The Road to ‘Lord of Shadows’: Your theories and predictions
We have reached the fourth and final installment of our The Road to Lord of Shadows! Last week I asked TMI Source’s readers to tell me their theories and predictions for Cassandra Clare’s second book in her The Dark Artifices trilogy and there were a lot of great comments. You can read some of them below, read the other comments here and even join the discussion if you want to! Thank you to everyone who commented 🙂
Here’s what Marie wrote:
Los theories! We’ll get the painful stuff over first. I think Livvy, Arthur, and Diego will die. I’d also put a tentative guess on Tavvy, Diana, and Jamie. But I think they’ll leave Ty and Dru to live because I think Livvy’s death and learning to live without her could be emotional fodder for TWP since Ty depends so much on his twin and Dru compares herself to Livvy.
I think they will successfully rescue Kieran but Mark won’t get back together with him. I think Mark will fall for Cristina and she’ll pick him instead of Diego because they both need a fresh start and their old relationships have too much baggage. I could see Kieran becoming the new Unseelie King at some point.
Emma is going to resist Julian for awhile but finally give in. She’ll tell him what the consequences of being together are going to be and when Livvy dies Julian will blame himself. Emma and Julian will try to end things. They’ll perform some really impressive magical feats together before this happens, it just won’t be enough to save everyone.
Helen and Aline will be able to return to the institute (and maybe get pregnant via a donor…yay baby??? and I bet Helen will carry the first child just to spite the Clave because they deserve it).
Julian and/or Emma will end the book going into the Wild Hunt to separate themselves from family since Helen is back. They may come up with a scheme to steal Gwyn’s cloak to garner a favor from him to potentially break the parabatai bond.
Arthur’s mad research ends up helping them in some way, but will also cost him his life.
Wow, that’s quite a death list! I do like the baby and the Gwyn’s cloak parts.
Courtney wrote:
I’m not going to pretend to be able to guess anything that will go on in this book – Cassie always throws me for a loop – but I do have a scene that I think might happen.
Julian will somehow see Mark kissing (or something like it) someone and completely go off on him. How he’s with Emma and she deserves the very best and if he doesn’t tell Emma what he did he will. And Mark will figure out that Julian loves Emma and why Emma asked him to be her fake boyfriend. Also, Mark will understand that he needs to keep lying and tells Jules that he’ll tell Emma what happened and from that Emma and Mark have a talk about the ‘why lie’ conversation. I also think super angry Julian will scare Mark a little bit and make him want to find a way to help Julian and Emma be together.
Fingers crossed that someone, maybe Mark, will find a way to help our star-crossed lovers.
Warlock Bane’s (Magnus, is that you?) thoughts:
Lets see…
I kind of have Arthur and Kieran on my dying prediction list.
Arthur because he is ailing and clearly not all there. Also so that maybe Julian or Mark ( maybe Helen) can become the official Head of the LA Institute.
And I think Kieran may die because he was banishes from the Unseelie Court and perhaps, later on, banished from the Hunt. I think he might die trying to save Mark from a death blow.
I think Kit is safe from the list because he’s a new character im the Herondale line, but I could be wrong.
I think Diana is the transgender character.
And I do like the theory about somehow getting Gwyn’s cloak to sever the parabatai bond between Jemma.
I really do hope that Kit is safe because he is the new character!
Becca said:
Four Character Will Die!? If I had to guess, I would think Arthur, Diago, one of the Blackthorn children, and maybe Diana?
Ever since Emma was lashed by the Faeries and interacted with her parents, I have believed she will somehow use Cortana to end the Parabatai bond. (Because she HAS to end up with Julian, right? Right??) Her parents told her “Wayland made blades can cut through anything.” Or something to that effect. I know when she saves Tavy she thinks that line in her head, but I believe it is Cassie throwing us off.
Fingers crossed Kit and Ty get together, but I also have a suspicion Kit and Livvy might hit it off.
Kieran could become the new Unseelie King… I am very excited about them journeying through Faery. And having Helen and Aline in the story!!
I also hope Annabelle is a good and helpful character but I seriously doubt that will be the case.
The Cortana theory is a very popular one. Let’s hope we’ll see what a blade made by Wayland the Smith can do!
Devan’s theories:
-I know that this was considered a far-out theory but I saw the bit about the secret prince and in the first couple chapters Jace was talking about the Seelie courts “weapon” that could destroy everything so I have to ask is it really possible that there is a Seelie Queen/ Sebastion Morgenstern Kid? I mean a kid could be the weapon that is being referred to plus I feel like this could create some major problems in the story especially since it sounds like the Clave wants this “weapon” destroyed.
-I’m almost completely certain now that Diana is the Transgender women. It makes so much sense.
– I feel like the Blackthorns are going to have to sort of team up with the Seelie’s just because it sounds like their going to have some problems with the Unseelie King. I feel like they may need faerie help/protection not just from the hunt. It would also be interesting considering to was the Seelies that raided the LA institute in the war with Sebastian and the Seelie Queen was the one who handed Mark over to the Hunt.
– I also have another CRAZY THEORY when it comes to the Blackthorns and Seelie’s. It’s about Helen’s and Mark’s lineage. We know their mother was LadyNerissa in the Seelie court and was presumably well liked and respected. We also know she had a sister as it is said that it was the sister the kept and tortured Arthur Blackthorn while Lady Nerissa fell in love with Andrew. So what I’m getting at is what if the sister is the Seelie Queen. What if she’s Helen Mark’s aunt. We know that their mother was a high ranking fey so it makes sense, and also make Helen and Mark Seelie royalty. Let me know what you think.
Seelie Queen + Sebastian Morgenstern = baby!? By the Angel! Can you imagine Clary as an aunt? 
Once again, thank you for your comments! We will know more in the next couple of days 🙂
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the different The Road to Lord of Shadows installments and Godspeed to all of you! I hope no one will read any nasty spoilers *crosses fingers* See you on the other side.
TMI Source 
My friend and I came up with a theory: We think at the end of TDA there will be a big danger/villain threatening the shadowhunter world as a whole and especially the Blackthorn family and their friends. In order to prevent this danger from destroying everything they love, Jules and Emma have to do something involving their special powers as parabatai in love. This saves everybody, but they die in the process.
I know this sounds cruel, but I think it would be a good solution to the plot.
crikey, that’s very, veryyyyy cruel. 😥
But, I feel like the parabati bond will break between them (with Cortana?) instead of them dying. *fingers crossed*
I HAVE NOT read any spoilers. I’ve been diligently avoiding them. But the general outcry makes me question whether Cassie kills either Julian or Emma. Because THAT would be a twist I did not see coming and wreck me. I don’t think it’d be permanent but man that would be a very sad surprise. I hope not. I can handle one of them going to hunt for awhile, but I don’t want to think about watching one of them die in front of the other. 😦 I guess we’ll find out soon!