I think with Twelve Months we will reach a crescendo of continuity errors.  Well, maybe Peace Talks and Battle Ground was where the crescendo occured and Twelve Months will contain the coda of the continuity errors we have been seeing for a long time now.  The topic of continuity errors isn’t anything new, but I noticed how both frequent and egregious they became in Peace Talks and Battle Ground and I am seeing them in my most recent reread of Skin Game, which I’m only half way through.

It is particularly noticeable in Peace Talks when Harry tells Lara while they are doing some staff training that he has a guy watching Justine but at the end of Battle Ground Lara berates Harry for not telling her that he had someone watching Justine. 

In Skin Game, while Butters was telling Harry all the reasons why he was losing trust in him, he told Harry that his ghost told Butters and company that he was dead and gone.  Of course, that didn’t happen at all.  Harry’s ghost self specifically told Butters that he didn’t know if his condition was permanent.  It was Mort who was certain that Harry having produced a shade meant that the real Harry was dead and gone.

There is also the dream sequence in Skin Game where Harry sees multiple versions of himself and Molly driving down the same road.  These errors are not errors at all, but clues to the fact that a multiverse is in existence.  Actually, I think that is pretty obvious by now to just about everyone.  I think what isn’t obvious is what this will lead to.  It will lead to a confrontation and conclusion in Mirror Mirror.

The real significance of Mirror Mirror won’t be Harry meeting his evil self.  The Harry that made one bad choice in Grave Peril that led to series of other bad choices.  Superficially, that is exactly what will happen, but I suspect the greater significance of this meeting is it will lead to a fulcrum event.  When all the alternate versions of Harry and company will settle onto a single path, for better or for worse.   

All the slightly different versions don’t necessarily have to become one; though I suppose that might happen, but either our Harry wins and all the other versions of Harry can continue to fight the good fight or all of them are tainted or cut short by Alt-Harry’s path. 

I think with the conclusion of Mirror Mirror, we will see the end of the Brighter Future Society and the Better Future Society seeming to exist at the same time, along with other minor contradictions, unless Jim makes a real mistake and none of the Beta readers spot it.

Furthermore, there was a WOJ that, basically, Harry is a somewhat unique case where others trying to use his name against him would instead be making themselves vulnerable rather than getting power over him.  That was in reference to Harry as narrator ending SF with his name and "conjure by it at your own risk".

That might be another aspect of being starborn besides just immunity to and influence over outsiders that hasn't been explored yet.

Yes, I believe there was a Q&A session on YouTube where Jim said this.  I think it was posted on YouTube.  That was many years ago, probably within a year of when Cold Days came out, because someone asked Jim about the way Harry used his name like it was a weapon he could use to force the HWWBf to answer him. 

Let's see, Cold Days was released November 27, 2012.  So, to find that exact video, you would probably have to go through every video Jim did in 2013 or at the very end of 2012, that is still posted online.

A transcript might also by posted in the WoJ section, under Frequently Asked Questions, though there is an awful lot stuff to go through there.

OK, I looked at the WoJ section and found this.  It wasn't as hard to find as I feared it would be.  It came from a Q&A Jim did at a book signing in 2013 in Kansas City.

Q - "When Harry is battling Sharkface in the end, is that all in his head, or did everybody there hear?
A - And the answer to that is yes. It’s all going on in his head, and everybody there heard. Which, if you’ll remember the closing to book 1, because book 1 was written from the perspective of a guy who has already finished his story, um, all the books are really, they're him looking back, you get to the end book 1, and Harry says “My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, but conjure by it at your own risk” which, you know, there’s a reason for that. Figured I’d just throw that in there. Really, Harry’s one of those guys whose name is more dangerous to other people than it is to him, in a lot of ways, a lot of people would be vulnerable by doing that, he’s not. We’ll get to see that in the future."

I don't think we haven't seen Harry use his name like that since then.  Makes me wonder when it will happen again.

OK, I'm not really angry, but this quote from Peace Talks just might derail several ideas that I and other readers have been discussing the past week or two.  More than that, it confuses Jim's narrative.  Jim probably has it all worked out so it will make sense, but I still find it annoying.  So without further delay, here is what Ebenezar said to Harry in Peace Talks about what it means to be Starborn.

Ebenezar - "Every couple or three generations, the stars lineup just right, and what amounts to a spotlight plays over the earth for a few hours.  Any child born within that light-"
Harry -      "Is starborn. I get it. What does it mean?"
Ebenezar - "Power against the Outsiders.  Among other things, that their minds can't be magically tainted by contact with anything from Outside.  Which means.."

Which means to me, why the hell was Morgan, the Merlin and anyone else on the White Council; who knows about Nemesis and what it means to be starborn, afraid that Harry was "molded to be a creature of Nemesis."?  That last quote is from Morgan's Microfiction.

Didn't they know that Harry is starborn?  Rereading Morgan's Microfiction for the umptieth time, he doesn't say anything about Harry being starborn, so I suppose it's possible Morgan didn't know.  But Morgan should have known that that possibility existed, unless he didn't know anything about being starborn.

Let me stop for a moment and say why Morgan should have known that Harry might be starborn.  Morgan states that he failed to keep his promise to Margaret to protect her child.  So Margaret LeFay contacted Morgan when she was pregnant.  I doubt it was a face to face meeting because the Wardens had been ordered to arrest Margaret on site and Morgan was a stickler for following orders, but I digress.  The possibility of being starborn only happens once every 666 years.  You would think that the higher ups in the White Council would be hyper aware of this date.  Do you see the issue here and the problems it might create?

Morgan should have been able to put two and two together and realized what Margaret was doing or at least suspected she was trying to create a starborn child.  Even if Morgan didn't find out about Margaret's death until a few days after it occurred, he should have wanted to establish the time of her death and Harry's birth.  Unless Morgan didn't know anything about being starborn or perhaps he had heard the term, but didn't know what it meant.  So under this scenario, Morgan knew about Nemesis but didn't know anything about people who are starborn.  I suppose that is possible, but it seems a bit weak to me.

What about the Merlin and others on the senior Council?  What is their excuse?  Surely, when they heard that Margaret LeFey had died while giving birth, they should have been asking what day she died and what time it was.  Shouldn't they have a calendar with the date and time for people who are going to be starborn marked off?  Wouldn't they have been checking the birthdate and time of birth of anyone showing enough magical talent
to be admitted to the Council, so they would know if that person was starborn?  We know that Ebenezar and Listen's to Winds know that Harry is starborn.  They can't be the only one's on the Council who knows this. 

Unless, they do know, but only Ebenezar knows that being starborn insures protection against Outsiders.  If that was the case, why didn't Ebenzar just tell the members of the Senior Council that Harry couldn't be tainted by Nemesis?  I understand that wizards don't like revealing secrets, but this idea borders on the ridiculous.

Other potential problems with this passage: 

Is Elaine starborn or not?  Because if she is, that kills the OP and a big chunk of a thread I started about Elaine being nemfected.  On the positive side, it might explain why Jim hasn't given us a straight yes or no answer to Elaine's starborn status.  So, I could still be right.

Was the White Council trying to create their own starborn?  Because, if Eb and maybe LTW are the only ones on the White Council who knows what being starborn means, it kills that idea.  It would also kill the idea I had that Harry being a destroyer is related to him being starborn.  I think this is highly unlikely, so if the Council wanted their own starborn, was that Elaine?  Did they fail or did they succeed?  We don't know.

Aside from knowing the date and time someone was born, is their another way to detect that someone is starborn?  Lea, Mab, Lash and I assume Odin/Vadderung know when Harry was born.  How did the Erl King in Cold Days and Drakul in Battleground know that Harry is starborn?  For that matter, how did Mavra know?  She specifically told one of the other Black Court vamps that Drakul got to eat anyone who is starborn.  Is there some supernatural data broker selling information on who is starborn or is there something in Harry's aura that clues them in?  A bit off track, but if it is something in Harry's aura that clues-in the characters mentioned above, can Bob see it?  Would Bob know what it means? 

Getting back to Elaine, if being starborn is something that can be detected with supernatural powers, Titania must know if Elaine is starborn, because she would be able to detect it.  You would think that those in the White Council who are in-the-know about what being starborn means would want to create their own starborn detector.  Times and dates of birth can be fudged or simply mistaken. 

I'm trying to create a narrative where all of this makes sense, but it's a bit difficult.  Most of the Senior Council doesn't know that Harry is starborn.
I refuse to believe that, at least for now.  So, the Senior Council knows that Harry is starborn, but for some unknown reason think he might be vulnerable to Nemesis.  Being a destroyer that Morgan feared might be related to Harry being starborn, but it might be something else.  A lot of supernatural heavyweights and at least one supernatural middleweight know that Harry is starborn, but we aren't exactly sure how all of them got this information.  Elaine might also be starborn, but she might not be one.  If Elaine is starborn, then she can't be nemfected, unless there is a exception that can allow Nemesis to posses someone who is starborn.  While this would explain why Morgan and the Senior Council feared and still fear Harry, it completely violates what Ebenezar told Harry in the long quote above.



     

   

Interesting that Morgan didn't insist on soul gazing Harry, you'd think that he would given his misgivings.

That is if the White Council is even worried about Outsiders or Nemesis, with the exception of Rashid and Harry I think it is unlikely that they are for the most part.  Rashid hints at this, that even the Senior Council knows very little about what he really does at the Gates, and apparently Rashid tells them very little.  When a potential young warlock is soul gazed, what they are interested in is how far down that road he or she has traveled and if he or she can be redeemed.. However I doubt they look very far beyond that.

From the Donald Morgan Microfiction:
"From then on, we could not be sure that the child was not molded to be a creature of Nemesis."

Morgan knew about Nemesis and that means that the Merlin knew.  I don't think it matters if the rest of the Senior Council knew, though I would guess that least one or two of them did.

As far as the reference to Harry possibly being a "destroyer," I think that is almost certainly tied up with Harry being starborn.  One more key element, or maybe the key element, that we do not yet understand about what it means to be starborn.  It is probably what Martha Liberty meant when she said to Ebenezar about Harry in Summer Knight, "You know what he was meant to be. He's too great a risk. "

That was also because Talia Winters was a psychic herself, and it was all part of the intrigue with the Psychcorps and Bester, it's been a while since I saw B5.  However I do remember the episode where Talia was required to scan a convicted criminal before he was sentenced. Since he knew what she was going to do, the murderer in turn screwed with her mind. It is possible that Nemesis could do the same thing if it was detected in a scan.. I believe that was one of the reasons why Rashid told Harry not to attempt it.

I've wondered about the same thing.  Can Nemesis do something that would cause serious harm to a wizard that was soulgazing a person that nemesis was hiding in?  Screw with that wizards mind or what about infecting that wizard?  It is something that I would consider asking Jim about the next time he does a Reddit Q&A session or if I were to see him in person at a Con or book signing.

84% today.  That is what I was looking for.  Sure, Thanksgiving (in the U.S. as opposed to Canada) is next Thursday, but Jim could finish or be in the high 90’s before then, if he has to travel for the Holiday.

Seeing as most people today don't believe in the supernatural; or at least don't believe in most of the older supernatural pantheons, the most likely people to seek out these kinds of deals would have been war lords of ancient times up until several hundred years ago.

Take for example the Merovingian King Clovis I; who is historically important because while conquering Gaul in the 6th century, he converted to Nicene Christianity and doing so got the Frank tribes he led to do the same thing.  If you read his conversion story, it is not inspirational or have any feeling of being a miracle.  It reads like someone who took the Pepsi challenge and decided that Pepsi does taste better than Coca-Cola. 

Clovis was in a battle with a rival and was losing and is reported by his biographer Gregory of Tours to have said something like this: "Jesus, I know of you." (Clovis wife Clotilda had already converted and Clovis wasn't happy about that.  She was the only person who would stand up to Clovis that he would not kill, because he was known for killing anyone else who did so.)  "My gods are letting me down.  If you can do better, I will follow you and make my people do the same." (I'm heavily paraphrasing here.)  Right about then an arrow or spear hit the enemy leader in the head and killed him outright, leading to an instant victory for Clovis as the enemy forces; seeing their leader fall, fled the field.

In a Dresden Files universe you could easily see someone like Clovis; instead of being converted to Christianity (Sort of, he was still an unpredictable and extremely dangerous man who killed most of his family, except his wife and children.) making a deal with Odin or any other supernatural heavy hitter who has an interest in humanity. 

The thing is, there have been many, many kings and rulers and a lot more petty warlords who aspired rule their own kingdom.  So, the real question is, why would Odin or any supernatural being like Mab want to back any particular mortal?  It would have to be someone who could push the agenda of that supernatural being and be in the right place and time to do so. 

So, maybe not very many rulers or would be rulers would have had the potential that Mab, Odin or any other big supernatural player, would have wanted, to make the kind of difference they desired.  A lot of those who tried to make deals might have ended like the trumpet player in Summer Knight, who told Maeve that he would die in order to play a great solo.  Remember, he played the solo and he then died.  These type of leaders and wouldbe leaders would have just been play things for much of the supernatural world.       

 

Unless Harry looked into a mirror while using his Sight, there is no way he should know what the sign of HWWB looks like or that he even carries it.  I picture Harry learning about it in one of two, maybe three ways, the last one being the most likely one.

1. Lea might have mentioned it as part of her pitch to 16 year-old Harry to get him to make a deal with her.  She could have said something like this:  "I see the mark of HWWB; the demon that was called up by Justin DuMorne, is upon you.  That you survived meeting this creature is impressive..."  My guess is Lea would see that mark every time she saw Harry.  She doesn't need to call up a special power like wizards do.

2. Justin DuMorne might have mentioned it to Harry before their final fight.  It could have sounded something like this:  "I see you have met HWWB.  His mark is upon you."  The problem with this scenario is Justin would have to have been using his Sight when he was looking at Harry, and I can't think why he would want to do that.

3. Warden Morgan used to use his Sight on Harry after Harry was captured by the Wardens or just by Morgan.  While Harry was bound he overheard Morgan describe the mark and name HWWB.  Did anyone else on the Council use their wizard sight to look on Harrry.?  Hard to say, but I don't see why anyone else would do that, except perhaps Ebenezar.

This scenario fits in nicely with Morgan using his Site to check for possible spies hiding under a veil at Mac's in Dead Beat, but avoiding looking at Harry while do so.  Morgan wouldn't want to see that mark again if he could simply ignore looking at it.