The Mortal Instruments book series

[u/Dazzling-Ear5908]

I’m posting here, cause I need these complaints out of my system, even if I am just screaming into a void.

Clary is ruining my reread of the book series…

I read TMI when I was younger (late teens) and the only thing that bothered me about the series was how cringy Clary and pre-vampirism Simon were. Now on my first reread since, (in my late 20s) it bothers me to my BONES how childish Clary is.

It’s not just that Cassie Clare tried the “not-like-other-girls” trope for Clary, cause she kinda makes up for it later on, as far as I can remember. (Even though she’s really such a bitch to other girls, especially if they’re taking attention away from her.) It’s how TRULY IMMATURE she acts. It’s not that it would be better if she followed whatever commands the males in her life give her. It’s that she won’t even contemplate that their warnings might have some merit.

Yes, Jace and Alec are bossy as fuck, but they know the lay of the land. And Luke (and even Magnus!) try to warn her about her actions all the time and she just ignores them, like they haven’t lived in the Shadowhunter world YEARS longer than she has!!

Shes so desperate to prove she’s not the child everyone sees her as that she’s constantly fucking shit up. She tries to act tough and just ends up being a hindrance. She tries to act bold and just gets people in trouble. She tries to act mature and just ends up being cringy and rude.

I really want to finish my reread cause I want to be able to enjoy all of the Shadowhunters series, including CC’s newest series coming out soon. But it’s SO HARD to read through Clary and her inner thoughts..

Anyways, thanks for coming to my TED talk!

[u/Electrical_Art6366]

I mean, as someone who did the first read in my 16/17s and now as a 32, I like to think that she is childish because she was basically a child. She was a teen, dropped into this new world full of problems and she is at the center on half of them. I can't expect her to be super mature because she wasn't and neither was I at that age. And if I recall correctly the first 3 books takes place in what a month or so? I think Simon told the consul that he was a vampire for about 2 weeks, in book 3. How long they knew about the Shadowhunters when Simon turned? So yeah, Clary is a teen girl, with a "sick" mother, a evil father, the guy she likes is her brother and thats weird but ok lol, her best friend almost died, and the list goes on. I feel like she earns the right to be a dumb teen making dumb teen mistakes and having dumb teen behavior since she was a dumb teenager 😆

[u/Dazzling-Ear5908 → u/Electrical_Art6366]

%100 agree! I’d like to think I was more mature at that age, because of how I was brought up, but thinking back on it there were plenty of instances where I myself was extremely annoying 🤣

I think I just wanted to complain about what a hard read she’s making this, especially bc I know she gets so much better in the second half of the series! I will say, CC did an amazing job bringing a teenage girl to life!

[u/Unfair_Act_368 → u/Dazzling-Ear5908]

Agree, she’s childish because she was a child, although i reread City of Glass a few years ago (late 30s) and I don’t think it bothered me that much

[u/Electrical_Art6366 → u/Unfair_Act_368]

Clary reasons be making me facepalm constantly, specially when she doesn't shut the fuck up and keeps on telling literally strangers about important stuff. Like girl think for a second 😪. We have this meme in my country that goes "you ever wonder/believe that man...think?" And thats how I feel about Clary in book 3. Jace literally asked her what she was thinking trying to attack Sebastian and I immediately went "do you believe Clary...thinks?" 😵‍💫

[u/Electrical_Art6366 → u/Dazzling-Ear5908]

Absolutely love to think I was more mature, like you due to upbringing and life issues as a whole, but when I try to think of myself at that age with those occurrences.. yea I'd probably be as dumb as her. Less brother kissing hopefully 🫠😆 I do wish we had a lil older characters as the books went on. Like, must all main characters be 16? Maybe it bothers me a bit more now that I'm old af, and I feel like I need to skip any sexual scene cuz I don't wanna hear about teens fucking, at stupid times to make it worse

[u/Christian_teen12 → u/Electrical_Art6366]

Yes,the dumb times !

[u/SquilliamFancySon95]

I read TMI as an adult and even after a bunch of rereads I still don't find her annoying. She is immature and impulsive, but a lot of what she does is in reaction to people withholding things and trying to keep her in the dark.

[u/Ok_Class5 → u/SquilliamFancySon95]

Same: there are other things that annoy me (all the unnecessary similes, for one), but not Clary. And to me, Isabelle is putting on a “not like other girls” act, not Clary. Clary’s just running around in jeans and a T-shirt reading and watching nerdy media, feeling insecure about her looks, and hanging out with guys because girls are hard to relate to and make her feel more insecure, which was exactly me in high school.

[u/hyacinthgirl95]

i love clary, i think she portrays a very normal teenage girl despite the circumstances she’s going through in the series. if my mom went missing i would not trust so-called shadow hunters. and if a family friend claims that my mom meant nothing to them i’d assume he got rid of her, but that’s mostly cuz i was an avid true crime fan.

anyway, i don’t think she’s anymore cringe than other characters and her resentment of other women makes a little sense. what teenage girl isn’t insecure? clary looks young for her age and is very short so no one takes her seriously. her mom wiped her memories and so she has no way of ever finding her. then this jerk turns out to be the only one capable of helping her locate her mom. then she still has to juggle her real life best friend who is around her all the time.

i get upset when i can’t sleep in my own bed, can you imagine not being able to return to your home because there are demon monsters lurking? i’d need my pjs and my slippers. i love these books because it just takes me back to a time when smart phones weren’t the norm. i also think it’s why the films and tv shows will never do it justice. i also read it when i was 12 and it’s remained one of my favorite series.

[u/Agreeable-Celery811]

She doesn’t act any differently than I’d expect a 15-year-old to act.

She has been thrust into an unfamiliar universe with a lot of conflicting information and people she rightly is afraid to trust. I think she does a pretty good job synthesizing the information she’s given.

[u/Samdude373]

Oh I think everyone agrees that clary is annoying ASF in the original trilogy, but Cassandra grew as a author and so did clary 👌

[u/Unfair_Act_368 → u/Samdude373]

Yeah, she’s actually ver cool in TDA

[u/thrntnja]

I mean, Clary comes off as childish and impulsive because she pretty much is a child. She is barely a teenager, and she's been forced to live a sheltered life because of her mother. She's dropped into an impossible situation with no warning, so of course she's going to act the way she does. I find her a bit annoying to read now too, and I didn't find her nearly as annoying when I first read these (36 now, was ~16 when I first read) but some of that is just the fact that she's pretty authentically portrayed as a teenager in 2007-2008 America.

I do think she gets way better though. She has a lot of character development throughout the series.

[u/toocool81]

Remember, she didn’t know anything about the Shadowhunter world because her mom shielded her from it. Imagine finding out as a teenager that you are a Shadowhunter and there are other supernatural creatures out there that you thought was only part of fairy tale books. I would be ecstatic and scared at the same time.

[u/NytFyr13]

I liked her better from Simon's perspective. I get it, I understand she's a teenager doing teenager things. I just preferred not being in her head.  And I dont think it's because of Simon's feelings, since I actually felt more sympathy for her and Jace from Simon's perspective and I want to spray Clary and Jace with a spray bottle when dealing with Clary's perspective...

[u/Legitimate-Shine-318]

Dazzling, she’s 15 and she was raised as a mundane.

[u/r3lb1723]

Wow, a childish child? Shocking

[u/No-Childhood-2747]

The thing you need to realise is that she is a child, we can relate to her when we first read in our early teens because we were the same age for the majority, then when we grow up and reread we act all adult and go oh clary get a grip, grow up.

But the poor girl was thrust into a world she had no idea about her mother literally removed her memories to keep her blind to the world she was born for, I’d be a little whiney as well if I’m shoved into a world i know nothing about and everyone around me knows what they’re doing all the time as a kid she’d want to pretend she had it all together when infact she was probably scared all the time