The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Who is the most evil character in the Dresdenverse?
wardenferry419:
I am thinking that Shagnasty might be the winner of the poll.
LordDresden2:
Based on what we know, I have to vote Kemmler. The question, after all, is not 'the worst Harry has knowingly met', that would probably be a tossup between Shagnasty and Nicodemus, but 'in the Dresdenverse'. Of the entities we know about, that looks like a clean win for Kemmler. He was so bad that Bob recognized it as evil. JB himself has said that Shagnasty is just 'cheap muscle' for the real big boys.
Kemmler apparently was the single most important cause of the Great War. The level of suffering, early death, agony, destruction, etc. that this implies is almost incomprehensible. Even today, the world, Western Civilization, and the nation-states involved have not entirely recovered in some ways, we're still picking up the pieces a century later.
It rather looks, over the arc of the books, as if a lot of the problems Harry and Thomas are trying to cope with now have at least some roots in Kemmler, too.
LordDresden2:
--- Quote from: wardenferry419 on December 01, 2017, 03:16:26 PM ---I am thinking Shagnasty was so evil that it nearly drove Harry mad seeing it's true nature.
--- End quote ---
It's not clear how much of that was how evil Shagnasty was, and how much had to do with Shagnasty's alien nature, though.
LordDresden2:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on November 29, 2017, 08:48:33 PM ---Like, you know, being willing to let the world burn to save his daughter? (We have WoJ that Harry absolutely meant that at the time.)
Maybe it's a product of growing up in an environment with a very real threat of violence from ideological fanatics, but when I read that sequence, my sympathies were absolutely with the world. It constantly bemuses me how many readers sympathise with Harry in that scene even when he is clearly saying "I consider you personally and all your loved ones acceptable collateral damage so long as I get what I care about" to everyone else in the world. The people I have heard that from before have not been ones I could consider good or sympathetic.
--- End quote ---
The thing is that most parents, in Harry's place, would do that. It doesn't make it right, but it does make it quite normal.
Uriel rebuked Harry for it, but the rebuke was as much about the generalized indifference as the priorities. As he pointed out, it's a lot easier to say 'let the world burn', than to say, 'let Molly burn'. The generalization hides the nature of the choice.
But note that while Harry recognizes this, it doesn't mean he still wouldn't prioritize Maggie. She's his child.
wardenferry419:
I agree.
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