tmiquotepage:

(This is the second part of
the message that got cut off by tumblr:  Because ABC Family ordered a full
season of 13 episodes before there is even a pilot. Which means the pilot
episode of Shadowhunters had more than enough
time/budget/space/screentime/whatever it takes to make a good first impression
so i honestly don’t understand why can it be so bad.)

It’s a good point. The answer is probably the saddest
possibility, which is that the writers didn’t have to make the pilot a selling
device, which a pilot normally is. It’s written to sell the story to the
network executives and, if they order the pilot to be produced, even that
doesn’t have to make it on TV. With the whole first season already ordered
based on the success of the books and probably someone’s idea (and serious
selling skills) for the first season as a whole, there was little risk
involved. They didn’t really have to worry about the script not being great
because they were more selling Cassie’s work than they were their own original
idea. They didn’t have to sell anyone on the pilot, just the first season as a
whole. So long as there are enough viewers and the show eventually gets
slightly better to be a hit with ratings, it actually doesn’t matter if the
writing is good. I, unfortunately, feel that this has made the writers…. I
don’t want to say lazy, because I know they work their asses off. I feel like
it gave them too much safety and security so that they didn’t feel like they
had to keep rechecking each line individually to make sure it was beautiful and
everything. 

The pressure that makes good TV
is the general idea that, should you stop bringing in ratings for the network,
you can be axed, even in the middle of a season. That brings about the
brilliance that is most TV, the idea that you have to be beyond fantastic to
stay on the air. With Shadowhunters, there really wasn’t that pressure. It got
picked up and all of the episodes were guaranteed to be filmed, no matter what
they put on the paper. So long as they spat out something that played out as a
TV show and was remotely marketable, ABC Fam/Freeform left them to their own
devices with the budget they needed for an entire season run. It’s tricky. It’s
the reason the original Pretty
Little Liars pilot
script was boring as hell. Alloy Entertainment, in that case, had actually been
with Sara Shepard from the beginning and she wrote the first book with the deal
in hand that it would get a pilot for ABC Family. The pilot script didn’t have
to blow the socks off a producer because the producers/network had already
invested in the series. 

Basically, as it is with most other aspects of life, when you’re
given security and don’t have to work as hard toward the same result, it can be
easy to, even subconsciously, not work as hard and maybe even get a little
cocky.

Now, like I said before, I
don’t blame the bad pilot for the most part on the writers. Because they
decided to stay closer to the books than they had to (which, in my opinion, was
one of their first mistakes). Cassie’s world and mythology is so deep and complex
(sometimes overtly and unnecessarily so) that so much information is needed
before really any action that’s important to moving the story along can happen.
In comparison, Vampire Diaries
started off with just the general vampire mythology, which it has been able to build on and add to over several seasons. With the Shadow World, we
needed the mythology behind the Shadowhunters, vampires, seelies, warlocks,
mundanes, werewolves, the Circle and who Valentine is, and just a whole lot of
information before you can really delve into the story. Now, in the books, you
had pages and pages of dialogue, not entirely unlike the show, where people are
just explaining things. It’s a lot of telling and very little showing. The
difference between page and screen is that, where Cassie can get away with it,
it becomes so much more apparent as a problem with a visual medium like a TV
series.

Going off
what I said before, I think Shadowhunters is suffering from Fandom-Pleasing
Syndrome. It tried too hard to keep to the books, which is death for a TV
series. There’s a lot of telling as opposed to showing and the stories come of more as situations than  real conflicts for each individual episode, and I
think it’s an disease to the show. My personal opinion is that, if this show is going to
survive, it has to learn from previous adaptations like TVD and the 100 and
Pretty Little Liars. It needs to, sooner rather than later, separate itself
from the books as much as possible and become its own entity. Right now, it is relying far too much on the

unadulterated love of a few loyal fans. Personally, I
read TVD after I watched season one. I still haven’t read PLL or the 100 much
because I simply couldn’t get into the books. I like the TV shows better in
every single one of those circumstances. I feel like there’s more substance to
the shows, the twists (at least, for the early parts of the PLL and TVD series) are
absolutely mind boggling and amazing, they have great writing and character development and a mix of action and dialogue and a lot of other great features. And they all got further and further from the
book as time went on. TVD is off on such a different tangent than the books
that I don’t even know that it can be considered the same series. Do I still
love the books? Hell yes. Do I still watch the show? Of course. I enjoy both
because both give me different sides of the same story. 

If I were in the writer’s
room, I would have changed a lot more for Shadowhunters. I know book purists
hate the small changes they’ve made already and will crucify me for saying it,
but the show can’t survive going on like it is. It can’t keep bringing so very many things
in from the books in such big, obvious ways. One of the joys of Pretty Little
Liars is that we all know what each season and mid-season finale is going to
be. It’s going to be a huge reveal of some sort. The thing I always found
intoxicating was reading fan theories of fans who had read the book, who had seen the
signs (little, tiny, sometimes slightly fabricated hints) that they were going
to bring in a certain idea from the books, and then tuning in every week to see
if they got any closer to any one of the theories. And then, of course, with
the season finale, if/when they brought in an answer from the books, it was
still a surprise. Because, even though you’re a book fan and you kind of knew
it was coming, it was only a theory until that moment. For Shadowhunters, I don’t
have that. I know what happens next. It’s so predictable. And that’s going to
be the death of the show.

That
being said, the next few episodes are crucial. They’re bringing in a plot line
that is entirely new for the series that I am ecstatic to see what they do
with. It’s the first real test of the writers completely synthesizing a new
idea and then bringing it to fruition on the screen. If they handle it well,
the show may yet survive. If not, I know that a lot of the latter half of the
season is new for the show. Still, I’m worried that they are still too attached
to the show that I’m already kind of figuring out what they’ll do. I’ll keep
watching, but honestly, I’m worried that they’re being too safe with this series
and that is going to kill them eventually.

I know this is a bit of overkill for your answer, but these are the thoughts I’ve been having. Also, on your comment, yes. There are a lot of good pilots, generally in shows that don’t require huge mythologies upfront. I also encourage you to read some of the pilot scripts for your favorite, perfect pilots to see what changed, what the writers did. I encourage you to find out more about what it took to get the producers to say yes on those projects. Also, see how much changed. A problem I’ve noticed with Shadowhunters that actually freaks me out a little is that they changed a lot from first draft of the script until the end result. I personally liked the original pilot script. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if it was a directorial thing or rewrites really late, but there were a lot more drafts and bigger changes between drafts for this show than I think I’ve seen anywhere else. It’s actually a little freaky. Anyway, I think my overall answer to this would be that it was the fact that Shadowhunters had so much money and time and a full season order to start with that made the series be not as great as it could have been to start off with. Thanks for the messages, anon! Kisses!

richardegansey:

truthisborninargument:

richardegansey:

Ok so obviously I can’t speak for everyone, but the people saying everyone concerned about Izzy’s over-sexualisation are slut-shamers is, I don’t think, entirely fair, because in at least this example I’m going to talk about, people are ignoring the context in which Izzy is depicted in revealing clothing (her crop-top) and the boys’ aren’t: the pandemonium scene. this context is significant because the shadowhunters are effectively going into battle/a potentially dangerous situation where they could incur significant injuries in the process of killing a demon

and to that end, there is a purely logical/practical reason for not exposing bare skin, especially around a critically vulnerable area like your abdomen. Izzy wearing a crop-top here, then, denies her the ability to a) wear any kind of protective gear (as she could have been, theoretically, in the dress she was wearing in the book) and b) disguise any extra weapons around her midriff (as we know some shadowhunters have done in the past (e.g. Will in CA)

yes, it’s important to recognise that Izzy’s clothing in this scene is SUPPOSED to be sexualised, but in this case, the exposure of her skin potentially impedes her from *doing her job as a Shadowhunter*: it renders her physically vulnerable in a way that the boys’ aren’t. this is not necessarily about Izzy being sexually confident by wearing revealing clothing (as, if this were another context, it would be absolutely fine!!!), but about being subjected to the male gaze in an inappropriate situation

You apply your own logic to what should be worn in battle – safe clothes – to a character that simply thinks differently than you. It’s really simple: for Isabelle Lightwood safely is not a priority in battle, but the way she looks doing it is! (she seduces demons and then slay them). It may not coincide with your thinking, you may not like it or think it’s silly and dangerous, but that’s who Izzy is!

Izzy is also famous for always wearing high heels or wearing long skirts. It is highly impractical to do so in battle, but nobody complains about it. But when there is skin exposed you suddenly remember that it is impractical? That’s just an excuse for slut shaming and it sounds hypocritical.

i’m just going to repeat back to you what you’ve said, ok: 
“for Isabelle Lightwood safely is not a priority in battle, but the way she looks doing it is!” for izzy, safety isn’t a priority?? ISABELLE LIGHTWOOD, according to you (and apparently you alone can know exclusively what she is thinking? wow. which version of fictional izzy are we talking about here??) DOESN’T CARE ABOUT HER OWN SAFETY. not only that, but apparently her need to express her sexuality ~specifically through her clothing~ is so all-encompassing that it overrides her most basic instinct of self-preservation? i’m sorry, but are you even being serious?

have a good long think about how absolutely, totally absurd that is. not only that, but you’re actually doing isabelle a huge disservice because, now, you’re reducing her down to her sexuality. you are saying that one part of her identity (her sexuality) trumps her identity (and ability) as a shadowhunter and warrior. you are saying that she can’t be both at the same time. that’s a rather sexist thing to imply. 

it’s made very clear in the books that isabelle is fucking exceptional at being a shadowhunter – second only to jace, who essentially has an unfair (supernatural) advantage. i highly doubt isabelle could have acquired such skill and prowess by not caring about her safety in battle???? 

“Izzy is also famous for always wearing high heels or wearing long skirts. It is highly impractical to do so in battle, but nobody complains about it”: i actually addressed this in my OP when i talked about dresses – wearing long skirts, again, has obvious advantages over wearing crop-tops – for the reasons i’m having to repeat here again, you can disguise weapons around your legs/wear protective gear underneath should you wish to. wearing crop-tops completely eliminates that option, as well as exposing Area of Vital Organs. as for high heels – i don’t know if they’re that impractical, actually. as long as you are confidently mobile in them, they can double up as an additional weapon. i think it’s important to make a distinction between what is defined as isabelle expressing her femininity and isabelle expressing her sexuality here. these are clearly different things in different contexts, this being one of them. 

i see that you’ve conveniently passed over what i said about the crop-top, in itself, being fine. and it is! if isabelle were lounging around the institute or on a date w/ simon – in short, in a non-threatening, non-life-endangering situation where wearing revealing clothes doesn’t put her at risk, then that. is. fine. IN A DIFFERENT CONTEXT, ISABELLE WEARING THIS WOULD BE A-OK. but i somewhat doubt that for isabelle, for whom being a shadowhunter is such a massive part of how she constructs her identity, her first choice of battle-clothing would be a crop-top. that is demeaning to her because it suggests that isabelle fundamentally lacks the common sense to see that some clothing is clearly unfit for some pretty dangerous situations and is more interested in CONSTANTLY asserting her sexuality than in simply doing her job, and doing it well. 

in summation = you have not refuted anything of my argument. you have pretty much just proved my original point: izzy exposing this amount of skin in this context is dangerous, and thus is probably only serving one purpose: MALE GAZE. you have also said (to my utter delight) that “my logic” is being used as an “excuse” to slut-shame. which is funny because that implies that in order to not slut-shame you have to be deliberately illogical? how hilarious