The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
A crescendo of deliberate continuity errors
Mira:
--- Quote ---For example: Jim didn't know, as he started Changes, which "power-up" Harry would choose when he needed it. It was only after writing some, that he realized the WK was the one to pick; but before that Jim had considered both Lasciel's Coin & Kemmler's Dark hallow to be possible ways to write it.
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WOJ on that? I mean after writing the way he did about both Denarians and Dark Hallow, it is pretty obvious that they weren't the way for Harry to go, as Jim had written him up to that point.. Neither simply fit him, end of story.
--- Quote ---For example: Butters was originally planned as a strictly comic-relief minor character; his whole "magic Batman" personna, all the "spotlight time" as a big piece of Harry's "Scooby-Gang," becoming a KotC, and the male-fantasy-throuple with hot-werewolf-babes, that was all unplanned.
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No, the mistake, if it were a mistake was how Jim introduced Butters in the first place. Sorry, but introducing Butters a meek little guy that loved the polka didn't make him comical, because at the same time Jim opened with how Butters was willing to sacrifice his career and spend time in an asylum rather than lie about his findings that a body brought to him just wasn't human.. So Butters became this quirky little guy of great intelligence, integrity, and yes, courage, so why not make him a Holy Knight with a hot werewolf babe for a girlfriend? Nerds do get rewarded once in a while.
Dina:
--- Quote from: Nooneofconsequence on January 24, 2025, 01:11:55 PM ---Doesn't need to be retcon, could just be Harry getting a better understanding of Mab.
For that matter, how much does her mantle dictate her actions. The Winter Queen Mantle may react to disobedience in a way similar to the Winter Lady Mantle reacts to intimacy. And I wonder how the incident with Carlos looked from his perspective. Did Molly suddenly go silent and violent, or did she still seem to be herself?
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I agree about Harry changed the way he sees Mab and that affects his narration, but I still think there is some retcon involved.
g33k:
--- Quote from: Dina on January 24, 2025, 11:02:12 AM --- ... Perhaps, but I believe Jim did a little retcon with Mab. In Changes I believe she explicitly says she is not cruel, but in the first books that is not the case.
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Cruelty, of course, is relative.
The old joke goes "How do you punish a masochist? You don't spank them."
The idea of "tough love" usually involves a cruel-seeming behavior.
etc.
And then, of course... we're talking MAB, the Queen of Winter.
And, infamously, "winter is cruel" (it's a stock phrase).
Except it's not -- winter is impersonal; it just is what it is.
Mab can be absolutely horrific to somebody, without it being "cruel" on her part. Mab stands largely outside those human perspectives and moral judgements. "Simple human kindness" is another stock phrase; but it has nothing to do with Mab!
So, as awful as early-book Mab was to Harry, she wasn't necessarily being "cruel" to him.
I'll also bring up my WAG that this is part of a multi-generational long-game plan of Mab's. Old as she is and Guardian of the Outer Gates, she knows about Starborn, and that the cycle has come round again. So, my WAG is that Mab laid plans -- likely beginning about a century ago -- to gain a Starborn as her Winter Knight, to combine the inherent Starborn Outsider-resistance to the Knight she has during this most-dangerous of times. She didn't just "stumble upon" Harry as a good candidate Knight -- she arranged for Margaret to learn about Starborn phenomenon, and to become "LaFey." She arranged for the Black Council to target Margaret as a Starbabe mother. She arranged for Malcolm's death, and Harry's vanishing into the orphanage system, and Justin to adopt him. Some (perhaps most or all) of this may have been executed by her Handmaiden, but the intent behind it all was Mab's.
So early-book Mab was very much in the late-stage part of her plan. And at that point, she was all about shaping Harry; at that point she needed (or at least thought she needed) Harry to see her entirely as the Evil Queen(tm), in fulfillment of his expectations. What she was actually doing was crafting her new Knight.
If she had thought it would work better for Harry to think she was "kind," Mab would have acted in a kindly way, without feeling any kindness towards Harry.
Dina:
I agree with the first part of your WAG, I am not sure if she is involved in Malcolm's death.
And I was not talking about Mab being cruel with Harry but with her own people.
LordDresden2:
--- Quote from: Dina on January 25, 2025, 06:37:59 PM ---I agree about Harry changed the way he sees Mab and that affects his narration, but I still think there is some retcon involved.
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I completely agree.
For that matter, we already know Mab is sometimes cruel for its own sake. In her first meeting with Harry in his PI office, after they strike an agreement Harry thinks will protect him, she inflicts agony on his wounded hand again, and says point blank that it wasn't in response to anything Harry did or didn't do, thus their agreement didn't kick in.
"I did that for spite."
IIRC, that was pretty close to her precise words. Mab cannot lie. If she says she inflicted agony on Harry out of spite, then she inflicted agony on Harry out of spite.
No question that Harry is discovering sides to Mab that were always there, but there's no doubt in my mind that JB has changed Mab, too.
I actually think JB has quietly retconned several things and people over the course of the series, esp. Maggie Sr.'s role in things. I am quite sure he has somewhat retconned both Mab herself and the nature of the Faerie Courts as well.
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