Tales From The Shadowhunter Academy - Tumblr Posts

Okay, ermm can I pick more than one? I'm gonna pick more than one

Kit, Emma, Tessa, Mark, Alec, Magnus, Dru- (okay, pretty much all of them)

Z*ra Dearbitch

Okay these questions are a bit unfair! how could I chose?!

Probably Tessa (I'm lithromantic tho so my whole thing is having completely one-sided crushes 😅)

I'd like to hear your opinion on various TSC characters.

Who do you love the most?

Which character do you hate?

Whom would you like to be best friends with?

Which character would you fall in love with?

It’s 6am I’m on my way to work in absolute darkness, listening to Whitechapel Fiend and just about to have a heart attack 💀

Why is there a print version of The Midnight Heir but none of the other short stories? I need a tiny copy of Nothing but Shadows to carry around as an emotional pick-me-up.

“Besides, being the inquisitor isn't a favour or reward. It’s a service you give. It’s a way of paying back the world.”

He started to smile. “I suppose.”

She winked. “Also, I’m happy to know that if I need someone to bend the law in my favour, I will have a powerful friend.”

- Cristina and Deigo Rosales Queen of Air and Darkness Page 851

Why is everyone sleeping on the fact that Diego might be the next Inquisitor?

What in the World: How to Read the  Shadow Hunter Chronicles Chronologically

The Series:

The Infernal Devices (Tessa, Will, Jem)

Clockwork Angel

Clockwork Prince

Clockwork Princess

The Last Hours (Cordelia, Lucy, James)

Chain of Gold

Chain of Iron

?

The Mortal Instruments (Clary, Jace)

City of Bones

City of Bones

City of Ashes

City of Glass

City of Fallen Angels

City of Lost Souls

City of Heavenly Fire

The Eldest Curses (Alec, Magnus)

The Red Scrolls of Magic

The Lost Book of The White

The Black Volume of The Dead unknown release

The Dark  Artifices (Emma, Julian)

Lady Midnight

Lord of Shadows

Queen of Air and Darkness

The Wicked Powers (Ty, Kit, Dru) unknown release

?

?

?

The Short Stories:

The Bane Chronicles

The Tales from the Shadow Hunter Acadamy

Ghosts of the Shadow Market

OKAY BUT REAL QUESTION... what is the institutes wifi name? 

Cause imagine if it starts out really basic like ‘Los Angeles institute’ obviously selected by Diana or Julian and then the Blackthorn kids try to mess with it because yes?

“Everyone get off the wifi, I’m trying to look at my meme”

- Kit Rook

I see this a lot, where even characters like Julian and Alec and even Tessa and sometimes even Kit and darling Ty are reduced to ship names but these people have gone through hell and back and THEY. ARE. I N D I V I D U A L S. 

You can appreciate their ship without diminishing all the character development they've gone through themselves to get to this point. 

Mark Blackthorn deserved so much better than to be reduced to his relationship w Cristina and Kieran

Shadow Hunters: 

You're in for a long ride... 1 series...2 series...3 series...4 series...5 series...6 series and 3 huge ass novelas. Once you're in--there is no way out. But you won’t want a way out. 

Yes, we have a TV show...no it is not like the books and yes it is trash (fight me). Humour (hell yes, even when their shouldn't be...Herondales got your back making tense situations lighter since 1234 ;)  Tears, plot twists and a lot of family drama...if you can figure out which family you're from but if you can’t some immortal warlocks will probably remind you of what a prick your ancestors were (or otherwise).

Wait oh yeah and they fight demons sometimes but are usually caught up in fighting wars over their own messed up political systems. If you don’t like someone there's always someone else. A L W A Y S. The characters are endless, (you'll figure out how to keep track of them all)  but you’ll love each and everyone with whatever shards of your heart you still have left :) Think someone or something is insignificant. (think someone is dead?) HA. THINK AGAIN!

will you cry? yes. will it be worth it? A B S O L U T LY. Ships? HELL YES. Fandom ship conflict...sometimes, except over MALEC. because....no. They are untouchable.

A Newbie’s Guide to YA Literature Fandoms

So, you’ve stumbled upon this fantastic (please note my combined use of sarcasm and eager honesty) website - Tumblr.  Or, perhaps, you’re reading a screenshot of this on Instagram or Pinterest.  Whatever you’re on, it’s official.  You’re a part of the fandom.

How does one survive in a fandom?  Here’s a guide, sorted book by book… and don’t worry if you do not see your fandom yet - the list will receive future additions. 

1.  A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Yikes.  I can’t help you.  Be prepared for lots of conflicts over characters - Do we stan Tamlin, Nesta, and Elain?  Do we ship Elriel (Elain x Azriel), Elucien (Elain x Lucien), or neither?  Don’t forget to use caution - we have a lot of ~steamy~ jokes floating around here

2.  Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

Wow, this is intense.  Personally, I am not heavily into Tumblr’s HP fandom, but I can say one thing - Non-canon ships.  We sink canon and let the best ships sail.  Drarry?  Totally.  Wolfstar?  Most definitely.  Romione?  Debatable.  Dramione?  Not as popular as Drarry, perhaps, but also debatable.  Hinny?  What’s that?  Does that exist?  What’s that, now?  I’m forgetting something important?  Oh, yeah… how do we feel about Snape?  Also, what’s your Hogwarts house?  You should know that.  Keep that very close - but don’t be afraid to blur the lines between houses.

3.  Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

What do we want?  THE CROWS TV SHOW.  When do we want it?  Now!  This may actually be the most wholesome fandom on this site.  Except, there’s one little thing… but I won’t spoil it for you.  Because.  It.  Never.  Happened.

4.  Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Turn back.  Turn back NOW.  Your heart is important.  Don’t let anyone rip it out of your chest… and NEVER.  EVER.  TRUST SOMETHING THAT SAYS “FRIENDLY REMINDER.”  There is a 95% chance that it is most definitely not friendly.  Oh yeah, there’s also a huge stockpile of pre-KOA theories…

Feel free to add more.

Name a fun activity to do with friends.

Jace: Jump off of really tall things!

Everyone Else: NO JACE!

Seriously, what is with this boy?

Training Clary: 

Jace: You should jump off of that really tall thing and then we can make out.

Teaching Simon’s Shadowhunter Class:

Jace: I am now going to teach you the secret, ancient shadowhunter art of jumping out of trees.

Meeting Kit:

Jace: Hello my long lost many many times removed cousin!  Let us climb up into the very tall rafters and JUMP!

Kit: NOPE. 

Remember when Jem and Tessa drugged Simon and Clary? Ah good times

Will the biggest Carstairs stan since 1873

Very important analysis. Please read it.

Infectious Bias: Discrimination of Mundanes in the Shadowhunter World

Introduction

As we all know already, the Clave is said to be discriminatory against all non-Nephilim races. While this fantasy-racism is shown to be extremer in unnamed parts of the Clave and fascist groups, with a keen eye it is also noticeable in Shadowhunters that are supposed to be good. This is sometimes more subtly shown (like in The Last Hours), sometimes more overt (like in The Mortal Instruments). 

I am very confident that Cassandra Clare wrote a lot of this on purpose, since those bias are  often pointed out by characters who are outsiders to the Nephilim, like Simon and Kit and it is too well made and too structurally planned to be part of her own biases. Nonetheless, this is often only between the lines, since stories are primarily written from a Shadowhunter-perspective, which makes identifying these prejudices in the main characters a bit harder. We are often getting fed prejudices more as a matter of fact than a bias.

Often a Downworlder will point out discrimination and a Shadowhunter main character will react  defensively by saying that the Clave is like that but not all Shadowhunter, not realising that because they themselves grew up in a fantasy-racist society they are thus heavily influenced by the ideas and values of this society - including its discrimination and prejudices. There are only few Shadowhunters who seem to be aware of their own fantasy-racism and reevaluate how they see non-Nephilim races.

So I want to analyse those subtle prejudices and situations in a few posts. I’m calling this little series of analyses Infectious Bias, because Cassandra Clare shows very well how fascist ideology and white supremacist ideas can poison and infect all parts of a society, not just those who are outright fascist and hateful.

As a start, I want to talk a bit about how mundanes are treated by Shadowhunters. Mostly, because they are not actively harmed by the Nephilim unlike Downworlders which will make this analysis a lot shorter. 

Hypocrisy of the Main Characters

In this analysis as well as the following I will focus on the main characters, who are supposed to be good. Talking about the wider Shadowhunter Society would take too long, as there are too many aspects too address. Also, since most of the fantasy racism of the larger Nephilim culture is pretty “on the nose” like the separation into Shadowhunter and potential Ascendants at the Academy, I don’t think it’s worth the mention as it is quite obvious even the first time reading a Shadowhunter Chronicles book.

Infantilisation of Mundanes - Tales from Nathaniel Gray and Axel Mortmain 

In the Infernal Devices, there are several mundane characters who are treated differently depending on their involvement in the Shadowworld. There is more intelligence ascribed to Sighted mundanes than to non-Sighted mundanes, even though they still aren’t considered to be eye-to-eye with the Nephilim and getting employed as their servants, even though their Sight is a powerful ability. This makes them able to see through the glamour without being identified as a Shadowhunter because of their lack of Shadowhuntesque traits like graceful movements or runic marks. Of course a person should never be valued based on how useful they are to a culture. This comparison is simply about the fact that Sighted mundanes are employed as servants rather than for Shadowhunting, although that is not always the case, as Thomas helped Henry and Will to break into the Dark House. 

The main characters state several times that Nephilim have higher physical abilities (agility, swiftness, speed, strength, endurance) than mundanes. This means that they consider themselves to be biologically superior to mundanes in fighting, even though we see that this is not necessarily true, as Bridget is able to beat Gabriel, who is supposed to be a lot stronger than her. So we can see that this alleged physical superiority is not real but instead a bias of the main characters against mundanes. 

Not just the mundanes physical ability gets questioned, also their intelligence. A good example here are Nate and Mortmain. The Shadowhunters of the Institute think that they are not intelligent enough to navigate the Shadowworld (and tell horror tales of people who tried to play with the occult and disregarded warnings), blinded by their fascination with magic, unable to make their own choices. They think they are too weak and unknowing to cause actual harm by themselves or be able to have any evil inside them. In short: they infantilise them and associate an inherent innocence to their race. Charlotte and Henry don’t even consider Mortmain to be able to be cunning enough to have any ulterior motive or plans, which turns out to be a fatal mistake.

They talk about mundanes in the Pandemonium club and how easily they are to influence and impress, losing all of their money on gambling with magic. While they consider this to be tragic, they don’t actually act to help mundanes who befall this fate, if they are not acquaintances to them like Nate.

Except Will, there is no one who is distrusting of Nate in the beginning. While they think that he knows more than what he shows, they don’t even think about the possibility that he could be lying or hateful. This again shows the ascribed inherent innocence.

 Even after he betrays them, they see him as a manipulated victim, a blinded child rather than an adult making his own choices, as their view of Mortmain shifts to him being a Magician and evil master manipulator instead of a generic mundane. Though this part is heavily influenced by Tessa’s perspective, who probably sees the situation a bit differently since she is trying to cope with the loss of her brother. Other characters are a lot more sceptic and feel guilty for not realising the trickery earlier. 

Mortmain also points out the main characters’ foolishness in underestimating him because he is a mundane. This underlines that the Nephilims superiority complex against mundanes was purposefully written. 

City of Condescension 

Let’s talk about Simon and the Lightwoods. Honestly, there is so much to unpack here. Jace outright bullies Simon for most part of the Mortal Instruments, though the support in this from his peers is varying. Because this is such a huge topic, I will address this in a separate analysis, as putting light onto all aspects of this bullying would take too much space in this analysis.

I think Simon is a is a great example because it shows how they would behave with a stranger:  People usually care less about strangers - even though they don’t necessarily value them less -  because they don’t know them. Thus, they don’t care as much about hurting their feelings: they put more effort in helping the people that they love and cherish. 

The Lightwood kids treat Simon as expendable in the first book. From this we can assume that they treat mundanes that they don’t have an emotional attachment to generally as expendable. The only reason that Jace helped to save Simon is that Clary pressured him to. He only saved him to appease her, not because he wanted to do the right thing or because his vows to protect mundanes as a Shadowhunter. I will come back to the expendability later, when I will talk about Thomas and Agatha for a bit. 

 Of course, with the Lightwoods and Simon, there are also a lot of personal feelings going on: Isabelle is scared of men and getting hurt, building a large wall around herself and dropping guys when things get too serious. Jace is in some way jealous of Simon even though there is little reason since he knows that Clary is neither attracted to him nor is he in Jace’ eyes ‘competition’, calling him the most mundane mundane. Alec has the least interaction with Simon, but he is both distrustful and jealous of Clary in the first book as well as having a drive to please and copy Jace, which makes him automatically hostile to Simon. 

 The Lightwoods are angsty, hostile and irrational teenagers with little compassion for anyone outside of their social group. While they become a lot better and mature people with time, I wouldn’t necessarily consider them to be good people in the first few books. It is also important to note that they were brought up by four fascists and former fascists who definitely didn’t fully examine all the fascism they have internalised. We especially see this in Jace, who perpetrates a lot of fantasy-racism, both micro- and macro- aggressions throughout the books, often under the cover of being a angsty sarcastic teenager.

While Isabelle manifests her dislike in mundanes in apathy over their well-being rather than aggression, Jace and Alec outright bully Simon. Now this isn’t just about him being a mundane but also rather personal, but because it’s such a huge part of the books I still want to at least address it here.

While Alec makes only fun of Simon in the first book in an attempt to please Jace, Jace continues to bully him later, first for being mundane, afterwards for being a vampire.

Examples for this bullying are trying to make him feel inferior by calling him “mundane” rather than his name and using the word mundane always with condescension, even though they use his name in his absence and obviously know it. 

They tell him that he should be grateful to be inside the Institute as not many mundanes are bestowed with that honour, as if he wasn’t worthy to know of their world. During dinner, Alec and Jace even kick Simon out of the Institute for standing up to Jace playing white knight for Clary in face of meeting the Silent Brothers. Clary meanwhile doesn’t even bat an eye. This is an especially humiliating scene that was hard to read, but it’s neither the first nor the last one: They ridicule him for being attracted to Isabelle, calling him pathetic for meeting her, telling her in front of him that he wants to sleep with her. Jace also ridicules his physical appearance behind his back, calling him weasel-faced and so ugly that he looks like a rat (which is also later shown to have been foreshadowing).

This isn’t the end of it: at every possibility they signal Simon that he isn’t welcome and they don’t care about him, his questions or his opinions. While Simon isn’t any less hostile in his reaction, the Shadowhunter teens are in a position of power over him, given that they are allegedly “superior” magical beings and he doesn’t know anything about the Shadowworld, as well as Jace and Alec being in the majority and no one really defending him.

Simon is not seen as a human being with a soul, inherent value and feelings which they could hurt. They rather see him as Clary’s pet. Even Isabelle, who spends a lot of time with him, meeting him in the morning, going with him to the park for the whole day… considers him suddenly to be expendable when he becomes a rat, acting like it wasn’t their responsibility to take care of him in their world, which he doesn’t know how to navigate. She also doesn’t even really consider him a potential romantic partner before he becomes a vampire, though there is also a lot of fetishisation  of vampires involved.

While they claim no accountability, they still infantilise him, treating him like a child who needs a babysitter: because he is a mundane, not because he is new to this world. They don’t treat Clary with the same infantilisation, showing her more or less respectfully how to navigate the Shadowworld. Even though they acknowledge that she needs help, they don’t act as if she was dumb. This shows that they believe the stereotype mentioned earlier, that a mundane is both less intelligent than a Shadowhunter as well as more innocent and naïve. 

These examples of bullying and conflict are only from the first few hundred pages of City of Bones. While there is a lot more to unpack, I don’t want to go much further or deeper in the books here. The reason for this is the amount of personal issues between the characters that fuel this conflict, not just fantasy-racism. 

Though it is still worth a mention: I want to thank @theprodigalgenius for pointing out to me that in City of Glass, Simon asks them why they hate mundanes so much, to which Jace responds by making fun of him. Sebastian points that they feel left out since they can’t tell the world about their duty and don’t get any acknowledgement for their hard work. Isabelle feels resentment towards mundanes because they never grew up in fear of suddenly losing a loved one. 

We can see a lot of jealousy here shining through for what they consider a life of comfort. They cover this up with a feeling of superiority, twisting the longing for comfort into an arrogance about the mundanes alleged weakness and laziness. Though we know a mundane life isn’t actually more comfortable or happy than that of a Shadowhunter, as the history of Sophie shows. 

Of course, none of this jealousy or resentment excuse the disrespect and apathy against those very vulnerable people they are sworn to protect.  

 Clockwork Expendability - in Loving Memory of Agatha and Thomas

Clockwork Prince and City of Bones show us that it is not important to save or protect individual mundanes from dying. Mundanes are replaceable, Shadowhunter are not. The Nephilim are not supposed to grieve, even less for mundanes. 

The Codex even states that crimes against mundanes and Downworlders are punished less harshly than crimes against other Shadowhunters because they’re less Shadowhunters in the world. This means in their view a mundane life is less important, expendable. Going after demons who endanger more than just one mundane is more important than saving individuals except if this individual is a Shadowhunter. While this is the attitude of the Clave, the main characters also show aspects of this mindset. 

An example are Will and Jem. They grew up with Thomas, trained by his side, yet they don’t really grieve when he dies. While most of the Nephilim of the Institute feel guilty, all thinking they could’ve prevented Thomas and Agathas deaths, only one other person, Sophie, a fellow mundane, mourns them and misses them for a longer time period. For everyone else, the dead servants are already replaced and half-forgotten in the middle of the second book. 

Mundanes being considered replaceable is even shown in a bizarre allegory in the guise of Thomas brother. Cyril looks exactly like Thomas and acts similar as well. As if there were vast amounts of Thomases in the world. And if one dies, he is just switched out for a new one, no one really noticing his absence. Of course Tessa and Sophie notice his absence despite this metaphor, but it comes in the form of the discomfort they feel because of the eery resemblance to Thomas, as if he never really died.

Ascension - You’re Better Than This

I will ignore everything else fucked up with Ascension, like the law against intermarriage etc. because that’s part of the wider culture. This is about the opinions of the main characters. 

While it’s never explicitly stated, in the end of Clockwork Princess and in Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy it becomes rather clear:  Mundanes who are heroes (like Simon or Sophie) should Ascend because they’re better people than most mundanes, worthy of being a Shadowhunter. It would be a waste of their life not to ascend, they’re too good to spend a life as a mundane. The message is clear: a mundane life has no value. Not just that a mundane who dies is replaceable, but also that there is no worth in being a mundane and spending your life in a “mundane-lifestyle”.

In City of Bones, Alec and Isabelle even openly admit that they don’t see Downworlders really as people and that while mundanes are “weak”, they are in their eyes still better than Downworlders because they have the possibility to ascend, to become one of them, to be a Shadowhunters. Of course they later change their worldview, but a lot of these opinions are still ingrained in them. 

Conclusion - I’m Running Out of Bad Wordplays 

While Shadowhunters are supposed to protect mundanes, they see this as a rule to protect humanity as a whole and not individuals. They don’t consider it as important to save mundanes as to kill demons, thinking that the offence against demons will save mundanes automatically. Also they see mundanes as inferior to their own race, both physically and mentally, while ascribing a form of romanticised innocence and comfort to their being.

About SOBH, when Clary was trekking to Alicante with Luke, Luke said Idris was a country and Alicante was the only city and was surrounded by agrarian lands. The Cohort can sustain themselves of those. Also people lived there. It's not like all the food was imported into Idris because that would cause a lot of financial problems. Simon got lots of snacks for his date with Isabelle from vendors in Alicante. They're literally selling food in Alicante (there's no guarantee that all the vendors are anti-Cohort and it's sensible to assume that they know where the food is coming from and they can supply it along with adding variety due to lessened competition)