerhard Freidl (look I even added the golden eye😌, he’s def one of my faves with the soft and ethereal vibe he’s got going on)

Ty Blackthorn - (Young) Asa Butterfield (Ty was so damn hard to find, and he def wouldn’t work for grown up Ty in my opinion)

Livvy Blackthorn - (Young) Amalia Zadro (she’s literally so perfect I can’t)

Kit Herondale - Griffin Mark (sorry for the picture quality, he’s a tiktoker and I couldn’t find anything better, but LORD does he look like young Kit)

Dru Blackthorn - (Young!) India Eisley

Tavvy Blackthorn - Random kid I found here

Arthur Blackthorn - Jude Law (just picture him with glasses chilling in an a dusty attic)

Diana Wrayburn - Lehlogonolo Machaba (she’s a South African trans model, I know this is literally just fancasts but I thought it would be nice for proper representation anyways, plus she’s giving off the biggest Diana vibes)

Kieran Kingson - I’m so sorry I can’t find the original image source 😭

Gwyn ap Nudd - Ed Skrein

Annabel Blackthorn - Esme Creed-Miles

Diego Rocío Rosales - Jorge Antonio Guerrero (he def looks too old but otherwise fits well enough)

Jaime Rocío Rosales - Jacobo Cuesta

Manuel Villalobos - Zak Henri

Zara Dearborn - Iris Law (yes the eye colour is off but look at her she’s got just the right energy)

The Unseelie King - Rogier Bosschaart

Prince Adaon - Davidson Obennebo

Divya Joshi - (Young) Shriya Saran

Rayan Madabuchi - Ronald Epps

Anush Joshi - (Young) Jeenu Mahadevan

Ash Morgenstern - (Young) Lucky Blue Smith

Lady Nene - Pauline Darley

Horace Dearborn - Woody Harrelson

If you’re wondering where Malcom, Helen and co. are: they’ll be in extra posts with all the characters who are kind of all over the place. As for Johnny Rook, I just didn’t have the patience anymore…

Bonus gifs: Cristina looking pretty + laughing about something Emma said off camera while they’re being girlies together having a photoshoot

[omgserafinablog]

I'm surprised that Horace and Valentine didn't become best friends

[sweetbookreader]

Horace Dearborn 🤝🏼 Maurice Bridgestock

[livingfictionsystem]

Queen of Air and Darkness Review (SPOILERS)

It was good timing that I read this when I did because I was beginning to get self-conscious over the fact that a novel I was about to publish was nearly 600 pages. I am, by no means, a slow reader but this 900-page monster took A While.

So, the bad first. Cassandra Clare, please, I beg of you, stop with the 'We're so in love but we have something stopping us being together for three novels in a row.' With Cordelia and James, that was fraught and interesting---loads of twists and turns with the false marriage and Grace and all. It was also time-period relevant. With Tessa and Will and Jem, you came up with one of the more brilliant conclusions to a love triangle I've ever seen. The circumstances to Will's curse was darkly laughable and tongue-in-cheek creative. Clary and Jace---hated it. Categorically hated the incest bait and I knew they weren't actually related a long while before you probably wanted your audience to. Emma and Julian's star-crossed thing was almost as bad as Jace and Clary's deal.

The 'parabatai curse' felt forced and contrived. I don't recall any mention of this all-important plot device in previous novels and the explanation seemed vague and weak. The way it was resolved was an afterthought.

Also wasn't that big of a fan of Julian. He was neurotic and moody to the point where he made Jace Herondale look stable. Emma was wonderful, though.

There really is more to build a relationship other than to make it impossibly star-crossed, I promise. You seemed to realise that with Alec and Magnus and many of the other 'non-main' couples.

Speaking of which, I love, love, love that you Cristina, Kieran, and Mark to be your polyamory triad. It was a brilliant representation, but it took a frustratingly long time to get there. Even in the end, you teased us with, 'Oh but they were torn apart, never to be together aga-- JUST KIDDING.' CASSANDRA, PLEASE, I HAVE ANXIETY. But I loved their dynamics and Cristina is a *great* character. Perhaps it was my fault, being as I had such a big time gap in between reading Lord of Shadows and Queen of Air and Darkness, but I'd completely forgotten her plot with her family heirloom/Diego/Jaime. It wouldn't have hurt restating it to remind the audience, but that's also probably on me.

I wasn't quite sure how I felt about the journey to Thule at first. It was risky. On top of 'Make Idris Great Again', Star-Crossed Part 4, and Necromancy Gone Awry, I was sceptical as to whether you'd pull off a multiverse plot in the middle of the last book, but it actually worked surprisingly well.

One of the better aspects about this book is that it takes place a few years after Mortal Instruments and the Cold Peace. It shows how everyone, particularly the Blackthorns, were affected by post-war bigotry. The fact that this was written in 2018 was no surprise, as Horace Dearborn, Zara Dearborn, and Manuel Villalobos were absolute MAGA stand-ins, but I love how it translated into the magical world. And of course, seeing where Clary/Jace/Alec/Simon/Isabelle/everyone ended up was satisfying for any fan of the original series.

Wonderful with the queer representation. I believe this is the first series where you've done a transgender individual and I liked how Shadowhunter culture played into it. There were at least three queer couples on centre-stage in the entire book without it feeling exploitative, so bravo there.

I will say, the autistic representation with Ty seemed sort of heavy-handed. Just about every mention of him mentioned stimming or aversions to change and such. But as an autistic individual, I have no actual *problem* with it, as there are people like that and I've known many.

The introduction of Ash was mind-blowing and welcomed, I'd say. I can't wait to see how that character plays out. It feels sacrilegious but I almost sort of missed Sebastian.

I will say, throughout the series, Annabel Blackthorn starts out as an extremely intriguing story but it ends up nearly... written out? Like geez, have one bad breakdown and murder a couple people and suddenly, your character depth goes away. It started out strong with Malcolm's grief twisting his ambition and Annabel having understandable PTSD, but something was lost, there.

So, quite long and not without its issues, but absolutely worth the read. Especially if you're wanting some warm fuzzies about your favourite Shadowhunterverse couples.

-Xanthe