The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
I just had a funny idea (serious spoilers for BG, just in case)
g33k:
--- Quote from: LordDresden2 on August 12, 2024, 04:47:44 AM ---Except not: ...
--- End quote ---
Everything you say about hand-to-hand combat, & size/strength mattering, is absolutely true.
But because this is fantasy, and the "superhuman(ish)" tropes around martial arts do exist in the nerdosphere, Murphy's exploits had a "fits the narrative" gloss.
Note that, in large part, much of the very-real "superiority" of martial arts come from a dedicated and practiced suite of technique/method/theories that are unfamiliar to the opponents (as witness the dominance of BJJ for the first few years after it entered MMA matches).
g33k:
--- Quote from: Dina on August 12, 2024, 09:39:06 PM --- ... I am beginning to get intrigued by how many options there are for Mirror/Mirror. But first, we need to see what happens in 12 months, especially the main question, will they actually marry?
--- End quote ---
My own WAG (that I've posted before) is that Prime!Harry gets abducted by Mirror!Harry during the weddingday prep... Harry checks his reflection (because showing up rumpled would piss off Lara) and Mirror!Harry pulls him into the mirror.
THE END (of Twelve Months).
And then, when he gets back...
Lara has been stood up by her groom.
And the Winter Knight has disobeyed Mab's direct orders.
and poor Harry thought Ascher/Lasciel was a problem instance of "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
No, Harry, but you are about to learn...
vincentric:
--- Quote from: g33k on August 12, 2024, 10:30:02 PM ---My own WAG (that I've posted before) is that Prime!Harry gets abducted by Mirror!Harry during the weddingday prep... Harry checks his reflection (because showing up rumpled would piss off Lara) and Mirror!Harry pulls him into the mirror.
THE END (of Twelve Months).
And then, when he gets back...
Lara has been stood up by her groom.
And the Winter Knight has disobeyed Mab's direct orders.
and poor Harry thought Ascher/Lasciel was a problem instance of "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
No, Harry, but you are about to learn...
--- End quote ---
Unless Mirror Harry is also the Winter Knight, Mab will know immediately and so will Molly that he is an imposter. And that means that Lara will be told right away. It would be a bad play for him to even show up in this universe without months of research and prep and he'd have to take Harry from some point that is more isolated and less time sensitive if he's going to jump into his shoes. I guess he could do it with a mind switch like Corpsetaker uses but even that has time issues because that's going to be a real fight.
LordDresden2:
--- Quote from: g33k on August 12, 2024, 10:23:05 PM ---Everything you say about hand-to-hand combat, & size/strength mattering, is absolutely true.
But because this is fantasy, and the "superhuman(ish)" tropes around martial arts do exist in the nerdosphere, Murphy's exploits had a "fits the narrative" gloss.
--- End quote ---
But that's just the problem. One of the reasons the Dresden Files has been so good is precisely that JB hasn't indulged that tendency very far. Yeah, magic is real and vampires roam...but people who try to ignore practical reality get into trouble fast even so.
One of my favorite bits in the early books is an incident where Harry more or less did the 'tough guy PI' routine with Marcone. As a side effect, someone was killed.
It wasn't Harry who killed him, but things didn't play out like in the movies, either.
Susan did something stupid...and she paid a very steep price.
In one of the side stories, Billy tries to get 'tough' with Marcone...and ends up with a knife in his side. As John himself points out, Billy simply can't do the sort of thing Harry can get away with. He's not powerful enough.
At a couple of points Harry starts to make a movie-hero-ish speech demanding/threatening things with Mab. All it gets him is agony and an order to shut up. His opinion doesn't matter to her and he can't do anything about it (at least not yet), so his best option is to shut up.
Etc.
For the most part, JB has deliberately refrained from doing the various tropes of 'narrative gloss of the nerdosphere'. Karrin's unrealistic abilities at akido were already a partial, limited exception, and it was becoming glaring. Ignoring the effects of age, or the reality of the growing danger level around Harry, would make it worse. Do very much of that, and the DV starts to resemble stuff like Harry Potter or the like.
On a related note:
--- Quote from: Dina on August 12, 2024, 09:39:06 PM --- Nevertheless, a 40+ petite woman will be having a lot of trouble facing younger and bigger threats, even the vanilla ones. I think it was not so bad so far. As Harry mentions once clever vanilla people adapt. They use armors, like Charity. They use kevlar but they can learn to use magic things.
--- End quote ---
But for the most part, Karrin wasn't doing that. What I mean is that she was not really adapting all that well to her situation post Changes. She wasn't a cop anymore, but she still had cop instincts, deep down I think she thought of herself as a cop. But she was, de facto, now part of John's organization, though she was in denial about that. Butters was actually more self-honest on that point than Karrin was.
Note that Karrin had reverted to some of her attitude from the early books, before the loup garou rampage, angry, touchy, trying desperately to control a situation that was spiraling beyond her control. When Karrin feels threatened and out of control, she gets mad as a coping mechanism.
--- Quote ---But "badly coping" is not enough to keep with the sort of things Harry is facing nowadays. So yes, something had to change.
Mira, I am also sad for Murphy's way of dying. For several reasons, one of them is that she was a cop, she likes cops, she would have hated to be killed by friendly fire of another cop. And for a stupid, nervous one? She would have gone ballistic. Not for herself, but for Rudolph's incompetence.
--- End quote ---
I don't like how she died...but at the same time, I approve of it.
What do I mean by that? Above, I was talking about how the DV doesn't run on narrative traditions. It's grittier than that. Karrin's death wasn't a traditional protagonist death, but it was a realistic death. That's precisely the sort of thing that sloppy trigger discipline and recklessness can produce, and we had plenty of precedent for Rudolph's sloppiness and recklessness.
It's precisely that realism that makes the DV, for all the vampires and magic, feel real and impactful and believable. Karrin deserved better, but...so what? That's life.
--- Quote ---
I am beginning to get intrigued by how many options there are for Mirror/Mirror. But first, we need to see what happens in 12 months, especially the main question, will they actually marry?
--- End quote ---
Define marry.
Dina:
I agree about how Karin's death was good from a narrative point of view. I just meant that in universe is so sad and she herself would have hated to go that way.
--- Quote from: LordDresden2 on August 13, 2024, 03:03:41 AM ---Define marry.
--- End quote ---
I meant the actual ritual and ceremony. The part of the sex is a secondary mystery but it is also relevant for the first part because we know that traditionally marriages were not valid until they were consummated.
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