Another Open Letter to Ed Decter 

It’s Alyssa again. Amidst all of the excitement following the official pickup ofShadowhunters (congrats, by the way), I have to admit that I’m feeling some stuff I wish I wasn’t feeling. Worry. Concern. Anxiety. I wish I could just relax and be happy about the great prospect of having a show, but one thing makes that impossible: the script.

Now, I know that the author’s said that she was told that the script that’s been floating around, the one that’s up on Showfax and SidesExpress and a million other places, wasn’t going to be used. That she’d been told the character Natalie was going away. Thing is, since then we’ve seen the script be updated online and everywhere. And it’s basically the same script it was before with small changes. Now while we’re sure it isn’t the final draft, why bother updating a script that you’re not using? Seems suspicious.

We’re really all hoping, Ed and writers, that you’re not telling the author untruths, and us untruths, to get everyone onside. Because fans will only stay onside as long as they think you’re being straight with them and respectful of the books. Lying is not ever the way to go.

As a fan of this series I’m protective of the characters and the story when it’s in the adaptation process, as Shadowhunters currently is. As is the rest of the fandom. This is a series that we’ve dedicated ourselves to, grown with and love.

The fact of the matter is that we don’t know what’s going to happen plot-wise and character-wise with the show in the long run. But we’ve put our blind faith in you to not betray us. But there are some pretty discouraging aspects of the “updated” pilot that make me really worry about how you will approach Shadowhunters.

Don’t get me wrong; it’s not changes that I’m worried about. Those are inevitable and to be expected. But it’s the underlying theme, the plot and the essence of the characters that worries me. I hope you don’t feel like I’m attacking you, but I feel like I’m doing my duty to the fandom in trying to voice my concern and disappointment about certain aspects of the show. Better to voice my opinion now while there’s still a fighting chance before filming begins.

Here are my concerns about the script and suggestions as to how they can be remedied:

The Mortal Instruments is a series for women, about women; women who are strong and don’t need to take their clothes off to get what they want. In the first version of the script, Isabelle was a stripper. Who thought that was a good idea? Isabelle is a Shadowhunter; a warrior. She does not need to resort to stripping to get what she wants. Show her — and the other women — a little more respect than that. Clary and Maureen expose their breasts to get into a bar. Clary would never do that. (Maureen is a child in the books, so who wants to even go there.) In the pilot, Clary is stripped of her clothes and given Isabelle’s sexy clothes to wear. Except the clothes thing is totally removed from its context in the book AND movie, where Clary is dressed up by Isabelle in fancy clothes to go to Magnus’s party, and now makes no sense and doesn’t connect to anything. Why wouldn’t she just put back on her regular clothes and then change when she got home? Why is the Isabelle-clothes-makeover thing happening HERE? It seems like there’s no reason except to make Clary naked. It’s not sexy, it’s gross.

In every version of the script we have seen, Alec and Isabelle barely exist. Alec and Isabelle are not minor characters. They are beloved fan favorite characters that fans love and can relate to. You see, Alec and Isabelle were neglected in the film. We never really got to see what kind of characters there were. How Alec, is sensible, kind and thoughtful, and Isabelle is strong, vulnerable and loving. You need to use Alec and Isabelle like the main characters they are. With the additions of new original characters it looks as if Alec and Isabelle risk getting shoved aside again. Don’t do it. Because I and many other fans will stop watching if you do.

The one good thing I have to say is that at least Jace isn’t applying the healing rune to Clary’s upper thigh as she lays there unconscious. Because that was downright disturbing and so not like Jace. The thing is, this pilot Jace still isn’t like Jace. We miss his smart obnoxious comments from the club scene. We miss him being impressed Clary killed the Ravener. We miss Clary slapping him and the way he takes it because he knows he deserves it. Not showing fans the things they love can be just as bad as putting in things they’ll hate. Now maybe Jace does these things in later episodes. Maybe he’s sarcastic in later episodes. But you have one chance to get us on board, and that’s the pilot. And right now Jace is not Jace.

After the fandom voiced their negative opinion at the addition of Simon’s girlfriend, Natalie, it seemed as if you’d listened to the fans and gotten rid of her. Only, all you did was replace her name with Maureen, an actual character from the series. Come on, we’re not stupid! Right now Maureen is a Mary Sue. Clary loves her. Simon is dating her. Luke and Jocelyn know her. She’s in practically every scene.  It’s one thing to have her show up once or twice. Having the whole pilot revolve around her is a recipe for sending fans like us running!

We hate the idea of Simon having a girlfriend. It makes him having feelings for Clary gross and evil. It makes him an asshole. And it very much makes him not our Simon.

This Valentine makes movie Valentine seem calm. Look, if you don’t know, movie Valentine is a joke in the fandom. Even people who were sad that a second movie wasn’t being made were glad to get a second chance at a real Valentine. This guy is nuttier than Cobra Commander. He just kills everyone in sight. Maybe he would work as a villain in a show for little kids. But we want our book Valentine.

Believe it or not we fans are really invested in the magic of the world. We care about the runes. About Downworlders. Nowhere in the script is it explained what Shadowhunters are, what they do, what Downworlders are, how the runes work, what warlocks can do. Instead there is a lot of stuff where Clary gets a magical lavender pendant from Dot because Dot is really important. Clary gets marked on her neck even though Shadowhunters never mark anyone on their neck. And what’s a “warlock potion”? Why are steles weapons? This script reads like no one who wrote it ever read the book, they just saw the movie. And the movie didn’t do all that well. You really need to be diverging from it way, way, way more than you are.

The first lesson you need to learn about this fandom is that we are a powerful one. We get things done. It’s a testament to the fandom’s long-standing reign and dedication to the series. This fandom has been around since 2007. We’re in it until the end.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, please give us a reason to love this show. This show is being made because of the fans, so the fans should be in mind when you’re writing it. You already have an audience who’s ready to support you if you succeed or can as easily tear you down if you fail us.

We all essentially want the same thing: a successful show. But for the show to be successful it isn’t dependent only upon new fans; it’s dependent upon the long time fans who care about its faithfulness to the source material. So I hope you choose to honor the fans that supported this show long before it was announced and will remain long after the television series is gone.

(One last thing: there are hundreds of Shadowhunters living in the Institute instead of the six that live there in the books? The Shadowhunters, who don’t even have electricity in the books, now do everything on iPads? Interested to see how you work that out. I wish I had faith. I really do.)

Filed Under: Features, Shadowhunters TV, The Mortal Instruments, TV Tagged With: ABC Family, Ed Decter, editorial, Open Letter, opinion, Shadowhunters TV, The Mortal Instruments

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Theme of strong women, agreed. Alec and Isabelle, I can see later episodes possibly getting into their characters more. Valentine, agreed. Magic in the series, agreed.

Jace and the rune, I’m iffy on this but imho, the characters need to be taken back a couple of steps from where they are in the books anyway. They need to have *more* room to grow into themselves, because the TV series will span a longer time period.

Simon’s girlfriend, I’m thinking that having Simon with Maureen as a girlfriend can work, but not if she’s THAT big of a focus. Unless they’re going to add some major plot point that’s not in the books. That’s possible, too, and I’m certainly open to that. But as Alyssa said, be careful of making Maureen into a Mary Sue.

I don’t understand how Maureen could work as Simon’s girlfriend, as in the first book one of the main plots is the love triangle with Clary, Jace and SIMON. Simon loves Clary. Adding a girlfriend into that situation makes Simon look like a horrible person, even possibly a cheat if he still has the feelings for Clary as he does in the books, and quite frankly, Simon would never hurt someone like that, especially a girl.

First of all, in the books, Maureen *thinks* she’s Simon’s girlfriend. So here, in the TV series, she actually is. I speculated about a month ago that having “Natalie” as Simon’s girlfriend *could* work, if it ended up being an on-again, off-again relationship, with “Natalie” pulling a Maureen in season 3 of the TV series. Simon would start with “Natalie” as his gf, but with strong feelings for Clary (which seems very plausible to me), and move into a relationship with Isabelle by mid first season.

This is so perfectly written, and announces everything that needs to be addressed. If Alec and Izzy aren’t main characters then the show won’t be successful, at all. Right now the show doesn’t look too promising. The thing that’s really bugging me is that the people who are working on the show also worked on the movie. And the movie didn’t do well. So how will they make any improvements to the fandoms opinion when they are still continuously changing aspects of our shadowhunter world? It’s all ridiculous. Why not just use the books as a script? I get they have to make changes and add in things, but the things they are choosing to add in has no relevance to our favoured books, characters or plot. It’s making me angry. Why not ask fans what they want? They are barely even including Cassie in the loop. What they are doing is not the right thing, and if they continue, they will figure that out when the show has aired and fans are complaining that they have done it wrong. And it won’t be a first time they’ve done it wrong, it will be a second. So good luck to the directors, producers and writers because I really hope all of the rumours I have heard are not true. God forbid if they are.

Reblogged this on Living in a World of Book Quotes.

I strongly agree with everything you have mentioned above. I am also worried about how this will turn out and I hope they stick as close to the books as they can. Hopefully they can take this advice on board before filming.

How do you even know that the scripts going around are real, maybe they are old scripts that will go unused. Cassie herself said the scripts floating around are fake. I think we as a fandom should be patient and wait it out, we have no way of knowing if the writers of the show are working on a brand new script that is faithful to the books. Honestly I love TMI and I am so excited to see it a show, I personally would not mind changes as log as it follows the essence of the books and stays faithful to the mythology and heart of the books. Sometimes I think that some shows like TVD are nothing like books but the show is fantastic. Now I am not saying that I don’t care if the show is nothing like the books I am just saying let’s all chill out, we won’t know what the final outcome will be until we do. If the script sucks once it is finalized for sure, then we can bitch about it. That is my two cents lol.

Totally agree, and what sucks is that we can’t change any of this. The producers wont listen, hopefully Cassie puts her foot down sometimes.

She can’t put her foot down. She has no power over anything they do with the show. She has said so a hundred times.

Wait, there’s a script I can read?!? Where do I get it??

Most of them we know are fake and the ones this is referring to are probably also fake. The real script hasn’t been leaked as far as I know and I refuse to believe these are real unless Cassie or the producers say so. So you’re really not missing anything lol

I assure you the script I read was real. Is it the final? I hope not.

I’m really nervous about TMI becoming a television show and as it comes ‘closer’ to the release date, I want don’t want it to become one, as, the same as when Harry Potter became a movie, everybody stopped reading the books. So I believe that we’ll have all these mundanes thinking they are the biggest fan of the series ever, and they still have no idea it’s a book.

I also think that the characters will not be themselves. Like in the movie, Magnus was not nearly fabulous or sparkly enough, and Jace was not the sarcastic, loyal, loving person the Shadowhunter Chronicles fandom has come to love.

As I see it some of the TMI fans were ungrateful. They won’t be any different with the series than they were with the movie.

There is no evidence that this is real. It is more than likely just another fake script going around. None of it makes any sense so I would like to believe the writers are smarter than that. This makes it sound worse than the movie. I really really don’t think it’s real. So please stop making these posts every time you hear any tiny rumor about the show. If something real happens, then of course let us know. But this is almost definetely not real and i think you just need to stop believing every rumor ok? I am worried too but I really don’t think any of this is going to really happen.

They are not rumors. I read the full script. Was it the final version? I surely hope not. And if you don’t want to read this then you don’t have to. Your choice.

I agree with the whole letter. The people making the TV Show really need to get their facts straight and look into the book, not the movie or their imaginations. If they follow the book then the fandom will be on board and pleased and that will make them money, and through word of mouth will the fandom grow if the TV show is successful. I really hope they don’t screw it up.

A good question to ask is why in this world would they make the ‘script’ so easily available to non actors/actresses? It makes some fans freak out. Especially with this series since it was already something else (the movie).

My advice to everyone is to wait to find out more information about this show at the Upfronts at ABCFamily on April 14. Perhaps we will have some questions answered then.

One thing I do fault Ed Decter for not doing is not creating a Facebook, twitter, or ask.FM page. He should have gotten out way ahead of these rumors and not have poor Cassie answering the same questions over and over again. Then again Harold Zwart talked a lot to the fans, and we all know how the movie turned out.

“As proven with the movie, fans are not enough to carry the franchise” Maybe if it had actually been good, more fans would have watched it, enjoyed it, and it wouldn’t have bombed. I read the books about 3 years after the movie came out. After I finished it, I heard their was a movie and I was super excited. But all my friends that were fans told me not to even bother, because it was a horrible adaptation. That’s why it failed. Because the fans, the people who would have gotten the word out and had other people, like their friends, watch it were disappointed and they didn’t want anyone to watch it. “What is so disturbing about Jace putting a rune on Clary’s thigh” Well. She just met him. If you were passed out and some stranger you just met was drawing on you thigh, wouldn’t you be the slightest bit creeped out? Just sayin.

I Could have written this. Professionals know what to do…

But I have to admit the last sentence of the article was so clever. “The fandom will remain way after the TV Show”.

The Tv show is not for us, it’s for a larger audience, and if we love it, it will be a sort of bonus and if not, well… you have a remote turn the tv off and read the books, because the books will remain longer after and way after us.

Reading all the comments make me think that we all think it differently, like we all think differently with the casting. Some are choked with simon having a girlfriend, and Jace putting a rune on the upper thigh, and others just don’t.

I’m dying to see what they’re going to do with the story but I know that everybody is not going to be happy with this show. Will the director worry about it? If he thinks the show will be a success the way it is written… Absolutely not.

I hope for you and your worries that this open letter is not a sword stab into the water.

Wow I was off. For some reason I thought the movie was made in 2010. Yikes. I read the books about a year after the movie came out.

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