The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Who was the real target of the bloodline curse at CI?
Mr. Death:
Was it overkill? Yes.
But when you're trying to make a one-hit-kill shot like this, you absolutely go for overkill. The idea is to make absolutely sure that Ebenezer cannot possibly survive the spell, and to do that, you overdo it. If you try to make something that would match his defenses and do just enough to kill him, you risk him getting a lucky roll of the dice and surviving, or maybe even avoiding it entirely.
As I often do, I'm gonna put this into RPG terms, because that's the best way to quantify this sort of thing. All it really takes to kill a human in the game is 3 shifts of stress. This is roughly equivalent, in the game, to being shot or stabbed with a regular gun. That's the bare minimum, for someone with no real narrative reason to take more damage than that (i.e., the kind of nameless goon that Jackie Chan decks once and moves on).
The heart exploding spell, however, is a whopping 36 shifts. Why? To make sure it passes every single possible defense a character could have and make sure he's dead. It works out to 4 (stress boxes) + 4 (highest possible defense roll) +5 (highest possible defense stat) + 22 (all possible consequences a character can take to survive the hit) +1 (to push it just over the edge). It's the Dresden RPG equivalent of "no saving throw."
We don't know what kind of personal defenses Ebenezer would have against such a spell, or the wards at Edinburgh. But when you want to make absolutely sure that your target can't avoid its fate? You go for overkill, especially if you're only going to get one shot at it.
DonBugen:
Watch - Jim's just stringing us along, and it has absolutely nothing to do with Harry or Eb. Its later revealed that Susan is a descendant from the same family that Mab, Titania, and Maeve came from, and doing the curse will put a reset on 2/3 the Winter Court and put Lily the Airhead on the Summer throne. Chaos ensues.
Just Al:
--- Quote ---Or who loaded the gun for the Red Court and got Harry to pull the trigger on their own assisted suicide?
--- End quote ---
I've worked from the view that Martin had played the Red Court waiting for some opportunity (e.g. Harry, Susan and Maggie) The spell was WAY overkill.
The other possibility is that Uriel and Mab had a hand in the setup, in order to balance the sheets and demonstrate what happens to folks who dis the Winter Queen.
kazimmoinuddin:
I always wondered how demonreach and the Blackstaff would react to the mortals that they are linked to being slain in such a way. A massive magical attack is sure to have some effect, making them potentially vulnerable.
Cozarkian:
Was it overkill - No!
The spell was like a boulder sitting on the edge of a cliff. You need a certain amount of force to push it over the edge and then gravity does the rest, regardless of how tall the cliff is.
The bloodline curse needed that much energy to get the ball rolling regardless of whether there are 2 generations or 20 generations of targets.
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