The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

Heading into PT, review of what is known to the Council about Harry

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BrainFireBob:
Been thinking about Dresden.

One of the things that Butcher does excellently, is make things look different from Dresden’s POV than they do from everyone else’s, really making the reader think about how things appear from an outside perspective.

His reaction to the Kemmlerites is a good example. He lives in the wizarding wild west- a town the White Court and Red Court both have a strong presence in, with no other wizards around. He never goes to Edinborough, or calls the Council, voluntarily. He up and starts the war with the Red Court.

So he up and calls the Wardens one day, right after there’s a serious attack that stretches them thin and they’re busy with triage. He luckily gets the commander. What does he say?

“I need backup. Are you familiar with the Kemmlerites?”

1)   *He* is too young to know what the Kemmlerites are
2)   Not only does he know what they are, he knows what they’re doing
3)   But they neatly would tie into his past with Justin- who participated in taking them out and then retired.
4)   He doesn’t just do the equivalent of reporting a breakin to the Wardens of the house next door. He says “I’m going in regardless of whether you guys show up, but it’d sure be nice if you did.”

So you can take it that he’s way more clued in than he should be and eye him suspiciously, or take at value that he’s a private eye and uncovering information is what he does professionally.

There are four things that are of particular interest to me with Harry.

1)   Most of his direct magic instruction seems to have been from Justin. Ebenezer focused on character building, general academic skills, and the philosophy of magic. Much of his later instruction seems to be from Bob, who cheerfully admits to having no moral sense around his knowledge- so when Harry asks Bob for a “good” way to do X, he might be sent for a goat and a sacrificial knife, because that’s 5 minutes faster than the “moral” way.
a.   Why doesn’t Eb know about Bob? That’s my biggest WTF from this series. Harry thinks Bob is a *standard* kind of thing until Luccio disabuses him.
2)   He thinks having a faery godmother is normalesque for wizards. Yet not only does he have the only godmother we hear of, but she is the Leanansidhe herself.
a.   Sidebar: Who on the Council knows? Connections in the Nevernever are forged by similarities and affinities; Harry’s place connected straight to the Leanansidhe’s. In this case, Lea did it based on their *familial* connection; but Harry does keep coming up with knowledge he shouldn’t have and she is essentially a knowledge/skill broker- a parasitic Muse-spirit.
3)   He thinks summoning demons like Chauncy is normal for wizards, to the point he gives one a nickname
a.   Sidebar: Notice that Chauncy’s name is Lovecraftian? Be hilarious if he’s an Outsider and Harry has been seeking knowledge from outside the Outer Gates
4)   Morgan, who has spent at least a century chasing Warlocks, thinks Harry does things like a warlock would- such as his coercion of Toot; trapped in a circle and “take my deal of bread and honey for information, or be stuck there.”

What if Morgan is right? What if Harry is “innocently” effectively using black magic, or at least questionable magic, because he doesn’t know any better? Changes their relationship dramatically.

Let’s look at what Harry has shown knowledge of or ability in he shouldn’t that may be known to the Council:

1)   Etruscan
2)   Sumerian
3)   Hellfire, after tangling with the Denarians
4)   The mortality of the Fae around the Stone Table (we know it was dumb luck he confronted Aurora there)
5)   The mortality of the Fae on Halloween
6)   He used the bloodline curse (Odin tipped him off)- note that he had previous exposure to the same via Victor Sells
7)   He knew who the Kemmlerites were and what they were after
8)   He bonded with Demonreach
9)   He lived with, and still frequently sees, a White Court vampire
10) He had a Foo Dog
11) He has at least some connection to the Knights of the Cross

What else?

Conspiracy Theorist:
Do not consider the Council or Senior Council to be a monolithic entity, all wizards love secrets, and all wizards hate sharing them, therefore they will not have compared notes on Harry, some will know some things, some will know others.

It’s the classic elephant and three blind men conundrum, they know individual bits but do not appreciate the whole, and Harry is the elephant in the room. They are about to see the elephant. Only really Michael and Murphy have so far seen the Elephant in all its glory. Other of Harry’s allies have a better picture of the elephant than the Senior Council.

Bob was buried by Harry just before he was nabbed by the Wardens, he dug him up again after he graduated from Eb. This is why Harry uses the constant threat of burying Bob. Note the existence of Bob is not the only thing Harry has not told Eb about, he has been more forthcoming with Michael, Karin, Butters and even Billy and Georgia than Eb, id Harry strikes again?

ClintACK:
Even if we just look at the events that happen in public at the peace talks in Peace Talks, it's pretty damning, even aside from all the time he spends "smiling" at different delegations and imagining ultraviolence. (You just know he doesn't have a good poker face about any of that.)

Day One:
* On arrival, he immediately goes over to make flirty small talk with Lara Raith. (Who knows what he was overheard saying during the "happytalk illusion"...)
* Then he does her a favor, helping her to make diplomatic overtures to the Svartalves -- and vouches for her honesty
* Then he practically knocks over the buffet table freaking out and going into combat mode over River Shoulders, the kindest and gentlest person in the room
* He's conveniently missing when one of his Mistress's goons tries to date-rape-drug-mind-whammy Yoshimo
* Then he comes back and creates a huge violent scene over it (without so much as asking Yoshimo if she's alright or learning what happened)
* Then he promptly leaves again, on Lara's armDay Two:
* He has a nice heart-to-heart with Ramirez... which later turns out to have been an excuse to set him up for public humiliation
* Then he sexually assaults a valkyrie in front of Vadderung, Mab, and Lara (her employer)
* For added hypocrisy, didn't they just watch him execute someone for doing something similar?
* When Lara took Freydis away to comfort her, he pursued...
* ... and was seen having sex with Lara -- which proves he's in thrall to her (the happysex illusion) and also that he can't possibly have True Love protection (and it confirms what they suspected after he left Raith Chateau, having recently had sex)
* Then Carlos's cloak goes flying around, humiliating him and creating a panic right around the time when the fomor are arriving (is Harry working with the fomor?!!)
* Then when the fomor arrive, Harry's nowhere to be seen...
* ... because he's upstairs having sex with Lara, which Mab and Ebenezar announce to the whole world./facepalm

Even Ramirez and Chandler have to be looking at that and mourning the death of their friend Harry, and planning what to do about the monster warlock Winter Knight in thrall to the White Court.

vultur:

--- Quote from: BrainFireBob on August 17, 2020, 08:22:50 PM ---1)   Most of his direct magic instruction seems to have been from Justin.
--- End quote ---

And also suspicious... the fact that he won against Justin. Justin was an experienced Warden who was there in the final battle against Kemmler. And Harry beat him at 16?

I think that's probably a combination of Harry's exceptional raw power, his magic being boosted by extreme emotion, and the fact that Justin had trained him specifically for combat (so he knew Justin's best tricks). But it does kind of look suspicious.



--- Quote ---Harry thinks Bob is a *standard* kind of thing until Luccio disabuses him.
--- End quote ---
Hmm, does he? Harry was secretive about Bob before Small Favor ... I think what he learned from Luccio is that the Council knew that Bob existed (well, as far as they know, used to exist).


--- Quote from: ClintACK on August 17, 2020, 09:12:50 PM ---Even if we just look at the events that happen in public at the peace talks in Peace Talks, it's pretty damning

--- End quote ---

Yeah.

Although I wonder how obvious it is to the less-emotionally-involved wizards that the Lara stuff is fake. You'd think they'd know that Mab would not put up with the Winter Knight being controlled by the White Court.

Eb seems to think that Mab and the White Court are working together to separate Harry from the Council, but that doesn't really make sense... having Harry mind-controlled by Lara would be much more of a problem for Mab than his Council membership, given that Harry tends to just do stuff without consulting the Council anyway.

Mira:

--- Quote ---Hmm, does he? Harry was secretive about Bob before Small Favor ... I think what he learned from Luccio is that the Council knew that Bob existed (well, as far as they know, used to exist).

--- End quote ---

That gets a little tricky, because the "Bob" that the Council knew of, was Kemmler's creature or better known as "Evil Bob" who did need destroying..  From his own experience with that form of Bob, Harry would agree.

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