Hey!! I saw you say on one of your posts that Valentine and Jocelyn are very similar, personality wise. Just wanted to ask your thoughts!!
Thank you for the ask! I've recently been compiling Jocelyn and Valentine's parallels and similarities since reading Luke's story in Better in Black and having an understanding in dynamic. Particularly, Luke subconsciously being drawn to Valentine since he loved Jocelyn so much and took note of much of her traits.
This may also say a lot about what Valentine searched for in a partner or what he thought was worthy of him (himself, ironically). This is going to be an looong analytic post with evidence taken from the books to back up my reasoning so buckle up. Circle era enthusiasts enjoy!
Jocelyn and Valentine: Their Parallels
‘Valentine could never have been nothing. He was born to be a leader, to be the center of a revolution.’ -> (Jocelyn, City of Glass)
The Morgenstern and Fairchild families have both led the clave as Consul before (Roderick Morgenstern circa 1850s and Charlotte Fairchild, who held the position for 25 years). Leadership is embedded in both Valentine and Jocelyn’s legacies.
‘We stayed out all night in the woods then, talking. He told me how he envisioned we would lead the Circle together, forever. He told me he couldn't do it without me.’ -> (Jocelyn’s story)
Valentine greatly admired Jocelyn for her leadership qualities and sought her intellect. It was one of the things that made him fall for her, actually. He wanted a wife that was strong enough to stand with him and share his ideals. I think many people get the impression that Valentine wanted to force Jocelyn into a housewife role, which was not the case. Despite her doll-like looks, Valentine was certainly smart enough to look past his wife’s exterior to perceive what was underneath. That was his ability: to see people at their innermost self and use that to his advantage.
Valentine was the stone and Jocelyn was the steel.
‘You put one foot in front of another. I led, you followed, without objection. And followed, and followed, and that more than anything broke my heart. Because following is not in your nature, Jocelyn. We both know you were born to lead.’ -> (Luke, Better in Black)
But don’t be mistaken: Valentine also wanted a woman who was subservient to him. Who belonged to him and only him. And Jocelyn betrayed that fragile idea of herself when she engineered the uprising against him. With Lucian, who was infamously in love with her. She chose Luke over Valentine and that over anything enraged him. Jocelyn not only gave Valentine the impression that she betrayed his cause but also their marriage.
Despite Jocelyn’s betrayal, Valentine forgives her and wants her back. A testament to his love or possessiveness, I don’t know. Perhaps both.
‘ (…) the whole night, I watched you. You and Valentine, gliding through the ballroom like you were the only ones there. A different species than the rest of us: more graceful, more beautiful. More passionate.’ -> (Luke, Better in Black)
At the dance, Luke recognises that the love of his life and his best friend are kinda like two bright stars in a void of dim cosmic entities. It pains him, but accepts that this is evidence for their compatibility. Lucian, the interloper. Jocelyn and Valentine, the matching pair.
‘They'd only been together a couple of months-since his father died—but no one questioned that they were together for good. The way he looked at her ... like she was a different species than the rest of them, a higher species.’ -> (Robert, Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy)
Valentine thinks the nephilim are god’s chosen creatures, and therefore the closest thing that exists in the world to gods. He curated the idea that shadowhunters are the best race in the world, so Valentine sees Jocelyn and of course, he wants the best of the best. He was running his eyes over a menu of options, and he knew exactly what he wanted to order: the girl who had the most angel in her.
‘He had his hands loosely clasped behind his back and moved with an easy, careless grace, unusual in a big, broad-shouldered man.’ -> (Jace, City of Ashes)
‘Jocelyn even had a graceful way of walking that made people turn their heads to watch her go by.’ -> (Clary, City of bones)
3. (Literally) Radiating angelic qualities
"Can't you see it?" Valentine had confided once, early on, when Robert asked him how he could be so sure of love, so soon. "There's more of the Angel in her than in the rest of us. There's greatness in her. She shines like Raziel himself." -> (Robert/Valentine, Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy)
Not only being ‘angelically’ beautiful than the rest of the nephilim population, Valentine and Jocelyn both give off an angelic light. Like they somehow contain more of Raziel, and are therefore ‘better’. A different species entirely. Jocelyn and Valentine attracted yearning shadowhunters like a moth to a bright, beautiful flame.
"You can't imagine what he was like then. When we were at school together, everyone loved him. He seemed to give off light, in a way, like there was some special and brilliantly illuminated part of the universe that only he had access to (…).”
Because Jocelyn radiated the angelic blood she held within her, Valentine knew she would be a good candidate as the mother of his children or should I say soldiers. Valentine was eugenics obsessed- in both Downworlders and Nephilim- and he wanted the best biological outcome.
Coincidentally, literally radiating angelic light is also something mother and father have both passed onto their daughter, Clary.
4. The Social Hierarchy or should I say The Godly hierarchy
‘The real truth was that I felt as if I was a new person, now. I was Luke, not Lucian. I was the best friend of the most popular boy in the school. In all of Idris.’ -> (Luke, Better in Black)
Valentine was the most popular boy in the whole country of Idris. Jocelyn was his female counterpart in the way she was the most beautiful. She was also the only girl worthy of him in that aspect, too. Jocelyn just wasn’t aware of it.
‘I just stared at you. You were the most beautiful girl in school; how could anyone feel sorry for you?’ -> (Luke, Better in Black)
They were both worshipped; Valentine majorly because of his charisma and Jocelyn because of her looks. Jocelyn didn’t just give off godly energy but also she held herself in that way, too. Valentine does the same, but where one does it unconsciously, the other does it purposefully. Intentionally. He makes it starkly obvious that they are his sheep, and he is the Shepard. They are his acolytes, and he is the god. But for his wife and his parabatai, he wants coequals.
‘(…) to single me out-to pair of with me in training cases, to study with me for exams, to choose me, again and again, when he had his choice of anyone. He told me I was brave and clever; he told me I was unlike the others who scurried around, snatching up crumbs of his attention, Robert and Michael and Hodge and even Maryse. I believed it all-that he saw in me not a follower, but an equal.’ -> (Luke, Better in Black)
“So you won’t tell us where you got your intel from,” Lucian said, the only one other than Jocelyn who could question Valentine with impunity” -> (Robert, Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy)
Wife and Parabatai are part of his own self, only someone to match his own superiority will do. Somebody who isn’t a sheep or a follower, somebody just like Jocelyn who completely dismisses him on her first day at the academy.
‘I saw that-incredibly, unbelievably-you were unimpressed with Valentine. His charm, his charisma, the tools of his power: they didn't work on you. You excused yourself before dinner was over. Walked out of the room. I saw Valentine's black eyes narrow.’ -> (Luke, Better in Black)
Jocelyn, who isn’t easily impressed or charmed. Jocelyn, who doesn’t care for anybody’s opinion at all, despite how hard people show off for her attention. Jocelyn, who was just like Valentine.
‘However spectacular the view, the man standing in front of the window didn't look particularly impressed by it. There was a frown on his narrow, ascetic face as he turned away…’ -> (Prologue, City of Ashes)
Valentine seems to be frustrated by Jocelyn’s perfunctory attitude towards him (and everyone), though I think he admired her deep down for that. She was a worthy challenge, and he loved defying expectations.
She wouldn’t deign to give him her attention because she thought him cruel, which was such a startling contrast to everyone he met.
“She was always a bitch to me, Jocelyn was. Thought she was better than the rest of us, with her looks and her lineage. Just a pedigreed bitch, that’s all.” -> (Emil Pangborn, City of Bones)
The other students who worshiped him, and Jocelyn Fairchild, the only student who hated him and his circle even when he tried his hardest to draw her in to place of worship. He became obsessed with her.
‘You were fifteen, as was I. A child to me now, but then, to my younger self- you were radiant in a way that seemed to me, who had known you so long, entirely new. You wore a simple green dress, your hair loose, and all eyes followed you as you walked calmly through the room. looking neither to the right nor the left. Stephen looked over at you and whistled. Hodge's eyes widened. And Valentine looked at me, looking at you, and he smiled. "So," he said to me, as my heart turned circles inside my chest. "Who's that?" Who's that? Jocelyn, my Jocelyn. I loved you so much. I still do.’ -> (Luke, Better in Black)
For the first time, somebody wasn’t his adherent but the god.
‘(…) your smile felt like the break of dawn. The infinity of things I loved.’ -> (Luke, Better in Black)
After Valentine’s incessant bickering, Luke admits to him what he feels for Jocelyn. He mentions that Jocelyn’s smile felt like the break of dawn. Her smile was quite literally a dawn-bringer to Lucian.
"Long ago the Morgensterns commissioned two blades from Wayland the Smith-a matched set. A larger and a smaller, for a father and his son. Because Morgenstern means Morning Star, they were each named for a different aspect of the star itself— the smaller, this one here, is called Heosphoros, which means dawn-bringer, while the larger is called Phaesphoros, or light-bringer. You have doubtless seen Phaesphoros already, for Valentine Morgenstern carried it.” -> (Diana Wrayburn, City of Heavenly Fire)
Jocelyn is a Fairchild, but she also shares Morgenstern qualities, albeit not the war and destruction qualities but their light. Like her daughter. Valentine sensed this, and he even gave Jocelyn the counterpart of his own weapon, Heosphoros. The Dawn-bringer.
“Long before anyone knew about planets, they knew there were bright rips in the fabric of the night. The stars. And they knew there was one that rose in the east, at sunrise, and they called it the morning star, the light-bringer, the herald of dawn. Is that so bad? To bring light to the world?” -> (Jace, City of Heavenly Fire)
They were literally the two aspects of the morning star. Valentine was the light-bringer, and Jocelyn the dawn. Metaphorically, they shared its light through their blades.
‘He seemed to be full of passion. I could see what Luke saw in him.’ -> (Jocelyn’s Story)
Now, adult Valentine isn’t a paragon of kindness, and is someone who has been entirely consumed by rage. But from a young Luke and Jocelyn’s perspective of a teenage Valentine, his kindness felt genuine. He always saw the boy who cared enough to give Luke friendship and was fiercely protective of him, even to Jocelyn.
‘(…) he drew Luke to him, and Luke spoke so rapturously of his brilliance and his kindness.’ -> (Jocelyn’s Story)
Luke admired them for these shared traits. Jocelyn even expresses Valentine’s kindness and passion in her own story. They were both beautiful and graceful, but also caring in demeanour and passionate.
‘Your paintbrush dancing across a canvas. Your kindness. Your insight. Your delicate grip on a seraph blade and the deadly grace with which you slashed it through air and flesh.’ -> (Luke, Better in Black)
7. Defiance of authority and stubbornness
“She's like her mother," said Valentine. One of his hands was behind him; he was running it along the edge of the mirror's heavy gilt frame. "Doesn't like to do what she's told." -> (Valentine, City of Bones)
Jocelyn and Valentine both defy expectation and authority. Valentine defies the Clave, and Jocelyn defies him. They are extremely stubborn in their belief of that.
Jocelyn main act of defiance as a woman was towards her husband, but she was also defying social norms before Valentine. Her best and only friend is a boy, and is disliked by Lucian’s father because of this friendship. Jocelyn was also a female Fairchild, who are quite stubborn and firm.
"You are intolerant of authority, just as your father was. Like the angel whose name you both bear." -> (Imogen Herondale, City of Ashes)
Valentine defying authority was towards the Clave. He shuns his government and its rules because he disagrees with it and stubbornly clings to his belief his whole life. Like Lucifer, Valentine is a character primarily guided by the refusal to obey. He ultimately chose to rebel rather than obey or worship the Clave’s authority.
That’s it! Gosh, if you made it this far thank you for listening to my rambling.
I encourage discussion whether it’s in my replies or comments 🫶🫶🫶
