whydoweliketohurtsomuch asked you:

In TDA, is the Emma/Julian romance like what Simon felt for Clary in Cob- secretly in love w/ your bf but too shy to tell? in that case, does it work out better than it did for Simon? (I was always a Clary/Simon shipper if I’m honest. I just think that after years of waiting for someone, they deserve to get them and be happy) p.s Please please please please please please please please please please please dont kill Simon. (I hope the number of pleases shows you how much I want him not to die.

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Well, Emma and Julian certainly don’t work out the same way. They have a very different relationship. Simon and Clary had a version of the Friend Romance, but it was never really explored because Clary met Jace in the first chapter of City of Bones and that was Hello, Hot Stranger, for both of them.

There are a lot of things I love about writing Clary and Simon’s relationship, especially as it has evolved. For a long time, he represented the normal part of her life: the part that had human-normal, and not epic-sized, emotions and relationships and problems. Now he’s been absorbed into her world, they provide a grounding force for each other and a reminder of the human world they grew up in and therefore, exactly what’s at stake in everything they fight for. For many Shadowhunters, mundanes are something of an abstract concept, but for Clary and Simon they are very real.

Julian and Emma on the other hand have grown up as warrior partners, and are bonded together in part by the traumatic events of … well, City of Heavenly Fire. Even people you know well can constantly surprise you, and that’s part of the fun of writing about a relationship like that.