The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Mab (?) in Twelve Months
Dina:
Nice.
Xamion:
--- Quote from: Lord Kinbote on January 23, 2026, 03:13:21 PM ---Love to hear your thoughts.
--- End quote ---
I think you're forgetting the fundamental fact, that Mab is *not* a fully-fledged "character" and she is absolutely one of the ones (beings like the angels, the Mothers, gods, etc.) most self-aware in-universe of that fact. 99.999999999~% of Mab's actions in the past millennium or so are as a direct result of her being a "puppet" to her fate as Winter fae/Maiden/Queen. But everything she does is in essence "Mab," that being steering the world towards it's continued existence, no matter the cost to her or anyone else. Any "inconsistencies" are as likely to be just a fundamental "expression" of fae-ness (who are deliberately mythologically contradictory in essence, outside of the few fundamental "hard rules" they have, which are actually pretty flexible in their own right) as they are legitimate writer's faults.
--- Quote from: Lord Kinbote on January 23, 2026, 03:13:21 PM ---- And separate and apart from the above the issue of Mab obligating herself openendedly to Dresden, WTH was that scene in Dresden’s bedroom? Mab seemingly willing to have sex with Dresden, perhaps to the point where Dresden’s consent (or lack thereof) was becoming a real issue. And then Dresden physically assaults Mab? As the Winter Knight, how is that possible? And even if possible, why would Mab allow it? Just to show Dresden that he was the Winter Knight in all of its meanings? Remember the Cold Days scene when Dresden threatened Mab with a gun? Where is that Mab?
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With that said, this point in particular, at least to me, indicates how much she actually appreciates Harry's usefulness, by allowing him exactly what Harry seems to value the most, to express his Free Will to seemingly screw over "the bigger bads" and show them that he won't "play ball," without him realizing how "badly" he's actually being played by them.
Only at the end during the exorcism ritual of Thomas did he realize how "well played" he got, yet again.
Mira:
--- Quote ---I see it this way. If Molly knows what Harry is thinking because of the mantle then so does mab and on top of it she knows what Molly thinks Harry would do as well. She also knows that it's going to be a life for a life. Harry would never trade a baby or give up his brother so he would probably go to war by himself if necessary. But now mab has the white court, she repaired her problem with her weapons maker, she has a new outsider to interrogate and Harry Laura and Thomas all believing that if it wasn't for mab all 3 of them and the baby would have been dead. And on top of it Harry got mother winter to stop annoying mab about getting a better knight. But none of this could have happened if Harry didn't have to fix it to begin with. I could see mab giving it to him so she could put the pieces where they needed to be. I wouldn't be surprised if Mr sunshine didn't help her put it all together
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Mab comes off as wicked and cruel, but she is what she is, and she also will do whatever it takes to keep the world save from the Outside. Harry sees that and sided with her in the end. Uriel enters into it with his seven words to Harry back in Cold Days, those still apply. When she says to him after she tells him she is so pleased with him she is granting him a boon, and then adds that he is becoming as wicked as she is. Harry gets very upset and normally would go off the deep end and screw everything up. Then he remembers what Uriel whispered to him, in this case Mab was telling lies, she cannot change who he is, only he can do that. That's the truth he clings to.
KurtinStGeorge:
I get that Mab was manipulating Harry and Harry was so off his game he didn't fully grasp what was going on. Harry asked for the boon that Mab was willing to give him and that she wanted to give him; even if it was forced on her by Harry, because it got Mab the results she wanted to achieve in any case.
However, I get where Lord Kinbote is coming from. As a writer, I think Jim played a very dangerous game with how he resolved Harry's problem with Mr. Etri. It comes close to looking like a Deus ex machina solution, except in this case the deus in question set up being asked to solve Harry's problem. So it's not a Deus ex machina solution, but the resemblance is there.
Another comparison about how Harry's problem with Mr. Etri was solved is to think about the task Harry was given in Ghost Story, to find his murderer. Harry didn't really do anything conscious to achieve that goal. At some point Harry says that he hasn't done anything to find his murderer, I think it was Lea who countered, (Not the exact quote, but close) "You've been doing nothing but look for your murderer since you arrived." Harry was frustrated with that answer and some readers; myself included, were frustrated with Ghost Story itself. The manner in which Harry eventually did find out how he got shot was very well done, the problem was that much of Ghost Story that came before that point felt like it was just meandering on with no clear direction.
Twelve Months did not have that problem. The story was told in a much cleaner and crisp manner, but it failed to show us Harry even trying to think of a solution on his own. As in Ghost Story, the readers didn't see Harry do anything to attempt a solution. When we got the solution, it wasn't as satisfying as the one in Ghost Story because it wasn't as clever and it didn't carry the same emotional weight as Harry finding out he used Molly to set up his own murder.
Here is what I thought was going to happen as I was reading the story. When Harry told Mr. Etri about Nemesis, I thought Harry would use his detective skills to find Justine or find something Nemesis wanted to draw Justine out and capture her; and then with Mr. Etri on hand but probably in hiding, demonstrate that Nemesis was in control of her. Even if Harry still needed Mab to draw up a final agreement with Etri which involved Thomas losing his child, that would have felt more like a Dresden Files story we are familiar with. (Side note, I didn't think the solution would be as straightforward as I described. Harry might have to look in Lord Raith's library for clues or become inspired by something Ebenezar would tell him to get a hint how to draw out Nemesis, but I thought we would see Harry being a detective, putting clues and ideas together to reach his adjective.)
Maybe Jim was trying to stretch himself as a writer by doing something different than give the readers a typical Dresden Files novel ending, but it felt as if Jim might have written himself into a corner and came up with Mab offering Harry a boon as a cheat code to get out of the writer's trap he had stepped into.
Bad Alias:
--- Quote from: KurtinStGeorge on February 04, 2026, 06:24:20 PM ---I get that Mab was manipulating Harry and Harry was so off his game he didn't fully grasp what was going on. Harry asked for the boon that Mab was willing to give him and that she wanted to give him; even if it was forced on her by Harry, because it got Mab the results she wanted to achieve in any case.
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Yeah, it seemed very clear to me that Mab knew exactly what he was going to ask for when he called in the boon. She was having fun with it.
I largely agree with everything else too. My biggest frustration with 12 Months is that Harry didn't really try anything after his meeting with Etri. I mean, in Chapter 51 Harry says he tried to find her every week. I think we needed to see some of that earlier in the book and probably repeatedly. We probably also needed to see Harry try to find a solution to Etri in addition to just finding Justine. They were presented as separate problems.
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