But it just isn't all that realistic. The less realistic Jim is within his universe, the harder it is to believe and relate to.

I agree, we don't want a perfect Harry. All any of us want is a realistic Harry. The moment he becomes unbelievable we can't relate, and therefore connect, and then we don't care anyway.

I think realistic and believable are in the eye of the reader. I don't think it's unrealistic for an orphan with abandonment issues to at least try to give his daughter some semblance of a parent and a family life. Will it work out, or will Harry fail? That remains to be seen. Relatability is another personal issue. My own ability to connect to a parenting storyline is limited, since I never had kids, but I can still appreciate a well-told story about it. I feel like it's too early to make a judgement call on how it's gonna work out in the end, but that's my take. I appreciate that others feel differently. YMMV.

...it closes down story lines and removes the potential for drama if Harry always makes the best choices. And that's what it comes down to as well: possibilities. Nothing worse than reading about people being happy and nothing going wrong. Conflict, and conflict resolution is what draws the reader in.

I have a feeling that a conflict between parental responsibility and Harry's professional obligations will continue to be part of the storyline, unless Maggie spends most of each novel at her school. Which might happen, and would resolve a lot of people's worries. Again, we'll see. But I can't imagine we'll ever get Harry in a happy little world where nothing ever goes wrong and he never makes a single mistake. Jim likes to torture him far too much. 

I see it as Harry trying to be too perfect and Jim just trying to force it through. Harry can't be everything after all. It could even be a big part of his thoughts (Maggie, that is) without necessarily having to have the whole "I better take Maggie to school for picture day, oh wait I think a Demon Lord is attacking the Mayor of Chicago and the police". There are shows like Wallander which deal with detectives who are good at their job and what they do is very important, but it comes at the cost of their relationships. That's how it goes and that's why it's so often shown, because that's the truth. Anything else is somewhat absurd at best and frankly delusional at worst. It makes light of the struggle that people have trying to do the best they can.

I get the point, even if I don't entirely agree. I think Harry will struggle with the balancing act of personal vs. professional. Most people do in one way or another. Many try to take on too much at once, trying to be perfect, and wind up fumbling their way through, even failing in areas. It may be absurd, but the attempt in itself doesn't feel unrealistic or "making light of struggles" to me. (If he succeeds perfectly, yeah, but I don't see that happening.) I guess I look more for a well-told tale than for complete realism in my reading, especially when it's fiction. (Seriously... we're talking about a wizard. Can we really expect complete realism here?? )

It's all relative, of course. I can't blame anyone for not liking the current turn of events. The longer a series goes, the harder it is to keep quality high. I've seen more than one saga collapse under its own weight, and I'm really hoping that won't happen with the Dresden Files. So maybe I'm being more optimistic than I should be... but I really want to see Jim pull it off.

And more Mouse. Always more Mouse. Mister too. 

Indeed, there is downtime. But what is Dresden ignoring so he can look after his daughter? Guarantee that he hasn't been as involved as he could have been. Almost certainly things have slid a bit in some areas. His White Council relationship might have been better had he spent more time working with them.

But that assumes Harry is obsessed with Wizarding duties 24/7, and I find that wholly and completely unrealistic. Harry deserves a personal life, as much as anyone else with an extremely important job. Sure, there may be some tradeoffs in some areas, but I wouldn't dismiss raising a daughter (who is also a potential wizard and if so, will benefit from seeing a good example) as unimportant or meaningless. As the short story "The Warrior" reminds us, the battle of good and evil is fought on many different levels, from huge battles to small, seemingly insignificant interactions between people. So loving and spending time with Maggie can be a contribution, as much as slinging spells or swinging a staff. It's certainly proven a strong motivation for him to fight for the world, and to win. What image did Harry hold on to in order to withstand Ethniu's attack of Will? Holding Maggie and Mouse, his family. Would he have been able to save Chicago without that image to give him strength? Maybe, maybe not, but it does argue that parenting vs. wizardry doesn't have to be a question of either/or.

I keep seeing "well, Harry can't be the perfect parent," and yeah, that's probably true. But why does he have to be a perfect parent? Harry's not a perfect wizard either. He struggles, he makes mistakes, and he does the best he can. That keeps him relatable, and interesting. A perfect anything makes for a very boring story.

I get it, I do. It's a pretty huge change for the series, and it's different, and Harry being a parent just isn't going to appeal to some readers. And that's fine. It's definitely a tricky storyline to weave into the kind of major conflicts Harry's been facing lately, and I expect we're going to see Maggie shoved off-stage a lot over the rest of the series. We'll have to see whether or not it works out over the next few books, I guess.

I don't think that is what she meant. In the conversation with Harry, Mab never indicated that she was going to try to do anything with the Eye.
No, I think the dialogue between the Queens have something to do with the fact that both of them worked together for the same objective. That is probably a trigger for something, and perhaps yes, that something has to do with Mab's death.

I think so too, especially since Mab warns Harry to kill Molly if she ascends to Winter Queen. (Sounds like a Checkhov's Gun to me.) Mab is foreseeing something which will likely lead to her death, and is getting her plans in order.

The last time both Queens had spoken before now was at Hastings. We don't know exactly what happened there (or maybe I just don't remember), but it's been implied to be very significant. So the Queens meeting at this battle must be significant too... we just don't know how yet. But I have a feeling we will learn eventually...

Clearly JB has memorialized that Ivy [Harry's friend] had made arrangements with Mab [the evil Fae queen that Harry is DESPERATE to get away from] for Kincaid [the assassin Harry contracted to kill Mab's new Winter Knight] to shoot Harry through the heart [a more survivable injury than through the head] so he can fall into the lake where Mab [the evil Fae queen that Harry is DESPERATE to get away from] can save him and then [after 6 months of Harry being literally at death's door] she can take him to the center of her power where he is completely under her control while he recovers from the most compromised physical [and maybe mental] state he probably has ever been in. Guys, I think this part of the conversation has jumped it's shark.

If Ivy had said nothing, done nothing, Harry most likely would have died from a bullet in the head. Sure, surviving and winding up in Mab's clutches isn't the best place for Harry to be, but considering the alternative... Alive and in a bad situation is better than dead and gone. And what else could she really do? The Archive is supposed to be neutral, aware but interfering as little as possible in events outside of the Oblivion War. So my WAG is, Ivy was extremely limited in what she could alter, and changing Kincaid's aim was the absolute limit of what she could do. What happened after wasn't something she could control; she had to have faith in Harry to get through it as well as he could. (I could be wrong, of course, which is why I'm labeling this theory a WAG. YMMV.)

The notion that Ivy tipped Mab off interesting, but I suspect Mab would have been able to find Harry without it, through the tie of Winter power that binds Knight and Queen. So... it's a possibility, but I'm thinking it's less than likely that Ivy had to contact Mab at all. Again, YMMV.

I'm not sure about Christos, though I'd like to think we'd have heard about it if he'd died. But then, the White Council just kicked Harry out, so it's not surprising we don't get the answer on that one.

I'm pretty sure Andi and Marci were the wolves bodyguarding Butters after the Battle of the Bean, when Harry returns after the final confrontation with Ethniu, so they're okay. And in one of the recent video interviews, Jim confirms that Mister and Bonea were with the Carpenters during the big fight, so they're okay. (I can't remember which one that's from, but I think it was either the Barnes & Noble chat or the Muskogee Library vid.)

Mab is making Harry marry Lara. What Lara gets out of it is unclear other than an alliance (and not a long term one). Jim has been foreshadowing Lara and Harry's eventual boinking since Lara was first introduced.

Mab can make Harry marry Lara, but nobody can force them to "boink." Harry has True Love protection from Karrin (as confirmed in Peace Talks) and even with her dead(ish) I don't see that fading in a year's time, especially as Harry knows she's still around as a Valkyrie. I don't have the book nearby, but I seem to recall his protection from Susan lasted a long time after their breakup. So unless something happens in the next year, the marriage would have to be political only. Lara can't touch Harry without burning herself.

Or it could be a Malvora getting back at him for Jury Duty.

Oooooh, I hadn't thought of this... but I like it! The White Court is all about manipulation through proxies. If the Malvoras found out Lara was going to use Harry as a tool, the logical counter is to use the cops to take Harry off the board. It fits.

The Fomor is another group I didn't think of, and they're a good option considering their desire to derail the peace talks. But I don't remember them using pressure tactics before. Don't they usually take more violent and direct action? (I think I need to do some rereading.)

I don’t think Rudolph is in Marcone pocket. Marcone has no interest in stirring up trouble with Harry at this moment. The reds owned Rudolph so if any of their allies were aware of that they could have taken him over.

Agreed. Why would Marcone need Harry out of the way right now? As an Accorded Baron of Chicago, Harry is obliged to support Marcone at the peace talks... so Marcone benefits from Harry being free to act on his behalf. Marcone's getting everything he wants, the last thing he needs is to give Harry a reason to act against him. If Harry was an obstacle to some future plan, removing him would make sense. But from what we know now, that doesn't seem to be the case.

I don't doubt somebody's putting pressure on Rudolph, but Marcone's the least likely suspect. Allies of the Reds, Mavra (who's resorted to blackmail before, and is mentioned in Peace Talks), Black Council members, or Nicodemus are all possibilities (though if it's Nicodemus, I don't think we'll see a resolution in Battle Ground.)