#TMITV: You Reacted To My Open Letter To Ed Decter 

I’ve tried to figure out how to start this article a million times over. Because The Mortal Instruments means something to me, it’s that I am willing to come out guns blazing and saying exactly what is on my mind and what I have heard.

When I wrote an open letter to Ed Decter, several asked why I am coming after him. I wasn’t coming after him. Ed Decter is the Showrunner for Shadowhunters, and therefore is in charge. He also wrote the pilot. So, after speaking to several people about the series, I made the decision to write him. And it definitely was not to attack him.

It’s because I care about this series. And I know that you do too.

An overwhelming amount of the response that I got from you guys was like this-

I need to know that these rumors are not true. Please Angel Raziel, do not let this: http://t.co/o9vbFiU9fq be true.

A lot of you, you understood that the deviations can be detrimental to the overall series. If such changes need to be made, my question is why don’t they just write a new series with new characters, using the name Shadowhunters. Many of you ran to Cassie online and asked her if the rumors are true.

@cassieclare http://t.co/ohOtXSvP8e is this true??? — Amy penguinwhaleowl★ (@FandamBookNerd) February 2, 2015

The truth in Hollywood is that authors are mostly cut out of the situation when they sell their books. There are promises that are made – but when you sell your story, a director, producer, screenwriter – they all take over with their vision of your work. You can only hope and trust that when they are willing to invest money into the fandom, they know they fandom. Unfortunately – Cassie seemed to have been cut out of the situation with the movie.

Will I tell you that I didn’t like the movie? No, I did. But for me – it’s easy to seperate a book from a movie. But as a fan of the books I was disappointed. And I sat in a room at Constantin’s offices and explained my thoughts with several other fansite owners. We talked about what exactly was wrong. And we were assured that when it came to City of Ashes, it would not be the same.

City of Ashes has never come, so I understand that promise was never kept. But I will be damned if I sit back and go, ‘It’s perfectly okay to fuck up the television series.’

@WCKDISG00D some of these rumours also sound quite likely and they were also investigated by fangirlish who wrote an open letter

And after having read the script – which I have I can tell you this – the rumors are true. The pilot script is a hot mess.

“@braveshades: @hijackeverlark here http://t.co/2UbixSWHSR” HOLY FUCKING SHIT NO NO NO AND NO — anna | exams (@hijackeverlark) February 2, 2015

The worst part of this entire thing is that it’s like they looked at the book, pulled some names and what everyone was, then burned the book. Ironically the person written the best in the pilot is Simon’s new girlfriend, Natalie. She’s the only one who seems to have a concrete story – so I wonder if she’s like this secret new Shadowhunter. I mean I can’t for the life of me understand why Clary is barely in it or why Jace kills a girl in the club versus a guy, but these are the changes that are being made.

I DONT WANT THIS FUCKED UO TMI WHOW NO http://t.co/0LlGiYZfmm — loren hale ♡ (@Iightwoodbane) February 2, 2015

We don’t want this fucked up show either. We want a show that is what the books are. A coming of age story. And in the world of The Mortal Instruments, everything is so very calculated that it baffles me that it seems that all of the books haven’t been read and that there is disregard for the meticulous world building.

if those rumours are true i will personally murder everyone who decided to do all that shit with the tv show. no. http://t.co/nLUf1N9qfR

I can’t for the life of me understand why it is that Constantin didn’t learn the first time around. You would think after investing millions of dollars and then loosing millions of dollars, one would protect their investment. The world of Shadowhunters is a lucrative business, one that could make them millions. And for a company that needs a hit (and all companies do) – why would you set out for the worst possible scenario?

If this is true I will throw myself off a roof http://t.co/FGDKIMQMPU — ¿ (@johnmurphysIaw) February 2, 2015

I know that what I read is the pilot and that’s a first draft. There is the opportunity for change. But right now, what we’re looking at is nothing like the books and worse than the movie. So someone tell me, is anyone listening to this fandom? Cause I don’t want Natalie. I want Clary. I want Jace to not be a creeper and put runes on parts of her body he doesn’t need to be touching while she is knocked the hell out. I want the protagonist to be Clary. I want to understand Alec and Isabelle. I want my favorite book series adapted correctly. And until then – I will be like you and just say NO! 

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How did you manage to read the pilot script? I’m curious.

Also, have there been any casting calls yet that you are aware of? If they’re casting already then it’s unlikely that things will change. If they haven’t done that yet then there’s still hope for them to get things right.

I just thought of something. The strong likelihood is that this ship has already sailed, and there’s no preventing Constantin and Ed Decter from basically making a complete mess of TMI, as a TV series. What about setting up a Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or other crowdfunding campaign to make a TMI *video game*? For instance, a role-playing game where you can play as Jace, Clary, Simon, Izzy, etc., and where the game *generally* follows the events of the books but the possible relationships can turn out completely differently, depending on your choices?

Such a campaign would need to build in a certain minimum amount of funding to purchase the rights to make the game from Cassandra Clare, of course. I’m a developer, myself, as well as being a writer and an avid fan of the series, so I have a pretty good idea of what it would take to make such a game happen.

By the time the game is developed and the Shadowhunters TV series has crashed and burned, maybe then we can look at making a crowdfunding campaign to do a pilot TMI TV episode the right way. :)

I just discovered that there already *is* a TMI video game. Or rather, there was. It apparently was made based off of the movie, and sucked bozos, so it’s not even being sold any more.

If the original audience of the books and the movie is supposed to be YA *girls*, then making the video game into a click-a-thon where all you’re doing is killing vampires, etc. …that just doesn’t work as a game mechanic for that kind of audience.

In Japan, dating sims are very popular kinds of games. Basically, a game where there’s a main character who can interact with other characters, some/most of which are potential relationship material. Making a cross between a role-playing game — where you get to change clothing as the game progresses (think the scene where Izzy dresses Clary so she can go to Magnus’ party) — and a dating sim would work much better. And making it where you get to choose which character you want to play as, so you can see different things happen from different characters’ perspectives, would make it REALLY interesting.

I will _never_ understand why anyone would take a book that already has a following and completely rewrite it to the point that it is no longer what made it popular in the first place. Not only is it an affront to the fandom, and a slap in the authour’s face – it’s just NOT a good business decision. Maybe the open letter should point out – strongly – how the fandom will react to such blatant stupidity (I would certainly boycott); and sent not to the show runner, but Constantin, and any/all networks they might shop the show around to. Best the networks know what effect it would have in their line-up.

I suppose a petition would be/has been useless??

What boggles my mind is that Cassandra Clare’s Facebook page has about 450k likes, so she and her books are reasonably well known. But it doesn’t seem like a lot of people are following the news about the TV series at all, or at least that’s the impression I get from the general lack of comments on TMI TV-related news.

I’ve seen a change dot org campaign to retain the original cast. I’m ambivalent about that since I’ve seen cases with multiple fandoms where recasting a part didn’t have a horrible effect on the franchise as a whole. I do like the casting for most of the actors for the movie (most but not all) but respect that they have their own careers and may or may not be able to commit to a TV series.

But that change dot org petition only has about 4500 votes so far. That makes me think that the fans who are paying attention to the TMI TV news are highly vocal, but also rather small in number.

What can we do to get the word out about the TV series, both to existing fans of the books as well as to the fandom community at large, and about what can be done to make the TV series better?

(Edited to remove URLs which Disqus likes to moderate.)

Okay, after a rather hellish week, I finally had time to put a lot of thought into what would be the best way to adapt TMI to TV. I can sort of see what Constantin has in mind, but moving TMI to Los Angeles and simply making the Shadowhunters into a division of the CIA will completely kill the whole theme of the books. Here’s why.

If you take the time to closely examine the various characters and what each of them represent, a number of things jump out at you. We have a Latino vampire who was Turned in the 50’s, right around the time of a huge wave of Hispanic immigration into East Harlem. We have a roughly 300 year-old Asian warlock who seems to hark to Chinese immigration in the late 18th and early 19th century into New York. We have a werewolf who, although he doesn’t ride a motorcycle, something about him just screams biker. Basically, we have some fairly major characters who represent either immigrants or marginalized groups in society — but specifically IN NEW YORK.

Another interesting thing is that the vampire, before he was Turned, was ostensibly Catholic, still believes in God, but considers himself to be damned. The main character’s love interest lost his God-fearing “father” at ten, and feels that God abandoned him. The main character’s best friend is Jewish and believes in God with no reservations. Now, what if we read God here as a metaphor for social justice?

Basically, there’s a much better way of adapting TMI than what Constantin is doing. It needs to be relevant to its audience — teens/young adults who are forming their own self-identity — and it can do that and still stay much closer to the source material than Constantin is apparently doing, at least according to these rumors. It’s not Harry Potter and it doesn’t need such radical changes in order to make it into its own thing. It can be what it is — a metaphor for self-identity and social justice. And a few other things besides, but let’s not get too complicated. :)

What it sounds like is someone trying to write their version of “Supernatural,” but with ‘sexy, leather-clad agents’….and it’s quite maddening!!

WHY would you go to the cost of buying the rights to a popular series – with a passionate following – and then _ignore_ everything that made the series popular?

I agree that New York is an equally important character in the story; and I think ALL of them are important to the whole. If you start pulling threads you end up weakening the whole fabric of the story. They need to actually READ the books, and understand who the characters are, and WHY they strike such a chord with their fans.

Is there a way to contact the PTB at Constantin and maybe pull a Miracle on 34th St on them??

A deluge of fan outrage in _tangible_ evidence – not just the digital kind??

Go to Google Maps and enter in “Constantin Film Los Angeles” and it’ll give you their address and phone number. Note that they’re 9200 *West* Sunset Blvd, *suite #800*. Google Maps isn’t totally right.

Be careful, though. If you come across as unreasonable and condescending, they won’t listen. Treat them with respect and they’re more likely to hear you.

I’ve already tried calling and leaving a return phone number. Going to try again today since it’s been a couple of days. If they don’t get back to me, I’ll just go down there until I can talk to someone other than their secretary.

I don’t know about the rest of the script, but changing the demon in the club to a girl as opposed to a boy, is not that big of a deal.

Also, I couldn’t disagree more about the decision to age them up being a bad one, that it ruins the coming of age story. I don’t know how old you are, but in our real world, people do not come of age at 14, they do not find themselves at 16, or 18 even. I’m of an age where I know, looking back, that in my teenage years, no matter how much I would have disagreed at the time, I was still a child.

Most people do not come into their own until they are in their 20’s. They call college a time of exploration for a reason. Most 14 to 18 year olds that I meet, realistically, can’t handle a break up, or the responsibility of a car, and high school, yet alone the stuff that these kids, namely Clary and Simon, have thrust at them. I think that 18 and up is a perfect age to signify young people coming into their own, discovering themselves, what they want, and their potential.

I am of the opinion that a lot of times authors age their characters down to sell to a certain target audience, when in reality, the characters you are reading almost always seem older than their chronological age. Which is why I feel like aging the characters up is simply fitting them more to their portrayed age, therefore staying true to the tone.

Also, I’d like to know whether the Shadowhunters are a part of the CIA or if they are being compared to the CIA, but of the Supernatural world? That’s a BIG difference.

Know what I hate about fandoms, is that no matter what production does, people always complain, and even before anything ever comes out. It’s just funny and sad to me. No one liked the casting for the movie and now those same people are complaining that the same cast isn’t coming back.

The show is not going to be the same as the books… it’s a TV show, based on a book. So long as they keep the same tone and in whatever way possible have the same MAJOR outcomes, I’m cool with it.

That leads me to the argument that aging the characters up messes too many things up in the story, the one about the cup as an example. Well that isn’t at all true. You could remove the age restriction with a caveat that it’s more successful on children, also that if you use it on a child, you have more time to groom them. I think if you left the age restriction off, and made the point that for those reasons Valentine still wanted to use it on children, when he had other options, that could make his actions even more vile.

Anyways, I’ll just stick with replying in the other thread since that’s more recent.

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