The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Wait, How Did Warden Ramirez Know About...? - From PT
Dina:
Well, Harry will want to do wands that can keep Denarian Marcone and Gard away, I am sure. So he will need to do a good job. I suspect his intellectus on the island has helped with Demonreach runes and that in turn will help him with the Castle ones, and that is why Namshiel couldn't do that himself. That, or there are something in the wards themselves that are against Denarians.
Gosh, I hope Excalibur is in the castle soon.
morriswalters:
I won't live to see this, but I think that the wards are angelic. I think this is the whole reason for Bonea. Everything is a trail of breadcrumbs leading to the finale. The Castle, the island, Bonea and the guy in Demonreach. Everything related to Merlin. Bonea isn't just a little girl spirit. She bargained with Mab when she helped keep Harry alive in Ghost Story. Why keep Harry ignorant until Cold Days? One question Jim has to deal with is how Merlin would have known what he knew of the magic that he used.
K.L.O.E.:
--- Quote from: Yuillegan on December 03, 2020, 02:57:19 AM ---Perhaps, she was very strong. Although Sharkface couldn't get through on brute force either...and why he arguably wasn't as strong as Ethniu (at that moment) he is still a heavy hitter. But then again, Alfred was specifically made for capturing beings like Ethniu (and by Harry's own admission Ethniu isn't the biggest thing on Demonreach, by some margin). I suspect she would be pretty loathe to attack Harry on Demonreach unless she was desperate or had a cleverer approach. The wards were there to protect against any supernatural threat - the insult to the Fomor was written above the entrance to make a point that Marcone wasn't afraid of them (which he clearly underestimated).
WOJ is that Marcone had to move a bunch of families in as there was no threshold in order for the wards to work. I suspect it comes down to when the the home is either destroyed or no longer a home, the threshold is destroyed too. It's people that create the thresholds after all. I suspect caves had them originally.
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Sharkface may be incredibly powerful but he's still bound by whatever not being of this reality. Ethniu is part of this reality and mordite takes it past that. Plus the Eye being a ranged weapon she could go for the actual bedrock of the island which may not be warded (she'd go for the frontal assault, she's a child but she could do something different).
As far as there being nastier things than Titans chained up in Demonreach I'm reminded of how Harry described Alfred as being an Antlion going after bigger bugs. The circle is the sand trap that the bugs fall into and the will of the binder is the walls which keep the bugs from getting in. Then the antlion comes in and takes them away.
Also the quotes in Battle Grounds make it sound like you can anchor wards in stone, you just need to turn them on and power them. Can Harry tap a leyline from his place?
--- Quote from: morriswalters on December 03, 2020, 11:48:20 PM ---I won't live to see this, but I think that the wards are angelic. I think this is the whole reason for Bonea. Everything is a trail of breadcrumbs leading to the finale. The Castle, the island, Bonea and the guy in Demonreach. Everything related to Merlin. Bonea isn't just a little girl spirit. She bargained with Mab when she helped keep Harry alive in Ghost Story. Why keep Harry ignorant until Cold Days? One question Jim has to deal with is how Merlin would have known what he knew of the magic that he used.
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She's also Lash's child so she's probably got a devious streak. I wonder when Harry will turn to Bonea for magic lessons? As for Merlin maybe he had a divine tutor as well? Pre-mortal Vadderung? Or Merlin is another Starborn (in some version he's the Devil's son) and learned from something he bound?
Bad Alias:
--- Quote from: TheCuriousFan on December 03, 2020, 10:40:14 PM ---
--- Quote ---It was entirely possible that the castle’s magical defenses had been the work of the original Merlin or one of his inheritors.
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Thanks. This part and something Jim said on The Dresden Files Podcast makes me thing it was one of the authors of Eb's journals. Jim said the castle was from Scotland. Eb's Scottish. It's a stretch, I know.
--- Quote from: morriswalters on December 03, 2020, 11:48:20 PM ---... the guy in Demonreach. Everything related to Merlin.
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Jim said the guy in Demonreach was put there by the original Warden of the island.
KurtinStGeorge:
--- Quote from: Yuillegan on November 30, 2020, 10:37:01 PM ---To be honest, I believe Jim was getting so rushed with his last two (one) novel(s) that he didn't apply the polish we are used to. Several times I suspect he just wanted to put the idea on paper but didn't really go through the whole process of working out how that information should come out naturally, and we as readers are highly sensitive to that. It's hard as an author to get that right as it is but when under pressure I am not surprised that things blow out a bit.
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That is plausible.
--- Quote from: Yuillegan on November 30, 2020, 10:37:01 PM ---Take Harry's conversation with Bob early on in BG about Reality starting to break. The scene is almost word for word something out of one of Jim's interviews or Q&As - Harry is the questioner and Bob is Jim. Why would Harry say to Bob (in-universe) "Ferrovax the Dragon" when Bob would already know who he meant by saying Ferrovax and Bob probably knows more than Harry about what Ferro really is? And why would Harry bring up a conversation from 20 years ago with a being who wasn't even present for it (as though they were) to ask about this? It was almost as if Jim wanted remind not just the audience but also himself of what happened in Grave Peril when Harry and Ferro first meet.
The conversation would have made more sense (in my opinion) if it read more like:
"Bob, when I first met Ferrovax he told me his true form would crack the Earth - did he mean Reality?"
"Yes, Harry you moron. Did you really think he meant physically crack the planet's crust with his weight? It only took you 20 years to figure that out!"
Or something like that. Instead it came off as clunky, ham-handed exposition. It wasn't the usual standard of Jim's writing at all.
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I concur.
--- Quote from: Yuillegan on November 30, 2020, 10:37:01 PM ---Another example is Dresden's mysteriously deep and practical knowledge of how the Arma Christi (Weapons of Christ - the artefacts he retrieved from Hades' vault) seem to work. How on earth did he know how the plaque worked? It's not like that knowledge is just everyday information (there is no lore that suggests it in our world either). If it is common knowledge in Harry's universe (which would be extremely bizarre) then shouldn't more people know? If it is in fact the rare knowledge that it most likely IS (and should be), how does Harry come to possess it? It's not like Harry could just test this stuff either. It's almost like a scene was missing where Harry needed to seek out information on the artefacts of the Redeemer. Same with the Spear of Destiny? How does Harry know it's a spear to everything (I assume that means nothing can stop it)? And what a crude use of it too. A mundane stabbing tool. Surely the Spear of Destiny (supposedly a weapon that makes the holder invincible) can be used better than for a mere tactical contest? We are talking a thing connected to the fundamental and supreme power in the universe. And while we can put it down to Harry being a brute yadda yadda - we know now that Harry hasn't been the brutish "engineer" that Jim wanted him to appear as for a long time. We have seen that he is intelligent, crafty, ruthless, diplomatic (at times) and thoughtful. Harry's should know more about his weapons, that doesn't bother me. But how he came into that knowledge does. It almost appears to just pop into his head. Who knows, maybe it's another type of intellectus (clever tool for Jim to use too).
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The way that Harry knew how the plaque worked really bothered me. The spear a little less, but there was a little voice in the back of my mind saying to me, "this is weak." It reminds my of something a certain foul mouthed movie critic (Mr. Plinkett) on the YouTube channel Red Letter Media says about logical inconsistencies in movie scripts that you might not consciously notice; at least on a first viewing, because the movie is fast paced or a major action scene follows; "You didn't notice it, but your brain did." Sometimes it's only when you discuss a movie with other people; or in this case a novel, or re-watch or re-read it, that the writing flaws become easily apparent, but something in the back of your mind was already pinging you that something was off.
My best guess is Jim had a scene in mind that took place on Demonreach where being The Warden of island gave Harry a level of intelectus to understand how the weapons worked. I think it would have been best if that had happened in the denouement chapter of Skin Game. Harry could have locked the weapons in one of the empty crystals meant for prisoners and then had an a sudden understanding of what they did. A short conversation would have followed with Alfred with a surprised Harry exclaiming something simple and direct like "I know what they can do, now," with Alfred replying, "Of course, you are the Warden." Unfortunately, Jim needed to wrap up other elements of Skin Game and reveal future complications and conflicts, so such a scene was never written. It might have also been done in Peace Talks or Battle Ground but perhaps because the story was already pretty long as it was, Jim might have decided that adding a scene like the one I described above might have slowed down the pace of story to an unacceptable level. So, I think Jim probably knows how Harry knows about the Arma Christi, he just forgot to explain it to us. Oops!
--- Quote from: Yuillegan on November 30, 2020, 10:37:01 PM ---Jim has always made a bit of a point through out the series of the dangers of large organisations that impose rules on others. I suspect he himself was channelling his own feeling about bureaucracy (particularly in relation to his rather harsh treatment by the university administration - not the professors - something he mentioned in an interview).
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I think I'll refrain from trying to psychoanalyze Jim. You could be right, but I don't know if there could be other factors involved.
--- Quote from: Yuillegan on November 30, 2020, 10:37:01 PM ---It's somewhat thematic too for such an old organisation, so it works in-universe too. Currently he has Harry seceding from the White Council under the guise of this is for the best etc. Maybe it is, time will tell. But it's certainly heading towards the destruction of the White Council and the rules-based order they have helped keep. There may come a time where Harry might regret this. Perhaps he is even being nudged to do this. These days Harry sounds a lot like Cowl when he talks to and about the White Council - but with less haughtiness and style.
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Many of us have long known that something like this is coming. Though it might not result in the wholesale destruction of the White Council, but things will certainly get shaken up. The Gatekeeper hinted at this in Turn Coat. Now it seems to be right around the corner. At least in universe it may be right around the corner. For the readers it might be something more like four to six years.
--- Quote from: Yuillegan on November 30, 2020, 10:37:01 PM ---
You also have to consider Harry's expulsion was not really about whether he broke the rules, but because people wanted him out of the Council. For varying reasons. Some on the Council think he is a legitimate danger (and clearly there is a big reveal coming about Harry's dark origins and possible future). Some want him isolated from his former allies so he will be easier to manipulate. Some just want him removed so he can be killed easier. It's politics after all.
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Yes, there are those who are acting out of fear and those who are playing one kind of game or another.
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