The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Nicodemus theory spoilers, spoilers , spoilers
toodeep:
Nico is not the most dangerous to Harry, but he is one of the most dangerous villains in the book. Nico's primary powers are that he is smart, resourceful, will almost certainly live to fight another day, and plays a deep game. He is not the largest threat to Harry because he has never carried the grudge against Harry needed to be a big threat. He's willing to fight Harry to make one of his schemes go off, but he has the resources to have hired the hellhound to assassinate harry but hasn't. That kind of grudge would have made him more dangerous to Harry. The truth is, Nico doesn't understand Harry as well as Marcone and Lara do, which is why they are in some ways more dangerous to him, because they can manipulate Harry in ways Nico can't.
On the flip side of that statement, you can argue that a Denarian was the cause of his death in Changes, so maybe Nico is out to get him even in off-scheme events. It's really not their fault he got better from that.
When Harry actually faces off against Nico, Nico isn't the most physically dangerous being present. Harry has almost been defeated by Magog several times because he is a big bruiser. No, Nico has the knowledge and the plan, and lets face it, he should have won several times. He gave Harry the coin in one book - that should have eventually gotten Harry on his side. He got Harry killed in Changes, and he faced off against Harry and a knight with three Denarians (one supercharged) in Skin Game which was a fight he should have won, except Harry had an ace up his sleeve and had learned more about fighting Denarians than probably any other mortal.
Two notes - I think there are some fallen who prefer to work with their mortals rather than dominate them. This makes those fallen more dangerous and effective because they get to break some of the rules for immortals by using their mortal's free will. Magog is the kind that crushes his mortal's will, Laciel is the kind that likes to work with them.
Second note, the event that Mab was getting revenge for was for Nic breaking the accords in small favor.
Walter the skull:
I don't think we've seen Nicodemus's A game. In all of his appearances, he's had a mission, and Harry has just been a pain in his ass. Harry hasn't been Nicodemus's main target.
Sure killing Harry was on his list of things to do in Skin Game, but if Nic got the goods and Harry survived, i don't think he would've lost any sleep.
Also Harry has always had a knight or two with him when he faced Nic.
Snark Knight:
--- Quote from: toodeep on June 16, 2020, 01:59:33 PM ---He's willing to fight Harry to make one of his schemes go off, but he has the resources to have hired the hellhound to assassinate harry but hasn't. That kind of grudge would have made him more dangerous to Harry.
--- End quote ---
Hire assassins, anyway. Pretty sure Kincaid wouldn't work for the Nic under any circumstances. Based on their interaction in SmF, I think Kincaid would very much like an excuse to see exactly how much of an injury Nicodemus can regenerate from.
ClintACK:
The problem with trying to evaluation Nic's effectiveness is that we rarely know what he's really trying to accomplish, either in the short term or in his two-thousand-year goal. (Is he trying to remove Lucifer, because the archangel was nemfected? Is God, like Mab with Maeve, unwilling to kill his most-beloved archangel, endangering Reality itself? Or is the nemfected still in Heaven -- was that why Lucifer rebelled? Or is Nic just crazy -- is his greater purpose a lie that Anduriel has sold him?)
We know that in Death Masks, he was testing out a way to use a holy faith object to power an evil curse -- and his test was a success. The fact that he didn't actually cause mass casualties with the curse, and that Harry took back the (fake) shroud doesn't change that -- those were secondary objectives. (As were recruiting Harry and killing Shiro.)
That test was a success, and in Skin Game, he got away with a much, much more powerful holy faith object. What evil can he power up with the Grail? And why would he want to -- what makes it worth the sacrifice of his greatest supporter?
Small Favor is even stranger -- the whole book is layer upon layer of hidden goals. He kidnapped Marcone in order to get access to the Archive. He kidnapped the Archive in order to get Thorned Namshiel to expose himself, or did he? And why was Lucifer willing to give them a massive hellfire cheat -- what was so important in the events of that book to make it worth giving Uriel the opening to gift Harry with Soulfire?
Was the massive hellfire pentacle another test? Is it a trick Nic will be using in the future (click to show/hide)either to give Dresden a binding circle around the Last Titan, or to surround large numbers of Outsiders so they can be banished like the cornerhounds?
The one big escalation we see over the course of the books is his recruitment of more and more powerful hosts for the coins. It really looks like most hosts have been just ordinary schmucks -- like Sanya the easily-manipulated angry youth. Even the spellcasters are fairly minor -- Cassius was a sorcerer for fifteen hundred years and was the weakest sidekick in Dead Beat.
In Death Masks, Nic makes a concerted effort to recruit Harry. In Small Favor, Nic is offering coins to the Archive and Marcone. In Skin Game, he's given coins to a powerful warlock and to the genoskwa, and is trying to recruit Grey. That's some serious escalation. And there's no reason he couldn't have been giving coins to more powerful mortals and scions all along, is there?
And in keeping with new Peace Talks information... wild speculation:
(click to show/hide)With starborns appearing every 666 years, could Nicodemus be starborn? There's nothing that says a starborn has to end up a good guy (or even a guy). WAG starborn list: Nic, Rashid, Mavra, Harry+Elaine.
Conspiracy Theorist:
Tessa liked ordinary smacks, Nick always sought out particular hosts.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version