A reader scorned

So, earlier Cassie Clare reblogged someone who wrote an "essay" (not a formal one, obviously; it's Tumblr) about why she ships Jem/Tessa and Jace/Clary at the same time. Now, I'm not going to lie, I'm a little bitter that she reblogged this Jem/Tessa shipper for her "thought-out" essay or whatever, while my [in all honesty] better-written, Will/Tessa-shipping ones sit ignored. But that's not what this is about. I actually agree that it is possible to ship Jem/Tessa and Jace/Clary, because the love triangles in which they are involved are nothing alike. It is not necessarily true that you must ship Will and Tessa if you ship Jace and Clary simply because Tessa and Clary are the main characters, and Will and Jace are the edgy Herondale boys with lots of angst.

Something to keep in mind: I never shipped Simon/Clary. I thought it was awkward. But I haven't always shipped Will/Tessa either. I knew I loved Will, but Jem intrigued me to the point where I was ambivalent about which choice Tessa should make. Until Clockwork Prince.

However, I don't really think it's useful to point out that shipping Jem/Tessa is possible even if you ship Jace/Clary. First of all, everyone ships Jace/Clary. If everyone who shipped Jace/Clary shipped Jem/Tessa, that would mean Jem is the more obvious choice-- which is kind of the whole problem with the TID love triangle. There is no obvious choice, because no matter what happens they're all going to get hurt. Also, Tessa and Clary are actually not that much alike. Neither, in fact, are Will and Jace, though they do have similarities. I think it's important to believe in couples based on their actual relationships, and not based on their comparisons with other couples. By which I mean that saying you ship Jem/Tessa because Jem and Tessa are friends and know each other pretty well is pretty short-sighted, and in my opinion a little incorrect. Will knows Tessa. Knows her enough to see that writing an apology of sorts in one of her favorite books will make her come around to him; knows and understands when she still loves Nate even after everything he's done; knows her enough to differentiate between when she can stand up for herself and when she needs his help. Jem does say that Tessa won't break, but he still often treats her like she will. He's never in favor of letting her do things that put her in danger, even when they're important to her. Will understands that when something is important to Tessa, it's better to help her than to try to stop her. And yet, I agree that there are a lot of things Jem and Tessa know about each other that Will doesn't. That even makes me ship Will/Tessa more, because I don't really buy into the notion that a better friendship always leads to a better relationship. Tessa loves Jem because of the things she knows about him, but she loves Will despite all the good things she doesn't yet know about him. Now that she has the chance to learn what kind of person he really is-- and she has already begun, based on how he agreed to suffer in silence so that Jem could be happy-- she'll see that he's actually just as good a person as Jem is, and that can only make her love him more. He won't always have to be the mysterious, angsty Will Herondale who pushes people away.

I ship Will/Tessa because, to me, they are equals in their relationship. They can stand not only side-by-side, but toe-to-toe as well [see picture above, for instance]. People seem to be under the impression that Will only loves Tessa because of the things she wrote in her letters, which is not true. Although they are a part of it-- and I will point out that they were letters she never thought anyone would see, so she was free to be her true self, and he loves that Tessa as well as the external Tessa-- he loves her because of who she is. He says he fell in love with her almost the moment he met her. Not love at first sight, but not love that only came from her letters either. He loves her because she is passionate, she genuinely cares about people, and she makes him laugh [which is pretty difficult for anyone except Will himself to do]. He loves who she is, just as Jem does. But Jem and Tessa do not seem like equals in their relationship, because they are always so eager to take care of each other (Jem with the over-concern every time Tessa does something dangerous, Tessa with the agreeing to marry Jem to make him happy). It seems like one of them is always standing behind the other, rather than side-by-side [again, see picture above]. Which is fine, but there has to be more. They can't be afraid to disagree or yell or argue with each other. Yes, they have passion and are obviously attracted to one another, but Jem loves Tessa so much that he actually believes his love for her is keeping him alive, while Tessa is completely torn between him and Will. She has chosen, but only* because she was under the totally reasonable impression that being with Will was not a possibility. She mentally chastises herself every time she thinks of Will-- but still she thinks of him. It's not possible or fair (to anyone) to ignore that, just because Jem is the more pragmatic choice.

The big question is really who Tessa loves more, to which I believe the answer is Will. If she truly loved Jem more, this triangle wouldn't be quite such a big problem, would it? She wouldn't be burning herself on fire stokers or sneaking glances at Will or wondering about who he really is. She might be pained by Will's pain, but she wouldn't torture herself over it.

To sum up:

Will/Tessa-- shared interests, side-by-side, make each other laugh, still more good things to learn, and I'm not going to lie: the angst does make it more romantic, at least in my opinion.
Jem/Tessa-- friends, deep affection for each other, happy together, but they stand behind each other (which is not always good).

* I say "only" not to minimize Tessa's feelings for Jem by insisting that she only picked him because she couldn't have Will, but to point out that she probably would not yet have chosen either of them if she had actually thought she could be with Will.