A response of Cassandra Clare to a critic about the ending of Clockwork Princess

[Andre]

Since a direct link to an entry on thumblr is impossible as it seems I am gonna post that entry here.
http://cassandraclare.tumblr.com/

Clockwork Princess and love triangles: the last post


This is, as promised a long time ago, the last and final of my essays/replies about Clockwork Princess, its ending, and the Clockwork series in general. And the last time I will write about love triangles for a good long time. :)

Because it has been a while now since Clockwork Princess, I am not putting this under a read more tag. IT IS FULL OF SPOILERS. BEWARE YE THE SPOILERS, IF YOU HAVE NOT READ CLOCKWORK PRINCESS. It reiterates a lot of things I’ve already said about love triangles, love, etc. — but it is a basic sum-up, and final word on the topic.

First, I want to stress that never have I had such a positive reaction to a book as I have to Clockwork Princess. Online, in person, in reviews, the response has been amazing and thoughtful and I wanted to thank all of you for sharing your thoughts —and tears! — with me. As we move on into movie madness let’s not forget Will, Jem and Tessa - and maybe someday they’ll have their own movie, too. But even if they don’t, I hope they will live on in your hearts, as they do in mine — and will again in TLH!


SPOILERS

‘So… I finished Clockwork Princess two months ago or so and I can’t help but dislike the epilogue. Well, when Tessa thinks about Will, about how years have passed it is heartbreaking and sad and I wanted to cry, but when she sees Jem and he is no longer a Silent Brother… I didn’t like it. Not only because I can’t stand Tessa at all, but also because I don’t like that Tessa, after all, ended up with both Will and Jem. I can understand (more or less) that she loved the two of them, but the thing about the trilogy was that she had to choose between the two. Choosing always means to lose what you don’t choose and it doesn’t seem fair that she could be with Will and Jem. It is like you wrote it as if to please both Wessa and Jessa shippers. Just a thought.. — littlerocavarancolia’

‘It is like you wrote it as if to please both Wessa and Jessa shippers. Just a thought.’

Just a thought I’ve heard once or twice before. :) Except of course, that it’s an ending that runs the risk of displeasing both Jessa and Wessa shippers just as much as it has the chance of pleasing them. After all, part of the point of shipping is that you want your ship, not your ship and also another ship. For instance, asker, I can tell from your ask that 1) you ship Wessa and 2) you are not pleased. So why would you think everyone else would be, since you’re not?

As I believe I have already written about a few times, I knew I was writing a controversial ending, and that not everyone would be happy with it. I have in fact been stunned by how many people have embraced it (possibly — I hope — because everyone was getting a little tired of the “she must choose! she must CHOOSE!" love triangle and wanted to see things pan out differently). I wrote it to express my feeling that you can love beautifully, life-changingly, deeply, and yet love more than once, and more than one person. I wrote it because I wanted to see a love triangle in which no love was invalidated, and that includes the love between the two points of the triangle: Will and Jem. I wrote exactly the end I had planned to write all along, that was always hinted at and pointed to, and the only ending that felt right for me. I actually don’t know how I could have written another ending that wouldn’t have felt wrong-footed, as the entire ending of Clockwork Prince made it pretty clear Tessa loved both boys, so without a sudden about-face change of heart on her part in Clockwork Princess, or one of the boys dropping dead or falling in love with someone else suddenly and improbably, there was no functional way for another ending to work.


‘the thing about the trilogy was that she had to choose between the two’

No, it wasn’t. It not only wasn’t the thing about the trilogy, it is very explicitly antithetical to the point of the trilogy. If the point of the books was Tessa choosing between two people, then the series would not have been written to clearly show that these are two people who do not want her to choose between them. The reader may want her to choose, because they have a favorite, and because they have expectations that love triangles are supposed to work a certain way: but Tessa does not have a favorite, and is also unaware that she is in a love triangle in a book. That is the great thing about characters; they don’t know they’re in books, or that they’re supposed to abide by specific fictional rules decided on by readers, and so they can always surprise you.

Tessa never did, in fact, have the two boys standing in front of her going ‘Pick me, no no, pick me!’. I don’t like the idea of anyone choosing in that way, as if other people are objects. People aren’t items on sale at the store: Tessa did a lot in the Infernal Devices besides choose between two boys, as if she were choosing between raspberry and strawberry yogurt AND YOU CAN ONLY HAVE ONE DELICIOUS FRUIT FLAVOR. Will and Jem have feelings, they love each other as well as her, as well as she does both of them: Will, as well as Tessa, wanted to not hurt Jem and act honorably. Jem, as well as Tessa and Will, was capable of great sacrifice and great forgiveness in the name of love. If there ever had been a time where the two boys were lined up in front of her with the opportunity of making their ’Choose me’ case, here is how it would have gone: Jem would probably end in saying ‘Choose Will, he’s struggled so hard all this time, he’s such a good person, it would make me happy for him to have love’ and Will would start yelling ‘Choose Jem! He’s so kind, and clever, and wronged by the world, and musical, girls love musically gifted gentlemen, and HANDSOME! God, he’s good-looking! JEM!’

In TID, Tessa found out the tangled truth about her heritage, made good friends, saved many lives, found out about a whole other world, had to struggle with the writ-large scenario of a woman’s predicament in that day and age (a man literally thinks he’s made her, like Pgymalion, and that he has a right to her body), she learned to fight back, she made daring escapes, she refused to back down on her beliefs, she learned more about the real world but never gave up her love for books. She was on a mission to rescue her brother. She still found it in her to love others when her brother and then Will betrayed her within a tiny space of time in the very same book (Will did it for what he thought was a good reason, but Tessa didn’t know that, and so it wasn’t any less horrible for her). Even after other people had hurt her, she did her best to spare others.She learned she was immortal and had strange powers, was a being entirely different from who she’d thought she was. She learned to be independent. The story was her coming of age story, a bildungsroman as TMI is Clary’s, showing how someone became a hero. Because Tessa is a hero. Tessa is the hero.


‘I can’t stand Tessa at all’

You are absolutely within your rights to not like any character you choose, but this attitude is not something that I, as a writer, can really respond to. As the writer, I love all the characters, but Tessa is heart of the tale, the one I chose to focus on, to build the world of TID around. Without Tessa, everything would be changed. (Without Tessa, in fact, Will and Jem would both be dead. Everyone in the Institute would be dead.) I spent years of my life writing Tessa’s story, and I can’t talk about it as if it was anything but Tessa’s story — as if she is not, naturally and obviously, the most important character in her story. (I have also often talked about how of all the characters I’ve written she’s the most like me, so it’s a bit of an ouch to hear someone say they hate her, but — that’s my problem!)

On one hand, readers can interpret the story any way they want. You guys can decide all the books have been Church’s story, if you want. ;) But on the other, when you strive to write complicated characters, the boys gets loved for being complicated and the girls get called names, and that’s always an attitude that disturbs me.

After all, what’s so wrong and terrible about Tessa? That she did her best, that she read a lot, that she believed in a brother who betrayed her, that she still found it in her to love others when her brother and then Will betrayed her within a tiny space of time in the very same book, that she was loved, twice in over a hundred years, when thousands of other women in the world are loved by (and love) many more in a shorter time? Or are they unlikable, as well? Which women get approval — the very, very few, the tiny minority, who only ever love one person (although that describes Clary and she gets double the hate Tessa does, so who knows), or those whose hearts are so small they never love anyone at all?

""Choosing always means to lose what you don’t choose and it doesn’t seem fair that she could be with Will and Jem."

Doesn’t seem fair to whom? Who, exactly, is being done down here?

I see this a lot — that it is not “fair" that Tessa “gets" both Will and Jem (though in fact, she gets Will and then Jem, which is an important distinction.) I can see finding it not unfair but unrealistic perhaps if a character suffers nothing and gets everything handed to them on a silver platter, but that is not Tessa. Tessa, despite what one may say about what she ‘got’, lost a lot—she lost her parents and aunt, her brother, her clockwork angel, Jem, who she’d thought she was going to marry, and then she lost Will to death, and one day she’s going to lose Jem again; she lost her children, has had her heart torn apart over and over by the agony of being immortal and loving those who are mortal—and she still carries on, despite all those losses. Tessa has suffered enormously, and will suffer enormously again.


So that’s not the issue: the issue must be that Tessa is being unfair to another character. And yet, in the epilogue, and indeed before, she is making a decision that hurts nobody. Will is dead, and long beyond caring what anyone does, and if he was floating about in the afterlife, we all know he’d want Tessa with Jem anyway because this is Will, who is generous and kind, and not a hateful, selfish dillweed who wants his wife to spend eternity miserable because he died a hundred years ago. And Tessa choosing Will didn’t hurt Jem either: he was relieved, in fact, that the two people he loved most in the world would have each other to take care of them when he was gone to where his being with Tessa was impossible. Because Will is good. And Jem is good. And so is Tessa.

The entry is too long so I am gonna have to split it. cont.

[Andre]

Ok, part 2.

The main unfairness argument I’ve really seen put forth is that Tessa isn’t fair to some imaginary ideal of the sort of love that she “owes" Will and/or Jem: that the fact that she loves both of them diminishes her love for whichever (pick your favorite) and that therefore she is despicable, for not offering these stellar examples of manhood the kind of perfect love they deserve. Never mind that she offers them both exactly the love they want — that if she didn’t love Jem like she does, Will wouldn’t love her like he does, that he prefers her shared heart — it isn’t what the boy in question “deserves", which is to be Tessa’s absolutely only number-one priority for every minute of every day of her life — not their life, but hers, no matter how long hers goes on beyond theirs, no matter how long they’ve been dead or a monk. What is unfair and hateful about Tessa is that she on occasion thinks about her own happiness and prioritizes her feelings. What is hateful about her is that she’s a girl who, for whatever misguided reason, seems to have missed the memo that the entire point of her life is to remember that some dude’s feelings are more important than hers, even if he’s dead and won’t notice.

I mean, we all do actually realize that Tessa finding love again a hundred years after Will’s death isn’t morally wrong, and that in fact her sleeping with Will when she thinks Jem is dead and she’s going to be dead in a few hours isn’t morally wrong either, certainly not in any major way that would make a character worth hating. Those things are pretty inarguable. The problem is that in both cases what Tessa is thinking about is her own happiness, and what she herself needs, honestly, in her heart, and not about martyring herself in the cause of a boy who’s dead and wouldn’t want her martyring herself anyway. And that, for a female character, is seen as intensely problematic. We are trained as readers to prioritize what happens to men/male characters, the feelings of men/male characters, the heroism and fates of men/male characters, so why isn’t Tessa doing the same thing? (I remember seeing a huge amount of hate heaped on Cecily because the theory was that if there wasn’t any Cecily in the book, there would have been more Jem. Except there wouldn’t, because I wrote everything about Jem I needed to. It’s not like I ran out of space. Without Cecy, It just would have been a shorter book. But the idea is indicative of the feeling that time spent on women’s stories is time that should have been spent on men’s and is therefore wasted time.*)



So I would posit this: hate for Tessa isn’t because she chose Will, or Jem. It’s because she thinks the story is about her, not them. And therein lies the problem.



We’ve got to stop seeing women as rewards for men, as trophies to be handed to the best man, as important only in how they emotionally affect men, as nothing but useless clutter in a story that’s really about men, or that should be about men. We have to stop thinking of women as not deserving what they ‘get’—especially if what they get is to be in the center of the narrative, to have the special powers, to be the ones who live forever, to be the ones who love more than once. To say that Tessa is being unfair to Will by choosing Jem in the very, very end is to say that the feelings of a long-dead man trump those of a living woman. And that is an idea we should all strive to at least examine, because “dead men are worth more than living women" is problematic at its heart.
Clockwork Princess was Tessa’s story. City of Heavenly Fire is going to be the end of Clary’s story. These girls are the heart and soul of the books I’ve written. They’re the protagonists: they’re the heroes, they’re the stars. The story is theirs.

—————————-

(*And yes, to this kind of argument you always get the response: “But if so and so were a better female character, I wouldn’t mind her! If Cecily was just better, it would have been fine for her to be in the book!") To which I say: neh. I’m not saying I write perfect female characters or the best or anything. But never in the entire time that I have been reading books and examining critique have I ever seen a female character who has escaped this kind of criticism. Is it really all that likely that no one, anywhere, in the history of time, has ever written a major female character who is good enough and that that’s the problem? It doesn’t seem likely, does it? The only female characters who ever seem to evade this kind of critique are incredibly minor characters who take up no narrative space — it’s the equivalent of that study where women who talk the same amount as men are seen as dominating the conversation.)

I will not comment on this and only edited so it looks as closely to the original thumblr entry as possible. Now make up your own mind about it.

[Mariana]

I agree with Clare. The series was mainly about Tessa, of course Jem and Will were important as well, but they were guiding her through her story. It's supposedly "unfair" to many readers that Tessa ended up with both Will and Jem, as if it's some unfair crime that Tessa loved them both equally and wanted to share with them whatever time they could before they died. There are many true stories out there where the wife's husband passes and she ends up falling in love with her late husband's best friend, and that's okay; but it's not okay that Tessa too has this second chance at happiness. Like she said, the characters in the book have no idea they're in a book and will act unexpectedly at times because of that. They don't always follow the "rules" that readers mentally add to all love triangles; that just because most other love triangle books end in the same way, Clockwork Princess should too. Poor Jem waited over a hundred years for his happy ending, and he deserved it. It wasn't his fault that he was forcefully fed with yin fen and was practically death waiting to happen; that his problem was real, unlike Will's curse making it unable for him to love. Would it be fair to Jem if the ending was different and Tessa didn't want him? Will would've wanted Tessa to end up with Jem, and Jem in turn wanted Will to end up with Tessa. No matter the ending, some readers would be upset. To everyone who disagrees I'm sorry Tessa didn't follow your rules for love triangles.

And to those who dislike Cecily, take a look at the inside cover of Clockwork Princess and you'll see a map of family trees. Just know that if there was no Cecily, there'd be no Alec or Isabelle Lightwood.

[Theodosia of the Fathomless Hall]

Brilliant. This reply to the malcontent fans is the best quotation from an author I've read in a while.
Cassandra Clare's points about the fad of love triangles are extremely valuable and I keep that in the back of my mind whenever I read a YA book :D (since, honestly, how many YA books do not have them)

[Nurlely]

Cassie's answers would have been so good if the equal love story is convincing enough, if the facts are loud and clear in the story itself, if the last book doesn't contradict the previous books.

What bothered me so much is the fact that I didn't get such strong love triangle in the story.
I was not surprised reading the Epilogue. That was actually the worst kind of scenario I had in mind when thinking of Cassie going ad far as writing a plot where Tessa can have both boys thus satisfying the whole fans.

For me, the Epilogue ruined the series.

[Jeni]

I'm sorry, but as compelling as her answer is, I'd much rather she have put all those reasons in the book and shown me why it was okay to put Jem in "suspended animation" until Tessa could have him, too. Suddenly curing him once Will is gone is too deus ex machina.

Here's the definition to back up my comment:

"A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly resolved, with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object. Depending on how it is done, it can be intended to move the story forward when the writer has "painted himself into a corner" and sees no other way out, to surprise the audience, to bring a happy ending into the tale, or as a comedic device."

This is what she did. She negated the mourning I had done for Jem and said "Never mind! Look!!" and all was perfectly well again.

Not one hint as to why Tessa can have children, no talk of working on a cure until he's cured, suddenly cured once Will was gone. Bah. I was disappointed and felt it was beneath her.

[Jasmine]

Jeni wrote: "I'm sorry, but as compelling as her answer is, I'd much rather she have put all those reasons in the book and shown me why it was okay to put Jem in "suspended animation" until Tessa could have him..."

Will had been dead since the 1930's. Jem was cured in 2008 or whatever it was. I disagree that Jem was "suddenly cured after Will was gone." Not trying to be offensive, just posting my opinion.

[Jeni]

No offense taken. :-)

The point I'm trying to make is that Jem was in a situation that CC had made quite clear was unchangeable. There was no provision for leaving the Silent Brothers. There was no cure. She gives us a long-drawn out death scene (that I found beautiful, by the way), then summarizes 70 years in a few paragraphs and then shows us cured Jem. The death scene was longer than the intervening decades. It felt too sudden to me.

Having to post a long response to a story you've written that fans adore seems strange to me. If all that happened, then why didn't she just put it in the book so some of us wouldn't feel a bit cheated at the end?

[anthea]

Jeni I totally agree with what you're saying. As much as I love Jem, I just wish he died the way Tessa thought he did throughout the book. It was such a beautiful scene to imagine, and very very sad (tears actually formed in my eyes).
I don't actually think everyone should have had their happy ending, it didn't seem to work, it didn't fit together at all. It just doesn't make sense.
One minute both of his conditions are incurable (the yin fen and also becoming a silent brother) and then suddenly everyone's fine and dandy.
Will lived a happy life and once he's out the way, Tessa's moved back on to Jem and oh look at that he's so perfectly cured and fine now hooray for us.

Um no Cassie, it just doesn't work. A fairytale ending for this type of series just doesn't fit.

[M.]

Nurlely wrote: "Cassie's answers would have been so good if the equal love story is convincing enough, if the facts are loud and clear in the story itself, if the last book doesn't contradict the previous books.

..."

Totally agree with you. Tessa loving both boys equally wasn't written convincingly throughout the series, IMO anyways. Her love for Jem always felt more friendly than really romantic. It wasn't epic and I got the impression she only agreed to marry him because he was dying.
I would have preferred if Jem had died like we had been led to believe. Sometimes a sad ending is more satisfying than HEAs.

[Jasmine]

Jeni wrote: "No offense taken. :-)

The point I'm trying to make is that Jem was in a situation that CC had made quite clear was unchangeable. There was no provision for leaving the Silent Brothers. There was..."

I agree with what you're saying. I think Clare should not not put that epilogue in. It detracted from the story, to me.

[Mizuki]

Thanks for posting Andre! and it's always interesting to see how people react to Clare's claims!^_^

[Andre]

No problem.

[Mizuki]

Jeni wrote: ".The point I'm trying to make is that Jem was in a situation that CC had made quite clear was unchangeable. There was no provision for leaving the Silent Brothers. There was no cure."

That's even worse than what I had suspected...

[Andre]

Not only you. I had thought that at least there was some way to leave the brothers in general. But nope, only for Jem.

[Nurlely]

Jeni wrote: "The point I'm trying to make is that Jem was in a situation that CC had made quite clear was unchangeable. There was no provision for leaving the Silent Brothers. There was no cure. She gives us a long-drawn out death scene (that I found beautiful, by the way), then summarizes 70 years in a few paragraphs and then shows us cured Jem. The death scene was longer than the intervening decades. It felt too sudden to me. "

It seems that Clare wanted all of us to read City of Heavenly Fire, where 'answers' can be read. Of why Jem was cured, and maybe some other unanswered questions too. And if it will not work out, she can later answer them again on her tumblr.... +_+

Agree with you with the silent brother theory.
How could someone who was terribly ill be a silent brother? granted an immortality? Then left silent brother and be immortal again? Is being a powerful and special 'force' that easy?

I felt that Clare wanted so much to save Jem for Tessa, she went into a very special plot for Jem only. If I just read the Epilogue (or Clockwork Princess), I will get the impression that Tessa was always meant for Jem, no matter what. Unfortunately Jace was on the way. So Tessa must also be with Will to keep the blood-line intact.

A pretty messed up Clockwork Princess!

[Nurlely]

Mika wrote: "Sometimes a sad ending is more satisfying than HEAs. "

Yep. Especially for TID. The ending was a mess!

[M.]

Nurlely wrote: "Mika wrote: "Sometimes a sad ending is more satisfying than HEAs. "

Yep. Especially for TID. The ending was a mess!"

To me, the ending felt like a last decision change by Clare, like when she originally thought of the plot, it ended quite differently. Maybe she fell in love with Jem's character so much, she couldn't bear to simply kill him at the end, hence the farfetched, underdeveloped solution to Jem's dilemma. When an author feels the need to write a blog entry explaining why she ended a book a certain way, it shows trouble to me. The reasoning should be clear enough in the book, even if readers are not happy about it. Unfortunately, her explanation still didn't make any sense. When she started going on about divorced or widowed parents remarrying again, she was grasping at straws. How her example relates to the love triangle in TID? Clare wanted us to believe that Tessa loved Will and Jem equally at the same time, right? So her example just doesn't apply.

[Jeni]

Exactly, Mika. Someone on another thread said that having them all live together in an open relationship would have been easier to accept than the ending she chose to publish, which I thought was an interesting comment.

Having to justify your ending means it was too weak to stand on its own.

[Rachel]

Wow you tell her Cassie Clare! I loved the ending because I never picked a team. I try to be content with stories and not complain and get upset over them too much. Overanalysis makes my head hurt.

[Nurlely]

Mika wrote: "When she started going on about divorced or widowed parents remarrying again, she was grasping at straws. How her example relates to the love triangle in TID? Clare wanted us to believe that Tessa loved Will and Jem equally at the same time, right? So her example just doesn't apply. "

Her explanation did make some people happy. It was quite funny though, because 'not move on' was never the problem. It was the love triangle, the equal love that was written poorly.

Ms Clare's equal love started and ended up at Tessa & Jem's bed scene. If Tessa was torn between Jem & Will after that, it would at least give me a convincing love triangle plot. But Tessa was so devastated afterward, so in pain. Her answer for Jem's proposal was more of a calculated answer rather than loved one. One given after considering many positive and negative aspects. With Will, she was always ready to give her all.

[Rae]

Wow, my thoughts exactly. Clare has, once again, astounded me! Well said.

[Jordan]

I agree with a lot of previous posters. The ending was too fairy-tale-let's-all-live-happily-ever-after. This is my opinion because Jem and Tessa just didn't mesh well. Everything she did seemed to be out of pity, even though she thought he was a wonderful person and beautiful in his own way, it just wasn't passionate like her and Will. And I don't have a team, I would've rather had Jem come back and found someone else than end up with Tessa. Feels like she's only with him now because that's all she has left, besides Magnus.
Jem should've died or it should've been better explained.

[Marcia]

I loved Will Herondale with all my heart. And I loved Jem and Tessa, too. More beautiful and brave characters, I could never have asked for. For me, the ending was perfect beyond belief. I was so happy that Cassandra Clare dared to go there, instead of taking the easy way out, and that she made it utterly right to do so. (And anyone who thinks Tessa didn't suffer greatly during her life wasn't paying attention, yet her nobility and courage always rose to the fore. She deserved this completely.)

I think Cassandra Clare's comments make it abundantly clear that this ending is exactly where the story was heading all along. In retrospect, every single line points to, and upholds, this ending.

And of course it was the right ending. Why? Because it is Cassandra Clare's story. Her concept, her idea, and her execution. Writing a book is not a committee exercise, and only the author knows where the story is going. You go along for the ride. You like it or you don't. But you don't get a vote in how it turns out. And if you are reading with an open mind and truly listening to what the author is saying, instead of making up your own story in your head, you'll usually understand what happens, and why.

If it isn't the kind of ending you enjoy, so be it. Perhaps you need to write a book yourself, expressing your idea of what love is or isn't, and how an ending should go. With any luck, maybe it will be as good as the one Cassandra Clare wrote, and we will all enjoy it. (I'm serious, here. Go for it.)

The only time I am really bothered by an ending is when I think the author told us one thing about a character, and then had them do something completely different. But in this case, we were told repeatedly how much Tessa loved both boys, how much they loved her, and how much they loved each other. In fact, the love between Will and Jem was one of the most powerful, and pure, and beautiful things I've ever seen. Every line of the ending upholds that love and honors the spirit of all three characters.

And where is it written that there is only one kind of love, one way to love a man, and only one man allotted in a lifetime? Most of us have loved more than one man, and we sure haven't been around as long as Tessa, nor spent as long alone, with no real hope of loving again. Who would be so selfish as to deny her another chance? I can't imagine.

Instead of arguing about how the story ends, maybe it would be good to go back and read it again, and really think about what Cassandra Clare was telling you from the very beginning. It was all there.

[[deleted user]]

Nurlely wrote: "Cassie's answers would have been so good if the equal love story is convincing enough, if the facts are loud and clear in the story itself, if the last book doesn't contradict the previous books.

..."

No offence, but Clare is a bit unable to write about divided hearts. She always makes the girl fall completely for one of the guys (the sexy hot one), no matter if the stuff she's working on is a love triangle, where it's supposed we have ''split love''. For me, the TID triangle was one of the worse-written love triangles.
I do no say it hatefully, by the way. It's just the impression I have for these books.

[Jonah]

Wait, I didn't understand. Did you like the epilogue or not? Well, I like it. When I had read some spoilers about the epilogue, I thought that Tessa was mean because she 'got' Jem after her life with Will. Like, she waited for Will to die to to get Jem. But, then I read the epilogue and I changed my mind, as I understood that she had cried for Will so many times and poor gilr had almost forgotten what it is to love someone. OK, I was sad for her. And I also understood that Tessa still loved Jem, despite her life with Will. So, I stopped considering her a 'sl*t' because she 'got' Jem and went to travel together. But, well, I hadn't thought that she had to choose one, I liked that even if she chose Will to have a family with him, she still loved Jem after so many years. Actually, I always thought CC's epilogues were too big and unneccesary, but I loved this one. It was full of emotion.

[Marcia]

Jonah wrote: "Wait, I didn't understand. Did you like the epilogue or not? Well, I like it. When I had read some spoilers about the epilogue, I thought that Tessa was mean because she 'got' Jem after her life wi..."

I'm with you! I loved it, through and through.

[[deleted user]]

Well, I liked the epilogue, because both guys can be happy with Tessa. That what I didn't like was the whole love thing, because Tessa in all three books looked like she was fallen for Will only.

[Jonah]

Yeah, it was like she started liking Jem only when Will turned her down.

[[deleted user]]

In Clockwork Prince? Still there, Tessa seemed to love Will most. She was always thinking of Will while with Jem, but never thought of Jem while with Will.

[Jonah]

Yeah.

[[deleted user]]

I absolutely loved the ending to Clockwork Princess. I cried heaps but I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. She got to be with both of them. I like Jem but I miss Will so much and he was better for her.

[Jonah]

I just hope that her love for Jem didn't make her sad or "distant" during her years with her family. Although she must have thought of him in the back of her mind, beacuse if not it would be like she just saw Jem, she was feeeling alone and decided to tell him that he loves him.

[Nurlely]

Marisa wrote: "No offence, but Clare is a bit unable to write about divided hearts. She always makes the girl fall completely for one of the guys (the sexy hot one), no matter if the stuff she's working on is a love triangle, where it's supposed we have ''split love''. For me, the TID triangle was one of the worse-written love triangles.
I do no say it hatefully, by the way. It's just the impression I have for these books. "

None taken. The Epilogue was awful and for me, Cassie's vague 'explanation' only made things worse. To call it an explanation is indeed funny for she didn't even answer the question. She was asked about the unconvincing love between the Jem and Tessa. She totally dismissed the question by not even bother to explain to her fans of why she didn't write enough stories about Jem & Tessa and their lacking of passionate love. She said that she didn't want the story to be more Disney-like story but she wrote something in order to keep all fans happy, by giving a happy end to all her main characters. A cop-out end.
And why did she even dragged the Disney out of blue? Disney is way bigger than her.

[Nurlely]

Marisa wrote: "In Clockwork Prince? Still there, Tessa seemed to love Will most. She was always thinking of Will while with Jem, but never thought of Jem while with Will."

Yep. So true.
And suddenly, she was all about Will and Jem in the Epilogue. That she has been in love with them both. Equal love. Ridiculous. Tessa's confession even sent the message that her true love has always been Jem.
The Epilogue contradicts the story built in CA and CP.
I regret I ever read TID for it has the worst ending ever.

[[deleted user]]

I quite liked Clare's response. I agree 100% with what she said about female characters. Readers just like hating on the females. Not everyone, of course, but it seems the females are judged so much more harshly than the males.

Now, I'm not the biggest fan of Tessa. It has nothing to do with her choices or actions. I just didn't relate with her as much. If she was real, however, and I knew her, I'm sure I'd like her as a person. She just didn't fascinate me as a book character.

I like her, though.

Though I like Cecily a little more.

And I don't blame Tessa for choosing to be with Jem after Will's death. It was perfectly understandable. There was nothing morally wrong, unfaithful, or horrible about the decision. Will was dead. He had been dead for quite some time. Is Tessa expected to live out the rest of her never ending life alone and grieving over Will? No one should suffer that. Will would hate it himself if his wife spent the rest of her immortal life alone and miserable.

Jem and Will were, of course, beautiful characters. They were, to me, equally lovable. I couldn't choose between. So I don't blame Tessa for loving them equally and limitlessly.

But. The epilogue. I do agree that it wasn't the best. I loved Jem wholeheartedly, but I think, objectively, it would've been better if he had actually died. I was so, so sad when I thought he was dead, when we were reading about Will's reaction to the bond of parabatai being broken, but it was heartbreakingly beautiful, executed ever so flawlessly. I loved it at the same time as it made me want to cry for kind, loving, so very good Jem. In the real world, most things don't get a happily ever after. Jem's story was a tragic one, but a beautiful, heartbreakingly lovely tragedy, and it should have actually ended with his death, in my opinion. It would've felt so much more realistic to me.

But I'm not complaining, because Cassandra Clare is the writer and she is a wonderful one at that, and the story was lovely nevertheless, and it is she who knows the story best and she ultimately gets to decide.

[Bonia]

i love the ending. everybody deserves to be happy and being alone in the immortal life must've been horrible. jem is the first one who asked tessa to marry him anyway. even when i know will is her first love,,, i dont mean to be rude but he's dead, long dead. she cant grief forever. i think CC's idea is brilliant.

[Roderick]

No story is perfect, when I first read it, I very much enjoyed it and still do, but honestly...Tessa could be better and we know it, I just can't change my thoughts on it its a good book all around but sadly...its written by a woman that will always be considered a joke to us who know what she really is!

[Courtney Lee]

I don't mind the fact that Tessa ended up with both guys in the end. The only problem I have with the epilogue was the fact that Cassie described Will's death so graphically and then suddenly putting Tessa and Jem together. It just seemed inconsiderate to the Will fans out there. Yes Tessa does deserve and have the right to move on and fall in love again but to have Will's death and Jem and Tessa get together described in the same few pages is maybe what have so may book fans angry or disappointed. It left me disappointed. I was bawling my eyes out when Will's death was described and then I read Jem and Tessa getting together and that just felt inconsiderate because it didn't feel like a 100 years went by.

anyway I still love TID and always will and I liked the ending but not the way it was presented to us.

[Courtney Lee]

Sandra wrote: "♥Courtney♥ Ƨнα∂σωκιƨƨɛ∂4ɛʌɛя ♊ wrote: "I don't mind the fact that Tessa ended up with both guys in the end. The only problem I have with the epilogue was the fact that Cassie described Will's death..."

Exactly! glad someone agrees. I honestly didn't care who she ended up with because I loved bother men but because of the contents of the epilogue and how even though so much time has past, it didn't feel that way. It was only the epilogue that disappointed me though. The rest of the book and series was amazing. So when I do re-read this series in the future I think I won't read the epilogue. The first time I read it I was an emotional wreck and I don't feel like doing that again. It hurts too much. lol