The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Jim Butcher interview from 2 months ago
Quantus:
--- Quote from: Kindler on May 23, 2018, 01:40:22 PM --- just old enough that Harry didn't have to deal with having a literal baby around,
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Im not sure Eight qualifies as "just old enough to no be a literal baby", unless youre calling her a baby right up to the pre-teen years. My niece is six and can already roll her eyes and be sarcastic.
Kindler:
--- Quote from: Quantus on May 23, 2018, 02:32:07 PM ---Im not sure Eight qualifies as "just old enough to no be a literal baby", unless youre calling her a baby right up to the pre-teen years. My niece is six and can already roll her eyes and be sarcastic.
--- End quote ---
I'm quite familiar with six-year olds, and yeah, that's usually the case. I meant that he didn't have to go through changing diapers, potty training, bed wetting, crawling into his bed at night, et cetera et cetera. A lot of that drops off by three or four in many cases. Harry missed the parts of infancy and toddler-hood that are the hardest (though I often remind my sisters with their little ones that 1-6 months is the easy part; it's when they're ambulatory and trying to lick electrical sockets that you have to start freaking out). Harry got a daughter with her own personality, her own capabilities, and a level of autonomy he didn't have to encourage, monitor, or raise.
There are downsides to it, of course, and Harry went through plenty to get his daughter back at all. He paid for it in a very Dresden-ish way, and there's going to be a certain amount of sudden-onset-parenthood shock for him; I'm just saying he didn't have to put the work in.
Quantus:
--- Quote from: Kindler on May 23, 2018, 02:40:03 PM ---I'm quite familiar with six-year olds, and yeah, that's usually the case. I meant that he didn't have to go through changing diapers, potty training, bed wetting, crawling into his bed at night, et cetera et cetera. A lot of that drops off by three or four in many cases. Harry missed the parts of infancy and toddler-hood that are the hardest (though I often remind my sisters with their little ones that 1-6 months is the easy part; it's when they're ambulatory and trying to lick electrical sockets that you have to start freaking out). Harry got a daughter with her own personality, her own capabilities, and a level of autonomy he didn't have to encourage, monitor, or raise.
There are downsides to it, of course, and Harry went through plenty to get his daughter back at all. He paid for it in a very Dresden-ish way, and there's going to be a certain amount of sudden-onset-parenthood shock for him; I'm just saying he didn't have to put the work in.
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Fair enough. There is a reason there are not many successful fiction series featuring a new parent battling sleep deprivation and diapers, though. I honestly think skipping that part is doing US a favor more than anything.
Kindler:
--- Quote from: Quantus on May 23, 2018, 02:57:58 PM ---Fair enough. There is a reason there are not many successful fiction series featuring a new parent battling sleep deprivation and diapers, though. I honestly think skipping that part is doing US a favor more than anything.
--- End quote ---
There are plenty of narrative reasons to do it, but there are also plenty of narrative methods to deal with that creatively, without a Sudden Parenthood MOAB. I would've been WAY more on board with Harry's "I MUST PROTECT MY DAUGHTER" attitude in Changes if we had known he'd had a daughter for longer than five pages. I get it, and there are character reasons for Harry to immediately be Papa Bear, but I wasn't Papa Bear alongside him, if that makes sense. In Changes, Maggie is a MacGuffin, and I tend to prefer it when MacGuffins aren't people.
For instance, when Molly is taken in Proven Guilty, I was worried about her, because I knew who Molly was, and liked her character. If Harry was instead chasing after, say, Sandra Marling, or Boyfriend Nelson, my reaction would be "Meh."
Don't get me wrong, Changes is in my top three, but mostly because of the lunatic pacing. I would've been way more invested in Harry's primary motivation if I had anything to invest in, aside from Harry's desires.
Dina:
That sounds about right
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