Skulduggery Pleasant/WMG

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Skulduggery knew what the Passage entailed and wanted to break down the barriers between life and death to see his wife and son again.

  • It's a better reason than a blind Roaring Rampage of Revenge
    • It's entirely possible. It's not like Skulduggery's gonna say that out loud.

The girl Ghastly's mother saw dying was Valkyrie's reflection.

It seems like we're working towards it/her becoming self aware. And it's supposed to be a very good match for Valkyrie because she's used it so much; how would you tell the difference?

Darquesse is actually Valkyrie's reflection.

That's how Darquesse can be killing people and Valkyrie can still be running around and fighting Darquess
  • This Troper calls genius. Bonus Points for you, sir.
  • I was thinking so too, but it was said reflections had no magic powers whatsoever, so it has to gain some before this can happen.
    • Alternatively...
  • Almost certain that Darquesse is the reflection. Backed up by the Unnamed in Mortal Coil, Mevolents master who has no true name/source of magic (like the reflection) and is portrayed destroying a city with black fire (just like Darquesse).
  • Another thing that points to this is that in book five, Nye implies that a dead thing using death magic is goddamn badass. And, as the reflection was killed...
  • Yeah, and if the reflection is Darquesse it explains why in the visions Darquesse can kill Val's parents without much interruptions. The reflection has easier time reaching the parents downstairs. Still, can a reflection gains magic? Or maybe if one day it finally creates an identity on its own, it will no longer be a reflection and cannot go back into the mirror, thus become mortal?
  • Can reflections use magical objects? The reflection is already starting to show some signs of self-awareness and independent thoughts. How long before these become emotions? Let's imagine the reflection sees what Valkyrie's parents think of her, and becomes jealous. It wants to feel love too, but can tell they don't love it as much as the real Valkyrie. One day, when Valkyrie comes home, the reflection ambushes her, and takes her ring. Leaving her unconscious,it takes the ring and slips downstairs, and waits. When Valkyrie regains consciousness, she calls Skulduggery. When he arrives, they both confront the reflection, and it kills Valkyries parents. That's what I imagine could happen.
  • True but her reflection is doing things that most reflections don't, e.g. changing clothes, hiding memories, gaining independent thought. And it doesn't strike me as a particularly moral being.
  • Isn´t that whole thing already busted by Valkyrie actually physically becoming Darquesse (several times, at that)?

Darquesse is actually Valkyrie, and the future Valkyrie is her reflection.

Because the reflection being Darquess is the much more obvious choice, and a Subverted Trope is always more unexpected.
  • But how could future Valkyrie be the reflection when, in the vision Cassandra showed Valkyrie and Skulduggery, future Valkyrie clearly remembered seeing her parents' death before, and pointed to the area from where current Valkyrie was viewing? Or does the reflection have all of Val's memories? Maybe I'm missing something.
    • Wouldn´t it be stupid if it hadn´t? I mean, how is the reflection supposed to lead Valkyries life when it does not have her memories? And these memories probably aren´t restricted to faces, names or math...

Darquesse is actually Valkyrie's reflection possessed by a Remnant

If Darquesse were the reflection, it doesn't seem to make sense that it would simply become evil for no reason. We've already seen the effects a Remnant can have, as of Dark Days...
  • Um, remnants can´t posses reflections. Even though the reflection seems to become more and more abnormal, it´s still not real.
    • Yeah, I (previous troper) hadn't read that far at the time.

Skulduggery is Lord Vile

It is known that Lord Vile suddenly appeared as one of Mevolant's lieutenants, and then disappeared only a few years later. It is also known that Skulduggery disappeared for five years shortly after he was resurrected. It would also explain Skulduggery's history with the Necromancers.
  • Proven false by the apperance of Lord Vile at the end of book five.
    • Or is it? All we know is that someone was wearing Lord Vile's armor. That's happened before, and Craven is trying to bend someone to be the new Death Bringer. What better weapon than the greatest Necromantic weapon we've yet been informed of?
      • Proven correct by Book six. Skulduggery wasn't exactly sane after his death and resurrection, and had a flair for Necromancy, like Valkyrie, and was dead, supercharging it, thus being heralded as the death bringer. A full explanation is in the book.
  • Oh my god you´re right. Also, Skulduggery was most probably not always named Skulduggery because, well, he wasn´t always a skeleton. If there wasn´t a crazy random circumstance and he just happend to name himself like that, we don´t know his former name. So, does nobody know it or does nobody talk about it? It only comes to mind in hindsight, so this would probably be a really exciting revelation, however it turns out.
    • Actually Skulduggery means deceitful behavior/occurance/ a trick, and isn't actually related to skeletons. It just sounds cool and makes an oxymoron with his surname. So I'm pretty sure that's his taken name. Plus, he was a war hero before Lord Vile, and apparently you have to train to be a Necromancer from a young age- Valkyrie is an exception, and Skulduggery had a wife and child, so I really doubt he had a Necromamcer upbringing, and even if he did join up afterwards, would any amount of anger make him join the people who killed his family? No, I don't think so. Good theory, though. I think Lord Vile had something to do with resurrecting Skulduggery, and maybe the resurrection has to do with Vile joining Mevolent. Like Skulduggery's rage reached through the veil of death and sort of infected him, drove him mad, or the two have became linked in such a way that as long as Skulduggery exists Lord Vile does too. Actually Ghastly asked Skulduggery about his family crest in Mortal Coil, so I think they may be related (physically related, like maybe Lord Vile is his son. That would line up with his wanting to kill Valkyrie, feeling jealous of that, especially since she has been heralded as Death Bringer, taking his place)
    • Also a nice theory, and more likely than the first one.
    • You called it.
    • Awesome.

Darquesse is Valkyrie but a Vampire.

Well, Dusk said if he turned Valkyrie into a vampire, she would kill her parents first. It also explains why Valkyrie and Darquess can be in the same vision.
  • And why exactly can they?
    • It was daytime!

At some point of the story, Skulduggery will become Valkyrie´s enemy.

It is strongly implied that Skulduggery has a really really horrid backstory (another one than the one about his family) and he was not necessarily the victim. Also China, Ghastly and Shudder have no doubt he would kill Valkyrie without hesitation, if he had to. And even before that, Valkyrie is obviously getting more and more afraid of him. If he does not turn against her, there is certainly some problems drawing near.

  • Considering the epically disturbing fight scene in Death Bringer, I have to agree.

Clarabelle will be Evil in the next book.

  • Um...Explanation?
    • My logic is that Clarabelle has a really bad memory, and well, most people don't remember being possessed by a remnant. One guy did, and he sort of became a bit crazy. Admittedly not evil-crazy, but then, he sort of wasn't a good guy to start with. I was thinking maybe being being possessed sort of plugged up the gaps in her memory, and she remembers being evil and killing her sort-of mentor. She might then turn evil voluntarily, going crazy like Dalyrimple did, or, since she ran away, she might be a sitting duck for a bad guy who's out recruiting. Either way, she's alone at the moment, vulnerable, probably most likely to remember her experience, and her power has yet to be specified, hence the mad theory.

Jaron Gallow will be in the next book, maybe working with Remnant Tanith

  • He's mentioned in Mortal Coil, and I think he may want another, less mindless god to worship, like Remnant Tanith worships Darquesse. So they'll team up in effort to turn Valkyrie into Darquesse.
    • Or he may try to kill Darquesse, having being turned off mindless destructive Gods when they ripped off his hand.
    • He also seems a tad outclassed at the moment. 'Former member of Cult' doesn't quite match up to 'Mightiest General of Dark Lord', 'Assassin who can break your bones with a single touch', and 'Antichrist'.
  • Actually lots of previously stable characters have gone off in all directions, and they're going to have to turn up at some point, so I'm thinking of all kinds of weird team ups at the moment.
    • According to Skulpedia, Derek Landy said he is going to be in the next book. Who with is anybody's guess, though.
  • Well, he showed up. Sort of.

The Man with The Golden Eyes is Lord Vile

  • The Man who is in charge of the New Order is usually mentioned once per book since Playing With Fire. So is Lord Vile. Coincidence?
    • Yes.

Carol and/or Crystal will Take A Level In Badass before the series ends.

  • After all, they were shown to be at least not all terrible in Mortal Coil...
    • Sounds nice. Also, since they have the same ancestors as Valkyrie, they should have powers too.
      • Not necessarily on the powers thing. Gordon didn't have magic and he came from the same lineage too.

The Unnamed is...

    • Lord Vile
    • An Ancient
    • A Faceless One.
    • An Ancient possessed by a Faceless One.
    • A survivor of the alternate Universe the Faceless Ones broke into, who wants revenge for what the Ancients did.
    • Nonexistent. Nada. Mevolent made him up.
    • A Time Lord.
    • Darquess gone back in time.
    • Darquess as a Time Lord.

Octopus-people DO exist.

  • When Skulduggery was teasing Valkyrie in front of Ghastly's shop back in the first book, he pretended that there were octopus-people, then quickly said there weren't. He was wrong. There ARE a species of octopus-people, and they think that Skulduggery is a horrible, horrible racist. No reason, Rule of Funny.

When Valkyrie is an adult she and Skulduggery will become a couple.

It just seems really freaking obvious.

  • That seems a bit difficult to accomplish, considering he's a skeleton.
    • Not all romantic relationships have to involve sexual relations.
      • Yes they do. That defines the 'romantic' part of the relationship as opposed to the 'platonic.' Besides, Skulduggery seems way too unstable to have any sort of healthy relationship with...anyone, really.
        • No, they really don't. For a start there are plenty of asexuals in romantic relationships.
      • No, they don't. Romance has to do with feelings- physicality is optional, not necessary. And more to the point of the guess, the skeleton thing might be sidestepped by the end. Darquesse can apparently revive herself from injuries as severe as death, and she mentions liking Skulduggery- she could plausibly put flesh back on him out of curiosity or something. It seems like the sort of thing she'd do.
  • The Valduggery ship always made me feel Squicked, not just because of the skeleton thing, but because they're like father and daughter (well, not father and daughter - more like a niece and her fun-loving uncle. In that way, Skulduggery is like a replacement for Gordon).
    • This Troper agrees. Skulduggery's more like a teacher than anything. It's kinda weird.
  • This troper is pining for it. Derek basically eliminated all other romantic options for her, what with her cheating on Fletcher and Caelan being subsequently being killed... Really all that's left is either Skulduggery, a new character, or her becoming a nun. Plus they're just cute together!
    • If by 'cute' you mean 'codependent,' then yes. They are very cute.
    • There was a plethora of young men interested in Valkyrie introduced during the ball in Death Bringer. The most likely candidat of those would be the one with the Faceless Ones worshipping father. she at least seemed rather interested in him.
    • "Becoming a nun"? What's wrong with simply being single? Besides, an ordinary relationship with a non-sorcerer isn't out of the question.
  • Guys... are we seriously going to have a Shipping related argument on the WMG page? Really?

Lord Vile is Skulduggery's brother or father

  • They obviously have known each other for a while, and Skulduggery refuses to fight him. Maybe that's because they're related.

Dr Nye will discover the location of the soul... by cutting open Tanith

Think about it. The remnant inside Tanith clearly knows where the soul is in the body- otherwise it wouldn't be able to crawl to it and merge with it. The remnant is now permanently merged with Tanith's soul, and it's presumably turned the soul a nice black colour... sort of like a giant black target. Nye will somehow get Tanith (perhaps Ghastly or Valkyrie will give her to him, in a last ditch attempt to save her) and slice her open, ending his quest and either curing Tanith or killing her in the process. Probably the last one. Or alternatively Tanith could tell Nye where the soul is... Either way, I bet they meet at some point and it's about this.

  • this sounds really, really plausible. After all, Nye didn't seem like it was gone forever.

Skulduggery and China Sorrows had a romantic relationship in the past and/or will end up together by the end.

It is sort of implied, and they're probably about the same age... This Troper is also a shameless Skul/China shipper.

    • Seconded. However, this troper guesses that the relationship will end in tragedy with the revelation that China got Skulduggery's family killed.
    • China is a little bit of a Valduggery shipper going from Dark Days but I can see it.

Skulduggery: I know what I'm doing.
Ghastly: When it comes to China Sorrows, you rarely know what you're doing.

    • The ship sunk. Badly. Unless you count him not killing her immediately after finding out what she did as Foe Yay.

The whole Caelan-Val thing is a HUGE Take That against Twilight.

Okay, definately not a wild guess, but I may as well point it out for those who haven't guessed.

  • When I read that part I was "Derek you too?" But I accept is as a deconstruction reconstruction of vampire relationships.
    • It can be both a Take That and a Deconstruction of vampires in general. I mean, Caelan inhabits a lot of vampire cliches. He's handsome, he confuses the heroine, he's quite creepy and has dangerous...but none of this is played as desirable. We can forgive Valkyrie for being confused and uncertain about who she likes better, Caelan or Fletcher, because this troper kind of doubts that Valkyrie knows much about common sense, what with the job she has and the people she hangs out with. However, Caelan is still played up as horribly creepy and unpleasant (to the reader), so he can be a Deconstruction of the vampire romances in general (what with dangerous=hot in a lot of them).
    • Oh, it was definitely a Take That. Whatever subtlety Mortal Coil had is gone by Death Bringer. Edward and Bella are mentioned by name. Right before Caelan embraced his inner bunny boiler.
    • That chapter was actually called 'My Twilight'. It was that blatant.

Valkyrie will later run into her half-brother/sister.

In the first book, it mentions in passing a past relationship between Val's mother and her Uncle Gordon. Thanks to The Law of Conservation of Detail, this will prove to be absurdly important later on.

Caelan will murder Fletcher.

  • Brutally deconstructing the entire obsessive vampire romance genre. And if you want to go into the whole Darquesse thing... Valkyrie will rip him into shreds. Because this series occasionally like that...
    • Well I was half right.
      • More like Fletcher and Valkyrie brutally murder Caelan.

Kinda in the fridge

  • Skulduggery lost his wife and child. After I found that out, him keeping Valkyrie around was a little cute. She might remind him of his child, and what they might have grown up into. It also explains the giant Papa Wolf tendancies Skulduggary has, and how he's basically become like a second father to her. Now Skulduggery is getting unstable, so a downer ending might come from that.
    • (Afterthought from same poster)...but he did let her almost fall off a building, and put her in constant danger by taking her with him...
      • It's entirely possible that Skulduggery sort of sees Valkyrie as his dead child, but that still doesn't make him a good influence. As for Skulduggery becoming unstable, well, he kind of already was...

The remnant inside Clarabelle was driven insane by Clarabelle in Mortal Coil.

Spoilers: A remnant inhabited Clarabelle, and because this is, well, Clarabelle, the weird thoughts in her head drove her insane. In the book, Remnant!Clarabelle didn't look too bothered with keeping Darquesse/Valkyrie alive, just slashing her with a scalpel. Remnant!Clarabelle certainly acted like she was homicidally crazy, unlike other remnants.

Desmond has magic.

  • When Moore came at him, he didn't just throw him into the Pharmacy window. He manipulated the air. Either he knows about magic or it was just instinct and he's going to have a long, awkward conversation with Fergus in the next book.
  • I kindof thought that was inplied by Fergus´ story in The Death Bringer... Fergus didn´t only make him forget about the stories, they were obviously taught too (Fergus was).

Skulduggery knows his true name...

  • ...he just doesn't use it. At some point, Skulduggery found out his true name and had it sealed (presumably before he died). When a mage seal their true name, it increases their power greatly, and that's why Lord Vile can match Darquesse in power. Skulduggery/Vile just doesn't go by his true name like Val/Darquesse does.

Valkyrie will choose Necromancy.

  • She wears a gauntlet in the Bad Future. Maybe Skulduggery gave her a piece of Lord Vile's armour.
    • Maybe it's actually the reflection in the bad future vision, and Valkyries Darquesse, and maybe the reflection is wearing the gaunlet because it has no magic of its own because of its lack of true name, and that its using Lord Viles gauntlet or something, because then it isn't technically its own magic.

The Man With The Golden Eyes is Skulduggery's Older Brother

  • Or another one of his siblings. It just seems like more focus has been placed on Skulduggery's backstory in the last book, and now we know his brother exists, I'm sort of expecting him to turn up, or be relevant. (Unless Landy just doesn't do anything related to Skul's family now, just to screw us around.)

Skulduggery will die by the end of the series.

  • There's a lot of hints in the series, mainly in two veins. Vein one, Skulduggery seems to match the protagonist profile of Gordon's books -he's presented as 'a good guy', has his morals and character brutally assassinated, finds redemption/is humbled and then is murdered in the least dignified way possible. At the start of the series he is shown to be Valkyrie's dream get-out-Haggard-free meal ticket, and the series hints at his past being darker and darker with small successive reveals slowly blackening his grey morality until the Big Reveal of Skulduggery being the senseless mass murderer, Lord Vile.. He's now humbled by the reveal of his resurrection being the result of "a Necromancer trick" and this troper is sensing even more of an atonement arc, and then... Bam. The other vein the hints seem to be taking is of Skulduggery being able to 'Move On' - it's referenced by many of the characters, and since Skulduggery now has his head, his origin/rebirth story and revenge for his family on Serpine (and possibly China?) all that's left is a) training a protege (Lampshaded by Baron Vengeous, I think) and b) saving the world... Hints from Derek seem to be pointing toward the resolution of both of these. Plus the resolution of their codependent shiptastic (yeah, I said it) /unhealthy closeness/ will have to be resolved, one way or another, and much as I'd like the author of a series with violence to the point where Darquess/Val gets her /freaking eye popped out by Vile/, not to mention the constant Getting Crap Past the Radar levels the references to romance between any of the characters - Sorrowscorn, anyone?-. to have it resolved that way I doubt it's going to end up with the two of them alive and walking off into the sunset together. I mean, it's Derek.
  • Maybe Valkyrie will have something to do with his death... Mercy Kill maybe? Alternatively, considering Landy's Joss Whedon-esque tendency to torture his characters *cough*Tanith*cough*, Valkyrie will die and Skulduggery will be left alive. And if you want to be really depressing, the series will end with Alison noticing a tall, thin man at her sister's funeral...
    • I dunno. I figure Skulduggery is just one of those characters that won't survive the series, but I think Valkyrie will. Unless we get some kind of bait-and-switch and abruptly swap protagonists...

China and Gordon are Valkyrie's real parents

  • They gave her to her current parents to protect her from some kind of harm. When Valkyrie finds out that her parents lied to her, it is this that will drive her over the edge and become Darquesse.

Skulduggery's wife was pregnant when she died

  • Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but we've never heard either the name of Skulduggery's wife nor the gender of his child. The nameless thing is less odd--it's easy to not say the name of someone you never want to talk about. However, the absence of gender in the child is odd. Skulduggery never mentions his son or daughter--just his child. This may imply that he doesn't know the gender of the kid--and the only way that could be is if the kid hadn't been born yet.
  • Nice, but ultimately ruined by the revelation that two different people at different locations had to capture his wife and child.
    • OP here, when was that said? Darn, now I'm going to have to reread the books...unless it was in a short story? This American troper has limited access.
  • Unsure of exactly where, but I think it was Eliza Scorn who said it, possibly in Death Bringer.

The Reflection will replace Valkyrie at some point

  • Maybe it'll become Stephanie Edgeley and Val will leave her old life forever without the inconveniance of being a missing person- she's practically moved in with Skulduggery, and she might want to stop endagering her family or something. Maybe the reflection will just push Val out, like a body snatcher, but y'know, a life snatcher. Or maybe Valkyrie dies or becomes Darquesse or something, and Skulduggery will use the reflection as a Replacement Goldfish, like in Valkyrie's hallucination in Mortal Coil.
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