@secretly-a-catamount here you go! Please remember that this was all made with silliness in my heart and soul. It's not supposed to be serious analysis of the series, it's just a fun thing I made for my friends who aren't familiar with TSC. I like poking fun at these books, but it all comes from a place of love.
Thinking about how family is literally everything for the Blackthorns, and how this is the root of all their happiness as well as all their distress. Because there's so many factors working to pull their family apart, the siblings must always prioritize their connection as a family unit. This keeps them stable and together, but it also creates stagnation and isolation. None of them are able to have lives beyond their family, which creates clear frustration in the younger siblings (mostly Dru and Tavvy) while making the older siblings (mostly Helen and Julian) seek familial connection even more intensely. Mark, Livvy, and Ty are in an interesting position where they're torn between the two extremes. They understand the importance of family and want to take care of their siblings, but they also seek connections and contentment beyond the Blackthorn unit.
Going down the list:
Tavvy is shown to be a very lonely kid, and he immediately perks up when the Lightwood-Bane family comes to visit because he rarely gets to see other kids his own age. His family did not provide him with a playmate, and so while he loves his siblings he's also missing a lot of the stuff they cannot provide for him.
Dru is especially discontent with her life, because she's old enough to want a purpose but young enough to not be given one. Similarly to Tavvy, she's got all her basic needs of family and safety, and so she starts looking for other types of fulfillment, like friends and romance, that cannot be found within her family unit.
Ty is also in a difficult position, because his autism means that his family is especially protective of him. Julian in particular is so worried that Ty might be discriminated against that he doesn't want him to ever leave the household or interact with strangers, and while Livvy is less restrictive she does threaten anybody who tries to get close to him. Because Ty has been hurt by peers in the past, his siblings become convinced that family is the only setting in which he'll be safe. Meanwhile, while Ty does appreciate the stability of his family, he also yearns for adventure and connection. This is why he latches onto Kit so quickly, because Kit is somebody who lets him explore new sides of himself without asking him to leave anything else behind.
Livvy is interesting to me because she's always defined as "the protector," the one who wants to keep everybody else safe. While she's the same age as Ty and has similar desires for normal Shadowhunter experiences (like solving mysteries) as well as normal teenager experiences (like kissing boys), she also generally sets those interests aside whenever she thinks that her family might be at risk. Livvy is thrilled to meet Kit because he's a new friend beyond her family unit, but she also is willing to get rid of him if there's any chance he would hurt Ty (which is reflected when Ty and Kit have their falling out because Ty sees that Kit won't prioritize Livvy). While Livvy isn't forced into an authority role the way that her elder siblings are, she still voluntarily chooses to adopt that authority and to set her personal goals aside if it means maintaining the integrity of their family unit.
Julian is obviously the one who sacrificed the most of his personal life for the sake of his family. It's clear throughout TDA that Julian just doesn't let himself want anything else, because he's worked so hard to hold his siblings together that he cannot conceptualize a world in which anything else matters. While he does also yearn for a life with Emma, a lot of this is because Emma already fits into the life he has with his siblings. He literally says that he often dreams he and Emma were married and that the younger Blackthorns were their children: Emma is the perfect partner because she expands his world beyond his family without asking him to give up his family.
Mark is one of the most complicated Blackthorns because he's the only one who's actually lived a life outside of their household. While he does still love his siblings, none of them can understand why he might choose to remain with the Hunt because literally none of them have ever been happy in a setting that didn't involve them all being together. He's one of the oldest, but he doesn't know how to take an authority role because he isn't used to prioritizing the safety of his siblings above all else. This is especially interesting in his relationship with Ty, because Ty is the one with whom Mark is closest and he often seeks comfort and connection with Mark, and yet Mark does not quite know how to be an anchor for him in the way that Livvy and Julian have been. Put simply, Mark has a lot of shit on his mind beyond simply being a part of the family, and so he can't put everything else aside in order to be there for them. There's a scene in which Mark thinks about how Ty has been seeking him out less since Kit started staying with them, and it shows how Ty is doing better once he's able to form a connection with somebody beyond the family, and how Mark is doing better when he's not expected to be everything all the time for other members of the family. With Mark, it becomes clear that while remaining together and supporting each other is very important for the Blackthorns, there's also a certain tragedy in the fact that they're not given the freedom to want anything else.
Helen is of course doing the worst. Like Mark she was cut off from her family, and while she and Mark both had romantic relationships, Helen has literally nothing in her life besides Aline. Helen is neither able to find contentment with her family nor to seek contentment beyond it, because she is kept isolated from her siblings as well as her peers. Because of this, Helen idealizes her family and believes that being together is the most important thing. She cannot want anything else until she gets her family back, and this leads to complications when she eventually meets that basic need and is forced to consider what other elements are necessary for happiness.
This got very long. I just think it's neat how they all need to be together, but at the same time they're all kind of trapped. They've been put in a position in which they need to focus on staying together at all costs or else they'll be torn apart, but they still clearly suffer from seclusion and run into desires that stretch beyond domesticity.
idk if it was said before but if i were master/missy id kms repeatedly until i’d regenerate into looking like clara oswald. I would haunt that old man and i would torture him just by being clara oswald it would be so good >:)
Is this what u wanted? Five foot one and crying, big brown eyes, look at me i am her and i will do insane shit and u will deal with the fact that actually this is too close to what She would have done too
Transphobia is about to be signed into law in the UK. We can fight this.
I am begging the UK trans community and its allies to attend the Mass Lobby at Parliament on June 25th, 11am-4pm, organised by Trans Solidarity Alliance.
Last year we broke the record for an LGBT+ mass lobby of Parliament. Will you help us break it again? Join us on 25th June 2026 to demand be
The new EHRC Code of Practice pushes trans people out of toilets, hospital wards, and community spaces. It normalises gender policing based on appearance and stereotypes. It becomes statutory guidance in the UK by the end of June.
Trans people are now legally their assigned gender at birth and must join gendered spaces accordingly, but if they are perceived as their lived gender, they can also be ejected from those spaces. The guidance says: either break the law, or don’t pass too well.
A mass lobby is where you invite your MP to discuss your concerns with you in-person. Ask your MP to:
Demand full parliamentary scrutiny, debate, and use their free vote on the EHRC Code of Practice.
Support any motions rejecting the EHRC guidance. As of June 4th, Labour MP Nadia Whittome has submitted a prayer motion - Early Day Motion 240.
Write to Bridget Phillipson, the Minister for Women and Equalities about our concerns
Your MP does not have to be an ally, they do not have to respond to your email for you to show up and greencard them (details below the cut.) What matters is that as many people as possible show up.
I cannot stress this enough: Showing up in person matters. It is much more effective than petitions, emails, and letters.
It is a horrible, stressful time, and I am so sorry if you're trans and live in the UK. But I was at last year's mass lobby and the line for greencarding alone stretched around the back gates. It was a record breaking mass lobby and made us impossible to ignore. Let's do even better this time. Details under the cut:
Worried about what to say?
Bring your personal worries about transphobia being signed into law, and trans friends being excluded from public spaces. You are a living person who deserves dignity. Remind your MP of that. You will also get guidance and brochures from Trans Solidarity Alliance that outlines our demands. This is mine from last year.
Money issues?
Trans Solidarity Alliance provides a travel bursary that you can sign up for via the link.
Got a refusal or no response from your MP?
Come anyway! You can request a same-day appointment with your MP through a process called greencarding. They will come and see you if they’re already in Parliament. Even if they don’t, they’re made acutely aware of your cause because you showed up in person. This is my greencard from last year.
Here is the EHRC Code of Practice in full. It's a tough read, but some highlights are:
Organisations can’t provide trans-inclusive, single-sex services, or they risk being sued for discrimination.
e.g. domestic violence support for women including trans women, men’s rugby group including trans men (12.68).
Trans people will have nowhere safe to pee.
If you’re a trans man, businesses can't allow you to pee in the men's, and you can also be ejected from women’s bathrooms if you’re perceived as a man. Vice versa for trans women. EHRC suggests a ‘third space’ bathroom, which is discriminatory and unworkable for most businesses. (13.130-133)
Sports organisations must exclude trans people from single-sex competitions (13.73).
A women’s only sports competition must exclude trans women because of their biological advantage or face potential lawsuits (13.74), but a trans man who has undergone testosterone treatment can also be excluded based on fairness rules (13.81).
Trans women are stripped of the legal definition of ‘lesbian’, and therefore no longer have legal protections if they’re discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation. (2.50, 2.92).
Here is the Good Law Project's better explanation of the EHRC Code.
I have also made a PDF printout of QR codes for the government petition, email your MP tool, and mass lobby link to pass around your communities. DM me and I'll send it to you.
I also think that the strength gap is at least partially manufactured women would in fact be stronger overall if little girls were encouraged to do physically taxing games and activities and eat their fill while they’re growing vs having to constantly diet and be sedentary indoors (or god forbid do intense cardio while under-eating). The amount of adult women honestly afraid to lift weights bc they think they’ll get bulky as though bulking isn’t a full time job that athletes have to spend all their time on and anyone on earth gets shredded from just using their adult muscles for their intended purpose, girl your bone density 🥀
if you say women are intentionally nerfed from birth in 2026 people look at you like you’re insane and start condescendingly telling you about how women are just better at different things (but not during their periods haha) but this was a completely basic feminist talking point I grew up with like “girls can do it too! [shot of little girls climbing and running with boys]” nickelodeon commercial tier base level I hate it how is everyone suddenly dumber than the average 7 year old
to be honest i think there’s a large number of people who conflate the very real and widespread phenomenon that women tend to be written off as just mothers or love interests in order to diminish their importance in a given story with the fact that a huge reason they’re sent to narrative purgatory in this way is BECAUSE the labels of “mother” and “girlfriend/wife” are systematically devalued and seen as inherently inferior because they’re terms that have been associated with ownership and/or control over women. like the amount of people who’ve told me that a certain female character is uninteresting or badly written because she happened to have a kid or be a man’s girlfriend or sister just to find out she was actually fleshed out very well and carried significant narrative importance frustrates me soo bad. there’s a huge problem with how those roles (specifically “wife” and “mother”) are systematically devalued and yet also perpetuated as the only viable options for women to achieve their societal roles in the patriarchy but acknowledging the devaluation of those labels to begin with is an important discussion in itself.
The assholes openly admit it. The whole point of college is to enforce the hierarchy. When those who were supposed to be low on the hierarchy started going to college, the assholes get angry and want to make them suffer for challenging the hierarchy.
Yet another reason this is insanely revisionist is that it pretends the whole reason millennials felt so much pressure to go to college wasn't that conservative politicians had spent the eighties and nineties wrecking the shit out of labor unions to the point that by the time millennials turned eighteen, it was suddenly a lot harder to count on being able to work at a working-class job all your life and still have a good living.
College, all of a sudden, went from "something I'd like to do if I can get in" to "a lifeline in an economy where blue collar jobs are going to shit."
The wheel's turned long enough that now college students are being treated the way union workers and union-adjacent workers were treated in the eighties and nineties, so now college grads are the ones that it's fashionable to shit on, and the new fix-all solution is supposed to be "go into the trades!" Which means that by the 2050s at the latest, we'll be coming up with some new lie to blame people in the trades for the fact that now they're in trouble. And we'll have some new job that everyone should have been doing instead.
sometimes i think about how the core four broke apart after graduation only to reunite seven years later and cue time travel and another graduation they still don't manage to stay together. doomed by canon in every timeline. yes this is about the riverdale polycule. i love them
studying history is like. here's to another beautiful day of not being pregnant and of having no obligation to ever be. thank you women who fight for abortion and contraception and independance from men for another beautiful day of not being pregnant and of having no obligation to ever be
ten favorite changes the off campus show made to the books? i am obsessed with the show
admittedly a lot of my favorite changes just come down to the show abandoning a lot of the books’ sexism and misogyny but ummm let’s see
the added depth and complexity to logan and garrett’s friendship. in the books we had to take it for granted due to the limited pov so it was nice to see more of the layers to their dynamic and why there might be more tension due to the class difference between them. in line with this i also like that they decided to make logan earnestly pursue a professional hockey career instead of write off the possibility from day one
the changes made to dean and allie’s first conversation and hookup.. i reread the books last year to refresh my memory because it had been a long time since i last read them and i actually came out of the score genuinely hating dean 😭 he basically sexually harassed allie into sleeping with him (repeatedly) so i’m glad that the show took a drastically different approach that was respectful and consensual and also offered insight into their characters
dean’s confession! i feel like parsing dean’s feelings for allie in the score was really difficult at times because of how deeply entangled they were with the sex and his sexual harassment of her in particular. so it was definitely the right move from the show to have him take explicit interest in her as a person in order for the development of his feelings to be believable. and in line with this i thought their sex scenes were very tender! like they were hot but they also were super sweet. the kisses on the couch were lovely
the expanded focus on tucker’s tendency to be a pushover. i know a lot of people were upset by the decision to make him the youngest but i think it was a really clever move in light of the fact that his one trademark quality is that he’s a pushover. the books really only honed in on this once sabrina was in the picture so it was nice to see how his relationship with the boys shaped that too. and i know the nods to it were super subtle! but they were great easter eggs for the time being
the change in hunter’s role in dean’s life. i think it’s soooo smart to initially position him as this rival who will then obv develop a deeper relationship with dean right in time for beau to die. i get that they’re best friends in the books but we’re not privy to why or how that really happens so i like the creative liberties being taken here personally. i am also wondering now if his hookup with allie and how it might fuck things up with dean for a while is a slight nod to the initial premise of the play. maybe we’ll see celibacy stretch hunter sooner than we think lol
beau in general. beau is obv barely a character in the books beyond being the feel good guy everyone likes but he also comes off as kind of sleazy imo.. 😭 i like that they made him into a bit of a softer character with more personality and then the fact that he’s dean’s childhood friend adds a great depth too! we haven’t seen anything yet but i hope the show does more to develop his friendship with sabrina because i really love dynamics like that where the sex and the friendship can be coexistent. and it would be interesting to see him vouching for tucker considering he’s a closer friend to tucker in the show
the show’s perspective on how hockey facilitates violence external to the sport itself. one of the things i was really eager for the show to do was to explore garrett’s domestic abuse with more depth, and the show definitely delivered on that front. the connections made between delaney-garrett-phil in episode seven were brilliant and i love that not only through his conversation with phil but also through his conversations with hannah and jensen, garrett had to consider what the cost was of accepting violence as an inherent part of hockey and also himself. i like that he was given all of these reasons to keep playing despite the violence, and that using those reasons to anchor him had to be how he would break free of that violence / anger
in line with the above, the breakup! while i don’t think what phil did in the deal was unrealistic or all that farfetched as far as hockey horrors go i do think the show breakup worked better for the story being told, where trauma recovery for both hannah and garrett was an important focus. i think belmont mentioned in an interview that it wouldn’t make sense for show!garrett to be so controlling, and i have to agree! it made sense that he was the one who initiated the break up and that he didn’t pass the campus wide law because his respect and love for hannah was so high
logan being into hannah before even garrett was. a gaaaaalaxy brained change. it ties so well into the tension between him and garrett and his frustrations at the latter’s privilege, but it also very subtly touches on logan’s hypocrisy and defeatism and low self-esteem. i do love in the books that he’s jealous of hannah and garrett as a collective because he wants to experience love like that but i think going about it this way adds so many more layers because it really digs into the problem grace has with him, where he prematurely denies things to himself without even trying and then resents other people for it
cindy! i like that she didn’t leave phil. because the books are so limited in perspective they obv have to wrap up their respective storylines very quickly but with the show now taking the approach of giving each couple their due focus regardless of whose season it actually is, i think there’s a great opportunity to explore how long it actually takes to break out of an abusive relationship. i would love to see garrett develop more of a relationship with her so that when the escape happens it’s because she finally, truly has the courage and support that she needs to make that decision
honestly surprised i managed to come up with all of those i thought i wouldn’t have enough 😭
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