The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Mab chose Molly
LostInTime:
Mab chose Molly.
In the grip of insomnia last night I went back and re-read the chapter in Peace Talks where Harry summons Molly and this bit jumped out at me. It was easy to miss given all the bombshells with the summoning and Molly's tenuous mortal status.
--- Quote ---…Molly probably wasn’t going to forgive herself for assisting in what had amounted to a very complicated near suicide. There’d been a lot of fallout, on every conceivable scale. Very little of it had been Molly’s fault, directly or otherwise, but she’d been a mover on that scene, and she probably felt at least as bad as I did about it, and I’d been way more in the middle of things.
And, being a wizard, I felt guilty as hell for walking her into that. I hadn’t had much choice, if I wanted to save my daughter’s life, but thought the cost was worthy, it still had to be paid-and Molly had laid down cold, hard cash.
So cold and so hard that Mab had wound up choosing her to be the new Winter Lady, in fact.
Suddenly I wondered if maybe I hadn’t been hard enough on myself. I mean, hell, at least when I’d become the Winter Knight, I’d made a choice. My back had been to a wall and my options had all sucked, but I’d at least sought out my bargain with Mab.
Molly hadn’t been consulted, and Mab’s policy on dissenting opinion was crystalline: Deal with it or die.
Of course, inveterate dissenters like myself, it created a pretty simple counterpolicy for when I was tired of Mab’s crap: Deal with it or kill me. Mab was a lot of things, but irrational wasn’t one of them, and as long as it was easier to put up with me than replace me, we had attained a state of balance. I imagined that Molly had come to similar arrangements…
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There’s so much to unpack here. But, first and foremost, MAB CHOSE MOLLY TO BE THE WINTER LADY.
Which means everything we’ve been told or shown regarding succession of the lady mantles is either wrong, incomplete, or the person telling us how it works has been lied to. Unreliable narrators is the rule instead of the exception in DF. Fae are information hoarders. People wearing fae mantles must behave as fae would, so they are obligated to hoard information and not release it unless you back them into a corner and ask them three times. They get a bit testy about that.
Now, that opens the door that Titania may have chosen Lily to be the first replacement Summer Lady. If the queen gets to choose from available vessels for fae power, Sarissa being chosen as the Summer Lady can only be viewed as revenge for Aurora’s death. After all, Mab did choose the person who caused Aurora’s death as her Winter Knight.
So, perhaps in a way, Molly brought herself to Mab’s attention by helping Harry arrange his death? Lea instructing her during her year as the Ragged Lady might have helped prepare her to be a vessel for fae power, but I think she was already on the board. Besides, due to Lea’s obligation, she would have been bound to instruct Molly. Molly made a cold, hard decision, against her emotional human interests, to help Harry suicide. That really does ring of Winter.
Mab could have chosen Murphy for the mantle. There’s no age requirement that we know of. Molly may have been technically virginal, but Lily certainly wasn’t since Slate had raped her. Murphy wasn’t a virgin, but she had never had a child, so she would have technically been allowable by the flawed rules we have been shown.
And let’s face it, veiled or not, there’s no way an apprentice wizard’s veils would have been good enough to conceal her from Mab, who in terms of age, experience, power and sneakiness is leagues above Molly in Cold Days.
So, when Maeve died, Mab had a choice and she chose Molly.
Mind. Blown.
The_Sibelis:
--- Quote ---Molly may have been technically virginal, but Lily certainly wasn’t since Slate had raped her
--- End quote ---
I absolutely hate when someone says this. Virginity is a spiritual ideal of giving yourself to someone. Rape doesn't count. Very much so in a world we're metaphysical things are tangible.best not to ask me to clarify. I really shouldn't have to.
Beldon:
I don't have the book available for reference, but in the conversation that Harry and Mab have, she as much as said that Molly's association with Harry is what put her on Mab's radar. She admitted that she was prepping molly as a fallback if something happened to Sarissa. Also according to Harry, the mantle had to go to someone with fae blood, so Murph would not be an option. I had long wondered why the mantle went directly to Sarissa and Molly. The summer lady mantle should have gone to Fix as established in summer knight (need reference). The winter mantle should have gone directly to Mab, but she easily could have redirected it to Molly herself.
Mira:
--- Quote ---There’s so much to unpack here. But, first and foremost, MAB CHOSE MOLLY TO BE THE WINTER LADY.
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Actually she didn't, when it happens in Cold Days after the fact she tells Harry she would have preferred Molly to have been the Summer Lady, or rather said she felt she was more suited for that and that Sarissa would become the Winter Lady. But Maeve and the Mantles had other ideas. So Mab chose Molly to be a Lady, but not Winter Lady.
--- Quote ---Now, that opens the door that Titania may have chosen Lily to be the first replacement Summer Lady. If the queen gets to choose from available vessels for fae power, Sarissa being chosen as the Summer Lady can only be viewed as revenge for Aurora’s death. After all, Mab did choose the person who caused Aurora’s death as her Winter Knight.
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Titania didn't chose Lily, she was the nearest vessel when Aurora died, Lily wasn't at all prepared to be a Lady. Titania said she would help her, and not saying she didn't, but Titania was in deep mourning for some time over Aurora, all of this led to infested Maeve being able to lie to Lily and convince her of things that brought about her end and more.
--- Quote ---So, perhaps in a way, Molly brought herself to Mab’s attention by helping Harry arrange his death? Lea instructing her during her year as the Ragged Lady might have helped prepare her to be a vessel for fae power, but I think she was already on the board. Besides, due to Lea’s obligation, she would have been bound to instruct Molly. Molly made a cold, hard decision, against her emotional human interests, to help Harry suicide. That really does ring of Winter.
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Could have, but I think Molly was on the radar before that for her warlock attitudes.. Also back in Grave Peril I think it was Lea expresses interest in Michael's first child.
morriswalters:
Certainly Mab picked Molly to be Winter Lady. She had Lea prep her in Ghost Story. She could do that because she was Harry's apprentice. Molly couldn't say no since she was cut off from everybody else. She endured exactly the same kind of things Harry and Sarissa endured in the beginning of Cold Days.
The story arc that ended with Molly as Winter Lady and Harry as Winter Knight started in Grave Peril. In Death Masks Molly, who is way too young, gives love advice to Harry that will end with Susan pregnant. Jim had to have this in mind. In Proven Guilty Harry binds her to him as his apprentice to avoid a beheading. In Turn Coat he spends a lot of time telling Molly not to do exactly what he'll ask her to do in Changes. Where he then proceeds to throw her under the bus by taking the cowards way out. Since he left her under a sentence of death when he has himself killed, Mab sent Lea in to get her ready.
Even if she couldn't detect Molly Mab knew that she would be there. Harry had programmed Molly to be there. Mab tells both the reader and Harry in the denouement of Cold Days how he did it.
--- Quote ---“That is not what I have been doing,” I spat.
“Is it not?” Mab asked. “Have I misunderstood? First you captured her imagination and affection as an associate of her father’s. You made her curious about what you could do, and nurtured that curiosity with silence. Then when she went to explore the Art, you elected not to interfere until such time as she found herself in dire straits—at which point your aid placed her deep within your obligation. You used that and her emotional attachment to you to plant and reap a follower who was talented, loyal, and in your debt. It was actually very well-done.”
I stood there with my mouth open for a second. “That . . . that isn’t . . . what I did.”
Mab leaned closer to me and said, “That is precisely what you did,” she said. “The only thing you did not do is admit to yourself that you were doing it. Which is why you never availed yourself of her charms. You told yourself lovely, idealistic lies, and you had a powerful, talented, loyal girl willing to give her life for yours who also had nowhere else to turn for help. As far as your career as a mentor goes, you grew into much the same image as DuMorne.”
Butcher, Jim. Cold Days (The Dresden Files, Book 14) (p. 510). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
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