We all fear the things we can't see.
Whether it's that thing you swear you saw out of the corner of your eye, or when your vision gets blurry and you can't quite make out what's in front of you. The things we don't know about scare us. It makes us uncertain about what's about to happen next. After all, there's a chance that whatever it is might hurt us, and no one wants that. We prefer to feel safe. Secure in the knowledge that we aren't in any danger, so we can relax and enjoy ourselves. But the problem is we're never entirely sure how safe we actually are. Which makes us turn around at the slightest noise, just in case we have to run from it.
One of the most persistent fears that most people have is of the dark. The dark obscures our ability to see what's around us. To know with certainty that something isn't going to jump out at us. It's why we prefer living in the light. It provides us with this certainty. But no matter how much we try, the dark is always right around the corner. Waiting for the perfect opportunity to scare us into running away. So much so that we invent all kinds of ideas about what's in the dark to justify the fear we have of it. Things like vampires and demons and all kinds of shadow monsters which live in those dark spaces to make us afraid.
In doing so however, we hide ourselves away from the things within it which might be worth exploring. All those dark places we try to avoid could have something to teach us if we were willing to walk within it. Once we see that the dark places don't necessarily have to scare us, we can stop being afraid of them. Stop running and hiding from the things which scare us. Perhaps even find a way to fight back against those things and become better people. There's no way to know that until we actually do it however. Until that point, all we'll ever be is afraid.
Shadowhunters is fundamentally about what lies within the darkness. About seeing the world you're not willing to explore. Not to run away, but to stand within it and know that it's there. Clary Fray, as played by Katherine McNamara, is the perfect embodiment of this idea. For so long, she's been hidden from the things that those around her see. The demons and vampires and other scary things that live within the darkness most people don't really see. Yet when she's confronted with the realization that there's a whole other world going on around her, she doesn't shy away from it.
She doesn't view this shadow realm as dark and worthy of running away from. She embraces it, even though she doesn't understand most of what goes on. Because if she were to try and avoid it, there'd be consequences for her and the people she loves. They could get hurt, or they could hurt her. So instead she finds a way to draw strength from the darkness. To see it for what it is rather than the scary things she worries it might be.
And it's hard to argue she doesn't become a better person because of it.
Check out Shadowhunters and explore the darkness instead of running away.
You can find it on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon as well as Freeform.