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As you may already know I’m a HUGE fan of Cassandra Clare’s novels especially her Mortal Instruments Series. It was turned into a TV Show called Shadowhunters that I adored so much and even with all the changes, I still loved it and felt like it made it more mature. Not to mention I LOVE what they’ve done with Jace!

I wasn’t as addicted to it during this final season and that’s probably due to the fact that I knew it was canceled and even though we’d be getting an extra two episodes, making this season 22 instead of 20, it still bummed me out and I just couldn’t get as into it.

I’ll start with a few negatives.

I had my issues with this season. First off, the actor for Jonathan wasn’t like I expected. I thought the actor who played Sebastian – Jonathan disguised as someone else – did a far better job at portraying his evil side. I mean, Sebastian was SCARY and able to be calm and charming and sweet and adorable and still SCARY when he needed to be. And that’s totally Jonathan. This guy? His voice is a bit irritating to me and he really comes off as whiny. There were a few moments when I felt for him toward the last few episodes but he never really intimidated me or scared me like Jonathan should have.

Second, and I’m probably going to get a lot of backlash for saying this one but another thing I didn’t like about this season was too much Malec. Worse, not enough Clace!

Yes, part of me dislikes having too much Alec and Magnus on screen because it’s a homosexual relationship and there is many reasons for this: I’m a Christian and don’t like watching that stuff on TV and two, it’s starting to become overboard and be EVERYWHERE. But also because if you look at it from a storyline standpoint, Alec and Magnus are side characters – important ones – so their ship is a side ship and should have less screen time than Jace and Clary or at least, slightly less focus than whatever Jace and Clary’s ship story is that season.

Last season, Jace and Clary’s ship was GREAT. I mean, it was dramatic, intense, full of tears and stress and pain – absolutely perfect. It twisted the books in such a way that it honored the original ideas at the same time it took it a different direction and made it its own idea that I am so in love with.

This season? They have a few scenes together and only one episode where Jace mourns for Clary when he thinks she’s dead. Even then, there aren’t too many scenes in there even though the ones in there are so good and make me cry almost.

Now that I’ve started with a few negatives, lets get to the positives before I touch on the finale.

Jace is always amazing. His actor is fantastic and portrays him exactly how I imagined – even better, actually. His body language and facial expressions are usually enough to perform for him without words and that’s how you know you have a fantastic actor.

As usual, another thing I loved about Shadowhunters is their creative ideas. They take what Cassandra Clare did in the books, stay true to the original ideas and concepts, and then twist them in such a way that makes them more mature, makes it their own, and still lets me enjoy it as a book reader and enjoy this as its own TV Show.

The drama! How could I not love the drama! I mean, you’ve got Maia and Jordan trying to rekindle their relationship which I really enjoy. You’ve got Jonathan trying to have Clary be more like him and actually love him. You have Jace and Clary trying to keep themselves together while Clary is fighting a rune against her brother that is turning her more like him. You’ve got Greater Demons and Magnus’ dad trying to get back involved in his life and turn Magnus evil. There’s other worlds – more with the Seelie Lands, the Seelie Queen, and Edom.

Another thing that I love about this season of Shadowhunters and all of them, really, is the fight scenes. This season didn’t disappoint in that area and in fact, one of the final battles was this epic siege of Alicante, just like I’d expected from the books. It was beautifully written and the scenery and CGI were amazingly done and it felt like I was there. It was intense, but the action didn’t take away from the actors and actresses emotional performances that gave me feels all the way around.

With the final battle mentioned, now I have to talk about the finale. Obviously, this is going to contain major spoilers, so you’ve been warned. Stop reading now if you don’t want them.

Here we go.

I loved how they had Jonathan go through a transformation. It finally turned this whiny emotional weakling into the bad villain he was supposed to be. He was able to slaughter Shadowhunters at Institutes all over the world which created conflict, drama, and feels for everyone and it finally built him up to the Jonathan we all know and hate to love as a villain.

I saw it coming – Clary sacrificing herself to kill Jonathan. His death was bittersweet, just like it was supposed to be in the books. She was warned not to create another rune but she had to in order to kill him – nothing else would stop him and what the show did was create high stakes – literally thousands of lives lost if Clary didn’t. What she did meant that her runes would be taken away but as an audience, we didn’t fully understand the cost of that.

So it’s all dramatic and I’m full of feels wondering what’s going to happen to Clary and then we get a wedding between Alec and Magnus. My issues with homosexuality on TV aside, it was a bit too long and distracting. It showed many characters – some of them brand new, side characters that didn’t deserve screen time – dancing afterwards and a lot of unnecessary conversations that I felt took away from what should have been better used for Clary.

She started to lose her runes. We got a sweet goodbye she said to Simon even though he didn’t realize what was going on and that’s nice because he’s her best friend. Then Clary and Jace danced and we kind of got their final ship moment and she left teary eyed without telling him what was going on. Which was dramatic and I hated it but that comes from a fangirling standpoint which is a good thing. Because it means I’m into the drama and I hate what’s happening to my precious babies. She leaves the Institute and Jace reads a letter from her that explains by the time he’s reading this, her memories will already be gone. She doesn’t want him coming after her or anything and man, this totally shatters your heart.

It shatters’ Jace and once again, his performance sells it. His heart genuinely looks broken.

But then, we skip a year. What? I mean, it’s kind of interesting. We see all the characters and how they’ve changed, giving us proper endings to all of them and hey, the training fight scene between Simon and Jace? Total gold especially whenever Jace “boops” him in the nose. Hilarious. But Simon is the one who confronts Jace about sneaking out at night to see Clary and Simon tells him to let her go. Jace can’t; it’s only her and he will never love anyone else, he tells Simon.

I have so many issues with this. Well, first I do like that Simon and Jace had a bro-bonding moment over Clary because they both love her and if anyone needs to connect over her, it’s them.

But Isabel wanted to be Clary’s paraboti and she never once mentioned Clary at all! It’s like all the other characters forgot about her and don’t even miss her. I know it’s been a year, but that’s my problem. Why didn’t they take some of the fluff in the aftermath of the wedding off to make time for this because this is important!

Clary is a main character! Anytime Magnus was in trouble, the characters spent two episodes or more all fighting to get him back. In Clary’s case, there’s nothing they could have done, but we needed scenes where they tried or grieved or knew they had to let her go.

Jace comforted Alec whenever Magnus was in trouble – multiple times. As Jace’s paraboti, Alec should have been there for Jace, comforting him when Clary first left. Heck, it would have been nice to even see Jace trying to talk to Clary in vain and her not having any idea who he is and then he realizes there’s nothing he can do.

No one missed her. Not even Simon! He let her go and told Jace he had to too. It’s pathetic and sad and it takes this creative, genius, amazing, emotional, dramatic idea of Clary sacrificing her runes, her Shadowhunter side and memories to save the world. It lessens her sacrifice because she’s gone. No one missed her or even thanked her.

The end scene was nice. Jace watched her, she came to talk to him and remembered his name and the last part is when she sees his rune and asks what it is. It implies a lot and this is a concept I’ve heard of used before and it would have totally worked. I would have been freaking out a heck of a lot more at the ending, screaming and fangirling IF they had done it correctly by showing Clary’s other friends struggling with her loss.

Even Luke wasn’t there. Granted, she would have remembered him but not remembering how her mother died? Not knowing what he is now? They should have had a scene together.

Overall, this final season was probably about three stars out of five for me. There are episodes with higher ratings – four and five stars – because they were more dramatic or action packed. The ending ideas were literally about five star ideas but they ruined it and basically wasted it so overall, the final scene with Clary’s sacrifice gets a three star from me. Jace and Simon fighting and talking about Clary was a four star – only because it was emotional and literally, the ONLY emotion we had about Clary’s sacrifice.

So in all, the final episode is three stars from me.

What did you think of the Shadowhunters finale? Did you like it? What about Clary’s sacrifice and the way they handled it?

Game of Thrones will be ending in a few weeks, so I can’t wait to see what happens there. I only hope they give us a fantastic, solid ending that we fans deserve!

Stay tuned for next week’s article!