okay top 5 least favorite shadowhunters characters 🎤🎤
since you've already got your favorites sorted out
see. this is actually so hard because where do you even start with least favourite?? like do you go by how much you hate them or how indifferent you are about characters — those are totally different things! I despise Valentine but he is a least favourite? he's a villian doing is job within the story well & I think about him all the time because of that! feels a bit wrong to say he's a least favourite yknow? there's also characters who suck but are funny or their misfortune brings me enjoy (like Benedict <3)
anyway, after much internal debate I'm going to be choosing characters whose presence mostly just pisses me off idk
5. Axel Mortmain — he's here because he's such a non character for no reason & it annoys me. I literally had to look up how to spell his name because he's so deeply irrelevant, even in the very series he's the main antagonist of. should be a crime to be this boring honestly like you forget he exists the moment he's not on the page (something CC has also fallen victim to when she forgot to include him in Clockwork Prince despite the fact the title literally refers to him 💀)
4. Jordan Kyle — booooooooo tomato tomato 🍅🍅🍅 something Simon or Maia will think about him & it will get to me & for a moment i like him until i remember who he is and that he sucks! I'm pretty sure Maia's age got changed at some point but whatever it's still weird
3. Hodge Starkweather — he's so pathetic it's painful to read 😭 honestly the more I reread the series over time the less sympathy I have for him because yes his situation was unfair and sucked but Jesus Christ the way he's always the victim in his head. he never actually owns up to anything he did & this is most obvious when looking at how he treats Jace & is in denial about his identity (you know damn well which baby that is, you did murder his mother after all)
2. Andrew Blackthorn — I'm his number one hater but I'm never actually sure if CC intended for him to be hated. like is he supposed to be complicated but an ultimately positive figure? lots of people definitely like him/think favourly about him and I know this because they always disagree with my hater posts where I'm interpreting his actions in the way that makes him look the worst. idc I will be continuing because I know in my heart he abandoned Helen & Mark in Faerie on purpose & is therefore on this list
1. Belial — and in first place we have the one & only King of London! world's most nonsensical villian whose character seems to be trying to be many things at once (funny, for example) but fails at all of them <3 also he creates so many plot holes & I'm not entirely confident they'll be fixed in twp (although I really hope that is the case)
HELLO what's your favorite tsc book and did it change upon your reread?
Nope, Clockwork Prince, is and will always be my fav of the series. Nothing much happens in it (in terms of plot), but the character arcs/development of Jem, Will and Tessa and the secondary characters, is still 10/10. The book is a bit more Will/ Wessa centric, but I feel like through him/them, we get to know more about Jem and the others. Do I still think it's a shame we never got a Jem pov in the series? 100%. However, during this reread, I really enjoyed nitpicking his personality, how he thinks and his overall character, through Will and Tessa, and there's a lot to read about.
i've never seen your art before and you just showed up on my dash and i have to say i LOVE your art so much. you would do so well as like a children book illustrator or something. your characters are so lively and adorable. i feel like they'll start moving if i stare at them long enough. just beautiful ❤️
omg that's so nice of you to say 🥹🥹 thank you so much!! now i really want to try animating more to actually make my drawings move hehe ❤️
also how were you an alastair fan before tlh?? he was insufferable and everyone hated him 😭 may i ask what made you like him?
to promote tlh, CC released a flash fiction in her newsletter every month about the characters I think it was the august one? that was about Alastair and Cordelia and I was obsessed with it 😭 I am not immune to a good sibling dynamic & the whole story was so sweet... "that's it Layla, stay with me" and she would went triple platinum in my brain. it's where my old url (layla-carstairs) came from!
also between this story & Thomas defending him in Cast Long Shadows I was pretty confident there was more to Alastair then it seemed! which chog then proved correct :)
you freaks aren’t ready for how weird i am about pens.
ok. starting off with the ones that live in my makeshift pen holder because they are my children.
i believeee these are both jinhao x450s. all black one is from my dad and doesn’t open lol. i just keep it around hoping that one day i can sword in the stone that bullshit. one on the right is in the colour ‘dark clouds’ and i got it from someone in middle school lmao. v smooth writing experience. takes standard cartridges. never done me wrong. my exam pen of choice for writing fast and not making mistakes. v worn from consistent use since i was 13.
the rest of my jinhaos. all from my dad. these are all 159s and they’re fucking HUGE. the little peek of my finger in the right photo isn’t a good reference but apparently the diameter of these is 16mm on the body. i find these a lil bit scratchier than their skinnier counterparts and HEAVY. i used them when i needed to speed up my essay writing so i got used to a heavier pen and then when i used a lighter pen in the exam, id go super fast. the colours are cool, though. i don’t tend to reach for these but they’re good to colour code if you want to remember what colour ink you’ve got in each one. they also have screw-on caps, which feels really fancy.
these are my sheaffer no nonsenses. one on the left is ballpoint and refillable and the other’s nib is in medium italic. a lot lighter than a jinhao and still v affordable which i obviously like. just right to fit it pockets etc. i bring them everywhere. the ballpoint is smooth and good for numbers and mini writing. a sheaffer italic is always my nib of choice for everything else bc they make my handwriting look perfect, but i am absolutely using it in the wrong orientation because i am left-handed. the desired look is absolutely unachievable (at least to me) if you’re left-handed but whatever the fuck i’m doing looks cool as hell. however ‼️ my only qualm with my bbg sheaffer is that they DO NOT FIT STANDARD CARTRIDGES. i have to keep buying their bullshit in packs of FIVE, compared to standards you can get in one-hundred packs. you can use a converter but then again. it has to be a sheaffer-brand converter. migraine-inducing.
oughhh. love of my life. sheaffer white dot calligraphy pen. my everyday pen of choice. i bring these in any pocket long enough to fit them. and they are fucking long; with the lid on, they go from my elbow to my wrist. i fucking love these. got one for christmas a while ago with the fine italic nib. i happened to lose that one, and in my panic not to be found out, bought another for FIFTY FUCKING QUID on ebay with the medium italic because i literally couldn’t find another one on the internet. seems there’s loads about now fml. anyway. i found the old one. no idea where the broad nib one came from but ive got it. (the broad nib is the one in the picture on the right. good for titles which i write exclusively in medieval gothic calligraphy so one of these must be with me anytime i write. no im not joking. my teachers hated me in high school). all the same qualms about sheaffer, though.
ok. those are all the ones from my bedside table done. moving onto the ones i transfer from coats to my library bag to my backpack etc.
oops. turns out i have more sheaffer no nonsenses. v good and all that. the pink and blue ones originally came as all pink and all blue but i switched the caps lol. the blue is see-through but it’s hard to see on camera. both have non-italic nibs and they’re v smooth. the black one is a medium italic that i use for headings and keep in my three-pen case with the one on the right. that one has a converter in and i keep purple ink in it in case i need a freaky colour for corrections or edits.
this is the other one that lives in my pen case. GORGEOUS. FANTASTIC. this is a benu skulls and roses with the red and black mix. i got it for a birthday or something from cult pens so if you want a better look at it due to my shitty photography, look there bc i think im going to exceed the photo/link limit otherwise lmao. i use red ink in a colour called ‘writer’s blood’ in this one to stick with the whole goth theme. people regularly ask questions about this one when they see me using it, usually including ‘are you a witch?’
this is some sort of jinhao 911, i think. skinniest pen i own in both nib and body. very good for writing very small. i find it quite hard to write with for extended periods of time, though. not entirely sure why. just tires me out. also, it is stained blue on the inside and i kinda don’t like that you can see it through sometimes. the cap always manages to fall off in my pocket so everything in there is permanently blue.
the rest of these live in the depths of my wardrobe.
this is some sort of lamy left-handed model. going to be honest, i haven’t ever used it until five minutes ago but i like it. very smooth wiring and the yellow is cool asf and i like the little clip on the cap. however, im not entirely sure what makes it left-handed?? i kinda didn’t feel a difference but maybe i would if i tried to use it in my right hand. there’s a little window to let me see how much ink i’ve got left too. no idea wtf kind of cartridge is in this thing.
my kaweco calligraphy set. again. don’t use this very often but it’s nice. the corners of the nibs are kinda rounded which makes it a lot nicer to write with than a lot of italics. i do find it just a little too short for a calligraphy pen, though. i think id use it more if it came with another pen because i find it really inconvenient to just bring the one pen and a ton of nibs with my everywhere. makes the insides of my pockets messy.
got this set when i was in italy and it’s served me well. i was going to say it’s the only dip pen i own but i just remembered i have a glass pen somewhere and im panicking trying to remember where that is. shit. it came with a teeny bottle of purple ink as well (hence the divot in the bottom left of the box) but that lives downstairs with my other inks and is WAY watery. inconvenient but nice. i should get another nib for it.
don’t remember what brand this is which ironic given that they put the fugly logo right in the centre of the pen. nicely weighted and smooth. yeah.
finally. ‼️ my montblanc meisterstück that i got for my last birthday which doesn’t leave its special box (as of yet). it has my initials engraved into the clip which is so fucking cool. these are the pens they use in the secret history if you’re interested. the nib is oblique medium and idk what to tell you, man. it’s montblanc. of course it’s super good. i love it. <3
i apologise. you probably weren’t expecting all that when you sent the ask. also tumblr has moved my keep reading thing so sorry if you had to scroll through all of this.
i also have a pilot parallel pen which i think is the best for v big calligraphy as someone who’s left-handed. however. i have misplaced it. (i think my mum did, actually). i also have that glass one somewhere and now i’m really freaking out that i can’t find it. 😭😭
i should do one of these for my inks too.
thank you for letting me talk about this!! i love pens!!!
