The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

Re-interpreting the events of Small Favor

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kbrizzle:
@morriswalters & dspringer

My big issue with the Denarians basing their entire plan on Mab choosing Harry as her emissary, and then Harry choosing the Archive as the arbiter is that so much can wrong. Mab more or less offers Harry an out at the very beginning - if he takes up the mantle of Winter Knight, she will pick another to be her representative in this matter. How does Nic know that Harry will refuse (after all, he takes Mab up a couple of books later) - enough to base a complex plan involving Hell & his wife on this?

Also the Archive is an objectively bad choice for mediator here if you think about it. You essentially have 2 smaller powers fighting each other - the best arbiter would be a larger power with the means to enforce their judgement - there is no way Ivy + Kincaid could take on all the Denarians united. The situation was reversed during the duel between Harry & Ortega, where 2 of the largest powers needed a smaller matter mediated - also Ivy + Kincaid could take on Ortega & his vassals if need it (and they did).

@dspringer

I do think it is significant that both times we see Ivy in person are during the first 2 Denarian-related case files (Death Masks & Small Favor). Her absence in Skin Game is interesting though.

Snark Knight:

--- Quote from: kbrizzle on November 21, 2018, 03:39:09 AM ---Also the Archive is an objectively bad choice for mediator here if you think about it. You essentially have 2 smaller powers fighting each other - the best arbiter would be a larger power with the means to enforce their judgement - there is no way Ivy + Kincaid could take on all the Denarians united.

--- End quote ---

I think the Shedd scene pretty clearly established that they were only able to take her because the pentagram trap and the gas were a cleverly laid trap. Now, it helped Ivy that Harry crippled one of their top sorcerors and delayed Nicodemus sufficiently to keep Anduriel from coming into play against her in his shadow form - but it's hardly fair to say she was a stupid choice because nobody anticipated the Denarians would be able to cut her off from using power freely.

Hell, if she'd thought to bring her zippy ball of mordite to the party, she probably could have slaughtered them all before the gas got to her, even on a limited power budget - it's an extraordinarily energy efficient way to kill. Tessa is the only one with much capability at all to protect herself from being touched by something like that - get a successful sucker punch on her from behind a veil, and the rest are pretty much fish in a barrel. It might even be a mortal danger to Nicodemus, if straight death magic gets around the noose' ability to heal wounds.

peregrine:
Keep in mind that, hey, if the Archive doesn't show up, Nic still gets his talons in a signatory of the Accords as well as all the relevant power Nic has (probably he'd stop getting his calls answered by Monoc though).

Also, I may be misremembering, but where does the Black Council come in?

morriswalters:

--- Quote ---You essentially have 2 smaller powers fighting each other - the best arbiter would be a larger power with the means to enforce their judgement - there is no way Ivy + Kincaid could take on all the Denarians united.
--- End quote ---
Mab enforces the Accords.  The struggle between Duke Ortega and Harry was a duel.  And Mab makes Nick pay for for violating her Accords in Skin Game, it apparently was the whole point.

kbrizzle:
@Snark Knight

Well think about it this way, when Ortega cheats in the duel in Death Masks, he is able to get away from Martin/ Susan, Harry as well as Ivy & Kincaid trying to attack him. If it weren’t for Ebenezer dropping asteroid Dresden on Ortega’s stronghold in Central America, what could the Archive have realistically done to bring him to justice? Fight the entire Red Court?

When the Denarians have taken Ivy prisoner in SmF, it is the White Council & the Knights who end up saving her, since she is effectively a 2 person organization (albeit extremely powerful). If Harry & Luccio failed, I’m sure the White Council would send other wardens after the Nickelheads.

@morriswalters

My theory is that Nic suspects that Mab is not currently strong enough to enforce the Accords. At the point of SmF, she is operating without a Knight or a Lady (Nfected Maeve); She doesn’t retaliate against the Reds for encroaching on her territory; she doesn’t do anything to Lara Raith for insulting her by imprisoning little folk. So Nic wants to see how far he can stretch it by taking Marcone - my theory is that while the Nickelheads had a suspicion that Harry would call for the Archive, they were prepared to several different outcomes.

By kidnapping Marcone, not only would Nic gain the Signatory of the Accords on his side, as per peregrine’s post, he would also test how strong Mab really is.

@peregrine

Hmm, while the Black Council is not outwardly operating, they have been involved in every book so far (subtly & not so subtly). We know by SmF that one of the Denarians was involved in the attack on Arctis Tor - Thorned Namshiel - as confirmed by Mab after in the book. Tessa’s crew’s suspiciously early departure from the fight at Demonreach have led many (including myself) to suspect that she or someone in her crew is Nfected.

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