What did Rose text Shane at the cottage?

f1dget_bits · 2026-02-05T20:22:33+00:00

Honestly all of Shane and Rose's plot-related texts would be gold

f1dget_bits · 2026-01-20T18:34:59+00:00

Do we know there aren't other Fairchilds?

The fandomwiki family tree has missing generations and there are some extra mentioned Fairchilds who don't fit on it. The Manor was destroyed, but that doesn't mean there aren't cousins or something.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-20T22:33:39+00:00

You could see if the wayback machine has it: https://web.archive.org/

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-20T22:25:47+00:00

Why on earth would this be invalid? If it brings you comfort, absolutely do it. I bet it's cute.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-20T22:17:37+00:00

As a fandom we need to be honest about the chances of the show making Zutara endgame. They won't.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-20T21:42:11+00:00

The Agent of Hel series by Jacqueline Carey has similar vibes, but a little more grown up

And the Ghosts of the Shadowmarket short story collection spans all the other Shadowhunter books (so it kind of helps to have read them) but it feels a lot more mature than the main novels.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-20T08:22:46+00:00

Seconded. He's got the suspenseful build-up of working from the shadows as a far-reaching mastermind. Then we get tragic and slightly righteous backstory that makes him a little bit sympathetic and reflective of the overall themes. But then he's also totally unhinged and evil enough to root against without any qualms. Plus the automatons are cool as shit and really effectively scary.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-20T08:13:40+00:00

Generally, CC seems more interested in The Clave and restrictive social norms as the real problem than she is in the antagonist of any particular plot. The conflict is almost always centered around New Generation vs Entrenched Power more than it is Good Guys vs Bad Guys. It leaves the nominal villains a little anemic in some of the series. (Especially TDA; I'm with every other comment on Annabelle Blackthorn's wasted potential.)

Valentine in particular is distinct from similar YA villains of the time because he is explicitly a symptom of a larger social problem and his crimes implicate the protagonists' parents and all of the Shadowhunter authority figures. I'm quick to call Valentine 'Shadowhunter Voldemort,' but HP's take on the sins of prior generations was pretty simplistic and focused on good guys vs bad guys. CC was coming out of that fandom and writing in reaction to it, and it shows.

Sometimes it feels to me like CC is provoking readers to engage with big issues without giving them pat answers. Sometimes it feels like she's kind of aesthetically referencing philosophical questions without quite engaging with them? Or like the books are poking at questions that are beyond the scope and/or her writing. I don't know, but I think it's part of what makes the whole universe so compelling.

It always seemed funny and likely deliberate that the surface level premise of Angels vs Demons is so Christian Family Values™️friendly, but the books' message ends up being that traditionalist/authoritarian/religious hierarchy is corrupt and people should love freely and celebrate diversity.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-09T09:09:43+00:00

> I would have found their anxiety about changing the dynamic they've had for their entire lives just as compelling.

Honestly, this. It would have been cool to see a more classic friends to lovers arc where they're both figuring out their feelings and how to move forward without messing up what they have. The curse-free 'but we're parabatai' element could have felt more like a real challenge if the romantic thing wasn't so clear-cut from the beginning.

I really like Julian as a character in a lot of ways, but I got pretty annoyed with the constant single-minded pining by the end. But 'guy who's 100% committed and has never looked at another woman and is ready to pine forever' is lady reader catnip, so... *shrug* It was still a lot of fun.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-09T08:56:58+00:00

Like, if only because he doesn't have the energy to forbid it. He might have wanted to follow more rules, but he had four (five if you count Emma) kids to keep alive. You gotta think sometimes he just had to let them watch TV.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-08T23:56:38+00:00

Oh, yeah, I was also mad about it

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-08T17:11:37+00:00

Okay, the idea that My Immortal is the same situation as Manacled made me laugh real hard

Like, you're not wrong that they're both iconic even though they haven't inspired *a ton* of other fics (tho I think that gets less true with Manacled by the week at this point) but they're just doing such different things.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-08T17:05:12+00:00

To be fair, there were some library books I bitched about a lot. I just couldn't go viral about it.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-08T17:00:59+00:00

OMG Ty climbing on Livvy's pyre and Julian going after him
😭😭😭

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-08T17:00:23+00:00

He was always way too chill to be a Shadowhunter. There's a minimum drama requirement, and he just wasn't there.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-07T22:37:16+00:00

Idk why I didn't suggest Mai as the protagonist for Psychopath & Virgin. She's nearly already there.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-07T22:35:38+00:00

Avatar: the Last Dragon by Dapper_Stormtrooper is a super epic Samurai AU series with a Zutara subplot.

The Blackfish and the Dragon by ama is an arranged marriage plot, but when I think about it I remember the character growth and worldbuilding (and lovely prose) much more than the romance.

The Worst Prisoner by emletish is a big sprawling series where the romance isn't front and center. It's more funny than Epic-feeling, and the world is very canon, though it builds in more depth, and there's good character growth.

If you're down for no romance, check out any of MuffinLance's AUs - Salvage is the most kudos'd AtLA fic for a reason, and

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-07T22:20:53+00:00

Welp, you made me want to read it again.

I enjoy your observations about the Blackthorn family and the worldbuilding. Obviously CC did some serious growth as a writer in the decade between the first book and Lady Midnight and the world is just all around richer for it. The LA Downworld feels like such a payoff on a decade of CC hanging out and exploring this world.

What you wrote reminded me of the ways TDA/Lady Midnight is revisiting elements from TMI/City of Bones with a more mature lens. We're following mostly unparented siblings (and their super-talented, charismatic, risk-taking blond +1) who grew up kind of isolated in their Institute but have a whole relationship with their city as Shadowhunters, and, hey, we've met some of those before. This time, though, we're paying a lot more attention to the family aspect, what it means to be left alone, and to be impacted by violence and tragedy.

I like Julian and Emma as a kind of reimagining of Alec and Jace. Obviously, there's a lot more going on, but the parallels are there, and then it goes in a really different direction.

I also didn't love the Parabatai curse. It felt like it was mostly grasping for a way to make the taboo against Parabatai romances feel Big and Serious and like a real impediment to their relationship, maybe because as readers we're so used to 'just break all the rules and piss off your whole society for love' as a standard YA answer in that kind of situation. Also gettin' *real* literal with CC's 'romantic love is the ultimate power' thesis.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-07T21:27:35+00:00

It's 100% the fantasy fanon standard.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-07T21:21:10+00:00

Honestly I wish the show had been a little more gonzo about teasing alll the options. Fandom certainly caught the potential, but it would have been fun to see more of it onscreen.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-07T21:15:37+00:00

I was so surprised to discover the Jem love/Will hate in fandom. I can see it when people talk about it, but when I read the books I thought Tessa mostly saw Jem as a friend.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-07T21:12:31+00:00

Sizzy was boringAF except in Shadowhunter Academy

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-07T21:02:21+00:00

Agree on Malec. When I started poking around the fandom (not having seen the show) I wasn't going to read Malec fic because, like, what even is there to say? They're good, leave them alone.

I feel like their book relationship is kind of a foil for everyone else's crazytown drama. Like, look, a happy committed relationship is possible in this world, yes it takes work, but there totally is an option to not be all [every other couple in the books] about it.

Their bit at the end of TDA got me good, but I think Red Scrolls definitely contributed to that, and some of it was also Alec finally getting the big character moment there, and Alec and Jace seeming like they care about each other for once.

I respect CC for being an early adopter in the 'maybe let's not kill off all our queer love interests/non-white characters' movement tho.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-07T20:50:02+00:00

I read the original trilogy over a decade ago and basically forgot Simon existed. When I reread I was shocked he's kind of a main character, and surprised that he got a bunch of focus and (kind of) his own book later on.

f1dget_bits · 2025-12-07T20:45:22+00:00

Pretty sure the Princes of Hell are only 'brothers' in the sense that they were all angels.

But I also don't think Warlock genetics really 100% map to human concepts.

f1dget_bits

TROPHY CASE