About Clary. And murder.

lnr2573 asked you:

Would Clary have really stabbed and killed Sebastian if it wasn’t for the connection to Jace when they were fighting? Does she really have it in her to murder her “brother”?

Well, you’re positing a very different scenario than the one Clary finds herself in — if Sebastian hasn’t attached himself to Jace, has he still done the other bad things he’s responsible for? Does he still have his same plan to burn down the world (now looking very possible?) Does he still have the capacity to create dark Shadowhunters? 

Because in that case I think the answer is yes. Yes, she has it in her. She had it in her to stab Jace, who, even if he wasn’t really Jace, was the only possibly pathway to getting Jace back. 

Clary makes mistakes. (The response to female protagonists who make mistakes is usually “What a worthless bitch” while the response to male protagonists who make mistakes is “How terribly misunderstood he is!” But that is another post.) She’s very stubborn, too, which is terrific in some situations and less so in others — but so are most human qualities we have. Pragmatism, brilliance, shyness, even arrogance can be valuable attributes in some situations and liabilities in others. Clary’s sheer bloody-mindedness has saved a lot of lives, and in City of Lost Souls, saves Jace’s, but she has to accept that she might have to give him up and let him go first.

Earlier in the book Simon asks her if love that chooses love over the greater good is a moral sort of love, and Clary says love isn’t moral or not moral. It just is. And she does everything she possibly can do, even call on Sebastian for help, to save Jace. But when it comes to the absolute end of things, when the choice is save Jace or save the world, she chooses the world. She knows using Glorious on Jace could well kill him. Will probably kill him. She does it anyway.

If she’s willing to kill the boy she loves to save the world, she’d probably be willing to kill the brother she kind of hates. (I think her feelings are more complicated than that. But, another post.)

So, love, moral or not moral? There’s the kind that can burn down the world (Sebastian’s sort) and the kind that can raise it up in glory (hopefully, Clary and Jace’s. The next book will tell!)