Mundie Moms

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Cassie Answers Fan Questions about TMI / CP2


Cassie posted some recent Q&A's on Tumblr about TMI and CP2. Please note if you've not read either SPOILERS will be present in this post.

Per Cassie:

CP2 and TMI questions: slight spoilers!
“Dear Cassie, I’ve got a question related to Tessa and Jonathan. In CP2 the books says that Tessa is half shadowhunter-half demon, and that she was born because her mother didn’t have the Marks. So, if Jonathan is also half shadowhunter-half demon and his dad has the Marks, why is he alive? Thanks for your time and for writing this wonderful books! — 8planetsandifoundmyplaceonearth”
Tessa was born not just because her mother didn’t have Marks, but because her mother wore the Clockwork Angel. Otherwise Tessa would never have been born, since all babies who have a Shadowhunter parent and a demon parent are stillborn.
Jonathan is not half-Shadowhunter and half-demon. He did not have a Shadowhunter parent and a demon parent. He had a Shadowhunter parent and a Shadowhunter parent. Later he got a transfusion of demon blood. Unless you think that people who give you blood transfusions become your parents, Tessa and Sebastian/Jonathan are not at all the same kind of creature, and therefore there is no reason the same rules would apply to them. 
This also applies to questions about Sebastian and Magnus, as in, why are warlocks nice enough folk when Sebastian is evil? Warlocks have a human parent and a demon parent. They are not the same magical creature (warlocks have souls, and though they have a demon parents, can make their own choices about being good or bad. How much choice Sebastian has, and whether his issues are nature or nurture, haven’t been answered, but we know demon blood makes monsters out of humans. Jocelyn believes it killed Sebastian’s soul: she might be right.)
(I’m back to answering questions from my queue since I don’t want everything to be all movie, movie movie — this is technically a My Books blog! — but remember I’m not longer checking fanmail/asks! I might start up again in the fall in which case I’ll post about it.)

Per Cassie

tmi and ID questions; brother Zachariah; spoilers
“Hey Cassie, first of all. I finished CP2 this morning, and i cried so softly, tears full of joy. You are a genius, thank you for creating this world. Second, i am brazilian, so sorry if my english is terrible. And I wanted to tell you that if you ever consider coming to brazil, you can be sure youre gonna be very well welcomed. Anyways, i wanted to ask you if
it has always been allowed to stop being a Silent Brother whenever the person wants. I dont know, it always seemed to me that once you become a Silent Brother, you can’t go back. But Jem did, and when someone asked you how the Silent Brothers let them get out, you said that if a person stops being a Silent Brother, they cant live in the Silent City anymore. Anyways, i hope you understood my question. I really love your way of writting, i have read each book of TMI about 5 times already. I love them, and also TID. You are a genius. — arieels”
Thanks for your kind words about the books! No, you can’t un-become a Silent Brother whenever you want. Jem didn’t un-become a Silent Brother whenever he wanted either: something happened that undid his having become a Silent Brother, along with his disease.
Jem also says multiple times in CP2 that he is not a normal Silent Brother. P 495: “There was—pain when I made the transition. Great pain, that nearly killed me. They did what they could. But I shall never be like other Silent Brothers.”
So: Jem is not like other Silent Brothers, and the thing that made him not a Silent Brother anymore is not anything that has ever happened before, or is likely to happen again. It still means he wasn’t a Silent Brother any more, and since people who aren’t Silent Brothers don’t live in the Silent City, he left.
I know it’s annoying not to know how Jem became “human” again; but there was no way to reveal it in CP2 without spoiling City of Heavenly Fire — and anyway, it isn’t really part of the story of Clockwork Princess. It’s part of the story of The Mortal Instruments; that’s why Zachariah was introduced all the way back in Fallen Angels.

All I can say is I can not wait to find out how Jem was able to be Jem again! Bring on City of Heavenly Fire!

1 comment:

  1. This makes me even more excited to read CoHF!! Thanks for sharing this!!

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