There is no such thing as black magic in the Dresden files, and it is going to be a major plot point later.

Specifically, when I say there is no black magic, I mean that violating the laws of magic does not turn the user evil.

I am sure many of you reading this are thinking I am crazy because so many times in the DF we are told that black magic does this, that the Blackstaff is what keeps McCoy from going insane, that we have seen Harry deal with Warlocks that have gone insane, and that Harry and others can sense the taint of black magic.

Hear me out.

We get our information in the story from Harry, who in turn has gotten his perspective on black magic from the WC, McCoy, etc. But Harry believes two contradictory things about magic.

-He knows that in order to do magic, you have to believe in what you are doing. You have to have conviction in what you are doing with the magic.

-He also believes that people who violate the laws of magic turn evil over time because of it.

The problem with this is that if a person must believe in their magic to do it, than they were already as evil as whatever actions they took with it, by definition. Therefore, it is not black magic that turns a person evil. A person must be evil do do black magic. Therefore magic is as good or evil as any other tool, its being black or not depends entirely upon the use to which it is put.

-We dont really know what the blackstaff does, and we dont critically consider what we are told about it because confirmation bias makes us see what we want. We already think black magic corrupts, so the explanation seems plausible.

-We dont really know that warlocks were driven mad by their black magic. The state of mind of the warlocks is no different from, and entirely consistent with, a person doing evil in general. Its not uncommon for a bad person to get worse over time.

-This is true of every assumed example of black magic corruption in the books. There are no cases of evidence that can not be explained by normal human behavior.

Another thing to consider is that since the behavior of persons violating the laws can be entirely explained by normal human evil doing and psychology, than how could the White Council possibly know its corrupting anyone beyond their own self-corruption.

Epistemologically speaking, they couldn't. And that means they are claiming to know something they could possibly know, because they have no epistemically valid means of knowing it.

Several evidences other indications that black magic does not corrupt the user:

"As for violating the laws of magic themselves turning you good or evil, well.    There’s something to be said on either side of the argument, in the strictest sense, though one side of the argument is definitely less incorrect than the other.  But it’s going to take me several more books to lay it out, so there’s no sense in ruining the fun. "

Jim

Jim would have no reason to have to "lay it out" if the default assumption that Harry tells us from book one, that black magic corrupts, is true.

"I had to consider the possibility that she’d been trying to do the right thing: using her power to help someone in dire need. The thought made me uncomfortable as hell. I knew that the necromancers I’d met were deadly dangerous, and that if I wanted to survive a conflict with them, I would have to be ready to hit them fast and hard and without any doubts. That’s easy when the enemy is a frothing, psychotic monster. But Kumori’s apparently humanitarian act changed things. It made her a person, and people are a hell of a lot harder for me to think about killing. Even worse, if she’d been acting altruistically, it would mean that the dark energy the necromancers seemed to favor might not be something wholly, inherently evil. It had been used to preserve life, just as the magic I knew could be used either to protect or to destroy. I’d always considered the line between black magic and white to be sharp and clear. But if that dark power could be employed in whatever fashion its wielder chose, that made it no different from my own. Dammit. Investigation was supposed to make me certain of what needed to be done. It was not supposed to confuse me even more. When I opened my eyes, thick clouds had covered the sun and painted the whole world in shades of grey."

Jim Butcher. Dead Beat (Kindle Locations 3162-3172). Orbit. Kindle Edition.

I think this entire part of Dead Beat is clear foreshadowing that Harry's view on black magic isn't correct. He is clearly uncomfortable about the idea, and its a weird thing to put in the series if there isnt something to it.

-We know Luccio tells Dresden the laws are really about constraining the power of wizards.

"Note also the killing law only applies to Humans.You can kill as many faeries as you want with magic."


"Bingo.  It hardly seems fair, does it?The Laws of Magic don't necessarily match up to the actual universal guidelines to how the universal power known as "magic" behaves. The consequences for breaking the Laws of Magic don't all come from people wearing grey cloaks. And none of it necessarily has anything to do with what is Right or Wrong. Which exist.  It's finding where they start or stop existing that's the hard part."

Jim



Broadly speaking, I think the WC lies about this deliberately because it is easier to get people to follow the laws if they convince everyone that breaking them will mind fuck them into becoming evil, and because it gives the black magic an "icky" component, and many humans are motivated by disgust based morality. Additionally there is the aspect discussed by Harry about Kumori in Dead Beat. It dehumanizes perceived black mages and makes it easier to enforce the laws. The black staff is just a prop in the lie. They do this because the white council wants to control wizards, and keep the power to do certain things to itself.

Originally, I think this went back to the time of the original Merlin. I think that as far as the story goes this is all going to link together back to when Mab was Human and knew the Merlin. I think that the laws became a thing to try to limit the political influence of wizards after the original Merlin's dealings with King Arthur, and the mess that came from that. I think that whatever happened back then was so bad that the draconian laws of magic were put in place to make sure it never happened again, and that led to the current state of affairs where killing with magic to defend yourself as barely a defense, and things like necromancy go unexplored even though they may have valuable uses.

Furthermore, while I am not sure how this will all add up, I think the fact that Harry's mother was opposed to the laws of magic and that the details of her life are still a mystery is a big indicator that this is going to be a major plot point later. Its one of the only things we know about her, which is that she disagreed with the laws. I don't think information like that was put in the story idly.

But to sum it up I think the laws of magic are a lie and that this is going to be a central feature of the main plot of the series when it gets revealed.

At the ball in GP, Lea kisses thomas on the neck and it burns him.

Margaret made a deal with mab as part of her efforts to make harry starborn
.in return, she became a fae. This also explains why she is so keen on Harry and why she was he godmother from the beginning

I was perusing the WOJ database looking for things that might be relevant to some BG theories. I came across one where Jim is responding to a person who is disappointed about changes. This persons complaint was that they had been wondering what would make Harry act in immoral fashion. Essentially, what kind of pressure would it take to make Harry go over the edge? This person was disappointed because as they saw it, the fact that Jim made it so that Harry was trying to save Maggie turned the moral dilemma into a cop out.

Jim then responds by explaining that Maggie being in danger doesn't excuse Dresden because that's not a good enough excuse.

My confusion is that I don't get what exactly Harry was supposed to have done wrong in Changes. What was the big moral dilemma?

Notable facts and theories if my memory serves:

-Mab knew the Merlin of old when she was mortal and IIRC there was some kind of romance hinted at. Correct me if I am misremembering the latter part.

-I think that Mab became Mab because of some shit that went down the original white council. I think those reasons were analogous to the desperation that caused Harry to become the Knight.

-Harry is a star born, and we know he was bred to be one by the WC.

-I think the WC had some nefarious reasons for breeding him as such, or at the least some of the members did. Not all members of the WC may have the same motives.

-I think that whatever this is regarding the star born, it goes way back to whatever happened with Mab back in the day when she was mortal or when she became Mab.

-The laws the white council are draconian. This is been a theme from the beginning of the books and it has now come to a head. I do not think this is a coincidence that this happened at the same time as we learned more about Harry being star-born and Mab suddenly became more chummy.

My main theory:

I think Mab is not actually a villain. I think she became Mab because of some kind of BS that went down with the original WC back when the original Merlin existed. I think that the modern council with its draconian laws and general stupidity is in some way the product of what happened back in the day and is a bastardization of the original intend of the council. I think that the current WC had some kind of nefarious or at least misguided plans for Harry as a star born, probably to create a new Merlin. A true Merlin like the old one, who was probably also a star born and that's why he was so strong. Whatever shit happened way back in the day probably had something to do with this, and possibly demon reach. I think Mab has from the very beginning been watching over Harry so that she could get him away from the council, and what better way to do this than make him her Knight so that she could control him and also distance him from the council. I think that she isnt evil though, and in fact wanted a morally good Winter Knight. I think this is why she always threatens to break him but never actually does it, she is testing him to see if he has the character she thinks he has. I think she wants to do this because she realizes that Harry as a star born has the potential to usher in a new Era and she wants to make sure he is worthy of said power and is not corrupted by the council so that he can reform the council and restore it to what it was intended to be by become the new Merlin. In other words, Harry can being balance to the force. I also think that this has obviously been in motion well before the events of the story and that Harry's mother knew about the evil intentions of the white council and thats why she was such a maverick. I think the WC killed Harrys mother, probably because she didnt want to go along with the plan (among other things) and that something along these line is part of why no one has told Harry anything about being starborn. It is also possible that the black council is not entirely evil, and may be a group of people who include both evil practitioners and also people who are rebels against the nature of the current council....and I think Cowl is somehow involved in all this.


Yes I know some of this is spitballing but I had one of those Eureka moments and I wanted to type it all out. What do you guys think? Does anyone have any other facts to support this?

Harry should Dark Hallow demon reach. With the islands defenses, it would be hard for anyone to interfere. With the islands remoteness, it is likely no one would be hurt, and Harry could just put a circle around the island anyhow. A dark hallow on demon reach would suck up all the power of all the bad nasties on the island. So in one stroke, Harry becomes more powerful and both Fae Queens and the Erlking  put together, and he deletes the demon reach prison forever.

I forget which book it was but there was admission at some point that Dresden's reliance on revolvers due to their simplicity wasn't really necessary, and was a result of Harry's relative ignorance on guns at the start of the series or something.

We've seen alot of Wardens etc pack some pretty serious firepower throughout the series. So question is, when is Dresden going to get an assault rifle or something.

His enemies certainly use them. Micheal of course got the bad end of that. Seems about time Dresden and crew assault rifle up on the reg.

Actually this is part of an even bigger question of mine that I have wondered for some time. I can see why dresden doesnt pack a long gun everywhere since it would be inconvenient compared to a pistol. Although there have been a number of situations in the book where It might have been a good idea to get a rifle since he knew what he was going into. Context would be the determiner etc.

But how come the WC doesn't use full on geared out Wardens on high-end missions? Like it would seem totally logical to have Wardens who are going to war with the Ramps (for example) to basically just look like soldiers from any mortal army, save they can also do magic.

Keep in mind I am not saying this would make sense all of the time. Just a little confused why we haven't seen something like it except form singular characters.

Additionally this question is meant to be broad. Just a in general query about desire to increase the various characters firepower.

We need more Dakka.