Hi again! Hope you have been taking care of yourself.
As you know, I hold no love for the books the tv show is based on (i.e. I haven't read them and I don't plan to read them and some of the things I have found out about the differences between book plot and show plot have *really* turned me off the books).
However, sometimes I do google some things that aren't explained in the show (the show did very little of explaining and details and all that).
Anyway, I was looking a little more into shadowhunter history (when/how did they come into existence, etc.), and the shadowhunters wiki page gave me this:
Before becoming the first of his kind, Jonathan (Shadowhunter) was a Crusader born in the 11th Century. It was during this time that demons were swarming into Earth from the Void. On his way to Constantinople, he asked a warlock to summon the angel Raziel to Lake Lyn. When Raziel arrived, Jonathan begged him to mix his blood in a cup with that of man to create a race of demon fighters.
So, the first shadowhunter only came into existence because a *warlock* summoned an angel. Johnathan wasn't chosen by the angels. The angels didn't themselves choose a human to make their champion.
Instead, the human Johnathan Shadowhunter was likely friends with a warlock, knew about and could see the demons that were overrunning the world (which his warlock friend and other downworlder were likely fighting, because shadowhunters didn't exist until then and that leaves only downworlders to stand against humanity and a demonic threat), and then with the warlock's help, Johnathan became a nephilim, so that he could help the warlock and other downworlders fight back the demons.
So that could be used to mean, that nephilim and downworlders (and maybe warlocks in particular) were *always* meant to fight together.
And then I took that thought an ran with it, and came up with this:
The angelic runes were supposed to be given/applied to the shadowhunter by a warlock. (preferably their partner)
Just like the shadowhunter is able to power the warlock with their energy (like in the episode where Alec helped Magnus heal Luke)
Like, listen. When the shadowhunters use their steles to write the runes on their skin, it burns them. It hurts.
And maybe that's because they aren't doing it the way it's supposed to be done. Shadowhunters and warlocks were supposed to be partners. To fight and stand together. There was supposed to be a bond. (though unbonded warlocks could give unbonded shadowhunters runes as well, but those weren't as long lasting or powerful, maybe)
But at some point, the nephilim discovered that they could supplement the warlocks magic with an angelic metal (from which they created their steles.)
Like, Valentine would hardly be the first bigoted, hateful racist in shadowhunter circles, and maybe back then, someone like him was more successful in turning around the minds of the other nephilim.
Let a few decades/centuries pass, and anyone who would have known about this has died.
And if we take this further, we can also take a shot at the parabatai bond. Parabatai are supposed to be better fighters together, and the runes that are applied/activated by the parabatai are supposed to be stronger. And MAYBE that's because the parabatai bond is a pale imitation of what was supposed to be. The bond between shadowhunter and warlock. And the runes yearn for that kind of bond, for what it was supposed to be. The parabatai is the closest they can get, but it's not right, and the runes know that. Which is why there is the undesirable sideeffect of shared pain between the pair, which can spell the doom of both, should one get wounded badly enough.
Of course, this is just my rambling mind. But from my incredibly biased ( ;-) ) viewpoint, it makes wonderful sense.
And it could of course be worked out further. Like maybe not all shadowhunters bonded with warlocks, but other downworlders like seelies, werewolves or vamps. And runes could be applied by any warlock, but if not between a bonded pair, those runes only lasted a day before they needed to be redone, or something. Like, the shadow world was united, before it became split into nephilim and downworlders.
Now imagine Alec and Magnus finding all of this out...
