The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

The return of Agent “Slim” Tilly

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SerScot:
I really like him.  So, when will he show up again?  Hopefully soon.

g33k:

--- Quote from: SerScot on December 16, 2022, 02:58:32 PM --- I really like him.  So, when will he show up again?  Hopefully soon.
--- End quote ---

Me, too!

He came to terms with the reality of the supernatural -- or at least faced up to the reality of its existence -- in Changes.  I expect that he'll be coming back to Chicago in the wake of the Battle of Chicago:  the Federal gov't has to pay attention to a disaster of that scale (whatever the cause), so Tilly is a "natural" for Jim to bring back in this regard.

My hope is that he transfers out of the FBI into the Library of Congress' Special Collections Division.   ;D   In my headcanon, these are the Federal agency that acted like Murphy's SI (and the Black Cats before them); but on a Federal scale.

The supernatural came too far out of hiding to genuinely be swept back under the rug (though it seems some are still trying), and Tilly will (now that his eyes are opened) be able to recognize the coverup... may in fact be tasked with trying to advance the coverup!  But also assigned to figure out (post-facto, as an outsider to the conflict, with very-little material evidence, and with mortal witnesses who may wish to deny the reality and/or have been subject to various glamours & even mind-altering magics) just what the F--K happened, and who were the aggressors, and who were all the other parties, and what it was about (and etc etc etc).

I think this could be part of Twelve Months, if Jim decides to make it so (or it might be deferred to another book).

But WoJ was (IIRC) that Battle Ground was kind of a breaking-point in the supernaturals' "masquerade," that too many mortals would have too much public evidence, and that the nigh-universal "official" dismissal of supernatural causes wouldn't be possible any longer; this was an inflection-point in the series, in the setting, that Jim had long planned.

SerScot:

--- Quote from: g33k on December 16, 2022, 03:23:22 PM ---Me, too!

He came to terms with the reality of the supernatural -- or at least faced up to the reality of its existence -- in Changes.  I expect that he'll be coming back to Chicago in the wake of the Battle of Chicago:  the Federal gov't has to pay attention to a disaster of that scale (whatever the cause), so Tilly is a "natural" for Jim to bring back in this regard.

My hope is that he transfers out of the FBI into the Library of Congress' Special Collections Division.   ;D   In my headcanon, these are the Federal agency that acted like Murphy's SI (and the Black Cats before them); but on a Federal scale.

The supernatural came too far out of hiding to genuinely be swept back under the rug (though it seems some are still trying), and Tilly will (now that his eyes are opened) be able to recognize the coverup... may in fact be tasked with trying to advance the coverup!  But also assigned to figure out (post-facto, as an outsider to the conflict, with very-little material evidence, and with mortal witnesses who may wish to deny the reality and/or have been subject to various glamours & even mind-altering magics) just what the F--K happened, and who were the aggressors, and who were all the other parties, and what it was about (and etc etc etc).

I think this could be part of Twelve Months, if Jim decides to make it so (or it might be deferred to another book).

But WoJ was (IIRC) that Battle Ground was kind of a breaking-point in the supernaturals' "masquerade," that too many mortals would have too much public evidence, and that the nigh-universal "official" dismissal of supernatural causes wouldn't be possible any longer; this was an inflection-point in the series, in the setting, that Jim had long planned.

--- End quote ---

“Twelve Months” seems like a perfect opportunity to show the normal world’s growing awareness of the Supernatural world.  Tilly’s reemergance and his friendship with Murphy seems like a nice in for plot and character reasons.

g33k:

--- Quote from: SerScot on December 16, 2022, 05:32:24 PM --- “Twelve Months” seems like a perfect opportunity to show the normal world’s growing awareness of the Supernatural world.  Tilly’s reemergance and his friendship with Murphy seems like a nice in for plot and character reasons.
--- End quote ---

You could be right.  One of Harry's character-arcs has been from "keep them ignorant for their own good" over to "got to know the threat exists, to be able to act/react appropriately."

Given the number of supernatural threats that keep coming to Chicago, it seems likely that Harry will conclude the entire city needs to be more generally clued-in.

I can just see it... PSA's on "how to quickly make a defensive circle" &c...

Snark Knight:

--- Quote from: g33k on December 16, 2022, 03:23:22 PM ---I think this could be part of Twelve Months, if Jim decides to make it so (or it might be deferred to another book).

--- End quote ---

Last I've seen the plan was still for Mirror Mirror to come after Twelve Months, which would start to add up to a long delay between BG and the feds showing up. My guess is Twelve Months at least touches on them, if only peripherally.

I suppose it's possible they'd recruit Tilly. On the other hand, it's potentially too easy to make the point of contact a fed who's somewhat sympathetic to Harry, after coming to believe him and teaming up against the Reds in Changes. The Librarians probably work better if they start off more antagonistic and it takes a real effort to win them over.

At a guess, I think the Librarians might be more likely to pull some strings to transfer Tilly to some dead-end backwater posting or surveil him (thinking him potentially compromised, either as a sympathizer or by mind control, after too much contact with the wizard) than to actually recruit him.  I think there was a WOJ that the main reason Murphy never got an invite was that they were suspicious of her known association with Dresden.  So if Tilly has a role in 12M, I'd bet in the direction of him helping / working with Harry on something isolated, then paying a career price for it to introduce the kind of pull the Librarians have. Something along the lines of an epilogue appearance to tell Harry some undefined other feds have been questioning Tilly's associations, and maybe he's being reassigned to the Wyoming field office.

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