We Need To Talk About Kieran
(with major spoilers from Lord of Shadows, read with caution)
Well, first of all this is a masterpost, so I don’t know if anyone will read it till the end, but anyway. Second, English isn’t my first language so I apologize in advantage for any errors.
This isn’t about Kierark (though it is mentioned), but mostly about Kieran himself, since there’s so much hate toward him recently. (Mostly because people ship Marktina I guess and hating on him is the easiest way if that makes any sense.)
Anyway, let’s go: To start, Kieran is a faerie. He obviously ain’t human. This way, judging him as a human simply ain’t fair. Things are different with faeries so keep that on mind.
Kieran grew up in the Unseelie court, being son of the Unseelie king, who is – as everyone must know – a huge douchebag. He’s also one of the most rejected sons of the King, according to the Flower Book. In Lord of Shadows Erec, one of his brothers, says that he used to be a really gentle and caring kid, and that because of that he ain’t “court material”, reason why he was tortured by his older brothers almost his entirely life. As a result, he has a bunch of scars, and real trust issues. He was never loved, therefore never learn how to love.
He also having grown up on the court, obviously never got to know Shadowhunters, only having his father’s opinion as a reference. So he probably learned since always that Shadowhunters are awful, untrustworthy, and cruel. He has absolutely no reason to doubt these statements. He obviously believed them.
Then later he was betrayed by his own family (big surprise!) and sent to the Wild Hunt for “political reasons”. A place where he was mocked for being a prince, among other things. He basically was physically and psychologically tortured pretty much everywhere he goes. And then he got to know Mark, and even though he was part Shadowhunter, they became close, and Kieran fell in love with him.
Now, the other Hunters are trying to make Mark lose his mind, forget his house and his past life. They broke his stele, they try to make him say he wasn’t a Shadowhunter. They try to break him. Probably the only reason why they didn’t succeed was Kieran. He protected Mark using his prince status, and not only this but he accepted Mark as he was. He let him say he was a Shadowhunter when he most need to. He help him remember that, he help him keep this part of himself alive. He was the only one on the Hunt who didn’t mind that and didn’t try to make Mark forget that.
Now, on Mark’s pov we get to see him saying that kisses and love promises where a good way to forget the pain. So he obviously did a lot of love promises to Kieran, where he later also says that this kind of promise was the most important one to the faeries. They really value and believed them, to the point that break one is considered a huge crime. He promised his heart to Kieran, and although for him it may have been only an “easy way to forget the pain”, to Kieran was obviously more than that. He truly believed them, he truly believed that Mark was his, because Mark himself said so. And, again, he ain’t a human. He is a faerie, and faeries love in a different way. They have these things in a different way.
So when Mark was back home, and was falling in love with a girl he has known for barely a week (while he was with Kier for at least five years now, or maybe even more since the time in Faerie is different) of course this hurt him. Of course this makes him insecure. Again, he was betrayed by his own family, he never has any love before. Mark was the first thing he loved, and the first thing that actually loved him back. Mark was his everything, the only good thing in a life full of only pain, and he was suddenly very aware that he was losing it.
Now, if you read Lord of Shadows, you may know that Kieran said to Mark that Iarlath was making him believe that Mark was in danger. That the Shadowhunters are planning to kill him. First of all, Kieran is a faerie, so he can’t lie. He simply can’t even if he wanted to. Second, as it was already said, he never got to know Shadowhunters before, and he also never have a love and caring family, so he hasn’t absolutely any reason to doubt the truth in Iarlath statements. Now he was not only scared of losing Mark to Cristina, but also to the fucking death. So when Mark told Cristina secrets from the Hunt (and, shook, he actually did it! A bunch of people act like Kieran have lied to Gwyn about that and he can’t even fucking lie! Mark in fact told Cristina secrets he wasn’t supposed to), and Kieran told Gwyn about it, he did it out of despair, and thinking this would only bring Mark back to the Hunt, where he would be safe. (As Mark himself said so by the end of Lord of Shadows, and I quote: “You thought you were saving my life”.)
Then everything went to hell. Mark was going to be whipped instead, something that Kieran didn’t anticipate, and as Cassie said on tumblr, he was going to die. And Kieran knew that he was going to die. So he was obviously desperate by the possibility of seeing the love of his life dying in front of him, and he even begged to be whipped instead. He humiliated himself (even Iarlath said so) even though fairies are an extremely proud people, even though he was a fucking Faerie prince. He begged to Iarlath – a nobody – on his knees. But they didn’t allow him, and Julian offered himself to Mark’s place.
Now, again, Kieran knows nothing (like a true Jon Snow) about family. His family would, as he said later, happily watch him die. They had tortured him already. He couldn’t have a true notion of how much Mark’s family truly meant for him. And again, Mark was going to die, and he was desperate. So when Julian offered himself to take the whipping, Kieran said to Iarlath to agree. Because it seems to be the only way to save Mark from dying in front of him. Because he barely knew Julian. Because he is a faerie. Because he didn’t know what family really means. Because Mark was his only family.
Then, when he saw how mad Mark became, when he fully understood the dimension of what he – not on purpose – have done, and what Mark’s family did meant to him, he tried to repair things. He followed Iarlath, and even killed him, even though he probably knew already he would be condemned by said action. He was desperate to get the Blackthorns to go save Tavvy, and again he begged. He knew they would probably kill him in the second he appeared again on the institute but he did it anyway. The only reason why they were able to actually save Tavvy was because Kieran helped, as Julian and Mark recognized later. Without him, Tavvy would be dead.
And then, having now understood what Mark’s family really meant to him, even though Kieran could have used the breach in the agreement – cause they were supposed to give the killer to the faeries, and they didn’t – to have Mark back in the Hunt with him, he didn’t. He even said he would fight for Mark right to stay. And then he goes back to the Hunt alone, accepting that he hold probably never saw Mark again.
Now, about Lord of Shadows: A lot of people are saying that Kieran was out of character in said book, but honestly how the hell could anyone know what is or it isn’t out of character for him? He literally barely appeared in Lady Midnight, and in all the scenes he was under extreme pressure. He was all the time scared of losing Mark, and doing pretty desperate things. How could anyone know what he would do under more “normal” circumstances? Erec said he was a pretty sweet kid, and same Erec, Adaon and even the King himself said in different moments that all the Unseelie court pretty much liked him. So no, no one can say that what he did in LOS was “out of character” because you can’t know, based only on LM, what his character truly is.
Now, I don’t wanna enter in the entire memory loss thing. I’ll only talk about some key points, which are:
First: The dream. I saw a lot of people saying that Kier “gave Mark a weird sex dream” and things like that: No, he didn’t. And Cassie Clare said herself that he didn’t. I asked her, and she said, and I quote: “He did not sent Mark a “sex dream” – he sent him a conversation dream, and both their choices/desires in the dream took it in a physical (if totally imaginary) direction.” This was in my personal inbox and I can gladly provide screenshots to anyone who may want them. She confirmed Kieran could only control the dream scenario, and that Mark’s choices on the dream were his own, in these exact words.
Also Kieran said – and again, he can’t lie – that he would not want Mark’s love if it wasn’t a freely given love. Even though Mark was breaking his love promises to him, and even though this was a serious crime to the faeries, Kieran recognized that Cristina could be good for Mark, and that Mark need her kindness. He said he wasn’t jealous of her, and by the end of the book he was even willing to get out of the picture, saying he and Mark would be done with each other.
He learns, by the end of the book, that he was being used by the entire Blackthorn family. He learns that they were lying to him all the time, and that everybody knew but him. His father, the Unseelie King, said if he helped the Blackthorns there’s no place on earth or in Faerie were he would be safe from him. That he would do unimaginably tortures on him, that he would put him under unimaginably pain, till he finally killed him. And Kieran agreed to help anyway, even after all these things. He still wanted to testify, to bring Helen back to her family, and not because of Mark but to pay his debt with Emma, Julian, and the others. Cassie said later on tumblr that this was an agreement that only prejudices and put in danger Kieran himself, and anyway he wanted to do it. For them.
Also, during the course of the book he saved Cristina’s life where he could easily have just killed her and came back to the Unseelie court, being a recognized prince again. He saved Livvy, Kit and Ty’s lives by telling Mark about the Riders coming for them in time. He was actually concerned about them, and even begged Mark to let him go find them, and promised on his life to do so. He saved Emma’s life when the Rider was about to kill her. He helped bringing Helen and Aline back. He said to Diego he would protect Kit and Magnus when hell was happening in the accords hall.
So, yes, he made mistakes. Yes, he did bad things. But characters aren’t supposed to be always good. To never do anything wrong. They are allowed to fail, and to regret that, to try to make things better. And Kieran did all these things.
No, he isn’t a selfish character who only thinks on himself. No, he isn’t abusive and don’t play mental games with Mark.
He is a character who was tortured and suffered almost the entirely of his life, and them loose the only good thing he ever had. The only love he ever had.
And even if Kierark or Kierarktina isn’t endgame, I still hope he can find happiness and peace. He deserves it just like every other “good guy” in this book.
And you can hate him all you want, nobody is saying that you can’t. But your hate won’t make any of these things less true.
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