A Little Shout Out to Isaiah Mustafa

Some actors deserve a shout out every now and then.

Isaiah Mustafa is one of them.

You may not recognize the name Isaiah Mustafa, but you might recognize him. He starred in a number of Old Spice commercials. Let me jog your memory.

Isaiah’s character, Luke Garroway, isn’t the sexiest guy. That isn’t to say he’s not good looking.

PLEASE, let’s just be clear. He’s good looking.

But we don’t have many reasons to see Luke in intimate situations like with do with many of the other characters. 

Especially since they killed off the love of his life, Jocelyn.
Talk about awkward, especially because she’s still alive in the books.
Someone was hating on Luke THAT day.

Luke is the dad figure in the show.
Not only does he serve as Clary’s father, he was also a father to Simon during his formative years.
Simon uses that connection to help stop Luke from losing himself after Jocelyn dies.

Luke also helps Simon deal with being a vampire. Something Simon never wanted, especially because it has put such a strain on his relationship with his mom. Luke is all Simon has left of his “real life”.

But wait – there’s MORE!
Luke is “dad-like” to several of the pack members, most especially Maia. He helped her through a rough time in her life.

But actually, I didn’t write this to talk about Isaiah’s character.

I really wanted to talk about Isaiah.

Isaiah is the king of memes!

While he normally posts some during the Live Tweets, during the break he kicked it up a notch.
Every Monday evening, starting around 8 pm, Isaiah has been posting memes on his Twitter wall.
It’s called Meme Monday and he tags #ShadowhuntersChat.

It helps keep us all engaged while we wait (impatiently) for June 5^th.
They’re always images from the show and they tell a story.
And yeah, they’re pretty silly, but they’re also pretty cute.

The latest story, from May 15^th, uses images from the cast’s Bello magazine feature and ties them to a story. 

This week, we’re on the case of who glued Magnus’ hands to a table.

Spoiler. It was Luke.

I also had the pleasure of watching most of a live stream with Isaiah during his Takeover Day.

It was one of the BEST live videos I’ve seen yet. I full 46 minutes of Isaiah.

I can’t say I caught the WHOLE thing – I was working. I think it had been a long day and someone had a puppy. I got distracted.

But seriously. THIS VIDEO.
He even offered a little challenge with a prize. 

I was SO CLOSE.
SO CLOSE ISAIAH.
I think I was like.. the SECOND person to answer.. but, honestly, it’s hard to keep track of the chat.
But close. I was super close.

I love that Isaiah plays to his fans. That he tries to keep us engaged. 

He acknowledges fan art that gets sent to him.
He gives us challenges.
Long story short, Isaiah loves his fans and we love him!

My thoughts on #MalecDeservesBetter

Okay, let's talk #MalecDeservesBetter.

It starts with the episode "How Art Thou Fallen" (s2e7) - the same one where Malec's first time happens.

This episode of Shadowhunters has received a lot of heat for the Malec scene. Fans were disappointed in the lack of “skin time” Magnus and Alec had, especially when compared to Jace’s bare skin when fooling around with a Seelie “friend”.

Jace and Kaelie

In fact, fans took to Twitter to share just how upset they were. They felt like Malec was not given as much "skin" time because they were a same sex couple. Especially because within the same episode there was a much more intimate scene between Jace and a Seelie woman. 

 I'm not actually sure what the Seelie woman's name was.

Oooh.. no, I found it. Her name was Kaelie. 

Fans were so dismayed that they started a hashtag - #MalecDeservesBetter to make their voices heard. Posts spoke of equal representation for same-sex couples as heterosexual couples. They spoke of the awkwardness of the scene with Malec - we aren't even sure if they had sex in the end because it was so vague. That we are still in a world that still marginalizes LGBTQ+ people. 

#MalecDeservesBetter

I'm not going to argue with any of that.  

In fact, I love that the fandom can use Twitter to share their thoughts and views of the show. That the producers, directors and cast have the ability to see feedback from us, the viewers, as to what we think - good and bad. 

While fans have a right to feel jilted, I wonder if we are looking at that episode too insularly? 

What if Magnus and Alec’s “skin scene” is yet to come? 

While I admit that anytime we get to see Matt or Harry shirtless is a bonus, was this the moment we needed to see from Magnus and Alec? 

Harry/Magnus shirtless

Matt/Alec shirtless

Magnus might have the experience of 17,000 other partners, but he also admits his own vulnerability with taking the next step with Alec. And Alec - not only is it his first time with a man, it’s his first time EVER. Talk about pressure. 

I feel, personally, that these two deserve their first time to themselves. We’re building our relationship with Magnus and Alec by receiving these glimpses into their private life. It doesn’t need to happen all at once and we don’t need to see every intimate moment they have.

I don’t feel the Malec scene is equal to Jace’s moment with his Seelie friend earlier in the episode. Yes, overall we got more Jace skin than Malec skin, but how many more times is Jace going to make out with this particular Seelie? How many scenes does Jace get skinless overall? Was this really an intimate scene with Jace? 

I would argue that there was nothing romantic or loving about that scene – it was casual sex. If we look at it in this lens, then we realize that we haven’t seen anything special. The scene does help us understand where Jace’s mind is at and how’s he is dealing with the news of not only being Valentine’s son, which crushes his chances with Clary, but also learning that he was injected with demon blood. For a man who has spent his whole life trying to fight demons, this is a crushing blow.

                I’m not saying let’s not have some Malec skin time. 

                I’m all for Malec skin time.

                I’m just saying, if we only get one “intimate” Malec scene this season, I’d rather it be a bit further down the line.

                After they’ve figured things out a bit.

We’re getting to see this relationship blossom. It’s not a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am kinda deal. That isn’t what Malec is about. They are about building love and trust. It's about the slow burn. 

So yeah, if by the end of the season, we have seen Magnus and Alec in bed some form of undress, I'll be upset. But I want to give Matt Hasting, Todd Slavkin and the Shadowhunters Writers the time to develop this relationship before I decide if this was truly about slighting a same-sex couple. 

There's still time friends.

We have 10 more episodes to go before this season is done! 

Here's to hoping the best is yet to come!

Shadowhunters Mid-Season Blues

I knew it was going to happen.

I was REALLY excited about Shadowhunters. I tweeted and posted about them on social media sites.
I joined Tumblr.|
I even started this blog.
Then the show went on hiatus until June 5^th and I started to fizzle.

A very slow fizzle.

A first I was still excited so I participated in some Appreciation Weeks.
I re-posted photos of specific actors and their appropriate character on specific days of the week. It was very technical – post your favorite Simon photo from Season 1 on X day.
But then I got behind and sidetracked and I kinda.. stopped.

Fellow Tweeter, Aneesa @slayfray, was really good at posting these! 

 I participated in RewatchShadowhunters2A on Saturdays at 5pm. 

For maybe 3 weeks.
Then spring happened and guess who didn’t want to be inside at 5pm watching Shadowhunters?
This girl.
And then once I got behind.. yeah, it went downhill from there.

I believe it was Malec Source‏ @MalecShSource who came up with this/

Don’t forget the fan fiction. I read that off and on but I think I got immersed in the books and I couldn’t focus on both.
It’s also really fun to check out fan art – but again, I feel like I was more into it when the show was active.

To make excuses for myself, life has been really busy. 

It’s the end of the semester at the College University that I work at, which makes it hard to focus on Shadowhunters.
Apparently people need/want more things as the semester closes.
I might even be grateful that Shadowhunters took the break when they did.

From City of Heavenly Fire

It's okay though.
There has been upsides.
I did read the books.
I’ve now finished all of The Mortal Instruments and I’ve just started The Infernal Devices.
And honestly, it was nice because I feel like it’s been awhile since I’ve had a good book series to chomp into.
Maybe I tweeted specific quotes or pages from the book.
No, it’s not as weird as you think.
Are you judging me?

I’ve also found some new Twitter friends.
Some of my friends are book friends – specifically the books Shadowhunters is based on.
There was this one moment, at the end of Book 5, when I hit a big shocker and I HAD to DM my book friend.
It was that big!
There are also Twitter friends that I just talk to about life, but we because friends because of Shadowhunters.
That’s actually been nice.

I watched some new shows and caught up on some.
I’m still really into Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., although the framework needs to go down!
Single By 30 and Me and My Grandma were good finds on YouTube Red.
I’m gonna be honest and say that I’m struggling through 13 Reasons Why, but I was really jazzed about Iron Fist, both on Netflix.

In fact, I think I am MORE excited for the Defenders to come out in August than I am for the return of Shadowhunters.

But if you tell anyone, I’m going to lie and claim this blog was hacked.

I did also keep up with this blog, although I’m not as with it as I have been.
Usually I pre-write my blog entries so I’m always ahead.
I’m writing this week’s two days before it goes live.
Nothing like cutting it close.

Overall, I think it’s okay that I’ve lost a little of the original enthusiasm I had for Shadowhunters.
It gave me the chance to love other things and give them some energy.
When Shadowhunters comes back on in June, I’ll be in a better place to give them love.
So yeah, I have other interests. I think that’s healthy.
And I still have things I want to say about Shadowhunters, but I also want to go outside and plant some flowers.

It’s all about balance friends.

My Thought's on Malec's First Time

            Malec’s scene at the end of How Art Thou Fallen (season 2, episode 7) left me feeling awkwardly uncomfortable. Let me just include the clip, so you can watch it for yourself.

There were so many moments of unreciprocated affection going in. Magnus’ reaction to Alec’s impetuous kiss wasn’t to engage with the kiss, but a step back. He isn’t quite sure why Alec is suddenly so amorous, especially considering his history of being reserved and closeted.

Alec presses that he would like to take the next step – the “sex step” – I think I was as taken aback as Magnus.

What the… they only just started dating and he already wants to take it to the next level?

What happened to second base? Or third base?

He just wants to slam out the home run?

I felt like someone needs to sit down with Alec and explain the bases theory to him.

Simplified version of the Base System of Dating

Magus explains why he is hesitant to take the next step. He talks about being vulnerable and being afraid of losing Alec. Very legitimate reasons to wait. Alec presses and Magus, well, he never says yes but he also didn’t say No. It was really very awkward.

I work at a University, so CONSENT is a really important word in my world. So, that being said, this was not my favorite Malec moment. 

To make things worse, a day or so after this episode, a news story mentioned that more teens are feeling coerced into sex. I keep trying to find that article, but I can’t.
Which annoys me.

Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one who felt that this scene wasn’t played out in the best way possible.  

Fans took to Twitter to voice their concerns about how this scene played out. They called out the scene because Magnus doesn’t explicitly give his consent to have sex with Alec, which makes the interaction less than romantic. For LGBTQ fans, this is a slap in the face as it equates same sex relationships as lacking intimacy or legitimacy.

I think that this is the biggest part of the story because fans were able to directly tweet to showrunners Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin regarding their feelings about this scene. Not only that, but Darren and Todd replied to tweets acknowledging the fans and their feelings. I think everyone agrees that Malec is a power couple that needs to be treated with care.

Not necessarily without drama.

Drama is what makes a show.

I know that this is another element to this story - #MalecDeservesBetter. I’d like to save that for another entry. Don’t think I’m skipping over it.

As a final piece, I’d like to share my thoughts on this one brief clip.

It took me a long time to come to terms with this clip because of the lack of consent. Why was the narrative written this way? Everything on screen is driven for a particular reason – what was the driving factor to write Alec so forceful?

I decided that this was a moment for Alec. He has finally developed from that guy who only followed rules and did what was asked of him, to someone who was able to go after what he wanted. Alec also felt less than comfortable with Magnus’ past relationships because he lacks experience in the sexual department. Perhaps he felt that if they don’t take this step that Magnus would tire of him. .

This is especially exacerbated by Jace’s romp earlier in the episode.

Everyone is doing it but Alec.

 Magnus, on the other hand, is letting Alec take the lead. He’s letting Alec explore the side of him that wants things and goes after them. I think that’s part of why Magnus is attracted to Alec. Magnus is also vulnerable, and I think that’s fair. Having that much history with other people might make him unattractive to Alec.

It’s SO DEEP.

There was a lot of power in this segment – relationship power. I was afraid that Magnus was simply giving Alec all the power because he was so enamored. You never want that in a relationship. Magnus needs to be able to tell Alec NO when he really means it and we as viewers need to see that. We need to see that this is a healthy, balanced partnership.

Thankfully, a few episodes later, we do.

All in all, Malec is one of the main reasons I watch the show. Is it the only reason? No. In fact, the Simon and Jace scene earlier in the episode was way more amusing.

I do think that Matthew Daddario and Harry Shum Jr. put a lot of life into their characters and I enjoy watching how the show takes the basic elements of Malec from the books and re-weaves it. 

Okay, actually, I take that all back.

I mean, yes, I love the Malec relationship, but I like pretty much everything else about the show too.

There. 

Are you happy now?