#Shadowhunters Critical

[small-angry-cat]

Truly Will Herondale was correct all along

[aprill-99]

The best fictional friend groups are at their core comprised of:

1. A determined trauma bunny surviving on an unknowably proportioned mixture of heart eyes and denial/repressed trauma.

2. An unquestionable ride or die bestie operating on a never ending rollercoaster of total fear and unfounded optimism.

3. One anxiety riddled sarcasm wielding third party the other two tricked into holding the brain cell.

*****Optional Bonus Content******

4. A beam of sunshine who doesn’t know any better whom friend #3 is trying to lure in so they can catch a five minute break.

5. A streetwise genius bestie who should have known better. (Who followed one of the others with only mild, though constant, complaining).

6. A part-time/former antagonist who swears they are there against their will.

****LAST ADD ON*****

7. A side character with immense cosmic power and knowledge (who is not present for at least 40% of the plot because Reasons Tm).

8. A guy who can drive.

Sometimes some combination ends up dating each other. A lot of the time, it looks like a questionably platonic polycule

[mohabbaat]

i am sorry but swifties are truly the worst fandom i have ever interacted with.

[helenofblackthorns]

as much as I miss the tsc fandom being more active like it has been in the past sometimes I see a post from a couple years ago and I'm so glad it's not like that anymore. if the weird cliquely drama over people/ships/characters whatever being problematic or bad starts up again I will start blocking that's a threat

[iccarian]

 ‍ ‍  ❝ one bright morning changes all things.

independent multi blog written by jacy, highlighting verses such as star wars, critical role, wynonna earp, ind. sci - fi / supernatural verses, & more ! ©

[drusilla-carstairs]

don’t get me wrong that Jem and Will with Church art from the kickstarted is beautiful but every time I see it on my dash I just think. Why Are They So Skinny

[undead-knick-knack]

Fjord Stone/Tusktooth of the Mighty Nein and Jace Wayland/Lightwood/Herondale of the Shadowhunter Chronicles could bond over their confusing last name situation

[faejilly]

a while ago i watched someone react to 1.03 and were praising izzy for being an ally and like i love izzy but almost every time she brought up alec’s sexuality it made me super uncomfortable bc who would really want to be constantly in fear that your sibling is going to out you in a very homophobic society while trying to be supportive? and like there’s no way that izzy doesn’t know that the clave is homophobic and she still brings up it up all the time, it just seems weird that she can understand that the clave is racist but can’t comprehend that it is also homophobic, and she never really dropped the topic despite alec being uncomfortable with it

#mood

HOWEVER

The question arises... was Alec uncomfortable, or were pretty much all the queer viewers uncomfortable?

There's a thing with most media, but TV shows & movies especially, which have so many people involved in making them, and so many constraints behind the scenes that we the viewers may or may not know anything about, that sometimes the way a scene appears to the viewer is NOT the way it was intended/the way the characters take it.

Shadowhunters is a particularly egregious example of this, being a (relatively) cheap YA melodrama on a third-rate network whose entire production staff got swapped out between seasons 1 and 2, so 'lol what is consistency or planning?!?' is visible everywhere.

SO.

Is Izzy in-universe actually clueless/dangerous Straight People™️or were the writers/showrunners clueless Straight/White People™️who had no idea that half of their 'rule of cool' / 'quick banter' / etc. came across as micro-aggressions to the audience?

You can go either way, it's all a question of which you think is more fun/interesting/necessary for your own peace of mind/enjoyment of canon. (Fandom is supposed to be fun after all.)

A lot of people settle on 'they are that bad in canon' and write a lot of fix-it fic or 'nephilim have to deal with CONSEQUENCES!' fanworks, and those are great! A lot of other people go with "clearly everyone else in canon acts like they have positive relationships, so this is a failure of execution and I'm going to write fic/make art assuming that these people are who they SAY they are, and figure out what that looks like to me" and those are also great!

Just decide which one you're doing when you start, because combining both in one fic gets... a little weird? Hard to follow, at least. 🤣

SO: Is Alec uncomfortable? How does he deal with that, what does that say about his relationship with Izzy, with other nephilim, with the Clave & Council & Alicante? How does that contrast with how he feels interacting with the downworld, which is canonically a lot more self-aware and accepting of queer people and minorities?

If Alec isn't uncomfortable with Izzy's behavior, if no one else seems to pick up on it, why? Do we go with other people's reactions in canon and assume that she is in fact very careful with what she says where and it seems overt to us the viewers because we're allowed to see it? (Much like inter-party banter over comms in heist movies or tv shows; no one else ever hears it or sees it, so we can see and hear it for storytelling purposes, not for 'reality' purposes.)

If that's the case, what does their relationship look like to people in public? How different are public-facing Alec & Jace & Isabelle from what we the viewers see of their private relationships to each other?

Do you want to assume some mish-mash of both? It's more subtle in the setting than it seems so we can see it, and also Alec knows she means well even if we don't? OR SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY?

IDK, I have no conclusions here. I mostly assume that the show is a disaster, and these people all seem to like each other, so how can I write them that fits the results rather than all the dumb-ass details? (I like a lot of authors/artists who go the other way though.) This is encouraged by the fact that the technical/magical worldbuilding is nonsense so I'm making up shit all the time anyway, might as well add characterization to that too! 🤣🤣🤣

[kierenrose]

I am opening art commissions!!

Just fill out this inquiry form if interested!

[bytheangell]

𝐻𝑒𝓎, 𝓎𝑜𝓊!

𝐻𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒶𝓃 𝒾𝒹𝑒𝒶 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒶 '𝓉𝑜𝒷𝑒𝓇 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝓂𝓅𝓉 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒹𝑜𝓃'𝓉 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒 𝑜𝓇 𝑒𝓃𝑒𝓇𝑔𝓎 𝓉𝑜 𝓌𝓇𝒾𝓉𝑒 𝒾𝓉?

𝕎𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕥𝕠 𝕤𝕦𝕡𝕡𝕠𝕣𝕥 𝕥𝕨𝕠 𝕢𝕦𝕖𝕖𝕣 𝕔𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕤 𝕨𝕙𝕠 𝕒𝕣𝕖 𝕥𝕣𝕪𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕠 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕣𝕥 𝕒 𝕗𝕒𝕞𝕚𝕝𝕪?

Myself and my spouse are taking fic requests off of the 'tober lists below:

Flufftober Whumptober / Angstober Kinktober

Pricing: $3 minimum per fic. Higher donations will be prioritized in time and word count.

@thatnerdemryn (Ko-Fi | GoFundMe)

Emryn's Fandoms: 9-1-1, 9-1-1 Lone Star, Teen Wolf, Shadowhunters, Stranger Things, Criminal Minds, RWRB, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, New Girl, others by request. Emryn's Faves: Femslash (any pairing), Buddie, Steddie, Sterek, Malec, Hotchreid, trans/enby characters. Emryn Won't Write: Underage smut, canonically queer characters shipped with a sex they’re not normally attracted to, Billy Hargrove.

@bytheangell | @some-little-infamy (Ko-Fi | GoFundMe)

Elle's Fandoms: Shadowhunters (tv & book verse), 9-1-1, Stranger Things, Critical Role (C2), RWRB, Teen Wolf, New Girl, others by request. Elle's Faves: Literally everything. I love the usual ships, I adore rare-pairs and gen fics, too! Elle Won't Write: Underage smut, canonically queer characters shipped with a sex they’re not normally attracted to.

*Elle and Emryn reserve the right to deny any prompts that they don't vibe with. It's a very small chance, but never zero.

[think-pieces]

Sunjoy signing on

Something about vampires, I don't know if it's the age I grew up in. Or genuine interest and love for vampires. But by golly I fucking love vampires.

In almost any media context I love vampires. I am currently reading, Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda simply because it's vampire themed. Twilight, the Vampire Diaries, Shadowhunters, Vampire Knight, some episodes of Supernatural. I love vampires. Lore, history, stories.

I should preface, so long as it's either tasteful, OR (as seen in my choices), it's so tacky, it's good. I will argue, Vampire diaries has the best ~lore~ about vampirism. Do I think it should be as long of a series as it is? Oh god no. But the lore is peak in terms of the Vampire content I consume. I will say though, Vampire Knight has a strong aesthetic foothold. It could be the style of anime, the "costuming" but it simply is better in the aesthetic department.

Twilight. oh good god. Twilight is a mix (for me), of Vampire Diaries, Tortured Artist TM, Vampire knight. In the funniest way. it has a better styling of "we're techincally dead. frozen in time." there's a lack of warmth, and a strong design of hollowness that resonates in them. I do like how they unintenitionally write them as being the age they are "frozen" at. Solely because it makes sense. The lore is, ugh. But it has moments of clarity. just moments. Let's not give Stephanie Myer too much credit.

I do enjoy when Vampires are made to be "monsters". Why you ask. Because they are. If not for them being argubly the most humanoid monster out there. THEY'RE STILL MONSTERS. When Supernatural had them grow rows upon rows of teeth when they smelt or tasted blood. Shit was horrifying. As it should be. Edward Cullen shouldn't ~Sparkle~. They're nighttime creatures. they should burn in the sun like in the Vampire Diaries or in (I think Shadowhunters does this too).

I fear we as a society stopped growing for the better when we made Vampires hot and have them prey after actual 18 year olds. it is the obvious choice at times. Vampire hold a certain unnattainable sensualism about them. Untouchable, graceful, elegant. They are in my opinion, one of the best things to come out of the monster world.

signing off

sunjoy

[blqckthorne]

speaking my truth i loved chain of thorns but only as a fan fic. like as a novel that was. bad. but as a fan fic?? sensational.

[anarmorofwords]

[buffyspeak]

“perhaps this wouldn’t seem so daunting if you had been with at least one person before me” NOW IT’S MAGNUS’S TURN TO MESS UP HAHA. i understand the sentiment! HORRIBLE wording though. i love him <3

[iccarian]

 ‍  ‍ ‍ .˚ ⋆ 𓂃 𝑾𝑰𝑻𝑯𝑰𝑵 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑭𝑼𝑹𝑵𝑨𝑪𝑬 ╱ 𝑯𝑬𝑨𝑹𝑻, 𝒀𝑶𝑼 𝑩𝑼𝑹𝑵 𝑰𝑵 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑶𝑾𝑵 𝑭𝑳𝑨𝑴𝑬.

an indie multimuse blog featuring 𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍 𝐒𝐊𝐘𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐄𝐑, 𝗝𝗘𝗗𝗜 𝗞𝗡𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧, 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗢 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗡𝗢 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗥, 𝑭𝑨𝑳𝑳𝑬𝑵 𝑩𝑹𝑶𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑹 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑫𝑨𝑹𝑲 𝑳����𝑹𝑫 𝑶𝑭 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑰𝑻𝑯. . . . along with many others. scripted by jacy.

[hgtmigirlxx]

Finishing Too Much Information

Around 2017/18 time, my best friend Niamh and I did a podcast on my YouTube channel critiquing The Mortal Instruments book series. This series was called "Too Much Information".

Unfortunately, after our video on City of Fallen Angels a series of events prevented us from finishing, and videos for City of Lost Souls and City of Heavenly Fire were never filmed. Thus Too Much Information remained incomplete.

Until, hopefully, now.

Niamh and I want to try to finish Too Much Information. We're not promising anything, but we want to try. A large part of the series was taking the thoughts and opinions of my followers at the time, which I wrote down and we'd discuss on camera. So, if by some miracle anyone who used to watch the podcast and sent me things to talk about are still following me here, I'd love to hear your thoughts on CoLS and CoHF.

I know it's a long shot considering it's been five years since the last upload, but sometimes long shots pay off. So please don't hesitate! Get in contact and send me your thoughts ❤️