The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Another Cowl Theory
nadia.skylark:
--- Quote ---Yes I think it would hit hard. He thought he got rid of his initial nightmare (Justin) but he has been "alive/around" all along, manipulating Harry's life from behind the scenes and basically responsible for a lot of Harry's misfortune. I think that would be pretty emotional stuff.
--- End quote ---
I think his response would be more "yeah, right, you're clearly faking it" actually. I mean, from his perspective, what would it mean that Justin's alive? Well...
1) Harry never broke the First Law when he was 16, despite the fact that black magic leaves traces on users. Therefore...
2) Either a great many wizards on the White Council are lying to everyone about being able to sense black magic (including Ebenezer) and doing it well enough that they convinced Harry that he could sense black magic (which he has before) or a great many wizards on the White Council (including Ebenezer) lied to him and everyone else about Harry's breaking of the First Law (since they should have been able to sense that he had not used Black Magic).
3) Justin tried to kill him repeatedly, then just stopped for no good reason.
4) Justin tried to recruit him repeatedly, then just stopped for no good reason.
5) Justin is this super-threatening figure who Harry may not be able to beat even now, yet the best plan he could come up with against 16-year-old Harry was to escape by faking his own death (as opposed to, say, beating him, restraining him again, and going right back to trying to enthrall him).
Given that the other option is for Harry to believe that some shapeshifter is messing with him, and that he in fact has ample evidence that this is something shapeshifters are perfectly capable of doing, I don't see Harry believing that Cowl is Justin even if he is. From Harry's perspective, it's just too implausible.
--- Quote --- But I think if it were those two as Cowl and Kumori, the way it would have most impact is if when they reveal their identities they actually have a convincing, even necessary "Join Us" plan. If Harry realised he might be wrong, I think that would really shatter him.
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I'd go the opposite way, actually. I think that no matter how convincing their whole recruitment speech would otherwise be, Harry would disregard it out of hand because it's Justin. I mean, this is the first true villain that Harry ever fought--he's ingrained in Harry's mind as capital-E Evil.
--- Quote ---Well actually, it might confirm that he didn't break the first law initially - but it doesn't rule him out of breaking the other laws. He definitely used Necromancy (which while he didn't break law technically - I am not sure the after affects will care much), he also quite likely killed some humans during his battle with Bianca (which he won't look into because he is scared of what he might find).
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I don't think he really thinks of this as Law-breaking. In his mind, I feel like finding out that he didn't kill Justin would be a kind of absolution.
kbrizzle:
@nadia
Agree with your argument about why it doesn’t make sense for Justin to be Cowl, although I disagree about point #2.
For all we know, the black magic or dark taint other wizards sense on Harry is HWWB - remember what the 3 eye user in the police station says to Harry in StF. Also in GS we see that Harry is able to get away from HWWB because he blows up the gas station (perhaps other people die in this blast)
@Cozarkian
True, people have speculated about this before - everything from Justin was body snatched by Kemmler to Simon used it at Archangel to fake his death as realistically as possible.
@g33k
While I believe that Cowl is likely a former SC member or just below, I think it is also possible that he is publicly regarded as an average wizard, a la Peabody & Elaine.
If the theory that Cowl is a Fomor mantle (like the Knights or Blackstaff) is correct, then perhaps he is an average practitioner who is being juiced up by the mantle
nadia.skylark:
--- Quote ---For all we know, the black magic or dark taint other wizards sense on Harry is HWWB - remember what the 3 eye user in the police station says to Harry in StF. Also in GS we see that Harry is able to get away from HWWB because he blows up the gas station (perhaps other people die in this blast)
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I agree. I just don't think it would occur to Harry--he thinks of himself as "tainted by black magic" not "tainted by Outsiders and black magic" so in absence of black magic taint, I don't think it would immediately occur to him to consider Outsider taint as a reason, and by the time he would have a chance to ruminate on it he would already have dismissed the possibility of Justin being alive.
ClintACK:
Re: "tainted by black magic"...
I've always assumed this is his temper issue. Channeling his fear and rage into fire magic with the intent to kill a human being (Justin DuMorne) carved a groove into his soul, increasing his tendency to channel fear and rage into fire in the future.
When we see him do things like the "pyrofuego" in Grave Peril or smashing the trash cans in White Night, he's doing the same -- channeling pain and anger into fire magic.
--- Quote ---... the despair, and the self-loathing and the helpless fury... set me on fire. Fire in my heart, in my thoughts, in my eyes. I burned... burned in places I hadn't known I could hurt... I remember reaching for that pain... I reached for fire -- and fire answered me... The fury in me grew. It swelled and burned and I reached out to the fire again. -- Grave Peril
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--- Quote ---My raw anxiety and rage lashed from the tip of my blasting rod in a lance of blinding scarlet fire. -- White Night
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This is the black-magic taint of a first-law warlock. He's powering his magic with his rage.
Heck, in White Night, he even brackets the event with references to Yoda, just in case you missed the fact that anger is a Dark Side emotion.
Good as he is, and as much as we like him, Harry Dresden *does* have a black magic problem. He's fighting against it. Eb taught him to control it, mostly. But Morgan wasn't wrong to think Harry has always been on the edge of Warlockry.
Snark Knight:
--- Quote from: kbrizzle on April 28, 2019, 05:00:46 AM ---Paolo Ortega (likely Nfected) led the charge to destroy Archangel. Simon had excellent relations with the vampire courts - Cowl is allied with Red Court & interferes in the White. Mavra clearly didn’t want Cowl (or the other 2) becoming necromantic gods.
--- End quote ---
Paolo Ortega is actually pretty high up on the list of characters I'm confident wasn't N-fected. His agenda in DM was to kill Harry so the Reds could say they'd avenged Bianca and disengage from the war. He wanted short-term peace to provide a window for a few more decades to build numbers and position so his nation could win decisively when they were actually ready to fight the Council.
Nemesis' agenda was the opposite, for the war to drag on in the short term, degrading both sides and causing chaos to cover their apocalypse preparations.
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