#anti blackstairs

[edwinspaynes]

can i ask your reading for disliking emma and julian? (i feel the same way abt them hehe)

God I hate them lmao they're the only TSC ship that I actually despise. Idfk what happened because most of Cassie's romances hit a GREAT spot. But Jemma hits all the Bad Buttons.

More under the cut.

Okay well first I HATE Julian with a burning passion. Let's consider some of his most shining moments!

Drugging his disabled uncle for years

Maintaining a creepy room full of portraits of the girl that he's creepishly obsessed with

Getting off whenever Emma tells him he scared her

Sending a vampire to what will probably be his death for selling some weird pizza (no, idgaf that the vampire was revealed to have done evil later - I don't think Julian knew that and what's more think Cassie added it to make Julian more morally correct)

Actually killed some Shadowhunter kid who did admittedly deserve it

Fucked Emma while bathed in his dead sisters blood (I get comfort sex and am not bothered by that, but the BLOOD)

Emma ain't my fave either, but I don't think she's evil. I think Julian is basically the Darkling if the Darkling were younger and made pancakes. I do think that Julian makes her a more toxic person solely because of how freaking codependent they are.

"I cannot live without you" "I breathe when you breathe" "I bleed when you bleed" are NOT romantic and healthy sentiments I'm sorry! And his room of Emma paintings is stalkery. They cannot be apart and it's crazy. It's insane. I think people like this about them but it makes me physically uncomfortable. The "I'd do anything for my Emma and my family" is possessive and unbalanced, not virtuous.

Also it drives me CRAZY that he wasn't allowed to go dark at the end. Julian made a fucking terrible hero, but he'd have been a damn good villain. But I'm supposed to ignore the fact that he's an insane asshole with 0 regard for others because he's All Better Now and makes pancakes for kids? Nope, not buying it.

[sheisbeautyweareworldass]

“alistair” almost 10 years since alastair was introduced and she never bothered to not misspell his name lmao

[darcyolsson]

hi I was reading some of your tsc posts and saw you talking about how tlh character writing vs tmi and how cc’s maybe started actively making her chars more palatable because of criticism, I also think that while tda as a series is far from perfect (although it is my second fav after tid personally) it is one where, in books 1-2 at least cc took more risks imo with both the themes and the chars/dynamics being palatable in that way and fan response wasn’t always the best like with Julian being polarizing as a char, I also remember when I was in the fandom as the books were coming out a lot of weird moralizing about ships like people writing essays about how codependent and obsessive blackstairs are and how it was b a d to ship them and then shippers responding that no they’re not when like… a) of course they are that and b) it’s very fun and great that they are, codependency is sexy <3. Similarly weird morality discourse about Keirark/Marktina/Kierarktina at times. I think those things could have potentially influenced decisions for tlh especially your point about retconning what the original James/Grace story was going to be based on the whole vibe of the midnight heir. I also feel that while criticism of tmi definitely influenced some things about tda especially LM that departed from it TLH seemed very much like it wanted to imitate the success of TID and couldn’t fill her shoes, so that puts the writing in an insecure position.  all speculation ofc but just what that made me think about

ohhh thats interesting!! when tda was being released i wasn't really active in online fandom so i had no idea what the fandom response was. honestly, if julian was too much for the average reader, i get why she felt the need to change james from his midnight heir personality lol. blackstairs getting hated for codependency is very funny bc will & jem INVENTED parabatai codependency and everyone loves them for it <3

i think in general, flawed characters are a lot more acceptable now than they were a few years ago. i feel like in the mid/late 2010s, the general idea in YA was definitely that protagonists had to be exemplary people, and whenever a protagonist acted messily that would immediately be seen as bad writing, and i definitely feel like that that affected tlh (and even tda now you mention it!!)

i think you're right about tlh being influenced by tid a lot, or at least going for a similar vibe! obvious reasons aside, i feel like whenever people talk about tid's strong suits the main talking point is the lack of personal conflict between the main 3, because that created a really unique situation where the characters' relationships felt incredibly strong. and i think she maybe tried to keep that same idea of loads of love between the protags going in tlh, except that just left them kind of.... bland? bc in tid there WAS still loads of conflict between characters, just not the main 3, which kept it intersting.

that being said, i genuinely do wonder how an alternate tlh where james and grace kept their tmh personalities would have been received? i feel like this grace is still quite controversial even though i feel like her motives were explained extremely well and she's made as likeable as an anti-heroine could possibly be. i know the tumblr girlies and i would've ate it up but honestly... for an audience as big as hers, maybe it was the right move to make them more palatable? she could've absolutely changed other parts of tlh to make it more interesting, but when it comes to james and grace, well. who knows.

(on the other hand, it absolutely had to be james for tlh to be genuinely compelling. him not being allowed to break the herondale mold is imo the biggest wasted potential of this series </3 rip james who destroyed his carefully crafted family legacy you will forever be missed)

[rickybowen]

HALES • 30 • gif maker • multifandom

my gif tag

my giorgia sideblog

my meme blog

tracking: userhales (feel free to tag me! i stan taylor swift, joshua bassett, olivia rodrigo, sabrina carpenter, ship rini, herongraystairs, clace, malec, blackstairs, and rilaya, and love anything pink!)

dni if: a rina (you will be blocked on sight if you reblog my things with anything related to That ship), anti-rini, anti-jbass, anti-taylor, in a celeb rp, a smut focused rp blog, you're a creepy spank bank blog, a minor, -phobic, racist, etc. generally, just don't be a shitty person and we're good.

[karouvas]

ask game:

tsc (i’m sorry i always ask about them, my brainrot is strong and i love hearing your thoughts)

and community

don’t apologize pls lol I also am brain rotting hard and have few people to talk about it with so it’s appreciated :)

The Shadowhunter Chronicles

M/F OTP: there are others I really like or love in a more normal way, but Emma/Julian Will/Tessa and Jem/Tessa are the ones that hit on another level for me emotionally, I’m clinically insane about them. Also it’s a bit hilarious to think about, since this was formative media for me (I first read TID in late elementary/middle school and TDA as they were coming out in high school) how my taste in ships generally speaking was shaped… like if you look at pairings I gravitate towards in other fandoms since there are def patterns xd. The impact!

Other M/F ships I have love for (including this category because ik i don’t talk about them as much and in another fandom where I had less dynamics I’m super fond of to choose from I could have placed them in that first category think of them as like second tier Otp’s for me ): Mark/Cristina, James/Cordelia, Simon/Isabelle (last one also was formative they were thee hot girl/soft boy nerd ship to me in middle school. But it has been a while so unsure if they’d hit the same on reread, they are the tmi couple I would most like to see in the better in black collection though!)

M/M OTP: Jem/Will! And then follow up Kit/Ty Surefire ways to get me invested in a ship: they do necromancy together, meet cute with a knife to the throat, they break up without ever dating. Triple check.

F/F OTP: along those lines it’s Lucie x Grace literally the main reason I want to reread TLH (well I do also just want to see how it reads back to back and not broken up and I have other reasons but like. Those are less important) is to be able to properly write fic about them, like it genuinely pisses me off this fandom is so boring and tasteless I can’t believe I actually miss the legacies fandom they were annoying as hell but at least they understood that when women do dark magic together it’s polite to write detailed analysis of how gay they are 😭. The way I know cc has seen Buffy too like flop. Also it just fits archetypes of antagonistic femslash I tend to love in general see: Julia/Marina Aria/Alison Elena/Rebekah and more

OT3: Herongraystairs and then Kierarktina

Friendship OTP: Tessa & Magnus + Will & Magnus! And for familial relationships I adore all The Blackthorn siblings in TDA and their dynamics but especially Julian and Mark’s relationship is v compelling to me and I also love Cordelia and Alastair’s relationship v much it was my favorite overall development in TLH. And then for psuedo familial dynamics I Love Charlotte’s relationships with Tessa Jem Will and Jessamine. her relationship with Jem might be my softest spot overall especially because they have moments in CP2 that make me go 🥺 but as a documented Tessa lover I adore how having Charlotte as a mentor figure effects her arc. So those are my favorites Ik I failed at picking just one. Oh I also adore Emma and Cristina’s friendship although I also sometimes ship them romantically

Canon OTP: Blackstairs Wessa Jessa like I said

Crackship OTP: what even counts as crackship? I will admit that during my CP reread I did look up how many Will/Magnus fics there are on ao3 although I did not read them (there are 12 for inquiring minds).

Anti-OTP: The worst ship to me is Jordan/Maia but it’s been a long time so the vitriol has worn off and I don’t have another solid notp besides them but the other canon pairings I’m #unimpressed with are Clace Ghostwriter and Gracetopher … Lucie/Jesse probably irks me the most these days because I actually want to like them because the concept is so good but the execution falls flat for me and I really like Lucie and want someone more interesting for her (like Grace lol.)

Community

M/F OTP: ultimately when I’m actually watching the show it’s Jeff/Britta love their emmaxknightleycore vibes. But I did get really into Abed x Annie at one point and even wrote some fic about it over quarantine (when I first got into Comm) so I have a soft spot for that concept too

M/M OTP: Troy/Abed. They of course are The otp of the show.

F/F OTP: not really otp status but well I did write this Annie x Britta Carmilla Au: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27728689?view_adult=true

(I orphaned that account post quarantine)

OT3: Troy/Abed/Annie

Friendship OTP: I mean all the study group dynamics but I especially have soft spots for Annie and Troy + Abed and Britta moments

Canon OTP: Jeff/Britta

Crackship OTP: what even counts as crack …

Anti-OTP: I just don’t like Jeff/Annie I used to viscerally hate it these days I’m just like. It’s not for me lol.

[immortal-enemies]

Hey, I just read the first installment in Secrets of Blackthorn Manor (Emma's letter) and I am just. Ummmm. The way CC writes romantic relationships, we hate to see it. There's this part where Julian tells Emma "if you don't want to do this (renovate Blackthorn Manor to stop the Clave from sacking it), we don't have to, you're more important than a house." Dude? That's your family's ancestral home? It belongs to Ty, Dru & Co as much as it does to you? He literally told Emma "the Clave can have this place, just say the word." MY GUY? That is NOT your choice to make? Your gf doesn't want to do something and you're like "ok, fine, giving up my family's ancestral home, who cares if my siblings would have wanted to keep this place." Really? Julian, the alleged family guy? How is this EMMA'S choice to make? What the fuck. That's not a relationship, it's obsessive codependence and Julian makes me so uncomfortable at times 🤧

But... But it won't affect Julian if his siblings wanted it!! All he wants is his girlfriend!! And he's also not allowed to disagree with her! EVER! That's why CC made him so selfish!! 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

[bemtevis]

How would you rank the main couples from each tsc series? From healthiest to unhealthiest.

Ohhh okay okay!

1. Kit x Ty

I know CC will most likely ruin them in TWP but a girl can dream, alright? They were the sweetest in TDA 😭

2. James x Cordelia

I'm just putting them here because the trilogy isn't over yet. If James doesn't shut the fuck up about her boobs soon, tho, I will slap him myself

3. Julian x Emma

They have the same issues all of CC's main couples have, the girl drops all her trauma and emotional baggage to heal the broody bad boy with Kithes, but they're alright I guess

4. Will x Tessa

I don't remember if he apologized for calling her a whore and all that good stuff, but even if he did, their dynamic could have been written a whole lot different lmao

5. Clary x Jace

HORNY JAIL HORNY JAIL WE'VE DETECTED A YA WRITER WITH AN INCEST KINK, PUT HER IN CUFFS BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE PLEASE

Ty for the ask akdkdjfjfj

[anticassieclare]

Incest in the Shadowhunter books

1. Jace and clary

-Jace gets angry when clary says she does not want to continue a secret relationship with him -whenever Jace is angry with her clary thinks that it is her fault -not healthy

2. Sebastian and clary

-yet another incestual plot line, by now it’s obvious the author has an obsession with incest -Sebastian is depicted in a romantic way, even described as good looking -also not healthy

3. Simon and clary

-not related, but they grew up together and have a very sibling like relationship -slept in beds together (platonically) -LIKE BROTHER AND SISTER

4. Jace and Alec

-adopted brothers -maryse thinks of Jace as her son and Isabelle thinks of Jace as her brother

5. Cristina and Diego

-I don’t care if they are or used to be in love they’re still cousins -the author had the choice of making them related or not but she chose the former

6. Emma and Julian.

-raised together from birth, very sibling like relationship -she becomes adopted into his family after the death of her parents -thinks of his siblings as her siblings, they think of her as a sister -she’s basically like a sister to him

[julescarstairs]

Do you ever look back on the progression of a ship and get second hand embarrassment with some of the shit the characters do at times?

For example, when Cristina was going to kiss Mark in Lord of Shadows??? Because she thought she was drunk on faerie wine??? And Mark told her it was cranberry juice??? And then Cristina felt horrible and Mark felt miserable because he thought Cristina would only kiss him if she was drunk on faerie wine???

[julianblackthornhatesquad-blog]

Julian and Emma are killing each other, that’s toxic

[cardangodbriar]

everyone in TDA- Julian is the most incredible artist, art is his passion he is so talented and show-stopping , truly the next da vinci

the art they are referring to:

[edwinspaynes]

Every time I see a "TSC characters as Taylor Swift songs" post that isn't organized specifically by TSC series I panic slightly and scroll past the entire thing like a crazy maniac. I've already had 2 songs pretty much ruined for me for Bl*ckst*irs reasons and YOU WILL NOT TAKE MORE FROM ME

(However, if you DO organize by series, I LOVE YOU and we are best friends because you gave me more TLH/TID/TMI associations <3333)

[sheisbeautyweareworldass]

wow more blackstairs yay

[s1xthhouse]

"How could you not like Julian and Emma??" these heteros are going to get ppl killed that's how

[emmasjxlian]

so i just learned about how problematic cas/sandra cla/re is so i would like to request that we make a movie/tv adaptation of tda, because im emotionally attached i think that it actually have a lot of potential if approached right!

theres a decent ammount of representation(for shadowhunter standards, anyway) and i think that with some reworking and rewriting we could make some really great plotlines that dont shove poc and minorities to the side.

ALSO it already has the whole “fight against the oppressors” deal happening, and even though its written pretty white-savior-ish, i think that we could pretty easily rework that so that the downwirlder oppression is told from the pount of view of actual downworlders(mark, helen, catrina, gwyn, kierian, magnus, lily chen, and malcom, to name a few). the first book has the malcom plot, but after that it wouldnt be that hard to split off into 2 plots - emma and julian’s various parabati issues and the cohort’s quasi-dictatorship.

obviously this post just deals with my ideas to fix the major plot issues - there’s still a lot i want to deal with(like diana being transgender? that had some potential? and i feel like cla/re kinda just said “okay i have a trans character im good now”? and she did the same thing with ty! she created an autistic character and mentioned it like twice maybe, but it’s actually a great way to show more prejudice within the clave. and lets not forget helen and aline! the whole banishment thing could be used as a setup to show the hatred for downworlders already in the clave.)

and im totally serious by the way. if anyone actually wants to help me with this i think it could be really cool!

also if anyone wanted to cast me as emma id be down

tl;dr - the dark artifices has potential and i want to make a (much better) film adaptaion and i need some people to help!

[immortal-enemies]

Is it just me or do you also find the Emma to Bruce entries to be really boring?

Like I did not care for the new installment at all

Have a nice day <3

No, it's not just you, I don't really care for them either.

I also just don't like Emma and Julian, so hearing about them isn't something I care to read. I just glance over the entry and see if anyone that I personally care for is mentioned, and then read that sentence and carry on. If they're not mentioned then I don't really care, get what happened from other people and just look forward to next week 🤔

But in general, I personally prefer the letters from other characters.