The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

Some observations on a Winter Day

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Conspiracy Theorist:
We simply do not have all the information to say something or other definitive about Mab or her motives. Look at how she was presented originally as a Evil Faerie Queen as opposed to the more nuanced representations in the later books, as the great defender of humanity. I think that process has yet reached its ultimate end, and the likelihood is that the end result isn’t going to be black and white. Mab is going to turn out to be a VERY complex character with everything we have seen to date only parts of that character.

Basically You are probably both wrong, or probably both right.

morriswalters:
I suspect that Butcher has had a fairly good idea about Mab's destination as a character since day one.  He's tuned it as he's gone along, but she was never written as the evil faerie.  Butcher says that constantly, but what he writes is quite different. But the plot has certain elements that must be served.  If the story is a mystery, then the central mystery must be solved within the covers.

The book has two. You are handed one mystery by Eb.  Why didn't Mab retaliate? Then Rashid hands out the second mystery.  Who is using Black Magic in Chicago? IMO as a reader these have to be solved in the book or the book falls apart.  The narrative would be incomplete. That isn't to say that there are not other things going on.  But the two central mysteries are solved.

Butcher encourages confusion for readers.  He uses Bob very effectively as an unreliable narrator. Rashid's letter specifically calls out when the Black Magic is done. Yet he has Bob supply a red herring in terms of how and when Rashid knew what he knew.  You may be sure that it wasn't that happy horse crap about getting messages from the future and paradox.  Paradox occurs when you break cause and effect. Everything about the Black Magic was over and done with before the first trial.

In the case of the first example, Harry tells you what Mab expects.  To be back stabbed by Summer.  When he has the forces of Winter returning to the fortress he shows you that it isn't true and that Summer, in fact, is not out to attack her because of the power imbalance.

I have no idea what Mab is up to or where the backstory is going.  I doubt Butcher does in detail. But the things I'm throwing out aren't about those issues.

Mira:

--- Quote from: Conspiracy Theorist on February 11, 2022, 01:23:25 PM ---We simply do not have all the information to say something or other definitive about Mab or her motives. Look at how she was presented originally as a Evil Faerie Queen as opposed to the more nuanced representations in the later books, as the great defender of humanity. I think that process has yet reached its ultimate end, and the likelihood is that the end result isn’t going to be black and white. Mab is going to turn out to be a VERY complex character with everything we have seen to date only parts of that character.

Basically You are probably both wrong, or probably both right.

--- End quote ---

I've never thought that Mab was evil.  Why?  Because Winter is a force of Nature, Winter can be cruel but that doesn't make it evil, and without it, the world would be worse off.

Harry at first sees her as evil because that is how he perceives his godmother, Lea.  Why? Difference of opinion on how to keep him safe, he fears her and by extension everything else about the Winter Court.

As Harry gets to know Mab and understand her and Lea better, he comes to realize that she is indeed a complicated creature, perhaps even a likable one, once he comes to understand her better.

Snark Knight:
Rashid still considered it a possibility Harry had been coopted by the enemy because of all the hinky stuff he'd been adjacent to up until their conversation a few books later in TC.

I'd tend to read what he did in PG, and events that he might have been an unseen hand behind, as tests of Harry's alignment as much as favours to support Mab.

Perhaps he chained up the theater to keep his test under a measure of control.

morriswalters:
When you consider it, Rashid's motivation doesn't matter.  He never had to trust Harry.  Mab has motivation, she is standing in for Lea. If Lea had a deal to protect Harry then Mab has no choice then to do what Lea would do.  The only person Rashid had to trust was Mab.
--- Quote from: Dead Beat ---"It means that I will give you what she might give you," Mab said, "and speak what knowledge she might have spoken to you were she here in flesh, rather than in proxy."
--- End quote ---
And you know by Changes she has been doing a lot to make sure Harry survives.

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