AFAIK, as long as you’re not profiting from it, Fair Use protects it.

I’ll do it.

Ironically, the novel that my friend and I have been working on/are revising, actually started out as ‘we can do better’ when we watched the show, so glad to help someone else how felt the same thing.

I’m hardly a paragon of excellence here

Let’s be honest – neither is Clare. She might be better if she actually seemed to give a crap, but she clearly doesn’t.

I’ll give a couple ideas/suggestions:

-Jace changes as a character. Like, he starts out as a racist pig, but interaction with Clary and Simon change him for the better. Maybe he gets a hobby or something that’s completely normal.
-Possible idea taken from the movie, Simon uses weapons like a flamethrower.
-Stuff from American folklore. Like Raven, Coyote, or the Windigo (not as a monster but as the spirit of winter and insanity)
-Allec isn’t attracted to Jace. It’s possible to be gay and not find your close friend attractive.

I really like your ideas, particularly that no one thinks that Jace is being funny and the region specific folklore. It’s way more in the ‘all the myths are true’ and the lack of Nephilim. That also also allows people to have different religious views without being Flat Earth Atheists. I’m really looking forwards to what you do.

Oh, by the way guys, if you want to see a REALLY rough draft of the first chapters of my story, here you go.

I agree. His knowingly fighting his own father who he knows is evil is a great idea, and adds to his character drama, and that being used as warfare actually works in that context. Particularly since this Jace would have been raised since birth to be a killing machine, and that could be what Valentine used against him. Basically that he doesn’t have a will, can’t make decisions and shouldn’t be allowed to function without someone holding his leash, and if Jace is shown getting close to Clary, getting closer to her world, and starting to stabilize as a person far better than he ever had before it hits harder.

As long as it’s an actual struggle and not played for the angst, it’s a clever idea, and could lead to interesting situations where they will do something really close and possible intimate, get kind of awkward and be all ‘lol siblings’ and back off.

And Clary doesn’t just date Simon because…reasons.

I agree. Since the romance is central to a lot of stuff, it should still be, it just needs to work well.

Though I the friend who I’m writing the book with would probably want me to give a vote for Simon/Isabella because she thought that the scene in the movie where he was helping her walk while using a flamethrower in the middle of a fight was adorable.

And yay for actual friendship. It’s fun to see all kinds of love in a story, not just romantic.

Oh, thing with Allec and Magnus, it might be interesting if they had kind of a slow burn going on in the background, since Allec is deep in the closet and Magnus has apparently been hurt before, and rather than just thinking that Allec is cute, Magnus actually has a reason to like Allec, so their romance is treated just like any other.

I think that Clare wasn’t quite able to separate herself from ‘look at me, aren’t I open minded?’

Well, given that the ability to see glamours and stuff in the series is referred to as the Sight, I’m thinking a term like ‘Sightless’ might work, with another term to denote people who should be Sightless but aren’t. It could tie into the idea that Shadowhunters and Downworlders underestimate normal humans; even though they do have the capacity for the Sight, they’re considered blind as a whole.

True. In a different context, I could honestly see a word like ‘mundie’ being friendly teasing or affectionate, like someone going “Good job, mundie” and then highfiving the person in question. Chances are that I’ll keep the original terminology as well, with it being slang or something.

Oh, regarding current progress on this: currently working on Valentine’s character, and rewriting the first chapter.

I also thought it was odd that demons were so willing to work with Valentine given his aim to wipe them out.

I’m more bothered by Valentine’s willingness to use them. It’s like the Grand High Wizard of the KKK hiring the Black Panthers to hassle some mixed-race couples. It just doesn’t work.

I’m pretty proud of the analogy.

Why is anyone’s name anything? Valentine is a real name, after all. :P

It’s also a nine-letter name that begins with a v, like the villain of a certain franchise which CC was very familiar with. Just sayin’.

think that if you write a villain well enough, even things that would not normally be menacing can become so when they are associated with him or her.

Just butting in to say I agree. A friend of mine years ago wrote a story in which the villain saying “And a pen” was somehow the most frightening line ever. So Valentine can be a perfectly menacing name, if you write the character well. Just look at Fontaine from Bioshock. Or should I say, would you kindly look at Fontaine from Bioshock.