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A Dark Reflection (In you, In Me)

Author name: innerglow

Artist name: phoenix1966

Genre: Wincest

Pairing: Sam/Dean

Rating: E (for violence only)

Word count:

Warnings: (see Ao3 for additional tags)

Summary: For as long as there’s been time, there’s been stories of the true Boy King who would one day come to rule all of Hell.This is the story of Sam Winchester’s destiny and how he rose from the darkness inside himself to choose his own way.

Link to fic: on AO3 (story will be unlocked shortly)

Link to art: LJ | Tumblr This was my second Eldritch Bang entry and I was very happy to get to work on this story. It's filled with great imagery and has a nice horror-feel to it, like you would hope for in a challenge like this! (warning: I have not read the final draft, so I do not know the dynamics of top/bottom)

There are additional, behind-the-scenes renders at the LiveJournal link above.

#wincest #my art #spn eldritch bang #a dark reflection

Yesterday I re-watched “A Dark Reflection”, episode 17 of Shadowhunters and my dumbass heart thought the Malec scene wouldn’t hurt more than the first time…..

Stupid heart 💔

#it hurtsssss #a lot #i need my babies back #wednesday pls come faster #shadowhunters #malec #a dark reflection

Shadowhunters — Episode 2x17

Today on Shadowhunters…let's just get down to it, so I can quickly get to the end of this episode and have a rant about a sensitive topic with Shadowhunter culture that the books definitely had trouble handing and that the show is now fumbling on as well.

Since I'm liking the "put Simon's garbage subplot at the beginning of the post so it's out of the way first" method, I'll stick to it for the time being. Because yes, once again, Simon has a subplot that might as well be a different story that just happens to involve the same characters as the main story.

In today's episode: Simon's back in the friendzone, but with Maia this time! Yeah, remember how she helped him make it through Yom Kippur without eating any family members by posing as his girlfriend? I guess she fooled him too, and so, of course, he asks Maia out. At her workplace, because of course he does. Also, Luke sees Simon entering the bar an immediately guesses what's up, which is just…weird.

Anyway. Maia's not interested.

"That's really sweet of you, but…I can't. Busy." "I didn't give you a date yet."

Wait, no, I forgot, this is Shadowhunters, where no one's allowed to be honest about…anything. So instead she's actually interested but afraid to put herself out there in case Simon breaks her heart or some shit like that. Which we find out when Isabelle's having Max train with Simon (as a friendly but real vampire), because Isabelle, who has literally never met Maia, can somehow sense these things.

"I know Simon. And he's smart, sweet, caring…"

Questionable. Also questionable? Isabelle's argument when Maia says she's afraid to lose control around Simon. Specifically, how she makes that relate to her addiction, and then says this.

"[Losing control]'s a hell of a lot better than not taking a chance at all."

Actually, that's not even questionable. Let's go with a hard "no" on that one and call it a day.

But it works, and so Maia gives Simon a speech about being afraid to put herself out there, but she's ready to take a chance, as long as they take things slow. So…not only did Simon get what he wanted, he also had to put in zero work to get it? I get that the point was that he respected her choice and didn't want to go after another girl who wanted to just be friends, but still. It's a little bit weird to have Isabelle, out of the blue, go "you should totally date him" at a total stranger.

At the very least have Maia change her mind on her own based on something Simon does that proves he's worth taking a chance over (or that he's a safe choice, whichever fits his character more).

Well that was pleasantly short. Let's go over to the main plot, then. I'll skip over Clary's convenient meaningful dream and Jace waking her up while shirtless, because of course he does and of course he's shirtless. The point is, this conflict arises in their conversation.

"[Jonathan] was a child." "With demon blood. Don't forget that." "And no one but Valentine to teach him the difference between right and wrong."

Point being: nature versus nurture, Clary doesn't believe (or want to believe) that her brother is beyond redemption just for having demon blood, while Jace does. Strangely enough, Clary doesn't remind Jace that he used to think he had demon blood not that long ago, even though she did just that a few episodes ago. Maybe they only get to have that conversation once, even though Jace keeps using demon blood as an excuse to be belligerent all over the place?

More interestingly, I wonder if setting this up now will lead to any changes regarding the Endarkened when the story gets to them (assuming the show does, anyway). Will they still be treated as disposable mindless minions that you can kill with no ethical repercussions because they're "already dead"? Or…you know, will they do something more interesting?

Clary thinks to use Jocelyn's box of keepsakes to track down Jonathan, but it turns out that someone beat them to the chase.

And because this show thinks any lingering question will turn its audience away, we immediately see Jonathan holding his baby shoe, just in case you thought it might be something less obvious.

Also, he seems pretty distraught by the existence of those keepsakes.

"You said my mother didn't care about me."

Valentine dismisses it as Jocelyn caring for the son she never had, while she actively wanted to kill the demon-blooded Jonathan. I think this is meant to be perceived as Valentine manipulating him, but…it's also 100% true, you know. In the show continuity, Jocelyn tried to kill Jace, thinking he was her son.

That's good enough of an argument for Jonathan, who burns the shoe for symbolism, before they go back to vaguely alluding to their evil plan to be regarded as heroes by the Nephilim…somehow.

Meanwhile at the Institute, Max is apparently ready for his first mission on the field, even though he's like…ten, twelve, at the most. This is setup for another subplot in this episode, which I'll come back to at the end, but it's important here, because it means Max is present when Jace and Clary report to Alec that they couldn't find anything in the box of keepsakes they could use to track down Jonathan.

Luckily, it's fine, because if they can't find him, they can find what he wants instead! Specifically, the Mortal Mirror, now that Alec knows the Soul-Sword is in Jonathan's possession but that Clary deactivated it with her special runes, so Valentine's last recourse to wipe out all Downworlders is to summon Raziel instead.

"I thought that was just a legend." "All legends are true. […] The Angel will grant him one wish. Anything he wants." "The end of the Downworld as we know it."

I mean, that sounds like a lot of wild assumptions, but since they have no other real options, why not go for the lost third mystical object, right? Conveniently, we also see Valentine, who holds Sister Cleophas captive and wants her to reactivate the Soul-Sword. She can't, because Clary's runes are that overpowered, so he reaches the same conclusion as the protagonists did and sets out to find the Mirror.

Also, I should mention that this scene features Cleophas being injected with "min control serum", which Valentine…has, now? Was this established and I somehow forgot?

So he and Jonathan go to a bookshop held by a warlock, Elliot Nourse. He's an original character to the show, and I'm pretty sure he's a nod to book-Luke, because he pretty much matches his description (aside from, you know, being a warlock and not a werewolf). Not that that matters much, because he gets tortured and uses a spell to kill himself before Valentine can get anything out of him.

"I don't care what you do, I promised Jocelyn."

Yeah, he was safeguarding the mirror for Jocelyn's sake (because…she had it?). When Elliot dies, a sigil on his arm disappears, and Valentine somehow knows that that was a map to the Mirror and that it was passed down to another warlock? This episode is just full of people conveniently knowing stuff with no established reasons.

Speaking of which: Dot shows up at the Institute, and she has the mark on her arm now, and either she fills in Clary off-screen or Clary knew all about this somehow, because Clary then exposits to the others (and us) that indeed, the sigil is a map to the Mirror, and Elliot was a good friend of her mom and Clary knew him well.

Hey, guess what, show: maybe you'd have more time to establish these things if you didn't waste a bunch of your screen time on Simon's subplots.

Clary and Jace go investigate Elliot's shop first, and Sebastian shows up as well, which is totally not suspicious or anything. Clary and Jace quickly figure out that it was Jonathan's work, and start arguing again because Jace wants to kill him on sight.

"Remember what valentine made you do?" "I don't have demon blood."

That's not hypocritical or anything. Why are they making Jace take so many steps backwards in likability? First his pseudo-fascist bout, then being pushy with Clary as soon as she broke up with Simon, now this?

And yes, the irony that Jonathan is actually right there is not lost on me. Ha ha. So clever, show.

Meanwhile, Dot deciphers the map on her arm by comparing it to the ley lines in New York, and she and Alec argue about what will happen to the Mirror if they find it. Dot will help them, but she'll only trust Clary with the Mirror. And I like the sentiment, but will it really be her decision to make when it comes down to it? This is a genuine question.

At least Alec's smart enough not to let that get in the way of retrieving the Mirror at all. Even better, he sends Sebastian away when he tries to weasel his way into being part of Dot's escort, because he's the only person who didn't just instantly accept Sebastian.

Dot eventually narrows down to three possible locations, and Clary recognizes one of them as a park she used to go with Jocelyn to as a child.

"She hid it somewhere I remember, just in case. It's gotta be there."

I mean, at this point, why not more Mary Sue Guessing Powers, right?

Before they set out, Sebastian shows up in Clary's room to be a creep, which somehow gets Clary to open up about all her angst related to losing people she cares about and leads to Sebastian kissing her. For some reason, Clary mostly acts awkward about it, and not, you know, like he's a creep who showed up in her room to kiss her without her showing any sign of interest.

"I'll always be there for you, Clary. Whatever you need."

I mean, even without knowing that he's literal demon spawn (and her brother), how does that not sound like he's a stalker in the making?

He also steals a hair tie from her, but that's obviously to track her, so, you know. I'm not counting that. Besides it's kind of irrelevant by comparison.

So we get to our climax, in that Dot finds some kind of pocket dimension that holds the mirror (…possibly?) and retrieves it. But before they can leave, Jonathan shows up, in his true form. He takes out Jace immediately, while Dot does manage to get a spell in before he tosses her aside too. He won't hurt Clary, obviously, but he does threaten Jonathan's life in order to prevent her from running away with the Mirror.

But Clary, as we've mentioned, truly believes she can save him.

"Come with us. We can help you. Whatever Valentine told you, it's lies. Whatever happened in the past, whatever you've done, it doesn't matter. You're my family."

This makes Jonathan hesitate, long enough for Dot to open a Portal and Jace to force Clary through it, while Dot…stays behind to slow Jonathan down? I don't really get why she can't just take the Portal too. The show doesn't even act like she might die.

"She survived Valentine. She'll survive this."

Will she? How? You seem very confident about this.

Anyway. The Mirror (?) is a pocket mirror, and it shows Clary a vision of Lake Lyn, with two swords in it. I don't know if it means they'll steal reveal that Lake Lyn is the true mirror, or something else. I guess we'll just see eventually. Probably in the season finale.

Oh, and from that, Clary "deduces" that her dreams of Lake Lyn…aren't dreams.

"They're visions. I think they're some kind of message."

Considering everything that happened until now…sure, why not. This is as likely as anything else.

Before we part, there are two more subplots to talk about. First is Alec, who has very little to do since becoming head of the Institute. Well, remember how the Downworlder cabinet met without him at the Seelie Court? Well they're back, and the Seelie Queen wants war against the Clave, while Luke and Magnus are acting as moderate voices.

Well, that's not going to last. Remember how I mentioned that Cleophas is in this episode? Yeah, she also almost manages to break out of Valentine's…wherever he's holding her. She gets caught by Circle members, who are still around, I guess, but not before managing to steal a stele and send Luke a message about her situation. Including the fact that Valentine still has the Soul-Sword.

Which he shares with Magnus. Magnus, needless to say, is not happy that Alec kept that from him.

"From the day I met you, the one thing I knew I could count on was honesty."

And, you know, Alec does confess without even being prompted, but it's too little, too late.

"The Seelie Queen was right. We can't trust the Clave. […] We need to tell her."

Yeah…that doesn't strike me as such a great idea. On the other hand, I will commend the show for working the Seelie Queen more gradually as a villain, and setting up her joining forces with Sebastian better than the books did?

The other subplot is one I briefly mentioned already: Max being cleared for field operations. Well, mostly this subplot revolves around Isabelle, who really doesn't want him to go on the field, because it's dangerous enough on a regular basis, but with Valentine stirring up trouble, it's even worse, and she's just protective of her little brother. Reasonable enough, right?

And yet…everyone tries to convince her that it's okay. Which I can understand from, say, Alec, who's grown up in that same culture. But why is, say, Simon okay with this? Max is basically being turned into a child soldier here, and the show just wants me to nod along and go "Hmm, how unreasonable of Isabelle to be worried for his safety!" I'm pretty sure the correct stance on child soldiers is "don't do it", regardless of the surrounding culture or the existence of demons. I wasn't aware this was an ethical issue we were still debating?

You could make a case that the show is trying to argue that a well, if you squint a little, due to the episode cliffhanger. See, the episode ends with Max, who's been repeatedly telling everyone how good he is at everything, especially tracking people, revealing that he found one of Jonathan/Sebastian's hair on the box of Jocelyn's keepsakes. And he uses it to track it down to Sebastian. And he goes to confront him. Alone.

"You're him. You're Jonathan."

And…like…do Shadowhunters not learn about protocol? Asking for backup when dealing with an enemy who clearly outmatches you? Because if not, then why the fuck are you considered elite in the first place? And if so, then why is Max considered such a gret Shadowhunter?

But more importantly, I don't think this conclusion (which, again, is a cliffhanger, so maybe he's fine, regardless of his fate in the books) really shows a clear framing that Max shouldn't be a Shadowhunter. Every argument Isabelle has during the episode about Max is framed so that she appears wrong and overemotional, and ends on the note that he'll be fine. If it was just one scene, and then something bad does happen to Max in the same episode, and we dealt with the fallout in that episode, I could maybe let it slide. But multiple scenes, including from complete outsider to Nephilim culture Simon Lewis? No, I'm pretty sure the framing is slanted one way, and it's not the way that says child soldiers is wrong.

I know, I know. I've been abusing the phrase "child soldier" over the past few paragraphs. But it's because I cannot state enough how wrong this is and how appalled I am that not only is there just one character who has an issue with it, but that issue isn't even one of principles. As I said: I wasn't aware "child soldiers are wrong" was still a debate.

#A Dark Reflection #Hollie Overton #Jeffrey Hunt #shadowhunters #Todd Slavkin #Darren Swimmer #mcg #series #TV series #review #reviews #series review #series reviews #the shadowhunter chronicles #cassandra clare #st: shadowhunters s2