If it isn’t evident as you read, these are all my own opinions. Feel free to agree or disagree or just add your own thoughts in the comments section.

Maybe it’s because I read the Shadowhunter Chroncilesout of order that I have this opinion. But I wish Tales from Shadowhunter Academy had more stories following Simon and George and the like around their training and their missions for the school. Admittedly the first time I read it, I had only read the City of series, and I was eager for more Simon and Izzy so TfSA seemed perfect continuation. In fact I was so attatched to Simon and Izzy, I pretty much skipped the book to just read their scenes.

However, after reading The Infernal Devices series and rereading the City Of, I felt more informed of the Shadowhunter world and tackled TfSA again. The stories made more sense now I knew who all these characters were. 

However, I still stand by how I wish more of it was focused on Simon at the Academy. In the 10 stories, 4 are stories within a story (The Whitechapel Fiend, Nothing but Shadows, The Evil We Love, Pale Kings and Princes) and 2 have a major focus on side characters to set up future stories for the Dark Artifices and The Last Hours series (Born to an Endless Night, Bitter Tongue).

Now don’t get me wrong I enjoyed Born to an Endless Night and The Evil We Love. It’s always great to see the growing Lightwood-Bane family and compare their acceptance of Magnus to The Evil We Love with Robert’s time in The Circle. In fact, I am particulary interested in The Circle and was so disappointed to find out The Circle graphic novel was canned. At least The Evil We Love gave a taste.
 I even liked Pale Kings and Princes because of how it combines the past with the downworlder prejudice that Simon is trying to combat after the events of the Fae-Sabastian alliance and New Accords.

But ones like The Whitechapel Fiend and Nothing But Shadows felt like it was using the Academy as frame stories so people can see the Infernal Devices gang again and learn about the Chain of Gold generation. 

Which is nice but…. we have so much content of the Last Hours characters from Ghosts of the Shadowmarket, The Last Hours trilogy, even in the Magnus Bane. Chronicles. The last, I’d argue is a better use of framing since Magnus is part of the story, trying to help James in The Midnight Heir compared to Simon who just listens and learns relevant lessons.

I guess the big reason why I want more about Simon’s time at the Academy is that I actually wanted to know more about his fellow students.

First off George Lovelace. I ADORE George Lovelace. I’d give to see two whole novellas about him, he is so charming. I agree with Simon, he is a wonderful guy and could give Jace a run for his money.

But there’s also Marisol Garza Solcedo. It’s implied she’s had a hard life, dead parents, and that she specifically came to the Academy to learn to fight. I want to know more! What is it like for mundanes like Marisol who don’t have any special connections to prominent families (like Kit), just bad lives and iron wills. Like Simon wondered, what drove a 13 year old to join the Academy to potentially die by fighting demons or by ascending.

And what about Beatriz Velez Mendoza whose father, grandfather, and brother died during the Dark War? Were they the heads of the family? What was it like when it was only women? She grew up away from Idris, what was it like? How did that inform her nicer perception of Downworlders/does she ever feel pressured to live up to the family members who died? Beatriz who is distantly related to Cristina Rosales-Mendoza, do they know each other at all?

And Jon Cartwright? Is there something he should be ashamed about his family as Scarsbury implied? What was it for him to become close to the dregs that he scorned so much? To fall in love with Marisol? Did he fear his family might disapprove? Is that why he dated Julie briefly before falling hard and committedly to Marisol?

And there’s Julie Beauvale. We only had one scene of sympathy to know her mother and sister died, but what about her dad? She says he’s useless now, what is it like to live with a dad who may be permanently traumatized or changed? How hard is it to reconcile what you thought you knew about your whole life and culture to realize The Law may be wrong? How did she finally succumb to the charm of George Lovelace (I mean, it’s not hard to imagine, George is a gem after all. But I want more flirty George and even sexy George).

And what about Vivian Penhollow having to make the Academy work after being retired for the last 50 or so years. Vivian trying not to let her cousin-in-law and Consul Jia down. And someone really trying to reconcile Downworlders and Shadowhunters. Sunil and Boris and the like. I wanted to see their missions, the different styles of leadership between them.

I want to see more of their personality flaws, how they handle possibly failing in archery or something, maybe some heart to hearts and those classic back to back fight poses. If we didn’t have that Nothing but Shadows story we could have seen shadowhunter vs mundane baseball! 

Maybe have them track or fight or something with downworlders we haven’t seen. I always wanted to see more of how mermaids are in this world. Maybe even kelpies. Something besides the big three of vamps, werewolves and fae. 

I just feel that these characters had so much more depth potential to be mined but they were sidelined in favor of stories with characters that will have whole novels/POVs in future books. I know Simon can’t be observant of everyone since he has his own problems and was trying to get a date with Izzy, I understand that but maybe we could have gotten more explicit hints. 

He was surprised that Beatriz and Julie became parabatai, I was too. Cassandra wrote on her tumblr it was because “Aw, you’re so sweet! I’m so glad you like Julie and Beatriz. It was fun to write them, in that they were having a whole sromance (like a bromance but with girls!) which Simon wasn’t entirely aware of. I actually think that Julie and Beatriz weren’t that close before they went to the Academy, but that through knowing Simon, George and Beatriz, Julie’s mind and the way she wanted to live was changed forever, and she wanted (and asked) Beatriz to be parabatai with her for the same reason I think a lot of people want a parabatai… to have someone who keeps them right, to have someone who makes them a better Shadowhunter, not just practically but morally.” Well, how do they do that? What does Beatriz get from Julie’s harshness? How does Julie become more compassionate? We wouldn’t know because as she said Simon doesn’t notice, which is a slight shame because until Chain of Gold, we didn’t have a female-female parabatai duo. 

Jon apparently comes to care so much for George that he cries at his funeral. How would we get that? They hardly hung out until the last story. Simon only starts noticing Marisol and Jon’s relationship as something romantic in Angels Twice Descending. Well, I wanted to know more about them too. Because it was clear that something was developing beyond Marisol wanting to scare and humble Jon. When did they first click as something more? 

I knew they wouldn’t be main characters, they wouldn’t be saviors of the big battles and I certainly didn’t expect them to be anything more than cameos. But if they’d gotten explored a little more, just for these novellas to focus on them, their deaths in Lord Midnight and Queen of Air and Darkness would become even more poignant because we care about them as characters, not just as Simon’s friends and how depressed it will make him feel. Basically I wish there was some more love for them and more storeies of them besides the ones swirling in my head about these unanswered questions.