The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

"Job placement" microfiction

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morriswalters:

--- Quote from: Dina on May 10, 2020, 03:21:50 AM ---I am not saying any of the books are not good, or relevant for the story or even needed, just that I am not a fan, for different reasons. One of those reasons is that I did not find GS or CD as entertaining as SG.
And morriswalters, the books have shown many times that you can be a hero without a sword. SG only says that sometimes a sword is a very useful and cool thing. An idea that comes from long before Jim (for example, in Arthurian legends). And of course, I personally love light sabers.

--- End quote ---
Feel free not to share my opinion.  I won't be offended.

Bad Alias:

--- Quote from: Yuillegan on May 09, 2020, 07:20:45 AM ---But why would Harry's junior be managing security AND giving him orders?

--- End quote ---
How is the Western Regional Commander the junior of the Eastern Regional Commander? Harry was appointed as a regional commander when he got his cloak. Ramirez got the job as the "other regional commander in America" sometime after the second to last chapter of Dead Beat. Carlos has been a warden longer. Carlos probably has more points under any system based on superiors' evaluations. Harry is the Warden as opposed to a warden, but the Council, maybe even Senior Council, seems to be largely in the dark on that. So it's a toss up as to who is senior under whatever tie breaker the Council uses.


--- Quote ---Tell me that the Council doesn’t want me to be our emissary.”

Ramirez blinked. “Wait, what? Oh . . . oh God, no, Harry. I mean . . . no. Just no.”

...

Ramirez cleared his throat before continuing. “But they will expect you to be the Council’s liaison with Winter, if needed, and to provide security for the Senior Council members in attendance.
--- End quote ---
That's why Carlos is in charge instead of Harry. 1. Harry would be a terrible choice because there's bad blood between him and just about everyone else, and Harry's a hot head. 2. If anyone was worried about offending Harry by putting someone else in charge of something in his territory, using Carlos, the person Harry asked to be in charge of security at the last official Council activity in Chicago, and the excuse that Harry is in a unique position to serve as the liaison to Winter would be enough to satisfy the protocol droids.

Former Captain of the Wardens, Senior Council Member Blackstaff McCoy, is going to be on the ground there, so I don't think the SC is going to be to worried about the young hotheads going off half cocked. It also pays to note that Carlos is one of the oldest wardens, not counting any who may or may not have been pulled out of retirement, because almost all of the active wardens were killed off in Dead Beat. At this point, the old guard can't be more than 50 or so. Probably less. I want to say the number of wardens was around 300 last time the number came up, but I'm not sure.


--- Quote from: Yuillegan on May 09, 2020, 07:20:45 AM ---Being a part-time artist and Summer Knight is a long way from Harry. Harry Dresden, who actively gets involved in every struggle him can stumble into. Who starts and ends wars, who fights duels, who storms the enemy strongholds and assassinates key people and otherwise causes chaos and destruction (in the name of saving the world from worse).

--- End quote ---
Being a part-time artist takes up way more time than one weekend a year.


--- Quote from: Yuillegan on May 09, 2020, 07:20:45 AM ---I can't remember the last time Harry has had any free time (except for a bite at BK or IHOP).
--- End quote ---
During the 363 days out of the year he isn't having the worst weekend of the year?


--- Quote from: Yuillegan on May 09, 2020, 07:20:45 AM ---S.I. is both small and chronically, critically underfunded. Without Murphy to advocate for it and protect it I am sure it's more of a political exile than ever. Even before Murphy left they were being clamped down on and gutted. She's been gone a few years now and I doubt it does very much at all.
--- End quote ---
Stallings was said to be quite competent, so I'm not so sure it's going to be worse off without Murphy. Murphy hadn't been the one fighting turf wars since Proven Guilty. Honestly, S.I. might be better off. Even accepting your premise, that doesn't mean they aren't going to get all the weird cases in search of a scape goat dumped in their lap anyway. It's been around in one form or another for at least 40 years. It's still going to be a valuable source of information.

All that said, that response is a dodge of my question of if you were a warden in a city of millions, would you want S.I. to keep you in the loop? I ask that question because the answer is an obvious "yes." Harry doesn't have to keep his p.i. business to be kept in the loop, but he does have to offer something of value in return.


--- Quote from: Yuillegan on May 09, 2020, 07:20:45 AM ---What's the BSF? Did you Brighter Future Society?
--- End quote ---
Yes. I don't think all the other parties we see meeting in GS are just going to quit fighting the good fight if Marcone cuts ties with their "Chicago Alliance." Maybe they loose out on Castle Dresden, but Harry doesn't need that. But if the BFS/Chicago Alliance/whatever does collapse and go away, that's a reason why Harry should re-open his office, not a reason that he shouldn't.

All I'm saying is that advertising as a wizard for hire in the yellow pages is a good way to:

--- Quote ---protect mortals in this area. To be vigilant against supernatural threats in your region.
--- End quote ---
Luccio describing (some of) the duties of a warden, Dead Beat, Ch. 31.

I could see Harry not reopening his business. I just think it would be a really dumb move from an in universe perspective. It's a good way to have information show up on your door step. It's also a good way to launder his diamond money, but I doubt that will even come up in the books. He may or may not need more money than the money from the diamonds and his warden pay depending on how much he can get for the diamonds and a bunch of other factors we have little to no information on. As such, I'd want a good in universe explanation of why he's not doing it. (Just as a side note, the last in text job Harry had as Harry Dresden, P.I. was one month before Changes).

As for the Ghost Story discussion, GS is currently ranked as number 14 on my best to worst case file list. (Which still puts it higher on my overall best book list than most books I've read). There wasn't a whole lot wrong with it. It was just too slow for my taste. I also think it was mostly unnecessary. My first time through the books, I accidentally skipped it and didn't realize I missed anything until about a third of the way into Cold Days or wherever it was that characters started talking about Harry running around Chicago as a ghost. If you add three or four chapters to Cold Days and Skin Game showing the effect of Harry's suicide on everyone, then you've probably completely covered the themes of Ghost Story. It's always the book that takes me the longest to get through.


--- Quote from: morriswalters on May 09, 2020, 10:20:13 PM ---Ghost Story was padding.  It introduced nothing that could have not be done in Cold Days, without adding more than a chapter or so.  Cold Days sets up everything going forward.  The Outsiders, the forever war at the Gates and the final trilogy.  And Jim had been pushing it since at least Proven Guilty.

Skin Games is a great book that is one third fluff, dedicated to the idea that to be a hero you need a sword.  And that the writer can push something that on it's face is ridiculous, and that fan boys will buy it.  And it does a disservice to Butters character arc in the series.

To whoever I just insulted I apologize, without surrendering the point.  Having said that, the other two thirds is a pretty rousing heist plot with a very nice twist.

--- End quote ---
I basically agree except I think you need more than one chapter to cover the points from Ghost Story. I think it's fine for Butters to end up a Knight, but I have trouble with his and Murphy's inverse faith in Harry plot arcs over GS to SG and Butters ending up as the Knight of Faith after his repeated doubting Thomas routines.

I don't think the point is that one needs a sword to be a hero. I do think that one does need the power to affect the outcome of events to be a hero if the end result is to be anything other than having "died heroically" on a tombstone.

magnuskn:
My big points of contention were that Fitz' story was a completely useless waste of time for a throwaway character, which could have been used to flesh out more what happened in the year Harry died, also where the other important characters were in their character arcs and that Murphy's character development in Ghost Story was pretty much completely reversed in Cold Days and hence also a big waste of time. The other stuff was good. But those two points soured the book for me.

Mira:

--- Quote ---How is the Western Regional Commander the junior of the Eastern Regional Commander? Harry was appointed as a regional commander when he got his cloak. Ramirez got the job as the "other regional commander in America" sometime after the second to last chapter of Dead Beat. Carlos has been a warden longer. Carlos probably has more points under any system based on superiors' evaluations. Harry is the Warden as opposed to a warden, but the Council, maybe even Senior Council, seems to be largely in the dark on that. So it's a toss up as to who is senior under whatever tie breaker the Council uses.
--- End quote ---

Thank you,  that is how I remembered it, it also makes sense that since Harry was considered dead
for the better part of a year and now Winter Knight as well, that Carlos would gain a little more standing since being the Western Regional Commander was his sole job. 

--- Quote ---I basically agree except I think you need more than one chapter to cover the points from Ghost Story. I think it's fine for Butters to end up a Knight, but I have trouble with his and Murphy's inverse faith in Harry plot arcs over GS to SG and Butters ending up as the Knight of Faith after his repeated doubting Thomas routines.

--- End quote ---

I think Jim has had a lot of trouble with Murphy since he kicked her off the police force.   He has
tried several versions of her and none of them have worked all that well in my opinion. 

Snark Knight:

--- Quote from: Bad Alias on May 09, 2020, 06:03:51 AM ---Everything we've seen so far indicates that Harry's going to be reinstated as the regional commander located in Chicago. Also, it's stated in the text that no one was willing to step into that position. I think it was in Cold Case (just before Ramirez tells Molly he specifically rejected the job). Ramirez hasn't taken over Harry's job. He has been given the specific task of security for the White Council during the summit.
...
S.I. may or may not be relevant for the rest of the series, but if you were the warden of/in a major metropolitan area, and you were on speaking terms with a division of the police force that was assigned all the weird stuff, why wouldn't you talk to them about keeping you in the loop? I doubt S.I. is too worried about the legalities of killing, how did Butters put it, "humanoid but definitely not human" problems. Most cops who know about the supernatural would probably be happy to let Harry deal with any warlocks too. You remember what old Jack Burton says, "cops got better things to do than get killed."

--- End quote ---


Per the conversation with Morgan about the job at the end of DB, Ramirez is also a regional commander, responsible for the west coast. He must have declined the Council trying to get him to manage both regions at once.

As for SI, I'm not too sure where they're going to stand on supernatural civilian vigilantes now that Harry is back in town. It probably depends how humanoid the creatures in question are, and exactly how clued the SI cops are. I don't get the impression Stallings knows as much as Rawlins, let alone on par with Murphy when she was in charge. Although the FBI building being gutted and the Fomor acting more openly probably should have forced Stallings to learn more than he knew as of Changes & Aftermath. I wouldn't count on SI being OK with exterminating things like whampires or technically-human turtlenecks, though. And executing a warlock was still something Murphy was really bothered by as of PG - I really wouldn't count on most of the rest of SI looking the other way for that.

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