The Lightwoods family disfunction. Izzy lightwood. Part one

( please be aware that this post contains a discussion around family trauma and eating disorders)

I have written about the lightwood being a dysfunctional family even in a Fantasy show and this show during its run on free-to-air TV in the USA and now on Netflix ( depending on the country and if you have access to a Vpn (a virtual private network). It didn't shy away from talking about difficult real-world issues. Such as Addiction, Same-sex relationships, politics, and even trauma.

Izzy Lightwood her full name is Isabelle Sophia Lightwood, is the youngest of the genetically related lightwood family, siblings. They also have Alec (Alexander Gideon lightwood) Max lightwood and Jace that is Adopted into the family at the age of 10 and become Alec's Parabaiti.

 However, this series will focus on the show character played wonderfully by, Emeraude Toubia

 Emeraude Toubia - Wikipedia 

Her character in the show about the lightwood being a dysfunctional family is that she fits into both the "troublemaker," and the Adult caretaker at times.  We see her being the perceived troublemaker in the show in the way that she conducts her relationships with the downworlders.

  As this clip show's that Alec generally knows about it but can't do much about it as they find the information quite useful in the search for the relics/or person they are looking for and in later seasons being in that they can provide information to the downworlders council meetings that Alec holds to improve relationships with the Down world. As the shadow hunters are supposed to look out for the Down worlders but don't seem to do a very good job of it at times. 

However, we see that when she protects Alec as she makes the decision to grow up and not be a distraction we see her put the party clothes away.  In a way of protecting Alec as she knows beyond carrying a lot of responsibility why he isn't happy with himself, this being that he is still closeted in the first series, hence the line from Izzy about being repressed. In the progression of the show in the 3rd series, we see a flashback of Izzy in Jace's mind and we see alec talk about not wanting to go through we the Parabaiti ceremony and we see that Izzy mention the only time they call it off is when one falls in love with the other person.   

 

In the progression of the first series we see that there was a plan to get a ring into the institute, this is where the Shadowhunters live and work.  We see the institute being very well-resourced and see Izzy working on what is revealed to be an experiment from Valentine.  Then we hear protecting Alec as this is forsaken and he is wounded.  We see this bond play out more deeply in the second series when Alec becomes a lot more true to himself. 

In this clip, we see Izzy struggle with the consequences of an unsanctioned mission she is on trial and this trial is a kangaroo court. As they are all still looking for the mortal cup, Clary has taken off with it and this is the start of the fallout from the family protecting her and it is her that brings the trauma that has been hidden to the surface. They start to talk about self-respect and esteem something that we see Alec and Izzy struggle with due to their absent parents and Hodge their tutor not being present this is a direct deviation from the show.   Both Alec and Izzy are trying to save the family image and this is important for dysfunctional family's to keep up the image that everything is ok instead of asking for help from friends and family and being authentic to those around you.

In this clip, we see that Izzy is at the top of her game and is the Adult caretaker of her brother this is a great scene showing their relationship and how they try to look out for each other but have their blind spots as well. As Alec is better with his bow and arrow than at hand-to-hand fighting.  We see her being confident in herself and how she carries herself yet we do see her use the fact that she is an attractive female as a weapon.  This is actually a time-honored tradition within even real-world intelligence gathering. Women in World War II - Wikipedia  This is exactly what they are doing in this clip, seeing that in this episode they were searching for information about Valentine's plan as he had the mortal cup a cup that has the power to summon demons and to make new Shadowhunter's and this is why they are looking at the gyms as Valentine needs fit people to be able to make the ascension to Shadowhunter. 

We see this obsession with body image and fitness play out in each of the Shadowhunter and it is highlighted with Izzy this is a hallmark of trauma having issues with body image and self-acceptance. Family Involvement - The Role of Family in Eating Disorders (eatingdisorderhope.com)

However, we see that when she protects Alec as she makes the decision to grow up and not be a distraction we see her put the party clothes away.  In a way of protecting Alec as she knows beyond carrying a lot of responsibility why he isn't happy with himself, this being that he is still closeted in the first series, hence the line from Izzy about being repressed. 

Over the arc of the show's run, we see this relationship between Alec and Izzy become more complicated as they keep secrets from each other as don't know who to trust even within their own family. As they don't really communicate as a family, and in any family healthy communication and trust are important as is having your family is a safe place to land growing up we can see that they grew up during a time called the "uprising," where Valentine leads a breakaway group from the clave called the circle. ( I will do a blog post on the clave and the circle and its relationship to real historical events.)

The episodes that this clip comes from ( Day of wrath) are heartbreaking as it shows the reality of the world that the Shadowhunters live in and why they have an obsession with fitness and being able to protect themselves from demons as if they can't protect themselves from the demons how can they protect the mundane world.   This demon feeds on negative emotions and we see Izzy talking about how Alec is the favorite child yet in reality we do see that Jace actually was the favorite child.  Yet we see that Alec is still protecting Izzy as it is his responsibility to do so and we see him start to form healthy attachments to his siblings that become increasingly unhealthy as he struggles with his mental health in the second series.