Light TSC Spoilers
After reading City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass, I was on the “Clary is boring” bandwagon. I never disliked her; she just always undeveloped to me. After I finished TMI and now after TDA, I no longer feel that way. She’s one of the beloved characters to me that I don’t think I could stand to see killed.
But I was thinking about all the TSC leading ladies recently and why I felt so attached to Tessa instantly and not the others – especially not Clary – and I realized one thing that makes Tessa really different: we had time to get to know Tessa.
Here’s what I mean: when we meet Tessa, she’s in the Dark sisters house. What goes on there is interesting enough to keep us interested in the plot, but the plot hasn’t really taken over the story yet – it can’t because Tessa (and therefore us as readers) don’t know the background of the world yet. We get like a chapter or two of just getting to know Tessa: her personality, her values, likes and dislikes. We have that time to connect with her, before the world-building and plot really starts up.
For Clary, we are just thrown right into the story like she is. There’s so much world-building that needs to take place quickly and the plot just hits the ground running that we don’t really get any time to learn who she is – we have to learn along the way (and her character development is kind of poorly written for the first three books in TMI).
For Emma, I think it’s a bit confusing to try to have to separate Emma in LM from Emma in COHF (bc she was 12 then and she’s not the same person anymore). Also, her whole thing is kind of just “Revenge!” for the first 100 pages, which shows us her determination, but none of that caring side with get to see later as we see her interact with the Blackthorn siblings. However, we do get more of her personality then we did with Clary, again because there’s some breathing room before the plot picks up.
As for Cordelia, she isn’t even in the first 30 pages of her book – like WHAT MAIN CHARACTER ISN’T INTRODUCED AT THE START OF CHAPTER ONE!! How are we supposed to connect with her, and feel like she’s leading this story if we get TWO DIFFERENT POVs before hers that are both other leading characters. When she finally is introduced, you can see how much better CC’s writing has gotten, and her personality clearly shines through, but because of how the book starts, it’s hard to latch onto her as being the main character.
Now that I’ve read most of all of the books I wouldn’t say that Tessa is a better character than the others or even that she is still my favorite anymore – but it goes to show you the power of first impressions. So that’s my thoughts on why certain main characters of TMI are more loved than others, lmk what you think in the comments!
If you are reading TSC for the first time, check out my Shadowhunters Guide & Reading Order under the “more” tab. Also check out my Shadowhunters Stories Chronological Timeline!
Life Is Just A Blur 