Exploring Downworld

Cassie’s reply about Livvy staying dead for at least the first two books led a lot of us to believe she might be brought back in the last shadowhunter.

Again, the age discrepancy. Jules and Emma need to be 21.

Mason can jump off a cliff. But I also need the tea on what he did!

Aww..short Dru!

I’m sure not telling Alec about the necromancy is gnawing at Magnus.

I’m sorry Alec, but either the peace talk isn’t happening or something is going to go horribly wrong during it.

Sorry again, Alec, but Zara was just as bigoted as her father. She wasn’t an opportunist. That was more Manuel, I think.

I think Dru is pretty much over her crush on Jaime. “Don’t know what to feel” usually doesn’t tend towards the positive. Unless it’s a situation where she sees him again and is reminded of it again, so she falls back into it.

What made Livvy decide to come to Pandemonium? Had she been tailing Janus for a while?

Clace kissing like “it was going out of style”. A reference to Dominic Sherwood being in the Style music video??

Janus saying he’s “Jace Herondale” and he “has no other name”. Liar!

Janus using some faerie magic, perhaps?? Some charm from the Seelie Queen?

Covert mention of the Bred in the Bone novella. I assume Thule Emma is who Dru is talking about when she says people die when they cross over from Thule. Do we know why Janus hasn’t? Is it because he stays in Faerie most of the time? Is it his extra angel blood?

I really liked the Dru-Janus fight scene. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “now fall, isn’t that what angels do?” goes so hard!

Janus js gonna be so upset Ash saves Dru.

A standing ovation for “my dear”. Ash is SMOOTH!

I need to know why he’s taking her! Has Janus perhaps taught him that it’s okay to kidnap the girl you like?

I’m so sure Ty’s theoretical notes on how to get to Thule will become practical at some point. Maybe not in this book but definitely in the series. Also, can Ty do some magic? Is he looking into ways shadowhunters can learn some magic? Or is he talking about collaborating with those who can do magic while solving crimes?

Ty’s age should be 19. It says later that it’s been four years since the clave split so I’m just hoping this gets fixed in an edit.

Catarina seems to be clocking things FAST. Ty just glances over at where Livvy’s ghost is and she whips around. I feel like maybe Magnus has dropped some hints in the past four years. Or maybe Catarina’s warlock senses are kicking in. (Was she there when Ty fainted after Livvy went too far in GotSM? I can’t remember.)

So, Lucifer is showing up at some point. @dreadeves has a theory about Johnny being Lucifer and I love it. It just seems to fit. We don’t know anything about him and his origins. Johnny is described to be really resourceful but the way he died was too quick. Like, he didn’t even fight back. Like he was trying to die after he found out Rosemary died (we know from GotSM she died shortly before the events of Lady Midnight and there’s no way Johnny didn’t find out). Besides, Cassie’s kept him deeply shrouded in mystery for seemingly no reason at all. The only thing sort of giving me pause here is a scene in Red Scrolls of Magic where Johnny asks Magnus for an ointment to hide someone. I would imagine if he’s the all powerful Lucifer, he’d be able to come up with something better to hide Rosemary. I guess that leads me to think he would have been able to hide her better if he actually WAS lucifer?? So maybe he isn’t?? Maybe something happened which stripped him of his powers to an extent and once she died he’s now on a mission to get his powers back so he can begin his revenge arc.

Ty as a teacher at the Scholomance. I need that. (Weirdly the first thing I thought of was how Harry Potter should have chosen to be the DADA professor at Hogwarts, but chose instead to be a cop 😒. In that sense, I guess this is Ty’s chance to be a different kind of shadowhunter, something that he’s always wanted to be).

Classic Cassie Clare miscommunication moment with Livvy wanting to ask Ty why he has a picture of Cirenworth but not actually asking it. But also, Livvy, do you really need to ask?

Why does Livvy think she wouldn’t be safe outside the Scholomance?

It is a bit sad to see Livvy and Ty go from being able to talk about anything to Livvy being afraid to bring some things up. I guess necromancy will do that to you.

Dru’s character evolution 🤌🏽

I really like the moral dilemma we’re being presented in this series, especially because I don’t know the answer. Does everyone deserve a second chance? Can heinous bigots be rehabilitated? I’m very much on the fence about this but I’m excited to see how the series tackles this. And I’m excited to see Dru’s learning curve on the issue. ‘Cuz right now she’s being a little hypocritical.

Luke straight up changing the subject when asked if he would give Zara and Manuel a second chance. Intentional or something still to be edited? Because even when Dru asks again if they should let the Cohort rejoin nephilim society after the peace talks, he gives a vague non-answer, and then Jocelyn promptly interrupts. So clearly, this is Dru’s journey to go on, and none of the adults are going to be helpful.

Dru’s quip about fixing the door 😂.

Is Kit’s dream taking place in Thule? More evidence that Ty might be able to wield magic? It’ll be interesting if we see Ty performing magic before Kit in the series because we’ve all been expecting him to be the more magical one cuz of the fae heritage.

This paragraph is written a bit weird, to me. There are two references to the sword and I feel like they’re disjointed. It should have been one line at the end maybe? Or are there two swords?

15. I felt Jem’s response to Kit telling him about his dreams was very…invalidating? He just sort of hand waves it away and I don’t like that.

16. I wonder why Oscar’s spirit couldn’t pass on.

17. Couldn’t Tessa try and help Kit learn to use his magic? Or is it too mysterious even for her?

This is a description of the emblem on the Unseelie King’s throne in Lord of Shadows. The broken crown hanging over a sun and moon.

I don’t know, I just wanna keep talking about these books, analyse character motivations and make predictions. It’s very “I had this thought yesterday” stage of planning, so..

1. I don’t like it. I don’t like the colour palette. I don’t like that it looks like a cheap rip off of the TLH cover. (Honestly, AI generated even? 🫣) it just doesn’t feel like a Cliff Neilsen cover.

2. What? Why? It doesn’t make sense! Why is Dru even on the cover? Being as it is the Last “King” of Faerie, I thought it would be Kit. And alright, Dru can be on the cover, but the vibe just doesn’t suit her at all! Dru is a goth girl. What’s with the gown? Even if it is a gown, i would expect it to be black (kind of like the one in that artwork released long ago with her and Ash with like gnomes around them or something). And as someone pointed out, the voyance rune is missing. And her hair is supposed to be more brown??

3. What’s with the sword??

4. The kitty art is great!

5. What’s with none of the information coming from Cassie? Not the release date or the cover. If I remember correctly, she would personally announce these things for the other books on her insta or the newsletter. Is the publishing company undermining her? Does she really not want to be a part of the promos that badly? Has she mentally checked out of this book series?

6. It honestly scares me for the actual release of the book because if this is how poorly handled the cover is, I don’t know if any of us are gonna be satisfied with the content. Because it kinda feels like not enough care was put into the cover.

7. I think most of all I hate that there’s been no direct communication.

8. I also think it’s officially time for all of us to lower that bar of expectations massively.

In Better in Black, Janus is seen going around in a hawk mask. He comes to be known as the “one in the Hawk Mask”.

Lady Midnight (2016) and The Last King of Faerie (2026)