#WHY DID THEY TAG THIS ANTI ALEC STANS

[cursedlightwood]

can’t reblog the comment so ig I was blocked but here’s a screenshot

I really thought this post was gonna make it through without anyone commenting any wack shit on it but here we are! Let’s go!

About the forced-to-be-parabatai thing: they both made that decision as CHILDREN. Hot take, but, children are not mature enough to decide to bond their soul to someone. Just me? Okay. Aside from them both being literal children, you cannot tell me that there was no outside influence in the decision. Again, they’re kids. Talking specifically about Alec, he had a big thing for making sure his parents were proud of him and he has difficulty doing things that go against him. If they weren’t supportive of the idea, he probably wouldn’t have gone through it, and even that is a form of pressure for him to do if. He literally had last minute regrets and didn’t want to do it, but was then convinced by Izzy. His reasoning was that he was in love with Jace, and while that obviously isn’t and wasn’t true, he still should have been able to make that choice for himself, whatever the reasoning.

About the other shit you said: I never said that Alec didn’t love Jace as a brother, he does. I also never said that Jace was less important than Alec’s other siblings, I just said that he wasn’t more important. I literally say that losing Jace WOULD NOT BE HARDER than losing Izzy or Max. I didn’t say it would be easier. But I’m just saying that Jace isn’t the most important person in Alec’s life. Now let’s talk about Magnus. First of all, Jace spends basically the entire series choosing Clary over Alec and risking Alec and Izzy’s lives, jobs, and runes for her. The fact that y’all think that’s cool and me saying that, if it came down to the wire, everything about Alec’s story and relationships in the show implies that he would choose Magnus over Alec is a problem is incredibly wack. Alec was willing to stay in Edom FOREVER for Magnus, he would never see Jace again. And yet we’re supposed to believe that Alec would just act like he doesn’t care if Magnus dies as long as Jace is saved? It’s bad writing, bad characterization, and it treats Magnus like shit and like he’s just a prop. Alec loves all his siblings equally but the love he has for Magnus is on a totally different level. That’s what this post is saying, not that Jace is less important to him than Alec’s other siblings.

Finally, let’s talk about how Jace treats Alec. For most of the show, Jace treats Alec like shit. Are we all just ignoring the “maybe our parents were right and your best isn’t good enough” thing that Jace never apologized for? Because that was seriously below the belt. Totally uncalled for and absolutely targeting Alec’s biggest insecurity. Jace is using the trust that Alec has in him and their bond and how close they are to hurt Alec. When Simon points out that if Jace keeps treating Alec like shit he’s going to leave, Jace just pulls the “ALEC WOULD DIE FOR ME” thing while totally refusing to acknowledge the actual point that Simon is making or doing anything to correct the behavior. Instead he just lashes out at Simon. Obviously I’m not saying like kill Jace or anything but I am saying that it’s unhealthy for Alec to have this bond with someone who treats him that way. Anyways, fuck Jace Herondale lives. Free Alec.

actually i think it’s less that Alec can’t live/fight without Jace and more that he thinks he can’t bc he was forced into this bond at such a young age. Aside from the actual physical detriments of losing the parabatai bond (and parabatai bonds, from what I’ve seen insinuated, CAN be broken), losing Jace would not be worse for Alec than losing Izzy or Max and literally EVERYTHING about his ENTIRE character arc implies that he would always choose Magnus over Jace. What I’m fuckin saying is that the entire interaction where Magnus says “lll use every bit of my magic to get Jace back even if it means my death” and Alec is just like “lol thanks” is so desperately out of character I don’t even know how to process it also stop using Jace as a reason Alec can’t become immortal with Magnus also jalec is bad and also incest and even if it wasn’t incest it would still be bad

[lunaswondrousworld]

Salty fandom questions

Thanks to @darknesshadows @darknessp @malikaesthetics for sending in questions. I’m answering all of them together and putting my answers behind a cut because this turned into a bit of an essay. Because SOMEONE ( *cough* @dnteverdoubtme *cough*) said I should just answer them all (seriously, if I wake up tomorrow with no followers left I will blame this entirely on you). Also, well, salt. Quite a bit of salt.

Anyone following me for longer than 4 weeks shouldn’t be surprised by any of these answers (even though I’ve probably never spelled things out so explicitly), however for those of you who are new around here… beware some highly unpopular, possibly PROBLEMATIC™ opinions. Consider this your only warning and proceed at your own risk (or, you now, just don’t ;- ).

(I’ve done my best to ensure that this doesn’t end up anywhere near any tags, if it does anyway it’s not intentional)

All answers apply to Sh@dowhunters.

Disclaimer: when I talk about “The XY fandom”, this is obviously a generalisation. I know it doesn’t apply to everyone. Some of my mutuals are part of the xy fandom, and all of them are lovely people. /end disclaimer

What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get? While I personally don’t ship any of the canon ships, I do get why people ship them. If we’re talking all the ships in this fandom that anyone could possibly ship, I’d have to say ClaIec. Or Alec/any girls really. Make no mistake, I’m not saying this due to moral or ethical concerns – personally I don’t give a flying fuck what people ship, even if its VaIentine x a Vetis demon, whatever floats your boat – but I just really, fundamentally do not get it. I mean that boy is as gay as they come, take that away and you’ve got an entirely different character. Beats me really.

Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP? All the canon ships, current and future ones.

Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion? More than once. I usually live by “don’t like don’t read”, and I scroll past / blacklist a lot. But there’s a handful of things where my stance is 100% A and if yours is B or C, that’s not something I can ignore. In this fandom, it’s mostly when people post / reblog certain nasty anti opinions/posts.

Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP? *looks at the camera like I’m on The Office* (for those of you reading this who seriously DON’T know, just continue to the next answer)

Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you? (this one was sent in by ALL but one person, I would like to point out. So either you truly don’t know or you’re just here for the wank.*g*) Okay you might want to sit down and grab a bite cause this might take a while. You see (and that’s the part that usually surprises people) I actually started out as a pretty hardcore MaIec shipper in this fandom. Yep, me. Shocking, I know. I sort of migrated from the Teen Wolf fandom and everyone I followed back then was gushing about MaIec, I saw the first gifs on Tumblr (the show was already more than halfway through S1 when I started watching) and I thought hey, they’re cute, and actually canon, whee! So I pretty much fast-forward binged to 1x12 - through a pair of heavily MaIec-tinted glasses. My ideal version of the show back then, I’m ashamed to admit, probably would have been 90% MaIec, 9% Izzy and a little bit of Lydia on top (which was pretty much what a large majority of my dash was on about), I was totally ready to ditch everyone else for a short while. But thankfully, it wasn’t long before my brain remembered that I was capable of independent thinking, and I did a re-watch, and noticed that not everything was as picture perfect as it was made out to be, and I also actually noticed (and started falling for) the OTHER characters and possible pairings, most prominently Jace and JaIec (and honestly it will never cease to baffle me how anyone with a functioning pair of eyes will be able to look at S1 and NOT see that potential. Well, except for the MaIec-tinted glasses, probably). For a very short while, still blissfully oblivious to the nastier parts of this fandom, I happily multi-shipped (which was a first for me, I really am a ONE OTP kind of girl) both JaIec and MaIec pretty much equally, MaIec as far as canon was concerned (despite its many flaws - which where blatantly obvious once I cared to LOOK - but chose to ignore for the sake of happy shipping) and JaIec as a “God look at all that potential, in a different reality where xy had gone differently they totally would have been endgame” sort of way. And then that E!Online Shipping poll happened (the 2016 one where MaIec lost to CIexa) and that’s when got a first inkling of the truly ugly, rabid side of this fandom (back then I shipped both MaIec and CIexa so that’s probably what gave me a bit of a neutral observer’s perspective on these poll shenanigans, cause personally I didn’t care which of the two ships won since I loved them both). Around that time I had also started talking to a couple of JaIec shippers - who were lovely (looking at you fam) and refreshingly NORMAL compared to what I’d started to see in that other corner. Anyhow, from then on I was slowly distancing myself from the MaIec fandom as a whole. I still liked the ship in the sense that I enjoyed watching it in canon, even though, in terms of actual OTP, I quickly gravitated more and more towards JaIec (as I said I am a ONE OTP kind of girl so it was bound to happen). Long story short, during the long hiatus between s1 and 2a, (MaIec) fandom got exponentially nastier until, at some point – I’m still not sure when exactly - it just TIPPED (cause it definitely wasn’t like that back when S1 was airing, not to that extent) – and it suddenly started being “okay” to just outright attack and hate on everyone who dared ship either one of the pairing with someone else. With a level of vitriol and nastiness I have seldom seen (and I’ve actively been in fandoms since BtVS first aired, which was in the late ‘90s). Coupled with such a level of impertinent entitlement where everything has to be about or relate to MaIec, else there’s outrage across the entire fandom. And that, my friends, eventually managed to put me off the pairing for good. To the point where, if I’m entirely, brutally honest, I’d actually prefer to not see any Alec scenes at all to having to watch MaIec scenes, because this godawful fandom will find a way to ruin it one way or the other. If only by constantly whining about how it still wasn’t enough or “how dare that other character breathe while my OTP was about to suck face this is an OUTRAGE!!!”

Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated? I can’t think of one, no. I might end up hating something I started out liking (see above), but I don’t think it ever happened the other way around. What sometimes does happen is that maybe there's something I don't actually care about all that much and then fandom will start hating on it and in the end I'll like the thing out of pure spite. But if I actually hate something, that'll stay that way.

Is there anything you used to like but can’t stand now? See #5.

Have you received anon hate? What about? Nope, because I don’t have anon on.

Most disliked character(s)? Why? I don’t actually actively dislike any of the current main characters. I did Simon in S1 but I’ve learned to tolerate his existence (that’s as far as I’m willing to go here). If we expand this a bit to “characters I’m least interested in” I’d have to go with Luke and Simon. I’m just not interested in either of their personal arcs unless they are somehow relevant to my faves’. Also I’m not to keen on Maia or any of the other new characters they’re adding (unless they’re somehow relevant to my faves) for the sole reason that they will take up screen time I’d rather spend on characters I’m actually interested in. I did dislike Jocelyn, but, yeah.

Most disliked arc? Why? My knee-jerk reaction would be to say MaIec (bitter? Me? Naah!) but that’s only part of the truth. Actually it’s more “all the romantic arcs for the sake of romance while not contributing anything else to the greater plot or to individual character development”. Cause MaIec as a general development was an important part of Alec’s character arc in S1, and that whole “the girl who you’re falling in love with is actually your sister” an important factor for Jace’s, so I can appreciate them for that. But beyond that, I’m just not interested in any of the romance plots. At best, they bore me to tears (I’m not actually joking when I say that I signed up for a show where pretty people wearing leather jackets and fingerless leather gloves kill demons and are awesome together, not “the warIock and his shadowhunter and their epic romance”. I’m more of a “The Walking Dead” / “Supernatural” girl than “Friends” or “Gilmore Girls”, you know?). At worst, they make characters I actually like do increasingly stupid things to the point where I’m left wondering if they’re actually the same character I originally fell for.

Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why? VaIentine & Sebastian. I usually tend to like villains, and while VaIentine really often leans towards “ridiculous comic book villain”, I just love AIan Van Sprang and what he does with the little that the show gives him. And Sebastian (judging from what we know from the books) is just so deliciously fucked-up badwrongevilPROBLEMATIC™ that he’s inspired the keepers of this fandom’s moral purity to write up entire manifests why Thou Shalt Not Like Him Under Any Circumstances Cause He’s Bad Wrong And Evil™ back before it was even certain that he would be in 2B in the first place. So obviously I’m going to stan the shit out of him. Also, WiIl Tudor’s cute and British and I’m really looking forward to him and Dom having scenes together. :-)

Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why? As for what has already happened, I didn’t actually mind Izzy’s Yin Fen plot. I wouldn’t say it was my favourite, but I certainly didn’t hate it as much as the rest of the fandom. I don’t have a particularly sophisticated reason for it though. As for what’s most likely / possibly to come, I hope the show will follow the book plot for Sebastian as closely as possible. (I don’t want to say too much for people who don’t know anything about it and don’t want to be spoiled.) Why? Because I like darkbadwrongnasty shit. Give me “darkbadrwongnasty shit where awful things and horrible people happen to good people” over romance any time. (Also, it would most likely piss large parts of this fandom off, that would be an added bonus.)

Unpopular opinion about XXX character? He’s not as flawless as you all like to believe. That’s okay though, flaws are what make characters interesting.

Unpopular opinion about your fandom? It’s the worst fandom ever? IDK is than an unpopular opinion? Probably, since around 80% ARE the worst people, and they would disagree with me so...

Unpopular opinion about the show? The writing really is rather subpar compared to some of the other shows I watch.

If you could change anything in the show, what would you change? Age it up (have the characters be some of the actor’s actual ages, i.e. around their late twenties), move it to a network like HBO or Starz, and make it push the limits of an R-Rating. Also, put the main focus on the Sh@dowhunters, Sh@dowhunters politics, just all things Sh@dowhunters. Centered around the Lightwoods (including Jace). (And did you notice how none of what I would change would actually include “make JaIec canon”? Cause contrary to what large parts of this fandom seem to think, this is not all I / we think about. Wow what a shocker.)

Instead of XYZ happening, I would have made ABC happen… Well take a look at my shipping and plot preferences and then you can probably guess my answer.

Does not shipping something ‘popular’ mean you’re in denial and/or biased? I don’t know, does it? If you ask the majority of this fandom, it really means I’m all sorts of –ist and just generally a horrible person. Or something. Do I get bonus points when I act like I care?

What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom? Pretending to do everything for a higher, nobler purpose (shipping for representation and the likes), refusing to accept that not everyone else will or has to adhere to your own standards of what’s right or wrong or PROBLEMATIC(TM), and taking everything that happens on the show too damn seriously. Refusing to grasp that this is primarily a fantasy tv show with a main purpose to entertain its audience, and to earn the network money, not to make the world a better place.

What is the purest ship in the fandom? CIizzy and CIimon, probably. But honestly, nothing in this fandom is even remotely pure.

What are your thoughts on crack ships? Whatever makes you happy, I don’t judge.

Popular character you hate? Nope.

Unpopular character you love? see #11

Would you recommend XXX to a friend? Why or why not? As a piece of trashy popcorn entertainment to pass the time, yes. To someone who actually asks for a rec for quality television, no. Cause it just isn’t quality television. (And yes I know it’s a fantasy show geared towards teenagers, but so was BtVS, and that one still managed consistent writing and character development, over 7 seasons. But anyways.)

How would you end XXX/Would you change the ending of XXX? With the Lightwoods / Alec running the NY institute. The very last scene would end like the very first one began: Jace, Alec and Izzy together, just the three of them.

Most shippable character? For me personally? Jace. Generally (though I personally don’t actively ship them with anyone except low-key with each other), I think Izzy and Clary are pretty shippable as well. Simon too.

Least shippable character? Luke? But just because he doesn’t really interest me so I personally wouldn’t know who to ship him with. Except VaIentine (past times, and probably present time also), but I’m sure that’s all sorts of badwrongproblematic. Ah well.

[hgtmigirlxx]

Alec’s behaviour in How Are Thou Fallen and how to portray insecurity in a healthy manner

Since I won’t be able to make any videos this week due to unforeseen circumstances, I thought I’d offer my thoughts on Alec’s behaviour in the promo for Episode 7 ‘How Are Thou Fallen’ and how important it will be to the series.

I think it’s obvious by this point that I don’t like the books that Shadowhunters is based on. If you want to see why loads of posts will show up if you type ‘anti tmi’ or ‘anti CC’ into the search tags on my blog. The main reason is because of Alec’s behaviour in City of Fallen Angels onwards in relation to Magnus’ past relationships. He makes extremely inappropriate comments towards Magnus, insinuating that Magnus would sleep with anyone because he’s bisexual. Of course, as I’ve said in the past, I wouldn’t have an issue with this if there had been a character arch or development of understanding where Alec would apologise and realise what he had done wrong. But there wasn’t any of that.

Now, when book stans defend Alec’s behaviour, one of the first things they say is “Alec was insecure”.

This always struck me as interesting. As an extremely insecure person myself, I could never understand how people could justify statements such as: 

“Or, there are plenty of girls here, since apparently your taste goes both ways. Is there anything you aren’t into?” ~City of Fallen Angels Page 305

as someone being insecure. It definitely came from a place of Alec’s innocence in relationships and the young age he was in the books whenever he began his relationship with Magnus. I’m not going to get into the boatload of problems with Alec’s behaviour here, if you want to see my thoughts here’s my video on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md4n-jhNBpc

I’m focusing on the point of insecurity in this post. Alec’s comments about Magnus’ sexuality-if were made to portray Alec’s insecurity in the relationship-failed their purpose. There are so much better ways to portray a character’s insecurity than having them make such damaging comments in a book series that prides itself on its LGBT characters. And this is where the show comes in.

I’ve only seen the promo for How Are Thou Fallen (we all have!) and I already know that they’re going to portray Alec’s insecurity so much better than the book could ever dreamed of. 

In The Iron Sisters, Alec made it clear that he didn’t care about Magnus’ past relationships. It did, undoubtedly, alarm him a little during their date that there had been so many people in Magnus’ past in comparison to his own. Which is natural. Even Magnus himself was alarmed by how little experience Alec himself had. But there was no disgust; no grimaces; no comments made like the one quoted above; they were both simply alarmed. And that’s normal. As Magnus said, they’re both from completely different worlds. And that’s fine.

However, we see in the promo for episode seven that Alec is still insecure. I know there are jokes flying around about him being called innocent one episode and then asking about sex the next but you see that’s exactly the point. Insecurity makes you so self aware, and Alec will not be able to help comparing himself to all the people Magnus will have been with before him. He’ll be measuring himself up, and worrying that he won’t cut the mustard. Hence why he goes to Isabelle, his sister, for advice. 

Sex is one of the most common things an inexperienced person will think of being inadequate at in a relationship. One of the most common questions is the one Alec asks Isabelle. The question of when? How do I know? Should I wait? Do I not wait? If I wait too long will they grow bored of me? Because from my own experience I know what it’s like to worry that maybe if I hold off too long, my other half will grow bored of me. It’s a normal thought process.

Not to say that Alec thinks Magnus is a sex hound and thinks this is the only way he’ll be able to hang onto him. It’s simply a concern that arises quite often with someone who hasn’t had any experience when they’re dating someone who has quite a bit. That their lack of knowledge on what to do and how to proceed will wreck things, or become difficult for their partner to deal with. 

So Alec is trying to educate himself by talking to Isabelle. He’s going to his sister, who he knows has quite a bit of experience herself, for advice on what he’s supposed to do. And Isabelle will probably tell him that he’ll know when the time is right (I don’t expect her just to say ‘jump his bones and it’ll work out in the end’) but for someone who’s worried and insecure, it can be misconstrued as ‘it might not be right for me but it could be right for them’. And Alec is constantly trying to put other people before himself anyway he’d be more concerned about Magnus being happy and satisfied in their relationship as opposed to his own worry over the topic of sex itself.

And as we can see from the stills for episode seven, Magnus is most likely going to stop Alec in his tracks. He’ll reassure him that this doesn’t need rushed and that he’s perfectly happy waiting until they’re both ready for it. Besides, just because Magnus is not a virgin himself it doesn’t mean he’ll be ready to jump into bed with Alec immediately either. They’ll only have been on one or two dates by that point.

That’s where I think episode seven is going with this plot. And it’s really, really good. It’s a much more healthy way of portraying Alec’s insecurity over Magnus’ past relationships and his worry that he won’t be as good as them. Alec is trying to build Magnus up, and make him happy in their partnership, rather than tear Magnus down like he did in the books. 

Words cannot describe how happy this makes me.

I don’t know if any of this makes any sense but I wanted to get my thoughts down somewhere while I had them ^_^