Couldn’t have put it better myself, Vegeta. That’s right, people, I’m back. It’s been a while, but I’m ready to get back to tearing this thing apart.
But before that, a quick refresher in what’s happened so far. Maryse Lightwood, mother of Alec and Isabelle, returned and was not happy to learn that Jace was Voldemort Valentine’s son, and that Voldemort Valentine was still alive, and maybe possibly kicked Jace out to protect her family. Jace responded to this with all the maturity and composure of the spoiled, tantrum-prone child that he is, and went down to the local werewolf bar where he proceeded to pick a fight which he won handily because the author is in love with him (however, CC managed to completely undermine Jace’s alleged badassery by having him down only half a shot. Wimp), and had Luke show up to pull his ass out of the fire before Jace gets the beating he so richly deserves.
Clary’s been living with Luke, and Simon finally makes his move, and Clary reciprocates. Then, for some inexplicable reason (read: The Plot Said So), Clary gets called in to help bring Jace in, because for some equally inexplicable reason (read: The Author Said So), he is more willing to listen to the sister he didn’t know about/object of lust than either of the adopted siblings he’s lived with for years. Sure. Clary manages to convince Jace to go back home, where he and Maryse reconcile, and since none of these events have yet to be mentioned again, they prove to be almost entirely pointless.
We learn that the Inquisitor (Shadowhunter Internal Affairs) is coming, and she really doesn’t like Valentine, and suspects Jace has secretly been spying for Big V the whole time. Rather than working to allay these fears, Jace mouths off to the Inquisitor and gets thrown in a cell in the Silent City for the night. Clary (and probably the readers) are indignant about this, but the whole point is severely undermined by both Alec and Isabelle agreeing with the Inquisitor’s actions.
Meanwhile, Valentine has summoned up a nasty demon for reasons that do not and will never make sense, and has been killing Downworlder kids for strange yet obviously nefarious reasons. Not that any of the main cast care. At all.
Valentine attacks the Silent City, killing everyone there save Jace, and steals this book’s MacGuffin Item – the Soul Sword, which has the utterly useless power of being a magical lie detector. I wish I was kidding.
The other young Shadowhunters (and Clary) find out about the attack and are the only ones to respond, as all the adult Shadowhunters are off playing CSI or something. They free Jace, only to run into the Inquisitor and the rest of the adult Shadowhunters on the way out. Jace faints, but get healed by Magnus Bane, who was in the area for inexplicable reasons. The Inquisitor decides that, rather than take Jace back to the Institute where he can be put under guard 24/7, instead decides to send him home with Magnus for inexplicable reasons (are we noticing a theme here?).
An undefined period of time later, Clary, Alec, and Simon go to Magnus’s place to hash out a new plan. Magnus (pulling information out of his ass) tells them what Valentine is up to – by dipping the MacGuffin Sword in the blood of children from all four races of Downworlder (warlock, werewolf, vampire, and faerie), the sword’s magical alignment (in a bit where CC demonstrates her lack of real nerd-cred) will reverse, and it will suddenly gain the power to summon up demons (a plan which, again, makes no fucking sense). Then Isabelle calls them up to tell them that the local queen of the Seelie court wants to meet with them for – say it with me – inexplicable reasons. Rather than having to go to this meeting with one of their heavy-hitters riding the bench, Magnus reveals that he is a terrible and untrustworthy guardian, because he can just switch Jace for Alec. A prospect which Alec is just fine with, because he and Magnus are dating (sorry, was that a spoiler?).
So Clary, Simon, Jace, and Isabelle go to meet with the faerie queen. Isabelle, despite being the one who actually has experience dealing with faeries takes a back seat to Jace, because CC won’t allow anyone to show up Draco Jace. Clary manages to fuck up and forget the single bit of advice they were given before hand and accidentally drinks a bit of faerie drink, which means that she can’t leave, unless Jace kisses Clary, because that’s “the kiss she most desires.” Why did the queen do this? Take a guess.
That little side-trip having accomplished exactly two things – Jack and shit, and Jack left town – Simon runs off, understandably pissed that his girlfriend would rather make-out with her brother than him. Clary gives up after chasing after Simon for a grand total of ten seconds, and heads back to the Institute, where she and Jace proceed to have yet more drama straight out of a bad soap opera.
Simon then shows up again, having been drained almost dry by the vampires. Raphael, the leader of the vampires, brought him to the Institute, presumably to avoid pissing off the Shadowhunters. The last chapter ended with Clary deciding to bury Simon, which will allow him to complete his transformation into a vampire, and presumably an acceptable romantic interest for Clary.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to the new stuff.
We open with a description of the cemetery where they’re going to bury Simon. It apparently took them a while to get inside (presumably because someone explained to Jace that melting the lock doesn’t qualify as “unlocking”), followed by finding a place where they wouldn’t be spotted digging. And by “they”, I mean Raphael, since he’s the one doing all the work. Given that he’s Latino, and the other three are white, that feels vaguely racist.
Also, how is Raphael here? I mean, we know that vampires in this universe can’t walk on hallowed ground – that’s why he couldn’t enter the Institute. So, is this Jewish cemetery not on hallowed ground? Do cemeteries not count? Or is it because it’s a Jewish cemetery?
I’m going to assume it’s the first one. If only to not delve further into Unfortunate Implications.
Clary asks if Simon’s death was painful, and when Raphael stops working, the narration compares him leaning on the shovel to the gravedigger from Hamlet. Because I guess CC has never actually seen someone digging a hole. Also, to paraphrase a certain maxim of bad film, “never reference a good book in your bad one.” Or in this case, play.
Raphael explains that vampire bites have a narcotic/anesthetic effect, so no, Simon being drained didn’t hurt.
Clary has a brief bout of dizziness for some reason. We’re apparently supposed to take this as evidence of her feeling sick, since Jace insists on taking her away from the scene to recover, despite her insistence. So they go off a ways, and we learn that it’s apparently so cold that Clary can see her breath.
Wait, what time of year is it again? The last book was set in mid-to-late summer, and this is maybe a few weeks after. Now, I live in the South, where the temperature rarely gets below the 40s in winter and everyone panics when it starts snowing, but still.
Anyway, Clary says she feels sick, and we get this response from Jace:
“I know. That’s why I brought you out here. You looked like you were going to throw up on Raphael’s feet.”
She made a soft groaning noise.
“Might have wiped the smirk off his face,” Jace observed reflectively. “There’s that to consider.”
Rapier Twit: 1
You’re one to talk, Jace.
Clary says that this whole situation is her fault. Jace says it’s not. Clary corrects her statement, saying that it’s both they’re fault. To which Jace responds, “How do you figure that?”
Really, Jace? You have no idea at all how something you did might have lead to Simon running off to get sucked dry by vampires? Nothing?
Instead of responding, Clary stares at him for a minute, giving us this:
She looked at him silently for a moment. He needed a haircut. His hair curled the way vines did when they got too long, in looping tendrils, the color of white gold in the moonlight. The scars on his face and throat looked like they had been etched there with metallic ink. He was beautiful, she thought miserably, beautiful and there was nothing there in him, not an expression, not a slant of cheekbone or shape of jaw or curve of lips that bespoke any family resemblance to herself or her mother at all. He didn’t even really look like Valentine.
Both Hands, Ma’am: 1
This is so not the time for that, CC. My god.
Also, now that I look at it, I’m fairly certain this is supposed to be foreshadowing.
Clary’s brain finally reboots, and she explains what should have been obvious, even to Jace – if they hadn’t kissed, Simon wouldn’t have run off and gotten himself killed.
To which Jace responds with this:
“We were forced to do what we did. It’s not as if we did it for fun, or to hurt him. Besides,” he said, with the ghost of a smile, “you’re my sister.”
I’m of two minds with this. On the one hand, this is further proof that Jace is some kind of psychopath – someone not taking responsibility for their actions is one of the signs someone is a psychopath. On the other hand, it also feels like CC trying to have her cake and eat it too – her self-insert gets to make-out with her Draco knock-off, but not have to feel any guilt for the consequences.
Instead of pointing out what a shitty argument that is (doesn’t matter that you were “forced to” – you still did it; also, Jace actively stopped Clary from going after Simon, so he’s doubly to blame), Clary focuses on that whole “sister” bit. Because that’s what’s important here – not that that kiss literally proved that Clary is still pining after someone else, but that it’s her brother. Yes, the latter makes the former worse, but it doesn’t overshadow it. She asks him not to say it “like that” (like what?), Jace does a little bit about words losing meaning if you say them enough times (see a good example here), and we end with this:
“It doesn’t matter how many times you say it. It’ll still be true.”
“And it doesn’t matter what you won’t let me say, that’ll still be true too.”
Both Hands, Ma’am: 2
CC, there’s honestly enough drama here as is. You don’t need to go heaping more on top of it.
Alec thankfully shows up, along with Magnus. So we’re not even going to pretend that the whole “house arrest” thing was ever a problem, I guess. They brought blood, obtained from a halal butcher shop. Jace tells Clary that what’s going to happen won’t be pretty, and says he’ll send Isabelle to comfort Clary. Because I guess want to expose the women-folk to anything that might upset their delicate sensibilities.
A) How would he know how this will go? Has he been to a vampire raising before? Why someone else who might reasonably know all this, like Raphael or even Magnus, explaining this? And B) the ceremony/ritual involves burying the currently-dead body of the would-be vampire. “Pleasant” went out the window a while back.
And shock of shocks, Clary actually brings up one of my first point. The answer is no – Jace has never seen a vampire rise from the grave. So Clary insists that she’s going to be there. Wow. Maybe she’s finally evolving a spine.
They go back to find that Raphael’s finished burying Simon, and Isabelle is sitting off to the side doing… I don’t know what. Honestly, unless she’s being used as a target for scorn, CC doesn’t seem to know what to do with Isabelle. The fact that it’s cold is reiterated, and we learn that Clary is wearing Isabelle’s coat. I’m going to assume she’s just borrowed a coat from Isabelle, rather than leaving Isabelle to suffer, but it honestly wouldn’t surprise me if she (Clary) had.
We learn a bit more about vampires – namely that they call new vampires “fledglings”, which Clary is a little bothered by (it’s “too friendly”) and that freshly-turned vampires have occasionally gotten stuck in the ground in winter, and forced to remain buried until the ground thaws, starving the whole time.
Well, that’s only slightly less terrifying than them being buried forever, yet still utterly fucked-up.
Raphael spots Magnus, and addresses him as High Warlock, so I guess we’re treating that as a real title. And I will continue to treat both it and its bearer with all the respect due his station – which is to say, none at all.
Magnus explains that he’s here because he’s curious. Sure you are, buddy. Also, he uses the term “Night Children”, because that hasn’t gotten old.
You Keep Using That Word: 1
Honestly, I can’t help but think that this should be a fairly private, even secret thing. I mean, real births usually have friends and family of the mother/couple present, but maybe not in the room.
Anyway, Raphael tells Jace that he keeps “surprisingly illustrious company.” Jace responds with this:
“Are you talking about yourself again?” asked Jace. He smoothed the churned dirt with the tip of a boot. “That seems boastful.”
You’re one to talk about boasting, Jace, considering he’s the head of the local vampires, and you’re not worthy of doing the laundry for the Institute. Cripes, take the fucking complement.
Our “Heroes”: 1
And then, well… this happens:
“Maybe he meant me,” said Alec. Everyone looked at him in surprise. Alec so rarely made jokes. He smiled nervously. “Sorry,” he said. “Nerves.”
I think that response is less surprise at Alec making a joke and more feeling awkward about how terrible it is. Not that that’ll stop me.
Rapier Twit: 2
I mean, my god, even the other characters thought that was terrible.
And we come back to it being really cold. Thankfully, Raphael explains what’s up, making it not stupid and pointless detail to keep harping on (don’t get me wrong – it’s still kinda stupid, but not stupid and pointless). Turns out excessive cold is part of the vampire raising – the fledgling (in this case, Simon) “draws strength from the living things that surround it,” which apparently manifests as feeling cold. You’d think they might feel weak or tired, but I guess that would be too obvious.
And then Clary points out that Raphael doesn’t appear to feel cold. So he points of the fucking obvious – he’s not alive.
Our “Heroes”: 2
Apparently everyone’s standing on top of the freshly dug grave, because Raphael has to tell them all to back off. Clary bumps into Isabelle, who doesn’t look so good, and in a surprising display of empathy, Clary asks if something’s wrong.
And here’s Isabelle’s answer:
“Everything,” Isabelle said. “Clary, maybe we should have just let him go—”
What the actual fuck, Isabelle? No, no, I shouldn’t blame you. I should blame CC – after all, she’s the one who doesn’t seem to know how to keep your character consistent. Isabelle regularly hangs out with (and is probably dating) one of the Seelie queen’s guards, but for some reason doesn’t like vampires. I’m just going to assume this is so Clary can look good by comparison, seeing as this is how Clary responds:
“Let him die, you mean.” Clary jerked her arm out of Isabelle’s grip. “Of course that’s what you think. You think everyone who isn’t just like you is better off dead anyway.”
Well, Clary, considering A) you barely acknowledge Simon when he’s there, and almost never when he’s not, and B) had/still have the hots for Jace, who’s basically the poster-boy for the supernatural Hitler Youth, you have no room to complain.
Our “Heroes”: 4
One for both of you.
Back to the action, for lack of a better word.
There’s some vague descriptions of what’s going on, and finally Simon’s hand bursts out of the ground. Clary starts to run forward, only to be grabbed by Raphael. Clary insists that Simon needs help, but Raphael tells her that Simon needs to dig himself out, and that this way is “better”. Clary counters that that isn’t her way, and runs for the grave again.
Simon does manage to dig himself out on his own, but he isn’t moving. Clary starts freaking out, but then Simon grabs her, throws her to the ground, and starts going for her neck, only for Raphael to grab her and toss her aside like it’s no big deal. Oh, and Raphael reiterates that he told her to stay back.
Gotta say, I’m really starting to like Raphael. Let’s hope CC doesn’t ruin his character later.
Clary complains that Simon didn’t recognize her, but Raphael explains that he (Simon) did, but doesn’t care, because he’s starving. On the one hand, Raphael probably could have mentioned that, but she A) knew they had brought blood there for a reason, and B) refused to listen to the actual expert. So as far as I’m concerned, Clary almost getting her throat ripped out by her “best friend”/ex-boyfriend is a-okay in my book.
However, I can’t help but feel that this is a bit of a missed opportunity for world building. What if, along with the whole “they’ll be starving” thing, letting vampire fledglings dig themselves out was a right of passage among vampires, like a christening or a bris? In order for new vampire to prove themselves worthy, they have to rise on their own – any that can’t are written off as being too weak. Yes, it’s a bit heartless, but it would be something to make these vampires feel more developed.
Jace, being a coward as well as lazy, passes Raphael the bag containing the blood. Raphael opens it, and for some reason the blood is in smaller bags. I’m not sure why, since it’s from a butcher’s shop, not a blood bank. Raphael rips one open and hands it to Simon.
And CC produces an actual good bit of writing once again:
And Simon, who had been a vegetarian since he was ten years old, who wouldn’t drink milk that wasn’t organic, who fainted at the sight of needles— Simon snatched the packet of blood out of Raphael’s thin brown hand and tore into it with his teeth.
It’s a nice bit of contrast, and really demonstrates how becoming a vampire has changed him. Or it would, if any of this had been mentioned before. But I’ll let that slide, since there was never any reason to bring any of it up.
While Raphael gets Simon settled, Clary wanders off and pukes. I guess I can’t blame her, but she was told that this wouldn’t be pretty. Then she collapses, and the chapter is brought to a close with this:
She rested her hot face against the cool dirt and thought, for the first time, that maybe the dead weren’t so unlucky after all.
I’m sure CC intended for that to come across as deep, but it isn’t. For that to work, the alternative to being dead has to clearly be worse than death. The only real time or place where I can think that sort of thing would apply would be the trenches of the First World War, and even then only in certain places. Here, it feels like Clary’s whining that Simon didn’t embrace her when he popped out of the grave.
This chapter as a whole wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t great, but it doesn’t feel like CC wrote it just to inflate her word count – unlike some other chapters. And it’s short, so that helps.
Still, it does feel like the actual plot (thwarting Valentine’s Evil Scheme) has taken a bit of a back seat to Teen Drama since chapter 8. Maybe that’ll start to change with the next chapter, but given that we still have a little more than half the book left (judging by my copy) I wouldn’t count on it.
Counts
Entirely Pointless: 0 (Total: 29)
Un-Logic: 0 (Total: 28)
You Keep Using That Word: 1 (Total: 51)
Shoddy World Building: 0 (Total: 27)
Rapier Twit: 2 (Total: 39)
Our “Heroes”: 4 (Total: 77)
No Shit Sherlock: 0 (Total: 6)
Both Hands, Ma’am: 2 (Total: 56)
A Word from Our Sponsors: 0 (Total: 5)
Juracan on 6 August 2015, 22:27 said:
Hooray! Welcome back! I loved your recap, and I’m very happy to see the return of this most excellent spork.
On the subject of the blood given to Simon though… they make a point to get it from a halal butcher (because he’s Jewish, I assume), but drinking blood is still prohibited by Orthodox Judaism. So I don’t know if it’d matter where they got the blood; either way it wouldn’t be kosher to consume either way.
But fun story time: I once sat in the middle of a conversation about Mortal Instruments by people who’d read it, and he was saying that he liked the world and the setting of the series, he just gave up on the books because of all the melodrama that took page time away from what should have been an interesting series.
From what you’ve said, the world doesn’t sound that developed, but I do think it could have been overlooked if CC had filled the book with Absurdly Awesome Action and epic battles. But unfortunately it’s not, and we’re stuck with this Jace-centric nonsense.
The Smith of Lie on 7 August 2015, 17:03 said:
Not much hope for that, unless he stops showing up at all…
And now since I love to get sidetracked, I’ll talk about Sword of Truth (the MacGuffin, not the series) and how it could have been made awesome.
So. Sword is a lie detector. Not a very useful power for an object like a sword. Maybe it’d be cool for some Scales of Justice or some such artifact, right? Not necessarily!
Imagine if you will a sword. A magic sword, which detects lies. And then strikes liar dwon with extreme prejudice. Say a lie, smallest little lie to its wielder and nothing will help you. Not armor, not skill, not magic wards or army of mooks. You will be strauck down.
Now that is practical for both justice system and combat. The wielder becomes a judge, jury and executioner in one person. Did accused deny the guilt of that terrible, terrible crime he commited? Well he’s dead now. Did your enemy slip up in the fight, while you kept asking him questions? Well he’s dead now. He didn’t? Well, he still needs to put some amount of attention to keeping from talking and/or keeping what he’s saying true. It adds a whole new dimension to combat, trying to trip your enemy both mentally and physically.
Secondly, the whole turning sword evil ploy. Lets roll with idea of inversing the polarity by bouncing neutrinos off the main deflector dish. What we are about to focus on is the effect of such reversal.
Why exactly is the sword that was up untill now detecting lies going to turn into demon summoning tool? Sure, if it had power to smite the demons, sending them back to the ever screaming abyss the came from it’d make sense. But it does nothing of the sort.
Would it not make much more sense to have sword actually make it’s wielder the most belivable, credible person in the world? Imagine that after the sword reversal ritual Valentine walks into Clave’s meeting room and says “That whole genocide thing got out of hand, but downworlders plot to kill all humans even now. We neeed to stop them. The genocide is the only way.” And even though he’s lying his ass off, everyone believes him cause he’s holding The Sword of Lies.
And hey, it would be more consistant with his alleged character motivations! And having to came up with a way to subvert his new influence and not fall for his lies, while being on the run from the infiltrated Shadowhunters would probably make for a better plot than whatever CC came up. Plut it’d set a perfect situation for trilogy where Villain wins the 2nd book and by the time we get to the climax the characters had their lowest moment and they are underdogs coming from behind!
As for the chapter itself, I guess I will come back later with some insight. Maybe.
Akkakieron on 7 August 2015, 17:59 said:
“We were forced to do what we did. It’s not as if we did it for fun, or to hurt him. Besides,” he said, with the ghost of a smile, “you’re my sister.”
Of course Clary focuses on the sibling aspect; if she doesn’t, then Jace would look bad and CC can’t have that.
“Everything,” Isabelle said. “Clary, maybe we should have just let him go—”
I can sorta see this as Isabelle wanting to keep Simon out of this life. It was terrible getting him involved in the first place, she got to know him and she likes him…and now he’s almost dead. The only way to save him is turning him into a vampire, someone Shadowhunters like Valentine would have no problems killing. She wants him to die human rather than live as a potential target. This isn’t brought up, so Isabelle just looks terrible.
“Of course that’s what you think. You think everyone who isn’t just like you is better off dead anyway.”
…she says while Jace ‘fights werewolves because of manpain’ Wayland is standing right there.
Aikaterini on 7 August 2015, 21:22 said:
Without having informed his family. They can go rot, for all Clary cares.
Oh, who are you kidding? It’s always a good time to rhapsodize about Jace’s looks, according to Clare. No matter what the situation is or how stupid and shallow it makes Clary look.
Ah, Clary’s shameless hypocrisy. How I despise you.
Yes, Clary, clearly it’s Isabelle who thinks that everyone that she doesn’t like is better off dead. Not your precious, perfect Jace, who – in case you forgot, because your author clearly did – nearly killed an entire werewolf pack just because he needed a punching bag. But do you care about that? Have you uttered a single word of reproach to him? Have you ever considered distancing yourself from such a horrible, horrible person who would do something like that to a group of strangers who did nothing to him? Has it even gotten through your dense skull that he did that? No.
Shut. The Heck. Up.
Apep on 8 August 2015, 14:26 said:
Well, first I think the reason for going to a halal butcher had more to do with just getting blood, rather than any religious concerns, and second, while there hasn’t been any mention of how religious Simon is, I assume he’s more like CC (i.e. raised Jewish, but probably doesn’t stick to the strictures that much). As interesting as it would be to consider the effects of being a vampire might have on a particularly devout person, I don’t think CC would be up to the task.
It certainly has the potential to be interesting, but yeah, CC does tend to focus less on developing an interesting world and more on how amazing Jace is. Maybe the fact that there’s so little development means the readers can fill in the blanks themselves.
@ Smith of Lie: that’s… actually a pretty cool idea. I honestly don’t know how the sword detects lies, and I don’t think it’s ever explained. But I guess that would take up page space that could be spent on other things, like more Teen Melodrama or describing Jace for the umpteenth time.
That is one thing I’ll give CC over LKH – at least she’s smart enough not to bring up points that make her chosen characters look bad. LKH, on the other hand, has people bring them up, and then has Anita & co. just ignore or side-step them.
To be fair, I don’t think telling Simon’s family would be a good idea. They’d probably start asking questions (like how he got killed), and that can only lead to bad things.
swenson on 10 August 2015, 09:23 said:
I actually know a series which talks about this a bit! The Kitty Norville series. There’s a vampire named Rick, and (minor spoilers) eventually you find out he was a good Catholic boy before he was turned into a vampire, and even though he can’t go into a church, touch crosses, or take Communion, he refuses to believe that God’s rejected him. And he actually ends up joining a secret group of Vatican-approved vampire priests who fight demons.
@Smith of Lie – ooh, I like that a lot. It does seem rather inconsistent that turning a lie detector evil would give you the power to summon demons, that’s just random.
The Smith of Lie on 10 August 2015, 14:53 said:
About the vampirism thing. I always liked the idea they run in World of Darkness, where the symbol itself was not relevant, but faith of the person who held it was. It was done similarly in Dresden Files.
Another cool option would be that vampires are only vulnerable to religious symbols they believe in (or to pictures of Richard Dawkins :P). So Simon could smack you over the head with a crucifix but sight of Torah should put him into spasms. Sort of like in The Fearless Vampire Killers.
It is a shame that the entire subplot is obviously just there to free Simon from the crippling disability of being a mundie. Because god forbid at least author wasn’t a racist looking down on vanilla mortals (I’d love to see reaction of Karrin Murphy to Mortal Instruments, it’d be hillarious to read such a scene).
Actually it is a shame that vampires so far seem to be so run of the mill. Hell, even if CC went with a cliche of Looks like Orlok it’d be pretty cool. I can just imagine how she tries to manage an ugly main character without making the rest of the cast look like even bigger assholes. And fails.
Lilia on 11 August 2015, 00:26 said:
@The Smith of Lie
Actually, Simon is only vulnerable to his own religion. I think that’s brought up later on in either this book or the series.
The Smith of Lie on 11 August 2015, 12:04 said:
@Lilia #8
Ah. That’s pretty cool. I always like the scene in Fearless Vampire Killers where Shagal reacts to the crucifix with Oy vey, have you got the wrong vampire.
organiclead on 11 August 2015, 12:27 said:
So wait, according to the wiki vampirism is a sort of demon-disease and they’re vulnerable to every religion as long as they hold the beliefs of the religious iconography, yet actual demons and werewolves are only vulnerable to specific angel related stuff? Maybe I’m stretching it a bit, but it seems like she was just throwing interesting ideas at a wall without thinking of a bigger context.
Asahel on 14 August 2015, 11:29 said:
While it is an interesting idea for a vampire to only be vulnerable to the icons of his/her own (former?) faith, it’s also interesting to have a vampire only vulnerable to religious icons that the bearer believes in. I.e. a true Christian could display a cross or a devout Jew a Star of David, but faithless people that realize they’re up against a vampire and grab a crucifix because that’s what works in the movies, they’re going to get little more than a good chuckle from the vampire.
Speaking of mixing vampires and people of faith, I remember reading a graphic novel (a while back, can’t remember the title any more) in which there was a city where several superheroes operated. The story follows one guy who wants to try his hand at being a hero and ends up getting in over his head and another superhero saves him and takes him under his wing. The guy is dressed like a Catholic priest and he wears a cross on his chest. He has kind of the standard list of superpowers (stronger than normal men, faster than normal men, seemingly invulnerable). You find out much later in the story that he’s a vampire. He was a devout priest all his life, but he made a single mistake with a wayward woman—who turned out to be a vampire, and she turned him. And, yes, the cross that he wears does hurt him constantly when he wears it, but that’s the point. To him, it’s the penance for his sin.
Juracan on 15 August 2015, 14:11 said:
To me that makes more sense. It turns more into a test of faith for the wielder of the icon/holy symbol rather than the faith of the vampire, who as someone who is likely removed from divine salvation, shouldn’t really get much of a say in whether or not the symbol hurts them.
That… yeah, you’re right, that doesn’t make sense. If religious icons hurt vampires, why shouldn’t they hurt werewolves and demons as well, given they’re from a common source? And if angels in the Mortal Instruments are actually the real deal, then shouldn’t religious symbols that are from religions that have nothing to do with angels at all have no effect on vampires, as they’re… y’know, false in CC’s universe?
Also, I’m questioning the nature of the afterlife in CC’s verse. Like, if demons are from another dimension, as stated in the first bit of the first book, but they’re from Hell, that would make Hell another dimension. Is Heaven another dimension? And then what’s the relationship between these two dimensions? What makes the power of one magic and the power of another… not magic? Do souls go to either after death, or is it like Diablo where they’re just the residences of angels and demons and no one knows where human souls go?Do vampires and werewolves have souls as such?
I’m asking too many questions, aren’t I?
The Smith of Lie on 15 August 2015, 18:05 said:
Vampires being vulnerable to true faith of person holding the symbol has been done. The best example were old World of Darkness vampires. If memory serves, for example, a fanatical communist could affect a vampire with Das Kapital, since it was the faith itself and not a symbol that was inimical to vampires.
It is similar in Dresden Files. Faith has a powers of its own, but Red Court vampires were shown to be especially vulnerable to it. In 1st book Harry Dresden repels a vampire with his silver pentacle, which has no religious significance but is a symbol of Harry’s faith in magic (as a force of good, not that it exists).
Juracan on 15 August 2015, 20:09 said:
I’m fully aware it’s been done; I just think it makes a ton more sense than CC’s system. Then again, most things do.
Apep on 15 August 2015, 22:28 said:
Astro City, by Kurt Busiek. Great series – it’s kind of a love letter to superhero comics in general.
Pretty much. CC didn’t seem to think through the implications of her cosmology. Like, at all.
And the Anita Blake series. Well, it used to, anyway – LKH sometimes has problems maintaining her canon on the same page, let alone between books.
The Smith of Lie on 16 August 2015, 11:52 said:
I just whipped up this little thing.
_It was a busy night at the lichyard. First the wraith from the crypts materialized again and had to be send into the afterlife. Then some zombies rose and decapitation combined with reburial was in order. And if that was not enough the Golem guarding the grave of Rabbi Fernstein malfunctioned and went on a rampage. The grave keeper didn’t even have a time to grab a cup of coffee. And when finally it seemed like it was over some clowns showed up with a corpse and started burying it as if they owned the place.
_
“Oi! What the fuck do you think you are doing here?” All the heads turned towards him. He sighed inwardly. One of them, the Hispanic one, was a vampire. Of course, they came to create a new bloodsucker. Couldn’t they have done it on some other night? Now he’ll have to dig six new graves before calling it a night…
Jayce looked towards Raphael. “You have any idea who that mundie is and what he wants?” Vampire just shrugged. “I guess he’s some kind of janitor or whatever graveyards have.” The conversation was abruptly interrupted when Alec got hit in the neck with a spade. Fountain of blood stained grave keeper’s brown coat. He was fast as lightning and moved with an expert timing.
With Raphael distracted by profusely bleeding Lightwood, the remaining Shadowhunters jumped into action. They were routinely killing demons, what was a one old man to them?
Jayce sumbled backwards, barely avoiding losing an eye. “Who in their right minds sharpens the spade?!” he asked, touching his bleeding cheek. Clary gasped, praying that Jayce won’t be disfigured by a scar. It would be a crime against the world to tarnish his angelic beauty. Grave keeper was however much less concerned with aesthetic implications of his actions, since he followed with a series of quick cuts, each one coming closer to ending Jayces life than the previous. With none of his usual nonchalance and a lot of panic in his voice he screamed. “Isabel, do something!’
And she did. Her whip coiled around grave keeper’s hand and she hauled him with all her might. The man stumbled, lost his balance and fell right into her punch. It connected with satisfying thud, breaking his lip and maybe a tooth or two. “You hurt my brother! I’ll kill you slowly…” She didn’t get to finish. Grave keeper spat blood straight into her eyes and without missing a beat punched where a gentleman would not, disregarding popular myth that only males are vulnerable in that spot.
With Isabel out of the fight it left him with only Jayce and feeding Raphael to contend. The remaining girl looked like a non combatant. It wasn’t going as well as he hoped. Jayce turned out to be decently competent and he kept doing weird stuff with those tatoos of his, which made fight unfair in grave keeper’s opinion. And time was running short, the Latino vampire was sure to end feeding soon. Time came for improvisation.
Feigning retreat he baited his opponent near the wall of a mausoleum. And then he reached into a pocket and threw something. Bottle hit the wall right over youngsters head, spraying its contents around. “You missed mundie.” Jayce smiled. It was the smile that could land him a main role in a movie. A smile that could make him into an icon. Along the characters of Freddy Kruger, Jason Vorhees and Michael Myers. He closed the distance between them and grabbed grave keeper by the neck. “Now you die.” In his fury he didn’t notice the zippo in man’s hand.
Jayce’s burning head rolled straight towards Clary. “Noooo…” her scream was cut short by a quick punch to trachea.
When Simon buried himself out the graveyard was silent. There were corpses, fresh corpses around. Headless corpses. Staked corpses. But he didn’t pay much attention, he was thirsty… So thirsty… “Sorry lad, you’ve chosen wrong night for it.” Simon turned inhumanely quickly. But not quickly enough to avoid losing his head.
Grave keeper looked at the carnage he had to clear up before dawn. His graveyard looked like an abattoir. “God, I’m getting too old for that shit…”
Apep on 16 August 2015, 12:17 said:
Well, certainly was a thing. I do like the idea of a graveyard’s groundskeeper secretly being a badass monster fighter. I’m not so sure these kids deserve to be killed, though. As annoying as Jace is, I just think he deserves a sound beating to put him in his place.
A few other thoughts:
Was he kung fu fighting then?
Interesting, considering two of those guys are kinda known for wearing face-concealing masks.
The Smith of Lie on 16 August 2015, 17:25 said:
Well, I was about to answer that this is just a silly spitefic and that I am so used to killing various chumps from works sporked here, that I didn’t even think about it… But not thinking about this stuff is what people like CC do.
So I sort of worked back, asking the question why did Malcolm (grave keeper is named Macolm Henderson) killed them.
Turns out that back in 60ties his girlfriend got turned into vampire and tried to eat him. This was before he learned of the supernatural and he only survived through sheer gumption and tenency towards setting stuff on fire.
Since then he has a strong bias against vampires and anyone who associates with them. Which explains how the party got upgraded from some clowns with unauthorized coprse to 6 new graves when he saw Raphael.
Plus, he’s a bit of an asshole. But you’d be one as well if you worked on a haunted graveyard for last 40 years and had to deal with various undead nightly with only a spade to help you put them back where they belong.
And yes, he was kung-fu fighting. He picked it up from one of those wuxia type guys whom he helped bring down a powerful Jiangshi.
Apep on 16 August 2015, 18:42 said:
That was a joke, ah say, a joke, son. [/Foghorn Leghorn]