Episode 41a: Season 3a Roundup
Episode 41a of The Descent Is Easy is the first half of our Season 3a Roundup, in which we discuss the themes of this half season and spend a lot of time pondering theology and demonology, and wondering if our characters ever stop to think about any of this, and how high the chances are we’re gonna get Magnus and Alec sitting down and exploring this. We reckon low, by the way.
Episode 41b will be out Friday, 1st of June 2018.
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29th May 2018 @ 4:53 am
Re: Alec accepting Clary as a Shadowhunter (18:59) — It’s always struck me as hugely ironic (and something I’ve remarked upon in at least a couple of fics) how much Alec and Clary actually have in common with regard to their prioritization of family. I think in one fic, I even had Magnus ask Alec what he would have done (circa season 1) if he’d been in Clary’s shoes and it had been Izzy who was missing, whose life WOULDN’T he have turned upside down and backward to get Izzy back.
And of course, the answer is, no one’s. There is nothing he would have scrupled to do if he found himself in Clary’s shoes. He would have done the exact same thing. And that’s NOT a Shadowhunter way to go about things (as textualized by Jia, who says she would have foregone using the wish even if it meant losing Aline.)
So it’s interesting that his acceptance of her as a Shadowhunter only happens once he accepts his own non-Shadowhunter set of priorities. They are, both of them, family-first people, and that’s a commonality they’ve had all along, but they couldn’t see it because Alec was too busy pretending he was a model Shadowhunter. But he never was.
29th May 2018 @ 3:47 pm
I remember you writing about that actually, yeah, and it’s totally true. Alec was being unbelievably unfair to Clary with everything we find out about him and the lengths he would go to, for his loved ones… Which of course works, because Clary was putting his loved ones at risk, by trying to protect hers, so no wonder was he fighting her on everything she did and wanted from them…
Though it does make me wonder how much of his fierce dislike of her came down to (whether he realised this consciously or subconsciously) how much they actually are alike, and how public and unashamed she was about her ways, and how deeply insecure and repressed he was about his.
I have so much love for those two characters in a room together, it’s ridiculous!!!