What are the top 5 writing choices of CC that you dislike and why? If you could change them, what would you change them to be?
I'm not sure I can come with 5 from the top of my head; it's been very long since I've read any of CC's books. Some of these I've definitely talked about before because they bother me.
- At the absolute top of the list of hated writing decisions is Sebastian fucking Morgenstern and how he's handled...in general. CC (or the narrative) tells us that the demon blood makes him just straight up evil and strips away his humanity. Lilith even warns Valentine about it happening. This makes absolutely no bloody sense. Why does demon blood make Sebastian irreparably, inherently evil? Why doesn't it make any of the warlocks inherently evil (ignoring shadowhunter racism)? Werewolves and vampires infected by demonic illnesses also aren't black-and-white evil. The way demon blood works makes no goddamn sense in these books. If it makes Sebastian evil shouldn't everyone with demon blood be evil?? And by the same metric, since these books pose demonic and angelic as two absolute opposites, shouldn't angelic blood then make people inherently good? We see, demonstrably, in multiple books, that this is not the case. I wouldn't even go so far as to say that Jace and Clary, who have extra angel blood, are inherently good. Besides, saying that he's evil because he has demon blood in him waves any sort of agency the character has. He has no motivation for what he does besides being evil, because that's all the narrative ever really lets him be. Sure he has his weird obsession with Clary and/or Jace but that also gets explained away with him having demon blood. The very emotional scene at the end where his eyes turn green and all also plays into it: Jonathan Morgenstern never would've done any of this if it weren't for the demon blood. The narrative device that drives the last three books (the entire second half) of TMI is not the villain himself but the concept of demonic blood that is internally inconsistent in the world.
- Valentine getting killed by Raziel. Valentine's main flaw in the books is pride - he believes he knows better than the Clave, he believes he knows the will of the angels and of heaven. Letting him be killed by Raziel, the patron of Shadowhunters may be dramatic irony but it is not narratively reflecting his character. What I think should've happened is that Valentine makes his wish at Lake Lynn and he is denied by Raziel. It should've been at least somewhat public and the fighting should've stopped while Raziel was present. Valentine should've been denied by the angel. Raziel probably would've fucked off right after because he doesn't really give a fuck. Valentine is crushed, confused, outraged and, worst of all, humiliated. The fighting probably breaks up after this, Valentine gets away. And then he goes full Lucifer Morning Star in his defiance of heaven and spends the next three books finding a different way kill the downworlders and also the shadowhunters who oppose him. By now he has no real regard for heaven left, he can make an alliance with Lilith or the princes of hell. He was not above torturing Ithuriel before this so you can take it in the direction of him turning against heaven entirely.
- Simon regaining his memories after drinking from the mortal cup and ascending was unnecessary and I'd go so far as to say it takes away from his sacrifice. Simon gave up everything knowingly. He should not have received it back upon completing his Shadowhunter training. Let him regain fragments, sure. Feelings, impressions, flashes of memories. But not everything. It undermines the emotional weight of his sacrifice.
- The Clave electing Robert Lightwood, a known criminal exiled to New York for taking part in the Uprising of all things, as the Inquisitor, is unhinged. Do I think Robert would make a decent Inquisitor? Sure, why not. Do I think it is feasible that the Clave, who just fought Sebastian Morgenstern and who just fought Valentine for the second time, would then elect one of the founding members of the Circle of Raziel? No. Of course, we didn't actually introduce enough non-circle member adult Shadowhunter characters who could be elected so we're sort of stuck with Robert by default. In fact, why didn't we introduce any adult Clave members who weren't at some point in the Circle? Surely there has to be someone in Idris who didn't follow Valentine when they were 17.
- Can we please introduce main characters who are not Herondale or Lightwood or Fairchild or Blackthorn? I know that coming up with names is hard but surely we can invent one new shadowhunter family.
6. On the same topic: why isn't there a book where the main characters are Downworlders? Why isn't there a book set in idk 2001 about werewolf Greg and vampire Samson trying to convince the head of the local institute Frederik Morgenstern that no, someone absolutely is trying to summon a hoard of demons in the city and it's not us, we swear? Why do we not have a book where the Shadowhunters play the sort of vaguely antagonistic, nosy role that they are for most Downworlders? If we absolutely must have the Shadowhunters save the day, we can even have that; just make it take three books and a nearly world-ending disaster for someone to finally manage to convince them that 'oh yeah, the warlock we've arrested has actually been trying to prevent this all along.' We don't need to have Shadowhunters in every main character squad. Give yourself the opportunity to explore other kinds of narratives (and magic).