#robert Lightwood

[bookishjules]

just saw someone say max lightwood's death was unnecessary, so much so that they said it was one of the things the show got right, not killing him.. as if he wasn't created to die. as if his death didn't serve as a gut-wrenching revelation of just how fucked up sebastian is and what he's willing to do to get what he wants. as if his death didn't make everything with sebastian personal for the younger lightwoods in a way it wouldn't have otherwise been, because he may not be their brother but he is their brother's murderer. as if his death didn't leave izzy in enough raw pain and guilt that the walls around her heart flickered and weakened. as if his death didn't heighten alec's fear of losing someone enough to make him insecure and vulnerable to camille. as if his death didn't snowball into maryse and robert's divorce and the growth they both gained from that, including, might i add, an increased appreciation and respect for their children.

was max's death sad? yes. was it made more so by his innocence and youth? absolutely. but that was the point. max's death is a crucial turning point in the series and to dismiss it as unnecessary does the series and characters (and author) a huge disservice.

[tiredandoptimistic]

Small detail, but I think it's really interesting how in the first scene where Alec and Isabelle's dad appears in TMI, Clary's narration always refers to him by his full name (Robert Lightwood) until he speaks up in defense of Isabelle (and by extension Jace), at which point she switches to calling him Robert. It's like he earned that level of comfortability with Clary by showing that, if nothing else, he will stand up to the Inquisitor for his kids.

[wikitpowers]

this art always makes me so happy i’m-

artist: @cassandrajean <3

[wzzeloa]

"Livvy, my baby, please, my love, open your eyes, it's Jules, I'm here with you, I'll be here with you always, please, please"

[helenofblackthorns]

robert lightwood's character is so crazy like in tmi he's just alec's homophobic dad and then all of sudden your reading his internal monologues about how he doesn't like women and feels like he's performing in nearly every aspect of his life and how weirdly close him and his bestie (who's in love with him) are. like huh.

[thefirst15livesofhelen]

this whole scene is so funny to me and has stayed rent free in my head since I read it the first time round

[culiehua]

[carelessflower]

do you think the reason alec was so frustrated and acted irrationally when magnus dodged or refused to tell him anything about his past or more about him is because it reminded alec of how his parents would treat him. close, there��s a special bond there for sure, but he was always in the dark, depending on any scraps they feel pity enough for him. needed to not ask question, to go out of the line, to simply act like everything was fine. and because magnus was nothing like maryse and robert, didn’t reprimand alec for his irritation, his anger, alec wanted to push and push, to see how far the limit stretch, until everything was out of his control

[perpetualprocrastinationisme]

I just want to know what happened between the Merry Thieves Generation to the Circle's generation to make them the way that they are. Like, how did these families go from being so respectful and kind to downworlders to their direct descendants forming a downworlder hate group that almost destroyed the Shadowhunting world. Like, was the Circle's generation just on something or was this a horrible, gradual shift that made these families unrecognizable to what they once were?

[illstuckwithclace]

You can't understand how much I've cried during the scene in TDA where we see Robert Lightwood's funeral and Kit sees Michael.

Like-

MY TEARS AR CRYING

[aleclightofmylifewoodbane]

will herondale will always haunt the narrative but can we talk about michael wayland haunting the narrative

[witchlingcirce]

I need to know where she got Jebediah from 😭

[tiredandoptimistic]

What I really enjoy about Luke and Maryse's interactions in City of Ashes is that they clearly grew up separate from each other. Both of them are in their late thirties, but they hold this image in their heads of who the other was when they were teenagers, when they were enthralled by Valentine's hateful rhetoric.

From how he describes them to Clary, it's clear that Luke looks down on the Lightwoods. He says that they were Valentine's closest lieutenants and the most dedicated to his doctrine, and yet he ignores the fact that he was Valentine's second-in-command for most of the Circle's existence. He knows that he had doubts at the time and then grew into a kind and accepting adult, but Robert and Maryse appeared dedicated to Valentine from the outside and have been separate from Luke ever since, so to him they must still be as cruel as they ever were. He sees himself as superior because he got out first, but forgets that he stuck around until Valentine literally told him to kill himself, while Robert and Maryse surrendered to the Clave voluntarily.

Then there's Maryse, who's still bitter over Luke's betrayal. Not because he turned against Valentine, but because he and Jocelyn set a trap that ended with every member of the Circle (other than the Lightwoods, Hodge, and Michael) being killed by the combined forces of the Clave and the Downworlders. Of course Maryse is being pretty hypocritical here, since she was fully in on the plan to murder a bunch of unarmed diplomats, but she does have a point that Luke and Jocelyn did nothing to protect their former friends. Their plan saved lives in the long run, but it resulted in far more bloodshed that night than Valentine's simple massacre.

After Valentine's supposed death, Jocelyn, Luke, Robert, and Maryse all went into a sort of retirement in New York City. For Luke and Jocelyn it was their mundane employment and for Maryse and Robert is was their place as Institute heads, but both couples spent fifteen years raising their kids and learning to be better people. By the time we see them in TMI, all four former circle members had come to terms with how atrocious Valentine had been and dedicated themselves to doing better with their adult lives, but since it happened in relative isolation, they all still remember each other as they were at age twenty. To Maryse, Luke is still the man who left his friends to die, and to Luke, Maryse is still the woman who stuck by a murderer until the end.

I just think it's very interesting that there are so few survivors of the Circle left in 2007, and barely any of them communicate with each other at all. Amatis was left alone in Idris, Hodge felt so abandoned by the Clave that he went back to Valentine, Robert and Maryse trapped themselves in a loveless marriage rather than give up the illusion of stability they'd built for their kids, Luke and Jocelyn denied their past until it came to find them, and Michael was killed with his family in a scheme that would never have worked if a single person came to check up on him in the ten years Valentine inhabited his life. They could have found a community through this common experience, but instead they saw each other as monsters for the things they all did.

[chibi-tsukiko]

Love Through Time ♥️

Happy PRIDE 2024 🏳️‍🌈

A tribute to the LGBTQIA+ representation throughout generations of TSC characters.

I had so much fun creating these individual pieces and compiling them together on this bulletin board. Each photograph has a little piece of PRIDE element in it (see below) and all around the board are little tributes to other characters.

I hope you like it and you all have a safe and happy Pride month! 💕✨

Let me know if you can find all the representation of other characters on the board!

Characters owned by @cassandraclare

Tag list: @littleturtle95 @zfoxdraws @bookworm-jedi @magnus-the-maqnificent @beclynn-herondale @khaleesiofalicante @my-archerboy @youngreckless @thomaslightwood @runecarstairs @high-warlock-of-brooklyn @panicatwallmaria @banesbitch @alexandergideonslightwood @ofsandstonebodies @la-lune-chaotique @starlight-in-my-eyes @tamaraheartz @anarchistbitch @iightwoodbane @icycoolslushie @zemiraa @raziyekroos @radisv @elettralightwood @axoloteca @queenlilith43 @astriefer @edwinspaynes @rinadragomir @carelessflower @sheisntyou

[dayque]

Although I love the Shadowhunter characters, I can't forget their social context. I don't expect them to be perfect parents, perfect couples or perfect characters just because I love them, I think they have strengths and weaknesses (like Alec, who learns quickly but has been raised in a colonial world and must learn day by day not to replicate that violence, Julian used to lying rather than trying to dialogue because that was his only solution as a child or Tessa, who escaped from her family because she wanted to avoid the pain of loss).

Idealizing characters in a book series, that is precisely about learning to grow and accepting our past mistakes to learn from them, is forgetting the entire meaning of the books.

I think Robert is the best example of this. When he was young he made a lot of mistakes, he married a woman even though he didn't love her, he was strict with his children and lost their trust, he insulted his best friend for something he couldn't change about himself and it was nothing wrong. But over time he learned, apologized, was a better father, got divorced and reconciled with his emotions for Michael.

Jace probably has to fight not to be a controlling father and Clary has trust issues with her children and friends, Alec doesn't know how to have a non-white family, much less one of Downwolders, and Izzy can't trust her own partner. Emma spent years following a murderer who sat at her table, Julian dangerously borders on sociopathy, Ty LITERALLY got into playing necromancer, and Dru and Helen feel like strangers in their own home.

But they will learn, because that's what shadowhunters is all about.

It's okay not to know everything today.

@cassandrajean draws

[generalcollectionparadise]

in each pair of parabatai there is one who is eager to find adventures on his head, and their faithful parabatai who is trying to save him: