#the incest subplot is cringey

[di-daynamic]

Something I see in The Shadowhunter Chronicles fandom - particularly the Mortal instruments - is that people keep screaming about family resemblance and DNA tests.

Like, someone posted about how James and Jace both have golden eyes and therefore should've been clocked as related instantly. This. . . Really doesn't work. Alec looks exactly like Will Herondale. Magnus, Jem and Tessa all comment on this. So does this mean Alec is a secret Herondale too??

Shadowhunters are ultimately a small pool of people, with probably more interracial marriages and relationships (not to say there isn't racism, but all Shadowhunters primarily consider Idris their home before where they live so it seems to have less of an impact), and therefore everyone is related to everyone, as little grammatical sense as that makes.

Even if Magnus did remember that 'oh! this guy I knew had golden eyes and YOU have golden eyes and therefore you are related'. . . So? Where do we have proof that the Waylands and Herondales didn't once intersect? They can have common ancestors and Jace could've inherited the eyes from there.

As for people wanting characters to perform a DNA test - why on earth would they? People keep saying Valentine is a liar. Uh, no, he isn't. He was just charismatic and misdirecting and manipulative enough that no one ever thought bad of him, and later called him a liar when he showed his true colours. His values and goals are horrible, but to the Clave, why on earth would he be lying about someone being his biological son? Literally, what is the point of that, to them?

We as the readers know Valentine did this to emotionally isolate Jace further than he already was by making him believe he was demonic and wrong for having feelings of lust and romantic love towards his sister - the reason I find the incest subplot of TMI more desperately sad than gross or cringey - and make him more dependent on Valentine himself - classic emotional abuse - but the Clave has zero idea. They don't know or care Jace and Clary are in love. To them, there is not a single reason Valentine would lie about having a child and who that child is.

Even Imogen Herondale, who - rightfully or not - blames Valentine for her son's death thinks well enough of him to believe he would trade the Mortal Instruments for Jace's life. We know Valentine would sacrifice his children's lives for his goal, but the Clave doesn't despite everything he's done. So even if they DID believe he might have a reason to lie, they wouldn't believe that someone would lie about their blood, something so sacred to them.

Maryse and Robert know Jonathan Morgenstern had black eyes. They either didn't remember that - plausible, considering they only saw him a few times more than a decade and a half ago - or they were just hurt and betrayed and also saw no reason why Valentine would lie about this. No one except the readers - and Jace and Clary with the benefit of hindsight - would. Not to mention that Jonathan was an infant and eye colours occasionally change at that time.

"So the first time I ever told Maryse that my middle name was Christopher, she told herself that she’d just remembered wrong, and Christopher had been Michael’s son’s middle name. It had been ten years, after all. But that was when she started calling me Jace: It was like she wanted to give me a new name, something that belonged to her, to my life in New York."

So. The Clave and the adults had no reason to order or want a DNA test. Now for TMI gang.

Besides the fact that they had no reason to disbelieve Valentine, Clary and Jace were hurt and desparing and disbelieving over the fact that they were supposedly siblings. To do a DNA test would mean to show hope that they WEREN'T siblings, which they couldn't afford to do. They keep having to remind themselves of their blood relation anyway, why on earth would they have enough doubt in it to do a DNA test? Thinking 'But what if he/she is not my brother/sister' would be way too painful.

Alec, Isabelle and Simon actually had the most probability of doing this. These three, I can see suggesting a DNA test. Especially Simon. But he has his own feelings to think about - he finally got the girl, why would he jeopardize that? I'm not saying he purposefully thought about getting a DNA test and thought 'no, if it comes negative she'll go to Jace' but in combination with the facts that he knew Valentine had raised Jace and had no reason NOT to believe that Clary and Jace weren't siblings, and that he wouldn't want to dredge all this up for Clary and hurt her, it is perfectly understandable that he didn't think of confirming their blood relation.

Alec and Isabelle, I think, don't understand how this is a bigger deal than Jace being Valentine's son. We see this in the Seelie Court - Isabelle compares the prospect of a Clace kiss to one between her and Alec and looks astonished when she sees how desperate and passionate it was. Also, even if Isabelle rebels by dating Downworlders, she, Alec and Jace up till the beginning of TMI were perfectly law-abiding and genuinely saw the Clave as a good force and adults and authority as people to be obeyed. If the adults believed Valentine's words, who are they to question it? They are more worried about how Jace is dealing with the revelation rather than how true the revelation is. In City of Glass Isabelle tells Clary she wants to never see her again because of how much her mere presence hurts her brother.

But what if they're not siblings? is not a thought that crossed anyone's mind, because no one except Jocelyn had the information to make that a possibility, and no one thought Valentine had any reason to lie about that.

[raytorosaurus]

wait, did the umbrella academy have a step sibling romance subplot?

under a cut for discussions of the above content and also mild comics spoilers if you care about that lol

yep, the comics are very textually about reactions to extreme trauma (familial trauma but with the extra layer of being famous and under scrutiny from the public eye since childhood - its own kind of isolation) and the characters are intentionally flawed and do fucked up things. the whole point is that it's a dark subversion of the superhero team genre, which was a lot more original/groundbreaking in 2007 than it appears now (definitely not the first one ofc - gerard was inspired by watchmen and doom patrol, and the boys came out not long before etc, but it did win an eisner back then for a reason). in the comics, rumor goes through a divorce and loses custody of her child, then reacquaints with her step-siblings who she hasn't seen in years after hargreeves's death. because she feels incapable of giving or receiving real love or human connection, has been taught from infancy that her power and her physical beauty are the only worthwhile things about her, and has nobody else in the world, she uses her power to make spaceboy fall in love with her. it's textually a non-consensual relationship right from the start and is acknowledged as a fucked up & harmful trauma response and treated as such. these aren't comics for kids lol.

imo the fundamental issue with the show that makes it unpalatable to me is that it tries to water down the content for a netflix (and preteen) audience, but then they still left in parts of the allison/luther plot, only they took out the whole 'rumor' aspect and ended up portraying as. romantic. and not tragic and disturbing lol. so the show had to backpedal and didn't textually denounce it as anything more than harmlessly cringey until like season 3. a similar thing happens to the seance's addiction storyline, which is a big deal and has very real consequences in the comics but kinda got played for laughs in later episodes of the show, and with portrayals of genuine disability, almost all of which are erased in the netflix adaptation (spaceboy requires a full-body mechanised assistive device to move, rumor is missing an arm and the kraken an eye, and vanya acquires a traumatic brain injury which impairs her motor and cognitive functioning etc.)

i'm certainly not saying the comics are perfect - their biggest issue is how white they are (which gerard has acknowledged and said he regrets) and some (presumably) unintentional racist imagery/stereotypes (e.g. the bodyguard abhijat who feels tokenised, and most other characters of colour being background non-speaking roles etc). those are things the comics can, should, and have been criticised for, but i don't see the step-sibling incest as it's portrayed in the comics as ~problematic - it's definitely supposed to be uncomfortable, at least in my reading of it. much more than it is in the show, in any case.

so overall like. the comics are super not for everyone, even beyond gerard's unconventional pacing/writing style that i know some people don't vibe with. they weren't meant for a wide audience. they're very dark and are primarily about fucked up trauma responses more than anything else - luther and allison's relationship is just one of these. i personally love the comics but it's totally understandable if other people find them unpalatable - but yk, dark media isn't immoral when it knows what it's doing. imo if the show was going to leave some of those darker plot points in they should have made the entire tone of the show darker and raised the rating; otherwise, they should have left out aspects like the step-sibling incest.

but yeah, tl;dr yes there's step-sibling incest in both versions, but it's treated very differently in both and imo is so much grosser in the show becuase they tried to make it palatable at first for some fkn reason lmao.

and beyond your question and just in general, the tv show being attributed to gerard when it's not his artistic content bothers me so so so much skdkffk. even if i totally loved the show, i can't staaaand things being miscredited, especially creative things. gerard's given steve blackman his blessing to make the show his own vision, and says he considers the comics and the netflix version entirely separate entities and has made a conscious effort to distance himself from the latter.

[tylerstitties]

What’s my favorite movie?

@lindszeppelin tagged me! thanks, bb! :)

If y’all noticed my previous username/current fic nom de plume, you’d be able to guess pretty easily what my fave movie of all time is:

I’ve loved Back to the Future since I was a little kid. I remember getting so hyped for BTTF II when it came out in theaters (even though I was only, like, 5) simply because I was a huge fan of the first movie. The OG film has always been close to my heart, and it’s mainly due to nostalgia at this point. Sure, I’ve seen movies that were superior both technically and storywise, but BTTF takes me right back to being a lil kid seeing the Delorean hit 88mph and zooming off on a fiery trail through the space-time continuum. Oh, and this score:

The characters are all awesome, the story is fun, Marty’s perpetual confusion is highly relatable, and the notion that the future isn’t yet written and can be changed is really empowering in a way. That’s a great lesson for a kid to learn.

And let’s be real. “You’re my density,” is the best pickup line of all time. If someone said this to me, I’d be theirs, period, point blank lmao

So, yeah. BTTF is my favorite movie. I’d like to thank Universal for not rebooting the series and beating us over the head with it. The first movie spawned a satisfying amount of content. I’m happy with that.

All righty. I’m tagging @tombwolf, @quicklikelight, @scottstiles, @sleepy-skittles, @queerlyalex, @elfysparkles88, @intthewoodsomewhere, @kimmykun, @scerek, @lozenger8, @pissoffghosts, @theboywiththepurplesocks, @poseysprostate, et al.

[cynthiaandsamus]

(Okay so I know I usually put a paragraph on here about the new Rick and Morty but I don’t have a huge amount to say about this one, it was a big dumb stupid plot that was pretty fun and exceedingly stupid but not insultingly so, Morty at least had some kind of arc and it didn’t completely fuck it over with the usual backtrack, the gender subplot was really cringey but thankfully was pretty brief and not actually integral to the plot. It was fine overall, that’s about it Giant Incest Baby may or may not be a plot point later but I’m always a fan of things that leave possibilities for later without necessitating them)

[mbcorvo-author]

Ten Questions

Thank you @sassypandacandy for tagging me!

Rules: Answer ten questions, tag ten people, and ask ten questions of your own.

1. What is your biggest writing hurdle? Getting distracted. Or getting stuck by my perfectionism and not being able to continue writing.

2. What is the work of fiction (written, filmed or otherwise) that made you interested in storytelling? I don't know. I always loved reading and used to write some short stories when I was little... I think that I actually started after reading Eragon because I remember I was like "this guy wrote a book at 15? I can do that too and write something better!" and then ended up writing a cringey Eragon fic to kick Eragon's butt...and then I switched to a something like epic-fantasy story that I never completed.

3. Name the most underrated character in fiction. Why did you choose them? Oh, gosh...right now I feel my mind going blank. When I'll remember what I was going to write, I'll edit this post!

4. Do you have a day job you love, or one you would drop in an instant if you could make money off your writing? I'd really love to make money off my writing (or off my photos) but right now I'm unemployed and I think that I'll be fine with a job that isn't that but helps me earn something.

5. What subjects in fiction are squicky to you? Rape is a big nope together with incest. Abuse it's okay only if it makes sense in the story and isn't added only to have "some drama". Also, as I said in another tag game, I'm not fond of gratuitous splatter/gore so if descriptions gets too graphic for their "meaning" in the story, I won't like it.

6. What’s the most experimental piece of writing you’ve done, and why did you write it? My third wip, the collection of short stories, could be an experimental piece since I plan to add short stories where I experiment styles and way to describe things. The first short story I completed is an experimental "melancholic" piece written in second person, so with the main character that narrates some memories to their best friend...and there's more about that, but I don't want to spoil the story!

7. Do you budget your time or are you more of a free-spirit? It depends. When comes to writing, I'm more of a free spirit like I write when I want (or when I can) and until I have the right inspiration. Same for the novel-related researches, because if I do it when I'm uninspired I can look at a page for hours without remembering what I was reading.

8. What’s the one project/story/work that most makes you want to jump ship on your current WIP? When I see other writers posting stuff about their wips/projects/completed works here on Tumblr makes me want to jump back on working on my current wip even when I still need to complete all the outlines and worlbuilding.

9. Are there any genres you despise, or have no plans writing in? Romance. It's so popular, but I have no understanding of it and I personally don't like reading a whole book about people falling in love and stuff like that. And since I don't understand romance, I think that the "romantic subplot" or whatevs will be really rare in my works. Military-related stories & historical are another couple of genres that I have no plans of writing. I’d like to try detective/thriller stories, but I feel like I’m not suited for this genre of narrative, so I probably won’t write about that.

10. Have you ever played a pen and paper RPG? If not, is it something you’re interested in? I played in a tabletop RPG created by the DM, but it was 5 hours of throwing dices and the DM was also one of my middle school bullies and I still have grudges. And he's a bit of an egomaniac. I played (and still playing, even if I'm planning to leave because of lots of internal problems with people entering staff to do what they want) an online version of a pen&paper RPG. Actually I played in different rpgs like that, but this is the one that got me stay longer...and also it's the place where a couple of the characters (that I changed and adapted, of course) of Beyond the Veil are born!

Super duper lazy myself so no new questions from me & also I'm tagging no one. If you see this and you want to do it, feel free to do so!