Shadowhunters officially ended yesterday, I’m still working on my final comparison post which should be up tomorrow or the day following comparing the two part finale to the final book in The Mortal Instruments series. So I thought I would so something fun that I didn’t dive too deeply into in my book to show comparison posts. And that’s exploring the three characters of Team Evil (Clary, Jace, and Jonathan) between both the show and books to see which individual was truly the worst. I’m going to do each character against themselves and then from the least to most evil.
3. Clary Fairchild
The most innocent member of Team Evil though in the show she is shown to be much darker. As in the book the Seelie Queen might state she has a black heart, it really isn’t displayed by any of Clary’s actions.
BOOK
Was never really evil, just was along for the ride as a spy but did not compromised her morals. The closest thing to evil she does in the books is allow Jace to steal a boat in Venice and then killed several demons… but considering those are demons it doesn’t really count on the evil scale. So Clary in the books is pretty clear of everything, unless you count her one significant kill in Judas style of Jonathan in Edom.
SHOW
Before I go into the things she did under the influence of the twinning rune, I want to add in that Clary also killed Valentine which is something she did not do in the books. After twinning rune with Jonathan, Clary does do several dark acts:
- Beat up Aline Penhallow.
- Hit Jace over the head with a pipe.
- Killed multiple Seelies to help Jonathan with kidnapping the Seelie Queen.
- Kidnapped the Seelie Queen.
So between book Clary and show Clary, show Clary is far darker as I already mentioned. Mainly due to the fact that she’s the one with the Twinning Rune to Jonathan instead of Jace. Also looking at the death of Jonathan, I have to say book Clary was the darker of the two as she does it Judas style. While show Clary when she kills Jonathan is emotional as she basically hugs her brother to death crying not only over the loss of her brother but of the fact that it means she will no longer be a shadowhunter as a punishment by the angels. I have more on that in the final book to show comparison post.
2. Jace Herondale
Taking the second position in Team Evil is Jace Herondale, who goes through the most stuff in the books and show compared to Clary. That could potentially due to the fact that he was raised by Valentine and often thought there was something seriously messed up with him after meeting Clary. Granted this was in part due to Valentine lying to them about being related and then Jace thinking that he had demon blood. But then there’s other things that happen to him as well to make him go “dark side.”
BOOK
There were two different times Jace was on team evil. The first after being possessed by Lilith where he kidnapped Clary to use her as leverage to convince Simon to help bring back Sebastian. The second time is when Jace was connected to Sebastian through the twinning rune, during which he did the following things:
- Killed an Iron Sister.
- Stole a boat.
- Came up with the plan to create the Infernal Cup.
- Stole from the New York Institute with Jonathan.
- Attacked Jocelyn and Luke along with Jonathan in attempt to kidnap Clary.
- Assisted Sebastian in creating the Endarkened Shadowhunters, basically killing forty individuals during the first ritual but also due to his plan for the Infernal Cup indirectly led to all of the other Shadowhunters who were turned.
SHOW
Prior to the official Team Evil, Jace does join Valentine for a short period of time in which he does the following things:
- Killed around a dozen vampires against the Accords.
- Kidnapped a werewolf from Luke’s pack that was later killed by Valentine.
Jace when he was possessed by Lilith as The Owl did the following dark actions:
- Led to 33 mundanes becoming possessed, who each killed 33 individuals.
- Killed Imogen Herondale (his grandmother).
- Dropped Clary off a rooftop almost killing her.
- Helped led to the break out of numerous Clave prisoners when he was attempting to get the rib of Valentine and Clary.
He also spies on Team Evil after Clary goes dark from the twinning rune. He does get caught being a spy and ends up killing some Seelie Knights after they attack him.
So comparing book Jace to show Jace… I have to say book Jace is way worse considering it was his plan that led to the the Infernal Cup. Granted he only assisted the use of it with the ex-Circle members, the blood of the other Shadowhunters later turned into Endarkened Ones is on his hands as much as it’s on Sebastian’s. The show Jace was dark, don’t get me wrong but the shear number of effected individuals is much higher in the books. So Book Jace ranks higher on the evil meter.
1. Sebastian/Jonathan Morgenstern
There is truly no question of who is the most evil on #TeamEvil, that honor belongs to Jonathan Mogenstern. Though in the show he goes to Edom at some point during his childhood, while in the books Jonathan never did. Plus there are numerous other kills I haven’t even mentioned below that are mentioned in the both but are not shown. So let’s compare the two Jonathans.
BOOK
- Killed the real Sebastian.
- Killed Hodge.
- Killed Max Lightwood.
- Hit Isabelle Lightwood over the head during the Mortal War.
- Took down the Demon Towers leading to an unknown number of dead during the Mortal War.
- Stole from the New York Institute with Jace.
- Attacked Jocelyn and Luke along with Jace in attempt to kidnap Clary.
- Killed Merik along with other demons in order to get adamas for the Infernal Cup.
- Attempted to rape Clary multiple times.
- Kidnapped the Downworld Representatives (Raphael, Luke, and Magnus) and his mother (Jocelyn) to Edom.
- Created the Endarkened Shadowhunters which killed them in the process as there is no cure or reversal also anyone left is killed when Jonathan is murdered by Clary, a number of between 40-100 individuals (exact number is never stated but at least six institutes worth along with 40 previous Circle members).
- Slaughtered the entire Praetor Lupus headquarters in New York along with Jordan Kyle leaving Maia alive to tell the Downworld.
SHOW
- Attempted to kill Max Lightwood.
- Kidnapped, tortured and killed the real Sebastian.
- Killed Duncan after he helped smuggle Valentine away from the guard.
- Killed Dot, Elliot, and at least six Shadowhunters in the New York Institute in attempt to get the Mortal Mirror.
- Turned several dozen mundanes into Forsaken with Valentine’s assistance.
- Killed a French Shadowhunter who was attempting to bring Clary to the Institute for stealing his stele.
- Killed Merik to get the list of clients who potentially purchased the Morning Star Sword and then kills those individuals.
- Kidnapped Clary once, and attempted to kidnap her a second time disguised as Jace after knocking him out.
- Kidnapped the Seelie Queen to get the Morning Star Sword.
- Took down the Demon Towers in Alicante and opened a rift into Edom causing numerous deaths. Exact number is unknown.
- Kills four Shadowhunters in the Seelie Realm after his transformation.
- Kills the Seelie Queen.
- Attacks and kills everyone in every Institute around the world except for a few. And countless mundanes who tried to stop him.
This one is hard considering they did very different actions. Book Jonathan attempts to rape his sister and creates a race of Endarkened Shadowhunters that all die when he dies. But show Jonathan has so much more blood on his hands, he destroys all but a few institutes leaving no one alive including mundanes. The only positive Jonathan in the show gets is that he was tortured in Edom for years, which Clary uses to get him to stop killing just before she hugs him to death after using a rune that gives her angel wings. You can see he seriously just wanted someone to love him, but I can’t say that makes up for anything that he does. If we’re looking at death counts, show Jonathan was a million times worse than book Jonathan. As at least book Jonathan only destroyed a few Institutes and was going to leave the world be as long as Clary joined him in Edom. Show Jonathan, was just going to destroy the world then Clary after everyone was dead, he wasn’t going to stop for anyone or anything. He only paused because Clary told him about how she used to dream that he was prince she was supposed to save but never could.
Final Rankings
Alright so the final standings from most evil to least:
- Show Jonathan Morgenstern
- Book Sebastian (Jonathan) Morgenstern
- Book Jace Herondale (if you count the Endarkened Shadowhunters, take them out then show Jace was worse).
- Show Jace Herondale
- Show Clary Fairchild
- Book Clary Fairchild
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE CHARACTERS OF TEAM EVIL IN THE SHADOWHUNTER UNIVERSE?
Love ya,
Mae Polzine
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