The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Which mortal might become nemfected?
morriswalters:
Well have it your way. A statement by Mab accredited to Uriel states it better.
--- Quote from: Small Favor ---“‘The burned hand teaches best,’” I read aloud. I made my way back to my seat and shook my head. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Grimalkin mewled from the pew beside me, “That your experience with resisting the shadow of the Fallen One has garnered the respect of the Watchman, my Emissary.”
--- End quote ---
Mira:
--- Quote from: morriswalters on December 16, 2019, 05:05:52 PM ---Well have it your way. A statement by Mab accredited to Uriel states it better.
--- End quote ---
Indeed, Harry never stopped resisting once he understood what he was going up against. He
never gave in, oh sometimes temptation carried him up to the line, but he never crossed it, this is
what changed Lasciel into Lash over time. It shows strength of will that got Uriel's attention.
Bad Alias:
Is there any evidence that anyone has resisted a Shadow as long or longer than Harry? There is substantial evidence that no one has. At the very least, 1/30th of the Fallen in a position to know have never heard of it.
My question is how was Harry able to resist? I have two thoughts.
His soul gaze of Rasmussen. Harry always knew exactly how awful being a Denarian would be. I doubt many people have had a shadow and a soul gaze of Denarian. That probably gave him a lot of motivation to resist.
Cassius's death curse. His curse was for Harry to "die alone." What's that even mean? What's the worst thing Cassius could thing off? Being separated from the power of the Fallen. I think maybe his death curse did something to weaken Lash's influence of Harry. That way Harry wouldn't take up the coin, and he would "die alone."
Mira:
--- Quote ---What Harry did (that hadn't been done before) was continue to operate and grow in power without ever actually DOING anything about the Shadow. He put the coin into a circle; occasionally he threatened to "lock" the shadow in a cage of his will. But he did none of the other things (not only did he NOT set aside his power, he ALSO never turned his coin over to the Church) that he knew (or had reason to hope) might otherwise weaken the Shadow's presence in his mind.
--- End quote ---
In the end though, Harry did turn the coin over to the Church. It is possible that the reason he did was the death of Lash. With her death any possible influence the coin might have had on him no matter how slight was now gone.
KurtinStGeorge:
Wow! There have been some interesting conversations going on in this thread since the last time I checked about ten days ago. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to address many of the most interesting ideas I’ve read, at least not today. Before I go into who I think is the most likely candidate to either become nemfected or who is already nemfected I want to explain some of my thinking about this issue and also address a character several people have mentioned as a possible candidate, Elaine.
Let’s deal with Elaine first. In my mind Elaine is a backup character who could be nemfected. Her story about becoming Justin’s thrall is sketchy. She has kept other things about herself hidden from Harry. When Harry asked Elaine how she developed her healing ability, she pretty much dodged the question. There was also a time when Harry was talking to Bob about mind control; I don’t remember which book, and Harry used Elaine being enthralled by Just DuMorne as an example, and I don’t remember Bob’s exact words, but his reply to Harry sounded skeptical or even condescending. Bob said something like, “Oh yah, Elaine being enthralled, I guess so.” That reply was just awkward enough to draw my attention; but not Harry’s, and nothing more was said about it. Finally, Elaine had access to Aurora. So, Elaine is a candidate to have infected Aurora with the Nemesis flue. We can even go further and guess that the Nemesis bug was passed from Justin to Elaine to Aurora. (Thank you g33k for pointing this out.) We don’t know of any other characters who had regular access to the late Summer Lady so that makes her an especially strong candidate, and that’s my problem.
It’s too easy for us to zero in on Elaine. That makes me think she could be a red herring to distract us. In a future Dresden Files story I could see Harry become aware that Nemesis; or its agents, are always one step ahead of him and the most likely way for this to occur is if one of Harry’s associates is a Nemesis agent; though perhaps an unwilling one and maybe even unaware what they are doing. In this hypothetical future novel, clues start pointing towards Elaine and we already have our own suspicions about her true loyalty. Then wham! Harry and by extension the readers, are blindsided when the true nemfected agent is revealed. An alternative is Harry uses his detective skills to unmask the real nemesis agent, but we are left believing its Elaine right up until Harry reveals the true culprit or victim. Finally, Elaine has already had an opportunity to back-stab Harry, and do so at a critical moment. If Elaine is nemfected, why did she let Harry get through the poison thorns to confront Aurora in Summer Knight? As I stated above, there is a sketchy and perhaps even a hidden dark side to Elaine, I’m just not convinced it comes from her being nemfected.
Now to get to the meat of the matter, the original OP I wrote. I was somewhat deceptive; by omission, when I wrote it. I wanted to see if anyone else would take the next step by answering an unasked question. I said question #2 was a two-part question, but it is; in reality, a three-part question. Part 2 was, “And why do you think Nemesis might target this individual?” Part 3 is, “Why would Jim Butcher choose this character to be targeted?” (g33k came very close to stating this in one post.)
Jim is, in one sense, the actual mind of Nemesis. He must determine its rational for nemfection, but Jim has other goals as the writer of the story. Of course, a good writer wants to keep us in suspense. Like a stage magician, the writer doesn’t want to give away their secrets and tell us how the magic is done. However, Jim has revealed to us; over and over again, what he does when he writes a Dresden Files novel. I heard him repeat it this past July when I saw him at WesterCon in Layton, Utah. When Jim is asked why he likes to torture his characters, he replies, “I’m not torturing Harry, Murphy or anyone else in the Dresden Files. They are fictional and can’t really be tortured. I’m torturing you, the readers.” So, I believe the way to determine who is most likely character for nemfection is to ask, which character is going to hurt the most when you; and Harry, find out? Also, there must a believable reason why Nemesis would target this character. With those two criteria in mind, I think the best answer is Thomas Raith. Now if you’ve read this far, thank you for doing so. You’ve read enough of my meandering thoughts for today. Tomorrow (I hope) I will go into detail about how I think nemfection works; specifically with Thomas, the clues that reveal that Thomas is already nemfected and how a nemfected Thomas fits in with Nemesis' long-term goals.
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