#the four original members that started everything and experienced the true struggle of their failure

[idolpyre]

thinking about the lovers of valdaro and thinking of how the no spin members bodies were found in the aftermath of the fire. thinking of them huddled around minjun, all entangled with each other because if they were to die in this soundproof tomb, than at least they would all die together. no spin truly ended with the four guys that originally started it.

[oncethrown]

We! Are! Family! (2x16 Review)

Building on last week’s awesome character stuff, this episode also did a lot of deep character stuff, did a fantastic job of using it’s ensemble cast to explore the same topic in different ways, and then offered us a lot of drunk Clary nonsense as a palate cleanser between scenes of actual substance.

If palate cleansers tasted overwhelmingly of garbage.

Alec Learns About Black White and Grey

Setting Alec against Robert for this whole episode, particularly given the hints we currently have about the upcoming episode, was masterful writing. Robert’s disgusting corruption against Alec’s naivete. Robert’s decimated morality against Alec’s barely challenged innocence.

And Robert’s dead marriage vs. Alec’s brand new love.  

Alec and Magnus’s relationship has faced very few internal challenges. Alec and Magnus are very firmly in the honeymoon stage, and the previews are hinting that may not be the case next week.

Enter Robert. Robert has been half of a complicated marriage for decades, and is currently married to a woman he no longer loves, and presumably hasn’t loved for a long time. We know Maryse and Robert were fighting last season, and in the books Robert cheats on Maryse sometime around Isabelle being either conceived or born, I don’t remember.

I’m not condoning cheating, but adult relationships are complicated, and I believe Robert when he says “It’s complicated”. There are thousand things going on in his and Maryse’s marriage. Maryse’s ambition, her dedication to the Lightwood legacy. Their shared past as members of the circle. Their shared exile from Idris, their shared scapegoating of Hodge. These are two people who, when they were young, fell under the sway of a madman, and then betrayed him and ran from their homeland with their baby and probably weren’t the same people any more afterward. Were not the same people who had fallen in love to begin with.

But Maryse said in the last episode that they weren’t going to get divorced because there was the legacy to think of. The two of them have probably had that legacy conversation a thousand times. They’ve probably loved and hated each other, tried to convince themselves they could get divorced, then ultimately decided that they couldn’t over and over again. And kids make everything a nightmare. They probably both love the kids, but disapprove of the way the other loves them, (and let’s be honest, they both abuse and neglect the kids, and probably only think the other does) and we know that neither wanted to hurt the kids by saying anything too true about the other. These two people are genuinely caught in this impossible, ugly snarl.

That ugly snarl is similar to Alec’s political position. He wants to run an institute, but it’s difficult to follow Clave orders and still be the leader he wants to be. He wants to move up in the Clave, but knows its rife with corruption.

It’s nothing like his relationship status though. He and Magnus are firmly ensconced in the honey moon stage. There have been challenges and problems, but nothing that changed the fundamental internal ease of the relationship. They haven’t had a conflict that wasn’t solved with love and honesty.

But that doesn’t last. And Robert is standing there in Alec’s office trying to explain to his incredibly black and white son that grey sometimes shows up when you aren’t expecting it. And Alec is going to understand that when it means how to discuss the whereabouts of the soul sword… but it’s going to be a lot more complicated as a lie of omission to Magnus. Being the head of the Institute and sleepin in the High Warlock’ bed every night doesn’t stay easy. In a way, Robert is a harbinger of doom for Alec’s story.

But Alec is also a grown up, and he has to accept parts of his father’s grayness as their story moves forward. He acknowledges that his father is right— he has to stay in the institute even though Jace is in trouble. He has to acknowledge that his deeply imperfect father does care about him, and is using the influence he has to try to protect him.

But he also has to acknowledge that his father’s influence has a dark origin and that his father has done a lot of bad things.

Which is a super awesome story to pit against Sebastian and Valentine.

Sebastian and Alec actually have very similar statuses in these two plots. They are both sons whose fathers have failed, and they are both struggling with that failure. Alec’s is corruption and infidelity, and Sebastian is evil and being sent to hell… so they are… ya know. Wide parallels. But parallels nonetheless.

Sebastian almost gets to be the emotional outlet that Alec will never be allowed. Sebastian and Alec are equally angry with their fathers, but Sebastian is the one that gets to scream and threaten and let loose on his. Sebastian could be Alec’s Anger Translator. It also gives us an inverse of Alec’s storyline. Robert fucked up and Alec didn’t. Robert is indisputably the bad guy in that pairing. And then in Sebastian and Valentine’s story, it’s not that easy. Sebastian murdered people. Because of what Valentine made him. Valentine was afraid of Sebastian, because of what Valentine made him. Sebastian is a monster because of Valentine’s fear, and Sebastian is demanding retribution because what Valentine did is unforgivable. It’s Alec and Robert’s storyline with the brakelines cut, and it’s a really well done emotional compliment to that story line.

What makes Simon’s entry into this Sons and Families storyline so interesting is that it’s so thematically similar, while every other element of it is wildly different.

The only person Simon has to forgive in his storyline is himself. On a day of atonement, Alec and Sebastian have long lists of the sins of the father, but Simon is angry with himself, and… in the end forgives himself (Neither Alec nor Sebastian forgive their fathers). Simon clearly blames himself for his mother’s drinking.  He blames himself for worrying his sister with the blood thing. He doesn’t hear Bubbie Helen’s criticism of his not going to temple, but it’s clear that he would blame himself for not going.

And none of them place that blame on him. Helen sort of hand waves not going to temple, his mother blames himself for the drinking. His sister seems to blame the other band mates for the weird blood gimmick.

Maia echoes this when she talks about her family and says that it’s not anger that keeps her from reconnecting with her family, it’s guilt.

And then Simon almost lightheartedly accepts blame for not knowing more about Maia’s hopes and dreams. He admits that he’s been self-centered, but they don’t agonize over it. Also, everyone apologizes to Maia when Helen assumes she isn’t Jewish.

It’s also worth mentioning that Alec and Sebastian deal with antagonistic father/son relationships, but Simon is in a scene with four women.

This is the kind of thing I really wanted to see Shadowhunters start doing, and they really hit it out of the park. Those parts of this episode were cohesive and important. They built on each other, echoed and contrasted each other and gave us this super solid thing about sin and forgiveness, father’s and son, and how complicated family can be. They also fleshed out our characters, telling us all kinds of things we didn’t know about Maia and Sebastian and gave us peices to keep the plot going forward— like Robert’s mysterious (and crazy gross) backchannel with Imogen, the real location of the soul sword, Sebastian having Valentine and why he took him. Simon and  Maia chemistry.

And Then there’s Clary

I’m actually getting exhausted with hating Clary, but the writers won’t cut me a break. Not every plot has to be on the same wavelength, it’s completely fine that Clary’s story line just dipped it’s toe into the main theme with her wide eyed “My brother is alive” shit at the end… but this plot line was a disaster, and should have been given half the time it was given. This plot accomplished 4 things:

1. Showed us that Clary’s Super Special Powers! Are so Super Special! That she is the only non warlock who can do the portals. 2. Taught us that Lake Lyn exists (probs important later) 3. Tried (and failed) to create post incest Jace Clary lost when Jace’s Super Special Powers! Save Clary from Lady Madness 4. Let Clary know that she still has a brother.

And like…from a writing perspective, I’m sure those things are important for something they are building toward, and it’s not their fault that I already know what it is because I’ve reading the steaming horseshit pile of source material.

But they have written 26 episodes now where Clary has no goal. No motivation. And yet another episode where she’s weak and pathetic and has to get rescued by whoever wants to put his penis in her the most.

She shouldn’t be the main character if she’s just a battleground for dick-wetting.

And like… an hour mystic drunk in the woods is the closest she’s come to experiencing consequences the whole time, and it takes two people to rescue her.

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Seventeen I don’t want to watch the main female character cured of hysteria by the right dick. I hate everything about it, and that makes me hate Clary and I don’t want to hate Clary.

And the writers have restrictions placed on them by the fact that they are adapting from a book… but compare Shadowhunters to something like True Blood? The books True Blood are based on are impossible to read sober, and the True Blood abandoned them by like episode 9 of the first season.

If you want me to give a flying fuck about Clary “Blink at You Until You Love Me” Fray you have to give her a story. You can’t rely on shitty storylines from a decade ago (and a tumultous decade at that) to make me give a damn about her and frankly I’m offended that the writers are lazy enough to think they can. They’ve been coasting on Clary since day one, and if that’s all they can do… fine. But then Clary can’t be a main characters. Maia can be the main, Izzy can be the main, and Clary can just show up in a wet dress from time to time with her crusty eyelashes, and eventually get killed off.

I haven’t quite hit the point where Clary is just the irredeemable nonsense that I forward through… but I’m getting damn close.

Live Reactions:

They have to do something about this fucking intro. 

It is impossible to watch this show in a room that isn’t black out dark. We’re not all rich enough for TV rooms or curtains, Shadowhunters. Turn on a fucking light on set. 

Simon and Maia also have chemistry. Alisha and Alberto could have chemistry with moldy bread. 

Gross. Robert. 

This father son conversation about where the black and white and grey go is interesting. And it’s fascinating to compare Alec and Maryse’s interaction to Alec and Robert’s. Especially because Maryse was terrible to Alec… and Robert was terrible to Maryse. 

Fuck you, Clary. This isn’t Jace’s fault. You could have not fucked your best friend when you weren’t sure what you wanted. You are the worst. I hate that they keep pretending you’re the lead. 

I kinda doubt you need to fake Magnus’s hand gesture. 

You are very pretty, Sebastian

You sent him to Hell? What the fuck are you going to do?

After 90 seconds of Show Sebastian, I am totally invested in his story. I cannot wait to see what he does and I need to have him be a main character. 

UUGGHHHHH Clary, our female lead, is now helpless and falling down in the woods. FFUUCCKKKKKIINNGG Shadowhunters

Under enough stress to scream at a 9 year old until he won’t leave his room? Cheating? Existing? I want Robert dead by Mid Season 3. 

Listen to Izzy. She’s smarter than everyone you know, and the Inquisitor is obviously dirty. 

Emeraude is the only one who says “by the Angel” like it’s a real phrase she has used before. Official award for this to Emmeraude. 

I would care that you found a pile of Jace guts… but I’m sure that you’re just hallucinating or some shit because you are the weakest character on the show and women aren’t allowed to succeed at anything on Shadowhunters. Maybe, despite the cold, you’ll be in a wet white dress by the end of the episode. 

Wow. Okay. Will and Alisha are now the stars of this show. They would be so good in a scene together is the writers could possibly write a scene good enough for the two of them to be in. 

Gross. Robert. 

This is just so much Clary being on screen with no drive. I’m super frustrated with how Clary doesn’t have to have a story to be the lead. Everyone in this episode wants something and has multiple layers of want and opposition. Clary is lake drunk in the woods. That’s not a plot. That’s halfway decent weekend. 

Oh no. Not lose her mind forever. They might have to put her in the gard. We might never hear from her again. Oh no. 

You know… Valentine deserves that. I’m on board. 

Izzy could also be the lead of this show. She stuck to her beliefs while the Clave threatened to derune her. She actually gives a flying fuck about downworlders and has repeated it with fewer lapses than everyone else. The downworld respects her. She overcame being forcibly addicted by a superior who wanted to rape her. She’s the best shadowhunter in the Institute. She’s smarter than everyone. Izzy is the Hermione Granger to Clary’s Giant Squid. 

Boy-magic saved her. Girl magic got her in that mess to start with. Thanks Shadowhunters. 

This dialogue made me throw up my wine. 

Gross. Robert.

Yes! Stand up for your baby brother Alec. 

There is no way Robert threatened to do anything to the Clave. He’s lying. He’s always lying. 

Feeling bad about sending your son to hell doesn’t make him less sent to hell, and he still doesn’t see you as a son, Sebastian. Just an experiment.  Kill him, it’s fine. 

Maia and Simon, you are the best. Please be one of the most important parts of the show. 

Is Maia and Jace fucking ever going to come up again? If not what was the point?

Careful Clary, he’s sexy reading and you are but a wee pathetic lass

That is the most obvious chain they could have possibly picked. Why not just tape it to his forehead?

Clary’s desperation to find her brother had better be linked to her mother’s death. The writers have got to be able to make that teeny tiny leap.