ParanetOnline

The Dresden Files => DF Spoilers => Topic started by: Conspiracy Theorist on January 24, 2022, 02:03:53 PM

Title: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: Conspiracy Theorist on January 24, 2022, 02:03:53 PM

There are many instances of foreshadowing in the Dresden Files some obvious, some less so, many which may be accidental, and some which have yet to come to pass. We the readers also tend to read things into the text as foreshadowing, when sometimes they aren’t

What I am interested in are throw away lines which may represent foreshadowing but are really, really stupid, but if unresolved are going to be really, really annoying. Did Jim have a payoff in mind and just forgot or abandoned it? Or have we grasped onto something which never was foreshadowing

A perfect example is the constant references to the Merlin’s bottle cap collection. Is it a real thing? Will it have some minor or major plot point pay off later on in the series? Harry is due at some future point due to have a showdown with the Merlin and the White Council due to the Gatekeeper (who should know) will the bottle cap collection play a part? Or has Jim just played far too much Fallout?

My ideal scenario? It involves Harry, Nick and the Merlin and two identical bags, one full of Blackened Denarius, and the other full of the Merlin’s most prized bottle caps, leading to a Nick versus Merlin battle.

Are there other examples of such frustrating ‘foreshadowing’?
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: GWPfark on January 24, 2022, 05:53:38 PM
You know...when Dresden threatened to destroy the entire Red Court.....
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: JTass on January 24, 2022, 10:17:06 PM
My favorite bit of foreshadowing that at the time seemed like just a throwaway quip was Butters' line in Ghost Story telling the Einherjar that he wouldn't be getting into any sparring rings until he had a functional light saber.
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: Conspiracy Theorist on January 25, 2022, 12:55:46 AM
And he reneged on that!

Some champion of the White God.

We need to see the scene of Butters versus an Einenjharen in the sparring ring.

Butters slips and the Einenjharen trips over him, knocking himself out on the post.
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: JTass on January 26, 2022, 03:05:04 PM
IIRC I think it was mentioned or implied in "Day One" that that Butters had been sparring with the Einherjahren as part of his training regimen with Michael.
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: Mira on January 26, 2022, 07:09:49 PM
IIRC I think it was mentioned or implied in "Day One" that that Butters had been sparring with the Einherjahren as part of his training regimen with Michael.

Well, he may just haven't had the chance yet, he has been a very busy little man after all.
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: morriswalters on January 26, 2022, 07:25:34 PM
If Merlin had Bottle Caps in the 11th Century then he got them from some other time.  They weren't invented till the 1800's.
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: Conspiracy Theorist on January 26, 2022, 07:31:24 PM
The Merlin, not Merlin would have been born in the 1700’s. He would have been fascinated by the new fangled bottle caps replacing the trusty cork.
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: Yuillegan on January 27, 2022, 12:52:35 PM
As far as I am aware, Harry is just using an analogy when claiming the Merlin didn't get his job by collecting bottle caps. I don't think it's meant to be anymore than a phrase.

Sometimes, curtains are just curtains. Not on these forums of course  :o
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: Conspiracy Theorist on January 27, 2022, 01:31:56 PM
As far as I am aware, Harry is just using an analogy when claiming the Merlin didn't get his job by collecting bottle caps. I don't think it's meant to be anymore than a phrase.

Sometimes, curtains are just curtains. Not on these forums of course  :o

Sometimes they are drapes.
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: Mira on January 27, 2022, 06:39:03 PM
Sometimes they are drapes.

  Could also be tin foil..... :P  It gets hot here in Arkansas and using it to cover windows really helps. ::)
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: Conspiracy Theorist on January 27, 2022, 09:48:53 PM
  Could also be tin foil..... :P  It gets hot here in Arkansas and using it to cover windows really helps. ::)

Don’t be silly, tinfoil is for hats.....
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: Mira on January 28, 2022, 12:37:33 PM
Don’t be silly, tinfoil is for hats.....

That is another use for it, but though ugly, it is very effective in helping the keep your house cool.  I live in a house built in the early fifties with one of those huge picture windows that faces the south.
Though I do put black out curtains on it for the summer, covering it with tin foil is more effective for
reflecting the heat outside.  At end of summer when you take it down you have plenty of foil for hats and roasting a turkey... ::)
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: tacorrific on February 02, 2022, 09:09:27 PM
I imagine that someone from the Black Council or Harry will give The Merlin a sabotaged bottle of Mac's beer at some point, and when The Merlin twists off the bottle cap a mistfiend will attack him.
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: Conspiracy Theorist on February 03, 2022, 06:18:55 PM
That is another use for it, but though ugly, it is very effective in helping the keep your house cool.  I live in a house built in the early fifties with one of those huge picture windows that faces the south.
Though I do put black out curtains on it for the summer, covering it with tin foil is more effective for
reflecting the heat outside.  At end of summer when you take it down you have plenty of foil for hats and roasting a turkey... ::)

Thinking about it, the tinfoil hat would almost certainly block the influence of  Demonreach. There must be a scene of Harry doing this to protect someone at some point, ideally my fellow conspiracy theorist in the Dresdenverse Paranoid Gary, as a joke which actually works.

No one would dare sabotage a bottle of Macs, it’s written into the Accords. Why do you think Macs is Accorded Neutral Territory. You would be declaring war on every Accorded Nation simultaneously.
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: tacorrific on February 04, 2022, 06:54:54 PM
So, messing with Mac's beer would set off the apocalypse....
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: Conspiracy Theorist on February 05, 2022, 09:58:54 AM
Yes but not the Apocalypse.
Title: Re: Really Stupid Foreshadowing
Post by: Conspiracy Theorist on February 06, 2022, 05:38:23 PM
Over on the Who Is Thomas Talking To Thread, i propound that Thomas wearing a Buffy The Vampire Layer T Shirt foreshadows the British Prisoner as being James Marsters.

Simply put as Spike exists as a fictional character in the Dresdenverse, his actor also exists alongside Harry Dresden, Toot etc. Because there are no Dresden Files books (yet) in the Dresdenverse, after Buffy ended in 2003, there were no Dresden Files audio books to narrate, so lacking this income James Marsters fell in with a bad crowd, the Red Court, and was made a half vampire against his will. Contacting the White Council he found there was no cure and his condition made working as an actor difficult because of the thirst. The White Council rather than make him a poster boy for the Red Court put him in Demonreach until a cure is found (also building up the residuals from Buffy in syndication in the mean-time) whilst in Demonreach Harry genocided the Red Court, curing James Marsters, who isn’t aware of that fact. When accosted by Harry (rather than Harry’s predecessor) he uses his Spike Voice to tell him to “Piss Off”.

Off course the reveal of Marsters also reveals who the Warden before Harry was who put him in Demonreach  (my theory Fortier, largely in absentia, and he was killed to free up the Wardenship bond), which changes the motivation in universe from Turn Coat onwards, as Demonreach has long been an objective of the Black Council.