ParanetOnline

The Dresden Files => DF Spoilers => Topic started by: groinkick on November 14, 2018, 03:00:29 AM

Title: Was the time distortion ever explained?
Post by: groinkick on November 14, 2018, 03:00:29 AM
I don't recall if it was ever flushed out but when Harry was trying to stop Maeve on Demon Reach there was a time distortion issue.  Was it the Walker doing it?  Maeve?  Cowl?  I don't recall. Odin said something about happening a few days before or something.
Title: Re: Was the time distortion ever explained?
Post by: Bad Alias on November 14, 2018, 03:23:17 AM
I think there was an implication that a Faerie Queen was doing it.
Title: Re: Was the time distortion ever explained?
Post by: Bad Alias on November 14, 2018, 03:42:10 AM
Chapter 42:
Quote
"Who could have done this?" I asked.
"You have encountered this before, wizard," Kringle said. "Can you not guess?"
"One of the Queens," I muttered. "Or someone operating on their level."

That's when time sped up to make sure Dresden and the Hunt got to Demonreach too late.

There's also the temporal shenanigans of the feedback from Demonreach exploding echoing back into the past. That was a consequence of attacking the island.

Bob talk's about that in Chapter 17:
Quote
That tension that's building? It's ... Well, think of it as cause and effect, only backward.
The island is experiencing an effect of the attack before the cause because they have to attack the island through time because it was built through time. Or something like that.
Title: Re: Was the time distortion ever explained?
Post by: groinkick on November 14, 2018, 06:06:45 AM
"On the queen's level" is interesting.  So it could have been a Walker?
Title: Re: Was the time distortion ever explained?
Post by: morriswalters on November 14, 2018, 11:17:52 AM
Maeve does something similar after Harry rescues Molly from Arctis Tor.
Title: Re: Was the time distortion ever explained?
Post by: Bad Alias on November 14, 2018, 05:48:06 PM
"On the queen's level" is interesting.  So it could have been a Walker?

Yes, it may have been. Harry describes the walker in Chapter 43 as not bigger, but deeper than Mab and having power "beyond anything [he] had seen, beyond measure, beyond comprehension-just plain beyond."

On the other hand, the power of the Walker could be sufficiently different that it couldn't have manipulated time at all.

Maeve does something similar after Harry rescues Molly from Arctis Tor.
I think this is what Kringle was referring to and is why I said that it was implied that a Faerie Queen that did it.
Title: Re: Was the time distortion ever explained?
Post by: Snark Knight on November 15, 2018, 01:16:37 AM
Maeve does something similar after Harry rescues Molly from Arctis Tor.

Inside her own Winter territory in Faerie, though. Having the juice to manage that in the mortal world while simultaneously confronting Alfred, though? I suppose it's possible, but the sheer power that would take tends towards the Walker, in my opinion.
Title: Re: Was the time distortion ever explained?
Post by: forumghost on November 15, 2018, 01:40:53 AM
Perhaps we'll get some clarification one day a long time ago in the not-so-distant future.
Title: Re: Was the time distortion ever explained?
Post by: morriswalters on November 15, 2018, 01:41:21 AM
Inside her own Winter territory in Faerie, though. Having the juice to manage that in the mortal world while simultaneously confronting Alfred, though? I suppose it's possible, but the sheer power that would take tends towards the Walker, in my opinion.
I don't disagree, I just don't know.  We've only seen Maeve do it, and the limits or capabilities of the outsiders are a cipher. It may be players we haven't seen. ?shrug?
Title: Re: Was the time distortion ever explained?
Post by: Bad Alias on November 15, 2018, 03:04:05 AM
Inside her own Winter territory in Faerie, though. Having the juice to manage that in the mortal world while simultaneously confronting Alfred, though? I suppose it's possible, but the sheer power that would take tends towards the Walker, in my opinion.

And Kringle undid it. If I had to lay down a bet, it would be on the faeries. Maybe I'm falling for misdirection.
Title: Re: Was the time distortion ever explained?
Post by: forumghost on November 15, 2018, 05:29:58 AM
I mean my money would probably be on fishface since he was the one directing the defense while Maeve and Co were attacking Alfred.

Speaking of, how dumb was Lily exactly? "We're being helped by a Walker and an army of Outsider Cultists, we're 100% the good guys here"
Title: Re: Was the time distortion ever explained?
Post by: Mr. Death on November 15, 2018, 03:00:12 PM
I mean my money would probably be on fishface since he was the one directing the defense while Maeve and Co were attacking Alfred.

Speaking of, how dumb was Lily exactly? "We're being helped by a Walker and an army of Outsider Cultists, we're 100% the good guys here"
Why would you assume she knew anything about that? Maeve wasn't going to tell her.
Title: Re: Was the time distortion ever explained?
Post by: Snark Knight on November 16, 2018, 01:47:31 AM
I don't disagree, I just don't know.  We've only seen Maeve do it, and the limits or capabilities of the outsiders are a cipher. It may be players we haven't seen. ?shrug?

Actually, Harry's flashback to the confrontation with HWW Behind in Ghost Story also showed him using a slowed time effect to toy with the young gas station attendant before murdering him.


Speaking of, how dumb was Lily exactly? "We're being helped by a Walker and an army of Outsider Cultists, we're 100% the good guys here"

Pretty dumb, to be sure, but she did think the Outsiders were there because Harry called them up as muscle to help protect Alfred from her and Maeve. Which wouldn't have been an enormously tough sell for Maeve, since everyone knows it takes a mortal wizard to summon them.
Title: Re: Was the time distortion ever explained?
Post by: Bad Alias on November 16, 2018, 02:30:44 AM
Actually, Harry's flashback to the confrontation with HWW Behind in Ghost Story also showed him using a slowed time effect to toy with the young gas station attendant before murdering him.

Good point.
Title: Re: Was the time distortion ever explained?
Post by: morriswalters on November 16, 2018, 03:10:24 AM
Actually, Harry's flashback to the confrontation with HWW Behind in Ghost Story also showed him using a slowed time effect to toy with the young gas station attendant before murdering him.
I took that as a mental attack but on rereading I believe you are correct.
Title: Re: Was the time distortion ever explained?
Post by: kbrizzle on November 24, 2018, 07:41:48 PM
I always thought that Maeve doing it there & in the NeverNever during PG was a bit facile. My personal thought is that it is the Outsiders.

Here’s an interesting thought though - what if the time distortion field were caused by Demonreach? What if the time distortion field were there to slow down the prisoners from getting out should the banefire fail?

We know that Demonreach knows of the attack because one of its’ defenses is in time - there is probably some sort of defense mechanism on the island where the trigger is always a few days ahead. For example, if today is a Saturday, then DR always has an advance alarm system whose boundary extends through maybe Monday/ Tuesday. Tomorrow on Sunday, it would extend through Tuesday/ Wednesday. This way the island is always aware of attack a few days in advance - enough time for it to get help.   

We also know that Odin knows a lot about the island since he was the OG Merlin’s teacher (and Merlin built the island). So isn’t it suspicious that he is able to recognize & deal with the effects by his lonesome?

Arguments against other theories

Is Maeve really powerful enough to coordinate the Fae in their attack on the Demonreach entity while holding up a time spell over a large body of water that is complex enough to require all of Odin’s efforts for the fight? Nothing we have seen from her shows her to be capable of this.

Regarding what Odin says to Harry - he only says that Harry has felt these effects before, Harry is the one who takes this to mean the events in Proven Guilty, when time was sped up, allowing Mab’s armies to reach Arctis Tor ASAP. Perhaps this time distortion was caused by the breach of Arctis Tor’s defenses (I wouldn’t be surprised if Mab had a relationship with its genius loci), speeding time up in Winter to allow Mab’s forces to come to her aid ASAP. They were there after Harry pretty soon after he rescues Molly.