The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Elaine is the wizard the White Council should really be afraid of.
g33k:
--- Quote from: Mira on December 10, 2024, 10:46:09 AM --- Harry had a lot on his plate at that time ...
--- End quote ---
Harry always has "a lot more on his plate" during the case files; Jim has said they're generally "the worst day(s) of Harry's year."
But GP was only when we (the readers) first meet Morty -- Harry was going to see Mort because he already knew Mort; so Mort's "introductory scene" wasn't a "cold read" for Harry, but an update on what was already familiar.
--- Quote from: Mira on December 10, 2024, 10:46:09 AM --- ... and a bit more trusting in the Council's judgements ...
--- End quote ---
Harry was still having as little to do with the WC as he possibly could; I don't think he had access to their "profiles of minor talents" reports (nor would he likely have paid much attention to them, given his experience of how the WC was treating/evaluating Harry himself).
It's pretty clear in GP that Harry's opinion of Mort is based upon Harry's own experiences & observations; but also upon Mort's prior achievements (he had written books on ghosts &c).
--- Quote ---"Twenty years ago, you were a pretty damned good investigator...
And now what? ... How many times do you actually get to contact a spirit? One time in ten? One in twenty?...
You play on [peoples'] grief to take them for all you can... but you don't like what you're doing. If you did, your powers wouldn't have faded like they did."
--- End quote ---
-- Grave Peril, chapter 10 (though there's also a bit on Morty near the end of Ch.9)
Mort has been making a living running seances... but mostly faking it (classic pseudo-psychic con-artist stuff).
g33k:
--- Quote from: Mira on December 10, 2024, 10:46:09 AM --- ... A couple of things stood out, one is Harry calls Mort a "con man." And yeah, Mort is doing that and claims to have lost his powers and Harry believes him.. Yet for a guy who has no "powers" ...
--- End quote ---
Not that he has no powers, but vastly-lessened powers.
The Morty of GP wouldn't have held against Corpsetaker for even a few minutes, let alone days.
--- Quote from: Mira on December 10, 2024, 10:46:09 AM --- ... Yeah, Mort is an excellent con man, so could he successfully pull an "I lost my powers," con on Harry? Absolutely ...
--- End quote ---
Twenty years of faking a spiral of fading powers, though?
Why would he be doing that?
Early-series Mort was a coward (just like early Butters, FWIW). But they got better. Mortimer Lindquist also got his powers back; in large part by doing the right thing & redeeming his own self-image, but also flexing the "magical muscle" and giving it a workout.
--- Quote from: Mira on December 10, 2024, 10:46:09 AM --- ... That isn't to say that by the time Ghost Story comes around he might be a little out of practice, but what Mort does do proves that he has always been a powerful wizard ...
--- End quote ---
On the contrary: by the time of Ghost Story, Mortimer Lindquist is working daily and deeply.
His home is a spiritual fortress.
He is back to being a powerful ectomancer.
Mira:
--- Quote ---Not that he has no powers, but vastly-lessened powers.
The Morty of GP wouldn't have held against Corpsetaker for even a few minutes, let alone days.
--- End quote ---
I'm not so sure of that. We have no real proof either way. It's kind of like Mac, just a mild mannered bar tender, keeps out of most things, but look at him with the sight, and you will burn your eyes out.
--- Quote ---Twenty years of faking a spiral of fading powers, though?
Why would he be doing that?
--- End quote ---
Because he wants to be left alone to do his own thing.
--- Quote ---Early-series Mort was a coward (just like early Butters, FWIW). But they got better. Mortimer Lindquist also got his powers back; in large part by doing the right thing & redeeming his own self-image, but also flexing the "magical muscle" and giving it a workout.
--- End quote ---
But he couldn't have gotten them back unless they were always there in the first place.
--- Quote ---On the contrary: by the time of Ghost Story, Mortimer Lindquist is working daily and deeply.
His home is a spiritual fortress.
He is back to being a powerful ectomancer.
--- End quote ---
But why?
Tinfoil hat:
The WC is in my mind, most fans and in its own mind the elite of the elite. I tend to view them as the Justice league/ Avengers (comic versions) of the magical humans. Like both groups every hero can join but only the elite tend to get the invte.
Put another way.
Mort is powerful yes but only in his specific field. A wizard of the WC has to be an omniglot.Someone who is good at everything, and excellent at most things.
Though out the series Harry sees a supernatural being do something then claims that if he wanted he could learn the thing and propably replicate it. Mort on the other hand does not have that option. His stuck has an ectomancer an excellent one propably the best but an ectomancer non the less. Harry and any WC Wizard can learn the basics get good enough to do most of the stuff mort can do butnot as good as mort but good enough.
The WC is short sighted in not making use of specialists like mort and anna ( thenfire mancer in skingame b4 she was a warlock) as resourceful allies to help train them in the areas they need to get good at or to train, recruit and guard other magical humans.
g33k:
--- Quote from: Mira on December 10, 2024, 09:35:34 PM --- I'm not so sure of that. We have no real proof either way ...
--- End quote ---
We have no proof positive, no. But we have some indicators...
The fact that he chose to live an increasingly-impoverished life, moving from being a notable multi-book author, to running hokey seances as a con-man, with cheap plastic gargoyles in the yard is one such.
Lack of any Bob-testimony / Harrry-awareness is another: Harry sent Bob out "scouting for info" quite a few times, that we saw; I presume he did so off-screen, too. Bob would certainly have noticed -- sooner or later -- if Mort was operating (up through Grave Peril) a spiritual redoubt as formidable as the one in Ghost Story, and reported as much to Harry.
Harry himself has other investigative magical resources, as well; he won't just be looking with his eyeballs. The idea that an ectomancer the caliber of GS-Mort could have been operating under Harry's nose & in his back yard for years seems wholly unbelievable... Mort's a powerful ectomancer, but there are a great many magical disciplines where he's blind and ignorant... and Harry isn't. Hard for Mort to effectively block what he can't detect / doesn't understand!
--- Quote from: Mira on December 10, 2024, 09:35:34 PM ---But he couldn't have gotten them back unless they were always there in the first place.
But why?
--- End quote ---
Yes, he had some power; it faded, and was lessened... but never faded entirely out of his reach.
Note that Charity's power is gone gone, by way of neglect (intentional dis-use); it isn't coming back.
Why?
Why was Mort working so hard, being so effective?
I think it was because of Harry. Harry seems more-able than most to uplift those around him, redirect them in better ways. Mort seems to have benefited.
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