The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Why is Marcone such a heavy magical hitter?
morriswalters:
--- Quote ---Except all the Fallen have magic. That's kind of the point isn't it? They are still Fallen after all. I agree that Marcone suddenly having magic is weird and seems to break the rules. I don't think the Fallen can really give you anything you don't have, a part from knowledge. That was the implication with Hellfire after all.
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If any one of the Fallen would or could have been a magical talent then Nicodemus would have been one. He was alive since the time of Christ, and that's a long time to practice. Like Harry they can't be doing dirty work all the time. Hell, Nic and his SO made time to bump uglies and have a child. But the story has always been that they can't directly use their Angelic power, so in the case of Thorned Namshiel he had to call on Lucifer to make the barrier in Small Favor. Namshiel was always an outlier. Jim pulls him out of thin air, cripples him and finally kills him, with absolutely indication of who or what his host was. No other Fallen has two names, unless I'm having a senior moment this morning. Nor, in as much as I can remember, has any angel or angelic character had two names.
--- Quote ---#1 I think it's just a misunderstanding of the rules. Here for instance, it's Woj that with enough magic you can do anything. Merlin clearly had access to godlike power there.
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Merlin is the International Man Of Mystery. Or an Urban Legend. As such, you can attribute to him anything that comes to mind. But ending up with Godlike powers in the era of the Round Table seems like a stretch. And assuming that he was taught this magic by someone like Vadderung leaves you to explain why such a powerful character would give it away for free, when in the present they won't tell him diddly without asking him to pull out his metaphysical wallet and pony up. Or tell him to shut up and wait for it.
Arjan:
“Thorned” is not a name, it is just an adjective telling something about Namshiel. I do not think all fallen are that good at magic or at least they don’t bother with it.
Mira:
--- Quote ---He says he was lazy, yet he also goes on and on about how he loves magic for magic's sake and does it in his spare time. Also, not sure his veil has improved. Read the one in Skin Game and the one in Fool Moon. Basically the same.
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No, perhaps the how to etc is the same, but Harry's skill at doing them has gotten much better
since Fool Moon. He didn't like doing them and flat out said he wasn't good at them. Now he does
them without thinking.
Bad Alias:
--- Quote from: Hankthemoose on December 04, 2020, 03:57:56 PM ---Harry is constantly described as a fanatical magic nerd by literally everyone except Harry himself. Saying he coasts in any way directly contradicts the books. Harry thinks of himself as a magical blunt object, but that's just his own perception of himself—and it's what Mab is trying to get him to embrace with her "training".
Especially in the earlier books, we get lots of focus on how Harry's only hobby is perfecting his magical skills, and how he's a magical expert. Whenever his relative skill level compared to other wizards comes up, it is pointed out that he's considered "too young to be taken seriously". At the same time, we see him constantly tinker with and come up with new spells, the occasional potion, better, shinier enchantments, and hellishly complicated voodoo representations of entire cities.
Thinking that Harry doesn't focus on training and learning means fundamentally misunderstanding the character. He's obsessed.
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I agree with all of this. To add to it, Harry is also often described as better than others or more advanced than most at his age. Most of the ones I can remember are in the middle of the series. Luccio is impressed with Sue (and so is the Erlking). Ramirez admits Harry's a better wizard than him in a fight, after Harry has been tortured a good bit. Bob is impressed with Little Chicago. Elaine is impressed with his shield bracelet. He's a more versatile wizard than Ramirez even if Ramirez is more fine tuned (again). Hanna Ascher is really good at one thing. Fire.
--- Quote from: forumghost on December 04, 2020, 06:20:36 PM ---And yet we constantly get shown how every magic user in the series is better then him.
...
Literally every Magic-user in the series has absolutely rocketed past Harry in terms of skills in the past 4-5 books or so. The only thing Harry can do is make a bigger boom.
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The only thing we get constantly shown is Harry doesn't have the best control or focus, but it gets better in almost every book. Marcone is the only one who isn't on the Senior Council who looks like he just plain outclasses Harry. And Harry has repeatedly described Marcone as the scariest and most competent opponent he has.
--- Quote from: forumghost on December 04, 2020, 06:20:36 PM ---Early Harry says he's gňod at tracking spells.
Molly -Harry's apprentice with a fraction of the experience- tells us 10 books later that he sucks at it.
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That's because he had the training wheels on for Molly. Harry does something similar to what Molly's doing in SF and Something Borrowed. Molly assumes he can't do it because she hasn't seen him do it.
--- Quote from: forumghost on December 04, 2020, 06:20:36 PM ---Same with Carlos, who is again, far less experienced than Harry, and yet he can pull things apart from the atomic level for no effort, and all Harry has learned to do is explode things bigger.
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Carlos is more fine tuned and really good at that one trick, but he admits Harry's better in DB and Harry thinks about how Carlos is more of a just a fighter than Harry in WN.
--- Quote from: forumghost on December 04, 2020, 06:20:36 PM ---How about Luccio? We see her from back during her young and reckless days, and she can already do those lazer beams without a focus, whereas in Changes Harry struggles to do one with a focus.
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Luccio was at least in her late 70's the first time, chronologically, we see her.
--- Quote ---Jim: “She can barely remember the War of 1812 (which puts her in the same category with most modern American students), but it was of no interest to her at the time, growing up in southern Italy.”
...
May 31, 1883: A Fistful of Warlocks
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--- Quote from: Mira on December 05, 2020, 02:16:15 AM ---his own admission that he has been lazy over the years.
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When does he claim that he is lazy?
--- Quote from: morriswalters on December 05, 2020, 06:27:32 PM ---Marcone has no magic. Namshiel has magic. If that isn't true then Jim has broken his rules. You either manifest the talent or you don't. And if you have it and if you don't use it, you lose it. ... Am I misreading Jim's rules?
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I think you are. (I could be wrong because he's been vague on this point). I'm pretty sure everyone has some level of magical talent. The biggest thing that separates practitioners, especially small time practitioners, from everyone else is the ability to sense magic.
Mira:
--- Quote ---When does he claim that he is lazy?
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He doesn't have to, he just doesn't apply himself as much as he might. He is like a lot of bright people, especially when they are young, but he is learning.
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