History Characters / TheShadowhunterChroniclesMainCharacters

* Cloudcuckoolander: Occasionally tilts towards this, since he's spent an unknown amount of time in Faerie and doesn't have a strong grasp on how to act in Shadowhunter or mundane society.

!!Alexander "Alec" Gideon Lightwood [[spoiler:-Bane]]

!!Alexander "Alec" Gideon Lightwood-Bane

!!James "Jem" Carstairs / Ke Jian Ming / Brother Zachariah

* BigBrotherInstinct: He takes his job as the eldest Lightwood sibling very seriously and displays a protectiveness over his friends. He is the oldest of the teenage cast and turns eighteen after the first book, making him legally an 'adult' and increasing his sense of responsibility for the others.

* HollywoodNerd: He is a shy, awkward, D&D-loving nerd who can't get Clary to notice that he's in love with her (and is eventually rejected in favor of the dashing hero Jace.) In the film he is played by the ''gorgeous'' Creator/RobertSheehan.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: His hair is described as silver. This is a side effect of the yin fen; before he took the drug, his hair was black. When he is turned into a Silent Brother, his hair goes back to black, albeit with a thin silver streak.

* OutnumberedSibling: She grew up with two brothers and Jace.

* SkunkStripe: After he becomes a Silent Brother, Jem's hair mostly turns to its original black color, but some of its streaks remain white, a legacy of his years-long DiseaseBleach.

%% * {{Megane}}: Although [[spoiler: he doesn't need his glasses after he gets Turned.]]

* TheConfidant: She confides in her mother, Maryse about the problems in her parents' marriage.

* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Clary is often almost insanely self-absorbed. Even though she is unconcerned about things like popularity, she can be rather spectacularly heedless of other people's feelings, tends to jump into dangerous situations without thinking about it and will do whatever she wants even if it literally results in endangering the entire world. Luke calls her out on it one time, [[spoiler: when she tries to blindly Portal to Idris]] and she is shocked because he has never chastised her before.

** In ''City of Bones'', [[spoiler:she falls in love with Jace, who turns out to be her brother]].
** [[spoiler:Subverted. They end up not related]]. [[spoiler:She ends up with Jace, though only after meeting and kissing a boy she finds out is her REAL brother. Oops.]]
** In ''City Of Lost Souls'' [[spoiler:Sebastian/Johnathan is shown to actually want her, backing her up against a wall and forcefully kissing her, while going on about how they can be evil and rule the world together]].

* FieryRedhead: Clary is easily upset and often lashes out at people.
* FishOutOfWater: Clary is not a hardened Shadowhunter or a Downworlder like the rest of the cast, at least at first. She jumps right on the mundie racism bandwagon rather disturbingly fast, though.

* AuthorAvatar: It's probably not a coincidence that the heroine is named Clary while the author's name is Cassandra ''Clare'', which would [[BrotherSisterIncest result in some interesting implications if Cassandra Clare has a brother]]. (It's worth noting, however, that Cassandra Clare is just a penname -- the author's real name is Judith Rumelt.) Clare has stated when asked by a fan "What kind of a name is Clary?" that she was named after a friend, whose full name is Clarissa, much like the Clary in the books. The only real similarities seem to be red hair (though Cassie also states that she imagined Clary's a much darker shade) and the first four letters of their names.

** He himself is hit by this when he starts dating Maia and Isabelle, who he describes as a 'steady candle' and 'burning star' respectively. [[spoiler: They both break up with him, but he gets back together with Isabelle.]]

* BloodLust: [[spoiler: After he becomes a vampire, he needs blood. Badly. After he is imprisoned by Inquisitor Aldertree, the latter tries to starve him to death to find out the secret of his being able to walk in daylight.]]

* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: While his exact age is never given we know that he looks around nineteen and has to be older than two hundred and younger than seven hundred. Historically speaking (and given that Camille wasn't lying about his ancestry) he can't be much older than three hundred years old. In The Mortal Instruments books he is implied to be lying about his age (telling Alec that he's eight hundred years old) while The Bane Chronicles flat out state that he lies about it whenever it suits him. He eventually admits to being around four hundred.

* MoreThanMindControl: Since he was 13, James has been partly mind controlled by Grace, who used her family bracelet to make him fall in love with her. He is still able to act independently, but all of his attention is instantly focused on Grace whenever she appears.

* DeadGuyJunior: Though Jem merely became a Silent Brother, Will and Tessa nevertheless honored him by naming their first child after him.

* MixedAncestry: Being a warlocks he is half-demon half-human.

%% * CassandraTruth: [[spoiler: The existence of demon pox.]]

%%* DarkAndTroubledPast: Or at least, he alludes to one quite often.

--> '''Will''': There was a time when I thought I was a ferret, but that turned out to be the [[OpiumDen opium haze]]. Did you know it had that effect? 'Cause I didn't.

* EmoTeen: According to fans. He even lampshades it himself at times.
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: De Quincy and Magnus Bane both hint at this about him.
* {{Expy}}: Of the Fanfic/DracoTrilogy version of [[Literature/HarryPotter Draco Malfoy]] .
%% * {{Foil}}: To Jem.
%% * TheGamblingAddict
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Jem. So much that even though both boys love Tessa, they are willing to let the other one have her and even if Jem died after marrying Tessa, Will would never pursue Tessa as he feels it would be a betrayal to his friend.
* HiddenHeartOfGold: [[spoiler: It's to stop people from caring about him too much - because of his curse, they'll wind up dead eventually. After he finds out that there is no curse, he mellows down.]]
* HollywoodAtheist: [[GratuitousLatin Pulvis et umbra sumus.]] For those who don't read Horace, that means "we are dust and shadows," pretty much said by Will to be what he believes in.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: [[spoiler:Pulls this for ''both'' Tessa and Jem when they announce their engagement.]]
* ISeeDeadPeople: Confirmed in the first chapter of ''The Clockwork Prince'' to be one of the few Shadowhunters that can.

* OddFriendship: With Jem - Will is a rude asshole and Jem is a kindhearted nice guy. They even ''look'' absolutely different: Jem is all white and silver and Will is all dark colors.
* PlayingDrunk: [[spoiler:Jem says it's to make himself look bad. It is revealed in ''The Clockwork Prince'' [[CartwrightCurse why]].]]

* WhatBeautifulEyes: His dark blue eyes are one of his most striking features. Magnus' fixation on Alec's blue eyes are in fact rooted in his previous fixation on Will's. It's later revealed that this is not a coincidence, as one of Alec's ancestors is Cecily Herondale, Will's similarly dark blue-eyed younger sister.

* ButNotTooForeign: His father is English, while his mother is Chinese. Other than James Carstairs, he also has a Chinese name: Ke Jian Ming, though this is only mentioned once or twice.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: A demon who had a grudge against his mother tortured him in front of his parents, injecting him over and over with a drug that made him hallucinate vividly. See SoapOperaDisease.

* DiseaseBleach: Turns out it's because of a demonic halluginogenic drug originally used to torture him as a child. Same goes for his eyes. His hair reverts back to black after he turns into a Silent Brother. And when he stops being a Brother, it's revealed that his eyes turn brown as well.

* {{Expy}}: Of the Fanfic/DracoTrilogy version of [[Literature/HarryPotter Harry Potter]].

* FullNameUltimatum: A partial version of this trope; Will is the only one to call him "James", although it is a mark of affection more than anything.

* ICantBelieveAGuyLikeYouWouldNoticeMe: To Tessa, after she accepts his proposal.

* InterspeciesRomance: With Tessa.

* KindheartedCatLover: When he adopts Church.

* MoralityPet: For Will.

** It's revealed that after he is relieved of his Silent Brother duties, he considers raising his 12-year-old distant cousin, Emma, whose parents both died during the Dark War, but his search for the Lost Herondale, combined with Emma's own decision to stay with the Blackthorns in Los Angeles, dashes the plan. Ultimately, he becomes more of a brother than a father to her.

%% * TheSmartGuy of the FiveManBand

* PromotedToParent: She helps Julian take care of his younger siblings after the Dark War, being the only person who is his age.

* BigDamnHeroes: In ''City of Glass'', he saves Clary from being killed by Valentine. [[spoiler:Valentine then proceeds to kill Jace seconds after he gives his WorldOfCardboardSpeech]].

* ChronicHeroSyndrome: According to Jessamine, Will thinks he's [[KingArthur Galahad]]. And it's true.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Or at least, he alludes to one quite often.

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: She is in love with James, who is in love with Grace (albeit [[CharmPerson not entirely of his own volition]]). The family tree seen in ''Clockwork Princess'' indicates that Cordelia would eventually marry James, though Cassandra Clare has stated that the tree is not entirely reliable. In ''Chain of Gold'', there are hints that James is beginning to requite her feelings, but he is currently focused on Grace at the moment.

* FieryRedhead: Worth noting that she inherited her red hair from her Persian mother, not her English father (who is blond). Anna questions how she can be a redhead, since she thought of Persians as being mostly dark-haired, only for Cordelia to retort that not all non-Europeans are dark-haired.

* PuppyLove: He was 13 when he fell in love with Grace. It is later revealed that his love was fabricated; while he does care for her, James only started loving Grace after she made him wear the Cartwright bracelet, which enabled her to use her charm on him.

* CompellingVoice: Other than seeing ghosts that ordinary Herondales can't see, she can compel them to do anything she wants.