The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

Could Harry have power over more than just Outsiders?

<< < (3/4) > >>

groinkick:

--- Quote from: raidem on March 11, 2018, 06:03:35 PM ---There is more to it than that.

There is a history of the queens dying last time things got awful or off in the wizarding world and a starborn was in the mix of things.  Mab and titania realize the true danger Harry is per woj which is why mab keeps her enemies close.

Mab considers Harry a threat even to herself.

--- End quote ---

Correct.  I believe Jim mentioned the last time a Starborn was running around things got really bad, and that's when the Queen/Queens died.  Which makes it damn frustrating not knowing exactly what a Starborn is, and what they can do.

Kindler:
My take on being Starborn is that they are the type of people who tend to be fulcrums upon which major events turn. Harry and Elaine have both been right in the thick of several major, major happenings on the world stage.

Maybe my thinking is influenced by the cliched Chosen One trope, but I think that, in the Dresden Universe, there are a few people born in a generation who have the potential—by a mix of power/capability, will, and opportunity—to shape events, and thus the world. Harry's power/capability, and apparently that of all starborn, is the ability to wield power over Outsiders, whatever that means (functionally); by dint of being who he is, Harry is also present and actively participating in monumental, geological shifts in the political (and therefore economic and social) landscape of the planet.

(If I can bandy about my pet theory about William the Conqueror, I also think that he was a Starborn, and his presence upset the balance of power for the following thousand years, literally).

To clarify, I think that Harry's Starborn power isn't just limited to his power over Outsiders, but his ability to impact everything and everyone around him. I think that he is decidedly...unpredictable, as shown by the Gatekeeper (who never foresaw Harry claiming Demonreach), and the several times he's bucked Fate during the books (dying in Dead Beat, dying again in Changes but coming back, et cetera).

I don't think that he has a clearly defined Power over anything but Outsiders—for instance, I don't think that he can command Fae just by being Starborn—he's gotta bribe 'em with Za.

WereElephant:

--- Quote from: groinkick on March 10, 2018, 05:55:17 AM ---So this begs the question.  Does Harry, a starborn, hold some sort of influence over supernatural being's in general?  We still don't know the nature of why he has influence over Outsiders, or how it works, but maybe it's not limited to just them? 

--- End quote ---

I'm guessing that being Starborn only directly gives him a magical advantage against Outsiders, whatever the machinery behind that may be.

However, given the rarity of Starborn and the interest they draw from other powers, indirectly he has a lot of extra power from it. At one point he had Hellfire. He now has Soulfire. Winter's power is at his fingertips. He has probably the best mortal knowledge of the ways of the Nevernever. His sanctum is the prison of the supernatural's nastiest customers that aren't evidently necessary evils. He guards a Sword of the Cross and four relics of the Crucifixion. Mab, Odin, and Uriel all have vested interests in seeing him succeed (given certain stipulations). And circumstances have given him a will, a mortal will, that can defy Mother Winter and He Who Walks Before. Indirectly, Dresden may be a mortal, but because of the circumstances he was dealth, he has the impact of an entire mythic pantheon.

Rasins:
I think Starborn means he can force Outsiders to his will.

As to others, I think his naming "power" is just like every other human being.  We like to name things, and that limits them.

Quantus:

--- Quote from: Rasins on March 15, 2018, 06:39:12 PM ---As to others, I think his naming "power" is just like every other human being.  We like to name things, and that limits them.

--- End quote ---
No, I think his is specifically unusual and/or advanced, but only because of that line from Uriel in GS:


--- Quote ---Names have tremendous power, Dresden. Yet mortals toss them left and right as though they were toys. It’s like watching infants play with hand grenades sometimes.” The ghost of a smile touched his face as he glanced at me. “Some more so than others."
--- End quote ---

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page