( brett dalton, 40, he/him ) welcome to reprieve, VALENTINE MORGENSTERN who is from SHADOWHUNTERS, SEASON 2. rumor has it they are a SHADOWHUNTER, but only they could tell you the truth! when i close my eyes, i think of them and imagine CONVICTIONS STRONGER THAN IRON, BLOODSTAINED HANDS, AND EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES BY PANIC AT THE DISCO.
previously on shadowhunters:
valentine was one of the clave’s best and brightest shadowhunters in his youth. his whole family were legacies; the bravest and the best, each generation trained ruthlessly to ensure they could handle themselves in combat. this led valentine to both love and despise his father. he resented his unforgiving spirit, how hard he could sometimes be on him, but knew that he made him a better fighter.
while attending the shadowhunter academy in idris, near alicante where he was born and raised, he formed an organization called the circle. initially, the circle was founded to protest the antiquated views of the clave and the consul. they were young voices, all ambitious and hungry, and longed for a world where they could be better than the generation before. they wanted to reform the downworld — and the accords — and forge a new and better world. everything changed, however, after valentine’s father was murdered on what should have been a routine werewolf den inspection. his mother, shortly after, died of a heart attack. grief, valentine would say to anyone who would listen. grief was killed her. a broken heart. their deaths changed something in valentine. he hardened, his views becoming more radical, and his desire to reform the downworld turned to a hatred for all downworlders. he saw them all as demons, as creatures that masquerade as humans, and if they couldn’t be controlled they needed to be eradicated.
as the circle began to grow in power, valentine started experimenting. first, on himself, and then later on his unborn children. when injecting himself with demon blood, or angel blood, he saw temporary changes to his strength, powers, etc, but because he was an adult they never lasted. he figured that if he experimented on a child before their birth, he’d have a better chance of bringing about the strongest generation of shadowhunters. he married jocelyn and fed her demon blood while she was pregnant. he did a similar test with stephen herondale’s wife celine, with angel blood, from the angel ithuriel that he had bound and held captive in the cellar of their house. he also did some other questionable things around this time. when lucien turned on him, his parabatai, he put him in a position where he was bitten by a werewolf. they fought and he told lucien if he had any honor, he would kill himself. he didn’t stick around long enough to figure out what decision he’d made. as his parabatai rune faded away, inflicting a pain worse than death upon him, he barely felt it; his humanity was so far removed, it was like he couldn’t feel things like pain, or love, anymore. or so he liked to think.
shortly after this, the uprising was planned. the circle would attack accords hall when the accords were to be signed, killing all of the downworlders inside. poised for peace, none of them would be prepared; it’d be a slaughter. jocelyn, disillusioned by valentine at this point, conspired with downworlders to put a stop to his plan. as a result, they were prepared for the assault and many circle members died during the uprising. valentine, sensing defeat, fled and faked his own death — and the death of his son — so that they wouldn’t come looking for him. he also kept stephen herondale’s son, jace, and raised him as his own until he was 10.
valentine raised his own son, jonathan, and stephen’s son — also jonathan — and compared them. he’d experimented on one with angel blood and the other with demon blood, so he was monitoring their progress and training them to be the perfect soldiers. jace was too weak, despite his efforts to make him strong and sever his emotional ties, and jonathan was too violent. neither was quite right. shortly after jace’s tenth birthday, when he was on the verge of discovery, he faked his own death again and jace was sent to live with the lightwoods. he knew maryse, one of his most loyal followers, would take care of him.
shadowhunters season one & two
18 years after valentine went into hiding, he’s just about ready to make his comeback. one of his circle members spots clary going into a club which is his first lead to jocelyn and the mortal cup. he needs the mortal instruments so that he can make his own army of shadowhunters to overthrow the clave.
long story short, he finds clary, gets the cup, and convinces jace to go with him in order to save his friends. sue him, the kid’s useful — with a little needling, he’s sure he can turn him. in the end clary rescues him and he loses them both but it’s a temporary setback. especially once he tells jace he has demon blood and that clary’s his sister. yes, he lied to manipulate them. he’s not in the running for father of the year.
the clave, as predicted, throw jace into the city of the bones when he returns, they wrongfully assume he’s a traitor, that he’s siding with his father, and valentine uses the distraction to steal the soul sword. by the end of the first half of the season, he manipulates jace into activating the soul sword and kills a room filled with downworlders. the uprising finally comes to fruition. he leaves with the soul sword but gets stopped by clary who nullifies it.
where is he now?
the portal shows up moments later. he steps through with the nullified sword and the cup, one mortal instrument short of the set.
he’s not too concerned with the fact that he’s in the future. he has the mortal instruments, he’s working on creating more shadowhunters — though, admittedly, they’re not turning out so hot these days — and amassing his army for when the time comes. clave or no clave in this new world, he knows the list of his enemies is a mile long. once he finds out that his children are here — and that some of them might not know what he’s done yet — will give him the perfect opportunity to turn them towards his favor.