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Doylist analysis of the Scooby Gang at the climax of Cold Days

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KurtinStGeorge:

--- Quote from: Second Aristh on July 24, 2015, 06:43:35 PM ---Taking care of Mac also gives Justine something to do, and having her on the island lets Maeve clue the readers in on Lara not being infected.

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More than that, it shows the reader just how calm and collected Justine is when dealing with a life and death situation.  I'd have to reread Even Hand; the short story told from Marcone's perspective, but I recall Justine being equally in control of her emotions and taking carefully calculated risks.  Her rational decision making process was functioning at a high order.

We learned that Justine was smart and knew how to play hard ball in Grave Peril, but even though she successfully blackmailed Harry into helping Thomas at Bianca's party, she was addicted to Thomas and was on an emotional roller coaster from hell when Thomas wasn't around.

Now Justine is as cool and collected as Emma Peel.  Why?  In White Night Justine ascribes her newly found emotional balance to medication, but in Grave Peril she told Harry the med's made her sick.  She could be using a new medication or she could be hiding something.  Hiding something is the more interesting and entertaining possibility, so that's what I'm choosing to believe.   

Arjan:

--- Quote from: Griffyn612 on July 25, 2015, 05:53:26 AM ---Are we talking about the same thing?  This thread is theorizing as to why JB included Mac with the others, and why his presence was necessary.

I don't think "Because I want to show that Harry is now a distrustful asshole that endangers innocents" was his motivation.  If it had, then he would have one of the others throw it in Harry's face.

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Show, not tell.

Like breaking into butters appartment, sending Molly away to make a pass at Karen, ....

Some of these things were mentioned by other characters but others were not. The book would become tedious if every deed was explained by a character. In stead the book shows us how Harry is influenced by the mantle. Just as Skin game shows how he had become better in handling it.

The whole atmosphere in cold days is different. The whole paranoia thing is part of that.
Mab and the mantle making him a monster. It must be a believable threat and not just by some other characters pointing it out to him but by his thoughts and actions as well.

The paranoia helps.

Tami Seven:

--- Quote from: KurtinStGeorge on July 25, 2015, 07:00:50 AM ---More than that, it shows the reader just how calm and collected Justine is when dealing with a life and death situation.  I'd have to reread Even Hand; the short story told from Marcone's perspective, but I recall Justine being equally in control of her emotions and taking carefully calculated risks.  Her rational decision making process was functioning at a high order.

We learned that Justine was smart and knew how to play hard ball in Grave Peril, but even though she successfully blackmailed Harry into helping Thomas at Bianca's party, she was addicted to Thomas and was on an emotional roller coaster from hell when Thomas wasn't around.

Now Justine is as cool and collected as Emma Peel.  Why?  In White Night Justine ascribes her newly found emotional balance to medication, but in Grave Peril she told Harry the med's made her sick.  She could be using a new medication or she could be hiding something.  Hiding something is the more interesting and entertaining possibility, so that's what I'm choosing to believe.

--- End quote ---

From an author's perspective, having Justine the way she was in GP was an interesting twist, but ultimately made her useless as a long term character. A simple explanation of "better meds" allows JB to keep her available as needed and place her in a useful role as both informant and as Lara's right hand.

Ultimately, maybe in the next book, I hope we get a little more info on her background.

Eldest Gruff:

--- Quote from: Serack on July 24, 2015, 09:28:15 PM ---Egad, I just burned the time I had to read the rest of your post (for now) looking for it and didn't find it, but I'll look again later.

I believe there is actually a WoJ or canon reference that Mac opened his bar around the same time Harry moved to Chicago.

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Here's one that covers, to my mind, a little Doylist like you wanted and a little Watsonian like I theorized:


--- Quote ---Where was Harry’s apartment?
In the same mythical four or five blocks where his office was, and where Mac’s is. It’s really dangerous to use an actual location because there’s always that occasional unbalanced person who just decides “Well, this needs to be true to the books, I’m going to burn this house down.” *audience laughter* I knew I was gonna be wrecking the place, so maybe I’ll just kind of make it semi-mythical and that will be healthier for everyone.
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So, Mac's is both near Harry by dint of real world worry and necessity...but also why IS it so close to the chosen one? :P

Second Aristh:
Maeve's father isn't Mac, unless somehow he's also an Austrian composer that died young and came back.


--- Quote ---Can we get a break down of the biological relationships between the various Fae Queens we have seen on screen?
Of particular interest - Maeve and Sarissa, were they actually Mab's kids (biological sense)? If so, who was Mab's baby daddy?
Mab and Titania are actual twin sisters.
Maeve and Sarissa were twin sisters, from Mab. Their father was an Austrian composer and musician who died young.

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