The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

Twelve month is little disappointment (spoilers)

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Dina:
You don't want Harry and Thomas having a good relationship?  :'( I love them together, it is one of my favourite things in the series.
I honestly see nothing eye rolling about Lara being Thomas "mother". It is nothing that we did not know.

Of course, everyone likes different things. That is fine or life would be much more boring.

g33k:

--- Quote from: lw007 on January 25, 2026, 10:45:49 AM --- ...   1.  Ramirez and Harry’s relationship
Ramirez seems to be on good terms with Harry again, but the transition isn’t really shown. A bit more explanation of what changed between them would have helped this feel more natural ...
--- End quote ---
I'm still unclear on whether there ever was any "on bad terms" with Ramirez.  Way back, they picked roles to play, long-term:  Harry was gonna be the "bad boy / rebel" & Carlos was gonna be the "good boy / straight."

When Carlos acted "on the outs" with Harry, it really could all have been just that:  an act ...


--- Quote from: lw007 on January 25, 2026, 10:45:49 AM --- ...  2.  Lara and the soulgaze
Lara appears unaware of soulgaze, which was a little surprising, since we’ve already seen a soulgaze involving Ramirez earlier in the series ...
--- End quote ---
Maybe Lara just wanted to give Harry a chance to talk about something familiar; but yeah, I think Jim just dropped the ball here.  Lara soulgazed Carlos (she didn't even seem surprised by the experience; I presumed she had had other similar experiences, and/or it was part of standard Raith Family "how to be supernatural" training).  Harry watched it happen, so he HAD to know about it.


--- Quote from: lw007 on January 25, 2026, 10:45:49 AM --- ...  3. Lara’s father regaining strength
This is an interesting idea, but it could use more clarification. Based on previous books, Papa Raith didn’t seem capable of independent thought. I’m open to this being explained later, but at the moment it feels underdeveloped rather than wrong ...
--- End quote ---
Harry's an unreliable narrator:  he told us the situation "as he understood it."
I think Harry was simply wrong.


--- Quote from: lw007 on January 25, 2026, 10:45:49 AM --- ...  4.  Questions around Mab and Justine
One plot point raised some questions for me. Mab is strongly opposed to Outsiders, and Justine was known to be infected. It’s unclear why Mab wasn’t actively looking for her once this became known—presumably around the time Justine left Harry.
And if Mab couldn’t intervene directly, it’s a bit confusing that Harry could simply ask for Justine to be taken and Mab would comply. Especially since Mab later explains that she could kill her, suggesting that the usual restrictions on harming humans don’t fully apply here ...
--- End quote ---
I expect Mab had track of Justine from very shortly after she sank the Water Beetle.  If nothing else, she used the Little Folk as scout/spies, much as Harry does.  But I suspect the Queen of Air and Darkness has better & subtler tools, more on the order of Nicodemus'  "any shadow in the world" listening ability.

But Mab always plays a long game; she just tracked Justine, maybe to see if she could spot the target/agenda of the Nemfection... but more likely:  because Justine was inevitably going to be an element of critical importance to manipulating Harry.
 

LaraBeck:

--- Quote from: Dina on January 26, 2026, 06:27:40 AM ---You don't want Harry and Thomas having a good relationship?  :'( I love them together, it is one of my favourite things in the series.
I honestly see nothing eye rolling about Lara being Thomas "mother". It is nothing that we did not know.

Of course, everyone likes different things. That is fine or life would be much more boring.

--- End quote ---

Yes, we knew she had raised him, but that's not the same as having those motherly feelings that she describes in twelve months, those that are hard to believe were always there when she was willing to kill him before. I think the push to "humanize" her is just too much. And this is a me issue, I used to not care about Lara, I mean she was cool, whatever, but ever since Peace Talk / Battle Ground when it felt like Murphy was pushed aside to further a Harry / Lara romance, I just despise her portrayal, and I don't think it's entirely unmerited, she's presented as a capable leader in all the previous books and since PT/BG she's a fumbling, blushing damsel. I will always say that we could have grown the romance with Lara in a way that didn't feel like we were doing it over Murphy's cooling corpse. I despise this development in the series. (yes I'm aware of the irony that we share a name, lol). But again, it's just a me issue since most of the fandom seem to be cool with all this.

Regarding Thomas, I genuinely like his relationship with Harry and I wish it was all puppies and roses between them, but I just think that at some point Ebenezer is going to be proven right, and unfortunately it will be by Thomas' hand, I think it's the perfect way to torture Harry, to have Thomas betraying in some way. I think Twelve Months might be setting us up for that. And if I were in Thomas shoes, I would also be angry at Harry, very angry. It's not necessarily rational, but it's very understandable IMO.

Furthermore, Thomas is just a baby, in vampire years, with time, he would probably develop into what the rest of his kind are or do. He might be different due to Harry's presence in his life, but without him? I have to say that I don't buy that he doesn't turn like the rest of them. Plus, I always wanted to see Thomas as the King of his Court, because it gets tiresome that he keeps getting kidnapped and neutered when we've known since Backup that his Hunger is actually really more powerful than many. Give the man some agency. I dunno.

Dina:
I thought your forum name was because you were a fan of Lara, and I was so confused about your posts  :)

I always thought Harry would not be with Lara because she feed of people, so yes, some retconned seemed to have been happened, so now she tries not to kill. She is the same person that had imprisoned the wee-folk. I agree now Jim is making her nicer (btw, the same happened with Mab, who suddenly became "not cruel"). Some things can be explained in universe by Harry being unreliable, Harry growth and Harry different mental states. And some can be explained by Mab being a manipulator, that sometimes presents herself as crueler and sometimes as a full Vulcan. However I think there is some retconning too. All that said, I think Lara is literally a good partner for Harry, both in universe and as a character for us to read.
But the part of maternal feelings did not affect me because I think it was not new. We have seen what Lara can do for Thomas, in PT/BG for example and I think Lara behave differently when she was under her father control, so she cannot show a preference for the "silly and useless" brother.

I also hope you are wrong about Thomas because I want them together, being loving with each other. Thomas had time to think. To reflect about what his own actions did, how Harry lost his woman for ever, not for a few years like Justine. And also he had lost Susan too, by his own hand. And how Harry lost friends in the battle, and what Lara and Harry risked for him. I think when Thomas got time to think, to talk to Lara, to heal some of the pain, much of his anger dissipated, and hopefully with more time, he will be back to completely love and trust Harry. It Harry had not did what he did, Thomas would be dead or imprisoned, Justine nemfected and who knows what plans Nemesis had for the baby. Those are facts and Thomas eventually will understand that. At least, that is what I hope and what I believe  :). Of course I may be wrong.

Mira:

--- Quote ---I did like that Harry was genuinely broken over Murphy, I wouldn't have believed anything else, but I was disappointed in his... how to say it, his comformity with it. And I don't know if I can explain this properly, but it felt to me, like he accepted her death very easily, what he had problems with was her absence and his guilt over not doing more in the past. But having Vadderung within reach, I would have imagine the Harry we knew would have tried to ask about her, to learn more about how exactly the einherjar worked, or if there was something that he could do, or even to ask if he could get a message delivered to her or something.

--- End quote ---

  It is complicated, yes, Harry accepted Murphy's death, what else was he to do?  She bled out and died in his arms, stark truth. That doesn't mean he accepted her death easily, it means he accepted that she is dead, not the same thing.  He says a couple of times that he'd like to crawl into a hole somewhere and grieve, but he can't.  The world is moving on too quickly, too many people depend on him, he either gets up and move or it all passes him by and leaves him behind.   Those questions for Vadderung will come later, his confrontation with Mab over the spell that enabled Murphy to overcome her physical injuries to be present and die as a result was realistic.

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