The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
General Ramblings and Questions after re-listening to Battle Ground
g33k:
--- Quote from: morriswalters on June 13, 2022, 07:02:12 PM ---Harry is going to time travel, at least goes common wisdom. One scenario to free Thomas from the Swartelves is for him to go back in time as Harry does, along with Justine, and stay there. Maybe become a Knight in Medieval France
--- End quote ---
I've seen the theory that Harry goes back in time & becomes Merlin (the OG one).
If he goes back to medieval France, though... maybe he becomes Bob!!!
g33k:
--- Quote from: morriswalters on June 13, 2022, 07:02:12 PM --- Harry is going to time travel, at least goes common wisdom...
--- End quote ---
I'm pretty sure WoJ has it that each of the White Council's "Laws of Magic" is going to have a book in which Harry seriously breaks that law.
I think Dead Beat saw him break Law#5, "Thou Shalt Not Reach Beyond the Borders of Life" (although he got by on the "just an animal" technicality).
The other laws are:
1. "Thou Shalt Not Kill" (i.e. use magic to kill; guns & knives & guillotines & tactical nukes are A-OK)
2. "Thou Shalt Not Transform Others" (guessing he'll learn transformation from LTW)
3. "Thou Shalt Not Invade the Mind of Another" (see also, next entry)
4. "Thou Shalt Not Enthrall Another" (Interesting that mind-magic gets TWO Laws, #3 & #4)
5. "Thou Shalt Not Swim Against the Currents of Time" (our topic du jour)
7. "Thou Shalt Not Open the Outer Gates" (gonna hafta start a whole 'nother thread on this'un!!!)
On the "time travel" book, my favorite theory is a two-part'er:
#1 - Cowl is Future!Harry. He wasn't always. The guy Kemmler recruited & taught was a nasty piece of work, much in line with the other Kemmlerites; and he got nastier on a diet of Vitamin-K. But some time (not too long before the start of Dead Beat) Future!Harry took down Real!Cowl, and replaced him. The guy Harry dueled at Bock Ordered Books was his future self. Molly is Kumori, because (a) younger female sidekick Harry trusts, & (b) he needs the Winter Lady's immortality to use Mother Winter's Ways through time.
#2 - Future!Harry is going to go back and hit a BUNCH of his old Case Files, proving to have been the "puppetmaster" more than once... possibly even one of the founding members of the Black Council. The time travel book with be a revisit / alternate POV of most of the series, casting a new spin & behind-the-scenes insight.
morriswalters:
--- Quote from: g33k on June 13, 2022, 08:52:17 PM ---I've seen the theory that Harry goes back in time & becomes Merlin (the OG one).
If he goes back to medieval France, though... maybe he becomes Bob!!!
--- End quote ---
It's the only place where Thomas could be safe from his enemies both within the White Court and out of it. If he was cured he could live out his life in peace. On time travel you will have to wait till the last book before the trilogy to find out.
g33k:
--- Quote from: morriswalters on June 13, 2022, 10:15:58 PM --- It's the only place where Thomas could be safe from his enemies both within the White Court and out of it. If he was cured he could live out his life in peace ...
--- End quote ---
I think that if he were cured of his Hunger-Demon, he'd be safe(ish) living any time before his own birth. No whamp could look there, nor would.
It'd be a challenge, though: as a lifelong supernatural predator, he'll be *noticing* things others would not, and it'd be incredibly-hard to stand by and do nothing.
KurtinStGeorge:
--- Quote from: g33k on June 13, 2022, 05:18:29 AM ---Lara can advance the story by giving Harry a Lara's-eye view of Thomas & his childhood, mama LaFey, etc.
She can potentially help him understand whamps/whampery -- and therefore Thomas --better than he does.
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These and the other points you made about Lara giving Harry a different and perhaps more detailed perspective of the White Court make sense to me.
--- Quote from: g33k on June 13, 2022, 05:18:29 AM ---But I think "Twelve Months" is really just another plotline wherein Jim torments Harry; the meaningful stuff will be what happens in the corners and around the edges. (Like how, in Skin Game, the "meaningful stuff" is mostly at the end, where Harry gets a bunch of superweapons, and Butters gets promoted, and Bonea is born, etc; iirc, only the scene in the basement of the church (where Harry makes the call to Kincaid & then imposes so badly upon Molly (that we don't see until the end of Ghost Story!) and then makes his deal with Mab) also has that sort of "meaningful stuff." The "main" plotline of SG? Harry allies with hated-enemy Nicodemus to raid the Underworld? Doesn't really advance anything "meaningful" except that the superweapons were there... which Harry only discovered at the end ...)
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However, this is what I really want to respond to. Looking at some of the Dresden Files novels in the manner you describe looking at Skin Game, I'm reminded of the TV series Babylon 5; which Jim has stated he was a fan of. The first season of B5 probably had the most "one and done" or standalone stories, compared to the other four seasons of the show. Within these standalone stories the viewer would often receive little tidbits of information that had significance to the overall story arc. When re-watching the series even some of the weaker episodes can be made more enjoyable when you spot these "Signs and Portents" of future developments in the overall storyline. Plus, there were call backs within B5. Something that happened in the first season of the show and seemed to be finished; such as the episode about Babylon 4 or a one episode love interest of Londo Mollari, would be revisited two seasons later and turn out to be of great significance.
The problem; as I see it, what was pretty cool in a TV series that wrapped up in five seasons is starting to wear a little thin after over twenty years of Dresden Files novels. Fool Moon was published at the beginning of 2001, and in that novel we learned that both of Harry's parents died "unnatural deaths." About three and half years later Blood Rites was published and we learned how and who killed Harry's mother, but it's almost nineteen years since that story's release and we still don't know what happened to Malcom Dresden.
I don't have a solution to this issue. Perhaps I can give a suggestion to anyone in the audience contemplating their own book series in which you want to plant hints or leave clues to future developments of the greater story arc. Don't go for a twenty plus book series. Trilogies can be good, but if you really feel the need to stretch out your story, maybe aim to finish in eight to twelve novels at most.
Benedict Jacka wrapped up his Alex Verus story in twelve novels. I don't think it was the perfect series or that it had the perfect ending, but overall it was pretty good. It tied up most of its plot threads in a convincing manner. More importantly, none of the mid to late novels feel in any way like filler. As a reader, I could feel the series building up to an explosive ending. Aim for that feeling if you can, and maybe one day you'll be a visiting guest author at DragonCon.
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