Michael Wayland/Robert Lightwood

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Pairing
Pairing: Robert Lightwood/Michael Wayland
Alternative name(s): Waywood, Lightland
Gender category: M/M
Fandom: The Mortal Instruments
Canonical?: Partially, open to interpretation
Prevalence: uncommon
Archives:
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Robert Lightwood/Michael Wayland aka Waywood is a pairing in the The Mortal Instruments fandom composed of Robert Lightwood and his long dead parabatai Michael Wayland.

Canon

Spoiler Warning: This article or section may contain spoilers. If this bothers you, proceed with caution.

Robert and Michael are both minor characters so their aparisons are limited, and Michael died years before the events of The Mortal Instruments and The Dark Artifices, but their backstory together is pretty complete.

They were childhood friends and then parabatai for several years, with Michael being secretly in love with Robert during that time. They joined The Circle of Raziel and due to complications including Robert's relationship with Maryse and Valentine's maquinations, Michael confesses his love to Robert, who reacts with shock and horror. They become distant by Robert's wish and eventually both get married with their girlfriends. Years later, Michael is murdered by Valentine, who steals his identity, and Robert adopts Valentine's foster son believing he was Michael's son, all according Valentine's plan.

Robert's story with Michael notoriously leads to him to not take well his son Alec being in a relationship with a man. Once that issue is developed, Robert wishes for his grandson to be named Michael, and indeed Max Lightwood-Bane gets Michael as his middle name. After Robert is killed in The Dark Artifices, Michael's ghost visits his funeral and cries over his pyre.

Timeline of Canon Content

  • March 27, 2007: Release of City of Bones, first TMI novel, where Robert and Michael are first mentioned.
  • December 17, 2013: Release of The Last Stand of The New York Institute, ninth TBC novella, featuring Michael's first appearance, as a Circle member along with Robert, taking place in the past.
  • May 27, 2014: Release of City of Heavenly Fire, sixth TMI novel, where Michael's romantic feelings for Robert are revealed and their backstory partially explained as the motivator behind Robert's treatment of Alec regarding his sexuality.
  • June 16, 2015: Release of The Evil We Love, fifth TFTSA novella, centered around Robert's characterization and development, explaining the details of his backstory with Michael via detailed flashbacks.
  • October 20, 2015: Release of Born to Endless Night, ninth TFTSA novella, where Robert expresses his wish for his grandson (Malec's first child) to be named Michael.
  • May 23, 2017: Release of Lord of Shadows, second TDA novel, where Robert is killed by Annabel Blackthorn.
  • October 9, 2018: Release of The Land I Lost, seventh GOTSM novella, where it's revealed that Robert's grandchild was fully named as Max Michael Lightwood-Bane, and Robert calls him M&M.
  • December 4, 2018: Release of Queen of Air and Darkness, third TDA novel, where Robert's funeral takes place and Michael's ghost shows up to cry over him.
  • December 13, 2022: Release of the TMI graphic novel vol. 6, adaptation of the second half of City of Glass with artwork by Cassandra Jean, who added the detail of Robert under the effect of the rune that makes people see their most beloved one, and he sees Michael.

Canonicity Argumentation

Canon has that Robert and Michael were never romantically together while alive, since the universe lore makes it impossible for parabatai to be together. The arguments on the pairing canonicity centers around Robert reciprocating Michael's romantic love.

A screenshot of a private ask reply[1] shared by CJFritos shows author Cassandra Clare affirming "It's left deliberately open for you to make your own decisions about Robert's feelings."

As of volume 6, the graphic novel adaptation of The Mortal Instruments has Michael as the one Robert loved the most, but its worth as canon material is uncertain.

Fandom

Spoiler Warning: This article or section may contain spoilers. If this bothers you, proceed with caution.

History

Pre COHF

BNF Cassandra Jean is credited as the creator of the pairing. The origin of Waywood is traced to May 14, 2013, when CJ posted her first Robert/Michael fanart, with the description "That looks awkward you guys, rumors are going to start! (because I have this thing where I imagine all parabati as being awfully close)" on her Tumblr and author Cassandra Clare reblogged it with the comment "VERY VERY CLOSE." The first person to refer to them as Waywood was probably unseelieprince ("zachariahcarstairs" at the time), by reblogging and tagging the art the same day. When CJ posted her second Robert/Michael fanart the day after, several people had gotten into the pairing by the fanarts only and collages with the arts were posted, mostly by unseelieprince.

Back then, the pairing was based on CJ's fanarts and headcanons elaborated based on the canon information of Michael being Robert's parabatai and therefore his best friend, together in the Circle, before being murdered. There was also expectation of getting canon content and possibly full canonicity through The Secret Treasons, which would be illustrated by Cassandra Jean, as she demonstrated intentions of at least trying to canonize the pairing the most she could.[2]

CJ posted more artworks the following months. The first piece of Waywood written fanwork was probably poetry[3] by alexander-vass from August 12, 2013. The first prose Waywood fanfiction was Embrasse-Moi by jemcar-staringatyou, from August 15, 2013. Early May 2014, author Cassandra Clare used the pairing name Waywood[4] when reblogging a CJ artwork that included dialogue written by her (therefore arguably semi-canon).

COHF

Once a romantic context between Michael and Robert was confirmed on page in the TMI series, many new people got access to the pairing, and better elaboration to the pairing fanon[5] could be done, but a more detailed canon timeline of the events around the Circle members was still lacking. Much more fanwork, around fanon interpretations, was produced.

The Evil We Love

The novellas from Tales from The Shadowhunter Academy didn't have as much reach within the TMI fandom as Cassandra Clare's serialized novels, but the impact on Waywood shippers was immediat. With a lot more insight on the canon relationship, much more solid thoughts and fanon could be formed. The canon timeline of the events surrounding the Circle was retconned and therefore all previous interpretations and attempts to recreate the sequence of events throught fanworks were jossed. However, due the flashbacks being from Robert's point of view, his feelings for Michael could be better examined, strengthening the argumentation of Robert reciprocating Michael's romantic feelings.

Lord of Shadows

The Waywood fandom got active once again after Robert's death in canon, with headcanons and fanworks now framed with the perspective of Robert finally reuniting with Michael, since spirits of the dead characters are a in universe/canon concept. Cassandra Jean's depiction of their reunion, reblogged by Cassandra Clare with the caption "Robert and Michael after Lord of Shadows," got over 9700 notes, as the most popular Waywood content ever posted. Cassandra Clare later reblogged it again to share the snippet[6] from Queen of Air and Darkness showing when Michael's spirit visited Robert's funeral.

Fanon and Headcanons

Two particular fanon patterns related to the characters' looks can be observed.

Although in TMI books Robert is a tall, big man with an overbearing presence, in a photograph from the teenage Circle days in City of Bones he is described as significantly shorter than his wife Maryse, and Cassandra Jean based on that her headcanon of Robert being shorter than Michael during their younger years. Then with The Evil We Love the Circle timeline was retconned, including the characters' ages through the development of their story and relationship, making Robert the tallest since the Circle days and jossing the previous artwork. It's noticeable that in both artworks depicting the Robert and Michael reuniting afterlife, Michael comments the fact of Robert now being the tallest between them.

The second is Michael being blond (and often straight-haired; he is canonically curly-haired) in some fanworks even though he was described as dark haired since his first mentions in City of Bones. That may be due some reasons: his Shadowhunters TV show version being blond and Michael being often remembered as the fake father of Jace Herondale (who is blond), but there is no book canon foundation.

Common Tropes in Fanworks

  • Canon Divergence AU rewriting the confession scene with Robert not reacting harshly to it.
  • Lake Lyn: depictions of when Robert and Michael sneaked out to skinny-dip in Lake Lyn.
  • Afterlife: depictions of Robert and Michael reunited after Robert's death.
  • Angst: depictions of Robert during or after The Mortal Instruments, mourning Michael's death and suffering for his mistakes, with deep regret themes.

Antis and Lack of Popularity

Even though the pairing is generally known in the TMI fandom due its canon foundations, its acceptance is reluctant at best. That can be connected to the strong character bashing of Robert Lightwood, predominantly done in fanworks by the Malec fandom; and the general incompatibility with Malec, the fandom OTP, due to Robert often being used as a straight up evil villain in Malec fanworks and Alec being the biological son of Robert and Maryse, making necessary for Robert to be or have been with his (ex-)wife so Alec can exist and have a family background.

Notably, even among Waywood shippers Michael is the preferred and beloved character, with the few fans who also love Robert being exceptions. That also contributes to make the pairing unappealing, since all canon content is centered on Robert's perspective, with Michael existing only first as a plot device and then as a motivator for Robert's actions.

Some antis are Michael fans who rather pair him with his wife, Eliza Rosewain.

Points made by antis focus on the problematic aspect of the pairing, referring to Robert's treatment of Michael after finding out about Michael's romantic feelings for him, or raising the issue of the Homophobic Gay trope in the interpretation of Robert as a non-straight man and pointing out how that can sound like using internalized homophobia as an excuse for harmful attitudes.

The pairing's origins can also be pointed out as an instance of Two White Guys.

Fanworks Examples

Fanfiction

Waywood fanfiction has been posted in multiple languages across multiple platforms including FanFiction.Net, Ao3, Tumblr, LiveJournal, Wattpad, DeviantArt, EFP, Nyah! Fanfiction and Spirit Fanfiction. Examples:

Spanish

Italian

Russian

Brazilian Portuguese

Polish

Indonesian

Fanart

Following the pairing's origins, fanart has always been the Waywood themed fanwork with more visibility, specially Cassandra Jean's, commonly used to represent the pairing, but over the years other artists contributed.

Cassandra Jean's Classics

As of 2023, CJ has deleted most of her old fanart from her tumblr, but they can still be seen through Cassandra Clare's reblogs or using the Wayback Machine.

Fanvids

Moodboards and Gifsets

Fanmixes

Meta

Other

Archives, Communities & Resources

References

  1. ^ CJFritos. So ummm...guys, posted to Shadowhunters Wiki on 8 January 2020. (Accessed 31 July 2022.)
  2. ^ Ask Reply on Cassandra Jean's Tumblr. Posted February 26, 2014 (Accessed July 31, 2022).
  3. ^ Just because I love them togheter by alexander-vass, Tumblr. Posted August 12, 2013 (Accessed July 31, 2022).
  4. ^ Waywood? Waywood! posted by Cassandra Clare on Tumblr, reblogging Cassandra Jean's post, May 1, 2014 (Accessed July 31, 2022).
  5. ^ Favorite things about Waywood. And Michael Wayland. by bravemercutio, Tumblr. Posted June 28, 2014 (Accessed July 31, 2022)
  6. ^ Robert and Michael after Lord of Shadows…damn you, CJ! posted on Cassandra Clare's Tumblr reblogging her own reblog of Cassandra Jean's post on March 1, 2018 (Accessed July 31, 2022).
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