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The Dresden Files => DF Spoilers => Topic started by: Feral Plum on February 05, 2022, 10:44:41 PM
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Wouldn't it be interesting if a medical man - and a good man - operating in the range of a genius IQ had a sword which wouldn't even hurt a human victim, but which could kill a demon bound to the victim and was in the process of killing the good human part.
Hmmmm
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Welcome, and this has been speculated on since Skin Game gave us the Faithsabre.
On a similar note is that Demonreach can release part of its captives, potentially separating host and hunger.
I myself consider rather than separation of Hunger and Host that the Sword of Love may instead invert a Hunger, turning it inside out, love becomes food rather than pain and forcing a succubus to instead to become an Eros, gaining strength and power from love rather than life force.
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TBH, I am not sure I buy that.
On/Off switch for goodie/baddie is easy. 'partial on' mode for yes demon/no human at the same time would have to be proven to exist at all.
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If the sword of love can kill the Hunger/vampire side of the white court, we could potentially see 2 of the 4 courts killed off during the series.
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Thomas has handled the Sword before, not directly touching it, but not used it. My guess it would burn him to handle it directly, unless HE picks it up as an act of love, and that may change him forever.
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Wouldn't it be interesting if a medical man - and a good man - operating in the range of a genius IQ had a sword which wouldn't even hurt a human victim, but which could kill a demon bound to the victim and was in the process of killing the good human part.
Hmmmm
I am so lost here. There is something called Gamma Sword with similar properties of Butter's sword?
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I am so lost here. There is something called Gamma Sword with similar properties of Butter's sword?
I am GUESSING they just mean the third Sword, as gamma is the third letter of the Greek alphabet
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I am so lost here. There is something called Gamma Sword with similar properties of Butter's sword?
I'm with you. No idea what a gamma sword is.
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Maybe mild mannered genius Dr Bruce Banner is being confused with mild mannered genius Dr Waldo Butters? If you think about it Waldo is Bruce without all the Hulk emotional issues.
I took it it as using the Sword of Faith in its post Skin Game form as a scalpel to sever the Hunger from Thomas. The Hunger is all that if currently keeping Thomas alive, severing it would kill him. Thomas would require a truly massive amount of life force to be restored to what he was, and that would kill multiple mortal women even if they could line them up one after the other, so he could survive a severing. Using an Unravelling, of having Demonreach take Thomas out of stasis but not the Hunger would have a similar effect of killing a much weakened Thomas.
My solution Molly, third times the charm, (there is soooo much foreshadowing of Thomas feeding on Molly) she is likely still human enough for Thomas to feed upon but is immortal, it shouldn’t kill her (but may drain her humanity accelerating the process of the Mantle, so Mab would definitely approve “Kill Molly Carpenter.”)
While this would restore Thomas physically there is still his mental state to consider. Thomas loathes being a vampire, and being taken down by Demonreach means the being has to suffer all the harm they have perpetrated.
That would leave a restored Thomas in a bad state even if the missing Justine and their child are present for him coming out of stasis. My solution, a different Sword. Ammorachius is currently stored in Demonreach with the Shroud, Crown, Spear and Placard (although Harry is not above getting Michael to stick it in a huge stone in the foyer of Castle Dresden with the legend “whosoever pulleth this Sword from the Stone shall be the true King of these United States”) Thomas grabs it, afraid for Justine and the child and in and act of love runs himself through with it.
As with the Faithsabre a transformation occurs, but this time within Thomas, rather than the Sword inverting his hunger, changing it from a succubus to an Eros (or Erus in the Etruscan) as it was originally intended to be. There is foreshadowing of this, in Grave Peril Thomas’s costume as such was a loincloth and a pair of wings, the traditional appearance of Eros/Erus, when Thomas saved the Sword itself from being unmade.
The Faithsabre was created I think not just by the application of Butters faith, it was in proximity to the Spear at least which can make the impossible possible and would be a major compatible power source. With transformation now possible the application of faith and power made it probable. The Shroud, Spear and Crown proximity may facilitate the transformation.
Removing the Hunger would depower Thomas meaning Harry loses an ally and at best he gets to see his brother die of old age. Transforming the Hunger means Harry has a newly empowered ally capable of using the Sword, and a potential cure for White Court vampirism.
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Too complicated.
Thomas needs healing. Hmmn, what do we have that has legends concerning healing? Oh, yeah, let's try this Shrould thingie on him. Maybe after we have Lara and her sisters build up some big charges from non-lethal sex and feed it to him. That would be my first attempt.
It may not work, it may burn out his demon. I doubt he'd die because he can't be that much older than Harry.(Maggie Sr. left and Lara raised him from a time where he only has vague memories of his mother.) It could even do as you speculate and make him an Eros and a Knight, getting him back in the game with a power-up.
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It may not work, it may burn out his demon. I doubt he'd die because he can't be that much older than Harry.(Maggie Sr. left and Lara raised him from a time where he only has vague memories of his mother.) It could even do as you speculate and make him an Eros and a Knight, getting him back in the game with a power-up.
The impression I get from reading the books if I remember correctly is Thomas is six or eight years older than Harry. So give or take between 45 to perhaps 48 years of age. Given that Thomas is no wizard, chances are he'd revert to a middle aged vanilla human, or the bespectacled
slight man Harry saw in their soul gaze back in Blood Rites. Which I assume from the way Harry saw it was Thomas without the Hunger to keep him young, handsome, and strong.
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Speaking as a bespectacled middle aged man, Thomas wouldn’t be able to contribute much to Harry’s cases- the ‘ability’ to get up 2 or 3 times in the night to urinate is not going to be very helpful characteristic.
A fully mortal Thomas could still die of old age before Eb.
Besides we have the (Sigh) the Wrestling Book to go, and having Thomas as the Hero and Harry as the Heel, who turns on discovering that Thomas is in fact his long lost brother is just to good an opportunity to miss, to have a dig at writers and writing, it would be Jim’s Murder of Gonzaga inside his Hamlet, and let’s face it, he has already written in his Yorick.
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Well, we know from Bigfoot on Campus that a scion can withstand a vampire mating... maybe River knows a nice scion... or, it IS an emergency, a Forest People girl? ;)
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I think the important point is Thomas child. Whenever they found the child, I think Butters is going to use the sword to kill the hunger in it, so he or she will grow up to be a normal human. With that in mind, their parents would give up immortality to be normal parents. The sword probably will cure Justine (or Harry will find another way, perhaps the Shroud or any other piece of the Holy Hallows _sorry, relics). So after they find a way to heal Thomas of the consequences of what they did to him, they will use the Sword again, to kill the vampire in him. And presto! A normal happy family (with a strange uncle and cousin, but that is not so bad).
Thomas' releasing of the hunger can happen after the BAT, so Harry does not lose his ally.
Still don't know what the OP meant :)
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Well, we know from Bigfoot on Campus that a scion can withstand a vampire mating... maybe River knows a nice scion... or, it IS an emergency, a Forest People girl? ;)
More likely a Svartalf orgy than a female Bigfoot. The Swartalves owe Thomas if they have accepted he was a tool of Nemesis, they put him in this condition when they didn’t need to, and previously Thomas did have relations with almost the entire Female half of the Swartalf nation.
OP Over Powered so over powered that it’s a straight kill in every fight, no story or drama. Say Harry versus Paranoid Gary, Harry is so OP Gary would be a greasy smear in a second. Harry versus Eb on the other hand leads to a protected fight, drama, and pushes the narrative along nicely.
Compare that fight with Harry versus Lara on Demonreach. Harry is so OP there it’s almost embarrassing for Lara which made a totally different point, Harry deliberately refrained from hurting Lara whilst demonstrating that she was totally in his power.
Same with Harry versus Rudy, Harry is OP compared to Rudy but the intervention of Butters prevents Rudy from being a greasy smear.
Harry is usually the lesser power in most of his confrontations or is handicapped in the use of his power against a lesser opponent, such as obeying the First Law. Makes for a better Story.
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Thomas's redemption may lie in Lea and not the sword. Lea shows that she is capable of stilling the demon in the Susan. Also Margaret probably knew how to attack the demon directly. So he has created multiple paths to attack the problem of Thomas's redemption.
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The problem with Lea is that she is Fae, which means she would require payment in kind. A life for a life.
And Lea has always been so interested in children.....
A nonstarter I am afraid, Thomas got into this mess trying to save his child, he is not going to trade his child for his life, he was trying to trade his life for his child’s.
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I didn't say he would, I said he had a door if he chose to go through it.
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More likely a Svartalf orgy than a female Bigfoot. The Swartalves owe Thomas if they have accepted he was a tool of Nemesis, they put him in this condition when they didn’t need to, and previously Thomas did have relations with almost the entire Female half of the Swartalf nation.
But will the Demon within him stop before feeding so heavily on a female he kills her? Lara was shocked he was able to pull off Justine.... the reason i say a scion or Forest People is they seem to have more life force - it was why Irwin survived the vampire heiress - she couldn't suck him dry, there was too much there. Thomas' demon may be sated long before he drains the scion.
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The problem with Lea is that she is Fae, which means she would require payment in kind. A life for a life.
It may not be his, or his child's.... what if he was asked to TAKE a life? Be a Whamp hitman for the Fae? Why suspect the Fae if a Vamp is killing someone?
Not saying Lea wanted the svaltalf dead. But could Lea say "I will destroy this demon, if you destroy..." (sounds like Throw Momma from the Train).
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Swartalves are long lived, like Bigfoot, so have a commensurately large life force. But Thomas needs to feed and feed and feed, so it’s either multiple partners with a very large life force (Swartalves) or its an immortal.
Lea has expressed on multiple occasions she will trade in children, she considers them fun(gible). It plays to a wicked fairie stereotype.