Thoughts On...The Nephilim

In today's Thoughts On... blog I'd like to talk about the Nephilim themselves.  The Nephilim of course being the Shadowhunters.  Since the entire series is first and foremost about Shadowhunters I feel like this is an important topic to discuss.  So, I'd like to give you some of my thoughts.

Shadowhunters are a race of humans that because of Angels, specifically the Angel Raziel, have superhuman abilities.  They are super strong, more agile, and much more adept at anything that has to do with fighting or warrioring in general.  Also, one other thing that makes Shadowhunters special (as you all know) are the runes that when applied to themselves give them their superhuman abilities. Some of those runic abilities are strength, agility, night vision, speed, invisibility, and many more.

These abilities given to them by the Angel Raziel make Shadowhunters more than human, even though they were once just as human as mundanes.  If it weren't for Raziel giving Jonathan Shadowhunter, the first Shadowhunter, his Nephilim abilities they would be just another mundane.  If it weren't for basically an accident of birth our Shadowhunters, good and bad, would be nothing more than mundanes.

Yet, we see throughout all the different series' that the Shadowhunters believe themselves to be better than everyone else.  Mundane and downworlder alike.  And in one sense they are.  For it is Angel blood that gives them their abilities, and in downworlders it is demon blood them makes them what they are.  In strength and ability the Nephilim are far superior to mundanes.  At least in that regard.

 I believe the Shadowhunters fatal flaw is hubris.  When it comes down to it the Shadowhunters that are led astray, or are unnecessarily cruel in their actions to uphold the hall it is because they see themselves as better than those they are passing judgement on.

 Let's look at Valentine.  He created the Circle because he believed that the downworlders  were a lesser class of beings, and the accords should never have been created because all downworlders are a lesser class of being due to their demon  blood.  When the Circle was at its most prolific, before the Uprising, Valentine and his young Shadowhunter compatriots killed downworlders who clearly had done nothing to break the accords.

 In The Bane Chronicles story "The Last Stand of the New York Institute" we see two important things that show this of Valentine.  The first being the werewolves that the Circle members have attacked.  We see Valentine not attacking vicious and bloodthirsty werewolves, but he is torturing a young girl by putting silver on her eyes because she won't tell him were her younger brother has run off too.  Is torturing a child justified among the Nephilim only because they are the superior beings?   That should not be true among any loving and compassionate people, no matter who they are.  And it's not, at least by those who uphold the law.

 Also, this same story we see the Whitelaw family, who head the New York Institute at this time, coming to the aide of the werewolves.  They as Shadowhunters come to the aide of the downworlders in need because it is truly the right thing to do.  They even pit themselves against Valentine and the other Circle memebers.  Even though they are fighting other Shadowhunters they do it because it is the right thing.  In the end the Circle kill every member of the Whitelaw family.  Valentine tries to justify their actions by saying that they should never have fought against other Shadowhunters, especially to save downworlders.  But more than a few of Valentines followers see through this fairy tell that Valentine is trying to spin.  Including Luke and even Jocelyn.  I'm not sure exactly where it is said, but I believe it was Clary who tells Valentine that he should look to Mundane history to see that mass genocide never ends well.

A Shadowhutner doesn't need to be on the wrong side of the fight,  like Valentine, to let his (or her) fatal flaw get in the way of what's right, and what needs to be done.  Let's take a look at one of my least favorite characters, Inquisitor Victor Aldertree.  Of course I'm referring to the Aldertree of the books, since in the show he has yet to become the Inquisitor.  Now in the third book in the series, City of Glass, Daylighter Simon is accidentally portaled to Alicante with the Lightwoods to save his life.  Alec sees Simon to the Guard, believing that the Clave leaders there will be sending him right back to New York.

This of course does not happen.  Inquisitor Aldertee tells Simon that he only wants to ask him a few questions before sending him back home, via portal.  Aldertree than tries to persuade Simon into telling him that one or more of the Lightwoods are working with Valentine, even though Simon insists that this is not true.  It even appears that the Inquisitor doesn't care that it isn't true,  he just wants someone to blame in front of the Clave to make them worry less about traitors in their mists.  When Simon refuses to lie for him the Inquisitor locks Simon in prison without blood and will only let him out once he tells him what he wants to hear truth or not.  It is because the Inquisitor sees Simon, the Vampire, as a lesser being that he believes he doesn't need a reason to lock him up even if he has never broken the Accords.

Sometimes Shadowhunters can even look down on their own kind because their blood isn't as pure as others.  Just look at what the Clave did to Helen and Mark Blackthorn, two Shadowhunters, at the end of the final Mortal Instruments books the City of Heavenly Fire.  Because their mother was a Seelie Helen was banished to Wrangle Island and Mark was left abandoned to the wild hunt.  I mean, if they can do that to fellow Shadowhunters?

There are so many other Shadowhunters who have fallen pray to their hubris and have behaved in a way that is very unbecoming of a Shadowhunter. But I don't want you to think this blog is all about how terrible Shadowhunters can be, because it's not.  Take our young heroes.  At the start of the City of Bones yes they are quite prideful, not wanting any help from mundanes or even a Shadowhunter raised as a mundane.  We see all three of them looking down on Simon because he's a mundane, and than a Vampire, or overlooking in the case of Izzy.  But by the end of City of Heavenly Fire we see all of them realizing that sometimes it takes more than just a Shadowhunter to save the world.    It could take a Warlock's magic to open portals, a werewolf to stop a crazy vampire from killing all of New York, or a vampire to give up his mortality to rescue everyone from hell, literally. Jace, Alec, Izzy, and Clary all understand that it takes the help and support of everyone, not just Shadowhunters, to save the world.  If it were left just up to the Nephilim to stop Sebastian, or even Valentine, the world would have burned.  A Shadowhunter who can realize this and make friendships, and ask for help, with downworlders are the ones that in the end will always save the world.

Till Next Time Friends,