magnus is such a genius character creation. he's the perfect plot device: he's an outsider, but he isn't; he's a friend of the nephilim yet an advocate for downworlders; he's been alive for centuries; he is the high warlock of brooklyn, extremely powerful, and happens to be dating one of the main characters of the story.
not only is he the perfect way to keep moving the plot forward, a way out of conflicts that otherwise would have the characters scrambling and the plot meeting dead ends, he also provides INSIGHT. he will tell you who every character is, which generation they're from, remind you of connections between series you might otherwise have forgotten about and no other character has a way of knowing. he shows you glimpses of the past. he's there to tell stories to provide the reader with knowledge the characters don't have.
but he's also a genuinely interesting character. he's not just there. he has a story, he has an intrinsic personality, he has morals that don't necessarily align with the main character's. he gives the reader a different perspective and is there to point out the nuance of a situation, kinda brings the reader back from an otherwise biased narration. yet he's still very uniquely HIM.
The Heartstopper webcomic’s first update dropped on September 1st 2016. Today, on April 11th 2026, the story has concluded.
I don’t quite know how to put all of my feelings into one letter. Heartstopper means more to me than words can express, but I’ll try my best.
Heartstopper has defined the past decade of my life. It started as a fun side project and quickly grew into something much bigger, eventually becoming my career. Despite that huge and unexpected change, making the Heartstopper comic feels the same to me as it did on day one. When I sit down to make Heartstopper, I feel at peace. When the world feels so scary and difficult, I have been able to return to Heartstopper, and everything feels okay again for a little while.
Nick and Charlie first appeared as supporting characters in my first novel, ‘Solitaire’. In Solitaire, Nick and Charlie represent the idea that hope, love, joy and connection can persist and thrive despite the trials and tribulations of being alive. So maybe it’s ironic that Nick and Charlie have come to represent this in my own life. They have brought me joy. They have given me purpose. They have given me everything, really. And I’m so grateful for every moment I have spent with them.
Heartstopper is profoundly special to me. Which makes it extremely hard to say goodbye.
But it is time. I always knew that Nick going to university would be the end point of the story. And despite how sad I am to be bidding farewell to these characters, I am so, so proud and excited to have made it to the end and concluded the story exactly the way I wanted to.
Any webcomic creator can tell you that making a webcomic requires a heavy amount of determination and endurance. To draw a page almost every day for the past ten years has required a lot of sacrifice and a lot of energy. But every moment was worth it. And now that it is complete, Nick and Charlie’s story can be experienced from beginning to end, for the rest of forever.
I wouldn’t have made it here alone. From the very start, Heartstopper’s readers have offered so much support, love, community, conversation, and enthusiasm. Knowing that there are people out there who love these characters just like I do has given me the strength to keep going. I’ve also had the support of many colleagues, friends, and family members, who’ve all helped in different ways at various points in the past decade. Thank you so, so much to everyone who has been here for the journey.
I have no idea what I’ll make next. For now, I’m taking a break. And I know that Nick and Charlie won’t simply vanish. I expect I will always return to drawing them and writing about them, probably in smaller ways, for the rest of my life, as long as my body allows.
Nick and Charlie will forever be in my heart, hand in hand on a beach somewhere.
“I think I know how the staff likes to be treated after all these years” hits so hard. ilya has been secretly paying close attention to shane for seven years. what makes him tick, what he loves in bed, his hockey skills, that he loves ginger ale and has a cottage where he does yoga and his parents’ names are yuna and david and david reads the new yorker. he has been gathering up all of these pieces of shane and holding them inside of him. before this, we only ever get pieces of it (is the ginger ale cold enough?). but in this episode we finally get to see him own up to that and put his knowledge of shane on full display. I know what you like in bed, shane, I know that you like to be pinned down and fucked hard and teased. I know you like to be bad. I know that you do your yoga over there and I know how to refocus you when you’re panicking. I could map your freckles by heart. you have a weak backhand. I love you.
Yes, this one, this one fits, after all the stumbling around and searching, and here it is.
Magnus started to laugh. It was odd to laugh and feel desire at the same time; he wasn’t sure he’d had that with anyone but Alec.
For you, Alec, it's always yes.
He wasn’t ready for death, but if it came today, he would face it with his head held high and Alexander Lightwood’s name on his lips.
“Magnus!” Shinyun’s voice was hoarse and cracked. “I demand that you take the third blow from the Svefnthorn. I demand it. Or I will kill the thing you love best.”
“Will you spare Alec?” he said quietly. “Promise you’ll let Alec go, and I’ll do it.”
My love for yours, my heart for yours, my soul for yours, Alexander. Now and for all time.
i do not ever want another love / alec is the love of magnus's life special
the red scrolls of magic - cassandra clare / the mortal instruments graphic novel - cassandra jean / magnus's letter to alec / queen of air and darkness - cassandra clare / city of heavenly fire - cassandra clare / the course of true love (and first date) - cassandra clare / born to endless night - cassandra clare / the lost book of the white - cassandra clare / cassandra jean / cassandra clare's tumblr
for @malectober
day 7: where have you been my whole life - alec as the love of magnus's life
She sighs. Yeah, of course, is the easy answer. But it's a lie, and she doesn't lie to Frank. So she shakes her head.
“No,” she says, stepping back to lean against the wall. The fluorescent light from the vending machine feels like it's mocking her.
She watches Frank feed a rumpled dollar into the soda machine. It spits back out with a whir and even that annoys her.
He finally smoothes it out, and she watches his fingers linger between Coke and Sprite.
“Snack emergency?” He asks quietly. The clank of his soda bottle jars her.
“Becca loves those BBQ kettle chips, the ones in the orange bag? They're impossible to find in store, and she's particular about having the small bags, so I've been spending way too much buying them out of the vending machine, but they've been out of stock for weeks.”
“One of her new safe foods?” He asks, a term she isn't sure he knew before he met Becca.
She nods. “They're pretty good, I can't blame her,” she says. “Costco sells them, but it’s a variety pack and I refuse to spend $25 on four bags of chips.”
He slips another dollar in the machine, water this time, and she smiles when he hands it to her.
“Sorry, Mel.”
***
At the start of her next shift, there's a large box in front of her locker.
Dozens of small orange bags of chips are inside, along with a note:
This should last a couple weeks. We’ll figure out a better method next time.
P.S. The kids say thanks for all the chips.
— Frank
Mel does the math. Frank spent $250 at Costco to make her life easier.
It's the first way he ever tells her he loves her.
