The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Role of Murphy going forward
huangjimmy108:
--- Quote from: nadia.skylark on May 14, 2019, 04:34:38 PM ---It's consistent with what I saw. You appear to have seen something else.
The Paranet, as I understood it, was designed to create a centralized network to coordinate a group of people that have been notably decentralized up until that point.
As I understood it, the Paranet was [/I]always[/I] a defensive organization, and what changed is their level of coordination with other groups. Murphy was (maybe) directing where Ramirez and White Court hit teams went, but I don't see how that makes her in charge of the Paranet--neither of those people/groups belong to the Paranet.
I'm arguing that the point of the Paranet has always been to centralize a bunch of unrelated groups, and that it has been moving toward that continuously.
Oh, good.
Makes sense to me.
This doesn't make sense to me, because as I understand it, Murphy is in the position of "valued and trusted ally." And allies of an organization, no matter how valued and trusted, don't suddenly end up in charge of that organization without either some sort of takeover, or a lot of people thinking that there's some sort of takeover.
Wasn't someone arguing earlier that no member of the White Council could end up in charge for precisely this reason?
This seems to be another case of different understandings. I have always understood the Paranet to define itself as an organization of magical practitioners. I could see this maybe changing due to the war against the Fomor, but I feel like we'd need to see that change well in advance of Murphy being put in charge.
I, on the other hand, see Elaine's fear having waned significantly, since she has at this point been working with Ramirez for years, and seems quite comfortable with it. Also, Harry at least doesn't see this as being a problem, given that he was advocating that the White Council work with the Paranet since sometime before Changes, and he's well aware of Elaine's issues.
No, no, maybe, no, no, no, no, and no. Did I not specifically say that I wasn't counting contacts through Harry and Harry's actions? (Also, we know that Elaine has contacts with at least the White Court and the White Council, because we've seen it in the books. And Molly doesn't have a huge reason to like Murphy--their relationship in Ghost Story was fairly adversarial, and their interaction in Cold Days mostly consisted of her getting politely kicked out of her own apartment so that the person she was in love with could have a conversation with Murphy (who is her rival in that department). She may be polite about working with Murphy at need, but I don't see them having much of a relationship outside of "we're mostly on the same side and both like Harry.")
Also, what does having outside contacts have to do with being the leader of the Paranet? I've been meaning to ask this. At best, it would make one a good ambassador to those organizations, or someone who coordinates between them. And Murphy would be a very bad coordinator/ambassador to the White Council, because her connection to them is extremely tenuous (she's met Luccio all of once and has maybe worked with Ramirez off screen) and explicitly doesn't trust them.
Maybe. But see above regarding what this has to do with running the Paranet. If you're looking for someone with the contacts to coordinate between different powerful groups, then that's Harry way more than it's ever Murphy. Seriously, name one supernatural contact that a) Murphy did not get through Harry and b) does not know/respect Harry as much or more than Murphy. And that's not counting the contacts that Harry has that Murphy doesn't.
Maybe. Or maybe it's just that we only see Chicago, and meetings like this are taking place in a bunch of different cities. We don't know.
So what you're saying is that Elaine should be the head of the shadow government of the Paranet, while Murphy serves the purpose of puppet leader/public face for the purposes of working with other organizations. You know, I can actually see that working really well--except that I think Murphy would probably object. She might get talked into it, though, so who knows?
Maybe. On the other hand, the people who actually know about the Justin thing appear to all be either dead or Harry, so...
(there might be some members of the Summer Court left, but probably not many given how faeries don't share information, and given that they would all have been involved in the battle above Chicago (and some of them we saw die on screen there) and then been involved in a war with the Red Court (even if they didn't fight in too many battles) and then involved in the Demonreach incident, not to mention that they've had more than ten years to get themselves killed in other ways, I feel like "they're all dead" is probably a safer assumption than "they're alive and just waiting to convince the White Council to make a trade for information, even though the White Council has no reason to assume that the Summer Court in particular would have information.")
Maybe. But not very often, I don't think, and working with someone for years puts one at far greater risk than having a few formal meetings with people. Also, having Ramirez say "this person's on our side. She's had plenty of chances to screw us over and lead us into traps, but instead has been nothing but helpful" is probably going to ratchet down suspicion.
Meh. Even if Ramirez does work out that she's hiding her power, that's hardly going to lead to the assumption that she's a warlock--it's more likely to lead to the assumption that she didn't want to get drafted like Harry did. And as you pointed out, Ramirez is fairly tolerant, and he's had years to see that Elaine is interested in helping rather than working against the White Council.
So what you're saying is that Elaine needs to be thrown out of her position. Personally, I feel that this is a disservice to her character, but I suppose I can get behind the Paranet not formally working with the White Council until after Elaine is proven to be a bad guy, if that's what ends up happening to her. So long as she's not thrown out for incompetence/inability to get over her issues.
Her vanilla status is important to the Paranet insomuch as she really ought to be a member before she ends up running it, and to my knowledge the Paranet is an organization of magical practitioner.
Her vanilla status is more relevant to her interactions with the White Council, however, because as you pointed out, someone who wants to get the Paranet to work with the White Council is going to have to deal with Langtry and people like him, and those people are far less likely to respect/work with her due to her lack of magical talent.
You may suspect and disbelieve all you like. The fact is, canon has stated that the Paranet is an organization of magical practitioners, and while that might have changed, we need to see that in the books before we accept it as incontrovertible truth.
Also, are you forgetting the Venatory Umbrorum? That's another organization of clued-in people, and one that explicitly accepts vanilla mortals. Furthermore, it's better connected than the Paranet because it's already an acknowledged ally of the White Council. Why should everyone and their cousin suddenly be part of the Paranet when nobody has felt the need to join the Venatori Umbrorum in all this time?
Okay. This shows a fundamental misunderstanding with what I am trying to say, which I will now attempt to clear up.
For the Paranet to start officially working with the White Council, you need people in three positions:
1) You need the head/one of the people running the Paranet to be in favor of the idea.
2) You need someone who can effectively lobby the White Council into agreeing.
3) You need someone who knows both these people and can act as a go-between/support for both sides.
For position 1, I have been advocating for Elaine. She is one of the founders, she is in the position of CEO, and she's in favor of working with the White Council (as seen by her working with Ramirez and based on the fact that the Paranet was formed in response to a failure of minor practitioners to work with the White Council resulting in far too many deaths).
For position 2, I feel that Luccio would be best, since we know she's in favor of the idea, she's lobbying for it already, and she's the captain of the Wardens. Ramirez could also work or help Luccio with this. A distant third would be McCoy, if Harry convinces him to do so.
For position 3, either Harry or Ramirez could work. I feel that Harry would be better, except that he is generally mistrusted by a bunch of people in the White Council. I think that this will change, though, and based on the people claiming that Harry will end up as the Blackstaff or the Merlin, I'm not alone in that.
I do not feel that any one person can do all three jobs, and frankly it's better if no one tries to do two. And yet people keep arguing either as if I'm advocating one person for three/two jobs or as if they think one person should do it all. I just don't get it.
--- End quote ---
For one thing, I don't think Elaine is in favor of having anything to do with the white council. Yes, she has contact with Ramirez, but that is rather unavoidable. Ramirez is the local warden after all, and Elaine can't be seen purposely avoiding Ramirez less she'll raise suspicion.
Another point is the fact that Elaine is hiding her wizard level talent is a big problem in itself, even if her ascociation with Harry and Justin was never discovered. The council let those below wizard level go relatively free, but anyone with wizard level talents is never allow to be non member of the council else there would have been several wizard organizations aside from the council by now.
Also, having wizard level talent is one thing, but having the skill and knowledge of a qualified wizard is another thing entirely. Maybe Elaine can hide that she studies magic under Justin, though I doubt even that is possible. But if the fact that she lied about her talent levels is discovered, finding out that she is also skilled and knowledgable won't be too far of a stretch, and then the question: "Who is her teacher?" will come up. Things will go downhill from there.
Elaine could hide her power level from Ramirez because she is older and more expirience, but hiding her power levels from senior wizards like EB or Langtry will be nai impossible. Heck, I doubt Elaine could fooled Luccio for that matter.
In a world where magic exist, hoping that your secrets will stay save by assuming all witnesses is dead is not feasible. There are spirits that lived in multiple dimensions of time, There are powers with intelectus that could know everything about you if they just think about it. Who knows what else is there?
Note I do not say that Elaine can't be leader of paranet. I am just saying that if Elaine is the leader, the strategy to build a formal alliance with the white council cannot be done, which may not be a bad thing.
BTW: where exactly it is specified that the paranet is a practicianer only organization? Or where exactly it is specified that Murphy is an ally of the paranet instead of a member? I seem not to remember any of that.
KurtinStGeorge:
I find this conversation about the Paranet and whether Murphy could be considered one of its leaders and the differences between Elaine and Murphy to be a very interesting one with good points made on both sides. However, I have problems trying to figure out either Murphy or Elaine's path going forward.
Murphy's future is difficult to predict because her injuries left her in limbo at the end of Skin Game. Long-term, she has enough inside supernatural knowledge and information sources to act as some kind of coordinator or possibly even a spymaster. She may be associated with the paranet, but I see any future role Murphy might play going forward as being wider and perhaps more freelance.
More importantly, I don't feel I have a solid grasp on Murphy's character like I did before Changes. In Ghost Story Murphy was pretty hard core. Without hesitation she was ready to kill people she saw as a threat. Granted, Murphy thought Harry had been murdered and she was a leader of a faction fighting a nasty street war against the Fomor, but she had gone from upholder of the law to hardcore vigilante in a matter of months. All of that seemed to change in Cold Days. What, Harry being alive suddenly takes Murphy from being Tank Girl psycho back to being regular Murphy again? I don't want to get into her actions in Skin Game. Too much ink has already been spilled over whether Murphy made a mistake anyone could have been suckered into vs her own arrogance and self-importance led her to fall for Nicodemus' trap. The point is, I think Jim has some "splainin to do" in regards to where Murphy is psychologically. I think her personal issues have to be worked through before I could see her as as a leader, ambassador (No she's not ambassador material. Throw that idea out the window now.) or consultant for the paranet or anyone else. I got the impression that Murphy went through an arc that brought her back to sanity prior to Harry's return in Cold Days. If that's the case I really think Jim needs to tell us about that so we can better understand this character.
The problem I have with Elaine is much simpler. She not just hiding her abilities and history from the Ramirez and White Council. She's hiding things from Harry. This was clearly hinted at in White Night. I'm not saying Elaine has gone full "Red lightsaber" because I don't have enough information to make that call yet, but it's a possibility that she was responsible for Nemfecting Aurora and has been lying to Harry about Justin and how she was enthralled by him since Summer Knight.
Those suspicions aside, Elaine is clearly in a better position than Murphy to be considered a leader or one of the key leaders of the paranet. However, she is not in any position to openly meet with or negotiate with higher ups in the White Council. I seriously doubt she would want to even meet with Luccio.
The paranet itself is not a centralized organization. There's no HQ. There's no hierarchy or clearly defined chain of command. It's more like an underground resistance movement or even a loosely affiliated terrorist organization. There are cells within different cities. Different people may be seen as a leader to a particular cell or within a particular city. At one time Murphy may have even been thought of as one of those leaders. It's not like someone in Houston, Texas is going to know that Murphy is a vanilla mortal. Another more likely possibility that when Murphy sends information to a member of the paranet in Houston, the recipient doesn't know the exact identity of the sender, they would just know if the information came from a trusted source. So how could anyone hold Murphy's vanilla mortal status against her if they don't know exactly who was helping them? Should the paranet ever become more formalized and structured, then Murphy being seen as a full member might become problematic, but she could still be some type of consultant. However, I don't see how the paranet ever reaches that level of organization except in a time of peace and safety, in which case would Murphy even want to be involved with it? There's no reliable way to answer that question.
P.S. Now that I think about it, there really is no such thing as "a full member of the paranet." There's no sign up sheet with rules and stated group objectives. There's no tests to take to prove one is worthy to join. Finally, there's no organization to judge a person's merit to join it. Take the guy who sends Butters information that he claims help track supernatural activity through statistics he gathered on the internet. Just because he's aware of supernatural activity doesn't mean he has anymore magical ability than Murphy does. Some people may participate in the paranet as a matter of survival while others just want to help because they see it as the right thing to do.
ClintACK:
KSG- Great points on Murphy and Elaine.
I'd only add that whatever we discover about each of them, it will be something that will hit Harry like a ton of bricks, right where it hurts.
nadia.skylark:
--- Quote ---For one thing, I don't think Elaine is in favor of having anything to do with the white council. Yes, she has contact with Ramirez, but that is rather unavoidable. Ramirez is the local warden after all, and Elaine can't be seen purposely avoiding Ramirez less she'll raise suspicion.
--- End quote ---
I'm reasonably confident that Elaine would greatly prefer not to have anything to do with the White Court, also. But Elaine has demonstrated repeatedly that she is far more practical than Harry, so I don't see this being an actual impediment given the state of things (if the Fomor weren't around, it would be a different story).
--- Quote ---Another point is the fact that Elaine is hiding her wizard level talent is a big problem in itself, even if her ascociation with Harry and Justin was never discovered. The council let those below wizard level go relatively free, but anyone with wizard level talents is never allow to be non member of the council else there would have been several wizard organizations aside from the council by now.
Also, having wizard level talent is one thing, but having the skill and knowledge of a qualified wizard is another thing entirely. Maybe Elaine can hide that she studies magic under Justin, though I doubt even that is possible. But if the fact that she lied about her talent levels is discovered, finding out that she is also skilled and knowledgable won't be too far of a stretch, and then the question: "Who is her teacher?" will come up. Things will go downhill from there.
Elaine could hide her power level from Ramirez because she is older and more expirience, but hiding her power levels from senior wizards like EB or Langtry will be nai impossible. Heck, I doubt Elaine could fooled Luccio for that matter.
In a world where magic exist, hoping that your secrets will stay save by assuming all witnesses is dead is not feasible. There are spirits that lived in multiple dimensions of time, There are powers with intelectus that could know everything about you if they just think about it. Who knows what else is there?
--- End quote ---
I think the real issue here is "how much effort is anyone going to put toward digging up her secrets?" If Elaine's story is "I got chased/targeted by a nastybad thing, ran into Aurora, and she agreed to protect and teach me in exchange for getting her own pet wizard" and then tells (most of) the truth from Summer Knight onward, then it may technically be possible to disprove it...but I don't think anyone's going to expend that amount of effort when there are so many bigger and more urgent issues to deal with. Elaine has spent years proving herself to a trusted and respected member of the Council (Ramirez). In the presence of far higher priorities and the absence of overtly suspicious behavior, my contention is that the White Council is not going to waste too many resources digging into her story.
--- Quote ---BTW: where exactly it is specified that the paranet is a practicianer only organization? Or where exactly it is specified that Murphy is an ally of the paranet instead of a member? I seem not to remember any of that.
--- End quote ---
I had been operating under the impression that it was specified at the end of White Night, when the Paranet was formed. It rather belatedly occurs to me, however, that since I haven't had access to this book in nearly a year, I may be misremembering. There is supporting evidence, however, in that every Paranet incident we've heard of outside of information-gathering (which they seem to do for their allies in return for other help, as well as for themselves) involves a minor practitioner.
And if the Paranet is specifically a group of magical practitioners, which I believe it is, then Murphy by definition not a member.
Actually, why do you think that Murphy is a member of the Paranet? Does she actually have any connection to them besides a single meeting, at which members of several other factions were present? If any vanilla mortal was going to be a member of the Paranet, I would think that it would be Butters rather than Murphy (and if I did not hate Butters with a fierce and burning passion, I'd say that he's probably a good candidate to lobby for the Paranet as a strong and valuable organization).
--- Quote ---Murphy's future is difficult to predict because her injuries left her in limbo at the end of Skin Game. Long-term, she has enough inside supernatural knowledge and information sources to act as some kind of coordinator or possibly even a spymaster. She may be associated with the paranet, but I see any future role Murphy might play going forward as being wider and perhaps more freelance.
More importantly, I don't feel I have a solid grasp on Murphy's character like I did before Changes. In Ghost Story Murphy was pretty hard core. Without hesitation she was ready to kill people she saw as a threat. Granted, Murphy thought Harry had been murdered and she was a leader of a faction fighting a nasty street war against the Fomor, but she had gone from upholder of the law to hardcore vigilante in a matter of months. All of that seemed to change in Cold Days. What, Harry being alive suddenly takes Murphy from being Tank Girl psycho back to being regular Murphy again? I don't want to get into her actions in Skin Game. Too much ink has already been spilled over whether Murphy made a mistake anyone could have been suckered into vs her own arrogance and self-importance led her to fall for Nicodemus' trap. The point is, I think Jim has some "splainin to do" in regards to where Murphy is psychologically. I think her personal issues have to be worked through before I could see her as as a leader, ambassador (No she's not ambassador material. Throw that idea out the window now.) or consultant for the paranet or anyone else. I got the impression that Murphy went through an arc that brought her back to sanity prior to Harry's return in Cold Days. If that's the case I really think Jim needs to tell us about that so we can better understand this character.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, Murphy is in a weird place as a character. I think that's probably why it's so easy to argue over her--she's reacting psychologically in ways that feel slightly off, and trying to interpret that results in wildly different understandings of her.
--- Quote ---The problem I have with Elaine is much simpler. She not just hiding her abilities and history from the Ramirez and White Council. She's hiding things from Harry. This was clearly hinted at in White Night. I'm not saying Elaine has gone full "Red lightsaber" because I don't have enough information to make that call yet, but it's a possibility that she was responsible for Nemfecting Aurora and has been lying to Harry about Justin and how she was enthralled by him since Summer Knight.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, this is the real problem with Elaine. However, since I really love her character and the way she and Harry interact, I'm going to go back to being in denial until I have incontrovertible evidence of Elaine's betrayal.
--- Quote ---Those suspicions aside, Elaine is clearly in a better position than Murphy to be considered a leader or one of the key leaders of the paranet. However, she is not in any position to openly meet with or negotiate with higher ups in the White Council. I seriously doubt she would want to even meet with Luccio.
--- End quote ---
I think that she could manage a couple of meetings, but I agree with you that it wouldn't work as a regular thing. That's why I've proposed Harry or Ramirez as a go-between.
--- Quote ---The paranet itself is not a centralized organization. There's no HQ. There's no hierarchy or clearly defined chain of command. It's more like an underground resistance movement or even a loosely affiliated terrorist organization. There are cells within different cities. Different people may be seen as a leader to a particular cell or within a particular city. At one time Murphy may have even been thought of as one of those leaders. It's not like someone in Houston, Texas is going to know that Murphy is a vanilla mortal. Another more likely possibility that when Murphy sends information to a member of the paranet in Houston, the recipient doesn't know the exact identity of the sender, they would just know if the information came from a trusted source. So how could anyone hold Murphy's vanilla mortal status against her if they don't know exactly who was helping them? Should the paranet ever become more formalized and structured, then Murphy being seen as a full member might become problematic, but she could still be some type of consultant. However, I don't see how the paranet ever reaches that level of organization except in a time of peace and safety, in which case would Murphy even want to be involved with it? There's no reliable way to answer that question.
P.S. Now that I think about it, there really is no such thing as "a full member of the paranet." There's no sign up sheet with rules and stated group objectives. There's no tests to take to prove one is worthy to join. Finally, there's no organization to judge a person's merit to join it.
--- End quote ---
This is definitely what we see in the books. I tend to think of it as being more organized based on the WoJ about Elaine being the Paranet's CEO, since in my opinion an organization with a CEO-type leader has to have a fair amount of central organization--but I may be reading too much into it.
--- Quote ---Take the guy who sends Butters information that he claims help track supernatural activity through statistics he gathered on the internet. Just because he's aware of supernatural activity doesn't mean he has anymore magical ability than Murphy does.
--- End quote ---
Maybe, but it's explicitly noted that minor talents can use cell phones and other technology--wizards are just too strong.
--- Quote ---I'd only add that whatever we discover about each of them, it will be something that will hit Harry like a ton of bricks, right where it hurts.
--- End quote ---
True. I'm just hoping that we find out Murphy is the traitor, and Elaine gets to stay a good guy.
PS: While writing this post, I've realized that my tone in earlier posts might have been slightly more confrontational than necessary. Sorry about that. I find that I'm much more willing to admit that opposing viewpoints might be right when I don't feel like one of my favorite characters is being attacked in favor of a character I dislike--but that's no reason to disregard the possibility that other people might have legitimate reasons/evidence for their claims.
huangjimmy108:
--- Quote from: KurtinStGeorge on May 15, 2019, 06:17:24 AM ---I find this conversation about the Paranet and whether Murphy could be considered one of its leaders and the differences between Elaine and Murphy to be a very interesting one with good points made on both sides. However, I have problems trying to figure out either Murphy or Elaine's path going forward.
Murphy's future is difficult to predict because her injuries left her in limbo at the end of Skin Game. Long-term, she has enough inside supernatural knowledge and information sources to act as some kind of coordinator or possibly even a spymaster. She may be associated with the paranet, but I see any future role Murphy might play going forward as being wider and perhaps more freelance.
More importantly, I don't feel I have a solid grasp on Murphy's character like I did before Changes. In Ghost Story Murphy was pretty hard core. Without hesitation she was ready to kill people she saw as a threat. Granted, Murphy thought Harry had been murdered and she was a leader of a faction fighting a nasty street war against the Fomor, but she had gone from upholder of the law to hardcore vigilante in a matter of months. All of that seemed to change in Cold Days. What, Harry being alive suddenly takes Murphy from being Tank Girl psycho back to being regular Murphy again? I don't want to get into her actions in Skin Game. Too much ink has already been spilled over whether Murphy made a mistake anyone could have been suckered into vs her own arrogance and self-importance led her to fall for Nicodemus' trap. The point is, I think Jim has some "splainin to do" in regards to where Murphy is psychologically. I think her personal issues have to be worked through before I could see her as as a leader, ambassador (No she's not ambassador material. Throw that idea out the window now.) or consultant for the paranet or anyone else. I got the impression that Murphy went through an arc that brought her back to sanity prior to Harry's return in Cold Days. If that's the case I really think Jim needs to tell us about that so we can better understand this character.
The problem I have with Elaine is much simpler. She not just hiding her abilities and history from the Ramirez and White Council. She's hiding things from Harry. This was clearly hinted at in White Night. I'm not saying Elaine has gone full "Red lightsaber" because I don't have enough information to make that call yet, but it's a possibility that she was responsible for Nemfecting Aurora and has been lying to Harry about Justin and how she was enthralled by him since Summer Knight.
Those suspicions aside, Elaine is clearly in a better position than Murphy to be considered a leader or one of the key leaders of the paranet. However, she is not in any position to openly meet with or negotiate with higher ups in the White Council. I seriously doubt she would want to even meet with Luccio.
The paranet itself is not a centralized organization. There's no HQ. There's no hierarchy or clearly defined chain of command. It's more like an underground resistance movement or even a loosely affiliated terrorist organization. There are cells within different cities. Different people may be seen as a leader to a particular cell or within a particular city. At one time Murphy may have even been thought of as one of those leaders. It's not like someone in Houston, Texas is going to know that Murphy is a vanilla mortal. Another more likely possibility that when Murphy sends information to a member of the paranet in Houston, the recipient doesn't know the exact identity of the sender, they would just know if the information came from a trusted source. So how could anyone hold Murphy's vanilla mortal status against her if they don't know exactly who was helping them? Should the paranet ever become more formalized and structured, then Murphy being seen as a full member might become problematic, but she could still be some type of consultant. However, I don't see how the paranet ever reaches that level of organization except in a time of peace and safety, in which case would Murphy even want to be involved with it? There's no reliable way to answer that question.
P.S. Now that I think about it, there really is no such thing as "a full member of the paranet." There's no sign up sheet with rules and stated group objectives. There's no tests to take to prove one is worthy to join. Finally, there's no organization to judge a person's merit to join it. Take the guy who sends Butters information that he claims help track supernatural activity through statistics he gathered on the internet. Just because he's aware of supernatural activity doesn't mean he has anymore magical ability than Murphy does. Some people may participate in the paranet as a matter of survival while others just want to help because they see it as the right thing to do.
--- End quote ---
In my opinion, Murphy's character and it's changes from 12 up to book 15 are quite explainable.
After Harry's presume'd death in book 12, Murphy got hit hard. More importantly, in her opinion Harry is not dead because his body is not found. At that point Murphy is like a family of a soldier missing in action. Harry is missing, presumed dead but there is no body. There is no closure. She is hoping Harry is still alive, afraid he is truely dead and in denial. Unlik.All that plus all other external factors must have strain her badly. This would explain her hard line methods when Harry first appear in book 13. Murphy's condition is different from Molly. Molly knows what exactly happened to Harry. She knows Harry is dead because she help arrange it. Molly suffers from guilt. Murphy however, suffers from regret and uncertainty.
By the end of book 13, Murphy must have healled somewhat. By facing Harry's ghost and gaining the confirmation that Harry is truely dead, Murphy has gotten her closure. She is devastated, but she can now continue with her life. The end of GS, where Mortimer shielded Murphy while she is crying is the sign of her emotional recovery.
Just after Murphy accepted Harry's death and start to go on with her life, Harry returns from the dead. Molly has warning from Lea, Murphy get the full surprise package. From this alone, her innitial rather cold reception to Harry's return is understandable. It is hard enough for her to shift from believing Harry is still alive when Harry first died in book 12 into accepting that Harry is truely dead after she meet Harry's ghost in book 13. Now in book 14, she has to shift back from accepting Harry is dead to Harry is still alive again. It is a major emotional upheaval for her.
A shock though it was, it is after all a good news in the end. Once the shock is over, the fact that Harry is indeed not dead must be a major boon for Murphy emotionally which would explain why she gotten a lot better once book 15comes around.
In terms of character, all seems to be in order.
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