Talk:The Mortal Instruments

Assessment
Firstly, the layout of this article is completely inappropriate. Articles should be in continuous prose, not a table glossary - unless you want to rename it 'List of terms in The Mortal Instruments', which I don't believe meets the notability criteria.

Secondly, the second paragraph onwards looks like it's either a copyright violaton (e.g. copied from the glossary in the books) or highly biased in favour of the books. Either way, this needs to be fixed.

Thirdly, the general content of the article from the second paragraph onwards is unsuitable for an article about the series. Simply listing terms is not enough to make an article - the individual books should be discussed, as well as characters, critical reception and any awards the series has won.

I'm not saying this article should be deleted, as the series looks important enough to have its own page, but in its current form the article is not worth keeping. Could someone who has read the series please fix these problems so the article can begin to develop properly. strdst_grl  (call me Stardust)  20:27, 24 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm going to go ahead and remove the term glossary, and at the least trim down the characters section-- unless there any objections? -- violet  shadow 20:12, 23 September 2009 (UTC)

Could someone who has time and who knows what I'm talking about please edit the section on City of Ashes? Valentine's Ritual of Conversion in which he turns the Mortal Sword into a demonic weapon was completely left out. So were the Downworlder murders where he got the blood for the ritual, and Simon and Maia's kidnapping. Adding something about Agramon, Simon drinking Jace's blood, and Clary's power to create and improve runes would also be good. I don't have the book with me and I don't want to get anything wrong, otherwise I'd do it. 5/4/11 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.89.223.74 (talk) 16:33, 4 May 2011 (UTC)

Small plot description?
How about adding a small plot description to the start of the article? Maybe a general description of the world?

I came here trying to learn a bit about the series, and the info before the article jumps to characters' physical descriptions is pretty sparse. 85.138.131.23 (talk) 21:03, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

The books are set in Brooklyn, New York. Clary Fray is just your ordinary, red haired, teenage girl, who dreams of being an artist. She has a best friend, Simon, and they are inseparable. One night, when Clary is about to go out with Simon, her mother is acting weird. When Clary gets back, her mother is gone. Clary adjourns on a treacherous journey, after finding out she's not just an ordinary teenage girl after all. She's a Shadowhunter. A breed on humans with angel blood, who fight demons while the rest of the word has no idea that the demons nor the shadowhunters exist. Not only does Clary have enough trouble coming to terms with her new personality, finding out about a whole other world containing people who fight demons, magical runes (angelic symbols) and downworlders (vampires, werewolves, warlocks and faeries), but she also must try and decide between her best friend Simon, or Jace, another Shadowhunter. Will Clary find her mother? Will she decide to be with Simon or Jace? And will she be able to find her memories, and understand who she really is? Kiiaraajewell (talk) 01:04, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

Origin of name and plot synopsis
As above, I'm a little curious for a brief description of the plot or even the universe in which the books are set, but I'm even more curious for the origin of the name, as I've seen the phrase in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (here in an annotated version of T.S. Eliot's The Hollow Men — emphasis added):

BRUTUS
 * Between the acting of a dreadful thing
 * And the first motion, all the interim is
 * Like a phantasma, or hideous dream:
 * The genius and the mortal instruments
 * Are then in council; and the state of men,
 * Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
 * The nature of an insurrection.

I would certainly be interested to know if this is the origin of the title, and the relation of this passage to the themes of the books. — Sasuke Sarutobi (talk) 18:30, 13 October 2013 (UTC)

Spoiler in the Character List
not available.

All over the place
This page seems to be all over the place in describing characters and what happens. Maybe instead of spoiling things that happen in the books, give a general synopsis of the characters and overall view of the story and it's ongoing fight. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Abanggue (talk • contribs) 07:00, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Need citations for publication dates
I added the publication dates for the last two books in the series, but I don't know how to cite them. Is anyone else able to add citations? Antrogh (talk) 02:41, 12 June 2017 (UTC)

Anyone familiar with this series care to add it to this list?
Types of mythological or fantastic beings in contemporary fiction is a page of, well, fantasy series (movie, TV, written, whatever) and the assorted mythological and/or fantastic critters they contain. This series would qualify. Anyone care to add it? Tamtrible (talk) 00:27, 6 August 2017 (UTC)

Only famous because sold as YA?
Currently, the article states: "The decision to launch her novels as Young Adult books has propelled Clare to the top of the Bestsellers list and has established The Shadowhunter Chronicles as some of the most popular works read by a largely young adult audience." That's pretty much equal to saying the books would not have been bestsellers if there hadn't been a fortuitous (anonymous) marketing decision, as they wouldn't have had enough literary merit by themselves. That's a rather strong claim, so I wonder whether it comes from an unidentified source or is someone's not-so-subtle way of expressing their own opinion. --62.65.238.5 (talk) 21:08, 17 July 2018 (UTC)

Elaborate more on themes and critical reception?
There are multiple themes shown throughout this whole series, and if there were a way to separate a paragraph for each theme to be discussed in depth, it would make that section far more clear. There are some minor mistakes when discussing the themes presented, such as stating that Cassandra Clare uses multicultural characters when the correct term is multiracial. Not a huge deal but I would suggest edits on errors like that.

Also if the critical reception could be updated with the controversies surrounding the author publishing these novels, that would help guide anyone who is doing research in how these books got popular. There is a lot of speculation and controversy pertaining the making of these books and it would interesting to have this delved deeper in the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Marilougarcia (talk • contribs) 19:00, 9 October 2020 (UTC)