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Messages - Talby16

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91
Count me in the group of people that do not think Harry and Merlin are or should be the same person. I agree that it seems to simplistic of an explanation. I believe that Merlin is a distinct person. We know that he created the White Council. I believe that if Harry is the younger Merlin and thus when he is older goes back in time and sets up the White Council he would have set it up differently due to his younger experience with it. In other words, I have a hard time believing that Harry, with his experience with the council's actions towards him and his beliefs about how the council should act would set the council up in a way that would allow that to happen.

My own pet theory is that Merlin, with all his time travel shenanigans, sets up the Well to harbor the worst of the worst because he knows it will be needed. Because he knows it will be needed he leaves a message for the future Warden of the Well with instructions and advice. I'm thinking something along the lines of Harry's mother's amulet. This would allow Harry to interact with Merlin and give us a window into who he was without having to do a whole separate book about it.

92
DF Spoilers / Re: RNT: What Makes A Good Fight Scene?
« on: May 01, 2025, 06:29:47 PM »
Something I have enjoyed about some of the fight scenes in Dresden Files is the element of surprise. Harry sees something that lets him arrange the fight a particular way or take specific actions, but we aren't told what it is, until the surprise is sprung. We end up being surprised just like the enemies are, yet we can see why Harry did what he did and get the satisfaction. I think of the fight in the botanical gardens in Cold Days. Harry knew the tension needed to be broken correctly to avoid a slaughter and was able to do that because he saw Cat Sith take out one of the bad guys. When Cat Sith takes out the second bad guy and spits the shoe back on the back we get the surprise of the unexpected event and the visceral satisfaction of a bad guy going down.

93
DF Spoilers / Re: Questions for Mab
« on: May 01, 2025, 06:25:55 PM »
Agreed, unless there is a rule against the Winter Knight getting a salary from his Queen.  Remember before the battle, Molly was buying a house close to her parents to further protect them and she loaned Harry her old place because he was homeless.  I seem to remember that there was a rule against him being paid, because Mab could have given him money then and didn't.  Unless Harry just doesn't want to be in Mab's debt anymore than he has to be so refuses a salary.

I could see Harry being leery of getting anything from Mab and going further into debt. I could also see Mab having the viewpoint of the Knight being disposable and thus not worth any extra resources.

94
DF Spoilers / Re: Twelve Months (blurb'ed & priced on Amazon)
« on: May 01, 2025, 12:54:35 PM »

Also, I am wondering what Jim is going to write this year, now that he finished with 12 months.

I would guess the next Cinder Spires book. However, since Twelve Months was unplanned, maybe he would be refreshed enough to dive into Mirror Mirror which I think he was looking forward to.

95
When you start down the moral culpability road it starts to get unclear..  None of what happened is Monica's fault, also she went as far as she was able to or capable of going to Harry in the first place.
Since morality is subjective based upon one's beliefs and experiences it is hard to paint with a wide brush when it comes to culpability.

96
DF Spoilers / Re: Blood Rites foreshadowing
« on: May 01, 2025, 12:51:19 PM »
Not sure of the details, but I agree.  Reading this I wonder if a Winter Knight is actually the father of Maeve and Sarissa?
We know that he was an Austrian Composer (if I recall correctly). Could be the Winter Knight.

Based upon the Molly short story about her first mission where the mantle injures Carlos to protect Molly from having sex, I assume that being a virgin is part and parcel to being the Lady. That would rule Lara out for the Lady role. I believe part of the ascension to Queen is having sex with the purpose of having children thus breaking the virgin and maiden role of the Lady. I do not know if Lara could become the Queen either.

Sorry for the self quote, but I was thinking about my answer and I may need to correct myself. I cannot remember if the Winter Lady has to be a virgin or just has not had any kids yet. The mantle may be protecting the Lady from having sex to avoid having kids. If I have time I will try to hunt that WOJ down.

97
I cannot remember, are the Fomor signatories of the accords? If they are, the rest of the signatories could have been surprised because they thought the accords would protect them as far as leading to conversation before battle. I find it hard to believe that the Fomor could have killed  Gwynn ap Nudd without someone knowing about it. He was evidently alive to arrange and lay down some of the protections on the Peace Talks meaning he was in contact with the other accorded nations. They took him out after the protections were laid, but before their appearance so that they could bring his head to the Peace Talks. Killing a head of an accorded nation, that should have been caught right away in my opinion.

98
DF Spoilers / Re: Blood Rites foreshadowing
« on: May 01, 2025, 02:03:35 AM »
Nice find. Do you think she will one day replace Mab or the Winter Lady?

I think she is more suited to be Mab's replacement. The whole Winter Lady virgin thing would not be so nice for Lara.
I believe that it is established by WOJ that mantles fill from the bottom up. If the Queen dies the Lady becomes the new Queen and selects a new lady. Mab was the lady with Lea as her handmaiden when the previous Queen died and she ascended to the role. Based upon the Molly short story about her first mission where the mantle injures Carlos to protect Molly from having sex, I assume that being a virgin is part and parcel to being the Lady. That would rule Lara out for the Lady role. I believe part of the ascension to Queen is having sex with the purpose of having children thus breaking the virgin and maiden role of the Lady. I do not know if Lara could become the Queen either.

99
So you are saying when Arianna was human she hated all her fellow humans?  Or she hated humanity as a human, and as a full vampire, who don't like humans anyway except as food proves she kept some of her human emotions?  Or is it a coincidence?  Like the rooster crowing at sun rise has nothing to do with the sun rising..
I am asserting that as it says in the quote from the book, Arianna hated Europeans. Specifically conquistadors due to their actions in South America. Not quite all humans, just a subsection. Due to her hatred she sought out a conquistador to turn and marry so she could torment him for all eternity.

100
Does she bear some moral culpability? Hard to say. Good points being made about coercion and abuse warping her ability to make an informed choice with regards to participating in the rites. However, given her history, I doubt any human jury (informed vanilla mortals able to understand and pass judgement on supernatural cases, not the high horse white council) would convict her of any wrongdoing. That is not the same as moral culpability, but it does illustrate how her actions would be viewed with regards to fault in general.

101
DF Spoilers / Re: How many times have you read the Dresden Files?
« on: May 01, 2025, 01:42:20 AM »
I also have read the books umpteen times. I alternate between reading the series straight through and only hitting my favorite books. However, I have never been able to listen to books. I enjoy the voices in my head too much to listen to someone else's voices  :o.

102
Loving this lively discussion. I would like to toss another factoid out there for discussion. In Changes Chapter 38 (pg 399 of the paperback)it says
Quote
"Poo," Lea said. "Arianna still hates the Europeans with a vengeance, you know. It was why she took a conquistador husband."
I blinked. "Ortega?"
"Of course, child," Lea said. "Love and hate are oft difficult to distinguish between. She won Ortega's heart, changed him, wed him, and spent the centuries after breaking his heart over and over again. Calling for him and then sending him away. Giving in to him and then reversing her course. She said it kept her hatred fresh and hot."

From this we can determine that Arianna kept her hatred of the humans from her mortal self into her vampire self. Acting on that hatred she pursued Ortega because he was a conquistador and thus representative of her hatred. Essentially, in my opinion, she took actions as a vampire based upon her human experiences/emotions. Food for thought.

103
DF Spoilers / Re: Questions for Mab
« on: May 01, 2025, 01:20:27 AM »
Yeah, this.

Harry gets everything he bargained for there under the stars, at the Stone Table.

Everything.

And not a single bit more.

(except a tiny bit here or there, as he manages to leverage new points by virtue of being the Winter Knight and having understanding of Faerie Law and Winter Law (e.g. Mab was annoyed with him for summoning her to Judgement in Talvi Inverno's office, but it was a correct use of Winter Law by the Winter Knight; so she was compelled to do it).  salary is nowhere in this. )
 
Harry has a history of not being complete with his bargains (ie the Magic Feather with Lea). Granted, he is under pressure most of the time when he makes bargains. He got everything he asked for at the Stone Table. He was already planning on weaseling out of it so he did not take the time to find out more about what the job entails or the resources he could use to do the job. He could have asked for more.
I'm pretty sure the Author has no wish to do so.

Money is power.  If Harry has access to lots of cash on a regular basis, his life gets easier, his options more extensive, it gets harder to wrap him in plot difficulties.

Remember back in Turn Coat:  Harry was hiding Morgan from the Council and almost everyone else, but he had only a handful of places he could use.  Luckily for him, most of the people hunting him were used to having lots of resources and didn't fully grasp how limited Harry's options were.

Binder did get it, and he actually said at one point "Money never gets it."  Binder is working class background and he understood exactly why Harry was doing things they way he did them.
There is a WOJ about how much Harry can do and how much equipment he can maintain given his time and financial constraints. That is one of the things that keeps him a medium sized fish in the pond who occasionally gets a lucky shot in against the bigger fish. If you give him unlimited resources that will allow him to level up to quickly which is at odds with who he is and his growth up to this point. I give it 50/50 odds that if he had access to that much money he would just blow it all on worthy causes instead of using it for himself.
  I think Harry will have come into some more money by now to his sorrow.  Murphy may have left her worldly goods to him in her Will, which also included at least one sock full of diamonds.  This might also be one of Mab's motives for the union between Harry and Lara, she has enough money for the two of them.
I believe that motive to be really far down on the list. If Mab wanted Harry to have money she would just give him money. There is no need to be that circumspect when resources are not a problem for Mab.

104
DF Spoilers / Re: Do you think we'll see Elaine again?
« on: May 01, 2025, 01:05:40 AM »
Yes, we will see Elaine again.  It wouldn’t surprise me to see her in the next book.
I also think we will see Elaine soon. She will either approach Harry to console him about Murphy, because he is now outside the council and thus less of a danger to her, or because she heard about the Lara engagement and is trying to "save" Harry from it.

105
DF Spoilers / Re: "Restoration of Faith" (but especially: Faith)
« on: April 30, 2025, 10:53:21 PM »
Woah. I like this theory a lot. Faith and Charity as names do fit thematically together and match what image conscious parents might chose to make the "perfect family." I do not know if I buy Faith as the younger sister however. It would make sense because Faith never mentioned a baby sister when talking to Harry, but I could see the arrival of a new sibling being a reason to run away. We know that magical talent tends to be harder to pass down when the parent has not been practicing. Since Charity fell in with bad company I tend to believe that her mother either had weak talent or was not practicing thus not training Charity making it easy for her to fall in with the wrong crowd. If that supposition is true then there may have not been enough magic to pass along to a sibling younger than Charity. In order to believe that Faith is Kumori (who was listed as being strong enough to be in the White Council) I would say that Faith should be the older child and Charity got a diluted weaker magic passed along as the younger sibling.

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